Posts by thedailyjournalist:
- For the first time ever in the US, more people were killed by drugs than motor vehicle accidents
- 37,485 people died from drugs, a rate fueled by overdoses on prescription pain and anxiety medications, versus 36,284 from traffic accidents
- Drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, and more than tripled among people aged 50 to 69
- lower oil imports and higher domestic production of oil;
- the demographic shift of boomers from spending to saving;
- more favorable dollar and rising foreign labor rates favor USA over foreign production.
Are developing countries heading for a crash
February 20th, 2014
By Wells Fargo.
To read report: Developing_Countries_10282013
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Snowden attorney interrogated and harassed at Heathrow
February 18th, 2014By Alton Parrish.
Edward Snowden
_(cropped).jpg)
Because both the U.K. and the U.S. recognize the right to counsel, GAP, a 36-year old non-governmental organization that operates as a law firm, deplored the incident. “When a government subjects the attorney for a political defendant such as Edward Snowden to intimidation and harassment, then in practice, that government infringes the right to counsel,” said GAP Executive Director Bea Edwards. “The government of the U.K., together with the U.S. government – to the extent that it cooperated – explicitly violated Edward Snowden’s right to counsel by harassing Ms. Radack, his attorney.”
Not only have the two governments broken their own laws in questioning Ms. Radack about her work for Mr. Snowden, they are also in violation of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which both have signed. The Declaration clearly implies the right to counsel when it states that everyone shall be regarded equally before the law and shall enjoy the right to a fair and public trial by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal.
The United Nations Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012, reaffirms the right to counsel in international law. Nonetheless, the principle was ignored by the U.K. Border Force, apparently at the request of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security three days ago.
GAP has protected nearly 5,000 whistleblowers in the U.S. and abroad over the course of its history and notes that as the public becomes more dependent on these individuals of conscience for information about government illegality, fraud, and abuse of authority, retaliation against them and those who seek to protect them is becoming more intense. The treatment of Ms. Radack at Heathrow is evidence of this.
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The Leading Health Source: An American company striving to help the unhealthy
February 16th, 2014The Leading Health Source: A company striving to help the unhealthy
The leading health source is one of the few pioneers that battles against pharmaceutical giants, and allows people who suffers from multiple health disorders caused by the side effects of prescriptions to use natural alternatives to increase their health.
We found out by conducting a study, that there is a 94% ratio of health success, using such things as ‘Marine Phytoplankton, Real 0, and Garcinia Cambogia’ The study also suggested that only 5% of complaints were posted by users without identification and possibly hired by pharmaceutical advocates to give a bad reputation to natural health products that interfere with their prescription sales. This practice has been observed by other natural companies.
However, no health company has a 100% success ratio guaranteed. But those that re-ordered product from the Leading Health Source committed to the programs assigned by the nutritionist and saw major results.
Melissa Bradford 78, from Virginia Beach, “I was a skeptic of the program at first because I thought they where selling junk, but due to my severe arthritis, I felt no other option than to try something new for my pain. I ended up getting the 18 month program for the “Real O” and within six months my pain went significantly down. I also quit taking high cholesterol pills, and I lost a significant amount of weight. I was committed to the program and got excellent results.”
Betty Palick 65, Brooklyn, New York City, ” I knew about oxygen from when I studied biology, but never really tried anything to increase my oxygen levels. I asked my doctor in Maimomindes Medical Center about oxygen, and he told me “oxygen would help my condition,” and asked me, “if I had the money to do a Hyperberic Chamber treatment?” I told them, I couldn’t afford it. I then found out about “Real O” and signed up for the program. Within 7 months my MS, and my High Blood Pressure were naturally controlled. I also stop having depressions caused by the medications I was taking. I feel very healthy for my age, the nutritionist helped me get there, and it was worth every penny.”
Brandon Washington 83, North Seattle, Washington, “My sexual life was gone at age 49! I had trouble sleeping and I read an article about the side effects of prescription medications in my body. I was simply appalled to see my doctor never really went over the side effects of the pills I was taking. I threw up in the bathroom and got very sick at one point. I got a phone call from The Leading Health Source, and decided to sign up for the 6 months program of Marine Phytoplankton. I thought it was a little beyond my budget but I had no choice since I still work. When the 6 months were over, my sexual life was activated, I lost significant amount of weight, and I had no longer had trouble sleeping. The nutritionist, warned me that it was a program, and a program had to followed! Unlike my wife who did not follow the program correctly, I followed up and gained back my sexual life again.”
Leading Health Result tracks
From a parameter sample taken from the companies book 130 seniors, of 117 reported a significant increase in health, and a cut back of prescriptions previously approved by their physicians. Re order rates came across 91% in most cases.
The study also showed that out of 117 success cases, 79 seniors never returned to their regular doctor , whereas 27, kept a close relationship with their physicians but did not want to continue their medications.
The investigation also found out that all nutritionist were licensed and had about 10 years experience helping one-on-one thousands of seniors suffering from health issues. The nutritionist also helped seniors get natural advice about out-market related products.
Top 3 best sellers.
Oxygen treatments are one of Americas upcoming “almost cure everything” as they focus on allowing health treatments. Hyperbaric Chambers list among the best natural programs in the world, and also treatments like “Real O” which is a more powerful natural product than the “stabilized liquid oxygen” The Leading Health Source had a 93% sale rate on “Real O”
Marine Phytoplankton, was also ranked very high by the companies preference of choice due to its high demand, especially on the West Coast. 90% of seniors ranked the MP as better or just as good as the Real O.
Garcinia Cambogia, was the third most ranked product with a 89% rate of sales. Since it was featured in Dr. Oz and other health channels, it’s now Americas top weight reducer and its almost always out of stock.
(None of the natural products listed showed signs of side effects, except a minor diarrhea)
Why Americans are getting tired of Prescriptions?
It is calculated that the side effects from prescriptions medications caused by such things as High Blood Pressure or Cholesterol are one of the leading reasons people react to natural alternatives.
The new study, just published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, concludes more drugs are prescribed because the threshold for what constitutes an “illness” keeps getting lower and lower, thanks in large part to Big Pharma’s influence.
For example, what was once normal blood pressure is now too high or, if approaching high, is called “pre-hypertension” and Big Pharma recommends treatment. And instead of telling someone with high blood sugar to lose weight and exercise and eventually they could improve or normalize their condition, it’s likely a doctor will emphasize that a person found to have type 2 diabetes will need to rely on medication for life, leading to other health issues within time.
The Daily Journalist also published a report (TDJ Report) conducted by the State Of New Jersey, that shows why drug addiction has become a serious issue amongst seniors and people who have serious health problem who are not recovering.
More than half of the patients studied were taking five or more drugs. Interviews with these people showed the cost of the drugs was often a hardship and the patients were often made sicker because of adverse side-effects.
Prescription drugs are now killing far more people than illegal drugs, and while most major causes of preventable deaths are declining, those from prescription drug use are increasing, an analysis of recently released data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by the Los Angeles Timesre vealed.
The Times analysis of 2009 death statistics, the most recent available, showed:
Concerns regarded have grown larger and larger and Michigan State University anthropologist Linda M. Hunt, PhD., decided to research and found out that Physicians were pushing drugs to their patients to get a better paycheck.
Dr. Hunt points out in her study that physicians are caught up in an “auditing and reward system.” That means doctors are rewarded by drug companies for prescribing more and more drugs. Perhaps most disturbing is what Hunt calls a “prescribing cascade.” Simply put, drugs are prescribed to help relieve side effects caused by other drugs. Then still more drugs can be prescribed to relieve any new side-effects from the recently prescribed drugs.
National Public Radio (NPR) said, “A big new study of statin use in the real world found that 17 percent of patients taking the pills reported side effects, including muscle pain, nausea, and problems with their liver or nervous system.”
That’s a lot higher than the 5 to 10 percent reported in the randomized controlled trials that provided evidence for regulatory approval of the medicines.
This study, which was published in Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at more than 100,000 people who’d been prescribed statins from 2000 through 2008 at two academic medical centers.
About two-thirds of people with side effects quit taking statins. All in all, half of all the people who been prescribed the drugs quit them at last temporarily. Twenty percent quit for more than a year.
Pharmaceutical companies lobby millions of dollars to prevent natural products, from taking statin drugs out of the market. As Dr. Alberto Ferry from University of San Juan, “Medications don’t cure, they just relieve pain but in a dangerous way”
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Venezuela Country Report
February 16th, 2014
By BTI.
To read report: Venezuela Country Report
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A Global Reality: Governmental Access to Data in the Cloud
February 12th, 2014
By Winston Maxwell, Paris, France Christopher Wolf, Washington, DC.
To read report: A Global Reality: Governmental Access to Data in the Cloud
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EU Anti-Corruption report
February 9th, 2014
By EU Commission Report.
To read report: EU Anti-Corruption report
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Nelson Mandela’s last will memo
February 7th, 2014
By The Daily Journalist.
To Read Memo: Nelson Mandela’s last will memo
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Drug Addiction as a Human Right Issue in Iran
February 5th, 2014
By Taimoor Aliassi.
To read report: Drug Addiction as a Human Right Issue in Iran
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Snowden leaks documents to different news agencies
February 3rd, 2014
By The Daily Journalist.
31 January 2014. Add 27 pages to CBC News. Tally now *1,084 pages of The Guardian first reported 58,000 files; caveat: Janine Gibson, The Guardian NY, said on 30 January 2014 “much more than 58,000 files in first part, two more parts” (no numbers) (tally now less than ~1.8%). DoD claims 1,700,000 files (~.0062% of that released).
27 January 2014. Add 47 pages to NBC News.
27 January 2014. Add 18 pages to Anonymous via New York Times.
16 January 2014. Add 8 pages to The Guardian.
* 14 January 2014. Add 21 pages to Information.dk (duplicate).
* 13 January 2014. Add 4 pages to Information.dk (duplicate).
Related Snowden Document and Page Count Assessment:
http://cryptome.org/2014/01/snowden-count.htm
* 5 January 2014. Add 16 pages to Der Spiegel (30 December 2013. No source given for NSA docs). Tally now *962 pages (~1.7%) of reported 58,000. NSA head claims 200,000 (~.50% of that released).
4 January 2014. The source was not identified for *133 pages published by Der Spiegel and Jacob Appelbaum in late December 2013. They are included here but have not been confirmed as provided by Edward Snowden. Thanks to post by Techdirt.
Glenn Greenwald tweeted:
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald, 8:05 AM – 29 Dec 13@Cryptomeorg @ioerror I had no involvement in that Spiegel article, ask them – and they don’t say those are Snowden docs.
Matt Blaze tweeted, 11:24 AM – 2 Jan 14
matt blaze @mattblazeIf there are other sources besides Snowden, I hope journalists getting docs are careful to authenticate them (& disclose uncertainty).
3 January 2014. Add 13 pages to Washington Post.
3 January 2014. See also EFF, ACLU and LeakSource accounts:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/nsa-spying-primary-sources
https://www.aclu.org/nsa-documents-released-public-june-2013
http://leaksource.wordpress.com/
2 January 2014. Add 1 page to Washington Post published 10 July 2013.
* 31 December 2013. Add 16 pages to Der Spiegel.
* 30 December 2013. Add 50 pages of NSA ANT Catalog by Jacob Appelbaum (no source given for NSA docs).
* 30 December 2013. Add 21 pages from 30C3 video by Jacob Appelbaum (no source given for NSA docs).
* 30 December 2013. Add 42 pages (8 duplicates) to Der Spiegel (no source given for NSA docs).
* 29 December 2013. Add 4 pages to Der Spiegel (no source given for NSA docs).
24 December 2013. Add 2 pages to Washington Post.
23 December 2013
http://www.adn.com/2013/12/22/3243451/pincus-snowden-still-has-a-road.html
We’ve yet to see the full impact of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s unauthorized downloading of highly classified intelligence documents.
Among the roughly 1.7 million documents he walked away with — the vast majority of which have not been made public — are highly sensitive, specific intelligence reports, as well as current and historic requirements the White House has given the agency to guide its collection activities, according to a senior government official with knowledge of the situation.
The latter category involves about 2,000 unique taskings that can run to 20 pages each and give reasons for selective targeting to NSA collectors and analysts. These orders alone may run 31,500 pages.
13 December 2013. Add 26 pages to Trojkan (SVT). Tally now 797 pages (~1.4%) of reported 58,000. NSA head claims 200,000 (~.40% of that released). Australia press reports “up to 20,000 Aussie files.”
Rate of release over 6 months, 132.8 pages per month, equals 436 months to release 58,000, or 36.3 years. Thus the period of release has decreased in the past month from 42 years.
12 December 2013. Belatedly add 27 pages to Guardian and 18 pages to Washington Post.
21 November 2013. See also EFF and ACLU accounts:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/nsa-spying-primary-sources
https://www.aclu.org/nsa-documents-released-public-june-2013
3 November 2013
47 42 Years to Release Snowden Documents
Out of reported 50,000 pages (or files, not clear which), about 446 514 pages (>1% 1%) have been released over 5 months beginning June 5, 2012. At this rate, 89 100 pages per month, it will take 47 42 years for full release. Snowden will be 77 72 years old, his reporters hoarding secrets all dead.
NY Times, 3 November 2013:
Whatever reforms may come, Bobby R. Inman, who weathered his own turbulent period as N.S.A. director from 1977 to 1981, offers his hyper-secret former agency a radical suggestion for right now. “My advice would be to take everything you think Snowden has and get it out yourself,” he said. “It would certainly be a shock to the agency. But bad news doesn’t get better with age. The sooner they get it out and put it behind them, the faster they can begin to rebuild.”
| Outlet | Pages |
| The Guardian | 273 |
| Washington Post | 216 |
| Der Spiegel | * 97 |
| O Globo Fantastico | ~87 |
| New York Times Anonymous |
118 (82 joint) 18 |
| ProPublica | 89 (82 joint) |
| Le Monde | 20 |
| Dagbladet | 13 |
| NRC Handelsblad | 4 |
| Huffington Post | 3 |
| CBC | 36 |
| The Globe and Mail | 18 |
| SVT | 2 |
| L’Espresso | 3 |
| Trojkan (SVT) | 29 |
| Jacob Appelbaum | * 71 |
| Information.dk | 22* |
| Anonymous/New York Times | 18 |
| NBC News | 47 |
Timeline of releases:
31 January 2014. Add 27 pages CBC News.
27 January 2014. Add 47 pages to NBC News.
27 January 2014. Add 18 pages to Anonymous.
16 January 2014. Add 8 pages to The Guardian.
* 14 January 2014. Add 21 pages to Information.dk (duplicate).
* 13 January 2014. Add 4 pages to Information.dk (duplicate).
3 January 2014. Add 13 pages to Washington Post.
2 January 2014. Add 1 page to Washington Post published 10 July 2013.
* 31 December 2013. Add 16 pages to Der Spiegel.
* 30 Decebmer 2013. Add 50 pages of NSA ANT Catalog by Jacob Appelbaum.
* 30 December 2013. Add 21 pages from 30C3 video by Jacob Appelbaum.
* 30 December 2013. Add 16 pages to Der Spiegel.
* 30 December 2013. Add 42 pages to Der Spiegel.
* 29 December 2013. Add 4 pages to Der Spiegel.
24 December 2013. Add 2 pages to Washington Post.
13 December 2013. Add 26 pages to Trojkan (SVT).
12 December 2013. Belatedly add 27 pages to Guardian and 18 pages to Washington Post.
11 December 2013. Belatedly add 25 pages to Guardian.
11 December 2013. Belatedly add 74 pages to Washington Post.
10 December 2013. Add 2 pages to CBC.
10 December 2013. Add 4 pages to CBC (duplicate of previous source).
9 December 2013. Add 3 pages to Trojkan. Add 2 pages to Guardian. Add 82 pages to New York Times and ProPublica (joint).
6 December 2013. Add 3 pages to L’Espresso.
5 December 2013. Add 2 pages to SVT (Swedish TV).
5 December 2013. Add 1 page to Washington Post.
4 December 2013. Add 3 pages to Washington Post.
2 December 2013. Add 3 pages to CBC.
30 November 2013. Add 18 pages to The Globe and Mail.
30 November 2013. Add 3 pages to NRC Handelsblad.
29 November 2013. Add 1 page to CBC.
27 November 2013. Add 3 pages to Huffington Post.
26 November 2013. Add 4 pages to Washington Post.
23 November 2013. Add 1 page to NRC Handelsblad.
23 November 2013. Add 5 pages to New York Times.
22 November 2013. Add 10 pages to Dagbladet.
18 November 2013. Add 6 pages to The Guardian.
17 November 2013. Add two images to Der Spiegel.
4 November 2013. Add 14 pages to Washington Post.
3 November 2013. A reports an additional 54 slides for O Globo Petrobas.
3 November 2013. Add 22 pages to New York Times.
2 November 2013. Add 13 pages to Guardian, 11 are duplicates.
31 October 2013. Add 4 pages to Washington Post.
29 October 2013. Add 3 pages to Der Spiegel
27 October 2013. Add 2 pages to Der Spiegel.
25 October 2013. Add 4 pages to Le Monde.
22 October 2013. Add 5 pages to Le Monde.
21 October 2013. Add 11 pages to Le Monde, 8 are duplicates.
20 October 2013. Add 1 page to Der Spiegel.
13 October 2013. Add 4, 7 and 9 pages to Washington Post.
8 October 2013. Add 7 pages to O Globo: CSE spying on Brazilian ministry, reported 7 October 2013.
6 October 2013. Add Snowden pages published by Washington Post, Der Spiegel, O Globo Fantastico, New York Times, ProPublica. Some are duplicates(*).
5 October 2013
26 Years to Release Snowden Docs by The Guardian
Out of reported 15,000 pages, The Guardian has published 192 pages in fourteen releases over four months, an average of 48 pages per month, or 1.28% of the total. At this rate it will take 26 years for full release.
Edward Snowden will be 56 years old.
Glenn Greenwald will be 72.
Laura Poitras will be 75.
Alan Rusbridger will be 86.
Barton Gellman will be 78.
Julian Assange will be 68.
Chelsea Manning will be 52.
Keith Alexander will be 88.
Barack Obama will be 78.
Daniel Ellsberg will be 108.
This author will be 103.
| Number | Date | Title | Pages |
|
|
|||
| The Guardian | 273 | ||
| 21 | 16 January 2014 | SMS Text Messages Exploit | 8 |
| 20 | 9 December 2013 | Spying on Games | 2 |
| 18 | 18 November 2013 | DSD-3G | 6 |
| 19 | 1 November 2013 | PRISM, SSO SSO1 Slide SSO2 Slide |
13* |
| 18 | 4 October 2013 | Types of IAT Tor | 9 |
| 17 | 4 October 2013 | Egotistical Giraffe | 20* |
| 16 | 4 October 2013 | Tor Stinks | 23 |
| 15 | 11 September 2013 | NSA-Israel Spy | 5 |
| 14 | 5 September 2013 | BULLRUN | 6* |
| 13 | 5 September 2013 | SIGINT Enabling | 3* |
| 12 | 5 September 2013 | NSA classification guide | 3 |
| 11 | 31 July 2013 | XKeyscore | 32 |
| 10 | 27 June 2013 | DoJ Memo on NSA | 16 |
| 9 | 27 June 2013 | Stellar Wind | 51 |
| 8 | 21 June 2013 | FISA Certification | 25 |
| 7 | 20 June 2013 | Minimization Exhibit A | 9 |
| 6 | 20 June 2013 | Minimization Exhibit B | 9 |
| 5 | 16 June 2013 | GCHQ G-20 Spying | 4 |
| 4 | 8 June 2013 | Boundless Informant FAQ | 3 |
| 3 | 8 June 2013 | Boundless Informant Slides | 4 |
| 2 | 7 June 2013 | PPD-20 | 18 |
| 1 | 5 June 2013 | Verizon | 4 |
|
|
|||
| Washington Post | 216 | ||
| 2 January 2014 | Quantum Computer 2 | 10 | |
| 2 January 2014 | Quantum Computer | 3 | |
| 23 December 2013 | NSA/CSS Mission | 2 | |
| 11 December 2013 | Excessive Collection | 9 | |
| 11 December 2013 | SCISSORS 2 | 7 | |
| 11 December 2013 | SCISSORS 1 | 4 | |
| 11 December 2013 | Yahoo-Google Exploit | 6 | |
| 11 December 2013 | Cable Spying Types | 7 | |
| 11 December 2013 | WINDSTOP | 1 | |
| 11 December 2013 | Co-Traveler | 24 | |
| 11 December 2013 | GSM Tracking | 2 | |
| 11 December 2013 | SIGINT Successes | 4 | |
| 11 December 2013 | GHOSTMACHINE | 4 | |
| 5 December 2013 | Target Location | 1 | |
| 4 December 2013 | FASCIA | 2 | |
| 4 December 2013 | CHALKFUN | 1 | |
| 26 November 2013 | Microsoft a Target? | 4 | |
| 4 November 2013 | WINDSTOP, SSO, Yahoo-Google | 14 | |
| 30 October 2013 | MUSCULAR-INCENSOR Google and Yahoo | 4 | |
| 14 October 2013 | SSO Overview | 4 | |
| 14 October 2013 | SSO Slides | 7 | |
| 14 October 2013 | SSO Content Slides | 9 | |
| 4 October 2013 | Tor | 49 | |
| 4 October 2013 | EgotisticalGiraffe | 20* | |
| 4 October 2013 | GCHQ MULLENIZE | 2 | |
| 4 October 2013 | Roger Dingledine | 2 | |
| 30 August 2013 | Budget | 17 | |
| 10 July 2013 | PRISM Slide | 1 | |
| 29 June 2013 | PRISM | 8 | |
| 20 June 2013 | Warrantless Surveillance | 25* | |
| 7 June 2013 | PPD-20 | 18* | |
| 6 June 2013 | PRISM | 1 | |
|
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|||
| Der Spiegel | * 97 | ||
| 31 December 2013 | QFIRE | * 16 | |
| 30 December 2013 | TAO Introduction | * 16 | |
| 30 Deceber 2013 | QUANTUM Tasking (8 duplicates of QUANTUMTHEORY) | 28* | |
| 30 December 2013 | QUANTUMTHEORY | 14 | |
| 29 December 2013 | TAO ANT COTTONMOUTH (images) TAO ANT COTTONMOUTH (DE article) |
4 | |
| 17 November 2013 | ROYAL CONCIERGE (DE)ROYAL CONCIERGE (EN) | 2 | |
| 29 October 2013 | NSA-CIA SCS | 3 | |
| 27 October 2013 | NSA-CIA SCS | 2 | |
| 20 October 2013 | Mexico President | 1 | |
| 20 September 2013 | Belgacom | 3 | |
| 16 September 2013 | SWIFT | 3 | |
| 9 September 2013 | Smartphones | 5 | |
| 1 September 2013 | French Foreign Ministry | 0 | |
| 31 August 2013 | Al Jazeera | 0 | |
|
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|||
| O Globo Fantastico | ~87 | ||
| 7 October 2013 | CSE Brazil Ministry | 7 | |
| 8 September 2013 | Petrobas | ~60 | |
| 3 September 2013 | Brazil and Mexico | 20 | |
|
|
|||
| New York Times | 118 | ||
| 9 December 2013 | Spying on Games | 82* | |
| 23 November 2013 | SIGINT Strategy 2012-2016 | 5 | |
| 3 November 2013 | SIGINT Mission 2013SIGINT Mission 2017 | 22 | |
| 28 September 2013 | Contact Chaining Social Networks | 1 | |
| 28 September 2013 | SYANPSE | 1 | |
| 5 September 2013 | BULLRUN | 4* | |
| 5 September 2013 | SIGINT Enabling | 3* | |
|
|
|||
| ProPublica | 89 | ||
| 9 December 2013 | Spying on Games | 82* | |
| 5 September 2013 | BULLRUN | 4* | |
| 5 September 2103 | SIGINT Enabling | 3* | |
|
|
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| Le Monde | 20 | ||
| 25 October 2013 | NSA Hosts FR Spies | 4 | |
| 22 October 2013 | Wanadoo-Alcatel | 1 | |
| 22 October 2013 | Close Access Sigads | 2 | |
| 22 October 2013 | Boundless Informant | 2 | |
| 22 October 2013 | PRISM | 11 | |
|
|
|||
| Dagbladet | 13 | ||
| 19 November 2013 | BOUNDLESSINFORMANT | 13 | |
|
|
|||
| NRC Handelsblad | 4 | ||
| 30 November 2013 | Dutch SIGINT | 3 | |
| 23 November 2013 | SIGINT Cryptologic Platform | 1 | |
|
|
|||
| Huffington Post | 3 | ||
| 27 November 2013 | Muslim Porn Viewing | 3 | |
|
|
|||
| CBC | 36 | ||
| 30 January 2014 | CESC IP Profiling | 27 | |
| 10 December 2013 | NSA-CSEC Partnership | 1 | |
| 10 December 2013 | G8-G20 Spying | 4* | |
| 2 December 2013 | G8-G20 Spying | 3 | |
| 29 November 2013 | G8-G20 Spying | 1 | |
|
|
|||
| The Globe and Mail | 18 | ||
| 30 November 2013 | CSEC Brazil Spying | 18* | |
|
|
|||
| SVT (Swedsh TV) | 2 | ||
| 5 December 2013 | Sweden Spied Russia for NSA | 2 | |
|
|
|||
| L’Espresso | 3 | ||
| 6 December 2013 | NSA Spies Italy | 3 | |
|
|
|||
| Trojkan (SVT) | 29 | ||
| 11 December 2013 | NSA Sweden FRA Relationship | 1* | |
| 11 December 2013 | NSA 5 Eyes Partners | 1 | |
| 11 December 2013 | NSA Sweden FRA Agenda | 8 | |
| 11 December 2013 | NSA Sweden FRA RU Baltic | 1 | |
| 11 December 2013 | NSA GCHQ Sweden FRA COMINT | 1 | |
| 11 December 2013 | NSA Sweden FRA XKeyscore Plan | 5 | |
| 11 December 2013 | NSA Sweden FRA XKeyscore Sources | 1 | |
| 11 December 2013 | NSA Sweden FRA XKeyscore Tor et al | 3 | |
| 11 December 2013 | NSA Sweden FRA XKeyscore Slide | 1 | |
| 11 December 2013 | NSA Sweden FRA Quantum 1 | 1 | |
| 11 December 2013 | GCHQ Sweden FRA Quantum | 1 | |
| 11 December 2013 | NSA Sweden FRA Quantum Accomplishments | 2 | |
| 9 December 2013 | NSA and Sweden Pact | 3* | |
|
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| Jacob Appelbaum | * 71 | ||
| 30 December 2013 | NSA Catalog | * 50 | |
| 30 December 2013 | NSA Catalog Video Clips | * 21 | |
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| Information.dk | 22* | ||
| 14 January 2014 | SSO (duplicate) | 7* | |
| 14 January 2014 | PRISM (duplicate) | 11* | |
| 13 January 2014 | 5-Eyes Spy G8-G20 (duplicate) | 4* | |
|
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| Anonymous/ New York Times |
18 | ||
| 27 January 2014 | NSA Smartphones Analysis | 14 | |
| 27 January 2014 | GCHQ Mobile Theme | 4 | |
|
|
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| NBC News | 47 | ||
| 27 January 2014 | GCHQ Squeaky Dolphin | 47 | |
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Total U.S. Government bailouts since 2008
February 1st, 2014
Total U.S. Government bailouts since 2008.
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Worldwide threat assessment of the US Intelligence Community
January 29th, 2014
By James R. Clapper.
To read full report: Worldwide threat assessment of the US Intelligence Community
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Andrew Collins answers questions about ancient historical paradoxes
January 28th, 2014
Questions conducted by Jaime Ortega.
Andrew Collins, is a science and history writer, who has authored a variety of books that challenge the way we perceive the past, including his best-selling The Cygnus Mystery, that delves into how ancient monuments and temples, that are still standing today, were built with an orientation towards Cygnus.
1) The biblical accounts write that before the age of Noah, (reported also by the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh) the ancients constructed with “stone” rather than on “brick” which must of come at a later age. Is it possible that Puma Punku (Bolivia), Sacsayhuanan(Peru), Xaviant Haze (Caral), Giza (Egypt), Stone Edge (England), Carnac (France), Baalbek or the city of Enoch(Lebanon); the underwater cities of Yonaguni (Japan), Old city of Dwarka (India), Bimini (Florida), Nan Magol (Guinea), the underwater city scanned in Cuba, and other lost civilizations prior to the biblical stories predate the actual flood?
The biblical Flood is an episode in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament. It revolves around its own religious mythos perpetuated even today by the monotheistic faiths of the Western World. On its own it cannot be put into the context of world history or geological events in time. That said, there are clear indications that the biblical Flood falls into the same category as catastrophe myth found on every continent. Most likely they are memories of the Younger Dryas impact event, which brought the world to its knees in an apocalyptic nightmare of fire, flood and destruction, which science now recognizes occurred around 10,900 BC.
If so, then do any of the sites cited here predate this terrifying event in human history? Unlikely. Only the underwater features off Bimini probably existed before this time, as some of these structures lie on ancient shorelines that antedate the Younger Dryas period, ca. 10,900-9600 BC. Dating the rest of the sites is a matter of personal belief and conjecture.
2) The Kennewick man and Luzia, are scientifically proven to predate the ethnicity of any known native American that ever roamed the American continent. In fact, both skeletons resemble that of ‘white Caucasians.’ Could the Kennewick Man found on the Columbia river in Washington, or Luzia found in Brazil that dates to 11, 500 BCE, possibly be the lost engineers of the ancient civilizations found in sites like Puma Punku, Baalbek…? In other words, could they be the actual people that died in the global flood?
Kennewick Man and the Luzia human remains found in Brazil are certainly a challenge to the understanding of the ethnicity of the first Americans. However, it is rash using terms like “white Caucasians”, especially as Kennewik Man might just as easily have originated on the Asian continent, while the Luzia human remains are regularly reported to be “negroid” in character. Unquestionably, there were migrations into the Americas from more than one point of origin, involving different human populations from different continents.
Whether the first Americans might be seen as survivors of a global flood is impossible to say, although the Younger Dryas impact event would unquestionably have displaced peoples across the globe, forcing them to move into new territories. Kennewick man lived thousands of years after this event, so his connection to this scenario is doubtful.
3) Gobekli Tepe (10.000 BCE) has astonished many modern day historians. Its located in Turkey 350 miles from Mount Ararat, close to the biblical landing of Noah. Curiously, the animals carved on the temple structure in Gobleki Tepe resemble wild animals, not found anywhere close from that geographical landmark. Another problem is that the skill to carve and geometry shown by its settlers must have come from an earlier civilization with much more experience. Personally It looks similar to flat stone structures found in Puma Punku or Stone Edge. Could the engineers of Gobleki Tepe, descend from the pre-flood civilizations that shared similitude in construction styles?
Firstly, Mount Ararat is the site where Noah’s Ark made first landfall after the Flood only in Christian tradition. Prior to the fifth century the so-called Place of Descent of the Ark was Cudi Dag (Mount Judi), near Cizre in southeast Turkey, the site revered today by Muslims, Syrian Christians, and various indigenous Kurdish sects. It was the Armenian Church who moved the location of the Place of Descent so that it might fall within their jurisdiction.
Gobekli Tepe is about 150 miles away from Cudi Dag, and the relationship is tantalizing. Is it possible that Gobekli Tepe was almost a Noah’s Ark in stone, preserving the memory of some golden age before the catastrophe events of the Younger Dryas impact event of ca. 10,900 BC? I think the answer is yes.
Moreover, there has to be a good chance that the carving skills of the Gobekli builders survived from an age anteceding the Younger Dryas impact. However, the bigger mystery is where the Gobekli builders came from, who exactly they were, and why exactly the temple complex was constructed some 12,000 years ago, matters dealt with in some detail within my new book Gobekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods.
4) Not far away from Gobleki Tepe the style of rock carving and sacrificial rituals is almost identical on sites excavated like Çayönü, Nevalı Çori, Hallan Çemi or Körtik Tepe in Turkey, Nemrik and Qermez Dere in Northern Iraq and Mureybet, Jerf el Ahmar, Tell Abr and Tell Qaramel in Northern Syria. Could these civilizations or large settlements have progressively sparked the begging of the Mesopotamian age considering the location from what seems to have originally stemmed in Gobekli Tepe?
There is little question that the creation of high profile ritual complexes like Gobekli Tepe in southeast Anatolia catalyzed events that led to both the Neolithic revolution, which began in the same region around 11,000 years ago, and also the genesis of the Mesopotamian civilization.
Even Professor Klaus Schmidt, the lead archaeologist at Gobekli Tepe, admits that Mesopotamian stories regarding the birth of the Anunna gods of heaven and earth, also known as the Anunnaki, might have had their inception at Gobekli Tepe. He talks about this in his book on the site, and even suggests it should be identified with the Mesopotamian primeval mound known as the Du-ku, which formed part of a larger mountain complex known as kharsag, or hursag.
Here, we are told, was the birthplace of the Anunna gods. He also was where sheep and grain (that is, animal husbandry and the earliest agriculture) was given to humankind for the first time by the Anunna gods.
5) Carbon 14, has a few problems. It can date the age of the rock (even though cooled volcanic lava, wrongly estimates the age showing a process of millions of years instead, after it solidifies) , but Carbon 14 does not date the actual carving of the rock. Could it be that we have dated wrongly many of the ancient civilizations found and mixed them all together?
Measuring the amounts of Carbon 14 present in organic materials to determine the age of a site has been thwart with problems ever since it was first used in 1950s. Archaeologists are still debating on the exact levels of Carbon 14 that contributed to its presence, in order for its release to occur in the so-called half-life process, creating more than one method of recalibration of raw Carbon 14 dates. Indeed, it is considered that all Carbon-14 dates generated and published before 2004 should today be seen as suspect.
Recalibration charts can alter raw radiocarbon dates older than 10,000 years, i.e., the epoch of Gobekli Tepe, by as much as 2,000 to 5,000 years, something that has been difficult for some prehistorians and archaeologists to handle. I tried to avoid recalibrated dates in books such as Gateway to Atlantis (2000), but now realize that only by working with them can you obtain a truly synchronized vision of the past, especially if everyone else uses them.
They don’t really change the past, just make it even more intriguing as it suggests that the dating of many sites might be inaccurate by hundreds if not thousands of years. That said, confusion still rains, which is why you will see conflicting dates, even in modern academic books, on the dates for geological events and the ages of humankind (such the end of the Pleistocene, the Ice Age, which some books cite as 10,000 years ago and others as 12,000 years ago. I would certainly go for the later figure).
6) Are historians troubled by these ancient archaeological sites that don’t fit the accepted model of history? Is there a reason why historians won’t accept certain ages that surpass those that cannot be explained with factual written documentation? Is there an agenda?
Archaeologists are rarely troubled by claims of lost civilizations, or conflicting dates regarding the construction of ancient and mysterious places around the world. In honesty, they mainly ignore such claims, whether they be true or false.
One of the reasons for this is that they simply do not have the time or resources to suitably counter them, or check them out. Plus there is the fact that apathy, and a wish to remain with convention, means that nothing is every done.
7) As a student when I attended university, I was taught that ancient massive carvings and specially large massive stone geometric blocks where shaped by utilizing chisels and pickets with the help of thousands of workers. But that is impossible with pink granite, which seems to have been the preference of choice for many ancient civilizations to build massive structures. Science itself shows that iron, or copper tools would break when trying to shape granite blocks. Did they use technology?
Copper and iron tools would never have been used on their own to cut, shape or polish granite, or any hard mineral of this kind. It is the mixture of sand, usually made up of fine particles of quartz and silicia, that do all the work when mixed with a slurry in order to cause the reduction and fragmentation of hard materials.
Having said this, I think there is ample evidence that high-powered lathes, with extreme hard cutting tools, perhaps made of sapphire or even diamond, were used in places like ancient Egypt. I would also not rule out forms of sonic drilling and cutting as well, although this theory remains a matter of speculation at this time.
8) Transportation has been another mystery, far known from the accepted model that proposes using tree trunks to move massive objects. Many historical accounts including sites found in Arizona, Ancient Egypt, Cambodia, Mexico and other historical sites have shown carvings, figurines and paintings of what seems to be dinosaur like creatures on those eras. Not to mention the vast amount of legends and dragons found in almost every culture. Despite what evolution theorizes, could it make more sense these ancients used dinosaurs to erect and transport many of their massive stones as opposed to what the mainstream accepted model proposes? Also many ancient carvings show humans who were bigger in size as opposed to others, especially when comparing the size of the Pharaoh, or the Sumerian king in many depictions. Would a world of giants help to understand the construction of many of these ancient sites and would the past make more sense?
Stones showing humans in the presence of dinosaurs are fake. Period. Dragons, possibly. But not dinosaurs. There are too many fake collections out there, which people take far too seriously.
As for moving large blocks, either we have to accept that sheer force moved huge stone blocks weighing hundreds of tonnes a piece, or some form of sonic technology was employed in the ancient world. I would go with the former, but not dismiss the latter.
9) Pyramids are found in many ancient cultures. Was the world more interconnected than historians previously thought, just as much as sky scrappers are a signature of modern global interconnection?
I think the world was far more interconnected in prehistoric times, even before the end of the last Ice Age. There were cultures, peoples, and populations who were on the move all the time, either through necessity, trading and even exploitation. This is one of the reasons why similarities in architecture will always be seen at sites all over the world.
Yet in addition to this, we must accept the idea of independent innovation, meaning that human populations can develop new technologies independently. This might tell us why pyramids occur worldwide (even though their purpose varies from continent to continent).
The idea, first proposed in 1884 by American congressman and writer Ignatius Donnelly that there was a mother civilization behind all such civilizations, and that it should be identified with Plato’s Atlantis, is now discredited. No such mother civilization has been found to exist, although many smaller ones did arise in various parts of the world, and it is their remnants that we continue to uncover today.
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Afghanistan post-2014: Groping in the dark?
January 27th, 2014
By Jair Van Der Lijn.
To read full report: Afghanistan post 2014 Groping in the dark
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Corporate Espionage Against Nonprofit Organizations
January 24th, 2014
By Gary Ruskin.
To read report: Corporate Espionage Against Nonprofit Organizations
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Erdogan and the emergence of Kurdistan in Turkey
January 22nd, 2014
By Kerem Öktem.
To read report: Erdogan and the emergence of Kurdistan in Turkey
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The Decline of the Average Human I.Q.
January 21st, 2014By Professor Girswald and Brendan Baker.
The larger the human population grows, the average human I. Q seems to drop. Now how is this possible? Studies show that since the nineteen fifties the average I. Q has dropped a total of three points. This is alarming and confusing at the same time. How with all of our medical and technological advancements is this occurring? Many charts that I have found showed that the average I. Q was at its peak in nineteen fifty that was sixty years ago. Many blame this fall of global I. Q on the fall of the Soviet Union.
In the soviet unions control of Eastern Europe, their children were forced to be schooled in far more advanced subjects than modern students. It was a race to attempt to beat the west technologically. In turn the west also made their students study harder and learn more thus making the average I. Q greatly superior than it had been for many years. Without this compaction the schooling that was installed in a time of panic was called off. Recent studies show that the is now Falling at a rapid rate.
The average I.Q. for 2011 is calculated to be 88.54 this is the lowest I.Q. rate in years. Even though we have much more social media and technology. How is this possible? Well it is shown that rising birth rates, along with a constant population rise in much of the world. I.Q. is the intelligence quotient used to measure the intelligence of every human on the planet. I.Q. is used to measure your intelligence based on age, gender, and ethnicity. I.Q. testes are administered using a series of tests that scientist have determined over the years to be an accurate measure of how much intelligence the human brain actually holds.
Most people in modern day society have an average I.Q. ranging between 89 and 100. If you have an I.Q. that falls out of that range you are believed to be below average intelligence. There are four basic I.Q. testes; these testes test the four lobes of your brain. The first test tests the back of the frontal lobe of the brain, the second tests the rear lobe, the third tests the occipluar and the fourth tests the rest of the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is believed to be the part of the brain that is in charge of learning. So people who administer I.Q. tests test those areas, first and last. The rest of the sectors of the brain are meant to test how your brain processes information and how well it comprehends it. Another variable of these test are how old your are, children who take I.Q. tests are known to be better off than people who haven’t taken I.Q tests.
Studies conducted in recent years have shown a direct correlation between population growth and the decline in the standard I. Q of countries such as, New Zeland, Australia, Brazil and Mexico. For every 10 years a .30 I.Q drop occurs so it is predicted by the year 2050 the average I. Q will have fallen to 89.32 from 91.64. How is this possible? Science points to the process of natural selection.
It shows that people will flock to people of similar I. Q levels. So thusly people with lower I. Q levels would mate with people of similar standings, thus producing offspring of similar learned standards. A similar comparison of this would be the AIDS outbreak in Nigeria. The wealthier more educated people were less likely to contract this despise because their I.Q helped them avoid such activates that would allow the deseise to become contracted.
In the search to discover how I. Q and population growth are connected it may also help to look at the average income of people who have lower I.Qs. Since people with lower I. Qs tend to search for others like them does it not make since that they would also look for people of similar economic standing? This is one theory to how the drop in I.Q and poverty rates is directly connected. At this point in history we have one of the largest poverty rates in recorded history. The two seem connected somehow.
With a twenty five percent high school drop out rate many people aren’t getting the proper education and thusly their average I. Q from generation to generation keeps falling at a steady rate (about .30 every ten years). With the steady increase of the worlds population, shouldn’t the dropout rate increase causing the I. Q rate to drop even further? Studies also show if you’re out of work or injured that your idleness or lack of production will cause your brain to lose some of its activity level also contributing to this epidemic.
What are the consequences of lower I. Q rates? Well one major one is a lack of motivation to further your education so higher drop out rates begin to surface. With these higher dropout rates, the dropout’s turn to other ways of attain income. These methods often involve illegal activity such as, robbery and prostitution. Other consequences of lower I. Q are a steep rise in unwanted births and lower rates of marriages. With a lager amount of low I.Q mothers their children wont develop proper social or motor skills, and their behavior will begin to become rash and violent starting around age four. Many people will begin to care less and less about the political process. You can see clear evidence about this even today, the amount of younger people taking place in the political process is Significantly lower than it was even twenty years ago.
When parents have fewer children the average I.Q. will change dependent on various variables like, amount of kids, I.Q. of the parents and what social class they were born into. This theory is known as dysgenic fertility theory. This says that parents with fewer kids will have an I.Q. similar to their parents. So for example a parent with one child when both parents have an I.Q. of about 100, their child will be more likely to have a similar I.Q. than a parent with many kids with the same I.Q.
Evidence found by doctors states that another possible explanation for the decline in average I.Q. is via blood transfusions They found that the blood not only carried a small amount of the person but it also carried the information that allowed them to think. They did a transfusion between two people, one was intellectually very advanced and the other was one person who was considerably lower on the I.Q. ladder. The recipients of the blood became confused over time and their ability to maintain their previous level of I.Q. was indeed noted to be in jeopardy. The result of this experiment was that in blood donation centers all across the countries, the recipient was asked to put their I.Q. into the forms they were required to fill out.
In 1988 a book was published by Robert Flynn called “The Flynn affect”. This work made a certain distinction between phenotypic and genotypic styles of intelligence. He discovered that genotypic intelligence was measured to be falling by .57 points per generation. This was very early on before “the Bell Curve” was ever published. The Bell Curve was the first book to really blow the lid off the whole idea that the average I.Q. of humans was falling at a rapid rate.
All of these consequences and theories tie into an idea known as the bell curve, which was a study published in 1994 by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray. This article was used to display the change in intelligence overtime in American Society. This study was also published to provide a since of warning to the masses about the trend that they are all following. This study was reelected to a very large public response in the first few months worldwide around 400,000 copies were sold and this is still used as a chief tool in determining how I. Q is falling.
I had interviewed several people around campus that I was acquainted with. Over half of them said that they believed that the average I.Q. was actually rising because of the great amounts of technology that we had access to now. When I explained to them and showed data more often than not they were astounded with the results. I went in to explain that just because we have newer technology and greater access to knowledge now doesn’t mean we really mean we know how to use it. Over the years a human’s ability to process and use information has defiantly fallen.
One way I have seen this is how we aren’t able to communicate with other people as well as our parents were even. Because we have such a large access to social media and texting, we are actually losing one of the greatest forms of human contact we need and that is the ability to communicate with our fellow man face to face. This is a crucial part of our brain and basic day-to-day functions. The ability to communicate is a part that plays into finding someone’s I.Q. people generally with higher I.Q.s can communicate with people face to face very well and express what they are trying to say in an educated manner.
It is concluded with the ever-rising population of the earth that the average I.Q. will undoubtedly continue to fall. It seems that the way that we as humans evolved has now switched over to allow the people who can breed the most with each other are the most fit to survive. It has been proven that people with similar I.Q. scores are more likely to breed with each other. So their offspring will have a similar I.Q. to their parents. So if the parents had an I.Q. of 75 their child is more likely to have a similar I.Q. to them. So its assumed that if the worlds population continues to grow at the rate its going that the average I.Q. by the year 2050 will be an 86.32 which is almost a ten point drop from 1950.
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Impacts of Information Technology on Society in the new Century
January 21st, 2014
By Robert Lee, Konsbruck.
To read report: Impacts of Information Technology on Society in the new Century
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Black students in white campus: The pervasiveness of racism
January 20th, 2014By Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Read report: Black students in white campus: The pervasiveness of racism
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Are emerging markets like China the main reason for unemployment growth worldwide?
January 19th, 2014
Contributor opinion.
Are markets like China the main reason for unemployment growth worldwide?
Many blue collar workers complain because they are unemployed and unable to find jobs.
Circleville Ohio, for example, was once well-known for its manufacturing and industrial growth, with easy to find jobs. Today, Circleville’s unemployment rate (8.50 percent, with job growth of -2.32 percent) is above the national average (7.3 percent) and mirrors difficulties midtown America is experiencing everywhere.
Critics blame China, Taiwan, Malabo, Mexico and other countries for causing the latest unemployment rates. They say the government has betrayed American labor to benefit corporate demands and foreign subsidiaries.
At the same time, unemployment is worse in Europe, except for northern European countries, including Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium.
Analysts opinions differ, some say the unemployment rate is growing, others claim it is slowing down.
Claims about job growth confuse the average person, and I am skeptical because different analysts use the same statistics but report opposite findings.
Has the Obama administration, found a solution to lower the unemployment rate?
If most countries stopped relying on China, Taiwan and other countries that manufacturer goods and export them worldwide, perhaps the worldwide blue collar sector would experience renewed job growth?
Despite the state of the economy, what country could the U.S. learn from (if any) to stabilize its increasing unemployment rate and stop exclusively relying on foreign labor? (edited courtesy of Dave Kaiser)
David Merkel.
““Comparable Worth” was a faddish idea for economic leftists that flowered (thankfully it was brief) in the 1990s. The idea was that you could measure occupations on a technical basis, measuring education, effort, responsibility, and other aspects of the job, and figure out what occupations should be compensated similarly.
That’s a pretty difficult problem to solve in the absence of markets. Granted, there are some Human Resources (what a phrase) consulting firms that have models in narrow contexts to try to solve salary questions inside similar corporations, but the consultants true up their models to the markets regularly, and are covering a more narrow range of jobs.
I want to muse about a different kind of comparable worth this evening, one that many Americans (and others in “developed nations”) might not like. It is my guess that we are seeing the slow erosion of wage differentials across developing and developed countries, particularly for goods and services that are part of global trade.
Now, I am not saying that an unskilled auto worker in China will earn as much as a non-union auto worker in the US, which is backed by more capital investment, and requires a smarter worker. I am also not saying that unionized workers in developed countries won’t earn more. The viability of the firms their unions serve may be compromised, though. What I am saying is that global corporations can choose where they produce goods, and on a productivity- and quality-adjusted basis they will use laborers that give them the best deal.
As for jobs that are internal to an economy, such as working at a retail store, the adjustment will be slower. Internal job wage differentials across countries depend on the overall wage differentials across countries. As overall wage differentials narrow, so would internal job wage differentials.
Also, given how many commodities are priced globally, and those have become a more important part of the cost structure recently (though the effect is not that bad if one takes a long-term view… increased productivity means we use less commodities to achieve the same ends as 40 years ago), the factor share going to labor in developed countries is probably being squeezed a little. So, what does this imply for workers in the US and the developed world?
As the rest of the world develops, their living standards will slowly converge with those in the US. They will demand a greater share of the world’s resources in the process, making the affluent life more expensive. This will in turn drive more technological innovation to make commodities stretch further.
Now, perhaps some will say that the solution is to cut off or limit free trade. That won’t work. The US is so dependent on free-ish trade that any significant reduction of trade would drive inflation up in the US. Beyond that, the US benefits from its reserve currency status. Where else does a country get goods and services, and hand over bonds denominated in their own currency? What a sweet deal for the present — an inflationary pity when it ends.
I started out my career with a goal of being a development economist, and doing work in the Third World. That ended when I learned that the models used by the development economists did not work, and that capitalism and free trade did work. When the developing world began to make great strides after the end of the Cold War, I was happy. I’m still happy about it today; poverty is slowly but steadily being eliminated across a wide swath of the globe, and that is a good thing for most. But to many Americans (and others in develop nations) who are finding themselves out-competed by foreign competition, this is not a happy time.
Be aware of the global competitive position of your industry, and adjust your career accordingly. Build up your own ability to deliver special (hard to duplicate) value for your employer and work where your personal competitive advantage is maximized. That’s not easy, but the easy path probably embeds a future that is less well off.
Part Two
I spend a certain amount of time musing about nested problems — problems where there are a wide number of feedback loops, some amplifying, some dampening.
The big wonder is watching the non-commodity developed markets run hyperloose monetary policies with current account deficits for the most part, while emerging markets run tight monetary policies with (for the most part) current account surpluses.
The simple solution is to let currencies adjust the situation, but that solution is resisted by producers in emerging markets,who gain a disproportionate advantage over consumers in their own country by keeping the currency cheap. And, the exporters have a concentrated economic interest to keep the currency cheap. Consumers who might like a more expensive currency have no way of concentrating their arguments versus the exporters.
The natural pressure is for currencies to realign, but the cabals of emerging country exporters and central banks can resist it for a time. Only for a time. Much as those inflating the real estate bubble thought it would never end, the same is true for those that manipulate currencies. It will come to an end, the only question is when?
And when it happens, will it be violent? Governments, even as a group, do not have absolute control. The legacy of failed currency interventions weighs in favor of markets, and against governments once crises happen.
How can developed country governments have steep positive yield curves, when emerging markets have inverted curves, and there is no effect/change? The change will come, and I think that is in the next two years.
The Aftermath
This will feed the necessary change where relative advantage to export/import goes away, and where the value of accumulated debts from developed nations declines to reflect what can truly fund. Also, developed nation investments in the emerging nations will prove to have value in supporting the changes, though the effects will be unevenly distributed. Investments in emerging market non-exporters/importers will do best, as will those of developed market exporters.
Do I know this will happen? No. But that is the way the pressure is currently going now. Governments and Central Banks can resist pressure for a long time in the short run, usually at a cost of increasing the pressure in the long run. In the long run, the differential effects of cultural choices are realized through the power of markets.
To me, that means a relative decrease in living standards in the developed world, and a relative increase in the emerging markets. This is consistent with my views in my controversial piece on Comparable Worth. No one likes that piece, not even me.
But what I would highlight here to investors is what is truly scarce. Unskilled labor is not scarce, skilled labor is scarce. Good ideas are scarce. They always are. Paper capital is not scarce. Real capital, that which makes labor more efficient is scarce. Resources are scarce, including energy. Investors, aim at scarcity, and the rise in prices will aim more paper capital to solve human problems.
Epilogue
I am not trying to posit one single track for which economic change will occur, but more of a baseline scenario. All sorts of things can upset this, including war, plague, etc. A scenario like this allows for more rational investment, assuming realignment takes place, no matter how it takes place.”
Steven Hansen.
“I think the question is wrong, as it is based on an incorrect assumption that imports have had anything to do with unemployment. here is my econintersect post of 11 January which you are free to republish:
A recent article in the Economist suggested that there was:
…… a remarkable improvement in America’s external accounts. At the end of 2005 the current-account deficit reached 6.2% of GDP, the sign of a society living dangerously beyond its means. But by the third quarter of 2013 it had dropped to 2.2%, the lowest since 1998, a level it could easily sustain indefinitely.
The current account deficit should never be a major concern as the flows must balance out over time – one way or another. But what made this post interesting to me was the discussion of the decline in imports – which were attributed to:
This post was accompanied by the following graphic:
Adding to this story, it is very obvious that imports have been stagnating. The graph below is based on current dollar – and shows there has been no growth since 2007 (which means inflation adjusted growth has contracted) just as the graphic above suggests.
Although the Economist post talks about oil production being up in the USA (and therefore requiring less oil imports), the driving factor historically was price (not the quantity of oil being imported). For the last two years, oil imports had little effect on the growth or contraction of imports.
Remember the good ole days when most believed the USA was going to be manufacturing nothing within a few years. Although China is now the world’s number one manufacturer, this was not at the expense of destroying USA production.
So the USA’s production is now growing at approximately its historical rate of growth, and manufacturing employment has returned to growth – growth in manufacturing employment has not occurred since the 1990s.
I have blamed free trade agreements for the decline of manufacturing employment from 2000 until the Great Recession. The days of the free trade agreements sucking jobs out of the USA are over for a variety of reasons (primarily logistics).
As the above chart shows, there is now a slight growth in employment in the manufacturing sector as manufacturing returns to the USA. However, the new dynamic in employment is robotics – and this dynamic will likely grow stronger in the coming years. Dynamics are funny things, and can change momentum and direction with few noticing. For now, I consider this THE dynamic to watch in jobs growth.
Going forward in 2014, the shrinking growth in imports is at least signalling that the USA economic growth is becoming more balanced between what is being produced domestically and what needs to be imported.”
Claude Nougat.
“The unemployment problem affects all developed countries, some more, some less, but everyone suffers. It’s a problem that has little to do with the 2008 Great Recession (which was primarily a financial problem) and in fact, unemployment was at high levels before the crisis and even if the crisis goes away and unemployment recovers somewhat, it’s not likely to get better than where it was pre-2008.
The reasons are structural, of course, but have relatively little to do with a wave of cheap goods from China and other developing countries – the so called BRICS that are at the head of the pack. We’ve had waves of cheap goods before, in the 1960s and 70s coming from Japan. Big corporations relocate their manufacturing to the BRICS and other emerging countries like Vietnam, but the beneficial effect for their shareholders (in terms of higher returns) is going to be temporary.
Because something else is at work.
We are entering the “second machine age” as futurologists tend to call it (the first was started by the Industrial Revolution) – and the jobs tied to manufacturing and that are so adversely affected by unemployment are in fact destined to disappear at an even higher rate in future. And not because of competition from third world countries.
What is happening is this (and I’m speaking of effects over the long term): gradually, machines are taking over. In the “first machine age”, machines complemented the work of humans, enabling them to work faster and produce more. In the “second machine age”, with the computer revolution and increasingly “smart” computers, machines are not so much complementing human work as substituting it. Humans will eventually find that everything is manufactured without their input and solely relying on the inputs of machines. Unemployment is like to increasingly affect not just blue collar workers but white collar workers too.
And that is why the middle classes’ survival is threatened. Even a college or graduate school degree can no longer guarantee a job, and this will happen in a future that is in fact quite near to us, if not here already.
Not a happy prospect unless we are willing to consider how society can change, in particular the relationshio between work and salary. Guaranteeing a basic income, regardless of whether a person is employed or not, and by “basic income” I mean just enough to satisfy basic needs (food, shelter, health care, culture and entertainment) to every citizen in a country that has moved into the “second machine age” might be the only solution.”
Dock David Treece.
“As an Ohio resident, I can tell you that the problems of Circleville are typical of this entire region, now colloquially known as the “rust belt.” All over the Midwest, particularly in smaller cities that have traditionally relied on small numbers of large employers such as automakers, unemployment rates have remained at elevated levels, even as populations have dwindled due to lack of job availability.
All of this has gone on while the “outsourcing” wave which began more than 20 years ago reached fever pitch. Some blame President Obama, others blame our American educational system, while still others look simply at economics. The real reason for the problems being faced by towns like Circleville is a combination of all these and more.
Unfortunately, this phenomenon is nothing new. The same things happened to many western European nations hundreds of years ago while those countries rode their own “outsourcing” wave through colonization. The US went through a similar set of circumstances with Japan back in the late 1980s after large numbers of then-high-tech jobs had been sent overseas.
Like China today, Americans then thought Japan would own the world. Instead what occurred was a new wave of innovation in production and what was being produced, which refocused jobs and development stateside, with Japanese firms being left to engineer their own products to compete on the world stage. In the meantime, the Japanese economy had so much trouble adjusting that the island nation found themselves in a Keynesian liquidity trap after years and a lost decade.
It may not be likely that history will repeat itself for the American economy in the years ahead, but what is likely is that the future will look more like the distant past than recent history. In other words, while the market for blue collar American jobs has suffered in recent years, this won’t be the case forever.
In fact, based on the research we do every day in helping to guide investment for clients, we have found an increasing number of “reshoring” instances – with jobs coming back to this country in focused industries and geographies. Unfortunately, many of the policies coming out of Washington – through both the Obama administration and the Fed – have done more to stall this process than encourage it. Thankfully, this won’t last forever. Policies will eventually change, allowing the economy of the US (and the blue collar job market) to expand, making the US a largely self-reliant nation once again – just as it has done numerous times through different market cycles.
In fact, a large number of US companies are on the verge of making substantial investments modernizing domestic facilities, after years of opening and expanding operations outside this country. The average age of production facilities for US companies is over 21 years – the longest on record (Wall Street Journal) – at the same time US companies are also holding the largest cash reserves in history.
All of this spells expansion for domestic production by US companies – provided the right policies out of Washington. While they may not get those policies under this administration, things may change after 2016.”
C. Bonjukian Patten
“The United States was always the leader in employment/creating jobs however since year 2000 American apathy has taken over the usual American aggressiveness.
We are apathetic to everything we see, hear and are a part of. We could end hunger and poverty in America but we turn the other cheek; as long as it is NOT happening to us we’re okay with it.
We complain, moan and get angry about a lot of things but do nothing about it. Other countries, India, Pakistan, China have all learned to do business from America and now they are killing us with it.”
Themistocles Konstantinou.
“Germany’s policy in Europe is the reason for high unemployment, especially in the southern region. If someone counts for the past years all the measures that have been taken place under Merkel’s fiscal policies, It literally answers every question.
The only way to help the economy, is to ease the financial pressure set against people and allow them the ability to live and spend money freely.
This is the key factor for growth and the key factor to fight unemployment. Europe mimics the Chinese mercandillistic model of State Capitalism, that only works on places like China and North Korea! It doesn’t work in Europe.
European countries are straggled and out of frustration, unemployed people have started to commit suicide. For the last 3 years, in Greece alone, we have a decade high record number of 4000 suicides. That’s why!”
Jaime Ortega Simo.
“1- China, the Philippines and India have mastered production growth, thanks to their large population numbers and high competitive market labor entry.
2- Their work ethic is more productive and faster than what the average U.S. employee offers to most manufacturing companies. Companies with high demand & supply rates can easily replace workers by integrating young well trained employees that work longer hours. Most westernized countries cannot compete with those hour rates, only comparable, with those generations that worked during the age of England’s Industrialization or Americas industrial boom.
3-Workers in most brick economies have less rights, which makes it easier for businesses to write a simpler contract and undermine the employee benefits U.S. laborers enjoy. In most developing countries, there is no such thing as ‘unions’ and activist groups that support worker benefits, so it’s another plus for most western businesses that do not want to cope with constant law suits.
4- The minimum wage paid to employees in developing countries, could literally make any start-up foreign business grow easily without financing high demands on productivity costs. In other words, if I have a business I risk higher in investing on American employees because their wages demand more spending for the overall revenue I profit for my overall business.
5- I highly doubt that depending on China, and other manufacturing partners will help unemployment go down. The only possible way unemployment would stabilize worldwide, is if we devalue the current rate of the dollar worldwide(which Standards & Poor and Moody’s has successfully done), and pay employees the equivalent of minimum wage (converted by inflation) to the Yuan, demand more productivity, and give employees less rights. Governments in Europe are already using the American “subcontractor model” to provide jobs which give employees less benefits. But it’s already messing retirement plans for those 50 and up.
6- I find it impossible, that transnational corporations abandon markets like China, unless government intervenes. But that wouldn’t stimulate the economy to grow, even though, it might allow unemployment to significantly decline worldwide. So I think, we’re stuck.”
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USG Spending Bill
January 15th, 2014
By USG.
To read bill: USG Spending Bill