Indiana is one of five states — along with Arizona, California, Mississippi and Pennsylvania — bracing for possible shutdowns this week as time runs out for lawmakers to close billion-dollar gaps in their fiscal 2010 budgets. Of the 46 states whose fiscal year ends today, 32 did not have budgets passed and approved by their [...]

In a fascinating 22-page study of money and currency, Christopher Weber shows that every government – from Athens, to pre-collapse Rome, to the Islamic countries in the Middle Ages – which stuck to the Greek standard of coins has been stable and prosperous. Specifically, the Athenian Drachma contained 65.6 grains of silver. Even after Greece [...]

WARNING The mainstream media and government are communicating that the economy is on a positive track toward recovery while downplaying the likelihood of another economic catastrophe similar or worse than that experienced in the fourth quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009. In actuality, there is a significant chance that the U.S. will experience [...]

Does USA 2009 = Argentina 2001? Part I: Falling economy reaches terminal velocity • Slowed by green parachutes• Bond market suspends disbelief• Why China is nervous We have all heard that the U.S. economy cannot go the way of Argentina in 2001 when foreign investors expressed lost confidence in the government and refused to roll [...]

Large-scale lay-offs in the U.S. (defined as lay-offs of 50 or greater at one time) hit the highest level since this statistic was created in 1995, according to an article from CNN. This is yet another indication that the U.S. economy is plummeting downward – with absolutely no signs of stability, let alone a “recovery”. [...]

China’s central bank has reiterated its call for a new reserve currency to replace the US dollar. The report from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said a “super-sovereign” currency should take its place. Central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan has loudly led calls for the dollar to be replaced during the financial crisis. The bank [...]

(snippet)If Williams is right, unemployment is over 20%, gross domestic product is shrinking by 8% and consumer prices are jumping by nearly 7%. His forecasts border on apocalyptic. The government is creating so much new money, he says, that the all but inevitable result is hyperinflation, where “your highest denomination, the $100 bill, becomes worth [...]

June 25 (Bloomberg) — The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, a reminder that companies will keep cutting staff even as the economy stabilizes. Initial jobless claims rose by 15,000 to 627,000 in the week ended June 20, from a revised 612,000 the week before, the Labor Department said [...]

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