Infinite Unknown

- The NSA’s “Boundless Informant” Collects 3 Billion Intelligence Pieces From US Computer Networks In One Month (ZeroHedge, June 8, 2013):

There’s one reason why the administration, James Clapper and the NSA should just keep their mouths shut as the PRISM-gate fallout escalates: with every incremental attempt to refute some previously unknown facet of the US Big Brother state, a new piece of previously unleaked information from the same intelligence organization now scrambling for damage control, emerges and exposes the brand new narrative as yet another lie, forcing even more lies, more retribution against sources, more journalist persecution and so on.The latest piece of news once again comes from the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald who this time exposes the NSA’s datamining tool “Boundless Informant” which according to leaked documents collected 97 billion pieces of intelligence from computer networks worldwide in March 2013 alone, and “3 billion pieces of intelligence from US computer networks over a 30-day period.”

This is summarized in the chart below which shows that only the middle east has more active NSA-espionage than the US. Also, Obama may not want to show Xi the activity heatmap for China, or else the whole “China is hacking us” script may promptly fall apart.

Using simple, non-AES 256 breaking math, 3 billion per month amounts to some 100 million intrusions into the US per day, or looked at from another perspective, just a little more than the “zero” which James Clapper vouched announced earlier today is the applicable number of US citizens falling under the NSA’s espionage mandate: “Section 702 cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, or any other U.S. person, or to intentionally target any person known to be in the United States.” Oops.

But it gets worse for the NSA. As the Guardian reports, “Emmel, the NSA spokeswoman, told the Guardian: “Current technology simply does not permit us to positively identify all of the persons or locations associated with a given communication (for example, it may be possible to say with certainty that a communication traversed a particular path within the internet. It is harder to know the ultimate source or destination, or more particularly the identity of the person represented by the TO:, FROM: or CC: field of an e-mail address or the abstraction of an IP address). Thus, we apply rigorous training and technological advancements to combine both our automated and manual (human) processes to characterize communications – ensuring protection of the privacy rights of the American people. This is not just our judgment, but that of the relevant inspectors general, who have also reported this.”

In other words, Americans are absolutely the target of billions of monthly intrusions, but said data “mining” is exempted because it is difficult to identify in advance if a US citizen is implicated in any metadata chain.

Only it isn’t as it is the whole premise behind Boundless Informant. Continue reading »

Tags: 1984, Barack Obama, Big Brother, Boundless Informant, China, Department of Justice, Dictatorship, Eric Holder, Fascism, George Orwell, Global News, Government, India, Internet, James Clapper, Justice Department, Middle East, New World Order, NSA, Obama administration, Politics, PRISM, Society, Stasi, Surveillance, U.S.

- India Central Bank Prohibits Sales Of Gold Coins (ZeroHedge, June 6, 2013):

Two weeks ago, with its current account getting crushed by relentless gold imports, India’s finance minister Chidambaram literally begged the people to stop buying gold. Judging by the popular response, the ongoing physical shortage, and last night’s increase in Indian gold import duties from 6% to 8%, appealing to people’s feeling when it comes to the choice of fiat vs physical, has failed miserably. So the FinMin Chidambaram has decided to escalate.

Per Reuters:

“The Reserve Bank of India has advised banks against selling gold coins to retail customers, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said on Thursday, a day after he raised gold import duty to try to ease pressure on India’s bloated current account deficit.“

Well, if there ever was one sure way to send demand for any product through the roof (guns, ammo, etc), it is for the government to prohibit its outright sale. What follows next, almost without fail, is a panicked, chaotic buying scramble.

Gold imports by India, the world’s biggest buyer of bullion, surged to
162 tonnes in May — more than twice the monthly average in the record
year of 2011.

“I think the Reserve Bank has advised banks that they should not sell gold coins,” said Chidambaram, while speaking at an event in Mumbai.

Chidambaram also urged banks to advise their customers not to invest in gold.

Why? If it is not clear by now, here is the explanation: there is simply not enough gold to satisfy demand at the current artificially downward-manipulated price, no matter what propaganda script is being spun on Verizon TV at any given moment. And with India’s idiotic decree, even more gold will be purchased at these prices.

Dear India – here is a simple way to limit demand: price.

Continue reading »

Tags: Central Bank, Economy, Global News, Gold, Government, India, Politics, Society

Full article here:

- It’s A “0.6%” World: Who Owns What Of The $223 Trillion In Global Wealth (ZeroHedge, June 2, 2013):

Back in 2010 we started an annual series looking at the (re)distribution in the wealth of nations and social classes. What we found then (and what the media keeps rediscovering year after year to its great surprise) is that as a result of global central bank policy, the rich got richer, and the poor kept on getting poorer, even though as we predicted the global political powers would, at least superficially, seek to enforce policies that aimed to reverse this wealth redistribution from the poor to the rich (a doomed policy as the world’s legislative powers are largely in the lobby pocket of the world’s wealthiest who needless to say are less then willing to enact laws that reduce their wealth and leverage). Now that the topic of wealth distribution (or rather concentration) is once again in vogue, below we present the latest such update looking at a global portrait of household wealth. The bottom line: 29 million, or 0.6% of those with any actual assets under their name, own $87.4 trillion, or 39.3% of all global assets.

Here are the key highlights via Credit Suisse:

…

Tags: Australia, Belgium, Ben Bernanke, Brazil, China, Economy, EU, Europe, Federal Reserve, France, Germany, Global News, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Society, U.K., U.S.

- McDonalds Hikes Japanese Burger Prices And Sales Slide; Now It’s India’s Turn (ZeroHedge, May 8, 2013):

Confirming that while Central Banks may have halted economic logic and reason indefinitely, supply and demand still have some relevance in the real world was today’s earlier news that in the aftermath of McDonalds’ 20% price hike of basic burgers in Japan three weeks ago, that the company’s Japanese same store sales tumbled by a whopping 3.7% in April, a major contributor for the miss in the expected global same store sales for April which came at -0.6%, below Wall Street expectations. One can only guess what the SSS drop would have been had MCD implemented the price hike at the start of the month. One can also guess if the increase in average price offset the drop in sales volume – we will know soon, but just to make doubly sure if what MCD loses in volume it makes up for in price, McDonalds announced that one month after the 20% price hike in Japan, its Indian franchise operator said it too would proceed with a price hike – the second one this year – amounting to 5-6%.

From Reuters:

An Indian franchise operator of McDonalds Corp  may increase prices for the second time this year, responding to rising inflation which, along with an economic slowdown, it expects to temper demand growth for at least the next 7 months.

The company, Hardcastle Restaurants, said on Tuesday it could raise prices by 5-6 percent. That follows a 5 percent hike after the government increased the service tax rate in February.

“There is pressure and it’s a tough environment, no doubt. But inflation is at 8-10 percent so we have to hike our prices,” said Amit Jatia, vice-chairman of Hardcastle Restaurants, which owns the McDonalds franchise for west and south India.

Pop quiz: does consumption increase when prices rise? For the S&P500, yes. In India, apparently not.

Consumer spending in India has taken a hit in the past three quarters as rising food prices, meager salary increases and the slowest Indian economic growth in a decade hurt buying appetites for clothes, cars and eating out.

With its 1.2 billion people and growing middle class, India is a large market for global chains, though for now most Indians cannot afford to eat regularly in western-style restaurants.

The burger chain said its same-store sales remained under pressure and although they would grow, the increase would not be at the 22 percent achieved in the fiscal year ended March 2012.

The burger chain plans capital spending of 5 billion-10 billion rupees ($92 million-$184 million) in India over the next 3-5 years, mostly for store expansion, Jatia said, adding India’s long-term consumption growth story remained intact.

McDonalds has 309 stores in the country.

In other news, with inflation rampant in the world’s second most populous country, the local citizens just can’t get enough of selling synthetic gold via synthetic CDOs such as the GLD ETF, if it means being able to buy actual physical gold at cheaper prices. Because remember: deflation is just inflation on the sidelines, and the Chairsatan can kill the sidelines in 15 minutes.

Tags: Economy, Global News, India, Japan, McDonald's

- The Secret World Of Gold (ZeroHedge, April 21, 2013):

In a wide-ranging look at the history and present of the barbarous relic, CBC’s Ann-Marie MacDonald has gathered many perspectives (pro and con) on gold. The following documentary moves from historical shipwrecks to Nazi ‘death gold’ and England’s war chest to recent years where widespread economic uncertainty has given the yellow metal a “new lustre in the world of high finance.” Valued for its permanence, beauty and scarcity, people will lie, cheat, steal and kill in the name of gold; and the clip provides color on many of the market manipulations of the last few years. As MacDonald says, whether it’s a few gold coins or gold bars stored in one of the many vaults around the world, many investors are taking a shine to gold. But there’s not a lot of it. It is said that, even melted down, there would not be enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool. Some claim that much of the gold held by the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve and Fort Knox is gone – that for every 100 ounces of gold traded, there exists only one ounce of real, physical gold. So, where is the gold – and who really owns it?

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Tags: Adolf Hitler, Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Maguire, Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Banking, China, Economy, Eric Sprott, Fed, Federal Reserve, Fort Knox, Germany, Global News, Gold, Government, HSBC, Hugo Chavez, India, JPMorgan, Nazis, Politics, Russia, Silver, Venezuela

Related info:

- U.S. Mint Sells Record 63,500 Ounces Of Gold In One Day

- Gold Buying Frenzy Continues: China, Japan, And Australia Scramble For Physical

- Gold Drop Spurs Demand From Indian Bazaar to Chinese Mall (Bloomberg, April 18, 2013):

Shoppers in China lined up for gold this week, while in Hong Kong they rushed to buy bracelets and in India sought jewelry for weddings not set until December. The metal’s biggest price drop in three decades provoked the clamor.

From Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai, India’s largest bullion market, to Australia’s Perth Mint, where sales doubled from last week, consumers headed to shops after the commodity entered into a bear market last week. As gold plunged 13 percent in the two sessions through April 15, retail sales tripled across China on April 15-16, the China Gold Association reported.

The frenzy appeared in India and China, the biggest gold- consuming nations, with cultures that traditionally acquire the metal for brides, babies or strongboxes. This year’s 18 percent decline may reignite demand that last year fell for the first time in three years, with Asian investors in particular seeing the drop as a buying opportunity. Continue reading »

Tags: China, Economy, Global News, Gold, India

- China Takes Another Stab At The Dollar, Launches Currency Swap Line With France (ZeroHedge, April 13, 2013):

One more domino in the dollar reserve supremacy regime falls. Following the announcement two weeks ago that “Australia And China will Enable Direct Currency Convertibility“, which in turn was the culmination of two years of Yuan internationalization efforts as summarized by the following: “World’s Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade“, “China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade“, “China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System“, “India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement“, “Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says“, “India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees“, and “The USD Trap Is Closing: Dollar Exclusion Zone Crosses The Pacific As Brazil Signs China Currency Swap“, China has now launched yet another feeler to see what the apetite toward its currency is, this time in the heart of the Eurozone: Paris. According to China Daily, as reported by Reuters, “France intends to set up a currency swap line with China to make Paris a major offshore yuan trading hub in Europe, competing against London.” As a reminder the BOE and the PBOC announced a currency swap line back in February, in effect linking up the CNY to the GBP. Now it is the EUR’s turn.

More on this curious move by the Bank of France and the PBOC from Reuters: Continue reading »

Tags: Brazil, China, Collapse, Dollar, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, France, Global News, Government, India, Iran, Japan, Politics, Russia, U.S., Yuan

- BRICS Nations Plan New Bank to Bypass World Bank, IMF (Bloomberg, March 26, 2013):

The biggest emerging markets are uniting to tackle under-development and currency volatility with plans to set up institutions that encroach on the roles of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

The leaders of the so-called BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are set to approve the establishment of a new development bank during an annual summit that began today in the eastern South African city of Durban, officials from all five nations say. They will also discuss pooling foreign-currency reserves to ward off balance of payments or currency crises.

Continue reading »

Tags: Brazil, China, Economy, Global News, Government, IMF, India, Politics, Russia, South Africa, World Bank

FYI.

- Jim Rogers: We’re Wiping Out The Savings Class Globally, To Terrible Consequence (Peak Prosperity, March 9, 2013):

Jim Rogers decries the growing uncertainty and recklessness of global central planners as the world enters unchartered financial markets:

For the first time in recorded history, we have nearly every central bank printing money and trying to debase their currency. This has never happened before. How it’s going to work out, I don’t know. It just depends on which one goes down the most and first, and they take turns. When one says a currency is going down, the question is against what? because they are all trying to debase themselves. It’s a peculiar time in world history.

Continue reading »

Tags: Agriculture, Bonds, Commodities, Corn, Debt, Dollar, Economy, Euro, Food, Global News, Gold, Government, India, Japan, Jim Rogers, Middle Class, Politics, Quantitative Easing, rice, Silver, Society, soybeans, U.S., wheat, Yen, Yuan

- Shanghai Gold Exchange Volume Soars To Record As India Gold Imports Surge To 18 Month High (ZeroHedge, Feb 18, 2013)

Tags: China, Economy, Global News, Gold, India