Greek Consumers Most Pessimistic On Earth: 40% Have No Disposable Income

Submitted by Tyler Durden: Chronicling the collapsing Greek socioeconomic reality would be an interesting business school case study of what a zombie monetary regime kept alive at all costs does to the "weakest link(s)" (most recently "Greek Economy Grinds To A Halt As New Construction Implodes By 66.6%" and "Person Trampled As Fight Breaks Out At Greek Free Food Handout"), if only there weren't real men and women suffering as a result of the stupidity and greed of a few entrenched individuals who will stop at nothing to see their paper wealth preserved at all costs. The latest salvo of the utter misery Greek society finds itself in comes from Nielsen research, which reports that Greeks are now the most pessimistic consumers on the planet, with the Greek consumer confidence index dropping to 35 points in the last quarter of 2012. That is the lowest level among a total of 58 countries surveyed and 11 points lower than the same period last year in Greece.

It gets worse.
As Kathimerini reports: "Four out of 10 Greeks told the same survey that they no longer have any disposable money left after covering their basic needs, which is the highest rate ever recorded in Greece and the biggest in the October-December period in Europe. A year earlier (in Q4 2011) that rate had stood at 34 percent and in Q4 of 2010 it had been at 25 percent." Obligatory spin: once nobody has any disposable income, things can only get better. Unless, as Rajoy might add, they get worse.

The Number One Thing The United States Subsidizes Is Ignorance

LeeCamp2: Okay, so the title might sound a bit harsh. But watch the video, and you might agree. To read more on exporting garbage, go here: http://bit.ly/NnsdIi and to read more on flammable tap water, go here: http://bit.ly/jYl2tP Source

Top Economic Advisers Forecast U.S. War and Unrest + Obamikado - I've Got a Little List

By WashingtonsBlog: Kyle Bass, Larry Edelson, Charles Nenner, James Dines, Nouriel Roubini, Jim Rogers, Marc Faber and Jim Rickards Warn or War
We’re already at war in numerous countries all over the world.

But top economic advisers warn that economic factors could lead to a new world war.
Kyle Bass writes:

Trillions of dollars of debts will be restructured and millions of financially prudent savers will lose large percentages of their real purchasing power at exactly the wrong time in their lives. Again, the world will not end, but the social fabric of the profligate nations will be stretched and in some cases torn. Sadly, looking back through economic history, all too often war is the manifestation of simple economic entropy played to its logical conclusion. We believe that war is an inevitable consequence of the current global economic situation.

LAPD caught on tape - Dorner's hideout deliberately torched - "Fucking Burn This Motherfucker"

RT: Disgraceful US 'Police' were heard on Los Angeles TV and over LAPD audio yelling to burn down fugitive ex-cop Chris Dorner’s cabin, revealing a deliberate, considered plan to torch the building in which Dorner was believed to be hiding. ­Local news channel Kcal9 has played a recording in which police were heard to yell “burn this motherfucker down,” and another shouting, “fucking burn this motherfucker,” as Dorner was barricaded inside his hideout.
The news followed an LAPD audio recording in which a police officer is heard to say, “Alright, we're gonna go ahead with the plan with the burners,” and continued, saying, “like we talked about,” as his colleague confirmed he is in agreement.  
Dorner had barricaded himself in the cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains near Big Bear, Los Angeles. The drawn-out and dramatic manhunt culminated with a siege and shootout.
His hideout cabin was apparently set alight after attempts to force him out using smoke bombs and teargas failed. The message “surrender or come out,” had been blasted into the building by law enforcement officials, and the media was ordered to shut off their live feeds during the stand-off.

Horse meat scandal: the economics

Ed Conway: That’s right, even the horse meat saga does, inevitably, come down to economics.
One of the main rules of the subject is that if something goes up in price, people will tend to substitute for alternative goods. That goes for individuals and for businesses. And it so happens that meat prices have jumped in price since the onset of the financial crisis.

You can see what’s happened in the chart above, showing you meat prices (in red) vs overall CPI inflation over the past decade. Until 2008 the two moved more or less in lockstep with each other, but since 2008 meat prices jumped higher.
And here, below, is what’s happened to the price of UK-slaughtered meat in the past few years (the data is from the Office for National Statistics’ producer prices database). Again, you can see a marked increase recently.

Now, none of this is to discount the other complex elements of the horse meat story: the corporate failures, the deceit towards consumers, a possible criminal element. There’s an interesting story on the FT website (£) about the possible contribution from horse culling.

The NWO: Obama the bomber signs executive order on cybersecurity

RT: Barack 'baby bomber' Obama has signed an executive order on cybersecurity aimed at 'boosting the defense of critical US infrastructure', while also avoiding the criticism over compromising civil liberties that its legislative predecessors suffered from.

­The legislative push continues, and will cover the same area and make the increase in security mandatory for the private sector. A new version of the controversial bill CISPA is expected to be introduced to the House on Wednesday.
President Obama revealed the long-expected executive order in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. He cited “growing threat from cyber-attacks” as the reason he used his executive power where legislators failed, adding that America must face this rapidly growing threat.
“We know hackers steal people’s identities and infiltrate private e-mail,” he said. “We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets. Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, and our air traffic control systems.”
Years from now, Americans cannot look back and wonder “why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy,” Obama said.
The order directs government officials to come up with standards to reduce cybersecurity risks within the next 240 days, and to encourage companies to adopt the new framework. However, it has no legal power to force companies to adopt the framework of cybersecurity best practices.

PM Asked About Currency Wars - Cameron says you don't depreciat currency for growth

liarpoliticians: Conservarive MP Peter Tapsell comments on the start (aka new phase) of the global currency war, one that Japan, UK, and USA are in a VERY bad shape to survive (although you won't hear the politicians admit it).

Nazi Gulag: Israeli regime gagged media over "suicide" in custody of secret police 'Prisoner X'

RT: Media and officials in the land of Palestine under the control of the Israel regime are outraged over a new censorship order preventing media from writing about a report on an Australian man who worked for Mossad and was secretly detained for months until he committed suicide in 2010.
­The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) shed new light on the top-secret case about a man previously known only as ‘Prisoner X.’ It was reported that the man was 34-year old Australian-born Ben Zygier from Melbourne, who was recruited by the Israel regime's 'secret service'* Mossad.

After ABC’s broke the news, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office summoned the Editors Committee, consisting of all of the editors and owners of major Israeli media outlets, for an emergency meeting with security officials to ask them not to report on the story – effective implementing a nationwide publishing ban.  
The ban was justified over fears that publishing further details on the case would be “very embarrassing to a certain government agency,” Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. After the meeting, the mention of ABC’s report disappeared from all Israeli news media.
Such strict censorship is very unusual for Israel, the Reuters report explained – typically, when the media is censored for security reasons, Israeli outlets are still allowed to cite the news from foreign sources.
The details of the meeting were kept secret, prompting Israeli lawmakers to demand the release of information on it. The editors’ decision not to publish anything about ‘Prisoner X’ has led many in Israel to speak out against the media’s cooperation with the regime’s ban.

UP IN SMOKE

banzai7

The Limerick King:

These Stoners are blowing some smoke
They’re hiding the fact that they’re broke
The only contagion
Is growth that they’re stagin’
It’s time drugged-up sheeple awoke!

Silver Is Probably The Best Asset In The World

Gold Silver Worlds: The newest “Thunder Road Report” appeared today. The author Ted Ferguson (associated to Seymour Pierce Equity Research) always succeeds in bringing an well researched message. In his latest edition, titled “Silver: right now (probably) the best asset in the world” he focuses on silver and its prospects.
This newest edition counts some 8 pages goes and the summary invites you to read the whole document:

For more than a century, the silver price has correlated most closely with a cycle based on the combination of two further statistically significant cycles in silver prices lasting 5.58 years and 31 years, respectively. The next peak in this combined cycle is forecast for July / August 2013, which would imply a new all-time high in the silver price in excess of US$50/oz (the current price is US$31.47/oz.). Having underperformed significantly from their most recent price relative peaks in 2011, the risk / reward trade-off for premier silver mining stocks, like Fresnillo (quoted in London) and Pan American Silver (North America) looks favourable.

The author analyzes two silver cycles: the 5.58 year and 31 year cycle. Those two cycles “predict” a new cyclical high in 2013 which would imply a new all-time high in the price of silver at something over US$50/oz. Please take this information for what it is: a forecast although a well researched one.

David Icke: Reality 2.0

Alex welcomes English writer and journalist David Icke to discuss recent studies speculating on the possibly-contrived nature of reality and the idea that the universe could in fact be one large computer simulation.
http://www.davidicke.com/ Source

Horse Meat: Andrew Neil grills Owen Paterson

liarpoliticians: Conservative environment secretary Owen Paterson is grilled by Andrew Neil on the continuing and worsening horse meat scandal. Paterson claims you cannot stop imports of EU meet... but the French have ZERO problem banning UK meet then getting a ban extending in seconds for the rest of Europe. Wimp LibLabCon kiss the backside of Brussels and criminals. Source