Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

16 Signs That The Economy Has Stalled Out And The Next Economic Downturn Is Here
ZeroHedge | author | 05/01/15

If U.S. economic growth falls any lower, we are officially going to be in recession territory. On Wednesday, we learned that U.S. GDP grew at a 0.2 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2015. That was much lower than all of the "experts" were projecting. And of course there are all sorts of questions whether the GDP numbers the government feeds us are legitimate anyway. According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if honest numbers were used they would show that U.S. GDP growth has been continuously negative since 2005. ...

Brace for a flood of foreclosures when boom-era HELOCs turn 10
msn.com | Jerry Kronenberg | 04/27/15

Millions of Americans will soon see monthly bills shoot up on home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) taken out during the housing boom, because HELOCs are going to start making homeowners pay both interest and principal, not just interest. That's bad news because many consumers are already underwater, meaning they owe more than their places are worth, a RealtyTrac study shows.

"A lot of people were using their homes as ATMs during the bubble, and that -- coupled with the fact that home values have since gone down -- has backed a lot of them into a corner," says Daren Blomquist of RealtyTrac, which recently analyzed home equity lines of credit on millions of properties. ... Read more

How Shale Is Becoming The Dot-Com Bubble Of The 21st Century
ZeroHedge | author | 05/01/15

As I review the financials of one of the largest shale producers in the United States, Whiting Petroleum (WLL), I can't help but notice the parallels to the .COM era of 1999 which, to some extent, has already returned to the technology and biotech sectors of today. Back then, the faster you burned cash to capture customers regardless of earnings to drive your topline, the higher your valuation. The theory was that after capturing the customers (in energy today, it is the wells) spending would slow and so would customer additions allowing companies to generate cash. By the way, a classic recent case is none other than Netflix (NFLX) which, in the past was exposed for accounting gimmicks that continue even today.

What is worse is WLL continues to grow production even though prices have collapsed and cash generation is in decline. In fact, year over year cash generated from operations fell 30% despite production growing some 70% plus percent. Does this sound like a company you want to invest in or like one that is run efficiently? So, let's review: .com companies did the same and the majority went bankrupt so if WLL and other E&P companies continue to spend cash well above their operation capacity, not because they want to but because they have to, it will lead to the same result as it did in 2000... POP! ... Read more

The Uncounted; World Bank-Backed Energy Giant Threatens A Way Of Life
HP | Barry Yeoman | 05/01/15

The Tata group, one of India's largest conglomerates, promised to be a good neighbor when it took on the job of building the nation's first "ultra mega" coal-fired power plant. ICIJ and The Huffington Post estimate that 3.4 million people have been physically or economically displaced by World Bank-backed projects since 2004. For email updates on our investigation, sign up below. The plan was to build the plant along the Gulf of Kutch, an inlet of the Arabian Sea that provides a living for fishing clans that harvest the coast's rich marine life. Tata assured the World Bank Group, which was putting up $450 million to help finance the project, that there was little reason to worry about the giant plant's impact on people living and working nearby.

Tata reported that "the fishing potential of the Gulf of Kutch is significant," but there were "no local fishing activities in the coastal waters fronting the project." The "nearest small fishing community," it said, was located "outside the project area." ... Read more

Chernobyl Fallout 25: Pripyat, Nuclear Ghost Town (04/26/11) [26:14]