It’s official. Mark your calendars. The crash of the U.S. economy has begun. It was announced the morning of Wednesday, June 13, 2007, by economic writers Steven Pearlstein and Robert Samuelson in the pages of the Washington Post, one of the foremost house organs of the U.S. monetary elite. Pearlstein’s column was titled, “The Takeover Boom, About to Go Bust” and concerned the extraordinary amount of debt vs. operating profits of companies currently subject to leveraged buyouts. In language remarkably alarmist for the usually ultra-bland pages of the Post, Pearlstein wrote, “It is impossible to predict when the magic moment will be reached and everyone finally realizes that the prices being paid for these companies, and the debt taken on to support the acquisitions, are unsustainable. When that happens, it won't be pretty. Across the board, stock prices and company valuations will fall. Banks will announce painful write-offs, some hedge funds will close their doors, and private-equity funds will report disappointing returns. Some companies will be forced into bankruptcy or restructuring.” Further, “Falling stock prices will cause companies to reduce their hiring and capital spending while governments will be forced to raise taxes or reduce services, as revenue from capital gains taxes declines. And the combination of reduced wealth and higher interest rates will finally cause consumers to pull back on their debt-financed consumption. It happened after the junk-bond and savings-and-loan collapses of the late 1980s. It happened after the tech and telecom bust of the late '90s. And it will happen this time.” Samuelson’s column, “The End of Cheap Credit,” left the door slightly ajar in case the collapse is not quite so severe. He wrote of rising interest rates, “As the price of money increases, borrowing and the economy might weaken. The deep slump in housing could worsen. We could also discover that the long period of cheap credit has left a nasty residue.” Other writers with less prestigious platforms than the Post have been talking about an approaching financial bust for a couple of years. Among them has been economist Michael Hudson, author of an article on the housing bubble titled, “The New Road to Serfdom” in the May 2006 issue of Harper’s. Hudson has been speaking in interviews of a “break in the chain” of debt payments leading to a “long, slow economic crash,” with “asset deflation,” “mass defaults on mortgages,” and a “huge asset grab” by the rich who are able to protect their cash through money laundering and hedging with foreign currency bonds. Among those poised to profit from the crash is the Carlyle Group, the equity fund that includes the Bush family and other high-profile investors with insider government connections. A January 2007 memorandum to company managers from founding partner William E. Conway, Jr., recently appeared which stated that, when the current “liquidity environment”—i.e., cheap credit—ends, “the buying opportunity will be a once in a lifetime chance.” The fact that the crash is now being announced by the Post shows that it is a done deal. The Bilderbergers, or whomever it is that the Post reports to, have decided. It lets everyone know loud and clear that it’s time to batten down the hatches, run for cover, lay in two years of canned food, shield your assets, whatever. Those left holding the bag will be the ordinary people whose assets are loaded with debt, such as tens of millions of mortgagees, millions of young people with student loans that can never be written off due to the “reformed” 2005 bankruptcy law, or vast numbers of workers with 401(k)s or other pension plans that are locked into the stock market. In other words, it sounds eerily like 2000-2002 except maybe on a much larger scale. Then it was “only” the tenth worse bear market in history, but over a trillion dollars in wealth simply vanished. What makes today’s instance seem particularly unfair is that the preceding recovery that is now ending—the “jobless” one—was so anemic.  Neither Perlstein nor Samuelson gets to the bottom of the crisis, though they, like Conway of the Carlyle Group, point to the end of cheap credit. But interest rates are set by people who run central banks and financial institutions. They may be influenced by “the market,” but the market is controlled by people with money who want to maximize their profits. Key to what is going on is that the Federal Reserve is refusing to follow the pattern set during the long reign of Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan in responding to shaky economic trends with lengthy infusions of credit as he did during the dot.com bubble of the 1990s and the housing bubble of 2001-2005. This time around, Greenspan’s successor, Ben Bernanke, is sitting tight. With the economy teetering on the brink, the Fed is allowing rates to remain steady. The Fed claims their policy is due to the danger of rising “core inflation.” But this cannot be true. The biggest consumer item, houses and real estate, is tanking. Officially, unemployment is low, but mainly due to low-paying service jobs. Commodities have edged up, including food and gasoline, but that’s no reason to allow the entire national economy to be submerged. So what is really happening? Actually, it’s simple. The difference today is that China and other large investors from abroad, including Middle Eastern oil magnates, are telling the U.S. that if interest rates come down, thereby devaluing their already-sliding dollar portfolios further, they will no longer support with their investments the bloated U.S. trade and fiscal deficits.  Of course we got ourselves into this quandary by shipping our manufacturing to China and other cheap-labor markets over the last generation. “Dollar hegemony” is backfiring. In fact China is using its American dollars to replace the International Monetary Fund as a lender to developing nations in Africa and elsewhere. As an additional insult, China now may be dictating a new generation of economic decline for the American people who are forced to buy their products at Wal-Mart by maxing out what is left of our available credit card debt. About a year ago, a former Reagan Treasury official, now a well-known cable TV commentator, said that China had become “America’s bank” and commented approvingly that “it’s cheaper to print money than make cars anymore.” Ha ha. It is truly staggering that none of the “mainstream” political candidates from either party has attacked this subject on the campaign trail. All are heavily funded by the financier elite who will profit no matter how bad the U.S. economy suffers. Every candidate except Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich treats the Federal Reserve like the fifth graven image on Mount Rushmore. And even the so-called progressives are silent. The weekend before the Perlstein/ Samuelson articles came out, there was a huge progressive conference in Washington, D.C., called “Taming the Corporate Giant.” Not a single session was devoted to financial issues. What is likely to happen? I’d suggest four possible scenarios: Acceptance by the U.S. population of diminished prosperity and a declining role in the world. Grin and bear it. Live with your parents into your 40s instead of your 30s. Work two or three part-time jobs on the side, if you can find them. Die young if you lose your health care. Declare bankruptcy if you can, or just walk away from your debts until they bring back debtor’s prison like they’ve done in Dubai. Meanwhile, China buys more and more U.S. properties, homes, and businesses, as economists close to the Federal Reserve have suggested. If you’re an enterprising illegal immigrant, have fun continuing to jack up the underground economy, avoid business licenses and taxes, and rent out group houses to your friends. Times of economic crisis produce international tension and politicians tend to go to war rather than face the economic music. The classic example is the worldwide depression of the 1930s leading to World War II. Conditions in the coming years could be as bad as they were then. We could have a really big war if the U.S. decides once and for all to haul off and let China, or whomever, have it in the chops. If they don’t want our dollars or our debt any more, how about a few nukes? Maybe we’ll finally have a revolution either from the right or the center involving martial law, suspension of the Bill of Rights, etc., combined with some kind of military or forced-labor dictatorship. We’re halfway there anyway. Forget about a revolution from the left. They wouldn’t want to make anyone mad at them for being too radical. Could there ever be a real try at reform, maybe even an attempt just to get back to the New Deal? Since the causes of the crisis are monetary, so would be the solutions. The first step would be for the Federal Reserve System to be abolished as a bank of issue and a transformation of the nation’s credit system into a genuine public utility by the federal government. This way we could rebuild our manufacturing and public infrastructure and develop an income assurance policy that would benefit everyone. The latter is the only sensible solution. There are monetary reformers who know how to do it if anyone gave them half a chance. Richard C. Cook is the author of “Challenger Revealed: An Insider’s Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age.” A retired federal analyst, his career included work with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Carter White House, and NASA, followed by twenty-one years with the U.S. Treasury Department. He is now a Washington, D.C.-based writer and consultant. His book “We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform,” will be published later this year. His website is at www.richardccook.com.

569 (NaturalNews) The mainstream media is abuzz with new reports that claim taking an aspirin a day will supposedly help keep cancer away (http://www.naturalnews.com). But just a few years ago, mainstream science was declaring the exact opposite, as a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute back in 2004 found that daily aspirin intake is linked to a significantly increased risk of developing cancer. Dr. Eva S. Schernhammer, M.D., Dr.P.H., from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and her colleagues conducted an extensive investigation into the long-term effects of taking aspirin. They found that prolonged use can trigger cancer development in humans, and that there is no evidence that taking aspirin in any way helps prevent cancer. Based on data gathered as part of the comprehensive Nurses' Health Study, which began in 1980, the team found that, compared to women who consumed fewer than two aspirin tablets per week, regular users taking two or more aspirin tablets a week were a whopping 58 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer -- and those taking more than 14 aspirin a week were found to be 86 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer. "Our findings do not support a protective effect of analgesic use (of aspirin) on the risk of pancreatic cancer," wrote Dr. Schernhammer at that time, which was also a rebuttal to other studies that had claimed taking aspirin helps prevent cancer. "Rather, aspirin appears to increase the risk of pancreatic cancer after extended periods of use." So which is it? Does aspirin cause cancer or prevent it? Based on the aforementioned evidence, aspirin appears to be a promoter of cancer rather than a preventer of it. And yet the mainstream medical-industrial complex is currently going hog-wild claiming that individuals can avoid getting cancer if they simply pop a few aspirin every day -- do not be fooled by this terrible advice. Regular use of aspirin linked to heart attack, stroke, intestinal bleeding, organ damage, and death Acetylsalicylic acid, the more technical name for aspirin, is actually a synthetic derivative of natural willow bark, which has pain-relieving and blood-thinning properties. But since this non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) was first developed, it has been observed to cause severe health problems and even death, especially when taken regularly. In 2010, a group of researchers, medical experts, and public health officials came forward denouncing recommendations that people take an aspirin a day to protect their hearts. It turns out that aspirin actually destroys the protective lining in the intestines, which can lead to severe bleeding, colitis, or even intestinal perforations, which can cause systemic infections and other very serious health problems and death (http://online.wsj.com). "It is important to remember that all NSAIDs, including over the counter aspirin, have the potential to damage the tissue of the gastrointestinal tract," wrote Dr. Neena S. Abraham, a gastroenterologist at the Michael E. DeBakey V.A. Medical Center, in a 2010 New York Times piece. "Damage can occur anywhere, from mouth to anus ... Aspirin is not a nutritional supplement -- it is a medication with real risks and side-effects" (http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com). Aspirin can also exacerbate heart conditions rather than mitigate them, as is popularly believed, because the drug is actually an "anti-nutrient" that depletes your body of vital minerals and nutrients. And as far as your bodily organs are concerned, this effect can be disastrous in the long term. Sources for this article include: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/466695 (If this link does not work, do a Google search for "Prolonged Regular Aspirin Use May Increase Pancreatic Cancer Risk") Stay informed! FREE subscription to the Health Ranger's email newsletter Get breaking health news + a LIFETIME 7% discount on everything at the NaturalNews Store Join two million monthly readers. Email privacy 100% protected. Unsubscribe at any time. Articles Related to This Article: • Low-Dose Aspirin Not Answer for Heart Health • Aspirin Sold as a Wonder Drug for All That Ails, But Falls Far Short • Beware dangerous new advice to use daily aspirin to prevent cancer • Breast Cancer Study Heaps Glory on Aspirin whilst Natural Cures Go Overlooked • Why daily low dose aspirin for heart attack protection should be discouraged • Aspirin is Dangerous and Should Not Be Used Related video from NaturalNews.TV Your NaturalNews.TV video could be here. Upload your own videos at NaturalNews.TV (FREE) Have comments on this article? Post them here: 8 people have commented on this article. Related Articles: • Low-Dose Aspirin Not Answer for Heart Health • Aspirin Sold as a Wonder Drug for All That Ails, But Falls Far Short • Beware dangerous new advice to use daily aspirin to prevent cancer • Breast Cancer Study Heaps Glory on Aspirin whilst Natural Cures Go Overlooked • Why daily low dose aspirin for heart attack protection should be discouraged • Aspirin is Dangerous and Should Not Be Used Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com Email this article to a friend Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us Permalink to this article: Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035417_aspirin_cancer_prevention.html#ixzz1qo4TEGuJ

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / GETTY IMAGES Cousin love? The online ancestry site, Ancestry.com, has found that Mitt Romney and George W. Bush are related Believe it or not, Mitt Romney and George W. Bush are cousins — 10th cousins, twice removed, that is. Historians at Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family-history resource, have discovered that Romney is actually related to six past presidents — more than any other 2012 GOP contestant. Franklin D. Roosevelt is his eighth cousin, twice removed, and both Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover are his 10th cousins. Then there is his sixth cousin (four times removed) Franklin Pierce, and both 10th cousins Bush I and II. Three out of these six were even (gasp!) Democrats. (MORE: Top 10 Campaign-Debate Moments of 2011) It turns out that presidential candidates often have Commander in Chief relatives, and this election cycle is no different, finds Ancestry.com after six months of research. Jon Huntsman is also related to FDR, Coolidge and the Bushes. And yes, his bloodline mirrors Romney’s because they too are cousins: Romney’s great-great-grandfather Parley Pratt, an early Mormon missionary, is Huntsman’s great-great-great-grandfather. The Romney-Huntsman–George W. Bush connection comes through Anne Marbury Hutchinson, who was a religious-freedom advocate in early 1600s. Rather fitting, since all three of them are still quite open about their faiths, be they Mormon or Evangelical. Rick Perry has just one presidential relative: Harry Truman is his fifth cousin four times removed. But Perry shares Lone State pride and blood with Sam Houston, the famed President of the Republic of Texas from the 1830s. While Houston resigned as the governor rather than swear allegiance to the Confederacy, notes the report, Perry has many relatives who fought for the South during the Civil War. True, in the end, America is the land of individuals — not of family trees. It’s who you are now, who you’ve made yourself to be that matters. But, in a roller-coaster primary season, a little “Oh yes, as my cousin FDR once said …” probably doesn’t hurt either. MORE: Top 10 Political Gaffes of 2011 Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/12/20/family-ties-ancestry-com-finds-that-romney-and-george-w-are-cousins/#ixzz1qo47huTo

Chinese Official Brushes Aside Calls to Buy European Debt By REUTERS Published: February 13, 2012 RECOMMEND TWITTER LINKEDIN SIGN IN TO E-MAIL PRINT REPRINTS SHARE BEIJING — The head of China’s $410 billion sovereign wealth fund has brushed aside a call by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to buy European government debt, saying Monday that such investments were “difficult” for long-term investors. In comments ahead of a China-European Union summit meeting starting Tuesday, Lou Jiwei, chairman of the China Investment Corp., said any fresh injection of funds into Europe would be in industrial and other “hard” assets, not government bonds. His comments struck a sharper tone than a commentary in The People’s Daily, a Communist Party newspaper, which sought to reassure the Union that China did not intend to “buy up Europe.” Speaking at a forum in Beijing, Mr. Lou said Mrs. Merkel had asked the sovereign fund and other long-term investors to buy European government debt when she visited Beijing this month. “For European bonds like the government bonds of Italy and Spain, only central banks with certain responsibilities can invest,” he said. But it was more “difficult for long-term investors like us” to make such investments, he said at the annual meeting of China Economists 50 Forum, a club of government officials and economists. “Investment opportunities may lie in areas like infrastructure and industrial projects,” he said, “and these projects can help economic recovery.” Xia Bin, an adviser to the Chinese central bank, echoed Mr. Lou’s harder line on buying European government debt. “We may be poor, but we aren’t stupid,” Mr. Xia said on the sideline of the forum. “We must follow commercial principles in making such investments. That means we want returns.” Mr. Lou, who predicted that Europe would “inevitably” fall into recession, said Mrs. Merkel had asked the sovereign fund to look at French and German government debt. In keeping with Mr. Lou’s comments on infrastructure, the sovereign fund recently bought a minority stake in Thames Water, a private British utility. The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, had said during Mrs. Merkel’s visit that Beijing was considering increasing its participation in rescue funds set up by the Union to address the debt crisis, though he did not make any explicit commitments. Possibly setting up China’s position on the issue ahead of its summit meeting with senior E.U. officials on Tuesday, The People’s Daily said in a front-page commentary that helping Europe was in China’s interests. “China has no appetite or ability to ‘buy up Europe’ or ‘control Europe’ as some European commentators have said,” wrote Feng Zhongping, director of the Institute of European Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. “China has from the beginning strongly supported the E.U. and the euro, in clear contrast to the ‘talking down’ of Europe in the international community,” Mr. Feng wrote in the piece, carried in the paper’s overseas edition. With more than $3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves — dwarfing those of other countries — China is seen as having the financial firepower to help ease Europe’s debt crisis. Chinese leaders have repeatedly expressed confidence that Europe will find solutions to the crisis, while refraining from making firm financial commitments of support. Instead, Beijing has urged Europe to take further steps on its own, a position reiterated Monday by the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Liu Weimin. “We have always supported the proactive measures the E.U. has taken to deal with the euro debt crisis,” Mr. Liu said. “We believe that aside from taking some emergency relief steps, the E.U. should continue taking fiscal and financial structural and fundamental reforms to give a clearer signal to the international community.” “Heavily indebted countries should, according to their national condition, adopt appropriate fiscal policies,” he continued. “The international community should continue to proactively support the E.U.’s efforts to deal with the crisis.” The E.U.-China summit meeting, rescheduled from December, will bring together Mr. Wen and the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, with the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, and the European Council president, Herman Van Rompuy.

Obama Finds Oil in Markets Is Sufficient to Sideline Iran By ANNIE LOWREY President Obama’s determination cleared the way for severe new sanctions intended to slash Iran’s oil revenue and press Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Obama Finds Oil in Markets Is Sufficient to Sideline Iran By ANNIE LOWREY President Obama’s determination cleared the way for severe new sanctions intended to slash Iran’s oil revenue and press Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Vida e espirito

3 Pois o inimigo me perseguiu; abateu-me até o chão; fez-me habitar em lugares escuros, como aqueles que morreram há muito.
4 Pelo que dentro de mim esmorece o meu espírito, e em mim está desolado o meu coração.
5 Lembro-me dos dias antigos; considero todos os teus feitos; medito na obra das tuas mãos.