Food stamps

10 Hilarious Examples Of How Clueless Our Leaders Are About The Economy

by

– Denial Is Not Just A River In Egypt: 10 Hilarious Examples Of How Clueless Our Leaders Are About The Economy (Economic Collapse, March 13, 2013):

They didn’t see it coming last time either.  Back in 2007, President Bush, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and just about every prominent voice in the financial world were all predicting that we would experience tremendous economic prosperity well into the future.  In fact, as late as January 2008 Bernanke boldly declared that “the Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession.”  At the time, only the “doom and gloomers” were warning that everything was about to fall apart.  And of course we all know what happened.  But just a few short years later, history seems to be repeating itself.  Barack Obama, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and almost every prominent voice in the financial world are all promising that the U.S. “economic recovery” is going to continue even though Europe is coming apart like a 20 dollar suit.  But the economic fundamentals tell a different story.  Our national debt is more than $6,000,000,000,000 larger than it was back in 2008, the number of Americans on food stamps just hit another brand new all-time record, and the bankers up on Wall Street are selling gigantic mountains of the exact same kind of toxic derivatives that caused so much trouble the last time around.  But all of our “leaders” swear that everything is going to be okay.  You can believe them if you want, but denial is not just a river in Egypt, and another crash is inevitably coming.

Read more10 Hilarious Examples Of How Clueless Our Leaders Are About The Economy

Foodstamp Recipients Hit Record High, Alongside Record Dow Jones And Record Debt: 20% Of Eligible Americans On EBT

by

– Foodstamp Recipients Hit Record, Alongside Record Dow Jones And Record Debt: 20% Of Eligible Americans On EBT (ZeroHedge, March 11, 2013):

Record Dow Jones, record US debt ($16,701,846,937,879.74), and now, once more, record number of Americans on foodstamps. According to the USDA, an all time high of 47,791,966 Americans closed 2012 in possession of the highly desired Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, managed by who else but JPMorgan. And with a civilian non-institutional population of 244.4 million in December, this means that a record 19.56% of eligible Americans are on Foodstamps. In December an additional 109,924 Americans became reliant on foodstamps for their poverty-level needs, bringing the total to 47.8 million.

Number of US households on foodstamps: also a record of 23.1 million, with the average monthly benefit of $277.09.

Read moreFoodstamp Recipients Hit Record High, Alongside Record Dow Jones And Record Debt: 20% Of Eligible Americans On EBT

Food Stamp Rolls In America Now Surpass The Population Of Spain

by

– Food Stamp Rolls in America Now Surpass the Population of Spain (CNS News, Feb 11, 2013):

Since taking office in 2009, food stamp rolls under President Barack Obama have risen to more than 47 million people in America, exceeding the population of Spain.“Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity,” said Obama during his first joint session address to Congress on Feb. 24, 2009.

Since then, the number of participants enrolled in food stamps, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has risen substantially.

When Obama entered office in January 2009 there were 31,939,110 Americans receiving food stamps.  As of November 2012—the most recent data available—there were 47,692,896 Americans enrolled, an increase of 49.3 percent.

According to the 2011 census, Spain had a population of 46,815,916.Furthermore, between January 2009 and November 2012 the food stamp program added approximately an average 11,269 recipients per day.

U.S. Households On Foodstamps Rise To New Record

by

– Households On Foodstamps Rise To New Record (ZeroHedge, Feb 11, 2013):

While hardly presented by the mainstream media with the same panache dedicated to the monthly ARIMA-X-12 seasonally-adjusted, climate-affected, goal-seek devised non-farm payroll data, the three month delayed Foodstamp number is according to many a far greater attestation to the “effectiveness” of the Obama administration to turn the economy around. And far greater it is: since his inauguration, the US has generated just 841,000 jobs through November 2012, a number is more than dwarfed by the 17.3 million new foodstamps and disability recipients added to the rolls in the past 4 years. And since the start of the depression in December 2007, America has seen those on foodstamps and disability increase by 21.8 million, while losing 3.6 million jobs. End result: total number of foodstamp recipients as of November: 47.7 million, an increase of 141,000 from the prior month, and reversing the brief downturn in October, while total US households on foodstamps just hit an all time record of 23,017,768, an increase of 73,952 from the prior month. The cost to the government to keep these 23 million households content and not rising up? $281.21 per month per household.Total Americans on foodstamps:

Total households on foodstamps and average benefit per household:

Read moreU.S. Households On Foodstamps Rise To New Record

37 Statistics Which Show How Four Years Of Another Elite Puppet President Have Wrecked The U.S. Economy

by

– 37 Statistics Which Show How Four Years Of Obama Have Wrecked The U.S. Economy (Economic Collapse, Jan 21, 2013):

The mainstream media covered the inauguration of Barack Obama with breathless anticipation on Monday, but should we really be celebrating another four years of Obama?  The truth is that the first four years of Obama were an absolute train wreck for the U.S. economy.  Over the past four years, the percentage of working age Americans with a job has fallen, median household income has declined by more than $4000, poverty in the U.S. has absolutely exploded and our national debt has ballooned to ridiculous proportions.  Of course all of the blame for the nightmarish performance of the economy should not go to Obama alone.  Certainly much of what we are experiencing today is the direct result of decades of very foolish decisions by Congress and previous presidential administrations.  And of course the Federal Reserve has more influence over the economy than anyone else does.  But Barack Obama steadfastly refuses to criticize anything that the Federal Reserve has done and he even nominated Ben Bernanke for another term as Fed Chairman despite his horrific track record of failure, so at a minimum Barack Obama must be considered to be complicit in the Fed’s very foolish policies.  Despite what the Obama administration tells us, the U.S. economy has been in decline for a very long time, and that decline has accelerated in many ways over the past four years.  Just consider the statistics that I have compiled below.  The following are 37 statistics which show how four years of Obama have wrecked the U.S. economy…

1. During Obama’s first term, the number of Americans on food stamps increased by an average of about 11,000 per day.

2. At the beginning of the Obama era, 32 million Americans were on food stamps.  Today, more than 47 million Americans are on food stamps.

3. According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of “Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.”

Read more37 Statistics Which Show How Four Years Of Another Elite Puppet President Have Wrecked The U.S. Economy

35 Statistics About The Working Poor In America That Will Blow Your Mind

by

– 35 Statistics About The Working Poor In America That Will Blow Your Mind (Economic Collapse, Jan 15, 2013):

In America tonight, tens of millions of men and women will struggle to get to sleep because they are stressed out about not making enough money even though they are working as hard as they possibly can.  They are called “the working poor”, and their numbers are absolutely exploding.  As a recent Gallup poll showed, Americans are more concerned about the economy than they are about anything else.  But why are Americans so stressed out about our economic situation if things are supposedly getting better?  Well, the truth is that unemployment is not actually going down, and the real unemployment numbers are actually much worse than what is officially being reported by the government.  But unemployment is only part of the story.  Most American workers are still able to find jobs, but an increasing proportion of them are not able to make ends meet at the end of the month.  Our economy continues to bleed good paying middle class jobs, and to a large degree those jobs are being replaced by low income jobs.  Approximately one-fourth of all American workers make 10 dollars an hour or less at this point, and we see them all around us every day.  They flip our burgers, they cut our hair and they take our money at the supermarket.  In many homes, both parents are working multiple jobs, and yet when a child gets sick or a car breaks down they find that they don’t have enough money to pay the bill.  Many of these families have gone into tremendous amounts of debt in order to try to stay afloat, but once you get caught in a cycle of debt it can be incredibly difficult to break out of that.

Read more35 Statistics About The Working Poor In America That Will Blow Your Mind

The Federal Government Hands Out Money To 128 Million Americans Every Month

by

– The Federal Government Hands Out Money To 128 Million Americans Every Month (Economic Collapse, Jan 10, 2013):

The number of Americans receiving money directly from the federal government has grown from 94 million in the year 2000 to over 128 million today.  A shocking new research paper by Patrick Tyrrell and William W. Beach contains that statistic and a whole bunch of other very revealing numbers.  According to their research, the federal government hands out money to 41.3 percent of the entire population of the United States each month.  Overall, more than 70 percent of all federal spending goes to what they call “dependence-creating programs”.  It is the most massive wealth redistribution scheme in the history of the world, and it continues to grow at a very rapid pace with each passing month.  But can we really afford this?  Of course we never want to see a single person go without food to eat or a roof to sleep under, but can the federal government really afford to support 128 million Americans every month?  If millions more Americans keep jumping on to the “safety net” each year, how long will it be before it breaks and it is not there for anyone?  The federal government is already drowning in debt.  This year the U.S. national debt will easily blow past the 17 trillion dollar mark and we are rapidly heading toward financial oblivion.  We are stealing more than 100 million dollars from our children and our grandchildren every single hour of every single day with no end in sight.  If we don’t get our finances in order as a nation, what will the end result be?

Read moreThe Federal Government Hands Out Money To 128 Million Americans Every Month

Panic In California As Thousands Of Food Stamps Cards Suffer Brief Outage

by

– Panic In California As Thousands Of Food Stamps Cards Suffer Brief Outage (ZeroHedge, Jan 9, 2013):

This past weekend, as part of a system update to the CalWIN software of California’s Social Services department, HP accidentally cancelled EBT cards for some 37,000 Californians. We can only imagine the resulting panic and the scramble by all these Californians who suddenly could not live within their means to print trillion, and other denomination, coins, in the shining example of their government. The OC Register reports that eighteen counties were affected in the CalFresh chaos (the ‘friendly’ name given to California’s food stamp program – also formerly known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP). While we worry for the strippers and liquor stores, CalWIN and Xerox (the state’s primary contractor for administering CalFresh) developed a process to reactivate the cards by Tuesday morning. While this must have been a tough day or two for many, we wonder if Geithner’s ‘extraordinary’ efforts to extend the debt ceiling deadline have perhaps gone a little too far?Finally, instead of minting coins, perhaps Hewlett Packard can remotely update its software in the Fed printers, which can then proceed to print a few cool extra trillion unsupervised, and voila: all of America’s problems are gone.

US Government Spent $80.4 BILLION On Food Stamps In 2012

by

– US government spent $80.4 bn on food stamps in 2012 (PressTV, Jan 6, 2013):

The US government has spent a record USD 80.4 billion on food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that helps Americans who cannot afford to buy food.

According to the US Department of the Treasury, the federal government has paid out USD 80,401,000,000 for food stamps during fiscal year (FY) of 2012 (from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012), increasing the amount by USD 2.7 billion from previous year.

Read moreUS Government Spent $80.4 BILLION On Food Stamps In 2012

America’s PhDs On Foodstamps

by

– America’s PhDs On Foodstamps (ZeroHedge, Jan 8, 2013):

When job hunting in one’s field turns tough, college graduates may return to school for another degree (even in economics). But for some Americans, multiple degrees won’t guarantee a job in their field (or even at the Fed) – or even keep them above the poverty level… Over the past few years, more and more highly educated people have turned to food stamps and other forms of welfare for help…

America’s PhDs on Food Stamps

Source: OnlineColleges.net

50 Predictions For 2013

by

– 50 Predictions For 2013 (Economic Collapse, Jan 1, 2013):

Are you ready for a wild 2013?  It should be a very interesting year.  When the calendar flips over each January, lots of people make lots of lists.  They make lists of “resolutions”, but most people never follow through on them.  They make lists of “predictions”, but most of those predictions always seem to end up failing.  Well, I have decided to put out my own list of predictions for 2013.  I openly admit that I won’t get all of these predictions right, and that is okay.  Hopefully I will at least be more accurate than most of the other armchair prognosticators out there.  It is important to look ahead and try to get a handle on what is coming, because I believe that the rest of this decade is going to be extraordinarily chaotic for the U.S. economy.  The false bubble of debt-fueled prosperity that we are enjoying right now is not going to last much longer.  When it comes to an end, the “adjustment” is going to be extremely painful.  Those that understand what is happening and have prepared for it will have the best chance of surviving what is about to hit us.  I honestly don’t know what everybody else is going to do.  Many of the people that don’t see the coming collapse approaching will be totally blindsided by it and will totally give in to despair when they realize what has happened.  But there is no excuse for not seeing what is coming – the signs are everywhere.

So with that being said, the following are 50 bold predictions for 2013…

Read more50 Predictions For 2013

US: 16 Things About 2013 That Are Really Going To Stink

by

See also:

– America’s 75 Economic Numbers From 2012 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

– 16 Things About 2013 That Are Really Going To Stink (Economic Collapse, Dec 28, 2012):

The beginning of the year has traditionally been a time of optimism when we all look forward to the exciting things that are going to happen over the next 12 months.  Unfortunately, there are a whole bunch of things about 2013 that we already know are going to stink.  Taxes are going to go up, good paying jobs will continue to leave the country, small businesses will continue to be destroyed, the number of Americans living in poverty will continue to soar, our infrastructure will continue to decay, global food supplies will likely continue to dwindle and the U.S. national debt will continue to explode.  Our politicians continue to pursue the same policies that got us into this mess, and yet they continue to expect things to magically turn around.  But that is not the way that things work in the real world.  Bad decisions lead to bad outcomes.  Instead of realizing that what we are doing is not working, our “leaders” continue to give us more of the same.  As a result, there are going to be a lot of things about 2013 that will not be great.  Sticking our heads in the sand and pretending that everything will be “okay” somehow is not going to help anyone.  We’ve got to make people understand exactly what is happening and why it is happening if we ever hope to see real changes.

The following are 16 things about 2013 that are really going to stink…

Read moreUS: 16 Things About 2013 That Are Really Going To Stink

America’s 75 Economic Numbers From 2012 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

by

– 75 Economic Numbers From 2012 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe (Economic Collapse, Dec 20, 2012):

What a year 2012 has been!  The mainstream media continues to tell us what a “great job” the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve are doing of managing the economy, but meanwhile things just continue to get even worse for the poor and the middle class.  It is imperative that we educate the American people about the true condition of our economy and about why all of this is happening.  If nothing is done, our debt problems will continue to get worse, millions of jobs will continue to leave the country, small businesses will continue to be suffocated, the middle class will continue to collapse, and poverty in the United States will continue to explode.  Just “tweaking” things slightly is not going to fix our economy.  We need a fundamental change in direction.  Right now we are living in a bubble of debt-fueled false prosperity that allows us to continue to consume far more wealth than we produce, but when that bubble bursts we are going to experience the most painful economic “adjustment” that America has ever gone through.  We need to be able to explain to our fellow Americans what is coming, why it is coming and what needs to be done.  Hopefully the crazy economic numbers that I have included in this article will be shocking enough to wake some people up.

The end of the year is a time when people tend to gather with family and friends more than they do during the rest of the year.  Hopefully many of you will use the list below as a tool to help start some conversations about the coming economic collapse with your loved ones.  Sadly, most Americans still tend to doubt that we are heading into economic oblivion.  So if you have someone among your family and friends that believes that everything is going to be “just fine”, just show them these numbers.  They are a good summary of the problems that the U.S. economy is currently facing.

The following are 50 economic numbers from 2012 that are almost too crazy to believe…

Read moreAmerica’s 75 Economic Numbers From 2012 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

15 Signs That The Economy Is Rapidly Getting Worse As We Head Into 2013

by

– 15 Signs That The Economy Is Rapidly Getting Worse As We Head Into 2013 (Economic Collapse, Dec 10, 2012):

How can the mainstream media claim that the U.S. economy is “improving” when it is painfully obvious to anyone with a brain that the middle class is being absolutely eviscerated?  According to numbers that were just released, the number of Americans on food stamps rose by more than 600,000 in a single month to an all-time record high of 47.7 million.  Youth unemployment in the U.S. is at a post-World War II high and large companies have announced the elimination of more than 100,000 jobs since Barack Obama won the election.  Consumer debt just hit a new record high and the federal government is accumulating debt at a much faster pace than it was at this time last year.  So where is the evidence that the economy is getting better?  The mainstream media says that the decline of the unemployment rate to “7.7 percent” is evidence that things are improving, but I showed how fraudulent that number is yesterday.  The percentage of working age Americans with a job today is exactly where it was back in September 2009 in the midst of the last major economic crisis.  The mainstream media is desperate for any shred of evidence that it can use to make people feel good and show that the Obama administration has our economy on the right track, and so they jump on any number that even looks remotely promising and they ignore mountains of evidence to the contrary.  They don’t seem to care that poverty is absolutely exploding and that the number of Americans on food stamps has risen by nearly 50 percent while Obama has been in the White House.  They don’t seem to care that the U.S. share of global GDP has fallen from 31.8 percent in 2001 to 21.6 percent in 2011.  They don’t seem to care that more good paying jobs are being shipped overseas with each passing day.  They don’t seem to care that formerly great U.S. cities that were once the envy of the entire globe are now crime-infested hellholes.  All they seem to care about is putting out news that makes people feel warm and fuzzy and making sure that Obama looks good.  Unfortunately, the truth is that the U.S. economy is steadily getting worse, and 2013 is not looking very promising at all right now.  Hopefully at some point the mainstream media will take a break from coverage of the royal pregnancy and the latest celebrity scandals to report on the real problems that we are facing right now.The following are 15 signs that the economy is rapidly getting worse as we head into 2013…

Read more15 Signs That The Economy Is Rapidly Getting Worse As We Head Into 2013

Foodstamps Soar By Most In 16 Months: Over 1 Million Americans Enter Poverty In Last Two Months

by

– Foodstamps Soar By Most In 16 Months: Over 1 Million Americans Enter Poverty In Last Two Months (ZeroHedge, Dec 10, 2012):

And we thought last month’s delayed foodstamp data was bad. The just reported foodstamp number for September was a doozy, with 607,544 new Americans becoming eligible for foodstamps, as a record 47.7 million Americans are now living in poverty at least according to the USDA. The monthly increase was the highest since May 2011, and with August’s 421K new impoverished America, over 1 million Americans made the EBT card their new best friend. It is unclear just which atmospheric phenomenon will get the blame for this unprecedented surge in poverty, which comes at a time when the pre-election economic data euphoria was adamant that the US economy was on an escape velocity to utopia. Instead what we do know is that in August and September, over three times as many foodstamp recipients were add to the economy as jobs (324,000). We also know that with the imminent impact of Sandy, which will send foodstamp recipients soaring, it is now looking quite possible that the US may end 2012 with just over a mindboggling 50 million Americans living in absolute poverty and collecting the $134.29 average monthly benefit per person, instead of working. Welcome to the recovery indeed.Individual Americans on foodstamps:

Foodstamps at the household level rose to a record 24 million:

Aggregating foodstamp, disability and nonfarm payrolls data shows that since the start of the Depression in December 2007, 21.8 million Americans have shifted more or less permanently to the entitlement line, even as the US still has to generate 4.4 million jobs just to break even.

And the same shown on a monthly basis:

Source: SNAP

America’s Lost Decade In One Simple Chart

by

– America’s Lost Decade In One Simple Chart (ZeroHedge, Nov 28, 2012):

Forget the stock market’s dismal decade of much-ado-about-nothing and ignore the USD Dollar’s declination; when it comes to reflection on what this once great nation has ‘created’ since 2001, the following chart from Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Welfare sums it up better than most.

See also:

– Why $16 Trillion Only Hints At The True U.S. Debt (Wall Street Journal, Nov 26, 2012):

“The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees’ future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion. Nothing like that figure is used in calculating the deficit. In reality, the reported budget deficit is less than one-fifth of the more accurate figure.”

Read moreAmerica’s Lost Decade In One Simple Chart

More Americans Will Use Food Stamps For Thanksgiving This Year Than Ever Before

by

– More Americans Will Use Food Stamps For Thanksgiving This Year Than Ever Before (U.S. News, Nov 20, 2012):

More Americans will use food stamps to buy their Thanksgiving dinner this year than ever before, according to a new report from the nonprofit government watchdog group The Sunlight Foundation.

The Food Stamp Challenge, which challenges higher-income families to live as if they are on food stamps, estimates that a person on food stamps has a budget of about $1.25 per meal. In other words, a family on food stamps must buy an entire meal per person for less than the cost of an average cup of coffee.

Read moreMore Americans Will Use Food Stamps For Thanksgiving This Year Than Ever Before

The Worst Economic Numbers In More Than A Year

by

– The Worst Economic Numbers In More Than A Year (Economic Collapse, Nov 15, 2012):

With everything else that is going on in the world, a lot of people have failed to notice that we are seeing some of the worst economic numbers that we have seen in more than a year.  For example, it was announced on Thursday that initial claims for unemployment benefits have hit their highest level in a year and a half.  Hopefully this is just a temporary blip in the data, because initial unemployment claims tend to have a very strong correlation with the overall performance of the economy.  We also continue to see poverty statistics rise.  According to government statistics released earlier this month, the number of Americans living in poverty and the number of Americans on food stamps are both at all-time record highs.  Meanwhile, the Dow and the S&P 500 are both down more than 5 percent since the election and the U.S. government rolled up 22 billion dollars more debt in October 2012 than it did in October 2011.  The unfortunate truth is that things are not getting better.  The U.S. economy continues to become weaker and more unstable, and there are a whole lot of reasons to be very pessimistic about our economic situation as we move into the winter months.

Read moreThe Worst Economic Numbers In More Than A Year

COLLAPSE: Foodstamps Surge By Most In One Year To New All Time Record, … In Delayed Release

by

– Foodstamps Surge By Most In One Year To New All Time Record, In Delayed Release (ZeroHedge, Nov 10, 2012):

While there had been speculation that the BLS may delay the release of its October nonfarm payroll number until after the election, it turned out there was no reason to worry. Perhaps this is because the number, while at stall speed, was not quite as horrible as some had expected (even if the change in average hourly earnings did tumble to new all time lows) and so boosted Obama’s reelection chances. There was, however, another closely tracked number which perhaps is far more indicative of the economic “growth” in the past 4 years, which certainly had a delayed release. The number of course is that showing how many Americans are on foodstamps, and usually is released at the end of the month, or the first day or two of the next month. This time the USDA delayed its release nine days past the semi-official deadline, far past the election, and until Friday night to report August foodstamp data. One glance at the number reveals why: at 47.1 million, this was not only a new all time record, but the monthly increase of 420,947 from July was the biggest monthly increase in one year. One can see why a reported surge in foodstamps ahead of the elections is something the USDA, and the administration may not have been too keen on disclosing.

Foodstamps at the household level also rose to a record 22.685 million:

Finally, going back to the start of the official start of the depression in December 2007. In the 57 months from then until August 2012, there have been 4.6 million jobs lost even as Americans on foodstamps and disability have risen by 21.2 million.

And the same shown on a monthly basis:

Read moreCOLLAPSE: Foodstamps Surge By Most In One Year To New All Time Record, … In Delayed Release

US Foodstamp Usage Rises To New Record High

by

– US Foodstamp Usage Rises To New Record High (ZeroHedge, Oct. 5, 2012):

While the 0.4% perfectly unmanipulated and totally coincidental swing in the unemployment rate in an Obama favorable direction one month before the election came at a prime time moment for the market, one hour ahead of the open, setting the market mood for the rest of the day (which despite all best efforts still closed red, valiant efforts by Simon Potter and the FRBNY’s direct pipe to Citadel notwithstanding), there was one other, far more important data point released by the government’s department of agriculture, sufficiently late after the market close to impact no risk assets. That data point of course was foodstamps (or the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka SNAP), and we are confident that no readers will be surprised to learn that foodstamp usage for both persons and households, has jumped to a new all time record.

Read moreUS Foodstamp Usage Rises To New Record High

Gerald Celente: Criminal Banksters Launching World War III (Video)

by


YouTube Added: 17.09.2012

If Nostradamus were alive today, he’d have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente.
– New York Post

When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente.
– CNN Headline News

There’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about.
– CNBC

Those who take their predictions seriously … consider the Trends Research Institute.
– The Wall Street Journal

A network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties.
– The Economist

Are You Better Off? 40 Statistics That Will Absolutely Shock You

by

– Are You Better Off? 40 Statistics That Will Absolutely Shock You (Economic Collapse, Sep 6, 2012):

Are you better off today than you were four years ago?  This is a question that comes up nearly every election.  This year the Romney campaign has even created a Twitter hashtag for it: #AreYouBetterOff.  The Democrats are making lots of speeches claiming that we are better off, and the Republicans are making lots of speeches claiming that we are not.  So are most Americans actually better off than they were four years ago?  Of course not.  One recent poll found that only 20 percent of Americans believe that they are better off financially than they were four years ago.  But the same thing was true four years ago as well.  Our economy has been in decline and the middle class has been shrinking for a very long time.  The Democrats want to put all of the blame on the Republicans for this, and the Republicans want to put all of the blame on the Democrats for this.  A recent CNN headline defiantly declared the following: “Decline of middle class not Obama’s fault“, and this is the kind of thing we are going to hear day after day until the election in November.  But obviously something has gone fundamentally wrong with our economy.  So who should we blame?Sadly, you hear very little on the mainstream news networks or the talk radio shows about the institution that has the most power over our economy.  The Federal Reserve has far more power over our financial system than anyone else does, but the media and both political parties tell us that the Federal Reserve is “above politics” and that their “independence” must never be questioned.

Read moreAre You Better Off? 40 Statistics That Will Absolutely Shock You

Record 46.7 Million Americans On Food Stamps

by

Before:

– 46.5 Million Americans, Record 22.3 Million US Households, On Foodstamps – 8,753,935 On Disability

– Food-Stamp Use Climbs to Record, Reviving Campaign Issue (Bloomberg, Sep 4, 2012):

Food-stamp use reached a record 46.7 million people in June, the government said, as Democrats prepare to nominate President Barack Obama for a second term with the economy as a chief issue in the campaign.

Participation was up 0.4 percent from May and 3.3 percent higher than a year earlier and has remained greater than 46 million all year as the unemployment rate stayed higher than 8 percent. New jobless numbers will be released Sept. 7.

Read moreRecord 46.7 Million Americans On Food Stamps

Brooklyn Deli Clerk’s Face Slashed Open For Refusing To Sell Beer For Food Stamps (Video)

by

– Brooklyn Deli Clerk’s Face Slashed Open For Refusing To Sell Beer For Food Stamps (ZeroHedge, Aug 17, 2012):

The face of Yemeni deli clerk Mutahar Murshed Ali was slashed nearly in two for committing that most grievous of offenses: refusing to “sell” a Colt 45 to a drunk 20 year-old in exchange for foodstamps (whose usage Zero Hedge readers know, recently reverted back to all time highs). Of course, Ali was perfectly in his right to refuse to exchange booze for EBT: we reported recently that “New York would prohibit welfare recipients from spending their tax-funded benefits on cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, and strip clubs under a bill passed overwhelmingly by the state Senate.” That however appears to not have bothered the assailant, who nearly cut off the deli vendor’s face off in retaliation for not getting the “entitled” quid-pro-handout.From NY Daily News:”His face almost fell off,” said witness Abdul Bin Ock, 17. “His cheek ripped. There was so much blood. Every time he looks in the mirror, he has to see the same scar the rest of his life,” Ock added. The suspect fled the blood-spattered bodega on Broadway near Gates Ave. — and is being hunted by cops. Ali, a married father from Yemen, was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he received multiple stitches… The slasher “was drunk, falling and stumbling.” Prior to the confrontation, Ali said, he saw the man receive cash from an underage girl outside the store. Ali believes the man was planning to buy the beer for the girl — and make money on the deal by using his food stamp card.”

In retrospect: cash in exchange for barter in exchange for handout… Not a bad idea for a nationa increasingly reliant on “assured” entitlements for its survival.

As for Ali: did the cut up foreign father and husband file for immediate disability benefits (for which he is ineligible)? “A shaken-up Ali returned to the store hours later.“

More:

“It happened so fast,” Ali told The News. “He took the knife out of his pocket and it happened.”

A dramatic video obtained by The News shows Ali sitting in a chair behind the counter before the assailant slyly pulls out his blade. In a flash, he flops onto the counter and cuts open the helpless clerk’s face.

The suspect was described as a black man between the ages of 25 and 30, with short black hair and brown eyes, wearing black jeans and a white T-shirt — and carrying a black backpack.

And the video of the robbery:

Webster Tarpley On US Austerity: Genocide Of 50 Million People

by

FYI.

Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1946, Dr. Webster Griffin Tarpley is a philosopher of history who seeks to provide the programs and strategies needed to overcome the current world crisis. As an activist historian he first became widely known for his book George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (1992), a masterpiece of research which is still a must read. AB Princeton 1966, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa; Fulbright Scholar at University of Turin, Italy; MA in humanities from Skidmore College; and Ph.D. in early modern history from the Catholic University of America with emphasis on the role of Venice in the origins of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). During 2008, he warned of the dangers of an Obama presidency controlled by Wall Street with Obama: The Postmodern Coup, The Making of a Manchurian Candidate and Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography. His interest in economics is reflected in Surviving the Cataclysm: Your Guide Through the Worst Financial Crisis in Human History Against Oligarchy. His books have appeared in Japanese, German, Italian, French, and Spanish

50 million Americans are in danger of losing their lives due to the government’s austerity measures.
– US austerity: Genocide of 50 million people (PressTV, Aug 11, 2012):
No matter whether the next US president is named Obama or Romney, the Wall Street financier elite that dominates the United States is psychotically planning a series of tax increases for the middle class and working people, cuts in benefits and social services, and a transfer of wealth in favor of the top 1%, all of which will add up to a further cut of about 25% in the depleted US standard of living.

The mythical “fiscal cliff”

This outcome is being prepared right now by a demagogic propaganda campaign around the slogan that the United States faces a “fiscal cliff” at the end of the current calendar year. This alleged fiscal cliff is the result of two factors. First, the tax cuts enacted by George Bush the younger in the months before 9/11 are due to expire. If the Bush tax cuts are ended, the average family would pay a few hundred dollars more. But the tax rate for the richest earners would go from 35% to 39.6%, which, at high levels of income, can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in taxes.

Read moreWebster Tarpley On US Austerity: Genocide Of 50 Million People