Economy

The Total Destruction Of America’s Middle Class … In Under Seven Minutes (Video)

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FYI.

– The Destruction Of America’s Middle Class (In Under Seven Minutes) (ZeroHedge, Aug 18, 2013):

While hardly news to frequent visitors, especially those who recall the following list, anyone who needs a 7 minute refresher into why the US middle class is on collision course with extinction is urged to watch the following brief video which highlights all the salient facts such as:

  • 76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck
  • 27% of American have no savings at all
  • 46% of Americans have less than $800 in savings
  • The conversion of America into a part-time working society and the country’s second largest employer – a temp agency.
  • The college trap and the student loan bubble
  • And of course, foodstamps, foodstamps, foodstamps and the nearly 50 million poverty-level Americans who need them to survive

Why seven minutes? Because everyone knows that just like you can’t get “six minute abs“, so it is impossible to recap the doom of America’s middle class in only six minutes (or, gasp, less).


YouTube Added: 16.08.2013

JPMorgan Puzzled By Record Gold Backwardation

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– JPMorgan Puzzled By Record Gold Backwardation (ZeroHedge, Aug 18, 2013):

Curious where all the demand for (immediate) physical gold (delivery) is coming from (as detailed here first in April)? As it turns out, so is JPMorgan.From this week’s Flows & Liquidity

SEC filings showed that the largest hedge fund holders of the gold ETFs liquidated most of their positions in Q2, although the single largest holder commented that they had simply switched their exposure from ETFs to the OTC derivative market as the current downward sloping forward curve makes it cheaper to be long gold through futures than via the ETF. Figure 7 shows the annualized % difference between the 1st and 2nd COMEX gold futures contracts going back over the past 30 years on a weekly basis. As the figure shows, a backwardated (downward sloping) gold forward curve is very unusual. This is an indicator of how strong physical demand is, i.e. spot is bid up relative to forward prices due to strong demand for immediate delivery of gold.

Ostensibly, this means that until the Bundesbank and/or PBOC finally issue a relevant 8-K, the “confusion” will continue.

JPMorgan Is Selling The Building That Houses Its GOLD VAULT

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– JPMorgan Is Selling The Building That Houses Its Gold Vault (ZeroHedge, Aug 18, 2013):

On the surface, there is nothing spectacular about the weekend news that JPMorgan is seeking to sell its 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza office building. After all, the former headquarters of Chase Manhattan Bank, located deep in the heart of the financial district and which was built by its then chairman David Rockefeller, is a remnant to another time – a time when banking was about providing loans, not about managing and trading assets which has become the realm of Midtown New York, and since JPM already has extensive Midtown exposure with its offices at 270, 270 and 245 Park, the 1 CMP building always stood out as a bit of a sore thumb. Of course, as Zero Hedge readers first learned, the big surprise is literally below the surface, some 90 feet below street level to be exact, where the formerly secret JPM gold vault is located, which also happens to be the biggest commercial gold vault in the world.

Read moreJPMorgan Is Selling The Building That Houses Its GOLD VAULT

“China May Be Exaggerating The Size Of Its Economy To The Tune Of $1 TRILLION By Releasing ‘Willfully Fraudulent’ Inflation And GDP”

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– China gets $1 trillion boost from dodgy data: Report (CBC News, Aug 16, 2013):

China may be exaggerating the size of its economy to the tune of $1 trillion by releasing “willfully fraudulent” inflation and GDP [gross domestic product] data, according to a study out this week.

Numbers from the world’s second largest economy are treated with skepticism by some economists, but this latest report has attempted to quantify the scale of discrepancy.

“There is strong evidence indicating that the rate of real Chinese GDP growth, and ultimately total real GDP, may be significantly over stated,” said Christopher Balding, associate professor at Peking University’s HSBC Business School, and the report’s author.

Read more“China May Be Exaggerating The Size Of Its Economy To The Tune Of $1 TRILLION By Releasing ‘Willfully Fraudulent’ Inflation And GDP”

If This Guy Is What The Future Of America Looks Like, We Are In BIG Trouble

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FYI.

– If This Guy Is What The Future Of America Looks Like, We Are In BIG Trouble (Economic Collapse, Aug 14, 2013):

Should taxpayer dollars be used to buy sushi and lobster for a young man whose future plans consist entirely of surfing and partying as much as he possibly can?  When I first saw the video that I am about to share with you, I was absolutely floored.  Recently, Fox News interviewed a self-described beach bum named Jason Greenslate who was very open about the fact that he has no problem sponging off of all the rest of us.  When he was asked if he ever had any interest in actually getting a job, his response was “not whatsoever”.  Instead, he says that his job is to “make sure the sun’s up and the girls are out” and he would rather spend his days partying.  Of course every American should be free to live their own lives as they see fit, but the problem is that Jason Greenslate is using food stamps to help support his lifestyle.  In fact, he took Fox News into the gourmet section of a local supermarket where he purchased sushi and lobster with his EBT card.  Sadly, he is just like millions of other young men in America today that seemingly have had the drive to succeed and to be independent totally sucked out of them.  But what is the future of America going to look like if we continue to produce millions upon millions of young men that have absolutely no desire to make a living, get married and start a family?

Posted below is video from the Fox News interview with Jason Greenslate.  If you are a taxpayer, this video should upset you greatly…

Of course the vast majority of those enrolled in the food stamp program are NOT like this. As I wrote about the other day, the economic independence of middle class Americans is being systematically destroyed.  The percentage of self-employed Americans is at a record low and the percentage of Americans with a full-time job has dropped to a shockingly low level.

And the quality of our jobs continues to decline.  If you can believe it, 40 percent of all workers in the United States today actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968.

As a result of our ongoing economic problems, we have seen wave after wave of Americans forced to go on food stamps.  Between the year 2000 and the first inauguration of Barack Obama, the number of Americans on food stamps increased by 15 million.  Since Barack Obama has been in the White House, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased by 15 million more.

At this point we have a total of 47 million Americans on food stamps, and most of them definitely need the help.

Read moreIf This Guy Is What The Future Of America Looks Like, We Are In BIG Trouble

A Stunning 60% Of All Home Purchases In The U.S. Are ‘Cash Only’ – A 200% Jump In Five Years

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– A Stunning 60% Of All Home Purchases Are “Cash Only” – A 200% Jump In Five Years (ZeroHedge, Aug 15, 2013):

Remember when housing was the primary aspirational asset for a still existent US middle class, to be purchased with some equity down by your average 30 year-old hoping to start a family in his or her brand new home, and, as the name implies, aspire to reach the American dream? Those days are long gone. Back in those days the interest rate on the 10 Year bond mattered as it determined the prevailing marginal affordability of leveraged real estate. That is no longer the case, at least not for about 90% of Americans, because as Goldman shows, while before the great crisis only 20% of home purchases were “all cash”, since then the number has soared threefold, and currently the estimated percentage of cash transactions (by count and amount) has hit a record 60%. In other words, less than half of all home purchases are debt-funded, and thus less than half of all home purchases are actually representative of what middle-class America is doing.

Goldman’s take:

Read moreA Stunning 60% Of All Home Purchases In The U.S. Are ‘Cash Only’ – A 200% Jump In Five Years

China, Japan Sell Most US Debt In Years; Foreign Treasury Holdings At 2013 Lows

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– China, Japan Sell Most US Paper In Years; Foreign Treasury Holdings At 2013 Lows (ZeroHedge, Aug 15, 2013):

And the bid hits just keep on coming.While previously we reported the foreigners as an aggregate class sold the most gross US securities ever in the month of June, we also learned that in June the biggest selling came from America’s two largest creditors: China and Japan (excluding the Fed of course, whose P&L losses are now approaching $300 billion in the past 3 months, or would if the Fed marked to anything but unicorns).

In June, the two countries combined sold $42 billion, with each selling over $20 billion: the most in years.

What is interesting is looking at the composition of the selloff: the bulk of was in the form of short-term Bills, as both countries were actually buyers of coupon securities. Net of coupon purchases Bill sales were even worse, or over $50 billion for the two countries alone.

Read moreChina, Japan Sell Most US Debt In Years; Foreign Treasury Holdings At 2013 Lows

CNN: Average Cost To Raise A Kid: $241,080

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– Average cost to raise a kid: $241,080 (CNN, Aug 14, 2013):

From day care to the monthly grocery bill, the cost of raising a child is climbing at a rate that many families can’t keep up with.

It will cost an estimated $241,080 for a middle-income couple to raise a child born last year for 18 years, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released Wednesday. That’s up almost 3% from 2011 and doesn’t even include the cost of college.

Read moreCNN: Average Cost To Raise A Kid: $241,080

This Is The Biggest Cluster Of Hindenburg Omens Since The Last Stock Market Crash

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– This Is The Biggest Cluster Of Hindenburg Omens Since The Last Stock Market Crash (Economic Collapse, Aug 13, 2013):

Are we heading for a major stock market decline?  Warnings about a crash of the financial markets are quite common these days, and usually they don’t materialize.  But this time may be different.  A number of top analysts are pointing out the fact that the biggest cluster of “Hindenburg Omens” has appeared since the last stock market crash.  And those that have studied this insist that the more “Hindenburg Omens” there are in a cluster, the stronger the signal is.  Meanwhile, another very disturbing sign is the fact that the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries is starting to soar again.  On Tuesday it shot up from 2.62% to 2.727%.  As I have written about previously, the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries is the most important number in the U.S. economy right now.  If that number continues to rise, it is going to be very, very bad news for the financial system.

But before I discuss rising interest rates any further, I want to talk about this unusual cluster of Hindenburg Omens that we have just witnessed.  In a previous article, I shared a list of the criteria that are commonly used to determine whether a Hindenburg Omen has appeared or not:

Read moreThis Is The Biggest Cluster Of Hindenburg Omens Since The Last Stock Market Crash

‘They’ Are Systematically Destroying Our Independence And Making Us All Serfs Of The State

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– They Are Systematically Destroying Our Independence And Making Us All Serfs Of The State (Economic Collapse, Aug 13, 2013):

The percentage of Americans that are economically independent has dropped to a stunningly low level.  In order to be economically independent, you have got to be able to take care of yourself without any assistance from anyone else.  Unless you are independently wealthy, that means that you either have your own business or you have a full-time job.  Unfortunately, as you will see below, the percentage of Americans that are self-employed is at an all-time record low and the percentage of Americans with a full-time job has declined to a level not seen in about 30 years.  As a result, more Americans than ever find themselves forced to turn to the government for assistance.  When you add it all up, about half of all Americans get money from the government each month these days.  And yes, there will always be poor people that cannot take care of themselves that need help, but when you have more than half of the population dependent on the government that is a major problem.  You see, the truth is that our independence is systematically being taken away from us and we are steadily being made serfs of the state.  And once you become a serf of the state, it is very hard to resist anything the government is doing in a meaningful way.  After all, the money that you are getting from the government is enabling you to survive.  In essence, your allegiance has been at least partially purchased and you may not even realize it.

Of course this is not how the United States was supposed to operate.  We were never intended to be a collectivist nation.  Rather, we were intended to be a country where liberty and freedom thrived and where most people would be able to independently take care of themselves.

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult to be economically independent in America today.  One reason for this is that the environment for small businesses in this country is the most toxic that it has ever been before.  The federal government, our state governments and even our local governments are constantly coming up with new ways to oppress small business.

And just this week we learned that the IRS is specifically targeting small business owners and sending them threatening letters.

Yes, you read that correctly.  Despite all of the trouble that the IRS is currently in, they are still choosing to specifically go after small businesses with both barrels.  As a recent Forbes article explained, the IRS plans to send threatening letters to 20,000 small businesses all over the country:

Read more‘They’ Are Systematically Destroying Our Independence And Making Us All Serfs Of The State

Physical Gold Supply Tightness (2 Powerful Videos)

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– Two Powerful Videos on Physical Gold Supply Tightness (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Aug 14, 2013):

If the physical gold market is anywhere near as tight as these two market observers indicate, get ready for some serious fireworks in the precious metals markets. The first video is one that has been making the rounds in recent days. It’s an interview with Mihir Dange, co-founder of commodity trading firm Grafite Capital from the NYMEX, in which he discusses Chinese demand, backwardation and physical supply tightness.

The second video is an interview of Tarek El Mdaka, managing director at Kaloti Jewellery Group in Dubai. While it starts off slow, bear with it, as toward the end he states:

“After this drop [in price] we have 90 days order logbook. So we cannot fill the demand we have at this stage.”

These are must watch videos for anyone interested in the gold market. Enjoy!

Forget Student Loans … Introducing Day Care Loans

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– Forget Student Loans…Introducing Day Care Loans (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Aug 12, 2013):

Now that enough college age Americans have been stuffed with over a trillion dollars in student debt only to get a job a McDonalds and live with their parents, folks in New York City have come up with a brilliant new concept to ensure the production of an entirely new generation of debt slaves. Introducing day care loans…and here’s the best part, they are “interest only” from childcare to kindergarden!

Of course it makes sense that these loans would originate in my hometown of NYC, which has in the past 15-20 years fully transformed itself into a corporatized, generic and unaffordable Wall Street whorehouse.

From CBS:

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — After housing, child care is one of the largest expenses for families in New York City.

But now, there is an option for parents to get their kids into some of the city’s top pre-kindergarten programs with loans just for day care.

As CBS 2’s Janelle Burrell reported Monday, tuition without room and board for undergrads at Harvard University is $38,891 for the 2013-2014 school year. For Princeton University, it is $40,170.

Pre-school in Manhattan is not far behind, with some elite day care costing families more than $35,000.

Read moreForget Student Loans … Introducing Day Care Loans

New Company Allows Organizations To Hire Fake Protesters

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When a reporter asked a paid protester in the above image what this protest was for- he told the reporter, “It’s a day to ban guns, I think.”
-The Event was actually for a new movement called “Purge Day” dealing with mental illness.

– New Company Allows Organizations To Hire Fake Protesters (Benn Swan Full Disclosure, Aug 9, 2013):

So, no one supports your cause? No problem. You can hire supporters- even protesters. A company started last October by 22-year-old Adam Swart provides just this service.  In a telephone interview I spoke with Swart about his new found success. “I came up with the idea on a visit to Estonia,” says Swart. At the airport, Swart says he saw a man who was being swarmed by a crowd of excited onlookers. He tells me, “I thought- Why can’t I have that kind of attention?” And so, Swart’s company, Crowds on Demand, was born.

Swart says that business is doing extremely well. According to their website, their office is located in a swanky downtown LA office suite. He says his biggest client so far was a $10k contract, but he would not disclose the client. Not bad for a 22-year-old kid. “We do most of our business through word of mouth. We are able to provide our customers with top-notch service, so they spread the word to other potential clients,” says Swart.

Read moreNew Company Allows Organizations To Hire Fake Protesters

Is China Doomed?

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– Is China Doomed? (The National Interest, Aug 9, 2013):

Between 1978, the year Deng Xiaoping’s sweeping economic reforms were launched, and 2011, China’s GDP increased by an average of 10 percent annually, three times that of the global economy. Now the boom times may be over.

By mid-2013, economic growth had slowed to 7.7 percent. That’s still a roaring pace compared to the rest of the world. Europeans, Americans and even Japanese might say about China’s slippage, “We should all have such problems.” Still, in thirty-five years, the Chinese polity hasn’t had to handle a prolonged economic slowdown and one may be in the offing. Hence the debate on what the deceleration could portend should it get worse and linger.

Read moreIs China Doomed?

Eurozone Funding Shortfall Rises To Over $4 Trillion, Increases By More Than $500 Billion In A Year

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– Eurozone Funding Shortfall Rises To Over $4 Trillion, Increases By More Than $500 Billion In A Year (ZeroHedge, Aug 11, 2013):

Back in April 2012, Zero Hedge pointed out something rather disturbing for the European banking sector and defenders of the European monetary myth: the “aggregate shortfall of required stable funding Is €2.78 trillion” which was the number estimated by the BIS’ Basel III rules needed to return to some semblance of balance sheet stability in Europe. More importantly, this was a number so big, it was obvious that there was only one way to deal with it: cover it up deeply under the rug and pray it never reemerged.

What happened next was inevitable: Basel III’s implementation was delayed as there was no way Europe’s banks could satisfy their deleveraging requirements, while the actual capital shortfall hole became bigger and bigger. Today, 16 months later, the FT discovers what Zero Hedge readers knew long ago in “Eurozone banks need to shed €3.2tn in assets to meet Basel III.” In other words, not only has Europe not fixed anything in the past year, but the liquidity tsunami injected by the central banks merely taped over the epic capital shortfall that just got epic-er, increasing from €2.8 trillion to €3.2 trillion, an increase of half a trillion to over $4 trillion in one short year.

Sadly, just like back in April 2012, so now, Europe has no hope of actually addressing this much needed deleveraging and so the can kicking will continue until the number rises to $5 trillion, $6, $7 etc until one day the market’s “head in the sand” strategy finally fails and every emperor around the world is found to be naked.

From the FT:

Europe’s biggest banks will have to cut €661bn of assets and generate €47bn of fresh capital over the next five years to comply with forthcoming regulations aimed at reducing the likelihood of another taxpayer funded bailout.

Read moreEurozone Funding Shortfall Rises To Over $4 Trillion, Increases By More Than $500 Billion In A Year

A Quadrillion Yen And Counting – The Japanese Debt Bomb Could Set Off Global Panic At Any Moment

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– A Quadrillion Yen And Counting – The Japanese Debt Bomb Could Set Off Global Panic At Any Moment (Economic Collapse, Aug 9, 2013):

How much is 1,000,000,000,000,000 yen worth?  Well, a quadrillion yen is worth approximately 10.5 trillion dollars.  It is an amount of money that is larger than the “the economies of Germany, France and the U.K. combined“.  It is such an astounding amount of debt that it is hard to even get your mind around it.  The government debt to GDP ratio in Japan will reach 247 percent this year, and the Japanese currently spend about 50 percent of all central government tax revenue on debt service.  Realistically, there are only two ways out of this overwhelming debt trap for the Japanese.  Either they default or they try to inflate the debt away.  At this point, the Japanese have chosen to try to inflate the debt away.  They have initiated the greatest quantitative easing experiment that a major industrialized nation has attempted since the days of the Weimar Republic.  Over the next two years, the Bank of Japan plans to zap 60 trillion yen into existence out of thin air and use it to buy government bonds.  By the time this program is over, the monetary base in Japan will have approximately doubled.  But authorities in Japan are desperate.  They know that the Japanese debt bomb could set off global panic at any time, and they are trying to find a way out that will not cause too much pain.

Read moreA Quadrillion Yen And Counting – The Japanese Debt Bomb Could Set Off Global Panic At Any Moment

During The Best Period Of Economic Growth In U.S. History There Was No Income Tax And No Federal Reserve

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– During The Best Period Of Economic Growth In U.S. History There Was No Income Tax And No Federal Reserve (Economic Collapse, Aug 8, 2013):

How would America ever survive without the central planners in the Obama administration and at the Federal Reserve?  What in the world would we do if there was no income tax and no IRS?  Could the U.S. economy possibly keep from collapsing under such circumstances?  The mainstream media would have us believe that unless we have someone “to pull the levers” our economy would descend into utter chaos, but the truth is that the best period of economic growth in U.S. history occurred during a time when there was no income tax and no Federal Reserve.  Between the Civil War and 1913, the U.S. economy experienced absolutely explosive growth.  The free market system thrived and the rest of the world looked at us with envy.  The federal government was very limited in size, there was no income tax for most of that time and there was no central bank.  To many Americans, it would be absolutely unthinkable to have such a society today, but it actually worked very, very well.  Without the inventions and innovations that came out of that period, the world would be a far different place today.

It is amazing what can happen when the government just gets out of the way.  Check out all of the wonderful things that Wikipedia says happened for the U.S. economy during those years…

Read moreDuring The Best Period Of Economic Growth In U.S. History There Was No Income Tax And No Federal Reserve

Japan’s Day Traders

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– Japan’s Day Traders Profit From Market Volatility in Abenomics’s Wake (Bloomberg, Aug 10, 2013):

Sitting before a cluster of 10 computer screens in mid-June at his apartment with the drapes shut, Naoki Murakami makes $3,500 in a few seconds betting that Tokyo Electric Power  stock will fall a fraction of a percent. The 34-year-old day trader borrows 50,000 shares from his broker and sells them at 558 yen ($5.58) each. As the stock falls, he repeats the process three times, selling at 557, 556, and 555 yen. When the stock hits 554 yen he buys 200,000 shares, the number he had borrowed. The series of trades—short sales—nets him $2,500. Seconds later he sells Tokyo Electric short again, earning $1,000 more. Within minutes of the market opening, the former water-purifier salesman had made more than the average Japanese worker earns in a month.

Murakami calls himself the smallest player in a group of seven day traders who chat with each other online, vacation together, and cumulatively buy and sell almost $100 million in stocks each day, using borrowed money to increase the size of their bets.

…

Murakami says he’s made $350,000 this year, about three times his average take in the previous eight years. One of Murakami’s friends, who goes by the blog name Tesuta, says looser margin rules let him leverage $4.5 million in cash into as much as $67 million in daily stock bets. Tesuta holds up a handwritten ledger and shows his account balance at brokerage firm SBI Holdings as proof. He asked that his name not be cited for privacy reasons. On an average day, the group of seven day traders to which Murakami and Tesuta belong buy and sell $80 million to $100 million in Japanese stocks, according to estimates from the members. “These guys are pros,” says Jesper Koll, head of Japan equity research at JPMorgan Chase in Tokyo. “They’re acting like a proprietary trading desk at a major investment bank.”

Making money isn’t easy, Murakami says. With $100,000 in savings and no experience in the market, he started trading stocks from a desktop PC in 2005. Within two months he’d lost half his stake. He kept improving his results, but trading in Japan’s stagnant market was like trying to sail a boat without any wind—until this year. “When shares don’t move, you can’t get an opening for a trade,” he says. “Now that the market is moving, I feel like I have to make the most of it.”

The bottom line: Individuals accounted for more than 40 percent of Japan’s stock trading volume in May, up from 27 percent in November.

DOOMED: Japan Enters The Keynesian Twilight Zone As Total Debt Crosses ¥1,000,000,000,000,000.00.

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– Japan Enters The Keynesian Twilight Zone As Total Debt Crosses ¥1,000,000,000,000,000.00. (ZeroHedge, Aug 9, 2013):

Back in May 2011, together with forecasting Japan’s most epic case of quantitative easing ever unleashed, we presented the absurd, if inevitable, thought experiment of a country that would soon cross into the twilight zone of total sovereign debt numbers that no longer even fit on a simple pocket calculator. The country of course is Japan, and the debt number is one quadrillion. As of last night, the absurd has become real as Japan has officially announced its total government debt rose by 1.7% to ¥1,008,600,000,000,000.00.

This represents about $10.5 trillion, is an amount larger than the economies of Germany, France and the U.K. combined, and is about 230% of Japan’s GDP although at this point who cares: Japan will never repay its debt and the best it can hope for is to inflate it away, which ties in with the first forecast of ever greater “easing” by the BOJ until fiat after fiat loses all meaning in a world that is so hopelessly in debt that destroying the very concept of modern money will ultimately be the only recourse.

Some more from AFP on this theater of the Keynesian absurd:

Japan’s eye-watering national debt has topped one quadrillion yen, official data showed Friday, a record figure that underlines Tokyo’s struggle to curb its huge borrowing.

The figure supplied by the finance ministry of 1.008 quadrillion yen by the end of June amounts to about $10.42 trillion at current exchange rates.

A quadrillion is one thousand trillion.

Read moreDOOMED: Japan Enters The Keynesian Twilight Zone As Total Debt Crosses ¥1,000,000,000,000,000.00.

S&P 500 Tests 1,700 And Dumps

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Related info:

– Marc Faber On Today’s 1987 Redux ‘Market May Drop 20% Or More’ (Video)

– 7th Time Was Not The Charm, S&P Tests 1,700 And Dumps (ZeroHedge, Aug 8, 2013):

For the 7th time in the last day or so, the S&P 500 has tested up to the magical 1,700 level and failed. With JPY once against strengthening as carry unwinds re-escalate, we wait breathless for a deja deja deja vu repeat of the last 3 days post-European close rampfest…

as JPY retraces its overnight ramp weakness…

Charts: Bloomberg

Marc Faber On Today’s 1987 Redux ‘Market May Drop 20% Or More’ (Video)

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– Marc Faber On Today’s 1987 Redux “Market May Drop 20% Or More” (ZeroHedge, Aug 8, 2013):

In a little under 90 seconds, the venerable “Gloom, Boom, and Doom”er draws a number of eery similarities between the fundamental and technical backdrop before 1987’s equity market collapse and the current environment. With the 3rd Hindenburg Omen in 4 days suggesting anxiety is high, maybe he is on to something.

Hindenburg Cluster – 3rd in last 4 days…

and how we look compared to 1987…

Charts: Bloomberg

‘Hello Scotia Mocatta, This Is JPMorgan – We Urgently Need Some Of Your Gold’

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– “Hello Scotia Mocatta, This Is JPMorgan – We Urgently Need Some Of Your Gold” (ZeroHedge, Aug 8, 2013):

Yesterday, it was HSBC. Today, the lucky respondent to JPM’s polite gold ‘procurement‘ request, is the second “fullest” New York commercial gold vault: Scotia Mocatta. As ZH reported previously, following the announcement of an imminent withdrawal of 63.5k ounces of its gold (16% of the total), JPM’s vault operations team promptly called around and to its disappointment was only able to procure a tiny 6.4k ounces: not nearly enough to preserve the impression that it is well-stocked. We then said, “None of which changes the fact that in a few days, the inventory in JPM’s gold vault will drop to another record low of only 380K ounces and the JPM “rescue” pleas from HSBC and other Comex members will become ever louder and more desperate until one day they may just go straight to voicemail.”

Today, as we predicted, the calls into HSBC indeed appear to have gone straight to voicemail (perhaps HSBC did not have any more unencumbered gold to share, perhaps it just didn’t want to) which left JPM with just one option: go down the list.

Read more‘Hello Scotia Mocatta, This Is JPMorgan – We Urgently Need Some Of Your Gold’

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: The ‘New Economy’ Is The No Jobs Economy – ‘You Have Been Sold Out By “Your” Government’

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I wish I could say the same about donations here at Infinite Unknown.

The last donation has been in March 2013. And there have only been 3 donations this year so far.

But one thing’s for sure, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts deserves every dollar of these donations and a lot more for his work.

See also:

– Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: The American People Have Suffered A Coup D’Etat

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

– The “New Economy” Is The No Jobs Economy (Paul Craig Roberts, Aug 5, 2013):

Dear Readers,

I am flattered by the traffic on this site, and by the generosity of donors from across the United States–large cities and small villages–and the world. We have donations from Indonesia, Russia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mexico, most countries in Europe and from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It is exciting to me that people from around the world realize the stakes and seek better information than the media, public officials, and corporations provide.

It is encouraging that people around the world ask my permission to translate my columns into their languages and post them on their websites. My columns even appear in Azerbaijan.

Read moreDr. Paul Craig Roberts: The ‘New Economy’ Is The No Jobs Economy – ‘You Have Been Sold Out By “Your” Government’