http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-2 ... -live-feed" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
ISIS suicide bomber blows himself up at a FOOTBALL STADIUM near Baghdad, killing at least 65 people and injuring more than 60
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ng-60.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Armed police shoot man 'carrying a bomb in a rucksack after he takes a woman hostage' at Brussels tram station as they swoop on terror suspects linked to 'imminent attack in France'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... tacks.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Belgium turns on immigrants after Brussels bloodbath as membership of far-right 'White Power' group DOUBLES in three days
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -days.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Refugee Crisis: Using Chaos to Build Power
http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-new ... uild-power" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Yuan Weakens For 6th Straight Day - Longest Losing Streak In 2 Years
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-2 ... ak-2-years" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Red flags are rising on Corporate America’s debt. The average rating on U.S. corporate debt has hit nearly a 15-year low, according to a new report by Standard & Poor’s. “We believe corporate default rates could increase over the next few years,” according to S&P credit analysts Jacob Crooks and David Tesher. The average rating on companies that issue debt has fallen to ‘BB,’ or junk status. That is even below the average S&P rating for U.S. corporate debt during and in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/24/investi ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The number of energy loans labeled as “classified,” or in danger of default, is on course to extend above 50% this year at several major banks, including Wells Fargo and Comerica, according to bankers and others in the industry. 51 North American oil-and-gas producers have already filed for bankruptcy since the start of 2015, cases totaling $17.4 billion in cumulative debt, according to law firm Haynes and Boone. That trails the number from September 2008 to December 2009 during the global financial crisis, when there were 62 filings, but is expected to grow: About 175 companies are at high risk of not being able to meet loan covenants, according to Deloitte. “This has the makings of a gigantic funding crisis” for energy companies, said William Snyder, head of Deloitte’s U.S. restructuring unit. If oil prices, which closed at $39.79 a barrel Wednesday, remain at around $40 a barrel this year, “that’s fairly catastrophic.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/coming-to-t ... 1458840050" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
There was one financial feature of my grandfather's life that provided him with greater self-worth. Specifically, he refused to take on significant debt because he remained skeptical of credit. And with good reason. The siren's song of "you-can-pay-me-Tuesday-for-a-hamburger-today" only created an illusion of wealth in the Roaring Twenties; in fact, unchecked access to favorable borrowing terms as well as speculative excess in the use of debt contributed mightily to the country's eventual descent into the Great Depression. G-Pops wanted no part of the next debt-fueled crisis.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3960875 ... ustainable" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A number of banks and analysts have warned that Sweden’s housing market is overheating, with HSBC in January saying: “The pace of acceleration in the housing market points to a bubble.” House prices across the country were up 18pc last year. This compares to Britain’s house price rises in 2015 of between 5pc and 10pc, depending on which index is used. Now Sweden is dealing with its overheated housing market by reining in mortgage availability. Regulators introduced restrictions which will mean mortgage terms – the time homebuyers have to clear the debt – will be drastically reduced to just… 105 years. The move comes because historically there has been no time limit on mortgage duration. So as prices rose and affordability became tougher, Swedish banks’ response was to extend terms, as had been the case in other high-cost property markets including Japan in the Eighties. The average term is reported to be 140 years.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-ban ... age-is-14/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Large unexpected Yuan drops have rippled through markets in recent months spoiling the party for many and tonight, by devaluing the Yuan fix by the most since January 7th, China made it clear that it really does not want The Fed to hike rates and cause a liquidity suck-out again. The last 4 days have seen nearly a 1% devaluation in the Yuan fix with today’s drop the biggest in over 2 months.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-2 ... t-2-months" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The People’s Bank of China lowered its reference rate by 0.33%, the most since Jan. 7, following an overnight advance in the dollar on comments from Federal Reserve officials on the possibility of an interest-rate increase as soon as April. The yuan, “by far the single biggest risk for the global economy and markets this year,” is expected to depreciate 7% against the dollar over the next year, according to a Pimco report issued Wednesday.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... -7-decline" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Total credit to the Chinese private non-financial sector stood at $21.5 trillion at the end of September 2015, accounting for 205% of the country’s GDP, according to the Bank for International Settlements. In Japan, the figure accounted for more than 200% of the nation’s GDP at the end of September 1989, when the country was in the late stage of its economic bubble. After that bubble burst, the number shot up to 221% by the end of December 1995. Japan had fallen victim to its own excessive debt, and banks wrestled with bad loans for the next 10 years. In the U.S., the boom in subprime housing loans for low-income borrowers evolved into a global financial crisis in 2008. At the end of September that year, total credit to the U.S. private sector reached its peak, accounting for 169% of the country’s GDP. It took U.S. banks about four years to overcome their bad loan problems. And now in China, the outstanding amount of total credit to the private sector has surged 300% from the end of December 2008. After the crisis triggered by the Lehman bankruptcy in 2008, Chinese companies began borrowing money and increasing investment, thanks to the Chinese government’s introduction of economic measures worth 4 trillion yuan (around $586 billion at the time). Despite the positive stance, though, total credit to Chinese non-financial companies stood at $17.4 trillion at the end of September 2015, accounting for 80% of the total.
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy ... al-economy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Now the concern floating around the world of markets is that the third in China’s “triple bubble” is about to burst. That bubble is credit, especially corporate bonds, which have absolutely exploded over the past year as refugees from the other bubble bursts searched for yield. This one is going to be for a very straightforward reason, too — supply. Simply put, there are about to be too many bonds in China, and that could ultimately harm the weakest part of the Chinese economy, the debt-loaded zombie companies that helped form the property bubble and are now unable to turn a healthy profit.
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-co ... ?r=UK&IR=T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
House prices in Shenzhen, the city which is a hub for technology hardware and known as China’s Silicon Valley, soared by almost 50% last year – the fastest growth in residential property prices worldwide. A new survey puts two Chinese cities – Shenzhen and Shanghai – in the top five fastest-growing property markets despite the Chinese stock market tumbling in 2015. The research, by the estate agents Knight Frank (pdf), also shows the impact of last year’s debt crisis in Greece. House prices in the two biggest Greek cities – Thessaloniki and Athens – were both ranked among the worst six in the survey of 165 cities, falling 5.9% and 4.8% respectively. There were also significant drops in some Italian cities, including Rome, Trieste and Genoa. Nicosia and Larnaca in Cyprus were also among the worst performers.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... use-prices" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Signs of stress are multiplying in Japan’s government bond market, which is crumbling under pressure from the central bank’s unprecedented asset-purchase program and negative interest rates...the BOJ is finding it harder to press on with bond purchases of as much as 12 trillion yen ($107 billion) a month, sparking sudden price swings leading to yield curve inversions that have nothing to do with economic fundamentals. “We hold a lot, and we’re not selling,” said Yoshiyuki Suzuki, the head of fixed income at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance, which has $59 billion in assets. “We can get interest income. If we sell, there are no good alternatives.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... king-point" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Credit Suisse just got caught up in the same liquidity death spiral that has claimed a growing number of debt funds.Some of the bank’s traders increased holdings of distressed and other infrequently traded assets in recent months without telling some senior leaders, Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam said on Wednesday. The bank suffered $258 million of writedowns this year through March 11, and $495 million of losses in the fourth quarter, because of its holdings of distressed debt, leveraged loans and securitized products, including collateralized loan obligations [..] Credit Suisse is in a tough spot because it is trying to get out of its hard-to-trade assets at a bad time. About 40% of the bonds in the $1.4 trillion U.S. junk-debt market didn’t trade at all in the first two months of this year, according to data compiled from Finra’s Trace and Bloomberg.
http://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/article ... al-in-debt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
As a new cycle of epic deflation engulfs the world and further compresses commodity prices and profits, the Russian economy is going down for the count; it’s already been shrunk by nearly 10% in real terms, and the bottom is a long way down from there...the 4 million Red Army is no more; and that the Soviet Empire, which enslaved 410 million souls to its economic and military service, vanished from the pages of history in December 1991. What is left is a pitiful remnant -145 million aging, Vodka-besotted Russians who subsist in what is essentially a failing third world economy...entire expenditure for national defense amounts to just $50 billion, but during the current year only $35 billion of that will actually go to the Russian Armed Forces. On an apples-to-apples basis, that’s about 3 weeks of Pentagon spending!
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/t ... -nato-now/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
...could be right...of course there's a serious Russian influence in the election cycle this year...
Countdown To Insolvency Begins For Chicago Pensions As State Supreme Court Rejects Reform Bid
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-2 ... reform-bid" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
....not even touching on potential market crashes in the near future....
US Marines Enter Ground Combat in Iraq to Defend Oil Fields
http://news.antiwar.com/2016/03/23/us-m ... il-fields/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Soldiers with the US Pacific Command (PACOM) conducted weapons of mass destruction training near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, PACOM spokesperson said in a media release on Friday.
http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160325/10 ... -zone.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... -atrophies" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Last month, hedge funds participated in the fewest number of venture capital rounds in U.S. tech companies since 2013, inking just two deals, according to research firm PitchBook Data Inc. Even Tiger Global Management LLC, an early backer of Facebook and LinkedIn with $20 billion under management, has pulled back. Smaller firms are getting out altogether.
Like VCs, hedge funds are more circumspect because some startups have failed to live up to their billing. Plus, in the wake of several disappointing tech IPOs, many of the most promising firms are choosing to stay private longer, meaning it takes longer to cash out. Investors’ stinginess is forcing startups to cut costs, fire workers and accept more stringent terms when raising money.
“We’ve completely stopped investing in private tech,” said Jeremy Abelson, a portfolio manager at Irving Investors, a small hedge fund based in New York. “I’m done with intangible valuations, unknown exits, unknown liquidity, and I want something that if I put my money into it now, I’m not going to hit a grand slam, but I’m going to get something that’s immediately yielding.”
NSA is so overwhelmed with data, it's no longer effective, says whistleblower - One of the agency's first whistleblowers says the NSA is taking in too much data for it to handle, which can have disastrous -- if not deadly -- consequences. With about four billion people -- around two-thirds of the world's population -- under the NSA and partner agencies' watchful eyes, according to his estimates, there is too much data being collected. Binney said he estimated that a "maximum" of 72 companies were participating in the bulk records collection program -- including Verizon, but said it was a drop in the ocean. He also called PRISM, the clandestine surveillance program that grabs data from nine named Silicon Valley giants, including Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, just a "minor part" of the data collection process. With help from its British counterparts at GCHQ, the NSA is able to "buffer" more than 21 petabytes a day.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/nsa-whistl ... effective/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
EBOLA IS BACK! 816 People Quarantined - Spreading (Again)
https://www.superstation95.com/index.php/world/1075" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Global Warming’s Terrifying New Chemistry - methane
http://www.thenation.com/article/global ... chemistry/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
...if believable...
EU border agency Frontex on Wednesday said member states have provided less than a third of the personnel it requested to deal with the record influx of migrants. Frontex, which coordinates border patrols and collects intelligence about the bloc’s frontiers, had called on European countries Friday to provide 1,500 police and 50 readmission experts “to support Greece in returning migrants to Turkey.” Only 396 police officers and 47 re-admission experts have been offered, according to a statement released Wednesday by the Warsaw-based agency.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/207282/arti ... ted-police" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The government said Thursday it will fast-track procedures to create new centers to accommodate 30,000 people within the next 20 days as it finds itself in a race against time to meet an obligation to provide shelter to more than 50,000 asylum seekers stranded in the country, and to prevent an imminent humanitarian disaster. The current capacity of shelters is 38,000.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/207330/arti ... in-20-days" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion ... do-schools" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;The Delta County School District in Colorado is going to allow Atheist and Satanic literature to be given away at the local high school and middle school on April 1, which is causing outrage among some parents (video below).
The school district has already been allowing the Gideons, a Christian organization, to place free bibles on tables in school libraries during class hours for children to pick up.
"This is the other side of that,” Kurt Clay, the assistant school district superintendent, told KJTC. “The way our policy is written is that we cannot discriminate what is handed out, we just have to follow the process.”
....par for the course in Colorado....
Supreme Court Confirms Second Amendment Applies to all Bearable Arms in Common Use, Including Stun Guns
http://www.prepperfortress.com/supreme- ... stun-guns/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffM ... ing-blazes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;A tightly wrapped storm system produced a wild array of weather-related impacts over the Great Plains and Midwest on Wednesday, including paralyzing snowfall, severe thunderstorms, and a massive prairie fire. The most widespread problems occurred with late-season snowfall that stretched along a frontal zone from the Colorado Rockies northeast more than 1,000 miles to Michigan. Dubbed Winter Storm Selene by the Weather Channel, the heavy snow and high winds knocked out power to thousands of residents. Snow totals of a foot or more were reported in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, according to TWC, with 31.6” falling near the mountain town of Pinecliff, CO.
To the south of the big snow, warm, bone-dry air and powerful southwest winds gusting above 60 mph kicked off a number of grass fires, including one gargantuan fire that crossed the Oklahoma-Kansas border. In less than 48 hours, this fire tore across a swath estimated by the Oklahoma Forestry Service as spanning an immense 400,000 acres (625 square miles). The fire sent a pall of smoke over much of southern Kansas, including the Wichita area (see Figure 4). At least two homes were destroyed in Medicine Lodge, KS, and the town of 2000 residents was under a voluntary evacuation. With the fire still out of control late Wednesday, Kansas governor Sam Brownback declared a state of disaster. Hundreds of firefighters were reportedly working on Thursday morning along a 30- to 40-mile-long fire line. The fire’s cause is under investigation. NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) had warned of extreme fire risk from southeast New Mexico to eastern Kansas on Wednesday. A WU station at Medicine Lodge reported wind gusts of 51 mph on Wednesday afternoon as the relative humidity dipped below 10%.