Economic and Currency Wars Escalate in EU, Confidence Erodes

Its all about confidence and the infinite growth paradigm is crumbling under the weight of too many people, too much debt, too much stuff, and a deteriorating climate.

Amplify’d from www.cnbc.com

65% Chance of Banking Crisis by End of Month: Researchers

By: Patrick Allen CNBC EMEA Head of News

There is a 65 percent chance of a banking crisis between November 23-26 following a Greek default and a run on the Italian banking system, according to analysts at Exclusive Analysis, a research firm that focuses on global risks.

Having tested a number of assumptions in a scenario modeling exercise, the Exclusive Analysis team warned it is becoming less and less likely that EU leaders will simply “muddle through” and have made some bold calls with clear timelines on when the euro zone will be thrown into a major financial crisis.

The most likely outcome according to their analysis is a sudden crisis in which the US, UK and BRICs nations refuse to provide funding via the IMF for the euro zone. In a world where predictions are made with no time lines, the paper makes some bold predictions which can be held to account over the next three weeks.

In the worst case scenario, Exclusive Analysis expects the governments of Greece and Portugal to collapse due to a lack of consensus on how to handle the debt crisis leading to social unrest. German opposition to handing more funds to the EFSF rises, leading Germany’s parliament to actually reduce the money available to the bailout fund.

“In face of that, China and the other BRICs give clear signals that they will not support the bailout fund. The EFSF turns to the ECB , which refuses to print out the amount of money the former needs to bailout the PIIGS. In face of the EU's failure to boost the EFSF, the European banks refuse to accept the 50 percent haircut on the Greek debt. Both the IMF and the ECB suspend payments to Greece,” said the report released on Tuesday evening.

Between November 18-22, French debt, under Exclusive Analysis' most likely scenario, is downgraded leading to the interbank lending market freezing up with new governments in Greece and Italy “faced down by protestors in their attempts to implement more austerity”.

Civil unrest follows in Spain following the election of a new government which pushes through even tighter austerity measures, and Portugal announces it cannot meet financial targets putting its bailout cash from the IMF and ECB at risk.

“Increased fear that these economies will default creates bank runs in Greece and Portugal and a downgrade of French sovereign debt from AAA to AA. EFSF is subsequently downgraded to AA+” said the report.

“The spreads applied to the debt of all PIIGS increase with yields on Italian bonds reaching 7.3 percent. In a second contagion effect, depositors in Spain and Italy fear a banking crisis in their own countries, which end up creating a series of bank runs and a collapse of the interbank credit market as banks know that most of their counterparts are at risk. Greece defaults.”

This doomsday scenario comes to a head between November 23-26 when Greece leaves the euro to print money and rescue its banking sector. The new currency falls quickly and depositors lose out as their investments are converted into the new local currency.

“The government default on the sovereign debt and the banks default on their foreign debt, which causes a banking crisis across Europe. Italian bond yields rise and exceed 7 percent and the country faces bank runs, in face of which the government freezes deposits and defaults on the sovereign debt”.

So far so scary. For those looking for some hope, the Exclusive Analysis report predicts a 25 percent chance that the EU will continue to muddle through. In this scenario new politicians in Greece, Italy and Spain are given some breathing room by voters to find new solutions to the crisis until the end of the year. Portugal still fails to meet its fiscal targets, putting its bailout cash at risk, and French debt is still downgraded on prospect of Greek debt default.

“However, the new governments in Italy, Spain and Greece are given a honeymoon period by protestors and euro zone counterparts, which prevents a market rout.”

In January and February, Greece defaults but the fallout is contained as a new deal on 70 percent haircuts is agreed. Spanish and Italian bond yields hit 7 percent.

“Civil disorder continues in Portugal and Spain, reducing their ability to implement austerity packages. Sovereign ratings in Spain and Italy are downgraded and the prospect of rescue feels imminent as far as analysts are concerned,” warns the report in its muddle-through scenario.

“However, the UK and US governments reduce their objections to the use of IMF resources to fund the EFSF, which, together with a Greek default, improves market conditions and halts the rise in yields on the Italian and Spanish debts.”

With Spain and Italy entering IMF programs, the debt crisis rubbles on in 2012 and 2013 before things turn nasty as Greece defaults and recreates the drachma.

“Markets close to Italy and Portugal again towards end-2012 and civil unrest resume, starting off a second cycle of crisis and speculation about the future of the euro zone.”

If that is the muddle-through scenario, then we are in for a very nasty end to 2011 and years of euro zone debt crisis. But Exclusive Analysis does predict a 10 percent chance that the crisis is resolved.

In this good news scenario Greece still defaults before the end of the year, but “stronger political leadership in other PIIGS contains the fallout”.

“New governments in Italy, Spain and Greece are given a honeymoon period by protestors as they attempt to implement more austerity; a real sense of national unity is constructed with respect to the crisis.”

The new governments are seen as more credible and the US, UK, IMF and BRICs agree to make more funds available to the EFSF.

“The new ECB head is persuasive of the need for the ECB to purchase more bonds from national governments. Greece defaults in November, but under the new technocratic government the process is orderly and banks agree to accept 70 percent haircut on their credit. France recapitalizes its banks and suffers a sovereign downgrade,” said the report.

In the first two months of 2012 France and Germany reach an accommodation on ECB lending and fiscal rules which means the ECB becomes a lender of last resort in return for statuary limits on the amount the so-called PIIGS can borrow, a condition demanded by Germany.

“Market conditions improve and PIIGS bond yields decrease following these successful negotiations. Italy and Spain are emboldened by their lower yields and by the Franco-German pressure to negotiate a restructuring of their debt with creditors with a view to smoothing and lengthening the maturity profile.”

Exclusive Analysis will join Worldwide Exchange at 10:10 BST/5:10 ET to discuss the report and will be joined on set by Jim Rogers of Rogers Holdings. Read more at www.cnbc.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1hn3s

Chronology of The American Imperialism

1776 - Independence, Rejection of taxation without representation, rejection of monopolies, seeking independence from foreign rule

1780-1860 - Manifest Destiny - precursors of predatory capitalism - Acquiring Land on the New Continent (Decimation of the indigenous population)
1860- Civil War (not just about slavery from a race perspective - it was twisted economix)
- Greenbacks and debt to fund the war                                                                    
1860-1870 - Reconstruction
1868 - Assassination of Lincoln by Southern Banking Interests
1869 - Dawn of Petroleum Age
1890's - Bank of the United States
1898 - Spanish American War- Acquiring New Territory Abroad (Cuba, Phillipines), False Flag of USS Maine
1900 - Industrial Revolution, Human Capital (Slavery, Servitude)
1907 - Market Crash
1911 - Standard Oil Breakup - Pecora Commission
19xx - Henry Ford Gives into Rockefeller - Petroleum and Internal Cumbustion over Diesel and Biofuels and Electric cars
1913 - Federal Reserve Act, Wilson, Rothechild,
1914-1917 - WW1 - Carving up the Middle East for Oil
1920's - Roaring 20's
1929 - Stock Market Crash Driven by Predatory Capitalist
1930-1939 - Great Depression
19xx - Hemp for Victory Campaigns
1933 - Prohibition if Alcohol (to kill biofuels), Prohibition of Weed - driven by Cotton Industry
1933 Gold confiscation - debt to fund WW2
1950 Birth of Consumerism, Banana republics in Latin America, CIA & Protection of "Liberty" as codeword for destruction of other national sovereignty and democracies
1960's Cold War, Population Control, Civil rights, MLK, Vietnam (False Flag)
1970's gold standard, US peak oil, oil crisis, conservation, on the right track,
1980- 2010 - Distraction , The Overseas Oil Boom,
2012 - all kinds of shit, too tired to write more.

From OccupyWallSt to Transition USA

Dear (American Citizens),

Across the country and around the world, people are taking the future into their own hands: they're taking to the streets and saying “enough!” to the status quo. We're here to present an inspiring alternative – and engage Americans in bringing a thriving future to life.

From Palo Alto, CA to Philadelphia, PA, from New York City to cities nationwide, Transitioners have joined Occupy protests. They are leading story-telling and visioning groups, providing information about Transition to protesters, and standing together in solidarity. They are stepping up where this phenomenal change is most visible and providing pathways and next steps for a truly resilient, thriving future.

Will you make a donation now to help Transition US do everything possible to foster change at this historic moment? Your generous contribution will help us build a solid foundation for the world we want to see.

Now is a great time to help – and help us keep the momentum going. Since Transition US was founded just three years ago, 103 Transition Communities have formed -- on islands like Vashon, in Washington State; in boroughs like Media, Pennsylvania; and in cities like Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

There are 54 million Americans who now live in a population center with an active Transition Initiative! Add to that the growing numbers of Americans who live in areas where Transition Initiatives are in formation. Now that’s significant!

This year Transition US is taking a bold step: we're seeking to raise $100,000 by the end of the year, to give this burgeoning movement a big boost at a critical time. Will you make a financial contribution now to support our work, and the work of Transition Communities across the country?

Your help will roll-out inspiring efforts like our new Transition Streets project, where we'll take Transition to clusters of households and improve energy efficiency, reduce transportation miles, increase the quantity of food consumed and grown locally, save water and reduce waste.

Your support will develop advanced training for community leaders and enable them to grow and deepen their Transition efforts locally.

And your contribution will help us develop robust models for Energy Descent Action Planning: concrete road maps communities across America will use to create a thriving, post-carbon future.

Help us strengthen the power and creative genius of people and communities to make the shift to a thriving, sustainable society. Help us get the Transition Movement into more hearts and hands by making a contribution today.

We've opened the door. Let's bring America through.

Sincerely,
Carolyne, Carl, and the TUS Team

PS – Help us ensure a flourishing future for our children and for generations to come. Thanks for your good work!





Your Donation: All contributions to Transition US are tax deductible. It saves us time, paper and money when you donate by credit card over our secure server. If you can't contribute on-line, please mail a check made out to Transition US to:

Transition US
PO Box 917
Sebastopol, CA
95473


Photo Credits: Occupy Wall Street Wendy Annibellvia & Revive The Roots in Smithfield, RI

Why BEARS Are Concerned About The Eurozone Crisis #celente #MikeRuppert #zerohedge

The numbers are scary and the fringe media is making mainstream slowly but surely, which means their dire predictions about currency and trade wars is REAL. Contagion is inevitable.

Amplify’d from advisorperspectives.com

The Dow Panic of 1907 and the 2008 Financial Crisis

By Doug Short

October 31, 2011

Note from dshort: During the summer I posted a set of charts illustrating the dramatic market behavior during the Panic of 1907 and the Financial Crisis of 2008. A century separated these two momentous market episodes, and the underlying causes were quite different. However, the overall volatility and general patterns of decline and rally are remarkably similar. In response to a request, I've updated the charts through October 28.

The first chart is a nominal view of the two periods showing the percentage declines over time from their peaks in 1906 and 2007.

Now let's adjust for inflation, which had a significant impact on the earlier period. During the first half of the 20th century, episodes of high inflation and deflation were commonplace. See this chart for an illustration of those early inflationary/deflationary cycles.

Was the 1907 low the historic bottom for the Dow? Unfortunately, no. The secular bottom occurred nearly 15 years later — a year after Germany signed an armistice with the Allies to mark the official end of World War One.

Both periods involved a financial crisis. The pre-Federal Reserve 1907 Bankers' Panic was dampened by a bailout of the system by J. P. Morgan, who put up his own money, and persuaded other New York bankers to do likewise. The Federal Reserve has introduced a number of tactics to shore up the modern banking system. Naturally there are many differences between the two eras. But one inference we can make from the earlier period is that secular bear markets can last for very long periods of time.

In fact, when did the real Dow permanently regain the 1906 high? In September 1985 — a few months shy of 80 years later.

Of course, investors had many opportunities to create wealth in the market over those eight decades. The bottom in 1921 was followed by the Roaring Twenties. And even during the Great Depression, dividends in the vicinity of 5% were coveted source of income. A few years after World War II, the secular bull market that began at mid-century would provide a sound opportunity for wealth creation.

Bottom line: Bear markets run their course and the Bull eventually returns. But history tells that, especially during those secular declines, patience and risk management are definite virtues. Read more at advisorperspectives.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1gdos

European Financial Crisis Claims First US Victim, Greek Trojan Horse Boomerang? MF Global Not TBTF

Jon Corzine is ex Goldman Sachs, who helped the Greeks hide all their debt in order to enter the Eurozone (trojan horse). Now the Eurozone exposure to MF Global is causing their collapse. The ripple effect should impact US financial services firms to the point of additional bankruptcies IF the US government doesn't BAILOUT any more TBTF.



Boomerang.



It turns out the American Achilles Heel is GREED and DEBT.

Amplify’d from www.forbes.com

MF Global Bankruptcy's Biggest Losers

Today MF Global became the first casualty of the European debt crisis leaving behind dozens of unpaid creditors.

Jon Corzine’s MF Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today after a tumultuous week that including the firm’s stock plunging 67%, record quarterly losses and revelations over the firm’s European debt exposure. MF Global said it had total assets of about $41 billion against liabilities of almost $39.7 billion.

In a filing with the Southern District of New York bankruptcy court the New York firm reveals 50 firms that are owed the largest amounts of money by MF Global. MF Global noted in it’s bankruptcy filing that it’s “unable to determine the precise number of holders of its debt securities” but that debt securities are held by more than 500 holders.

Many of the names on the list appear to be vendors and companies that provided services for MF Global. A global IT consultancy out of Fairfax, Virginia, Headstrong Services, is owed $3.9 billion.

JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank are the largest unsecured creditors on the list. JPM’s claims add up to about $1.2 billion while Deutsche Bank’s multiple claims reach roughly $1 billion. Both are listed as trustees for notes they’ve likely sold to investors so the amounts don’t reflect their own exposure to MF Global.

Meanwhile the firm’s largest shareholders are Fidelity’s asset management group Pyramis Global Advisors with roughly 14 million MF Global shares, or 8.4% of the firm’s common stock. That’s followed by Guardian Life Insurance Company’s 12.8 million shares and further down the list TIAA-CREF with 9.5 million shares.

Shareholders are typically at the bottom of the bankruptcy totem poll, and San Diego State University professor of finance Dr. Dan Seiver says they should expect recovery of “next to nothing.”

Here’s a complete list of shareholders who hold more than 5% of common stock as of September 30, 2011.

Fidelity                                 13,917,938 shares                   8.44% common stock RS Investments*                              12,879,811                                    7.81% Fine Capital Partners                           21,504,101                              7.37% Cadian Capital Management              10,180,286                              6.17% TIAA-CREFF                                     9,520,582                                5.77% Piper Jaffray                                        9,132,597                                5.54% Dimensional Fund Advisor                 8,920,497                                5.14% Rydex Security Global Investors        8, 456, 992                              5.13%

*RS Investments is an independent subsidiary of Guardian Investor Services LLC (GIS). GIS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. A spokesperson for the company says shares in MF GLobal were actually held by RS Investments’ RS Partners Fund (RSPFX) and not Guardian Life, and adds that  RS Partners Fund has since sold its entire position in MF Global and is no longer a shareholder. Read more at www.forbes.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1g976

Senate Bill Proposes Selling Residency to Solve USA Housing Crisis #visabill

Yes, you read right. While the Congress, Banks, and the Federal Reserve have allowed an enormous asset bubble followed by a debt to be created right underneath our noses, two members of the Senate now propose selling residency to foreigners that invest over $500,000 in the US housing market.



Great, so all the Chinese manufacturing billionaires, Saudi oil Sheikhs, and Russian natural gas and oil tycoons can buy American assets and bailout the housing crisis. They are essentially proposing selling residency as well as our assets.



American homeowners that are underwater cannot negotiate with their banks unless they fall behind and destroy their credit. They continue to suffer while Congress sends tax dollars to banks via TARP bailouts and selling off to foreign investors that benefited from our failed energy and trade policies.



BRILLIANT!! Destined to Fail - America that is. WTF are these people thinking?

Amplify’d from www.finance-ol.com

U.S. immigration new bill: $ 500,000 purchase at least 3 years residence visa delivery

October 22nd, 2011 admin

Two U.S. senators to submit a new motion, the motion proposes to purchase 50 million or more residents of the housing grant residence visas to foreigners, including apartments, townhouses and villas independent body, the applicant can put all $ 500,000 for the purchase of a house, but also the first to spend $ 250,000 to buy a set, then the rest of the

money to buy a set. Be spent 500,000 to buy a house residence visa According to the U.S. “The Wall Street Journal,” 20 reported that two U.S. senators on Thursday to submit to Congress a new bill, to those who invest in the United States at least $ 500,000 foreigners to buy houses issue a temporary resident visa. According to Utah Republican Senator Mike – Lee (Mike Lee) and New York Democratic Senator Charles – Schumer (Charles Schumer) motion filed in the United States at least $ 500,000 investment for foreigners to buy houses will be 3 residence visa, but in working through the normal procedure for obtaining a visa still not work in the U.S. before. They will be allowed to take any age of a spouse and children under the age of 18, but once they sold the purchased property, their right of abode also will be canceled. This plan is that the two members of a broader immigration part of the program. They hope that this motion can help to absorb excess inventory through to boost the U.S. housing market downturn. According to the American Association of Realtors (National Association of Realtors) data, as of the end of a 3, residential real estate sales in the United States about $ 82 billion from foreign buyers, compared with the previous year’s $ 66 billion increased significantly. The past purchase of foreigners in the United States, Canadians accounted for a quarter, China, Mexico, Britain and India buyers account for another quarter. If the measures motion was passed by Congress, will be present to add U.S. visa program. Schumer said: “This is not a child to spend the federal government needs children can stimulate more ways.” Reported that the U.S. has implemented a series of visa programs, including those in the United States to invest and create jobs, business visas for foreigners to attract foreign investment. New bill, if passed, will become an important supplement to the existing visa program. The U.S. housing market suffered heavy losses in the financial crisis, and so far recovery is weak. Economic downturn, weak job market and household wealth for many Americans purchase prohibitive, resulting in an oversupply of housing market, housing prices continue to slump. The new bill is the hope to attract foreigners to buy property in the United States, to stimulate the real estate market recovery. Recently, the United States, low prices have attracted a large number of foreign investors into the market. According to the U.S. National Association of Realtors statistics, one in 3 years as of today, foreign investors in the U.S. residential market, a total investment of about $ 82 billion, compared with an increase of about $ 16 billion. Visas generally can not hold this job The new visa if foreigners who enter the United States, except through the normal procedures to obtain regular work visa, or not in the United States. These people can bring a spouse and children under 18 years of age to enter the United States, but if you sell real estate in the United States, they will not be able to legally stay in the United States. New residence visa will be independent of the current U.S. visa program to allow the applicant to wait for another visa without being expelled. New items will no visa quota restrictions. According to the National Association of Realtors data, in the past one, Canadians accounted for a quarter of people buy a house overseas, and China, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Indians together accounted for a quarter. New visa vision has won some supporters, including the famous investor Warren Buffett. Buffett has called this summer to encourage more “affluent immigrants” to the United States to buy a house. Buffett 8 to accept the public broadcasting company reporter, said: “If the relaxation of immigration policies to allow 500,000 families enter the United States, and they must have significant net assets and everything, you will soon solve the problem.” However, some industry sources questioned the relaxation of immigration policies. Realogy CEO Richard Smith said foreign home buyers buy a house in the United States without the “stimulus” measures, “many Americans are willing to buy a house, just need to fix the economy.” However, some industry sources questioned the relaxation of immigration policies. Realogy CEO Richard Smith said foreign home buyers buy a house in the United States without the “stimulus” measures, “many Americans are willing to buy a house, just need to fix the economy.” New visa measures envisaged in San Marino, California areas may be more targeted, because the region is increasingly favored by foreign people buy a house. Maggie Navarro said real estate agent to relax immigration policy may have an enormous impact, because many people buy from China is facing visa problems. U.S. technology companies urged to relax immigration policy 1018, according to United States “newspaper” reported that the U.S. and multinational corporations to retain foreign high-tech talent to apply for visas the delays and difficulties encountered, and painful. They had abroad, rather than expansion of facilities and operations in the United States. That trend is to put pressure on President Barack Obama, forcing him to shelve comprehensive immigration reform policy – that would cause anger is a key risk Hispanic voters – perfect for engineers and computer programmers and other technical personnel to provide work permits and green card the system. Company executives warned Obama: “I want high-tech immigration reform attached to the highly controversial comprehensive immigration reform, the United States can not stand.” Quoted Reuters news that General Electric (GE), Boeing (Boeing), DuPont (DuPont) and other companies, said, “given that the U.S. economy is facing challenges in the era of globalization, we need to rethink.” American Chamber of Commerce would like to take rapid action for skilled workers, because according to Obama also refused to Capitol Hill to solve without permit workers and border security requirements, will not soon reach an agreement. General Chamber of Commerce and more promise repair (Thomas Donohue) said, “I’m not sure you can make such a large number of things we may need time to do one thing, which is one of the things done as soon as possible.” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Michael Bloomberg) said that in order to retain foreign students in the United States caused by the U.S. visa application software, electronics, pharmaceutical and aerospace industry professionals on the “critical gap,” he said, frankly will reject these students outside of the door is what we have done the most stupid thing. We can not refuse to have skilled people, they are our country’s growth and success of the need. It is undermining our own economy the United States each paid 65,000 H-1B skilled workers visa, usually every one or two to run out of places are serious restrictions on foreign students and the selection of experts. Although the United States each paid 100 million copies to permanent residence “green card” given to only 15% of skilled workers and their families, and these places have the nationality requirement, strictly limiting the power of talent in America. Union leaders fear that the employment of foreign workers, said they would accept less than American wages. But supporters said the skilled migration, wage differentials were expanded. They say immigrants are generally create jobs, because they are likely to start a business than the United States twice, but also help them access to foreign export markets. Obama foreign workers is likely to be handled carefully, because as part of his 2012 re-election, his greatest effort is to reduce U.S. unemployment. Read more at www.finance-ol.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1g8d3

FDIC Commits Premeditated Suicide w/ New Coverages? $BAC #ows

I wonder if these changes coincidentally cover Bank of America's latest $75 TRILLION swap from the investment banking side to the depositor's side.



...All funds in a "non-interest-bearing transaction account" are insured in full by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from December 31, 2010, through December 31, 2012. This temporary unlimited coverage is in addition to, and separate from, the coverage of at least $250,000 available to depositors under the FDIC's general deposit insurance rules....



Temporary UNLIMITED coverage?

Amplify’d from www.chase.com

Enjoy greater peace of mind with FDIC insurance on your Chase deposit accounts.

NOTICE OF CHANGES IN TEMPORARY FDIC INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR TRANSACTION ACCOUNTS All funds in a "non-interest-bearing transaction account" are insured in full by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from December 31, 2010, through December 31, 2012. This temporary unlimited coverage is in addition to, and separate from, the coverage of at least $250,000 available to depositors under the FDIC's general deposit insurance rules. The term "non-interest-bearing transaction account" includes a traditional checking account or demand deposit account on which the insured depository institution pays no interest. It also includes Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts ("IOLTAs"). It does not include other accounts, such as traditional checking or demand deposit accounts that may earn interest, NOW accounts, and money-market deposit accounts. For more information about temporary FDIC insurance coverage of transaction accounts, visit www.fdic.gov. Read more at www.chase.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1g6sc

Fracking Issues Clarify America's Dependency & Desperation on Energy

Clearly Congress, the EPA, and the Whitehouse are sacrificing their own citizens health, wealth, and ways of life as well as food supplies, and water supplies, for the near term energy needs of marco economics.

Amplify’d from www.cnbc.com

Drilling Debate in Cooperstown Turns Personal

Published: Sunday, 30 Oct 2011 | 4:37 PM ET

By: Peter Applebome The New York Times

The letter that arrived in Kim Jastremski’s mailbox on County Highway 52 suggested that she stop protesting the possibility of natural gas drilling. It seemed more of a threat than a request.

Computer-generated, unsigned and sent to about 10 other opponents of a practice known as fracking, it compared them to Nazis and said they were being watched while picking up their children at school in their minivans. Robert Nickelsberg | Getty Images

Jennifer Huntington’s abuse is more public, like comments online suggesting that people find out where her dairy sells its milk so that they can stop buying it, or the warning that her farm, which has a lease with a gas company, “will fall like a house of cards when your water is poisoned.”

She and other drilling proponents have also been called “sellout landowners that prostitute themselves for money.”

The debate over horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the injection of huge quantities of chemically treated water underground to free up natural gas, has become increasingly contentious across the Eastern United States, with dozens of communities passing or considering bans.

But that ill will often takes its most intimate form in small towns and rural areas like this one, best known as the home of baseball’s Hall of Fame, where fracking has emerged as the defining, non-negotiable political issue.

The dispute has pitted neighbor against neighbor, and has often set people who live in suburbs or villages against the farmers and landowners who live outside them. The discord is compounded by hard times on both sides and by communication online giving everyone instant access to limitless information confirming their point of view.

And if gas companies have the power and money, fracking opponents, who are concerned about ecological threats like the possible contamination of drinking water, often have the numbers and the intensity to dominate local discourse. “There’s no arguing with a person who is opposed to hydrofracking,” said Bill Michaels, a councilman in the Town of Otsego, which includes parts of Cooperstown.

After waiting to take a position, he eventually supported changes to the town’s land-use law that would prohibit fracking, but he still faces opposition from a slate of antifracking candidates. “There is no debate or conversation,” he added. “This is so important to so many people it’s pretty much hijacked everything else.”

The state plans to hold hearings in November before issuing final regulations on gas drilling, and the first gas wells drilled under the new rules could be possible next year.

As it turns out, despite the furor here, the Marcellus Shale, a vast rock formation under New York, Pennsylvania and other states, is so shallow near Cooperstown it is not clear how much gas would be available and what kind of drilling would take place here. And no one expects that fracking will ever come to Cooperstown itself.

Still, at the top of the Village of Cooperstown’s Web site is a statement recommending a statewide ban on gas drilling and fracking. Middlefield, the other town that includes parts of the Village of Cooperstown, was one of the first municipalities to ban gas drilling through changes to its master plan and zoning.

More than 30 antifracking candidates are running for office in Otsego County in November.

The dispute is also running like an electric current through everyday life. Ms. Jastremski, who five years ago moved back to family-owned land when her husband became an English professor at the State University of New York at Oneonta, thought she had found the perfect place to raise her two children, replete with chicken coops, bee hives and a vegetable garden.

But as she became aware of leases that would allow drilling for gas on various properties in the area, she became increasingly wrapped up in fracking politics. Now, she says, she stays up at night crying over what she sees as the possibility of polluted water, an industrialized landscape and having to leave her home as its value plummets. She said she understood the economic pressures facing some farmers, but could not excuse people who want drilling on their land.

“I think even if individuals here are not incredibly greedy, they are being sucked into a corporate greed that’s at work in our country,” she said. “They’re seeing dollar signs everywhere, and they’re not seeing the bigger picture that they’re harming their neighbors.”

Ms. Jastremski, 43, who has a Ph.D. in Slavic Studies and works as a technical writer, says she is uncomfortable with the discord surrounding the issue, like a clash she had at the gym with another mother who stood to gain from a gas lease, but feels she has no choice but to be vocal.

Ms. Huntington, 49, became a lightning rod when her Cooperstown Holstein Corporation, which includes a 379-acre farm with 500 head of dairy cattle, sued the Town of Middlefield seeking to overturn its drilling ban. The suit, filed in September, argues that only the state can ban fracking.

Before that, she decided her daughter should no longer attend the same middle school Ms. Huntington had attended as a girl. She said she acted partly because of antifracking activism in the schools, including a movement to ban fracking on school grounds, and the demographic changes that she said made a dairy farmer’s daughter feel out of place. “I knew as time went by it wasn’t going to be a comfortable place for her,” she said.

Like many farmers, she sees the drilling opponents as largely comfortable urbanites in an area increasingly home to retirees and second-home owners who know nothing about the economics of farming and little about the safety of drilling.

She cites the methane digester her family introduced in 1984, which used manure to produce natural gas that was used in part to heat the county nursing home, or the co-generation unit added to it seven years later that produced electricity for the farm.

“This land and my family are my life,” Ms. Huntington said. “We probably use three to four million gallons of water to feed my cows. I’m not going to spoil something I need to make my living and for future generations to come.”

Proponents of fracking say that many farmers are on the verge of losing their property.

“The term we use is pastoral poverty,” she said. “You have farmers trying to hold on to land that’s been in their family for 100 to 200 years. People like the landscape, but it’s people living in poverty who are maintaining what they like to look at.”

But many businesses fear an industrialized landscape that would be antithetical to the tourism Cooperstown depends on.

Opponents have suggested a boycott of businesses that do not oppose fracking, and have circulated reports via e-mail identifying cars or trucks possibly involved in gas leasing that have been seen at their neighbors’ residences. And some farmers say fracking could ruin them. Siobhan Griffin, an organic dairy farmer, cited a letter from the Park Slope Food Co-op in New York City saying its members would not shop from any area that allows fracking.

Many drilling proponents, meanwhile, say the professionals and retirees drawn to the area have become antigrowth fanatics, opposing a once-a-year music festival proposed in nearby Springfield, wind turbines proposed for Cherry Valley, even additional Little League fields.

Indeed, people on both sides say the ill will probably goes beyond fracking.

“At one time, people in Cooperstown could disagree, but it was never personal,” said Catherine Ellsworth, who writes a column in a local weekly newspaper and supports drilling. “Now it’s more like they want what they want, and that’s it. There’s no sense we’re in this together. But I guess that’s not just here. Society has changed, and Cooperstown has changed along with it.”

This story originally appeared in The New York Times Read more at www.cnbc.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1g5vi

World Running Out of Water for the 99% #ows

what people do not yet recognize is that there will be millions of people in Europe, China, India, the USA, and Mexico that will be without water. Those that are in the 1% will continue to have it, those that are not will kill each other trying to get it.

Amplify’d from 247wallst.com

World Running Out of Water

Posted: October 28, 2011 at 6:30 am

The world is low on water, from the standpoint of supply needed for human use, and the problem has grown rapidly. Worse still, the problem has no ready solution — and probably has no solution at all.

The World Resources Institute predicts that “By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in water-scarce countries or regions, with alarming implications for human wellbeing and global security.” Much of this water will be needed to irrigate crops. That makes the problem a dual one — water for drinking and water for food.

The institute blames developed nations for the overuse of water. That may be true, but a solution assumes that water is portable. It is not, at least not from continent to continent. Water in the U.S. cannot be transported in any significant amount to Africa.

This lack of transportability, along with droughts that already ravaged some parts of the most populated nations, creates a problem that cannot be made better. It is tempting to say that all problems of poverty and famine can be solved, but that is not true from any practical standpoint. Parts of Africa and Asia will be nearly barren of crops in a decade and a half. The trend has already begun. China’s wheat crop failed last year because of drought. The southeastern U.S. has become close to a dust bowl. The portions of north African and impoverished central Africa are in the midst of water shortages that almost certainly will not improve.

The World Resources Institute has raised a point, but it has not offered a solution to the problem. That is because there is no solution.

Douglas A. McIntyre Read more at 247wallst.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1g32g

Death of the USD As World Reserve Currency

The Fed is at the epicenter of this process, intervening heavily to keep the natural corrective market forces at bay. In this, it has a dual strategy. The first is to keep asset prices high (i.e., fight asset deflation), which it is doing by keeping interest rates historically low. The second is to keep wage and commodity costs under control, which it primarily does via devaluing the currency (maintaining a “weak dollar”).

Amplify’d from peakoil.com

Eric Janszen: We Are Witnessing The Death Of The Dollar

What do you get when the producer of the world’s reserve currency takes on too much debt? Nothing less than the end of the US Treasury-based monetary system.

So says Eric Jansen, economic and financial market analyst and proprietor of iTulip.com. In chronicling the decline of the global economy over the past decade, Eric has formulated a framework called the “Ka-POOM” theory, which endeavors to understand how the immense run-up in global debt will be resolved.

In short, it looks at the at the credit bubble that began in the early 1980′s, started accelerating in 1995, and has now reached epic proportions. The amounts are so staggering at this stage that Eric believes it is too politically undesirable to let natural market adjustments clear them away – the magnitude of the deflationary pain this would create is simply unacceptable for politicians looking to get re-elected. The only other available option left is to service these debts via a dramatically devalued currency. Hence the key role the Fed is playing today.

The Fed is at the epicenter of this process, intervening heavily to keep the natural corrective market forces at bay. In this, it has a dual strategy. The first is to keep asset prices high (i.e., fight asset deflation), which it is doing by keeping interest rates historically low. The second is to keep wage and commodity costs under control, which it primarily does via devaluing the currency (maintaining a “weak dollar”).

And, of course, through its intervention, the Fed is doing all it can to keep the current financial system in place to perpetuate the process for as long as possible. The end result is a fundamental shift in risk from Wall Street to the taxpayer.

So the big question is: how long can this last?  Is there a point at which confidence in the system breaks and market forces finally overwhelm the intervention?

Eric’s answers: “Much longer than most people expect.” And “Yes.”

First off, as the most important central bank in the world, the Fed has supernormal powers. In theory, it can expand its balance sheet infinitely. It’s ability to absorb massive amounts of new liabilities is theoretically limitless – much of which can be easily concealed from an accounting standpoint.

And since the US is both the world’s largest economy as well as the provider of its reserve currency, other countries are compelled to support the current regime. A mortal crack-up in the US economy would deliver undue pain to all its trading partners, so they continue to buy Treasuries in sufficient amount to fund US economic activity.

But that’s not to say they’re happy about it. And here’s where attention should be paid (and where the importance of gold comes in).

For much of the past century, the United States comprised approximately 54-58% of the global economy. Today, it’s share has shrunk down to about 18%. Meaning: it’s relative importance to the global system has diminished.

Issuing the world’s reserve currency is a privilege that must be continually earned through transparency and sound stewardship – qualities the US has been in flagrant lack of in the past several decades as it has been blowing asset bubbles and running trillion-dollar deficits via incurring massive debts and increasing its money supply tremendously. So, even as they continue to support the current Treasury-backed monetary regime, the world’s central banks have begun hedging their exposure.

After several decades of being net sellers, the world’s central banks became net buyers of gold in the second quarter of 2009. As Eric puts it:

There was no plan B in the global monetary system when it switched over to the US Dollar reserve basis for global monetary reserves. The only fallback is gold. Gold is the only reserve asset that central banks hold other than dollars and to some extent euros – but it is mostly gold. So gold is the fallback. What I thought was going to happen is that, over time gradually, that there would be an increase at some point in gold holdings by central banks as they hedged the marginal increase and the number of Treasury bonds that they needed to hold as a result of conducting trade with the US and also simply maintaining the US economy through low interest rates and providing sufficient investment to continue to offer the US government.

What is very interesting to me is starting in the second quarter of 2009, right after the financial crisis is when global central banks became net buyers of gold which to me indicated that they had as a group, determined that it was time to more seriously hedge their dollar assets, even as they continue to buy Treasury bonds to increase their hedging.

Before that there were effectively two teams, there were the buyers who were countries like India and Russia and China, and the sellers which are most of your European countries and that structure of the gold market occurred and was maintained until the second quarter of 2009 and it shifted to a much broader base increase in the number of governments participating in the gold market including Saudi Arabia, Mexico and other allies of the United States.

Eric sees this move by central banks of positioning themselves closer to the door as a natural step to the inevitable endgame here, which is the dissolution of the US Treasury dollar-based monetary system. Due to entrenched special interests, politics, escalating commodity scarcity, and other factors – he does not see the US taking necessary corrective action before confidence in the solvency of the US and its currency collapses.

As such, Eric advises investors position themselves into gold and assets that take advantage of rising rents and energy prices.

Click the play button below to listen to Chris’ interview with Eric Janszen (runtime 43m:46s):

iTunes: Play/Download/Subscribe to the Podcast Download/Play the Podcast Report a Problem Playing the Podcast

Or click here to read the full transcript.

ZeroHedge Read more at peakoil.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1g30u