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A Critical and Ignored 2008 Email by Ben Bernanke on the Lehman Collapse

by Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade

A little noticed 2008 email from former Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, raises serious questions about his official narrative on the collapse of Lehman Brothers. We’ll get to the email in detail, but first some necessary background.

A lot of eyes rolled on Wall Street last October when Ben Bernanke, who chaired the Federal Reserve in the lead up to and during the financial collapse in 2008, released his memoir of the financial crisis with the title: “The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath.” Many Wall Street observers felt the title would have more correctly captured the facts on the ground had it read: “The Lack of Fed Courage to Supervise Mega Banks Led to an Epic Collapse.” (In the leadup to the crisis, the Fed allowed Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill and JPMorgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, to sit on the Board of its Federal Reserve Bank of New York, among numerous other conflicts of interest.)

Continue Reading at WallStreetOnParade.com…

New US Civil War? A Clinton Presidency Will Alienate Tens of Millions, Perhaps Violently

by Daily Bell Staff
The Daily Bell

Obama endorses Hillary Clinton: ‘I am with her. I am fired up.’ … President Obama dispensed with his long-held pledge of neutrality in the Democratic presidential race Thursday, backing Hillary Clinton as the most qualified candidate to succeed him in the nation’s highest office. “I know how hard this job can be. That’s why I know Hillary will be so good at it,” he said in a video message released by Clinton’s campaign. “I am with her. I am fired up. And I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary.” – LA Times

President Barack Obama’s endorsement of Hillary for president is a powerful one.

It may well mean that Hillary Clinton becomes President of the United States.

And given the polarizing nature of the Clintons, Hillary’s ascension might usher in a kind of subdued, domestic civil war.

People might not organize to formally fight the federal government.

Continue Reading at TheDailyBell.com…

Four Alternatives to Holding Your Savings in a Bank

by Simon Black
Sovereign Man

“Global yields lowest in 500 years of recorded history. $10 trillion of neg. rate bonds. This is a supernova that will explode one day.”

Those were the words of famed bond fund manager Bill Gross.

(Gross was actually the first portfolio manager inducted into the Fixed Income Analyst Society’s “Hall of Fame”. And yes, there really is a hall of fame for that.)

Gross wrote that more than $10 trillion in government bonds actually have NEGATIVE yields, and that interest rates are at the lowest levels in financial history.

For example, the British government just issued its lowest-yielding bonds since 1694.

Continue Reading at SovereignMan.com…

A2A with Grant Williams

by Turd Ferguson
TF Metals Report

Grant Williams is author of the popular newsletter “Thanks That Make You Go Hmmm” as well as a co-founder of RealVisionTV. He’s also a fantastic guest for A2A as we found out earlier today.

Over the course of this call, Grant addresses a variety of issues including:

  • The growing popularity of gold and gold-related investments among thought leaders in finance
  • Negative interest rates around the world and the impact on gold prices
  • The relative importance of Comex figures and other physical metal datapoints
  • The likelihood of “Brexit”…or an eventual “Gerexit”, “Frexit” or “Belexit”
  • And much, much more.

This was a terrific call and we should all be grateful for Grant’s willingness to share his wisdom and expertise. I hope we’re able to have him on again sometime soon.

Click Here to Listen to the Audio

Continue Reading at TFMetalsReport.com…

MicroSuck’s Theft Of Your Data

by Karl Denninger
Market-Ticker.org

Microsoft has thus far refused to address this after more than a year, going back to the first previews of Windows 10. Post-release it has been raised as a serious issue by a number of people, and it’s something you should be aware of.

Specifically, if you ever use your computer (e.g. laptop) “tethered” or otherwise on a mobile connection you have a big potential problem. That problem comes from the fact that Windows 10 updates itself and has a lot of stuff (by default) running in the background, such as its “news” app.

These applications and this update paradigm are enormous data pigs; it is utterly trivial for them to consume a gigabyte of data within a few hours, especially if an update to Windows is published.

Continue Reading at Market-Ticker.org…

Stocks Slammed Red Post-Payrolls, Cable Tumbles After Shocking Brexit Poll

from Zero Hedge

Following a shocking report from The Independent indicating a 55% Brexit to 45% Bremain poll, cable and US equities are tumbling to fresh lows as it appears – as Soros warned – Brexit fears are under-priced…

Smashing all major US equity indices red post-payrolls…

Continue Reading at ZeroHedge.com…

NYC Looks Stupid Again (not about The Donald)

by Chris Campbell
Laissez Faire Books

The Nanny State strikes again.

Every freedom-loving individual already knows that New York City is the Nanny State’s favorite lab rat.

Why, who can forget the bold War on Super Slurps? Or the The Great Battle of Bachelor Parties via strict regulation on tobacco, alcohol, gambling, fireworks and prostitution? Or, most heroic of all, when the NYPD protected the fine citizens of New York from unscrupulous “loosie”-slinging street-vending tax evaders?

Continue Reading at LFB.org…

A Disturbing Trend: Internet Exposure of Bilderberg Is Met With Defiance

by Daily Bell Staff
The Daily Bell

What to Know About the Bilderberg Group’s Secret Annual … Barriers stand in front of hotel Taschenbergpalais Kempinski in Dresden, Germany, where the Bilderberg conference will take place place from June 9-12, 2016. Little is known about the secretive group, but conspiracy theorists have plenty of ideas A shadowy world government. Political kingmakers. A capitalist cabal looking to impose its will across the globe. – TIME

The Bilderberg meeting in Dresden Germany is receiving a good deal of publicity, unlike in times past.

The above excerpt from a TIME magazine post is symptomatic, astonishingly, of mainstream media coverage.

The UK Independent, the Guardian, various American publications and Drudge have all featured the ongoing meeting from June 9-12.

Continue Reading at TheDailyBell.com…

Animal Farm

by Hardscrabble Farmer
The Burning Platform

[…] When we first bought the farm there weren’t a lot of plans that were cast in stone. We thought we’d try a Community Supported Agriculture model of selling shares of our production to local families and we also planned on giving aquaculture a shot as well, something we went on to do quite successfully until the fire put an end to that business model. What we hadn’t considered, or even discussed, was becoming the kind of farm with cattle and hogs, sheep and goats or even more than a couple of chickens. To be fair we had absolutely zero experience with an agricultural lifestyle beyond an annual garden in the backyard and because of that never considered the dynamic of livestock in our lives.

Continue Reading at TheBurningPlatform.com…

Oil Downturn to Wipe Out Over a Quarter of North Sea Jobs

by Jillian Ambrose
Telegraph.co.uk

The UK’s oil and gas industry will lose a total of 120,000 jobs by the end of this year as a result of the market downturn which has slashed value from the struggling sector since mid 2014.

Official figures from trade group Oil and Gas UK have laid bare the full impact of the historic decline in oil market prices. The global price crash has taken a particularly worrying toll on the ‘supermature’ North Sea basin which is saddled with some of the highest costs and lowest production levels in the world.

Oil prices have recovered by 80pc since hitting twelve year lows of $28 a barrel in January but even at a prevailing price of around $50 a barrel oil is worth less than half than what it did 2014 when North Sea jobs stood 450,000.

Continue Reading at Telegraph.co.uk…

Two Stand-Out Gold & Silver Stocks

by Jason Simpkins
Outsider Club

Silver and gold are suddenly back en vogue, each up about 20% so far this year.

Investors are coming to realize that Fed fears have been overblown and the dynamics of supply and demand have reasserted control over the market.

Of course, it’s hard to say precious metals are out of the woods. They could still backslide. But the worst is certainly over.

With that in mind, here are two precious metal stocks worth considering…

Continue Reading at OutsiderClub.com…

More Refugee Blackmail: Brussels Expects to Leverage €3.1bn Into €62bn to Halt Migration From Africa

by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk

Just in the nick of time for the Brexit vote, Brussels claims it will spend €62bn to halt migration from Africa. Of that €62bn, Brussels will pony up precisely €3.1bn and expects cash strapped EU countries struggling with their budgets to come up with another €3.1billion.

The rest of the money assumes 10 times leverage from private markets who will supposedly want to invest in Africa migration halting schemes.

Please consider Brussels Bargains with Mideast and Africa for Fix to Migrant Crisis.

Continue Reading at MishTalk.com…

Free Trade, Brexit, and the WTO

by Carmen Elena Dorobăț
Mises.org

The debate surrounding the EU referendum in Britain, scheduled in two weeks, and the fate of the UK outside of the EU, is now in full swing. Unsurprisingly, little of substance has been said so far on the issue. One would expect that both sides would be better prepared with arguments to support their cause, but many aspects discussed have not only been erroneous, but have appealed to people’s fear rather than their intelligence. Both the Remain and the Leave camps have failed to show how either decision would enhance economic and political freedom; instead, they have tried to one-up each other in the preservation and growth of the existing welfare state, military complex, and bureaucratic apparatus.

Continue Reading at Mises.org…

Trump or Clinton? Uncertainty Could Shock Economy, Forecaster Says

Ethan Harris of B. of A. Merrill Lynch says fundamental backdrop is benign

by Rex Nutting
Market Watch

The presidential campaign hasn’t had very much impact on the economy yet, but political uncertainty could be the next shock to the system, said Ethan Harris, global economist for Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the winner of MarketWatch’s Forecaster of the Month for May.

Harris believes the economy has weathered quite a few shocks and will get past this one too.

“The gap between the two candidates is pretty wide,” he said in a phone interview. Typically, the two nominees move toward the center as Election Day approaches, but that might not happen this year. With Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton far apart on so many issues, there’s a lot of uncertainty about what the next president will try to do on issues such as taxes, trade, immigration, health care and regulations.

Continue Reading at MarketWatch.com…

Must Watch Video – Google Caught Manipulating Search Results in Favor of Hillary Clinton

by Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg

I don’t often say drop everything you’re doing and watch this, but I am saying just that.

Drop everything you are doing and watch this.

[…] The narrator mentioned a study by Robert Epstein of the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology and the former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today. Politico covered the topic last year in a piece, How Google Could Rig the 2016 Election. Here are a few excerpts:

Continue Reading at LibertyBlitzkrieg.com…

Millennials Need to Grow Up and Get a Job

by Kurt Kallaus
Financial Sense

Millennials are not lazy, but actually represent a very innovative and connected cloud-oriented phase of our new world order. According to the data they are needed in our thinly skilled labor pool, but more and more they have chosen to swim elsewhere. Unemployment has fallen to just 4.7% and our Central Bankers perceive inflation inducing full employment is at our doorstep. The Federal Reserve is very anxious to force interest rates higher and apply the brakes to our anemic but somehow overheating economy. However, free market interest rates are falling due to concern about a stalling economy. Central Banks from other countries are still pumping currency into space, but our supreme Fed is ignoring the marketplace consensus.

Continue Reading at FinancialSense.com…

Re-evaluating ‘Stimulus’ By Market Force

by Jeffrey P. Snider
Alhambra Partners

On July 2, 2015, the 10-year Japanese Government Bond (JGB) traded to a stout closing yield of 0.511%. That was up significantly, in Japanese financial terms, from the start to the year where the benchmark bond yield had tumbled to as low as 0.206% supposedly in the aftermath of QQE expansion. The Bank of Japan had added to its already-disgusting pace of JGB purchasing at the end of October 2014, where the 10-year yield had been 0.466%. As of yesterday’s close, the JGB 10s yield -0.133%.

Continue Reading at AlhambraPartners.com…

Everyone Still Hates Housing. Here’s Why it’s Time to Buy!

by Greg Guenthner
Daily Reckoning

Remember rising rates?

We don’t…

With rate hikes falling off metaphorical tables left and right and bond yields plummeting, the market is up to a few of its old tricks. Investors are grabbing gold and utility stocks with one hand and flushing banks down the tubes with the other.

These shenanigans mean only one thing: It’s time to get bulled up on homebuilder stocks.

“Homebuilders are another group that may be benefiting from lower bond yields (which translate into lower mortgage rates),” legendary technician John Murphy explains on his blog over at Stockcharts.com.

Continue Reading at DailyReckoning.com…

A Darwin Award for Capital Allocation

by MN Gordon
Acting Man

Beyond Human Capacity

Distilling down and projecting out the economy’s limitless spectrum of interrelationships is near impossible to do with any regular accuracy. The inputs are too vast. The relationships are too erratic.

[…] Quite frankly, keeping tabs on it all is beyond human capacity. This also goes for the federal government. Even with all their data gatherers and number crunchers they are incapable of stitching together an exact understanding of where the economy is really at, let alone where it is going.

What’s more, the economy is always evolving and changing in ways that are hard to discern in advance. Cause and effect do not correlate with the simple precision of a balance scale. When one input decreases, an apparently correlated one can somehow increase.

Continue Reading at Acting-Man.com…

U.S. Silver Imports Surge To New Monthly Record

by Steve St. Angelo
SRSRocco Report

With leading indicators pointing to a decline in economic activity, U.S. silver imports surged in March. How much did U.S. silver imports increase? They jumped by nearly 20% compared to the previous month. If we take a look at the chart below, we can see how much U.S. silver imports in March increased compared to January and February:

[…] The United States imported 492 metric tons (mt) of silver in January and 491 mt in February. However, silver imports in March jumped to a record 582 mt.

What could cause the U.S. to import a record amount of silver in March? Was it the price? No, even though the price of silver moved higher to $16.00 in March, it fell back to $15.20 by the end of the month. Could have it been investment demand? Why Yes, this seems to be the culprit.

Continue Reading at SRSRoccoReport.com…

John Hathaway – There is a Deepening Shortage of Physical Gold

from King World News

On the heels of gold and silver moving higher along with the dollar and the Dow tumbling, here is a reminder from one of the greats in the business, John Hathaway, that discusses the deepening shortage of physical gold.

King World News note: The information below is part of an extremely powerful piece that John Hathaway released earlier this quarter:

Continue Reading at KingWorldNews.com…

Massive Gold Investment Buying 2

by Adam Hamilton
Zeal LLC

Gold’s strong gains so far this year have been overwhelmingly fueled by one dominant driver, massive investment buying. After shunning prudent portfolio diversification with gold for years, investors are finally starting to reestablish those essential positions. And since their collective gold holdings were so incredibly low heading into 2016, reflecting hyper-bearish sentiment, gold’s investment buying has only begun.

Nothing is more important for driving prevailing gold price levels than investment demand. This isn’t as intuitive as it sounds, as gold’s global supply-and-demand fundamentals imply otherwise. The best data available on this front comes from the venerable World Gold Council, which publishes outstanding Gold Demand Trends reports quarterly. They offer a valuable fundamental perspective which is unparalleled.

Continue Reading at ZealLLC.com…

Gold Rigging Will Fail as Investors See Fraud of ‘Paper Gold,’ Grant Williams Says

by Chris Powell
GATA.org

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Fund manager and market analyst Grant Williams, interviewed by Lars Schall for Matterhorn Asset Management’s Gold Switzerland, says he is certain the gold market is rigged and that as investors realize that “paper gold” isn’t real gold, they will demand real gold and take it out of the banking system, causing a big problem for the market riggers.

Williams says: “The stories of rigging in the gold and silver markets are legendary. There are so many of them. Some of them are wackier than others, but if the last three or four years have taught us anything, it’s that all financial markets are rigged and I truly believe they are.

Continue Reading at GATA.org…

France Desperately Needs Labor Reform, Unions Disagree

by Global Risk Insights
Financial Sense

Government labor market reform has triggered a nationwide wave of protests in France that highlight how traditional labor unions have joined forces with more modern anti-establishment radicals. The situation increases the risk of violent unrest and underscores soaring tensions within French society.

There are few other places in Western Europe like France where leftist political and social movements try to actively rebuke efforts to reform the labor market. Unions and political parties with historical socialist affiliations comprise the bulk of the opposition to reforms required by France for a free-market, liberal economy.

Continue Reading at FinancialSense.com…

The Nude Emperor Gets Called Out

by Karl Denninger
Market-Ticker.org

At least one guy is willing to ridicule the emperor’s micropenis...

Low fat diets and exercise are pointless for those wanting to lose weight and obese people should simply eat less, a former shadow health minister told the House of Lords yesterday.

Lord McColl, emeritus professor of surgery at Guys Hospital in London, warned that current health advice to avoid fat was ‘false and misleading’ and was fuelling the obesity epidemic.

Speaking at a House of Lords debate, the former surgeon warned that exercising was useless against the huge levels of calories from carbohydrates and sugars that people are now consuming.

Oh, someone bothered with basic arithmetic?

Continue Reading at Market-Ticker.org…