Where Will You Be In 15 Years?

Well, you see the stock market rising and think everything is hunky dorie. The "problems" in Europe with that, uh, Greek crisis has been averted. Oil has stabilized somewhat, albeit at $106 a barrel. We here in America have made it. Soon the banks will be lending again and unemployment will continue to decrease.

If you really believe all that crap, well you better wake up to reality. The stock market is rising, although on low volumes. This most likely has happened due to the governments pumping of the system. If you have read any of my former posts, than you know that the EU is anything but out of trouble. Oil is only stabilized until the Arab countries decide we have accepted $4 per gallon gas then it will go up again. So then, who do we believe? Well how about the CBO (Congressional Budget Office). They are the people that look at the President's budget and make projections. They are supposed to be non-biased and look at the real numbers being proposed and make their analysis. Take seven minutes and watch this. This will make you feel just warm and fuzzy inside.

Greece Debt Crisis....Don't Think It Is Over

The main stream media wants to make you believe that the Greek debt crisis is over, but don't do it. It is far from over. Spain, Portugal and Ireland are sitting on the sidelines waiting to get in line for some bailout money as well. Here is the timeline of what has been happening in Greece.

January-March 2010 - First, Greece was claiming they didn't need a bailout as all was fine.

April 2010 - Greece reconsiders and starts asking for a bailout. It is funny what a few months brings.

May 2010 - First bailout

January-February 2011 - Oops, Greece cannot make payments on first bailout and asks for extension.

May 2011 - Double oops, Greece worse off than anyone thought (or talked about publicly) and asks for another payment extension.

July-October 2011 - Greece begins spilling the beans and everyone now sees that they are worse off than anyone anticipated and discussions begin on a second bailout...ouch.

February 2012 - Greece gets a second bailout, and if I'm not mistaken they claim it is all they will need.

March 2012 - Talks begin about a THIRD bailout.

Tensions are getting heated up in the Euro-zone. You see, if Greece tumbles, the whole Euro is in jeopardy. If you don't believe that this could happen, then why is Germany making Deutschmarks. They are expecting, and preparing for a Euro collapse and want to have an escape plan.

Watch this and hear what is happening...



 If you don't think a default from another country will affect us here in America, you are mistaken. Prepare now.

Pink Slime

Think about this for a while...something to chew on (pun intended).

Soldiers Tribute

Enough said. Thanks to our troops and may you be safe as you protect America!

WTF? Only In America!

Wow, is all I have to say....

What Do We Have Here?

We heard the other day that a volunteer team of cold case posse for Sheriff Arpaio has suggested that the birth certificate for Barack Obama is fake. Take a few minutes and review the information yourself and make your own conclusion.


Here are the videos from TeaPartyPowerHour And if you would like to watch the entire news conference with Sheriff Arpaio...

First Amendment Rights Diminishing

Read this carefully, as you may be caught in a web that you may not even see. This will be a federal offense. Now, I am not for threatening anyone of our elected officials and believe in peaceful protests, so this is (as I see it) an infringement on our First Amendment. Which courts will see peaceful protesting a disruptive activity? If a handful of people truly are disruptive then will ALL the protesters be part of "the disruptive crowd"? Think about the effects of this bill.

Here are some highlights from the article linked above.

House Passes Bill That Will Make Protesting Illegal at Secret Service Covered Events 

"The US House of Representatives voted 388-to-3 in favor of H.R. 347 late Monday, a bill which is being dubbed the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011."  

You have to love the names they give these bills. It should be, First Amendment Diminished Act of 2012.

"Under the act, the government is also given the power to bring charges against Americans engaged in political protest anywhere in the country." 

"Under H.R. 347, a federal law will formally be applied to such instances, but will also allow the government to bring charges to protesters, demonstrators and activists at political events and other outings across America." 

"Covered under the bill is any person protected by the Secret Service. Although such protection isn’t extended to just everybody, making it a federal offense to even accidentally disrupt an event attended by a person with such status essentially crushes whatever currently remains of the right to assemble and peacefully protest." 

"While presidential inaugurations and meeting of foreign dignitaries are awarded the title, nearly three dozen events in all have been considered a National Special Security Event (NSSE) since the term was created under President Clinton. Among past events on the DHS-sanctioned NSSE list are Super Bowl XXXVI, the funerals of Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, most State of the Union addresses and the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions...." Are you planning on protesting the 2012 Democratic or Republican National Conventions? If so, you may want to see if they are or have been deemed a NSSE.


"When thousands of protesters are expected to descend on Chicago this spring for the 2012 G8 and NATO summits, they will also be approaching the grounds of a National Special Security Event. That means disruptive activity, to whichever court has to consider it, will be a federal offense under the act.
And don’t forget if you intend on fighting such charges, you might not be able to rely on evidence of your own. In the state of Illinois, videotaping the police, under current law, brings criminals charges. 

Don’t fret. It’s not like the country will really try to enforce it — right?"

Got Inflation?

The official government inflation rate is right at 3%, but those of us that actually pay attention to the prices we pay, OR, the size of the packages know the inflation rate is much higher. According to American Institute for Economic Research the prices we pay are up some 8 percent! We have seen the price of gas continue to rise and in fact it was only $1.84 per gallon when Obama took office in January 2009. We have seen many food items rise as well, but the government still tells us that inflation is only about 3%. What they don't tell you is that they stopped including food and energy prices into the equation when figuring out the "official" government inflation rate.

Well, I don't know about you, but I use fuel and food EVERY DAY! It has a major impact on my life as I travel about 80 miles per day. My vehicle averages about 30mpg, thank God, but going from $1.84 per gallon a mere 3 years ago to $3.79 per gallon now means that I pay an extra $1.95 per gallon more. To me, this means an extra $5.20 per day, or $26.00 per week. Now this doesn't sound like much, but continue to follow this out...$104 per month (4 weeks) and $1352 per year. And this is only fuel and only one vehicle in my household (my other vehicle is an 8 cylinder pick-up truck). The cost of food has gone up as the delivery trucks use fuel and the power plant uses fuel and the stores use the power coming from the power plant. Get where I'm going? Just the fuel prices trickle down to many sectors of consumer goods.

Inflation is here and it will get worse. Prepare for it.

Got Cash?

DAVID STOCKMAN: You'd Be A Fool To Hold Anything But Cash Now

For those that do not know David Stockman, he was an architect of one of the biggest tax cuts in U.S. history.

Here is some text from the article linked above. (emphasis added)

Q: Why are you so down on the U.S. economy?
 A: It's become super-saturated with debt.
Typically the private and public sectors would borrow $1.50 or $1.60 each year for every $1 of GDP growth. That was the golden constant. It had been at that ratio for 100 years save for some minor squiggles during the bottom of the Depression. By the time we got to the mid-'90s, we were borrowing $3 for every $1 of GDP growth. And by the time we got to the peak in 2006 or 2007, we were actually taking on $6 of new debt to grind out $1 of new GDP.
People were taking $25,000, $50,000 out of their home for the fourth refinancing. That's what was keeping the economy going, creating jobs in restaurants, creating jobs in retail, creating jobs as gardeners, creating jobs as Pilates instructors that were not supportable with organic earnings and income.
It wasn't sustainable. It wasn't real consumption or real income. It was bubble economics.
So even the 1.6 percent (annual GDP growth in the past decade) is overstating what's really going on in our economy.

Q: How fast can the U.S. economy grow?
 A: People would say the standard is 3, 3.5 percent. I don't even know if we could grow at 1 or 2 percent. When you have to stop borrowing at these tremendous rates, the rate of GDP expansion stops as well.

Q: How does it end?
 A: At some point confidence is lost, and people don't want to own the (Treasury) paper. I mean why in the world, when the inflation rate has been 2.5 percent for the last 15 years, would you want to own a five-year note today at 80 basis points (0.8 percent)?
If the central banks ever stop buying, or actually begin to reduce their totally bloated, abnormal, freakishly large balance sheets, all of these speculators are going to sell their bonds in a heartbeat.
That's what happened in Greece.
Here's the heart of the matter. The Fed is a patsy. It is a pathetic dependent of the big Wall Street banks, traders and hedge funds. Everything (it does) is designed to keep this rickety structure from unwinding. If you had a (former Fed Chairman) Paul Volcker running the Fed today 7/8— utterly fearless and independent and willing to scare the hell out of the market any day of the week — you wouldn't have half, you wouldn't have 95 percent, of the speculative positions today.

Q: You sound as if we're facing a financial crisis like the one that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
 A: Oh, far worse than Lehman. When the real margin call in the great beyond arrives, the carnage will be unimaginable.

Q: How do investors protect themselves? What about the stock market?
 A: I wouldn't touch the stock market with a 100-foot pole. It's a dangerous place. It's not safe for men, women or children.

Q: Do you own any shares?
 A: No.

Q: But the stock market is trading cheap by some measures. It's valued at 12.5 times expected earnings this year. The typical multiple is 15 times.
 A: The typical multiple is based on a historic period when the economy could grow at a standard rate. The idea that you can capitalize this market at a rate that was safe to capitalize it in 1990 or 1970 or 1955 is a large mistake. It's a Wall Street sales pitch.

Q: Are you in short-term Treasurys?
 A: I'm just in short-term, yeah. Call it cash. I have some gold. I'm not going to take any risk
.
Q: Municipal bonds?
 A: No.

Q: No munis, no stocks. Wow. You're not making any money.
 A: Capital preservation is what your first, second and third priority ought to be in a system that is so jerry-built, so fragile, so exposed to major breakdown that it's not worth what you think you might be able to earn over six months or two years or three years if they can keep the bailing wire and bubble gum holding the system together, OK? It's not worth it.

Q: Give me your prescription to fix the economy.
 A: We have to eat our broccoli for a good period of time. And that means our taxes are going to go up on everybody, not just the rich. It means that we have to stop subsidizing debt by getting a sane set of people back in charge of the Fed, getting interest rates back to some kind of level that reflects the risk of holding debt over time. I think the federal funds rate ought to be 3 percent or 4 percent. (It is zero to 0.25 percent.) I mean, that's normal in an economy with inflation at 2 percent or 3 percent.

Q: Are you hopeful?
 A: No. 

Nuff said? 

Precious Metals Update

There are reports that Silver could bounce to $70 within 90 days. I don't know if this is true or not, but I am still bullish on Precious Metals and still invest in silver. With the U.S. Debt near $16 trillion, I feel there is only limited time before interest rates will increase and we will tumble. When interest rates climb, so does the debt payments the U.S. has to pay. This will be a tipping point. Prepare now.