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 Free Money
by Tucker Scofield
An acquaintance of mine had an opportunity this week to make as much as $25,000.00…she turned it down.
She is a property owner on the Gulf and she received a phone call from a friend regarding BP. They are settling damage claims with anyone who may have been affected by last summer’s oil spill and the caller, who knew others affected by the spill, was passing along the fact that the money was available and ripe for the picking.
There it was…free money. Was BP really going to audit every claim before paying it out of their $20 billion slush fund? Not in a million years. All she would’ve had to do was exaggerate the facts, maybe tell a little white lie or two and POOF, the Oil Fairy would grant a wish that could make the struggles of the past two years disappear. One small bit of paperwork and it would be dead presidents raining down from Heaven! Get that money, dollar-dollar bill, y’all! But she wouldn’t do it. For her, this was a matter of principle.
I asked why she turned it down. “It’s not right,” she said. She didn’t feel as though she’d been negatively affected by the spill at all, despite having received numerous phone calls from concerned renters regarding conditions on the beach. Her rental income was pretty much unchanged from the previous year and she felt as though filing a claim (Read More....) [...]
How the US Government Manipulates Inflation Data
An eye-opening guest post by Phil of Phil's Stock World
 The PCE bothered me yesterday.
The Government told us that the PCE core price index for December was 0% - no inflation at all. I found that to be incredible - as in not credible at all and then Tusked asked me how long the Bernank could keep justifying his rampant money printing with fake government data, to which I responded: "I had many derogatory things to say about that but I was literally so sickened by that BS that I couldn’t bring myself to comment on it so I just left it alone but it’s a very sad joke that our government can tell us that there was no inflation in December while the whole planet is falling apart, isn’t it?"
Fortunately, there was a helpful article in the WSJ by Brett Arends that pointed out that the way the government justifies their low inflation figures is through "substitution and harmonics," a topic expert (Read More....) [...]
Reuters’ Emily Flitter asks in a recent column What is Plan B if China dumps its U.S. debt?
It is worth asking about U.S. officials’ Plan B just in case one day relations take a surprise turn for the worse and Beijing dumps its holdings of U.S. treasuries.
China is officially the United States’ biggest foreign creditor, with roughly $900 billion in Treasury holdings — or over $1 trillion with Hong Kong’s holdings included.
That means it could do severe damage to U.S. debt markets if it suddenly started selling large amounts.
This is not a “just in case” scenario. China has already been taking steps to curb their US Treasury purchases, lowering their U.S. debt holdings from $929 billion to $896 billion between November of 2009 and 2010 (Hong Kong’s year over year holdings are down as well). Chinese President Hu Jintao made it clear where the Chinese stand with regards to the US dollar of the future calling the current dollar-led global monetary system a “product of the past.” While this may not necessarily mean the Chinese will one day, all of a sudden, halt all purchases of US debt, it is certainly reason for concern to those hoping to maintain a strong and stable U.S. currency. Our major foreign creditor is reducing their exposure - (Read More....) [...]
This is a guest post from Hunter Richards of Software Advice, which provides reviews of project accounting systems and other software.
Got a teen playing Wii instead of doing homework? You might want to share this post.
Despite the tremendous benefits of information technology (IT), it comes at a human cost - the displacement of less-skilled employees. As software and systems automate an increasingly large portion of business processes, the displacement is affecting a wider set of workers. So despite an improving economy, 9.5% unemployment might last longer than many think.
Here we walk through a fairly simple story of man versus machine. It’s not a new story, but we went to the effort of pulling together and visualizing the relevant data.
Our conclusion? Drop the Wii-mote and hit the books.
IT spending has risen dramatically over the last 40 years...
IT spending has steadily risen since 1970. Trendlines and new opportunities like cloud computing suggest that the current dip in spending is only temporary.
...making us more productive...
![]() (Read More....) [...]
 If you want to get on an airplane in America today, you either have to allow TSA security officials to gawk at your exposed body using the new full body scanners that literally show "everything", or you must submit to the new "enhanced pat-downs". These pat-downs are so intrusive that many of those who have experienced them are using the term "sexual assault". The truth is that TSA officials have been instructed to start using the fronts of their hands to feel the outlines of male and female genitalia during these pat-downs. Not only that, but instead of going over the clothing, in many instances it is being reported that TSA officials are actually reaching down the pants and up the skirts of air travelers. Some TSA officials are doing this hundreds of times a day, and they do not put on clean gloves each time they perform an examination.
This is what America has sunk to. Today, in the "land of the free and the home of the brave", Americans are groped like farm animals by tyrannical thugs who get to do pretty much whatever they want with us. Things have gotten so bizarre that now even a columnist for Forbes magazine is calling for the TSA to be abolished.
The following are 7 TSA horror stories that are almost too shocking to believe. But all of them are actually (Read More....) [...]
 It turns out that a lot of pro-Obama organizations ended up receiving a lot of "economic stimulus" money. For example, it is being reported that the Obama administration gave General Electric $24.9 million in grants under the stimulus law. Keep in mind that General Electric was the corporate owner of NBC, MSNBC and CNBC during the 2008 election. These various news outlets were absolutely shameless when it came to promoting Barack Obama during the 2008 election. In fact, MSNBC was more radically pro-Obama than even CNN was (and that is saying a lot). Apparently Barack Obama was quite grateful for all the help. 25 million dollars is one heck of a tremendous thank you gift. General Electric was the primary recipient of 14 separate economic stimulus grants. In addition, the recipients of four other economic stimulus grants hired GE as a contractor. So is this the way that the game of politics is played in 2010? Sadly, the truth is that this is how the game of politics has been played for decades in this country.
It isn't as if GE isn't doing well. According to Standard & (Read More....) [...]
 Is Donald Trump going to run for president in 2012? Don't laugh. It just might happen. Up until now the truth is that very few people would have conceived that Donald Trump could possibly be a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2012, but now Trump says that he is "absolutely thinking about it".
Yes, you read that correctly.
Regarding a potential run for president, on Tuesday Trump told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" the following....
"I can tell you this - for the first time in my life, I am absolutely thinking about it."
In other words, fire up the engines because Trump is ready to rumble.
Of course he is not fully committing himself yet, as he added the following caveat during the same interview....
"I don't know that I'll do it. It's probable that I won't do it. But I can tell you, I'm thinking about it."
Now Trump will probably run a bunch of polls in states with early primaries to see if his candidacy would be viable.
In fact, all of this recent speculation has been brought on by a New Hampshire poll in which voters were asked 30 questions regarding their thoughts on Donald Trump as a presidential candidate in 2012.
Trump (Read More....) [...]
 The U.S. economy is dead on its feet and the majority of the American people don't even know it. Sure, most Americans understand that things are not going well right now, but the vast majority are still convinced that we will "fully recover" at some point. After all, we have always fully recovered and gone on to bigger and better things in the past, haven't we? Well, unfortunately this time it is different. The very foundations of our economic system are rotting. Yes, unemployment numbers will go up and down and housing numbers will go up and down and inflation will go up and down, but those are not the numbers you should be paying attention to. Instead, if you want the real truth about the U.S. economy, focus on the long-term trends that are at the root of our problems. Every single month, the United States loses jobs and economic assets. Every single month, more wealth flows out of the United States than flows into it. Every single month, the United States goes into a lot more debt. Most other economic statistics are simply symptoms of those three big problems. The truth is that the U.S. economy is bleeding, and the truth is that very few politicians in either party are doing a thing to stop it.
We were told that "globalism" and "free trade" would be so wonderful for America. What we (Read More....) [...]
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Free Money
