12/26/2008
Martial Law in America
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: ~Radical Truth~
Date: Dec 26, 2008 9:32 AM
Thanks to
Eternal
&
InnerMysteries
Date: Dec 26, 2008 7:20 AM
RON PAUL WARNS OF MITLITARY DICTATORSHIP ON THE HOUSE FLOOR
hi / namaste'
HOPE EVERYONE SURVIDED
OUR BIGGEST CONSUMER RIP
OFF DAY OF THE YEAR ! :)
RON PAUL - JESSE VENTURA - DENNIS KUCINICH
PEOPLE, WOULD YOU ALL PLEASE
GIVE THESE MEN A LISTEN ...
AND IF YOU AGREE, START SPREADING
THESE VIDEOS SO THAT WE MIGHT
TAKE THIS COUNTRY BACK FROM THE
THE ELITES, INCLUDING BARACK
OBAMA, WHO IS JUST ANOTHER PUPPET !
I WISH OBAMA WASN'T, BUT LOOK AT WHO
HE'S BRINGING INTO HIS CABINET
TAKE A CLOSE... CLOSER LOOK !
DR RON PAUL, JESSE VENTURA AND
DENNIS KUCINICH ALL WANT THE
CONSTITUTION RESTORED TO EXACTLY
WHAT IT WAS DESIGNED FOR.
OTHERWISE, WE ARE GOING TO BE SCREWED !
WE HAVE 4 YEARS TO SHOW THEM WE REALLY
NEED THEM. PLEASE START SHOWING THEM
NOW THAT IT IS WORTH IT FOR THEM TO RUN
IN 2012, IF OBAMA HASN'T DECLARED MARSHAL
LAW BY THAT TIME AND IF HE DOES, HE WILL
PROBABLY BRING ON CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
AND MANY OF YOU KNOW THAT THE SHEEPLE
OBAMA PEOPLE WOULD FOLLOW HIM IN BLIND
SERVITUDE. JUST WATCH THE INAUGURATION IF
YOU DON'T BELIEVE THAT. HE'S "CFR" AND IF YOU
DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS, GOOGLE IT
THANKS !
peace*love, bob
Jesse Ventura Slams Naive Reporters on 9/11
Jesse Ventura, the former governor of Minnesota, ex Navy Seal Vietnam Veteran, Demolition Expert and an avid spokesperson for 911 Truth..
The governor takes on a swarm of media in the footage below for about 30 minutes This is a pretty intense interview!
(The first 2 minutes isn’t worth watching, it’s just someone walking around with a camera. Fast forward about 2 minutes to get to the interview..)
http://blip. tv/play/Ac2FEISFHQ&autoplay=1
***************************************************
RE: Jesse Ventura -- "TO HELL WITH THE PATRIOT ACT!
http://www. youtube. com/v/79eCo6ocBEc
http://www. youtube. com/v/Eytv1j0ZwII&hl
http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=_WvIJCM-LXo
DENNIS KUCINICH
ON BAILOUT
http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=VaF_MZVWM3E
DENNIS KUCINICH
TAKE BACK AMERICA
http://video. google. com/googleplayer. swf?docid=7381839872895833546&hl=en&fs=true
DENNIS KUCINICH
IMPEACH BUSH!
..
http://video. google. com/googleplayer. swf?docid=6265058101839429571&hl=en&fs=true
DENNIS KUCINICH
SEES U.F.O. !
http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=G980aLrAwoM
IF ANY OF THE ABOVE LINKS DON'T WORK, COPY/PASTE INTO BROWSER AND REMOVE ANY SPACES THAT MYSPACE ADDED IN THE ADDRESS
From: ~Radical Truth~
Date: Dec 26, 2008 9:32 AM
Thanks to
Eternal
&
InnerMysteries
Date: Dec 26, 2008 7:20 AM
RON PAUL WARNS OF MITLITARY DICTATORSHIP ON THE HOUSE FLOOR
hi / namaste'
HOPE EVERYONE SURVIDED
OUR BIGGEST CONSUMER RIP
OFF DAY OF THE YEAR ! :)
RON PAUL - JESSE VENTURA - DENNIS KUCINICH
PEOPLE, WOULD YOU ALL PLEASE
GIVE THESE MEN A LISTEN ...
AND IF YOU AGREE, START SPREADING
THESE VIDEOS SO THAT WE MIGHT
TAKE THIS COUNTRY BACK FROM THE
THE ELITES, INCLUDING BARACK
OBAMA, WHO IS JUST ANOTHER PUPPET !
I WISH OBAMA WASN'T, BUT LOOK AT WHO
HE'S BRINGING INTO HIS CABINET
TAKE A CLOSE... CLOSER LOOK !
DR RON PAUL, JESSE VENTURA AND
DENNIS KUCINICH ALL WANT THE
CONSTITUTION RESTORED TO EXACTLY
WHAT IT WAS DESIGNED FOR.
OTHERWISE, WE ARE GOING TO BE SCREWED !
WE HAVE 4 YEARS TO SHOW THEM WE REALLY
NEED THEM. PLEASE START SHOWING THEM
NOW THAT IT IS WORTH IT FOR THEM TO RUN
IN 2012, IF OBAMA HASN'T DECLARED MARSHAL
LAW BY THAT TIME AND IF HE DOES, HE WILL
PROBABLY BRING ON CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
AND MANY OF YOU KNOW THAT THE SHEEPLE
OBAMA PEOPLE WOULD FOLLOW HIM IN BLIND
SERVITUDE. JUST WATCH THE INAUGURATION IF
YOU DON'T BELIEVE THAT. HE'S "CFR" AND IF YOU
DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS, GOOGLE IT
THANKS !
peace*love, bob
Jesse Ventura Slams Naive Reporters on 9/11
Jesse Ventura, the former governor of Minnesota, ex Navy Seal Vietnam Veteran, Demolition Expert and an avid spokesperson for 911 Truth..
The governor takes on a swarm of media in the footage below for about 30 minutes This is a pretty intense interview!
(The first 2 minutes isn’t worth watching, it’s just someone walking around with a camera. Fast forward about 2 minutes to get to the interview..)
http://blip. tv/play/Ac2FEISFHQ&autoplay=1
***************************************************
RE: Jesse Ventura -- "TO HELL WITH THE PATRIOT ACT!
http://www. youtube. com/v/79eCo6ocBEc
http://www. youtube. com/v/Eytv1j0ZwII&hl
http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=_WvIJCM-LXo
DENNIS KUCINICH
ON BAILOUT
http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=VaF_MZVWM3E
DENNIS KUCINICH
TAKE BACK AMERICA
http://video. google. com/googleplayer. swf?docid=7381839872895833546&hl=en&fs=true
DENNIS KUCINICH
IMPEACH BUSH!
..
http://video. google. com/googleplayer. swf?docid=6265058101839429571&hl=en&fs=true
DENNIS KUCINICH
SEES U.F.O. !
http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=G980aLrAwoM
IF ANY OF THE ABOVE LINKS DON'T WORK, COPY/PASTE INTO BROWSER AND REMOVE ANY SPACES THAT MYSPACE ADDED IN THE ADDRESS
HOW TO REPOST THIS BULLETIN
1 Click the "Reply to Poster" button at the bottom of this post
2 Copy all the html code, create a new bulletin, paste the code in there
3 Be nice, give credit to the sender(s) when re-posting
12/19/2008
Be PREPARED!
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: FREE AMERICA
Date: Dec 19, 2008 7:44 AM
FREE AMERICA
IV GOT TONS OF PROTESTERS THAT PROTEST ..BUT ARE NOT READY FOR WHATS COMING...SO INSTEAD OF EMAILING ALL OF YOU THE INFOR..IM MAKING A POST FOR YOU GUYS..EVERY SINGLE PROTESTER NEEDS TO BE READY...YOU KNOW DOH MILTARY IS IN CALI HIGHWAYS YOU KNOW WE GOT 1.5. MILLION 'foreign troops ON AMERICAN SOIL ..YOU KNOW OBAMA HAS HIS OWN THUGS..U GUYS HAVE TO BE READY...IN 2 HOURS LOOK FOR OUR POST..LEARN FROM IT , AND BE READY. IF YOU GUYS ARE NOT READY...YOU WILL DIE OR GO INTO A FEMA CAMP.
DOC
This map was discovered by Helen Somers in a window in Philadelphia during World War II. It was completed in October 1941, before Pearl Harbor, was printed in bright colors by a cartographer named Maurice Gomberg in Philadelphia in 1942, and was displayed in his store window. Helen Somers immediately recognized the significance of the map and purchased several. At least a few original copies are still in existence, including one in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
The original source of the plan that is described in detail on the map is not given. However, an examination of numerous documents of the period relating to the new world order indicate that the source must have been individuals related to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and/or the U.S. State Department.
The bottom of the map contains a detailed explanation of the U.S. policy for the New World Order. Some of the points of this policy are as follows:
A new world order for permanent peace and freedom will be established at the end of the War.
The U.S.A. must, altruistically, assume the leadership of the newly established world order.
The U.S.A., Britain, and the U.S.S.R. will undertake to guarantee peace to the nations, which will be permanently disarmed and demilitarized.
The U.S.A. will become invincible as a military, naval, and air power.
The U.S.S.R. will acquire the republics of Eastern Europe after the War.
There will be a demilitarized, federated United States of Europe.
Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean islands will be incorporated into the United States of America.
The land of the ancient Hebrews, known as Palestine and Trans-Jordan, will be united as a demilitarized republic called Hebrewland.
All natural resources will be nationalized and distributed to all nations.
Banking, investments, railroads, and power plants will be nationalized everywhere.
A world common monetary system will be established.
The unified "Supreme War Council of the United Nations" will be reorganized and transformed into a "Supreme Military and Economic Council" to assist in reconstruction and to enforce world peace.
From: FREE AMERICA
Date: Dec 19, 2008 7:44 AM
FREE AMERICA
IV GOT TONS OF PROTESTERS THAT PROTEST ..BUT ARE NOT READY FOR WHATS COMING...SO INSTEAD OF EMAILING ALL OF YOU THE INFOR..IM MAKING A POST FOR YOU GUYS..EVERY SINGLE PROTESTER NEEDS TO BE READY...YOU KNOW DOH MILTARY IS IN CALI HIGHWAYS YOU KNOW WE GOT 1.5. MILLION 'foreign troops ON AMERICAN SOIL ..YOU KNOW OBAMA HAS HIS OWN THUGS..U GUYS HAVE TO BE READY...IN 2 HOURS LOOK FOR OUR POST..LEARN FROM IT , AND BE READY. IF YOU GUYS ARE NOT READY...YOU WILL DIE OR GO INTO A FEMA CAMP.
DOC
This map was discovered by Helen Somers in a window in Philadelphia during World War II. It was completed in October 1941, before Pearl Harbor, was printed in bright colors by a cartographer named Maurice Gomberg in Philadelphia in 1942, and was displayed in his store window. Helen Somers immediately recognized the significance of the map and purchased several. At least a few original copies are still in existence, including one in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
The original source of the plan that is described in detail on the map is not given. However, an examination of numerous documents of the period relating to the new world order indicate that the source must have been individuals related to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and/or the U.S. State Department.
The bottom of the map contains a detailed explanation of the U.S. policy for the New World Order. Some of the points of this policy are as follows:
A new world order for permanent peace and freedom will be established at the end of the War.
The U.S.A. must, altruistically, assume the leadership of the newly established world order.
The U.S.A., Britain, and the U.S.S.R. will undertake to guarantee peace to the nations, which will be permanently disarmed and demilitarized.
The U.S.A. will become invincible as a military, naval, and air power.
The U.S.S.R. will acquire the republics of Eastern Europe after the War.
There will be a demilitarized, federated United States of Europe.
Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean islands will be incorporated into the United States of America.
The land of the ancient Hebrews, known as Palestine and Trans-Jordan, will be united as a demilitarized republic called Hebrewland.
All natural resources will be nationalized and distributed to all nations.
Banking, investments, railroads, and power plants will be nationalized everywhere.
A world common monetary system will be established.
The unified "Supreme War Council of the United Nations" will be reorganized and transformed into a "Supreme Military and Economic Council" to assist in reconstruction and to enforce world peace.
12/18/2008
The Unearthing: An Awakening has Arrived
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Pamela's Protest
Date: Dec 18, 2008 7:14 PM
September 19, 2007
The Unearthing: An Awakening has Arrived
By Manuel Valenzuela
Preface
Since the publication of "The Unearthing" in April 2007, the Truth Movement has continued to gain momentum, contrary to everything Truth deniers and obstructionists do and say to try and stop Truth's exponential surge. Like the snowball effect, the movement continues to grow in numbers, reaching unprecedented gains, seemingly catapulting expectations and offering proof that the more people see Truth, the greater the hunger for Justice and the search for Change. The Truth Movement has begun to reach critical mass, in spite of the system's hurdles and vast propaganda apparatus, in spite of its entrenched censorship and gatekeeping machinery.
Truth, it has now become apparent, cannot be contained, it cannot be silenced, it cannot be imprisoned. The subsequent search for Justice, the second quest in our Movement, just like her sister Truth, likewise cannot be squashed. For Justice for 3,000 murdered victims and for those 9/11 First Responders now dying and suffering is a thirst our species seeks to satisfy. Attaining Truth and Justice, when both have been hijacked, are principles embedded in every decent human being, for these are part of what makes us what we are, what makes us, though at times primitive, a great species to behold, with so much to offer Earth, with so much potential and universal capacity for good.
In 9/11 Truth and Justice we see how millions of us seek a better way, a clean break from our present course of being, an opportunity to alter the course of a sinking ship. The Movement grows because, deep inside, we abhor corruption, criminality, malfeasance and tyranny; we detest injustice, inequality and oppression of the mind. We understand, as all people with free thinking minds, that 9/11 represents a clash between true freedom of the human spirit, not its charade or its myth, and continued enslavement of our lives and minds. This battle between two mutually exclusive destinies lies at the heart of our pursuit for Truth and Justice. We are at war, We the People against They the Powerful. In this battle the future of America, indeed, of billions of souls, will be decided. In this battlefield, they have propaganda, infrastructure, media and power. We have Truth, energy, momentum and Strength in Numbers. We have an unquenchable hunger for change, for discovering the possibility of our potential, of escaping what has been, of reaching what can be.
What the impotent antiwar leadership cannot offer, the Truth Movement has surpassed tenfold, a result of cooperation among hundreds of professions and disciplines, each containing millions of minds and eyes, slowly deciphering the charades and the lies, eviscerating manipulations and propaganda, methodically constructing a Tower of Truth no government institution or neocon shill can demolish. The Net has become our weapon of mass awakening, our printing press hammering down the cathedrals of control and long-embedded power. Through it we are one enormous collective brain, one giant body created from an amalgam of tens of millions of human beings, moving in unity, in synchonization, with the understanding that we are one indivisible whole, altering the balance of power like never before, slowly strangulating the criminal element in our society, robbing it of oxygen and energy.
Springing up in all corners of America, indeed, the world, the Movement grows and grows, unstoppable even in the face of continous smears and censorship, in spite of every obstacle the criminal element throws our way. Their methods no longer work, for Truth is a million times stronger than anything they can throw at us. Truth, it seems, is the flame, the fire that cannot be extinguished. 9/11 Truth, it seems, is the catalyst, the genesis, of a new way forward, a new beginning to a nation that has become an evil onto the world. For it is when the People fight back that Power backs down. It is when we rise that they fall. And it is when we take to the streets that they relent and bow down to our demands. Freedom is never simply granted, it must be sought and fought. And so it is with Truth and Justice. Alone, power gives nothing. Challenged, it gives you everything.
The system's apparatus is entrenched and strong, of that there is no doubt, but somehow, in spite of monolithic barriers, obstructions, hurdles and gatekeepers, Truth is spreading like wildfire, like a virus that has no man-made vaccine to stop its spreading. A fire inside us grows, unable to be extinguished, unable to be contained, spreading from person to person, eye to eye, mind to mind, hurdling over propaganda and manipulation, smear jobs and our lifelong imposed conditioning. Slowly, our chains are eroding, our minds are becoming free, our eyes see Truth, beyond the curtain of fiction and brainwashing. 9/11 Truth is setting us free, it is allowing our lungs to once again breathe the pure oxygen deprived to us for decades. Millions join our cause, millions see reality for the first time in their lives. It is invigorating, it is addicting, it is powerful and it is enthralling. Truth is setting us free, it is helping us climb up the mountaintop, from where a new beginning can be seen, from where Truth and Justice for what was done on 9/11 can be found.
An awakening is indeed upon us, we simply have to make it so. We see wrong and seek to make it right. We see change and want to continue on our path. All roads lead to a new America, a new world, an Earth where humanity finally decides to evolve beyond its primitiveness, beyond a humanity of many different worlds, beyond the catastrophe that has befallen us in the present. The system offers only smears to our evidence, it offers pundits and lackeys to our experts and witnesses, it offers propaganda and a controlled media to our Truth. Their methods no longer work, for our army of eyes and ears and legs and minds has come together, in unison, becoming an unstoppable momentum whose time has come, whose idea is finally upon us, having reached critical mass.
It is in this context, then, that the essay below should be read. An Awakening is indeed upon us, let it guide our way.
With Truth Comes Awakening
The suppression of truth has long been among the highest priorities for the upper echelons of power and authority. For a minority elite that clings to power by the manipulation of the masses using an omnipresent cocktail of lies, deception, mass-produced ignorance and ingrained propaganda, the destruction of truth is an essential method of control. It is a formula that has worked to unmitigated success for the elite throughout history, whether the shadows of power stretch from ancient pyramids, marble temples, castles, mansions or halls of governance. Those holding the levers of power and control understand, better than most, that the dissemination of truths to a blind majority could spell the end of their reign, for truth brings sight to the blind.
These entities understand that truth is like a massive breath of fresh mountain air, pure and energizing, refreshing and invigorating, and that once inhaled by the masses, the balance of control can easily be disturbed and seriously threatened. Revolution of the many against the few oftentimes results, mostly to the enormous detriment of the powerful. They know that widespread circulation of the truths of what they have done in the past and are at present doing to the majority could light a flame onto a massive cauldron overflowing with dry kindling, sparking an enormous inferno of anger. Truth, in short, could lead to an awakening of hundreds of millions of human beings who for too long have had their minds held captive by the instruments of control used by those in power.
It is for this reason that truth is hidden, fought, ridiculed, destroyed and suppressed, why it is emaciated and torn to bits, why its advocates and defenders are smeared, ostracized and silenced, their reputations purposefully shattered, their lives picked apart and criticized. Truth must never be allowed to gain momentum or be exposed, which is why truth seekers must be made examples. Those in power will fight tooth and nail to destroy the messenger of truth, yet will never answer the questions or investigate the proposition presented by the message itself. Better that truth remain a microcosm of darkness in the American subconscious rather that it be allowed to sprout from the fertile soils of free-thinking minds.
Thus, as can readily be seen on a daily basis, both in the corporatist stenograph called the mass media and inside the halls of governance – for those willing to open their eyes and see, for those that have escaped the slavery of thought – is the perpetual attempt to make extinct all traces of inconvenient truths that might upset the long-standing balance that maintains the few in mastery over the many. The crimes of the elite over the masses must never see light of day. Truth, therefore, is and always will remain the true enemy of those in power; lies, propaganda, manipulation and ignorance are their weapons, the methods by which they have always ruled over the masses, the master key to control.
So it comes as no surprise that over the course of the last sixty years, since the inception of television, since the rise of the military-industrial-energy complex, since the growth and corruption of the corporate world, since the marriage of government with the corporate world, better known as fascism, that all manner of truth has been hidden in the deep recesses of America’s black holes and tight-locked vaults.
In order to keep the beautiful minds of Americans from being distracted, upset or informed, in order to prevent truth from ever reaching the cauldron of mass awakening, the corporate media has purposefully been mutated into a propaganda and manipulation machine unlike the world has ever seen. Mass media has become, in the course of a few decades, a tool of dumbed-down distraction, suppression of truth, creator of ignorance, disseminator of disinformation and a stenograph for the corporatist elements that rule America. It is, quite simply, the elite’s evolved mechanism of control that maintains the masses in quiet and unknown servitude.
There is no innocence and altruism with the corporate media; it has been designed for one purpose: to control human beings, from cradle to grave, to the dictates of our corporatist masters, making us over the course of our lives obedient consumers, producers and slaves to the corporate world. It has been designed, through years of trial and error, to make of us all a grandiose army of good Americans, compliant, acquiescent, passive and ignorant, a nation of serfs in feudal servitude to corporatist lords.
Make no mistake, to those governing over our lives, we are nothing but the cogs in the system of consumer and producer, nothing but the energy that feeds the giant engine of mass production and consumption that only serves to fatten the wallets of the corporatist world and the levers of control over our lives. Thus, inconvenient truths about their methods of control and manipulation will always be massacred in favor of charades and fictions, in favor of propaganda and dumbed down infotainment, lest the truth of what America has become be allowed to permeate throughout the dormant minds of 300 million citizens.
Yet truth always has a way of unearthing itself from the mass graves of suppression, for its virtue, and by consequence its pursuit, is inherent in the minds and spirit of billions of human beings. The thirst for truth is as human as the hunger for justice. It is an absolute of the human experience, especially in the wake of lies and known deceptions, when those in power seek to squash it or when evidence proves incontrovertible. Thus, truth is a passion sought when experience, knowledge, research and the naked eye tell us that the lies and deceits bombarded into our lives do not make sense. For truth does not lie, as evidence and facts and the unmistakable laws of science point in a certain direction, toward a certain reality. Truth in the usurpation of justice compels the human spirit to pursue it unequivocally, in an attempt to right what has been made wrong, to restore justice where it has been trampled.
Human beings do not respond well to lies and deception, and the bigger the lie, the more malignant the truth, the greater is the quest to uncover what has been hidden, especially when the truth is as self-evident to common sense as to logic and reason and analysis and research. Humankind, by and large, craves the truth in everyday life, detesting lies, charades and manipulations. We also seek the concepts of justice where injustice dwells, desiring to bring justice to a world we know is full of injustice. The quest for truth and justice compels us forward, brings us strength, mobilizes energy and unites truth seekers.
It is our love for humankind, our respect for life, our desire for a better world, our hatred of wickedness and injustice and deception and all the evils the truth we seek has created and brought forth that compels in us the responsibility to bring honor and dignity to those whose voice and energy have been silenced, to bring justice to criminals and murderers and malfeasant evildoers, to restore balance to a tilting world, to awaken those yet to see the grand lie for what it is, to bring bravery to those still too frightened of the consequences of knowing the truth.
Catastrophe of a Post 9/11 World
Most importantly, perhaps, those that already know the truth – as horrible as its reality is, as mind bending as its ramifications are – those whose minds have been emancipated beyond the lies, distortions, manipulations and massive propaganda, fight to expose the truth and free the minds of tens of millions of Americans because they see what it has wrought, what it has spawned in the name of every American citizen. They see new Pearl Harbors leading to perpetual war and perpetual fear for perpetual profit, power and control. They see a century-long war on concocted dark skinned enemies from alien lands, conveniently scapegoated as America’s new bogeyman, conveniently living atop billions of barrels of petroleum, their lands strategic and vital for the aspirations of a delusional empire. They see the purposeful murder of their fellow countrymen as the marketing ploy by which empire seekers unleash hell on Earth, resulting in untold death, suffering and ever-growing levels of hatred against American citizens.
They see the destruction of America as we know it. They see the decimation of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, the shredding of civil liberties and rights, the rape of Lady Liberty, the extinction of habeas corpus and due process. They see a future saturated by a police state, a place where neighbor spies on neighbor, where children are programmed in the tenets of fascism. They see once cherished freedoms criminalized, the ability to think freely eviscerated. They see a nation controlled by perpetual fear, with a corporatist government controlling how we think and act using color-coded alerts and false alarms designed to terrorize the citizenry into giving up even more freedoms. They see a century of psychological war upon the American people by our own leaders, using their power to concoct wars based on lies, using their control over us to murder hundreds of thousands of human beings, all the while imprisoning us further in the cages of authoritarian rule.
They see America’s rural and urban poor, young in mind and body, conscripted into perpetuity, their destiny becoming cannon fodder for their corporatist masters, dying not for freedom’s ring or democracy’s protection but for protecting pipelines, spigots and the ballooning profits of the military industrial energy complex. The Truth Movement sees thousands of lives once promising and full of talent wasted killing innocent people, sent to die unprotected into a burning inferno, believing lies of protecting freedoms and bringing democracy, returning home maimed in body and mind, deep psychological fissures ripping through their minds and lives, left to rot in the halls of apathy and corruption.
What truth seekers see, and which so many so-called left gatekeepers, writers, reporters and intellectuals fail to comprehend, is that the inside job of 9/11, for that is what this truth is called, allowed predetermined and planned wars of aggression to become reality. It allowed a decades-long plan of perpetual war and fear and empire building and mass murder to begin, and continue relentlessly, leaving the American people as the sacrificial lambs to blowback, karmic terror and untold sacrifice. The new Pearl Harbor, for that is what 9/11 was, was but the first bomb to explode in a psychological war aimed at the American people. Indeed, 9/11 was designed, like the Reichstag fire in 1930’s Nazi Germany, and as other false flag operations throughout history, as the first salvo in a war of propaganda and fear upon the American people. Without exposing the criminality, 9/11 will not be the last attack by the enemy within against the American people. If left unchecked, America as we know it will not survive. Indeed, if not stopped, we will not see peace and security in our lifetimes. This post 9/11 world vision will never cease, taking us all down with it, including our children, who will one day wonder what freedoms and rights were.
It was 9/11, after all, that shifted our world into what we have today. Without 9/11, the American people would have never become the crazed and hypnotized warmongers that they inevitably became, allowing criminals and murderers in government to invade, attack and occupy lands that had no reason for attack. Hypnotized inside the clouds of 9/11 and easily manipulated by terror and insecurity, the American people gave the criminals and murderers in power free reign to murder and pillage and rape and torture and destroy in our name. 9/11 allowed Bush and his cabal of criminality carte blanche to do as they pleased, unrestricted and unquestioned, given power never before granted a group of individuals. This impact on the American populace 9/11 was specifically designed to achieve.
With the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq having been green-lighted many months before 9/11 even came into existence, the criminals and murderers in the military-industrial-energy complex and the pro Likud/AIPAC neoconservative needed a catalyzing event that would mobilize the American citizenry, turning hundreds of millions of ordinary, peace loving people into the united voice demanding vengeance and death to the Arab world. Quite conveniently, those lands the cabal of criminality sought to conquer were the exact ones the concocted enemy was from.
Through 9/11, the American population would enter a submissive, acquiescent and warlike state, becoming the army of good Americans our rulers have always dreamed of possessing. 9/11 allowed America and her people to be hypnotized by a catalyzing event that was played and replayed hundreds of times, thereby ingraining itself into the American psyche. Propaganda in the corporatist controlled mass media made sure to hammer down its horrors, its wickedness, its masterminds and its reasons. A new enemy had been created; new excuses were discovered as to why they had attacked us: they hate us for our freedoms, for our democracy, for our way of life the talking heads exhaled. Fear on steroids was allowed to permeate the airwaves, as always making sure to emphasize who the enemy was, as always hiding uncomfortable truths from ever coming to light. It was our government, not the so- called evildoers, that since 2001 has blitzkrieged terror into our daily lives. It is it, more than anything else, that is the real terrorist organization. Much of the world already acknowledges this reality.
The massive propaganda machine of the corporatist world was unleashed, night and day, on a bewildered and frightened populace. The war on terror had been born, an enemy had been found to replace the dreaded Communist, and scapegoats were chosen to have the fires of hell unleashed onto their lands. In a matter of days after 9/11, the dreaded Patriot Act was introduced and soon passed, at once decimating many civil liberties and rights of Americans. Yet nobody bothered to ask how a document so extensive and complicated, so massive in its regulations and laws, was written in such a short amount of time after 9/11. For if it had been written before 9/11, as many suspect, would this not invite suggestions of premeditation and foreknowledge, of a desire to destroy liberties and freedoms, waiting patiently for a new Pearl Harbor to do just that?
With the oil fields of Iraq and quite possibly Iran having been carved up and selected for exploitation by American and British oil conglomerates months before 9/11, in the Cheney Energy Task Force, with the Taliban given an ultimatum to open up Afghanistan to American oil and gas pipelines, with a choice of either riches or war in the months prior to 9/11, and with the Bush Administration negligently unconcerned with terrorism prior to 9/11, yet fully committed to war with Iraq, as per PNAC and the neocons, only the arrival of a new Pearl Harbor was needed to implement what has since occurred.
With the arrival of 9/11 the world changed for the worse, with the United States expanding its power, reaching with imperial ambitions abroad while extending its corporatist tentacles at home. The PNAC blueprint was implemented and to this day continues to guide many of the policies the Bush administration has in place. With so many PNAC members, known as neocons, at one time or another given powerful positions in the Bush administration, with so many of these criminals and murderers roaming the halls of governance, it is easy to see how 9/11 became a new Pearl Harbor, a new catalyzing event that transformed the American psyche. It is easy to see how a new Pearl Harbor became the invasion and occupation of both Afghanistan and Iraq. Only the laughable incompetence and ignorance of the neocons, along with the massive, well organized and brutal resistance of Iraq’s freedom fighters, have prevented the timely continuation of the neocon agenda.
An Unearthing
The events and reality of 9/11 can no longer be questioned. The only conspiracy theory is the “official” one, for it makes no sense. To believe the official story, the official “truth”, one would have to suspend reality, entering into Fantasyland, drinking the corporate world’s kool-aid, believing a government that has not told one truth in almost seven years of office. To believe the corporatist version, one would have to overlook the myriad number of truths, or coincidences, any of which standing alone disprove the official story. To believe a government, and by complicity the mass media, that has not once told a truth about any of its activities, choosing instead to ignore, omit and hide facts that do not validate the official story, choosing to smear and taint the lives of truth seekers instead of confronting and trying to challenge their truth, cherry picking facts much like they cherry picked facts on Iraq before it was invaded, is to purposefully decide to live in delusion, as if the official conspiracy theory is sacrosanct. The laws of common sense, physics, logic, reason, and of evidence, both physical and of countless witnesses, not to mention the knowledge of experts, would have to be abandoned and rewritten for the official conspiracy theory to survive scrutiny.
The destruction and implosion of the Twin Towers, falling into their own footprints, along with the destruction of WTC 7 by controlled demolition on 9/11 is now a self evident truth. This truth is no conspiracy theory, as the corporatist media would have us believe. It is quite obvious and apparent, to those whose eyes have been opened and whose minds have found freedom of thought. Sure, it is not easy to fathom that the government of your nation, the one you grew up thinking was altruistic and noble, good and virtuous, free of evil and wickedness, could ever be capable of destroying the lives of 3000 of your fellow citizens in order to have an excuse for perpetual war, perpetual fear and perpetual profit that will benefit only a small elite.
Unfortunately, the government of your childhood and of your delusions is one that has been inculcated into your head from birth through brainwashing and propaganda. In reality, it is a government that cares not one ounce for you or your fellow citizens, preferring to golf and fundraise while your city drowns in massive Katrina created floods, leaving you to rot in the squalor of sewage and human chaos. The government of your youth and dreams is one that has firebombed entire cities to rubble, killing hundreds of thousands in Germany and Japan. It is the only government to use nuclear weapons on foreign cities. It is the government that murdered 3 million Vietnamese and planted the seeds for Pol Pot to kill millions of Cambodians. It is the government that has decimated democracy in the Philippines and Indonesia, helping to suppress freedoms, assisting in destroying hundreds of thousands of lives.
This government of your fantasy has never cared about democracy or freedom, over the last fifty years overthrowing more than fifty democratically elected leaders of nations, either by coup, assassination or economic measures. As always, of course, these democratically elected leaders are replaced by military juntas, dictators, strongmen and puppets of our choice, picked because of their fidelity foremost to American interests, not those of their people. This government of yours, the one incapable of murdering 3,000 of its own citizens for economic, strategic and financial motives, has participated in or contributed in the death of one to two million souls in Central and South America, either through its dictators or its sponsored death squads or paramilitary thugs, never allowing Latin America the opportunity to prosper.
The altruistic government you cherish cares so much about human rights and freedoms that its multitude number of dictators and puppets are renowned for their human rights violations and their suppression of civil liberties and freedoms. The Middle East, that land of the Arab you hate so much, is a cesspool of torture, abuses, human rights violations and lack of freedoms, all supported by the puppets, kings and dictators your government is in bed with. Your government is the government most despised around the world after the one in Israel, thanks to its newfound affection with torture, mass murder, the preemptive invasion and occupation of Iraq, the death of one million of its citizens, the displacement of two million more and the importation of hell on Earth into its streets. Through a war of choice, based on lies and criminality, a civil war ready to burst and engulf an entire region in flames is afoot, yet your altruistic government is on the verge of attacking Iran, a nation that poses no military threat to America.
Indeed, the government of our childhood and of our delusions cares nothing for its people. Simply look at the way it treats its heroes, its bravest, those maimed and injured and psychologically destroyed by war and its human wickedness. Simply admire the conditions at Walter Reid and at many other such places. Notice too how many Vietnam and now Iraq veterans roam the streets of our cities homeless, with no place to go, no job, no life, forced to confront the evils of war through firewater or narcotics. Look at a veteran’s anguished face after he has been subjected to Agent Orange, or Depleted Uranium, or used as a lab rat or guinea pig in radiation experiments or anthrax vaccines and see how his body and mind deteriorate until he dies of what your government has subjected him to.
This government of the people, by the people and for the people, instead of using its vast wealth on education and healthcare and infrastructure and on providing decent jobs for its citizens, instead pillages the nation’s treasury, sending billions upon billions to the war machine destroying one nation after another. These billions, of course, end up in the accounts of war profiteers and elites and the cronies of the cabal of criminality, quickly made to disappear into foreign bank accounts. You, on the other hand, are but an automaton to your government, castrated of free thought, saturated with brainwash education, made conformist, complacent and acquiescent, transformed into the ignorant sheeple trained to be the obedient mass consumer and producer that guides the entire system forward. Meanwhile, year after year education rots, healthcare is made worse, infrastructure depreciates and the overall well-being of the nation plummets. This, indeed, is your government.
The Pursuit of Truth
The unearthing of truth can be an unsettling proposition, causing bouts of anger and animosity towards the truth seeker. Denial and the closing of the mind to new truths usually follows, as does ridicule of truth, suppression of it and fighting of it until one day, in the not too distant future, beyond the morning horizon, a sunrise suddenly appears, full of radiant light, warm in its glow, powerful in its brightness, ready to guide you forward. This is the moment of truth, when one finally reaches toward the sky, his or her mind suddenly made clear, now unafraid of what the truth may mean for a once beautiful mind.
The truth you have been fighting suddenly becomes self evident, bringing you the freedom of thought, of mind, of thinking for yourself for the first time in your life. You have fought against and declared victory against the pathology of years of brainwashing, of constant bombardments of propaganda, of being told to always have unyielding faith and loyalty in governance. With the warm rays of truth, you are no longer a slave to the system, a mere robot regurgitating the thoughts implanted in your head by the monitor in your home. You can now see what years of conditioning have prevented you from knowing, of a government far different than the one you were made to believe in. It is a government of the elite, for the elite and by the elite, pursuing the interests of the elite and the corporate world that now controls the hallways of power.
In your own research and investigation, using the full powers of the Internet at your disposal, using the free thinking mind you were born with, you discover the self-evident reality of 9/11. You watch videos of towers imploding and collapsing, of WTC 7 being demolished masterfully, as if experts in controlled demolitions were at hand. You wonder why air defenses failed so miserably even when hundreds of times before everything worked to perfection. You wonder how one of the most protected buildings in the world was struck so easily and without defense; yet in one of the most secure buildings in the country not one clear video exists of footage supporting the official conspiracy theory. You read about and become aware of the plethora of inconsistencies in the official conspiracy theory, and you realized how taken together, nothing adds up. You ask yourself who benefited most from the 9/11 attacks, and suddenly enemies within our own shores rise from the World Trade Center’s rubble.
In scanning the Internet for answers to government fictions you suspect of being lies, you see that the 9/11 Truth Movement is gaining momentum, gaining strength in numbers, for you see that more and more people are actually reading, observing, doing their own research and finding out that what they thought they knew simply does not and cannot possibly add up. You realize that more than one hundred million Americans doubt the official conspiracy theory, and that millions more are beginning to question whether or not it was an inside job. You see too that very few Americans, indeed, very few human beings, are aware that there even existed a WTC 7, and that it fell in perfect symmetry, into its own footprint, in classic controlled demolition style, even with minimal damage to its integrity, with insignificant fire damage. And you notice too that video for this demolition is readily available, from multiple angles, yet continues to be suppressed by the corporatist media, for reasons having to do with ignoring truth and disseminating the official fiction. Indeed, when WTC 7 is brought to the corporatist media’s attention, it is quickly returned to the black hole of silence, as if its reality never existed.
You wonder why the corporatist media is so quick to go after the personal lives and personalities of those who question the official story while choosing to remain silent on the questions presented by the truth seekers. You see the corporatist media smear and try to destroy the credibility of those that challenge the official story, and you wonder what is it exactly that these stenographers have to hide. You wonder why no corporatist journalist or news organization has taken it upon themselves to conduct a thorough and intensive examination of the events of that day, and why only the official conspiracy theory is given relevance, as if it is sacrosanct, untouchable. Meanwhile, any other theories or realities, most of which have more basis in truth than the official story, are bashed as the stuff of conspiracy theorists, become pariahs and are never given the light of day. What does the corporatist media have to hide, you ask, and who are they protecting?
Your research leads you to the gatekeepers of the left, those that feel the need to chastise and ridicule the Truth Movement, as if they want to make names for themselves, as if only they are allowed to know the truth, as if their arrogance has led them to believe the Almighty speaks through them. You realize instead that these bozos know very little about anything, and many, while competent enough, got their voices only through nepotism and connections, not because of their egocentric ability. You notice how these individuals smear the movement and resort to name calling, yet fail to comprehensibly put together a valid refutation of the Truth Movement’s claims. You understand their vested interests, you see through them, you decide to ignore them even though they provide a valuable tool in the discussion and debate of 9/11. After all, this is America, and everybody is entitled to freedoms of speech and thought and dissent and debate. You just hope these freedoms are not the next ones to disappear into oblivion.
Truth, invariably, is ridiculed, silenced, fought and eventually, accepted. The 9/11 Truth Movement is no different, for its foundation is constructed of solid granite, based on sound research and investigation. The Movement grows and grows and, no matter how hard the corporatist media and its agents try to slow down its momentum or halt it altogether, more and more Americans are becoming aware of its existence. The Movement cannot be silenced, for truth cannot be destroyed. What was done on 9/11 was a declaration of war against the American people, by internal enemies that have hijacked government, our freedoms and rights, and the Constitution. The Movement exists because it sees the dangers of leaving those in power unpunished, of doing nothing, of letting human wickedness continue. It flourishes because millions seek justice, truth and humanity, a better America, a better world.
Every act of criminality done in the past six years has as its genesis the horrific mass murder of 9/11. Every illegal war, every act of torture, illegal imprisonment, destruction of rights and freedoms, all mass murder done in America’s name is attributed to the destruction of the Twin Towers. If the enemy within is capable of such barbarity, if they had the audacity to perpetuate the greatest crime in American history, all to implement their delusional vision, all to enrich and empower their fellow criminals, what is to say that they will not do it again, in greater capacity, killing in greater numbers? One more so-called attack on American soil will destroy the America that we have lived in and enjoy, the one we love and cherish, the one of internal freedoms and rights, of the pursuit of happiness, the one enjoyed by present day citizens.
Already American democracy and freedom are in their last throes, hemorrhaging from years of corporatist mutilation. Elections have become a sham, a farce. Freedoms are disappearing, becoming extinct. The enemy within wishes for nothing more than an authoritarian, fascist nation, the easier to make decisions, the easier to implement their vision, the easier to control the population. The enemy within detests democracy, and this we must understand. Democracy and freedom are enemies. Ask yourself who has been the organization destroying our democracy and freedoms, our civil rights and liberties? Who has enacted Patriot Acts One and Two, who has destroyed due process, right to an attorney, habeas corpus? Who has tried to silence truth, dissent, protest and free speech? Who has made torture legal, false imprisonment necessary, confessions by torture legal and evidence concocted through hearsay or torture legal? Who has made it legal to spy on American citizens, opening our email accounts, overhearing our phone conversations, looking into our lives? It has not been the dreaded Arab evildoers. It has been the Bush administration. It has been your own government.
The truth is apparent, it can no longer be denied. The 9/11 Truth Movement thrives because it has truth and a quest for justice on its side. It has the power of the naked eye, for WTC 7 video footage cannot lie. It has physics, science, witnesses and research into government action and inaction. It has technology, experts and whistleblowers. It has honor, integrity and momentum. Of course there will always be 30 percent of the population that will never be made to believe in the criminality of its right wing heroes, even if the button for the controlled demolitions is put in front of their face. These 30 percent are sheeple, individuals comprising the army of good Americans, the most ignorant and closed minded people around. The Movement will never convince them. The challenge is reaching the millions who do have free-thinking minds, those who can put common sense and science and reason together.
The challenge ahead will not be easy, but the powerful never make it easy. They never grant the masses anything of value. We have to fight for it ourselves. Every civil liberty and right and freedom gained in the last century was achieved through the Power of the People. This Movement will be no different. Those that are our masters concede nothing, they take everything. They will throw obstacles at us, they will threaten and ridicule us, try to destroy our reputations and integrity. They will use the full power of the corporatist media to try and divide us, to divert us, to deceive us, to manipulate us. United we stand strong, divided we will fall. Strength in numbers, strength in conviction, it is time to bring these criminals and murderers to justice.
For what is braver, questioning authority or following it? What is more convenient, thinking for oneself or believing only what television wants you to believe? Who is more a patriot, the person who challenges the blatant lies of leaders in times of trouble or the person who obediently believes everything he is told him by a government that has not once told the truth? What is a true patriot, those that read the Constitution and seek to bring a bad government into account or someone who stands next to the flag and blindly follows the known criminality of the Commander in Chief? It is those that dissent and protest and debate, because they love their freedoms and rights, while being called traitor and treasonous and terrorist that are the true patriots of America. There are millions of them across the land, fighting to expose the greatest crime ever committed upon the American people, fighting to restore what has been and continues to be lost.
It is they who show the bravery and courage and strength and willingness to tolerate the smears and ridicule that are slowly, but surely, helping to return America to its rightful owners, namely, the People. It is these Truth Seekers whom history will remember as the ones responsible for ridding America of its greatest enemies, those that lie embedded within our shores, inside the cabal of criminality. When the day comes, and it soon will, when 9/11 is exposed for the inside job that it was, America and her people, and by consequence the world entire will smell the clear, pure mountain air of a truth too long hidden, of a sunrise giving birth to a new nation, a restored nation, returned to her People, where truth and justice prevails, where the Power of the People is omnipotent, where the interests of the People prevail, where criminals and murderers sit waiting in the gallows, waiting for the justice of 6,000 dead Americans and 1,000,000 dead Iraqis to be reclaimed.
The restoration of America thus begins with truth. Its unearthing is underway. America’s awakening will inevitably follow.
Authors Website: www. valenzuelasveritas. blogspot. com
Authors Bio: Manuel Valenzuela is a social critic and commentator, international affairs analyst and Internet essayist. His articles as well as his archive can be found at his blog, http://www. valenzuelasveritas. blogspot. com as well as at other alternative news websites from around the globe. Mr. Valenzuela welcomes comments and can be reached at manuel@valenzuelas.net. Mr. Valenzuela is also author of Echoes in the Wind, a novel made available at most online book sellers and at Authorhouse. com.
From: Pamela's Protest
Date: Dec 18, 2008 7:14 PM
The Unearthing: An Awakening has Arrived
By Manuel Valenzuela
Preface
Since the publication of "The Unearthing" in April 2007, the Truth Movement has continued to gain momentum, contrary to everything Truth deniers and obstructionists do and say to try and stop Truth's exponential surge. Like the snowball effect, the movement continues to grow in numbers, reaching unprecedented gains, seemingly catapulting expectations and offering proof that the more people see Truth, the greater the hunger for Justice and the search for Change. The Truth Movement has begun to reach critical mass, in spite of the system's hurdles and vast propaganda apparatus, in spite of its entrenched censorship and gatekeeping machinery.
Truth, it has now become apparent, cannot be contained, it cannot be silenced, it cannot be imprisoned. The subsequent search for Justice, the second quest in our Movement, just like her sister Truth, likewise cannot be squashed. For Justice for 3,000 murdered victims and for those 9/11 First Responders now dying and suffering is a thirst our species seeks to satisfy. Attaining Truth and Justice, when both have been hijacked, are principles embedded in every decent human being, for these are part of what makes us what we are, what makes us, though at times primitive, a great species to behold, with so much to offer Earth, with so much potential and universal capacity for good.
In 9/11 Truth and Justice we see how millions of us seek a better way, a clean break from our present course of being, an opportunity to alter the course of a sinking ship. The Movement grows because, deep inside, we abhor corruption, criminality, malfeasance and tyranny; we detest injustice, inequality and oppression of the mind. We understand, as all people with free thinking minds, that 9/11 represents a clash between true freedom of the human spirit, not its charade or its myth, and continued enslavement of our lives and minds. This battle between two mutually exclusive destinies lies at the heart of our pursuit for Truth and Justice. We are at war, We the People against They the Powerful. In this battle the future of America, indeed, of billions of souls, will be decided. In this battlefield, they have propaganda, infrastructure, media and power. We have Truth, energy, momentum and Strength in Numbers. We have an unquenchable hunger for change, for discovering the possibility of our potential, of escaping what has been, of reaching what can be.
What the impotent antiwar leadership cannot offer, the Truth Movement has surpassed tenfold, a result of cooperation among hundreds of professions and disciplines, each containing millions of minds and eyes, slowly deciphering the charades and the lies, eviscerating manipulations and propaganda, methodically constructing a Tower of Truth no government institution or neocon shill can demolish. The Net has become our weapon of mass awakening, our printing press hammering down the cathedrals of control and long-embedded power. Through it we are one enormous collective brain, one giant body created from an amalgam of tens of millions of human beings, moving in unity, in synchonization, with the understanding that we are one indivisible whole, altering the balance of power like never before, slowly strangulating the criminal element in our society, robbing it of oxygen and energy.
Springing up in all corners of America, indeed, the world, the Movement grows and grows, unstoppable even in the face of continous smears and censorship, in spite of every obstacle the criminal element throws our way. Their methods no longer work, for Truth is a million times stronger than anything they can throw at us. Truth, it seems, is the flame, the fire that cannot be extinguished. 9/11 Truth, it seems, is the catalyst, the genesis, of a new way forward, a new beginning to a nation that has become an evil onto the world. For it is when the People fight back that Power backs down. It is when we rise that they fall. And it is when we take to the streets that they relent and bow down to our demands. Freedom is never simply granted, it must be sought and fought. And so it is with Truth and Justice. Alone, power gives nothing. Challenged, it gives you everything.
The system's apparatus is entrenched and strong, of that there is no doubt, but somehow, in spite of monolithic barriers, obstructions, hurdles and gatekeepers, Truth is spreading like wildfire, like a virus that has no man-made vaccine to stop its spreading. A fire inside us grows, unable to be extinguished, unable to be contained, spreading from person to person, eye to eye, mind to mind, hurdling over propaganda and manipulation, smear jobs and our lifelong imposed conditioning. Slowly, our chains are eroding, our minds are becoming free, our eyes see Truth, beyond the curtain of fiction and brainwashing. 9/11 Truth is setting us free, it is allowing our lungs to once again breathe the pure oxygen deprived to us for decades. Millions join our cause, millions see reality for the first time in their lives. It is invigorating, it is addicting, it is powerful and it is enthralling. Truth is setting us free, it is helping us climb up the mountaintop, from where a new beginning can be seen, from where Truth and Justice for what was done on 9/11 can be found.
An awakening is indeed upon us, we simply have to make it so. We see wrong and seek to make it right. We see change and want to continue on our path. All roads lead to a new America, a new world, an Earth where humanity finally decides to evolve beyond its primitiveness, beyond a humanity of many different worlds, beyond the catastrophe that has befallen us in the present. The system offers only smears to our evidence, it offers pundits and lackeys to our experts and witnesses, it offers propaganda and a controlled media to our Truth. Their methods no longer work, for our army of eyes and ears and legs and minds has come together, in unison, becoming an unstoppable momentum whose time has come, whose idea is finally upon us, having reached critical mass.
It is in this context, then, that the essay below should be read. An Awakening is indeed upon us, let it guide our way.
With Truth Comes Awakening
The suppression of truth has long been among the highest priorities for the upper echelons of power and authority. For a minority elite that clings to power by the manipulation of the masses using an omnipresent cocktail of lies, deception, mass-produced ignorance and ingrained propaganda, the destruction of truth is an essential method of control. It is a formula that has worked to unmitigated success for the elite throughout history, whether the shadows of power stretch from ancient pyramids, marble temples, castles, mansions or halls of governance. Those holding the levers of power and control understand, better than most, that the dissemination of truths to a blind majority could spell the end of their reign, for truth brings sight to the blind.
These entities understand that truth is like a massive breath of fresh mountain air, pure and energizing, refreshing and invigorating, and that once inhaled by the masses, the balance of control can easily be disturbed and seriously threatened. Revolution of the many against the few oftentimes results, mostly to the enormous detriment of the powerful. They know that widespread circulation of the truths of what they have done in the past and are at present doing to the majority could light a flame onto a massive cauldron overflowing with dry kindling, sparking an enormous inferno of anger. Truth, in short, could lead to an awakening of hundreds of millions of human beings who for too long have had their minds held captive by the instruments of control used by those in power.
It is for this reason that truth is hidden, fought, ridiculed, destroyed and suppressed, why it is emaciated and torn to bits, why its advocates and defenders are smeared, ostracized and silenced, their reputations purposefully shattered, their lives picked apart and criticized. Truth must never be allowed to gain momentum or be exposed, which is why truth seekers must be made examples. Those in power will fight tooth and nail to destroy the messenger of truth, yet will never answer the questions or investigate the proposition presented by the message itself. Better that truth remain a microcosm of darkness in the American subconscious rather that it be allowed to sprout from the fertile soils of free-thinking minds.
Thus, as can readily be seen on a daily basis, both in the corporatist stenograph called the mass media and inside the halls of governance – for those willing to open their eyes and see, for those that have escaped the slavery of thought – is the perpetual attempt to make extinct all traces of inconvenient truths that might upset the long-standing balance that maintains the few in mastery over the many. The crimes of the elite over the masses must never see light of day. Truth, therefore, is and always will remain the true enemy of those in power; lies, propaganda, manipulation and ignorance are their weapons, the methods by which they have always ruled over the masses, the master key to control.
So it comes as no surprise that over the course of the last sixty years, since the inception of television, since the rise of the military-industrial-energy complex, since the growth and corruption of the corporate world, since the marriage of government with the corporate world, better known as fascism, that all manner of truth has been hidden in the deep recesses of America’s black holes and tight-locked vaults.
In order to keep the beautiful minds of Americans from being distracted, upset or informed, in order to prevent truth from ever reaching the cauldron of mass awakening, the corporate media has purposefully been mutated into a propaganda and manipulation machine unlike the world has ever seen. Mass media has become, in the course of a few decades, a tool of dumbed-down distraction, suppression of truth, creator of ignorance, disseminator of disinformation and a stenograph for the corporatist elements that rule America. It is, quite simply, the elite’s evolved mechanism of control that maintains the masses in quiet and unknown servitude.
There is no innocence and altruism with the corporate media; it has been designed for one purpose: to control human beings, from cradle to grave, to the dictates of our corporatist masters, making us over the course of our lives obedient consumers, producers and slaves to the corporate world. It has been designed, through years of trial and error, to make of us all a grandiose army of good Americans, compliant, acquiescent, passive and ignorant, a nation of serfs in feudal servitude to corporatist lords.
Make no mistake, to those governing over our lives, we are nothing but the cogs in the system of consumer and producer, nothing but the energy that feeds the giant engine of mass production and consumption that only serves to fatten the wallets of the corporatist world and the levers of control over our lives. Thus, inconvenient truths about their methods of control and manipulation will always be massacred in favor of charades and fictions, in favor of propaganda and dumbed down infotainment, lest the truth of what America has become be allowed to permeate throughout the dormant minds of 300 million citizens.
Yet truth always has a way of unearthing itself from the mass graves of suppression, for its virtue, and by consequence its pursuit, is inherent in the minds and spirit of billions of human beings. The thirst for truth is as human as the hunger for justice. It is an absolute of the human experience, especially in the wake of lies and known deceptions, when those in power seek to squash it or when evidence proves incontrovertible. Thus, truth is a passion sought when experience, knowledge, research and the naked eye tell us that the lies and deceits bombarded into our lives do not make sense. For truth does not lie, as evidence and facts and the unmistakable laws of science point in a certain direction, toward a certain reality. Truth in the usurpation of justice compels the human spirit to pursue it unequivocally, in an attempt to right what has been made wrong, to restore justice where it has been trampled.
Human beings do not respond well to lies and deception, and the bigger the lie, the more malignant the truth, the greater is the quest to uncover what has been hidden, especially when the truth is as self-evident to common sense as to logic and reason and analysis and research. Humankind, by and large, craves the truth in everyday life, detesting lies, charades and manipulations. We also seek the concepts of justice where injustice dwells, desiring to bring justice to a world we know is full of injustice. The quest for truth and justice compels us forward, brings us strength, mobilizes energy and unites truth seekers.
It is our love for humankind, our respect for life, our desire for a better world, our hatred of wickedness and injustice and deception and all the evils the truth we seek has created and brought forth that compels in us the responsibility to bring honor and dignity to those whose voice and energy have been silenced, to bring justice to criminals and murderers and malfeasant evildoers, to restore balance to a tilting world, to awaken those yet to see the grand lie for what it is, to bring bravery to those still too frightened of the consequences of knowing the truth.
Catastrophe of a Post 9/11 World
Most importantly, perhaps, those that already know the truth – as horrible as its reality is, as mind bending as its ramifications are – those whose minds have been emancipated beyond the lies, distortions, manipulations and massive propaganda, fight to expose the truth and free the minds of tens of millions of Americans because they see what it has wrought, what it has spawned in the name of every American citizen. They see new Pearl Harbors leading to perpetual war and perpetual fear for perpetual profit, power and control. They see a century-long war on concocted dark skinned enemies from alien lands, conveniently scapegoated as America’s new bogeyman, conveniently living atop billions of barrels of petroleum, their lands strategic and vital for the aspirations of a delusional empire. They see the purposeful murder of their fellow countrymen as the marketing ploy by which empire seekers unleash hell on Earth, resulting in untold death, suffering and ever-growing levels of hatred against American citizens.
They see the destruction of America as we know it. They see the decimation of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, the shredding of civil liberties and rights, the rape of Lady Liberty, the extinction of habeas corpus and due process. They see a future saturated by a police state, a place where neighbor spies on neighbor, where children are programmed in the tenets of fascism. They see once cherished freedoms criminalized, the ability to think freely eviscerated. They see a nation controlled by perpetual fear, with a corporatist government controlling how we think and act using color-coded alerts and false alarms designed to terrorize the citizenry into giving up even more freedoms. They see a century of psychological war upon the American people by our own leaders, using their power to concoct wars based on lies, using their control over us to murder hundreds of thousands of human beings, all the while imprisoning us further in the cages of authoritarian rule.
They see America’s rural and urban poor, young in mind and body, conscripted into perpetuity, their destiny becoming cannon fodder for their corporatist masters, dying not for freedom’s ring or democracy’s protection but for protecting pipelines, spigots and the ballooning profits of the military industrial energy complex. The Truth Movement sees thousands of lives once promising and full of talent wasted killing innocent people, sent to die unprotected into a burning inferno, believing lies of protecting freedoms and bringing democracy, returning home maimed in body and mind, deep psychological fissures ripping through their minds and lives, left to rot in the halls of apathy and corruption.
What truth seekers see, and which so many so-called left gatekeepers, writers, reporters and intellectuals fail to comprehend, is that the inside job of 9/11, for that is what this truth is called, allowed predetermined and planned wars of aggression to become reality. It allowed a decades-long plan of perpetual war and fear and empire building and mass murder to begin, and continue relentlessly, leaving the American people as the sacrificial lambs to blowback, karmic terror and untold sacrifice. The new Pearl Harbor, for that is what 9/11 was, was but the first bomb to explode in a psychological war aimed at the American people. Indeed, 9/11 was designed, like the Reichstag fire in 1930’s Nazi Germany, and as other false flag operations throughout history, as the first salvo in a war of propaganda and fear upon the American people. Without exposing the criminality, 9/11 will not be the last attack by the enemy within against the American people. If left unchecked, America as we know it will not survive. Indeed, if not stopped, we will not see peace and security in our lifetimes. This post 9/11 world vision will never cease, taking us all down with it, including our children, who will one day wonder what freedoms and rights were.
It was 9/11, after all, that shifted our world into what we have today. Without 9/11, the American people would have never become the crazed and hypnotized warmongers that they inevitably became, allowing criminals and murderers in government to invade, attack and occupy lands that had no reason for attack. Hypnotized inside the clouds of 9/11 and easily manipulated by terror and insecurity, the American people gave the criminals and murderers in power free reign to murder and pillage and rape and torture and destroy in our name. 9/11 allowed Bush and his cabal of criminality carte blanche to do as they pleased, unrestricted and unquestioned, given power never before granted a group of individuals. This impact on the American populace 9/11 was specifically designed to achieve.
With the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq having been green-lighted many months before 9/11 even came into existence, the criminals and murderers in the military-industrial-energy complex and the pro Likud/AIPAC neoconservative needed a catalyzing event that would mobilize the American citizenry, turning hundreds of millions of ordinary, peace loving people into the united voice demanding vengeance and death to the Arab world. Quite conveniently, those lands the cabal of criminality sought to conquer were the exact ones the concocted enemy was from.
Through 9/11, the American population would enter a submissive, acquiescent and warlike state, becoming the army of good Americans our rulers have always dreamed of possessing. 9/11 allowed America and her people to be hypnotized by a catalyzing event that was played and replayed hundreds of times, thereby ingraining itself into the American psyche. Propaganda in the corporatist controlled mass media made sure to hammer down its horrors, its wickedness, its masterminds and its reasons. A new enemy had been created; new excuses were discovered as to why they had attacked us: they hate us for our freedoms, for our democracy, for our way of life the talking heads exhaled. Fear on steroids was allowed to permeate the airwaves, as always making sure to emphasize who the enemy was, as always hiding uncomfortable truths from ever coming to light. It was our government, not the so- called evildoers, that since 2001 has blitzkrieged terror into our daily lives. It is it, more than anything else, that is the real terrorist organization. Much of the world already acknowledges this reality.
The massive propaganda machine of the corporatist world was unleashed, night and day, on a bewildered and frightened populace. The war on terror had been born, an enemy had been found to replace the dreaded Communist, and scapegoats were chosen to have the fires of hell unleashed onto their lands. In a matter of days after 9/11, the dreaded Patriot Act was introduced and soon passed, at once decimating many civil liberties and rights of Americans. Yet nobody bothered to ask how a document so extensive and complicated, so massive in its regulations and laws, was written in such a short amount of time after 9/11. For if it had been written before 9/11, as many suspect, would this not invite suggestions of premeditation and foreknowledge, of a desire to destroy liberties and freedoms, waiting patiently for a new Pearl Harbor to do just that?
With the oil fields of Iraq and quite possibly Iran having been carved up and selected for exploitation by American and British oil conglomerates months before 9/11, in the Cheney Energy Task Force, with the Taliban given an ultimatum to open up Afghanistan to American oil and gas pipelines, with a choice of either riches or war in the months prior to 9/11, and with the Bush Administration negligently unconcerned with terrorism prior to 9/11, yet fully committed to war with Iraq, as per PNAC and the neocons, only the arrival of a new Pearl Harbor was needed to implement what has since occurred.
With the arrival of 9/11 the world changed for the worse, with the United States expanding its power, reaching with imperial ambitions abroad while extending its corporatist tentacles at home. The PNAC blueprint was implemented and to this day continues to guide many of the policies the Bush administration has in place. With so many PNAC members, known as neocons, at one time or another given powerful positions in the Bush administration, with so many of these criminals and murderers roaming the halls of governance, it is easy to see how 9/11 became a new Pearl Harbor, a new catalyzing event that transformed the American psyche. It is easy to see how a new Pearl Harbor became the invasion and occupation of both Afghanistan and Iraq. Only the laughable incompetence and ignorance of the neocons, along with the massive, well organized and brutal resistance of Iraq’s freedom fighters, have prevented the timely continuation of the neocon agenda.
An Unearthing
The events and reality of 9/11 can no longer be questioned. The only conspiracy theory is the “official” one, for it makes no sense. To believe the official story, the official “truth”, one would have to suspend reality, entering into Fantasyland, drinking the corporate world’s kool-aid, believing a government that has not told one truth in almost seven years of office. To believe the corporatist version, one would have to overlook the myriad number of truths, or coincidences, any of which standing alone disprove the official story. To believe a government, and by complicity the mass media, that has not once told a truth about any of its activities, choosing instead to ignore, omit and hide facts that do not validate the official story, choosing to smear and taint the lives of truth seekers instead of confronting and trying to challenge their truth, cherry picking facts much like they cherry picked facts on Iraq before it was invaded, is to purposefully decide to live in delusion, as if the official conspiracy theory is sacrosanct. The laws of common sense, physics, logic, reason, and of evidence, both physical and of countless witnesses, not to mention the knowledge of experts, would have to be abandoned and rewritten for the official conspiracy theory to survive scrutiny.
The destruction and implosion of the Twin Towers, falling into their own footprints, along with the destruction of WTC 7 by controlled demolition on 9/11 is now a self evident truth. This truth is no conspiracy theory, as the corporatist media would have us believe. It is quite obvious and apparent, to those whose eyes have been opened and whose minds have found freedom of thought. Sure, it is not easy to fathom that the government of your nation, the one you grew up thinking was altruistic and noble, good and virtuous, free of evil and wickedness, could ever be capable of destroying the lives of 3000 of your fellow citizens in order to have an excuse for perpetual war, perpetual fear and perpetual profit that will benefit only a small elite.
Unfortunately, the government of your childhood and of your delusions is one that has been inculcated into your head from birth through brainwashing and propaganda. In reality, it is a government that cares not one ounce for you or your fellow citizens, preferring to golf and fundraise while your city drowns in massive Katrina created floods, leaving you to rot in the squalor of sewage and human chaos. The government of your youth and dreams is one that has firebombed entire cities to rubble, killing hundreds of thousands in Germany and Japan. It is the only government to use nuclear weapons on foreign cities. It is the government that murdered 3 million Vietnamese and planted the seeds for Pol Pot to kill millions of Cambodians. It is the government that has decimated democracy in the Philippines and Indonesia, helping to suppress freedoms, assisting in destroying hundreds of thousands of lives.
This government of your fantasy has never cared about democracy or freedom, over the last fifty years overthrowing more than fifty democratically elected leaders of nations, either by coup, assassination or economic measures. As always, of course, these democratically elected leaders are replaced by military juntas, dictators, strongmen and puppets of our choice, picked because of their fidelity foremost to American interests, not those of their people. This government of yours, the one incapable of murdering 3,000 of its own citizens for economic, strategic and financial motives, has participated in or contributed in the death of one to two million souls in Central and South America, either through its dictators or its sponsored death squads or paramilitary thugs, never allowing Latin America the opportunity to prosper.
The altruistic government you cherish cares so much about human rights and freedoms that its multitude number of dictators and puppets are renowned for their human rights violations and their suppression of civil liberties and freedoms. The Middle East, that land of the Arab you hate so much, is a cesspool of torture, abuses, human rights violations and lack of freedoms, all supported by the puppets, kings and dictators your government is in bed with. Your government is the government most despised around the world after the one in Israel, thanks to its newfound affection with torture, mass murder, the preemptive invasion and occupation of Iraq, the death of one million of its citizens, the displacement of two million more and the importation of hell on Earth into its streets. Through a war of choice, based on lies and criminality, a civil war ready to burst and engulf an entire region in flames is afoot, yet your altruistic government is on the verge of attacking Iran, a nation that poses no military threat to America.
Indeed, the government of our childhood and of our delusions cares nothing for its people. Simply look at the way it treats its heroes, its bravest, those maimed and injured and psychologically destroyed by war and its human wickedness. Simply admire the conditions at Walter Reid and at many other such places. Notice too how many Vietnam and now Iraq veterans roam the streets of our cities homeless, with no place to go, no job, no life, forced to confront the evils of war through firewater or narcotics. Look at a veteran’s anguished face after he has been subjected to Agent Orange, or Depleted Uranium, or used as a lab rat or guinea pig in radiation experiments or anthrax vaccines and see how his body and mind deteriorate until he dies of what your government has subjected him to.
This government of the people, by the people and for the people, instead of using its vast wealth on education and healthcare and infrastructure and on providing decent jobs for its citizens, instead pillages the nation’s treasury, sending billions upon billions to the war machine destroying one nation after another. These billions, of course, end up in the accounts of war profiteers and elites and the cronies of the cabal of criminality, quickly made to disappear into foreign bank accounts. You, on the other hand, are but an automaton to your government, castrated of free thought, saturated with brainwash education, made conformist, complacent and acquiescent, transformed into the ignorant sheeple trained to be the obedient mass consumer and producer that guides the entire system forward. Meanwhile, year after year education rots, healthcare is made worse, infrastructure depreciates and the overall well-being of the nation plummets. This, indeed, is your government.
The Pursuit of Truth
The unearthing of truth can be an unsettling proposition, causing bouts of anger and animosity towards the truth seeker. Denial and the closing of the mind to new truths usually follows, as does ridicule of truth, suppression of it and fighting of it until one day, in the not too distant future, beyond the morning horizon, a sunrise suddenly appears, full of radiant light, warm in its glow, powerful in its brightness, ready to guide you forward. This is the moment of truth, when one finally reaches toward the sky, his or her mind suddenly made clear, now unafraid of what the truth may mean for a once beautiful mind.
The truth you have been fighting suddenly becomes self evident, bringing you the freedom of thought, of mind, of thinking for yourself for the first time in your life. You have fought against and declared victory against the pathology of years of brainwashing, of constant bombardments of propaganda, of being told to always have unyielding faith and loyalty in governance. With the warm rays of truth, you are no longer a slave to the system, a mere robot regurgitating the thoughts implanted in your head by the monitor in your home. You can now see what years of conditioning have prevented you from knowing, of a government far different than the one you were made to believe in. It is a government of the elite, for the elite and by the elite, pursuing the interests of the elite and the corporate world that now controls the hallways of power.
In your own research and investigation, using the full powers of the Internet at your disposal, using the free thinking mind you were born with, you discover the self-evident reality of 9/11. You watch videos of towers imploding and collapsing, of WTC 7 being demolished masterfully, as if experts in controlled demolitions were at hand. You wonder why air defenses failed so miserably even when hundreds of times before everything worked to perfection. You wonder how one of the most protected buildings in the world was struck so easily and without defense; yet in one of the most secure buildings in the country not one clear video exists of footage supporting the official conspiracy theory. You read about and become aware of the plethora of inconsistencies in the official conspiracy theory, and you realized how taken together, nothing adds up. You ask yourself who benefited most from the 9/11 attacks, and suddenly enemies within our own shores rise from the World Trade Center’s rubble.
In scanning the Internet for answers to government fictions you suspect of being lies, you see that the 9/11 Truth Movement is gaining momentum, gaining strength in numbers, for you see that more and more people are actually reading, observing, doing their own research and finding out that what they thought they knew simply does not and cannot possibly add up. You realize that more than one hundred million Americans doubt the official conspiracy theory, and that millions more are beginning to question whether or not it was an inside job. You see too that very few Americans, indeed, very few human beings, are aware that there even existed a WTC 7, and that it fell in perfect symmetry, into its own footprint, in classic controlled demolition style, even with minimal damage to its integrity, with insignificant fire damage. And you notice too that video for this demolition is readily available, from multiple angles, yet continues to be suppressed by the corporatist media, for reasons having to do with ignoring truth and disseminating the official fiction. Indeed, when WTC 7 is brought to the corporatist media’s attention, it is quickly returned to the black hole of silence, as if its reality never existed.
You wonder why the corporatist media is so quick to go after the personal lives and personalities of those who question the official story while choosing to remain silent on the questions presented by the truth seekers. You see the corporatist media smear and try to destroy the credibility of those that challenge the official story, and you wonder what is it exactly that these stenographers have to hide. You wonder why no corporatist journalist or news organization has taken it upon themselves to conduct a thorough and intensive examination of the events of that day, and why only the official conspiracy theory is given relevance, as if it is sacrosanct, untouchable. Meanwhile, any other theories or realities, most of which have more basis in truth than the official story, are bashed as the stuff of conspiracy theorists, become pariahs and are never given the light of day. What does the corporatist media have to hide, you ask, and who are they protecting?
Your research leads you to the gatekeepers of the left, those that feel the need to chastise and ridicule the Truth Movement, as if they want to make names for themselves, as if only they are allowed to know the truth, as if their arrogance has led them to believe the Almighty speaks through them. You realize instead that these bozos know very little about anything, and many, while competent enough, got their voices only through nepotism and connections, not because of their egocentric ability. You notice how these individuals smear the movement and resort to name calling, yet fail to comprehensibly put together a valid refutation of the Truth Movement’s claims. You understand their vested interests, you see through them, you decide to ignore them even though they provide a valuable tool in the discussion and debate of 9/11. After all, this is America, and everybody is entitled to freedoms of speech and thought and dissent and debate. You just hope these freedoms are not the next ones to disappear into oblivion.
Truth, invariably, is ridiculed, silenced, fought and eventually, accepted. The 9/11 Truth Movement is no different, for its foundation is constructed of solid granite, based on sound research and investigation. The Movement grows and grows and, no matter how hard the corporatist media and its agents try to slow down its momentum or halt it altogether, more and more Americans are becoming aware of its existence. The Movement cannot be silenced, for truth cannot be destroyed. What was done on 9/11 was a declaration of war against the American people, by internal enemies that have hijacked government, our freedoms and rights, and the Constitution. The Movement exists because it sees the dangers of leaving those in power unpunished, of doing nothing, of letting human wickedness continue. It flourishes because millions seek justice, truth and humanity, a better America, a better world.
Every act of criminality done in the past six years has as its genesis the horrific mass murder of 9/11. Every illegal war, every act of torture, illegal imprisonment, destruction of rights and freedoms, all mass murder done in America’s name is attributed to the destruction of the Twin Towers. If the enemy within is capable of such barbarity, if they had the audacity to perpetuate the greatest crime in American history, all to implement their delusional vision, all to enrich and empower their fellow criminals, what is to say that they will not do it again, in greater capacity, killing in greater numbers? One more so-called attack on American soil will destroy the America that we have lived in and enjoy, the one we love and cherish, the one of internal freedoms and rights, of the pursuit of happiness, the one enjoyed by present day citizens.
Already American democracy and freedom are in their last throes, hemorrhaging from years of corporatist mutilation. Elections have become a sham, a farce. Freedoms are disappearing, becoming extinct. The enemy within wishes for nothing more than an authoritarian, fascist nation, the easier to make decisions, the easier to implement their vision, the easier to control the population. The enemy within detests democracy, and this we must understand. Democracy and freedom are enemies. Ask yourself who has been the organization destroying our democracy and freedoms, our civil rights and liberties? Who has enacted Patriot Acts One and Two, who has destroyed due process, right to an attorney, habeas corpus? Who has tried to silence truth, dissent, protest and free speech? Who has made torture legal, false imprisonment necessary, confessions by torture legal and evidence concocted through hearsay or torture legal? Who has made it legal to spy on American citizens, opening our email accounts, overhearing our phone conversations, looking into our lives? It has not been the dreaded Arab evildoers. It has been the Bush administration. It has been your own government.
The truth is apparent, it can no longer be denied. The 9/11 Truth Movement thrives because it has truth and a quest for justice on its side. It has the power of the naked eye, for WTC 7 video footage cannot lie. It has physics, science, witnesses and research into government action and inaction. It has technology, experts and whistleblowers. It has honor, integrity and momentum. Of course there will always be 30 percent of the population that will never be made to believe in the criminality of its right wing heroes, even if the button for the controlled demolitions is put in front of their face. These 30 percent are sheeple, individuals comprising the army of good Americans, the most ignorant and closed minded people around. The Movement will never convince them. The challenge is reaching the millions who do have free-thinking minds, those who can put common sense and science and reason together.
The challenge ahead will not be easy, but the powerful never make it easy. They never grant the masses anything of value. We have to fight for it ourselves. Every civil liberty and right and freedom gained in the last century was achieved through the Power of the People. This Movement will be no different. Those that are our masters concede nothing, they take everything. They will throw obstacles at us, they will threaten and ridicule us, try to destroy our reputations and integrity. They will use the full power of the corporatist media to try and divide us, to divert us, to deceive us, to manipulate us. United we stand strong, divided we will fall. Strength in numbers, strength in conviction, it is time to bring these criminals and murderers to justice.
For what is braver, questioning authority or following it? What is more convenient, thinking for oneself or believing only what television wants you to believe? Who is more a patriot, the person who challenges the blatant lies of leaders in times of trouble or the person who obediently believes everything he is told him by a government that has not once told the truth? What is a true patriot, those that read the Constitution and seek to bring a bad government into account or someone who stands next to the flag and blindly follows the known criminality of the Commander in Chief? It is those that dissent and protest and debate, because they love their freedoms and rights, while being called traitor and treasonous and terrorist that are the true patriots of America. There are millions of them across the land, fighting to expose the greatest crime ever committed upon the American people, fighting to restore what has been and continues to be lost.
It is they who show the bravery and courage and strength and willingness to tolerate the smears and ridicule that are slowly, but surely, helping to return America to its rightful owners, namely, the People. It is these Truth Seekers whom history will remember as the ones responsible for ridding America of its greatest enemies, those that lie embedded within our shores, inside the cabal of criminality. When the day comes, and it soon will, when 9/11 is exposed for the inside job that it was, America and her people, and by consequence the world entire will smell the clear, pure mountain air of a truth too long hidden, of a sunrise giving birth to a new nation, a restored nation, returned to her People, where truth and justice prevails, where the Power of the People is omnipotent, where the interests of the People prevail, where criminals and murderers sit waiting in the gallows, waiting for the justice of 6,000 dead Americans and 1,000,000 dead Iraqis to be reclaimed.
The restoration of America thus begins with truth. Its unearthing is underway. America’s awakening will inevitably follow.
Authors Website: www. valenzuelasveritas. blogspot. com
Authors Bio: Manuel Valenzuela is a social critic and commentator, international affairs analyst and Internet essayist. His articles as well as his archive can be found at his blog, http://www. valenzuelasveritas. blogspot. com as well as at other alternative news websites from around the globe. Mr. Valenzuela welcomes comments and can be reached at manuel@valenzuelas.net. Mr. Valenzuela is also author of Echoes in the Wind, a novel made available at most online book sellers and at Authorhouse. com.
12/17/2008
Military to work with police(illegal!) in Cali, SO UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: STACY, FED UP AMERICAN!! AND MAD AS HELL!
Date: Dec 17, 2008 11:41 AM
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: The Scarecrow - Truth Seeker!
Date: Dec 17, 2008 10:23 AM
Thanks to...
Elliot Brindley
Date: Dec 17, 2008 10:13 AM
http://freespeech. vo. llnwd. net/o25/pub/images/chp01. png
The Black Swan Paper
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9053330/The-Black-Swan-Paper
From: STACY, FED UP AMERICAN!! AND MAD AS HELL!
Date: Dec 17, 2008 11:41 AM
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: The Scarecrow - Truth Seeker!
Date: Dec 17, 2008 10:23 AM
Thanks to...
Elliot Brindley
Date: Dec 17, 2008 10:13 AM
http://freespeech. vo. llnwd. net/o25/pub/images/chp01. png
The Black Swan Paper
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9053330/The-Black-Swan-Paper
12/16/2008
Is Martial Law Inevitable?
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: FREEDOM IS~READY!
Date: Dec 16, 2008 3:01 PM
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: E-Dubs ♥♪♫
Date: 16 Dec 2008, 16:58
RE: FEMA Sources Confirm Coming Martial Law
FEMA sources confirm coming martial law
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Oct 13, 2008, 00:16
(WMR) -- WMR has learned from knowledgeable Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sources that the Bush administration is putting the final touches on a plan that would see martial law declared in the United States with various scenarios anticipated as triggers. The triggers include a continuing economic collapse with massive social unrest, bank closures resulting in violence against financial institutions, and another fraudulent presidential election that would result in rioting in major cities and campuses around the country.
In addition, Army Corps of Engineer sources report that the assignment of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) to the Northern Command’s U.S. Army North is to augment FEMA and federal law enforcement in the imposition of traffic controls, crowd control, curfews, enhanced border and port security, and neighborhood patrols in the event a national emergency being declared. The BCT was assigned to duties in Iraq before being assigned to the Northern Command.
On April 3, 2008, WMR reported on a highly-classified document regarding the martial law scenario: WMR has learned from knowledgeable sources within the US financial community that an alarming confidential and limited distribution document is circulating among senior members of Congress and their senior staff members that is warning of a bleak future for the United States if it does not quickly get its financial house in order. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is among those who have reportedly read the document·
The document is being called the “C & R” document because it reportedly states that if the United States defaults on loans and debt underwriting from China, Japan, and Russia, all of which are propping up the United States government financially, and the United States unilaterally cancels the debts, America can expect a war that will have disastrous results for the United States and the world. “Conflict” is the “C word” in the document· The other scenario is that the federal government will be forced to drastically raise taxes in order to pay off debts to foreign countries to the point that the American people will react with a popular revolution against the government. “Revolution” is the document’s “R word."
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2008 WayneMadsenReport. com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required)...
FAIR USE NOTICE:
This bulletin may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for informational and/or educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, philosophical and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17, U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.
-----------------------------------------------
It's been in the works since the Reagan/Bush days, people.
From: FREEDOM IS~READY!
Date: Dec 16, 2008 3:01 PM
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: E-Dubs ♥♪♫
Date: 16 Dec 2008, 16:58
RE: FEMA Sources Confirm Coming Martial Law
FEMA sources confirm coming martial law
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Oct 13, 2008, 00:16
(WMR) -- WMR has learned from knowledgeable Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sources that the Bush administration is putting the final touches on a plan that would see martial law declared in the United States with various scenarios anticipated as triggers. The triggers include a continuing economic collapse with massive social unrest, bank closures resulting in violence against financial institutions, and another fraudulent presidential election that would result in rioting in major cities and campuses around the country.
In addition, Army Corps of Engineer sources report that the assignment of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) to the Northern Command’s U.S. Army North is to augment FEMA and federal law enforcement in the imposition of traffic controls, crowd control, curfews, enhanced border and port security, and neighborhood patrols in the event a national emergency being declared. The BCT was assigned to duties in Iraq before being assigned to the Northern Command.
On April 3, 2008, WMR reported on a highly-classified document regarding the martial law scenario: WMR has learned from knowledgeable sources within the US financial community that an alarming confidential and limited distribution document is circulating among senior members of Congress and their senior staff members that is warning of a bleak future for the United States if it does not quickly get its financial house in order. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is among those who have reportedly read the document·
The document is being called the “C & R” document because it reportedly states that if the United States defaults on loans and debt underwriting from China, Japan, and Russia, all of which are propping up the United States government financially, and the United States unilaterally cancels the debts, America can expect a war that will have disastrous results for the United States and the world. “Conflict” is the “C word” in the document· The other scenario is that the federal government will be forced to drastically raise taxes in order to pay off debts to foreign countries to the point that the American people will react with a popular revolution against the government. “Revolution” is the document’s “R word."
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2008 WayneMadsenReport. com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required)...
FAIR USE NOTICE:
This bulletin may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for informational and/or educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, philosophical and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17, U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.
-----------------------------------------------
It's been in the works since the Reagan/Bush days, people.
The country is in serious trouble and .....
a significant segment of the mainstream press hasn't got a clue how to handle it.
Headlined on 12/16/08:
America Can't Handle the Truth; But it's Coming Anyway
by Leonce Gaiter Page 1 of 1 page(s)
www.opednews.com
2
votesBuzz up!
Tell A Friend
SAVE FAVORITES
VIEW FAVORITES
Unemployment benefit payouts hit a 26-year high. Foreclosures up 30% from a year ago. Layoffs abound. 43 states face budget deficits, forcing them to cut jobs, programs, and funds for education and social services.
A major story on CNN.com is, "'Mad Men' star's hair is "-bane of my existence.'"- The Fox News front page promises Glenn Beck on the "Washington State Christmas Scandal."-
Economists fear deflation, and depression. Two of the Big Three automakers may not survive through the end of the year.
The Washington Post's Kathleen Parker writes about a 27 year-old, Facebook, and a Hillary Clinton cardboard cutout. Jackson Diehl luxuriates in a bubble bath of quid pro quo and self-congratulations for his attendance at a Bush photo-op.
Food stamp usage nears an all-time high with more than 31.5 million Americans using the program. Americans are losing their livelihoods and having trouble buying food to eat.
I sense a disconnect.
The country is in serious trouble and a significant segment of the mainstream press hasn't got a clue how to handle it. They appear tone-deaf and increasingly trivial. During the bubble years, the press learned to hawk self-promotion, triviality and political boosterism as "journalism."- They became insiders, members of a ruling court, not detached observers or, heaven forbid, muckrakers. They shed the ink-stained wretch image and became privileged, cosmetically altered insiders, intimate with power and happy to knead that intimacy into power of their own.
A lot of journalism became a gossipy exercise in snark and sniffy outrage during the Clinton years. With 9/11 and The Bush ascension, the profession morphed into a jingoistic orgy of access amplification--who knew the highest ranking who from whom to get the latest, probably deceptive administration spin.
The rest of us put up with it. During the Bubble Years, weren't we all destined to be rich? Just watch that high-tech 401k grow 27% a year; get that "liar"- loan and watch your home value double. We all identified with wealth and power; we dreamt we'd have it. We weaned a whole generation on that illusion. Politics reduced to celebrity gossip and international affairs to jingoistic sound bites--it suited us fine. We were untouchable.
Even 9/11, through which we might have examined our place in the world and our exercise of power within it, instead led us to pull further inward, to howl not only at the guilty, but at the whole world. We were like kings insulted by peasants, desperate to re-establish might. So we broke things.
Now, suddenly, the prospect of plenty disappears; government actions have actual consequences--and not just for anonymous foreigners in godforsaken deserts. One congressional bill might mean the difference between having a job and not--between keeping your house and homelessness. But much of the mainstream press--particularly the television press from which most of us get our news--don't adequately address this. They don't do the hard work of explaining why this is happening or how it might be stopped or where it might end. They shake and shimmy to the gossip and the spin. They are so obsessed with their roles as insiders and removed from the lives we lead that they continue to partner with the powerful as spin conduits (The Washington Post's Frank Ahrens rehashed the old right wing wish for Mitt Romney as "car czar"- because "he has autos in his DNA,"- since his father was chairman of American Motors. Obviously, it's his birthright, like a throne), or desperately clutch a sensational local story like the Blagojevich affair and construct hypothetical Rube Goldberg-like connections to the president-elect to justify their excessive, prurient interest.
The press doesn't know how to handle our descent into darkness; and neither do we. We're still in denial. Just as the financial kings Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson have attacked this crisis piecemeal---let's throw a little money here to handle this part, a little interest rate adjustment there to handle that part--we're not acknowledging the big picture. Our eyes have been so blinded by 20 years of bright and shiny things that we can't fathom an America generally re-cast in sepia and gray.
But yes, the next job on the chopping block might be mine or yours. Your credit cards might readjust to 26% for no reason. Next year's health insurance bill might rise 30%. The fire department might not come when you call due to crisis-induced layoffs. How many of us acknowledge that we might be sustaining ourselves with food stamps?
We haven't seen the worst of this. We hear that again and again. Obama keeps telling us, but gas prices fall and we convince ourselves that all will be well. Blagojevich kindly distracts us with sleaze. The Fox News dancing girls dazzle us with smiles and the pundits gossip and chatter at one another as if there's nothing more substantive to say or do.
Our dreams, along with our toys, are vanishing. The press and the public pretend not to notice. The first stage of grieving is denial. We're doing such a damned good job of it, I dread the day we get to anger.
www.leoncegaiter.com
Raised in New Orleans, Washington D.C., Germany, Missouri, Maryland and elsewhere, Leonce Gaiter is the quintessential army brat-rootless and restive. He began writing in grade school and continued the habit through his graduation from Harvard. He moved to Los Angeles to work in the creative and business ends of the film and music industries. His nonfiction writing has appeared in The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, and in national syndication. His thriller "Bourbon Street" was published by Carroll & Graf. Chapters of "Bourbon Street" as well as additional fiction and non-fiction writings are available on his site: www.leoncegaiter.com
Contact Author
Contact Editor
View Other Articles by Author
Headlined on 12/16/08:
America Can't Handle the Truth; But it's Coming Anyway
by Leonce Gaiter Page 1 of 1 page(s)
www.opednews.com
2
votesBuzz up!
Tell A Friend
SAVE FAVORITES
VIEW FAVORITES
Unemployment benefit payouts hit a 26-year high. Foreclosures up 30% from a year ago. Layoffs abound. 43 states face budget deficits, forcing them to cut jobs, programs, and funds for education and social services.
A major story on CNN.com is, "'Mad Men' star's hair is "-bane of my existence.'"- The Fox News front page promises Glenn Beck on the "Washington State Christmas Scandal."-
Economists fear deflation, and depression. Two of the Big Three automakers may not survive through the end of the year.
The Washington Post's Kathleen Parker writes about a 27 year-old, Facebook, and a Hillary Clinton cardboard cutout. Jackson Diehl luxuriates in a bubble bath of quid pro quo and self-congratulations for his attendance at a Bush photo-op.
Food stamp usage nears an all-time high with more than 31.5 million Americans using the program. Americans are losing their livelihoods and having trouble buying food to eat.
I sense a disconnect.
The country is in serious trouble and a significant segment of the mainstream press hasn't got a clue how to handle it. They appear tone-deaf and increasingly trivial. During the bubble years, the press learned to hawk self-promotion, triviality and political boosterism as "journalism."- They became insiders, members of a ruling court, not detached observers or, heaven forbid, muckrakers. They shed the ink-stained wretch image and became privileged, cosmetically altered insiders, intimate with power and happy to knead that intimacy into power of their own.
A lot of journalism became a gossipy exercise in snark and sniffy outrage during the Clinton years. With 9/11 and The Bush ascension, the profession morphed into a jingoistic orgy of access amplification--who knew the highest ranking who from whom to get the latest, probably deceptive administration spin.
The rest of us put up with it. During the Bubble Years, weren't we all destined to be rich? Just watch that high-tech 401k grow 27% a year; get that "liar"- loan and watch your home value double. We all identified with wealth and power; we dreamt we'd have it. We weaned a whole generation on that illusion. Politics reduced to celebrity gossip and international affairs to jingoistic sound bites--it suited us fine. We were untouchable.
Even 9/11, through which we might have examined our place in the world and our exercise of power within it, instead led us to pull further inward, to howl not only at the guilty, but at the whole world. We were like kings insulted by peasants, desperate to re-establish might. So we broke things.
Now, suddenly, the prospect of plenty disappears; government actions have actual consequences--and not just for anonymous foreigners in godforsaken deserts. One congressional bill might mean the difference between having a job and not--between keeping your house and homelessness. But much of the mainstream press--particularly the television press from which most of us get our news--don't adequately address this. They don't do the hard work of explaining why this is happening or how it might be stopped or where it might end. They shake and shimmy to the gossip and the spin. They are so obsessed with their roles as insiders and removed from the lives we lead that they continue to partner with the powerful as spin conduits (The Washington Post's Frank Ahrens rehashed the old right wing wish for Mitt Romney as "car czar"- because "he has autos in his DNA,"- since his father was chairman of American Motors. Obviously, it's his birthright, like a throne), or desperately clutch a sensational local story like the Blagojevich affair and construct hypothetical Rube Goldberg-like connections to the president-elect to justify their excessive, prurient interest.
The press doesn't know how to handle our descent into darkness; and neither do we. We're still in denial. Just as the financial kings Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson have attacked this crisis piecemeal---let's throw a little money here to handle this part, a little interest rate adjustment there to handle that part--we're not acknowledging the big picture. Our eyes have been so blinded by 20 years of bright and shiny things that we can't fathom an America generally re-cast in sepia and gray.
But yes, the next job on the chopping block might be mine or yours. Your credit cards might readjust to 26% for no reason. Next year's health insurance bill might rise 30%. The fire department might not come when you call due to crisis-induced layoffs. How many of us acknowledge that we might be sustaining ourselves with food stamps?
We haven't seen the worst of this. We hear that again and again. Obama keeps telling us, but gas prices fall and we convince ourselves that all will be well. Blagojevich kindly distracts us with sleaze. The Fox News dancing girls dazzle us with smiles and the pundits gossip and chatter at one another as if there's nothing more substantive to say or do.
Our dreams, along with our toys, are vanishing. The press and the public pretend not to notice. The first stage of grieving is denial. We're doing such a damned good job of it, I dread the day we get to anger.
www.leoncegaiter.com
Raised in New Orleans, Washington D.C., Germany, Missouri, Maryland and elsewhere, Leonce Gaiter is the quintessential army brat-rootless and restive. He began writing in grade school and continued the habit through his graduation from Harvard. He moved to Los Angeles to work in the creative and business ends of the film and music industries. His nonfiction writing has appeared in The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, and in national syndication. His thriller "Bourbon Street" was published by Carroll & Graf. Chapters of "Bourbon Street" as well as additional fiction and non-fiction writings are available on his site: www.leoncegaiter.com
Contact Author
Contact Editor
View Other Articles by Author
12/15/2008
12/14/2008
WTC#2 MISSLE !
from HenrysTimeMachine
http://www. youtube. com/user/Henster37
pause at 19 seconds, you will see a long dark missile strike tower 2.
what makes this unusual is how it slipped past the MSM radar, because the video is a tribute and not conspiracy related, untouched raw footage.
http://www. youtube. com/user/Henster37
pause at 19 seconds, you will see a long dark missile strike tower 2.
what makes this unusual is how it slipped past the MSM radar, because the video is a tribute and not conspiracy related, untouched raw footage.
New York Magazine: Oracles of doom
The Market Oracles of Doom
Dec 14, 2008 - 08:02 AM
By: Prieur_du_Plessis
New York Magazine: Oracles of doom
They always knew the economy would collapse.
What do they think will happen next?
FORTUNE TELLER: Gerald Celente
Trends Research Institute founder; owner of collapseof09. com
TRACK RECORD
Predicted 1987 crash, 1997 Asian currency crisis; said in 2007 that US was headed for “economic 9/11″ in 2008.
CURRENT PREDICTION
“Products are going to be cheaper to buy, but guess what? You're going to need more dollars to buy them because your dollar's going to be worth less. There is no fiscal or monetary policy that can save this. You cannot save it by printing more money.
”
FORTUNE TELLER: Nouriel Roubini
NYU business professor; chairman of RGE Monitor
TRACK RECORD
Predicted this year's crisis in 2006, pointing to a housing bust, oil shocks, and interest-rate increases.
CURRENT PREDICTION
“It's becoming a global recession. I expect it to be the worst US recession of the last 50 years. I expect a cumulative fall in output from the peak of 4% and the unemployment rate going all the way to 9%.
”
FORTUNE TELLER: Peter Schiff
President of Euro Pacific Capital
TRACK RECORD
Published “Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse in February 2007″; star of YouTube video “Peter Schiff Was Right 2006-2007.
”
CURRENT PREDICTION
“I predicted that the economy would collapse. The bigger risk I saw was the government's attempt to solve the problem by doing exactly what they're now doing. They're going to create another Great Depression, but worse, because the cost of living will go through the roof.
”
FORTUNE TELLER: Richard Russell
Founder of the Dow Theory Letters
TRACK RECORD
Predicted bottom of 1974 bear market; exited market before crashes in 1987 and 2000.
CURRENT PREDICTION
“As long as we can hold the Dow above 7,470, I think the situation is hopeful. That's the halfway level from when the bull market started in 1982 and when it ended in 2007. My guess is that it will break that level. Most bear markets have wiped out more than 50% of a bull market.
”
FORTUNE TELLER: Barry Ritholtz
CEO and equity research director of Fusion IQ; blogger at The Big Picture
TRACK RECORD
Predicted downturn last year.
CURRENT PREDICTION
“In March, the first-quarter numbers start coming out, and that's potentially a problem. It's just going to be an issue of dealing with the market. If earnings continue to drop and you end up with multiple contractions, that basically takes you to a really bad, ugly place, which is an S&P at 400 or 500. I don't think that's likely, but it's certainly possible.
”
FORTUNE TELLER: Jeremy Grantham
Co-founder and chairman, GMO LLC
TRACK RECORD
His 1998 ten-year forecast showed severe market declines in 2007 and 2008; warned of global bubble in April 2007.
CURRENT PREDICTION
“I would think, just to guess, that the period of heroic volatility will end pretty soon and will be replaced by a rather 1974-ish environment, where you quietly get bitterly resigned to your steady diet of bad news.
”
Source: Jeff VanDam, New York Magazine , December 7, 2008.
Bloomberg: Interview with Martin Feldstein
“Harvard University professor Feldstein discusses auto bailout, how to fix the housing market as well as Fannie and Freddie, and 3-month T-Bill rates below zero.
”
Interview with Harvard University Professor Martin Feldstein
Feldstein Discusses: Auto Bailout Near Agreement, How to Fix the Housing Market as Well as Fannie and Freddie, and 3-Month T-Bills Rates Below Zero
http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=QrjVrdYzJmc
Source: Bloomberg (via YouTube ), December 9, 2008.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Telegraph): Deflation virus is moving the policy test beyond the 1930s
“Debt deflation is tightening its grip over the entire global system. Interest rates are creeping towards zero in Japan, America, and now across most of Europe.
“We are beyond the extremes of the 1930s. The frontiers of monetary policy are being pushed to limits that may now test viability of paper currencies and modern central banking.
“You cannot drop below zero. So what next if the credit markets refuse to thaw? Yes, Japan visited and survived this policy hell during its lost decade, but that was a local affair in an otherwise booming global economy. It tells us nothing.
“This time we are all going down together. There is no deus ex machina to lift us out. Certainly not China, which is the most vulnerable of all.
“As the risk grows, officials at the highest level of the British Government have begun to circulate a six-year-old speech by Ben Bernanke - at the time of its writing, a garrulous kid governor at the US Federal Reserve. Entitled ‘Deflation: Making Sure It Doesn't Happen Here', it is the manual of guerrilla tactics for defeating slumps by monetary means.
“‘The US government has a technology, called a printing press, that allows it to produce as many US dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost,' he said.
“His point was that central banks never run out of ammunition. They have an inexhaustible arsenal. The world's fate now hangs on whether he was right (which is probable), or wrong (which is possible).
“As a scholar of the Great Depression, Bernanke does not think that sliding prices can safely be allowed to run their course. ‘Sustained deflation can be highly destructive to a modern economy,' he said.
“Bernanke's central claim is that the big guns of monetary policy were never properly deployed during the Depression, or during the early years of Japan's bust, so no wonder the slumps dragged on.
“The Fed can create money out of thin air and mop up assets on the open market, like a sovereign sugar daddy. ‘Sufficient injections of money will ultimately always reverse a deflation.
'
“Bernanke said the Fed can ‘expand the menu of assets that it buys'. US Treasury bonds top the list, but it can equally purchase mortgage securities from US agencies such as Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie, or company bonds, or commercial paper. Any asset will do.
“The Fed can acquire houses, stocks, or a herd of Texas Longhorn cattle if it wants. It can even scatter $100 bills from helicopters. (Actually, Japan is about to do this with shopping coupons).
”
Source: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph , December 9, 2008.
Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Household net worth is shrinking rapidly
“Household net worth in the third quarter of 2008 was $56.5 trillion, down 4.7% from the second quarter. This is the largest quarterly decline since the second quarter of 1962 when net worth of households dropped 5.0%.
“Household spending will suffer as setback a household net worth shrinks, which is already visible in consumer spending data, and the proclivity of households to borrow will show a reduction. The chart below indicates that growth of both mortgage and consumer debt have fallen in the third quarter. The sharp drop in mortgage debt (-2.4%) reflects the impact of mortgage foreclosures and a drop in home purchases, while consumer debt grew at a 1.2% pace in the third quarter versus a 7.2% jump a year ago.
”
Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust - Daily Global Commentary , December 11, 2008.
Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Weak trajectory for retail sales
“Retail sales fell 1.8% in November, after a 2.9% decline in the prior month. Retail sales have dropped for five straight months, the longest string of declines since record keeping for retail sales began in 1967. The wide swings of gasoline prices influence the headline of retail sales. Excluding gasoline, retail sales dropped 0.2% in November after a 1.6% plunge in the prior month. Retail sales excluding gasoline have recorded six consecutive monthly declines. Unit auto sales have fallen in ten out of eleven months of the year.
“The upshot is that with or without gasoline and autos, retail sales show an extraordinary weakness that is seen the overall consumer spending data and this weak trajectory for retail sales and overall consumer spending is predicted to prevail in the near term.
”
Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust - Daily Global Commentary , December 12, 2008.
Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Consumer spending in post-war recessions
“The chart below illustrates the history of consumer spending during recessions. Consumer spending typically declines in recessionary periods with the exception of the 1948 and 2001 recessions.
“Our forecast includes five consecutive quarterly declines in consumer spending, possibly another record for the books if our forecast is accurate. The highly leveraged household balance sheet of households underlies this prediction.
”
Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust - Daily Global Commentary , December 8, 2008.
Bloomberg: Inside look - housing crisis
“From Housing Forum in Washington D.C.: Interview with PIMCO Managing Director Scott Simon.
”
Inside Look: Housing Crisis
Outlook for Loan Modifications - Live! From Housing Forum in Washington D.C.
: Interview with PIMCO Managing Director Scott Simon
http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=qUebSiF5kVU
Source: Bloomberg (via YouTube ), December 8, 2008.
BusinessWeek: Unretired - retirees are back, looking for work
“They saved. They planned. Then housing tanked and the markets melted. Now they need jobs, and there aren't any.
“Six years ago, Paul Nelson gave up his long career in the defense industry for what he thought would be a peaceful retirement in Tucson. The weather was mild, the neighbors friendly. He had plenty of time to volunteer and garden.
“But retirement hasn't worked out the way he planned. In 2006 his wife of 46 years died unexpectedly. He tried to swap their house for a smaller one and lost a chunk of his retirement savings in the process. Then this year the stock market cratered, wiping out almost everything he had left. Now the 71-year-old is looking for work at local hardware stores and Home Depot and contemplating filing for personal bankruptcy. ‘I have nothing left,' says Nelson, a former Raytheon engineer. ‘I am not alone, I think.
'
“Far from it. An increasing number of people who retired in recent years, confident they had set aside enough to live on comfortably, are finding themselves strapped. The stock market plunge and the housing downturn have affected many Americans, of course. But retirees have been particularly pinched because their homes and investments are the primary assets they depend on for income. As a result, many of the country's elderly are finding themselves in Nelson's situation, low on money and looking for work. ‘Suddenly the rug has been pulled out from under them,' says Alicia H. Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
”
Click here for the full article.
Source: Heather Green, Business Week , December 4, 2008.
Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Oil imports lead to wider trade gap in October
“The trade deficit widened to $57.2 billion in October from $56.6 billion in September. During October, exports (-2.2%) and imports (-1.3%) of goods and services fell.
”
Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust - Daily Global Commentary , December 11, 2008.
Reuters: Jim Rogers calls most big US banks “totally bankrupt”
“Jim Rogers, one of the world's most prominent international investors, on Thursday called most of the largest US banks ‘totally bankrupt', and said government efforts to fix the sector are wrongheaded.
“Speaking by teleconference at the Reuters Investment Outlook 2009 Summit, the co-founder with George Soros of the Quantum Fund, said the government's $700 billion rescue package for the sector doesn't address how banks manage their balance sheets, and instead rewards weaker lenders with new capital.
“Dozens of banks have won infusions from the Troubled Asset Relief Program created in early October, just after the September 15 bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers. Some of the funds are being used for acquisitions.
“‘Without giving specific names, most of the significant American banks, the larger banks, are bankrupt, totally bankrupt,' said Rogers, who is now a private investor.
“‘What is outrageous economically and is outrageous morally is that normally in times like this, people who are competent and who saw it coming and who kept their powder dry go and take over the assets from the incompetent,' he said. ‘What's happening this time is that the government is taking the assets from the competent people and giving them to the incompetent people and saying, now you can compete with the competent people. It is horrible economics.
'
“Rogers said he shorted shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the government nationalized the mortgage financiers in September, a week before Lehman failed.
“Now a specialist in commodities, Rogers said he has used the recent rally in the US dollar as an opportunity to exit dollar-denominated assets.
“While not saying how long the US economic recession will last, he said conditions could ultimately mirror those of Japan in the 1990s. ‘The way things are going, we're going to have a lost decade too, just like the 1970s,' he said.
” … Rogers said sound US lenders remain. He said these could include banks that don't make or hold subprime mortgages, or which have high ratios of deposits to equity, ‘all the classic old ratios that most banks in America forgot or started ignoring because they were too old-fashioned'.
“‘Governments are making mistakes,' he said. ‘They're saying to all the banks, you don't have to tell us your situation. You can continue to use your balance sheet that is phony … All these guys are bankrupt, they're still worrying about their bonuses, they're still trying to pay their dividends, and the whole system is weakened.
'
“Rogers said he is investing in growth areas in China and Taiwan, in such areas as water treatment and agriculture, and recently bought positions in energy and agriculture indexes.
”
Source: Jonathan Stempel, Reuters , December 11, 2008.
CNBC: Meredith Whitney - outlook grim for banks
http://www. cnbc. com/id/15840232?video=957685796
Source: CNBC , December 7, 2008.
Financial Times: Post-Lehman company defaults to soar
“Default rates for speculative grade companies are forecast to jump threefold next year following the fall of Lehman Brothers, the world's biggest bankruptcy, according to Moody's, the US ratings agency.
“The implosion of Lehman on September 15 is widely regarded as a significant milestone, turning the credit crunch into a fully blown economic crisis.
“Jim Reid, credit strategist at Deutsche Bank, said: ‘We are at a turning point for default rates, with much bigger monthly rises from now on.
“‘Two or three months after Lehman's collapse, we are starting to see the impact on the real economy, particularly for those companies on short-term funding.
'
“European companies defaulting on their bonds are also set to outpace those in the US, although analysts suggest this is because the European junk-grade market is smaller, meaning any rise in defaults has a greater impact in percentage terms, rather than pointing to a deeper recession.
“Global default rates are forecast to rise to 10.4% by November 2009 - from 3.1% last month - to levels last seen in 2001 following the dotcom crash. Rates are forecast to jump to 4.2% by the end of this year.
“A year ago, the global rate was 0.9 per cent.
“The ratings agency's distressed index, which measures the number of companies with bonds trading at more than 1,000 basis points over government paper, rose to 51.8% at the end of last month, up from 48.5% at the end of October, and the highest level since Moody's launched the index in 1996. This reflects the deepening problems for company funding. Even some investment grade companies are now trading at distressed levels.
”
Source: David Oakley and Paul J Davies, Financial Times , December 8, 2008.
Bespoke: 10-Year Treasuries overbought
“It's an understatement to say that Treasuries are overbought at current levels. We've been monitoring the spread between its price and its 50-day moving average, and the 10-year Note has finally gotten to a level that is usually met with selling pressure in the near term. Since 1977, the 10-year has only gotten more than 12% above its 50-day moving average on three different occasions. As shown in the table below, the returns over the next week, month, and 3 months lean to the negative side. The average change of the 10-year over the next three months when getting this overbought has been -3.23%.
”
Source: Bespoke , December 9, 2008.
Bespoke: Want to lend money to uncle Sam? It's going to cost you
“What would your reaction be if you had a friend who had reached the limit on 20 different credit cards and then came to you to borrow $100? Then imagine that you actually said yes, and when you went to give your friend the $100, he or she actually asked for $101 just for the privilege of loaning the money. Well, that is exactly what is happening (to a lesser degree) in the US T-bill market. As just another example of the crazy times we are living in, the yield on 3-month Treasuries went negative today. There was a time when an event such as this was unimaginable. Today it barely gets noticed.
”
Source: Bespoke , December 9, 2008.
John Hussman (Hussman Funds): Unusually unfavourabale yield levels for Treasuries
“In bonds, the market climate last week was characterized by unusually unfavorable yield levels and generally favorable yield pressures. As I have frequently noted, yield levels are much more important than market action in driving subsequent total returns in bonds. This is because bonds are less susceptible to ‘bubbles' as a result of their payment stream being known, so favorable market action can't be taken as evidence of favorable surprises in those payments.
“The problem with Treasury yields here is that while there are good economic reasons for the downward yield pressures, the levels are low enough to invite explosive spikes that can easily wipe out a year or more of yield-to-maturity in a few days.
“Corporate yields have increased significantly, but default rates tend to pick up in the later stages of recessions, and there isn't much historical evidence to suggest that corporate bonds reach their lows any earlier than stocks do. For that reason, corporate bonds are essentially equity-equivalents here, and the same considerations about quality apply as well here as they do for stocks. Generally speaking, corporate bonds are currently priced to deliver both lower long-term returns than stocks, but as a group, will probably have lower volatility than stocks as well.
”
Source: John Hussman, Hussman Funds , December 8, 2008.
Bloomberg: US Treasury risk surpasses Campbell Soup as debt increases
“The cost to hedge against losses on US Treasuries surpassed the price of default protection on bonds from Campbell Soup and drug-maker Baxter International as government spending on stimulus packages grows.
“Credit-default swaps protecting US government debt in euros for five years are trading at 65 basis points, according to CMA Datavision, meaning costs 65,000 euros ($84,200) to protect 10 million euros of debt. Contracts on Campbell were at 52.5 basis points and Baxter contracts were 57.5 basis points at the close of trading [on Wednesday] in New York.
“The Federal Reserve's assets have more than doubled from a year ago to $2.14 trillion as the central bank seeks to revive credit markets. Economists including Harvard University professor Kenneth Rogoff and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz say President-elect Barack Obama should push for a stimulus package of at least $1 trillion to lift the economy out of a yearlong recession. The US government's total cost to bail out the economy may exceed $4 trillion, according to strategists including Ira Jersey at Credit Suisse Group AG in New York.
“Contracts protecting U.K. government debt for five years were quoted at a mid-price of 114.75 basis points today [Wednesday], according to CMA. Swaps on Italy are at 190, and the Netherlands at 99.5. France was quoted at 58.75 and Germany at 51.5, CMA data show.
“Credit-default swaps pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent if a borrower fails to meet its debt obligations. A basis point on a credit-default swap contract protecting $10 million of debt from default for five years is equivalent to $1,000 a year.
”
Source: Shannon D. Harrington, Bloomberg , December 10, 2008.
Jean-Paul Calamaro (Deutsche Bank): Credit markets offer stunning opportunities
“The crisis gripping financial markets has produced some stunning investment opportunities in credit markets. Among the best is the returns available on ‘basis trades' between corporate bonds and credit default swaps, says Jean-Paul Calamaro, global head of quantitative credit strategy at Deutsche Bank.
“‘Investors buy a corporate bond and also buy default protection on the issuer via a CDS. When the basis is negative [CDS protection costs less than the bond's spread to swaps] this produces protected cash flows and further profits if the difference between the bond and CDS narrows, or if the issuer defaults. The basis between bonds and CDS has been at historic wides recently, giving significant returns without using leverage,' he says.
“‘The trade works for many investment grade and high yield issuers in Europe and the US, but high yield trades look most attractive.
“‘This is because investors can earn high returns more quickly when an issuer defaults and at this point in the credit cycle we think defaults are more likely. The trades also work in investment grade, not because we expect defaults but because we expect the basis between bonds and CDS to narrow.
“‘The major cheapening of bonds versus CDS across corporate credit has been due to the heightened funding crisis since the Lehman bankruptcy in mid-September. We believe conditions will start to ease after year end, which makes these types of trades unusually attractive now.
'”
Source: Jean-Paul Calamaro, Deutsche Bank (via Financial Times ), December , 2008.
Bloomberg: Cheapest stocks since 1995 show cash exceeds market
“Stocks have fallen so far that 2,267 companies around the globe are offering profits to investors for free. That's eight times as many as at the end of the last bear market, when the shares rose 115% over the next year.
“Bank of New York Mellon in New York, Danieli in Italy and Seoul-based Namyang Dairy Products hold more cash than the value of their stock and debt as the slowing world economy wiped out $32 trillion in capitalization this year. Companies in the MSCI World Index trade for an average $1.17 per dollar of net assets, the lowest since at least 1995, and 39% sell at a discount to shareholder equity, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“The cash-rich companies allow investors to pay nothing for future earnings streams, providing opportunities to buyers concerned about deflation, according to Jean-Marie Eveillard, whose $16 billion First Eagle Global Fund has beaten 98% of competitors this year. Microsoft and Novo Nordisk, which generate the most money compared with debt, can expand even if lower consumer demand erodes profits.
“‘Cash is king, not necessarily for the investor but for corporations,' Eveillard said in an interview from New York last week. ‘It's useful to sit on a ton of cash, No. 1 to survive, as opposed to going bankrupt, and No. 2 to seize opportunities either to make acquisitions cheaply or to squeeze competitors.
'”
Source: Michael Tsang and Alexis Xydias, Bloomberg , December 8, 2008.
Richard Russell (Dow Theory Letters): “I'm beginning to like what I see”
“If they create enough of it, will they come and spend it? That's what Mr. Bernanke is going to find out. The government has created over a trillion dollars of currency. There's now over $8 trillion on the sidelines in money markets and T-bills - all frozen with fear and waiting for something better and safer to come along. There's too much money now in relation to the quantity of goods and merchandise available. This is the formula for inflation or even hyper-inflation. What's holding it all back? Lack of confidence, fear.
“What would change that? The stock market rising steadily would bring back confidence. Which is why I monitor the stock market so closely. Yes, it's quite a game, and it's the most important and fascinating game in the world. No wonder I'm in this business.
I read the markets, and I'm beginning to like what I see!
“My guess is that the market is establishing a tradeable bottom with a rally that will last into the first quarter of next year. What we're seeing now might not be the final bottom but it will serve until the real one comes along.
”
Source: Richard Russell, Dow Theory Letters , December 8, 2008.
Richard Russell (Dow Theory Letters): Adding some selected stocks
“Up to now, our favored position has been cash and gold (preferably physical gold). Our new position is cash, gold and, for the bolder crowd, a few selected stocks (DIA if you're a fearless, speculative type).
“Backing off: Subscribers may think Russell's lost his mind. He's turning just a bit bullish. The answer is that I'm reporting exactly what I'm seeing. And if what I see doesn't jibe with what I'm reading in the newspaper and it doesn't jibe with prevailing sentiment, then I think it's that much more important. I keep hearing the most horrendous stories about unemployment and companies in trouble, and my thought is always, ‘Has this been discounted by one of the worst bear markets since the '30s?' Which is why I report every item that I see, every item that might suggest that the market has already discounted the bad news.
The question always is ‘cut through the BS, what is the market saying?'”
Source: Richard Russell, Dow Theory Letters , December 11, 2008.
Puru Saxena: Sowing the seeds
“This nasty bear-market is in its latter stages and I suspect that the bulk of the declines are now behind us. Although it is premature to claim that the bear-market definitely ended on October 10, it does look increasingly likely that the lows recorded on November 21, were in fact a successful ‘test' of the prior month's lows.
“History shows that following a major bear-market, it is common for the major indices to retest the lows. In a recent study undertaken to review recovery patterns, JP Morgan examined all the bear-markets going back to 1900 and it came up with a few interesting observations. The study revealed that market bottoms were almost always retested and that such ‘tests' resulted in a new marginal low about 40% of the time.
“The study also found that 75% of the retesting events occurred within 44 days of a major bottom; so if October 10 marked the bottom of this bear-market, the retest on November 21 was bang on target from a timing perspective.
“At this stage, I am only guessing that October 10 was the pivotal turnaround of this bear-market. It may well be that this market breaks below those lows in the days ahead, however given the favourable technical and sentiment data, at the very least, there is a strong possibility that we will get a multi-month rally from these oversold conditions.
“It is worth noting that new bull-markets are always born amidst abject pessimism; at a time when the majority are convinced that economic activity will never pick up again. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that frightening economic news continues to surface, long after a new bull-market has begun. So, the time to buy is during such scary times. This was also highlighted by Warren Buffet who recently wrote - ‘If you wait for robins, spring will be over'.
“Now, I cannot say with any certainty whether we are already in the early stages of the next cycle. However, the recent rout in the markets has set the stage for above-average long-term returns. Under my best case scenario, we are in the very early stages of a new multi-year bull-market. And under my worst case scenario, we are going to get a very strong rebound (30% move higher in the S&P500) over a short period of time, which will probably take the markets back to their 200-day moving averages.
”
Source: Puru Saxena (via Fullermoney ), December 10, 2008.
David Fuller (Fullermoney): S&P 500 at extreme divergence from its 200-day moving average
“We first posted this indicator on October 10 when the relevant spreadsheet was created for us by a subscriber. The indicator remains at a historically low level but has risen considerably from its early October nadir. This has been achieved by the relevant indices having gone mostly sideways for the last two months. The moving average is now starting to come down towards the price and while it still has a long way to go, mean reversion is taking place.
“This is not a guarantee that the market will not go lower later but, historically, when the market has diverged from its mean by such a margin, important stock market lows have occurred relatively soon afterwards.
”
Source: David Fuller, Fullermoney , December 8, 2008.
Bespoke: Percentage of stocks above 50-day moving averages
“Even though the S&P 500 is in a new bull market, the percentage of stocks in the index trading above their 50-day moving averages is still at oversold levels. As shown in the chart below, at 26%, this indicator has a long way to go before becoming overbought.
“On a sector basis, Telecom, Utilities, and Consumer Discretionary have the highest percentage of stocks above their 50-days, while Energy and Financials have the lowest.
”
Source: Bespoke , December 10, 2008.
Bespoke: Third worst bear market on record
“The S&P 500 finally had its first 20%+ rally in 408 days yesterday [Monday], which means we're currently in a bull market by the standard definition (20% rally preceded by a 20% decline).
“… below we highlight historical bear markets for the S&P 500 since 1927. As shown, the bear market that ran from 10/9/07 to 11/20/08 is the third worst ever with a decline of 51.93%. The bears that ended in June of 1932 (-61.81%) and March of 1938 (-54.47%) are the only two that had bigger declines without a rally of 20%.
”
Source: Bespoke , December 9, 2008.
Bespoke: US sector and stock buy ratings
“Below we highlight the average percentage of buy ratings for stocks in each of the ten S&P 500 sectors. As shown, Financial stocks have the lowest percentage of buy ratings of any sector at 35%, while Energy has the highest at 63%. Consumer Discretionary, Materials, and Consumer Staples are the three other sectors (along with Financials) that have below average buy ratings compared to all stocks in the S&P 500.
Source: Bespoke , December 8, 2008.
David Fuller (Fullermoney): Commodities - are they the most promising asset class today?
“I do think commodities have significant recovery potential, despite the global economic slump, deflation threat and depression fears. Moreover, I believe that the fundamentals for commodities have now improved more than for all other asset classes.
“Consider the following bull points:
1. Interest rates have fallen, which is currently better for commodity speculators than commodity producers, because contangos have shrunk considerably, lowering rollover costs.
2. However, the credit crunch means that it is now more difficult for commodity producers to obtain necessary financing. Consequently, miners and oil producers are deferring development projects and laying off workers, while farmers find it more difficult to finance the purchase of fertilizers and equipment. These problems are not fully offset by the lower cost of energy.
3. Prices for all commodities are much lower today than during the first half of 2008, not least because speculators have been shaken out and traders are actually short. This is good news for those who wish to buy oversold commodities. However it is a big disincentive for commodity producers, many of whom are now reducing production.
4. While the global economic slump has reduced demand for commodities somewhat, these are essential resources which the world cannot do without, unlike luxury goods, the latest fashions, lavish holidays or expensive restaurants.
5. The US dollar has peaked and commenced what is likely to be a significant retracement of gains seen since July. This is bullish for commodities because most are priced in US dollars.
“What could significantly delay or even prevent a big rally for commodities? The reflationary efforts could fail, or more likely take many more months before they turn a global economy that is still contracting. If so, there could be some additional downside risk and base formation development would most likely be lengthy. The US Dollar Index could fail to maintain its downward break. Improved weather patterns could lead to increased supplies of agricultural commodities.
“For these reasons, Fullermoney maintains that commodities are best purchased following setbacks. Positions are most safely built incrementally.
”
Source: David Fuller, Fullermoney , December 11, 2008.
Financial Times: So long, super-cycle
“The severity of the crisis has surprised natural resources companies' executives, commodity traders and Wall Street bankers alike. After all, the commodities boom of 2003-08 has been the most notable for a century in its magnitude, duration and the number of commodities whose prices it has lifted.
The sudden plunge poses a fundamental question: is this just a temporary blip within an upward trend, with prices likely to rebound in the medium term, or is it the conclusion of another commodities cycle of boom and bust, with a period of relatively stable prices coming ahead?
“The common belief in the industry itself, and among most Wall Street analysts, is that the market is undergoing a correction but that the boom years have not ended. As many point out, the main drivers of what many have come to see as a commodities super-cycle - such as strong pent-up demand in emerging countries and supply constraints caused by a lack of investment over the past 20 years, along with the rise in resource nationalism - are intact. The current drop is, in the words of one senior mining executive, a ‘reset' of the boom, not the end of it. Prices will rebound, in this view, and continue rising.
”
Click here for the full article.
Source: Javier Blas and Krishna Guha, Financial Times , December 9, 2008.
Bespoke: Consensus gold estimates
“Below we provide the consensus price target for gold through 2012. These target prices are based on the median of 21 gold analysts surveyed by Bloomberg . As shown, analysts currently aren't expecting a big rally or a big decline in gold over the next few years. By mid-year 2009, analysts are expecting gold to be at $825/ounce, which is less than $10 from its current price of $816. At the end of 2011, analysts expect gold to be down to $790, and then down to $762 by the end of 2012.
”
Source: Bespoke , December 12, 2008.
Casey's Charts: Gold stocks - time to bottom feed
“The previous low point for the ratio of the XAU gold stock index to the price of gold was 0.16, when gold was trading around $270 an ounce in October of 2000. Today, the XAU is trading a mere 57% higher than it was in October of 2000, compared to a gold price that has increased by 184%. As a general rule of thumb, anytime the ratio is above the 25-year average is the time to sell, and below its average says gold stocks are cheap.
With the ratio bouncing off the lowest level since the inception of the XAU index, it signals a SCREAMING buy for gold stocks!
“Picking the bottom of any market is near impossible, but knowing when something is grossly undervalued can be easy. Gold has long been considered a hedge against inflation, and with trillions of new government bailout dollars ready to circulate into the system, buying precious metal stocks at these distressed prices is the chance of a lifetime.
”
Source: Casey's Charts , December 5, 2008.
Profit NDTV: Asia beats US in gold futures trading
“Asia, which accounts for 60% of the world gold imports, has overtaken the US in gold futures trading, with Mumbai and Shanghai exchanges growing rapidly, leading trade magazine Futures Industry has reported.
“According to the latest edition of the US-based magazine, data from the first eight months of this year show that the combined volumes in gold futures trading at exchanges in Shanghai, Tokyo, Taiwan and Mumbai reached 49.8 million contracts, far ahead of the 34.3 million contracts traded in the US.
“‘From January through August this year, seven of the top 10 gold contracts in the world were Asian,' it said, adding that much of that growth was in Mumbai and Shanghai.
“‘Some of the boom is undoubtedly driven by the search for a safe haven as the value of stock investments continues to evaporate,' the magazine said noting that Asian investors may also have a greater cultural predisposition toward gold than Westerners.
“Asia imports 60% of the world's gold and its exports 40%. India is the largest consumer of physical gold in the world, followed by the US, and then China. And this year, China became the world's largest gold producer - a title south Africa had held for more than 100 years.
”
Source: Profit NDTV , December 9, 2008.
BBC News: UK economic slowdown “worsening”
“The UK economy contracted 1% between September and November, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has estimated.
“This fall followed after a 0.8% drop in the three months to the end of October, said the think tank. Indicating that the rate of output decline is ‘accelerating', the NIESR now expects a fall of more than 1% in the last three months of the year.
“Official data showed that the economy shrank 0.5% from July to September. But it will not be until January that the Office for National Statistics reports on the final quarter's GDP.
“If it reports a decline for the three months to December, then the UK will be in officially in recession under the generally accepted definition of two consecutive quarters of decline.
“The NIESR says it has a good track record in forecasting GDP growth in advance of the official figures. The latest data from NIESR is just the latest indication that the UK economy is most probably falling into a recession.
”
Source: BBC News , December 10, 2008.
Victoria Marklew (Northern Trust): Swiss rates head toward zero
“The Swiss National Bank (SNB) effectively lopped another 50bps off its main policy rate today, lowering its target band for three-month Swiss franc LIBOR to 0.0-1.0% (down from 0.5-1.5%) and aiming for the mid-point of 0.5%. This brings the easing total to 225bps since October 8.
“The SNB warned that the sharply worsening global climate will push Switzerland into recession next year. Chairman Roth stated that growth is likely to be negative, not just in the first two quarters of 2009 but for the year as a whole. The bank is now forecasting a contraction in real GDP of between 0.5% and 1.0% next year. The inflation forecast was also revised down, with the bank now seeing the annual rate averaging 0.9% next year and 0.5% in 2010.
”
Source: Victoria Marklew, Northern Trust - Daily Global Commentary , December 11, 2008.
Financial Times: Japan contracts faster than expected
“Japan's gross domestic product contracted much more rapidly in the third quarter than previously thought, official data showed on Tuesday, amid new indications of distress in the world's second-biggest economy.
“The revised GDP data showed a quarter-on-quarter fall of 0.5% for the three months to September, compared with last month's preliminary estimate of a 0.1% decline.
“The economy contracted at an annualised rate of 1.8% between July and September - a much more precipitous pace than the annualised 0.5% decline suffered in the same quarter by the US, centre of the global financial crisis.
“Analysts said the revision, though bigger than expected, reflected relatively technical factors involving inventories and government spending rather than worrying new information and so would not dramatically change assessments of the economy's prospects.
“‘The downgrade in headline growth does not look as bad as the headline suggests,' UBS said in a research note.
“However, the news the recession was deeper than thought came as the Cabinet Office said its latest composite index of business conditions showed the economy ‘worsening'.
”
Source: Mure Dickie, Financial Times , December 9, 2008.
Financial Times: China's export fall worse than predicted
“The impact of the global financial crisis on China became clear on Wednesday when the government revealed that exports fell in November for the first time in almost seven years.
“With demand in many of its main markets slowing sharply, Chinese exports declined 2.2% from a year earlier. Imports also fell 17.9% from a year earlier, according to Chinese customs figures, prompting the government to announce plans to further boost the economy.
“The Chinese data shocked economists. The figures were far below forecasts, even in the light of sharp slumps in exports in November from both Taiwan and South Korea.
“‘This is the worst collapse in Chinese exports since 1999 and is probably just the beginning of a prolonged export contraction,' said Isaac Meng, economist at BNP Paribas.
“The drop in imports, the biggest since the early 1990s, helped push the monthly trade surplus to a record $40 billion, the fourth month in a row that the surplus has broken records.
“The government pledged on Wednesday to do everything it could to maintain ‘stable, healthy' growth next year. At the conclusion of the three-day Central Economic Work Conference, an annual meeting of top policy-makers, officials said they would boost public spending in order to promote domestic demand.
“A report on state radio about the meeting said the government had reaffirmed its policy of keeping the exchange rate ‘basically steady', but would take other measures to deal with falling domestic demand.
“Until last month, China's exports had held up much better than most observers had expected, increasing by 19% in October compared to the same month last year.
”
Source: Geoff Dyer and Jamil Anderlini, Financial Times , December 10, 2008.
Financial Times: China inflation falls as growth slows
“China's consumer price inflation fell to a 22-month low of 2.4% in November, giving the central bank free rein to cut interest rates further to offset an abrupt slump in the world's fourth-largest economy.
“Economists had expected inflation to moderate to 3.0% from 4.
0
% in the year to October. In the event, the reading was the lowest since January 2007.
“Nie Wen, an analyst with Huabao Trust in Shanghai, said the plunge meant real, inflation-adjusted interest rates in China were now back in positive territory even though the economy had run into fierce headwinds.
“‘The government will become more decisive in cutting rates,' Nie said.
“Jing Ulrich, head of China equities at J.P. Morgan agreed. ‘We believe there is further scope for the central bank to ease monetary policy in an effort to avoid an excessive slowdown and stave off deflation,' she said in a note to clients.
“‘Definitely we are going to move into a deflationary environment in China, probably through the first six months of the year,' said Glenn Maguire, chief Asia-Pacific economist for Societe Generale in Hong Kong.
”
Source: Financial Times , December 11, 2008.
Bespoke: Deflation coming in China?
“It wasn't too long ago that one of the biggest worries facing the global economy was that improved standards of living in China would lead to higher wages for its workers. This, it was feared, would cause the country to begin exporting inflation around the world. As recently as August, PPI data from China showed that inflation was running at a rate of 10.1% year over year (y/y). Since then, however, pricing power in China has collapsed as evidenced by last night's [Tuesday] release of the November PPI, which showed that prices are now up by just 2.0% y/y. At this rate, it won't be long before we start seeing minus signs.
”
Source: Bespoke , December 10, 2008.
Financial Times: Rouble exodus hits Russia's credit rating
“Russia on Monday became the first G8 country since the start of the financial crisis to have its credit rating downgraded after Standard and Poor's took fright at the recent exodus from the rouble and sharp drop in oil prices.
“S&P said it had lowered Russia's foreign currency credit rating by one notch from BBB+ to BBB because of the ‘rapid depletion' of the country's foreign exchange reserves and the ‘difficulty of meeting the country's external financing needs'. It said the outlook for the rating was negative.
“Russia's reserves have fallen by $128 billion since August to $455 billion, as the country battles the capital flight that began following the war with Georgia and escalated as the oil price fell and the global crisis worsened.
“S&P said Russia could be forced to spend all $200 billion now parked in its two sovereign wealth funds on recapitalising the banking system and covering fiscal deficits in 2009 and 2010.
“The agency expects Russia to run a current account deficit next year of 2.6% of gross domestic product due to the oil price fall, putting further pressure on the balance of payments.
“‘There are a lot of layers of concern,' said Frank Gill, primary credit analyst at Standard and Poor's. ‘There are macroeconomic and political risks … and Russia has not operated a current account deficit since 1997 and that was less than 1% of GDP.
'
“The thought of devaluation raises the spectre of the 1998 rouble crash that wiped out Russians' savings, although economists say any devaluation this time would be far less severe.
”
Source: Catherine Belton, Financial Times , December 8, 2008.
http://www. investmentpostcards. com/
* FOR ALL THE LINKS, GRAPHS, GO TO MY BLOG ON HERE & SUBSCRIBE TO IT FOR FREE !
Dec 14, 2008 - 08:02 AM
By: Prieur_du_Plessis
New York Magazine: Oracles of doom
They always knew the economy would collapse.
What do they think will happen next?
FORTUNE TELLER: Gerald Celente
Trends Research Institute founder; owner of collapseof09. com
TRACK RECORD
Predicted 1987 crash, 1997 Asian currency crisis; said in 2007 that US was headed for “economic 9/11″ in 2008.
CURRENT PREDICTION
“Products are going to be cheaper to buy, but guess what? You're going to need more dollars to buy them because your dollar's going to be worth less. There is no fiscal or monetary policy that can save this. You cannot save it by printing more money.
”
FORTUNE TELLER: Nouriel Roubini
NYU business professor; chairman of RGE Monitor
TRACK RECORD
Predicted this year's crisis in 2006, pointing to a housing bust, oil shocks, and interest-rate increases.
CURRENT PREDICTION
“It's becoming a global recession. I expect it to be the worst US recession of the last 50 years. I expect a cumulative fall in output from the peak of 4% and the unemployment rate going all the way to 9%.
”
FORTUNE TELLER: Peter Schiff
President of Euro Pacific Capital
TRACK RECORD
Published “Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse in February 2007″; star of YouTube video “Peter Schiff Was Right 2006-2007.
”
CURRENT PREDICTION
“I predicted that the economy would collapse. The bigger risk I saw was the government's attempt to solve the problem by doing exactly what they're now doing. They're going to create another Great Depression, but worse, because the cost of living will go through the roof.
”
FORTUNE TELLER: Richard Russell
Founder of the Dow Theory Letters
TRACK RECORD
Predicted bottom of 1974 bear market; exited market before crashes in 1987 and 2000.
CURRENT PREDICTION
“As long as we can hold the Dow above 7,470, I think the situation is hopeful. That's the halfway level from when the bull market started in 1982 and when it ended in 2007. My guess is that it will break that level. Most bear markets have wiped out more than 50% of a bull market.
”
FORTUNE TELLER: Barry Ritholtz
CEO and equity research director of Fusion IQ; blogger at The Big Picture
TRACK RECORD
Predicted downturn last year.
CURRENT PREDICTION
“In March, the first-quarter numbers start coming out, and that's potentially a problem. It's just going to be an issue of dealing with the market. If earnings continue to drop and you end up with multiple contractions, that basically takes you to a really bad, ugly place, which is an S&P at 400 or 500. I don't think that's likely, but it's certainly possible.
”
FORTUNE TELLER: Jeremy Grantham
Co-founder and chairman, GMO LLC
TRACK RECORD
His 1998 ten-year forecast showed severe market declines in 2007 and 2008; warned of global bubble in April 2007.
CURRENT PREDICTION
“I would think, just to guess, that the period of heroic volatility will end pretty soon and will be replaced by a rather 1974-ish environment, where you quietly get bitterly resigned to your steady diet of bad news.
”
Source: Jeff VanDam, New York Magazine , December 7, 2008.
Bloomberg: Interview with Martin Feldstein
“Harvard University professor Feldstein discusses auto bailout, how to fix the housing market as well as Fannie and Freddie, and 3-month T-Bill rates below zero.
”
Interview with Harvard University Professor Martin Feldstein
Feldstein Discusses: Auto Bailout Near Agreement, How to Fix the Housing Market as Well as Fannie and Freddie, and 3-Month T-Bills Rates Below Zero
http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=QrjVrdYzJmc
Source: Bloomberg (via YouTube ), December 9, 2008.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Telegraph): Deflation virus is moving the policy test beyond the 1930s
“Debt deflation is tightening its grip over the entire global system. Interest rates are creeping towards zero in Japan, America, and now across most of Europe.
“We are beyond the extremes of the 1930s. The frontiers of monetary policy are being pushed to limits that may now test viability of paper currencies and modern central banking.
“You cannot drop below zero. So what next if the credit markets refuse to thaw? Yes, Japan visited and survived this policy hell during its lost decade, but that was a local affair in an otherwise booming global economy. It tells us nothing.
“This time we are all going down together. There is no deus ex machina to lift us out. Certainly not China, which is the most vulnerable of all.
“As the risk grows, officials at the highest level of the British Government have begun to circulate a six-year-old speech by Ben Bernanke - at the time of its writing, a garrulous kid governor at the US Federal Reserve. Entitled ‘Deflation: Making Sure It Doesn't Happen Here', it is the manual of guerrilla tactics for defeating slumps by monetary means.
“‘The US government has a technology, called a printing press, that allows it to produce as many US dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost,' he said.
“His point was that central banks never run out of ammunition. They have an inexhaustible arsenal. The world's fate now hangs on whether he was right (which is probable), or wrong (which is possible).
“As a scholar of the Great Depression, Bernanke does not think that sliding prices can safely be allowed to run their course. ‘Sustained deflation can be highly destructive to a modern economy,' he said.
“Bernanke's central claim is that the big guns of monetary policy were never properly deployed during the Depression, or during the early years of Japan's bust, so no wonder the slumps dragged on.
“The Fed can create money out of thin air and mop up assets on the open market, like a sovereign sugar daddy. ‘Sufficient injections of money will ultimately always reverse a deflation.
'
“Bernanke said the Fed can ‘expand the menu of assets that it buys'. US Treasury bonds top the list, but it can equally purchase mortgage securities from US agencies such as Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie, or company bonds, or commercial paper. Any asset will do.
“The Fed can acquire houses, stocks, or a herd of Texas Longhorn cattle if it wants. It can even scatter $100 bills from helicopters. (Actually, Japan is about to do this with shopping coupons).
”
Source: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph , December 9, 2008.
Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Household net worth is shrinking rapidly
“Household net worth in the third quarter of 2008 was $56.5 trillion, down 4.7% from the second quarter. This is the largest quarterly decline since the second quarter of 1962 when net worth of households dropped 5.0%.
“Household spending will suffer as setback a household net worth shrinks, which is already visible in consumer spending data, and the proclivity of households to borrow will show a reduction. The chart below indicates that growth of both mortgage and consumer debt have fallen in the third quarter. The sharp drop in mortgage debt (-2.4%) reflects the impact of mortgage foreclosures and a drop in home purchases, while consumer debt grew at a 1.2% pace in the third quarter versus a 7.2% jump a year ago.
”
Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust - Daily Global Commentary , December 11, 2008.
Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Weak trajectory for retail sales
“Retail sales fell 1.8% in November, after a 2.9% decline in the prior month. Retail sales have dropped for five straight months, the longest string of declines since record keeping for retail sales began in 1967. The wide swings of gasoline prices influence the headline of retail sales. Excluding gasoline, retail sales dropped 0.2% in November after a 1.6% plunge in the prior month. Retail sales excluding gasoline have recorded six consecutive monthly declines. Unit auto sales have fallen in ten out of eleven months of the year.
“The upshot is that with or without gasoline and autos, retail sales show an extraordinary weakness that is seen the overall consumer spending data and this weak trajectory for retail sales and overall consumer spending is predicted to prevail in the near term.
”
Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust - Daily Global Commentary , December 12, 2008.
Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Consumer spending in post-war recessions
“The chart below illustrates the history of consumer spending during recessions. Consumer spending typically declines in recessionary periods with the exception of the 1948 and 2001 recessions.
“Our forecast includes five consecutive quarterly declines in consumer spending, possibly another record for the books if our forecast is accurate. The highly leveraged household balance sheet of households underlies this prediction.
”
Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust - Daily Global Commentary , December 8, 2008.
Bloomberg: Inside look - housing crisis
“From Housing Forum in Washington D.C.: Interview with PIMCO Managing Director Scott Simon.
”
Inside Look: Housing Crisis
Outlook for Loan Modifications - Live! From Housing Forum in Washington D.C.
: Interview with PIMCO Managing Director Scott Simon
http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=qUebSiF5kVU
Source: Bloomberg (via YouTube ), December 8, 2008.
BusinessWeek: Unretired - retirees are back, looking for work
“They saved. They planned. Then housing tanked and the markets melted. Now they need jobs, and there aren't any.
“Six years ago, Paul Nelson gave up his long career in the defense industry for what he thought would be a peaceful retirement in Tucson. The weather was mild, the neighbors friendly. He had plenty of time to volunteer and garden.
“But retirement hasn't worked out the way he planned. In 2006 his wife of 46 years died unexpectedly. He tried to swap their house for a smaller one and lost a chunk of his retirement savings in the process. Then this year the stock market cratered, wiping out almost everything he had left. Now the 71-year-old is looking for work at local hardware stores and Home Depot and contemplating filing for personal bankruptcy. ‘I have nothing left,' says Nelson, a former Raytheon engineer. ‘I am not alone, I think.
'
“Far from it. An increasing number of people who retired in recent years, confident they had set aside enough to live on comfortably, are finding themselves strapped. The stock market plunge and the housing downturn have affected many Americans, of course. But retirees have been particularly pinched because their homes and investments are the primary assets they depend on for income. As a result, many of the country's elderly are finding themselves in Nelson's situation, low on money and looking for work. ‘Suddenly the rug has been pulled out from under them,' says Alicia H. Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
”
Click here for the full article.
Source: Heather Green, Business Week , December 4, 2008.
Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Oil imports lead to wider trade gap in October
“The trade deficit widened to $57.2 billion in October from $56.6 billion in September. During October, exports (-2.2%) and imports (-1.3%) of goods and services fell.
”
Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust - Daily Global Commentary , December 11, 2008.
Reuters: Jim Rogers calls most big US banks “totally bankrupt”
“Jim Rogers, one of the world's most prominent international investors, on Thursday called most of the largest US banks ‘totally bankrupt', and said government efforts to fix the sector are wrongheaded.
“Speaking by teleconference at the Reuters Investment Outlook 2009 Summit, the co-founder with George Soros of the Quantum Fund, said the government's $700 billion rescue package for the sector doesn't address how banks manage their balance sheets, and instead rewards weaker lenders with new capital.
“Dozens of banks have won infusions from the Troubled Asset Relief Program created in early October, just after the September 15 bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers. Some of the funds are being used for acquisitions.
“‘Without giving specific names, most of the significant American banks, the larger banks, are bankrupt, totally bankrupt,' said Rogers, who is now a private investor.
“‘What is outrageous economically and is outrageous morally is that normally in times like this, people who are competent and who saw it coming and who kept their powder dry go and take over the assets from the incompetent,' he said. ‘What's happening this time is that the government is taking the assets from the competent people and giving them to the incompetent people and saying, now you can compete with the competent people. It is horrible economics.
'
“Rogers said he shorted shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the government nationalized the mortgage financiers in September, a week before Lehman failed.
“Now a specialist in commodities, Rogers said he has used the recent rally in the US dollar as an opportunity to exit dollar-denominated assets.
“While not saying how long the US economic recession will last, he said conditions could ultimately mirror those of Japan in the 1990s. ‘The way things are going, we're going to have a lost decade too, just like the 1970s,' he said.
” … Rogers said sound US lenders remain. He said these could include banks that don't make or hold subprime mortgages, or which have high ratios of deposits to equity, ‘all the classic old ratios that most banks in America forgot or started ignoring because they were too old-fashioned'.
“‘Governments are making mistakes,' he said. ‘They're saying to all the banks, you don't have to tell us your situation. You can continue to use your balance sheet that is phony … All these guys are bankrupt, they're still worrying about their bonuses, they're still trying to pay their dividends, and the whole system is weakened.
'
“Rogers said he is investing in growth areas in China and Taiwan, in such areas as water treatment and agriculture, and recently bought positions in energy and agriculture indexes.
”
Source: Jonathan Stempel, Reuters , December 11, 2008.
CNBC: Meredith Whitney - outlook grim for banks
http://www. cnbc. com/id/15840232?video=957685796
Source: CNBC , December 7, 2008.
Financial Times: Post-Lehman company defaults to soar
“Default rates for speculative grade companies are forecast to jump threefold next year following the fall of Lehman Brothers, the world's biggest bankruptcy, according to Moody's, the US ratings agency.
“The implosion of Lehman on September 15 is widely regarded as a significant milestone, turning the credit crunch into a fully blown economic crisis.
“Jim Reid, credit strategist at Deutsche Bank, said: ‘We are at a turning point for default rates, with much bigger monthly rises from now on.
“‘Two or three months after Lehman's collapse, we are starting to see the impact on the real economy, particularly for those companies on short-term funding.
'
“European companies defaulting on their bonds are also set to outpace those in the US, although analysts suggest this is because the European junk-grade market is smaller, meaning any rise in defaults has a greater impact in percentage terms, rather than pointing to a deeper recession.
“Global default rates are forecast to rise to 10.4% by November 2009 - from 3.1% last month - to levels last seen in 2001 following the dotcom crash. Rates are forecast to jump to 4.2% by the end of this year.
“A year ago, the global rate was 0.9 per cent.
“The ratings agency's distressed index, which measures the number of companies with bonds trading at more than 1,000 basis points over government paper, rose to 51.8% at the end of last month, up from 48.5% at the end of October, and the highest level since Moody's launched the index in 1996. This reflects the deepening problems for company funding. Even some investment grade companies are now trading at distressed levels.
”
Source: David Oakley and Paul J Davies, Financial Times , December 8, 2008.
Bespoke: 10-Year Treasuries overbought
“It's an understatement to say that Treasuries are overbought at current levels. We've been monitoring the spread between its price and its 50-day moving average, and the 10-year Note has finally gotten to a level that is usually met with selling pressure in the near term. Since 1977, the 10-year has only gotten more than 12% above its 50-day moving average on three different occasions. As shown in the table below, the returns over the next week, month, and 3 months lean to the negative side. The average change of the 10-year over the next three months when getting this overbought has been -3.23%.
”
Source: Bespoke , December 9, 2008.
Bespoke: Want to lend money to uncle Sam? It's going to cost you
“What would your reaction be if you had a friend who had reached the limit on 20 different credit cards and then came to you to borrow $100? Then imagine that you actually said yes, and when you went to give your friend the $100, he or she actually asked for $101 just for the privilege of loaning the money. Well, that is exactly what is happening (to a lesser degree) in the US T-bill market. As just another example of the crazy times we are living in, the yield on 3-month Treasuries went negative today. There was a time when an event such as this was unimaginable. Today it barely gets noticed.
”
Source: Bespoke , December 9, 2008.
John Hussman (Hussman Funds): Unusually unfavourabale yield levels for Treasuries
“In bonds, the market climate last week was characterized by unusually unfavorable yield levels and generally favorable yield pressures. As I have frequently noted, yield levels are much more important than market action in driving subsequent total returns in bonds. This is because bonds are less susceptible to ‘bubbles' as a result of their payment stream being known, so favorable market action can't be taken as evidence of favorable surprises in those payments.
“The problem with Treasury yields here is that while there are good economic reasons for the downward yield pressures, the levels are low enough to invite explosive spikes that can easily wipe out a year or more of yield-to-maturity in a few days.
“Corporate yields have increased significantly, but default rates tend to pick up in the later stages of recessions, and there isn't much historical evidence to suggest that corporate bonds reach their lows any earlier than stocks do. For that reason, corporate bonds are essentially equity-equivalents here, and the same considerations about quality apply as well here as they do for stocks. Generally speaking, corporate bonds are currently priced to deliver both lower long-term returns than stocks, but as a group, will probably have lower volatility than stocks as well.
”
Source: John Hussman, Hussman Funds , December 8, 2008.
Bloomberg: US Treasury risk surpasses Campbell Soup as debt increases
“The cost to hedge against losses on US Treasuries surpassed the price of default protection on bonds from Campbell Soup and drug-maker Baxter International as government spending on stimulus packages grows.
“Credit-default swaps protecting US government debt in euros for five years are trading at 65 basis points, according to CMA Datavision, meaning costs 65,000 euros ($84,200) to protect 10 million euros of debt. Contracts on Campbell were at 52.5 basis points and Baxter contracts were 57.5 basis points at the close of trading [on Wednesday] in New York.
“The Federal Reserve's assets have more than doubled from a year ago to $2.14 trillion as the central bank seeks to revive credit markets. Economists including Harvard University professor Kenneth Rogoff and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz say President-elect Barack Obama should push for a stimulus package of at least $1 trillion to lift the economy out of a yearlong recession. The US government's total cost to bail out the economy may exceed $4 trillion, according to strategists including Ira Jersey at Credit Suisse Group AG in New York.
“Contracts protecting U.K. government debt for five years were quoted at a mid-price of 114.75 basis points today [Wednesday], according to CMA. Swaps on Italy are at 190, and the Netherlands at 99.5. France was quoted at 58.75 and Germany at 51.5, CMA data show.
“Credit-default swaps pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent if a borrower fails to meet its debt obligations. A basis point on a credit-default swap contract protecting $10 million of debt from default for five years is equivalent to $1,000 a year.
”
Source: Shannon D. Harrington, Bloomberg , December 10, 2008.
Jean-Paul Calamaro (Deutsche Bank): Credit markets offer stunning opportunities
“The crisis gripping financial markets has produced some stunning investment opportunities in credit markets. Among the best is the returns available on ‘basis trades' between corporate bonds and credit default swaps, says Jean-Paul Calamaro, global head of quantitative credit strategy at Deutsche Bank.
“‘Investors buy a corporate bond and also buy default protection on the issuer via a CDS. When the basis is negative [CDS protection costs less than the bond's spread to swaps] this produces protected cash flows and further profits if the difference between the bond and CDS narrows, or if the issuer defaults. The basis between bonds and CDS has been at historic wides recently, giving significant returns without using leverage,' he says.
“‘The trade works for many investment grade and high yield issuers in Europe and the US, but high yield trades look most attractive.
“‘This is because investors can earn high returns more quickly when an issuer defaults and at this point in the credit cycle we think defaults are more likely. The trades also work in investment grade, not because we expect defaults but because we expect the basis between bonds and CDS to narrow.
“‘The major cheapening of bonds versus CDS across corporate credit has been due to the heightened funding crisis since the Lehman bankruptcy in mid-September. We believe conditions will start to ease after year end, which makes these types of trades unusually attractive now.
'”
Source: Jean-Paul Calamaro, Deutsche Bank (via Financial Times ), December , 2008.
Bloomberg: Cheapest stocks since 1995 show cash exceeds market
“Stocks have fallen so far that 2,267 companies around the globe are offering profits to investors for free. That's eight times as many as at the end of the last bear market, when the shares rose 115% over the next year.
“Bank of New York Mellon in New York, Danieli in Italy and Seoul-based Namyang Dairy Products hold more cash than the value of their stock and debt as the slowing world economy wiped out $32 trillion in capitalization this year. Companies in the MSCI World Index trade for an average $1.17 per dollar of net assets, the lowest since at least 1995, and 39% sell at a discount to shareholder equity, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“The cash-rich companies allow investors to pay nothing for future earnings streams, providing opportunities to buyers concerned about deflation, according to Jean-Marie Eveillard, whose $16 billion First Eagle Global Fund has beaten 98% of competitors this year. Microsoft and Novo Nordisk, which generate the most money compared with debt, can expand even if lower consumer demand erodes profits.
“‘Cash is king, not necessarily for the investor but for corporations,' Eveillard said in an interview from New York last week. ‘It's useful to sit on a ton of cash, No. 1 to survive, as opposed to going bankrupt, and No. 2 to seize opportunities either to make acquisitions cheaply or to squeeze competitors.
'”
Source: Michael Tsang and Alexis Xydias, Bloomberg , December 8, 2008.
Richard Russell (Dow Theory Letters): “I'm beginning to like what I see”
“If they create enough of it, will they come and spend it? That's what Mr. Bernanke is going to find out. The government has created over a trillion dollars of currency. There's now over $8 trillion on the sidelines in money markets and T-bills - all frozen with fear and waiting for something better and safer to come along. There's too much money now in relation to the quantity of goods and merchandise available. This is the formula for inflation or even hyper-inflation. What's holding it all back? Lack of confidence, fear.
“What would change that? The stock market rising steadily would bring back confidence. Which is why I monitor the stock market so closely. Yes, it's quite a game, and it's the most important and fascinating game in the world. No wonder I'm in this business.
I read the markets, and I'm beginning to like what I see!
“My guess is that the market is establishing a tradeable bottom with a rally that will last into the first quarter of next year. What we're seeing now might not be the final bottom but it will serve until the real one comes along.
”
Source: Richard Russell, Dow Theory Letters , December 8, 2008.
Richard Russell (Dow Theory Letters): Adding some selected stocks
“Up to now, our favored position has been cash and gold (preferably physical gold). Our new position is cash, gold and, for the bolder crowd, a few selected stocks (DIA if you're a fearless, speculative type).
“Backing off: Subscribers may think Russell's lost his mind. He's turning just a bit bullish. The answer is that I'm reporting exactly what I'm seeing. And if what I see doesn't jibe with what I'm reading in the newspaper and it doesn't jibe with prevailing sentiment, then I think it's that much more important. I keep hearing the most horrendous stories about unemployment and companies in trouble, and my thought is always, ‘Has this been discounted by one of the worst bear markets since the '30s?' Which is why I report every item that I see, every item that might suggest that the market has already discounted the bad news.
The question always is ‘cut through the BS, what is the market saying?'”
Source: Richard Russell, Dow Theory Letters , December 11, 2008.
Puru Saxena: Sowing the seeds
“This nasty bear-market is in its latter stages and I suspect that the bulk of the declines are now behind us. Although it is premature to claim that the bear-market definitely ended on October 10, it does look increasingly likely that the lows recorded on November 21, were in fact a successful ‘test' of the prior month's lows.
“History shows that following a major bear-market, it is common for the major indices to retest the lows. In a recent study undertaken to review recovery patterns, JP Morgan examined all the bear-markets going back to 1900 and it came up with a few interesting observations. The study revealed that market bottoms were almost always retested and that such ‘tests' resulted in a new marginal low about 40% of the time.
“The study also found that 75% of the retesting events occurred within 44 days of a major bottom; so if October 10 marked the bottom of this bear-market, the retest on November 21 was bang on target from a timing perspective.
“At this stage, I am only guessing that October 10 was the pivotal turnaround of this bear-market. It may well be that this market breaks below those lows in the days ahead, however given the favourable technical and sentiment data, at the very least, there is a strong possibility that we will get a multi-month rally from these oversold conditions.
“It is worth noting that new bull-markets are always born amidst abject pessimism; at a time when the majority are convinced that economic activity will never pick up again. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that frightening economic news continues to surface, long after a new bull-market has begun. So, the time to buy is during such scary times. This was also highlighted by Warren Buffet who recently wrote - ‘If you wait for robins, spring will be over'.
“Now, I cannot say with any certainty whether we are already in the early stages of the next cycle. However, the recent rout in the markets has set the stage for above-average long-term returns. Under my best case scenario, we are in the very early stages of a new multi-year bull-market. And under my worst case scenario, we are going to get a very strong rebound (30% move higher in the S&P500) over a short period of time, which will probably take the markets back to their 200-day moving averages.
”
Source: Puru Saxena (via Fullermoney ), December 10, 2008.
David Fuller (Fullermoney): S&P 500 at extreme divergence from its 200-day moving average
“We first posted this indicator on October 10 when the relevant spreadsheet was created for us by a subscriber. The indicator remains at a historically low level but has risen considerably from its early October nadir. This has been achieved by the relevant indices having gone mostly sideways for the last two months. The moving average is now starting to come down towards the price and while it still has a long way to go, mean reversion is taking place.
“This is not a guarantee that the market will not go lower later but, historically, when the market has diverged from its mean by such a margin, important stock market lows have occurred relatively soon afterwards.
”
Source: David Fuller, Fullermoney , December 8, 2008.
Bespoke: Percentage of stocks above 50-day moving averages
“Even though the S&P 500 is in a new bull market, the percentage of stocks in the index trading above their 50-day moving averages is still at oversold levels. As shown in the chart below, at 26%, this indicator has a long way to go before becoming overbought.
“On a sector basis, Telecom, Utilities, and Consumer Discretionary have the highest percentage of stocks above their 50-days, while Energy and Financials have the lowest.
”
Source: Bespoke , December 10, 2008.
Bespoke: Third worst bear market on record
“The S&P 500 finally had its first 20%+ rally in 408 days yesterday [Monday], which means we're currently in a bull market by the standard definition (20% rally preceded by a 20% decline).
“… below we highlight historical bear markets for the S&P 500 since 1927. As shown, the bear market that ran from 10/9/07 to 11/20/08 is the third worst ever with a decline of 51.93%. The bears that ended in June of 1932 (-61.81%) and March of 1938 (-54.47%) are the only two that had bigger declines without a rally of 20%.
”
Source: Bespoke , December 9, 2008.
Bespoke: US sector and stock buy ratings
“Below we highlight the average percentage of buy ratings for stocks in each of the ten S&P 500 sectors. As shown, Financial stocks have the lowest percentage of buy ratings of any sector at 35%, while Energy has the highest at 63%. Consumer Discretionary, Materials, and Consumer Staples are the three other sectors (along with Financials) that have below average buy ratings compared to all stocks in the S&P 500.
Source: Bespoke , December 8, 2008.
David Fuller (Fullermoney): Commodities - are they the most promising asset class today?
“I do think commodities have significant recovery potential, despite the global economic slump, deflation threat and depression fears. Moreover, I believe that the fundamentals for commodities have now improved more than for all other asset classes.
“Consider the following bull points:
1. Interest rates have fallen, which is currently better for commodity speculators than commodity producers, because contangos have shrunk considerably, lowering rollover costs.
2. However, the credit crunch means that it is now more difficult for commodity producers to obtain necessary financing. Consequently, miners and oil producers are deferring development projects and laying off workers, while farmers find it more difficult to finance the purchase of fertilizers and equipment. These problems are not fully offset by the lower cost of energy.
3. Prices for all commodities are much lower today than during the first half of 2008, not least because speculators have been shaken out and traders are actually short. This is good news for those who wish to buy oversold commodities. However it is a big disincentive for commodity producers, many of whom are now reducing production.
4. While the global economic slump has reduced demand for commodities somewhat, these are essential resources which the world cannot do without, unlike luxury goods, the latest fashions, lavish holidays or expensive restaurants.
5. The US dollar has peaked and commenced what is likely to be a significant retracement of gains seen since July. This is bullish for commodities because most are priced in US dollars.
“What could significantly delay or even prevent a big rally for commodities? The reflationary efforts could fail, or more likely take many more months before they turn a global economy that is still contracting. If so, there could be some additional downside risk and base formation development would most likely be lengthy. The US Dollar Index could fail to maintain its downward break. Improved weather patterns could lead to increased supplies of agricultural commodities.
“For these reasons, Fullermoney maintains that commodities are best purchased following setbacks. Positions are most safely built incrementally.
”
Source: David Fuller, Fullermoney , December 11, 2008.
Financial Times: So long, super-cycle
“The severity of the crisis has surprised natural resources companies' executives, commodity traders and Wall Street bankers alike. After all, the commodities boom of 2003-08 has been the most notable for a century in its magnitude, duration and the number of commodities whose prices it has lifted.
The sudden plunge poses a fundamental question: is this just a temporary blip within an upward trend, with prices likely to rebound in the medium term, or is it the conclusion of another commodities cycle of boom and bust, with a period of relatively stable prices coming ahead?
“The common belief in the industry itself, and among most Wall Street analysts, is that the market is undergoing a correction but that the boom years have not ended. As many point out, the main drivers of what many have come to see as a commodities super-cycle - such as strong pent-up demand in emerging countries and supply constraints caused by a lack of investment over the past 20 years, along with the rise in resource nationalism - are intact. The current drop is, in the words of one senior mining executive, a ‘reset' of the boom, not the end of it. Prices will rebound, in this view, and continue rising.
”
Click here for the full article.
Source: Javier Blas and Krishna Guha, Financial Times , December 9, 2008.
Bespoke: Consensus gold estimates
“Below we provide the consensus price target for gold through 2012. These target prices are based on the median of 21 gold analysts surveyed by Bloomberg . As shown, analysts currently aren't expecting a big rally or a big decline in gold over the next few years. By mid-year 2009, analysts are expecting gold to be at $825/ounce, which is less than $10 from its current price of $816. At the end of 2011, analysts expect gold to be down to $790, and then down to $762 by the end of 2012.
”
Source: Bespoke , December 12, 2008.
Casey's Charts: Gold stocks - time to bottom feed
“The previous low point for the ratio of the XAU gold stock index to the price of gold was 0.16, when gold was trading around $270 an ounce in October of 2000. Today, the XAU is trading a mere 57% higher than it was in October of 2000, compared to a gold price that has increased by 184%. As a general rule of thumb, anytime the ratio is above the 25-year average is the time to sell, and below its average says gold stocks are cheap.
With the ratio bouncing off the lowest level since the inception of the XAU index, it signals a SCREAMING buy for gold stocks!
“Picking the bottom of any market is near impossible, but knowing when something is grossly undervalued can be easy. Gold has long been considered a hedge against inflation, and with trillions of new government bailout dollars ready to circulate into the system, buying precious metal stocks at these distressed prices is the chance of a lifetime.
”
Source: Casey's Charts , December 5, 2008.
Profit NDTV: Asia beats US in gold futures trading
“Asia, which accounts for 60% of the world gold imports, has overtaken the US in gold futures trading, with Mumbai and Shanghai exchanges growing rapidly, leading trade magazine Futures Industry has reported.
“According to the latest edition of the US-based magazine, data from the first eight months of this year show that the combined volumes in gold futures trading at exchanges in Shanghai, Tokyo, Taiwan and Mumbai reached 49.8 million contracts, far ahead of the 34.3 million contracts traded in the US.
“‘From January through August this year, seven of the top 10 gold contracts in the world were Asian,' it said, adding that much of that growth was in Mumbai and Shanghai.
“‘Some of the boom is undoubtedly driven by the search for a safe haven as the value of stock investments continues to evaporate,' the magazine said noting that Asian investors may also have a greater cultural predisposition toward gold than Westerners.
“Asia imports 60% of the world's gold and its exports 40%. India is the largest consumer of physical gold in the world, followed by the US, and then China. And this year, China became the world's largest gold producer - a title south Africa had held for more than 100 years.
”
Source: Profit NDTV , December 9, 2008.
BBC News: UK economic slowdown “worsening”
“The UK economy contracted 1% between September and November, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has estimated.
“This fall followed after a 0.8% drop in the three months to the end of October, said the think tank. Indicating that the rate of output decline is ‘accelerating', the NIESR now expects a fall of more than 1% in the last three months of the year.
“Official data showed that the economy shrank 0.5% from July to September. But it will not be until January that the Office for National Statistics reports on the final quarter's GDP.
“If it reports a decline for the three months to December, then the UK will be in officially in recession under the generally accepted definition of two consecutive quarters of decline.
“The NIESR says it has a good track record in forecasting GDP growth in advance of the official figures. The latest data from NIESR is just the latest indication that the UK economy is most probably falling into a recession.
”
Source: BBC News , December 10, 2008.
Victoria Marklew (Northern Trust): Swiss rates head toward zero
“The Swiss National Bank (SNB) effectively lopped another 50bps off its main policy rate today, lowering its target band for three-month Swiss franc LIBOR to 0.0-1.0% (down from 0.5-1.5%) and aiming for the mid-point of 0.5%. This brings the easing total to 225bps since October 8.
“The SNB warned that the sharply worsening global climate will push Switzerland into recession next year. Chairman Roth stated that growth is likely to be negative, not just in the first two quarters of 2009 but for the year as a whole. The bank is now forecasting a contraction in real GDP of between 0.5% and 1.0% next year. The inflation forecast was also revised down, with the bank now seeing the annual rate averaging 0.9% next year and 0.5% in 2010.
”
Source: Victoria Marklew, Northern Trust - Daily Global Commentary , December 11, 2008.
Financial Times: Japan contracts faster than expected
“Japan's gross domestic product contracted much more rapidly in the third quarter than previously thought, official data showed on Tuesday, amid new indications of distress in the world's second-biggest economy.
“The revised GDP data showed a quarter-on-quarter fall of 0.5% for the three months to September, compared with last month's preliminary estimate of a 0.1% decline.
“The economy contracted at an annualised rate of 1.8% between July and September - a much more precipitous pace than the annualised 0.5% decline suffered in the same quarter by the US, centre of the global financial crisis.
“Analysts said the revision, though bigger than expected, reflected relatively technical factors involving inventories and government spending rather than worrying new information and so would not dramatically change assessments of the economy's prospects.
“‘The downgrade in headline growth does not look as bad as the headline suggests,' UBS said in a research note.
“However, the news the recession was deeper than thought came as the Cabinet Office said its latest composite index of business conditions showed the economy ‘worsening'.
”
Source: Mure Dickie, Financial Times , December 9, 2008.
Financial Times: China's export fall worse than predicted
“The impact of the global financial crisis on China became clear on Wednesday when the government revealed that exports fell in November for the first time in almost seven years.
“With demand in many of its main markets slowing sharply, Chinese exports declined 2.2% from a year earlier. Imports also fell 17.9% from a year earlier, according to Chinese customs figures, prompting the government to announce plans to further boost the economy.
“The Chinese data shocked economists. The figures were far below forecasts, even in the light of sharp slumps in exports in November from both Taiwan and South Korea.
“‘This is the worst collapse in Chinese exports since 1999 and is probably just the beginning of a prolonged export contraction,' said Isaac Meng, economist at BNP Paribas.
“The drop in imports, the biggest since the early 1990s, helped push the monthly trade surplus to a record $40 billion, the fourth month in a row that the surplus has broken records.
“The government pledged on Wednesday to do everything it could to maintain ‘stable, healthy' growth next year. At the conclusion of the three-day Central Economic Work Conference, an annual meeting of top policy-makers, officials said they would boost public spending in order to promote domestic demand.
“A report on state radio about the meeting said the government had reaffirmed its policy of keeping the exchange rate ‘basically steady', but would take other measures to deal with falling domestic demand.
“Until last month, China's exports had held up much better than most observers had expected, increasing by 19% in October compared to the same month last year.
”
Source: Geoff Dyer and Jamil Anderlini, Financial Times , December 10, 2008.
Financial Times: China inflation falls as growth slows
“China's consumer price inflation fell to a 22-month low of 2.4% in November, giving the central bank free rein to cut interest rates further to offset an abrupt slump in the world's fourth-largest economy.
“Economists had expected inflation to moderate to 3.0% from 4.
0
% in the year to October. In the event, the reading was the lowest since January 2007.
“Nie Wen, an analyst with Huabao Trust in Shanghai, said the plunge meant real, inflation-adjusted interest rates in China were now back in positive territory even though the economy had run into fierce headwinds.
“‘The government will become more decisive in cutting rates,' Nie said.
“Jing Ulrich, head of China equities at J.P. Morgan agreed. ‘We believe there is further scope for the central bank to ease monetary policy in an effort to avoid an excessive slowdown and stave off deflation,' she said in a note to clients.
“‘Definitely we are going to move into a deflationary environment in China, probably through the first six months of the year,' said Glenn Maguire, chief Asia-Pacific economist for Societe Generale in Hong Kong.
”
Source: Financial Times , December 11, 2008.
Bespoke: Deflation coming in China?
“It wasn't too long ago that one of the biggest worries facing the global economy was that improved standards of living in China would lead to higher wages for its workers. This, it was feared, would cause the country to begin exporting inflation around the world. As recently as August, PPI data from China showed that inflation was running at a rate of 10.1% year over year (y/y). Since then, however, pricing power in China has collapsed as evidenced by last night's [Tuesday] release of the November PPI, which showed that prices are now up by just 2.0% y/y. At this rate, it won't be long before we start seeing minus signs.
”
Source: Bespoke , December 10, 2008.
Financial Times: Rouble exodus hits Russia's credit rating
“Russia on Monday became the first G8 country since the start of the financial crisis to have its credit rating downgraded after Standard and Poor's took fright at the recent exodus from the rouble and sharp drop in oil prices.
“S&P said it had lowered Russia's foreign currency credit rating by one notch from BBB+ to BBB because of the ‘rapid depletion' of the country's foreign exchange reserves and the ‘difficulty of meeting the country's external financing needs'. It said the outlook for the rating was negative.
“Russia's reserves have fallen by $128 billion since August to $455 billion, as the country battles the capital flight that began following the war with Georgia and escalated as the oil price fell and the global crisis worsened.
“S&P said Russia could be forced to spend all $200 billion now parked in its two sovereign wealth funds on recapitalising the banking system and covering fiscal deficits in 2009 and 2010.
“The agency expects Russia to run a current account deficit next year of 2.6% of gross domestic product due to the oil price fall, putting further pressure on the balance of payments.
“‘There are a lot of layers of concern,' said Frank Gill, primary credit analyst at Standard and Poor's. ‘There are macroeconomic and political risks … and Russia has not operated a current account deficit since 1997 and that was less than 1% of GDP.
'
“The thought of devaluation raises the spectre of the 1998 rouble crash that wiped out Russians' savings, although economists say any devaluation this time would be far less severe.
”
Source: Catherine Belton, Financial Times , December 8, 2008.
http://www. investmentpostcards. com/
* FOR ALL THE LINKS, GRAPHS, GO TO MY BLOG ON HERE & SUBSCRIBE TO IT FOR FREE !
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)