Retail Sales Set New Record in Dec. of $381B (Hat Tip: Brian B.)

Blame The Victims And Enrich The Perpetrators

Meredith Whitney On CNBC Prompts The Next Phase Of The Muni Collapse

GERALD CELENTE: Brace Yourself — Our Society Is Going To The Dogs

13 Glaring Signs That The Market Is Forming Another Huge Bubble

The Anti-Obamacare Momentum Is Gathering Steam

Obamacare Packs Crushing New Taxes

Pawlenty: US Must Not Be the Next Greece

Sustainable Communities – A Transformation of Virginia (Hat Tip: Nancy Jacques)

First Goes Tunisia, Next Goes…

This Is The Wikileak That Sparked The Tunisian Crisis

Nomura On Tim Geithner’s 5 Magic Tricks To Keep The Government From Defaulting

The Backlash Is Brewing Against Chinese High-Speed Rail: Here’s Why It’s In Trouble

SocGen On The Three Sovereign Default Risks Lurking In… Asia

Tunisia In Chaos As President Flees Country

The Worst Combo: Consumer Spending Is Mediocre, Gas Prices Rising, And Retailers Have No Pricing Power

Munis Crashing For Third Straight Day, And This Is The Worst Yet

Meredith Whitney On CNBC Prompts The Next Phase Of The Muni Collapse

WHOOPS: New Jersey Forced To Cancel A Bond Sale After Chris Christie Says The State Is Going Bankrupt

WHOOSH: India Tanks Again In Late-Session Collapse

China Just Hiked Its Bank Reserve Ratio Again

Is China Telling Us That Commodities Are About To Collapse?

Consumer Spending Flat-Out Collapsed In The First Week Of January

America: Paydown problems (Hat Tip: Brian B.)

Central Banking Tsunami

The New Feudalism

Euro zone working on package to solve crisis: Germany (Hat Tip: Jean Stoner)

Court Grants Government Motion in EPIC Body Scanner Lawsuit (Hat Tip: Jean Stoner)

Conservative Missouri Blogger Victim of Witch Hunt

Sheriff Contradicts Self in Case Against Blogger

COHEN: Russia’s repression

House set to vote on healthcare repeal

China eases corporate rules on renminbi

Gasoline’s prepping for a return to $4 a gallon

Morning Bell: Economic Freedom Is Foundation Of All Other Freedoms

Economic Freedom: America vs. China

Has Argentina’s President Maxed Out Her Credit Cards?

More Than Half of All States Now Suing to Stop Obamacare

China Global Investment Tracker: 2011

Mountain House Food Alert, None Available, 92% Dealers Cut (Hat Tip: Jean Stoner)

Having been one of the largest freeze dried food dealers in the U.S. for a number of years, I can tell you that this event is ominous. There are less than a dozen freeze drying food production facilities of consequence in the U.S. of which Mountain House is the largest. I was contacted late Wednesday night by one of their major dealers. He stated that Mountain House only had 4 entrees of foil packaged food available in their warehouse. They informed my dealer friend that “It was only going to get worse”!

They would not confirm how much the U.S. govt. was buying but, it was my friend’s opinion that “they pretty much bought it all”! I would strongly suggest that given the dire harvest reports and weather wars now underway, you speed up and add to your existing food supplies ASAP. Flooding, fires, blizzards and locusts, not to mention flash freezing coupled with historic snowfall in areas that don’t get snow, should be a massive kick in the pants to get going in adding provisions and acquiring additional emergency items.

Buy from Emergency Essentials here – as of today, they still have Mountain House…

World Bank puts up €68m to avert post-Kyoto carbon market crash (Hat Tip: Jean Stoner)