August 12, the FDIC took over six branches of the First National Bank of Olathe, in Kansas. This makes the 64th failed U.S. bank this year.
For 2011 most of the failed banks are small regional, or local banks.
To see the list of failed banks go to the FDIC website.
During Ramadan the Iranian government is officially encouraging local Farmer’s Markets, called Direct Markets in Tehran. This is in response to consumers demand for lower food prices.
However, comments from shoppers have been mixed. Some Direct Market shoppers claim the prices are cheaper and they can find what they need, while an almost even number of people said the opposite. One man said the price difference was only slight. It just proves the saying that you need to “shop around” for the best price.
During Ramadan Muslims fast during the day, and eat after the sun goes down.
Israeli media reporting that the Israeli government plans to expand their military equipment inventories by buying used U.S. equipment now in Iraq.
The report says the Israel purchase of U.S. military gear will help out the U.S. Department of Defense, because apparently the U.S. can’t afford to ship all that equipment back home from Iraq.
The equipment includes everything from vehicles to ammo.
It’s not just Israel that the U.S. will sell to, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are customers as well. This is just another sign the United States is hurting for cash.
California is now the first state in the Union, that admits that grade school students drop out of school as early as 8th grade. In the latest survey it was revealed that more than 17,000 8th graders quit school in 2010.
Also, more than 94,000 California High School students dropped out in 2010.
Prior to this survey most drop out rate surveys were considered unreliable. They varied greatly from 11% to 22%. In 2009 California legislators actually passed a law dictating how the drop out rate survey would be conducted.
To many employment analysts the latest California drop out numbers prove what many employers have been complaining about; not enough high school graduates to fill open positions in California. And to make it worse, the high drop out rates continued even though more and more taxpayer money was being spent on education year after year.
In fact, in the past the California Department of Education actually worked to keep drop out rates from being made public.
One result of the waste of taxpayer money, and degrading public education in California, was the creation of the Parent Empowerment Law, in 2010. The law gives parents the right to convert a public school into a charter school, if 51% of the parents of children in that school sign a petition. An elementary school in Compton will become the first school converted to a charter school under the Parent Empowerment Law.
One commentator in California said it’s ’bout time the Golden State learned the Golden Rule: “What America desperately needs is an educational system that cherishes each child as an individual, that recognizes each child has needs that must be met and gifts that deserve to be nurtured. When families have freely chosen the best school for their children, there is a sense of community, of belonging, even of family, that keeps our kids in school and gets them safely to graduation.”-Alan Bonsteel, San Francisco Chronical
“While the markets can operate on false scenarios for a significant period of time, reality always wins in the end. When it does, the situation can get quite ugly and all the profits gained from a belief in an unsupportable viewpoint can evaporate over night. At the moment, there is a lot of denial about inflation and investors should be paying attention to this.”-Daryl Montgomery, Independent Trader
People need to start studying up on basic economics. What the G7 and the U.S. Federal Reserve are doing will lead to catastrophe, for the little guy.
After an emergency meeting on August 7, the Group of 7 most industrialized countries decided to deal with the growing debt crisis, of Europe and the United States, by flooding the markets with cash (liquidity). One way to do that is to buy massive amounts of bonds, which is what the European Central Bank (ECB) did.
Following the G7 meeting the ECB began buying up Italian and Spanish bonds, even though the week before Germany was advising against such a move, because Italy and Spain were too bad off to be trusted to pay them back.
Injecting cash into markets, like buying up bond issues, can have the same result as overprinting money; hyperinflation. The most recent case of hyperinflation took place in Zimbabwe. It lasted from 2004-2009, and is considered the second worst case of hyperinflation in the world. It happened after their economy crashed, and the government responded by overprinting money (by the way the U.S. has been overprinting money for years now).
In a statement, the G7 (which includes the United States) tried to say their move to flood markets with cash will work as long as government fiscal policy remains “disciplined”. There was no clarification what they meant by “disciplined”, but surely they mean that as long as governments, mainly European, continue to cut spending and increase taxes to pay their government debts, then hyperinflation should not be a concern.
Why would that be? Possibly because so many people are out of work, which reduces the flow of money in the consumer markets, and, increased taxes reduces the amount of spending money a consumer, who still has a job, has. Also, cutting government spending is another way to reduce liquidity in the consumer markets.
But flooding markets with cash isn’t the only way to create hyperinflation, keeping interest rates low can do the same thing. And keeping them artificially low for long periods of time will only make things worse. That’s exactly what the U.S. Federal Reserve (a privately run central bank) is doing.
On August 9, the Federal Reserve (incorrectly referred to as The Fed, incorrect because it’s not a government agency. The Fed, or Feds, usually refers to a government agency, in fact it used to refer to the FBI), announced it would keep interest rates low, again. Not only that but they would so so until 2013, with the possibility of lowering it even more.
The interest rate, that the mainstream media is always talking about but surely doesn’t understand, is the Federal Funds Rate. This rate does NOT affect us little guys. It is the interest that banks pay each other for borrowing money from each other. Only in theory does it “trickle down” to us little people in the form of lower credit card and loan rates, and even supposedly on the interest rates the banks give us for putting our money into their so called “savings” accounts.
The past decade has proven that keeping the Federal Funds rate low does NOT “trickle down” to the little guy, working class, consumer level.
And that’s the point. There is nothing being done to help the average John Q Public. Everything is being done to help the big guys, the Man, the elites and their global corporations/governments. Keeping interest rates low for the big guys, and flooding the markets with cash (only for the benefit of the big guys) are short term actions that will result in long term pain for the little guy (as if the little guy isn’t in pain now).
Even investment advisers are warning people of the dangers: “…governments that engage in this behavior frequently go to great lengths to ensure the public doesn’t make the connection and realize that inflation is caused by government actions.”–Daryl Montgomery, Independent Trader
Now, there are some officials with the Federal Reserve that are also sounding a warning. Narayana Kocherlakota, the president of the Federal Reserve’s Minneapolis bank, has been arguing for an increase in interest rates: “Central bankers alone cannot solve the world’s economic problems.”
Kocherlakota wants to raise the Federal Funds Rate by at least a half a percent. He says most of the economic problems in the U.S. are a result of mismatches between the labor market, and employers, and that is something the Federal Reserve can not influence. It’s proof that what Central Banks are doing have nothing to do with solving the bad employment situation.
China seems to be the only country that’s following traditional economic policies regarding the prevention of inflation. So far this year the inflation rate in China has hit 6.5%. China is blaming the slow down in their economy partly on domestic inflation.
China is experiencing inflation because more people are making more money, which means more money available on the consumer market. It’s being exacerbated by foreign banks loaning money to Chinese consumers.
China has instituted policies to restrict the money flow, by making it almost impossible for people to qualify for home loans, and even auto loans. They’ve recently banned certain loans being issued by foreign banks. The Bank of China is also raising their interest rates.
It hurts consumers, only in that it’s much harder to get a loan, but it restricts the amount of money in the consumer market, which is supposed to keep inflation down, which benefits consumers in the long run. Also, if you’re a saver then you benefit by getting higher interest on your traditional savings account.
Bottom line: Low interest rates and flooding markets with cash only benefits the big guys, and only for the short run. In the long run it will hurt everyone.
“The Ashura brigades of Basij forces are ready to be deployed to London as peacekeeping forces.”- Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Naqdi
Since the beginning of the riots in England, Iran has been critical of the U.K. government’s handling of the crisis.
Iranian officials pointed out that London police have Big Brother style surveillance cameras all over the city. At last count, there are 4.6 million security cameras, and only one million people living in London. So why is it so difficult for them to track down the “thugs”? Why, with all those security cameras on just about every street, didn’t police react sooner?
Iranian officials also point out that most of the “thugs” are the deprived lower classes of Britain.
Iranian military commanders say that if the United Nations decides to send peacekeepers to the U.K., Iranian troops are ready to go now.
The shot that started the riots, that have been going on since this past weekend, was fired by cops, and cops only!
The Independent Police Complaints Commission says there is no evidence that a father of four, who was shot in a taxi and killed by police, was armed or even shot at police.
The police who shot him claimed, as usual, that he shot at them first, and that a gunfight ensued, in which he was killed. As usual the police claim self defense.
Also, at least a day ago the police claim they had recovered a “non-police” issue gun belonging to the “gang leader”. The Independent Police Complaints Commission says that’s a bold faced lie! The Commission found no such gun!
The Commission says the father of four was killed by one shot to the chest. A Scotland Yard (London Met) bobbie fired two shots in total. That sure doesn’t sound like a gun battle. Unfortunately the investigation is being given six months to make a final report.
Maybe the poor people of Merry Old Police State England are justified? The bobbies thought they were taking out a modern day Robin Hood, now there are thousands of Robin Hoods swarming the streets!
“In my opinion, at this moment, the best strategy is no buy, no sell. At this moment, it’s very difficult to shift (investment), to change fundamentally, because we hold such a big amount.”-Cheng Siwei, former senior Chinese lawmaker
Cheng Siwei, is advising the Chinese government to take a “no buy, no sell” attitude towards U.S. Treasury bonds. Cheng is telling the government that it needs to hold off on investing it’s $3.2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves.
Many European countries have been knocking down China’s door, begging China to bail them out by buying their bonds, instead of more U.S. bonds.
Cheng says the situation for China has become more of a political one, than an economic one. In other words, with so many countries, including the United States, hoping to be saved by China’s cash, the Chinese are starting to realize just how much power they have.
BBC is reporting that the city of Birmingham, England, has been hit by looting and violence.
According to the BBC: Cars were set on fire in Lewisham. A bus and shop were set alight in Peckham. Several fires broke out in Croydon, including one at a large furniture shop which spread to neighboring buildings and tram lines. In Hackney police 200 riot officers with dogs and mounted police were located around Mare Street where police cars were damaged. Looters raided a Debenhams store and a row of shops in Lavender Hill in Clapham. In Birmingham, police said officers had made 35 arrests, including six juveniles, on Monday evening. Buses were diverted as the violence spread to Bromley High Street. There were reports of looting of phone shops in Woolwich High Street, in south London, and a torched police car. Shops and restaurants were damaged in Ealing, west London, and there was a fire in Haven Green park opposite Ealing Broadway Tube.
Some British newspapers are avoiding the more plausible reasons for the rioting, like a bad economy and police brutality, and actually blamed video games. One newspaper claims to have seen ten year olds taking part in the looting, and quotes an unnamed police officer as saying the rioters are motivated by the video game Grand Theft Auto.
If you’ve played Grand Theft Auto then you would know that in no way does it involve mass rioting and looting. The game is centered around a single player, you, who’s goal is to steal cars. Somehow the ignorant British media and authorities equate an individual stealing cars in a video game to mass rioting, vandalism and looting in real life. It’s proof that the ‘better off’ in Britain are the ones living in a fantasy world.
“Officers responding to sporadic disorder in a number of boroughs made more than 100 arrests throughout last night and early this morning.” Scotland Yard statement, August 8
The violence that started in Tottenham has spread to Enfield and Brixton. The riots started on Friday August 5, after police shot and killed a man in the back seat of a taxi the day before. Police say he was a gun runner, locals say it was police brutality. Tottenham, a borough of London, has a decades long history of police brutality.
The riots are spreading and become more about the lack of jobs, and the severe cuts to social programs made by the British Parliament.
Another factor could be that British Prime Minister, David Cameron, is on a luxury vacation in Italy, while Chancellor of the Exchequer (kinda like the U.S. Treasury), George Osbourne, is on vacation in California. This after they told British taxpayers to make more financial sacrifices.
Police feel targeted, and who wouldn’t be surprised at that since London police have powers even U.S. cops don’t. The United Kingdom uses Orwellian tactics in their law enforcement. One bobby said: “Officers are shocked at the outrageous level of violence directed against them.”
An immigrant from Africa said: “I can imagine this kind of thing happening in Somalia but to see it in London was strange.”
Of course the elected and appointed officials in Britain are calling the rioters “petty criminals”, but local residents say people are finally fed up with the system: “Unemployment is very, very high … they are frustrated.” Uzodinma Wigwe, age 49, recently laid off
History shows that peaceful protest does not work. History shows that it always takes violent protest to make the leaders realize the people want change. In some cases leaders are so arrogant they end up going to their death thinking there is nothing wrong (French Revolution). The Civil Rights laws in the United States did NOT come about because of the peaceful protests led by Martin Luther King Jr, but because of the violence that took place after Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. That’s the part they don’t teach about in the United States, but the info is there, do your own research.