"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious, but it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formable, for he is known and carries his banner openly, but the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not as a traitor, he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and garments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared."
Marcus Tullius Cicero, 42BC
Our intelligence sources say that European Union countries have been buying oil from OPEC producers in euros for some time now. As the dollar has sunk, some 35%, oil producers that have been selling in dollars have taken some horrendous losses. We believe that once the dollar breaks down at $1.40 to the euro there will be a natural shift out of dollars into euros for payment for oil and perhaps other things such as commodities.
The effect on the US economy of course will be devastating, as we have predicted previously. All those dollars out there are going to be looking for a home and that home will be back in the US.
High-level Lebanese intelligence sources say former PM Rafik Hariri was assassinated by orders from the Bush neocons and Ariel Sharon’s government in Israel. Hariri was opposed to the construction of a major US airbase in the north of Lebanon. The US wanted the Syrians out of Lebanon before construction of the base was initiated. The base is to be built by Jacobs Engineering in Pasadena, CA and Bechtel Corp of San Francisco. The two neocons responsible for the orders to assassinate Hariri came from Carl Rove and Elliot Abrams.
At a town hall meeting in Vermont a resolution calling for bringing the troops home now passed with 65.2% of the rate.
Word reaches us from the Middle East that Israel has drummed up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear program. Iran says their development is peaceful. Israel and the Bushites say otherwise. We know for sure Bush and Israel do not tell the truth, so what is one to believe.
Long-term unemployment, defined as joblessness for six-months or more, is at record rates. That is why unemployment is 13-1/2%, not 5.3%. We are now outsourcing some of our best jobs out of the country, and those thrown out of work that are 40 or older cannot get jobs. They go into consulting and eke out living in the black economy. Outsourcing is the most destabilizing thing that has ever hit the American economy. Educated, experienced workers and professionals cannot get jobs. The American worker is becoming obsolete and soon our economy will suffer the indignity of being a second-class country, and nobody wants to listen. Your degree does not matter any more. There is someone in the third world that has the same degree and experience that will work for 20% of what you will work for. Soon you will lose your house and later you will go bankrupt. This is the elitist legacy of America. Just last month 373,000 people with college degrees quit job hunting and dropped out of the labor force. The number has tripled since 2000. Twenty percent of long-term jobless are college graduates. Now the song is, the more you make the more liable you are to be laid off. Many are living off home equity. Older workers are really screwed. They do not stand a chance of getting back a similar job. Most are working into their 70’s in order to survive at a low paying service job. Our situation as a nation is deplorable and it is getting worse by the minute. Our leaders in Congress and the White House could care less. We hope you let them know what you think.
As we ship out our means of production and now outsource our best jobs, we are told by the technology industry that our country risks losing its competitive edge without significant new investments in education, research and development and the spread of broadband technology. Funds for education are being cut to fund foreign wars, and industry is piling up cash cutting back and laying off because they see trouble ahead just as they did in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Seven percent of US households have the fastest kind of broadband access, compared with 30% in Korea, 20% in Japan and 10% in France. US investment in research and development stayed flat for the past three decades, while growing dramatically among competitors such as Brazil, India, China and Israel. US students are behind counterparts in other countries in math and science. Some Asian countries are graduating five times as many engineers. Industry is flush with cash but they want Congress to give them a development tax credit. They, of course, as elitists want CAFTA passed, which has nothing to do with US investment. In fact, it is the antithesis of improving our competitive position. These are the lies and subterfuge we encounter everyday from industry and government.
Identity thieves have penetrated several companies that collect data and sell it to businesses, industry and government. Essentially, we have no protection. Breaches are becoming an epidemic and we have no privacy left.
Our military is already talking in terms of domestic occupation and warrantless searches. Some in the military are already talking about major alterations in US laws. They call for the military to have the legal right to detain vehicles, suspects, conduct arrests and searches and seizures in order to keep the peace. That would end Posse Comitatus. This frame of mind and reference was set by the military doing urban training throughout the US. Few paid attention or cared what they were doing. That was the beginning, the foot in the door. Then there was Waco and the slaughter that ensued. Get set for occupation and martial law in the future. Boobus Americanus will not get wise until he hears the goose steps. Fifty percent of our population is out to lunch. They cannot get it through their heads that they are supporting the world. Global upheaval is on the way and our military will be happy to play their part subjecting and suppressing you.
Microsoft has designed a Teddy Bear containing microphones, a camera and technology that will allow it to watch a child’s every move.
As you know from our previous issue, M3 rose $59.2 billion in the past two weeks. Annualized that is 16.3%. As we explained, the Fed is raising interest rates and at the same time increasing monetary aggregates. This is what they have done repeatedly over the years. The difference this time is that we have an enormous debt overhang. This is bad for the dollar and every other asset-class except gold and silver.
Last week what looked to be uncoordinated was a coordinated effort by South Korea, China and Japan to publicly warn the US to fix the dollar inflation problem. That had to have come after extensive behind-the-scenes wrangling. There are three ways to fix the dollar, cut the budget deficit, raise interest rates or implement protective tariffs. We believe interest rates will be used and there is a 50-50 chance of a 1/2 point increase in rates next week to show the world Sir Alan is serious. Thus far, the increases in Fed rates have been totally ineffective and a 1/2% rise will only be the beginning until real rates rise. The ten-year Treasury has to be 6%; it is 4.54% presently, for it to even begin to bite into the economy. The longer the Fed takes to raise rates the more damaging it will be on the US and world economy. He is biding time to hold back the economic and financial correction until he leaves his office in January.
The Cambridge Consumer Credit Index March survey shows 45% of consumers are making minimum monthly payments or not making payments at all on their credit cards. That is up 3% y-o-y.
Mortgage growth has heightened bond market volatility; because ever-lower rates have induced early payoffs via refinancing and portfolios with mortgages end up with short duration when rates fall. When rates rise, the mortgages make portfolios long duration. In order to stay in balance, portfolio managers must sell bonds when bond prices fall and buy bonds when bond prices rise. This is the same kind of portfolio insurance that brought on the collapse of October 1987. Those versed in derivatives understand that it is similar to dynamic hedging. Presently the values of mortgages greatly exceed the value of US Treasuries and have since the stock market bubble got underway in 1997. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac facilitated this eventual problem. Both could be or may eventually go bankrupt.
Eventually the Fed has to accelerate the climb in interest rates. The recent Treasury auction, where only 11% of the bond-rate offering was taken by foreign central banks, is a signal from those banks that they want a higher yield to offset the growing risk. It is all there for anyone to see, rates have to climb 1% to 3% over the next 1-1/2 years and as that unfolds, bond, stock and real estate values will decline.
Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg, formerly OSS-CIA and a Council on Foreign Relations guiding light, has resigned as CEO of AIG, American International Group, ending the reign of the Greenberg crime family. Mr. Greenberg and his two sons’ are crooks. Hank dines with Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller and Alan Greenspan to name a few CFR buddies. On AIG’s corporate Board of Directors, we have the following CFR members, Martin Feldstein, Ellen Fulter, Carla Hills, Richard Halbrooke, Donald Kanak, Bernard Aidenoff, William Cohen and Frank Zarb. You can rest assured that Hank and his two sons will never do jail time for their crimes. Elliot Spitzer would not dare go that far. He knows he would end up dead and at the least, an outcast in the tight depraved community of NYC. As you will see again, we have two sets of laws in America, one for the rich connected elitists and one for the rest of us.
The New Hampshire state legislature will begin holding hearings on HB520, an act to reject the USA Patriot Act.
One of my intelligence contacts in NYC has contacted me and he was furious. It seems the Greenberg crime family is going to get a slap on the wrist for criminal activity by Elliot Spitzer without any prosecution or admission of wrongdoing. Their collusion with 8 other insurance companies, criminal enterprises, which defrauded investors of billions of dollars, will go virtually unpunished. Spitzer is essentially covering up crimes that are bigger than Enron and WorldCom. That makes Spitzer an accessory and culpable.
Hollinger International can proceed with a fraud lawsuit against former CEO Lord Conrad Black over allegations that he and other defendants looted the company. $425 million in damages is sought.
International investors bought US assets in January at the fastest pace in almost two years. They bought a new $91.5 billion in US Treasury notes, corporate bonds, stocks and other financial assets, up from $60.7 billion in December. This is the second highest purchase since $103.9 billion in May 2003. The dollar share of the world’s foreign-exchange reserves was 63.8% at the end of 2003; down from 66.9% two year’s earlier.
A recent government directed decision by a federal judge, Jack Weinstein, decided that the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, that caused birth defects, cancer and other health problems, was not a war crime. That decision now allows the US to freely use depleted uranium artillery shells in Iraq, even though they are banned by international covenants. This is the kind of justice we have come to expect from our judicial system. That is political justice controlled by the whims of the elitists. This certainly is not Democracy. This is what George Bush calls democracy.
The new bankruptcy bill analysis of contributions shows that senators who voted to pass the bill raised an average of nearly twice as much between 1999 and 2004 from the finance and credit industry as those who voted against the bill. This is called the purchase of legislation. The bill’s supporters received an average of $36,600 from the industry, while the opponents received $20,221. The 18 Democrats who voted to pass the bill raised an average of $51,200 versus $20,200 than the 25 Democrats who voted to reject it. The story on the Republican side is worse; some 71% of payoff funds went to Republicans. As you can see, legislation is for sale and you pay for it. If your representatives or senators voted for this bill reward them by kicking them out of office.
The SEC has filed a suit against Qwest officials for orchestrating a sweeping $3 billion accounting fraud. It just never ends. One thing you can count on from George and the neocons is that they consistently reward failure. Everything concerning his stay in office has been a failure and wait until he and his gang leaves, then you will really realize how badly he injured our nation. His latest piece of stupidity is the appointment of Defense Deputy Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank. Wolfowitz was among the most forceful of those in the administration on the issue of WMD and he was the genius who predicted that Americans would be welcomed as liberators rather than occupiers once they toppled Saddam’s government. He was not just wrong – he lied about everything. He was probably the biggest liar among the neocons. He is depicted as a conservative. If he is a conservative, then we are members of Attila the Hun’s cabinet. The neocons want to end the World Bank’s function of lending money and just give your tax dollars away. What else would you expect from international fascists?
Pentagon auditors said Halliburton might have overcharged the government by more than $100 million on a contract to deliver oil to Iraq. They charged $27.5 million to deliver $82,100 worth of liquefied petroleum gas.
What is the difference between a loan shark and a banker? Not much. The former uses hired thugs to enforce repayment from debtors; the latter employs our President and Congress.
We have never written about class warfare, but then again we have never had a fascist government run our country. Class warfare was always used by the left to characterize right of center governments. Unfortunately, these characters have put most everyone to their left.
The bankruptcy bill is truly a lesson in greed. Corporate America has bought our Congress and our President. These banks have seduced Americans with credit cards; giving cards to millions who do not have the ability to repay their debts. These poor souls face no cap interest rates, outrageous fees and rates that will keep borrowers in indentured servitude for decades. In fact, most will never reduce principal. They will just pay interest and fees until they are dead. The gutting of the bankruptcy law is an act of greed but just as important, it is in preparation for the coming depression. If you cannot pay your debts the banks take all your assets for $.05 on the dollar and what you still owe them can be worked off as indentured labor. We will have a truly Dickensian society. Our government has become the guardian angel of corporatist America. This legislation is one of a long-line of criminal acts by our government and corporate America. These elitists and repurchased politicals are backing Americans into a corner. You know what happens when people have no hope. There is revolution.
The President’s New Freedom Commission on mental health will soon be launched, that includes screening all students from K-1 to the 12th grade. The NFC recommendations are already being promoted in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Caroline, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, W. Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The program is a scheme to enrich drug companies who manufacture high-priced psychiatric drugs. In addition, medical leaders who control the medication plan, get kickbacks from the drug companies. These are drugs such as Paxil, Zyprexia, Adderall, Zoloft, Risperdal, Seroqual, Depokote, Prozac, Wellbutron, Zyban, Remeron, Serzone and Effexar. Part of the plan is to extend Medicaid to those who do not quality, to supply tax dollars to pay for the plan. Without this, NFC in 2002 had national sales of anti-psychotics of $6.2 billion. From 1999-2003 the number of children on this medication grew over 500%. Needless to say the drug manufacturers poured hundreds of millions of dollars into political campaigns. This is what the Bush crime family has planned for your children and grandchildren. If you do not allow the children to be drugged, they will be taken away from you. This is life in a modern fascist police state.
The Pentagon has been hiding a damaging report from its own auditors that Halliburton overcharged the government by $108.4 million in oil transactions in Iraq. Halliburton charged the Pentagon $27.5 million to ship $82,100 worth of cooking oil from Kuwait to Iraq. That is 335 times the actual cost. It just goes on and on and Congress does nothing about it. They are either paid off or compromised by their homosexual and pedophile activities.
We are no longer a government of laws. A good example is that of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He has been in military detention for a year without any charges being filed and without access to legal council. All of Saddam’s rights under the Geneva Convention have been trampled and that is because he is not recognized as a prisoner of war. In order to avoid shooting him or giving him prisoner of war status, the neocon government has skirted the laws and holds him incommunicado indefinitely. The case of Saddam is one of the most serious violations of human rights to take place in recent times. His lawyers have not been allowed to visit him in an appropriate manner, which allows the facilitation of his defense. War is War. If you take prisoners you abide by the rules. Can you imagine what is going to happen in the future when our boys and girls are taken prisoner?
Porter Goss, Director of the CIA, said his agency was not torturing people. If you believe that, we have a bridge for sale.