Right to farm being stripped from Americans: Michigan to criminalize small family farms with chickens, goats, honey bees and more

May 02, 2014
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Source: Natural News

 NaturalNews) In the latest stunning assault on Americans' right to grow their own food, the freedom-crushing state of Michigan has ruled that local governments (cities, towns, counties) can now ban any animal they wish from small residential farms. The move opens the door to the mass criminalization of backyard farms and small, residential farming operations where people might keep a few goats or honey bees for food security.

According to Michigan Public Radio (1), the ruling could ban all chickens, goats, honey bees and other animals from farms which have another residential house less than 250 feet away.

Off The Grid News(2) goes on to report:

Some homesteaders in Michigan could find themselves in a complete regulatory limbo because of the Commission's action. Blogger, writer and organic farmer Michelle Regalado Deatrick does not know if she'll be able to keep her livestock, because about half of her 80-acre farm may not be zoned for farm animals.

"We're building up a mixed production farm, planning to farm during retirement, and we have a permit in hand for a livestock facility," Deatrick said, "...Now we're having to reconsider our business plans and may sell the farm and buy a farm in a more rural area with definite [Right To Farm] protection, or move to another state that's more welcoming and protective of small farm rights."

Michigan DNR previously ordered small local farmer to shoot his own pigs

Michigan is the same state where the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) ordered one small, local farmer to shoot all his pigs because they were the wrong "race" of pigs. This genocidal demand by the Michigan state government echoes a tyrannical anti-farming agenda at the highest levels of state government.

Michigan is also the state where Julie Bass of Oak Park was threatened with jail time for teaching her children how to grow vegetables in their own home garden. All charges against Julie were later dropped after Natural News and other independent news sources publicly shamed Oak Park bureaucrats into backing down.

Nationwide, people who attempt to grow their own food are routinely threatened with arrest and fines. One woman in Oklahoma suffered the complete destruction of her medicinal herb landscaping by local city officials who raided her home garden while she was away.

The war against small farms is an attack against America

This obscene war against small farms is an attack against America herself. Our heritage, values, and culture are forever interwtined with small local farms.

Attacks against small local farms are also attacks on America's food security. Local, independent food production provides a buffer against systemic food failures that might occur, for example, after an EMP attack causes a national power grid blackout. Without power, centralized systems of food production, harvesting, transportation and retailing cannot function. But small, local farms can still produce food without electricity. So any attack against local farming is, in essense, an attack on America's national security.

And no state seems to be more determined to undermine America's national food security than Michigan, where state leaders appear to be even more insane than the leaders of Illinois.

Natural News urges farmers everywhere to fight back against this insanity and stand up for your divine right to produce your own food on your own property. Any government "authority" that attempts to take this right away from you is no authority at all: it is a tyranny.

With food prices already skyrocketing nationwide, and food security on the brink of systemic failures, only a government run by absolute fools would try to limit local food production. Perhaps when these bureaucrats are all starving one day, they can eat their regulations.

Sources for this article include:
(1) http://michiganradio.org/post/state-agricult...
(2) http://www.offthegridnews.com/2014/05/02/mic...

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/044965_family_farms_food_security_Michigan_government.html#ixzz3FCW6lXz3

California egg law, pro-chicken, is unfair to Missouri farmers, lawsuit alleges

February 5, 2014
By Patrik Jonsson
Christian Science Monitor
Source: Yahoo News

Is California forcing its concerns about animal welfare onto heartland states, via its recent law mandating that eggs sold within its borders must be laid by chickens who live somewhere other than in the small “factory” cages from whence most Americans get their sunny-side-ups?

That’s one question at the heart of a state-versus-state lawsuit filed Monday by Missouri's attorney general, Chris Koster, whose state sells millions of eggs to California every year.

Missouri filed the lawsuit in federal court when it became clear that the new US farm bill would not include an amendment to clip California’s aspirations to force other states to adopt what it sees as more animal-friendly farm practices. Congress finally approved the farm bill on Tuesday, after months of tumultuous negotiations.

Mr. Koster argues that California’s egg law, which the state legislature passed in 2010 to boost a popular 2008 ballot initiative that required all California egg producers to keep their chickens in larger cages, violates the US Constitution’s interstate commerce clause, which is designed to establish a level playing field for all states when it comes to selling goods across state borders.

The suit comes amid mounting complaints about California and what critics say is its outsize effect on agriculture policy beyond its own borders. The state has approved 358 new farm regulations in recent years, and some food producers around the country argue that it is in effect supplanting the federal role in setting farm policies.

Missouri echoes that idea in its lawsuit. If California is allowed to mandate that only certain eggs can be sold in the state, it “may just as easily demand that Missouri soybeans be harvested by hand or that Missouri corn be transported by solar-powered trucks,” Koster argues in the complaint.

California gave in-state producers several years to buy new, larger cages, an advantage not extended to Missouri and other states that ship eggs to the Golden State, Koster notes. The California egg law is set to take effect next year. 

Missouri officials say the new coops will cost Missouri producers $120 million and will raise their production costs by 20 percent. Missouri chicken farmers currently sell one-third of their annual yield of 1.7 billion eggs to destinations in California. The average American eats 247 eggs a year.

Rep. Steve King (R) of Iowa, the state that produces more eggs than any other, fought during farm bill negotiations to curb California’s clout. Congress opted to kick the issue to the courts so that it could move the huge farm bill across the finish line and onto President Obama's desk.

"Any state, including California, is free to regulate, even overregulate their producers, but not to regulate the other 49 states,’’ Representative King said.

If the ruling ultimately goes against California, its effect has the potential to be widespread – perhaps limiting states' ability to require things like certain labeling of farm-raised fish, to ban certain kinds of pesticides, and even to establish rules managing the eradication of invasive pests.

California, however, has previously succeeded in defending similar animal-welfare laws. Its ban on foie gras (the enlarged livers of tightly penned and force-fed ducks), for instance, was found to be constitutional.

“Ideally, laws that sensibly protect farm animals, consumers of agricultural products and the people who work in these industries would all be federal laws, uniformly governing all 50 states,” writes the Los Angeles Times editorial board. “But it hasn't worked out that way. States have put in place health and welfare laws that set reasonable, up-to-date standards when the federal government has lagged behind.”

What the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank Hopes You Will Never Find Out

May 10, 2013 
By: Money_Morning
Source: The Market Oracle

David Zeiler writes: Most Americans assume the U.S. Federal Reserve is a powerful government institution that seeks only to safeguard the dollar, boost the economy and drive employment higher.

That's what the Fed wants you to think.

The illusion of the Fed as a stabilizing, positive government entity has more or less existed since its creation under dubious circumstances in 1913.

"It not only avoided the word bank, it cleverly implied federal, or government, control over the establishment of a pool of reserves that would backstop the new banking 'system,'" said Money Morning Capital Wave Strategist Shah Gilani.

Congress has played along the whole time, first by approving the legislation that created this beast and later by endowing the Fed with its "dual mandate" to combat both inflation and unemployment.

The real reasons the Fed was created, and many of the things it does to this day, would shock many Americans.

"If the American people truly understood how the Federal Reserve System works and what it has done to us, they would be screaming for it to be abolished immediately," Michael Snyder writes on his website, The Economic Collapse.
Five Shocking Facts About the Federal Reserve

1. It's Not Really Part of the Government

Few people realize that the Federal Reserve didn't even exist until about 100 years ago. It was cooked up by the top Wall Street bankers of the time in a secret meeting on an island in Georgia (A book about it is actually titled "The Creature of Jekyll Island.")

The bankers wanted a central bank partnered with the government to serve as a backstop for their institutions, which then were prone to panics and bank runs.

The 12 regional banks that make up the Federal Reserve are not owned by the U.S. Treasury, but by the nation's private banks. According to Factcheck.org, "about 38% of the nation's more than 8,000 banks are members of the [Federal Reserve] System, and thus own the Fed banks."

2. The Federal Reserve's Primary Purpose is to Serve the Banks

While the stated purpose of the Federal Reserve is its congressional "dual mandate," in practice serving the needs of the big banks still comes first.

"Central banks - of which the Federal Reserve is, by far, the world's largest and most powerful - serve banks first and foremost," Gilani said. "Secondly, they serve their host governments. They are the ultimate tool of the rich and powerful."

During the years of the financial crisis, for example, in addition to the well-publicized bailouts, the Fed made $16 trillion in little-known loans to more than a dozen big banks.

According to a Government Accountability Office document, some of the major beneficiaries included Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), which received $2.513 trillion in loans; Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), $2.041 trillion; Merrill Lynch, $1.949 trillion; Bank of America (NYSE: BOA), $1.344 trillion; Bear Stearns, $853 billion; Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), $814 billion; and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), $391 billion.

3. The Federal Reserve is Paying Big Banks Billions in Interest

Federal reserve excessTo fund its massive quantitative easing (QE) program, the Fed has encouraged banks to deposit excess reserves in the Fed's accounts. The big banks have been more than happy to comply (see chart), as they get paid interest on any money they park at the Fed. Last year, the Fed paid out about $4 billion in interest to the big banks; Bloomberg News has estimated that the annual payments to the banks could soar as high as $77 billion a year by 2015, depending on how much interest rates rise by then.

4. The Fed Has Destroyed the Dollar

The Federal Reserve has utterly failed in one of its mandates - to manage interest rates to control inflation. Since its creation in 1913, inflation in the U.S. has eaten away 96% of the value of the dollar. So the same item that cost $100 in 1913 would cost nearly $2,300 today. And the problem has grown worse over time; the dollar has lost 83% of its value just since 1970. Since the financial crisis, the Fed has accelerated the process with inflation-fueling policies like QE and zero interest rates.

Read more:

Source :http://moneymorning.com/2013/05/08/5-things-the-federal-reserve-hopes-youll-never-find-out/

Money Morning/The Money Map Report

The greatest fraud in history

September 18, 2012
- Doug Hagmann
Source:Canada Free Press.Com

oo few Americans are prepared for what’s coming our way. We are facing a grave crisis that will have a dramatic effect on every American citizen, our national security and our very way of life. It is the asymmetrical warfare of financial terrorism, and the U.S. politicians, the central bankers, the global leaders are the terrorists. Sound harsh? Absolutely. Frightening? Although a healthy dose of fear is indeed warranted, it should not paralyze you, but compel you to act. Preparation is an effective antidote for fear.

But prepare for what? I’ll admit that I was never that good in Economics classes as I found them to be very boring. Even today, I find the talk of derivatives, toxic assets, off balance sheet loans, and so on to be complex and hard to follow. I suspect I’m not alone in thinking this way. It was not until gas reached almost $5.00 per gallon in 2008 and I realized that I had “more month than money” that I wanted to know everything I could about what’s going on in the financial world.

Having accepted that I’m only good at a few things, one being an investigator, I decided to spend as much time as possible investigating the who, what, when, where, why and how behind our current economic situation. Why are we going broke as a nation, and why are we, as Americans, running out of money before the end of the month while our standard of living declines as well?

What I found disturbed and alarmed me. The challenge now is to articulate my findings so everyone is able to understand given the complexity of the subject. That’s no reflection on you as a reader, but an indictment of our elected and appointed “leaders” who deliberately cover their greed and financial criminal activity by talking in a manner that only a select few can understand. However, one thing I understand is fraud, which is what is being perpetuated on everyone reading these words. Hopefully, I’ll be able to convey the urgency at hand, and plainly explain how we are being systematically robbed and looted, and the fallout that will result.
The Bernanke announcement

In the event you missed the financial news last week as a result of the coverage from the Middle East tinderbox, the Federal Reserve under Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced round three of bond purchases, or QE3, for an indefinite period. An open-ended purchase by the Federal Reserve of U.S. Treasury bonds, or our country’s debt to the tune of $40 billion per month. This is in addition “Operation Twist,” which is a program where the Federal Reserve is already buying $45 billion in long term bonds, scheduled to last through the end of the year.

Perhaps you’re thinking, so what? What does that have to do with me? Perhaps you’ve read today’s Washington Post article by Sharon Jenkins titled “Fed action a welcome move for small businesses,” that explains why we should be grateful to Bernanke for this monetary policy. Additionally, the mainstream media continues to tell us we are in a recovery, and that job growth and our overall financial health is improving. My only question for Ms. Jenkins is whether she actually believes what she is writing because the unbiased truth, based on my investigative findings, resembles nothing in her article.

Her article reminds me of a quote attributed to Henry Ford: “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” That is my belief as well.

The actions of Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve, the Obama administration, with the blessings of nearly every elected and appointed official just sealed the demise of the U.S. dollar by launching an indefinite round of creating digital money, backed by nothing, for the purpose of buying our own debt. Doing so ultimately makes our paper money worth less and soon to be worthless. In other words, it will take more money to buy food, gas, clothes, school supplies and pay for all goods and services.

Everyone with U.S. dollars in pension plans, savings and retirement accounts are about to lose much, if not all of their savings. Why? Because by creating more digital money from nothing will significantly devalue the dollar to the extent that it will take more and more of them to pay for the same goods and services yesterday, last week, last month and last year. We are witnessing a state sanctioned Ponzi scheme that is nearing its end, as the process will ultimately collapse upon itself. It is now a mathematical certainty.

I must be clear that this is not a Republican-Democrat issue as both sides of the political divide are equally responsible for our coming demise. Furthermore, the financial fraud did not begin with Obama, but was accelerated by his policies and every elected official who has remained silent, regardless of their political affiliation. Nonetheless, the biggest benefactors in the short term, meaning until or after the November 2012 U.S. elections, are the incumbent politicians, including but not limited to Obama.

Wait, you might ask, isn’t this latest action simply an extension of our monetary policy that’s been employed for the last few years? The answer is not really. Fed actions such as QE1 and QE2 (creating money from nothing parts 1 and 2) were at least limited in scope. They had time and dollar limits. Bernanke’s latest action is basically telling the public, without really telling us, that nothing more can be done for the patient that is the American economy. We are out of options.
How everything changed

We are borrowing money to pay for prior debt created by fraudulent banking practices that was a direct result of the repealing of the Glass-Steagall Act. For those unfamiliar with the Glass-Steagall Act, it was signed into law in 1933 and (for the sake of brevity) prevented banks from becoming the equivalent of casinos, using your money to place bets. While one may cite the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 as the beginning of the end, I’ve omitted this for the sake of brevity.

Anyway, a lot of things happened between 1933 and 1999, when the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed and replaced with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act of 1999. The GLBA had nearly bipartisan support and was signed into law on November 12, 1999 by former President Clinton. One major event took place on a hot summer night in August, 1971 when then-President Richard Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard. Those old enough to recall that change might remember that Nixon interrupted an episode of Bonanza to make his announcement.

Perhaps as a sign of the stupor of the American public, people were more upset over the pre-emption of the weekly television series than the announcement itself. It seems nothing has changed. In fact, people today seem to be in a much deeper, pharmaceutically induced slumber.

To illustrate how quickly we are headed for financial collapse, please consider the following. Since 2008, our national debt has risen more than 60% to more than $16 trillion. During that same period, the median net worth of American families dropped from $126,400 to $77,300 (in 2010) and even less today. The real unemployment rate, if Obama and his financial wizards had not changed how the number is calculated, is 11.2 percent. Using methods for calculating unemployment from years ago, that number would actually exceed 20 percent. Also, the net worth of every American has taken a tremendous downward hit since 2008. In 2008, just over 19 percent of all American families had a net worth of zero or less. That number jumped dramatically to 32.5 percent in 2010, and is even greater today. This alone shows should sufficiently illustrate that the middle class is under attack.

Again, it is important to understand that this process has been implemented with the consent of both political parties, and is unlikely to change before an economic implosion occurs.
The financial end-game

What we are seeing here is the orchestrated attack on the American dollar by our own government officials and elected leaders. But why? As an investigator, I could not figure out the motive of our own leaders deliberately tanking our economy. Is it greed? Well, that’s part of it, as much of the money being pumped into the economy is winding up in the coffers of the “too big to fail” (too big to jail, apparently) banks and financial institutions. They are controlling the money supply and by doing so, the population.

There is an overriding aspect that exceeds greed as a motive, and that’s power. Unbridled, evil and unchecked power by a group of globalists and a compliment of co-conspirator bankers who bring down countries by debasing their currencies.

When the news hit yesterday that U.S. automaker General Motors wanted out from under government control and the U.S., under Obama, said no, the plan that is afoot began to become even clearer. I immediately recalled a book (found during my research) titled The Vampire Economy by Guenter Reimann. Written in 1939, Mr. Reimann explains how under Hitler, the Nazis steamrolled the German economy through the very tactics we are seeing today. They destroyed their own economy at the expense of the private sector, and nationalized the remaining portion of the economy.

Perhaps even more disconcerting is that The Vampire Economy is the subject of a book originally published in 1956 by Carl J. Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski titled Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy. The work reads like a blueprint for the globalist agenda we are seeing playing out today.

Therefore the motive for the complete destruction of the American dollar, it would appear, is to create a global currency to replace the defunct dollar, deliberately destroyed at the hands of those in power today and in recent years. In addition to greed, the motive is ultimate power and control.

The means is through the implementation and subsequent debasement of a fiat currency, done under the cover (or perhaps through) maintaining perpetual war, much like what has been detailed in the two books referenced above. War and the more recent threat of terrorist activities also provides the opportunity to implement an authoritarian or even totalitarian form of government, which we see taking place in the form of 360 degrees of surveillance, the implementation of the NDAA, and other measures that will become useful during the coming economic collapse.

In summary, we’ve been set up, and continue to be set up, by every elected and appointed official in power on a national level today.
Prepare

How does one prepare for what’s coming? First, don’t listen to the corporate media, for they are the lapdogs for those who are engineering our destruction. Question everything, especially the various economic numbers being tossed around and the assertion that our economy is in a “recovery.” We are being lied to. Please do your own research and homework about what’s best for your own situation.

Also, stock up on food items and consumables that you will need for an extended period, and be prepared to protect them as well. Most importantly, become mentally and spiritually prepared for the times ahead.



Doug Hagmann

Douglas J. Hagmann and his son, Joe Hagmann host The Hagmann & Hagmann Report, a live Internet radio program broadcast each weeknight from 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET.

Douglas Hagmann, founder & director of the Northeast Intelligence Network, and a multi-state licensed private investigative agency. Doug began using his investigative skills and training to fight terrorism and increase public awareness through his website.

Doug can be reached at: director@homelandsecurityus.com

Feeding The Homeless BANNED In Major Cities All Over America

March 24, 2012
By The Economic Collapse
Source:OpEd News

What would you do if you came across someone on the street who had not had anything to eat for several days? Would you give that person some food? Well, the next time you get that impulse you might want to check if it is still legal to feed the homeless where you live.

Sadly, feeding the homeless has been banned in major cities all over America. Other cities that have not banned it outright have put so many requirements on those who want to feed the homeless (acquiring expensive permits, taking food preparation courses, etc.) that feeding the homeless has become "out of reach" for most average people. Some cities are doing these things because they are concerned about the "health risks" of the food being distributed by ordinary "do-gooders." Other cities are passing these laws because they do not want homeless people congregating in city centers where they know that they will be fed. But at a time when poverty and government dependence are soaring to unprecedented levels, is it really a good idea to ban people from helping those who are hurting?

This is just another example that shows that our country is being taken over by control freaks. There seems to be this idea out there that it is the job of the government to take care of everyone and that nobody else should even try.

But do we really want to have a nation where you have to get the permission of the government before you do good to your fellow man?

It isn't as if the government has "rescued" these homeless people. Homeless shelters all over the nation are turning people away each night because they have no more room. There are many homeless people who are lucky just to make it through each night alive during the winter.

Sometimes a well-timed sandwich or a cup of warm soup can make a world of difference for a homeless person. But many U.S. cities have decided that feeding the homeless is such a threat that they had better devote law enforcement resources to making sure that it doesn't happen.

This is so twisted. In America today, you need a "permit" to do almost anything. We are supposed to be a land of liberty and freedom, but these days government bureaucrats have turned our rights into "privileges" that they can revoke at any time.

The following are some of the major U.S. cities that have attempted to ban feeding the homeless....

Philadelphia

Mayor Nutter recently banned feeding homeless people in many parts of Philadelphia where homeless people are known to congregate....

"Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has announced a ban on the feeding of large numbers of homeless and hungry people at sites on and near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

"Mayor Nutter is imposing the ban on all outdoor feedings of large numbers of people on city parkland, including Love Park and the Ben Franklin Parkway, where it is not uncommon for outreach groups to offer free food.

"Nutter says the feedings lack both sanitary conditions and dignity."

Orlando

Last June, a group of activists down in Orlando, Florida were arrested by police for feeding the homeless in defiance of a city ordinance....

"Over the past week, twelve members of food activist group Food Not Bombs have been arrested in Orlando for giving free food to groups of homeless people in a downtown park. They were acting in defiance of a controversial city ordinance that mandates permits for groups distributing food to large groups in parks within two miles of City Hall. Each group is allowed only two permits per park per year; Food Not Bombs has already exceeded their limit. They set up their meatless buffet in Lake Eola knowing that they would likely be arrested as a result."

Houston

Down in Houston, a group of Christians was recently banned from distributing food to the homeless, and they were told that they probably would not be granted a permit to do so in the future even if they applied for one....

"Bobby and Amanda Herring spent more than a year providing food to homeless people in downtown Houston every day. They fed them, left behind no trash and doled out warm meals peacefully without a single crime being committed, Bobby Herring said.

"That ended two weeks ago when the city shut down their "Feed a Friend" effort for lack of a permit. And city officials say the couple most likely will not be able to obtain one.

"'We don't really know what they want, we just think that they don't want us down there feeding people,' said Bobby Herring, a Christian rapper who goes by the stage name Tre9."

Dallas

Dallas has also adopted a law which greatly restricts the ability of individuals and ministries to feed the homeless....

"A Dallas-area ministry is suing the city over a food ordinance that restricts the group from giving meals to the homeless.

"Courts dismissed Dallas' request for a summary judgment last week, saying the case, brought up by pastor Don Hart (in video above) may indeed be a violation of free exercise of religion, as protected by the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the blog Religion Clause reported.

"In the court filing, the ministry leaders argue that their Christian faith requires them to share meals with the homeless (Jesus did!) and that the requirement that even churches and charities provide toilets, sinks, trained staff and consent of the city keeps them from doing so."

Las Vegas

A few years ago, Las Vegas became the first major U.S. city to specifically pass a law banning the feeding of homeless people....

"Las Vegas, whose homeless population has doubled in the past decade to about 12,000 people in and around the city, joins several other cities across the country that have adopted or considered ordinances limiting the distribution of charitable meals in parks. Most have restricted the time and place of such handouts, hoping to discourage homeless people from congregating and, in the view of officials, ruining efforts to beautify downtowns and neighborhoods.

"But the Las Vegas ordinance is believed to be the first to explicitly make it an offense to feed 'the indigent.'"

That law has since been blocked by a federal judge, and since then many U.S. cities have been very careful not to mention "the indigent" or "the homeless" by name in the laws they pass that are intended to ban feeding the homeless.

New York City

New York City has banned all food donations to government-run homeless shelters because the bureaucrats there are concerned that the donated food will not be "nutritious" enough.

Yes, this is really true.

The following is from a recent Fox News article....

"The Bloomberg administration is now taking the term 'food police' to new depths, blocking food donations to all government-run facilities that serve the city's homeless.

"In conjunction with a mayoral task force and the Health Department, the Department of Homeless Services recently started enforcing new nutritional rules for food served at city shelters. Since DHS can't assess the nutritional content of donated food, shelters have to turn away good Samaritans."

Can you believe that?

The bureaucrats are officially out of control.

In America today, it seems like almost everything is illegal.

One church down in Louisiana was recently ordered to stop giving out water because it did not have a government permit.

Well, I don't know about you, but I sure am going to give a cup of cold water to someone if they need it whether I have a permit or not.

It is as if common sense has totally gone out the window in this nation.

Over in New Hampshire, a woman is being sued for planting flowers in her own front yard.

This is the kind of thing that makes me glad that I have moved to a much more rural location. People in the country tend to be much more relaxed.

Sadly, those who love to micro-manage others continue to get the upper hand in America. Back in January, 40,000 new laws went into effect all over America. The politicians continue to hit us with wave after wave of regulations and laws with no end in sight.

All of this is making America a very unpleasant place in which to live.

Long-term jobless eye bleak future as benefits end

Dec 11, 2011
By Lucia Mutikani
Source: Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - George Parks has been out of work for 21 months and his unemployment benefits will run out at the end of the month.

At 60, he fears his prospects of getting a job are very slim, even though he has a degree in civil engineering and has vast experience in project management.

A similar story is recounted by John Jones, 52, a fellow resident of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Jones lost his teaching job last July as the Pennsylvania state government tried to close a funding shortfall.

Parks and Jones are among the nearly 7 million Americans receiving jobless benefits under seven different state and federal programs. Around a quarter of those will fall off the rolls in January if Congress does not renew an extended benefits program that expires at year end.

Parks' savings are almost exhausted and his house has lost more than 30 percent of its value, making it hard for him to seek job opportunities outside Pennsylvania.

He has tried to market his management skills in manufacturing and the fast-growing field of health care, but has found them already overcrowded.

"It's really getting tight," Parks told Reuters. "The ability to provide is really diminishing and it becomes more the ability to survive."

Parks is collecting $500 a week in unemployment benefits, a far cry from the $80,000 a year he made in his last job as a project manager in architecture and construction.

Although his wife still has her teaching job, they are stretching to cover their monthly expenses, which include a $480 monthly car payment.

Last month, they combined and refinanced their mortgage and home equity loan, lowering their payment to $1,600 a month from $2,175. Gone are the vacations and gym memberships.

"Savings are pretty much gone, we are now into our 401(K) (retirement) money. I haven't bought any clothing in a year and a half; my wife does buy stuff occasionally to be presentable at school," said Parks.

"We have taken no vacations. I just spoke to the gym about volunteering some of my time instead of having to pay for the gym membership."

Jones, who is married and has one child, used to make about $40,000 annually teaching . His wife has an hourly paid job. He declined to say how much he was collecting in unemployment benefits.

"Before I lost my job we could go out and buy extra things for the house. Right now we do not have that option. We have to watch everything that we're spending and buying," said Jones.

That includes foregoing dental check-ups.

"Our savings are about gone and the benefits will be running out fairly soon," Jones added.

BENEFITS RUNNING OUT

The Obama administration estimates that through the course of 2012, about 6 million people would lose federally funded unemployment benefits if Congress does not act.

Currently, federal money ensures that the unemployed receive benefits for up to 99 weeks in states where joblessness is high. Ending the program would mean the newly unemployed would have to rely on state programs that usually last for only 26 weeks.

Extended benefits have been renewed several times as the economy struggled to mount a vigorous recovery from the 2007-09 recession, the worst since the Great Depression.

According to Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, the average unemployed worker receiving extended benefits gets just $296 a week.

"That represents only 50 percent of the income needed to cover the most basic necessities of food, housing and transportation," she said.

The extended federal benefits have become a target in the fight over budget policy between Republicans and Democrats, and renewal is uncertain. Analysts warn that removing that cushion from the millions of unemployed would dampen the still-fragile economic recovery.

"If the unemployed do not have money to spend, then spending in the economy is going to decline. Providing unemployment benefits is one of the effective ways to create jobs," said Lawrence Mishel, head of the liberal Economic Policy Institute in Washington.

Analysts estimate that not extending benefits for the long-term unemployed could chip away as much 0.3 percentage point from GDP.

NO STIMULUS FROM JOBLESS BENEFITS?

Those opposed to extending the benefits, including the conservative Heritage Foundation, argue that they have failed to stimulate the economy and are instead encouraging recipients to continue seeking jobs that do not exist.

Half the jobs lost during the downturn were in manufacturing and construction. Most of them are not going to be recovered. That is bad news for Brian Krady, another Lancaster County resident, who lost his job in August after 20 years in manufacturing.

Krady, 47, is collecting $500 a week in jobless benefits that will extend for several more months.

The Heritage Foundation says raising benefits to 99 weeks has increased the unemployment rate by 0.5 percentage point.

"People are trying to find jobs similar to what they had previously, when those jobs completely don't exist, so they will spend a good portion of their period unemployed looking for jobs that they are unlikely to find," said James Sherk, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

"The only sound arguments for extended unemployment benefits are humanitarian."

DESPERATE TO WORK

Jones and Parks bristle at the suggestion they are contributing to the high unemployment rate by staying on benefits for a long time.

Both men have been actively looking for work with the help of the PA CareerLink of Lancaster County. The unemployment rate in the county is 6.1 percent, 2-1/2 percentage points below the rate for the nation as a whole.

Jones said he has applied for more than 100 jobs since being laid off, and some of them outside education.

"Most people don't respond. I have gone to visit places, trying to get a job and you can't even get past the front desk," he said. "You can't make a pitch, they just don't want to talk to you. Right now I am looking to work. I don't care what it is in."

Parks believes his age puts him at a disadvantage.

"I believe I run into some age discrimination when I get an opportunity to interview. Things go well into the interview, it sounds like it will progress to the next stage," he said.

"In one case they asked for a background check and they just disappeared. This has happened three times," said Parks. "You can't blame the employer, if they can find somebody younger and cheaper, and there is a glut of employees there, why should they choose to go with an experienced, expensive worker?"

The longer Parks and Jones remain unemployed, the dimmer their prospects of getting a job become as they lose skills and connections.

About 43 percent of the 13.3 million unemployed Americans have been out of work for 27 weeks and more.

"Most of the long-term unemployed are people who had pretty good jobs and these jobs were permanently eliminated," said Harry Holzer, professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University in Washington.

"If they exhaust their benefits ... what are their options?"

Already, the labor force participation rate -- the percentage of working-age Americans either with a job or looking for one -- is at 28-year lows.

While many experts advocate retraining, especially for those who lost their jobs in construction and some sections of manufacturing, Holzer warned that will not necessarily help older unemployed workers like Parks.

"For people who are in their 50s, it's hard to go back and retrain. A 55-year-old with a brand new degree is less attractive than a 25-year-old with the same degree," said Holzer.

Analysts say some of the long-term unemployed could end up settling for lesser-paying jobs, but even those are in short supply. For every one job opening, there are about 4.6 people.

"It means there are simply no jobs available for more than three out of four unemployed workers," said the Economic Policy Institute's Mishel.

"In a given month in today's labor market, the vast majority of the unemployed are not going to find a job no matter what they do." (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Jobs woes sink Wall Street

Sep 2, 2011
By Ryan Vlastelica | Reuters
Source: Yahoo News


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks tumbled 2 percent on Friday after data showing zero jobs growth in August brought investors face-to-face with the prospect of another recession.

The declines left Wall Street lower for the sixth week out of seven as declining issues far outweighed winners on a light-volume day ahead of the long U.S. Labor Day holiday weekend.

Stocks had rebounded recently on expectations the Federal Reserve would introduce new stimulus to boost the sluggish economy. But the Labor Department's latest report underscores that action by the Fed alone cannot address the economy's deep problems.

"By itself the Fed can't restore confidence or create jobs, so any steps it might take won't be game-changing for the economic growth prospects," said Leo Grohowski, chief investment officer at BNY Mellon Wealth Management in New York, where he oversees about $171 billion in client assets.

Bank shares were again among the day's biggest losers, with Bank of America Corp tumbling 8.3 percent to $7.25, making it the top decliner on the Dow, where all 30 components fell. JPMorgan Chase & Co fell 4.6 percent to $34.63 and the KBW banks index lost 4.5 percent.

A U.S. housing regulator filed a lawsuit against Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and other big lenders over mortgage practices that led to losses at government-owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

There was no growth in nonfarm jobs in August as sagging consumer confidence discouraged already skittish businesses from hiring, keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve to provide more monetary stimulus to the economy.

U.S. President Barack Obama, in a speech set for Thursday, will unveil a jobs program he hopes will provide "meaningful" tax relief and help the nation's long-term unemployed, a top aide told Reuters Insider.

"The likelihood of more stimulus has increased dramatically as a result of this and some other recent data, but at this point it's unclear how much that will really help markets," said Derek Hoyt, chief investment officer at KDV Wealth Management in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 253.16 points, or 2.20 percent, at 11,240.41. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 30.46 points, or 2.53 percent, at 1,173.96. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 65.71 points, or 2.58 percent, at 2,480.33.

Friday marked the S&P's biggest drop in two weeks.

Despite the day's sharp decline, stocks were only modestly lower for the week, after a rally in the first three day of trading. For the week, the Dow fell 0.4 percent, the S&P lost 0.2 percent, and the Nasdaq was flat.

Losing stocks outnumbered winners by more than six-to-one on both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. The CBOE Volatility index, a gauge of investor fear, rose 5.9 percent.

Volume was light ahead of the holiday, with about 6.88 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, below last year's daily average of 8.47 billion.

Netflix Inc weighed on the Nasdaq, falling 8.6 percent to $213.11 after the collapse of its content distribution talks with pay-TV operator Starz Entertainment.

Energy shares dropped as U.S. crude futures fell 2.5 percent on concerns economic weakness could curb fuel demand. Chevron Corp dipped 2.1 percent to $96.41, while the PHLX Oil service sector index declined 3.3 percent.

As investors sought safer assets, gold prices climbed 3 percent. Newmont Mining was the S&P's top gainer, rising 3.2 percent to $64.47.



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US on collision course with economic ruin

Finance ministers from the G-20 nations will meet in South Korea to address the global financial crisis. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is expected to push his plan aimed at rebalancing the world economy.


Geithner wants to set new targets to reduce deficits in countries in order to fix global trade imbalances. Currently, the world's nations are split on his trade plan.

“I don’t even know how they can take Geithner seriously anymore,” said Peter Schiff, the president of Euro Pacific Capital and author of “How and Economy Grows and Why it Crashes.” “The policies that we’re pursuing here in America are exasperating the very imbalances that the Treasury Secretary claims that he wants to reign in. The biggest offender is the United States.”

The US is spending too much, barrowing large sums of money and expanding already large trade deficits, he explained. Geithner may have inherited a broken system, but he continued to break it more, said Schiff.

“It could be repaired,” he said. “America needs to save more. America needs to produce more and we’re not going to do that with the current policies in place. We need to reverse course. We need to shrink the size of our government. We need higher interest rates in America, not low interest rates. People need to save their money, not go deeper into debt.”

The US cannot continue the same policies and blame others; it simply does not make sense.

“Everybody gains from Trade,” added Schiff. “But now we’re not really trading.”



He explained that the US is an addict, addicted to spending and borrowing money. China needs to cut off the supply of money, he argued. Foreign governments enable the US to continue failed policies that continue to hinder the global economy.

“As long as the world will lend us money, our politicians will spend it to get elected, but that’s not helping America,” Schiff said.

“The United States is in the process of collapsing. It doesn’t mean it’s irreparable. I think we are on a collision course with economic ruin, it doesn’t mean that we don’t still control our own destiny,” he added.

He argued that the US can reclaim a viable economy if they enact proper policies to do so. The current policies will lead to economic ruin.

Greg Palast: “Remove the Bloodsuckers”

The Excavator
May 8, 2010

The solution to the Greek crisis, and the global debt crisis, is simple according to investigative reporter Greg Palast. In his 2001 article called “The Globalizer Who Came In From the Cold,” Palast suggests that we should “remove the bloodsuckers,” who are the global financial wizards that work at the IMF, WTO and the World Bank and practice the art of dark finance. Palast details the step-by-step plan of how these transnational economic parasites bring entire nations to ruin, which he learned after he gained a hold of some precious World Bank documents that laid out the banksters’ game-plan of how to harness the financial will of sovereign nations and use it against them. Palast also talked with Joseph Stiglitz, the former Chief Economist of the World Bank and a Nobel prize winner, for the piece.

Step one, Palast recounts, is ‘Briberization,” and it involves the criminal global financiers paying national leaders of poverty-stricken nations hefty amounts of dough for the direct sale of public assets to oligarchical corporations and private foreign banks. All the illegal dough of the traitorous leaders is then safely stashed in secret Swiss bank accounts, miles and miles away from the nation’s angry citizens whose livelihoods and incomes are stripped in the process.

Step two is what is referred to as the “Hot Money” cycle by Stiglitz. This is how the cycle works, as described by Palast, “Cash comes in for speculation in real estate and currency, then flees at the first whiff of trouble. A nation’s reserves can drain in days, hours. And when that happens, to seduce speculators into returning a nation’s own capital funds, the IMF demands these nations raise interest rates to 30%, 50% and 80%.” Step two is mainly about hijacking of pension funds, gutting employment benefits, and other social safety nets that people work all their lives for.

To put it another way, the criminal oligarchic parasites hypnotize a nation to sleep, bend it over, strip it of its clothes, and then rape it. That is the way the secret relationship works behind doors. The transnational banksters are all about economic rape. Rape of public assets, rape of pension funds, rape of electrical and water systems, rape of currencies, rape of everything that secures nations and keeps them alive.

And when the nation finally wakes up late in the afternoon, it realizes that it was robbed deaf, dumb, and blind the night before. It also discovers that it acquired an economic STD, so the pain has only begun and recovery is far from sight. An even bigger revelation awaits the nation, which will cause panic in the streets, and thrust the nation further into the economic abyss.

The people then begin to find out that the vampires from the IMF and World Bank never left the night before, they were hiding in the nation’s economic closet, where they’ve patiently waited to put the third step into effect, which is a sharp rise in food and gas prices, and other commodities that keep a nation running from day to day on an even keel. This step eventually leads to what Palast calls “Step-Three-and-a-Half,” and what Stiglitz brands as “The IMF riot.” It is attributed to the IMF because they basically engineer the collapse through their crippling policies and proposals for social spending cuts, which create the conditions for riots, public rage and civil unrest.

We are all familiar with the images from these riots around the world, they’ve taken place in Indonesia, Argentina, and now were seeing them in Greece. They include burning buildings. Streets in mayhem. Thuggish Stormtroopers protecting the Capitol and beating kids. Old and young fighting back with pots and pans. Entire roads up in flames. Palast writes:

The IMF riots (and by riots I mean peaceful demonstrations dispersed by bullets, tanks and teargas) cause new panicked flights of capital and government bankruptcies. This economic arson has it’s bright side – for foreign corporations, who can then pick off remaining assets, such as the odd mining concession or port, at fire sale prices.

The fourth and last step is called “poverty reduction strategy” by the World Bank/IMF, or if you don’t like the Big Brother coinage, the more apt term is “monopoly market politics.” People often mistake this last step with free trade policies, but one important thing to keep in mind, as Palast says, is that this is “free trade by the rules of the World Trade Organization and World Bank,” in other words, it is corporatist-monopolist trade in the guise of free market capitalism.

II.

Speaking to Alex Jones in March 2002 about the article, Palast said that the IMF/World Bank/WTO policies amount to “systematically tearing nations apart.” The global economic illusionists have done it to African and Latin American nations, and now they have their bloody, slug-infested eyes set on European and North American nations.

And the economic parasites never have new tricks up their sleeves, but everywhere their tricks work exactly the same, because they’re usually backed up by military muscle, so you’re condemned to believe in them, or face death. But not everybody believes in them. Certainly not Venezuela. They showed them the door. With guns, of course. But guns need not be involved.

Recently, Germany, America, England, and France supported the IMF’s call for a global bank tax, which would be dedicated to a fund that would secure the payment of future bank bailouts. Canada is the only nation in the Western hemisphere to oppose the tax. But it is not the only nation in the world. Brazil, Japan, Switzerland, and Australia are also voicing their dissent.

Simon Nixon writes in The Wall Street Journal that the proposed IMF bank tax doesn’t address structural problems within the global financial system, and should not be implemented. In his article “IMF Bank-Tax Plan Is No Substitute for Proper Regulation of the Sector,” Nixon writes:

But while taxing the banks may be a legitimate way to raise revenue, the IMF is on weaker ground with its claim that its proposed taxes directly address weaknesses in the global financial system exposed by the crisis. It argues that its proposed Financial Stability Contribution (FSC) would charge banks for the cost of implicit government guarantees by levying a fee on their liabilities less their equity and insured deposits, similar to the Obama administrations proposed bank-liability tax. The IMF recommends the money raised goes into a fund to cover the cost of future bailouts. Aware such a fund could encourage banks to run bigger risks, the IMF says governments must also introduce special resolution regimes allowing regulators to seize and restructure failing banks.

The IMF is also proposing a Financial Activity Tax (FAT), which would tax bank profits and banker pay as a way of keeping a lid on bonus payments, or what the IMF calls “excessive rents.” This would be similar to one-off taxes introduced this year by the U.K. and France in response to public outrage over this year’s giant bank bonuses.

But these proposals address only the symptoms and not the cause of the financial crisis. The real challenge for policy makers is to eliminate altogether—or at least minimize as far as possible— the implicit government guarantees that fueled excessive risk-taking in the boom and reduce the systemic risks posed by the failure of large banks that have left taxpayers in this crisis saddled with such huge bills.

That can only be done by much higher capital requirements and radical structural reform. The IMF is right to point out that higher capital requirements are themselves a form of tax. Indeed, from a macroprudential point of view the two approaches may achieve similar outcomes. But taxes don’t provide the same incentive for institutions to avoid excessive risk taking.

Allister Heath, author of “IMF plan: the wrong kind of reform,” has similar complaints about the IMF proposals. He writes:

There is a vital distinction between asking banks to pay a fee to finance this wind-down fund – and telling them the cash will be used for future bailouts, which would fuel more moral hazard. A related, crucial reform would be to set-up automatic procedures for the private sector to recapitalise troubled banks; this would allow bail-ins, as opposed to bail-outs. Banks could issue contingent convertible securities (CoCos); these debt instruments would convert to equity if capital ratios fell below an agreed level. Ordinary debt could also be turned into equity if a bank were to run out of capital. These ideas would transform banking, make it more market-based, introduce incentives to control risk and protect taxpayers. It is a tragedy the IMF and politicians are so obsessed with taxing everything that moves that they are incapable of a grown-up debate.

III.

A democratically mature reform would include smart regulation of credit and financial institutions, the reintroduction of public banking, the reduction of public subsidies to undeserving corporations and banks, the reinstatement of the principles of free economic competition, and lastly, the termination of the IMF, World Bank, and WTO, i.e. the “bloodsuckers,” whose agenda is to establish an oligarchical grip on nations and peoples, and deprive them of all prosperity, as well as economic and political independence.

US shed 36,000 jobs in February

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:05:28 GMT

The US Job market has seen 36,000 jobs lost in February, a sign indicative of apparently no recovery despite efforts made to gradually bring the ailing economy back on track.

However, the figure released on Friday by US Labor Department fell well short of the 67,000 estimated earlier for the month.

Analysts have warned that the low claims count might be due to severe weather conditions in northeastern states.

The unemployment rate currently stands at close to 10-percent with almost 15 million Americans collecting benefits.

"Even though it's better than expected, it's more than we should tolerate," US President Barack Obama said following the report, according to AFP.

"Far too many Americans remain out of work, far too many families are still struggling in these difficult economic times," he said.

Obama promised to do more to promote job creation.

"That's why I'm not going to rest and my administration is not going to rest in our efforts to help people who are looking to find a job to help business owners who want to expand, feel comfortable, hiring again," he said.

On Thursday, House of Representatives passed a USD 15 billion measure to help reduce unemployment, after a similar move by the Senate.