Economic Collapse a Mathematical Certainty - Top 5 Places Where Not To Be

While the dollar is still functional, Donate $15 or More at my blog above and as a thank you , I will send a free CD packed with 160 Survival books to build your library to help you get the knowledge you will need to get through the great reset coming.

The dollar collapse will be the single largest event in human history. This will be the first event that will touch every single living person in the world. All human activity is controlled by money. Our wealth,our work,our food,our government,even our relationships are affected by money.

No money in human history has had as much reach in both breadth and depth as the dollar. It is the de facto world currency. All other currency collapses will pale in comparison to this big one. All other currency crises have been regional and there were other currencies for people to grasp on to. Read more....

US employment rise fails to benefit blacks

Unemployment in the US has dropped to its lowest rate since February 2009, according to recent data.

However, joblessness among African Americans is continuing to increase and is now put at 15.8 per cent.

The prospects for finding work are even more bleak for black teenagers.

Al Jazeera's Cath Turner has been following Kelvin Diggs, 15, around Boston as he tries to find work to keep his family's household afloat. Read more.....

Unemployment and Jordan's youth

29-year-old Alaa graduated from university six years ago, with a bachelor's degree in English, and he's still jobless.

He is originally from the northern city of Irbid, where jobs are scarce, so he has been applying for positions at hundreds of companies in Amman. He was interviewed, but never hired. Read more....

Economic 'recovery' leaves jobs behind

Reporting from Washington — Still limping two years after officially emerging from the recession and buffeted by a new wave of bad news, the U.S. economy is struggling with problems that run far deeper than higher oil prices, the European debt crisis or auto industry slowdown stemming from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

Serious as those problems are, what's crippling the job market and chilling recovery on almost every front is a confluence of factors that economists and business leaders say are fundamentally reshaping the economic landscape in which Americans live and work.

Taken together, these factors have created a vicious circle: Incomes of average families are barely growing, even as many struggle with heavy debts left over from the boom times. That in turn has curbed consumer spending power. And businesses, seeing little chance for a surge in sales, have had little reason to expand — neither hiring more workers nor paying their existing workers more. Read more.......

Faces of Change: Lilly Ledbetter's Equal Pay Story

President Obama knows that when women do better, America does better. That's why he kept his promise to fight for equal pay for an equal work and affordable health care—and won.

No one knows that better than Lilly Ledbetter.

Lilly stood up for equal pay for equal work and she stands by President Obama as he continues the fight for fair pay for all workers. Read more...

Business in America, Glass half empty

PROFITS may be at a record high, but American businessfolk are feeling glum. Some moan that their pipeline-postponing president, Barack Obama, doesn’t understand how business works. Others fret that America itself is becoming dysfunctional. Much of this pessimism is uncalled for, but it matters nonetheless.

A survey published on January 18th offers unsettling detail. Fully 71% of the businesspeople polled expected America’s competitiveness to decline over the next three years. (National competitiveness is a slippery concept: countries do not compete in the same way that firms do. But the businessfolk in question answered some clearer questions, too.) Some 45% said that American firms will find it harder to compete in the global economy. A startling 64% said that American firms will find it harder to pay high wages and benefits. Read more....

Can you hear me now?

The Fed makes its views loud and clear
JAPAN holds the modern record for years spent with interest rates at zero; they were on the floor from 2001 to 2006. America is on track to break that record. Having cut its short-term rate to near zero in late 2008, the Federal Reserve said on January 25th it will probably stay there “at least through late 2014”, more than a year longer than its previous guidance.

On the same day the Fed for the first time published projections of the year individual members of the Federal Open Market Committee, its main policymaking body, expect the federal-funds rate to start rising and the path it would follow over the next three years. The median forecast for a rise in interest rates is 2014 (see chart) but the accompanying statement implies it will probably be later. Read more....

There is Hope for Education in America! Andrew Campanella Tells Us Why

"We can't do this to kids. We are paying far too much money for a public education system that isn't working," says Vice President of National School Choice Week Andrew Campanella.

Everyone knows that the U.S. education system is in trouble. Campanella offers a few words on how school choice week can help with promoting "access to better options and empowering parents and kids."

According to Campanella, the U.S. ranks 35th in the world in math and literacy.
"Other countries are not just nipping at our heels educationally, they've lapped us," Campanella says. Read more....

Health Costs, Regardless of Your Politics

Dr. Emanuel is correct that no Americans, including liberals, can ignore escalating health care costs. Unfortunately, this is exactly what he and the rest of the Obama administration did in passing the Affordable Care Act.

To obtain the cooperation of important stakeholders — the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association and major pharmaceutical companies — in achieving the laudable goal of expanding coverage, our dysfunctional, inefficient and exceedingly expensive system was left intact. Read more....

10 income-paying stocks that beat the crowd

These high-quality names slip under yield-hunters’ radar

Stock investors no longer have doubts about dividends, and that’s reason for some doubt.

Shares of high-quality, cash-rich, large-cap companies that yield more than the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index SPX -0.16% are the new favorites in many portfolios. But many of these success stories have been discovered, boosting share prices and trimming yields.

At this point, investors might do better scouring the S&P 500 for companies that wouldn’t show up on a screen for above-average yielders, but which still enjoy dominant, “wide moat” positions in their business.

“It’s kind of a crowded trade,” said Paul Nolte, managing director at investment firm Dearborn Partners, about the popularity of the high-quality dividend strategy. “Valuations on high-dividend payers are at the upper-end of their historical ranges.” Read more.....

US ECONOMIC COLLAPSE AND SCARY ECONOMIC NUMBERS ! RON PAUL ! OBAMA'S ECONOMIC

U.S. employment growth accelerated last month and the jobless rate dropped to a near three-year low of 8.5 percent, the strongest evidence yet the economic recovery is gaining steam.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 200,000 in December, the Labor Department said on Friday. It was the biggest rise in three months and beat economists' expectations for a 150,000 gain. Read more.....

Rise in number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits rose last week to a seasonally adjusted 377,000, after a nearly four-year low the previous week.

The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications increased 21,000. Applications had plummeted two weeks ago to their lowest level since April 2008. The four week average, a less volatile measure, is down to 377,500.

Applications have trended downward over the past few months. The average has fallen about 9% since Oct. 1. Read more....

Monetary policy,Full speed ahead

THE ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 was launched in 1967 to throngs of excited spectators. Expectations are considerably lower for the Federal Reserve’s launch of monetary QE2: a second round of quantitative easing, the purchase of bonds with newly printed money. Critics have already predicted it will be either ineffectual or dangerous.

Undeterred, the Fed has moved ahead:

To promote a stronger pace of economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate, the Committee decided today to expand its holdings of securities. The Committee will maintain its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its securities holdings. In addition, the Committee intends to purchase a further $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011, a pace of about $75 billion per month. Read more....

Dreams Fading In America And Europe

We announced our belief a few weeks ago that the Fed loan to the ECB could with fractional banking be $10 trillion. This past week we found that Credit Suisse shares our ideas as well. We believe that what this move by the Fed and the ECB is telling us that this is probably it. We also ask again how can the banks in the LTRP repay the funds in a timely manner? No plan has been presented before or since, there is no plan. Again, just throw money at the problem. The only player really capable of saving Europe is Germany and they would destroy themselves in the process. Everyone should have seen this coming but no one did except a handful of insiders. The resultant use of funds since the ECB distribution is hardly even mentioned in the media. It is a big dark secret. Read more.....

Martin Luther King Jr's universal message

Much has transpired in America these past few weeks leading to this annual recognition of Martin Luther King Jr's life. I've cringed as I've listened to one Republican presidential candidate after another diss those struggling financially by saying there is "class envy", that the wealthy are who they are simply because they've worked harder. I had flashbacks to Ronald Reagan and George W Bush when some of these current Republican standard-bearers used thinly veiled racist and classist sentiments to blame, conveniently, blacks and cash-strapped Americans for our nation's deep-rooted social ills.

Since the earliest days of the republic, clergymen have played major roles in American politics. In the years prior to the Civil War, preachers fanned the flames of the abolitionist movement. They were hair shirts. Martin Luther King Jr. was in that tradition. In King's case, it was notable that a minister of the Gospel played such a pre-eminent role in a decade that was as secular, albeit idealistic, as the 1960s. Read more....

how rich is romney

Exactly how much is Mitt Romney worth? Hard to say.

The estimates, even from the candidate and his own campaign, are all over the map. Asked point blank on Wednesday during an interview with Univision, Romney described his net worth in very general terms.

It’s hard for most of us to imagine being worth a few million dollars. That’s serious greenbacks, putting us beyond worry and squarely in the land of comfort. But if we were Mitt Romney, who is worth a quarter-BILLION dollars, that would be chump change.

The answer is that Romney's earning was taxed at a corporate level and then again as it was distributed to him as a capital gains tax. Correspondent John Berman spun the Republican candidate as out of touch: "Mitt Romney earned more than $42 million over the last two years. Earning in a day, roughly, what the median American makes in a year." Read more....

Eurocrisis is a Global Crisis

Leo Panitch: People need to build their own political organizations that push for public banking and serious capital controls.

Only problem is that we don't truly value freedom and education in this country. People don't care about learning and actually knowing things. They just want to get rich quick, stay safe in their cushy $9.00/hr jobs, and/or focus on frivolous things like Jersey Shore or Keeping Up with the Kardashians. We have to find a way to motivate them. Read more...

The Fed's big announcement, Down the slipway

“Quantitative easing” is unloved and unappreciated—but it is working

EVEN before the Federal Reserve unveiled its second round of quantitative easing (QE) on November 3rd, critics had already denounced it as ineffectual or an invitation to inflation. It cannot be both and it may not be either.

The announcement of “QE2” was hardly breathtaking. The Fed said it will buy $600 billion of Treasuries between now and next June, at about $75 billion a month, although it also said it could adjust the amount and timing if need be. That was about what markets expected but far less than the $1.75 trillion of debt it bought between early 2009 and early 2010 in its first round of QE. Yet QE2 seems already to have exceeded the low expectations it has aroused. Since Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Fed, hinted at it at Jackson Hole on August 27th, markets have all done exactly what they should (see chart). Read more....

Average Is Over

In an essay, entitled “Making It in America,” in the latest issue of The Atlantic, the author Adam Davidson relates a joke from cotton country about just how much a modern textile mill has been automated: The average mill has only two employees today, “a man and a dog. The man is there to feed the dog, and the dog is there to keep the man away from the machines.”

Davidson’s article is one of a number of pieces that have recently appeared making the point that the reason we have such stubbornly high unemployment and sagging middle-class incomes today is largely because of the big drop in demand because of the Great Recession, but it is also because of the quantum advances in both globalization and the information technology revolution, which are more rapidly than ever replacing labor with machines or foreign workers. Read more....

Kadima: Last Hope for the Two-State Solution?

Kadima has announced that it will hold primary elections for leader on March 27--about eight weeks from now--in anticipation of an Israeli general election in late 2012 or early 2013. Kadima is the centrist party that supporters of the two-state solution have pinned their hopes on since it was founded in November 2005. Since the June 1992 election that brought Rabin to power, Labor and Meretz have both lost three-fourths of their Knesset representation. But the creation of Kadima, the largest party in the Knesset by one seat, leaves the hope that there is a party that can replace Labor and serve as an anchor for a center-left peace coalition as an alternative to the Right.

Kadima has been a disappointment to many. It has avoided the curse of Israeli centrist parties, which tend to be a collection of defectors from other parties who join together without any coherent ideology and then collapse as pressures mount and personal rivalries flare up. The first of these, Rafi, was founded by Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, as a personal vehicle to pursue a grudge match with the Mapai Old Guard. After three years Rafi, which only won ten seats (out of 120 in the Knesset), minus Ben-Gurion joined with Mapai and Ahdut Ha'Avoda to form the Israel Labor Party. Rafi remained for a while as a faction within Labor led first by Moshe Dayan and then by Shimon Peres. But the three original party factions soon became personal camps of Dayan/Peres versus Yigal Allon/Yitzhak Rabin. 

Next came the Democratic Movement for Change led by Israel's leading archaeologist (and second chief of staff) Yigael Yadin in 1976. It lasted for three years before it split into rival parties. It was composed of a collection of former generals and industrialists from the Labor Party and a protest movement, Shinui, that merged to contest the 1977 election and change the electoral system. It won 15 seats but was unable to prevent Menahem Begin from forming a government without them. When Yadin joined the coalition government a few months later Shinui leader Amnon Rubinstein was upset. By 1979 they had split apart and Yadin retired from politics a broken man in 1981.

The last centrist party before Kadima was entitled The Center Party. It consisted of a number of defectors from the Likud and the former chief of staff Amnon Lipkin Shahak. It was formed in 1998 for the 1999 election. After polling around 15 seats initially it won only seven in the actual election. Within three years it was gone. Its Likud defectors returned to the Likud.

Kadima was founded as a personal vehicle for Ariel Sharon who suffered a major stroke less than two months after it was founded. This left the party in the hands of his deputy Ehud Olmert. Olmert formed a government with the Labor Party in 2006 but within months his public support disappeared due to Israel's poor performance in the Second Lebanon War against Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. In late 2008 the party held a leadership election to replace Olmert who was about to be indicted on corruption charges stemming from his time in the Likud. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni barely beat former chief of staff Shaul Mofaz. 

If Mofaz wins, he is likely to lead Kadima into a coalition with the Likud for a center-right coalition. If he loses in a close election, he could take his supporters into the Likud, or remain as a thorn in the side of Livni. Only if Livni wins decisively will there be a mandate for Kadima to remain as an opposition party.  If she wins in a close election and Mofaz doesn't return to the Likud, she may be under pressure to join the Likud in a coalition in order to avoid Mofaz defecting.

If Livni is successful, only the Palestinian end of the two-state solution is blocked. If she is unsuccessful, both ends will be blocked--the situation before Rabin was elected in 1992. 

Here is a link to a discussion on the future of the two-state solution on the website Bitter Lemons. It doesn't really discuss the internal politics of either Israel or Palestine but merely the policy positions of the two countries.

Your Brain On Psilocybin Might Be Less Depressed : Shots - Health Blog : NPR

Your Brain On Psilocybin Might Be Less Depressed : Shots - Health Blog : NPR

This is an interesting study, although the headline is really premature. The idea of treating depression by depressing the parts that cause depression is pretty intriguing.

Get to Know Newt Gingrich

Tenured CFR Member Newt Gingrich has a record that speaks for itself. Are you listening? Remember the lesser of two evils, is still evil.

The Ron Party is a place for people who believe Ron Paul is the best chance we have to restore constitutionality in America to rally around him under one name that cannot be confused or condemned for being anything other than what it states. The Ron Party is intended to create separation from the Neocon Republican Party and Infiltrated "Tee" Party. We intend to help others see the clear choice to save the Republic by exposing the Establishment and it's tactical control of both political parties. In a sense our mission is to create real choice by driving home the differences between Ron Paul and the Establishment Left Right. Read more....

The Point of No Return

Mr. Paine argues that November 6, 2012 will determine America's future or lack of one.
The point of no return has passed. The electronic voting machine tabulations company was sold to a foreign private company in Spain.

That company SCYTL is the only middleman access point for over 525 jurisdictions in AL, AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, KY, MI, KS, IL, IN, NC, NM, MN, NY, SC, TX, UT, WA. And growing.

With SCYTL, there is no physical evidence, no chain of custody. No way for the public to authenticate who actually cast the votes or the count. Our elections were sold to the highest bidder. Read more....

Is Our Economy Healing?

How goes the state of the union? Well, the state of the economy remains terrible. Three years after President Obama’s inauguration and two and a half years since the official end of the recession, unemployment remains painfully high.

But there are reasons to think that we’re finally on the (slow) road to better times. And we wouldn’t be on that road if Mr. Obama had given in to Republican demands that he slash spending, or the Federal Reserve had given in to Republican demands that it tighten money.

Why am I letting a bit of optimism break through the clouds? Recent economic data have been a bit better, but we’ve already had several false dawns on that front. More important, there’s evidence that the two great problems at the root of our slump — the housing bust and excessive private debt — are finally easing. Read more.....

Why GDP report won’t be sign of what’s in store

Faster fourth-quarter growth unlikely to be matched in first quarter

The economy probably grew at its fastest pace in a year and a half during the fourth quarter, a key U.S. report is expected to show, but the first three months of 2012 probably won’t be as strong.

Gross domestic product for the fourth quarter — the statistics that shows how fast the economy expanded — is the biggest report of the week. Other notable data include consumer confidence, new home sales and orders for durable goods.

The current MarketWatch forecast of economists predicts 3.0% growth in the fourth quarter, well above the third-quarter level of 1.8%. That would be the fastest pace of growth in a year and a half.

A higher fourth-quarter GDP, however, doesn’t mean the economy is ready to soar after several years of mediocre growth. Indeed, the MarketWatch forecast calls for growth to slow to 1.9% in the 2012 first quarter. Read more.....

How the U.S. Economy, Americans Fared in 2011

From the jobless rate to a discouraging housing market and an aggravated lot of indebted college graduates, the year's defining economic stories kept a downbeat theme. Ray Suarez discusses 2011's economic impact with The Atlantic's Don Peck, the University of Pennsylvania's Annette Lareau and The Chicago Sun-Times' Terry Savage. Read more.....

Anger Over Debt And Poor Governance

European politicians, bureaucrats, bankers and assorted other lose more and more credibility each day as we are inundated each day with more lies and deliberate misdirection regarding the course of financial events within the European Union.

The key to solving the debt crisis is Germany. The Greek debt crisis is worse today than it was two years ago. 65% of Germans want out of the euro zone and the euro and want to return to the Deutschemark, but for more than two years their political representatives have denied them that. Finally breaks in the political armor are beginning to appear. All efforts to fix the Greek problem have been futile. If the Federal Reserve hadn't stepped into the breach a couple of weeks ago who could guess where things would be now. Read more.....

Why South Carolina’s unemployment may not matter

Despite 9.9% jobless rate, pockets of strength in Palmetto State

South Carolina is tied for the eighth-highest jobless rate in the country, but many of the Republican voters taking part in the Palmetto State primary will head to the polls from a position of economic strength.
Take the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley metropolitan area, for example. The area’s jobless rate, not seasonally adjusted, was 7.7% in November, compared with a state rate of 9.2%, and a U.S. rate of 8.2%.

“In Greenville there is more of an air of optimism and that things are on the right track locally. People are excited about our local economy and our downtown,” said Knox White, Greenville’s mayor.

“We kind of resent that the national economy is not on track. There are cranes all over downtown. We feel that we are doing our part, and every time we turn around we are fighting headwinds from the national economy – [it] sits there like a black cloud.” Read more.....

Did You Know; Shift Happens - Globalization; Information Age

Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization and The Information Age
America used to be big, but it's gone dreadfully far down on the scale, almost becoming insignificant in terms of the worldwide education system. The world's population of 6 billion is rising at extraordinary amounts each day.
All technology will be outdated at most two years after its released, including what is taught to kids.
More money is put into video games than education. Computation power has gone beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Amazing, in all uses of the word. Read more.....

The Coming Starvation in AMERICA

I just bought a plot for this coming spring at this community garden since I live in an apartment. Cant grow my own things here. I've also been stocking up many non perishables. Nuts, grains, and am learning how to can. Ppl dont believe me when I say this is coming. And they'll be the 1st to be knocking on my door. But I have to look out for me and my babies 1st. Read more....

Welcome To The Third World, Part 4: Boomers Reap What They’ve Sown

It was fun while it lasted. We Baby Boomers got to diss our elders when we were young and borrow without restraint through middle-age. Few generations have traveled such a smooth stretch of financial/psychological highway.

But now that we’re…old…the world we created isn’t so congenial. Our savings are inadequate, jobs are scarce, and retirement, as a result, is out of reach for many of us. We are, in short, reaping what we’ve sown these past four decades. From today’s Wall Street Journal:

Oldest Baby Boomers Face Jobs Bust 
Many older Americans fear they will be working well into their 60s because they didn’t save enough to retire. Millions more wish they were that lucky: Without full-time jobs, they are short of money and afraid of what lies ahead. Read more.....

U.S. Dollar Collapse 2012

Devolution of the USD 2012? - As the first public article for me just before 2010, it seems appropriate for me to comment on one of the biggest stories we will be all facing – that is an end game of events leading to the end of the USD. The implications for the world are no less than Armageddon – like. I mean it.

Before we get into some details, I have been working on forecasts for 2010, and my study of the USD situation and how much time it has left.

I first came to the conclusion that it was roughly (and I am getting close here on timing, I’m sure of this) two years from 2010. Actually, the calculation is two more years of relative USD functionality before the world realizes in about a shocking week’s time that the USD is just about to really go belly up. It’s not 5 years out anymore in my calculations, we have roughly two more years left. Read more.....

G4T 2012 Update & the 100 Million Dollar Question

Thanks for checking out this video! we started this blog as a way to talk with other people about the economy. It has grown to a huge community of people interested in the same things as we, freedom, family, health and travel. we've been featured on Fox News, NBC,RT, Al Jazeera, French TV and many others. If you would like to see more "on the ground" leave the comment below. Read more....

Understanding PIPA / SOPA & Why You Should Be Concerned

Most everyone has noticed the wide swath of internet websites that have been blacked out in protest of the pending PIPA / SOPA legislation in congress, but not as many people understand exactly why those bills are such a problem.

This short documentary explores PIPA and SOPA, how the bills work, who's behind them, and why all internet users have reason to be concerned.

The fight to prevent online censorship in the U.S. is far from over. While SOPA's future seems increasingly bleak, PIPA has not been pulled from consideration in the senate, where it will be up for a vote later this month.

It is important to understand that PIPA has the same fundamental problems of SOPA. It is NOT a compromise bill; at this point, it is little more than a legislative strategy to abandon the SOPA branding in favor of PIPA. Read more.....

As Deflation Fears Rise, Boosting Exports Is Key to U.S. Recovery

Ways to avoid a painful Japan-like deflationary spiral are gripping investors and policymakers alike following Friday's disappointing jobs report. And what more the Fed can do with maneuvers such as quantitative easing remains a big question.

Last ditch measures to avoid turning Japanese get all the attention. But the truest gauge of the U.S. turning the corner might be if it is turning German instead. Banking more on sectors like manufacturing to tap into surging global demand, as Germany is already doing, rather then finding ways to artificially prop up demand is the way to recovery over the long haul. Read more.....

The Economic Collapse is Accelerating

My views on the accelerating economic collapse in both the U.S. and Europe. I discuss the power elite using a corrupt political system to attack constitutional rights, criminal bankers stealing from taxpayers, the hopelessness of many unemployment, the destructive war on drugs and much more. Read more......

GOP: "Unemployment Benefits Encourage People Not To Work" ...LIES

A recent study has found that those eligible for federal unemployment benefits are MORE likely to search for a job than those who are ineligible for unemployment benefits.

I suppose all those 11.5% of veterans who are unemployed are lazy too. You know? The guys the cons are always riding on the backs of, saying they support so much. The ones with the 60-80% dropout rate when they attempt to use their post 9/11 G.I. bill. Must just be because they're lazy. Yes. That is not an oversimplification at all. Read more....

Small Business and Marketing [Infographic]

What’s your small business SEO strategy? If you’re like the many small business owners, you may be wondering how you can leverage the power of social media and online marketing to get ahead. In fact, only about 27 percent of small businesses have a current SEO plan, and when you combine that surprisingly low figure with fact that only about 40 percent of marketers are using mobile marketing tactics, it’s easy to see how sound search engine optimization practices could help you get a leg up on the competition.

Small business owners are an incredibly diverse group of people who know a lot about their chosen fields. Slightly less than half of all small businesses have more than one owner, and sixty percent of small business owners have worked in their industry for more than 20 years. That’s a lot of total combined experience. These owners are always looking for new ways to connect to their customers and clients and grow their businesses. Read more....

The DUP Moves to Consolidate

Two items of recent interest in Northern Ireland. First, the DUP and Sinn Fein got together and agreed to abolish the one department controlled by Alliance in the Executive, as of right. Presently Alliance controls two departments, Employment and Learning (DEL) and Justice, with the first being on the basis of the d'Hondt distribution and the second because when Justice was devolved to Northern Ireland the Big Two could only trust giving it to Alliance. Employment and Learning has been divided between two other departments (Education, probably Regional Development). Both the UUP and the SDLP only have a single ministry and they both have many more Assembly members (MLAs) and councillors than Alliance.

Now Justice Minister and Alliance leader David Ford is seeking a guarantee from the Big Two that his ministry will remain in Alliance hands for the remainder of this Assembly's life. This may seem like he is going a tad too far. But it should be remembered that the first time that Alliance was in a power-sharing government, back in 1974, the DUP and the Shinners--or rather the armed wing of the Republican Movement (as the Republicans refer to it or SF/IRA as the unionists refer to it)-- de facto colluded to bring down that government. The IRA went on a bombing offensive and the three main unionist parties cooperated with the Loyalist Association of Workers to bring down the government through a general strike. Former UUP leaderDavid Trimble and his former IRA advisor Sean O'Callaghan used to reminisce about how they both operated against the power-sharing government of 1974. So it may be natural on Ford's part to doubt the veracity and good intentions of the Big Two.

DUP leader Peter Robinson, fresh from pacifying the UUP over Alliance's disproportionate share of the Executive, has now called for unionist unity. As I see it, the UUP has basically two choices: either quit the Executive and go into a vigorous opposition with the SDLP that gives the voters a real alternative to the Big Two or negotiate the best terms possible for a merger. But don't expect Tom Elliot and present leadership of the UUP to get a good deal now. The best prizes were handed out to the UUPers who defected from Trimble's leadership in 2000 led by Jeffrey Donaldson. The UUP is today in the same position that the DUP was in under the leadership of Ian Paisley in the 1970s. Except that Paisley had his Free Presbyterian Church to fall back upon both as alternative employment and as an irreducible membership base for his party. The UUP has no similar base. It could join with the tiny Conservative Party, but that was already tried and failed. 

How much is 23% savings worth to Americans?

Jon Stewart sheds light on our willingness to make others suffer for our greed.

they are paid 31cents an hour and you're talking about them somehow getting access to medical rofl. 12 years for even talking about unions, hilarious. This is so much worse than 1920 in that this is not 1920, this is *** 2012. The world isn't some segregated place, 31cents an hour in a global economy essentially enslaves you.

59billion dollars for Foxconn in 08 in revenue, I'm sure it all went into costs and R&D and not into the pockets of the communists eh?

It's a good thing we've moved so far past slavery in America. Now they just ship our jobs to places that do. I guess that way the scavengers in charge of these corporations don't have to see it and if you can't see it it's not real. This is hilarious. Read more....

Newt Gingrich to Juan Williams: Americans Want Paychecks, Not Foodstamps

At the Fox News Debate in Myrtle Beach, SC, Newt gets the only standing ovation of the night for defending the work ethic and saying "only the elites despise earning money." Read more......

Stressed at work? How to rekindle job satisfaction

Your workload has increased, so have your boss’s expectations. But scaling back could mean losing your job.

Paul Baard, an organizational and motivational psychologist at Fordham University’s graduate business school in New York, knows just how stressful a work environment can get. He has consulted for athletes in the high-stakes, high-pressure world of professional sports.

What secret has he passed along to those clients? When you’re in a slump, you can still contribute by encouraging your teammates.

Rather than burdening a team with distracting self-doubt and pity, try to help others, he said. “In order to remain self-motivated, research has found that the innate psychological need for competence must be satisfied,” Baard said. “This drive pertains not only to the ability to do a job but to achieve something through it — to have impact, to contribute. A way an employee can expand opportunities to satisfy this need is to help her team succeed by encouraging others, even if her direct contributions are limited.”

Age, occupation and family circumstances, among other factors, can all play a part in how workers respond to different stressors. But experts say there are steps that can help you take control of your happiness at work.

1. Find meaning in your tasks

Commitment to a goal beyond self-promotion can help a worker manage stress levels, said John Weaver, a psychologist at Psychology For Business, a Brookfield, Wis.-based employment consultancy. Read more....

Need food stamps in Florida? Prepare to be drug tested

If you find yourself falling on hard times in Florida and need to apply for food assistance, you’d better be prepared to pee in a cup. Gov. Scott on Tuesday signed a law requiring drug testing of welfare recipients.
The Scott campaign website (which is now run by the Republican Party of Florida) posted a statement from Scott boasting about the bill signing, calling it a “promise kept”:

Today, I signed HB 353, keeping my promise to require drug screening for welfare recipients.
The bill is designed to increase personal accountability and prevent Florida’s tax dollars from subsidizing drug addiction, while still providing for needy children. Parents failing the required drug test may designate another individual to receive the benefits on behalf of the children. Read more....

DEBT LIMIT - A GUIDE TO AMERICAN FEDERAL DEBT MADE EASY

A satirical short film taking a look at the national debt and how it applies to just one family. Starring Brian Stepanek & Eddie Jemison, Produced by Seth William Meier, DP/Edited by Craig Evans, 1st AC Brian Andrews, Sound Mixer Gus Salazar, Written and Directed by Brian Stepanek. Read more....

$1.2 Billion 'Missing' - Fmr Senator Corzine & MF Global

Former Democratic Governor and Senator of New Jersey Jon Corzine testified in front of Congress regarding 1.2 billion dollars of customer money that was lost when he was the CEO of MF Global. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

It's scary to have this feeling that World War 3 is close. The US are run by greedy bastards who lie, cheat and steal and are burying themselves in the ground and I wouldn't be surprised if North Korea/China made their move sooner than later in a war for land/resources. Read more.....

Strong Conflict Between Rich And Poor - Pew Survey

"A new Pew Research Center survey of 2,048 adults finds that about two-thirds of the public (66%) believes there are "very strong" or "strong" conflicts between the rich and the poor—an increase of 19 percentage points since 2009...".* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

This report is based on findings from a Pew Research Center telephone survey conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,048 adults ages 18 and older living in the continental United States, including an oversample of 808 adults ages 18 to 34. A total of 769 interviews were completed with respondents contacted by landline telephone and 1,279 with those contacted on their cellular phone. The data are weighted to produce a final sample that is representative of the general population of adults in the continental United States. Survey interviews were conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International, in English and Spanish.

• Interviews conducted December 6-19, 2011 
• 2,048 interviews 
• Margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points for results based on the total sample and 4.4 percentage points for adults ages 18 to 34 at the 95% confidence level. Read more....

People quietly moving their money and themselves out of the US

Could you imagine paying someone to lend him money? In a normal world...if I lend you money, I want something in return. It costs money to borrow money. Can you imagine a world where I'm so desperate to lend you money that I'm willing to pay you to do it? That's the paranormal world we're living in today. Pretty unbelievable, but now it's just happened in Germany. The government auctioned off 2.9 billion euros in six-month notes.

The yields were negative. The investors paid the government to lend them their own money. This in the era of the eurozone debt crisis where people appear more concerned with the return of their money than a return on their money. But in the US, we've gotten used to this right? With the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates near zero...for speculators that means free money to go speculate...for savers, that's meant losing money to inflation as it sits in the bank.

Or if you're loaning the US government money, the interest rates have been so low, again, you're losing money to inflation. Add to this, uncertainty over bankruptcies of insolvent banks, the staggering 15 trillion dollar US debt, a government with no credible plan to tackle it, and bills signed into law that allow indefinite military detention of American citizens, and that's why a lot of the investors we talk to tell us, behind the scenes that they are looking to get the heck out of dodge. Read more....

Many Americans gave up hope last year – 2012 will be worse

The chance of realising the American dream is receding for millions as jobs are lost, savings run out and houses are repossessed.

The year 2011 will be remembered as the time when many ever-optimistic Americans began to give up hope. President John F Kennedy once said that a rising tide lifts all boats. But now, in the receding tide, Americans are beginning to see not only that those with taller masts had been lifted far higher, but also that many of the smaller boats had been dashed to pieces in their wake.

In that brief moment when the tide was indeed rising, millions of people believed that they might have a fair chance of realising the "American Dream". Now those dreams, too, are receding. By 2011, the savings of those who had lost their jobs in 2008 or 2009 had been spent. Unemployment cheques had run out. Headlines announcing new hiring – still not enough to keep pace with the number of those who would normally have entered the labour force – meant little to the 50-year-olds with little hope of ever holding a job again. Read more.....

Homeless Interview: Interview with a homeless husband and wife living on the streets of Los Angeles

For every homeless person on the streets there is an ENTIRE family of relatives that chooses not to help them. Where the hell are these peoples children? Nephews, neices? Grand kids? Of course orphans are an exception because they typically don't have a family.

I consider these folks real American hero's. It's not easy to go through life just surviving. Life on the streets regardless of how you think it may be, is worse. To have survived this long, and still be as mentally sharp as he clearly is is a feat in and of itself. He's very well spoken and I hope people listen to his story and help not just him and his wife but many, many others. Read more....

The cause of this recession? Economic pundits ignoring history's voice

As long as factional interests like bankers or economists override common sense, there will be another crash
The Queen, reported the Daily Mail, was wearing a speckled cream suit and matching hat. Her Majesty was at the London School of Economics, listening to a professor, Luis Garicano, talk about the credit crunch. "It's awful," she said suddenly. "Why did nobody see it coming?"

For three years I have pondered the Queen's question, and the answer. (LSE was institutionally flummoxed; a year later, it gave her a waffly reply, that "everyone thought they were doing the right thing," and that "wishful thinking was combined with hubris".) It resurfaced last Tuesday with the publication of the Financial Services Authority report into its own conduct of the 2008 collapse of RBS and the attendant chaos. It is like expecting the Cosa Nostra to investigate the mafia. We are all sinners, ruminated the FSA, and need forgiveness, but no one was really to blame. It is a rough old world. Read more.....

How the Recession Changed Young People’s Attitudes About Money

Everyone knows someone who grew up during the Great Depression, and as a result, eats green beans out of the can and sews up holes in socks.

The recently released Charles Schwab 2011 Teens & Money Survey (PDF) suggests that, in some small way, the recession may have instilled a similarly conscious attitude about money in young people who lived through (or are living through, as 80% of teens surveyed did not feel that the recession was over as of late February and early March of this year) The Great Recession. Some highlights from the data, which comes from an online survey of 1,132 American teens between the ages of 16-18:

“93% say their family was impacted by the recession (55% say ‘a little’ and 38% say ‘a lot’).”
“64% say they are more grateful now for what they have.”
“58% say they are less likely to ask for things they want.”
“73% say it’s important to have enough emergency savings in case times get tough.”
“77% describe themselves as “super savers,” and only 23% say they’re “big spenders.” Read more...

Small Business Optimism Continues To Rise

Small business optimism is on the rise, according to a survey of 725 small businesses by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

The NFIB small-business optimism index rose 1.8 points to 93.8 in December, continuing a four month upward trend and indicating the upward momentum may continue into 2012. However, even with the increases, NFIB points out the index's readings are still in "recession territory."

Several positive factors emerged in the December survey, including a 6 point increase in reports of positive earnings and a 2 point increase of those reporting higher profits. Still, fourth quarter sales did not meet expectations, only gaining 4 points to a net negative 7 percent, which indicated that there are still more businesses with decreasing than increasing sales. In the survey, 23 percent of owners indicated that weak sales was their top business problem. Read more....

Boomers Who Start Businesses: The Next Great Generation Of Entrepreneurs

Don’t be fooled by baby-faced Mark Zuckerberg: Contrary to popular opinion, 20-somethings aren’t the only ones responsible for successful startups these days. Sure, we may be obsessed with youth, but don’t forget, it’s also wasted on the young, which is why a growing number of people are starting businesses in their 50s, 60s and even 70s. For baby boomers, with newfound free time and either financial freedom or financial insecurity on their hands, the entrepreneurial path has become more appealing, more viable and more rewarding.

“When people become middle-aged, they have experience, knowledge, savings — they just have this fire in the belly to create something, to make it big before they retired,” says Vivek Wadhwa, an academic, writer and entrepreneur. “They worry if they don’t start something now, they’ll be left out, so they take the plunge.” Read more.....