Saturday, January 2, 2016

Obama Declares He Will Act Unilaterally on Gun Control: ‘Congress Still Hasn’t Done Anything’


from CNS News:
In his first weekly address of 2016, President Barack Obama expressed dismay that the U.S. Congress had not enacted gun control legislation he desired, so now he is planning to act unilaterally on the matter.
“This Friday, I’ll be thinking about my friend Gabby Giffords, five years into her recovery from the shooting in Tucson,” said Obama. “And all across America, survivors of gun violence and those who lost a child, a parent, a spouse to gun violence are forced to mark such awful anniversaries every single day.
“And yet Congress still hasn’t done anything to prevent what happened to them from happening to other families,” he said.
Read More



Re-Branding Dissent - The Quiet Destruction Of Democracy

The Global Over-Class have decided that Democracy is a threat to their wealth and power and have more than likely given some thought to how best to neuter it while appearing to do no such thing. Simply put, in their minds, we cannot any longer allow you to choose unwisely! The key problem for the Over Class is that no matter how much they might like to, they cannot just come out and say dissent – aka radically different opinion – is a bad thing. Being able to hold a dissenting opinion, even a radically dissenting opinion, is, after all, the core of democratic freedom.



Monopoly Much? America's Largest Utility Hikes Rates Most In 9 Years Despite NatGas Price Crash

Happy New Year Californians - behold the power of monopoly and regulatory capture.

Will the US Economy Collapse in 2016? Predictions and Preparations

by Eric Blair, Activist Post:
Is 2016 the year our financial system fully collapses?
It seems like the alternative media always predicts that an economic collapse is coming. In many ways we’ve been right, but in many ways we’ve been wrong. Sure, mathematically, the debt-based monetary system is headed for disaster, and clearly certain parts of the economy are already experiencing major declines. However, we have to admit that our breathless annual predictions of a major economic collapse have been wrong.
I guess it all depends how you define economic collapse. The oil industry is currently experiencing a collapse. Brick and mortar retail is in collapse. Fast food is also hemorrhaging. And financial institutions are shedding jobs faster than ever. If you’re in one of these fields, you probably feel like the collapse is happening all around you.
Read More

Saudi Arabia Carries Out Largest Mass Execution In 25 Years After Beheadings Soar In 2015

Saudi Arabia - that Western-backed bastion of human rights - executed 47 people on Saturday, including a top Shiite cleric whose death sparked protests in Eastern Province and inflamed s

Database of 191 Million U.S. Voters Found on the Internet

from RTAmerica:


Protesters Set The Streets On Fire In Bahrain After Saudis Kill Top Shiite Cleric





Kyle Bass Suffers "Worst Year In The Last Ten", Reveals His Best Investment For The Next "3-5 Years"

Iin an interview to be aired tomorrow on Wall Street Week, Hayman Capital's Kyle Bass says that "this has been one of the worst years in the last ten"as a result of his dogmatic views on energy prices. And yet, instead of backing out the Texan is doubling down: "If you are going to allocate capital for the next three to five years, you should do it now" into the energy space over the next 6 months. Will he be right this time? Find out in 12 months.



A "Witch's Brew" Bubbling In Bond ETFs

We believe the Credit Cycle has turned and with it will come some massive unexpected shocks. One of these will be the fall out in the Bond Market, centered around the dramatic growth explosion in Bond ETFs coupled with the post financial crisis regulatory changes that effectively removed banks from making markets in corporate bonds.  It is a ‘Witch’s Brew’ with a flattening yield curve bringing it to a boil.



Putin Names US As Threat To Russian National Security In New Strategy Document

"The strengthening of Russia happens against the background of new threats to the national security [while] conducting an independent policy has triggered a counteraction from the USA and its allies," Russia's new national security strategy document reads. While the Western media has been quick to say that the new appraisal is further evidence of deteriorating relations between Moscow and Washington, an objective take may tell a different story.



Stunning Drone Footage Of The Midwest Flooding Wreaking Havoc On US Oil

After the first deadly winter storm this season, now come the floods: the near record-water level across the U.S. Midwest has disrupted everything from oil to agriculture, forcing pipelines, terminals and grain elevators to close. Here is the stunning drone's-eye footage capturing the unprecedented water level across much of the US Midwest.



Why Did The Pentagon Falsify Reports About Military Successes In Fight Against ISIS?

We hope that the special group of the House of Representatives will identify not only the scale of the fraud reports about the results of the coalition activity against terrorism, but also those persons who are responsible for these misconducts, as well as their motives. The international community wants to know who exactly Pentagon supplies with weapons and what installations it bombs.



Something Went Wrong In Baltimore

It has been a bloody year in Baltimore, that much everyone knows, but as The Economist shows, something changed dramatically after Freddie Gray's death in April...



Carmen Reinhart Warns "Serious Sovereign Debt Defaults" Are Looming

As 2016 begins, there are clear signs of serious debt/default squalls on the horizon. We can already see the first white-capped waves.



2016's Planet Of The Aches

Some 'aches and pains' are constraining the global economy, with JPMorgan warning of more severe strains occurring in the emerging world. These aggravating but generally not life-threatening conditions are meant to convey a slow growth world, but, JPM is careful to note, not one on the immediate precipice of collapse or recession. The key issue for 2016 then is whether economic illnesses in emerging markets will result in contagion in the developed world as "dollar altitude sickness" and "earnings anemia" do little to support the domestic 'immune' system.



Noble Group’s "Collateral Margin Call"

It is not Liquidity that banks are asking but for more Collateral from Noble starting this year because they also understand that this MTM gain on commodity contracts and derivatives of Noble will unlikely be realized at more than 10% and therefore is not valid collateral for the trader’s working capital borrowing base requirements.


George Soros Is About To Overthrow The U.S.

from TheAlexJonesChannel:


President Barack Obama is expected to take executive action on gun control, possibly as soon as next week, according to gun control advocates.

OBAMACARE RATES SET TO SKYROCKET IN 2016 AS UGLY TRUTH OF SOCIALIZED MEDICINE SETTLES IN

by Geoffrey Grider, Now The End Begins:
OBAMACARE PREMIUM COSTS WILL SOAR 20.3 PERCENT ON AVERAGE IN 2016 INSTEAD OF THE 7.5 PERCENT INCREASE CLAIMED BY FEDERAL OFFICIALS.
As I opened my mail the other day, I was informed that my health insurance premiums would rise over 20% in the new year of 2016. A few weeks earlier I had received a notice that because I did not have Obama-approved health insurance in 2014, that I would have to pay hundreds of dollars in fines in the form of a tax. I am ones of the tens of millions of Americans that this is happening to. America is starting to wake up to the ugly truth of what life under a Socialist-funded regime is going to be like.
Recently, the Obama administration released figures for a modest 7.5% increase in the cost of health insurance for 2016, but they were highly and intentionally skewed numbers. The actual amount, as I found out first hand, is over 20%.
Read More



/

Friday, January 1, 2016

On The Trail Of Dubai's Stolen Gold: A Robbed Client Breaks The Silence, And A Fascinating Detail Emerges



The deeper we dig into the story of Dubai's vaporized gold, the more skeletons just tumble out of the closet on what may be the world's biggest gold smuggling ring ever, one involving not just Turkey and Iran, but the mother of all gold smuggling: China itself...



Why Did The Pentagon Falsify Reports About Military Successes In Fight Against ISIS?

We hope that the special group of the House of Representatives will identify not only the scale of the fraud reports about the results of the coalition activity against terrorism, but also those persons who are responsible for these misconducts, as well as their motives. The international community wants to know who exactly Pentagon supplies with weapons and what installations it bombs.



Something Went Wrong In Baltimore

It has been a bloody year in Baltimore, that much everyone knows, but as The Economist shows, something changed dramatically after Freddie Gray's death in April...



Carmen Reinhart Warns "Serious Sovereign Debt Defaults" Are Looming

As 2016 begins, there are clear signs of serious debt/default squalls on the horizon. We can already see the first white-capped waves.

China’s Silence Over GMOs Sends Biotech Company to U.S.

by Christina Sarich, Natural Society:
A Beijing, China-based agritech company, Origin Agritech was planning on launching China’s first seed company on its home turf, but with the country feeling uneasy about biotech seed sales, and the recent news concerning Monsanto’s RoundUp containing a likely-carcinogen, Origin will test its seed technology in the US instead. [1]
Months ago, Chinese firm China National Chemical Corp (CNCC) showed its eagerness to enter the international biotech market, but after a failed attempt to fast-track its plans with a bid to purchase the Swiss-based Syngenta (just after Monsanto tried and failed), the company also found that officials in Beijing are not excited to host field trials of GM products, namely GM maize. This was to be the first home-grown GM product in China meant for a world market.
Read More

Keynesian vs. Austrian Economics - The Infographic











"Not Transitory" - The Year In Junk Bonds

The most important story of 2015 had to have been the junk bond reversal. It is not your typical market behavior; not at all the “wall of worry” that represents healthy skepticism and functional fundamental discounting but rather a “get the hell out of Dodge” and stay out. Not transitory at all, then, rather a paradigm shift that isn’t yet even close to a new steady state. Welcome to 2016.



Caption Contest: "And Then I Said Obamacare Would Lower Insurance Costs"

"Comedians" in cars...



Mapping China's Hilarious European Stereotypes

For those wondering what comes to mind for the average Chinese web surfer with regard to nations in Europe, we present the following map from Foreign Policy who “plotted the most common Chinese-language Baidu query for each European nation.” Highlights include "likes to fight" for Russia, "why doesn't it annex Portugal" for Spain, and "beautiful women" for Ukraine.



Will 2016 Be The End Of The Current Skyscraper Boom?

With more financing in place, the world’s tallest skyscraper is moving forward. Saud Arabia's Kingdom Tower in Jeddah is only the latest phase in an enormous boom that began setting new records in 2014, raising another 'skyscraper alert' as the completion of record-setting skyscrapers has long seemed to indicate the beginning of economic crises.



Obama To Unveil "Multiple Gun Control" Executive Actions Next Week

The president has directed administration officials to explore any steps he could take on guns without lawmakers’ help, and he said in his weekly address that he would sit down with Ms. Lynch on Monday “to discuss our options.” Once he has Lynch's "blessing", the WSJ adds that Obama "could lay out multiple executive actions as soon as next week, and administration officials have confirmed that recommendations for the president are nearing completion."

OBAMACARE RATES SET TO SKYROCKET IN 2016 AS UGLY TRUTH OF SOCIALIZED MEDICINE SETTLES IN

by Geoffrey Grider, Now The End Begins:
OBAMACARE PREMIUM COSTS WILL SOAR 20.3 PERCENT ON AVERAGE IN 2016 INSTEAD OF THE 7.5 PERCENT INCREASE CLAIMED BY FEDERAL OFFICIALS.
As I opened my mail the other day, I was informed that my health insurance premiums would rise over 20% in the new year of 2016. A few weeks earlier I had received a notice that because I did not have Obama-approved health insurance in 2014, that I would have to pay hundreds of dollars in fines in the form of a tax. I am ones of the tens of millions of Americans that this is happening to. America is starting to wake up to the ugly truth of what life under a Socialist-funded regime is going to be like.
Recently, the Obama administration released figures for a modest 7.5% increase in the cost of health insurance for 2016, but they were highly and intentionally skewed numbers. The actual amount, as I found out first hand, is over 20%.
Read More

A Year Of Living Technically: Charting The Markets Of 2015







Keep eating that yummy Pacific Ocean fish...

Baby whales dying along West Coast from “unknown cause”

Carcasses washing up on beaches in US, Canada, Mexico — Highly endangered whale “died from abnormal blood clot formations in heart and lungs”
from ENE News:
Canadian Press, Dec 30, 2015 (emphasis added): A female orca calf has been found deadon the west coast of Vancouver Island. Paul Cottrell of Fisheries and Oceans Canada said a surfer spotted the dead whale washed up on Mussel Beach near Ucluelet on Dec. 23… a necropsy was conducted on Christmas Day. Scientists are still awaiting results of tissue-sample testing and a cause of death is not yet known… “All our populations of killer whales are at risk, so it’s a shame regardless of which population it’s from,” he said. “You hate to lose a calf out of these populations.” Scientists have requested a rush on the tissue testing… He said it’s believed the calf was about two months old… Cottrell noted it was especially unfortunate that the calf was female because of their value in contributing to the population.
Read More

Hillary Clinton: Career Criminal

by Tim Brown, Freedom Outpost:
A video that needs to be spread far and wide among anyone that is even thinking of supporting Hillary Clinton is now at center stage. The video reminds Americans, especially younger Americans and those with short memories of the various scandals, dead bodies and criminal activities that Hillary has been engaged in the past, including those of her White House days with husband, Bill Clinton.
Many would love to see justice brought down on this unethical, immoral woman, but we can’t count on Congress to do it. With all of their “tough talk,” including congressmen like Trey Gowdy (R-SC), they have failed to bring one indictment against her. However, it’s even worse than that. While conservatives applaud the tough talk, they fail to see what is really going on. Just take a look at the homage paid to Hillary Clinton when she testified before Gowdy’s Benghazi committee, which has found tons of criminal activity, but has done absolutely nothing about it.
Read More

The Next Big Short — Jeff Bezos’ Brobdingnagian Bubble

by David Stockman, Contra Corner:
If you have forgotten your Gulliver’s Travels, recall that Jonathan Swift described the people of Brobdingnag as being as tall as church steeples and having a ten foot stride. Everything else was in proportion——with rats the size of mastiffs and the latter the size of four elephants, while flies were “as big as a Dunstable lark” and wasps were the size of partridges.
Hence the word for this fictional land has come to mean colossal, enormous, gigantic, huge, immense or, as the urban dictionary puts it, “really f*cking big”.
That would also describe the $325 billion bubble which comprises Amazon’s market cap.
Read More



/

Gun Sales Surge In Switzerland As Army Chief Warns "Arm Yourselves"



It would appear the people of Switzerland have been listening to their military leaders. Having recently been warned by the Swiss army chief of growing social unrest, SwissInfo reports applications for gun permits in Switzerland increased by 20% between 2014 and 2015, according to a survey conducted in 12 cantons. But while the army proposes "arm yourselves," Swiss crime prevention officials warn against the false sense of security that guns bring. And while the Swiss go about their legal business of arming themselves, President Obama is preparing to unleash another weapon - the executive order - to enact gun-control legislation.


Obama To Unveil "Multiple Gun Control" Executive Actions Next Week

The president has directed administration officials to explore any steps he could take on guns without lawmakers’ help, and he said in his weekly address that he would sit down with Ms. Lynch on Monday “to discuss our options.” Once he has Lynch's "blessing", the WSJ adds that Obama "could lay out multiple executive actions as soon as next week, and administration officials have confirmed that recommendations for the president are nearing completion."


A Year Of Living Technically: Charting The Markets Of 2015








2016

Faith! Hope? Then Clarity...




Poker's 10 Most Valuable Investment Lessons

While most amateurs will bet on most hands, take speculative positions where the odds of success are stacked against them or try to bluff their way through a losing hand; professionals play with a cold, calculated and unemotional discipline. The professional gambler understands the odds of success of every play and measures his “bets” accordingly. He knows when to be “all in” and when to “fold and walk away.” Do they succeed all the time – of course not. However, by understanding how to limit losses they survive long enough to come out a winner over time.



The Next Big Short

At the end of the day, the current preposterous $325 billion market cap has nothing to do with the business prospects of this firm or the considerable entrepreneurial prowess of its leader and his army of disrupters. It is more in the nature of financial rigor mortis - the final spasm of the robo-traders and the fast money crowd chasing one of the greatest bubbles still standing in the casino.



Norwegian Car-B-Q: Tesla Model S Bursts Into Flames, Burns To A Crisp While Charging

The Norwegian owner of a Tesla Model S found an unexpected f(i)ringe benefit during a cold Friday afternoon when shortly after he had parked his luxury electric car at a supercharging station in Gjerstad, and left, he realized the car could serve as a very quick and efficient, if quite toxic, source of heating for the cold Scandinavian country, when the Model S spontaneously burst into flames.



Turkey's Erdogan Praises "Hitler's Germany" As Example Of Effective Government

Back in August, Nationalist opposition leader Devlet Bahceli took to Twitter to call Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "locally produced Hitler, Stalin or Qaddafi." While Bahceli probably meant that as an insult, Erdogan seems to agree.

George Soros Regrets Supporting Obama, Eagerly Awaits President Hillary





Obama Folds To Iran (Again), Will Delay New Sanctions After Rouhani Threat

"If the president’s announced sanctions ultimately aren’t executed, it would demonstrate a level of fecklessness that even the president hasn’t shown before."



2015 Greatest Hits: Presenting The Most Popular Posts Of The Past Year

The seventh anniversary of Zero Hedge is just around the corner, and so, for the seventh year in a row we continue our tradition of summarizing what our readers found to be the most relevant, exciting, and actionable news of the year, determined by the number of page views. We bring you the articles that you, dear reader, found to be the most interesting in the past 365 days.



"Seven Iraqis" With ISIS Ties Planned Coordinated Suicide Attacks In Germany Last Night

“Seven Iraqis living in Munich were named as the potential attackers, and they were planning to enter the stations in pairs and blow themselves up simultaneously."



Two Dead In Tel Aviv Shooting Attack, Car Bomb Explodes At Afghan Restaurant In Violent Start To New Year

Just hours after Bavarian authorities closed the Hauptbahnhof and Pasing stations in Munich after Germany received a tip from French and American intelligence sources that a terrorist attack was planned for New Year’s Eve, two “incidents” have occurred in Kabul and Tel Aviv.



We're All Fascists Now

If Donald Trump is a megalomaniac salivating over taking control of American Weimar, then both Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio are führers in the making. The same goes for the rest of the field, where each and every candidate aspires to be the Celebrity-in-Chief. Trump only looks worse because he doesn’t have the benefit of a sympathetic media on his side.



How ISIS Broadcasts Its Message To The World: Satellite Dishes Bought In Turkey

According to a piece published earlier this month by Spiegel, ISIS obtains the satellite technology it needs to disseminate its propaganda in Antakya. In addition to reinforcing the link between the group and Turkey, this also raises an interesting question: why are the satellite service providers not doing anything to stop the group from spreading its message?

2015 Was The Worst Year For The Stock Market Since 2008

by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:

It’s official – 2015 was a horrible year for stocks.  On the last day of the year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down another 178 points, and overall it was the worst year for the Dow since 2008.  But of course the Dow was far from alone.  The S&P 500, the Russell 2000 and Dow Transports also all had their worst years since 2008.  Isn’t it funny how these things seem to happen every seven years?  But compared to other investments, stocks had a relatively “good” year.  In 2015, junk bondsoil and industrial commodities all crashed hard – just like they all did just prior to the great stock market crash of 2008.  According to CNN, almost 70 percent of all investors lost money in 2015, and things are unfolding in textbook fashion for much more financial chaos in 2016.
Read More…

Since Christmas, US Cops Have Killed Twice as Many People as UK Cops Have In the Last 5 Years

by Justin Gardner, The Free Thought Project:

In all of 2011, British police killed 2 people. In 2012, 1 person. In 2013, a total of 3 bullets left the barrels of British police guns, and no one was killed. In the last two years, a total of 4 people have lost their lives because of British cops, bringing the total number of citizens killed in the UK to 7 in the last 5 years.
Since Christmas, police in America have killed 14 people. In 1 week, American cops have killed twice as many people as the British police have killed since 2011!
But if we zoom out just a little further, those numbers become even more shocking. Since 1990, police officers in the United Kingdom have killed exactly 58 people.
Read More

Many Americans’ Worst Fears About To Become Reality As Obama Unveils This Shocking New Plan

from Western Journalism:

President Obama is nearing completion of an executive order that seeks to close the so-called gun show loophole — something gun rights advocates have said is non-existent.
According to Politico, “…the changes include requiring an expanded number of small-scale gun sellers to be licensed — and therefore conduct background checks — whenever selling a weapon. This wouldn’t close the so-called gun show loophole, though it has the potential to narrow it.”
The background check change is expected to expand the definition of what it means to be “engaged in the business” of selling guns.
Read More

US claims over civilian deaths in Syria ‘absurd,’ Russia says

[Ed. Note: Michael RiveroThe Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is run out of a home in Coventry, Britain by one man, Abdel Rahman, who has not been in Syria for the last fifteen years.]
from Press TV:
TThe Asian The Russian Defense Ministry has denounced as “absurd” allegations by the United States that Moscow’s airstrikes in Syria are causing civilian casualties.
The reaction came a day after the US Department of State claimed that the Russian campaign had left hundreds of “civilians” dead and struck “medical facilities, schools and markets.”
“All of these anonymous and unsubstantiated statements about the alleged use of Russian aircraft on civilian targets in Syria are increasingly reminiscent of hypnotists’ acts in travelling circuses,” the ministry said in a Wednesday statement, slamming the claims as “absurd.”
Read More

Trump Says Hillary Afraid, Obama Stupid

from TheAlexJonesChannel:


When The U.S. Dollar No Longer Exists

by Jeff Nielson, Bullion Bulls:
Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve think that now is finally the time to normalize U.S. interest rates. As was already explained in a recent commentary; this could only be considered a financial “torpedo”, deliberately aimed at a crippled economy.
The U.S. retail sector has already been mired in a Greater Depression, for several years. Fifty millionpermanently unemployed Americans have simply given up hope of ever finding work, and left the workforce. Tens of millions more search desperately for jobs which actually pay a livable wage – jobs that don’t exist. The U.S. manufacturing sector had already started to collapse, just before Yellen launched her first torpedo.
Read More


/