from King World News:
Investors have expressed confusion recently because parts of the
economy are clearly collapsed, but restaurants remain packed in many
areas. John Williams clears up the confusion by demonstrating that
real GDP remains collapsed, and that the hype from Wall Street about a
recovery is a lie. Williams, who founded ShadowStats, also illustrates,
in reality, how the consumer remains “crushed.” Here is what Williams
had to say about the situation: “Broad U.S. business activity remains
far from being recovered, despite the ongoing GDP-reporting nonsense
that shows inflation-adjusted economic activity above the peak levels
that preceded the 2007 recession.”
John Williams continues: Read More @ KingWorldNews.com
by Alexander Higgins, The Intel Hub:
The NDAA is being challenged in a lawsuit by multiple journalists that could be accused of supporting terrorism for reporting facts that challenge the official US government narrative.
A coalition of prominent journalist known for being critical of the United States in the War on Terror have joined forces to file a lawsuit against Barack Obama and Leon Panetta to challenge the National Defense Authorization act.
The NDAA, also known as the Homeland Battlefield Bill, has legalized a wide variety of totalitarian measures against US citizens by declaring the entire world, including the United States, a battleground in the war against terrorism and is a clear and present danger to the US Constitution.
Read More @ TheIntelHub.com
Investors have expressed confusion recently because parts of the
economy are clearly collapsed, but restaurants remain packed in many
areas. John Williams clears up the confusion by demonstrating that
real GDP remains collapsed, and that the hype from Wall Street about a
recovery is a lie. Williams, who founded ShadowStats, also illustrates,
in reality, how the consumer remains “crushed.” Here is what Williams
had to say about the situation: “Broad U.S. business activity remains
far from being recovered, despite the ongoing GDP-reporting nonsense
that shows inflation-adjusted economic activity above the peak levels
that preceded the 2007 recession.”John Williams continues: Read More @ KingWorldNews.com
The NDAA is being challenged in a lawsuit by multiple journalists that could be accused of supporting terrorism for reporting facts that challenge the official US government narrative.
A coalition of prominent journalist known for being critical of the United States in the War on Terror have joined forces to file a lawsuit against Barack Obama and Leon Panetta to challenge the National Defense Authorization act.
The NDAA, also known as the Homeland Battlefield Bill, has legalized a wide variety of totalitarian measures against US citizens by declaring the entire world, including the United States, a battleground in the war against terrorism and is a clear and present danger to the US Constitution.
Read More @ TheIntelHub.com
Europe: "€1 Trillion May Not Be Enough"
A core piece of last week's European newsflow was that following much pushback, Angela Merkel, who understands the underlying math all too well, finally dropped her opposition to expanding the European "firewall" in the form of a combined EFSF and ESM rescue mechanisms, to bring the total "firepower" to €800 billion (ignoring for a moment that when the true dry powder of the combined vehicle is just about €500 billion net as explained here, hardly enough to rescue Spain, let alone Italy). Yet as has been explained here repeatedly, and as Merkel has figured out, this is easily the most symbolic expansion of a rescue facility ever. Because while the ECB's agreement to allow Eurobanks to abuse its €1 trillion discount window for three years (which is what the LTRO is), following the replacement of JC Trichet with a Goldman apparatchik, at least infused the system with $1.3 trillion in new fungible liquidity (and resulted in a stock market performance boost for the ages, one which is now unwinding), the 'firewall" does not represent new money, nor is a "firewall" to begin with - it is merely one massive contingent liability which will remain unfunded in perpetuity. Slowly the German media is waking up, and in an article in Der Spiegel, the authors observe that "Even a 1-Trillion Euro Firewall wouldn't be enough." And they are correct, because the size of the firewall is completely irrelevant, as explained later. All the "firewall" does is shift even more backstop responsibility on the only true AAA-country left in the Eurozone, Germany. However, the main cause of problems in Europe - a massive debt overhang which can at best be rolled over but never paid down due to the increasingly lower cash flow generation of Europe's (and America's) assets, still remains, and will do so until the debt is finally written down. However, it can't because one bank's liability is another bank's asset. And so we go back to square one, which is that the system is caught in the biggest Catch 22, as we explained back in 2009. We are glad to see that slowly but surely this damning conclusion is finally being understood by most.
from BeforeItsNews.com:
I’ve asked this question to a number of people and most them respond as if I were crazy for asking. They tell me that this is America , land of the free and that there will always be elections. I tell them that we are no longer the land of the free and that if Obama gets re-elected in 2012, that this just may be America ‘s last election. In the past three years, the Obama administration has been very carefully crafting the nation for a political take over by his Marxist regime and this isn’t just my opinion.
Popular radio talk show host Michael Savage is the son of Russian immigrants and is very familiar with Soviet and European history. Savage warned his listeners this week saying, “I have to tell you that if this man, God forbid, is the next president of the United States, we’re going to be living in something along the lines of – people say Europe. I don’t believe it’s going to be like Europe – I think it will be closer to Chavez’s South American dictatorship.
“This is the most corrupt, incompetent, dangerous tyrannical administration in American history. It’s not politics as usual. It’s not just Democrats versus Republicans.
Read More @ BeforeItsNews.com.com
I’ve asked this question to a number of people and most them respond as if I were crazy for asking. They tell me that this is America , land of the free and that there will always be elections. I tell them that we are no longer the land of the free and that if Obama gets re-elected in 2012, that this just may be America ‘s last election. In the past three years, the Obama administration has been very carefully crafting the nation for a political take over by his Marxist regime and this isn’t just my opinion.
Popular radio talk show host Michael Savage is the son of Russian immigrants and is very familiar with Soviet and European history. Savage warned his listeners this week saying, “I have to tell you that if this man, God forbid, is the next president of the United States, we’re going to be living in something along the lines of – people say Europe. I don’t believe it’s going to be like Europe – I think it will be closer to Chavez’s South American dictatorship.
“This is the most corrupt, incompetent, dangerous tyrannical administration in American history. It’s not politics as usual. It’s not just Democrats versus Republicans.
Read More @ BeforeItsNews.com.com
by Alasdair Macleod, Gold Money:
Neo-classical economists underestimate the importance of the link
between savings and investment. The two should be regarded as linked
together: you need savings to be available for investment in new
production for the future.
This causes no concern to mainstream economists. Instead they advocate that savings should support government spending, rather than paying down consumer debt. They regard the second option as recessionary folly. Meanwhile they believe investment can be stimulated through low interest rates with a helping hand from government. The effect of our current predicament in most advanced economies has been to separate savings from industrial investment. This is unwise.
Read More @ GoldMoney.com
This causes no concern to mainstream economists. Instead they advocate that savings should support government spending, rather than paying down consumer debt. They regard the second option as recessionary folly. Meanwhile they believe investment can be stimulated through low interest rates with a helping hand from government. The effect of our current predicament in most advanced economies has been to separate savings from industrial investment. This is unwise.
Read More @ GoldMoney.com
The Muppets Are Confused How Goldman Is Both Bullish And Bearish On Stocks At The Same Time
Ten days ago, Goldman's Peter Oppenheimer published the "Long Good Buy, The Case For Equities", a big research piece, full of pretty charts and witty bullets, which actively urged the rotation out of bonds and into stocks, yet not only marked the peak of the market so far, but drew ridicule even from the likes of CNBC. More importantly, it has generated a plethora of questions from the muppets (aka Goldman clients) themselves, who are wondering how Goldman can be both uber bullish, and yet still have a 1250 S&P 2012 YE price target, as per the other strategist, David Kostin ("We expect the S&P 500 will trade at 1325 by mid-year (-5.6%) and 1250 in 12 months (-10.9%)."), or said otherwise, just how is it that Goldman is having its cake and eating it too? Below is David Kostin's attempt to justify how the firm can pull a Dennis Gartman (and virtually any other newsletter and book seller - after all what better way to say one was right than to have all bases covered) be both bearish and bullish at the same time.
Charles Biderman and Chris Martenson: The Problem With Rigged Markets
There are two major trends taking place that are shaping up as a recipe for disaster. On the one hand, we have massively indebted governments around the world desperate for tax revenues and, on the other, steadily growing multi-trillion underground economies whose main goal is to avoid paying them.
According to a recent study, the amount of uncollected tax revenues in the U.S. is estimated around a whopping 500 billion dollars per year.
At 8 percent of GDP, the underground or shadow economy in the U.S. is much smaller percentage-wise than in other nations like Greece (25 percent), Italy (27 percent), or Thailand (70 percent), yet, given our overall size, America’s untaxed economy is larger than “the official output of all but the upper crust of nations across the globe…bigger than the GDP of Turkey or Austria.”
Read More @ FinancialSense.com
Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 9 hours ago
The bullish movement of money, i.e. bullish setups in the 30- and 10-year, supports Gross's suggestion that the Fed will hint at QE3 in April's policy meeting. The spike in the bond market diffusion index (DI), a measure of cumulative money flows across the yield curve, suggests something's up. Follow the message of the market and leave the experts to debate their opinions. Chart: US Treasury... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
The Spanish Riotcam Has Arrived
Spain's honeymoon with its new government is over.
In 2011, after researching the State’s options for investing in gold and silver, The Office of the Treasurer of the State of South Carolina
quietly released a ground-breaking “Gold and Silver Investments”
report. This incredible report is a must-read for any one interested in
gold and silver metals ownership or in understanding the criminality now
inherent throughout the fractional-reserve banking and
fractional-reserve bullion banking systems.
The report specifically cites the rampant illegality which now dominates the banking and bullion banking systems, noting that major components of current banking practices are in direct conflict with South Carolina laws. And in only six pages, one of the highest offices in state government validates all of the most significant precious metals manipulation claims made over the years by GATA, Bill Murphy, Chris Powell, Adrian Douglas, Ted Butler, Eric Sprott and the rest of us in the precious metals news and information community.
The author of the report clearly understands the illegal and deliberate nature of the banking cartel’s price suppression schemes and ultimately concludes that investing in gold and silver is therefore too risky for a State government. In the report the Office of the Treasury specifically cites the illegal nature of the fractional reserve bullion banking and COMEX schemes. The author specifically notes that COMEX and bullion banking practices are in direct conflict with the South Carolina Code of Laws, 1976 SECTIONS 11-9-660. Read More…
from Silver Doctors:
Do you have the fortitude to be right and sit tight?
The Doc sat down with silver analyst and guru David Morgan from Silver-Investor.com regarding silver’s supply/demand fundamentals, the implications of an Iran invasion on silver, the leap-day take-down, and whether position limits in silver will ever be enforced by the CFTC.
Read More @ SilverDoctors.com
The report specifically cites the rampant illegality which now dominates the banking and bullion banking systems, noting that major components of current banking practices are in direct conflict with South Carolina laws. And in only six pages, one of the highest offices in state government validates all of the most significant precious metals manipulation claims made over the years by GATA, Bill Murphy, Chris Powell, Adrian Douglas, Ted Butler, Eric Sprott and the rest of us in the precious metals news and information community.
The author of the report clearly understands the illegal and deliberate nature of the banking cartel’s price suppression schemes and ultimately concludes that investing in gold and silver is therefore too risky for a State government. In the report the Office of the Treasury specifically cites the illegal nature of the fractional reserve bullion banking and COMEX schemes. The author specifically notes that COMEX and bullion banking practices are in direct conflict with the South Carolina Code of Laws, 1976 SECTIONS 11-9-660. Read More…
Do you have the fortitude to be right and sit tight?
The Doc sat down with silver analyst and guru David Morgan from Silver-Investor.com regarding silver’s supply/demand fundamentals, the implications of an Iran invasion on silver, the leap-day take-down, and whether position limits in silver will ever be enforced by the CFTC.
Read More @ SilverDoctors.com
by Eric McWhinnie Wall St Cheat Sheet:
Earlier this week, a fully loaded Brinks truck carrying between $3 million and $5 million in uncirculated loonies and toonies crashed on a snow covered highway in Ontario, Canada. The truck crossed the centre line and slammed into a rock, launching the coins in every direction. The accident is an unfortunate event, but can serve as an analogy about today’s fragile fiat currencies.
The current financial system serves as a global high-speed economic highway that is filled with many obstacles, including debt, bubbles and politics. Being the world’s reserve currency, the U.S. dollar is the truck that is one good bump away from losing control and crashing, causing a chaotic financial wreck. The U.S. official national debt now stands at over $15.6 trillion, representing about $140,000 per taxpayer. The record debt amount continues to increase as Washington gridlock is stronger than ever. The debt ceiling, which was raised last August to $16.394 trillion and initially expected to last well into 2013, is now estimated by Zero Hedge to be reached in September of this year. When Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, was recently asked how much he would raise the debt ceiling if given only one more request, he responded, “No idea.” After $20 trillion and $50 trillion were floated as ideas, he finally conceded, “It would be a lot. It would make you uncomfortable.” The dire situation in Washington and the dollar is causing states to prepare for a bumpy road ahead.
Read More @ WallStCheatSheet.com
Earlier this week, a fully loaded Brinks truck carrying between $3 million and $5 million in uncirculated loonies and toonies crashed on a snow covered highway in Ontario, Canada. The truck crossed the centre line and slammed into a rock, launching the coins in every direction. The accident is an unfortunate event, but can serve as an analogy about today’s fragile fiat currencies.
The current financial system serves as a global high-speed economic highway that is filled with many obstacles, including debt, bubbles and politics. Being the world’s reserve currency, the U.S. dollar is the truck that is one good bump away from losing control and crashing, causing a chaotic financial wreck. The U.S. official national debt now stands at over $15.6 trillion, representing about $140,000 per taxpayer. The record debt amount continues to increase as Washington gridlock is stronger than ever. The debt ceiling, which was raised last August to $16.394 trillion and initially expected to last well into 2013, is now estimated by Zero Hedge to be reached in September of this year. When Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, was recently asked how much he would raise the debt ceiling if given only one more request, he responded, “No idea.” After $20 trillion and $50 trillion were floated as ideas, he finally conceded, “It would be a lot. It would make you uncomfortable.” The dire situation in Washington and the dollar is causing states to prepare for a bumpy road ahead.
Read More @ WallStCheatSheet.com
from stefbot:
Stefan Molyneux, host of Freedomain Radio, is interviewed by Jan Irvin of Gnostic Media about the challenges of philosophical and peaceful parenting, the horrors of government indoctrination through education, the ‘selfishness’ of libertarianism, and the historical exploitation of money?
Stefan Molyneux, host of Freedomain Radio, is interviewed by Jan Irvin of Gnostic Media about the challenges of philosophical and peaceful parenting, the horrors of government indoctrination through education, the ‘selfishness’ of libertarianism, and the historical exploitation of money?
from WakeUpToTheNWO2:
Here is the Official Sneak Preview for my new film, “HOMELAND IN-SECURITY: Rise Of The Global Police State”.
The film is set for release JULY 4, 2012 (Human Independence Day).
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Here is the Official Sneak Preview for my new film, “HOMELAND IN-SECURITY: Rise Of The Global Police State”.
The film is set for release JULY 4, 2012 (Human Independence Day).
Our sponsors were chosen to help you prepare for the coming global financial collapse...If you wait until TSHTF (the shi! hits the fan) it will be too late...
Please consider making a small donation, to help cover some of the labor and costs to run this blog.
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Senate Republican staffers continue to look though the 2010 
"Even
Wile E. Coyote had to come back down to earth sooner or later",
says Charles Biderman, founder of TrimTabs Investment Research. In his
opinion, the prices of stocks and bonds - enabled by excessive
financialization of our economy and central bank money printing - have
been defying gravity for a dangerously long time. If we continue to do
all we can to preserve the status quo -- to maintain "phony" asset
price levels as Charles calls them -- at best we will restrict overall
growth and handicap the economy. The problem isn't so much the
unfairness and malinvestment evident in a rigged market. As Charles
shrewdly asks: what happens when the market becomes un-rigged?
We've never experienced the unwinding of an entirely manipulated
financial system, so we can't predict for sure. But at this point, a
painful collapse of our markets and loss of the US dollar as the
world's reserve currency seem entirely plausible.
How much does the Internet contribute to our economic life? A lot, yes. But what if we tried to put a number on it?
The commercials reduced their silver futures short position a net 2,448 contracts (12.24 million ounces) in the week ending 3/27/12. This is a total reduction of 5,953 contracts or 30 million ounces over the past 2 weeks! (
There is NEVER a shortage of topics to discuss as the END GAME of the
GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM approaches. For a brief moment I didn’t have
one lined up, but when I reviewed yesterday’s fabulous Chris Martenson article about gold manipulation, my “writer’s block” quickly dissipated.
Is the U.S. economy going to be okay? Well, if the only source you
listened to was the mainstream media, you would be left with the
distinct impression that the U.S. economy is heading toward a full
recovery and that everything is going to be alright. Unfortunately,
that is not the case at all. The United States is rapidly becoming
poorer as a nation and less competitive in the global marketplace. At
the same time, consumer debt levels are rising, corporate debt levels
are rising, state and local government debt levels are rising and the
U.S. government is indulging in a debt binge unlike anything the world
has ever seen. Considering the insane amount of money the U.S.
government has been pumping into the economy, we should have seen a much
more robust recovery by now. Instead, the employment statistics 
"The eternal optimists would have us all believe that China
will awaken from its slumbers amid a blaze of new, debt-fuelled
spending initiatives and so buy up all the goods we find so hard to sell
at home (without offering a substantial concession in price)"
is how Sean Corrigan begins his assault on the non-reality that is
China's 'save-the-world' protagonists. It is worth noting, however, that
those who actually invest in the place seem to be too busy selling their equities to pay much attention to the Panglossians and Polyannas. With a 10% slump in the past 12 sessions in
the main indices (retracing a major fib interval of the 2012 rally),
there seems little enthusiasm there for clinging on in the hope that the
PBOC will bail anyone out - and the wedge is closing on something big
in the chart. Plain vanilla economics might well be correct in telling
the bulls that they may rely on a Zhou Xiaochuan Put to
spare them too much future pain, but the law of the political jungle,
red in flag, tooth, and claw, may well dictate otherwise. As we write,
it seems beyond dispute to say that the Chinese hierarchy is battling it out behind closed doors to
determine the long term future of the regime and, by implication, the
direction of the entire nation. In such momentous times, we would
perhaps be foolish to think that the routine application of short?term countercyclical policy will bear overmuch weight in
their counsels. Simply out, there is too much political infighting for
any large-scale action to be taken as "Having moved against the
state-capitalist left of old man Jiang and his Chongqing bruisers,
surely the last thing Hu & Co. would want in their final
months in office would be to unleash another oligarch?enriching orgy of
speculation of the kind such a mass stimulus would be almost bound to foment."
When
it comes to markets, the following clip, as well as memories of recent
market collapses, highlights that it is usually brightest just before
it's pitch black.
Silver remains the best performer YTD and the Long Bond the worst performer but what is most notable is the quiet serenity of the equity rally continued through March as Commodities, Precious Metals, Treasuries, and Corporate Bonds all lost notable ground post LTRO2. Is equity keeping the dream alive as the liquidity spigot has slowed to a drop (for now)? AAPL had it largest 2-day drop for almost 4 months
into quarter-end - ending under $600 - and the broad S&P 500 pulled
away once again from credit yesterday and today as IG, HY, and HYG
close practically unchanged from last Friday's low but the ES up
15-20pts. Of the S&P sectors, Energy was the only one to fall appreciably post LTRO2 with Utilities the only sector in the red YTD -2.6% as Financials +21.5% and Tech +18.5% dominate.
Spanish regional debt currently stands at 13% of GDP and has surged from EUR60bn in 2006 to over EUR140bn currently. As Credit Suisse points out, the top four regions account for the majority of GDP,
two-thirds of regional debt, and, with the exception of Madrid,
substantially missed their deficit targets. What is more worrisome is
the heavily front-loaded nature of the maturing debt with
substantial refinancing needs in the next 2 years and this regional
debt is split between bonds and loans - with many of the latter from
Spanish banks - yet another illustration of the interconnected contagion
that is building more rapidly. The growing crisis in refinancing
(liquidity and costs) for regional debt developed the idea of 
Drug dealers and other citizens outside the main stream economic system
are cleaning up money laundering’s new image with Extra-Strength Tide.
It really gets the Feds out; seems stolen Tide laundry detergent has
almost become an alternative currency in certain parts of the Country.
While it’s not exactly portable or very convenient either, it has its
uses. While the government is attempting to phase out physical cash,
entrepreneurs of every walk of life will seek substitutes. This is just a
basic law of economics and nothing can change it. So after Tide, what
will come next? Perhaps that 450 million rounds of ammunition Homeland
Security has ordered is really the foundation of new monetary system.
Bullets are easy to carry and extremely portable; and a box of
cartridges is very divisible. We’ll see when they start stamping
denominations of the outside, then we’ll know for sure.
While the rest of us have to wait until June, the justices of the
Supreme Court will know the likely outcome of the historic health care
case by the time they go home this weekend.
Gold and silver are holding above important support levels, despite selling pressure yesterday. The ![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
