They eat from the same dishes and sleep in the same beds, but they seem to be operating in two different economies. From last November through this April, American women aged 20 and up gained nearly 300,000 jobs, according to the household survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). At the same time, American men lost nearly 700,000 jobs. You might even say American men are in recession, and American women are not.

Oil rose above $126 a barrel for the first time Friday, bringing its advance this week to nearly $10, as investors questioned whether a possible confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela could cut exports from the OPEC member.

The fear in Wednesday's stock decline was palpable. Wall Street was responding to the specter of transparency the way it always does -- with alarm. Big brokerage firms, led by Merrill Lynch and Lehman Bros., plunged after the nation's top securities cop called for more disclosure of Wall Street's finances. The decline was the biggest in two months for financial stocks.

What a Wonderful World: Life in 2008...

Aloha to Aloha Airlines...

Never mind polishing the resume. Work on the handshake. That's the conclusion of this research conducted by the University of Iowa's Department of the Blindingly Obvious.

The evidence against North Korea is widely regarded as convincing. "The North Koreans have denied that they are engaged in the distribution and manufacture of counterfeits," says Daniel Glaser of the U.S. Treasury Department, "but the evidence is overwhelming that they are. There's no question of North Korea's involvement."1 There is no denying that North Korean citizens have been caught passing counterfeit currency in Europe and Asia, and some defectors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK -- the formal name for North Korea) claim to have first-hand knowledge of state-run counterfeiting operations. In Western media reports the case is treated as proven. Yet the closer one examines the matter, the murkier the picture becomes.

Counterfeit currency attributed to North Korea raises deep concern due to its extremely high quality. Dubbed supernotes, their production process closely matches that of the genuine article, and the engraving is so fine it rivals that of the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.2

Iran supply problems add to fears of oil hitting $200 a barrel...

Shift Happens Narrated...

The Nashville Homeless Power Project, a member organization of the PPEHRC in Nashville, TN, led a march of poor and homeless families for housing on Wednesday May 7th, a march which culminated with the takeover of vacant HUD homes. The march began at 1:00 p.m. in front of the Metro Court House then proceeded to Dickerson Road, an area that has been recently rezoned for luxury development.

Lindsey Williams talks about his first hand knowledge of Alaskan oil reserves larger than any on earth. And he talks about how the oil companies and U.S. government won't send it through the pipeline for U.S. citizens to use.

The fiscal strains afflicting Vallejo are reverberating across the U.S., as a housing slump and slowing economy curb revenue for states and local governments. U.S. state sales-tax collections fell in the first quarter for the first time in six years, according to a study by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, New York.

As diesel was threatening to break through the $4 level in January -- the most recent month for which data is available -- U.S. refineries shipped 982,000 barrels or 41.2 million gallons of diesel to Mexico. The 2008 shipments far exceed January shipments in any other year except 2000 and 2001.

Across the state, 25 fuel inspectors and supervisors have inspected more than 4300 gas stations since the beginning of 2007. And since then, they've discovered 662 faulty gas meters.

Oil Watchdog...

Rice prices hit records amid Burmese disaster...

Swiss banks cannot be expected to police foreign clients' tax affairs, one of the country's top banking officials said Monday, rejecting German demands for greater cooperation to catch tax evaders.

Here is a list of gas stations in Michigan who in the past two years were Found to be in violation of setting their pumps to not give a full gallon Of gas....

Crude oil was little changed near $120 a barrel in New York after rising to a record on a report that showed U.S. service industries expanded in April, signaling higher energy use.

Yesterday's Washington Post front-page lead story summed up in seven words what's going on: "Siphoning Off Corn to Fuel Our Cars."

Yes, cars on American roads will burn up close to one-third of the enormous corn crop American farmers will grow this year. But because the United States is the world's biggest producer of corn, an essential staple, this massive diversion from the food bowl to the fuel tank threatens to wreak increasing havoc from here to Timbuktu.

The US government uses tax money, and worse yet, money borrowed from the Federal Reserve (which is paid off by printing new money thus inflation), to support select industries in which government employees typically hold stock. Over-priced no bid contracts are awarded to corporations for what are often unnecessary jobs, such as paying construction/engineering companies to rebuild things they've already paid weapons companies to destroy. This is state control of industry, and it is communism by definition. Corporations that don't comply risk losing lucrative contracts to their competitors. The US government, in this way, creates state assisted monopolies.

How low will real estate go?...

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!!!!!!!...

Despite the propaganda coming out of Washington, DC., millions of Americans are in deep financial trouble. Last week the media cranked up the mantra that Wall Street may be getting more optimistic. Really?

Buffett struck by $1.7 billion worth of financial WMD losses...

The speculative risks undertaken by investment banks is done by leveraging the savings of society; and, when investment bank bets are sufficiently large enough and the bets go bad--as they inevitably do as the luck of investment bankers is due more to their proximity to credit than to their ability to foresee the future--it is society that will bear the brunt of the pain in the loss of its savings.

India's finance minister said on Monday he was considering a blanket ban on trading in food futures, underlying growing concerns in Asia over the role of hedge funds and financial market traders in the recent surge in commodities prices.

UAW workers walk out at GM Fairfax plant with potential to damage carmaker at critical time

Wall Street pulled back Monday as investors digested Microsoft Corp.'s decision to withdraw its bid for Yahoo Inc. and a better-than-expected reading on the service sector.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, reeling from the deterioration in the housing market, will likely post steep losses for the first quarter, but the two largest home funding companies are expected to escape previous record losses.

AMENDMENT XIII - SECTION 1

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population and almost 25 percent of the world's prisoners. Are Americans more criminal than other folks? Or are there incentives that give the US the dubious honor of leading the world in prison population.

Bolstered by record crude oil prices, Exxon Mobil Corp. yesterday reported huge first-quarter profits and fueled new congressional vows to come up with legislation that would tax windfall profits or demonstrate concern about high gasoline prices.

Much has been written about whether a worldwide plan exists to control events and steer them in the direction profitable to an elite of the rich and powerful. Is this a "conspiracy theory"? While it is difficult to be specific about who exactly may be behind such a conspiracy, if it exists, it is at least clear that the privately- managed system of global financial capitalism gives ample opportunity for the world's richest people to combine for their mutual benefit. Further, global financial capitalism itself is based on the monopolization of money-creation by a world banking system that is largely privately owned, even while working through the central banks of the largest and most prosperous nations.

The federal government was going to give taxpayers hundreds of dollars each, right? No one knew the exact amount, just the maximum possible for different income brackets and tax filing categories, right?

The purpose of this program was to encourage the general populace to go out and spend that money. This spending frenzy would stimulate the economy, the same economy that's been dropping like a rock. Right?

The only response I could come up with to this news was "Wrong!"

US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank pump an extra $82bn into banking system...

Bush Has Spent Almost $1 Trillion On Wars... 70% Of Americans Say Things Are Going Badly...

JOBS AT THE BOHEMIAN GROVE-NO EXP. NECESSARY...

Our call from last week is playing out exactly as we forecasted. The Fed cut interest rates, signaled a willingness to pause, and the Dollar has begun another dead cat bounce. Included below is a chart that shows other dead cat bounces that have occurred during the past year. Note the end result of each of the prior bounces: an ultimately lower Dollar. There is no reason to believe this time will be any different.

NASCAR race may fail to sell out...

Carin Dillingham handed over her watch to the pawnbrokers at Society Hill Loan as if she were giving up one of her bones.

The 30-year-old bookkeeper stood pregnant, broke and sad under rows of pawned guitars hanging like curing hams from the ceiling of the ragged South Street shop. She got a $20 loan for her $200 Bulova, a gift from the Harley-Davidson Co., where she used to work.

Here's the bad news: Your little recession-deflecting tax rebate? No rebate at all. Not even close.

It's more like this: You've been continuously mugged and beaten and robbed blind for the past seven years straight, and as you lay there on the cold, hard economic ground, bleeding and gasping and wondering what the hell happened to your vacation time and your health care plan and your mortgage payment, your attackers scoff and leer and toss a couple of bloodstained nickels on your pulverized face and mutter, here sucker, have some bus fare, and then they cackle and stomp away with all your loot and dignity and hope, back to the White House from whence they came.

Here's the global angle to the junk buying binge:.

n conjunction with the increase in the size of the TAF, the Federal Open Market Committee has authorized further increases in its existing temporary reciprocal currency arrangements with the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB). These arrangements will now provide dollars in amounts of up to $50 billion and $12 billion to the ECB and the SNB, respectively, representing increases of $20 billion and $6 billion. The FOMC extended the term of these reciprocal currency arrangements through January 30, 2009.

We are suffering from a disease. Offshore slavery, sweat shops, exploited labor, insider trading, profiteering, dept slavery, predatory lending, avoidable starvation, and a blind eye to the rape, theft, murder, and torture of the Third World are kept afloat by a steady combination of consumerism and sticking our heads in the sand. No one cares about people; not like they care about shiny things. Our nation judges its well being by the stock market or its billionaire companies and not on the welfare of the general public, our physical and psychological well being. Humanity is under the boot of the mighty dollar because of its association with self-worth.

Food price rise could last another two years...

Americans unload prized belongings to make ends meet...

Government employs 22,387,000 Americans, 8,744,000 more than manufacturing. Even the category leisure and hospitality employs 13,682,000 Americans, slightly more than manufacturing. There are as many waitresses and bartenders as production workers.

As the US faces a very real prospect of utter collapse where millions may be may be made jobless and homeless, the GOP drags out a tired old lie that goes like this: 'be happy! Recession is goooood for you!'

Chevron profit rises 9.5 percent in 1Q on higher oil prices...

Already here in Mn there is food shortages...

Former U.S. baseball star Jose Canseco said on Thursday he had lost his California mansion to foreclosure -- one of the first celebrities to publicly admit being a statistic in the U.S. housing crisis.

We need to keep that money here in America. The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it at yard sales, since those are the only businesses still in the U.S.

Gulf States May End Dollar Pegs, Kuwait Minister Says...

Tens of thousands of cars will become almost worthless as a result of the decision to raise road tax on older models with higher carbon dioxide emissions by up to £245 a year.

Japanese gas up 90 cents a gallon over night!...

Gulf States May End Dollar Pegs, Kuwait Minister Says...

The number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits soared last week.

The besieged Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America received a renewed commitment from all three NAFTA leaders at the recent summit in New Orleans. This is a much needed boast for the North American Union agenda that is seen as widely unpopular. There is little doubt that big business is a driving force behind deeper continental integration. The latest SPP Summit reaffirmed that corporate interests will continue to further dominate this process. The corporate agenda is shaping policy, and as their profits increase, they gain more control over our lives.

U.S. companies' planned layoffs jumped 68 percent in April from the prior month to the highest since September 2006, pointing to further deterioration in the labor market, a report showed on Thursday.

The U.S. economy may be in a funk, but that's nothing compared with the pall hanging over Wall Street.

Some of the biggest U.S. investors said on Tuesday they expected the nation's economy to get worse, but then work its way toward recovery later this year.

On Wall Street, however, the road back to health will take much longer.

This is the worst financial crisis in 60 years, and it has shaken the banking system to its foundations. Even the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has compared the crisis to the Great Depression and he is not given to overstatement. Banks are in the business of lending money they don't have - it is called "fractional reserve banking". But every so often the banks succumb to irrational exuberance, lend too much and find their reserves have been eaten up too fast, forcing them out of business. This is what happened to Northern Rock, and is now happening to all the big banks. That is why they had to be rescued to the tune of £50bn last month by the Bank of England - ie, us. They will be back for more.

While the U.S. suffers the convulsions of an impending recession and massive wealth destruction, here the malls are stuffed full and the streets bumper-to-bumper with BMWs. The good times keep rolling, and not just in Hong Kong, but across much of emerging Asia, from Shanghai to Mumbai. Sure, the U.S. turmoil has had some impact -- jittery investors have knocked back stock markets from last year's lofty heights -- but in general, the story of America's economic woes has been confined to the morning newspapers.

Recession? What recession?

Unemployment rates are rising across the United States, except Oklahoma. That state is experiencing the most dramatic reduction in unemployment since 2007, an improvement many in Oklahoma attribute to the passage last year by the state legislature of a strong employment-focused immigration reform law.

After news broke this morning on the Blotter on ABCNews.com of the ongoing talks between the investment giant Cerberus and the controversial security firm Blackwater, the talks have now ceased, and there will be no deal.

Aloha, which carries 85 percent of all goods by air between the islands, said its lender, GMAC Commercial Finance LLC was unwilling to provide further financing.

Has that been achieved? Has the Working Class finally gotten its fair share? Somehow, I think not.... yet the red flags are not as visible as they once were. Where did May Day start? Americans were under the assumption that it was a Soviet holiday.... it is as American as apple pie itself, born in Chicago in 1886. More importantly, where has May Day gone? Where have all the red flags gone?

We drive, they starve. The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits.

"The reality is that people are dying already," said Jacques Diouf, of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Naturally people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react," he said.

With Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, shifting its crude trading to the euro and the yen, instead of the US dollar, treasury managers feel that this could well be the first challenge to the US dollar's dominance as currency of global trade.

Citigroup has tapped the capital markets for the second time in nine days, launching a $3bn (€2bn, £1.5bn) equity offering aimed at bolstering its balance sheet and capitalising on investor appetite for battered financial stocks.

Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix all saw prices plummet by at least 20%. And so far, there is no sign of a bottom.

If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.

If we spend it on gasoline it will all go to the Arabs, if we purchase a computer it will all go to India, if we purchase fruit and vegetables it will all go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatamala, if we purchase a good car it will all go to Japan, if we purchase useless nicknacks it will all go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.

MOTORISTS reacted with fury yesterday when oil companies BP and Shell announced profits of £3.3million an hour for the first three months of this year.

Millionaires say economy squeezing them too...

The World Bank chief warned on Tuesday that 100 million people have already been pushed into poverty due to a man-made food crisis while as many as two billion are on the verge of disaster.

"This is not a natural disaster," said Robert B. Zoellick, president of the World Bank. "Make no mistake; there is nothing natural about this. But for millions of people it is a disaster."

The Bank of England has imposed a permanent news blackout on its £50bn-plus plan to ease the credit crunch.

Ferocious and unprecedented secrecy means taxpayers will never know the names of the banks that have been supported through the special liquidity scheme, which was unveiled by Bank Governor Mervyn King last week.

More than 155,000 families have lost their homes to foreclosure this year; one out of every 194 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing.

Time Warner to shed rest of its cable TV business...

A Washington think tank is warning that housing prices are falling at an accelerating level, destroying wealth at a pace that will cost the average homeowner $85,000 in lost wealth this year alone.

Fed Cuts Fed Funds Target Rate to 2.0%...

Paul Grignon's 47-minute animated presentation of "Money as Debt" tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is

Conditions at the epicentre of the credit crunch are getting worse as Ben Bernanke and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board appear poised to slow their aggressive drive to cut interest rates. Home prices are falling faster in virtually every major U.S. city and foreclosures are on a pace to double over last year, according to two reports released yesterday.

Biofuel: Criminal Path Leads To Global Food Crisis...

Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer, has completely stopped conducting oil transactions in U.S. dollars, a top Oil Ministry official said Wednesday, a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear program and suspected involvement in Iraq.

Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in February by the most on record, pointing to an imbalance between supply and demand that shows no sign of ending.

Struggling with mounting debt and rising prices, faced with the toughest economic times since the early 1990s, Americans are selling prized possessions online and at flea markets at alarming rates.

Plunge in home prices deepens; Fed's campaign of interest rate cutting is expected to slow beginning today

Bush Says Pain From Economy Defies Easy Fix...

Petrol is likely to hit £5 a gallon today as "hot money" from speculators drives the oil price to record levels.

Lehman Brothers, the investment bank, has estimated that fuel is 30 per cent overpriced because of an influx of money into the oil market from investment funds.

The price of power and who foots the bill for Britain's rocketing energy costs took centre stage yesterday as the oil giants Shell and BP unveiled huge combined profits of £7.2bn, made in just three months, and consumers were hit with a new round of steep rises in prices from gas and electricity to air travel.

"The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented." Major L. L. B. Angus

There is a new report from the Comptroller of the Currency titled "OCC's Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivative Activities, Fourth Quarter 2007", which shows that total bank holdings of derivatives is estimated to be "only" $164.2 trillion, whereas I seem to remember that the global glut of derivatives is upward of $700 trillion, which are both numbers so big that I cannot even begin to comprehend the enormity of them.

The report shows that the notional value of derivatives held by U.S. commercial banks has suddenly plunged by a whopping $8 trillion, which is (unbelievably) still only 5% of the total, and which merely takes the total down to the aforementioned-yet-still-staggering $164.2 trillion.

According to the Labor Department, the average cost of groceries is climbing at an annual rate of about 5%, the sharpest increase in 18 years. Average weekly earnings are rising at an annual rate of 3.3%.

his disparity has resulted in significantly higher customer traffic at bakery thrift outlets, employees say, as well as a surge in people turning to food banks.

posit that the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CORPORATION, a private organization continuously with shareholders, officers and directors since inception, has illegally been, with the collusion of the Federal Reserve Bank (another corporation, public but operated until this last year as a private organization), in complete control of the financial life of this you know, the CORPORATION is now in bankruptcy.

As a private corporation, whatever debts they have incurred as THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, which by the way is virtually all the debt attributed to this nation, is actually theirs and not the Constitutional United States' and/or its Citizens/citizens. That can and will be proved in due time in a court of law, probably the US Supreme Court.

On the other hand, I believe the United States (Constitutional), its assets, its Citizens and their assets and can be proven to be not owned by THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and therefore outside the bankruptcy. I believe the hyperinflation depression information (The writer's first email was posted as part of this article) sent you earlier today can be avoided if we act quickly and wisely. I can expand on that subject later.

Truckers in diesel price protest...

These layoffs are PERMANENT !

A United Nations expert has condemned the growing use of crops to produce biofuels as a replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity.

Pres. Bill Clinton announced that it was in the national interest to lift the longstanding ban on crude oil exports from Alaska's North Slope. Clinton stated that the lifting of the ban will not affect the supply of oil available to the US or cause supply shortages or price increases in some states and territories.

Pump prices lift Shell and BP to record £7.2bn...

Home foreclosure rate continues ugly climb...

U.S. Home-Price Index Fell 12.7%

Rice futures in Chicago plunged the most in three weeks after a government report showed planting of the U.S. crop accelerated last week, easing concern that global demand will outstrip supply.

BP and Shell fuelled the anger of UK motorists today after the two firms racked up combined profits of more than £7 billion in three months.

Half a continent away, in the North Dakota country that grows the high-quality wheats used in Fleishman's bagels, many farmers are cutting back on growing wheat in favor of more profitable, less disease-prone corn and soybeans for ethanol refineries and Asian consumers.

Homeowner vacancies hit record high...

For proof that Turkey's economy and the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be unraveling, look no further than the lira.

he Japanese, who own $US586.6 billion ($629 billion), or 12% of US government debt, had their worst quarter in Treasuries this decade, losing 7% in the first three months of the year as the US dollar fell to the lowest since 1995 versus the yen, Merrill Lynch & Co. indexes show. Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co., Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. and Sumitomo Life Insurance Co., three of the nation's four-biggest insurers, would rather accept the world's lowest bond yields in Japan than buy US debt.

Corn futures in Chicago climbed to a record on supply concerns after a government report showed farmers in the U.S., the world's biggest producer, had planted only half as much as a year ago because of cold, wet weather.

As farmers confront mounting costs and riots erupt from Haiti to Egypt over food, Garry Niemeyer is paying the price for Wall Street's speculation in grain markets.

Homes facing foreclosure more than doubled in 1Q from 2007...

Studies indicate that credit card defaults and related write-offs increased drastically since 2006. Today, lenders write off 33 percent more in credit card debt than they did two years ago.

Rioting in Haiti. Rationing in America. Queues in Egypt. Protests in Afghanistan. As the price of food continues to soar, the impact is being felt by people around the globe

Despite bumper crops in Vietnam and India, export limits and bans have created a global shortage and driven up prices.

Warren Buffett, the world's richest person, said on Monday the U.S. economy is in a recession that will be more severe than most people expect.

Inflation threatens to supersede the credit crisis as investors' biggest enemy later this year as fears of a deep economic downturn recede and commodity prices show no signs of easing.

You'll see hundreds of comments from desparate people, just like me. Qualified people who are eager to work, but the jobs aren't out there. Let me rephrase that- there are some jobs out there if you want to work for minimum wage. I'm not to proud to do a minimum wage job, but the problem is, if I cut my income by 50 or 60%, I can't afford to keep my house or feed my family. Before some a-hole writes me and says I'm over extended, or will just have to cut back, please reconsider. I have no credit card debt. Only a modest mortgage and monthly expenses and one low car payment. Anyone who says they can cut their income in half and still make it is an idiot or has benefitted from tax cuts. Guess whose house I'll be looking at when my family goes hungry?

agging pickup truck and sport utility vehicle sales have forced General Motors Corp. to shut down one shift each at four North American factories and lay off about 3,500 workers.

The world's largest automaker by sales said Monday that the cuts, to take effect starting this summer, were brought on by weak demand due to high gasoline prices and an economic downturn.

People in Haiti are eating mud cakes because of the soaring food prices; the people in Gaza have no electricity; in Afghanistan, the only royal visit they receive is of a British prince dressed in military gear going to kill on Afghan soil. In India, the farmers are committing suicide due to failed harvests of genetically modified Monsanto crops. Around the world, people are rioting because of lack of food or basic human necessities. Yet in the west, we can move around freely, we can cross borders and fly our budget airlines from capital to capital, observing the comforts of western existence. Organized streets, clean cars, wonderful shopping malls, great monuments, everything is civilized and could be admired, that is, if it was honest. But it isn't, it is morally wrong and deep down we all know it. We know it, but we just don't want to do anything about it, because we are comfortable. Only a very small proportion of the population would truly change their position for that of a person in Iraq. I suppose that is why we choose to keep Iraq as a problem of our governments, and the terrorists whom must be eliminated to protect us from "evil".

Builder flees & 40 Hasidic families face eviction in Brooklyn swindle...

The annual rate of house price inflation has now turned negative for the first time since the property market began its decline, figures to be released today will show.

Prices have increased steadily in the last three years, but matters really came to a crunch this year. Since January, the price of rice has gone up by 141 percent, while the price of wheat has almost doubled in one year. In a world in which the poor spend three-quarters of their budget on food, that means potentially a life-or-death situation for the 1 billion human beings who live on the equivalent of $1 dollar a day.

Rising Taxes, Not Rising Mortgage Payments, Primary Cause of Middle-Class Squeeze...

Pressure for international action to combat the "silent tsunami" of the global food crisis intensified amid warnings that spiralling prices meant more than 100 million people could be plunged into hunger.

Japan Bond Market trading halted in meltdown....

WOMAN SELLS HER DEBT ON EBAY...

Between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture around the globe, world grain production increased by 250%.4 That is a tremendous increase in the amount of food energy available for human consumption. This additional energy did not come from an increase in incipient sunlight, nor did it result from introducing agriculture to new vistas of land. The energy for the Green Revolution was provided by fossil fuels in the form of fertilizers (natural gas), pesticides (oil), and hydrocarbon fueled irrigation.

World cereal stocks are at an all-time low, food-aid programmes have run out of money and millions face starvation. Yet wealthy countries persist with plans to use grain for petrol.

The War in Iraq Costs...

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and the government of U.S. President George W. Bush were to blame for the U.S. financial crisis, Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz said in a magazine interview.

With millions of Americans falling behind on debt payments, the larger debt-collecting companies are outsourcing their collection methods to India . There, the trained operators call the American debtor on the phone. They remind them that they will probably be getting tax rebates and that perhaps they could pay "just a little" on their back bill. Even a few dollars would show their really good intentions.

Do not trust this approach because it is a snare and a delusion. In most cases, the debts involved have passed the statute of limitations and not only is it impossible to sue for the unpaid balances but the debt itself has vanished from the credit report system. By sending in even a dollar on the back balance, the debt is automatically renewed again and further harassments, phone calls, registered letters and debt-collection suits can, and will, follow.

The best advice here is not to send in a penny.

Among the many reasons given for the recent surge in gas prices is China's soaring demand for petroleum. Because the Chinese are running around the world buying up every available barrel of oil, the argument goes, we Americans have to pay that much more to outbid them for the leftover pools of crude. And the fact that the Chinese yuan has been growing stronger while the American dollar is shrinking in value has only exacerbated the problem.

In the last eight years implementing the plans for the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) designed "to promote American global leadership" has backfired.

To accomplish PNAC's goals, all threats needed to be eliminated. From the onset, the United Sates earmarked two countries as mortal enemies: Venezuela and Iran. With Venezuela, it is well documented that the CIA attempted to overthrow the democratically elected government of Chavez. And with Iran, the United States continues to use it as a scapegoat for its failures in Iraq. These cold war tactics however are proving to be US's undoing.

The United States is hemorrhaging from every orifice, and oil prices can be used to measure the rapidity of its demise.

Farmers and food executives appealed fruitlessly to federal officials yesterday for regulatory steps to limit speculative buying that is helping to drive food prices higher. Meanwhile, some Americans are stocking up on staples such as rice, flour and oil in anticipation of high prices and shortages spreading from overseas.

The military adventurers in the Bush administration have much in common with the corporate leaders of the defunct energy company Enron. Both groups thought that they were the "smartest guys in the room" -- the title of Alex Gibney's prize-winning film on what went wrong at Enron. The neoconservatives in the White House and the Pentagon outsmarted themselves. They failed even to address the problem of how to finance their schemes of imperialist wars and global domination.

After struggling with soaring heating costs through the winter, millions of Americans are behind on electric and gas bills, and a record number of families could face energy shut-offs over the next two months, according to state energy officials and utilities around the country.

The escalating costs of heating oil, propane and kerosene, most commonly used in the Northeast, have posed the greatest burdens, officials say, but natural gas and electricity prices have also climbed at a time when low-end incomes are stagnant and prices have also jumped for food and gasoline.

"Policymakers and legislators often fail to consider the law of unintended consequences. The latest example is their attempt to reduce the United States' dependence on imported oil by shifting a big share of the nation's largest crop, corn, to the production of ethanol for fueling automobiles.

President Bush has set a target of replacing 15% of domestic gasoline use with biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel) over the next 10 years, which would require almost a fivefold increase in mandatory biofuel use, to about 35 billion gallons. With current technology, almost all of this biofuel would have to come from corn because there is no feasible alternative. However, achieving the 15% goal would require the entire current U.S. corn crop, which represents a whopping 40% of the world's corn supply. This would do more than create mere market distortions; the irresistible pressure to divert corn from food to fuel would create unprecedented turmoil.

The military adventurers in the Bush administration have much in common with the corporate leaders of the defunct energy company Enron. Both groups thought that they were the "smartest guys in the room" -- the title of Alex Gibney's prize-winning film on what went wrong at Enron. The neoconservatives in the White House and the Pentagon outsmarted themselves. They failed even to address the problem of how to finance their schemes of imperialist wars and global domination.

Debt collection statute of limitations listed by state...

With millions of Americans falling behind on debt payments, the larger debt-collecting companies are outsourcing their collection methods to India . There, the trained operators call the American debtor on the phone. They remind them that they will probably be getting tax rebates and that perhaps they could pay "just a little" on their back bill. Even a few dollars would show their really good intentions.

Do not trust this approach because it is a snare and a delusion. In most cases, the debts involved have passed the statute of limitations and not only is it impossible to sue for the unpaid balances but the debt itself has vanished from the credit report system. By sending in even a dollar on the back balance, the debt is automatically renewed again and further harassments, phone calls, registered letters and debt-collection suits can, and will, follow.

The best advice here is not to send in a penny.

Rhonda Payne went to an AT&T Wireless store in Calhoun, Ga., recently to pay her phone bill in cash. She'd been hit by ID theft and was forced to close her checking account, so she was worried she wouldn't be able to mail a check on time. But when she arrived at the store, she was in for a surprise.

Paying in person, she was told, costs extra -- $2 extra.

Two major US bulk retailers are rationing the sale of large bags of rice to consumers amid a growing global food crisis marked by skyrocketing prices and heavy pressure on demand.

The global rice trade was stunned last July when US shipments bound for the European Union were found to contain genetically engineered rice.

The finances of many states have deteriorated so badly that they appear to be in a recession, regardless of whether that's true for the nation as a whole, a survey of all 50 state fiscal directors concludes.

Treasuries fell, with two-year notes headed for the biggest two-week decline since at least 1982, as traders increased bets the Federal Reserve will stop cutting interest rates. Japanese bonds tumbled as inflation accelerated.

It was one of the dumbest "green" ideas ever proposed: Convert millions of acres of cropland into fields for growing ethanol from corn, then burn fossil fuels to harvest the ethanol, expending more energy to extract the fuel than you get from the fuel itself! Meanwhile, sit back and proclaim you've achieved a monumental green victory (President Bush, anyone?) all while unleashing a dangerous spike in global food prices that's causing a ripple effect of food shortages and rationing around the world.

Food Lines in Hawaii...

On top of record-breaking rice prices and corn through the roof on ethanol demand, wheat is now rusting in the fields across Africa.

Officials fear near total crop losses, and the fungus, known as Ug99, is spreading.

UK banks could be forced to return billions of pounds of overdraft fees to consumers after a high court judge said the fees could be challenged by the Office of Fair Trading.

US bank failures could rise above "historical norms" as a weakening economy puts pressure on badly underwritten loans, particularly in commercial real estate, according to a bank regulator.

Rice is being rationed in Britain as shopkeepers limit supplies to their customers to prevent hoarding. Restrictions on sales in Asian neighbourhoods are reported as emergency measures are taken by governments worldwide to combat the soaring cost of rice and prevent outbreaks of food rioting.

U.S. rice futures struck a new lifetime peak above $25 in Asian trading on Thursday, as worries about possible supply shortages continued to plague the world's second-biggest food grain crop.

What's'a'matter, Bunky? Having trouble making ends meet? Sick of the cost of everything going up while your income actually goes down? Laid off? House equity shot? Borrowed up to the gills with all your credit cards maxed out? Now you can't afford food, you say?

Well, here's a big part of the reason why. $36,000 flows to each illegal alien family in America, each and every year (see the first article reproduced below). If that doesn't sound like much, consider that, with perhaps 80 million tax-paying households in America (yours being one of them, of course), each and every one of our households pays $4,325 each and every year toward that $36,000 that each illegal alien family receives.

Did you net $36,000 after taxes last year? Neither did I. But they did. No wonder they keep flooding over that border. Wouldn't you?

Commercial Banks Heading for Huge Derivatives Losses- Credit Crisis Turning into Credit Armageddon...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper waved a red flag Tuesday in the debate over NAFTA's future, warning Americans who want to reopen the accord that U.S. dependence on Canadian oil gives Canada a big bargaining chip.

Glitter among the debt depths...

It is too late to stop it. The political forces and the Unfunded Liabilities would prevent the powers-that-be from ending the money-printing process, and in fact, would grossly accelerate it. This would result in a hyper inflation (400 percent inflation or more), and the eventual total destruction of the dollar. Suddenly America would find its money totally useless. Store shelves would be empty, gas would go through the stratosphere, and Americans would suffer through the greatest threat since the Great Depression of the '30s.

Bay Area Shoppers Asked To Limit Rice Purchases...

The number of California homes lost to foreclosure in the first quarter surged 327% from year-ago levels -- reaching an average of more than 500 foreclosures per day -- DataQuick said in a report, warning that the widening foreclosure problem could "spread beyond the current categories of dicey mortgages, and into mainstream home loans."

Bailing out the banks...

The most brutal real estate slump in decades is reverberating through the rental market. Renters in properties that are being foreclosed on are being evicted. Homeowners forced into foreclosure are becoming tenants again and driving up rents. And renters not yet ready to buy a home -- shut out by stricter lending rules or hoping to buy after prices fall still further -- are creating a dynamic shift: Even as real estate is sputtering, the rental market is surging.