Author: Serkadis

  • Fiat Money Supply Contracting at Great Depression Level

    Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary

    Kurt Nimmo
    Prison Planet.com
    Thursday, May 27, 2010

    larry summers Fiat Money Supply Contracting at Great Depression Level  onepixel
    Larry Summers wants Congress to “grit its teeth” and get busy on another worthless stimulus.

    The bankster operative who helped destroy Glass-Steagall is back.

    Larry Summers, Obama’s top economic adviser, has told Congress to “grit its teeth” and approve a fresh fiscal boost of $200 billion to keep growth on track, reports the Daily Telegraph. “We are nearly 8m jobs short of normal employment. For millions of Americans the economic emergency grinds on,” he said.

    The M3 money supply in the United States is contracting at an accelerating rate that now matches the average decline seen from 1929 to 1933, despite near zero interest rates and the stimulus boondoggle.

    “It’s frightening,” professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research told the Daily Telegraph. “The plunge in M3 has no precedent since the Great Depression. The dominant reason for this is that regulators across the world are pressing banks to raise capital asset ratios and to shrink their risk assets. This is why the US is not recovering properly,” he said.

    No precedent since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, the corporate media has the public obsessing over Lindsay Lohan’s court-ordered ankle bracelet.

    The M3 is a measure of the money supply. It began tumbling last summer. The stock of fiat money fell from $14.2 trillion to $13.9 trillion in the three months to April, amounting to an annual rate of contraction of 9.6 percent. The assets of institutional money market funds fell at a 37 percent rate, the sharpest drop ever.

    In 2006, the Federal Reserve stopped publishing M3 figures. The Fed said it did this to save money. Nonsense. It did this to stop you from understanding what the big boys are doing with the money supply. It allows them to more effectively cook the books and keep you in the dark. It allows them to portray the largest economic crisis in history as a recovery.

    Economists and others use ancillary data provided by the Fed to get an idea of what is going on with the money supply.

    Fiat Money Supply Contracting at Great Depression Level  260310banner2

    In 2008, the funny money supply experienced the sharpest contraction in modern history. The current “economic crisis” followed in short order. “The US economy is without doubt facing severe headwinds going into the autumn,” reported Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in August of that year. He wasn’t whistling Dixie.

    Manipulating the money supply is how the banksters control economies and force nations to do their bidding. “The system is not being fixed and deliberately so. The elitists do not want it fixed. They want a collapse. This is the only way they can force people to accept world government,” writes Bob Chapman. “Many say they do know where it will end, but if they studied history they’d know exactly where it would end. It will end with the deliberate collapse of the financial and economic system and war, the way it always has.”

    International bankers have choices. Either Iran or North Korea. Only time will tell if they will exploit these emerging crises and go for it as history and Chapman warn they invariably do.

  • Next Chevrolet Volt may get rotary, 2-cylinder, or diesel

    2011 Chevrolet Volt

    The 2011 Chevrolet Volt hasn’t even hit dealerships yet and General Motors’ engineers are already looking for ways to cut costs on the second-generation model. The battery-pack of the currentl model costs roughly $10,000 and GM is doing all it can to get that down by 50 percent by the time the next Volt is due.

    GM’s new vice president of global vehicle engineering, Karl Stracke, says that the company is considering a wide range of possibilities including a rotary engines or a 2-cylinder gasoline engine making 15-18 kW. Stracke says the Detroit automaker is also looking at a diesel engine.

    “The cost of the engine would be higher for the manufacturer,” said Stracke, “but the fuel costs would be cheaper for customers.”

    Click here to read our first drive impressions of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt.

    Refresher: The 2011 Chevrolet Volt is powered by 16-kWh, “T”-shaped lithium-ion battery that powers the electric drive unit, which allows it to drive 40 miles on battery power alone. According to GM’s preliminary specs, the system puts out 150-hp and a maximum torque of 273 lb-ft, allowing the Volt to go from 0-60 mph in about 9 seconds, hitting a top speed of 100 mph. The battery can be re-charged by plugging into a household outlet and takes less than 3 hours to recharge on 240 volts, and about 8 hours on a standard 120-volt outlet. The Chevrolet Volt also carries a 1.4 4-clyinder engine that allows the five-door, FWD sedan to travel additional miles while averaging a fuel-economy of 50 mpg. A fully charged battery and full tank of gas will allow the Volt to travel 300 miles.

    First Drive: 2011 Chevrolet Volt:

    All Photos Copyright © 2010 Omar Rana – egmCarTech.

    – By: Omar Rana

    Source: Inside Line


  • Kendra Exposed Video: Leaked on the Web

    Playboy’s Kendra Wilkinson gets back in the headlines. A sex tape titled “Kendra Exposed” was discovered by Vivid Entertainment.

    The torrent Download for the Kendra Exposed Video is one of the top searches now on the net. Vivid Entertainment had found the leaked video more than a month ago but they have claimed that it had been created back in 2005 for a special purpose when Kendra got of 18 years of age.

    The 24-year-old actress from “Girl next door” is now upset and confused about the matter. She is disturbed with the distribution of Kendra Exposed video and she does not want it to be public now at any cost. She already tried to remove the videos from the web but she failed.

    The video has Kendra with her former boyfriend during high school. Reports said that the ex-boyfriend leaked that sex tape video to some sources just after their separation.

    On the website set up by Vivid you can see a preview of the tape along some still images to encourage you to buy the membership for the site which costs $29.95 for 30 days.

    Related posts:

    1. Kendra’s Sex tape Exposed!
    2. On Second Installment: Kendra Could Be A Lesbian
    3. Kendra Wilkinson’s Sex Tape Exposed

  • Photo Comparison Shows BP HAS Reduced Well Pressure (BP)

    I am putting up these two pictures to show why I believe that the injection pressure of mud into the well has dropped, indicating that BP have filled the well, and are now holding pressure to see if there are any problems. I would assume, if none develop, that they will inject cement to seal the top of the well, sometime today.

    livecam

    livecam

    Notice how the flow was longer and straighter in the first image, indicating that it was at higher pressure (velocity) and that now it blows out at much closer distance, meaning it doesn’t have the same pressure (velocity). There is a small caveat, and that is that I am assuming that there hasn’t been any significant erosion of the surface of the cracks between the two shots, and that may be a possible change, though not enough to cause the reduced throw distance of the central jet.

    UPDATE: Here is a picture showing the ROV and the leaks – note the pipe on top of the riser that is also flowing mud.

    livecam

    This is a guest post by Heading Out of The Oil Drum –> (This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.)

    Join the conversation about this story »

  • Conheçam a BMW M3 versão IND

    Imagens do veículo

    A preparadora americana IND trabalhou em um projeto ambicioso para a BMW M3. Houveram modificações em todo o veículo, visualmente, e na potência do esportivo também. Uma nova pintura “Azul Atlantis” foi feita, se extendendo até o motor, e o visual ficou muito agradável. Mas as mudanças não param por ai.

    Algumas peças de fibra de carbono foram instaladas e uma nova suspensão ajustável foi inclusa. Um kit de freios da Brembo e escapamentos de titânio. Interiormente, o carro lembra muito o modelo M3 GTS, não existem bancos traseiros e existem painéis na porta, os bancos dianteiros são revestidos de couro.

    Todas essas mudanças garantiram à modesta M3 “meros” 522 cv de potência. Vejam após o link algumas imagens do esportivo depois de sua transformação radical. O resultado realmente é de agradar os olhos. Não foi divulgado valores do modelo transformado.

    Imagens do veículo
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    Via | Top Speed


  • Electric car travels record 623 miles on single charge

    Filed under: , , ,

    The plug-in aficionados of the Japan Electric Vehicle Club hit the track this weekend in a Daihatsu Mira Van with a 74 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery to see how far they could go on a charge. The last time the crew attempted this feat in November 2009, they managed to squeeze out 345 miles before running out of juice.

    This time out, the members reduced some mass with new features likes a carbon fiber seat and even lower rolling resistance tires from Toyo. The van used the same Sanyo battery as the previous record drive and continued rolling for an amazing 623 miles before running out of electrons.

    Seventeen drivers participated in the 27.5-hour drive with an average speed of just under 25 miles per hour. While getting over 600 miles on a charge is certainly impressive, we aren’t likely to see many 74 kWh batteries in production vehicles any time soon thanks to their prohibitive cost. Plus, the driving style on the closed course was doubtlessly extremely conservative, which doesn’t bode well for real-world driving. Regardless, it’s quite a feat. A tip of the hat to Paul!

    [Source: Electric Vehicle News]

    Electric car travels record 623 miles on single charge originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 May 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Mahindra buys 55% stake in Reva, GM looking at other options for Spark EV

    Reva Electric City Car

    In a move designed to expand technology in a time of rising demand for alternative fuel vehicles, India’s Mahindra & Mahindra has agreed to buy a controlling stake in Reva Electric Car Co. Though Mahindra declined to give an overall value for the acquisition in a statement before the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday, the company did announce that it will take over 55% of Reva; the stake is represented mostly by stock in the company.

    Last month, Mahindra took over French carmaker Renault’s stake in a joint venture that produces the Logan sedan; a move that will help the company bring a passenger car to the Indian market.

    With distribution in 24 countries, Reva has sold more than 3,500 units to date, and plans to build a plant in southern India to build as many 30,000 vehicles per year.

    “The EV market is poised to grow significantly, and we concluded that in order to seize the opportunity, we needed the resources and experience of a major automotive manufacturer,” Chetan Maini, chief of technology and strategy at Reva, said in the statement.

    Mani said GM, which is developing a electric version of its Spark small car with Reva’s technology, is looking at “other options” but the two have not ended their relationship.

    – By: Stephen Calogera

    Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)


  • UPDATE: BP Denies Significant Improvement In Oil Leak, Stock Still Surging

    UPDATE: A tweet from BP denied improvement in the leak: “Top kill” operations continued over the night & are ongoing. There are no significant events to report at this time.

    The tweet was sent at 8:43 a.m., precisely when the LA Times published its article.

    PREVIOUSLY: More good news coming out of the BP camp is sending the stock soaring pre-market. The oil has been stopped, says the Coast Guard according to the LA Times.

    It’s not a done deal yet.

    The whole thing could still give, once pressure is re-established BP needs to pump cement into the hole to entomb the oil. So we’re not out of the woods just yet, but we may be getting there.

    bp

    Join the conversation about this story »

  • Road construction threatened by national shortage of traffic paint?

    Filed under:

    We don’t know how much road construction your area is being subjected to, but we’re up to our necks in orange barrels and portable cement barriers. Apparently the government stimulus funds have converged onto our highways and boulevards in one summer, but a report by The New York Times shows that one key element could throw a wrench in the plans to overhaul our nation’s infrastructure. It’s not concrete or even heavy machinery. We’re talking about the paint used to stripe the roads.

    Yellow lines, white lines and dashes of both colors could be tough to come by due to a sudden shortage of a chemical compound called methyl methacrylate. The Associated General Contractors of America reportedly told federal transportation officials last week that the sudden scarcity of the paint has “very significant ramifications for completion of highway projects this summer.”

    Dow Construction Chemical is reportedly running into production problems this year and other chemical companies have cut back on making the striping paint due to the slow economy. Some states, including Texas, Washington and Ohio may be perilously running out of the paint just as the construction season starts to heat up, which could make already annoying traffic delays last even longer.

    Among the short-term solutions being noodled are using more of the raised reflective buttons in place of the stripes and only painting the center lines and not the shoulder lines. Either way, this won’t make construction season any easier.

    [Source: The New York Times via Transport Gooru]

    Road construction threatened by national shortage of traffic paint? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 May 2010 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Markets Withstand 1-2 Punch From GDP And Jobless Claims

    boxeronropes.jpg

    Markets are still pointing significantly higher, but they’ve come off a bit following a weak GDP report and a weak weekly jobless claims report.

    But it really doesn’t matter what the market is doing now (pre-market) and it really doesn’t matter what happens once trading gets rolling.

    What matters is what happens when we get to the final 30 minutes of trading, which is when everything happens nowadays.

    If things are going to stay up, we need a moratorium on loose lips out of Europe.

    Join the conversation about this story »

    See Also:

  • The Facebook News Feed Is Now Available in Yahoo Mail

    Yahoo is continuing its love affair with Facebook with another move towards deeper integration. The Facebook News Feed is now available inside Yahoo Mail for users who linked their Facebook account with their Yahoo one. All updates in the News Feed will show up among the updates from the Yahoo network. The feed works just like the Facebook N… (read more)

  • Steve Ballmer will be with Steve Jobs at WWDC 2010

    Steve Ballmer will be with Steve Jobs at WWDC 2010The next Apple developer conference, WWDC 2010 can be one of the events that makes history, but not because of the products which will be unveiled, rather because it is anticipated that the CEO of Microsoft , Steve Ballmer is attending the meeting.

    As revealed in Daring Fireball, the analyst Trip Chodhry says Steve Ballmer will make a seven-minute appearance at WWDC 2010 to present a product from Microsoft: Visual Studio 2010 for Mac OS X, iPhone and iPad.

    Also indicates that the intervention of Ballmer will take place within its own presentation of Steve Jobs. If confirmed this move by Apple and Microsoft, would be something that would expand the number of developers creating applications for Mac exponentially.

    Related posts:

    1. Steve Jobs opens the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, WWDC 2010
    2. Steve Jobs could unveil the new iPhone 4G
    3. Apple market capitalization exceeds Microsoft with the advance of iPad

  • Twilight Top’s National Movie Awards @ Royal Festival Hall

    The National Movie Awards, brought a cup whole of awards home for the Twilight team. Taking home three trophies, Twilight, was surely a big winner. The second edition in the series named Twilight: New Moon was named the best fantasy film while the star actor, Robert Pattinson took home the prize of Best Performance. The latest edition of the movie which is to hit the airwaves next month known as Twilight:Eclipse was also awarded as the Most Anticipated Summer Movie.

    Amongst others was the Harry Potter family grabbing the award for ‘Family Film’, for the movie Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince. The movie also bagged in an award for ‘Special Recognition’.

    The winners list include:

    • Best Action Movie Thriller: Sherlock Holmes
    • Best Fantasy: The Twilight Saga: New Moon
    • Best Breakthrough Movie: The Time Traveler’s Wife
    • Best Family Movie: Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince
    • Best Performance Of The Year: Robert Pattinson (The Twilight Saga: New Moon)
    • Most Anticipated Summer Movie: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
    • Special Recognition Award: Harry Potter
    • Screen Icon: Tom Cruise

    The awards were held in London at the Royal Festival Hall.

    Related posts:

    1. 2010 MTV Movie Awards Nominees List
    2. “The Hangover”, “New Moon” and “Avatar” leads the MTV Movie Awards 2010
    3. Today is Robert Pattinson’s Birthday!

  • Initial Jobless Claims Still Way Too High At 460,000 For The Week

    Update: Yep, a slight miss, and a further sign that jobs improvement has stalled out.

    Markets are still up over 2%.

    Original post: Analysts were looking for 455,000 initial claims. This weekly number, which is volatile, has totally stalled out in terms of getting better in recent months, remaining stubbornly at 450K and above. Last week it was over 470K.

    This chart gives you a good sense of the stall-out:

    jobless

    Join the conversation about this story »

  • Johan Berglund designs a sustainable restaurant for Östberget

    johan berglunds resturant design1

    Eco Factor: Sustainable restaurant embedded on the side of a mountain

    Imagine sitting inside a mountain and sipping your favorite coffee. The very thought seems so exciting. Well, this fascinating idea could shape into reality with an innovative design for a restaurant in Ostersund, Sweden. Architect Johan Berglund of London studio 42 Architects plans a restaurant embedded in the side of a hill.

    (more…)

  • Lambda-based Cadillac crossover is still a go

    Cadillac XTS Concept

    General Motors is currently hard at work at the next-generation of its large full-size SUV lineup that includes the Cadillac Escalade. The next-geneartion giant SUVs will arrive sometime in 2013. However, the Lambda platform based Caddy SUV we’ve been hearing about for sometime now is still a go.

    Karl Stracke, GM’s vice president of global engineering, says that a Lambda-based Cadillac crossover is on its way. Stracke did not confirm when the model will show up.

    The Lambda platform also underpins GM’s Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia crossovers.

    Expect Caddy’s version of the SUV to have an XTS Concept like front-face with power coming from the company’s 3.6L direct-injected V6.

    – By: Omar Rana

    Source: Straightline


  • Test Drive Unlimited 2 hitting the track this September

    With an open beta already confirmed for this year, all that’s left for Atari to announce is a release date for Test Drive Unlimited 2. That’s exactly what they revealed just recently.

  • FDA criticized Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol plant

    FDA criticized Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol plantAn incisive report issued Tuesday by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) harshly criticizing the conditions of the plant where Johnson & Johnson produce Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and other drugs that were withdrawn from the market for the weekend.

    The inspection report conducted by the FDA in late April, detailing the flaws in quality control and safety of the plant located in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, owned by the McNeil division of Johnson & Johnson. The agency said it was considering several actions, including possible criminal penalties.

    For his part, Johnson & Johnson has temporarily suspended production at the plant, the only company that manufactures all of its liquid drugs for pediatric use.

    “Nothing worries us more than give parents the products of the highest quality for their children. The quality problems that detected the FDA, many of which we identified in our own inspections and had informed the FDA, are unacceptable” the company said Tuesday.

    Meanwhile, the regulatory agency asked the parents to discontinue use of any of the recalled products, and warned that if they used them the possibility of a negative medical effect was “remote.”

    Deborah Author, director of the Office of Certification Standards of the FDA, said the agency had met in February with the directors of Johnson & Johnson. ”We express serious concerns about McNeil manufacturing operations ” he said, although the routine inspection of the plant was already scheduled, the meeting accelerated the process.

    Deborah Author also admonished McNeil because this is the fourth recall in the past seven months. ”It’s another example of the severe consequences a company faces when it takes full responsibility for the quality of their medicines,” he said.

    The FDA will conduct a more detailed analysis of the report before determining the effects that McNeil will assume. Author said the measures could range from a warning notification to criminal penalties.

    The report also noted that McNeil did not take “corrective and preventive measures” after receiving 46 consumer complaints between June 2009 and April 2010, which reported the presence of foreign material and dark spots on the medicines.

    The plant also followed the rules of quality control and laboratory facilities. McNeil purchased contaminated raw material containing a type of bacteria which is not identified yet.

    The regulatory agency found no written protocols to ensure “the identity, strength, quality and purity” of the produced drugs. He also reported that plant employees “received no training on manufacturing practices, or procedures in writing as required by regulations for good manufacturing practices.”

    On Saturday, McNeil recalled 50 versions of their drugs for children (sold without prescription), the FDA said the recall affects 1,500 batches of drugs, distributed in the United States and worldwide.

    Related posts:

    1. Tylenol Recall 2010 by McNeil Consumer Healthcare
    2. McNeil and Johnson & Johnson under investigation
    3. McNeil Promises Quality Repair

  • David Einhorn: The Debt Won’t Be Passed Onto Our Grandchildren, Because The Crisis Is Coming MUCH Sooner

    David Einhorn

    David Einhorn, the Greenlight Capital hedge fund manager, has an op-ed in the New York Times today that starts pretty brilliantly

    ARE you worried that we are passing our debt on to future generations? Well, you need not worry.

    Before this recession it appeared that absent action, the government’s long-term commitments would become a problem in a few decades. I believe the government response to the recession has created budgetary stress sufficient to bring about the crisis much sooner. Our generation — not our grandchildren’s — will have to deal with the consequences.

    And this op-ed, titled “Easy Money, Hard Truths” isn’t your typical 5 paragraph op-ed. It’s three pages of debt statistics and inflation warnings that will ruin your day. (We’re thinking this might have been the speech he gave at Ira Sohn yesterday, though we’re not sure).

    He slams the US AAA rating. He says inflation would be 9% per annum if they still calculated it they way they did in the 80s.

    He says we could solve our problem, but seriously doubts we have the political will.

    (Found via Joshua Brown, who wonders if the whole thing is a way for him to promote his gold.)

    Read the whole thing >

    Join the conversation about this story »

  • GM wants to do interior design, quality Audi style

    2011 Audi A8 Interior

    Though this blogger is particularly fond of Audi, any person with even the slightest fascination in cars would agree that Audi reigns supreme when it comes to interior design and quality, and GM’s VP of Global Engineering, Karl Stracke, agrees. Though Stracke feels confident in the progress that GM has made with regard to interiors, he still would like to see the Motown automaker go further; something like Audi.

    “We’re not yet at Audi quality,” he said. “I want to be at Audi quality. Audi is the benchmark for interiors.”

    Stracke has been with GM for 30 years, all of which has been on the European side. He is responsible for many Opel models, and is the mind behind the last generation Saab 9-3. Staracke and his team are much more focused on interiors than past GM execs, and devote every Friday to driving cars on the proving grounds and checking out competitors models.

    – By: Stephen Calogera

    Source: Edmunds