Super Hero Justice League Team America.

[overachiever]

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Real Cost of a Thanksgiving Dinner

The higher cost of gas, turkey feed and other things means the Thanksgiving meal will cost an average of 13 percent more this year

http://www.bloomberg.com/money-gallery/2011-11-16/the-real-cost-of-a-thanksgiving-dinner.html

[overachiever]

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=69048971

[overachiever]

Think money and securities in your brokerage account are safe?

Think again. A must watch.

Gerald Celente’s gold account was emptied by MF Global

http://www.infowars.com/gerald-celentes-gold-account-was-emptied-by-mf-global/


The recent bankruptcy of financial stalwart and Wall Street casino failure MF Global in the US, has claimed a new and unlikely victim. Following the company’s glorious collapse, Trends Research founder Gerald Celente had his own six figure gold investment account completely looted by chapter 11 trustees, and he is fighting to get it back.

[Crazy Money]

Is this where I find the Super Committee?

Don't Taszzz Me Bro....

[overachiever]

Ron Paul: Obama Presidency On The Verge Of Being A "Dictatorship"

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/11/09/ron_paul_obama_presidency_on_the_verge_of_being_a_dictatorship.html

[overachiever]

Obama's new Christmas Tree Tree Tax

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/11/08/obama-couldnt-wait-his-new-christmas-tree-tax/

[overachiever]

LOL. Funny but also sadly enough, it is pretty much true. I guess it depends on which group one wants his executioner to be.

[janice shell]

LOLOLOLISSIMO!!!

[overachiever]

The Illusion of Free Choice

[overachiever]

Fatty Foods Addictive as Cocaine in Growing Body of Science

By Robert Langreth and Duane D. Stanford

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Cupcakes may be addictive, just like cocaine.

A growing body of medical research at leading universities and government laboratories suggests that processed foods and sugary drinks made by the likes of PepsiCo Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. aren’t simply unhealthy. They can hijack the brain in ways that resemble addictions to cocaine, nicotine and other drugs.

“The data is so overwhelming the field has to accept it,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “We are finding tremendous overlap between drugs in the brain and food in the brain.”

The idea that food may be addictive was barely on scientists’ radar a decade ago. Now the field is heating up. Lab studies have found sugary drinks and fatty foods can produce addictive behavior in animals. Brain scans of obese people and compulsive eaters, meanwhile, reveal disturbances in brain reward circuits similar to those experienced by drug abusers.

Full article here: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-06/fatty-foods-addictive-as-cocaine-in-growing-body-of-science.html

[overachiever]

Extreme Poverty Is Now At Record Levels – 19 Statistics About The Poor That Will Absolutely Astound You

#1 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of "very poor" rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.

#2 Last year, 2.6 million more Americans descended into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

#3 It isn't just the ranks of the "very poor" that are rising. The number of those just considered to be "poor" is rapidly increasing as well. Back in the year 2000, 11.3% of all Americans were living in poverty. Today, 15.1% of all Americans are living in poverty.

#4 The poverty rate for children living in the United States increased to 22% in 2010.

#5 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

#6 In Washington D.C., the "child food insecurity rate" is 32.3%.

#7 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

#8 One out of every six elderly Americans now lives below the federal poverty line.

#9 Today, there are over 45 million Americans on food stamps.

#10 According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly 15 percent of all Americans are now on food stamps.

#11 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

#12 The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007.

#13 We are told that the economy is recovering, but the number of Americans on food stamps has grown by another 8 percent over the past year.

#14 Right now, one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#15 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

#16 More than 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid. Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#17 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one government anti-poverty program.

#18 The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.

#19 It is estimated that up to half a million children may currently be homeless in the United States.

Sadly, we don't hear much about this on the nightly news, do we?

This is because the mainstream media is very tightly controlled.

I came across a beautiful illustration of this recently. If you do not believe that the news in America is scripted, just watch this video

starting at the 1:15 mark. Conan O'Brien does a beautiful job of demonstrating how news anchors all over the United States are often repeating the exact same words.

So don't rely on the mainstream media to tell you everything.

In this day and age, it is absolutely imperative that we all think for ourselves.


for full article, go here: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/extreme-poverty-is-now-at-record-levels-19-statistics-about-the-poor-that-will-absolutely-astound-you

[overachiever]

Debt Increased $203 Billion in Oct.--$650 for Every Man, Woman and Child in America
By Terence P. Jeffrey
November 2, 2011

(CNSNews.com) - The federal government’s debt increased by $203,368,715,583.63 in the month of October, according to the U.S. Treasury.

That equals about $650 per person for each of the 312,542,760 people the Census Bureau now estimates live in the United States.

At the end of September, the total national debt stood at $14,790,340,328,557.15, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt. By the end of October, it had risen to $14,993,709,044,140.78.

The debt increased far more this October than it did last October. Between the last day of September 2010 and the last day of October, the debt rose from $13,561,623,030,891.79 to 13,668,825,497,341.36—for an increase of $107,202,466, 449.57.

October is the first month of the federal fiscal year. If the debt were to increase by an average of $203 billion for the remaining 11 months of the year, the national debt would increase by $2.436 trillion for the year.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/debt-increased-203-billion-oct-650-every-man-woman-and-child-america

[overachiever]

Some 15% of U.S. Uses Food Stamps

November 1, 2011, 4:53 PM ET
By Phil Izzo

Nearly 15% of the U.S. population relied on food stamps in August, as the number of recipients hit 45.8 million.

Food stamp rolls have risen 8.1% in the past year, the Department of Agriculture reported, though the pace of growth has slowed from the depths of the recession.

The number of recipients in the food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), may continue to rise in coming months as families continue to struggle with high unemployment and September’s data will likely include disaster assistance tied to the destruction and flooding caused by Hurricane Irene.

Mississippi reported the largest share of its population relying on food stamps, more than 21%. One in five residents in New Mexico, Tennessee, Oregon and Louisiana also were food stamp recipients.

Food stamp rolls exploded during the downturn, which began in late 2007. Even after the recession came to its official end in June 2009, families continued to tap into food assistance as unemployment remained high and those lucky enough to find jobs were often met with lower wages.

For full article, go here: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/11/01/some-15-of-u-s-uses-food-stamps/?mod=wsj_share_twitter

[TheFinalCD]

Someone Is Going To Jail For This:

MF Global Caught Stealing Hundreds Of Millions From Customers?

http://justiceleague00.blogspot.com/2011/11/someone-is-going-to-jail-for-this-mf.html


Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/31/2011 21:06 -0400

Say you are the head back office guy at MF Global, it is the close of trading on Thursday, the firm has already completely drawn downon its revolver, and all the resulting cash in addition to all the firm's cash at your disposal in affiliated bank accounts, up to and including petty cash, has been used to satisfy margin demands due to declining collateral value, yet the collateral calls just won't stop, and impatient voices on the other side of the phone line demand you transfer even more cash over immediately or else risk default proceedings commenced against you within minutes. What do you do? Do you go ahead and tell your superior that the firm is broke even though the co-opted media is trumpeting every 5 minutes that "MF Global is fine", knowing full well you will be immediately fired for being the bearer of bad news, or do you assume that courtesy of your uber-boss being the former head of the Vampire Squid, and thanks to infinite moral hazard which after Lehman made sure nobody would ever fail ever again, that there is simply no way that you will be left without some miraculous rescue, if only you can last one more day, and as a result proceed to "commingle" someclient funds with the firm's cash. It turns out that at MF Global you do the latter... over and over... until you have literally stolen hundreds of millions from the firm's client accounts in hopes that the miracle rescue will come on Friday... then over the weekend... and then you realize no miracle is coming, partly because your actions have been exposed, partly because miracles only exist in fairy tales. The next thing you know, your firm is bankrupt and hundreds of clients are about to learn that all their money is gone. Poof. This is not a fictional tale. This is precisely what very likely happened at MF Global in the past 72 hours. And someone has to go to jail. That someone, if indeed this criminal act is proven to have taken place, should be none other than Jon Corzine himself.

The sad truth of just how low Wall Street has fallen comes to us courtesy of the New York Times:



Federal regulators have discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in customer money have gone missing from MF Global in recent days, prompting an investigation into the company’s operations as it filed for bankruptcy on Monday, according to several people briefed on the matter.



The revelation of the missing money scuttled an 11th hour deal for MF Global to sell a major part of itself to a rival brokerage firm. MF Global, the powerhouse commodities brokerage run by Jon S. Corzine, had staked its survival on completing the deal.

As for the details:



What began as nearly $1 billion missing had dropped to less than $700 million by late Monday. It is unclear where the money went, and some money is expected to trickle in over the coming days as the firm sorts through the bankruptcy process, the people said.



But regulators are examining whether MF Global diverted some customer money to support its own trades as the firm teetered on the brink of collapse. If that was the case, it could violate a fundamental tenet of Wall Street regulation: Customers’ money must be kept separate from company money.

And just like in the Lehman collapse where tens if not hundreds of international prime brokerage hedge fund clients, due to no fault of their own, found themselves insolvent after their cash ended up being caught at the London Lehman office (the details of how that money was illegally transferred from London to the US is a different topic entirely) and never to be seen again except to satisfy general unsecured claims, so thousands of MF clients are about to realize that money they thought they had, even if completely unencumbered with other assets, read pure cash, read money not at risk, is now gone forever, and they will have to wait years until the bankruptcy process determines if the claim deserves priority status to the unsecured bondholders. Best case: assume a 70% haircut on the money, if it is every to be seen again at all.

So who can be sued? Who can be blamed for this malicious and purposeful criminal act? Why everyone from the back office clerk presented in the thought experiment above, all the way up to the man at the very top, Jon himself, who, like in every other act of Wall Street impropriety will plead stupidity and deny he ever knew of this crime. Unfortunately, our criminal regulators, who will be just as complicit in clearing him of all wrongdoing, will aid and abet this latest destruction of faith in US capitalism.

What happens next? Why customers at all other brokerages, all other exchanges, afraid that their money will suffer the same fate as MF, even if they transact with perfect solvent clearers and agents, will proceed to pull their money, as they know they have nobody to trust but their own prudent and forward looking actions. Which in turn will start the kind of liquidity drain that killed not only Lehman, but froze money markets, and with that brought the complete capital markets to a standstill, only to be thawed after the Fed pledged multiples of the US GDP to rescue Wall Street in October of 2008.

And that, dear reader, is called unintended consequences, and how the bankruptcy of a small exchange can avalanche into a crippling Ice Nine of what is left of capital markets all over again, courtesy of crony capitalism, rampant criminality and a regulator and enforcement body that is more fascinated with midget porn than any regulating or enforcing of the very firms it hopes to get an assistant general counsel job from in a few short years.


http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_04/b3613001.htm

[overachiever]

Jobless US vets say military experience not valued

Sat Oct 29, 2011 3:50pm EDT

* Vet jobless rate 2.6 pct higher than general population

* As wars wind down, lawmakers and groups focus on issue

By Roy Strom

NAPERVILLE, Ill, Oct 29 (Reuters) - When Matthew Burrell left the U.S. Army after eight years of service, he landed a job as a public relations contractor in Iraq. With a salary of $170,000, he figured military experience had finally paid off.

But five months after returning home to Chicago, 33-year-old Burrell is unemployed and his search for a job in the private sector has left him disheartened.

Despite having six years of experience as a public relations officer in the Army, he said he is treated as though he had just graduated from college.

"I can tell you for a fact that definitely in my field in public relations and marketing, private-sector companies do not value (military experience)," Burrell said.

Burrell, along with many of what the Department of Labor says are 235,000 unemployed veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has run into a vexing problem.

Many U.S. companies, and sometimes veterans themselves, do not know how to translate military experience into civilian skills. There is a disconnect between companies demanding a college degree and veterans giving confusing descriptions of their military experience to civilian employers.

That disconnect has contributed to veterans having an unemployment rate 2.6 percent higher than the general population, according to September's Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment report.

As U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan winds down, lawmakers and organizations are starting to address the issue.

The Obama administration this week announced steps that include encouraging community health centers to hire 8,000 veterans over the next three years, and improving training opportunities for military medics to become physician assistants.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it hopes to get 15,000 veterans hired through 100 job fairs around the country for veterans this year. One of those job fairs was held recently in Naperville, a Chicago suburb, giving 86 companies the chance to meet more than 600 veterans.

'TONE THAT DOWN'

One problem is that veterans need to explain more clearly to companies the value of their experience, said Kevin Schmiegel, vice president of veterans' employment programs at the Chamber of Commerce.

Hiring managers who have not served in the military are often bewildered by the jargon used by soldiers and weapons specialists, said Becky Brillon, who heads a program at the Community Career Center in Naperville.

A military job title might be listed like this: "25 Romeo visual and media equipment operator and maintainer."

"If somebody was artillery, or a sharpshooter or a sniper, you have to tone that down in the civilian world. It's more about being detail-oriented, precise and focused," she said.

On the flip side, private employers should give more credit to the experience and skills veterans acquire in the military, Schmiegel said.

Some military jobs, like a mechanic or technician, are fairly easily adapted to the private sector. But military credentials and certificates for other forms of training do not seem to carry much weight.

Rick Combs, a 27-year-old who retired as a sergeant in the Army, says he was given management training in the military. So far that training has not translated into a comparable private-sector job.

"You can come in, and slap something down that says, 'Here, the military says I can lead people. Give me a department and I will make it dance for you,'" Combs said. "I haven't had the opportunity on the civilian side yet."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/29/economy-jobs-veterans-idUSN1E79R24F20111029

[overachiever]

Decimation of the Western banks?


-This is the latest from GEAB (a European Think-Tank) These guys have a pretty good track record on their economic predictions. They are calling for a banking crises of huge proportions in the first half of 2012 --one that would undoubtedly eclipse the problems of 2008-2009 by a wide margin. Interestingly enough, as seen in my previous post, today the Vatican came out and called for a single world central bank and one world currency. Thus could become the prevailing call in the face of another banking crises and would not be good for the people of the USA.


Global systemic crisis – First half of 2012: Decimation of the Western banks
http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-58-is-available-Global-systemic-crisis-First-half-of-2012-Decimation-of-the-Western-banks_a7904.html

[overachiever]

VATICAN CALLS FOR 'CENTRAL WORLD BANK'

Vatican calls for global authority on economy, raps “idolatry of the market”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/24/idUS264245887020111024

And the march towards centralized control of the people of the Earth continues, and now with the aid of the Vatican. I find this interesting in light of the previous Pope's belief that he was the final "true Pope" prior to the age that would usher in the attempted global rule of the "anti-Christ". Others believe that the current Pope is one of the last two remaining Popes before this global event will occur.

Benedict XVI Is the Second-to-Last Pope, Says Irish Prophet Malachy

http://abcnews.go.com/International/benedict-xvi-pope-irish-prophet-malachy/story?id=8499430

What would a central world bank mean to the USA? It would be the end of our country in the way that we all know it, in my opinion. It would put us under the economic thumb of a power that does not have our best interests at heart.

[Fire Lane]

that one has trouble understanding a stop sign

[overachiever]

Desperate American Boarding Schools Scam Chinese Students:

Chinese Students Lose as U.S. Schools Exploit Need
By Daniel Golden - Oct 19, 2011 5:13 PM GMT-0400

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-19/chinese-lose-promise-for-52-000-as-u-s-schools-exploit-need.html

[overachiever]

Back in the USSR:

TSA begins random ROAD inspections in Tennessee...

Tennessee Becomes First State To Fight Terrorism Statewide

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/15725035/officials-claim-tennessee-becomes-first-state-to-deploy-vipr-statewide

Gotta stop all of those terrorists running up and down the highways of Tennessee.

[overachiever]

This board is for educational purposes. It is not a price prediction board nor is it a board that offers trading ideas. On this board we sometimes talk about penny stock scams, but mostly we just offer information to people to make them reconsider the the way they look at matters of importance in investments and beyond.

This board is to help people see through the smoke and mirrors that scammers of all types and in all walks of life throw at them. .

[chloebware]

Maybe...... maybe not ......don't put stuff on your site you don't believe in. Really.

[overachiever]

I believe gold will eventually see new highs (so does Soros, evidently because he has been buying back in on this pullback), but 20,000 gold seems like a far reach to me. I didn't post that video because I thought he was right about his price prediction. I posted it because I thought he provided a good explanation to the layman of how monetary inflation results in price inflation and currency debasement.

Ad I stated, before,

"20,000 gold coming? Maybe and maybe not, but whether or not he is right about his target price, this guy has the market forces pegged which could make it possible. This is an excellent educational piece as to what is behind the current move in gold and other precious metals.

A must view for anyone who is confused about what makes modern markets move and monetary systems work (for about 30 to 40 years at a time) and why gold & silver may be just getting started on an upside move which will likely take them much higher than they already are."

[chloebware]

I did why would you quote him and post that message if you don't believe.... Do you really think gold is going up after an all time high?

[chloebware]

Hey Superman.... Are you a Fireman?

[overachiever]

Maybe you should read the post again, sparky. Surely it wasn't that hard to understand.

[chloebware]

So is Gold Going to 22K an ounce?

[chloebware]

Are you Ok? You might be having a stroke. Wow......

[Fire Lane]

where?

[chloebware]

So after going after so many "frauds" why don't you post here for your head mod pushing 22 K gold.

[Fire Lane]

what?

[chloebware]

This board you are a mod right? Do you even post here?

[chloebware]

Are you serious...... You bust frauds and then make a post like that? Doctor heal thyself.

[overachiever]

What a SHOCKER! (not)

Federal Government's seat of power overtakes the Silicon Valley as highest income area in USA.


Top Income in U.S. Is...Gasp!...Wash. D.C. Area

By Frank Bass and Timothy R. Homan - Oct 19, 2011 12:00 AM GMT-0400

The typical household in the Washington metro area earned $84,523 last year, down from the $85,168 earned in 2009. Household income also dropped last year in San Jose, to $83,944 from $85,168 the previous year.

Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, government data show.

The U.S. capital has swapped top spots with Silicon Valley, according to recent Census Bureau figures, with the typical household in the Washington metro area earning $84,523 last year. The national median income for 2010 was $50,046.

The figures demonstrate how the nation’s political and financial classes are prospering as the economy struggles with unemployment above 9 percent and thousands of Americans protest in the streets against income disparity, said Kevin Zeese, director of Prosperity Agenda, a Baltimore-based advocacy group trying to narrow the divide between rich and poor.

“There’s a gap that’s isolating Washington from the reality of the rest of the country,” Zeese said. “They just get more and more out of touch.”

Full article here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-19/beltway-earnings-make-u-s-capital-richer-than-silicon-valley.html

[overachiever]

Pat Buchanan's SUICIDE OF A SUPERPOWER: The Suicide of Liberty
By Paul Craig Roberts on October 12, 2011

Pat Buchanan's latest book, Suicide of a Superpower, raises the question whether America will survive to 2025. The question might strike some readers as unduly pessimistic and others as optimistic. It is unclear whether the US, as we have known it, will survive its next presidential election.

Consider the candidates. Liberal law professor Jonathan Turley, who was likely to have been an early Obama supporter, now wonders if Obama is “the most disastrous president in our history.” Despite Obama’s failure, the Republicans can’t come up with anyone any better. One Republican candidate admires Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman who gave us financial deregulation and the financial crisis. Another is ready for a preemptive strike on Iran. Yet another thinks the Soviet Union is a grave threat to the United States. None of these clueless dopes are capable of presiding over a government.

Anyone who has been paying attention knows that the “superpower” is over-extended financially and militarily. The US is currently involved in six conflicts with Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Pakistan on the waiting list for full fledged military attacks and perhaps invasions. Russia is being encircled with missile bases, and war plans are being drawn up for China.

Where is the money going to come from when the country’s debt is bursting at the seams, the economy is in decline, and unemployment on the rise?

Washington thinks that the money can simply be printed. However, enough has already been printed that the rest of the world is already suspicious of the dollar and its role as reserve currency.

As John Williams has said, the world could begin dumping dollar assets at any time.

I don’t think we can dismiss Buchanan’s concern as pessimistic.

Buchanan documents his concern across a wide front. For example, the combination of mass immigration and its consequent demographics together with the “diversity cult” means the end of “white America” and the transformation of what once was the dominant population into a disadvantaged underclass.

Buchanan cites a Wall Street Journal article by Ron Unz published 12 years ago. Unz found that white American gentiles who would be considered Christian are dramatically under-represented in America’s elite universities, which provide the elites who dominate government, business, and the professions.

Unz reported that white Americans who comprised 70% of the US population made up only 25% of Harvard’s enrollment and that the composition of the student bodies at Yale Princeton Columbia, Berkeley, and Stanford was much the same.

Asians who comprised 3% of the US population comprised one-fifth of Harvard’s enrollment, and Jews, who comprised 2.5% of the population comprised between one-fourth and one-third of Harvard’s student body.

As Buchanan puts it, the country’s native-born majority has relegated its own progeny to the trash bin of history.

Buchanan doesn’t address the question whether the rest of the world will miss white America. Considering the endless wars and astounding hypocrisy and immorality associated with white America since the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago, the world is likely to cheer when power slips from the hands of what Leonard Jeffries termed the “ice people,” that is, people without souls or feelings for others. Americans are so wrapped up in the myth of their “exceptionalism” that they are oblivious to the world’s opinion. American soft power, once a foundation of US influence, has been squandered, another reason the “superpower” status is crumbling.

Financial deregulation and the consequent financial crisis, collapse of the real estate market, and evictions of millions of Americans from their homes have greatly dimmed America’s economic prospects. However, as Buchanan points out, the offshoring of US jobs and industry under the guise of “free trade” has damaged the middle class, halted the growth in consumer purchasing power and left many college graduates without careers.

In the first decade of the 21st century, the Bush/Cheney years, America lost one-third of its manufacturing jobs. During this decade, Michigan lost 48% of its manufacturing jobs, New Jersey lost 39%, and New York and Ohio lost 38%.

During this decade, the US incurred trade deficits totaling $6.2 trillion, of which $3.8 trillion is in manufactured goods. In other words, imports of manufactured goods are a larger cause of the trade deficit than oil imports. Early in the decade the US lost its trade surplus in advanced technology products. In recent years the US has run up $300 billion in trade deficits in advanced technology products with China alone. As Macy Block’s site, Economy in Crisis, documents, foreigners have used their huge dollar earnings to buy up American companies, with the consequence that foreign earnings on US investments now exceed US earnings abroad, thus worsening the current account deficit.

Although Buchanan makes many points, this is not his best book. He becomes lost in old arguments that no longer make sense, such as the claim that the poor vote away the property of the rich, and he ignores the destruction of the US Constitution in the name of “the war on terror,” which has transformed the US into a police state.

Conservatives are stuck in the canard that democracy is a tool used by the poor to provide themselves