Paul Craig Roberts: Recovery or Collapse? I’m Betting Collapse

Recovery or Collapse? Bet on Collapse May 20, 2012 The US financial system and, probably, the financial system of Europe, like the police, no longer serves a useful social purpose. In the US the police have proven themselves to be a greater threat to public safety than private sector criminals. I just googled “police brutality” …

Top Atlee: Final Words from Ernest Callenbach the Author of Ecotopia & Ecotopia Emerging

Dear friends, Ernest Callenbach’s ECOTOPIA and its prequel ECOTOPIA EMERGING were major books in my developing thinking about how a sustainable society might evolve.  ECOTOPIA, the more famous of the two, provides Callenbach’s overall vision of what might be possible.  ECOTOPIA EMERGING – with far better characterization and more compelling plot – tells the story …

David Stockman: Emperor Naked, Bond Market Explodes Next

The Emperor is Naked: David Stockman Testosterone Pit, May 9, 2012 Contributed by Karen Roche and JT Long of The Gold Report. A “paralyzed” Federal Reserve Bank, in its “final days,” held hostage by Wall Street “robots” trading in markets that are “artificially medicated” are just a few of the bleak observations shared by David Stockman, former Republican …

NIGHTWATCH: France-Greece Shock Bankers Into Reality

Europe: For the record. German Chancellor Merkel and the European Council have changed in the last 48 hours from emphasizing austerity and the importance of adhering to agreements and goals to focusing on growth. The two economic ideas are not mutually exclusive. Nevertheless, the growth has not been discussed in connection with south European sovereign …

Josh Kilbourn: US Disability & Food Stamp Welfare Skyrocketing

Two Charts Exposing America’s Record Shadow Welfare State Here was a little mentioned tangent to last Friday’s very disappointing NFP print of +115,000 (driven by a surge in temp jobs offsetting a collapse in full time positions): as David Rosenberg notes, the jobs number was about half of another far more important number – that …