Economy

More Sanctions: Europe Will Ban Purchase Of Russian Bonds; However Russian Gas Exports Remain Untouched

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Never Gazprom, never Gazprom!

putin smile_0

– More Sanctions: Europe Will Ban Purchase Of Russian Bonds; However Russian Gas Exports Remain Untouched (ZeroHedge, Sep 1, 2014):

Over the weekend, insolvent, debt-dependent Europe thought long and hard how to best punish Russia and moments ago reached yet another milestone in deep projective thought: as Reuters reports, Europeans could be barred from buying new Russian government bonds “under a package of extra sanctions over Moscow’s military role in Ukraine that European Union ambassadors were to start discussing on Monday, three EU sources said.” This will be in addition to the ban on the debt funding of most Russian corporations. So as Europe’s 7-day ultimatum for the Kremlin to “de-escalate” counts down, Putin has a choice: continue operating under a budget surplus and ignore Europe’s latest and most amusing hollow threat which is merely a projection of Europe’s biggest fears, or spend himself into oblivion as Europe has done over the past decade and become a vassal state of the Frankfurt central bank.. Somehow we doubt Putin will lose too much sleep over this latest “escalation”…

Some more details on today’s latest threat by Europe, which if nothing else has sent the ruble to a fresh record low against the dollar, leaving Europe green with envy at such currency debasement, and boosting Russian exports even more:

Read moreMore Sanctions: Europe Will Ban Purchase Of Russian Bonds; However Russian Gas Exports Remain Untouched

To Everyone Saying Russia Is ‘Isolated’, Here’s A Map

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– To Everyone Saying Russia Is “Isolated”, Here’s A Map (ZeroHedge, Sep 1, 2014):

While NATO is happy to provide Russia with geographical advice, we thought the following map of “the world” will help explain President Obama’s increased use of the term “isolated” when it comes to Russia…

Russia-isolated
(Click on image to enlarge.)

AND NOW: Spain Sells First-Ever 50 Year Bonds At 4% Coupon

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– Spain Sells First-Ever 50 Year Bonds At 4% Coupon (ZeroHedge, Sep 1, 2014):

Perhaps in order to celebrate its manufacturing PMI dropping from 53.9 to a below expectations 52.8, refuting the “growth story” promoted by its definitionally re-revised GDP (where the long overdue boost from hookers and blow is finally leading the country to new and improved Keynesian growth curves), moments ago Spain joined the likes of Canada, Caterpillar and Goldman and just issued, for the first time in its history, 50 Year bonds in a private placement. From Bloomberg:

  • SPAIN SELLS EU1B 50-YR BONDS
  • SPAIN TREASURY SELLS FIRST-EVER 50-YR BONDS, COUPON 4%

And since there is no hope that Spain will ever repay this bond, whose rate is dictated by anything – mostly the ECB’s monetary policy – but the fundamentals it is functionally equivalent to Spain raising new equity without a maturity date and a 4% dividend.

Read moreAND NOW: Spain Sells First-Ever 50 Year Bonds At 4% Coupon

The U.S. Is Now a ‘Third World’ Country – 4.3% of Americans Survive on Less than $2/Day

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Extreme-Poverty-US

– The U.S. Is Now a ‘Third World’ Country (Washington’s Blog, Aug 31, 2014):

4.3% of Americans Survive on Less than $2/Day – 

That’s Considered Poor in Even the Poorest Lands

Read moreThe U.S. Is Now a ‘Third World’ Country – 4.3% of Americans Survive on Less than $2/Day

Dr. Jim Willie, Reporting On The Ukraine Mess (Video)

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Commentary:

‘Bilderberg Merkel’ is only another elite puppet, like Bilderberg puppets Schmidt, Kohl and Schröder before her.

angela-merkel

Germany cannot do anything on its own. The problem is that under the ‘Geheime Staatsvertrag’ (= secret treaty) as reported by the former German MAD (= Militärischer Abschirmdienst = Military Counterintelligence Service) chief Gerd-Helmut Komossa all German media and the chancellor itself  are under control by the allied forces (US, UK, France) until 2099.

die-deutsche-karte

The ‘Geheime Staatsvertrag’ also regulates that the German gold reserves stay exactly where they are (as collateral).

Here is an …

Internal BND (Bundesnachrichtendient) document only for ministers (“NUR Für Minister”)

T O P   S E C R E T ( Strengste Vertraulichkeit)

It states that copy No.4 of the ‘Geheime Staatsvertrag’ has been lost and also describes in detail what it has been all about.

The document further states that if copy No. 4 of the ‘Geheime Staatsvertrag’ gets into the wrong hand its authenticity should be denied.

geheimerstaatsvertragkopie4teil_1

geheimerstaatsvertragkopie4teil_2

Also there is a quote by Egon Bahr, minister from 1972 bis 1976 under Chancellor Willy Brandt, stating that Brandt had to sign 3 letters for the ambassadors of the US, the UK and France.

Brandt was reportedly disgusted by having to sign this ‘Unterwerfungsbrief’ (letter of subjugation), but was told that Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard and Kurt Georg Kiesinger had to sign these letters as well.


Sep 1, 2014

Dr. Jim Willie joins me to present some important recent developments that bode ill for the dollar as Germany / France and other former allies and partners of the US are now aligning themselves with Russia / China and the BRICS bloc.

Operation Sarkozy : How The CIA Placed One Of Its Agents At The Presidency Of The French Republic

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Nicolas-Sarkozy-hand-sign nicolas-sarkozy-handsign

– Operation Sarkozy : how the CIA placed one of its agents at the presidency of the French Republic (Voltairenet, July 26, 2008):

Tired of the overextended presidencies of François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, the French elected Nicolas Sarkozy counting on his energy to revitalize their country. They were hoping for a break with years of no-change and ideologies of the past. What they got instead was a break with the very principles which founded the French nation, and have been shocked by this “hyper-president”, seizing every day a new dossier, attracting towards him the right and the left wing, and tearing apart all points of reference to the point of creating a total confusion.

Like children who have just made a boo-boo, the French are too busy trying to find excuses for themselves to admit the magnitude of the damages and of their naiveté, and they refuse all the more to see who Nicolas Sarkozy really is, that they realize they should have known since a long time who he was.

Read moreOperation Sarkozy : How The CIA Placed One Of Its Agents At The Presidency Of The French Republic

Corporations Join Droves Renouncing US Citizenship

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Corporate Income Tax

– Corporations Join Droves Renouncing US Citizenship (Casey Research, Aug 29, 2014):

Don’t be surprised to lose if you don’t make an effort at being competitive.

And if you go out of your way to make yourself less competitive, expect to lose.

If that sounds like simple common sense, that’s because it is.

But it’s also exactly what the US has been doing for years—enacting tax policies that sabotage its global economic competitiveness.

Read moreCorporations Join Droves Renouncing US Citizenship

It’s Settled: Central Banks Trade S&P500 Futures

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– It’s Settled: Central Banks Trade S&P500 Futures (ZeroHedge, Aug 30, 2014):

Based on the unprecedented collapse in trading volumes of cash products over the past 6 years, one thing has become clear: retail, and increasingly, institutional investors and traders are gone, probably for ever and certainly until the Fed’s market-distorting central planning ends. However, one entity appears to have taken the place of conventional equity traders: central banks.

Courtesy of an observation by Nanex’s Eric Hunsader, we now know, with certainty and beyond merely speculation by tinfoil fringe blogs, that central banks around the world trade (and by “trade” we mean buy) S&P 500 futures such as the E-mini, in both futures and option form, as well as full size, and micro versions, in addition to the well-known central bank trading in Interest Rates, TSY and FX products.

Read moreIt’s Settled: Central Banks Trade S&P500 Futures

The Economics Of Perpetual War

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– The Economics Of Perpetual War (Mises Economics Blog):

By Matt McCaffrey
Wednesday, August 27th, 2014

The 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I seems like an ideal opportunity to spread a message of peace and economic cooperation; sadly, 2014 has so far been a year of new and renewed conflict far more than one of reconciliation.

By now, talk of the horrors of war is nothing new. Everyone knows about the total destruction war brings; in fact, we’ve known for millennia. As Lew Rockwell points out, “just about everyone makes the perfunctory nod to the tragedy of war, that war is a last resort only, and that everyone sincerely regrets having to go to war”—but war continues all the same. Even classical military strategists like Sun Tzu believed war should only be used only as a last resort, and argued that military campaigns could bankrupt states and ultimately, destroy them. Art of War actually states that “no country has ever profited from protracted warfare,” and cautions generals to “fight under Heaven with the paramount aim of ‘preservation.’” Yet as far back as we have historical records, these sorts of ideas have fallen on deaf ears among governments and military organizations alike.

Read moreThe Economics Of Perpetual War

IF CONSUMERS ARE SO F%#KING CONFIDENT WHY AREN’T THEY SPENDING?

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The consumer society

– IF CONSUMERS ARE SO F%#KING CONFIDENT WHY AREN’T THEY SPENDING? (The burning platform, Aug 30, 2014):

The sheep have been told their confidence is at a 7 year high by the propaganda peddlers working at the behest of the oligarchy. The sheep are also told that 10 million jobs have been added since the GOTUS played his first round back in 2009. The sheep have been told the record highs in the stock market prove that all is well. If the .1% are doing fantastic, some of the wealth must be trickling down. The sheep are told that QE and ZIRP were really to save Main Street and not the bonuses of Wall Street (at record highs by the way). The sheep are told to fear ISIS, Iran, Assad, Putin, and China. The sheep are told U.S. energy independence is just around the corner and to ignore the fact that gas prices have tripled in the last ten years. The sheep are told drones will keep them safe and the DHS militarizing the police is just for their safety and security. The sheep are told guns are dangerous in their hands, but not in the hands of the government. The sheep passively eat their iGadgets and barely bleat while being led to the slaughter house.

…

Marc Faber Slams US Intervention In Middle East, Warns ‘Whole Region Will Blow Up’

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… as planned by TPTB.

marc-faber1

From the article:

“We find ourselves with the same anti-free market interventionist types who set up the Federal Reserve, the US Treasury and the US government running foreign policy in America and then go and intervene in the affairs of Libya, Syria, Egypt, Iraq or Afghanistan. And as can be expected, they mess up just about everything. I think the whole region will blow up and financial markets are not paying sufficient attention to this.”

– Marc Faber Slams US Intervention In Middle East, Warns “Whole Region Will Blow Up” (ZeroHedge, Aug 30, 2014): 

Excerpted from Global Gold interview with Marc Faber,

Let’s talk about the ongoing power shift from the West to the East.

Well, basically, everything is connected and interrelated. We had a colonial system until the end of the Second World War, followed by the rise of individual countries. And over the last twenty-five to thirty years what we had was the rise of China with 1.3 billion people. Because of China’s rapid growth and resource dependence (iron ore, copper from Australia, Brazil and Africa, and oil principally from the Middle East), the Chinese have obviously become a very important economic force.

Read moreMarc Faber Slams US Intervention In Middle East, Warns ‘Whole Region Will Blow Up’

Federal Approval of Tyson-Hillshire Mega-Meat-Merger Harms Consumers

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– Federal Approval of Tyson-Hillshire Mega-Meat-Merger Harms Consumers (EcoWatch, Aug 27, 2014):

Yesterday, the U.S. Justice Department approved the merger between Tyson Foods and Hillshire Brands, requiring an important divestiture, but nonetheless allowing one of the largest meat processing mergers in years.

The Justice Department forced Tyson to sell its sow-buying business that competed head-to-head with Hillshire’s sow slaughter business. The Justice Department should be commended for recognizing the buyer-power that pork processors and marketers have over hog farmers and taking a necessary step to protect farmers from increased consolidation in the pork packing industry. The pork packing industry remains overly concentrated, but at least the Justice Department prevented it from getting any worse.

Read moreFederal Approval of Tyson-Hillshire Mega-Meat-Merger Harms Consumers

Kick Russia Out Of SWIFT, UK Demands; But Beware The Retaliation…

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– Kick Russia Out Of SWIFT, UK Demands; But Beware The Retaliation… (ZeroHedge, Aug 29, 2014):

UK Prime Minister David Cameron came out swinging this morning; not only at ISIS but in calling for European leaders to block Russia from the SWIFT banking transaction system. European leaders have already (via unnamed sources) denied any actual new sanctions will take place (though they will be discussing them at the NATO Summit) but – as we have noted previously – this is yet another unintended consequence-driven nail in the coffin of USD hegemony…

Bloomberg reports that the U.K. Said to Press EU to Block Russia From Banking Network

The U.K. will press European Union leaders to consider blocking Russian access to the SWIFT banking transaction system under an expansion of sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine, a British government official said.

Read moreKick Russia Out Of SWIFT, UK Demands; But Beware The Retaliation…

Dear Future American Generations, You Are Screwed

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– Dear Future American Generations, You Are Screwed (ZeroHedge, Aug 29, 2014):

Faith that the future will be better than the present is slipping, as despite President Obama’s demands that Americans not be “cynics,” a new report shows there is a major lack of confidence that the next generation will have it better than the last one. As WSJ reports, most strikingly, only 16% of respondents agree that job and career opportunities will be better for the next generation than for their own – a drop from the 56% who were optimistic about this measure in 1999 and down even from the 40% who agreed in November 2009, well into the recession.

Read moreDear Future American Generations, You Are Screwed

Can A National Quasi-Religion (Pro Sports) Go Broke?

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– Can a National Quasi-Religion (Pro Sports) Go Broke? (Washington’s Blog, Aug 29, 2014):

Attending costly games is on the margins of the household budget. When the credit card gets maxed out, attending is no longer an option.

Please understand I’m not suggesting professional sports isn’t the greatest thing since sliced bread: I’m simply asking if attending pro sports games has become unaffordable to the average American.

Who cares as long as we can watch the games for free on television, right? That raises another issue: in the next recession, will advertisers still pay billions of dollars for broadcast TV ads on sports channels when ads on mobile devices distributed via Big Data analysis can directly target the (shrinking) populace who still has disposable income to spend?

Before we look at the money side of pro sports, let’s note the glorious shared experience of “our team” winning and hated rivals losing.Sports is one of the few experiences that unites a remarkably diverse populace, and one of the few spheres of life that isn’t politicized to ruination.

Read moreCan A National Quasi-Religion (Pro Sports) Go Broke?

CBO: Obamacare Discourages Work

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obamacare-symbol

– CBO: Obamacare Discourages Work (ZeroHedge, Aug 29, 2014):

Remember all those allegations that Obamacare would be an unmitigated disaster for businesses, especially smaller companies? Well, now we have some facts. A week ago we noted that the Philly Fed found that Obamacare was a disaster for business, and now no lessor entity than the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is out with its latest forecasts, concluding “certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act will tend to reduce labor force participation.”

20140828_CBO

Via Kevin Hall of TownHall.com,

…the CBO does write, though, is that one of the downward pressures on the labor force is Obamacare. As the report finds:

Read moreCBO: Obamacare Discourages Work

Has Ukraine Shot Itself In The Foot With Gas Pipeline Deal?

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– Has Ukraine Shot Itself In The Foot With Gas Pipeline Deal? (ZeroHedge, Aug 29, 2014):

Last week, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk pushed a bill through the Verkhovna Rada that would see his country’s gas transportation system sold off to a group of international investors. The provisions of the law would permit the transit of natural gas to be blocked. This decision may hurt the fragile industrial recovery in Germany and finish off Ukraine’s potential as a gas transit route to Europe.

…

 

?‘London-centricity is unsustainable’: 200 business leaders back Scottish independence

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– ?‘London-centricity is unsustainable’: 200 business leaders back Scottish independence (RT, Aug 28, 2014):

More than 200 business people have lent their support to the “Yes Scotland” campaign in an open letter published in The Herald Scotland newspaper, just one day after 130 slammed the idea of secession from the UK.

The heads of 200 companies representing about 10 percent of Scotland’s workforce have backed Scottish independence over staying with the UK. Similar to the pro-unity bloc’s letter on Wednesday, all the bosses signed on an individual basis, not as representatives of their companies.

Read more?‘London-centricity is unsustainable’: 200 business leaders back Scottish independence

‘TTIP agreement is an attack on people, society and environment in both Europe and the US’

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– ‘TTIP agreement is an attack on people, society and environment in both Europe and the US’ (RT, Aug 28, 2014):

In TTIP talks the US and the EU are working on behalf of big businesses trying to attack the most prized social and environmental standards that people have fought for years to uphold and develop, executive director of War on Want John Hilary told RT.

RT: Italy has written to its EU partners calling for the details of talks on the vast trade deal with the United States to be made public. What do you think about this initiative?

John Hilary: I think it is a very important initiative on the part of Italy because we have been told that the details of the EU-US trade deal are completely secret. They have put a 30-year ban on all the key documents that we would like to see to really open up the heart of these negotiations. The main [thing] what Italy is calling for here is absolutely right: there needs to be a great deal of transparency to shed light on that moment, to the completely secret negotiations. The problem really is though that Italy is only asking for a particular piece of information to be made public, which actually has been leaked many months ago. So in a way they are trying to deal with something which is no longer an issue. The key documents that we need to see are the US documents, which are completely and utterly barred to all members of the public.

Read more‘TTIP agreement is an attack on people, society and environment in both Europe and the US’

The Nail In The Petrodollar Coffin: Gazprom Begins Accepting Payment For Oil In Ruble, Yuan

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xi-jinping-vladimir-putin

– The Nail In The Petrodollar Coffin: Gazprom Begins Accepting Payment For Oil In Ruble, Yuan (ZeroHedge, Aug 27, 2014):

Several months ago, when Russia announced the much anticipated “Holy Grail” energy deal with China, some were disappointed that despite this symbolic agreement meant to break the petrodollar’s stranglehold on the rest of the world, neither Russia nor China announced payment terms to be in anything but dollars. In doing so they admitted that while both nations are eager to move away from a US Dollar reserve currency, neither is yet able to provide an alternative.

This changed in late June when first Gazprom’s CFO announced the gas giant was ready to settle China contracts in Yuan or Rubles, and at the same time the People’s Bank of China announced that its Assistant Governor Jin Qi and Russian central bank Deputy Chairman Dmitry Skobelkin held a meeting in which they discussed cooperating on project and trade financing using local currencies. The meeting discussed cooperation in bank card, insurance and financial supervision sectors.

And yet, while both sides declared their operational readiness and eagerness to bypass the dollar entirely, such plans remained purely in the arena of monetary foreplay and the long awaited first shot across the Petrodollar bow was absent.

Until now.

According to Russia’s RIA Novosti, citing business daily Kommersant, Gazprom Neft has agreed to export 80,000 tons of oil from Novoportovskoye field in the Arctic; it will accept payment in rubles, and will also deliver oil via the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline (ESPO), accepting payment in Chinese yuan for the transfers. Meaning Russia will export energy to either Europe or China, and receive payment in either Rubles or Yuan, in effect making the two currencies equivalent as far as the Eurasian axis is conerned, but most importantly, transact completely away from the US dollar thus, finally putin'(sic) in action the move for a Petrodollar-free world.

Read moreThe Nail In The Petrodollar Coffin: Gazprom Begins Accepting Payment For Oil In Ruble, Yuan

Christine Lagarde to be investigated for alleged role in political fraud case

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H/t reader M.G.:

“Another greedy gut, the IMF leader, is being investigated for fraud………………..she is the one who tried to make banks hold 5cents on deposit for every dollar they claimed as assets……the banks would have had to borrow the money, the idea was tabled forever.”

Flashback:

– Christine Lagarde – The Most Dangerous Woman in the World – IMF Advocates Taking Pensions & Extending Maturities of Gov’t Debt to Prevent Redemption

– IMF Boss Christine Lagarde Pays NO TAX

– Christine Lagarde: IMF May Need A BAILOUT

IMF chief Christine Lagarde

– Christine Lagarde to be investigated for alleged role in political fraud case (Guardian, Aug 27, 2014):

IMF chief and former finance minister says decision to investigate her for alleged negligence is unfounded

The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has been charged with “simple negligence” over her handling of a controversial €400m payout to French business tycoon Bernard Tapie when she was finance minister.

Lagarde announced that she had been placed under investigation by a magistrate on Tuesday – the French equivalent of being charged in the UK – after being questioned for 15 hours at the court of justice in Paris, which deals with cases of alleged ministerial wrongdoing.

Read moreChristine Lagarde to be investigated for alleged role in political fraud case

Sometimes 0% Is Better Than -82%

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jim_cramer

– Sometimes 0% Is Better Than -82% (ZeroHedge, Aug 27, 2014):

The Best Investment Article Ever Written:

The Winners of the World

February 29, 2000…

You want winners? You want me to put my Cramer Berkowitz hedge fund hat on and just discuss what my fund is buying today to try to make money tomorrow and the next day and the next? You want my top 10 stocks for who is going to make it in the New World? You know what? I am going to give them to you. Right here. Right now.

OK. Here goes. Write them down — no handouts here!: 724 Solutions (SVNX), Ariba (ARBA), Digital Island (ISLD), Exodus (EXDS), InfoSpace.com (INSP), Inktomi (INKT), Mercury Interactive (MERQ), Sonera (SNRA), VeriSign (VRSN) and Veritas Software (VRTS).

We are buying some of every one of these this morning as I give this speech.

And then this…

Jim Cramer - winner

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Sometimes – it would appear – 0% is better than -82%…

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JimCramer