from TheDollarVigilante
The One Thing the Government Must Do to Raise UK Living Standards
by Szu Ping Chan
Telegraph.co.uk
The Government’s flagship plan to boost growth and raise living standards is being undermined by the introduction of the National Living Wage and is ignoring one of the most vital sectors of the UK economy, a think-tank has warned.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said there was already evidence that George Osborne’s introduction of the National Living Wage would add to business costs without providing the boost to productivity that policymakers envisage.
The think tank said boosting productivity in retail, accommodation, food and administration services, which employ around a third of Britain’s 31m workers, was that key to solving Britain’s “productivity puzzle”.
Why Modern Luddites Are Attacking Uber Drivers
by Mateusz Machaj
Mises.org
Earlier this year, a number of Uber cars in Poland came under attack by a group of vandals who were likely taxi drivers. In general, these types of vandalism have a long tradition in human history and have contributed to keeping populations’ general living standards at very low levels.
Attacks on Uber drivers are simply the latest chapter in a long story of efforts to intimidate and destroy innovators who are moving markets and societies in new and unfamiliar directions.
Reactions to Early Machines
For a very long time, separation of grain from the chaff was done in a very primitive manner. The process took weeks, involved hard working men, hard working women feeding them, and also children working as additional helpers. Finally, someone invented a threshing machine that allowed farmers to get rid of all this hard work: the machine could do the job much faster with less physical labor involved.
Gold – Mr. Cool Cucumber is Starting to Sweat
by Plunger
Market Oracle
Since early February I have visually described my position and mental framework in the precious metals market as being “Cool as a Cucumber”. This has served me well as it has allowed me to stay invested as the move powered higher and many bailed to the sidelines expecting an early correction.
Well now that we are into the first significant pullback lets see how Mr. Cucumber is doing and some of the market factors he is considering. Is he keeping his cool?
Weekend Reading: Are the Bulls Back?
by Lance Roberts
Real Investment Advice
This past week, the markets rallied sharply from last week’s lows sending the “bulls” stampeding into the market with claims the market is back. To wit:
“Hold on to your hats, folks.
According to Andrew Adams, a market strategist at Raymond James, there exists a perfect mix of conditions that could send stocks on a ride up, up, and up.
In a note out Thursday, Adams noted that there was a significant shift of investors from the stock market to ‘safer’ assets. Eventually this move to the sidelines will have to change.“
The problem is that Adams is incorrect about the “cash on the sidelines” theory. As Cliff Asness penned previously:
What Did She Say That Was New?
by Chuck Butler
Daily Pfennig
Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! Well, did you have a great Memorial Day Holiday Weekend? The weather here couldn’t have turned out better, after the weather people kept telling us all week that the weekend was going to be washout! Kathy left on Sunday for two weeks, leaving me all by myself again… The kids and grandkids came to visit yesterday, so I wasn’t alone on Memorial Day. The Moody Blues greet me this morning with their song: I Know You’re Out There Somewhere… This song always reminds me of our first family trek to Spring Training in 1993… It was a good sing along song for us in the car…
Well, Janet Yellen had all the rope she needed on Friday, and she lassoed the markets with it, and came away with the markets wanting… And isn’t that the trick to show business? I was told by a showman many years ago, as I was waiting to go on stage with my band, that “you have to leave the crowd wanting”…
Automation, Space Colonization & The Post-Transactional Economy
by John Aziz
Azizonomics
“How is this even a business?” my late father asked when I described a notional model for human space colonization. “How are you going to make money? What product are you going to sell?”
Admittedly the model — developing a swarm of self-replicating , self-repairing decentralized, solar-powered construction automata and using them to mine asteroids and produce more such automata as well as habitable colonies— is not monetizable in the same fashion that building a picture-sharing smartphone app, or social network, or web search engine is.
And although there are ways to monetize space colonization — it is, essentially, a very extreme kind of full-stack real estate development — I think my father hit upon the fact that this kind of venture is of a fundamentally different nature to the modern economy as it exists on Earth today.
Welcome to Bizarro World
by Nick Hodge
Outsider Club
So we’ve officially entered the Twilight Zone.
I mean, the last few years were weird and all, what with zero rates and Occupy Wall Street and the outright militarization of police and no wage growth and record CEO pay…
But now things are really weird.
You’ve seen the presidential race, right?
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is the King of Untruths, and yet no one cares. The plebes are so jaded with the system and tired of living paycheck to paycheck and fed up with the political-class status quo that this orange-haired blob lobs a couple un-PC quotes their way and they lap it up.
Anglo-America: Regression and Reversion in the Modern World
by Prof. James Petras
Global Research
Introduction
What does it mean when the US and British financial systems launder hundreds of billions of dollars of illicit funds stolen by world leaders while their governments turn a ‘blind eye’, and yet the very same Anglo-American officials investigate, prosecute, fine and arrest officials from rival governments, rival banks and political leaders for corruption?
What does it mean when the US government expands a world-wide network of nuclear missiles on bases stretching from Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, the Gulf States to Japan, surrounding Russia, Iran and China, while the very same US and NATO officials investigate and condemn rival defense officials from Russia, China and Iran, as military threats to peace and stability?
Huffington Post Removes Article Claiming Hillary Will Be Indicted on Federal Racketeering Charges
from Zero Hedge
The Huffington Post has removed an article on its website Sunday, claiming that the FBI plans to indict Hillary Clinton on federal racketeering charges.
As Breitbart first reported, HuffPo freelance contributor Frank Huguenard, a scientist and public speaker, posted an article on the site’s blog entitled “Hillary Clinton to be Indicted on Federal Racketeering Charges.” Huguenard wrote:
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is a United States Federal Law passed in 1970 that was designed to provide a tool for law enforcement agencies to fight organized crime. RICO allows prosecution and punishment for alleged racketeering activity that has been executed as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise.
6-6-16: Satanists In Los Angeles Will Construct A Giant Pentagram To ‘Raise Awareness’ For Satanism
by Michael Snyder
End of the American Dream
On June 6th, a group from the Satanic Temple in Los Angeles will use GPS technology to construct a giant pentagram around the city of Lancaster, which is located in northern Los Angeles County. The goal is to “raise awareness” for Satanism, and it looks like this event has already accomplished that goal. Of course this particular date was chosen because it corresponds closely to “666” and the Mark of the Beast that we read about in the Book of Revelation, and therefore this little group of Satanists will receive some unusual media attention this week. But as you will see below, there are other things that we should be far more concerned about than this.
Bryan Slusarchuk – K92 Mining About To Go Big; Thank You Barrick!
from Financial Survival Network
During the bear market, even the largest gold producer in the world, Barrick Gold, was struggling and at one point more than $13 billion in debt. They had no choice but to sell projects to reduce debt levels. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t just jettison low grade low potential projects, they literally threw out the baby with the bath water.
Enter K92‘s which was following the trend and was at the right place at the right time. In February 2015, K92 purchased the Kainantu Gold project
In 2007 Barrick purchased this project for a then not unreasonable $141.5 million They spent more than $100 million on infrastructure. K92 bought what effectively was a turnkey project with extremely high ore grades for just pennies on the dollar.
As if to add insult to injury, Alex Davidson, the Executive Vice President of Barrick, in charge of worldwide exploration and corporate development jumped ship and joined K92 shortly Barrick shed the asset.
Bry Slusarchuk details and describes the series of events that may be one of the greatest acquisitions of all time!
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The Source of Failure: We Optimize What We Measure
by Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds
Rather than measure consumption and metrics that incentivize debt, what if we measure well-being and opportunities offered in our communities?
The problems we face cannot be fixed with policy tweaks and minor reforms. Yet policy tweaks and minor reforms are all we can manage when the pie is shrinking and every vested interest is fighting to maintain their share of the pie.
Our failure stems from a much deeper problem: we optimize what we measure. If we measure the wrong things, and focus on measuring process rather than outcome, we end up with precisely what we have now: a set of perverse incentives that encourage self-destructive behaviors and policies.
The process of selecting which data is measured and recorded carries implicit assumptions with far-reaching consequences. If we measure “growth” in terms of GDP but not well-being, we lock in perverse incentives to boost ‘growth” even at the cost of what really matters, i.e. well-being.
The Latest Updates from Martin Armstrong – 2016.05.30
by Martin Armstrong
Armstrong Economics
Market Talk for May 30th, 2016
Obama breaks with Saudi Arabia
Cameron getting Mainstream Media to Brainwash People
Private Important Dow Update for Month-End
EU Passed Tax ID Numbers for Everyone
Inspector General Hangs Hillary Out to Dry
Political Correctness and the Extreme Fragmentation of Society in Modernity
by John Aziz
Azizonomics
One of the defining cultural events of the 2016 election season so far has been the overwhelming rejection of the notion of political correctness expressed in the Republican selection of Donald Trump as presidential nominee. Here is Trump expounding his view on political correctness:
[…] What is the political correctness that the Trump supporters are rejecting?
Trump-supporting website Infowars.com gives the following definition:
In his novel 1984, George Orwell imagined a future world where speech was greatly restricted.
He called that the language that the totalitarian state in his novel created “Newspeak”, and it bears a striking resemblance to the political correctness that we see in America right now.
Trickle-Down Crash? Trophy Assets Suddenly Tanking
by John Rubino
Dollar Collapse
One of the defining traits of the past few years’ “recovery” has been the torrent of money flowing from big banks to favored clients, and from there into trophy properties like high-end real estate, superyachts, and fine art. This might be the first financial bubble to completely bypass the 99%.
And now it’s ending. Falling oil prices and negative interest rates (rich people own a lot of government bonds) seem to have sucked the animal spirits out of the 1%, leading to stories like this:
The Latest Updates from Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock – 2016.05.30
by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk
Stacked Deck: US Bullies WTO, TPP Revisited
Study Says Lie to Employees to Get Them to Work Harder Without Paying Them More
French Unions to Increase Strikes, Targeting Trains, Planes, Buses
Economic Reality, Brick Walls, Budget Balancing Act Political Cartoons
Miami Condo Boom Ends: Sellers Find Few Buyers, Inventory Soars
Thanks to Yellen, Gold Will Bounce Back
by Daily Bell Staff
The Daily Bell
Speculative traders abandon gold in latest week … Gold prices fell Monday, moving in the opposite direction of the U.S. dollar, which soared after comments by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen last week indicated an interest-rate hike could come this summer. – MarketWatch
Today, gold prices have been clinging to around $1,200 against the dollar. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Federal Reserve has two goals.
One is to keep the dollar strong against gold and the other is ensure that the world’s quasi-depression continues.
Yellen doesn’t say so, but this will be the result of her actions.
Elite Special Forces Insider Warns Of Serious Civil Unrest This Summer: “Everything Is Right For Things To Go Very Wrong”
by Mac Slavo
SHTF Plan
In the lead up to the Presidential election we’ve seen pockets of riotous behavior across America. Whether supporting Trump, Sanders, Hillary or Cruz, average Americans appear to be ready to go to war with their government or with each other. This sentiment, coupled with continued economic degradation and a general feeling of a populace that has for decades been marginalized by the political machine in the United States, is showing all the signs of serious civil unrest on the horizon.
In the following interview with Infowars.com special forces commando Tim Kennedy weighs in, describing the current situation as a trench having been dug and filled with accelerants just waiting to be ignited.
Kennedy is a continuity of government expert, which means he’s well versed in not only how the powder keg of civil unrest could potentially explode, but what The-Powers-That-Be will do once it does.
Purists with No Skin in the Game
by Gary North
LewRockwell.com
On May 19, I posted an article that I wrote in 1980. It was on how to defend private education against the state. You can read it here.
Lew Rockwell ran it on May 23.
Early in the morning on May 23, I received a letter from a stranger. Its tone was typical of a purist. It seems that I have sold out to the state.
I never receive such letters from published authors or experts in the field. But I have been receiving them for about 50 years from strangers with no background.
My problem is this: I am in several fringe groups. My audience of purists is large.
Here is his message:
Trump and Hillary Don’t Know How to Fix the Economy
by Justin Murray
Mises.org
Recently, Hillary Clinton was taped ridiculing Donald Trump for lacking a detailed plan for the American economy. The message, so it goes, is that Trump is not suited for the presidency because he doesn’t have a plan on how to turn the American economy around.
But is it really more dangerous to elect a president who makes up economic policy on the fly than one who proclaims to have a detailed plan for us?
The answer to this is no, it is not more dangerous to elect someone who makes up economic policy by the seat of his pants — as Donald Trump is prone to do — than it is to elect someone who thinks she can have the future of the economy neatly mapped out. However, this does not imply that seat-of-the-pants method is less dangerous either. The underlying problem is we have two competing people who think they can manage the American economy.
Bitcoin Skyrockets and is Now up More Than 100% This Jubilee Year
by Jeff Berwick
Dollar Vigilante
Bitcoin has risen more than 25% in the last week, from near $430 to a high over $545 today.
[…] It has now risen more than 100% since last summer when we said it was a screaming buy.
[…] In that time, it has been pronounced dead at least once and is now at a 20-month high.
We gave these three main reasons in the last year for why we thought it would go much higher:
1. Bitcoin and Blockchain are the Future of Money and Banking
Still to this day most other financial analysts either ignore bitcoin or, even stupider, deride it as being some sort of scam or ponzi scheme.