Archive - Feb 14, 2015

When asked if hybrid warfare could raise the danger of nuclear weapons being used, US diplomat Richard Burt - who helped put together the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty - answered: "The simple answer is yes. Both American and Russian nuclear arms are essentially on a kind of hair-trigger alert. Both sides have a nuclear posture where land-based missiles could be authorized for use in less than 15 minutes...that is a dangerous state of play."

History is very clear what happens with dangerous imbalances like this. They correct painfully. Through class warfare. Through currency crises. Through wealth destruction.

"...there seems to have been a shift from using derivatives as a hedging tool, to using them more for alpha generation [as] most products are now used more for adding risk and directional views."

3 words... fun durr mentals!

“He’s a goddamn moron! You think keeping track of whether you were shot down in a freakin’ helicopter is like forgetting where you put your keys? That’s like being unsure if you had a threesome with Sofia Vergara and Kate Upton..."

As Washington is not a partner to the Minsk peace deal, how can there be peace when Washington has made policy decisions to escalate the conflict and to use the conflict as a proxy war between the US and Russia?

Looking at the deal itself, it is set up to fail.

the latest news out of the West Coast is not good for anyone hoping for a quick resolution to the congestion problem. According to Reuters, after the clogged ports briefly reopened on Friday after a daylong closure, "shippers planned to re-impose a partial shutdown through the holiday weekend barring a settlement in stalled labor talks with the dockworkers union."

In an effort to to disentangle demand from supply shifts, Goldman explores the drivers of the sharp drop in oil prices since last summer. They find that the vast majority of the decline in oil prices until November 2014 was driven by perceptions of improved supply. The continued sell-off in December and January was driven by perceptions of both improving supply and slowing demand. The latest rebound in oil--which started in late January--appears to be driven by a mix of demand and supply. However, Goldman concludes the new equilibrium price of oil will likely be much lower than over the past decade.

Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher proclaimed that he and some esteemed colleagues in the business community believe the collapse in oil prices is a net positive for Texas, while "we will lose about 150,000 [oil-based] jobs, but we will pick them up elsewhere since we are a consumer society," and low oil prices is good for everyone... so far he is absolutely wrong!

With the global economy sinking, and worries about it beginning to resound beyond just inconvenient bears, Paul Krugman has been leading the critique against what he sees is a disastrous and ignorant deformation against debt. Krugman is trying to argue that because government debt did not hinder private wealth creation we should use government debt to create private wealth. The cart is not even before the horse using this “logic”, as the cart and horse aren’t even on the same road. Paper wealth isn’t wealth, and government debt isn’t “free money.” There are consequences to both which their proponents never include in the “prospectus.”

Roger Bliss runs Roger Bliss and Associates Equities, LLC, which is supposedly an "investment club" and has had tremendous success day-trading Apple stock, achieving annual returns for his investors of between 100 to 300%. Bliss tells investors he has never had a trading day in which he has lost money in the past six years. Bliss claims to be managing in excess of$300 million of which approximately $260 million is his own equity in the fund. Bliss also claims there is no risk for investors as he indemnifies them against the loss of their principal. There is only one problem: it is all nothing but one non-stop, epic lie.

...and don't be cynical either...

As Ron Paul recently exclaimed, the war propagandists are very active and are winning over the support of many unsuspecting American citizens. So we thought the followingg 90 seconds of 'pure Paul' would provide a refreshingly different perspective as he explains, "I'm not pro-Russia, I'm not pro-Putin, I'm pro-facts." And with the US government having no more credibility in telling us the truth about the facts that require us to expand our military presence in this region - and many others - than Brian William; perhaps it is time to listen.