Something Just Snapped - Sudden Yen Strength Sends Crude, Copper & China, US Stocks Sliding

Why Is The IRS Spying On Americans' Phone Calls?

Following the first ever congressional hearing on “Stingray” cellphone surveillance, new details reveal the Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service are also using the controversial spying devices.

As China 'Buys Low' To Build SPR, Washington Forced To Sell Strategic Crude To Meet Budget

The signs of regime change are everywhere. From embarrassment by Russia's success in Syria to China's creation of its own 'World Bank' and SWIFT alternative, the trend of de-empirization are growing, but tonight's news that Washington will sell oil from its strategic reserve in order to meet budget constraints and avoid default (as China takes advantage of low prices to build its own reserves) is simply stunning in its analogy of the shifting world order.

Fear Of The Walking Dead: The American Police State Takes Aim

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/26/2015 - 22:00 While 'zombies' may be the personification of our darkest fears, they embody the government’s paranoia about the citizenry as potential threats that need to be monitored, tracked, surveilled, sequestered, deterred, vanquished and rendered impotent. Why else would the government feel the need to monitor our communications, track our movements, criminalize our every action, treat us like suspects, and strip us of any means of defense while equipping its own personnel with an amazing arsenal of weapons? For years now, the government has been carrying out military training drills with 'zombies' as the enemy. “We the people” or, more appropriately, “we the zombies” are the enemy in the eyes of the government.

Greek Creditors Refuse To Make Next Loan Payment - German Press

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/26/2015 - 21:28 Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung reports that just two (or is it three, this past summer is one big blur) months after Greece voted through its third bailout, one which will raise its debt/GDP to over 200% on a fleeting promise that someone, somewhere just may grant Greece a debt extension (which will do absolutely nothing about the nominal amount of debt), its creditors have already grown tired with the game and are refusing to pay the next Greek loan tranche of €2 billion.

Caught On Tape: China Commodity Barge Sinks In Seconds

Beijing is apparently working on innovative ways to solve China's excess capacity problem again...

In Latest Obamacare Fiasco, Most Low-Income Workers Can't Afford "Affordable Care Act"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/26/2015 - 20:33 Billy Sewell began offering health insurance this year to 600 service workers at the Golden Corral restaurants that he owns. He wondered nervously how many would buy it. Adding hundreds of employees to his plan would cost him more than $1 million — a hit he wasn’t sure his low-margin business could afford. His actual costs, though, turned out to be far smaller than he had feared. So far, only two people have signed up. “We offered, and they didn’t take it,” he said.

Schadenfreude - How The US Is Helping China Create A New Financial Order

There are two general schools of thought amongst noted contrarians and libertarians regarding China’s overriding objectives. One school has it that China is very much a part of the One World Government philosophy and their primary goal is to acquire a more powerful seat at the IMF. Having done so, they will settle in and be content to be one of the leading jurisdictions that run the world collectively. The other school suggests that China means to become the most powerful nation in the world - to replace the US in every way as the world’s dominant nation. And that’s the case here. The world’s most powerful (and most oppressive) political/economic power structure has begun to go under the bulldozer. Its replacement will hopefully be a better one.

Meet The "Million Dollar Shack": Documentary Lays Bare California's Housing Bubble

Is The Yield Curve Still A Dependable Signal?

To the extent the Federal Reserve decides to increase interest rates, it should be apparent that such a move would be inconsistent with their prior actions. In fact, it may likely be a desperate effort to re-load the monetary policy gun as opposed to a signal of domestic economic strength. Not only is this a departure from the past, this would lead many to question the Fed’s motives. It is worth keeping in mind that blind trust and confidence in the Fed has propelled many markets much higher than fundamentals justify. The bottom line is that NIM and the Taylor Rule-adjusted curve are both flashing warning signs of economic recession, while the traditional yield curve signal is waving the all clear flag.

What Recovery? Record Number Of Americans Become Blood Plasma "Sellers" To Make Ends Meet

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/26/2015 - 18:55 Having previously explained President Obama's recovery in charts, we thought words and pictures would be a better indicator of the dire situation facing so many Americans that get missed by the business media's spotlight. With 9.4 million more Americans below the poverty line than before the crisis, as The LA Times reports, it's disturbing to see so many people so destitute - even if they're working - that they've resorted to selling body fluids to make ends meet. The going rate for plasma donation, which can take a couple of hours, is about $25 or $30. But Octapharma is offering $50 for the first five visits, "when you get that $50, you feel good," one plasma 'seller' said, "I paid my gas bill."

$1 Billion ‘Toilet to Tap’ Wastewater Recycling Plants Proposed in Southern CA

by Julie Fidler, Natural Society:
Southern California’s largest water importer is working towards a plan to purify wastewater into potable drinking water. As nauseating as it sounds, many experts believe it could be an answer to the state’s dwindling water supply.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is discussing the plan with county sanitation districts in the hopes that it could free up more resources to a state with a rapidly-expanding population suffering from a punishing drought. The agency is looking to build what would be the world’s largest plants to recycle sewage into drinking water closer to home. For more than 80 years, it has imported water from hundreds of miles away. [1]
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Records Show Radioactive Dump Site Had History of Dangerous Problems

by Heather Callaghan, Activist Post:

Unfortunately, the lack of foresight leading up to the recent Nevada explosion at a radioactive dump site shows the type of care one would expect Homer Simpson to show the Springfield nuclear power plant. According to state and federal records,

The operator of a closed radioactive waste dump that caught fire in southern Nevada had trouble over the years with leaky shipments and oversight so lax that employees took contaminated tools and building materials home… The firm, now called US Ecology Inc., had its license suspended for mishandling shipments in the 1970s — about the same time that state officials say the material that exploded and burned last weekend was accepted and buried.

A report from the state fire inspector, Martin Azevedo, described the scene of the explosion of 1970s waste materials as containing “moisture in the pit and ‘heavily corroded’ 55-gallon drums in and around the 20-foot-by-30-foot crater. Debris from the blast spread 190 feet. Two drums were found outside the fence line.” Officials say they don’t know about all the materials that would have been in the inexplicable Oct 18 explosion.
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It’s Flat Out WRONG NOT to Bring CRIMINAL Charges Against Lois Lerner

by Susan Jones, CNSnews:
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), head of the conservative Freedom Caucus and a member of the House Oversight committee, says he strongly disagrees with the Justice Department’s decision not to bring criminal charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner for impeding conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.
“That is just flat out wrong, in my judgment,” Jordan told “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace.
“Here’s a lady who systematically and for a sustained period of time targeted people for exercising their most fundamental rights, their First Amendment free speech rights.
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Green Light Silver – Part 2

by Gary Christenson, Deviant Investor:
In part one we stated that “Silver looks like it has bottomed and will move substantially higher.”  In summary:

• The long-term silver to gold ratio is a good indicator of bottoms in silver prices. That ratio was recently exceptionally low and appears to be climbing.  Expect higher silver prices.

• • Silver prices – weekly basis – are low, oversold, and moving higher. They have recently broken an important downtrend resistance line.
  What Happens Next?  What Do Others Say?
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U.S., Saudis to Increase Support of Jihadis in Syria

by Kurt Nimmo, Infowars:
Over the weekend the State Department announced it will step up support of jihadi groups fighting to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
“They pledged to continue and intensify support to the moderate Syrian opposition while the political track is being pursued,” the State Department statement said.
There are virtually no “moderate” proxy forces in Syria and the war against al-Assad is waged almost entirely by radical Sunni Salafist groups determined to establish a principality ruled by Shari’a law in Syria
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Barcelona Currency … What About Gold?

from The Daily Bell:
Barcelona Threatens to Print Parallel Currency, Madrid Seethes … Over the next six months, Barcelona’s left-wing city council plans to roll out a cash-less local currency that has the potential to become the largest of its kind in the world. The main goal of the project, according to a council spokesperson, is to boost economic opportunities for local businesses and traders. The idea is for local stores and residents to be able to exchange euros for the new currency at a one-to-one parity, and use it to purchase products and services at a discount or with other kinds of incentives. But it doesn’t end there: the new parallel currency may also be used to pay certain subsidies, taxes and local services such as public transport, reports El País. Municipal workers could also receive part of their salary in the new money. – Wolf Street
Dominant Social Theme: Remember US Continentals? Here’s an idea: Let’s fund our revolution with paper money …
Free-Market Analysis: So Barcelona is challenging Madrid and currency is going to be the proving ground. It’s a face off between the Catalan culture and the dominant Castilian culture in Madrid. It’s tough not to root for the underdog here, especially because the Castilian culture is so evidently an arrogant and authoritarian one.
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