From James Harkin (Webmaster & Editor of LindseyWilliams.net). Here is a summary of articles of interest from around the world for this week. Please LIKE the Lindsey Williams Online Facebook Page to see stories posted daily regarding the current state of the economy around the world.
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Latest News From August 5, 2016 to August 11, 2016:
- EXCLUSIVE: Gerald Celente – Sneak Peek At The Remarkable Top Trends For 2017 & How You Can Profit
Today the top trends forecaster in the world, Gerald Celente, spoke with King World News about a few of what will be the remarkable top trends for 2017 and how people can profit from them. Eric King: “Gerald, the top trends for 2017, let’s talk about something that is starting to surface (that is on your list of top trends for 2017) — virtual reality and what the opportunities will be there.” Gerald Celente: “It’s virtual reality, robotics and artificial intelligence. The Industrial Age is dead. This is now the Robotic Age — from industrialization to robotization and artificial intelligence. So it’s robotization, artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Let’s start with virtual reality… - Back To Square One: Why The Financial System Needs To Reset
Epoch Times spoke to Paul about what is real money, why debt can never be repaid, and why he sees gold at $15,000 per ounce. - The Last Time This Happened, US Equities Crashed
Something extremely unsusual just happened. The post-Brexit, post-QE collapse in UK Gilt yields has extended the ‘cheapness' of US Treasuries to over 100bps. This is the widest absolute spread since May 2000 but at almost 3x, this is by far the greatest relative differential in history. As gilt yields collapse so the absolute spread spikes, suggesting Treasuries are dramatically cheap… - Marc Faber Issues A Stunning Warning That A Gigantic 50 Percent Stock Market Crash Could Be Coming
Are we about to witness one of the largest stock market crashes in U.S. history? Swiss investor Marc Faber is the publisher of the “Gloom, Boom & Doom Report”, and he has been a regular guest on CNBC for years. And even though U.S. stocks have been setting new record high after new record high in recent weeks, he is warning that a massive stock market crash is in our very near future. According to Faber, we could “easily” see the S&P 500 plunge all the way down to 1,100. As I sit here writing this article, the S&P 500 is sitting at 2,181.74, so that would be a drop of cataclysmic proportions. - Entering Perfect Storm of Every Facet of our Lives-Bill Holter
Financial writer Bill Holter warns the world faces multiple problems, not just one. Holter explains, “We are entering a perfect storm of every facet of our lives. This is not just financial. This is social, and it has to do with the breakdown of the rule of law. In the U.S. and globally, you can look at this as a breakdown of morals. Society is breaking down. You’ve got false economic numbers supported by the press that’s telling the people that all is well. You are seeing, for lack of a better term, revolt all over the world. Brexit was a revolt. Donald Trump running for President is a revolt. You are seeing people get truly pissed off because they know something is wrong, and it’s a worldwide phenomenon.” - China's Marshall Plan
China's ambition to revive an ancient trading route stretching from Asia to Europe could leave an economic legacy bigger than the Marshall Plan or the European Union's enlargement, according to a new analysis. Dubbed ‘One Belt, One Road,' the plan to build rail, highways and ports will embolden China's soft power status by spreading economic prosperity during a time of heightened political uncertainty in both the U.S. and EU, according to Stephen L. Jen, the chief executive officer at Eurizon SLJ Capital Ltd., who estimates a value of $1.4 trillion for the project. - Bond Market’s Big Illusion Revealed as U.S. Yields Turn Negative
For Kaoru Sekiai, getting steady returns for his pension clients in Japan used to be simple: buy U.S. Treasuries. Compared with his low-risk options at home, like Japanese government bonds, Treasuries have long offered the highest yields around. And that’s been the case even after accounting for the cost to hedge against the dollar’s ups and downs — a common practice for institutions that invest internationally. It’s been a “no-brainer since forever,” said Sekiai, a money manager at Tokyo-based DIAM Co., which oversees about $166 billion. - Trump is Right About Stocks
It is not often that you get investment advice from a presidential candidate. It is even rarer that you get good advice. But yesterday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gave investors both good advice and good analysis. Bloomberg has the report: Donald Trump on Tuesday said interest rates set by the Federal Reserve are inflating the stock market and recommended 401(k)-holders to get out of equities, just like he did. “I did invest and I got out, and it was actually very good timing,” the Republican presidential nominee said in a phone interview with Fox Business. “But I’ve never been a big investor in the stock market.” “Interest rates are artificially low,” Trump said. “The only reason the stock market is where it is is because you get free money.” Mr. Trump is right on the money. The reason stocks are near their all-time highs is that there is a lot of free money around. Money lent out at interest rates below the rate of inflation is free. - Trump Vows To “Jump Start” Economy With “Tax Revolution”; Is Interrupted At Least 14 Times
In his first comprehensive speech laying out his vision for the US economy, Donald Trump presented a tax-slashing agenda which would seek to cut regulations, while blaming Hillary Clinton for America’s economic woes in a highly touted address Monday at the Detroit Economic Club. “Americanism, not globalism, will be our new credo,” Trump declared, saying his plan represents the “biggest tax revolution” since the Reagan era. “I want to jump-start America,” the GOP presidential nominee added in another line that brought both applause and boos from the crowd. - Investing in Gold in 2016: Global Paradigm Shifts in Politics and Markets
In the past few months, we have witnessed a series of defining events in modern political history, with Britain’s vote to exit the EU, (several) terror attacks in France and Germany, as well as the recent attempted military coup in Europe’s backyard, Turkey. Uncertainty over Europe’s political stability and the future of the EU keeps growing. These worries are quite valid, as geopolitical developments have the potential to shake markets to the core. The current high-risk environment makes it especially important to take prudent investment decisions in order to protect one’s wealth. - US Economy – Something is not Right
This morning the punters in the casino were cheered up by yet another strong payrolls report, the second in a row. Leaving aside the fact that it will be revised out of all recognition when all is said and done, does it actually mean the economy is strong? As we usually point out at this juncture: apart from the problem that US labor force participation has collapsed (i.e., millions of unemployed people have been defined out of existence), employment is a lagging economic indicator. Nevertheless, payroll data and initial claims usually tend to give some advance warning ahead of recessions. As long as they remain strong, it is fair to conclude that a recession is probably still a few months away at a minimum. Note though that the warning signs from these indicators usually come very late in the game. - Will Barack Obama Try To Stay In Office If Donald Trump Wins The Election?
If Donald Trump wins in November, will Barack Obama leave office and hand over power in an orderly fashion? Normally we would not even have to ask such a question, but these are not normal times. This week, Obama publicly stated that Trump “is unfit to serve as President” and that he is “woefully unprepared to do this job“. In addition, he told the press that Trump “doesn’t have the judgment, the temperament, the understanding to occupy the most powerful position in the world.” If Obama really believes those things are true, would he really just stand aside and hand the keys to the White House to Trump? Never before have I ever heard a sitting president claim that one of the major party candidates could not function as president. But that is what Obama has just done. - Now The Markets Themselves Are Too Big To Fail
The First Rebuttal website has coined a term that gets to the heart of an increasingly dysfunctional system: The too-big-to-fail stock market. The general thesis is that most major countries are over-leveraged to that point of maybe being unable to survive a garden variety equities bear market – and are doing whatever it takes to keep that from happening. - The Worst Global Crisis In History Will Be Triggered In The Next Few Months
With continued uncertainty in global markets, today the man who has become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, and major global events, warned King World News that the worst global crisis in history will be triggered in the next few months. The Seeds Of The Worst Global Crisis In History. Egon von Greyerz: “This coming autumn, we are likely to see the beginning of the hyperinflationary phase of the sovereign debt crisis. Hyperinflation normally hits an economy very quickly and unexpectedly and is the result of the currency collapsing. Hyperinflation does not arise as a result of increasing demand for goods and services. The course of events in a hyperinflationary scenario can be summarized as follows: 1. Chronic government deficits; 2. Debt issuance and money printing escalating rapidly; 3. Bonds falling – interest rates rising fast; 4. Currency collapsing. The above process turns into a vicious circle that accelerates quickly… - US Oil, Gas Industry Sees 26% Decline in Employment
US oil and gas producers have cut 142,000 jobs as of May 2016 since its peak employment levels in October 2014 of 538,000, according to a US Energy Information Administration press release on Friday—a 26% drop over that period. The 26% decline in oil and gas employment seems to mirror—although not as drastically—the oil and gas rig count, which stood at 404 rigs in May 2016—down a staggering 77% from the 1800 rigs in action in fall 2014. - Why The Jobs Report Is Not Nearly As Strong As You Are Being Told
Happy days are here again? On Friday, the mainstream media was buzzing with the news that the U.S. economy had added 255,000 jobs during the month of July. But as you will see below, the U.S. economy did not add 255,000 jobs during the month of July. In fact, without an extremely generous “seasonal adjustment”, the number of jobs added during the month of July would not have even kept up with population growth. But the pretend number sounds so much better than the real number, and so the pretend number is what is being promoted for public consumption. Why doesn’t the government ever just tell us the plain facts? Unfortunately, we live at a time when “spin” is everything, and just about everyone in the mainstream media seemed quite pleased with the “good jobs report” on Friday. - Bad Economy is Why Trump GOP Nominee-John Williams
Economist John Williams says don’t believe the hype about the U.S. economy being good—it’s not. Williams explains, “I love America, but we are in a deepening recession. The economy collapsed into 2009 . . . we never really recovered from that. We had a few bounces higher, but generally, we went into low level stagnation, and now it’s turning down again. We just had a revision to the benchmark GDP (1.2%) and the numbers are nonsense. The numbers are a lot weaker than they appear. There’s no question we are in a recession.” - City of London Office Values Plunge 6% in One Month
In July, a sharp mechanism started working: one of the hottest commercial real estate markets in the world, and one of the most expensive, began to deflate. And the hiss is deafening. Capital values for offices in the City of London – the financial district of London – plunged 6.1% in July, from June, real estate firm CBRE reported today. In its monthly index, “capital value” represents the probable prices that would have been paid at the date of valuation. And it extended beyond London: In the UK office values dropped 4.1% from June. Commercial property values overall – including office, retail, industrial, and other – dropped 3.3%, which chopped year-over-year growth to 0.4%. - Buffett Exits Entire Credit Default Swap Exposure, As Citi's Appetite For Derivative Destruction Surges
It was considered one of the bigger paradoxes for years. Back in 2003, Warren Buffett famously dubbed derivatives “financial weapons of mass destruction” and yet over the next several years went ahead and entered a number of the contracts, including both equities and credit, ostensibly by selling CDS to collect monthly premiums, although not to the same degree as AIG, which infamously had to be bailed out due to massive losses on its CDS book. The billionaire had argued that agreements he made were attractive because they gave him money up front that he could invest. Berkshire’s derivatives also differed from contracts that brought down other financial institutions during the 2008 credit crisis, because he had less onerous collateral requirements. - “Poorer Than Your Parents?” New Study Shows 81% Of Americans Worse Off Than In 2005
The McKinsey study Poorer than Their Parents? offers a new perspective on income inequality over the period 2005-2014. Based on market income from wages and capital, the study shows 81% of US citizens are worse off now than a decade ago. In France the figure is 63%, Italy 97%, and Sweden 20%. The numbers for the US and France differ radically once transfer mechanisms like food stamps and Obamacare subsidies are taken into consideration. - Weak Chinese Trade Data Confirms Global Slowdown, Imports Tumble
While central banks continue to “print” liquidity, now at a pace of nearly $200 billion per month, they are unable to print trade, perhaps the single best indicator of deteriorating global economic conditions. The latest confirmation came overnight from China, which reported more disappointing trade data for the month of July, as exports and especially imports fell more than expected in July in a rocky start to Q3, suggesting that China's measures have failed to generate a substantial rebound in the economy, and pointing to further and accelerating weakness in global demand, explaining the recent scramble by central banks to unleash even more monetary easing. - “Sell Everything”… But Why: What Has The Smartest Investors So Spooked?
Many of the smartest investors out there hate stocks. Since May, we’ve heard negative equity calls from Stan Druckenmiller, George Soros, Carl Icahn, Jeff Gundlach and Bill Gross. Wall Street lore says “Never argue about markets with a guy who is much richer than you”. So we’ll take the discussion in a different direction: what do they know? Successful investors are always more plugged in than the market as a whole – hence their success. And while we can only guess at the lynchpins of their negative take on stocks, we do have some idea of how significant they must be. For example, in 2016 the S&P 500 is up 5.9% on a price basis after 1) the Brexit “Leave” vote, 2) dramatically disappointing Q1 and Q2 U.S. GDP, 3) a correction of 20% in oil prices, 4) a Fed that has incorrectly calibrated its public stance on monetary policy, 5) Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for president, and 6) the U.S. 10 Year Treasury at near record low yields. - Voices from the Gasfields : It started with just ONE well
IMPORTANT! This is the film the UK & Australian Governments do NOT want you to see! Documenting the accounts of families living with the hydrocarbon industry as a neighbour, this hour long documentary is shocking, as it reveals the day to day pollution these people live with – pollution of water, air, light and sound, some of the the basic human requirements needed to survive. The blind eye that the authorities and the hydrocarbon industry turn to these families living conditions, and the complete disregard to the environmental damage done to the bush by this, is truly disgraceful.'… - Will you hit the Frackpot? Theresa May's stunning cash payouts to families, with households offered up to £13,000 in the great shale bonanza
Families will be offered five-figure cash payouts under a radical plan to boost the drive for controversial shale gas fracking. The Lottery-style ‘Frackpot’ windfall scheme, to be unveiled by Theresa May tomorrow, involves paying individual householders cash sums – which could be as high as £13,000 – if they are living in areas where the gas can be extracted. The move marks a further dramatic departure by the new Prime Minister from David Cameron’s blueprint for Britain’s energy needs. - Brexit Block: EU Official Says €25bn Debt Means UK Can’t Leave
Britain will have to pay the European Union a hefty sum if it is to follow through with Brexit, with claims that an estimated €25 billion is owed to the bloc in unpaid bills. An outstanding total of €200 billion (£170 billion, $221 billion) has been shifted around by the EU for years, under what Brussels’ mandarins call the “reste à liquider.” An unnamed senior EU official told German finance website WirtschaftsWoche the British slice of the debt would not be simply written off if Westminster invokes the much debated EU exit clause, Article 50. “A deal with Great Britain is unthinkable until the Brits settle this liability,” said the source. - Bayer-Monsanto merger is ‘five-alarm threat’ to food and farms: Legal experts
A new legal opinion penned by two former Justice Department officials bolsters warnings that the proposed merger between agroindustrial giants Bayer and Monsanto “is a five-alarm threat to our food supply and to farmers around the world.” - Society is Being Weaned off Cash
The central bankers could control everybody by simply eliminating cash and shutting off their atm & credit cards. This is exactly what they are planning. Within the next few decades, it is likely that there will be no more hard cash (coins/notes) left. By this point, the notion of using physical money will be a distant memory tinged with disbelief. “How did we ever manage something so clumsy and backward?” many will say. An increasing number of people are already saying similar things. - How the World was Deceived about Global Warming and Climate Change
Current weather is normal; that is, it is well within the range of all previous weather and climate variations. There are no dramatic increases in temperature, precipitation, hurricanes, tornadoes, or any other severe weather. The climate is changing just as it always has and always will and the rate of change is perfectly normal. Of course, that is not what the government, environmentalists, or the media promote and as a result most of the public believe. The misconception is deliberate and central to the exploitation of global warming and climate change as the vehicle for a political agenda. - There’s been a ‘serious and dangerous’ slowdown in productivity
When the US gross-domestic-product growth was released last Friday, the numbers were disappointing. The US economy grew at an annualized rate of just 1.2% in the second quarter, much weaker than expected. When combined with the results of the first quarter, the economy is growing at about a 1% annual rate,according to The Wall Street Journal — the worst first-half performance since 2011. Many economists think one of the big reasons for this weak expansion is a slowdown in total-factor productivity, a phenomenon that has been occurring in the US — and, to some extent, other developed countries — since 2004. - The Outlook For Gold——Global Paradigm Shifts in Politics and Markets
In the past few months, we have witnessed a series of defining events in modern political history, with Britain’s vote to exit the EU, (several) terror attacks in France and Germany, as well as the recent attempted military coup in Europe’s backyard, Turkey. Uncertainty over Europe’s political stability and the future of the EU keeps growing. These worries are quite valid, as geopolitical developments have the potential to shake markets to the core. The current high-risk environment makes it especially important to take prudent investment decisions in order to protect one’s wealth. - July Jobs Report: Trying To Find Meaning In The Meaningless
The BLS released yet another perfect payroll report for July. It hit on all the major themes, putting further distance to the shocking May number. All the right people have been reassured by all the right parts. “U.S. employment rose at a solid clip in July and wages rebounded after a surprise stall in the prior month, signs of an improving economy that opened the door wider to a Federal Reserve interest rate increase in September… “We view this report as easily clearing the hurdle needed to keep the Fed on track for a September rate hike. The bar for not moving now is much higher,” said Rob Martin, an economist at Barclays in New York.” Unfortunately for anyone who still thinks the Establishment Survey contains useful information, the quotes above were written in August 2015, not August 2016, about the July 2015, not July 2016, jobs figures. That happy sentiment last year at this time was derived from the initial estimate of +215k, less than the current July’s +255k. After revisions showed that, at least according to the BLS view of the trend-cycle world, the labor market last summer was supposedly much stronger than first thought, the Establishment Survey now registers an impressive +277k for July 2015. - Met Life Profits Collapse, Payrolls To Be Slashed, Blames Fed
In a poetic poke to the eye of the Fed’s “lower for longer” interest rate policy intended to manage, in part, job creation,MetLife just announced a massive earnings miss and job cuts which the CEO attributed to lower investment income due to, you guessed it, low interest rates. According to MetLife’s 2Q 2016 earnings release, the company reported operating earnings of $924 million, down 48 percent from the second quarter of 2015, and 47 percent on a constant currency basis. Operating earnings in the Americas decreased 42 percent, and 41 percent on a constant currency basis. The stock is being punished in today’s trading session and is currently down roughly 9% (a mere $4BN of value destruction). - The Warren Buffet Economy: How Central Bank Enabled Financialization Divided America
I am in the throes of finishing a book on the upheaval represented by the Trump candidacy and movement. It is an exploration of how 30 years of Bubble Finance policies at the Fed, feckless interventions abroad and mushrooming Big government and debt at home have brought America to its current ruinous condition. It also delves into the good and bad of the Trump campaign and platform and outlines a more consistent way forward based on free markets, fiscal rectitude, sound money, constitutional liberty, non-intervention abroad, minimalist government at home and decentralized political rule. - Gerald Celente – Biggest Central Bank Gamble In History Fails As Gold Prepares To Skyrocket To $2,000
Today top trends forecaster Gerald Celente warned one of the biggest central bank gambles in world history failed as the gold market prepares to skyrocket to $2,000. Trend Alert: Central Banks Shooting Blanks. Gold Bull Run. Gerald Celente: After successfully boosting global equity markets with countless trillions of dollars, euro’s, yuan, yen, etc., but failing to raise incomes among the general population since the Panic of ’08, are central banks finally admitting their policies failed to induce true economic growth?… - Rick Rule – I Have Only Seen The Stunning Event That Has Just Taken Place Twice In My Lifetime
With gold and silver on the move, today one of the wealthiest and most street-smart pros in the business spoke with King World News about a stunning event that has just taken place which he has only seen twice in his lifetime. Eric King: “Rick, the mining shares have been on a tear. Silver has also been strong and gold has been holding firm. But the mining shares, the XAU and the HUI, have hit new highs recently. There has been relentless buying of the high quality shares. Michael Belkin, who advises some of the top people on the planet, told King World News that there are many professionals buying the mining stocks and they don’t care that they missed the previous run-up because the stock prices and the market caps were too small before this advance and did not meet their mandates. Is that what is happening to some degree here as you are seeing institutional fund flows into the sector and it’s relentless?” - Legendary Short Seller Says Ignore Today’s Takedown, Gold & Silver Bull Markets In Early Stages
Today a legendary short seller spoke with King World News about today’s takedown in the gold & silver markets. Eric King: “Bill, it’s a great day for people to hear from you because we have this hiccup in the mining shares, in gold and silver.” Bill Fleckenstein: “People cannot worry about what happens on any given day or any given week. The (mining) stocks have had a huge run, the metals have had a decent move, and they are going to be subject to days when they do poorly. And then sometimes they are going to go up a whole bunch on news you didn’t think was that big of a deal… - Big European Banks Try to Block Contagion from Italian Banking Crisis (Before it Sinks them)
Europe has plenty of reasons to be worried these days, but none more so than the seemingly terminal decline of the old continent’s banking system. So fragile are Europe’s banks that they can’t even get through an ECB stress test — whose primary purpose is to restore confidence in Europe’s banking system, by ignoring two of the most insolvent national banking sectors (Greece and Portugal) as well as the main source of stress (negative interest rates) — without sparking a panicked sell-off. - Whiff of Panic among Australia’s Biggest Banks?
Australian bank regulators that had for years practically encouraged the big four Australian banks to do whatever it takes to further inflate the housing bubble suddenly fretted publicly in April about the banks’ exposure not only to housing but also to China. And now something strange has happened that set off all kinds of warning sirens. On August 2, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) lowered its target “cash rate” by 25 basis points to 1.50%. And what did the banks do? Something so strange it smelled of panic. - China’s Property Bubble Echoes Subprime Crisis
The menacing fury of economic triggers that began piling up after the Great Recession are only getting larger and we can’t do much but watch it unfold and stay alert. I wrote about this in a letter late last year, but now here we are more than halfway through the year and it’s only getting worse. So much worse that the Chinese property bubble is now the catalyst that will reset markets – and will likely be one large event that cascades across the globe. I’m convinced that what finally puts an end to central banker madness and the incessant stream of QE will be the Chinese real estate bubble. Massive doesn’t even begin to describe the situation with China’s property market, but that’s somewhat expected with a population of 1.4 billion people. - Junk Bond Issuance Collapses in the US and Europe
Standard and Poor’s default rate of US high-yield corporate bonds – the more appealing moniker for junk bonds – jumped to 4.5% in July, the worst since August 2010. But no problem. The S&P Distressed High-Yield Corporate Bond Index – comprised of 470 bond issues so troubled that they’re trading at a yield that is at least 10 percentage points higher than the Treasury yield – has rallied 48% since February 12. This includes the 2.5% swoon on Friday, when some of the hot air was let out. - Dems and Media Panic Over Trump, Economy is Tanking, Iran No Deal, Deal Update
The mainstream media (MSM) and the Democrat Party would like you to think it is the Republicans in full panic mode, but it is their party that’s freaking out. The first tip comes from the MSM that is “going to war against Trump” and acting like the true political hacks they are. Journalism is dead at the MSM, and they are willing to destroy their businesses to stop the outsider. Negative stories trashing Trump are not having an effect as Trump is packing rallies by the thousands while voter turnout for Clinton rallies is lackluster. Meanwhile, major negative stories about Hillary Clinton are being ignored to try to combat her negative image as a liar. Hillary even lies about what the FBI called lies about her private servers, and the MSM ignores developments such as the IRS opening an investigation into the Clinton Foundation. - Chemtrails are Greatest Threat to Life on Earth-Dane Wigington
Last month, CIA Director John Brennan admitted Chemtrails, or as he put it, “Stratospheric Aerosol Injection,” is established geoengineering science used to fight global warming. Geoengineering researcher Dane Wigington says if the government is admitting it, the negative effects of spraying are too big to hide much longer. Wigington explains, “When CIA Director Brennan has to address it publicly, clearly it’s getting very difficult for them to hide this elephant in the room and the damage it has done, not only to the environment, but to us. It is irreparable already, and they know the liability already. They know this. They also know the amount of liability that has been created. That’s why they have been so desperate to hide this. To put this into the nutshell, the amount of destruction these programs have caused environmentally, it’s contaminated the entire web of life. This is, mathematically speaking, the greatest and most immediate threat to the web of life on earth, including human health. It is greater than any other threat short of nuclear cataclysm. That’s a mathematical fact.” - The U.S. Has Lost 195,000 Good Paying Energy Industry Jobs
Not all jobs are created equal. There is a world of difference between a $100,000 a year energy industry job and a $10 an hour job running a cash register at Wal-Mart. You can comfortably support a middle class family on $100,000 a year, but there is no way in the world that you can run a middle class household on a part-time job that pays just $10 an hour. The quality of our jobs matters, and if current long-term trends continue unabated, eventually we are not going to have much of a middle class left. At this point the middle class has already become a minority in America, and according to the Social Security Administration 51 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year right now. We have a desperate need for more higher paying jobs, and that is why what is happening in the energy industry is so deeply alarming. - The Economic Collapse In Venezuela Is So Bad That People Are Slaughtering And Eating Zoo Animals
If you were hungry enough, would you kill and eat zoo animals? To most of us such a notion sounds absolutely insane, but this is actually happening in Venezuela right now. This is a country where people are standing in lines for up to 12 hours hoping that there will be food to buy that day, and where rioting and looting have become commonplace. So even though the U.S. economy is in dreadful shape at this moment, we should be thankful for what we have, because at least we are not experiencing a full-blown economic collapse yet like Venezuela currently is. Black stallions can be some of the most beautiful horses on the entire planet, but things are so desperate down in Venezuela this summer that everything looks like food to some people at this point. What happened at the Caricuao Zoo on Sunday is so horrible that I actually debated whether or not to share it with you. - The End Of A Trend: Oil Prices And Economic Growth
It used to be that when it came to the world economy, oil prices and economic growth were more like distant cousins who disliked each other rather than a happily married couple always seen nuzzling together in public. The received wisdom was that low oil prices are good for the overall economy even if they are bad for the oil industry and for countries that are heavily dependent on oil for their revenues. That's what many believed when suggesting that even though high oil prices and an attendant oil boom had underpinned economic recovery in the United States after the 2008 financial crash, low oil prices would now somehow on balance deliver even more recovery. And, low prices would also benefit the rest of the world as well. - Since 2014 The US Has Added Half A Million Waiters & Bartenders And No Manufacturing Workers: Here's Why
As part of our monthly tradition showing the gaping disparity in the quality of the US labor market, we present the breakdown between the lowest paid jobs available, those for workers in “food services and drinking places”, also known as waiters and bartenders, and compare them to the number of workers in the traditionally best paid sector, manufacturing. Here is the bottom line: as the chart below shows, there have been half a million waiter and bartender jobs added since 2014, and no manufacturing jobs. - 666: The Number Of Rate Cuts Since Lehman
BofA's Michael Hartnett points out something amusing, not to mention diabolical: following the rate cuts by the BoE & RBA this week, “global central banks have now cut rates 666 times since Lehman.” One would think this attempt by central banks to push everyone into risk assets, certainly the Swiss National Bank which as we showed yesterday has increased its US equity holdings by 50% in the first half of 2016 … - Carl Icahn Has Never Been More Short The Market, Is Pressing For A Crash
Three months ago, when looking at the 10-Q of Carl Icahn's hedge fund vehicle, Icahn Enterprises, L.P. (IEP) we found something striking: Carl Icahn had put his money where his mouth was. Recall that over the past year, Carl Icahn had become one of the most vocal market bears with a series of increasingly escalating forecasts. At first, he was mostly pessimistic about junk bonds, saying last May that “what's even more dangerous than the actual stock market is the high yield market.” As the year progressed his pessimism become more acute and in December he said that the “meltdown in high yield is just beginning.” It culminated in February when he said on CNBC that a “day of reckoning is coming.” - Bank of England could ‘absolutely cut rates again' this year
The Bank of England (BoE) could cut interest rates even further this year if it deems necessary to do so, the Bank's deputy governor, Ben Broadbent, said on Friday (5 August). On Thursday, as was widely expected, Britain's central bank cut interest rates to a historic low of 0.25% in response to worsening survey data following the country's decision to leave the European Union. - Iran Is Cheating On The Nuclear Deal, Now What?
On July 14, 2015, Iran and the six world powers known as the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) reached an agreement on Iran's nuclear program. The deal was intended to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions and put a hold on Tehran's nuclear development. President Obama promised that the deal is not based on trust rather anchored in verification. Nevertheless, the following revelations of confidential documents as well as the following breaches of the nuclear agreement by Iran, reveal otherwise. On paper, the nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), stipulates a series of regulations, monitoring mechanisms, and restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities. But how can the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) maintain these transparency standards and follow through on the proposed regulations? How can the IAEA be sure to detect all illicit nuclear activities in the 18th largest country in the world? - Hillary Says She Will “Raise Taxes On The Middle Class”, Crowd Cheers
Hillary Clinton can do no wrong in the eyes of her adoring fans. Not when she left four men to die; not even when she deleted classified information from her private server. The fact that Hillary has promised to put coal miners out of work makes her base more enthusiastic than anything. Here’s a crowd cheering for Clinton after she says she’ll ‘raise taxes on the middle class.’ - TD’s $300-billion man goes maximum gold as volatility mounts
In a world flush with central bank stimulus and swirling with volatility, Bruce Cooper is pushing for the one asset he says he can count on: gold. TD Asset Management’s chief investment officer is adopting a more conservative approach to focus on capital preservation. Cooper sees gold as the best bet with the global economy stuck in neutral, and as loose central bank policy, the U.K. Brexit vote, and a looming U.S. presidential election stoke demand for havens. The firm, which oversees more than $300 billion, shifted to “maximum overweight” in gold for its portfolios during the second quarter from a “modest overweight” according to Cooper’s latest market outlook report. The U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union is likely to lead to ongoing stress in Europe, Cooper said in an interview after appearing on Bloomberg TV Canada. “We turned more positive on gold at the beginning of the year and then we reinforced that in the second quarter.” - Japan Proposes “Wage Controls” As Abenomics' Desperation Measure
One of the main reasons for the failure of Abenomics is that while Abe has been largely successful in boosting import prices as a result of the collapse in the Yen, his policies have been a failure when it comes to achieving the only thing that truly matters for achieving benign inflationary pressures: pushing wages higher. We first pointed this out all the way back in late 2014 in a post titled “The Abenomics Devastation: Japanese Real Wages Decline For Record 16 Consecutive Months.” - The smart stick-on tattoo that can monitor your alcohol levels – and even call police if you're over the limit
A new smart stick on tattoo will be able to monitor exactly how much a person is drinking. The flexible patch can detect a person's blood-alcohol level from their sweat. It can even message doctors and even police if the wearer drinks too much. - Regreening The Desert
For more than 15 years, cameraman and ecologist John D. Liu has conducted a worldwide, one-man mission: inspire the global community to reclaim deserts and restore biodiversity. It all started in 1995 when Liu began filming on the Loess Plateau in China. He watched as the local population worked to transform an area nearly the same size as the Netherlands from a dry, exhausted wasteland into a massive green oasis. Since that time Liu has traveled all over the world to convince and inspire government leaders, policy-makers, farmers, and others with his films and his knowledge. This program accompanies Liu on his mission in Jordan, where the royal family has invited him to help stop their country’s desertification. Scenes focusing on similar issues in Africa provide additional understanding of Liu’s efforts and his vision that a greener future is possible worldwide. - The curse of cash
More alarming news on two fronts today. First, there is movement on the Japanese front. Bonds have sold off and something big may be in the offing. Then, an intellectual defence for the “phasing out” of cash has been published by an influential Harvard economist. It’s happening even faster than I thought. But first a correction from a note from yesterday. The note said that EU banking laws that went into effect on 1 January (the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, or BRRD) allows “bail-ins” on depositors with more than £100,000. Let me be absolutely clear about what that means. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is the UK’s way of providing deposit insurance to British savers who have accounts with British financial institutions that have a banking licence. In the event of a banking crisis, the new EU banking law covers depositors up to €100,000 (not pounds). - Venezuela In Chaos With Work Camps And 1,000% Inflation – Coming Soon To The West?
We’re keeping track of Venezuela and have written about its deepening disaster numerous times, including HERE. In fact, I personally visited a few months ago to see the disaster with my own eyes. Every time we look at this poor country, things are getting worse. The rate of price inflation is soaring toward 1,000 percent, with looting and shortages of critical necessities such as medicine and food. Hyperinflation is well underway. June monthly figures put inflation around 22%, with inflation at 488% for the year but I know from personal experience that the government numbers, as with all governments, are heavily lied about. Now comes a new disaster for Venezuela’s beleaguered citizens: Forced farm work to grow food that Venezuela lacks. That “effectively amounts to forced labor,” according to Amnesty International, which derided the decree. - UK heading for new financial crisis ‘on grander scale than 2008' with Bank of England ‘asleep at the wheel', says ASI
The Bank of England’s annual stress tests of the UK’s banks, designed to ensure Britain’s lenders will not be at the heart of another destructive financial crisis, have been branded “worse than useless”, by a new report. Kevin Dowd, professor of finance and economics at Durham University, argues in a paper published today by the Adam Smith Institute that the Bank’s tests, which model various adverse economic scenarios each year such as a major fall in UK house prices or a Chinese property crash, have a series of “fatal flaws” and that the central bank is “asleep at the wheel”. “The purpose of the stress-testing programme should be to highlight the vulnerability of our banking system and the need to rebuild it. Instead, it has achieved the exact opposite, portraying a weak banking system as strong”. - Cities – Food Free Zones? The Creation of the Urban Food Desert
Have you ever wondered why our modern cities are intentionally designed to be food-free? All living things normally live in close proximity to their food sources, it’s a biological fact and a common-sense survival strategy. We often take our surroundings for granted as we go about our busy lives, but if we stop for a moment and critically examine the state of our modern cities, we soon realise a disturbingly unnatural state of affairs – there is nothing edible growing in public spaces! This is rather worrying. What type of society in its right mind would want to compromise food security by intentionally removing all food growing activities from public spaces, and what would possess them to do such a thing? Why would anyone want to create food desert – an area where food is scarce and hard to obtain? - Aetna Posts $300 Million Obamacare Loss, Warns May Exit Altogether
After every other major US health insurance provider already admitted to generating substantial losses on the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamcare, earlier today Aetna became the latest to report that its annual loss on Obamacare plans would be more than $300 million, and said it had scrapped plans to further expand its Obamacare business next year. More ominously, Aetna joined the biggest US health insurer UnitedHealth in reviewing how, if at all, it would continue providing ACA services in the 15 states it's currently in. - CARNEY: Get ready for inflation, low growth, and unemployment
Bank of England governor Mark Carney has bad news: The Brexit vote has so weakened the UK economy that he is predicting a period of low growth, inflation above 2%, and increased unemployment. Alongside the Bank’s new rate cut, it revealed in its quarterly Inflation Report that it is downgrading the UK’s growth forecast for 2017 to just 0.8% from the previous estimate of 2.3%. That is the biggest single quarter-to-quarter downgrade in the Bank’s one-year forecast since it started producing the Inflation Report in 1992. - The List Of Establishment Republicans That Say They Are Voting For Hillary Clinton Is Staggering
Who would have ever believed that so many big names in the Republican Party would publicly pledge to vote for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election? All throughout the primaries and the caucuses, the Republican establishment expressed tremendous disdain for Donald Trump, but they were unable to derail his march to the nomination. Now that we have reached the general election, some of the biggest names in the GOP are actually taking the unprecedented step of crossing over to the other side and are publicly announcing their support for Hillary Clinton. This shows that many of these individuals were only “Republicans in name only” to begin with, and it also demonstrates the lengths that the elite are willing to go to in order to keep Donald Trump out of the White House. - Central Bank Ignores President’s Plea, Lifts Colombia Rate
Colombia’s central bank ignored a last minute plea by President Juan Manuel Santos and raised the benchmark interest rate for an 11th consecutive month as surging food prices pushed inflation to the fastest since 2000. In a split decision, the seven-member board voted to raise the key rate a quarter-point to 7.75 percent, central bank Governor Jose Dario Uribe told reporters in Bogota after the meeting. The decision was forecast by 27 of 34 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, while seven had predicted no change.
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In Celebration of Lindsey Williams 01/12/36 – 01/23/23
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” – Lindsey Williams In Celebration of LINDSEY WILLIAMS January 12, 1936 – January 23, 2023 On Saturday, April 1, 2023, at FBC Fountain Hills dba Cornerstone Family Church in Fountain Hills, Arizona, there was a special Memorial service in celebration of […]
Pastor Lindsey Williams – At Bio Care Hospital – Getting Over COVID
This is part 11 of a series of 12 informative videos on how to cope with all the damage COVID brings. Where Pastor Lindsey Williams interviews Rodrigo Rodriguez, MD, founder of BioCare Hospital and Wellness Center. Call BioCare Now: 1-800-262-0212 Website: International BioCare Hospital and Wellness Center Pastor Lindsey Williams Hi, this is Lindsey Williams. […]
Pastor Lindsey Williams – At Bio Care Hospital – COVID and Supplements
This is part 10 of a series of 12 informative videos on how to cope with all the damage COVID brings. Where Pastor Lindsey Williams interviews Rodrigo Rodriguez, MD, founder of BioCare Hospital and Wellness Center. Call BioCare Now: 1-800-262-0212 Website: International BioCare Hospital and Wellness Center Pastor Lindsey Williams Hi, this is Lindsey Williams. […]