Archive - Oct 16, 2015 - Story

“Adulterous women will be stoned; thieves will have their hands chopped off!" 

Iranian forces backed by Russian air power have officially begun the assault on Syria's largest city. A victory at Aleppo would effectively restore the Assad government just weeks after Moscow began bombing runs from Latakia. As Reuters notes, "the assault means the army is now pressing insurgents on several fronts near Syria's main cities in the west, control of which would secure President Bashar al-Assad's hold on power even if the east of the country is still held by Islamic State."

Politicians have zero respect for our human rights for they only think about how they are going to raid our wealth to pay for their families and retirements at our expense. These people are highly dangerous. They only see government as the solution and do not grasp that we have rights. Government wants to eliminate all encryption because they are hunting money. You have a 1000 times greater chance of dying in a car crash than by a terrorist. They use terrorism as the great excuse to collect everything we do.

With FIFA executive heads falling faster than Glencore stock (with Blatter and Platini most recently and today the entire Kuwait FA), it appeared we had reached some kind of peak debacle.. but no! German newspaper Der Spiegel reports that the German bidding committee created a slush fund in its effort to garner votes from Asian FIFA officials, land the rights to host the 2006 World Cup (which they did by 12 votes to 11).

The verdict is in from Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debates: Bernie Sanders’ message influenced viewers by leaps and bounds over the next most discussed candidate, Hillary Clinton. Unless, of course, you prefer the convenient swill of pre-planned, pre-packaged, predictable corporate media propaganda that unanimously sang Clinton’s praises while completely ignoring one essential thing - you know, reality.

The last two US recessions have severely damaged the growth rate in global trade. In each case, the trend growth rate of trade since 1991 (which is when the CPB World Trade Monitor data begins) was effectively cut by at least a percent. Emerging markets have helped to keep global trade afloat especially relative to developed markets, however, even in emerging markets we have seen a step down in the growth rate of trade.

Forgiving skyrocketing student debt won't solve the real problem which is the soaring costs imposed by a cartel that is failing to prepare students for the economy of tomorrow.

"Own For $0 Money Down!", as seen on the SE corner of S Fort Apache and W Warm Springs Road in Las Vegas, Nevada this morning...

"Injecting politics into what is supposed to be a fact-finding inquiry leaves a foul taste in the F.B.I.’s mouth and makes them fear that no matter what they find, the Justice Department will take the president’s signal and not bring a case."

The US Oil rig count is now down over 63% from its highs in October 2014. Last week's 10 rig decline is the 7th straight weekly drop, pushing the count below 600 for the first time since July 2010. Crude prices are modestly higher on the news...

Amid the best 4-day gains in gold prices since January, Gold ETFs have seen a surge in holdings in the last 2 days. The 412,000 try ounce increase in physical holdings at GLD is the largest in 9 months and lifts the total to 3 month highs at 22.5 million troy ounces (or 700 metric tons).

There are two parties to robbery – the taker and the takee. We have seen what happened to the victims. They are too busy picking through trash bins to go to the Walmart website. But what about the takers? They are busy too – lobbying… eating foie gras and caviar… and offering to save the world with increasingly radical monetary policies. It is time to undo the Fed’s control of the financial system. Let takees get the interest they are entitled to. And let the takers get what they’ve got coming to them.

Just because no one has ever manipulated, fixed, or otherwise rigged any markets yet, doesn’t mean they won’t try, which why it’s nice to know that honest firms like Goldman are on the job when it comes to watching for any kind of nefarious shenanigans.