"If finding gold is that profitable why am I not reading about new gold millionaires coming out of Oregon?"

It's profitable, *BUT* thanks to 40 years of land-use laws and environmental sensitivity, it's no longer legal or politically correct to do this large scale. The Sumpter Dredge will never run again.

Your question led me to find out that Cracker Creek Mine has suddenly closed- sometime in the last couple of days their website, which previously offered Highbankers at $120/4 hours rental, has been taken down. Looks like they might be a victim of a government decision to limit public access to the entire region.

The veins in Oregon are not new, and while one person panning could get that kind of profit (2 oz of flakes for a week's work in the rivers isn't that out of line, especially not in the the coastal mountains, it is limited now to just panning on known government owned lands. Mechanical dredgers are banned in those areas completely, even highbankers are banned there.

You ain't going to see a millionaire from those regions. At most, you might see an unemployed person camping and earning $120,000/year with *very* hard labor. And that would even get cut into with the harsh weather we get yearly- many weeks you'd get nothing.

"However your assessment of gold price is wrong. Gold price was artificially fixed until at just over $20 oz. until 1933. After the FDR gold confiscation he revauled gold (devalued the currency) to a fixed $35 oz. The price remained there until 1971."

Thanks for the correction. Pre-1971, then, the reason these mines closed was because inefficient mining methods meant production cost was far higher than either of those fixed prices. Post-1971 (the era of CONSERVative Republican Governor Tom McCall, who started the environmentalist land use laws in Oregon) we haven't seen a return to large scale production because of the damage it does.

I'm still thinking about taking a weekend or two to go gold panning, as time allows- and if I end up unemployed again, a weekly trip to Shady Cove Campground may be in order, as it's my closest proven vein where panning is allowed.

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Maximum jobs, not maximum profits.

You can inflate gold. It's just *really hard to*. The majority of the gold in our economic system is probably only 1-2% of the gold on the planet earth; 19th and early 20th century mining systems were horridly inefficient and during that boom time of American gold production (1849-1954) many mines ended up shutting down because they were unprofitable- inflation had pushed the price of gold too low to mine.

With Gold now back up to ~$1000/oz, some of those old mines in my state have discovered a whole new business model- gold mining tourism, in which the vacation might cost you $500, but you'll earn $1500 over that for a week's work.

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Maximum jobs, not maximum profits.

but now those same people are starting to raise an eyebrow.

They are starting to understand that the Feds and large Corps are working hand in hand. That is corporatism and if my history memory serves me...Italy once had it. How well did that work out?

But on a happy note. Three weeks ago I found a gas station that still has the non-ethanol gasoline. I've gotten gas there three times (no place else). My car is running better than it has in a year and I am getting about 15 > 20 percent better gas mileage. Mandate ethanol = use more gas = spend more money = use more gas.

I would imagine since my car is running better it puts out less NOX. Ethanol = water in gas. Ethanol is hydroscopic. Do a net search on fuel pumps and ethanol. Once ethanol was mandated in States mechanics saw an increased failure of fuel pumps.

The banks are giving back Tarp fund money. In three months the banks are solvent again? Half the banks didn't want Tarp funds in the first place. Now that they are giving it back, it isn't going back to the taxpayers. It is going back into the Tarp fund so the Feds now have a large slush fund to play with.

Am I the only one that sees so many failures in government mandates, programs, etc?

Send the current Reps and Dems home.

Sorry it is me ranting again and got a bit off topic.

Now with all this excess capital lying around what will the financial conglomerates do with it?

They are not lending. So, they will use that excess capital to get bigger - more acquisitions or even worse take on more risk.

SE MI highways are almost empty. Traffic almost doesn't exist, unless it is construction. Once school is out, there will be even less on the roads.

They keep giving us job training money when there are no jobs. We need to do a version of Carter's public service employment for the LTU. The ARRA money will create "summer jobs" for kids, but the adults are pretty high and dry.

I've recently come across an interesting book about Obama - http://www.ebook-search-queen.com/ebook/OBAM/OBAMA+MOVEMENTS+OF+CRITICAL... . With so many people paying homage to this person, it he really that good and can bring us the desired peace and confidence in the future?

I saved only myself and I was lucky. But let me be clear: when, in June of 2007, I moved mostly to cash and bought some gold coins (10 oz) I felt paranoid doing it... felt like I'd given in to the "crazy" crowd so often populated with survivalist types. But nothing else made sense either. My house, bought in 1999 for $110,000 had, by 2005, moved beyond half a million (in an area where the median income was probably never higher than $30,000) if measured by surrounding sales (I have no intention of selling). That bubble had to pop so I never heloc'd or hew'd. It seemed to me every one around was just crazy so I did something radical and moved myself as afar from the system (via cash) as I could. It was a good bet fortunately, yes, but I'm not bragging...

And no one is more concerned about jobs and wages than I... ask New Deal democrat, so we have no argument there. The Obama WH is skating on some thin ice economically and no amount of happy-talk will make their "recovery" bullshit come true absent jobs.

Cheers!

has written some excellent posts comparing data from the Great Depression to now, but a post on the history of the unemployment stats is most needed.

Most do not realize the changes over time to do what you are saying.

Even worse, I tried to compare to other nation's stats and I never came up with an true scale, the differences.

Be a huge educational thing if you know all of this and wrote it up.

the 1994 redesign of the CPS shoved people who hadn't actively looked for a job in the last month out of the unemployed category.

When you're talking about professionals, they often aren't going to find a job that matches their skill set to apply for every month.

Not to mention that many people are forced to take a part time job at much lower pay. So what happens is that the unemployment rate doesn't include them even though they are still really without job.

You know what I'm talking about college graduates working at the local library 20 hours a week for minimum wage.