Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

U.S. Hits Iran With Currency, Auto - Sector Sanctions
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The United States on Monday ratcheted up its efforts to isolate Iran for its suspected nuclear weapons program, targeting Tehran with currency and auto-sector sanctions.

US President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on foreign financial institutions that conduct or facilitate significant transactions in the Iranian rial, meant to further weaken a currency that has already lost two-thirds of its dollar value since late 2011 as a result of Western sanctions.

A senior administration official said the low level of the rial was a key vulnerability for the Iranian government.

“The objective is to take aim at the rial and to make it as unusable a currency as possible, which is all part and parcel of our efforts to apply significant financial pressure on the government of Iran,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on a call with reporters.

In his ninth executive order against Iran, the president also approved sanctions against people who do business with Iran’s auto sector, which the White House said was a major source of revenue for Tehran. The sanctions go into effect on July 1.

The United States and Western powers have imposed a series of economic sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran into halting what they say is a drive to build a nuclear weapon. Tehran says its nuclear program is purely for generating power and for medical devices.

Sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union halved Iran’s oil exports last year, depriving the government of billions of dollars in revenue, increasing already high inflation and hitting the rial’s value.

Putin Says S - 300s not Yet Sent to Syria
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Speaking after the Russian-EU summit in Moscow Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia hasn’t yet fulfilled a contract to send sophisticated S-300 air defense missiles to Syria. But he defended the deal saying it isn’t against international law. This left open Moscow’s option for delivering the S-300 missiles to Syria in the future, in the face of strong US and Israeli warnings that they would retilt the balance of strength in the region.

Lost in Migration: Earth’s Magnetic Field Overdue for a Flip
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily NewsReuters
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The discovery by NASA rover Curiosity of evidence that water once flowed on Mars – the most Earth-like planet in the solar system – should intensify interest in what the future could hold for mankind.

The only thing stopping Earth having a lifeless environment like Mars is the magnetic field that shields us from deadly solar radiation and helps some animals migrate, and it may be a lot more fragile and febrile than one might think.

Scientists say earth’s magnetic field is weakening and could all but disappear in as little as 500 years as a precursor to flipping upside down.

It has happened before – the geological record suggests the magnetic field has reversed every 250,000 years, meaning that, with the last event 800,000 years ago, another would seem to be overdue.

“Magnetic north has migrated more than 1,500 kilometres over the past century,” said Conall Mac Niocaill, an earth scientist at Oxford University. “In the past 150 years, the strength of the magnetic field has lessened by 10 percent, which could indicate a reversal is on the cards.”

While the effects are hard to predict, the consequences may be enormous. The loss of the magnetic field on Mars billions of years ago put paid to life on the planet if there ever was any, scientists say.

Mac Niocaill said Mars probably lost its magnetic field 3.5-4.0 billion years ago, based on observations that rocks in the planet’s southern hemisphere have magnetisation.

The northern half of Mars looks younger because it has fewer impact craters, and has no magnetic structure to speak of, so the field must have shut down before the rocks there were formed, which would have been about 3.8 billion years ago.

“With the field dying away, the solar wind was then able to strip the atmosphere away, and you would also have an increase in the cosmic radiation making it to the surface,” he said.

“Both of these things would be bad news for any life that might have formed on the surface – either wiping it out, or forcing it to migrate into the interior of the planet.”

Let the Headlines Speak
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Earthquake rattles Athens, no damage
The Athens Geodynamic Institute says the early temblor on Tuesday, which was felt in the city of some four million people, had an epicentre some 22 km east of Athens near the town of Pikermi.  

World stocks slide on economy and debt fears
The euro zone faces a week packed with political and legal risks, beginning with the German Federal Constitutional court ruling on Wednesday on claims that Berlin is breaking German law and European treaties by contributing to bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.  

Panic level rising
The security-related panic level usually begins to rise here whenever a professional body, such as the Air Force, reads the map through the narrow straw of its interests. When the Air Force feels threatened by the purchase of a certain weapon by the enemy, it pressures the General Staff, which cringes and causes the politicians to panic. From there, things spiral into fiery rhetoric and headlines.  

Ambassador Gray: Benghazi Hearings Prove Cover-Up
"Well, I wouldn't want to serve there, that's for sure, if this is what the protection level is going to be and the response level . . . You really have a right to expect that people will come to your rescue, especially if you are in a war zone . . .This was an abandonment of our public servants in trouble and that's a terrible signal to send for future diplomats and future soldiers."  

Biochemists develop new technology to transfer DNA into cells
Much of Atkins and Patel's research centers on ion channels – proteins that act as pores within cell membranes and enable electrical currents to pass in and out of cells. They recently developed new technology to transfer DNA into cells. The development is an inexpensive and non-toxic method to help DNA cross the cell membrane so that cells can be modified.  

18 Signs That Massive Economic Problems Are Erupting All Over The Planet
Unfortunately, the false prosperity that we are currently enjoying is not going to last much longer. Just look at what is happening in Europe. The eurozone is now in the midst of the longest recession that it has ever experienced. Just look at what is happening over in Asia. Economic growth in India is the lowest that it has been in a decade and the Japanese financial system is beginning to spin wildly out of control.  

Flooding worst in 500 years in parts of Europe
In the Czech Republic, where the deaths of at least seven people were attributed to floodwaters and 3,000 people were forced from their homes, dams were opened to relieve the pressure, pushing the River Vltava higher. The river, which flows through Prague, the capital, was expected to  

Earthquakes in the world on June 4, 2013 (M2.5 or more)
GEOFON East Of Kuril Islands Jun 04 11:01 AM 5.6 10 MAP I Felt It EMSC East Of Kuril Islands Jun 04 11:01 AM 5.8 10 MAP I Felt It INFO EMSC Kuril Islands Jun 04 11:00 AM 5.3 10 MAP I Felt It GEOFON Kuril Islands Jun 04 11:00 AM 5.7 10 MAP I Felt It INFO  

9 tremors rattle town northwest of Ottawa in recent weeks
A series of tremors and aftershocks has shaken up Shawville and Ladysmith, Que., northwest of Ottawa, following a 5.2-magnitude earthquake that shook the region in mid-May.  

Earthquakes that Struck Northern Philippines to Last for Months, Mt Apo Resurrecting?
The double 5.7 magnitude earthquake that struck the northern Philippines within only a day apart could last for weeks or months. This, as the local government declared the town of Carmen in North Cotabato, worst affected by the tremor, under state of calamity.  

Lost in migration: Earth's magnetic field overdue a flip
"Magnetic north has migrated more than 1,500 kilometres over the past century," said Conall Mac Niocaill, an earth scientist at Oxford University. "In the past 150 years, the strength of the magnetic field has lessened by 10 percent, which could indicate a reversal is on the cards."  

President Obama's National Security Speech: Dangerous Lies
"How do you know the President is lying? His lips are moving. The left is silent as this president has killed through drone strikes four Americans, yet in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 criticized Bush for water-boarding three terrorists and ignored the fact that it was done to save American lives. President Obama's policies in many cases are Bush on steroids. Also, the Bush activities had some oversight from Congress, while the Obama administration refrains from discussing it at all."  

U.S. publishes details of missile base Israel wanted kept secret
Israel’s military fumed Monday over the discovery that the U.S. government had revealed details of a top-secret Israeli military installation in published bid requests. ...The specifications included more than 1,000 pages of details on the facility, ranging from the heating and cooling systems to the thickness of the walls. "If an enemy of Israel wanted to launch an attack against a facility, this would give him an easy how-to guide...  

WHO warns of Syria disease threat
The World Health Organization is warning of an increased risk of disease epidemics in Syria and neighbouring countries as summer approaches. The WHO says outbreaks of diseases carried in water - specifically hepatitis, typhoid, cholera and dysentery - are inevitable, given the severe disruption to Syria's health system. Cases of diarrhoea and hepatitis-A have more than doubled since January.  

Egyptian court convicts 43 NGO employees
A court in Cairo has convicted 43 Egyptian and foreign employees of non-governmental (NGO) organisations for working illegally in Egypt. The court sentenced the defendants - most of them in absentia - to jail terms of up to five years. It also ordered the closure of offices and the seizure of assets in Egypt belonging to several US NGOs.  

Syria chemical arms: UN says evidence of use
There are "reasonable grounds" to believe that chemical weapons were used in attacks by government forces in Syria in recent months, the UN says. But there is no definitive proof of precisely which agent was used and exactly who the perpetrators were, the UN Commission of Inquiry reports.  

US targets Iranian currency with fresh sanctions
The US has unveiled fresh sanctions against Iran, targeting its currency, as it increases the pressure on Tehran to abandon its nuclear programme. These include penalties on anyone facilitating "significant" transactions in the rial or holding significant amounts of the currency outside Iran  

Floods threaten Dresden as Prague river levels fall
Cities in southern and eastern Germany are on high alert as heavy floodwaters swell rivers including the Elbe. In Halle, an appeal has gone out to residents to help reinforce flood defences while Dresden is preparing for water levels 5m higher than normal. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised 100m euros (£78m; $130m) in emergency aid for flood-hit areas.  

Exclusive: China tried to convince North Korea to give up nuclear tests - source
China told an envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that Pyongyang should stop conducting nuclear and missile tests, but the North showed little sign of heeding the request, said a source with knowledge of the talks held late last month.  

This Stock Market Omen Has Been Confirmed
So what is a Hindenburg Omen? It is the alignment of several technical factors that measure the underlying condition of the stock market — specifically the NYSE — such that the probability that a stock market crash occurs is higher than normal, and the probability of a severe decline is quite high. This omen has appeared before all of the stock market crashes, or panic events, of the past 29 years except one, except the mini-crash of July/August 2011 

Kerry Says U.S. will Sign UN Treaty on Arms Regulation Despite Lawmaker Opposition
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily NewsFox News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the Obama administration would sign a controversial U.N. treaty on arms regulation, despite bipartisan resistance in Congress from members concerned it could lead to new gun control measures in the U.S.

Kerry, releasing a written statement as the U.N. treaty opened for signature Monday, said the U.S. “welcomes” the next phase for the treaty, which the U.N. General Assembly approved on April 2.

“We look forward to signing it as soon as the process of conforming the official translations is completed satisfactorily,” he said. Kerry called the treaty “an important contribution to efforts to stem the illicit trade in conventional weapons, which fuels conflict, empowers violent extremists, and contributes to violations of human rights.”

The treaty would require countries that ratify it to establish national regulations to control the transfer of conventional arms and components and to regulate arms brokers, but it will not explicitly control the domestic use of weapons in any country.

Still, gun-rights supporters on Capitol Hill warn the treaty could be used as the basis for additional gun regulations inside the U.S. and have threatened not to ratify.

Last week, 130 members of Congress signed a letter to Obama and Kerry urging them to reject the measure for this and other reasons.

Israel Now Has 80 Nuclear Warheads, Report Says
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily NewsTimes of Israel
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Israel possesses some 80 nuclear warheads — rather fewer than once thought, and lower than the nuclear arsenal of countries that are officially in possession of atomic weapons — according to the new 2013 yearbook put out by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a leading think tank on global security issues.

Of those warheads, 50 are for medium-range ballistic missiles and 30 are for bombs carried by aircraft, the report said. In addition, “Israel may also have produced non-strategic nuclear weapons, including artillery shells and atomic demolition munitions,” the Guardian reported Monday.

Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has long maintained an official position of ambiguity with regards to its nuclear capabilities.

In 1986, based on information supplied by ex-Dimona nuclear technician Moredechai Vanunu, later convicted of treason, the Sunday Times of London estimated that Israel had produced more than 100 nuclear warheads.

India and Pakistan, also countries that have not signed the NPT but that nonetheless possess nuclear weapons, each have around 90-120 warheads, SIPRI found, while the NPT countries have many hundreds, or, in the case of the US and Russia, many thousands, more.

Despite pledging not to do so, the countries that have signed the NPT are still developing new nuclear weapons technology and are prepared to hold on to their stores, the report said.

“All five legally recognized nuclear weapon states — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — are either deploying new nuclear weapon delivery systems or have announced programs to do so, and appear determined to retain their nuclear arsenals indefinitely,” SIPRI said in a press release, while noting that with the exception of China, which “seems to be expanding its nuclear arsenal,” overall numbers of nuclear weapons possessed by NPT countries have been falling.

IRS Clamming Up? Watchdog: Agents Won’t Say Who Ordered Flagging
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily NewsFox News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Conservative groups who claim they were targeted by the Internal Revenue Service are getting their say on Capitol Hill as hearings on the growing agency scandals continue Tuesday.

The hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee will feature leaders of groups allegedly targeted by the IRS, including several Tea Party groups and an anti-gay marriage organization that has claimed its donor details were inappropriately released.

Several of the six groups scheduled to testify say their applications for tax-exempt status were delayed while agents asked intrusive questions that the IRS has since acknowledged were inappropriate.

At a hearing Monday, the watchdog who exposed the IRS’ targeting testified nobody in the Ohio office being blamed for the scandal would tell his investigators who directed the program, as the new IRS chief vowed to “get to the bottom” of that growing question.

Nearly a month after the scandal broke, the issue of who directed agents in Cincinnati to single out Tea Party and other groups is perhaps the most glaring unanswered question. Inspector General J. Russell George, at a House appropriations subcommittee hearing, revealed Monday that his audit of the agency tried — unsuccessfully — to get to the root of the targeting.

“We did pose that question and no one would acknowledge who, if anyone, provided that direction,” he said.

Danny Werfel, testifying for the first time in his new role as acting IRS commissioner, acknowledged: “We have to get to the bottom of it.” However, he also said he has not yet asked who ordered the program.

George later testified that the scandal itself is “unprecedented.” He cited past attempts by the Nixon administration to use the IRS for inappropriate purposes, but said this program was unprecedented.

The two officials testified as Republican lawmakers voiced skepticism that the program started and ended with a few low-level staffers in Cincinnati. Fueling the skepticism, partial transcripts released over the weekend of an interview with an IRS field agent in that division showed the agent claiming Washington guided the

Home 3d Printer for Under $500 Excites Kickstarter
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily Newsc/net
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

One of the lures of a 3D printer is the ability to create and get a result that is so tactile. Your design dreams become real objects. If only the price weren’t so high.

A lot of people are waiting for a 3D printer that is easy to use and doesn’t cost much more than a regular printer. The Buccaneer from Pirate3D on Kickstarter is looking to deliver on both those fronts.

The Buccaneer goes all-in with an Apple-style aesthetic. It’s the sort of printer you won’t hide under your desk. The plastic printing material comes spooled in cartridges, which are placed into the top of the machine. The printing happens inside the cube. A plate in the bottom lowers to access the object once it’s done.

Hacker: I Can Wreak Havoc on Air Travel and the FAA Doesn't Care
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily NewsBusiness Insider
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Cyber hackers have already shown what damage they can do, but this may be the scariest hacking story yet, if it came true.

What if they could hack into the air traffic control system? It’s frightening to imagine, you’re at 30-thousand feet and suddenly your pilot is flying blind or taking evasive action to avoid another plane.

Brad “Renderman” Haines, who works in IT support for a small company in Canada by day and is a hacker by night, told CNBC that he has proof that the air traffic control system can be hacked.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s next generation air traffic control system, which, when it’s fully in place by the end of this decade, is supposed to make flying “more convenient and dependable.”

Global Shock As Manufacturing Contracts in U.S. and China
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

German Flood Waters Reach 500 - Year High
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily NewsGlobe & Mail
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Swollen rivers gushed into the old section of Passau in southeastern Germany on Monday, as water rose in the city to levels not seen in more than five centuries.

The city was one of the worst hit by flooding that has spread across a large area of central Europe in the wake of heavy rainfall in recent days.

At least eight people were reported to have died and nine were missing in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

“The situation is extremely dramatic,” Herbert Zillinger, a spokesman for Passau’s crisis centre, told The Associated Press.

Much of the city was inaccessible on foot and the electricity supply was shut down as a precaution, he said. Rescuers were using boats to remove people from flooded parts of the city. Authorities in the afternoon evacuated a prison that was in danger of being flooded, moving 60 inmates to nearby facilities on higher ground.

Erdogan not in Serious Trouble Yet, Claims Expert
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Gil Ronen
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Middle East expert, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, said Tuesday that Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not facing an “Arab Spring” type rebellion, despite large scale protests in several Turkish cities in recent days.

Dr. Kedar told Arutz Sheva that the events in Turkey “are far from being what happened in Egypt, Libya or Syria.”

The primary difference, he said, is the character of the groups currently protesting against Erdogan. The protesters are “greens,” leftists and others who are not motivated by extremist Islam, he said.

The protesters are hitting the streets, he said, against Erdogan's general behavior and the transfer of authority to the presidential institution, which he is carrying out in anticipation of the day he himself will be president, and as part of his plan to institute a presidential regime.

Erdogan pulled his policemen out of Taksim Square, Kedar noted, in order to make the protest relatively peaceful. The continued presence of police would have fanned flames, he said, and led to a widening of the protest.

Kedar did not rule out the possibility of a larger rebellion forming, but noted that Turkey's economic situation is much better than the one in “Arab Spring” countries like Tunisia, and Turks do not want to “spill the economic baby with the protest bathwater.”

The expert said it would be best to examine the situation in Turkey in two days' time, and see if the protesters go back to their routine lifestyles.

Meanwhile, protesters continued to gather at Taksim Square Monday night. One protester died when a taxi ran him over.

Cracks in Erdogan’s Rule Shake Washington. will Turkish Ferment Spread to Iran?
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A Taksim Square protester

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, the target of the turbulent unrest sweeping Turkey, is also President Barack Obama’s foremost ally in the Muslim world. The coming DEBKA-Net-Weekly out next Friday will examine this and other repercussions of the Turkish ferment, like the posting of Revolutionary Guards on the streets of Iran, and impact on the Syrian war. Has an outside hand been feeding the flames of domestic disaffection? And why

Israel is concerned?

Canadian Relief for Moore Tornado Victims Denied At Border
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily NewsCBC News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A Canadian shipment of relief goods bound for storm-ravaged Oklahoma has been stopped at the Canada-U.S. border in Windsor, Ont.

American officials will not allow the 20,000 kilograms of food, blankets and diapers into the country until every item on board is itemized in alphabetical order and has the country of origin of every product noted.

Dennis Sauve, the volunteer co-ordinator for Windsor Lifeline Outreach and the food bank co-ordinator at the Windsor Christian Fellowship, the two organizations that gathered the goods, said it’s a “physical impossibility” to do the paperwork required in time to get the perishable food to Oklahoma before it spoils.

A tornado three kilometres wide ripped through Moore on May 20. The twister killed 24 people and injured close to 400. It destroyed 1,200 homes and damaged another 10,000.

Several companies gave donations

Sauve’s group secured skids of food donated from Heinz Canada, a refrigerated truck from ADT Transportation and fresh fruits and vegetables from a number of greenhouses in Leamington, Ont., southeast of Windsor.

“It was very rapid. By the hour it was swelling up in size. We were absolutely thrilled to be able to do this,” Sauve said. “I had no dream at all it would be this difficult. I never dreamt we would be called to the table on being able to give this food to people in need.”

The shipment was to be sent to the Gate Church or Oklahoma City, about 20 minutes away from the devastation.

Battle for Damascus is Over. is Israel Intelligence Slow on Syrian War?
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Syrian tanks in Damascus

When Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon informed a Knesset panel Monday, June 3, that Syrian rebels still occupied four Damascus districts, debkafile’s intelligence sources reported that the battle for the Syrian capital was all but over. Barring small pockets of resistance, Bashar Assad’s army had virtually regained control of the city in an epic victory. From those pockets, the rebels can’t do much more than fire sporadically. They can no longer launch raids, or pose threats to the city center, the airport or the big Syrian air base nearby.
The Russian and Iranian transports constantly bringing replenishments for keeping the Syrian army fighting can again land at Damascus airport after months of rebel siege.
The rebels fell back in Damascus after being outflanked in a pincer movement in Damascus’s eastern outskirts executed by the Syrian army’s 4th and 3rd Divisions and a “Fuji” commando unit . Most of the rebels were pushed outside the city.

debkafile’s military sources report that, as of Tuesday, June 4, Assad’s army controls all the capital’s road connections and its western districts. It has also cleared opposition forces out of areas west of Damascus through the Zabadni region and up to the Lebanese border.
To the northwest, Hizballah and Syrian units have tightened their siege on the rebels holding out in the northern sector of al Qusayr; other units have completed their takeover of the countryside around the town of Hama; and a third combined Syrian-Hizballah force has taken up positions around Aleppo.
Senior IDF officers criticized the defense minister’s briefing on Syria Monday to the Knesset Foreign and Defense Committee in which he estimated that Bashar Assad controlled only 40 percent of Syrian territory as misleading. They said he had drawn on a flawed intelligence assessment and were concerned that the armed forces were acting on the basis of inaccurate intelligence. Erroneous assessments, they feared, must lead to faulty decision-making. They cited two instances:

1. On May 5, the massive Israeli bombardment of Iranian weapons stored near Damascus for Hizballah, turned out a month later to have done more harm than good. It gave Bashar Assad a boost instead of weakening his resolve.
2.  Israel has laid itself open to unpleasant surprises by its focused watch on military movements in Syria especially around Damascus to ascertain that advanced missiles and chemical weapons don’t reach Hizballah. Missed, for instance, was the major movement by Hizballah militia units towards the Syrian-Israeli border. Our military sources report a Hizballah force is currently deployed outside Deraa, capital of the southern Syrian province of Horan. Reinforcements are streaming in from Lebanon. The Hizballah force and Syrian units are getting ready to move in on the rural Horan and reach the Israeli border nearby through the Syrian Golan.

Their coming offensive, which could be only days away, will find Israeli face to face for the first time with Hizballah units equipped with heavy arms and missiles on the move along the Syrian-Israeli border and manning positions opposite Israel’s Golan outposts and villages.  
The early calculus that the Syrian battlefield would erode Hizballah’s strength held Israel back from obstructing the flow of Hizballah military strength into Syria. It has been proven wrong. 

Instead of growing weaker, Iran’s Lebanese proxy is poised to open another warfront and force the IDF to adapt to a new military challenge from the Syrian Golan.
Unlike its previous wars against Israel, this time Hizballah will not confront Israel alone. On May 30, when the Syrian ruler spoke of “popular” demands to mount “resistance” operations against Israel from the Golan, he didn’t mention Hizballah because he was referring to demands coming from inside Syria.

18 Signs That Massive Economic Problems are Erupting All Over the Planet
Jun 4th, 2013
Daily NewsThe economic collapse
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

This is no time to be complacent.  Massive economic problems are erupting all over the globe, but most people seem to believe that everything is going to be just fine.  In fact, a whole bunch of recent polls and surveys show that the American people are starting to feel much better about how the U.S. economy is performing.  Unfortunately, the false prosperity that we are currently enjoying is not going to last much longer.  Just look at what is happening in Europe.  The eurozone is now in the midst of the longest recession that it has ever experienced.  Just look at what is happening over in Asia.  Economic growth in India is the lowest that it has been in a decade and the Japanese financial system is beginning to spin wildly out of control.  One of the only places on the entire planet where serious economic problems have not already erupted is in the United States, and that is only because we have “kicked the can down the road” by recklessly printing money and by borrowing money at an unprecedented rate.  Unfortunately, the “sugar high” produced by those foolish measures is starting to wear off.  We are going to experience a massive amount of economic pain along with the rest of the world – it is just a matter of time.

But for the moment, there are a lot of skeptics out there.

For the moment, there are a lot of people that are declaring that the problems of the past have been fixed and that we are heading for incredibly bright economic times ahead.

Unfortunately, those people appear to be purposely ignoring the economic horror that is breaking out all over the globe.

The following are 18 signs that massive economic problems are erupting all over the planet…

#1 The eurozone is now in the midst of its longest recession ever.  Economic activity in the eurozone has declined for six quarters in a row.

#2 Italy’s economy has now been contracting for seven quarters in a row.

#3 Industrial production in Italy has fallen for 15 months in a row.  It has now fallen to its lowest level in about 25 years.

#4 The number of people that are considered to be “seriously deprived” in Italy has doubled over the past two years.

#5 Consumer confidence in France has just hit a new all-time low.

#6 The number of unemployed workers seeking a job in France has hit a brand new all-time record high.  Many unemployed workers in France are utterly frustrated at this point…

“I’ve sent CVs everywhere, I come to the unemployment agency every day, for 3 or 4 hours to look for work as a truck driver and there’s never anything,” said 42-year old Djamel Sami, who has been unemployed for a year, leaving a job agency in Paris.

#7 Unemployment in the eurozone as a whole has just hit a brand new all-time record high of 12.2 percent.

#8 Youth unemployment continues to soar to unprecedented heights in Europe.  The following is from an article that was recently posted on the website of the Guardian that detailed how bad things are getting in some of the worst countries…

In Greece, 62.5% of young people are out of work, in Spain it’s 56.4%, then Portugal with 42.5%, and then Italy with 40.5%.

#9 Youth unemployment is being partially blamed for the worst rioting that Sweden has seen in many years.  The following is how the Daily Mail described the riots…

#10 An astounding 10 percent of all banking deposits were pulled out of banks in Cyprus during the month of April alone.

#11 Economic growth in India is the slowest that it has been in an entire decade.

#12 Suddenly Australia is experiencing some tremendous economic challenges.  The following quotes are from a recent Zero Hedge article...

-“We’re seeing a much sharper contraction in the Australian economy than we’d anticipated four or five months ago”. Coffey MD, John Douglas. The engineering group has seen its shares, which traded above $4 in 2007, hit 10c last week.

-“By 10am, the Fitness First gym in the city is packed full of brokers who’ve had a gutful of sitting at their desk doing nothing – salary cuts are starting and next it will be jobs” Perth broker

-“Oh mate, the funding market is dead. You are now seeing a few deeply discounted rights issues for those that are reaching desperate levels ….. liquidity has completely disappeared” Perth broker

#13 The financial system in Japan is beginning to spin wildly out of control.  The Japanese stock market has now declined about 15 percent from the peak, and many believe that the yen will continue to get weaker and that interest rates in Japan will start to rise significantly.

#14 Global cash flow is declining at a rate not seen since the last recession.  This indicates that we could be headed for a global credit crunch.

#15 Real wages continue to decline in the United States.  Even though we are being told that the U.S. is experiencing an "economy recovery", real weekly earnings have declined from $297.79 in 2010 to $295.49 in 2011 to $294.83 in 2012.  (The preceding calculation is based on 1982-1984 dollars)

#16 Wall Street is buzzing about the fact that "the Hindenburg Omen" appeared at the end of last week.  So exactly what is "the Hindenburg Omen"?  The following are the criteria that are used to determine whether it has appeared or not...

1. The daily number of NYSE new 52 Week Highs and the daily number of new 52 Week Lows must both be greater than 2.2 percent of total NYSE issues traded that day.

2. The smaller of these numbers is greater than or equal to 69 (68.772 is 2.2% of 3126). This is not a rule but more like a checksum. This condition is a function of the 2.2% of the total issues.

3. That the NYSE 10 Week moving average is rising.

4. That the McClellan Oscillator ( a market breadth indicator used to evaluate the rate of money entering or leaving the market and interpretively indicate overbought or oversold conditions of the market)is negative on that same day.

5. That new 52 Week Highs cannot be more than twice the new 52 Week Lows (however it is fine for new 52 Week Lows to be more than double new 52 Week Highs).

When the Hindenburg Omen makes an appearance, it supposedly means that the U.S. stock market is likely to experience a serious decline within the next 40 days.

#17 As I wrote about the other day, the SentimenTrader Smart/Dumb Money Index is now the lowest that it has been in more than two years.  That means that lots of "smart money" has been getting out of the market and lots of "dumb money" has been pouring in.

#18 Margin debt on the New York Stock Exchange has set a new all-time high.  The following is from a recent Market Oracle article...

Margin debt—that’s the amount of money borrowed to purchase stocks—on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) reached its all-time high in April. Margin debt on the NYSE registered at $384.3 billion as the key stock indices hit new record-highs. (Source: New York Stock Exchange web site, last accessed May 29, 2013.) The highest margin debt ever reached prior to this was in July of 2007, when it stood just above $381.0 billion. At that time, just like today, the key stock indices were near their peaks and “buy now before it’s too late” was the prominent theme of the day

Whenever margin debt spikes like this, a stock market crash almost always follows.  If you doubt this, just check out the chart in this article.

Wall Street has had a good couple of years, but it has been a "false prosperity" that has been pumped up by reckless money printing by the Federal Reserve.  Just like all of the other stock market bubbles that we have seen in recent years, this one is going to burst too.  And as Marc Faber recently pointed out, this bubble has been particularly beneficial to the wealthy...

The Fed has been flooding the system with money. The problem is the money doesn't flow into the system evenly. It doesn't increase economic activity and asset prices in concert. Instead, it creates dangerous excesses in countries and asset classes. Money-printing fueled the colossal stock-market bubble of 1999-2000, when the Nasdaq more than doubled, becoming disconnected from economic reality. It fueled the housing bubble, which burst in 2008, and the commodities bubble. Now money is flowing into the high-end asset market - things like stocks, bonds, art, wine, jewelry, and luxury real estate.

Money-printing boosts the economy of the people closest to the money flow. But it doesn't help the worker in Detroit, or the vast majority of the middle class. It leads to a widening wealth gap. The majority loses, and the minority wins.

The fact that the U.S. stock market has set new all-time record high after new all-time record high in recent months means very little.  At this point, the stock market has become completely divorced from economic reality.  When this current bubble bursts, the adjustment is going to be very painful.  Wall Street will likely whine and complain and ask for more bailouts, but they may find that authorities are not nearly as sympathetic this time.

Much of the rest of the world is already experiencing the next major wave of the economic collapse.  Reckless money printing by the Fed and reckless borrowing and spending by the federal government may have delayed the inevitable in the United States for a little while, but those measures have also made our long-term problems even worse.

There was one piece of advice that Ben Bernanke included in his commencement speech to students at Princeton recently that I thought was particularly ironic...

"Don't be afraid to let the drama play out."

Will he take his own advice when the next great financial crisis strikes the United States?

That seems very unlikely.

Unfortunately, things are not going to be so easy to fix this next time.

What happened back in 2008 was just a preview.

What is coming next is going to absolutely shock the world.