Archive - Apr 30, 2015 - Story

Baltimore, Maryland is in many ways the perfect microcosm for these United States of America.

If you still don’t get that, you’ll be in for a rude awakening in the years ahead.

Although nearly 93% of parents say they expect their children to attend college, only 57% have either saved money or plan to save money for tuition. Those two figures don't match up, meaning someone will have to step in and fill the education funding void. Can you guess who it will be? 

Moments ago there was yet another step up in the Persian Gulf naval escalation when CNN reported that the U.S. Navy will escort U.S.-flagged cargo ships through Strait of Hormuz in wake of Iran seizure this week, a US official says. Specifically, the Navy will henceforth accompany ships on concern that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard may seize them, CNN’s Jim Sciutto says in Twitter post, citing CNN’s Barbara Starr. It is unclear what happens if either the accompanied cargo ship, or the US Navy warship leaves international waters, and enters Iran territory, which as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is virtually assured: a strait which as the following US Naval update map has become as busy for US traffic as the 405 Freeway during rush hour.

Yellen... AND Bernanke!

"The War on Cash is the attempt by governments to phase cash out of their economies. Governments hate cash because they hate the financial privacy cash makes possible. And they prefer that you keep your money in a bank to help prop up an unsound fractional reserve banking system." As Ron Paul warned, “The cashless society is the IRS’s dream: total knowledge of, and control over, the finances of every single American.”

“The market is dead,” one industry insider tells Bloomberg, referring to demand for tax-free physical gold in Dubai. As it turns out, the ill-effects of sliding crude prices aren't confined to Alberta's housing market, cash-strapped oil boom towns and the market for blue collar jobs in Texas. The pain is also being felt by gold vendors who are quickly discovering that when oil revenue begins to run short, fewer Saudis and Russians go on precious metals shopping sprees.

Whatever happens with the nuclear negotiations this summer, and as much as Tehran wants cooperation and not confrontation, Iran is bound to remain - alongside Russia - a key US geostrategic target. What the Pentagon - with customary hubris - does not see is Moscow and Tehran easily identifying the power play; the US government's hidden agenda of manipulating a "rehabilitated" Iran to sell plenty of oil and gas to the EU, thus undermining Gazprom.

First it was Blythe Masters (and the Fed). Now, the most important FDIC-insured hedge fund in the world, Goldman Sachs, adds its name to a growing list of Wall Street institutions exploring digital-currency technology’s potential to provide faster and cheaper financial transactions and payments.

With the topic of racial division increasingly top of mind in America, The Washington Post reports a new study suggests that the rural Northeat and South are the most racist regions of America. The study, based on Goggle searches for race-related phrases, shows racist people in the U.S. appear to be clustered along the Appalachian Mountains from Georgia, through New York and all the way up to Vermont. West of Texas, no region falls into the "much more than average" category.

We have never, ever, seen more trades per second in stocks than at the peak of yesterday's post-FOMC reaction...

Hookers for Brazilians, and MiGs for Russians... what cost is your country obsessed with?

"Margin loans at high levels, client cash at low levels and account holders at the firm logging in frequently." Believe it or not, that is not a description of day traders in China, but rather of US retail investors who, according to TD Ameritrade's Fred Tomczyk, are all-in at the wrong time.

While Bernanke claims that "Fed actions didn't favor Wall Street over Main Street," we suspect the following chart clarifies the effect of his and his predecessors actions on the average American...