The International Forecaster

8/14/2019 The International Forecaster

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THE INTERNATIONAL FORECASTERWEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2009

121609(5)IFP. O. Box 510518, Punta Gorda, FL 33951-0518

An international financial, economic, political and social commentary.

Published and Edited by: Bob ChapmanNOTE: NEW E-MAIL ADDRESSESFor correspondence to Bob: [email protected]

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NEXT ISSUESEVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY DURING THE MONTH OF DECEMBER

EXCEPT NO ISSUE DECEMBER 26TH

Bob Chapman makes regular radio interviews that can be heard over the air or online. Visit TheBob Chapman Youtube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/TheBobChapmanChannel) tolisten to recordings of Bob's broadcasts on the markets, politics, metals, the economy,currencies, and current events.

Many of the websites linked on this page provide players that allow you to listen to theirprograms from within your web browser. Many of them, however, provide links to live internetbroadcasts which may require additional software.

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**JOIN BOB CHAPMAN ON COAST TO COAST AM WITH GEORGE NOORY**Bob Chapman will be making an appearance on Coast To Coast Wednesday,December 16th at 4am EST / 1am PST to talk about the failure of TARP and theStimulus to live up their billing.


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If you're not able to catch the broadcast on one of the many affiliates that carry theprogram nationally, stream the show by clicking here.We want you all to listen to the broadcast or catch the streaming. If you have anyquestions or commentary regarding the program send them [email protected]

Let them know what you thought of the program.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/*****

Discount Gold & Silver Trading Co.

For the best in pricing and service for gold and silver coins, call Melody at 1-800-375-4188. Be sure to listen to DGSTC with Bob Chapman live on Short-wave 7.415Mhz M-F4:00PM ET, Replays Tuesday thru Friday 8pm RT 7.465Mhz3.215 MHz M-F 11PM ET and weekly archives at discountgoldandsilvertrading.netJOHN STADTMILLER Republic Broadcasting Network www.republicbroadcasting.org every Tues. at5:00-7:00 pm ESTGOLDSEEK RADIO Every Thursday

SAM BUSHMAN - LRT Radio http://www.libertyroundtable.comEvery first and third Monday of the month 10 am to 11 am

DALE WILLIAMS - Free West Radio Program http://www.freewestradio.com - Every first Tuesday ofMonthJOHN BRYANT 7 p.m. EDT - network www.firstamendmentradio.comDr. STAN MONTEITH - Every Monday 4 p.m. & 8 p.m. PST. www.radioliberty.com, or to our shortwavebroadcasts on WHRI at 5.745 MH weekdays from 3-5 pm and 8-10 pm Pacific Time 5070 and 7465.Shortwave: Daily M-F 3:00 - 4:00 PM: PST 5.070 Mhz 4:00 - 5:00 PM: PST 7.465 Mhz 8:00 - 9:00 PM: PST5.875 & 6.110 Mhz

THE MERIA HELLER SHOW every 2nd Tuesday of the month www.Meria.netTHE POWER HOUR GCN.live.com Every other Monday in Nov., Dec., and January 4, 2010.PAT GORMAN Sunday November 15, 20009Stephen Lendman December 11, 2009ALEX JONES - GCN.live.com -Noon on shortwave 1st hour: WWCR 9.985 and 2nd & 3rd Hour:

Every Friday noon CST. WWCR 9975 - Here are some of the recent Alex Jones shows that Bob hasappeared on. Mon thru Fri Noon to 4 pm EST, 12160http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIQ1Qrv_AUERAYELAN ALLEN December 16th - 1pm to 2 pm. [this is to access the ratings for the show]http://www.talkstreamlive.com/talk_radio/rayelan_allen.stream

[this is the coverage we are getting on YouTube and Clipser, which isextremely good. You helped make this happen by being subscribers.]Channel Update'sYoutube345,158 channel views1501 subscribersClipser52 subscribers600,000 views ( seems more people just listening )Channel Rank on Clipser1073

RadioAlchymy heard Thursday morning on KPFK 90.7fm Los Angeles withhost/producer Eben Rey.BUTCH PAUGH December 16th - 9 p.m. EST - Also on your computer on www.gcnlive.com . LIVE FM STATIONS 9:00 PM EST.-88.3 FM ROTX Campbell, TX- 92.7 FMLexington TN-102.9 FM in Lutz, FL-89.7 FM Nettie, WV-89.7 FM North Branch, MN-91.9 FM Kerrville, TX-97.5 FM Dallas, TX-91.1 FM Austin, TX-97.5-91.1 FM Austin, TX-91.7 FM Fredericksburg, TX-91.7 FMJohnson City, TX-90.1 FM Round Rock, TX-90.1 FM Austin, TX-96.3 FM Austin, TX-95.7 FM Dallas, TX-


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93.3 FM Valparaiso, IN-90.7 & 88.5 FM Cosby, TN-88.3 FM Meadsville, PA-100.3 FM Kamia, ID-89.7 FMPresque Isle ME-97.7 FM Greenville, SC-107.1 FM Oklahoma City, OK-90.1 FM Gatlinburg, TN-102.7 FMTampa, FL-KGGM 93.5 FM Delhi, LA LIVE AM STATIONS 9:00 EST.-WIJD 1270 AM Mobile, AL, KIOU1480 AM Shreveport, LA,WFAM 1050 AM Augusta, GA-WELP 1360 AM Greenville, SC-WCPC 940 AMTupelo, MS-WROL 1340 Providence, RI-WITK 1550 AM in Scranton/Wilkesboro, PA-WNNY 1090 AMPensacola, FL-WARL 1320 AM Attleboro, MA-1380 WLRM AM Chattanooga, TN-WYYC 1250 AM York, PA-WNVY 1070 AM Pensacola, FL-KGEZ 1600 AM Kalispell, MT REBROADCAST FM STATIONS- 91.9 FM

Macon, GA 7:00 AM-91.9 FM Freedom radio Jones City, GA 8:00 AM Est. REBROADCAST AMSTATIONS-KCKN AM 1020 Roswell, NM 10 PM Est.-KMET 1490 AM 11 AM Pst. - WASB 1590 AMBrockport, NY 5-6 PM Est.- WRSB 1310 AM Canandaigua, NY 5-6 PM Est.-WBCR 1470 AM in Alcoa, TN 7-8 AM Est.-WVOG 600 AM New Orleans, LA 5:00 PM Est.ERSKINE: - every 3rd Thursday 2:00 pm CST GCN.live.com

Drew Raines: - Every Thursday 2200 GMT A Marines Disquisition

Carried by BlogTalkRadio & Windtalkers Networks:http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Drew-Malone-Raines Those of you interested in the latest input concerning the worldsfinancial interest and what to do during these times of financial unrest . LISTEN LIVE:http//www.amd.elequity.com TODAY AND EVERY THRUSDAY we have for yourpleasure Mr. Bob Chapman founder/editor of "The International Forecaster"http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com 4pm-5pm Chicago time zone USA listen"Clilck on Thrusday show remains on demand week to week and from the archive

direct link and as "Archives & on Demand" any Thursday DateMr. of Bob Chapman'sshow. All of Bobs shows are FREE to access, Listen to &/or download ***http//www.amd.elequity.com see Archives 2nd Hour is Colorado, Al and Drew discussthe perspective Mr. Chapman brought forth and News & Events around the world andattacks on our Constitutional Rights to live in Liberty while we grow our Organic Foodsand Herbs for our safety & our health; Live Shows also available on 18 internationalphone bridges around the world. Questions for LIVE Show addressed at USA: 347-308-8047 .After show times/date Drew can be reached at 501-565-1833 for allassistance in obtaining archives and Bobs upcoming shows..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hesYUFCe2_UGNC-LIVE FREQUENCIES:http://www.gcnlive.com/Schedule_Shortwave.htmlKEVIN GALLAGHER & John McGowan Every first Friday at 9 pm EST.Time Out Productions -

www.youtube.com/kgallagher01Bruce McDonald - The Politics of Common Sense: 6-8 p.m. [email protected] Gorman Sunday, 12/12/09Rob Johnson on Pappas Telecommunications -840 KMPH. Stockton/Modesto, CAReal With Reuben Torres To listen to the program, go to:www.blogtalkradio.com/LETSGETREALWITHREUBENTORRES An openforum where topics on politics, immigration, health, education, and other global issues,that affect our country and the world at large, are discussed and debated at local, national,and global levels. "Lets Get Real With Reuben Torres "airs every Tuesday evening from9:00 pm to 10:00 pm unless otherwise noted. - November 17thFarren Shoaf Last: November 14, 2009The Real News RadioDerek Dreamer 12/9/09 - 11 am CST 12/09/09 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm CST.Ralph Evans Sovereign Economist http://sovereign-economist.com - EveryWednesday starting 9-23-09 from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm CST. http://texasbroadcasting.netJiggy Jag TV James Lowe Dec. 9thKJAG Radio


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http://www.kjagradio.comHomegrown 1/2 hr on Zoo92.com -http://jiggyjaguar.comGuy Chapman Green T Hour Every 1st Thursday of each monthhttp://www.greenthour.com/- http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Green-T-Hour/2009/10/02/Green-T-HourHere is the link to your show. Please use it as you see fit. Good show Bob

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Green-T-Hour/2009/11/06/Green-T-HourWe were talking about gun rights this week and here is the feed for our show with theNRA if you want to listen it talks about the mayor of New York wanting to take controlof our guns. This guy has really overstepped his boundaries and really needs to beexposed for being a communist. What can we do about people like this I really don'tknow? I have been blogging and trying to expose him.Heres the link to your show please use it as you see fit. Thanks for all the hard workgreat how and sorry for the tech problems. See ya next month and thanks againhttp://www.blogtalkradio.com/green-t-hour/2009/12/04/green-t-hourJames Corbett December 18th 9 am EST

*****

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and beararms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves

against tyranny in government. Thomas Jefferson

US MARKETSThe past two years have seen the greatest outpouring of money and credit

from central banks and governments in history. In most countries interest rates cannotfall much lower being presently under 1% or close to zero. You might call this anattempt at fiat money recovery. As a result of pump priming for the past six months or

more investors have returned to the same gambling and risk taking they engaged inbefore, the losses of which caused the world economy to come to the edge of thefinancial abyss. All sectors of investment are again affected by a casino mentality.

We see $12.7 trillion donated without their consent of the lender taxpayers tothe top world economies, or about 20% of world GDP. These funds, a good part ofwhich will never be retrieved, have been stuffed into the pockets of bankers, WallStreet, insurance companies and GM and AIG. 80% of the problems we have had toface were caused by these very same entities, which along with the Fed, propose tosolve the problem they created. It is as if they are the only ones in the world who knowbest what is good for our system and for us. They as well continue to play in the giantcasino as if nothing ever happened. While this transpires there are still trillions ofdollars in bad debt and impaired assets on the books that have to be written off. The

solution to that is to not truthfully report companies financial conditions. If you canbelieve this, the Chairman of the Board of the Financial Accounting Standards Board,the FASB that sets American accounting standards has called for the decoupling ofbank capital rules from normal accounting standards. His proposal would encouragebank regulators to make adjustments as they determine whether banks have adequatecapital while still allowing investors to see the current fair value. In order words it is okto have two sets of books and to mark assets to model, which is marking assets tofantasy. Telling investors the truth is secondary. For almost 20 years banks have hadto use GAAP for the basis for capital rules. If banks had their way there would be no


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rules. The FASB has been compromised and resides in the back pocket of thebankers. There you have it. Bankers are more equal than others. Their balance sheetsare worthless. This should not be allowed to happen in America.

At first the G-20 nations wanted to remove monetary stimulus and now theysay it is too early to do so. What they do not tell you is if they did remove trillions fromtheir economies they would collapse. Europe, the UK and US have losses of $1.7

trillion they havent written off of yet. In addition, they have hundreds of billions inlosses for foreclosed loans that are still flowing in, to further befoul their balancesheets. We have to laugh when central bankers talk about draining trillions from thesystem. If they pull liquidity the system collapses. Other than feeding money and creditinto the system the bankers have no solution. Keeping them in charge is like giving apyromaniac matches. Even if $500 billion more in stimulus is added to the system fromTARP funds or from Congress, it is only going to keep growth in place until the end ofnext year. As a result inflation is going to soar. There is no real recovery. All we haveseen is the Fed pouring trillions of dollars into the US and world economy.

There are two basic schools of thought regarding the economy. One is buyingbonds for safety and the other with virtually no interest money is gambling in themarkets. As a result we have a bull market in bonds and a bear market rally in the

stock market. These factors lead investors and the public to the perception that arecovery is underway when nothing could be further from the truth. If it was truesomeone has to explain to us why consumer spending is off 20% yoy, which makes up69.3% Of GDP? It is no wonder households are not spending. They have just lost $13trillion in home equity and the housing bubble still has 20% to go to the downside.Quantitative easing has been a failure. We are still in a prolonged period of creditcontraction that has been subdued temporarily by massive does of liquidity. Thosehardest hit are small businesses and homeowners. All that retirement money is gone,because the Fed created a housing bubble. In 2009, homes lost 40% of their valueand they have 20% to go and who knows how long the housing market will bumpalong the bottom. Reducing debt and spending is the new mantra. This will certainlyreduce demand and economic growth. Blatant market manipulation in the long run will

not be successful. 2.8% GDP growth is non-existent. The stock market may bebooming on zero interest Fed funds, but as we pointed out last February middleAmerica is in depression. In order to keep this faade going and the bubble in tact, theFed has no choice but to inflate. They want to withdraw funds, but they cannot. Theyare recalling TARP funds, which will be quickly gobbled up by a new stimulus programand a call from the Treasury to buy more Treasuries, Agencies and toxic waste.Bernanke has to be running around in circles as members of Congress grill him onpoor performance and the House passes HR1207, the Bill to audit and investigate theFed. In addition bank lending is off 16.2% yoy and there are no signs of any loosening.We are looking at object failure by the Fed, which we reflected almost three years ago.There is no normality and no recovery. You cannot spend your way into recovery. It

just doesnt work. Look at the 1930s. It didnt work then and it wont work now.

Government guarantees challenge reality and reality always wins. As a result of fedpolicy we have corporatist fascism at its worst. Day by day we attract less foreigncapital and that is because any semblance of free markets are gone. All the Fed hasdone is rescue its owners and other connected elitists and such a plan is doomed tofailure.

We started in the gold markets in 1960. We were the largest gold and silverstockbrokers of that time. We recommended stocks that ran from $0.25 to hundreds ofdollars a share. It has been 29 years since June 1980 when we exited the market.Since then these markets have been difficult even though the last ten years have been


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very rewarding. Had it not been for the powers behind government manipulating themarkets, it would have been far more rewarding. This is what happens when anuninterested public allows a criminal enterprise to run their lives. Most people bornafter 1960 know little about the gold and silver bull markets of the late 1970s. They areonly told of the great bull market we have seen since 1983. Those in their 40s andyounger are about to get an education in how real life works. Not the life created by

Wall Street and the Fed, because that era is about to end and with it the fairy tale lifethey have been used too. Golds current price of over $1,000 an ounce is only thebeginning. We spent ten years moving from $252 to $1,224. Now the advance is goingto accelerate and could more than double in 2010. It should also be noted that duringthis past ten year period the dollar has lost 80% of its purchasing power, which showsgold is an excellent inflation hedged, as well as a deflation hedge. For the past 6-1/2years all currencies have fallen versus gold and that is because they have had thesame Keynesian monetary policies as the Fed. As a result gold has maintained itspurchasing power.

It had been fashionable for the past ten years to say gold does not pay interest.This is the argument Gordon Brown, now UK PM used in 1999, when he sold theBritish citizens gold at $275.00 and leased a large part of what England had left. That

masterstroke cost British citizens close to $10 billion. He did this when he wasSecretary of the Treasury. Which would you rather have had, 5% interest or a capitalgain of more than 200%? This experience certainly destroys the pays no interesttheory. Owning gold and silver related assets is not speculation; it is wealthpreservation. The great gold and silver bull markets of the last 1970s should havebeen seminal events, but they were not. Only 15% of the public participated, theremainder were buried in the stock market. Over the past ten years it has been worse.Only 2% to 3% of investors have been involved. In a way that is good, because itleaves lots more potential buyers to assist in pushing gold and silver higher. This iswhy we believe gold and silver have a long way to go on the upside.

There is no question that another bout of inflation is on the way and that thedollar will continue to fall in value. We do not believe gold and silver are today

reflecting reflation. They are reflecting a flight to quality because professionals and aminority of other investors have lost faith and trust in the top 20 central banks. Thus,today we are witnessing a flight to quality and safety. Gold and silver are the only realway to protect against financial calamity and offer possibilities for profit simultaneously.

If you add in the fact that the US government has been manipulating the goldand silver prices, you can see the power that they will have to the upside. Wall Streethas known for years gold and silver prices have been suppressed, but that scheme isabout to end. The power of the elitist forces behind government to rig these marketshas been faltering over the past six months. They no longer have the bullion for saleand are forced to use futures and derivatives to manipulate prices. That lasts forseveral days, then it is over, and then prices rise again. If HR1207 and S604 arepassed and the Fed is audited then several months from now we will know exactly

what the Working Group on Financial Markets have been doing. Audit will show howthe Fed and the Treasury have rigged these two markets for years. It will also showhow all markets have been manipulated and it will be game over. Gold and silver willmake up for lost time shooting up to their fair values, and even if Ron Pauls bill is notpassed the influx of investment funds into these metals will eventually overwhelm theirmarkets. Real inflation since 1980 would see gold between $6,700 and $7,150 anounce. Even official inflation would price gold at $2,400 an ounce. People are going tofinally realize that as their purchasing power and investments have fallen in value gold


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and silver have risen. Two years ago we had real inflation at 14%. We could easilyreturn to that level in 2010. That cuts a regular stock portfolio in half in five years.

In the pipeline is $12.7 trillion created by our government and the Fed to keepour economy and financial system from collapsing. There is absolutely no way it canbe withdrawn. The US Inspector General says we are on the hook for potential lossesof $23.7 trillion. These kind of problems and the inflation they caused by the Fed

adding more fuel to the fire will in and of itself force more investors into the arms ofgold and silver. The only things keeping the economy from crashing is governmentspending and Fed monetization. We have begun the vicious cycle of inflation againalong with a falling dollar. If you really want to protect your wealth you had best be ingold and silver related assets. They are the only protection you have.

Revisiting the other side of the equation it should not be forgotten that the Fedhas created out of thin air $1.75 trillion to purchase $300 billion in Treasuries and$1.45 trillion in toxic waste and Agency securities. All of that money has beenmonetized, fed into the system, except that held on deposit by banks at the Fed. Partof these funds and TARP funds were used to run the stock market up some 54% in sixmonths. That has only happened six times in 100 years. It is no secret as to why thestock market rose, but at the same time unemployment rose 22.2%. The Dow is 2,000

points higher than it should be under the circumstances. This is a propaganda settingto give the illusion that all is well.

We believe that the US dollar will be officially devalued in a year to 1-1/2 yearsfrom now to be replaced with an international trading unit. That will cause another flightto quality to gold and silver.

One of our contacts in Aussieland has a close contact in Guangzhou, China,who he has known for a number of years. When our contract told his friend that the UScould default on its debt and devalue a year or more from now. The friend in Chinasaid, a high level Chinese government official who attended a business meeting onDecember 7th said the following: 2010 inflation will kick in both in China and the US,that would make it very bad for business in China and that the Chinese currency wouldstrengthen to 6 to the US dollar. As you can see Americas problems are going to

affect the entire world.We continue to see the dollar hit lower lows. Yes, we currently are well aware

of the dollar rally. Another government sponsored rally calculated to keep the rest ofthe worlds dollar holders happy and prove the US has a strong dollar policy. If youlooked at the long positions of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup youwill find that at the end of the third quarter they were very long the dollar, short goldand silver and the shares. This is another temporary dollar rally and a temporary goldand silver take down. Next the dollar will be allowed to hit lower lows, ostensibly toincrease the US trade advantage, which is laughable. It could add % to GDP at71.18 and 1% at 65 on the USDX, which is not a solution for the American economy.Always left out of the reporting is that a lower dollar means higher prices forcommodities and goods imported into the US and considerably more inflation. It will

not encourage more foreign investment, because investors do not know how low thedollar will fall and it will not appreciably increase job opportunities. Jobs are still movingoffshore to bolster 3rd world economies and to make giant untaxed profits fortransnational conglomerates. Free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcingwere created to destroy the economies of the US, Europe and Canada and that isexactly what has happened and will continue to happen, because our purchasedCongress wont legislate the solution, which is tariffs on goods and services. We arewell on our way to joining the third world and if you do not let Congress know you knowwhat they are up too, then you will eventually live in a slum reminiscent of Calcutta,


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either that or in some US detention camp. The bottom line is a lower dollar isdisastrous for the US economy. The US is being slowly strangled to death. Who wantsto invest in a country that is on the edge of real trouble, plus all the environmental lawsand onerous taxes? Readers, most people do not have a clue as to how bad it is.

Last week the Dow added 0.8%; the S&P was unchanged, the Russell 2000 fell0.4% and the Nasdaq 100 was unchanged. Cyclicals rose 0.5%; transports fell 0.2%;

consumers fell 0.3% and utilities rose 4%. Banks fell 1.5%; broker/dealers fell 2.5%and high-tech fell 0.6%. Semis were unchanged; Internets fell 0.3% and biotechs rose0.1%. Gold bullion ended the week off $47.00 and the HUI fell 5.8%. The dollar rose0.8% to 76.53.

Two-year T-bills fell 2 bps to 0.73%, the 10s rose 8 bps to 3.55% and the 10-year German bund fell 3 bps to 3.21%.

Freddie Macs 30-year fixed rate mortgage jumped 10 bps to 4.81%; the 15srose 5 bps to 4.32% and one-year ARMs fell 1 bps to 4.24%. the 30-year jumbos fell17 bps to 5.82%.

Fed credit declined $19.3 billion to $2.168 trillion. That is down $78.7 billion ytd,and $73.7 billion yoy. Fed foreign holdings of treasury debt gained $12.1 billion to arecord $2.944 trillion. Custody holdings for foreign central banks expanded at an 18%

rate ytd, up $450 billion yoy.M2, narrow money supply leaped $22.6 billion to a record $8.414 trillion, up

29% ytd and 4.5% yoy.Total money market assets added $1.1 billion to $3.320 trillion. They have

declined $520 billion ytd, or 14.1% annualized. They fell $457 billion, or 12.1% yoy.A record 37.2 million people, or about one out of every eight Americans,

received food stamps in September, as the recession drove a surging jobless rate,according to a government report.

Recipients of the subsidy for retail-food purchases climbed 18 percent from ayear earlier, according to a statement posted today on the U.S. Department ofAgricultures Web site. Participation has set records for 10 straight months.

The government boosted food aid as unemployment soared, heading to a 26-

year high of 10.2 percent in October. The jobless rate cooled to 10 percent last month,the Labor Department said on Dec. 4.

Weve been working to get that money out the door to families that needassistance, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said last week in aninterview.

Nevada had the biggest increase in food-stamp participation rates from a yearearlier, surging 54 percent, followed by a 46.5 percent jump in Utah, according to theUSDA. Texas had the most recipients at 3.1 million, followed by California with 2.9million and New York with 2.6 million.

Recipients increased in every state and the District of Columbia, exceptLouisiana. Because of a sharp rise after Hurricanes Ike and Gustav in 2008, thenumber of people in Louisiana getting food stamps fell 65 percent in September from a

year earlier. Gains of more than 30 percent from 2008 were reported in 18 states.About 35 million people are expected to receive food stamps each month

through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the fiscal year that beganOct. 1, according to the budget that President Barack Obama sent to Congress in May.In this economic time, SNAP has been essential, Merrigan said. The participationrate of state residents who are eligible for food stamps varies widely, the USDA saidlast month in a report based on 2007 data.

In Missouri, about 100 percent who were eligible that year took advantage ofthe program, the highest rate in the nation, followed by residents of Maine and


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Michigan, at 91 percent and 89 percent, respectively, the USDA said. Wyomingsparticipation rate of 47 percent was the lowest in fiscal 2007, followed by Californiaand Idaho at 48 percent and 50 percent, according to the study.

Nationwide, participation in the food-stamp program was 66 percent of thoseeligible for the aid in 2007, the USDA said. The department has budgeted for a rate of68 percent in the current 2010 fiscal year.

We know of a lot of people who are SNAP-eligible who are not participating inthe program, Merrigan said. We are working with states to improve participation.

Colonial BancGroup Inc.s collapse in mid-August could cost the FederalDeposit Insurance Corp. more than double the amount it originally projected.

Colonial, which was deemed the sixth largest bank failure in U.S. history afterits seizure four months ago, had a current net worth of negative $5.8 billion by the endof the third quarter. Thats far worse than its original estimate of $2.8 billion to itsinsurance fund, according to recent data released by the FDIC.

It basically says Colonial was a lot worse off than everybody thought it to be,said Bert Ely of Alexandria, Va.-based bank consulting firm Ely & Co.

Also, the FDIC possesses more than $4.2 billion of the Montgomery-basedbanks assets currently in liquidation. However, the FDIC also expects to loss more

than $3.1 billion on those assets, according to a balance sheet posted by the FDIC.Citigroup Inc. reached an accord with the Treasury Department and regulators

to repay $20 billion of the bailout it received from U.S. taxpayers.The lender will sell $20.5 billion of capital and debt, the New York-based bank

said in a statement today. The bank will sell $17 billion of common stock, with an over-allotment option of $2.55 billion, and $3.5 billion of tangible equity units. The U.S.Treasury will concurrently sell as much as $5 billion of common stock it holds. Thebank said it will also substitute substantial common stock for cash compensation.

Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit has pressed for an exit from theTroubled Asset Relief Program to avoid being the only large bank left on exceptionalassistance, a Treasury designation reserved for companies including AmericanInternational Group Inc. and General Motors Corp. that are surviving on taxpayer aid.

Bank of America Corp. exited last week after paying back $45 billion of bailout funds.The cost of protecting investors against Dubai defaulting on its debt tumbled

the most since February after Abu Dhabi pledged $10 billion to help the emirate meetits obligations.

Five-year credit-default swaps on Dubais debt fell 115 basis points to 425.5,according to CMA DataVision prices at 11:40 a.m. in London. The Markit iTraxx SovXWestern Europe index of swaps on 15 governments dropped 4.75 basis points to 62,according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Funds from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates and owner ofthe worlds biggest sovereign wealth fund, will help Dubai World unit Nakheel PJSCpay investors the $4.1 billion it owes on Islamic bonds maturing today. State-ownedDubai World roiled markets worldwide when it said Dec. 1 it was in talks with creditors

to restructure $26 billion of debt.How about this warning from the Census Department about their estimates:

The margin of sampling error, as used on page 1, gives a range about the estimatewhich is a 90 percent confidence interval. If, for example, the percent change estimateis +1.2 percent and its estimated standard error is 0.9 percent, then the margin ofsampling error is 1.65 x 0.9 percent or 1.5 percent, and the 90 percent confidenceinterval is 0.3 percent to +2.7 percent

Non-sampling error encompasses all other factors that contribute to the total errorof a sample survey estimate. This type of error can occur because of nonresponse,


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insufficient coverage of the universe of retail businesses, mistakes in the recording andcoding of data, and other errors of collection, response, coverage, or processing.Although non-sampling error is not measured directly, the Census Bureau employsquality control procedures throughout the process to minimize this type of error.

We must interject once again that in a severe economic downturn numerousfirms disappear, and this perverts sampling and surveying.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S.retail and food services sales for November, adjusted for seasonal variation andholiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $352.1 billion, anincrease of 1.3 percent (0.5%) from the previous month and 1.9 percent (0.5%)above November 2008. Total sales for the September through November 2009 periodwere down 2.1 percent (0.3%) from the same period a year ago. The September toOctober 2009 percent change was revised from +1.4 percent (0.5%) to +1.1 percent(0.2%).http://www.census.gov/retail/marts/www/marts_current.pdf

Please note that the retail sales are seasonally adjusted for holiday andtrading-day even though every November contains the exact 30 days with 1Thanksgiving and retailers are open every day!!!

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded duringthe recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months and that's beforeovertime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time in pay and hiring during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. played a bigger role than has been publicly disclosedin fueling the mortgage bets that nearly felled American International Group Inc.AWall Street Journal analysis of AIG's trades, which were on pools of mortgage debt,shows that Goldman was a key player in many of them, even the ones involving otherbanks.

Goldman originated or bought protection from AIG on about $33 billion of the $80billion of U.S. mortgage assets that AIG insured during the housing boom.

Taylor Bean was shut down by the Federal Housing Administration, citingpossible mortgage fraud. According to people briefed by those winding down TaylorBeans operations, who requested anonymity in order to preserve professionalrelationships, there are signs that the company sold some of its loans to more thanone buyer. Lawyers representing Taylor Bean did not return phone calls seekingcomment.

In any event, Ocala says mortgages worth more than half a billion dollars aremissing. And the F.D.I.C. is withholding the release of mortgages worth hundreds ofbillions held at Colonial that Ocala investors say are theirs. The government contendsthat it is not clear that Bank of America as a representative for Ocala paid for

them.BNP and Deutsche Bank have sued Bank of America in federal court in

Manhattan. Both accuse Bank of America of breaching its custodial and trustee dutiesto Ocala. The suits shed light not only on the complexities of the mortgage machinebut on how failsafe mechanisms in these byzantine structures didnt work. But thismuch is clear: The mortgage machine that created so many loans amid the maniaseems riddled with flaws. And until investors are satisfied that those problems havebeen solved, the mortgage market is likely to remain in its current depressed state.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that


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23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama isperforming his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove givingObama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19.

Today is the second straight day that Obamas Approval Index rating has fallento a new low.

Foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have reached

agreement on a time frame for the planned Gulf single currency, a Kuwaiti official saidon Monday.

"An agreement has been reached on a time frame for the Gulf single currency,"by the ministers, said Kuwaiti foreign ministry undersecretary Khaled al-Jarallah, citedby the official KUNA news agency. He provided no details.

The foreign ministers ended a meeting early Monday to prepare the agenda forthe Gulf annual summit due to start later in the day, where the Gulf monetary unionpact is expected to be launched.

The six-nation bloc has been vying to issue the single currency in 2010 but isway behind schedule, having failed to hammer out essential technical convergencepreconditions.

In June, four of the six countries -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar --

signed the Gulf monetary union pact, which stipulates the establishment of a monetarycouncil early in 2010.

The council will eventually develop into a central bank which will take allnecessary procedures to issue the single currency.

Oman withdrew from the monetary union saying it cannot meet convergenceprerequisites, while the United Arab Emirates pulled out after the GCC picked theSaudi capital Riyadh as the base for the future central bank.

The Federal Reserve, which has more than doubled its balance sheet duringthe past 15 months to $2.19 trillion, should consider buying another $2 trillion in assetsto reduce unemployment, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said. Such aprogram could do a lot to promote faster growth, while having hardly any downside.Krugman wrote He cited research by Joseph Gagnon, a former Fed staffer now at

the Peterson Institute for International Economics as the most specific, persuasivecase Ive seen for more Fed action.

Wall Street Journal (Aparajita Saha-Bubna): As home loans sour at a rapidclip, mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are aggressively bouncingback defectively underwritten loans to lenders. The result: higher loan-loss reserves forthe lenders and new headwinds for banks trying to escape the housing downturn. Forlenders such as Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.and Citigroup Inc., which are among the largest sellers of mortgages to Fannie andFreddie, this could mean buying back souring loans at a loss Through Sept. 30,Freddie Mac put back about $2.7 billion of single-family mortgages to lenders, morethan double the $1.2 billion of a year earlier.

New budget gaps totaling $28 billion have opened in 36 U.S. states since July

1 as recession-battered tax collections declined and health-care spending increased,the National Conference of State Legislatures said. The chasm marks the secondconsecutive year states will be forced to change course in mid-stream, and will drivespending to decade-low levels, the conference said Even if the recession is over,state budgets are in appalling conditions and are going to be that way for quite awhile, Corina Eckl, the conferences fiscal director, said December 9 Bloomberg (Michael McDonald): U.S. state government collections fell 16% to almost$1.7 trillion in fiscal 2008 from a year earlier, while spending increased 6.2%,


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according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The biggest drop came in so-called insurancetrust revenue, which slid $377.7 billion, or 73%...

New budget gaps totaling $28 billion have opened in 36 U.S. states since July1 as recession-battered tax collections declined and health-care spending increased,the National Conference of State Legislatures said. The chasm marks the secondconsecutive year states will be forced to change course in mid-stream, and will drive

spending to decade-low levels, the conference said Even if the recession is over,state budgets are in appalling conditions and are going to be that way for quite awhile, Corina Eckl, the conferences fiscal director, said December 9 Bloomberg (Michael McDonald): U.S. state government collections fell 16% to almost$1.7 trillion in fiscal 2008 from a year earlier, while spending increased 6.2%,according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The biggest drop came in so-called insurancetrust revenue, which slid $377.7 billion, or 73%...

No encouraging news on the fiscal front. Third quarter Federal governmentReceipts were down 11.2% from a year ago to $2.212 TN SAAR. FederalExpenditures jumped 12.7% to $3.555 TN SAAR. Compared to three years ago,Receipts were down 12% while spending was up 29%. State & Local Receipts wereup 0.7% from Q3 2008 to $2.002 TN. State & Local Expenditures were down 1.3% y-

o-y to $2.019 TN.The situation in California continues to deteriorate despite all the preventitive

measures employed. John Chiang, State Controller, just came out with his mostrecent report. In that report, he went into detail as to the current status of theemergency IOUs issued.

Chiang notes that the IOUs issued between July 2 and September 4, 2009,totaled 450,000 - worth $2.6 billion. He further reports that they have STOPPEDaccruing interest as of September 4th, the maturity date. The interest had been arather paltry 3.75% to begin with!

Hurt by heavy investment losses over their last fiscal years, giants CalPers(California Public Employment Retirement System) and CalSTRs (CaliforniaState Teachers Retirement Systems) were affected by downgrades from Moody's, a

highly recognized credit rating agency. Moody's specifically noted the loweredpossibility of these funds to meet future obligations to pensioners.

The two funds together STILL hold a staggering $338 billion in assets despitelosses of more than 25% in their last fiscal years. CalPers remains the single largestpension fund.

According to the LA Times, the California State University System whichincorporates 23 campuses and 450,000 students, has been subject to budget cuts ofmore than $500 million. As a result, "Cal State" has been unable to avoid staff andfaculty furloughs, steep student fee hikes and severe reduction in enrollment.Currently, according to a variety of analysts, California faces a $21 billion deficit forthe current fiscal year, ending June, 30th. Futhermore, the deficit for the subsequenttwo fiscal years is projected to rise to ANOTHER $44 billion!

On the plus side, the news is rather scant. In October, for example, prices ofhomes actually up-ticked, although being driven by the Federal tax credit for first-timebuyers. In addition, the state ADDED 26,000 new jobs. So, if these sources arecorrect, California is firing teachers and hiring more adminstrators. Talk about theleft hand not knowing what the right hand is doing! Whodda thunk it?

Meanwhile, leading Republican candidates to replace the current governor,former Ebay head Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, have offered no solutions to thefiscal gap on their own. What's a mother to do?


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As you can clearly infer, California appears to be entering some sort of "deathspiral". But, fortunately this only represents 1/10th of the population of the UnitedStates!

I hope you find this essay useful and informative. I welcome comments, bothpro and con. I will continue to cover California over the ensuing weeks and months asnew issues surface.

A Pennsylvania staffing company gamed the US visa program by obtaininghundreds of work visas under names culled from a Mexican telephone directory andsupplying the paperwork to illegal immigrants placed in landscaping and otherseasonal jobs, authorities said yesterday.

They were almost like a shadow government, because they procured all thesevisas, and they were the ones able to control whos getting them, Assistant USAttorney Kevin R. Brenner said.

International Personnel Resources Inc. had dozens of clients, many of themlandscapers, builders, and golf courses in the mid-Atlantic. In some cases,undocumented workers were sent home and given stockpiled visas to reenter thecountry and return to their jobs, authorities said. International Personnel would coachthem to tell immigration officials they had never been in the country illegally, according

to the 11-count federal information.The workers came from Mexico and Central and South America. International

Personnel kept a Mexican phone book at its office in West Chester and used it tochoose names for visa applications, prosecutors said. It accumulated hundreds of thevisas from 2003 to 2008, the government said.

H-2B visas are designed for firms that cannot find Americans willing to work asseasonal laborers. Given the nations cap on H-2B visas, the scheme left feweravailable for companies trying to bring in workers lawfully, prosecutors said.

The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs RetailChain Store Sales Index rose 0.4% in the week ended Saturday from its level a weekbefore on a seasonally adjusted, comparable-store basis.

On a year-on-year basis, the reading rose 2.4%.

The jump came as consumers started to make their final shopping push for the2009 holiday season, and Hanukkah came earlier this year than last.

"But with consumers still behind last year's holiday-gift buying completion rate,the industry is poised to have a bigger last-minute surge in holiday-gift buying thisyear," said ICSC chief economist Michael Niemira.

Meanwhile, the group still expects December same-store sales to rise about2% from last year. That follows an unexpectedly weak November.

The International Air Transport Association, or IATA, Tuesday said it expectsthe global aviation industry to make a $5.6 billion net loss in 2010, wider than itsprevious forecast for a $3.8 billion loss, because of low yields and rising costs.

"The world's airlines will lose $11.0 billion in 2009. We are ending an AnnusHorribilis that brings to a close the 10 challenging years of an aviation Decennis

Horribilis. Between 2000 and 2009, airlines lost $49.1 billion, which is an average of$5.0 billion per year," Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's director general and chief executive,said.

However, he said the worst was now behind the aviation industry."Demand will likely continue to improve and airlines are expected to drive down

non-fuel unit costs by 1.3%. But fuel costs are rising and yields are a continuingdisaster," Bisignani added.

IATA, which represents some 230 airlines comprising 93% of scheduledinternational air traffic, said it expects revenue in 2010 to rise by $22 billion to $478


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billion compared with 2009 levels, but added that's still lower the $535 billion peakseen in 2008 and still $30 billion below 2007 levels.

The federal government continued to wind down its bailout of the nation'sbiggest banks on Monday, reaching an agreement to eliminate its stakes in Citigroupand Wells Fargo.

The willingness of banking regulators to strike a deal with the two firms -- both

of which continue to face serious problems -- underscored the eagerness of both sidesto end an extraordinary period of federal support for the financial industry. Banks havechafed at some of the conditions placed on the federal rescue money, such as limitson executive pay, while the administration has been criticized for using taxpayer fundsto bail out Wall Street.

All nine of the major banks that took bailout funds in October 2008 have repaidtheir federal loans.

Citigroup's departure will come in two phases. First, the company will raisemoney from investors to repay $20 billion in government loans as soon as possible.Then the Treasury Department plans to sell the shares it holds in Citigroup, which itbought for $25 billion, in chunks over the next year.

The government required Citigroup to replace its federal aid dollar for dollar

with money from private investors, a much tougher condition than was imposed onother banks, to ensure that the company has enough money in reserve to weather itsproblems, a government official said.

Even so, Citigroup's ability to reach an agreement on any terms came muchearlier than financial analysts had expected, and amounts to a significant triumph forchief executive Vikram Pandit, who had pushed hard to close a deal by the end of theyear. Beginning in 2010, Citigroup no longer will be subject to special federalsupervision, including limits on compensation for top executives.

"We owe the American taxpayers a debt of gratitude," Pandit said in astatement Monday, "and recognize our obligation to support the economic recoverythrough lending and assistance to homeowners and other borrowers in need."

Just hours after that announcement, Wells Fargo stated it would repay its $25

billion in federal aid partly by raising $10.4 billion in a stock offering. Executivesstressed that the company has delivered $1.4 billion worth of dividends to thegovernment.

Wells Fargo has been one of the most vocal critics of the Troubled AssetsRelief Program. In March, Wells Fargo Chairman Dick Kovacevich accused regulatorsof forcing the company to take federal aid and called their approach to rescuing thefinancial system "asinine." On Monday, Wells Fargo executives were much morecordial.

"TARP stabilized our country's financial system when confidence in financialmarkets around the world was being tested unlike any other period in our history,"chief executive John Stumpf said. "Now we're ready to fully repay TARP in a way thatserves the interests of the U.S. taxpayer."

The moves will put pressure on the large regional banks, such as Sun Trustand PNC Bank, to repay their TARP funds, analysts said.Slightly more than a year has passed since the Bush administration began theunprecedented program to shore up the banking industry through direct aid. At thetime, those investments were expected to last three or more years. But TreasurySecretary Timothy F. Geithner said Monday that 75 percent of the money has beenrepaid with a "healthy profit."

The government, however, may see major losses on its injections intoAmerican International Group, General Motors, Chrysler, and their finance companies.


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"The United States never intended to be a long-term shareholder in privatecompanies," Treasury said in a statement. "As banks replace Treasury investmentswith private capital, confidence in the financial system increases, government'sunprecedented involvement in the private sector diminishes, and taxpayers are madewhole."

The timing of the deals derives in part from the rhythms of the capital markets,

which begin to shut down for the winter holidays in mid-December. Citigroup needed toreach a deal with the government now to be sure it could sell the necessary shares bythe end of the year. And Wells Fargo faced enormous pressure once Citigroup's dealwas announced.

Treasury said Monday that it would sell its stake in Citigroup in 2010, beginningwith the sale of about $5 billion in common shares.Citigroup got more than $45 billion in federal aid in October and November last year.

Treasury later reached an agreement with the company to accept $25 billion instock in lieu of repayment of some of that aid, leaving Citigroup $20 billion in thegovernment's debt.

Citigroup also will end a deal under which the government agreed to limit thecompany's losses on a portfolio now containing about $250 billion in troubled assets,

largely real estate and credit card loans, and investments derived from those loans.The company also agreed to pay bonuses to executives this year with $1.7

billion in stock rather than cash, tying ultimate compensation to the company'sperformance over time.

Wells Fargo said it will raise an additional $1.35 billion by issuing stock to thecompany's benefit plans in place of compensation that was supposed to be paid toemployees. After the repayment, Treasury will still hold warrants, a contract that givesthe government the option to purchase about 110 million shares of the bank's stock at$34.01 per share. [As we forecast just two weeks ago; we said TARP money would bepulled in to be removed from the system. In the meantime the Treasury said theywanted part of it in the form of Fed buying Treasury paper and the administrationwants the rest for stimulus. If that holds forth there will be lots of inflation in 2010. Bob]

Wholesale prices in the U.S. increased more than anticipated in November, ledby a jump in fuel costs and a rebound in truck prices.

The 1.8 percent increase in prices paid to factories, farmers and otherproducers was more than twice as large as anticipated and followed a 0.3 percent gainin October, according to Labor Department data released today in Washington.Excluding food and fuel, so-called core prices also exceeded the median estimate ofeconomists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Near-record excess capacity and a jobless rate that is projected to average 10percent in 2010 may prevent suppliers from passing on a rebound in commodity costseven as the economy recovers. Federal Reserve policy makers, meeting this week,have said they expect inflation to remain subdued in coming months, allowing themto keep interest rates low.

Factories in the New York region unexpectedly expanded at the slowest pacein five months in December, indicating manufacturing may provide less of a thrust forthe economy in coming months.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New Yorks general economic index fell to 2.6from 23.5 in November, the bank said today. Readings above zero signalmanufacturing expansion in the state and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut. InOctober, the index jumped to 34.6, the highest since May 2004.

Measures of orders, sales and employment all declined during the month.


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One in five people who took out federal student loans to attend for-profitcolleges defaulted within three years of leaving school, according to U.S. governmentdata released today.

The report issued by the Education Department provides a preview of howcolleges may fare under a 2008 law that will require default rates to be calculated overthree years, instead of the current two, starting in 2012.

Were hopeful that by providing this three-year information, schools will take alook and see where they are and see some of the things that theyll need to do, DanMadzelan, the departments acting assistant secretary for postsecondary education,said today in an interview.

Starting in 2014, schools that have had three-year default rates of at least 30percent for three consecutive years, or 40 percent in any one year, would lose federalfunds under the new law, Madzelan said.

U.S. industrial output rose firmly in November as the manufacturing sectorextended a recovery that economists hope will help turn around the ailing labormarket.

Production climbed 0.8 percent, the Federal Reserve said on Tuesday, wellabove forecasts for a 0.5 percent gain. The strides were powered in part by the

automotive sector, and came despite a sharp drop in utility output.Capacity utilization, the amount of the nation's industrial capacity being put to

use, rose to 71.3 percent in November from a revised 70.6 in October, its highest levelsince last December but still well below the long-range average.The October production figure was revised to no change from an 0.1 percent gain.

If there is one thing we can be sure of as we approach the end of the 2009, it isthat government bonds, having hugely outperformed equities over the past 10 years,most definitely won't be doing the same again over the next 10. The reason we can beso confident is that though capricious and volatile on a short-term basis, asset classestend to conform to fairly predictable cyclical patterns over much longer time frames.

An extended period of out-performance for one asset class over another willeventually and inevitably be wholly reversed. The difficult bit is spotting the turn. It is

easy with the benefit of the rear-view mirror to see why things change, but muchharder to see them on the road ahead. Even so, you don't need an expert on thehistory of asset markets to realize that the current, 15-year bull run in governmentbonds is nearing its conclusion. Indeed, for many countries it has already ended.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Tuesday agreed to nearly double theamount of capital in its 2010 budget used to deal with bank failures and plans to addmore than 1,600 staffers. The agency released a $4 billion operating budget, of which$2.5 billion has been set aside to fund the takeover of failed banks. The 2009operating budget was $2.6 billion. "It will ensure that we are prepared to handle aneven larger number of bank failures next year, if that becomes necessary, and toprovide regulatory oversight for an even larger number of troubled institutions," FDICChairman Sheila Bair said in a statement. The additional staff members will be needed

to help the agency unwind failed banks. Many of the new staffers are expected to beadded permanently at a later date.

The US saw a net capital outflow of $13.9 billion in October after inflows of$127.6 billion in September.

US homebuilder sentiment unexpectedly fell in December. The NAHB/WellsFargo Housing market Index fell to 16 from 17 in November.

CapitalOne said annualized net charge-rates for uncollectible debt for creditcards rose to 9.60% in November from 9.04% in October.


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Many major Japanese banks opened bid-only early Wednesday in Tokyo, aftera report that new capital adequacy rules may be delayed by at least a decade. TheNikkei business daily said in an unsourced report that the Basel Committee onBanking Supervision has agreed to effectively delay the enforcement of new capitaladequacy rules for large banks, opting to create a transition period of at least 10 years.The proposed changes include raising the current 8% minimum capital ratio and

focusing on a narrower definition of core capital, the report said.

*****Is the Worst Over?This is from a new news service. Take a look.http://beforeitsnews.com/story/0000000000000973

******Were the November Employment Numbers Faked?http://beforeitsnews.com/story/0000000000000979

*****Chris Horner: Climate-gate e-mails released by whistleblower, not hackerhttp://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Climate-gate-e-mails-released-by-whistleblower_-not-hacker-8604302-78098572.html

*****Climategate: Which one blew the whistle?http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/climategate_which_one_blew_the_whistle/

*****The Real Reason Behind The Copenhagen Walk-Outhttp://www.prisonplanet.com/the-real-reason-behind-the-copenhagen-walk-out.html

*****James Corbett: Carbon Eugenics - Genocide in the name of the environment

http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=8936*****

Organized Crime in charge of EU Carbon Trade, Europol sayshttp://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=8936

*****Copenhagen stalls decision on catastrophic climate change for six yearshttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/copenhagen/article6955237.ece

*****

UK Group Proposes Using Carbon Offsets to Stop Poor From Breedinghttp://www.corbettreport.com/articles/20091209_optimum_population.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+corbettreport

_articles+%28Corbett+Report+Articles%29*****

Climate Science is DyingScience is on the credibility bubble.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107104574572091993737848.html

*****


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The New Big Lie: Climategate Emails Are Not Significanthttp://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/17916

*****'Unprecedented Warming'? -Science Shows Total Fraud12-14-9

http://www.rense.com/general88/warming.htm*****

THE JOB MARKET AND THE GREAT RECESSION

The Challenge of Creating Jobs in the Aftermath of The Great Recessionhttp://www.mercatus.org/publication/job-market-and-great-recession

*****Bankers might be feeling publics wrath literallyhttp://rawstory.com/2009/12/bankers-public-wrath-literally/

*****Its Time to Leave Afghanistan

by Rep. Ron Paul, December 12, 2009http://original.antiwar.com/paul/2009/12/11/its-time-to-leave-afghanistan/

*****Loony Keiser at it again! LOL! Part 1 of 3 on Max Keise TV Channel!http://www.youtube.com/user/MaxKeiserTV#p/u/0/hjgDcYZ2Ins

*****Guantanamo Detainee Deaths - by Stephen Lendmanhttp://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/12/guantanamo-detainee-deaths.html

*****Bernanke's Fake Economic Recoveryby Mike Whitneyhttp://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16517

*****Ginnie Maes Troubling Endorsementshttp://www.truthout.org/topstories/121209ms4

*****Mega Depression: Howard Davidowitz, Celente say USA broke like Japan &Zimbabwehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-BOHhK3CHE

*****Lord Christopher Moncktonhttp://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast_Gold+/Entries/2009/12/12_Lord_Christopher_Monckton.html

*****BREAKING VIRAL - America your guns are being taken and YOU DONT EVENKNOW IT!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni9qyB1pPS8&feature=sub

*****Winchester to Deliver 200 Million 40-Cal. Rounds to Homeland Securityhttp://www.gunreports.com/news/ammo/Winchester-ICE-Homeland-Security-ICE_1460-1.html

*****


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The Wages of Climategatehttp://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/the_wages_of_climategate.html

*****US System to Find, Help Victims of Human Trafficking Is Brokenhttps://www.truthout.org/1213094

*****

Climate Change: What is the Hidden Agenda? Selected articleshttp://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/environment/weather_and_climate/news.php?q=1260714687

*****Obama Calls for More Leverage and More Debt On Path Towards Financial RuinDec 12, 2009 - 11:56 AMBy: Bob_Chapmanhttp://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article15755.html

*****Small Business Confidence Plunges Where Will Jobs Come From?http://blog.atimes.net/?p=1269

*****

CCaannAAmmeerriiccaa SSttooppTThheeCCoommiinngg OOpppprreessssiioonn??hhttttpp::////ppeeoopplleeffoorrffrreeeeddoomm..ccoomm//nneeww--wwoorrlldd--oorrddeerr--nneewwss//gglloobbaalliissmm//ccaann--aammeerriiccaa--ssttoopp--tthhee--ccoommiinngg--oopppprreessssiioonn//

**********The Return of Gold and Silver Eagle Rationinghttp://mintnewsblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/return-of-gold-and-silver-eagle.html

*****The Republicans' war withinIn California, repercussions of one vote by legislator illustrate fractured state partyhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/13/AR2009121303042.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics

*****The CIA Drug Trafficking in South America

http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149495;article=122912;title=APFN*****

Here is a link that gives a great picture of our unemployment over the last 2 to 3yrs

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html*****

Firm cuts hedge funds jobsKevin Sherevershttp://www.caymannetnews.com/news-19533--1-1---.html

*****

Gore cites studies predicting polar ice may disappear in 5 yearsEarlier warnings put date at 2030http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/12/15/gore_cites_studies_predicting_polar_ice_may_disappear_in_5_years?mode=PF

*****Times: Inconvenient truth for Al Gore as his North Pole sums dont add uphttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/copenhagen/article6956783.ece


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*****

Climate Treaty Would Create New Global Agencies to Transfer Money andTechnology from U.S. and Other Developed Countries to Third Worldhttp://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/58471

Shocker: Copenhagen Climate Negotiations "Suspended"http://www.businessinsider.com/shocker-copenhagen-climate-negotiations-suspended-2009-12

If Climategate Is No Big Deal, Why Are Questions About It Met With An ArmedResponse?http://www.infowars.com/if-climategate-is-no-big-deal-why-are-questions-about-it-met-with-an-armed-response/

*****Suspension of Berkey Products To California Residents Begining January 1,2010

http://www.directive21.com/california.html*****

EMERGENCY: US Army View of PreMillennialismStrategic Implications of American Millennialismhttp://johnmcternansinsights.blogspot.com/2009/12/emergency-us-army-view-of.html

*****Temporary Accord Cuts Rents for Many at Two Complexeshttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/nyregion/15stuy.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

*****Glock 298 rounds in full auto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBjUDCyDCuI*****

The Feds Money Monopolyhttp://www.24hgold.com/english/printarticle.aspx?pagedest=513536&langue=en&viewarticle=True

*****Cap-an-Trade Carbon Credit Extortion Scam in Full Swinghttp://www.24hgold.com/english/printarticle.aspx?pagedest=513532&langue=en&viewarticle=True

*****CLIMATEGATE - Blog claiming Gore opponents working for Big Oil finanicallylinked to Gore

http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2009/12/from-al-gores-investment-management-to.html*****

Celebs to kids: America stinks!'55 rich white men drafted Constitution to protect their class slaveholders'http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=119046

*****Savings & Loan MisTrust 700 Billion $ Bailout XPLANED by XPLANE


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W29FLkF7Qgw*****

Sparks from Peach Prize-president Kindle Civil War:http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/387464/index.php

*****Please thank CNBC's Squack Box for having Ron Paul as a co-host for a whole

hour this morning (without much bias/mockery too). Trust me, those producersONLY care about ratings and if we show them they do well to host our people,they will continue to do so.

(Right side of the webpage, under Contact Us: "We Want to hea...r from you!"http://www.cnbc.com/id/15838368?__source=vty

*****

Gregg v. Paul: Auditing the Fedhttp://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1359416416&play=1

*****

GunPal Ramps Up as Replacement for PayPal on Firearms Transactionshttp://www.gunreports.com/news/news/GunPal-Replacement-PayPal-Firearms-Transactions_1634-1.html

*****THE TRUE DANGER LURKING BEHIND 0.00% TREASURY YIELDS AND THE 1-3-6 RULEhttp://johngaltfla.com/blog3/2009/12/14/the-true-danger-lurking-behind-0-00-treasury-yields-and-the-1-3-6-rule-part-i/

*****Time for an Immigration Moratoriumhttp://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=34806

*****

From a Fellow Subscriber:Howdy Folks,

I need a bigger bucket to vomit in. Last Night I heard that the slimes on the LA Citycouncil voted in a 5 year pay increase for the equally slimy people at the LA Dept ofWater & Power! No more policemen, layoffs in their civilian forces...etc. What gives? Iknow, they can just raise fees for water and power! I wanna hurl!

I hear Cap and Trade by 2040 will expect 470 million Americans to exist on theelectrical footprint equal to national output in 1907! Or do they think there will be lesspeople around? I wonder...

Hey does not that fat COLA increase in your Social Security give you hope? How'sthat for change?

Plans are to return to nature over 90 million acres of farm land. This will cut our Agexports to the bone. We may find ourselves importing food. All in the name of savingthe planet. But will anybody accept our greenbacks for food? By the twitching of mythumb, something really bad is coming down the chute.

Is BofA being led to slaughter? Ya know the founders started that bank in San


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Francisco because they got tired of paying economic homage to the New York moneytrusts. Even though BofA is now one of the big boys, the NY money mob has a longmemory... Kinds like the Bank of England never forgiving us for that little tiff in1776...Connect the little dots, or just ask BS & Co, or K&L.

There is a vibe in the gun owning community that it's stock up now on ammo, as a big

move is underfoot to jack up commercial insurance for any retailer who wants to sellthe stuff. Reloading equipment on E-Bay is selling like hotcakes... Do you own a ballmill? I will soon (Check out United Nuclear on the web) and I can make my ownpowder with it. Cap & Ball may have a comeback! I would not wanna get hit by a roundfrom a Dragoon revolver any more that a Glock Pistol. Actually a double actionRemington would be a fine choice of that flavor of firearm. Besides if things get reallydark I bet gunpowder will make a fab barter item...A side of beef for a 8oz sack ofboom flakes! Time to think outside of the box, or concentration camp.

So how long till the next big run-up in gas prices? Is consumption so far down that theyhave a surplus of the stuff? Funny how the price is a few cents of each other betweenstations,,, can you spell CARTEL boys and girls?

Food prices seem to have momentarily stabilized, ah yes the last of the grain storageis being burned through, wait till next spring's meat prices! Between inflation anddevaluation next year, just buying enough food will be a very expensive operation. Geta couple of guns, ammo for sure, but for God's sake have a S*@$! Load of food in thepantry. At least a years worth, and buy meat at the meat shop in bulk (2.25 lb insteadof 4.00 plus) and get a drop in freezer. Will still have electricity so use it.

Speaking of electricity, the Feds did a study of the effect of an EMP tuned nukeexploding over mid America. This kind of weapon is not hard to make, given you canmake H-bombs at all, and could be delivered by a rather dumb missile system. Justthe range to get to the rough middle of the continent at X amount of altitude....Boom!

The effect would take down the entire power grid enmasse in about 1 second. Theystated that 4 years later only about 10% of the grid would be back up, only issue wasthat 90% of the population would not be here to see it! The big killer....dirty water fromlack of sewage treatment. Typhoid is still with us and it kills just a well as it always has.Gee sounds like a good time for a Berky plug! [Insert commercial here]

I know I should be in a better mood; it's Christmas... but man the stuff that lurks on thehorizon.

Been watching episodes of the Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, old B&W ones from the60's. First thing I noticed was the general assumption of the viewer intelligence beingmuch higher, compared to todays fare. Can you spell DUMBED DOWN populace?

Take a look yourself and see. Viewed in that context it will become plain as day to you.

Anyway, Happy Holidays Folks*****

From a Fellow Subscriber:Hi Bob:

Well things are steaming along here in SoCal. Got to talking to some fellows eggheads


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in the special education field at a conference (where I was presenting) a few weeksago. They were all talking about keeping their jobs or getting out as they saw the stateas broken. I asked why they felt that way, and they all said it was the funding ofeducation. But I replied gee is not education one of the top budget items? It wasanswered that a lot of that money never left Sacramento, it goes into feeding thebeast. Well that's a shame, but if we all (the ones with a decent teaching education)

leave, who will be there to teach the kids who are left. One gal spoke up and said theone's worth saving have had the brains to be in families that have already left.

I was not surprised, as I had reached the same conclusion some time ago:

Back in the 50's the state leadership had the foresight to predict a large influx of morepeople. So they planned for it with better roads, lots more schools and a state collegesystem that was the envy of the world. The plan was in depth and well implemented forabout 20 years. Traffic was crazy at rush hour, but you could get to work in an hour ifneeded, from the suburbs of most big cities out here. 1984 was in my mind the highwater mark, the Olympics in LA, the schools were still decent, and you could go tocollege and get a good career going, not just a job.

What happened? Too many people, to fast. The sad part was the folks coming in didnot have high skills, just strong backs, and many mouths to feed. All of the low skillentry-level jobs went first and then blue collar jobs, construction followed. The cityproper became like a 3rd world country, and all of the post war boom communitiesbecame flooded with immigrants (Legal and otherwise). Schools were just laid towaste, as they now had thousands of kids who could not speak English. So naturallythe scores went down and the drop out rate soared. Crack hit the south central andMeth flooded the suburbs. Entire communities became turf to be contested by rivalgangs of pushers. Each night the Ghetto birds (police helicopters) would hover overthe city. It was the death of California, as we knew it.

Then in 1987 they passed a law legalizing all of the new comers, and guys like B-1Bob got voted out of office, by Latino office-seekers. Now the new comers could moveup the ladder into factory management jobs and get contractor credentials. Thuslocking in more cousins from the old village back home a job. The influx becamebiblical, and housing became more and more scarce, hence expensive. By 1996 whenI went to my 20th high school reunion I was shocked to find well over 60% of myclassmates had moved out of state. Mostly to Las Vegas and Phoenix. Between taxes,laws, and high costs the feel of the state had changed.The state that groomed Regan, now gives us Tony Villar and Arnold. Goodwin Knightand Pat Brown (Senior) weep in heaven over what these fools have done.

So I guess that gal at the conference was right, the smart ones already have left... But

alas to what? Sure other cities in the Sunbelt did great in the 90's and even into thezips, but look at them now. Like a cancer LAization has hit them too. Some parts have1 in three out of work.... thats WORSE that the 30's depression.

When bread costs the same as a gallon of gas at 5 bucks each...look out as the folkswho are here now are lots less compassionate that those who left. There is going to bea major upheaval, followed by a major contraction of lawful authority. Just look at therecord, when population exceeds resources, population/government adjusts to thediminished supply. It's a natural consequence that you can bet money on. I think


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MRE's may just get more valuable than silver. Access and control of clean water willbecome the new mother loads.

I think the smartest people will gather their families together. All of them, Aunts &Uncles, Grandparents, cousins...everybody. Pooling their resources they buy a largetract of land with water. Plant gardens, orchards, Coops and pens, etc. Build homes

from local materials and include the ability to generate power from wind and solar.make bio-diesel and methanol for fuel. In other words be ready to unplug from societywhen the time comes. Not any one family unit can do this, but a whole village ofrelatives have on average the smarts and energy to make it happen. It says in thebible "Many hands, make for light work". Not to mention the fact that several rifles arebetter that one or two. That an thick walls & high fences help. In this case Hillary wasright, it takes a village. Lone Wolfs and rugged alone types get picked off. Either bylead or sickness.

I think that now it's time for the flocks to be gathered. God gave us this land; we havesquandered it, now God gathers his wrath, as he does not suffer fools for long.

Blessings to You and Yours this Christmas,

*****From a Fellow Subscriber in the Middle EastDear Bob,

Just to let you know I spoke to my Mid East contact and Ill try to break it down as shortas possible.The Saudi / Israel/US vs. Iran war is on and they think they can strategically take careof Iran with a carefully planned joint aerial attack. Bunker busters do not need to beused as the uranium underground is not a target just the delivery systems, which heimplied are in different places. I asked him about the hypocrisy of combining with

Israel to out fellow Arabs. His reply was They are an uncontrollable variable and thusthey must be taken out to protect the supply of oil. In addition there is a deep hatredbetween the Royals and the ruling Iranian party due to past history. Once the militaryis taken out they believe an internal civil conflict will take over due to a repressedcivilian population, which will up and oust the present regime.Also, they are very pleased with the Dubai fiasco as it seems that Iran has investedabout 40 to 50 billion in that market to hedge their wealth, and have been taken to thecleaners which further weakens their financial position.Who knows how this whole thing will unfold, though it certainly makes for interestingtimes.Regards,

*****

From a Fellow Subscriber:Bob: I've been with the LA County Sheriffs Dept for many years -- Military and policewill not go along with the NWO - most cops are gun nuts, and decent human beings --they are not going to confiscate guns, ship people to FEMA camps, or follow evilorders.The main issue when the US $ and police pension implosion occurs is how theyhandle the money --many cops/ military live paycheck to paycheck, and have no other


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way to earn money. As you know, large departments have been paid off by the feds $$millions in federal grants -- corruption in management is rampant today--the Chief orSheriff will do whatever the feds say. It comes down to how many cops/military willwalk off the job or revolt, based upon what their new paychecks will afford them. I wasout on the street in the middle of the Rodney King riots getting shot at-- I've seen lawlessness and anarchy -- cops/military will defect left and right if being

paid in IOU's/worthless currency -- maybe that's what the powers to be are planningon????

*****

Hi Bob-I DO NOT know thisand it is NOT a rumorbut I just had a scary-Epiphany -as if God spoke to meas I have watched the data points and factpatternand what I heard in my head is that what the whole Tiger Woods HONEYPOT --take downhang out---feeding frenzy is really ALL about isthat he is beingset up-sheep dipped for some kind of O J Simpson type of SATANIC 3RD PARTYSharon Tate type murder of his white wife and 2 white children psy-op that will be doneby somebody-3RD PARTYmost likely not himthat will lead to a OJ Simpsontype shows trial to incite a race war in Americahis womanizing has been going on for

yearsboth before and during his marriagezero black woman have appeared sofarso all this has all been held back UNTIL nowand it looks like a NSA type datamining type job similar to the Spitzer HONEY POT take downwhere they knewsome other guy bought one of his mistresses an air line ticket TO AUSTRALIA andpaid by credit cardexact financial details stuff like that could never have come fromTiger or the mistress or his buddythey would never have INTENTIONLY selfincriminated themselves-INTENTIONLY DESTROYED THEMSELVES like thattheydid a similar SHARON TATE type SNUFF job on DR Jeff Mcdonald MD-who happensto be Jewishbecause he was complaining internally as a US army flight surgeonthat they were bringing kilos type bags of dope from Vietnam sewn into the bodycavities of dead returning US servicemenso they SATANICLY snuffed his wife andtwo childrenand hung the whole thing on him-as a triple murderDR Jeff Mcdonald

MD is still in prisonI HOPE IM 100% WRONG ABOUT ALL OF THE ABOVEBUTIT IS AS IF MY HAIR IS ON FIRE---FEARING FOR TIGER AND HIS WIFE AND KIDS AND FOR AMERICAAS PERYOUR CONSTANT REPORTING IN THE IF AND ON THE RADIOTHESEPEOPLE ARE ABSOLUTELY DIABOLICALsomething really big-REALLY BAD is inthe pipe line via the Tiger Woods honey pot take down.

*****

COMMODITIESThe CRB index declined 1.1% this week (up 18.0% y-t-d). The Goldman Sachs

Commodities Index (GSCI) dropped 2.8% (up 40.2%). Gold sank 4.0% to close at$1,115 (up 26.4%). Silver sank 7.1% to $17.205 (up 52%). January Crude dropped

$5.73 to $69.74 (up 56%). January Gasoline sank 6.7% (up 74%), while JanuaryNatural Gas surged 12.3% (down 8%). March Copper fell 2.9% (up 123%). MarchWheat declined 3.7% (down 12%), while March Corn jumped 4.1% (down 1% y-t-d).

GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM AND PALLADIUMMonday was firm but hesitant. Gold rose $3.90 in the spot market to $1,123.30,

as February rose $8.00. Spot silver rose $0.24 to $17.32, as March rose $0.35. TheHUI rose 5.90 to 499.56 and the XAU rose 1.94 to 174.38. It is only a matter of time


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before the shorts have to cover in both gold and silver bullion and shares. LastTuesday saw the Comex COT commercial shorts increase net shorts by 14,545contracts to 512646, which is pure insanity. A pro would never do this. It has to be yourgovernment. Open interest only fell 3,795 contracts to 501,857, which a very smalldrop considering the drop the preceding week of only 32,000. The only conclusion isthat physical buyers are taking on the government head to head. Nouriel Roubinis

negative comments on gold shows exactly who his handlers are. We told you long agohe was a phony.

The Dow closed up 29 to 10,501; S&P rose 70 and Nasdaq 123 Dow points.The 10-year T-note yielded 3.55. The yen rose .0041 to $.8847; the euro rose .0023 to$1.4642; the pound rose .0009 to $1.6249; the Swiss franc rose .0008 to $1.0334; theCanadian dollar rose .0020 to $.9448 and the USDX fell 27 to 76.30.

Oil fell 40.22 to $69.65; gas fell $0.01 to $1.83 and natural gas rose $0.19 to$5.35. Copper rose $0.01 to $3.15; platinum rose $30.00 to $1,452.70 and palladiumrose $7.35 to $369.56. The CRB Index rose 2.66 to 273.59. The later two metals aretelling us it is time for gold and silver to move higher again.

Gold and gold receivables held by euro zone central banks rose by 1 millioneuros to 238.146 billion euros in the week ending Dec. 11, the European Central Bank

said on Tuesday.Net foreign exchange reserves in the Eurosystem of central banks fell by 1.1

billion euros to 163.4 billion euros, the ECB said in its regular weekly consolidatedfinancial statement.

Gold holdings rose because of a purchase by one euro zone central bank, theECB said. The ECB's balance sheet totaled 1.745 trillion euros, down from 1.759trillion a week earlier.

Tuesday saw gold early on off $20.00, then off $8.00, then up $9.00 and thenback to spot at $1,122.40, off $0.90, as February rose $1.90. Silver in the spot marketrose $0.12 to $17.44, as March rose $0.09. The HUI fell 9.25 to 440.42 with producersoff $0.15 to $0.75. The USDX currencies took another dip today. The gold newsis that at about 77 the index will run into stiff technical resistance. In all gold and silver

did well. Actually silver performed best. After today traders and technicians have to bescratching their heads. The professionals know exactly what is going on, the marketsare being manipulated. This has compromised the CFTC and left no trust orconfidence in their ability to be fair and balanced in regulating the commoditiesmarkets. Their false reporting is legion. Todays gold open interest rose 999 contractsto 499,898. We are told gold margins are going up again from $4,500 to $5,403 percontract. This again is an effort to kill gold prices. We have been at this more than 50years and the Comex has been doing this as long as we have been involved. Siler OIrose 496 contracts to 122,356. The XAU lost 3.32 to 171.16.

The Dow fell 49 to 10,454, the S&P fell 56 and Nasdaq 66 Dow points. The 30-year T-note yield rose 4 bps to 3.59. Ten business days ago it was 3.20%. The yen fell.0124 to $.8959; the euro fell .0115 to $1.4528; the pound fell .0031 to $1,6263; the

Swiss franc fell .0079 to $1.0398; the Canadian dollar fell .0015 to $.9422 and theUSDX rose .58 to 76.92.

Oil rose $1.25 to $70.75; gas rose $0.02 to $1.85 and natural gas rose $0.18 to$5.52. Copper fell $0.01 to $3.14; platinum rose $3.20 to $1,450.20 and palladium fell$2.95 to $315.35. The CRB Index rose $0.75 to $274.07.

*****Federal Reserve manipulating gold prices: Ron Paul


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http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Federal-Reserve-manipulating-gold-prices-Ron-Paul-23803-3-1.html

*****China & Gold: The Big StorySource: Adrian Ash, BullionVault 12/11/2009

http://theaureport.com/pub/na/3401*****

The IMF sold Gold plated tungsten bars to India ?!?!?!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0-hGHJSgNA

*****

NIA Declares Silver Best Investment for Next Decadehttp://inflation.us/

*****Minefinders Consolidates La Virginia District in Sonora-Drilling Planned in Early2010http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Minefinders-Consolidates-La-iw-2523719373.html?x=0&.v=1

*****An Unbelievable Opportunity in Goldhttp://www.theundergroundinvestor.com/2009/12/an-unbelievable-opportunity-in-gold/#more-1314

*****The gold bubble mythhttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/features/vox/the-gold-bubble-myth/article1399184/

*****CANADA

Canadian household net worth rose in the July-September quarter asindividuals benefited from a rise in stock markets, helping consumers to keep spending

and drive an economic recovery.The value of families assets, such as houses and savings accounts, minus

their liabilities rose 2.3 percent to C$5.72 trillion ($5.38 trillion) in the third quarter,Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Canadas Standard & Poors/TSX CompositeIndex rose 9.8 percent in the third quarter, leaving it 21 percent below where it was inmid-2008.

Canadian industries used less of their capacity in the third quarter than everbefore, but manufacturers had less slack in their production lines for the first time infive quarters as the economy stabilized.

Industries -- including mines, factories, utilities and drilling rigs -- operated at67.5 percent of capacity, down from a revised 67.7 percent in the second quarter,Statistics Canada said on Monday. That was the lowest since record-keeping began in

1987 but stronger than expected largely because of a jump in auto production.The median forecast of analysts in a Reuters poll was for a a 67.0 percent

capacity utilization rate, based on dismal industrial production data even as signsemerged that the economy was starting to recover from recession during the thirdquarter.

At the same time, manufacturers ramped up their capacity use to 65.6 percentfrom 64.7 percent, the first increase in five quarters after automakers reopened someproduction capacity shuttered earlier this year.


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"Manufacturers of motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts significantlyincreased their production to meet rising demand, mostly from the United States,"Statscan said in a release.

The transportation equipment industry overall -- three-fifth of which isautomakers -- jumped 5.5 percentage points to 53.6 percent capacity utilization.

Bank of Canada G

The International Forecaster

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Transcript of The International Forecaster