BY PATRICK WATSON You’ve heard the old line about three kinds of falsehoods: lies, damned lies, and statistics. All three are easy to find on the Internet. Unlike lies, though, statistics can be useful if taken with a grain of salt. For instance, you want to remember that correlation doesn’t equal causation. If event A repeatedly occurs right … Read more
Via Marketwatch Millions of Americans who lost manufacturing jobs during the 2000s have long ”known” China was to blame, not robots. And many helped elect Donald Trump as president because of his insistence that China was at fault. Evidently many academics who’ve studied the issue are finally drawing the same conclusion. For years economists have … Read more
by Adam Hamilton of Zeal LLC The mega-cap stocks that dominate the US markets are just wrapping up a truly-extraordinary earnings season. Naturally this first quarter under Republicans’ new corporate tax cuts fueled surging profits. But sales were up big too, which is no mean feat for massive companies. With sustained growth at this torrid pace impossible, peak-earnings fears are mounting. And … Read more
via Danielle Park Nomi Prins, author of “Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World,” discusses how easy monetary policy has affected the global economy. Here is a direct video link. David Rosenberg’s recent corporate debt to GDP cycle chart goes well with this discussion, shown here since 1986.
via ZeroHedge Frequent readers will recall that it was Andrew Lapthorne’s revelation back in late 2015, which was behind the following chart, indicating that virtually all net debt issued this century has gone for one thing: to fund buybacks, i.e. wealth transfers from bondholders to shareholders. Now, in a follow up note as the increasingly politically-charged … Read more
by stockboardasset Over the last two years, academic researchers have identified various methods that they can transmit hidden commands that are undetectable by the human ear to Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google’s Assistant. According to a new report from The New York Times, scientific researchers have been able “to secretly activate the artificial intelligence systems on … Read more
by DCG Well, this is disappointing. Gov. Fallin’s term ends in 2019. From Fox News: Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin on Friday vetoed the “Constitutional Carry” bill that, if passed, would have enabled handgun owners in the state to carry without first obtaining a permit. The NRA had supported the bill’s passage and had urged Fallin to sign it. … Read more
by Dr. Eowyn The New York Daily News reports that on April 18, 2018, New York governor Andrew Cuomo warned banks and insurers to stay away from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the gun industry because of the “reputational risk” they will incur if they do business with either. NY Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo issued … Read more
Physical Gold Fund, Released on 5/11/18 Click Here to Listen to the Interview http://www.physicalgoldfund.com/Download/Audio/TGC-May-2018.mp3 Topics: *Update on gold markets *New phase of financial warfare with Iran *Financial system chokepoints *US Dollar payments system *SWIFT transfers and third party influence *How the US uses dollar payments leverage to control non US transaction *How Inflation turns people … Read more
by Simon Black On October 22, 1981, the national debt in the United States crossed the $1 trillion threshold for the first time in history. It took nearly two centuries to reach that unfortunate milestone. And over that time the country had been through a revolution, civil war, two world wars, the Great Depression, the nuclear … Read more
Source: Michael J. Ballanger for Streetwise Reports Precious metals expert Michael Ballanger discusses movements in the U.S. dollar. There was an article written a few days back where the author vehemently denied that the U.S. dollar could go any lower and where the phrases “face-ripping,” “face ripper,” and “rip your face off” (as well as derivatives thereof) … Read more
by stockboardasset Lorenza Martinez, director of the Payment System of the Bank of Mexico, informed Reuters in a telephone interview last week that more than five Mexican financial institutions have recently observed “unauthorized transfers,” resulting in hundreds of millions of pesos stolen. Cybercriminals siphoned 400 million of pesos ($20.4 million) out of Mexican banks, including the second largest … Read more
by Marshall Swing of The Church Of Acts Gold and Silver are on the exact path down that I wrote about many weeks ago (actually many months and years ago, but who is counting). The COTs, open interest, and open interest movements reveal the tactics of the Commercials to prepare gold and silver for the final crash and … Read more
by Thinker The history of most Africans in positions of dictator political roles, shows the truth about who put them there. History of Africa explains why after centuries African life hasn’t changed much in the way of being robbed of their riches and living in ditches. Why are there million dollar homes in African nations … Read more
Watch the latest video at foxnews.com Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is currently being treated for pancreatic cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The former Democratic senator from Nevada underwent surgery Monday to remove a tumor from his pancreas, Reid’s family confirmed in a statement. “His doctors caught the problem early during a routine screening … Read more
via xinhuanet: Israeli war jets fighters carried out on Monday afternoon an airstrike on a Hamas military facility in northern Gaza Strip, with no injuries reported, according to Hamas armed wing and paramedics. Hamas armed wing al-Qassam Brigades said in a short text message to reporters that Israeli war jets struck the military facility in northern … Read more
via Zerohedge: President Trump surprised pundits and assorted watchers of the ongoing simmering trade war between China and the US on Sunday, when he pledged to help China’s telecom giant ZTE Corp “get back into business, fast” after a U.S. ban crippled the technology company, offering a job-saving concession to Beijing ahead of high-stakes trade … Read more
by Lance Roberts A couple of weeks ago, I discussed the coming “Pension Crisis.” The important point made was the unrealistic return assumptions used by pension managers in order to reduce the contribution (savings) requirement by their members. “However, the reason assumptions remain high is simple. If these rates were lowered 1–2 percentage points, the required pension contributions … Read more
via Rethinking Economics: Few remember the nuts and bolts of how the banks got bailed out in 2008. It shouldn’t have happened, and in fact, the bailout bill didn’t pass in Congress. The Dow dropped 740 points from its highs of the day to the lows on September 29. Immediately following this, certain ‘no’-voting Congressmen were … Read more
