Posts Tagged ‘Economics’
Arrests Made in Peruvian Ring That Sold Human Fat
On CNN:
Peruvian authorities say they have arrested four members of a gang that specialized in selling to European labs fat obtained from dead humans.
Officials are investigating the disappearance of at last 60 people they believe were killed by gang members in two mountainous states in central Peru, lead prosecutor Jorge Sanz Quiroz said Friday.
The four suspects have been charged with murder in the September slaying of a Peruvian man, the prosecutor said.
“They killed to obtain human fat because there were European laboratories that would pay them,” Sanz Quiroz said.
The suspects told authorities they were paid $15,000 for a liter (about 1 quart) of human fat.
Read more: CNN
Interest on U.S. Debt: $4.8 Trillion
Jeanne Sahadi writes on CNNMoney.com:
Here’s a new way to think about the U.S. government’s epic borrowing: More than half of the $9 trillion in debt that Uncle Sam is expected to build up over the next decade will be interest.
More than half. In fact, $4.8 trillion.
If that’s hard to grasp, here’s another way to look at why that’s a problem.
In 2015 alone, the estimated interest due — $533 billion — is equal to a third of the federal income taxes expected to be paid that year, said Charles Konigsberg, chief budget counsel of the Concord Coalition, a deficit watchdog group.
More on CNNMoney.com
Audit The Fed Effort Wins Support From An Unusual Coalition
via HuffPo:
“An unusual coalition of progressive economists, labor leaders, and bloggers has decided to fight back against a congressional amendment that would allow the Federal Reserve to continue operating in secrecy.”
November 18, 2009
House Financial Services Committee
2129 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515Dear Chairman Frank, Ranking Member Bachus, and Members of the Committee,
During the past two years, the Federal Reserve dramatically changed its operating procedures. Instead of simply setting interest rates to influence macroeconomic conditions, it rapidly acquired a wide variety of private assets and extended massive secret bailouts to major financial institutions.
There are still many questions about the Fed’s behavior in these new activities, including potential cronyism and favoritism in its distribution of many trillions of dollars. As the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Assets Relief Program recently wrote…
Show Me the Money
By Robert Singer
We have been conditioned from birth to believe that everything wrong in our society is about Greed: The inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.
However, my research concludes the earth’s environmental damage and pollution was not the result of greed and the unintended consequences of our capitalistic consumer society, but was the goal.
Until the common man became “civilized” he had almost no environmental impact on the earth. Hunters, foragers and gatherers are unable to upset the ecological structures of the planet. [1]
The first civilized societies and their agrarian economies had an environmental impact but the damage was negligible because only 3% of the population, Kings and Lords were consumers.
The earth wasn’t in trouble until the House of…
Satan: The Great Motivator
From the Boston Globe:
What makes economies grow? It’s a question that has occupied thinkers for centuries. Most of us would tick off things like education levels, openness to trade, natural resources, and political systems.
Here’s one you might not have considered: hell.
A pair of Harvard researchers recently examined 40 years of data from dozens of countries, trying to sort out the economic impact of religious beliefs or practices. They found that religion has a measurable effect on developing economies – and the most powerful influence relates to how strongly people believe in hell.
That hell could matter to economic growth might seem surprising, since you can’t prove it exists, let alone quantify it. It stands as one of the more intriguing findings in a growing body of recent research exploring how religion…
On CNBC, Strategist Says Dollar Will be ‘Utterly Destroyed’; We Are Moving Toward ‘New World Order’
Wow, this was on CNBC:
The dollar will get “utterly destroyed” and become “virtually worthless”, said Damon Vickers, chief investment officer of Nine Points Capital Partners.
“We don’t have resources. Neither does a lot of Asia to be quite frank,” Vickers said on CNBC’s Asia Squawk Box. “Countries that have resources — the Brazils, the Canadas, Australia — their currencies are doing well.” Vickers noted that their stock markets have done the best year-to-date.
“They have stuff. They’ve got resources. They export real things. The United States exports ‘promises’ and ‘pretty paper’,” he added.
Due to the huge wage disparities between the United States and emerging markets like China, Vickers said that may resolve itself in some type of a global currency crisis.
“If the global currency crisis unfolds, then inevitably you get an alignment of a global world government. A new global currency and a new world order, so we may be moving towards that,” he said.
Vickers added that this is the time where investors should be making money when the trend is developing. “Oil looks higher, gold looks higher, currencies look weaker.”
USDA: Number of Americans Going Hungry Increases
By HENRY C. JACKSON, Associated Press via Google News:
More than one in seven American households struggled to put enough food on the table in 2008, the highest rate since the Agriculture Department began tracking food security levels in 1995.
That’s about 49 million people, or 14.6 percent of U.S. households. The numbers are a significant increase from 2007, when 11.1 percent of U.S. households suffered from what USDA classifies as “food insecurity” — not having enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.
Researchers blamed the increase in hunger on a lack of money and other resources.
Read more: Associated Press via Google News
The Money That Is Sold Abroad Is YOU!
It is not dollars, treasuries, bonds and debt that is being sold by your government. Text and references: Freedomain Radio
The New (Gringo) Face Of Day Labor
The Las Vegas Sun has an article of the recent trend of U.S. citizens’ joining the ranks of immigrants who stand in store parking lots, hoping to be picked up for work:
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.
Pervasive Plastics: Why the U.S. Needs New and Tighter Controls
John Wargo writes on Yale Environment 360:
Since 1950, plastics have quickly and quietly entered the lives and bodies of most people and ecosystems on the planet. In the United States alone, more than 100 billion pounds of resins are formed each year into food and beverage packaging, electronics, building products, furnishings, vehicles, toys, and medical devices. In 2007, the average American purchased more than 220 pounds of plastic, creating nearly $400 billion in sales.
It is now impossible to avoid exposure to plastics. They surround and pervade our homes, bodies, foods, and water supplies, from the plastic diapers and polyester pajamas worn by our children to the cars we drive and the frying pans in which we cook our food.
The ubiquitous nature of plastics is a significant factor in an unexpected…
The Real Deficit Hawks: Where’s the Outrage Over the Defense Budget?
David Sirota writes on Salon:
Let’s say you’re a congressperson or “tea party” leader looking to champion deficit reduction — a cause 38 percent of Americans tell pollsters they support. And let’s say you’re deciding whether to back two pieces of imminent legislation.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the first bill’s spending provisions cost $100 billion annually and its tax and budget-cutting provisions recoup $111 billion annually, thus reducing total federal expenditures by $11 billion each year. The second bill proposes $636 billion in annual spending and recoups nothing. Over 10 years, the first bill would spend $1 trillion and recover $1.11 trillion — a fantastic return on taxpayer investment. Meanwhile, the second bill puts us on a path to spend $6.3 trillion in the same time.
Save $110 billion, or…
Meet the New Boss
From Nick P. at Black Sun Gazette:
We’re almost a full year into the Obama regime, and over a year past his election. There is significant disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality. I was widely pilloried for not joining in the choruses of “hope and change.” While I acknowledge that most Americans voting for a black man for President represents something, I disagree with most people about what it represents.
If nothing else, having a black president highlights what black people living in urban areas run by black Democrats already know — black Democrats are dangerous hustlers, charlatans of the highest order who prey on their own people. Illusions in Obama quickly shatter in light of the reality. Despite repeated attempts by craven apologists of Obama to represent him as some…
237 Millionaires in U.S. Congress
Brian Montopoli writes in CBS News’ Political Hotsheet:
Even in tough times, it’s good to be a lawmaker: According to a report released by the Center for Responsive Politics, there are 237 millionaires serving in Congress, according to 2008 figures.
That’s a slight decline from the previous year, when there were 239 millionaires in the House and Senate. But it still reflects the fact that the average lawmaker is far wealthier than his or her typical constituent. While about one percent of Americans are millionaires, 44 percent of those serving in Congress can claim as much.
“The biggest takeaway from all of this is that even thought the collective wealth of members of congress appears to have declined, members of Congress are still so much more wealthy than the average American — and…
