Cannabis electric car to be made in Canada

By Emily Chung, CBC News

The Kestrel electric car will have room for a driver and three passengers and have a top speed of 90 kilometres an hour. (Motive Industries Inc.)An electric car made of hemp is being developed by a group of Canadian companies in collaboration with an Alberta Crown corporation.

The Kestrel will be prototyped and tested later in August by Calgary-based Motive Industries Inc., a vehicle development firm focused on advanced materials and technologies, the company announced.

The compact car, which will hold a driver and up to three passengers, will have a top speed of 90 kilometres per hour and a range of 40 to 160 kilometres before needing to be recharged, depending on the type of battery, the company said in an email to CBC News Monday.

It will be powered by a motor made by Boucherville, Que.-based TM4 Electrodynamic Systems, said Motive Industries president Nathan Armstrong.

‘As a structural material, hemp is about the best.’— Nathan Armstrong, Motive Industries Inc.

The car’s body will be made of an impact-resistant composite material produced from mats of hemp, a plant from the cannabis family. The material is being supplied by Alberta Innovates-Technology Futures, a provincial Crown corporation that provides technical services and funding to help commercialize new technologies. The hemp is being grown in Vegreville, Alta.

The Kestrel is one of five electric vehicles being developed by Project Eve, an automotive industry collaboration founded by Motive and Toronto Electric, an Ontario material handling and electric motor company, to boost the production of electric vehicles and electric vehicle components in Canada.

Colleges to help build cars

The Kestrel cars will be built with the help of polytechnic schools in Alberta, Quebec and Toronto, and the first 20 cars are scheduled to be delivered next year to EnMax, a Calgary-based energy distribution, supply and service company that is taking part in Project Eve.

Industrial hemp is bred to produce very little THC, the active compound in marijuana. (Chet Brokaw/Associated Press)

Hemp

Hemp is the common name for the cannabis plant, which has fibrous roots, stalks and stems useful for producing a variety of products and seeds that are edible.

The flowers, buds and leaves of some strains are used to produce drugs such as marijuana and hashish because they contain a psychoactive compound called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), but industrial hemp is bred to produce very little THC.

Automotive pioneer Henry Ford first built a car made of hemp fibre and resin more than half a century ago.

“It’s not an original idea,” Armstrong said, but one that wasn’t developed much further as car manufacturers favoured other materials, such as steel, in subsequent decades.

However, fibreglass and carbon fibre-based composites have gained popularity as materials for the body of racecars because they are strong, but light. Such composite materials consist of pieces or fibres of a hard reinforcement material, such as glass or carbon fibre, surrounded and supported by a matrix of a material such as plastic.

Producing composites from glass or carbon fibre requires intense heating in furnaces and multiple chemical processes, Armstrong said, making it very energy intensive,

In contrast, plant-based fibres grow in a field using the energy of the sun.

“As a structural material, hemp is about the best,” Armstrong said, as it has about twice the strength of other plant fibres. It doesn’t require much water or pesticide use, and grows well in Canada, providing a high yield per hectare.

Market advantage

“Plus, it’s illegal to grow it in the U.S., so it actually gives Canada a bit of a market advantage,” Armstrong added. The U.S. does allow the import of processed hemp.

ATlF had been working for some time on hemp-based composite materials with the hardness of glass and had been seeking a commercial use.

Motive Industries had joined forces with Toronto Electric, a material-handling and electric motor company, to found Project Eve and decided to give the material a try.

The car will take batteries with a capacity ranging from 4.5 to 17.3 kilowatt hours of energy.

The vehicle’s full design will be released after the September EV 2010 VÉ Conference and Trade Show in Vancouver.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/08/23/cannabis-hemp-electric-car-kestrel-motive.html#ixzz0xUQ6xRB0

Anybody know anything about AAB.TO. If it owns as many companies as David Skarika states in his article, why is it only at.40 Canadian?

….so far 2 Blythe Masters and Lloyd Blankfein

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xvwhHOK8Rk

….Chinese traffic Torture….?

….wow

I thought the author made a lot of sense as well.  He obviously knows his stuff and is a good writer as well.  It all sounds feasible to me.

If anyone hasn’t read it then they are missing out.  The link is at 15:59.

That is certainly a keeper and nutshells the template of all western govts..Belated and gracious thanks for the warm welcome I received on my first post.  Kenny the Kiwi is right.  No Italian, Sicilian, Brazilian.. just a pinch of Paddy. A real idiot I am!

BobbyC, your post on the Haka was poignant and highlights how far NZ has moved, in just one generation, on matters cultural.

www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/20/wallstreet.banking

…Where is Superman when we Need Him ?

goldtent.net/wp_gold/2010/08/23/yet-another-gem-from-a-midas-contributorlook-and-a-new-cretin-to-hate/

…and a Female Cretin I take it…?…..or….?

….Blythe Masters ….

Bill
After the drubbing we took last week (we really took a drubbing) on Friday evening as soon as I was comfortably positioned outside one, or even a few more of my customary “apero” - Pastis - I fell to reflecting on the likely sports plan for the opposition.

It seemed we needed to account for the grotesque and very ugly self-adulation of the amazonian English ladette - I am referring of course to Blythe Masters, whose name, as she correctly boasts, sends a stab of fear into all humble independent gold and silver investors such as we. It does not need much effort to imagine that she will not wish to abandon the “take down schedule” under the conditions of abject failure in which she finds herself at present. Of course we must generously admit that these raids have proved irksome to our side over the years, but “price is price” and as an exercise in forcing price lower, the takedowns have not really produced the effect she must have hoped for.

We see Gold just off its highs, and Silver poised to launch itself higher, like a compressed spring. No, she has lost the battle to impress her masters because she has not impressed in the physical market, where the other participants have been reading the tea leaves and have reached obvious conclusions concerning the risk profile of the US economy despite her juvenile tantrums.

We have seen this reflected in the persistent and significant additions to gold reserves all over the world. They are amused by the US attempts to escape from the economic glue into which it waded in full knowledge of the consequences, like a fly on a flypaper. They are wary but quiet, because they wish to extract the maximum value and best advantage possible from their rotting piles of US Treasury paper before all value is stolen from them by Ben and his team. No, by contrast Blythe and her team of lobotomised gargoyles will look for a strike wherever and whenever they can do so without having to tear themselves away from admiring themselves in the mirror of an evening, just to do the explaining thing at the behest of some annoying regulator.

The “Boss” will be telling Barack, Benny and Timmy to keep the dogs on a tight leash for the time being because nothing must obstruct the efforts of the PPT to prop up the “dead elephant” - keep it standing upright on its legs whilst they wait in their last and only hope for a Hallelujah chorus to announce the arrival of an economic miracle. Those dogs are obedient for the most part, and have been forced to accept a recent addition to the pack who is not one of their kind - a Pit Bull Terrier and not easily cowed.

Stout of heart, this new dog strains at the leash, impatient to put fang to buttock: he has Blythe and her goblins in sight, the red mist is starting to appear around his eyes, and who can blame him? Fortunately for the goblin crew, the bad dog will not be let off the leash until July 2011 apparently, at which point he has been authorised to savage Blythe and anyone else who disrupts a free and orderly futures market. This is clearly bears the prospect of some very good dinners, and heading for July he will indeed be getting keen.

In fact by July 2011, with reinforcement from position limits, and less and less sign of exemptions, we may see the entire world queueing for tickets to watch the destruction of JP Morgan in various shapes and guises - if Blythe and her goblins should find themselves first up in court, they may be first down in the sewer, perhaps headed out to sea,

At that moment I for one will crack open a very good bottle to celebrate. Yes Blythe, we ARE all scared shitless - scared of what our markets have become because of you. Those markets would be a better place without you. Can it be possible you have fewer friends than you imagined? In “potty” training clearly you missed out on the nursery rules, one of which suggests that it is a good idea to venture into the outside world in company and holding hands. If you see your task as to scare everyone else “shitless” not only do you reveal your weak personality but you inevitably paint a target on your own back. How is it that the psycho profiling chez the largest financial predator in the world can pick such losers?

So, my friends, when and for how long will the transsexual English ladette continue her abuses? Well, might I suggest that options expiry of October Gold and Silver should prove no obstacle, save for the return of the holidaying locals and potential increase in volume and scrutiny. But positioned at the end of September it could prove an attractive last hurrah. Looking further forward, the December contract has substantial open interest, and might not be a pushover. The longer this rigging continues and the more that public forum discussion takes place, the greater the risk that one or all of the goblins will be thrown to the Pit Bull who will indeed be getting very hungry by then. Worse, as the impending misery of 2011 starts to loom large in prospect, the months further forward my not be so attractive, with substantial volume and more immediate proximity to the regulatory “drop dead” dates. It will be increasingly unattractive to continue these take downs lest it appears too clear that JPM does not actually give a damn for regulators, government, or anyone else for that matter. Of course WE have seen the proof of this on a regular basis, but times are changing and the eyes of the world are turning towards these markets and particularly towards this vile manipulation.

Perhaps we shall see yet further delightful reduction in the JPM empire with the probable extinguishing of its share of some 65m mortgages (yes 65m properties not USD) which had been previously the subject of the absurd CDO creations. Ironic that at the start everyone asked “What the hell is that? How do you know what is in it?” when referring to CDO’s and now it is the loss of that very traceability which seems to have brought it down. Sell your JPM shares soon - Mr. George Soros has already.

So, none of us can know the future, but I find myself veering unexpectedly towards an optimistic view that the expiry in September of the October options may see the last of this type of takedown activity, because thereafter, exposure to scrutiny will massively increase the risk of these skillful criminals getting caught, no matter what or who may be their protection.

On verra!
Dave
…totally apero’d out down in France

Ranting Andy is rarely a happy camper when it comes to the antics of The Gold Cartel. If it’s not one thing, it is another. Today…

manipulation supreme

Silver/gold basically at highs of day, silver up over $18, Dow positive and rising, yet SLW is still $0.60 off its high of the day, achieved of course at the same time as every day before its trashing the same time as every day. And, like gold and silver, it never SURGES upward, just rises by $0.20, $0.40, $0.60 at a time.

Biggest silver company in the world, and in my view (my biggest holding) the best PM stock to hold, which I believe may one day pass XOM as the largest market cap stock ever.

And believe me, the Cartel knows it. No stock rigged more than SLW.

And yet it still is barely below its all-time high!
A

Bill H:

Dollar/Gold 101

To all, there has been a time honored debate throughout history between paper fiat and Gold. Gold has always survived while paper never has so I guess a logical question would be “why can it possibly different this time?”. A very interesting addition to the current Gold/paper struggle is that the purveyors of paper have “handicapped their horse in the race with thousands of pounds of rocks”. At this point, paper across the globe offers virtually no yield at all so which would you rather have, $1,200 paper Dollars or 1 ounce of Gold? Which one will still be around in 10 years? Which one can be “watered down” at the whim of politicians and bankers with the stroke of a computer keyboard?

Digging a little deeper, which one has an “issuer that can go bankrupt and which one does not”? Actually here is a better question and would love to be bombarded with e-mailed answers, “what is a Dollar?”. Think about this for a moment, WHAT IS A DOLLAR? I can tell you what an ounce of Gold is and can tell you that it has value because it “is”. So we have paper (Dollars) vs. ounces of Gold and ounces of Silver. Dollars offer no interest, have a 100 year track record of losing purchasing power every year, are issued by an insolvent and bankrupt entity, can be issued in unlimited amounts at the will and whim of this same bankrupt entity, they have been leveraged out by the $ Trillions throughout the world with derivatives and are the most over owned asset (Treasury bonds) on the planet.

On the other hand, Gold also pays no interest but is not issued by nor a liability of ANY entity and new supply is severely limited. Evidence highly suggests that Gold is also highly leveraged in derivative markets however the leverage is on the short side and certainly appears to be VERY naked! Physical Gold is probably THE most UNDER owned asset on the planet and mining shares are still historically very undervalued as compared to bullion. Gold also has a track record (5,000 years worth) of retaining purchasing power vs. real goods and has ALWAYS revalued higher vs. all fiat currencies in history.

So there you have it, “Money 101″, the above is very basic and we all knew and know these things but I thought it would be a good idea to do a little refresher. The reasons to own Gold now are now actually more pressing and more timely than 10 years ago at $250 Gold. Though we know this, the public in general does not and will be enrolling in the school of hard knocks shortly. Those exiting the classroom at a run will be headed for their local coin dealers, don’t get in their way or you will be trampled. Regards, Bill H

A traffic jam stretching more than 60 miles in China has entered its ninth day with no end in sight, state media reported.

Cars and trucks have been slowed to a crawl since August 14 on the National Expressway 110, which is also known as the G110, the major route from Beijing to Zhangjiakou, Xinhua News reported.

Officials expect the congestion to continue until workers complete construction projects on September 13, the report said. 

State media reported that Chinese drivers have become accustomed to the severe delays, noting a similar jam in July that slowed traffic for close to a month.

Britain’s Sky News reported that the snarls have been commonplace since May as a result of a spike in the number of trucks using the roads, with the daily peak reaching about 17,000.

“Insufficient traffic capacity on the National Expressway 110 caused by maintenance construction since August 19 is the major cause of the congestion,” a Beijing Traffic Management Bureau spokesman told the Global Times.

Chinese national radio reported Sunday that minor traffic accidents and broken-down vehicles have complicated the traffic mess, Xinhua reported.

Approximately 400 police officers are patrolling the road 24 hours a day in an effort to keep the situation calm, Sky News said.

Concerts?
Motorists have taken to card games or chess to pass the time, Sky News reported. Others joked that “concerts should be held at each congested area every weekend, to alleviate drivers’ homesickness,” the report said.

Residents from communities alongside the expressway have seen opportunity in the traffic slowdown, setting up food and drink kiosks for the drivers.

Some drivers have complained of price gouging. One truck driver, identified by his last name Huang, told the Global Times that “instant noodles are sold at four times the original price while I wait in the congestion.

“Not only the congestion annoys me, but also those vendors,” he added.

By Sara Jerome - 08/23/10 09:24 AM ET 

A bipartisan coalition in favor of net neutrality has lost a key conservative supporter amid signs that the issue is becoming more divisive.

The Gun Owners of America (GOA) severed ties with the net-neutrality coalition Save the Internet after a conservative blog questioned the association with liberal organizations such as ACORN and the ACLU. 

The blog RedState described Save The Internet as a “neo-Marxist Robert McChesney-FreePress/Save the Internet think tank” and questioned why GOA would participate in a coalition that includes liberal groups such as the ACLU, MoveOn.Org, SEIU, CREDO and ACORN.

GOA was one of the charter members of Save the Internet, but a spokesman for the gun rights group said times have changed.

“Back in 2006 we supported net neutrality, as we had been concerned that AOL and others might continue to block pro-second amendment issues,” said Erich Pratt, communications director for GOA.

“The issue has now become one of government control of the Internet, and we are 100 percent opposed to that,” Pratt said.

Save The Internet had long pointed to the support of gun owners as evidence that net neutrality is a nonpartisan issue. 

Net-neutrality advocates are struggling to maintain bipartisan support during an election season that has cast the issue along party lines.

Last month, 35 Tea Party groups came out against net neutrality in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The letter accused the FCC of “relentlessly pursuing a massive regulatory regime” that would stifle the growth of the Internet.

The FCC is considering a move to boost its authority over broadband providers through a controversial process known as reclassification. The process could give federal regulators the power to impose net-neutrality rules, which would prevent Internet access providers from favoring some content and applications over others.


Tim Karr, the campaign director for Save the Internet, cited the midterm election season to explain why net neutrality is increasingly cast along partisan lines.

“Anytime you approach an election, these issues tend to be politicized,” he said.

Still, Karr said Save The Internet views net neutrality as a free speech issue rather than a liberal or conservative one. He noted the group’s membership still includes a number of conservative groups, including the socially conservative Parents Television Council and the Christian Coalition.

snip:

‘ “Genuinely adverse debt dynamics were only expected to materialise in 15 to 20 years. The crisis has ‘fast-forwarded’ history, eroding all the time available to adjust, ” said the group’s quarterly Sovereign Monitor.

Moody’s fears that the US will crash through its safety buffer by 2013 if growth falters (adverse scenario), with interest payments topping 14pc of tax revenues. ‘

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7950775/Time-is-running-out-for-the-West.html

“We are reviewing the decision and considering our options for appeal,” David Skidmore, a Fed spokesman, said.

…….LOL……..SKIDMORE……I guess this means the FED has Pooped their panties

GOLD/SILVER

This could be a BIGGIE for GATA as we have followed Bloomberg in taking the Fed to court for their failure to make proper disclosures after our Freedom of Information Act requests…
Fed Loses Bid for Review of Bailout Disclosure Ruling

By David Glovin and Bob Van Voris - Aug 23, 2010 12:02 PM CT

A U.S. appeals court refused to reconsider a ruling that requires the Federal Reserve Board to disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have failed without the largest U.S. government bailout.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York, in a docket entry dated Aug. 20, denied a May 4 request by the Fed to review its unanimous March 19 decision requiring the agency to release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program begun primarily after the 2008 collapse of Bear Stearns Cos.

The Fed may still ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the appeals court. The Clearing House Association LLC, an organization of 20 commercial banks that joined the Fed in defense of the lawsuit, has already said it will appeal to the high court.

“The decision is of exceptional importance,” the Fed’s lawyers wrote in a legal brief on May 4 in which they asked the circuit court to reconsider its decision. “The real-world consequence of the panel’s decision will be serious, perhaps irreparable harm to the institutional borrowers whose information will be revealed.”

The ruling upheld a decision of a lower-court judge in Manhattan who in August 2009 ordered that the information be released.

“We are reviewing the decision and considering our options for appeal,” David Skidmore, a Fed spokesman, said.

‘Competitive Injury’

The Fed argued in the case, which was brought by Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, that disclosure of the documents threatens to stigmatize borrowers and cause them “severe and irreparable competitive injury,” discouraging banks in distress from seeking help. The appeals court panel rejected that argument.

The 157-year-old, New York-based Clearing House Payments Co., which processes transactions among banks, is owned by its 20 members. They include JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc, PNC Financial Services Group Inc., UBS AG, U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co.

The Clearing House Association, a lobbying group with the same members, joined the lawsuit in September 2009, after the initial ruling against the central bank in federal court in Manhattan.

Iya Davidson, a spokeswoman for the Clearing House, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.

Seven Days

The Fed and Clearing House have seven days to ask the circuit court for a stay, which would free them from having to release the 231 loan documents at issue, according to Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, Bloomberg’s attorneys in the case. If the court issues the stay, the Fed and the Clearing House have 90 days to petition the Supreme Court to consider their appeal.

If the circuit court doesn’t issue a stay, the Fed would have to release the documents, also called term sheets, the law firm said.

The amount the Fed and the U.S. government lent, spent or guaranteed to stem the recession and rescue the banking system peaked in March 2009 at $12.8 trillion, most of it following the September 2008 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

The New York Times Co., the Associated Press and Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, are among media companies that have signed up as friends of the court in support of Bloomberg.

The case is Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 09-04083, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York).

www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-23/u-s-appeals-court-refuses-to
-review-disclosure-ruling-on-fed-bailouts.html

-END-

Should Bloomberg prevail in the end, as they have thus far, GATA’s case ought to be substantially bolstered by the resulting case precedent.

………………………

Comment……Does anyone thing the FEd Heavyweights may try and turn some screws on these Judges to issue the Stay….?

…..looks like someone may finally be standing up to the Cretins…That would be GREAT !……the Cretins alnost ALWAYS seem to get it to go their way

Speaking of high commodity prices…

$10,000 copper by 2012 - not far-fetched at all!

Credit Suisse analyst Michael Shillaker has gone on record as predicting $10,000 copper by 2010, but this could yet be a fairly modest prediction

Author: Lawrence Williams
Posted: Saturday , 21 Aug 2010

LONDON -

Going back a year or so, who would have predicted a jump in the copper price from a little below $3,000 a tonne to the current $7,440 a tonne - or from $1.35/lb to $3.30/lb for those who think in these terms - in a matter of 20 months (a rise of around 150%)? Thus a prediction from Credit Suisse analyst Michael Shillaker, of $10,000 a tonne ($4.54/lb) in 2012 - a mere 34% increase - which has caught the headlines, is hardly as bullish a forecast as many would have us believe. Indeed copper has already touched close to $9,000 a tonne back in the heady days of 2008 before the bottom fell out of the market. Viewed in such terms the bullish prediction is certainly not out of line assuming Shillaker’s demand assumptions are in any way reasonable.

Shillaker’s analysis is predicated primarily on a further surge in Chinese growth. He suggests that the recent signs of a slowdown in the Middle Kingdom’s economy has just been a bottoming out from a government instigated cooling, designed to try and control inflation, and expects there will be a further surge in economic growth, starting in the latter part of the current yea,r which will carry on throughout 2011. Indeed if this is coupled with any kind on meaningful industrial recovery in the West, then one suspects $10,000 copper could even be a conservative estimate, particularly given supply constraints in the sector.

Not only does Shillaker feel that copper will be a major beneficiary of this upturn, but also other mined commodities, with bulks, like iron ore and coal benefiting strongly, as well as the other base and industrial metals, although he feels that copper’s fundamentals are the strongest. He is also quoted as saying that this suggests a big rise in mining company share prices over the next two years, looking for around a 30% increase overall by the year end and as much as 100% or more for some stocks over the next two to three years.

-END-

…..Trust us….nobody was fooled by your new handle

TOKYO | Mon Aug 23, 2010 8:16pm EDT

TOKYO Aug 24 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei average dropped below the closely watched 9,000 point mark for this first time in 15 months on Tuesday after U.S. stocks weakened, with a pick-up in corporate takeover activity failing to soothe concerns that the recovery is stalling.

The benchmark Nikkei .N225 slipped 1.5 percent to 8,983.93 points shortly after the opening, its lowest since May 2009, while the broader Topix .TOPX declined 1.2 percent to 814.68.

The 9,000 to 9,100 area had been strong support for the Nikkei index since last year, halting several recent attempts to break through on the downside, but worries about Japan’s economic recovery, heightened by the yen’s climb this month to a 15-year high against the dollar, put persistent pressure on stocks. (Reporting by Aiko Hayashi; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

The link at your ipso_facto @ 15:59 pm on August 23, 2010 post is a good example of developing the issue. It is written in plain English, without runon sentences that suck the meaning out of the paragraph, or sentences that are unclear and practically meaningless. And it offers a step by step explanation.

The author there makes a good case to explain how hyperinflation could happen in our future. It is a lot better case than any other that I have seen. Except for using the pejorative term ‘Neanderthal’ and perhaps a few other blips, it avoids attempts to demonize its rivals.

savesd at Analysis Paradise

Gee, you mean that really is a government function and the FOIA really does apply?

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) — A U.S. appeals court refused to reconsider a ruling that requires the Federal Reserve Board to disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have failed without the largest U.S. government bailout.

Of course you have to expect they’ll go to the SCOTUS for a final attempt, and ask for a stay, which (assuming they appeal) they will almost-certainly get.

But the options for the thieves guild, er, Clearing House Association (the organization that represents large commercial banks like BOA, Citi, etc) are running short.  Beyond the Supreme Court there’s only contempt and compliance left.

The Fed argued in the case, which was brought by Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, that disclosure of the documents threatens to stigmatize borrowers and cause them “severe and irreparable competitive injury,” discouraging banks in distress from seeking help. The appeals court panel rejected that argument.

The court is exactly right.

Once you stick your hand out and threaten the end of the world unless the government intervenes, which is exactly what these banks did in 2008, you have no more room for “secrecy” or “comity.”

You’ve come hat-in-hand and literally told the government (and its surrogates) that if they don’t provide help you will fail, and in doing so you will destroy the nation’s economy.

That was the gist of the argument they ran.

The courts have held, correctly in my opinion, that one cannot at the same time demand secrecy and a government bailout.

Let’s hope the Supreme’s also see it this way - that the people’s money is what’s in play here, and it does not belong to The Fed, or to Treasury - it belongs to the American public, and we have every right to know how it is being used.

http://market-ticker.org/

“Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out’? has new meaning

www.csper.org/goal-renew-psychology.html

Gubmint and How Gubmint Works

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, “Someone may steal from it at night.”
So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, “How does the watchman do his job without instruction?” So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?” So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Congress said, “How are these people going to get paid?” So They created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer, then hired two people.

Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?” So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an
Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, “We have had this command in operation for one Year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cutback.” So they laid off the night watchman.

NOW slowly, let it sink in.

Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter.

Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of
the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY….. during the Carter Administration?

Anybody?

Anything?

No?

Didn’t think so!

Bottom line. We’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency….the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember!

Ready??
It was very simple..and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.

The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977,
TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

Hey, pretty efficient, huh???

AND NOW IT’S 2010 — 33 YEARS LATER — AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS “NECESSARY” DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE! (THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?”)

33 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.

Ah, yes — good old Federal bureaucracy.

NOW, WE HAVE TURNED OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?

Hello!! Anybody Home?

NOVEMBER, NOVEMBER, NOVEMBER! Take out the trash!!!

Posted Aug 23, 2010 07:30am EDT by Peter Gorenstein in Investing, Recession, Politics

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecasts the U.S. budget deficit will hit $1.3 trillion this year. An astronomical figure, to be sure, but that’s lower than was projected in March. It’s also less than last year’s record $1.41 trillion deficit, which was close to 10% of GDP.

And, that’s the good news.

As the deficit grows so does the national debt, which is currently more than $13.3 trillion, according to official figures.

But the situation is actually much, much worse, according to Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff.

“Forget the official debt,” he tells Aaron in this clip. The “real” deficit - including non-budgetary items like unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the defense budget - is actually $202 trillion, the professor and author calculates; or 15 times the “official” numbers.

“Congress has engaged in Enron accounting,” says Kotlikoff, who recently penned an op-ed for Bloomberg entitled: The U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don’t Even Know It.

Yet, the debt market continues to have an insatiable appetite for U.S. Treasuries; heading into Monday’s session, the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond (which moves in opposition to its price) was at its lowest level since April 2009.

Kotlikoff says that’s because the market is focused on the “mole hill” of official debt. In time, the U.S. will have a major inflation problem to rival that of Germany’s post World War I Weimar Republic, he predicts. “We have to think about the fact that unless the government gets its fiscal act in order we’re going to have the government printing lots and lots money to pay these enormous bills that are coming due over time.”

America is in need of major reform of the health-care, retirement, tax and financial system, Kotlikoff continues. “We need (to perform) heart surgery on this economy, not putting on more band-aids which is what we’ve been doing.” 

Barring that, your hard-earned dollars will soon be worthless, he declares.

UNITED NATIONS — An obscure U.N. board that oversees a $2.7 billion market intended to cut heat-trapping gases has agreed to take steps that could lead to it eventually reining in what European and U.S. environmentalists are calling a huge scam.

At a meeting this week that ended Friday, the executive board of the U.N.’s Clean Development Mechanism said that five chemical plants in China would no longer qualify for funding as so-called carbon offset credits until the environmentalists’ claims can be further investigated.

The “CDM” credits have been widely used in the carbon trading markets of the European Union, Japan and other nations that signed onto the 1997 Kyoto Protocol requiring mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases.

Rather than cut their own carbon emissions, industrialized nations can buy the credits which then pay developing countries to cut their greenhouse gases instead.

But environmentalists say rich nations could be wasting billions of dollars on what some are calling “perverse financial incentives,” because some of the largest projects funded by the U.N.-managed CDM are a golden goose for chemical makers without making meaningful cuts in emissions.

The CDM executive board, based in Bonn, Germany, has asked for a decades’ worth of data on the gases from those five plants in China to study whether the system was manipulated.

The controversy revolves around the apparent conflict between the Kyoto climate treaty and another U.N. treaty, the 1987 Montreal Protocol for repairing the Earth’s fragile ozone layer.

The money from the CDM-authorized fund goes to pay the carbon offset credits claimed by more than 20 chemical makers mostly in China and India, but also in nations such as South Korea, Argentina and Mexico.

The chemical makers are paid as much as $100,000 or more for every ton they destroy of a potent greenhouse gas, HFC-23. The price for destroying it is based on its being 11,700 times more powerful as a climate-warming gas than carbon dioxide.