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August 5, 2011 by KT
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Kristin Canty – Farmageddon
Click the picture or link below to hear Kevin’s interview with Kristin Canty and click here to learn more about her documentary, Farmageddon: The Unseen War On American Family Farms.
Kristin Canty on The Kevin Trudeau Show 08/05/11
The Kevin Trudeau Show: 8-5-11
Today, Kevin delves deep into how scary America really is and why doing your homework before believing complete nonsense is so essential if you want to be successful. Plus, the director of Farmageddon, Kristin Canty, stops by to give you the inside story on what really happened during the Rawesome Foods raid and why her documentary is so important for every American to see!
Health:
Cargill Recalls Potentially Tainted Turkey
Study Shows That Hospitals Are More Dangerous Than Flying
Update:
A Small Rawesome Foods Victory
Wealth:
Food Stamp Use Rises to Record 45.8 Million
Dow Plunges 500 Points
Global Stocks Tumble After U.S. Selloff
How to Survive the Stock Market’s Wild Ride
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Cargill Recalls Potentially Tainted Turkey
August 5th, 2011
Darien Patch
By: Lauren Williamson
Cargill announced a voluntary recall Thursday of 36 million pounds of ground turkey products in connection with a salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 77 people nationwide, seven of them in Illinois.
The meat producer has also suspended production of ground turkey products at an Arkansas processing plant until it can determine the source of the contamination, Cargill said in a statement.
Of the seven reported illnesses in Illinois, the Illinois Department of Health said at least one person lives in DuPage County. The other cases were reported in Cass, Cook, Madison, Peoria, Will and Williamson counties.
At least one person in Illinois was hospitalized, the health department said. The ages of those infected range from 3 to 60.
The first illness in Illinois tied to this outbreak was reported March 21, while the most recent case was June 29, the health department said.
Salmonella is a food-borne illness characterized by diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps that usually lasts from four to seven days, the health department said. Most people recover on their own, but in some cases the diarrhea is severe enough that the patient requires hospitalization.
Cooking meat such as ground turkey to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees should kill salmonella bacteria, the health department said.
Keep raw poultry and its juices away from ready-to-eat foods such as fruit or already-cooked food. Wash hands and food preparation surfaces thoroughly after they come into contact with raw poultry.
Customers who purchased turkey products on the recall list should bring them back to the store where they bought them for a full refund, Cargill said. Questions can be directed to Cargill’s customer service department at 1-888-812-1646. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also has a food safety hot line: 1-888-MPHotline.
Click here for the full report from the Darien Patch
Food Stamp Use Rises to Record 45.8 Million
August 5th, 2011
CNNMoney.com
By: Blake Ellis
Nearly 15% of the U.S. population relied on food stamps in May, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
The number of Americans using the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — more commonly referred to as food stamps — shot to an all-time high of 45.8 million in May, the USDA reported. That’s up 12% from a year ago, and 34% higher than two years ago.
The program provides monthly benefits to low-income individuals and families, which they can use at stores that accept SNAP benefits.
To qualify for food stamps, an individual’s income can’t exceed $1,174 a month or $14,088 a year — an amount that is 130% of the national poverty level.
The average food stamp benefit was $133.80 per person and $283.65 per household in May.
The highest concentration of food stamp users were in California, Florida, New York and Texas — where more than 3 million residents in each state received food stamps in May.
The rise in food stamp use comes as the U.S. job market continues to sputter, and food prices across the country climb.
Unemployment benefits at risk
But a spike in food stamp users in Alabama may have been responsible for pushing total usage unusually higher in May. Following a series of devastating storms, many residents received disaster assistance under the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the USDA said. Food stamp use in the state surged from 868,813 in April to 1,762,481 in May.
“USDA does not anticipate that trend of increase to continue, given that it appears to represent a response to a single disaster,” the USDA said.
Click here for the full report from CNNMoney.com
Scared To Fly? A Hospital Visit Is Far More Dangerous
August 5th, 2011
The Huffington Post
Here’s another thing to tell people afraid of flying — airplanes could actually be safer than going to the hospital.
That’s the message from the World Health Organization, which announced this week that the risk of dying from medical errors and infections is greater than the risk of dying from a plane crash, Reuters reported.
The chance of a hospital error is about 1 in 10 in most hospitals around the world, and the chance of dying from that error is about 1 in 300, according to Reuters. But the risk of dying from a plane crash is 1 in 10 million passengers.
“It shows that health care generally worldwide still has a long way to go,” Liam Donaldson, the WHO’s envoy for patient safety, said in a news briefing that Reuters reported on.
The chance of hospital errors and infections is different from country to country, Postmedia News reported. For example, in Canada, the hospital-associated infection rate is 11.6 percent, while in the United States, it’s as low as 4.5 percent. But worldwide, the infection rates could be as high as 16 percent, according to Postmedia News.
Aside from death, hospital-acquired infections and medical errors can cause major health problems for people. Hospital-acquired bloodstream infections in the United States make up 10 percent of all hospital-acquired infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And bloodstream infections are considered the eighth leading cause of death in the U.S.
While we’re looking at the odds, here are your chances of some other unfortunate events.
The odds of getting struck by lightning in any one year is 1 in 1 million, while the chance of getting struck in your entire lifetime is 1 in 10,000, according to the National Weather Service. And according to 2000 U.S. data from the University of Florida, the chance of getting bitten by a shark is 1 in 11.5 million.
Click here for the full report from The Huffington Post
Debt-Ceiling Fallout: States to Take Another Hit
August 5th, 2011
Daily Finance
By: Sheryl Nance-Nash and Laura Rowley
The debt-ceiling drama may be over, but — for state governments — the ramifications are just beginning to reverberate.
The new law requires a 12-member, bipartisan “super committee” to recommend at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts by late November. The law also caps discretionary spending, which includes funding for defense, transportation and basic research.
The budget cuts will deal another blow to state economies still struggling to recover to pre-recession levels. Many have relied on federal stimulus money to close budget gaps during the last few years.
“Now that [stimulus funds] have dried up and additional cuts are coming, states will have to take measures that will be counter cyclical to recovery,” says David Adkins, executive director of the non-partisan Council of State Governments in Lexington, Ky. “Many states have gone through several rounds of right-sizing their workforces, including layoffs and furlough days and early retirement, and that will now be forced to continue.”
With so many states running lean and mean, there’s not much fat to cut. “In Michigan, we’ve already made tough cuts to get our budget into structural balance,” says Kurt Weiss, public information officer at Michigan’s state budget office. “We have cut health and human services, education and employee concessions.” But 44% of the state’s total $47 billion budget comes from the federal government, he said. “It’s clear that there will be fewer federal dollars flowing into our state coffers.”
For the 2012 fiscal year, about 1% of the budget will be cut. “Although there will likely be some reduction in state programs, the real pain will be felt later down the road,” says Jeff Hurley, policy specialist with the National Council of State Legislatures.
Military Cuts
States with economies that rely on military installations and defense contractors are likely to be among the hardest hit, experts say. The budget agreement includes at least $350 billion in defense cuts in the next 10 years. If the super committee doesn’t agree on cuts by Thanksgiving, it will trigger $1.2 trillion in automatic reductions in the coming decade, with roughly half of those cuts coming from the Pentagon.
“It’s hard to know exactly what will be the final product of the super committee’s work, but if they fail to act, it will have fairly devastating consequences,” Adkins says.
Companies such as Boeing (BA) could also suffer pain from the cuts. Boeing has 61,000 U.S. employees working on defense programs, with the largest concentrations in Missouri, Washington State, southern California, Arizona and Pennsylvania, according to spokesman Dan Beck.
“We will do everything we can to meet demand for cost management and greater efficiencies on these programs, something the Pentagon has been pushing hard for a year now,” Beck says. “We’ll look at our workforce. We have had some layoffs even before this because of contracts being completed and taking the appropriate steps to adjust our workforce and consolidate operations to bring down costs.”
Marty Brown, director of the Office of Financial Management in Washington state, says he’s concerned about the prospect of additional layoffs. “If cuts are made [in defense], it will be tough on our economy because people will…cut back on spending,” he says.
Brown also expects to spending cuts reductions in transportation and education, although he has not received any specific information. “We have asked agencies that have lots of federal grants to think, ‘what if’ — what if they lose their grants, what will they do with staff, what services would be affected,” he says.
Medicaid and Health Care
In addition, state officials also are concerned about health-care costs. The super committee has the ability to cut programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. States have been using federal stimulus money to cover their health-care budget shortfalls, so any Medicaid cutbacks would be particularly problematic, Adkins says. State- and local-government layoffs could boost Medicaid caseloads just as federal stimulus funds dry up and the government cuts back. “It’s almost a perfect storm for a fiscal crisis for states,” he says.
States are significantly increasing their own Medicaid spending in order to meet federal requirements, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers. Medicaid general-fund spending is projected to increase by $16 billion in the 2012 fiscal year.
Amid the coming cutbacks, states will be hoping for more flexibility in Medicaid rules. “Whether it’s pharmacy, provider reimbursement rates, who is eligible and what kind of coverage has to be provided, states will be looking at options to deal with increasing caseloads,” Adkins says. “And there are so many unknowns on how new health-care reform will affect those programs.”
Tim Keen, director of the Office of Budget and Management in Ohio agrees: “Now that we’ll be getting fewer federal dollars, we’re hopeful that Washington will provide states with greater flexibility to manage any changes.”
Click here for the full report from Daily Finance
How to Survive the Stock Market’s Wild Ride
August 5th, 2011
Daily Finance
By: Sheryl Nance Nash
The stock-market roller coaster has been wild enough to make even the most stoic, stiff-necked investors queasy. After falling in 10 out of the last 11 trading sessions, the stock market plunged more than 500 points Thursday, making it the worst day for the Dow since Oct. 22, 2008, the day that marked the beginning of the global financial crisis. On Thursday, the index lost 4.3% — erasing all the gains for the year — to end at 11,384.
What’s stoking the volatility? The U.S. dodged the default bullet, but not everybody is impressed. “The negotiated debt-ceiling settlement is being seen by world’s financial markets as a smoke screen,” says James DiGeorgia, publisher of the Gold and Energy Advisor newsletter. “No matter how many times my fellow Republicans repeat the mantra that Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem, the truth is we cannot make a dent in the national debt unless we reduce spending and raise revenues.
“Without swift tax reform lowering corporate and individual rates in exchange for eliminating the special-interest patchwork of tax breaks and subsidies, we’re going to continue to see the national debt spiral higher and the dollar weaken.”
The fact remains that the U.S. economy is not just lackluster, but flirting with recession part deux.
“Continued weakness has shown in the recent economic numbers. The [gross domestic product] at 1.3% is at a recessionary level and not nearly what is necessary to reduce the compounding effect of our deficit,” says Jeff Sica, president and chief investment officer of Sica Wealth Management. “Downward revisions on economic numbers make lagging indicators even worse, suggesting what we always believed: we never left the recession.”
Unemployment remains high, even though it fell to 9.1% in July, from 9.2% in June. And even worse, job cuts have surged 60%, which will boost unemployment much higher, Sica says.
Not Alone
At least the U.S. isn’t alone. “The European economy is collapsing,” Sica says.
Europe is addressing its fiscal and monetary problems way too slowly, DiGeorgia says. Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal are in seriously bad shape. Banks in Europe are on the hook, he says, as are many banks throughout the U.S. that have been playing interest-rate arbitrage, borrowing at a quarter of a percent and lending to Italy for 6% and Greece for 9%, for example.
“For anyone in the know, its a catastrophe in the making,” Sica says. “Bottom line: A financial crisis worse than the one that took place in 2008 and 2009 could ignite at any moment.” And because many Europeans take the month of August off, the first emergency meeting to address the euro and the danger isn’t scheduled until Sept. 6th, in France. Europe is a dark cloud getting darker by the day, Sica says.
Another concern is China, points out Matt Freund, senior vice president of investment portfolio management at USAA. What if the Chinese economy falters — a scenario that seems much more likely than it did as 2010 ended? Real estate and construction have become dominant sectors in China’s economy, but easy credit and speculative building may be creating a surplus in luxury apartments and other properties that sets the stage for a major correction.
A reversal of China’s economic fortunes could have wide-ranging effect. It could lower demand for industrial and construction equipment, dampening revenues for the companies that make it; weaken demand for commodities, which could pressure the emerging-market economies that depend on them; and reduce overseas profits for large multinational corporations as growth stalls around the world.
What are Investors to Do Now?
A confluence of such factors are creating plenty of uncertainty. Investors are wondering what in the world they can expect from the market for the rest of this year.
“Given the debt deal, the likelihood of another stimulus package is decreased,” says Steve Wood, chief market strategist for Russell Investments.
And that will slow the recovery, says John Liu, president of Firstrade, an online broker. “Without government help, the market is going to get worse before it gets better,” he says. “It doesn’t mean it won’t get better, it will just take longer.”
Sica predicts that the market will decline 15%-20% by the end of the summer. Given the economic headwinds, it’s hard to envision a return to a robust and steadily growing economy anytime soon.
Investors should expect the recovery to remain choppy and uncertain, marked by below-average economic growth and periodic setbacks — including the potential for another recession, Freund says.
For sure, the outlook suggests investors should tighten their seatbelts and brace themselves for one jolt after the other. How can you protect yourself? Here’s what the pros are suggesting:
Keep your cool
“Don’t panic, and keep your emotions in check,” says Thomas Yorke, a Covester model manager and managing director of Oceanic capital Management. “These movements should flush out some of the more leveraged players and provide an opportunity to make some selective buys at a significantly lower levels. In situations like this, most investors are more likely to sell their best performers and hold their worst — the trading in gold today being a prime example of that behavior. When you are ready to make some adjustments, make sure you pitch your poor performers and opt for the market leaders who apt to recover more quickly.”
This is the time to re-evaluate your portfolio and determine how diversified you truly are, Yorke advises. But keep in mind that the correlations between different asset classes will converge at times like these, when the market is moving downward so strongly, he says. “You should study what classes performed best and plan to increase your exposure to them when things start to return to normal,” he says. “Doing this during high-stress periods will more likely have you buying things too expensively and selling things too cheaply. Your goal should be to create the proper asset allocation and understand that
over time this more balanced approach will achieve a better ‘risk adjusted’ return and enable you to sleep better at night.”
If you are a long-term investor, take a deep breath and stay the course, says Mark Fissel, a certified financial planner with Beacon Hill Investment Advisory. From the standpoint of price-to-earnings ratios, or stock prices compared to company earnings, the stock market is the cheapest its been since 1990. So, yes, there’s great uncertainty, but that also means there’s an opportunity to make money. By the time the sky is blue, the market will have already gone up, Fissell says.
Fred Dickson, senior vice president and chief investment strategist with D.A. Davidson & Co., has similar advice to investors: Find the upside. Use the recent 10% market dip to invest in high-quality stocks that have a long history of increasing dividends, he says.
Click here for the full report from Daily Finance
Global Stocks Tumble After U.S. Selloff
August 5th, 2011
Daily Finance
By: The Associated Press
Global stock markets tumbled Friday amid fears the U.S. may be heading back into recession and Europe’s debt crisis is worsening. The sell-off follows the biggest one-day points decline on Wall Street since the 2008 financial crisis.
Oil extended sharp losses to fall below $85 a barrel amid expectations a slowing global economy will undermine demand for crude.
In Europe, major markets fell, adding to losses Thursday. London’s FTSE 100 declined 3.5 percent to 5,393.14 and Germany’s DAX shed 3.8 percent to 6,172.00. France’s CAC-40 lost 2.5 percent to 3,238.80.
Wall Street was set for a lower open with Dow futures down 0.8 percent at 11,280 after Thursday’s 512.76-point fall, the steepest point decline since Dec. 1, 2008. S&P 500 futures fell 0.6 percent to 1,191.7.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average slid 3.7 percent to 9,299.88 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dived 4.3 percent to 20,946.14. China’s Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.2 percent to 2,626.42.
“Losses today have been indiscriminate,” said IG Markets strategist Ben Potter in a report. “The big question on everyone’s mind is what will happen across European and US markets tonight and will there be any form of emergency policy response?”
Investors fretted over the U.S. economic recovery ahead of Friday’s release of crucial jobs figures for July, which often set the tone in markets for a week or two.
Many were also rattled by the lack of agreement in Europe about debt and how to stabilize the euro, said Tom Kaan of Louis Capital Markets in Hong Kong. He said they were watching to see if the U.S. Federal Reserve launches a new stimulus effort.
“It’s a general fear that is clouding the markets at the moment,” Kaan said.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi sank 3.7 percent to 1,943.75 and Taiwan’s benchmark skidded 5.6 percent to 7,853.13. Australia’s benchmark dropped 4 percent to 4,105.40 and India’s Sensex was down 2.8 percent to 17,196.06.
In China, state-owned oil producer CNOOC Ltd. plunged 7.7 percent. China Construction Bank Ltd., one of the country’s four major state-owned banks, lost 2 percent and Ping An Insurance Ltd. declined 3.9 percent.
Investors, already fidgety after protracted political bargaining to raise the U.S. debt limit and worries that Italy and Spain are getting deeply embroiled in Europe’s debt crisis, searched for assets considered safer such as gold.
“Stocks will continue to dive, especially in Euroland, where profits are disappointing analysts’ estimates,” said Carl B. Weinberg of High Frequency Economics in a report.
In currency markets, the dollar edged down to 78.48 yen from late Thursday’s 79.02 and the euro gained to $1.4153 from $1.4130.
On Thursday, Japan’s government intervened in markets to weaken the yen against the dollar to support exporters. Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said authorities acted to protect the economic recovery following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The dollar had fallen as low as 76.29 yen on Monday. It hit a record post-World War II low of 76.25 yen in the days following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The intervention was coupled with monetary policy easing by the central bank’s board.
Japan’s moves came only a day after the Swiss National Bank intervened to slow a rise in the Swiss franc, another currency perceived as a save-haven at a time investors are fleeing risky assets such as shaky European government bonds.
Benchmark oil for September delivery was down $1.68 to $84.95 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude tumbled $5.30 to settle at $86.63 on Thursday.
Click here for the full report from Daily Finance
Dow Plunges 500 Points
August 5th, 2011
DailyFinance
By: AP
Fears about the global economy led to the biggest panic in financial markets since the 2008 financial crisis. The Dow plunged nearly 513 points Thursday, its biggest point decline since Oct. 22, 2008. Only three of the 500 stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index had gains. Oil fell by 6 percent. The yield on the two-year Treasury note hit a record low as investors sought out relatively stable investments.
All three major stock indexes are down 10 percent or more from their previous highs, a drop-off that is considered to be a market correction. A drop of 20 percent or more signifies the start of a bear market, an extended period of stock declines.
Investors are increasingly concerned about the possibility of another recession in the U.S. and a debt crisis in Europe.
“We are continuing to be bombarded by worries about the global economy,” said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Financial.
The Vix, a measure of investor fear, shot up 36 percent. It is up 92.6 percent for the quarter, which began July 1.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 512.61 points, or 4.3 percent, to 11,11,383.61. Thursday’s losses turned the blue-chip stock index negative for the year.
The S&P 500 – the benchmark for most mutual funds – lost 60.20, or 4.8 percent, to 1,200.14. It is now down 12 percent from its recent high of 1,363 reached on April 29. The Nasdaq composite shed 136.68, or 5.1 percent, to 2,556.39.
Oil dipped to $87 a barrel on worries demand will fall because of the slowing economy. It had traded over $100 as recently as June 9.
Nearly 20 stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.
European stocks also fell broadly because of concerns that Italy or Spain may need help from the European Union. The benchmark stock indexes in Italy, Germany and England each fell 3 percent.
Stock trading has been volatile this week because of concerns that the U.S. economy is weakening. Manufacturing, consumer spending and hiring by private companies are below levels that are consistent with a healthy economy. Those reports have called into question estimates from economists, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, that the economy will grow more quickly in the second half of the year.
Money poured into investments that are seen as relatively safe when markets are turbulent. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.42 percent, its lowest level of the year. The yield on the 2-year Treasury note hit a record low of 0.26 percent. Bond yields fall when demand for them increases.
Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist for Janney Montgomery Scott, an investment firm in Philadelphia, said some clients are moving to cash “as a parking lot to sort things out.”
“With the scars of 2008 still fresh, some clients don’t want to miss the chance to pre-empt further damage should it come,” Luschini said.
Large investors have moved so much money into cash accounts at Bank of New York that on Thursday the bank said it would begin charging some clients a 0.13 percent fee to hold their cash.
“In the past month, we have seen a growing level of deposits on our balance sheet from clients seeking a safe-haven in light of the global interest rate and credit environment,” the bank said in a statement to The Associated Press. Bank of New York clients include pension funds and large investment houses.
“Investors are deciding that now is the time to take risk off the table,” said Brian Gendreau, market strategist for Cetera Financial Group. Gendreau said that some investors are now wondering whether stocks will have a prolonged slump similar to the aftermath of the Great Depression.
Technical trading, a term used to signify buying or selling based on the S&P 500′s prior highs and lows, also helped push stocks downward. The S&P 500 fell below 1,222, a so-called support level, early in the day. That signified to some traders that the stock market would continue to slide.
“Traders are respecting the technical levels even if they’re not technicians,” said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial. “Even if you’re what we call a conviction buyer, you have to respect those levels.”
Companies that outperform when the global economy expands fell the most. Alcoa fell the most, with a 9 percent drop. Bank of America and Caterpillar were down 7 percent. Boeing ended down 6 percent.
Some traders are selling ahead of Friday’s employment report, which is expected to show that unemployment remained at 9.2 percent last month. A rise in the unemployment number would likely push stocks lower again.
The U.S. government said before the market opened that the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits for the first time was only slightly lower last week to 400,000. That’s still above the 375,000 level that economist say indicates a healthy job market. It was the latest indication of weakness in the U.S. economy.
All 10 industry groups in the S&P index fell. Energy, materials and industrial companies each lost 5 percent or more.
The sell-off comes at a time when corporate profits are growing. The forward price to earnings ratio of the S&P 500 has fallen to about 12, well below its long-term average of 16. That means that investors who buy now are paying less for each dollar in profits.
Based on what an investor now pays for corporate profits, stocks are now trading at their lowest levels in 20 years, said Tim Courtney, chief investment officer of Burns Advisory Group in Oklahoma City.
Few companies were spared in the sell-off. Just 3 of the 500 stocks in the S&P 500 moved higher. General Motors Co. fell 4 percent despite beating analyst’s earnings estimates.
The stock market as a whole had its biggest fall since the start of the current bull market in March 2009. The drop in the S&P was the largest since a 45-point decline on January 20, 2009. The Dow is down 1.7 percent for the year. The S&P 500 is down 4.6 percent. And the Nasdaq is down 3.6 percent. The Russell 2000, an index made up of small companies, has fared the worst. It was down 5.6 percent Thursday and is down 7.3 percent for the year.
Click here for the full report from DailyFinance.com
