Renewable vs Nonrenewable Resources

Renewable resources consist of energy sources like, wind, solar, geothermal, and tidal. These sources are not reduced significantly by their usage. Those energy resources are readily accessible, though reliance upon nonrenewables keeps us from transitioning to those more practical energy sources. As we pass the peak energy realities of nonrenewable energy sources like oil and coal, we see more and more of a need to make that transition to avoid a collapse. The peak of finite resources is the top production or discovery level of those resources, where they enter a decline, but consumption sadly continues on, often continuing it's increase.

In contrast, nonrenewable resources like oil, coal, and natural gas take such a significant amount of time to produce that there is no practical replenishment without our lifetime. Even obvious limitations on clean water for consumption can make that resource's limitations nearly nonrenewable. If we use all that there is available, that resources can be considered depleted. Those resources take significant time to replenish, so our reliance and usage must be responsible.

Peak Oil
Life After the Oil Crash

We consume four times as much oil as we discover today. At that rate, we will most certainly run out of oil eventually, most likely in a few generations at most.

Small Towns vs. Nestlé and Water Rights

When Nestlé Waters North America, the world’s largest bottler of water, comes a-courting, promising jobs and increased tax revenues in exchange for local water rights, many small, rural towns get nervous.

Deborah Lapidus, an organizer with the Think Outside the Bottle campaign, says this skepticism stems from Henderson, Texas, which in the ’90s saw Nestlé suck one of its wells dry.

“The company prioritizes its own use over the environment and other uses,” says Lapidus.

As well as draining water, Nestlé also attempts to deplete these communities’ finances, Lapidus says. Towns trying to defend their reservoirs have found themselves in costly legal battles. Fryeburg, Maine, for example, has been sued five times by Nestlé for “interfering with the right to grow their market share.”

Last summer, when Nestlé Waters North America/Poland Spring negotiated with the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Wells Water District, public outcry forced the proposal to be tabled. The trustees of Wells Water District discussed a deal in which 433,000 gallons of water were to be extracted daily from the Branch Brook Aquifer for 0.06 cents per gallon.

Wells residents organized in the group Save Our Water proposed a local ordinance to prohibit the corporate withdrawal of water for resale. Such legislation, first implemented in Barnstead, N.H., had been adopted by two other towns in Maine. Barnstead’s ordinance declares water a common resource for its residents and, more importantly, decrees that within its jurisdictions, corporations may not wield state or federal constitutional powers.

More: Small Towns vs. Nestlé -- In These Times

Blue Gold Deleted Scenes

Important DELETED SCENE from the award-winning documentary BLUE GOLD: WORLD WATER WARS. More information at www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com

BLUE GOLD - DELETED SCENES - GLOBAL BLUE ALTERNATIVE - YouTube

Blue Gold : World Water Wars

Award-winning featured documentary narrated by Malcolm McDowell. Global Warming is an issue of 'how' we live, the water crisis is an issue of 'if' we live. DVD at www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com

Blue Gold : World Water Wars - YouTube

THE WATER PRIVATEERS from the booklet Blue Gold The global water crisis and the commodification of the world's water supply A Special Report issued by the International Forum on Globalization (IFG)

Just at the time governments are backing away from their regulatory responsibilities, giant transnational water, food, energy and shipping corporations are lining up to take advantage of the world's water shortage, acquiring control of water through the ownership of dams and waterways; the development of new technologies such as water desalination and purification; control over the burgeoning bottled water industry; the privatization of municipal and regional water services, including sewage and water delivery; the construction of water infrastructure; and water exportation.

'Water is the last infrastructure frontier for private investors," says Johan Bastin of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Tragically, water is also the last frontier of nature and the commons.

The Globe and Mail of Canada states that privatizing water looms as the national mega-industry of the next decade, with potential investment in the tens of billions of dollars. "Water is fast becoming a globalized corporate industry." In May 2000, Fortune magazine stated that, in a world fleeing the vagaries of technology stocks, water is the best investment sector for the century. The World Bank places the value of the current water market at close to $1 trillion; however, with only 5 percent of the world's population currently getting its water from corporations, the profit potential is unlimited.

Water is the new oil, with the same level of corruption in government and industry control. The problem is that we can survive without oil, but not without water. Deprive people of convenience and they will complain. Deprive them of the necessities for life and they will tear the system apart. 

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Water/Water_Privateers_BG.html

Obama Issues Ron Paul “Kill Order”

The Federal Security Service (FSB) is reporting today that the “secret letter” sent to Prime Minister Putin by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda contains a warning that United States President Barack Obama has issued an executive-level “kill order” against US Congressman Ron Paul over fears this charismatic politician, who many believe could capture the Republican Presidential 2012 nomination, is about to expose to all Americans what can only be described as the largest mass theft in human history.

According to this report, Prime Minister Noda first became aware of this “kill order” after a private meeting with Obama at last weeks ASEAN Summit meeting in Indonesia when the American President expressed his “unconstrained joy” over the toppling of the Greek and Italian governments in bloodless coups by EU banksters who installed to run these countries unelected former Goldman Sachs executives.

Not known to many Americans is that the giant global investment firm Goldman Sachs put Obama into office by being its top donor and after winning the Presidency put so many of its former executives into the US government it is known as the “Wall Street Cabinet.”

Knowing the reality of the unconstitutional presidential kill orders, I find it hard to believe that Obama would add Ron Paul to that list, effectively turning an entire population against the president and government, and making a martyr of a Libertarian politician. Conspiracy theories aside, this is just too hard to swallow. Ron Paul is just one of many people and organizations working to expose and change the way our economy operates, seeking an end to the corporate/financial occupation of government for generations and returning the power to the People. Interesting reading, though...

Obama Issues Ron Paul “Kill Order” As Russia Prepares For War | EUTimes.net

ATLaS MuGGeD

Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at liberty, if he wished, to drop the Earth and creep away; but his opinion was all he was permitted.--Franz Kafka

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/atlas-mugged

Obama Wants USA To Bail Out Europe

The Greek bailout has the potential to put the global economy into a recession. Some critics say that Greece isn't getting bailed out but the actual banks that own the Greek debt are. Many say the banking establishment needs to go and shouldn't be bailed out as a risky deal goes bad. Lew Rockwell, chairman at the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, gives us his thoughts on the Eurozone debt crisis.

Lew Rockwell: The Euro and the EU were a mistake

As the European debt crisis continues to escalate, President Obama urged European Union leaders today to act quickly to resolve the eurozone crisis, saying that “the United States stands ready to do our part to help them resolve this issue.

“This is of huge importance to our own economy. If Europe is contracting or if Europe is having difficulties, then it’s much more difficult for us to create good jobs here at home because we send so many of our products and services to Europe; it is such an important trading partner for us,” the president said following an annual meeting between U.S. and EU officials. “We’ve got a stake in their success, and we will continue to work in a constructive way to try to resolve this issue in the near future.”

While Obama did not say what kind of assistance the U.S. would be willing to provide, earlier today the White House ruled out any financial contributions from U.S. taxpayers. “We do not in any way believe that additional resources are required from the United States or from American taxpayers,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

“This is a European issue, that Europe has the resources and capacity to deal with it and that they need to act decisively and conclusively to resolve this problem,” Carney said.

Obama Says US 'Stands Ready to Do Our Part' for Eurozone Crisis

President Barack Obama said resolving the European debt crisis is of “huge importance” to the U.S. and his administration is “ready to do our part” in stabilizing the global economy.

Obama said a “large part” of the annual U.S.-European Union summit was spent on the impact of the crisis in the euro- zone. He spoke at the White House after meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso.

Van Rompuy said the U.S. and EU “both need to take strong action” to maintain the economic recovery. Barroso said he has “full confidence” that Europe will deal with the sovereign debt issue.

Iran’s nuclear program, strengthening exports and investments, Middle East peace prospects, terrorism and cyber crime also were on the agenda for annual meeting.

The summit comes as European finance chiefs are set to meet this week to discuss a rescue plan, and days ahead of a Dec. 2 report by the U.S. Labor Department on the nation’s unemployment rate for November. The rate for October was 9.0 percent.

About $4.6 trillion was wiped from the value of global equities this month on mounting concern that Europe’s debt crisis is spreading.

Obama Says Solving Euro Crisis of 'Huge Importance' to US

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/uncle-sam-wants-you-bail-out-europe

Officially it never was called an "Emergency summit." But with the European currency only days from collapse according to many economists, it was clear that European leaders came to beg the American president for help.

A closed-door conversation today between US President Barack Obama and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso dealt with, among other things, the ongoing crisis that is spreading out of the Eurozone and into the United States.

And according to statements courtesy of Obama, the time of American intervention could be coming soon, and at a monumental cost to the American public.

The European debt crisis, says the president, is of “huge importance” to the United States, and the Obama administration is “ready to do our part” in keeping the economy overseas afloat.

As Obama attempts to postpone the impeding crumbling of the American economy — and his own administration — the president could propose a bailout to the countries of the European Union that could cost taxpayers upwards of trillions. Given that RT reported earlier today on the massive bailout extended from the Federal Reserve to the biggest banks in the country between 2008 and 2010, an offering of trillions couldn’t be out of the question.

Obama to bail out Europe? — RT

It's hard to actually write a cogent critique of this as this is just such a horrible idea, it practically renders me speechless. What exactly is our part? Are we part of the Euro? Wasn't the Euro created in part to be a competitor to the supremacy of the US Dollar? So isn't it partly in our interest, in order to keep the US Dollar the world's reserve currency, to see the Euro fail horribly? And one more question. The money will come from where exactly? Aren't we ourselves faced with a debt/GDP ratio of 100% with an annual deficit equal to 11% of GDP? Where exactly are we going to find the hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars necessary to stem this crisis? There was a rumor this weekend that the IMF was readying a bailout of just Italy which could have totaled $800 billion, so if you add Spain, Portugal and Greece to the mix (and potentially France) the numbers get very serious very fast (of course the rumor was swiftly denied, I guess it was too early to mention that discussion point). Even if Obama is simply referring to the bailout of Europe via the IMF, our "quota" is almost 18% of the funding so for Italy alone this could cost the American taxpayer $144 billion. And chances are it would be much higher as Italy's quota is over 3% and all the countries smaller than Venezuela contribute 28% (how exactly do you ask third world countries to bailout out a lazy first world country?) so my guess is some IMF participants simply won't participate. Try getting that through Congress. Senate Democrats can't even pass a budget. 


The Federal Reserve option just isn't much better. So we are going to print money to buy European bonds now? Our monetary base is $2.6 trillion right now so printing of the magnitude that would be required could have severe a severe inflationary impact, hurting American consumers as commodity prices will undoubtedly skyrocket. As an extra kick in the face, the Euro will actually get even stronger as we will be printing massively at the same time the ECB isn't. Just brilliant. 


For once, it might be a good thing that Team Obama is in campaign mode 24/7. As soon as they see their poll numbers dropping (and they will, like a rock), they will probably chicken out of any actual bailout and do nothing but the usual handwaving. Unless they want to get to the point where even Ron Paul can beat them in the general election. 

Is Obama Going to Bail Out Europe?

Max Keiser: Kleptocrats Go for Gold

We discuss lunatics for Italian gold and another failed debt auction in Germany. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Mark O'Byrne of Goldcore.com about the European debt crisis and Ireland's gold.

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Max_Keiser%3A_Kleptocrats_Go_for_Gold/16791/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Bank Regulators Abandon Credit Ratings To Measure Risk

Do these new regulations from the Office of the Controller of Currency which regulates certain aspects of our banks mean that banks can ignore credit ratings on U.S. debt they invest in as part of their Tier 1 capital ratios? Is this a preparation for an eventual and likely downgrade of the U.S. Treasury's credit [...]

Hello hyperinflation. 

http://dailycapitalist.com/2011/11/29/bank-regulators-abandon-credit-ratings-to-measure-risk/

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The Unbearable Lightness Of TARP Reporting

Originally published in September 2010.

A new academic paper by economists from MIT and the NY Fed proves that credit markets were NOT "frozen" during the crisis.

--

Monday was the second anniversary of the failure of Lehman Brothers. And it was two years ago tomorrow that Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke met with the Congressional leadership in a conference room on Capital Hill, telling them that the entire economic system would cease to function if they didn't pass a bailout bill. One of the things Paulson and Bernanke told the members -- something that was repeated over and over, and continues to be repeated -- was that the credit markets were "frozen." Banks, they said, would not lend to each other. If this were true, it would be very bad indeed.

But it wasn't true. The credit markets were not "frozen." Banks were lending to each other. The credit markets were functioning. And now we have a study, by two economists from the NY Fed and one from MIT, that proves it. In "What Happened to US Interbank Lending In the Financial Crisis?," Gara Afonso, Anna Kovner and Antoinette Schoar show that despite claims of a credit "freeze," it never happened. Some theoretical studies, they note, suggest that fear in the interbank markets could be contagious and would lead to a total freeze, but the authors of this study simply looked at the available data. (Crazy, I know.)

It should be no surprise to regular readers of The Daily Bail, but the NY Fed's own data show that interbank lending during the period from September to November did not "freeze," collapse, melt down or anything else. In fact, every single day throughout this period, hundreds of billions were borrowed and paid back. The decline in daily interbank lending came only when the Fed ballooned its balance sheet and started paying interest on excess reserves.

More: The Unbearable Lightness Of TARP Reporting - Home - The Daily Bail

Inexpensive DIY Solar Power

We all know that outfitting a house with solar panels is not cheap right now. Harnessing enough sun to be able to live completely off-grid costs many thousands of dollars, up to many tens of thousands depending on how much electricity is needed. But do we really need to go from 0% to 100% clean energy in one go? That's not usually the way things are done; we usually do incremental changes. The idealist will say that it's not fast enough (and might be right), but the realist will say that the mainstream has more chances of going for it if it's not too radical and expensive, and that the power of numbers is hard to deny. So the question is: Do we really need to go 100% solar at once? What is the least you could pay and still end up with enough solar juice to run some things around the house? The Off-Grid weblog answers that question.
Update: How to Make Inexpensive DIY Home-Built Solar Panels with Damaged Solar Cells from EbayFor $600, you could get yourself enough solar power each week (about 1KWh) to:

run a 20-inch tv for 20 hours, a portable stereo for 100 hours, a laptop computer for 40 hours, or a 12-watt compact-fluorescent light bulb for 80 hours.
The 800-watt inverter (with a 2,000-watt surge capacity) will run a small vacuum cleaner, a drill or a small drill press, a sander, a jigsaw or small band saw, but not a large circular saw. It will handle many toasters and coffee makers, but not all. A blender would be child's play for this inverter, a microwave an impossibility. A hair dryer on low, yes; on high, forget it.

Here's what the "$600 kit" consists of:

One Uni-Solar 32-watt amorphous-silicon PV module, 12 volts: $180.00
One Morningstar 6-amp charge controller, 12 volts: $40.00
Two Deka 92 amp-hour sealed batteries, 12 volts: ($130.00 each) $260.00
One Aims 800-watt modified sine wave inverter, 12 volts: $65.00
TOTAL: $545.00
This leaves you with $55 for wire, battery cables, mounting hardware, fuses between components, and the miscellaneous odds and ends that are always needed for any project of moderate complexity.

Most of these can probably be found online at some of the alternative energy stores we've covered in the past.

But the beauty is that once you've go the "starter" solar system, it is relatively easy to expand it as your needs or wallet grow.

With the exception of the inverter, this system can be easily expanded. Any number of similar modules can be wired together in parallel, so long as the modules are of the same wattage. The 6-amp charge controller can manage up to three 32-watt modules, and extra charge controllers can be wired into the system, in parallel, as your lust for power begins to swell.
Batteries, of course, are always happy to see their numbers multiply.
But alas, the inverter is what it is. It cannot be connected to another inverter to provide more power (though more expensive models can be), nor can it be configured to operate at a higher input voltage, should you ever get ambitious and change the system voltage to 24 or 48 volts. On the other hand, at $65, does it really matter? A slightly-used 800-watt AC power source that can draw power right off the battery is a handy accessory any vehicle would be proud to have tucked away next to the spare tire.
So, while you're saving up to buy the deluxe 4000-watt pure sine-wave inverter with battery charging capabilities, enjoy the little $600 starter system that got your foot in the solar-energy door, and try to imagine where it all might lead.

This project is Do-It-Yourself only if you know what you are doing, and as usual when electricity is involved, a qualified electrician should approve your setup before you power it on.

Inexpensive DIY Solar Power - The $600 Kit : TreeHugger

Greg Palast » Vultures’ Picnic

After some tense discussion (Penguin was partly owned by Gaddafi, so you can imagine...), my publisher has given me the unusual right to give all my readers, for no charge, the entire first chapter of my new book Vultures’ Picnic.
Even if you don't get the book, I really want you to read the first chapter.

Never before, in my decades as an investigator, have I taken you with me undercover, on the hunt into the lives, secret files, shopping bags and back rooms of the cruel and whacky One Percent. And, for the first time, I've decided to let you in on Greg Palast, to open up my life and the inside of my operation, without censorship or BS.

In Chapter One, you will first encounter

• the MI6 agent who carried the bribes for British Petroleum and the Kalashnikovs;
• the billionaire's ex-trophy wife ready to burn the bed and open the files;
• the Radioactive Brick from address unknown, with documentation of a massive fraud by Tokyo Electric Power, arriving ten months before Fukushima melted;
• the secret memo of Treasury Secretary Geithner waiting for the go-ahead from Goldman Sachs and Citibank;
• the CIA spook turned billionaire with a score to settle and a devastating document from Kazakhstan;
• and a punch in the face just before an appearance on Amy Goodman's show.

Greg Palast » Chapter One of Vultures’ Picnic —Read it Now

Earth's Population Carrying Capacity

When scientists talk about overpopulation, they are usually referring to a population exceeding its biological carrying capacity which is defined as "the maximum number of animals that a specific habitat or area can support without causing deterioration or degradation of that habitat. Likewise, human overpopulation is when the number of people can not be permanently maintained without depleting resources and without degrading the environment and the people's standard of living. One might consider that if we were to consume less, we may be able to live within the carrying capacity of the planet. However, we should not reduce our consumption or degrade our lifestyle in order to claim that the human race is not overpopulated. Especially not as our number continues to increase.

Some may argue about how much vacant room there still is on Earth to hold billions and billions of more people. However, one must consider the fact that people are all made up of atoms of matter, and that matter which comprises our bodies has had to come from the earth itself. The majority of the matter in our bodies is in the form of water. At the rate our population is presently growing, within 1200 years, our oceans would be entirely converted into people as more and more water is required to build the bodies of people. This is not even considering the water required for drinking, washing, irrigating crops, sea life, etc.

Hypothetically, if the human population continued to grow at our present rate, the mass of people would be equal to the mass of the earth within 1600 years. In 2300 years at this rate, the mass of people would fill up our entire solar system, and if you were able to create matter from nothing in order to make people, in roughly 5300 years a great sphere of humanity with a radius of over 150 light-years would be expanding faster than the speed of light.

These are not predictions of things that may happen. Limitations will halt our growth much sooner. The intent is instead to illustrate how rapidly our population is growing and to express that this obviously can not continue. The growth occurs so suddenly that the population can become unmanagable without sufficient warning, after it is too late to prevent catastrophe. In short, we are in great danger of using up both space and resources.

Wonder about how much more human population can increase? Not much, since our world can only likely see small increases before we hit the limits of sustainable growth and expend our resources. I hope we never get that far...

Earth's Population Carrying Capacity

Free Energy vs Energy Industry Profits

Converting solar to electric energy is not the complicated part, it is changing the focus of the energy industry as a whole. With so much focus and corporate profit on maintaining the current fossil fuel-based energy system, change needs to be localized, as does the reduction on those fossil fuels. In electric energy, transmission is the greatest loss of energy in the process. Creating vast solar arrays in regions when the sun is constant does capture and convert a great deal of energy into electricity for use, but being nowhere near the point of use makes it a highly inefficient solution, just as coal plants are today, wasting much of the energy produced in transporting it where it will be used. Localizing production of solar energy is one highly efficient way to capture that energy and utilize it right at the point of use. Storage systems are still a necessity if that energy is not put to use immediately upon conversion, so batteries or similar devices are still a necessity.

Other supplemental systems that take advantage of electromagnetic currents of the planet are another option for localized energy conversion into a form we can use anywhere, without the need of massive, inefficient power plants. John Bedini developed his monopole device to do just that, reduce reliance upon inefficient sources and work toward a new era of inexpensive energy. Further back, Nikola Tesla experimented in capturing and converting energy without relying on inefficient sources that degraded the environment. Changing the way that people use and capture energy is the greatest hurdle, but that is easier than forcing the energy industry to move toward sustainable solutions. Free energy is not something that big oil or coal companies are willing to invest in, and they have a history of using the government's monopoly on force to silence these innovations, simply to avoid losing profits.

Failure of Global Economic Recovwry

PARIS: The global economic recovery is running out of steam, leaving the euro zone stuck in a mild recession and the United States at risk of following suit, the OECD said on Monday, sharply cutting its forecasts.

The threat of even more devastating downturns looms if the euro zone does not get to grips with its debt crisis and US lawmakers fail to agree a spending-reduction plan, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned.

In the absence of decisive action from euro zone leaders, the European Central Bank (ECB) alone has the power to contain the bloc's crisis, the Paris-based OECD said. In the United States, however, the Federal Reserve had little ammunition left.

While solid growth in big emerging economies would provide a boost, slumping global trade would drag on Chinese output, the OECD said.

Its twice-yearly Economic Outlook forecast world growth would slow to 3.4 percent in 2012 from 3.8 percent this year.

That marks a sharp fall from its previous outlook in May, when the OECD estimated the world economy would grow 4.2 percent this year and 4.6 percent in 2012.

Struggling to contain an unprecedented debt crisis, the euro zone has already entered a recession and will eke out growth of only 0.2 percent in 2012, the OECD said, slashing its forecast from 2.0 percent in May.

CENTRAL BANKERS TO THE RESCUE?

The OECD said many key questions about the euro zone's response to the debt crisis remain unresolved, raising doubts about even the bloc's most solid economies, as demonstrated by Germany's difficulties placing bonds with investors last week.

"What we see now is contagion rising and hitting probably Germany as well," OECD chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan told Reuters in an interview.

"So the first thing, the absolute priority, is to stop that and in the immediate the only actor that can do that is the ECB," he added, urging the central bank to commit to a creating a cap on government bond yields as a way of calming the crisis.

With the Federal Reserve already flooding the financial system with liquidity, the US central bank has even less room to act if the world's biggest economy hits a downturn. That prospect was made all the more real by the failure of Congress to agree a deficit-reduction plan, without which deep spending cuts would be triggered.

"The resulting fiscal tightening, which would come automatically, would in our view likely generate a recession in the United States," Padoan said.

Provided that the Congress does reach an agreement, then the US economy is set to grow 1.7 percent in 2011 and 2.0 percent in 2012, down from May forecasts of 2.6 percent and 3.1 percent respectively.

With world trade growth projected to slow to 4.8 percent in 2012 from 6.7 percent this year, even China would not be spared a sharp slowdown, the OECD said.

It forecast that growth in the emerging Asian economic power would slow to 8.5 percent in 2012 from 9.3 percent in 2011.

Slower global trade and confidence knocked by the euro zone's debt crisis could trip up Germany, which the OECD estimated would grow only 0.6 percent in 2012 after a 3.0 percent expansion in 2011. Europe's biggest economy has probably entered a shallow recession at the end of the year, the OECD said.

In a rare bright spot, the Japanese economy was seen rebounding sharply after this year's earthquake and tsunami to achieve growth of 2.0 percent in 2012 following a contraction of 0.3 percent in 2011.

http://m.timesofindia.com/business/international-business/Global-economic-recovery-petering-out-OECD/articleshow/10905917.cms

Why Does Obama Suddenly Want a War With China?

One might think that a bitter Central Asian war in Afghanistan, spilling into Pakistan, with no sign of ending, and an as yet ambiguous military commitment to a defeated and incompletely reconstituted Iraq, now overshadowed by Iran and the Arab Awakening across the Middle East, would be enough for President Barack Obama to cope with.

He was, after all, elected to reduce American military commitments. He was going to end things in Iraq, fight the "right war" in Afghanistan, which Gen. David Petraeus told him could be wound up in a year. Unaccustomed to generals as he might have been, he surely did not expect "Af-Pak" to turn into a permanent activity and a source of income for the Pentagon and the American arms industry.

Why then does he now want a war with China? No one seems to have made much of this in American press reports and comment, but others have noticed, most of all in China. His journey to Asia this month proclaimed a Pax Americana for Asia—which as such is absurd. The effort is likely to become just the opposite: a steadily deepening and costly engagement in suppressing China's attempt to reclaim the Asian preeminence it held for more than a thousand years.

http://www.garynull.com/home/william-pfaff-why-does-obama-suddenly-want-a-war-with-china.html

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Black Friday Violence Worse Than Ever As American Consumers Fight Over Deals Like Crazed Animals

We all knew that this was coming, didn't we? Each year Black Friday violence just seems to get worse and worse. What does it say about American consumers when they are willing to fight like crazed animals just to save a few bucks on cheap plastic crap made in China? Not that retailers are innocent in any of this. It certainly seems as though many of them purposely create wild situations on Black Friday where customers will rush like crazy people into their stores and nearly riot as they fight over discounted merchandise. The more Black Friday madness there is, the more of an "event" it becomes, and the higher the profits of the retailers go. This year there was more Black Friday hype than ever and there was also more Black Friday violence than ever. It is being projected that this year a record-setting 152 million Americans will go shopping between Thanksgiving and Sunday night. That may be good news for the big corporate retailers, but the shocking lack of character being displayed by American consumers all over the country this weekend is very bad news for the future of this nation. Most Americans would agree that there is a tremendous amount of selfishness and greed on Wall Street, but as the videos posted below demonstrate, there is also a tremendous amount of selfishness and greed on "Main Street" as well. This year, Black Friday violence included robberies, gunfire and shootings, but the most shocking incidents actually happened inside the big retail stores.

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238255-Black-Friday-Violence-Worse-Than-Ever-As-American-Consumers-Fight-Over-Deals-Like-Crazed-Animals

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Bernanke's Stealth Bailout For Wall Street Kept Secret From Congress

Runs 3 minutes.  The comments from Barney Frank and Judd Gregg are telling.  Bernanke runs his own private dictatorship.  You'll be glad to know that Fear Mongering 101 is alive and...

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDailyBail/~3/FM0QviSEGy8/must-see-bernankes-stealth-bailout-for-wall-street-kept-secr.html

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NY Fed Issues Mea Culpa That Nobody Saw at 6PM on Black Friday | ZeroHedge

In a report released on Black Friday around 6 PM, when nobody is around, let alone paying attention, except for crazy people like me, the NY Fed posted a mea culpa on just how lousy its economic forecasts have been, a function which I had already performed over a year ago (The Fed - Clueless, Delusional, or Both?). The author of the report stated the crux of the failure thusly...

They just don't care anymore if the public is aware of the problems with our financial system, or with central banks in particular.

NY Fed Issues Mea Culpa That Nobody Saw at 6PM on Black Friday | ZeroHedge

Scientific Challenges To Replacing Oil With Renewables

So, assuming the Peak Oil camp is on to something, what's the likelihood for a disruption-free transition to another energy source that can replace the energy output we currently enjoy from oil? There's no shortage of promising claims from new laboratory experiments, and there is a lot of optimism in political and entrepreneurial circles that renewable, alternative forms of energy (wind, solar, biofuels, etc) may be able to fill the "energy gap" in time. How realistic are these hopes?

Not very, says Robert Rapier, energy specialist and Chief Technology Officer of Merica International.

The problem is one of return on invested energy. It is extremely difficult to create fuels with the same energy-density Nature has concocted over thousands of millennia without using up as much (or more) energy in the process.

Guest Post: The Scientific Challenges To Replacing Oil With Renewables | ZeroHedge

McCain Bill S.1867 Stripping Americans of Rights

The Senate is set to vote on a bill next week that would define the whole of the United States as a “battlefield” and allow the U.S. Military to arrest American citizens in their own back yard without charge or trial.

“The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself,” writes Chris Anders of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office.

Under the ‘worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial’ provision of S.1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which is set to be up for a vote on the Senate floor Monday, the legislation will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who supports the bill.

The bill was drafted in secret by Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), before being passed in a closed-door committee meeting without any kind of hearing. The language appears in sections 1031 and 1032 of the NDAA bill.The US Constitution is null and void, with our Bill of Rights in direct conflict with legislation introduced on a regular basis from both houses of Congress, and from both political parties.

US military may be given the authority to infringe upon the basic foundational rights of Americans and treat us as militants under threat of violence and indefinite detention. What Bill of Rights?

McCain Bill S.1867 stripping Americans of their rights faces Monday vote | Tomorrow's News: Today!

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Save Water by Converting Your Toilet to Dual Flush with This $20 Retrofit Kit

Last year we covered the basics behind converting your toilet to a dual flush but since then an easier and cheaper option has hit the market. Using the HydroRight Drop-In Dual Flush Converter ($18.80 at Amazon) you can convert just about any toilet to dual flush in about five minutes using no tools.
The video from the manufacturer above uses an eight year-old kid to emphasize how easy to install the kit. All you really need to do is turn off the water using the valve behind the tank, remove the flapper and toilet handle, replace those with the new ones from the HydroRight kit, and turn the water back on.
The manufacturer claims that most users will recoup the cost of the retrofit kit within two months of water bills and that within a year you'll save enough water to fill a swimming pool.
If you're looking to make your home more efficient the retrofit kit seems to be a safe bet; the small cost offers a nearly immediate return-of-investment.

HydroRight

Save Water by Converting Your Toilet to Dual Flush with This $20 Retrofit Kit - Lifehacker

Greg Sargent - How Wall Street really views the protesters

MSNBC's Chris Hayes just aired an exclusive that provides an interesting look at how some of those being targeted by Occupy Wall Street may really view the protests. He reported that a memo from a prominent corporate lobbying firm to the American Bankers Association proposed an extensive public relations campaign — including opposition research into key movement figures and an elaborate media strategy — designed to discredit the movement, and Dems who embrace it.

The memo was authored by lobbyists at the firm Clark Lytle Geduldig Cranford — and there are two key takeaways. The first is that some allies of Wall Street firms see Occupy Wall Street as a potential long term political threat. The second is that they see the Democratic strategy of embracing the populist message of the protests as something that could work, rather than something that is an automatic negative for Dems, as conservatives keep proclaiming is the case.

From the memo:

Leading Democratic party strategists have begun to openly discuss the benefits of embracing the growing and increasingly organized Occuy Wall Street (OWS) movement to prevent Republican gains in Congress and the White House next year. We have seen this process of adopting extreme positions and movements to increase base voer turnout, including in the 2005-2006 immigration debate. If vilifying the leading companies of this sector is allowed to become an unchallenged centerpiece of a coordinated Democratic campaign, it has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullsye.

http://www.garynull.com/home/greg-sargent-how-wall-street-really-views-the-protesters.html

Richard Heinberg - What We Are For

Every activist engaged in combating human-caused climate change or specific elements of the current energy economy knows that the work is primarily oppositional. It could hardly be otherwise; for citizens who care about ecological integrity, a sustainable economy, and the health of nature and people, there is plenty to oppose—biomass logging in Massachusetts, mountaintop-removal coal mining in West Virginia, natural gas drilling in Wyoming, poorly sited solar developments in California, river-killing dams in Chile and Brazil, and new nuclear and coal plants around the globe.

These and many other fights against destructive energy projects are crucial, but they can be draining and tend to focus the conversation in negative terms. Sometimes it's useful to reframe the discourse about ecological limits and economic restructuring in positive terms, that is, about what we're for. The following list is not comprehensive, but beauty and biodiversity are fundamentals that the energy economy must not diminish. And energy literacy, conservation, relocalization of economic systems, and family planning are necessary tools to achieve our vision of a day when resilient human communities are imbedded in healthy ecosystems, and all members of the land community have space enough to flourish.

http://www.garynull.com/home/richard-heinberg-what-we-are-for.html

The social safety net encourages...?

Mark Thoma responds to the meme that the social safety net encourages bad behavior overall:

The idea that the unemployment problem is due to lack of effort on behalf of the unemployed rather than a lack of demand is convenient for the moralists, but inconsistent with the facts. The problem is lack of demand, not the means through which we smooth the negative consequences of recessions.

But what really irks me is the implicit moralizing, the idea that people deserve to be thrown into poverty. Someone who gets up every day and goes to a job day after day, often a job they don't like very much, to support their families can suddenly become unemployed in a recession through no fault of their own. They did nothing wrong -- it's not their fault the economy went into a recession and they certainly couldn't be expected to foresee a recession that experts such as Casey Mulligan missed entirely. They had no reason to believe they had chosen the wrong place to go to work, but unemployment hit them anyway. And since one of the biggest causes of foreclosure is an event like unemployment, it's entirely possible that this household would lose its home, be forced to declare bankruptcy, etc., and end up in severe poverty if there were no social services to rely upon.

What moral lesson is being taught here? <!-- more --&gt Why does this household deserve to be punished for their bad decisions? It did nothing wrong. I understand that people should suffer the consequences of their own bad choices, but that's not what happens in recessions. People who have done nothing to deserve it are nevertheless hit by severe negative shocks. That's what social insurance is for, to smooth the path for such unfortunate households, to avoid sending people into poverty who have done nothing to deserve it (see "The Need for Social Insurance"). It is not an attempt to reward bad behavior and most programs do their best to avoid giving benefits to people who have made bad choices (for example, the system is far from perfect but in most states unemployment insurance can only be obtained if you lose your job through no fault of your, e.g. if you quit or get yourself fired it is not available). The extent to which we should distinguish between deserving and undeserving households for social insurance programs is debatable and depends upon the type of program, but the idea that all households are undeserving is, in my view, simply wrong. I would apply the social safety net widely myself -- I think the benefit of the doubt should go to compassion, not harshness and moralizing -- but in any case I'd dispute the idea that "safety-net generosity" is too high. If anything, we are not generous enough.

Update: Karl Smith comments on this topic.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/Hzoh/~3/RcntyEwjehY/social-safety-net-encourages.html

Is MF Global the Tip of a Titanic Iceberg?

Global Econimic Intersection Article of the Week

Monday marked two weeks since the news broke that MF Global "removed" unencumbered segregated funds from customers' accounts. Segregation simply means that customer deposits can't be mixed with the firm's own money or used to cover firm expenses. They must always be available for customers to trade with or withdraw at a moment's notice. During that time MF Global customers have found themselves locked out of reduced equity in their accounts. Worst of all, even MF Global customers who held no open futures positions and only cash and unencumbered assets, have found those assets under the control of the bankruptcy trustee.

Follow up:

The trustee is struggling to find the money, calling the record keeping "sloppy" There are stories that JP Morgan and others "might be" involved in the ratlines.

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The litmus test will be how much equity shows up in the accounts of actual customers. And more importantly, can those customers access that money or transfer to other firms. Anything else is a charade.

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To any thinking person, this has all the hallmarks of a systemic-loss-of-confidence event. This is well put in a letter sent to bankruptcy judge Martin Glenn, who is handling the MF Global bankruptcy. There has been little good coverage on this in the Lame Stream Media. Forbes, and especially Robert Lenzner, has stayed on this story. Lenzner writes convincingly that the CFTC has a loophole that actually permits firms to gamble clients' segregated accounts. Most of the real coverage is, as usual, in the blogosphere. From Lenzner:

In Re: MF Global, Inc. Case No. 11-02790 (MG) (SIPA)

Re: The reputation of the United States

Dear Judge Glenn:

Our firm is a registered introducing broker with the CFTC. I have written to you previously on behalf of our customers. Here is a comment this morning from one of our former customers in Europe: "I will never do business in the United States of America again."

The system to protect futures accounts is broken. And the whole world knows it. What started as a failure of one FCM that quickly gave a black eye to the CFTC and especially the CME has now made our United States of America a very bad joke to commodity futures traders all over the world.

The problem this morning is not just excess margin equity. The problem this morning is the reputation of the United States of America.

Thank you very much for your time and for listening.

Very Truly Yours,

HL Camp, Proprietor, HL Camp Futures

The CME Group has first line regulatory responsibility for insuring basic fundamental protections for customers. To say that they failed is putting it lightly. Now after fiddling while Rome burns and no doubt witnessing the beginning of a run on other firms, the CME has decided to respond with a financial guarantee of sorts to see if they can unplug the log jam. Assuming that the vast majority of people still expect rule of law and decent conduct, this is put up or shut up time.

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...thinking this is an outlier rogue firm and is not a widespread issue would be highly wishful thinking on anybody's part.

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The litmus test will be how much equity shows up in the accounts of actual customers. And more importantly, can those customers access that money or transfer to other firms. Anything else is a charade. One might speculate that these clowns would have the outcome calibrated and that this is more than a PR gimmick. Gimmicks now will have deep and long lasting blowback effects. You should note that so far governmental strategy has been to try and let this one quietly die. No doubt that's because MF Global's chief mucky muck Jon Corzine was often mentioned just three months ago as Presidente Hopium's replacement at Secretary of Treasury for Timmy " Turbo Tax" Geithner. The "regulator" at CFTC is another corruptos, Gary Gensler, a Goldman Sachs crony and associate of Jon Corzine.

I had a residual account at MF Global. I was originally referred to Lind Waldock by Charles Schwab (who apparently failed their due diligence on MF Global). I had used Lind Waldock for years. Then suddenly it became Refco, then recently MF Global. Many MF Global accounts were Schwab referrals. I noticed the commissions were too high, and was gravitating to OptionsExpress which is a Schwab company with cheaper commissions for futures trading. I had some positions left at MF Global and rather than go offline for a week transferring the account I was letting the positions run off.

To continue reading, please click here...

JP Morgan will simply turn to central banks to reimburse for absorbing those toxic investments, leaving taxpayers and consumers to bear the burden through inflation and devaluation of currency. 

http://moneymorning.com/2011/11/28/is-mf-global-the-tip-of-a-titanic-iceberg

Senate bill to turn US into battlefield

American civil rights activists have censured the country's senate for seeking to allow the military to imprison American citizens without bringing a charge against them. American rights activists have slammed the US Senate for gearing up to vote on a bill on Monday that would define the whole of the United States as a 'battlefield' [...]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheTotalCollapse/~3/LMTFJtJ1zB0/

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Euro Collapse

British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain.

As the Italian government struggled to borrow and Spain considered seeking an international bail-out, British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible.

Diplomats are preparing to help Britons abroad through a banking collapse and even riots arising from the debt crisis.

The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way.

See also: IMF drawing up £500bn package to save Italy, Spain and the euro

A senior minister has now revealed the extent of the Government's concern, saying that Britain is now planning on the basis that a euro collapse is now just a matter of time.

"It's in our interests that they keep playing for time because that gives us more time to prepare," the minister told the Daily Telegraph.

Continue reading at the Telegraph

Sovereign debt Is the greatest worry in the EU right now, leading some nations to take steps away from the union. Put into perspective, EU debt is not as high as in the USA. Something to consider...

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1433/240/Prepare_for_Riots_in_Euro_Collapse,_British_Embassies_Warn.html

Billionaire Investor Who Compared Taxing The Rich To Nazi Invasions Will Hold Fundraiser For Romney

Using popular anti-rich sentiment to justify taking from those rich is not a practical substitute for conservative economic policies. Nor is it a substitute for massive reductions in welfare and entitlement programs or constant increases in government spending in general.

The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money - Margaret Thatcher

Last summer, mega-investor and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman — who has a net worth of about $4.7 billion, according to Forbes — said Democratic efforts to close a pernicious tax provision known as the carried interest loophole was akin to Nazi invasions during World War II. "It's a war," Schwarzman said. "It's like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939."
This particular loophole lets private equity executives and hedge fund managers, who are some of the wealthiest people on the planet, pay exceedingly low tax rates. As billionaire investor Warren Buffet explained, "Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as 'carried interest,' thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate."
And it seems that Schwarzman has found his man in the 2012 election: the former private equity executive Mitt Romney:

Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the world's largest private-equity firm, will host a fundraiser for Mitt Romney at his Park Avenue apartment next month, a sign that Romney is closing the sale with Wall Street's wealthiest donors.
The event marks Schwarzman's inaugural step to help Romney secure the Republican presidential nomination, according to a person familiar with Schwarzman's plans who spoke on condition of anonymity. He will follow up with efforts to persuade colleagues in the financial industry to get behind Romney's presidential bid, the person said.

Schwarzman, for the record, is so wealthy that his personal chef "often spends $3,000 for a weekend of food for Mr. Schwarzman and his wife, including stone crabs that cost $400, or $40 per claw." Yet he has vociferously fought against equalizing the tax treatment of investors like himself and the working Americans whose income is taxed at normal income tax rates.
Romney, of course, has already come out against the "Buffett rule," the Obama administration's proposal to ensure that millionaires and billionaires can't pay lower tax rates than middle-class families. Romney's net worth is about $250 million and he won't release his tax returns (despite having previously called on his opponents to do so). However, a Citizens for Tax Justice analysis estimated that Romney pays a tax rate of about 14 percent.
Even before grabbing Schwarzman's endorsement, Romney had been hauling in Wall Street cash. But does Romney agree with Schwarzman that asking billionaires to pay their fair share is akin to Hitler invading Poland?

 

Anyone who believes that even taxing the wealthy at twice the current rate will balance our economy is being willfully ignorant. The root of the problem is big business interests coupled with global central banks infiltrating and using government to promote their agendas over the will and needs of the populations. 

This is part of the failure of the Occupy protests to address root issues, and to allow the movement to be hijacked by political groups on both sides as fodder in the failed Left-Right paradigm. 

Government is the problem.

Representatives allowing global central banks and big business to infest through lobbying and political contributions, infringing on the US Constitution via unnecessary and invalid legislation, is the method.


The only real solution is to wipe our government and start over from our inception. We need to return to and hold fast the core ideals of our Constitution, wiping out most legislation, holding those core laws as untouchable. The chipping away at our Bill of Rights has allowed our liberty to become corrupted and in constant danger of being retired entirely.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/28/376572/schwartzman-romney-invade-poland

US Senate To Vote On Bill That Will Allow The Military To Arrest Americans On American Soil And Hold Them Indefinitely | Addicting Info

Since Occupy Wall Street began, American police officers have arrested thousands of people for exercising their constitutionally protected right to protest. On Monday or Tuesday, the US Senate will vote on a bill that would give the President the ability to order the military to arrest and imprison American citizens anywhere in the world for an indefinite period of time.

A provision of S. 1867, or the National Defense Authorization Act bill, written by Senators John McCain and Carl Levin, declares American soil a battlefield and allows the President and all future Chief Executives to order the military to arrest and detain American citizens, innocent or not, without charge or trial. In other words, if this bill passes and the President signs it, OWS protesters or any American could end up arrested and indefinitely locked up by the military without the guaranteed right to due process or a speedy trial.

This bill was written in secret and approved by committee without a single hearing. Senate Republicans support the bill and enough Democrats support it to give it a great chance of passing. This provision does have opponents. President Obama has threatened to veto the bill and even Ron Paul is concerned enough to bring it up during one of the GOP debates. An amendment called the Udall Amendment has been offered by Democratic Senator Mark Udall that would delete the dangerous provision.

If you are an American citizen, protect your constitutional rights. Call your senator and tell them to approve of the Udall Amendment. No American citizen should be arrested by the military and held indefinitely without charge or trial. It's not conducive to American values and would give the military and the government more power over the American citizenry. The last time Americans had to deal with an overreaching military was during the Revolutionary era. Because of that, the Founders included the 3rd Amendment to ban the quartering of troops during times of war and peace. Once again, Americans are under threat of dealing with a military that has more power than it should have. And it could cost us most of the freedoms we tend to take for granted.

America is NOT a battlefield. America is a free country and American citizens should not ever be arrested by the military and certainly not without being charged or getting a trial. This provision would cast aside the Constitution and put the liberties of American citizens here at home and around the world at serious risk. Please call your senator or visit this link, because this is a risk Americans cannot afford to take.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/11/26/us-senate-to-vote-on-bill-that-will-allow-the-military-to-arrest-americans-on-american-soil-and-hold-them-indefinitely/

Obama's Unconstitutional War

In taking the country into a war with Libya, Barack Obama's administration is breaking new ground in its construction of an imperial presidency -- an executive who increasingly acts independently of Congress at home and abroad. Obtaining a U.N. Security Council resolution has legitimated U.S. bombing raids under international law. But the U.N. Charter is not a substitute for the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress, not the president, the power "to declare war."

But, again, these provisions have little to do with the constitutionality of the Libyan intervention, since Libya did not attack our "armed forces." The president failed to mention this fundamental point in giving Congress notice of his decision on Monday, in compliance with another provision of the resolution. Without an armed "attack," there is no compelling reason for the president to cut Congress out of a crucial decision on war and peace.After the Vietnam War, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution, which granted the president the power to act unilaterally for 60 days in response to a "national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces." The law gave the chief executive an additional 30 days to disengage if he failed to gain congressional assent during the interim.   

This is particularly striking since, in the Libyan case, the president had plenty of time to get congressional support. A broad coalition -- from Senator John McCain to Senator John Kerry -- could have been mobilized on behalf of a bipartisan resolution as the administration engaged in the necessary international diplomacy. But apparently Obama thought it more important to lobby the Arab League than the U.S. Congress.

In cutting out Congress, Obama has overstepped even the dubious precedent set when President Bill Clinton bombed Kosovo in 1999. Then, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel asserted that Congress had given its consent by appropriating funds for the Kosovo campaign. It was a big stretch, given the actual facts -- but Obama can't even take advantage of this same desperate expedient, since Congress has appropriated no funds for the Libyan war. The president is simply using money appropriated to the Pentagon for general purposes to conduct the current air campaign.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/24/obama_s_unconstitutional_war

The Average Bush Tax Cut For The 1 Percent This Year Will Be Greater Than The Average Income Of The Other 99 Percent

As Occupy Wall Street protestors continue to demonstrate across the country, congress' fiscal super committee failed to craft a deficit reduction packagedue to Republican refusal to consider tax increases on the super wealthy. In fact, the only package that the GOP officially submitted to the committee includedlowering the top tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent, even as new research shows that the optimal top tax rate iscloser to 70 percent.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who co-chaired the super committee, explained that the major sticking point during negotiations with the GOP was what to do with the Bush tax cuts. With that in mind, the National Priorities Project points out that those tax cuts this year will give the richest 1 percent of Americans a bigger tax cut than the other 99 percent will receive in average income:

The average Bush tax cut in 2011 for a taxpayer in the richest one percent is greater than the average income of the other 99 percent ($66,384 compared to $58,506).

"The super committee failed to grapple with the extraordinarily costly Bush tax cuts for the richest—tax policies that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, cost more in added federal debt than they add in additional economic activity," explained Jo Comerford, NPP's Executive Director. Frank Knapp, vice chairman of the American Sustainable Business Council, added in a statement yesterday, "the high-end Bush tax cuts are a big part of the problem – not the solution…It's obscene to keep slashing infrastructure and services for everybody on Main Street to keep up tax giveaways for millionaires and multinational corporations."

The Bush tax cuts have done nothing but blow up the federal debt and hand billions in tax breaks to the Americans who needed them least. As a reminder, past grand bargains when it came to the budget included substantial new revenues, to balance the pain of getting the country's budget in order. Instead of adopting that approach, the GOP wants to continue lavishing tax breaks onto the 1 percent, while asking everyone else to sacrifice.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/23/375654/bush-tax-cut-one-percent/