Archive - 2016 - Story

"The increasingly frequent departures from Constitutional principles are destroying the Rule of Law foundation on which this country was built... The cure to these problems will not come from Washington D.C. Instead, the states must lead the way. The irony for our generation is that the threat to our Republic doesn’t come just from foreign enemies, it comes, in part, from our very own leaders."

- Texas governor Greg Abbott

An unseen bubble at the heart of the financial system is deflating with unknown consequences. When bubbles deflate, and here we are talking about one in the hundreds of trillions, bad debts are usually exposed. Even though much of the reduction in outstanding OTC derivatives is due to consolidation of positions following the Frank Dodd Act, much of it is not. When free markets reassert themselves, and they always do, the disruption promises to be substantial. We appear to be in the early stages of this event. If so, demand for physical gold can be expected to escalate rapidly as a financial crisis unfolds.

Late last month, amid heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran, Iran conducted a live-fire exercise in the Strait of Hormuz in close proximity to the USS Harry Truman, one of Ash Carter’s fleet of aircraft carriers. On Saturday, the US released a video of the incident.

"After suffering the worst start to a new year in history, the U.S. stock market has entered correction territory which is defined by a drop of 10% from its old high. The following "hateful eight" charts pretty much speak for themselves... This doesn't bode well for U.S. stocks which are now in the riskiest position since the bull market started seven years ago."

Here’s a newsflash that CNBC didn’t mention. According to the BLS, the US economy generated a miniscule 11,000 jobs in the month of December.

“The commonwealth has committed itself to a ‘scorched earth’ strategy of blaming its fiscal and structural problems on lenders, Congress and others, in an effort to deflect responsibility and obtain retroactive application of bankruptcy laws.”

In the eyes of Western bankers, it was the perfect “scheme” – hence their label for the plan. In the eyes of any sane, rational, human being, it was/is the most naked, clumsy fraud that one could possibly imagine. But the corporate media assured us there was considerable enthusiasm amongst India’s population for this scam. However, in two weeks, out of a population of more than one billion people, holding an estimated 40 million pounds of gold, the Conspirators managed to steal less than 0.000002% of India’s privately held gold. So we’re now told that India’s government sees “temple gold” as its best/easiest target for stealing.

To the degree that the current crisis has anything to do with religion, it’s much less about whether Abu Bakr or Ali was Muhammad’s rightful successor and much more about who’s going to control something more concrete right now: oil.

South Korea - which Kim Jong-Un says is "jealous" of the North's "H-bomb" test - has resumed blaring anti-Pyongyang propaganda over loudspeakers installed on the two countries' border, a move the North says has once again brought the Korean Peninsula "to the brink of war."

Love guns or hate guns, one thing is becoming perfectly clear. The American public’s perception of guns and the NRA is moving in the exact opposite direction of Barack Obama’s message and agenda.

At this point, the longer China does nothing, the greater its problems will become. As such Beijing needs to choose: either collapse the economy in a deflationary wave, leading to a debt crisis and widespread social unrest, or devalue massively overnight in hopes of stimulating inflation, leading to collapsing profit margins, and even more widespread social unrest.In short, our condolences China: having decided to adopt Western neo-Keynesian economics, with the typical monetarist bent, you too are now trapped with no way out. But don't worry: so is everyone else. Good luck.

A low cost of living, no sales tax, and beautiful scenery (oh, naked bike rides, more strip clubs per capita than any other US city, and legalized weed) means Oregon is the "top moving destination" for Americans for the third year running, according to United Van Lines, with 69% of moves inbound. But, which states are Americans leaving in droves?

"... what we are going to see next is a credit cycle, and in a credit cycle you see some losses, but if China's banking system loses 10%, you are going to see them lose $3.5 trillion."

“This is the equivalent of the BP oil spill on land, in a populated community... If you have a chance to leave, if you’re able to leave... if you have a chance to relocate, do it now. I’m telling you, it’s really critical.”

"I am a Chinese immigrant and an American citizen by choice. I once was a slave before and I will never be one again. I will always stand with my AR, no matter what my President signs with his pen."