ronz28

NASA's recent video on producing clean powerful low cost energy from Low Energy Nuclear Reactions that should save cost throughout the economy.

http://technologygateway.nasa.gov/media/CC/lenr/lenr.html

So, when can I buy it from Home Depot?

Those Marines have dishonored themselves and should never wear a US Marine uniform again. Immediate disciplinary action is needed.

Harry Dent says we will have a replay of the 2008 financial crisis soon because of the time bomb of the demographic decline of the big spenders http://www.businessinsider.com/another-frightening-demographic-headwind-is-the-decline-of-peak-spenders-2012-1?utm_source=TOPinBusiness&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheMoneyGame+%28The+Money+Game%29 another reason to zig zag in and out of investments and shorts.

North Korea Labor Camps in Russia that support "the leader". If some cursing offends you, skip this.

http://www.vice.com/vice-news

AMF, RIH

Alexa rankings indicate there must be some people from India, China and the Philippines here.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/thaivisa.com#

I don't see Russians listed in the Alexa stats for some reason but I'm sure they are here too.

Role of Rehypothecation in the shadow banking system.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/12/the-sizable-role-of-rehypothecation-in-the-shadow-banking-system-2/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LVTDCN6S972B01-2H4F0FT6S8AABG0QH7TGEIAVU9

Kyle Bass CNBC video on European doomsday machine regarding the European bills that are due but no country can pay:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45669180

and his recent market letter:

http://www.scribd.co...screen/74335711

Hypothecation license to steal

http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Securities/Insight/2011/12_-_December/MF_Global_and_the_great_Wall_St_re-hypothecation_scandal/

Its not just Fox... Murdoch's pushing his agenda world wide in both the national and local medias. Here is a short list of most of the media he controls

http://en.wikipedia....ews_Corporation

US Federal Communications Commission used to ensure equal time for different political parties, etc. in US but now even many local stations have been bought by Murdoch and they now spew out his right wing close to Facist totally biased propaganda 24/7. He and his buddies have a master plan for the world that he needs to brainwash people with.

Customers create jobs not the fat cats. http://www.businessinsider.com/rich-people-do-not-create-jobs-2011-12

Based on a fat cats position to take $10 million from the economy per year and the Bush tax cuts a fat cat can take home more than $10 million a year of income. On this income, he says, he pays an 11% tax rate. (Presumably, most of the income is dividends and long-term capital gains, which carry a tax rate of 15%. And then he probably has some tax shelters that knock the rate down the rest of the way).

If the fat cat wouldn't take so much for his pay check, bonuses, sweetheart deals with other companies he owns, golden parachutes from multiple companies, etc. and paid more out to employees and taxes, then his employees would be able to afford to purchase more and expand the economy ultimately increasing the wealth of the fat cat without killing off the golden goose= its customers.

Even Henry Ford practiced that and he was an engine for growth in the US economy and a legacy for future generations.

Intel, whose microprocessors power more than 80 percent of the world's PCs, is cutting the forecast after other chipmakers indicated the industry was recovering from the floods in Thailand, which makes about a quarter of the world's hard-disk drives. http://www.bloomberg...ive-supply.html

It worries the rest of the world too as tech stocks sell off today partly due to the Intel news confirming what many have expected.

Thailand simply must invest now in flood control projects that work to avoid future flood costs. They can do a far better job with constructing floodways (channels and dikes) and keeping them clear of debris with regular maintenance. The current canals are insufficient and should be better maintained to deal with the volume of water in these big floods in Bangkok and other flood prone areas. Properly constructed floodways around Bangkok, etc. like those used in many countries with similar flood prone areas could help provide additional paths to take the water to the Gulf and drain Central Thailand's flood waters.

Lots of construction labor is needed for these projects that could help the laid off people from the closed flooded factories earn a living and business would regain confidence with Thailand investments. Its going to cost the government a lot of money but will avoid far more in flood recovery expenses in future.

I hope they haven't left a polluted mess. Semiconductor production may have very toxic hazardous waste that might be cheaper for them to abandon but Thai government should require cleanup.

Here is what happens when new technologies like fracking meet an escalating commodity price like natural gas http://chart.ly/c7j6qm2 even while Gold prices escalated. Some day people will recognize this and lower their energy costs by switching to natural gas or take advantage of a newer technology that may be even cheaper because they they need to spend less due to losses during the financial crisis.

Now, if silver or gold can only be produced cheaply like the claims for copper from Nickel-hydrogen cold fusion http://www.journal-of-nuclear-physics.com/?p=473 An alchemists dream but a gold bug's nightmare.....

Jon Corzine paid Bill Clinton $50,000 per month to improve his image !!!

http://www.humaneven...le.php?id=47938

Unsourced right wing rumor garbage with New Gingrich spam blocking the article. "Human Events- Powerful Conservative Voices" . No thanks Newt, I have to wade through enough of this Murdoch garbage to get business news from WSJ Fox News, etc. Sorry Midas, this rant is not directed at you.

Britain has the highest total debt to GDP ratio (1,000%) of any G20 nation so it makes

sense it also has the worst wealth and income gaps (by design).

http://www.businessi...-to-gdp-2011-12

Very interesting chart. I had no Idea of the relative size of the UK Financial sector debt. I wonder what assets they are financing with all that debt? Who are they lending to? How likely is that they will default on a chunk of that debt? I have some research to do now. However, I know the usual problem is disclosure isn't sufficient to really know if the debt is supported by real assets vs some flaky derivatives. UK not included in the latest credit watch for downgrade?

Jim Puplava is a perma gold bug and always has interesting sensational reasons like those cited by Ann Barnhardt to be in gold regardless of whether or not its ready to roll over or go parabolic.

The MF Global situation is very troubling and I am amazed it continues to go on without return of the cash accounts to clients. However, I don't see a one billion $ unresolved fraud killing trillions of dollars of market activity and life will go on.

I think, science and businessmen will continue to advance our economy by finding ways to reduce/avoid costs such as:

Through cheap clean energy from sources like cold fusion such as the Rossi invention and others like the newest claim from Australia

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/12/new-extraordinary-claims-of-nuclear.html

Much cleaner/cheaper natural gas fracking techniques http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericagies/2011/11/30/can-no-water-fracking-quiet-critics/

New nanoparticle electrodes for batteries that survived 40,000 cycles of charging and discharging, after which it could still be charged to more than 80 percent of its original charge capacity. For comparison, the average lithium ion battery can handle about 400 charge/discharge cycles before it deteriorates too much to be of practical use. Stanford researchers have used nanoparticles of a copper compound to develop a high-power battery electrode that is so inexpensive to make, so efficient and so durable that it could be used to build batteries big enough for economical large-scale energy storage on the electrical grid – something researchers have sought for years. http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v2/n11/full/ncomms1563.html

So if humans were static and never improving Puplava might be right and we should all hide out in gold forever but I think everything is dynamic and Gold is just another capital market with cycles that must be timed and constantly compared with other opportunities. I would never short gold but its up a lot now and hitting its short term down trend line now so its a little risky. The US and other economies are improving so the effects of the financial crisis appears to be less currently yet still require solutions.

Still waiting to hear his policy on Libya ...we have heard about his lubyas.

Pizza has twirled around his head now and that will be 9.99 please.

Germany is a solid economy in Europe but it is far behind the US and China in terms of GDP of the world so I suspect key economic decisions will continue to need to be coordinated among the economic leaders rather than a single conductor that represents a relatively small portion of the world GDP..

http://en.wikipedia....(PPP)_estimates

With a coordinated approach, there is the advantage of many different perspectives to problems and solutions with checks and balances on authority, but the disadvantage of delayed action due to the bottlenecks caused by some that refuse to compromise to move ahead for the good of all. So a conductor would preclude many bottlenecks but who would trust him with little or no checks and balances?

To break the bottlenecks, just have to have agree that majority rules and have some accepted rules with consequences that all must comply with, when economic decisions are accepted by a given percent who agree. This way no one country or a couple can hold the rest hostage to economic decline for their own benefit. The problem participants are held accountable and compelled to take corrective action on a timely basis but may choose among options available to solve their issues that best fits their circumstances and their people can accept as long as it solves the issues.

Too many fish in the sea to get hung up over one of them. Singaporean should have kicked her to the curb with her buddy, recovered whatever of his property was left and moved on. He probably could have replaced her in no time at all.

Plenty of blame to go around for the causes of flood. Lack of effective maintenance of canals and rivers over the years, waterways must be dredged and cleaned out periodically. Waterways can't be used as a dump for all that household and industrial waste, toxic contamination/pollution and sewage or it will all clog the waterways and end up in your house during the next flood.

For long term relationships, mutual respect and since its not often mentioned, her long term financial security in her name. For example, if you take her back to your country, at least let her work and teach her about earning social security benefits, 401k savings, defined benefit pension plans at governments or the 20% of companies that still have them. (or whatever your country calls it), regular savings in her name etc.

She may enjoy working for a major corporation or a government in a foreign country too.

US oversight agencies who get paid to protect investors need a good kick in the pants.

http://peterlbrandt.com/mf-global-proof-that-the-u-s-government-is-not-able-or-willing-to-protect-investors/

So we have a multifaceted problem with flaws everywhere. I think certain banksters are responsible for blowing up the financial system and fiscal irresponsibility on the government's part hinders the government's ability to control the banksters.

To me, the US conducting trillion dollar+ wars on the taxpayer's credit card with tax cuts to all and especially the rich is at the root of our fiscal mess so ending the wars is a start in our return to fiscal responsibility and letting Bush's tax cuts expire is a second step. However, getting the financial system back under control and prosecuting the banksters is also essential to winding down the financial crisis or else history will continue to repeat itself but I don't hold out much hope for improving financial regulations with our current Congress. Congress also needs to quit taking money from social security trust funds and using it for other purposes like giving a payroll tax free holiday as a stimulus and not replacing the funds to the social security fund.

What a mess that MF Global is. So they doubled the amount of money they reported as missing and it is about $1.2 billion now. Well they should be able to follow the money trail and get it back or prove that it was stolen and gambled away on unauthorized transactions that perhaps could get reversed. Up to the lawyers and prosecutors now but it sounds like there are some future jailbirds walking around free now spending and hiding the money as fast as they can.

Each country has their own financial mess to deal with but some of it is similar to the US financial fiasco.