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The Psy-Ops War on Preppers: This Has Become a Two-For-the-Price-of-One Crisis Daisy Luther December 17th, 2012 The Organic Prepper This article has been generously shared with our community by long-time contributor Daisy Luther of The Organic Prepper. First of all, where is the headquarters of this “Doomsday Preppers Movement” I’ve been reading about? And where can I sign up? I didn’t realize there was an organized movement, one deserving of capital letters. Who is the leader of this “movement”? I’d like to meet him (or her) immediately! The propaganda machine is not only going after guns in the wake of...

RAIL INDICATORS: The Economy Continues To Soften Cullen Roche, Pragmatic CapitalismDec. 16, 2012, 10:39 AM More weakness in this week’s rail traffic report. The AAR reported a -0.3% reading in intermodal. This is the second consecutive negative weekly reading. This brings the 12 week moving average down to 1.3%. That’s about in-line with the consensus Q4 GDP predictions and indicative of an economy that is growing, but just slightly. Here’s more via AAR: “The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported declines in weekly rail traffic for the week ending December 8, 2012, with U.S. railroads originating 292,206 carloads, down...

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DEFICIT: It's Not Very Big, And There's Only One Way To Close It By Joe WeisenthalDeember 16, 2012 "Trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see." "Hundreds of trillions in unfunded liabilities." "Washington is broke." "Only cranking up taxes, and slashing benefits can save us from leaving a crushing burden on future generations." Those are the kinds of lines you hear from politicians (and even some smart people) all the time as Washington DC debates the Fiscal Cliff and so on. But there's a couple of things you should know about the deficit. One...

China Is Officially Dusting The U.S. In Manufacturing (And That's OK) By Jordan Weissmann Dec 13 2012, 12:20 PM In 2010, China just barely edged out the United States as the world's top manufacturer by output -- a distinction it hadn't held since 1850. Still the two countries were basically neck and neck. No longer. The United Nations has updated its national accounts data to capture 2011, and thanks to China's breakneck growth, its manufacturing output is now leaving ours in a cloud of coal dust, as shown in this graph from AEI's Mark Perry. China's trend line is practically...

OH NO: Roubini Believes In The Housing Recovery, And Is Optimistic About The US Economy Joe WeisenthalDec. 14, 2012, 12:17 PM Uh-oh! Dr. doom isn't sounding a little... positive. He was on Bloomberg Surveillance today. You can watch the video here. This partial transcript was provided to us by Bloomberg: Roubini on whether he's bullish on the United States: "In the long term, I think that the fundamentals of the U.S. are a lot stronger than other advanced countries. In the short run I think we will have another year of very anemic economic growth. Next year we will have...

This list has been getting around the web quite a bit. By most accounts it seems to be written by VtheK, with the original post here.I've only seen it in text, and this is the perfect type of thing to make a graphic for...

The Fed’s Operation Twist was intended to lower long-term interest rates while raising short-term interest rates. But notice that it has worked exactly the opposite. Notice that the yield curve has actually increased in slope over time at the critical Twist dates. With Industrial Production increasing by 1.1% in November (Sandy recovery efforts), it is possible that The Fed will take its foot off the accelerator. On the other hand, capacity utilization has not reached 80% since the Great Recession ended in June 2009. The Fed likes to keep their foot on the accelerator until capacity utilization exceeds 80%, THEN...

SINGAPORE -- While the U.S. unemployment rate "dropped" to 7.7 percent last month -- a figure even the Washington Post acknowledged was due "in large part because the labor force fell by 350,000" -- here in this modern and prosperous city-state of slightly more than 5 million people, unemployment is practically nonexistent at 1.9 percent. In part, this is due to a work ethic that seems to be in the genes here. But there is something else at work that should astound Washington politicians struggling with expensive "entitlement" programs and with those who receive them. The Economist wrote about it...

It is the ultimate example of how you reap what you sow: Huge numbers of American workers who voted for Obama are now seeing their own jobs slashed below 30 hours a week as employers desperately try to avoid "Obamacare bankruptcy." Obamacare mandates for businesses only apply to those working 30 hours a week or more, and while many businesses do not want to cut workers' hours, they are being forced to in order to stay afloat. This necessary action is causing businesses to lose money and become less competitive while at the same time destroying American jobs. Some businesses...

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Menards is blaming President Obama for the company's decision to scrap plans for building a store in Missouri, saying the president is "scaring the dickens" out of small businesses. The Eau Claire, Wis.-based home improvement chain said it won't build a planned store in O’Fallon, Mo., because of economic uncertainty...

"By GOLLY! We can pay for ALL of it - the clean environment, green energy, health care, improvements in education, mortgage reliet, social security reform - ALL of it - "

As the president gets closer to achieving his most cherished political ambition — raising taxes on the top earners in our country — I've started to wonder what satisfaction he, and those he's convinced this is a good idea, will actually experience. Forget all the silly speeches. By any seriously objective standard, the president's tax increases will do little or nothing to reduce his deficits or his approaching legacy of extraordinary national debt. Without increasing taxes more broadly and without structurally reforming our entitlement programs, which now appears likely, the president's plan changes virtually nothing about the direction or funding...

Regarding the fantasies that there will be a day when a large percentage of voters will see the error of their ways, resulting in a mass defection of the Democrat Party...

For 37 years, Burt Patterson has owned the pharmacy named after him. That is now coming to an end. For Patterson, it was simply time to retire. "At a certain age, everybody has to come to grips with the fact that you can't keep going forever," Patterson said. He also said uncertainly about the future of health care in America also played a role in his decision. "The potential for a small pharmacy surviving in the coming years under Obamacare is going to be very difficult. And again, at my age, I just did not want to risk my retirement,"...

Time for another motor in the house. Last vehicle I bought I ran by the Freeper Auto-Guys and it worked great. Time for a different kind of transportation. Looking at a new two or four door Golf TDI in Red with manual transmission. No sunroof, no nav package. Test drove it twice and like the manual transmission. Dealer giving 300K warranty with serviceing Q10K at dealership. Your thoughts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve ramped up its stimulus to the economy on Wednesday, expressing disappointment with the pace of recovery in employment as contentious U.S. budget talks heighten uncertainty about the outlook. The central bank replaced a more modest stimulus program due to expire at year-end with a fresh round of Treasury purchases that will increase its balance sheet. It committed to monthly purchases of $45 billion in Treasuries on top of the $40 billion per month in mortgage-backed bonds it started buying in September. In a surprise move, the Fed also adopted numerical thresholds for policy, a...

JAMIE DIMON: The Table Is Set For Booming 4% Growth, And 200K New Jobs Per Month Joe WeisenthalDecember 12,2012Jamie Dimon is on LIVE at the Dealbook conference talking fiscal cliff, the economy, and public policy. We're taking notes during his Q&A. Anything not in direct quotes. -- Says odds are politicians will do something between December 21 and December 28. -- On the impact of going over the cliff it might not be horrible... but it might be. -- 'We are one decision away from restoring our moral and fiscal authority in the world.... let's just do it."-- With...

It's Time To Tell Paulson, Bernanke, And Geithner: You Were Right And We Were Wrong — Thank You For Saving The Economy Mark Dow, Behavioral MacroDec. 11, 2012, 2:07 PM URL Mark Dow is a proprietary trader and author of the blog Behavioral Macro. The U.S. Treasury this morning rid itself of the last piece of exposure it had to AIG, the insurer at the center of the 2008 financial crisis. Both the Fed and the U.S. Treasury intervened heavily during the crisis, with the ostensible objective of stabilizing the system and circuit-breaking the self-reinforcing fear that was already rippling...

India will be the fastest-growing market, with exports to the South Asian nation expanding at an annual rate of 12% between 2016 and 2020, and staying in the double digits beyond then. Vietnam is another strong future trading partner for the United States, with double-digit annualized trade growth forecast over the next five to 15 years. Other promising new markets in the future include Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Mexico and Poland.