THE ECONOMY & YOU # (Daily Updated Videos & Articles)

Financial Manipulation: How the Commodity Futures Markets Impoverish Indian Farmers
By Kavaljit Singh
October 10, 2012

Thousands of guar farmers in India are today caught in a vicious cycle fuelled by the spectacular rise in the prices of guar seed and guar gum products during the six months period between October 2011 and March 2012.

The prices of guar seed (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) and guar gum (extracted from guar seed) rose over 900 percent in the futures markets during this period largely due to speculative buying (coupled with market manipulation through circular trading, cross deals and other market abusive practices) by big traders and non-commercial players. The rally in the prices came to an end when Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the commodity derivatives market regulator, suspended the guar futures trading on March 27, 2012. For a detailed account of speculative feeding frenzy and price rigging practices in guar futures contracts, see Excessive Speculation and Market Manipulation: The Guar Futures Trading Fiasco.

Last year, the guar farmers did not benefit from the price hike as they had sold their produce several weeks before prices began spiraling upward in the commodity futures markets in late October 2011.

The Euphoria
Anticipating a similar price hike this year, thousands of farmers in Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab shifted to guar cultivation. Such was the euphoria of last year unprecedented price boom that several farmers in far away states and different agro-climatic regions (such as Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh) also shifted to guar cultivation. Many guar farmers took short-term loans (with higher interest rates) from local moneylenders and financiers to buy seeds at much higher prices than last year. “For the first time, we cultivated guar on all 125 acres of family landholding with the hope of benefitting from higher prices,” said Surendra Kumar Chaudhary, a big farmer from Khajuwala tehsil of Bikaner district (Rajasthan). “We were encouraged by traders, seed companies, processing units and local government officials to go full swing into guar cultivation and reap the benefits from higher prices.” In early 2012, some guar gum processing units in Rajasthan even promised to buy the entire crop at a higher support price.

CONTINUE: [link to www.globalresearch.ca]

Wealth consolidation by any means, is a function of capitalism. Even were the Roman Catholic church to operate the global capitalist system with their saintly rules, these rules would invariably make way for consolidation. We, when we are wealthy, cannot help,ourselves as we continually seek more and more.

Nigel Farage: 'Bailouts' are a means for total subjugation of nation states

One Chart Explains Why Government Debt Is Dragging on the Economy
Dan Steinhart, Managing Editor
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Casey Research

The US has too much debt. This is no longer a controversial statement. Some may believe other problems are more urgent, or that we need to grow our way out rather than slash spending. But even the most spendthrift pundits acknowledge that the debt-to-GDP ratio of the US must decrease if we are to have a stable, prosperous economy.

The private sector has reacted to this over-indebted reality as you would expect: by deleveraging. Since 2008, households and businesses have extinguished of 67% of their debt when measured against GDP. Some paid debt down purposefully, and others defaulted. For our purposes, it doesn't matter how the debt went away. Only that it did.

Meanwhile, the government has done the exact opposite. It has upped its own borrowing by 52% of GDP since 2008.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

Is The World Abandoning The U.S. Economy?
Brandon Smith, Contributor
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Activist Post

Go to any university, any center of equities trade, any meeting place for financial academia, any fiscal think tank, and they will tell you without the slightest hint of doubt in their eyes that the U.S. economy is essential to the survival of the world.

To even broach the possibility that the U.S. could be dropped or replaced as the central pillar of trade on the planet is greeted with sneers and even anger. But let’s set aside what we think (or what we assume) we know about the American financial juggernaut and consider the sordid history of the money powerhouse myth.

Germany, especially in the decade leading up to WWI, was an industrial giant, rivaling Britain in the production of raw commodities like steel, as well as the banking envy of the world. I’m sure very few economists of the era would have given any credence to the idea that the German foundation would in the near future collapse into hyperinflationary ruin. However, that is exactly what it did. In the span of 10 to 15 years, Germany was completely supplanted as the shining beacon of economic prosperity, never to return to a similar glory.

The British Empire from WWII up until the late 1950s was the primary force in the global trade of oil, and the pound-sterling was dominant in the export and import of raw petroleum between nations. Extreme debt obligations and draining interventions in the Middle East set Britain on the path to currency devaluation, and the loss of its coveted reserve status.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

A Second Greek Man Has Been Found Dead Since The Emergence Of 'The Lagarde List'
Matthew Boesler
Oct. 8, 2012

The so-called "Lagarde List" – the name given by the Greek press to a list containing 1,991 names of wealthy, Swiss-bank-account-possessing Greeks who are being investigated for corruption and tax evasion – is causing a major stir in Greece right now.

Since Friday, two men suspected to be on the list have turned up dead in apparent suicides.

Here is what has happened in the past few days.

Last Tuesday, October 3, the "Lagarde List" was passed to Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras from PASOK party leader and former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos.

Read more: [link to www.businessinsider.com]

Technocratic Control Over Greek Gold is Reason For Destruction of Economy
Susanne Posel, Contributor
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Activist Post

Last week, gold fell below $1,700 an ounce. This prompted caution in the metals markets as the Federal Reserve Bank continues its purchases of the mortgage-backed securities. The mainstream media touts this act as an attempt to stimulate the American economy; however, it is nothing less than a land-grab by the technocrats.

Overseas, Germany’s central bank has neglected to audit the country’s estimated 3,400 tons of gold reserves. This resource would be desirable to the technocrats at this critical time – when they are endeavoring to implode fiat currencies in the Euro Zone. Those gold stores are in the hands of the Federal Reserve headed by Ben Bernanke.

It is supposed that the same 3,400 tons of gold (valued at an estimated $190 billion) is currently in the possession of the central bankers in the US, France and England; assuming that this gold is the same gold that was stored at the end of the Cold War.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

Lagarde List: 'EU clientalism protects the powerful'
The Greek government is now being accused of failing to go after tax dodgers. A journalist who published a list of the country's political and business elite who have Swiss bank accounts now faces a trial after being arrested. For more on the story RT's joined by George Katroungalos, attorney and professor of constitutional law.
Source: [link to www.youtube.com]

George Soros Schemes To Control The Future Of Greece
James Smith, Contributor
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Activist Post

George Soros discusses the new social initiative of his foundation to create a new atmosphere of solidarity in Greece and help to alleviate the rising tensions in the country.

Soros, a Hungarian-American business magnate, is the chairman of Soros Fund Management and supports progressive-liberal causes. He is known as “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England”.

The Berggruen Institute on Governance is under the direction of Nicolas Berggruen, a jet-setting billionaire who is working tirelessly to bring about the Progressive Movement into the mainstream, to destroy the very fabric of independence and liberty.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

European Commission Single Supervisory Mechanism
James Hall, Contributor
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Activist Post

The lack of enthusiasm for the latest effort to centralize all banking and monitory regulation within the European Central Bank suggests that the surreal struggle for continental unanimity still resides in the minds of banksters. Elites still seek to perfect the class distinguish of century-old traditions, into a modern version of feudal serfdom. Globalism is the brainchild of the cabal of international banking.

As long as a financial monopoly dominates political institutions, the end result will be more consolidation of the rule of the House of Rothschild.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

UK Parliament Votes Down Increased Funding to EU
Nov. 1, 2012

Money Laundering and Offshore Fraud for the Rich, Economic Austerity for the Poor
By Julie Lévesque
November 02, 2012

Offshore banking is the elephant in the global economic room which the political and financial elite is trying to hide from the public view. While imposing austerity measures on hard working citizens, they are well aware that astronomical amounts of money are secretly held in offshore banks, thus lost in taxes. Where is that money from? What is it for?

Drug cartels, fraud, tax evasion and money laundering are common answers to those questions. Despite this reality and even in this era of fiscal austerity, the question world leaders avoid is: why is secret banking still allowed? Are they capable of putting a term to it but unwilling to do it because of the benefits it provides? Clearly.

Every once in a while a robber baron will serve as a scapegoat to give a pale illusion of justice to the common man. Although they deserve to be penalized, the corrupt banking system which allowed them to operate remains inviolate and its flaws are never questioned. Offshore banking is not a parallel banking structure. It is at the heart of the banking system. All major banks have offshore subsidiaries.

R. Allen Stanford is one of the white collar criminals serving time for running a “massive Ponzi scheme camouflaged as a bank [Stanford International Bank (SIB)] that sold some $7 billion in self-styled ‘certificates of deposit’ and $1.2 billion in mutual funds”:

CONTINUE: [link to www.globalresearch.ca]

Last Edited by RoXY on 11/03/2012 12:05 PM

U.S. Economy: Predicting Protracted Hard Times
By Stephen Lendman
November 01, 2012
SteveLendmanBlog

It works the same way every time. Bad policies assure bad results. Prioritizing short-term profits jeopardizes long-term gains.

Force-fed austerity when stimulus is needed is madness. So is harming economies, communities, and ordinary people to save banks.

Chickens eventually come home to roost. We’ll know when they arrive. Perhaps it’ll be sooner than imagined.

Money power in private hands assures it. The Fed and other major central banks bear full responsibility for monetary madness.

The late Bob Chapman warned about easy money, market manipulation, reckless speculation, counterproductive fixes, and unsustainable debt causing today’s crisis.

He predicted an eventual house of cards collapse. Only its timing remained uncertain. He’s not around to see what won’t be pleasant when it arrives.

It’s too early to know for sure, but monetizing debt/excess money printing may have hit a wall. One economist suggests Bernanke can’t do much more in the mortgage market.

CONTINUE: [link to www.globalresearch.ca]

Trick or Treat Jobs Report: Towards a Protracted Great Depression. Nearly 25 million Americans jobless.
By Stephen Lendman
November 03, 2012

Friday’s headline number belies dire economic reality. Main Street’s in protracted Depression. Nearly 25 million Americans are jobless.

Real unemployment approaches 23%. On November 6, Americans vote. Neither candidate proposed ways to create jobs. Obama’s done more to destroy them than create them.

Hours worked and income gains were missing in Friday’s report. Average weekly hours for production and non-supervisory workers declined 0.3%. Weekly manufacturing hours dropped by the same amount. So did average weekly earnings.

Aggregate weekly hours represents total labor input. It edged up a meager 0.1% for private sectors workers. At the same time, it fell that amount for production and non-supervisory ones. Doing so shows weakness, not strength.

Unemployment duration rose to 40.2 weeks. It represents a 10-month high. Moreover, recently laid off workers are hard-pressed to find jobs. Hardest hit are African Americans, Latinos and 20 – 24 year olds.

Sandy’s impact is also adverse. Expect income and spending to suffer. So will job creation. Most affected homeowners have no flood insurance. During hard times, their ability to rebuild and recoup is hampered.

One economist assessed conditions this way. Don’t mistake headline jobs figures for economic health. Productivity, top and bottom line erosion signify decline, not growth.

CONTINUE: [link to www.globalresearch.ca]

New Turn in the Euro Zone Financial Crisis
By Nick Beams
November 03, 2012

The eurozone financial crisis is set to deepen following this week’s release of debt projections for the Greek economy. Budget estimates show that instead of peaking at 167 percent of gross domestic product, as predicted last March when the so-called bailout package was put in place, the debt ratio will hit 189 percent this year, rising to 192 percent in 2014 — well above the worst case scenarios of just eight months ago.

With the Greek government expected to effectively run out of money by November 16, the eurozone crisis is certain to be a major issue at the G-20 finance ministers’ meeting beginning in Mexico City on Sunday. The German government’s refusal to make available any more money means that threat of a Greek default and a full-blown financial breakdown is back on the agenda.

On the eve of the meeting, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble insisted that Greece and other highly-indebted members of the eurozone had to continue with austerity programs. In a bid to deflect criticism from other major powers, he said the G-20 should not focus exclusively on the eurozone but should direct attention to the “fiscal cliff” in the US — the massive spending cuts to be initiated after the presidential election — and the mounting debt problems in Japan. “The United States and Japan bear as great a responsibility for (ensuring stability) as we Europeans,” he stated.

The latest figures establish that the austerity program of the “troika” — the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — has created an economic catastrophe, the like of which has not been seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Greek gross domestic product has fallen by a cumulative 21.5 percent since its peak in 2007 and is expected to decline by a further 4.5 percent next year. Such is the extent of the economic contraction that total government revenue from all sources will not even cover the interest rate payments on international loans. If any further “aid” is forthcoming or loan terms are extended, it will be designed to ensure the continued flow of funds to international lenders, but will not alleviate the economic situation in Greece.

The Greek catastrophe is only the sharpest expression of a crisis that is spreading through the eurozone.

CONTINUE: [link to www.globalresearch.ca]

Hey guy's are you watching the Canadian housing crash...

its gonna be spectacular here... never mind toronto
check out the mess in vancouver...

canadians have all their wealth(80-90%) tied up in their properties. That they have leveraged to the max 167+% of GDP

2 years of product in the market here to choose from, stuff selling below the assessed value, condo's in the dump...

and we said it could not happen here...

smug little canadians...

the banks here have a $trillion dollars of government/taxpayer backed mortgage guarantees...

watch the detonation of municiple budgets that were built on escalating faked property values... we had 18 months of zero down 40 year mortgages on million dollar properties. we have 5 year renewals here... sub-primed to the wall... purchase costs 11-14 times yearly wages.... $10.00hr wage jobs everywhere, nothing that isn't taxpayer subsidized going on... that will buy a taxpayer guaranteed million dollar home, and pay for it
... Yah right

You should smell the fear here...

... it really is different here now...

... stupid smug entitled little yuppies about to get their face wiped with shit... as they realize their not richer than you think...
We are all Greeks now, just most are to stupid to realize it.
I'llprobably get shot by a bunch of angry entitled property owners for saying this.
They believe themselves immune, after all we bought wisely, they are smart they tell me. They have all borrowed money against their homes claimed value...
I spent 2 1/2 year's figuring out how they evaluate property tax assessments here... YIKES what a ponzi the real estate government here has created with their fake( outright counterfeit) ASSessment docs.
People here take that value as Absolute... after all they paid taxes on it didn't they...
I like your thread...

And finally, last month canada lost some 11,000 jobs in the private market but added some 88,000 in the public sector.. employment is as a result up... not!

Silver

position...
...self supporting Commie business man. no tax subsidies. only bums take those...
...bought at 300,000, and seems I am going to sell for a cool mill+ today. and will re-buy for 300 or less. I have a property in mind. Time to take profit and run.

Last Edited by .9999 Silver on 11/05/2012 12:55 PM

Poverty in Ontario. Collapse of the Welfare State
By Socialist Project
November 04, 2012

Brighter Prospects – For Cheap Labour

OCAP Statement on the Report of the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance in Ontario

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)

Over the last eighteen years, people on social assistance in Ontario have seen their real income levels fall by 56 per cent. For the last nine years, the Liberal Government of Dalton McGunity, while actually pushing people deeper into poverty, has continued a sham consultation process around “poverty reduction.” Recently, a Commission established by the Liberals issued a report on the “reform” of social assistance. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) responded with this statement in which it argues that the report is a blueprint for forcing the poor into low waged jobs and pushing down wages for those presently employed.

Brighter Prospects is the spin doctored title of the long anticipated report on social assistance prepared for the Liberal Government by Frances Lankin and Munir A. Sheikh. For some nine years, the Liberals have talked “poverty reduction” while actually making people poorer and the release of this report is the crowning moment of this long process. As the Liberals prepare to intensify their agenda of social cutbacks and attacks on public sector workers, this report offers them three useful forms of assistance.

CONTINUE: [link to www.globalresearch.ca]

It’s the Interest, Stupid! Why Bankers Rule the World
By Ellen Brown
November 08, 2012

In the 2012 edition of Occupy Money released last week, Professor Margrit Kennedy writes that a stunning 35% to 40% of everything we buy goes to interest. This interest goes to bankers, financiers, and bondholders, who take a 35% to 40% cut of our GDP. That helps explain how wealth is systematically transferred from Main Street to Wall Street. The rich get progressively richer at the expense of the poor, not just because of “Wall Street greed” but because of the inexorable mathematics of our private banking system.

This hidden tribute to the banks will come as a surprise to most people, who think that if they pay their credit card bills on time and don’t take out loans, they aren’t paying interest. This, says Dr. Kennedy, is not true. Tradesmen, suppliers, wholesalers and retailers all along the chain of production rely on credit to pay their bills. They must pay for labor and materials before they have a product to sell and before the end buyer pays for the product 90 days later. Each supplier in the chain adds interest to its production costs, which are passed on to the ultimate consumer. Dr. Kennedy cites interest charges ranging from 12% for garbage collection, to 38% for drinking water to, 77% for rent in public housing in her native Germany.

CONTINUE: [link to www.globalresearch.ca]

This is what Marx termed as surplus value. In other words, your transactional contribution along the chain of exchange which, if you live by the sweat of your brow is your labour, small business or worker, is what you share with the owner of the capital which is ultimately facilitating this exchange. This cannot be avoided in any system that has matured beyond mercantilism in the use of capital, i.e. capitalism. Trying to render capitalism pure, libertarian or green cannot alter the inexorable drive of this dynamic and its urge to globalise.

There is almost an element of wizardry to the process which lies in social economy with a strong emphasis on its cultural heart, Anglo-Saxon law. Which is why I consistently maintain that the position of the centres of capitalism, London and NY will always be at the forefront of this global system. These are natural objective processes and a function of the system we reside under. They are not the product of evil men, Lucifer, Illuminati, Reptilian aliens and other such nonsense. They are a function of our economic age.

Living and Dying in the Global Economy - Oil paintings examining the daily existence of people in the worst working, living (and dying) conditions in the global economy.
By Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
November 11, 2012

Making Cents: Life Below the Bottom Rung
A series of oil paintings examining the daily existence of people in the worst working, living (and dying) conditions in the global economy.

Tolerance slides easily towards indifference, as the efficiency of the economy becomes the only shared commitment. Similarly, compromise turns readily into complacency, when the familiar seems safer than the unknown. ‘Neutrality’, it often turns out, is not neutral at all, but sides with the way things are to avoid the dissension that might lead to change for the better. Consensus, then, may come into conflict with justice. (Catherine Belsey Poststructuralism)

CONTINUE: [link to www.globalresearch.ca]

Post-Election Firings and Layoffs Surge
November 10th, 2012

The victory by Barack Obama on election night has resulted in a huge wave of firings and layoffs all over America. A large number of businesses seem to have suddenly shifted into panic mode. The number of layoff announcements that we have seen in the last 48 hours has been absolutely shocking. So why is this happening? Well, the truth is that the federal government is absolutely suffocating small businesses all over America with rules, regulations and taxes. If you have never tried to run a small business, then you have no idea how oppressive this system actually is for people that are trying to run small businesses successfully. It has steadily gotten worse over the years no matter who has been in the White House and no matter who has controlled Congress. So we shouldn’t put 100% of the blame on Obama. Bush massively expanded government and made things harder on small business people too. But what many small business people were looking for on this election day was just a little bit of help. Many were desperately holding out hope that Obamacare would be repealed so that they would not have to get rid of some of their employees. Many were hoping to get a little bit of relief from the crippling regulations and taxes that are absolutely crushing them. But now that Barack Obama has been given another four years, they understand that there is no hope on the horizon and that things are only going to get worse. So they are making the hard decisions that they feel are necessary in order to survive in this economic environment.

Read more at [link to marketdailynews.com]

The Economic Illusion Laid Bare
Dan and Sheila Gendron, Contributors
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Activist Post

If you are waiting for the economic collapse, you're too late – it's already happened. And it's TWCTM (Those Who Control the Money) who did it. They pulled the rug right out from under themselves. We are living in a world of complete economic fantasy, using numbers that are unfathomable, unconscionable, and un-repayable.

Those of you who already know this, bear with me for the sake of those who don't; but here's a quick primer on big-picture economics in the United States: Congress tells the Treasury that it needs some amount of money. The treasury asks the Federal Reserve Bank (“the Fed” – a privately held company, not a U.S. Government agency) to print/issue an amount of money. The Treasury issues Treasury Notes (a.k.a. T-Bills) to cover that amount of money and these Notes are sold to other countries who are, in effect, loaning us that money until the maturity date of the note. (Lately, though, other countries are less than enthusiastically buying up our T-bills. The biggest purchaser is now the Fed, themselves.)

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]