Monthly Archives: May 2014

3,200 Americans Serving Life Without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses

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“The ACLU estimates that, of the 3,278 serving life without parole for nonviolent offenses, 65 percent are Black, 18 percent are white, and 16 percent are Latino, evidence of extreme racial disparities. Of the 3,278, most were sentenced under mandatory sentencing policies, including mandatory minimums and habitual offender laws that required them to be incarcerated until they die.  The federal courts account for 63 percent of the 3,278 life-without-parole sentences for nonviolent offenses. The ACLU estimates that federal and state taxpayers spend $1.8 billion keeping these people in prison for life instead of more appropriate terms.”

https://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/more-3200-serving-life-without-parole-nonviolent-offenses-finds-aclu

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Capital Controls Rolling Into High Gear Under FATCA

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berwick1

“It isn’t just affecting the most financially restricted people on Earth: US citizens… it is affecting everyone.  Take myself, for example.  I operate numerous businesses worldwide.  I am a Canadian citizen as well as the citizen of a Caribbean country and our business operations are also operated out of a non-tax jurisdiction in the Caribbean.  On top of that we hold no bank accounts, whatsoever, in the US… instead, we have bank accounts all over the world.  Yet, in the last two months we have had our accounts or transactions frozen, denied or questioned in different jurisdictions at least ten times.  And we have had countless other problems over the last two years.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/35354/Jeffrey-Berwick-Capital-Controls-Rolling-Into-High-Gear-Under-FATCA/

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Colorado’s neighboring sheriffs lamenting their own marijuana arrests?

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“Sheriff John Jenson watched the 2012 election returns crawling across his TV screen in this rural area just over the Colorado border. Tuned to a Denver news station, he soon realized Colorado voters were about to legalize recreational marijuana.  That’s when he turned to his wife and started to swear.  ‘The drug war in this country used to be along the U.S.-Mexican border. Now it’s eight miles away.’  Law enforcement officers in the smaller, often isolated counties in states ringing Colorado say their departments shudder under the weight of Colorado pot flowing illegally across the border. Drug arrests are rising, straining already strapped budgets in places where marijuana remains illegal.”

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pot-trafficking-20140527-story.html

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Mexican pot farmers give up, switch to supplying heroin to pill addicts

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“With the wholesale price of marijuana falling — driven in part by decriminalization in sections of the United States — Mexican drug farmers are turning away from cannabis and filling their fields with opium poppies.  Mexican heroin is flooding north as U.S. authorities trying to contain an epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse have tightened controls on synthetic opiates such as hydrocodone and OxyContin. As the pills become more costly and difficult to obtain, Mexican trafficking organizations have found new markets for heroin in places such as Winchester, Va., and Brattleboro, Vt., where, until recently, needle use for narcotics was rare or unknown.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/tracing-the-us-heroin-surge-back-south-of-the-border-as-mexican-cannabis-output-falls/2014/04/06/58dfc590-2123-4cc6-b664-1e5948960576_story.html

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$200 to set up a lemonade stand in Illinois is ‘insane’: senator

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“It could soon cost $200 for kids to set up a lemonade stand, have a bake sale or sell cupcakes in Illinois.  ‘This is absolutely insane!’ State Senator Jim Oberweis (R-Aurora) said. ‘Somebody in Madison County went crazy and decided to enforce a law against an 11 year old kid who was baking cupcakes. That was a mistake, but it happened.’  A law that [would have exempted] up to $1000 in sales [was amended] to require anyone selling food products to take an 8 hour food service sanitation course costing $145, obtain a county health department permit costing $25, label the food products to indicate ingredients and the fact that they are homemade, plus another $35 fee.”

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/05/200-to-set-up-a-lemonade-stand-in-illinois.html

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1 in 4 Americans is saving nothing for retirement

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“one in four Americans, across all age groups, is not saving at all for rOtirement. A majority of respondents (55%) said they either are not participating in a workplace sponsored retirement plan like a 401(k) or they don’t know if they are in a plan.  In certain age groups, nearly half of respondents no longer believe it’s possible for a typical middle-income family to save for retirement.  Nations can kick problems like this down the road, coming up with stall tactics and delays that ensure trouble comes as far down the line as possible, pushing trouble out of the lifetime of many current adults even as they raise the danger level for future generations.  Individuals, however, need to rely on themselves.”

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/1-in-4-americans-is-saving-nothing-for-retirement-2014-05-23/print?guid=3CC208F4-E28C-11E3-87F3-00212803FAD6

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Congrats grads! That’ll be $29,400

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“The Class of 2012 graduated with an AVERAGE financial hangover of $29,400.  In more expensive parts of the country like the Northeast, four-year degree students owed even more – almost $34,000.  We’re not just talking about a handful of students, either. More than 7 in 10 graduates had at least some debt when they got their degrees.  The growth in debt is far outpacing the growth in income, too, rising at a rate of about 6 percent per year over the past half-decade. All told, student loan debt now totals around $1.1 TRILLION. That’s almost quadruple the level of a decade earlier. It’s now the single biggest category of consumer debt outside of home mortgages.”

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/congrats-grads-thatll-be-29400-61470

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Envelopes of cash being hidden around S.F.

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“Someone who has made a lot of money in the San Francisco real estate market is giving some of it back — in $20 and $100 bills stuffed in envelopes hidden around the city.  All that’s known about the anonymous millionaire, who uses the Twitter handle @HiddenCash: He’s between 35 and 45, recently made $500,000 on a single deal, has some friends helping him with the money drops, and gave away $4,000 between Thursday night and Sunday.  He now has more than 52,000 followers, and every tip sparks what the San Francisco Chronicle calls a ‘social-scavenger hunt’ in different districts of the city.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/27/newser-hidden-cash-san-francisco/9623557/

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Bill Bonner: College is a con

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Bill-Bonner2

“Gradually, making things in the US became less and less profitable. So, if you wanted to earn a good salary you had to go somewhere else. Finance, administration, accounting, law, education, or health care. The good jobs in these industries required college. That’s why you’re here.  But wait, there’s more to the story. Unlimited credit also made it easier to support zombies and parasites. Government connived with industry to create quasi-monopolies, cartels, subsidies, guarantees and price supports. And the feds could add bureaucracy, controls, rules and regulations.  For example, the education industry added few teachers, but lots of ‘educators’ and policy coordinators.”

http://moneyweek.com/college-is-a-con/

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59% of US employers will raise health care premiums in 2014

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“More employees are getting hit with higher health insurance premiums and co-payments, and many don’t have the money to cover unexpected medical expenses, a new report finds.  More than half of companies (56%) increased employees’ share of health care premiums or co-payments for doctors’ visits in 2013, and 59% of employers say they intend to do the same in 2014.  Employees are worried about covering their medical costs: 49% have less than $1,000 to pay for unexpected out-of-pocket medical expenses.   The Kaiser Family Foundation finds that health care premiums have increased 80% since 2003, nearly three times as fast as wages (31%) and inflation (27%).”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/05/28/health-care-costs-increasing/9631923/

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