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A Wall Street Journal columnist has advised people to "start stockpiling food" and an ABC News Report says "there are worrying signs appearing in the United States where some … locals are beginning to hoard supplies." Now there's concern that the U.S. government may be competing with consumers for stocks of storable food. "We're told that the feds bought the entire container of canned butter when it hit the California docks. (Something's up!)," said officials at Best Prices Storable Foods in an advisory to customers. Spokesman Bruce Hopkins told WND he also has had trouble obtaining No. 10 cans of...

Home | Market Monitor | Market WrapUp | Storm Watch | Sitemap | About Us | Contact Us | Disclaimer | Privacy Statement THE FINANCIAL TSUNAMI The Next Big Wave is Breaking Fannie Mae Freddic Mac and US Mortgage Debt by F. William Engdahl July 15, 2008 The announcement by US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson together with Federal Reserve chief Bernanke, that the US Government will bailout the two largest guarantors of housing mortgage debt—the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—far from calming financial markets, has confirmed what we have said repeatedly in this space: The Financial Tsunami which began in...

THIS IS A LONG READ, BUT VERY INFORMATIVE. Let me issue and control a nation's money supply, and I care not who makes its laws." (Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Founder of Rothschild Banking Dynasty) Many prominent Americans such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson have argued and fought against the central banking polices used throughout Europe.

CONFER: The North American Union Over the past few years a majority of Americans have been quite disappointed with what’s happening at our Southern border. Millions of Mexicans have been allowed to illegally enter our nation and assimilate into our populace. Despite considerable uproar from legal, taxpaying citizens, our federal government has done almost nothing to rectify the situation. There has been some talk of increasing border security or maybe enforcing existing laws, but this “silent invasion” continues unchecked: For every one Mexican caught trying to illegally enter our nation, more than five make it through. This begs the question,...

WASHINGTON – Sen. Barack Obama ditched his unsuspecting press entourage yesterday to attend a secretive meeting with Sen. Hillary Clinton. But where did that meeting take place? Was it at the secretive Bilderberg conference in Chantilly, Va.? So far, neither campaign is talking. The 56th Bilderberg meeting is still going on this weekend at the Westfields Marriott, according to various sources. But attendance is a well-guarded secret – along with the agenda, which tends toward the promotion of globalist ideas. Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs confirmed Clinton and Obama met but declined to inform the press of the location of the...

By far our most popular EPJ post, ever, has been our Does Goldman Sachs Run The World? post. Here's an update on Goldman Sachs and their latest power move, the infiltration of the Barack Obama campaign. Robert Rubin, former Co-Chairman of Goldman Sachs, is advising Obama. Obama has named Jason Furman, his top economic adviser. Furman, with Rubin, was an aide in the Clinton White House, and worked there directly under Rubin. He is also a close associate of Rubin through their work together on the Hamilton Project. Which doesn't mean that current Goldman employees aren't paying attention to Obama....

Now on Fox, a spokesman for a group called "The Resistance." They are sending personal letters to our troops in Iraq blaming the U.S. for 9-11 and calling the troops stupid murderers who should desert the military. The spokesman is having a quiet tantrum as he curses the U.S. and demands we pull out of the Middle East. Eye-opening.

Bush to meet with LDS leadersPresident Bush chatted for nearly an hour Thursday with LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson about issues including U.S. foreign policy, Middle East peace, the economy and energy, according to White House press secretary Dana Perino. The Mormon leader also mentioned his long-standing friendship with Bush's parents, Perino said. The meeting at Monson's office in the LDS Church Administration Building in downtown Salt Lake City began around 8:30 a.m. At about 9:40 a.m., Bush's motorcade emerged from underground parking on North Temple and headed straight for the airport. The courtesy call was Bush's first meeting...

A group supporting North American integration is holding its fourth annual "North American Model Parliament" for 100 university students from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The North American Forum on Integration, or NAFI, began is "Triumvirate" sessions Monday in Montreal's City Hall with a plan to conclude Friday.

A group supporting North American integration is holding its fourth annual "North American Model Parliament" for 100 university students from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The North American Forum on Integration, or NAFI, began is "Triumvirate" sessions Monday in Montreal's City Hall with a plan to conclude Friday. According to the NAFI website, "Triumvirate 2008" brings together the students "to participate in an international negotiation exercise in which they will simulate a parliamentary meeting between North American political actors." Participants are assigned to play one of three roles: a legislator, representing a country other than their own; a journalist; or...

( Long but important read. Those with a 30 second sound bite capacity should simply move on. Nothing to see here.) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *The most powerful of the latter-day pagan gods that have guided the destinies of humanity for the past two-score years is irredeemable debt. Before August 14, 1971, debts were obligations, and the word "bond" was to mean literally what it said: the opposite of freedom. The privilege of issuing debt had a countervailing responsibility: that of repayment. On...

McCain Campaign May Have Accepted In-Kind Contribution from Foreign Nationals in Contravention of Federal Election Laws Contact: Press Office 202-646-5188 Washington, D.C. Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it filed a formal complaint, dated April 22, 2008, with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) related to a fundraising luncheon held at London’s Spencer House to benefit Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign. The venue for the event was apparently donated to the campaign by foreign nationals, in violation of federal campaign finance laws. “Recent news reports suggest that Sen. John McCain and John...

A US campaign watchdog has accused presumptive Republican president nominee John McCain of violating election laws by accepting campaign contributions from two prominent Londoners. At issue is a fundraising luncheon held in March at London's Spencer House, during McCain's swing through the United Kingdom. An invitation to the event lists Lord Rothschild and Nathaniel Rothschild as hosts, and indicates the event was made possible with their "kind permission". Judicial Watch, a Washington organisation instrumental in the March release of Hillary Clinton's White House schedules, has asked US election monitors to investigate whether the Rothschilds improperly sponsored the fundraiser. US political...

NEW ORLEANS – At a private cocktail party last night sponsored by the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, President Bush and Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez openly proclaimed their determination to continue with the controversial Security and Prosperity Partnership, a trilateral alliance critics calls a precursor to a "North American Union." Opening the fourth North American Leaders' Summit, Bush lamented the decision of the House of Representatives to table the administration's proposed Columbia free trade agreement. "Unfortunately, we had a setback," Bush admitted. "The free trade agreement with Columbia is dead, unless Speaker Pelosi changes her mind." Increasingly, the Bush...

On the verge of next week's North American summit in New Orleans, a Canadian think tank has suggested renaming the "North American Union" to renew progress toward continental integration in the face of mounting criticism. A paper entitled "Saving the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership", published last month by the Fraser Institute in Canada, contends President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper have decided to expend no more political capital in pursuing "the bust" that has occurred because of the "brand" of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America or SPP. The solution, the authors argue, is...

WASHINGTON DC -- Events of the past few days indicate that the Zbigniew Brzezinski faction of lunatic Russia haters have now won the upper hand inside the secret councils of the Anglo-American finance oligarchy, displacing the hitherto dominant George Shultz-neocon faction. Although George Bush and his cronies still occupy the White House, the policies that are being carried out are coming from the Brzezinski left CIA machine. Brzezinski has returned to public prominence in recent months due to his role as top establishment controller for the Obama campaign. But Brzezinski is not waiting for the outcome of the November elections...

I found an on line full text. "FDR once said "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." He was in a good position to know. We believe that many of the major world events that are shaping our destinies occur because somebody or somebodies have planned them that way. If we were merely dealing with the law of avenges, half of the events affecting our nation's well-being should be good for America. If we were dealing with mere incompetence, our leaders should occasionally make a mistake in our favor. We...

Plots by Communists to infiltrate America. The disintegration of borders and rural areas. Citizens mobilizing and rising up against government agencies and big business. It all sounds like the plot for a summer blockbuster, but it's something that could be happening in your own backyard. These were just a few of the topics addressed in the "How to fight the TTC" workshop, held Monday at the Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin. The conference served as an informational meeting aimed at informing citizens and local government officials how they can unite in trying to stop the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor project....

There's been a lot of talk about the new Trans-Texas Corridor — the next-generation "super-highway" — and opinions are varying. Now the debate is coming to Lufkin's doorstep. On Monday, the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range and TURF will hold a workshop at Lufkin's Pitser Garrison Civic Center on how to stop the Trans-Texas Corridor 69. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A portion of Texas citizens have voiced their opposition to the TTC-69 in public meetings held by the Texas Department of Transportation, but believing they are not being heard, four cities and their...

Time is almost up for Texas residents who wish to submit a comment on the proposed Trans Texas Corridor, which must be received by the Texas Department of Transportation by Wednesday. Submissions of comments would have to be made either by mail or online at this point, and can be sent to I-69/TTC, P.O. Box 14428, Austin, TX 78761, or go to keeptexasmoving.com, then click on “question or comment” on the left side of the screen. Previously, throughout February and March, TxDOT held 47 well-attended hearings at which oral comments from the public were taken into account. The TTC has...

Officials with the Spanish toll road operator Cintra have announced that the company has secured $430 million in loans from the U.S. government to build and operate two segments of a toll road in central Texas. Cintra officials announced the company’s financial plan for the $1.36 billion Highway 130 segments on Monday, March 10. OOIDA Senior Government Affairs Representative Mike Joyce told Land Line that the Association does raise red flags when federal dollars are used to subsidize private investors. Officials with the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association are not, however, categorically opposed to a state using future toll revenue to...

A Piney Woods retreat that has hosted national church conferences on controversial issues, celebrated the consecration of bishops and provided summer memories for thousands of teens now faces another kind of challenge. The nearly two square miles of forest, hills, fields, lakes and buildings that make up Camp Allen Conference & Retreat Center, 15 miles southeast of Navasota, lie in a two-mile-wide strip listed in state documents as the preferred route for the planned Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor. Proposed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2002, the corridor plan has drawn heated opposition at town hall meetings and public hearings throughout Southeast...

WASHINGTON -- A largely unreported meeting held at the State Department discussed integration of the U.S., Mexico and Canada in concert with a move toward a transatlantic union, linking a North American community with the European Union. The meeting was held Monday under the auspices of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, or ACIEP. WND obtained press credentials and attended as an observer. The meeting was held under "Chatham House" rules that prohibit reporters from attributing specific comments to individual participants. The State Department website noted the meeting was opened by Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and...

In the midst of inflation, funding difficulties and halted expansion projects, a budget error on the part of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) may have exacerbated their challenges. "TxDOT does some mysterious accounting," said Rep. Chuck Hopson (D-Jacksonville). "They had close to $1 billion counted in their budget twice." "That was a serious error on our part and we have made changes to try to prevent that type of error from occurring again," said TxDOT Spokesman Chris Lippincott, adding that the amount added twice in their financial statement was unrelated to the $1.2 billion in federal rescissions, which are...

Senior executives of the Texas Department of Transportation can expect some heavy grilling from state legislators when the state Legislature convenes next January, state Rep. Jim McReynolds said Friday. Speaking to the monthly First Friday luncheon of The Chamber, Lufkin-Angelina County, McReynolds said many legislators, especially those from rural East Texas, are unhappy with TxDOT leaders over the Trans- Texas Corridor project and how it has incorporated plans for an Interstate 69 through the region. McReynolds said he attended all four of the TxDOT hearings on the TTC held in his district, which included one in Diboll, and "never heard...

Topic: Globalism The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is planning on building a new super highway system called the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC). The Trans-Texas Corridor will not be just another interstate and will it will be used by more than just automobiles. It will include 10 lanes for traffic, two high speed rail tracks, four standard rail tracks, utility lines, oil pipelines, and gas pipelines. The Trans-Texas Corridor will consist of many corridors segments that are 1,200 feet wide, with each mile consuming 146 acres of land. This land is currently ranch and farm land that is being taken by...

A massive financial crime is harming the United States while the institutions that should be stopping it have been captured by the criminals doing it. Specifically, hedge funds and Wall Street banks are stealing from pension funds, shattering corporate governance, ruining firms, and raising the specter of systemic failure. The regulators and financial press are so indolent it borders on a cover-up.The dots have been connected in the world of social media, but the same criminals who are behind the financial scam are manipulating social media to forestall the day of social epiphany. The derision that initially met my claims...

State Representative Jim McReynolds previewed the 2009 legislative session at Friday's First Friday Chamber luncheon, with the hot topics going into the biennial madhouse listed as the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor, the growing issue of water supply, and the battle over the top 10 percent rule that allows Texas high school students to be admitted to any state college if they graduate in the top 10 percent of their class. According to McReynolds, the legislators are "not too happy" with the Texas Department of Transportation, which has been under fire for its proposed I-69/TTC plans. "This (the I-69/TTC) is something we never...

Texas spirit was alive and well at the Navasota DEIS public hearing on Feb. 28. Opposition groups, such as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, came from as far as Washington, D.C. to give recorded testimony, and get a first hand look at TxDOT process procedures. Assistant Director of Communications, Leigh Strope, who attended the meeting on behalf of the 34,000 Texas Teamsters Union members, says, “Teamsters want to stop the dangerous trend of selling our roads and bridges to foreign investors so they can slap tolls on the driving public. We are also concerned because the Trans-Texas Corridor would form...

Driving down to Austin lately has become a real trip. I-35 is usually packed for most of the 185 miles, and what used to take three or four hours now can take five or six. Flying down can take almost as long, when you figure in airline security delays, more flight delays, and the time it takes getting into and out of crowded airports. But what if it took 45 minutes to travel from the Metroplex to Austin by train or an hour to make a trip to Houston? Advocates of high-speed rail lines are floating these ideas once again...

REFUGIO, Texas - With an abandoned Wild West-vintage town of storefronts slumbering just a block from old US 77, tiny Refugio is a place where myth and reality coexist in a ghostly silence. more stories like this Obama faces heat over aide's NAFTA remarks to Canadians Texas, Ohio could decide Dem nomination Canada says didn't misrepresent Obama over NAFTA McCain tags Dems on trade treaty NAFTA seen differently in Ohio, Texas And now this South Texas outpost is swept up in one of the more intriguing tests of myth vs. reality in today's political life: the battle over the so-called...

Heated comments flew around the room as more than 175 citizens gathered to voice their opinions at the TxDOT open house and public hearing on the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor held at the Humble Civic Center on Feb. 28, 2008. Congress designated I-69 as a high priority corridor in 1991 and again in 1998. In 2002, TxDOT unveiled the Trans-Texas Corridor project to accommodate Texas' future transportation needs. The TTC is a part of a 4,000-mile system of rail lines, truck and car lanes and concentrated utility routes to improve international and intrastate movement of goods and people from Canada to the...

Romanian cops have closed a vandalism investigation that left local houses in ruins by concluding ghosts were to blame. Families living in Lilieci reported windows broken, bicycles flying through the air, objects moving on tables and candles blown out when there is no wind. When they complained they were being hounded by evil spirits to police they were laughed at. But after officers saw the evidence with their own eyes they filed a report saying that ghosts were to blame. Mircea Hadimbu, 68, who says his house has now been completely wrecked, said: "The windows started to break one by...

Resolution encourages U.S. 59 development El Campo City Council joined in the protest cries against the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor Monday night advocating an improved and expanded U.S. 59 instead. Possible economic impacts from the proposed TTC corridor caused concern with draft versions of the roadway limiting access, cutting through family farms and bypassing many cities completely.

The proposed Trans Texas Corridor did not find any fans, or any support, in Fort Bend County this week. At public meetings hosted by the Texas Department of Transportation in both Katy and Rosenberg, speaker after speaker, many in emotional tones, voiced their opposition to the proposed transportation corridor. No one spoke up in support of the proposal at either meeting. The Tuesday night session took place at Katy High School’s Performing Arts Center with over 200 residents in attendance. The evening before at the Rosenberg Civic and Convention Center, a similar crowd showed up to voice their opinions. In...

The Nacogdoches County commissioners court voted Tuesday to support numerous community members who have recently turned out in droves opposing the proposed I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor by adopting a resolution against the project. The resolution is expected to be sent to the Texas Department of Transportation and to the governor's office. Precinct 4 Commissioner Tom Strickland said that it's apparent most people in Nacogdoches County approved of the original project — a standard Interstate roadway. But now most are opposed to the large TTC structure. 145th District Court Judge Campbell Cox II submitted a map that showed several oil and gas wells...

The debate in Texas over a proposed 4,000-mile network of toll roads that will parallel the state's existing highway system is heating up More than 10,000 people have attended public hearings across Texas to discuss the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor, which has also been dubbed the "NAFTA superhighway." It is a project that is expected to cost an estimated $183 billion over 50 years. (hear audio report) Terry Hall with the group Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom warns the project will create widespread eminent domain abuse and involve foreign control of public infrastructure. "They're taking huge swaths of land, up...

A handful of Kendleton residents were among several dozen to speak out against the Trans-Texas Corridor at a public hearing Monday night in Rosenberg. “I personally think it's a slap in the face for Texas to take the land for pennies on the dollar, to put a road on it and to make you pay a toll for it,� said Jeremy West, one of the speakers from Kendleton. The Trans-Texas Corridor is a proposal for a network of highways, rail lines and utilities throughout Texas that would be financed by private interests who would seek to profit through tolls and...

One major concern I discussed a few weeks ago regarding the Trans Texas Corridor is where the land will come from. Another concern is where the money will come from. Official government websites for the TTC assure that public-private partnerships will shield the taxpayer from bearing too much of the cost burden, but a careful reading shows the door is definitely open to public funding sources, while at the same time there is no doubt of the intention to charge tolls on the road. Taxpayers already pay for their transportation system through hefty gasoline taxes, vehicle registration fees, and other...

HEMPSTEAD -- The Trans Texas Corridor may be the most controversial highway ever built in Texas. That is, if it ever gets built. All month, there have been public hearings throughout the area where people have been showing up in droves to oppose it. People don’t drive very fast on Odis Styers’ family ranch near Hempstead, but TxDOT wants that to change. “It’s quiet, it’s peaceful,” Styers said. “It’s a shame a road is gonna mess it up.” The road is the Trans Texas Corridor. The plans call for it to come through here, and with it: separate lanes for...

n what may have been the first hint of victory for opponents of the Trans Texas Corridor, a high-ranking Texas Department of Transportation official said Thursday he regretted his agency's communication failures and said one proposed version of the corridor, a 10-lane super highway with rail and utility pathways, will "probably not" be built in East Texas, based on the overwhelming resistance to the idea expressed at public hearings on the project this month. Phillip Russell, assistant executive director for innovative project development at TxDOT, was the keynote speaker at the Lone Star Legislative Summit at SFA Thursday, where he...

“We could've talked for another hour. People were really getting into it,� said Reuben Grassl, who organized a Feb. 14 community meeting in Shiro to discuss the proposed I-69 corridor route through Grimes County. The meeting was led by Grassl, Charles Wendt, and Edna Keasling and was attended by a cross section of 65 people from as far as Madisonville and Iola, who showed up with both questions and suggestions for opposition plans. “We gave them the latest information we received from the four recent meetings in the area, because a lot of information TxDoT and TTC put out would...

TYLER - Heated debates are cropping up in rural East Texas communities as the Texas Department of Transportation hold hearings on the proposed the Trans-Texas Corridor. It's the first construction project of it's kind in the country. The Texas Department of Transportation says they want it to make room for a growing state. "A thousand people a day move to texas," says spokesman Larry Krantz,"where are these people going to drive? The population in Texas is going to explode by 60% in the year 2030." Their plans involve moving commercial trucks off existing interstate highways and onto one of two...

AUSTIN - When it comes to road improvement and maintenance, by most accounts, the South Plains and Panhandle are fortunate. Despite a $1.1 billion accounting error, the Texas Department of Transportation recently reported no projects in the region have been canceled or delayed while cities like Dallas, Houston and Laredo had at least a half dozen highway projects delayed. But the $1.1 billion-error, which occurred because TxDOT inadvertently counted some bond money twice and consequently allocated more funding than it had, is just the latest problem plaguing the beleaguered agency. For months, TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz and other transportation...

TEXAS CITY — A massive superhighway that Texans have protested at public hearings statewide drew heated opposition among Galveston County residents, who said they feared the toll road would cripple the local shipping industry and do nothing to improve insufficient hurricane evacuation routes. The Trans-Texas Corridor would wind from Laredo to Corpus Christi, wrap around the western edge of Greater Houston, parallel Interstate 59 through East Texas and leave the state in Texarkana. But residents at a public hearing Thursday night in Texas City questioned the real purpose for the road, which would also be part of a national Interstate...

NACOGDOCHES — The rows of extra chairs brought into the The Fredonia's biggest meeting room Thursday night were not enough to accommodate more than 750 people who attended an open house and public hearing on the proposed TTC-69 highway. Texas Department of Transportation officials heard hours of public testimony that continued late into the night overwhelmingly opposed to the construction of new roadways through East Texas. Applause throughout the hours-long meeting never swelled as loudly as it did when the first speaker of the night, state Rep. Wayne Christian, told TxDOT representatives emphatically that "our answer is 'no' on the...

A Waller County organization opposing a massive highway project is planning two informational meetings to help citizens prepare for upcoming hearings. Citizens for a Better Waller County (CBWC) says it will hold meetings to prepare residents for Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) hearings in Waller County. The hearings will be to discuss an environmental impact statement on the proposed Trans Texas Corridor’s route that could bring it through Waller, Austin and Washington counties. CBWC’s meetings will be held next Tuesday at the Waller High School cafeteria in Waller and Monday, Feb. 25 at the Brookshire Convention Center in Brookshire. Both...

HOUSTON -- It did not take long Tuesday for the Texas Department of Transportation to find out what the Houstonians at a public hearing thought about the proposed 600-mile Trans-Texas Corridor, KPRC Local 2 reported. "George Washington, Sam Houston would vomit on you people," one attendee said. Chris Zora, who opposes the plan, attended the hearing at the Arabia Shrine Center in Southwest Houston. "I'd like to see a show of hands here of anybody that approves of this corridor," Zora said. "Is there anyone in this room who approves of this corridor? Raise your hands if you approve of...

Trucks hauling everything from cars to produce use Southeast Texas roads to deliver their goods, and when a proposed Interstate 69/Trans Texas Corridor is completed, local drivers could see even more of them, local transportation officials said. The proposed I-69 corridor stretches from Michigan down to Texas. Once in Texas, the corridor goes about 650 miles from Texarkana to Brownsville and Laredo and includes separate lanes for cars and semis and areas for trains and utilities. It doesn't cut through Beaumont, but local arteries like U.S. 69 and Interstate 10 would connect to it. Travelers and truckers just need to...

McALLEN — In other parts of the state, transportation officials try to allay property owners' fears that a superhighway from Laredo north to Texarkana will result in a massive land grab. But in the lower Rio Grande Valley, the state's road builders spend more time assuring local leaders that they have a shot at being included. People in the fast-growing border area between Brownsville and McAllen have developed something of an inferiority complex about being the state's largest metropolitan area without an interstate highway. One after another, Valley leaders stepped to a microphone at public meetings last week and made...