by: Mac Slavo

In the autumn of 2008, as Presidential hopefuls sparred over whether we had entered a recession or not and well before the onset of the most serious global crisis since the 1930′s, trend forecaster Gerald Celente advised his Trends Journal subscribers to prepare for the worst and plan for the best. “It will be,” warned Celente, “like nothing we’ve ever seen in our lifetime.”

The aware and prepared … those understanding just how out of control society would become, and those who had acquired the skills for survival would stand the best chance of navigating the chaos safely.

But Americans were not prepared. Not by a long shot.

Very few had the foresight to predict that the economic system and social fabric of our nation would be threatened with upheaval and disarray. But some, whether through independent education or through intuition, deduced that there was a real possibility of a system shock so significant that life as we know it could be on the verge of a major paradigm shift – perhaps even a complete collapse of our economy and resource infrastructure.

As natural disasters around the world took the lives of hundreds of thousands, space agencies warned of solar disruptions that threaten our power grid, the economies of the world slid further into depression, and tensions between the world’s financial and resource super powers grew, more and more people began to realize that the stability we have come to depend on to live our daily lives was nothing but illusion.

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by: TYT NETWORK

by: Micheal Snyder

The people out there that believe that the U.S. economy is experiencing a permanent recovery and that very bright days are ahead for us should have their heads examined. Unfortunately, what we are going through right now is simply just a period of "hopetimism" between two financial crashes. Things may seem relatively stable right now, but it won't last long. The truth is that the financial crisis of 2008 was just a warm up act for the economic horror show that is coming. Nothing really got fixed after the crash of 2008. We are living in the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world, and it has gotten even bigger since then. The "too big to fail" banks are larger now than they have ever been. Americans continue to run up credit card balances like there is no tomorrow. Tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities and millions of jobs continue to leave the country. We continue to consume far more than we produce and we continue to become poorer as a nation. None of the problems that caused the crisis of 2008 have been solved and we are even weaker financially than we were back then. So why in the world are so many people so optimistic about the economy right now?.

 
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by: Seth Fiegerman

The era of a 9-to-5 work week appears to be coming to an end.

Higher-level workers are increasingly being asked to put in 50 hours or more a week, effectively working an 8-to-6 work week at the very least, while lower income workers are often forced to work fewer hours but at jobs with irregular schedules, according to a comprehensive report from the Center for American Progress, which reviewed dozens of studies from the previous 30 years to understand the changing work/life struggles of the country’s labor force..

Driving these changes, as the center explains it, are companies turning lower-level full-time jobs into part-time employment to cut costs, savings that come at the expense of workers – and their families – losing the traditional schedules and financial benefits that come with full-time employment.

Some 38% of men in professional and management positions worked at least 50 hours a week between 2006 and 2008 up from 34% who worked those hours 30 years prior, based on government studies cited in the report. Women in higher-level positions experienced an even steeper change, with 14% working 50 hours or more in 2006 and 2008 compared to just 6% who did between 1977 and 1979.

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by: Zaid Jilani

Yesterday, the Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office and the Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration released a new report estimating the savings the state could experience if it successfully enacts the single payer system it began designing earlier this year.

Using both a low and high estimate, the report concludes that the state would save between $553 million to $1.8 billion by the year 2020 by shifting to a single payer health care system and enacting other reforms along with it. The following chart from the report shows that these savings come from reductions in payer and provider administration, investments, clinical reforms, and fraud reduction.

In May, Gov. Peter Shumlin (D-VT) signed a groundbreaking law that seeks to implement a single payer system. But to enact the system, the state needs a waiver from the Affordable Care Act health reform law. Currently, the federal government will start handing out state waivers in 2017 — three years after Vermont wants to implement its system. Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) has introduced an amendment that would move the waiver date up to 2014. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Scott Brown (R-MA) have introduced a companion bill in the Senate. President Obama has endorsed the idea of moving the waiver date forward.

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by: PBS

Water Contamination from Shale Gas Drilling

Hydraulic fracturing, the growing practice of drilling for the natural gas embedded in shale rock formations deep below the Earth’s surface, may be contaminating water in many places. Critics of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, suspect that the chemicals used in shale gas drilling can leak into groundwater supplies. Landowners in shale gas drilling areas have reported foul smells in tap water, and toxic chemicals, such as benzene, have been detected in water from wells near drilling sites. In some cases, tap water can even be set aflame because it is contaminated with volatile chemicals because of shale gas drilling.

Many of the chemicals used in fracking, such as benzene, are hazardous. Long-term exposure to such chemicals can have serious health consequences. However, the industry has been reluctant to disclose the chemicals used in shale gas drilling, for fear of revealing proprietary information to their competitors. But people living near shale gas fracking operations have a right to this information, especially if any of these chemicals could poison surrounding water supplies.

Our firm is aggressively investigating the problem of water contamination from fracking in shale gas drilling. If you live in a community where such shale gas drilling is occurring and suspect that water supplies have been tainted, we want to hear from you. Please contact us today to schedule a free consultation.

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by: Dan Freed

You don't need to be a poet to find a metaphor in the foreclosure of Bank of America

Bank of America has come to represent the U.S. property bust more than any other institution, so it is only fitting that a 55-story tower that bears its name--the tallest in the Southeast, according to a Bloomberg News report, should end up in foreclosure. The 1.25 million square foot building is to be sold in an open outcry auction on Tuesday.

What may also be seen as fitting is that Bank of America is not be the biggest loser in this story. That misfortune may go to the city of Atlanta, which was booming just a few years ago and is now one of the cities hardest hit by the crisis.

Atlanta recently saw home prices hit a 13-year low, and received the second-lowest ranking among 20 cities tracked in the Case-Shiller home price index--second only to Detroit.

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