Global News Update: Nov 21, 2014

Chinese Kids Driving Supercars: Inside the Secret Southern California Meet-up

Nov 18, 2014

Description:

China’s ultra-rich are growing in number and in wealth – and are sending billions of dollars out of the country. Much of it is landing up in the U.S. where many children of the wealthy elite are sent to get an American college education — and they’re living large. Vocativ found a sub-culture of these Chinese students in California. They drive luxury cars like Maseratis and Ferraris and flaunt their wealth at discreet private parties and in online groups, like “Super Cars in America”.

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‘Diabolical & absurd’: Outrage as Save the Children gives Tony Blair Global Legacy Award:

A decision by UK charity Save the Children to give Tony Blair its annual Global Legacy Award has unleashed a torrent of criticism highlighting the former PM’s role in Britain’s 2003 Iraq war and his controversial business dealings in the Middle East.

The former Labour leader, who is currently a key focus of a public inquiry into Britain’s invasion of Iraq, received the honor on Wednesday night at a star-studded gala hosted by the charity in New York.

Save the Children’s decision to offer Blair the award has provoked outrage across the UK, with critics insisting the move utterly discredits the charity.

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Flashback:

DEPLETED URANIUM: ‘THE GREATEST CRIME OF HISTORIC TIME’

Dramatic Drone’s-Eye View Of The Record Upstate New York Snowfall:

With half the nation covered in snow, according to ABC, nowhere appears to have had it worse (or more suddenly) than upstate New York. As images pour in from lake-effect snow, to The Buffalo Bills stadium, and from scenes caught in a snow storm to pandas playing, we thought the following stunning drone’s-eye-view over Erie County was both incredible in its beauty and cruel in its GDP-destroying reality.

A Drone’s eye view of the beauty (and GDP cruelty) of a snow-buried upstate New York

141-year-old cold record shattered in Jacksonville:

For the second morning in a row, Jacksonville, Florida, dropped to a new record low.

Climatologist: 30-Year Cold Spell Strikes Earth:

With nasty cold fronts thrusting an icy and early winter across the continental U.S. — along with last winter described by USA Today as “one of the snowiest, coldest, most miserable on record” — climatologist John L. Casey thinks the weather pattern is here to stay for decades to come.

In fact, Casey, a former space shuttle engineer and NASA consultant, is out with the  provocative book “Dark Winter: How the Sun Is Causing a 30-Year Cold Spell,” which warns that a radical shift in global climate is underway, and that Al Gore and other environmentalists have it completely wrong.

The earth, he says, is cooling, and cooling fast.

And yes, you read that one right:

The Wrath of Draghi: Biggest German Banks Impose “Negative Interest Rates”:

Commerzbank, Germany’s second-largest bank, a toppling marvel of ingenuity during the Financial Crisis that was bailed out by ever dutiful if unenthusiastic taxpayers, will now reward these very folks with what Germans have come to look forward to: the Wrath of Draghi.

It started with Deutsche Skatbank, a division of VR-Bank Altenburger Land. The small bank was the trial balloon in imposing the Wrath of Draghi on savers and businesses. Effective November 1, those with over €500,000 on deposit earn a “negative interest rate” of 0.25%. In less euphemistic terms, they get to pay 0.25% per year on those deposits for the privilege of giving their money to the bank.

“Punishment interest” is what Germans call this with Teutonic precision.

Amazon robots prepare for Christmas:

The squat, wheeled machines move stocked shelves to workers

In its latest bid to boost productivity and speed delivery, Amazon.com Inc. is deploying a robot army.

The Seattle online retailer has outfitted several U.S. warehouses with squat, orange, wheeled robots that move stocked shelves to workers, instead of having employees seek items amid long aisles of merchandise, according to people familiar with the matter. At a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse in Tracy, Calif., about 60 miles east of San Francisco, Amazon this summer replaced four floors of fixed shelving with the robots, the people said.

Now, “pickers” at the facility stand in one place and wait for robots to bring four-foot-by-six-foot shelving units to them, sparing them what amounted to as much as 20 miles a day of walking through the warehouse. Employees at some robot-equipped warehouses are expected to pick and scan at least 300 items an hour, compared with 100 under the old system, current and former workers said.

The robots are the fruits of Amazon’s 2012 purchase of Kiva Systems Inc. for $775 million. In May, Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos told investors at Amazon’s annual meeting that he planned to deploy 10,000 Kiva robots by year-end, up from 1,400 at the time.

A Quick Look At Goldman’s Takeover Of The US Judicial System: NY Fed Edition:

One really just can’t make this up. Perhaps the Fed inspector general, when he is done “fixing” the corruption at the NY Fed will be so kind to take a look at the Goldman takeover of the US judicial system next.

And the saddest thing: it cost the banks (and their lawyer lackeys) under a million to buy America’s judicial system off: American justice is not only for sale, it goes at firesale prices!

The NY Fed’s Attempt To Explain That It Is Not A Subsidiary Of Goldman Sachs:

The most shocking, if already completely buried, news of the day was that – in yet another confirmation that Goldman Sachs is in charge of the New York Fed – a NY Fed staffer was colluding and leaking confidential, material information to a 29-year-old Goldman vice president, himself a former Federal Reserve employee. This only happened because on the day Carmen Segarra disclosed her 47 hours of “secret Goldman tapes” on This American Life, Goldman executives asked the former Fed staffer where he had gotten what appeared to be confidential information from. To nobody’s surprise the answer was: The New York Fed. So as the latter, also known as the biggest hedge fund of the western world with $2.7 trillion in AUM, is scrambling to once again prove it is shocked, shocked, that it has become merely the latest subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, Inc., it released the following statement explaining what “really” happened.

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“Some Folks Lied” – How The Administration Fabricated Obamacare Enrollment Numbers:

Two months ago, to much fanfare by the progressive community, HHS, if not Dr. Jonathan Gruber, were delighted to report that as of August 15, Obamacare enrollment had hit 7.3 million sign ups, well above the 7.0 million goal. Then a week ago we learned that “projection mistakes were made” after the “Obama administration revised its estimate for Obamacare enrollment, now saying – with the bruising midterms safely in the rearview mirror – that it expects some 9.9 million people to have coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges in 2015, millions fewer than outside experts predicted.” Fast forward to today when moments ago Bloomberg reported, that “the Obama administration included as many as 400,000 dental plans in a number it reported for enrollments under the Affordable Care Act, an unpublicized detail that helped surpass a goal for 7 million sign-ups.

Dutch government refuses to reveal ‘secret deal’ into MH17 crash probe:

The Dutch government has refused to reveal details of a secret pact between members of the Joint Investigation Team examining the downed Flight MH17. If the participants, including Ukraine, don’t want information to be released, it will be kept secret.

– Neo-Feudalism Has Officially Arrived – Congressman Suggests Building A Moat Around White House:

While the general population is aware something is seriously wrong, people remain extremely confused about the root of the problem. This is because what’s happening all around us isn’t socialism and it isn’t free market capitalism. It is actually a return to something much more ancient and much more oppressive. It is a return to serfdom, neo-fedualism and oligarchy.”

Giant sinkhole swallows up old mine in Russia’s Urals (PHOTOS):

A sinkhole 20 by 30 meters (65 by 98 feet) in size has been found near a Uralkali mine in Russia’s Perm region. While the company says the development is of no further threat, locals fear the whole nearby town could go underground.

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As The “Sanctions War” Heats Up, Will Putin Play His ‘Gold Card’?:

The topic of ‘currency war’ has been bantered about in financial circles since at least the term was first used by Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega in September 2010. Recently, the currency war has escalated, and a ‘sanctions war’ against Russia has broken out. History suggests that financial assets are highly unlikely to preserve investors’ real purchasing power in this inhospitable international environment, due in part to the associated currency crises, which will catalyse at least a partial international remonetisation of gold. Vladimir Putin, under pressure from economic sanctions, may calculate that now is the time to play his ‘gold card’.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CURRENCY WAR

RUSSIA, NATO AND THE ‘SANCTIONS WAR’

SO, WILL PUTIN PLAY THE ‘GOLD CARD’?

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Missing Gold – Precious Metals in WTC 4 Vault: Only a Fraction Recovered?:

Why is there this huge discrepancy between the value of gold and silver reported recovered, and the value reported to have been stored in the vaults? There are a number of possible explanations, from outright theft using the attack as cover, to insurance fraud. Until there is a genuine investigation that probes all the relevant facts and circumstances surrounding the attack, we can only speculate.

Retail Rapture: UK Grocery Sales Drop 1st Time In 20 Years, Dollar General To Shut 4000 Stores:

For the first time since it began collecting data in 1994, Kantar Worldpanel, the market researcher, reported a decline in UK grocery sales by value, as The FT reports the biggest UK grocers were “losing market share hand over fist,” as analysts warn “there are phoney price wars, and there are real price wars. This is a real price war.” This comes on the heels of Goldman report claiming 20% of British grocers are surplus to requirements. But it’s not just Britain… in the the cleanest dirty shirt world-economic-growth supporting decoupled economy of the USA, Reuters reports Dollar General may need to divest more than 4,000 stores to win approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for its acquisition of Family Dollar.

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5-foot-tall ‘Robocops’ start patrolling Silicon Valley:

Autonomous “Robocop”-style robots, equipped with microphones, speakers, cameras, laser scanners and sensors, have started to guard Silicon Valley.

The security robots, called Knightscope K5 Autonomous Data Machines, were designed by a robotics company, Knightscope, located in Mountain View, California.

The robots are programmed to notice unusual behavior and alert controllers. It also has odor and heat detectors, and can monitor pollution in carpets as well. Last but not least: with cameras, the Robocops can remember up to 300 number plates a minute, monitoring traffic.

The New World Order: Does It All Just Boil Down To A Battle For Your Soul?:

This problem extends into the oligarchy of globalists, who adore the theories expressed in Plato’s “The Republic,” in which an elite cadre of “philosopher kings,” men who have achieved a heightened level of academic knowledge, are exalted as the most qualified leaders. However, leadership requires more than knowledge, even if that knowledge is profound. Leadership also requires compassion and informed consent, two things for which the elites have no regard.

American-born London mayor refuses to pay US taxes, threatens to renounce citizenship:

The Internal Revenue Service reportedly wants London Mayor Boris Johnson to write a check for taxes he owes to the United States government, but the UK politician says he isn’t paying.

Those ‘brilliant’ Japanese ‘visionaries’ never heard of Fukushima:

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Living under the sea: Japanese visionaries unveil underwater city plan:

Will people ever live in underwater cities? Japanese construction firm says it is possible by 2030. The visionaries revealed a $25 billion deep-sea eco-city plan called Ocean Spiral for 5,000 people that will produce energy from sea resources.

Many have pondered the idea of living under the sea while sci-fi film directors such as George Lucas tempted our imagination with stunning images of underwater cities. Such was the Gungan city consisting of a mass of hydrostatic bubbles shown in the first part of the “Star wars” epic space film series.

Now a Japanese construction firm Shimizu Corp. says that building an underwater residential area is not a fantasy and aims to build one by 2030 – in just 15 years.

China and others can cripple US power grid, NSA admits for the first time:

The head of the National Security Agency warned Congress on Thursday that China and “one or two” other nations currently possess the capability of crippling the American power grid through cyberattacks.

6 Months Before The Fed Is Said To Hike Rates, It Still Has No Idea How It Will Do That:

It has become quite clear that the Fed neither has the intention, nor the market mechanism to do any of that, and certainly not in a 3-6 month timeframe. Which may explain the Fed’s hawkish words on any potential surge in market vol. After all, if the nearly $3 trillion in excess reserves remain on bank balance sheets for another year, then the only reason why vol could surge is if the Fed lose the faith of the markets terminally. At that point the last worry anyone will have is whether and how the Fed will tighten monetary policy.

Initial Jobless Claims Hit 2-Month Highs, Continuing Claims Tumble To 14-Year Lows:

It is still far too early to call a turn in the long-term trend of initial jobless claims but this is the 5th week that new lows have not been made, 4th miss in a row, and (despite last week’s upward revision) claims sit at 2-month highs. Initial claims printed 291k (against 284k expectations) down very slightly from an upwardly revised 293k last week. However, continuing claims continue to tumble to fresh cycle lows at 2.33 million (below expectations and well down from last week’s jump).

Another Triple-Fat-Finger VIX Day Saves Stocks:

Ugly data in Asia, Europe, and US PMI meant US equities opened gap-down… that was unacceptable to ‘someone’ and so the “most shorted” names were squeezed. However, after 10 minutes the ramp started to fade… and so the big boys ‘fat-fingered’ VIX and that rescued the dip. That would be fine… but it happened again at 958ET when stocks started to fade again and suddenly VIX was lit up and zoom… stock momentum was ignited and all was well in the world… Broken record? Yes! But clearly someone has to take note of this rigging…

Ice on the Mississippi River in Iowa:

“I’ve seen ice like this or even worse, but it’s usually not until the middle of December,” says lockmaster.

Game 9 – 2014 World Chess Championship – Magnus Carlsen vs Viswanathan Anand

WTF: A Night With Japan’s Highest Paid Male Gigolo

Global News Update: Nov 20, 2014

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Meanwhile, This Is What Is Really Taking Place Behind The Second US-Russian Cold War:

It appears John Kerry is at it again. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the US Secretary of State called on him to “pay no mind” to a statement by President Obama, in which Russia was included to a list of top global threats. Seeking Russia’s cooperation in Iran and on the Korean Peninsula, Kerry told Lavrov to “forget about” what Obama said. As US foreign policy credibility dissolves, we leave it to Lavrov to conclude, “it is flippant,” he jabs, “it’s not appropriate for a powerful country to have such a consumer attitude to its partners – where you’re needed, help us; where you’re not, obey us.

The dust has barely settled on the latest high profile banker suicide in which Deutsche Bank’s associate general counsel, and former SEC regulator, Charlie Gambino was found dead, having hung himself by the neck from a stairway banister, and here comes the latest sad entrant in the dead banker chronicles of 2014 when earlier today, the Post reports, a Citigroup banker was found dead with his throat slashed in the bathtub “of his swanky downtown apartment, authorities said Wednesday.”

However, unlike previous more “clearcut” suicides, this time there may have been foul play: the Post adds that “there was no knife recovered at the scene, leading officials to suspect the death was not a suicide, and they were trying to determine who had access to his apartment.”

21 Facts That Prove That Dependence On The Government Is Out Of Control In America:

1. According to a Congressional Budget Office study that was just released, approximately 60 percent of all U.S. households get more in transfer payments from the government than they pay in taxes. 

Stunning Photos Of Record Snow Covering Upstate New York: 100 Total Inches Of Snow Expected:

As previously reported, the anticipated Polar Vortex 2.0 has struck, pushing temperatures in all 50 states to below freezing, while heavy snow prompted a state of emergency in western New York and contributed to the deaths of four people. According to Reuters, it was the coldest November morning across the country since 1976, according to Weather Bell Analytics, a meteorologist consulting firm. It remains to be seen how many GDP percentage points were wiped out as a result, unless of course, this time it will be different from last winter. But it was the situation in upstate New York, especially around Bufallo and parts of Erie County, where things got most dire and where 60 inches (1.5 m) of snow accumulated, with more falling, said Steven Welch of the National Weather Service near Buffalo. It gets worse: forecasters are calling for more snow on Thursday, as much as three feet more, for a total of up to 100 inches over four days – a year’s worth for the region!

More than a year’s snowfall in three days:

“This will be a historic event… absolutely. It is a historic event,” said Dave Zaff of the National Weather Service in Buffalo. “A stunning amount of snow.”

Climate can change drastically in mere decades – With no help from humans:

“The results show that the climate over the past hundred thousand years has been a roller coaster. Within just a few decades, the climate could tip from an ice age into a warm period,” says Doctor Thomas Litt of the University of Bonn’s Steinmann Institute and spokesman for the PALEOVAN international consortium of researchers.

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America Throws Up Over Obama’s Immigration Executive Action Even Before It Is Announced:

Ahead of President Obama’s address to the nation tomorrow to dictate his executive orders on immigration, potentially allowing millions of undocumented immigrants to stay legally in the US, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds nearly half of Americans disapprove of his plan. Only a dismal 38% support the President taking this executive action… which makes us wonder if there has ever been so much revulsion at the policies of a standing President. It’s good to be king.

President Obama To Dictate Immigration Executive Order In Vegas On Friday:

While what normally happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas; President Obama’s decision to dictate his Immigration Executive Order from sin city will likely have repurcussions across the entire nation. As NY Times reports, Obama is preparing to use his executive authority to provide work permits for up to five million people who are in the US illegally, and to shield them from deportation. But these new arrivals will not receive one key benefit: government subsidies for health care available under Obamacare. The immigrants would also be unlikely to receive benefits like food stamps, Medicaid coverage or other need-based federal programs offered to citizens and to some legal residents. “The costs of extending these programs to millions of low-wage illegal immigrants would be enormous,” said Senator Jeff Sessions “this is yet another danger posed to Americans by the president’s unconstitutional action.”

Bill to have all Russians fingerprinted and DNA profiled submitted to parliament:

MPs from the populist nationalist party LDPR have prepared and drafted a motion requiring universal fingerprinting and DNA profiling of all Russian citizens for reasons of security.

Ebola cure: WATER! Drinking a gallon of fluid daily recognized as key to survival:

One of the primary lessons being learned from the Ebola crisis is that fancy meds and vaccines aren’t needed to cure the disease. Simple water, it turns out, is one of the best treatments for the hemorrhagic illness, supplying the body with much-needed hydration that is quickly lost when the advanced stages of nausea and vomiting begin to develop.

(Recommended is steam-distilled water (See HERE & HERE.)

Prescription drug vending machines now being installed on college campuses across America:

The total insanity of over-medication in America has reached a new low as Arizona State University has installed a prescription drug vending machine called InstyMeds.

With growth rates for steel products at or near record lows and prices for end-product having plunged to record lows, it is little surprise that the Steel industry would provide the largest Chinese bankruptcy yet in this cycle. As Bloomberg reports, unlisted Haixin Iron & Steel – which halted production and defaulted on CNY3 bn in March – has started bankruptcy proceedings. Having spent 8 months hoping for the government bailout that every Western onlooker believes is every firm’s god-given right, a reorganization application for the Wenxi, Shanxi province-based company (with $1.7 billion of total debt) was accepted by the Yuncheng City Intermediate People’s Court. This is just the start as “Haixin Group’s bankruptcy will be followed by others,” warns one analyst, adding that the major flaw of producers of iron ore, the most traded commodity after oil, is they tend to be “over-bullish.”

Just a week after Dr. Craig Spencer was declared ‘Ebola-free’, The Daily Mail reports a woman, who had arrived from Guinea 18 days ago (and was on the NYC Ebola monitoring list), dropped dead in a Brooklyn hair salon this afternoon. FDNY sent their Special Operations and Hazmat units but she was declared dead at the scene. Witnesses said she was bleeding from the “face, nose, mouth, everything.”

Navy vet to RT: I was fired, called ‘terrorist’ for posting photos of DHS vehicles near Ferguson:

Mark Paffrath, a Navy veteran, was fired and branded a “terrorist” for taking pictures of dozens of Homeland Security vehicles parked at the hotel where he used to work in Ferguson, as grand jury decision on Michael Brown shooting is due, he told RT.

This is the ‘Greatest Depression’ …

3 Of The 10 Largest Economies In The World Have Already Fallen Into Recession – Is The U.S. Next?

… and it will get much worse. Prepare for collapse.

Half of UK councils face financial collapse – report:

Half the UK’s local councils are at risk of collapse, the government’s official auditor has said, warning that one in six may be unable to provide basic services this year. The warning comes after severe cuts in national government funding.

In a report produced by the government’s official auditor, the National Audit Office (NAO) on Wednesday, 52 percent of councils were said to be at risk of not having enough resources to fund public services, including education and social care.

Adrian Salbuchi: The Cult of ISIS:

No, we’re not talking about any ancient Egyptian religious lore, even though geographically, we’re in the same general area.

We’re talking about the latest boogeyman trump card drawn by the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” – US / UK / EU / Israel – bent on instilling fear, terror and panic amongst Western nations.

With tens of billions of dollars financing, with well-armed and well-trained Jihad fighters, and an eerily charismatic black-robed Darth Vader-like fearless leader – Abu-Bakr-al-Baghdadi – ISIS sprang to life armor-clad and fully armed just like the Greek war goddess Pallas Athena was born out of Zeus’ forehead.

If this sounds strange; the following is even stranger: for some “unexplained” reason Islamic State does not attack US allies in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar or Bahrain. Even more oddly, IS does not attack Israel whom Arabs are supposed to consider their greatest regional enemy;

So: Here we have ISIS/ISIL/IS murdering untold thousands of Iraqis, Syrians, Kurds, Christians, Shiites of all nationalities, but never touching Israel nor European and US homeland and foreign interests save for a handful of allegedly beheaded hostages.

But, wait a minute. What a coincidence! Those are pretty much the very same foes and friends of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” presently waging their “Global Mega-War on Terror!”

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‘US foreign policy in ME dictated by Israel’:

A US journalist and political analyst said Israel is the supporter of al-Nusra and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Takfiri terrorists.

“And if Israel supports ISIS, we support ISIS, because our foreign policy in the Middle East is dictated by Israel,” Wayne Madsen told Habilian.

Regarding the US airstrikes on ISIS positions, Madsen said they are like Saudi Arabia’s bombing ISIS militants and financing them at the same time.

ISIS is an operation run by the Israeli Secret Intelligence Service and the CIA … (More info HERE.)

–  “Helpful” Britain Tweets “How To Spot A Russian Tank In Ukraine”:

In case you are wondering through Ukraine and come across a tank, the British embassy in Kiev has issued a handy pocket guide to indentifying whether it is Russian (bad guys) or Ukrainian (good guys)…

Now that was indeed very ‘helpful’

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H/t reader squodgy:

Were the parents asked if it was OK, first??

http://rt.com/usa/206311-chicago-5thgraders-sex-ed-anal/

This is so sick:

‘Use lots of lube & enter anus slowly’: Chicago schools teach anal sex to 5th graders:

Parents at an elite, magnet elementary school in Chicago were “horrified” when they saw the “obscene” sexual education materials their fifth graders would be learning. The curriculum included condom demonstrations and discussions of anal sex.

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666 … just another ‘coincidence’

Royals and Thatcher to blame for Jimmy Savile scandal, says Noel Edmonds:

The Royal Family and Margaret Thatcher were as much to blame as the BBC for failing to stop Jimmy Savile’s “unspeakable” crimes, Noel Edmonds has suggested.

The television presenter, who worked with Savile at the Corporation, said the whole establishment was implicated for allowing the paedophile DJ to flourish.

(And I know whose TV career just ended.)

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Jimmy Savile ‘raped girl, 15, in flat’:

Jimmy Savile raped a 15-year-old girl with another DJ who told her “you should be thanking us”, a court has heard.

Operation Midlandinvestigates Tory MP over boy’s murder:

Operation Midland

Germany and Bulgaria Confirm Strong Opposition to GM Crops:

Germany’s Farm Minister Christian Schmidt and Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov both confirmed their countries’ strong opposition to GM crops on Friday.

57 Million Americans Warn UK over Dangers of GM Food and Farming:

In an open letter published in The Times newspaper and promoted through a digital billboard at Waterloo station, American celebrities, Susan Sarandon, Daryl Hannah and Robert Kennedy Jr joined US NGOs, trade groups and businesses such as Food & Water Watch, the Sierra Club, the Rachel Carson Council, Friends of the Earth, the Organic Consumers Association, Dr Bronner’s and NYR Organic to warn British citizens of the dangers of growing GM crops and urge them to speak out before it’s too late.

The fully referenced letter, signed by groups and individuals representing some 57 million members and supporters, argues that GM crops have never delivered on their promises to increase yields and profits or to decrease pesticide use. In fact, they have done the opposite with the cost of growing GM crops now greater than conventional crops in the US and pesticide use 24% higher amongst GM farmers than non-GM farmers planting the same crops.

Global GMO Free Coalition Set to Help Fund World’s Largest GMO Safety Study:

The Global GMO Free Coalition welcomes the launch of the largest ever study on GMO and pesticide safety – Factor GMO. This is the type of study that should have been carried out on all GM foods before they were released into our food and feed supplies.

–  What Do College Undergrads Spend Their Student Loans On: High-School Classes:

While the impact of the student loan bubble on the labor participation rate has been extensively covered in the past, there is a just as important question of just what these “students” spend their money on. Among the items revealed: “A U.S. Middle District Court indictment alleges that Price spent much of the loan money on crack cocaine, cars, motorcycles, jewelry, tattoos and video games.” And iPhones of course, because someone has to indirectly provide US subsidies to the NSA’s favorite company. Now we know one more thing that America’s young adults, of whom some 24% expect that their debt will ultimately be forgiven, are blowing Uncle Sam’s debt on. The answer: high-school level classes.

 …

 – Homebuilder Hope Hammered As Housing Starts Tumble:

With surging homebuilder sentiment, we suspect the disappointing plunge in Housing Starts (-2.8% vs +0.8% exp) will surprise a few but there is hope… as Building Permits rose 4.8% (vs 0.9% expectations) on the back of an 8% surge in multi-family / rental units. This is the highest level fo Permits since June 2008 (but still over 50% below peak permits levels in 2005). The only region with any increase in starts was the South.

–  One Reader’s Shocked Response Upon Learning His Health Insurance Cost Just Doubled:

“Attached is the ACA notification of next year’s price increase.  As you can see the cost goes from $281 to $555, a monthly increase of $274, a percentage increase of 97%. Basically we are now paying the same amount for the two of us that we paid for all four of us one year ago.  How can that increase occur in a “free market” economy?  Did I miss something? Has some input cost leaped exponentially in order to double the price I pay? Or has private industry colluded with government to rig the markets (again) in their favor?”

Drone operators had bin Laden in crosshairs a year before 9/11:

?The first American to ever launch a drone strike from an armed unmanned aerial vehicle now says he had Osama bin Laden in his crosshairs in 2000, a full year before the terrorist attacks of September 11.

Flashback: President Bush Rejects Taliban Offer To Surrender Osama Bin Laden

Confronting Riot Cops in Tampa:

Global News Update: Nov 19, 2014

Due to a lot of work that needs to be done & upcoming events (incl. visitors) I’ll be presenting the news to you in the following way up until around Dec. 4.

This way you’ll still get fully updated, whilst I save many, many, many hours of work on the website.


U.S. Foreign Policy
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Source: Cagle Post

Ukraine Admits Its Gold Is Gone: “There Is Almost No Gold Left In The Central Bank Vault”:

Back in March we reported of a strange incident that took place just after the Ukraine presidential coup, namely that according to at least one source, “in a mysterious operation under the cover of night, Ukraine’s gold reserves were promptly loaded onboard an unmarked plane, which subsequently took the gold to the US.”  Needless to say there was no official confirmation of any of this taking place, and in fact our report, in which we mused if the “price of Ukraine’s liberation” was the handover of its gold to the Fed at a time when Germany was actively seeking to repatriate its own physical gold located at the bedrock of the NY Fed, led to the usual mainstream media mockery. Until now. In an interview on Ukraine TV, none other than the head of the Ukraine Central Bank made the stunning admission that “in the vaults of the central bank there is almost no gold left. There is a small amount of gold bullion left, but it’s just 1% of the gold reserves.”

California Tells Court It Can’t Release Inmates Early Because It Would Lose Cheap Prison Labor:

Out of California’s years-long litigation over reducing the population of prisons deemed unconstitutionally overcrowded by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, another obstacle to addressing the U.S. epidemic of mass incarceration has emerged: The utility of cheap prison labor.

Grubergate For Idiots (Such As American Voters): All You Need To Know In 2 Minutes:

Confused at just what Jonathan Gruber, friend (or not friend) of President Obama and Nancy Pelosi, said (and didn’t say)? Here is the two-minute idiot’s guide to the Obamacare architect (or not Obamacare architect)‘s controversial comments (and just who did and did not know him)…

–  GruberGate: “Senator” Obama Vs “President” Obama (Videos):

If you like your Jon Gruber “brightest minds from academia, that I have stolen ideas from liberally”, you can keep your Jon Gruber…

Obama: I will send US troops to fight ISIS if they get nukes:

US President Barack Obama has, for the first time, admitted he would deploy US ground troops to Syria and Iraq to fight Islamic State – that is, if the extremist group obtained a nuclear weapon.

“If we discovered that [Islamic State] had gotten possession of a nuclear weapon, and we had to run an operation to get it out of their hands, then, yes,” Obama told reporters at a news conference in Brisbane, Australia, on Sunday. “I would order it.”

Putin:’US wants to subdue Russia, but no one did or ever will’:

The US has no plans to humiliate Russia, but instead wants to subdue it, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that no one had ever succeeded in doing so – and never will.

Speaking at a forum of the All-Russia Peoples’ Front in Moscow on Tuesday, the Russian leader said that history was not about to change, and that no one would manage to suppress the country.

Throughout history no one has ever managed to do so toward Russia – and no one ever will,” Putin said.

H/t reader squodgy:

As a side note: It is well known that radiation makes viruses (also harmful bacteria and other parasites) become more virulent:

West Coast Scientists: Many animals on sea floor looking sick or dead — “Everything’s dying… Dead, dead, dead, and dead” — Experts investigate what’s killing sea urchins and cucumbers in Pacific Northwest — “Seeing things never previously observed” (PHOTOS):

National Geographic, Nov 17, 2014 (emphasis added): Urchins and cucumbers seemed to have escaped the ill effects of the virus until now. But in recent weeks, reports have started to come in that they too are dying along beaches in the Pacific Northwest, Hewson said… [He and his team are] studying the urchins and sea cucumbers that are already dying to see if the same killer is responsible.

Experts: Seemingly benign virus on West Coast causing “ecological upheaval the likes of which we’ve never seen” — Very peculiar, different from all known viruses — Mutations could be helping it spread — Something may have recently caused it to go rogue… we’ve never seen anything like this — Why now, what changed to allow outbreak? (VIDEO):

NBC News (emphasis added): Scientists may have fingered the culprit responsible for a mysterious epidemic that has killed millions of starfish… the disease was a relatively common parvovirus found in invertebrates that rose to epidemic levels due to overpopulation, a genetic mutation or other unknown environmental factors.

PBS: Scientists… said it’s a virus that’s different from all other known viruses infecting marine organisms [and] don’t yet know what sparked the seemingly benign virus to transform into the perpetrator of what’s considered the largest marine disease outbreak ever…

Big Win! Monsanto Reports $156 Million Loss in Q4 as Farmers Abandon GM Crops:

Are you invested in Monsanto stock like Bill Gates, who owns hundreds of thousand of Monsanto shares worth about $23 million? It might be time to pull out since the company just reported over $156 million in losses for the fourth quarter.

Even McDonald’s Rejects New GMO Potato in French Fries:

Still Plenty of Reasons NOT to Eat There

Here We Go Again: Demand For Subprime Debt Is “Out Of Control”:

As Kyle Bass once eloquently noted, the brevity of financial memory is about two years; and nowhere is that more clear than in the explosive resurgence of demand for new subprime-mortgage-backed products. As Scotsman Guide reports, some subprime lenders are reporting strong investor appetite for the once-reviled mortgage products (for borrowers with credit scores as low as 500 and with debt-to-income (DTI) ratios as high as 50 percent). “It’s out of control; it seems like there’s 10 times the amount of demand to buy this paper as there are borrowers that want the loans,” said one lender. As Bass may have also said “proceed with caution.”

Approx. 100 t of sardines washed ashore in Pacific coastal area of Hokkaido again – Photos

A Letter from the Norwegian Nobel Committee to Barack Obama:

You are the most undeserving Nobel Peace Prize winner since the odious, war-mongering Henry Kissinger. What company you keep! We were delusional dupes for giving the Peace Prize to him and you both. That is all. Now, back to “Lilyhammer.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee
Drammensveien 19 NO-0255 OSLO
Norway

H/t reader squodgy:

“Here is one tale of how the Reypothecation might have taken place.

Of course, bankers, being honest, and politicians never lying, mixed with zionist israelis could never meld into planning and executing the biggest heist ever, under the guise of a false Arab terror plot whilst killing 3000 innocent Gentiles , just Gentiles (3000 jews were told not to turn up for work on 9/11) resulting in total surveillance of all the other gentiles on the planet carried out in the main by mossad connected security companies.

Also, isn’t it pure coincidence that the security at the Fukushima plant was also under the control of a mossad connected security firm..

http://cryptome.org/eyeball/gold-vault/gold-vault-frbny.htm

Don’t miss: http://cryptome.org/eyeball/gold-vault/gold-vault-frbny.htm:

The gold vault in the Federal Reserve Bank New York is reportedly the largest gold depository in the world. Yet compared to other major gold vaults, such as the one at Fort Knox, it appears lightly secured. There are one or two guards at the loading dock which connects to the vault. Because the building is located in a dense urban area, its walls and entrances abut sidewalks without security barriers like those at other bullion depositories. The site of the building slopes such that the topmost levels of fve basements where the vaults are located directly adjoins two streets, albeit there are reinforced concrete walls with steel face plates as well as interior alarm systems protecting the hoard. (See note below on basement levels and wall thicknesses.)

Copies of the original 1922 construction drawings of the facility, publicly available at Avery Architectural Library, Columbia University, were obtained by Cryptome. A floor plan of a vault level is provided below.

Wholesale Inflation Heats Up Due To Jump In Car, Food Costs, New Calculation Method:

Janet Yellen will be pleased… or not. Producer Price Inflation printed hotter than expected across all its various incarnations (good news, no deflation; bad news, no deflation excuse for The Fed). Ex Food-and-Energy prices rose 1.8% YoY (4-month highs), considerably more than the 1.5% expectations but surged 0.4% MoM – the most in 16 months. PPI Final Demand rose 1.5% YoY (1.3% exp). The rise in PPI appears driven by Food prices which are up 1.0% (the most since April) and Trade PPI (+1.5%) thanks to a 26.1% jump in margins for fuels and lubricants retailing (under new calculation methods) accounted for nearly 40% of the rise in final demand.#

Hugh Hendry: “I Believe Central Bankers Are Terrified”:

“My premise hasn’t really changed since I published my paper explaining why I had become more constructive towards risk assets this time last year. That is to say, the structural deficiency of global demand continues to radicalise the central banking community. I believe they are terrified: the system is so leveraged and vulnerable to potentially systemic price reversals that the monetary authorities find themselves beholden to long only investors and obliged to support asset prices. However, I clearly confused everyone with my choice of language. What I should have said is that investors are perhaps misconstruing rising equity prices as a traditional bull market spurred on by revenue and earnings growth, and becoming fearful of a reversal, when instead the persistent upwards drift in stock markets is more a reflection of the steady erosion of the soundness of the global monetary system and therefore the rise in stock prices is something that is likely to prevail for some time.”

Relentless US Journalist who has Seen and Felt the Boot of Israeli Fascism is Returning to Palestine for More:

Journalist Zebula “Sha” Hebert has been “shot at, stabbed, pepper sprayed, maced, tear-gassed, tased, arrested, detained, beaten, and interrogated” while conducting his work.  He knows what repression feels like, which is why he is undertaking a highly ambitious project: in the wake of the recent US-backed Israeli assault, Hebert will return to Palestine and spend a year in Gaza.  He will conduct interviews with Gazans, publish reports, and ultimately write a book about his findings and experiences, all to help amplify the voices of a trapped refugee population being brutalized by the world’s most powerful aggressors.

Hebert conducted an interview with Robert Barsocchini for Washington’s Blog, to elucidate and spread the word about his upcoming journalistic endeavor:

Indonesia still performs ‘virginity tests’ on female police job applicants – HRW:

Indonesia’s practice of subjecting would-be female police officers to ‘virginity tests’ is “discriminatory and a form of gender-based violence,” that has to be stopped, Human Rights Watch says.

‘RT will soon be banned in Germany too’: Russian FM jokes at media conference:

The Russian FM known for his impeccable diplomatic skills, brightened the mood of the media conference held in Moscow after meeting with the German foreign minister. Both diplomats chuckled at the joke that was addressed to RT.

In my opinion another test of advanced technology (that will be used in the future against the people to make them accept the NWO):

Chelyabinsk meteor #2? Massive flash over Russia’s Urals stuns locals & scientists:

An extraordinary bright orange flash has lit up the sky in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region in the Urals. While locals captured the massive ‘blast’ on numerous cameras, both scientists and emergency services still struggle to explain the unusual event.

Kissinger Warns “We Need A New World Order”; Ukraine Should Forget Crimea & NATO:

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger says in an interview with Der Spiegel that there currently is an urgent need for a new world order, but its coming into being will be long and complicated. “There is the Chinese view, the Islamic view, the Western view and, to some extent, the Russian view. And they really are not always compatible,” he warns, adding that introducing anti-Russian sanctions was a mistake. He added that Ukraine should not hope to become a member of NATO in the foreseeable future, as the alliance will never vote unanimously for the accession of Ukraine.

– Game 8 – 2014 World Chess Championship – Viswanathan Anand vs Magnus Carlsen:

Reader squodgy sent this to me:

“Spotted in Canada”

Spotted in Canada

Eustace Mullins: Murder By Injection (Video)

Description:

Eustace Mullins (1923-2010), discusses one of his best-selling books; ‘Murder by Injection’ exposing the unholy dynasty of the big drug companies, the medical establishment, the Rockefeller syndicate and the evils of the cut-slash-and-burn cancer racket that has killed millions in the name of ‘fighting cancer.’

While there are many books on the corruption of modern medicine, there is no other book out there that so effectively tells the whole story as does this seminal volume, laying bare the criminal machinations of those who profit in the name of “promoting good health.” The federal bureaucracy that ostensibly “regulates” the big drug companies is all part and parcel of the problem.

Related info:

“Fluoride causes more human cancer, and causes it faster, than any other chemical.”
– Dean Burk, Chief Chemist Emeritus, US National Cancer Institute

Dr. Dean Burk Former Head Of National Cancer Institute Research: ‘Fluoridated Water Amounts To Public Murder On A Grand Scale’ (Video)

The Great Culling: Our Water Official (Full Documentary):


YouTube Added: Mar 22, 2013

Abenomics Officially Leads Japan Into A Triple-Dip Recession – Weather Blamed; Nikkei Drops 600 Points, Back Below 17,000

Abenomics Officially Leads Japan Into A Triple-Dip Recession – Weather Blamed; Nikkei Drops 600 Points, Back Below 17,000 (ZeroHedge, Nov 17, 2014):

AMARI: ABENOMICS HASN’T FAILED (so this was the expected outcome?)
SUGA: INVENTORIES, WEATHER, CONSUMER MINDSET CAUSED GDP FALL (nothing to do with record-high misery-index induced by crushing the currency of an energy-import-dependent nation?)

Japanese GDP fell for the 2nd quarter in a row making it official – as we warned a month ago – that Japan has entered a triple-dip recession. Againstr hope-strewn expectations that the rebound from a sales-tax-driven slump would create a magical 2.2% (annualized) expansion, Japanese GDP slumped 1.6% in Q3 – missing by the most since March 2011. So no tax increase… and thus fiscal responsibility goes out the window. Abe dissolves government and bails on another failure? The initial kneejerk reaction sent USDJPY surging back over 117.00 (and NKY followed) but that has quickly reversed and NKY futures are 600 off their highs (and S&P futures are back to last Monday’s lows).

Obamacare = A Death Panel For The U.S. Economy

Obamacare

Obamacare = A Death Panel For The U.S. Economy (Economic Collapse, Nov 16, 2014):

Did you know that some Americans are being hit with health insurance rate increases of more than 500 percent?  Taking advantage of “the stupidity of the American voter”, the Democrats succeeded in ramming through one of the worst pieces of legislation that has ever come before Congress.  The full implementation of Obamacare has been repeatedly delayed, but now we are finally starting to see the true horror of this terrible law.  Thanks to Obamacare, millions of American families are losing health plans that they were very happy with, health insurance rates are skyrocketing, millions of workers are having their full-time hours cut back to part-time hours, rural hospitals all over the country are dying, and thousands of doctors are being driven out of the industry thus intensifying the greatest doctor shortage in U.S. history.  Obamacare is a slow-motion train wreck of epic proportions, and the full effect of this law is only beginning to be felt.  In the end, the economic impact of this law will likely be measured in the trillions of dollars.

Read moreObamacare = A Death Panel For The U.S. Economy

ECB Says May Buy Gold, Stocks Next, Admits “Not Sure If Japan’s QE Has Worked”

gold_bars

ECB Says May Buy Gold, Stocks Next, Admits “Not Sure If Japan’s QE Has Worked” (ZeroHedge, Nov 17, 2014):

While it remains to be seen if a majority of the Swiss population want their central bank to purchase a whopping 1,500 tons of gold in the coming years, perhaps the most notable event for gold overnight (aside from news that while India exports fell 5% in October, gold and silver imports soared by 280% and 136% Y/Y, respectively), came from ECB Executive Board member Yves Mersch who in a speech in Frankfurt said that the ECB balance-sheet expansion is “neither an end in itself nor a fetish.” As quoted by Bloomberg, the ECB member said that  “the effect on rates that comes along with it is at best a collateral benefit.”

Nothing new here: we have discussed why unlike Japan and the US, the biggest gating factor for Europe is the presence of freely-available, unencumbered collateral that could, at least in theory, be purchased by the ECB. Which brings us to the Mersch punchline: “Theoretically the ECB could purchase other assets such as gold, shares, ETFs to fulfill its promise of adopting further unconventional measures to counter a longer period of low inflation.”

Read moreECB Says May Buy Gold, Stocks Next, Admits “Not Sure If Japan’s QE Has Worked”

Ukraine Bank Runs Begin As Poroshenko Plans To Sever Socio-Economic Ties With Separatist-Held Regions

Ukraine Bank Runs Begin As Poroshenko Plans To Sever Socio-Economic Ties With Separatist-Held Regions (ZeroHedge, Nov 16, 2014):

In what the pro-Russian separatists call “an act of genocide,” Ukraine’s President Poroshenko signed a decree Friday that will explicitly withdraw state support for the regions within a month. While appearing to implicitly recognize the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as autonomous, the decree means that the central bank will no longer service bank accounts, prisoners will be transferred (inmates with minor offences will be released), and perhaps most troubling as the cold winter begins, the order covers all public services, including crucial ones, such as schools, hospitals, and emergency services; and local heating and power plants will be subject to new laws that could involve cutting energy supplies altogether to the plants that don’t pay. Luhansk’s leader exclaimed, “the total socio-economic blockade of Donbass is de facto an act on genocide and devastation of our people,” and as the images below show, bank runs have already begun across the region with long lines forming at ATMs.

Read moreUkraine Bank Runs Begin As Poroshenko Plans To Sever Socio-Economic Ties With Separatist-Held Regions

The Real Reason Why Germany Halted Its Gold Repatriation From The NY Fed

The Real Reason Why Germany Halted Its Gold Repatriation From The NY Fed (ZeroHedge, Nov 16, 2014):

Following the stunning announcement in January 2013 that the Bundesbank would repatriate 674 tons of gold from the NY Fed and the French Central Bank, a year later the Bundesbank followed up with a just as stunning revelation that of the 84 tons the bank was supposed to bring back home, it had managed to obtain just a paltry 37 tons, with only 5 tons originating from the NY Fed.

The reason given for this disappointing amount was as follows:

Read moreThe Real Reason Why Germany Halted Its Gold Repatriation From The NY Fed

What really happened in Beijing: Putin, Obama, Xi — and the back story the media won’t tell you

apec-us-china-russia-obama-putin-xi

What really happened in Beijing: Putin, Obama, Xi — and the back story the media won’t tell you (Salon, Nov 14, 2014):

Ukraine, Iran’s nukes, the price of oil: There are ties worthy of a Bourne film, if the media connected the dots

By way of events on the foreign side, the past few weeks start to resemble some once-in-a-while event in the heavens when everyone is supposed to go out and watch as the sun, moon and stars align. There are lots of things happening, and if we put them all together, the way Greek shepherds imagined constellations, a picture emerges. Time to draw the picture.

Read moreWhat really happened in Beijing: Putin, Obama, Xi — and the back story the media won’t tell you

Meet the Warmongering Billionaires Who Will Spend a Fortune to Influence the Next President

Meet the Warmongering Billionaires Who Will Spend a Fortune to Influence the Next President (Alternet, Nov 13, 2014):

Clinton has given backers like Saban ample reason for thinking of her as the perfect candidate for Israel. During the 2008 presidential election, Clinton was asked by ABC’s “Good Morning America” what she would do if Iran used a nuclear weapon on Israel. “In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them,” she said. This year, in an interview with the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, she doubled down on her pro-Israel agenda. “If I were the prime minister of Israel, you’re damn right I would expect to have control over security [in the West Bank],” she said.

Read moreMeet the Warmongering Billionaires Who Will Spend a Fortune to Influence the Next President

‘Outraged’ French union urges Hollande to honor Mistral deal, 2,500 jobs at stake

–  ‘Outraged’ French union urges Hollande to honor Mistral deal, 2,500 jobs at stake (RT, Nov 16, 2014):

One of the French biggest union federations, Workers’ Force, has urged Paris to fulfill the Mistral deal and deliver the two warships to Russia, otherwise 2,500 shipyard employees may lose their jobs.

The union expressed “shock and outrage,” Le Figaro reports, after Paris postponed the delivery on the Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia due to pressure from the US and EU, which imposed several waves of sanctions against Moscow after Crimea joined Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

President Francois Hollande’s decision has put 2,500 workers at risk of redundancy, which is absolutely unacceptable, Workers’ Force representatives told Le Figaro newspaper.

Read more‘Outraged’ French union urges Hollande to honor Mistral deal, 2,500 jobs at stake

And The Biggest Winner From The Oil Price Plunge Is …

And The Biggest Winner From The Oil Price Plunge Is… (ZeroHedge, Nov 15, 2014):

“The Chinese, among others, seem to be responding to the lower oil price with additional demand,” notes one tanker executive as Bloomberg reports the number of supertankers sailing toward China’s ports matched a record on Oct. 17 and is still close to that level now. The plunge in price has enabled China to add 35 million barrels to its inventories in the past three months as the nation fills its strategic petroleum reserves, OPEC said yesterday. Furthermore, though the oil slide is hurting nations from Venezuela to Iran – that depend on energy for revenues – ship owners serving the industry’s benchmark Middle East-to-Asia trade routes are reaping the best returns from charters in years as the slump drives down the industry’s single biggest expense. As one analyst notes, “we’ve seen the Chinese buying a lot from the Middle East and that’s really let rates cook.” So it appears the Chinese, in the face of the worst growth and economy in years, are rational enough to buy more at lower prices (as opposed to the buy-more-because-stocks-are-at-all-time-highs Western investors).

A near-record 113 tankers are destined for China…

china-oil

As Bloomberg reports,

Read moreAnd The Biggest Winner From The Oil Price Plunge Is …

When Did ‘Dickhead’ Become Part Of Federal Reserve Jargon?

andolfatto

When Did “Dickhead” Become Part Of Federal Reserve Jargon? (ZeroHedge, Nov 14, 2014):

Update:


When in the course of human events, a simple tweet observing the farce that America’s centrally-planned economy and markets have become as a result of the relentless intervention of a few clueless economic hacks…

… Incites a response such as this by a taxpayer-funded peer of the abovementioned clueless economic hack, a peer who incidentally has never stepped a foot outside of academia in his entire “professional” career:

… a person who is a “Vice President” at the St. Louis Fed, the same Bank whose president is singlehandedly responsible for the last 10% upswing in these here rigged “markets”…

Read moreWhen Did ‘Dickhead’ Become Part Of Federal Reserve Jargon?

Iran launches Middle East’s ‘biggest’ gold plant, plans to double production

Gold-bars

Iran launches Middle East’s ‘biggest’ gold plant, plans to double production (RT, Nov 15, 2014):

Iran has opened a new gold processing plant, reportedly the biggest in the Middle East, hoping to double its production of precious metals. Using a unique technology, Tehran says it will now mine up to three tons of gold per year.

Iranian TV reported that the opening ceremony was attended by First Vice President Ishaq Jahangiri.

The new facility is located near one of the country’s richest mines, Zareh Shuran. It is located 35 kilometers from the city of Takaab in northwest Iran, in an area where gold, silver, and mercury are extracted.

The gold ore reserves of the Zareh Shuran mine are estimated at 20 million tons. ((…with an average karat of 5.5 gram per ton which is considered one of the most valuable known mines in the country.))

Read moreIran launches Middle East’s ‘biggest’ gold plant, plans to double production

This is What Neo-Feudalism Looks Like (Chart of the Day)

Corporate Profit

Chart of the Day – This is What Neo-Feudalism Looks Like (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Nov 14, 2014):

I got this from Naked Capitalism. Before presenting the chart, here are some words to bear in mind from Yves Smith:

Short omits some key elements from his discussion. One is that until recently, a profit share of GDP of 6% was perceived to be a cyclical peak; no less than Warren Buffet deemed a higher level to be unsustainable. And in fact, we see an explosion of profit share from 6% to 10% of GDP in the runup to the crisis, roughly from 2003 to 2007. The “rescue the banks and financial markets” measures succeeded in bringing the profit share back to its pre-crisis levels, at the expense of workers.

Notice the inflection point in profit share is 1987, when Greenspan became Fed chairman. Correlation may not be causation, but the timing is almost exact.

The Maestro strikes again!

Read moreThis is What Neo-Feudalism Looks Like (Chart of the Day)

Debt, Propaganda And Now Deflation

FYI.


MississippiWoman1936
Dorothea Lange Negro woman who has never been out of Mississippi July 1936

Debt, Propaganda And Now Deflation (The Automatic Earth, Nov 14, 2014):

Looks I have to return to the deflation topic. I’m a bit hesitant about it, because the discussion always gets distorted by varying definitions and a whole bunch of semi-religious issues. The Automatic Earth has for many years said that an immense bout of deflation is inevitable because of global debt levels, and it’s all only gotten a lot worse since we first said that. Our governments and central banks have ‘fought’ deflation with more debt, and that was always the stupidest idea in human history. Or at least, most of us were stupid for believing it would work, or was even intended to.

Just so we don’t get into yet more confusion, i probably need to explain that the debt deflation we’re talking about here is not some subdivision like consumer inflation or price inflation or cookie inflation, those are just hollow and meaningless terms. Debt deflation is deflation caused by too much debt, and the deleveraging it must and will lead to. Deflation does not equal falling prices, those are merely an effect of it.

Read moreDebt, Propaganda And Now Deflation

America Watches In Stunned Disbelief As Afghanistan Jails Two Failed Bank Executives

America Watches In Stunned Disbelief As Afghanistan Jails Two Failed Bank Executives (ZeroHedge, Nov 12, 2014):

Spot the banana republic:

  • Nation #1 spends and issues tens of trillions in taxpayer funds and debt, crushing the growth potential of future generations, just to bail out a banking sector full to the brim with criminal “riggers” (as today’s settlements once again prove), where bubble mania was so pervasive not a single bank would have survived absent a global central bank bailout, and where bank executives wouldn’t bend over for anything less than a million.
  • Nation #2 just sentenced two senior officials of a bank that collapsed under (a measly by New Normal standards) $1 billion in debt to 15 years in prison each for embezzlement and fraud.

Nation #1 is, of course, the US (or any other western nation). Nation #2 is Afghanistan.

Which one is the banana republic again?

Read moreAmerica Watches In Stunned Disbelief As Afghanistan Jails Two Failed Bank Executives

And The 10th Most Prosperous Nation, Placing 31st In The World For ‘Safety & Security’ And 21st For ‘Personal Freedom In The World Is …

–  And The 10th Most Prosperous Nation In The World Is… (ZeroHedge, Nov 14,  2014):

USA! USA! USA!

Mapping Prosperity 2014

(click image for massive legible version)

Despite all the bravado from political leaders and the record high stock prices – which prove how clean America’s dirty short is – The Legatum Institute finds the United States is just the 10th most prosperous nation in the world… after Holland, Canada, New Zealand, and Denmark to name a few.

Still, could be worse… could be 11th, like Iceland…

Read moreAnd The 10th Most Prosperous Nation, Placing 31st In The World For ‘Safety & Security’ And 21st For ‘Personal Freedom In The World Is …

PIMCO Paid Bill Gross & Mohamed El-Erian Over $500 MILLION Dollars In 2013 Bonuses

Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian

– Pimco Paid Gross, El-Erian Over Half A Billion Dollars In 2013 Bonuses (ZeroHedge, Nov 14,  2014):

And a stunner just out of of Bloomberg:

PIMCO PAID GROSS $290 MILLION BONUS FOR 2013, DOCUMENT SHOWS
PIMCO PAID FORMER CEO EL-ERIAN ABOUT $230 MLN BONUS IN 2013

More from the source:

Pacific Investment Management Co. paid its former Chief Investment Officer Bill Gross a bonus of about $290 million in 2013, a year in which his Total Return Fund trailed a majority of peers, according to documents provided to Bloomberg View by someone with knowledge of Pimco’s bonus policies.

Read morePIMCO Paid Bill Gross & Mohamed El-Erian Over $500 MILLION Dollars In 2013 Bonuses

The Reason Small Businesses Are Disappearing, As Explained By A Small Business Owner

going out of business

The Reason Small Businesses Are Disappearing, As Explained By A Small Business Owner (ZeroHedge, Nov 14,  2014):

Confused why despite endless daily propaganda that the US economy is getting better – after all “just look at the record high S&P 500” – fewer and fewer Americans believe the narrative, as the Democrats and Obama found out the very hard way in last week’s midterm elections? Then the following explanation written by the owner of a small business – the segment of the US economy that has historically led every single recovery but this time was left behind – should help answer some questions.

The reason small businesses are disappearing written by a small business owner.

Read moreThe Reason Small Businesses Are Disappearing, As Explained By A Small Business Owner

U.S. Department of Justice Handles Banker Criminals Like Juvenile Offenders … Literally

rule-of-law

The U.S. Department of Justice Handles Banker Criminals Like Juvenile Offenders…Literally (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Nov 14, 2014):

These agreements were created 100 years ago to give juvenile defendants and first-time offenders a chance to for rehabilitate themselves. Only in the last 20 years have DPAs migrated to the field of corporate criminals, treating them like kids who’ve just gone down a bad path in life.The Justice Department is leaning on these toothless agreements more and more. Of the DoJ’s 283 deferred prosecution agreements since 2000, half have come since 2010, Reilly found in a working paper for BYU Law Review.

Why has the DoJ been so keen on deferred prosecution since 2010? It coincides exactly with investigations into the 2008 financial crisis.

– From the Guardian article: In market-rigging case, US Justice Department treats corporate criminals like juvenile offenders

We all know by now that if you’re a woman with an overgrown lawn, a child walking by himself to the park, a homeless person, or someone feeding a homeless person, you’re a contemptible criminal in the eyes of the U.S. injustice system. As such, police and prosecutors will come down on you as hard as they possibly can. Subjecting you to the full and brutal force of the law, including jail sentences for non-crimes.

Read moreU.S. Department of Justice Handles Banker Criminals Like Juvenile Offenders … Literally