Archive - 2015

The pen is mightier than the sword... (and the totalitarian government and its propagandizing media outlets)...

For those of you not familiar with the giant con, it is the idea that our economy is growing when, in fact, it hasn’t had growth in decades with the exception of the late 1990?s.  The giant con is entirely a function of debt. The cost to the working class of falsify economic growth is beyond redemption.  In the end, the path is set and there is no escaping from the debt trap in which we snagged ourselves.  And so we bide our time until the weight of exponentially increasing debt collapses in on us.  But then we rebuild.

If it looks like a war, acts like a war and smells like a war, it may just be a war. The US has been waging economic, financial, trade, political and even kinetic war-by-proxy against Russia. The only question is why?

The short answer is in parts of Seattle, Charlotte, Phoenix, Atlanta, Tampa, Cincinnati, Raleigh, N.C., Houston, Denver, Columbus, Ohio, Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla., Raleigh, N.C., Chicago, and Winston-Salem, N.C. Among the 2,490 zip codes nationwide with at least one single family purchase by the top four institutional investors between January 2012 and October 2014, the top 50 zip codes with the highest percentage of purchases by the four largest institutional investors were in those metro areas. “The institutional investors kick-started the housing recovery by buying homes in bulk at the lowest point and holding them as rentals,” said Chris Pollinger, senior vice president of sales at First Team Real Estate, covering the Southern California market. Los Angeles County was among the top 10 for most purchases by institutional investors over the past three years, with 6,152. “As the market continues to climb, we expect these investors to start to sell off their inventory to capture the gains made in the past couple of years.”

As we recently noted, The Prison State of America is alive and well as our prison-industrial complex, which holds 2.3 million prisoners, or 25 percent of the world’s prison population, makes money by keeping prisons full. While the statistics are mind-boggling, we thought it particularly ironic that on the day when President Obama officially launched his "free community-college for all" plan, that we point out there are more jails than colleges in America... and here's where they live...

The Stakes Are Too High NOT to Negotiate Peace

Because nothing says "recovery" like the record-breaking surges in sales of Rolls-Royce luxury vehicles juxtaposed by the highest level of auto loan delinquency since the 2008 crisis peak...

A month ago we discussed the influx of 'foreigners' to help the Ukraine government 'manage' the country. As UA Today reports, foreign appointments have become a key part of Ukraine's mission to reform its economy and crack down on corruption (and ensure American interests are taken care of?) and now boats 3 non-Ukrainian cabinet members. And now a 4th non-Ukrainian - Estonian Jaanika Merilo - will step up to the plate 'tasked with bringing more foreign investment into Ukraine and improving the country's business climate'. We suspect she will have some success...

Having previously warned that The Fed's "fixation with the markets has created a deadly trap," and recently noted that "Central Banking has lost its way," Stephen Roach unleashed a few minutes of painfully honest truthiness on an unsuspecting Kelly Evans at CNBC. The brief interview reiterates Roach's previous comments, as Tim Iacono notes, that "it didn't have to be this way." The Fed "is in total denial," Roach rants, adding that it "hasn't learned the lessons of what it put the world through a decade ago."

Two months ago we reported that former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has warned that tensions between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis have put the world "on the brink of a new Cold War." That warning has now escalated as the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner told Der Spiegel news magazine, according to excerpts released on Friday, that tensions between Russia and European powers over the Ukraine crisis could result in a major conflict or even nuclear war, adding that "a war of this kind would unavoidably lead to a nuclear war."

• Global Debt Crisis II – Total Global Debt to GDP Ratio Over 300% - Risk of Bail-Ins in 2015 and Beyond - Currency and Gold Wars - $1 Quadrillion “Weapons of Mass Destruction” Derivatives - Cold War II and New World Order as China and Russia Flex Geopolitical Muscles - Enter The Dragon – Paradigm Shift of China Gold Demand - Forecast 2015: None. Forecast 2020: Gold $2,500/oz and Silver $150/oz

Update: the hostage-takers are dead. However, according to Reuters at least four hostages at the Kosher supermarket have been killed according to Reuters, citing a police source.  Additionally, and take this with a grain of salt, CNN adds that the female suspect in the Paris grocery siege escapes.

Yesterday, to much shock and dismay, Obama revealed his latest "noble" grand vision: provide a free community college education to millions of folks. Apparently now, far too late, even the community organizer-in-chief realized that with $1.2 trillion in student loans the Millennials will never be able to take their rightful place as the dynamo of US economic growth. What is Obama's solution? Another free lunch. Socialist unicorns and Marxist rainbows aside, what will Obama's "free" plan cost taxpayers? The answer: $60 billion over 10 years, according to a White House official.

"Is the recent bout in volatility yet another ‘buy-the-dip’ opportunity or a sign of worse to come? Investors struggle to both keep up with the markets while protecting themselves against a severe correction. By taking a step back, investors might be able to see the forest for the trees to gauge whether their portfolio is ready for what lies ahead." What we find most interesting is that there is very little concern that something could negatively impact the markets. In fact, if anything would actually happen, it will just be a mild 10-15% correction. The problem is that historically, such outcomes have only been found in "rarified air."