07.31.14- The State Of The Union Is Shocking
Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Oh yay, US Q2 GDP supposedly rose by 4%. Aw, come on. That’s only 7% more than in Q1 (or 6.1% in the once again revised Q1 number). Wonder what made that happen? Don’t bother. It’s complete nonsense. New home sales and lending home sales went down - again - recently, wages are not going anywhere, the ADP jobs report was - again - low today. There’s nothing that adds up to a 6% or 7% difference between Q1 and Q2.

The real story of the American economy lies elsewhere. The economy is sinking away in a debt quagmire. If it were a body, the economy would be in up to its neck in debt by now, with the head tilted backwards so it can still breathe. Barely. But your government doesn’t want you to know. There are a lot of things that illustrate this. Read More

07.30.14- Last Time this happened, The Financial Crisis Broke Out
Wolf Richter

There comes a time when risk just disappears, when nothing can go wrong, when there are no dark clouds on the horizon. Stocks rise to record after record. The crappiest junk bonds are priced as if they were safe investments. Inflation is excluded from the calculus. Even the mere possibility of default has been banished from considerations. And investors no longer demand to be compensated for any of it. They close their eyes and hold their nose and grab what they can. Read More

07.28.14- Think 2008 Was Bad? You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
Bill Bonner

Deflecting Attention, Greenspan-style

Alan “Bubbles” Greenspan is back in the news. At 88 years old, his mind is still sharp as a tack. He still sees his own interests clearly. And he is still clever enough to distort the facts to suit them.

Asked in an interview what he thought of Janet Yellen’s recent IMF speech, in which she maintained that bubbles should be addressed with more regulation, he replied: Read More

07.26.14- The Coming Slump
Alasdair Macleod

Governments and central banks have made little or no progress in recovering from the Lehman crisis six years ago. The problem is not helped by dependence on statistics which are downright misleading. This is particularly true of real GDP, comprised of nominal GDP deflated by an estimate of price inflation. First, we must discuss the inflation adjustment.

The idea that there is such a thing as a valid measure of price inflation is only true in an econometrician’s imagination. An index which might be theoretically valid at a single point in time is only subsequently valid in the wholly artificial construction of an unchanging, or “evenly rotating economy”: Read More

07.25.14- This Time Is Not Different: Why The Market Is Heading For A Fall
David Stockman

The 2008 Wall Street meltdown is long forgotten, having been washed away by a tsunami of central bank liquidity. Indeed, the S&P is up nearly 200% from its March 2009 low. Yet four cardinal measures of Main Street economic health convey nothing like a 2X pick-up from the post-crisis bottom.

To wit, in June the count of  breadwinner jobs was 68.5 million or 5% below were it stood as the crisis got underway. Likewise, business investment in real plant and equipment is still 5% below its late 2007 peak. So too with the real median family income at about $53k - its still down by 6%. Read More

07.24.14- The Baltic Dry Index Collapses To 18-Month Lows; Worst July Since 1986
Tyler Durden

The bulls will ignore it, shrugging that it's merely over-supply of ships that the resurgent world economy will quickly soak up as it 'recovers'...

However, World GDP growth expectations are collapsing, trade volumes are slowing, and the Baltic Dry Index has continued to slump to its lowest since the start of January 2013 (a holiday period). For some context, this is the lowest July level for the Baltic Dry since 1986... "noise" Read More

07.23.14- Advance Notice of the Next Market Crash
Chris Mayer

Fifty years after the 1929 crash, a group of money managers and investment thinkers put together a collection of essays looking back at that experience. The result was a distillation of some pretty fine investment wisdom. Timely, I think, to review now.

One of the contributors was Arthur Zeikel, then with Merrill Lynch. The title of his essay summed up the motif of the whole collection: "After 50 Years, Nothing New Nor Likely." This might seem deflating. It shouldn't be, because it means there is a discernible pattern to events. A pattern we might make use of. On the '29 crash, Zeikel wrote: Read More

07.22.14- AUDIO: MH17 will usher in a completely new kind of war - one the US cannot win
Simon Black

Russians aren’t exactly known for having a great sense of humor. But the language is full of bizarre, often hilarious expressions like “perebrasyvanie kakashkami”.

Literally translated this means “throwing shit”. And it applies right about now - when a bunch of people is standing around blaming one another for something that has gone heinously wrong.

“Heinously wrong” is somewhat of an understatement. Listen to Podcast

07.21.14- Breaching the monetary Matrix: Five exercises to help you understand money
Brett Scott

Like everyone else you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch, a prison for your mind.

This is a line from The Matrix. Morpheus is explaining to Neo that he’s actually stuck in a nightmare prison-world enslaved to computers. The world is not as you think Neo, but I can set you free, provided you take the red pill.

In some ways Morpheus resembles one of those single-agenda zealots who goes around telling people that they have a certain secret truth that will liberate them, like the guy who corners you in a pub and says, “Don’t you realise we’re trapped in a corporate prison. The Bilderberg Group owns the world’s governments!” Read More

07.19.14- Apple: Now They're Cook'n With Gas
Mark St.Cyr

The latest revelation to hit the business world that I feel will be both under reported as well as under estimated is the legitimate sea change that may be taking place with the announcement that Apple® and IBM® will work together to both create and sell products.  Personally I don’t know of any other such collaboration in recent memory that has the possibility of having a truly transformative effect.

As always I’ll state right up front: I am an Apple fanboy and have been for many years. Read More

07.18.14- Dazed Global Markets Respond Wearily To Yesterday's Shocking Events
Tyler Durden

For a centrally-planned market that has long since lost the ability to discount the future, and certainly respond appropriately to geopolitical events, yesterday was a rough wake up call with a two punch stunner of not only the MH 17 crash pushing the Ukraine escalation into overdrive, but Israel's just as shocking land invasion of Gaza officially marking the start of a ground war, finally dragging global stocks out of their hypnotized slumber and pushing risk broadly lower across the globe, even if the now traditional USDJPY and AUDJPY algos have woken up in the past few minutes and will be eager to pretend as if nothing ever happened. Read More

07.17.14- BRICS give greenback the bird
macrobusiness.com.au

From the BRICS Summit overnight comes currency swap lines, deeper trade integration, non-dollar exchange mechanisms and a $100 billion dollar competitor to the International Monetary Fund. That’s 3 billion people that just exited the US dollar reserve system when dealing with one another. Probably the most serious challenge to US dollar hegemony of our lifetimes.

1. We, the leaders of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People's Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa, met in Fortaleza, Brazil, on 15 July 2014 at the Sixth BRICS Summit. To inaugurate the second cycle of BRICS Summits, the theme chosen for our discussions was "Inclusive Growth: Sustainable Solutions", in keeping with the inclusive macroeconomic and social policies carried out by our governments and the imperative to address challenges to humankind posed by the need to simultaneously achieve growth, inclusiveness, protection and preservation. Read More

07.16.14- The Immorality Of Paper Money
Bob Livingston

One of today's most common economic fallacies is that the soaring stock market is evidence of economic recovery. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Stocks have almost tripled since the 2008 collapse, but that stock growth stems from Federal Reserve money printing (inflation) and near zero interest rates. The Fed's balance sheet has grown more than fourfold since 2008 — to $4.3 trillion — and was used to prop up the "too big to fails." That money had to go somewhere. Read More

07.15.14- The Head Of ‘The Central Bank Of The World’ Warns That Another Great Financial Crisis May Be Coming
Michael Snyder

Most people have never heard of Jaime Caruana even though he is the head of an immensely powerful organization. He has been serving as the General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements since 2009, and he will continue in that role until 2017. The Bank for International Settlements is a rather boring name, and very few people realize that it is at the very core of our centrally-planned global financial system. So when Jaime Caruana speaks, people should listen. And the fact that he recently warned that the global financial system is currently "more fragile" in many ways than it was just prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers should set off all sorts of alarm bells. Read More

07.14.14- The Only Prescription for a Real Economic Recovery
Dan Amoss

In 2012, money mandarins running the European Union chose stagnation over restructuring. Here's a consequence of that choice: expectations for a self-sustaining economic recovery keep getting crushed.

Two years ago, European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi promised to do "whatever it takes" to hold the eurozone together. He bluffed nervous investors into believing in a promised (if needed) bond-buying program dubbed "Outright Monetary Transactions," or "OMT." Read More

07.12.14- Feeling poorer through the power of inflation
mybudget360

You have to love how the Federal Reserve downplays inflation when they are the primary source of it with other central bankers for this monetary phenomenon. They continue to play inflation down because it gives them the power to continue to use policies that seem to only aid their banking allies while making working Americans poorer by the day. Inflation has a slow eroding power that is not readily visible since it usually takes time to work through a system. Looking at a broader timeframe however it becomes readily apparent that inflation is hitting our system hard and most working families don't need an advanced degree in economics to understand this. Read More

07.11.14- Don't Go Walk Under Wall Street Windows
Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Irwin Kellner at MarketWatch phrases it in these colorful words:

… what do you think will happen to stocks when the Fed decides to take away the punch bowl and raise rates? I don't know, but if I were you, I would not walk under any open windows down on Wall Street.

In these words, he expresses what increasing numbers of writers and analysts point to: that the exuberant market confidence we’ve seen is dwindling, and nervousness takes over. And when people get nervous over the spoils of free money that nobody’s ever in their lives worked a single inch for, that could easily spread and catch on like wildfire. Read More

07.10.14- Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere
Michael Snyder

Is there any doubt that we are living in a bubble economy? At this moment in the United States we are simultaneously experiencing a stock market bubble, a government debt bubble, a corporate bond bubble, a bubble in San Francisco real estate, a farmland bubble, a derivatives bubble and a student loan debt bubble. And of course similar things could be said about most of the rest of the planet as well. In fact, the total amount of government debt around the world has risen by about 40 percent just since the last recession. But it is never sustainable when asset prices and debt levels increase much faster than the overall level of economic growth. Read More

07.09.14- France, Brazil, India & South Korea Join Russia & China In Post-Dollar World Order
Jeff Berwick

The empire has no clothes. Debt weighs down the crony-capitalist system and flowers of alternative realities are cropping up. The middle class has been brought to the brink, practically eviscerated over the past ten years in the western world. Stock markets - high on intraveneous debt cocktails - post record nominal highs daily.

The US government has become its people's own worst enemy. It has told Americans that terrorists pose the greatest threat, while in the meantime destroying the citizens of the country, and we see this playing out now clearer than ever. It's going after foreign institutions with reckless abandon and the world doesn't appreciate it. Read More

07.08.14- The Crash of 2016 Gets Closer Every Day
Truth Out

The denial of fundamental economic principles is setting the world up for another Great Crash.

Although wages have been flat or declining since the West started following Thatchernomics and Reaganomics in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the stock market has risen to all-time highs. Billions - hundreds of billions - have been made by individuals on Wall Street.

Meanwhile over 60,000 factories have closed in United States just in the past 14 years, and over 50 million Americans are either unemployed or underemployed. Read More

07.07.14- And Now for Something Entirely Different: Michael Jackson on Beer Bottles
Bottle Boys

View Video

07.05.14- The Approaching Inevitable Market Reversal
Charles Hugh Smith

Though we’re constantly reassured by financial pundits and the Federal Reserve that the stock market is not a bubble and that valuations are fair, there is substantial evidence that suggests the contrary.

The market is dangerously stretched in terms of valuation and sentiment, and it does not accurately reflect fundamentals such as earnings and sales growth. Read More

07.04.14- Halftime
Turd Ferguson

So here we are. 2014 is half-over and where do we stand? For me, the puzzle comes together by looking at a few, simple clues.

Let's start where we began...with Ken Hoffman of Bloomberg Industries. Ole Ken unwittingly let the cat out of the bag last December when he confirmed for us what I had been telling you for two years. Namely, that the gold was gone...for good. If you need a refresher, see here: Read More

07.03.14- Optimism Bias Squared
Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Oh yeah, sure, optimism is oozing from every single one of America’s pores. Or so they'll have you believe. 281,000 new jobs says the ADP report, most since December 2012. Of which small business added 117,000 and medium sized business 115,000. And the media are just besides themselves with joy. Shame that the markets react lukewarm at best. Then again, they do better the worse the news gets, all they reflect anymore these days is the level of distortion and convolution that they obey (or is that the other way around?). Read More

07.02.14- Fatigued Stocks Flirt with the Big One
Rick Ackerman

The suspicion grows that the stock market has been carving out a broad top, by turns bringing sufficient deviousness, pain, tedium, exhilaration, temptation, and most of all false hope, to the process that even those who have been preparing for it are likely to be caught off guard when the inevitable plunge comes. Further evidence of a market suffering from terminal fatigue would have been apparent to anyone who tried to cash in on the last gasp of put and call options that were due to expire on Friday. We've been using this tactic ourselves with a weekly "Jackpot Bet" designed to take advantage of the enormous leverage in options that have shed nearly all of their time premium shortly before they die. Read More

07.01.14- BIS Bubble-Blower Warns About Bubbles
The Daily Bell

Central Bankers, Worried About Bubbles, Rebuke Markets ... An organization representing the world's main central banks warned on Sunday that dangerous new asset bubbles were forming even before the global economy has finished recovering from the last round of financial excess ... The organization also had harsh words for corporations, which it said were not taking advantage of booming stock markets to step up investment. That is one reason that gains in productivity — the foundation of sustained economic growth — have slowed in most advanced economies, the bank said. - New York Times Read More

06.30.14- If 10% Of Humanity Turn Bitcoiners, Central Banking Goes Extinct
Justin O'Connell

What might it take for bitcoin to go mainstream?

Scientists have found in recent years that when a mere 10 percent of the population holds dear a certain belief, this belief will be adopted by the lion’s share. In 2011, for instance, scientists at Rensselaer used computational and analytical methods to discover the tipping point where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion. Read More

06.28.14- The Keynesian End Game Is Near: No Escape Velocity This Year, Either
David Stockman

The economic releases of the past few days are putting the lie to the Keynesian escape velocity myth. The latter is not just around the corner—-and 2014 is now virtually certain to mark the fifth year running when the boom predicted by Wall Street economist at the beginning of the year fizzled as actual results unfolded.

In that context, yesterday’s punk number on personal consumption expenditures during May was the inflection point. Not only did American consumers not come bounding out of their winter ice caves as predicted by virtually every “sell side” economist, the number actually embodied a case of groundhog economics. Read More

06.27.14- This Incredible Technology Could Form the Next Great Bull Market
Dominic Frisby

In the 1970s, the big bull market was in gold. That was the place to be.

In the Eighties, it was Japan. In the Nineties, it was tech. And in the 2000s, it was commodities.

But what about the Tens? What has been the great bull market of this decade? US stocks, maybe? Biotech, perhaps? London property?

Nope, so far, in terms of the gains at least, it has been Bitcoin. There are people who have made over a million times their money. Read More

06.26.14- They're Lying To Us, Part 2: GDP
John Rubino

Today the US took its next-to-last stab at calculating First Quarter GDP, and the downward revision was impressive even by recent standards. It now appears that the economy, well, here’s how Bloomberg puts it:

U.S. Economy Shrank in First Quarter by Most in Five Years

The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter by the most since the depths of the last recession as consumer spending cooled. Read More

06.25.14- Why You Should Believe in the Economy… Or Maybe Doubt It
Birch Gold Group

The equities markets made their best attempts at being bullish last week. The Dow is back up, flirting again with 17,000. The Nasdaq hit a 14-year high. The S&P 500 hit new all-time highs as well. After the tumult of the week before, this will be a welcome respite for some.

Let’s look at a few reasons for the optimism.

First, we have a new House Majority Leader. After Eric Cantor’s shocking primary defeat and step down from leadership, Kevin McCarthy was voted in as House Majority Leader by his fellow Republicans. Read More

06.24.14- Buying Up the Planet: Out-of-control Central Banks on a Corporate Buying Spree
Ellen Brown

Finance is the new form of warfare - without the expense of a military overhead and an occupation against unwilling hosts. It is a competition in credit creation to buy foreign resources, real estate, public and privatized infrastructure, bonds and corporate stock ownership. Who needs an army when you can obtain the usual objective (monetary wealth and asset appropriation) simply by financial means? — Dr. Michael Hudson, Counterpunch,

When the US Federal Reserve bought an 80% stake in American International Group (AIG) in September 2008, the unprecedented $85 billion outlay was justified as necessary to bail out the world's largest insurance company. Read More

06.23.14- The Pipes That Bind
James Corbett

How pipelines will determine economics and geopolitics in the next decade... Confused? Overwhelmed? Dizzy? Don't worry, you should be. In fact, if any of this makes sense to you you might want to consider becoming a consultant, because there are plenty of politicians, foreign policy analysts, geopolitical commentators and others whose radar these stories don't even appear on. Read More

06.21.14- Google - The New Bank - Rollover BitCoin & Banks - Its the Internet Revolution
Martin Armstrong

The real birth in electronic money is not Bitcoin, but Google Wallet. Standing in line at Starbucks you will see the under 25 crowd pay with their cell phones.

Sorry, but Google is already there. Bitcoin cannot compete nor will traditional banks. Just as Amazon reduced book publishers to a subservient role at their direction, and book stores went out of business, while the internet is rendering newspapers obsolete, the trend to pay attention to is Google Wallet, which is targeting the traditional banks. Read More

06.20.14- Last Time Corporate America Did This, The Stock Market Crashed
Wolf Richter

The S&P 500 stock index bumbles to new highs no matter what. But it has been a slog: serial GDP downward revisions forward and backward, unceremonious abandonment of “escape velocity” for the fifth year in a row, wars or civil wars in Ukraine and Iraq with consequences for gas supplies to Europe and oil supplies to the world, US inflation heating up. And stocks nevertheless rise up because.... The Fed Rules, Metrics and Ratios Are Just for Decoration.

In the Business Roundtable’s second quarter CEO survey, the chiefs of the largest US corporations weren’t exactly in an ecstatic mood either. They lowered their GDP growth forecast for the year to 2.3%; among other tidbits, they also expected to spend less money on capital investments. Read More

06.19.14- The Coming Crash Of The Financial And Monetary System
Taki Tsaklanos

In an excellent video presentation, Claudio Grass, Managing Director at Global Gold Switzerland, explains why a crash of the financial and monetary system seems inevitable. The presentation covers all actual issues like currency wars, rigged markets, central bankers’ interventions, statistics manipulation, monetary mismanagement and financial repression. Claudio Grass does a great job “connecting these dots” but in a factual way. In this article, we collect several quotes and graphs. The full video presentation is 22 minutes long. Readers are highly recommended to watch the full presentation and subscribe to receive three exclusive reports for free on http://welcome.globalgold.ch. Read More

06.18.14- 'Interesting Times' Spinning Out of Control
Rick Ackerman

These all-too-interesting times are threatening to mutate into global mayhem. Because the usual 500-word commentary cannot begin to cover it all, let me list just a few of the things that we should all find troubling domestically and abroad:

• The subjugation of Iraq by jihadi madmen so deranged, cruel and violent that even al Qaeda considers them outcasts is about to radically reshape the geopolitical world. They now control territory from Aleppo in northwestern Syria to Fallujah in central Iraq and are fixing to extend their dominion - and a re-nascent Caliphate — to Baghdad. We should wish Iranian troops well in killing as many of them as possible. Read More

06.17.14- Gold, Government and Monetary Freedom
Richard Ebeling

For more than two hundred years, practically all of the leading advocates of individual liberty and free markets have assumed that money and banking were different from other types of goods and markets. From Adam Smith to Milton Friedman, the presumption has been that competitive markets and free consumer choice are far better than government control and planning - except in the realm of money and financial intermediation. They have been wrong on this important issue.

This belief in the need for political control and management of the monetary system has been taken to the extreme over the last one hundred years, during which governments have claimed virtually absolute and unlimited authority over national monetary systems through the institution of paper money. Read More

06.16.14- The Next Great American Industry
Josh Grasmick

I’d like to begin this essay by honoring those free-thinkers who have made all our lives better, despite most of us not really knowing them or how they did it.

And we'll end today's episode by learning how one tech entrepreneur just unleashed an orgy of innovation that'd headed for the energy, car and computer industries…

Reminding us what makes societies great, economies boom and that modern-day heroes are alive and well and fighting for "team earth." Read More

06.14.14- The Baltic Dry Index Is Having Its Worst Year Ever
Tyler Durden

(Editor's Note: Every working day, a panel of international shipbrokers submits their view of current freight cost on various routes to the Baltic Exchange. The routes are meant to be representative, i.e. large enough in volume to matter for the overall market.

These rate assessments are then weighted together to create both the overall BDI and the size specific Supramax, Panamax, and Capesize indices. The BDI factors in the four different sizes of oceangoing dry bulk transport vessels.

On 20 May 2008, the Baltic Dry Index reached its record high level since its introduction in 1985, reaching 11,793 points. Half a year later, on 5 December 2008, the index had dropped by 94%, to 663 points, the lowest since 1986; though by 4 February 2009 it had recovered a little lost ground, back to 1,316. These low rates moved dangerously close to the combined operating costs of vessels, fuel, and crews. Read More

06.13.14- Elon Musk Makes A Great Argument For Why Tesla Doesn't Need Patents To Be Successful
Rob Wile

Tesla is opening up its patents — even on its batteries and chargers — for fair use.

In a conference call Thursday announcing the move, CEO Elon Musk said he believes a company's relying on patents is a sign of weakness: "It means they're not innovating," he said. "They're not innovating fast enough. You should be innovating so fast that you're invalidating your prior patents."

Musk blasted the state of patent regimes in America as stifling innovation, and said he hopes other companies ditch their patent protections. "I suggested it to BMW last night," he said. Read More

06.12.14- Is Inequality Caused by Capitalism or Statism?
John Browne

The French economist Thomas Piketty has achieved worldwide fame by promoting a thesis that capitalism is the cause of growing economic inequality. Unfortunately, he is partially right. However, the important distinction missed by Piketty and all of his supporters is that state capitalism, not free market capitalism, has reigned supreme in recent decades in the world's leading democracies. It is this misguided attempt to wed the power of the state to the private ownership of capital that has led to the mushrooming of economic inequality. If the public cannot be made aware of the distinction, we risk abandoning the only system capable of creating real improvements for the vast majority of people. Read More

06.11.14- Intelligence Insider Warns of Catastrophic Collapse: "The Tempo of Events is Faster Than Expected"
Mac Slavo

As more and more information about the state of global affairs becomes available one can’t help but realize that life as we have come to know it is going to change dramatically in the very near future. The manipulation of financial markets, the fabrication of economic figures, and the mobilization of government on all levels are clear signs that something is amiss.

As has been said on many occasions, it’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’.

And that’s the trillion dollar question. When will the system finally come on unhinged? Further, what will be the catalyst that finally sends the system into a tailspin? Read More

06.10.14- The Bubble is Back
John Rubino

For all those analysts (including this one) who thought the debt binge of the previous decade marked end of the Age of Leverage, well, not so fast.

It turns out that memories are short and government printing presses are powerful, and this combination has turned the “Great Deleveraging” into a minor speed bump on the road to something even more extreme.

As the following chart illustrates, the growth in total US debt flattened in 2009 and 2010, with government borrowing more-or-less offsetting a decrease in consumer and business loans. But now the trend is once again onward and upward across the board. Read More

06.09.14- Retail Death Rattle Grows Louder
Rick Ackerman

[America's supposed recovery from The Great Recession is a hoax so obvious that only the mainstream news media, too lazy, cowardly and stupid to stray even an inch from the officially approved narrative, could fail to see it. And yet, here we are, so glutted with brick-and-mortar retail space that even if it were to be reduced by half there would still be an economically fatal overhang. Sales are plummeting and malls are dying - a matter of no small consequence, considering that retail business supposedly makes up two-thirds of America's GDP. In the trenchant commentary below, the intrepid Jim Quinn updates and amplifies an article he wrote four months ago on this subject. With his kind permission, I am reprinting it here because it deserves as wide an audience as possible. Read More

06.07.14- The Bear's Lair: The coming bond market meltdown
Martin Hutchinson

Extreme policies produce extreme attitudes among investors. Now, the nearly six years of zero interest rate policies—accompanied by quantitative easing—that we have seen in most Western economies are producing such an extreme attitude in the world's bond markets.

Bond investors' appetites for high yields have grown so far that they are seeking out risks far out of proportion to the additional return they may receive. In turn, borrowers both corporate and state are forgetting the discipline needed to keep debts under control. Needless to say, this will all end in tears, which will thereafter prevent worthwhile borrowers from accessing the funding they need. Read More

06.06.14- New global monetary system coming
Mike Maloney

Read More

06.05.14- Giant Sucking Sound: Russian Money Yanked From US Banks
Wolf Richter

US Banks enjoyed more or less steadily climbing, or rather soaring, deposits by Russian institutions and individuals, having tripled in just two years to $21.6 billion by February, according to the US Treasury.

It may seem a bit counterintuitive that in times of ZIRP anyone would put any money in any US banks, and it may seem even more counterintuitive that Russians who have other opportunities with their money would voluntarily subject themselves to the Fed’s financial repression. Read More

06.04.14- First Quarter GDP Was Negative: Economy Headed For Deep Recession
Dave Kranzler

It may not seem like it if you have a well-paying job which covers most of your Obamacare costs and that enables you make your mortgage payment, pay the leases on your cars and enjoy discretionary spending, but for the 76% of the country that lives paycheck to paycheck the economy never really recovered from the Great Financial Collapse and is getting worse by the day. See this article, for example: CNNMoney.

I predicted late last year that the first quarter GDP might register an economic contraction. You would know it from watching just the stock market, but the first revised estimate of Q1 GDP showed a 1% decline occurred. Read More

06.03.14- Russian Roulette - Derivative Style
Gary Christenson

Russian Roulette: Put one bullet in the cylinder of a revolver, spin the cylinder, point the gun at YOUR head, and pull the trigger. Most revolvers have 6 chambers, so your odds of surviving are 5 in 6, IF you quit after pulling the trigger once.

Press your luck, spin the cylinder, point the gun, and pull the trigger again. It might be okay. Try for a third time?

Note: I have no insider knowledge regarding derivatives, so I am merely speculating. But I think we can assume the following: Read More

06.02.14- The Velocity Of Money In The U.S. Falls To An All-Time Record Low
Michael Snyder

When an economy is healthy, there is lots of buying and selling and money tends to move around quite rapidly. Unfortunately, the U.S. economy is the exact opposite of that right now. In fact, as I will document below, the velocity of M2 has fallen to an all-time record low.

This is a very powerful indicator that we have entered a deflationary era, and the Federal Reserve has been attempting to combat this by absolutely flooding the financial system with more money. This has created some absolutely massive financial bubbles, but it has not fixed what is fundamentally wrong with our economy. Read More

05.31.14- A Global Crrency Reset
JC Collins

Changing the Architecture of the Financial World

Over the last few years an urban myth of sorts has been slowly building which speaks of an imminent reset of all the worlds currencies. It is expected that in one fell swoop the exchange rates of currencies will be adjusted with huge potential windfalls from specific currencies.

These currencies, namely the Iraqi dinar, Vietnamese dong, and a handful of other devalued currencies will reset at extreme exchange rate swings leading to riches for all who hold the currencies. Read More

05.30.14- What Will Happen When the Dollar Collapses?
Dave Hodges

Hitler initiated a false flag event and burned down the Reichstag to gain control over the German government. Could the same happen here in the United States? My initial response to that question is, does it really matter? The pattern of societal collapse and subsequent governmental enslavement of the American people will be largely the same whether the precipitating incident is a false flag attack or a currency collapse. For the purpose of simplicity, let us call the precursor event to all-out martial law, a currency collapse.

The Federal Reserve has been bleeding this country to death for a century. What the dollar bought 100 years ago, can only buy three cents of product today. This means that 97% of the value of our currency has gone into the pockets of the Federal Reserve investors for the past 100 years. Read More

05.29.14- Kleptocracy and Capital Controls
Will Lehr

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths that the psychopathic, controlling oligarchs will go to in order to strengthen their grip on humanity. Control and power are the weapons of these few. While weapons, they will also serve as their demise. You see, we are not boiling frogs, despite all the fluoride and GMOs we are force fed. We, the rational minded, can see through the scam. We are waking up and growing tired of being pushed into the corner. Awareness of the controlling power mechanism is what is driving us for a better tomorrow.

When we first wrote about the IRA LLC on SurvivalBlog, we generated quite a bit of interest from the community. As people discover the ability to take home delivery of IRA gold and silver, it changes the game. Through this process we are encountering skeptics, evangelists, and outright government tyranny. Read More

05.28.14- Some Things to Consider If Spain Leaves the Euro
Michael Pettis

It might seem almost churlish to wonder what would happen if Spain were to leave the euro. The official European position is that the battle of the euro has been pretty much won, and anyone who argues otherwise will be accused of being a euro hater, an Anglo-Saxon or, even worse, a writer for the Financial Times.

But there is more than one "battle" around the euro. While the battle of liquidity seems to have been won, the solvency and the unemployment battles (the latter of which is really a battle of unbalanced demand) have not even been addressed. Every sovereign debt crisis in modern history has been preceded by assurances that it was only a liquidity crisis, but as I see it there were three separate problems that erupted in the 2008-09 euro crisis: Read More

05.27.14- It turns out you can have BOTH inflation AND deflation
Simon Black

In 113 BC, a major scandal erupted across the Roman Republic as three sacred vestal virgins stood accused of incestum- violations of their sexual purity.

The special prosecutor brought out of retirement to try the case was Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla, a famous judge and former consul whose principle form of investigation was asking the question- cui bono? Who benefits?

It remains a great standard to apply today, especially with respect to one of the most spirited debates in modern economics. Read More

05.26.14- To the Class of 2014: Congratulations Chumps!
Bill Bonner

A Speech Prepared Just in Case

There are 4,495 colleges and universities in the US. By our count, they reckoned there were at least 4,495 commencement speakers more suitable than your editor.

Not one asked us to give the graduation address. That was probably a good decision on their part. Nevertheless, we prepared an address we would have delivered had we been asked. Today, we share with you the speech we prepared in advance Read More

05.24.14- The Robots Are Coming, And They Are Replacing Warehouse Workers And Fast Food Employees
Michael Snyder

There are already more than 101 million working age Americans that are not employed and 20 percent of the families in the entire country do not have a single member that has a job. So what in the world are we going to do when robots start taking millions upon millions more of our jobs? Thanks to technology, the balance of power between employers and workers in this country is shifting dramatically in favor of the employers. These days, many employers are wondering why they are dealing with so many human worker "headaches" when they can just use technology to get the same tasks done instead. When you replace a human worker with a robot, you solve a whole bunch of problems. Read More

05.23.14- You Can't Shoot Fish in a Barrel Without Ammunition: Why FOMO Is Every Investor's Worst Enemy
Dan Steinhart

FOMO

I heard this acronym on a podcast last week. Having no clue what it meant, I consulted Google.

Turns out it stands for “Fear of Missing Out.” Kids use it to describe their anxiety about missing a social event that all of their friends are attending.

It struck me that investors experience FOMO too. And it usually leads to bad decisions. Read More

05.22.14- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Massive Underwater Entrance has been Discovered off the California Coast
Ken Pfeifer

(Editor's Note: This story was just too strange for me to pass up. I sourced it from the Silver for the People Blog. At the risk of being awarded a new tin foil hat, I submit it for your perusal. Sometimes, the truth (if it is true)is stranger than fiction. - JSB)

A massive underwater entrance has been discovered off the Malibu, CA coast at Point Dume which appears to be the Holy Grail of UFO/USO researchers that have been looking for it over the last 40 years. The plateau structure is 1.35 miles x 2.45 miles wide, 6.66 miles from land and the entrance between the support pillars is 2745 feet wide and 630 feet tall. It also has what looks like a total nuclear bomb proof ceiling that is 500 feet thick. Read More

05.21.14- How to Debit Card with Bitcoin
Dan Norcini

Why would anyone expect any different defense from the international banking cartel? They have been nesting in the plush uplift bras and groin holsters of congresscritters for as long as I can remember.

It beats competing in a free market, no? Especially so, since it's your money going to the government-dependent lobbyists!

MasterCard is crying for protection from Bitcoin. The Washington, DC, lobbying firm Peck Madigan Jones have been hired to concentrate on swaying Capitol Hill of the threat from Bitcoin to the established credit card giant and a $50 Billion a year fee based financial services market.

Therefore, expect to see Visa next to initiate a similar course of action. Read More

05.20.14- Nervous Time
Doug Noland

I’ll begin with a few of this week’s notable market moves. The euro/yen declined another 82 bps, increasing its two-week decline to 1.94%, to the lowest level since February. Greek 10-year sovereign yields surged 75 bps to the highest level since March. The spread between Portugal and Germany bond yields widened 35 bps. Spreads to German bunds widened 17 bps in Spain and 24 bps in Italy. Italian stocks were hit for 3.5%. Here at home, the Bank stock index (BKX) dropped 1.7% and the Broker/Dealers (XBD) were hit for 2.2%. Let me suggest weakness at the “periphery of the periphery” - out at the “margin” that I look to for subtle market “risk on/risk off” leanings. I’ll take this week’s trading as added confirmation of the incipient risk aversion thesis. Read More

05.19.14- Wall Street Says It's Different This Time
Sy Harding

It's a good thing it's different this time! We know it is because Wall Street says so.

The high-valuation levels indicated by the Shiller CAPE 10 Price/Earnings Ratio mean nothing this time, because things are different than when that indicator's similar readings in previous periods were accompanied by market tops.

The age of this bull market also means nothing because it's different this time, since we have the Greenspan/Bernanke/Yellen Put in place there's a promise that the Fed is neither ahead of nor behind the curve, as it was so often in the past. This time the Fed is on top of what is going on, and knows what it must do to prevent economic slowdowns or market corrections from worsening into recessions and bear markets. Read More

05.17.14- Prepare for the Death of the Petrodollar
Addison Wiggin.

[Part I of this essay, The US Energy Boom Will End the Dollar's World Reserve Status, was published in yesterday's Daily Reckoning]

"So let's say the U.S. is really not importing much Arab oil anymore," says Erik Townsend in a thought experiment. "Well, if that were the case, it's really hard to see why the Arabs would continue to price their oil in dollars, especially at that point; their biggest customers would be China and Brazil and countries that have no reason to deal in dollars."

We're in debt to Mr. Townsend for helping us tease out the petrodollar's endgame here. Erik parlayed the fortune from his first career as a software entrepreneur into a second career as a hedge fund manager who knows the oil futures market inside out. Read More

05.16.14- The Fall Of The Dollar Based Monetary System: Russia Puts The Avalanche In Motion
Taki Tsaklanos

It is truly astonishing how much trust people have in the establishment. Almost everyone believes that central planners are focused on defending the best outcome for society. In the same respect, almost everyone nowadays believes that “things are contained.”

Looking under the hood, it appears that several worrisome trends are going on. Examining those trends, one can only conclude that they are building up momentum. But make no mistake, momentum, in this case, is not in the right direction. Read More

05.15.14- The Most Profitable Way to Play a Summer Correction
Greg Guenthner

There's no denying it- yesterday's price action was ugly.

After a rather bullish start to the week, stocks tumbled. The fall was led by small-caps, which continue to lag the market in a major way. That's not exactly bullish heading into the summer.

The crash-callers will be out in full force this week. That's fine. Let them have their fun. But back in reality, I don't think it's time to run and hide from stocks just yet. In fact, if you take an objective view of the market, you'll see that a summer correction might be just what the doctor ordered…

Here's what you need to know…Read More

05.14.14- BRICS 80 Preparing To Take Down The Dollar
Charleston Voice

Ukrainian Crisis is about Taxes

Dr Jim Willie has been talking about the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa) being joined by other nations to take down the dollar. He says there are now 80 nations in the BRICS alliance who have joined together to end the dollar’s reign as the international reserve currency. China could have taken down the US economy any time it wanted to after it had accumulated more than a trillion dollars in US Treasury bonds. All it had to do was to sell them and buy real assets until the US government collapsed and surrendered. Read More

05.13.14- If Economic Cycle Theorists Are Correct, 2015 To 2020 Will Be Pure Hell For The United States
Michael Snyder

Does the economy move in predictable waves, cycles or patterns? There are many economists that believe that it does, and if their projections are correct, the rest of this decade is going to be pure hell for the United States. Many mainstream economists want nothing to do with economic cycle theorists, but it should be noted that economic cycle theories have enabled some analysts to correctly predict the timing of recessions, stock market peaks and stock market crashes over the past couple of decades. Of course none of the theories discussed below is perfect, but it is very interesting to note that all of them seem to indicate that the U.S. economy is about to enter a major downturn. So will the period of 2015 to 2020 turn out to be pure hell for the United States? We will just have to wait and see. Read More

05.12.14- Over 4000 Ton of Gold Stolen by the West and Shipped East
Jim Willie

The crucial swing states for deciding the US presidential elections through voting system fraud were Ohio and Florida. Whether by machine software with rigged software programming or by bussing in Somalians or by altering the vote count upon final submission or basic bully tactics to prevent entrance into the voting centers, the US national elections were truly tainted.

The commonly followed Exit Polls are proof of vote fraud.

A law was even passed to prevent challenges of the voting machines and software, a certain brand always in the spotlight. Recall that voter system fraud is a key trait of a Third World nation, along with bank fraud, absent rule of law, economic decay, and devotion to war. Read More

05.10.14- Why the U.S. Is Not Experiencing "Raging Inflation"
Jim Mosquera

In a recent article in the NY Times Op-Ed section, economist Paul Krugman points out that in the time it was most needed, economics failed.

Let's first start by defining economics. According to Webster, economics is:

A science concerned with the process or system by which goods and services are produced, sold, and bought

In my book, E$caping Oz, I derived four economic laws to help readers understand some basic truths about some of the things occurring in the economy. My fourth economic law says: Read More

05.09.14- Safe Havens Since The Great Financial Crisis
Jesse's Café Américain

"The sense of responsibility in the financial community for the community as a whole is not small. It is nearly nil. Perhaps this is inherent. In a community where the primary concern is making money, one of the necessary rules is to live and let live. To speak out against madness may be to ruin those who have succumbed to it. So the wise in Wall Street are nearly always silent. The foolish thus have the field to themselves. None rebukes them."

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929p

“As Treasury secretary under Clinton, Rubin was the driving force behind two monstrous deregulatory actions that would be primary causes of last year’s financial crisis: the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act.. and the deregulation of the derivatives market.”

Matt Taibbi Read More

05.08.14- Amazon's Wholesale Slaughter: Jeff Bezos' $8 Trillion B2B Bet
Clare O'Connor

Forget the delivery drones and TV deals. Jeff Bezos' stealthy foray into the unsexy world of B2B distribution is likely his most disruptive move yet — and it has an $8 trillion swath of the economy running scared.

In recent months global Internet retail behemoth Amazon.com has green-lit six new original TV shows, announced an online streaming deal with HBO and tested same-day grocery delivery on the West Coast.

Up next? Possibly a smartphone. And, if billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos has his way, packages dropped off by unmanned drone. Read More

05.07.14- Safe Havens Since The Great Financial Crisis
Taki Tsaklanos

How have the traditional safe havens performed since the great financial crash of 2008 / 2009? What can we expect from the traditional safe havens going forward? Those are the two questions we try to answer in this article.

The safe havens we look at in this article are the US Dollar, US Treasuries, gold and the Yen. Obviously, with a never seen amount of debt backing the US dollar and the Yen, some would (rightfully) question their safe haven status. However, the reality is that the market is considering them safe havens, because of a lack of globally accepted alternatives. Read More

05.06.14- Albert Einstein's timeless advice for investors
Tim Price

“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I knew the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” - Albert Einstein

Well into the summer of 1914, when the then 35-year old Einstein was a professor in Berlin, Europe’s stock markets were buoyant.

They initially shrugged off the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo.

But as investors began to grasp the implications of a European war with Russia siding with Serbia, both bonds and stocks started to sag as proactive investors began to raise liquidity. Read More

05.05.14- 3 Underappreciated Indicators to Guide You through a Debt-Saturated Economy
F.F. Wiley

If you're my generation or older, you may remember taking the original Pepsi Challenge - the Coke versus Pepsi taste testing booths that you would find at sporting events, fairs and similar venues. I took the Challenge and stuck with Coke. The majority of people went the other way, as confirmed by even Coke's private tests. Nowadays, though, I'm guessing the public version of a Challenge booth would bring heckling from the nutrition-conscious folks at the Just Juice stand. The bigger challenges for Coke and Pepsi are health risks linked to their flagship products. Researchers are zeroing in on a handful of ingredients that may be harmful, such as sodium benzoate and phosphoric acid. Read More

05.03.14- Weekend Rant: Washington Intends Russia's Demise
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Washington has no intention of allowing the crisis in Ukraine to be resolved. Having failed to seize the country and evict Russia from its Black Sea naval base, Washington sees new opportunities in the crisis.

One is to restart the Cold War by forcing the Russian government to occupy the Russian-speaking areas of present day Ukraine where protesters are objecting to the stooge anti-Russian government installed in Kiev by the American coup. These areas of Ukraine are former constituent parts of Russia herself. They were attached to Ukraine by Soviet leaders in the 20th century when both Ukraine and Russia were part of the same country, the USSR. Read More

05.02.14- New Dow Record Expands Wall Street Party
The Daily Bell

The Dow Jones industrial average rose to an all-time high on Wednesday after investors assessed more corporate earnings, the latest move from the Fed and an unexpectedly weak reading on economic growth in the first quarter. Sealed Air, a food packing company, and C.H. Robinson, a freight company, were among stocks that rose after reporting earnings. On Wednesday: The Dow Jones industrial average rose 45.47 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,580.84. For the week: The Dow Jones industrial average is up 219.38 points, or 1.3 percent. For the year: The Dow is up 4.18 points, or 0.03 percent. - MyWayNews Read More

05.01.14- The Latest Bubble to Pop: Mortgage Rates and Their Butterfly Effect on the Economy
Frank O. Trotter

We’ve fallen and can’t quite get up!

Sometimes the unending stream of economic numbers starts to look like the dripping green images in The Matrix.

We attempt to be Cypher, “conceptualizing” the image through the digits: “All I see now is blonde, brunette, redhead.” But our collective attempts at econometric modeling on the fly often result in a muddled, rather than precise, picture.

Still, there are moments when the world clarifies before our eyes. August 1971. October 1979. September 2001. September 2008. Read More

04.30.14- Here's The Percentage Odds That Your Job Gets Replaced By A Robot
Rob Wile

Last year Oxford associate professor Michael Osborne, along with coauthor Carl Frey, published a paper called "The Future Of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs To Computerisation?"

Their central premise: "The secular price decline in the real cost of computing has created vast economic incentives for employers to substitute labour for computer capital."

To see how bad it can get, they took 702 occupations and calculated the odds of them getting replaced by robots. First, they divided the occupations into positive and negative responses to the following question: “Can the tasks of this job be sufficiently specified, conditional on the availability of big data, to be performed by state of the art computer-controlled equipment?” They then further sorted the fields according to a set of skills, like dexterity and originality, that they rated as having a greater or lower tendency toward computerization. Read More

04.29.14- Well this is rather embarrassing…
Simon Black

And another one bites the dust. Now it’s Bank of America, one of the largest banks in the Land of the Free, that is inadequately capitalized.

Last month, Bank of America made a lot of noise about how they were going to buy back up to $5 billion worth of common shares.

As CEO Brian Moynihan stated, “We have simplified our company and we have more than adequate capital to support our strategic plans. We are well positioned to return excess capital to our shareholders.”

Needless to say, investors cheered the announcement, and BofA’s stock price rose nicely as a result. Read More

04.28.14- Why Housing Has Stalled - And Why Everything Else Will Follow
John Rubino

It’s not easy being a mainstream economist. You spend your life building models that become your professional identity. And when those models fail to describe and predict reality, you’re left wondering about the meaning of it all.

The latest case in point is US housing. Keynesian economic models say that if you lower mortgage rates you get more houses bought, sold and built. A nice, simple piece of cause and effect. But today’s mortgage rates are at levels that would have incited a buying frenzy a generation ago, employment is rising — and home sales, home building and mortgage originations are all flat-lining. Read More

04.26.14- Guide: Pathogenesis & Change Factors
Jim Willie

Systemic failure and its pathogenesis have been over 50 years in progress, with countless events. The origin is found with the cabal murder Kennedy, but the climax finale will be found with the Saudi Petro-Dollar rejection and the arrival of Eastern gold-backed currencies. The pathogenesis is fierce, vicious, multi-faceted, coordinated, enforced, unstoppable, destructive, vile, with many unfortunate aspects and facades. The extreme vulnerability of the financial crime syndicate can finally be seen, the symptoms obvious.

If somebody had asked Greenspan in 1995 whether the day would ever come when the US Federal Reserve would install Zero Interest Policy and keep the 0% rate in place indefinitely, then install Quantitative Easing and keep the bond monetization in place permanently, approximately 0% of the experts would say the day would arrive. Read More

04.25.14- US now spending 26% of available tax revenue just to pay interest
Simon Black

By the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire had become a has-been power whose glory days as the world’s superpower were well behind them.

They had been supplanted the French, the British, and the Russian empires in all matters of economic, military, and diplomatic strength. Much of this was due to the Ottoman Empire’s massive debt burden.

In 1868, the Ottoman government spent 17% of its entire tax revenue just to pay interest on the debt. Read More

04.24.14- America's Consumers Are Dropping, Not Shopping: McDonald's Posts Worst Q1 Same Store Comps In A Decade
David Stockman

McDonald's latest results confirm that something is very much amiss on the consumer side. Total global revenue grew only 1% Y/Y, including new store launches and acquisitions.

However, as has been the pattern since 2012, US comparable store sales lagged markedly. The rate of contraction in Q1 was actually the worst in more than a decade. Read More

04.23.14- A "Secret Correction" is Gripping Wall Street - Here's What You Need to Know
Birch Gold Group

Overall, the markets were flat last week, and took the day off on Good Friday. The operative word here is “overall”. Let’s look just a layer deeper…

A peek beneath Wall Street’s surface, according to analysis at Zero Hedge, reveals that a major, widespread correction is already underway but is being hidden by the few companies that are still beating the margins. With just this cursory glance beyond where most care to look, the report reveals that 40% of companies in the S&P 500 are already in correction mode - that is, they are down more than 10%. Only 72 companies are up, with the rest flat. This means less than 15% of companies are carrying the index, balancing out the red to make it look flatter overall. Read More

04.22.14- US financial showdown with Russia is more dangerous than it looks,
for both sides
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The US Treasury faces a more formidable prey with Russia, the world's biggest producer of energy with a $2 trillion economy, superb scientists and a first-strike nuclear arsenal

The United States has constructed a financial neutron bomb. For the past 12 years an elite cell at the US Treasury has been sharpening the tools of economic warfare, designing ways to bring almost any country to its knees without firing a shot. Read More

04.21.14- You've heard the adage, "A penny saved is a penny earned"? What if I told you a penny doubled is several million earned??
Bobby Casey

If you want to know the secret to creating long-term wealth in a big way, this article is for you.

Yesterday, I was flying from New York City to Panama City for our spring conference - Global Escape Hatch. Sitting on the plane next to me was a very intelligent young man named Mike.

Normally, when I get on the plane, I am asleep before the plane is pushed back from the gate and wake up when the wheels touchdown at the destination. But this time, Mike and I chatted for most of the flight. Read More

04.19.14- “EU Officially Adopts the Bail-In” with Graham Mehl
My Two Cents - Andy Sutton

It has now been more than a year since that fateful weekend in the Mediterranean when everything changed. However, like most of the big changes we’ve seen lately, there is a subtlety afoot that somehow results in few noticing. This should surprise no one really. How the world can change in such dramatic ways without any type of mass awakening is a topic more for the psychologists who help pull the strings and the evil they represent than for anyone involved in the analysis of economics and events, but I say the above so that you know you’re not kidding anyone.

Even a year later, the subtlety continues and ignorance abounds. Most still don’t know the ramifications of the passage of the Dodd-Frank bill back in 2010. They take it at its word that it is a consumer protection act, but is nothing of the sort. Read More

04.18.14- And Now for Something Entirely Different: 66 years later!

Read More

04.17.14- Economic outlook darkens
Alasdair Macleod

Many decades of Keynesian-inspired economic and monetary corruption have left advanced economies with a legacy of debt and low savings. In a nutshell, that is the problem which is driving us into another financial crisis. That moment could be drawing upon us, signalled by the recent collapse in bond yields.

This nearly happened in 2008. It was bought off by an open-ended central bank guarantee of infinite quantities of cash and credit, initially by the Fed, rapidly followed by all the other major central banks. Six years later, monetary medicine is still being applied globally in unprecedented quantities. And in some countries bank credit has finally begun expanding more rapidly than before. Read More

04.16.14- This Chart Shows Us How Bad The Economy Really Is: "Flashing Red Warning"
Mac Slavo

Recent weeks have led to a fairly significant drop in stock valuations, with many expert analysts struggling to figure out exactly why it’s happening. You’ll hear them cite the weather, or market overreaction, or any number of reasons for why stocks have seen their share prices reduced and why they’ll be rebounding in the near-term.

What they won’t show you on mainstream financial channels is what’s really happening behind the scenes.

Forget about all the minute-by-minute noise for a moment and take a look at the following chart. It gives a very simple overview of earnings growth trends for stocks listed on the S&P 500 on a quarterly basis. Read More

04.15.14- US Stocks Are 50% Overvalued … It's Time to Get Out
Bill Bonner

The Dow fell 143 points on Friday. Gold was just about flat. Why the fall in stock prices? Many reasons were proposed, but no one knows for sure. There may not be a reason at all. Stocks don’t need a reason to fall. From time to time, they just do. Not to put too fine a point on it, but asset prices go up … and then they go down. Always have. Always will.

Generally, it’s a credit expansion that drives them up. A credit contraction takes them back down. Credit is still expanding, says economist and author of The New Depression: The Breakdown of the Paper Money Economy Richard Duncan. But come the next quarter, watch out. Duncan reckons “excess liquidity” (as he calculates it, the surplus left over between QE stimulus and what the federal government absorbs through borrowing) is going to contract - sharply. Read More

04.14.14- It's Not the Rich - It's The Total Cost of Gov't That is Killing the Economy
Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Do you believe in a fairer system where there is a minimum income cap and a maximum asset cap? We live in an age where productivity has risen through the roof due to technological advancement. Don’t you think humanity is at the stage where it can afford to offer basic income to people so better checks and balances can be set in place to thwart the exploitation of people (see the third world).

A maximum asset cap would also act as a positive filter in business ownership, don’t you think? The businessmen interested mainly in greed won’t fill those positions, but those who are driven more by other means, hopefully positive ambitions, will fill those roles (CEO,COO, managers, etc.) Read More

04.12.14- Trillions in Subsidies, but Banks Still 'Struggle'
Rick Ackerman

Think you could make it in business with a trillion dollar subsidy? That's a very conservative estimate of what the banks can borrow each year at almost no cost, courtesy of Fed easing. Returning the favor, the banks plow most of the funny money into Treasury paper, stocks and bonds, then lend the crumbs that remain to the riff-raff at usurious rates that can exceed 20% — a tad more than Frankie the Camel charges his customers. What a great way to make money! And yet, how do we account for this recent headline in The Wall Street Journal: Bank Profits Are Looking Stressed - Slumps in Trading Revenue, Mortgage Business Are Expected to Weaken Quarterly Earnings Reports. Read More

04.11.14- Have They Decided To
"Get Out Of The Way?"
Bill Holter

Yesterday the Wall Street journal wrote that Goldman Sachs may be in the process of shutting down their "Sigma X" dark pool clearing. Little more than 2 weeks ago they first announced that they would no longer "play" in the HFT games and followed this by announcing they would give up their "Designated Market Maker" status on the NYSE. Why, what's up with this?

Speculation on my part but it seems to me like “they know.” They know that something VERY BIG is afoot. This “something” could be one of many possibilities but a firm like Goldman Sachs who has gorged at the table of American financial plenty forever would never ever leave if there was still food at the table. Please remember that they are second only to JPM with their “trading” prowess over the last few years. Read More

04.10.14- IMF warns U.S. over potentially bumpy exit from extraordinary monetary policy
Lu Hui

A badly-timed and bumpy exit from extraordinary monetary policy in the United States could undermine global financial stability and spill over to emerging markets, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned Wednesday.

"Undue delay could lead to a further build-up of financial stability risks, and too rapid an exit could jeopardize the economic recovery and exacerbate still-elevated debt burdens in some segments of the economy," the Washington-based IMF said in its latest edition of Global Financial Stability Report, noting that "the timing and management of exit is critical." Read More

04.09.14- Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Gold and The Dollar Are In A Fight to the Death!
Greg Hunter

View Video

04.08.14- What In The World Is Happening To The Nasdaq?
Michael Snyder

All of a sudden, the Nasdaq is absolutely tanking. On Monday, it fell more than 1 percent after dropping 3.6 percent on Thursday and Friday combined. At this point, the Nasdaq is off to the worst start to a year that we have seen since 2008, and we all remember what happened back then. So why is this happening? In recent years, the Nasdaq has been ground zero for "dotcom bubble 2.0". The hottest stocks in the entire world are on the Nasdaq - we are talking about stocks like Yahoo, Netflix, Apple, Tesla, Google and Facebook. Those stocks have gone to absolutely incredible heights, but now they are starting to fall. Some are blaming insider selling, and without a doubt the "smart money" is starting to flee the stock market. Read More

04.07.14- COT Breakdown
Dan Norcini

Another Friday - another release of the Commitment of Traders report from the CFTC - let the entrail reading begin in earnest!

A caveat before we begin - the report only covers trading through the end of the combined pit and screen session on Tuesday of the current week. It therefore does not take into account the price action from Wednesday through the close of trading on Friday.

On Tuesday of last week ( 3-25-2014) gold closed at $1311.40. On Tuesday of this week, it closed at $1280 for a loss ( Tuesday - Tuesday ) of $31.60. Read More

04.05.14- Emerging Dynamics of Petro-Yuan Standard
Jim Willie

The shocks will be many as the USDollar struggles and falls off the global financial stage in full view. The desperate maneuvers like in Syria and Ukraine should be seen as last ditch efforts to save a dying system. For two decades the USDollar has been defended by military means. Worse, for 50 years the USGovt has been a hidden nazi enclave of wicked fascists who have hidden behind their overt disdain for communism, with Kissinger the flag bearer, with Brzezinski the ideologue, with Papa Bush the executor, with narcotics and genetics and gold thefts their principal agenda. Read More

04.04.14- Billionaire Warns: Yellen Collapse 'Will Be Unlike Any Other'
Money News

Another horrific stock market crash is coming, and the next bust will be “unlike any other” we have seen.

That’s the message from Jeremy Grantham, co-founder and chief investment strategist of GMO, a Boston-based firm with $117 billion in assets under management.

Grantham pulls no punches when he discusses who he holds responsible for the coming financial carnage. In a recent interview with The New York Times, he calls Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen “ignorant” and said the Federal Reserve all but killed the economic recovery. Read More

04.03.14- Dollar Death Mask
JC Collins

"This week, the US Congress again failed to approve a modest appropriation that would have shored up financing for the International Monetary Fund and given China and other emerging economies greater responsibility there. Support for the IMF may seem arcane, but it has important implications for America's global role - and the signs are not good."

From BusinessDay Website, Tuesday, April 1, 2014.

The shifting reality of the global economy is becoming more and more apparent. With each passing day we are hearing and reading additional news and events which are leading the world towards the multilateral financial system.

Many of the discussion points and topics on this site have been spot on with many of the readers discovering supporting evidence well in advance of the mainstream media and other sites. The hard work of everyone is making the overall picture clearer and clearer with each comment and link to outside sources. Read More

04.02.14- Underground Commerce is the Real Economy
James Hall

As the deadline for filing yearly income taxes is rapidly approaching, businesses especially hard pressed to make a profit in a depressed economy struggle with their tax compliance. Reporting legitimate deductions and costs is the easy part. When you are losing money, disclosing a diminished income stream based upon lower margins, is not a difficult decision. Nevertheless, small enterprises burdened with government regulation costs and tax obligations, often are unable to conduct business and retain a net return. Self-proprietorships frequently are so scared that many look to the cash underground economy to hide income earnings. Read More

04.01.14- Ukraine is the Waterloo event for the USDollar
Jim Willie

The desperation of the Anglo-American leadership, guided by the steady corrupt banker hands, has never been more acutely high, nor obvious in full view. The entire Ukraine situation is a travesty. It includes Langley agents killing police and street demonstrators from rooftops, the confirmation coming from the Estonian Embassy (translation of scripts).

• It includes thefts of official Ukrainian Govt funds, again sent to the Swiss hill sanctuary.
  
  
• It includes sanctions delivered by a US Paper Tiger, sure to cause horrific backlash.
  
  
• It involves the last gasp attempt to obstruct the Gazprom energy pipelines, which will inevitably corner the European market in monopoly. Read More

03.31.14- Russia's secret weapon: crashing US economy by collapsing petrodollar
Igor Siletsky

Russia can collapse the United States, prominent US trader Jim Sinclair believes. The economist, famous for his forecasts, explains that the strength of the dollar is based on the US agreement with Saudi Arabia that all contracts for fuel deliveries be in the US dollars. Now, Moscow can collapse the petrodollar in one moment. The slapping of sanctions on Russia is tantamount to a shot in the foot. The expert explains that the only true value in the world today is the petrodollar. But Russia can collapse it by demanding Euros or Yuan for its oil.

What’s more, the US may lose its influence on Europe for good, if Russia starts selling its fuels for anything but the dollars. Angela Merkel would be only happy, for Germany, as well as other European countries would then have no need for currency markets. The rate of the Euro would then grow, while the cost of oil and gas would go down. But the United States should be ready for an abrupt increase in gasoline prices, for hyperinflation amid a poor business climate and a crash of the Dow Jones industrial average, Sinclair predicts. Read More

03.29.14- Gold And Silver - They Are Money!
Michael Noonan

Almost all who read our commentaries know that we place the greatest importance on reading the developing market activity, as best seen in charts, in order to have the closest pulse on what is going on in the market[s]. The reason is because the activity found in price and volume behavior reflects the decisions of all market participants.

Smart money leads, the rest follow. What constitutes smart money? Those with the most knowledge and deepest pockets that control what goes on. In the US stock market, it used to be institutional money that drove stocks. For the past few years, it has been the Federal Reserve, through Permanent Open Market Operations, [POMO], and the all of the QEs that have unsustainably propped up stocks. Read More

03.28.14- Directed History of the City's Alliance with China
The Daily Bell

Bank of England agrees Chinese London currency clearing hub ... The deal is part of a plan to make London a key offshore Chinese currency clearing centre ... The Bank of England has agreed a deal with the People's Bank of China to make London a hub for Chinese currency dealing. The memorandum of understanding, to be signed on Monday, sets out settlement and clearing arrangements for the renminbi, or yuan, in London. - BBC

This is great for London's City ... and so surprising, too. Read More

03.27.14- Welcome to the Currency War, Part 14:
Russia, China, India Bypass the Petrodollar
John Rubino

As it tries to punish Russia for the latter’s dismemberment of Ukraine, the West is discovering that the balance of power isn’t what it used to be. Russia is a huge supplier of oil and gas — traded in US dollars — which gives it both leverage over near-term energy flows and, far more ominous for the US, the ability to threaten the dollar’s rein as the world’s reserve currency. And it’s taking some big, active steps towards that goal. As Zero Hedge noted on Tuesday: Read More

03.26.14- Will Inflation Make A Comeback In 2014
When The Consensus Worries About Deflation
Ronald Stoeferle

Two months ago, Incrementum Liechtenstein released its chartbook entitled "Monetary Tectonics" which illustrated the raging war between inflation and deflation in 40 charts. Meantime, the authors of the chartbook have launched the "Austrian Economics Golden Opportunities Fund," a fund that takes investment positions based on the level of inflation. The key tool in their investment decisions is the "Incrementum Inflation Signal" (also referred to as the "monetary seismograph"), a continuing measurement of how much monetary inflation reaches the real economy based on a series of market-based indicators. Read More

03.25.14- How Edmund de Rothschild Managed to Let 179 Governments Pay Him for Grasping Up to 30% of the Earth
Anders Bruun Laursen

Woe to him that … establisheth a city by iniquity!… that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity (Habakkuk 2:12-13)

After Edmund de Rothschild’s statement, without basis, at the 4th World Wilderness Congress in 1987, that CO2 is the cause of a non-existent global warming - and that combating it needs money (our money), he founded the World Conservation Bank for this reason. In 1991 its name was changed to The Global Environment Facility (GEF). The purpose of this facility is to lend money to the poorest countries, printed by the IMF out of thin air, and with the guarantee of our governments. The facility takes wilderness areas with mineral riches as security. The GEF money is then to flow back to our governments as reimbursement for paid loans. I.e. We give away our tax money. For what? When a country cannot repay loans to the GEF it must give up a piece of its territory to the Rothschild banks. Read More

03.24.14- Barack Obama does -not- want you to own this stock…
Simon Black

When it comes to investing money, there’s no such thing as a sure thing.

Even the ‘safest’ investment in the world (US Treasuries) is anything but safe.

I mean… on what planet does it make sense to loan your hard-earned cash to the biggest debtor that has ever existed in the history of the world?

Once you deduct taxes, the net return you’ll receive won’t keep pace with the official rate of inflation. It’s an insane investment… hardly ‘risk free’. Read More

03.22.14- Jim Rickards: Gold Revaluation & The Death of Money
Mike Maloney



View Video

03.21.14- Tumbling Chinese yuan sets off 'carry trade' rout, triggers derivatives contracts
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The yuan has lost 3pc since January, a clear break with China's long-standing policy of slow appreciation

China’s yuan has suffered its biggest one-week fall in 20 years, nearing key trigger levels that threaten a wave of forced selling and mounting stress for those with dollar debts. Read More

03.20.14- The US Is Recovering but Britain Isn't? Don't Believe It
The Daily Bell

Budget 2014: Britain's false recovery is a credit mirage, unlike real recovery in the US ... UK has a current account deficit running at more than 5pc of GDP, the worst in a quarter of a century and by far the worst of the G7 ... David Bloom, from HSBC, says sterling is all of a sudden the "least ugly" currency in a world where even the Japanese and the Swiss are holding down their exchange rates. "There is nowhere else to go," he said. - UK Telegraph

Dominant Social Theme: Britain is recovering, that's obvious. Good, too.

Free-Market Analysis: This story is interesting for two reasons: It speaks the truth about Britain's non-existent recovery and it lies about the US one. Read More

03.19.14- Rick Rule: Coming Natural Resource Market Will 'Elate or Terrify You'
Sprott Global

Rick Rule, Chairman of Sprott Global Resource Investments Ltd., has been involved in natural resource for four decades. Rick says he expects some familiar patterns to emerge in the coming year.

Sprott Global: Rick, you've predicted an impending bear-market bottom in precious metals and natural resources. Are we there now?

Rick Rule: I believe we are. We'll see a rising market with higher highs and higher lows. We'll also see high volatility -- which one day will elate you and another day will terrify you. That's the way this works. Read More

03.18.14- Kremlin: If The US Tries To Hurt Russia's Economy, Russia Will Target The Dollar
Wolf Richter

Another warning shot was fired before an all-out assault on the dollar system begins. This time, an official shot: Alexey Ulyukaev, Russia’s Minister of Economic Development and former Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, fired it. It was a major escalation, Valentin Mândra˘s¸escu, editor of The Voice of Russia’s Reality Check, told me from Moscow.

Last time, it was Sergei Glazyev, an advisor to Vladimir Putin who’d fired the shot. But he wasn’t a government official. “Anonymous sources” at the Kremlin claimed he wasn’t speaking for the government. As Mândra˘s¸escu reported in his excellent article, From Now On, No Compromises Are Possible For Russia: Read More

03.17.14- Gold's Protection Against Counterparty Risk Is Coming Alive
Taki Tsaklanos

History repeats itself. Although it does not repeat exactly in the same way, it rhymes. Consider this, exactly one year ago, on March 16th, Cyprus reached the newswires globally with the announcement of its bank bail-ins.

One year later, the geopolitical escalation between Ukraine and Russia is front stage. Just moments ago, the long awaited referendum in Crimea resulted in an overwhelming 95% of votes to join Russia, according to Reuters. The Western world, even before the closing of the referendum, has officially stated that it denies the results. Read More

03.15.14- Baltic Dry Plunges 8%, Near Most In 6 Years As Iron Ore At Chinese Ports Hits All Time High
Tyler Durden

It would appear record inventories of Iron ore and plunging prices due to China's shadow-banking unwind have started to weigh on the all-too-important-when-it-is-going-up-but-let's-blame-supply-when-dropping Baltic Dry Index.

With the worst start to a year in over a decade, the recent recovery in prices provided faint hope that the worst of the global trade collapse was over... however, today's 8% plunge - on par with the biggest drops in the last 6 years - suggests things are far from self-sustaining.

Still think we are insulated from the arcane China shadow-banking system, which suddenly everyone is an expert of suddenly? Think again. Read More

03.14.14- And whether pigs have wings Part One: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Johnny Silver Bear

(Editor's Note: One of the perks of editing "the Bear" is getting to repost my own rants. In an ongoing attempt to "turn the lights back on" I chose to start out the year (2012) with a three part piece, entitled; "And Whether Pigs Have Wings" The point of this series is an attempt to wake up those of you that are not exactly sure what I mean when I bring up the "Dumbing Down" of America. This will be Part one, through which I will try to enlighten you to a far larger, and much more insidious conspiracy that is intended to take absolute control over you, everything you have, and every thing you do. We have to take this journey one step at a time so as to keep it from becoming "overwhelming". In this part I will try and exhibit the fact that some of the things you are absolutely sure of are absolutely wrong.- JSB) Read More

03.13.14- U.S. Definitely Wants War in Ukraine-Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts

Former Assistant Treasury Secretary Dr. Paul Craig Roberts thinks the Neoconservatives in the U.S. government want war in Ukraine. Dr. Roberts says, "They definitely want war, of course. They've wanted it ever since Reagan was President. The Neocons were always saying we have to attack the Soviet Union, and Reagan said we are not going to win anything, we are going to end it. The Neocons got to where they really disliked Reagan because he wouldn't take advantage of Soviet weakness to attack them. So, they are war minded. They produce documents that say nuclear war is winnable. So, they are basically crazy people; and, yet, they have determined the course of foreign policy since the Clinton Administration. Under George Bush, they controlled the show; and today, under Obama, the Neoconservatives control it." Read More

03.12.14- Currency Devaluation Result Of Geopolitical Tension, Government Corruption, Money Printing
David Levenstein

Even though continued tensions in Ukraine gave a boost to gold prices in yet another turbulent week for the yellow metal, the upward momentum in prices was thwarted by a better-than-expected non-farm payroll report released in the US on Friday.

The price of gold soared to a fresh four-month high near $1,355 last week as tensions flared in Ukraine on Monday. However, gold prices were unable to hold above the $1350 an ounce level, and subsequently dipped but prices looked set to break above this level again early Thursday. Read More

03.10.14- Elevating markets: A signal of reviving bank lending?
Alasdair Macleod

Earlier this week Bill Gross who runs Pimco's bond fund made a conditional case for investing in high-yielding bonds, even though on first cut the yield benefit appears insufficient to justify the extra risk. Put bluntly, he suggests that investing in bonds issued by insolvent Eurozone governments or second-rank corporate borrowers could be profitable.

Mr Gross is following some other smart and usually sceptical fund managers in appearing to throw in the towel against persistently low bond yields and equity markets that defy gravity. He is unlikely to take this stance without good reasons. Read More

03.08.14- Debt Rattle Mar 7 2014: The US Economy's Volatile Inertia
Raúl Ilargi Meijer

175,000 new jobs (we await revisions) and a rising unemployment rate (6.7%). Which was not due to people re-entering the labor force, as has been suggested, since the labor force participation rate remained stuck at 63%. This hasn’t been going anywhere for years now, it’s all stuck around 150,000 or so - the running to stand still level - , sometimes up, sometimes down, with lots of revisions. It should worry the pants off of America, but stock markets set new records on a regular basis instead.

Since the real economy is hardly budging at all, the “new profits” can only come from QE-esque money streams, and that, after 5 years now, is getting extremely worrisome. Read More

03.07.14- 8 Real World Events That Prove Your Money Isn't Safe In Europe (Or Anywhere)
Jeff Berwick

As I write this, the European Union has just announced a possible $15b aid package to the Ukraine (including 8 billion euros in fresh credit). Everybody has read the headlines about Europe: record unemployment, no end in sight, and so on. So you might be wondering just where the European Union, and its' constituent nations, scrapped together the money to propose aid for the Ukraine. Well, wonder no more, because the following eight events might give you an idea of where governments go to get a little extra cash. Read More

03.06.14- Putin Targets America's Achilles Heel: "He's Going to Destroy the Stock Markets"
Mac Slavo

In 2012 an elite insider claimed that on or around March 4, 2014 the doomsday clock would ring, the effect of which would be a complete collapse of the U.S. economy. How former Vice Presidential adviser Grady Means came to this conclusion with a specific target date may forever remain clouded in secrecy. But given the state of current affairs around the world today, one can’t help but consider that maybe Grady Means was on to something. With the fight over political and resource control in the Ukraine heating up, is it possible the Means was referring to this very set of circumstances?

We know the U.S. economy is literally on the brink of a collapse. All we need now is a triggering mechanism. Read More

03.05.14- Economist John Williams: Financial Collapse if Russia Sells U.S. Dollar Holdings
Greg Hunter

View Video

03.04.14- When We Are In A Depression
Afred Adask

Once most Americans believed the national economy was depressed, it became extremely difficult for government to overcome that belief and cause an economic recovery. Some people think the Great Depression would've lasted 5 to 10 years longer if WWII hadn't begun and forced a dramatic change in public sentiment.

In order to understand whether we are or aren’t in an economic depression, we need a definition of the phenomenon that we can compare to our current conditions. Wikipedia defines “depression” as follows:

"In economics, a depression is a sustained, long-term downturn in economic activity in one or more economies. It is a more severe downturn than a recession, which is seen by some economists as inevitable part of capitalist economy. Read More

03.03.14- The Beginning of the End: It Really Is Time To Assess Where You Are on Your Preparedness Journey.
Lizzie Bennett

There is no doubt that the world is teetering on the brink of the abyss.

The global financial system is almost at the point of imploding with more and more countries watching their economy nose dive, the downward spiral of depression casting a shadow over hundreds of millions of lives across the world.

Emerging diseases and mutations of common viruses threaten our existence on a daily basis.

The Sun is producing flares that could knock us back to the stone age by wiping out the electrical grid. It’s just good fortune that the angles have been wrong so far. Read More

03.01.14- Gold And Silver - All Eyes On Gold And China When Silver Could Be The Tipping Point.
Michael Noonan

incense - [noun] an aromatic substance acquired from certain resinous trees with aromatic biotic materials which release fragrant smoke when burned. The odor produced from smoke is not the incense, but the substance that is burned.

Fundamentals for gold and silver have become the incense of reality for Westerners. The primary focus is on how many tonnes of gold China has been importing for the past many years, the depletion of available stocks from the central bankers straw men, aka the LMBA and COMEX, the number of coins sold by various governments to the public, [a relative drop in the bucket, but its reporting has a sensation factor], etc, etc. Read More

02.28.14- 3 Reasons to Be Bullish on 3-D Printing in 2014
Josh Grasmick

If you’ve been with us long enough, you know the 3-D printing story.

50,000 years ago, you made a knife by banging rock on flint, chipping away at the thing until it was the right shape, good, and sharp.

That’s “subtractive manufacturing”, and it’s how we’ve been making things for most of history.

Over the past 30 years, however, engineers and technologists have taken a different approach:

…one initiative… aims to put 3-D printers in each of America’s roughly 100,000 public schools.

Start with the smallest ingredients, add successive layers, until… viola! You get a whole object. Read More

02.26.14- Markets Climbing a Wall of Worry - or Manipulation?
The Daily Bell

US stocks end off session highs; S&P 500 just below record close ... U.S. stocks rallied on Monday, lifting the S&P 500 to a intraday record and briefly clearing its 2014 loss, as investors embraced activity on the M&A front and continued to disregard lackluster economic data as largely due to winter weather. Mergers and acquisitions came into play, with RF Micro Devices agreeing to acquire TriQuint Semiconductor for about $1.6 billion, while Men's Wearhouse hiked its cash tender offer for Jos. A. Bank Clothiers. "Maybe stocks are not overpriced at these levels if you have big players coming in and still doing deals," said Chris Gaffney, senior market strategist at EverBank. - CNBC

This is so exciting. The stock market keeps going up. The economy must really be doing well even if most people aren't aware of it. It's like a secret economy or something ...

What can we say about a stock market like this? We do understand why the market keeps moving up, though most people probably don't. Read More

02.25.14- A World of Manipulated Markets
John Rubino

The following is excerpted from The Money Bubble, by James Turk and John Rubino

"There are no markets anymore, just interventions."
— Chris Powell, Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee

Once upon a time, a handful of countries sometimes described as "capitalist" claimed to operate on the principal that consenting adults should be free to buy, sell, build and consume what they wanted, with little interference or guidance from the authorities. The idea, derived from Adam Smith's 1776 classic Wealth of Nations, was that all of these self-interested actions would in the aggregate form an "invisible hand" capable of guiding society towards the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Coincidentally, the political framework for such a society was envisioned the same year on the other side of the Atlantic, when Thomas Jefferson penned in the American Declaration of Independence that in addition to life and liberty, there was a third inalienable right for every individual - the pursuit of happiness. The resulting "market-based" societies were messy but brilliant, producing more progress in two centuries than in the previous 50. Read More

02.24.14- An Unhealthy Obsession With All-Time Highs
Greg Guenthner

The obsession with all-time highs is making us all a little dumber these days…

As we head into today's trading session, the S&P 500 Index is just 0.26% below its all-time highs. After fighting back from a January swoon, stocks are on track to potentially break free once again this week…

"Not that that's anything new," we're reminded by my trading buddy, Jonas Elmerraji. "Since 1982, almost half of the S&P 500′s closes have been within 5% of all-time highs. That's a staggering statistic, especially considering the fact that it includes some major market corrections along the way." Read More

02.22.14- China Starts To Make A Power Move Against The U.S. Dollar
Michael Snyder

In order for our current level of debt-fueled prosperity to continue, the rest of the world must continue to use our dollars to trade with one another and must continue to buy our debt at ridiculously low interest rates. Of course the number one foreign nation that we depend on to participate in our system is China. China accounts for more global trade than anyone else on the planet (including the United States), and most of that trade is conducted in U.S. dollars. This keeps demand for our dollars very high, and it ensures that we can import massive quantities of goods from overseas at very low cost. As a major exporting nation, China ends up with gigantic piles of our dollars. They lend many of those dollars back to us at ridiculously low interest rates. At this point, China owns more of our national debt than any other country does. But if China was to decide to quit playing our game and started moving away from U.S. dollars and U.S. debt, our economic prosperity could disappear very rapidly. Demand for the U.S. dollar would fall and prices would go up. And interest rates on our debt and everything else in our financial system would go up to crippling levels. So it is absolutely critical to our financial future that China continues to play our game. Read More

02.21.14- Elite Free Trade: Smell the Panic
The Daily Bell

How to make the world $600 billion poorer ... Barack Obama's unwillingness to fight for free trade is an expensive mistake ... In July 2008, Barack Obama, then a candidate for the presidency, declared before an adoring crowd in Berlin that "true partnership and true progress [require] constant work and sustained sacrifice." So it is with free trade. If not championed by leaders who understand its broad benefits, it will constantly be eroded by narrow economic nationalism. Mr Obama now appears to be surrendering to protectionists within his own party. - The Economist

Dominant Social Theme:

Free trade is the best and this fellow Barack ought to get with the program.

Free-Market Analysis:

The power elite does not take kindly to political interference with one of its most sacred causes - so-called free trade. Read More

02.20.14- We Are Well Past the Eleventh Hour. The Global Currency Reset Looms!
Jim Willie

The rabbit hole was detected long ago, leading to multiple examples of Jackass epiphany. Many clients and inquisitive followers have asked how and when the conspiracy and deep plots were recognized. A sequence occurred to produce the newfound awareness, in certain key events that reeked of suspicion, sabotage, and bad economics. The awareness began around 1990, confirmed in 2000 & 2001 with the stock bust and 911 crime scene, solidified with Lehman in 2008. The steady policy decisions were so destructive, ordered by intelligent men, that they had to be intentional. Read More

02.19.14- IMF report: 'Debt is good'. What are these people smoking?
Simon Black

Probably every kid in the world has at some point dreamed of having a time machine and being able to travel back to the past… usually to see dinosaurs or something like that.

Time travel is an almost universal fantasy. And if I could snap my fingers and turn the pages of time, I’d be seriously curious to check out the thousand-year period between the decline of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of the Renaissance.

They used to refer to this period as ‘the Dark Ages’ (though historians have since given up that moniker), a time when the entire European continent was practically at an intellectual standstill. Read More

02.18.14- Europe May Be in the Calm Before the Storm
Andrew Cullen

Austrian business cycle theory explains that the "bust" phase of that cycle is created by extension of the cheap and plentiful credit by a fractional reserve banking (FRB) system. A FRB system is inherently fragile during the bust phase as its leverage (lending as a percentage of its own capital) exposes the banks to the emerging tsunami of non-performing loans and impaired collateral that are the manifestations of malinvestment.

Yet, in today's protected and regulated banking industry, the "bust" phase of the cycle is delayed and distorted by the wide-ranging interventionism of regulators, central banks, and governments. The ongoing crisis in the European banking sector is evidence of this. Its problems of insolvency are unresolved. The ECB is at the center of interventionist efforts to stall and mitigate a European banking sector collapse that looks increasingly likely within the next 18 months.[1] Read More

02.17.14- The global debt reckoning - Total global debt at $230 trillion
mybudget360

Total world debt over 300 percent annual GDP. There is no escape from a reckoning with debt markets.

Total global debt crossed a troubling event horizon by going past the $200 trillion mark last year. Given the latest figures we are likely well above a total global debt of $230 trillion based on a comprehensive study done by ING last year. The banking sector rummages for every possible way of accessing debt. Global central banks from the Fed to the ECB to the Bank of Japan are now fully engaged in a digital printing end game. Read More

02.15.14- Marijuana: How We Will Seize
Our Opportunity - and Yours
Anthony Wile

Exciting times. Marijuana decriminalization and legalization is moving quickly.

Most recently, as was reported yesterday, the US Justice Department announced that banks and other financial entities could participate in the burgeoning marijuana industry without fear of penalty.

This is a huge step forward, but one I expected because it is obvious a decision has been made at the highest levels that marijuana is to be legalized much like tobacco and alcohol.

I've initiated immediate moves to take advantage of this incredible business opportunity - for our shareholders and our family of readers, many of whom have been with us for nearly five years. I hope you come along with us. Read More

02.14.14- The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet
Matt Taibbi

Banks are no longer just financing heavy industry. They are actually buying it up and inventing bigger, bolder and scarier scams than ever

Call it the loophole that destroyed the world. It's 1999, the tail end of the Clinton years. While the rest of America obsesses over Monica Lewinsky, Columbine and Mark McGwire's biceps, Congress is feverishly crafting what could yet prove to be one of the most transformative laws in the history of our economy - a law that would make possible a broader concentration of financial and industrial power than we've seen in more than a century. Read More

02.13.14- Currency Wars author Jim Rickards reckons QE tapering will pause after March due to stock market event
Peter Cooper

The Federal Reserve will only continue its $10 billion-a-month reduction in its QE money printing program for another month before a crisis in the stock market intervenes and it has to stop, warns Currency Wars author Jim Rickards who forecasts gold will hit $7-9,000 an ounce in the next coming global financial crisis.

‘My expectation is there will be one more round of taper in the March meeting of the FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] where they will probably taper another $10 billion,’ he told Epoch Times. ‘But by June it will become very apparent that the economy is stalling out, the stock market is going down. They risk a stock market collapse. I think they will stop by pausing the taper. Read More

02.12.14- The Great Inflation of 2014
Charleston Voice

For over a year now I've been expecting 2014 to be the year when the unintended consequences of five years of QE come home to roost.

By the end of the year we are going to have a massive inflationary spike in commodity prices that will collapse the global economy.

It's all going to start with a final manic melt up phase in the stock market over the next 3-4 months.

Make no mistake, this bull market will not be over until the NASDAQ tests it's all time high above 5000. Read More

02.11.14- 100% Fake Recovery
- Robert Wiedemer
Greg Hunter

Robert Wiedemer, best-selling author of "The Aftershock Investor," says the so-called recovery is "100 percent fake." Wiedemer explains, "If you look at the amount our economy has grown last year, our GDP grew 2% or $350 billion, but we borrowed over $700 billion. That tells you right there that we are borrowing more than we are even growing. Our entire growth is due to government borrowing . . . it's a fake recovery." Wiedemer, who has totally rewritten and updated his book, goes on to say, "It would be great if we would adjust our economic figures for stimulus. What would the figures really look like if you took the fake money and borrowed money away?" It is supported heavily by printed money of over a trillion dollars last year. We're not talking about what's driving the recovery we are getting, and it's powered by massive money printing and massive money borrowing. Yes, we are getting some recovery, but it is not driven by something that is sustainable." Read More

02.10.14- A Bear Rally to Warm Wall Street's Black Heart
Rick Ackerman

What a difference a week makes! Last Monday, with the Dow Industrials approaching the nadir of a nearly 1200-point slide, one might have thought the world was about to end. In just one issue of The Wall Street Journal, we read about a nascent slump in housing and auto sales; a deflationary trend in pricing power for a wide swath of U.S. businesses, particularly mid-tier retailers; a shift toward defensive stocks by portfolio managers; and, alarming growth in the debts of emerging nations.

It didn't help that the neutron bomb called Obamacare continued to emit deadly toxins, threatening to consume what remains of middle-class households' meager after-tax savings. Read More

02.10.14- We Owe It To Ourselves?
Bill Holter

I promised I would write a piece that explains why the “we owe it to ourselves” explanation of our national debt is pure hogwash. The thought process is that since “we owe it to ourselves” who cares how much total debt we have because it just doesn’t matter. If we defaulted, we would only be defaulting on ourselves so no harm no foul. This fallacy can be taken apart from several different angles so let’s explore a few of them.

From one angle, let’s look at this from a balance sheet perspective. If we “owe” something but that “something” is also an asset then they just cancel each other out right? Well yes, sort of but you also must look at this from a “quality” standpoint. If we owe “too much” and the debt becomes unpayable from a practical or mathematical standpoint then just how “good” is the asset (Treasury bond) that we claim on our balance sheet? One must also remember that for the debt markets to actually function correctly they must also be funded by foreigners. Read More

02.08.14- Surmounting Hostile Incoming
Deepcaster

If you view the progressive financial breakdown in America as some kind of 'comedy of errors' or a trial of unlucky coincidences, then there is not much I can do to educate you on the reasons behind the carnage. If, however, you understand that there is a deliberate motivation behind American collapse, then what I have to say here will not fall on biased ears.

"The financial crash of 2008, the same crash which has been ongoing for years, is NOT an accident. It is a concerted and engineered crisis meant to position the U.S. for currency disintegration and the institution of a global basket currency controlled by an unaccountable supranational governing body like the International Monetary Fund (IMF. The American populace is being conditioned through economic fear to accept the institutionalization of global financial control and the loss of sovereignty…. Read More

02.07.14- The Rockefellers, The Rothschilds and many other giant Dynasties…
Koos Jansen

John D. Rockefeller Sr and Jr

These financial industry giants lived through all the wealth cycles of the past 100 years and more. What used to be long term wealth investments evolved to the day-trading, making money activities, with a top in the year 2000. Then the financial industry morphed rapidly into the absurd High Frequency Trading. All wealth is now a spooky derivative of what it once was. Debt rules!

The US was the biggest gold reserve holder in the entire world, with 28,000 metric tons of gold in its vaults (60% of the world's total gold reserves). Most, if not all, of that gold disappeared from the UST, whilst the financial industry and the debt driven economy, expanded. First there was the London Gold Pool selling central bank gold reserves, then in 1974 Louise Auchincloss Boyer discovered that N. Rockefeller was selling UST Fort Knox gold. Three days later she fell out of her window (July 3, 1974). Read More

02.06.14- None Are So Blind As Those Who Refuse To See
Aubie Baltin CFA, CTA, CFP, PhD

Reserved for only people who are willing to think for themselves.

As you know, I am the ultimate contrarian. I take nothing at face value especially government announcements and put everything under the microscope of common sense, free market capitalist economics. Instead of beating my own drum, my regular readers already know how right I have been over the years. For those of you who don't know, you can check my past letters in the archives of gold-eagle.com and 24hgold.com and other websites in the similar vein.

In light of what has recently come to pass, I have decided to extend the 2 for 1 special subscription rate of $249 for two years until February 15^th. Read More

02.05.14- Oh Great, Here We Go Again...
Adam English

A little over two decades ago, something seemingly crazy started in Las Vegas...

Archie Karas decided to drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas with only $50 in his pocket.

In six months, Karas' $50 became $17 million. In three years, he'd won more than $40 million.

He beat some of the world's best poker players and pulled in over a million playing pool at $40,000 a game. He hauled around millions of dollars' worth of cash and chips in his car, bought a gun, and had to have casino security guards escort him around town. Read More

02.04.14- What Is Supply-Side Economics?
Paul Craig Roberts

Supply-side economics is an innovation in macroeconomic theory and policy. It rose to prominence in congressional policy discussions in the late 1970s in response to worsening Phillips Curve trade-offs between inflation and unemployment. The postwar Keynesian demand management policy had broken down. The attempts to stimulate employment brought higher rates of inflation, and attempts to curtail inflation resulted in higher rates of unemployment.

In other words, the Phillips curve (named after economist A. W. Phillips) trade-offs between inflation and unemployment were worsening. Each additional job created had to be paid for with a higher rate of inflation, and each reduction in inflation had to be paid for with a higher rate of unemployment. Read More

02.03.14- We Owe It To Ourselves?
Bill Holter

I promised I would write a piece that explains why the “we owe it to ourselves” explanation of our national debt is pure hogwash. The thought process is that since “we owe it to ourselves” who cares how much total debt we have because it just doesn’t matter. If we defaulted, we would only be defaulting on ourselves so no harm no foul. This fallacy can be taken apart from several different angles so let’s explore a few of them.

From one angle, let’s look at this from a balance sheet perspective. If we “owe” something but that “something” is also an asset then they just cancel each other out right? Well yes, sort of but you also must look at this from a “quality” standpoint. If we owe “too much” and the debt becomes unpayable from a practical or mathematical standpoint then just how “good” is the asset (Treasury bond) that we claim on our balance sheet? One must also remember that for the debt markets to actually function correctly they must also be funded by foreigners. Read More

02.01.14- The Triffin Dilemma
Greg Canavan

There is a fundamental incompatibility between the attainment of global economic stability and having a single national currency perform the role of the world’s reserve currency. This is hardly a new revelation. But events of the past few months have brought this topic back into the spotlight.

Belgian born American economist Robert Triffin first highlighted this incompatibility in the 1960s. He observed that having the US dollar perform the role of the world’s reserve currency created fundamental conflicts of interest between domestic and international economic objectives. Read More

01.31.14- Critical Forecast Signals
Deepcaster LLC

"U.S. Major markets will Implode, if Emerging Markets Implode." - Jim Sinclair

Sinclair's claim is correct, but the Markets' recent Negative Reaction to Argentina's Devaluation and Turkey's Massive Rate Increase provides us one Superb Forecasting Signal.

Indeed, so far in 2014 the Markets have provided us with several Superb Forecast Signals in Key Sectors.

"Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria." - John Templeton

John Templeton's wise observation is Relevant given the Markets' Euphoria on January 30, and that Euphoria provide yet another "Signal". Read More

01.30.14- The Emerging Market Collapse Through The Eyes Of Don Corleone
Ben Hunt

Like many in the investments business, I am a big fan of the Godfather movies, or at least those that don't have Sofia Coppola in a supporting role. The strategic crux of the first movie is the realization by Don Corleone at a peace-making meeting of the Five Families that the garden variety gangland war he thought he was fighting with the Tattaglia Family was actually part of an existential war being waged by the nominal head of the Families, Don Barzini. Vito warns his son Michael, who becomes the new head of the Corleone Family, and the two of them plot a strategy of revenge and survival to be put into motion after Vito's death. The movie concludes with Michael successfully murdering Barzini and his various supporters, a plot arc that depends entirely on Vito's earlier recognition of the underlying cause of the Tattaglia conflict. Once Vito understood WHY Philip Tattaglia was coming after him, that he was just a stooge for Emilio Barzini, everything changed for the Corleone Family's strategy. Read More

01.29.14- Prepare for Currency Chaos
Michael Pento

On November the 25^th I published the following warning about the effects from the Fed's imminent tapering of asset purchases:

"There is a good chance that the beginning of tapering will lead to a reversal of the trade to sell gold ahead of the news. But the major averages have priced in a sustainable recovery on the other side of QE, which will not come to fruition. For the Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ the end of QE will be especially painful. A unilateral removal of stimulus on the part of the Fed will send the dollar soaring [especially against emerging market currencies] and risk assets plunging -- you could throw in emerging market equities and any other interest rate sensitive investment on planet earth." Read More

01.28.14- Before the Great Consolidation
JC Collins

Hegelian Economics and Sovereign Defaults

In philosophy there is a term called the Hegelian Dialectic. For those of you who don’t know, it is the resolution of conflict between two opposing positions by way of the revelation of a higher truth which serves to unite all. There is a thesis, which is in contradiction to the antithesis, and both are united by the synthesis. These are the triads of the Hegelian Dialectic.

This philosophical principle has been widely used in our modern world as a form of manipulation. In simpler terms, thesis becomes the problem, antithesis becomes the reaction to the problem, and synthesis becomes the solution, or reconciliation of the first two. Read More

01.27.14- The Next System
belangp

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01.25.14- The Coming Bust
Tim Wood

Regardless of what we hear from various sources, fact is, the economy peaked in 2000. This peak corresponded with the stock market top in 2000, which was followed by the decline into the 2002 low. Since that decline began, the money masters have tried to reignite the underlying economy and in the process they have only made matters worse.

Seriously, rather than letting the mainstream media tell you what to think, stop and think for a minute with some basic emotionless common sense. If the economy was so good, then why did the money masters cut interest rates following the 2000 top? It's simple, in their own words, they were trying to "stimulate aggregate demand." Read More

01.24.14- Thoughts from the Frontline: Forecast 2014: "Mark Twain!"
John Mauldin

Piloting on the Mississippi River was not work to me; it was play — delightful play, vigorous play, adventurous play - and I loved it…

- Mark Twain

In the 1850s, flat-bottom paddlewheel steamboats coursed up and down the mighty Mississippi, opening up the Midwest to trade and travel. But it was treacherous travel. The current was constantly shifting the sandbars underneath the placid, smoothly rolling surface of the river. What was sufficient depth one week on a stretch of the river might become a treacherous sandbar the next, upon which a steamboat could run aground, perhaps even breaching the hull and sinking the ship. To prevent such a catastrophe, a crewman would throw a long rope with a lead weight at the end as far in front of the boat as possible (and thus the crewman was called the leadman). The rope was usually twenty-five fathoms long and was marked at increments of two, three, five, seven, ten, fifteen, seventeen and twenty fathoms. A fathom was originally the distance between a man's outstretched hands, but since this could be quite imprecise, it evolved to be six feet. Read More

01.23.14- The Outlook for 2014
James Turk

Before looking at the year ahead, it is useful to look back at the year just passed. This adage is particularly true now because little has changed. Three major markets - stocks, bonds and gold - will again be driven this year by the same forces that shaped 2013, but the outcome will be different in one key respect. This year the price of gold will rise.

In January 2013, my outlook for the year ahead focused on three specific events. These were a rising yield on the 10-year Treasury note, growth of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, and a decline in the gold/silver ratio.

Two of these events unfolded as expected. But the third did not confirm the other two. Read More

01.22.14- The Russo-Chinese Pincer Movement Against The US Treasury
and The FED
Video Rebel

The Federal Reserve Bank is privately owned by member banks. If those member banks have either sold out to China or are bought for pennies on the dollar by them when the dollar crashes, then Beijing will own the American Federal Reserve Bank. Though at that point we could no longer call it American.

China has bought 60% of all the real estate in the Financial District of South Manhattan. This includes the J P Morgan Chase headquarters building at one Chase Plaza which has the largest private bold bullion vault in the world. It is next door to the New York Federal Reserve vault. When Dr Jim Willie saw the price the Chinese paid for the building, he wondered if that was a typo. After he confirmed the price, he began speculating that J P Morgan might have lost a bundle and avoided bankruptcy by selling out to Beijing at a discounted price. He then began wondering whether or not the Chinese were taking over the Federal Reserve. Read More

01.21.14- The Big Reset: Why China Bought JPMorgan's Gold Vault
Koos Jansen

The office building of JPMorgan with its largest private gold vaults at Chase Manhattan Plaza, opposite to the New York Federal Reserve building, has been recently sold to the Chinese.
This indicates the US and China seem to be working together in advance towards a global currency reset whereby the US, Europe and China will back the SDR's with their gold reserves so the dollar can be replaced

We have now arrived at the point where it is not the banks, but the countries themselves that are getting in serious financial trouble. The idea that we can 'grow our way back' out of debt is naive. The current solution to 'park' debts on to the balance sheets of central banks is just an interim solution. Read More

01.20.14- You Don't Need to Trust Russian Stocks
Bill Bonner

'You can't trust the Russians,' was the warning.

It came from a Moscow cab driver, delivered to our son Henry. From our point of view, it was an unnecessary caution. We never trusted them anyway. Or the Chinese. Or the Democrats. Or wealth managers. Or General Petraeus. Or people from north of Baltimore or west of Hagerstown.

But what the heck?

You need confidence to buy Amazon. Or Google. Or Chipotle. You need confidence to buy a US T-bond, too. Or to let a contractor remodel your house on time and materials.

But Russian stocks are so cheap you don't need to trust them. Read More

01.18.14- Is China's economy headed for a crash?
John Aziz

George Soros sees China as the biggest risk to global growth going into 2014

In his assessment of the global economy's performance 2013, legendary financier George Soros warned of dangers in the Chinese economy:

The major uncertainty facing the world today is not the euro but the future direction of China. The growth model responsible for its rapid rise has run out of steam.

That model depended on financial repression of the household sector, in order to drive the growth of exports and investments. As a result, the household sector has now shrunk to 35 percent of GDP, and its forced savings are no longer sufficient to finance the current growth model. This has led to an exponential rise in the use of various forms of debt financing. Read More

01.17.14- This Credit Event Could Crush the US Stock Market
Bill Bonner

Now our nerves are settled. We can sleep at night. There's nothing more to worry about. Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, has reassured us.

Madame Lagarde tells us that further scaling back of QE won't mean a thing, as long as the Fed goes about its tapering in a gradual, measured way, which of course it will.

'We don't anticipate massive, heavy and serious consequences,' she said.

But wait... Read More

01.16.14- Why We Can Not Purchase Our Way Out Of Debt
Nicole Foss

Last week, there was a discussion in our comments section about the financial “crunch”, the big kahuna, and how it still has not happened despite our insisting it is inevitable, with people saying things like: ‘but the stock markets are way up!’, and ‘in my area home prices are up 30%’. As much as I understand the sentiments, at the same time I don’t really. Certainly for people who read The Automatic Earth, I would have thought it would be clearer what is going on “out there”. I have certainly written more articles than I care to remember about what goes on. Debt is what goes on.

Because in order to understand what really goes on in the world of finance, and the economy at large, today, you need to know only one word: debt (aka credit). And you then ask yourself with everything you read: what about the debt? Read More

01.15.14- Iran, Russia Ruffle US Feathers With Oil Swap Deal
Wolf Richter

(Editor's Note: This "in your fsce" action by Iran and Russia is simply another domino falling and will accelerate the demise of the Petro Dollar System. - JSB)

Reports are emerging that Iran and Russia are in talks about a potential $1.5 billion oil-for-goods swap that could boost Iranian oil exports, prompting harsh responses from Washington, which says such a deal could trigger new US sanctions.

So far, talks are progressing to the point that Russia could purchase up to 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian equipment and goods, according to Reuters. Read More

01.14.14- It's All About Confidence in the Market
Greg Canavan

Ouch! US stocks fell hard overnight, with the benchmark S&P500 falling 1.26%, its biggest decline in months. The Australian market followed it down, with the ASX200 down 50 points at the time of writing. Why investors decided to sell today and not yesterday, or last year, is anyone's guess. According to the Financial Review, the punters are becoming a little nervous about company earnings.

Company earnings you ask? What are they? Well, they are the fundamental driver of stock prices. Sometimes the market chooses to ignore them, which is what happened throughout much of last year. And sometimes the market worries about them, which seems to be what's happening now. Read More

01.13.14- 3 Ways You've Been Tricked Into Thinking the U.S. Economy Is Healthy
Sean Williams

To say that 2013 was a phenomenal year for the stock markets and its two most iconic indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI ) and the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC ) , would be a brutal understatement. With no sizable corrections, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 advanced by 27% and 30%, respectively, practically tripling their historic average annual return. Read More

01.11.14- The Malachi Crunch Continues
Andy Sutton

Those of you who have known me any length of time know that I love to say 'they always tell you what they're going to do'. I had a really scintillating discussion yesterday with two fellow economists as to why that might be and we'll shelve that for now, but let's just say this: 'they' are at it again. Last week I referenced an IMF working paper penned by Harvard dynamic duo Ken Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart regarding asset confiscation and other ways to wiggle our way our the current economic morass that we find ourselves in. This week I'm going to perform a full dissection because there is material in there that you simply cannot go on without knowing if you expect to salvage even a shred of your financial state as it exists today. Read More

01.10.14- Baltic Dry Index Collapses 35% - Worst Start To Year In 30 Years
Tyler Durden

Introduced in 1985, the Baltic Dry Index first and foremost is a measure of the global shipping rates of dry bulk goods, mostly consisting of vital raw materials used in the creation of other products. However, it is also a measure of demand for said materials in comparison to previous months and years.

When this indicator of global trade rises, everything is rosy and reams of asset-gatherers and talking-heads wil quote it as indicative of how great the world is. When it drops - silence. There's always an excuse - over- or under-capacity, too many ships, too few ships, etc. However, the last 2 weeks have seen a 35% collapse in the cost to ship bulk. There is a relative seasonal pattern over the holiday period - with shipping costs rising into the holiday and falling after but... this is the biggest drop from a Christmas Eve since at least 1984, 30 years! Seems like the inventory stacking of Q4 had absolutely no follow-through whatsoever... Read More

01.09.14- Three warning signs that a financial crash is imminent
James Smith

Do you really need more than that?

For years, prophets of profit have warned us that the next stock market crash “will be soon”, and that such a crash will be utter catastrophic. Farber, Celente, et al., have told us that such a crash will be epic and that life as we know it will be forever changed. There are some that challenge their assertions because of fondness for the Gold Market. Many take their advice because they are conservative - play-it-safe investors.

But hearing the same wailing for years does no one any good unless you can see the threat.

Seeing a threat makes it personal. It makes it “in your face” where you MUST deal with it. Read More

01.08.14- Investment Trends 2014
Anthony Wile

Welcome to 2014. Here are some dominant social themes I've selected to watch in 2014. In each case, I've selected a recent mainstream article to illustrate the trend in question:

Gold to begin with, given the slump this metal has been in of late... We don't have a time or a price point for gold going forward, but we do believe there are many signs of the yellow metal's manipulation and sooner or later it will be time to buy once again.

Biotech is sure to continue benefiting from what we have called the "Wall Street Party," a series of presumably arranged monetary and regulatory events that are boosting equity markets higher around the world and especially in the US - albeit not without volatility.

Obamacare hit the US hard late in 2013 and its current disastrous rollout carries in its wake numerous questions about the future of health fare in the US - and the future of insurers, as well. 2014 should hold some answers - if not for Obamacare itself, then for the future of the larger health care industry and structure. Read More

01.07.14- Cosmically Timeless Mogambo Monetary And Investment Wisdom (CTMMAIW)
Richard Daughty aka The Mogambu Guru

Snug and safe inside the silent and comforting Mogambo Big Boy Bunker (MBBB), I have a lot of spare time each day to work myself into a state of paranoid hysteria by thinking about the economic mess we are in. Being a cynic of the first order (everything is corrupt and nothing can be done) and sensing imminent doom (We're Freaking Doomed (WFD)!), it is not surprising to me that the evil Federal Reserve owns more than $3.5 trillion in Treasury debt, which is about 21 percent of ALL the nation's $17 trillion debt.

As totally bizarre and horrifying as this "monetizing the debt" crap is, the damage has already been done. Namely, the damage caused by all the newly created currency and credit, used to buy all the Treasury debt in the first place, has already long since flooded into the economy via government borrowing and spending the new money, inflating the money supply and causing horrifying inflation in prices. Ergo, the national craze to increase the minimum wage. Read More

01.06.14- "2013: A Watershed Year"
Andy Sutton

If you weren't paying close attention, 2013 might have gone down as a quasi-normal year. After all, the Dow Jones 'Industrials' (sic) hit 50 some new record highs, mostly in the latter half of the year. The NASDAQ went above 4,000 again (can anyone say 1999?), and the world didn't end as many had predicted. That's the surface view. Well, as a good friend of mine says, we're a mile wide and an inch deep, and in that world, a few positive headlines are good enough to pacify the average American consumer.

Well, as the consumption binge-spending hangover starts to kick in, how about we take a bucket of cold water and dump it all over 2013 and the notion that it was just another normal year? I'll even provide aspirin to anyone who needs it to make this more tolerable. No, we're not going to go away just in case you were wondering. We're not required to and besides, I'd feel at least a bit honored if this piece made it into the NSA's new datacenter that is going up in Utah. Read More

01.04.14- Market Movers for 2014
Deepcaster LLC

'Back in April, when the S&P500 was at 1580 we forecast that the price target on the S&P500 for the global central bank syndicate was 1900. The S&P closed the year at 1850, just barely missing said target, which was merely a function of the correlation between the stock market and the straight-line, diagonally expanding consolidated central banks' balance sheet (yes, it is a "market" for idiots, but such is life under central planning... while it lasts).

'Incidentally, there was a time as recently as two years ago, when saying the Fed is merely propping up stocks, was blasphemous in polite economist circles. Since then even the most tenured economists (not to mention the US Treasury) have finally admitted the truth…Read More

01.03.14- Overthrow the Speculators
Chris Hedges

Money, as Karl Marx lamented, plays the largest part in determining the course of history. Once speculators are able to concentrate wealth into their hands they have, throughout history, emasculated government, turned the press into lap dogs and courtiers, corrupted the courts and hollowed out public institutions, including universities, to justify their looting and greed. Today’s speculators have created grotesque financial mechanisms, from usurious interest rates on loans to legalized accounting fraud, to plunge the masses into crippling forms of debt peonage. They steal staggering sums of public funds, such as the $85 billion of mortgage-backed securities and bonds, many of them toxic, that they unload each month on the Federal Reserve in return for cash. And when the public attempts to finance public-works projects they extract billions of dollars through wildly inflated interest rates.Traders work at the Goldman Sachs posts on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in this file photo taken on March 15, 2012. Read More

01.02.14- NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds - Breaking Bad
Jesse's Café Américain

There is a blizzard moving into the northeastern US this evening.

It may affect tomorrow's trade in equities.

I had put a decent short position on in the closing minutes of 31 December. I have taken most of that off the table here and now.

I am long gold and silver bullion.

To my mind, prices were pushed to some short term extremes for the year end tape painting. Read More

01.01.14- 2013 - Dense Fog Turns Into Toxic Smog
Jim Quinn

In mid-January of this year I wrote my annual prediction article for 2013 -Apparitions in the Fog. It is again time to assess my inability to predict the future any better than a dart throwing monkey. As usual, sticking to facts was a mistake in a world fueled by misinformation, propaganda, delusion and wishful thinking. I was far too pessimistic about the near term implications of debt, civic decay and global disorder.

Those in power have successfully held off the unavoidable collapse which will be brought about by their ravenous unbridled greed, and blatant disregard for the rule of law, the U.S. Constitution and rights and liberties of the American people. The day to day minutia, pointless drivel of our techno-narcissistic selfie showbiz society, and artificially created issues (gay marriage, Zimmerman-Martin, Baby North West, Duck Dynasty) designed to distract the public from thinking, are worthless trivialities in the broad landscape of human history. Read More