– [Photo] Personal geiger counter indicates radiation level 1.8 times higher than public monitoring post (Fukushima Diary, June 28, 2014)
Month: June 2014
The Delusion Of Perpetual Motion; Bob Shiller Warns ‘I’m Definitely Concerned’
– The Delusion Of Perpetual Motion; Bob Shiller Warns “I’m Definitely Concerned” (ZeroHedge, June 29, 2014):
“I am definitely concerned. When was [the cyclically adjusted P/E ratio or CAPE] higher than it is now? I can tell you: 1929, 2000 and 2007;” warned Bob Shiller this week, adding that “it’s likely to turn down again, just like it did the last two times.”
As John Hussman explains,The central thesis among investors at present is that they are “forced” to hold stocks, given the alternative of zero short-term interest rates and long-term interest rates well below the level of recent decades (though yields were regularly at or below current levels prior to the 1960s, which didn’t stop equities from being regularly priced to achieve long-term returns well above 10% annually). The corollary is that investors seem to believe that as long as interest rates are held near zero, stocks will continue to advance at a positive or even average or above-average rate.
Read moreThe Delusion Of Perpetual Motion; Bob Shiller Warns ‘I’m Definitely Concerned’
BIS Slams ‘Market Euphoria’, Finds ‘Puzzling Disconnect’ Between Economy And Market
BIS, the central bank of central banks, is located in Basel, Switzerland, but it also has branches in Hong Kong and Mexico City. It is essentially an unelected, unaccountable central bank of the world that has complete immunity from taxation and from national laws. Even Wikipedia admits that “it is not accountable to any single national government.”
Related info:
– 40 Central Banks Are Betting This Will Be The Next Reserve Currency
– BIS Slams “Market Euphoria”, Finds “Puzzling Disconnect” Between Economy And Market (ZeroHedge, June 29, 2014):
“… it is hard to avoid the sense of a puzzling disconnect between the markets’ buoyancy and underlying economic developments globally…. Despite the euphoria in financial markets, investment remains weak. Instead of adding to productive capacity, large firms prefer to buy back shares or engage in mergers and acquisitions.
As history reminds us, there is little appetite for taking the long-term view. Few are ready to curb financial booms that make everyone feel illusively richer. Or to hold back on quick fixes for output slowdowns, even if such measures threaten to add fuel to unsustainable financial booms. Or to address balance sheet problems head-on during a bust when seemingly easier policies are on offer. The temptation to go for shortcuts is simply too strong, even if these shortcuts lead nowhere in the end.
– Bank of International Settlements, 84th Annual Report
It was a year ago when the general manager of the Bank of International Settlements (the central banks’ central bank), Jamie Caruana warned that the “Monetary Kool-Aid Party Is Over.” Since then central banks have proven their own supervisor wrong in their ability to kick the can, because even as the Fed has commenced tapering its own QE (due to the same bond market liquidity issues we warned about last summer) the ECB has more than offset the Fed’s brief attempt at policy normalization by escalating, for the first time in history, from ZIRP to NIRP. In other words, the Kool-Aid keeps flowing.
Which brings us to the BIS’ just released annual report. There are many reason to read the full report cover to cover, but perhaps the most prominent one is that, once again, the Bank of International Settlements has merely compiled a book report of all Zero Hedge posts not only over the past year, but since our inception.
A quick summary of the report comes from FT:
Read moreBIS Slams ‘Market Euphoria’, Finds ‘Puzzling Disconnect’ Between Economy And Market
EU Gives Russia Three Days to De-Escalate Ukraine Crisis, Threatens Sanctions
It’s Ukraine vs East Ukraine, but Russia is now told to solve the problem the U.S. and the EU have created in the first place?
– EU Gives Russia Three Days to De-Escalate Ukraine Crisis, Threatens Sanctions (RIA Novosti, June 27, 2014):
BRUSSELS, June 27 (RIA Novosti) – The European Council on Friday said it would give Moscow three days to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine, or it will impose new sanctions against Russia, according to a statement published Friday.
The European Council also set conditions for the de-escalation.
“The European Council expects that by Monday 30 June the following steps will be taken: Agreement on a verification mechanism, monitored by the OSCE, for the ceasefire and for the effective control of the border; return to the Ukrainian authorities of the three border checkpoints (Izvarino, Dolzhanskiy, Krasnopartizansk); release of hostages including all of the OSCE observers; launch of substantial negotiations on the implementation of President [Petro] Poroshenko’s peace plan,” the statement reads.
Read moreEU Gives Russia Three Days to De-Escalate Ukraine Crisis, Threatens Sanctions
At Least 27 Shot In Chicago Since Friday
And Chicago has some of the strictest gun control laws in the country.
Flashback:
– Chicago Gun Violence So Severe That State Lawmaker Requests National Guard Help (CBS News, July 10, 2013):
– 27 Shot in Chicago Since Friday (NBC News, June 29, 2014):
At least 27 people have been shot, one of them fatally, in Chicago since Friday.
Police said the weekend’s sole fatality, as of Sunday morning, occurred just before 9 a.m. Saturday when a 42-year-old man was fatally shot in the head while riding his bike.
The shooting took place in the 3600 block of West Chicago Avenue. Police said the man was taken to Mount Sinai hospital with wounds to the head and right arm and was later pronounced dead.
Ten others were shot Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning.
ISIS Declares A Caliphate; Crucifies 9 Syrian Rebels For Being ‘Too Moderate’
– ISIS Declares A Caliphate; Crucifies 9 Syrian Rebels For Being “Too Moderate” (ZeroHedge, June 29, 2014):
Erstwhile leader of ISIS, Sheikh Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has declared himself Caliphate, Amir Al-Mu’minin – Leader of Believers, as militants bear down on Baghdad. This comes as the extremist group demands that all Al-Qaeda and Jihadi branches must now pledge allegiance to ISIS.. if not there are consequences as nine rebels have been crucified for being too ‘moderate’ or accused of receiving support from Western powers. We suspect this may slow ‘demand’ for Obama’s latest cunning plan to offer ‘aid’ to only “moderate” terrorists.
ISIS have declared their Caliphate.
…
30% Discount To ‘Book’ And Still Not Cheap Enough …
– 30% Discount To ‘Book’ And Still Not Cheap Enough… (ZeroHedge, June 29, 2014):
At least one market appears to have a somewhat efficient price discovery mechanism…
Dear US Soldiers And Veterans: Avoid The Following Hospitals Like The Plague
– Dear US Soldiers And Veterans: Avoid The Following Hospitals Like The Plague (ZeroHedge, June 29. 2014):
The VA scandal was just the beginning.
According to Internal documents obtained by New York Times, US military healthcare is “a system in which scrutiny is sporadic and avoidable errors are chronic.” As the NYT reports In Military Care, a Pattern of Errors but Not Scrutiny, “the military system has consistently had higher than expected rates of harm and complications in two central parts of its business — maternity care and surgery.”
Among the findings:
Read moreDear US Soldiers And Veterans: Avoid The Following Hospitals Like The Plague
Chemtrail Forecasting Made Easy
– Chemtrail Forecasting Made Easy (Zen Gardner, June 20, 2014):
by Zen Gardner
Compliments of the military industrial complex owned weather service, you can now know when to expect a chemtrail spraying. Yes, they not only own the weather as they said they would, but they also conveniently own the weather forecasting services. George Orwell would be proud.
Check your phone and look at the forecast image. If you see the hazy cloud formation over the sun it could very well be a chemtrail forecast.
Take a look outside regularly and study the skies. Watch a normal clear sky get erased by lines or later stage chemtrails drifting in. Now look how it was predicted on your phone versus the natural day you would normally expect. It’s not normal atmospheric conditions in most cases, it’s an engineered phenomenon.
Yes, the “weatherman” is in on it and of course they know the spray days and locations. All of this is to make it look “natural”. And the weathermen know, and have been bought off and co-opted, they don’t dare speak the truth or they’ll lose their jobs…or more.
I’ve studied this a long time, as have many others, and it couldn’t be any more obvious. If you’re willing to look and connect the dots.
Chemtrail Signs and Symptoms
A truly clear sky in most cases will reveal a brownish horizon for anyone in a major population area. Even a clear sky is not truly clear any more, as the planet has been “dimmed” by over 20% after decades of spraying. Regular pollution, however, is never white, it’s dark and usually lays low. When white supersedes the brownish pollution is when we’re being sprayed. If it’s not there yet, it’s on its way.
One of their ploys is to lay the banks of chemtrails way out at sea if you live near a coast line, and float them on shore, so they appear to be natural weather changes. You can spot the tell-tale signs that these are chemtrail or chemtrail augmented clouds by the way they hang or disperse. Chemtrails do attract water vapor under certain conditions and sometimes morph into more natural looking formations. Usually, however, there’s not a lick of natural moisture and there’s obvious linear or criss-cross patterns as they arrive overhead. At that point they often fill them in from what they started out at sea, as they spread to cover the sky.
Keep looking as they come over –they’ll often separate out as they float overhead and you’ll see the lines of chemical sprays dispersing at different rates and configurations, clearly not natural clouds by any means.
They don’t spray during windy days over about 25mph, although they do spray above clouds, snow and rain, and even at night. Just wait for a break in the clouds or view the night sky and check for the obvious trails or dendrite-like spidery clouds. Those aren’t natural. They’re spreading chemtrails of different lengths to appear normal.
The Weatherman Is In On It?
It it any wonder, when Raytheon is involved?
Brought to you by the same military-corporate-banking complex that runs America ‘s permanent wars, Raytheon Corp is already profiting from new weather warfare technologies. The world’s fourth largest military weapons maker bought E-Systems in 1995, just one year after that military contractor bought APTI, holder of Bernard Eastlund’s HAARP patents. Raytheon also owns General Dynamics, the world’s leading manufacturer of military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
Raytheon reports the weather for NOAA through its Advanced Weather Information Processing System. Source
All weather forecasting and reporting is now routed through this central Raytheon system. No wonder the weatherman won’t say a peep about chemtrails and they don’t even show up on TV radar–it’s doctored. Chemtrails and their cover up is a concerted, military complex controlled effort. Welcome to Orwellia.
And it only follows that they’re also involved with HAARP-like electromagnetic steering technology to manipulate weather patterns. Nice one-two punch. The military industrial complex rolls on, disturbing natural weather patterns at will while the populace is being told it’s “climate change” for whatever reason of the day.
More on Raytheon, HAARP, Chemtrails and the Weather
Raytheon Corporation, the world’s fourth largest military weapons command, fabrication, and contracted
operations facilitator, bought the HAARP patent after only a short time, effectively
placing the US Air Force and US Navy in the power seat without labeling them
so. Raytheon is the same corporation, at a standoff with Northrop Grumman,
who runs the US Air Force’s federal jetliner aerosol programs for military radarweapons
conductivity enhancement, which is openly stated as “global warming
mitigation.”Aside from being co-management, with other corporate political military
entities of the UKUSA group, of the ECHELON base, the world’s biggest global
on-demand electronic invasion surveillance system situated in Europe, Raytheon
runs bomb experimentation, laser weapon creation, and now actually reports the
weather for NOAA through Raytheon Information Services’ AWIPS (Advanced
Weather Information Processing System) computers, in direct link with their UAV
weather modification units and radar weaponry systems programs. NOAA gave
them over $300 million for this currently active, 10-year project.Thus, weather reporting, for businesses and scientific organizations everywhere, is custom-tailored
for publishing as the Department of Defense manipulates it to be through
their various programs. SourceThese are nasty people; mad military fake scientists experimenting, or with worse intentions, on our planet and its people.
Research this subject.
And please keep exposing them. The darkness cannot stand the light of Truth.
Love, Zen
P.S. Chemtrails in the news in California before the total media clampdown: HERE
The Truthseeker: Ukraine Gangster State Calls For ‘Nuclear Strikes’ (Video)
Added: Jun 28, 2014
Description:
Parliament moves to quit Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; Nazis ‘regular reconnaissance visits to nuclear power stations’; Billionaire governor, whose Privatbank is top recipient of new IMF bailout, being placed on international wanted list for ‘banned methods of warfare and aggravated murder’.
Seek truth from facts with intelligence expert William Engdahl; economist Professor Michael Hudson; former US intelligence officer Scott Rickard; and the prosecutor who put Yulia Timoshenko’s partner behind bars, Martha Boersch.
Gaza Summer Fouled By 100,000 Cubic Meters Of Beach Sewage
Gaza, one big concentration camp.
– Gaza summer fouled by 100,000 cubic meters of beach sewage (Haaretz, June 29, 2014):
Fuel shortage halts work at waste treatment facility, leads to mass pollution of Gaza’s beach.
When Palestinians in the Gaza Strip seek some relief from the grind of life in an enclave plagued by conflict and hardship, they usually need to look no further than their sandy beaches.
But this summer, access to the cooling waters of the Mediterranean is gradually being closed off to Gaza’s 1.8 million residents, due to pollution stemming from fuel shortages that have halted work at sewage treatment facilities.
Read moreGaza Summer Fouled By 100,000 Cubic Meters Of Beach Sewage
Facebook’s Secret Mood Manipulation Experiment
– Everything We Know About Facebook’s Secret Mood Manipulation Experiment (Atlantic, June 28, 2014):
It was probably legal. But was it ethical?
Facebook’s News Feed—the main list of status updates, messages, and photos you see when you open Facebook on your computer or phone—is not a perfect mirror of the world.
But few users expect that Facebook would change their News Feed in order to manipulate their emotional state.
California Governor Signs Bill Legalizing Bitcoin
– California governor signs bill legalizing bitcoin (RT,June 29, 2014):
California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill making alternative currencies, including bitcoin, lawful in the state.
The bill repeals the provision of the old legislation, which banned the use of “anything but the lawful money of the United States.”
Authors of the amendment labeled the old regulatory regime as “stagnant” and lagging behind Californian “growing and innovative payments market.”
“This bill makes clarifying changes to current law to ensure that various forms of alternative currency, such as digital currency, points, coupons, or other objects of monetary value do not violate the law when those methods are used for the purchase of goods and services or the transmission of payments,” the comments to the bill read.
It Drives And Opens Doors: Google To Sell Humanoid Robot (VIDEO)
– It drives and opens doors: Google to sell humanoid robot (VIDEO) (RT,June 29, 2014):
Internet giant Google is gearing up to sell a humanoid robot that can run, climb and even drive a car. The cutting edge machine had been competing in the DARPA Robotics Challenge before being sold off to commercial enterprise.
Bio-inspired robot HRP-2 was designed by a Google-owned Japanese company, Schaft, and had breezed through the qualifying rounds of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA Robotics Challenge. The bot’s unique design makes it capable of taking on complex tasks with ease, including scaling ladders, opening doors and driving vehicles.
The DARPA challenge, nicknamed the robo-olympics, is a set of tasks aimed to recreate both manmade and natural disasters. It pits teams of some of the world’s top roboticists against one another in an effort to construct a robot that could aid humans in these emergency situations.
The winning robot gets a prize of $2 million in funding to further develop its technology, with a view to applying it in real life disasters.
Read moreIt Drives And Opens Doors: Google To Sell Humanoid Robot (VIDEO)
South Korean ‘Comfort Women’ For US Military Sue State For Forced Prostitution
– S. Korean ‘comfort women’ for US military sue state for forced prostitution (RT,June 29, 2014):
A group of South Korean former “comfort women”, who worked in state-controlled brothels for the US military after the 1953 Korean War, has filed a suit demanding compensation from the authorities for forced prostitution.
It’s the first time that such legal action has been taken regarding the brothels, or “special areas” that were sanctioned by the South Korean government, The Asahi Shimbun media outlet reported.
The women are seeking 10 million won ($9,850) for being made to serve as “US military comfort women” after the Korean War ended in 1953.
Read moreSouth Korean ‘Comfort Women’ For US Military Sue State For Forced Prostitution
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Cold War Renewed With A Vengeance While Washington Again Lies
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
– Cold War Renewed With A Vengeance While Washington Again Lies — Paul Craig Roberts (Paul Craig Roberts, June 28, 2014):
The Cold War made a lot of money for the military/security complex for four decades dating from Churchill’s March 5, 1946 speech in Fulton, Missouri declaring a Soviet “Iron Curtain” until Reagan and Gorbachev ended the Cold War in the late 1980s. During the Cold War Americans heard endlessly about “the Captive Nations.” The Captive Nations were the Baltics and the Soviet bloc, usually summarized as “Eastern Europe.”
These nations were captive because their foreign policies were dictated by Moscow, just as these same Captive Nations, plus the UK, Western Europe, Canada, Mexico, Columbia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Georgia, and Ukraine, have their foreign policies dictated today by Washington. Washington intends to expand the Captive Nations to include Azerbaijan, former constituent parts of Soviet Central Asia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia.
Read moreDr. Paul Craig Roberts: Cold War Renewed With A Vengeance While Washington Again Lies
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: A New Recession And A New World Devoid Of Washington’s Arrogance?
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
– A New Recession and a New World Devoid of Washington’s Arrogance? (Paul Craig Roberts, June 25, 2014):
June 25, 2014. A final number for real US GDP growth in the first quarter of 2014 was released today. The number is not the 2.6% growth rate predicted by the know-nothing economists in January of this year. The number is a decline in GDP of -2.9 percent.
The negative growth rate of -2.9 percent is itself an understatement. This number was achieved by deflating nominal GDP with an understated measure of inflation. During the Clinton regime, the Boskin Commission rigged the inflation measure in order to cheat Social Security recipients out of their cost-of-living adjustments. Anyone who purchases food, fuel, or anything knows that inflation is much higher than the officially reported number.
It is possible that the drop in first quarter real GDP is three times the official number.
Read moreDr. Paul Craig Roberts: A New Recession And A New World Devoid Of Washington’s Arrogance?
David Icke: ISIS The Start of World War III? (Video)
H/t reader squodgy.
Added: Jun 26, 2014
Description:
In this video Luke Rudkowski talks to David Icke about his predictions with ISIS and the possible start of WWIII. David breaks down many esoteric historical writings and the current political situation that can lead to bringing in other countries to war.
Read moreDavid Icke: ISIS The Start of World War III? (Video)
Radiation Levels Spikes At WIPP, Hit Highest Levels Since Initial Hours Of Radioactive Release
– Radiation spikes at WIPP nuclear facility — Hits highest levels since initial hours of radioactive release in February — Document link removed from official website — Gov’t analyzing samples for “potential impact on human health” (ENENews, June 27, 2014):
(Note: Measurements are taken after air passes through the filtration system. Also, the June data is shown in 4-hour intervals, while most in February are around 8 hours.)
*See the archived version of the NMED’s document list here and the current version here
‘Provocation’: Moscow Slams Ukraine’s Shelling Of Russian Border Checkpoint
– ‘Provocation’: Moscow slams Ukraine’s shelling of Russian border checkpoint (RT, June 28, 2014):
Mortar shells from Ukraine have again hit Russian territory, damaging a building at a border checkpoint and creating holes in the ground in two villages. The Russian Foreign Ministry has protested the “provocation,” demanding that Kiev investigate it.
At least three shells were launched over the Russian-Ukrainian border into Russia on Saturday, with one blasting a border-crossing checkpoint in the Rostov Region.
“Today, on June 28, Gukovo checkpoint came under fire. One of the shells hit a building and exploded,” a spokesman for the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) Border Guard administration in Rostov Region, Vasily Malaev, told RT.
Read more‘Provocation’: Moscow Slams Ukraine’s Shelling Of Russian Border Checkpoint
The Pentagon Has A Problem: ‘Vetting Moderate Al Qaeda Rebels Can Be Tough’ – So Here Is A Simple Solution … (Humor)
– The Pentagon Has A Problem: “Vetting Moderate Al Qaeda Rebels Can Be Tough” – So Here Is A Simple Solution… (ZeroHedge, June 27, 2014):
When we reported yesterday that Obama had submitted yet another $500 million funding request to arm “moderate” Syrian rebels as opposed to extreme al-Qaeda cannibals and other ISIS faithful, we noted the glaring oversight at the heart of this plan when we asked “how will Obama make the distinction? Well, that’s what polling is all about. To wit: “Excuse me, would you describe yourself as a moderate or extreme al-Qaeda jihadist. Answering affirmatively to the former assures you your own US-made Humvee and a few thousand bullets to shoot at US soldiers across the border in Iraq.” Today, none other than the Pentagon’s rear admiral John Kirby confirmed precisely these worries when he said, via Bloomberg:
- KIRBY SAYS A LOT OF WORK NEEDED TO VET MODERATE SYRIAN REBELS
- KIRBY SAYS CONCERNED ABOUT AID `ENDING UP IN THE WRONG HANDS’
While we share his sentiment (which we doubt is much of a concern to the US MIC as it will merely provide one set of US-made weapons to destroy another set of US-made weapons) we repeat that there is a very simple solution. It comes from Andy Borowitz, who appears to have read our mind, and is breathtakingly simple.
Presenting: The Moderate Syrian Rebel Application Form
Allow Fracking In NATIONAL PARKS, Says UK Environment Agency Chief
– Allow fracking in national parks, says UK Environment Agency chief (RT, June 28, 2014):
Fracking should be allowed to take place in national parks because its visual intrusion is minimal and the environmental risks have been “exaggerated,” according to the outgoing chairman of the UK’s Environment Agency.
Chris Smith, also known as Lord Smith of Finsbury, told the Times that if hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – is properly regulated, then it could be safe and “useful” in minimizing the UK’s reliance on climate polluting coal-fired power stations and imported gas. Smith is scheduled to step down from his post next month.
Read moreAllow Fracking In NATIONAL PARKS, Says UK Environment Agency Chief
Civil Unrest Is Rising Everywhere: ‘This Won’t End Pretty’
– Martin Armstrong Warns Civil Unrest Is Rising Everywhere: “This Won’t End Pretty” (ZeroHedge, June 28, 2014):
Submitted by Martin Armstrong of Armstrong Economics,
The greatest problem we have is misinformation. People simply do not comprehend why and how the economic policies of the post-war era are imploding. This whole agenda of socialism has sold a Utopian idea that the State is there for the people yet it is run by lawyers following their own self-interest. The pensions created for those in government drive the cost of government up exponentially with time. The political forces blame the rich and this merely creates a class warfare with no resolution for the future. Even confiscating all the wealth of the so-called rich will not sustain the system. Consequently, we just have to crash and burn and start all over again.
The Guardian reported that some 50,000 people marched in London to protest against austerity. They cried: “Who is really responsible for the mess this country is in? Is it the Polish fruit pickers or the Nigerian nurses? Or is it the bankers who plunged it into economic disaster – or the tax avoiders? It is selective anger.”
Read moreCivil Unrest Is Rising Everywhere: ‘This Won’t End Pretty’
?Nebraska Releases HUNDREDS Of Inmates By Mistake, Now Wants Them Back
– ?Nebraska releases hundreds of inmates by mistake, now wants them back (RT, June 28, 2014):
Authorities in Nebraska have mistakenly freed hundreds of prisoners over several years due to correction officials miscalculating their sentences. Law enforcement is now looking to put dozens of them behind bars again.
All in all, 306 inmates were freed erroneously, a situation first exposed by local media outlet Omaha World-Herald. 257 of them won’t be pursued, on condition that they don’t commit any offenses – because they would have completed their sentences by now. Three others died since they were let go, and five have successfully completed their parole.
Read more?Nebraska Releases HUNDREDS Of Inmates By Mistake, Now Wants Them Back
To My Fellow Zillionaires: The Pitchforks Are Coming … For Us Plutocrats
– The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats (Politico, July/August 2014):
Nick Hanauer is a Seattle-based entrepreneur.
Memo: From Nick Hanauer
To: My Fellow ZillionairesYou probably don’t know me, but like you I am one of those .01%ers, a proud and unapologetic capitalist. I have founded, co-founded and funded more than 30 companies across a range of industries—from itsy-bitsy ones like the night club I started in my 20s to giant ones like Amazon.com, for which I was the first nonfamily investor. Then I founded aQuantive, an Internet advertising company that was sold to Microsoft in 2007 for $6.4 billion. In cash. My friends and I own a bank. I tell you all this to demonstrate that in many ways I’m no different from you. Like you, I have a broad perspective on business and capitalism. And also like you, I have been rewarded obscenely for my success, with a life that the other 99.99 percent of Americans can’t even imagine. Multiple homes, my own plane, etc., etc. You know what I’m talking about. In 1992, I was selling pillows made by my family’s business, Pacific Coast Feather Co., to retail stores across the country, and the Internet was a clunky novelty to which one hooked up with a loud squawk at 300 baud. But I saw pretty quickly, even back then, that many of my customers, the big department store chains, were already doomed. I knew that as soon as the Internet became fast and trustworthy enough—and that time wasn’t far off—people were going to shop online like crazy. Goodbye, Caldor. And Filene’s. And Borders. And on and on.
Read moreTo My Fellow Zillionaires: The Pitchforks Are Coming … For Us Plutocrats