Boobberg- Fewer Americans than anticipated filed claims for jobless benefits last week, signaling the worst employment slump in the post-World War II era is easing as the economy expands.
Marketwretch- The number of people filing initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 502,000 in the week ended Nov. 7, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
That’s the fewest initial claims since early January. Initial jobless claims have hovered above 500,000 for 52 straight weeks, as the unemployment rate has climbed to a 26-year high of 10.2%.
AP — New claims for unemployment insurance fell more than expected last week, evidence the job market is slowly healing as the economy recovers.
Rhoiders- The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits last week fell to the lowest level since January, the government said on Thursday, showing the hard-hit labor market may be slowly improving.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance dropped to 502,000 in the week ended November 7 from a revised 514,000 the prior week. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to slip to 510,000 from an initially reported 512,000.
“It shows that companies are cutting jobs at a slower pace than during the financial crisis,” said Gary Thayer, chief macrostrategist for Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis. “We’re trending in the right direction, but we are probably several months away from (rising) monthly payrolls numbers.”
The truth is that claims rose by 47,000 to 529,000 last week. Over the last two months, claims have risen by 130,000. Over the same period last year, in the midst of a calamitous financial collapse that brought the economy down with it, claims rose by 110,000. That’s not improvement. It’s a catastrophe.
The media is only reporting seasonally adjusted figures, which is hogwash, plain and simple.
Also, continuing claims did not drop in the previous week. They rose by 28,000. This was in spite of the fact that 2.7 million people lost their eligibility to collect benefits. The number eligible for unemployment is now the lowest since December 2007.
The way they report this is criminal. Here’s what the data looks like before all their statistical hocus pocus CRAP. We’re still uptrending on initial claims, and continuing claims are only downtrending because eligibility has collapsed. Millions are falling out of the safety net.
Saefong, MarketWatch Silver's not so much a poor man's gold anymore and investors may soon realize that the white metal's the real treasure.
"Silver is unique in terms of being both a monetary and an industrial metal," the Bullion Services Team at GoldCore said in a recent report, pointing out that it's severely undervalued. "Silver remains the investment opportunity of a lifetime."
Gold's prices have climbed nearly 11% in the last two months. In that same time span, silver's up by only 3.1%.
And "investors looking for returns continue to wager on higher gold prices, whether it be on concerns over equity or currency markets ... or to make quick short-term profits," according to CPM Group's latest Precious Metals Advisory.
But investors would be better served to turn their eye toward silver.
"Silver is highly correlated to the safe haven of gold and is, in effect, a leveraged sister of the precious yellow metal," according to GoldCore, an international bullion dealer. "Thus, informed investors use gold more for wealth preservation purposes and silver in order to make a return."
That's particularly important to keep in mind as investors change the way they perceive the paper-asset markets.
As stocks, currencies, bonds and other paper assets have begun to disappoint investors, investor attitudes have been shifting, said Mark Leibovit, chief market strategist for VRTrader.com.
"What begins as a trickle ends as a tidal wave when the panic peaks [and] when public revulsion at the U.S. dollar begins, the tidal wave will become a tsunami," he said.
Under that scenario, "silver, far more volatile than gold, will benefit most," he said.
A split personality
Forced to pick just one, Chris Mayer, editor of Agora Financial's Capital and Crisis said he'd rather own gold. Others disagree.
"Silver does not have the same appeal as gold," said Mayer.
"What did India's central bank buy in record amounts ... [and] what did China double its reserves of this year? Gold," he said. "They aren't buying silver."
"It's not like comparing oil with [natural] gas, where you are comparing the energy equivalent of the two and there is some economic incentive when the gaps get very wide to switch to one or the other at the margin," said Mayer. "That doesn't exist with silver and gold."
And when the global industry remains mired in a slow growth pattern, the market's not going to see sky-high prices for a metal whose "lion share of demand comes from its industrial applications," said Jon Nadler, a senior analyst at Kitco Metals.
It's really silver's "precious side that is holding it up right now," said Ed Bugos, director of mining finance at Strategic Metals Research and Capital. "Its industrial side would be over valued" with the ratio of silver to other commodities having made new highs.
The investment figures for silver show this loud and clear.
"Silver's allure as an investment is evermore appealing as a hedge against fading fiat currencies that are getting inflated into oblivion," said Scott Wright, an analyst at financial-services company Zeal LLC.
This is "measurable via skyrocketing investment demand" for physical bullion and exchange-traded funds, he said, pointing out that the iShares Silver Trust /quotes/comstock/13*!slv/quotes/nls/slv (SLV 17.15, +0.23, +1.36%) has already increased its holdings by 29% in 2009.
From the start of this year through the end of October, total silver holdings in exchange-traded funds were up 36.3%, according to data from CPM Group.
The sale of silver coins and minted bars also offers a good gauge of demand.
Over at The Perth Mint, total silver ounces sold as coins and minted bars is five times higher in the 2008-2009 year compared with 2005-2006, according to data from the Mint, which is owned by the Government of Western Australia. During the same period, gold ounces sold as coins and minted bars have more than doubled.
U.S. Silver Eagle coin sales were up 72.6% in October from a month ago -- up 106.2% from October 2008, CPM Group data showed.
"Although fabrication demand is important, it is investment demand that tends to have a more dynamic effect on silver prices," said Chintan Parikh, a commodity analyst at CPM Group in New York.
"This is because of the larger dollar volumes of money that can be involved with investment demand, the speed and intensity with which investment demand trends can rise, fall and reverse course, and the ultimately total discretion that investors have over whether they wish to be involved in silver at all," he said. Fame and fortune
But while some agree that benefits for silver's precious metal characteristics have outweighed the pluses from its industrial uses, that industrial label may soon turn out to be of lesser hardship.
"The industrial uses for silver are numerous and generate substantial additional demand for silver outside its precious metal usage," said Patrick Kerr, managing director at Amerifutures Commodities & Options.
True, silver's suffering from a falloff in demand from the photography world as consumers turn to the digital age, but industries are finding other uses for the versatile metal, including medical applications, and actually consuming supplies as they use them.
"Silver is consumed and gone forever in most applications," said Julian Phillips, an editor at SilverForecaster.com. On the other hand, "huge efforts are made to recover gold, so essentially it is not consumed."
Gold's much higher value prompts great efforts to recycle it. In fact, "all the gold mined in the world ever is still with us, but a huge amount of silver has been used in photography, mirrors and other industrial uses in the last 200 years," according to the GoldCore report. "The low price of silver makes recovery and recycling uneconomic."
So "industrial demand has been outstripping mining supply for most of the last 20 years, driving above-ground supply to historically low levels" and silver production has been flat in recent years, while demand has been increasing, the report said.
As a result, refined silver stocks are near an all-time low, with stocks dropping from around 2.2 billion ounces in 1990 to around 300 million ounces today, it said.
"At one time, silver was more expensive than gold, but that was in the days of Egypt's Pharaohs," said Phillips.
And while no one wants to say that will ever happen again, most analysts expect that silver prices will soon react to gold's recent gains.
Prices for silver could spike to $18.25 or even $20 between now and December, according to CPM Group.
GoldCore expects to see prices at well over the nominal high of $50 an ounce and, eventually, surpass the inflation-adjusted high of some $130 per ounce in the coming years.
"Ultimately, silver tends to exhibit its largest spurts in the latter stages of a major gold up legs," said Zeal's Wright. "Once speculators and investors start to get excited about this metal, it can really fly -- and fast."
VeriChip (CHIP), the company that markets a microchip implant that links to your online health records, has acquired Steel Vault (SVUL), a credit monitoring and anti-identity theft company. The combined company will operate under a new name: PositiveID.
The all-stock transaction will leave PositiveID in charge of a burgeoning empire of identity, health and microchip implant businesses that will only encourage its critics. BNET previously noted that some regard the company as part of a prophecy in the Book of Revelation (because the HealthLink chip carries an RFID number that can be used as both money and proof of ID) or as part of President Obama’s secret Nazi plan to enslave America.
The most obvious criticism to be made of the deal is that it potentially allows PositiveID to link or cross-check patient health records (from the HealthLink chip) to people’s credit scores. One assumes that the company will put up firewalls to prevent that. PositiveID CEO Scott Silverman said:
“PositiveID will be the first company of its kind to combine a successful identity security business with one of the world’s first personal health records through our Health Link business. PositiveID will address some of the most important issues affecting our society today with our identification tools and technologies for consumers and businesses.”
Unless, of course, consumers don’t actually want to be implanted with chips, have their health records available over the internet, or have their medical records linked to their credit scores.
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
Modern Healthcare - 3 days 20 hours 20 minutes ago
VeriChip Corp., a Delray Beach, Fla.-based company specializing in radio-frequency identification systems for healthcare providers and patients, has acquired the ID-security systems company Steel Vault Corp
Zacks.com submits: An announcement today regarding the exclusive license granted to controversial chip-implant maker VeriChip CHIP for H1N1 detection sent CHIP shares hurtling nearly out of orbit -- up 178%, or over $2 per share -- to around $3.20 by Monday afternoon. Other news reports have cited that
Financial Times - 276 days 22 hours 25 minutes ago
CSR, a British chip designer for Bluetooth wireless devices, has taken advantage of weak stock markets by snapping up a US-based rival at a knockdown price. The UK group has agreed to buy Sirf, a maker of microchips for GPS systems, in an all-share deal that values the US group at about £91m ($136m), a 91 per cent premium to its share price
Gld ETF Warning, Tungsten Filled Fake Gold Bars Commodities / Gold & Silver 2009 Nov 12, 2009 - 12:22 PM Rob_Kirby I’ve already reported on irregular physical gold settlements which occurred in London, England back in the first week of October, 2009. Specifically, these settlements involved the intermediation of at least one Central Bank [The Bank of England] to resolve allocated settlements on behalf of J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank – who DID NOT have the gold bullion that they had sold short and were contracted to deliver. At the same time I reported on two other unusual occurrences:
1] - irregularities in the publication of the gold ETF - GLD’s bar list from Sept. 25 – Oct.14 where the length of the bar list went from 1,381 pages to under 200 pages and then back up to 800 or so pages.
2] - reports of 400 oz. “good delivery” bricks of gold found gutted and filled with tungsten within the confines of LBMA approved vaults in Hong Kong.
Why Tungsten?
If anyone were contemplating creating “fake” gold bars, tungsten [at roughly $10 per pound] would be the metal of choice since it has the exact same density as gold making a fake bar salted with tungsten indistinguishable from a solid gold bar by simply weighing it.
Unfortunately, there are now more sordid details to report.
When the news of tungsten “salted” gold bars in Hong Kong first surfaced, many people
who I am acquainted with automatically assumed that these bars were manufactured in
China – because China is generally viewed as “the knock-off capital of the world”.
Here’s what I now understand really happened:
The amount of “salted tungsten” gold bars in question was allegedly between 5,600 and 5,700 – 400 oz – good delivery bars [roughly 60 metric tonnes].
This was apparently all highly orchestrated by an extremely well financed criminal operation.
Within mere hours of this scam being identified – Chinese officials had many of the perpetrators in custody.
And here’s what the Chinese allegedly uncovered:
Roughly 15 years ago – during the Clinton Administration [think Robert Rubin, Sir Alan Greenspan and Lawrence Summers] – between 1.3 and 1.5 million 400 oz tungsten blanks were allegedly manufactured by a very high-end, sophisticated refiner in the USA [more than 16 Thousand metric tonnes]. Subsequently, 640,000 of these tungsten blanks received their gold plating and WERE shipped to Ft. Knox and remain there to this day. I know folks who have copies of the original shipping docs with dates and exact weights of “tungsten” bars shipped to Ft. Knox.
The balance of this 1.3 million – 1.5 million 400 oz tungsten cache was also plated and then allegedly “sold” into the international market.
Apparently, the global market is literally “stuffed full of 400 oz salted bars”.
Makes one wonder if the Indians were smart enough to assay their 200 tonne haul from the IMF?
A Slow Motion Train Wreck, Years in the Making
An obscure news item originally published in the N.Y. Post [written by Jennifer Anderson] in late Jan. 04 has always ‘stuck in my craw’:
DA investigating NYMEX executive - Manhattan, New York, district attorney's office, Stuart Smith - Melting Pot - Brief Article – Feb. 2, 2004
A top executive at the New York Mercantile Exchange is being investigated by the Manhattan district attorney. Sources close to the exchange said that Stuart Smith, senior vice president of operations at the exchange, was served with a search warrant by the district attorney's office last week. Details of the investigation have not been disclosed, but a NYMEX spokeswoman said it was unrelated to any of the exchange's markets. She declined to comment further other than to say that charges had not been brought. A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office also declined comment.
The offices of the Senior Vice President of Operations - NYMEX – is exactly where you would go to find the records [serial number and smelter of origin] for EVERY GOLD BAR ever PHYSICALLY settled on the exchange. They are required to keep these records. These precise records would show the lineage of all the physical gold settled on the exchange and hence "prove" that the amount of gold in question could not have possibly come from the U.S. mining operations – because the amounts in question coming from U.S. smelters would undoubtedly be vastly bigger than domestic mine production.
We never have found out what happened to poor ole Stuart Smith – after his offices were "raided" – he took administrative leave from the NYMEX and he has never been heard from since. Amazingly [or perhaps not], there never was any follow up on in the media on the original story as well as ZERO developments ever stemming from D.A. Morgenthau’s office who executed the search warrant.
Are we to believe that NYMEX offices were raided, the Sr. V.P. of operations then takes leave - all for nothing?
These revelations should provide a “new filter” through which Rothschild exiting the gold market back in 2004 begins to make a little more sense:
“LONDON, April 14, 2004 (Reuters) - NM Rothschild & Sons Ltd., the London-based unit of investment bank Rothschild [ROT.UL], will withdraw from trading commodities, including gold, in London as it reviews its operations, it said on Wednesday.”
Interestingly, GATA’s Bill Murphy speculated about this back in 2004;
“Why is Rothschild leaving the gold business at this time my colleagues and I conjectured today? Just a guess on my part, but suspect:”
*SOMETHING IS AMISS. THEY KNOW A BIG GOLD SCANDAL IS COMING AND THEY WANT NO PART OF IT. …”
“ROTHSCHILD WANTS OUT BEFORE THE PROVERBIAL "S" HITS THE FAN.” BILL MURPHY, LEMETROPOLE, 4-18-2004
Coincidentally [or perhaps, not?], GLD Began Trading 11/12/2004
In light of what has occurred – regarding the Gold ETF, GLD – after reviewing their prospectus yet again, it becomes pretty clear that GLD was established to purposefully deflect investment dollars away from legitimate gold pursuits and to create a stealth, cesspool / catch-all, slush-fund and a likely destination for many of these “salted tungsten bars” where they would never see the light of day – hidden behind the following legalese “shield” from the law:
Gold bars allocated to the Trust in connection with the creation of a Basket may not meet the London Good Delivery Standards and, if a Basket is issued against such gold, the Trust may suffer a loss. Neither the Trustee nor the Custodian independently confirms the fineness of the gold bars allocated to the Trust in connection with the creation of a Basket. The gold bars allocated to the Trust by the Custodian may be different from the reported fineness or weight required by the LBMA’s standards for gold bars delivered in settlement of a gold trade, or the London Good Delivery Standards, the standards required by the Trust. If the Trustee nevertheless issues a Basket against such gold, and if the Custodian fails to satisfy its obligation to credit the Trust the amount of any deficiency, the Trust may suffer a loss.
The Fed Has Already Been Caught Lying
Liberty Coin’s Patrick Heller recently wrote,
Earlier this year, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA), filed a second Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Federal Reserve System for documents from 1990 to date having to do with gold swaps, gold swapped, or proposed gold swaps.
On Aug. 5, The Federal Reserve responded to this FOIA request by adding two more documents to those disclosed to GATA in April 2008 from the earlier FOIA request. These documents totaled 173 pages, many parts of which were redacted (covered up to omit sections of text). The Fed's response also noted that there were 137 pages of documents not disclosed that were alleged to be exempt from disclosure.
GATA appealed this determination on Aug. 20. The appeal asked for more information to substantiate the legitimacy of the claimed exemptions from disclosure and an explanation on why some documents, such as one posted on the Federal Reserve Web site that discusses gold swaps, were not included in the Aug. 5 document release.
In a Sept. 17, 2009, letter on Federal Reserve System letterhead, Federal Reserve governor Kevin M. Warsh completely denied GATA's appeal. The entire text of this letter can be examined at http://www.gata.org/files/GATAFedRespons...-2009.pdf.
The first paragraph on the third page is the most revealing. Warsh wrote, "In connection with your appeal, I have confirmed that the information withheld under exemption 4 consists of confidential commercial or financial information relating to the operations of the Federal Reserve Banks that was obtained within the meaning of exemption 4. This includes information relating to swap arrangements with foreign banks on behalf of the Federal Reserve System and is not the type of information that is customarily disclosed to the public. This information was properly withheld from you."
This paragraph will likely be one of the most important news stories of the year.
Though not stated in plain English, this paragraph is an admission that the Fed has in the past and may now be engaged in trading gold swaps. Warsh's letter contradicts previous Fed statements to GATA denying that it ever engaged in gold swaps during the time period between Jan. 1, 1990 and the present.
[Perhaps most importantly], this was GATA's second FOIA request to the Federal Reserve on the issue of gold swaps. The 173 pages of documents received for the 2009 FOIA request all pre-dated the 2007 FOIA request, which means they should have been released in the response to the earlier FOIA request. This establishes a likelihood that the Federal Reserve has failed to adequately search or disclose relevant documents. Further, the Fed response admitted that it had copies of relevant records that originally appeared on the Treasury Department Web site, but failed to include them in its response.
Now that Federal Reserve governor Warsh has admitted that the Fed has lied in the past about the Fed’s involvement with gold. It should now be very clear to everyone why the Fed is lying and the true nature of what they are hiding / withholding.
On Doing God’s Work
An important footnote to consider is the inter-twined-ness of the U.S. Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury [can anyone really tell them apart?] as well as this duopoly’s two principal agents – J.P. Morgan-Chase and Goldman Sachs. When one truly grasps the nature of these highly conflicted relationships it gives a fuller meaning to words recently uttered by Goldman head, Lloyd Blankfein, who claimed,
“I’m doing god’s work”
Does this really mean that Mr. Blankfein believes that the Federal Reserve is god? You can judge for yourself. While the Fed prints money like no one else could - except god almighty himself [or Gideon Gono, perhaps?] – I really doubt that was the intent back in 1864, when the U.S. adopted “In God We Trust” as their official motto.
Because it is basically unchanged after 136 years of continuous production and because there is a healthy, liquid market for it, a good example of this case can be made by tracing the price of "The Gun that Won the West," the Colt Single-action Army revolver. The venerable Peacemaker turns out to be a better gauge of inflation than gold is and a better investment. President Ronald Reagan even named a missile after it.
The correlation of gold and guns can be traced back at least to 1873 when Colt's Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Conn., introduced the most technologically advanced handgun of its time, a six-shot revolver that used metallic cartridges. The Army adopted it as its standard side arm, a position it held until 1892. The innovation of metallic cartridges made it easier to reload in a hurry. Reloading had always been an issue because it was slow, unwieldy and required some expertise. Now anybody could do it.
In 1873 the Colt SAA sold for $17.50. The complete kit with a holster and some ammunition could be covered by a $20 gold piece. The $20 Double Eagle of 1873 contained 0.9675 ounces of pure gold. Today an ounce of gold is about $1,090 and a new Colt SAA can be special ordered from Colt's custom shop for about $1,500.
As a collector's item the Colt fares even better. A recent check of Collectorsfirearms.com found scores of listings at a wide variety of prices from $1,699 at the bottom to $175,000 asked for a Colt "Pinch Frame" called "the Holy Grail of single action collecting." This gun carries the serial number 58. So your $20 gold piece spent on this gun in 1873 would have returned 874900%.
Gold Double Eagle $20 coins from that year can be found on line for $1500 to $5000 depending on condition about the same price as Colt SAA's of similar age and condition.
Gold's price is fixed
Gold was in the midst of one of its many upheavals when the Peacemaker arrived. In 1873, Congress put the United States on the gold standard with the Fourth Coinage Act, which de-monetized silver and made gold the only metal by which to fix currency. President Grant signed it into law in February of that year. Gold was set at $20.67 an ounce where it stayed until 1934 when President Franklin Roosevelt devalued the dollar to 1/35 of an ounce of gold. During this period gold lagged behind the handgun.
What To Do If the Fed's Wrong On Inflation
Jamie Cox of Harris Financial explains the apparent disconnect between the high price of gold and the Federal Reserve's lack of alarm about inflation. Interview with Simon Constable of "The News Hub."
The handgun/gold equation was introduced to me by Bob Taber in 1987 when he and I worked at The New York Post and an ounce of gold was worth about $370 and a Colt SAA had jumped to $763.
Bob did not specify a Colt Single Action Army. He merely said, "A damned good handgun is worth an ounce of gold. That's always been true."
Bob was a night-side copy reader at The New York Post and a fantastic character and a holdover from the days when The Post was considered a leftwing newspaper. He'd had a journalistic career that included following Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in the Cuban revolution from the mountains to Havana as a special correspondent for CBS television. He also wrote a book on guerrilla warfare, "The War of the Flea" that is still read by the military and intelligence services.
There is film of Bob interviewing Castro after the fall of Batista in 1959 that can be seen in the documentary "David Halberstam's the 50s". In it Bob holds a microphone and sports a beard even bigger than Castro's.
He had survivalist mentality, a guerrilla fighter's point of view. I generally believed what he said on matters dealing with firearms. More than 20 years later I put his statement to the test.
For the most part, it's still true. It does depend on the gun and what you consider to be "good." A Glock similar to the one Plaxico Burress was carrying when he accidentally shot himself in the thigh at a nightclub, can be found on line for a little over $500 and the gun that made Dirty Harry's day, the long-barreled .44 magnum Smith & Wesson 629, sells for about $825. The other gold-standard pistol, also made by Colt's, is the .45- cal. Colt Automatic Pistol. The Army bought about 2.7 million of these from 1911 to 1985 when it was replaced by the Italian-made Beretta 9-mm which can be bought for about $750.
The Colt .45 ACP could be called the standard now and it hits the price of an ounce of gold pretty close to the bull's eye if you go for a top of the line model, but don't go too crazy. A Web site sells the stainless steel Colt 1911 Gold Cup Trophy 45 for $1050 /quotes/comstock/13*!gld/quotes/nls/gld (GLD109.81, +0.07, +0.06%) .
Gold and politics
Gold, despite its longevity as a trustworthy container of value, has proven more readily manipulated by the government than handgun prices. Congress was in inflation-fighting mode in 1873 when it voted to cease using silver to back paper money and established gold as the sole criteria. This act created a controversy that lasted for decades between those who were pro-inflation and those who were against it.
Silver had its own fanatical backers and they were for a bi-metallic standard that favored easy money. Farmers liked inflation because it raised the price of crops and lowered the cost of debt. Laborers and factory workers also wanted inflation to make it easier to pay off debts. Silver was favored by politicians from states producing silver and by many Democrats, and Southerners. The issue was embodied by William Jennings Bryan, who ran for president and lost on the Democratic ticket in 1896, 1900 and 1908. His acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention of 1896 ended with the famous, "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!"
The gold believers, sound money advocates, won the day. This victory kept the price of gold artificially low as evidenced by the 1956 price for the Colt Equalizer of about $125 when gold was still set at $35.
The victorious pro-gold standard bearers held sway until 1971 when President Richard Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard altogether. He was concerned, among other things, that foreign governments held more U.S. currency than the $10.5 billion in gold the Treasury had on hand. A run on the bank was not out of the question. From then until now the dollar would float against other currencies on the open market.
The inflation that followed these policies would have done Williams Jennings Bryan proud -- from 4% in 1971 to 11% in 1973. And Nixon was a Republican!
Gold was traded freely again and rose quickly. But the Colt stayed ahead where it remains to this day. By 1980, gold had topped $600 an ounce as inflation headed to 14%. Today the standard, blued single-action Army six-shooter goes for $1290, or $1490 for the nickel-plated version. Can gold be far behind?
Ukraine Dead Increase to 239 - Still No Sequences Recombinomics Commentary 20:26 November 12, 2009 1,253,558 Influenza/ARI
65.615 Hospitalizations
239 Deaths
The above numbers are from the latest update from the Ukraine Ministry of Health. The number of deaths increased 26 to 239, so 50 new deaths have been reported in the past 2 days. Although the virus continues to spread (only 5 of the 27 reporting areas have not topped the epidemic threshold) many of the deaths are still being reported from the hard hit areas in western Ukraine(see map). However, the biggest jump in cases was 6.096 in Kiev to 89,339.
The steady increase in the high level of deaths continues to raise concerns about genetic changes in the H1N1. In this morning's press conference the WHO discussed the need for prompt treatment with Tamiflu, but did not address genetic changes in Ukraine. Only general statements on the stability of the H1N1 were made in response to questions on genetic changes in Ukraine. Today's conference is a week after the last comments on the Ukraine H1N1 sequences which indicated that there were no large changes, but an update would be forthcoming in a "few days". It has now been over a week and no updates on genetic changes have been forthcoming.
The release of the sequences from Ukraine is long overdue.
All victims of the virus in Bukovina (22 persons aged 20 to 40 years) died not from bilateral pneumonia, as previously thought, but as a result of viral disstressindroma, ie total lung injury: first comes the cardio-pulmonary insufficiency, and then developed cardiogenic shock, which causes cardiac arrest and death. On this Monday, 11 November, the newspaper "Doba" said Chief of the Chernivtsi regional forensic bureau, PhD, Professor Victor Bachinsky.
"During the bilateral pneumonia monitor specific morphological picture. Regarding these deaths, there is no such morphological picture. The virus, which causes death, is very aggressive, he did not strike the trachea, and immediately gets into the lungs and causes strong swelling and continuous hemorrhage. Causes such a state of mixed types of parainfluenza and influenza A/N1N1. This is a very toxic strain, which has not yet been worked out by the Ministry of Health method of treatment ", - said Victor Bachinsky.
According to him, an urgent need to change the treatment standards, because those used so far, the results have not given - in intensive care unable to save all people infected with the virus. Not justified in this situation and ALV apparatus - the death rate of people attacked is 100%.
In view of this, a group of professors of Chernivtsi Medical University appealed to the Ministry of Health and NSDC to demand to review the standards of treatment of patients in Bukovina. Scientists-morphological sent to Kiev reports, studies and taken from seriously ill and died from the virus of tests.
Victor Bachinsky, part of the initiators of the treatment group, notes that the virus is extremely toxic, it is able to penetrate not only through inhalation but also through the eye membrane. Therefore Chernovtsy scientists recommend in any case not to give up the masks and the period of the epidemic even wearing goggles. An important condition to prevent deterioration of the situation is also the observance of quarantine regime.
Socio-Economics History Blog The entire 13 per cent of Norway’s population is now infected with the swine flu. The estimates of Public Health (FHI) for the latest updated situation report that was published late Wednesday night.
Both the incidence of influenza-like illness and the number of confirmed flu cases has increased sharply throughout the country in recent weeks. But last week was a steep upward curve.
Rekorduke According to the NIPH was all as many as 300,000 Norwegians infected with swine flu only last week.
- We estimate that just under 630,000 Norwegians are now infected and that nearly 300,000 were infected just last week. There are a large number and it tells us that we are in the middle of a new and powerful wave of infection which is significantly stronger than the one we had this summer, “said Hans Blystad, superintendent at the NIPH.
He will not mean anything if, or when, we can expect to reach a temporary peak of infection, but said a leveling off of the number of new infected first is probably when even more is vaccinated. Infection estimates of the NIPH is based on reported cases in the last week from 201 physician offices spread across the country, including laboratory tests and how many were diagnosed with “influenza-like illness”.
14 percent of those who went to the doctor last week had this diagnosis. Of the tests that were done in more detail in the laboratory showed all samples swine influenza virus.
Hospitals Svineinfluensavirset has now spread epidemic in the whole country, and is most extensive in the Southeast and West Coast. So far, 772 Norwegians hospitalized in connection with the swine flu pandemic. 94 received intensive treatment, and 16 are dead. 13 of them died in hospital. Yesterday was the 93 people hospitalized, and 20 in intensive care. Deputy Health Director Bjorn Guldvog believe that the number of infected in Norway will increase.
- We believe we are on a rising wave in the number of infected people. But soon, almost all the risk groups vaccinated, so we hope for a avflating in the number of critically ill and died, “said Guldvog.
Bloomberg reports: Gold won’t fall below $1,000 an ounce again after rising 27 percent this year to a record as central banks print money to help fund budget deficits, said Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report.
The precious metal rose to all-time highs in New York and London today as the dollar weakened. The Dollar Index, a gauge of value against six other currencies, has declined 7.9 percent this year and today fell to a 15-month low. News last week of bullion purchases by the Indian and Sri Lankan governments raised speculation that other countries would follow suit.
“We will not see less than the $1,000 level again,” Faber said at a conference today in London. “Central banks are all the same. They are printers. Gold is maybe cheaper today than in 2001, given the interest rates. You have to own physical gold.”
China will keep buying resources including gold, he said.
“Its demand for commodities will go up and up and up,” he added. “Emerging economies will grow at the fastest pace.”
In contrast, Western countries will be lucky to avoid economic contraction, while the Federal Reserve will maintain interest rates near zero percent, he said.
AFP KIEV — Ukraine's epidemic of flu and acute respiratory disorders has now affected more than a million people, the country's deputy health minister said on Tuesday.
Vasyl Lazoryshynets said the death toll from the epidemic had risen to 174, as President Viktor Yushchenko warned the country must brace itself for a second wave of infections.
Nearly 53,000 Ukrainians have now been hospitalised, Lazoryshynets said, but the number in intensive care has fallen by nearly a quarter to around 330.
A total of 67 cases of swine flu have been reported in Ukraine, he said, 14 of which had been fatal.
"Ukraine must prepare properly for a second wave of respiratory infections and flu," including A(H1N1), Yushchenko said Tuesday, according to the Interfax news agency.
A World Health Organisation (WHO) team in Ukraine said on Monday the epidemic had slowed, but warned a second wave was likely.
On Monday the health ministry's previous bulletin on the epidemic, which began in mid-October, reported 969,000 infections, with 155 deaths and 65 cases of A(H1N1).
The plague or virus in the Ukraine has 10 times the mortality rate (attributed to) normal swine flu. It may signal what's soon heading everywhere.
On October 29, the Australian web site zik.com.ua reported that:
"Western Ukraine was hit by a severe epidemic of unidentified influenza, tentatively diagnosed by doctors as viral pneumonia. The number of dead has climbed dramatically. Doctors advise Western Ukrainians to stay home and use preventive medicine."
On October 30, Jane Burgermeister's theflu.com reported that:
"More than 30 people have died in the Ukraine as a result of a mysterious new virus that has an affinity for the lungs," according to Swiss reports. Ukraine's Health Ministry said the virus' origin is unknown and showed "no signs of mutating to become more virulent." So far, 40,000 people were reported sick and 951 hospitalized.
On October 30, healthfreedomalliance.org reported that Ukraine's Health Minister, Vasyl Knyazevych, said two laboratories diagnosed 11 of 33 samples tested as "highly influenza A/H1N1." As a result, he considered declaring a nationwide quarantine, even though western areas alone were affected.
Since October 19, 30 deaths, including one child, from "acute respiratory infections," were reported, at first called SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome, a serious form of pneumonia caused by a virus). Influenza A virus affects birds and some mammals like pigs.
WTO Fear Mongering
The WTO says Swine Flu is similar to seasonal strains. Most cases are mild, and many people recover unaided. Yet it called the virus "unstoppable" and, on June 11, declared its highest phase 6 alert, saying: "The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic." On July 13, it stopped just short of mandating mass vaccinations to halt the pandemic's spread.
On its November 1 "Pandemic (H1N1) 2009" update, it said "more than 199 countries and overseas territories/communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including over 6,000 deaths."
On November 3, it reported the outbreak in Ukraine, "confirmed (as) H1N1 (based on) samples taken from patients in two of the most affected regions," and concluded that "most (Ukraine influenza) cases are caused by the H1N1 virus.
Infectious disease expert, Dr. Donald Lau, disagrees, saying:
"The statistical probability of this being the same H1N1 virus (is) infinitesimally small." He believes a highly virulent new strain is to blame. Public health authority, Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz sees a deadly connection between governments and the drug cartel over dangerous, toxic vaccines. On You Tube, he recently warned that:
"These vaccinations contain highly unstable viruses that easily mutate, because they are 'live active' laboratory mutants that are being administered....People shed these 'live' viruses up to three weeks following vaccination. That means if you haven't been vaccinated, and you get near someone who has and then sneezes, you can get their H1N1 laboratory infection."
He explained that anyone contracting H1N1, from vaccinations or other Swine Flu-infected persons, risks combining it with other internal or environmental viruses, creating a lethal mix that can kill. He expressed great concern about vaccines used to transmit dangerous viruses, capable of mutating into deadly ones, believes this may be happening in Ukraine, and thinks America and other nations may be next.
Ukraine Reports of Overhead Aerosol Spraying
On October 31, Kiev newspaper editors got dozens of calls about light planes doing aerosol spraying during the day. In refuting the claims, the district's Emergency Response office said "no permission had been granted for small aviation aircraft to fly within the city limits." Yet eye-witness accounts from Lviv, Ternopil, and other Ukraine cities said the same thing.
On November 8, the South African web site fto.co.za reported that last June 26:
"Suspicious aircraft were forced to land. A US operated (Russian-made long-range heavy transport) AN-124 changed its call sign from civilian to military which then triggered a response from the IAF (Indian Air Force) upon entering Pakistani air space (forcing) the plane to land in Mumbai while (a) second one was forced down by Nigerian fighter jets that also arrested the crew."
"According to reports, China's People's Liberation Army Air Force contacted the Indian and Nigerian intelligence officials about the presence of these US operated Ukrainian aircraft amidst growing concern that the United States was spreading 'biological agents' in the Earth's atmosphere, which some Chinese officials believed to be an attempt to (commit) mass genocide via the spread of H1N1 swine flu."
These aircraft "were carrying 'waste disposal' systems that could spray up to 45,000kg (nearly 100,000 pounds) of aerial type mist from sophisticated....nano pipes" in the planes' wings - called chemtrails.
"Then last week, (aircraft) sprayed (an unknown) substance over Ukraine days before the (mysterious) plague outbreak."
Quarantine and Martial Law Declared
On October 30, president Viktor Yushchenko quarantined nine regions, ordered mobile military hospitals established throughout the country, and was expected to declare martial law. Reports from western Ukraine said a "severe outbreak of UNIDENTIFIED Influenza, (is) suspected by doctors to be a form of viral pneumonia."
On November 4, in a nationwide address, Yushchenko cited:
an "emergency epidemic situation in the country," caused by "infections of viral origin, including A/H1N1 flu (that are) rapidly spreading across Ukraine;"
"People are dying; the epidemic is killing doctors;"
"three pathogens of viral infections came to Ukraine at the same time: two of them are seasonal flu and the third is the A/H1N1; according to virologists, such a combination of infections due to mutation may produce a new, even more aggressive virus;"
"It is generally known that the only way to prevent any infection is vaccination;" Dr. Viera Scheibner, the world's foremost vaccine expert, calls it the worst way as vaccines often cause the diseases they're designed to prevent;
"in early October," it was known that "viral infections in the west of the country" were spreading;
"The current Constitution after alterations in 2004 makes the Government solely responsible for conducting state healthcare policy....(by) my decree I put" the National Security and Defense Council (in charge) of decision-making;"
"Failure to comply with its orders will immediately result in application to the law enforcement authorities."
In other words, Yushchenko declared martial law. He also ordered a crackdown on political protests, the arrest of public health officials opposed to mass Swine Flu vaccinations and quarantines, arrests of anyone not complying, and a ban on all infection medicines except Swine Flu vaccines.
By November 6, Deputy Health Minister, Zinovy Mytnyk, said "633,877 people (were) suffering from flu and acute respiratory infections," and "95" had died.
On November 7, healthfreedomalliance.org updated the totals to "871,037 Influenza/ARI (acute respiratory infection) cases, 39,603 hospitalized, and 135 deaths, and asked if Baxter released a bioweapon in Ukraine, saying "Evidence appears to suggest" it. It cited a February 24 bloomberg.com report that "Baxter Sent Bird Flu Virus to European Labs by Error (containing) contaminated (virus) samples...."
The problem was discovered when inoculated ferrets in a Czech lab died. Austrian health minister, Sigrid Rosenberger, confirmed that Baxter supplied batches "infected with a bird flu virus." Company spokesperson, Christopher Bona, blamed "human error." Others were skeptical, including Austrian journalist Jane Burgermeister.
On June 10, she filed sweeping criminal charges with the FBI in addition to earlier April 8 ones with the Vienna State Prosecutor's Office against Baxter AG, Baxter International and Avir Green Hill Biotechnology AG, "for manufacturing, disseminating, and releasing a biological weapon of mass destruction on Austrian soil between December 2008 and February 2009 with the intention of causing a global bird flu pandemic virus and of intending to profit from that same pandemic in an act that violates laws on international organised crime and genocide."
Baxter operates Biosafety Level 3 (BLS-3) labs that take strict precautions to assure against accidental H3N2 (human influenza) and H5N1 (bird flu) co-mingling contamination. Letting it happen suggests something more nefarious than an accident.
BLS-3 personnel are trained in handling pathogenic and potentially lethal agents and are supervised by competent, experienced scientists. In addition, these labs have specially engineered design features for added safety.
By combining H3N2 and H5N1 viruses, "Baxter produced a highly dangerous biological weapon with a 63 per cent mortality rate. The H5N1 virus is restricted in its human-to-human transmissibility, especially because it is less airborne."
"However when....combined with seasonal flu viruses (easily transmitted by air), a new flu virus is created which is unknown to the human immune system and which will have a severe impact on an unprotected population. A deadly virus of this kind could spread around the world in a short time and (potentially) infect millions (or) even billions of people."
Baxter (via Avir) "distributed (72 kilos of) contaminated (live bird flu) vaccines using false concealment and false labels to 16 laboratories in Austria and....other countries at the end of January/beginning of February, potentially infecting at least 36-37 laboratory staff, who (were) treated preventively for bird flu and ordinary flu." On the same day, 18 Avir employees were as well at Vienna's Otto Wagner Hospital.
Burgermeister cited a Baxter-Avir 2006 contract with Austria's Health Ministry for 16 million vaccine doses in case a bird flu pandemic was declared. This "laboratory incident shows that national and international authorities are not able to fulfill their obligations to ensure the safety of the Austrian people," and indicates they engaged in a cover-up.
"If a pharmaceutical company can breach laws - and almost trigger a bird flu pandemic, which (potentially could spread worldwide) - without being made accountable for it....then there is, de facto, no rule of law on Austrian territory."
She also contends that Baxter's production system, "namely, the use of 1200 liter bioreactors and vero cell technology," meets "the technical criteria to be classified as a secret dual purpose large-scale bioweapon production facility (able to produce) a huge amount of contaminated vaccine material....rapidly."
"If (this) material were added to the 1200 liter bioreactors, it would replicate and infect the entire batch of vaccine material in (it). Contaminated material could (then) be distributed among sections of the population using false labels and secretly marked batches (able to) infect millions of people."
Burgermeister accused high-level Austrian Health and other Ministry officials of knowledge and support of this practice. Otherwise, controls would have prevented it. In June, she named drug producers Baxter, Novartis and Sanofi Aventis; world agencies, including the WHO, UN, and CDC; and high-level officials in Austria, other European countries, and America.
Did Baxter Release a Bioweapon in Ukraine?
Baxter has a facility in Ukraine. Given the above evidence, it may be behind the current outbreak. A November 1 David Rothscum infowars.com article headlined: "Has Baxter International released a biological weapon," in citing an earlier Huffington Post report on a man named Joseph Moshe, a Mossad biological warfare expert. True or not, he warned, on an August radio program, about "a biological weapon....being made by Baxter International('s Ukraine facility) that would be spread through vaccine and would cause a plague upon its release." Having reported this two months before the outbreak lends credence to his story.
In August, Ukraine was almost influenza free. On October 30, earthtimes.org said only two cases of Swine Flu had been reported. According to fto.co.za, on March 26, reports were that "thousands of Ukrainians refused" to be vaccinated, because of fears about "diphtheria, mumps, polio, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, (and) whooping cough among others. Health officials said (this) could lead to disease outbreaks...." Perhaps unleashing a "biological weapon" is how to convince them and millions elsewhere.
Rothscum confirmed Moshe's credentials, noting that "massive numbers of microbiologists have been dying bizarre deaths." Among them:
Stephen Lagakos, Professor of Biostatistics and AIDS researcher at Harvard's School of Public Health, died in an October auto collision;
Malcolm Casadaban, reknown molecular geneticist, died of plague in September;
Wallace Pannier, noted germ warfare scientist, died in August of respiratory failure;
August "Gus" Watanabe, former Eli Lilly and Company Executive Vice President of Science and Technology and former head of its Research Laboratories, died of apparent self-inflicted wounds from a .38-caliber handgun; a note left behind cited depression over his daughter's death;
Caroline Coffey, Cornell University post-doctoral biomedicine researcher, died in June from massive cuts to her throat; and
Nasser Talebzadeh Ordoubadi, a Mind-Body-Quantum medicine pioneer and discoverer of an antitoxin treatment for bioweapons, died in February of "suspicious" causes.
On November 7, theflucase.com asked:
Is the Ukraine outbreak "the plague? A mutated virus? Or is the plague the cover for introducing a mutated virus?" Citing the South African web site fto.co.za., it wondered if the Ukraine Swine Flu strain "might have mutated (to) pneumonic plague."
It reported Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Health saying his nation has a different H1N1 strain than the rest of the world because of how many were infected so fast. Other officials disagree and suggest this one may have mutated to something else because it "has a much bigger rate of filling the lungs with blood....The plague or virus in the Ukraine has 10 times the mortality rate (attributed to) normal swine flu."
However, unconfirmed reports are that "people are going on as normal....they also say this is fear mongering" to promote voluntary vaccinations. "Everyone is waiting for the gene sequences which will confirm whether this has been hyped up, a real mutated H1N1, or just bad (Ukraine) health services." Perhaps exaggerated illness and death reports to stoke fear and be a pretext for what followed.
Ukraine is now under martial law. Civil liberties are suspended. By government edict, anyone may be criminally prosecuted. Scheduled January elections may be delayed or cancelled. Public demonstrations are banned. Political opponents are prohibited from traveling in quarantined areas. Borders are partially closed. Mandated vaccinations are coming. WHO fear-mongering is hyping the danger. A month before the outbreak, it took part in a bioterrorism plague exercise. On November 7, Lake of the Hills, IL police conducted their own against pneumonic plague as part of the McHenry County Department of Health's emergency planning.
Burgermeister suggests that Baxter, the:
"WTO and the international corporate crime syndicate that funds them may have decided they could go ahead with their plan to trigger a pandemic in Europe and the USA because the public awareness of the dangers of the vaccine has become too great, not least as a result of WHO and Baxter being caught contaminating 72 kilos of vaccine material with the live bird flu virus in February."
Opposition to Vaccinations in Europe
Across the continent, opposition is widespread. Few are showing up to get it. On November 7 in Paris, a public demonstration against them was held. As of November 5, less than 0.1% of the French population was inoculated despite a mass vaccination campaign. 90% of Greek health workers oppose them. Reports from Portugal say vaccine centers are nearly empty, and doctors and nurses won't take them. Sources expect a "revolution" if they're mandated.
A mid-October Der Spiegel article reported an "open rebellion" among general medical professionals and child physicians across Germany over dangerous Swine Flu vaccines. Dieter Ludwig, drug commission chairman of the German medical profession, said health authorities colluded with drug companies to promote them.
In Denmark, most public officials and healthcare workers won't take them, citing the danger and saying H1N1 is no different from seasonal flu. Throughout Scandinavia, sentiment is the same with up to 75% opposition. In Sweden, as few as several thousand have gotten them. Across the continent also, in the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and elsewhere. Also large segments of the US, Canadian and UK populations voice strong opposition. Open protests are occurring in Austria. In other countries as well. Millions know the toxicity and won't touch them. Ukraine's outbreak may be a counteroffensive to force them, first there, then globally.
Ukraine Outbreak Spreads
On November 6, innworldreport.net headlined, "Pneumonic Plague Outbreak in China Follows Outbreak in Ukraine." The town of Ziketan (population 10,000) reported two deaths and a dozen others infected. The "area inside a 17-mile radius" was quarantined to contain it. The "highly contagious disease, one of the most virulent and deadly diseases on earth, (is) usually fatal within 24 hours. It attacks the lungs and kills nearly everyone who catches it unless treated rapidly with antibiotics."
On the same day, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko called the panic over Swine Flu artificially created by drug companies. He urged people not to panic, and said authorities are monitoring the situation in neighboring Ukraine. Ten deaths were reported in the Minsk, "preceded by flu-like symptoms."
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty disseminates US propaganda in 20 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. On November 4, it headlined, "Swine Flu Fears Spread from Ukraine to Afghanistan," then reported, true or false, incidences showing up in Iran, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Serbia, and other Balkan countries. "Afghanistan has declared a nationwide public health emergency and closed all educational institutes for three weeks."
On November 2, the Chinese web site sina.com reported that authorities in a southeast Bulgarian district declared an A/H1N1 epidemic, according to local media accounts. The "sick rate" rose "to 200 per 10,000 people," and in some towns is approaching epidemic levels. A later report said 210 per 10,000. Two deaths were reported, and Bulgaria's chief health expert, Tencho Tenev, said "at least two million Bulgarians, or 30 percent of (the) population, could become infected with the flu virus over the coming months."
On November 9, thebirdflupandemic.com headlined, "Russia, Belarus and Bulgaria On The Verge Of A Flu Epidemic As Cases In Ukraine Near 1 Million."
Same day Ukraine reports said 1,031,597 people are sick with flu-like symptoms, 52,742 have been hospitalized, and 174 people have died. On November 6, Russia's Chief Health Official, Gennady Onishchenko, said most regions in the country "are on the verge of a flu epidemic."
"Disturbing reports are beginning to surface in western Europe. In Austria, special army units based in Korneuburg (where Baxter's facilities are located), have been conducting pandemic emergency exercises and quarantining patients in hospitals. Are they expecting something to happen?"
WHO "Whole-of-Society Pandemic Readiness Guidelines for Pandemic Preparedness and Response in the Non-Health Sectors"
Prepared in April 2009, the same month Swine Flu was reported in Mexico, it was revised in July and now easily accessed coincidently with the Ukraine outbreak. Its aim is:
"to prepare the whole of society, beyond the health sector, for pandemic influenza....including public and private sector organizations and essential services."
The flucase.com says it "outlines how WHO will take over a country's essential services, including water and sanitation; fuel and energy; food; health care; telecommunications; finance; law and order; education; and transportation under the pretext of a pandemic emergency."
The "guidelines" state:
"National inter-ministerial pandemic preparedness committees should map out the central government's roles, responsibilities, and chain of command and designate lead agencies," answerable to the WHO that's perhaps enforceable during a "health emergency." It may work like this.
Vaccine law attorney, Alan G. Phillips says:
"....underlying laws.... allow states to mandate vaccines in an emergency....throw out exemptions, (and) impose quarantines and isolation outside of our homes."
US laws are similar. They can mandate vaccinations and let states isolate and quarantine influenza victims if authorities call the disease infectious and life-threatening. Under the 2006 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, the HHS Secretary may declare any disease an epidemic or national emergency requiring mandatory vaccinations, quarantine, or other protective measures. It's a short step to empowering WHO with authority over most nations in short order.
Its "guidelines" also want Defense Ministries to designate military assets to enforce vaccinations and quarantines under pandemic conditions. They also say:
"Ministries of Justice should consider what legal processes could be suspended during the pandemic and make alternate plans to operate courts" while it continues.
According to theflucase.com:
"leaked (French) documents show that the Minister of Justice has ordered the suspension of the most basic rights, and people can be incarcerated for up to six months without having to appear before a judge in a pandemic emergency."
Might America and other nations order similar measures under a "pandemic emergency," real or bogus.
Internal 2006 IBM Document Reveals Advance Knowledge of a Planned Pandemic
Titled, "Services & Global Procurement pan IOT Europe, Pandemic Plan Overview," it was distributed to upper-level management in France. It predicted a "100% chance (of a) planned (pandemic) occurring within the next 5 years," covering quarantines and operational procedures to be taken after an official WTO announcement. This document suggests what many believe - that governments and the drug cartel, in collusion with the WTO, orchestrated the current crisis, choosing Ukraine as the lead target. The situation there deserves close monitoring because of what may happen globally.
Advance Pandemic Warning and Early Preparations
Replikins, Ltd. is a small Boston-based biotech firm that "develops and markets....predictive products and vaccines....based upon the company's discovery of Replikins, a new group of peptides related to the rapid replication function in viral and other diseases (capable of) predicting the emergence of virulent strains of particular diseases."
On April 7, 2008, a year before the reported Mexican H1N1 outbreak, it published a "FluForecast" stating the following:
"Replikins, Ltd. has found that the Replikin Count of the H1N1 strain of influenza virus has recently increased to 7.6 (plus/minus 1.4), its highest level since the 1918 H1N1 pandemic....A rising Replikin Count of a particular influenza strain, indicating the rapid replication of the virus, is an early warning which has been followed consistently by an outbreak of a specific strain. The current increase appears to be specific to H1N1; there was a concurrent 80% decline in the Replikin Count of (seasonal) H3N2, for instance."
"The current H1N1 appears to be rapidly replicating simultaneously in the US and Austria....However, the same virus replikin structures detected by FluForecast software in all three previous pandemics, namely 1918 H1N1, 1957 H2N2, and 1968 H3N2, as well as in H5N1 (Avian Flu), have not yet been detected in the currently evolving H1N1."
In an October 24, 2007 press release, the US Treasury Department discussed the "preliminary results of the industry-wide pandemic flu exercise....More than 2,700 organizations registered to participate anonymously (which) began in September and ran for three weeks." Involved were banks, insurance companies, securities firms and exchanges, and state and federal regulators.
"The exercise simulated a pandemic wave with a peak absenteeism rate of 49 percent....President Bush directed Treasury in May 2006 to coordinate with the banking and finance sector to better prepare its response to a pandemic crisis."
On December 12, 2007, FEMA Region I (for New England) hosted a joint federal-state exercise "to strengthen contingency plans for an influenza pandemic. Operation PANEX 07 is the first functional exercise of its type in this country designed to determine best practices for a coordinated multi-agency response to an outbreak."
Participating agencies included the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Defense (DOD) "in partnership with their counterparts in the six New England states."
On July 28, 2009, CNN reported that the Pentagon will "establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials....The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with (FEMA)."
Consider the implications. On October 23, Obama declared a H1N1 national emergency. The Pentagon will be in charge if conditions warrant it. Civil liberties may be suspended. Martial law may be declared. Mandatory toxic, dangerous vaccinations may be ordered, known to cause auto immune diseases ranging from annoying to debilitating to life-theatening. The situation in Ukraine bears watching. It may signal what's soon heading everywhere.
Barrick shuts hedge book as world gold supply runs out
Global gold production is in terminal decline despite record prices and Herculean efforts by mining companies to discover fresh sources of ore in remote spots, according to the world's top producer Barrick Gold.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Aaron Regent, president of the Canadian gold giant, said that global output has been falling by roughly 1m ounces a year since the start of the decade. Total mine supply has dropped by 10pc as ore quality erodes, implying that the roaring bull market of the last eight years may have further to run.
"There is a strong case to be made that we are already at 'peak gold'," he told The Daily Telegraph at the RBC's annual gold conference in London.
"Production peaked around 2000 and it has been in decline ever since, and we forecast that decline to continue. It is increasingly difficult to find ore," he said.
Ore grades have fallen from around 12 grams per tonne in 1950 to nearer 3 grams in the US, Canada, and Australia. South Africa's output has halved since peaking in 1970.
The supply crunch has helped push gold to an all-time high, reaching $1,118 an ounce at one stage yesterday. The key driver over recent days has been the move by India's central bank to soak up half of the gold being sold by the International Monetary Fund. It is the latest sign that the rising powers of Asia and the commodity bloc are growing wary of Western paper money and debt.
China has quietly doubled holdings to 1,054 tonnes and is thought to be adding gradually on price dips, creating a market floor. Gold remains a tiny fraction of its $2.3 trillion in foreign reserves.
Gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) – dubbed the "People's Central Bank" – have accumulated 1,778 tonnes, making them the fifth biggest holder after the US, Germany, France, and Italy.
Ross Norman, director of theBullionDesk.com, said exploration budgets had tripled since the start of the decade with stubbornly disappointing results so far.
Output fell a further 14pc in South Africa last year as companies were forced to dig ever deeper - at greater cost - to replace depleted reserves, not helped by "social uplift" rules and power cuts. Harmony Gold said yesterday that it may close two more mines over coming months due to poor ore grades.
Mr Norman said the "false mine of central banks" had been the only new source of gold supply this decade as they auction off reserves, but they are switching sides to become net buyers.
Barrick is moving fast to wind down the remaining 3m ounces of its infamous hedge book over the next twelve months, an implicit bet on rising gold prices over time.
Mr Regent said the company had waited too long to ditch the policy, which has made the company enemy number one among 'gold bug' enthusiasts. The hedges oblige Barrick to deliver part of its gold into futures contracts set long ago at levels far below today's spot prices.
The strategy worked well in the falling market of the 1990s, but has cost the company dear in lost profits this decade. "Hindsight is always 20/20," said Mr Regent, who was appointed from the outside earlier this year.
Barrick bit the bullet in the third quarter, taking a $5.7bn charge against earnings on hedge contracts. Liberation is at last in sight. In 2001 the hedge book topped 20m ounces.
Mr Regent said the hedge policy has weighed badly on the share price and irked investors, becoming a bone of contention at every meeting. The financial crisis brought matters to a head as markets fretted about counterparty risk. "It was clear to me that there were a significant number of institutions who wouldn't invest in Barrick because of the hedge book," he said.
Barrick produced 1.9m ounces of gold last quarter, down from 1.95m a year earlier. Costs have been "trending down" to $456 an ounce, though rising energy prices pose a fresh threat. Total reserves are 139m ounces, far ahead of rival Newmont Mining at 86m.
The hedge book venture has not been a happy one, but those who predicted that Barrick would eventually "blow up" on its contracts may owe the company an apology.
CNN reports: Dropping tax revenue, rising unemployment and yawning budget gaps are wreaking havoc in states from Arizona to Wisconsin, a new report shows.
The same economic pressures that pushed California to the brink of insolvency are wreaking havoc on other states, a new report has found.
And how state officials deal with their fiscal problems could reverberate across the United States, according to the Pew Center on the States' analysis released Wednesday.
The 10 most troubled states are: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
Other states -- including Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, New York and Hawaii -- were not far behind.
The list is based on several factors, including the loss of state revenue, size of budget gaps, unemployment and foreclosure rates, poor money management practices, and state laws governing the passage of budgets.
These troubles have forced these states -- as well as many others -- to raise taxes, lay off or furlough state workers and slash services. These actions can slow down the nation's recovery, especially since these 10 states account for one-third of the country's population and economic output.
"Decisions these states make as they try to navigate the recession will play a role in how quickly the entire nation recovers," said Susan Urahn, managing director of Pew Center on the States.
In a separate study released Wednesday, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that states will likely have to make steep cuts in their fiscal 2011 budgets, which start next July 1 in most states. That's because the critical federal stimulus dollars will run out by the end of 2010.
These cuts could take nearly a percentage point off the national gross domestic product and cost the nation 900,000 jobs, the study found.
Here's a summary of what Pew found is plaguing each of the states:
California: The Golden State's housing collapse -- and resulting unemployment surge -- has plagued the state's economy. The weakening economy prompted revenue to fall by nearly a sixth between the first quarters of 2008 and 2009. State lawmakers have limited ability to deal with California's massive budget gap due to several voter-imposed restrictions, including requirements that all budgets and tax increases pass the legislature by a two-thirds majority.
Arizona: The state depends heavily on a growing economy to bring in tax revenue, and lawmakers don't have a lot of leeway to address budget deficits thanks to voter-imposed spending constraints. Lawmakers relied on one-time fixes to balance its budget instead of making long-term changes.
Rhode Island: The Ocean State has among the highest unemployment rates in the nation and among the highest foreclosure rates in New England. High tax rates, big budget deficits and a lack of high tech jobs are hurting its chances to pull out of the doldrums. State government has a poor record of managing its finances
Michigan: The state never climbed out of the recession that started in 2001, and matters only became worse during the Great Recession. Two of the Big Three Detroit-based automakers went bankrupt in 2009, sending shockwaves through a state on track to lose a quarter of its jobs this decade. The recession accelerated drops in state revenue, and has left Michigan's government trying to deal with today's problems on a 1960s-sized budget.
Nevada: Nevada is one of the recession's big losers as its gaming-based economy suffered. Year-over-year revenue has fallen for two consecutive years, a record. But changing tax laws is tough because some are written into the state constitution.
Oregon: Oregon's leading industries, such as timber and computer-chip manufacturing, have been hit hard in the recession. Lawmakers have approved more than $1 billion in new taxes to keep it afloat. But voters in January will have the final say on another $733 million in new income taxes.
Florida: For the first time since World War II, Florida's population is shrinking -- bad news for an budget built on new residents flocking to the Sunshine State. Lawmakers raised $2 billion in new revenue this year, but could face a similar shortfall next year.
New Jersey: The Garden State, which has been plagued by years of fiscal mismanagement, spends more than it collects in revenue. The collapse of Wall Street, which supports about one-third of New Jersey's economy, has only made matters worse.
Illinois: Since the last recession earlier this decade, the state piled up huge backlogs of Medicaid bills and borrowed money to pay its pension obligations. The state's current budget still relies heavily on borrowing and paying bills late.
Wisconsin: Wisconsin has a long history of budget shortfalls. It also borrows frequently to cover operating expenses, among other measures. Unemployment is climbing as manufacturing, the state's largest sector, sputters.
WorldNetDaily The true rate of unemployment for October 2009 may be 22.1 percent, not the 10.2 percent reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.
Unemployment at 22.1 percent, if accurate, would be at numbers not seen since peak unemployment during the 1973 to 1975 recession.
Economist John Williams, publisher of ShadowStats.com, estimates that the peak of unemployment in nonfarm unemployment in the Great Depression of the 1930s would, by his methodology, have registered at 34 to 35 percent in 1933.
So, how does the Obama administration get away with reporting the lower unemployment percentage?
Corsi explained that the Clinton administration changed the way BLS calculates unemployment statistics by excluding "discouraged workers," those who had given up looking for a job because there were no jobs to be found.
Since the Clinton years, discouraged workers looking for a job for more than one year are not counted as "unemployed" because they are considered to have dropped out of the labor force.
The BLS still includes in "U6 Unemployment" calculations short-term discouraged workers, as long as they have been looking for a job less than one year.
This definition permits the Obama administration to under-report "U3 unemployment" at 10.2 percent when real unemployment as calculated before the Clinton administration redefinition is twice that amount, Red Alert contends, and U6 unemployment lies somewhere in between.
These differences are illustrated in the following chart that Williams produces in the "Alternative Data" section of his website named "Shadow Government Statistics: Analysis Behind and Beyond Government Economic Reporting."
"The convenience is that by reporting unemployment at 10.2 percent instead of at 22.1 percent, the Obama administration can clearly continue advancing the argument the U.S. economy is in recovery and the recession is over, even if the truth belies those claims," Corsi wrote.
Williams concludes that the economy is not recovering, but has been stimulated by excess liquidity placed into the financial system by the Federal Reserve keeping federal-funds rates at the historically low rate of zero, or near zero.
"Understanding that the real level of unemployment in October 2009 was closer to 22 percent than to the officially reported 10 percent is an important corrective," Corsi wrote, "especially if we are to appreciate the extent to which a Dow at or above the 10,000 benchmark is nothing more than another Fed-created bubble."
With millions of jobs outsourced to China and India under free-trade globalism, the dollar weakness that accompanies most recessions is not stimulative, he explained, largely because the U.S. has lost so many manufacturing jobs that are never returning to its shores.
"Truly, the only way the Fed can stimulate the economy is through creating bubbles generated by keeping interest rates artificially low," Corsi wrote. "As I argued in 'America For Sale: Fighting the New World Order, Surviving a Global Recession, and Preserving USA Sovereignty,' the Bernanke stock-market bubble caused by keeping interest rates at zero is merely a repeat of the Greenspan housing bubble that was caused by keeping interest rates at 1 percent in 2003-2004."
The housing bubble burst when interest rates began rising in late 2004 and peaked at just above 5 percent in mid-2006.
"The stock-market bubble will most certainly burst when interest rates rise, as they inevitably will," Corsi wrote, "both to fight the increasing risk of hyperinflation and to maintain the needed incentive for foreign nations to lend the U.S. Treasury the hundreds of billions of dollars monthly that will be needed to float yet another $1 trillion Obama administration federal budget deficit in 2010."
Ken Buchanan, left, waits for work at a Home Depot Thursday morning. Most weeks he’s there six days. The most he’s made in a week: $140.
The new faces of day labor Timothy Pratt It sounds like a George Lopez joke.
“Times are so bad that I saw an Anglo day laborer standing outside Home Depot the other day.”
Except it’s true.
In the latest sign of the Las Vegas Valley’s economic free fall, U.S. citizens are starting to show up in the early mornings outside home improvement stores and plant nurseries across the Las Vegas Valley, jostling with illegal immigrants for a shot at a few hours of work.
Experts say the slow-starting but seemingly inexorable trend is occurring nationwide.
“It’s the equivalent of selling apples in the Great Depression,” said Harley Shaiken, chairman of the Center for Latin American studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
But it is not only a sign of the times, they add. If the numbers of citizens among the day laborers in cities across the country continue to grow, it’s likely to increase the ire of followers of TV host Lou Dobbs and others who will see illegal immigrants as stealing food off the tables of the nation’s native-born or naturalized poor.
Or, it may flip certain canards upside down in the immigration debate, easing tensions in some communities.
In the Las Vegas Valley, where the most recent unemployment rate was 13.9 percent, one face of this phenomenon is Ken Buchanan. The 50-year-old describes himself as a “food and beverage” guy, most recently working for four years at Renata’s Sunset Lanes casino and, before that, 30 years in a string of restaurants, hotels and casinos here and in his birthplace, Chicago.
But in 2006 Renata’s closed for remodeling. When the casino reopened as Wildfire, the management did not rehire Buchanan, he said.
In the months that followed, Buchanan discovered the difficulty of seeking work in his fifth decade, eventually winding up at Green Valley Car Wash, where he stayed for about two years, he said.
The banks foreclosed on the house he was renting. In the attempt to grab his things two steps ahead of the constable, he wound up missing work. He lost his job. He became homeless.
A Hispanic man Buchanan met in Renata’s sports book told him he had picked up work standing outside the Home Depot on Pecos Road at Patrick Lane. One July day, Buchanan gave it a try. At first, he got nothing but sunburn. But then he started to get work. Now he’s at the Home Depot six days most weeks.
Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the Los Angeles-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said he has been seeing the same thing elsewhere. “It’s happening, though still not in massive numbers,” Alvarado said. In the past six months or so, he has heard of “americanos” on the street corners and parking lots of Silver Spring, Md., Long Island, N.Y., and Southern California locations.
“It’s just beginning,” he said. “But I think it’s only going to increase.”
A recent morning’s swing through the valley produced reports of the same phenomenon. At Star Nursery on Cheyenne Road west of Tenaya Way, Nicolas stood shivering under a hooded sweatshirt, hoping a car or pickup would stop. The Mexican immigrant said he had seen a couple of “white guys” showing up recently, though not on the blustery cold days last week.
At Home Depot on Decatur Boulevard north of Tropicana Avenue, Jose said the same thing, adding that “it’s never more than three or four, but they’re coming out.”
Farther south, in front of Moon Valley Nursery on Eastern Avenue, Israel said a couple of “americanos” — white and black, he added — have come out for work in recent months. “But they tend to stay only a few days.”
As a salesman at Moon Valley, Mike Fugitt’s job includes making sure the laborers don’t come into the nursery’s parking lot, because their presence draws complaints from some customers. In the past three months or so, he said, more of those laborers have been telling him, “But I’m an American.” That includes some Hispanics, he added. “But I treat them all the same; they can’t be trespassing,” he said.
Workers at all the sites said the presence of the americanos hasn’t made work scarcer or produced any conflict. Some suggested that people hiring day laborers prefer Hispanics anyway, because of their reputation as hard workers.
Shaiken said shaking up the mix at day labor sites may eventually produce conflict in the greater society. “It essentially shreds the argument that Americans don’t want certain jobs,” he said.
In the current economy, he added, “we’re almost sure to see die-hard opponents of illegal immigrants seize on the fact that we have legal workers in day labor markets,” heating an already-inflamed debate.
In the longer term, it may also lead to a more rigorous analysis of future labor markets, including revised estimates of how many immigrants would be needed under a guest worker program, as proposed in recent congressional bills.
At the same time, Shaiken said, the issue won’t become central to the debate before Congress over what is known as comprehensive reform, including a pathway for legalizing millions of workers. “The point is, do we really want a labor market with day labor work as a career path? It’s more a commentary on the economy right now,” he said. More...
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