Archive - Dec 16, 2015 - Story

In the latest sign that the world is simply running out of capacity when it comes to coping with an inexorable supply of commodities, three diesel tankers en route from the Gulf to Europe did something rather odd on Wednesday: they stopped, turned around in the middle of the ocean, and headed back the way they came.

If ecological panic is the primary trigger of collapse, war and industrialized death, the elites escape all blame. They are the ones, after all, trying to “save us” from ourselves by introducing carbon emissions controls, not to mention the idea of population controls. Global warming becomes a catch-all bogeyman, a Frankenstein monstrosity created by humanity and plaguing humanity. Those who deny the existence of global warming or who question the legitimacy of its high priests (climate scientists) are not exercising their right to skepticism; they are contributing to inevitable genocide. Therefore, climate denial would have to be punished by governments, as climate scientists have been publicly suggesting.

"Over several past weeks, the intensity of air strikes at Islamic State and other terrorist targets has been increased. Russian warplanes focus on exterminating terrorists’ income sources in Syria."

The "long dollar" trade may be the most crowded ever but that doesn't mean there aren't disagreements where the greenback goes from here, especially after the Fed's historic first rate hike.

Several months ago a couple of amatuer explorers in Poland thought they had finally found the location of the fabled Nazi gold train (used to ferry away the Reich's ill-gotten gains) and the Polish government even sent military teams to start digging it up because it was believed to be hidden in secret railway tunnels some 30 feet underground. But as the New York Times reports, the hunt for the train may be a bust...

Iran's move to test-fire a new ballistic missile in October may not have violated the letter of the nuclear accord (on which the ink is barely dry), but UN experts say it does violate a Security Council resolution, a revelation which puts the Obama administration in an extremely awkward position just as Iran was poised to see economic sanctions lifted. 

In the first two weeks of August 2008 (just a month before Lehman imploded), as tensions built in US financial markets, China weakened the Yuan for 10 straight days. Tonight, China just extended its streak of weakening the Yuan fix to 9 days (for an aggregate 1.4% devaluation, the largest such drop outside of August's devaluation in history). This pushes the Yuan back to June 2011 levels.

U.S. President Barack Obama is not just the world’s best gun salesman, he’s also the world’s worst gun control spokesperson.

"The Vice President reaffirmed the United States' commitment to Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity and called on Turkey to do the same by withdrawing any military forces from Iraqi territory that have not been authorized by the Iraqi government."

How much do you think your paper currency will be worth 23 centuries from now? Or even 23 years? Or potentially even 23 months?

While New York City and London are already well known as top destinations for shady, foreign-money laundering oligarchs who often attain untold riches by thieving from their own people, the Los Angeles area has likewise morphed into a criminal real estate hub.

Don't blink...

In the end, the Fed did not surprise, and raised interest rates for the first time in almost a decade in a widely telegraphed move while signaling that the pace of subsequent increases will be “gradual” and in line with previous projections. The Federal Open Market Committee unanimously voted to set the new target range for the federal funds rate at 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent, up from zero to 0.25 percent.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: "Something big is going down. Something very big. It will make national headlines... I am a devout Muslim, and was once against violence, but I have teamed up with a local jihadist cell as it is the only way I'll be able to accomplish my massacre the correct way... I wish you the best luck. It is time to pray to allah, as this may be your last day."

"The irony in this year’s batch of outrageous predictions is that some of them are “outrageous” merely because they run counter to overwhelming market consensus. In fact, many would not look particularly outrageous at all in more “normal” times – if there even is such a thing!"