Submitted by Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org,

The owner of the collapsed gypsum mine in China apparently committed suicide by jumping down a mine well, as rescuers were trying to reach 17 trapped miners from Friday’s accident. One person died and four miners escaped when the mine collapsed in China’s eastern Shandong province. The owner of the mine drowned after he jumped into a well. He killed himself in an apparent suicide, as more than 700 rescuers battled to save workers trapped for two days underground.

Christmas is a time for giving and that is what Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is asking of her citizenry. With almost $300 billion in debt, and almost 1 in 10 dollars of revenue going to pay interest, and already facing the highest tax rates in North America, The Star reports that Ontario officials are asking that 'patriots' voluntarily donate their tax refund or write a cheque to defray the province's massive debtload.

A growing number of US cities are declaring states of emergency as the number of people becoming homeless continues to rise Portland, Oregon; Denver, Colorado; and Seattle, Washington as well as the entire state of Hawaii have become the latest to take drastic measures to fight the growing crisis. Press TV reports: Los Angeles has yet to declare its own state of emergency, but campaigners describe its current condition as “the worst man-made disaster in the US.” The 50-block area of downtown LA, called Skid Row, has been a national emblem of homelessness for over a decade.

Authored by Mark St.Cyr,

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. We were all told by the “experts” and the so-called “smart crowd” ad nauseam the economy and markets of 2015 were “ready for lift off.” Proclamations that GDP and other economic metrics were indeed going to be the unquestionable catalyst to help propel not only the markets themselves ever higher, but also, prove all the nay-sayers as well as data-deniers wrong. The problem? It was the exact opposite.