The Coming Economic Depression

Ron Paul: Health Bill Will Destroy The Dollar

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:20:00 +0000

Monday, November 9, 2009
If the Obama administration keeps its promise in guaranteeing not to raise taxes to pay for universal health care, the only way to cover the costs will be for the Federal Reserve to print even more money out of thin air, a process that will kill the dollar and lead to lower living standards for all Americans, warns Congressman Ron Paul.
In his weekly Texas Straight Talk telephone update, Dr. Paul said that Saturday night’s passage of the health care bill in Congress will lead to a further devastation of the American economy and the greenback.
The Congressman highlights the fact that the health care reform package is already twice as expensive as originally forecast and that estimates of past health care spending programs have been off by as much as 100 per cent, “So there is no telling what the actual cost will be,” states Paul, adding that government intervention has always been expensive and historically has routinely led to waste, fraud and abuse.
LINK HERE

Man Tries To Sell One Ounce of Gold for $50: Nobody Wants It

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:05:00 +0000

Even The Rich Use Their Houses as Piggy Banks

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:33:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES -- In recent years, millions of Americans looked at their houses and saw big, fat piggy banks. And it occurred to them to take out big, fat new mortgages.

Few did it on the scale of Ronald Burkle.

The Green Acres Estate
Mr. Burkle, the grocery-store billionaire, has $56 million in loans against two houses, including $9 million added last year. One is his iconic Beverly Hills mansion, "Green Acres," a 44-room Italian Renaissance palazzo built in the 1920s by silent-film star Harold Lloyd that more recently was a favorite overnight rest stop for Mr. Burkle's buddy, Bill Clinton.

Mr. Burkle declined to say how he is using the money. There is no indication he needs it to pay the water bill.

Traditionally, the super-rich didn't really bother with mortgages. Home loans were for people who carry lunch buckets, not captains of industry.

That changed in the boom years -- and it is still going on. Recent big-time home borrowers include fashion entrepreneurs, hedge-fund titans and baseball-team magnates.
LINK HERE

Will Homeowners Pay Their Bankers With Violence?

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:57:00 +0000

Anger and discontent are reaching a boil as a lethal combination of economic corruption and political collusion are deleveraged across the United States.

From recent rampages in Orlando, Fla., to mortgage-related torture in Los Angeles, certain members of the citizenry seem to have had their fill of being manipulated for the financial gain of others, and they're firing back with force.

And the situation threatens to burn hotter as the winter holidays -- always a peak period fof domestic violence, due mostly to financial stress -- approach to spark its frazzled strands. The economic crisis revealed late-capitalism's central offense: Human beings are being transparently treated if they were mere transactions. And they're going postal over it.

"They left me to rot," Jason Rodriguez said when asked why he went on a shooting rampage at the Orlando engineering firm Reynolds, Smith and Hills that had fired him two years ago.

That compressed vitriol is also found in the Los Angeles case, where Daniel Weston and Gustavo Canez allegedly imprisoned and tortured loan-modification agents Lamond Dean and Luis Garcia while three others -- Mario Soloman Gonzales, Marissa Parker and Mary Ann Parmelee, a realtor -- sat and watched.
LINK HERE

Bob Chapman: EMPTY YOUR BANK ACCOUNTS

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:24:00 +0000

Regardless of what we hear from the mainstream media, economists and left wing progressives currently in charge of the Legistlative and Executive branches, this is not a failure of capitalism, nor is it the downfall of capitalism. What we are experiencing is what Martin Armstrong referred to as the last throes of socialism in his essay The Collapse of Capitalism or is it Socialism? The government is literally throwing everything it has in the bank at the printing presses at this problem, kind of like they have done with education for the last 30 years. And, what have these billions of dollars spent on education done for us? We’ve been left with a substandard public education system where nearly 40% of American adults are below basic levels of reading proficiency. And, what will the billions trillions of dollars they are throwing at the economy going to do? The results will be similar to that of the education system, but the ramifications will be felt by every single American. This country, and its citizens, will be left totally broke, and we will likely have to default on our foreign debt at some point in the future (or inflate it away).

Chapman continues:

The FDIC is beyond broke. They don’t even have enough to cover but a tiny fraction of potential losses, much less to cover the losses from the failure of half of the banks in the entire system. Either the claims for lost deposits will not be paid, or so much money will be printed to pay those claims that the money received in payment will be virtually worthless, along with any and all remaining dollar-denominated assets. This is going to become a very big problem indeed in the not-too-distant future. The solution: Empty your bank accounts of all but one to three months of necessary household operating expenses, and buy gold and silver related assets with the rest, along with freeze-dried food, a water filter, and the means to defend your family from malefactors, both public and private.

[emphasis added]

If you, like Mr. Chapman, believe that the economic crisis will continue to worsen, then sitting around and waiting for it to hit you like a Tsunami is probably the last thing you should do. Precious metals like gold and silver will be one of the only traditional investment asset classes that will be able to protect your wealth. And while you’re at it, think about the ramifications of a hyper inflationary scenario and what it will mean for food costs, energy costs, and social stability. Though food, ammo, gas and guns are not traditional asset classes you’re used to, they could very welcome become money in the not so distant future if a scenario like the one described in James Rawles’ Patriots ever plays out, even on a limited scale. Are you ready if a real, sustained collapse happens in this country?
LINK HERE

Prepare for the Great Depression.
Survival Seeds

Historic Collapse of Consumer Credit

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:38:00 +0000

Note: A chart example of what else we are up against: A Return of OIL Prices
Banks, given trillions stolen from the taxpayer, are using their ill-gotten fiat to speculate in markets using quant computers and insider information, neither of which the taxpayer has access. Nor do they have access to national level politicians, their contributions simply are not as large. Thus, the banks hoard their trillions while cutting off lines of credit to the very taxpayers who bailed them out. What lines are not cut are charged 30% or more, rates that the Godfather could only dream of.
The consumer knows that credit is tighter than it was before. I’ve been saying all along that total money and credit are contracting, that the world of derivatives and leverage is contracting despite our government’s best efforts to flood the system with money. While it’s difficult to see the overall shape of the shadow banking world, clues can be found when digging. Again, I point to the OCC reports showing that JPM notional derivatives have shrunk by some $10 TRILLION in the past two years despite acquisitions. The OCC reports overall growth in derivatives, but that is only because investment banks, speculators like Goldman Sachs, applied for and were granted status as a commercial bank (to gain access to taxpayer money).
So, we have the money supply increasing, government debt skyrocketing, but that is more than offset by the shadow banking system and falling overall private credit. Today I’m going to show you the real dollars behind the collapse in consumer credit along with how that is affecting the securitization of that credit, this being but one small piece of the derivatives and credit (debt) world.
Yesterday, a $14.8 billion contraction in consumer credit was reported for the month of September. That translates into a contraction at an annual rate of 7.3% for the month, 6.1% in the third quarter, which follows a 6.6% contraction in the second quarter. Revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 10 percent, and nonrevolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent.
It would seem that never ending growth has ended. Keep in mind that the consumer and their spending represents 70% or more of this nation’s economy.
LINK HERE

Prepare for the Great Depression.
Survival Seeds

Coming Soon: $500 for Every Newborn? More Debt Coming

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:35:00 +0000

Imagine a world where every baby received a trust fund at birth. It might sound like a fairy tale, but being born into money—or at least into a $500 savings account—could soon become reality for all children born in the United States. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would give each newborn just that, with the goal of promoting savings that would later be used for education, a first home, or retirement. Here's what you should know about the ASPIRE ("America Saving for Personal Investment, Retirement, and Education") Act:

How would this program work?

The ASPIRE Act would give each child born in the United States a $500 savings account. Recipients could then use that money once they were older to pay for education, a first home, or retirement. Low-income children would receive additional funding, and all participants could add to their accounts over time.

Would it really help people save more money? Five hundred dollars isn't much.
LINK HERE

US Citizens Join The Military to Prevent Starvation

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:10:00 +0000

It was only a matter of time before the nation’s skyrocketing unemployment translated into new recruits for the most powerful military force in the world.
With the official US unemployment rate at 10 percent and climbing (that’s more than 15 million people struggling to put food on the table) and nearly double that number if you include part-time wage-earners who need full-time jobs, never mind all of those ‘discouraged workers,’ it’s little wonder that so many of the nation’s jobless are flocking into its military recruitment offices.

After all, what better way for an unemployed American worker to survive the Great Recession of 2009 than in the ‘service’ of his or her country?

Americans have a long history of consuming and/or killing their way out of crisis. And it isn’t looking as if that model will be up for reassessment anytime soon. The parameters of what we like to call the “national conversation” are as narrow as ever, and they are not widening under the current leadership. So far at least, even Obama’s ‘Clean Energy Economy’ has failed to deliver enough ‘green jobs’ (or any other color jobs for that matter) to begin the process of meaningful transition. With the season of consuming just around the corner, many Americans – especially those in blue collar jobs like construction, manufacturing and retail service – are staring into the economic abyss.
LINK HERE

Strategist On CNBC: The Dollar Will Be Utterly Destroyed

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:47:00 +0000

The dollar will get "utterly destroyed" and become "virtually worthless", said Damon Vickers, chief investment officer of Nine Points Capital Partners.

"We don't have resources. Neither does a lot of Asia to be quite frank," Vickers said on CNBC's Asia Squawk Box. "Countries that have resources -- the Brazils, the Canadas, Australia -- their currencies are doing well."

Vickers noted that their stock markets have done the best year-to-date.
"They have stuff. They've got resources. They export real things. The United States exports 'promises' and 'pretty paper'," he added.
Due to the huge wage disparities between the United States and emerging markets like China, Vickers said that may resolve itself in some type of a global currency crisis.

"If the global currency crisis unfolds, then inevitably you get an alignment of a global world government. A new global currency and a new world order, so we may be moving towards that," he said.

Vickers added that this is the time where investors should be making money when the trend is developing.

"Oil looks higher, gold looks higher, currencies look weaker."
LINK HERE

Prepare for the Great Depression.
Survival Seeds

Government To Bailout Freddie Mac

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:22:00 +0000

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Freddie Mac, the second largest provider of U.S. residential mortgage funding, on Friday posted a loss of $5 billion in the third quarter and predicted it would need more government support amid a "prolonged deterioration" in housing.
Increases in the value of securities Freddie Mac held over the period helped buoy its net worth, however, erasing its need to tap government funds for a second straight quarter to stay solvent while continuing to buy and guarantee home loans.
Including a $1.3 billion dividend payment on senior preferred stock bought by the Treasury in previous quarters, Freddie Mac's third-quarter loss increases to $6.3 billion.
LINK HERE

Americans Jostling With Illegal Immigrants for a Job

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:35:00 +0000

It sounds like a George Lopez joke.

“Times are so bad that I saw an Anglo day laborer standing outside Home Depot the other day.”

Except it’s true.

In the latest sign of the Las Vegas Valley’s economic free fall, U.S. citizens are starting to show up in the early mornings outside home improvement stores and plant nurseries across the Las Vegas Valley, jostling with illegal immigrants for a shot at a few hours of work.

Experts say the slow-starting but seemingly inexorable trend is occurring nationwide.

“It’s the equivalent of selling apples in the Great Depression,” said Harley Shaiken, chairman of the Center for Latin American studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
But it is not only a sign of the times, they add. If the numbers of citizens among the day laborers in cities across the country continue to grow, it’s likely to increase the ire of followers of TV host Lou Dobbs and others who will see illegal immigrants as stealing food off the tables of the nation’s native-born or naturalized poor.
LINK HERE

Prepare for the Great Depression.
Survival Seeds

Ripping Off The Public Is Not Conflicting with Christian Values Says Goldman Sachs and Barclays

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:08:00 +0000

Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer John Varley stood at the wooden lectern in St. Martin-in-the- Fields on London’s Trafalgar Square last night and told the packed pews of the church that “profit is not satanic.”

The 53-year-old head of Britain’s second-biggest bank said banks are the “backbone” of the economy. Rewarding high- performing bankers with more pay doesn’t conflict with Christian values, he said. Varley was paid 1.08 million pounds ($1.77 million) and no bonus in 2008.

“Talent is highly mobile,” Varley, a Catholic, said. “If we fail to pay or are constrained from paying competitive rates then that talent will move to another employer.”

“Is Christianity and banking compatible? Yes,” he said in an interview after the speech in the 283-year-old church. “And is Christianity and fair reward compatible? Yes.”

Varley joins Goldman Sachs International adviser Brian Griffiths and Lazard International Chairman Ken Costa as London bankers who’ve gone into London churches in recent weeks and invoked Christianity to defend a banking system that critics say has created wealth and inequality in the U.K.

“The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest,” Goldman’s Griffiths said Oct. 20, his voice echoing around the gold-mosaic walls of St. Paul’s Cathedral, whose 365-feet-high dome towers over the City, London’s financial district. “We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”

Bonuses to Rise
LINK HERE

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES TOP 17.5% Media Reports over 10.2%. A CNN POLL IS AT 21%!
REAL STATS HERE

The Federal Reserve Changed The Rules (Video)

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:32:00 +0000

Treasury expects to hit debt limit next month
Congress must boost the ceiling to avoid an unprecedented default
LINK HERE

Prepare for the Great Depression.
Survival Seeds

Half of US Children will Be on Food Stamps

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:48:00 +0000

By LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO (AP) -- Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say.

The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis.

"Your neighbor may be using some of these programs but it's not the kind of thing people want to talk about," Rank said
LINK HERE

The State Claiming Safety Deposit Boxes to Pay Budget

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:20:00 +0000

A woman says the state took her property and sold it for a fraction of its cost.
The 50 U.S. states are holding more than $32 billion worth of unclaimed property that they're supposed to safeguard for their citizens. But a "Good Morning America" investigation found some states aggressively seize property that isn't really unclaimed and then use the money -- your money -- to balance their budgets.

Unclaimed property consists of things like forgotten apartment security deposits, uncashed dividend checks and safe-deposit boxes abandoned when an elderly relative dies.
Banks and other businesses are required to turn that property over to the state for safekeeping. The problem is that the states return less than a quarter of unclaimed property to the rightful owners.

Not-So-Safe-Deposit Boxes

San Francisco resident Carla Ruff's safe-deposit box was drilled, seized, and turned over to the state of California, marked "owner unknown."
"I was appalled," Ruff said. "I felt violated."

Unknown? Carla's name was right on documents in the box at the Noe Valley Bank of America location. So was her address -- a house about six blocks from the bank. Carla had a checking account at the bank, too -- still does -- and receives regular statements. Plus, she has receipts showing she's the kind of person who paid her box rental fee. And yet, she says nobody ever notified her.

"They are zealously uncovering accounts that are not unclaimed," Ruff said.
LINK HERE

Prepare for the Great Depression.
Survival Seeds

Nothing Working in Britain: So Print More Money

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:59:00 +0000

The Bank of England is expected to expand its radical programme of printing money by a further £50bn today as the fight against the deepest downturn for decades is stepped up.
City economists are on balance forecasting that Mervyn King, the Bank's Governor and the rest of the Monetary Policy Committee will extend the total size of the plan, known as quantitative easing (QE), to £225bn - matching the size of the Greek economy.
The unconventional plan, which was first adopted by the MPC in February, has seen the Bank buy billions of banks of UK government bonds, or gilts, from financial institutions in the hope the money spent will be invested in the wider economy.

Experts admit that it's hard to judge whether the policy is working, but with the economy still languishing in recession last quarter, most reckon it's worth expanding.
“It is a lot of money, but if it does restart the economy and gets it moving again then it’s worth it,” said George Buckley, an economist at Deutsche Bank. “It’s very difficult to say if quantitative easing is working, but it is doing something.”
LINK HERE

Four Reasons Hyperinflation Hasn’t Hit the US... Yet

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:27:00 +0000

Everything we know about classic economic theory suggests the US economy should be experiencing Zimbabwe-like hyperinflation right now, thanks to the nearly $2.2 trillion the US Federal Reserve has pumped into the system.

But we’re not... yet.

Classic economic theory says that money supply can be used to stimulate the economy and our central bankers seem to agree. That’s why they’ve pumped more than $1 trillion dollars into the economy, engineered countless bailout bonanzas for zombie institutions, put Detroit on life support, and delivered a bunch of financial Band-Aids to the trauma ward -- all in a desperate bid to make Americans feel better about the global financial crisis.:

To their way of thinking, the trillions of dollars have been a success. That’s why any meeting of the Group of Eight nations looks more like a mutual affection society with central bankers eager to claim credit and backslap each other in congratulations for having avoided the “Great Depression II.”

But by taking the Federal balance sheet to more than $2 trillion from $928 billion 2008, they’ve created a situation that should have resulted in an epic inflationary spike to accompany the 137% increase in liabilities.

Yet that hasn’t quite happened.

Core inflation -- which denotes consumer prices without food and energy costs -- has actually decreased from 2.5% in 2008 to 1.5% presently. And that has many investors who have heard the siren call of the doom, gloom, and boom crowd wondering if they’re worried about nothing.

So what gives?

Well, there are four reasons we haven’t yet seen hyperinflation:
LINK HERE

Look To Australia For Interest Rate Direction

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:04:00 +0000

While the Reserve Bank followed form and lifted its key interest rate by 0.25% to 3.50% yesterday, there's a tip of another kind from the post meeting statement: watch the impact of the Australian dollar.

The stronger dollar is already causing pain to exporters, tourism operators, some importers and others, but stands to cause more with the bank suggesting the 90-plus US cent valuation is here for a while.

The bank said in its post-meeting statement "The Board noted that the rise in the exchange rate is likely to constrain output in the tradeables sector and dampen price pressures."

In other words resource companies and other exporters (and companies receiving dividends and other payments from offshore) will find it much tougher, while those domestic businesses who ride the dollar down (retailers, cars etc) will gain, or rather, have to watch their pricing and margins as the currency's strength exerts continuing downward pressure on prices.

It's a tip for investors to watch.
LINK HERE

Ms Beacher expects the Reserve Bank of Australia to look through what may end up being tepid third-quarter economic growth and raise interest rates further in December.

The RBA is the only central bank in the Group of 20 nations to be raising interest rates. Its cash-rate target now stands at 3.5 per cent, after consecutive hikes of 25 basis points each in October and November.
LINK HERE

Prepare for the Great Depression.
Survival Seeds

Goldman Sachs Taking Peoples Houses

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:50:00 +0000

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- When California wildfires ruined their jewelry business, Tony Becker and his wife fell months behind on their mortgage payments and experienced firsthand the perils of subprime mortgages.
The couple wound up in a desperate, six-year fight to keep their modest, 1,500-square-foot San Jose home, a struggle that pushed them into bankruptcy.
The lender with whom they sparred, however, wasn't the one that had written their loans. It was an obscure subsidiary of Wall Street colossus Goldman Sachs Group .
Goldman spent years buying hundreds of thousands of subprime mortgages, many of them from some of the more unsavory lenders in the business, and packaging them into high-yield bonds. Now that the bottom has fallen out of that market, Goldman finds itself in a different role: as the big banker that takes homes away from folks such as the Beckers.
The couple alleges that Goldman declined for three years to confirm their suspicions that it had bought their mortgages from a subprime lender, even after they wrote to Goldman's then-Chief Executive Henry Paulson -- later U.S. Treasury secretary -- in 2003.
LINK HERE

Bankruptcy Filings Equal Divorce Filings in 2009

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:22:00 +0000

It is a sobering fact that in 2009, there will be as many people filing for bankruptcy as those filing for a divorce. We are on track to seeing an average of nearly 5,900 bankruptcy filings a day for 2009. While some people use the stock market as their barometer of economic recovery, there are a few other “misery” indicators that show things are still bad for millions of Americans and counter the recovery talks. If you want to track a broader recovery, I would recommend people examine the five indicators of the misery index. Food stamps, bankruptcies, long-term unemployed, foreclosures, and credit card defaults are probably your best gauges to the real economic recovery.
The problem we currently face is even after the global economy was brought to its knees by the current Wall Street banking structure, things still haven’t changed at the core of their mission. The same banks are back taking inordinate amounts of risk with the now explicit backing of the U.S. Taxpayer. It is no surprise then that our U.S. dollar has been pummeled by the policies of the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.
Let us examine each component of the misery index.
LINK HERE

Prepare for the Great Depression.
Survival Seeds

The Government Will Default on Its Debts

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:42:00 +0000

The governments of every major nation are going to default on their debts. There are two relevant questions: (1) How? (2) When?

Establishments around the world all deny this. They have gained power and wealth by means of the expansion of government. They have justified their success by insisting that the government-business alliance is the only way to establish economic growth and economic security for the masses. This claim rests on a more fundamental claim, namely, that an unhampered free market is destructive of economic stability and will inevitably lead to economic depression.
LINK HERE

Painful Death of the American Economic Dream

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:41:00 +0000

This crisis has been a long time in coming, and history suggests that the period of upheaval will be long and painful, just as it was between 1914 and 1945

It wasn't really supposed to end up like this. When the Berlin Wall came crashing down 20 years ago, the cold war ended with triumph for the west. Instead of two superpowers, there was one. Instead of competing ideologies, there was capitalism, and a particularly brash form of capitalism at that.

The elder George Bush said the world should learn how to do things the American way. "We know what works," he said. "Free markets work."

The reach of the market grew longer for two decades, encompassing China and India as well as the former Soviet Union and its satellites. Rapid growth brought impressive poverty reduction in China and India; there are few Poles or Czechs who hanker after the days when Moscow pulled the strings.

But it was always inevitable that, sooner or later, globalisation would run into a crisis, and what we have seen in the past two years is just the start of it. Don't be fooled by the sucker's rally of the past six months – Americans are once again running down savings to consume goods they can't afford; China's exports are booming.
LINK HERE

Prepare for the Great Depression.
Survival Seeds

All Detroit Sports Teams Desperate: $5 to see the TIGERS play?

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:39:00 +0000

This past season, Mike Kennedy paid $30 per game for four upper-deck Pistons season tickets. But as this season approached, he decided because of the economy -- and the slim title hopes of his team -- it was a good time not to renew.
"We weren't going to renew, but the Pistons called and made it hard to say no," said Kennedy, co-owner of Sentech Services in Bloomfield Hills. "They made us an offer at a ridiculously cheap price, $10 a seat."
Kennedy purchased two season tickets, which he will share with clients.

His situation is an example of what is going on with Detroit sports fans and their four pro teams. As many fans are forced to limit the money they spend on tickets in a struggling economy, teams are trying to find ways to keep them coming to events.
For example:
• The Wings are offering two upper-bowl tickets, two hot dogs and two Cokes to weekday games through December for $48.
• The Lions, who will be blacked out for the second time this season for Sunday's game against the St. Louis Rams, have established all-you-can-eat and Family Zone tickets. And this Sunday, they will allow fans from 5 to 14 years old to run on the field after the game.
• The Pistons, in addition to lower season ticket costs, offer a number of deals, including one where fans can buy a 16-game plan for less than $6 per tickets.
• The Tigers, who just completed their season, offered tickets and parking for as low as $5.
LINK HERE

This Weekend: Talk of Dollar Dump between G20 Nations

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:10:00 +0000

Best-selling author Daniel Estulin states that the key issue to be discussed this week at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, being held in St. Andrews, Scotland, is how to bring down the present world financial system through dumping the US dollar.

(Vocus/PRWEB ) November 3, 2009 -- Best-selling author Daniel Estulin states that the key issue to be discussed this week at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, being held in St. Andrews, Scotland, is how to bring down the present world financial system through dumping the US dollar. Estulin first reported on this initiative as being deliberated at the most recent Bilderberg meeting held in Greece in May 2009. Estulin says that the success or failure of this callous plan hinges on the ability of the US and UK representatives to convince the Russian, the Chinese and other national governments to go along with their scheme.

Estulin maintains that if the co-conspirators succeed, such sudden devaluation of the US dollar would result in the sinking of the world economy through a chain-reaction collapse of the entire world’s financial system. As discussed during the Bilderberg Group’s super-secret conclave back in May, this breakdown would then be used as an excuse to launch a new world monetary system. G20 leaders are aware that those who run the monetary markets, the monetary system, control the world. That is why today, the world is run through a dominant one-currency monetary system and not by national credit systems.

A severe breakdown crisis would affect every corner of the world and be a prelude to instability, wars and general hostility along financial, geographical and geopolitical lines, affecting not only particular countries but also societies, cultures and whole continents. Such a breakdown could result in a consolidation of the world’s monetary system.
LINK HERE

Prepare for the Great Depression.
Survival Seeds

New Stimulus Program: Cash for Golf Carts

b1lzkw73@hotmail.com (Economic Analyst) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:53:00 +0000

We thought cash for clunkers was the ultimate waste of taxpayer money, but as usual we were too optimistic. Thanks to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars that was part of President Obama's stimulus plan, Uncle Sam is now paying Americans to buy that great necessity of modern life, the golf cart.

The federal credit provides from $4,200 to $5,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, and when it is combined with similar incentive plans in many states the tax credits can pay for nearly the entire cost of a golf cart. Even in states that don't have their own tax rebate plans, the federal credit is generous enough to pay for half or even two-thirds of the average sticker price of a cart, which is typically in the range of $8,000 to $10,000. "The purchase of some models could be absolutely free," Roger Gaddis of Ada Electric Cars in Oklahoma said earlier this year. "Is that about the coolest thing you've ever heard?"

The golf-cart boom has followed an IRS ruling that golf carts qualify for the electric-car credit as long as they are also road worthy. These qualifying golf carts are essentially the same as normal golf carts save for adding some safety features, such as side and rearview mirrors and three-point seat belts. They typically can go 15 to 25 miles per hour.

In South Carolina, sales of these carts have been soaring as dealerships alert customers to Uncle Sam's giveaway. "The Golf Cart Man" in the Villages of Lady Lake, Florida is running a banner online ad that declares: "GET A FREE GOLF CART. Or make $2,000 doing absolutely nothing!"

LINK HERE