US Employment, Housing, Point to Stagnant Economy

The images on US employment below come from Mish's Global Economic Analysis Blog.

Due to the growing budget crunch, local governments are being forced to lay off a large number of workers.

State governments, on the other hand, continue hiring blithely, as if there were no budget crisis whatsoever. They are no doubt expecting the federal government to bail them out.

Manufacturing continues to be outsourced overseas, with minimal startup activity under the Obama regime of energy starvation and economic strangulation.

The graph for total nonfarm employment over 10 years points to the ongoing stagnation following an aborted recovery.

The housing picture follows the employment picture, as you would expect.

The prices of homes, like any other asset, commodity or security, he added, are dictated by the laws of supply and demand.

“Here we are … three to four years after the initial detonation and we’re still left with this gargantuan inventory and that’s going to put an ongoing downward pressure on residential real estate prices,” he stated.

Even worse, he noted, despite the sharp declines in mortgage rates, home sales and demand remain tepid.

“We have excess supply, home prices can go down even more dramatically,” he said.

Housing is the quintessential leading indicator of economic activity, Rosenberg asserted

“As long as housing is in the doldrums and home prices keep going down and putting people in negative net equity position, the government will have to find… creative ways to keep the [economic expansion] going,” he added.

Indeed, he noted, many investors don’t seem to realize that the U.S. economy and markets are still operating on “steroids” (namely, government stimulus and quantitative easing). _IntBusTimes

Perhaps many of the institutional investors understand the precarious nature of the US economy under Obama, but the individuals involved may believe that they can get out safely before the next bubble bursts.

The stock market and commodities are presenting a false picture of economic resurgence to a gullible public. Journalists are too stupid to know better, and those who do know better are generally keeping quiet so as not to annoy Obama and his zombie army.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Will We See These Faces on Wanted Posters?

Every month, more US citizens wake up to the fact that their own government is killing them slowly, through regulations, taxes, and business-strangulating policy. All agencies of the Obama regime have gone all out to damage the US private sector economy, but the environmental agencies are particularly destructive.

Who's doing the most to hobble the productive power of the U.S. economy, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson or Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar? President Obama's top two Cabinet appointees on environmental issues are running neck and neck in their race to see who can issue the most job-killing, growth-suffocating bureaucratic edicts. Regardless of who "wins" their contest, of course, the losers will be the rest of us. We will have to endure long-term double-digit unemployment, skyrocketing energy and utility costs, and the loss of individual freedom that inevitably accompanies the growth of government regulation.

Jackson temporarily nosed ahead early last week when she got a green light from the White House to move forward with new regulations to combat greenhouse gases. Jackson threatened to issue these regulations last year if Congress failed to approve "cap-and-trade" legislation sought by Obama. Cap and trade was decisively defeated by a bipartisan coalition in Congress earlier this year, and now Jackson is making good on her threat. Her move elicited a chorus of pre-Christmas squeals of delight from the legions of Big Green activists angered over congressional rejection of cap and trade. She promises to issue a draft rule next year and a final rule in 2012 that will establish new "performance standards" for power plants and refineries. These standards will drive up the cost of energy, especially the electricity that lights our homes and powers our computers and the gas that keeps our cars and trucks running.

Not to be outdone, Salazar countered toward the end of the week with an audacious end-around play of his own. The Constitution gives Congress exclusive authority to manage U.S. public lands. Thus, the wilderness areas, national parks system and other public lands are overseen by Interior only because Congress authorized the executive branch department to do so. Big Green environmentalists went nuts in 2003 when Gail Norton, Salazar's predecessor in the Bush administration, liberalized Interior's public lands management process to enable more energy development. So Salazar has invented out of whole cloth a "Wild Lands" designation that entirely circumvents the congressionally sanctioned process. _Examiner

Carol Browner, climate czar, is equally destructive to the private sector, working behind the scenes from her White House office to subjugate US industry and business to international climate law.

Until Obama, the US has never had a presidential administration that actively worked to diminish the US in as many ways as possible. As conditions grow worse for average Americans, it is an open question as to when American resentment will grow strong enough for ordinary persons to begin striking back against a government that is increasingly seen as the enemy.

The best form of resolving the problem is through the ballot box, and through revocation of the destructive legislation and regulatory landmines that Obama's people have so carefully and maliciously laid across the landscape. Hope that such a peaceful approach will be enough.

Obama Gains Weight, Explains Net Neutrality Laws

Obama Explains Net Neutrality
A newly rotund President Obama sat down recently to answer questions about his new "Net Neutrality" laws governing the internet. Significant opposition to the new rules exists among the grassroots.

In response to a draft of the Order, net neutrality advocate Free Press joined about 80 other grassroots organizations in signing an open letter to the FCC calling for what it termed “real net neutrality.” _ImpactLab

More about the new law:

The new law expands 2004 restrictions on content in radio, television and print media. In an unprecedented move, it now also includes content from the Internet and electronic subscription services, making webpage managers “responsible for the information and content” published on their websites.”

It is meant to crack down on media content that “makes an apology of crime,” “promotes unrest in the population” or “challenges legally established authorities.” Webpage managers must now “establish mechanisms to restrict, without delay, the diffusion of messages… that are included in the ban.” The measure increases fines imposed on media violations to “10 percent of the previous year’s gross income,” in addition to “72 hours of continuous suspension of services.” _ImpactLab

Mr. Obama appeared surprised to learn about the grassroots opposition to his new internet control laws. But he assured everyone at the press conference that with enough hope and change, anything is possible. "The grownups are now in charge," Mr. Obama declared. "There will be a lot of changes made. We will be watching."

Programme for International Student Assessment Scores

These graphs were compiled by Steve Sailer and published at VDare. The top graph illustrates US PISA scores by ethnicity. The graph below provides the 2009 PISA reading score by various geographical (and sometimes ethnic) groups.

VDare
PISA scores provide a fair but imperfect proxy for IQ scores.

Steve Sailer explains in the VDare article how difficult it is to obtain scores from US educational authorities which are broken down by race. Political correctness prohibits looking at population scores with a clear head or unbiased eye.

Perhaps that will not always be the case.

H/T Half Sigma

US States Living on Borrowed Time

It goes without saying that spend-easy US states are living on borrowed money, like most European nations. But how long before the bond market kicks their prodigal butts back into the gutter where the politicoes and bureaucrats actually belong?

The people who have sucked the states dry -- like their federal and county level counterparts -- are what are generally considered low life scum of the Earth.

In an Idiocracy, however, most of the citizenry is too fat, blind, and stupid to know any better, or to imagine how things might be done differently.

With the ongoing third worldification of the US and Europe, there is no end to the Idiocracy.

President Threatens Unions: Downsize or "Over the Cliff!!!"

Sorry, did you get the impression that US President Obama had grown the cojones to tell public sector unions to stop destroying the US economy at all levels -- federal, state, and local? Ha! The president in question is Socialist Cuba's President Raul Castro. Whatever his faults, Castro, at least, has the wits and the testosterone to lay out the cold facts to public sector unions, and to make the hard decisions.

Cuban President Raul Castro told unionists to accept layoffs and reforms that open the way for private enterprise as necessary for the survival of socialism...“To defend and explain these measures, the working class must learn and be convinced of their importance for the survival of the revolution,” Castro said in an address to the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba, the only union recognized by the Communist Party. “Otherwise we will fall off the cliff.”

Castro’s speech was published in the party newspaper Granma as Cuba prepares to dismiss 500,000 state workers by March, affecting 10% of the workforce.

The dismissed workers are being encouraged to go into business for themselves, and Granma said the central bank may offer micro-credits to new entrepreneurs as the island faces its worst economic slump since the former Soviet Union ended support in the 1990s. _MP

As for Obama, he considers Tuesday's election results to be a mandate for him to push his agenda for radical change even further and faster than he did when he had a sycophantic Nancy Pelosi as his private house maid, for doing his scutwork. Obama is taking a small vacation -- at a cost of $200 million a day -- to visit India in grand style. No -- Obama is not paying $200 million a day for his diverting vacation -- you are!

Somehow the new Republican House of Representatives leadership sees the recent election results a bit differently, than does Obama. It is possible that this slight disagreement may lead to a trifle of unpleasantness in Washington DC, from time to time. Wait and see.

If Republicans actually do try to press a "Tea Party" style agenda on the US federal government, they are likely to feel some "push-back" from public sector unions. Certainly the heavy Republican gains at the state government level -- with the majority of state governor's races won by Republican candidates -- presages some epic government vs. public sector union battles at the state level. Darrell Issa, Republican Representative from California, said this:

"The American people have sent a clear and direct message to Washington that they want less spending, limited government and more accountability," Issa said Tuesday night. "The mandate is clear: Advance an agenda that will create real jobs, not government jobs, but real jobs to get our economy moving again. Reduce the footprint of government in our lives, get government to live within its means and make government more transparent and accountable." _Govexec

To union bosses and enforcers, those sound like fighting words. Particularly when you think about what New Jersey Governor Christie has been doing in his state.

Expect some very interesting times ahead, with two diametrically different visions for the future -- one backed up by billionaire George Soros, public sector unions, leftists in academia, billion dollar lobbyists and hangers-on, etc, and the other mainly led by a grass-roots Tea Party movement that did not exist two years ago.

Previously published at Al Fin Central

Ground Zero for the Coming Anarchy

In many parts of the world, corruption is how things get done. In fact that is how the human world has functioned, on average, for many thousands of years. The modern western world of affluence, human rights, and the rule of law, is something of a glaring exception to the general flow of human history. As long as most people have ways to acquire money for bribes, the bad impact of corruption can be somewhat muted, and the good effects (things getting done) can be attributed to something else.

ImageSource

Regions of the world where the people are generally impoverished are hardest hit by corruption -- since impoverished people cannot pay the bribe. 19 out of 20 of the most impoverished nations on Earth are either SubSaharan African nations, or an offshoot of SubSaharan Africa -- Haiti. Instead of their situations improving, as has been assumed by most well-meaning observers, things are actually getting worse.

The sub-Sahara is not simply an epicenter of economic failure; it is also the epicenter of a pervasive failure in what might be called human development. Poorer countries, of course, tend to suffer from poor health and education as well, and sub-Saharan Africa is by far the poorest region of the planet today. But it is not just that Africa’s health and educational profiles are much worse than for any other major region of the world; they are also markedly worse than would be predicted on the basis of the region’s woeful economic performance alone. _Source

ImageSource

Besides widespread poverty, corruption, and poor infrastructure, SubSaharan African nations must also deal with a low average IQ as well as rampant tribalism. The map of African "micro-nations" reveals the problem of lack of cultural and linguistic cohesion -- which is always threatening to erupt into tribal and micro-national warfare.

And so we see the present and future unraveling of SubSaharan Africa -- ground zero for the Coming Anarchy. The reasons for this continuing unraveling are many and deep. It is a genuine "dark ages" in the making, a violent illustration of why politically correct multiculturalism is such a destructive deception, wherever practised.

Facing Africa's central problem of low average population IQ would demonstrate that problem-solvers were serious about helping Africa and its people. But that is unlikely to happen where political correctness holds sway. Those who claim to help end up hurting them the most.

Boxer: Pathetic in 1992, Still Pathetic in 2010

California is an economic basket case, but it was a demographic basket case long before it began electing an idiocracy into the state assembly, and to the national congress. Boxer is but a symptom of the California idiocracy. Unfortunately, she has helped President Obama to create a pan-American idiocracy which threatens to de-stabilise much of the advanced world. It would be best if Barbara took a long vacation from government work.

European Austerity Measures: But a Knee-Jerk Reaction?

There is no doubt that several European governments are attempting to back-pedal on their overly-generous -- but ultimately ruinous -- welfare states. From Greece to Ireland to France to the UK, European governments are attempting to stave off disaster by down-sizing government benefits and workforces, through a variety of means.

...across Europe, where the threat of a double-dip recession remains palpable, what is most surprising is not simply that governments from Germany to Greece are slashing public outlays but that the debate hinges more on how fast to do so rather than whether such substantial cuts are the right thing to do under the current circumstances. _Mish

What you don't hear from the American left these days is much acknowledgment that the Europeans are backpedaling as fast as they can. There is a reason that transportation and oil-refinery unions have been striking in France and government workers are rioting again in Greece. When Greece nearly defaulted on its national debt last year, governments got a glimpse of what would happen when the money ran out, and they began enacting some of the toughest austerity measures of the post-World War II era.

While France and Greece have grabbed the headlines - protesters setting things on fire makes a visual the media can't resist - the most important case study in austerity economics may be the United Kingdom. Taking out the carving knife, the newly elected Conservative Party government is dissecting government with a vigor not seen since Margaret Thatcher's heyday. _WaTimes

Leftism always fails, sooner or later. Any political economy that presses citizens into dependency on government for basic needs will fail, since such economies clash with basic human nature. Leftist economies are all about redistribution and government spending, but they have no clues how to generate wealth to begin with.

A look back at the perilous -- and ultimately failed -- economic transition in Russia may be helpful. Many courageous Russians attempted to create a thriving market economy out of the remains of the USSR command economy. But they were thwarted by the corrupt power-mongers who seized control of Russia's wealth. These corrupt thugs killed Russia's nascent renaissance in its nursery crib.

Once a nation's people surrenders to a thugocracy -- of whatever stripe -- it becomes very difficult to throw off the chains in order to create a market economy which creates sustainable wealth.

As for Europe, it is not clear that her leaders have learned the true lessons behind the ongoing collapse of nanny-state economies. The deep truths of human nature as they relate to economics are quite unpalatable to most politicians and would be dictators.

Obama's War Against Private Sector Jobs

As the economy suffers this employment migraine, its causes come into sharper focus. Instead of providing relief, President Obama and his party have aggravated an already grim employment picture. _WS

Obama's personal character has not developed at all since he was a young radical, sitting at his mother's knee. As long as he is allowed to strut and prance upon the public stage, posturing like a brain-dead peacock, he will continue to do so. He will learn nothing from his failures, as he has learned less than nothing from his successes. His zombie followers have found their perfect role model.

Americans want a president that brings the country together, a leader who tries to unify, not divide. But, instead, Obama serves up fiery, campaign-like speeches fingering business leaders as boardroom bogeymen, not job creators. _WS

On the Road to George Soros' America: 42 million and Rising

Source

About 42 million Americans now subsist on food stamps, with a continued substantial rise as the Obama Pelosi regime continues to pursue its Soros-backed agenda. But Ms. Pelosi tells us that food stamps are a sign of prosperity. Should we believe her?

At a press conference in her home town of San Francisco, Pelosi explained that the program’s multiplier effect –the amount of money generated in the local economy as the result of the subsidy– far exceeds the nearly $60 billion spent this year by the federal government and is a sure-fire way to stimulate the economy. For every dollar a person receives in food stamps, Pelosi said that $1.79 is put back into the economy. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cites an even higher figure of $1.84.

“It is the biggest bang for the buck when you do food stamps and unemployment insurance. The biggest bang for the buck,” she said.

New Obama/Pelosi plan for our economy: Put EVERYONE on food stamps and unemployment and watch the multiplier effect turn this thing around.

Let’s have the government spend $2 trillion on food stamps and we’ll get back $3.68 trillion. We’ll all be rich. Why haven’t we been doing this all along? _BigGovernment

It is a strange sort of logic that drives these fools in their quest toward universal government dependency -- for the little people, that is. A queer type of entitlement mentality pervades the ruling classes, the ones who know what is best for you.

If Americans ever do get involved in politics again -- as was intended by the founding fathers -- a lot of the members of the ruling class will have a lot of 'splainin' to do.

Unrest In Europe as Pampered Pets Demand Treats

The people of Europe -- particularly public employees -- are accustomed to being kept by the state -- rather like pampered pets. But times are changing. The population of European taxpayers is shrinking. Crime is rising as third world immigrants with no love for Europe are filling the schools, the birthing wards, and the prisons. For Europeans to riot in response the government austerity measures -- at a time like this -- is like a pampered poodle pooping on the furniture to get its way. Very bad form.

In 35 countries for which data exists, nearly 40 per cent of jobseekers have been without work for more than one year, running risks of demoralisation and mental health problems, and young people were disproportionately hit by unemployment.

It noted that social unrest related to the crisis has been reported in at least 25 countries, including some recovering emerging economies.

This week riot police were on the streets as protesters in Spain, Belgium, Italy and Greece demonstrated against tough austerity measures. _Telegraph

Just wait until half or more of Europe's cities are populated by third world immigrants and their progeny. Europeans will then learn what rioting is all about.

Obama's Nasty Pet Pigs Pollute Nation's Capital

The great gathering of socialist pigs came to Washington for a group whine, and when they left, piles of their trash remained behind -- dropped and scattered everywhere. This is in contrast with a recent rally by anti-Obama groups, who left the DC mall in pristine condition. Some political animals are humans, others -- Obama's -- are pigs. I understand bedbugs are making a comeback in government offices and residencies in DC as well.

There appeared to be just one person cleaning up when TheDC was there Sunday. In the southeast corner by the National World War II Memorial, he was shoving trash into a long-handled dustpan with a single broom.

He said he was a subcontractor for the city and while the gentleman didn’t wish to be named, he probably wouldn’t mind being called ‘Hercules.’ When approached by TheDC, Hercules was immediately and noticeably grumpy.

Hercules said he had been cleaning up the area around the Memorial since 6 a.m. and expected to be there for “at least” 12 hours.

“They should have planned more,” he said. “There should have been a clean-up crew.”

Hercules said he also helped clean-up after Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally and as a result he was in good position to judge the cleanliness of the respective rally protesters. Not only was the “Restoring Honor” rally tidier, according to Hercules, but the “One Nation” rally downright dirty.

“I was at the other one too,” he said. “So I’ve seen both. I know the difference.”

“This group” just didn’t get it, he continued. “Let’s just say: I’m in a bad mood.”

On a visit to Washington with her daughter, California resident Pam Hewitt didn’t think much of the protestors who left their droppings all over the Mall.

“People … have the freedom of the speech and to assemble and all that, but to leave this much trash behind is just disrespectful,” she said.

Neither Flo McAfee nor Andrea Alford, representatives of the “One Nation” rally, were available for comment on Sunday — despite numerous attempts. The environmentally-friendly Sierra Club, one of the sponsors of the rally, could not be reached for comment either. _DailyCaller

All of this is not really surprising, since we have seen the same contrast between the aftermath of duelling rallies before. Something about Obama that simply attracts pigs.

Castro to Obama: "How Do You Like Me Now?"

Fidel Castro has finally come out and admitted that his revolution was a failure. And his brother Raul follows up on that admission by announcing the downsizing of the top-heavy communist government of Cuba by 500,000 government jobs! It is a sad day for Latin communism, and for the heroic revolution that failed.

Consider this comment from a knowledgeable Cuban critic who was asked if the country's brand of socialism, created by Fidel Castro after his 1959 revolution, could be of use in other countries: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." That remark would have gotten him in trouble with authorities, if his name were not Fidel Castro.

There may yet be admirers of Cuban communism in certain precincts of Berkeley or Cambridge, but it's hard to find them in Havana. The 84-year-old Fidel (who later said he didn't mean to say that) has turned control over to brother Raul, whose faith in the shining power of Marxism-Leninism has also dried up.

This week, the regime said it will dismiss 500,000 people from government jobs, which account for 84 percent of the work force. Reflecting ruefully on the perils of sheltered bureaucracy, Raul Castro declared recently, "We have to erase forever the notion that Cuba is the only country in the world where one can live without working."

...Roger Noriega, a researcher at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, notes that before communism arrived, Cuba "was one of the most prosperous and egalitarian societies of the Americas." His colleague Nicholas Eberstadt has documented that pre-Castro Cuba had a high rate of literacy and a life expectancy surpassing that in Spain, Greece, and Portugal.

Instead of accelerating development, Castro has hindered it. In 1980, living standards in Chile were double those in Cuba. Thanks to bold free-market reforms implemented in Chile but not Cuba, the average Chilean's income now appears to be four times higher than the average Cuban's.

...But even economic failures and political tyranny have been not enough to deprive Castro of Western admirers. On a 2000 visit to Havana, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asserted, "Castro's regime has set an example we can all learn from." His lieutenant Che Guevara has been endlessly romanticized. Movie director Oliver Stone once marveled of Fidel, "I'm totally awed by his ability to survive and maintain a strong moral presence."

Cubans may differ. About 1.5 million of them have fled since Castro arrived, many in rickety boats that put their lives in peril. And the government, for some reason, doesn't let ordinary citizens decide if it remains in power.

That's the grisly fate of modern Cubans. Communism is dead, and they're shackled to the corpse. _ReasonMag

Norteamericanos may feel the same way about Obama. His brain is dead, but they are shackled to his corpse.

Don't Cry for Me, Obamanistas!

An Argentinian Photo Album

When the leader of the world's superpower consciously embarks on a mission to destroy the integrity of his nation's economic and political infrastructure, one should understand the perversely tragic aspects of the situation. Mr. Obama's dreams of conquest over the evils of the colonial western world are near their climax. It is unfortunate that he lacks the insight into his own motivations, and that he fails to see the parallels between his own suicidally quixotic quest, and the many similar futile quests of leftist justice over the past century and more.

20 years after the collapse of Soviet Eastern Europe, and as Chavez' Venezuela falters and Castro is acknowledging the failure of his own revolution, Mr. Obama has just begun to institute his own revolution of destruction against the Great Satan of the Islamists, and the bane of leftists around the world.

Although it is still the world's superpower military hegemon and the economic anchor of the world's economy, the steep upward trajectory of the US government's debt was already a cause of concern even before Mr. Obama was elected. But Obama has increased the acceleration of economic doom by an order of magnitude -- and in so many ways that it is impossible not to suspect that it is an intentional agenda of destruction. The Obama Pelosi regime has made sure that there is no political way out of the quagmire, despite the worst the Tea Party may try to achieve to restore constitutional government.

Obama's plan does amount to an elaborate revolution and bloodless coup against the constitutional political and economic protections put in place over 2 centuries ago. The energy starvation aspects of the Obama Pelosi regime alone are enough to destroy the private sector eventually, but the hidden malignant aspects of Obamacare and the Dodd-Frank act -- among many other new regulations, provisions, and laws -- will accelerate the destruction beyond the comprehension of those who think in simple political and economic terms. And so it goes without end -- an ambitious coup against the "negative aspects" of the US Constitution. Because Mr. Obama's genius cannot be constrained by such an ancient document of restraint.

And so it comes down to insurrection. But a bloodless coup does not require a bloody insurrection to counter it. In fact, Americans should not even want the America that existed before Obama's election -- although Obama Pelosi has made many Americans look back with nostalgia to pre-OP times.

What kind of insurrection will it take to bring about a constitutional government with equal protections under the law and abundant opportunities for expanding the economy?

A comment on a previous article -- which mentioned voluntary alteration of tax compliance by citizens -- contains the beginning of an idea which needs to be expanded and transformed. But governments cannot go on indefinitely spending more than they receive. The government printing press contains the ink of its own destruction, as the Perons of Argentina and other tyrannical populists throughout history have learned to their regret.

More on the peaceful insurrection later.

Previously published at Al Fin

Tea Party in St. Louis

The US Tea Party movement is a coalition of citizen's groups from across the nation. The main common thread running through the different organisations is the desire to see a smaller, less grasping, less dictatorial government -- running on a much smaller budget.

Not coincidentally, that is the type of government that the founding fathers attempted to set up in the beginning of the nation.

Leftist political groups can see the deep groundswell of support behind these movements, and working through the national media cartel have attempted to distort and caricature the image of the Tea Party groups.

We will know in November how well they succeeded, or how badly they have failed.

Motorcycle Plus Guns? Taliban as Young Man's Fantasy

Source H/T ReverseSpins

If you join the Taliban you can ride motorcycles, shoot guns, and if you get killed you go straight to paradise to be served in every way by 72 pure virgins of your Koran-fevered dreams. If you are a young man growing up in dirt-poor, war-ravaged Afghanistan, looking for adventure -- what are you going to do? The Taliban effort is well funded by outside Islamic funding agencies. Iran is an important provider of resources.

KABUL -- At least five Iranian companies in Afghanistan's capital are using their offices covertly to finance Taliban militants in provinces near Kabul, according to a Sunday Times investigation.

Afghan intelligence and Taliban sources have told the newspaper that the firms, set up in the past six months, provide cash for a network of district Taliban treasurers to pay battlefield expenses and bonuses for killing the enemy and destroying their vehicles.

The Iranian companies win contracts to supply materials and logistics to Afghans involved in reconstruction. The money often comes in the form of aid from foreign donors.

Profits are transferred through poorly regulated Afghan banks — including Kabul Bank, which is partly owned by President Hamid Karzai’s brother Mahmood — to Tehran and Dubai.

From these countries, the money returns to Afghanistan through the informal Islamic banking system known as hawala to be dispersed to the Taliban. _Source

Source

The huge "youth bulge" seen in the population pyramid of Afghanistan -- and several other dirt-poor Islamic and third world countries -- suggests that the Islamic wars of Asia and Africa will be "forever wars", at least through most of this century. Demography is destiny in many ways.

What Will It Take to Get the US Economy Going Again?

We are deep in the death-throes of a dead cat economy. It will bounce when dropped hard, but gravity always wins. Here are 10 reasons why this "dead cat" recovery of sorts is not sustainable:

1. Although the jobs report beat expectations, job growth is nowhere near the level we need to maintain employment; let alone fuel real job growth.
2. Furthermore, the U6 unemployment is 16.7%; the highest since April. In addition, the direction of job growth is down. July had private sector jobs added was 107,000; August had only 67,000 jobs added.
3. The direction of GDP is also down from over 5% in Q42009 to 3.7% in Q12010 to 1.6% in Q42010
4. The projected job growth in 2011 keeps coming down as well. Latest consensus is 1.8% from 2.3%
5. Health care premiums charged to workers are going up as result of Obamacare, and will start to be deducted out of worker’s paychecks. This is hardly a good thing for consumer spending or confidence
6. The capital of Pennsylvania just missed a bond payment and is considering bankruptcy. The last thing the economy needs is turmoil in the municipal bond market
7. The Mariner rig fire will likely prevent any quick end to the administration’s job killing drilling moratorium in the Gulf. Having highly paid oil workers sit idle is hardly what the Gulf economy needs right now
8. Retailers continue to have to resort to discounting to move merchandise according to the recent retail sales report. This is not good for margins, and a poor indicator of consumer confidence
9. The peak of Federal stimulus spending has now passed and its contribution to anemic GDP growth will lessen in the quarters ahead
10. Potential crises overseas continue to roil just below the surface
a. The overheated property sector bubble in China could very well pop by the end of the year
b. Ireland is a disaster and could be next European country to need help from the ECB
c. The financial system in Afghanistan is on verge of collapse due to a massive fraud and a run on its third largest bank. _SeekingAlpha

Wealth comes from healthy trade and growth within the private sector. If your government is intent to murder the private sector, it is also murdering the future wealth of your nation. That is where the US stands, 19 months after electing the Obama Pelosi regime.

Distilled Demographics: Birth Rate

PRB
This video will explain why the nurseries, kindergartens, and schools of the affluent world are becoming a bit under-populated.

In Europe you may find most nursery cribs occupied by children of third world immigrants. This wave of immigrant children will pass through the schools, and into the prison population almost before you know it. So even though crime rates in Europe are bound to soar -- relatively speaking -- the social welfare programs and skilled occupations will suffer for the lack of highly intelligent and well trained workers in the workforce.

In the US these low-performing, high crime rate immigrants are coming largely from Mexico and Central America. Canada is experiencing somewhat less of an effect due to the buffer of the US between Canada and Latin America. Even so, Canada is becoming far more diverse over time, demographically, due to immigration from East and South Asia, as well as the third world -- and Europe. But a higher proportion of Canada's immigrants are well-educated and well into their middle adult years, and less prolific at child-bearing.

The US was the beneficiary of immigration from high-IQ countries in Europe and East Asia during its 19th and early 20th century expansion. But since the radicalisation of US immigration policy -- encouraging immigration from low IQ countries -- the US is beginning to experience the negative side of immigration.

Distilled Demographics: The Population Pyramid

PRB
The populations of some countries are shrinking at the same time that the populations of others are shooting into the stratosphere.

Watch the video for some elementary concepts in population change. You should begin to get an idea of why Japan and Europe are shrinking so quickly, while much of the third world is exploding out of all containment.

The shrinking countries are becoming a burgeoning crisis, mainly because the countries which are shrinking the most quickly are some of the most affluent and generous -- in terms of foreign aid and international peacekeeping.

Very few will miss the belligerence of Russia when the Russians are gone, of course, but Europeans have been an important part of the glue that has held the world community together. Without Europe, much of the third world could easily explode into perpetual violence.