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1/9/2004
Dollar Collapse Continues on Terrible Jobs Data :.The dollar plunged to new lows Friday, with fragile sentiment toward the beleaguered currency dealt a further blow by a surprisingly weak U.S. employment report.
The dollar began sinking as soon as the data showing only 1,000 jobs were added to nonfarm payrolls last month hit the wires. Economists had expected a rise of 150,000, with most expecting the balance of risks to the upside.
The unemployment rate may have fallen to a 14-month low of 5.7% from 5.9%, but the alarming lack of job creation spooked investors. Treasury and gold prices rallied, while bond yields and stocks plummeted.
The main drag for the dollar is the impact a weak labor market has on interest rates because expectations of rates staying low mean the dollar will likely remain weak.
"This is unambiguously bad for the dollar, not just because of the number itself, but because of the implications it has for U.S. interest rates," said Rebecca Patterson, senior currency strategist at JP Morgan in New York.
posted by Kevin at 7:08 PM
Bush in Cabinet Meetings: "A Blind Man in a Room Full of Deaf People" :.Former US treasury secretary Paul O'Neill has blasted his former boss, President George W Bush, describing Cabinet meetings with him as "a blind man in a room full of deaf people".
Mr O'Neill, who was sacked by Mr Bush in December 2002, told CBS television the President did not ask him a single question during their first one-on-one meeting, which lasted an hour.
"I went in with a long list of things to talk about and, I thought, to engage (him) on. ... I was surprised it turned out me talking and the president just listening. ... It was mostly a monologue," Mr O'Neill said in the interview to be aired this weekend.
He says his description of the President as a "blind man" was a reference to his dislike of a free flow of ideas or open debate.
Mr O'Neill is quoted as saying that Mr Bush's lack of engagement left his advisers with "little more than hunches about what the President might think".
White House spokesman Scott McClellan deflected repeated questions about O'Neill's assertions, saying: "I don't do book reviews."
posted by Kevin at 7:04 PM
Dollar Slumps as U.S. Job Creation Lags :.The dollar tumbled to a fresh record low against the euro on Friday, as a stunningly small gain in U.S. payrolls further stoked expectations that U.S. interest rates will remain at a 45-year trough for some time.
In a yield-seeking environment such as the currency markets, low interest rates tend to lessen the appeal of dollar-denominated assets for global investors.
The Labor Department said non-farm payrolls added just 1,000 jobs in December. The weaker-than-expected gain stands in sharp contrast to the 130,000 new jobs that had been expected. Furthermore, the November report, which initially showed creation of 57,000 jobs, was revised down to show a rise of 43,000.
posted by Kevin at 1:14 PM
Peak Oil: Shell to Recategorise 20% of Proven Oil, Gas Reserves :.Shares of major oil companies fell Friday after Royal Dutch/Shell Group shocked investors by slashing its "proven" reserves by 20 percent.
News of the revision triggered concerns that other producers may also have improperly booked reserves as "proven" -- a category comprising oil and gas from developed and undeveloped fields that companies believe can be extracted and sold profitably under current market conditions.
Shell shifted 3.9 billion barrels of reserves previously listed as "proven" into two less valuable categories -- "unproven" or having "scope for recovery." The announcement revealed excessive optimism for key areas including Australia's giant Gorgon gas field, onshore activities in Nigeria and other unspecified areas in the eastern hemisphere.
posted by Kevin at 12:58 PM
Adrian Lamo Cuts Deal With Feds :.Lamo faces six to 12 months of jail time under the sentencing guidelines for his crime. But he and his court-appointed public defender, Sean Hecker, are hopeful that Buchwald will put Lamo in a halfway house, or under home detention. Sentencing will take place on April 8, to coincide with Lamo's spring break from American River College in Sacramento, California.
In addition, Lamo is bound to pay a fine of $2,000 to $20,000. And he's obliged to reimburse the money that his offenses supposedly cost the Times and LexisNexis -- $30,000 to $70,000.
But how exactly Lamo will pay the Times back is unclear. Lamo said he's been trying to get a job, in addition to taking classes as a college journalism major. But he's been luckless, so far.
"How the hell do I tell employers what I've been up to for the last three years?" Lamo mused.
posted by Kevin at 12:55 PM
Bush to Seek Manned Flights to Moon, Mars :.Will the space missions still be on after the wars for oil eventually lead to World War III? Hmm. How about we use some of the technology that's been around for over three decades to solve our energy problems before we play spaceman again. I could care less. I'll hopefully be digging up potatoes and boiling them on a wood burning stove in my yurt, somewhere about ten miles north of oblivion. I don't have much of a need for space missions. That potato means a hell of a lot more to me than the maniac whims of fascists: President Bush next week will lay out his "vision for expanding the space program," which is expected to include long-term proposals for manned missions to the moon and an eventual manned mission to Mars, senior administration officials say.
posted by Kevin at 4:07 AM
Levi Strauss Closes Last Two U.S. Plants :.Levi Strauss & Co., the California Gold Rush outfitter whose blue jeans are a globally recognized symbol of America, closed its last two U.S. sewing plants Thursday.
About 800 workers at the 26-year-old San Antonio plants lost their jobs in the move, which was announced last September.
posted by Kevin at 12:22 AM
Troglodytes Begin to Eat Each Other: Question About Flight Sim Software Leads to Cop Visit :.This is standard operating procedure in all fascist nightmare systems: A mother's enquiry about buying Microsoft Flight Simulator for her ten-year-old son prompted a night-time visit to her home from a state trooper.
Julie Olearcek, a USAF Reserve pilot made the enquiry at a Staples store in Massachusetts, home to an earlier bout of hysteria, during the Salem witch trials.
So alarmed was the Staples clerk at the prospect of the ten year old learning to fly, that he informed the police, the Greenfield Recorder reports. The authorities moved into action, leaving nothing to chance. A few days later, Olearcek was alarmed to discover a state trooper flashing a torch into to her home through a sliding glass door at 8:30 pm on a rainy night.
Olearcek is a regular Staples customer and schools her son at home. The Staples manager simply explained that staff were obeying advice. Shortly before Christmas, the FBI issued a terror alert to beware of drivers with maps, or reference books.
posted by Kevin at 12:19 AM
1/8/2004
Credit Crunch Coming? :.HAHAHA! Ya think?: The record percentage of consumers behind on their credit-card payments could be the ugly result of a weakening housing market -- and an ominous sign of greater credit pain to come, economists said Wednesday.
The refinancing boom, triggered as mortgage rates fell to the lowest level in a generation, offered homeowners a ready source of cash. Most consumers plowed that cash back into their houses, for new washers and dryers, carpeting or to build that new deck.
But others used it simply to pay bills, including their credit-card bills. Shut off the refi spigot, and you may have shut off the ability of some cardholders to pay.Anyone who thinks we're not in a real-estate bubble is high on crack.
posted by Kevin at 11:58 PM
Study: Farmed Salmon More Contaminated Than Wild :.Farm-raised salmon contain significantly more dioxins and other potentially cancer-causing pollutants than do salmon caught in the wild, says a major study that tested contaminants in fish bought around the world.
Salmon farmed in Northern Europe had the most contaminants, followed by North America and Chile, according to the study released Thursday. It blames the feed used on fish farms for concentrating the ocean pollutants.
posted by Kevin at 3:27 PM
Quarantining Dissent: How the Secret Service Protects Bush from Free Speech :.Beg the cops to wave your sign!? What a crock of shit. You want to start a revolution? Grow your own food: When President Bush travels around the United States, the Secret Service visits the location ahead of time and orders local police to set up "free speech zones" or "protest zones," where people opposed to Bush policies (and sometimes sign-carrying supporters) are quarantined. These zones routinely succeed in keeping protesters out of presidential sight and outside the view of media covering the event.
When Bush went to the Pittsburgh area on Labor Day 2002, 65-year-old retired steel worker Bill Neel was there to greet him with a sign proclaiming, "The Bush family must surely love the poor, they made so many of us."
The local police, at the Secret Service's behest, set up a "designated free-speech zone" on a baseball field surrounded by a chain-link fence a third of a mile from the location of Bush's speech.
The police cleared the path of the motorcade of all critical signs, but folks with pro-Bush signs were permitted to line the president's path. Neel refused to go to the designated area and was arrested for disorderly conduct; the police also confiscated his sign.
posted by Kevin at 4:46 AM
Extended Quote from Propaganda by Edward L. Bernays :.This is, quite possibly, the most important collection of words on Cryptogon: The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.
We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.
Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.
They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure. Whatever attitude one chooses to take toward this condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons.... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.
It is not usually realized how necessary these invisible governors are to the orderly functioning of our group life. In theory, every citizen may vote for whom he pleases. Our Constitution does not envisage political parties as part of the mechanism of government, and its framers seem not to have pictured to themselves the existence in our national politics of anything like the modern political machine. But the American voters soon found that without organization and direction their individual votes, cast, perhaps, for dozens or hundreds of candidates, would produce nothing but confusion. Invisible government, in the shape of rudimentary political parties, arose almost overnight. Ever since then we have agreed, for the sake of simplicity and practicality, that party machines should narrow down the field of choice to two candidates, or at most three or four.
In theory, every citizen makes up his mind on public questions and matters of private conduct. In practice, if all men had to study for themselves the abstruse economic, political, and ethical data involved in every question, they would find it impossible to come to a conclusion about anything. We have voluntarily agreed to let an invisible government sift the data and high-spot the outstanding issues so that our field of choice shall be narrowed to practical proportions. From our leaders and the media they use to reach the public, we accept the evidence and the demarcation of issues bearing upon public questions; from some ethical teacher, be it a minister, a favorite essayist, or merely prevailing opinion, we accept a standardized code of social conduct to which we conform most of the time.
In theory, everybody buys the best and cheapest commodities offered him on the market. In practice, if every one went around pricing, and chemically testing before purchasing, the dozens of soaps or fabrics or brands of bread which are for sale, economic life would become hopelessly jammed. To avoid such confusion, society consents to have its choice narrowed to ideas and objects brought to its attention through propaganda of all kinds. There is consequently a vast and continuous effort going on to capture our minds in the interest of some policy or commodity or idea.
It might be better to have, instead of propaganda and special pleading, committees of wise men who would choose our rulers, dictate our conduct, private and public, and decide upon the best types of clothes for us to wear and the best kinds of food for us to eat. But we have chosen the opposite method, that of open competition. We must find a way to make free competition function with reasonable smoothness. To achieve this society has consented to permit free competition to be organized by leadership and propaganda.
Some of the phenomena of this process are criticized � the manipulation of news, the inflation of personality, and the general ballyhoo by which politicians and commercial products and social ideas are brought to the consciousness of the masses. The instruments by which public opinion is organized and focused may be misused. But such organization and focusing are necessary to orderly life.
As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented.
posted by Kevin at 4:00 AM
Debt Soars to Record :.It's almost down: Americans are carrying more debt then ever before, and are behind payments in record numbers, according to figures released yesterday.
In October 2003, consumer debt hit a record $1.98 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve. That's about $18,700 in debt per household, which includes credit cards and car loans, but not mortgages.
Meanwhile, in the third quarter of last year, 4.09 percent of credit card payments were past due, also a record high, according to the American Bankers Association.
posted by Kevin at 3:41 AM
1/7/2004
IMF Sounds Alarm on Snowballing U.S. Fiscal Deficit :.The exploding U.S. federal budget deficit threatens the global economy through a sharp plunge in the value of the American dollar and higher interest rates worldwide, the International Monetary Fund warned Wednesday.
The IMF also challenged the Bush administration's position that the deficit can be dealt with by a rebounding economy generating higher tax revenues, and by stronger efforts to curb government spending. "Given the magnitude of this adjustment (to rebalance the budget) it would seem likely that both revenue measures and sustained spending restraints would be needed," IMF economists said in a report entitled U.S. Fiscal Policies and Priorities for Long-Run Sustainability.
U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, meanwhile, issued a don't-worry-be-happy assessment of the fiscal situation.More: IMF Sees Risk of Disorderly U.S. Dollar Drop :.Disorderly = Illiquid Trade = Crash. Remember how I said the Japanese were preventing the dollar from crashing suddenly? I wonder what they're getting out of this? I'm starting to believe that this is NOT just related to Japanese corporations being able to sell their products in the U.S.: Large and growing U.S. budget and current account deficits raise the risk of an abrupt drop in the value of the dollar, which could hit U.S. and global economic growth, the IMF said on Wednesday.
"Although the dollar's adjustment could occur gradually over an extended period, the possible global risk of a disorderly exchange rate adjustment, especially to financial markets, cannot be ignored," the International Monetary Fund warned in a new report on Washington's fiscal stance.
"An abrupt weakening of investor sentiment vis-a-vis the dollar could possibly lead to adverse consequences both domestically and abroad," particularly since U.S. debts to the rest of the world are at record highs, the fund said.
posted by Kevin at 6:22 PM
Bend Over, Here IT Comes Again :.Tech turn-a-round? How about feeding on the dead: Amid rising hopes for a high-tech turnaround, there's this sobering sign: Martin Pichinson -- a man who has buried nearly 150 failed startups since 1999 -- has swooped into Silicon Valley like a vulture lurking over a pack of wounded animals.
Pichinson, a self-described "doctor of reality" who helps liquidate companies, says he wouldn't have moved from Los Angeles to Palo Alto a few months ago had he not smelled more high-tech trouble looming.
"Sadly, it looks like 2004 is going to be another busy year for me," Pichinson said. "There's still another 6,500 to 7,500 companies out there who are among the walking dead."
Conventional wisdom says Pichinson, 57, is about to face a business downturn himself. With technology stocks finishing their best year since the 1990s and companies poised to spend more money on computer gear, there's a growing consensus high-tech's high death toll is tapering off.
"Most of the biggest problem companies have been restructured, sold off or closed down," said Barry Kramer, a Palo Alto attorney who advises venture capitalists.
Pichinson scoffs at that notion, predicting the carcasses of doomed startups will continue to pile up for the next three to seven years.
"I have closed more companies than anyone in the world, so no one knows better about all the things that can go wrong in a business," Pichinson said.
posted by Kevin at 3:59 PM
Widow's 911 Bush Treason RICO Suit Vanishes in Blink of Media Eye :.Think you're already amazed, alarmed or appalled enough by the state of US journalism today? Chew on this a while and think again. Grieving New Hampshire widow who lost her man on 9/11 refuses the government's million-dollar hush-money payoff, studies the facts of the day for nearly two years, and comes to believe the White House "intentionally allowed 9/11 to happen" to launch a so-called "War on Terrorism" for personal and political gain.
She retains a prominent lawyer, a former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania, who served with distinction under both Democrats and Republicans and was once a strong candidate for the governor's seat.
The attorney files a 62-page complaint in federal district court (including 40 pages of prima facie evidence) charging that "President Bush and officials including, but not limited to Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Ashcroft and Tenet":
1.) had adequate foreknowledge of 911 yet failed to warn the county or attempt to prevent it;
2.) have since been covering up the truth of that day;
3.) have therefore abetted the murder of plaintiff's husband and violated the Constitution and multiple laws of the United States; and
4.) are thus being sued under the Civil RICO (Racketeering, Influence, and Corrupt Organization) Act for malfeasant conspiracy, obstruction of justice and wrongful death.More: President Served Friday with Personal 9-11 RICO Complaint :.U.S. media blackout continues as New Hampshire widow�s attorney also served multiple government officials and moved to examine new evidence while preparing subpoenas and written interrogatories for individual depositions. This, as corporate media execs continue to withhold important stories about presidential foreknowledge of attacks, military stand-down, and evidence of controlled demolition of third WTC Building 7, containing critical Securities and Exchange Commission corporate fraud investigation documents.Research Credit: D
posted by Kevin at 3:42 AM
Bush in 30 Seconds :.These are pretty good. Research Credit: ES
posted by Kevin at 3:37 AM
On The Edge Of Lunacy :.The hospital has none of the basic textbooks on tropical diseases it needs. But it does have 21 copies of an 800-page volume called Aesthetic Facial Surgery and 24 volumes of a book called Opthalmic Pathology. There is no opthalmic pathologist in training in Ethiopia. The poorest nation on Earth, unsurprisingly, has no aesthetic plastic surgeons. The US had spent $2m on medical textbooks that American publishers hadn't been able to sell at home, called them aid and dumped them in Ethiopia.
posted by Kevin at 3:34 AM
1/6/2004
Apple's Ministry of Truth Enhanced 1984 Commercial :.I remember seeing that 1984 Apple Macintosh commercial---in 1984. And as I recall, Anya Major, the hammer-tossing actress wasn't wearing an iPod. This site hosts the original commercial.
posted by Kevin at 1:49 PM
Dollar Slide Accelerates; Risks of Rout Increase :.That's the Dow Jones news wire headline, not mine! Speculators must know that the only thing preventing a sudden crash is the Bank of Japan. It's almost like the Japanese are providing the liquidity to allow parties to exit in a controlled way. The result is a crash, drawn out over several weeks and months: If anything, the dollar's slide was accelerating along with the increase in trading volume as investors return to the market after the holiday period. With very little to convince them otherwise, certainly not official rhetoric from U.S. or euro-zone policymakers, they're simply putting on fresh short dollar positions, en masse.
The euro was printing fresh all-time highs and zoning in fast on $1.30, the market's next big psychological target. Meanwhile, sterling was up around two whole cents on the day at new 11-year highs.
The dollar's malaise is widespread, with only official buying -- mainly from Japanese monetary authorities -- and a sprinkling of corporate demand appearing to stand in the way of the current run on the dollar turning into a rout.
posted by Kevin at 1:12 PM
The FBI Almanac Memo :.Idiots rule: Investigation has revealed that terrorist operatives may rely on almanacs to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning. Almanacs, available both in print and online, provide comprehensive information on a variety of topics, including government, geography, vital statistics, the economy, health matters, science and technology, weather trends, and tourism. Information commonly found in almanacs that may be exploited for terrorist use includes profiles of U.S. cities and states and information on geographic and structural features such as waterways, bridges, dams, reservoirs, tunnels, buildings, and landmarks. This information is often accompanied by photographs and maps.
The use of almanacs or maps may be the product of legitimate recreational or commercial activities; however, when combined with suspicious behavior or other information such as evidence of surveillance activities, these indicators may point to possible terrorist planning. The practice of researching potential targets is consistent with known methods of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations that seek to maximize the likelihood of operational success through careful planning.
During the course of authorized searches, traffic stops, and other contacts, law enforcement officers should be alert to the potential terrorist use of almanacs for pre-operational activities. Indicators of the use of almanacs for this purpose may include suspicious notations concerning high-profile locations such as tall buildings or landmarks and references to specific dates. Agencies should report any suspected use of almanacs in this manner to their nearest FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.Tip 'O the hat to John at Cryptome for his unending dedication to this work.
posted by Kevin at 5:32 AM
My Hat is Off to the Shorts that Hold OnA couple of days ago, I got stopped out of the meager short position that I'd placed on the QQQ. I am watching this thing rise, almost in a state of shock, as the dollar collapses, gold continues to gap up, the national debt closes in on $7 trillion, and the trade imbalance and budget deficits crash into record territory!!!! Do you ever just marvel at the bullshit? Does it ever strike awe into your very core? Well, I can't afford to hold a short position because who's to say when reality will set in?! But my hat is off to you guys who are shorting the NASDAQ and will ride the crash right into the dirt. Whether it's a fake terror incident or just a matter of people waking up to the macroeconomic catastrophe all around us, I will take pleasure in knowing that some of you had the stones to ride this thing out through what is probably going to go down as the most false rally in the history of equity markets. And to you criminals with inside information, who know when "it" is going to happen: There's going to be a special place in Hell just for you, where you become Saddam Hussein's ass clown for the rest of eternity. Oh yeah. That's right! Believe it.
posted by Kevin at 5:03 AM
Big Media Gets It, Late: Bush Grabs New Power for FBI :.Better late than never, Wired! Cryptogon and rest of the peanut gallery linked to the information weeks ago. And where was that tool, Drudge? The idiot was out of it as usual, talking up the Michael Jackson nonsense: While the nation was distracted last month by images of Saddam Hussein's spider hole and dental exam, President George W. Bush quietly signed into law a new bill that gives the FBI increased surveillance powers and dramatically expands the reach of the USA Patriot Act. The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 grants the FBI unprecedented power to obtain records from financial institutions without requiring permission from a judge. Under the law, the FBI does not need to seek a court order to access such records, nor does it need to prove just cause. Previously, under the Patriot Act, the FBI had to submit subpoena requests to a federal judge. Intelligence agencies and the Treasury Department, however, could obtain some financial data from banks, credit unions and other financial institutions without a court order or grand jury subpoena if they had the approval of a senior government official. The new law (see Section 374 of the act), however, lets the FBI acquire these records through an administrative procedure whereby an FBI field agent simply drafts a so-called national security letter stating the information is relevant to a national security investigation. And the law broadens the definition of "financial institution" to include such businesses as insurance companies, travel agencies, real estate agents, stockbrokers, the U.S. Postal Service and even jewelry stores, casinos and car dealerships. The law also prohibits subpoenaed businesses from revealing to anyone, including customers who may be under investigation, that the government has requested records of their transactions. Bush signed the bill on Dec. 13, a Saturday, which was the same day the U.S. military captured Saddam Hussein.
posted by Kevin at 4:44 AM
Consumer Debt More Than Doubles in Decade :.Joe and Jane Six Pack, this Bud's for you! HAHA! We are well into the final stages of looting before the entire thing blows up in our faces: As the bills from holiday spending sprees arrive, Americans are finding that the mountain of debt they've built has gotten even higher.
Consumer debt has more than doubled in the past 10 years to record levels, making it hard for many families to cope.
For Bruce and Lorraine Esbensen of Clifton Heights, Pa., trouble started when they spent lavishly on their wedding six years ago. They soon found themselves falling behind on their bills.
``Creditors were calling, and I knew if I paid one, I couldn't pay the other,'' Lorraine Esbensen remembers. ``It was so painful I got to the point where I didn't want to answer the phone.''
Credit counselors helped the couple work out a repayment plan, but it still took more than four years to pay down their debt.
``We still basically live paycheck to paycheck,'' she said. ``But we do have an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) going now, and we're careful with our spending so we feel better.''
Consumer debt hit a record $1.98 trillion in October 2003, according to the most recent figures from the Federal Reserve. That debt--which includes credit cards and car loans, but not mortgages _ translates to some $18,700 per U.S. household.
At the same time, the government says the nation's savings rate dropped to just 2 percent of after-tax income in the first half of the year. That means many people lack the means to deal with financial emergencies, much less their eventual retirement.
posted by Kevin at 4:33 AM
The 1984 Quote I Can't Stop Thinking AboutIt seems almost trite to quote from 1984 these days, but this passage sums it all up: They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.It's tough to top that one.
posted by Kevin at 4:29 AM
Certified Public Accountants: Get Ready for Bum Status :.If a tax preparer gets you an unexpected refund this year, you may have an accountant in India to thank.
That's because accounting firms are joining the outsourcing trend established years ago by cost-conscious American manufacturers.
In fact, companies in a number of unexpected industries are now sending work overseas. From scientific lab analysis to medical billing, the service-sector workforce has gone global.
CPA firms are just one example. In the 2002 tax year, accounting firms sent some 25,000 tax returns to be completed by accountants in India. This year, that number is expected to quadruple.
The reason lies in the numbers; accountants in the United States typically earn $4,000 a month. In places like India it's closer to $400, says David Wyle, CEO and founder of SurePrep, a tax-outsourcing firm based in southern California that's employed more than 200 accountants in Bombay and Ahmedabad, India.
"We've estimated firms will save between $40,000 to $50,000 for every 100 returns that are outsourced," adds Wyle, whose firm expects to do 35,000 returns in the coming year. That's up from 7,000 last year.
posted by Kevin at 2:30 AM
1/5/2004
How About that Gold? :.Gold hits a fifteen year high as the dollar continues to collapse. The stock markets are going up on monopoly money. It's too bad there's no way to know when these BS short squeezed stocks will unwind. The one thing that's for sure, it's not going to be pretty when they do: Gold futures traded above $425 an ounce for the first time in more than 15 years in New York Monday, extending its watershed rally on the first trading day of 2004 as investors continued to diversify out of the beleagured dollar.
Other precious metals surged as well, but gold is considered a form of currency and is seen as a hard alternative to the greenback. It built on last year's 20 percent gain as the dollar hit a new low against the soaring euro and fell to its cheapest level against the yen in three years.
posted by Kevin at 1:11 PM
Alabama Workers Clock in with Their Fingerprints :.Jefferson County, Alabama is calling time on fraudulent overtime claims by making non-salaried employees clock in with their fingerprints.
The County Commission last week placed a $460,000 order for 30 biometric time clocks, doubling numbers in use by the administartion.
posted by Kevin at 1:00 PM
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:. Reading
 Fatal
Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture by Andrew Kimbrell
Readers will come to see
that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest"
- fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors
such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way
into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff
from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to
genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield
monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our
farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate
farms.
 Friendly
Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross
This is a relatively
short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise
of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th
century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward;
the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and
military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined
to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of 'friendly
persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans
through what Gross refers to as friendly fascism.
 The
Good Life
by Scott and Helen Nearing Helen
and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land
movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based
on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating,
timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging
philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.
 Silent
Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth by David Bollierd
In Silent Theft, David Bollier
argues that a great untold story of our time is the staggering
privatization and abuse of our common wealth. Corporations are
engaged in a relentless plunder of dozens of resources that we
collectively own—publicly funded medical breakthroughs,
software innovation, the airwaves, the public domain of creative
works, and even the DNA of plants, animals and humans. Too often,
however, our government turns a blind eye—or sometimes helps
give away our assets. Amazingly,
the silent theft of our shared wealth has gone largely unnoticed
because we have lost our ability to see the commons.
 The
Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics
Guide by John Seymour The
Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that
teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony
with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops
and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and
wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more.
 When
Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten
When Corporations
Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated
the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets
and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It
documents the devastating human and environmental consequences
of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct
values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their
own narrow ends.
 The
New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques
for the Home and Market Gardener
This expansion
of a now-classic guide originally published in 1989 is intended
for the serious gardener or small-scale market farmer. It describes
practical and sustainable ways of growing superb organic vegetables,
with detailed coverage of scale and capital, marketing, livestock,
the winter garden, soil fertility, weeds, and many other
topics.
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