By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  
Whistleblower Harry Markopolos is on the stump promoting his new book titled “No One Would Listen.” It is about how it took 8 ½ years for the Securities and Exchange Commission to crack down on the Bernie Madoff scam.  Markopolos says he sent letters to the SEC that were “too many to count” in an effort to expose the fraud.  In an interview on “The Daily Show” this week, Markopolos said something about the SEC that really caught my attention.  He said, “They still have all the …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  
It appeared one of the President’s top economic advisors, Larry Summers, was trying to do a preemptive strike against what may be some bad unemployment numbers.  If unemployment is up, blame harsh winter weather!  John Williams, an economist from shadowstats.com (also known as Shadow Government Statistics), feels just the opposite. 

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 
Many people I talk to and hear from are having a really hard time grasping how severe the real estate crisis is in America.  Let me sum up how bad the problem  is in one simple  sentence.  The real estate market (both residential and commercial) is the worst EVER!   According to Yale Economics Professor Robert Shiller, the real estate boom a few years ago was the biggest in history!  The bust we find ourselves in now will, also, be the biggest in history. 

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com   
There has been some encouraging news about the real estate market recently.  In San Francisco, real estate prices shot back up 16% according to the Case-Shiller Index.  On the other coast, friends of mine in the New York City real estate business say price declines seem to be leveling off.  There has been plenty of talk that “now is the time to buy a house.”  After all, the government will give up to an $8,000 tax credit if you purchase a home.  But what is the real …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 
Congressman Ron Paul put out a startling warning  video just over a week ago.  This tells me things must be getting really messy right now. 

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 
Almost everything but the U.S. dollar took a hit yesterday.  Oil sold off nearly 4 bucks a barrel, the Dow was off nearly 270 points, bonds tumbled and gold plunged nearly $50 per ounce.  The dollar was bought because the euro sold off due to debt trouble in Southern Europe. There are fears of a debt default in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Greece.  The “safe haven” of the U.S. dollar is the beneficiary of those consternations.

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 
This was a huge week folks.  The two big stories I wrote about were the AIG bailout and cover-up and the U.S. deficit.  I have a couple of really good stories to pass along that will give you some more perspective on both. 
First, there is a lot more to the AIG story that will come out in the future.  The Huffington Post ran a story called “Is Bernanke Hiding a Smoking Gun?”  It’s about how the Fed Chief was behind the bailout of AIG even though his staff recommended not to rescue …

 By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
The Obama Administration is planning to seek a spending freeze for 3 years on domestic discretionary non-security spending.  Officials say the freeze could save $250 billion over the next 10 years.  That may seem like a lot of money until you compare it to the most recent national debt-limit raise of $290 billion last month.  It sure looks to me like we have already spent the future savings and then some.  

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
The Fed is currently fighting tooth and nail in a federal appeals court to keep its bailout of big banks secret.   In August of last year, the Fed lost a lawsuit in federal court that would force the 97 year old Central Bank to say who it bailed out during the financial crisis in 2008.  The Fed gave a half trillion dollar bailout to foreign banks alone during the financial meltdown. 

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  
Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest unemployment numbers.  The BLS said, “Nonfarm payroll employment edged down (-85,000) in December, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.0 percent.”  Shadow Government Statistics founder, John Williams, looked at the same data the government did and said, “…payrolls likely declined by about 500,000.”