by Turd Ferguson
TF Metals Report

Late last week, our friend John Titus released his latest insightful video. This instant classic is not only a must watch, it’s also a “must forward” to all of your friends and acquaintances. Rather than simply post the video by itself, we instead decided to reach out to John to give him the platform to personally introduce the video and give it the attention it deserves.

So, please be sure to listen to the audio interview first. You’ll hear John explain his motives and rationale for producing the video, what conclusions he’s drawn from the process as well as his “predictions” for future inaction from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Again, please be sure to ge the video’s direct link from YouTube and then forward the link to your family and friends. Only by opening the eyes of the unaware can we ever hope to effect any change.

Click Here to Listen to the Audio

Continue Reading at TFMetalsReport.com…

Frontrunner warns of “a lot of very unhappy people” if he is robbed of nomination

by Steve Watson
Info Wars

A poll reveals that a majority of Americans would like to smack Donald Trump in the face with their fists.

According to the findings by WalletHub, 54 percent of respondents said they’d love to hit Trump in the mush.

[…] Trump’s punchability ranks way higher than Hillary Clinton, who was placed second in the survey with 14 percent of votes.

President Obama has managed to piss off fewer voters recently, ranking in third with 13 percent, while any “Congressman” was placed in fourth with 12 percent.

Continue Reading at InfoWars.com…

by Monty Pelerin
Monty Pelerin’s World

Political rape is a reasonable term to describe what the political class is doing to the country. Think of what the oligarchs are doing as the Mafia operating without the threat of punishment, being free to plunder at will. In a way the comparison slanders the Mafia. They at least provide value for most of their services.

Tom Lester, a sometimes contributor to this site, sent this letter that expresses the thoughts of many. The only good thing about our current situation is that more and more people recognize government for the predator that it is. While that is good, is it too late to correct? Must we submit to the political rape? The author of this letter thinks not it seems, although he offers only term limits as a possible solution. While I disagree regarding the efficacy of term limits, does anyone expect the criminals to restrict themselves even to this ineffective level?

Continue Reading at EconomicNoise.com…

from RT America

from Zero Hedge

Back in early February, Zero Hedge laid out what was the biggest crisis facing Canada’s banks: a chronic under reserving to potential (and soon, realized) oil and gas loan losses.

As we said nearly two months ago, “for Canada, it’s not only raining, it’s pouring for the country’s energy industry, a downpour which is about to migrate into its banking sector. Which is why it is indeed time to take a somewhat deeper dive into the Canadian banks’ balance sheets, where we find something very troubling, and something which prompts us to wonder if the time of freaking out about European banks is about to be replaced with comparable panic about Canadian banks.

Continue Reading at ZeroHedge.com…

by John Butler
Gold Money

Introduction

Is reserve currency status a blessing or a curse? The answer might seem obvious, as reserve currencies have been shown to confer lower borrowing costs on their issuers. But what of the borrower who, enticed by low interest rates, borrows more than they can pay back? Naturally the result will be a default. However, for the issuer of a reserve currency that is unbacked by a marketable commodity, such as gold, in the event that they borrow too much, they can just print more reserves. While this avoids default indefinitely, it also hollows out the economy, erodes the capital stock, reduces the potential growth rate and, eventually, leads to a dramatic devaluation of the currency and loss of reserve status. History has not been kind to countries that have followed this path, nor to their financial markets. In my view, the grave investment risks associated with the possible eventual loss of the dollar’s reserve status are not priced into financial markets.

Continue Reading at GoldMoney.com…

by Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog

Should central banks create money out of thin air and give it directly to governments and average citizens? If you can believe it, this is now under serious consideration. Since 2008, global central banks have cut interest rates 637 times, they have injected 12.3 trillion dollars into the global financial system through various quantitative easing programs, and we have seen an explosion of government debt unlike anything we have ever witnessed before. But despite these unprecedented measures, the global economy is still deeply struggling. This is particularly true in Japan, in South America, and in Europe. In fact, there are 16 countries in Europe that are experiencing deflation right now. In a desperate attempt to spur economic activity, central banks in Europe and in Japan are playing around with negative interest rates, and so far they seem to only have had a limited effect.

Continue Reading at TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com…

from The James Rickards Project – Official Channel

by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk

Dennis Lockhart, Atlanta Fed president, made a speech today trumping up the possibility rate hikes as soon as April.

In his speech, Lockhart cited “sufficient momentum evidenced by the economic data to justify a further step at one of the coming meetings, possibly as early as the meeting scheduled for end of April.”

Let’s dive into his speech and also put a spotlight on his claim of “sufficient momentum“.

Kaleidoscopic Context for Monetary Policy

The title of this post comes from the title of Lockhart’s speech to the Rotary Club of Savannah Kaleidoscopic Context for Monetary Policy.

Continue Reading at MishTalk.com…

by John Rubino
Dollar Collapse

This morning, US existing home sales plunged and the Chicago Fed’s national activity index turned negative. Both are obvious signs of a slowing economy.

Anticipating this kind of news, Credit Bubble Bulletin’s Doug Noland in his most recent column analyzed the Federal Reserve’s quarterly Z.1 Report for signs of changing financial trends, and found something potentially serious. The following three charts tell the tale:

First, corporate borrowing slowed dramatically in 2015’s fourth quarter…

Continue Reading at DollarCollapse.com…

from Bill Still

by Lee Adler
Wall Street Examiner

What’s going wrong with the global monetary policy? Nothing, really, except for the economic reality.

Let me explain. In a forthcoming article I will be highlighting the channels through which monetary policy deployed in recent years (a combination of extremely low lending rates, negative in many cases deposit rates, massive asset purchases or QE) have contributed to increasing markets and economic volatility, whilst achieving preciously nothing in terms of lifting up economic growth.

Here, let’s consider what I shall term the ‘extreme impotency’ of monetary policy in the age of a structural debt crisis.

Continue Reading at WallStreetExaminer.com…

by Rick Ackerman
RickAckerman.com

An asphyxiatingly boring market is growing paradoxically more menacing by the day, driven largely by meaningless pronouncements from the central banks rather than by economic data.

It’s not as though investors don’t understand that negative interest rates can’t possibly stimulate capital investment as the economic world flirts with outright deflation. They buy stocks anyway, impelled by a lack of attractive alternatives.

This can’t end other than badly, especially with stocks seemingly unable to correct meaningfully or for long.

Continue Reading at RickAckerman.com…

by Ted Bauman
The Sovereign Investor

As you are undoubtedly aware, I spent last week in the lovely Uruguayan seaside resort town of Punta del Este, where I was MC of our 2016 Offshore Investment Summit. Besides spending time in that lovely country and interacting with dozens of sovereign-minded attendees, I also enjoyed a week with my father, our own Bob Bauman.

As is usually the case, once we’d exhausted family talk, Dad and I got down to our favorite topic: U.S. politics. This year, of course, is the annus horribilis of old-school conservatives like him — a 60-year veteran of the Republican Party. Love him or hate him, everyone knows that the rise of Donald Trump signals the end of an era for the Grand Old Party.

But my dad has a unique ability to connect the dots. He mentioned something that hadn’t occurred to me — something that instantly increased the urgency of our mission to Uruguay…

Continue Reading at TheSovereignInvestor.com…

from Gregory Mannarino

by J. Wiltz
Mises.org

In a 2012 interview with The Horn Book, Inc., Russian author Eugene Yelchin seemed to take quiet pride in his Newbery Award-winning book Breaking Stalin’s Nose and its special designation as “the first children’s book about Stalin.”

This pride was well-deserved. Like Watership Down and Maus before it, Breaking Stalin’s Nose tells a story that is not always pleasant, but which advanced young readers will enjoy and ask important questions about nevertheless. It is an incredible teaching tool for a world that has largely footnoted, rewritten, or forgotten about the murderous reign of Joseph Stalin.

Continue Reading at Mises.org…

Would-be home buyers see high prices as a deterrent, not an incentive to get in the market

by Andrea Riquier
Market Watch

There’s a paradox in Monday’s existing-home sales data.

Sales slid 7.1% to the lowest pace since November, the National Association of Realtors said. NAR has warned for many months that low levels of supply, which are pushing prices ever higher, will eventually cripple the market.

February’s decline may be a sign that the Realtors’ fears are coming true, although it may still turn out to be a temporary blip caused by weather, new closing regulations, and the difficulties of adjusting data to account for all those anomalies.

Still, as NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement, “the main issue continues to be a supply and affordability problem. Finding the right property at an affordable price is burdening many potential buyers.”

Continue Reading at MarketWatch.com…

by Daily Bell Staff
The Daily Bell

New York Times … With ‘Smog Jog’ Through Beijing, Zuckerberg Stirs Debate on Air Pollution … Some noted he should have worn a face mask … Others simply took umbrage with where the photo was staged, at the heart of Tiananmen Square.“The floor you stepped has been covered by blood from students …” wrote a user named Cao Yuzhou. – New York Times

Mark Zuckerberg’s China trip turned surprisingly “hot.” There was a lot of local coverage regarding his recent jog, and some leaked into the Western mainstream media as well.

This reinforces a trend when it comes to Facebook coverage in the West. The mainstream media reports on Zuckerberg with a dutiful persistence based on his wealth and youth and doesn’t make much of a distinction as to what ought to be written about.

For instance, the media is as apt to cover his wife’s pregnancy and the breed of his pet dog as they are to report on his neighborhood real estate controversies.

Continue Reading at TheDailyBell.com…

by Martin Armstrong
Armstrong Economics

With Japan on national holidays it was left to Shanghai and Hang Seng to show the rest of the world the way forward. With the help of the PBOC, adding ample liquidity and fixing the Yuan rate at 6.4824 (compared to 6.4628 on Friday) stocks saw a healthy 2%+ gain for the day. HSI closed marginally firmer.

In Europe it was a fairly quiet start to the holiday shortened week with core indices closing almost unchanged. The CAC was the only exception, closing down -0.7% on the day. We hope to find more clear direction tomorrow after we see the IFO (Business Climate – expected 106) and then later the ZEW (estimated 53).

Continue Reading at ArmstrongEconomics.com…

by John P. Hussman, Ph.D.
Hussman Funds

From a long-term investment standpoint, the stock market remains obscenely overvalued, with the most historically-reliable measures we identify presently consistent with zero 10-12 year S&P 500 nominal total returns, and negative expected real returns on both horizons.

From a cyclical standpoint, I continue to expect that the completion of the current market cycle will likely take the S&P 500 down by about 40-55% from present levels; an outcome that would not be an outlier or worst-case scenario, but instead a rather run-of-the-mill cycle completion from present valuations. If you are a historically-informed investor who is optimistic enough to reject the idea that the financial markets are forever doomed to extreme valuations and dismal long-term returns, you should be rooting for this cycle to be completed.

Continue Reading at HussmanFunds.com…

from FinanceAndLiberty.com

by Roland Watson
Silver Seek

The United States Geological Survey recently published its silver summary and it turned out to be yet another record year of global mine production for silver. The 2015 estimate will be revised, but in the last twenty years, only four years (2000, 2003, 2005, and 2011) have been revised downwards in the subsequent summary.

If it does happen that 2015 output comes in below 2014, that does not mean that Peak Silver has arrived as 35 years out of 115 years of global data have been dips from the previous year only to see silver production resume its upwards march.

Continue Reading at SilverSeek.com…

by Michael J. Ballanger
The Gold Report

Michael Ballanger dissects Friday’s Commitment of Traders Report and whether it indicates bullish or bearish movements.

Last night as I sat in the den looking at a picture of my 1970–1971 Saint Catharines Black Hawks OHA championship team with a VERY young captain named Marcel Dionne smiling into the camera, I was suddenly slammed in the face with how quickly the years have passed. I remember that we knew it all; we were playing in the same uniforms as Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull and Bernie Parent and were certain to be on the back of cereal boxes before we got out of high school. We were living the dream and it took another decade for me to get that dream behind me, despite the fact that one can never ever forget being on the ice in front of 20,000 screaming fans.

Continue Reading at TheAuReport.com…

by Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg

If you’re a NYC resident and find yourself excited about the city’s public Wi-Fi network known as LinkNYC, you may want to think again.

As the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) notes:

March 16, 2016 — The city’s new public Wi-Fi network LinkNYC raises several privacy concerns for users, the New York Civil Liberties Union announced today after sending a letter to the Office of the Mayor on Tuesday. CityBridge, the company behind the LinkNYC kiosks that have begun replacing phone booths in Manhattan, retains a vast amount of information about users – often indefinitely – building a massive database that carries a risk of security breaches and unwarranted NYPD surveillance.

Continue Reading at LibertyBlitzkrieg.com…

by Steve Saville, The Speculative Investor
Gold Seek

Jordan Roy-Byrne recently posted an interesting video discussing gold’s Commitments of Traders (COT) data. The video was a response to numerous articles warning that the COT situation was flashing a danger signal. I agree with Jordan’s interpretation, which is that the COT data are probably not predicting a large decline in the gold price.

The main point of the above-linked video is similar to a point I’ve made numerous times in TSI commentaries over the years. The point is that there are no absolute benchmarks when it comes to sentiment indicators in general and the COT situation in particular (the COT reports are nothing more than sentiment indicators). A level that constitutes an ‘overbought’ warning in a bear market will usually not be applicable in a bull market, in that during a multi-year bullish trend the market will tend to become more ‘overbought’ and stay ‘overbought’ for longer. Of particular relevance, the speculative net-long position in gold futures that coincides with a short-term price top will generally reach much higher levels during a bull market than during a bear market. In fact, by the time a bull market has been in progress for 2-3 years the levels that marked short-term ‘overbought’ extremes during the preceding bear market could now mark short-term ‘oversold’ extremes.

Continue Reading at GoldSeek.com…

from Boom Bust

by Michael Snyder
End of the American Dream

We just got more evidence that a major economic slowdown is underway here in the United States. Existing home sales were down a whopping 7.1 percent during the month of February, and this represented the biggest decline that we have seen in six years. This is yet another sign that we are in the early stages of a new crisis that is eerily reminiscent of what happened back in 2008. The truth is that most U.S. consumers are tapped out, and when you are tapped out it is really hard to get a mortgage. Banks aren’t really fond of lending money to people that can’t pay it back, and in recent years housing prices in many areas have risen to levels that are beyond the reach of most middle class families.

Continue Reading at EndOfTheAmericanDream.com…

from Zero Hedge

There is nothing wrong with attack ads: Trump’s first attack ad against Hillary Clinton was creative, original, imaginative – it included Jihadi John, a barking Hillary Clinton and a cackling Putin. It promptly went viral. Hillary’s retort was basically a duller version of the original Trump ad; it was ok although Hillary’s SuperPAC will have to do much better to keep the entertainment level on par.

However, when a conservative, anti-Trump group decided to run Facebook ads which showcased naked photos of Melania Trump, we wonder: what were they thinking?

According to Buzzfeed, with Tuesday’s presidential primary contests in Utah and Arizona just one day away, the anti-trumpers are running Facebook ads aimed at rallying Mormon voters against the billionaire frontrunner.

Continue Reading at ZeroHedge.com…

from FutureMoneyTrends

by Justin Spittler
Casey Research

Americans are falling behind on their car payments…

If you’ve been reading the Dispatch, you know the price of oil has plummeted as much as 75% since June 2014. Two months ago, it hit its lowest level since 2003.

Since then, oil has rebounded 45%. But even after that big bounce, oil is down 61% from its 2014 high.

• The world has too much oil…

New technologies like “fracking” have unlocked billions of barrels of shale oil that was once impossible to extract. From 2007 to 2014, oil production in U.S. shale regions jumped eight-fold.

Continue Reading at CaseyResearch.com…