Black Friday's FugginSuggin Rundown DISCOUNT SPECIAL

"Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer." ~Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

Since all the posts on FugginSuggin.com are prepared by the conjunctive efforts of two individuals, it is difficult to find the time to cover each and every topic, issue or event that we'd like.  This is why every once in a while we bullet-point topics of interest in what we have (for this post at least) entitled the "FugginSuggin Rundown."  In such posts, we will briefly touch on topics, using hyperlinks to our supporting articles.  We hope that such hyperlinks will direct you to further information on the issues discussed, expand on the information provided in our article, and get you started on performing your own independent research.   So, with my belly stuffed from Thanksgiving, I am going to get some of these thought provoking morsels off my plate, and offer them to you at a "Black Friday" discount, free of charge, no early morning wake-up or line-waiting necessary:

•  Black Friday - oh, what a sickening spectacle this day is.  So far, no stampede deaths from consumer's rushing to get the best bargain.  I've decided to stay in bed and support "Buy Nothing Day" instead of venturing out.  It is very nice not to participate in holiday gift-giving. 

• Despite a continued dismal forecast for our economy, corporate profits were record breaking in 2010's 3rd Quarter, the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago.  Ah, to fail and grow rich in America. This makes sense, especially if one looks at our economy as if it were a balloon filled with air.  A knotted balloon holds only so much air, and depending on where you squeeze the balloon, the air will shift, contorting its shape accordingly, all whilst maintaining that same amount of air.  A big bulge on one side of my fist, littler bulge on the other.  See it?  Now, imagine that the balloon is our economy, and the air inside is the money in circulation.  There is only so much, and, depending on where its pinched, it concentrates in certain areas.  During a "good economy," money is more evenly distributed (no pinching).  During a "bad economy," money is in the hands of fewer people, generally those of already substantial wealth (big bulge).  As I said, there is always the same amount in circulation (unless of course the Fed prints more, and in that case, what you have becomes devalued).  Therefore, when the media talks about a "bad economy," they are discussing it in terms of the majority population, as for some within the wealthy minority, it is an extremely advantageous and flourishing economic time.  We need to be concerned about our future.  It's about time to pop that balloon and find out who was in charge of squeezing it, before its too late.  

• North Korea and South Korea exchanged deadly rocket fire near a disputed Western border this past Tuesday.  The communist nation of North Korea warned of more military strikes if the South encroaches on the maritime border by "even 0.001 millimeter."  North Korea warned that planned U.S.-South Korean naval exercises this week would push the Korean peninsula to the brink of war.  The U.S. and South Korea announced the exercises Wednesday, after North Korea fired artillery at a South Korean island near their disputed maritime border, killing two South Korean marines and two civilians.  The stark warning from the North came as sounds of distant artillery fire were heard from within North Korea on Friday.  The four day long U.S./South Korea naval exercises are set to begin on Sunday.  The United States has a longtime relationship with South Korea, while China is North Korea's closest ally and trade partner.  President Obama, who recently visited the region, even referred to South Korea as one of "America's closest allies and greatest friends."  A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters on Thursday that Beijing had "concern" over the action, saying China opposes "any act that undermines peace and stability on the (Korean) peninsula."  Despite Chinese opposition, the U.S. plans to continue with the "naval exercise."  This recent strife has not hurt the U.S., but rather the struggling U.S. dollar gained some footing in international markets, as the markets seek a safe haven after the artillery fire, while valuation of Asian currency declined.  Some are speculating that this "exercise" could cause the escalating "cold war" between the United States and China to reach a boiling point, especially if the U.S. takes military action against North Korea.  Regardless of the resulting appearance of aggression caused by the war games, the U.S. has consistently informed China that the U.S. presence in Southeast Asia is not aimed at or motivated by China.  China maintains that it wants to ease tension in the area, not increase it.

• The U.S. Dollar continues to weaken as China and Russia have decided to renounce the US currency and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade.  Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.   Despite intent, this move further threatens the U.S. dollar's reserve currency status, which the dollar has because it is currently the currency of international trade.  To explain this, we'll give an example: when South Korea and France exchange goods, the transaction is usually priced in U.S. dollars, so each country keeps a reserve of this currency to  be used for international trade.  In particular, oil, something that all modern economies need, is denominated in U.S. dollars, so the currency is almost as necessary as the oil itself.   The dollar reserve currency status allows the U.S. to run up high deficits and have its debt be denominated in the U.S. dollar, which in turn, enables the U.S. Government and Federal Reserve to print unlimited dollars and inflate its way out of debt. The U.S. Government wants to protect this status and these privileges, so much in fact that many allege that the U.S. invaded Iraq because the country started selling oil in Euros instead of dollars.  Currently, the U.S. is likely threatening Iran for the same reason, because of the country's desire to use Euros or Russian rubles in oil transactions, as opposed to U.S. Dollars (for more on this, please see Petrodollar Warfare).

• Interestingly absent from mainstream, corporate-owned news media (seriously, where is it???), is news that Jim Black, a British Petroleum (BP) incident commander for the company's Gulf of Mexico oil spill response team, died in a small plane crash near Destin, Fla., on Tuesday night.   Mr. Black' position at BP was Director of Operations for the Gulf Coast Restoration Organization,  and he spent a lot of his time during the past several months in and around New Orleans.  Little planes seem to get more and more dangerous whenever they are boarded with politically significant figures.  

• What is up with this Four Loko drink?  Energy drinks are poison, not just this one.

• A new TIME Magazine cover story/Pew Research Center Study speculates on whether marriage is becoming obsolete based on a poll of almost three thousand Americans and a review of U.S. Census data.  Maybe people are realizing that marriage is for the insecure and tax-code conscious.  For more on the implications of marriage on your tax return, check with your friendly CPA or tax professional.  For more on why marriage is for the insecure, ask yourself why you need to stand up before a crowd and pronounce your love for another, a legal union that brings the government into your relationship as soon as you want to end it.  If you are secure in your love, what is the reason to make it so difficult to break up? 

• President Obama needed 12 stitches in his lip after a flailing elbow struck him during a game of basketball.  Sounds like a rough game of hoops!

• Despite the initial sounding of defeat and a Republican sweep of the state's election, the Arizona Medical Marijuana initiative narrowly passed once all votes were counted, making Arizona the 15th state to adopt a medical marijuana law.  The opposite situation occurred in California with the Prop 19 marijuana legalization effort as Democrats swept the state election while the legalization initiative failed to pass.  Why?  In California, most of the marijuana growers and dispensary owners feared that Prop. 19 would give too much regulatory power over the cannabis industry to the government, and therefore much of the pro-legalization community was against the initiative.  There is no way a marijuana legalization initiative will pass when their production industry is against it.    

• Amidst the growing outrage over the Transportation Security Administration’s new policy of backscatter scanning of airline passengers and “enhanced pat-downs,” a group of scientists and professors from the University of California at San Francisco have expressed “serious concerns” about the “dangerously high” concentrated dose of radiation that the airport scanners are exposing people to.  The group is arguing that the TSA statistics regarding the safety of the scanners are misleading. 

• As seen with the TSA situation, there is increasingly more and more attention on the possibility of harmful results caused by "electropollution," the result of radiation from electric devices.  According to a recent study from the Netherlands, radiation from Wi-Fi networks is harmful to trees, causing significant variations in growth, as well as bleeding and fissures in the bark.  This is not the first study on electropollution discussed this year.  Earlier in 2010, a study out of India claimed that cell phone radiation could be a major factor for disappearance of honey bees, hypothesizing that the radiation interfered with the bee’s navigation senses.  There has also been studies conducted on the link between cell phone use and increased incidents of brain cancer.

• Man, President Bush's face all over the television on his memoir-promotion tour, although at-times humorous, is agonizing to anyone with a memory and a conscience.  While the whole Kanye West fiasco was just sad and silly, having to listen to this guy further bullshit the American people while promoting some crappy book is just too much to handle.  Too bad more time hasn't been spent on possible instances of plagiarism in the book.  There is no way I'm going to purchase it to check. 

• Wikileaks plans another dump of classified cables sometime next week.  Reports indicate that the imminent dump of close to 3 million documents will include reports from U.S. diplomats on corruption within foreign governments and among world leaders. The U.S. government is taking preemptive steps to counter the next round of classified disclosures.  U.S. allies around the world have been briefed by American diplomats about the expected release of files. 

• The "Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act" (COICA) is unfortunately on track to reach final legislative approval, as the anti-counterfeiting bill passed through a Senate committee with unanimous approval last week. COICA, which is primarily focused on copyright and intellectual property infringement, would provide a mechanism for the Department of Homeland Security to interfere with the Internet's domain name system and create a blacklist of censored domains.  COICA would therefore allow the government, without due process, to censor an enormous amount of non-intellectual property infringing content, including political and other speech (ahhh-hummm, FugginSuggin.com).  Yet, without any need for COICA, any court order, or any due process at all, the Department of Homeland Security, through U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) has just seized the domains of a BitTorrent search engine along with at least 75 other domains.  Apparently the Department's ability to bypass the need for COICA and shut down the sites without affording them due process comes from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a Clinton-era law that allows websites to be closed on the basis of a copyright complaint.  So if you try to come on FugginSuggin.com in the future, and you get a notice that our domain has been seized by ICE, there ya go.  

"No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable." ~Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations