Archive - Jun 12, 2015

In a world where everyone is a lawbreaker, it’s hard to spot the real criminals.

The U.S. middle class is being systematically ripped to shreds, and most Americans are showing very little alarm about this. How much damage has to be done before people will finally start waking up?

What’s the connection between the G7 summit in Germany, President Putin’s visit to Italy, the Bilderberg club meeting in Austria, and the TTIP – the US-EU free trade deal – negotiations in Washington?

Do you feel like you’re running out of pepper more often these days? Have you noticed that Slim Jims have gotten shorter? Rest assured it is not your imagination, it is simply a symptom of corporate America attempting to hide runaway inflation by employing "slack fill."

In recent years, home price indices have seemed to proliferate. Measuring home prices has taken on an urgency beyond the real estate industry because for many, home price growth has become something of an indicator of the economy as a whole. If home prices are going up, it is assumed, “the economy” must be doing well. Indeed, we are encouraged to relax when home prices are increasing or holding steady, and we’re supposed to become concerned if home prices are going down. This is a rather odd way of looking at the price of a basic necessity.

Welcome to the Recovery! Food banks across the US state of New York are running out of food (37% of food pantries say they have had to turn away needy people because they ran out of food), amid falling funds and rising demand from people that have trouble affording food. About 2.6 million people have trouble affording food across New York with about 1.4 million New York City residents relying on food pantries to feed themselves, according to the Food Bank For New York City. But as PressTV reports, contrary to the belief that people visiting food pantries are homeless and jobless, most customers are employed, but are not paid enough money to put food on the table without help.

And just like that, President Obama's fast track of his "great job creation" bill is defeated in a 126-302 procedural vote which stumbled over what is known as the Trade Adjustment Assistance. Following Pelosi's comments that "its defeat is the only way we will be able to slow down fast track," and "people would rather have a job than assistance", the defeat of a measure to provide aid to workers displaced by trade deals means the fast-tracking of the TPP is done (for now).

Is something really big about to happen?

Is Deustche Bank the next Lehman is likely the wrong question to be asking. Is Lehman the template for European banking may be more to the point. Take it from the guy that called the Lehman debacle 5 months before the fact.

"A month and a half after six officers were charged in Mr. Gray’s death, policing has dwindled in some of Baltimore’s most dangerous neighborhoods, and murders have risen to levels not seen in four decades."

In Part 1 of “The New Silk Road,” we examined the China’s plan for rebuilding the silk road, stretching from Europe to Asia. In Part 2, we looked at currently proposed projects, and what could stall and hamper progress. In Part 3, we examine the geopolitical rivalries, prospects for success, and investment implications.

Ten years ago this week, Alan Greenspan made his infamous comment about signs of 'froth' in the housing market. A decade later, CNNMoney's Cristina Alesci sat down with the Former Federal Reserve Chairman and got his perspective on real estate. It's stuck in a rut, or as he puts it, "we haven't come out of the bottom [of the housing collapse], we are in a secular stagnation."

In what Rep Mike Rogers called "the mother of all spear-phishing attacks," AP reports a second cyberattack linked to China appears to have gained access to the sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances, according to several U.S. officials. Coming on the same day as the US Senate failed to pass a cyber-security shield bill and China's urhging US to reduce military activities in The South China Sea, 'anonymous' official sources noted this second cyberbreach of federal records could dramatically compound the potential damage. The question now is twofold: a) is this war? and b) how does US respond?

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