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 March 24, 2017 to March 30, 2017:

• After Dramatic Obamacare Failure, Trump Now Faces A Looming Government Shutdown He May Not Be Able To Prevent
  If you thought that the Obamacare debacle was bad, just wait until you see what happens next.  The continuing resolution that is currently funding the government expires on April 28th, and if a new funding agreement is not reached prior to that time, there will be a government shutdown like we witnessed in 2013 starting on April 29th.  Unfortunately, as I will explain below, if a government shutdown happens it may go for a lot longer than just a couple of weeks this time around. April 28th may sound like it is quite some time away, but because the congressional calendar has so many “holes” in it, there is actually not very much time for Congress to act. If you can believe it, there are only 12 “legislative days” between now and April 28th, and if something is not done on one of those 12 days the government will shut down on April 29th.
• Broken America
  Is this the beginning of the end for the United States of America?  It has been said that a house divided against itself will surely fall, and today we live in a shattered union.  In all my years, I have never seen so much strife, discord, bitterness and resentment in this country.  Everyone can see what is happening, but nobody can seem to stop it.  Politically, you have got tens of millions of people trying to pull America one way, and you have got tens of millions of people trying to pull it the exact opposite way.  As I discussed in a previous article, the term “civil war” is now being thrown around by some pundits even though nobody has started shooting yet.  We are a deeply divided and broken nation, and if we don’t find a way to fix things America will not survive.
• Obamacare is the Reason for Anemic Growth
  Analyst and entrepreneur Karl Denninger predicted years ago that Obamacare would “kill the economy” and “eventually implode.” Today, the first quarter GDP came in at just .9%, and Denninger contends Obamacare is part of the reason the economy is so anemic. Denninger says, “Since the crash in 2008, we’ve had 2% GDP expansion roughly on an average basis, and you are trying to expand the growth of one program in the government by 8.5%, and that’s not going to work. This is the problem you have. What Obamacare has done has caused the 2% expansion. . . . So, what has happened here is we have taken this program and crammed these costs into the economy on a mandated basis, and the result is the productivity expansion has gone into the toilet.”
• Ex-cyber security chief says Government is ‘using' Westminster attack to grab unnecessary spying powers
  The Ministry of Defence’s former cyber security chief has accused the Government of trying to “use” the devastating Westminster attack to grab unnecessary and intrusive surveillance powers. Major General Jonathan Shaw said ministers were attempting to “use the moment” to push for security services having more control, despite there being only a weak case for it. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has turned up the heat on internet firms, saying it is “completely unacceptable” that authorities cannot look at encrypted social media messages of attacker Khalid Masood, but her words come as debate continues over allowing spy agencies further intrusive powers – only last year Parliament granted them sweeping new capabilities.
• Congress just cleared the way for internet providers to sell your web browsing history
  Internet providers now just need a signature from President Trump before they’re free to take, share, and even sell your web browsing history without your permission. The House of Representatives passed a resolution today overturning an Obama-era FCC rule that required internet providers to get customers’ permission before sharing their browsing history with other companies. The rules also required internet providers to protect that data from hackers and inform customers of any breaches. The resolution was first passed by the Senate last week and now heads to the president, who’s expected to sign it. At that point, there’ll only be a vague baseline of privacy rules governing internet providers and some promises from them not to misbehave.
• The Unaccountable Military Industrial Complex Is Destroying America and the Rest Of The World Too
  On Jan. 17, 1961, US President Eisenhower gave the nation a dire warning about what he described as a threat to democratic government. He called it the military-industrial complex. He warned, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.”
• Russia Plans 2017-2019 Budget Based On $40 Barrel
  Russia is budgeting its federal spending to expectations that oil prices will hover around $40 a barrel for the next several years, according to a new report by Bloomberg. Such preparations go against predictions by international oil industry experts that barrel prices will rise to $60 and remain there over the long term. These forecasts are based on expectations that the global oil supply glut will reverse over the next couple of years, bringing prices up to a new normal, which will still stand far lower than the $100+ levels seen before the market crash occurred in late 2014.
• Australia, China to protect globalization
  In a testament of growing bilateral ties, Australia and China pledged on Thursday to safeguard globalization and free trade and do away with barriers which might be established as protectionist policies. “We believe that to resolve trade imbalance we need to continue to expand trade, that is the solution. We cannot close our doors, that is not the solution,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said during his visit to the Australian capital Canberra. “Free trade can only thrive in a peaceful and stable environment, both our countries know this well,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said. While this is the first visit by a Chinese Premier to Australia in more than a decade, it comes on the heels of strengthened trade ties between the two countries.
• Health-Care Industry Debt Turns into “Systemic Recession Risk”
  Sector booms and busts have historically been driven by speculation and over-borrowing, often triggering regional or even national recessions. Textbook examples include the 2014 Energy and 2008 Financial sector collapse. In both of these instances, fallacies such as perpetual $100+ oil and ever rising home prices drove rampant speculation, overinvestment, and unsustainable debt buildup.
• More About The Great Collapse In Retail
  Retail Revolutions Are Neither Rare Nor Permanent – Sears, Roebuck and company recently issued a very strong caution about its ability to survive while moving forward. That instantly brought to memory the near dominance in retailing Sears had once attained. The fascinating story of the rise and reverse of Sears is wonderfully outlined as part of some recent presentations by my good friend John Mauldin.
• Global Warming Is Real Say the Academies of Sciences of All of the Major Countries, But a Handful of my Readers Know Better
  I am fortunate in having readers who look after me. Some have offered me refuge in their countries and their homes from what they expect otherwise will inevitably be the midnight knock on my door. Others correct my mistakes from typos to content. As I have never considered myself infallible, I carefully read what they have to say. Usually those who want to straighten me out on a subject are polite and respectful. However, among those corrections brought in by my reporting on the dangers implied by the warming of the poles and melting of the ice were a few not merely ignorant and uninformed, but also condescending and rude. One even accused me of selling out to the climate change hoax in order to buy my way off the lists of Russian agents and fake news purveyors.
• Trump is America’s Last Chance
  Economist John Williams says President Trump has to do something fast and big to turn the faltering U.S. economy around. Williams explains, “You are seeing the economy slow down.  Some people are recognizing that.  The Fed’s statement a week or two ago . . . many analysts consider that dovish.  The Fed knows what’s going on here.  They are trying to get rates up a little, but they have a circumstance that they are not out of the woods with the banks.  What they are hoping for is maybe the Trump Administration is going to bail them out and stimulate the economy.”
• One Mother’s Chilling Close Encounter With A Team Of Child Abductors That People Can’t Stop Talking About
  After reading this article, you will never be careless with your child in a public place ever again. There really are predators out there that make a lot of money abducting children. Some of the children that are abducted are abused, tortured or even killed inside the United States, but many others are quickly sent to the nearest port, shipped overseas, and ultimately used for some of the most horrific purposes that you can possibly imagine. So if your child is kidnapped by professional traffickers, there is a chance that your precious little one could end up on the other side of the planet.
• Thousands Of Americans Are Fleeing The Big Cities In Preparation For The Coming American Apocalypse
  Why are so many people suddenly moving away from major U.S. cities?  Recently, I wrote about the mass exodus that is happening out of the state of California, but the truth is that what is happening there is just part of a national phenomenon.  The populations of some of our largest cities are steadily shrinking, and many experts are completely mystified by the seismic demographic shifts that we are now witnessing.  Of course there are a whole host of reasons why people would want to move away from huge cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and Cleveland.  For some families, it simply comes down to wanting a better life for their children.  But as you will see below, there are others that believe that things in this country are about to take an apocalyptic turn, and the big cities will not be a place that you want to be when economic collapse, rioting, looting, civil unrest and crime are all spiraling out of control.
• UK set to begin ‘momentous journey' to life outside EU
  Britain will take the first step on its “momentous journey” to a future outside the European Union when Theresa May launches divorce proceedings that will bring to an end a relationship of more than 40 years. The Prime Minister has signed the letter that starts the formal exit process and the historic document will be hand-delivered by a senior diplomat to EU chiefs. It will mark the start of complex and contentious negotiations that put the UK on course to break its ties with the Brussels club by the end of March 2019.
• Chile pensions protest draws tens of thousands
  Tens of thousands of people in Chile have taken part in demonstrations against the country's controversial privatised pension system. Demonstrators called on the socialist government of Michelle Bachelet to scrap the the system, which is managed by private funds. Critics say the system benefits the rich but leaves poorer Chileans with a pension below the minimum wage.
• Europe Unveils New Gun Laws: “Like Putting A Band-Aid On A Bullet Wound”
  The EU has almost regulated firearms enough to keep people completely safe from terrorism. Just one more law, and they should be able to usher Europe into a new age of utopian peace. What happened: The European Parliament passed a bill this month which closes loopholes in regards to “acoustic” and “deactivated” prop guns to make them irreversibly unusable. If the law passes the Council of Ministers, it will also apply stricter regulations on semi-autos with high capacity magazines. Included in the bill are obligations of member states to monitor the issuance of firearms licenses, and share that information across the EU. Countries in the EU will have 30 months to implement the required procedures for tracking firearms.
• “We've Reached Our Limits” – Greece Begins Blocking Refugees
  Greece will cease taking back refugees under the controversial Dublin Regulation, as the country’s limited capacities to host people are already on the brink of collapse, the Greek migration minister announced in an interview. RT reports that as the European Commission pressures Athens to re-implement the Dublin Regulation – stipulating that refugees can be returned to the first EU state they arrived in – the Greek migration minister told Spiegel his country is not in a position to do so. The agreement was put on hold for Greece back in 2011 over problems in the country’s asylum system.
• Your Pension Will Be At The Center Of America's Next Financial Crisis
  I’m not a fan of the “greed is good” mentality of Wall Street investment firms. But the next financial crisis that rocks America won’t be driven by bankers behaving badly. It will in fact be driven by pension funds that cannot pay out what they promised to retirees. According to one pension advocacy organization, nearly 1 million working and retired Americans are covered by pension plans at the risk of collapse. The looming pension crisis is not limited by geography or economic focus. These including former public employees, such as members of South Carolina’s government pension plan, which covers roughly 550,000 people — one out of nine state residents — and is a staggering $24.1 billion in the red. These include former blue collar workers such as roughly 100,000 coal miners who face serious cuts in pension payments and health coverage thanks to a nearly $6 billion shortfall in the plan for the United Mine Workers of America. And when the bill comes due, we will all be in very big trouble.
• America's March To Default
  “May you live in interesting times,” says the ancient Chinese curse.  No doubt about it, we live in interesting times.  Hardly a day goes by that we’re not aghast and astounded by a series of grotesque caricatures of the world as at devolves towards vulgarity. Just this week, for instance, U.S. Representative Maxine Waters tweeted, “Get ready for impeachment.” Well, Maxine Waters is obviously right – impeaching the president is an urgent task of the utmost importance. As everybody knows, he is best friends with Vladimir Putin, the shirtless barbarian who rules the Evil Russian Empire (they were seen drinking kompromat together in Moscow, a vile Russian liquor that reportedly tastes a bit like urine. Senator McCain has the details on that story). And as Maxine Waters has just disclosed, Putin’s armies are recently advancing into Korea! We cannot let this stand, or he’ll invade Kekistan next (note that he already controls Limpopo and Gabon). Who knows where it will end?
• Pensions mistakes of the past must be avoided, says John Cridland
  Mistakes of the past must be avoided when telling people of any rise in their state pension age, the author of a major review has told the government. John Cridland published the independent review on Thursday, proposing that those under the age of 45 may have to work a year longer, to 68. He told BBC Radio 4's Money Box that there should be no repeat of the issues currently facing women in their 50s. Many say they were not told directly of two rises in their state pension age.
• Over-Regulation Has Criminalized The Practice Of Medicine
  This criminalization of everyday life is not just insanely costly and insanely counter-productive–it's insanely punitive. The average person has little exposure to the criminalization of everyday enterprise in America via over-regulation and outsized penalties for even accidental violations of rules and regulations. One field that continues to be burdened with excessive/counter-productive regulations and outsized penalties is the practice of medicine.
• Goldman Asks “Have We Reached Peak Cash?”
  In several major economies it's crunch time for the future of cash. Goldman Sachs notes that this is largely policy-driven: tangible steps are being taken to wean economies off cash (e.g. India, Europe); but adds that, at the same time consumer expectations around convenience are rising and enabling technologies have proliferated in the shape of contactless cards, mobile wallets, cryptocurrencies and more. So, they ask, does the decline in cash payments imply the demise of cash? Not necessarily.
• UK's ‘largest undeveloped oil field’ discovered off Scottish coast
  Shares in U.K.-listed Hurricane Energy gushed higher Monday after the firm said it had found the “largest undeveloped (oil) discovery on the U.K. continental shelf”. Hurricane Energy said in a market release Monday that the firm has located a kilometer-deep oil column which is believed to connect to an existing field. The discovery is near the Shetland Islands, off the north coast of Scotland.
• Russia Readies Back-Up System For Potential “Split With International Banking System”
  The grand order of things could be undergoing some major overhauls. To put it more bluntly, a war to reset the global financial order is about to be unleashed. Preparations inside Russia are being made in case the ultimate banking sanctions are placed on them, cutting off commerce inside the all-encompassing Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecomm SWIFT system – which runs credit, debt, and banking card transactions across a real time global network. As it would be doled out by the banking elites, the price for misbehavior at the Kremlin could be ostracization from this global commerce vehicle. But that isn’t the end of the story… Putin is readying his people to divorce from the international banking system altogether, and start over with a nationalistic platform, backed by thousands of tons of gold, and growing alliances with Europe, China and the BRICS nations, the Middle East and several emerging powers.
• Watch These Geopolitical Flashpoints Carefully
  Anyone who has been involved in alternative geopolitical and economic analysis for a decent length of time understands that the establishment power structure thrives according to its ability to either exploit natural crises, or to engineer fabricated crises. This is not that hard to comprehend, but for some reason there are a lot of people out there who simply assume that global sea-change events just happen “at random,” that the elites are stupid or oblivious, and that all outcomes are a matter of random chance rather than being directed or manipulated.  I call these people “intellectual idiots,” because they believe they are applying logic to every scenario but they are sabotaged by an inherent bias which causes them to deny the potential for “conspiracy.”
• McCain: “The New World Order Is Under Enormous Strain”
  It was a bumper day for John McCain when on Friday Donald Trump's Republican nemesis gloated as Trump's “art of the deal” collapsed in the last minute, after the President and Ryan-led effort to repeal Obamacare suffered what appears to be a terminal setback. In the wake of Trump's misfortune, McCain renewed his calls on Friday for a return to a legacy neocon status quo, when speaking at the Brussels forum, said that the world “cries out for American and European leadership” through the EU and Nato, and said that the EU and the US needed to develop “more cooperation, more connectivity”.
• Canada Passes ‘Blasphemy' Bill To Silence Critics Of Islam
  Despite polls showing that 71% of Canadians would not have voted for the measure, Canada's Parliament, with the strong backing of Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, passed a motion this week 201 to 91 that critics say singles out Islam for special protection. Tabled by Muslim liberal MP Iqra Khalid, M-103 urges the federal government to “condemn Islamophobia” and to “develop a whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia.” The term “Islamophobia” is nowhere defined in the motion.
• China Bans Buying Of Hong Kong Property On Credit Cards
  In China's latest effort to control capital flight, authorities have banned Chinese citizens from buying property in Hong Kong using their credit cards.The use of Chinese credit cards to pay for a portion of property transactions is widespread in Hong Kong. Willy Liu, chief executive of local real estate agent Ricacorp, said 15-20 per cent of new property buyers were mainland Chinese. The majority use UnionPay cards to pay for 5 per cent of the home price as a mortgage deposit in Hong Kong. Most of those transactions are worth at least HK$500,000 ($64,371), Mr Liu said, surpassing the $50,000 annual limit for personal foreign exchange imposed by China’s regulators.
• What A Westinghouse Bankruptcy Could Mean For U.S. Utilities
  International news services now report that Japan’s Toshiba Corporation (9502.T) is preparing to make a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for its Westinghouse Electric subsidiary as soon as this Monday, March 27. For most of our readers this news evokes little surprise. This is merely another chapter of a slow moving financial and accounting train wreck involving nuclear design and construction firm Westinghouse and its troubled Japanese parent, Toshiba. But like an old, leaky garbage scow there is much to clean up in its wake.
• Spying Lying Exposed-Trump Proven Right, Economy Tanking, North Korea Update
  Donald Trump was mocked by the mainstream media (MSM) for saying Obama “wiretapped” or spied on Trump and his top advisors. This week, Trump was proven 100% correct when information came out that President-elect Trump and his transition team were, in fact, wrapped up in government surveillance.  Information was illegally leaked to the press, and identities were illegally “unmasked” to discredit and embarrass the incoming President and his team.  This makes Watergate look like a squirt gun fight, and this investigation is now set to reveal “smoking gun” proof that the Obama Administration was involved in illegal activity.  This investigation is far from over and could directly implicate former President Obama.
• Trump to approve Keystone XL pipeline
  President Trump and his administration will approve the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, according to senior U.S officials, but only after the State Department delivers a positive recommendation to start construction on a project that has been delayed for quite some time, the Keystone pipeline has served as a key point in the debate about climate change. The undersecretary of state for political affairs, Tom Shannon, would make a recommendation on Friday that the pipeline serves U.S national interests, said two senior officials. Afterwards, the White House would make a formal announcement citing approval, said the officials, who weren’t given permission to comment publicly on the matter.
• Banks Are Crashing
  Party's over… With the yield curve flatter than before Trump's election, and rates collapsing, reform was the last best hope for bank bulls… And after Friday's debacle, it appears investors have lost patience… Banks are now red YTD… Think banks are oversold? Maybe not…
• Financial Collapse Will Trigger Civil War
  Best-selling author Doug Casey wrote “Crisis Investing” at the time when the U.S. political landscape was transitioning from the Carter Administration to the Reagan Administration. Now, Casey sees a coming crisis that is equal or worse than the Civil War.  Casey explains, “In the U.S. right now, there seems to be so much antagonism it’s almost like pre-Civil War.  There is actually hatred in the U.S. at this point.  It used to be the Republicans and Democrats could disagree, but they could have a civil conversation about a difference of opinion.  Now, it’s active hatred between these two groups.  This is not going to end well.”
• “They're Like The Praetorian Guard” – Whistleblower Confirms NSA Targeted Congress, The Supreme Court, & Trump
  NSA whistleblower William Binney told Tucker Carlson on Friday that the NSA is spying on “all the members of the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, both House and Senate, as well as the White House.” Binney, who served the NSA for 30 years before blowing the whistle on domestic spying in 2001, told Tucker he firmly believes that Trump was spied on.
• Prophetic Voices: ‘Exposure’ And ‘Dividing’ Are Coming Due To ‘Perversion’ In The Church
  When prophetic voices all over the nation start saying the exact same thing, you might want to start listening. In the Scriptures, there is a very clear pattern when it comes to judgment. God always sends warnings in advance so that people can have a chance to repent. In recent days there has been a flood of warnings for the church in America, and I am going to share a few of those with you in this article. Considering the fact that there is such agreement in the prophetic community, it would be quite foolish to refuse to take these warnings seriously.
• Scientists Warn That The Coming California Megaquake Could Plunge Large Portions Of The State Into The Ocean
  Over the years, many people have been shown that someday a giant earthquake will cause significant portions of California to fall into the ocean. But up until now, most scientists have disputed the idea that this could ever actually happen. Well, now all of that has changed. According to a brand new study, a megaquake along the west coast “could plunge large parts of California into the sea almost instantly”. In fact, the researchers that conducted this study say that it is almost certain to happen eventually. Of course they probably don’t believe that such an event is imminent or else they would be moving out of the state like so many other people are.
• Member Of Congress Warns Of A 1,000 Point Stock Market Crash If Obamacare Lite Does Not Pass
  Are we going to see a dramatic stock market plunge if the effort to get “Obamacare Lite” through the U.S. House of Representatives ultimately fails?  On Thursday, a vote on the Republican healthcare bill was postponed once it became clear that there would not be enough votes for it to pass.  House Republican leaders are still optimistic that there will still be a vote on Friday, but that is far from certain.  Many strong conservatives in the House are balking at supporting this bill because while it does eliminate a few of the most troublesome provisions of Obamacare, it keeps many of the elements of Obama’s signature healthcare law that have proven to be popular with the American people.  In other words, this bill is much more about “tweaking” Obamacare than “repealing” it.
• Jobs of the future may not have stable hours, holiday pay, sick pay, or pensions, DWP secretary says
  Jobs of the future may not have stable hours, holiday pay, sick pay, or pensions, the Work and Pensions Secretary has said. Damian Green described the trend in employment practices towards the so-called “gig economy” as “exciting” and said the changes had “huge potential”. The Cabinet minister’s endorsement of the approach comes a month after an employment tribunal found that drivers for the Uber car service should in fact get the minimum wage and paid holiday. The tribunal dismissed the taxi company’s claim that its drivers were in fact self–employed and not entitled to these rights.
• The Worst Retail Cataclysm Ever: Sears Warns It Is On The Verge Of Collapse As Payless Prepares To File For Bankruptcy
  More than 3,500 retail stores are going to close all across America over the next few months as the worst retail downturn in U.S. history gets even deeper.  Earlier this week, Sears shocked the world when it announced that there is “substantial doubt” that the company will be able to “continue as a going concern” much longer.  In other words, Sears has announced that it is on the verge of imminent collapse.  Meanwhile, Payless stunned the retail industry when it came out that they are preparing to file for bankruptcy.  The “retail apocalypse” that I have been warning about is greatly accelerating, and many believe that this is one of the early warning signs that the economic collapse that is already going on in other parts of the globe will soon reach U.S. shores.
• None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use
  The notion of “externalities” has become familiar in environmental circles. It refers to costs imposed by businesses that are not paid for by those businesses. For instance, industrial processes can put pollutants in the air that increase public health costs, but the public, not the polluting businesses, picks up the tab. In this way, businesses privatize profits and publicize costs. While the notion is incredibly useful, especially in folding ecological concerns into economics, I’ve always had my reservations about it. Environmentalists these days love speaking in the language of economics — it makes them sound Serious — but I worry that wrapping this notion in a bloodless technical term tends to have a narcotizing effect. It brings to mind incrementalism: boost a few taxes here, tighten a regulation there, and the industrial juggernaut can keep right on chugging. However, if we take the idea seriously, not just as an accounting phenomenon but as a deep description of current human practices, its implications are positively revolutionary.
• This New Bubble Is Even Bigger Than The Subprime Fiasco
  In 1988, a bank called Guardian Savings and Loan made financial history by issuing the first ever “subprime” mortgage bond. The idea was revolutionary. The bank essentially took all the mortgages they had loaned to borrowers with bad credit, and pooled everything together into a giant bond that they could then sell to other banks and investors. The idea caught on, and pretty soon, everyone was doing it.
• 5 Charts That Scream “This Is It”
  Before yesterday, the S&P 500 and DJIA hadn’t seen a 1% drop since October 2016. For some perspective, Hillary Clinton was the presidential frontrunner the last time markets fell 1%. This was the longest such streak for both indices in over 20 years. In February, the DJIA recorded its longest “winning streak” since 1987. It closed 2,000 points above its 200-day moving average for the first time ever. Also in February, the combined market cap of the S&P 500 topped $20 trillion for the first time. Its market cap has increased by over $2 trillion since the election—staggering. Like we discussed last month, with a proliferation of “record” highs in 2017, where are market valuations at today? The five charts below paint the whole picture best.
• Lead Poisoning In “Dozens Of California Communities” Worse Than Flint, Michigan
  California, a state infamous for its environmental protections, including a $65 billion tunnel project being pushed by Governor Jerry Brown so as not to disrupt the habitat of a tiny, non-native fish species, may be facing a lead poisoning crisis more severe than Flint, Michigan.
  According to blood test data obtained by Reuters, rates of childhood lead poisoning in several California cities surpass those measured in Flint, Michigan, with one Fresno locale showing rates nearly three times higher. In fact, in Fresno’s downtown 93701 zip code, nearly 14% of children tested showed lead levels at or above 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s current threshold for an elevated reading. As the CDC noted, no level of lead exposure is safe, but children who test that high warrant an immediate public health response.
• Sears Enters Death Spiral: Vendors Halt Shipments, Insurers Bail
  When we commented yesterday morning on the unexpected “going concern” notice in Sears' just filed 10-K which sent the stock crashing, we pointed out the immediate spin provided by Eddie Lampert's distressed retailer which promised that its comeback plan may help alleviate the concerns, “satisfying our estimated liquidity needs 12 months from the issuance of the financial statements”, to which however we added the footnote that “the question is what happens when vendors start demanding cash on delivery as concerns about SHLD.'s liquidity concerns continue to grow.”
• Dear America: Better Read The Fine Print On Your Credit Card Statement
  What will replace the current system after it self-destructs? That's the question. You know those disclosures on your credit card statements? That it will take 27 years to pay off your balance if you only make the minimum payment each month, and so on?
• PBOC Injects Hundreds Of Billions Into Chinese Banks After Sudden Defaults In Interbank Payments
  As is customary virtually every time the Chinese central bank commences some form of tightening, overnight the PBOC injected “hundreds of billions of yuan into the financial system after some smaller lenders failed to repay borrowings in the interbank market”, according to people familiar with the matter. According to a brief note by Bloomberg, Tuesday’s injections followed missed interbank payments on Monday, anonymous sources said; the matter is not made public over concerns of bank deposit flight risk. The institutions that missed payments included rural commercial banks. One of Bloomberg's trader sources said a borrower failed to repay an overnight repo of less than 50 million yuan ($7.3 million). China’s smaller lenders have been squeezed by a rise in money market rates this week, with the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate jumping to the highest level since April 2015 on Tuesday. As we described last Wednesday, the PBOC for the second time in a month engaged in tightening by hiking the rate on reverse repos as well as various liquidity conduit operations such as the MLS.
• Venezuela Stops Publishing Money Supply Data For Obvious Reasons
  More than a year after hyperinflating banana republic Venezuela stopped reporting official inflation data, Venezuela has stopped publishing money supply data, depriving the general public of the last, and best, available tool to ascertain soaring inflation in what has become the world's worst-performing economy. Then again, one hardly needs official data to confirm the blistering wave of hyperinflation sweeping through the nation which has seen the value of the bolivar disintegrate under the Maduro regime. The money supply indicator suddenly stopped appearing on the central bank's website on Feb. 24. The data in question, which will no longer be updated, looked as follows most recently.
• Genetically-modified crops have benefits – Princess Anne
  Princess Anne has said genetically-modified crops have important benefits for providing food and she would be open to growing them on her own land. She told BBC Radio 4's Farming Today “we have to accept” the process could help production and livestock health. Her brother, the Prince of Wales, has previously warned GM crops could cause an environmental disaster. But Princess Anne said: “To say we mustn't go there ‘just in case' is probably not a practical argument.”
• The Curse of Unlimited Money
  We live in an age of government fiat money, meaning it's not real and constitutional money, like gold and silver. Since government, via its central bank, can create as much money as it wants, it can finance whatever it wants….wars, welfare, social engineering, you name it. No price tag is too big. Imagine having the ability to create (out of thin air) as much money as you'd like. Putting all jokes aside, what would become of you? How would that change you? We're not talking about earning as much money as you'd like. That's totally legitimate. We're talking about — one moment the money doesn't exist, and the next it's in your hands. How would that warp every aspect of your humanity? Let's just say, it wouldn't be pretty, as intoxicating as the prospect may sound on the surface.
• Meals on Wheels Responds to Fake News Claims Trump’s Budget Will Shut Them Down
  For the mainstream media sending hundreds of millions of tax dollars to support terrorists organizations in the middle east isn’t worth covering. But God forbid Trump dare propose cutting $250K from Meals on Wheels. A budget move that, if you only listen to what the fake news complex feeds you, would have you believing will shut down the organization and close its doors for good. But is that $250K really going to cripple Meals on Wheels? Is that really the bulk of funding for the organization? Not even close. In fact, around 3% or less of their funding comes from taxpayers via the federal government.
• Iconic Wall Street Bull Artist Unhappy with Fearless Girl Statue
  For decades, an iconic bronze bull has stood at the ready in front of the New York Stock Exchange, a symbol of America’s perseverance during difficult financial times. On March 7th the bull met what many felt was an inspirational opponent in a statue dubbed “The Fearless Girl” – a young woman standing tall and staring down the behemoth animal meant to act as a symbol of the power of women in modern American society.  The only problem with the young lady’s visage is that it has adversely affected the power of bull’s symbolism, according to the artist who created and donated the beast to The Big Apple.
• Opinion: Here’s where the next financial crisis is lurking
  Animal spirits are running high. President Donald Trump’s promises to repeal Obamacare, cut taxes, and roll back regulations have supercharged stock prices and business optimism. However, history teaches when expectations are most buoyant, investors and decision makers are inclined to overlook dangers in specific markets that could abscess into a systemic collapse. Here are five problems that could saddle Trump with the next financial crisis: Housing Bubble, Student Debt, European Banks, China and Trump’s Promises and Political Divisions.
• Mainstream Media in Total Collapse
  Few any longer believe the “mainstream media,” that is, the presstitutes. This has put them into a panic as the presstitutes lose their value to the ruling elite if the presstitutes cannot control the explanations in order to justify the self-serving agendas of the ruling elite. To fight back against the alternative media that does tell the truth, a secret group, PropOrNot, as well hidden as an offshore money-laundering operation, published a list of 200 websites accused of being “Russian agents/dupes.” PropOrNot’s effort to discredit truth-tellers was hurt by the site’s anonymity.
• NSA Whistleblower Releases Documents Proving Trump Surveillance
  At a time when deep state insiders have been consistently leaking classified information in an effort to discredit President Trump, they have either failed to recognize the fact that they were endangering American lives, or they just simply didn’t care. With liberals, the ends always justify the means… so don't be surprised if it's the latter. Despite the deep state's best efforts, the Russian conspiracy allegations are fast being disproved, and with any luck they’ll collapse on themselves once and for all sooner before later. Meanwhile, the “Obamagate” scandal has just begun to pick up steam. New evidence has recently emerged that’s bound to throw more fuel into the fire, making things a bit hot for President Obama.
• Central Bank Shell Game: What Sweden’s Negative Interest Rates Do to Consumers 
  Sweden’s welfare state supposedly allows for success while providing a safety net for those unable to keep up with the market. In principle, it is an ideal, utopian-like state. However, Sweden’s touted economic success has come at the expense of its currency, the Krone (SEK), and long-term sustainability. Riksbank, the Swedish Central Bank, like its European contemporaries, has undertaken experimental policy, driving real and nominal interest rates below zero.
• The Collapse of Trust in the West
  Just as President Putin has stated that governments and media in the West have destroyed Russia’s trust in the West, the governments and media in the West have destroyed the trust of their citizens, who have been transformed into serfs to whom government no longer is accountable. I have stressed in many columns that the absence of trust between nuclear powers is a great threat to all life on earth. Yet the Western governments and media continue to work 24/7 to worsen relations between the US and Russia and the US and China. Those of us who warn of the possible consequences are put on lists of “Russian dupes” and purveyors of “fake news.” These lists show the desperation behind the orchestrated “Russian threat.” A one thousand billion dollar annual military/security budget is at stake along with American financial and political hegemony. In brief, greed for money and power are driving the world to destruction.
• Rising Inflation, Four Rate Hikes, Financial Repression on Menu in 2017: Fed Heads
  Inflation will rise above target, and that’s OK, the Fed heads who’ve been talking since last week’s meeting said. The Fed will hike rates, maybe faster than expected, but they won’t catch up with inflation, keeping the Fed purposefully behind the curve, and inflation will overshoot, and real interest rates will be deeply negative, whether you like it or not. That’s the Fed’s message emerging since the last meeting. Today, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker and Chicago Fed President Charles Evans echoed Fed Chair Janet Yellen who’d suggested on Wednesday that the Fed could try to push inflation above the 2% “target.”
• The Conspiracy Against President Trump 
  Listening today to the broadcast of testimony by FBI Director Comey and National Security Agency Director Admiral Michael Rogers before the House Intelligence Committee (an oxymoron) made it clear that the Democrats, Comey, and Rogers intend conflict with Russia. The Republicans, for the most part, were interested to know how security leaks targeted at Trump Republicans came from meetings at which only the CIA Director, NSA Director, and FBI director were present. Of course, they did not get an answer, which shows how powerless congressional oversight committees are. Comey repeatedly said that he could not tell the committee anything, because it would confirm that a press leak was true. But, he said, speaking generally and of no specific leak, most leaks come from “someone who heard something” and passes it on to the media, which also explains the inaccuracy of some leaks. In other words, don’t blame us.
• Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen – March 23, 2017
  Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen with his regular short weekly video for readers of Pastor Williams' weekly newsletter.

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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 March 17, 2017 to March 23, 2017:

• Keiser Report – Health Care ‘Hard Choices’
  We discuss the allegedly ‘hard choices’ in resolving America’s problem providing health care. In the second half, Max talks to trends forecaster, Gerald Celente of TrendsResearch.com, about the Fed’s interest rate hike and whether or not Trump’s threatened trade wars will lead to hot wars.
• Great Recession Headed for Greater Depression
  Money manager Michael Pento says don’t believe the Fed when it says “the economy is doing well.” It’s not. Pento explains, “As long as the stock market continues to go up, the Fed is going to continue to slowly raise interest rates. So, when the inevitable collapse occurs, and that’s what the Fed does, the Fed is in the business of lowering interest rates, creating asset bubbles, which pile up the level of debt, then raising rates and collapsing the economy. That’s their mantra. That’s their MO (modus operandi) and it has happened over and over again. The occurrences are going to be much more dire as we go through time. So, the Fed is trying to get bullets in the chamber. The Fed is going to raise rates slowly. The yield curve is going to invert. . . . We are going to have another catastrophe in the stock market and in the bond market and in the real estate market and in the global economy.”
• ALERT: Big Money Just Made A Massive Short Bet Against The U.S. Stock Market!
  After this week’s Fed decision, big money just made a massive short bet against the U.S. stock market. Smart Money Establishes A Big Short. Jason Goepfert at SentimenTrader:  “Last August, “smart money” commercial hedgers in S&P 500 futures were net short about $24 billion worth of the full and e-mini contracts. As stocks declined into October, they covered and went net long. Even as stocks climbed, they added to their positions, ultimately having long exposure worth about $13 billion…
• The Upcoming Trade War Between The U.S. And China Will Be The Biggest In The History Of The Planet
  The United States and China are the two largest economies in the world by far, and the upcoming trade war that is about to erupt will be cataclysmic for both sides.  The Trump administration and the Chinese government are both gearing up for a prolonged trade war, and this is going to have very severe implications for the entire global economy.  During the campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly stated that we “can’t continue to allow China to rape our country”, and he was quite correct about that.  Over the past ten years, the U.S. has run a trade deficit of over $2 trillion with China, and as a result of imbalanced trade we have lost tens of thousands of manufacturing businesses, millions of good paying jobs, and hundreds of billions of dollars of tax revenue.
• The Global Famine Begins: UN Announces That The Worst Food Crisis Since World War II Is Happening Right Now
  We always knew that this would start happening.  Earlier this month, I wrote about the severe economic problems that are plaguing South America, but up to this point I have neglected to discuss the horrific famines that are breaking out all over Africa.  Right now there is a desperate need for food in South Sudan, Somalia, northeast Nigeria, Eritrea and Kenya.  And Yemen, even though it is not technically part of Africa, is being affected by many of the same factors that are crippling nations all over eastern Africa.  The United Nations says that more than 20 million people could die from starvation and disease if nothing is done.  When I write about economic collapse, this is the kind of thing that I am talking about, and we are starting to see alarming conditions spread across the globe.  Many believe that we could never possibly face this kind of food crisis in the western world, but unfortunately wishful thinking will only get you so far.
• 1961 Prophecy From Evangelist Tommy Hicks Described The Army Of The Last Days That Is Rising Now
  More than 50 years ago, God showed evangelist Tommy Hicks what the mighty army of the last days would look like. Hicks was best known for his work in South America, and you can see some old photos of him ministering during the Argentinian revival of 1954 here. According to Hicks, on the morning of July 25th, 1961 he was shown the same vision “three times, exactly in detail”, and what he saw changed the course of his life forever. In this vision God revealed to Hicks that the Spirit of God would be poured out on “the nobodies” all over the world in the last days, and that this incredible army would shake the world for God like we have never seen before.
• First Real Hope for Flint Water as Trump Bestows $100 Million
  Under authority granted the agency by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act of 2016, the EPA just issued a $100 million grant to the beleaguered city of Flint, Michigan, to help in the effort at replacing the city’s badly corroded and lead-tainted system of water pipes. Some progressive critics of President Donald Trump have pointed to his proposed budget cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency as proof that he is a terrible president who doesn’t care about ensuring that Americans have clean air and water. However, the recent report from The Daily Caller about Trump’s EPA grant just did threw that narrative into a tailspin.
• “This Is Going To Blow Sky High” – Observations On Canada's Housing Market
  For months we've been warning about real estate bubbles re-emerging in various markets around the world from Canada to Australia (see “There Are 66,719 Empty Mansions In Vancouver” and “Vancouver Home Sales Crash 40%, As Toronto Home Prices Soar 22%”).  And while facts and figures clearly indicate that certain markets are bubbling over courtesy of all the same mistakes that caused the ‘great recession' in 2008, nothing helps to confirm the truly obscene nature of a real estate bubble quite like attending a good ole-fashioned, get-rich-quick real estate expo. As such, below are the musings of one financial market observer who recently attended the Canadian Real Estate Wealth Expo as a joke but walked away convinced the system is about “to blow sky high.”
• Another Senior Russian Official Has Died
  Since the day of Donald Trump's election, high-ranking Russian officials have been dropping like flies and today's reports that a top official of Russia's space agency has been found dead brings the total to eight. As we noted previously, six Russian diplomats have died in the last 3 months – all but one died on foreign soil. Some were shot, while other causes of death are unknown. Note that a few deaths have been labeled “heart attacks” or “brief illnesses.”
• Gartman Goes Short: “Something Broke In The Markets Yesterday”
  Just when it seemed the follow through from yesterday's selloff would continue, algos may have found the only catalyst they need to lift some offers: in his overnight note, Dennis Gartman writes “we actually ventured to the short side of the market, buying bearish derivatives and by 1:00 in the afternoon, doubling those positions and carrying them “home” through the close of trading.”
• EU Taxpayers Brace As Deepening Banking Crisis Means Euro-TARP Looms
  If the ECB scales back stimulus, banks face even greater risk of collapse. But now there’s a new solution. Events are moving so fast in Europe these days, it’s almost impossible to keep up. While much of the attention is being hogged by political developments, including the election in the Netherlands, Reuters published a report warning that the European banking sector may face even higher bad loan risks if the ECB begins to scale back its monetary stimulus programs, something it has already begun, albeit extremely tentatively. The total stock of non-performing loans (NPL) in the EU is estimated at over €1 trillion, or 5.4% of total loans, a ratio three times higher than in other major regions of the world.
• Used Car Prices Crash Most Since 2008
  According to NADA Used Car Guide, wholesale prices on used vehicles are getting crushed. Let’s take a look at the details. NADA partially blames late tax refunds for some of the declines in March. While it’s true the IRS slowed claims for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) to combat fraud, late refunds in 2017 cannot possibly explain an eight-month trend. Yet, based on tax refunds, NADA expects a rebound in used car prices in March. With massive incentives on new vehicles, I say, let’s see. Regardless, it’s pretty clear that car sales are slowing, and it takes bigger and bigger incentives to push them out the door.
• We may have just moved closer to a global trade war
  Until now, Wall Street investors and foreign leaders had given President Donald Trump's antitrade views the benefit of the doubt, dismissing some of Trump's louder threats to rip up global commercial agreements as mere bluster. That perception changed significantly this weekend, when Trump's Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, seen as among the more moderate members of the administration, held his ground on weakening the Group of 20 nations' long-standing commitment to free trade.
• EU chief Juncker: We'll make an example of Britain that no-one will want to follow
  European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is not worried about other EU countries leaving the bloc after Britain because Brexit will make them see it is not a good option, he said in a newspaper interview. Asked by Bild am Sonntag newspaper if other member states would follow Britain's example in quitting, Juncker said: “No. Britain's example will make everyone realise that it's not worth leaving.”
• Theresa May to trigger article 50 on 29 March
  Theresa May will trigger article 50 on Wednesday 29 March, the prime minister’s spokesman has confirmed. The UK’s permanent representative to the European Union, Sir Tim Barrow, notified the EU on Monday morning that a letter should be expected on that date. May, who was visiting Swansea on Monday, intended to visit Northern Ireland and Scotland before the formal notification was sent by letter on 29 March, Downing Street said.
• White House meeting with Trump was catastrophic for Merkel
  There were discernible slights and insults for German Chancellor Angela Merkel at her first meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday. For Donald Trump, it was just another day, full of outrageous behavior and controversy. The grave consequences of rudeness at this rarefied diplomatic level should not be underestimated. But it was nuances of what was said and what wasn’t said at the White House that will have the more far reaching results. Angela Merkel was portrayed by the world media as a put upon woman, a victim of the slights of a misogynist. But she is a mature and substantial politician in her own right. She will know that she came away from this summit with nothing. She is the kind of consensus, liberal politician that Trump holds in the greatest contempt. And she has the most to fear.
• Ukraine says IMF suspends discussion on fresh handout
  Ukraine on Sunday said the International Monetary Fund has postponed a board discussion on disbursing a new $1-billion loan tranche after Kiev cut trade links with Russian-backed rebel eastern regions. “The IMF board of directors has postponed for a short period the review planned for Monday of the issue,” Ukraine's finance ministry said in a statement. There was no separate confirmation from the IMF.
• Row Breaks Out At G-20 Over Future Of Global Trade
  One day after yesterday's at times painfully uncomfortable first official meeting between Angela Merkel and Donald Trump, it will hardly come as a surprise that during today's G-20 meeting in Baden Baden, Germany- the first for the Trump administration, whose delegation is led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin – where the dominant topic is trade, and specifically globalization vs protectionism, that a row would break out over how the post-Trump world will deal with trade.
• Mexicans Flood Into Canada As 2017 Border Detentions Surpass All Of 2016
  A couple of days ago we noted that Mexican immigrants were suddenly flooding into Canada to avoid deportation from the U.S.  The increase in northern border crossings came, at least in part, courtesy of Canada's decision to lift visa requirements for Mexican ‘tourists' as of December 1st.  Per the new rules, rather than a visa, under Trudeau's administration, Mexicans are now only required to have a so-called Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) which can be purchased online for CAD $7. Unfortunately, while Canada's relaxed travel requirements were applauded as an enlightened, progressive alternative to Trump's xenophobic, racist approach to immigration, under the surface, Canada's policies still function much like Trump's proposals.  As Mexican immigrants are suddenly finding out, while Canada is happy to host ‘tourists' from our Southern neighbor, getting a work visa can be nearly impossible and Mexicans with a criminal record are not welcome.
• Is Denmark On The Brink?
  Iben Thranholm examines political and social events with focus on their religious aspects, significance and moral implications. She is one of Denmark’s most widely read columnists on such matters. Thranholm is a former editor and radio host at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), at which she created a religious news program that set a new standard for religious analysis in the newsroom. She has traveled extensively in the Middle East, Italy, the United States and Russia to carry out research and interviews. She has been awarded for her investigative research into Danish media coverage of religious issues.
• Headaches Set In for Traders With NYSE Glitch Near Market Close
  NYSE Group sowed confusion among traders after a technical error hobbled one of its exchanges on Monday, wreaking havoc on hundreds of exchange-traded funds. NYSE Arca, the largest U.S. listing venue for ETFs, left traders scrambling at the end of the trading day after a system upgrade went awry. An upgraded version of its software that went live on Monday derailed closing auctions for certain securities, a key moment at the end of the trading day. The exchange shifted to backup methods for calculating the closing prices for most names, and went back to using an old version of its software, according to an email to clients. A total of 341 symbols did not complete their closing auctions, the exchange said.
• Venezuela has a bread shortage. The government has decided bakers are the problem.
  Facing a bread shortage that is spawning massive lines and souring the national mood, the Venezuelan government is responding this week by detaining bakers and seizing establishments. In a press release, the National Superintendent for the Defense of Socioeconomic Rights said it had charged four people and temporarily seized two bakeries as the socialist administration accused bakers of being part of a broad “economic war” aimed at destabilizing the country.
• It's Time To Get Painfully Honest: Banks Are Evil
  I don't talk to my classmates from business school anymore, many of whom went to work in the financial industry. Why? Because, through the lens we use here at PeakProsperity.com to look at the world, I've increasingly come to see the financial industry — with the big banks at its core — as the root cause of injustice in today's society. I can no longer separate any personal affections I might have for my fellow alumni from the evil that their companies perpetrate. And I'm choosing that word deliberately: Evil.
• ‘Anonymous' Joins Hacker Crusade To Steal Millions From Global Central Banks
  Roughly a year ago we wrote about perhaps the most notable bank heist in history in which a group of hackers used Swift, the interbank messaging system, to steal $81 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh. But Bangladesh isn't the only country whose Central Bank has been targeted by a growing number of hackers seeking to score a quick, and massive, loot.  As Bloomberg notes, hacks on global financial systems soared in 2016 and claimed Russia, Poland, Uruguay and Mexico, just to name a few, as victims.
• Deported Mexicans Vow To Flood Into Canada – Immigrating To “The U.S. Is Over…Now It's Canada's Turn”
  Canada has been applauded in recent months for its decision to lift visa requirements for Mexican ‘tourists' as of December 1st.  Rather than a visa, under Trudeau's administration, Mexicans are now only required to have a so-called Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) which can be purchased online for CAD $7. As one media outlet praised, the move “provides a stark contrast to proposed policies from the US president-elect Donald Trump, who has said he will immediately deport between two and three million illegal immigrants and will build a wall along the US-Mexican border.” Not surprisingly, news of the rule changes in Canada quickly made the rounds in the migrant community with one recently-deported Mexican nationalist declaring that “For those without documents, I think (the United States) is over. Now it's Canada's turn.”
• Why Is Goldman On A Buying Spree For Delinquent Mortgages
  Last year Goldman Sachs entered into a settlement with federal and state governments over its role in packaging and selling toxic mortgage-backed securities in the housing meltdown to unsuspecting buyers while subsequently turning around and shorting those very same securities.  As part of the settlement, Goldman agreed to provide $1.8 billion in homeowner debt relief to delinquent U.S. borrowers. The only problem with the settlement is that Goldman doesn't actually own any mortgage debt, they prefer to package it up into pretty little bundles, slap a AAA rating on it and sell it to pension funds for a fee instead. Of course, that's not a problem for Wall Street's vampire squid because they've found a whole other way to satisfy the entire $1.8 billion settlement without funding a single penny of that obligation in cash, in fact, they're making money on the scheme.
• The EPA May Have Been in Bed with Big Pesticide for Years
  There is, at the moment, a massive lawsuit against the Monsanto company regarding Roundup, its most popular pesticide. The company is being sued by citizens who maintain that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is responsible for their cancers. On Tuesday, the judge overseeing the case unsealed some of the documents that have been filed related to the case, and nobody comes out clean-not the company and, sadly, not the EPA, either.
•  Our Political Economy Is Designed to Create Poverty and Inequality
  Let me begin by sharing with you the story of an inner-city Cleveland family of seven, two adults and five children all under the age of 11. The family did not own a home. They were renters. As the family grew, it became ever more difficult to find rent. At one point the old car in which they roamed the city in search of rent became their living quarters. Evenings, the father and mother and a newborn slept in the car’s front seat, and the four other children, in the back.
• Rand Paul introduces the most sweeping reform of civil asset forfeiture law in decades
  Sen. Rand Paul has long taken the lead in calling for the reform of civil asset forfeiture laws, a controversial police practice in which authorities basically steal the property of citizens without due process and little recourse. Billions have been seized from citizens by the police based on nothing more than suspicion, which many see as a direct violation of the Fifth Amendment. It’s state-sanctioned theft. “Under civil forfeiture laws, your property is guilty until you prove it innocent,” says the Institute for Justice’s Scott Bullock. On Thursday, Sen. Paul reintroduced FAIR (Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration) Act, which specifically addresses victims of civil asset forfeiture who have not been convicted of a crime.
• Associate of Paul Craig Roberts Just Warned This Major Market Is Ready To Collapse
  As the world awaits the Fed’s decision on interest rates, today an associate of former Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary official, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, just warned that this major market is ready to collapse. “There’s so much inventory, and that influx is hitting across all price points, even studios.” – Director at Douglas Elliman. NYC was one of the first markets hit hard in 2007-2008. This Is Beginning To Happen Across The Country. Dave Kranzler:  For awhile, any weakness in the NYC housing market was attributed exclusively to the high end. I am on record stating that price dynamic would spread to all price segments. It’s not rocket-science, it’s simple supply/demand/price economics. Studio rents in NYC dropped the most on record in February. This same dynamic is also beginning to happen in many of the other hottest cities across the country…
• Greyerz – The Greatest Bubble In History Is Beginning To Implode
  With continued uncertainty around the globe, today the man who has become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, told King World News that the greatest bubble in history is beginning to implode. Things Are Finally Beginning To Implode. Egon von Greyerz:  “So the Fed decision is finally out. The rate increase was a certainty. But the problem is that no one believes the Fed, not even the Fed itself…
• Billionaire banker David Rockefeller dies aged 101
  Former Chase Manhattan Chief Executive David Rockefeller has died at the age of 101. Rockefeller died in his sleep at home in Pocantico Hills, New York, on Monday morning as a result of congestive heart failure, according to a family spokesperson Fraser P. Seitel. The businessman, who had an estimated fortune of $3 billion, retired as head of Chase Manhattan in 1981 after a 35-year career.
• America in Totally Unknown Territory
  Former CIA Station Chief Scott Uehlinger says the 2016 Presidential Election put “America in totally unknown territory.” Uehlinger explains, “I lived in countries like Azerbaijan, Moldova and Kosovo.  These were rough and tumble places where this was my bread and butter.  There was always a Prime Minister or a head of state that was using intelligence services to embarrass or frame or destroy members of the opposition party.  This is something I have seen time and time again.  This is something I have had to collect intelligence on time and time and time again, and I think this kind of gives me a unique perspective into what is going on in the United States right now.  I have seen this all before, but we also have to remember that this has never been here before.  This is something new for Americans and, unfortunately, it’s not really new for me.
• Woman That Prophesied Trump Would Win Now Warns That A “Great Shaking” Is Coming And Churches Will Fall
  If Dr. Patricia Green is correct, America is about to be shaken like we have never seen before. And considering her track record, I would take what she has to say very seriously. She correctly prophesied in advance that Donald Trump would win the election in November. If you are not familiar with this prophecy, you can find it on a video that she published on September 28th right here. She also correctly prophesied Barack Obama’s first election victory in advance, and she did it at a time when Hillary Clinton was expected to get the Democratic nomination. So unlike many other “prophets” that are floating around these days, she has a very long track record of being accurate.
• A Rare Solar Eclipse In 2017 And Another One 7 Years Later In 2024 Will Mark A Giant ‘X’ Across The United States
  On August 21st, 2017, something is going to happen in the United States that has not happened since 1918. On that date, a total solar eclipse will be visible all the way from the east coast to the west coast. Incredibly, another rare solar eclipse of this nature will move across the country just seven years later in 2024. If you plot the projected courses of these two solar eclipses on a map, you will find that they form a giant “X” across the continental United States. In the Scriptures, Jesus told us that “there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars” just prior to His return, and many are speculating about what this giant “X” might mean.
• The Debt Ceiling Deadline Has Passed, And Now The Biggest Test Of Donald Trump’s Presidency Begins…
  On Wednesday, the temporary suspension of the debt ceiling ended, and so now the federal government is not going to be able to go into any more debt until the debt ceiling is raised.  For the moment, the Trump administration can implement “emergency measures” to stay under the debt limit, but it won’t be too long before we get to a major crisis point because the federal government is quickly running out of cash.  Already, the U.S. Treasury has less cash on hand than Apple or Google, and that cash balance is going to keep on dropping until the debt ceiling is finally lifted. You may remember that the debt ceiling became a major issue a couple of times during the Obama years.  Last time around, Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress agreed to a horrendous deal which suspended the debt ceiling until several months after the 2016 election…
• 12 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve May Have Just Made The Biggest Economic Mistake Since The Last Financial Crisis
  Has the Federal Reserve gone completely insane?  On Wednesday, the Fed raised interest rates for the second time in three months, and it signaled that more rate hikes are coming in the months ahead.  When the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates, it becomes less expensive to borrow money and that tends to stimulate more economic activity.  But when the Federal Reserve raises rates , that makes it more expensive to borrow money and that tends to slow down economic activity.  So why in the world is the Fed raising rates when the U.S. economy is already showing signs of slowing down dramatically?  The following are 12 reasons why the Federal Reserve may have just made the biggest economic mistake since the last financial crisis…
• Trump’s First War? ‘All Options Are On The Table’ As The U.S. And North Korea Prepare For The Second Korean War
  This may be the closest that we have been to war with North Korea since the original Korean War ended in 1953. The North Koreans are feverishly working to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles that could strike the U.S. mainland, and meanwhile Donald Trump has not moved from his position that North Korea will simply not be allowed to have ICBMs. If North Korea does not blink, it means that we are literally counting down the days until we go to war. Unfortunately, North Korean leaders appear to literally be insane and they have shown absolutely no signs of backing off. In 2016, North Korea tested two nuclear bombs and test-fired 24 missiles, and so far this year they have test-fired five ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.
• Somebody is Lying About Spying, Fed Hikes Rates & Gold Spikes, War Update
  Somebody is lying about spying on Donald Trump. The Senate says they see “no evidence,” and yet the New York Times runs a story about revealing information that came from “wiretapping Trump aides.”  Respected Judge Andrew Napolitano says British Intelligence did the spying because it has 24/7 access to NSA records.  The British Spy agency denies this charged.  Bottom line, The Trump Administration is overtly and covertly under attack, and that is clear.  Expect a counterattack and soon from the Trump camp.
• How The Federal Reserve Is Setting Up Trump For A Recession, A Housing Crisis And A Stock Market Crash
  Most Americans do not understand this, but the truth is that the Federal Reserve has far more power over the U.S. economy than anyone else does, and that includes Donald Trump.  Politicians tend to get the credit or the blame for how the economy is performing, but in reality it is an unelected, unaccountable panel of central bankers that is running the show, and until something is done about the Fed our long-term economic problems will never be fixed.  For an extended analysis of this point, please see this article.  In this piece, I am going to explain why the Federal Reserve is currently setting the stage for a recession, a new housing crisis and a stock market crash, and if those things happen unfortunately it will be Donald Trump that will primarily get the blame.
• Consumer Confidence: Democrats Expect “Deep Recession”, Republicans Look To New Golden Age
  UMich consumer confidence rose in the preliminary March print, beating expectations at 97.6 with current conditions surging but expectations stalling somewhat. This exuberance is occurring as real earnings growth slumps. But crucially, the partisan divide is unprecedented. The overall level of consumer sentiment remained quite favorable in early March due to renewed strength in current economic conditions as well as the extraordinary influence of partisanship on economic prospects.
• Minimum wage hikes are causing businesses to cut jobs
  In January, 19 US states raised their respective minimum wages. Washington was among the most generous, hiking by $1.53 (bringing it to $11 per hour). Arizona got an increase of $1.95—their “bottom rung” now sits at $10 per hour. In all, 4.3 million workers are slated to receive a hike as they earn less than the new minimum wage in their respective states. Well, that’s what’s meant to happen. Judging by the fallout from recent hikes, it seems things aren’t going according to plan.
• “We Are All Doing It”: Thousands Of Canadian Bankers Admit Lying To Customers To Boost Sales
  Several days after shares of Canada's TD Bank tumbled following reports that its employees were engaging in practices similar to those which led to a major scandal at Wells Fargo, which cost CEO John Stumpf his job and led to bonus clawbacks and numerous terminations over the practice of “cross-selling”, employees from all five of Canada's big banks have flooded CBC's “Go Public” whistleblower hotline with stories of how they too feel pressured to upsell, trick and even lie to customers to meet unrealistic sales targets and keep their jobs. In nearly 1,000 emails, employees from RBC, BMO, CIBC, TD and Scotiabank locations across Canada describe the pressures to hit targets that are monitored weekly, daily and in some cases hourly.  “Management is down your throat all the time,” said a Scotiabank financial adviser. “They want you to hit your numbers and it doesn't matter how.”
• Amazon is going to kill more American jobs than China did
  Amazon.com has been crowing about its plans to create 100,000 American jobs in the next year, but as with other recent job-creation announcements, that figure is meaningless without context. What Amazon AMZN, +0.58%  won’t tell us is that every job created at Amazon destroys one or two or three others. What Jeff Bezos doesn’t want you to know is that Amazon is going to destroy more American jobs than China ever did. Amazon has revolutionized the way Americans consume. Those who want to shop for everything from books to diapers increasingly go online instead of to the malls. And for about half of those online purchases, the transaction goes through Amazon.
• This Map Shows US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs
  The U.S. economy is so big that all of the individual states are comparable to entire countries… As Visual Capitalist's Jeff Desjardins notes, not surprisingly – big states like California, New York, and Texas are very similar in size to other formidable economies like France, South Korea, and Canada. Perhaps even more interesting, however, is that even small states are similar to the size of countries.
• Violent threats against the president are OK now?
  Turn on TV or browse your newsfeeds on social media, and you will be bombarded with polemics about the sky falling and credible threats of violence against conservative figures. The FBI investigated a threat to kill Milo Yiannoupolis for the audacity to want to speak on a college campus. Threats against former Labor Secretary nominee Andy Puzder’s wife caused him to withdraw himself from consideration. Multiple intimidatory remarks haunted members of the Trump-voting Electoral College. President Trump has been the target of declarations of violence on a near daily basis. And yet, when it comes to this constant flow of threats, there seems to be little outrage from the nation’s leading journalists and pundits.
• Are Collapsing Pensions “About To Bring Hell To America”?
  The toxic dollar is bringing hell in a handbasket. Along with the student loan debt bubble and other major financial factors, the looming pensions crisis is bound to be the death of us all. Because it’s based on a future promise to pay, it has long been a benefit dangled to solve strikes and union disputes – because, in the end, it is just more debt, whether private or public. With tens of trillions in unfunded liabilities, the weight of an avalanche remains dangling over our heads. An aging population is cashing in on needed retirement benefits while the younger generations must support multiples that are unsustainable financially.
• Intelligence Sources Reveal: Obama Used British Agents For Trump Wire Tap Surveillance
  While President Obama has vehemently denied issuing direct orders to the Justice Department or other domestic agencies to monitor President Trump during the 2016 election campaign, it is common knowledge that the National Security Agency has the ability to access video and audio from any number of devices in real time. In fact, according to Edward Snowden and documented in the recently released Snowden motion picture, U.S. spy agencies can simply flip a switch to watch or listen in on anything going on in a particular room by turning on a particular device’s cameras and microphones.
• Canada Flagged For Recession By BIS
  As if Canadians needed more proof that the country’s real estate is in a bubble, and that this misallocation has spread to other sectors of the economy, the Bank of International Settlements released its latest quarterly confirming what any critical observer can see: binging on debt is rarely a good idea. Canada’s debt-to-GDP gap is widening and even the central bank of central banks is concerned. The BIS uses its credit-to-GDP analysis as an indicator and predictor of troubling economic waters. They claim successes in predicting financial crises in the United States, England and a few other economies. Generally speaking, according to the BIS, when a country’s credit-to-GDP gap is higher than 10% for more than a few years, a banking crisis emerges which is followed by a recession.
• China Is Again Selling US Treasuries As Foreign Central Banks Liquidate $45BN
  After December's brief dead cat bounce, in which foreign central banks bought $18.6 billion in US Treasuries, breaking a streak of 12 consecutive months of selling, in January they resumed their liquidation. According to the just released TIC data, foreign official institutions, which includes mostly central banks, but also sovereign wealth funds and various other official entities, sold another $44.9 billion in Treasuries, in line with the aggressive selling seen for most of 2016. Curiously, the sales by foreign central banks were largely offset by purchases by private holders, mostly corporate institutions and foreign retail investors, who bought $37.9 billion in the month, the most since last March when they acquired $41 billion. Combining the two, foreigners sold a total of $7 billion in TSYs in January.
• The Fed Just Gave Gold The Green Light To Move Higher
  On March 1st the US economy gave the Fed an inflation scare. That's when the Fed's favorite inflation measure, the PCE Price Index, reported a breakout higher. Most Fed officials scrambled to announce they were flipping from dove to hawk. But that was then. Yesterday morning however, the CPI release calmed the Fed enough so that they stuck to their pre-March 1st original plans. The real news yesterday was that, after all that huffing and puffing from Fed officials for the last couple of weeks, in the end, aside from the quarter-point rate increase which was widely expected, not much really changed. That gives gold the green light to push higher.
• Steve Cohen Developing A.I. To Replace Expensive, Talentless Traders
  Steve Cohen, the infamous billionaire hedgie who plead guilty to insider trading back in 2013 and paid a record $1.8 billion penalty, has never been shy about offering up his opinion on the lack of real trading ‘talent' in New York.  Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference last May, Cohen said “Frankly, I’m blown away by the lack of talent…It’s not easy to find great people but we whittle down the funnel to maybe 2 to 4% of the candidates we’re interested in…talent is really thin.” And while we would be the last to argue that there's a huge pool of people in New York truly worthy of Cohen's coveted 8-digit salaries, we might suggest that in his particular case the pool of applicants may be somewhat limited to the select few people willing to risk jail time for their employer….but that's just pure speculation.
• Balance Of Student Loans In Default Soars To Over $137 Billion
  Last week we noted a survey from LendEDU which found that 31% of college co-eds spend at least some portion of their student loan debt proceeds to fund week-long hedonistic, binge drinking trips to Cancun and Daytona Beach for spring break.  And, just to add insult to injury, 24% said they spend those taxpayer-subsidized loan dollars on drinking at school and 7% even splurge on drugs (see “31% Of College Students Spend Their Loans On Spring Break”). In light of those findings, it probably shouldn't be terribly surprising that, according to new data published by the U.S. Department of Education, $137 billion of federal student loans were in default as of December 2016, a 14% year-over-year increase.
• Idaho House Votes Overwhelmingly To End Income Taxation Of Precious Metals
  By an overwhelming 56-13 margin, the Idaho House of Representatives today voted to end all Idaho taxation on precious metals, e.g. gold and silver coins and bars. Bill sponsor Representative Mike Moyle (R) and the entire Republican caucus voted for the measure. If the Republican-controlled Idaho Senate follows suit and Governor Butch Otter (R) signs the bill, Idaho citizens will better be able to use gold and silver as a form of savings which protects against ongoing devaluation of America’s currency. Backed by the Sound Money Defense League, Idaho Freedom Foundation, Money Metals Exchange, and grassroots activists, HB 206 expands Idaho’s existing sales tax exemption to end Idaho income taxation of sales of “precious metals bullion” and “monetized bullion.”
• Jones Bootmaker woes leave 1,145 jobs at risk
  There are hopes a buyer can be found for Jones Bootmaker as it stands on the cusp of falling into administration, placing 1,145 jobs at risk. The private equity owner of the 160-year old brand, Alteri Investors, has filed a notice to appoint administrators amid tough business conditions for the chain, which trades digitally and from 103 stores and concessions. The decision is designed to give it some breathing space from creditors seeking to recover debts from the footwear and accessories retailer while it seeks a new owner.
• Trumpcare: Different Plan, Same Problems
  With his widely followed, and positively reviewed, address to Congress last week, President Trump showed how easy it could be to unite Washington around a big-budget centrist agenda on health care, immigration, taxes, infrastructure and the military. But the continued accusations surrounding his campaign’s alleged Russian connections, and the President’s conspiratorial responses, have insured that the battle lines have only hardened. However, anyone with even a casual concern with ballooning government debt should take notice just how easily both parties in Washington would agree to vastly expand the gushing red ink if a political truce can be brokered. Those fears should galvanize around the newly-issued Republican replacement for Obamacare. If such a monstrous bill could successfully navigate Congress, we would find ourselves stuck deeper in a deficit deluge than we can possibly imagine.
• Ancient Babylonian Banking and Our Modern Financial System
  Ancient Babylonia is known as the “cradle of civilization,” because it helped develop many important parts of our modern society, from laws (Code of Hammurabi) to advancements in astronomy and architecture. It also helped establish rules and procedures that have influenced modern day banking institutions. A quick look back at Babylonian finance provides insights into the basics of how our financial systems work today.
• Gold Surges Most Since Brexit After ‘Dovish' Fed Hike
  With the focus overnight on the Rutte ‘win' despite the surge in populist angst, and headlines from The Fed, PBOC, BoJ, and BoE sending global stocks to record highs, one might be forgiven for not noticing that Gold is surging (most since Brexit) following Janet's decision to raise rates for the 3rd time in 11 years – far outperforming other assets classes. The Dollar continued to get pounded overnight as China unexpectedly tightened policy…
• Brexit Bill granted royal assent giving PM power to trigger Article 50
  Theresa May has been given the legal power to start Brexit talks after the Queen granted royal assent to the Article 50 Bill. Speaker John Bercow told MPs that the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill, which was passed by MPs and peers on Monday, had received its final sign off, prompting cheers from the Conservative benches. Mrs May has said she will invoke Article 50, the legal mechanism for withdrawal from the EU, by the end of the month in what will be a “defining moment” for the country.
• Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen – March 17, 2017
  Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen with his regular short weekly video for readers of Pastor Williams' weekly newsletter.

Precious Metals Are The Only Lifeboat! I have persistently WARNED you what was happening in the gold market and why you needed to convert your paper assets to physical gold and silver. You need to hedge against the financial instability with physical gold and silver. Call the experts to help you convert your IRA or 401k into Gold, Silver and Other Precious Metals. Call GoldCo NOW before it's too late! Call Toll-Free 1-877-414-1385.

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 March 10, 2017 to March 16, 2017:

• Eric Peters: “If China And The World Bank Are Right, We're Headed For A Depression”
  “Some people blindly invested offshore and were in a rush to do so,” explained China’s central bank chief, justifying his recent capital controls. “Some of this outbound investment was not in line with our own policies and had no real gain for China.” No doubt he’s right. The tycoons fleeing Chinese capital markets have done so selfishly. “So to regulate capital flows, I think it is normal,” concluded the central banker. Chinese credit relative to GDP has doubled in the past decade to 300%. Which remains less than the US at 350%, but the rate of Chinese credit growth is as unsustainable as it is difficult to reverse — without tanking the economy. The tycoons are running from this dynamic. Because such loops almost always end badly.
• US Government Revenues Suffer Biggest Drop Since The Financial Crisis
  On the surface, today's monthly budget statement was disappointing: in February the US Treasury brought in total receipts of $172 billion, versus outlays of $364 billion, resulting in a decicit of $192 billion, more than tha $190 billion expected (if in line with last year's $192.6 billion deficit). For the fiscal year through Feb. 28, the total US budget deficit was $349 billion, virtually identical to the $351 billion deficit over the same period in 2016 and set to keep rising this year and for the foreseeable future.
• Credit Reports to Exclude Certain Negative Information, Boosting FICO Scores
  Many tax liens and civil judgments soon will be taken off people’s credit reports, the latest move to omit negative information from the powerful financial scorecards. The decision by the three major credit-reporting firms— Equifax Inc., Experian PLC and TransUnion—could help boost credit scores for millions of U.S. consumers, but could pose risks for lenders. The reports and scores often help decide how much consumers can borrow for a new house or car as well as determine their credit-card spending limit.
• Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich Warns Congress that CIA Wiretaps Are Real and It Happened to Him
  Restive cerements of the left have given pard-like support for the CIA  — believing the motives of the heralded agency to be only just and honorable, in  spite of all of the evidence suggesting otherwise. Hysterically, it was the left who've always been reticent about the motives of the CIA. According to a poll done by the WSJ/NBC, support for the CIA is soaring in recent months, alongside cognitive dissonance — due to ephemeral dreams of deep state coups being plotted against the Trump regime.
• American Men Are Giving Up On Jobs
  I’ve written about this before, but there are 10 million American males between the age of 24 and 64 who have literally dropped out of the workforce. It means that they have given up on finding a job or are simply not looking. But, focusing on just one subset among those who are 24–64, we see that white working-class males’ labor force participation rate has dropped to 59%. The Economist has created something called a Forgotten Men Index, which shows the gap between white working-class men in particular and all men in general. I bring this data up because white working-class men have become the focus of much current political discussion. The participation numbers are similar or worse for other racial categories except for Asians.
• FBI Used Best Buy's Geek Squad To Increase Secret Public Surveillance
  Recently unsealed records reveal a much more extensive secret relationship than previously known between the FBI and Best Buy's Geek Squad, including evidence the agency trained company technicians on law-enforcement operational tactics, shared lists of targeted citizens and, to covertly increase surveillance of the public, encouraged searches of computers even when unrelated to a customer's request for repairs.
• Fed may have to accelerate rate rises to accommodate Trump policies: ECB's Visco
  The economic policies of U.S. President Donald Trump could hurt global trade and could speed up an increase in U.S. interest rates, European Central Bank policy maker Ignazio Visco said on Monday. “Given the current situation of the U.S. economy, which is close to full employment, strong fiscal expansion risks having a pro-cyclical impact,” Visco said in a speech at the Italian foreign ministry. “In such a case, the process of normalizing monetary conditions undertaken by the Federal Reserve could be less gradual,” said Visco, who sits on the ECB Governing Council and is the governor of the Bank of Italy.
• Huge Oil Find Could Save Alaska's Oil Sector
  Spanish oil firm Repsol SA just announced the largest onshore oil discovery in the U.S. in three decades, a 1.2 billion barrel find on Alaska’s North Slope. Repsol has been actively exploring in Alaska since 2008 and finally hit a big one. The find came after drilling two wells with its partner, Armstrong Oil & Gas. Repsol says that it if it moves forward and develops the project, first oil could come by 2021. The field could produce 120,000 bpd, a significant volume given the predicament the state of Alaska finds itself in.
• Gander Mountain files Ch. 11 bankruptcy, closing 32 stores
  Outdoor and sporting goods retail chain Gander Mountain says it plans to shut down 32 stores as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Gander Mountain announced on Friday that it plans to remain open, but is putting the business up for sale. Thirty-two under performing retail locations will begin a shutdown process in the next several weeks, according to the company. The list of stores slated for closing does not include the recently remodeled Gander Mountain at the Eastwood Mall Complex in Niles.
• 2016 Debt Binge Produces (Surprise!) 2017 Inflation. Guess What That Means For 2018?
  Just as everyone was finally accepting the idea of deflation and negative interest rates, inflation decides to pay a return visit. In the past day, articles with the following headlines appeared in major publications around the world: Swiss inflation rises at highest monthly rate in 5 years. China February producer inflation fastest in nearly nine years. Year-over-year import prices at highest level in five years. ECB keeps bond-buying, rates unchanged amid inflation flare-up. Food inflation doubles in a month as UK shoppers start to feel the pinch. What happened? Well, towards the end of 2015 most of the world’s major governments apparently got spooked by deflation and decided to ramp up their borrowing and money creation.
• The Conflict within the Deep State Just Broke into Open Warfare
  When do the unlimited powers of the Intelligence/Security agencies threaten America’s domestic and global national interests? The CIA and its political enablers claim the agency’s essentially unlimited powers, partially revealed by Wikileak’s Vault 7, pose no threat to America’s interests, since they are intended to “defend” American interests. This is the rationale presented by neocon CIA allies in both political parties: the CIA can’t possibly threaten America’s interests because the CIA defines America’s interests. This is the wormhole down which civil liberties and democracy have drained. It is an extraordinarily defining moment in American history when the director of the FBI publicly declares that there is no such thing as “absolute privacy” in the U.S.
• U.S. Crude Stockpiles Soar, Gasoline Inventory Plunges
  U.S. crude oil inventories surged last week to another record high, while gasoline stocks went the other direction, posting their largest one-week drop in nearly six years, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories rose 8.2 million barrels in the week to March 3, compared with analysts’ expectations for a 2 million-barrel build. Most of that – 4.6 million barrels – came from an unexpectedly large surge in stocks on the west coast. The ninth weekly crude build boosted total stockpiles, excluding the nation’s strategic petroleum reserves, to a fresh record of 528.4 million barrels.
• Goldman Sachs: Zero Upside Left For Stocks This Year
  After the inflation in P/E multiples has sent the S&P500 to to a level above the 90% percentile of all historical valuations, Goldman has called a time out. The venerable firm says that there will be no more multiple expansion this year. As a result only one thing will push stock prices higher “as equity valuations compress as interest rates rise” – higher profits.
• OPEC Back In Focus Amid Oil’s Latest Collapse
  OPEC and the U.S. continue to fight for dominance in the global oil market. The battle has been recently been defined by OPEC’s production cuts, but new U.S. shale production has been countering strongly as of late. Despite the current supply glut (especially in the United States), the price of oil has been kept in the lofty $50s for a while now, ever since OPEC and Russia agreed to restrict 1.8 million barrels of crude oil from the world market. The higher prices have led to higher profits, however, even in the U.S. These prices have incentivized increased U.S. production, allowing companies to be drilling at their highest rates in over a year, posed to reach record levels by year-end.
• The American Media Hide From The Truth
  The CIA created and accumulated from other sources a huge array of malware and cyber attack capability capable of stealing information from any individual, any government, any corporation, any intelligence agency and either leaving no trace or leaving a “fingerprint” of an innocent party. The CIA, being arrogant and incompetent, lost control over its monster which escaped and now is in the hands of we know not who. Floating around the Internet, it was sent to WikiLeaks.
• The US government now has less cash than Google
  In the year 1517, one of the most important innovations in financial history was invented in Amsterdam: the government bond. It was a pretty revolutionary concept. Governments had been borrowing money for thousands of years… quite often at the point of a sword. Italian city-states like Venice and Florence had been famously demanding “forced loans” from their wealthy citizens for centuries.
• When will Brazil emerge from the worst ever recession? 
  Try as they may, Brazil’s legislators have been unable to carve a dent in what has now become the worst recession in the country’s history. Recent data from the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) – the country’s official statistics agency – shows that Brazil’s GDP growth contracted by 3.6 per cent in 2016. This puts immense pressure on President Michel Temer who is already fighting on multiple fronts. He faces a number of corruption charges, has a popularity rate around 10 per cent according to pollsters, and has been struggling to push through radical, if not controversial, reform measures in congress.
• $21,714 For Every Man, Woman And Child In The World – This Global Debt Bomb Is Ready To Explode
  According to the International Monetary Fund, global debt has grown to a staggering grand total of 152 trillion dollars.  Other estimates put that figure closer to 200 trillion dollars, but for the purposes of this article let’s use the more conservative number.  If you take 152 trillion dollars and divide it by the seven billion people living on the planet, you get $21,714, which would be the share of that debt for every man, woman and child in the world if it was divided up equally. So if you have a family of four, your family’s share of the global debt load would be $86,856.
• Trump Needs a War Team
  Former Assistant Secretary of Housing and financial advisor Catherine Austin Fitts says the Trump Administration is at the beginning of a long war against his deep state enemies. Fitts recommends, “I don’t think it’s an accident that WikiLeaks dumps out documents proving that the CIA has the capacity to do a hack and make it look like the Russians.  So, what we are watching are war games.  This is like chess.  You try to take out the lieutenants before you take out the queen. . . . My guess is you have very significant capacity on the Democrat side, literally hundreds of people and law firms doing surveillance and intelligence, and figuring out how they can weaken the Trump team.  Now, what we see coming back the other way, including the WikiLeaks dumps, there is clearly capacity on the other side.  The Trump team is going to have to build two lines.  The key to being successful in an operation like this is you need a team.  In the story of Nehemiah, when the wall was broken, they needed a tool in one hand and a weapon in another.  Trump is going to have to put together a war team that can handle and manage the warring back and forth between the factions.   You do not want that war to interrupt or undermine your management team.  You’ve got to have your Cabinet, and their job is to “Make America Great Again.”  Ultimately, that’s how you are going to be judged, and the general population will support you if you keep doing that.  You don’t want your team to be buried by war games.”
• Noah’s Flood of Cash Coming
  Mexican billionaire and retail magnate Hugo Salinas Price is a big proponent of using silver as money in Mexico. Salinas Price explains, “The idea is not to go back to a silver standard, but to create a parallel currency which would be a monetized silver coin.  It would not bear a stamped value.  It would be a plain silver coin with a quoted value given to it.  This value would be adjusted upward with a fall in the value of the peso or a rise with the price of silver.” Salinas Price pushed ideas similar to this in the past. This idea is being talked about again in the Mexican legislature, but there is no guarantee it will become a reality.  Why silver coins for the Mexican people?  Salinas Price says, “All material progress comes from saving, not from spending.  You have to save first, and from savings comes investment, and from investment comes jobs and income for a better way of life.  Savings are the primary source of prosperity.”
• Are Germans About to Be Made to Pay for Their Love of Cash?
  Germany loves physical money. According to a Bundesbank study, approximately 80% of payments in Germany are made in cash. Even among millennials, two-thirds say they prefer paying in cash to electronic means, a much higher level than in almost any other advanced economy with the exception of Japan. This is a big problem for a European establishment that is desperate to consign physical money to the scrap heap. Some countries, including France and Spain, have already set maximum cash limits of €1,000. Greece has dropped its cap for cash transactions from €1,500 to €500.
• FBI Director Gives Shocking News to Americans: Privacy Is ‘Dead’
  Welcome to the information age, where everything you do or say can and will be monitored and used against you. Your constitutional right to privacy? Forget about it! At least according to FBI Director James Comey who delivered this chilling line at a recent cybersecurity conference “There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America; there is no place outside of judicial reach,” and with the information revealed by the WikiLeaks Vault 7 documents, we know that their capability extends far beyond ‘judicial reach’.
• How Will Stocks Come Unglued? Wolf Richter on the Keiser Report
  In the first and hilarious section of the Keiser Report, Stacy Herbert and Max Keiser discuss how artificial intelligence and machines are replacing lawyers and other creatures, and what in the end will come of humans. My interview with Max Keiser starts 11:50 minutes into the video. We discuss what caused the S&P 500 index to soar 87% since 2011, even as aggregate earnings of the companies in the index in 2016 were back where they’d been in 2011. In other words, what caused stocks to skyrocket over five years, even as earnings went nowhere? And how will the equation come unglued?
• U.S. Health Care Ranked Worst in the Developed World
  The U.S. health care system has been subject to heated debate over the past decade, but one thing that has remained consistent is the level of performance, which has been ranked as the worst among industrialized nations for the fifth time, according to the 2014 Commonwealth Fund survey 2014. The U.K. ranked best with Switzerland following a close second. The Commonwealth Fund report compares the U.S. with 10 other nations: France, Australia, Germany, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the U.K. were all judged to be superior based on various factors. These include quality of care, access to doctors and equity throughout the country. Results of the study rely on data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Health Organization and interviews from physicians and patients.
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About The CIA Before Last Week
  WikiLeaks’ Vault 7 release of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents yesterday opened eyes worldwide about an agency President John F. Kennedy once vowed to “splinter…into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds.” Here’s a comprehensive list of ten things we didn’t know about the CIA before last week leak: 1. The CIA has an illegal domestic spying apparatus similar to the NSA. 2. The CIA has a secret base in Germany. 3. The CIA has a cyber group dedicated to forging other countries digital fingerprints in false-flag attacks. 4. The CIA can spy on you through your smart TV and tap into the microphone. 5. The CIA can spy on you through any tablet or phone. 6. The CIA can transcribe your Skype conversations. 7. The CIA has exploits for every major Anti-virus software provider and major personal computer software programs, including Microsoft Word, VLC, and all operating systems. 8. The CIA can hack vehicle control modules including cars, trains, and planes. 9. The CIA has an air gap virus that can infect systems even if not connected to the internet. 10. The CIA has a Meme Warfare Center. The meme war – is real.
• U.K. Parliament Gives Theresa May Approval To Start Brexit
  Moments ago, UK Parliament passed legislation giving prime minister Theresa May approval to start the Brexit process and allowing the government to invoke Article 50, with the House of Commons overturning amendments from the unelected House of Lords that sought to limit May’s room for maneuver.  While press reports earlier said May could trigger Article 50 as early as Thursday, subsequent reports from Bloomberg suggested that she will commence Brexit in the last week of March. The victory for May in Parliament, where she has a slim majority, allows her to negotiate Brexit with a free hand and consolidates her hold on power in the ruling Conservative Party. That said, according to Bloomberg she now faces the simultaneous challenge of pulling Britain out of the EU on good terms while navigating a second constitutional upheaval: Scotland’s renewed bid for independence.
• New York City Rents Crash Again In February Under Weight Of “So Much Inventory”
  After years of gouging the precious, Ivy League snowflakes that flood Manhattan every summer with nothing but their $10 million inheritance checks, a dream and the Faconnable shirts on their back, New York City landlords, courtesy of the flood of new apartment supply coming online, are being forced to offer record-high rent concessions to attract tenants. Per the latest February 2017 rental report from Douglas Elliman, the number of new leases signed on Manhattan apartments crashed 27.9% YoY as listing inventory surged 11.7% and median rental prices dropped 1.7%.  Meanwhile, even a massive increase in the share of apartments carrying rent concessions, which averaged 1.2 months of free rent, wasn't enough to spark demand.
• Trump budget expected to seek historic contraction of federal workforce
  President Trump’s budget proposal this week would shake the federal government to its core if enacted, culling back numerous programs and expediting a historic contraction of the federal workforce. This would be the first time the government has executed cuts of this magnitude — and all at once — since the drawdown following World War II, economists and budget analysts said. The spending budget Trump is set to release Thursday will offer the clearest snapshot of his vision for the size and role of government. Aides say that the president sees a new Washington emerging from the budget process, one that prioritizes the military and homeland security while slashing many other areas, including housing, foreign assistance, environmental programs, public broadcasting and research. Simply put, government would be smaller and less involved in regulating life in America, with private companies and states playing a much bigger role.
• Canada's New Blasphemy Laws
  A resolution, M-103, seeking to condemn so-called “Islamophobia,” was introduced a few weeks ago in the peaceful country of Canada by Liberal Party MP Iqra Khalid in the House of Commons, sparking a controversy. A similar motion, labelled M-37, was later tabled in the Ontario provincial legislature by MPP Nathalie Des Rosiers on February 23, 2017, and was passed by the provincial parliament. M-37, like its predecessor, demanded that lawmakers condemn “all forms of Islamophobia” and reaffirm “support for government efforts, through the Anti-Racism Directorate, to address and prevent systemic racism across government policy, programs and services”. Although these motions are not legally binding, extremists have already started demanding them as laws.
• Greece introduces cashpoint tax in desperate bid to raise revenue and stop run on banks as country teeters on brink of bankruptcy
  Greece has revealed it is to introduce a surcharge for all cashpoint withdrawals and financial transactions in a desperate attempt to prevent citizens withdrawing their money from the country's beleaguered banks. Ministers hope the controversial move could raise as much as €180 million, which the Athens government hopes will help the country avoid defaulting on debts owed to international creditors. As the Greek economy teeters on the verge of bankruptcy, millions of panicking citizens have completely cleared their accounts – pulling more than €28 billion out of banks and pushing the total cash revenue held in the country's financial institutions to a 10-year low.
• Widespread AT&T Outages Reported Across The U.S.
  Two weeks after a massive Amazon cloud outage crippled numerous websites on the East Coast, this morning users of AT&T across the nation are reporting widespread outages in their cellphone service. This appears to be confirmed by the current downdetector.com data on reported problems with the cellphone carrier. Twitter users from around the country have confirmed the interruption in service. While some have joked that AT&T has activated the downtime to remove embedded CIA eavesdropping features, for now there has been no official statement from AT&T… or from the crack team of Kremlin-controlled spies for that matter.
• California Is Exporting Its Poor To Texas
  California exports more than commodities such as movies, new technologies and produce. As The Sacramento Bee reports, it also exports truck drivers, cooks and cashiers. The leading destination for those leaving California is Texas, with about 293,000 economically disadvantaged residents leaving and about 137,000 coming for a net loss of 156,000 from 2005 through 2015. Next up are states surrounding California; in order, Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Losing impoverished residents to other states is better for the state’s economy than losing wealthy residents, some experts said. But they said the migration itself is a symptom of deeper social problems largely related to how expensive California has become.
• Iceland to end capital controls from 2008 financial crisis
  Iceland will lift all capital controls on its citizens, businesses and pension funds from Tuesday. Capital controls, such as those to restrict money flowing in and out of the country, were imposed in 2008 after the country's biggest banks collapsed. The government thinks the economy has recovered sufficiently to end controls. Controls were imposed after the collapse of the country's three biggest banks – Glitnir, Landsbanki and Kaupthing. At the same time Iceland's national currency, the krona, fell in value. The removal of the capital controls – which helped stabilise the currency and economy during the country's financial crash – represents the completion of Iceland's return to international financial markets.
• “Who Hit The Brakes?” – Bank Loan Creation Suddenly Tumbles To Five Year Low
  While the overall economy appears to be humming along, at least according to the Fed which on Wednesday is expected (with 100% certainty according to the market) to hike rates by 25bps for the second time in three months on concerns it has fallen behind the inflationary curve, with last week's payrolls report providing some validation despite prevailing weakness within “hard data” in recent months offset by soaring “soft” sentiment reports, one area of material concern has emerged: a sudden collapse in loan growth in general, and the all important Commercial and Industrial Loan segment in particular, a drop which the WSJ recently dubbed an “ominous economic signal” and blamed policy uncertainty under Trump for the collapse in growth.
• Woman asks ALEXA “Are You Connected To The CIA?” ALEXA – Who supposedly can't lie – Refuses to Answer
  So, this happened. Following Wikileaks Vault 7 release alerting Americans to the fact that the CIA is using tons of exploits to turn all sorts of internet-connected smart devices into surveillance microphones, granting the intelligence agency access to millions of people’s private homes, people started asking questions. Namely, this woman below asked her ever-listening Amazon Echo device if it is connected to the CIA. Well, first she asks Alexa if Alexa would lie, then makes sure Alexa knows what the CIA is. Twice she asks Alexa if she’s connected to the CIA… and twice Alexa refuses to answer. Must go against the “cannot tell a lie” protocol. After this video went viral, Amazon sent Alexa an updated way to answer the question… which still doesn’t really answer the question. Or does it?
• Samsung Will Shift Manufacturing from Mexico to U.S., Invest $300 Million
  Samsung announced an investment in expanding production in the United States this week, according to The Wall Street Journal. According to sources close to the company, the initial capital investment will total close to $300 million and will involve shifting some production from Mexico to the United States. The sources claim that the move could generate around 500 jobs. Samsung, which is based in Seoul, South Korea, may increase manufacturing of home appliances such as refrigerators, washer, and dryers in the United States. According to The Wall Street Journal, the decision to move production to the United States was influenced by President Trump after he campaigned to move manufacturing jobs for products bought in the United States from overseas into this country.
• NASA-funded study: Over 32 advanced civilizations have collapsed before us, and we’re next in line.
  As any long-time reader of this column knows, we routinely draw from historical lessons to highlight that this time is not different. Throughout the 18th century, for example, France was the greatest superpower in Europe, if not the world. But they became complacent, believing that they had some sort of ‘divine right’ to reign supreme, and that they could be as fiscally irresponsible as they liked. The French government spent money like drunken sailors; they had substantial welfare programs, free hospitals, and grand monuments.
• Trump's first full month in office brings massive employment boom as U.S. companies added whopping 298,000 new jobs in February
  U.S. companies added a whopping 298,000 new jobs in February, beating economists' expectations by more than 100,000. The report from ADP, a global human resources and payroll firm, provides the first hard economic numbers from Donald Trump's first full month as president. Trump tweeted a self-congratulatory note, calling the number ‘much more than expected!' He also wrote Wednesday on Twitter about another similar measure, citing numbers from a new LinkedIn workforce report that showed strong job-adding numbers from January and February.
• Exclusive: Mexico cancels sugar export permits to U.S. in trade dispute
  Mexico has canceled existing sugar export permits to the United States in a dispute over the pace of shipments, according to a letter seen by Reuters, in a flare-up industry sources said could temporarily disrupt supplies. The letter sent by Mexico's sugar chamber to mills on Monday partly blamed the situation on unfilled positions at the U.S. Department of Commerce, which it said has led to a “legalistic” interpretation of rules with no U.S. counterparts in place in Washington for Mexican officials to negotiate with. The cancellations are the latest dispute of a years-long trade row between Mexico – the United States' top foreign supplier of sugar – and its neighbor at a time when cane refiners are struggling with prices and tight supplies, U.S. industry sources said.
• Urban Outfitters CEO Says the Retail Bubble Has Burst
  Shares of Urban Outfitters Inc. and Express Inc. fell on Wednesday after the apparel chains gave a dour outlook for the industry, renewing concerns about America’s overabundance of retail stores. Urban Outfitters’ fourth-quarter earnings fell short of estimates, and same-store sales were flat. At Express, sales tumbled 13 percent on that basis last quarter. The company warned that it may post a loss this quarter, surprising analysts. Clothing sellers are struggling to cope with slow foot traffic at malls and a shift to e-commerce. The industry also has had to rely more heavily on discounts to attracts shoppers, weighing on margins. Urban Outfitters Chief Executive Officer Richard Hayne said the holiday season was disappointing, with higher markdowns than expected.
• Burger-flipping robot replaces humans on first day at work
  A burger-flipping robot has just completed its first day on the job at a restaurant in California, replacing humans at the grill. Flippy has mastered the art of cooking the perfect burger and has just started work at CaliBurger, a fast-food chain. The robotic kitchen assistant, which its makers say can be installed in just five minutes, is the brainchild of Miso Robotics. “Much like self-driving vehicles, our system continuously learns from its experiences to improve over time,” said David Zito, chief executive officer of Miso Robotics.
• Global Leaders Rattle Their Sabers As The World Marches Toward War
  Iran just conducted another provocative missile test, more U.S. troops are being sent to the Middle East, it was just announced that the U.S. military will be sending B-1 and B-52 bombers to South Korea in response to North Korea firing four missiles into the seas near Japan, and China is absolutely livid that a U.S. carrier group just sailed through contested waters in the South China Sea.  We have entered a season where leaders all over the globe feel a need to rattle their sabers, and many fear that this could be leading us to war.  In particular, Donald Trump is going to be under the microscope in the days ahead as other world leaders test his resolve.  Will Trump be able to show that he is tough without going over the edge and starting an actual conflict?
• 16 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Live In California
  It has been said that “as California goes, so goes the nation”.  That is why it is such a shame what is happening to that once great state.  At one time, California seemed to be the epicenter of the American Dream.  Featuring some of the most beautiful natural landscapes in the entire world, the gorgeous weather and booming economy of the state inspired people from all over the world to move to the state.  But now people are moving out of the state by the millions, because life in California has literally become a nightmare for so many people. I certainly don’t have anything against the state personally.  My brother and sister were both born there, and I spent a number of my childhood years in stunning northern California.  When I was younger I would sometimes dream of getting a place on the coast eventually, but for reasons I will discuss I no longer think that would be advisable.
• The Dark Secrets Of The Catholic Church Are Starting To Come Out
  We aren’t supposed to talk about what goes on behind closed doors when the cameras are off and the public can’t see what is happening. There is corruption in virtually every large organization, but those that hold themselves out as “spiritual leaders” need to understand that they are going to be held to a higher standard than everyone else. And when those “spiritual leaders” greatly violate the trust that the public has put in them, the fallout can be absolutely devastating. In this article you are going to read about some things that are deeply disturbing. An immense wave of evil has swept through major religious organizations, and the Catholic Church is certainly no exception.
• Bitcoin crashes after SEC rejects Winklevoss ETF
  The price of the digital currency bitcoin has been flying for the last few weeks, reaching an all-time high today of $1,350 per coin just this week. But on Friday afternoon it began plummeting. Here’s why: the SEC on Friday released a long-awaited ruling on an application for a bitcoin ETF (exchange-traded fund) submitted by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of Facebook fame. The SEC denied the proposal—brutally.
• Is The Left Trying To Start A Civil War?
  An army of subversives is attempting to undermine the Trump administration from within the government, and at the same time a whole host of prominent leftist leaders are fueling the flames of hate against Trump and are promoting riots, civil uprisings and in some cases even violence. And of course the mainstream media is a more than willing accomplice, because pretty much everyone that works in the mainstream media absolutely hates Donald Trump. On a fundamental level, the United States is more divided today than it has been in any of our lifetimes, and the radical left is treating the presidency of Donald Trump as if it was the end of the world. We are seeing terms such as “Nazi”, “racist” and “dictator” thrown around very casually, but people need to understand that words really matter. When subversives on the left use such inflammatory language, there is a very real danger that they could actually spark a violent insurrection against the United States government.
• This Region Of The World Is Being Hit By The Worst Economic Collapse It Has Ever Experienced
  The ninth largest economy in the entire world is currently experiencing “its longest and deepest recession in recorded history”, and in a country right next door people are being encouraged to label their trash so that the thousands upon thousands of desperately hungry people that are digging through trash bins on the streets can find discarded food more easily.  Of course the two nations that I am talking about are Brazil and Venezuela.  The Brazilian economy was once the seventh largest on the globe, but after shrinking for eight consecutive quarters it has now fallen to ninth place.  And in Venezuela the economic collapse has gotten so bad that more than 70 percent of the population lost weight last year due to a severe lack of food.  Most of us living in the northern hemisphere don’t think that anything like this could happen to us any time soon, but the truth is that trouble signs are already starting to erupt all around us.  It is just a matter of time before the things currently happening in Brazil and Venezuela start happening here, but unfortunately most people are not heeding the warnings.
• Every ‘Conspiracy Theorist’ In America Has Just Been Vindicated…
  Yes, the government can use your phone, your computer and even potentially your television to spy on what you are doing inside your own home. On Tuesday, Wikileaks released thousands of documents that prove what virtually every “conspiracy theorist” in America has been saying for years about government spying. And I don’t even like to use the term “conspiracy theorist” much, because the truth is that most “conspiracy theorists” are simply citizen journalists that are attempting to expose things that the mainstream media doesn’t want to talk about. And one of the things that the mainstream media has always been hesitant to address is the unconstitutional surveillance that U.S. intelligence agencies systematically conduct on their own citizens.
• A Third Of All U.S. Shopping Malls Are Projected To Close As ‘Space Available’ Signs Go Up All Over America
  If you didn’t know better, you might be tempted to think that “Space Available” was the hottest new retail chain in the entire country.  As you will see below, it is being projected that about a third of all shopping malls in the United States will soon close, and we just recently learned that the number of “distressed retailers” is the highest that it has been since the last recession.  Honestly, I don’t know how anyone can possibly believe that the U.S. economy is in “good shape” after looking at the retail industry.  In my recent article about the ongoing “retail apocalypse“, I discussed the fact that Sears, J.C. Penney and Macy’s have all announced that they are closing dozens of stores in 2017, and you can find a pretty comprehensive list of 19 U.S. retailers that are “on the brink of bankruptcy” right here.  Needless to say, quite a bloodbath is going on out there right now.
• UN experts denounce ‘myth' pesticides are necessary to feed the world
  The idea that pesticides are essential to feed a fast-growing global population is a myth, according to UN food and pollution experts. A new report, being presented to the UN human rights council on Wednesday, is severely critical of the global corporations that manufacture pesticides, accusing them of the “systematic denial of harms”, “aggressive, unethical marketing tactics” and heavy lobbying of governments which has “obstructed reforms and paralysed global pesticide restrictions”. The report says pesticides have “catastrophic impacts on the environment, human health and society as a whole”, including an estimated 200,000 deaths a year from acute poisoning. Its authors said: “It is time to create a global process to transition toward safer and healthier food and agricultural production.”
• Is Janet Yellen Trying to Trigger a Recession For Political Purposes?
  Trump might want to put a call in to Janet Yellen. The Fed is supposed to be a neutral, independent entity. However, that myth went out the window when Bernanke “gifted” QE 3 to Obama in 2012 to aid with the latter’s re-election bid. The Yellen Fed seems to be even more committed to defining the Fed as nothing more than a leftist establishment mechanism. Back in October when it still looked like Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 Presidential election, Yellen commented that she was considering letting the economy run “hot” meaning allowing inflation to rise without implementing additional rate hikes. One month later, Donald Trump won the Presidency and Yellen announced she wanted to hike rates in December with three more additional hikes in 2017.
• Austria To Stop Giving Food, Shelter To Rejected Asylum Seekers
  In a bill aimed at encouraging asylum seekers to leave voluntarily, Austrian lawmakers are considering halting the provision of food and accommodation to migrants who are denied asylum and refuse to leave the country. Austria took in roughly 90,000 asylum seekers in 2015, more than 1 percent of its population, as it was swept up in Europe's migration crisis when hundreds of thousands of people crossed its borders, most on their way to Germany. As Reuters notes, it has since tightened immigration restrictions and helped shut down the route through the Balkans by which almost all those people – many of them fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere – arrived. Asylum applications fell by more than half last year.
• BIS Admits TARGET2 Is A Stealth Bailout Of Europe's Periphery
  While debates over the significance of the Eurosystem's TARGET2 imbalances may have faded into the background now that sovereign yields in the Eurozone remains broadly backstopped by the ECB's debt monetization generosity, and fears about an imminent European breakdown fall along the lines of populist votes more than concerns about lack of funding, the BIS has finally chimed in with the truth about what the TARGET2 number really showed. As a reminder, in mid 2012, financial pundits “discovered” the gaping imbalances building up within the Eurozone, as a result of a huge increase in TARGET2 claims at the Bundesbank, offset by a matched surge in liabilities across the European periphery, most notably Italy and Spain.
• Eurozone Capital Flight Intensifies: Target2 Imbalances Widen Again
  A quick perusal of Target2 Balances for January shows capital flight from Italy and Spain to Germany intensified again. German target2 imbalances exceed levels hit in the Eurozone crises in 2012. Things improved considerably after ECB president Mario Draghi made his famous statement “Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough”. The ECB claims this action is due to its bond-buying program. I strongly disagree.
• Albert Edwards: “Let Me Tell You How This All Ends”
  The dollar's recent rapid slide has been accompanied by a constant backdrop of dovish cooing from the Fed. Until this week, SocGen's Albert Edwards notes that both equity and commodity markets had embraced the weak dollar as the elixir to solve all their ills. That relief, however, has now proved fleeting as fear of weak economic activity has reasserted its influence on investors. The weak dollar, Edwards warns, should be seen as merely a shuffling of deckchairs on the Titanic before the global economy sinks below the icy waves. Risk assets are once again refocusing on the increasingly dismal prospects for global growth rather than the short-term relief of dollar weakness, according to SocGen's inimitable Albert Edwards. The US remains the main concern, although the rapid unravelling of Abenomics in Japan and a likely imminent tightening of monetary policy in China to snuff out yet another housing bubble in the major cities also feature high on investors' worry list.
• Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen – March 9, 2017
  Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen with his regular short weekly video for readers of Pastor Williams' weekly newsletter.

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