Archive - Mar 9, 2015

No catalyzing event - China CPI modestly hotter than expected and Aussie confidence weak - but FX markets are fast in the Asia session with USDJPY surging above 122.00 for the first time since July 2007 and EURUSD dropping below 1.08 as USD strength dominates (up 1.65% from payrolls). Japanese stocks have decoupled from USDJPY's rally and are down notably and despite the USD strength,  WTI crude has jumped (perhaps on news of Iraqi forces taking back an oil field near Tikrit). Gold is falling as Offshore Renminbi weakens. All in all - markets are turmoiling for no good reason...

The term “Martial Law” is thrown around with reckless disregard..."Martial law occurs when the prevailing regime feels threatened by the message being offered by the loyal opposition. When normal means of censorship and marginalization fail, despotic regimes resort to martial law with all intended brutality of a violent crackdown on all of those being perceived as the 'enemy'." Just how many intrusive government policies are in place in the following video?

Following a year of threats that the west would kick Russia out of SWIFT, Moscow finally took the plunge and created its own international payment system alternative. And now, seeing how easy and fast it can be done, here comes China next with its own "China International Payment System" or CIPS, as one after another major global powers wave goodbye to a dollar-based, Washington-controlled (and NSA-supervised) international funds-transfer protocol. One that no longer relies on the US Dollar.

Back in August, when we wrote about the latest instance of trouble in Maduro's socialist paradise, we cautioned that as a result of the economic collapse in the Latin American nation, Venezuelans soon may need to have their fingerprints scanned before they can buy bread and other staples.  Privacy concerns aside (clearly Venezuelans have bigger, well, smaller fish to fry) there was hope that this plunge into insanity would be delayed indefinitely, as the last thing Venezuela's strained economy would be able to handle is smuggling of the most basic of necessities: something such a dramatic rationing step would surely lead to. Unfortunately for the struggling Venezuelan population, the time has arrived and as AP reported over the weekend, Venezuela "will begin installing 20,000 fingerprint scanners at supermarkets nationwide in a bid to stamp out hoarding and panic buying" as of this moment.

Unfortunately, industrialists and bankers who reshaped schooling to serve their needs during the Industrial Revolution have transformed institutional academia into the rote memorization of many facts and have rotated it away from real learning that trains the mind to think.

Well that escalated quickly...

In recent weeks, the Fed and its apologists in Congress and the media have launched numerous attacks on the 'Audit the Fed' legislation. These attacks amount to nothing more than distortions about the effects and intent of the audit bill. For over a century, the Fed has operated in secrecy, to the benefit of the elites and the detriment of the people. It is time to finally bring transparency to monetary policy by auditing the Federal Reserve.

Fearing Grexit and an outright economic collapse, former Greek FinMin moved nearly €500,000 out of the country in 2012. Authorities in Athens suspect tax evasion was the motive.

That a handful of extraordinarily rich and powerful oligarchs as well as mega-corporations have completely hijacked the American political process is hardy news; but of all the commentary written about Netanyahu’s embarrassing political stunt in front of the U.S. Congress last week, the most important angle was largely overlooked. That is, it sort of represented a coming out party for the American oligarch from behind the curtain.

A survey of 40 financial institutions shows that BoJ purchases are sapping liquidity and making it difficult for dealers to fill orders. Defiant to the end, the central bank pledges to stay in the market until inflation hits 2%.

Greenspan believes that in five years gold will be “measurably higher” than current levels because of the excess liquidity that will eventually be released into the open market. Such an event will undoubtedly lead to riots across America as the general public, woefully unprepared for rapidly rising prices when the pin finally pops the dollar bubble, loses access to affordable critical supplies like food, gas and other resources. The collapse of the dollar, an inevitability suggested by Alan Greenspan, will be a game changer that results in the quadrupling of the cost of living for the average American.

It’s a remarkable irony, notes Sharyl Attkinson, that the same U.S. president whose administration has gone to great lengths to monitor journalists, whistleblowers and the public, claims to be oddly in the dark regarding basic information on some of his biggest controversies. Here are eight instances in which President Obama said he heard it on the news - or way after-the-fact - just like ordinary Americans.

Having been shamed what seems like numerous times now by the Eurogroup in recent weeks, Greece suffered its greatest humiliation today. First, the farcical renaming of 'Troika' to 'Institutions' was summarily dismissed as "semantics," as France played good cop (asking for the group not to call it Troika) while Germany's bad-cop Schaeuble used the T-word four times in one interview. And second, Eurogroup chairman Dijsselbloem stated that "technical teams will begin considering Greek reform plans on Wednesday," adding that some of the negotiations will have to take place "in situ in Athens." So instead of discussing reforms with institutions in Brussels, the Varoufakis-defined "cabal of technocrats" Troika will be back on Greek soil to straighten out the nation.

How can the government be telling us that we are nearly at “full employment” when so many people can’t find work? Could it be possible that the government numbers are misleading? It is our contention that the official “unemployment rate” has become so politicized and so manipulated that it is essentially meaningless at this point.

There is a story being told to the masses about Chinese gold demand that is grossly incorrect. The huge discrepancy between numbers from the World Gold Council (WGC) and actual gold demand is so wide yet cunningly hidden I must conclude there is essential information about physical gold demand deliberately kept privy.