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Taking the restaurant's name from a line in Shakespeare's play "Twelfth Night," Decaturites Billy and Kristin Allin crafted Cakes & Ale, a distinctive establishment known for its inventive cooking. The menu changes daily, offering dishes like arancini (rice fritters) with fennel pollen or potato gnocchi with veal and rabbit bolognese sauce. First-rate beers are available on tap and by the bottle. From the well-chosen wine list, many selections may be ordered by the glass and by the carafe, as well as the bottle, and the bottle prices include many fine wines in the $20s and $30s. The first Sunday of each month, the restaurant opens for Sunday Supper, with a themed menu that changes from month to month. Cakes & Ale, 155 Sycamore St., Decatur, GA 30030, 404-377-7994.
Viande Rouge in Johns Creek satisfies suburban demands for red meat and big red wines. The French-inspired menu also includes boeuf bourguignon and duck à l'orange, as owner Marc Sublette's lineage is Gallic. The many sides include a line-up of potato options, including pommes rissolées. For dessert, we recommend the coconut cream pie, while bananas Foster is among the dramatic dishes prepared tableside. Viande Rouge, Shops of Warsaw, 9810 Medlock Bridge Rd., Ste. 900, Johns Creek, GA 30097, 770-623-4959.
YEAH! BURGER's "Keepin' it Real" card is a rewards card that earns patrons a point for every dollar they spend. A card-holding patron dining with either of the restaurant's two Atlanta locations swipes their card, and when the card totals $100, $10 is earned that may be applied to a food order. Founder Shaun Doty figures this is a way to thank all his patrons for their support of his two restaurants. Besides healthy fast-food options, YEAH! BURGER also offers gluten-free choices. Lunch & Dinner daily. YEAH! BURGER, White Provision Building, 1168 Howell Mill Rd. NW, Atlanta, GA 30318, 404-496-4393.
Chef Joël Antunes, the France native that once operated an eponymous fine dining restaurant in Atlanta, has undertaken a new venture across the pond. Kitchen Joël Antunes in London promises to be chic with art on the walls and a Provençal menu. Kitchen Joël Antunes, 29 Old Burlington St., London, UK W1, 020-7494 5660.
Ticha and Dan Krinsky will close their restaurant Tierra Friday, Feb. 17, citing a "serious rent increase" wanted by their landlord and economic conditions among the factors. Tierra, 1425 Piedmont Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA 30309, 404-874-5951.
MF Sushibar in downtown Atlanta has shuttered. MF Sushibar, 265 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA 30308, no phone.
Wildfire restaurant in Atlanta closed for business on December 21, 2011. Wildfire, 94 Perimeter Center W., Atlanta, GA 30346, no phone.


It's that magical time of year when everything looks, smells and tastes divine! If you're in the mood for some holiday treats—because we sure are—put a visit to Old Worthington at the top of your holiday to-do list.
Sassafras Bakery – While certainly delicious all year round, treats from Sassafras Bakery are extra special during the holidays. When it comes to their signature apple pie, their sticky, sweet cinnamon rolls and their beautifully decorated cream cheese sugar cookies, there's a pretty good chance you won't want to share any with Santa.
Highline Coffee – Pop into Highline Coffee this December for a tasty warm-up. They're featuring all of the season's favorite drinks, like spiced cider, gingerbread lattes and hot cocoa. And don't forget about their tasty treats from the Flaky Baker. Mint brownie and eggnog scone, anyone?
House Wine – Beer and wine aficionadas know all too well that certain drinks can only be enjoyed this time of year. Lucky for you, House Wine boasts an outstanding selection and will happily help you choose the right beverage for your holiday meal, like Joseph Drouhin Beaujolais Nouveau or Fat Head's Holly Jolly Christmas Ale.
Graeter's – It's finally here! Don't miss your chance to enjoy Graeter's peppermint ice cream and peppermint chip wheelies, which are only available for a short time. They're the perfect addition to a festive celebration and make wonderful gifts for staff or clients.
Bubbles Tea and Juice – At Bubbles Tea and Juice, you can order your favorite holiday drink three different ways—hot, iced or blended. With irresistible flavors like gingerbread chai, candy cane, eggnog Thai and salted caramel, you'll want to try them all.
La Chatelaine French Bakery and Bistro – La Chatelaine's famous Buche De Noel Yule Logs are back! If you're looking for a show-stopping dessert for your holiday party, this is definitely it. These gorgeous French sponge cake and butter cream frosting creations are available in four flavors: vanilla, chocolate, mocha and Grand Marnier. Order yours for Christmas today.


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Home . Articles . Boats . Used Boat Notebook . S2 7.9
S2 7.9
By Brook Berth
This trailerable racer-cruiser is popular with one-design and PHRF racers
After a decade in the cruising boat business, S2 decided to enter the racing market. The first model was the trailerable racer-cruiser S2 7.9. The boat was a big success and continues to compete in the marketplace and on the race course against the J/24, Olson 25, Merit 25 and other boats of its era.
The boat was designed by Scott Graham and Eric Schlageter, principals of Chicago-based G&S naval architecture firm. The 7.9 was originally marketed as the Grand Slam, but later the name was dropped and it became the 7.9. It was built from 1982 through 1987, and again in 1990 through 1994. In total, 546 boats were built.
Interestingly, the 7.9 continued to be built in the 1990s after S2 had closed its doors, at least its sailboat building doors. The S2 facility was retasked for Tiara yachts, building high-quality powerboats. S2 had its roots in the powerboat world-the owner of S2, Leon Slikkers, started and then sold Slickcraft, a powerboat builder, and then later started S2 as a way around a non-compete agreement that kept him out of the powerboat market.
All the S2 models have a very fresh look to them, most of the boats are 20-plus years old but always look just a few years old to me. Clean, conservative lines tend to do that. The boat has a traditional deck layout with a low-profile cabintrunk. The cabintrunk has two fixed and one opening portlight per side, with a large companionway and deck hatch up top. The boats have a large, long cockpit with an outboard rudder and tiller.
The 7.9 name refers to the LOA of 7.9 meters, translating to 25 feet, 11 inches. The waterline length is 21 feet, 8 inches, with a maximum beam of 9 feet. The boat draws 5 feet with the keel down, but will float in a skinny 13 inches with everything up. This shallow draft is a major feature of the boat, especially for those looking for a "big boat" for "skinny water."
Below the waterline, the 7.9 has a vertically lifting keel and a kick-up rudder. A very small number of boats were built with fixed keels. The lifting-keel boats have 1,750 pounds of ballast, 1,150 in the hull and another 600 in the keel itself, for a total displacement of roughly 4,250 pounds. The fixed-keel model displaces 200 fewer pounds; all the ballast is in the keel, and since it is placed lower in the boat, a bit less is required.
The 7.9 is very trailerable and many racers take advantage of this, hitting many regattas around the country. At 9 feet wide, the boat is technically too wide to trailer without a permit, but no owners have reported any difficulties. The rig is fairly simple and can be setup by hand with two or three people. Reports are that the boat can go from trailer to race course in just a few hours. Many owners have developed bracing systems to allow the rig to be raised by just one or two people with the aid of a deck winch.
The boats are fractionally rigged, with a fractional spinnaker. Sail area is 329 square feet, and it is agreed that the boats are properly canvassed.
The S2 build quality is excellent, the boats have held up very well. Even though they were built as racers, they were built very stoutly. Aside from rebedding and repairing damage from groundings, the boats have been pretty bulletproof.
The hull and decks are balsa cored to keep them light and stiff. The hull-to-deck joint is a little lacking, but has held up well. It consists of inward facing flanges secured with adhesive and the toerail fasteners. A majority of the boats were laid up with polyester resin, but the last 200 boats or so were built with modified epoxy resin. This is largely a point of trivia, there is no perceivable difference in the boats.
Of the 546 boats built, 121 were inboard powered, and a good number of those have already been converted to outboards. The opinion of the racers that I spoke with was that you want an outboard boat to be competitive. The inboard boats have a little better rating, but they don't appear to sail to it. A true outboard boat is more desirable than a converted inboard.
Many 7.9s have been raced and fully upgraded. If you intend to race, starting with an upgraded boat may save some time and money.
"A lot of boats have made equipment upgrades from original equipment through the years that fall within class rules," said Mark Adriansen, a 7.9 crewmember and North Sails representative in the Green Bay, Wisconsin, area. Updated travelers, backstay kickers/adjustment systems, removal of genoa sheet footblocks, solid boom-supporting vang, board-raising tackle, high-tech cordage and worn-out halyard stoppers, lower lifelines to support hiking efforts, mast-mounted spinnaker halyard cleat, are all good things to look for."
There are a few troublesome spots to look out for on the 7.9. The physics of the vertically lifting keel tends to cause damage to both the keel and the trunk in the event of a hard grounding. There is just nowhere for the keel to pivot. The boat has a deck-stepped mast, and the step and supporting structure should be carefully examined. Finally, the starboard chainplate has a tendency to slip loose. This can be inspected in the head compartment and is easily remedied should there be a problem.
The build quality of S2 is excellent, but with any balsa-cored boat, it is important to look for delamination. A wet, or delaminated hull/deck should not sway the decision to buy a particular boat, but this should be reflected in the price.
The 7.9 has a nice cockpit that is designed for sailing. The traveler is placed across the cockpit seats directly in front of the helmsman. This placement is great for sail control but does eat up some space. The cockpit is set up for singlehanding. The mainsheet, jib sheets and traveler are right at the helmsman's finger tips. The halyards are led aft to stoppers on the cabintop.
Cabintop winches handle aft-led halyards as well as spinnaker control lines. Nicely sized primary winches sit atop the cockpit coaming. Those same coamings hold the adjustable jib lead tracks and cars.
The boats came with a "pinch" type adjustable forked backstay, but many owners have converted to a cascade purchase Spectra backstay with a flicker to clear the roach of the mainsail. Active racers have added lower lifelines to allow the crew to more easily hike out.
As expected the interior of the 7.9 is a simple traditional layout. Two long settees flank the companion way, with a simple galley forward to port and small head to starboard. Forward, there is a V-berth. The interior is usable as a weekender, or to escape the rain between the races. The 7.9 was designed as a small one-design racer and the interior reflects
this purpose.
The 7.9 was offered with either a 7.5-horsepower BMW diesel inboard or set up for an outboard. In addition, a few boats came with an inboard Yanmar diesel. The outboard option was far more popular, the cost was much lower and the boats performed better. In later years a good number of inboard boats were converted to outboard versions. An 8-horsepower outboard seems to do a good job pushing the boat along.
Done properly this change required a ballast reconfiguration. The inboard boats have 200 pounds less ballast and the outboard version placed the ballast a bit farther forward.
I spoke with Jeff Bonvallet, owner of Dash, a 1994 model, hull No. 539, one of the last built. He races the boat extensively on Lake Michigan and trailers it around the country to different regattas. He is fleet captain of S2 7.9 Fleet 22, a fleet of 10 boats sailing out of Windjammers Sailing Club near Green Bay, Wisconsin.
"It is a great boat, somewhat tender and very responsive," Bonvallet said. "It is particularly good for our area as 'thin' water is an issue. With the board and rudder up we only need 13 inches of water. The boat handles very well in a blow but it really excels in light air. Beating is its strong point, any race with a long beat gives us a very good chance to place. The boat seems to race up to her PHRF rating and I have been very successful in several PHRF races around Green Bay."
The S2 7.9 is a nicely designed, well-built one-design racer that can be cruised on short trips. The class organization, www.sail79s.org, is large, active and engaging. You can find spirited but approachable racing in many parts of the country.
"We're a crew of old, amateur guys and are competitive with younger crews at the national level," said Adriansen, capturing the racing spirit nicely. "The boat levels the playing field so anyone can be competitive."
LOA 25'11"
LWL 21'8"
Beam 9'
Maximum Draft 5'
Minimum Draft 1'2"
Sail Area
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I love that pizza comes in all shapes and sizes: deep dish, thin crust, traditional, gourmet – it's all good to me. Yet, there is something to be said for the walk-up pizza-by-the-slice counter. One of my favorite local pizzerias is Village Bakery, which serves gourmet pizza slices at a small counter in downtown Davis. They keep it simple with three options: cheese, pepperoni and veggie. Slices are fairly large and cost between $2.25 and $2.75. There are two small tables in the corner of the bakery, but most people take their slices to-go to enjoy at home or on the park benches located outside of the bakery. It's fun to sit outside on the park benches and watch how many people are in-and-out of this buzzing little pizza counter.
As its name indicates, Village Bakery makes more than just pizza – their bread is to die for! You can pick up a loaf at the 2nd Street (pizza counter) location, the Davis Food Co-Op or Taylor's Market in Sacramento. I can't go to the Farmers Market (where they have a stand on Saturdays) without picking up a loaf of the jalapeño cheddar cheese bread – so good!
And it gets better: the owners of Village Bakery just opened a sit-down restaurant on the corner of 4th and G Streets in downtown Davis, called Village Pizza and Grill. The restaurant is newly remodeled, has a large patio and opened in late August serving the famous Village pizzas, as well as an extended menu of salads, burgers and beers on tap. I haven't gone yet, but if you have, leave a comment let us know what you think!
Mon – Sat 11:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Sun 11:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Monday-Saturday 11 a.m. -10 p.m.


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#auditthefed
Permanent Damage Has Been Done to the American Economy
Posted on October 23, 2014 by TwistedPolitix
From 4th Media
The last major wave of the economic collapse did a colossal amount of damage to our economic foundations, and now the next major wave of the economic collapse is rapidly approaching.
#1 EmploymentThe mainstream media is constantly telling us about the "employment recovery" that is happening in the United States, but the truth is that it is just an illusion. As the chart below demonstrates, just prior to the last recession about 63 percent of all working age Americans had a job. During the last wave of the economic collapse, that number dropped to below 59 percent and stayed there for a very long time. In the past few months we have finally seen the employment-population ratio tick back up to 59 percent, but we are still far, far below where we used to be. To call the tiny little bump at the end of this chart a "recovery" is really an insult to our intelligence…
#2 The Labor Force Participation Rate The percentage of Americans that are either employed or currently looking for a job started to fall during the last recession and it has not stopped falling since then. The labor force participation rate has now fallen to a 36 year low, and this is a sign of a very, very sick economy…
#3 The Inactivity Rate For Men In Their Prime Years Some blame the decline in the labor force participation rate on the aging of our population. But it isn't just elderly people that are dropping out of the labor force. In fact, the inactivity rate for men in their prime working years (25 to 54) continues to rise and is now at the highest level that has ever been
#4 Manufacturing EmployeesOnce upon a time in America, anyone that was reliable and willing to work hard could easily find a manufacturing job somewhere. But we have stood by and allowed millions upon millions of good paying manufacturing jobs to be shipped out of the country, and now many of our formerly great manufacturing cities have been transformed into ghost towns. Over the past few years, there has been a slight "recovery", but we are still well below where we were at just previous to the last recession…
#5 Our Current Account Balance As a nation, we buy far more from the rest of the world than they buy from us. In other words, we perpetually consume far more wealth than we produce. This is a recipe for national economic suicide. Our current account balance soared to obscene levels just prior to the last recession, and now we have almost gotten back to those levels…
#6 Existing Home Sales Our economy has never fully recovered from the housing crash of 2007-2008. As you can see from the chart below, the number of existing home sales is still far below the level that we hit back in 2006. At this point we are just getting back to the level we were at in 2000, but our population today is far larger than it was back then…
#7 New Home Sales Things are even more dramatic when you look at new home sales. This is an industry that have been absolutely emasculated. The number of new home sales in the United States is just a little more than half of what it was back in 2000, and it isn't even worth comparing to what we experienced during the peak of 2006.
#8 The Monetary Base In a desperate attempt to get the economy going again, the Federal Reserve has been wildly printing money. It has been so reckless that it is hard to put it into words. When I look at this chart, the phrase "Weimar Republic" comes to mind…
#9 Food Inflation Thankfully, much of the money that the Federal Reserve has been injecting into the system has not made it into the real economy. But enough of it has gotten into the system to force food prices significantly higher. For example, my wife went to the store today and paid just a shade under 10 bucks for just four pieces of chicken. And as you can see from the chart below, food prices have been steadily going up in America for a very long time…
#10 The Velocity Of Money One of the reasons why we have not seen even more inflation is because the velocity of money is extraordinarily low. In general, when an economy is healthy money tends to flow through the system rapidly. People are buying and selling and money changes hands frequently. But when an economy is sick, money tends to stagnate. And that is exactly what is happening in the United States right now. In fact, at this point the velocity of the M2 money stock has dropped to the lowest level ever recorded…
#11 The National Debt As our economic fundamentals have deteriorated, our politicians have attempted to prop up our standard of living by borrowing from the future. The U.S. national debt is on pace to approximately double during the Obama years, and it increased by more than a trillion dollars in fiscal year 2014 alone. Despite assurances that "the deficit is under control", the federal government borrows about a trillion dollars a year to fund new spending in addition to borrowing about 7 trillion dollars to pay off old debt that is coming due. What we are doing to future generations of Americans is absolutely criminal, and it is just a matter of time before this Ponzi scheme totally collapses…
#12 Total Debt Of course it is not just the federal government that is gorging on debt. When you add up all forms of debt in our society (government, business, consumer, etc.) it comes to a grand total of more than 57 trillion dollars. This total has more than doubled since the year 2000…
If you know anyone that believes that we are in good economic shape, just show them these charts. The numbers do not lie. Our economy is sick and it is getting sicker by the day. And of course the next major financial crisis could strike at any time. U.S. stocks just experienced their worst week in three years, and if cases of Ebola start popping up around the country the fear that would cause could collapse our economy all by itself. The debt-fueled prosperity that we are enjoying today is not real. We are living on the fumes of our past, and every single day our long-term problems get even worse.
Anyone with half a brain should be able to see what is coming. Sadly, most Americans will continue to deny the truth until it is far too late. ———
– – A former Washington, D.C., attorney, Michael Snyder
Central Banks Need $200 Billion Per Quarter To Avoid A Market Crash
From Zerohedge:
We have all seen it countless times before: visual confirmation that without the Fed's (and all other central banks') liquidity pump, the S&P would be about 70% lower than were it is now.
Most recently, this was shown last Friday in "Another Reminder How Addicted Markets Still Are To Liquidity" in which Deutsche bank's Jim Reid said:
The recovery from the lows after Bullard spoke yesterday is another reminder how addicted markets still are to liquidity. Indeed in today's pdf we reprint and update a table from our 2014 Outlook showing the various phases of the Fed's balance sheet expansion and pausing over the last 5-6 years and its impact on equities and credit. We have found that the relationship broadly works best with markets pricing in the Fed balance sheet move just under 3 months in advance. We've also included our oft-used chart of the Fed balance sheet vs the S&P 500 to help demonstrate this. So end July / early August 2014 was always the time that this relationship suggested markets should enter a new more difficult phase. So we still think central bankers hold the key to markets going forward and there seems to be a hint of change in the Fed.
Another view was shown over the weekend, in "The Chart That Explains Why Fed's Bullard Wants To Restart The QE Flow" which shows that when the Fed's excess reserve firehose is turned on Max, stocks surge; when it isn't – as has been the case recently – they tumble.
So now that "best Keynesian practices" are out of the window, and everyone has once again turned Austrian, and only the "flow of money" (either inside or outside) matters, the question is how much do central banks need to inject to keep the stock market from crashing, let alone continuing to levitate. Luckily, Citi's Matt King has just done the math, and the answer is…
Here is his answer:
We think the markets' weakness owes more to an almost belated reaction to a temporary lull in central bank stimulus than it does to any reduction in the effect of that stimulus in propping up asset prices. Figure 5 shows the rolling 3m combined liquidity injection by the Fed, the ECB, the BoE and the BoJ, plotted against the rolling 3m change in spreads. While the relationship is not perfect – liquidity flows across asset classes and across borders, and there are announcement and confidence effects in addition to the straightforward impact on net supply – it is this, not fundamentals, which we would argue has been the major driver of markets for the past few years (Figure 6 shows the same series plotted against global equities).
In case anyone missed it, and in case there is still any debate about this issue which we first explicitly stated nearly 6 years ago and were widely mocked by the all too serious intelligentsia, here is the key sentence again:
"it's the liquidity injections, not fundamentals, which we would argue has been the major driver of markets for the past few years."
And with that piece of New Normal trivia behind us, we continue:
For over a year now, central banks have quietly being reducing their support. As Figure 7 shows, much of this is down to the Fed, but the contraction in the ECB's balance sheet has also been significant. Seen from this perspective, a negative reaction in markets was long overdue: very roughly, the charts suggest that zero stimulus would be consistent with 50bp widening in investment grade, or a little over a ten percent quarterly drop in equities. Put differently, it takes around $200bn per quarter just to keep markets from selling off.
If anyone ever needed any confirmation of what we said in June 2012, that "The Stock Is Dead, Long-Live The Flow: Perpetual QE Has Arrived", now you have it, and only qualified but quantified. Because to translate what Matt King – Citi's most respected strategist and the only person on Wall Street to warn about the Lehman collapse and its consequences before it happened, just said – if and when the global central bank liquidity tracker ever drops to $200 billion per quarter or less, the market will crash.
Permanent Damage Has Been Done To The US Economy
Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
Most people that discuss the "economic collapse" focus on what is coming in the future. And without a doubt, we are on the verge of some incredibly hard times. But what often gets neglected is the immense permanent damage that has been done to the U.S. economy by the long-term economic collapse that we are already experiencing. In this article I am going to share with you 12 economic charts that show that we are in much, much worse shape than we were five or ten years ago. The long-term problems that are eating away at the foundations of our economy like cancer have not been fixed. In fact, many of them continue to get even worse year after year. But because unprecedented levels of government debt and reckless money printing by the Federal Reserve have bought us a very short window of relative stability, most Americans don't seem too concerned about our long-term problems.
They seem to have faith that our "leaders" will be able to find a way to muddle through whatever challenges are ahead. Hopefully this article will be a wake up call. The last major wave of the economic collapse did a colossal amount of damage to our economic foundations, and now the next major wave of the economic collapse is rapidly approaching.
#1 Employment
The mainstream media is constantly telling us about the "employment recovery" that is happening in the United States, but the truth is that it is just an illusion. As the chart below demonstrates, just prior to the last recession about 63 percent of all working age Americans had a job. During the last wave of the economic collapse, that number dropped to below 59 percent and stayed there for a very long time. In the past few months we have finally seen the employment-population ratio tick back up to 59 percent, but we are still far, far below where we used to be. To call the tiny little bump at the end of this chart a "recovery" is really an insult to our intelligence…
#2 The Labor Force Participation Rate
The percentage of Americans that are either employed or currently looking for a job started to fall during the last recession and it has not stopped falling since then. The labor force participation rate has now fallen to a 36 year low, and this is a sign of a very, very sick economy…
#3 The Inactivity Rate For Men In Their Prime Years
Some blame the decline in the labor force participation rate on the aging of our population. But it isn't just elderly people that are dropping out of the labor force. In fact, the inactivity rate for men in their prime working years (25 to 54) continues to rise and is now at the highest level that has ever been recorded…
#4 Manufacturing Employees
Once upon a time in America, anyone that was reliable and willing to work hard could easily find a manufacturing job somewhere. But we have stood by and allowed millions upon millions of good paying manufacturing jobs to be shipped out of the country, and now many of our formerly great manufacturing cities have been transformed into ghost towns. Over the past few years, there has been a slight "recovery", but we are still well below where we were at just previous to the last recession…
#5 Our Current Account Balance
As a nation, we buy far more from the rest of the world than they buy from us. In other words, we perpetually consume far more wealth than we produce. This is a recipe for national economic suicide. Our current account balance soared to obscene levels just prior to the last recession, and now we have almost gotten back to those levels…
#6 Existing Home Sales
Our economy has never fully recovered from the housing crash of 2007-2008. As you can see from the chart below, the number of existing home sales is still far below the level that we hit back in 2006. At this point we are just getting back to the level we were at in 2000, but our population today is far larger than it was back then…
#7 New Home Sales
Things are even more dramatic when you look at new home sales. This is an industry that have been absolutely emasculated. The number of new home sales in the United States is just a little more than half of what it was back in 2000, and it isn't even worth comparing to what we experienced during the peak of 2006.
#8 The Monetary Base
In a desperate attempt to get the economy going again, the Federal Reserve has been wildly printing money. It has been so reckless that it is hard to put it into words. When I look at this chart, the phrase "Weimar Republic" comes to mind…
#9 Food Inflation
Thankfully, much of the money that the Federal Reserve has been injecting into the system has not made it into the real economy. But enough of it has gotten into the system to force food prices significantly higher. For example, my wife went to the store today and paid just a shade under 10 bucks for just four pieces of chicken. And as you can see from the chart below, food prices have been steadily going up in America for a very long time…
#10 The Velocity Of Money
One of the reasons why we have not seen even more inflation is because the velocity of money is extraordinarily low. In general, when an economy is healthy money tends to flow through the system rapidly. People are buying and selling and money changes hands frequently. But when an economy is sick, money tends to stagnate. And that is exactly what is happening in the United States right now. In fact, at this point the velocity of the M2 money stock has dropped to the lowest level ever recorded…
#11 The National Debt
As our economic fundamentals have deteriorated, our politicians have attempted to prop up our standard of living by borrowing from the future. The U.S. national debt is on pace to approximately double during the Obama years, and it increased by more than a trillion dollarsin fiscal year 2014 alone. Despite assurances that "the deficit is under control", the federal government borrows about a trillion dollars a year to fund new spending in addition to borrowing about 7 trillion dollars to pay off old debt that is coming due. What we are doing to future generations of Americans is absolutely criminal, and it is just a matter of time before this Ponzi scheme totally collapses…
#12 Total Debt
Of course it is not just the federal government that is gorging on debt. When you add up all forms of debt in our society (government, business, consumer, etc.) it comes to a grand total of more than 57 trillion dollars. This total has more than doubled since the year 2000…
If you know anyone that believes that we are in good economic shape, just show them these charts.
The numbers do not lie. Our economy is sick and it is getting sicker by the day.
And of course the next major financial crisis could strike at any time. U.S. stocks just experienced their worst week in three years, and if cases of Ebola start popping up around the country the fear that would cause could collapse our economy all by itself.
The debt-fueled prosperity that we are enjoying today is not real. We are living on the fumes of our past, and every single day our long-term problems get even worse.
Anyone with half a brain should be able to see what is coming.
Sadly, most Americans will continue to deny the truth until it is far too late.
#MassMobilization of Americans to #AudittheFed #ReclaimtheRepublic
Dear Tired Old Man,
What an incredible victory you and other Campaign for Liberty members made possible for Audit the Fed in the U.S. House in September!
Today, I want to update you on what Campaign for Liberty has been doing since that victory to pour pressure on the Senate to finally hold a vote during its upcoming Lame Duck session.
Last week, I publicly called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to act on Audit the Fed immediately upon his return to Washington in November, writing in a letter to him that "support for transparency at our nation's central bank is stronger than ever."
My staff also sent a similar letter from me to Senator Reid's colleagues asking them to urge Senator Reid to hold the vote.
Rare's Kurt Wallace interviewed C4L Vice President of Policy Norm Singleton and Vice President of Programs Matt Hawes for a podcast where they discussed why Audit the Fed is needed and why the issue has made such significant progress.
Through C4L's website and social media, we've been reaching thousands of Americans about sending calls, emails, and more to the Senate demanding action.
One of our Facebook images
We've also started sending a series of emails to specific states turning up pressure on senators whose vote could be the key to victory in the Senate.
And yesterday, Rare ran an op-ed from me concerning the Fed, its effect on the American people and our economy, and our Audit effort.
My staff has also created a variety of materials to help you get the word out on what Audit the Fed is, the damage the Fed has done, and why we must take action.
• A flier you can hand out at events and around your neighborhood.
• A fact sheet on the Fed and our Audit you can also hand out and even use when calling your elected officials' offices to build pressure or radio talk shows to spread the word.
• An update of an Audit the Fed F.A.Q. my congressional office originally created in 2012 so you can answer some of the most common questions we've encountered on Audit the Fed.
You can find links to my letter to Senator Reid, my op-ed, Norm and Matt's podcast interview, and our downloadable materials here.
In addition to empowering our own members with information and tools to promote Audit the Fed, these efforts allow us to reach new audiences with our message of sound money.
I hope you'll visit our website and use these materials to recruit your family and friends to this cause!
Stay tuned for more information on other ways C4L is putting the heat on the Senate and how you can help us obtain a vote on Audit the Fed!
P.S. It's time for the Senate to act on Audit the Fed.
If you can today, I hope you'll consider chipping in $5 or $10 to help C4L mobilize Americans on Audit the Fed and our other efforts to reclaim the Republic and restore the Constitution.
Thank you for supporting Campaign for Liberty!
Is the Fed Preparing To Asset-strip Local Government? Bizarre New Rules
Posted on September 26, 2014 by TwistedPolitix
From Web of Debt Blog
Posted on September 8, 2014 by Ellen Brown
In an inscrutable move that has alarmed state treasurers, the Federal Reserve, along with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, just changed the liquidity requirements for the nation's largest banks. Municipal bonds, long considered safe liquid investments, have been eliminated from the list of high-quality liquid collateral. assets (HQLA). That means banks that are the largest holders of munis are liable to start dumping them in favor of the Treasuries and corporate bonds that do satisfy the requirement.
Muni bonds fund the nation's critical infrastructure, and they are subject to the whims of the market: as demand goes down, interest rates must be raised to attract buyers. State and local governments could find themselves in the position of cash-strapped Eurozone states, subject to crippling interest rates. The starkest example is Greece, where rates went as high as 30% when investors feared the government's insolvency. Sky-high interest rates, in turn, are the fast track to insolvency. Greece wound up stripped of its assets, which were privatized at fire sale prices in a futile attempt to keep up with the bills.
The first major hit to US municipal bonds occurred with the downgrade of two major monoline insurers in January 2008. The fault was with the insurers, but the taxpayers footed the bill. The downgrade signaled a simultaneous downgrade of bonds from over 100,000 municipalities and institutions, totaling more than $500 billion. The Fed's latest rule change could be the final nail in the municipal bond coffin, another misguided move by regulators that not only does not hit its mark but results in serious collateral damage to local governments – maybe serious enough to finally propel them into bankruptcy.
Why this unprecedented move by US regulators? It is not because municipal bonds are too risky, since corporate bonds with lower credit ratings are accepted under the new rules. Nor is it that the stricter standard is required by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the BIS-based global regulator agreed to by the G20 leaders in 2009. The Basel III Accords set by the BCBS are actually more lenient than the US rules and do not include these HQLA requirements. So what's going on?
From the Inscrutable, Unaccountable Fed
The rule change was detailed by Pam Martens and Russ Martens in a September 4th article titled "The Fed Just Imposed Financial Austerity on the States." They write that on September 3rd:
The Federal regulators adopted a new rule that requires the country's largest banks – those with $250 billion or more in total assets – to hold an increased level of newly defined "high quality liquid assets" (HQLA) in order to meet a potential run on the bank during a credit crisis. In addition to U.S. Treasury securities and other instruments backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government (agency debt), the regulators have included some dubious instruments while shunning others with a higher safety profile.
Bizarrely, the Fed and its regulatory siblings included investment grade corporate bonds, the majority of which do not trade on an exchange, and more stunningly, stocks in the Russell 1000, as meeting the definition of high quality liquid assets, while excluding all municipal bonds – even general obligation municipal bonds from states with a far higher credit standing and safety profile than BBB-rated corporate bonds.
This, rightfully, has state treasurers in an uproar. The five largest Wall Street banks control the majority of deposits in the country. By disqualifying municipal bonds from the category of liquid assets, the biggest banks are likely to trim back their holdings in munis which could raise the cost or limit the ability for states, counties, cities and school districts to issue muni bonds to build schools, roads, bridges and other infrastructure needs. This is a particularly strange position for a Fed that is worried about subpar economic growth.
Not Sufficiently Liquid?
In a September 3rd press release, Federal Reserve Governor Daniel K. Tarullo stated that while "most state and municipal bonds are not sufficiently liquid to serve the purposes of HQLA in stressed periods . . . the liquidity of some state and municipal bonds is comparable to that of the very liquid corporate bonds that can qualify as HQLA." [Cite] Criteria were being developed, he said, for considering these assets. But "it is important to get this final rule adopted now, so that the largest banks can begin to prepare for its implementation on January 1." In the meantime, muni bonds are in limbo, and it appears that most will still not be accepted as HQLA.
The regulators consider stocks to be more liquid than muni bonds because they are readily traded on the stock market. But as the Martens' note, stock markets can be quite inaccessible in a crisis. Quoting from the Fed's own archives on the crash of 1987:
Market makers in the over-the-counter market were not obligated to maintain an orderly market and many withdrew from trading. Delays in processing trades resulted in investors receiving prices very different from what they expected. Many brokers did not answer their phones, leaving investors unable to reach them. Erratic price movements and quotes resulted in frequent lock-ups in the electronic trading system used in the over-the-counter market.
In any case, switching the banks' holdings from muni bonds to corporate bonds or Treasuries is liable to have little effect in a crash. The stricter rules are supposed to be a defense against bank runs; but in a major derivatives bust and bail-in, the available collateral will go first to the derivatives claimants, through a massive concession to financial institutions in the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005. (See my earlier article here.) The FDIC and the depositors are both liable to be out of luck, no matter what form the collateral takes.
The Martens' conclude:
That the Fed and its regulatory cohorts have to resort to this implausible plan – which crimps the ability of states and localities to raise essential funds to operate – in a strained effort to pretend that they've found a means of avoiding another massive bailout of Wall Street in a crisis, is just further proof that the only way to seriously deal with too-big-to-fail banks is to restore the Glass-Steagall Act and break up these complex creatures before they strike again.
Gordon Gekko Goes Muni?
The rule change may not have much effect in a crash, but where it will have a major effect is on the cost of credit, which will increase for municipal governments and decrease for corporate and financial institutions. The result will be to further shift power and financial resources from the public sector to the private sector.
Why would regulators dangerously jeopardize state and local government budgets in this way? Skeptical observers speculate that the intent is to Detroit-ize municipal governments, so that assets can be stripped as is being done in that imperiled city. The international bankers got away with asset-stripping Greece. Why not make the US itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of private banking interests?
If that seems far-fetched, consider what is happening with Argentina, which has been forced into bankruptcy by a US court to satisfy the exaggerated claims of certain hold-out vulture funds. IMF regulators have discussed establishing an international bankruptcy court that could strip a country such as Argentina of its assets, including prime sections of real estate, to pay off the nation's creditors.
In the US, there is already a trend to force state and municipal governments into austerity measures, if not outright bankruptcy, in order to eliminate labor unions, pension obligations and social services. Bankruptcies can be involuntary, forced by the creditors who caused them. Detroit is the US model. Michigan's Constitution protects pensions, so the emergency manager appointed by the governor could not unilaterally cut those funds. But in a municipal bankruptcy, a judge would decide the fate of city workers' pensions, making it an attractive option for banking interests. The oligarchs have long had their eyes on the massive sums represented by the pension funds.
Public Banks to the Rescue?
Whatever the explanation for the Fed's game-changing move, the vulnerability of state and local governments to unpredictable and unaccountable federal regulators is another strong argument in favor of forming publicly-owned banks. Why be under the thumb of an erratic privately-owned central bank manipulated by Wall Street megabanks now caught in multiple frauds?
Like Eurozone countries, US states cannot print their own currencies. But unlike Eurozone countries, they can borrow from their own public banks, which can create money as credit on their books just as private banks do.
At least, they could if they had their own banks. Only one state – North Dakota – has currently taken advantage of that option. North Dakota is also the only state to have escaped the 2008 credit crisis, sporting a budget surplus every year since then. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, the lowest default rate on credit card debt, and one of the lowest foreclosure rates.
True, North Dakota also has oil. But the 2008 crisis happened before oil and gas had made a significant impact on state revenues; and the state was posting a budget surplus all during that period. Other oil and gas states are not doing so well.
Globally, 40% of banks are publicly owned; and they are largely in the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China. These countries also escaped the credit crisis largely unscathed.
If state and municipal governments want to protect themselves from the fate of Greece and Detroit, they would do well to follow North Dakota's lead and form their own publicly-owned banks. And time is of the essence, if they hope to beat the rush before the first US Cyprus-style bail-in consumes the collateral that local governments are counting on to protect their multi-billions in deposits.
Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books, including the best-selling Web of Debt. In The Public Bank Solution, her latest book, she explores successful public banking models historically and globally. Her 200+ blog articles are at EllenBrown.com.
Too Big To Fail Part 2
Posted on September 3, 2014 by TwistedPolitix
The Bank of International Settlements; The Shadow Government of Central Banks
Posted on August 15, 2014 by TwistedPolitix
The article below is an excellent summary of modern central banking and it's involvement with economic wars. It leaves out some very important facts about its origins, which go back to Hjalmar Schacht, President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics under Adolph Hitler. The BIS was used to handle all the gold and assets stolen from pillaged countries, but I digress.
Written by Bruno de Landevoisin of the STEALTHFLATION blog.
The Bank for International Settlements, otherwise known as the BIS, should more aptly be named the Bank for International division and domination. It's clearly an institution with global reach, whose hidden covert purpose is to impose the financial globalist's agenda on all sovereign nation states. The luminous photo below is of their luxurious Headquarters.
Ten times a year, once a month except in August and October, a small group of well dressed men arrives in Basel, Switzerland. Carrying elegant overnight bags and stylish brief cases, they discreetly check into the Euler Hotel, across from the railroad station. They come to this quiet city from places as disparate as Tokyo, Paris, Brasília, London, and Washington, D.C., for the regular meeting of the most exclusive, secretive, and powerful supranational club in the world.
Each visiting member has his own office at the club, with secure telephone lines to his home country. These elite international bankers are fully serviced by a permanent staff of about 300, including chauffeurs, chefs, guards, messengers, translators, stenographers, secretaries, and researchers. Also at their disposal are a brilliant research unit, well equipped medical facility and deep underground bunker, as well as a secluded country club with tennis courts and a swimming pool, a few kilometers outside of Basel.
Undoubtedly, we have all heard of this all important international organization, but how many of us really know much about it, or even understand its intended purpose. The only thing that I knew about this powerful global entity was that it is often described as the Central Bank of Central Banks. Clearly, we all need to know more, let's constructively begin with some benign elementary historical background transcribed from Investopedia, and also lay out the venerable institution's specific functions & mission statement, directly from the BIS website itself.
Founding and brief History of the BIS:
Founded in 1930, the Bank for International Settlements is the oldest global financial institution and operates under the auspices of international law. But from its inception to the present day, the role of the BIS has been ever-changing, as it adapts to the dynamic global financial community and its needs. The BIS was created out of the Hague Agreements of 1930 and took over the job of the Agent General for Repatriation in Berlin. When established, the BIS was responsible for the collection, administration and distribution of reparations from Germany – as agreed upon in the Treaty of Versailles.
After World War II, the BIS turned its focus to the defense and implementation of the World Bank's Bretton Woods System. Between the 1970s and 1980s, the BIS monitored cross-border capital flows in the wake of the oil and debt crises, which in turn led to the development of regulatory supervision of internationally active banks. More recently, it has concentrated its efforts on the global financial stability and capital reserve requirement accords. The BIS has also emerged as an emergency "funder" to nations in trouble, coming to the aid of countries such as Mexico and Brazil during their debt crises in 1982 and 1998, respectively. In cases like these, where the International Monetary Fund is already in the country, emergency funding is provided through the IMF structured program.
The BIS has also functioned as trustee and agent. For example, from 1979 to 1994, the BIS was the agent for the European Monetary System, which is the administration that paved the way for a single European currency. Today, the BIS has become the central bank of central banks. The Bank now represents the interests of nearly all of the world's central bank institutions, and manages a significant share of their reserves, including gold holdings. The organization now serves and presides over 60 central banks worldwide. Accordingly the BIS requires the capital/asset ratio of central banks to be above a prescribed minimum international standard, for the protection of all central banks involved.
In broad outline, the BIS pursues its mission by:
Promoting discussion and facilitating collaboration among central banks.
Supporting dialogue with other authorities that are responsible for promoting financial stability.
Conducting research on policy issues confronting central banks and financial supervisory authorities.
Acting as a prime counterparty for central banks in their financial transactions.
Serving as an agent or trustee in connection with international financial operations.
Now that we are up to speed on the BIS's alleged "raison d'etre", and fully indoctrinated in the organization's whitewashed history, self proclaimed mission statement and assumed functions, let's expose the true nature of this supposedly benign bastion of banking balance. Trust me, they are anything but the modest measured men of monetary moderation and management they purport to be. This odious institution is nothing but a conceited cunning cabal of carnivorous cannibals bent on global financial domination, who deftly deploy dreaded debt disbursements the world over. They will stop at nothing to achieve their ends, absolutely nothing.
To fully comprehend the self-serving nature of the BIS, one has to understand that it is an autocratic institution run by a very select group of the highest ranking bankers on the planet, representing both private banking interests, as well as those of the vast worldwide network of central banks that are ultimately owned by those same private commercial & financial interests. It is important to note that these top flight international bankers have intentionally organized themselves, so as not to be directed by their own national governments for the crucial decisions and actions they take. In effect, they are a supranational organization, controlled by an elite group of men, who preside over most of the world's financial and monetary systems of exchange which regulate and facilitate most of the globe's commerce.
The supreme inner club is made up of the half-dozen powerful central bankers at the apex of a privately devised international monetary system. Their dictate, which enshrines the inner club from the rest of the lessor BIS members, is the firm belief that central banks should act independently of their home governments. Their controlling organization is at the epicenter of global finance, and has inherently become increasingly connected and indispensable over time by design. A glaring early example of their self-serving grandiosity can be found in their despicable double dealings before the outbreak and during the hostilities of the World Wars.
The following passage, by well-respected financial historian Adam LeBor, details the nefarious activities of Thomas McKittrick, a former president of the BIS:
The BIS was founded in Basel in 1930, where it is still headquartered today. Ostensibly set up as part of the Young Plan to administer German reparations payments for WWI, its real purpose was detailed in its statutes: to "promote the cooperation of central banks and provide additional facilities for international financial operations." The establishment of the BIS was the culmination of the central bankers' decades-old dream to have their own bank powerful, independent, and free from interfering politicians and nosy reporters.
Under the terms of the founding treaty, the bank's assets could never be seized, even in times of war. Most felicitous of all, the BIS was self-financing and would be in perpetuity. Its clients were its own founders and shareholders, the central banks. The BIS, boasted Gates McGarrah, an American banker who served as its first president, was "completely removed from any government or political control." McKittrick's involvement with the BIS began in 1931, when he joined the German Credits Arbitration Committee, which adjudicated disputes involving German commercial banks. One of the other two members was Marcus Wallenberg, of Sweden's Enskilda Bank, who taught McKittrick about the intricacies of international finance. Marcus and his brother Jacob were two of the most powerful bankers in the world. During the war, the Wallenberg brothers used Enskilda Bank to play both sides and harvest enormous profits.
In May 1939 McKittrick was offered the position of president of the BIS, which he readily accepted. As head of the BIS, headquartered in Basel, from 1940 to 1946, McKittrick played a crucial role in abetting Hitler's war—and, at the same time, in revealing details about his Nazi colleagues to his friends in Washington, D.C. On McKittrick's watch, the BIS willingly accepted looted Nazi gold, carried out foreign exchange deals for the Reichsbank, and recognized the Nazi invasion and annexation of conquered countries. By doing so, it also legitimized the role of the national banks in the occupied countries in appropriating Jewish-owned assets. Indeed, the BIS was so indispensable to the overall Nazi project that the vice-president of the Reichsbank, Emil Puhl, who was later tried for war crimes, once referred to the BIS as the Reichsbank's only "foreign branch." In the closing months of the war, as American GIs fought their way across Europe, McKittrick was arranging deals with Nazi industrialists to guarantee their profits after the Allied victory.
Additionally, the following indictment from Wikipedia:
As a result of Nazi collaboration allegations, at the Bretton Woods Conference held in July 1944, Norway proposed the "liquidation of the Bank for International Settlements at the earliest possible moment". This resulted in the BIS being the subject of a disagreement between the American and British delegations. The liquidation of the bank was supported by other European delegates, as well as the United States (including Harry Dexter White, Secretary of the Treasury, and Henry Morgenthau),[6] but opposed by John Maynard Keynes, head of the British delegation. Fearing that the BIS would be dissolved by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Keynes went to Morgenthau hoping to prevent the dissolution, or have it postponed, but the next day the dissolution of the BIS was approved. However, the liquidation of the bank was never actually undertaken.[7] In April 1945, the new U.S. president Harry S. Truman and the British government suspended the dissolution, and the decision to liquidate the BIS was officially reversed in 1948.
Fast forward to Today. Would the very same elite banking interests not be behind the destabilization and financing of multiple military conflicts sprouting up all over the globe? After all, the U.S. just finished squandering over $3 trillion endlessly tussling with a fanatical bunch of burka wearing nomads in the sparse mountains of Afghanistan for well over a decade. In the end, what, and who the hell was all of that money really for? Might it be supranational bank financing concerns funneling their central bank issued easy money government treasury funding directly into the military industrial complex.
MENA, after years of relative calm imposed by despotic regimes often legitimized by Western commercial interests, suddenly, all at once, seemingly out of nowhere, rose up in a spontaneous combustion of political awareness, the so called Arab Spring, which has brought as much disillusionment as promise. What was really behind this? While Syria, on the other hand, has been in a perpetual state of war due to ISIS insurgents supported by the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Iraq is on the verge of complete disintegration as the same western organized ISIS move in on Baghdad. Libya is erupting, with American, British and French embassy's being swiftly evacuated. What gives? Are all of these simultaneous regional conflicts simply a sheer coincidence? Further war financing requirements perhaps.
The Hamas / Israel connection has certainly duped many, even though it is historical fact that the creation of Hamas itself was funded and supported by covert elements of the Israel government. Why did Israel put money and arms at the disposal of Muslim extremist groups like Hamas and ISIS, only to enter into brutal conflict with them later? Again, are the international bankers involved here as well? Why bother with inflation when you can create DeathFlation!
The Ukraine crisis is only further intensifying after the attack on Malaysian flight MH17. In just the past week, the EU has instituted serious economic and financial sanctions, fighting has become even more fierce in the ethnic Russian speaking regions, and Russia itself has been accused of firing heavy artillery into the war zone. Moreover, the U.S. now claims that Russia has demonstrably violated the terms of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces treaty. Astonishingly, assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland recently proudly trumpeted that U.S. sponsored NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) had spent over $5 billion fomenting political protest on the ground in Kiev, in order to destabilize and ultimately overthrow the former president of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych. Again, who or what institution actually facilitated the financing of such an excessive amount of funds, and why?
Is it simply the usual bane of proxy war profiteering which is underway, or is something more sinister also a foot here. Is the western central bank hegemonic monetary system attempting to further assert itself on the arising and defiant BRICS? Moreover, since all out military conflict is no longer a viable option, due to assured mutual destruction from imposing nuclear arsenals, another most effective avenue for global domination would be via strategic financial and economic power. Is this what the international banking cabal is now seizing upon?
A significant example of a BIS sponsored strategic global economic initiative, orchestrated by its self-serving megalomaniac banking power brokers, was its behind the scene's role in devising and pushing forward the concept for a European Union with a single common currency. It established a new role for itself in the postwar world, first as the financial mechanism for American efforts to rebuild Europe, and then for the accelerating project of European unification. Some believe that the trans-national vision of a modern Europe ruled by mandarins in Brussels and Basel was originally hatched and concocted in a secret meeting held at the Bank for International Settlements.
Clearly, the driving force behind the financial engineering ambitions of the elite global bankers at the BIS has always been the same. Namely; to further establish themselves as the indispensable international financial body, whose ultimate authority supersedes any national jurisdiction, thereby interminably dismantling and diminishing the sovereignty of the individual nation states. In other words, they consolidate their subjugation of the local citizenry by championing the benefits of economies of scale which only globalization can achieve, and, of course, that only their financial frameworks can administer.
The UN, EU, NAU, IMF, WBC, CFR, NATO, WTO, OECD, WHO, and a myriad other IGOs (Intergovernmental organizations), all use much the same modus operandi as the BIS to expand their dominion. In the end, it's mostly about their self-seeking interests, entitled importance and institutional aggrandizement. Throughout history, elite groups of men have always attempted to subjugate the masses, this is no different. The once magnificent self determined Republic of the United States, for the people of the people, must stop these globalists dead in their tracks, before their self-serving hubris and unrelenting drive for hegemony brings unsuspecting Americans down to their knees.
Carroll Quigley, the renown academic historian, in his monumental tome Tragedy and Hope published in 1966, clearly identified the underlying scheme of this scourge. Having studied the rise and fall of civilizations, Quigley found the explanation of disintegration in the gradual transformation of social "instruments" into "institutions", that is, transformation of social arrangements functioning to meet real social needs into social institutions serving their own purposes regardless of real social needs.
Many discerning Americans are certainly aware of the prevalence of the false Left/Right paradigm in American politics which is clearly driven by the buying off of politicians via an army of private lobbyists on behalf of avaricious corporate institutions and demanding special interest groups. There is also a solid case to be made that our multinational banking institutions directly serve to promote this debilitating duplicitous demagoguery. The once esteemed news networks have also degenerated into a cronyism cesspool of unabashed corporatism, no longer reporting news, but rather dishing out distilled disinformation and various valueless vicissitudes. Institutional disintegration indeed, Mr. Quigley was flat out dead right back in 66′!
Professor Carroll Quigley directed his poignant prescient prose specifically at the Bank for International Settlements:
"The Power of financial capitalism had a far reaching plan, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalistic fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks, which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank sought to dominate its government by its ability to control treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence co-operative politicians by subsequent rewards in the business world."
The ominous premise of this lengthy piece is precisely why the United States should become increasingly alarmed as these globalists continue to extend their supremacy. Just as the once proud independent self governing sovereign nation states of Europe have become subservient to an autocratic international banking class, which promptly imposed a common currency, and is now actively crafting a fiscal union to complete its ascendancy and authority, the United States also is a prime target in the cross hairs of these very same avaricious financial oligarchs.
Make no mistake, the likes of the BIS, IMF, IFC, OECD and the World Bank are on a maniacal maraudering mission to subvert the existing U.S. monetary system, via a crafty and cunning central bank, in our very own complicit Federal Reserve.
In my view, this is the only valid explanation as to why we are systematically being driven off a fiscal and monetary cliff, almost as if we were preforming a national financial and economic Hari Kari ritual. At this point, they have mandated a market cataclysm and deliberately determined the dollar's demise. To be sure, the BIS and IMF are waiting in the wings with a new global means of exchange based on an archetype of the presently established SDR mechanism.
Why else would the BIS be stating the following today regarding the FED's current monetary measures?
"The temptation to postpone adjustment can prove irresistible, especially when times are good and financial booms sprinkle the fairy dust of illusory riches. The consequence is a growth model that relies too much on debt, both private and public, and which over time sows the seeds of its own demise. To return to sustainable and balanced growth, policies need to go beyond their traditional focus on the business cycle and take a longer-term perspective – one in which the financial cycle takes centre stage…They need to address head-on the structural deficiencies and resource misallocations masked by strong financial booms and revealed only in the subsequent busts. The only source of lasting prosperity is a stronger supply side. It is essential to move away from debt as the main engine of growth."
Ask yourselves, if Janet Yellen sits on the Board of Directors of the BIS, why have she and all her 21st century predecessors been conducting a brazen, unproven, uncharted and surely precarious monetary policy with complete abandon, that totally contradicts the sage and proven advice, judiciously laid out above, by the very institution which is central to monitoring, regulating and advising on global central bank direction.
Something stinks here, it just doesn't add up. Is our Federal Reserve, whose top leadership also happens to be elite members of the BIS banking cabal club, actually double dealing here? Setting us up for a great fall, so the financial globalists can come sweeping in to our rescue, installing themselves as our monetary overlords? Far fetched, you say? Remember, this is well within their past predatory precepts, and typical of their self-serving Modus Operandi!
If we can't convince you, perhaps the view of billionaire hedge-fund legend Paul Singer will:
We were astounded to learn that the board of the BIS is comprised of none other than the heads of the major central banks of the developed world! Yes – Yellen, Draghi, et al! So, these central bankers are simultaneously failing to tell their respective governments that (1) monetary policy has done enough; (2) monetary policy is causing massive risks and distortions; and (3) political leaders must grab the reins and make structural changes, these same central bankers are authorizing BIS reports that will enable them to say, after the coming multifactor crisis, that they told us about the risks.
We wonder who from the Fed authorized the report, and why they haven't shared these harsh views of Fed policy in the FOMC meeting minutes or the endless public speeches by Fed officials. It is duplicitous for the Fed to authorize the views in the BIS report yet keep quiet about them elsewhere. But then, the Fed has never accepted much responsibility for the 2008 crisis, despite its decisions to keep interest rates artificially low for an extended period of time, to do a poor job of regulating the banking system and to abet Fannie and Freddie in their utter irresponsibility. History rhymes. The Fed has created the fuel for another crisis, seems to know it judging by the BIS report, and yet is covering itself with an "I told you so" report from the BIS rather than changing course.
In closing, the following list identifies the current Board of Directors who preside over the Bank for International Settlements today, see if you recognize any of these supranational scoundrels.
The BIS Board of Directors:
Chairman: Christian Noyer, Paris Mark Carney, London Agustín Carstens, Mexico City Luc Coene, Brussels Jon Cunliffe, London Andreas Dombret, Frankfurt am Main Mario Draghi, Frankfurt am Main William C Dudley, New York Stefan Ingves, Stockholm Thomas Jordan, Zurich Klaas Knot, Amsterdam Haruhiko Kuroda, Tokyo Ann Le Lorier, Paris Stephen S Poloz, Ottawa Raghuram Rajan, Mumbai Jan Smets, Brussels Alexandre A Tombini, Brasília Ignazio Visco, Rome Jens Weidmann, Frankfurt am Main Janet L Yellen, Washington Zhou Xiaochuan, Beijing
The Globalists are indeed on the move……………


This 10-track debut represents the culmination of a three-year journey spent finding that voice, blending it with his father's rich harmonies and applying them to a wonderful new CD.
Every young singer needs support, someone that they can trust as they literally find their voice.
For 19-year-old Jesse Liam of Smithfield, R.I., finding that voice has been a family affair.
Jesse's 10-track debut "Father From A Man," produced by dad Jack Gauthier, represents the culmination of a three-year journey spent finding that voice, blending it with his father's rich harmonies and applying them to a wonderful new CD.
With blues legend Duke Robillard guesting on two tracks and some of New England's best musicians and songwriters providing the backdrop, this is no synth-pop bubble-gum throwaway. Jesse's big, clear voice soars over a diverse set of songs that are both unique and memorable.
The project was a labor of love for father and son, recorded over several sessions at Jack's Lakewest Recording in West Greenwich, R.I.
The duo has appeared live as "Jesse Jack'son" on stages across New England, and Jesse has fared extremely well on his own. At 16, he made it through an initial cut during American Idol auditions, and currently is a contender for the finals of the Community Auditions competition.
Jesse is a sophomore at Rhode Island College. Jack is a longtime producer and engineer who has worked closely with Duke Robillard, Dispatch and countless others over a successful 20-year career in the business.


The word "birthright," when defined as an individual's entitlement to particular benefits or possessions conferred at birth, has nearly faded from use. Indeed, it sounds anachronistic and almost un-American – "entitlement" itself has accumulated a multitude of negative connotations in recent years. We still believe certain truths to be self-evident and certain rights inalienable, at least in theory, but the concept of having a birthright to opportunities– or responsibilities– seems archaic.
These days, even in developed countries, most families are struggling to maintain a middle-class lifestyle at best, and have very little birthright, if any, to bestow on their offspring. On the other hand, it's probably good news that we are inhabiting increasingly open and diverse societies, where we no longer view children as being destined for various privileges or deprivations by the context of their birth.
And yet, we cannot discount the role played by the circumstances of early life in determining an individual's path and sense of place in the world. Thanks in part to the technological advances of the last few decades, that sense of place is becoming less dependent on geographical location or social status.
However, our identities are still forged through socialization– the process of internalizing societal and cultural norms that ensures the survival of individuals and the continuity of civilization.
We learn who we are and what our future lives may hold through the frameworks and narratives of our communities. As Internet technology changes the nature of our communities, so it must change the nature of our identities– and the way those identities can evolve over a lifetime.
In the 19th-century, industrialization led to the formation of entire strata of new job categories. The change in the economic model permeated the social structure, leading people to question their place and purpose in it. Most were finding that although their awareness of life's possibilities increased, the rigid socioeconomic framework prevented them from moving outside the bounds of the situation into which they were born.
Learning opportunities were extremely limited, and even if one managed to attain the knowledge necessary for social and professional advancement, the barriers to entering– or leaving– communities were too high.
Community boundaries gradually became more permeable through the 19th and 20th century, but the decisive shift happened when growing Internet adoption fostered the emergence of online communities that required no qualifications for entry aside from internet access and were unrestricted by geographic or demographic considerations. For the first time, individuals could introduce themselves on their own terms to a supportive group of people with shared beliefs, interests and codes of conduct– even if most of them would never meet face to face.
Internet technology made the editorial composition of one's online identity and facilitated connections far beyond the reach of "natural-born" communities possible. The user, represented through networks of social connections in different digital environments, was liberated from the restrictions of real life, free to choose community affiliations and abandon them at will.
Communities are central to a healthy society, and though they may vary in their form and implementation, certain factors contribute to the feeling of belonging that forms the basis for self-definition. An influential 1986 study by David McMillan and David Chavis found that there are four enduring elements that contribute to a sense of community: membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection.
Throughout life, the relative significance of those elements is likely to shift– while influence and agency may be more significant at some stages, an emotional bond is paramount during others. Not only do people change over time, but their community needs may be wide-ranging and even contradictory. Now, we can find a community to support our every interest, to validate every side of our personality.
As the technology of remote communication improves and online communities proliferate, the search for the right community becomes more refined, the choices more nuanced. This variety translates into freedom to be completely unpegged, fully customized– not fitting neatly into any category, yet finding communion in a multitude of settings.
Another great 19th-century thinker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, envisioned the ideal path of self-identification– "The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be." The realization of this vision is more possible now than it has ever been in human history, although recently indicators of socioeconomic mobility have been falling in many nations, including the US, due to a combination of economic and political factors.
While online communities have allowed members to be who they decide to be socially and professionally, they have been powerless to release members from the constraints of centralized financial institutions– until recently. Now, the integration of decentralized solutions with community platforms has the potential to provide increased financial independence as well.
Transparent transactions, accessible investment tools, smart contracts and rewards for added value can give users control over their finances in the same way that online communities have given them control over their identities.


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Wojciech Dziomdziora joins IP&TMT Practice
Wojciech Dziomdziora
We are pleased to inform you that on 17 March 2014 Wojciech Dziomdziora, counsel and attorney-at-law, joined the DZP team. Wojciech is a specialist in both Polish and EU copyright, media, telecommunications and new technologies law.
He is a former Director of Public Affairs and CSR at Orange Polska, he headed key projects in the TP Group and previously worked for the ITI media group. He is a former member of the National Radio and Television Council. In 2000-2005 he worked at the Minister of Culture as, e.g. director of the legal and legislative department and deputy director of the film and audiovisual media department. While working in the public administration he dealt with, e.g. negotiations with the European Union on audiovisual and copyright law and implementation of EU law into the Polish legal system.
He graduated in law from Warsaw University, took a post-graduate course on copyrights at Jagiellonian University and has an MBA from Koźmiński University. He also studied strategic management in Great Britain.
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ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that Jim L. Mora is a candidate for the suddenly vacant Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator position.
Sean McDermott, who had replaced the legendary Jim Johnson before the 2009 season, was relieved of his duties on Saturday. Jay Glazer of FOXSports.com reports that McDermott is a candidate for coordinator positions in Carolina and Denver.
Mora has defensive coordinator experience with the San Francisco 49ers from 1999-2003, and was actively involved in defensive game-planning in head coaching stints with the Atlanta Falcons (2004-06) and Seattle Seahawks (2009).
The Seahawks fired Mora after posting a 5-11 record in one season, and the 49-year old spent 2010, his first season not an NFL sideline since 1984, working as an analyst for the NFL Network and FOX, while drawing $12 million from the Seahawks.
zeroluv on Who Do Packers Target with Their Top Pick?


Finland celebrates its centenary in 2017. One month after the birth of the nation, little Vappu was born in Punkalaidun. "Turning 100 is nothing special. It is when you child turns 73 that you realise you are old," she tells our correspondent Bengt Östling. She stopped going to the gym at 97, and now needs a walking frame and home care three times a day.
30 percent of the Punkalaidun residents are over 65, the pensionable age in Finland. The country's average is 20 percent. Politicians in rural areas are now trying to get new residents to settle in the villages. Punkalaidun is one of the small municipalities which struggle to maintain a population of 3,000 people. Refugees have become an invaluable resource both in the labour market and for the local environment.
The Faroe Islands will soon count 50,000 citizens. A longed for milestone. Politicians have poured resources into transport, road and tunnel construction, to make it easier to move between the islands. In this way they have managed to tempt men into jobs in their home country. But other measures are needed to tempt educated urban women to move to remoter parts of the Nordics. The population of Greenland is shrinking. On 20 January Sweden, the most populous of the Nordic countries, passed 10 million citizens after a dramatic population rise. In 13 years the country went from nine to ten million people, while it took 35 years to go from eight to nine million.
The total Nordic population is now 26.5 million people. Urban areas are seeing the largest growth. Which problems does that cause? Our greatest challenge going forward is not the refugees, but how we recruit labour, says the head of integration in Krokom municipality. Together with neighbouring Åre municipality in Sweden, she is racing to get refugees into work. She is convinced they need to succeed with integrating newcomers in order to meet the future need for labour.
Many immigrants are needed to solve the generation challenge. Migration helps, but it is but one of the solutions to the future labour needs, says Nordregio's Timothy Heleniak, who together with Nordic colleagues recently finished the project 'Demography and welfare'.
The demographic challenges include finding the right balance between genders, young and old, births and deaths, immigration and emigration. These are complex issues which are difficult to measure and to predict. Sweden's rapid population growth only hints at the unpredictability of the estimates, as we show in this month's Theme.
Like the Faroe Islands need women, rural areas like Punkalaidun and Krokom need to attract new residents. If nothing is done the more remote places will loose the competition for labour.
Timothy Heleniak is onto something. There is a need for a plethora of measures, not least improved methods for how to validate newcomers' skills. There is a need for jobs and a social life, and like the Faroese they need to work to get the women back to the remoter parts of the Nordics.


Justin Franchi Solondz, a fugitive American environmental radical, was convicted Thursday in Dali, China on charges of manufacturing drugs according to the New York Times. Solondz was living in Dali, a backpacker haven in the Yunnan Province, as part of a multiyear flight from US authorities.
After the 3 years Solondz will serve in a Chinese prison, he will be extradited back to the US to face charges surrounding his involvement in a series of 2001 arson attacks that he and the Earth Liberation Front (or ELF), are thought to have perpetrated. Since Solondz purportedly had 33 lbs. of marijuana and a "drug lab" at his residence in China, the 3 year sentence is considered light; this, according to the Times article, is most likely a US-Chinese diplomatic arrangement so Solondz can face charges in the States.
In May of 2001, Solondz is thought to have made incendiary devices that destroyed a horticultural research facility run by the University of Washington. He is also linked to burning down buildings and cars at an Oregon tree nursery as well as being linked subsequent arson attacks in California. Solondz fled the US in 2005 shortly before the FBI indicted him in absentia in 2006. At the time of his arrest, he was on the FBI's most wanted list.
The University of Washington and Oregon attacks were chosen because of their development of genetically modified trees. For example, the University of Washington laboratory was working on ways to maximize commercial output by creating more branches to harvest for paper.
A Times article written right after the attacks reported that a great deal of the research at the University's lab had nothing to do with producing genetically modified trees--that much of the research had to do with environmental preservation. The article also stated that the poplar nursery attacked contained no genetically modified trees (it was supposedly targeted because its former owner had been affiliated with Poplar Molecular Genetics Cooperative).
Solondz, who was a college student when the attacks transpired, possessed some of the crucial qualities of zealotry: unfettered ideology and youth. This is not to diminish his and ELF's good intentions; even though much good work may have been churned out by the University lab, it may also have been partly responsible for introducing potentially harmful species of trees. This is not even to diminish the merits of radicalism; when done right, radicals, by setting new extremes of behavior, can make moderates look conservative and "tree-hugging liberals" look far more sensible. The problem is the execution. Even though no one died or was hurt in Solondz's attacks (likely a combination of planning and luck), violence can't be the way to affect change. Violence doesn't inform anyone because usually people are too pissed by the damages to care about your perspective. And violence is the hallmark of impetuousness (often possessed by, but not limited to, the young). Sure, a violent incident will get a rise out of people, but ultimately it is the easy route. Violence trades a quick reaction for patient and steady progress.


The Floppyhead blog has an interesting post regarding Microsoft and digital cable tuners and CableCards. The studio-backed effort to lock up the HD video path from tuner to display may have interesting consequences for Microsoft, consequences not unlike Apple's use of Fairplay DRM to anchor music tracks to iTunes.
Basically, they [Microsoft] have a monoply of the digital cable tuner market (not including Tivo since it is not a PC-based solution). How many companies have the ability to deliver DVR software and convince vendors to supply their software? No matter what Microsoft does or how far they lag behind the market, you have to use Vista to watch cable premium content on your computer in HD. No competitor can match them on that important feature. All thanks to DRM. Not innovation or feature-sets, but content protection.