The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
– Obama’s Latest Tactic: “Isolate Russia” (ZeroHedge, March 3, 2014):
After once again clearly delineating that Russian “costs” are set to surge, and hopefully he means more than just the drop in the Micex and its artificial, paper wealth effect which Putin couldn’t care less about as long as crude is soaring…
- OBAMA SAYS INCIDENT WITH UKRAINE WILL BE ‘COSTLY’ FOR RUSSIA
… the US president has laid out his latest tactic:
- OBAMA SAYS HE’S CONSIDERING ECONOMIC STEPS TO ISOLATE RUSSIA
You can listen to the full interview here:
– Former central banker: “[Bankers] are making it up as they go along. (Sovereign Man, March 3, 2014):
[Editors note: Tim Price, Director of Investment at PFP Wealth Management and frequent Sovereign Man contributor is filling in for Simon today.]
A few weeks ago, William White (former economist at the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, and Bank of International Settlements) made a frank admission.
And while we search for assets whose prices are less obviously distorted by malign government intervention, it’s refreshing to hear a mea culpa from a member of the economics “profession”.
White said:
Read moreFormer Central Banker Admits: “[They] Are Making It Up As They Go Along”
– Russian Stocks Crash As Central Bank Scrambles, Hikes Rates Most Since 1998 Default (ZeroHedge, March 3, 2014):
Following a 150bps rate hike by the central bank – the largest since the 1998 default –desperate to halt capital outflows and a collapsing currency, Russian stocks have crashed 11% led by some of the country’s largest banks. USDRUB rose to just shy of 37 – the weakest RUB rate on record – but rallied back a little on the rate hike but the MICEX stock index tumbled 11% to almost 2-year lows with Sberbank (Russia’s largest bank) down 17% and VTB (2nd largest bank) down 20%. Between the threat of economic sanctions from the West and simple risk-aversion-based capital flight, as one analyst noted, “uncertainty risks a further escalation in domestic capital outflow.”
MICEX is down 11% today alone…
Ruble at record lows against the USD…
Read moreRussian Stocks Crash As Central Bank Scrambles, Hikes Rates Most Since 1998 Default
– Ukraine Orders Full Military Mobilization, Acting PM Says Russian Actions “Declaration Of War” (ZeroHedge, March 2, 2014):
With less than 6 hours left until FX trading opens, no resolution to the Ukraine crisis is in sight. Instead the situation has devolved even more and overnight Ukraine has ordered a full military mobilization in response to Russia’s build-up of its forces in Crimea. Prime Minster Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the country was “on the brink of disaster.” Several other measures were announced on Sunday by national security officials:
- The armed forces would be put on “full combat readiness”.
- Reserves to be mobilised and trained
- Ukraine’s foreign minister will seek the help of US and UK leaders in guaranteeing its security
- Emergency headquarters to be set up
- Increased security at key sites, including nuclear plants.
- Airspace closed to all non-civilian aircraft.
– Ukraine Capital Control Crunch: Largest Bank Limits Cash Withdrawals To $100 Daily (ZeroHedge, March 2, 2014):
As we warned on Friday, the military escalation in Ukraine has had dire consequences for the financial state of the country, its banks, and ultimately its people. The central bank promised to rescue domestic banks so long as they agreed to its complete control and it appears the first consequences of that “we are here to help you” promise is coming true:
- UKRAINE’S PRIVATBANK LIMITS ATM WITHDRAWALS TO UAH1,000/DAY ($103/day)
Privatbank is Ukraine’s largest bank and while claiming this move is temporary (just like Cyprus’ capital controls), the bank has also ceased new loans amid what it calls “geopolitical instability”. In summary, you can’t have your money back! Expect long angry lines at Ukrainian banks on Monday morning (and at the pace of collapse in the Hyrvnia, hyperinflation next).
Read moreUkraine Capital Control Crunch: Largest Bank Limits Cash Withdrawals To $100 Daily
– Meanwhile, China Quietly Takes Over Zimbabwe (ZeroHedge, March 2, 2014):
While the developed world is focusing on the rapidly deteriorating developments in the Crimean, China, which has kept a very low profile on the Ukraine situation aside from the token diplomatic statement, is taking advantage of this latest distraction to do what it does best: quietly take over the global periphery while nobody is looking.
Over two years ago we reported that none other than Zimbabwe – best known in recent history for banknotes with many zeros in them – was bashing the US currency, and had alligned itself with the Chinese Yuan. This culminated last month with the announcement by Zimbabwe’s central bank that it would accept the Chinese yuan and three other Asian currencies as legal tender as economic relations have improved in recent years. “Trade and investment ties between Zimbabwe, China, India, Japan and Australia have grown appreciably,” said Charity Dhliwayo, acting governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
Google translation (Original article in German below):
– Is There A Connection Between Monsanto And The Legalization Of Marijuana In Uruguay? (Kopp, Feb 28, 2014):
By William Engdahl
In April, Uruguay, after a vote by the Parliament as the first country in the world to legalize the cultivation, sale and consumption of marijuana. Cannabis users can buy a maximum of 40 grams per month, unless they are Uruguayan citizens at least 18 years old and registered in a public database, is monitored by means of which the quantity they buy per month in specially licensed pharmacies. Less well known is what the seed and genetic engineering giant Monsanto is doing to develop patented cannabis plants, and has also played the role of billionaire speculator George Soros for the legalization.
– American students are well over $1 trillion in debt, and it’s starting to hurt everyone (TIME, Feb 26, 2014):
American students are well over $1 trillion in debt, and it’s starting to hurt everyone, economists say
Chris Rong did everything right. A 23-year-old dentistry student in New York, Chris excelled at one of the country’s top high schools, breezed through college, and is now studying dentistry at one of the best dental schools in the nation.
But it may be a long time before he sees any rewards. He’s moved back home with his parents in Bayside, Queens—an hour-and-a-half commute each way to class at the New York University’s College of Dentistry—and by the time he graduates in 2016, he’ll face $400,000 in student loans. “If the money weren’t a problem I would live on my own,” says Rong. “My debt is hanging over my mind. I’m taking that all on myself.”
– Fortress Loses Millions On Bitcoin Investment (ZeroHedge, Feb 28, 2014):
Readers will recall that back in October, when the only way for Bitcoin seemed up, none other than the head of sophisticated hedge fund/private equity megafund Fortress Group, Michael Novogratz, recommended buying Bitcoin: “I have a nice little Bitcoin position,” Novogratz said. “Enough that I’m smiling that it doubled… Put a little money in Bitcoin…Come back in a few years and it’s going to be worth a lot.”
Or, you can come back in a few months and now that the momentum euphoria is over and done with, watch it be worth far less.
According to the FT, Fortress “is sitting on losses of $8m on an experimental investment in Bitcoin. The company’s annual report revealed that it bought $20m of the virtual currency in the final months of last year, making it the first mainstream investment company to list Bitcoin among the assets on its balance sheet.”
– Gold Price “Manipulated For A Decade”, Repeatedly Slammed Lower, Bloomberg Reports (ZeroHedge, Feb 28, 2014):
While the FT promptly retracted an article on precisely the topic of gold manipulation from earlier this week (recorded for posterity here), Bloomberg appears to not have had the same “editorial” concerns and pressures, and today released an article once again slamming the final conspiracy theory that while every other asset class is manipulated, gold is in a pristine class of its own, untouched by close-banging, price fixing traders or central bankers, and reports that “the London gold fix, the benchmark used by miners, jewelers and central banks to value the metal, may have been manipulated for a decade by the banks setting it, researchers say.”
Of course, over the past 5 years we have reported time and again how official gold manipulation started in earnest some time in the 1960s (who can forget the “reshuffle club”) but we will start with a decade.
Here is what BBG finds:
Read moreBloomberg: Gold Price ‘Manipulated For A Decade’, Repeatedly Slammed Lower
– Ukraine Imposes Capital Controls, Limits Foreign Currency Withdrawals (ZeroHedge, Feb 28, 2014):
Yesterday we reported that as part of the Ukrainian central bank’s plan to bailout the nation’s largely insolvent private banks, it would provide any needed funding but only “if they will remain under open control of the National Bank of Ukraine.” And since the new CB head Stepan Kubiv’s allegiance to Europe were already well-known, this was merely a quick and efficient way of providing Europe with all the banking details including asset holdings of the local population. Today, the annexation of the country’s banking system by a “benevolent” Europe is complete.
Itar-Tass reports that Ukraine’s national bank has imposed temporary limits to withdraw money from foreign currency deposits to sums equivalent to no more than 15,000 hryvnias (about $1,500) a day, National Bank Chief Stepan Kubiv told a press conference. Or, as the citizens of Cyprus call it – capital controls.
Read moreUkraine Imposes Capital Controls, Limits Foreign Currency Withdrawals
YouTube Added: Feb 27, 2014
Ian speaks to Gerald about the Global Wake up Call going around the globe.
– Near-Bankrupt Rome Bailed Out As Italy Unemployment Rises To All Time High, Grows By Most On Record In 2013 (ZeroHedge, March 1, 2014):
A few days ago, we reported that, seemingly out of the blue, the city of Rome was on the verge of a “Detroit-style bankruptcy.” In the article, Guido Guidesi, a parliamentarian from the Northern League, was quoted as saying “It’s time to stop the accounting tricks and declare Rome’s default.” Of course, that would be unthinkable: we said that if “if one stops the accounting tricks, not only Rome, but all of Europe, as well as the US and China would all be swept under a global bankruptcy tsunami. So it is safe to assume that the tricks will continue. Especially when one considers that as Mirko Coratti, head of Rome’s city council said on Wednesday, “A default of Italy’s capital city would trigger a chain reaction that could sweep across the national economy.” Well we can’t have that, especially not with everyone in Europe living with their head stuck in the sand of universal denial, assisted by the soothing lies of Mario Draghi and all the other European spin masters.” And just as expected, yesterday Rome was bailed out.
– Ukraine Acting President Calls Emergncy Meeting Of Security Chiefs; Russia Threatens To Cut Off The Gas (ZeroHedge, March 1, 2014):
All the dominoes are tumbling now. Moments after the Russian upper house of parliament approved the decision to use Russian troops in the Ukraine as expected, Ukraine’s acting president called an emergency meeting of security chiefs according to his spokeswoman. Oleksander Turchinov summoned his Security Council after Russian President Vladimir Putin sought parliamentary approval to deploy Russian forces in the Ukrainian region of Crimea. At this point the biggest and perhaps final wildcard is whether NATO does or does not get involved. If it does, and if Russia does not back off – which it has clearly telegraphed it won’t – futures may be looking at a limit down open on Sunday.
– China Currency Plunges Most In Over 5 Years, Biggest Weekly Loss Ever: Yuan Carry Traders Crushed (ZeroHedge, Feb 27, 2014):
And just like that the Chinese yuan devaluation has shifted away from the merely “orderly.”In the past few hours of trading, China, which as we reported two days ago has started intervening aggressively in the Yuan market (for the reasons why, read this), has seen its currency crash by nearly 0.9%, which may not seem like much, but is in fact the largest drop since December of 2008, and at last check was trading at around 6.18, even as the PBOC fixed the CNY reference rate 0.02% higher from the last official close to 6.1214, erasing pivot support point at 6.1346 and 6.1408. Naturally this means that the obverse, the CNYUSD, has crashed to as low as 0.1620. Should this move sustain without reverting, this will be the biggest weekly loss ever!
…
Aaaaaaand, it’s gone …
– Mt. Gox Files for Bankruptcy (New York Times, Feb 28, 2014):
TOKYO — Mt. Gox, the troubled exchange for the virtual currency Bitcoin, filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday and said that it might have lost 750,000 of its customers’ coins, essentially all of them, in a hacking attack.
The Tokyo-based exchange, which warned this month of a software flaw that may have allowed hackers to defraud it of Bitcoins, had halted all trading this week.
Mark Karpeles, the company’s chief executive, wearing a suit instead of his usual T-shirt, bowed in contrition and apologized in Japanese at a press conference in Tokyo.
“There were weaknesses in the system,” he said. “I’m truly sorry to have caused inconvenience.”
He said that the exchange had most likely lost 750,000 of its customers’ Bitcoin holdings and more than 100,000 of its own coins, or more than $450 million worth.
– 31 Percent Of All Food In America Is Wasted – And Why That Is About To End (Economic Collapse, Feb 26, 2014):
According to a stunning new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly a third of all food produced in the United States gets wasted. We are probably the most wasteful society in the history of the planet, and we are also one of the most gluttonous. More than 35 percent of all Americans are considered to be officially “obese” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unfortunately, this era of gluttony and taking food for granted will soon be coming to an end. Thanks to crippling drought in key growing areas and other extremely bizarre weather patterns, a massive food crisis is beginning to emerge all over the planet. If you don’t think that this is going to affect you, then you simply are not paying attention. Approximately half of all produce grown in the United States comes from the state of California, and right now California is suffering through the worst stretch of drought on record. Food prices are going to start soaring, and that is going to affect the household budget of every family in America.
Needless to say, a time is coming when Americans will not waste food so recklessly. But for the moment, we still have a tremendous amount of disrespect for the value of food. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we waste a staggering 133 billion pounds of food each year…
Read more31 Percent Of All Food In America Is Wasted – And Why That Is About To End
– Obamacare: Now Appearing On Your Restaurant Bill (ZeroHedge, Feb 27, 2014):
That the bulk of Americans (especially those 4+ million whose insurance policies have recently been cancelled as a result of the ACA) have to pay more for healthcare as a result of Obamacare, is now largely accepted and well-known. But did you know that the cost of Obamacare is slowly metastasizing to other places? Such as your restaurant bill.
Presenting Exhibit A.
Several restaurants in a Florida chain are asking customers to help foot the bill for Obamacare. Diners at eight Gator’s Dockside casual eateries are finding a 1% Affordable Care Act surcharge on their tabs, which comes to 15 cents on a typical $15 lunch tab. Signs on the door and at tables alert diners to the fee, which is also listed separately on the bill.
State-rescued lender confirms total losses since bailout level with 2008 state bail-out
– RBS has lost all the £46bn pumped in by the taxpayer (Telegeraph, Feb 27, 2014):
Royal Bank of Scotland has lost all the money invested in it by the taxpayer six years ago when the lender came close to collapse.
The bank has confirmed its total losses since its bailout have now drawn level with the £46bn pumped into it in 2008 in return for an 81pc stake.
RBS made a loss last year of £8.2bn, its sixth consecutive annual loss, taking its cumulative losses to £46bn.
The scale of the losses means that all the capital provided by the taxpayer has now been used up dealing with the toxic legacy assets on the bank’s balance sheet.
Read moreRoyal Bank Of Scotland Has Lost All The £46 BILLION Pumped In By The Taxpayer
– Rome Is On The Verge Of Detroit-Style Bankruptcy (ZeroHedge, Feb 27, 2014):
With European peripheral bond yields collapsing every single day to new all time lows (primarily driven by Europe’s near-certainty that a US-style QE is imminent as we first showed here in November, despite Mario Draghi’s own words from November 2011 that a QE intervention is virtually impossible), increasingly more of Europe is trading just as safe, if not more, as the United States. And in keeping with the analogies, considering a major US metropolitan center, Detroit, recently went bankrupt, it is only fair that Europe should sacrifice one of its own historic cities to the gods of negative cash flows. The city in question, Rome, which as the WSJ reports, is “teetering on the brink of a Detroit-style bankruptcy.”
Rome, the eternal city, which survived two millennia of abuse from everyone may be preparing to lay its arms at the hands of unprecedented corruption, capital mismanagement and lies.
YouTube Added: Feb 25, 2014
Description:
Abby Martin remarks on a recent report by GoodJobsFirst.org which exposes the absurd amount of taxpayer money used to provide some of the wealthiest companies in the US with corporate welfare.
YouTube Added: Feb 25, 2014
The German reunification happened in 1990 between the poor German Democratic Republic (GDR/East Germany = Communism = all are equal [poor], while some are more equal [rich officials, etc.]) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG/West Germany) one of the richest countries in the world (at that time).
And in 2014 there is still inequality … imagine that!!!
What a BS report.
However, Germany is run into the ground by its own government and its central bank (Axel Weber for example dished out 138 billion in credit to other EU countries that will never be able to pay it back, leaving the German taxpayer on the hook.) …
… and not to forget the greatest enemies of all countries in the EU:
EU officials, the ECB, the IMF and the elitists who orchestrated the entire financial crisis, the biggest ‘bank robbery’ in world history, with the banks doing the robbing and the comlicit governments bailing out criminal banksters & complete and utter failure.
And thanks to all those criminals (incl. greedy corporations) more and more children in Germany do not even get one warm meal a day.
This is happening in every country around the globe that is run or targeted (like Libya & Syria) by the elitists.
The greatest financial collapse in world history is coming and it will also wipe out and destroy the rich (as intended by the power elite).
– Germany has ‘greatest inequality in eurozone’ (The Local, Feb 27, 2014):
The distribution of wealth in Germany is the most unequal in the eurozone, a report released on Thursday revealed. Large differences remain between men and women and east and west.The report, from The German Institute for Economic Research and the centre-left Hans-Böckler Foundation, found that living in the former West Germany meant you were more than twice as rich than in the East, with average wealth of €94,000 compared to €41,000.
This disparity is mainly due to the difference in house prices in the two regions, the study said.
It calculated personal wealth by adding up savings, property, insurance and jewellery, but did not include the value of cars or cash.
Gender also played a significant role in wealth distribution, with the average man €27,000 wealthier than the average woman.
Researchers found that the distribution of wealth in Germany was, along with Austria, the worst among all eurozone countries.
Germany has consistently received a rating of 0.78 on the Gini co-efficient, well above the majority of European countries.
– Homeless population in US capital up 135 percent from last year (WSWS, Feb 26, 2014):
The number of homeless families seeking shelter in the Washington, DC has risen by 135 percent from the same time last year, surging past earlier official expectations of a 10 percent increase, according to various news sources. The growing rate of homeless families seeking shelter is almost unprecedented, bringing the entire family shelter system to maximum capacity by late January.
Nearly 300 individuals fill DC General, a former hospital-turned-family shelter, with another 125 families filling up the District’s only other family shelter. In fact, the city has had to put an additional 436 families with a combined 849 children in motels in the District and in the neighboring Maryland suburbs. The epidemic has been termed “a crisis” by the District’s director of the Department of Human Services (DHS), David Berns.
Read moreHomeless Population In Washington, DC Up 135% From Last Year
– Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre to Teach Economics Class at University of Chicago (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Feb 26, 2014):
Just in case you thought for a second that the sorry discipline we call economics couldn’t stoop any further into the gutter of academic idiocy and irrelevance, think again. It’s now being reported that ex-Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre (recently convicted on six counts of securities fraud) will be teaching an honors economics class at the “prestigious” University of Chicago.
There’s nothing like an esteemed University setting the already culturally accepted example that ethics are for suckers. Stealing, cheating and corruption are the values most exalted in today’s world. It doesn’t matter how you achieve your wealth, as long as you attain it. After all, it’s not as if you’ll ever get in trouble for it as long as you work for a “Too Big to Jail” bank.
From the UK’s Telegraph:
Fabrice Tourre, the former Goldman Sachs trader convicted on six counts of securities fraud six months ago, will teach an honours class in economics at the University of Chicago this spring.