Russia China Make Major Dollar Announcement

Where Will America’s Sick Obsession With Wealth And Money End?

 

Everywhere you look, Americans appear to be extremely obsessed with wealth and money. These days, networks such as CNN endlessly run "news stories" with titles such as "Best cars for the super rich". We have television shows where people proudly show off how wealthy they are, and it seems like Hollywood is putting out an endless parade of movies that glorify the lifestyles of the elite. We have hordes of motivational speakers and "life coaches" that will teach you how to be "more successful" in life, and every small movement in the stock market is carefully monitored by the mainstream news media. Even in the world of faith, we have an entire class of ministers known as "prosperity preachers", and many of those ministers wear that label quite proudly. Yes, those that grew up in the 1980s may have been the "greed is good" generation, but the truth is that they didn't have anything on us. As a society we love money, and we are not ashamed to admit it. In fact, there are times we absolutely revel in it. For example, Time Magazine published an article this year entitled "Science Proves It: Greed Is Good" and hardly anyone even raised an eyebrow. But where will America's sick obsession with wealth and money end? Could it end up destroying us?

I got the idea for this article when I was browsing through CNN's website. The following are eight "news stories" about wealth that were featured on CNN just on Thursday alone...

#1 "The richest Americans in history"

#2 "How much do you need to be happy?"

#3 "Where are the super rich?"

#4 "From broke to billionaire"

#5 "Homes: What $25 million buys around the world"

#6 "Best cars for the super rich"

#7 "America's homes are bigger than ever"

#8 "Mega yacht with a movie theater"

This is what passes for news these days?

It has been said that we tend to talk about the things that we are obsessed with.

And CNN is clearly obsessed with wealth.

Not that there is anything wrong with having money.

If none of us had any money, we would all be homeless and starving. So the truth is that money can be very useful. But when it becomes an idol, that is when it becomes a problem.

And because we have taught entire generations of Americans that becoming wealthy is one of the primary goals in life, it is creating a tremendous amount of envy, jealousy, frustration and anger among those that have not been able to become wealthy.

In recent years, the level of bitterness and resentment that the rest of the nation has toward the very wealthy has risen to an unprecedented level. It has become exceedingly apparent that the system is designed to funnel wealth to the very top of the food chain, and many of those at the bottom of the food chain are starting to become extremely upset about this.

Since the last financial crisis, almost all of the income gains have gone to the top one percent of all income earners. The following comes from a recent Huffington Post article...


Economic statistics show that incomes for the top 1 percent of U.S. households soared 31 percent from 2009 through 2012, after adjusting for inflation, yet inched up an average of 0.4 percent for those making less. Many economists are sounding alarms that the income gap, greater now than at any time since the Depression, is hurting the economy by limiting growth in consumer spending.

And income inequality has become such a hot topic that it has even produced a New York Times bestseller by a French economist named Thomas Piketty. This is what CBS News recently had to say about his book...


His book has landed on that debate like a bomb. Piketty's thesis: that the rate of return on capital, such as real estate, dividends and other financial assets, is racing away from the rate of growth required to maintain a healthy economy. If that trend continues for an extended period of time -- if wealth becomes ever more concentrated in the hands of a few -- then inequality is likely to get worse, says Piketty, 43, who started his academic career as an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and who now teaches at the Paris School of Economics.

Another reason "Capital" has caught the public's attention is that inequality is evident in what are by now a host of familiar symptoms. Stagnant pay, except among the super-rich. Soaring health care and education costs. The diminished expectations commonly found in young, especially those lacking college degrees, and old alike, as retirement becomes something to endure rather than to enjoy.

It would be foolish to deny that the gap between the rich and the poor is growing. Even as the stock market reaches unprecedented heights, the middle class is dying and one out of every five children in America is living in poverty.

On a global scale, the wealthiest one percent now have 65 times more wealth than the entire poorest half of the global population does.

That is an astounding figure.

Most people don't realize this, but the ultra-wealthy haveapproximately 32 trillion dollars (that we know about) stashed in offshore banks around the planet. That amount of money would almost be about enough to pay off the entire U.S. national debt and buy every good and service produced in the United States for an entire year.

Meanwhile, the poorest half of the world's population only owns about 1 percent of all global wealth, and about a billion people throughout the world go to bed hungry every night.

If greed was going to save the world, it would have done it by now. At this point, the wealthy have accumulated more wealth than they ever have before. For example, according to Zero Hedge the total amount of wealth in the U.S. has just hit a brand new record high...


Earlier today the Fed released its latest Flow of Funds report, which showed that in the first quarter household net worth rose from last quarter's $80.3 trillion to a new record high of $81.8 trillion, driven by a $1.5 trillion increase in total assets while household liabilities were virtually unchanged in the quarter. And since the Fed is onboarding all the liabilities why should households bother with debt: that's what the central bank balance sheet is for.

As for the proceeds, they go to the mega rich: of the $81.8 trillion in net worth, 70.4% of the total amount or $67.2 trillion, was in financial assets: the higest it has ever been courtesy of just one person: Ben Bernanke, and to a far lesser extent Janet Yellen who however is tasked with picking up Bernanke's pieces.

But of course most people who are rich are only rich on paper.

As noted above, 67.2 trillion dollars of the total of 81.8 trillion dollars of wealth in this nation is made up of financial assets.

So what happens if there is a major financial crisis (such as the derivatives bubble bursting) which causes the total amount of financial wealth in the United States to drop by 50% or more?

What would such an event do to our country?

We are so obsessed with wealth and money that it is truly frightening to think about how we would react as a society if it was taken away.

But this current financial bubble will not last forever.

At some point it will come to an end.

When it does, will our society throw a massive temper tantrum?

Credit to Economic Collapse

India-Russia Missile Successfully Test Fired from Indian Warship

MOSCOW, June 9 (RIA Novosti) – India’s armed forces successfully test launched a BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile, developed jointly with Russia, from the country’s newest warship INS Kolkata, the PTI news agency reported Monday quoting Indian defense officials.

The missile-launch took place earlier this morning off the west coast of India near the Karwar military base in Karnataka. During the test all the requirements were met, the officials said.

The missile was created by the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace founded in 1998 by the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization and Russian rocket design bureau Mashinostroyeniya. The venture was named after two rivers, the Brahmaputra in India and Russia’s Moskva.

Deliveries of BrahMos missiles to the Indian Armed Forces started in 2005. BrahMos, which is the world’s fastest cruise missile in operation, can travel at speeds of up to Mach 3. The missile has a maximum range of 290 km and can carry a warhead of up to 300 kg.

Ground and sea trials of the missile have already been successful. The BrahMos is expected to be deployed with Su-30MKI fighter-bombers jointly developed by Russia’s Sukhoi Design Bureau and India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for the Indian Air Force.

Credit to RIA Novosti

Waterless World? Scarcity could bring Earth to breaking point

LaRouche was right!!!!

Deutsche Warns: Markets Have Entered Full Blown "Mania"

With a closing P/E ratio over 17 and a VIX under 11, Deutsche Bank's David Bianco is sticking with his cautious call for the summer. Their preferred measure of equity market emotions is the price-to-earnings ratio divided by the VIX. As of Friday's close, this sentiment measure has never been higher and is in extreme "Mania" phase. Deutsche's advice to all the summertime-'chasers' - "wait for a better entry."

Via Deutsche Bank,

We find the current PEs demanding.

S&P median PE at 18.9, non-financial PE at 18.1 and trailing PE at 17.5 are all elevated vs. history.

And the P/E to VIX ratio suggests we have shifted from compacency into mania...

Don't Chase...

Since 1960, there have been 10 years when S&P materially advanced to new highs during the summer, but only 2 years (1964 and 1995) when it was not a post recession/bear market rebound and the market retained the summer gains until year end.

1968 and 1980 summer highs were post bear markets; 1985, 1989, 1997, 1999 summer high followed by a late summer/fall correction; 1987 and 1998 suffered a bear market (“1987 crash” and “1998 Russian default).

But what about all the money on the sidelines?... and the great rotation...

Source: Deutsche Bank

Credit To Zero Hedge

“Daddy, when did America fall? When did we become a Third World Country?”

Someday, many of you young adults will be asked this question by your children who will be unable to find the answer in the Common Core textbooks of the future. What will you say? What will you tell your children about the time America officially became a third world country? You might want to consider the banker-bailout date of 2008 when describing the collapse of America to your future children. America has indeed collapsed and we are living through the “settling of the dust” post-collapse period of our history.

In 1945, at the close of World War II, America produced 50% of the world’s goods despite only having five percent of the population. In a mere 63 years, the bottom fell out of the United States of America. It is tragic, beyond words, what has happened to our country. The following recounts some of the reasons for our decline.

Out of Control Debt

Third world countries have spiraling out of control debt. Standard & Poor’s made it official when it changed its label for America’s national debt from “stable” to “negative.” Subsequently, America is now officially a “Third World country”. Meanwhile, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America each report billions in quarterly profit, while the US is facing debt restructuring similar to Greece, Italy, Spain and Cypress.

The debt crisis has also spread to nearly every state as 46 states out of 50 states are on the verge of bankruptcy and many of our cities aregoing broke. Detroit is the epitome of a third world city. America’s infrastructure is collapsing as evidenced by the pitiful condition of our roads which are quickly obtaining Third World status.

The out of control debt found in the Third World is constantly being used against these countries by organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF. Globalist banking organizations use the debt to begin to acquire a nation’s infrastructure. It happened in Bolivia through an unholy alliance between Bechtel and the World Bank where water rates quadrupled and it became illegal to even reuse irrigation water runoff and it was illegal to trap rainwater. Colorado just enacted the same two laws within the past two years. Very soon America, the banksters will own everything aspect of substance. Does anyone still believe the movie, The Hunger Games, wasn’t delivering a clear message as to what lies ahead for all of us unless we can wake up enough people in time and change our course?

Income Inequality

What a lot of people don’t seem to realize is that when the Greatest Depression of 2008 hit, the money that once filled the coffers of the American middle class did not just evaporate into thin air. That money flowed somewhere and where it flowed was into the pockets of the banksters and a few of their select minions courtesy of the banker bailouts.

Since 2008, cavernous income gaps characterize Third-World nations and the United States is right up there with the worst of the nations with regard to income disparity. The income gap between the rich and poor has increased at a staggering pace, while many more middle-class folks citizens are losing ground on a daily basis.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report found that the income gap between the wealthiest Americans and middle-income and working-class Americans has more than tripled in the past thirty years.  Did you enjoy your prolonged nap while this was going on?

The CIA’s “Gini index,“ which reports on the world’s income distribution found that the United States has the 40th highest income gap disparity out of 136 nations measured. Nambia is the worst and Sweden is the best. The United States income disparity is comparable to Jamaica and Cameroon.

Unemployment numbers, food stamps, and home foreclosures continue to reach new record highs. Government-dependent people often have more discretionary income than a middle income worker making $60,000 per year.

And despite all of our economic woes, the economic free fall of our country has not financially touched the members of Congress as this constitutes another characteristic of Third World countries in which the ruling elite and their law making minions live high off the hog. The net worth of Congress continues to rise despite the onset of the Greatest Depression of 2008. The year 2008, was the year that the Wall Street took over the nation’s money, both nationally and individually and members of Congress laughed all the way to the bank. Financial disclosure forms analyzed by Roll Call magazine, using the minimum valuation of assets, showed that members of Congress, in 2010, had a collective net worth of over $2 billion, which constitutes a $390 million increase from the $1.65 billion members of Congress enjoyed in 2008 at the time of the first bailout.

Slavery As a Means to Fatten the Coffers of the Elite

Most Third World countries practice some form of overt and/or covert forms of slavery which serve to economically benefit the elite. America is no different. The US has simply traded one form of slavery for another.

Despite the fact that the United States makes up less than 5% of the world’s population, America’s prisons confine more than 25% of all people who are incarcerated on the entire planet. Several of these prisoners perform labor at twenty-three cents per hourwhile housed in our federal prisons contracted by the Bureau of Prisons’ UNICOR.

UNICOR is  a for-profit corporation and it is the US government’s 39th largest contractor.  Privatized prisons are the fastest growing prisons in the United States and they are normally guaranteed a 90% occupancy rate. This criminal corruption leads to a Third World type of abuse of the public by police departments in order to meet arrest quotas which guarantee the owners of the growing privatized prisons that they are promised occupancy rates will be met.  Along these lines, a plethora of stories document how the New York Police Department plants drugs on innocent subjects in their controversial “stop and frisk” program in which, in October 2011, a former NYPD narcotics detective testified that he regularly saw police plant drugs on innocent citizens in order to meet preset arrest quotas.  George H. W. Bush is one of the biggest players in the business of privatized prisons.

Substandard Healthcare

A constant characteristic among third world nations is a substandard health care system. I recently polled a number of young adults as to where they thought the United States fell with regard to life expectancy as compared to the rest of the world. Before voting, many acknowledged that the US had slipped from its once lofty position with regard to health care. Some people guessed that we had fallen to fourth or fifth in longevity. Some people made even bolder predictions by stating that we might have fallen as far down the life expectancy model as 10th.

What is your vote? How long do Americans live in comparison to our international cohorts? After all, the United States spends twice as much as the average of any other modern country for health care. In the US, we spend 17.6% of our GDP on health care, by far the highest percentage in the world and what do we get for this Third World type of highway robbery?

• Fewer physicians (2.3 per 1,000 as compared to 3.1 for the rest of the world).
• The number of hospital beds are fewer than other nations (2.6 per 1,000 as compared to 3.4 for the rest of the world).
• The average American lifespan is 78.7 years in 2010, more than one year less than the rest of the World’s OCED nations.

Now to answer the previous mentioned survey question I posed to the group of young adults which asked how long Americans live in comparison with the rest of the world. Sadly, according to the CIA Factbook, the United States is 50th in world in terms of life expectancy. Hong Kong is eighth and we have fallen behind Bosnia and Herzegovina. Oh, and one other thing, Cubans live longer than Americans.

Are you planning on having a baby and want to ensure its safety during the birthing procedure? You would be better off moving to Cuba where they have a lower infant mortality rate than the United States. The United States is amazingly number 47 in the world in infant mortality.

In fact, in the United States you are far more likely to be killed by your doctor than you are by a firearm. Death by doctor exceeded 225,000, in a two year period while death by firearm was only 9,601.

So, Americans are paying far more for health care and reaping Third World type of benefits. Today, health care is not about increasing health and longevity, it is about separating American patients from as much of their hard-earned money as possible. Obamacare, which is off to a disastrous beginning, will prove to be the biggest genocidal and simultaneously bankrupting factor in American history.

The Evisceration of Personal Liberties

Everyday freedoms are often a casualty of a society in collapse. The NDAA has eliminated due process from our constitution which destroyed the Fifth, Sixth and Eight Amendments to the Constitution. The Patriot Act eliminated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. Obama is threatening to destroy the Second Amendment. During a Presidential declared emergency, FEMA can snatch anything you own, including you, thus, eliminating the First and Third Amendments. The entire constitution is on life support.

Homeland Security (DHS) is arming against the American people as evidenced by its recent 2.2 billion rounds of acquired ammunition to go with the 2700 armored vehicles recently purchased by DHS. These police powers typically go hand in hand with collapsing economies in Third World countries which is what we are witnessing in America and the following statistics bear this out.

Do you remember that intellectual giant that occupied the White House prior to Obama? His name is George W. Bush and in typical fashion he ignorantly stated “they (the terrorists) hate us because of our freedoms.”  Do you remember that asinine statement? As with most things uttered by this intellectually deprived ex-President, Bush was dead wrong. The 2012 Legatum Institute’s Prosperity Index, notes that, with regard to personal freedom, America came in at 14th place which puts the US in good company with Uruguay and Costa Rica. And when it comes to the Safety & Security comparisons, America came in at 27th putting the US on par with Bulgaria.  These factors need to be coupled with the fact that our small businesses and American citizens, those who bother to go to work, pay the highest taxes in the world, thus increasing our level of indentured servitude to the bankster run government.

Media Manipulation and Control

A government-sponsored media that censors information is a key component of Third World countries.  In some countries, the media is openly owned by the State.  In America, the corporations dominate the government and these same corporations own the media. Therefore, we have state-sponsored media control by default.

“In 1983, fifty corporations dominated most of every mass medium … In 1987, the fifty companies had shrunk to twenty-nine. … In 1990, the twenty-nine had shrunk to twenty three. … In 1997, the biggest firms numbered ten….Today there are only 8 giant media companies dominating the US media (Disney, AOL-Time Warner, Viacom, General Electric/NBC, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google).

Ben H. Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, Sixth Edition, (Beacon Press, 2000), pp. xx—xxi

Former CNN Special Correspondent, Amber Lyon

Then there is former award winning CNN special correspondent, Amber Lyon, who left CNN because as she says, CNN was taking money from the federal government to embellish and openly fabricate some stories while not covering other stories.

The concentration of ownership has led to censorship when national and corporate interests overlap, and in typical Third World fashion, by default, we have government run media.
The simple solution is to turn off the television.

Failing to Protect Children

Who is protecting our children? Who stands for the preservation of parental rights?

The child abduction cases involving Stacy Lynne of Ft. Collins, Colorado and Monika Wesolowski of Fairfax County, VA., stands as a horrific example of how agencies of the government can prey upon children, destroy families and make a mockery of our justice system. Any society that is not capable, or willing, to protect its children is NOT worthy of surviving.

Conclusion

America is a conquered nation. When our treasonous Congress approved the theft of the nation’s treasury by Wall Street in the 2008 bailout, a bankster sponsored economic coup d’état took over this country and now we are witnessing the plundering of our personal assets as part of the war booty.

America, you have no rights, you have no claim to your property, you have no real liberties, you don’t even control your children and soon you will have no claim to your life. You are living in a police state run by the Federal Reserve whose police state policies are enforced by the Gestapo like DHS. In a few years, if you do nothing, many of you reading these words will not be here to see the final roll-out of this bankster run tyranny.

What shall we do? My suggestion is read Thomas Paine’s pamphlet,Common Sense, and then start deciding on your own what you need to do.

Credit to Common Sense

POPE FRANCIS a man with a mission

THE POPE IS WORKING TO COMBINE ALL RELIGIONS INTO ONE

“And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” Revelation 17:6

Pope Francis is a man on a mission to fulfill bible prophecy, and he is getting more done than any other Pope in the last 100 years. Pope Francis is here to make some serious and drastic changes not only in the Catholic Vatican system, in the professing Christianity as well.  He is creating the One World Religion.

The bible, in Revelation 17 and 18, talks about a harlot church that rules the spiritual world. She is wealthy beyond description, and all the kings and mighty men of the earth want to be in a spiritual bed with her. The bible says that she is a city that “sitteth on seven hills”, and is “drunk with the blood of the saints”. This can only be one system, one place, one church – the Roman Catholic Church whose Vatican headquarters sits on the famed Seven Hills in Rome.

Pope Francis’s call for unity goes beyond the Christian community. During his recent visit to the Middle East, Francis invited Israeli Jewish and Muslim leaders to join him in prayer for peace for their region at the Vatican this Sunday. Israel’s Chief of State Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Abu Mazen will be joined by a delegation of rabbis, Islamic imams, and Israeli Druze community leaders, according to news reports.

This week, not only did Pope Francis hold ecumenical services in the Vatican where he prayed to the moon god of Islam, Allah, he also held high level meetings with megachurch pastor Joel Osteen and US Senator Mike Lee who was there to represent the Mormon church. The actors have taken the stage, with more still arriving, in the unfolding of what will one day soon be the wildest bible prophecy ever told – the Great Tribulation.

Joel Osteen was enthralled with the fact that Pope Francis is so inclusive:

““I like the fact that this pope is trying to make the church larger, not smaller. He’s not pushing people out but making the church more inclusive. That resonated with me,” Osteen told the Houston Chronicle. 

The Christian Post reports that according to Westmont College, Francis had invited more than a dozen “North American Protestant leaders” to discuss the question: “Can we find common ground in order to advance the life and ministry of Jesus so more people can experience the joy of Christian faith?”

 The ecumenical meeting was a part of Pope Francis’ on-going efforts to bring unity among Christians, previously stating in public remarks, “Divisions among us, but also divisions among the communities: evangelical Christians, orthodox Christians, Catholic Christians, but why divided? We must try to bring about unity.”

However, Pope Francis’s call for unity goes beyond the Christian community. During his recent visit to the Middle East, Francis invited Israeli Jewish and Muslim leaders to join him in prayer for peace for their region at the Vatican this Sunday. Israel’s Chief of State Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Abu Mazen will be joined by a delegation of rabbis, Islamic imams, and Israeli Druze community leaders, according to news reports.

Credit to Nowtheendbegins

Worth Dying For? A Warning

The Death And Decay Of Detroit, As Seen From The Streets

With the stock market hitting record highs day after day, it is easy to move on and forget that one of American's once premier cities, Detroit, has been bankrupt for nearly a year. But out of mind doesn't mean out of sight, especially now that Google has launched its street view Time Machine, which provides for 7 years worth of street images, showing the time shift of the tumultuous period period starting in 2007. 

One blogger who decided to take this time lapse data and apply it to the city of Detroit is GooBing Detroitwho, as the following time-lapse photos demonstrate, has captured Detoit's unprecedented slow-motion collapse into death and decay in what is the closest we have to "real time."

Perhaps what is most stunning about the following series of photos is not the ultimate fate of the bankrupt city, but how quickly a once vibrant metropolis has succumbed to blight and sheer desperation.

Hopefully not coming to a street near you.

All photos from the Goobingdetroit tumblr depict various areas and streets in Detroit, then and now.

2009

2011

2013

Montlieu between Gilbo and French, City Airport Neighborhood. Top to bottom Google streetview circa 2009, 2011 and 2013.

2007

2009

2011

July 2013

September 2013

Chene between Palmer and Ferry. 15 of the 20 properties on this block have been, or are subject to, tax foreclosure. Looked like a nice bakery.

2009

2013

Healy Street north of Hamtramck

2009

2011

2013- July

2013 - August

Exeter between 7 Mile and Penrose, Northern Detroit.

Brightmoor neighborhood. 

Around 7 Mile, West Side

Northwest, near Grand River

West Golden Gate, Detroit

Southwest Detroit

East side, near Alter Road

Patton Street, NW Detroit 

Feel like you can kind of see how this scene unfolded:

In the top photo, the tree is blocking the view of that yellow house in the middle — that house isn’t in great shape, but it’s ok. The house to the left has neatly trimmed hedges and a chair on the porch. The house on the right has been gutted by fire.

I imagine that middle house - since it’s been demo’d by 2012 - caught on fire and caused the further damage to the house at the right. Whoever had been living in the nicely maintained house on the left, moved out, and that house was gutted.

In the last photo — with the nicely maintained house farthest to the right — you see another nice house on the left, with a boarded up, but fairly stable, house in the middle. By 2012, both nice houses are gutted, as is the boarded up one in the middle.

Springwells Village

Near City Airport. Wonder why they didn’t take down the one next door while they were at it…

From top to bottom: 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013. Hickory Street between Manning and Pinewood, northeast Detroit.

Of the 12,093 properties in this Detroit neighborhood, 1,037 are owned by the City of Detroit, mostly due to tax foreclosure. Another ~4,500 are either subject to tax foreclosure right now, or will be in the next year or two.

Eastwood between Queen and MacCray, Northwest Detroit. Just east of Osborn, in “Burbank”… if anyone actually calls it that.  Of the 34 properties on this block, 24 have been tax foreclosed, 13 are at risk of foreclosure, and precisely 1 property is in good tax standing.

Corner of Thaddeus and S. Leigh Street, Southwest Detroit. That’s a lotta washing machines…

Hazelridge between Celestine and MacCray, Northeast Detroit

This block is incredible. Still pretty dense with housing, but only one of them is occupied. If you go a block to the west, the housing stock changes to brick and the neighborhood looks pretty stable.

The New York Times visited this block during the Motor City Mapping survey:

"Blight, as Karl Baker, one Detroit resident, has seen, tends to spread. Along his block of Hazelridge Street on the East Side, he is the only remaining tenant. “Everyone went bye-bye,” Mr. Baker said the other day as he walked up the center of the silent street to get to his house since no sidewalks had been shoveled.

Most of the houses nearby are standing but abandoned, and visitors have clearly passed through — empty liquor bottles lie along debris-covered floors near broken windows and doors, every memory of a metal appliance or gutter seems to be gone from some of the homes, and two old couches that were dumped along a lawn are now blanketed by a thick layer of snow.

The last neighbor left six months ago, he said, and the single streetlight overhead has not worked for months. “I love the quiet, but if something went wrong, the city isn’t going to come,” Mr. Baker said. “They don’t do anything.”

Hoyt between Liberal and Pinewood, Northeast Detroit

Arndt between Elmwood and Ellery, East Side, Detroit

Lady waving to the street view car in the first image, c. 2009. Nearby the Heidelberg Project, and in the style, though not sure if a Tyree or not.

 Credit to Zero Hedge