Tell Congress: Only people are people. End Citizens United Supreme Court Decision

Tell Congress: Only people are people.

We deserve a country where our elected officials are not bought and paid for by big corporations.
But the Citizens United vs. FEC Supreme Court decision overturned over a century of precedent and opened the floodgates for unlimited amounts of corporate money to flow into our political system.
Shockingly, the court came to this decision based on the notion that a corporation is legally a "person" entitled to First Amendment rights, and by equating a corporation's right to spend unlimited amounts of money influencing an election with our right to free speech.
Tell your senators and member of Congress to support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and end corporate personhood.
Even before the Citizens United decision, we too often saw the interests of Main Street subverted in favor of the interests of Wall Street.
But with the Citizens United decision now the law of the land, large corporations have the power to spend unlimited amounts of money from their general treasuries to buy elections.
To put things in perspective, the roughly $745 million Barack Obama raised to run for President in the 2008 election cycle (which was the most money raised by any candidate ever to run for office in the U.S.) is dwarfed by the $45 billion in profits a single company (ExxonMobil) made in 2008.
What's more, Citizen United opened loopholes that allow corporations to hide their campaign expenditures by laundering the money through non-profit advocacy organizations.
Tell your senators and member of Congress to support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and end corporate personhood.
Unfortunately, because Congress cannot pass a law that supersedes a Supreme Court ruling, it may take a constitutional amendment to undo the worst aspects of the Citizens United decision and end corporate personhood.
Clearly, the bar to successfully amending the Constitution is very high. But with 85% of the public opposed to the Citizens United decision, there is a potential for a broad coalition of Democrats, Republicans and Independents who all want to restore our democracy.
And let's remember, the stakes are too high to allow inaction on this issue. It's no exaggeration to say that the Citizens United decision fundamentally threatens the integrity of our democracy.
We need a government of, for and by the people. And sadly, we might need to work really hard to re-establish the common sense and democratic view that only people are people, not corporations.
Your senators and member of Congress need to hear from you, regardless of where they stand on this issue. We need to show them that their constituents are part of a broad movement demanding action -- not only to convince them that overturning Citizens United is the right thing to do, but also that it's possible.
Today, take a step to be part of that movement.
Tell your senators and member of Congress to support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and end corporate personhood.

STOP SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) !

... or else you could find many of the sites you use on a regular basis permanently closed to you. And maybe find your sites closed to many of your regular visitors.

The Basics

SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) is a bill currently in the US Congress that would allow the US Government to add sites to a blacklist, preventing anyone in the United States from accessing them. The stated goal is to limit access to pirate ("warez") sites, and sites that sell counterfeit physical products. Fake Rolexes, designer clothes, prescription drugs, etc.

The intent of the bill is something we strongly support. Piracy affects those of us in the Warrior group more than most, as a lot of us make our livings selling our own intellectual property. Our membership includes tens of thousands of authors, musicians, graphic designers, photographers, programmers, copywriters, videographers, public speakers and others, from nearly every creative field.

We feel the impact of digital thievery first hand.

This bill is not the way to handle the problem. It is a disaster in the making.

It would damage the Internet's basic security infrastructure, possibly require ISPs to monitor every site you visit, and make the operation of any website that contains user-generated content (blogs, forums, digital marketplaces, and social media sites) too risky for investors and new developers.

Wikipedia has posted a good basic summary of the potential problems. Read it. It is frightening. And you need to be scared.

How It Would Work

Here's the simple version: If the Justice Department or any copyright holder accused a site of "encouraging or facilitating" piracy, the government could order that site removed from US-based search engines and ad networks, forbid payment processors from handling transactions for them, and require ISPs to block access to those sites by their customers.

Let's consider how that might apply to this forum... There are currently over 335,000 pages on this site. If just one of those pages contained a single post promoting an illegal download, or one WSO seller has used graphics or code from a copyrighted product without permission, or we miss just one Chinese spam for counterfeit goods, we could be blocked.

Would it matter that we actively look for and delete those posts? Maybe, but only after the process had begun. And we'd probably never know about it until the block was in place.

The amount of time that it would take to correct such an unjustified blocking would cause permanent damage to any interactive site. Shifting the membership away from a destination for that long nearly guarantees the site would never recover.

Along with that, there is no requirement that payment processors re-accept a site that has been blocked this way. You know how these guys work: They don't care if the site is eventually found innocent. They'd label it as "high risk," and never deal with it again. And they'd probably start creating whole new categories to lock out, just to avoid the headaches.

"You let visitors post on your site? Sorry. We don't accept interactive services in our network."

And, unless the ISPs are working from a centralized and regularly updated database, it's unlikely most of them would ever remove the blocks once they were in place.

Mistakes would almost certainly be fatal to the target sites. We're talking about legitimate sites that provide real value for their visitors and real incomes for their operators and their families.

It is unclear at this point whether the legislation would affect sites based in the US, or if it applies only to "foreign" sites. Even if it doesn't start out applying to sites hosted in the United States, do you really think it will stay limited to "offshore sites" for long?

And how do we justify sitting by while our friends around the world are subjected to this potential for arbitrary blocking within the US?

Don't Think This Will Affect You?

Maybe you aren't involved in a market where this would seem to matter, and you're not interested in the principle of the thing. Consider a few possible examples that might make the reach of this Congressional folly clearer.

Any blogs you like? Keep in mind how many of them are hacked every day. One of the main activities for those hackers is pointing the victim sites to online shops selling illegal drugs.

*POOF*

Gone.

Hang out at any scrapbooking sites? A lot of them let the members share their original page themes and other digital scrapbooking elements. If one clueless designer uses graphics from a catalog or other copyrighted source, your fun little hobby community could be taken away from you. And the site owner could lose their income.

Use shareware or freeware? Legitimate software libraries, like CNet's, would be prime targets. After all, it only takes one mistake.

Do you surf using proxies to protect your privacy? Forget that. It's only a matter of time before that's marked as a refuge for pirates and they're blocked.

Have you ever tried to keep track of which sites are pirating your products? If you live in the US, you can forget that, too. Once they hit the blocklist, you can't see them. Which means you can't take any action to reduce the damage.

That's just the tip of the virtual iceberg.

The real damage will begin when the pirates implement new systems for distributing their warez. Evading a domain-based list is child's play for experienced people, and pirates really don't care if it's illegal. If they did, they wouldn't be pirates.

And it won't just be the traditional pirates who join in. Anyone who's studied history knows that prohibition just romanticizes the suppliers and users, and creates networks dedicated to serving that "heroic" image.

And, of course, there's the problem of retribution. If the US starts arbitrarily blocking access to foreign sites from within our country, how long do you think it will be before other countries develop similar approaches to advancing their political goals, and block their citizens from accessing sites they don't deem suitable?

At that point, it isn't even nominally about piracy any more. It's about politics, pure and simple. If you doubt the temptation, consider how quickly nations in the Middle East tried to block their citizens from accessing western social networks at the first sign of unrest over the past few years.

Think about how this would look to the world after all our comments about the Chinese "Great Firewall."

If you believe our bureaucrats would be careful enough to only list sites that existed for the sole purpose of piracy, remember: These are the same bureaucrats who listed a then-sitting US Senator (the late Edward Kennedy, of MA) on our anti-terrorist "no fly" list.

What's your recourse if someone accuses you of "encouraging or facilitating" piracy and you're found to be innocent? Good luck with that. The only way you could get any satisfaction there would be if you could prove they wilfully and knowingly made false allegations.

Ask your lawyer what the chances are of proving that. Be prepared from them to laugh and say "Zero."

This is the single most dangerous piece of legislation to regulate the Internet that has ever had any real chance of becoming law in the US.

What Can You Do?

If you live in the US, contact your Senators and Representatives and encourage them to vote against SOPA (H.R. 3621) and PIPA, the Senate version (S. 968).

When you contact them, be calm, clear, and concise. Tell them that you support the goal but oppose the legislation, because of the damage it will do to small businesses and the security of the Internet in general.

If you feel the need to cite a source for them, point them to the Wikipedia article, which lists a number of US government studies and reports that show just how much damage the legislation could do.

And be clear that you don't want to see an edited version of the bill passed. This thing is not just poorly implemented. The concept itself is flawed and dangerous.

Emails count a little. Phone calls and faxes count more. A short, clear printed letter mailed to them counts the most.

If you're contacting your representative, mention H.R. 3621 (SOPA). If it's your Senators, the bill number to mention is S. 968 (PIPA).

You can find the contact information for both Senators and Representatives at Contacting the Congress. Just select your state, type in your zip code, and click the "Submit It" button.

When contacting them, be sure to either mention your name and address to the person you speak with on the phone or include it in your correspondence. They want to know you're actually one of their constituents.

Remember to be polite, clear, and brief. These folks are trying to protect your interests. Most of them simply don't understand the potential problems the bill would create.

Calling them, or typing a brief letter and putting a stamp on it, will probably take less time than you were about to spend in this forum today. And it could make a huge difference.

If every US citizen who reads this takes that few minutes' worth of action, we can generate a ton of pressure against the bill. If we all just leave it to everyone else, we're likely to be stuck with this as law, along with all the problems it brings.

It's up to you. Choose wisely.

AFGE Week In Review January 13,2012

Jan. 13, 2012

AFGE President John Gage Responds to Obama’s Agency Consolidation Plan: AFGE National President John Gage today issued the following statement in response to President Barack Obama’s proposed consolidation of business and trade agencies:
“I welcome President Obama’s decision to reinstate the Small Business Administration’s status as a Cabinet-level agency – a position it held during the Clinton administration. This signifies the president’s confidence in Administrator Karen Mills and the thousands of hard-working federal employees who serve America’s small business owners.

AFGE represents employees at four of the trade- and commerce-related agencies and offices that I understand would be consolidated under the Obama administration’s plan. We represent 2,200 employees at SBA, nearly a hundred each at the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and about two dozen at the Trade and Development Agency.

We are eager to review the details of the president’s consolidation plan and determine how it will impact the employees we represent and the services we deliver to the American people. I do take issue, however, with the notion that most of government is inefficient and that cutting federal workers will somehow solve the problem. Federal employees and supervisors are only carrying out the work that has been created by Congress and elected officials, who have mandated these various layers of bureaucracy largely for political gains.”
AFGE President John Gage Responds to Proposed 0.5% Raise: AFGE National President John Gage has issued the following statement in response to the Obama administration’s proposed 0.5% federal employee pay raise for 2013:
“After freezing federal employee’s salaries for two years, the Obama administration is proposing a miniscule half-percentage point increase in their wages next year. It’s less than half of the 1.2% nationwide adjustment employees are entitled to next year under the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act, which was signed into law by the first President Bush in 1990. The proposal also effectively freezes locality pay for another year. The fact is, this increase is well below the rate of inflation of 3.6%, and will be wiped out by higher costs for health care, groceries and other essential needs.

“Federal employees aren’t overpaid government bureaucrats. They are the aircraft mechanics and commissary workers at local military bases, the nurses at the local VA hospital, the men and women guarding our borders and the claims representatives who process Social Security and disability benefits. Especially in these tough economic times, we must ensure that all workers are provided with fair and meaningful wage increases to prevent them from falling further behind. I urge Congress to approve a meaningful pay raise that will allow these employees to provide for their families.

“Having said that, we’re hopeful that this is a positive step that spells an end to the barrage of attacks on pay and benefits for working people and serves as an acknowledgement that attacking the jobs we have won’t create the new jobs we need.”

AFGE Urges DoD to Shift Budget-Cutting Focus to Contractors: AFGE is urging the Defense Department to take a balanced approach to spending reductions that subjects private contractors to the same cost-cutting scrutiny that has already been placed upon the civilian workforce. The Pentagon has pledged to cut $450 billion in spending during the next decade. In addition, the department may have to cut another $500 billion during the next decade to comply with a sequestration mandate. DoD has arbitrarily capped the civilian workforce at 2010 levels, which means cutting tens of thousands of civilian positions. It is also pursuing cuts in military retirement pay and other employee benefits. At the same time, defense spending on service contractors is growing at an alarming rate. The department spent $121 billion on service contracts in fiscal 2010, nearly twice as much as originally budgeted, according to an inventory of service contracts cited in a recent letter from several members of Congress on the House Appropriations Committee to the Pentagon.

“We understand that the law requires sacrifices, but it is wrong for civilian workers to shoulder the entire burden,” AFGE National President John Gage said. “Tens of thousands of civilian jobs are slated for elimination, despite strong evidence that having civilians perform these jobs is the most cost effective strategy. Meanwhile, the department continues to increase spending on contractors, even though they are more costly and less accountable. There is no budgetary or strategic rationale for excluding DoD’s vast contractor ‘shadow workforce’ from the cost-cutting measures that the military and civilian workforces are facing.”

“The main issue this country is facing is a lack of jobs. Cutting military and civilian jobs and hacking away at their benefits hurts the economy and does nothing to spur job creation,” Gage added.

Inmates Assault BOP Officers in Seattle, Coleman: AFGE’s Council of Prison Locals (CPL) today reiterated its call for more resources and manpower following two inmate assaults on officers the first week of the new year. The first incident occurred Jan. 3 at the Federal Detention Center – SeaTac in Seattle, Wash., when two inmates attacked and assaulted a correctional officer who was working alone during morning rounds. The officer, an Iraq war veteran, has been hospitalization for treatment. The FBI is investigating the incident. The assault in Seattle was followed up by another incident days later at the United States Penitentiary – Coleman in Florida where two correctional officers were assaulted by inmates inside the facility. CPL pointed to BOP’s inadequate staffing and funding levels as a major reason for the uptick in violence throughout the nation’s prison system.

“We’re outraged to learn of more assaults against staff,” said CPL President Dale Deshotel. “Sadly, these types of attacks – one where a staff member is unarmed and frequently working alone – happen far too often throughout the federal prison system. This is a safety issue and must be addressed immediately.”

BOP correctional officers and other staff members inside federal prisons are unarmed, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by inmates with homemade weapons. For years, AFGE and CPL have fought not only for additional staffing and funding at BOP but also for protective equipment such as stab-resistant vests. The need for additional resources can be seen with the countless violent outbreaks occurring at BOP facilities across the country. A correctional officer can be responsible for supervising as many as 150 inmates at once and is unarmed inside the facility. Low staffing levels and a more aggressive inmate population have led to a spike in violence – something AFGE says cannot continue.

AFGE Fights Proposed Closure of Historic Hot Springs VA Hospital: AFGE strongly objects to the proposed closing of the historic Hot Springs, South Dakota VA Medical Center. The Department of Veterans Affairs has proposed shuttering this facility, which is part of the Black Hill Health Care System, covering South Dakota, and portions of Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. The dismantling of this facility would force veterans to attend other facilities in the network that are between 50 and 100 miles away or be pushed to private sector health care centers that may lack the expertise in treating veterans.

“Hot Springs is a veterans’ town and our VA facility has served America’s heroes for more than 100 years. The proposal by the agency to close the doors of this veterans’ care center, on top of its already diminished capacities, is an outrage,” said Patrick Russell, president of AFGE Local 1539. “This has become a pattern with the VA, where we are finding the agency systematically closing its in-patient care facilities, in order to solely operate outpatient clinics and be in the business of managing contracts with the private sector.  This is no way to care for our nation’s vets.”

AFGE members, the American Legion, veterans, community members and other supporters have mobilized grassroots efforts in Hot Springs to petition the agency to keep the facility open to area veterans. The historic facility has been the ideal location to treat those with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions, given its small town atmosphere.

Obama Recess Appoints Labor Board: President Barack Obama has recess-appointed Sharon Block, Terence Flynn, and Richard Griffin to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), bypassing the approval of right-wing lawmakers in the Senate who would likely stall the nominations as they previously did with other nominations. The three NLRB appointees will allow the five-member board to continue on with a quorum after board member Craig Becker’s term came to an end last week. The independent labor board conducts union elections and investigates unfair labor practices.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, “We commend the President for exercising his constitutional authority to ensure that crucially important agencies protecting workers and consumers are not shut down by obstructionism.  Working families and consumers should not pay the price for political ploys that have repeatedly undercut the enforcement of rules against Wall Street abuses and the rights of working people.”
Obama’s recess appointments infuriated right-wing lawmakers despite the fact that President George W. Bush made a total of 171 recess appointments and President Obama had made only 28 recess appointments as of December 8, 2011, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Obama Taps OMB Chief to Become White House Chief of Staff: Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew has been tapped by President Barack Obama to become the White House chief of staff. Lew, who was Bill Clinton’s OMB chief, will replace Bill Daley, former banker and Clinton’s commerce secretary, at the end of this month.
AFGE Wins Ground Rules Agreement, Ready to Move Forward with Contract Negotiations at TSA: AFGE is one step closer to bringing home a collective bargaining agreement for 44,000 TSA officers after the union on Wednesday won an agreement with TSA on ground rules that govern the actual contract negotiations.
AFGE and TSA negotiators signed the ground rules agreement at about 5:40 p.m. on Jan. 11, paving the way for contract negotiations. This was a major step forward after TSA had been reluctant to adopt standard ground rules and practices used across the government. AFGE insisted that TSA do the right thing and our persistence paid off when management finally agreed to our proposals. For example, management originally refused to provide AFGE with advance notice of changes to work rules subject to bargaining, saying they couldn’t ensure they would always be able to do that. Other agencies, of course, readily agree to such a provision and comply without difficulty. But not TSA. After endless debate over how quickly they could provide such notice, they finally agreed to give notice “as soon as practicable.” It may seem like a small point, but it should give TSOs a sense of why TSA foot-dragging delayed the ground rules.

TSA Relents on Radiation, AFGE Proposes Joint Committee to Provide Dosimeters: After years of pressure from AFGE, TSA management finally relents and makes plans for issuing radiation dosimeters for TSA officers. Members around the country have expressed concerns for years about the level of radiation they are exposed to from screening equipment. The European Union recently banned certain types of scanners due to radiation concerns. Thanks to AFGE’s advocacy about this issue from the beginning, we will finally be able to give the officers what they really need – concrete information on the level of radiation exposure they are experiencing at work.
AFGE is also proposing a joint union-management committee to implement TSA’s new radiation monitoring program following the agency’s announcement of its plan to purchase personal and area dosimeters to be used at certain federalized airports. Specifically, TSA is seeking vendors who can provide individual and area dosimeters as part of the agency’s ongoing study to detect ionizing radiation and assess risk to employee health and safety. It will be a two-year contract worth $150,000.

“We would like to see TSA implement a comprehensive radiation safety and monitoring program to provide dosimeters to assess employee exposure over time as well as provide training and education on radiation and its possible health effects,” said AFGE President John Gage in a Jan. 11 letter to TSA Administrator John Pistole.

Application Period Now Open for AFGE’s JNS Family Scholarship: Each January, AFGE members and their dependents are eligible to apply for the John N. Sturdivant (JNS) Family Scholarship. This scholarship, administered by the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA), offers twenty five awards in the amount of $2,000 each on a yearly basis. 
Applicants must be enrolled or plan to enroll in an accredited college or university in a course of study that will lead to a two-year, four-year or graduate degree and have at least a 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.  Applications are accepted from January - March of each year and completed application packages must be postmarked no later than March 30, 2012.  For other requirements and to access the JNS Family Scholarship Application Form, click here.  Please note that those attending the National Labor College will not qualify for the JNS Family Scholarship as AFGE offers a separate scholarship program for this institution.

For more information, contact Carolyn Williams at 202.639.6406 or visit the AFGE Education website at http://education.afge.org.

AFL-CIO to Host Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance in Detroit: Hundreds of labor and civil right activists are expected to gather at the AFL-CIO’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance and National Conference to honor Dr. King’s legacy in Detroit, Michigan on Jan. 12-16. Featured speakers and awardees include Rep. Hansen Clarke, Rep. John Conyers, national radio host Joe Madison, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, UAW Pres. Bob King, U.S Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker. A series of workshops will be provided on important issues like voting rights, protecting public education, and organizing for job-creating legislation. Click here for more information.

Tweet of the Week: “Measured in dollars, fuel was America's top export in 2011. We're selling it because the price is good: an avg. $95 a barrel last year ~ WestWingReport

Brangelina Meets Obama: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt stopped by the White House Wednesday to chat with the president.

Inside Government: Tune in now to AFGE´s "Inside Government" for a special discussion with Americans for Democratic Action National Director Michael J. Wilson. The show, which originally aired on Friday, Dec. 30, is now available on demand. Wilson addressed the benefits of collective bargaining and cited the recent four-year labor agreement between Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers as proof that the process works.MSNBC´s Ed Schultz, host of "The Ed Show," and U.S. Rep. Karen Bass were then featured as two of the program's top interviews of 2011. Schultz discussed the need for a strong middle class and proposed ideas to get Americans back to work, while Bass shared her views on the U.S. job market and celebrated the work of public servantsnationwide.
Listen LIVE on Fridays at 10 a.m. on 1500 AM WFED in the D.C. area or online atwww.federalnewsradio.com.

Quote of the Week:

AFGE Council of Prison Locals President Dale Deshotel on the union’s repeated calls for more resources to adequately fund and staff federal prisons:
“We’re outraged to learn of more assaults against staff.  Sadly, these types of attacks – one where a staff member is unarmed and frequently working alone – happen far too often throughout the federal prison system. This is a safety issue and must be addressed immediately.”

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American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO 80 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001 | Tel. (202) 737-8700 | Fax (202) 639-6492 | www.afge.org

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Iran's Real Weapon Of Mass Destruction Is Oil Prices

     Oil prices jumped 8% last week after Iranian Vice-President Mohamad Reza Rahimi threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz if the rest of the world slapped an embargo on his country’s oil exports. Today, Reuters reports the European Union will do just that, with its diplomats agreeing in principle to halt Iranian imports.
There are lots of practical reasons to suspect Iran is bluffing. Not only would attacking shipping in the Strait be military suicide, but the regime needs the hard currency it gets from exporting 2.1 million barrels a day. Still, Iran is playing a powerful hand when it threatens to disrupt shipping through the narrow Strait and choke off what the Energy Information Administration estimates is 20% of the world’s traded crude.

Move up Move down

2012 Outlook: Crude Oil Prices Could Rise This Year, But Prices Could Be Very Volatile Kitco News Contributor

As my friend and economist Ed Hirs pointed out in a paper in 2010, the loss of 10 million barrels a day of Middle East production could drive short-run oil prices to $413 a barrel, given the inability of consumers to rapidly shift to other fuels. And that kind of shock is enough to blast the U.S. economy back into recession. Economist Kevin Kliesen with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said that sudden and sustained increases in oil prices increase the odds of recession by 50% in the first year, and 90% after three years.
“If you look at the historical data, nine of the past 10 recessions in the U.S. were preceded by sharp increases in oil prices,” Kliesen said. “If it’s large enough, it can cause people to adjust their future path of spending.”
A 50-cent increase in gasoline prices sucks $70 billion a year out of the pockets of U.S. consumers. And none less than Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, earlier in his career, wrote that unexpected new information like jumping oil prices can cause businesses to delay capital spending, since the “option value” of waiting to see what happens next exceeds the expected return on investment.
Economists re-examining the 2008 financial meltdown are increasingly identifying the sudden, 55% jump in oil prices that preceded it as a big contributor to the subsequent decline in economic activity. Economist James D. Hamilton of the University of California at San Diego, for example, found that a model of the impact of oil prices on gross domestic product he created in 2003 predicted, with an error of less than 0.2%, the actual decline in GDP in the third quarter of 2008.
The surprising thing, Hamilton told Congress in 2009, is that oil caused so much economic damage given other problems at the time. Plunging residential investment only accounted for about half the shrinkage in GDP in the first three quarters of 2008, for example, and some of that might have been due to consumers resisting buying homes in far-flung suburbs because they were worried about the rising cost of commuting.
“Something else, in addition to the pre-existing problems in the housing sector, contributed to tipping the scales from an economic slowdown into a self-feeding dynamic of falling output and employment,” Hamilton told Congress. “I see little basis for doubting that a key aspect of that new drag on the economy resulted from the effects of the oil price shock.”
Kliesen of the St. Louis Fed also believes high oil prices had a lot more to do with the recent recession than many people think.
“It was a key event that really helped slow things down,” Kliesen told me. “Clearly we had some different shocks in that period that really hammered the economy but oil was one of those shocks that was lost in all the reporting about the financial crisis and housing downturn.”
Sudden changes in oil prices hit the capital-goods market particularly hard, Kliesen has found, since businesses simply stop investing until they get a better sense of where prices are going (that was Bernanke’s thesis, in a more general way).  Higher oil prices also drive investors to shift money toward sectors of the economy that are less affected “and such reallocation is costly,” Kliesen has written.
     
A 2000 study by the International Monetary Fund found that a $5 permanent increase in oil prices cuts world GDP growth by 0.25% over the first four years. But the impact on the U.S. was a larger 0.3%, reflecting this country’s high per-capita energy use.
According to the EIA, 14 crude tankers a day pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a 21-mile-wide passage the EIA calls “the world’s most important oil transit chokepoint.”
  

Iran's Real Weapon of Mass Destruction is Oil Prices

Oilpatch leading the tango with China: China Buying Up Canadian Resurces

 By Michael McCullough  | January 03, 2012  
     PetroChina's purchase of the 40% of the McKay River oilsands project it doesn't already own from Athabasca Oil Sands is just the latest example of China's national oil companies snapping up Canadian energy reserves. Coming after China National Offshore Oil's outright takeover of Opti Canada and Sinopec's bid for Daylight Energy in 2011, it shows the NOCs are ready to own and operate Canadian assets outright.
But the deal also gives a hint of who's really pursuing whom. It was Athabasca in this case that triggered a shotgun clause forcing PetroChina to buy its stake for $680 million (because this was part of the 2009 deal between the companies, the upsell does not require Investment Canada approval). Athabasca wanted the cash, it said, to pursue light oil opportunities—presumably with a shorter time horizon.

       "It's not just the Chinese who are eager to come in," says Wenran Jiang, a University of Alberta professor who organizes an annual Canada-China energy forum. The NOCs are being approached by lawyers and investment bankers not just from Calgary but from Houston and Melbourne too, seeking patient capital for long-timeline projects while equity prices for energy companies have been steadily sinking on stock markets despite the high price of oil. "They're swamped by these people," Jiang says.
Now that they're in the driver's seat at McKay River, it will be interesting to see how they proceed. Will they hire an all-Canadian management team or tap some of their internal expertise? One of the lingering fears about NOC investment is that companies might just sit on high-cost Canadian assets for years without developing them, as a hedge against higher energy prices.
Jiang expects the opposite. "The Chinese," he says, "are fast movers. It's the western companies that delay." He notes Sinopec's disappointment when French-based Total SA, the majority owner and operator of the Northern Lights oilsands project, pushed the in-production date there back to 2024. "That's totally frustrating to them," he says.
The Chinese are interested in our resources, no question. But the Canadian demand for patient capital is just as strong.
Astronomical Gains from a Tiny Canadian Oil Company?

The 3 Most Dangerous Retirement Lies Brokers Are Telling Americans Today

In the next few minutes, you could LOSE ALL FEAR of…

• Outliving Your Nest Egg
• Saving for Retirement
• Having Your Hard-Earned Retirement Money
  
  Ravaged By Soon-to-Soar Inflation

There’s a simple first step to achieving your retirement dreams and more: Stop listening to the lies of brokers and financial advisors
They’re telling lies.
Brokers, financial advisors, Wall Street investment firms… 
They’re likely all perpetuating dangerous retirement myths. Sometimes it’s to sell more products and sometimes it’s just because they don’t know any better.
These three lies are costing millions of Americans big money every day.
Not just little white lies either… but lies jeopardizing the financial futures Americans are working (or have worked) so hard to build, threatening the legacy they plan on leaving behind for their kids and grandkids.
You may have even been victim of these ridiculous lies yourself!
But even if you have, there’s no reason you have to succumb to it. Or let it happen again…
So I’m blowing the lid off the most dangerous lies about investing for retirement in America today.
I’m doing this to save you from the fate that so many of your misled friends and neighbors may have succumbed to because of these costly lies.
Lies that could prevent you from ever reaching your dream retirement.

Fact is, that for lots of people in America, retirement is actually kind of sad …
Not only do people have to pinch pennies and be careful, but CBS News reports that a shocking 80% of baby boomers plan to “retire late,” working well past the age of 63.
Working longer than their parents and their grandparents did.
And that’s a shame. After all, you worked all those years. You sacrificed. You did the right thing.
So shouldn’t you have the freedom and the ability to enjoy yourself however you choose?
Maybe you want to travel the world, buy a fancy car or two, or a beachfront home in some exotic locale?
Or set up your grandkids with college funds or donate cash to charity causes close to your heart?
That’s a REAL retirement! And it could be yours; too… starting today… starting right now… it’s easier than you think… I’ll show you how.
I’m here to do more than just expose the lies the financial community is perpetuating on the American public.
I actually want to share with you wealth-building secrets brokers won’t tell their clients about since they don’t benefit or don’t even know exist.
Secrets that you can easily apply and give you the wealthy- thriving retirement you deserve.
A group of regular Americans are using them right now to make a fortune…

• Allison Sloan in Miami, FL reports, “I have a $57,000 profit.”

• James Hanson in Boston, MA says, “I’ve made $132,200.”

But before we get to the dirty details, let me introduce myself...
Hello. My name’s Chris Mayer and I’m a veteran market analyst.
Maybe you've seen me during my many appearances on Fox's Bulls & Bears, Forbes on Fox, or CNBC... Or heard my voice on CNN Radio... or read my popular book, Invest Like a Dealmaker: Secrets From a Former Banking Insider.

Perhaps you know one of the 44,000 Americans who’s recently followed my research to money multiplying gains of 137.6%, 127.34%, 101.64%, 107% and 115%.
I know the financial world — even the banking world — from the inside.
Fresh out of my masters program, I helped manage over $200 million for a major commercial bank... and even became their youngest vice-president... 
I mention it because that background — poring over the balance sheets of major and minor companies alike, looking for anomalies, mistakes, and even hidden value — was about the best stock picking training you could imagine.
After all, a company I’d feel comfortable lending to is one I’d feel comfortable owning shares of.
That’s how I spent years studying history’s finest analysts... compiling and testing their systems... until I had my own ruthless formula for testing the companies I evaluated, much more deeply than your average broker.
It was so effective that I’m proud to say I never lost a single dime on any of the major loans I made. The board even offered me stock options and promotions as a reward.
But that was just when lenders grew cocky and lowered their lending standards... putting America’s financial system on a dangerous path that would inevitably lead to crisis.
And devastate the retirement hopes of millions of innocent Americans.
So I decided to walk away to do my own 100% independent stock market research.
I have zero allegiance to any Wall Street investment firm, just to my loyal readers. To people just like you.
And to say I’m appalled by the nonsense that the financial community is feeding you about retirement today is a huge understatement.
You’re being directly taken for a ride… at a time when the stakes for most Americans couldn’t possibly get any higher.
That’s why it’s absolutely critical that you learn the REAL story about investing for retirement right now and what you must do if you want a secure financial future.
So let’s get right to the details starting with the first outrageous lie…
MOST DANGEROUS RETIREMENT LIE #1:
“Diversify! Diversify! Diversify!” One of the biggest drums beaten today in investing for retirement is to DIVERSIFY.
It’s a time-tested method for reducing risk and maximizing an investor’s portfolio’s returns by investing in a variety of assets.
However too much diversification, or “diworsification”, can be a bad thing. In fact, some brokers have incentives to “diworsify” investment portfolios.
“Diworsification” is a term originally created by billionaire investor Peter Lynch to describe a conglomerate, a company made up of seemingly unrelated businesses.
Today it’s morphed into a buzzword meaning money-burning diversification of an investment portfolio.

It’s an easy trap to fall into and happens when people become “collectors of investments” as opposed to just investors.
Some people simply buy what they think they should own with little regard to how it contributes to their overall portfolio.
In the end you have a smorgasbord of investments not linked to any real purpose. 
Owning too many investments can be confusing; makes it harder to do the diligence, increases investment costs, and can take a big bite out of returns over the long term.

• As Joel Greenblatt, author of You Can Be a Stock Market Genius, points out, “After purchasing six or eight stocks in different industries, the benefit of adding even more stocks to your portfolio in an effort to decrease risk is small.”

• Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says, “Diversification makes very little sense for those who know what they are doing.”

• And multimillionaire investor Jim Rogers writes, “Diversification is something that stock brokers came up with to protect themselves, so they wouldn't get sued [for making bad investment choices for clients]. You can go broke diversifying.”

So what kind of schemes are brokers using today to manipulate their clients’ money?
Brokers are using new products to spread their client’s money called “auto-diversification” investments.
One example is a target-date fund – a mutual fund whose asset mix becomes more conservative as the target date (usually retirement) approaches.

Since it’s managed by a third party and not by the broker himself, it requires little work on his part and gives him convenient finger pointing opportunities if things go awry.

Brokers also overdiversify their client’s accounts to keep the “money in motion.”
Buying and selling investments that are packaged differently with similar risk does very little to diversify a portfolio, but these transactions often result in higher fees and more commissions for the broker.
And then there’s this ridiculous retirement lie…

MOST DANGEROUS RETIREMENT LIE #2:
“Bonds Are a Good Investment and Should
Represent a Large Portion of an Investor’s Portfolio”

It’s common for older clients to be pushed into a greater percentage of bonds in their portfolio.
An often-quoted rule is that investors should hold their age in bonds as a total percentage of their portfolios.
For instance, a sixty-five-year-old should hold 65% bonds in his portfolio.
In fact, many companies are redesigning their 401(k)s to funnel investors into the target-date funds I told you about earlier, which automatically steer older investors into bonds.
The reasoning behind this scheme is that financial advisors generally believe bonds to be a safer, less “plunge-prone” investment than stocks.
It makes a bit of sense because if the company goes bankrupt, bondholders will be paid before the stockholders.
But the reason I don’t like fixed-income investments as an alternative to stocks is that I believe they have much of the downside risk of stocks with little of the upside.
Let me explain…
In the recent downturn, we saw stocks of certain companies fall 75 percent, and their bonds are also significantly off, sometime in excess of 50 percent.
Likewise, in times of high inflation, we have seen bonds with long maturity dates (10 years or more) also do poorly. 

• The Economic Times confirms, “In an inflationary environment, bonds do poorly.”
  

• Smartmoney.com says, “Even a cursory look at the headlines shows it's a shaky time for bonds, with inflation fears rising and government finances in bad shape.”

So, both bonds and stocks have big downside risk if inflation takes off or a company’s earnings prospects decline significantly.
But what if things improve?
What if the economy gets better and a company grows faster than expected?
The bondholder has no upside.                                   
No matter how well the company is managed and how good its earnings prospects are, the bondholder simply gets his promised fixed rate of return.
But since the stockholder has an ownership stake in the company, if the company’s fortunes improve, so does the stockholder’s return.
In short, the bondholder is just going to get their money back in good times while the stockholder has real upside potential as the company’s earnings improve.
So if you are holding bonds, you may be missing a better alternative in stocks, while facing similar downside risk.
I believe people are fooled by the name “fixed-income securities” when in fact there is no such thing.
And there’s another crazy lie about retirement the financial community NEEDS you to believe…

MOST DANGEROUS RETIREMENT LIE #3
“Before Investing, Speak With
a Broker or Financial Advisor”

It is preached that before you invest, you should talk with a financial advisor whose long-term investing perspective will end up saving you a great deal of money over time.
But does it really?
While it’s difficult to track all the investment advice given by stockbrokers, academic studies have been done as to the quality of their research departments’ advice.
And it has been found that over time, buying the stocks that banks’ research departments recommend does not yield any superior performance in a portfolio.
Similarly, a study was done in which all of Jim Cramer’s investment advice was followed, and it was determined that he did not outperform the market either.
Finally a study of all the mutual funds shows that, as a whole, they also under perform the market by exactly the amount of their fees.
Therefore, it certainly doesn’t make sense to pay ridiculous 1, 2 or 3 percent fees per year to get worthless advice.
You may as well bury your money in the backyard – at least you won’t pay fees to do that.
Let's look at the shocking impact of fees, over time, on your nest egg.
The table below assumes $2,000 is invested on January 1st of each year and earns a 10% rate of return before deducting fees.

The Balance after	40 Years
Mgmt. Fee @ 0.02%	$968,249
Mgmt. Fee @ 0.25%	$907,762
Mgmt. Fee @ 0.50%	$846,479
Mgmt. Fee @ 1%	$736,584
Mgmt. Fee @ 2%	$559,562
Mgmt. Fee @ 3%	$427,219

Think about the numbers on this table...
If you have investments that are costing 3%, then your nest egg will be an astonishing $541,000 lower after 40 years than if you used low-fee investments and did your own investing!

As Ric Edelman, ranked by Barron’s as America’s #1 independent financial advisor, says,

“There's no greater pitfall than the one created by the retail mutual fund industry. [They] are ripping you off. You are incurring greater risks, lower returns and higher fees than you realize, and as a result you are in danger of not achieving your financial goals.” 

Bottom line: Even though a broker’s obligation is to act in the best interest of the client, most often this is simply not the case.
In a way, it’s like the more money their clients lose, the more money they make.
That’s because most brokers have incentives to sell certain types of products. They have interests in overdiversifying their clients’ accounts.
And the cumulative damage can be devastating to an investor’s long-term wealth. 
Up to $541,000 devastating!
It’s no wonder most investors in America think the game is rigged against them!
Frankly, You Deserve Better… You’ve worked too hard to dump your life savings into some corporate black hole in return for mediocre performance, huge fees and arrogance.
Well it’s not too late to turn the tide on your financial future. Even better, you can do it yourself!
It’s still not too late to put yourself on the path to a wealthy and fulfilling retirement.
You can achieve the retirement of your dreams despite today’s scrambled markets.
All you have to do is be willing to make a few small, simple changes, if you’ve been duped into making these mistakes.
Even if you’re already retired, the secrets I’ll share with you today can give you a richer, more comfortable retirement... 
It all starts with this unique, little-known strategy for potentially amassing rich stock gains over and over again.
In fact, it’s perhaps the single most powerful wealth secret you’ll ever come across…

The Secret Behind America’s Wealthiest Empires And a Bulletproof Retirement

This investment technique is based on the secret that’s built some of America’s greatest corporate empires.

Allow me to illustrate this idea for you with a simple analogy...

Say there are two houses.

In one, the family who lives there also owns the house. In the other, the family who lives there rents it out.

Which house do you think will be in better shape after 10 years?

If you said the house where the people who lived there owned it, odds are you’d be right. 

In real estate, owners take better care of property than renters.

The same logic applies to the stock market, too. Not surprising, is it?

When the people who run the companies are also large owners — when they have their own skin in the game — those companies tend to deliver astonishing results over time.

I’m talking about some of the most successful, iconic S&P 500 firms over the last half century…

• Like Wal-Mart under the leadership of its founder, Sam Walton. When Sam was at the helm, the stock delivered a stunning annual return of 20.5%. But after he stepped down, Wal-Mart returned only about 9% per year. 

• Another example is IBM. Under the Watson family, IBM returned 6.6% more than the stock market. But after the Watson’s, the stock did only 1.7% better than the market. 

• Or take Apple, whose IPO created more millionaires than any other company in history. Without Steve Jobs for over a decade, Apple returned 3.1% per year worse than the overall market. With him, the stock did 28% per year better than the market. 

Of course, the list goes on…

This is called the “Owner Operator” model.

It works so well because people like Walton and Jobs don’t focus on the company’s short-term share price like hired gun CEO’s tend to. CEO’s who just want to take their bonuses and run.

Since they own the business instead, they concentrate their efforts more on the company’s overall long-term health.

So their interests are exactly in line with common shareholders because they are in the same boat.

In short, this is a nearly bulletproof strategy proven by companies like Wal-Mart, IBM and Apple to lead to stronger stock performance and outsized gains for shareholders.
                                                                                                                              
The “Owner Operator” model is one part of my special 4-part stock-picking strategy that’s helped me pinpoint money-multiplying gains for readers like 108.9%, 114%, 155%, 165%, and 232%.

But before I tell you more about my unique strategy, let me share with you one of these little-known stocks you can buy today for life-altering profit potential even in this irrational market.

The same family has run this company since inception.

• Barron’s says that there are “few Wall Street analysts covering [this stock].”

• Forbes calls it a “cash machine.”

In just the last 2 years, this stock has returned 114%, more than 12 times the return of the S&P 500.

If you invest, you could own profitable stakes in energy, commodities, insurance and luxury property – in one single investment.

With a clever management team and unmatched financial strength, I believe that the upside for this stock could be virtually unlimited.

And it could be a reliable source of endless cash for your retirement nest egg. Cash you can spend however you like.

I give you the full details about this company inside your FREE report I’d like to rush you right away called Buy And Hold This Stock For Unlimited Upside Potential.

Just fill out the secure order form at the end of this presentation and I'll see to it that you get your complimentary copy immediately.

Of course, there’s a lot more I’d like to tell you about first.

I apply this ruthless 4 part stock-picking filter to every stock I recommend for 44,000+ retirement seeking readers of my 100% independent investment newsletter, Capital & Crisis.

In fact, I’ve put together this definitive strategy report that shows you my scientific stock-picking method step-by-step.

It’s called CODE: My Proven Four-Step Formula for Getting Rich In Any Market and its yours FREE just for giving my newsletter, Capital & Crisis a risk-free try.

I’d love for you to get the chance to see the “CODE” system in live action.

This unique four-point strategy I put every stock through is astonishingly simple and clear.

And it can make your every market decision much easier.

I’m certain you won’t find anything like it. Anywhere.

This strategy is so powerful that since 2004, when Agora Financial began publishing my newsletter, I’ve NEVER had a single losing year.

Here's a sample of some of those rich results...

*NOTE: These are actual results that readers could have seen following my recommendations. They are not theoretical. I told readers the best dates to buy and the best dates to sell.

Leucadia National 109%	Orient-Express Hotels 109%
Brookfield Asset Management 115%	Companhia Paranaense 121%
CNX Gas Corp. 44%	Imperial Sugar Co. 145%
ABX Air 38%	Catellus Development Corp. 24%
Walter Industries 44%	FEMSA 29%
Gulfport Energy 115%	Chiquita Brands Intl. 52%
Ameriprise Financial 77%	Bandag 18.3%
Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste SA 100.3%	SJW Corp. 28.5%
Plum Creek Timber 28%	Industrias Bachoco 19.75%
Goldkist 39%	Questar 113%
Arch Capital Group 45%	San Juan Basin Royalty Trust 144%
Presidential Life Corp. 65%	Guitar Center 151%
Northwest Pipe 114.5%	Sovran Self Storage 155%
Intrawest Corp. 72%
And you can see, the list goes on.

I hope to start showing you these same results too. Results that can boost your nest egg higher than you’ve ever dreamed and give you the robust retirement you deserve.
Forget counting on the government to make things better. After all it was officials at the Fed who kept credit cheap for so long, helping to finance the bubble and the crash.
These authorities in Washington stood by while Wall Street speculators became more powerful than the agencies that were supposed to watch them, allowing them to invent dangerous investing practices that turned our financial world into a casino.

Now with record levels of corporate, public, and private debt, our nation does face challenges ahead – one of the most dangerous ones to your wealth being inflation.
That means every time the government prints money, the dollar is devalued. So every dollar you have saved and invested is worth less and less each day.
It buys less and less.
With the trillions of dollars the government has forced into the economy, we could see inflation take off pretty quickly.
Investors can be irrational and unforgiving in an inflationary environment...
Back in the 1970s, investors punished the greatest growth stocks of the time like IBM, Polaroid and Proctor & Gamble, even as their fundamentals remained strong.

Investments like CDs, bonds and money-market funds will turn into financial deathtraps when their modest rates of return fall terribly behind the soaring rate of inflation.
Retirees on fixed incomes could see their standards of living erode. Monthly social security checks buy less and less… stock dividends and yields… everything shrivels in the soaring cost of living.
And once investors realize they can get a better deal from hard assets, they will, once again flock, into oil, gold, and other resource plays, causing commodity prices to soar.
The gas you're already paying close to $4 a gallon for will get more expensive, and so will the groceries you buy at the store.
This is the cold reality of an inflationary market – a reality few on Wall Street (let alone financial advisors and brokers across America) understand.
As US News & World Report points out, “Even modest inflation can eat away a life's worth of saving.” 
That’s why I want to tell you about some outstanding alternative investments proven to benefit instead of suffer from the challenges facing the global economy.
These are some of the market’s best, recession-proof anti-inflation investments.
Opportunities most people don’t even know exist that you can buy as easily and as inexpensively as regular stocks.
Anti-Inflation Fortress Play #1:
Red-Hot Precious Metals

My first recommendation for inflation-proofing your retirement is to own precious metals. Specifically, gold and silver.

Right now, they’re both on fire… up over 300% in the past decade.

And I firmly believe that both metals have much, much further to climb.

Gold has gone up every single year for the past 10 years in a row!

And I don’t see it hitting the brakes anytime in the near future.

Of course, I’m not the only one…

• Hedge fund legend Eric Sprott, owner of one of Canada’s largest securities firms with $9 billion in assets, says, “Gold will go north of $2,000 and the wind is at our back because the money printing is increasing at a very fast pace.”

• Multimillionaire investor Jim Rogers says, “Gold should be well over $2,000 now.”

• And Frank Holmes, CEO of US Global Investors, writes, “Gold would need to rise all the way to $7,931 in order to cover the outstanding amount of U.S. money supply.”

But what you may find even more shocking is that for 2010, silver actually BEAT gold… nearly DOUBLING in value!

And I believe that silver could easily quadruple from where it’s sitting today. The rising price of gold alone could be enough to launch it substantially higher over the coming months.

In short, I recommend buying as much gold and silver as you can reasonably afford.

That’s why I’ve put together the Gold and Silver Buyer’s Guide for you...

Inside, I’ll reveal some of the best, low-risk ways that you can own precious metals, if you choose to, including a secret strategy only a handful of savvy investors know about.

This is yours FREE and available instantly. I’ll tell you how to get your hands on it shortly.

Anti-Inflation Fortress Play #2:
The World’s Best Farmland

And there’s one more excellent (but little-known) investment I recommend for inflation-proofing your retirement…

It has to do with owning some of the world’s most arable farmland.

Because regardless of how high the rate of inflation climbs, everyone has to eat.

The production of 99.7% of our food can be traced back in some way to farmland.

Whether we’re talking meats, veggies or fruits.

Problem is quality soil for farming is rapidly becoming a scarce commodity.

We’re losing it not just to farming, but also to things like deserts and erosion.

In fact, it’s being depleted much faster than we can replace it...

The National Academy of Sciences says that cropland here in the U.S. is being lost at least 10 times faster than it’s being replaced.

And the United Nations says that on a global basis, the rate of loss is 10-100 times faster than that of replacement.

So food production will be unable to keep up with the world’s rapidly exploding population, which is expected to grow from 6.9 billion to 10 billion by 2050.

Add in the upward pressure on commodities from inflation and food prices are quickly heading one way… UP!

As the New York Times points out, “Food prices are soaring to record levels, threatening many developing countries with mass hunger and political instability.”

In short: Quality farmland is quickly becoming more valuable than ever before. And it could deliver you outsized returns for years to come…

As Lennart Bage, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, says, “Now fertile land with access to water has become a strategic asset.”

And I’ve uncovered a safe, unique way for you to invest in some of the world’s best farmland without having to own the land yourself or even buy agriculture stocks.

I’ve laid out the full details for you in your fourth FREE research report called The Most Important Asset To Own During the Coming Inflation Crisis.

All told, that’s four reports I’m giving to you for FREE just by agreeing to take a no risk subscription to my newsletter, Capital & Crisis.

I can confidently say that the value of each of them is PRICELESS.

Simply try my newsletter today and you’ll have instant access to:

• FREE REPORT #1: Buy And Hold This Stock For Unlimited Upside Potential (worth $59, but yours FREE)
  

• FREE REPORT #2: Chris Mayer’s Gold and Silver Buyer’s Guide(worth $59, but yours FREE)
  

• FREE REPORT #3: The Most Important Asset To Own During the Coming Inflation Crisis (worth $59, but yours FREE)
  

• FREE REPORT #4: Code: My Proven Four-Step Formula for Getting Rich In Any Market (worth $59, but yours FREE)

• FREE GIFT #5: The Monthly Issue: Every month, you’ll receive a new issue of Capital & Crisis, delivered to you by email, then by regular mail too. Inside each issue, I’ll share my best ideas for preserving your wealth and making a fortune in the markets right now. 

• FREE GIFT #6: Never Miss a Market Move With Our Members Only Model Portfolio Updates – Included FREE: Every week, I’ll e-mail you updates on what I believe are the most important market developments affecting the investments in our model stock portfolio.

• FREE GIFT #7: Check Up on the Model Portfolio Anytime You Want, With Our Private Members-Only Website — Also Included at NO Charge: I also want to give you FREE access to my 24-hour Capital & Crisis website. This site is strictly members-only and password protected. I’m inviting you to use it whenever you like to look up my newest picks, latest news and more. Also yours at no charge. 

• FREE GIFT #8: Subscriber Care Hotline: The Capital & Crisis subscriber care team is available five days a week. Any problems at all, simply give them a call and they'll be happy to assist you.
  

That's eight FREE gifts altogether. And again, everything you'll receive is yours to keep, no matter what and with no hidden shipping and handling charges or anything.

You can even download your reports right now and get my full research on all the opportunities we've just talked about immediately if that's what you'd like to do.

In fact, I'd like to simply give you 12 months FREE of my highly respected research letter, Capital & Crisis.

You heard that right! I want you to take a full year to decide whether my research is a good fit for you.

Why on earth would I want to do that?

Because I'm convinced you'll like what you see so much and you’ll get so many profitable plays, you'll want to sign on for more.

It’s really that simple.

Real Readers… Real Results

Just have a look at what some of my readers are saying right now about Capital & Crisis…

• “I am a long time and loyal subscriber of your newsletter. You have a superb service. I bought your recommendation at $4.04 and now it is up over 700%,” reports Greg Rose in Los Angeles, CA.

• “I've tried a lot of newsletters in my 45 years of investing and yours is the best,” says retiree Will Foster in Miami, FL.

• “I got in on your recommendation at $3.98 and sold at $21.44 for a gain of 747%. I have enjoyed your newsletter for several years now and am thankful for your investment advice,” says Jessica Morris in Detroit, MI.

• “I used to subscribe to about 6 different investment research services but now I only subscribe to Capital & Crisis... keep up the good work!” writes Michael Vincent in Dallas, TX.

• “I am up 1,083% on your recommendation,” reports Alan Cox in Baltimore, MD.

• “After spending 24 years in the investment business (and building assets under management to $350 million), your insights are probably the best I have seen. Your study of the great money managers, past and present, and your ability to succinctly distill, explain and relate their philosophies to your specific recommendations is a true talent. I only wish I had been reading such thoughtful analysis 24 years ago,” writes Mitch Burns in New York City.

• “In over 30 years of investing I've had a handful of 10 baggers, but I can tell you that I've only had one 20 bagger. Many thanks!” says Ray Wood in Pittsburgh, PA.

It’s no wonder they’re thrilled.

And I don’t have to tell you, but I love delivering that kind of satisfaction.

Which is why I'd love a chance to send you 12 free issues of Capital & Crisis so you can see for yourself what everyone else is so excited about...

I’ve told my readers to close out winners like a British oil and gas drilling contractor for a 127.34% gain, a Texas oil and gas producer for a 109.94% gain, a U.S. phosphate producer for a 62.75% gain, and a gas storage equipment manufacturer for a 112.22% gain.

And we continue to post new gains, even now…

As of July 13, 2011, 17 of my 20 open positions in the Capital & Crisis model portfolio are showing a gain! We’ve got open gains of 140.24%, 200.28%, 180.75%, 160.67%, 204.35%, and more!

(I can't name those stocks for you right now. That wouldn't be fair to current readers. But I'll tell you how to find out about all of them, right after you finish this presentation.)

There’s just no better way of building nearly endless retirement wealth than by following my easy, consistent money moves.

Wealth that can fuel your wildest dreams.

Wealth that lets you do what you want to do, when you want to do it, for whatever reason you choose.

Because that’s what retirement is really all about!

And you can discover more of these explosive money moves every month, the moment you accept my special invitation to receive up to 12 free Capital & Crisis issues.

Plus if you’re not 100% pleased with your issues – and recommended stock plays – I'll send you a FULL refund of your subscription fee, and you can keep everything you've received. No questions. So you pay NOTHING, and keep everything.

That’s right: You can cancel anytime, right up until your subscription is over. And you’ll be issued a full refund straight away, no hassle, and no questions asked.

So how much does a subscription to Capital & Crisis cost?

Considering the amount of time and money I pour into researching these companies, I think it’s an absolute steal.

The fact is that just one of my recommendations could pay the entire cost of your subscription many times over.

And it’s not just me saying this:

• “Made $5,000 in 5 days. Thank you!” writes Ellen Morgan in Santa Fe, NM.

• “I made 261% on GPOR and would have made even more if I waited for your sell recommendation but I couldn’t help myself. It paid for my subscription and a cruise,” reports Mark Roberts in Cheyenne, WY.

Normally a subscription to Capital & Crisis cost $159 a year.

Others have paid that and were very happy to do so...

• Chris Day in New York City says, “I’m a sophisticated investor as I’ve owned and operated a US Broker-Dealer for 30 years. Your newsletter is probably the best value of anywhere.”

• Adam Hunt in Miami, Florida writes, “Your newsletter is way underpriced.”

But you can get started with a trial subscription to Capital & Crisis today for just $59. That’s an instant savings to you of $100.

Why so cheap?

Because I want to do everything in my power to get you to try my research and the best way to do that is by lowering the price.

It’s a drop in the ocean compared to the rich results I’ve delivered.

Remember, 17 out of 20 of the current open positions in my Capital & Crisis model portfolio are UP!

Since launching my newsletter in 2004, I’ve NEVER had a losing year.

Better still, cumulative gains total 3,975% so far!

Subscribe right now and you’ll receive the next 12 issues of my newsletter along with the 5 special reports, all of which are FREE and yours to keep even if you decide to cancel.

To quickly recap, here they are:

• FREE Report #1:Buy And Hold This Stock For Unlimited Upside Potential
  

• FREE Report #2: Chris Mayer’s Gold and Silver Buyer’s Guide

• FREE Report #3: The Most Important Asset To Own During the Coming Inflation Crisis

• FREE Report #4: CODE: My Proven Four-Step Formula for Getting Rich In Any Market

If you’re on the fence, remember I back my research with a 100% subscription fee back guarantee.

Consider Capital & Crisis as your nick-of-time roadmap to a retirement future free of financial traps and full of promise.
This is your time.
You can do this.
And I urge you to begin right now.
Click the “Subscribe Now” link below to get started and you’ll get instant access to your 4 FREE reports.

Good Investing,

Chris Mayer
Editor of Capital & Crisis
July 2011

Subscribe Now

(You can review what your subscription includes
before you place your order.)

Were big banks ’stealing homes’?

Monday, December 19, 2011
Posted: 10 am ET

Forget for the time being all the Three Stooges document-fumbling surrounding the housing collapse. Set aside the obvious malfeasance of robosigning and rocket dockets.

The question on the table now is, were America's largest mortgage lenders stealing homes?

The recent lawsuit filed by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley against five of the nation's largest banks for deceptive foreclosure and loan modification practices essentially accuses them of doing exactly that.

Coakley accuses Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Financial of the following:

1. Engaging in unfair and deceptive foreclosure practices by conducting foreclosures when the defendants lacked the right to do so and misrepresenting to homeowners their roles as mortgagees or as the holders of the mortgages.

2. Engaging in false documentation practices to facilitate their foreclosure practices.

3. Deceiving homeowners in the course of servicing mortgage loans by misrepresenting to borrowers regarding its loan modification programs, acting deceptively in implementing loan modifications and deceiving borrowers regarding foreclosure proceedings.

"The layman's term for that is 'stealing homes,' says Firedoglake blogger David Dayen. "Coakley is accusing banks of stealing homes. They didn’t have the proper proof of ownership to take control of the homes in a foreclosure, and they did it anyway, by forging documents and committing fraud upon state courts."

Coakley's suit also includes the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS, the epicenter of its "false documentation practices" charge.

Massachusetts isn't the only state that has grown frustrated with the Obama administration's year-long attempt to negotiate a let's-move-forward settlement between the 50 states and the banks. Others, including California, Delaware, Nevada and New York, have distanced themselves from the talks, which appear headed toward an agreement that some AGs say amounts to a hand slap for the big banks.

But as the first to break from the pack, Coakley's suit reframes the debate from a snipe hunt for sundry robo-shenanigans by underlings to some serious charges leveled at top management.

The 50-state agreement under construction looks like it would grant the lenders immunity from prosecution in exchange for a settlement of $20 billion to $25 billion, to be used primarily for principal reduction and loan mods.

Coakley says she'll consider signing onto any forthcoming agreement based on its merits but has made clear she won't be party to any plan that includes broad liability release regarding MERS and other issues.

What's next? Will other states follow Coakley's lead?

Only time will tell.

But her bold break certainly throws into question the attraction of that (now) 49-state work-in-progress, and perhaps the wisdom of attempting to collectively bargain away a national disgrace.

Read more: Were big banks ’stealing homes’? | Bankrate.com http://www.bankrate.com/financing/mortgages/were-big-banks-stealing-homes/#ixzz1h5FRUsSG

The sad fact of the matter is "We the People" have become too dependent on everyone and thing, but ourselves. We empower these people, than get raped by them. Banks cannot survive if “WE THE PEOPLE” simply, do not give them are business. The fact my bank is listed on this list tells me it is time to move my funds, and business to a credit union.
The Federal Reserve is a joke and is owned by the banks, they basically bailed themselves out, through T.A.R.P. (The WORST American Bill in its history) Long story short, and as Bloomberg reported earlier this month 7.7 trillion in U.S. bail out money went to the banks through what is being referred to as a government “discount window” so not only did these banks receive 7.7 trillion in money, they are also stealing homes. Yet none one is jail, or being prosecuted, and this is fair how? And “WE THE PEOPLE” tolerate this; why? I believe the answer to that question is more important than someone being able to answer how we all came to be to begin with.

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