Archive - Oct 2014

New York City health officials have released Morgan Dixon, the 30-year-old fiancée of recently diagnosed Ebola patient Dr. Craig Spencer, to her West 147th Street Manhattan apartment where, as WSJ reports, she will remain under mandatory quarantine. This 'good' news comes as New York's Department of Health issues a statement on the deteriorating condition of Dr. Spencer who "is entering the next phase of the illness, which is anticipated gastrointestinal symptoms." This was expected apparently, as NYC's health commissioner Mary Basset noted, "we've seen with this disease that it continues to get worse before it gets better." A large CDC team is actively involved.

Europe is fast turning into a freak comedy show. Very fast. Or maybe we should say it’s always been one, and it’s just that the Larry, Curly and Moe moves are only now coming out in droves. Or maybe, what do I know, we’re just starting to understand how much talent for farce and slapstick the boys from Brussels have always had. Someone finish off that inane union before it starts to do real serious harm. Because it will.

The Queen unleashed her first tweet on Friday from the official account of the British Monarchy, explaining her pleasure at opening a new exhibit at The Science Museum. The news media were exultant and instantly went to Social Media for their reaction... Unfortunately for The BBC, they live broadcast a less-than-BBC-esque remark from one @WolfgangDikface...

"What someone believes is paramount."

We are now less than a year away from the day when Robert Zemeckis and Michael J. Fox inspired an entire generation to expect nothing less from 2015 than flying cars. Sadly, as a result of the past 6 years of human "progress" being redirected to finding creative ways of preserving crony capitalism, the failed way of Keynesian life and masking insolvent banks as lipsticked pigs, the only automotive question we have of 2015 is whether there are any GM cars that haven't been recalled; cars which one hopes will never be airborne. And yet, there is one aspect of 2015 that the Back to the Future trilogy may have gotten correct: that "other" thing which every 80's kid wants to have more than anything: hoverboards.

Ffuture production losses could extend to a wider variety of staples: California represents almost one-fifth of all US States’ milk exports, a third of all vegetable and rice exports, almost half of all fruit exports and over 90% tree nut exports. What is equally striking is how distant the #2 States are in some cases in terms of production volumes. So if the drought continues into the foreseeable future (and this is a real possibility), here’s a really interesting question: who will make up for any shortfall in California’s gigantic contribution to US food production?

The recent slowdown in Chinese property sales, prices and early-cycle new starts has most impacted physical demand for (and sentiment towards) commodities exposed to the earlier stages of China’s construction cycle – steel and iron ore – which have underperformed commodities more exposed to latter stages of the construction cycle, such as copper. However, as the recent slowdown in new starts flows through to late-cycle, copper-intensive construction completions, we expect copper to come under further pressure.

"What everyone wants to believe is that when things reach a tipping point and go from being merely crappy for the masses to dangerous and socially destabilizing, that we’re somehow going to know about that shift ahead of time. Any student of history knows that’s not the way it happens. Revolutions, like bankruptcies, come gradually, and then suddenly."

Overview of the capital markets as if they were not managed by an evil cabal.

How this will all end up is obvious to anyone: the EU Crisis will return and the whole mess will come crashing down.

Army’s Infectious Disease Research Unit and Discoverer of Ebola Strain Agree

If you want to hide something in plain view, exaggerate it to the point it becomes extreme and convert it to a conspiracy theory.

“More than Forgiven, This Evil Must Be CURED”

We fear many Americans who don't travel internationally might have become somewhat immune to the intrusive, arbitrary nature of today's American government and its institutions. It is still possible to achieve the American Dream of a simple life with opportunity for wealth creation, fun, freedom and good times without an overly intrusive, threatening government ... just not in the United States.

Having been relatively quiet for a while, Russia's leader Vladimir, speaking in Sochi (following meetings with Middle East crown princes who confirmed Russia as a key partner - "isolated"?), has unleashed his most aggressive statements with regard the failing world order: PUTIN SAYS U.S. DOLLAR LOSING TRUST AS RESERVE CURRENCY, WORLD WITHOUT RULES IS POSSIBILITY; ANARCHY GROWING. Adding that the risk of major conflicts involving major countries is growing, as well as the risk of arms control treaties being violated, Putin exclaimed that the US-led unipolar world is like a dictatorship over other countries and that "US leadership brings no good for others," and calls for a new global consensus.