(ActivistPost) – I wrote an article a while back titled 5 Reasons NOT to Pay Your Credit Cards. Understandably, many e-mails came in asking, “But what happens if I don’t pay?”

Just as the Mafia has their collections department, so do the banks. A Mafia enforcer might employ a pipe to the knee, threats to your family, or other nefarious means of collecting debts for the boss. Much the same, collections agencies use guilt, the credit rating system, threats of legal action, and many tools of harassment and deceit from their bag of tricks. Read the rest of this entry »

(GlobalResearch) – Because of torrential rains lasting several days Pakistan is facing one of the worst predicaments in human and material terms for the last 80 years. The damage inflicted is stunning. About 22 million people are affected by the floods. Many infrastructures have been unable to withstand the onslaught of rain. Roads and harbours can no longer be used. Millions of people have had to leave their houses, and the UN estimates that there are 5 million left homeless. Makeshift refugee camps have been set up, and some 1 million people already live there in disgraceful sanitary conditions. The south of the country, and more particularly the province of Snidh, has been badly shaken by this catastrophe. Economic losses amount to billions with the farming industry severely hit, large tracts of farmland having been destroyed. Read the rest of this entry »

(WashingtonsBlog) – Experts on third world banana republics from the IMF and the Federal Reserve have said the U.S. has become a third world banana republic (and see this and this).

Are they right? Read the rest of this entry »

(WashingtonsBlog) – Experts on third world banana republics from the IMF and the Federal Reserve have said the U.S. has become a third world banana republic (and see this and this).

Are they right? Read the rest of this entry »

(USAToday) – States Freeze Tax Refunds

Residents eager to get their state tax refunds may have a long wait this year: The recession has tied up cash and caused officials in half a dozen states to consider freezing refunds, in one case for as long as five months. Read More Here

(DailyMail) – British law firm ‘conspired’ to hide $50bn debts of Wall St giant

A top British law firm helped stricken banking giant Lehman Brothers hide its debts in the run-up to the bank’s collapse, a report said yesterday. Read More Here

(IrishTime) – EU denies Greece bailout deal

The euro zone has not agreed a deal on financial support for heavily indebted Greece, but technical work is continuing and the Commission stands ready to act if need be, a spokesman said today. Read More Here

(InternationalForecaster) – The financial system in America is on the edge of default – Bob Chapman

The dramatic and costly undertow of deflation continues unabated, as government via fiscal policy and the Federal Reserve, by creating money and credit out of thin air, proceed to overpower this deflation with massive inflation. Read More Here

(BusinessInsider) – A Quick Reminder: Here’s The Real Problem

Here’s one of the only economic charts that really matters: Total U.S. debt to GDP (from John Mauldin).
This chart shows the trend from the end of the Civil War until now. Read More Here

(DoctorHousingBubble) – California Doing a Rendition of the Housing Industry on the Budget – $20 Billion Budget Deficit and Massive Amount of Distress Inventory

How Banks Raided the U.S. Treasury with the aid of the Federal Reserve and have Damaged Housing Further. Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – China May Face ‘Massive’ Bank Bailouts After Stimulus Program

China may be forced to bail out banks that made loans for local-government projects under the unprecedented stimulus program unleashed in 2008, according to Citigroup Inc. and Northwestern University’s Victor Shih. Read More Here

(AP) – Social Security to start cashing Uncle Sam’s IOUs

The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.
It’s time to start cashing them in. Read More Here

(CNN) – Two bank failures raise year’s tally to 30

The closures of Statewide Bank in Louisiana and Florida’s Old Southern Bank brought the number of bank failures this year to 30, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Read More Here

(MyBudget360) – Middle Class Americans Losing Financial Ground on Retirement – As Stock Market Rebounds more Middle Class Americans Have Less Money and Fewer Jobs. How is Health Care Spending Boosting GDP a Good Thing? – Read More Here

(SilverBearCafe) – Iceland, the Mouse that Roared

I thought I heard something the other night. It was a distant sound, a low rumbling, a roar from some far off beast that had finally pronounced its presence. It woke me for a second, but it was so distant I felt no threat and simply rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning I learned that Iceland was taking a stand. It was refusing to pay its British and Dutch debts. Read More Here

(Infowars) – U.S. Debt Clock in Real Time

The U.S. Debt Clock website has a graphic of the U.S. debt that updates in real time. It will make your head swim. Click here to be amazed… or disgusted. Read More Here

(WashingtonsBlog) – There is an established legal principle that people should not have to repay their government’s debt to the extent that it is incurred to launch aggressive wars or to oppress the people. Read the rest of this entry »

(SCStateHouse) – TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING ARTICLE 18 TO CHAPTER 1, TITLE 1 SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT SILVER AND GOLD COIN SHALL BE LEGAL TENDER IN PAYMENT OF CERTAIN DEBTS. Read More Here

(PressTV) – Japan Airlines Corp. (JAL) is expected to slash more than 15,000 jobs, a third of its work force, in three years to save the troubled company from total collapse. Read the rest of this entry »

(WSJ) -  The number of Americans filing for personal bankruptcy rose by nearly a third in 2009, a surge largely driven by foreclosures and job losses. Read the rest of this entry »

Ponzi scheme – a fraudulent investment operation that returns assets to the defrauded from assets they previously loaned to the scheme’s operators or assets paid by subsequent newer “investors” rather than from any actual profit earned
While it is (comparatively) well-known that the US dollar, while a currency, is a solely an instrument of credit issued by the Federal Reserve. All holders of dollars – including myself and most readers of this article – are in debt to the Federal Reserve. Now, this debt is really phantom debt, but the key really is printed on each dollar, more properly known as a Federal Reserve Note: “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.” (1) Read the rest of this entry »

I.O.U.S.A. boldly examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. Burdened with an ever-expanding government and military, increased international competition, overextended entitlement programs, and debts to foreign countries that are becoming impossible to honor, America must mend its spendthrift ways or face an economic disaster of epic proportions. Read the rest of this entry »

I.O.U.S.A. boldly examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. Burdened with an ever-expanding government and military, increased international competition, overextended entitlement programs, and debts to foreign countries that are becoming impossible to honor, America must mend its spendthrift ways or face an economic disaster of epic proportions. Read the rest of this entry »

(Independent) – Five High street banks in Ireland are to be paid £48bn by a state agency to cover their toxic debts in the biggest financial rescue in the country’s history. Bonds issued by the National Assets Management Agency (Nama) will provide the struggling banks with £7bn more than the current £41bn value of their toxic debts. Read the rest of this entry »

A private but extremely influential silent individual,  Dr. Michael Van de Meer is the person predicting a financial collapse of the United States starting on September 30th. That is the end of the fiscal year and the final date for payments the Federal Reserve Board wants to act, but cannot, because it is in a catatonic state, as the leaders of every state in the world is. Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. economy is at the beginning of a protracted period of adjustment. The sharp decline in business activity, which began in the summer of 2007, has moderated slightly, but there are few indications that growth will return to pre-crisis levels. Read the rest of this entry »

Forecasts published this week by the Obama administration and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate that the US national debt will nearly double over the next 10 years to about $20 trillion. Read the rest of this entry »

The nationwide revelry surrounding our apparent economic recovery was disrupted this week by the release of lower-than-expected retail sales data. However, rather than sending a chill up the spines of those hoping for a quick end to the downturn, the numbers should be welcomed. Though this may come as a surprise to most observers, lower retail sales are precisely what our economy needs. Read the rest of this entry »

(Telegraph) – The US economy is lurching towards crisis with long-term interest rates on course to double, crippling the country’s ability to pay its debts and potentially plunging it into another recession, according to a study by the US’s own central bank Read the rest of this entry »

An economy bigger than Russia, Brazil, Canada, India or Spain is in imminent risk of defaulting on its debts. Which nation am I talking about? Read the rest of this entry »

(Reuters) – U.S. credit card defaults rose to record highs in May, with a steep deterioration of Bank of America Corp’s (BAC.N) lending portfolio, in another sign that consumers remain under severe stress. Read the rest of this entry »

In a little-noticed trend blamed on the state’s hard economic times, several courts in Florida have resurrected the de facto debtor’s prison — having thousands of Floridians jailed for failing to pay assessed court fees and fines. The shortsighted plan threatens to run afoul of the U.S. Constitution. It appears to generate little additional revenue relative to the misery it causes, and it should be stopped. Read the rest of this entry »

America is devolving into a third-world nation. And if we do not immediately halt our elite’s rapacious looting of the public treasury we will be left with trillions in debts, which can never be repaid, and widespread human misery which we will be helpless to ameliorate. Read the rest of this entry »