Economy

The World’s Uberwealthy Scramble To Buy Greek Isles

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– The World’s Uberwealthy Scramble To Buy Greek Isles (ZeroHedge, May 17, 2013):

The emir of Qatar is a busy man: in addition to providing funding and weapons to the mercenary group formerly known as Syrian “rebels” in order to boost his already incalculable wealth and promote his LNG interests in the region over those of Saudi Arabia, in the process isolating Russia as the marginal provider of energy to Europe and furthering western interests even if it means escalating the Syrian civil war, he is also diversifying his assets. And he is doing so in a way that would provide for a quick and painless getaway should things in his country turn sour (now that the US and Russian fleets are converging nearby, this is no longer a merely token possibility): by buying Greek islands. So now that the world has seen the “lead investors” step in, the uber-wealthiest are scrambling to copycat one of the world’s richest people and stake their own Greek island claim.

As reported two months ago, Qatar’s emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani paid €8.5 million for six islands in the Ionian sea. As Guardian reported, “The isles, known as the Echinades, caught the oil-rich monarch’s fancy when he moored his super-yacht in the turquoise waters off Ithaca, took in the view and liked what he saw. That was four summers ago.”

When the royal eventually got off the yacht, he inquired about the pine-covered chain as he strolled about Ithaca in sandals and shorts. “They have a fund with a couple of hundred million in it,” enthused Kassianos, a former US economics professor who assumed the mayorship of Homer’s fabled isle three years ago. “And as far as I know they want to buy all 18 of the islands, the whole lot.”

Read moreThe World’s Uberwealthy Scramble To Buy Greek Isles

Welcome To The UK Recovery: Indebted British Man Sets Himself On Fire

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– Welcome to the UK Recovery: Indebted British Man Sets Himself on Fire (Liberty Blitzkrieg, May 17, 2013):

Nothing says recovery like citizens in debt setting themselves on fire due to economic hardship.  In this tragic case, Antony Breeze self-immolated after being preyed upon by payday lending companies that began to harass his father.  Similar stories are sure to reach U.S. shores before too long, particularly considering how TBTF domestic banks are partnered up with payday loan companies charging up to 500% interest.

From the Daily Mail:

A debt-ridden father doused himself in petrol and turned himself into a human fireball after being harassed for money by payday loan firms.

Antony Breeze, 36, died after setting himself alight, telling passers-by who tried to extinguish the flames: ‘I’ve had enough.’

Read moreWelcome To The UK Recovery: Indebted British Man Sets Himself On Fire

Amazon UK Pays $3.7 MILLION Tax On $6.5 BILLION Sales

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– Amazon UK pays $3.7 million tax on $6.5 billion sales (Reuters, May 15, 2013):

Corporate tax avoidance has risen to the top of the political agenda in Europe following revelations in the past couple of years about how little big names like Apple Inc., Starbucks, Google and Microsoft pay in tax in markets where they reap billions of dollars in sales.

Read moreAmazon UK Pays $3.7 MILLION Tax On $6.5 BILLION Sales

From Petrodollar To Petrogold: The US Is Now Trying To Cut Off Iran’s Access To Gold

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– From Petrodollar To Petrogold: The US Is Now Trying To Cut Off Iran’s Access To Gold (ZeroHedge, May 16, 2013):

The US is moving to broaden its ‘blockade’ efforts of Iran to the movement of pure gold into the Islamic Republic. The US-led embargo of Iranian crude succeeded in slowing the flow of petrodollars into the nation but as Foreign Affairs committee chairman Edward Cohen remarked, there is “no question that there is gold going from Turkey to Iran.” While the official line from US elite such as Bernanke remains that ‘gold is not money’ it appears that increasingly other nations would disagree, as Cohen admitted, “in large measure what we’re seeing is private Iranian citizens buying gold as a protection against the falling value of Iran’s currency.” It would seem somewhat self-evident that the US is admitting, by attempting to embargo this gold flow, that outside the US, the Dollar is becoming increasingly irrelevant (see China’s gold demand); and that for many countries the petrodollar no longer exists, having been replaced by ‘Petrogold’.

Via Trend,

…

With Iran’s currency already hit hard by European and Asian participation in the U.S.-led embargo of Iranian crude, Mr. Cohen asserted that his staff is broadening its efforts to include blocking the movement of pure gold into the Islamic republic.

“I can assure you that we are looking very, very carefully at any evidence that anyone outside Iran is selling gold to Iran,” he said.

Read moreFrom Petrodollar To Petrogold: The US Is Now Trying To Cut Off Iran’s Access To Gold

S&P Downgrades Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway From AA+ To AA, Outlook Negative

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– S&P Downgrades Berkshire From AA+ To AA, Outlook Negative (ZeroHedge, May 16, 2013):

Obviously with Buffett a major shareholder of Moody’s, the only place where a downgrade of Berkshire could come from was S&P. Moments ago, the rating agency that dared to downgrade the US for which it is being targeted by Eric Holder’s Department of “Justice”, did just that.

Read moreS&P Downgrades Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway From AA+ To AA, Outlook Negative

Hedge Fund Manager William Kaye: How A Criminal Syndicate Of Banks Is Raping The Gold Market

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– How A Criminal Syndicate Of Banks Is Raping The Gold Market (King World News, May 15, 2013):

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So this is a great business for the bankster banks.  The same people who rigged LIBOR, I’m telling you are very obviously rigging the gold market.  It’s so obvious that only the mainstream media would not be able to figure this out.”

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Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Gangster State America

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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.

– Gangster State America — Paul Craig Roberts (Paul Craig Roberts, May 13, 2013):

There are many signs of gangster state America. One is the collusion between federal authorities and banksters in a criminal conspiracy to rig the markets for gold and silver.

My explanation that the sudden appearance of an unprecedented 400 ton short sale of gold on the COMEX in April was a manipulation designed to protect the dollar from the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing policy has found acceptance among gold investors and hedge fund managers.

The sale was a naked short. The seller had no gold to sell. COMEX reported having gold only equal to about half of the short sale in its vaults, and not all of that was available for delivery. No one but the Federal Reserve could have placed such an order, and the order came from one of the Fed’s bullion banks, one of the entities “too big to fail.”

Bill Kaye of the Greater Asian Hedge Fund in Hong Kong and Dave Kranzler of Golden Returns Capital have filled in the details of how the manipulation worked. Being sophisticated investors of many years of experience, both Kaye and Kranzler understand that the financial press runs with the authorized story planted to serve the agenda that has been put into play.

Read moreDr. Paul Craig Roberts: Gangster State America

Bloomberg Accidentally Posted More Than 10,000 Private Trader Messages On Terminals Online

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– Bloomberg accidentally posted private terminal messages online (Yahoo Finance/Quartz, May 13, 2013):

This story has been updated and corrected.

Bloomberg says it accidentally posted on the internet more than 10,000 private messages that traders sent each other on their Bloomberg terminals. The new revelation, reported by the Financial Times, will undoubtedly escalate the furor over Bloomberg’s handling of data that its customers consider to be confidential.

Read moreBloomberg Accidentally Posted More Than 10,000 Private Trader Messages On Terminals Online

Brilliant And Hilarious: Jon Stewart’s Commentary On The IRS Scandal (Video)

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– Jon Stewart’s Brilliant and Hilarious Commentary on the IRS Scandal (Liberty Blitzkrieg, May 15, 2013):

While the video below is scathing and hilarious, it is much, much more than that.  Jon Stewart is well aware that the IRS being caught targeting groups for political reasons represents a major turning point in the psyche of the nation.  In the past, whenever anyone was targeted by the IRS the masses would generally assume that this person did something wrong.  Not anymore. From this point forward, every politically active person critical of the government who is targeted by the IRS will no longer be assumed guilty by the public, rather they will be seen as the victim of a federal witch-hunt.  With trust in the Federal government at a record low 29%, this is extremely significant and will only further erode whatever trust is left.

It is my view that the government is actually in full on collapse right in front of our eyes at the moment, and Jon Stewart understands that.  Will anyone at the IRS be held accountable?  Will people be jailed for this like a civilian who makes a tax mistake might be?  My favorite line in this clip is:

Hold on a minute, I didn’t realize apologies were sufficient in IRS related issues.

Enjoy!

Why Has $1 Billion in Gold been Shipped from New York to South Africa?

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– Why Has $1 Billion in Gold been Shipped from New York to South Africa? (Liberty Blitzkrieg, May 14, 2013):

In what may be the strangest story I have seen in a while related to the gold market, it appears $982 million worth of gold has left JFK international airport in New York to some undisclosed location in South Africa.  While it remains unclear what purpose this gold serves, it seems the most likely explanation is to fulfill demand for Krugerrands (South Africa’s popular gold bullion coin) to meet elevated demand in the face of constricted mine production.  This story is timely coming on the heels of the article I posted yesterday about how Dubai’s gold demand is running at 10x normal levels. This is a bizarre story, so if anyone has further color I’d love to hear it.

From Quartz:

Examining US trade data, we were surprised to see that South Africa’s $402 million trade surplus with the United States in January had turned into a $689 million deficit by March. Why?

It turns out the $1.1 billion swing is entirely due to unusual shipments of gold from the US to South Africa in February and March. So far this year, 20,013 kg of unwrought gold, worth $982 million, has left John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), in New York, for somewhere in South Africa, according to the US Census Bureau’s foreign trade division. (Unwrought gold includes bars created from scrap as well as cast bars, but not bullion, jewelry, powder, or currency.)

Read moreWhy Has $1 Billion in Gold been Shipped from New York to South Africa?

US Government Begins BitCoin Crackdown

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– US Government Begins BitCoin Crackdown (ZeroHedge, May 15, 2013):

As we first noted here (regulation) and here (supervision), the US government has been gradually encroaching on the independence and freedom of the virtual currency. This week, as The Washington Post reports, the government escalated. The feds took action against Mt. Gox, the world’s leading Bitcoin exchange. Many people use Dwolla, a PayPal-like payment network, to send dollars to their Mt. Gox accounts. They then use those dollars to buy Bitcoins. On Tuesday, Dwolla announced that it had frozen Mt. Gox’s account at the request of federal investigators.

It’s the first federal action against the currency. CNet has confirmed that the asset seizure was initiated by Homeland Security Investigations (which among other things is responsible for enforcing the laws associated with money laundering and drug smuggling).

Read moreUS Government Begins BitCoin Crackdown

Gold Drops Below $1400

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– Gold Drops Below $1400 (ZeroHedge, May 15, 2015):

After retracing 61.8% of the gold crash, spot gold prices have fallen back and are now trading back under $1400 for the first time in four weeks. It would seem more time is perhaps needed to enable the gathering of physical gold to fufill Germany’s demands… (and cue, the death of gold headlines) So, in summary, we have had a notable increase in tapering discussions – Treasury yields have surged, the USD has surged, Gold has dropped, and credit has widened – all reflecting lower liquidity flow expectations; but stocks just keep going…

Charts: Bloomberg

Argentines Are Hoarding 1 Of Every 15 Cash Dollars In The World

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– Argentines Are Hoarding 1 Of Every 15 Cash Dollars In The World (ZeroHedge, May 15, 2013):

With the shadow (or blue) market for Argentina Pesos already devalued by an incredible 50%, it is little surprise that the population is bidding for any store of value. Demand for luxury cars is soaring (BMW sales up 30% in the last 20 months) and Bitcoin activity is often discussed as the population transfer increasingly worthless Pesos into a fungible “currency” or domestic CPI protection; but it is USD that are the most-cherished item (despite a ban on buying USD) as hyperinflation hedges. But as Bloomberg Businessweek reports, a lot of US Dollar bills are tucked away somewhere in Argentina (in stacks of $100 bills since the number in circulation has risen from 58% of the total to 62% since 2008). One table is a 2012 Fed paper on demand abroad for US currency shows net inflows to Russia and Argentina has increased by 500% since 2006 (compared to US demand up around 10%). In fact, demand for large dollar transfers to Argentina since 2006 has outstripped demand for dollar cash overall in the world. It is safe to surmise from the data (that is relatively well guarded by the government) that over $50bn is being hoarded in Argentina (or well over one in every fifteen dollars). It is little wonder that the government is furiously digging at the country’s undeclared (stashed under the mattress) wealth.

Read moreArgentines Are Hoarding 1 Of Every 15 Cash Dollars In The World

Bank Of Japan Head: ‘No Bubble Here’ As Nikkei Rises 45% In 2013

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– Bank Of Japan Head:”No Bubble Here” As Nikkei Rises 45% In 2013 (ZeroHedge, May 15, 2013):

Take a good look at the chart of the Nikkei below:

Supposedly this is the same chart that the new BOJ head, Haruhiko Kuroda, was looking at when he was responding to Japanese lawmakers during a session of the upper-house budget committee, where he flatly rejected an opposition-party member’s argument that the recent rapid rise in the Tokyo stock market is out of line with Japan’s real economy. “At this moment I do not think they are in a bubble,” Kuroda said. And everyone believes him, just Because central bankers are so good at objectively observing how contained subrpime is big the asset bubbles their ruinous policies create.

Incidentally, all this happens as the Nikkei225 closed at 15096, and is up 45% in 2013 alone! It will easily surpass the Dow Jones Industrial Average in absolute terms once tonight’s trading session begins, considering the ongoing pounding the Yen is sustaining in today’s session.

From the WSJ:

Read moreBank Of Japan Head: ‘No Bubble Here’ As Nikkei Rises 45% In 2013

10 Scenes From The Economic Collapse That Is Sweeping Across The Planet

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– 10 Scenes From The Economic Collapse That Is Sweeping Across The Planet (Economic Collapse, May 13, 2013):

When is the economic collapse going to happen?  Just open up your eyes and take a look around the globe.  The next wave of the economic collapse may not have reached Wall Street yet, but it is already deeply affecting billions of lives all over the planet.  Much of Europe has already descended into a deep economic depression, very disturbing economic data is coming out of the second and third largest economies on the globe (China and Japan), and in most of the world economic inequality is growing even though 80 percent of the global population already lives on less than $10 a day.  Just because the Dow has been setting brand new all-time records lately does not mean that everything is okay.  Remember, a bubble is always the biggest right before it bursts.  The next major wave of the economic collapse is already sweeping across Europe and Asia and it is going to devastate the United States as well.  I hope that you are ready.

The following are 10 scenes from the economic collapse that is sweeping across the planet…

Read more10 Scenes From The Economic Collapse That Is Sweeping Across The Planet

‘And The Award For The Most Creative Excuse For Joining Currency Wars Goes To … The Bank Of Israel!’

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– “And the award for the most creative excuse for joining currency wars goes to…” (Lighthouse Investment Management, May 13, 2013):

… the Bank of Israel!

  • On Monday, Bank of Israel cut interest rates in a surprise decision to 1.5% from 1.75%.
  • Also, they are done with watching the Shekel strengthen against the dollar:

“Beginning this year, and in coming years, the Bank of Israel will purchase foreign exchange in order to offset the effect of natural gas production on the exchange rate.”

Despite ‘Abenomics’: Sharp Posts Whopping $5.36 Billion Loss, The Biggest In Its 100-Year History

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– Despite Abenomics Japan’s Sharp Post Biggest Loss In 100 Years (ZeroHedge, May 14, 2013):

As reported earlier, at least one prominent hedge fund manager, Dan Loeb, is very bullish on Sony (or at least has played his cards well enough to buy the stock 50% lower and is using today’s ramp to offload to unwitting momentum chasers as he did with Herbalife). Whether he is merely using the opportunity to earn some activism brownie points on the background of the overall levitation of the Japanese stock market, or is genuinely convinced there is upside for Sony remains to be seen. However, anyone who thinks that Japanese corporates have no place to go but up, is kindly urged to take a look at one-time Japanese electronics titan Sharp, which posted a whopping loss of $5.36 billion, the biggest loss in the company’s 100 year history.

Read moreDespite ‘Abenomics’: Sharp Posts Whopping $5.36 Billion Loss, The Biggest In Its 100-Year History

Remote Viewing UPDATE: Major Ed Dames On … The ‘Kill-Shot’, Solar Flares, Safe Zones, Fukushima, Gold & Silver, Economic Collapse, Mad Max, ‘Obama Is The Last President’, Martial Law & Chaos

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YouTube Added: 25.04.2013


YouTube Added: 17.04.2013

Description:

The world’s foremost remote viewing teacher, Edward A. Dames, Major, U.S. Army (ret.) is a decorated military intelligence officer and an original member of the U.S. Army prototype remote viewing training program. He served as the training and operations officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency’s psychic intelligence (PSIINT) collection unit, and currently serves as executive director for the Matrix Intelligence Agency, a private consulting group. The technical consultant for the feature film, Suspect Zero, (a Tom Cruise-Paula Wagner production), Ed coached Sir Ben Kingsley, and played the role of an FBI remote viewing instructor in the movie, as well.

AND NOW: Denver Public Schools Pay $216 MILLION To Wall Street Banks To Unwind Swaps

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– Denver Public Schools Pay $216 Million to Wall Street Banks to Unwind Swaps (Liberty Blitzkrieg, May 12, 2013):

You can move from New York City to Colorado, but it seems you can never escape the all encompassing tentacles of Wall Street parasitism and theft.  I recently covered a similar situation back in March in my piece Wall Street: $474 Million, Detroit: 0. In both cases it seems clear that public officials had no idea what they were getting into and there was a great deal of irresponsibility, but that is beside the point.  It’d be one thing to say these communities should suffer the consequences of their actions if Wall Street had to as well, but we all know that isn’t the case.  So it is highly immoral and culturally destructive to say it’s ok that Wall Street gets bailed out from all their mistakes and then is able to turn around and impose austerity on everyone else.  That’s the way America works today and we can thank Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama for that reality.  We must never forget the enablers in chief of all of this.  Oh, and did I mention that the $216 million paid by Denver represents two-thirds of annual teaching expenses? USA! USA!

From Bloomberg:

Wall Street banks collected $215.6 million that Denver’s public schools paid to unwind swaps and sell bonds since the district began borrowing to cut pension costs in 2008. That sum is about two-thirds of annual teaching expenses.

The district paid $146.6 million last month to banks, including RBC Capital Markets LLC, Wells Fargo Securities LLC and Bank of America Corp., to end interest-rate swaps as part of a second attempt to restructure a 2008 borrowing, bond documents show. The April 17 deal sold as the district’s property-tax rate has risen 26 percent in two years to fund education.

Municipal borrowers from Detroit’s utilities to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have paid billions of dollars to banks to end privately negotiated interest-rate bets sold as hedges. The Federal Reserve’s policy of holding its benchmark borrowing rate near zero since 2008 has turned many of the swaps into wrong-way bets.

Read moreAND NOW: Denver Public Schools Pay $216 MILLION To Wall Street Banks To Unwind Swaps

New Information Shows Gold Demand In Dubai Is Now Running At 10 Times Normal Levels

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– New Information Shows Gold Demand in Dubai is Now Running at 10x Normal Levels (Liberty Blitzkrieg, May 13, 2013):

The disconnect between the massive physical buying of gold versus the falling paper derivatives price has now become nothing short of extraordinary.  While we have all seen the figures describing the gold buying frenzy in China and India, now we have some more detailed information about what is happening on the ground in Dubai.  Incredibly, we find that since the April paper price crash, 50 tons of gold has been purchased, which is the equivalent of the entire amount of 51.8 tons purchased in all of 2012.

One of the most comprehensive looks at the massive physical versus paper disconnect I have read is courtesy of Goldbroker.com, a company that specializes in physical bullion stored in Switzerland.  I suggest checking out their latest Gold Market Report.

Now from Emirates 24/7 we find that:

Read moreNew Information Shows Gold Demand In Dubai Is Now Running At 10 Times Normal Levels