03 Economy – Page 101 – Public Intelligence Blog

Narcotics: Business of Western wars

“Heroin trafficking is the lubrication that keeps the wheels of Western politics moving as intended.”

It was only a week ago that the US government released Eric Harroun, a former soldier who had been fighting with foreign backed al-Qaeda terrorists and the CIA against the Assad government in Syria.

This week, former Army sergeant Joseph Hunter and a group of other veterans, one from Germany’s armed forces, were arrested for much the same thing, offering “security services” for Colombian drug cartels.

Were worldwide press censorship to ease, the public would learn that America’s drone program is used more for maintaining control of drug production and distribution than terrorism. In fact, according to Russian officials, heroin from Afghanistan, all produced and exported under unspoken but very public approval of US officials, killed over one million people last year.

Continue reading “Gordon Duff: Are the Mormons in Charge of America's Drug Empire? Is NSA Part of Their Power Base?”

2013/10/022013/10/02

Paul Craig Roberts: The Real Crisis is Not the Government Shutdown, But Rather the Lack of Intelligence with Integrity Across US Society

03 Economy, 04 Education, 11 Society, Commercial Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, IO Impotency, Officers Call

The Real Crisis Is Not The Government Shutdown

The inability of the media and politicians to focus on the real issues never ceases to amaze.

The real crisis is not the “debt ceiling crisis.” The government shutdown is merely a result of the Republicans using the debt limit ceiling to attempt to block the implementation of Obamacare. If the shutdown persists and becomes a problem, Obama has enough power under the various “war on terror” rulings to declare a national emergency and raise the debt ceiling by executive order. An executive branch that has the power to inter citizens indefinitely and to murder them without due process of law, can certainly set aside a ceiling on debt that jeopardizes the government.

The real crisis is that jobs offshoring by US corporations has permanently lowered US tax revenues by shifting what would have been consumer income, US GDP, and tax base to China, India, and other countries where wages and the cost of living are relatively low. On the spending side, twelve years of wars have inflated annual expenditures. The consequence is a wide deficit gap between revenues and expenditures.

Under the present circumstances, the deficit is too large to be closed. The Federal Reserve covers the deficit by printing $1,000 billion annually with which to purchase Treasury debt and mortgage-backed financial instruments. The use of the printing press on such a large scale undermines the US dollar’s role as reserve currency, the basis for US power. Raising the debt limit simply allows the real crisis to continue. More money will be printed with which to purchase more new debt issues needed to close the gap between revenues and expenditures.

The supply of dollars or dollar denominated assets in foreign hands is vast. (The Social Security system’s large surplus accumulated over a quarter century was borrowed by the Treasury and spent. In its place are non-marketable Treasury IOUs. Consequently, Social Security is one of the largest creditors to the US government.)

If foreigners lose confidence in the dollar, the drop in the dollar’s exchange value would mean high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s loss of control over interest rates. It is possible that a drop in the dollar’s exchange value could initiate hyperinflation in the US.

The real crisis is the absence of intelligence among economists and policymakers who told us for 20 years not to worry about the offshoring of US jobs, because we were going to have a “New Economy” with better jobs.

Continue reading “Paul Craig Roberts: The Real Crisis is Not the Government Shutdown, But Rather the Lack of Intelligence with Integrity Across US Society”

2013/10/022013/10/02

Berto Jongman: NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake Addresses European Parliament on the American Surveillance State + NSA Role in Global Assassination Program

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call

NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake Addresses European Parliament on the American Surveillance State

by Government Accountability Project on September 30, 2013 ( The Whistleblogger / 2013 )

Earlier today, former National Security Agency (NSA) Senior Executive Thomas Drake addressed a special Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) created by the European Parliament to investigate spying efforts by the United States and EU countries. Addressing specially-appointed Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), Drake spoke as a former NSA crypto-linguist who witnessed what he describes as a “persistent surveillance state” that was “born during the first few critical weeks and months following 9/11.”

TomD

Drake's testimony can be read and viewed here

Drake, a whistleblower, was the subject of a federal criminal leak investigation and faced a potential 35 years under a 10-felony count indictment, including five counts under the Espionage Act. In 2011, the federal government dropped all charges against Drake.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake Addresses European Parliament on the American Surveillance State + NSA Role in Global Assassination Program”

2013/09/29

Owl: Don’t Eat or Buy Radiated Products from Japan?

03 Economy, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation

Don't Eat the Fish or Buy Items from Japan

These reports are evidence of the beginnings of what will be a nuclear and sure to be, economic meltdown in Japan. Other foodstuffs and electronics or factory items – Toyotas, Nissans? – will accumulate nuclear residues to a degree which will force other import bans on items of all kinds from Japan.

“Concerns over Japan’s radioactive contamination and its seafood is spreading to most countries in the Pacific basin. The United States has recently banned agricultural and fishery imports from 14 prefectures in Japan, up from eight. South Korea puts a similar ban on fishery imports from eight prefectures, while China and Taiwan does so for 10 and five prefectures, respectively. FDA Import Alert: U.S. bans agricultural and fishery products from 14 prefectures in Japan due to Fukushima radionuclides — Top Newspaper: Concern over contamination is spreading to most countries around the Pacific.”

US begins to ban japanese agricultural and fisheries products

2013/09/24

4th Media: 80 Percent of U.S. Adults Face Near-Poverty, Unemployment

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government

80 Percent of U.S. Adults Face Near-Poverty, Unemployment

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.

Read full article.

2013/09/232013/09/23

Paul Craig Roberts: The War on the Poor

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

Guest Column — The War On The Poor — Jeffrey St. Clair & Alexander Cockburn

The American poor are being driven into the ground. Not only is owning a home out of the question, but also the poor can’t even afford to rent. They lack the money for a damage deposit, and they lack the cash for the large deposits that utility companies require in order to have utilities connected.

The declining ability of the poor to rent is adversely affecting those who provide rental shelter to the poor.

For the dispossessed middle class, foreclosure on a home is often just the beginning of trouble. If, for example, a bank forecloses on a home with a $200,000 mortgage and sells the house for $100,000, under some circumstances the IRS treats the $100,000 difference as income to the foreclosed homeowner and requires the bank to issue a 1099 form to the homeowner showing taxable income of $100,000. http://www.irs.gov/uac/Home-Foreclosure-and-Debt-Cancellation

Alternatively, if the sale does not cover the mortgage, the bank can come after other property that the foreclosed homeowner might possess, such as a second home, car, work equipment, checking account balance. For example, a construction subcontractor who loses his home and moves his family into the office or construction trailer on the lot where he keeps the backhoe loader and work truck can find himself dispossessed of these assets in order to apply the proceeds to the difference between his mortgage and the price at which the bank sells his foreclosed home.

Americans who have not been personally affected by foreclosure have little idea how the system is rigged in favor of the banks that caused the problem and against the victims of financial deregulation.

In the article below, Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn show that the assault on the poor began with the Clinton administration.

Continue reading “Paul Craig Roberts: The War on the Poor”

2013/09/182013/09/18

SwartzReport: 46.5 Millions US Citizens Living in Poverty

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 11 Society

15% of Americans Living in Poverty

STEVE HARGREAVES – CNN Money This is not sustainable, it is creating a permanent underclass. Social unrest and the corruption of democracy must follow inevitably.

Years after the Great Recession ended, 46.5 million Americans are still living in poverty, according to a Census Bureau report released Tuesday.Meanwhile, median household income fell slightly to $51,017 a year in 2012, down from $51,100 in 2011 — a change the Census Bureau does not consider statistically significant.

But taking a wider view reveals a larger problem: income has tumbled since the recession hit, and is still 8.3% below where it was in 2007.

“We've had [economic] growth, but it hasn't really reached everyday Americans,” said Elise Gould, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “It's a lost decade, maybe more.”

This long-term decline in income is troubling to economists, especially as the middle and lower classes have fared considerably worse than the rich. Since 1967, Americans right in the middle of the income curve have seen their earnings rise 19%, while those in the top 5% have seen a 67% gain. Rising inequality is seldom a sign of good social stability.

Americans were the richest in 1999, when median household income was $56,080, adjusted for inflation.

Who is earning the most: Young people continued to struggle last year, with those under the age of 35 seeing slight drops in income while those 35 and made some gains.

Women made 77% of what men made, unchanged from the year before but up from 61% in 1960. Over one million men found full time work last year, as the economy recovered. Some have dubbed the most recent recession the “mancession,” as large numbers of men have left the workforce.

Asians had the highest household income ($68,600), followed by whites ($57,000), Hispanics ($39,000) and blacks ($33,300).

How the poorest are faring: The recession also pushed many more people into poverty. In 2010, the poverty rate peaked at 15.1%, and has barely fallen since then. This is the first time the poverty rate has remained at or above 15% three years running since 1965.

Those making $23,492 a year for a family of four, or $11,720 for an individual were considered to be living in poverty.

While the ranks of the poor are still elevated from the recession, overall poverty is remains far below the 22.4% it was at in 1959 when the Census first began tracking the data. Over the last 25 years, the poverty rate has averaged just over 13%.

Why is the U.S.A. so unequal?

The official poverty rate reported Tuesday does not include things like government benefits and the effects of medical and work expenses on the cost of living. It is also not adjusted for regional differences in housing costs.

The Census Bureau puts out another poverty index later this year that takes those things into account and is considered a more accurate measure. Last year, that separate measure put the poverty rate at 16.1%.

Category: 03 Economy

Gordon Duff: Are the Mormons in Charge of America’s Drug Empire? Is NSA Part of Their Power Base?