Blipits

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Jason
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Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

We suggest that, precisely because of the high level of debt and the need to deleverage, nominal yields in those countries have become more and more negative to encourage the issuance of more debt and slowly roll down the existing debt stock.

This suggests the market may be indicating there is too much debt. But this has an implication for the creation of new money, which is essential for the normal functioning of the economy. Most of the money creation in the developed world is done by the private banking system through issuing loans. If there is no demand for new debt, the money creation process stalls. In other words, while under the gold standard our money creation was constrained by the availability of gold, in the current “fiat” monetary system, we cannot issue new money without the issuance of new debt.

It is this economic necessity and the mathematical impossibility of paying interest continuously which has created the present situation of negative interest rates: in our view the market has found a way to keep the monetary system going but this time without the risk of ever increasing debt.

In the past, we used to deal with too much debt either using market forces, like growth and inflation, or non-market forces, like debt jubilees, debt restructurings or excessive seigniorage. History is full of examples which reinforce the notion that putting an unbearable burden on debtors would ultimately send the whole economy into a depression. Debt jubilees were very common in Mesopotamia, for example, where, by some accounts there were around thirty episodes of general debt cancellations from 2400 to 1400 BC.

In 1819, as agriculture prices dropped, US state governments imposed moratoria on farmers’ debt payments and some debt was even completely forgiven. During the Great Depression, the US government, through the Home Ownership Loan Corporation, helped struggling homeowners by sometimes substantially lowering their mortgage payments. “One of the largest transfers of wealth (from creditors to debtors) in the history of the world”, however, happened when the US government broke off the gold standard in 1933. This was equivalent to restructuring its debt as, by removing the gold clause in US Treasury securities and devaluing the dollar, creditors’ claims were cut by more than 40%.

None of these options was used after the Great Recession of 2008. In addition, the developed world economies seem unable to generate growth and inflation sufficient to offset the rise in debt. Without a policy response, the market is taking the matter in “its own hands” by starting to reduce the level of debt (in present value terms) via negative yields on sovereign bonds.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-2 ... leveraging" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...makes cash the enemy though...or in other words cash hinders the possibility of pulling it off...

Global shares retreated on Monday after a weekend meeting of G20 finance chiefs ended with no new plan to spur global growth and as investors fretted the U.S. Federal Reserve could raise interest rates before year-end. G20 finance ministers and central bankers, meeting in Shanghai on Friday and Saturday, agreed to use "all policy tools – monetary, fiscal and structural – individually and collectively" to reach the group's economic goals. But there was no plan for coordinated stimulus
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-globa ... SKCN0W201I" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chinese stocks sank, with the benchmark index approaching the lowest level since November 2014, as some investors were disappointed by a lack of specific measures to boost growth during the Group of 20 meeting in Shanghai.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-s ... 54378.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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China said on Monday it expects to lay off 1.8 million workers in the coal and steel sectors as part of efforts to reduce industrial overcapacity, but no timeframe was given. China has vowed to deal with excess capacity and eliminate hundreds of so-called “zombie enterprises” – loss-making firms in struggling sectors that are being kept alive by local governments trying to avoid job losses.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china ... SKCN0W205X" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
like it or not, the yuan is overvalued, China’s fabricated trade numbers are increasingly under scrutiny, and a large devaluation could settle things at least for a while.

However, Beijing looks too full of hubris and pride -and inclusion in the IMF basket of currencies is an issue too- to do what seems natural. Lest we forget, no matter how much China seeks to obfuscate the numbers, everybody already knows that numbers like producer prices and exports, and most importantly imports, have seen steep falls, and for a long time too.

China’s oil tanks look as close to overflowing as the American ones, and without those oil imports, who knows who bad import numbers would have looked? So from a Chinese point of view, a cheaper yuan would mean much cheaper Chinese exports for global buyers, whereas the negative effect of more expensive imports would be relatively small.

But there’s the other side of the equation as well: other nations’ exports would see a potentially enormous effect of cheaper Chinese imports on their domestic manufacturing base. For countries like Germany, the US and Japan, any such devaluation may therefore be an absolute non-starter at this point.

The value of goods that crossed international borders last year fell 13.8% in dollar terms — the first contraction since 2009 — according to the Netherlands Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis’s World Trade Monitor.

Barclays says a devaluation “would need to be in the region of 25% to alter perceptions”, while Kyle Bass earlier mentioned a 30% to 50% move. Central bankers and politicians can try and stand still in the Mexican standoff until they’re blue in the face, but the markets will not stand still, and only get more nervous as time passes.

It doesn’t need to be done in Shanghai over the weekend, though one may wonder what will happen in the Chinese equity markets next week if nothing is done while there are great expectations now. From whatever angle we look at the issue, the outcome seems crystal clear: better get it done soon.

The US and Germany may not like it initially, but the uncertainty will hit them too, because the anticipation of a -strong- yuan devaluation affects their export markets, bonds, equities and currencies as well.

One problem we should not overlook may be that in the 1985 Plaza Accord, the strongest party -the US- wanted to get something done and got their devaluation wish. This time around, it’s not the strongest party that needs a devaluation, and the party that does need it doesn’t want it.

It is a very different set-up.
http://www.theautomaticearth.com/2016/0 ... -standoff/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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China central bank resumes easing cycle to cushion reform pain
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china ... SKCN0W214P" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Japan’s banks have almost stopped lending to one another in the overnight market, threatening to undermine the impact of the central bank’s negative-rates stimulus. The outstanding balance of the interbank activity plunged 79% to a record low of 4.51 trillion yen ($40 billion) on Feb. 25 since Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Jan. 29 announced plans to charge interest on some lenders’ reserves at the monetary authority.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... ing-freeze" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Between the mid-1990s and 2013, the number of vacant or abandoned properties in Japan doubled. These neglected structures now make up an estimated 13.5 percent of the country’s housing stock. The phenomenon of abandoned Japanese homes is so widespread that people have begun writing poetry about it.
http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/12/ ... is/422349/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Gulf Cooperation Council countries may struggle to refinance $94 billion of debt in the next two years as the region faces slowing growth, rising rates and rating downgrades, according to HSBC. Oil-rich GCC states have to refinance $52 billion of bonds and $42 billion of syndicated loans, mostly in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, HSBC said in an e-mailed report. The countries also face a fiscal and current account deficit of $395 billion over the period, it said. Gulf countries have about $610 billion outstanding in FX-denominated bonds and syndicated loans, HSBC said. This includes financial and corporate debt, as well as sovereign debt, mainly in the U.A.E., Bahrain and Qatar, it said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... -oil-slump" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mexico's Oil Giant Posts Record $32 Billion Loss, Cuts Crude Price Forecast To $25
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-2 ... orecast-25" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"The Liquidity Just Dries Up In A Stressed Market"
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-2 ... fx-trading" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dozens of indebted US shale companies face annihilation over coming months as their hedge protection runs out and creditors pull the plug, but veteran frackers insist defiantly that the slump will not stop the industry’s march to world conquest. "You run for cash. You ride out the storm,” said John Hess, founder of the Hess Corporation. Oil giants with deep pockets are waiting in the wings to “gobble up” distressed assets, and America’s nimble mid-cost frackers will have an edge when the cycle turns.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... bloodbath/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chicago PMI Collapses From 'Mysterious' January Bounce As Employment Crashes To 7 Year Lows
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-2 ... -year-lows" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Buffett: Auto insurance rates are going up, distracted drivers a problem
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/bus ... /81100540/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

U.S. companies went on a borrowing binge in recent years. Nonfinancial corporations owed $8 trillion in debt in last year’s third quarter, according to the Federal Reserve, up from $6.6 trillion three years earlier. Over the same period, the companies repurchased $1.3 trillion in shares. Because those stock buybacks helped reduce companies’ total shares outstanding, earnings per share got a boost. The Bill Is Coming Due
http://www.wsj.com/articles/share-buyba ... 1456685173" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Still, what the chart above [see link below - chart too big to post] shows is that if, and when, a run on physical cash begins, there will be roughly $1 dollar in physical to satisfy $10 dollars in savers' claims, a ratio which drops to 20 cents of "deliverable" cash if the $100 bill is taken out of circulation.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-2 ... anic-first" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EU's Evil Plan B: Cutting The Balkan Route Has Stranded 1000s Of Migrants In Greece
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-2 ... nts-greece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As Europe bickers, police fire tear gas on migrants storming border
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europ ... SKCN0W2188" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

By Sunday 22,000 people were trapped in Greece with an estimated 6,000 stuck at the Macedonian border after restrictions were tightened – and frontiers effectively sealed to all but Syrians – by Balkan nations along the migrant route.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/f ... -in-greece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A crowd of migrants has broken down a barbed-wire fence on the Macedonia-Greece border using a steel pole as a battering ram.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35687257" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Caught On Tape: 500 Syrians Storm Greek Border Fence With Homemade Battering Ram
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-2 ... tering-ram" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More than 25,000 migrants and refugees were stranded in Greece over the weekend as neighboring states shut down their borders. An estimated 2,000-3,000 reach the country’s islands every day. Speaking to Kathimerini on condition of anonymity, a senior European official said that the Commission is preparing a package of measures to be activated in the event of a humanitarian crisis in Greece or other nations along the Balkan migrant route. These, the official said, include providing funding to an international organization to set up a refugee camp as well as vouchers for refugees to acquire food and accommodation. Similar aid has been provided to African countries, as well as Lebanon and Jordan.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/206422/arti ... s-prepared" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A Southern California mayor said that a man and a woman killed in an officer-involved shooting last weekend were unconscious when police first encountered them.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/california- ... conscious/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Five Mexican states have been put on alert after a truck carrying a container of potentially dangerous radioactive material was stolen, the interior ministry said.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... rials.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Gang 'smuggled 31 guns into UK on boat' - The court heard each of the 22 Czech-manufactured assault riles would have fetched up to £4,000 even though they were sold at "shockingly low" prices in Eastern Europe.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35690189" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BEIRUT -- Warplanes carried out air raids Sunday on several parts of northern Syria as a top opposition official warned that continued violations of a fragile cease-fire could jeopardize a planned resumption of U.N.-brokered peace talks.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... syria.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Syria Says Capital Shelled in Cease-Fire Breach
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... reach.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
KUWAIT CITY: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed concern over reports of violations of a three-day-old ceasefire in Syria Monday and urged all parties to respect the truce. Stoltenberg said NATO was also concerned about Russia's military buildup in Syria, where it has carried out a five-month bombing campaign in support of President Bashar Assad.

"We are concerned about the Russian military buildup we have seen in Syria," whether it is military or air force, he said.

The NATO chief said Russian airstrikes had "mainly targeted" rebels rather than the ISIS group, which has been targeted by a U.S.-led coalition.
https://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middl ... tions.ashx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Twin suicide bombing kills 70 in Baghdad's deadliest attack this year
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKCN0W10EL" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ukraine Collapse Is Now Imminent
http://gefira.org/en/2016/02/27/ukraine ... -immanent/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
As Venezuela grows closer to exhausting nearly every means of paying its debt, some oil market participants are seriously pondering the possible implications of an unprecedented event: the default of a major crude producing company. State-run firm PDVSA faces around $5.2 billion in payments to bondholders in 2016, much of it in October and November, a sum that some experts say it will be hard-pressed to meet after the government used nearly all of its available cash reserves to pay $1.5 billion in maturities last week. Venezuela was the United States' third crude supplier last year and Latin America's sixth-largest buyer of U.S. fuels.

Amid ongoing arbitration cases, oil giant ExxonMobil (XOM.N) was granted court orders in 2008 that temporarily froze up to $12 billion in PDVSA's overseas assets and $315 million in a joint bank account in New York. It was done through an extraordinary legal resource called 'Mareva injunction' that surprised Venezuela. Even though the injunction was later overturned, that case and others that followed have exposed PDVSA's bank accounts, tankers, cargoes and external terminals and refineries to the legal power of creditors.

PDVSA has taken steps recently to protect itself, including moving the accounts that collect money from its exports to China's CITIC Bank (601998.SS) from Banco Espirito Santo (BESN.D).

Getting a court order to freeze an account in China would be more difficult than acquiring access to those in the United States.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-p ... SKCN0W00DA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“Will Venezuela Default?” Watch the Full AS/COA Debate
http://caracaschronicles.com/2016/02/27 ... -at-ascoa/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Navy and Marine Corps will operate new platforms at the Freedom Banner and Ssang Yong exercises that start in South Korea this week and experiment with new concepts they hope will streamline and improve future amphibious landing capabilities in the Pacific.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... rcise.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China's Military Buildup in Pacific Could Require US Response - WASHINGTON -- Navy and Marine Corps leaders warned Friday that China's rapid military buildup in the Pacific Ocean could force the United States to move ships and forces in response. Friday's comments from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller followed a week of warnings by Adm. Harry Harris to Congress that the pace of China's militarization on a string of man-made islands in the South China Sea is changing operations in the Pacific.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... ponse.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

US Considers Advisory Assistance in Fight Against Boko Haram
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... haram.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Solar activity is very low. However, sunspot AR2506 could break the quiet. AR2506 has developed 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong M-class solar flares. If such an explosion occurs today it would be geoeffective because the sunspot is almost directly facing Earth.
http://www.spaceweather.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Winston the most destructive cyclone in South Pacific history
While many cyclones in the South Pacific have caused severe devastation, the roughly half-billion-dollar cost of Winston appears to be a record-setter for this region. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed by Winston, with northern and western regions of Fiji receiving catastrophic damage. The government of Fiji estimated on Thursday that the cost of the disaster would be at least $468 million, making it the costliest tropical cyclone in South Pacific history.

Winston's damage is roughly 10% of Fiji's GDP--the type of economic blow that will take many years to recover from. To put this into a U.S. perspective, if the U.S. had a 10% hit to its GDP, that would be a roughly $1.7 trillion disaster, on par with 15 simultaneous Hurricane Katrinas. Unfortunately, insurance penetration in Fiji is only about 2%, making it difficult for people who lost everything to get back on their feet. At least 55,000 people--about 6% of Fiji's population--are in evacuation shelters. Most of the nation's resorts and tourist facilities have reopened, though, and tourism represents about 17% of Fiji's GDP. Another good sign of normalcy returning: schools opened today for the first time since the disaster.

At least a dozen countries set or tied their all-time records for February during the latter half of the month, according to international weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera

Top pick among the U.S. records: Bismarck, ND, where the 73°F high notched on Saturday was the state’s warmest for the entire month of February in 126 years of record-keeping, a full 41°F above Bismarck’s average high for the date of 32°F.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... ebruary-wa" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...was nice while it lasted...

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

...another one from Google's Boston Dynamics...
FX reserves dropped by more than $14 billion (£10.1 billion) in January, falling to their lowest level in nearly three years. The amount of reserve assets held by the Saudi government now stands at $602 billion (£434.5 billion), nearly $150 billion (£108.3 billion) down from its recent peak in late 2014, just before oil prices started plummeting.
http://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-ar ... ars-2016-2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...they can still last 3+ years which will implode most oil producing countries around the world (Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, etc) before they run out of funds...

The bottom line is this: if this implodes, it will not only tank the entire Chinese banking system but the global economy as well, as the amount of liabilities here is quite frankly enormous.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-2 ... -collapses" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China’s central bank has stepped up action to bolster its cooling economy by loosening the rules on banks’ cash reserves in the hope that they will offer cheaper loans. By cutting the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) – the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves – the People’s Bank of China has in effect injected $100bn (£72bn) of long-term cash into the economy, experts said. The central bank hopes its cut, effective from 1 March, will boost liquidity in the financial sector, following signs that the world’s second-biggest economy is continuing to slow. The move, which came as a surprise to many investors, would stabilise the Chinese financial system, said Duncan Innes-Ker of the Economist Intelligence Unit. But it would not be enough on its own.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... -injection" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China aims to lay off 5-6 million state workers over the next two to three years as part of efforts to curb industrial overcapacity and pollution, two reliable sources said, Beijing's boldest retrenchment program in almost two decades.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china ... SKCN0W33DS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Japan 'sold' 10-year government bonds today at a negative yield. Translated into English, this means "investors" agreed to pay the Japanese government 2.4bps per year for the privilege of lending it money for 10 years...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-2 ... tive-yield" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dow Jones Industrial Average - 1900-Present
http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/histo ... dexes.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The default rate for all corporate issuers rated by Moody’s Investors Service is expected to rise more than 30% in 2016 to its highest rate since the 2008-09 crisis.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/corpor ... 2016-03-01" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Companies still have a little time before they must pay down the bulk of $9.5 trillion of debt maturing in the next five years. That’s the good news. But it’s not getting any easier for these corporations to borrow, at least not in the U.S. In fact, many of these obligations are becoming harder and more expensive to repay at a time when companies face a historic pile of bonds and loans coming due. This wave of debt coming due through 2020 is bigger than previous five-year schedules of debt maturities in 2013, 2014 and 2015, according to Standard & Poor’s data. It includes about $2.3 trillion of junk-rated debt, with about $418 billion of that rated B- or lower. And it peaks in 2020, with $2.1 trillion of debt coming due, which is greater than the peaks of the most recent previous maturity walls. While the majority of debt that needs to be repaid is investment grade, it’s unclear whether it’ll remain so by the time it matures. In just eight weeks, credit investors have witnessed more fallen angels, or investment-grade companies getting downgraded to junk, than in any calendar year since 2009.
http://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/article ... t-to-scale" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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The pace of consumer borrowing may raise a few eyebrows at the Bank of England if it keeps rising unchecked. Unsecured lending — such as on credit cards — jumped an annual 9.1% in January, the fastest in a decade, according to data on Monday. In total, consumers took out 1.6 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) more than they repaid, the second-highest since mid-2005.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... ng-to-bite" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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The selling price of $4.23 million is about $1.6 million above the lot’s assessed property value. As Thomas Davidoff with UBC’s Sauder School of Business told Vancity Buzz: "These prices are getting pretty freaking nuts in my opinion."

“As a proposition for someone who’s going to live in that house and what you’re getting for four million plus – that is a ridiculous joke and that is not something that’s going to work for people who just make a living in Vancouver," Davidoff says.

Sorry Thomas, but you're going to have to get used to it, because as long as the market expects a 30% yuan deval, Vancouver real estate is going to keep getting more "attractive". Or, in other words, the Canadian real estate market is going to continue to be one of the world's most attractive money laundering vehicles.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-2 ... king-price" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...if you want to see the direction we are going to go....read carefully below (worth reading in its entirety and not my excerpts...but I've attempted to draw out what I felt was important and highlight what I think is critical)...
Banks and other financial intermediaries will always try to finance illiquid assets by issuing liquid liabilities because they make profits by paying less on the latter than they earn on the former. The problem is that the liquidity promised to investors or depositors can be supplied only if at each moment a small number of people wish to convert their claim on the bank into cash. Liquidity simply disappears if everyone wishes to convert their claim into money at the same time. What may be possible for a small number of people is self-evidently impossible for the community as a whole. And the problem is made worse by the fact that if a depositor believes that others are likely to try to take their money out, it is rational for him or her to do the same and get to the front of the queue as soon as possible – a bank run.

When creditors started to worry that bank equity was insufficient to absorb potential losses, they decided that it was better to get out while the going was good. Concerns about solvency, especially in a world of radical uncertainty, generate bank runs. To reduce or eliminate alchemy, we need a joint set of measures to deal with both solvency and liquidity problems.

The toxic nexus between limited liability, deposit insurance and lender of last resort means that there is a massive implicit subsidy to risk-taking by banks.

The size and cost of creditor bail-outs were increased significantly by the inadequate amounts of equity available to absorb losses in the banking system. And attempts to provide liquidity insurance through central bank facilities as the “lender of last resort” (LOLR) failed to penalise banks that took advantage of such support, not least because to collect insurance premiums when paying out on the policy is rather late in the day and might have made matters worse.

the only way to provide sufficient liquidity in a crisis is to lend against bad collateral – at inadequate haircuts and low or zero penalty rates.

Anticipating that, banks have every incentive to run down their holdings of liquid assets and to finance themselves with large amounts of debt, and that is what they did. It is not enough to respond to the crisis by throwing money at the system to douse the fire while reciting Bagehot; ensuring that banks face incentives to prepare in normal times for access to liquidity in bad times matters just as much.

It is time to replace the lender of last resort by the pawnbroker for all seasons (PFAS). A pawnbroker is someone who is prepared to lend to almost anyone who pledges collateral sufficient to cover the value of a loan – someone who is desperate for cash today might borrow $25 against a gold watch. Since 2008, central banks have become used to lending against a much wider range of collateral than hitherto, and it is difficult to imagine that they will be able to supply liquidity insurance without continuing to do so.

In the spirit of not letting a good crisis go to waste, I think it is possible to build on two of the most important developments in central banking since the crisis – the expansion of lending against wider collateral and the creation of money by quantitative easing – to construct a new role for a central bank as such a pawnbroker.

The aim of the PFAS is threefold. First, to ensure that all deposits are backed by either actual cash or a guaranteed contingent claim on reserves at the central bank. Second, to ensure that the provision of liquidity insurance is mandatory and paid for upfront. Third, to design a system which in effect imposes a tax on the degree of alchemy in our financial system – private financial intermediaries should bear the social costs of alchemy.

The essence of a successful pawnbroker is the willingness to lend to almost anyone against extremely valuable collateral.

Before the next crisis, it would be sensible to make sure that the banking system has sufficient pre-positioned collateral, including central bank reserves, to be able quickly to raise the funds to meet the demands of fleeing depositors or creditors who had decided not to roll over funding.

Some central banks have already moved in that direction. For example, the Bank of England has for some while encouraged banks to preposition collateral as a way of obtaining liquidity insurance. In the spring of 2015, the value of collateral pre-positioned with the Bank was £469bn and the average haircut was 33pc. Together with reserves at the Bank of £317bn, the effective liquid assets of the banking system were £632bn, compared with £1,820bn of total deposits. There was still a substantial degree of alchemy, but around one third of deposits were backed by “effective” liquid assets.

The decade before 2007, when the financial crisis began, seems in retrospect to have more in common with the 1920s than we realised. Both were periods when growth was satisfactory, but not exceptional, when the financial sector expanded, and when commentators were beginning to talk about “a new paradigm”. After 2008, the parallels with the 1930s also began to grow. The collapse of the gold standard mirrors more recent problems with fixed exchange rates. The attempt to keep the euro together produced austerity on a scale not seen since the Great Depression, and led to the rise of extreme political parties across Europe. Enlightened self-interest to find a way back to the path of strong growth is the only hope.

The two main threats to the world economy today are the continuing disequilibrium between spending and saving, both within and between major economies, and a return to a multi-polar world with similarities to the unstable position before the First World War.

Whether the next crisis will be another collapse of our economic and financial system, or whether it will take the form of political or even military conflict, is impossible to say. Neither is inevitable. But only a new world order could prevent such an outcome. We must hope that the pressure of events will drive statesmen.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... s-banking/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Lowering reserve requirements will do very little if anything to encourage bank lending in China or anywhere else. This is the same sort of nonsense that has led central bankers to introduce negative interest rates in the hope that imposing a tax on bank reserves in the middle of a recession will mysteriously lead banks to lend more despite the fact that their are not too many borrowers knocking on their doors for funds – such is the stagnant state these policy makers have created.

There are many reasons why relaxing reserve requirements will not suddenly stimulate more bank lending.

First, the reality is that the reserve requirements that might be in place at any point in time do not provide the central bank with a capacity to control the money supply.

In the real world, bank loans create deposits and are made without reference to the reserve positions of the banks. The bank then ensures its reserve positions are legally compliant as a separate process knowing that it can always get the reserves from the central bank if it is short of reserves (requirements or not).

The only way that the central bank can influence credit creation in this setting is via the price of the reserves it provides on demand to the commercial banks.

Bank lending is not reserve constrained. Rather, limits are placed on banks by their capital.

Commercial banks hold reserve accounts at the central bank for the sole purpose of facilitating the payments system (clearing house). Many countries have no reserve requirements other than the accounts must not be in the red on a sustained basis.

Reserve requirements are an artifact of the old gold standard and are irrelevant in the current monetary system. They do not reduce bank risk nor do they comprise a buffer that can be drawn on when there is a run on a bank.

To understand why reserve requirements do not constrain lending you have to understand how a bank operates. Banks seek to attract credit-worthy customers to which they can loan funds to and thereby make profit. What constitutes credit-worthiness varies over the business cycle and so lending standards become more lax at boom times as banks chase market share (this is one of Minsky’s drivers).

These loans are made independent of the banks’ reserve positions. Depending on the way the central bank accounts for commercial bank reserves, the latter will then seek funds to ensure they have the required reserves in the relevant accounting period. They can borrow from each other in the interbank market but if the system overall is short of reserves these horizontal transactions will not add the required reserves.

In these cases, the bank will sell bonds back to the central bank or borrow outright through the device called the ‘discount window’. There is typically a penalty for using this source of funds.

At the individual bank level, certainly the ‘price of reserves’ may play some role in the credit department’s decision to loan funds.

But the reserve position per se will not matter. So as long as the margin between the return on the loan and the rate they would have to borrow from the central bank through the discount window is sufficient, the bank will lend.

So the idea that reserve balances are required initially to ‘finance’ bank balance sheet expansion via rising excess reserves is inapplicable.
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=33072" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Canada’s immigration minister said on Monday the country has reached a significant milestone with the arrival of 25,000 Syrian refugees.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... n-refugees" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Demolition teams have moved in to the French port of Calais to dismantle more makeshift shelters in the migrant camp known as the "Jungle".
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35693882" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Clashes between police and migrants continued into Monday evening after authorities moved in earlier in the day to dismantle parts of the refugee camp known as the Jungle. The homes of up to 200 people of the approximately 3,500 people living in the camp had been demolished by the middle of the day, according to a British refugee aid group, as smoke went up from blazes engulfing makeshift shelters. Some homes appeared to have been set alight by the heat of teargas canisters fired at crowds by riot police, said a spokeswoman for the British volunteer group Help Refugees, while some residents seem to have set others on fire in protest. Video footage from a volunteer inside the camp showed residents running away from clouds of teargas.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/f ... ungle-camp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There were an estimated 22,000 migrants and refugees trapped in Greece on Monday, some sleeping rough in central Athens, some in an abandoned airport and at the 2004 Olympic Games venues. Greece’s migration minister said without any outlet, that figure could rise as high as 70,000 in coming days.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/206458/arti ... ing-border" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some 7,000 migrants, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, are crammed into a tiny camp at the Greek border village of Idomeni, and hundreds more are arriving daily.
http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap. ... 2f4f25b8cb" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Last year, most of the asylum seekers fleeing to Europe were men, many of them young and single. But in the past several weeks, the balance has shifted, with women and their children, as well as unaccompanied minors, now accounting for roughly 57% of asylum seekers. The surge of the vulnerable comes at the worst possible time — just as European nations are barring their doors and 25,000 refugees are suddenly trapped in near-bankrupt Greece, a country that was once merely an entry point.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/eu ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Despite tensions between Washington and Beijing over the South China Sea, China has announced that it will take part in the international maritime exercise RIMPAC. Some US politicians, however, are attempting to ban Beijing’s participation.
http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160227/10 ... impac.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fighters From Turkey Are Pouring Into Syria And Attacking Targets Despite The Ceasefire
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... -ceasefire" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

49 Countries Met In Brussels Earlier This Month To Discuss A Ground Invasion Of Syria
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... n-of-syria" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Germany's foreign minister said Monday he was deeply concerned by continued violations of the ceasefire in Ukraine and restrictions imposed on monitors overseeing the truce in the nearly two-year war.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... efire.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How strong is Kim Jong Un's army? Here's a look, based on what AP reporters and photographers have seen on the ground and the latest report to the U.S. Congress by the Office of the Secretary of Defense:
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... itary.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Bill and Melinda Gates have been called the world’s greatest philanthropists and the world’s “most generous people.”1 It’s true that, even with his net worth of $87 billion, Bill Gates’ $28 billion in donations is impressive, as are many of his world health goals — at least on the surface. If you dig a little deeper into the Gates Foundation’s philanthropy, however, you’ll find questionable alliances and partnerships, such as the one with biotech giant Monsanto, as well as some curious projects, like spending $1 billion on training programs for journalists and research on effective crafting of media messages.

I have previously stated Bill Gates might be one of the world's most destructive do-gooders. He seems completely oblivious to the fundamental flaws in the science behind genetically engineered (GE) foods, for example. This oblivion apparently extends to the genetic engineering of other living creatures beyond plants, like the use of GE mosquitoes, which is being increasingly accepted due to the latest public health “emergency,” the Zika virus.

The Gates Foundation has spent at least $20 million to fund the development of GE mosquitoes designed by a biotech company called Oxitec to stop the spread of chikungunya and dengue, tropical diseases spread by Aedes mosquitoes.4

The Oxitec mosquitoes are unlike any that exist in nature. They’ve been genetically altered to carry a “genetic kill switch,” such that when they mate with wild female mosquitoes, their offspring inherits the lethal gene and cannot survive.5

To achieve this feat, Oxitec has inserted protein fragments from the herpes virus, E. coli bacteria, coral and cabbage into the insects, dubbed OX513A. The GE mosquitoes have proven lethal to native mosquito populations.

In the Cayman Islands, for instance, 96 percent of native mosquitoes were suppressed after more than 3 million GE mosquitoes were released in the area, with similar results reported in Brazil.6
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... ation.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah health department says a child has been confirmed to be the state's first Zika virus case.
http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/u ... 67424.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Spring Temperatures Are Heading for the U.S. East Coast
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... u-s-winter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...that should knock a hole in what's left of natural gas prices...
Beginning on February 26, NASA satellites in space began detecting staggeringly large emissions of Carbon Monoxide (CO) gas along the west coast, from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, all the way south to San Diego, CA. As evidenced by the satellite image below, the emissions were far too big, too highly concentrated and covered too vast an area to be man-made. On the satellite image below, the areas in black, purple and brownish-orange show the magnitude of the emission.

Scientists quickly determined that the CO was coming up out of the earth; being expelled out through seismic faults. What this means is the earth began moving in such a way on February 26, that pressure along the fault lines became so great, it expelled massive amounts of naturally-occurring carbon monoxide gas from underground. In fact, the proximity of the CO emissions directly aligns with what are known as the Monterey Formations, which are shale formations holding oil and gas! The gas is contained within the shale rock, but is being squeezed so hard, the gas is being forced out.

while the initial satellite image above clearly showed gas being emitted from the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the coast of Vancouver, BC as well as Washington and Oregon in the US, all the way down to San Diego, CA, three specific areas continue to spew large amounts of Carbon Monoxide to this day. These areas directly coincide with three major seismic faults: The San Andreas Fault, The Melones Fault and the Elsinore Fault as illustrated on the map below:

If history is any indication of future activity, then, as took place in India in 2001, at some point within the next six or seven days (max) - there may be a **** MAJOR **** earthquake along one or more of these fault lines. If we doubt that such gas emissions may be related to earth quakes, and think perhaps the 2001 quake in Gujarat, India was a mere coincidence, bear in mind that India was not the only major quake where gas emmissions took place in advance.

https://www.superstation95.com/index.php/world/955" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...cool imo earth wind map...
http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wi ... ,36.44,494" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...more here (see their inputs on map overlay for earth wind link above - click chem, COsc)...
http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/201 ... osion.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seattle seismologist criticizes false earthquake reports, 'unlikely stories'
http://mynorthwest.com/11/2923602/Seatt ... ly-stories" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...try to screen out the hyperventilation...sometimes its hard to tell thought...reckon time will tell the story on this one...

Last month, NASA reported that near-Earth asteroid 2013 TX68 might come very close to Earth on March 5th--as little as 11,000 miles away. Since then, researchers have collected more data and refined their calculations of the asteroid's orbit. Now it appears that the 30-meter space rock won't reach Earth until March 8th, and when it does, it will miss our planet by a wide margin of 3 million miles.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4888" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

...silver bouncing along under $15...
http://www.kitco.com/charts/livesilver.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC, the United Arab Emirates’ largest bank, said there’s a reduced supply of dollars in the country as the region grapples with the impact of oil trading around $30 per barrel. “There is a dollar shortage,” Chief Executive Officer Alex Thursby told reporters in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. “It’s not a crisis, but it is tightening,” he said. "The problem is that liquidity tightening is happening across many markets and so finding new funding sources becomes more challenging and could push banks to return to price wars on deposit remunerations," Dauba-Pantanacce said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... d-oil-drop" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Egypt’s Dire Dollar Shortage
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... r-shortage" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You have probably read, in the Financial Times and elsewhere, that China is the world’s largest car market. It is not. It is the world’s largest new car market, with sales of 21.1m units last year compared with 17.4m in the US. When used cars are included, the US auto market swells to more than 40m units, against less than 30m total passenger car sales in China. In value terms, the gap between the two markets is even larger. In 2014, the overall value of US car sales was almost $1.2tn, more than twice as large as China’s $470bn. This is not surprising, considering that two-thirds of cars on Chinese roads are less than five years old and 80% of all buyers are first-time drivers. The latter fact explains why crossing an intersection in China can be a harrowing experience for pedestrians.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ad0ec026-def6 ... 1d025.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Late on Monday, the People’s Bank of China announced a cut in the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves – the reserve ratio requirement (RRR) – by 50 basis points. It frees up an estimated $100 billion in cash for new lending. Hong Hao at BOCOM International said the RRR cut was largely liquidity neutral, because the move was intended to offset the decline in China’s foreign currency reserves and to accommodate more than 1 trillion yuan of open market operations facilities due this week.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china ... SKCN0W406D" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
On Monday, Bloomberg News reported that China will allow domestic banks to issue as much as 50 billion yuan ($7.6 billion) of asset-backed securities that would be paid back using the proceeds from nonperforming loans. (Yes, you read that correctly.) The structure they’re employing is similar to the method that was used to repackage subprime mortgages in the U.S. ahead of the global financial crisis. But when bankers in America were bundling those low-doc mortgages into AAA-rated bonds, they still expected most of the loans would be repaid.

In this case, the debt has already gone bad. Considering hardly any Chinese asset-backed securities have ever received a less than AA score from a local rating company to date, chances are these ones will be awarded the same grade. Of course, investors buying these bonds should be aware they’re backed with debt that’s already soured, regardless of its credit score. Yet, the move is worrying because it’s the latest in a string of revivals in China of dangerous structures that were common in the West before being all but abandoned after 2008. Many of the instruments are helping banks disguise or unload their exposure to troubled companies in the same way issuance of asset-backed securities helped U.S. and British lenders mask their exposure to souring home payments as loans became delinquent.

Ironically, China had pretty much banned asset-backed securities until 2013 because of what happened during the credit crisis. Since authorities began allowing them again, they’ve spread like wildfire. Official data indicate that 593 billion yuan of ABS were sold last year, 79% more than in 2014.
http://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/article ... e-subprime" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Singapore, March 02, 2016 -- Moody's Investors Service has today changed the outlook to negative from stable on China's government credit ratings
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... -full-text" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Which scenario would be victorious in this epic, and interesting, battle? We had no idea.
http://jlfmi.tumblr.com/post/1403134766 ... inthe-most" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Following last night's yuuge inventory build reported by API (+9.9m) and large rise in Cushing levels (+1.8m), DOE reported a crude build of even yuuger 10.37mm barrels (against the 7.1mm expectation) - the largest since early April 2015. Cushing saw a 1.2mm build - the most in 3 months. On the other side of the ledger, production fell for the 6th week in a row (-2.6% YoY to lowest since Nov 2014).
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... -11-months" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The queue of ships waiting outside Europe’s biggest port and oil-trading hub of Rotterdam has grown to the longest in seven years as a global supply glut fills storage capacity. As many as 50 oil tankers, twice as many as normal, are waiting outside Rotterdam because storage sites are almost full, the port’s spokesman Tie Schellekens said by phone on Tuesday. “This is a clear sign of the oversupply filling up storage to the brim,” Gerrit Zambo, an oil trader at Bayerische Landesbank in Munich, said by phone. “People are preferring to store oil rather than cut production. These are bearish signs.” The world is so awash with oil that BP CEO Bob Dudley said last month people will be filling up their “swimming pools” with it this year. Crude oil in storage tanks in Rotterdam stood at 51.3 million barrels on Feb. 19, the highest for the time of year in data starting in 2013, according to Genscape, which monitors inventories. Royal Vopak NV, the world’s largest oil-storage company, last week reported a fourth-quarter occupancy rate of 96% at its 11 terminals in the Netherlands compared with 85% a year earlier. The situation in Rotterdam mirrors that in the biggest U.S. storage hub of Cushing in Oklahoma, where stockpiles are at a record high.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... -year-high" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The oil-price collapse will compel all producers to freeze output and no early OPEC meeting can take place without such a move, the United Arab Emirates’ energy minister said. “This is the reality,” Suhail Al Mazrouei said Tuesday in Abu Dhabi. “Current prices will force everyone to freeze production; stubbornness doesn’t make sense.” Saudi Arabia – the world’s largest crude exporter – Russia, Venezuela and Qatar have proposed that producers cap production at January levels to bolster prices that have tumbled almost 70% in two years. OPEC member Iran, which is ramping up output following the removal of sanctions in January, has said the plan is “ridiculous” and saddles it with “unrealistic demands.” The group’s next scheduled meeting is in June.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... ap-volumes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

WASHINGTON - Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to increase next year even as new offshore development and exploration have slowed to a crawl, weighed down by a drastic drop in oil prices. The increased production – the Obama administration expects a record high of nearly 1.8 million barrels per day in 2017 – won’t be driven by new projects. 14 Gulf of Mexico drilling projects in various stages of development and expansion will fuel the increased output for this year and next.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation- ... 80167.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Greenspan said this: "No. I haven't been for quite a while. And I won’t be until we can resolve the entitlement programs. Nobody wants to touch it. And that is gradually crowding out capital investment, and that's crowding out productivity, and it's crowding out the standards of living where do you want me to go from there."
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... rk-warning" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...coming from the guy who created the real estate bubble...

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The economy is unlikely to reach "escape velocity" due to the influence of Federal Reserve and other central banks' policies, billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller said Wednesday. "We have pulled so much demand forward and borrowed so much from our future, so much financial engineering has gone on," the former Duquesne Capital Management chairman and president told CNBC's "Squawk Box." Druckenmiller said he can't see the U.S. economy breaking free of sluggish growth any time soon. "This idea that we're going to have escape velocity in the economy, I just don't see it," he said. "At best we're going to muddle through," he said.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/druckenm ... 56601.html#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Central banks are deadly fearful of deflation. That’s why the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of Japan and Sweden’s Riksbank, among others, have 2% inflation targets. They don’t love rising prices, but they worry about the consequences of a general decline in consumer prices, so they want a firebreak. Unfortunately, they seem powerless to meet their targets in the current economic environment. The guardians of monetary policy are riveted by Japan, where consumer prices have declined in 48 of the last 83 quarters. This pattern of deflation long ago convinced Japanese buyers to hold off purchases in anticipation of lower prices. But the result is excess inventories and too much productive capacity, which force prices even lower.

That confirms expectations, resulting in yet more buyer restraint. The result of this deflationary spiral has been a miserable economy with an average growth in real GDP of just 0.8% at annual rates since the beginning of 1994. Central banks also fret that in a deflationary environment, debt burdens remain fixed in nominal terms, but the ability to service them drops along with falling nominal incomes and waning corporate cash flows. So bankruptcies leap, while borrowing, consumer spending and capital investment all weaken.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2 ... tral-banks" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just one day after the DOJ unveiled its had indicted Chesapeake Founder and former CEO Aubrey McClendon on federal charges of conspiring to rig bids for oil and natural gas leases, moments ago the Oklahoma Police announced that he was found dead in a car accident, when while traveling in a 2013 Chevy Tahoe at a high rate of speed he crashed while driving on a two-lane highway and was engulfed in flames.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... indictment" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...convenient...

Caught On Tape: Tear Gas Deployed As Migrants Revolt In France
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... olt-france" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Walls, fences and border checks have returned across Europe as the EU struggles to cope with the biggest inflow of refugees since the end of the second world war. Since September 2015, eight countries in the 26-nation passport-free Schengen zone have re-instated border checks.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... -free-zone" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Greece has asked the EU for €480 million ($534 million) in emergency funds to help shelter 100,000 refugees, the government said Tuesday, warning that the migrant influx threatened to overwhelm its crisis-hit resources. “Greece has submitted an emergency plan to the European Commission .. corresponding to around 100,000 refugees,” government spokeswoman Olga Gerovassili told reporters.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/206507/arti ... 0-refugees" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

US Gen Philip Breedlove said they were "weaponising" migration to destabilise and undermine the continent. He also suggested that criminals, extremists and fighters were hiding in the flow of migrants. He said he had requested that more US forces be permanently based in Europe. Their numbers have dropped from a Cold War high of half a million to about 62,000. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said nearly 129,500 migrants had arrived by sea so far in 2016, plus another 1,545 by land. It said 418 had drowned or were missing.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35706238" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials say a suicide bombing at a funeral north of Baghdad has killed at least 14 people and wounded 45.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 198606.cms" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Army General John W. "Mick" Nicholson took command Wednesday of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, inheriting America's longest war and a vicious Talban-led insurgency. Nicholson, 58, took over from U.S. Army General John F. Campbell, who oversaw the end of the international combat mission in 2014 and a subsequent escalation in the Taliban's war against Kabul.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/change-in- ... 79fc5.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Members of Congress questioned Special Operations Command leaders today about reported equipment shortages in some elite units that extend as far as not having enough individual weapons to go around. Elite troops such as the SEALs are more and more forced to dip into their own pockets to purchase basic military gear such as helmets, global positioning devices and medical supplies. House lawmakers have taken notice and said they will request an explanation from Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Numerous individual instances point to a systemic problem in the military's supply chain, but a blind spot exists between Defense Department vendors and the troops who need the gear and supplies, Hunter said in the Stripes article.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... tages.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Russian energy giant Gazprom has reduced natural gas supplies to private sector companies in Turkey by 10 percent due to a price dispute, officials at Turkey's energy ministry told Reuters on Thursday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/russia-g ... SL8N1644K9" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Saudi Arabia just sent war planes to Turkey’s Incirlik air force base.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/059d3690-d ... false.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

Saudi Arabia, although a signatory to the Nuclear Weapons Non- Proliferation Treaty has just, in violation of its pledge, acquired atomic bombs from Pakistan. Saudi Arabia had already declared [1] its intention to acquire nuclear weapons from Pakistan (not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty), of whom it finances 60% of the military nuclear program. Now, through al-Anzi, the Saudis have indicated that they started buying them two years ago.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article190499.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

U.N. Security Council Adopts Toughest North Korea Sanctions Yet
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/world ... ss&emc=rss" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

North Korea handed toughest sanctions in 20 years in effort to stop nuke programme
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/649 ... ions-tough" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The US Navy, Japan and India will hold joint exercises off the northern coast of the Philippines in close proximity to the South China Sea.
http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160302/10 ... a-sea.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A powerful, shallow earthquake hit off the southwestern coast of Sumatra in Indonesia on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami warning that sent islanders rushing to high ground. An official said the potential for a tsunami was small. The U.S. Geological Service said the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.8. It was centered under the ocean at a depth of 15 miles, it said.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/indonesia-e ... s-sumatra/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Natural gas prices have crashed to 17-year-lows in the past week, underscoring burgeoning supply in the global market just as U.S. exports its first ever shale gas cargo. On Monday, natural gas prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled 4.5% lower to their lowest level since 1999 after U.S. weather forecasts signaled warmer weather in the weeks ahead, curbing demand for natural gas used for heating. The decline brought February losses in natural gas to 26%. Prices recovered on Tuesday but the outlook remains depressed. Japan, the world’s largest importer of natural gas, is restarting its nuclear reactors six years after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, with three out of 43 nuclear reactors brought back online since August and more expected to come.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/02/natural- ... s-off.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Japan — Three former executives from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) have been formally charged with negligence over the 2011 disaster at the company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In accordance with a ruling from a citizen’s panel last year — and despite two previous refusals by Tokyo prosecutors to press charges — the three will be the first to go to court over the catastrophic meltdown, which followed a massive tsunami.
http://theantimedia.org/fukushima-conti ... egligence/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A train has derailed near the town of Ripley, New York State, officials said, adding that two of the derailed cars were carrying ethanol, which is currently leaking. Dozens of homes in the area have been evacuated. The incident took place on Norfolk-Southern rails on Tuesday night, the NY Fire Department told Erie News. The train was pulling 33 cars, 14 of which derailed, the Norfolk Southern spokesperson said. The Chautauqua County Sheriff's office, however, said 18 cars derailed.
https://www.rt.com/news/334251-ny-train ... s-ethanol/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Take This Test To See If Most Americans Would Consider You To Be A ‘Religious Extremist’
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... -extremist" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

George Soros Had White House Meeting With Obama’s ISIS Czar - Visitor logs reveal top national security official met with Soros before promotion
http://freebeacon.com/national-security ... isis-czar/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Trump, Clinton capture key wins on Super Tuesday
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-e ... SKCN0W346T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Timothy Alexander Guzman, Silent Crow News – In my opinion, Hillary Clinton will be President in 2017. Yes, Donald Trump will most likely be the Republican presidential nominee but the Presidential elections are still 9 months away and anything can happen. You see, whoever occupies the White House will have to follow the blueprint supplied by a political machine or the system. What is the “machine”? John F. Kennedy’s address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association on April 27, 1961 when he spoke about how the system operates “It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.” Where does Hillary Clinton fit in? Kennedy went on to mention “Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.” Mistakes are buried, its dissenters are silenced and no secret is revealed (except for Hillary’s Email-Gate which revealed numerous secrets), it does sound like Hillary Clinton may qualify for all of the above just mentioned. Make no mistake; Hillary Clinton is a candidate for the political machine. Here are a few reasons why I believe Hillary Clinton can possibly become the U.S. president come this November.
http://silentcrownews.com/wordpress/?p=4598" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some among the GOP chattering classes will tell you that Trump didn’t get the knock-out punch he wanted – that there is still a chance to restore order. Don’t believe it. The numbers make it clear that, for the Republican party, it’s Trumpocalypse Now. While Ted Cruz won his home state of Texas as well as Oklahoma, and Rubio ran him close in Virginia and actually managed to win Minnesota, Trump dominated elsewhere. His success extended from Massachusetts to Georgia to Alabama to Tennessee to Oklahoma. He won in Ted Cruz’s south, and he won in the north-east, where a more establishment-friendly candidate like Marco Rubio was supposed to prevail.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... nomination" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Goldman Sachs Puts Worker Linked to Donald Trump on Leave
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/ny ... .html?_r=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Trump’s rhetoric mixes populist criticism of immigration policy, Wall Street behavior, and other countries' trade policies, while also citing support for business-friendly efforts such as lower taxation. The lack of detail from Trump about his policies and how he would implement them is a particular worry for investors. "Trump has been light on policy substance so it’s very difficult for the markets to handicap," said Dave Lafferty, chief market strategist at Natixis Global Asset Management, which manages $870.3 billion in assets. He expects market volatility to rise if Trump extends his lead in Tuesday’s elections.
http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-elec ... SKCN0W40AA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...because he's just running his mouth and saying whatever he thinks he needs to say to get in the oval office...and the world wide media is giving him all the broadcasting time his heart could desire...whilst playing it off that he's anti-establishment...when the reality couldn't be further from the truth. He's been an establishment guy since his very first real estate project where he got a $400 million tax waiver to get him up and going...and he's got long standing ties to both western and eastern mafia...as well as palling around with the likes of Bill Clinton (partying with the same girls on the same planes and islands with the same pals)...
Roughly 30% to 50% of annual precipitation in the West Coast states occurs from just a few AR events per year. The first significant storm should plow into northern and central California this coming weekend, followed by a stronger series of storms affecting most of the state during the following week. The outlook for very heavy precipitation is a bit more confident from central California all the way north to Washington. Already, some California reservoirs are releasing water: though this may seem odd while the region is still in drought, it’s a long-employed strategy to help reduce the odds of flooding when torrential rains are predicted.

Several major storms had pushed snowpack just above the seasonal average in the crucial Sierra Nevada range, which supplies about a third of the state’s water supply through snowmelt. The hope was that February and March would consolidate these early gains with at least a few more wet-but-not-damaging storms.

Then came February--a disappointingly dry month for any winter, much less an El Niño one. The month was dominated by an upper-level ridge that blocked Pacific storms and allowed temperatures to hit record levels beneath clear, sunny skies. It wasn’t quite the winter-long Ridiculously Resilient Ridge that marked the last couple of years, but it was enough to tamp down the modest precipitation surpluses across many areas. Most parts of the state got only a paltry 10-20% of average precipitation in February, as noted by Jan Null (Golden Gate Weather Services). Four major cities--San Diego, Los Angeles (Downtown), Sacramento (Executive Airport), and San Jose--saw their warmest February on record. By month’s end, the Sierra snowpack had dwindled to 85% of its typical water equivalent for the date.
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffM ... -californi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As the Arctic roasts, Alaska bakes in one of its warmest winters ever
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/cap ... ters-ever/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In less than a week, there's going to be a total eclipse of the sun. On March 9th, the new Moon will pass directly in front of the sun, bringing night to day and revealing the sun's ghostly corona. The path of totality cuts across Indonesia and the Pacific Ocean: animated map.
http://www.spaceweather.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Meteor 'bright flash' seen in skies over Scotland
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-nor ... d-35689551" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bright fireball meteor lights up the sky over Scotland (Video)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/cap ... and-video/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ashbury Precision Ordnance APO SABER-FORSST MRCS-AR Savage 110 Bolt-Action Modular Rifle Chassis System
http://www.defensereview.com/ashbury-pr ... tem-video/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

The Economy Simply Explained

How can one picture the economy? The economy should be viewed as a flow of money. This may seem straightforward, but mainstream economic models do not include money at all. And yet, a lot of the workings of the economy can be understood by looking at who receives money and how much of it they spend.

If everyone is working and producing goods and services, then people need to buy these goods and services. In order for people to buy these products they need to have enough money.

Money received by people for producing things is then spent by these people on more things. This cycle repeats itself and makes the economy run.

Where does this money come from?

First, governments normally run deficits of on average 4-5% per year. The multiplier of this on GDP (ie. how much of this gets spent on GDP additive goods and services) is approximately 1. So around two thirds of the historical gap comes from government deficits.

Second, private sector debt has increased year on year.This consists of, for example, money borrowed by individuals for mortgages or credit cards, and by companies for investment or to buy back shares. This has grown by 10% of GDP per year since the 1970s. Effectively 10% of GDP more money has been printed by banks and corporations every year.

However the private sector debt is not as efficient at getting people to actually spend the money. Much less of it is spent on GDP. So the increase in private sector debt, despite being twice as large, makes up about a third of the new money spent every year.

http://www.notesonthenextbust.com/2016/ ... ained.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...he doesn't quite hit the nail on the head and I left off the rest. To clarify...money comes from government borrowing/debt (1) and private borrowing/debt (2). Debt comes with interest which essentially is a cut to the house (gambling terms) for providing a system of credit. The system requires higher and higher levels of new money/debt to keep the system at equilibrium. As the debt grows so does the cut to the house. Also a portion of the new debt/money goes to service the old debt (money destroyed). When the new debt/money is spent (on whatever) inflation is created. This is offset by deflation when the debt is paid back (money destroyed). The boom and bust business cycle. Tends to be painful on the downside though...and we like to kick the can down the road. Eventually though we run out of capacity and the cut to the house takes out production. Hence deflationary end point we are currently staring at....

The borrowing binge is still in full swing. In January banks extended $385 billion (3.5% of GDP) in new loans. On February 29th the People’s Bank of China spurred them on, reducing the amount of cash banks must keep in reserve and so freeing another $100 billion for new lending. Signs of stress are multiplying.
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-a ... ink-rising" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The People’s Bank of China pulled a net 840 billion yuan ($129 billion) in the five days through Friday, data compiled by Bloomberg show. While that was the biggest weekly withdrawal since February 2013, money-market rates barely reacted with the RRR reduction releasing an estimated 685 billion yuan into the banking system. The PBOC kept its open-market seven-day interest rate unchanged at 2.25% on Friday.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... since-2013" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China will raise its defence spending by between 7-8% this year, a senior official has said, a smaller increase than the double-digit rises of the past as Beijing seeks a more efficient military. China’s budget will rise to around around 980bn yuan ($150bn) as the Beijing regime increases its military heft and asserts its territorial claims in the South China Sea, raising tensions with its neighbours and with Washington. Defence spending last year was budgeted to rise 10.1% to 886.9bn yuan ($135.39bn), which still only represents about one-quarter that of the United States. The US defence budget for 2016 is $573bn. “China’s military budget will continue to grow this year but the margin will be lower than last year and the previous years,” said Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the national people’s congress (NPC), the Communist-controlled parliament.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... 6-official" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Stockpiles of refined copper in Shanghai extended their advance to a record as the difference between domestic and foreign prices encouraged imports by China, the world’s biggest consumer. Inventories tracked by the Shanghai Futures Exchange are higher than stockpiles monitored by the London Metal Exchange for the first time in a more than a decade. Inventories followed by the Shanghai bourse jumped 11 percent this week to a record 305,106 metric tons, equivalent to around two weeks of consumption in China. Reserves in London have declined for 11 days to the lowest level in more than a year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... flows-east" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Deflationary tides are lapping the shores of countries across the world and financial bubbles are set to burst everywhere, Vikram Mansharamani, a lecturer at Yale University, told CNBC on Thursday. “I think it all started with the China investment bubble that has burst and that brought with it commodities and that pushed deflation around the world and those ripples are landing on the shore of countries literally everywhere,” the high-profile author and academic said at the Global Financial Markets Forum in Abu Dhabi. On Thusday, Mansharamani said that financial bubbles had been fueled by “cheap money” created by highly accommodative monetary policy across developed economies. “I mean, we’ve got a bubble bursting, I would argue, in Australian housing markets — that is beginning to crack; South Africa – the whole economy; Canada – housing and the economy; Brazil. We can keep going on and on,” the academic told CNBC.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/03/i-see-bu ... demic.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The era of zero or negative interest rates, notably in Japan and the euro zone, could extend for several more years as central banks battle persistently low growth and inflation, strategists at Barclays said on Thursday. The downward pressure on interest rates will be strongest in Japan and the euro zone, while the greater flexibility and resilience of the U.S. and UK economies should allow interest rates there to rise quicker, albeit extremely gradually. In 1995 the Bank of Japan lowered its main interest rate to 0.5% to try and reflate the flagging economy. Rates have never been higher since and the BOJ has also injected trillions of yen worth of stimulus via quantitative easing bond purchases. The BOJ is still fighting that battle against low growth and deflation. Earlier this year it adopted negative interest rates on certain bank deposits and became the first G7 rich country to have yields on its benchmark 10-year bonds fall below zero. “We don’t see a ‘Japanification’ of the world. But accommodative policy is here to stay,” said Christian Keller, head of economics research at Barclays and also a co-author of the study.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0W520Z" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ducrozet warns that the ECB should "should take the threat of a potential impairment of the credit transmission channel very seriously" in any new policy measures—such as negative interest rates—announces to tackle inflation.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... -about-oil" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

German newspaper Der Spiegel reported yesterday that the Bavarian Banking Association has recommended that its member banks start stockpiling PHYSICAL CASH.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... rding-cash" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Canada] Official International Reserves [sold their gold]
http://www.fin.gc.ca/n16/16-030-eng.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Economic Collapse Of South America Is Well Underway
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... l-underway" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brazil’s economy suffered its worst slump for quarter of a century last year as a global commodity rout, a domestic political crisis and rising inflation forced businesses to slash spending and jobs. Economists warned that the country’s recession had further to run and could deepen amid fresh signs that a drop in demand has continued into 2016. Official figures showed Brazil’s GDP fell 3.8% in 2015, the steepest decline since 1990, when the country was battling hyperinflation. The Brazil composite output index, published by data company Markit, dropped to its lowest since the survey began in 2007. The index, which tracks companies across the economy, dropped to 39 in February, marking the 12th month running below the 50-point mark that separates expansion from contraction.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... -inflation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unemployment is rising, consumer confidence has plummeted and the country's currency, the real, has lost 24% of its value against the dollar in the past year. The engine behind Brazil's economy is commodities like oil, sugar and coffee. Prices for all of them have plummeted over the last two years, hurting Brazil badly. An unprecedented corruption scandal at the giant government-run oil company Petrobras was another big driver of the recession as Brazilians' confidence in the government and business plummeted. The massive bribery investigation led to the arrest of dozens of executives and politicians involved in the billion dollar kickback scheme, which prompted to the opening of impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff last year.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/03/news/ec ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was detained for three hours after heavily armed police raided his home earlier today in a sweeping corruption probe that has targeted the nation’s elite and shaken Latin America’s largest country.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... on-scandal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brazil is heading straight into the arms of the IMF. The sooner this grim reality is recognized by the country’s leaders, the safer it will be for the world. The government is frozen. The finance ministry has lost the trust of Brazilian investors and global markets in equal measure. Almost nothing credible is being done to stop the debt trajectory spinning into orbit. "The only alternatives are an inflationary spiral to dilute the real value of debt, or a downward economic spiral that may cause debt restructuring," he said. Car sales have crashed by 31pc over the last two months. The Getulio Vargas Foundation says the labour market is suddenly buckling after seeming to defy gravity, and is now shedding over 150,000 jobs a month. Brazil "country risk" has already driven real rates on 10-year debt to 7pc. "If they keep borrowing at these rates it will break their back. Interest payments on the debt are ballooning, putting Brazil on an unsustainable path." "The IMF is the central bank and lender of last resort for emerging markets since they can't print their own dollars. It needs to do for Brazil what the European Central Bank did in buying time for Spain and Portugal," he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... ve-brazil/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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The ailments afflicting Turkey’s economy that have triggered a surge in bad loans look poised to get worse before they get better. Non-performing loans at the nation’s lenders climbed to 3.18 percent of total credit in January, the sixth straight monthly increase and the highest proportion in almost five years, according to data this week from the Ankara-based Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... rists-flee" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Turkey is under growing pressure to consider a major escalation in migrant deportations from Greece, a top EU official said Thursday, amid preparations for a highly anticipated summit of EU and Turkish leaders next week.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/206626/arti ... ion-scheme" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Around 30,000 migrants and refugees were stranded in Greece on Thursday, with just over a third of them at Idomeni, waiting for the border with Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to open. “We feel very bad for them. We understand they are hungry, but they are 10,000 and we are 100. If more come what will happen?” Zois, an 82-year-old pensioner, told Reuters.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/206602/arti ... eek-border" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Under a new EU aid plan, a large part of its £550million disaster fund will be given directly to migrants in hard cash to spend as they wish to help keep their “dignity” intact and save them from having to queue at volunteer aid agencies.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/03 ... r-dignity/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Residents of New Mexico's Bootheel and parts of southern Arizona say human smuggling and drug trafficking is taking its toll on the region.
http://krwg.org/post/border-crime-takin ... co-arizona" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Mosul dam engineers warn it could fail at any time, killing 1m people.

Iraqi engineers involved in building the Mosul dam 30 years ago have warned that the risk of its imminent collapse and the consequent death toll could be even worse than reported. They pointed out that pressure on the dam’s compromised structure was building up rapidly as winter snows melted and more water flowed into the reservoir, bringing it up to its maximum capacity, while the sluice gates normally used to relieve that pressure were jammed shut.

On Wednesday, the Iraqi government announced it had signed a €273m (£210m) contract with an Italian contractor to reinforce and maintain the Mosul dam for 18 months, following talks in New York between the Italian foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, and US and Iraqi officials. Italy has said it plans to send 450 troops to protect the dam site, but it is unclear how long it will take to replace damaged machinery and reassemble the required workforce.
Iraqi PM and US issue warnings over threat of Mosul dam collapse
Read more

The engineers warned that potential loss of life from a sudden catastrophic collapse of the Mosul dam could be even greater than the 500,000 officially estimated, as they said many people could die in the resulting mass panic, with a 20-metre-high flood wave hitting the city of Mosul and then rolling on down the Tigris valley through Tikrit and Samarra to Baghdad.

One of the Iraqi engineers, now living in Europe, described as “ridiculous” the Iraqi government’s emergency policy of telling local people to move 6km (3.5 miles) from the river banks.

“We used to have 300 people working 24 hours in three shifts but very few of these workers have come back. There are perhaps 30 people there now,” Adamo said in a telephone interview from Sweden, where he works as a consultant.

“The machines for grouting have been looted. There is no cement supply. They can do nothing. It is going from bad to worse, and it is urgent. All we can do is hold our hearts.”

“If the dam fails, the water will arrive in Mosul in four hours. It will arrive in Baghdad in 45 hours. Some people say there could be half a million people killed, some say a million. I imagine it will be more in the absence of a good evacuation plan.”

He said the government policy response, calling on the local population to move at least 6km from the river Tigris, was “ridiculous”. The US embassy in Baghdad has urged American citizens to leave the area.

“What are all these people, millions of people, supposed to do when they get 6km away? There is no support for them there. Nothing to help them live.”

“Nobody knows when it will fail,” Adamo said. “It could be a year from now. It could be tomorrow.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... -1m-people" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nationwide power blackout hits Syria
http://news.yahoo.com/nationwide-power- ... 39974.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Aleksei Pushkov thinks that "the world order" is being decided in Syria
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/world.php?y ... v_id=97245" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Over the past three days three modern complexes with unmanned aerial vehicles and two radars detecting small targets have been deployed to Syria.
http://sputniknews.com/military/2016030 ... mplex.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Central Command, which is in charge of the Middle East and the war against the Islamic State, is under investigation by the DoD inspector general as well as the Armed Services Committee and two other House committees for widespread claims among its analysts that the war intelligence has been manipulated. A survey, which was disclosed by lawmakers last week, found 40 percent of analysts felt some manipulation of information was occurring.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... gence.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Report: Russia's military intelligence chief killed in secret operation in Lebanon
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Report ... non-446755" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

AMMAN, Jordan — The United States gave Jordan eight refurbished helicopters on Thursday for the battle against Islamic State extremists along the kingdom's borders.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... attle.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“[North Korea] signed its own death warrant,” said Wu Dawei(right), 70, China`s senior representative at the six-party talks in an interview with Maekyung Media Group Chairman Chang Dae-whan on Wednesday.
http://pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?sc=3080 ... &no=168073" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

North Korea fired six short range missiles into the Sea of Japan, hours after the UN Security Council approved to introduce new sanctions against Pyongyang. A South Korean official said the projectiles flew about 100 to 150km before landing in the sea.
https://www.rt.com/news/334428-north-ko ... sile-test/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The missiles were fired from the North Korean Wonsan naval base located on the eastern side of the peninsula at about 10:00 a.m. local time (01:30 GMT) on Thursday, Moon Sang-gyun, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman said, as quoted by the South Korean Yonhap news agency.
http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160303/10 ... siles.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his military on standby for nuclear strikes at any time, state media reported Friday, an escalation in rhetoric targeting rivals Seoul and Washington that may not yet reflect the country's actual nuclear capacity.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... hreat.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

UPDATED 9:45 PM EST - See Bottom -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday (Korean Time GMT +8:30) ordered the country's nuclear weapons to be made ready for use at a moment's notice. He also said the communist country will revise its military posture so it can be ready to carry out pre-emptive attacks, stressing that the current situation has become very precarious, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
https://www.superstation95.com/index.php/world/970" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A Russian nuclear submarine will launch Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles as part of the Northern Fleet’s routine test of the country’s nuclear deterrent capability, the newspaper Izvestia wrote on Wednesday
http://sputniknews.com/russia/20160302/ ... ssile.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The U.S. Navy's submarine force is setting up a temporary command center on a sheet of Arctic ice, where U.S. underwater capabilities will be put to the test in the increasingly strategic High North. The five-week submarine drill coincides with separate war games in Norway called Cold Response involving 16,000 U.S. and NATO forces. Marines have been launching stinger missiles and maneuvering tanks, and the Air Force has dispatched three B-52 Stratofortress bombers.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... rctic.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Three B-52 Stratofortress bombers that have moved from the US to Europe are set to participate in military exercises in Norway. A top US commander characterized the redeployment as “not normal.” The move, which began last week with the bombers and 200 support airmen being stationed in Spain, is part of the Obama administration’s build-up of US forces in Europe in response to European countries’ anxiety over perceived Russian aggression.
https://www.rt.com/usa/334450-us-deploys-b52-norway/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The U.S. Navy has dispatched a small armada to the South China Sea. The carrier John C. Stennis, two destroyers, two cruisers and the 7th Fleet flagship have sailed into the disputed waters in recent days, according to military officials. The carrier strike group is the latest show of force in the tense region, with the U.S. asserting that China is militarizing the region to guard its excessive territorial claims.
http://www.navytimes.com/story/military ... /81270736/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Military beginning to recruit women for combat jobs
http://www.navytimes.com/story/military ... /81286716/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...beginning of the end...

Israel holds its first transgender beauty contest
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-holds-firs ... 53291.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

French parliamentary deputies, defying government wishes, on Thursday voted in favour of penalising smartphone makers who fail to cooperate in terrorism inquiries, entering a controversy which has pitted the FBI against Apple in the United States.
http://phys.org/news/2016-03-french-dep ... error.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Former Chesapeake Energy Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon, a brash risk-taker who helped transform the U.S. energy industry with shale gas, died when his car slammed into an overpass on Wednesday, one day after being charged with breaking federal antitrust laws, police said. He was 56. The crash occurred less than 24 hours after the U.S. Department of Justice announced that McClendon had been indicted for allegedly colluding to rig bids for oil and gas acreage while he was at Chesapeake.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-chesa ... SKCN0W42ME" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The 'Revolution' Has Begun In America And The Establishment Is Crashing, Crumbling And Burning - We Should All Be Prepared For A Major, 11th Hour, False Flag Attack!
http://allnewspipeline.com/The_Establis ... mbling.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...cracks me up to what lengths they are going to present Trump as the anti-establishment candidate...really see the extent of cointel in the alternative media outlets...

Chief rivals to U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump assailed him for shifting positions on the issues at a debate, but said in the end they would reluctantly support him if he were their party's nominee.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-e ... EC34HTO55S" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A new in-depth report from The New York Times paints a damning portrait of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the US government’s involvement in the war in Libya. The most prominent of those on-the-record comments came from former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who claimed that the decision to go to war in Libya was heavily influence by Clinton. In fact, Gates says she made the difference in a “51-49” decision that ultimately destroyed the country of Libya and allowed ISIS to grab new territory in the Middle East.
https://shadowproof.com/2016/03/01/new- ... -disaster/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hillary Clinton Oversaw US Arms Deals to Clinton Foundation Donors
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... arms-deals" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

NY nuclear plant 65,000% radiation spike is worse than Fukushima
http://peakoil.com/enviroment/ny-nuclea ... -fukushima" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Moderate earthquake, 5 mag strikes near Boudinar in Morocco, M5.2 quake has struck near Nichinan in Japan, 5.5 mag was detected near Leof in Indonesia, 5.6 mag strikes near Atambua in Indonesia
http://www.earthquakenewstoday.com/2016 ... n-morocco/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Pacific wave train set to bring a much-anticipated storm to the West Coast this weekend looks like it has a second destination in mind. Parts of the south-central U.S., especially Arkansas, are in line for what could be some of their heaviest March rains on record next week, once the Pacific storm cuts off and settles in for a spell.

Lower-elevation rains and mountain snows will push inland on Friday and Saturday from Washington to central California as the powerful Pacific jet stream slams into the coast. Initially, snow levels will be on the high side across the Sierra Nevada--above 7000 feet on Saturday--but as colder air filters in, the snow level will drop to the 3500-5000 foot range, which is good news for replenishing the critical Sierra snowpack. Many parts of the Sierra will receive one to two feet of snow by Monday, with even more across the higher peaks. As the jet stream continues plowing inland, a second wave at its base should goose the rains and mountain snows across southern California, which has missed out on many of this winter’s wet storms. Coastal SoCal can expect widespread 1-2” amounts, with 2-4” possible in the San Francisco Bay area.

A stationary front expected to lie from Texas toward Illinois will become the focus of multiple rounds of heavy showers and thunderstorms over several days. Some severe weather could emerge, including tornadoes, although the set-up looks less like a prolific twister producer and more like a torrential rainmaker. The focal point is likely to be Arkansas, where the stationary front should be aligned near or just east of the Ozarks. This would help enhance uplift and set the stage for what could eventually pose a serious flooding threat.
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffM ... d-arkansas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

NOAA forecasters estimate a 50% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on March 6th when a co-rotating interaction region (CIR) is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. CIRs are transition zones between fast- and slow-moving solar wind streams. Solar wind plasma piles up in these regions, producing density gradients and shock waves that do a good job of sparking auroras.
http://www.spaceweather.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cholera, which arrived in Haiti in October 2010, has sickened more than 770,000 people, or about 7 percent of the population, and killed more than 9,200. So far this year, it has sickened more than 6,000 and is killing an average of 37 people a month.
http://www.voanews.com/content/haiti-ch ... 17909.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The German beer industry is in shock after finding that 14 different popular beer brands have traces of the ‘probably’ carcinogenic herbicide, glyphosate – an ingredient found in Monsanto’s best-selling weed killer, Round Up. Germany’s Agricultural minster is playing down the risks in order to save one of the countries’ best-selling exports. Glyphosate levels were as high as 30 micrograms per liter, even in beer that is supposed to be brewed from only water, malt, and hops.
http://naturalsociety.com/glyphosate-14 ... any-63546/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Documents received via a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal that the agency also assisted Monsanto in attempting to paint flagship herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) as safe, after the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared glyphosate a "probable carcinogen."
http://www.naturalnews.com/053192_EPA_M ... icide.html#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Monsanto is suing the State of California for its intent to include glyphosate — the main ingredient in its wildly popular herbicide, Roundup — on its Proposition 65 toxic chemicals list. California’s decision came after the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as a “probable carcinogen” in March 2015.
http://theantimedia.org/monsanto-is-sui ... chemicals/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The White House and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will gather state and local officials next month to urgently craft a plan to attack the hard-to-control mosquito that spreads the Zika virus.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-healt ... SKCN0W60XM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Impacts of Water Development on Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Front
http://www.qcnr.usu.edu/pdfs/publicatio ... 202016.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

2EstablishZion
captain of 100
Posts: 337

Re: Blipits

Post by 2EstablishZion »

Great posts as always - I didn't see this one, which I think is a pretty big deal....

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... emand-gold" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


The Comex Gold:Cover ration chart in that article is pretty interesting....

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iWriteStuff
blithering blabbermouth
Posts: 5523
Location: Sinope
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Re: Blipits

Post by iWriteStuff »

2EstablishZion wrote:Great posts as always - I didn't see this one, which I think is a pretty big deal....

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... emand-gold" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


The Comex Gold:Cover ration chart in that article is pretty interesting....
Heck yeah! I started dumping money into gold and silver ETFs back in November and they have been killing it! Part of the reason is I'd never seen them on that big of a sale before. Now, skyrocketing upwards.... Because who wants bonds when they are expected to implode? Or stocks when everyone expects a recession?

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

2EstablishZion wrote:Great posts as always - I didn't see this one, which I think is a pretty big deal....

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... emand-gold" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


The Comex Gold:Cover ration chart in that article is pretty interesting....
I'm not a gold bug. Also there is a ton of disinfo on gold...and a whole range of dealers spearheading propaganda whilst SELLING gold...from Alex Jones and Dave Hodges to Glenn Beck to your golden @#!!$#!% and myriad other letter writers, blog posters, and ultimately dealers SELLING precious metals.

They cover/fund a good portion of the alternative news network. Not to mention close ties with a number of past presidential candidates...which would include Ron Paul. They push a particular agenda which I think is one of the Hegelian dialects for the central bankers.

At the end of the day...for me...gold/silver is a waste of time and money. Need physical for the SHTF...and then the value will be determined by supply/demand...which will be determined by the conditions at that point in time. I suspect food and production tools will be infinitely more valuable. So I'm not a proponent of accumulating precious metals and having them gather dust in a safe until the special moment in time arrives.

As such I tend to ignore much of the broadcasting and hyperventilation on precious metals. I do tend to keep tabs on silver spot...mostly out of curiosity and I placed a bet with my Russian brother from another mother...a fellow forum member here...several years back on it. Despite neither one of us being right on it...I've tracked it over time.
LoveIsTruth wrote:
Jason wrote:[written on April 15, 2011] I think we will see the peak during the next month or two. Probably in the $20-$30 range 6 months out (Oct/Nov).....in the $10-20 range (Feb/Mar 2012).....and $5-10 at 12 months (May/June 2012).
In 6 month (Oct-Nov 2011) $50-$70 or so.

Feb-Mar 2012: $80-90 ($100 is possible).

April 2012: $120 or thereabouts.

Within 2 years at least $200, probably much higher within 3.
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=12158&p=191232#p191223" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=12158&p=191232#p191228" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Long story short...too late...I saw the post but didn't spend much time on it. The downside of Blipits...subject to my perspective and what I perceive to be valuable information...or what I choose to capture and share.

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

China’s new annual economic report, which Premier Li Keqiang unveiled to the National People’s Congress over the weekend, recognizes the problems associated with China’s fundamental transformation—notably the danger of unmanageable debt spread through the system—but lands on the side of optimism. “Problems and risks that have been building up over the years are becoming more evident,” the premier said in his lengthy speech. “But there is no difficulty we cannot get beyond.”

As everyone now seems to agree, we’re watching a global slowdown that’s either durable and secular—as Martin Wolf just argued in the Financial Times—or we’re at risk of tipping into another cyclical recession. Not brilliant either way, of course.

Companies aren’t investing because people aren’t buying. People aren’t buying because prevalent economic policies—not to mention ideologies—leave too many people around the world too uncertain, too broke, too indebted, or all three to do so.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-chin ... 00383.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...my vote is on the latter two (intertwined)....world has always been uncertain...

"China’s economy absolutely will not have a hard landing, the so called hard-landing predictions are bound to fall through," said Xu Shaoshi, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said Sunday at a press conference in Beijing when asked about recent remarks by Soros.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... rd-landing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China accounted for a quarter of the world's economic growth in 2014, Xu said, citing data from the World Bank and China's National Bureau of Statistics.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016- ... 160126.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...Tyler Durden tweeted yesterday: “And accounted for 40% of all global new debt issuance since 2008..”

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China's - and the entire world's - debt load was very much the highlight of the latest BIS quarterly report (profiled yesterday) in which we learned that the "BIS calls time on world credit binge" and that "China’s Leaders Put the Economy on Bubble Watch" even as these same leaders just raised their budget deficit forecast to its highest ever and previewed an even faster increase in its monetary aggregates or M2, which is now supposed to pick up to 13% per year, or roughly double China's GDP growth rate.

So yes, China debt is growing well over 100% faster than its GDP, a condition which is precisely the opposite of Ray Dalio's "beautiful deleveraging", and the outcome is clear to all.

And yes, while two years ago few had a sense of the true proportion of China's debt load, now virtually everyone does, which is why its credit creation will be put under a microscope.

The massive rise in China’s financial leverage is in a class of its own. As China embarked on a highly capital intensive growth strategy, its debt levels accelerated, driving velocity of money down. As can be seen below, China’s estimated debt burden has increased from US$1.5 trillion in 2000 to US$5.8 trillion in 2007 and exploded to over US$28 trillion by 2014 (and should have reached US$30-31 trillion in 2015.

The punchline: China's velocity of money is now the lowest in the entire world, a world in which China provided 40% of the entire credit impulse since 2008!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... t-creation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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After three consecutive declines in China's Foreign Reserves in the November-January period, which averaged nearly $100 billion per month (with particular attention paid to last month's number), consensus expectations were for a moderation in reserve outflows in February to approximately $40 billion in February; moments ago the PBOC reported, that as expected, reserve outflow "slowed down" to just $28.6 billion, bringing China's total foreign reserves to $3.2 trillion, the lowest level since late 2011. Recall that just two weeks ago China stopped reporting the "position for forex purchase” a series which tracked total foreign exchange purchases by both the central bank and other financial institutions. Many - us included - saw this as a premeditated attempt to confuse market watchers and prevent the full picture of Chinese outflow data from emerging. China reported that the value of its gold reserves jumped to $71 billion from $63.6 billion a month ago, with the actual inventory of reported gold rising from 57.18 million in January to 57.5 million as of last month.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... ry-decline" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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The problem, of course, is that China has to figure out a way to transition away from an economic model tethered to investment and industry and towards a model that thrives off consumption and services. That’s going to mean shutting down uneconomic producers and allowing for defaults, an outcome which not only threatens banks’ make-believe NPL figures, but social stability as well.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... s-rustbelt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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China never had an actual economic model or growth model. It simply printed an obscene amount of money, especially after 2008, and used it to build factories, 30-story see-through apartment blocks and highways into nowhere cities, without giving much if any thought to where this would lead when their formerly rich western customers had less to spend on its ever increasing amount of ever more useless products, or when its workers would stop spending ever more on apartments as investments, or when no more roads and bridges were needed because nowhere was already in plain sight. Or all of the above. It was ‘to infinity and beyond’ from the start, but that’s a line from a kids’ fantasy story, not a 5-year plan or an economic model.

Going into its 10-day, 3,000 delegates National People’s Congress opening on Friday, China was facing -and very much still is- two major and interconnected problems. Both are problems that the country has never faced before -not a minor point to make. The first is a giant debt load, one that could easily be as high as $40 trillion, or 350% of GDP, once one includes the shadow banking system (watch the shadows!). The second is the Communist Party’s -economic- credibility.

The debt problem is impossible to solve without very far-reaching restructurings of both the debt itself and of the entire Chinese economy. There appears to be a problem within the problem, however: the Party neither looks prepared to truly tackle the debt nor does it seem to know how.

As for the credibility issue, the very fact that a 5-year plan will be unveiled is the perfect in-a-nutshell illustration of what’s ailing Beijing. Not only does it hark back to communist days of old, not exactly a confidence booster, but trying to look 5 years ahead in today’s global economy is in itself not credible. It forces the Party to make statements nobody in their right mind will believe. And to compound the issue, that is something the leadership doesn’t really seem to take seriously. President Xi Jinping, more than anything else, looks like a man in the tradition of ‘what I say is true because I say so”.

Some initial numbers relating to job losses have been ‘leaked’ prior to the Congress. First, it was 1.8 million jobs cut in the coal and steel sectors, and a few days later that became 6 million. But that can only possibly be just a start.

It’s all in the numbers. China has something in the order of a billion workers, give or take 100 million or so. Even with the largest mass migration in human history, in which 100s of millions moved from the countryside to the cities, there are still an estimated 300 million people working in agriculture. That’s the entire US population. It’s also 30% of the Chinese workforce. In the US just 2 or 3% work in farming.

But that still leaves 700 million Chinese in other jobs. Many of these jobs were ‘invented’ in the past 20 years, as China’s ‘miracle growth’ transformed it first into the world’s no. 1 trinket producer, then into a kind of powerhouse that built highways to nowhere cities, and today a powerhouse with a fast plummeting global consumer base.

Many millions of Chinese workers produce things that can’t be sold. This is by no means confined to just coal and steel. The sharply dropping Chinese import and export numbers, as well as the purchasing indices, tell a bleak story. It’s evident that China must re-invent itself.

But before wondering about civil obedience, let’s ask again: what are all these people going to do that produces actual economic value? Service economy? Consumer economy? There is no move available this time into another giant and overleveraged export industry. They’re at the end of the -debt- line.

Those people that had some money have lost a lot -and will lose much more- in equities and housing markets. Moreover, the government’s attempts to make them feel more secure about their old age would take decades to convince the people. So those who have something to save will do just that. So.. what consumer economy?

Service economy? Much of that in China is in financial services. Which has no future. So what else is there? How about the US model of burger flippers? That looks like a winner…
http://www.theautomaticearth.com/2016/0 ... jobs-lost/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Prices in Shenzhen jumped 4% in January from a month earlier and have gained 52% over the past year. Values in the financial center of Shanghai have increased 18% in the last 12 months, while those in Beijing advanced about 10%. Regulators last month allowed commercial banks to cut the minimum mortgage down-payment for first-home purchases to 20% from 25% and to 30% from 40% for second homes, except in five big cities with home-buying restrictions. Demand for real estate is also getting a boost from monetary stimulus after the PBOC cut benchmark lending rates six times since 2014, lowered banks’ reserve requirements and flooded the financial system with cash to keep borrowing costs low.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... n-payments" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Shenzhen has seen home prices skyrocket 72 per cent in the past 12 months, to a record 48,095 yuan per square metre in February, according to Shenzhen government data – more expensive than in Shanghai or Beijing. Speculative practices had flooded the market in Shenzhen, Xinhua said, with investment accounting for 25 per cent of total home buying, up from 10 per cent in October in 2014. Shenzhen’s average mortgage ratio was 65 per cent in December last year, the highest among mainland China’s first-tier cites.
http://www.scmp.com/business/article/19 ... rns-xinhua" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...what goes up usually comes down....

Hong Kong residential home sales plunged 70% in February from a year earlier to a 25-year low, as falling prices and economic uncertainty deterred buyers. In February, 1,807 homes were sold in Hong Kong, compared with 6,027 a year earlier, according to government statistics. Property prices have declined 10% from their September highs amid uncertainty over the economy at home and in China, possible interest-rate increases and plans by the government to boost housing supply in the next five years. Senior Hong Kong government officials have ruled out relaxing property curbs, which include extra stamp duties and caps on mortgage levels. [..] Home prices in the city surged 370% from their 2003 trough through the September peak, spurred by low mortgage rates, tight supply of new units and buying from mainland Chinese. This year, BOCOM International Holdings Co. property analyst Alfred Lau has said prices could fall 30% amid a slowdown.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... ntensifies" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rule No.1 in China’s blueprint for the next five years: "give top priority to development." That’s the word from Premier Li Keqiang’s work report delivered Saturday at the start of the annual National People’s Congress in Beijing. Li acknowledged there would be some difficult battles ahead as he outlined plans to clean up the environment, boost innovation, further urbanize and cut excess capacity in industries like coal and steel. Yet the firmest target remains on the one thing he has the least control over -- the nation’s economic growth rate. To reach the new target, the government will permit a record high deficit and has raised its money supply expansion target. The upshot: debt grows even as growth slows.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... -back-seat" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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For the first time, the Chinese government specified total social financing—a broad measure of credit that includes both bank loans and nonbank lending—as a metric for helping determine monetary policy. In the past, leaders have just said total social financing should be kept at an appropriate level, while they have set clear targets for M2 money supply, which covers all cash in circulation and most bank deposits. Both measures have increased sharply in recent months. But the money-supply measure fails to capture how banks and financial institutions use the funds. For instance, M2 jumped 13.3% last year while total social financing grew 12.4%, according to official data. The discrepancy indicates not all deposits were used by banks to make loans to companies; instead, some of the funds were tapped for such purposes as margin loans for stock-market speculation.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-lead ... 1457282233" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some bearish investors have also expressed skepticism about the reliability of China’s official foreign exchange reserves data, which showed reserves at $3.2tn at the end of January — still the world’s largest despite declining for 19 months. Skeptics say the headline total of reserves exaggerates the resources available to support the renminbi since they suspect it includes illiquid assets such as foreign real estate and private-equity investments that cannot be readily deployed in currency markets. Kyle Bass, the US hedge fund manager who has wagered billions that the renminbi and other Asian currencies will fall, believes China’s true reserves are more than $1tn below the government’s official total. Veteran investor George Soros has also suggested the renminbi may fall further.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/06/china-de ... -data.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Emerging market debtors - who have embarked on a $3.3 trillion dollar denominated debt spree in the wake of the financial crisis - saw issuance ground to a halt in the second half of the year. This provided a “telltale” sign that the financial conditions were reaching an inflection point, accompanied by large depreciations in emerging market currencies and slowing domestic growth.

“It is as if two waves with different frequencies came together to form a bigger and more destructive one”, said Mr Borio.

Global debt now stands at over 200pc of GDP, exceeding levels seen before the financial crash in 2007.

Japan's shock move to become the fifth major central bank to venture into sub-zero rates in late January sparked a flight for safety which saw the universe of negative yielding sovereign bonds expand from $4 trillion to more than $6.5 trillion in a matter of days. Around 60pc of all Japanese sovereign debt traded below zero in early February.

The European Central Bank is expected to unleash a fresh wave of stimulus into the moribund eurozone later this week, slashing its deposit rate further into negative territory and expanding QE.

But “confidence in central banks’ healing powers has – probably for the first time – been faltering” said Mr Borio. “Policymakers too would do well to take notice.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... dit-binge/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Seeking to find a common threat for the various global trends at play, Borio said “debt is what helps us understand apparently unrelated developments”.

“Against the backdrop of a long-term, crisis-exacerbated decline in productivity growth, the stock of global debt has continued to rise and the room for policy manoeuvre has continued to narrow,” he said.

Public sector debt has risen broadly, while private sector debt rises have been concentrated in emerging markets, he added.

He argued that debt also offered a “hint” on the continuing weakness of oil prices as “highly indebted oil-producing firms come under pressure to keep the spigots open to meet their service burdens.”
http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... lose-faith" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A government with debt equivalent to more than 240 percent of national output -- the largest load in the developed world -- should surely have to pay investors a tidy sum to convince them to part with their money, not the other way around. But the bond market in Japan has become so distorted that investors believe it's in their interests to lend money at a cost to themselves. The only explanation is that prices in Japan have gone horribly, horribly awry, and that has made the illogical logical.

The culprit is the Bank of Japan. The entire purpose of its unorthodox stimulus programs -- quantitative easing, negative interest rates -- is, in effect, to get prices wrong: to press down interest rates below where they would normally go and force banks to lend money in ways they normally wouldn’t. The BOJ, in other words, is trying to alter prices to change the incentive structure in the economy in order to engineer certain results -- to increase inflation, encourage investment and spark growth.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2 ... a-bad-idea" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....not working....

A meeting on Monday of finance ministers from the eurozone will determine whether creditors are to be given the green light to complete a long-delayed review of Greek economic recovery plans. The review has been held up by disagreement among lenders over how much more Athens needs to cut from public spending. It is seen as key to reviving Greece’s banking sector and restoring business and consumer confidence. “I think the situation right now is more dangerous than it was last summer,” the former finance minister Gikas Hardouvelis told the Guardian. Greek unemployment remains the highest in Europe at almost 25% – and just under 50% among the young.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... ls-reforms" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Zombies are stalking Europe — zombie banks that are solvent in name only. The phenomenon is not new. Zombies weighed down Japan for almost 20 years after a real estate bust. They are usually born of financial panics, when loans go bad, capital flees and the value of assets tumbles. There are no good choices when zombie banks are on the march. Shutting them down can cause further panic. Restoring them to health can require hundreds of billions of dollars. But letting them fester can cripple an economy for years, because zombies don’t make the loans healthy businesses need to grow and consumers need to spend. No place has been cozier for zombies since the 2008 global financial crisis than Europe, and no economy has been slower to recover. Even after multiple rescues and capital injections, almost a fifth of 130 banks failed a ECB stress test in October 2014, with a total capital shortfall of €25 billion. European lenders still sit on more than $1 trillion of dud loans, which don’t earn them any money and prevent them from making new loans that the region’s economy needs desperately to grow. Critics of Europe’s approach point to its double-dip recession and an unemployment rate stuck near a record high. One thing about old-fashioned bank runs — when they killed banks they stayed dead. The panics that followed, however, could bring down healthy banks as well, so tools for supporting banks grew up, most notably deposit insurance. Those developments brought with them a thorny question — when to pull the plug.
http://www.bloombergview.com/quicktake/zombie-banks" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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G20 Finance Ministers met in Huangzhou, China recently and refused appeals from both the IMF and the OECD for “urgent collective policy action” that focussed “fiscal policies on investment-led spending”. Instead the world’s finance ministers concluded that “it’s every country for themselves”. As “deflationary tides (lap) at the shores of countries around the world” [4] members of the economic establishment are belatedly waking up to the huge threat posed by this relatively unknown, and widely misunderstood phenomenon. Expect very little global leadership or co-ordination from our elected politicians. They remain captured by contractionary, deflationary economic theory and policies; policies which serve the interests of the rentier – the titleholders of money. Policies which threaten to tip the global economy once more into a “synchronised downturn”.
http://www.primeeconomics.org/articles/ ... yxu4hkvknh" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Banks will be offered billions of pounds of extra liquidity by the Bank of England, in case markets seize up in the weeks around the EU referendum in June. The Bank of England considered taking similar action at the time of the Scottish referendum, but as the scheme was never needed, it was only made public after the event. The process sees banks offer the Bank of England assets such as mortgage loans, in exchange for cash. The Bank of England offers this facility to banks once per month, but will give banks four chances to take extra cash in June.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... erendum-a/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Today, in the first months of 2016, the US is almost nine years into that debt implosion process with no end in sight. The Federal Reserve, the privately owned watchdog for the large Wall Street banks, timidly raised key US bank interest rates from zero by a mere 0.25% on December 15, 2015. They did so after months of cat-and-mouse games with financial markets, hinting that things were returning to “normal.” A month later, that same Fed indicated it had miscalculated. Today the US financial economy is going into a new downward spiral led by debt.

A recent study showed that in 2015 the average American household had $129,579 in debt — $15,355 of it on high-interest credit cards. Just because the Federal Reserve has a zero interest rate policy doesn’t mean Chase or other Visa card issuers charge zero. They still charge from 13% to 25% depending on the credit history.

Total consumer debt today is a staggering $11.91 trillion, almost 70% of GDP. It is even worse than the bare statistics. The American household is forced into debt increasingly because the rise in the cost of living has exceeded income growth over the past 12 years. Median household income has grown 26% since 2003, but household expenses have outpaced it significantly — with medical costs growing by 51% and food and beverage prices increasing by 37% in that same span. The average US household pays a total of $6,658 in interest cost on home, cars, credit card debt per year, 9% of the average household income of $75,591. That is being spent on interest alone, not on new shoes for the kids or dining out with the family. This is the real reason the Federal Reserve is in a gigantic pickle regarding raising interest rates to “normal”—it would blow up the near $12 trillion consumer pyramid of debt along with corporate debt.

Today total outstanding student loan debt in the US is $1.2 trillion. Only home mortgage debt is higher. About 40 million Americans hold student loans and about 70% of bachelor’s degree recipients graduate with debt. Those who graduated in 2015 left college holding an average of $35,051 before earning their first paycheck to pay that debt off. One in four student loan borrowers are either in delinquency or default…
http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/ ... t-hegemon/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
What readers should know is that the global economy has been powered by credit – its expansion in the U.S. alone since the early 1970’s has been 58 fold – that is, we now have $58 trillion of official credit outstanding whereas in 1970 we only had $1 trillion. Staggering, is it not? But now, this expansion appears to be reaching an ending of sorts, at least in its current form. Private sector savers are growing leery of debt piled upon debt and government regulators have begun to build fences against further rampant creation. In addition, the return offered on savings/investment whether it be on deposit at a bank, in Treasuries/ Bunds, or at extremely low equity risk premiums, is inadequate relative to historical as well as mathematically defined durational risk. The negative interest rates dominating 40% of the Euroland bond market and now migrating to Japan like a Zika like contagion, are an enigma to almost all global investors. Why would someone lend money to a borrower with the certainty of getting less money back at a future date? Several years ago even the most Einsteinian-like economists would not have imagined such a state but now it seems an everyday occurrence, as central banks plumb deeper and deeper depths like drilling rigs expecting to strike oil, if only yields could be lowered another 10, 20, 50 basis points.

Noted economists such as Larry Summers; respected journalists such as the FT’s Gillian Tett, central bankers such as Mario Draghi – all seem suddenly concerned that 500 Euro or 10,000 Yen Notes are facilitating drug dealers and terrorists (which they are). But what’s an economist/central banker doing opining on law enforcement? It appears that the one remaining escape hatch for ordinary citizens is being closed. Money in a mattress will heretofore be associated with drugs/terror. The cashless society which appears over the horizon may come sooner than the demise of the penny!

Summer, for our credit based financial system, is past and a shorter winter-like solstice is in our future. Be prepared for change.
https://www.janus.com/bill-gross-investment-outlook" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

27 giant profitable companies paid no taxes
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/mar ... /81399094/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Divided States Of An Armed America
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... ed-america" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Which States Rely Most On Federal Spending?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... l-spending" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Against expectations of a $17 billion surge, US consumer credit grew at just $10.5 billion - the weakest and biggest miss since March 2013. The biggest driver of this disappointment was an actual contraction in revolving credit (down $1.1 billion) for the first time since Feb 2015.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... march-2013" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bangladesh's central bank said today that part of almost USD 100 million allegedly stolen from a reserve account in the United States last month has been recovered. Suspected Chinese hackers stole the money from the foreign exchange account in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on February 5, according to a central bank official and media reports. Some of the money was then illegally transferred online to the Philippines and Sri Lanka, the central bank official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Philippine authorities have frozen the recovered money following court orders, Bangladesh Bank said. Bangladesh's central bank has around USD 28 billion in foreign currency reserve.
http://www.business-standard.com/articl ... 033_1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bangladesh's central bank said on Monday its U.S. account had been hacked and money had been stolen from it, but that it had recovered some of the funds. Bangladesh Bank said it had traced some of the money to the Philippines and was working with anti-money laundering authorities there. The New York Federal Reserve, which provides banking services to several international central banks, had no immediate comment on the matter.
http://in.reuters.com/article/banglades ... NKCN0W91TQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The FBI Has a New Plan to Spy on High School Students Across the Country
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/3509 ... he-country" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A 25-year veteran of the DEA and author of the book, Triangle of Death, Michael Levine claims the CIA played a key role in allowing the trafficking of drugs, particularly cocaine, into the U.S. from Latin America. Acting as a deep undercover agent for many years of his life, Levine found through first-hand experience that the CIA knew that drugs were being smuggled onto the streets of U.S. cities but did nothing about it. He claims that the Agency even leaked undercover DEA operations to the drug cartels, as he explains in the video below.
http://themindunleashed.org/2016/03/for ... demic.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You earn it, you keep it, you wear it. That's how many soldiers value their combat patches, badges and insignia that display who they are and what they've done. But while in the field, the commander of Fort Carson's 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team wants soldiers' uniforms to be bare to the bone, only showing name, rank, American flag, U.S. Army tape and the unit's 4th Infantry Division insignia. Hodne also wants to boost morale by making newcomers feel welcome. "As time goes on and the Army's transitioned somewhat, we find more and more of our soldiers without that combat experience," Boyd told Military Times. "And this really assists them in integrating into the unit."
http://www.armytimes.com/story/military ... /28927601/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth District ruled that on an officer, who violently endangered the lives of an innocent grandmother and her three grandchildren by repeatedly ramming his car into theirs, is not immune from a lawsuit.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cop-ra ... cope-duty/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bush Family Links to Nazi Germany: “A Famous American Family” Made its Fortune from the Nazis
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-bush-f ... is/5512243" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(CNN)An Idaho pastor was shot in the parking lot of his church Sunday, according to authorities. Tim Remington was found by police at 2 p.m. local time next to the Altar Church in Coeur d'Alene with multiple gunshot wounds, said Detective Jared Reneau of the Coeur d'Alene Police Department. Remington underwent surgery and is now in stable condition. Remington delivered the invocation at a rally for Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz on Saturday, but at the moment, police do not have any information indicating that the shooting was politically motivated, Reneau said.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/07/us/idaho- ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ted Cruz is ineligible to run for President of the United States. He was born in Canada, of parents who were Canadian citizens at the time of his birth. Cruz's mother claims to have been born in Delaware. The State of Delaware claims not to have any records of her. (The authenticity of the Birth Certificate provided by the Cruz campaign is now in dispute.) But even if genuine, it makes Cruz's mother a US citizen, but maybe not Cruz himself! Ted Cruz was born in Canada in 1970. In 1970, Canada did not recognize the concept of dual citizen. Hence Cruz is Canadian by birth, ONLY Canadian by birth, despite his parents' lineage! The fact that Ted Cruz claims to have renounced his Canadian citizenship proves this!
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICL ... z428iaAEcw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sending nearly two dozen sensitive emails makes Blumenthal, a former journalist and aide in the Bill Clinton White House, one of Clinton’s most prolific sharers of classified information. The Democratic presidential candidate herself sent 104 emails containing classified information, The Washington Post found. Some of Clinton’s State Department aides, such as chief of staff Cheryl Mills and deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin, sent dozens of emails which contain now-classified information. Jake Sullivan, Clinton’s top foreign policy adviser, sent 215 now-classified messages. But the Blumenthal memos are especially intriguing because the longtime Clinton ally did not work for the government. Instead, during the period that he sent Clinton memos, he was working for the Clinton Foundation as well as for several non-profit organizations with close ties to the Clintons. He also worked during some of that period as an editor for The Daily Beast.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/07/here- ... y-clinton/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks To The Republican Civil War, Every Scenario Ends With Hillary Clinton Winning The Election
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... 6-election" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Émilie Guimond-Bélanger, a social worker at the Droits Devant legal clinic in Montreal spoke to the media about a case that she worked on where a homeless man racked up over $110,000 in tickets. The man had over 500 tickets, which amounted to over $110,000 in fines. The fines were mostly for things that homeless people can’t control, such as sleeping in the subway or asking people for money.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ ... -1.3473707" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Perdue Foods LLC, a Gainesville, Ga. establishment, is recalling approximately 4,530 pounds of chicken nugget products (produced for Applegate Farms) that may be contaminated with extraneous plastic materials, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2016/0 ... ts-recall/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The World’s Largest Oil Reserves By Country
http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the- ... untry.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Once on the road to becoming an economic powerhouse, Venezuela is now one of the poorest and most dangerous countries on Earth. We sat down with one citizen to learn what happens when your country's economy and government just ... stop working.

But disaster creates opportunity. One of Venezuela's few growth industries revolves around helping people with money avoid the worst of the scarcity. Bachaqueros ("voracious insect," basically, so it's not a respected gig) buy up as much as they can find, and then resell it on the black market. Our source explains, "A carton of milk sells for one dollar. The bachaqueros sell it for eight to nine. That undermines the economy, because normal people can't get those products. The minimum wage most people get is not enough."

Bachaqueros befriend store owners and cashiers to get around fingerprint-enforced purchase limits. Your average Joe can only buy two cartons of milk a week ... unless he goes to the bachaqueros, who dodge those rules to stock up. You can also pay bachaqueros to stand in line for you, which sounds like laziness until you discover that a line can stretch for six hours. It's reached the point where social media is used to discuss toilet paper strategy. "You can ask on Instagram or Twitter. People will find you, and you can buy in bulk. We have 50 rolls on hand, and we stock up every time we can, because we don't know when there's going to be a shortage again. The most common alternative is to shower right after going to the bathroom. The smallest denomination of money is used for toilet paper, because it's worthless."

It's everything. "There's no accountability for the thieves; everyone can do whatever they want. And I cannot go to the police, because the police are either in cahoots [with the criminals] or won't do anything."

"After 6 p.m., no one is really safe. You see fewer and fewer people going to the clubs or the cinema, because going outside has been horrible. If you go outside and you don't have anything [of value, criminals] still kill you. Because you're worthless. The thieves have seen that even if they use force, they're hardly ever convicted of crimes. Even the policemen ask to pass through [gang-run areas]."

Venezuela has the most oil of anyone. No, really -- they're sitting on more oil than Saudi Araba, and they have almost as much as Iran and Iraq combined. Three times as much as Russia. So back in the day, it didn't seem like a terrible idea when Hugo Chavez dumped billions into social programs. Oil prices were high and profits were up, so why not make it rain? Hell, Kuwait regularly gives its citizens cash payouts and free food with their ridiculous oil revenues. Saudi Arabia does it too.

But then oil prices fell, and kept falling, and it came as a complete shock to the Venezuelan government, which had sort of assumed that oil would keep going up in value until it was either exhausted or Earth moved to a Star Trek-like post-currency utopia. "But," you're probably thinking, "Why wasn't everybody filthy rich from the days when our drivers were paying through the nose?" Good question. Part of the answer is that the country was laughably corrupt even when times were good. For years, the government allowed businessmen to siphon away tens of billions of dollars in oil revenue. And so instead of having a safety cushion to keep the country going through some lean years, Venezuela ended up with a patch of cement to splatter against.

So the oil money dried up, and all the things you should be able to expect a socialist government to provide -- water, electricity, law enforcement -- suddenly became either unreliable or nonexistent, forcing people to either turn to expensive private entities or go without.

Here's one fun example: 90 percent of Venezuela suffers from a powdered milk shortage, because the government-run company responsible for distributing it to protein-starved children was caught illegally selling it to Colombia.

You cannot find aspirin, or basic products like stomach pumps and scalpels. The only company that produces synthetic adrenaline left the country because there is strict monetary control. Companies cannot import medical supplies. So you go to any hospital, and you can see people on the floor bleeding and dying because they don't have enough beds, scalpels, cleaning agents ...

The wealthy quickly started to exchange their local currency (bolivars) for good old Yankee bucks that would hold their value, so the government quickly made that illegal. But then businesses couldn't import goods, since they couldn't use dollars and nobody outside Venezuela wanted their worthless currency. And that, friends, is how you get a scarcity crisis in which buying toilet paper is a monthly holiday and hospital patients wind up sleeping on the floor.

It's also how you get a new black market. The most prized item? Those American dollars. "There's a website, Dollar Today ... right now, you can buy one dollar for 900 bolivars. The minimum wage in Venezuela is 9,000 bolivars a month. There are people who buy dollars, wait for them to go up, and sell. That's the safest market Venezuela has. Because they're always going to go up, and you'll never lose your investment."
http://www.cracked.com/personal-experie ... ities.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Nightmare Of Grocery Shopping In Venezuela
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2 ... -venezuela" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looters target Venezuelan food stores as shortages spark frustration
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/a ... rustration" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Caracas just has been named the second most dangerous city in the world, coming in just after drug-stricken San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The Venezuelan government claim the murder rate fell by 18% in 2013, although this figure is widely believed to be much lower. It is commonly known, and even admitted by the Venezuelan government themselves, that approximately 20 percent of Venezuelan crime is committed by the police themselves. Kidnappings have become an everyday occurrence in the city: professional kidnappings, in co-operation with the police, or even committed by the police, are a fear for every foreigner who visits the city. Many go unrecorded simply because the police are not trusted. In 2012 alone there were 513 recorded kidnappings in the city, the true figure is believed to be in the region of over 2000 – that’s 1500 unreported kidnappings in one year.
https://www.the-newshub.com/internation ... an-baghdad" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TEL AVIV — A joint exercise now being conducted between thousands of Israeli troops and the U.S. European Command represents a final test before Israel begins to deploy one of the most sophisticated missile defense systems in the world.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mi ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
SEOUL, March 6 — Ahead of US-South Korean military drills, North Korean TV says the US will be “held accountable for igniting war.”

“We have cutting-edge attack methods to beat up the US mainland at anytime and from anywhere. Also we have diligently developed and deployed Juche (self-reliant) weapons in the era of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which enables us to fire strong artilleries.”

“If a war breaks out on the Korean peninsula, the US will be held accountable for igniting the war by mobilizing their massive strategic means and war hardware here, regardless of who mounted a preemptive attack,” a KRT News reader was reported saying. — Reuters
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/world/article/video" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The aftermath of the regime change operation in Libya has become even more horrific, as the United States resumes bombing. The intelligence behind the latest decision to escalate military action in Libya is believed to be faulty again. Re-escalation of military operations by Western forces in Libya comes amidst a new report by the New York Times on the role Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton played in pushing President Barack Obama to support intervention in Libya when she was secretary of state.
https://shadowproof.com/2016/03/06/podc ... a-bombing/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The communist party-affiliated Global Times, in a front page report, accused Pacom’s Adm. Harry Harris of “China bashing” and “making waves in the South China Sea” for comments accusing China of regional hegemony made during recent speeches and congressional testimony.

The publication, often used as an official outlet for hardline anti-US propaganda, then issued a veiled threat that harsh comments from the admiral were creating stepped up competition between the United States and China and could lead to conflict.

“If two nuclear powerhouses engage in a competition to test each other’s willpower, the whole world will face the repercussions,” Global Times stated March 4.
http://atimes.com/2016/03/beijing-targe ... china-sea/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As tens of thousands of US and South Korean military conduct massive war games which deliberately simulate an invasion of North Korea, Gregory Elich speaks with Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear to discuss what Washington hopes to accomplish with its provocative drills.
http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160307/10 ... rikes.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

North Korea has threatened to turn Washington and Seoul into “flames and ashes”, warning of an indiscriminate “pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice” in reaction to the start of US-South Korean military drills.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... es-and-ash" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At least 60 dead in ISIS truck bomb south of Baghdad
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/mi ... ghdad.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tunisia’s government says 45 people have been killed after extremists attacked a town near the Libyan border.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/03 ... ia-border/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Turkey and Azerbaijan have launched joint air force exercises, media in Azerbaijan have reported. According to reports, Azerbaijan's Air Force servicemen arrived in the central Turkish city of Konya on March 7 to take part in the drills. The maneuvers are expected to last from March 7 to March 25.
http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan ... 94148.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Turkish authorities are escalating a crackdown on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opponents, undeterred by possible risks to the nation’s renewed attempts to join the EU. In two days, authorities seized control of the company that owns a leading newspaper, and signaled the possibility of stripping prominent Kurdish lawmakers of their parliamentary immunity. The moves come on the eve of talks on Monday in Brussels between Turkish and EU officials to discuss ways to handle the influx of refugees from Syria.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... u-meetings" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Turkey is disputing Greece’s territorial sovereignty over a string of tiny islands and a part of its air space over the Aegean Sea, according to a confidential document, obtained by Kathimerini, that was submitted to NATO’s Military Committee last month. The 17-point document, which is expected to further strain relations between the neighboring countries, was submitted on February 15, during heated discussions between Greece and Turkey over the terms of deployment of a German-led NATO patrol in the Aegean to stem the flow of refugees. It was the first time that had Turkey disputed Greek sovereignty via an official NATO document. EU leaders will hold a special meeting Monday in a bid to hammer out a deal that would help contain the number of refugees entering Greece and the rest of the EU.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/206675/arti ... to-patrols" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Russian warships and naval assets sailing through Bosphorus strait has Turkey frightened
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 14796.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tsipras has accused Austria and Balkan countries of “ruining Europe” by slowing the flow of migrants and refugees heading north from Greece, where some 30,000 are now trapped, waiting for Macedonia to reopen its border so they can head to Germany. With more arriving in the mainland from Greek islands close to Turkish shores, the numbers could swell by 100,000 by the end of this month, EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos projected on Saturday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-greec ... SKCN0W80JI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

European Union leaders will be looking to boost aid to Greece as the Balkan migrant route is effectively sealed, using Monday’s summit as an attempt to restore unity among the 28 member nations after months of increasing bickering and go-it-alone policies, according to a draft statement Sunday. The leaders will also try to persuade Turkey’s prime minister to slow the flow of migrants travelling to Europe and take back thousands who don’t qualify for asylum. In a draft summit statement produced Sunday and seen by The Associated Press, the EU leaders will conclude that “irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route are coming to an end; this route is now closed.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/ ... ummit.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...pretty much guaranteed to destroy the fabric of Greek society - bankrupt and virtual EU housing project for immigrants...

HELSINKI — Bilateral military collaboration between Finland and Sweden could potentially lead to the establishment of a treaty-based defense union between the two nonaligned Nordic states. The military-deepening talks are overshadowed by ever-closer cooperation between both Nordic states and NATO. This growing relationship with the alliance is largely driven by elevated security tensions and unpredictable Russian aggression in the region.
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defens ... /81307724/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If the above scenario plays out, Russia will emerge as the de facto leader of the major oil producing nations of the world, accounting for almost 73 percent of the global oil supply.
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-Gener ... upply.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
To the casual observer, Saudi Arabia might seem like an emboldened nation that is asserting itself. They’ve been challenging Iran, fighting rebels in Yemen, threatening to invade Syria, and if some rumors are to be believed, they are currently trying to attain nuclear missiles from Pakistan. However, these aren’t the actions of a stable nation that is asserting its dominance in the region. These are the flailing death throes of a nation that is struggling to hang on.

Ever since global oil prices started to plummet, Saudi Arabia just hasn’t been the same. That’s no surprise. Since prices fell, other oil rich nations have been hurting as well. Russia’s economy has been on the ropes, Canada is plummeting into a recession, and Venezuela is on the verge of total collapse. However, there probably isn’t any nation on Earth that is more reliant on oil than Saudi Arabia. If anyone is going to be destroyed by low oil prices, it’s the Saudis.

The crux of the matter is that this country is running out of money. It doesn’t look like it at first glance. They’ve only recently started to dip into their enormous savings, and their debt to GDP ratio is remarkably low. However, they are hemorrhaging money at an alarming rate.

Essentially, Saudi Arabia runs on institutionalized bribery. They need cold hard cash to keep the population in line, to keep the ever-growing royal family rich and happy, and to make sure everyone is doing their job. It’s not like what you see in most Western nations, where much of the population has a misplaced sense of civic duty. This system needs cash, and can’t survive on IOUs.

The elites in this society demand a life of perpetual luxury, and government handouts are the only thing keeping the oppressed masses from rebelling. Once they run out of money, everything will fall apart from the bottom up.
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/the-tota ... ing_032016" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

To find out if this other, more common mosquito species could carry Zika, researchers injected 200 of them with the virus. They then watched to see if it made its way into the bug's salivary glands, which is where it would need to be to infect a person. It did, which means it's possible that could happen outside the lab as well.
http://www.businessinsider.com/research ... ika-2016-3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The complex has no official name. Not many people even know it’s there. As secret airbases go, the single runway in the test site’s Area 6 is easily overshadowed by the world’s most famous secret military base, Area 51, a dozen miles northeast. Area 51’s existence was only recently acknowledged, even after decades of speculation by UFO enthusiasts that the aircraft development and test facility also houses space aliens and extraterrestrial technology. Unlike Area 51, which is protected by shoot-to-kill security and shielded from outside view by mountain ranges, Area 6 has only fences and visitor checkpoints. It can be seen at a distance from tour buses on the highway to historic bomb craters at the northern end of Yucca Flat. But exactly what goes on at the much smaller and much newer Area 6 is still top-secret defense research-and-development work. It’s so hush-hush that the security site’s spokesman can say little about it.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevad ... rld-area-6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Darwin Morgan, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the low-key Area 6 facilities have been used by the Defense and Homeland Security departments.

The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a 2014 Louisiana law imposing regulations on doctors who perform abortions.
http://www.lifezette.com/quickzette/sup ... rtion-law/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On March 2, 2016, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on the Terra satellite captured this view of the erupting volcano. The image is false color—a combination of near-infrared, red, and green light (ASTER bands 3-2-1). Vegetation appears red; the volcanic plume is blue-gray; and lava flows are dark gray and brown.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... &src=nhrss" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SEATTLE (AP) — A magnitude 4.7 earthquake was recorded Saturday morning off the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Authorities have heard no reports of injuries or damage.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-new ... er-island/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Arctic Ocean is six million square miles, most of it covered in ice. But last month the top of the world was up to 14 degrees above normal, and broke the record for the lowest amount of ice in February -- more than 400,000 square miles short.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sea-ice-in- ... t-thought/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The La Salina lagoon in Huatulco began changing color on Monday. Now, residents are calling for help from Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, the Environment Secretariat and the environmental protection agency, Profepa, to address the situation in light of inaction by local authorities. Another group of residents has turned to biblical explanations for the color change and wants a priest to conduct an assessment to determine if the phenomenon is the outcome of an evil curse.
http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/residen ... red-water/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lagoon turns blood red in Mexico unexpectedly. This lagoon situated in Huatalco, Mexico has turned blood red within the last 10 days.
http://strangesounds.org/2016/03/lagoon ... stery.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Pacific wave train set to bring a much-anticipated storm to the West Coast this weekend looks like it has a second destination in mind. Parts of the south-central U.S., especially Arkansas, are in line for what could be some of their heaviest March rains on record next week, once the Pacific storm cuts off and settles in for a spell.

In classic El Niño fashion, the Pacific jet stream will dip to uncommonly low latitudes as it move inland. By midweek, the jet will have carved out an upper-level low in northern Mexico (see Figure 3 below). At that point, its progress will be halted by strong upper ridging over the eastern U.S. In between, this will allow for extremely rich tropical moisture to flow northward from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico into the lower Mississippi Valley. The amount of precipitable water in this air mass is projected to surpass record levels for March in some areas.

A stationary front expected to lie from Texas toward Illinois will become the focus of multiple rounds of heavy showers and thunderstorms over several days. Some severe weather could emerge, including tornadoes, although the set-up looks less like a prolific twister producer and more like a torrential rainmaker. The focal point is likely to be Arkansas, where the stationary front should be aligned near or just east of the Ozarks. This would help enhance uplift and set the stage for what could eventually pose a serious flooding threat. The 00Z Friday run of the GFS model dumped 8” to 12” of rain over most of the southeast half of Arkansas over the ten days ending on Sunday, March 13. A secondary peak of 8" or more could develop in parts of Louisiana. Such a forecast is quite plausible, given the very moist air mass expected and given the fact that upper-level lows often move even more slowly than expected. March is the most common month for river floods across the southeast U.S., and heavy spring rains are a hallmark of El Niño in this region.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... d-arkansas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Storm knocks out power at Los Angeles airport
http://www.timesunion.com/news/us/artic ... 874683.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A stream of high-speed solar wind is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, and this is causing geomagnetic storms around the Arctic Circle. So far, Northern Lights have descended as far south as Germany in Europe and Massachusetts in the USA. Skies over much of England turned green, too. Sian Louise Gordon sends this picture from Saltburn-by-the-Sea:
http://www.spaceweather.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A high speed solar wind stream containing extended periods of southward Bz is contributing to an unexpectedly strong geomagnetic storm (Kp6 - Kp7) at higher latitudes. Visible aurora is being reported from many locations across northern Europe and Scandinavia. Sky watchers in Canada, the northern Tier USA and Alaska should be alert once dark outside should the solar wind conditions persist.
http://www.solarham.net/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Last edited by Jason on March 7th, 2016, 4:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.

2EstablishZion
captain of 100
Posts: 337

Re: Blipits

Post by 2EstablishZion »

Long story short on the financial articles - we have feasted sumptuously (at least if you are investor class) on Keynesian economics, but the bill is coming due, with a century of compound interest. Will we do dishes for the next 50 years, or skip out on paying the bill? Neither option bodes well, and look for those who only got an econo appetizer to get stuck with the majority of the upcoming pain - aside from the occasional Wall Street jumper.

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

South Korea on Tuesday moved to impose fresh sanctions on Pyongyang following the North’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile test earlier this year as well as its more recent threats. Under the new unilateral sanctions - which follow moves by the UN Security Council and discussions in the EU to punish North Korea for its recent belligerence - dozens of individuals and organisations Seoul believes are involved in Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes will be blacklisted. The measures also ban vessels previously docked in Northern ports from Southern waters.
http://www.theworldweekly.com/reader/vi ... north/7007" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China has barred a North Korean freighter from one of its ports and South Korea announced a crackdown on individuals and companies linked to Pyongyang's weapons program, stepping up sanctions against the isolated state. North Korean general cargo ship Grand Karo arrived at Rizhao port in northeastern China a few days ago, but the port did not allow the ship to berth, said a person at the Rizhao Maritime Authority, declining to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The ship is among 31 vessels blacklisted by China's Ministry of Transport after they were covered by harsher sanctions on North Korea that were approved by the U.N. Security Council last week. In Seoul, the government said on Tuesday it would impose new sanctions against 40 individuals and 30 entities because of suspected links to North Korea's weapons program and would ban vessels that had stopped at North Korean ports in the past 180 days.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-north ... SKCN0WA14U" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...looks like N.Korea is getting pushed into a situation where they either fight or starve to death...

South Korea sanctions to target North Korea's finances
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/ ... 457446666/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seoul. South Korean and US troops began large-scale military exercises on Monday (07/03) in an annual test of their defenses against North Korea, which called the drills "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive. South Korea said the exercises would be the largest ever following North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month that triggered a UN Security Council resolution and tough new sanctions.
http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/inte ... ns-attack/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TOKYO (AP) -- Massive joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises are a spring ritual on the Korean Peninsula guaranteed to draw a lot of threat-laced venom from Pyongyang. This time, not only are the war games the biggest ever, but the troops now massed south of the Demilitarized Zone have reportedly incorporated a new hypothetical into their training: a "beheading mission" against Kim Jong Un himself.
http://www.news-sentinel.com/news/us-an ... as-tension" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TOKYO – Massive joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises are a spring ritual on the Korean Peninsula guaranteed to draw a lot of threat-laced venom from Pyongyang. This time, not only are the war games the biggest ever, but the troops now massed south of the Demilitarized Zone have reportedly incorporated a new hypothetical into their training: a “beheading mission” against Kim Jong Un himself.
http://www.pressherald.com/2016/03/08/t ... s-tension/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

North Korea has stepped up army recruitment and called on former soldiers to re-enlist to bolster its ground forces ahead of the traditional joint military exercise between South Korea and the US, according to sources inside the country
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... rcise.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(CNN)South Korea's spy agency says North Korea has hacked dozens of top government officials' smartphones over the past couple of weeks.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/08/asia/sout ... hone-hack/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

North Korea unveiled its new 300mm multiple rocket launch system after new international sanctions were announced
http://thediplomat.com/2016/03/meet-nor ... et-system/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Branch by branch, a look at North Korea's massive military
http://www.businessinsider.in/Branch-by ... 299113.cms" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Beginning March 1, the Stennis carrier strike group conducted at least 266 air sorties in the eastern half of the sea, a Navy statement said. The Stennis, along with destroyers USS Chung-Hoon and USS Stockdale, and the cruiser USS Mobile Bay all took on fuel and supplies from the USNS Rainier.
http://www.stripes.com/news/general-us- ... p-1.398135" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...practice for N. Korea???

Days after its much-heralded arrival in the region, the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group has passed out of the South China Sea, officials announced on Monday.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... iving.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The U.S. will deploy its high-powered strategic assets during the exercises, including its B-2 stealth bomber, nuclear-powered submarine USS North Carolina and nuclear carrier USS John C. Stennis that will dock in Busan soon. For the first time during the joint exercises, allies will carry out OPLAN 5015 -- signed last year -- that stipulates precision strikes against Pyongyang’s Kim Jong-un regime as well as the communist country’s nuclear and missile facilities. Allies’ four-stage 4D plans on North Korean threats -- detect, disrupt, destroy and defense -- will also be applied in the drills.
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20160307001006" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) test-fired several ballistic missiles from silos across the country on Tuesday, state television said, defying recent U.S. sanctions on its missile programme.
http://in.reuters.com/article/iran-test ... NKCN0WA0VA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

NATO drills - US attempt to show readiness for war against Russia
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/334789-nato- ... M.facebook" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

U.S. airstrike kills 150 suspected militants in Somalia
http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morni ... get-213084" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China imported 31.80 million metric tons of crude oil in February, equivalent to 8.0 million barrels a day, preliminary data from the General Administration of Customs showed Tuesday. Imports were 24.5% higher than the 25.55 million tons of crude shipped in during the month a year earlier and was up about 19% from 26.69 million tons in January. China exported 80,000 tons of crude oil in February, compared with 104,188 tons in January and 43.8% lower than the 161,455 tons in the same month a year earlier, according to the preliminary data. Government efforts to fill the strategic petroleum reserves are also pushing China to import more foreign crude as domestic production is likely to slide by 1.5% this year, according to research firm ICIS.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/despit ... 2016-03-07" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Greece cleared a crucial hurdle in its massive bailout programme on Monday as eurozone ministers promised to consider debt relief to Athens, which is already under pressure from the refugee crisis. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras secured Greece's third bailout, worth a staggering 86 billion euros ($95 billion). The IMF has yet to officially sign onto the third bailout of Greece and is making its participation conditional on Athens fulfilling its commitments, as well as the eurozone allowing for debt relief.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 300143.cms" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ontario has announced it could soon be sending a monthly cheque to its residents as it plans to launch an experiment testing the basic income concept. While officials in the Canadian province are yet to release any specific details of the project – including how much will be given to residents who participate – the finance ministry has published a report confirming the government’s intention to roll out the experiment. The general concept of basic income involves a government handing out a flat-rate income to every single citizen within a country, either by replacing existing benefits or to top them up.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 16571.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In December, the Liberal government increased the tax rate on income above Canadian $200,000 ($150,800) and cut taxes on the middle class. The Liberals have said their budget, to be introduced later this month, will introduce benefits to low- and middle-income families of C$6,400 a year ($4,825) for each child under 6, and slightly less for children ages 6 to 17.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2 ... r-to-trump" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The EU and Turkey say they have agreed the broad principles of a plan to ease the migration crisis at a summit in Brussels, but delayed a final decision. European Council President Donald Tusk said all irregular migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey would be returned. For each Syrian returned, Turkey wants the EU to accept a recognised Syrian refugee, and offer more funding and progress on EU integration. Talks on the plan will continue ahead of an EU meeting on 17-18 March.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35749837" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Strange Story Of The Goldman Banker Subpoenaed In Malaysian Slush Fund Probe
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... fund-probe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BREAKING U.S. Subpoenas Former Goldman Sachs Bankster; Major Scandal Brewing
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/20 ... ldman.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Navy Secretly Conducting Electromagnetic Warfare Training on Washington Roads
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/3511 ... gton-roads" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

earthquakes
http://www.breakingnews.com/topic/earthquakes/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Later today, there's going to be a total eclipse of the sun. It begins at sunrise on March 9th over the islands of Indonesia. That's the afternoon of March 8th in the United States. Sky watchers inside the narrow path of totality, which cuts across the Pacific Ocean from Sumatra to the waters north of Hawaii, can feel the touch of the Moon's cool shadow and behold the sun's corona.
http://www.spaceweather.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

The country’s government-backed venture funds raised about 1.5 trillion yuan ($231 billion) in 2015, tripling the amount under management in a single year to 2.2 trillion yuan, according to data compiled by the consultancy Zero2IPO Group. That’s the biggest pot of money for startups in the world and almost five times the sum raised by other venture firms last year globally. The money’s in what are known as government guidance funds, where local and central agencies play some role. With 780 such funds nationwide and a lot of experimentation, there’s no set model for how they’re managed or funded. The bulk of their capital comes from tax revenue or state-backed loans.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... on-in-2015" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Chinese exports plunge 25% in February
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35751586" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Capital has been flowing out of China at unprecedented rate over the past six months. Amidst concerns about the economy and the potential for further weakness in the Chinese renminbi, many investors are running for the exits. With regulators closely monitoring cross boarder flows, heightening the risk of more stringent capital controls being put in place, investors have become increasingly inventive when it comes to getting money out of China. Take the practice of fake invoicing, for example. Based on recent anomalies between Chinese and Hong Kong trade figures, it appears many investors are now trying to get their capital out through non-traditional means, overstating the value of imported goods from Hong Kong to circumvent Chinese capital controls. It’s the exact opposite scenario to what was seen in past years where firms in Hong Kong were overstating the value of imported goods from China in order to get capital in there, avoiding capital controls in an attempt to speculate on further strengthening in the renminbi.
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/fake- ... try-2016-3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Image

Days after the Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements played down fears over capital flight out of China, new trade data has put the spotlight on a channel used to ferret out billions worth of illicit money flows: phantom goods. A steep rise in China’s reported imports from Hong Kong has raised concerns that trade invoices are being manipulated to get capital out of the country amid fears the yuan will continue to weaken. February data released Tuesday show those imports jumped 89% from a year earlier, even as total imports fell 14%. While the rise wasn’t as great as in January, economists said the spike follows similar patterns in recent months that point to companies using trade channels to pay for goods far in excess of their value or even that don’t exist at all.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... y-outflows" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Chinese officials are trying anew to slow an unprecedented money exodus from the country, clamping down on individuals seeking to flee the yuan and making life tougher for companies that need to trade the currency for dollars to do business. China’s foreign-exchange regulator in recent months has deployed a new system to monitor individual purchases of foreign funds and has asked banks to reduce foreign-currency transactions. It has summoned bankers to its offices to give guidance and has grilled them when foreign-exchange activity spikes, according to executives at Chinese and foreign lenders. Banks, in turn, have increased scrutiny of foreign-currency transactions by businesses ranging from Chinese entrepreneurs investing abroad to companies paying overseas bills.

Spooked by slowing growth and a declining currency, Chinese businesses and consumers are trying to move money abroad where its value might hold up. Last year, some $700 billion to $1 trillion is estimated to have fled China. That is more than the economy of Switzerland and equivalent to as much as 10% of China’s massive GDP. China’s foreign-currency reserves fell by a record $107.9 billion in December from November and another $128 billion in January and February combined, putting reserves 20% lower than their June 2014 peak. The outflows destabilize the currency and make China’s decelerating economy harder to guide.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-fight ... 1457475908" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...an opinion I ran across that I resonated with...with regard to China...
(China has)... the longest written continuous history of any culture, however, and there are patterns China scholars, internal and external, have identified. Relevant right here is – corruption. China has attempted literally hundreds of times, sincerely, to limit, even eradicate corruption- and they have never succeeded; and they know it. It now has the force of religion; corruption will grow until the government becomes entirely powerless, at which point the people always rebel and burn the country to the ground- killing all the elites they can get their hands on.

They call it the Dynastic Cycle, and their belief in it makes it a self-fulfiling prophecy. Part of what is going on in their new excursion into capitalism is the belief “Look, there’s no way to really stop people from manipulating the process to steal money- we’d better just grab all we can now too, if we (family/clan) want to survive the next collapse.” They’ve been playing the game of “Steal from the Poor, Give to the Rich” for as many millennia as we can see. And for 1,000 years before Han Wudi, at least, keeping foreigners guessing about what is really going on has been an integral part of it. They know how.
They don't call it a "currency war" for nothing. Moments ago, the RBNZ cut rates by 25 bps to 2.25% in the latest shot across the bow in what is now a years-long race to the bottom.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... e-rate-cut" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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According to DoubleLine's Jeff Gundlach, this is his favorite chart -
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Iran tests more missiles, says capable of reaching Israel
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran- ... SKCN0WB0I9" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...one way to get the price of oil up...and when the missils are inscribed with: "מעלישראל צריכה להימחק"...maybe its more than oil...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country has miniaturized nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles and ordered improvements in the power and precision of its arsenal, state media reported on Wednesday. Kim has called for his military to be prepared to mount pre-emptive attacks against the United States and South Korea and stand ready to use nuclear weapons, stepping up belligerent rhetoric after coming under new U.N. and bilateral sanctions for its nuclear and rocket tests.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-north ... SKCN0WA2QM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The armed forces of the United States, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea are conducting joint amphibious operations "Ssang Yong 2016" along the South Korean coastal city of Pohang, the US Navy announced in a statement on Wednesday.
http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160309/10 ... korea.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chevron Protects Dividend, Cuts Another 36 Percent Off Spending
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-Gener ... nding.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SPAIN TERROR WARNING: New ISIS threat revealed for holidaymakers in the Costa del Sol
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/651 ... SIS-danger" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The concept is breathtakingly simple: any economic migrant or Syrian refugee arriving on a Greek island would be returned to Turkey. The initiative is intended to be a short circuit for irregular migration. It will go for the bulk of the 2,000 migrants a day that are arriving on Greek beaches. The political price is the EU abandoning constraints that have framed its relations with Turkey for almost a decade. A European visa waiver for Turkish citizens could be granted by June, a pledge that glosses over the strict conditions attached; a decade-long Cypriot bar on some of Ankara’s membership chapters could be lifted; and extra funding made available in 2018 on top of a €3bn already granted by the EU.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/2bde51d6 ... 97d1c.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Europe had not even fulfilled its agreement last September to relocate 66,000 refugees from Greece, redistributing only 600 to date within the bloc, Cochetel said earlier. “What didn’t happen from Greece, will it happen from Turkey? We’ll see, I have some doubts,” he said on Swiss radio RTS. Turkey is home to nearly 3 million Syrian refugees, the largest number worldwide, but its acceptance rates for refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iraq were “very low”, about 3%, Cochetel said.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... urkey-deal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Slovenia and neighbouring Croatia will from Wednesday refuse allow the transit of most refugees through their territory in a bid to seal off the Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands of people seeking a new life in Europe. The move could set off a domino effect among Balkan states, with Serbia indicating it would follow Ljubljana’s lead and Macedonia apparently set to so the same. The attempt to shut down the main route used by refugees fleeing war and persecution outside Europe’s borders comes barely a day after the EU and Turkey agreed on a proposal aimed at easing the crisis.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... f-refugees" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Macedonia Shuts Door Completely To Migrants And Refugees
http://www.rferl.org/media/video/macedo ... 00781.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thousands of troops head to Hungarian border as migration emergency declared
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/651 ... ops-danger" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just two months ago, former Fed President Dick Fisher admitted that "The Fed front-loaded an enormous market rally in order to create a wealth effect." Today he is back, taking a victory lap onthe 7th anniversary of the crisis lows by explaining, rather stunningly, to CNBC that "we injected cocaine and heroin into the system" to enable a wealth effect (that he admits did not work, despite its success in raising asset prices), and "now we are maintaining it with ritalin." Fisher also confirmed his previous warning that "The Fed is a giant weapon that has no ammunition left."
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-0 ... lth-effect" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One of the starkest statistics in the lives of girls today is that 73 percent of girls in the juvenile justice system have been physically or sexually abused, according to U.S. Bureau of Justice figures.
http://youthtoday.org/2016/03/girls-in- ... -response/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Michigan taxpayers may pay up to $2.7 million in outside legal fees associated with the Flint water crisis if Governor Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette receive all the money they’re seeking from state lawmakers.
https://www.rt.com/usa/335046-flint-wat ... egal-fees/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Top Wounded Warrior donor calls for CEO's resignation
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-wounded ... signation/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Navy SEALs Tell Congressman There Is a Combat Rifle Shortage - "There is so much wasteful spending," he said. "Money is not reaching the people it needs to reach."
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStor ... s-37454576" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A judge has denied bail for a New Hampshire man accused of being a mid-level organizer in a high-profile 2014 armed standoff with federal agents at the Nevada ranch of Cliven Bundy.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nevad ... SKCN0WB225" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FBI agents under investigation for possible misconduct in LaVoy Finicum shooting
http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-stando ... s_und.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
New Evidence Shows Foul Play, Cover-up by FBI and OSP in Shooting of Lavoy Finicum – DOJ Opens New Investigation
http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/03/09/n ... stigation/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jeb’s brother Neil Bush joins Cruz finance team, possibly opening door to more Bush support
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/ ... port.html/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Kyle Andrew Odom, the suspect in the shooting of an Idaho pastor, was taken into custody Tuesday at the White House, a source at the U.S. Secret Service told CNN.
http://ktla.com/2016/03/08/suspect-soug ... t-service/#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...from Idaho to DC....
Forty-five years ago on Tuesday, peace activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and unearthed documents exposing the government's expansive COINTELPRO operations, which aimed to surveil, disrupt, and "neutralize" lawful activist groups, including war protesters, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the American Indian Movement, and the National Lawyers Guild.

Though the COINTELPRO revelations stirred widespread outrage and led to the eventual passage of reform legislation, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, such abuse of activists' First Amendment rights continues to this day.

More than 60 national and local groups on Tuesday sent a letter (pdf) to the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees expressing concern over the FBI's and Department of Homeland Security (DHS)'s "abuse of counterterrorism resources to monitor Americans’ First Amendment protected activity."
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/0 ... sent-enemy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

6.2 magnitude earthquake strikes southwest of Samoa
https://www.rt.com/news/334864-quake-st ... amoa-usgs/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A Flash Flood Emergency has been declared in Northwest Louisiana, including the city of Shreveport, where over a foot of rain fell in just 24 hours, from Tuesday morning through Wednesday morning. At Shreveports's Barksdale Air Force Base, 13.16" had fallen as of 10 am EST Wednesday, and over 14 inches of rain fell just to the southeast of Shreveport near Bossier City. The heavy rains have led to numerous high water rescues and flooded homes and streets. Near Shreveport, up to 80 homes were flooded and a nursing home had to be evacuated due to rising waters, according to the Associated Press, and evacuations have been ordered in Greenwood, Haughton, Homer, Minden and Rayville, Louisiana. The flooding problems extend into Eastern Texas, where multiple bridges have been washed out northeast of Marlin, Texas. Although the heaviest rains moved out of Eastern Texas and Northern Louisiana late Wednesday morning, near-record levels of atmospheric moisture for this time of year--more than 200% of average--remain in place over the region, and renewed rounds of heavy rain are likely through Friday. Extreme flooding rains were spreading into Southern Arkansas on Wednesday morning, and rainfall amounts of a foot in 24 hours are possible there, as well. Additional major flash flooding over the next few days is also possible in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Shreveport, Little Rock, Memphis and New Orleans. Although flooding is the major concern from this slow-moving storm system, severe thunderstorms and a few tornadoes are also expected through Thursday in some of the same parts of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast. So, far, the storm had spun up three tornadoes since Monday.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... ain-in-24-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

China's central bank is preparing regulations that would allow commercial lenders to swap non-performing loans of companies for stakes in those firms, two people with direct knowledge of the new policy told Reuters. The new rules would reduce commercial banks' non-performing loan (NPL) ratios, and free up cash for fresh lending for investment in a new wave of infrastructure products and factory upgrades that the government hopes will rejuvenate the world's second-largest economy.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china ... SKCN0WC0MD" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...government will own literally everything...
At today’s meeting the Governing Council of the ECB took the following monetary policy decisions:

(1) The interest rate on the main refinancing operations of the Eurosystem will be decreased by 5 basis points to 0.00%, starting from the operation to be settled on 16 March 2016.

(2) The interest rate on the marginal lending facility will be decreased by 5 basis points to 0.25%, with effect from 16 March 2016.

(3) The interest rate on the deposit facility will be decreased by 10 basis points to -0.40%, with effect from 16 March 2016.

(4) The monthly purchases under the asset purchase programme will be expanded to €80 billion starting in April.

(5) Investment grade euro-denominated bonds issued by non-bank corporations established in the euro area will be included in the list of assets that are eligible for regular purchases.
http://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/ ... 10.en.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....and the banks will own literally everything....

...what will they do with it??? Possession is 9/10ths...next comes the war over control...

World markets may have recovered their poise from a torrid start to the year, but their outlook for global growth and inflation is now so bleak they are betting on developed world interest rates remaining near zero for up to another decade. Even though the U.S. Federal Reserve has already started what it expects will be a series of interest rate rises, markets appear to have bought into a “secular stagnation” thesis floated by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. The idea posits that the world is entering a peculiarly prolonged period in which structurally low inflation and wage growth – hampered by aging populations and slowing productivity growth – means the inflation-adjusted interest rate needed to stimulate economic demand may be far below zero.
http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessN ... QG?sp=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...love how they dance around it...but the key fundamental problem is debt and the ability to service debt...

In recent years, many countries – including Greece, Argentina and Ukraine – have found themselves indebted beyond their ability to pay. Argentina may now be on the brink of resolving a decade-long dispute with some of its creditors, but its predicament highlights a fundamental problem of sovereign debt. Unlike individuals and corporations, countries cannot use bankruptcy laws to restructure unsustainable debt. They are forced to try to separately renegotiate each of their debt contracts, which often fails because it requires unanimity. Although attempts have been made to try to bypass this requirement by including so-called collective action clauses in sovereign debt contracts, many contracts still lack them. Furthermore, most collective action clauses only bind a party to the particular contract that includes it. The parties to any given sovereign debt contract, therefore, can act as holdouts in any debt restructuring plan that requires the parties to all of the country’s other debt contracts to agree to it.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2 ... ebt-crisis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Too Many Boats for Too Little Cargo Leaves Shippers High and Dry
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... gh-and-dry" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The IMF has warned that the global economy faces a growing “risk of economic derailment.” Deputy director David Lipton called for urgent steps to boost global demand. “We are clearly at a delicate juncture,” he said in a speech to the National Association for Business Economics in Washington on Tuesday.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35762618" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A report this week by Morgan Stanley spells out the grim price Europeans will pay if they mishandle this event. Foreign investors would start to withdraw their $8.3 trillion of investments in the eurozone. There might be a bond run with Spain in the firing line. The bank’s base case for Brexit is that the MSCI Europe index of equities will fall 15pc-20pc, and 0.7 percentage points will be knocked off growth by late 2017. Its “high stress” scenario is a stock market crash of up to 30pc, a tightening in financial conditions by 200 basis points, severe contagion, and a 2pc blow to GDP that pushes the eurozone into recession, with “growing concerns around the sustainability of the entire European project”. Whether the eurozone could withstand a fresh shock of this force is an open question. The region already has one foot in deflation, with toxic effects on debt dynamics. Public debt ratios are massively higher than they were at the top of the last credit cycle in 2008, and pushing safe limits of 133pc of GDP in Italy and 129pc in Portugal. The hysteresis effects of mass unemployment have done lasting damage to economic dynamism, lowering the eurozone’s speed limit for a decade to come. There is no fiscal union, and no genuine banking union. Little has been done to make monetary union viable. The ECB is running low on ammunition.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... mishandle/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Refugees were still flowing into the Idomeni border camp in northern Greece Wednesday, despite the complete border closure by authorities in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia over the last few days, while torrential rain has made conditions even worse. “The situation is stifling as more people are arriving daily on foot,” the coordinator of the Hellenic Red Cross in northern Greece, Despina Filipidaki, told Kathimerini on Wednesday. “The biggest problem is that the bad living conditions are worsening the health problems,” she added. According to the latest estimates, more than 12,000 refugees are camped there in deplorable conditions while a further 3,050 are at Piraeus port, bringing the total number of migrants throughout Greece to 35,945.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/206830/arti ... by-the-day" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Greece’s public order minister says refugees living in a squalid camp at the country’s border with Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) must accept that the border is shut and move to organized facilities. Nikos Toskas says the country can provide better conditions in other camps within 10-20 kilometers (6-12 miles) of the Idomeni crossing, where up to 14,000 people live in a waterlogged tent city. Toskas told state ERT TV Wednesday that Greece can offer “no serious support” to such a large number of people gathered in one spot.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/206812/arti ... s-minister" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A remarkably rare atmospheric event is unfolding over Mexico and the Southern U.S., where an upper-level low pressure system of unprecedented strength in the historical record for that location has stalled out, bringing multiple days of torrential rain to the Southern U.S. and snow to the mountains of Mexico. The upper low tapped into an atmospheric river of moisture from both the Western Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific, bringing rainfall amounts one would expect to occur only once every 200 years (a 0.5% chance of occurrence in a given year) over portions of northern Louisiana. According to the latest NOAA Storm Summary, as of 9 am EST Thursday, the city of Monroe, Louisiana had received 17.25" of rain since Monday, and Shreveport had picked up 16.70" at Barksdale Air Force Base. The heavy rains led to numerous high water rescues, evacuation of at least 3,500 homes, and closures of hundred of roads. Portions of two interstate highways in northern Louisiana--I-20 and I-49--were closed on Thursday morning due to flooding, according to KSLA.com. Three drownings have been reported since Monday from the storm system--one each in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

Weather weirding par excellence: Strongest upper low ever observed over central Mexico?
This upper low originated from energy that moved across southern California late in the weekend, producing heavy thunderstorms. Rather than barreling across the southeast U.S., the powerful subtropical jet stream carved out a progressively deeper trough into Mexico that cut off from the jet stream, forming a slow-moving closed low. At 00Z (7:00 pm EST) Thursday, this cold-cored upper low was centered in central Mexico, roughly in the vicinity of Guadalajara. Thundersnow was reported on Wednesday in Mexico at Zacatecas (altitude 8010 feet), about 200 miles north of Guadalajara, and snow also fell near Guadaljara (thanks to Eric Blake, NOAA/NHC, for this tidbit). As shown in Figure 7 below, this upper low featured a large 558-decameter contour (the 558 dm, which is 5580 meters, refers to the height at which the atmospheric pressure is 500 mb, or about half of the typical surface pressure). Such a large, strong upper low appears to be an unprecedented event in modern weather observations for Mexico; upper-air analyses dating back to 1948 from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis project suggest that no previous upper low in this region has been strong enough to generate a 558-dm contour. During the last “super” El Niño, in mid-December 1997, a powerful upper trough extended south from the United States, producing what was reportedly the first snow observed at Guadalajara since February 1881.

Premature spring warmth swaddles Northeast
Dozens of temperature records melted like so much gelato beneath sun-filled skies across much of the Northeast on Wednesday. Boston basked in temperatures that topped out at 77°F--not just a daily record, but the city’s warmest official reading on any day in astronomical winter since records began there in 1872. New York City’s Central Park also had its earliest 77°F in records that, likewise, go back to 1872.

Looking ahead, the atmospheric river of moisture responsible for this week's heavy rains has shifted slightly eastwards, and was still at near-record levels in excess of 200% of normal on Thursday morning. The 12Z Thursday morning balloon sounding at Lake Charles, Louisiana showed an astonishing 2.15" of precipitable water in the atmosphere--the second highest value on record for the months of December - April (thanks go to Peter Mullinax, ‏@wxmvpete, for this stat.) This moisture will continue to feed torrential rains over Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi on Thursday and Friday.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... s-thunders" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »


The European Central Bank has pulled out all the stops to avert a dangerous deflation-trap, launching a blast of triple stimulus despite angry criticism from Germany that it is entirely unnecessary and will do more harm than good. The markets reacted wildly to the package of measures, surging at first and then plummeting on creeping fears that the bank has exhausted its policy options and may be defenceless against a fresh shock. Mario Draghi, the ECB’s president, no longer seems able to conjure confidence with his former panache. His magic has, for now, deserted him. The euro surged by more than two cents to $1.12 against the dollar, making it even harder for the ECB to stave off deflation. “It is not what they were hoping for,” said Simon Derrick from BNY Mellon.“Everything that the ECB has just done is about balance sheet resolution for banks after dodging the problem for years with extend and pretend,” [Mr Ostwald] said. “It is all going to end in chaos,” said Jurgen Stark, the ECB’s former chief economist, accusing the ECB of straying far beyond its mandate and destroying popular trust in the institution.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... deflation/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The ECB panicked. Not only did QE fail to ignite inflation, the second order indications, modeled or real, suggest the real economy is in much, much worse shape than thought just a few months ago. The timing is not coincidental, as again there was a palpable global change starting around mid-year last year, cemented by the events of August and now January. It’s bad enough in policy terms (in reality, the ECB’s ineptness is the bright side in the real economy as should be apparent by what the Bank of Japan did to the Japanese people) to see any calendar year at about zero “inflation” as 2015, but to suggest and model that to repeat for a second? Disaster.

It only confirms what we have suspected all along. There is and has been no recovery no matter how much “flooding” of whatever format, just the intermittent flirtation with positive numbers interspersed between slowdowns, rough patches and even re-recession. Stimulus is just a word.
http://www.alhambrapartners.com/2016/03 ... -panicked/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Corporations already have hefty incentives to sell debt, with average yields on investment-grade bonds in the region below 2 percent for a second year. But they have little appetite to raise money to invest in new factories and equipment, because the economic outlook is so weak. “If you don’t need the funds then why should you raise them?” said Ivo Kok, the treasurer of Alliander NV, an investment-grade Dutch gas and electricity distribution company. “It is more of a risk to have an awful lot of cash around that you’re not putting to work.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... ies-borrow" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I’ll try and keep this gracefully short: Mario Draghi ‘unleashed’ a bazooka full of desperate tools on the financial markets yesterday and they blew up in his face faster than you could say blowback or backdraft (and that’s just the start of the alphabet). This must and will mean that Draghi’s stint as ECB head is for all intents and purposes done. But…

But there are two questions: 1) who has the power to fire him (not an easy one), and 2) who can replace him. Difficult issues because the only candidates that would even be considered for the job by the same people who hired -no, not elected- Mario -and who will still be in power after he’s gone-, under present conditions, are carbon copies of Draghi. They all went to the same schools, worked for the same banks etc.

So maybe they’ll let him sit a bit longer. Then again, the damage has been done, and Mario has done a lot of destruction, is what the markets said yesterday. But to replace him with someone who’s also already lost all credibility, because they supported Mario every step of the way, carries a very evident risk: that nobody will believe in the entire ECB itself anymore. If you ask me, it’s crazy that anyone still would, but that’s another chapter altogether.

Ultra-low interest -even negative- rates and bond purchases to the tune of $1 trillion a year, Mario’s schtick, exist all across the formerly rich world. And they all do for the same purpose: to make the people think that they, and their economies, are still rich. Just so bankers can take from them whatever it is they still do have. Think pension funds, investment funds.

Draghi’s done. This hole is too deep for him to climb out of.
http://www.theautomaticearth.com/2016/0 ... bbit-hole/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...is there anything left to take? Or maybe no way without a whole lot of people waking up and seeing it for what it is???

China’s Communist leaders are trying to rein in wage increases, favoring business interests at the expense of increasingly discontented workers as growth sags. Over much of the past decade, Chinese wages grew faster than the economy, lifting workers’ living standards but also diminishing China’s competitive edge. The increases helped ensure workers shared in economic prosperity. Now, as growth slows, leaders are signaling wages and labor rights—already poorly enforced—might need to take a back seat.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-may-r ... 1457616686" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...all perspective...truth be said they had rampant inflation with the biggest money injection in recorded history...and now its reversing (which will be extremely painful). I think the only way the government will stay intact through this is to go to war and divert the people's focus as well as creating a need for production (keep everyone busy instead of rioting)...

Germany’s inflation rate for February came in unchanged from its preliminary reading, confirming Germany has fallen back into deflation.
http://www.ft.com/fastft/2016/03/11/ger ... deflation/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Norway’s Interest Rate Conundrum
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... -conundrum" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Australians’ over-exposure to housing is evident in the middle 60% of income households, where housing accounts for 90% of their net worth. At the top of the US housing bubble in 2006, that figure was 36% of the household balance sheet and it fell to 28% in the recession.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/art ... -and-banks" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Fed caused 93% of the entire stock market's move since 2008: Analysis
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-fed- ... 26366.html#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Last year, credit card debt in the U.S. surged by approximately $71 billion to $917.7 billion, according to a new study from CardHub.com. The research also found that most of the debt accrued in 2015 came in the fourth quarter, when Americans tacked on more than $52 billion. Fourth-quarter credit card debt also grew at its largest pace since the Great Recession, CardHub also said.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/10/us-credi ... means.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Incredible Story Of How Hackers Stole $100 Million From The New York Fed
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... w-york-fed" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Why Was Putin's Multi-Millionaire, Media Mogul Murdered In A Luxury DC Hotel?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... y-dc-hotel" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mystery Of Lesin's Death Deepens As Russia Asks U.S. For More Information
http://www.rferl.org/content/article/27605569.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Russian banker accused in the United States of participating in a spy ring has pleaded guilty to conspiracy. Yevgeny Buryakov pleaded guilty on March 11 to conspiring with others to act as an agent of a foreign government without registering with the U.S. government.
http://www.rferl.org/content/russian-ba ... 05241.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro insisted on Thursday his opponents would fail in a new push to oust him this year and end 17 years of socialist rule in the OPEC nation. Having won control of the National Assembly in a vote at the end of 2015, the energized opposition alliance has launched a multi-pronged campaign to remove Maduro via street rallies, a recall referendum and a constitutional amendment. The first protest march is planned for Saturday in Caracas. "We've reached a big agreement with China," he said, without giving any more details. Beijing has lent some $50 billion since 2007 to Venezuela, which repays with oil shipments.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venez ... SKCN0WD049" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Caracas, March 10, 2016 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela announced Wednesday key changes to the country’s currency exchange regime designed to streamline access to dollars for production and essential imports as well as combat inflation. However, in the 24 hours since the announcement of the measures, no fall in the parallel Dollar Today rate has been reported. Venezuela is obligated to make a $8.1 billion payment on PDVSA bonds to international creditors by the close of 2016. In February, Venezuela earned only $70 million in oil revenues, down from $3 billion in January 2014.
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11883" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA has launched one of its largest oil tenders ever, seeking to buy some 8 million barrels of U.S. or Nigerian light crude for delivery from April through June, according to a document seen by Reuters on Thursday. That would be about 90,000 barrels per day, more than the 50,000 bpd of crude PDVSA bought last year. Then, it purchased mainly African and Russian grades as diluents for its extra heavy oil output and processed them at its Caribbean refineries, according to sources and Thomson Reuters Trade Flows data. If awarded, this and another open tender would double crude volumes purchased by PDVSA, which started importing crude in 2014 amid a decline of its own diluents output. The state-run firm is also regularly importing some 2 million barrels per month of heavy naphtha to dilute its crude. Since a backlog of vessels formed in late 2015 following payment delays to its suppliers, PDVSA has been struggling to find providers for prompt deliveries. The cash-strapped firm is now proposing several payment mechanisms to oil and trading companies, including swaps, prepaid sales, letters of credit and open credit.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-v ... SKCN0WC2SK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In January, the central bank said the South American economy shrank 7.1 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier while its inflation rate soared to 141.5 percent. Venezuela depends on oil, which has tumbled 63 percent in the past two years, for almost all of its export revenue. For Venezuelans, all that has meant a surge in violent crime and ever-worsening shortages of everything from milk to medicine. “We suffer day to day the consequences of the economic problems,” Haddad said. “Last week, we didn’t have electricity a couple of times. We had to climb up and down nine flights of stairs. They’re beginning to ration electricity. There’s insecurity. Nobody that lives here can go out at night and feel safe.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... d-wins-big" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One of ISIS's top commanders the US likely just killed was a 'star pupil' of US special-forces training
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/one-isiss ... 12630.html#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's Not Just the Corrupt, Cronyist Republican Party That's Imploding--the Corrupt, Cronyist Democratic Party Is Imploding, Too
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmar16/imp ... s3-16.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Missing Clinton E-Mail Claims Saudis Financed Benghazi Attacks
https://medium.com/@williamreynolds/mis ... .4mwspyqcg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Former Hillary Clinton IT specialist Bryan Pagliano, a key witness in the email probe who struck an immunity deal with the Justice Department, has told the FBI a range of details about how her personal email system was set up, according to an intelligence source close to the case who called him a “devastating witness.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/03 ... tness.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

Patricia Smith, whose son Sean was killed in the 2012 terrorist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, responded to Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement about her being “absolutely wrong” by saying there’s “a special place in hell” for people like Clinton “and I hope she enjoys it there” on Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Intelligence Report with Trish Regan.”
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/03/ ... -it-there/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...amen...

Surprise! NSA data will soon routinely be used for domestic policing that has nothing to do with terrorism
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... terrorism/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The disruption of maintenance operations in 2014 increased the risk of the Mosul Dam collapsing. The Government of Iraq (GOI) is preparing to initiate emergency maintenance operations to reduce the risk of failure.
http://iraq.usembassy.gov/consular/us/w ... ry-29-2016" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

UNITED NATIONS (dpa) – The international community must act collectively to repair the Mosul dam in Iraq, which is in danger of collapsing and potentially killing up to 1.5 million people, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said Wednesday at the United Nations.
http://www.postguam.com/the_globe/world ... fb64f.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

UN emergency appeal for Iraq is only 8 per cent funded to date. Mosul is the largest dam - two miles long - in Iraq, formerly known as the Saddam Dam. At present, it can hold back as much as 441 million cubic feet of water, a CNN report found. Just last week, a contract worth 273 million Euros, for its repairs was signed with an Italian construction company called Trevi, media reports informed. However, to initiate any kind of research and repair work in the region, the governments will have to ensure security and stability from Islamic State threats.
http://www.catchnews.com/world-news/ira ... 14461.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(ANSA) - Beirut, March 11 - The Iraqi government on Friday played down reports from the United States and the UNited Nations that the key Mosul Dam is in danger of imminent collapse. The alerts are "not correct" and "unrealistic", said Mahid Rashid, an aide to the Iraqi water resources ministry. Rashid added that the Italian company Trevi "will start work for maintenance within two months, according to a spokesman for the firm". Rashis said the last US report on the dam's structural state was made a year ago, and it did not highlight any risk of the dam breaking. He urged the US to "provide the Iraqi government with all reports referring to the possibility of a collapse". Rashid added: "The experts from Trevi will visit the dam in the next few days for a first surveillance, and then the work will start in two months' time". The arrival of some 500 Italian soldiers to protect Trevi's restructuring work on the dam, whose urgent need for repair has been highlighted by the US, has been scheduled for late spring, either May or June, officials said Monday.
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politic ... bbd39.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea responded Thursday to new sanctions from South Korea by firing short-range ballistic missiles into the sea in a show of defiance and vowing to "liquidate" all remaining South Korean assets at former cooperative projects in the North. The moves are the latest in an escalating standoff between the Koreas that began in January when North Korea detonated what it said was an "H-bomb of justice," its fourth nuclear test. Since then, the North has launched a long-range rocket and the South has shut a jointly run factory park, slapped sanctions on the North, and begun large-scale war games with the United States. North Korea responded by threatening nuclear strikes on South Korea and the U.S. mainland.
http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/c ... s-missiles" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday, South Korea's military said, a likely show of anger at continuing springtime war games by rivals Washington and Seoul and another ratcheting up of hostility on the already anxious Korean Peninsula. The South Korean Defense Ministry says the missiles were fired from North Hwanghae Province, flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles) and fell into the water off the country's east coast.
http://www.navytimes.com/story/military ... /81551858/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Advisory: Story on U.S. frigate sale to Taiwan withdrawn
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-t ... SKCN0WD0QL" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

S.J.Res. 29
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/ ... medium=rss" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/co ... -authority" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

U.S. and South Korean troops staged a big amphibious landing exercise Saturday, storming simulated North Korean beach defenses amid and threats by Pyongyang to annihilate its enemies. About 55 U.S. marine aircraft and 30 U.S. and South Korean ships, including the USS Bonhomme Richard and USS Boxer, which carry AV-8B Harrier attack jets and V-22 Osprey aircrafts, took part in the assault on beaches near Pohang city, the U.S. navy said. The South Korean and U.S. militaries have said they had notified the North of "the non-provocative nature" of the exercises involving about 17,000 American troops and more than 300,000 South Koreans. The United States has about 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-s ... ts-n537151" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

CNN reported on Saturday that North Korea has been searching for one of its submarines that has been missing for days off its east coast. The submarine may be adrift under the sea or have sunk, perhaps after a technical problem during an exercise, CNN quoted U.S. officials with intelligence of secret U.S. monitoring of the North's activities as saying.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-north ... SKCN0WE0BX" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A North Korean submarine is missing, reports said on Saturday, as the reclusive state issued a fresh threat of retaliation against US and South Korean forces involved in joint military drills. The unknown class of vessel had been reportedly operating off the North Korean coast earlier in the week when it disappeared. A South Korean defence ministry told AFP Seoul was investigating the reports. Pentagon officials declined to comment on the matter. The US military had been observing the submarine off the North's eastern coast, CNN said, citing three US officials familiar with the incident. American spy satellites, aircraft and ships have been watching as the North Korean navy searched for the missing sub, the report added.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... rills.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the deployment of all of Russia’s RS-26 intercontinental ballistic missile systems, ahead of what the Russian Ministry of Defence say is an “impending” attack of the U.S. and Europe by ISIS militants. The RS-26 missiles are considered Russia’s “doomsday weapon”, packing in 1.2 megatons into its four 300 kiloton warheads. They are capable of hitting targets throughout the U.S. with their 11,000 kilometer range.
http://yournewswire.com/putin-deploys-b ... k-on-useu/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The European Union aims to rehouse thousands of asylum-seekers from Greece in the coming months, officials said on Thursday as EU ministers wrestled with concerns about the legality of a new plan to force migrants back to Turkey. Dimitris Avramopoulos, the member of the executive European Commission who handles migration, told reporters at a meeting of national interior ministers that at least 6,000 people a month should be relocated to other member states under a scheme which has moved only about 900 hundred people so far.
http://in.reuters.com/article/europe-mi ... NKCN0WC1Q6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nearly half a million irregular migrants arrived in Greece in the last three months of 2015, most of whom then moved north through the Balkans, data from EU border agency Frontex showed on Thursday. Frontex, which collates data on the number of irregular border crossings, recorded 484,000 such incidents on the Eastern Mediterranean route from Turkey to Greece between October and December and 466,000 on the Western Balkan route, notably people re-entering the European Union at the Croatian border from non-EU Serbia. That took the total number of illegal EU border crossings, not using regular crossing points, to 978,300 in the quarter, a record since Frontex began collating such data in 2007.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/206843/arti ... ys-frontex" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Swedish town rocked by EIGHT sex attacks in three weeks by migrant men
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -dark.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Police warn women not to go out alone in Swedish town after spate of sex attacks
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... tacks.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Up to 80% of a recently-contacted tribe in Peru have been poisoned with mercury, raising serious concerns for the future of the tribe. One child has already died displaying symptoms consistent with mercury poisoning.
http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/11167" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On the vast Mongolian grasslands, livestock are dying in the thousands due to an ever worsening winter ‘Dzud’. Extreme temperatures, snow storms and heavy snowfall, and in many areas a thick layer of ice are preventing livestock from grazing efficiently. These current conditions have been compounded by the effects of last summer’s drought which has left pastures in a very bad condition. Millions of animals are likely to die from starvation in the coming weeks and months, depriving vulnerable herder families of their only livelihood.
http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/n ... ia--71954/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mongolia is experiencing a natural disaster called a dzud. The phenomenon, unique to the country, usually occurs after a summer drought is followed by heavy winter snowfall that makes already scarce pastures inaccessible to livestock. In the past, the country experienced widespread dzud about once in a decade, but they have recently been occurring every few years. About half of Mongolia’s 3 million people rely on livestock production.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-devel ... rders-dzud" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bengaluru's lakes have become famous for potent declarations of the pollution they are swamped under - in recent months, three were covered with foam, another burst into flames. Today, the Ulsoor Lake was seen covered with thousands of dead fish, adding a new disastrous photo-op for a city often tagged as India's Silicon Valley.
http://www.ndtv.com/bangalore-news/dead ... ke-1284609" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A radioactive isotope linked to water from power plant cooling canals has been found in high levels in Biscayne Bay, confirming suspicions that Turkey Point’s aging canals are leaking into the nearby national park. According to a study released Monday by Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, water sampling in December and January found tritium levels up to 215 times higher than normal in ocean water. The report doesn’t address risks to the public or marine life but tritium is typically monitored as a “tracer” of nuclear power plant leaks or spills.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/e ... 67452.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

NEW YORK (AP) - Nearly three million boxes of frozen DiGiorno pizzas, Stouffer's lasagnas and Lean Cuisine meals are being recalled after customers said they found pieces of glass in their food.
http://www.wlox.com/story/31438681/digi ... ss-in-food" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The number of children in the UK prescribed anti-depressants increased by more than 50 per cent between 2005 and 2012, according to a new study.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 20576.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The number of children being given medical treatment for "gender confusion" has risen 1000 percent over the past five years. The NHS's Gender Identity Disorder Service treated 1,013 children, between April and December last year, a freedom of information request by The Sun revealed.
http://www.charismanews.com/world/55737 ... ent-uptick" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Since the World Health Organization declared the Zika virus a public health emergency, scientists have linked it to paralysis and brain infections in adults, but the virus has saved its most horrifying outcome for developing fetuses. A study at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore showed that Zika infects and kills the very cells that form the developing brain.
http://www.voanews.com/content/with-eac ... 30275.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

UN Exploits Zika Virus to Push Abortion in Pro-Life Nations
http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-new ... fe-nations" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Intelligence officials discovered that hackers had managed to get control of floodgates at the Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye Brook, New York, about 20 miles north of New York City in 2013.
http://www.offthegridnews.com/current-e ... loodgates/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Earlier today, March 11th, the outskirts of a CME previously expected to miss Earth instead hit. The impact sparked a G2-class geomagnetc storm (ongoing) and bright auroras around the Arctic Circle.
http://www.spaceweather.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Severn Trent has warned thousands of customers not to use water while it investigates problems with high levels of chlorine in its supply. The company said it is investigating an issue at the Castle Donington reservoir in Derbyshire. It has told residents in the DE11, DE15, DE65, DE73 and LE65 areas of Derbyshire and Leicestershire not to use water for any purpose.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derbyshire-35786378" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Today the main contamination of Japanese soil is the radionuclide cesium-137 [Cs-137 or 137Cs]. The ocean is largely contaminated with strontium-90 [Sr-90 or 90Sr] and tritium [T or 3H]. Right now the main culprit adding to the exposure of the people in Japan is Cs-137, so I think it's best to use Cs-137 as a standard for measuring the scale of the accident.

But we simply don't know with any precision how much Cs-137 was released. That's because all the measuring equipment was destroyed at the time of the accident. How much Cs-137 was released into the air? How much was spilled in the sea? We just don't know.

Still, the Japanese government has reported estimates to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]. According to those estimated levels, reactors 1, 2, and 3 had been in operation on March 11, 2011, and all three suffered meltdowns. Those three reactors released 1.5x1016 Becquerels of Cs-137, which would make it a release of 168 times more radioactive material than the Hiroshima bombing. And this is only material released into the atmosphere-at least according to Japanese government estimates.

What I would most like to do is have TEPCO's headquarters buried under all the radiation, but whenever I say this people just laugh. (laughs)

Hirano: State expenditures for decontamination have supposedly reached one trillion yen.

Koide: It's more than that.
http://apjjf.org//2016/06/Hirano.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Abe promised Thursday to increase decontamination efforts to end most of the evacuation orders still affecting 100,000 Fukushima residents, and allow them to return to their homes.
http://www.voanews.com/content/five-yea ... 31456.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Central New Zealand has been shaken by a 4.6 magnitude earthquake.
http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.a ... ain%2Cnrhl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

M5 quake has struck near Putre in Chile
http://www.earthquakenewstoday.com/2016 ... -in-chile/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SAO PAULO -- Mudslides and flooding caused by heavy downpours have killed at least 16 people, including a 4-year-old boy, in low-income neighborhoods on Sao Paulo's outskirts, Brazilian officials said Friday.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brazil-muds ... sao-paulo/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At least 15 were confirmed dead in the Brazil’s financial capital and largest city, São Paulo, according to Reuters. Half a dozen people died as a result of the flooding elsewhere in São Paulo state after 24 hours of steady rain, local media report. Most died as a result of mudslides and building failure in the city’s poorer peripheral neighborhoods, where houses are often built on or along hillsides. State and local government agencies scrambled to address the crisis. Some local news outlets captured footage of drivers marooned on the roof of their cars being rescued by helicopters.
http://www.latintimes.com/sao-paulo-flo ... zed-374426" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Los Angeles used 'cloud seeding' to boost rain from El Niño storms: Officials say silver iodide shot into the clouds brought 15% more relief to drought-stricken area
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... -area.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

YOUNTVILLE, Calif. (KGO) --State Route 121 at State Route 12, known as the Sonoma-Napa County Junction, has been closed by the CHP due to flooding and the water level is only expected to get worse.
http://abc7news.com/weather/sonoma-napa ... g/1242600/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Authorities say the Sabine River's levels at Burkeville peaked Friday afternoon at 53.82 feet which is 6 feet over the previous record in 1989. The Bon Wier gauge is expected to peak at 39.9 feet on Saturday - about 2 feet above the flood stage recorded in 1989.
http://www.12newsnow.com/story/31451243 ... r-releases" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(CNN)Record-breaking rain in the Mississippi Delta flooded 300 homes Friday as storms continue to pummel the Southeast, killing four people so far, authorities said. Fourteen inches of rain deluged Clarksdale, Mississippi, and 12 inches fell in Greenville, authorities said. The towns sit on or near the Mississippi River. "Seek higher ground now!" the National Weather Service said, warning of a flash flood emergency Friday for Louisiana's Tangipahoa Parish and the city of Hammond. Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency, and the weather service issued a flash flood emergency for several other parishes. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant also declared a state of emergency, and officials warned of flash flooding.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/11/us/southeast-weather/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A state of emergency has been declared by Governor John Bel Edwards for the entire state of Louisiana after a four-day deluge of rain dumped up to 20" of rain over northern portions of the state. The resulting record flooding has forced a call-up of the National Guard to help evacuate thousands of people from their homes. Five storm-related deaths have been reported since Monday--three in Louisiana and one each in Oklahoma and Texas. Hundreds of roads have been closed, including portions of two major interstate highways. One bridge collapsed on Louisiana Highway 557 in Ouchita Parish.

Thankfully, the stalled-out record-strength upper-level low pressure system responsible for the historic flooding is finally on the move, headed northwards across Texas. The low will still be tapping into the atmospheric river of moisture responsible for this week's heavy rains, and will bring additional widespread heavy rains of 2 - 5" over the Central Gulf Coast states through Saturday, with a few areas up to 10" possible. By Sunday, the heavy rains should end as the upper-level low weakens and the flow of moisture from the Gulf gets cut off.

Record warmth continues across the Northeast
As if Wednesday’s high of 77°F left any doubt that spring had sprung early in New York City, Thursday doubled up with a high of 79°F. This broke the previous day’s record as the warmest temperature ever notched so early in the year in 145 years of record-keeping at Central Park. Even more impressive was Thursday’s “low” temperature: a ridiculous 63°F! That’s the warmest daily minimum Central Park has seen during any winter--or for that matter, on any date falling between November 10 and March 28--since measurements began in 1871.

Meanwhile, another storm system with its own atmospheric river of moisture has been hitting the U.S. West Coast, bringing flooding rains and heavy mountain snows to California. Wind gusts in excess of 50 mph swept across much of Washington State on Thursday, causing some impressive damage and knocking out power to 100,000 customers. According to the NWS in Seattle, the top wind gust was 109 mph on top of Mt. Baker.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... y-in-louis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The United States has been hit by seven historic floods since the month of September, and the latest one is making headlines all over the planet. This week, nearly two feet of rain triggered record-setting flooding in parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, and more rain is expected for the area as we move into the weekend. Flooding along one part of the Sabine River has already broken the previous record by more than five feet, and this crisis is far from over. Of course this just continues a trend that I have been documenting for months now. Never before in U.S. history have we ever seen so many historic floods in such a compressed time frame.
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... od-of-time" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Deweyville, Texas, Prepares for Unprecedented Flooding; Judge Orders Mandatory Evacuations - A mandatory evacuation ordered by Newton County Judge Truman Dougharty went into effect for multiple areas near the Sabine River; a list of affected areas and shelter locations has been posted by 12 News. A curfew also went into effect at midnight on Friday to 7 a.m. and will last until March 19.
https://weather.com/safety/floods/news/ ... g-problems" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Flood updates in New Orleans-area: Water inundates homes southwest of Covington; residents rescued
http://theadvocate.com/news/15166566-14 ... ickly-rose" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Bogue Falaya River is expected to reach record levels in Covington due to heavy rainfall in areas of Southeast Louisiana over the past three days. Meteorologists for the National Weather Service said the river could rise to 19 feet near Boston Street in downtown Covington by early Saturday morning (March 12), eclipsing the previous record of 17.1 feet set in 1993. Just north of Covington, where the Bogue Falaya reaches its greatest depth, water levels are expected to crest at 62.5 feet, breaking the previous record of 57 feet set in 2003. The NWS issued emergency flash flood warnings for all points along the river on Friday morning.
http://www.nola.com/weather/index.ssf/2 ... alaya.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

'All hell broke loose' in Covington at 8 p.m. Friday
http://www.nola.com/weather/index.ssf/2 ... oving.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Radical Firearms adds Six-Eight Uppers to Lineup
http://kitup.military.com/2016/03/radic ... upper.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

The 60-plus day delinquency rate among subprime car loans that have been packaged into bonds over the past five years climbed to 5.16% in February, according to Fitch Ratings, the highest level in nearly two decades. “What’s driving record auto sales is not the economy, but record auto lending,” said Ben Weinger, who runs hedge fund 3-Sigma Value LP in New York and who has bearish bets on some auto lenders. He said demand for auto debt has led lenders to systematically loosen underwriting standards, which he predicts will result in higher loan delinquencies.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/subprime-fl ... 1457862187" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Demand for U.S. shares among companies and individuals is diverging at a rate that may be without precedent, another sign of how crucial buybacks are in propping up the bull market as it enters its eighth year. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index constituents are poised to repurchase as much as $165 billion of stock this quarter, approaching a record reached in 2007. The buying contrasts with rampant selling by clients of mutual and exchange-traded funds, who after pulling $40 billion since January are on pace for one of the biggest quarterly withdrawals ever.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... rket-alive" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

About 70% of government bonds have a yield of zero or below, meaning investors are paying to hold the debt. Pushing the yield curve down to make borrowing less costly and to encourage lending is the aim of the new policy, according to Governor Haruhiko Kuroda. However, those actions are hurting the bond market, with 69% of traders in February saying market function has declined compared with three months ago, according to a BOJ survey.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... s-in-japan" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China’s mooted debt-for-equity swap could leave the country’s banks in a capital hole. New rules are being proposed that would allow lenders to exchange bad loans for shares. That could ease pressure on ailing companies. But it would also put pressure on bank capital ratios. Some exchanges are already happening: Huarong Energy, a troubled shipbuilder, announced on March 8 it would give creditors a 60% stake in the company in return for forgiving debt worth $2.2 billion. Yet while such swaps help overindebted Chinese companies, they are less positive for banks. True, the industry’s reported ratio of non-performing loans – which rose to 1.7% of total lending at the end of 2015 – will fall. But capital requirements will also rise as banks recognize more losses. The result is that any large-scale swap of debt-for-equity in the country will leave lenders short of capital. As the largest shareholder of Chinese banks, the government would have to step in.
http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/ ... ital-hole/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Goldman Sachs still expects the currency to weaken to 7 against the greenback by the end of the year and has listed four reasons behind its call. Here they are:[debt,debt, and more debt...and the long term effects of debt...but Goldman puts it a little different]
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/14/chinese- ... -says.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Enormous Crowds" Of Unemployed Chinese Miners Take To The Streets, Clash With Riot Police
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... normous-cr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hundreds Of Thousands Stage Massive Street Protests In Brazil, In Loud Call For Rousseff's Ouster
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... ffs-ouster" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More than one million people marched through cities across Brazil on Sunday to protest political corruption, a weak economy, and to call for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, in a showing that could accelerate efforts to remove her from office. The protest in Sao Paulo was the largest ever recorded by polling firm Datafolha, surpassing even the 1984 rallies to demand direct presidential elections following the military dictatorship. Other cities also had record turnout, and the 100,000 people in capital city Brasilia was a considerably stronger showing than the four mass protests staged last year, months after Rousseff won re-election to a second term.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... in-balance" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Egypt Devalues Pound In Bid To Ease Acute Dollar Shortage
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... r-shortage" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[New Zealand] This is the story of the dairy boom that has now bust, leaving dairy farmers holding debts of more than $40b and producing a commodity that is losing them $1.6b a year. Those debts are worth more than three times the income produced by that land and up from just $11.3b as recently as 2003. The Reserve Bank has forecast that if this week’s payout cut to $3.90/kg is extended into next season, and then recovers only slowly, then 44% of those loans would be non-performing. That doesn’t necessarily mean the banks would kick 44% of farmers off their land – but it does mean the banks face profit drops.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news ... d=11604664" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Central banks around the globe are pursuing strategies that will put all financial assets into government hands, perma-bear Marc Faber, told CNBC’s Squawk Box. Faber said central bank policies are essentially monetizing debt, particularly in Japan, where he claims the Bank of Japan is buying all the government bonds the treasury is issuing. He expects that asset buying by global central banks will only increase, even though he believes those policies aren’t working to stimulate the economy. “The central banks aren’t interested in what works, they’re interested in their own prestige. And they are so deep into it already and it didn’t work. They will increase the medicine,” said Faber, the publisher of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report. “Eventually, they’ll buy all the government bonds; they’ll buy all the corporate bonds, all the shares outstanding. Afterwards the housing market goes down, they’ll buy all the homes and then the government will own everything.” That’s the road to socialism, he said.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/13/marc-fab ... alism.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...some truth and some dishonesty...(truth) certainly we are in the final stages of asset ownership roll-up program...(lie) the governments don't own jack crap with possible partial exception of Chinese government as the real ownership goes to "central" banks which also happen to be "private" banks with private shareholders....(furthermore) problem is possession and control is 9/10ths...that will be the next phase of the war...

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials will gather in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday to debate whether a bumpy start to the year is now in the rearview mirror, clearing the way for higher interest rates.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/14/busin ... .html?_r=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Computer scientists have devised a digital crypto-currency in league with the Bank of England that could pose a devastating threat to large tranches of the financial industry, and profoundly change the management of monetary policy. The proto-currency known as RSCoin has vastly greater scope than Bitcoin, used for peer-to-peer transactions by libertarians across the world, and beyond the control of any political authority. The purpose would be turned upside down. RSCoin would be a tool of state control, allowing the central bank to keep a tight grip on the money supply and respond to crises. It would erode the exorbitant privilege of commercial banks of creating money out of thin air under a fractional reserve financial system. Dr Danezis said a national pilot project could be up and running within eighteen months if a decision were made to launch such a scheme.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... rcurrency/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BEIRUT -- Al-Qaida militants swept through a rebel-held town in northern Syria in a display of dominance Sunday, arresting U.S.-backed fighters and looting weapons stores belonging to the Free Syrian Army.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... ebels.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish militants in northern Iraq hours after a suicide car bomb killed at least 37 people in the capital, Ankara, drawing vows of swift retaliation from the government.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... in-capital" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Russia on Sunday accused Turkey of sending its military across the Syrian border to prevent Kurdish groups there from consolidating their positions, while Turkish authorities imposed curfews on two mainly Kurdish towns where Turkey's security forces are set to launch large-scale operations against Kurdish militants. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia has evidence of Turkey's "creeping expansion" in northern Syria.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ ... 3-10-41-10" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Russia’s New Missile Shocks and Dazzles US, China
http://sputniknews.com/russia/20160309/ ... ocker.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia's authorities are investigating reports that a cargo package bound for Portland contained two missiles with explosive warheads on a passenger flight from Lebanon. N1 television said the package with two guided armor-piercing missiles was discovered Saturday by a sniffer dog after an Air Serbia flight from Beirut landed at a Belgrade airport. Serbian media say documents listed the final destination for the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles as Portland.
http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.s ... ers_2.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...interesting destination for some Hellfire missiles...

The Gathering Storm Of The Chinese Military
http://www.investors.com/politics/edito ... -military/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on world powers to punish Iran after the country test-fired two ballistic missiles emblazoned with the phrase "Israel must be wiped out" in Hebrew.
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-demands-wo ... 15654.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

North Korea hit out at Washington and Seoul Saturday, pledging to launch a blitzkrieg in the Korean peninsula, as the United States and South Korea launched their largest-ever joint landing drill. The official KCNA news agency, citing a statement from military chiefs, warned of a "pre-emptive retaliatory strike at the enemy groups" involved in the joint US-South Korean exercise. Pyongyang said it would respond to the drills with an "operation to liberate the whole of South Korea including Seoul" with an "ultra-precision blitzkrieg".
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... cises.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

North Korea has a missing submarine, two defense officials told Fox News Friday. One official told Fox the submarine is a 70-foot Yono class "midget" submarine that is diesel powered and has a crew of two, with room for a squad of saboteurs. It was unclear who may have been on board.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... ssing.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has arrived in South Korea’s largest port city to take part in joint war games amid heightened tensions and threats by North Korea to wipe out its enemies. The carrier, which is the flagship of the USS John C. Stennis Strike Group, arrived in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, early on Sunday to join the Key Resolve military exercise.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/03/13 ... uth-Korea-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon and Washington are quietly being told to make emergency preparations in case of attack by North Korea as the situation between the North And South Korea took a decidedly dangerous turn this morning when the South Korean Chiefs of Staff issued a terse warning.
https://www.superstation95.com/index.php/world/1016" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...didn't catch their source of information...so as to whether its correct or not????

the German government has approved several deals for the export of arms to countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia as the kingdom continues its deadly aggression against the impoverished nation of Yemen. According to an Economy Ministry letter seen by Reuters on Monday, the EU powerhouse will deliver 23 Airbus military helicopters to Riyadh.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/03/14 ... udi-Arabia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A United Nations report has blamed multiple countries, companies, and individuals for sending weapons to rival militant factions in Libya in violation of an international arms embargo on the divided country. Among those involved in breaking the arms ban are two US companies, an Italian broker working with a Libyan national in Britain representing the Tripoli-based government in the North African country as well as countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan and Ukraine, according to the UN document, cited in a number of press reports since Friday.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/03/13 ... ons-Turkey" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.albawaba.com/news/un-violati ... ing-816114" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Russia is aware of some plans for military involvement in Libya, but insisted that those plans could be implemented only with the permission of the 15-member council.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/03/14 ... --Jhinaoui" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Since 1999, a US program called Plan Colombia has seen about $10 billion in military aid flow to Colombia's security services, fortifying the state against well-armed and well-funded drug cartels and rebel groups, chief among them the FARC. US military academies have trained Colombian troops, and major arms deals have ensured the Colombian military is a well-equipped, modern fighting force.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... uture.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...where 85% of the world's cocaine is processed and delivered...not quite on par with Afghanistan's 95% control of the world's heroin market but not too far off...

The Twitter-incited mob that shut down last week’s Donald Trump rally at the University of Illinois’ Chicago pavilion was the first skirmish in what is shaping up to be a civil war between a political Left that has lost its mind and a political Right that has lost its mind and its soul. The tensions between these two camps are so contorted and dishonest that even trying to unpack the issues puts the un-packer in jeopardy of being branded as one kind of thought-criminal or another. What the politicians and the media and the cringing, pandering intellectuals of this country aren’t figuring is what happens when the political crisis of the moment is amped up by the financial and economic train wreck that is certain to come before the fall elections. The nation has already gone mad with the internal contradictions of its own beliefs. The next step will be when it literally goes to war with itself.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... -civil-war" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At 1:00AM Friday morning, Johan De Leede (83), a retired World Bank economist, was killed by gunshots at his home in Mason Neck, Virginia. His wife, upstairs in the home at te time, heard a noise and went downstairs to investigate and found her husband collapsed on the floor, police said. "We have no credible evidence or leads at this point. It's a true mystery," said Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. "This truly is a case where we need input from the community. We want to hear about any suspicious activity."
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/20 ... illed.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The bucolic Mason Neck peninsula on the Potomac is an area where usually the only sounds to break the silence are bird calls and the lapping of the river, but shortly after 1 a.m. Friday, gunfire erupted at one of the upscale homes in that area of Fairfax County, police said. A woman went downstairs to investigate and found her 83-year-old husband with several gunshot wounds, police said. Johan De Leede was rushed to a hospital and later died of his injuries. Authorities said Friday that they had no suspects in the killing. Police dogs and a helicopter swept the isolated area but found no potential assailant.
http://www.sentinelsource.com/news/nati ... 8d2ee.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Army Researched Weaponizing Of Mosquitoes
http://thesmokinggun.com/documents/biza ... oes-173896" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...played around with mosquitoes long before then...

New, one-dollar injectable contraceptive to reach world's 69 poorest countries by 2020. Developed by US drug company Pfizer, it’s been distributed throughout Burkina Faso - a landlocked, drought-stricken country said to be poor, even by West African standards - thanks to the involvement of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, US drug company Pfizer and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation. The results have so far been very positive in Burkina Faso, with Gates Foundation-funded site, Take Part, reporting that nearly 6,000 women have used the contraceptive, and for almost a quarter of them, it’s the first contraceptive they’ve ever taken.
http://www.sciencealert.com/new-one-dol ... es-by-2020" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

India will roll out an injectable contraceptive that costs one dollar and prevents conception for three months as part of its revamped family planning programme expected to be announced in April, said Melinda Gates, 51, in an exclusive interview with HT. The rotavirus vaccine, manufactured by India’s Bharat Biotech, costs US$ 1 as part of government immunisation programme.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/health-an ... tmnwN.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...Bill Gate's solution to the world population problem (or what he perceives to be a problem)...

after a decade of Monsanto’s efforts with Mahyco to win Indian-government approval for biotech food crops, seeds for plants like Mr. Char’s remain in limbo, stymied by environmentalist opposition, farmer skepticism and bureaucratic inertia. Despite dozens of biotech-food-crop trials in India, the country has approved none for commercial cultivation.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-monsant ... 1457857805" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MONTPELIER, Vt. (Reuters) - Liberal-leaning Vermont could become the first U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana use through legislation, rather than by voter initiative, in a move that advocates for the drug say could speed its acceptance across the nation. State representatives this month are set to take up a bill passed by the state Senate in February that would allow adults over 21 to purchase and smoke the drug beginning in 2018.
http://news.yahoo.com/vermont-legislatu ... 24515.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Secrets of Surveillance Capitalism - Governmental control is nothing compared to what Google is up to. The company is creating a wholly new genus of capitalism, a systemic coherent new logic of accumulation we should call surveillance capitalism.

Most Americans realize that there are two groups of people who are monitored regularly as they move about the country. The first group is monitored involuntarily by a court order requiring that a tracking device be attached to their ankle. The second group includes everyone else…”

Some will think that this statement is certainly true. Others will worry that it could become true. Perhaps some think it’s ridiculous. It’s not a quote from a dystopian novel, a Silicon Valley executive, or even an NSA official. These are the words of an auto insurance industry consultant intended as a defense of “automotive telematics” and the astonishingly intrusive surveillance capabilities of the allegedly benign systems that are already in use or under development.

The game is selling access to the real-time flow of your daily life –your reality—in order to directly influence and modify your behavior for profit. This is the gateway to a new universe of monetization opportunities: restaurants who want to be your destination. Service vendors who want to fix your brake pads. Shops who will lure you like the fabled Sirens. The “various people” are anyone, and everyone who wants a piece of your behavior for profit. Small wonder, then, that Google recently announced that its maps will not only provide the route you search but will also suggest a destination.

“The goal of everything we do is to change people’s actual behavior at scale. When people use our app, we can capture their behaviors, identify good and bad behaviors, and develop ways to reward the good and punish the bad. We can test how actionable our cues are for them and how profitable for us”.
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/d ... 03616.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Minecraft is to become a testing ground for artificial intelligence experiments. Microsoft, owner of the popular video game, revealed that computer scientists and amateurs will be able to evaluate and develop AI software using its virtual landscapes from July.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35778288" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa -- Sixteen U.S. ships that participated in relief efforts after Japan's nuclear disaster five years ago remain contaminated with low levels of radiation from the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, top Navy officials told Stars and Stripes.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... ation.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More than 500,000 and as many as 1 million of the nation’s poorest people will be cut off SNAP (formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) over the course of 2016, due to the return in many areas of a three-month limit on SNAP benefits for unemployed adults aged 18-49 who aren’t disabled or raising minor children. The impact will be felt in the 23 states that must or are choosing to reimpose the time limit in 2016.
http://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assis ... ers-expire" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Global temperatures in February smashed previous monthly records by an unprecedented amount, according to Nasa data, sparking warnings of a climate emergency. The global surface temperatures across land and ocean in February were 1.35C warmer than the average temperature for the month, from the baseline period of 1951-1980. The global record was set just one month earlier, with January already beating the average for that month by 1.15C above the average for the baseline period. Although the temperatures have been spurred on by a very large El Niño in the Pacific Ocean, the temperature smashed records set during the last large El Niño from 1998, which was at least as strong as the current one.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... ing-amount" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On Saturday, NASA dropped a bombshell of a climate report. February 2016 has soared past all rivals as the warmest seasonally adjusted month in more than a century of global recordkeeping. This unusual warmth helped drive Arctic sea ice to its lowest February extent on record in February 2016. The tremendous Arctic warmth was probably related to interactions among warm air streaming into the Arctic, warm water extending poleward from the far northeast Atlantic, and the record-low extent of Arctic sea ice. Ground Zero for this pattern was the Barents and Kara Seas, north of Scandinavia and western Russia, where sea ice extent was far below average in February. Typically, the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard--which includes the northernmost civilian settlements on Earth--is largely surrounded by ice from early winter into spring. This winter, the edge of the persistent ice has stayed mostly to the north of Svalbard, which has helped an absurd level of mildness to persist over the islands for months. Air temperatures at the Longyearbyen airport (latitude 78°N) have been close to 10°C (18°F) above average over the past three-plus months.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... awdropping" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RICHLAND PARISH, La. (KNOE/KTBS) -- A dam has broken near a northeast Louisiana town, forcing residents to evacuate. Emergency officials say water spilled over a spoil bank in Richland Parish. According to ABC-affiliate in Monroe, KNOE, Caldwell Parish Sheriff Steve May says they expect less than two feet of water to travel towards the town of Hebert, despite original reports. Original reports had predicted two to four feet.
http://www.ktbs.com/story/31459419/2016 ... -dam-break" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Deaths from flooding in Pakistan rises to 42
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/03/14 ... e-collapse" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Italian engineers hired to help prevent a catastrophic collapse of Iraq’s largest hydro-electric dam will need at least two months to assess the structure before starting major maintenance work, a Water Resources Ministry spokesman told Reuters. Mahdi Rasheed Mahdi said it might be six months before work began on the Mosul dam as Italy’s Trevi Group needed to bring in specialist equipment to plug gaps caused by erosion.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/mi ... l-dam.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Catastrophe Insight
http://catastropheinsight.aonbenfield.c ... /Home.aspx#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Global Catastrophe Recap - February 2016
http://thoughtleadership.aonbenfield.co ... -recap.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on March 16th when a co-rotating interaction region (CIR) is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. CIRs are transition zones between slow- and fast-moving solar wind streams. Solar wind plasma piles up in these regions, producing density gradients and shock waves that do a good job of sparking auroras.
http://www.spaceweather.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
iWriteStuff
blithering blabbermouth
Posts: 5523
Location: Sinope
Contact:

Re: Blipits

Post by iWriteStuff »

Jason - that might be the scariest Blipits I've read in a while. Yikes!

User avatar
iWriteStuff
blithering blabbermouth
Posts: 5523
Location: Sinope
Contact:

Re: Blipits

Post by iWriteStuff »

Or how about this nugget? Negative rates are backfiring in Japan:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bank-o ... 2016-03-14" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

2EstablishZion
captain of 100
Posts: 337

Re: Blipits

Post by 2EstablishZion »

I disagree with one conclusion on ZeroHedge this morning - they say that a market crash before the election is inevitable. I believe that heaven and earth will be moved to postpone it until after the election, so if a non-establishment candidate wins, the collapse can be blamed on them. Even if they haven't taken office yet, I could see the media spinning it as a signal of no confidence from "the markets".

You know, never let a crisis go to waste.

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

iWriteStuff wrote:Or how about this nugget? Negative rates are backfiring in Japan:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bank-o ... 2016-03-14" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
yeah I think that's a pipe dream....they'll end up raising rates. Deflation is going to have its day in the sun! I suspect the wheels will come off the economic global bus here over the next 3-6 months. We are seeing signs of wobbles right now and have been for last 6 months...

Its been a good ride since 2008/2009 thanks to China and increased government borrowing...along with record low interest rates that have been pretty much flat over that time period. Unfortunately China incurred 40% of the world's debt for 25% of the world's economic output. They are in deep. I suppose that governments could keep borrowing although for the new world order to take hold they really have to wipe out the governments and their borders. Problem is its going backwards in Europe right now. Trying to herd chickens and cats...

Certainly fascinating to watch...

I suppose this is when things get forceful....
...skip to 9 min mark if you are short on time (although his previous comments I find insightful)...

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

The Obama administration is expected to put virtually all of the Arctic and much of the Atlantic off limits for oil and gas drilling until 2022 in a decision that could be announced as early as Tuesday. The decision reverses Barack Obama’s move just last year to open up a vast swathe of the Atlantic coast to drilling – and consolidates the president’s efforts to protect the Arctic and fight climate change during his final months in the White House.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... l-drilling" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials will gather in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday to debate whether a bumpy start to the year is now in the rearview mirror, clearing the way for higher interest rates.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/14/busin ... .html?_r=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Delinquencies on poor-quality US car loans have climbed to their highest level in almost two decades, according to Fitch Ratings, reinforcing concerns over the rapidly growing market. The rate of “subprime” auto loans overdue by more than 60 days rose to 5.16% in February. This surpassed the post-financial crisis peak and was the highest since the 5.96% reading in October 1996, according to the rating agency. The overall US auto finance market passed $1tn in 2015, powered by strong car sales. Issuance of US auto loan-backed ABS climbed 17% to $82.5bn last year, according to data provider Dealogic, the strongest year for such sales since 2005.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/39a68492-e9f6 ... 345c8.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

US Business Inventory-Sales Ratio Jumps To Post-Crisis (7 Year) High
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... -year-high" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In January, Illinois' unemployment rate was 6.3 percent, far higher than the nation's 4.9 percent for the same month, according to the latest information released Monday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only three other states plus the District of Columbia have unemployment rates worse than Illinois: Mississippi at 6.9 percent; Alaska at 6.6 percent; New Mexico at 6.5 percent; and D.C. at 6.5 percent.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...of course that is just what is reported...

China’s central bank has drafted rules for a tax on foreign-exchange transactions that would help curb currency speculation, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The initial rate of the so-called Tobin tax may be kept at zero to allow authorities time to refine the rules, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private. The tax is not designed to disrupt hedging and other foreign-exchange transactions undertaken by companies, they said. Imposing a levy on foreign-exchange trading would be the most extreme step yet by policy makers to prevent speculative bets against the Chinese currency, after state-run banks repeatedly intervened to support the yuan and the government intensified a crackdown on capital outflows.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... ansactions" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Payments using the yuan fell to 21% of China’s total trade last October, before recovering to 30% in January, still well below the 37% peak recorded in August, according to central-bank data. “Given the yuan’s volatility and the authorities’ murky policy intentions, it’s hard to see interest in using the currency among our customers,” said Zhou Lin, finance director of Ningbo United Group Import & Export, a trading firm from China’s east coast that exports steel products and garments and imports coal and wood. “Demand for [yuan trade settlement] will only shrink further,” Mr. Zhou predicted.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/yuan-loses- ... 1457950712" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Chinese companies are continuing their U.S. shopping spree. On Monday, the focus was on real estate. A group led by China’s Anbang Insurance came in with a $12.8 billion takeover offer for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. The buyout offer threatens to upend Starwood’s tie-up with Marriott International. Anbang is also near a deal to buy Strategic Hotels & Resorts from a Blackstone-managed real-estate fund, people familiar with the situation said. Chinese companies have announced 36 purchases of U.S. companies valued at $39 billion, eclipsing 2015’s full-year record of $17 billion through 114 deals. And 2015 broke the record set in 2014, when Chinese buyers spent $14 billion on U.S. acquisitions.

Chinese companies have spent $102 billion to buy companies outside of its borders, just shy of its full-year record set in 2015 of $106 billion. The $43 billion acquisition of Swiss pesticide and seed company Syngenta by government-owned China National Chemical Corp. accounts for a large portion of that volume. Beyond real estate, Chinese companies have aggressively pursued deals for U.S. chip makers. In mid-February, U.S. technology distributor Ingram Microid said it had agreed to be acquired for about $6 billion by a unit of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group. Chinese buyers also have sought break up a number of existing deals for U.S. semiconductor companies with offers of their own.

Both Fairchild and Pericom rejected the proposals from the Chinese firms, citing concerns that they would fail to pass muster with U.S. authorities on national-security grounds. U.S. regulators -specifically the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment- have pushed back on Chinese purchases. In January, the committee blocked Royal Philips planned $2.8 billion sale of most of its lighting components and automotive-lighting unit to a Chinese investor on national-security grounds. The aggressive push into the U.S. comes amid slowing growth in China.

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/03/ ... n-the-u-s/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Money is leaving China in myriad ways, chasing after overseas assets in near-panic mode. So Anbang Insurance Group, after having already acquired the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan a year ago for a record $1.95 billion from Hilton Worldwide Holdings, at the time majority-owned by Blackstone, and after having acquired office buildings in New York and Canada, has struck out again. It agreed to acquire Strategic Hotels & Resorts from Blackstone for a $6.5 billion. The trick? According to Bloomberg’s “people with knowledge of the matter,” Anbang paid $450 million more than Blackstone had paid for it three months ago! Other Chinese companies have pursued targets in the US, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere with similar disregard for price, after seven years of central-bank driven asset price inflation. As exports of money from China is flourishing at a stunning pace, exports of goods are deteriorating at an equally stunning pace.

The China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI), published weekly, tracks contractual and spot-market rates for shipping containers from major ports in China to 14 regions around the world. Unlike most Chinese government data, this index reflects the unvarnished reality of the shipping industry in a languishing global economy. For the latest reporting week, the index dropped 4.1% to 705.6, its lowest level ever. It has plunged 34.4% from the already low levels in February last year and nearly 30% since its inception in 1998 when it was set at 1,000.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/03/14/china- ... cord-lows/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Image

Thousands of coal miners in the far northeast of China have been on strike for six days, demanding that China’s rulers – the so-called Communist Party dictatorship (CCP) – “give us back our money!” The protests, captured in dramatic video footage that is banned inside China, have shaken the Chinese regime during the very week when its ceremonial National People’s Congress (NPC) has been meeting in Beijing. A key discussion at the NPC has been about how the regime will cut the workforce in state-owned industries, with widely cited reports of 5-6 million redundancies, equivalent to one in six state sector jobs.
http://chinaworker.info/en/2016/03/15/12119/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his board kept the target for increasing the monetary base unchanged, and left their benchmark rate at minus 0.1%, the BOJ said in a statement on Tuesday. The U.S. Federal Reserve will conclude its policy meeting Wednesday.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... ative-rate" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

96% of mortgages in Spain, a far higher percentage than in other European countries, are variable-rate loans that fluctuate with the rise and fall of the euro interbank offered rate. The 12-month Euribor, as the rate is known, plummeted from 2.2% in mid-2011 into negative territory last month. It is now around -0.03%. Mortgages issued by Spanish banks yielded an average of 1.51% in January, one of the lowest rates in all of Europe, ECB data show. That figure compares with 2.58% in Italy and 3.27% in Germany.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/spanish-hom ... 1457955231" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Deutsche Bank, the lender exiting some trading operations, is in talks with JPMorgan Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to sell the last batches of about 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) in complex financial instruments, people with knowledge of the matter said. Deutsche Bank, based in Frankfurt, has sold about two-thirds of the portfolio of uncleared, mostly single-name credit default swaps since last year and wants to sell the rest within the next few months, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the talks are private. The three U.S. banks have already purchased some of the instruments, the people said. JPMorgan was among banks in talks to purchase more than $250 billion of the swaps, while Citigroup had already bought almost $250 billion, Bloomberg News reported in October. The total size of the credit derivatives market has dropped by almost two-thirds from $33 trillion in 2008, according to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... bank-swaps" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Boston, MA — A former head of a major Irish bank has been extradited from the U.S. and brought before Dublin District Court to face several charges stemming from the bank’s role in the 2008 financial crisis. David Drumm, former chief executive of Irish Anglo Bank from 2005 until 2008, had been arrested in Boston in October 2015, and originally attempted to fight extradition — but he recently withdrew the objection and was returned to Ireland early on Monday.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/irish- ... dition-us/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not only has Australian household debt-to-income roughly tripled since the late 1980s to a fresh record 184.6%, driven entirely by surging housing debt, but most of that money has been borrowed from offshore. Australia’s net foreign debt is now over a trillion dollars, and less than a quarter of that is public debt.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-14/j ... ve/7245490" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It may take up to two years for refugees and migrants trapped in Greece by closed borders at its north to be relocated to other countries of the EU or deported, Alternate Defense Minister and coordinator of the ministerial team managing the crisis Dimitris Vitsas, told the Financial Times on Sunday. “The thousands of migrants at the border are awaiting the outcome of the March 17 summit [of EU leaders] on refugees, hoping they will then be able to cross”, Vitsas said, referring to a summit later this week with Turkish officials to finalize a plan for migrant returns and relocations. “We have to persuade them this is not going to happen .. then the Idomeni camp will quickly empty, I think by the end of the week”, Vitsas told the FT.

His interview came a day before a spokesman for the UNHCR warned that conditions at the makeshift camp that is home to over 10,000 migrants on Greece’s border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) are just unbelievable. Official estimates on Monday put the number of migrants trapped in Greece at over 44,000 as new arrivals kept landing on the country s eastern islands.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/206949/arti ... -two-years" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...broken is broken is broken....they are getting roughly 2000 new immigrants per day and that number is supposed to increase as the weather improves...the wars aren't going away...

Gunfire broke out Tuesday during a counterterrorism raid in the Belgian capital, local media reported. Belgian media reported that at least one suspect fled and at least three officers were wounded in the incident in the Forest area of the city. Police sealed off the neighborhood and footage from the scene showed heavily-armed officers taking up positions.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/paris- ... id-n538756" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey lashed out Monday at Kurdish targets, bombing military positions in northern Iraq and rounding up dozens of militants at home after a suicide car bombing in the heart of the capital drew the country even deeper into the complex Syrian conflict.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... mbing.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military to withdraw most of its forces from Syria, timing his move to coincide with the launch of Syria peace talks Monday -- an end game that allows the Russian leader to cash in on his gains and reduce his risks in the conflict. The Syrian presidency said Assad and Putin spoke on the phone Monday and jointly agreed that Russia would scale back its forces in Syria. At the same time, Putin made it clear that Russia will maintain its air base and a naval facility in Syria and keep some troops there. Syria's state news agency also quoted Assad as saying that the Russian military will draw down its air force contingent but won't leave the country altogether.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... syria.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

9,000 sorties, 400 localities freed: What Russia has achieved during its 5-month Syria operation
https://www.rt.com/news/335596-russia-s ... n-results/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

North Korea Nuke Threat Not All Bluff and Bluster
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... uster.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

New PATENT: US Navy Achieves Unprecedented Level of Stealth
http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2016/03/1 ... f-stealth/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Military 'invisibility cloaks' could breach Geneva conventions
https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... onventions" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

WASHINGTON -- A Republican lawmaker said Monday he's been assured the Navy has resolved a procedural glitch that caused combat rifles used by SEAL teams based in San Diego to be taken from them unnecessarily.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... apons.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Afghan army's struggling 215th Corps in southwestern Helmand province is expected to get some respite in the coming weeks as the Taliban turns its attention to the lucrative poppy harvest, according to the U.S. military. The U.S., NATO and the Afghan government do little to interfere with the harvest. A spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which once had teams conducting raids around Afghanistan, said Monday that "We still have a presence there" but "the footprint there has been substantially reduced." Opiates have been and continue to be Afghanistan's largest exports, with an estimated annual value of nearly $3 billion, or about 13 percent of Afghanistan's Gross Domestic Product, according to the United Nations Office On Drugs and Crime, or UNODC.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... rvest.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...the same Taliban that was trying to eradicate poppies prior to 9/11...what they also don't mention is that the $100-200 dollars per kilogram to the farmers...and it takes about 7kg of opium to produce 1kg of heroin...and end prices for heroin are around $400-500 per gram...or in other words at maximum cost and minimum revenue (most conservative) that $1400 worth of poppies becomes $400,000...or 285X return...now multiply the $3 billion to the farmers by 285 X to figure out there is a whole lot of money involved...and very little of it is in Afghanistan - i.e. the CIA is doing well...

ISIS Leader al-Shishani Dies of Wounds from US Strike in Syria
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... -dead.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...reincarnated to fight/train somewhere else....have spent a fortune on that asset after all...

Trudeau quietly agrees to share info on Canadians with U.S.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016 ... alkom.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...and vice versa...

Orange County, Calif., is in the midst of a massive scandal involving the district attorney’s office and the use of informants. DA Tony Rackauckas and his staff have been berated by judges (one of whom recused the entire office from a murder case), had convictions overturned and even let accused killers go free rather than disclose how they use informants. It’s a massive scandal and ought to be national news.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... t-nuttier/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Salt Lake City, UT — Late Friday night, the Utah House of Representatives passed a resolution declaring the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement, also known as pornography, as a public health crisis. Supporters of the resolution likened pornography to an infectious disease. This resolution is the first of its kind in the United States, but it’s a notion that is becoming increasingly popular among religious lawmakers. The declaration will now be sent to Governor Gary Herbert for his signature.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/it-era ... th-crisis/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Prescription Painkiller Crisis: Why Do Americans Consume 80 Percent Of All Prescription Painkillers? If Americans are so happy, then why do we consume 80 percent of the entire global supply of prescription painkillers? Less than 5 percent of the world’s population lives in this country, and yet we buy four-fifths of these highly addictive drugs. In the United States today, approximately 4.7 million Americans are addicted to prescription pain relievers, and that represents about a 300 percent increase since 1999.

A report released by the US Centers for Disesase Control and Prevention (CDC) in January revealed that drug-overdose deaths reached a new high in 2014, totaling 47,055 people. Opioids, a type of powerful painkiller that requires a prescription, were involved in 60% of those deaths.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... ainkillers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...conquered Afghanistan...or is Afghanistan conquering us???

An early morning at a Washington 7-Eleven almost turned tragic when a masked man with an ax came charging through the door and started swinging without a word. But just as he managed to slice the clerk in the stomach, a 60-year-old customer who was having a cup of coffee pulled out his gun and shot the attacker dead at the Burien store. Kuldeep Singh, 58, believes he would have died had it not been for his regular customer, who had a concealed carry permit for his pistol and is being called a hero by police.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... leven.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Radiation so High at Fukushima, Tepco’s Robots can’t Survive
http://anonhq.com/investigative-radiati ... t-survive/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hihifo, Tonga Hit By M5.2 Earthquake
http://news.islandcrisis.net/2016/03/ea ... arthquake/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

NEW Zealand’s South Island has been struck by three widely felt earthquakes and a series of aftershocks.
http://www.news.com.au/world/pacific/ea ... 73d953876b" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) and Deutsche Boerse have agreed terms for a "merger of equals". The tie-up will create one of the largest exchange companies in the world with a combined value of about £21bn.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35818997" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BCB President Alexandre Tombini is reportedly “giving signs” that he may resign. “The possible nomination of Lula points to deep economic policy changes, with repercussions in monetary policy and FX policy,” Valor reported on Wednesday, explaining Tombini’s reservations about Lula’s new post. The BCB chief worries Lula may tap FX reserves and put pressure on Tombini to cut rates, Valor continues, without citing sources.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... l-insanity" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Image

A protest by Chinese coal workers over unpaid wages drew a swift, expected response: payoffs to get them off the streets and threats of police action if they don’t. The effort underscores the government’s long-standing worries about labor strife and its newly cautious approach to restructuring unprofitable state firms. Unrest in the northeastern city of Shuangyashan appeared to ease as Longmay Mining Holding, a huge employer, started disbursing some back pay on Monday, workers said. Hundreds took to the streets there last week, drawing a large police presence, after the provincial governor said Longmay didn’t owe its miners wages. The response by Longmay and Heilongjiang province Gov. Lu Hao, who later said he had misspoken about the wage arrears, mirrored past efforts by Chinese officials to ease labor unrest with a mix of cash, coercion and pledges of redress. Chinese call the strategy “buying stability,” part of the government’s well-worn playbook for defusing public anger. The retrenchment, and the allocation of 100 billion yuan ($15.4 billion) in restructuring funds to pay for workers’ severance, retraining and relocation, are part of a five-year economic program Chinese lawmakers are set to adopt at the end of their annual session in Beijing on Wednesday.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-mixes ... 1458041535" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Roughly half a trillion dollars poured out of China in 2015 according to the Institute for International Finance and that pace continues this year. Capital leaving China has found its way into single and multifamily real estate properties in North America – in addition to financial assets like stocks, bonds and currencies. Now, the money is rushing directly towards large domestic corporations through takeover deals. Just two and a half months into the year, Chinese overseas corporate M&A activity is roughly in line with the $108 billion in outbound M&A conducted all of last year, according to Dealogic.

Nearly three decades ago, Japanese corporations flooded the United States with a boom of takeover deals, much of it focused on prime U.S. real estate. They snapped up properties like Rockefeller Center and The Plaza Hotel, in addition to Columbia Pictures, causing consternation among those in the U.S. who wondered when, or if, the buying boom would ever end. “If you don’t want Japan to buy it.. don’t sell it,” Akio Morita, founder of Sony , famously said when bidding for Columbia. The buying stopped when a 1980s stock market bubble in Japan popped, depleting the dealmaking currency and animal spirits of overseas acquirers. Within years, targets like Rock Center and The Plaza were in the hands of new ownership and a quarter century later, Japanese corporations are still trying to dig out from under the bubble.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara ... ger-mania/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Asia hedge funds, excluding those that invest in Japan, fell 1.5% in February, bringing their loss for the first two months of 2016 to 6.6%, according to Singapore-based data provider Eurekahedge. Apart from being the biggest drop ever for the first two months of the year, that’s also the worst start among the world’s major regions, Eurekahedge said. The Shanghai Composite Index has tumbled 19% this year to rank among the worst-performing equity markets in the world, and most of the region’s benchmarks have been whipsawed by volatility amid scant signs of global growth. The losses for hedge funds investing in Asia ex-Japan compares with a decline of 3.2% in Europe through the end of February and a decrease of 1.7% in North America, according to the Eurekahedge website.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... hedge-says" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Image

The current decline in US manufacturing would be the first time since 1952 that Industrial Production has declined for four straight months without the US economy not being in recession.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... hing-it-ha" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Image

Sales of drugs soared 11.0% to $53.6 billion. As we found out today via Express Scripts Drug Trend Report, those sales increases weren’t caused by people suddenly taking more drugs; they were caused largely by price gouging.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/03/15/busine ... an-moment/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...only thing doing really well in the US economy...

In 2014, almost 30,000 people died from heroin and opioids (also called narcotic prescription painkillers), exceeding those who died from car accidents during the same year, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Prescriptions for opioids have risen by 300 percent over the past 10 years and fed the heroin epidemic as the tolerance of opioid addicts surpasses their allotted prescription dosage and/or they are no longer allowed to refill their prescription. In April of 2015, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also noted that "Controlled prescription drug abusers who begin using heroin do so chiefly because of price differences.” Most people know there is a prescription painkiller epidemic underway but few realize how much the government is enabling it, how much taxpayers are subsidizing it, and how this is the root cause of the current heroin epidemic.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... ction.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is trying to sell new securities that would pass along most of the credit risk on $1.9 billion in mortgages, in an attempt to revive a debt market that has been largely left to the government since the financial crisis. The largest U.S. bank by assets is expected to price the residential mortgage-backed deal over the next two weeks. J.P. Morgan would hold 90% of the deal by keeping the safest parts, or the most senior tranches, and plans to sell off the riskier pieces to investors. Government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have dominated the market in their absence. The two companies have recently been selling new securities that use derivatives to unload the risk of default on the mortgages they guarantee.
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/jp-morgan ... 0314-01029" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The total value of unfunded or underfunded government pension liabilities for 20 countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) — a group of largely wealthy countries — is $78 trillion, Citi said. (The countries studied include the U.K., France and Germany, plus several others in western and central Europe, the U.S., Japan, Canada, and Australia.) The bank added that corporates also failed to consistently meet their pension obligations, with most U.S. and U.K. corporate pensions plans underfunded. Countries with large public pension systems in Europe appear to have the greatest problem. Citi noted that Germany, France, Italy, the U.K., Portugal and Spain had estimated public sector pension liabilities that topped 300 percent of gross domestic product.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rich-cou ... 45530.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Tuesday he will ask countries to step forward and agree to take in another 400,000 Syrian refugees. On his first visit to Washington since being appointed to head the UN refugee effort, Filippo Grandi said the world must do more to end the crisis. More than four million Syrians have fled their war-torn country since the conflict erupted, and more than six million are displaced within its borders. Neighboring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan are struggling to cope with the exodus and the onward flow has created a political and humanitarian crisis in Europe.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/foreign/16 ... 00-syrians" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Already this year, 133,549 people have reached Europe by sea up more than 10 fold from 2015. The demographic has altered drastically as well: whereas last year, the breakdown of migrants/refugees by gender was 62% male, 16% women and 22% children, so far this year it has been 47%, 20% and 34% respectively. Meanwhile, Greece, in the midst of its own economic turmoil, is left to accommodate 122,000 souls under the UNHCR’s warning of an ‘imminent humanitarian disaster’ unless other EU countries begin to take in these refugees.
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence ... .1nqzhy5wv" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tuesday’s statement put the number of migrants and refugees currently trapped in Greece due to border closures at 35,000. Government sources estimate that number to be closer to 44,000. The Bank of Greece, meanwhile, on Monday said the cost of the handling the refugee crisis for Greece alone will likely exceed a previous estimate of €600 million. The European Commission estimates that the refugee effort will require €300 million this year and an additional €200 million each in 2017 and 2018.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/206970/arti ... for-greece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Obama Unveils Merrick Garland As Supreme Court Pick
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... court-pick" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

US court ruling on 9/11 unjust, ridiculous: Iran - On Wednesday, Iran was ordered by a US judge to pay more than $10.5 billion in damages to families of people killed on 9/11 and to a group of insurers. US district judge George Daniels issued the judgment in New York, claiming Iran has failed to defend itself against allegations of involvement in the attacks. The court ruling is based on the 9/11 Commission Report which stated that some attackers moved through Iran and did not have their passports stamped.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/03/1 ... 1-attacks/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Obama Makes $4.5 Billion In Aid MANDATORY For Muslim Refugees, But NO CASH For American Vets?
http://usherald.com/obama-can-magically ... -veterans/#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Obama administration will abandon its plan to allow new offshore oil drilling on the southeast coast of the U.S., dealing a blow to petroleum companies and marking a victory for environmentalists, coastal residents and the U.S. military. The Interior Department said Tuesday it will not auction off drilling rights for Atlantic Ocean waters off the coast of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/201 ... /81800458/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We Are Being Killed On Trade – Rapidly Declining Exports Signal A Death Blow For The U.S. Economy
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... -s-economy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just under half of Russia's fixed-wing strike force based in Syria has flown out of the country in the past two days, according to a Reuters calculation which suggests the Kremlin is accelerating its partial withdrawal. The precise number of planes Russia kept at its Hmeymim base in Syria's Latakia province is secret. But analysis of satellite imagery, air strikes and defense ministry statements suggested it had about 36 fixed-wing military jets there. At least 15 of those planes have flown out in the past two days, a Reuters analysis of state television footage shows, including Su-24, Su-25, Su-30 and Su-34 jets.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKCN0WI0G3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Russian warplanes continued bombing in Syria and "fewer than 10" departed the region following President Vladimir Putin's stunning announcement that his forces had accomplished their mission and a partial withdrawal had begun, Pentagon officials said.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... syria.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Russia and fragile ex-Soviet ally Tajikistan have begun large-scale military drills close to the Central Asian state's restless border with Afghanistan, a Tajik military official confirmed Tuesday. A spokesman for Tajikistan's defence ministry said the drills involved about 50,000 Tajik troops and 2,000 Russian troops, including paratroopers flown in from Russia.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016 ... order.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Syrian Kurdish leaders are expected to declare a separate federal region in northern Syria. The Syrian Kurdish political groups took the decision after being excluded so far from UN-brokered peace talks between the Syrian government and the opposition in Geneva.
http://www.rferl.org/content/syrian-kur ... 17028.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China and Russia are planning to take down US military satellites with missiles, spacecraft and lasers, Air Force general warns
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... warns.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The wall separating “foreign” intelligence operations from domestic criminal investigations has finally, fully collapsed. The FBI now plans to act on a rule change initiated by the Bush administration and finally massaged into actionable policy by Obama: Soon, domestic law enforcement agencies like the FBI will be able to search through communications collected under the mysterious authority of executive order 12333. Now, FBI agents can query the NSA’s database of Americans’ international communications, collected without warrants pursuant to Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act. That law put congress’ stamp of approval on the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was widely denounced as totalitarian when the New York Times‘ James Risen exposed it to the world in 2005.
https://privacysos.org/blog/fbi-will-no ... cept-data/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Aadhaar more intrusive than US surveillance exposed by Snowden, say privacy advocates
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 425678.cms" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

United Nations Statistical Commission
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...absolutely unreal data collection effort underway...

The new mind control
https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-internet ... r-thoughts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nano-sized particles cure final-stage breast cancer in mice – breakthrough study
https://www.rt.com/news/335726-terminal ... ice-study/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Court: Texas Can Sue Feds Over BLM Land Grab
http://www.infowars.com/texas-allowed-t ... land-grab/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

California Leaps into Crossfire on Gun Control
http://www.thecrimereport.org/archive/2 ... un-control" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In an effort to defend against improvised explosive attacks, the Pentagon’s research arm DARPA is looking to pay crafty hobbyists capable of turning household items into bombs. Take a cursory look at the warning labels on the products beneath your kitchen sink and it will come as no surprise that danger-seeking chemists, engineers and ordinary citizens can turn common everyday objects into deadly weapons. In an effort to stay one step ahead of possible improvised attacks, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will pay people who can develop deadly devices from consumer electronics, household chemicals, or other "commercially available technology."
http://sputniknews.com/us/20160315/1036 ... -bomb.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...good way of obtaining a list...

The report by the Berlin-based Institute of Medical History and Ethics details 900 experiments that took place between 1961 and 1989, as well as some 300 clinical trials. Of the companies involved, there were American, French and British firms, among others. A total of 75 companies from 16 different countries took part in the gargantuan project; these included heavyweights like Pfizer and Bayer.
https://www.rt.com/news/335780-east-germany-drug-tests/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Complete History Of Monsanto, “The World’s Most Evil Corporation”
http://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/ ... rporation/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FDA Approved Google Edible Microchip & E-Tattoo Can Read Your Mind!
http://yournewswire.com/video-fda-appro ... microchip/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Senate set to vote on DARK Act TODAY, bill would criminalize any and all claims that say non-GMO food is safer
http://www.naturalnews.com/053328_DARK_ ... enate.html#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Code for pedophiles ends up on children’s toys sold at Monster Jam
http://wfla.com/2016/03/09/code-for-ped ... nster-jam/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

M5.6 – 63km NNE of Al Hoceima, Morocco Today
http://news.islandcrisis.net/2016/03/st ... cco-today/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Earthquake map
https://www.facebook.com/13988858704089 ... =3&theater" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Deweyville, Texas, Completely Cut Off by Record-Breaking Sabine River Flooding
http://endtimeheadlines.org/2016/03/dew ... -flooding/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A high speed solar wind stream flowing from a southern hemisphere coronal hole is now geoeffective. Enhanced geomagnetic activity, possibly reaching minor (G1) storm levels will be possible during the next 24 hours. Sky watchers at high latitudes should be alert for visible aurora tonight. UPDATE: Periods of isolated minor (G1) geomagnetic storming is again being observed at higher latitudes while our geomagnetic field remains under the influence of a high speed solar wind stream. Enhancements will remain possible during the next 12 hours.
http://www.solarham.net/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.spaceweather.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Bank Of Japan Intervenes In The Market To Smash Yen After Nikkei Crashes 700 Points
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... 700-points" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
JPM's then-conclusion was that "different to previous episodes of dollar funding shortage such as the ones experienced during the Lehman crisis or during the euro debt crisis, the current one is not driven by banks. It is rather driven by the monetary policy divergence between the US and the rest of the world. This divergence appears to have created an imbalance in funding markets and a shortage in dollar funding. It is important to monitor how this dollar funding shortage and issuance patterns evolve over time even if the currency implications are uncertain."

Fast forward one year when overnight Bloomberg followed up on the topic of the global dollar funding shortage, by looking at FX basis swaps in Japan and concluding that "the Bank of Japan’s negative interest rate policy is making it more expensive for domestic banks to hedge dollar investments, threatening to slow their escape from negative rates into U.S. currency debt."
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... cord-japan" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

if one adds the December and November revisions together, the result of -474K is the biggest two-month cut to openings since December 2006. According to the BLS, in January the Quits number dropped by 284K to 2,804K, after breaking out last month. This was the single biggest monthly drop since the financial crisis.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... ember-2008" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“We lost a lot of the middle class.” The United States lost 30% of its manufacturing jobs between 1998 and 2016, according to Federal Reserve data. As of February, the country had 12.3 million workers in the sector, down from 17.6 million in April 2008. In February 2010, that figure was 11.5 million.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....with US dollar demand skyrocketing to service US dollar debts....US manufacturing is going to get creamed over the next 12 months...
Peabody Energy, the U.S.’s biggest coal miner, Wednesday posted a going-concern notice in a regulatory filing, warning of possible bankruptcy. A chapter 11 filing by Peabody, which operates 26 mines in the U.S. and Australia, would be the latest in a wave of bankruptcies to hit top American coal producers, including Arch Coal, Alpha Natural Resources, Patriot Coal and Walter Energy, as they wrestle with low energy prices, new regulations, and the conversion of coal-fired power plants to natural gas. Punctuating Peabody’s woes, the Energy Information Administration Wednesday said that 2016 “will be the first year that natural gas-fired generation exceeds coal generation.”

Coal prices have fallen 62% since 2011, and 18% in the past year, according to the EIA. That drop is crushing companies like Peabody. The company has now lost money in nine straight quarters, and in 2015 posted a $2 billion deficit. As of Dec. 31, it had $6.3 billion in debt and $261.3 million in cash. Peabody, whose biggest mining operations are in Wyoming, has also been weighed down by its ill-timed acquisition of Australia’s Macarthur Coal for $5.1 billion in 2011. Prices have been declining ever since. Company shares, which have already lost more than 95% of their value in the past 12 months, fell 44% in midday trading. Peabody’s share price has fallen to under $2.50 from more than $1,300 in 2008.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/peabody-ene ... 1458129308" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Peabody has opted to exercise the 30-day grace period with respect to a $21.1 million interest payment due March 16 on its 6.50% notes due in September 2020, as well as a $50 million interest payment due March 16 on its 10% senior secured second lien notes due in March 2022. If it files for bankruptcy protection, its $10 billion in debt would make it the largest U.S. oil company to do so since oil prices began their sharp decline in 2014.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/energy ... 2016-03-16" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

a Valeant default - appears all too likely: under its loan agreements, Valeant has until March 30 to file audited financial reports. If it fails to do so, it then has 30 days before lenders can demand accelerated repayment.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-1 ... id-default" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bludgeoned by falling energy prices, at least a dozen oil and natural gas companies have opted to cut dividends this year to preserve cash, cannibalizing payouts considered sacrosanct by many investors. The cost to shareholders: more than $7.4 billion in lost income, compared to what they would have received this year if the payouts remained the same. It’s another painful measure – along with tens of thousands of layoffs and more than $100 billion in canceled investments – of the toll taken on the industry by the worst oil and gas price slump in decades.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... e-targeted" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil giant, cannot seem to get a break these days. It notched up 13 straight quarters of rising losses. It now owes over $80 billion to international investors and banks. It needs to raise $23 billion this year to stay afloat. The cost of servicing that gargantuan debt mountain continues to rise. So it tries desperately to rein in its spending, without tackling — or even discussing — its endemic culture of corruption. In recent days, Pemex received a 15 billion peso ($840 million) lifeline from three of Mexico’s homegrown development banks, Banobras, Bancomext and Nafinsa, to help the firm pay back some of its smallest providers, consisting mainly of domestic SMEs. The loan was part of an arrangement cobbled together between the banks and the Mexican government.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/03/16/big-oi ... l-deepens/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Mosul Dam - OPEC's Unavoidable Supply Cut
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3958254 ... supply-cut" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... sis-mounts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Guri – Source of 65% of Venezuela’s Electricity – 3.56 Meters from Collapse. CARACAS – The Guri dam, which is the source of 65% of all of Venezuela’s electricity, is less than four meters from reaching the level where power generation will be impossible, according to experts interviewed by Latin American Herald Tribune. Water levels at the hydroelectric dam are 3.56 meters from the start of a "collapse" of the national electric system, say experts. Guri water levels are at their lowest levels since 2003, when the a nationwide strike against Hugo Chavez reduced the need for power, masking the problem. a nationwide drought is complicating everything. The rainy season has started but the levels in the dam keep falling and critics warn of increased blackouts and brownouts in a country with already faulty electricity service.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?Article ... ryId=10717" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Release of tapped phone calls between Lula and Rousseff sparks mass protests in Brazil - The latest revelations will intensify yet further the political polarisation in the country. By midnight on Wednesday there were reports of demonstrations against the government in at least 17 of Brazil’s 26 states. Last Sunday, millions of Brazilians took part in the largest anti-government protests the country has ever seen. A pro-government rally is planned for Friday. On top of the corruption allegations, Brazil is suffering from its worst recession in at least 25 years, with the economy shrinking 3.8% last year, and the forecast for 2016 similar.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... azil-chaos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
RIO DE JANEIRO — After the police raided his home and prosecutors sought his arrest, the former president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, seemed destined to become the biggest figure caught in the widening corruption investigation upending Latin America’s largest country.

But as it turns out, he may have an unusual escape route. Instead of facing jail, he is becoming a cabinet minister: President Dilma Rousseff, his protégée and successor, announced Wednesday that she was making him chief of staff.

The move grants Mr. da Silva, the founder and face of the governing Workers’ Party, broad legal protections, but it quickly intensified the political upheaval rattling the nation.

Brazil is suffering its worst economic crisis in decades. An enormous graft scheme has hobbled the national oil company. The Zika epidemic is causing despair across the northeast. And just before the world heads to Brazil for the Summer Olympics, the government is fighting for survival, with almost every corner of the political system under the cloud of scandal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/world ... .html?_r=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...at the heart of it all...fraud, corruption, and debt...

Putin: Russia Can Rebuild Its Syria Forces 'In Hours'
http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-syr ... 19563.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...yeah fly out...and fly back in...

Documents in Upcoming National Security Archive Publication Show Kissinger’s Behind-the-Scenes Efforts to Mitigate Fallout from Church Committee Report
https://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2016/03 ... ee-report/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

US Role In War Crimes In Yemen Getting Harder To Hide
https://shadowproof.com/2016/03/17/us-r ... r-to-hide/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Complete Database of Hillary Clinton’s Controversial E-Mails — 55,000+ Pages
http://www.theblackvault.com/documentar ... 000-pages/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anonymous Releases Donald Trump’s Cell Phone and Social Security Numbers
http://countercurrentnews.com/2016/03/whiteroserevolt/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

While a harsh national spotlight focuses on the drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich., a USA TODAY NETWORK investigation has identified almost 2,000 additional water systems spanning all 50 states where testing has shown excessive levels of lead contamination over the past four years.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016 ... b8e7e18510" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FEMA rejects Michigan governor's request for more Flint money
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com ... lint-money" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The nomination of Robert Califf to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) demonstrates once again that the pharmaceutical industry has immense influence in federal government. The FDA, which claims to protect us from bad foods and drugs, is now run by a person who has reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars through ties to 23 drug companies. Big Pharma has a very special privilege in the U.S., which is one of only two countries that allow direct-to-consumer marketing of its patented products. Between this and its profit-sharing relationship with doctors, the industry has a nation hooked on legal drugs such as opioids which are killing people by the thousands and leading to a massive heroin epidemic.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/big-ph ... 00-deaths/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Harvard Researchers Create Stronger, Thicker, 3D Printed Vascular Tissues That Live Up to Six Weeks
http://3dprint.com/123181/3d-printed-vascular-tissues/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

DARPA’s new experimental sniper bullet can turn in mid-flight
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/che ... ?tid=a_inl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Washington D.C. — As if autonomous drones launching Hellfire missiles at targets acquired through the collection of metadata weren’t horrifying enough, the US military now has its own death rays — no kidding. Since the days of Nikola Tesla, and his plans of a death ray, the up and coming military industrial complex has salivated over the idea of direct energy weapons. For pennies, the US could lay waste to their enemies instead of using highly expensive missile systems. However, this technology and the resources to build it remained elusive — until now. Directed energy weapons (DEWs) are systems that emit energy without the means of a projectile, and can use visible light, infra-red or microwave radiation, with lethal effects. Lockheed Martin has already shown the deadly accuracy of these weapons in tests. In milliseconds, one of their 30 KW laser weapons will melt a hole through solid steel. When Defense News asked Lockheed Martin if they came to them tomorrow and asked for a laser weapon in the 30 KW range, the company said yes. According to Defense News, that doesn’t mean that giant city-melting lasers are on their way. Right now, the weapons are limited to the 15-30 KW scale; going much further requires figuring out how to deal with atmospheric interference, an issue which becomes more complicated with weapons mounted on airborne systems.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/modern ... ady-today/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Four billion-dollar weather disasters so far in 2016
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rded-histo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Last edited by Jason on March 17th, 2016, 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Durzan
The Lord's Trusty Maverick
Posts: 3728
Location: Standing between the Light and the Darkness.

Re: Blipits

Post by Durzan »

So... what your saying is that financially speaking, craps about to hit the fan? I honestly have little to no clue about most of what you just said, its been 2+ years since I took an economics class, and most of what you just spoke about I am unfamiliar with.

User avatar
iWriteStuff
blithering blabbermouth
Posts: 5523
Location: Sinope
Contact:

Re: Blipits

Post by iWriteStuff »

Durzan wrote:So... what your saying is that financially speaking, craps about to hit the fan? I honestly have little to no clue about most of what you just said, its been 2+ years since I took an economics class, and most of what you just spoke about I am unfamiliar with.
To summarize: there is a flock of dead canaries in the coal mine. The stench of death is spreading while the world holds its nose and pretends to smell roses.

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Durzan wrote:So... what your saying is that financially speaking, craps about to hit the fan? I honestly have little to no clue about most of what you just said, its been 2+ years since I took an economics class, and most of what you just spoke about I am unfamiliar with.
Money is created by debt. There is a limit to how much debt we can service. We've hit the limit.

Zero percent interest rates aren't enough to keep the game rolling (no slice for the banks to keep them alive). Negative interest rates also do not work and the only somewhat conceivable functionality is by eliminating cash (bank attempts to take cut from depositors).

Its a major game changer as we've been kicking the can down the road for multiple decades.

Yeah the crap is about to hit the fan. The next 12 months should prove to be very interesting....

User avatar
iWriteStuff
blithering blabbermouth
Posts: 5523
Location: Sinope
Contact:

Re: Blipits

Post by iWriteStuff »

Jason wrote:
Durzan wrote:So... what your saying is that financially speaking, craps about to hit the fan? I honestly have little to no clue about most of what you just said, its been 2+ years since I took an economics class, and most of what you just spoke about I am unfamiliar with.
Money is created by debt. There is a limit to how much debt we can service. We've hit the limit.

Zero percent interest rates aren't enough to keep the game rolling (no slice for the banks to keep them alive). Negative interest rates also do not work and the only somewhat conceivable functionality is by eliminating cash (bank attempts to take cut from depositors).

Its a major game changer as we've been kicking the can down the road for multiple decades.

Yeah the crap is about to hit the fan. The next 12 months should prove to be very interesting....
As if on cue:

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/03/ ... -pensions/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Turns out govt debt is actually three times greater than everyone thought. Oops!

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