The U.S. Economy – One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

from Chris Gaffney, Daily Pfennig:
Ever since the U.S. economic recovery started in 2009, we’ve seen the same economic pattern play out over and over again: the economy shows signs of life, and seems to be ready to take off. Then growth sputters and we fall back into weak or no growth.
Based on a long list of economic indicators, this has been the weakest economic recovery of at least the past 50 years. Job growth has been slower, poverty rate has risen faster, and productivity growth has been weaker.1
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth has averaged about 2.3% a year over the past five years. That’s much lower than the average GDP growth rate of 4% from 1790 to 1999.2
Read More @ dailypfennig.com

Cracking Up and Cracking Down: Spain Is Bursting at the Seams

by Joshua Krause, Daily Sheeple:
As the turmoil in Greece slowly yields (for now at least) it’s important to remember that the small Eurozone nation is hardly the only one in the EU that is in trouble, both fiscally and socially. In truth, it seems that Europe as a whole can hardly contain itself, and you can strike sparks just about anywhere. Europe is a fiscal mess with an aging population, ruled by a burdensome continent spanning bureaucracy, and simmering with ethnic and cultural tensions that range in age from ancient to modern.
So while the media is busy dancing around Greece as if the future of Europe lies solely in their hands, stop and take a look around the rest of that continent. I think you’ll find that the Eurozone could unravel just about anywhere. But if I could pick just one vulnerable country, I think Spain would be at the top of my list of the most unstable nations in the EU.
Read More @ thedailysheeple.com

7 Reasons Why the U.S. Economy is AWESOME! (Satire)

from TheMoneyGPS:


 

Meet The Kagans: Seeking War To The End Of The World

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/26/2015 - 22:15
If the neoconservatives have their way again, US ground troops will reoccupy Iraq, the US military will take out Syria’s secular government (likely helping Al Qaeda and the Islamic State take over), and the US Congress will not only kill the Iran nuclear deal but follow that with a massive increase in military spending.  In other words, more and more fires of Imperial “regime change” abroad even as the last embers of the American Republic die at home. Much of this “strategy” is personified by a single Washington power couple...

How We Got Here - The 2008 Financial Crisis For Dummies

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/26/2015 - 17:15 It could never happen again, right?

Donald Trump's Top 30 Insults

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/26/2015 - 12:45 Amid the 16 (yes sixteen!) candidates for Republican Presidential nominee, there is one, and only one, that stands above the rest in terms of sheer un-filtered, un-political, and some would say un-presidential outspoken-ness. In an oustanding aggregation of abuse, The Hill has documented Donald Trump's Top 30 insults (so far in the 2016 campaign alone).

Clinton Favorability Plunges, Sanders Surges Amid Classified Emails Scandal

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/26/2015 - 21:40 Despite all her proclamations of new fairness doctrines, false promises of her truthfulness, and exclamations of 'everyday Americanism' Hillary Rodham Clinton is seeing her favorability ratings collapse. As populist as she dares to be, in the face of her donating captors, it appears the everyday American just isn't buying it as Gallup reports just 43% Americans view her favorably (down from 66% just a few years ago) while none other than Bernie Sanders is bounding up the popularity ladder, rising from 12% to 24% favorability in recent weeks.

Chinese Stocks Extend Friday's Losses Following Drop In Corporate Profits

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/26/2015 - 21:38 Following the weakness in Friday's afternoon (China) session, tonight's open is decidedly shaky as Shanghai Composite open down over 2% and CSI-300 (China's S&P 500) is now down over 5%. This follows a year-over-year drop in China Industrial profits (-0.3%), the first since March as the small bounce in April and May is now done. Commodities are lower and silver saw a minor flash-crash shortlty after China opened.

It's Really Very Simple...

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/26/2015 - 21:10 There are times when a loud cry of “The emperor has no clothes!” can be most copacetic. And so, let me point out something quite simple, yet very important. The old world order, to which we became accustomed over the course of the 1990s and the 2000s, its crises and its problems detailed in numerous authoritative publications on both sides of the Atlantic - it is no more. It is not out sick and it is not on vacation. It is deceased. It has passed on, gone to meet its maker, bought the farm, kicked the bucket and joined the crowd invisible. It is an ex-world order.

Energy M&A Hits A Brick Wall: Ex Shell-BG Megadeal, Q2 Deal Value Was Lowest Since 2008

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/26/2015 - 20:38 If one excludes the gargantuan April merger between Shell and the BG Group, Q2 M&A activity was the slowest in since 2008! If the price of oil continues to decline, one can be certain that Q3 M&A activity will be a dead zone. And since with the exception of just one mega-deal, the merger and acquisition landscape has hit a brick wall, one needs no explanation to understand just how "market participants view future opportunities."

Gold's Two Stories: Paper Markets Collapse... While The Retail Public Buys At A Record Pace

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/26/2015 - 20:10 We’ve seen some significant swings in precious metals over the last several years and if we are to believe the paper spot prices and recent value of mining shares, one would think that gold and silver are on their last leg. Last weekend precious metals took a massive hit to the downside, sending shock waves throughout the industry. But was the move really representative of what’s happening in precious metals markets around the world? Or, is there an effort by large financial institutions to keep prices suppressed? In an open letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission First Mining Finance CEO Keith Neumeyer argues that real producers and consumers don’t appear to be represented by the purported billion dollar moves on paper trading exchanges. With China recently revealing that they have added some 600 tons of gold to their stockpiles and the U.S. mint having suspended sales of Silver Eagles due to extremely high demand in early July, how is it possible that prices are crashing?

In These 13 US Cities, Rents Are Skyrocketing

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/26/2015 - 19:55

 Raoul Pal: GroupThink Is Almost Ubiquitous (& The 1 Chart That Matters)

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/26/2015 - 18:50 "If the dollar rallies again from here then it is game over and the exit doors are small..."

It's Not Just Margin Debt: Presenting The Complete Chinese Stock Market Ponzi Schematic

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/26/2015 - 17:45 Late last month, we suggested that the pressure on Chinese equities - which at that point had only begun to build - was at least partially attributable to an unwind in the country’s CNY1 trillion backdoor margin lending edifice. Precisely measuring the amount of shadow financing that helped drive Chinese stocks to nosebleed levels is virtually impossible, as is determining how much of that leverage has been unwound and how much remains or has been restored, but BofAML is out with a valiant attempt to not only identify each shadow lending channel, but to quantify just how much leverage may be built into the Chinese market. The figures will shock you.

If Vaccines Don’t Cause Brain Damage, Why is GlaxoSmithKline Paying Out $63 Million to Vaccine Victims?

by Jennifer Lilley, Natural News:
Since the swine flu panic that was widespread in 2009, prompting more than 60 million people to get vaccinated against it, countless amounts of individuals – predominantly children – have developed a range of health conditions. Mainly, brain damage has been the issue; everything from sleep disturbances and memory impairments to hallucinations and mental illness have been experienced by those who received the swine flu vaccine. Most medical professionals and Big Pharma folks are quick to defend and recommend such vaccines; of course pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the manufacturers of the swine flu vaccine, Pandemrix, is a key player in this regard. However, they’ve come under fire recently and rather than sit under a protective you-can’t-touch-me cloak, the pharma giant has been ordered to pay about $60 million to the UK government after it was determined that Pandemrix played a role in causing brain damage in a range of cases.
“No doubt” swine flu vaccine linked to brain damage
“There’s no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Pandemrix increased the occurrence of narcolepsy onset in children in some countries – and probably in most countries,” says Emmanuelle Mignot, a specialist in sleep disorder at Stanford University who looked into the effects of the vaccine.
Read More @ NaturalNews.com

Child’s Last Hope: One in Thirty Children in US Homeless, Number Growing

from RT:

The message behind the Chinese gold reserves announcement

by Bron Suchecki, Perth Mint:

I don’t want to pick on Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar, as this was representative of most of the commentary around China’s gold reserves announcement, but the statement that the 1,658 tonne figure “was not unexpected. If anything, it was slightly surprising that it wasn’t more, the market was looking at a figure north of 2,000 tonnes” makes the mistake of assuming that Central Bank announcements are about communicating facts.
As Ben Hunt says, Central Bankers “are all playing the Common Knowledge Game as hard as they can … if you don’t listen to what is being said in the context of game-playing, then you are placed at a disadvantage versus those who do. You will not understand the WHY that exists behind the public statements.”
Read More @ PerthMint.com.au

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