Is the Dollar Dying? Why US Currency Is in Danger

The U.S dollar is shrinking as a percentage of the world's currency supply, raising concerns that the greenback is about to see its long run as the world's premier denomination come to an end.

When compared to its peers, the dollar has drifted to a 15-year low, according to theInternational Monetary Fund, indicating that more countries are willing to use other currencies to do business.

While the American currency still reigns supreme -- it constitutes $3.72 trillion, or 62 percent, of the $6 trillion in allocated foreign exchange holdings by the world's central banks -- the Japanese yen, Swiss franc and what the IMF classifies as "other currencies" such as the Chinese yuan are gaining.

(Read More: Hedge Funds Reap Billions on Yen Bets)

"Generally speaking, it is not believed by the vast majority that the American dollar will be overthrown," Dick Bove, vice president of equity research at Rafferty Capital Markets, said in a note. "But it will be, and this defrocking may occur in as short a period as five to 10 years."

Bove uses several metrics to make his point, focusing on the dollar as a percentage of total world money supply.That total has plunged from nearly 90 percent in 1952 to closer to 15 percent now. He also notes that the Chinese yuan, the yen and the euro each have a greater share of that total.

"To the degree that China succeeds in increasing its market share of the world's currency market, the United States is the loser," Bove said. "For years, I have been arguing that the move of the Chinese makes perfect sense from their point-of-view but no sense for the Americans."

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Record 10,978,040 Now on Disability; ‘Disability’ Would Be 8th Most Populous State

The total number of people in the United States now receiving federal disability benefits hit a record 10,978,040 in May, up from 10,962,532 million in April, according to newly released datafrom the Social Security Administration.

The 10,978,040 disability beneficiaries in the United States now exceed the population of all but seven states. For example, there are more Americans collecting disability today than there are people living in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey or Virginia.

The record 10,978,040 total disability beneficiaries in May, included a record 8,877,921 disabled workers (up from 8,865,586 in April), a record 1,939,687 children of disabled workers (up from 1,936,236 in April), and 160,432 spouses of disabled workers.

May was the 196th straight month that the number of American workers collecting federal disability payments increased. The last time the number of Americans collecting disability decreased was in January 1997. That month the number of workers taking disability dropped by 249 people—from 4,385,623 in December 1996 to 4,385,374 in January 1997.

As the overall number of American workers collecting disability has increased, the ratio of full-time workers to disability-collecting workers has decreased.

In December 1968, 1,295,428 American workers collected disability and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 65,630,000 worked full-time. Thus, there were about 51 full-time workers for each worker collecting disability. In May 2013, with a record 8,877,921 American workers collecting disability and 116,053,000 working full-time, there were only 13 Americans working full-time for each worker on disability.

According to the latest Census Bureau population estimates, if disability were a state in the union it would rank eighth in population, coming in after Ohio but ahead of Georgia:

1. California 38,041,430

2. Texas 26,059,203

3. New York 19,570,261

4. Florida 19,317,568

5. Illinois 12,875,255

6. Pennsylvania 12,763,536

7. Ohio 11,544,225

8. Disability 10,978,040

9. Georgia 9,919,945

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House Republicans express "great concern" about possible Holder perjury

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday expressing "great concern" about the possibility that Holder lied under oath during his testimony earlier this month on the Justice Department's seizing of journalists' records, CBS News has learned.

On May 15, Holder told the committee he wasn't involved in "the potential prosecution" of a member of the press under the Espionage Act for disclosing classified information. "This is not something I've ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy," he said.

Shortly thereafter, reports began to surface that the Justice Department, in addition to seizing telephone and email records of Associated Press reporters, had seized the the emails and phone records of Fox News correspondent James Rosen. While Holder had recused himself from the AP proceedings, the Washington Post reported that the attorney general had personally signed off on the search warrant for Rosen's records.

In the search warrant, the FBI called Rosen a "criminal co-conspirator" and suggested there's probable cause that he violated federal law. Rosen was not charged with any crime.

House Judiciary Republicans, in their letter, raise the possibility that Holder perjured himself by issuing an ironclad denial of any involvement in the investigation and potential prosecution of reporters. "The media reports and statements issued by the Department regarding the search warrants for Mr. Rosen's emails appear to be at odds with your sworn testimony before the Committee," they wrote. "We believe - and we hope you will agree - it is imperative that the Committee, the Congress and the American people be provided a full and accurate account of your involvement in and approval of these search warrants."

The White House defended Holder on Wednesday, with press secretary Jay Carney saying it was "self-evident" that Holder told the truth. "I think based on what he said, he testified truthfully," Carney said. "The attorney general talked about prosecution," he explained, while the case in question was completed with no further charges or prosecution slated.

Asked Tuesday if he regrets signing off on the warrant, Holder told reporters: "I'm not satisfied (with the Justice Department's guidelines involving the news media in criminal investigations)."

• Holder in the hot seat at congressional hearing
• Holder: I wasn't involved in AP secret phone probe

The leak investigation sprang from Rosen's report in 2009 that North Korea would respond to sanctions with more nuclear tests. That information was classified when Rosen reported it, leading to an FBI investigation to uncover Rosen's source that quickly shifted focus to scrutinize Rosen himself.

Agents monitored Rosen's movements in and out of the State Department. They searched his personal emails and combed through his cell phone records, an unprecedented level of government surveillance of a journalist.

Last week, President Obama, who's come under bipartisan criticism for the digging into journalists' records, said he directed Holder to conduct a review of Justice Department's guidelines for probes that involve journalists and said Holder would meet with media groups as part of that review.

Those meetings will begin on Thursday, with Holder scheduled to meet the Washington bureau chiefs of several major media organizations to chart a path forward for leak investigations that balances law enforcement and national security concerns with a respect for press freedom.

An official close to Holder told CBS News the meetings would be "forward looking," and will not include a discussion of the facts surrounding the AP subpoena and the Rosen search warrant.

On Tuesday, Holder voiced optimism about the likelihood that the meetings will result in a truce of sorts between the Justice Department and the press, which has savaged Holder's department and the rest of the Obama administration for what they see as an overzealous prosecution of security leaks.

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Two US embassy personnel shot in Venezuela

Two employees of the US embassy in Venezuela were shot and wounded early Tuesday in the capital Caracas, in a murky incident that local media and a police source said took place at a strip club.

"We can confirm that two members of the US embassy in Caracas were injured during an incident early this morning," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters in Washington.

"Medical staff inform us that their injuries are not life-threatening," he added, noting that they were hurt at "some sort of a social spot" but without specifying the venue or nature of their injuries.

US diplomatic sources later confirmed to AFP that the two men were shot.

The Venezuelan media identified the two men as Roberto Ezequiel Rosas and Paul Marwin, and said they were military attaches at the embassy, but neither the State Department nor the embassy in Caracas would confirm those reports.

"My understanding is that they are other agency personnel, not from the State Department," Ventrell said.

Venezuelan television channel Globovision reported on its website that the incident took place at the Antonella bar located in a shopping center in the Chacao district of Caracas, after an altercation with other bar patrons.

Bar staff told AFP on condition of anonymity that the venue is indeed a strip club that only admits men over the age of 30, but refused to say anything about the alleged incident involving the US embassy personnel.

A district policeman, who also spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said a shooting incident had been reported just outside the Antonella bar, involving three Americans.

In the entryway of the club, there are photos of female strippers.

Venezuela has the highest murder rate in South America with 54 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. In the first quarter of 2013 alone, there were 3,400 murders, according to government statistics.

Several diplomats have been assaulted in recent months in the country.

The United States and Venezuela, which have had no ambassadors since 2010, have had strained relations since Caracas accused Washington of backing a coup that briefly ousted the late Hugo Chavez in 2002.

President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's former vice president, has maintained a confrontational stance with the US government since his election on April 14, calling President Barack Obama the "grand chief of devils."

Foreign Minister Elias Jaua, however, said two weeks ago that the new government was prepared to normalize relations with the United States, beginning with a return of Venezuela's ambassador to Washington.

Despite the tensions, Venezuela sells the United States 900,000 barrels of oil a day.

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The trap of private debt that destabilizes the economy

In this short article I will try to show that in reality, the debt that really matters for the economy is private debt, not public debt, which instead is now public enemy to be killed by any means, in order to come to realize a new system of global governance.

Looking at the following chart on the U.S. public and private debt, you can make some considerations.

During the last 40 years, it happened that about 80% of money creation by banks was designed to governments, households and the financial sector while only 20% went to finance the productive sector.

From the graph it is observed that since 1953 about the private debt has exceeded the U.S. public debt and in the last 30-40 years, while the public debt has declined from 50 to 90% of GDP, the private sector has grown monstrously 110-300% of the GDP!

Household debt and U.S. companies is 300% of GDP in the first world economic power!

Other than public debt, private debt ... is what destabilizes the economy!

If we look at how this is composed staggering level of indebtedness of the private sector, we realize that it is mostly made up of loans granted for the purchase of real estate, as can be seen from the following chart clarifier:

Curiously, however, in the U.S. as much as the debt grows, the lower is the rate of interest on it (this obviously does not apply to Italy, Greece, Spain, France, ..).

For example, for the USA is so:

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American DHS Caught Spying On Veterans

Big Sis

In 2009, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security began a program to monitor white supremacists and “militia/sovereign-citizen extremist groups” for terrorist activities.

Included among the suspected terrorists were Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

At the time it was revealed, the program called “Operation Vigilant Eagle” caused some controversy but was quickly forgotten and buried by the media.

For the DHS, Vigilant Eagle was the expression of the misdirected paranoia that exists at the agency’s highest levels, which since President Obama stepped into office have issued multiple reports about a supposed wave of terrorism by American conservatives of various stripes, from Tea Party members to off-duty cops.

At the time, Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security secretary and chief conspiracy theorist, told NBC that, “This is an assessment of things just to be wary of, not to infringe on constitutional rights, certainly not to malign our veterans.”

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Homosexual blogger admits ‘Gay Day’ at Disney World is disgraceful

Families planning their big day at Disney World in the next week need to take note – Saturday, June 1 is officially “Gay Day” at Florida’s popular tourist attraction. To help spread the word, the Florida Family Association has created a campaign that uses aircraft banners to warn families about Gay Day before they enter Disney World.

An FFA banner from a previous year.

For the past three years, the FFA has hired an aircraft company to fly banners around Disney World in Orlando to warn families about Gay Day before they pay Disney for parking and admission.

The group has had a team attend several past Gay Days at Disney, and they routinely watched “thousands of people enter the park after they paid for parking, tickets and novelties only to see the gay day revelry and leave the park immediately,” according to FFA.

One Million Moms, a division of the American Family Association has routinely contacted Disney over the years. The response from Disney has been that they do not sponsor the gay-themed events, but they also take no action to stop it.

“Homosexuals will be celebrating the 23rd anniversary of Gay Day wearing matching Gay Day merchandise, such as T-shirts,” the One Million Moms website reads. “There will also be transvestites dressed in drag showing their support for the event.”

Criticism of the event doesn’t stop with heterosexuals. Pete Werner, founder ofDIS Unplugged, is a self-professed “42-year-old gay man living in Orlando,” who says in his blog that during the first week of June, the place looks a lot more like South Beach than Disney World and writes:

Over the years I have heard about, and have witnessed, what is commonly referred to as PDA (public displays of affection) during gay days, and almost always it’s done in full view of a family, or at least children. I don’t care if you’re straight or gay, there are some things kids don’t need to see – and trust me, two queens frenching outside Cinderella castle is really high on that list.

I can’t help but think of, and feel sorry for – the unsuspecting family who saved for years for a once in a lifetime trip – only to arrive and find that Disney had in fact, been invaded by he-women and shaved down muscle boys. By itself that would not be a problem, but the sheer number of people who seem to go out of their way to rub their sexuality in everyones face during this ‘event’ is nothing short of disgraceful.

Funded by private donations and, given the past two year’s success, the FFA’s banners will fly for two days along the Interstate 4 corridor, where many hotels are located and where travelers exit for Disney World, beginning on Friday, May 31. The banner will read “WARNING GAY DAY AT DISNEY 6/1,” in English and Spanish. The Spanish version was added to communicate to South American tourists and local Spanish speaking residents.

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