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Sometimes a chart is all you need

The Illusion of Choice

Submitted by Roanman on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 11:03

 

Here's the problem.

From Daily Infographic this infographic clearly demonstrates that like our financial system and our political system, far too few people hold far too much control over our media enterprises.

What's worse is that for the most part the same them that control our media companies, also control our banks and our governments.

Is it any wonder then, that we can't get a straight story out of our mainstream press and that rampant financial and government corruption goes on unnoticed and/or unreported by the alleged watchdogs of the fourth estate?

The jpeg below only covers the top 20% of this outstanding infographic, as always click anywhere below for the entire piece.

Way recommended, you should do it.

 

 

 

Who Destroyed The Middle Class?

Submitted by Roanman on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 17:48

 

The following quotes and charts were all taken from a Burning Platform post titled Who Destroyed the Middle Class? - Part 1.

You should read it as it's probably your ass that's getting chewed off here.

You should also read Part 2.

As always, click on any of the charts for a link to this outstanding piece.

 

“Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population. Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries such as telecommunications, health care, automobiles, and energy. These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry.” – Charles Ferguson – Predator Nation

 

 

 

The Federal Reserve released its Survey of Consumer Finances last week. It’s a fact filled 80 page report they issue every three years to provide a financial snapshot of American households. As you can see from the chart above, the impact of the worldwide financial collapse has been catastrophic to most of the households in the U.S. A 39% decline in median net worth over a three year time frame is almost incomprehensible. Even worse, the decline has surely continued for the average American household through 2012 as home prices have continued to fall. Median family income plunged by 7.7% over a three year time frame and has not recovered since the collection of this data 18 months ago. Even more shocking is the fact that median household income was $48,900 in 2001. Families are making 6.3% less today than they were a decade ago. These figures are adjusted for inflation using the BLS massaged CPI figures. Anyone not under the influence of psychotic drugs or engaged as a paid shill for the financial oligarchy knows that inflation is purposely under reported in order to keep the masses sedated and pacified. The real decline in median household income is in excess of 20% since 2001.

 

       

 

 

 

 

   

Start shopping for your pitchfork, get yourself a real pointy one.

 

Sometimes a map is all you need

Submitted by Roanman on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 19:58

 

The following is from Wired.com via our friends at Whiteout Press.

As always click on the map for the entire piece.

Recommended.

 

Revealed: 64 Drone Bases on American Soil

Public Intelligence, a non-profit that advocates for free access to information, released a map of military UAV activities in the United States on Tuesday. Assembled from military sources — especially this little-known June 2011 Air Force presentation (.pdf) – it is arguably the most comprehensive map so far of the spread of the Pentagon’s unmanned fleet. What exact missions are performed at those locations, however, is not clear. Some bases might be used as remote cockpits to control the robotic aircraft overseas, some for drone pilot training. Others may also serve as imagery analysis depots.

The medium-size Shadow is used in 22 bases, the smaller Raven in 20 and the miniature Wasp in 11. California and Texas lead the pack, with 10 and six sites, respectively, and there are also 22 planned locations for future bases. ”It is very likely that there are more domestic drone activities not included in the map, but it is designed to provide an approximate overview of the widespread nature of Department of Defense activities throughout the US,” Michael Haynes from Public Intelligence tells Danger Room.

The possibility of military drones (as well as those controlled by police departments and universities) flying over American skies have raised concerns among privacy activists. As the American Civil Liberties Union explained in its December 2011 report, the machines potentially could be used to spy on American citizens. The drones’ presence in our skies “threatens to eradicate existing practical limits on aerial monitoring and allow for pervasive surveillance, police fishing expeditions, and abusive use of these tools in a way that could eventually eliminate the privacy Americans have traditionally enjoyed in their movements and activities.”

As Danger Room reported last month, even military drones, which are prohibited from spying on Americans, may “accidentally” conduct such surveillance — and keep the data for months afterwards while they figure out what to do with it. The material they collect without a warrant, as scholar Steven Aftergood revealed, could then be used to open an investigation.

The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the U.S. military from operating on American soil, and there’s no evidence that drones have violated it so far.

 

 

So far being the operative phrase.

 

Sometimes a chart ... and a quote are all you need

Submitted by Roanman on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 07:52

 

We've done some variations on the following issue a number of times now.

We believe it to be worth repeating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To quote President Dwight D. Eisenhower one more time.

 

 

 

People continue to send us stuff.

Submitted by Roanman on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 17:08

 

I've been bogged down with multiple soccer tournaments, real work ... I hate real work ...  and a called promise to help on a friend's project that isn't really work but has been time consuming regardless and as a result have not been able to complete posts lately.

The following is some of the better stuff that people have sent our way over the past couple of weeks.

The good news here is no commentary.

The bad news?

No links.

 

       

 

 

     

 

        

 

      

 

 

    

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

US Unemployment by County

Submitted by Roanman on Mon, 04/23/2012 - 15:11

 

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics via Econobrowser.

The comments are at least as interesting as the chart itself.

Click on the map below for the entire piece which also features some charting from Calculated Risk.

I'll be honest here and tell you that nobody around here believes that the national unemployment rate is 8.8%, mostly because all of us are reading The Burning Platform.

 

Manipulation of the Gold Market?

Submitted by Roanman on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 18:40

 

This one might be a bit obscure for those of you that don't trade, still if you can get your mind around the idea of "selling short" Gold you don't have via futures contracts or options and then buying the stuff back in order to make whole or reconcile your position, it should ... OK, Ok maybe could ... fall into place.

This set of charts first showed up as a trading strategy proffered by SK Options Trading.com.

It is now being bandied about as evidenceof manipulation of the gold markets.

The first chart from Kitco is for the daily closing price of Gold or "PM fix" from January 2002 until January 2012 on the Comex, located in New York City and demonstrates what I consider to be just a wonderful upward sloping trendline.

 

 

Starting in 2001 with an index arbitrarily set at 100, the chart below shows what would have happened to that investment of 100 whatevers if it had been used to purchase Gold daily at the AM fix on the Comex in New York City and subsequently sell that Gold daily at the PM fix again in New York City on the Comex, replicating the daily percentage performance of Gold in the U.S. intraday market.

What you need to keep in mind here is that the morning fix on the Comex is seldom if ever the same as the previous evening's fix.

This is true of most markets and every exchange.

What this chart is telling you is that had you taken $100,000 and invested it all daily by purchasing Gold to the maximum you were able at the morning fix and subsequently selling all of it back at the evening fix, beginning January 1, 2001, your account would have been reduced to somewhere around $32,000 on or about March 1, 2012.

 

 

The following chart is barely more complex.

The red line demonstrates the gains you would have enjoyed employing a buy and hold strategy if you had purchased and held some amount of Gold on Jan 1, 2001 again arbitrarily set at 100, and held it through March 2012.

The blue line demonstrates the gains you would have enjoyed had you bought gold daily at the evening fix on the Comex in New York and then sold it daily at the morning fix, again on the Comex in New York City and then sold short Gold at the morning fix and repurchased Gold to close your short at the evening fix.

Got that?

Buy at night, sell in the morning, go short with the proceeds then close your short position at the evening close and using the proceeds from that trade repeat the whole process.

 

 

Gold goes up all over the world while we sleep and goes down in New York when we're open for business.

It's a fascinating world we live in.

 

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