Stanley Druckenmiller: "This Is The Most Unsustainable Situation I Have Seen In My Career"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/03/2016 - 08:27
"when I look at the current picture of expected tax revenues combined with benefits promised to future generations, this is the most unsustainable situation I have seen ever in my career." The disaster that Druckenmiller sees coming for the United States is all about changing demographics and entitlement spending. They don’t add up to a sustainable situation. Fixing this is going to require some real sacrifice by the American people and that doesn’t sound like a very appealing platform upon which to get re-elected.

Hillary Worried As Bernie Momentum Builds, Breaks Donation Record

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/03/2016 - 10:01 Clinton has become increasingly irritated that Sanders’ surprising resilience is costing her time, money, and political capital. The differences are well documented between the two, and the man hell bent on exposing just how broken and dislocated Wall Street and Washington have become from normal Americans has finally struck a nerve with Clinton and her campaign. "Her aides complain about Sanders' rhetoric, claiming he's broken his pledge to avoid character attacks by going after her paid speeches and ties to Wall Street"
 

WHY THE NORTH KOREAN REGIME IS NOT LONG FOR THIS WORLD

from The Daily Sheeple:

At first glance you probably wouldn’t think that there is anything unusual going on in North Korea. Granted, compared to every other nation on Earth North Korea is a pretty unusual place, but their antics are fairly routine. Most of the time you won’t hear much about the country, but about once or twice a year they’ll start kicking and screaming like a toddler with nuclear weapons. They’ll threaten their neighbors and overseas enemies (that’s us) with destruction and beg for foreign aid, and maybe make a few high-profile executions before going dark again.
However, this round of provocations and demands is different. The Hermit Kingdom may have finally crossed the line, and not with its traditional enemies like South Korea or the United States.
Read More

U.S. To "Greatly Increase" Special Forces Deployed In Syria

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/03/2016 - 13:00 Obama is considering a plan to greatly increase the number of American special operations forces deployed to Syria "as it looks to accelerate recent gains against Islamic State." According to Reuters, this troop expansion would leave the U.S. special operations contingent many times larger than the around 50 troops currently in Syria, where they operate largely as advisors away from the front lines.

JPM: The Squeeze Is Mostly Over; The Market Is Vulnerable As Most Funds Are Now Overweight Stocks

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/03/2016 - 12:29 In a note released on Friday night, JPM's Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou has several important observations, the main of which is that CTAs and risk parity funds - which appear to have driven March’s equity rebound - are both significantly overweight equities. As a result he points to figure 2 below as an indication of a "more vulnerable equity market relative to a month ago, with all of the above types of funds currently overweight equities apart from discretionary macro hedge funds which appear to be still close to neutral."

Paul Craig Roberts: "How They Brainwash Us"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/03/2016 - 12:01 Liberalism has helped to make Western peoples blind by creating the belief that noble intentions are more prevalent than corrupt intentions. This false belief blinds people to the roles played by deception and coercion in governing. Consequently, the true facts are not perceived and governments can pursue hidden agendas by manipulating news.

Why FINRA’s Private Court Just Got Served

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/03/2016 - 11:20 While this story reads like a Hollywood movie, my hope is that it shines a light and ignites some much needed discussion on the oft hidden, and thus ignored, graft that permeates our most fundamental societal institutions.  In this intricate account I describe the incestuous relationship between FINRA and the Banks.  The affects of which can be seen in the cocksure culture of management across the entire sector and that is about to get far worse. However, this is but one root in a forest of consequences impacting everyday people.

Trump: "The Country Is Headed For A Massive Recession; It's A Terrible Time To Invest In Stocks"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/03/2016 - 11:11 "I think we’re sitting on an economic bubble. A financial bubble... We’re not at 5 percent unemployment. We’re at a number that’s probably into the 20s if you look at the real number. Is it a good time to invest now? "Oh, I think it’s a terrible time right now. You have a situation where you have an inflated stock market. It started to deflate, but then it went back up again. Usually that’s a bad sign. That’s a sign of things to come."

One Trader's Important Lesson From The Japanese Bond Market

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/03/2016 - 10:45 The lessons I learned in Japan leave me comfortable with this outlook. Years of staring at low JGB yields certainly immunized me from the sticker shock associated with low Treasury yields... In Japan, with a negative yield on 10-year JGBs, investors are paying the government to borrow out to a 10-year term and spend. If the public sector ignores these types of messages on a global scale and private demand globally remains deficient, those same investors will accept still lower yields on government bonds outside of Japan – our base case for the rest of 2016.

Amtrak Train Derails Near Philadelphia, Killing Two; Northeast Corridor Service Suspended

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/03/2016 - 10:11 At least two people died and 30 suffered injuries when an Amtrak train collided with a backhoe on the tracks at approximately 7:53 am near Booth Street in Chester, causing the lead engine of the train to derail.  Service has been suspended along the Northeast Corridor in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. According to Amtrak, there were 341 passengers and seven crewmembers on board Palmetto train 89 at the time of the incident, which took place in Chester, Delaware County.

Brazil (Like Russia) Is Under Attack By Hyrbid War

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/03/2016 - 09:11 Color revolutions would never be enough; Exceptionalistan is always on the lookout for major strategic upgrades capable of ensuring perpetual Empire of Chaos hegemony. While it ain’t over till some fat man in the Brazilian Supreme Court sings, the whole developing world should be fully alert – and learn the relevant lessons, as Brazil is bound to be analyzed as the ultimate case of Soft Hybrid War.

Character Traits And Skills That Are Hard To Find During A Crisis

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/02/2016 - 22:01
With the growing instability present in the state of the world today it would be rather foolish to assume that the near future holds nothing but fairy dust, unicorns and gumdrops. Preparation is a necessity. The right people in the right place at the right time — no crisis. The wrong people in the right place at the right time — total destruction. Therefore, the key to surviving any crisis is to have the right people in place, and to be well away from the wrong people. The question is, who are the right people?

Wikileaks Reveals IMF Plan To "Cause A Credit Event In Greece And Destabilize Europe"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/02/2016 - 21:40 In a leaked transcript, IMF staffers are caught on tape suggesting that a threat of an imminent financial catastrophe was needed to force other players into accepting its measures such as cutting Greek pensions and working conditions, or as Bloomberg puts it, "considering a plan to cause a credit event in Greece and destabilize Europe."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren Calls For Total Overhaul Of Student Loan System

by Nika Knight, The News Doctors:

“It’s long past time for the Department of Education’s bank to clean up its act and start running the student loan program to benefit students—not private companies,” declared Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday as she announced a plan(pdf) for the Department of Education (DOE) to completely overhaul its student loan servicing system.
“One of the first things that must be done is a total reform of student loan servicing to make sure nothing like the Navient disaster ever, ever happens again.” —Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Earlier this month, the Democrat from Massachusetts roundly condemned the DOE for putting the desires of the student loan industry over the needs of students, referring to a scandal in which the DOE protected one of the country’s largest loan companies (Navient, formerly known as Sallie Mae) from repercussions for defrauding U.S. service members.
Read More

HUD Wants to Make Living in a Tiny House or RV Illegal

by Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper:

The tiny house movement has taken America by storm, in part because our economy is in the toilet. People are striving to reduce their expenses by embracing minimalism. They’re breaking free from the corporate grind because, as I’ve always advised, they are learning to live with less and radically reducing their expenses.
But, these days in America, you are sharply admonished when you try to live your life outside of the strictures of the 9-5 world. Is it any surprise that the government is now taking steps to limit our ability to drastically reduce our expenses? They always seem to make illegal anything we try to do to be more independent and moving into a tiny house appears to be the next on their list.
Read More

Big Banks Aided Firm At Center Of International Bribery Scandal

from Huffington Post:

No business can operate without bankers — not even the bribery business.
British financial giant HSBC and American bailout kingpin Citibank processed transactions, managed money and vouched for Unaoil, a once-obscure firm that is now at the center of a massive international corruption scandal. Police raided Unaoil’s Monaco offices and interviewed its executives on Thursday, a day after The Huffington Post and Fairfax Media first exposed the company’s practices. Law enforcement agencies in at least four nations are involved in a wide-ranging probe of the company and its partners.
Read More

For the First Time Ever, A Majority of Americans Oppose Fracking and Nuclear Power

from Washington’s Blog:

Gallup reported on March 18th:
For the first time since Gallup first asked the question in 1994, a majority of Americans say they oppose nuclear energy. The 54% opposing it is up significantly from 43% a year ago, while the 44% who favor using nuclear energy is down from 51%.
Opposition to the practice of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” has increased significantly in the past year as environmental concerns, such as earthquakes, have grown, even though the procedure has helped keep oil prices low.
Read More

Queen Isabella and the Invasion of Europe

from Antonius Aquinas:

If the Western world ever becomes serious on how to deal with the current, mostly Muslim, invasion of its once sacred soil, all it needs to do is to look to its glorious past. In particular, it should examine the heroic actions of one of its greatest figures, Isabella of Castile. This is why the historian William Thomas Walsh entitled his magisterial biography of the queen, Isabella of Spain: The Last Crusader.
While the Reconquista was not directed at securing access to the Holy Land and Jerusalem as earlier Crusades had attempted, the ridding of the Spanish peninsula of Muslim power was a definite part of what Jonathan Riley-Smith calls the “paraphernalia of crusading:”
Read More

Gas Pipeline Uses 160 Eminent Domain Suits To Get People’s Property In 3 States

from Wolf Street:

Eminent domain is a tough pill to swallow for Americans who take their property rights very seriously, and the aggressive moves by Sabal Trail to seize property for a natural gas pipeline running through three southern states is turning into a drama of immense proportions.
Sabal Trail, the joint venture planning to build a 500-mile natural gas pipeline through Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, has gone to court in order to secure the right of way through the land where the pipeline should pass.
Read More

Hawaii Considering Decriminalizing All Recreational Drugs for Personal Use

by L.J. Devon, Natural News:
(NaturalNews) It’s a bold move, the likes of which hasn’t been seen in recent United States history: The state of Hawaii is on the cusp of decriminalizing ALL recreational drugs. If the resolution passes, Hawaii would become the first state to investigate alternative solutions for treating drug addiction other than just locking people up.
Instead of imprisoning drug users, Hawaii would look at the situation from a different angle. Drug users caught in a vicious cycle will be able to get professional help instead of fearing long-term imprisonment. Families, friends and support groups will be more empowered and able to create an environment of accountability that breaks the addiction and resets the priorities of drug users.
Read More

Migration ‘Has Created 900 No-Go Areas in EU': Devastating Report Shows Order Breaking Down – Including in London

by Larisa Brown and Corey Charlton, Daily Mail:
European cities including London are riven by lawless ‘no-go’ areas as a result of high migration, Hungary’s government has claimed.
The British capital is named alongside cities such as Paris, Stockholm and Berlin as home to ‘more than 900′ areas where the authorities have ‘little or no control’.
The extraordinary allegations are made on an official website aimed at hardening local opposition to an EU scheme to enforce a refugee resettlement quota on all member states.
Read More

/