For those of you who know Carolyn Baker’s site “Truth to Power” here are today’s headlines. Let’s face it, they are rather bleak, to say the very least. I am not connecting you to the links. Just wanted to give you a glimpse of one side of the picture. I think you get the gist of the entire story from the headlines themselves. But, there is another side to the story. There are so many folks “doing the the right thing”. Here is an example of an article from the same site that speaks a thousand words in the way of the positive. This gives us all hope.
“Before It’s News:Food Shortages Coming To U.S.
CNN:Official: U.S. Military Options For Libya “Being Planned”
MSNBC:U.S. Readies Sanctions On Libya, Closes Embassy
Zero Hedge:B of A and Merrill Lynch Expect Libya’s Oil Production To Be Shut Down Completely
UKTelegraph:How Will U.S. Handle the Fall of Its Middle East Empire?
My comment: This article echoes exactly Mike Ruppert predicted in “Crossing The Rubicon.”
American Dream:Is Obama About To Order An Invasion of Libya?
Global Research:Libya—Is Washington Pushing For Civil War To Justify A US-NATO Invasion?
Financial Times:You Mean You Can’t Just Swap Libyan Oil For Saudi Oil?
Market Oracle:Global Food Crisis Is Not Just Speculation
Automatic Earth:Exporting Speculative Debt
This dynamic represents the tail end of one that has existed for several decades, where financial consumers in both developed and developing economies had artificially increased demand for dollar-denominated commodities such as crude oil, wheat and corn. While most of these consumers no longer have access to any credit and are struggling to pay off debts, the major banks have virtually unlimited access to free credit from central banks. This credit is used to speculate on stocks, bonds and commodities for short-term profits, just as it had been previously used to speculate on real estate. In this sense, the Fed is not “exporting inflation” as the WSJ article argues, it is exporting speculative debt.
Some may argue that this distinction is a technical one, and that “inflation” (or, really, price increases) is/are all too real for those Egyptians or Tunisians who have had to struggle with rising food/energy prices that they can barely afford. This argument simultaneously contains and misses the fact that these people are only struggling with high prices because there have been no corresponding increases in their incomes and revenues, or decreases in their obligations. That fact exposes the true nature of the exported “inflation” in these countries – it’s all speculative sizzle and no steak. The American people have to look no further than their own real estate market to see where this trend is headed.
BBC News:Unrest In Iraq Shuts Down An Oil Refinery
Truthout: Behind The Arab Revolt Is A Word We Dare Not Speak—Corporate Fascism
CNN News:How Gas Spikes 6 Cents In One Day
Energy Bulletin:Sharon Astyk—What You WILL Learn From An Oil Shock
Economic Collapse:Mob Robberies And Rampant Looting—The Wave of The Future
…the U.S. middle class is being destroyed by this economy and large numbers of our young people are losing hope. Frustration and anger are rising from coast to coast and millions of Americans are losing faith in the system. The thin veneer of civilization which we all take for granted is already starting to disappear. So what is going to happen when the economy collapses? As our economic system fails, mob robberies and rampant looting are only going to become more common. Let us hope that the economy can hold together for at least a couple more years, because once society falls apart things are going to get really, really ugly in our major cities.
LA Times:Debt Takes Huge Bite Out of California Budget
WashingtonPost: U.S. Economic Recovery Threatened By Events In Middle East And Midwest
The standoff over benefits for public employees in Wisconsin, pitting Gov. Scott Walker (R)against unions and their Democratic allies, presages battles in many state capitals that could lead to hundreds of thousands of public jobs being cut nationwide.
These two developments – higher energy costs and government austerity – could reinforce each other. If rising fuel prices lead to slower economic growth, that could leave states with even bigger budget gaps, partly because of falling tax revenue. That in turn could cause state governments to cut spending even more aggressively than they would otherwise.
Daily Bail: Real U.S. Unemployment Statistics Update
ABC News:GMO Contamination Widespread Throughout U.S. Food Supply”