"This Is Going To Be A National Crisis" - One Of The Largest U.S. Pension Funds Set To Cut Retiree Benefits

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 17:42
The Central States Pension Fund, which handles retirement benefits for current and former Teamster union truck drivers across various states including Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, New York, and Minnesota, and is one of the largest pension funds in the nation, has filed an application to cut participant benefits, which would be effective July 1 2016, as it "projects" it will become officially insolvent by 2025.

Stocks Soar To 10-Month Highs On Crude's FauxPEC Meeting Headlines

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 16:03

3 Reasons Interest Rates Will Stay Low Or Go Negative

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 18:05 How long will interest rates stay low? We expect the Fed to keep rates very low for a long, long time.

Hundreds Evacuated After Massive Explosion Rocks Pemex Oil Facility In Mexico

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 17:39 Hundreds have been evacuated following a blast at a Pemex oil facility in southern Mexico. According to Bloomberg reports, the explosion occurred at Clorados 3 petrochemicals unit of Pajaritos complex in the port of Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz state, says co. spokesperson Alfonso Villalobos on phone.  First responders are attending the emergency, according to tweet from Veracruz civil protection official twitter account.

The Cost Of Asylum: More Than 50% Of Sweden's Unemployed Are Foreigners

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 18:16 The cost of Sweden’s generous asylum policy can now be seen in its unemployment data (not just the rising crime rate). While a reinvigorated economy is driving down the overall jobless rate, Bloomberg notes that recent arrivals are being left behind as the majority of Sweden’s unemployed are now foreigners, up from about 40% two years ago.

Fighting Recessions With Hot Air

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 17:15 Krugman is wrong. An economic boom, based on nothing but hot air (phony credit, with no real resources behind it), is fraudulent. It will never take us to real growth. Just the contrary. The best thing to do is to pop the bubble…and then pick up the pieces. Besides, it will pop whether we want it to or not. Heck, we believe in magic as much as the next guy. But the magic act is wearing a little thin. The smoke is dispersing. The rabbits have disappeared. All the glam and sparkle, the shock and awe, the claptrap and hokum – they’re all giving way to economic reality. We are beginning to see more clearly: the Fed’s theory is nothing but hot air.
 

Summing Up Ted Cruz' Terrible Night (In 1 Painful Table)

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 16:50

NOT SATIRE: Treasury Will Remove Andrew Jackson From $20 Bill, Replace Him With Harriet Tubman

[Ed. Note: I swear to you I thought this was a satirical headline when I first read it. But nope, it’s for real. There is no limit to the depths to which this criminal government will stoop to destroy this nation’s history and connection to the rule of law and honest money. As this article beautifully quantifies, there is no greater symbolic gesture for the criminal Federal Reserve and US Treasury to make than to remove Andrew Jackson, a lifelong enemy of the Rothschilds, from our debt-riddled Federal Reserve notes. If ever you were looking for a sign that the time to denounce your US citizenship has come, this may be it. ~ SGT]
from SHTF Plan & Zero Hedge:
 
Moments ago Politico reported that the U.S. Treasury will announce that it plans to replace former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman, the sources said. There will also be changes to the $5 bill to depict civil rights era leaders.
Not every dead president is being scraped however: treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Wednesday will announce a decision to keep Alexander Hamilton on the front of the $10 bill and put leaders of the movement to give women the right to vote on the back of the bill.
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The Saudi 9/11 Blackmail Explained: The K-Street Lobby Racketeers Have It Covered

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 16:25 U.S. officials have warned of “diplomatic and economic fallout from the [looming 9/11] legislation.” So what sort of economic fallout do they envision? Part of the concern is no doubt related to the impact on global financial markets from a Saudi fire sale, but there’s a potentially even bigger concern at play. Specifically, Saudi Arabia pays Washington insiders an exorbitant amount of money to put the monarchy’s interests ahead of what’s best for the American people.

"We Are Taking Them To The Cleaners" - State Street Caught Stealing From Clients With Up To 1,900% Markups

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 15:54 One of the more egregious examples in recent history of "nickel and diming" one's clients was revealed today when Massachusetts' top securities regulator alleged a unit of custody bank State Street routinely overbilled customers for items such as messaging services, even as an executive worried one client might "discover that we are taking them to the cleaners."

The Shaking Continues: The Most Dangerous Volcano In Mexico Has Erupted In Spectacular Fashion

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 15:54 Is The Big One imminent? Most Americans know about the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit San Francisco on April 18th of that year, but most people don’t understand that it came in the context of these other major quakes. In 1906 there were major earthquakes in Ecuador and Japan that preceded the historic San Francisco earthquake.

Keynesian Central Bankers - Wrong From The Beginning, But No One To Stop Them

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 15:35 "They really don’t know what they are doing. They never have. And nobody stops them."

Why Competing With HFTs To "Trade By Headlines" Just Doesn't Work

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 15:19

Bill Gross Covers Brazil CDS Trade 'Just In Time'

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 15:06 "Nailed it..."

Europe's Inevitable Intervention In Libya Will Add 1.3 Million Barrels To The World Oil Glut

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 14:47 Europe is planning on recolonizing Libya, and so it will send in armed forces in the coming months to restore order and stem the flow of migrants coming from Africa. If this expedition army succeeds in securing parts of the country and restoring law and order, Italian and German engineers from ENI and Wintershall will follow suit to help resume the country’s oil production, which will add 1.3 million barrels per day (Libya produced 1.7 million barrels per day before Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011) to the world oil glut.

Cash-Strapped ISIS Is Killing Its Own Fighters To Sell Their Organs

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 14:27 It has gotten so bad for the cash-strapped Islamic State terror group that ISIS has resorted to killing its injured fighters so that their organs can be extracted and sold on the black market abroad. "Doctors were threatened to take out the body organs of a wounded ISIL militant," the Arabic-language al-Sabah newspaper reported citing a source in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Utah Lawmakers Literally Think Porn Is A "Public Health Hazard"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 14:06 Utah isn’t exactly known as a hotbed of socially lenient legislation, but Governor Gary R. Herbert plans to chisel in stone the state’s erstwhile Puritanical reputation by signing two pieces of legislation to combat the “sexually toxic environment” ostensibly induced by pornography.

"I Am Saddened That We Can No Longer Be Hospitable To Clients" - FCA Tells Asset Managers No More Golf

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 13:46 “I am saddened by the idea that we can no longer be hospitable to clients,” said Justin Urquhart Stewart, chief executive of Seven Investment Management. “Soon we will be having a golf day without golf balls, a fishing day in the gym and we will be watching Formula One racing on the office television.”

Saudi Arabia Admits To John Kerry That It Created ISIS... But There Is A Twist

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 13:35 "After the Iraqi city of Mosul fell to a lightning Isis offensive in 2014, even the late Prince Saud al-Faisal, the respected Saudi foreign minister, remonstrated with John Kerry, US secretary of state, that “Daesh [Isis] is our [Sunni] response to your support for the Da’wa” — the Tehran-aligned Shia Islamist ruling party of Iraq."



"Wrong Way Gartman"...

RIP Dennis Gartman? Crude Hits $44

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 13:09 Perhaps the reason for the surge is that Virtu's algos just wanted Gartman dead?

"China Yuan Gold Fix Is Part Of A Planned Shift From Dollar": China's Bocom

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2016 - 12:51 China's shift to an official local-currency-based gold fixing is "the culmination of a two-year plan to move away from a US-centric monetary system," according to Bocom strategist Hao Hong. In an insightfully honest Bloomberg TV interview, Hong admits that "by trading physical gold in renminbi, China is slowly chipping away at the dominance of US dollars." Gold, silver, and petroleum "are the three USD-based commodites that China wants most control of" according to Hong but "gold in particular is one of the commodities that China is hoarding very hard."

CHINA VS. THE GOLD CARTEL – NO CONTEST!

by Andy Hoffman, Miles Franklin:
…The Cartel is still, per the title of my March 15^thAudioblog, “fighting to the monetary death.”  Which is why their manic defense of the $1,250/oz “line in the sand” – since first being breached by the “unexpected” $60/oz up day on February 11^th – has been so obvious to anyone with a pulse; such as yesterday, before and after gold surged to $1,256/oz; and today, after gold had the nerve to rise to $1,255 again.  Heck, they even – at “2:15 AM” of course, for the 625^th time in the past 717 trading days – took silver down, after it had just had a massive technical breakout, by $0.50/oz in a half hours’ time – before it rebounded back to $17.10/oz as I write, at 9:20 AM EST.
I know, I’m a “small fish” in the giant world of global finance.  However, when it comes to Precious Metals, I’m as aware as anyone on the planet.  Having been fully invested in not only the sector, but – from the “front lines” – the war against the gold Cartel for the past 14 years, my senses are as attuned to what’s going on as anyone.
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Gold Looks Ready To Spike Higher – JPM Gets It Wrong Again

by Dave Kranzler, Investment Research Dynamics:

These are the most gold-friendly readings in almost 2 months. India is getting ready to participate in the world gold market again. India’s gold imports drop 80.48% to $972.9 million in March documents what a heavy blow the Indian gold retailers strike struck to global gold. JBGJ guesstimates March imports at around 24 tonnes meaning some 120 tonnes of demand was lost in March. – From John Brimelow’s Gold Jottings.
The quote above from Brimelow’s Gold Jottings report is in reference to the fact that gold import price premiums in excess of the import duty India’s gold market began to appear again.
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Nobody Believes the Media Anymore: “Trust Has Eroded to Just 6 Percent” Of Americans

by Mac Slavo, SHTFPlan:

The truth is, most Americans have understood that the network news and television broadcasts are filled with lies for a while now.
Only, Americans in general put up with the lies for a long time, so long as they still had good jobs, and a decent opportunity as security and a good life.
Nowadays, the squeeze is on. The economic pressure and the growing underclass of government-dependent zombies are all too clear. Many people are becoming sophisticated at sorting out untruths and self-serving propaganda.
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Soros VS Rothschild’s

by Matty, The Illusion of Our Reality:

There’s banter out there that these 2 psychopathic oligarchs are at war. Why would they be at logger heads do you think ? These people don’t have feuds, they part of the same team. And this team sticks to the game plan. Sometimes the public gets a chance to be the victor though. Take the Monsanto court case for instance. It was a win for those campaigning against Round Up and GMO crops etc. Well, where’s that court case now ?
In oligarchical life there are many things you need to get done like, checking the gold count, checking the propaganda that you fund is performing well, making sure those who thought they were in the club of the Elite know, that there’s a bit of culling going on and that some members may be shown the door. They’re are the ones who thought they had a place but – Panama Papers at Low Tide !
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