Haunting Pictures Of A Transportation Recession As Freight Rail Traffic Plunges

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 07:42
The impact of the transportation recession on railroads is now very visible. Here’s how Union Pacific is dealing with this issue, via Google Earth, on May 3: 292 engines idled on a siding west of Benson, Arizona, along I-10, for a stretch of nearly 4 miles. Note how the line of locomotives curves and fades into the left edge of the photo – an once majestic and haunting sight, all these powerful machines idled on a track in the Arizona desert...

Yep, We Were Right, Gold Is Hot At Sohn

from Kitco:

Although David Einhorn, president of Greenlight Capital has yet to speak at the Sohn Investment Conference, which raises money for charity, gold has already been the hot topic of the day.
Earlier in the afternoon, billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller and former chief executive officer of Duquesne Family Office, extensively criticized the Federal Reserve and recommended investors sell stocks and buy gold.
He warned that the U.S. central bank has no end game and that its policies are raising the odds of the economic tail risk that it is trying to avoid. He also said that the Fed’s dovish policies has created “recklessness at the government and corporate level.”
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"I Can Only Say I'm Sorry" - Self-Professed Bitcoin "Creator" Can't Provide Proof, Backs Out

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 09:41

Trumped! Why It Happened And What Comes Next, Part 1

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 09:23 First there were seventeen. At length, there was one. Donald Trump’s wildly improbable capture of the GOP nomination, therefore, is the most significant upheaval in American politics since Ronald Reagan. And the proximate cause is essentially the same. Like back then, an era of drastic bipartisan mis-governance has finally generated an electoral impulse to sweep out the stables.

A Big [CRIMINAL] Bank Suggests WEALTH Taxation

by Jeff Nielson, Sprott Money:
There is a two-word phrase which is virtually never heard within the vacuous propaganda machine known as the mainstream media: “wealth taxation”. There are very obvious reasons for such conceptual censorship.
To begin with, the corporate media is merely one of the subsidiaries of the financial crime syndicate which readers know as “the One Bank” . The [Rothschild] One Bank exists for one purpose, to steal wealth. Any form of wealth-taxation would effectively claw back significant amounts of these ill-gotten gains; therefore, discussion of this concept is verboten.
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Tesla Is Tumbling In The Pre-Market

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 09:08 The battle between Elon Musk and Jim Chanos continues in the pre-market as non-GAAP exuberance is trumped by epic cash burns and reality-checks from hedge fund managers. The after-hours panic-buying algos appear to have enabled more than a few to exit in a hurry...

Commodities Are Surging As The Dollar Rolls Over

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 09:02 Overnight strength in the USDollar has begun to rollover, most notably against the Yen, and that is sparking a bid in commodities - industrial and precious metals. Canada headlines (and Libya) along with dismal US jobs data have also piled on, sending WTI Crude to test $46 (and copper is rallying) as Gold and Silver surge...

The Fallout From The "Devastating" Canadian Wildfire: Over 500,000 Barrels Offline, $1 Billion In Losses

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 08:57 Now that Canada has had a chance to evaluate the damage from the historic Alberta fire, the question on everyone's lips is what will be the near-term impact on oil production.  The most comprehensive answer provided so far comes from Morgan Stanley's Benny Wong who estimates that the total number of offline capacity will be anywhere between 400 and 500 mbbl/d, with the shut-in expected to last about 10 days, potentially reducing total market output by as much as 5 million barrels.

R.I.P. TTIP?

from Wolf Street:

TTIP, the once super-secret transatlantic trade deal that is now broadly despised on both sides of the Atlantic, may not be alive yet but it could soon be dead. And all thanks to leaks which confirm a longstanding suspicion in Europe that the ultimate goal of TTIP is to pry open European markets for big U.S. corporations, with little offered in the way of reciprocity.
The UK Independent reports that the 248 pages of documents released by Greenpeace show that the “hated” deal would grant US corporations “unprecedented powers” over any new public health or safety regulations to be introduced in the future:
If any European government does dare to bring in laws to raise social or environmental standards, TTIP will grant US investors the right to sue for loss of profits.
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3 "Reality-Check" Charts For America As Initial Jobless Claims Spike Most In 16 Months

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 08:37

Turkey PM To Quit, Handing Even More Power To Erdogan: What This Means For Turkey

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 08:24 Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says he will stand down at an extraordinary congress of his ruling AK Party later this month. Speculation about his resignation has been rife since Mr Davutoglu met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday. He is long thought to have disapproved of Mr Erdogan's plans to move Turkey to a presidential system of government. He announced his resignation after holding talks with party leaders. The congress would be held on 22 May.

A "Recovery" Paradox: Job Cuts In 2016 Are Highest Since 2009 As Initial Jobless Claims Tumble

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 08:08 The paradoxical divergence between the government's data on initial jobless claims, which in just over half an hour is expected to print at or close to another multi-decade low, and the actual number of layoff announcements by employers as tracked by Challenger Gray, and which continues to soar is puzzling to say the least. In the first four months of 2016, employers have announced a total of 250,061 planned job cuts, up 24% from the 201,796 job cuts tracked during the same period a year ago. This represents the highest January-April total since 2009, when the opening four months of the year saw 695,100 job cuts in the aftermath of the biggest financial crisis in modern history.

"Global LIBOR Scapegoat" Turns To Public Crowdfunding To Fund Appeal

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 07:04 While UBS agreed to pay $1.5 billion to quickly settle charges that the bank manipulated LIBOR, trader Tom "Libor is too high, 'cos I've kept it artificially high" Hayes wasn't so lucky however. Alas, Hayes' pockets weren't that deep and he was the scapegoat UBS chose to offer up to the masses in the wake of the scandal, eventually being found guilty and sentenced to 14 years in jail (later reduced to 11 years).

Futures Rebound As Crude Regains $45 On Canada Fears; Turkey Hammered

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 06:47 While markets remain relatively subdued ahead of tomorrow's nonfarm payrolls report, after several days of losses in US stocks which pushed the S&P500 to three week lows, overnight markets ignored the latest weak data out of China where the Caixin Services PMI was the latest indicator to disappoint (dropping from 52.2 to 51.8), and instead focused on crude, which rebounded from yesterday's post inventory-build lows and briefly printed above $45/bbl over uncertainty related to the impact of Canada wildfires on production and how long will last. The bounce in WTI has meant Brent briefly traded at parity with West Texas for the first time in 6 weeks.

A Very Bearish Stanley Druckenmiller Blows Up At The Fed; Reveals His Biggest "Currency" Position

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 06:09 If anyone had wondered if Stanley Druckenmiller's recent bearishness had dissipated, or transformed into at least modest bullishness as a result of the market meltup, we have bad news.

Another Deadlocked Election Coming Up In Spain

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 04:57 After six months of failed coalition attempts, Spain’s King Felipe dissolved parliament and announced new elections. I reported on this last week, but the official document dissolving parliament was signed today. New elections are on June 26. Will the results be any different?

Majority Of Germans Think The Media Is Controlled By Political, Economic Elites

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 04:00 According to a recent survey, the majority of people in Germany view the news media as simply a pillar of the government and the powerfully elite. Only one third of the respondents think that the German news media is truly independent, while the majority view the government and parties as having control over particular policies, and the lobbyists and advertisers having control over the economic news.

Guest Post: The Great Western Retreat

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2016 - 03:00 "This massive deployment of armed forces in our own cities is a departure from history. It is a moral disarmament, before a military one. It is Europe's new Weimar moment.."

Notorious Hacker Makes 'Bombshell' Claim: "I Got Inside Hillary's Completely Unsecured Server"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/04/2016 - 23:33 In a dramatic development that could lead to renewed focus on Hillary Clinton's email server scandal, NBC reports that the Romanian hacker who first exposed Hillary Clinton's private email address is making a "bombshell" new claim: that he also gained access to the former Secretary of State's "completely unsecured" server.

Quaker Oats sued over glyphosate found in its ‘all natural’ oats… the truth is starting to come out about widespread glyphosate contamination of the food supply

by Mike Adams, Natural News:
Quaker Oats, owned by PepsiCo, has been sued over its “all natural” oats containing high levels of glyphosate weed killer (sold as “Roundup” by Monsanto).
The New York Times, forever a defender of Monsanto and GMOs, is blatantly lying to its readers by claiming the glyphosate found in Quaker Oats is nothing more than “traces.” In reality, the glyphosate contamination of Quaker Oats was tested at alarming levels by a St. Louis laboratory using the ELISA technique.
Natural News recently reported those numbers in a previous article. They were also released by the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH-USA.org). The tests revealed glyphosate in whole wheat bread, bagels, hot cereals, coffee creamers, instant oatmeal and more.
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Did The Fed Signal The Inevitability Of The Next Banking System Collapse?

by Dave Kranzler, Investment Research Dynamics:
Like a Mafia Don protecting his “family,” the Fed is implementing another layer of “protection” from collapse for the Too Big To Fail Banks. This latest deal will prevent bank counter-parties from pulling collateral from a collapsing bank. The installation of this law is a warning signal that the global banking system is barreling toward another devastating financial collapse.
The cover story for this scheme is that it will prevent another “Lehman” event from taking down the entire financial system. But it wasn’t Lehman, per se, that caused the 2008 collapse. Bear Stearns lit the fuse, Lehman was selectively thrown into the explosives mix and AIG/Goldman sprayed napalm into the explosion.
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