Wholesale Prices Jump in January - Confidence plunges, inflation rate soars

Thanks Bernanke and the Criminal US Government.

Wholesale Prices Jump in January
Tuesday February 26, 12:30 pm ET
By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer Higher Costs for Food, Energy and Medicine Push Wholesale Prices Up Sharply

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Battered by bad economic news, consumer confidence plunged while wholesale food, energy and medicine costs soared, pushing inflation up at the fastest pace in a quarter century.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that wholesale inflation jumped by 1 percent in January, more than double the increase that analysts had been expecting.

Meanwhile, the New York-based Conference Board reported that its confidence index fell to 75.0 in February, down from a revised January reading of 87.3. The drop was far below the 83 reading that analysts had forecast and put the index at its lowest level since February 2003, a period that reflected anxiety in the leadup to the Iraq war.

Consumers have been shaken by a prolonged slump in housing that has pushed the country close to a recession.

A third report Tuesday showed that home prices, measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller Index, dropped by 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the steepest drop in the 20-year history of the index.

"Home prices across the nation and in most metro areas are significantly lower than where they were a year ago," said Robert Shiller, one of the index's creators. "Wherever you look, things look bleak."

The January inflation surge left wholesale prices rising by 7.4 percent over the past 12 months, the fastest pace in more than 26 years.

The worse-than-expected performance was certain to capture attention at the Federal Reserve, which has chosen to combat a threatened recession by aggressively cutting interest rates in the belief that weaker economic growth will keep a lid on prices.

But the combination of rising inflation and weaker growth raises the threat of "stagflation," the economic malady that plagued the country through the 1970s, when a series of oil shocks left households battered by the twin problems of stagnant growth and rising inflation.

The 1 percent jump in wholesale prices followed a 0.3 percent decline in December and was the biggest one-month increase since a 2.6 percent increase in November. That gain had been driven by sharply higher energy costs.

The big jump in wholesale prices followed a report last week that consumer prices had risen by a worse-than-expected 0.4 percent, reflecting higher costs for food, energy and health care.

The wholesale report said that energy prices jumped 1.5 percent, as gasoline prices rose by 2.9 percent and the cost of home heating oil jumped by 8.5 percent.

Food prices, which have been surging because of increased demand stemming from ethanol production, rose by 1.7 percent last month, the biggest monthly increase in three years. Prices for beef, bakery products and eggs were all up sharply.

Core wholesale inflation, which excludes food and energy, posted a 0.4 percent increase, the biggest increase in 11 months. This gain was led by a 1.5 percent spike in the cost of prescription and non-prescription drugs.

The cost of book publishing was up 1.7 percent while the price of light trucks and passenger cars both rose by 0.3 percent.

Prices excluding food and energy are up 2.5 percent over the past 12 months, the fastest 12-month gain since a 2.5 percent rise in the 12 months ending in October.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080226/ap_on_go_ot/economy

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Confidence plunges, inflation rate soars

1 hour, 5 minutes ago

No good news today on the economic front. Consumer confidence plunged, the wholesale inflation rate soared, the number of homes being foreclosed jumped, home prices fell sharply and a report predicts big increases in health care costs.

Consumer confidence weakened significantly as Americans worry about less-favorable business conditions and job prospects. The New York-based Conference Board says in a report released on Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index plunged in February to 75.0 from a revised 87.3 in January.

The reading — the lowest since the index registered 64.8 in February 2003 — is far below the 83.0 analysts expected.

The index measures how consumers feel now about the economy. It has been weakening since July, suggesting that wary consumers may retrench financially, which could fatigue the economy further.

Inflation at the wholesale level soared in January, pushed higher by rising costs for food, energy and medicine. The monthly increase carried the annual inflation rate to its fastest jump in a quarter century.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that wholesale prices rose 1 percent last month, more than double the 0.4 percent increase that economists had been expecting.

The January surge left wholesale prices rising by 7.5 percent over the past 12 months, the fastest pace in more than 26 years, since prices had risen at a 7.5 percent pace in the 12 months ending in October 1981.

The number of homes facing foreclosure jumped 57 percent in January compared to a year ago, with lenders increasingly forced to take possession of homes they couldn't unload at auctions, a mortgage research firm said Monday.

Nationwide, some 233,001 homes received at least one notice from lenders last month related to overdue payments, compared with 148,425 a year earlier, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc. Nearly half of the total involved first-time default notices.

The worsening situation came despite ongoing efforts by lenders to help borrowers manage their payments by modifying loan terms, working out long-term repayment plans and other actions

U.S. home prices lost 8.9 percent in the final quarter of 2007, Standard & Poor's said Tuesday, marking a full year of declining values and the steepest drop in the 20-year history of its housing index.

"We reached a somber year-end for the housing market in 2007," said one of the index's creators Robert Shiller. "Home prices across the nation and in most metro areas are significantly lower than where they were a year ago. Wherever you look things look bleak."

The S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices, which include a quarterly index, a 20-city index and a 10-city index, reflect year-over-year declines in 17 metropolitan areas with double-digit declines in eight of them.

By 2017, total health care spending will double to more than $4 trillion a year, accounting for one of every $5 the nation spends, the federal government projects.

The 6.7 percent annual increase in spending — nearly three times the rate of inflation_ will be largely driven by higher prices and an increased demand for care, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Monday. Other factors in the mix include a growing and aging population. The first wave of baby boomers become eligible for Medicare beginning in 2011.

With the aging population, the federal government will be picking up the tab for a growing share of the nation's medical expenses. Overall, federal and state governments accounted for about 46 percent of health expenditures in 2006. That percentage will increase to 49 percent over the next decade.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080226/ap_on_bi_ge/economy_rdp&printer=1

Not a new problem, Andrew Jackson: Central Banking is a Den of Vipers and Thieves

Please consider Andrew Jackson's words on central banking:

"Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out... If people only understood the rank injustice of the money and banking system, there would be a revolution by morning." ….

Andrew Jackson publicly pledging to defeat international monopolist bankers to their face in his speech. Jackson vanquished a global cartel in its plans for a privately owned “U.S.” central bank. A public murder attempt on Andrew Jackson failed shortly thereafter by a double misfire of the assassin’s pistols.

UPDATE: Spot Gold At New Record High On US Rate Cut Talk

UPDATE: Spot Gold At New Record High On US Rate Cut Talk

(Adds analyst, trader comments.)

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Spot gold hit a new record high Thursday as talk of further interest rate cuts in the U.S. sparked a flurry of buying and pushed the metal even closer to its next big target of $900 a troy ounce.

As of 1830 GMT spot gold had hit an all-time high of $895.50/oz, breaking above Wednesday's record high of $891.50/oz, following comments by U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, traders said.

Bernanke said Thursday that more rate cuts "may well be necessary" as downside risks to the economy "have become more pronounced."

The comments caused the U.S. dollar to weaken against the euro, which hit a high of $1.4815.

Financial markets expect as much as 0.75 percentage point of additional cuts in the fed funds target rate by the end of March, an expectation that seemed supported by Bernanke's remarks Thursday.

"Buyers are just waiting for opportunities to get back into the market," said TheBullionDesk analyst James Moore. Spot gold slipped from its high late Wednesday and some analysts predicted that gold could be in for a correction, but the interest rate talk prompted further buying.

Moore said the interest rate situation is helping to keep the U.S. dollar under pressure, and hawkish comments Thursday by the European Central Bank president added to fears of a U.S.-led slowdown.

Indications of further interest rate cuts to come out of the U.S. added further fuel to the spot gold bull run, which has seen prices rise as much as 7.5% since the start of the new year and 40.7% from the start of 2007.

Additionally, market uncertainty surrounding mortgage lenders and bond insurers, if it intensifies, is likely to encourage further gold buying, along with intensifying recession fears, said HSBC analyst James Steel.

Gold is seen as a hard asset when equities are volatile, and as a protection against inflation, with fears of that growing amid rising oil prices.

While $900/oz is seen as the next target, many investors are predicting this is just the beginning of a bull run with a few more years to go.

Strong fundamentals of constrained mine supply against a backdrop of economic uncertainty are likely to lift spot-gold toward $1,200/oz, James Burton of the World Gold Council said.

Momentum in the gold bull run is being led by investor interest, as indicated by the demand for exchange traded funds. That demand is expected to cause gold to average $850/oz in 2008, with $1,000/oz likely to be hit before the year's end, said New York-based Midas Fund manager Thomas Winmill.

But he said while investor interest has skyrocketed, physical demand, particularly in gold jewelry-hungry India, has tailed off.

"So we will have to see if investor demand can overwhelm that," Winmill said.

U.S. Dollars No Longer Accepted at Indian Tourist Sites

U.S. Dollars No Longer Accepted at Indian Tourist Sites

Thursday, January 03, 2008

NEW DELHI — No dollars, just rupees please.

In a sign of how the once mighty U.S. dollar has fallen, India's tourism minister said Thursday that U.S. dollars will no longer be accepted at the country's heritage tourist sites, like the famed Taj Mahal.

For years the dollar was worth about 50 rupees and tourists visiting most sites in India were charged either $5 or 250 rupees.

But with the dollar at a nine-year low against the rupee — falling 11 percent in 2007 alone and now hovering at around 39 rupees — that deal has become a losing proposition for the tourism industry.

The country's tourism minister said, though, that the decision was only in part a reaction to the currency's plunging value.

"Before the dollar lost its value, there was a demand to have (admission tickets) just in rupees," Tourism Minister Ambika Soni told the CNN-IBN news channel.

Soni said that charging only rupees would not only be more practical, but would save money because "the dollar was weaker against the rupee."

The Taj Mahal, India's famed white marble monument to love, which had charged tourists $15 or 750 rupees, has been refusing to accept dollars since November.

The move makes visits pricier for American tourists, who now have to shell out nearly $20.

And it's likely to get worse.

"We expect a slight appreciation of the rupee to continue, although it won't be as dramatic as last year," said Agam Gupta, head of foreign exchange trading at Standard Chartered Bank in India.

The dollar has fallen against most major currencies, and it has lost ground against the rupee due to an influx of foreign capital into India, said Gupta.

Soni said she was not worried about the decision affecting tourism numbers as India provided more than just budget attractions.

"I always say it's not numbers I am looking for or working for. I am working for tourists to have a complete experience," she said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319807,00.html

U.S. producer prices surge in November

U.S. producer prices surge in November

Biggest jump in 34 years due to record rise in gasoline prices

The Associated Press
updated 8:44 a.m. PT, Thurs., Dec. 13, 2007

WASHINGTON - Wholesale prices shot up 3.2 percent in November, the biggest jump in 34 years, propelled by a record rise in gasoline prices.
The big inflation pickup in the Producer Price Index, which measures the costs of goods before they reach stores shelves, came after wholesale prices inched up by just 0.1 percent in October, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
When volatile energy and food prices are removed, all other prices rose by 0.4 percent in November, after being flat the month before. The last time this price barometer registered a bigger increase was one year ago. The pickup in “core” prices suggested inflation may be seeping into a wider range of goods.
The inflation figures were worse than economists were expecting. They were forecasting overall wholesale prices to go up by 1.5 percent, and core prices to increase 0.2 percent.
Soaring energy prices were mostly to blame. (NOTE: No, its the Fed)
They leaped by a record 14.1 percent in November.
Gasoline prices posted an all-time high increase of 34.8 percent last month. Diesel fuel prices jumped 35.8 percent and home heating oil soared 31.5 percent.
In another report, new applications filed last week for unemployment benefits dropped by 7,000 to 333,000, the lowest level since the middle of November. It was an encouraging sign that the employers aren’t resorting to large-scale layoffs as they cope with an economy whose growth has been slowed by housing and credit troubles.
The figures were close to analysts’ forecasts for claims to dip to 335,000.
Still, new-job creation has clearly lost speed this year as construction companies, factories, mortgage companies and others slash jobs because of the housing collapse and credit crunch.
Rising inflation could complicate the Federal Reserve’s job of trying to keep the fragile economy expanding and inflation low.
The Fed on Tuesday sliced a key interest rate to 4.25 percent, the third reduction this year, in an effort to prevent the country from falling into a recession. Rate reductions are a bracing tonic for weak economic growth, while rate increases are used to combat inflation.
Oil prices, which had neared $100 a barrel, have moderated. But they are still high. High energy prices can slow economic activity and spread inflation if they cause the prices of lots of other goods and services to rise.
“Elevated energy and commodity prices, among other factors, may put upward pressure on inflation,” the Fed warned on Tuesday. The Fed pledged to continue to “monitor inflation developments carefully.”
Some bright spots in the inflation report: food costs were flat in November, after rising by a sharp 1 percent in October. And, costs for electronic computers dropped 2.4 percent.
But prices for many other goods moved higher. Light motor truck prices rose 2.3 percent, the most in one year. Passenger car prices went up 0.6 percent and platinum and gold jewelry rose 2 percent.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22240224/

Oil Min: Iran Has Halted Oil Transactions In Dollars -AFP

Sat, Dec 8 2007, 09:40 GMT
http://www.djnewswires.com/eu

Oil Min: Iran Has Halted Oil Transactions In Dollars -AFP

TEHRAN (AFP)--Major crude producer Iran has completely stopped carrying out its oil transactions in dollars, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on Saturday, labeling the greenback an "unreliable" currency.

"At the moment selling oil in dollars has been completely halted, in line with the policy of selling crude in non-dollar currencies," Nozari was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

"The dollar is an unreliable currency, considering its devaluation and the oil exporters' losses," he added.

The world's fourth-largest oil exporter, Iran has massively reduced its dependence on the dollar over the past year in the face of U.S. pressures on its financial system.

The U.S. has successfully encouraged major European and Asian banks to cut their dealings with Iran in a bid to make the Islamic republic give way on its controversial nuclear program.

Washington has also blacklisted major Iranian banks for alleged support of terrorism and seeking nuclear weapons, charges denied by Tehran.

Iran has reduced its assets in dollars held in foreign banks and urged OPEC to take collective action to price oil in other currencies such as the euro, instead of the U.S. currency which is used across the world at present.

The decline of the dollar, which has weakened considerably against the euro and other currencies in the past 12 months, has affected the revenues of OPEC members because most of them price and sell their oil exports in the U.S. currency.

Anheuser-Busch to increase the price of beer

Anheuser-Busch to increase the price of beer
Rising ingredient costs will continued to be passed along to consumersupdated 2:48 p.m. PT, Thurs., Nov. 29, 2007ST. LOUIS - Anheuser-Busch Cos. thinks consumers are more than willing to pay a little extra for beer.
The nation’s biggest brewer will continue raising prices to counter a rise in the cost of ingredients, Chief Financial Officer W. Randolph Baker told a group of stock analysts at a conference in New York Thursday.
Baker said consumers have accepted price increases on most products in 2007, sustaining profits for the maker of Budweiser, Bud Light and Michelob.
“Our object for the year was to find a way to cover (cost increases), and we did — but just barely,” Baker said. The cost of agricultural commodities like hops and barley has risen steeply, Baker said.
Baker highlighted a bright spot for Anheuser-Busch — an apparent increase in consumer interest for domestic beers. Last year, beer industry shipment volume grew 2.1 percent, he said, the best annual performance since 1990. he said beer industry growth in 2007 has continued to exceed expectations, up 1.8 percent to date.
“We see the resurgence in interest in beer. With the momentum there, it’s likely you’re going to have strong demand for beer,” Baker said.
Anheuser-Busch will boost advertising spending next year to strengthen demand for its flagship brands, Baker said. Much of the spending will be made on national television ads, with spending increasing by double digits in 2008, he said.
U.S. beer sales have lagged in recent years with the growing popularity of wine and cocktails. A report released Thursday by Goldman Sachs analysts Andrew Sawyer and Judy Hong said they’re concerned the trend will be difficult to reverse.
“We are encouraged by the strategy to increase (Anheuser-Busch’s) focus behind the core brands, but it remains to be seen whether these efforts will lead to stronger volume growth anytime soon,” the report said.
International beer sales have outpaced domestic sales, and Anheuser-Busch has been disappointed in its mainstay brand Bud Light, Baker said.
In the third quarter this year, revenue for the U.S. beer segment rose 2 percent, while revenue from international markets jumped 8 percent.
“The biggest priority is accelerating the growth of Bud Light, with a focus on improving our domestic beer profitability and performance,” Baker said.
Anheuser-Busch shares fell 63 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $51.26 Thursday.

Ben Stein: Entitlements ‘Bankrupt’ U.S. Today

Ben Stein: Entitlements ‘Bankrupt’ U.S. Today

Ben Stein, the economist, commentator, and one-time Nixon speechwriter, also well known for film and TV roles, says the cost of Medicare is already completely out of hand.

In fact, the future cost is beyond our ability to pay — period.
“Medicare is such a crisis you can hardly imagine,” Stein said in a video commentary for Fortune magazine. “Actuarially, the U.S. is bankrupt right now.”
He isn’t speaking theoretically. Stein says that the locked-in, required spending — figures not up for debate — simply overwhelm not only the potential income from taxes, but the actual value of the assets themselves.
“The liabilities foreseeable up until the year 2050 discounted back to present value exceed the total wealth of the nation,” Stein said.
“Every building, every warehouse, every K-Mart, every Wal-Mart, every Target, every Sears, every ship, every plane, every acre of wheat or corn, every oil well, put them all in one big bond, it would not equal the liabilities of Medicare,” he said.
According to the American Academy of Actuaries, Medicare spending in 2006 hit 3.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). That figure will jump to 6.5 percent of GDP by 2030 and rise to 11.3 percent by 2080.
Remember, too, that Medicare is not 100 percent coverage, so these estimates are not the total cost of health care, just the government’s liability.
Add Social Security entitlements, and things at first blush don’t seem so bad. Social Security payments added on are projected to total 12.7 percent of GDP by 2030, rising to 17.6 percent in 2080, according to the actuaries.
It can be easy to presume that the economy can potentially grow its way out of the entitlements mess — until you realize that GDP is the whole economy and not the federal budget.
Consider, for a moment, that federal revenues average 18 percent of GDP. This means that in 2007 — this year — 40 percent of federal revenues already goes to entitlements.
All things remaining equal, the Medicare and Social Security “bite” climbs to 80 percent of the budget by 2040.
Entitlement spending consumes the entire federal budget by 2080, bankrupting the government. Education, security, defense, disaster aid, housing, environment, science, transportation — everything else — gone.
“So it’s a real serious problem,” Stein said. “The solution to this problem is extremely difficult to figure out.”
Means-testing — simply put, requiring wealthier Americans to pay more out of pocket rather than rely on Medicare — is probably inevitable, Stein said.
That puts people who are doing the right thing and saving in a bind, since it adds an inestimable new cost to retirement: health care.
“As a close friend of mine says, this is the joker in the deck: What are your medical costs going to be when you retire?” Stein said.
“It could be much, much larger than you think. That means you have to save even more,” he said.
Scarily enough, the U.S. personal savings rate fell below zero in 2005 and is now a couple of points below zero.
Critics point out that such figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce mislead. For instance, the figure only counts after-tax savings. Your 401(k) and the value of your home are not added in.
Don’t look for a silver lining there, though. Home values in the third quarter fell 4.5 percent, following a 3.3 percent decline in the second quarter, according to the latest S&P/Case Shiller home price index.
And the massive number of adjustable-rate mortgages due to reset have not yet begun to kick in. That will add to the already large numbers of unsold homes on the market with no buyers to buy them — pressuring prices that much more.
Meanwhile, retirement research from Boston College shows that nearly three-quarters of Americans who are eligible to participate in 401(k) plans do so. Nevertheless, less than one in 10 of them contribute the maximum amount allowed under the plan.

Dollar Drops to Record Low Against Euro

The treason against our salaries and our fixed incomes continues.

Dollar Drops to Record Low Against Euro
Friday November 23, 9:04 pm ET Dollar Drops to Record Low Against the Euro Amid Speculation of Another Rate Cut NEW YORK (AP) -- The dollar hit a new low against the euro in thin trading Friday as speculation continued that the American credit crisis will lead to another cut in interest rates in the U.S.

The 13-nation European currency spiked early to hit $1.4966, breaking the previous record of $1.4873, set the day before.

"Once again the message ... coming through is that with further rate cuts expected from the Fed, the dollar is struggling to find any serious supporters," said James Hughes, an analyst at CMC Markets.

In late afternoon trading, the euro had retreated to $1.4838, up from the $1.4833 it bought late in Europe the day before, but down from the $1.4848 it bought in New York late Wednesday.

The dollar fell to purchase as little as 107.56 Japanese yen, dropping below the 108-yen level for the first time since 2005. It recovered slightly to purchase 108.18 yen, down from 108.62 yen late in Europe on Thursday and 108.68 yen in American trading Wednesday.

The British pound, meanwhile, fell to $2.0612 from $2.0634 the day before in Europe and $2.0644 in New York Wednesday.

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend kept many players on the sidelines, while Japanese financial markets were closed Friday for the Labor Thanksgiving Day holiday.

The euro, the pound and other currencies have been climbing steadily against the dollar since August amid fears for the health of the U.S. economy, stoked by the subprime credit crisis.

The euro is on track to trade in a $1.50 to $1.60 range over the coming months, Norbert Walter, chief economist at Deutsche Bank, told Dow Jones Newswires on the fringes of the European Banking Congress.

In that range, it is overvalued by about 30 percent, he said.

Earlier in the day, Commerzbank AG Chief Executive Klaus Peter Mueller said he expected the euro to trade in the $1.50 to $1.60 range over the next 12 months.

The dollar has been further weakened by interest rate cuts, which can be used to jump-start an economy, but can also weaken a currency as investors transfer funds to countries where they can earn higher returns.

The Federal Reserve has already cut rates twice and speculation is growing that as the subprime fallout continues, it will be forced into another cut.

In other New York trading, the dollar rose against the Canadian currency. The Canadian dollar was worth $1.0108 Friday, down from $1.0160 late Thursday, according to Dow Jones' Interbank foreign-exchange rates, and from $1.0126 late Wednesday in New York.

The dollar's decline: from symbol of hegemony to shunned currency

By Andy McSmith Published: 17 November 2007

The decline of the dollar, symbol of US global hegemony for the best part of a century, may have become so entrenched that some experts now fear it is irreversible.

After months of huge and sustained turmoil on the money markets, lack of confidence in the world's totemic currency has become so widespread that an increasing number of international traders are transferring their wealth to stronger currencies such as the euro, which recently hit its highest level against the dollar.

"An American businessman over here who is given the choice would take anything but the dollar," David Buik of Cantor Index said yesterday. "I would want to be paid in yen, and if not yen then the euro or sterling."

Matthew Osborne, of Armstrong International, added: "The majority would say sterling. There are a few dealers in the City who may take the view that they'll take dollars now, while they're cheap, and hold on to them for 12 months.

"But the problem is so serious that there are people who in July or August might have been thinking, 'I'm paid in dollars, how annoying' for whom it's now a question of, 'Do you have a job; do you have a bonus?' "

The collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market in the US, which is fuelling the dollar unrest, has already brought down one British bank, Northern Rock, and has forced others to declare vast losses. Yesterday, just as it appeared that the dollar might have finally reached its floor, there was another warning that the sub-prime crisis is going to get worse. The US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, warned an international business summit in South Africa: "The sub-prime market, parts of it will get worse before it gets better." Huge numbers of US homeowners are still cushioned by introductory interest rates set when they took out loans in 2005 or 2006, he said. When these introductory offers run out, their interest payments will increase, setting off another wave of defaulting and repossessions. And the dollar is enduring its rockiest spell in recent memory.

Kenneth Froot, a Harvard university professor and former consultant to the US Federal Reserve, warned yesterday: "Part of the depreciation [of the dollar] is permanent. There is no doubt that the dollar must sink against periphery currencies to reflect their increase in competitiveness and productivity."

Professor Riordan Roett, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, told Bloomberg News: "There is a loss of confidence in the dollar and the US. It may only reflect the widespread dismay with the Bush administration, but it is obvious that the next administration, of either party, will have a steep uphill struggle." As well as reaching its lowest level against the euro, which has been trading at more than $1.47, the dollar has also fallen to its lowest level against the Canadian dollar since 1950, sterling since 1981, and the Swiss franc since 1995.

Its plight was made still worse by a jarring signal from China that it was switching to other currencies. Cheng Siwei, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, told a conference in Beijing: "We will favour stronger currencies over weaker ones, and will readjust accordingly."

The warning was reinforced by a Chinese central bank vice-director, Xu Jian, who said the dollar was "losing its status as the world currency".

China has stockpiled £700bn worth of foreign currency, and has only to decide to slow its accumulation of dollars to weaken the currency further. Last month, in a humiliating turn of events, the central bank in Iraq, four years after the United States invaded, stated that it wished to diversify reserves from a reliance on dollars.

Korea's central bank has urged shipbuilders to issue invoices in the local currency and take precautions against the weakened dollar, and three of the world's big oil exporters, Iran, Venezuela, and Russia, are demanding payment in euros rather than dollars. Iran insisted that Japan should make all its payments for oil in yen, rather than dollars.

Warren Buffet, who is reputedly the richest man in the world, was asked on the US network CNBC last month what he thought was the best currency in the world to own now. He answered: "Not the US dollar."

The Wall Street Journal ran an online poll asking people which currency, they would prefer to be paid in. The euro came top, ahead of sterling, with others such as the Canadian dollar, yen and Swiss franc trailing far behind. One respondent wrote: "Being an expat in Europe with a European employment contract, I am paid in euros, and happy to get paid in euros, and shop in the US, just as long as the cycle lasts through my retirement, so I can pick up pension in Europe and retire in the US."

The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates twice since September to revive the US economy, but the cuts – combined with the possibility that more were on the way – made the dollar less attractive to investors. Yesterday, it recovered slightly when one Federal Reserve banker, Randall Kroszner, dampened speculation about further interest rate cuts, saying that rates were low enough to get the economy through a "rough patch".

Problems with the greenback, combined with cheap air fares, have encouraged more Britons to go shopping across the Atlantic. British tourists spent £785m in New York last year, the city's marketing and tourism organisation said yesterday. There were 1,169,000 visitors to New York from the UK in 2006, with 54 per cent going for four to seven nights and 31 per cent staying for two to three nights. They spent an average of £112 a day. The average age of the UK visitor is 40.

Christopher Heywood, director of tourism PR for NYC & Company, said he expected the dollar crisis to attract yet more British shoppers. "The savvy traveller who's coming here for the shopping can really get a bargain. They're coming with one suitcase and leaving with two or three," he said.

"We have people coming over here even for weekend trips to shop for the famous brand names. People are coming for the department stores that everyone around the world knows, but also for the boutique stores out of the centre of Manhattan, anything from Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue to Bleecker Street in the West Village and SoHo."

How the government is stealing from you with inflation, again.

Say you are on a fixed income, e.g., pension or social security.

If you inflate the currency but there is not adjustment or an insufficient adjustment for this inflation, this is the administrator of the currency stealing from you.

The commodities Price Index published each week clearly shows the theft going on and how radical it has been for the past two years, see:

Sept 27 2007
http://www.economist.com/images/20070929/TAB3.gif

Sept 24 2005
http://www.economist.com/images/20050924/TAB3.gif

CPI from 131 to 216.

Did your salary go up 66% in the last two years? No. You were just stolen from. The fed lowered interest rates and increased the money supple (They stopped publishing the M3 to hide this, so to see it, look here:
http://www.nowandfutures.com/key_stats.html
)

If you hold dollars or are paid in dollars then you were stolen from.

Now, if your salary does adjust upwards, you get hit with a higher tax bracket for the same of less purchasing power, meaning tax revenue goes up, but you purchasing power does not, or goes down. You were just stolen from again.

If your salary hasn't doubled since 2000. You lose.

Now, try to convert your money say to Swiss francs and hold them in a Swiss account and earn a lowly 2% interest. This terrorist government will try and ding you for income on the 2% interest! YOU JUST WANT TO KEEP THE VALUE OF YOUR MONEY STABLE! They have the nerve to track and tax your earnings in a foreign currency! They only reason I want to hide my wealth in Swiss Francs is to keep it from getting inflating to hell and they want to charge me for that?!?! Also, it is common for the USDOJ to seize and freeze accounts held by US citizens in foreign tax havens because you are "funding terrorists" and bull like that, they want to keep us bank slaves to the dollar.

This is INSANE, and the Boston Tea Party was over some measly less than 10% VAT on tea.

We are being taxed at about 50% [all said and done] (Sales, fed income, state income, tollbooths, interest, capital gains, etc), and now they want to keep in you dollars and dilute you position out from underneath you!

It is *so bad* right now as a worker paid in dollars its insane.

They say CPI is not core inflation, wrong, see the fed itself saying the two are supposed to be the same:

See here:
"Analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicates that this measure is no better than a moving average of the Consumer Price Index as a predictor of inflation."

http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr236.html



The fed has been known to substitute steak for ground beef in the basket of calculations they use ( but reveal to no one about how core is actually calculated) to get the number they want.

You'll notice when reading Fed documents they are often vague, voodoo or self contradictory. They have to be. They are selling you bullshit. If you ran your household like them, you would be in default and homeless and garnished. If you ran your company like the Fed, you would be out of business. Its that simple. They are running our country's currency into the ground trying to keep Wall St. aloft, and trying to keep the housing and credit card crisis from imploding, but are making things far worse.

Kuwait just de-pegged the dollar, not in the news, but it happened:
"Kuwait pegs dinar to basket of currencies"
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/05/20/afx3739653.html
Note: used to be pegged to the US dollar.

"Gulf economies 'may shun greenback peg' "
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=199669&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=30237

Ben Bernanke is a criminal and should be jailed forever.

Ben Bernanke's moves to satisfy Wall St. have failed. Commodities prices are sky high. Salaried, hourly and fixed income employees everywhere are being SCREWED by inflation.

Try to exit dollars to Swiss francs or offshore your money, and you'll realize you might be labeled a terrorist and your money seized in an investigation. Also the banks and other colluders to exiting the US dollar position heavily load the transaction.

Realize that the Swiss Banks , even on numbered accounts, will let the US know of interest you get (This is new since 2002)! This was traditionally not the case, but know this, even if you legally change your post tax money into another currency and then get interest which is at or slightly below CPI-inflation, you can be thrown in jail for not reporting that "income." Even though this income offsets the fucking brutal inflation going on.

The real thief is this occupying force known as the US Federal Government. They undermine the states and the people, they arbitrarily ask for large taxes and they inflate the shit out of the money debasing everything you own! Then when the appraiser comes and values your house at some asinine inflated price, you pay skyrocketed property tax, and with inflation the salaries that did go up (not many did), you get subjected to AMT and other "rich guy" taxes!

They are literally STEALING your money by printing more of it. Ben Bernanke should be put to jail as a traitor. This guy is worse then Julius Rosenberg, and he was electrocuted. Ben Bernanke - the worst traitor against America alive today.

Sept 27 2007

http://www.economist.com/images/20070929/TAB3.gif

Sept 24 2005

http://www.economist.com/images/20050924/TAB3.gif

Your money purchasing power was halved in 2 years. Your salary didn't go up. Get it? You are not only being lied to, you are being fleeced and stolen from, and every paycheck over the last two years has been less money than the previous one.

If religion is the opiate of the masses, goverment handouts must be crack to idiots.

If religion is the opiate of the masses, goverment handouts must be crack to idiots.

Salt water can be burned when subjected to RF

Salt water can be burned when subjected to RF

see:
http://www.watertechonline.com/news.asp?N_ID=68148
http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/11/can-saltwater-be-burned-as-fuel/
http://green.yahoo.com/index.php?q=node/1570
http://www.physorg.com/news108666600.html
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iT1KAi6UEPN8LqZlvLnfsxP7ToKw

An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century. John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn. The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel. Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, has held demonstrations at his State College lab to confirm his own observations. The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen, Roy said. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies, he said. The discovery is "the most remarkable in water science in 100 years," Roy said. "This is the most abundant element in the world. It is everywhere," Roy said. "Seeing it burn gives me the chills."
Roy will meet this week with officials from the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to try to obtain research funding. The scientists want to find out whether the energy output from the burning hydrogen — which reached a heat of more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit — would be enough to power a car or other heavy machinery. "We will get our ideas together and check this out and see where it leads," Roy said. "The potential is huge."

Yahoo marks mails with Ron Paul as spam.

Yahoo is on an anti-Ron-Paul binge, along with the rest of the terrorist media in the USA.

Yahoo's Terry Semel , who wants to do business with Nazis:
The Wall Street Journal buries this tidbit in the middle of a blog post about Terry Semel's talk at the D Conference. The Yahoo CEO went all Vichy France when asked about Nazi collaboration:One attendee asked Mr. Semel if Yahoo would have cooperated with Nazi Germany the same way it has with China. His response: "Yahoo has a basic obligation not to have a point of view on basic content, and to present content ... and aggregate things and to allow people to make their own choices. I don't know how I would have felt then." "Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. You say 'Nazis,' I say 'business partners.'"

Anyways, there is an inordiate amount of email I email myself back when sending out messages about Ron Paul that gets thrown into spam.

Nazi-Yahoo is trying to censor Ron Paul.

Not Voting Ron Paul is SUICIDE for the USA. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWfIhFhelm8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWfIhFhelm8


Congressman Paul's consistent voting record prompted one of his congressional colleagues to say, "Ron Paul personifies the Founding Fathers' ideal of the citizen-statesman. He makes it clear that his principles will never be compromised, and they never are." Another colleague observed, "There are few people in public life who, through thick and thin, rain or shine, stick to their principles. Ron Paul is one of those few."

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

If you vote anyone else in 2008, you are a strange being.

Terrorist Ben Bernanke just screwed all salaried employees and all people with money saved

The fed just lowered rates today - a lot.

"Helicopter Ben" just committed a crime and a giant theft against all salaried employees and savers in the US. http://www.safehaven.com/article-4020.htm

The Fed, in a surprise announcement in Washington, lowered the so-called discount rate by 0.5 percentage point, to 5.75 percent. Policy makers dropped language indicating their bias toward fighting inflation, and instead highlighted a rising threat to economic growth.
What this means is he is helping "investors" that do and create nothing churning nothing and screwing doctors, firefighters, regular Joe's, retirement accounts, savers and anyone with any financial sense and responsibility.

What this does is makes what you get paid every paycheck worth less. This makes your dollar buy less shit from China, Germany, wherever. What this does is makes all that money you saved for college and retirement worth LESS.

This man is a terrorist criminal and should have his leg cut off.

This is a bail out of BANKS who try and sell their junk debt to YOU and other suckers, these banks already own your lives, you pay them more in interest every month than principle, they sell your debt back to you via the GSEs and via selling the junk debt to retirement and pension funds.

They got us into this mess, yet they still get helped.

You see, Chrysler was a loan, S&L was a bailout, the Airlines was a bailout ... The relative cost of those in this situation is nothing.

Voters - its up to you know to write in to congress and have someone like Ron Paul appointed the head of a committee to stop this rampant insanity.

I also recommended the immediate forming of unions at workplaces that will only work gold or a constant gold equivalent in dollars. Dollars are a fake piece of fiat shit that clearly means nothing anymore, and the The Fed is a quasi-government entity that needs to be stopped and eliminated if it cant handle the simple task of keeping the money supply at a reasonable healthy level (+1%-1.5% inflation).

Again, here is a link to the economist to see how bad your pay and your dollars have been hit:



Another way to show you all how bad you are being screwed:

Key food prices rising sharply.


















I hope that helping 10,000,000 people afford a house they can't afford for a few more months, maybe a year, by debasing the currency and making ALL PRICES RISE FOR EVERYTHING is worth it.


This monetary policy is suicidal.

Ving Rhames' dogs killed more people than my guns.

Dogs kill man at actor Ving Rhames' LA home

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Massive dogs belonging to "Mission: Impossible" co-star Ving Rhames attacked and killed a live-in caretaker at the actor's Los Angeles home on Friday, police said. The caretaker, whose name was not released by authorities, was found dead on the front lawn of Rhames' gated home in an expensive Brentwood neighborhood, covered in dog bites, a Los Angeles police spokesman said.

Welcome to a world where defensively using or brandishing deadly force with a weapon will land you time in jail, but murdering people with your dogs will mostly likely result in no or light punishment.

I get sick of being attacked by rogue dogs (I've been attacked 3 times by rogue dogs and had to run away and stand on cars, etc, to escape mauling.) I had shot and killed the dogs that attacked me I would likely be in jail for the illegal discharging of a firearm.

This Ving Rhames idiot better be held to account for his hounds of hell, that god damn murderous idiot.

Car manufacturers, you suck with spare parts.

If I were in charge, I would make a law that would prohibit the obfuscation of replacement parts for cars or anything for that matter. Part number obfuscation would result in the de-incorporation of a given company or possibly the firing squad shooting of that company's CEO.

What happens is this: You want a part, say, a rear light assembly. You look it up on various sites. They list mostly fake part numbers for non-genuine parts. You ask dealerships for the real part number and they basically laugh at you, they simply wont allow you to shop around with the real part number.

So finally you figure out what the real OEM part number is, some stores on tradmotion.com websites seem to keep them around, then you shop around.

You ask various local dealerships for a good price and they again laugh at you and treat you rudely. Fuck these people. Ill never buy a fucking car from that place - I hope its worth future business to fuck people on parts.

Then you put that part number in and search for an online store that sells that part:
1) you get lies (the part is listed with the OEM PN, but is the non-genuine part)
2) they charge hidden handling fees
3) they markup for shipping and don't allow you to have the shipping billed to you
4) they don't give you the OEM part, but a look-alike work-alike and a huge markup.
5) you can't easily return the part for being defrauded

So, Toyota, and all other car makers, is it worth it to create a fraud industry of fake parts, and fraud rip off dealer-net tarnishing your name? Why doesn't the fucking car come with a parts list and a fucking repair manual asshole fuckers? In my world, I would have the CEO shot to death because he is ultimately responsible for this premeditated assault and defrauding of the public and require any car allowed to be sold that it be sold with a complete parts list and a repair manual. I don't believe if capital punishment for normal citizens, but generals, politicians and company executives, I think that capital punishment should be used often.

If I ever have executive powers, I will have CEOs shot for shit like this. I don't mind companies making money, but swindling and defrauding and poisoning the tax paying law abiding good-faith public will not be tolerated.

AMD is no longer competitive with Intel

I don't know why people think about AMD much right now. If you check out spec.org benchmarks, the Opteron 2222 machines (3.0 GHZ) don't have a prayer at beating the 5160/X6800, in either FP or INT. Especially INT since almost everything you want to run fast is INT, the video cards do all the important vector and FP math.

How bad is the fastest opteron 3.0ghz at INT?
http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/res2007q2/cpu2006-20070319-00686.html
BASE: 13.5
PEAK: 14.9

At FP?:
http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/res2007q2/cpu2006-20070319-00687.html
BASE: 14.3
PEAK: 15.2

How good are Xeon 5160s at INT?:
BASE: 19.1
PEAK: 21.0
http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/res2007q3/cpu2006-20070707-01376.html

FP?:
BASE: 17.1
PEAK: 17.7
http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/res2006q4/cpu2006-20061127-00155.html

I also only trust base measurements, because peaks are hacks at compiler options to make code a perfect instructions mix for the CPU arch, which almost never happens in real life.

I don't know why people suddenly think AMD is competitive, its not.

Its maximum wattage outputs are far higher, they cost more and have random sockets, now its 940-AM2 and F-1207, they have a huge family of sockets before now, which is stupid (and hurt AMD, especially getting rid of 940 and 939 and working against the Opteron 1xx sales).

If you put together a gaming rig which you aren't overclocking this year and its not Intel - I feel bad for you. I have an X6800 and a 8800GTX, and I've had them for 6 months. Nothing AMD/ATI has done even registers on my radar as a remote threat. This will not change throughout this year except for the new crop of 1333MHz FSB CPUs.

AMD scales better due to integrated memory controller. This scales better when you put more than 2 sockets in a box. Who cares, no one games with 4 socket motherboards.

Intel had Netburst, which put AMD ahead - way ahead. Now Intel has Woodcrest/Conroe, which could potentially get AMD to quit making silicon if they cant catch up.

See:
"AMD considering getting out of fabrication business"
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070619-amd-considering-getting-out-of-fabrication-business.html

Conroe is potentially AMD-ending event. For myself, I have a host of Intel and AMD machines at home and at work, and I can say for 1-2 socket motherboards, AMD doesn't even exist anymore.