Russ Dallen
General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.
According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to "complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012."
"It wouldn't be logical to withdraw the investment from where we're growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets," he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.
Meanwhile, he cut the company's revenue forecast for this year by 14% to $9.5 billion from $11 billion, as the economic crisis began to cause rapid slowdowns in sales.
GM already announced three programs of paid leave, and Ardila added that GM Brazil "is going to wait and see how the market behaves in order to know what decision to take" with regard to possible layoffs.
For Ardila, the injection in Brazil's automobile sector of 8 billion reais ($3.51 billion) recently announced by the federal and state governments of Sao Paulo "has already begun to revive sales," which fell by 12% in October.
The executive said that the company will operate a "conservative" scenario in 2009 with an estimated production of 2.6 million units, and another more "optimistic" that contemplates sales of 2.9 million.
This year sales will reach 2.85 million vehicles, which represents a growth of 15% over last year.
Russ Dallen with EFE in Sao Paulo
POSTED NOVEMBER 20, 2008
NO, MR. BOND. I EXPECT YOU TO DIE.
That famous quote is from the 1964, James Bond movie, Goldfinger. It is on T.V. from time to time. Goldfinger is a well financed internationalist who is trying to corner the gold market by destroying the gold supply in Fort Knox with a nuclear weapon. He enlists the assistance of Communist China. Today, it is unnecessary, as our government has long since looted the entire supply.
So what has that to do with today. In the article below, it is revealed that SAIC and Dongfeng of China, are interested in buying General Motors and Chrysler. The interesting point is China is holding over 1 trillion in U.S. dollars. That is the result of our buying tools and toys etc., made by slaves in China. They can use our money to buy whats left of our manufacturing.
So, 44 years later, our friends in China can change the Goldfinger quote to, " No America, I expect you to die!". The difference is, this is no movie.
Bruce New World Order News
SAIC, Dongfeng said to buy GM, Chrysler assets
Under the sway of the global financial crisis, the U.S. auto giants General Motors and Chrysler LLC are tottering on the brink of collapse. Japan's Toyota Motor was previously rumored to buy them out, but now Chinese carmakers SAIC and Dongfeng are also said to have plans to acquire the two U.S. auto companies, reported the 21st Century Business Herald today.
On November 15, a senior official of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology -- the state regulator of China's auto industry -- told reporters that the auto manufacturing giants in China, such as Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and Dongfeng Motor Corporation, have the capability and intention to buy some assets of the two crisis-plagued American automakers.
An industry analyst noted that the global financial crisis has forced Chinese manufacturers to retool and upgrade themselves in order to meet and survive the challenge. Many enterprises dependent on low-value-added manufacturing will be driven out of the new wave of competition by technically innovative and financially sound rivals. It would be much easier now for strong Chinese automakers to go global by acquiring some assets of their U.S. counterparts in times of crisis.
In the global acquiring process, Chinese automakers can start with buying out the OEM projects and Chinese ventures of some global carmakers such as GM and Chrysler, said an expert from Deloitte & Touche accounting firm.
In the coming two years China is likely to see a few of its large Chinese automakers and other manufacturing enterprises set a precedent for achieving globalization by acquiring global companies, just like SAIC or Dongfeng's possible acquisition of troubled GM or Chrysler.
By George Gao
The news is provided by Gasgoo.com
POSTED NOVEMBER 19, 2008
AUTO INDUSTRY ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE.
The article below reveals an ominous sign for the U.S. auto market and America itself. Vehicles being unloaded at the various ports around the country have no where to go. They are being parked in huge lots waiting for someone to buy them. Obviously, if there is no where to go with new cars, orders will stop until the inventory is sold. That means production shut downs around the world.
It all comes back to credit. I have said in the past, if there was no credit and you had to pay cash for everything, how would that affect prices? Of course prices would have to come down or there would be no sales. Who can afford $30,000 for a new car? Who could afford $300,000 for a house? Not very many could.
So what we have is an adjustment. Prices on the big ticket items are collapsing. Those companies that depend on the current price structure will fail. Other companies that can sell goods or services within the cash capabilities of the general public will survive. Unfortunately, there aren't very many companies like that.
Here's an idea. We might be able to sell all the cars by using this tactic. Your new car can be used as your new home. Sadly, this is already a reality for many.
Bruce New World Order News
November 19, 2008
A Sea of Unwanted Imports
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Gleaming new Mercedes cars roll one by one out of a huge container ship here and onto a pier. Ordinarily the cars would be loaded on trucks within hours, destined for dealerships around the country. But these are not ordinary times.
For now, the port itself is the destination. Unwelcome by dealers and buyers, thousands of cars worth tens of millions of dollars are being warehoused on increasingly crowded port property.
And for the first time, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Nissan have each asked to lease space from the port for these orphan vehicles. They are turning dozens of acres of the nation’s second-largest container port into a parking lot, creating a vivid picture of a paralyzed auto business and an economy in peril.
“This is one way to look at the economy,” Art Wong, a spokesman for the port, said of the cars. “And it scares you to death.”
The backlog at the port is just part of a broader rise in the nation’s inventories, which were up 5.5 percent in September from a year earlier, according to the Commerce Department. The car industry has been hurt particularly, with sales down nearly 15 percent this year. General Motors has said it would run out of operating cash by the end of the year if it does not receive a government bailout.
But the inventory glut in Long Beach is not limited to imported cars. There has also been a sharp drop in demand for the port’s single largest export: recycled cardboard and paper products.
This material typically goes to China, where it is used to make boxes for new electronics and other products that are sent back to the United States. But Chinese factories reacting to sharply falling demand are slowing production, so they need less cardboard. Tons of paper are piling up recycling businesses around the port, the detritus of economies on hold.
Long Beach is an important port, particularly for the West. It is where imported products arrive and filter through the tributary of trucks, trains and retailers into the hands of consumers. But now, products are just sitting.
“We’re supposed to move things, not store them,” Mr. Wong said.
Roughly 20 percent of the nation’s container imports last year came through Long Beach, putting it close behind the largest container port, Los Angeles. This year, shipping volume at Long Beach is down 10 percent from 2007, and nearly all major ports around the country have seen similar declines. Veteran port workers say the slowdown since mid-October is like nothing they have ever seen. And it is having a cascading impact on other businesses and workers.
In the 150-acre terminal where Toyotas are unloaded, there is a sea of Corollas, Camrys and RAV4s. The mere presence of so many cars is not unusual, given that Toyota brings in 250,000 cars a year in biweekly shipments. But in a sign that something is amiss, dozens of tractor-trailers that transport new cars to dealers sat empty last week amid the rows of Toyotas.
Kurt Golledge, 48, was one of just two truckers loading his green, 75-foot-long hauler with cars last week. Mr. Golledge said eight of his colleagues were laid off this month because Toyota dealers did not want more deliveries.
“I was dropping cars in Henderson, Nev., about a month ago and the dealer told me: ‘Take ’em somewhere else and dump ’em,’ ” said Mr. Golledge, who works for a company called Allied Systems. “All the dealers are telling us the same thing.”
Auto dealers typically place orders with manufacturers months in advance, but they can modify their orders to receive fewer vehicles.
“The ships keep coming, but there’s nowhere for the cars to go,” Mr. Golledge said. He said he believed the vehicles he was loading would be his last before he was laid off, and he was already considering where he might find a new job.
While shipments for some items have slowed, the cars have kept coming in at their regular pace partly because the auto factories can take months to adjust to changes in demand. Toyota is wrapping up a deal to use six acres to park cars at the port, and is seeking more space.
“Toyota wants as much as we can give them,” said Gail Wasil, assistant director of the port’s real estate division.
For its part, Toyota says the higher-than-usual inventories at the Long Beach port are a result of shrinking demand, particularly in Southern California, which is one of its biggest markets. The company declined to say how many cars were at the port or how long they would be warehoused.
Toyota has adjusted its output to reflect falling demand, said Sona Iliffe-Moon, a Toyota spokeswoman.
Ms. Wasil said Nissan, whose cars arrive through the port of Los Angeles, sought a deal with Long Beach to park its overflow vehicles there. Mercedes struck a deal to use more acres just a few weeks ago, she said.
Officials from Mercedes and Nissan did not return calls seeking comment.
The mothballing of cars is nothing new for Detroit, where thousands of unwanted American-made cars have been parked over the last two years at Michigan’s state fairground and in lots at its airports.
It is more unusual to see a lot at the California port filled with thousands of unsold Mercedeses, most of them gathering dirt on the plastic white film that protects their hoods and trunks. Some appeared to have been stashed at the port for several months.
Last week, Mercedes delivered around 1,000 more cars to Long Beach on the Grus, a 580-foot container ship.
“A year ago, I was looking into buying one of these for my wife,” said Kurt Garland, the terminal manager overseeing the unloading of the white, silver and black sports cars, sport utility vehicles and sedans. “Now I’m not. I’m saving money, paying bills, hunkering down.”
Not far away, metal, cardboard, paper and plastic are piling up in the lot of Corridor Recycling. The company takes in refuse from around the country, then bales it for shipment to China. The cardboard is used to make new boxes while used shrink wrap is turned into shoe soles and insulation for sleeping bags and coats.
For much of this year, the company shipped about 25 containers a day, each filled with 23 tons of refuse to be recycled. But after the Olympics, demand slowed for recycled metal. In October, demand for everything else took a sharp downturn, and for the last two weeks the company has not shipped a single container.
“It just came to a complete stop. Absolutely a stop,” said Gilbert Dodson, the recycling company’s co-owner. “I’ve seen it slow over the last 25 years, but this is the worst,” he said of the current downturn.
Like his counterparts in the auto industry, Mr. Dodson is looking for extra space to accommodate the growing number of bales on his three-acre property. The recycled goods keep arriving in big trucks, even though he now pays only $21 a ton for refuse he paid $120 a ton for earlier this year, but there is nowhere for him to export.
“It keeps coming in,” he says. “But no one is buying.”
POSTED NOVEMBER 18, 2008
SUPPORT THE TROOPS. GET YOUR YELLOW RIBBON. WATCH THEM DIE.
Those of us who are from the Vietnam generation are not as gullible as those younger. We were told for years that debilitating and fatal conditions resulting from exposure to Agent Orange, didn't exist. Once 10's of thousands of veterans were dead, the V.A. miraculously determined that there actually WAS a connection. Oh well. Too bad. We have a new generation of chumps we chew up and throw away on wars based on lies.
So let's spin ahead to the Iraq wars, 1 and 2. Beginning in 1990 those returning from Iraq began to get very sick and many died. Recent figures show up wards of 400,000 vets are on disability and more than 70,000 are dead. Of course not all of these can be attributed to Gulf War syndrome, but many are. According to the VA, it doesn't exist. Any veteran claiming Gulf War syndrome will not be treated unless he or she agrees to see a psychiatrist. Now, as is evidenced by the article below, they are beginning to think maybe there is such a thing. We'll have to wait for many more vets to die. That way even if they admit to the condition they won't have to treat as many since most will be dead.
A couple more things....... The article below gives a couple of possible causes for the syndrome. That's fine as far as it goes, but there's more. The Army assigned Colonel Doug Raake to investigate ways of disposing of more than 4000 tons of depleted uranium dropped on Iraq. His report condemned the U.S. forces for using this highly toxic and radioactive substance. Most of his crew are now dead. He produced evidence that this stuff is a killer and will be harmful for 4 billion years. The Army ignored his report. No where in the article below is it even mentioned.
SO ........ for you deniers, it doesn't exist.
Bruce New World Order News
Gulf War illness is real, report says
Political, fiscal concerns blamed for ineffective research, official denials
By David Goldstein
McClatchy Newspapers
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Gulf War illness is a real medical condition that has affected at least 175,000 combat veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf war, according to a report released Monday.
However, federal research into the causes behind the mysterious malady has "not been effective," and the report by the congressionally mandated panel suggested that politics or financial concerns might have played a role.
"There is also a common perception that federal policymakers have not vigorously pursued key research in this area and that federal agencies have disincentives -- whether political or fiscal -- for providing definitive answers to Gulf War health questions," said the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illness.
The report compared the foot-dragging and denials to the treatment of earlier troops who claimed that they had been dangerously exposed to Agent Orange and other toxic herbicides in Vietnam and to radiation during World War II.
In both cases, the claims turned out to be true.
"Government has been very slow to accept what the research shows," said James Binns, the committee's chairman and a former top Defense Department official.
"These problems have for too long been denied or trivialized," said Binns, speaking at the committee meeting where the report was made public.
Committee members said troops were exposed to a "toxic soup" of chemicals. However, they laid the blame for Gulf War illness primarily on two causes: pesticides sprayed on the troops during deployment and pyridostigmine bromide, an anti-nerve agent.
The small white pills hadn't been approved for nerve agent protection at the time, but the Food and Drug Administration had given the military a temporary waiver for their use to protect troops in case they were exposed to nerve gas.
The committee met Monday at Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters, two blocks from the White House.
Thanking the members for their work, VA Secretary James Peake, a former Army surgeon general, said, "I personally neither denied nor trivialized the issues of our veterans, having been among them myself. It's not something we are going to wash away."
The Veterans Affairs Department didn't respond to the committee's criticism but said that Peake had directed the agency "to review and respond to the committee's recommendations in the near future."
The report, six years in the making, should be a boon to Gulf War veterans who for years have been trying to persuade the VA to recognize their medical problems.
Often too ill to work, many have been unable to get medical disability payments from the VA because they couldn't prove that their ailments were real and related to their military service.
Committee member Steve Smithson, the deputy director for claims for the American Legion, said he hoped the report would trigger "sweeping changes" in compensation for Gulf War veterans.
Gulf War illness
Originally called Gulf War syndrome, the ailment has become an umbrella for a variety of unexplained illness, including chronic headaches, dizziness, memory loss, fatigue, skin rashes, joint and muscle pain, and respiratory problems, as well as more serious conditions and brain cancer. Government officials and some scientists have said stress and psychiatric problems were the cause.
POSTED NOVEMBER 17, 2008
GOLD READY TO EXPLODE.
The article below gets a little technical regarding the Gold market. I'll try to simplify it a little. Over the past 6 months the price of gold has declined significantly. Over the past month the price has stabilized around the low 700's. The reason for the decline is a large investors and governments selling of gold.
The problem is, they have been selling gold they do not have. When someone purchases from them they receive a piece of paper promising delivery at a certain time. In December there are literally millions of ounces of gold that is due for delivery. If those holding the paper refuse to extend the notes, physical delivery of the gold must take place. Those who sold the gold they don't own (short sale) must go into the market place and purchase the gold. Complicating the issue further is the fact that the actual price of physical gold is substantially higher than the quoted price. If you want to buy gold at the quoted price of around $730.00, you will probably have to pay close to $800.00 since supplies are very short.
So, it might be a good idea to take these people up on their offer to sell you gold at the quoted price. Many traders out there feel that this price will double or even triple in the next year. Most of what I publish is very disturbing, but this is something that can help people withstand the events that are coming.
Bruce New World Order News
Minyan Mailbag: Mother of All Short Squeezes for Gold?
Dear Prof. Lewis,
The following is a question that's been puzzling me for a couple of months,, and I thought that you might have a productive perspective on it.
At issue is the disconnect between physical and paper gold, and what appears to be a looming, potentially disruptive, short squeeze as the December futures near settlement date. For the past couple of months, it's been getting increasingly difficult to acquire physical gold, particularly coins; when you can get them, you have to pay an increasingly steep premium to spot.
So why not simply buy the futures and take delivery? You avoid both the premium and commissions. Great deal. But man! Do you ever have counter party risk.
As of today, COMEX has open interest on about 18 million ounces of December gold. I'm assuming some proportion comes from hedging by producers, and producers can deliver if a futures buyer takes delivery. But some percentage involves naked shorts, and as I understand it, at some point COMEX is on the hook if a counterparty fails to deliver. Comex has about 5 million ounces in the warehouse and a couple of million more they can lay their hands on (backstopping not just December, but all gold futures).
Anecdotally, I'm hearing that a number of players are deciding to take delivery, and we're also seeing December open interest drop smartly as (I assume) shorts buy in contracts.
I'm not a gold expert, by any means, but it looks like the mother of all short squeezes is brewing, a la the Hunt Brothers and silver 2 decades ago, and that it could put huge upward pressure on gold and also threaten to blow up COMEX.
What do you think?
What's weird is that the precipitating factor is this mysterious scarcity of physical gold even though spot prices are laboring. There's more, a lot more, but you get the idea.
All the best,
Minyan Gene
Dear Minyan Gene,
There's quite a bit of talk about this, actually - and it could happen. First notice day for the December contract is November 28th. If somebody is going to take delivery, that's when we'll know about it - and when a squeeze could potentially beginAlong those same lines, some of the gold "inside-baseball" indicators are in fact finally beginning to reflect the tight physical market. Gold lease rates spiked back in September and October, but part of that move was in LIBOR (Lease rates are calculated by subtracting the 3M Gold Forward Offerred Rate (GOFO) from LIBOR).
However, the move in lease rates wasn't all the pop in LIBOR. As we can see in the chart of 3-month lease rates, lease rates remain elevated and near an 8-year high, even as 3-month LIBOR has collapsed back to below where it was in June, thanks to the Fed's print-a-thon.That's because the GOFO continues to collapse. As GOFO moves closer to going negative, we get closer to seeing gold move into backwardation, which is fairly rare and uber bullish. Is the physical market tightening simply due to the continued high rate of physical demand and European central banks pulling in their leased gold/not rolling over leases? Is it related to the market sniffing out what you are implying might happen on the COMEX? Or is this related to the gold market sniffing out a potential dollar negative at the coming G20? Or is it all of the above?
I have no idea, but the last time we saw GOFO collapse like this (see the chart below), it was in the days leading up the Washington Agreement (and gold's ensuing 40% upside explosion on the news).And this happened even though gold didn't seem to give any indication in the way it was trading until literally 4 days before the G7 meeting at which the Washington Agreement was announced that weekend. I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but clearly there something bullish afoot in gold.
Best regards,
Prof. Lewis
POSTED NOVEMBER 14, 2008
CONGRESS RAKES TREASURY OVER THE COALS FOR STEALING.
Well actually, it was just a couple of congressmen. Most notably, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, asked hard questions of administration stooge, Neel Kashkari. Some of the text and video is below. The sad thing is we have long since passed the point that anyone in a position of power will be held responsible for anything they do. They do what they want, when they want.
As if this wasn't bad enough, all of the mainstream media shut down their coverage when Kucinich started his questioning.
In the latter days of the Roman empire, the Roman Senate turned into forum for debates. They had little power. The Caesars did pretty much what they wanted. That is where we are today in America. Congress no longer controls the money. They turned that over to a private corporation. They no longer declare war. That is controlled by the executive. They never remove a President or anyone else. AND if any one of them decides to stray from the plantation, they can take a nice plane ride like Senator Heinz, Senator Tower, Senator Wellstone and Senator Carnahan.
Bruce New World Order News
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Friday, November 14, 2008
Neel Kashkari, the fox appointed to guard the henhouse and front the multi-trillion dollar bailout, faced angry questions from Dennis Kucinich and Rep. Darrell Issa during a hearing today, as Issa accused him of playing a “bait and switch” game with taxpayers’ money.
All the major networks carried footage of the U.S. House subcommittee hearing this morning and aired Kashkari’s opening statement in full. But as soon as Kucinich and Issa were about to weigh in, the networks almost simultaneously cut the feed and moved on to a different story. Another example of how the corporate media is owned by the same elite that runs the Federal Reserve.
Kucinich accused Paulson and Bush of circumventing Congress by completely changing the destination of where the bailout money would go and refusing to disclose what had happened to $2 trillion dollars of taxpayer money, adding, “I think it’s fairly obvious that Congress would have never passed the [rescue plan] had it known how Treasury would marshal the resources it was given.”
POSTED NOVEMBER 13, 2008
FORECLOSURES UP, BUT THEY'RE DOWN. ORWELLIAN B.S.
In the novel 1984 the term "new speak" was coined. We also hear the word "Orwellian" used as a reference to George Orwell and his novel. Simply put, it means that those who are in power change the meaning of words. Very often they change the meanings to the opposite of the true meaning. This destabilizes the psyche of the average person, not knowing what to think or what to believe.
The article below is a good example of this B.S. Bloomberg has reported that foreclosures in the U.S. are exploding across the U.S. They also report that the rate of foreclosures is declining. You can't have it both ways, but that doesn't stop them. Interspersed in their article are all these feel good statements along with the reports of how much the government is helping people ----- as the sheriff pitches their belongings into the street.
So what's good is bad and what's up is down and what's in is out and who's poor is rich and war is peace and hate is love. Get it? Below I have highlighted statistics in green. I also have highlighted meaning less B.S. in red. Have fun. Your government loves you.
Bruce New World Order News
U.S. Foreclosure Filings Rose as Home Prices Fell (Update1)
By Dan Levy
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- More than a quarter million U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in October even as state laws designed to protect property owners from losing their homes slowed the pace of defaults, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
A total of 279,561 properties got a default notice, were warned of a pending auction or were foreclosed on, the Irvine, California-based seller of default data said today. Filings rose 25 percent from a year earlier, an improvement from average monthly gains of about 50 percent this year, after California passed a law delaying foreclosures for some borrowers.
Banks and states have moved to halt defaults as the economic outlook has worsened with climbing unemployment and a relentless fall in home prices. The U.S. jobless rate rose to 6.5 percent, the highest since 1994, and payrolls dropped for the 10th straight month in October, the Labor Department said last week. Home prices in 20 cities declined at the fastest pace on record in August and have fallen every month since January 2007, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index.
``The apparent slowing of foreclosure activity understates the severity of the foreclosure problem,'' RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James Saccacio said in a statement. ``The net effect may be merely delaying inevitable foreclosures'' should banks and the government fail to adopt a unified approach on mortgage modifications, he said.
California Improves
Filings rose 5 percent from September, RealtyTrac said. The biggest improvement came in California, the state with the most foreclosures of any in the U.S., where filings fell 44 percent in October from a year earlier after the new law required lenders to contact borrowers to discuss loan changes.
President-elect Barack Obama said in his first news conference Nov. 7 that the U.S. Treasury and government agencies should ``help families avoid foreclosures and stay in their homes.'' Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest U.S. mortgage- finance companies, said this week they would offer reduced interest rates and extend terms up to 40 years to borrowers whose loans are at least three months delinquent.
The loan modification effort is intended to be ``a standard for the industry,'' said Neel Kashkari, the Treasury's interim assistant secretary. About 10,000 borrowers a month may qualify for the program.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. bank, has said it would stop foreclosures on some loans and attempt to make payments easier on $110 billion of troubled mortgages. Bank of America Corp. has already modified 226,000 loans this year, and Citigroup has modified 370,000 since 2007 and will contact about 500,000 additional homeowners with $20 billion in mortgages in the next six months.
`Only a Dent'
``The size of the problem is so huge that it will be difficult for any of these programs to make more than a dent,'' Sam Khater, a senior economist at First American CoreLogic, a seller of economic data, said in an interview.
First American forecasts 3.2 million foreclosure filings this year, an 80 percent increase from 2007.
A further 5 percent decline in home prices means that 9.6 million U.S. households will have negative equity, or owe more on their loans than their house is worth, First American said.
``Negative equity hurts. It's a good predictor of default almost all the time,'' Robert Van Order, adjunct professor of finance at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and former chief economist at Freddie Mac, said in an interview.
Arizona
In October, one in every 452 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing, RealtyTrac said. Nevada had the highest rate for the 22nd straight month with one in 74 housing units in some stage of foreclosure, more than six times the national average. Filings more than doubled from a year earlier to 14,483.
Arizona had the second highest rate at one in 149 housing units, with filings up 176 percent to 17,507. Florida was third at one in 157 homes and had 54,324 filings, up 80 percent. California, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois and Ohio also ranked among the 10 highest rates, RealtyTrac said.
California had the most total filings at 56,954, down from a peak of more than 100,000 in August. Filings rose 13 percent from a year earlier.
Florida, Arizona and Nevada ranked second through fourth in total filings, followed by Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Texas and New Jersey in the top 10.
New Jersey
New Jersey had 8,473 filings and a foreclosure rate of one in 410 housing units. New York's rate was one in 2,102 units. The state had 3,761 filings, ranking 37th, said RealtyTrac, which collects property data from more than 2,200 U.S. counties that represent more than 90 percent of the population.
Las Vegas had the highest foreclosure rate among metropolitan areas with one in 62 housing units in a state of default, more than seven times the national average. Filings more than doubled from a year earlier to 12,155.
Florida's Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Miami ranked second and third, among metropolitan areas. Fort Lauderdale was eighth and Orlando was tenth. California's Stockton was fourth, Merced was fifth, Riverside-San Bernardino was seventh and Modesto was ninth, according to RealtyTrac.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Levy in San Francisco at dlevy13@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: November 13, 2008 08:26 EST
POSTED NOVEMBER 12, 2008
2 SENATORS KILLED IN AIR CRASHES, IRAN, AND FOND MEMORIES.
I thought we would take a walk down memory lane and remember the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 and 1980. The article below covers much of what happened back then.
Although it cannot be definitely pr oven, it is alleged that Vice Presidential candidate George Bush, Senator John Tower and Senator John Heinz made a secret flight in 1980 to Paris to bribe the Iranian authorities into holding the hostages past election day in the U.S. The hostages were indeed held until the very day Reagan was inaugurated as President. In April of 1991, both John Heinz and John Tower were killed in air crashes on successive days.
So what. Why even bring it up. It was a long time ago. I'm just making this point. John Kennedy was assassinated. Robert Kennedy was assassinated. It appears that Heinz and Tower were also killed. Our so-called elected representatives serve with the knowledge that if they don't tow the line they can cease to exist. The next time you are in church, keep that in mind when you see the flag on the alter of the Lord and your Pastor tells you the Bible says your government was sent from God.
Bruce New World Order News
Feb 24 2005, 08:51 AM
I have recently become interested in exploring the links between the deaths of John Heinz, John Tower and the assassination of JFK. Here is an interesting passage from an article written by Victor Thorn, George Bush & John Kerry: Blood Brothers, World Independent News Group (2004).
http://69.28.73.17/thornarticles/bloodbrothers.htmlAccording to researcher Rodney Stich in Defrauding America, when George Bush Sr. and CIA Director William Casey engineered the October Surprise to bribe Iranian officials into retaining U.S. hostages until after the 1980 elections, two of the passengers on Bush’s BAC 111 flight to Paris were Senator John Heinz, along with Senator John Tower from Texas.
Even more intriguing is the fact that John Heinz chaired a three-man presidential review board that probed the Iran-Contra affair and had in his possession all the damning documents from that sordid affair, while John Tower led the infamous Tower Commission that investigated a variety of different CIA criminal activities and dirty dealings. Coincidentally, both John Heinz and John Tower died in plane wrecks on successive days in 1991 – Tower in Georgia, and Heinz in Montgomery County, Pa. Once again I must ask: what are the odds of such an occurrence, especially when both men had close ties to George Bush Sr., who was a former CIA director in the mid-1970s? Did both of these men uncover information that they refused to keep silent about any longer?
Before you answer, consider that after Senator John Heinz died, his wife married Senator John Kerry, who was chairman of the 1988 Kerry Commission, described in the Senate Committee Report on Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy as “focusing on allegations of illegal gun-running and narcotics trafficking associated with the Contra war against Nicaragua” in relation to the CIA, Department of Justice, the U.S. State Department, and the office of the President and Vice President. The testimony that took place during these trials (both in open and closed door sessions) was quite possibly the most damning ever against our federal government, yet mysteriously, nearly all of it was suppressed and not widely reported in the mainstream media. Why? Senator Kerry as a Democrat, had every opportunity to blast a Republican administration out of the water, yet he inexplicably remained silent and the status quo prevailed. Could it be that someone tapped him on the shoulder and told him that if he played his cards right and kept these sordid matters hush-hush, he would be rewarded sometime in the future?
POSTED NOVEMBER 11, 2008
SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY. CRIMINAL LICENSE FOR OUR GOVERNMENT.
There was an age old doctrine known as "sovereign immunity" that gave kings, queens and other members of royalty a license to engage in criminal behavior without legal consequences. In other words, when you do it, it's a crime. When I do it, it's O.K.
One of the things of which our founding fathers insisted, was that our nation would have no royalty. Little by little, royalty has returned to the U.S. The article below describes new applications for this age old doctrine. In past postings I have often referred to "The New American Royalty". Our rulers have gladly accepted this role. They do what they want, when they want. That is why we revolted in the first place.
Of course this kind of evil is always progressive. Most in our country today, think that they can just watch all of this and eventually it will take care of itself. That is NEVER the case. What is ALWAYS the case is those in authority eventually will break in doors and haul people away to be imprisoned, tortured and killed.
Oh yes, for the deniers ----- It doesn't exist.
Bruce
Sovereign Immunity ~ the Tool of Tyranny (revised - 2nd edition)
(2nd edition - July 2007) by A.O. Kime
a conditional 'free-to-reprint' article (see below)
Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2006 (H.R. 2863) and the license to torture
Since the early days, U.S. congressmen have voted to enact laws which were later ruled unconstitutional or were otherwise ‘un-American’ (unethical, unjust). While the reasons may be numerous, we at least know legislators often did so on behalf of special interests or were vote swapping (tit-for-tat). We might also suspect it was often a matter of expediency but still, in light of the consequences, all reasons must be considered on a par. In a very real sense, they are equally unforgivable and traitorous. After all, the result is the same... justice was compromised.
More recently however, those who voted for the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2006 (H.R. 2863) on December 21, 2005 will be remembered as the most damaging of legislators. The exception was that Senator John McCain and a few active supporters of his amendment at least tried to right a ongoing wrong. This amendment was the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (Title X prohibits the inhumane treatment of prisoners).
While initially Title X had some merit, although one of timidness, in the end its potential was negotiated away. In fact, the tables were turned... the amendment became a Trojan horse of political cozenage. And, as if nobody recognized the danger... the act was ratified. While the act itself may have been reasonable, the amendment should have been withdrawn if Section 1004 was to be included.
Of particular concern is Section 1004 (below)... the "Protection of United States Government Personnel Engaged in Authorized Interrogations*. Outrageously, it was a ‘concession’ granted to President Bush in exchange for his acceptance of this amendment (Detainee Treatment Act of 2005) and a grave mistake... the reason being McCain and company were out-foxed.
While Senator McCain's attempt to prohibit the inhumane treatment of prisoners was a noble gesture, although doubtful it will have any positive effects in that regard, there is a monumental downside of horrid proportions... it puts American citizens in further jeopardy. By granting immunity to the CIA and other government agents from lawsuits arising out of claims of torture, this errant ‘concession' also dissolved that recourse for American citizens. While not in so many words was it dissolved but that's the effect.
Broadening the scope of Sovereign Immunity
So, instead of reigning-in George Bush (as intended), Section 1004 only broadened the scope of Sovereign Immunity. It gave law enforcement tyrannous flexibility.
Chief Justice Marshall once said "there is no right without a remedy".
Justice Scalia wrote... "Nothing in our Constitution grants any person immunity. Nothing in our Constitution grants any person the power to grant immunity to another person. Nothing in our Constitution grants any officer, dignitary, member of the government, elected official, or government subdivision immunity. Yet today numerous government agents, officials and others claim to be immune from the same laws that you and I must follow."
In referring to H.R. 2863, Tom Wilner, a lawyer representing Kuwaiti detainees at Guantanamo Bay, said "I think this language being enacted will more than erase anything good that comes out of McCain."
As if actually needed, Section 1004 states it would protect CIA agents from lawsuits, except… the potential for lawsuits filed by foreigners is remote. The judicial apparatus makes it remote. If, however, the CIA was to be successfully sued by a foreigner… then it is probably warranted. In fact, the Medieval monarchical concept of 'sovereign immunity' (external link) has no place in a democracy and should be repealed entirely. After all, the very idea flies in the face of justice... it was even repudiated in the Magna Carta 800 years ago. Perhaps not even the recently exhumed Alien Tort Statute of 1789 should be considered a threat but instead an instrument of justice... see When can foreigners sue in US courts? (Christian Science Monitor).
Far truer however, law enforcement need only fear the potential for lawsuits filed by American citizens. In that case then, it must be the greater reason for Section 1004. And, similar to how Sovereign Immunity was extended to cover virtually all government agents, such as IRS agents, judges, police and even caseworkers with the Child Protective Service, this immunity against claims of torture will soon gravitate downwards to anyone with a badge.
Whomsoever might be claimed a terrorist (a dangerously vague term) will be in jeopardy. Marching protestors could be considered terrorists… it only needs be said.
So, as if license to kill (external link) wasn’t enough, George Bush won protection for his torturers. Further, by granting 'ignorance of the law' as a defense, it effectively re-allows all methods of torture disallowed by the McCain amendment.
The re-condoning of torture (of any sort)
SEC. 1004. PROTECTION OF UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL ENGAGED IN AUTHORIZED INTERROGATIONS.
(a) Protection of United States Government Personnel- In any civil action or criminal prosecution against an officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent of the United States Government who is a United States person, arising out of the officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent's engaging in specific operational practices, that involve detention and interrogation of aliens who the President or his designees have determined are believed to be engaged in or associated with international terrorist activity that poses a serious, continuing threat to the United States, its interests, or its allies, and that were officially authorized and determined to be lawful at the time that they were conducted, it shall be a defense that such officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent did not know that the practices were unlawful and a person of ordinary sense and understanding would not know the practices were unlawful. Good faith reliance on advice of counsel should be an important factor, among others, to consider in assessing whether a person of ordinary sense and understanding would have known the practices to be unlawful. Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or extinguish any defense or protection otherwise available to any person or entity from suit, civil or criminal liability, or damages, or to provide immunity from prosecution for any criminal offense by the proper authorities.
(b) Counsel- The United States Government may provide or employ counsel, and pay counsel fees, court costs, bail, and other expenses incident to the representation of an officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent described in subsection (a), with respect to any civil action or criminal prosecution arising out of practices described in that subsection, under the same conditions, and to the same extent, to which such services and payments are authorized under section 1037 of title 10, United States Code. (underlined added)
Professional ignorance of the law?
While ignorance of the law might often seem a reasonable ‘excuse’ for citizens, although it legally isn’t, the above is referring to professionals… law enforcement and military personnel trained and knowledgeable about such legalities. It should therefore NEVER be a defense.
Further, since no law enforcement officer or military personnel could be considered being in those positions without training, they WOULD or SHOULD know what is legal and what isn’t.
So why have this ‘protection’?
To enable the government to operate outside the law at all times under any circumstance.
The enemies of America?
So, how should one characterize a legislator who voted for its passage? Is 'traitorous' too strong a word? After all, these same legislators also did some good... like increasing social security benefits for example. So how can this incongruence, if applicable, be reconciled? Perhaps on any given day one human trait must triumph?
While treason may be applicable in many instances over bad legislation, or perhaps stupidity, or that there was little due diligence, on which vote might either of these be applicable? After all, before a bill becomes law there are many motions one must vote upon. There are also amendments. In addition, strategies might explain a few yes votes during the initial stages.
While votes on amendments tell a story, the vote on final passage is the most telling. As far as H.R. 2863 is concerned, with this treachery included no senators voted against it. Three senators, however, did not vote...Bunning (R-KY), Gregg (R-NH) and Leahy (D-VT)... (their reasons unknown)
While assuredly some senators must have recognized this snafu, or otherwise had reservations, except for the three mentioned they nonetheless voted for it. Why? Even though expediency may often be the culprit, or a sheep mentality which is often the case, as long as justice is in doubt then a 'no' vote is the only ethical alternative. Until kingdom come it is the only alternative. The reasoning "this is the best we can get" is no excuse if it sacrifices justice. If most senators held to this credo we'd get much better laws (and fewer).
A.O. Kime
* Some wording in Section 1004 was later amended by the Senate in S.3930.ENR on September 28, 2006 (the Military Commissions Act of 2006)... see SEC. 8. REVISIONS TO DETAINEE TREATMENT ACT OF 2005 RELATING TO PROTECTION OF CERTAIN UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL. (Go to Library of Congress for search page... enter S.3930.ENR then scroll down to Sec. 8)
POSTED NOVEMBER 10, 2008
FEDERAL RESERVE LENDS 2 TRILLION. REFUSES TO SAY WHERE.
Stealing is against the law unless you are the law. You could not live long enough to count to 2 trillion, but that didn't stop our masters from counting out 2 trillion dollars and lending it out. Since they are our masters they don't even bother to tell us where the money went.
Evil is always progressive. Like a snowball rolling down hill, the speed increases until the crash at the bottom. Just last year many economists worried about 200 billion dollars in deficit for the year. Today they have no idea how high the deficit will be. They do know that it will be in the trillions. They also know there aren't enough investors in the world to cover the purchase of the bonds needed to finance this. Therefore they will just have to print it. 100% of the time past episodes of this kind of money printing ALWAYS results in the destruction of the currency.
Bruce New World Order News.
Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose (Update2)
By Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry and Alison Fitzgerald
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.
``The collateral is not being adequately disclosed, and that's a big problem,'' said Dan Fuss, vice chairman of Boston- based Loomis Sayles & Co., where he co-manages $17 billion in bonds. ``In a liquid market, this wouldn't matter, but we're not. The market is very nervous and very thin.''
Bloomberg News has requested details of the Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure.
The Fed made the loans under terms of 11 programs, eight of them created in the past 15 months, in the midst of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
``It's your money; it's not the Fed's money,'' said billionaire Ted Forstmann, senior partner of Forstmann Little & Co. in New York. ``Of course there should be transparency.''
Treasury, Fed, Obama
Federal Reserve spokeswoman Michelle Smith declined to comment on the loans or the Bloomberg lawsuit. Treasury spokeswoman Michele Davis didn't respond to a phone call and an e-mail seeking comment.
President-elect Barack Obama's economic adviser, Jason Furman, also didn't respond to an e-mail and a phone call seeking comment from Obama. In a Sept. 22 campaign speech, Obama promised to ``make our government open and transparent so that anyone can ensure that our business is the people's business.''
The Fed's lending is significant because the central bank has stepped into a rescue role that was also the purpose of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, bailout plan -- without safeguards put into the TARP legislation by Congress.
Total Fed lending topped $2 trillion for the first time last week and has risen by 140 percent, or $1.172 trillion, in the seven weeks since Fed governors relaxed the collateral standards on Sept. 14. The difference includes a $788 billion increase in loans to banks through the Fed and $474 billion in other lending, mostly through the central bank's purchase of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds.
Sept. 14 Decision
Before Sept. 14, the Fed accepted mostly top-rated government and asset-backed securities as collateral. After that date, the central bank widened standards to accept other kinds of securities, some with lower ratings. The Fed collects interest on all its loans.
The plan to purchase distressed securities through TARP called for buying at the ``lowest price that the secretary (of the Treasury) determines to be consistent with the purposes of this Act,'' according to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the law that covers TARP.
The legislation didn't require any specific method for the purchases beyond saying mechanisms such as auctions or reverse auctions should be used ``when appropriate.'' In a reverse auction, bidders offer to sell securities at successively lower prices, helping to ensure that the Fed would pay less. The measure also included a five-member oversight board that includes Paulson and Bernanke.
At a Sept. 23 Senate Banking Committee hearing in Washington, Paulson called for transparency in the purchase of distressed assets under the TARP program.
`We Need Transparency'
``We need oversight,'' Paulson told lawmakers. ``We need protection. We need transparency. I want it. We all want it.''
At a joint House-Senate hearing the next day, Bernanke also stressed the importance of openness in the program. ``Transparency is a big issue,'' he said.
The Fed lent cash and government bonds to banks, which gave the Fed collateral in the form of equities and debt, including subprime and structured securities such as collateralized debt obligations, according to the Fed Web site. The borrowers have included the now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Banks oppose any release of information because it might signal weakness and spur short-selling or a run by depositors, said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs for the Financial Services Roundtable, a Washington trade group.
Frank Backs Fed
``You have to balance the need for transparency with protecting the public interest,'' Talbott said. ``Taxpayers have a right to know where their tax dollars are going, but one piece of information standing alone could undermine public confidence in the system.''
The nation's biggest banks, Citigroup, Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, declined to comment on whether they have borrowed money from the Fed. They received $120 billion in capital from the TARP, which was signed into law Oct. 3.
In an interview Nov. 6, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said the Fed's disclosure is sufficient and that the risk the central bank is taking on is appropriate in the current economic climate. Frank said he has discussed the program with Timothy F. Geithner, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a possible candidate to succeed Paulson as Treasury secretary.
``I talk to Geithner and he was pretty sure that they're OK,'' said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat. ``If the risk is that the Fed takes a little bit of a haircut, well that's regrettable.'' Such losses would be acceptable, he said, if the program helps revive the economy.
`Unclog the Market'
Frank said the Fed shouldn't reveal the assets it holds or how it values them because of ``delicacy with respect to pricing.'' He said such disclosure would ``give people clues to what your pricing is and what they might be able to sell us and what your estimates are.'' He wouldn't say why he thought that information would be problematic.
Revealing how the Fed values collateral could help thaw frozen credit markets, said Ron D'Vari, chief executive officer of NewOak Capital LLC in New York and the former head of structured finance at BlackRock Inc.
``I'd love to hear the methodology, how the Fed priced the assets,'' D'Vari said. ``That would unclog the market very quickly.''
TARP's $700 billion so far is being used to buy preferred shares in banks to shore up their capital. The program was originally intended to hold banks' troubled assets while markets were frozen.
AIG Lending
The Bloomberg lawsuit argues that the collateral lists ``are central to understanding and assessing the government's response to the most cataclysmic financial crisis in America since the Great Depression.''
The Fed has lent at least $81 billion to American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurer, so that it can pay obligations to banks. AIG today said it received an expanded government rescue package valued at more than $150 billion.
The central bank is also responsible for losses on a $26.8 billion portfolio guaranteed afte
