Archive - Jul 2015

"...between ridiculously low interest rates and the increasing costs of compliance, we can’t make money anymore..."

The US government has really screwed the world on this. Paperwork is the priority. Not business. The transition isn’t going to be smooth. And it won’t happen overnight. But there will come a time, and likely soon, when the United States gets displaced.

“This is a war that I saw destroy lives... It eliminated a generation of African American men, covered our racism in ostensibly neutral guidelines and mandatory minimums… and created an intergenerational problem..."

Greek banks will run out of cash "in a matter of days," WSJ reports. Meanwhile, businesses are closing their doors as suppliers refuse to extend credit prompting the Athens Chamber of Commerce to predict that "in one week, two weeks, three weeks, it will be finished."

While it remains unclear if the Holy Spirit was behind these trades, one thing is for sure: When Charles Erickson's investors opened their recent statements, they said, "Holy $hit!"

In April, we noted the NACM's comments that "there are big, big problems" underlying the economy as a surge in unfavorable factors suggested credit conditions were tightening dramatically (only to see that data revised away suddenly). June's data has confirmed this weakness with credit rejections soaring to their highest since 2009 with the biggest spike in 9 years, with NACM CEO Kuehl exclaiming, "There are some obvious signs of distress in the manufacturing community, as the expected wave of consumer demand has yet to manifest... companies that have been awaiting it are getting in trouble with their creditors."

"Greece is being 'hit', there's no doubt about it," exclaims John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, noting that "[Indebted countries] become servants to what I call the corporatocracy ... today we have a global empire, and it's not an American empire. It's not a national empire... It's a corporate empire, and the big corporations rule."

Tick, tock... "it could never happen here?"

Hillary Clinton figuring out how to work a fax machine... and this is who may become America's next President?

"With banks shuttered and Greece’s economy hobbled by capital controls, Varoufakis said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Athens that he would “rather cut my arm off” than sign a deal that fails to restructure Greece’s debt."

The American taxpayer is paying a hefty price to support the “battle” against the CIA’s “strategic asset” gone rogue. The damage: about $9.2 million per day or around $3 billion in total, meaning the US could have created around 67,000 average jobs with the money it's spent fighting the group.

The time to negotiate the Greek referendum this Sunday has come and gone and at this point, one can only sit and wait as the vote results start trickling in on Sunday evening. And, as Goldman's Huw Pill prudently observes, the outcome of Sunday's Greek referendum is uncertain. "Regardless of the outcome, Greece will continue to face substantial economic dislocation in the shorter term." What is interesting is that Goldman says "Greece will ultimately remain in the Euro area even in the event of a ‘No’ vote."

Spot The Recovery... 

European Parliament president Martin Schulz said his faith in the Greek government had reached "rock bottom," and, as AFP reports, that he hopes it resigns after Sunday's referendum. Luckily, he has an idea for a solution... the time between the departure of Tsipras' hard-left Syriza party and new elections would have to "be bridged with a technocratic government, so that we can continue to negotiate." Just what The Greeks need - another "Yes man" puppet government to implement whatever Europe's bankers demand.

It begins... " The 22-year-old was part of a team that was setting up the stationary robot when it grabbed and crushed him against a metal plate..."