Wall Street Forecaster

Photo of Bin Laden compound

Photo of Bin Laden compound Abbottabad

 

 

Bad statistics for summer employment for youth

The share of young people aged 16 to 24 who were employed this summer fell to 48.9 percent -- the lowest rate on record since 1948.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/27/99763/bad-statistics-for-summer-employment.html#ixzz0y3FZfsnv

Where's the Bugs?

People around the country are reporting an alarming decrease in bugs.  What is this telling us?

To follow this phenomena, check out George Ure's site at http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm

Below is what was posted on George's site today:

Where's the Bugs?

Elaine & I had a delightful trip up to Shawnee,  Oklahoma this weekend for a nice get together with Robin Landry and his wife...most of the evening Saturday was devoted to what else?  Figuring out where the market's going, but I have a much better sense now of how Robin gets his count and we never disagreed on the longer-term direction anyway (down, if you're not awake yet).

 

The scenery along the way was gorgeous - instead of taking the Interstate up through Dallas and Oklahoma City, we took the Indian Nation Turnpike when runs from Hugo, Oklahoma up to about I-40 or so.

 

And therein lies the tale:  In all of about 800-miles of summertime driving, we had only four or five bug hits on the windshield.  Don't know what your thoughts are but this is a screaming environmental warning light to me.  Why, as a kid (under age k40) I did a tremendous amount of driving (cars & motorcycles) and most summers beofre plastic face shields on motorcycles, it was often like getting shot in the face with a BB gun to ride 60 MPH on a bike in the summer...stung like hell.

 

This weekend:  Got all the way up to Shawnee with only one small bug on the window and about 3-4 on the way back Sunday, but part of the reason was thatg I took smaller roads and a more direct route.  But still - an unbelievable lack of bugs...

 

Not like I'm the only one to notice as we were talkingt about last week:

"George, I live up in New Hampshire and always during July and August when working in the yard you have to have bug spray on and or wear a hat with netting around it to get anything done. Horse flies, mosquitoes you name it awful! However the last few weeks have been virtually bug free! no spray no netting nothing. I even notice no moths or bugs flying outside at night next to the house lights??

Gone, all of a sudden. A friend of mine commented that no bugs have hit her windshield or car like usual. Driving this time of year at night would usually fill your windshield!

I hate bugs, but this does not feel right!"

Another writes...

"By the by, on a couple of different issues, bugs... I'm in the San Fernando Valley, and while it seems the honey bees have been dropping in population the past few years, this year they've been all but non-existent, and I've got both a lemon, and an orange tree in the yard, along with blackberry bushes. I've seen no butterflies this year, and june bugs were very few and far between. About the only bugs that don't seem to be in short supply seem to be spiders, flies, and ants, at least where I live."

And yet another...

"Hi George, Funny you should mention the lack of bugs in your Friday column. I had just noticed this here in D.C. yesterday. No bugs! No bugs flying around the lights at all like they used to when I was a kid. I think I first noticed something unusual last Tuesday evening when my girlfriend and I went out to Wolftrap for a concert. The outdoor stage was brilliantly illuminated and I noticed a bug flying in and out of the lights. One bug. Something ain't right here George. We had some bugs in the garden this spring- the usual flea beetles and squash vine borers- and at the time I mused to myself that it had been some years since I had seen any tomato caterpillars. Didn't think much of it though until this week. Flea beetles are gone, squash vine borers are gone- no tomato caterpillars. Not much insect activity at all. I conjectured that perhaps they had changed the streetlights to a type that wouldn't attract so many insects. Then I saw your column and realized that my perception about this was real. Do us all a favor and see what you can find out about this."

I've got a number of competing theories going at the moment, and these are in no particular order:

Could be the genetically modified (whatevers) in the wild are killing off bugs for some reason...

 

Could be the bird and insect scavengers are at a 'cycle high' and they've just done a great job of keeping down the bug population this year...

 

Could be chemtrails and/or  global pollution levels are so high that hapless bugs cannot make it...

 

Could be oddly behaving weather/weather-modification impacts...

 

Could just be a fluke of observations skewing data which has no underlying drift...

If you do happen to know anyone who's a bug-person, oir is in college doing research in the field (sorry for the bad pun here), any input, kespecially if we can get year-on-year comparisons would be dandy.  Remember:  We've been watching honey bee collapse with some trepidation, but the decline of the wholesale assortment of all kinds of bugs (and the resulting death up the food chain) is a very, very bad thing.

 

Oh, and fits into one of Robin Landry's observations about what turns a recession into a depression:  Famine.  Are the bugs telling us something?

The bugs are dying

It appears people all over the country are reporting a bug die-off.  What does this mean for the potential food shortage so many think is coming.

Get the first-hand accounts at George Ure's site:

http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm

No more toilet paper?

Are things really this bad?  At first it may seem funny, but, really, are things this bad?

MYFOXNY.COM - Things are getting so bad in Newark that the mayor has ordered the government to stop buying toilet paper.

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/politics/newark-budget-cuts-20100722

Three Gorges dam near its limit -- 07/21/2010

Due to extreme rain in China, the Three Gorges dam is being pushed to its limits.

CHINA - The Three Gorges dam on China's longest river, the Yangtze, is standing up to its biggest flood control test since completion last year. Floodwaters in the giant reservoir rose 4m (13ft) overnight, and are now just 20m below the dam's maximum capacity. The authorities are using the dam to limit the amount of water flowing further downstream to try to minimise the impact of devastating floods. Hundreds of people have died in central and southern China in the country's worst floods in more than a decade. The Three Gorges dam, the largest in the world, was a controversial project as it forced the relocation of 1.4 million people. It is situated in Hubei province.
The flow of the water overnight was THE FASTEST EVER RECORDED, at 70,000 cubic metres per second. 40,000 cubic metres/second were released, with 30,000 cubic metres/second of water held back in the reservoir. "Without the Three Gorges this kind of discharge would bring disaster to the downstream areas." Upstream in Guang'an, Sichuan province, shops are submerged, and people are waiting to ferry supplies by boat to relatives trapped in their homes.
At least 11 people were missing after a landslide caused by torrential rains hit a village in Mianning country in Sichuan province. Sichuan and neighbouring Shaanxi province have been hard hit by a series of landslides in recent days, that have killed 37 people and left nearly 100 missing. More than 35 million people across China have been affected by the poor weather and 1.2 million have been relocated. China is facing its worst floods since 1998, when more than 4,000 people died, and 18 million people were displaced.
source: http://globaldisasterwatch.blogspot.com/

Doomsday: Could BP Spill Kill All Life on Earth?

Doomsday: Could BP Spill Kill All Life on Earth?

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/07/12/doomsday-could-bp-spill-kill-all-life-on-earth/#ixzz0uEa8lBeV

Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a 'world-killing' event

http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsday-how-bp-gulf-disaster-may-have-triggered-a-world-killing-event

Daily read

Dow Repeats Great Depression Pattern: Charts Full story...

Fidel Castro predicts a nuclear war. Full story...

By Cynthia Lin NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures edged lower on Tuesday after the U.S. three-day weekend, but remained above its key mark of $1,200 an ounce. The precious metal for August delivery shed $2.10, or 0.17%, to $1,205.60 an ounce. While demand for gold as a "safe haven" has dwindled since its June highs, jeweler demand from India has recovered, according to Commerzbank Commodity Research. "Indian gold buyers...regard the current price level as a good buying opportunity. This should prevent prices from falling much below $1,200," analysts said in a note Full story...

Cracks in the Three Gorges Dam

China: cracks in the Three Gorges Dam, so 300,000 people can wave goodbye to their homes

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timcollard/100042402/china-cracks-in-the-three-gorges-dam-so-300000-people-can-wave-goodbye-to-their-homes/

Wild Collin

Third hurricane this year is named Colin.  Clif over at www.halfpasthuman.com has stated there is something in the near future having to do with the name "wild Collin." Another report from Halfpasthuman states we can expect to see 200 million people dispersing from an area.  While Clif's predictions are not always exact, there are far more hits than misses.  Perhaps the number will be more like 20 million.  Hmmm..... How many people live along the Gulf of Oil (Mexico).  Could wild Collin make things so bad that the portions of the Guld will be evaculated.  Some residence are already calling for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPLxBZzwosY&playnext_from=TL&videos=txGStmnKLeY&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh%2Bdiv-1r-2-HM