Wednesday, February 15, 2012

20 Things We Can Learn About The Future Of America From The Death Of Detroit



theeconomiccollapseblog.com 
FEBRUARY 13, 2012


Do you want to know what the future of America is going to look like?  Just check out what is happening to Detroit.  The city of Detroit was once one of the greatest industrial cities in the history of the world, but today it is a rotting, decaying, post-apocalyptic hellhole.  Nearly half the men are unemployed, nearly half the population is functionally illiterate, more than half of the children are living in poverty and the city government is drowning in debt.  As economic conditions have gotten worse, crime has absolutely exploded.  Every single night in Detroit there are frightening confrontations between desperate criminals and exasperated homeowners.  Unfortunately, the police force in Detroit has been dramatically reduced in size.  When the police in Detroit are called, they often show up very late if they even show up at all. Detroit has become a lawless hellhole where violence is the currency of the streets.  If you want to survive in Detroit, you better be ready to fight because there are hordes of desperate criminals that are quite eager to take literally everything that you have got.  But don't look down on Detroit too much, because what is happening in Detroit will soon be happening all over America.
The following are 20 things we can learn about the future of America from the death of Detroit....
#1 People don't want to live where the stench of failure and decay is constantly in the air.  Back in the 1950s, Detroit was a teeming metropolis of approximately 2 million people.  According to the 2010 census, only 713,000people live in Detroit today.  The U.S. Census Bureau says that Detroit lost a resident Every 22 Minutes during the first decade of this century.
#2 When the economy falls apart, desperate people will do desperate things and many homeowners will fight back.  Justifiable homicide in Detroit rose by a staggering 79 Percent during 2011.
#3 In major cities where people are scrambling just to survive, any confrontation can quickly escalate into a life or death affair.  The rate of self-defense killings in Detroit is currently 2200% above the national average.
#4 When there is not enough money to go around, a lot of local governments will choose to cut back on police protection.  Ten years ago, there were approximately 5,000 police for the city of Detroit.  Today, there are Less Than 3,000.
#5 The essential social services that you are enjoying today will not always be there in the future.  Officials in Detroit recently announced that due to budget constraints, all police stations will be closed to the public For 16 Hours A Day.
#6 Economic decay is a breeding ground for chaos and violence.  Last Friday and Saturday, a total of Nine Shootings were reported in the city of Detroit.
#7 More Americans than ever are realizing the benefits of self-defense.  The following is what 73-year-old Julia Brown recently Told The Daily....
The last time Brown, 73, called the Detroit police, they didn’t show up until the next day. So she applied for a permit to carry a handgun and says she’s prepared to use it against the young thugs who have taken over her neighborhood, burglarizing entire blocks, opening fire at will and terrorizing the elderly with impunity.
#8 When crime gets go bad that the police are powerless to stop it, vigilante groups Begin To Form....
In fact, crime has gotten so bad and the citizens are so frustrated by the lack of police assistance that they have resorted to forming their own organizations to fight back.  One group, known as "Detroit 300", was formed after a 90-year-old woman on Detroit's northwest side was brutally raped in August.
#9 When criminals become desperate, they will steal literally anything that is not bolted down.  In Detroit today, thieves have stripped so much copper wiring out of the street lights that half of all the lights in some neighborhoods No Longer Work.
#10 As things fall apart, eventually a time comes when it is not even safe to drive down the road in the middle of the day.  100 bus drivers in Detroit recently refused to drive their routes out of fear of being attacked on the streets.  The head of the bus drivers union, Henry Gaffney, said that the drivers were literally "Scared For Their Lives"....
“Our drivers are scared, they’re scared for their lives. This has been an ongoing situation about security. I think yesterday kind of just topped it off, when one of my drivers was beat up by some teenagers down in the middle of Rosa Parks and it took the police almost 30 minutes to get there, in downtown Detroit,” said Gaffney.
#11 One of the clearest signs of decline in America is the state of our education system.  Only 25 Percent of all students in Detroit end up graduating from high school.  Many other major cities will soon have graduation rates similar to Detroit.
#12 When local governments run out of money they are forced to make tough choices.  After already shutting down dozens of schools, officials in Detroit have announced plans to close down 16 More Schools.
#13 A growing percentage of Americans cannot even read or write.  This is a very frightening indication of what the future of America could look like.  According to one stunning report, 47 Percent of all people living in the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate.
#14 Sadly, Child Poverty is absolutely exploding all over the United States.  Today, 53.6 Percent of all children that live in Detroit are living below the poverty line.
#15 The employment situation in America is A Lot Worse than the government is telling us.  An analysis of census figures found that 48.5% of all men living in Detroit from age 20 to age 64 did not have a job in 2008.
#16 When a major city becomes a hellhole, home prices fall like a rock.  The median price of a home in Detroit is now Just $6000.
#17 When crime and looting become commonplace, homes in an area can become absolutely worthless.  Some homes in Detroit have been sold For A Single Dollar.
#18 When Depression-Like Conditions exist in an area for a number of years, large numbers of people will move on to greener pastures.  As of a few years ago, there were more than 40,000 Vacant Properties in the city of Detroit.
#19 Just because we have a high standard of living today does not mean that will always be the case.  Detroit is just a rotting shell of what it once was, and what is happening to Detroit will happen to much of the rest of America very soon.  The following is what one British reporter found During His Visit To Detroit....
Much of Detroit is horribly dangerous for its own residents, who in many cases only stay because they have nowhere else to go. Property crime is double the American average, violent crime triple. The isolated, peeling homes, the flooded roads, the clunky, rusted old cars and the neglected front yards amid trees and groin-high grassland make you think you are in rural Alabama, not in one of the greatest industrial cities that ever existed.
#20 When government finances collapse, politicians look for things to sell off and "privatize".  Unfortunately, the Detroit city government is so broke that it is now considering selling off Some Of Its Most Famous Assets....
Now, the city of Detroit's most venerable assets — from Belle Isle to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel — could end up on the auction block as the city fights for its financial life.
Facing mounting debt and the prospect of a state-appointed emergency manager, the city is looking at all options to shed expenses and raise revenue. If city officials can't come up with a viable budget plan, an emergency manager would have the power to sell assets as part of a financial takeover of Detroit.
But Detroit is not alone.
Lots of other cities all over America are flat broke and out of options.
For example, just check out what is happening In Scranton, Pennsylvania....
Mayor Christopher Doherty is blunt when asked about a court order forcing his Pennsylvania city to pay about $30 million in wages withheld from police and firefighters under a state-approved fiscal recovery plan.
“I don’t have the money,” said Doherty, 53. As for the chance of borrowing the cash, more than half of the city’s projected general-fund revenue, he added, “there’s no financial institution that’s going to give me $30 million to pay it.”
The U.S. economy never recovered from the last major Financial Crisis, and now another one is on the way.
As the economy crumbles, so will the fabric of our society.
The American people are terribly spoiled and they do not possess the character to handle depression-like conditions with grace and dignity.
In the years ahead, we are going to see rampant rioting and looting in our major cities.  The crime sprees that we will witness in future years will be absolutely unprecedented.
Things did not have to turn out this way, but unfortunately the consequences of decades of really bad decisions are starting to catch up with us.
So what do you think the future of America will look like?  Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below....
Posted by at No comments:

Charting The Federal Reserve's Assets - 1915-2012



zerohedge.com 
FEBRUARY 13, 2012

Tyler Durden's picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/12/2012 19:41 -0500
Submitted by Thomas Gresham of Gresham's Law,
Here we present a history of the Fed in charts. As you’ll surely glean from the below — the Fed has degenerated from a by and large passive institution (dealing only in high-quality self-liquidating commercial paper and gold) to an active pursuant of junk, an enabler of wars, a ‘benevolent’ combatant of the depressions of its own creation, a central planner of employment & prices and of course a forgiving friend to inconvenient market follies.
The Fed's Assets from 1915 to 2012:
1915 to 1925
1925 to 1935
1935 to 1945
1945 to 1955
1955 to 1965
1965 to 1975
1975 to 1985
1985 to 1995
1995 to 2005
2005 to 2012
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, February 09, 2012

Silver as investment V2


user posted image
Barisan astray cover up the national debt both to break the 1 trillion truth! ! ! ] This is an emergency! ! ! Together we share out! ! ! The BN government the name of the mortgage program for low-income groups "noble" reasons, not the high debt data appears in the accounts, since the use of the EPF funds to cover their own debt problems! ! ! Publicity Officer of the Democratic Action Party, PAN Jian Wei, Vice-Chairman of the Justice Party Nuru Yisha Joint Declaration







Warning that the
above mortgage plan will become the causes of Malaysia facing financial crisis. The BN government is using the current economic crisis, the most controversial off-balance sheet financing "

Way (off-balance sheet financing), this way of dealing with financial Once the outbreak of the financialCrisis out of control! ! ! This must be the country towards the Greek bankruptcyDust. Under normal circumstances, any benefit program is the federal government through the annual tax Note

Owned expand, assuming that tax revenue is insufficient, the federal government can issue bonds to fill the redWord gap.
Under normal circumstances, the provident fund can buy bonds issued by the federal government,
that is, in fact lend money to the federal government. The Government is unwilling to direct lending to the Central Provident Fund Board, but will direct loans to low-cost housing to buy

House those who shift the responsibility to the Central Provident Fund Board, because the government does not want to be debt-ridden in itsCoupled with a considerable number of figures, and criticism. Federal government debt as of year-end 2011 reached 456 billion ringgit, with
Five years ago, 242 billion ringgit in 2006 compared to an increase of88.4%! In fact, as of the end of 2010, the majority of government liabilities such as government

Guarantee loans, but does not directly included in the amount of federal government debt has reachedTo 96.9 billion ringgit, compared to 84.3 billion ringgit in 2009, a drasticAn increase of 14.9%. In the case of bonds, the Ministry of Finance to issue government-guaranteed way to debt

Service to deceive the public, the Central Provident Fund Board are required to direct borrowing of RM1.5 billion to theUnable to obtain commercial bank mortgage, these loans will get the government "to ensure. "So down to 1.5 billion ringgit will not be included in the list of federal government debt. assume that some government-guaranteed loan defaults, the federal government must be directly

Those responsible for the debt, and will lead to financial crisis in Malaysia! ! ! Evidence of related news:http://dapmalaysia.org/cn/

index.php/2012/02/06 /bul2844 /

National Front in order to continue to be the people as the savior of the poor, and now it has come up with QTitle clusters of new programs to the provident fund money to cover up the current level of debt! ! ! In fact, set out in the accounts of government bonds (federal debt) in 2011

Years has broken the 400 billion ringgit; state governments owed the federal tens of billionsRinggit. Combined total amount, nearly $ 50 billion ringgit. These bonds, in the past from 1991 to the present, never increase too. From

90 billion in 1997, soared to 437.2 billion in this year's tip of. If theCentral government debt annual growth rate of 50 billion ringgit, is expected to 2020 years, our government's debt will exceed 1 trillion mark, when national bankruptcy, The situation is worrying. National Front ruling for half a century gave you the gift, you and your descendants average, each

The taxpayer is responsible for 59 million ringgit. No longer have to fist (votes) to break the hegemony of the National Front, in another 54 years, our children and grandchildren are also carrying a debt, to help the national debt

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=308...9&type=1&ref=nf
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

The Five Myths Of Silver Investing

The Five Myths Of Silver Investing
Ryan Jordan

Oftentimes perception, and not reality, rules the day with the thousands or millions of speculators placing short term bets with assets like silver. These perceptions are particularly strong given that paper players in the silver market often control the price in the short term (6-8 months), since there is so much more paper silver than physical metal out there. As I write this, we are seeing the unwinding of quite a bit of speculative, paper activity at the COMEX, with open interest numbers (meaning the number of players in the casino) lowering to levels just above where they were in the fall of 2008 (when silver was below 10 dollars). The price of silver has fallen, but as far as I'm concerned, there is no fundamental reason for silver to be so cheap. Instead silver fundamentals are badly overshadowed by misconceptions (or outright lies) about silver. Here are five common myths about silver that I bet many speculators still believe are true:

1. Silver is an "economically sensitive" metal

During the recession of 2008-2009, the CPM Group estimated that silver demand from photography, jewelry, and industry dropped by roughly 80 million ounces (CPM Silver Yearbook, p.69). Mine supply also increased by about 30 million ounces, along with a 15 million or so increase in recycling. So in order for the price of silver to remain stable (theoretically), you would need investors to make up this roughly 100 million ounce difference, which is exactly what they did. Given the fact that people understood the need to buy precious metals during a banking crisis, investment demand for silver increased by nearly 100 million ounces at the same time as demand fell and other sources of silver also increased. (p.11)

Over the course of 2008 and 2009, the silver price more or less remained stable, even as it saw wild swings induced by paper trading. So, during one of the worst recessions in modern memory, real, physical demand for silver cancelled out declining industrial use. An important point to remember when someone tells you the silver price is destined to go down in the next recession.

2. Silver coins and bullion are more plentiful than gold

In fact, it is the exact opposite. Being generous (and using data from the CPM Group as well as the Silver Institute) there are maybe 1.4 billion ounces of silver coin and bullion in the world, versus roughly 3 billion ounces of gold coins and bullion. Yes, it is true that recently about 80 million more ounces of silver bullion/coins are produced each year than gold ones, but that still means that it will take over 15 years before the silver stockpile in the world even equals that of gold, let alone becomes greater. So why is the price of silver something like 50 times cheaper than gold? Ask the paper speculators above.

3. The high price of silver will drive down demand from industry

This one has had no basis in fact for the period from 2000 to 2010. During that decade, industrial demand, according to most estimates, basically remained flat (GFMS World Silver Survey, 2010). This is amazing, when you consider that the price of silver went from 4 dollars to over 20 in that period. But because silver is used in such small amounts in things like electronics and solar panels, increasing silver costs have yet to dampen demand for highly desired toys like computers and cell phones. And many silver experts believe that such demand will only increase in the years ahead. You should realize that a rising silver price does not seem to dampen industrial demand.

4. At the right price, billions of ounces of silver will get recycled

Many do believe that there are nearly 6 times as many ounces of silver jewelry (and silverware) than gold jewelry in the world. So you might think that there is a lot of silver that will get melted down someday. One problem with this argument is that much of this silver either a) cost way more than even the current bullion spot price and b) is held in very small amounts all over the world by over 1 billion people (oftentimes women). They won't care to sell for a very long time-if ever.

But there is an even more important point here. I bet most people who claim to follow the precious metals don't realize that as of 2010, we had yet to see more silver recycled than during 1980. That is thirty years of silver recycling more or less going nowhere, even as the price of silver spent more time above 20 dollars an ounce in 2010 than in 1980. I am going to be optimistic and guess that we will finally best the old recycling high this year in silver (at over 300 million ounces). But in a world where 300 million ounces of silver is only 10 billion dollars, and in a world where investors are slated to purchase nearly that much silver in physical form over the next couple of years, you really have to wonder why anyone would think there is all of this silver just lying around ready to be brought to the market to cool off silver's price. And given what I said about how impervious industrial demand is to silver price increases, a lot of whatever silver jewelry gets recycled will be used and consumed by industry (even assuming that preservation techniques get better as the price goes higher.)

I also would not expect mine increases to somehow meet demand: few industry experts believe silver can increase more than 4 or 5 percent a year (roughly 50 million ounces, or less than 2 billion dollars), especially when nearly 80% of silver is a byproduct of metals like copper, lead, and zinc.

5. Retail silver investors are fickle/ there is no plan to remonetize silver

This myth had some basis in truth, at least according to the experts who tracked silver buying and selling activity in the 1980s and 1990s (such as the CPM Group or Silver Institute). Many agree that retail investors (probably following the lead of governments) sold far more silver than gold during the twenty years between 1985 and 2005. Probably to the tune of over 1 billion ounces. So many felt that silver investors were flakes who really didn't have the staying power of gold investors. Or, as I mentioned above, it may have just been the case that average investors followed the lead of governments, since those governments dumped far more silver than gold during the same period (gold is the only precious metal held by central banks, in addition).

But in recent years, I am struck by how many proposals there are like the one from Hugo Salinas Price in Mexico attempting to bring back silver coins into the market in his country. Then we have all of the state legislation in the United States aiming to bring back both gold and silver into economic transactions. Remember, silver is perceived to be the money of average people (even as it is rarer than gold) so any grassroots effort to bring back precious metals into everyday transactions will dramatically increase silver's value. We have already seen the amazing turnaround in silver retail investment buying over the past few years (hundreds of millions of new ounces) and I think some people are slowly waking up to how undervalued silver is. But believe it or not, many, many more have yet to do so.

Don't Be Fooled By Silver Market Myths

As I said above, I understand that fundamentals often have no place in markets. This is why so many traders focus on chart patterns, or volume indicators, or anything other than the underlying, real-world reasons for an asset to move up or down in price. You can also see the lack of interest in fundamentals from those large speculators who believe that rumor-mongering is a safer way to make money than actually focusing on legitimate distortions in the market. You might be surprised how much money you can make from simply playing games, or from manipulating others' emotions-at least in the short term.

In the end, of course, I don't think gambling or trading wins out. Yes, there are those few great traders out there, just like there are a few great gamblers around. But there are far more people who are simply the sucker drawn into the great casino called "the market." This is a sad commentary on how our current financial system incentivizes reckless, speculative behavior. But that is just the way our world works- at least for now.

However, every day we see more evidence of the need for retail investors to truly diversify their portfolios with an asset that is set apart from the stock/bond market or banking system. The world is not going to end, but gradually, perception will come around to the cold, hard facts that currency debasement, financial repression (artificially low interest rates), combined with fiscal austerity are here to stay. In an environment where measures such as quantitative easing are really only easing the transition to a downsized economy (at best), people will be looking for those assets that never took part in the bubbles associated with the world before 2007 in the first place. Those assets which don't need leverage to move higher (even though leverage is a part of the silver market), or those assets which don't rely on endless consumption or indebtedness on the part of the consumer in order to become more valuable.

You may think silver will keep getting cheaper, and you might be right in the short term. But in the long term, this price correction really will be a blip on a screen, and when silver's price one day explodes higher again, you will kick yourself for having bought into misconceptions like the five myths regarding silver.

University of San Diego Lecturer
University of San Diego, KIPJ 262, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, 92110
Primary Tel 619.260.4756
Industry Education/Academia
ryanjordan@sandiego.edu

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)