o The Consumption Economy Has Burst

What you thought the economy looked like:

How the economy really looks:

The consumption bubble has burst, there is not much to fall back on.

o The Trends Research Institute: Gerald Celente

Please listen to this youtube interview with Gerald Celente. Its very sobering. He speaks about a total economic collapse of the US.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQOb-XmWo1Q

o 3-month U.S. Treasury Rates Go to Zero

A zero interest rate means investors are locking up their money for free, i.e. no returns for putting your money away for 3-months. Its an indicator of how skeptical and afraid people are to risk their capital in anything but the safest investments. Literally, you might as well put your money under the mattress than earn a 0.00% interest rate.

o Bernard Madoff Swindles Investors

The former chairman of the Nasdaq and founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities racked up $50 billion of fraudulent losses. Yes that's billion with a "B".

Jim Vos, principal at Aksia, had advised clients not to invest with Madoff. Aksia is a company that provides due diligence research about hedge funds to ensure that investment money is safe. Let's assume I want to invest in Treasury bonds issued by what is becoming a giant hedge fund, the US Government. Can Aksia audit the government to make sure my investments are safe?

o Minimum Wage

The positive effects of minimum wage are well documented and heart felt. The most obvious is that increases in the minimum wage benefits low wage workers. Or does it? Let's take a look at the arguments against minimum wage.

• Increases demand for illegal workers within the US. The effect is loss of minimum wage jobs.
  
• Forces jobs to be outsourced to countries with cheaper labor costs. The effect is loss of minimum wage jobs.
• Labor costs are a large part of cost of production for goods and services. The government assumes to know the market clearing price of labor by setting a minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage above the market clearing price will inflate unemployment numbers.
• Citizens have no right to negotiate their labor costs, even if they wanted to work for below minimum wage requirements. Wage negotiation below a certain level becomes illegal.
  
• The country assumes that it is the role of government to mandate a minimum wage to keep people out of poverty.

I do advocate a minimum wage. But that wage should be set to global wage standards, or else close the loopholes that allow businesses to skirt the law.