Suet, Lard and other Animal Oils are not your enemy in cooking

I heard this on a thread about hostess pies:

Something about Hostess pies turns me off. Maybe it's the words "beef fat" in the ingredients. I know animal fat traditionally was used in pies, but in this day and age, it seems like a very unhealthy and unnecessary relic.

Actually, my wife tells me Oreo cookies used to contain animal fat, too. But now they don't. So if Nabisco can take it out, why can't Hostess?

If I want a pie, I'll take a real, homemade one over the packaged variety any time.

Two others followed on in a sentiment close to mine:

What's this "was"? To this day, suet and lard are both commonly used ingredients in pie crust. There's also this stuff called "butter" which you might have heard of, and I don't want to burst your bubble or anything, but I hear tell that comes from an animal too!

And as for "unhealthy"...well, unlike the trans-fats in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, lard and butter haven't been suggested as a possible cancer-causing agent. Give me a lard and butter crust any day.

and...

You know, that's one of the things wrong with the modern world - not enough animal fat! It was flat out riduculous for Nabisco and the other large biscuit companies to go away from lard and beef tallow, as it was for fast food restaurants to switch to vegetable shortening for fries. At the base of this is a lot of government propaganda (I have learned that WHATEVER the federal government says is bad is probably good, and vice versa). And too, they replaced animal fat with hydrogenated oil, which is even worse than animal fat! I went back to lard for biscuits and pastries years ago, and have recently started frying in lard. I don't know where to get beef fat, or I would use that also.

You see beef fat, suet and lards are better tasting and more natural and less preprocessed than the hydrogenated poison used in cooking.

All this new crap, with this anti-trans fat kick, we are getting hydrogenated oils, waste oil now called canola and all sorts of "better" oils that may be less in terms of calories or have less saturated fat, but are toxic.

Did you know most vegetable oils at or near medium and higher cooking temps become toxic and create carcinogenic and mutagenic garbage, where animal fats do not even to very high temperatures?

Also note all the haute cuisine , French, new American, or any other high class cooking always uses lard and bone marrow wherever possible over lesser substitutes.

Your notion of health cant simply be calories. Check out the people who have lost a lot of weight on "fatkins" Atkins - and then go to the doctor and get lower triglycerides and LDL cholesterol readings.

Processed food in general is bad. The bleached flour in a Hostess pie is far more of an issue than the beef lard.

And if you drink coke, note that when in Great Britain/UK , they use sugar. REAL Coke classic tastes great! But here in the USA, we now use High Fructose Corn Syrup. Tastes like crap, and is very unhealthy processed crap. They hid the recipe change by making "New Coke", and when they switched back to "CocaCola Classic" they put in HFCS instead of sugar.

There is absolutely NOTHING (at least not CHEAPER) that tastes better than real animal lards in cooking. PERIOD. Food is tasting like crap and actually goes rancid a LOT faster than it used to due to all the stupid mettling around with age old recipes, and everyone is getting fatter all the time despite the innumerable "healthy" substitutions going on.

Blueberry Hostess Pies taste the best. And most of the things that are "healthier" are propaganda to allow manufacturers to use cheaper garbage in our food, and to slowly force the population into eating vegetable matter and "edible" waste products because having everyone in an overpopulated earth eating meat doesnt scale as easily. So your standard of living will drop as the Government complex feeds us stuff that is worse than a WWII ration or a modern MRE.

Laphroaig - The best single malt.

I hear all these Costco-single malt drinkers. These retards that get minis in first class on an airplane, buy these fake get ups from Sam's club, those who think they know scotch. The throngs of consumers who think they know what a real scotch should taste like. They want something to make drinking easy. Good scotch isn't work per se, but the flavors and complexity must come before making drinking spirits easy to drink.

Laphroaig. Laphroaig 10, Laphroaig 10/Cask Strength, Laphroaig 15 and the super-Laphroaigs, which are aged more than 15 years.

The other day I had a glass out by the computer. My wife came in an said, the computer smells like its screwed up, like that "blue smoke" smell. I leaned over expecting the acrid burn of of the "blue smoke" on to find Laphroaig fumes wafting up from the glass.

Laphroaig tastes like everything. For a guy who has had his share of the tipple, from beeradvocate/ratebeer top 100's mostly covered, lots of Oregon, Colorado and California fresh taps covered, a ton of vintage wine covered, I like spirits - and if they came without alcohol I'd still like them. Laphroaig to me is burning tires and gasoline. Laphroaig is peat smoke and caramelized flavor. Laphroaig is intense. Laphroaig's only problem is that at its weakest its 40%ABV and I could spend a whole evening drinking a whole bottle if it werent for the self-limiting intoxication mulling over the complexity and flavors present in Laphroaig.

If you think you like scotch - get some Laphroaig and try it. If you dont like it, ok, get some Balvenie Double Wood, if you don't like that, please switch to Bartles and James wine coolers and stop bothering the adults.

U.S.: Russia must ‘de-escalate’ Georgian threat

Moscow's decision to send troops to breakaway region sparks dispute

Hey Putin. How about you tell the USA to go fuck ourselves in the goat ass and shove it where the Sun dont shine.

I love to watch a broke assed country like the USA with a fake currency and a deeply stressed military barking orders at a country that isnt being run by a cabal of bloodsucking asshole idiots.

Seems Russia is +500 billion or so, and the USA is -9,000,000,000,000 , plus another 30-60T in debt obligations.

Hey, US federal government, no one give s flying fuck what your broke ass says anymore. Morons.

Myanmar junta accept aid, not aid workers

Fuck Myanmar. Also, how can a country that is bankrupt (The USA) give money to these people ? It seems we are far more interested in Myanmar and the hurricane there than New Orleans.

This government is a piece of shit. How can they take taxes from us and give it away when we are suffer a drastic drop in the standard of OUR living?

Phil O'Shaughnessy

Phil O'Shaughnessy : He is a pigfucking bastard motherfucker at Creative Labs - the makers of soundblaster products.

What happened is Creative pushed EAX. They were ruthless and used lawyers to bankrupt Aureal, the inventors of better technology, and after the litigation, they picked up the superior technology on the cheap.

After this ruthless act, they went along selling sound cards until Vista: Then they had to fuck the world one more time. They would only make EAX work for a fee. They crippled the fucking drivers for all the hardware accelerated cards to force people to pay up for the drivers.

I hope everyone who is responsible for shitty drivers at Creative gets cancer and fucking dies, and I hope everyone at Microsoft who decided to break DirectSound and other old APIs in Vista fucking gets cancer.

You motherfuckers are destroying the business you thrive on by fucking up old games and shit, you fucking morons. Watch Apple/Linux and others fuck your dumb asses out of business.

Anyways, Phil O'Shaughnessy, he is the main guy - the face - behind this fucking asshole unacceptable piece of fuck-shit act. He was trying to get this guy, Daniel_K, Daniel Kawakami, to stop helping people fix the fucking sound in Vista by threating to sue him for providing drivers HE FIXED - alone. Creative fuck labs.

And engineers at creative: grow a set of fucking balls and quit. You ought to be fucking ashamed of working there you fucking assholes. What a pathetic piece of shit you create. If you are in IEEE, you should be kicked the fuck out you fucking assholes.

Washington DC - The Whore Killers - First Chandra Levy and slime-Condit, next Brandy Britton and now DC madam (Deborah Jeane Palfrey)

Washington DC - The Whore Killers - First Chandra Levy and slime-Condit, next Brandy Britton and now DC madam (Deborah Jeane Palfrey).

Interesting. Time Magazine said Palfrey said she would kill herself. But this was not the case, she said she would be "suicided," in a fashion similar to Brandy Britton. See here:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1736687,00.html

Glad to know Time is in the pocket of the military industrial complex fraud-media. Ms. Palfrey is on record as saying she would not commit suicide and, if she was found dead, it would be murder. Link. If you want to hear the words come from Ms. Palfrey's own mouth, here is a link to her last interview.

Hear it here: http://www.infowars.com/media/230707palfrey.mp3

Oh yeah, and statistically speaking, women very rarely hang themselves. They prefer guns and pills. I wonder why both these women, Britton and Palfrey, hung themselves. Probably the same rope. Collateral Damage in the D.C. Madam Case Like most of us, I chuckled and grinned when the case of the DC madam (Deborah Jeane Palfrey) first broke. A high class call girl service operating in Washington DC? Yeah, I was scandalized ... while waiting for the names to start trickling out. Ms. Palfrey gave her client list to ABC News fully intending to take down the high profile johns with her. Randall L. Tobias, the former CEO of Ely Lilly and top State Department lieutenant to Condi Rice, was the first big fish to be outed. In his capacity as Director of Foreign Assistance, Tobias encouraged sexual abstinence, and discounted the use of condoms, in preventing HIV/AIDS. Wikipedia profile. Later news interest shifted from the johns to the hookers as word leaked that Ms. Palfrey recruited highly educated women of class. Brandy Britton, 43, a former assistant professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (see pic on far right), became an escort for financial reasons (single parent raising two kids) according to Palfrey. Arrested on prostitution charges in 2006, Ms. Britton "hung herself" in February 2007 before she was scheduled to go to trial. Link. It is rumored that a US Naval Academy instructor and legal secretary at a large DC law firm were also escorts for Ms. Palfrey. If the girls are going to suffer, I say publish the names of every guy caught up in this thing. If this prosecution is so serious that a mother of two has to die, then let's destroy the lives of all the dudes too. 05/05/2007.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey found dead of supposed suicide at her mother's home in Florida. Brandy Britton was also found dead of a suicide hanging. Strange that both women decided to hang themselves? Ms. Palfrey is on record as saying she would not commit suicide and, if she was found dead, it would be murder. Link. If you want to hear the words come from Ms. Palfrey's own mouth, here is a link to her last interview. 05/01/2008.

DC Madam Predicted She Would Be Suicided

"Rape, beating, maiming, disfigurement and more than likely murder disguised in the form of just another jailhouse accident or suicide would await me," Palfrey wrote - Time Magazine curiously quick to re-affirm suicide story Paul Joseph Watson

Prison Planet
Thursday, May 1, 2008

Deborah Jeane Palfrey predicted she would be "suicided" on several occasions both recently and as far back as 17 years ago - comments that now appear ominous in light of the announcement that the former head of a Washington escort service allegedly killed herself today.';
Click here to listen to Palfrey clearly state that she would not commit suicide. DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey predicted she would be "suicided" on several occasions both recently and as far back as 17 years ago - comments that now appear ominous in light of the announcement that the former head of a Washington escort service allegedly killed herself today. "If taken into custody, my physical safety and most probably my very life would be jeopardized," she wrote in August 1991 following an attempt to bring her to trial, "Rape, beating, maiming, disfigurement and more than likely murder disguised in the form of just another jailhouse accident or suicide would await me," said Palfrey in a handwritten letter to the judge accusing the San Diego police vice squad of having a vendetta against her.

During several recent appearances on The Alex Jones Show, Palfrey also said that she was at risk of being killed and that authorities would make it look like suicide. She made it clear that she was not suicidal and if she was found dead it would be murder. Palfrey had threatened to release the names of well-known clients of her upscale call girl ring in the nation's capitol, and had indicated that Dick Cheney may be one of them. "We now know it goes at least as high as a United States Senator," Palfrey told The Alex Jones Show, "I'm hearing rumors now from other people that there are other possibilities in that stratosphere so to speak, on that level." "No I'm not planning to commit suicide," Palfrey told The Alex Jones Show on her last appearance in March, "I'm planning on going into court and defending myself vigorously and exposing the government," she said. "Blanche Palfrey had no sign that her daughter was suicidal, and there was no immediate indication that alcohol or drugs were involved, police Capt. Jeffrey Young said," according to an AP report. Click here to listen to Palfrey clearly state that she would not commit suicide. Click here to listen to the entirety of a July 2007 interview with Palfrey. UPDATE: In an almost uncanny development, as soon as this article started to go viral on the Internet, Time Magazine released a story claiming that Palfrey told author Dan Moldea that she would rather commit suicide than go to jail. What a funny coincidence!

No one ever said that the DC power structure was smart but we see time and again just how dag nasty they really are:


'D.C. Madam' dead in Florida Palfrey had been convicted of running $2 million prostitution ring The Associated Press updated 1:46 p.m. PT, Thurs., May. 1, 2008

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. - The woman convicted of running a high-end Washington prostitution ring that snagged a senator killed herself Thursday, police said, weeks after she was convicted on charges she vowed not to go to prison for. The body of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 52, was found in a shed near her mother's manufactured home about 20 miles northwest of Tampa. Police said she left at least two suicide notes and other writings to her family in a notebook, but they did not disclose their contents. The mother found Palfrey, who had apparently hanged herself with nylon rope from the shed's ceiling. A man who answered a phone listed for Palfrey's mother declined to comment. But defense attorney Preston Burton, who represented Palfrey in her criminal trial that ended last month, said: "This is a tragic news and my heart goes out to her mother." Palfrey's 76-year-old mother immediately called 911. "Obviously the mother's very distraught, discovering your child in that state," said Capt. Jeffrey Young of the Tarpon Springs Police Department. Young added that Blanche Palfrey had no indication her daughter was depressed to the point of being suicidal. There's no early indication that alcohol or drugs were involved in the death, he said. Authorities said Blanche last spoke to her daughter earlier that morning, telling Deborah Palfrey she planned to take a quick nap. Young said the FBI was notified about the death, "due to the ongoing cases we knew Ms. Palfrey had in the Washington area," but they are not investigating. 'This is a real bad tragedy'
Erwin Matthews, 73, who lives five houses down from Palfrey's mother in a community of mostly retirees, said he and his girlfriend heard Blanche Palfrey screaming around 10:30 a.m. "She said: 'My daughter's hanging there by herself,'" Matthews recalled. "That's when everybody went running over there. This is a real bad tragedy." Palfrey was convicted April 15 by a federal jury of running a prostitution service that catered to members of Washington's political elite, including Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican. She had denied her escort service engaged in prostitution, saying that if any of the women engaged in sex acts for money, they did so without her knowledge. She was convicted of money laundering, using the mail for illegal purposes and racketeering. But the trial concluded without revealing many new details about the service or its clients. Vitter was among possible witnesses, but he did not take the stand. Channing Phillips, the spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in the District of Columbia, said that under sentencing guidelines, Palfrey faced 57 to 71 months in prison. She was free pending her sentencing July 24. "I am sure as heck am not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone, you know, four to eight years here, because I'm shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever," Palfrey told ABC last year when she released phone records that revealed some of her clients. "Not for a second. I'll bring every last one of them in if necessary." Prosecutors said Palfrey operated the prostitution service for 13 years. Vitter: 'Very serious sin'
Vitter, a first-term senator who is married and has four children, has acknowledged being involved with Palfrey's escort service and has apologized for what he called a "very serious sin." But he avoided commenting further. Besides Vitter, the trial also concluded without the testimony of military strategist Harlan Ullman or Randall Tobias, a former senior State Department official. Both men had been named among possible witnesses. One of the escort service employees was former University of Maryland, Baltimore County, professor Brandy Britton, who was arrested on prostitution charges in 2006. She committed suicide in January before she was scheduled to go to trial. Last year, Palfrey said she, too, was humiliated by her prostitution charges, but said: "I guess I'm made of something that Brandy Britton wasn't made of."

Former Asst. Professor Charged With Prostitution In Her Home Britton Has Doctorate In Sociology

POSTED: 9:30 am EST January 19, 2006 UPDATED: 8:05 pm EST January 19, 2006 ELLICOTT CITY, Md. -- A woman charged with running a prostitution ring has an unusual resume, including a doctorate in sociology and an academic interest in women's studies. Brandy Britton, 41, earned her doctorate from the University of California at San Francisco and founded the Institute for Women and Girls Health Research in the Ellicott City home where she allegedly ran the prostitution service. Britton, a former sociology and anthropology professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, was charged this week with four counts related to prostitution, The (Baltimore) Sun reported. Police say she charged hourly rates of $300 and up.
On the Web site that police allege she used to solicit business, Britton says she receives money for modeling and companionship -- not for prostitution. On the Web site, she went by the name Alexis Angel. Britton was released on her own recognizance Tuesday, according to a Howard County court commissioner. She could not be reached for comment Thursday. The Web site police took notice of advertises her home as a "discreet, upscale location in Howard County" offering evening and full-day appointments for up to $2,500. Britton was arrested Tuesday after an undercover Howard County police officer scheduled an appointment with her. Court documents say she led the lieutenant to an upstairs bedroom, told him to undress and leave $400 on the table by the door. He then left the room and let in vice and narcotics officers. Police confiscated numerous business records in Britton's name. Police refused to give details of those records, including whether they listed clients' names. "She was brazen, but you would have to be looking for her site," said Pfc. Brandon Justice, a spokesman for Howard County police. "When a person uses mass communication, it increases the likelihood that police are going to be tipped off." Police said they charged her with "engaging in prostitution, maintaining a building for the purpose of prostitution, allowing a building to be used for prostitution, and allowing a person into a building for the purpose of prostitution." Neighbors said they remember men visiting the house at all hours. They also complained about Britton's two potbellied pigs. "You come out your front yard and have pigs in your front yard," said Ed Gordon, one of Britton's neighbors. "It wasn't exactly what we expected in this neighborhood. Of course, there's other things we didn't expect in this neighborhood, either." In 1999, Britton lost her job at UMBC and filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the university. In dismissing the suit, which is on appeal, a federal judge in Baltimore cited complaints about Britton from UMBC students and colleagues, and an accusation by the National Institutes of Health that Britton falsified data on a federally funded research project. Britton had taught sociology at the school beginning in 1994. After losing her job, Britton directed the Institute for Women and Girls Health Research Inc. Britton also participated in meetings of a committee of the Maryland Drug Treatment Task Force, chaired by then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Howard County police began investigating Britton in March 2005 after receiving "numerous" complaints and then finding "her services and rates" posted online, according to charging documents. The Web site, however, states: "Money exchanged in legal adult personal services for modeling is simply for my time and companionship. Anything else that may occur is a matter of personal choice between consenting adults of legal age and is not contracted for, nor is it requested to be contracted for in any manner. This is not an offer of prostitution." Stay with News4 and nbc4.com for more information.

Gulf States May End Dollar Pegs, Kuwait Minister Says

Gulf States May End Dollar Pegs, Kuwait Minister Says

May 1 (Bloomberg) -- Gulf states are considering dropping their pegs to the dollar after the U.S. currency's decline stoked inflation across the region, Kuwaiti Finance Minister Mustafa al- Shimali said.

``Yes, there are some'' Gulf Cooperation Council states considering dropping their pegs to the dollar, which has fallen 13 percent against the euro in the last 12 months, al-Shimali said in an interview in Kuwait late yesterday without naming the countries. ``Some countries will do what we are doing.''

Al-Shimali's comments may restoke speculation of a change in Middle East currency systems that eased after the United Arab Emirates and Qatar last month ruled out any revaluation or dropping the dollar peg in the short term. The issue will remain a key issue as long as inflation remains high.

``Inflation is rising in the Gulf to a great extent because of loose monetary policy,'' said Marios Maratheftis, head of research for Standard Chartered Plc in the Middle East in a telephone interview from Dubai. ``Tightening monetary policy can only happen if they drop their currency pegs or strengthen the currency, preferably both.''

The U.A.E., Bahrain and Qatar lowered their benchmark interest rates today by a quarter point, matching a cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve a day earlier. The move is needed to maintain the dollar pegs. Saudi Arabia is on its weekend while Oman moves its interest rates in line with the London Inter Bank Offered Rate.

Gulf Inflation

Inflation is running close to 10 percent in Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., while Qatar's consumer prices rose 14 percent in the fourth quarter.

The Kuwaiti dinar has appreciated 7.9 percent against the dollar since the nation in May became the only Gulf Arab state to drop its peg to the U.S. currency. Contracts to buy U.A.E. dirhams in 12 months time are trading at a 2 percent premium and Saudi riyal forwards are trading at a 1.3 percent premium to the spot price, suggesting that some traders are betting that those countries will follow Kuwait in revaluing. The link to the dollar meant that imports in euros and other currencies that have strengthened against the dollar became more expensive.

The idea of dropping the peg ``has been started by other Gulf countries and they are partially going this way because the dollar has been going down for some time,'' al-Shimali said yesterday.

Forum meeting

``This news has already been in newspapers,'' al-Shimali told reporters at a meeting of the Fourth World Economic Forum in Kuwait today.

Reuters reported today that al-Shimali said he was citing newspaper reports and not expressing his own opinion when commenting to Bloomberg on the future of the Gulf dollar pegs.

When asked at the forum about Gulf states considering dropping their pegs, al-Shimali told reporters that he would not comment on behalf of Gulf states.

Officials at the Qatari, Omani and U.A.E. central banks were not immediately available. The Bahraini and Saudi central banks were closed today.

Revaluation speculation peaked in November after U.A.E. central bank Governor Sultan Bin Nasser al-Suwaidi said he was considering dropping the dirham's peg to the dollar, and a Saudi Arabia central bank official said that Gulf states may revalue their currencies together.

All the GCC states, apart from Oman, are planning to form a single Gulf currency by 2010. The group's central bank governors will meet in June in an attempt to get the project back on schedule.

``The case for currency reform is strong,'' Simon Williams, chief Middle East economist at HSBC Holdings Plc, said in a telephone interview from Dubai. ``The inflationary pressures the Gulf faces not only demand a stronger currency, they also require an independent monetary policy. The issue is not going to go away, but I don't believe that change is close.''

STFU Chelsea: Chelsea Clinton Startled by Monica Query

INDIANAPOLIS — Chelsea Clinton had a quick retort Tuesday when asked whether her mother's credibility had been hurt during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

"Wow, you're the first person actually that's ever asked me that question in the, I don't know maybe, 70 college campuses I've now been to, and I do not think that is any of your business," Clinton said during a campaign visit for her mother, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton had picked out the male questioner as she wrapped up a question-and-answer session at Butler University. It wasn't immediately clear what statement by the first lady the questioner was referring to. Before she was fully aware of her husband's relationship with Lewinsky, a White House intern, Hillary Clinton said the allegations about that relationship were manufactured by a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

The Clinton bitch mother has taught her chick well. These people think they are above lines of questioning? What the hell? Her liar mother can make up fake stories about sniper fire and C-17s. She can pretend to believe Bill and calling allegations of perjury a "vast right wing conspiracy" This is all done by THREE voluntary public figures. Chelsea is a voluntary public figure! (Note: I don't give a shit about Clinton's BJ/stained dress, but lying about it was retarded)


Despite being a know-nothing stupid bitch that should have no right to speak without being DESTROYED by real journalism - she gets a free pass - "nothing I say" - can be a subject of debate!

I am sick of this bitch. I hate this bitch. She is a know nothing bitch that has not relevance and it’s a sad , sad day where "they" are actually planning to build her a dynasty as well.

Clinton can smear Obama like a right-wing pro, and can destroy the possibility of defeating McCain in the name of power and lust for power, and she can field her stupid daughter to campaign on her behalf and then whine and cry and bitch if anyone even makes a negative statement about that loser-silver-spooned worthless bitch Chelsea (and I'd say the same of the Bush twins, all three of these asshole bitches should be in uniform and in Iraq). Even the inbred hemophiliac assholes of Britain's royal family can do the time in Afghanistan right now, but these American Royalty bitches get a free pass at the press and it sickens me.

Chelsea, you stinking bitch, get the hell out of the public eye. You suck, you are a know-nothing, and if it wasn't for your parents being who they are, you wouldn't ever by listened to by anyone ever, and you would probably be single your entire life. Chelsea: you SICKEN me.

Look what you got, America, by letting your polls get rigged and letting your media be controlled by the military industrial complex. Look what you got. Diebold already knows the result of this SELECTION, and its McCain. And that traitor gun grabbing piece of SHIT is probably the worst thing for America right now.

You proles will be begging for RON PAUL once you see what you have doomed America to.

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

=====

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.