By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

My nephew, Luke, called me the other day vexing over the materials used in our coins.  He is a finance major in grad school and was researching money when he discovered that pennies were 97.5 percent zinc and nickels were mostly copper with only a nickel coating.  (more…)

Jim Rickards

About this time last year, I heard financial expert Jim Rickards say on CNBC, “Federal Reserve needs to cut US Dollar in half over next 14 years.” He followed that up by saying, “If the market sees that playing out which it probably will, you could have a very rapid collapse of the dollar.” Fast forward to today with gold hitting all-time highs, his scenario may be beginning to play out.  Rickards is a heavyweight in the world of finance.  He is Senior Managing Director for Market Intelligence at Omnis, Inc., and co-head of the firm’s practice in Threat Finance & Market Intelligence.  He is a big thinker that peers into the future for a living. (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

The economic “recovery” talk picked up some speed yesterday as retail sales for August were announced.  The government said sales were up a whopping .4%. It seemed everybody on financial TV was talking like the worst is now behind us, and there was no chance of a dreaded “double-dip” in the economy.  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s  USAWatchdog.com

There has been a flurry of proposals this week on how to get the economy growing again.  The President has been giving speeches across the country offering up plans for more infrastructure spending, business tax cuts and credits.  The Republican plan includes keeping all the Bush tax cuts in place and rolling back spending to 2008 levels.  Basically, the Democrats want more stimulus spending and some tax cuts, and the Republicans want more tax cuts and some spending reduction. (more…)

The President is kicking off another new jobs creation campaign this week.  He has just proposed spending more than $50 billion on infrastructure over the next six years and $300 billion in business tax cuts and credits for the future.  The White House says the plan will not add to the record U.S. deficit.  The Obama Administration plans to work with Congress to get it done.  Congress, by the way,  is enjoying a sub 10% approval rating these days.    The Guest Writer today is Paul Craig Roberts.  He was Assistant Treasury Secretary in the Reagan Administration, so he knows something about money and stimulus plans like the President is pushing.   Roberts lays out why stimulus plans will not work for the American economy as it stands today.  –Greg Hunter—  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Headlines released after a better than expected jobs report painted a very optimistic picture.  Bloomberg’s headline read “Recession Concerns Ease on August Jobs Data.” The story said, “Companies in the U.S. added more jobs than forecast in August, easing concern the world’s largest economy is sliding back into a recession.  (more…)

The following article was written by James Howard Kunstler.  Mr Kunstler wrote a book in 2008 about post-oil America called  “World Made By Hand.”  Fossil fuel and issues surrounding it are a natural fit for this writer.    He wrote the article in early August when President Obama was touting General Motor’s new electric car.   –Greg Hunter– (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Second quarter GDP growth numbers were revised down last week to a paltry 1.6% from 2.4%.  Wall Street celebrated because some were expecting “growth” to be revised even lower.  The stock market shot up on this news, but should everyone feel relieved because the U.S. got at least some growth?  (more…)

Proposed site of Ground Zero Mosque

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  I think the problems we face as a nation are much more important than building a mosque in lower Manhattan.  The only reason I am writing about this is because it is an issue that I feel is being used to distract the country from the PROFOUND financial problems we face.  They have now got the attention of the military.   Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned last week that the national debt is the single biggest threat to national security!  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s

USAWatchdog.com

 A little more than two months ago, banking analyst Meredith Whitney said on CNBC, “Unequivocally, I see a double-dip in housing.  There’s no doubt about it . . . prices are going down again.” I’d say unequivocally she was spot on.  A few of the hellish headlines dragging the economy down include: Existing home sales dropped 27.2 percent from June. That is a record drop and a 15 year low.  One in ten mortgage holders in America face foreclosure, according to a new report by the Mortgage Bankers Association.   U.S. home prices fell 1.6 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier as record foreclosures added to the inventory of properties for sale.    (more…)

This article is comparison between America and another great empire faced with rot in high office and a decline of state—Rome.  The writer, JR Nyquist, artfully points out it’s not the big events that sink an empire but many seemingly little ones.  You could call what is happening to the U.S. “death by a thousand cuts.”  Except in this story, people are not really aware how deep the cuts are and exactly who is doing the cutting.  I loved this piece, and I hope you do as well.  Greg Hunter    (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

Recently, a new Gallup poll delivered some bad news to mainstream media–only one fourth of people asked believe what it says.  The Gallup story said, “Americans continue to express near-record-low confidence in newspapers and television news (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  

A little more than 2 weeks ago, the government said nearly 75% of the oil from the worst environmental disaster in history was gone!  Government scientists claim most of the oil had dissolved, dispersed or been removed.   Now, government scientists are defending their claims against a new report from University of Georgia scientists.  (more…)

The writer of the following article publishes a very successful local newspaper called the “Rhino Times.”  John Hammer is a 33 year newspaper veteran.  He has a big local following in Greensboro, North Carolina, and thinks big.  One of the recurring themes of USAWatchdog.com is something I call “The Soft Truth.”  It happens frequently because the mainstream media does cheap superficial stories and ignores what I call the “Hard Truth.”  Hammer’s piece is less about taking President Obama down and much more of an indictment of what the mainstream media is NOT telling you.  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

A story that came out on Friday the 13^thhas ominous implications for the Middle East and the world.  It was reported by FOX news last week, Russia is planning to supply fuel rods to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor by this coming weekend.  (Iran would be able to make nuclear weapons through the plutonium it could reprocess out of spent fuel rods.)  That effectively means if Israel is going to attack the reactor, it must do it before Saturday, August 21.  If it waits until after the reactor starts producing power, it will risk a radiological disaster in the Persian Gulf.    (more…)