Numbers

Median Home Values: Unadjusted


                     2000      1990      1980      1970     1960     1950    1940

United States     $119,600   $79,100   $47,200   $17,000  $11,900   $7,354  $2,938

Alabama            $85,100   $53,700   $33,900   $12,200   $8,600   $4,473  $1,610
Alaska            $144,200   $94,400   $76,300   $22,700   $9,100   $3,477     NA
Arizona           $121,300   $80,100   $54,800   $16,300  $11,100   $5,935  $1,400
Arkansas           $72,800   $46,300   $31,100   $10,500   $6,700   $4,087  $1,100
California        $211,500  $195,500   $84,500   $23,100  $15,100   $9,564  $3,527
Colorado          $166,600   $82,700   $64,100   $17,300  $12,300   $7,151  $2,091
Connecticut       $166,900  $177,800   $65,600   $25,500  $16,700  $11,862  $4,615
Delaware          $130,400  $100,100   $44,400   $17,100  $12,400   $9,079  $4,159
Dist. of Columbia $157,200  $123,900   $68,800   $21,300  $15,400  $14,498  $7,568
Florida           $105,500   $77,100   $45,100   $15,000  $11,800   $6,612  $2,218
Georgia           $111,200   $71,300   $36,900   $14,600   $9,500   $5,235  $1,957
Hawaii            $272,700  $245,300  $118,100   $35,100  $20,900  $12,283     NA
Idaho             $106,300   $58,200   $45,600   $14,100  $10,600   $5,852  $1,600
Illinois          $130,800   $80,900   $52,800   $19,800  $14,700   $8,646  $3,277
Indiana            $94,300   $53,900   $37,200   $13,800  $10,200   $6,226  $2,406
Iowa               $82,500   $45,900   $40,600   $13,900   $9,900   $6,320  $2,253
Kansas             $83,500   $52,200   $37,800   $12,100   $9,300   $5,462  $1,733
Kentucky           $86,700   $50,500   $34,200   $12,600   $8,800   $5,283  $2,074
Louisiana          $85,000   $58,500   $43,000   $14,600  $10,700   $5,141  $1,414
Maine              $98,700   $87,400   $37,900   $12,800   $8,800   $4,856  $2,008
Maryland          $146,000  $116,500   $58,300   $18,700  $11,900   $8,033  $3,031
Massachusetts     $185,700  $162,800   $48,400   $20,600  $13,800   $9,144  $3,837
Michigan          $115,600   $60,600   $39,000   $17,500  $12,000   $7,496  $2,863
Minnesota         $122,400   $74,000   $53,100   $18,000  $12,800   $7,806  $3,024
Mississippi        $71,400   $45,600   $31,400   $11,200   $7,900   $4,159  $1,189
Missouri           $89,900   $59,800   $36,700   $14,400  $10,900   $6,399  $2,392
Montana            $99,500   $56,600   $46,500   $14,000  $10,900   $5,797  $1,651
Nebraska           $88,000   $50,400   $38,000   $12,400   $9,400   $5,918  $2,156
Nevada            $142,000   $95,700   $68,700   $22,400  $15,200   $8,859  $1,987
New Hampshire     $133,300  $129,400   $48,000   $16,400  $10,700   $6,199  $2,505
New Jersey        $170,800  $162,300   $60,200   $23,400  $15,600  $10,408  $4,528
New Mexico        $108,100   $70,100   $45,300   $13,000  $10,700   $5,697    $656
New York          $148,700  $131,600   $45,600   $22,500  $15,300  $10,152  $4,389
North Carolina    $108,300   $65,800   $36,000   $12,800   $8,000   $4,901  $1,802
North Dakota       $74,400   $50,800   $43,900   $13,000   $9,800   $5,396  $1,626
Ohio              $103,700   $63,500   $44,900   $17,600  $13,400   $8,304  $3,415
Oklahoma           $70,700   $48,100   $35,600   $11,100   $7,900   $5,228  $1,293
Oregon            $152,100   $67,100   $56,900   $15,400  $10,500   $6,846  $2,343
Pennsylvania       $97,000   $69,700   $39,100   $13,600  $10,200   $6,992  $3,205
Rhode Island      $133,000  $133,500   $46,800   $18,200  $12,300   $9,767  $3,848
South Carolina     $94,900   $61,100   $35,100   $13,000   $7,500   $5,112  $2,145
South Dakota       $79,600   $45,200   $36,600   $11,400   $8,800   $5,410  $1,618
Tennessee          $93,000   $58,400   $35,600   $12,500   $8,300   $5,268  $1,826
Texas              $82,500   $59,600   $39,100   $12,000   $8,800   $5,805  $1,693
Utah              $146,100   $68,900   $57,300   $16,800  $12,600   $7,409  $2,320
Vermont           $111,500   $95,500   $42,200   $16,400   $9,700   $6,277  $2,836
Virginia          $125,400   $91,000   $48,000   $17,100  $10,800   $6,581  $2,633
Washington        $168,300   $93,400   $59,900   $18,500  $11,700   $7,169  $2,359
West Virginia      $72,800   $47,900   $38,500   $11,300   $7,600   $5,473  $2,350
Wisconsin         $112,200   $62,500   $48,600   $17,300  $12,600   $7,927  $3,232
Wyoming            $96,600   $61,600   $59,800   $15,300  $12,300   $6,811  $2,174

NA:  Not Available
Source:  U.S. Census Bureau 

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/values.html 

Median Home Value 2010  $221,800

Approx Price of Gold

2010    2000    1990    1980    1970    1960    1950    1940

1250     290     380     650      35      35      35      35 

Median Home Value Priced In Ounces of Gold 

2010   2000    1990    1980    1970    1960    1950    1940

177    412     208      72     485     340     210      83 

b  

 

Approx Price of Silver

2010    2000    1990    1980    1970    1960    1950    1940

$23       5       4    16.39   1.63     .91     .80     .35         

Median Home Value Priced In Ounces of Silver

2010   2000    1990    1980    1970    1960    1950    1940 

9608   23920   19775   2880    10429   13076   9192    8394

50 Reasons to Prove the US is Numbero Uno

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/50-economic-numbers-about-us-are-almost-too-crazy-believe



The Economic Collapse Blog does a terrific job of periodically putting together a compilation of the scariest data points about the US economy. Today is one such day, and the list of 50 economic numbers presented is indeed, as the author puts it, "almost too crazy to believe"... Almost. As noted: "At this time of the year, a lot of families get together, and in most homes the conversation usually gets around to politics at some point.  Hopefully many of you will use the list below as a tool to help you share the reality of the U.S. economic crisis with your family and friends.  If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of people to wake up and realize that "business as usual" will result in a national economic apocalypse." Or, far more likely, 99% of the population can continue watching Dancing with the Stars, as what little wealth remains is terminally transferred to those who are paying attention right below everyone's eyes.
From the Ecopnomic Collapse Blog:

The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe....

#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.

#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.

#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.

#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.

#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.

#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006.  Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.

#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.

#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

#11 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

#12 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job.  In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.

#13 One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.

#14 The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.

#15 According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.

#16 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages.  According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married.  Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.

#17 The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.

#18 In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.

#19 Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 months in a row.

#20 If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.

#21 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant.  That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.

#22 New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.

#23 As I have written about previously, 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.

#24 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

#25 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980.  Today they account for approximately 16.3%.

#26 One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#27 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

#28 The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.

#29 It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit for 2011 will be 558.2 billion dollars.

#30 The retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse.  According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.

#31 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

#32 According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America's biggest companies rose by 36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.

#33 Today, the "too big to fail" banks are larger than ever.  The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.

#34 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.

#35 According to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.

#36 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.

#37 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7%) than has ever been measured before.

#38 Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.

#39 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

#40 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America.  According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

#41 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#42 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income.  Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.

#43 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits.  Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP.  Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.

#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars.  That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.

#46 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.

#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars.  When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.

#48 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.

#49 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.

#50 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

As for the culprit, there is no surprise here - all central planning, all the time.

Of course the heart of our economic problems is the Federal Reserve.  The Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine, it has almost completely destroyed the value of the U.S. dollar and it has an absolutely nightmarish track record of incompetence.  If the Federal Reserve system had never been created, the U.S. economy would be in far better shape.  The federal government needs to shut down the Federal Reserve and start issuing currency that is not debt-based.  That would be a very significant step toward restoring prosperity to America.

During 2011 we made a lot of progress in educating the American people about our economic problems, but we still have a long way to go.

Hopefully next year more Americans than ever will wake up, because 2012 is going to represent a huge turning point for this country.

Indeed it will - in it America will pick yet another president that it so rightfully deserves.

Investment Guru Of The Year

Investment guru of the year, Whitney Tilson:

http://www.tilsonfunds.com/bio_w.html

"Mr. Tilson co-authored the book, More Mortgage Meltdown: 6 Ways to Profit in These Bad Times (published in May 2009), has written for Forbes, the Financial Times, Kiplinger's, the Motley Fool and TheStreet.com, was one of the authors of Poor Charlie's Almanack, the definitive book on Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger. He is a CNBC Contributor, was featured in a 60 Minutes segment in December 2008 about the housing crisis that won an Emmy, was one of five investors included in SmartMoney's 2006 Power 30, was named by Institutional Investor in 2007 as one of 20 Rising Stars, has appeared dozens times on CNBC, Bloomberg TV and Fox Business Network, was on the cover of the July 2007 Kiplinger's, has been profiled by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, and has spoken widely on value investing and behavioral finance. He served for two years on the Board of Directors of Cutter & Buck, which designs and markets upscale sportswear, until the company was sold in early 2007."

Too bad Mr. Tilson is getting his ass kicked, down 24.5% YTD even after a good October....http://www.equityhelpdesk.com/finance-news/another-tough-month-tilson-cnbcs-favorite-buffett-worshipper-down-over-24-ytd

Our fund rose 7.0% in October vs. 10.9% for the S&P 500, 9.7% for the Dow and 11.2% for the Nasdaq.  Year to date, it’s down 24.5% vs. +1.3% for the S&P 500, 5.5% for the Dow and 1.9% for the Nasdaq.

That's even worse than Warren Buffet, who's flagship Berkshire-Hathaway fund is down 6% YTD:


http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/advchart/frames/frames.asp?show=&insttype=Stock&symb=BRK.A&x=44&y=17&time=19&startdate=1%2F4%2F1999&enddate=11%2F18%2F2011&freq=1&compidx=aaaaa%3A0&comptemptext=&comp=none&ma=1&maval=9&uf=0&lf=268435456&lf2=4&lf3=2&type=4&style=320&size=2&timeFrameToggle=false&compareToToggle=false&indicatorsToggle=false&chartStyleToggle=false&state=11

So if you follow or invest with genius book, magazine, and CNBC commentators like Mr. Tilson, you too could be getting your ass kicked.  Or, you could have just followed the trend and bought gold, which even with a $45 sell off yesterday is still up 22% YTD.  But of course, everybody knows gold is in a bubble.  Pay no attention to who is making money and who isn't.  What the hell do I know, I've never been on CNBC as an expert.

YTD Scoreboard:

Whitney Tilson   -24.5%
Warren Buffet       -6%
S&P 500              1.3%
DOW                    5.5%
Nasdaq                1.9%
Gold                     22%    

To be fair, Mr. Tilson's hedge fund is up 215% over the last 11 years.  Too bad the shiny metal is up 600%, not even close.  (My first gold purchase 5 years ago at $565/ounce has more than tripled).  Isn't it funny how the people who were right and continue to be right in their investing, like Ron Paul, and Peter Schiff, are continually derided in the media?  My friend Kevin was loading the wagon when gold was at the bottom, as was Ron Paul and Peter Schiff.  I still challenge anybody to find any investor on the planet who has outperformed Ron Paul's portfolio over the last decade.  There are others like Adam Hamilton who called the gold bear bottom within about a month of it happening, yet remain virtually anonymous.  When was the last time you saw any of these people on CNBC?  Hmmm....I wonder why?  Why wouldn't they put on the winners?  I will leave that for you to decide.

BTW, none of the people I have mentioned who have bought gold and silver are selling.  We continue to buy from the few nattering nabobs of negativity who are going through their dressers and scrapping what little they can find.  The run up in price over the last decade has happened with virtually no interest from the public, who remain on the sidelines.  And what are the banksters doing about it?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203611404577043652396383484.html

LONDON—Total central-bank gold purchases in the third quarter more than doubled from the second quarter and were almost seven times higher than a year earlier as countries continued to diversify reserves, according to a World Gold Council report.

"At 148.4 metric tons, gold buying among central banks was at the highest since the sector became a net buyer of the precious metal in the second quarter of 2009, according to the quarterly report. "Central banks and other official institutions, by comparison, had bought 66.5 tons of gold in the second quarter and 22.6 tons in the third quarter of 2010."

These institutions buy gold by the metric tonne.  They aren't pikers like me who only buy tiny ounces.  Why don't they want to hold their paper?  I thought "cash was king."


Or, you could follow Tilson, Buffet, buy the S&P, or just hold on to your paper and get next to nothing in interest.  Move along, there is nothing to see here.  Gold is in a bubble, sell it all.

Silver: The People's Money

I thought this was quite an interesting article so thought I should forward it along:

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08/nielson110711.html

Jeff Nielson
7 November 2011

In my writing a couple of themes occur with regularity: how "fractional-reserve banking" (with purely fiat currencies) is nothing less than serial stealing from the general population; and how gold and silver can protect people from this cycle of theft.
 
With respect to fractional-reserve banking, the theft is obvious. The bankers print up vast quantities of their paper currencies 'out of thin air', at no cost to themselves - but with the full benefit of that money. Thus their own "wealth" increases exponentially, and without the bankers earning a single penny of it. However, by diluting our currencies in this reckless manner they drive down the value of our money - reflected in higher prices (i.e. reduced purchasing power). We get poorer and poorer; they get richer and richer.

Given that we have a corporate propaganda machine which has spent more than forty years trying to disguise this serial stealing, it is no surprise that it often takes a long time for this reality to sink into peoples' minds. Sadly, even once people understand the stealing which is taking place, they often aren't able to piece together how precious metals are the "cure" for this chronic condition.

When I speak of precious metals being our salvation from the bankers' world of debauched paper, for the average person what I mean specifically is that silver is their primary protection from the banksters' stealing-via-dilution. In referring to silver as "the people's money" I am not saying anything new here. Rather I am simply reiterating one of the oldest economic truths of our species.

To understand this first requires understanding two more of the most ancient concepts of humanity. To begin with, people must know the answer to the question "what is money?". Once they have a clear understanding there, it becomes crystal-clear why gold and silver are the best "money" our species has ever known - and the only "good money" in existence today.

Next readers need to understand the historic price ratio between gold and silver, or in other words they need to understand the 5,000 year old price relationship between the Metal of the Sun (gold) and the Metal of the Moon (silver). This historic 15:1 ratio is absolutely reinforced by the fact that this is also the approximate relative proportions of gold and silver in the Earth's crust. Thus 15:1 is the "natural" price ratio between gold and silver, and over the long term gold and silver prices must revert to that ratio.

Given that 15:1 ratio (and the much greater, current ratio today), this leads to an obvious inference. Gold, by virtue of being less common and thus more valuable is the "money" of the wealthy and governments. Conversely, by virtue of being more plentiful (but still "precious") silver has always been the Money of the People.

Once these preliminary concepts are understood, readers should be ready to absorb how and why silver can protect the ordinary person from the serial stealing of the bankers. Remembering how the bankers "steal" by diluting the paper (i.e. fiat currencies) we are holding, the obvious solution to that problem is to avoid holding the bankers' paper.

If we take the fruits of our labours and convert it into silver as quickly as possible, then suddenly the bankers must do most of their stealing from the other paper-holders - not us. And if every ordinary person converted their wealth to silver as quickly as possible, soon the bankers (and the ultra-wealthy for whom the bankers "front") would have no one to steal from but each other.

People need to divorce their minds from the notion of "buying silver", and rather simply think of themselves as doing their "saving" with silver rather than with the banksters' ever more diluted paper. Indeed, the worst thing we can possibly do with our wealth is to deposit it in a bank - since that simply allows the banksters to ratchet-up their "leverage" even further (i.e. steal from us even faster).

Put another way, every dollar which ordinary people convert to silver (or gold) weakens the intensity/effects of this stealing-via-dilution. This also explains the extreme aversion which the bankers have to a "gold standard", and why they have disseminated millions of pieces of propaganda over recent decades attempting to portray a gold standard as either being archaic or simply "impractical".

A gold standard is "impractical" indeed if one is a banker because when it comes to the banksters' efforts to steal-via-dilution, a gold standard functions like an "economic straitjacket", preventing the banksters from conjuring any "money" out of thin air. With the absolute refusal of our corrupt and servile politicians to "regulate" these financial crime syndicates, a gold standard would impose fiscal/monetary discipline (and sanity) on both bankster and politician alike.

Lacking a gold standard and lacking any financial regulation of these multinational banks, as individuals we have been left with absolutely no recourse but to "insure" our wealth by converting it to silver. Holding silver will not/cannot "fix" our economies by itself. However, with the self-destructive greed of the banksters and the shameless corruption of our political leaders, the destruction of our economies is now inevitable - and we must protect ourselves individually, since we have been abandoned by our own governments.

As it has done for nearly a hundred years, the corporate media defines such behavior as "hoarding". Strangely, when we (collectively) hold several billion dollars of silver the propaganda machine calls this "hoarding", yet these same media talking-heads never mention the word "hoarding" when it comes to the $10's of trillions in paper wealth being hoarded by these ultra-wealthy (ultra-greedy) misers.

As I have demonstrated in numerous previous commentaries, it is the "hollowing out" of our economies through the hoarding of all these $trillions which is one of the primary causes of our imminent economic collapse. In other words, it was bad enough to have the ultra-wealthy steal $trillions of our wealth, but they have compounded that economic harm by refusing to spend their ill-gotten hoards. If the "other 99%" greatly increase their "saving with silver" (or gold), this will also serve to slow down this hollowing-out process, and will at least help to delay our complete economic collapse.

Our economies remain in desperate need of a total overhaul of our entire monetary system, our tax systems, and our labour markets. Given the saturation level of corruption in our governments, it seems likely that most Western nations must also have radical reforms in their political systems as well.

Holding silver solves none of those other problems. At best, it will "buy us the time" to actually fix our broken economies (and broken political systems). At worst, it will make it a little easier to rebuild our societies from the economic "rubble" left behind by the banksters and their political servants.

Jeff Nielson

www.bullionbullscanada.com

The Gold Bubble Pops Yet Again

Big picture.  10-year chart of gold.



Green line is simple 200 day moving average.  Buy on that line for that last 10 years at any point for lowest risk entry points.  This is such a beautiful chart for studying primary bull market psychology.

First 4 years of this 10 year chart were a slow grind, from $250 area to $425.  Don't forget, for the previous 20 years gold went from $850 to $250.  Any gains here are long and hard because only the contrarians were piling in, being happy with the fact that they would most likely have to wait 17-20 years for the payday.  But paydays of these kinds are worth the wait because of enormous payoffs at the end.  People who bought in this range are already up 4x-6x and are not selling. 

Dec. 05 to May of 06, gold shoots from $450 to $720.  Naysayers were saying gold had tripled, blow off top, the bubble has burst, let's flip houses.  The absolute peak of the housing market, by the way, was about 10-06.  This is when I bought at $565.  My only question now is why didn't I buy more.

So it grinds along agonizingly for a year and a half doing nothing but sideways, and I bought more at $680.  Mind you $680 was near the highest gold had been for the last 27 years.  It was a bubble.  My only question again now is why didn't I buy more.

So the naysayers were wrong once again as the bubble burst in reverse and went from $680 to $1000 in a few short months.  Oh, all time highs, blow off top, bubble soon to burst.  Yet look at the 200 day moving average.  As Forest Gump said, "Keep your eye on the ball." 

So, OH MY GOD, gold shoots down for a minute to the $850 area, whoa, 15% pull back, end times and Armageddon, then Wall St. crashes and gold comes back and tests the $750 area again for a minute.  With the only serious but short breach of the 200 day moving average, gold still ends the year up 5% while the DOW gets ripped in half.

Since the last bubble has burst, gold has rebounded 133% in 3 years, and just look at the 200 day moving average.  As long as the trend continues up, that is the true gauge of whether gold is cheap in dollars or not.  Notice the angle of ascent of the 200-day moving average is increasing but is far from hyperbolic.  Volatility is increasing as is the rate of ascent.  This is big time classic bull behavior, in my humble opinion. 

These major bulls, for psychological reasons, often run for 17 to 20 years.  If they truly run in the 3 phases of 1. Contrarian, 2. Institutional, 3. Public, the question is where are we at now?

The price of gold has gone from $250 to $1900 and now $1740 per ounce with next to zero public involvement.  The public has been selling their gold, not buying it.  Just ask yourself how many individuals you know who own gold or silver.  I would guess the first phase of contrarians were buying from 2001 to 2008.  You could argue that the March, 2009 purchase by India of 200 metric tonnes of gold from the IMF at $1050/ounce signified the first serious involvement of central banks net buying of gold for the first time in 20 years.  Now the list of central banks buying gold is growing all the time.  Bet against the banksters if you think the public is outsmarting them.  I won't try to stop you.

Check out the latest chart from the St. Louis Fed Bank of the Adjusted Monetary Supply.  Is it any wonder that gold and everything else is going up when the money supply is exploding?



The rise in volatility and price would suggest to me that the smart money has been getting in for awhile now, 2 or 3 years.  From my trading experience I can tell you there is one thing traders need like blood to a vampire, and that is volatility.  Volatility has certainly increased in the last 3 years.  You can't make any money, even if you are right, if a stock or commodity isn't moving one way or the other.  Increased volatility draws traders like a virgin's blood draws Count Dracula.

So by the looks of the chart I would say we are likely in the 2nd phase of smart money/institutional involvement and will be there for some time yet to come.  There will be years of nominal price inflation of gold and everything else except real estate.  The real estate trend of down has not changed yet.

Yet the public remains on the sidelines, convinced they missed the move because gold is up 6x from the bottom.  Do you know how many times I have heard this argument?  Psychologically, gold struggled going over $500 because it was a double.  When it broke through $500 it hit $720 in no time.  Then sideways for a year and a half, then it had to psychologically break through the old high of $850.  Then $1000.  Now it is in uncharted territory.  Just 2 weeks ago I overheard a conversation where the consensus was gold was cooked and on the way to $1200 if not $800.  The public is yet to get interested.  Why should they?  The bubble has popped, no?  But of course the public always gets investing right, we know that from history.

And get this, the whole thing is an illusion.  Gold has not increased in value at all.  Gold is still gold.  What has happened is the devaluation of the dollar, period.  It takes more of the devalued money to buy the same amount of gold, period, end of story.  And everybody thinks gold is in a bubble.  This is the obvious mathematical and physical answer the to the problem.....gold nor anything else is in a bubble right now except US Treasury Bonds, and I guess as well you could say the remainder of the paper currencies of the world, but the US Treasury Bonds take the proverbial cake.  Gold is simply the canary in the mine.  The jig comes closer to being up day by day, and every day of our lives has seen lost purchasing power of our money.  They are printing money, and more of it all the time.  Gold is a distraction, nothing more.  But you ain't seen nothing yet.  Wait until the public gets interested.

The public's decision on gold must be emotional and based on protecting their ego because they missed out on the obvious best investment of the last decade.  The logical conclusion from the chart and all the evidence has been that gold has been and remains in a massive bull market.

Ask yourself, at the peak of the housing bubble, were people afraid of the price of houses and talking about their values getting ripped in half?  At the peak of the bubble, was the public calling it a bubble?  In the mean time I am buying more gold.  I have seen this movie before. The trend remains and the 200-day moving average is intact.  Could it go sideways for awhile?  Of course.  What will happen tomorrow or next week?  I am no psychic.  But a trend remains a trend until proven otherwise.  The last 10 years is proof of that obvious truism.  (Edwards & Magee, Technical Anaylisis).

But to tell you the truth, it's not the gold I crave so much as it is I know congress and the Fed are destroying my paper and I can't stand to hold it.  That is what will drive the public when the day comes.  Nobody want's to be a bag holder.

Wage Disparity In The United States

It has been noted of late that the income of the top 1% in the United States has gone up drastically in the last few decades compared to the average working Joe.  While this is true and I don't dispute it, why don't we take a look at where the richest counties in the US are.  This study is therefore not based on the top 1% who are being demonized in the media of late but where the highest average incomes are concentrated.  You might want to consider moving there and getting in on where the real action is.

The idea for this came to me from watching the Peter Schiff interview of the OWS'ers in New York.  You might want to check it out if you have 18 minutes.

So, where would you think the richest counties are based on income?  If you want to blame the evil CEO's of corporations for part of the destruction of our economy, especially the banksters, I would think you would probably focus on the New York area where the OWS movement started and where the banking and financial center of the United States is.  You would be wrong.

Maybe you would look in Silicon Valley or up in Washington State where Microsoft and Boeing is.  Wrong again.

Maybe you would look in the LA/Hollywood area where there are entire collections of rich movie stars and pro athletes.  Wrong again.

The top 3 counties in the United States, and 4 of the top 6, are in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area.  The top 25 counties can be found here.  In first place is Loudoun County, VA, with a median family income of $110,643.  2nd place goes to Fairfax County, VA with $106,785, and 3rd goes to Howard County, MD, with $101,710.   And according to the Wikipedia article of the Washington Metro Area, of the 5.5 million people living there the median income is $72,800.

To put it mildly, the Washington Metro Area is kicking ass.

"12.2% of Northern Virginia's 881,136 households, 8.5% of suburban Maryland's 799,300 households, and 8.2% of Washington's 249,805 households have an annual income in excess of $200,000, compared to 3.7% nationally."

"The various agencies of the Federal Government employ over 140,000 professionals in the Washington D.C. area. A sizable number in the Washington D.C. area work for defense and civilian contracting companies that conduct business directly with the Federal Government (many of these firms are referred to as 'Beltway Bandits' under the local vernacular). As a result, the Federal Government provides the underlying basis of the economy in the region."


Of course, not everybody in the area works directly for the government, and there are some really nice jobs in the private sector there, especially if you work in the military industrial complex.  There is no recession in that industry. 


"Many defense contractors are based in the region to be close to the Pentagon in Arlington. Local defense contractors include Lockheed Martin, the largest, as well as Raytheon, General Dynamics, BAE Systems, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), CACI, and Orbital Sciences Corporation. Northrup Grumman is to move its headquarters to the region by the summer of 2011.<sup>\

So you can work at Wal-mart and bitch about it or you can go where the action is.  Median income at $72,800?  Sounds pretty good to me.</sup> 

William Black

If you have never heard of William Black, here is his background courtesy of Wikipedia:

Black earned a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine. Black is currently an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the Department of Economics and the School of Law. He was the Executive Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007 and previously taught at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, and at Santa Clara University.^[2]

Black was litigation director for the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) from 1984 to 1986, deputy director of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) in 1987, and Senior VP and the General Counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco from 1987 to 1989, which regulated some of the largest thrift banks in the U.S.<sup>[3]

If there is anybody on the planet who knows banking regulations and banking law better than William Black, I would like to know who it is.  He was instrumental in helping to get over 1000 felony convictions during the S&L crisis 30 years ago.  Have you ever wondered why nobody in the current financial crisis has been prosecuted?

This 30-minute interview with Bill Moyers explains why.  As far as I am concerned, this is the most important video of the last decade. 

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch.html

Finally, this is a long article, but check out who thinks the TBTF banks should be broken up due to insolvency, with links:

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/only-way-save-economy-break-giant-insolvent-banks</sup>

• Nobel prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz

• Nobel prize-winning economist, Ed Prescott

• Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan

• Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker

• Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich

• Dean and professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School, and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, R. Glenn Hubbard

• Simon Johnson (and see this)

• Former 20-year President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, who was today nominated to be FDIC Vice Chair Thomas Hoenig (and see this)

• President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Richard Fisher (and see this)

• President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Thomas Bullard

• Deputy Treasury Secretary, Neal S. Wolin

• The President of the Independent Community Bankers of America, a Washington-based trade group with about 5,000 members, Camden R. Fine

• The Congressional panel overseeing the bailout (and see this)

• The head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair

• The head of the Bank of England, Mervyn King

• The leading monetary economist and co-author with Milton Friedman of the leading treatise on the Great Depression, Anna Schwartz

• Economics professor and senior regulator during the S & L crisis, William K. Black

• Leading British economist, John Kay

• Economics professor, Nouriel Roubini

• Economist, Marc Faber

• Professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the Chicago Booth School of Business, Luigi Zingales

• Economics professor, Thomas F. Cooley

• Economist Dean Baker

• Economist Arnold Kling

• Former investment banker, Philip Augar

• Chairman of the Commons Treasury, John McFall

Others, like Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, think that the giant insolvent banks may need to be temporarily nationalized.

I will refrain from adding my opinion to all of this information.  It speaks for itself.

Always Reporting The News That Matters

Man jailed after trying to turn faeces into gold

 A man from Northern Ireland has been jailed after an experiment in which he attempted to turn his own faeces into gold went wrong and started a fire in a block of flats.

Paul Moran will now serve three months in jail and a further 12 months on license after the failed experiment caused a fire at his Housing Executive home in Derrin Park, Enniskillen.

Moran admitted arson and endangering the lives of others in the fire, which reportedly caused over £3,000 worth of damage.

It is thought that as part of the bizarre experiment Moran left his faeces, along with other waste products such as fertiliser, on a heater.

In his ruling Judge McFarland told Moran: “Rather bizarrely you were attempting to make gold from human faeces and waste products.

“It was an interesting experiment to fulfil the alchemist’s dream, but wasn’t going to succeed.”
Moran’s barrister mentioned that his client was a man of ‘considerable intellectual ability’ but that he had problems battling drug abuse.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/man-jailed-after-trying-to-turn-faeces-into-gold-.html

9-9-9?

The Dilema of The Fan

Only now, maybe 27 hours or so after the disaster, or may I say one of the many disasters, can I write about the Boston Red Sox.  Oh, how I could go on.  But I have only been a Red Sox fan for 44 years, so there are many more than me that have suffered as the Sox found different ways to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.

The most obvious example is the Bucky Dent grand slam in 1977 in the one-game playoff with the Yankees.  Or was it 2 or 3 grand slams he hit that day?  But we won't even go there.  The disaster that rained down like fire and sulfur in the month of September, 2011, was the worst such month for the Sox since 1952.  Even I am not that old, so this collapse was monstrous.  The Sox went 6-18.  They began the month in first place in their division, and when they lost that position they still had a 9-game lead over Tampa Bay for the wild card spot.

But blowing the lead in games ahead, as great as it was, was nothing in comparison to how they saw their season come crashing down to a merciless end, not only on the last day, but within one strike of going to the playoffs.  Forgive me if some of my facts are not 100% accurate, as I can't bear to actually relive this tragedy by analyzing the gory details.

The best I can remember, Boston went into a rain delay against the Orioles holding a 3-2 lead in the 7th inning.  Meanwhile, the Yankees we blowing up the Devil Rays 7-0.  So in the bottom of the 8th, while the Red Sox could only watch on TV and wait for the rain to abate, the Rays scored 6 runs.  Then, in the bottom of the 9th, with 2 outs and a 2-2 count, down to their last strike, the pinch-hitting lefty for the Rays yanks one over the right field fence for a game tying home run.  So the Red Sox go out, after watching this comeback unfold, and hold their 3-2 lead until 2 outs in the 9th inning, then give up back to back doubles and a single to end the game.

Meanwhile, the Rays, this year's team of destiny, win in extra innings with a walk off home run to win the wild card spot.  Season over for the Sox, finally.  What a blood bath.  I thought I had seen the worst the Sox had to give but this takes the cake.  They did win two championships in the last decade, and their take down of the Yankees after being down 0-3 in 2004 was legendary.  So it isn't as bad as being a Chicago Cubs fan, but I feel their pain, obviously.

But to not only have their worst September in 59 years, then go out in flames like this, is so ridiculous I really had to laugh.  What else can I do?  Such is life as a Boston Red Sox fan.

40th Anniversary

Today Is The 40th Anniversary Of Nixon Ending Gold Standard And Creating Modern Fiat Monetary System

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/15/2011 08:57 -0400
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/today-40th-anniversary-nixon-ending-gold-standard-and-creating-modern-fiat-monetary-system




From GoldCore
Today Is The 40th Anniversary Of Nixon Ending Gold Standard And Creating Modern Fiat Monetary System 

Gold has fallen today in all major currencies except the Swiss franc which has fallen sharply again on continued talk of SNB intervention. Gold is trading at USD 1,742.70, EUR 1,220.10, GBP 1,068.70, CHF 1,375.60 per ounce and 133,820 JPY/oz.  Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,738.00/oz, EUR 1,214.11/oz, GBP 1,065.88/oz.

Gold in Swiss Francs reached 1,393.24 an ounce this morning – the highest price so far in 2011. Gold in Swiss francs has climbed 7.7% so far in August, 3.7% in 2011 and 8.2% in the past 12 months as gold reasserts itself as the true safe haven.

On this day, August 15th, 40 years ago, President Nixon announced the end of the Gold Standard and the end of the Bretton Woods international monetary system (see video of Nixon’s dramatic announcement here).

This was one of the most important decisions in modern financial, economic and monetary history and is a seminal moment in the creation of the global debt crisis confronting the U.S., Europe and the world today.

Cross Currency Rates

Nixon ushered in an era of floating fiat currencies not backed by gold but rather deriving value through government “fiat” or diktat. 

While Nixon justified the move was that the U.S. , then as today, was living way beyond its means with the Vietnam war and growing military industrial complex leading to large budget deficits and inflation.

Governments internationally including the French and their President Charles de Gaulle were concerned about the debasement of the dollar and began to exchange their dollar reserves for gold bullion bars.

Subsequent to Nixon’s decision 40 years ago, the U.S. dollar has fallen from 1/35th of an ounce of gold to 1/1750th of an ounce of gold today.

Gold in Nominal USD – 1971 to Today (Weekly)

This is not the fault of “speculators”, rather it is the fault of profligate governments and central bankers debasing the U.S. dollar since 1971 (except for Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker).

Today, U.S. dollars and all paper and digital money is declared by governments to be legal tender, despite the fact that it has no intrinsic value and is not backed by gold reserves.

Historically, currencies were based on precious metals such as gold or silver, but fiat money is based on faith and on the performance of politicians, bankers and central bankers.

Because today’s fiat money is not linked to physical reserves of gold and silver, it is becoming worth less with each passing month and risks becoming worthless should hyperinflation take hold. 

If people lose faith in a nation's paper currency, the money will no longer hold value.

Throughout history most fiat currencies have not survived more than a few decades and have succumbed to hyperinflation.

The fiat currency or paper and digital based international monetary system has survived 40 years but is in terminal decline with many astute commentators now questioning whether it will survive the global debt crisis. 

Gold’s role as a store of value and important monetary asset is being increasingly appreciated. Indeed, there are increasing calls for gold to again play a role in the global monetary system.

The President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, wrote in the Financial Times (‘The G20 must look beyond Bretton Woods II’ - November, 2010) that a new monetary system involving a basket of currencies “should also consider employing gold as an international reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values”.

He also said that “although textbooks may view gold as the old money, markets are using gold as an alternative monetary asset today.”

This was an important statement regarding gold especially as it came from the President of the World Bank, the head of one of the most powerful financial and monetary organizations in the world.

Jack Farchy wrote in the Financial Times today, “the return of gold as a prominent financial asset is without doubt the most important development in the bullion market today.”

It is also a very important development for currency markets and for the global financial and monetary system.

Ex Economics Editor of The Telegraph, Edmund Conway wrote over the weekend how “we've had the financial crisis that usually marks the beginning of the end of established monetary systems. And now we are seeing the debasement.”

He wrote that the rising gold price “reflects many factors  . . .   but chief among them is a diminishing faith in the ability of fiat currencies to maintain their value.”

“These bouts of debasement typically end in disaster, as faith is lost in the currency, inflation shoots through the roof and the economy collapses, after which politicians introduce a new, more credible system.”

Conway warned that the “next stage of the crisis represents a crisis of confidence in the very system which, founded as it is on trust rather than measurable yardsticks, has no reliable, inbuilt way of righting itself.”

We have for many months now been warning of the real risk of an international monetary crisis and this risk looks more likely by the day.

While hyperinflation remains a worst case scenario, stagflation and a virulent bout of inflation looks almost certain in the coming months.

Today Is The Full Moon

I have been waiting for this day for almost six months.  Not because it's the full moon, which is an interesting coincidence, though.  Today I leave on a journey back in time.

My parents married in Portland, OR, in I believe 1946.  They had met working in for a shipyard that made boats the Navy would use in World War II.  They could launch them on the Columbia River and they could float right out to the ocean.  The Columbia is a big river.

For some strange reason, they moved away from there and ended up in Ogden, Utah.  I am sure there was some family issue that was never explained to me.  The story went that my dad and a friend took a drive through Idaho, Utah, and Nevada, and liked the Ogden area the best.  They went back to Portland, got their wives, and went to Ogden and opened up a Texaco gas station.  In any event, it wasn't done on a whim.  I might never know the real reason.  Maybe this week I might find a clue or two.

I have been wanting to visit both Costa Rica and Ireland for some time now.  Now that I'm 55 years old, I have decided it is time to start getting some of these things done.  Earlier this year I was thinking about it and decided I am going to take two weeks off every summer and do something big.  This year I decided to go back in time.

When I was a kid, we used to visit relatives in Portland and Eugene, Oregon.  My mom also had a brother in Boise, Idaho, who we would stop and see, and a sister in Kennewick, Washington.  My dad also had a sister in Walla Walla.  When I was 14 years old, in 1970, my dad was suffering from arthritis and some friends had recently moved to Arizona and said they loved it.  After talking it over with the family, we decided to sell the house and move.  The house sold in days and by May 10th, 1970, we were on our way to Arizona.  The move really did help my dad, too.  But we never visited relatives up that way again.  Very occasionally one would be in town and stop by.

I have great memories of those trips.  Sometimes we would go out of our way and drive down the coast, visiting Tillamook, OR, where my dad graduated from high school.  The school team name by the was was The Cheesemakers since Tillamook is known for its cheese.  We visited the Coastal Redwoods, even went to Disneyland when it was only 4 or 5 years old.  I saw Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente play baseball.  I remember Willie McCovey hitting a ball over the right field wall in Candlestick.

So I decided this year I would visit these family members that I haven't seen in 45 years and drive down roads that are distant but vivid memories.  I will visit relatives in Lincoln, CA, Eugene, OR, Kennewick, WA, and finally visit friends I've known since I was a kid in Ogden, Utah when I grew up.  I will see friends there that I haven't seen in 40 years or more.  I will also spend 3 nights camping in the coastal redwoods.  I will visit my 90 year old uncle, the final survivor of my dad's siblings.  Maybe he will have a clue about the reason for the move.  I will also get to see the son of my cousin, who is now 47 years old, plays with his band.  That is quite a trip!

As you read this I will already be on my way.  It will be 3000 miles, but I will make a lot of connections with my roots.  I have also never gone on a trip this far by myself.  And I can't help thinking about seeing the same places and people from what seems like another life ago. 

Costa Rica and Ireland will have to wait.  This year I revisit my youth.

US Government Declares Marijuana Has No Medical Value

"The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency recently decreed that marijuana has no accepted medical use and should remain classified alongside heroin and cocaine as a dangerous and addictive drug."

http://www.care2.com/causes/u-s-government-declares-marijuana-has-no-medical-value.html

Well the government said it so it must be true, right?

Seriously, classified alongside heroin and cocaine?  You have to be a blithering idiot to believe that.

The issue here has nothing to do with public safety.  There is one reason and one reason only why decisions like this get made and why marijuana will never be legal in the United States again.  That reason is government jobs.  We have been in a massive growth phase of government since FDR, fueled by debt spending and easy money from the Fed.  in 1900 the federal government was 2% of GDP, now it is 25% with another 15% tacked on for good measure by the states.  Fully 40% of GDP is federal and state spending.

Just to give you an idea of how big of a boon the drug war has been for government, just take a glance at these stats, courtesy of drugwarfacts.org.

US Arrests
Year	Total Arrests	Total Drug Arrests	Total Marijuana Arrests	Marijuana Trafficking/Sale Arrests	Marijuana Possession Arrests	Total Violent Crime Arrests	Total Property Crime Arrests
2009	13,687,241	1,663,582	858,408	99,815	758,593	581,765	1,728,285
2008	14,005,615	1,702,537	847,863	93,640	754,224	594,911	1,687,345
2007	14,209,365	1,841,182	872,720	97,583	775,137	597,447	1,610,088
2006	14,380,370	1,889,810	829,627	90,711	738,916	611,523	1,540,297
2005	14,094,186	1,846,351	786,545	90,471	696,074	603,503	1,609,327
2004	13,938,071	1,746,570	773,731	87,329	686,402	586,558	1,644,197
2003	13,639,479	1,678,192	755,186	92,300	662,886	597,026	1,605,127
2002	13,741,438	1,538,813	697,082	83,096	613,986	620,510	1,613,954
2001	13,699,254	1,586,902	723,628	82,519	641,109	627,132	1,618,465
2000	13,980,297	1,579,566	734,497	88,455	646,042	625,132	1,620,928
1999	14,355,600	1,557,100	716,266	85,641	630,626	644,770	1,676,100
1998	14,528,300	1,559,100	682,885	84,191	598,694	675,900	1,805,600
1997	15,284,300	1,583,600	695,201	88,682	606,519	717,750	2,015,600
1996	15,168,100	1,506,200	641,642	94,891	546,751	729,900	2,045,600
1995	15,119,800	1,476,100	588,964	85,614	503,350	796,250	2,128,600
1990	14,195,100	1,089,500	326,850	66,460	260,390	705,500	2,217,800
1980	10,441,000	580,900	401,982	63,318	338,664	475,160	1,863,300

While total arrests have been stable in the last 20 years at about 14 million, drug related arrests are up 60% with marijuana arrests up 240%.  Over 858,000 marijuana related arrests in 2009 alone.  Now you tell me...how many government jobs would be lost if marijuana was legalized?

The United States has BY FAR the biggest incarceration rate in the world, and it's not even close.  We imprison 743 people per 100,000 population in this land of the free while the 2nd place country, Russia, houses 577.  The list is here.

 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) 7,225,800 people at year end 2009 were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole — about 3.1% of adults in the U.S. resident population.[7][4] 2,292,133 were incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails at year end 2009.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
 
Seven and a quarter million in the system.  Just how many jobs is that?  From the same article, the cost for this nonsense is nearly $69 billion per year, for the entire corrections system, that is.    

Here is an example of what a prison can look like courtesy of California.  Bunk beds stacked 3 high in a big room.  At least they have room for a table so they can play cards.  How do you like paying for this?  (And can you imagine the snoring and farting?)





And we have only looked so far at the amount of incarceration and the related cost, of the total system, of course.  This doesn't include the cost of the police and DEA enforcement, deaths in the line of duty to enforce the War On Drugs, (thank you Richard Nixon), the cost of the court system to process all of these criminals, to say nothing of the rehab business and the cost of lawyers.

Now you tell me, in an environment of massively growing government, where money is not an issue because of lack of spending discipline and the ability to get as much money as ever needed from the Fed through debt, that the government is going to cancel all of these lucrative government jobs, and I will tell you that you need a lobotomy and get it over with.  It isn't going to happen.  Believe it or not, there was actually a time, not in our lifetimes of course, when the government would end an unreasonable program.  But that was before paper money.

While people in 15 states have voted to make medical marijuana legal, the bureaucrats in DC say go to hell.  My question is, why would anybody prefer this glorified HOA known as the United States Government over freedom? After 30 years and untold hundreds of billions of dollars in the failed War On Drugs, only something as incompetent as GOVERNMENT would continue such an obviously flawed campaign.  And why not?  After all, it isn't their money.