Hate Speech as a Weapon: Reporters Are Charged for Covering Disturbances
by Daily Bell Staff
The Daily Bell
Editor of Austria’s Largest Paper Charged with ‘Hate Speech’ over Migrant Article … An editor of Austria’s largest paper, Kronen Zeitung, is to be tried for hate speech over a commentary he wrote about the migrant crisis last year. – Breitbart News
This is part of a larger attack on the Western media, especially the alternative media.
It’s surely not a coincidence that these attacks are being launched in several countries. The attack are being coordinated in our view by the same groups involved in the expanding scourge of globalization.
More:
On 25 October 2015, Christoph Biro wrote of the masses of migrants who were travelling through the Syrian countryside and remarked on the assaults and property damage committed by migrants, reports Kurier.
Brexit Common Sense From Sweden; Export Pain and EU Goats
by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk
No one wins trade wars. And it makes no sense to try. At long last someone has figured that out, most likely because a trade collapse has already started.
Please consider Sweden Holds Out Olive Branch to Brexit Britain.
Sweden has warned that it would be a serious mistake to chastise Britain for voting to leave the EU, appealing instead for an amicable settlement to minimise damage for both sides.
“The softer the Brexit, the better. We’re an open country and we are in favour of free trade, and we want to see a solution that is as beneficial as possible for everybody,” said Magdalena Andersson, the Swedish finance minister.
The olive branch from Stockholm reflects the shared view of the Nordic bloc that there is nothing to be gained from a fractious divorce between Britain and the EU.
Trump Unexpectedly Regains Florida Lead In Latest Bloomberg Poll; Peso Slides
from Zero Hedge
It is becoming increasingly clear that the US election will come down to a handful of “must win” battleground states, and with Hillary Clinton pulling away from Trump in recent polling, many had written off the republican candidate. However, momentum may be shifting Trump’s way after the latest poll from Bloomberg showed that Donald Trump has regained a slim advantage in one of the most important battleground states, Florida, as key independent voters narrowly broke his way.
The poll found that the Republican presidential nominee has 45% to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 43% among likely voters when third-party candidates are included, the poll found. In a hypothetical two-way race, Trump holds on to a fractional lead with 46% to Clinton’s 45%. Most notable is that among independents, Trump gets 43% to Clinton’s 41% in a head-to-head contest. When third-party candidates are included, Trump picks up 1 point with independents while Clinton drops to 37%, with Libertarian Gary Johnson taking 9 percent and the Green Party’s Jill Stein getting 5 percent.
Doug Casey Shows You How to Profit from the Latest Central Bank Gimmick
by Nick Giambruno
International Man
Nick Giambruno: Doug, both the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan (BOJ) had big meetings recently.
It seems the BOJ is eager to adopt every new “innovative” policy. I’m keeping a close eye on its strategy for debasing the yen since the Fed will probably adopt that method soon enough.
The BOJ’s latest gimmick is to target the yield curve by printing currency to buy up enough government bonds to keep the 10-year rate pegged at precisely zero.
What’s your take on this?
Doug Casey: At this point, I don’t see how anyone with an IQ above room temperature can believe that these academics know what they’re doing.
Love Him or Hate Him: Trump is the Revolution Against the Establishment
by Claudio Grass
Acting Man
The U.S. Elections: The Latest Crack in the System
The 2016 U.S. presidential elections are unprecedented: I don’t believe we have ever witnessed before a campaign year so toxic, so dangerously divisive and full of ad hominem attacks. Both camps have vilified the opposition and their followers, creating a schism in society. There has been no rational dialogue on the issues that truly concern the American public.
[…] Instead, we have witnessed personal insults and petty attacks, rumors and gossip. At this point, as a result of this catastrophic campaign, the public will not vote in favor of the candidate they agree with the most or the one they like, but against the one they hate!
In this article, we do not focus on comparisons between Clinton and Trump; enough has been said and written about the candidates themselves. Here, we look at their supporters – the crowd behind the candidates, those that will in fact shape American policy making in the coming four years.
Gold is the “Kardashian of Commodities” – Herbert & Keiser Interview Skoyles
by Mark O’Byrne
GoldCore
Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert have interviewed Jan Skoyles to discuss how gold is the “Kardashian of Commodities” and “future-proofing your portfolio with gold”.
Topics covered are
- Double Down asks Jan Skoyles, of Goldcore.com, if there is enough gold in the world to hedge against a President Trump
- U.S. Election – Trump and Clinton most hated Presidential candidates in history
- Goldman Sachs says that gold is a ‘good hedge against politicians’
- Skoyles says that, in the West, gold is considered ‘the Kardashian of commodities,’ something not taken seriously as an investment — until the likes of Goldman Sachs says it might be so
- Dubai and Middle East is “environment where people automatically understand gold”
- Gold reaching new highs in Russian rubles and South African rand and close to new highs in pounds sterling
- UK media do not cover gold and gold price in sterling so people do not understand
- Keiser and Herbert point out how gold has value because people believe it has value
- BBC Newsnight studio has “religious moment” when people are drawn to gold bullion
- How gold will protect from bail-ins
- The importance of having outright legal owership and being able to take delivery of individual coins and bars
Oil Market Update
Indeed, given the coming ballyhooed transition to the “post-carbon” world, it looks like there’s nothing for the oil industry to be excited about at this time.
by James Corbett
The International Forecaster
Oil is once again trending downward this week after failing to sustain its breakout above the psychologically important $50/barrel mark earlier this month. The push above the $50 level came after OPEC’s production cut agreement last month in Algiers (or, more accurately, traders’ expectations that OPEC might actually be able to pull a production cut off this time).
[…] The inevitable chink in OPEC’s latest armor appeared on Sunday when Iraqi Oil Minister Jabber Al-Luaibi told a news conference that Iraq should be exempted from the agreement because of its ongoing war with the Islamic State. Libya, Iran and Nigeria are already exempted from the agreement, and Russia’s Rosneft has already signaled its intention to actually increase output, so if Iraq were to pull out it’s almost certain that the agreement as a whole will collapse.
To make matters even worse, Iran, Iraq and Venezuela have all disputed OPEC’s estimates of each country’s oil production that is being used to form the production deal. OPEC uses secondary sources, including media reports, to estimate oil production, but, according to its critics, it does a terrible job at it. As the managing director of National Iranian Oil Co., Ali Kardor, pointed out earlier this week, Iran produces 3.89 million barrels a day, 300,000 more than what OPEC estimated last month. If future production cuts are based on these inaccurate estimates, countries fear they will be squeezed much harder than they should be.
MicroCaps: Finding Companies Off the Map
by Jimmy Mengel
Outsider Club
I’m writing to you from the bar in Hotel Monaco in historic downtown Philadelphia — a stone’s throw from Independence Hall — home of the Liberty Bell — and Independence Square, where the Declaration of Independence was first read aloud.
I’m enjoying a beer in honor of our founding fathers…
That is to say I’m taking a quick break from the MicroCap Conference. As you probably know, or could ascertain from the name, Microcaps are companies that have market caps from around $50 million to $300 million. That may sound large to some investors, but considering that most blue chips average billions, these guys are small fish in a big pond.
The conference is for investors who want to take a stake in companies that could deliver the biggest profits they could ever imagine….
ECB All but Certain to Keep Buying Bonds Beyond March, Ease QE Rules – Central Bank Sources
by Francesco Canepa and Frank Siebelt
Reuters UK
The European Central Bank is nearly certain to continue buying bonds beyond its March target and to relax its constraints on the purchases to ensure it finds enough paper to buy, central bank sources have told Reuters.
The moves will come in an attempt to bolster what is being heralded as the start of an economic recovery in the euro zone.
ECB policymakers are due to decide in December on the future shape and duration of their 80 billion euros (£71.58 billion) monthly quantitative easing (QE) scheme, based on new growth and inflation forecasts.
U.S. Consumer Confidence Plunges
by Chuck Butler
Daily Pfennig
Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Well, Game 1 of the World Series is in the books. I watched the first 5 innings and then it was bed time! I’m old enough to recall the World Series games played during the day, when baseball should be played, in my opinion! The Marshall Tucker Band greets me this morning with their great song: Can’t You See… Can’t you see, what that woman, she’s been doing to me? One of my fave bands from the 70’s for sure!
I guess the global economies could be singing that song to their respective Central Banks, eh? I really got a kick out of the WSJ article yesterday that I had in the Pfennig, that really called Central Banks on the carpet… In case you missed class yesterday, you can still read it at the Pfennig’s website: www.dailypfennig.com … Boy, I’m having all kinds of difficulties with getting stuff from my laptop this morning…
USA Actually Bankrupt Now – Prof. Laurence Kotlikoff with Greg Hunter
Prof. Laurence Kotlikoff – US in Worse Shape Finacially Than Russia
by Greg Hunter
USA Watchdog
Renowned Boston University Economics Professor Laurence Kotlikoff is running for President with a write-in campaign. He says we need an economic expert, not a politician, to fix our severe financial problems. Dr. Kotlikoff explains, “Our democracy is in trouble. We have 14% of the electorate who have chosen Hillary Clinton for us to vote for, and a different 14% have chosen Trump to vote for. The vast majority of the population realizes neither Clinton nor Trump are qualified. Just on the economic front, these folks have no idea how fiscally sick our country is. The fact that we have off-the-book liabilities that make our true debt roughly 15 times larger than the amount the government is actually reporting, so, our true debt is about $206 trillion. The debt the Congressional Budget Office is telling us about is about $13.5 trillion. . . . We’re short $206 trillion. The country is 53% underfinanced. So, the country is actually bankrupt right this minute. It’s not $206 trillion in the future that we owe, it’s $206 trillion today. It’s our credit card bill, and we’re broke.”
Two-Thirds of Child Refugees Screened by Officials Found to Be Adults, Home Office Figures Show
by Peter Dominiczak and Steven Swinford
Telegraph.co.uk
Nearly two-thirds of “child” refugees who officials questioned about their real age were found to be adults, Home Office documents show.
Figures show that in the year to September 2015, 65 per cent of the child refugees who had their age disputed were found to be over 18.
It comes after Conservative MPs raised questions about the ages of 14 refugees who were brought to the UK this week from the “Jungle” migrant camp in Calais.
Don’t Diss the Dark Ages
by Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds
Much was lost when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, but islands of literacy, learning and security arose despite the constant conflicts and threats of invasion.
Once dissed as The Dark Ages, the Medieval Era is more properly viewed as a successful adaptation to the challenges of the post-Western Roman Empire era. The decline of the Western Roman Empire was the result of a constellation of challenges, including (but not limited to) massive new incursions of powerful Germanic tribes, a widening chasm between the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), plague, an onerous tax burden on the non-elite classes, weak leadership, the dominance of a self-serving elite (sound familiar?) and last but not least, the expansion of an unproductive rabble in Rome that had to be bribed with increasingly costly Bread and Circuses.
In effect, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire ran out of time and money. The Grand Strategy, successful for hundreds of years, relied heavily on persuading “barbarian” tribes to join the Roman system for the commercial and security benefits. This process of integration worked because it was backed by the threat of destruction by military force.
The Empire maintained relatively modest military forces given its vast territory, but its road system and fleet enabled relatively rapid concentration of force to counter an invasion. It also maintained extensive fortifications along active borders.
Flashback: Left-Wing Media Attacks Claim Obamacare Premiums Will Rise
Media attacks 2010 “right-wing” claims that Obamacare will cause premiums to skyrocket
by Infowars.com
Info Wars
Several prominent left-wing media outlets attacked claims that the Affordable Care Act would cause premiums to rise years before it indeed happened.
A 2010 tweet from White House mouthpiece Media Matters was circulated widely Monday just moments after the Obama administration confirmed that premiums were set to rise by as much as 116 percent.
[…] “Right-wing media are using an exchange between President Obama and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) to falsely claim that the Senate health care bill would cause individual health insurance premiums to increase,” Media Matters wrote at the time. “In fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Senate’s version of health care reform would result in lower premiums for most individual enrollees.”
Rigged Election: Hillary and Trump Caught Partying Like BFF’s With Kissinger at Jesuit Gala
by Jeff Berwick
Dollar Vigilante
We have been very, very suspicious of Donald Trump since he began his political run.
Many believed he was an outsider who was our “only hope” to tame the US federal government beast. But it has become very clear he is not.
First, Wikileaks showed that Killary herself actually approved Trump to be her competitor. According to an email sent from an assistant at the Clinton campaign, Hillary was aware that Trump was going to run before the political process was fully underway.
Clinton advised the mainstream media to push his legitimacy as a “pied piper” candidate because she realized, after looking at the poll numbers, that she wouldn’t stand a chance at winning the presidency against any of the establishment republicans without making them “pied pipers” – it just so happened that Donald was the easiest to play the role considering his long history of friendship with the Clintons.
Richmond Fed Confirms Weakest Economic Trend Since 2008
from Zero Hedge
For the first time since 2012, the Richmond Fed business surveyr has been in contraction (below 0) for 3 straight months (and 4 of the last 5). Worse still, the six-month average of the business survey has not deteriorated this fast since Q2 2008. While the underlying components were mixed, inventory levels dropped (bad for GDP), average workweek tumbled (bad for incomes), and new orders re-plunged.
This is the worst drop in the six-month average of the Richmond Fed survey since Q2 2008…
The War Against Payday Lending
by Jonathan Lee
Mises.org
In June of 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) put forward a proposal to regulate the short-term loan industry. The Small Dollar Lending Rule seeks to “alleviate and solve” for the “apparent weaknesses” of the current rates and short-term lenders by requiring “lenders to assess and verify a borrower’s income, housing costs, and credit and legal obligations.”
The intention of the proposal is to protect low-income families from being caught in an endless cycle where many are “forced to take out another loan to make ends meet.” At first glance, it seems that the rule would solve problems in an industry known for its “dirtiness.” Except policymakers are thinking with their hearts while sitting in their air-conditioned offices, away from the facts and any form of interaction with the real world of short-term loans. Just the fact that they see the short-term loan industry as “dirty” supplies sufficient reason to believe that either these policymakers are ignorantly prejudiced or plainly manipulative.
This Calculator Shows Your Tax Bill if Clinton or Trump Plans Became Reality
by Steve Goldstein
Market Watch
So, what would your tax bill be like under a President Hillary or a Donald-in-Chief?
The Tax Foundation has created a calculator based on the two candidates’ plans.
These are back-of-the-envelope calculations, to be fair, and would have to be enacted by members of Congress, who may well have ideas of their own.
But for illustrative purposes, the calculator may have use in determining which candidate would best represent your (tax) interests.