Thursday, March 31, 2011

More Fantasy-Jobs From U.S. 'Recovery'

Jeff Nielson
30 March 2011
It becomes more and more difficult to discuss U.S. employment "statistics", since an ever greater percentage of what is presented is simply total fabrication. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) might as well abbreviate its name to "Bureau of LieS", as none of the reports it produces bear any resemblance to the real world.

To this mountain of fiction we can now add the "ADP" monthly-payrolls report. This statistic is supposed to be beyond manipulation, as its data-stream comes directly from the payrolls of U.S. employers. However, look at "the fine print" and we will see that its report represents the data of less than 1/6th of total employment.

When their reporting excludes 85% of the U.S. economy, it obviously becomes very easy to "stack the deck". As an easy example: the U.S. is (still) embroiled in two (and now three?) "wars". With the biggest war-machine in the history of the world, certainly more than 1/6th of the U.S. economy is devoted to simply servicing that war-machine.

Thus all that ADP Employment Services needed to do to create a "U.S. economic recovery" is to focus its reporting on U.S. companies which derive a substantial part of their revenues from the U.S. military - a very long list. Having established that this data-stream could have easily been skewed to the point of total irrelevance, the question then becomes: is there evidence of such fabrication?

Fortunately, there remain a few niches of data reporting in the U.S. economy which have not yet been completely "sterilized" by the U.S. government's propaganda-machine. When such data is depicted in the form of long-term charts, those charts paint an irrefutable picture of an economy mired not merely in a "recession", but one which is clearly experiencing a depression.

Let's start with the one measurement of the U.S. unemployment rate which is still in the same ballpark as real-world numbers: the "U6" measurement.

First let's look at the overall level. Current U.S. unemployment is about 16% - nearly double what the U.S. government pretends it to be. Note the tiny improvement from the worst level. The roughly 1% decline in this rate takes it back to where it was when the U.S. government claimed that the U.S. economy had "hit bottom".

Let me reiterate this: after two years of a supposed "economic recovery", even using the U.S. government's own data, we see that the unemployment rate has merely equaled the rate at the "bottom" of the so-called recession. Two years of supposed "job creation" has brought the U.S. economy to the same point it was at the so-called "bottom". Using the U.S. government's own data, there clearly never was a "recovery".

Let's move on to a few more pictures on U.S. employment/unemployment. If we look at "long-term unemployment" in the U.S., we see a chart much like the "U6" unemployment rate.

After two years of a supposed "economic recovery", we see U.S. long-term unemployment much, much worse than at any time since the Great Depression - and no indication of any "recovery".

Equally revealing is a chart on the employment "participation rate" among the U.S. population. As with all Western countries, we see a large climb in this figure which began moving significantly higher in the 1970's, reflecting the integration of large numbers of female workers into our economies.

As with many U.S. economic charts, this one "fell off a cliff" when the U.S. Greater Depression began in 2008, and despite two years of an "economic recovery", there has been absolutely no recovery. Participation rates have reverted to what was seen in the U.S. prior to the massive increase in female employment. The U.S. now has both genders wanting to work in an economy which is only supplying enough jobs for one gender.

The last of these employment charts shows the massive spike in the payment of unemployment benefits. Again we see a chart which duplicates the pattern seen in the other charts, but which is derived from a totally separate data-stream. The modest "improvement" here is derived solely from the expiration of benefits, and not from rising employment levels - and even after this "improvement", payment levels are worse than at any time in the U.S. in recorded history.

The only conclusion which can be drawn from the clear picture presented in these charts is that there has never been any "U.S. economic recovery", meaning that the ADP payroll-reports have become nothing but totally fictitious government propaganda (much like the BLS B.S.).

Naturally there will remain a large number of trusting 'sheep' out there, who steadfastly believe that their government would never lie to them, and thus are convinced I must be "cherry picking" my numbers in some sort of devious manner. My apologies to readers who have already seen the following chart a few times, but it provides the clearest picture of all.

As I pointed out previously, the tiny little "blip" indicates roughly when the U.S. government claims that the U.S. economy bottomed, while the steady climb in food stamp-usage since that time reflects the supposed "economic recovery". As with all of the employment charts, it is obvious that such a recovery never took place.

Like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", the U.S. government has been lying about its employment data so much for so long, that even in the unlikely event that the U.S. economy did actually begin to produce positive employment gains, it's unlikely that any thinking adult will believe it.

The U.S. economy is mired in a worsening depression. Yet what is even more depressing is that the only "solution" which the U.S. government has come up with to deal with this economic catastrophe is to tell larger and larger lies. As the chart on food stamps clearly demonstrates, those lies are not putting food on the table for Americans.


Jeff Nielson

www.bullionbullscanada.com

How and Why The Elite Destroyed 3 Tons of Silver Last Week

By Silver Shield, on March 30th, 2011

I wrote a month ago in an article called Silver Bullet and the Silver Shield, that silver is a vital commodity to our way of life. I stated that silver is a precious metal that is being trashed as an industrial metal. As a result, it is within years of becoming the first metal to become extinct according to the USGS. At some point the shortage is going to become so obvious, that people are going to rush to turn in their depreciating dollars for real silver money. That is just the monetary demand of silver, the industrial and strategic demand is another huge factor we should consider.

Corporations are going to secure stockpiles of this precious commodity so as not to cause any supply disruptions in their billion dollar a year operation. Take for example the $300+ billion Apple Computer. Apple Computer’s market cap rests upon the increased sales and production of computers. If every one of their $1,500 computers has a 1/10th of an ounce of silver in it, they will spare no expense to secure silver when it becomes hard to get.

The strategic demand is even more daunting. It has been about a week since the Empire attacked the Galactic Rebels in the desert world of Libya. Reports have already surfaced about the obscene costs of this “Kinetic Military Action.” In less than a week, this war has already cost Americans $600 million dollars. That is about $100 million a day for this “Action.” It is far cry from the estimated daily price tag of the $300 million a day Afghan war or the $700 million a day Iraq war.

Almost half of the cost ($269 million) has come from the 191 Tomahawk missiles that have been launched into Libya. I think it is extremely interesting to know that each Tomahawk has more than a monster box (500 oz.) of silver inside of each missile. Pure silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all metals. When there is a $1.5 million dollar missile is being produced to secure more oil for the Empire, the Elite will use only the best materials to ensure the best performing results.

So far the US has thrown 3 tons of silver at Libya just with the Tomahawk missiles. That silver is gone forever as it is blown to a million pieces. (Never mind the poor bastards at the at the other end of missile’s target.) If we added the 191 Tomahawks from this “Kinetic Military Action” to the 288 from Gulf War 1, the 325 used in Sebia and Iraq in 98, and the 725 launched in Gulf War 2 that is just over 800,000 ounces of silver or 25 tons of silver gone forever.

That is just from the Tomahawk missile program. What about all of the other weapons programs in the Empire’s trillion dollar a year arsenal? Every smart bomb, tank, helicopter, fighter jet, bomber, naval vessel, and sophisticated electronic computer has a certain amount of silver in it. As the world starts to become a more dangerous place for the Empire, more and more silver will be destroyed forever.

One aspect of this waste that most people don’t get, is that all of this waste is done purposefully by the Elite. War is the greatest way to destroy the productive energy of humanity. The Elite want to keep us in a perpetual state of war for many reasons....read on

The Madness of a Lost Society 2: Final Warnings


Mike Maloney - Physical Precious Metals vs Precious Metal Mining Stocks


Jim Cramer the world's most famous Paper Bug buys Physical Silver


Third Largest Producer Of Silver Says Production Is Now "Totally Paralyzed" Following Week-Long Strike

From Zero Hedge:

In news that should move the precious metals market, we learn that the world's third largest producer of silver (as well as zinc and lead) has announced its production is now totally paralyzed. From Reuters: "A week-old strike at Bolivia's San Cristobal mine has totally paralyzed production and exports of silver, zinc and lead, a union leader said on Wednesday. San Cristobal is the world's third-largest producer of silver and the sixth-largest producer of zinc, according to Japan's Sumitomo Corp, which owns the mine." For those who recall basic central planning economics this means that silver should plunge immediately, and should react even more adversely on news that crude supplies in the US are surging. After all, oil supply demand is far more critical to silver price discovery than the actual supply of a metal that unlike gold, is used in various industrial and peacebringing applications (see Operation Odyssey Dawn).

Gold through $1,500 by year end as key drivers remain in place


GFMS CEO , Paul Walker discusses the Gold market with Mineweb's Geoff Candy.....listen here

Conversations with Doug Casey


Buying Silver and Avoiding the Sharks

From The Mogambo Guru:

I keep pounding, pounding, pounding the table that silver is the biggest bargain out there, for, at last count, a jillion reasons, and that anybody who does not buy silver Right Freaking Now (RFN) is making the mistake of a lifetime, and the family is all, like, “Will you please stop pounding the table? It is irritating and is making things spill, aside from the fact that we don’t have any money with which to buy silver, and you know that!” which devolved into a lengthy discussion about who among them was the most irritated with me and everything I say or do.

So, to make these idiots happy, I stopped pounding, losing a lot of my spark of emphasis in the process. It just wasn’t the same, and my breakfast cereal was getting soggy, too, so without using my trademark pounding to buttress my arguments, I decided to just let Jason Hommel, of the Silver Stock Report newsletter, highlight my “Buy silver or you are a moron!” theme with notices of a few serious delivery problems in the silver market, indicating shortages, to which he surmises that “the futures market is about to default on silver and gold deliveries. There is a growing market awareness that the banks have sold short over $200 billion to $400 billion in silver, while all the world’s silver mines only produce about $30 billion of silver annually.”

The lesson seems to be that there is shark-infested water everywhere, and “Market participants are now taking on the cornered banks, putting them into an epic short squeeze of having to deliver silver that does not exist in quantity even remotely compared to the amount of money that exists that can buy silver.”

Now, as a cynical, paranoid ordinary trader/investor kind of guy who has been around long enough to have been eaten by financial sharks a few times, I am sure that they exist, and even today, baby sharks nibble at me, eating me, bite by bite, taking 1.5% of assets in fees and expenses every freaking year!

On the other hand, I never thought that I could be on the side of the sharks, and prove that “what goes around comes around” to my advantage, for a change!

And the good news from a “buy silver and prosper from inflation, Pilgrim!” standpoint, inflation and money-inspired growth ain’t a-gonna stop, neither, as I was reading a Bloomberg.com article that brought up the Federal Reserve perhaps ending their long series of monetary stimulus programs one day soon.

It ain’t a-gonna be, because but “While the Fed hasn’t committed to the specific methods it will use to exit, or in what order, it has been releasing details about its progress in building new programs and expanding its ability to drain reserves.”

Making a little joke of this, I note that this is, of course, akin to the fire department buying fire extinguishers instead of putting out the fire, so that in the future, if they do decide to put out the fire, they will be able to put out the fire! Hahaha!

Of course, I know this is not a fair analogy, and it’s not very funny, either, despite my pathetic use of “Hahaha!” to try and convince you otherwise.

To try to correct that serious shortcoming, and to perhaps make it more apt, let me expand to say that first the volunteer firefighters would have to set a lot of houses on fire so that there would be both a demand for a permanent fire department paying high incomes to full-time employees, and there would be a big need for new housing to replace all the charred rubble, both seemingly stimulating the economy, but, alas, as the Austrian School of economics shows, not, although they end up accumulating a lot of fire extinguishers.

Okay, I can see that it’s more apt, but still not funny, and getting un-funnier all the time, a deplorable condition that will undoubtedly be made worse when I continue to expand the analogy to the corrupt city council counterfeiting money to pay the firefighters and themselves, and pay for that spiffy new firehouse and City Hall, and pay for all that shiny new government gear and programs, thus creating a continual addition of money to the economy that drives prices up, drives the riffraff like me out, and drives the economy into the toilet.

With a start, I recoiled in horror, showing what a wussy coward I am about inflation, as the analogy became all too frightening when it included the inflation in prices that an inflation in the money supply brings!

That was, however, not the actual part that made my eyes open wide and the skin on my head draw back in fear, although I must warn you that it doesn’t look that way when it happens, as I ruefully noted when the kids said to each other “Hey, look! Dad’s ears are wiggling!”

This, of course, started the predictable domino effect from, “Why do you need ears when you never hear anything we say?”, to “We keep saying that we need you to give us more money!”, to “You’re a cheap, horrible person!”, to “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!”

No, the part that really, really REALLY scared me was when the Journal followed that up with the sentence “This includes increasing the number of its counterparties.” Gaaaahhhh!

It’s the idea of derivatives all over again! “Spreading the risk”! Yikes! Run for it! We’re Freaking Doomed (WFD)!

If you are NOT running in fear, then you are either stupid (and thus you cannot learn that you should be buying gold and silver when the Federal Reserve is creating so monstrously much money) or it means that you are smart (and thus you already have a lot of gold and silver).

It’s just that easy to distinguish between the two! Whee!