Archive - Mar 15, 2015 - Story

The American Empire has been long in the making. A green light was given in 1990 to finalize that goal. Dramatic events occurred that year that allowed the promoters of the American Empire to cheer. It also ushered in the current 25-year war to solidify the power necessary to manage a world empire. The day will come when we will be forced to give up our role as world policeman and resort to using a little common sense and come home. This will only occur when the American people realize that our presence around the world and the maintenance of our empire has nothing to do with defending our Constitution, preserving our liberties, or fulfilling some imaginary obligation on our part to use force to spread American exceptionalism. A thorough look at our economic conditions, our pending bankruptcy, our veterans hospitals, and how we’re viewed in the world by most other nations, will compel Americans to see things differently and insist that we bring our troops home – the sooner the better.

Mapping the favorite locales of the world's super rich.

If the German media needed a photo-op which to put on their front pages and rile up public opinion against Greece even more, they just got it.

“...we all know that sanctions don’t work, negotiations don’t work,... the only way the United States can have any effect in this region and turn the tide is start killing Russians...killing so many Russians that even Putin’s media can’t hide the fact that Russians are returning to their motherland in body bags.”

With a rebound in commodities a long way out, here's which countries may be hit the hardest.

Presented with no comment...

As Greeks solemnly remembered the horrific acts of 72 years ago (when the first of 19 trains transported nearly 50,000 local jews to Nazi death camps), the Greek President Pavlopoulos made statements today that he "remains adamant" that "Greece's demands for German war reparations and the occupation loan are active and can be claimed legally." German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has once again ruled out the possibility of a retreat from what Berlin has already officially said on the matter - that the issue has been settled decades ago. But, today the Greek Defense Minister issued a statement confirming that archives that they possess from Nazi armed forces support the country's claims for reparations.

Update: *WTI CRUDE TRADES AT LOWEST INTRADAY PRICE SINCE MARCH 2009 - $43.57

Despite 'trouble' in Saudi Arabia, and chatter of SPR buying, it appears the re-opening of all Houston shipping channels, comments from Greenspan, yet another refinery shut (Exxon's Joliet lost power), and the rapidly filling storage capacity has awakened the realization that the month-long dead-cat-bounce is over in crude. Brent broke below $53.50 and WTI back to a $43 handle (close to the lowest levels in 6 years) at the open. One can only imagine the pressure on USO (Oil ETF) holders as the contango continues to gap wider. EURUSD is teasing the crucial 1.05 level again...

"Sensitive data from around 170 major companies, including the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment and Lockheed Martin, might have been compromised after British Telecom web traffic was accidentally rerouted through Ukraine," RT reports.

Since Jeb Hensareling is opening a criminal probe into the Fed for leaking material, non-public information because Congress is “committed to holding the Federal Reserve accountable for its actions and omissions, and to ensuring transparency in its operations”, it is also time to finally hold none other than former Treasury Secretary and then-Fed Vice Chairman Tim Geithner criminally accountable for his actions.

Having recently noted The Kingdom's new king's decrees promising to support the poor and needy with more and more handouts (and to halt the rise of inequality), it is interestingly coincidental that, as The BBC reports, the US embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh has cancelled all consular services for Sunday and Monday due to "heightened security concerns," and consular services in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran would not be available. This follows Friday's warning that Western oil workers could be the target of militant attacks. Something is going in Saudi Arabia...

In the age when torture has become "enhanced interrogation techniques"; when the rich are "job creators"; when austerity is rephrased as "reforms"; "scarcity" does not mean shortage; and when murdered children are "collateral damage"; it is good to remember these brilliant words from the late, great, George Carlin.

When even JPMorgan strongly implies that the ECB's QE is about to fail, one short week after it started, now may be a time to panic: "In all, we note the above analysis challenges the ability of the Eurosystem to meet its quantitative target without distorting market liquidity and price discovery."

Suddenly the narrative that “everything is awesome” is showing to not be as “awesome” as it was first proclaimed. Merely a few months have passed since the ending of QE and praises of awesomeness everywhere are morphing into questions more akin to “Oh no: not again!” And with that we are now watching those who pushed, pulled, and levitated that narrative scramble desperately to push another narrative back onto the stage that worked so many times before: “Every sell off over the last 6 years has shown to be a profitable buying opportunity.” i.e., Just buy the dip (JBTFD). Yet it would seem these dips; are far different.