expect 400k government layoffs at state, local level

from usatoday: Here's another headwind for a sputtering job market: State and local governments plan many more layoffs to close wide budget gaps. Up to 400,000 workers could lose jobs in the next year as states, counties and cities grapple with lower revenue and less federal funding, says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com. The development could slow an already lackluster recovery. Friday, the Labor Department said employers cut 125,000 jobs, mostly because 225,000 temporary U.S. Census workers completed their stints. The private sector added 83,000 jobs, fewer then expected, as the jobless rate fell to 9.5% from 9.7%...

can watered-down 'audit the fed' bill be strengthened in committee?

from paul joseph watson: While many are expressing disappointment and even despair that the Senate voted down Ron Paul’s audit the Fed bill while passing a weakened version, Congressman Alan Grayson is confident that the stronger provisions of the original House amendment can be added in Committee, ensuring the Federal Reserve doesn’t get off the hook, as Congressman Paul has warned.

The Senate last night voted 96-0 in favor of a compromise amendment that requires the GAO to conduct a one time audit of the Federal Reserve that will focus on which financial institutions received over $2 trillion dollars in bailout funds during the peak of the economic crisis.

However, the Senate voted down 37-62 Senator David Vitter’s audit the Fed amendment, which mirrored Ron Paul’s version that was passed by Congress.

video: cnbc & the plunge protection team

from youtube: Watch how multiple CNBC hosts attack Scott Nations, Fortress Trading, who suggests that the Plunge Protection Team actually intervenes in financial markets. That was the whole reason this group was created. Watch how they tag-team him to attempt to discredit him and associate him with the people who think the WTC towers were rigged with explosives. Me thinks thou dost protest too much! In the end, CNBC senior economist Steve Liesman admits they have the power to do this, then quickly moves on.

US stock plunge makes worst june since 1930

from cnn/money: U.S. stocks fell sharply Thursday with the blue-chip index enduring its worst June so far since 1930, and plunging to its lowest finish since Sept. 11, 2006, after getting slammed hard as crude soared to new highs and Goldman Sachs disparaged U.S. brokers and advised selling General Motors Corp.

"We're going to move in the opposite direction of oil, and General Motors is going to go out of business, at least according to Goldman Sachs," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co...

"The real problem is even though [the] Fed attempted to be more hawkish, it was not supportive enough of the dollar," Hogan said...

"One thing is for certain, if crude continues to rally, stocks are dead," said Dale Doelling, chief market technician at Trends In Commodities.

"If stocks have another day like this tomorrow, then the fallout next week could include government intervention in the markets," said Doelling.

biosensors, whistleblowers & plunge protection team

nyc wants more bioweapons sensors
from washinton post: City officials last month quietly activated some of the nation's newest generation of early warning sensors to detect a biological attack, turning on a limited number of filing-cabinet-size air filters in sensitive, high-volume areas of Manhattan. But city officials say their effort to expand the program has run into surprising resistance from the White House, which is not widely deploying the machines.

philip agee, cia whistleblower, dies in cuba at 72
from ap: Renegade former CIA agent Philip Agee, whose naming of agency operatives helped prompt a U.S. law against exposing government spies, has died in Cuba, his wife said Wednesday. He was 72. Agee quit the CIA in 1969 after 12 years working mostly in Latin America at a time when leftist movements were gaining prominence and sympathizers. His 1975 book "Inside the Company: CIA Diary," cited alleged misdeeds against leftists in the region and included a 22-page list of purported agency operatives.

bush met with plunge protection team
from rogue government: George W. Bush on January 4th, 2008 met with the President's Working Group on Financial Markets otherwise known as the Plunge Protection Team. The group which consists of the SEC Chairman, Treasury Secretary, Federal Reserve Chairman and Futures Trading Commission Chairman was formed following the stock market crash of 1987 commonly referred to as Black Monday. It is interesting to see Bush meet with a group that was formed to prevent future stock market and economic crashes yet at the same time make claims that the economy should do better later in the year. Obviously with oil at around $100 a barrel, the mortgage crisis, massive losses in the banking system, gold over $870 an ounce and the plunging value of the U.S. Dollar, the economy is in the process of unraveling. Bush is merely attempting to put a positive spin on an increasingly more horrifying economic situation by admitting there are problems but that they are not as bad as everyone thinks they are.