William K. Black keeps a running tally on the fraud surrounding the financial crisis on his Twitter feed. His latest was a link to an analysis of a recent Bloomberg interview with Richard Bowen, a Citi senior vice president who led their mortgage underwriting team. Bowen is the latest well-placed whistleblower.
Black writes, “Bowen led Citi’s 220 person mortgage loan underwriter team. Bowen’s team initially found in 2006 that the loans Citi was purchasing for resale had a 40-60% incidence of not meeting Citi’s loan standards. By 2007, despite Bowen’s stark warnings to senior management, that percentage climbed to 80 percent. The response of Citi’s senior management to Bowen’s repeated written warnings that Citi was engaged in massive fraud was (a) to increase Citi’s purchases of toxic mortgages, (b) to buy far more (endemically fraudulent) liar’s loans, and (c) to retaliate against Bowen and destroy his banking career. My first column in this series explains why Bowen posed such a threat to the top managers’ fraud scheme that those managers decided their only choice (other than honesty) was to destroy Bowen’s banking career.
“I have written several columns in which I have explained the indifference and incompetence of the DOJ’s response to the financial whistleblowers. The first point to make is that because of a different form of incompetence – the Bush (II) administration’s destruction of the criminal referral process at the banking regulatory agencies and the Obama administration’s even more inexplicable refusal to restore an effective criminal referral process the sole means by which the FBI and the DOJ could succeed in prosecuting the elite fraud is through whistleblowers. (They could also use people like me as experts, but we all know that Holder would prefer to drink a cup full of broken glass rather than accept help from people like me.)”
Documentaries about the crisis are “The Inside Job” and “The Untouchables” (PBS Frontline). There are multiple big whistleblowers - Sherry Hunt, Carmen Segarra, Richard Bowen.
Seven years ago, the PTB could plausibly claim panic for their inaction. But even with General Motors, at least the CEO was removed and his lieutenant was put in place when the company was bailed out. Now, seven years later, the senior leadership teams in Wall Street not only remain the same, but have not lost an iota of wealth as a result of their misconduct. Holder said he wouldn’t go after these firms due to the possible impact on the economy.
Coincidentally, Congress is very pleased at the money it receives from the FIRE sector.
Thanks for that, Neuro. It’s one of my fondest wishes to see Black head up the team that cleans all of this stuff up. Although it doesn’t seem likely, hope springs eternal.
China’s coal imports fell by nearly half in the first three months of the year as the slowing economy and tougher rules on pollution took their toll.
Imports by the world’s biggest coal consumer reached 49.07m tonnes in the first quarter, a fall of 42% on the same period a year ago according to data from the Chinese customs office.
Trade figures for March showed that imports were down overall by 12.3% while exports badly missed expectations, falling 15% from a year earlier.
A Chinese economic slowdown will hit Australia as iron ore prices tumble, the World Bank has said.
The bank said Australia’s growth pace had deteriorated sharply since the first quarter of 2014 as declining prices for export commodities depressed mining investment and weakened the Australian dollar.
The warning came as poor Chinese trade figures underlined the continued slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. Exports were down 14.6% in March from a year ago while imports fell 12.3% on the same measure.
The Australian dollar fell more than half a US cent to hover around the US76c mark.
The World Bank predicted that a further slowdown in China, Australia’s biggest trading partner, would affect Australia and its neighbours.
Australia will usurp Indonesia to reclaim its title as the world’s biggest coal exporter by 2017, according to government forecasts. In the meantime though, the industry is expected to see tough times as it adjusts to China’s slowdown and a supply overhang from the boom, along with environmental pressures, with India emerging as the new source of demand.
Highlighting sluggish prices, on Friday, Japan’s Tohoku Electric Power reportedly agreed to an annual thermal coal import deal with Rio Tinto at prices 17 percent below a year ago, according to Japan’s Nikkei newspaper. The annual price was settled in the “upper $67 range” per ton for coal from Australia for the Japanese fiscal year beginning April 1, below last year’s price of $81.80 and nearly half the peak price of $130 reached in fiscal 2011.
Spot prices for Newcastle coal have fallen to around $56 a ton recently, with Japanese buyers indicating they were “disappointed” by the price agreed with the Anglo-Australian mining giant. According to Reuters, Tohoku accepted the “high” price to secure a stable supply of high-quality coal from Australia, which is Japan’s largest thermal coal supplier.
Analysts had predicted an annual Japanese contract price of around $70 a ton, with ANZ Bank and Australia’s government forecaster both eyeing $70 and National Australia Bank expecting $72.50.
In a February 18 report, ANZ Research slashed its price forecasts by 7-17 percent over the next three to four years, noting a “lack of supply discipline, mainly due to onerous take-or-pay infrastructure commitments in Australia,” with China also introducing “unfavorable trade restrictions” to protect domestic producers.
China’s export sales contracted 15 percent in March, a shock outcome that deepens concern about sputtering Chinese economic growth.
The tumble in exports - the worst in about a year - compared with expectations for a 12 percent rise and could heighten worries about how a rising yuan CNY=CFXS has hurt demand for Chinese goods and services abroad, analysts said.
The yuan’s strength was one factor in March’s 19.1 percent on-year decline in exports to the European Union and 24.8 percent drop to Japan.
In a sign that domestic demand was also tepid, imports into the world’s second-biggest economy shrank 12.7 percent last month from a year ago, the General Administration of Customs said on Monday. By volume, coal imports plunged more than 40 percent in January-March.
Excerpt from BBC, of course it might be more accurate to average but it does not fit the narrative that the MSM wants to say about China:
Tony Nash, global vice president of Delta Economics, said the numbers took in the lunar new year period which was typically a bit volatile.
“We usually average February and March to get a true picture of what’s actually happening,” he told the BBC.
“If we look at February’s 48% rise in exports and March’s 15% fall in exports, we get a moving average of 16.7%, which is closer to where we’ve seen exports over the past two months.”
But Mr Nash said Delta Economics was expecting a further slowdown going forward.
By Keynesian economic logic, this news should bolster Chinese share prices, as the government will have to step in with stimulus to offset the slowdown.
Surprise slump in China trade figures fans fears global growth is slowing Weakest exports for a year and poor imports affect markets worldwide before Chinese shares rally on expectation Beijing will step in to stimulate economy
The mammoth Chinese container ship CSCL Globe docks at Felixstowe in January – China’s export sales shrank 15% in March from a year ago. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
Katie Allen
Monday 13 April 2015 08.13 EDT
Last modified on Monday 13 April 2015 10.55 EDT
A surprise fall in Chinese exports fanned fears that global growth is losing momentum and sent ripples through world markets on Monday.
Figures showing the biggest drop in overseas sales from China for a year and a slump in imports took financial markets by surprise. In the UK, fears about the strength of the world’s second largest economy knocked the FTSE 100 share index off its record highs as mining stocks in particular were sold.
The data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed its export sales shrank by 15% in March from a year ago and imports fell by 12.7% in a third straight month of declines, raising concerns about faltering domestic demand.
Economists had been expecting a 12% rise in exports. They said the surprise fall may point to weaker than expected first quarter economic growth from Beijing on Wednesday.
…
You must have misread the 15% shrinkage in export sales, versus an expected 12% increase, which is a 27% miss to the downside.
Since you are a forecasting expert, I’m sure you can see the problem there.
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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 08:37:17
I do not know how they got that estimate, I do know as the article points out that the average of the two months is almost 17% growth. That omission by the story makes the story no better than a lie since it is a material omission. The banksters are bad mouthing China because China is invading their turf including the world bank’s role:
You must have misread the 15% shrinkage in export sales,
The problem here is that China’s GDP is growing by 7.5%/year. But they aren’t importing raw materials, they aren’t exporting stuff, and it looks like they’re done burning oil to build their ghost cities. So, where is this 7.5% growth from? Not in “goods.” They must be doing it the way Americans do — in “services;” that is, inflation, financial *poof* money, or they’re just lying.
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 15:45:27
Oxide read, their exports increased by 48% one month, followed by a decline of 15% the next month but if you take the months together their exports increased almost 17% per month, hardly inconsistent with 7% growth.
What a marvel of an animal is the tapeworm. Once he attaches himself to the host he is set for life.
What the host eats the tapeworm also gets to eat, but the tapeworm gets to eat first. What’s left after the tapeworm get its fill is left for the host.
Yep and then maybe, maybe they paid off some bills of excess from the past few years and then they jump right back in to the new builds with a zero down 30 yr. I specifically heard the words “zero down” uttered by a realtor this weekend.
International oligarchs need not fear, for Micky Dee’s sells cheeseburgers everywhere, all over the world. There is no need for a home base anymore, since McD’s will always be there for you, wherever you are.
I’m not sure, but I have a feeling you’re going to tell us.
However, “market top” is meaningless in today’s financialized world. Crashes are not permitted. Just a short, sharp dip and then the manipulated market comes back stronger than ever.
I don’t know…Probably the only way is through BK and that won’t happen until they run out of ways to tax the common man to pay for it….
As the city of Detroit’s financial condition deteriorated, its employee-pension funds made hundreds of millions of dollars in bonus payments to retirees. Those extra checks swelled the city’s retirement debt and played a role in the Motor City’s eventual bankruptcy. Yet Detroit’s struggles haven’t stopped the retirement systems of other cities and states—including some with severely underfunded pensions—from continuing to dole out bonuses.
Lofty valuations in global asset markets have caused a “wall of worry” for professional investors, but a lack of alternatives will mean equities will continue to climb in 2015, one strategist warned.
“Any correction will be met with a wall of buying, it’s one of those moments,” Peter Toogood, investment director at London-based independent fund manager City Financial Investment, told CNBC Monday.
“Take the U.S., there’s nowhere to hide…the market in the U.S. is broadly insane.”
He urged investors to “be nervous,” but added that this nervousness and weak fundamentals weren’t enough to stop the global rally in stocks and global fixed income. He predicted that the former would rally throughout the rest of the year.
“If you’re about speculation, party on down,” he said.
…
ft dot com
Europe stocks hover at 15-year peak
Jamie Chisholm, Global Markets Commentator
Monday 12:30 BST. European stocks and US index futures are struggling to make headway but Greater China equities shrugged off poor economic data and continued to rally on hopes for more stimuli.
A move higher for Treasury yields is lifting the dollar, but helping push gold down $8 to $1,199 an ounce.
Futures indicate the S&P 500 will dip 3 points to 2,099 as investors prepare for the first-quarter earnings season to slip into high gear with the likes of Intel, Johnson & Johnson and Bank of America revealing their results over the next few days.
Analysts have slashed earnings forecasts because of a stronger dollar, a start-of-year economic soft patch and a struggling energy sector in the wake of sharply lower oil prices.
Yet the S&P 500 sits just 15 points below its record high, bolstered by signs the Federal Reserve will be patient in raising borrowing costs from record lows and as companies decide its better to give cash back to shareholders rather than investing for future growth.
Another factor providing a bullish underpinning for stocks is the largesse of central banks in Europe and Japan, as the monetary guardians buy up bonds to suppress yields in the hope this will stimulate more risk taking.
…
Mark Hulbert Opinion: Leading indicators signal a market top Published: Apr 10, 2015 6:00 a.m. ET
Consumer stocks and health care have been best performers this year, while financials lag
By Mark Hulbert
Columnist
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (MarketWatch) — A bearish story is being told by the relative performance of the market’s various sectors.
That’s because the sectors with the best year-to-date returns are among those that typically lead the market prior to major tops. In addition, the sectors exhibiting the worst performances this year are those that typically lag.
We know how the market’s sectors have performed prior to past tops because of data from Ned Davis Research, which analyzed all bull market tops since 1970. According to the firm, the sectors that on average have performed the best over the three months prior to those tops are Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples and Health Care.
As you can see from the chart above, these are the very sectors that are at the top of the ranking for year-to-date performance, according to FactSet.
…
You’ve been pimping this message for weeks. We got it.
The irony is that the candidtate that HBB really wants is Elizabeth Warren, but they’ll never admit it (except banana, who wants to bring back McKinley.)
Her concern for the common person is as real as her Native American heritage.
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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2015-04-13 08:29:56
Elizabeth Warren is a FRAUD….
Someone who spends their whole working life fighting for the common man’s protection against preditorial finance is not by definition a fraud.
To understand her claim and belief of being part Cherokee one must have an objective understanding of America and geography. She was born and raised in Oklahoma - the state with the most native-Americans. Her dad was working-class and her family members claimed to be part Cherokee - the tribe most claimed when Americans tout their Indian “heritage”. And Delaware too.
She’s probably more Cherokee than Jeb Bush is Hispanic.
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 08:51:30
She was born and raised in Oklahoma - the state with the most native-Americans.
Then, she should know how Native Americans feel about the “I have an ancestor that was a Cherokee princess claim”. There is a clear process to confirming whether you are a Cherokee, did one of your ancestors get listed on the Dawes roll. The Cherokees have members with very little native American blood, less than 2% in many instances, if you do not meet their simple test and claim heritage through them, you are about as native American as one of the Village People.
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2015-04-13 09:11:23
There is a clear process to confirming whether you are a Cherokee,
You again are obviously wrong. You do not have a good understanding of America and American issues when the understanding conflicts with your politics.
“the Oklahoma Historical Society said that finding a definitive answer about Native American heritage can be difficult because of intermarriage and deliberate avoidance of registration” wiki
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 09:21:19
Ask them about verifying Cherokee heritage, it is quite simple and anyone in OK show know how to do it, instead she claimed affirmative action for a heritage she does not have. She takes care of herself.
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 09:28:57
The first way you know a liberal is lying is that they say something very simple is complicated, the second way to know is to determine whether his or her lips are moving. Rio, all you ever post is liberal talking points. She is a liar who used affirmative action to get a position when she had no native American blood. She could have easily checked and probably did but it was not the answer she wanted so she lied:
What is it about “the Oklahoma Historical Society said that finding a definitive answer about Native American heritage can be difficult because of intermarriage and deliberate avoidance of registration” that you find hard to understand.
The first way you know a liberal is lying is that they say something very simple is complicated
The first way you know a lot of conservatives are lying is when they say they understand something complicated.
all you ever post is liberal talking points.
Now that’s a hoot coming from you.
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 09:49:03
What is it about “the Oklahoma Historical Society said that finding a definitive answer about Native American heritage can be difficult because of intermarriage and deliberate avoidance of registration” that you find hard to understand.
The register goes back to the early 1900s and they were not able to avoid it. While you can repeat your liberal talking point over and over since it is your job to post liberal talking points, I showed just how easy it is to verify that you are a Cherokee, other tribes can be difficult but she claimed to be from one of the easiest tribes to verify, if she could not do it she is too stupid as well as too dishonest to be president.
+1. Fauxahontus Warren showed her true colors by rushing to block Audit the Fed, which more than any single entity has destroyed the middle class by debasing the currency and spurring malinvestment and crony capitalism.
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Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2015-04-14 07:10:27
Fauxahontus Warren showed her true colors by rushing to block Audit the Fed,
+infinity. She showed who her true masters were that day.
Warren is the only candidate, or potential candidate, to openly support restoring Glass-Steagall and breaking up the big banks. She’s the only one who gives a darn about the absurdly high student loan interest rates. I’d vote for her if she ran.
When you fight auditing the Fed, you are firmly in the Banksters’ pockets.
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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2015-04-13 08:37:29
Elizabeth Warren says some really scary things. And these scary things will influence the Democratic nominee’s platform whether Elizabeth Warren runs or not. It’s very scary.
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. … You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”
Elizabeth Warren.
Comment by Housing Analyst
2015-04-13 08:39:31
Like you Lola, EW says alot of things.
Comment by Bring Back the WPA
2015-04-13 08:51:19
She is 100% correct.
Comment by Housing Analyst
2015-04-13 09:03:34
When is Lola ever correct?
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 09:50:21
As we see today, virtually never. A broken clock has a better record.
You are all proving me right. Day in and day out HBB spouts anti-crony-cap and anti-bank sentiments, but when a candidate actually implements anti-bank policies — consumer financial protection bureau, anybody? — it’s all about the unrelated ad hominem. Just admit that you want her already.
Of course Warren wants to audit the Fed, but she didn’t like the witch-hunt language recently proposed. IMO she should have grabbed at the witch hunt; it could be the only chance.
You’re no more right about that than you are about housing.
Tragic financial consequences Donk.
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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 10:05:17
Of course Warren wants to audit the Fed, but she didn’t like the witch-hunt language recently proposed
Of course, she did not want to audit the Fed since she voted against it and persuaded her mindless minions to be against it. Only the banksters and their allies called it a witch-hunt.
Comment by Housing Analyst
2015-04-13 10:33:39
“She voted against it”
There it is.
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 11:56:48
The U.S. stock market is flat today. What is wrong with America under Obama, have we lost all pride? Under Clinton, we had the world’s preeminent Ponzi scheme stock market bringing in money from all the sheep in the world, making the Hamptons rich beyond compare. China is kicking our butts today in Ponzi scheme stock markets, pulling in money from the entire world. Do the U.S. banksters not understand the obvious, if the market is not even going up how are you going to find marks? The Chinese will have their stock market up to 8888 soon and we will still be stuck at 18,000, you American banksters have become a bunch of loosers. (sarcasm off).
From Iafrica.com, my nomination for the degenerate gambler prize of the day:
A gem trader has reportedly gone to ground after he gambled away R12-million worth of gems that he had stolen.
The Star reports that the man, who is in his early twenties, took the diamonds from various dealers at the diamond centre in Johannesburg, promising to make the payments on them at a later date. Payment though can take as long as a week to clear due to the large sums involved. The man was trusted to make the payments as his father is allegedly a well-known businessman in the diamond trading industry.
The traders though raised the alarm, when the promised payments failed to materialise after a few weeks.
It was discovered that the man, who is known to have a gambling problem, had pawned the gems and blown it during a gambling spree. The man has since gone into hiding.
“He isn’t very clever. I know that two men have already put a gun to his head demanding that he produce the money. I’m not sure what he is going to do now. His life is in danger,” one dealer told The Star.
It’s complicated Adan. There was much more to that bill than “Auditing the Fed”. The bill opened up the Fed to be meddled with by Congress. But that’s not in your daily right-wing talking points memo.
“I strongly support and continue to press for greater congressional oversight of the Fed’s regulatory and supervisory responsibilities, and I believe the Fed’s balance sheet should be regularly audited – which the law already requires,” Ms. Warren said in an emailed statement. “But I oppose the current version of this bill because it promotes congressional meddling in the Fed’s monetary policy decisions, which risks politicizing those decisions and may have dangerous implications for financial stability and the health of the global economy.” Elizabeth Warren.
“But I oppose the current version of this bill because it promotes congressional meddling in the Fed’s monetary policy decisions, which risks politicizing those decisions and may have dangerous implications for financial stability and the health of the global economy.”
Wrong, Fauxahontus. Since 1913 Congress has turned a blind eye while the Fed ran amok with its debasement of the currency and racketeering with the .1% who are enriched by its policies at the expense of everyone else. “Congressional meddling” is exactly what needs to happen, starting with a rigorous audit.
Article about Amerikwa’s 51st state and its inhabitants’ divided loyalties, a racist, fascist, apartheid state that has been ripping off U.S. taxpayers for almost seventy years
Yes, I fear cops much more than the thugs and predators roaming our streets.
This article title mentions “thousands” shot, I didn’t see any substantiation of that number in the article. It really only talks about the 54 charged over the past 10 years.
In every case where a person is shot by a cop there are lawyers clamboring to sue on behalf of the relatives and get a big settlement from the deep pockets government. Happens all the time even in justified shootings. There really aren’t a whole lot of unjustified shootings not addressed. It’s unfortunate that our mental health system results in crazies attacking cops and getting shot, but people don’t want the crazies locked up in asylums like they used to be.
Don’t Fear the Reaper. A very good song. I imagine there are those who think it pairs wonderfully with some of your product. Do you guys do “pairings” like they do with wine?
Citigroup Cuts Metals to Iron Forecasts as China Growth Slows
by Phoebe Sedgman
10:20 PM PDT April 12, 2015
Citigroup Inc. cut price forecasts for industrial metals and iron ore by as much as 50 percent amid signs Chinese demand is waning as economic growth in the world’s biggest consumer slows.
The bank lowered its 2015 nickel forecast by 21 percent and cut its estimate for next year by 15 percent, analysts including Ed Morse wrote in a report e-mailed Monday. Copper, aluminum, zinc, lead and tin projections for this year and 2016 were also lowered. The bank reduced its iron ore outlook through 2020, with prices seen falling into the $30s, according to the bank.
Commodities slumped to a 12-year low last month as oil fell to the weakest since 2009 and raw materials from nickel to iron ore tumbled. Global supplies of commodities have climbed after a decade-long bull market spurred farmers, miners and drillers to increase production just as economic growth slowed in China. The world’s biggest metals and energy consumer grew at the slowest pace since 1990 last year and is set to slow further this year.
…
“Global supplies of commodities have climbed after a decade-long bull market spurred farmers, miners and drillers to increase production just as economic growth slowed in China.”
And the fun part of this is:
This massive increase of production was largely fueled by borrowed money.
“Steel prices have fallen continuously due to overcapacity and fierce competition,” Li told the conference. “Many steel companies lose money and are experiencing hard times. Some have been closed, and more will be closing in future.”
“China’s crude-steel production will decline,” said Li. “Why? Two reasons: consumption that has passed the peak and exports cannot maintain high increases. I’m sure steel production will decrease.”
“Output will contract to an estimated 814 million metric tons in 2015 from 823 million tons last year, Deputy Secretary-General Li Xinchuang said at an iron ore conference in Perth, Australia, on Wednesday. The association is funded by China’s major steelmakers and is the only nationwide industry body.”
Due to an error in her years-in-the-making presidential announcement, Hillary Clinton’s campaign said Sunday that she has “fought children and families all her career.”
What the campaign meant to say of course is that she’s fought for children and families.
Well, her & Bill did their bit to totally screw over future generations with their repeal of Glass-Steagal and other pet projects of “former” Goldmanite Robert Rubin. Pushing through such “no bankster left behind” legistlation allowed them to amass a fortune of $300 million dollars once they left “public service” but of course the imbeciles who fell for “hope ‘n change” will flock again to vote for this so-faux, self-described champion of the middle class. So yeah, she definitely was the adversary of children and families, although her middle class supporters - almost exclusively female - are too empty-headed to make the link between her malfeasance and crony capitalism, and the decline of their own standard of living.
Well, her & Bill did their bit to totally screw over future generations with their repeal of Glass-Steagal
It’s all part of America’s embrace of the false religion of Supply-Side economics on steroids, where all policy advantages are given to capital over people and “labor”. The Republicans dragged the Democrats into the charade too. Now some of the Democrats such as Elizabeth Warren and Obama (sporadically) want out. This is a difference between Dems and Repubs today.
TaxCutsForTheRich and policies favoring capital over the middle-class and labor do not trickle-down to benefit labor and the middle-class much if at all.
The false religion of Supply-Side on Steroids has decimated the American middle-class. Whereas Brazil’s brand of capitalism (not socialism) has brought about 40 million out of poverty and into the middle-class the past 15 years. You need to learn details and nuance instead to throwing out broad-brush labels. This guy’s description is pretty good but it’s too complicated for you I think.
Is Brazil socialist?
Definitively not.
Brazil adopts a capitalist economic model and a democratic and pluralist political model. State is quite present is some sectors, like oil production, public transport and energy, but most economical activities are dominated by private companies. Press is highly free and can criticizes governments without restrictions (censorship was abolished in 1986). Transnational corporations have a massive presence in the country and control sectors like vehicle production, pharmaceutics, electronics, and cosmetics.
Since 2003, Brazil is under a left-wing government (with the leadership of PT, Partido dos Trabalhadores, the Workers’ Party). But those political leaders did adopt a light, more centered profile to attract electors and to get credibility from investors. The leftism is more visible in social programs to help income of poor families and to facilitate access to house purchase. Acquisition of cars and domestic facilities were also stimulated. In other hand, financial sector works the same way of USA and Europe, and most international banks get their highest profit margins in Brazil due to high interest taxes.
Internal politics is also democratic and open, with dozens of parties representing a vasty gamma of tendencies. Elections occur regularly since 1988 with no institutional disrupt. President, Governors, and Mayors are appointed to a 4-year rule, as also are state and federal deputies. Just senators hold an 8-year rule (like the USA model, Brazil has two legislative houses). In the meantime there were political crisis, as the death of president Tancredo Neves and the impeachment of president Fernando Color. In both situations, the constitutional rules were followed without any kind of rupture — so usual in the past.
When one compares Brazil to other South-American countries with left-wing governments (Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Uruguay), it is clear that Brazil is by far the most moderate one. http://www.quora.com/Is-Brazil-socialist
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 09:52:23
A lot of bs, Brazil is collapsing due to its left wing policies and a simple google search will confirm it.
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2015-04-13 10:08:55
A lot of bs,
What is BS about “Brazil adopts a capitalist economic model and a democratic and pluralist political model.“?
Brazil is collapsing due to its left wing policies
Brazil adopts a capitalist economic model, I know, I’m in Brazil’s capitalist economic model. So is Brazil “collapsing” because Brazil adopts a capitalist economic model?
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 10:30:05
Brazil adopts a capitalist economic model, I know, I’m in Brazil’s capitalist economic model.
Excerpt from Brazilian link, this type of stagflation is just what Ronald Reagan had to deal with thanks to Carter, it is much harder to fight than what Obama inherited:
How bad can Brazil get? According to market research firm Gavekal Dragonomics, “much, much worse”.
In his most recent article on Brazil (“The Land of Wishful thinking”), analyst Arthur Kroeber writes that the extraordinary deterioration of the Brazilian economy is nowhere close to playing out.
Here’s his 2-cent:
“The combined effect of all these negative economic factors, the necessary but painful fiscal tightening, and the lack of any other plausible sources of near-term growth, is that Brazil’s economy will likely contract by -1-2% this year, with another somewhat smaller drop in 2016. This would be the first time since 1929-30 that Brazil’s economy has shrunk for two consecutive years. On top of that, inflation is accelerating, and at 7.7% is at its highest rate since 2005… it’s clear that Brazil is caught in a dire stagflationary trap.”
He also predicts that the stock market and currency will fall further.
“… deeper selloffs are in store. Many major Brazilian institutions sold their domestic equity positions months ago, and private wealth is streaming out of the country. A common theme in our talks with investors was perplexity that foreign money continues to flow into Brazilian stocks. Once foreign investors wise up, equity prices and the real will both tumble much further.”
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2015-04-14 19:50:13
his would be the first time since 1929-30 that Brazil’s economy has shrunk for two consecutive years.
Dang. That shows how much better Brazil is than China. I wonder how many times China’s “economy” shrank for two consecutive years since 1929. (Not including the millions killed by their own Commies.)
And you tout an 80 year basket case like Commie China over Brazil’s democracy.
“Chelsea Clinton in a Gucci dress, Mateo New York bracelet, Cartier bracelet, Garland Collection ring, Halleh ring.”
Comedy gold: Not ready for primetime campaign kicks off with huge Kinsley-esque gaffe.
by Ed Driscoll
April 12, 2015 - 2:21 pm
The ultimate Kinsley-esque gaffe — as spotted by the Weasel Zippers in a screenshot of Hillary’s announcement that her campaign is stating that she’s “fought children And families all her career.” It’s both “Hillary Comedy Gold,” as the Zippers write, and one of her rare moments of truthfulness. Margaret Sanger couldn’t have said it better herself.
And as the London Daily Mail notes in their headline, “‘Everyday Americans need a champion’: Wealthy Hillary Clinton finally enters formal race to be president with video telling middle class voters ‘the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top’ of the economy.”
Stacked just like the young women Bill enjoys as part of his own unique brand of “intimate campaigning,” and stacked just like the heels on a fine pair of Gucci calf leather pumps, Byron York writes at the Washington Examiner:
With those carefully-chosen regions and the voting groups they represent — Appalachia for working-class whites, the Delta for blacks, Rio Grande for Hispanics — Clinton took care to associate herself with opportunity for those parts of the American electorate struggling the most to get ahead, or just to maintain their place, in today’s economy.
All of which made another part of the Clinton rollout — a new photo spread in the trendy fashion magazine ELLE featuring Chelsea Clinton modeling high-priced clothing, jewelry and shoes while discussing equal opportunity — all of that made for a discordant note in ClintonWorld’s big week.
One photo in the ELLE article featured this caption:
Chelsea Clinton in a Gucci dress, Mateo New York bracelet, Cartier bracelet, Garland Collection ring, Halleh ring.
Cartier, Gucci, Bulgari — they are some of the most expensive names in the fashion business, and in this case they are the background to Chelsea Clinton’s thoughts on equality of opportunity, especially for women. “One of our core values in this country is that we are the land of equal opportunity,” Clinton told the magazine, “but when equal hasn’t yet included gender, there is a fundamental challenge there that, I believe, having our first woman president — whenever that is — will help resolve.”
Oh the fun we’re all going to have for the next year and a half, my friends.
“Chelsea Clinton in a Gucci dress, Mateo New York bracelet, Cartier bracelet, Garland Collection ring, Halleh ring.”
Chelsea Clinton: I tried to care about money but couldn’t
BY Leslie Larson
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, June 23, 2014, 9:36 AM
Hillary Clinton insists she isn’t “well-off” and now daughter Chelsea, according to a recent interview, claims she couldn’t care less about money.
“I was curious if I could care about (money) on some fundamental level, and I couldn’t,” she told Fast Company in an interview that ran in the magazine’s May edition, explaining why she gave up lucrative gigs to join her family’s philanthropic foundation.
Comparing her experience to the average millennial, the 34-year-old former first daughter defended jumping around to different careers — from consulting to a hedge fund to academia to journalism — before finding her true calling working with her parents.
“It is frustrating, because who wants to grow up and follow their parents? I’ve tried really hard to care about things that were very different from my parents … it’s a funny thing to realize I feel called to this work, both as a daughter and also as someone who believes I have contributions to make,” she continued about her reluctant status as a boomerang kid.
The Clinton name likely opened doors for the political heiress, including an eye-popping $600,000 annual salary for an irregular stint as an NBC special correspondent, but Chelsea insists her work speaks for itself.
“I will just always work harder (than anybody else) and hopefully perform better,” said Clinton, who along with former banker husband Marc Mezvinsky, purchased a $10.5-million Gramercy Park apartment in 2013. “And hopefully, over time, I preempt and erase whatever expectations people have of me not having a good work ethic, or not being smart, or not being motivated.”
When the alternative vision is trickle down economics with a side of assault rifle Jeebus, those that feel compelled to chose a side are hard pressed to choose which crock of feces is the least noisome.
Hank Paulson, who should be in a Federal prison playing nightly games of “the escaped convict meets the warden’s wife” with cellmate Timmy Geithner for their roles in the 2008 financial crash, spouts off about China’s bubble, while ignoring a equally massive bubble closer to home.
China stocks may be in serious bubble
Published: Mar 26, 2015 11:45 p.m. ET
As market volumes explode, even teenagers are buying
By Laura He
Asia markets reporter
Reuters
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Some say that when the average “mom-and-pop” retail investors get back into the stock market, it could be time to get out. But what about when even teenagers start buying?
China has entered a new stock frenzy, like something out of America in the Roaring 20s or the dottiest days of the dot-com bubble, with trading volumes continuing to push to new record highs.
On Wednesday, combined trading on the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets hit 1.24 trillion yuan ($198 billion), the seventh straight session in which turnover surpassed the 1 trillion yuan mark. By comparison, the New York Stock Exchange typically saw $40 billion-$50 billion a day in trading during the first two months of this year.
The Shanghai Composite Index is hovering near its seven-year closing high of 3,691, hit on Tuesday when the index completed a 10-session winning streak.
For the year so far, the benchmark is up 13.8%, making it the best-performing major East Asian stock index of 2015 to date, though it still has a way to go to match 2014’s 53% surge.
The lure of flush times on the Shanghai market is sweeping in unlikely investors by the hundreds of thousands. This week, both the China Securities Daily and the Beijing Morning Post had dueling reports about recent college graduates and, yes, teenagers buying shares.
Typically these young investors speculate with money given to them by their parents, according to a Great Wall Securities broker quoted in the Beijing Morning Post story.
Yet another report, this time by the Beijing News newspaper, relates that at the Beijing trading halls of China Securities Co., “even the cleaning lady” has opened an account to play the market.
The data appear to agree with the anecdotes: Within the last week alone, 1.14 million stock accounts were opened in China, the biggest such surge since June 2007, according to China Securities Depository & Clearing Corp.
What does it all mean?
In a note this week entitled “The Worrying Sense of Calm in China,” analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch got right to the point: “Risk-Love (equity sentiment) in China’s equity market is in euphoria territory. It is time to book some profits.”
After holding an overweight rating on Chinese shares since August of last year, Merrill Lynch is now cutting the market to neutral, making it clear that economic problems — especially looming deflation — suggest the current environment doesn’t justify buying into stocks.
“China’s real interest rates remain too high, the currency is too expensive, fiscal policy is tight, and debt deflation is taking hold,” the analysts said.
“We are now concerned that the scale of monetary/fiscal easing required in China is so large, and so radically different from where policy makers’ assessments are, that an overweight [rating] is no longer tenable,” they said.
…
Ask Roslyn Jones which card applies to her. This is a golden oldie of an article about the 2000 Cincinnati race riots (that CNN referred to as “demonstrations” LOLZ)
This Week, House Will Spend A Low-Profile $96 Billion On Military Wish Lists of Unneeded Weapons
4/12/2015 @ 4:16PM
Starting this week, the House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee will write the FY2016 defense policy bill. Unleashed from past constraints, it has gotten a $96 billion “below-the-radar” fund for spending even beyond its quite generous $523 billion in regular money. Key source of items: the unneeded weapons on the military’s wish lists.
Major media and the public do not follow this. The Congressional budget resolution, very recently worked out between House and Senate Republicans, seems too technical, and its execution seems far off. And, low-profile defense spending aspects are not “sexy.”
However, the budget resolution gave the store away — not far off, but right now — to the eager-spending House Armed Services Committee. The new Chairman, William “Mac” Thornberry (R-TX), from the Texas Panhandle, will start writing his annual bill (“marking it up”), not later this year, but right now, immediately, the week of April 20.
And, the White House has no commitment to vetoing the defense spending bill to match its vocal commitment to, say, the Affordable Care Act. Quite the contrary, the White House was itself the soul of generosity to the Pentagon budget — and it may not want to face the hawks’ charge that it is “soft” on defense.
Where is this below-the-radar funding? Excuse a bit of background. The spending cap (policed by “sequestration” across-the-board cuts), inherited from the clash of 2011, sets military spending this year at $523 billion. Congressional Republicans oppose lifting the military cap if this price is also lifting the domestic spending cap. So the budget resolution left the caps.
Now, President Obama’s budget provides, along with the regular $523 billion, also, $58 billion in actual war funding (called the “Overseas Contingency Operations”) — funding for combat operations, not big-ticket military hardware. This $58 billion is accepted as a rough planning estimate of the cost of Afghanistan, fighting ISIS, extras like Yemen may become, and so forth.
As bitcoin continues its relentless slide into obscurity, amid continued look alike startups and hacking robberies, a physical bitcoin is being introduced.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — During the heart of the Great Recession in 2009, a traditional policy rule used as a informal guide by the Federal Reserve suggested that interest rates should be set below negative 5%.
But economists had long said that interest rates couldn’t go below zero.
To get around this “zero-lower-bound,” then Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke bought billions of dollars of securities and expanded the Fed’s balance sheet to spur low rates and risk-taking, in a policy known as quantitative easing. The move set off a fierce political firestorm that hasn’t subsided even though Bernanke’s steps have been followed by other major central banks, including the European Central Bank.
With this background, economists have pondered what should be done to get ready for the next, inevitable, recession, and the chances that economic conditions may call for rates to go below zero in the future.
Willem Buiter, global chief economist at Citi, is arguing in a new research note that central banks should be prepared to set negative rates.
What is the obstacle? A key reason that central banks can’t set rates as low as they would like is cash. The theory is that savers would take all of their money out of banks rather than be charged a negative rate.
What to do? Well, one idea is to get rid of cash and move to digital payments.
Sound absurd?
Not to Buiter, who is deadly earnest. He said that there are only three constituencies left for cash. The elderly and the poor depend on cash and can be helped, he said. Criminals also depend on cash because it is anonymous. The third complaints will come from libertarians who “should take one for the team,” he said.
…
As I mentioned before, Rand Paul is the only person RIGHT NOW who has a microphone and a national audience saying that the NSA should stop spying on American citizens
And after he starts losing primaries and drops out of the race, there will be nobody left saying that, nobody
… and how long will President Paul stick to his guns on this when the CIA/NSA/Defense give him a classified briefing and tell him if we don’t have electronic surveillance there will be a terror attack on his watch?
Residents of high-tax states are voting with their feet
By Stephen Moore - - Sunday, April 12, 2015
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren appeared on one of the late night talk shows last week, beating the class warfare drum and arguing for billions of dollars in new social programs paid for with higher taxes on millionaires and billionaires. In recent years, though, blue states such as California, Illinois, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland and Minnesota adopted this very strategy, and they raised taxes on their wealthy residents. How did it work out? Almost all of these states lag behind the national average in growth of jobs and incomes.
So, if income redistribution policies are the solution to shrinking the gap between rich and poor, why do they fail so miserably in the states?
The blue states that try to lift up the poor with high taxes, high welfare benefits, high minimum wages and other Robin Hood policies tend to be the places where the rich end up the richest and the poor the poorest.
California is the prototypical example. It has the highest tax rates of any state. It has very generous welfare benefits. Many of its cities have a high minimum wage. But day after day, the middle class keeps leaving. The wealthy areas such as San Francisco and the Silicon Valley boom. Yet the state has nearly the highest poverty rate in the nation. The Golden State, alas, has become the inequality state.
In a new report called “Rich States, Poor States” that I write each year for the American Legislative Exchange Council with Arthur Laffer and Jonathan Williams, we find that five of the highest-tax blue states in the nation — California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois — lost some 4 million more U.S. residents than entered these states over the last decade (see chart). Meanwhile, the big low-tax red states — Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia — gained about this many new residents.
So much for liberal policies creating a workers paradise.
Pure bullsh–. “Right to work” states like Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia and Kentucky have the highest level of dependency on federal aid. Oh, and people aren’t leaving California: in 2013, the net loss was a mere 49,000 out of 38 million.
In a new report called “Rich States, Poor States” that I write each year for the American Legislative Exchange Council with Arthur Laffer and Jonathan Williams, we find that five of the highest-tax blue states in the nation — California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois — lost some 4 million more U.S. residents than entered these states over the last decade (see chart). Meanwhile, the big low-tax red states — Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia — gained about this many new residents.
It should be clear what’s going on here. Those high tax states happen to have a lot of jobs that pay well. The low tax states don’t. So the cost of housing is higher is a lot higher in the high tax states. So people move to the warmer low tax states when they retire.
Youngest daughter moved in with me last November, to look for a decent job in KC. Was hired by the first place she applied, a place down in the “Power and Light District” by the Sprint Center
Has done pretty well, just moved into a place south of downtown called the “Crossroad Arts District”. Where all the 20 year olds want to live. Helped her move in; its pretty nice.
Her first comment? “Thank God I dont have ro tell people I live in Kansas anymore”
Yup, you got 7 GOP candidates beating the drums for moar war, a Libertarian Lite who’s a Romney-style shape shifter, and pro-investment bank Hillary. Guess I’ll go the lesser of the 9 evils and vote for Hillary. At least she’ll veto any attempt by the tea partiers to gut Soc Sec and Medicare.
No, they’re not. They’re meeting all of their obligations.
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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 15:15:44
And running down their trust funds in the process. They are only taking in slightly over 70 cents for every dollar they are paying out, Obama had the ability to fix the programs when he took office and failed to address them when his bipartisan commission came back with reasonable proposals that he did not like.
Comment by Housing Analyst
2015-04-13 15:22:52
Yes they are bankrupt my friend. By their own admission they can’t “meet their obligations” without borrowing.
Comment by MightyMike
2015-04-13 15:33:10
No, they’re meeting the obligations without borrowing, except for parts of Medicare that are not funded by the trust fund.
Comment by MightyMike
2015-04-13 15:34:20
Obama had the ability to fix the programs when he took office and failed to address them when his bipartisan commission came back with reasonable proposals that he did not like.
You’re not referring to the Simpson-Bowles commission, are you?
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 15:50:10
Yes, I am. And please don’t give me the worn out liberal talking point that they vote was not 2/3 in favor, it had a majority of the votes of a bipartisan committee. Obama had supermajorities in congress and should have addressed it. Reagan a real leader fixed social security first thing, he accepted the political heat and it is the reason why the system has any money to make payments.
Comment by Housing Analyst
2015-04-13 15:59:50
False. Worse yet, the only way to ‘meet their obligations’ is to rob people blind.
Comment by MightyMike
2015-04-13 16:00:47
There weren’t enough votes according to the rules that set up the commission. Therefore, the commission made recommendations.
There is also this from Wikipedia:
On March 28, 2012, Representatives Jim Cooper (D-TN) and Steve LaTourette (R-OH) put a bill modeled on the plan, with, according to analyst Ezra Klein, “somewhat less in tax increases,” to a vote in the House where it was rejected 382 to 38. 22 Democrats and 16 Republicans supported the bill.[13]
It seems highly unlikely that the president could have gotten such a thing passed.
The voters here in Kansas are going to continue to vote for Kochistan, right up to the point they become serfs.
The farmers in the western 2/3 of the state dont care who is being screwed, as long as their taxes are low
The Mission Hills residents dont care how much of a s##thole the state becomes, because the get on their jets (hangared in Missouri, to avoid Kansas property taxes) and live in Palm Springs or Scottsdale during the winter, and Vail/Aspen during the summer.
The problem will solve itself in 20-30 years. The kids who can are getting out while the gettings good.. The farmers will have to deal with roaming packs of Mexican banditos in F-150s on their own, because the tax base to pay for law enforcement wont be there anymore.
Most of you do not really have a clue about just how bad the elites of this country have gotten. The elites that control the Dimocratic party crossed out Hillary in ‘08 and are trying to figure out how to do that again. The reasons they do not want her in power are the reasons I do. Yes, it is about SS and Medicare and the Middle Class. They want it gone.
Before your bitch and moan about typos and small shit, you better take a look at what Bush and Obama have been all about. If you realize that it is the middle class, with their size and wealth, who have protected freedoms of the common person, then you better get out there and vote like your lives depended on it. And do not wait for the election. The treachery will occur before the primary as Obama 3.0 emerges from the slimy depths of the elites back pockets. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEM_2016_OBAMA_CLINTON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-04-13-13-49-11
Climate Globalists Get Behind Draft Elizabeth Warren Campaign
All establishment party candidates are controlled by the global elite
by Kurt Nimmo | Infowars.com | April 13, 2015
The Elizabeth Warren for president campaign has attracted a number of prominent establishment environmental groups in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s presidential announcement last week.
“Environmental Activists for Warren” has become part of the Ready for Warren group.
“The launch expected to take place later this month is the latest sign that environmentalists fear that Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic frontrunner who announced her candidacy on Sunday, won’t take a strong stand on the issues they care most about,” the National Journal reports today.
Ready for Warren has culled employees, donors, and volunteers from establishment backed “green” groups, including the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Environmental Defense Fund, 350.org, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace USA.
Global Elite Run the Environmental Movement
The Sierra Club is funded by the Rockefeller Brothers and the group in turn funds the League of Conservation Voters and the Environmental Defense Fund.
350.org, described as a “scruffy little outfit,” is also funded by the Rockefellers.
Friends of the Earth has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Rockefeller Brothers. Greenpeace, the largest environmental group in the world, is also on the payroll.
More than saving rain forests and whales, the Rockefeller environmental agenda is centered on population reduction. The Club of Rome, founded on the estate of David Rockefeller in 1968, has long advocated reducing world population.
“The common enemy of humanity is man,” argues the Club of Rome. “In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.”
In order to realize “sustainability” through depopulation, the global elite require a one-world global government. The Council on Foreign Relations was designed to facilitate a one-world totalitarian government. David Rockefeller is its honorary chairman.
“Some governments are prepared to give up elements of sovereignty to address the threat of global climate change,” writes the president of the CFR, Richard Haass.
Elizabeth Warren: Tricking Liberals into Backing the Globalist Agenda
Senator Elizabeth Warren is billed as Wall Street’s worst nightmare. If she becomes president, liberals claim, she will target the 1% and send the wolves of Wall Street packing.
Populist rhetoric aside, this will not happen if Warren is selected as the Democrat nominee and she manages to beat her Republican rival and become president.
Obama also ran as an outsider. Once in office, however, he continued the globalist agenda of his predecessor. President Warren will do the same.
Warren “can rally key portions of the Democratic base — women, African American and young voters — and effectively deliver the populist, progressive message that resonates with blue-collar workers,” writes Emily Zanotti of The Political Insider.
In a repeat of the Obama campaign, these key portions will be used in a faux struggle against the perceived Democrat front-runner, Hillary Clinton, who was prior to Benghazi and the Clinton email scandal favorited by the establishment.
Establishment political candidates are more or less interchangeable. As Secretary of State, Clinton said she often runs to the Council on Foreign Relations for advice in important political matters.
Elizabeth Warren, if nominated and selected, will undoubtedly do an Obama repeat while holding high her populist cred. She will take orders from the very people she claims to oppose.
Both my former boss and my best friend have taken flying jobs in the Bay Area, both making +/- $200k a year. Because the few flying jobs out here in Flyover mean a step backward in equipment, and a 50-75% cut in pay.
Both are commuting by airline, because neither one of them can afford a decent house in the Bay Area.
This used to be the start of the “climb the ladder” plan for newbie 20 year olds in our business. Time will tell on how well fifty year olds handle the sleep deprivation.
Revealing Big Oil’s Role in Climate Change Denialism
“Big Oil developed a well-funded communications campaign inspired by Big Tobacco’s techniques — funding fake science, think tanks and front groups with innocuous-sounding names such as the Global Climate Coalition (GCC). Supported by energy companies such as Shell Oil, Exxon and BP, the GCC lobbied on Capitol Hill, fighting a global climate treaty and domestic climate legislation by producing issue briefs with the patina of truthiness.”
Third world countries wanting the hundreds of billions of dollars in “AGW” aid they have been promised. They are faking ground data to get that aid. The satellites have always been and still are the most accurate, hardest to fake data and they have not shown any warming in almost twenty years, despite soaring co2 emissions. The left cannot refute that so they are attempting to silence the messengers, nothing more complicated than that going on.
Hot on the heels of the news that 2014 was likely the warmest year on record at Earth’s surface, scientists have confirmed the lower part of Earth’s atmosphere is warming too.
Since 1979, the troposphere has warmed by 0.14 degrees per decade, scientists at the University of Huntsville (UAH) Alabama conclude.
Whether you choose to look at temperatures at Earth’s surface or higher up in the atmosphere, nine of the 10 hottest years on record have now occurred in the 21st century.
A tropospheric record
Earlier this week, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) confirmed Earth’s surface in 2014 - that’s the air above land and the top of the ocean - was most likely the warmest it’s been during the modern temperature record, stretching back to at least the late 19th century.
It’s natural that we would be interested in Earth’s surface as that’s where humans live. But there’s another way scientists keep tabs on warming. Satellites monitor air temperature up to 10 kilometres above our heads in a part of the atmosphere known as the troposphere.
I have shown numerous times just how cold we are for an interglacial period. We are 2 degrees Celsius colder than the norm for this point in the cycle. Trying to pass off the warmest period (by a few hundreds of a degree) in the last 130 years as significant is little more than fraud, it certainly does not show anything of significance. But get back to the Obama talking points.
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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2015-04-14 19:52:28
I have shown numerous times just how cold we are for an interglacial period.
Thanks. I’d rather consider NASA and Stephen Hawking over you Adan.
The Georgia Guidestones is a granite monument erected in 1980 in Elbert County, Georgia, in the United States. A set of ten guidelines is inscribed on the structure in eight modern languages, and a shorter message is inscribed at the top of the structure in four ancient language scripts: Babylonian, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian hieroglyphs.
A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines or principles is engraved on the Georgia Guidestones[14] in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the structure from due north, these languages are: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.
1: Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2: Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3: Unite humanity with a living new language.
4: Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5: Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6: Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7: Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8: Balance personal rights with social duties.
9: Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10: Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.
——————————————————————————–
Video: UN Climate Change Official Says “We Should Make Every Effort” To Depopulate The Planet
“There is pressure in the system to go toward that; we should do everything possible”
by Steve Watson | Infowars.com | April 6, 2015
Officials within the UN are pushing the notion that the human population should be reduced in order to effectively combat climate change.
The long standing notion has been continually pushed by Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). In 2013, Figueres had a conversation with Climate One founder Greg Dalton regarding “fertility rates in population,” as a contributor to climate change.
The comments are made at 4.20 into the following video:
“A related issue is fertility rates in population.” Dalton opined. “A lot of people in energy and environmental circles don’t wanna go near that because it’s politically charged. It’s not their issue.” he added.
“But isn’t it true that stopping the rise of the population would be one of the biggest levers and driving the rise of green house gases?” Dalton asked.
“Obviously less people would exert less pressure on the natural resources,” Figueres answered, also noting that estimates suggest the Earth’s population will rise to nine billion by 2050.
Dalton then questioned whether that figure could in some way be stalled or halted.
“So is nine billion a forgone conclusion? That’s like baked in, done, no way to change that?” he asked Figueres.
“There is pressure in the system to go toward that; we can definitely change those, right? We can definitely change those numbers,” Figueres said in response.
“Really, we should make every effort to change those numbers because we are already, today, already exceeding the planet’s planetary carrying capacity.” she also claimed.
“So yes we should do everything possible. But we cannot fall into the very simplistic opinion of saying just by curtailing population then we’ve solved the problem. It is not either/or, it is an and/also.” the UN official also said.
I called it months ago. Get ready for soylent green. As I maintain to this day, those doing the suggesting should just go ahead and volunteer, leading by example.
Capitalism, baby. I’m gonna consume 100 times as much as some poor black/brown before I croak. It was promised to me since I was born, and I’m gonna take everything I was promised and then I’m gonna take some more. America is going down in flames and going out in a blaze of glory, just doing my part to make it blaze a lil brighter
P.S. Millenials, f* your future, I’m burning it to the ground
Are you thinking of having a wedding there, with your new girlfriend with the eight children from eight different baby daddies, at least you will be embracing diversity?
By Legal Profession Prof
And if the product of law school is humorless people, is that caused by the education, or are humorless people drawn to enroll in the first place? That’s after years of people telling them they should go to law school, which was said sarcastically, but they did not get the sarcasm because they are humorless. I do not know, but I hope Bill Henderson launches a multivariate longitudinal study of the phenomenon. Maybe there is grant money available from Pfizer or whoever makes the anti-restless-leg drug.
I think it is pretty clear that legal education at least alters the sense of humor palpably, similar to how Duncan Kennedy’s classic 1982 crit thinkpiece, Law School and the Reproduction of Hierarchy, argued that an ostensibly neutral education is a cover for an intensely person-altering political and social indoctrination. Maybe med school does the same thing to someone’s funny bone–I would never get through the day with a straight face saying “infarction” and “acute angina.” But that only proves I am 14; last week,I kept giggling at an exam answer’s reference to a “federal fee-shitting statute” even though I know it’s just a typo. And for sure law school destroys the ability to say “statue” without thinking twice.
Lawyers have our own sense of humor, which isn’t funny to “laypeople” (heh heh) and objectively isn’t funny. The punch line of several of my conversations is “Well, yeah, res ipsa loquitur!” A student lamented to me just last week that she could not get through a lawyer’s helping her move in his pickup without enduring several attempts to call himself a “lodestar.” That kind of thing. You know, unaware unfunny. I told her to get used to it–you will be this way soon enough. (Sort of like pod people.)
We also don’t laugh at some things lay people find very funny.
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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-04-13 12:53:34
I know you are sore because I coined your name Lola. BTW, I am still waiting for you to say something funny or even clever. Probably will be a long wait, like waiting for a economic recovery in Brazil.
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2015-04-14 19:55:59
I know you are sore because I coined your name Lola.
Can financial markets function properly when so much market power is concentrated into the hands of a very small number of individuals and financial authorities?
Remember in 2012, when Texas was having a drought and Gov. Perry called for prayer to end the drought and the MSM had a field day? Maybe they can stop praying for rain now:
For the benefit of retards who take Hillary at her word when she says she’ll be a champion of the middle class, here are her list of career donors, which looks like a who’s who of oligarchs and bailout recipients courtesy of taxpayers.
I’ve noticed when I go to my credit union lobby for some routine transaction, the tellers seem to be under orders to get me to buy a credit card or steer me to some other “service” I don’t want or need. They have a kind of sick desperation about them I didn’t notice before. Wonder what kinds of quotas are being forced on them.
I used to work for a TARP bank, selling on commission, you are not imagining anything. It is unfortunate that your credit union has delved to that level of behavior, mine has not, as of now…
I believe it. That is why she was crossed out in 2008. Of course she has wealthy donors. But she has middle class roots and a new granddaughter. There is no other candidate that is willing and capable of protecting SS and Medicaid and Middle Class interests. The elites want it gone. I fought for her unsuccessfully in 2008 and will try again in 2016.
Of course she has wealthy donors. But she has middle class roots and a new granddaughter. There is no other candidate that is willing and capable of protecting SS and Medicaid and Middle Class interests. The elites want it gone.
Please tell me this is satire. No one could possibly be stupid enough to actually believe what you just wrote.
That all you got, insults? Are you telling me she does not have wealthy donors or middle class root or a new granddaughter? So WTF do we want to hear your hot satirical air for?
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-04-13 19:00:07
Let me guess: you fell for hope ‘n change, too. How’s that working out for you?
Our bank has gone window deco with construction tools, remodeling bait and signage to entice the slaves you “need” to update your squalor. Lately, I make a deposit I’m pitched “great” rates for HELOC and car loans. I usually quip “nope, just depositing cash today.”
Biggest source of additional tax revenue for the federal government was the individual income tax
by Terence P. Jeffrey | CNS News | April 13, 2015
The federal government taxed away more money, spent more money and ran a bigger deficit in the first half of fiscal 2015 than it did in the first half of fiscal 2014, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“The federal government ran a budget deficit of $430 billion for the first half of fiscal year 2015, CBO estimates–$17 billion more than the shortfall recorded in the same span last year,” the CBO said in its Monthly Budget Review for March 2015, which was published April 8. “Both revenues and outlays were about 7 percent higher than the amounts recorded in the first six months of fiscal year 2014.”
The federal fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 and ends on Sept. 30.
In the first six months of fiscal 2014, the government took in approximately $1,323,000,000,000 in revenue, according to CBO. In the first six months of this fiscal year, it took in approximately $1,420,000,000,000—an increase of $98,000,000,000.
In a direct attack on Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, which she announced Sunday, Mr. Rubio said: “Just yesterday, a leader from yesterday began a campaign for president by promising to take us back to yesterday. Yesterday is over and we’re never going back.”
——————————————————————————-
Top Definition
Geritol Generation
Basically it would be the ‘older’ generation of folks that rely on “Geritol” vitamins to get around and stay healthy. Also known as “Blue Hairs”, they can be seen hanging around casino’s - usually drunk, reeking of smoke, and screaming at the bands that they are “too loud, turn it down!”
Wow - it looks like the “Geritol Generation: beat us to the free buffet this afternoon!
The so-faux populism by the oligarchy’s annointed plutocrat candidates begins. And the same morons who fell for hope ‘n change will swallow it hook, line and sinker, as always.
Name:Ben Jones Location:Northern Arizona, United States To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Atlanta, GA List Prices Dive 8% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/ga-30339/home-values/
William K. Black keeps a running tally on the fraud surrounding the financial crisis on his Twitter feed. His latest was a link to an analysis of a recent Bloomberg interview with Richard Bowen, a Citi senior vice president who led their mortgage underwriting team. Bowen is the latest well-placed whistleblower.
Black writes, “Bowen led Citi’s 220 person mortgage loan underwriter team. Bowen’s team initially found in 2006 that the loans Citi was purchasing for resale had a 40-60% incidence of not meeting Citi’s loan standards. By 2007, despite Bowen’s stark warnings to senior management, that percentage climbed to 80 percent. The response of Citi’s senior management to Bowen’s repeated written warnings that Citi was engaged in massive fraud was (a) to increase Citi’s purchases of toxic mortgages, (b) to buy far more (endemically fraudulent) liar’s loans, and (c) to retaliate against Bowen and destroy his banking career. My first column in this series explains why Bowen posed such a threat to the top managers’ fraud scheme that those managers decided their only choice (other than honesty) was to destroy Bowen’s banking career.
“I have written several columns in which I have explained the indifference and incompetence of the DOJ’s response to the financial whistleblowers. The first point to make is that because of a different form of incompetence – the Bush (II) administration’s destruction of the criminal referral process at the banking regulatory agencies and the Obama administration’s even more inexplicable refusal to restore an effective criminal referral process the sole means by which the FBI and the DOJ could succeed in prosecuting the elite fraud is through whistleblowers. (They could also use people like me as experts, but we all know that Holder would prefer to drink a cup full of broken glass rather than accept help from people like me.)”
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2015/03/the-doj-and-the-sec-spurn-their-ace-in-the-hole-richard-bowen.html (article 2 of 4)
Bowen’s take, with links to all 4 Black articles: http://www.richardmbowen.com/william-black-tells-the-ugly-truth/
Documentaries about the crisis are “The Inside Job” and “The Untouchables” (PBS Frontline). There are multiple big whistleblowers - Sherry Hunt, Carmen Segarra, Richard Bowen.
Seven years ago, the PTB could plausibly claim panic for their inaction. But even with General Motors, at least the CEO was removed and his lieutenant was put in place when the company was bailed out. Now, seven years later, the senior leadership teams in Wall Street not only remain the same, but have not lost an iota of wealth as a result of their misconduct. Holder said he wouldn’t go after these firms due to the possible impact on the economy.
Coincidentally, Congress is very pleased at the money it receives from the FIRE sector.
Thanks for that, Neuro. It’s one of my fondest wishes to see Black head up the team that cleans all of this stuff up. Although it doesn’t seem likely, hope springs eternal.
Black is da man.
Is Black going to end up dead soon?
Is pink mist the new black?
Timber
China’s coal imports fell by nearly half in the first three months of the year as the slowing economy and tougher rules on pollution took their toll.
Imports by the world’s biggest coal consumer reached 49.07m tonnes in the first quarter, a fall of 42% on the same period a year ago according to data from the Chinese customs office.
Trade figures for March showed that imports were down overall by 12.3% while exports badly missed expectations, falling 15% from a year earlier.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/13/chinas-coal-imports-fall-nearly-half-in-12-months-as-anti-pollution-drive-bites
So china is tanking the economy to save the environment; comedy gold. Who but a half wit would believe that.
The hippies are proceeding with their plan to destroy the world!
A Chinese economic slowdown will hit Australia as iron ore prices tumble, the World Bank has said.
The bank said Australia’s growth pace had deteriorated sharply since the first quarter of 2014 as declining prices for export commodities depressed mining investment and weakened the Australian dollar.
The warning came as poor Chinese trade figures underlined the continued slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. Exports were down 14.6% in March from a year ago while imports fell 12.3% on the same measure.
The Australian dollar fell more than half a US cent to hover around the US76c mark.
The World Bank predicted that a further slowdown in China, Australia’s biggest trading partner, would affect Australia and its neighbours.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/13/world-bank-warns-of-hit-to-australia-as-chinese-growth-falters
And the winner of the 2015 your toast award is Australia with an honourable mention to new Zealand.
Australia will usurp Indonesia to reclaim its title as the world’s biggest coal exporter by 2017, according to government forecasts. In the meantime though, the industry is expected to see tough times as it adjusts to China’s slowdown and a supply overhang from the boom, along with environmental pressures, with India emerging as the new source of demand.
Highlighting sluggish prices, on Friday, Japan’s Tohoku Electric Power reportedly agreed to an annual thermal coal import deal with Rio Tinto at prices 17 percent below a year ago, according to Japan’s Nikkei newspaper. The annual price was settled in the “upper $67 range” per ton for coal from Australia for the Japanese fiscal year beginning April 1, below last year’s price of $81.80 and nearly half the peak price of $130 reached in fiscal 2011.
Spot prices for Newcastle coal have fallen to around $56 a ton recently, with Japanese buyers indicating they were “disappointed” by the price agreed with the Anglo-Australian mining giant. According to Reuters, Tohoku accepted the “high” price to secure a stable supply of high-quality coal from Australia, which is Japan’s largest thermal coal supplier.
Analysts had predicted an annual Japanese contract price of around $70 a ton, with ANZ Bank and Australia’s government forecaster both eyeing $70 and National Australia Bank expecting $72.50.
In a February 18 report, ANZ Research slashed its price forecasts by 7-17 percent over the next three to four years, noting a “lack of supply discipline, mainly due to onerous take-or-pay infrastructure commitments in Australia,” with China also introducing “unfavorable trade restrictions” to protect domestic producers.
http://thediplomat.com/2015/04/india-to-the-rescue-as-australia-eyes-coals-crown/
China’s export sales contracted 15 percent in March, a shock outcome that deepens concern about sputtering Chinese economic growth.
The tumble in exports - the worst in about a year - compared with expectations for a 12 percent rise and could heighten worries about how a rising yuan CNY=CFXS has hurt demand for Chinese goods and services abroad, analysts said.
The yuan’s strength was one factor in March’s 19.1 percent on-year decline in exports to the European Union and 24.8 percent drop to Japan.
In a sign that domestic demand was also tepid, imports into the world’s second-biggest economy shrank 12.7 percent last month from a year ago, the General Administration of Customs said on Monday. By volume, coal imports plunged more than 40 percent in January-March.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/13/us-china-economy-trade-idUSKBN0N405D20150413
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32281957
Excerpt from BBC, of course it might be more accurate to average but it does not fit the narrative that the MSM wants to say about China:
Tony Nash, global vice president of Delta Economics, said the numbers took in the lunar new year period which was typically a bit volatile.
“We usually average February and March to get a true picture of what’s actually happening,” he told the BBC.
“If we look at February’s 48% rise in exports and March’s 15% fall in exports, we get a moving average of 16.7%, which is closer to where we’ve seen exports over the past two months.”
But Mr Nash said Delta Economics was expecting a further slowdown going forward.
By Keynesian economic logic, this news should bolster Chinese share prices, as the government will have to step in with stimulus to offset the slowdown.
Surprise slump in China trade figures fans fears global growth is slowing
Weakest exports for a year and poor imports affect markets worldwide before Chinese shares rally on expectation Beijing will step in to stimulate economy
The mammoth Chinese container ship CSCL Globe docks at Felixstowe in January – China’s export sales shrank 15% in March from a year ago. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
Katie Allen
Monday 13 April 2015 08.13 EDT
Last modified on Monday 13 April 2015 10.55 EDT
A surprise fall in Chinese exports fanned fears that global growth is losing momentum and sent ripples through world markets on Monday.
Figures showing the biggest drop in overseas sales from China for a year and a slump in imports took financial markets by surprise. In the UK, fears about the strength of the world’s second largest economy knocked the FTSE 100 share index off its record highs as mining stocks in particular were sold.
The data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed its export sales shrank by 15% in March from a year ago and imports fell by 12.7% in a third straight month of declines, raising concerns about faltering domestic demand.
Economists had been expecting a 12% rise in exports. They said the surprise fall may point to weaker than expected first quarter economic growth from Beijing on Wednesday.
…
Almost 17% growth per month averaged over two months calls for stimulus?
You must have misread the 15% shrinkage in export sales, versus an expected 12% increase, which is a 27% miss to the downside.
Since you are a forecasting expert, I’m sure you can see the problem there.
I do not know how they got that estimate, I do know as the article points out that the average of the two months is almost 17% growth. That omission by the story makes the story no better than a lie since it is a material omission. The banksters are bad mouthing China because China is invading their turf including the world bank’s role:
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2015-04/13/content_20420381.htm
You must have misread the 15% shrinkage in export sales,
The problem here is that China’s GDP is growing by 7.5%/year. But they aren’t importing raw materials, they aren’t exporting stuff, and it looks like they’re done burning oil to build their ghost cities. So, where is this 7.5% growth from? Not in “goods.” They must be doing it the way Americans do — in “services;” that is, inflation, financial *poof* money, or they’re just lying.
Oxide read, their exports increased by 48% one month, followed by a decline of 15% the next month but if you take the months together their exports increased almost 17% per month, hardly inconsistent with 7% growth.
People with mortgages are LOOSERS!
They can never win
Their whole life is an infinite loop of incalculable losses
They’re not loosers, they’re hosts.
What a marvel of an animal is the tapeworm. Once he attaches himself to the host he is set for life.
What the host eats the tapeworm also gets to eat, but the tapeworm gets to eat first. What’s left after the tapeworm get its fill is left for the host.
I guess, if you want to live in someone’s colon.
If the tapeworm wants to “eat first” he’ll have to swim a bit upstream.
Mr. Banker, I did not know that you were so well acquainted with my former supervisor/boss/harpie.
people are talking about how much they made on their house again at the water cooler.
Yep and then maybe, maybe they paid off some bills of excess from the past few years and then they jump right back in to the new builds with a zero down 30 yr. I specifically heard the words “zero down” uttered by a realtor this weekend.
How can that be with housing demand plummeting?
US Housing Demand Down 15% YoY
http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/Metro/Metro_Turnover_AllHomes.csv
Soon to be talking again about how far underwater they are at the water cooler
LOLZ, so true!
Billionaires want to live forever, and are on a quest for the fountain of yoot. Head transplants, anyone?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-12/billionaires-scramble-immortality-literally
Ha-ha, don’t be fooled by some of the sci-fi type stuff. They’ve been “exploring” their options for longevity for quite a while.
“Billionaires want to live forever, and are on a quest for the fountain of yoot.”
The Island Awaits You by Steve Jablonsky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFK1gT3papE
Apologies of this was posted yesterday, but it looks like London’s high end housing bubble has burst. Labor wants to tax the rich! Imagine that!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-12/uk-housing-bubble-bursts-sales-luxury-homes-crash-80-waves-wealthy-people-are-leavin
If they’re smart, they’ll avoid Manhattan, too. DeBlasio is of the same mind frame.
Oh, dear, what’s an international oligarch to do?
International oligarchs need not fear, for Micky Dee’s sells cheeseburgers everywhere, all over the world. There is no need for a home base anymore, since McD’s will always be there for you, wherever you are.
Are leading indicators signaling a market top?
I’m not sure, but I have a feeling you’re going to tell us.
However, “market top” is meaningless in today’s financialized world. Crashes are not permitted. Just a short, sharp dip and then the manipulated market comes back stronger than ever.
How does one put an end to this?
You put your finger on the reason one should go all in to stocks all of the time. You can’t lose when you buy what central bankers want you to buy.
How does one put an end to this ??
I don’t know…Probably the only way is through BK and that won’t happen until they run out of ways to tax the common man to pay for it….
As the city of Detroit’s financial condition deteriorated, its employee-pension funds made hundreds of millions of dollars in bonus payments to retirees. Those extra checks swelled the city’s retirement debt and played a role in the Motor City’s eventual bankruptcy. Yet Detroit’s struggles haven’t stopped the retirement systems of other cities and states—including some with severely underfunded pensions—from continuing to dole out bonuses.
http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_2_snd-bonuses.html
Chicago = Detroit minus 10 years
Are ‘broadly insane’ market conditions a buy signal?
US market is ‘broadly insane’ so party on: Strategist
Matt Clinch
4 Hours Ago
CNBC.com
Lofty valuations in global asset markets have caused a “wall of worry” for professional investors, but a lack of alternatives will mean equities will continue to climb in 2015, one strategist warned.
“Any correction will be met with a wall of buying, it’s one of those moments,” Peter Toogood, investment director at London-based independent fund manager City Financial Investment, told CNBC Monday.
“Take the U.S., there’s nowhere to hide…the market in the U.S. is broadly insane.”
He urged investors to “be nervous,” but added that this nervousness and weak fundamentals weren’t enough to stop the global rally in stocks and global fixed income. He predicted that the former would rally throughout the rest of the year.
“If you’re about speculation, party on down,” he said.
…
ft dot com
Europe stocks hover at 15-year peak
Jamie Chisholm, Global Markets Commentator
Monday 12:30 BST. European stocks and US index futures are struggling to make headway but Greater China equities shrugged off poor economic data and continued to rally on hopes for more stimuli.
A move higher for Treasury yields is lifting the dollar, but helping push gold down $8 to $1,199 an ounce.
Futures indicate the S&P 500 will dip 3 points to 2,099 as investors prepare for the first-quarter earnings season to slip into high gear with the likes of Intel, Johnson & Johnson and Bank of America revealing their results over the next few days.
Analysts have slashed earnings forecasts because of a stronger dollar, a start-of-year economic soft patch and a struggling energy sector in the wake of sharply lower oil prices.
Yet the S&P 500 sits just 15 points below its record high, bolstered by signs the Federal Reserve will be patient in raising borrowing costs from record lows and as companies decide its better to give cash back to shareholders rather than investing for future growth.
Another factor providing a bullish underpinning for stocks is the largesse of central banks in Europe and Japan, as the monetary guardians buy up bonds to suppress yields in the hope this will stimulate more risk taking.
…
Gold = $1200/oz or bust.
Mark Hulbert
Opinion: Leading indicators signal a market top
Published: Apr 10, 2015 6:00 a.m. ET
Consumer stocks and health care have been best performers this year, while financials lag
By Mark Hulbert
Columnist
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (MarketWatch) — A bearish story is being told by the relative performance of the market’s various sectors.
That’s because the sectors with the best year-to-date returns are among those that typically lead the market prior to major tops. In addition, the sectors exhibiting the worst performances this year are those that typically lag.
We know how the market’s sectors have performed prior to past tops because of data from Ned Davis Research, which analyzed all bull market tops since 1970. According to the firm, the sectors that on average have performed the best over the three months prior to those tops are Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples and Health Care.
As you can see from the chart above, these are the very sectors that are at the top of the ranking for year-to-date performance, according to FactSet.
…
Meanwhile, retards continue to vote for the crony-capitalist status quo.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-13/its-bush-clinton-world-and-its-your-job-vote-them
You’ve been pimping this message for weeks. We got it.
The irony is that the candidtate that HBB really wants is Elizabeth Warren, but they’ll never admit it (except banana, who wants to bring back McKinley.)
Elizabeth Warren is a FRAUD
Dennis Kucinich was the Left’s real “man of the people” standing up to the corporatists in Cleveland and the warmongers in Congress
Elizabeth Warren never stood up to, or for anything
Elizabeth Warren is a FRAUD
Her concern for the common person is as real as her Native American heritage.
Elizabeth Warren is a FRAUD….
Someone who spends their whole working life fighting for the common man’s protection against preditorial finance is not by definition a fraud.
To understand her claim and belief of being part Cherokee one must have an objective understanding of America and geography. She was born and raised in Oklahoma - the state with the most native-Americans. Her dad was working-class and her family members claimed to be part Cherokee - the tribe most claimed when Americans tout their Indian “heritage”. And Delaware too.
She’s probably more Cherokee than Jeb Bush is Hispanic.
She was born and raised in Oklahoma - the state with the most native-Americans.
Then, she should know how Native Americans feel about the “I have an ancestor that was a Cherokee princess claim”. There is a clear process to confirming whether you are a Cherokee, did one of your ancestors get listed on the Dawes roll. The Cherokees have members with very little native American blood, less than 2% in many instances, if you do not meet their simple test and claim heritage through them, you are about as native American as one of the Village People.
There is a clear process to confirming whether you are a Cherokee,
You again are obviously wrong. You do not have a good understanding of America and American issues when the understanding conflicts with your politics.
“the Oklahoma Historical Society said that finding a definitive answer about Native American heritage can be difficult because of intermarriage and deliberate avoidance of registration” wiki
Ask them about verifying Cherokee heritage, it is quite simple and anyone in OK show know how to do it, instead she claimed affirmative action for a heritage she does not have. She takes care of herself.
The first way you know a liberal is lying is that they say something very simple is complicated, the second way to know is to determine whether his or her lips are moving. Rio, all you ever post is liberal talking points. She is a liar who used affirmative action to get a position when she had no native American blood. She could have easily checked and probably did but it was not the answer she wanted so she lied:
http://www.okhistory.org/research/dawes
She could have easily checked and probably did
Checked a registration?
What is it about “the Oklahoma Historical Society said that finding a definitive answer about Native American heritage can be difficult because of intermarriage and deliberate avoidance of registration” that you find hard to understand.
The first way you know a liberal is lying is that they say something very simple is complicated
The first way you know a lot of conservatives are lying is when they say they understand something complicated.
all you ever post is liberal talking points.
Now that’s a hoot coming from you.
What is it about “the Oklahoma Historical Society said that finding a definitive answer about Native American heritage can be difficult because of intermarriage and deliberate avoidance of registration” that you find hard to understand.
The register goes back to the early 1900s and they were not able to avoid it. While you can repeat your liberal talking point over and over since it is your job to post liberal talking points, I showed just how easy it is to verify that you are a Cherokee, other tribes can be difficult but she claimed to be from one of the easiest tribes to verify, if she could not do it she is too stupid as well as too dishonest to be president.
“Elizabeth Warren is a FRAUD”
A double talking fraud.
Didn’t she stand up when she had to push the wheelbarrow down to the bank?
+1. Fauxahontus Warren showed her true colors by rushing to block Audit the Fed, which more than any single entity has destroyed the middle class by debasing the currency and spurring malinvestment and crony capitalism.
Fauxahontus Warren showed her true colors by rushing to block Audit the Fed,
+infinity. She showed who her true masters were that day.
E. Warren is a female. That really gets your goat, don’t it goon?
Warren is the only candidate, or potential candidate, to openly support restoring Glass-Steagall and breaking up the big banks. She’s the only one who gives a darn about the absurdly high student loan interest rates. I’d vote for her if she ran.
When you fight auditing the Fed, you are firmly in the Banksters’ pockets.
Elizabeth Warren says some really scary things. And these scary things will influence the Democratic nominee’s platform whether Elizabeth Warren runs or not. It’s very scary.
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. … You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”
Elizabeth Warren.
Like you Lola, EW says alot of things.
She is 100% correct.
When is Lola ever correct?
As we see today, virtually never. A broken clock has a better record.
Warren is the only candidate, or potential candidate, to openly support restoring Glass-Steagall and breaking up the big banks.
Um, yeah. And Obama promised hope ‘n change “we” could believe in.
Sammy:
Things have gotten a lot better under Obie.
You are all proving me right. Day in and day out HBB spouts anti-crony-cap and anti-bank sentiments, but when a candidate actually implements anti-bank policies — consumer financial protection bureau, anybody? — it’s all about the unrelated ad hominem. Just admit that you want her already.
Of course Warren wants to audit the Fed, but she didn’t like the witch-hunt language recently proposed. IMO she should have grabbed at the witch hunt; it could be the only chance.
You’re no more right about that than you are about housing.
Tragic financial consequences Donk.
Of course Warren wants to audit the Fed, but she didn’t like the witch-hunt language recently proposed
Of course, she did not want to audit the Fed since she voted against it and persuaded her mindless minions to be against it. Only the banksters and their allies called it a witch-hunt.
“She voted against it”
There it is.
The U.S. stock market is flat today. What is wrong with America under Obama, have we lost all pride? Under Clinton, we had the world’s preeminent Ponzi scheme stock market bringing in money from all the sheep in the world, making the Hamptons rich beyond compare. China is kicking our butts today in Ponzi scheme stock markets, pulling in money from the entire world. Do the U.S. banksters not understand the obvious, if the market is not even going up how are you going to find marks? The Chinese will have their stock market up to 8888 soon and we will still be stuck at 18,000, you American banksters have become a bunch of loosers. (sarcasm off).
They’ll all vote for Jeb like he’s the messiah.
From Iafrica.com, my nomination for the degenerate gambler prize of the day:
A gem trader has reportedly gone to ground after he gambled away R12-million worth of gems that he had stolen.
The Star reports that the man, who is in his early twenties, took the diamonds from various dealers at the diamond centre in Johannesburg, promising to make the payments on them at a later date. Payment though can take as long as a week to clear due to the large sums involved. The man was trusted to make the payments as his father is allegedly a well-known businessman in the diamond trading industry.
The traders though raised the alarm, when the promised payments failed to materialise after a few weeks.
It was discovered that the man, who is known to have a gambling problem, had pawned the gems and blown it during a gambling spree. The man has since gone into hiding.
“He isn’t very clever. I know that two men have already put a gun to his head demanding that he produce the money. I’m not sure what he is going to do now. His life is in danger,” one dealer told The Star.
The Fed will bail him out.
Ron Paul - The New Militarism: Who Profits?
http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/april/12/the-new-militarism-who-profits
And now back to your regularly scheduled Drudge Report links
Of course, she did not want to audit the Fed
It’s complicated Adan. There was much more to that bill than “Auditing the Fed”. The bill opened up the Fed to be meddled with by Congress. But that’s not in your daily right-wing talking points memo.
“I strongly support and continue to press for greater congressional oversight of the Fed’s regulatory and supervisory responsibilities, and I believe the Fed’s balance sheet should be regularly audited – which the law already requires,” Ms. Warren said in an emailed statement. “But I oppose the current version of this bill because it promotes congressional meddling in the Fed’s monetary policy decisions, which risks politicizing those decisions and may have dangerous implications for financial stability and the health of the global economy.” Elizabeth Warren.
“But I oppose the current version of this bill because it promotes congressional meddling in the Fed’s monetary policy decisions, which risks politicizing those decisions and may have dangerous implications for financial stability and the health of the global economy.”
Wrong, Fauxahontus. Since 1913 Congress has turned a blind eye while the Fed ran amok with its debasement of the currency and racketeering with the .1% who are enriched by its policies at the expense of everyone else. “Congressional meddling” is exactly what needs to happen, starting with a rigorous audit.
Article about Amerikwa’s 51st state and its inhabitants’ divided loyalties, a racist, fascist, apartheid state that has been ripping off U.S. taxpayers for almost seventy years
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/for-american-israelis-rift-between-obama-and-netanyahu-is-family-affair/2015/04/10/4743c328-d320-11e4-8b1e-274d670aa9c9_story.html?tid=hpModule_04941f10-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e&hpid=z11
Is World War III coming soon, LOLZ
http://mobile.wnd.com/2015/04/is-world-war-iii-coming-soon/
American taxpayers and voters, you are being played for suckers and fools
Article written by real journalists reports how cops can waste thousands of blacks and browns and poors and never face prosecution
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/04/11/thousands-dead-few-prosecuted
Badge lickers and uniform fetishists, your base has been rallied
Yes, I fear cops much more than the thugs and predators roaming our streets.
This article title mentions “thousands” shot, I didn’t see any substantiation of that number in the article. It really only talks about the 54 charged over the past 10 years.
In every case where a person is shot by a cop there are lawyers clamboring to sue on behalf of the relatives and get a big settlement from the deep pockets government. Happens all the time even in justified shootings. There really aren’t a whole lot of unjustified shootings not addressed. It’s unfortunate that our mental health system results in crazies attacking cops and getting shot, but people don’t want the crazies locked up in asylums like they used to be.
The key word of your post is “fear”
Rallying the base…
Don’t Fear the Reaper. A very good song. I imagine there are those who think it pairs wonderfully with some of your product. Do you guys do “pairings” like they do with wine?
Region VIII news: Driver reaching for Cheetos caused fatal crash
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/apd-driver-reaching-for-cheetos-caused-fatal-crash
Awesome! (not really)
Ironic!
Citigroup Cuts Metals to Iron Forecasts as China Growth Slows
by Phoebe Sedgman
10:20 PM PDT April 12, 2015
Citigroup Inc. cut price forecasts for industrial metals and iron ore by as much as 50 percent amid signs Chinese demand is waning as economic growth in the world’s biggest consumer slows.
The bank lowered its 2015 nickel forecast by 21 percent and cut its estimate for next year by 15 percent, analysts including Ed Morse wrote in a report e-mailed Monday. Copper, aluminum, zinc, lead and tin projections for this year and 2016 were also lowered. The bank reduced its iron ore outlook through 2020, with prices seen falling into the $30s, according to the bank.
Commodities slumped to a 12-year low last month as oil fell to the weakest since 2009 and raw materials from nickel to iron ore tumbled. Global supplies of commodities have climbed after a decade-long bull market spurred farmers, miners and drillers to increase production just as economic growth slowed in China. The world’s biggest metals and energy consumer grew at the slowest pace since 1990 last year and is set to slow further this year.
…
“Global supplies of commodities have climbed after a decade-long bull market spurred farmers, miners and drillers to increase production just as economic growth slowed in China.”
And the fun part of this is:
This massive increase of production was largely fueled by borrowed money.
Is this a good time to remind everybody here that one person’s debt is another person’s money?
Poooooooooof.
The other fun part:
This massive increase of production has led to a deflationary surplus of raw materials and structures.
Peak Rebar.
“Steel prices have fallen continuously due to overcapacity and fierce competition,” Li told the conference. “Many steel companies lose money and are experiencing hard times. Some have been closed, and more will be closing in future.”
“China’s crude-steel production will decline,” said Li. “Why? Two reasons: consumption that has passed the peak and exports cannot maintain high increases. I’m sure steel production will decrease.”
“Output will contract to an estimated 814 million metric tons in 2015 from 823 million tons last year, Deputy Secretary-General Li Xinchuang said at an iron ore conference in Perth, Australia, on Wednesday. The association is funded by China’s major steelmakers and is the only nationwide industry body.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-11/china-steel-output-to-shrink-nation-s-top-industry-group-says
“fought children and families all her career.”
Hillary Clinton’s Long-Awaited Presidential Announcement Has a Typo
By Nik DeCosta-Klipa @NikDeCostaKlipa
Boston.com Staff | 04.12.15 | 6:11 PM
Due to an error in her years-in-the-making presidential announcement, Hillary Clinton’s campaign said Sunday that she has “fought children and families all her career.”
What the campaign meant to say of course is that she’s fought for children and families.
http://www.boston.com/…/7KOugJtz18pnymhXvvF0vO/story.html -
Well, her & Bill did their bit to totally screw over future generations with their repeal of Glass-Steagal and other pet projects of “former” Goldmanite Robert Rubin. Pushing through such “no bankster left behind” legistlation allowed them to amass a fortune of $300 million dollars once they left “public service” but of course the imbeciles who fell for “hope ‘n change” will flock again to vote for this so-faux, self-described champion of the middle class. So yeah, she definitely was the adversary of children and families, although her middle class supporters - almost exclusively female - are too empty-headed to make the link between her malfeasance and crony capitalism, and the decline of their own standard of living.
Yup
It happened on Her (His) watch. But it was really the fault of the Bush before him. Or the Bush after him. Or the Bush yet to come.
Well, her & Bill did their bit to totally screw over future generations with their repeal of Glass-Steagal
It’s all part of America’s embrace of the false religion of Supply-Side economics on steroids, where all policy advantages are given to capital over people and “labor”. The Republicans dragged the Democrats into the charade too. Now some of the Democrats such as Elizabeth Warren and Obama (sporadically) want out. This is a difference between Dems and Repubs today.
TaxCutsForTheRich and policies favoring capital over the middle-class and labor do not trickle-down to benefit labor and the middle-class much if at all.
Supply side works, Brazilian socialism does not.
Supply side works, Brazilian socialism does not.
The false religion of Supply-Side on Steroids has decimated the American middle-class. Whereas Brazil’s brand of capitalism (not socialism) has brought about 40 million out of poverty and into the middle-class the past 15 years. You need to learn details and nuance instead to throwing out broad-brush labels. This guy’s description is pretty good but it’s too complicated for you I think.
Is Brazil socialist?
Definitively not.
Brazil adopts a capitalist economic model and a democratic and pluralist political model. State is quite present is some sectors, like oil production, public transport and energy, but most economical activities are dominated by private companies. Press is highly free and can criticizes governments without restrictions (censorship was abolished in 1986). Transnational corporations have a massive presence in the country and control sectors like vehicle production, pharmaceutics, electronics, and cosmetics.
Since 2003, Brazil is under a left-wing government (with the leadership of PT, Partido dos Trabalhadores, the Workers’ Party). But those political leaders did adopt a light, more centered profile to attract electors and to get credibility from investors. The leftism is more visible in social programs to help income of poor families and to facilitate access to house purchase. Acquisition of cars and domestic facilities were also stimulated. In other hand, financial sector works the same way of USA and Europe, and most international banks get their highest profit margins in Brazil due to high interest taxes.
Internal politics is also democratic and open, with dozens of parties representing a vasty gamma of tendencies. Elections occur regularly since 1988 with no institutional disrupt. President, Governors, and Mayors are appointed to a 4-year rule, as also are state and federal deputies. Just senators hold an 8-year rule (like the USA model, Brazil has two legislative houses). In the meantime there were political crisis, as the death of president Tancredo Neves and the impeachment of president Fernando Color. In both situations, the constitutional rules were followed without any kind of rupture — so usual in the past.
When one compares Brazil to other South-American countries with left-wing governments (Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Uruguay), it is clear that Brazil is by far the most moderate one.
http://www.quora.com/Is-Brazil-socialist
A lot of bs, Brazil is collapsing due to its left wing policies and a simple google search will confirm it.
A lot of bs,
What is BS about “Brazil adopts a capitalist economic model and a democratic and pluralist political model.“?
Brazil is collapsing due to its left wing policies
Brazil adopts a capitalist economic model, I know, I’m in Brazil’s capitalist economic model. So is Brazil “collapsing” because Brazil adopts a capitalist economic model?
Brazil adopts a capitalist economic model, I know, I’m in Brazil’s capitalist economic model.
Yea like I believe you are even in Brazil.
http://brazilianbubble.com/gavekal-brazil-economy-to-shrink-2-consecutive-years-first-time-since-1929/
Excerpt from Brazilian link, this type of stagflation is just what Ronald Reagan had to deal with thanks to Carter, it is much harder to fight than what Obama inherited:
How bad can Brazil get? According to market research firm Gavekal Dragonomics, “much, much worse”.
In his most recent article on Brazil (“The Land of Wishful thinking”), analyst Arthur Kroeber writes that the extraordinary deterioration of the Brazilian economy is nowhere close to playing out.
Here’s his 2-cent:
“The combined effect of all these negative economic factors, the necessary but painful fiscal tightening, and the lack of any other plausible sources of near-term growth, is that Brazil’s economy will likely contract by -1-2% this year, with another somewhat smaller drop in 2016. This would be the first time since 1929-30 that Brazil’s economy has shrunk for two consecutive years. On top of that, inflation is accelerating, and at 7.7% is at its highest rate since 2005… it’s clear that Brazil is caught in a dire stagflationary trap.”
He also predicts that the stock market and currency will fall further.
“… deeper selloffs are in store. Many major Brazilian institutions sold their domestic equity positions months ago, and private wealth is streaming out of the country. A common theme in our talks with investors was perplexity that foreign money continues to flow into Brazilian stocks. Once foreign investors wise up, equity prices and the real will both tumble much further.”
his would be the first time since 1929-30 that Brazil’s economy has shrunk for two consecutive years.
Dang. That shows how much better Brazil is than China. I wonder how many times China’s “economy” shrank for two consecutive years since 1929. (Not including the millions killed by their own Commies.)
And you tout an 80 year basket case like Commie China over Brazil’s democracy.
You just can’t make this stuff up.
LOL, I LOVE typos like that. I predict Hillary will give us many more giggles on her attempt to occupy the Oval Office.
As will Darrell Hammond…
Who reprised his roll as Bill Clinton on SNL this past weekend.
Maybe “fought” is a typo too. Her political career here in NY was “bought”.
Hold on, someone is knocking at the door…..
“Chelsea Clinton in a Gucci dress, Mateo New York bracelet, Cartier bracelet, Garland Collection ring, Halleh ring.”
Comedy gold: Not ready for primetime campaign kicks off with huge Kinsley-esque gaffe.
by Ed Driscoll
April 12, 2015 - 2:21 pm
The ultimate Kinsley-esque gaffe — as spotted by the Weasel Zippers in a screenshot of Hillary’s announcement that her campaign is stating that she’s “fought children And families all her career.” It’s both “Hillary Comedy Gold,” as the Zippers write, and one of her rare moments of truthfulness. Margaret Sanger couldn’t have said it better herself.
And as the London Daily Mail notes in their headline, “‘Everyday Americans need a champion’: Wealthy Hillary Clinton finally enters formal race to be president with video telling middle class voters ‘the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top’ of the economy.”
Stacked just like the young women Bill enjoys as part of his own unique brand of “intimate campaigning,” and stacked just like the heels on a fine pair of Gucci calf leather pumps, Byron York writes at the Washington Examiner:
With those carefully-chosen regions and the voting groups they represent — Appalachia for working-class whites, the Delta for blacks, Rio Grande for Hispanics — Clinton took care to associate herself with opportunity for those parts of the American electorate struggling the most to get ahead, or just to maintain their place, in today’s economy.
All of which made another part of the Clinton rollout — a new photo spread in the trendy fashion magazine ELLE featuring Chelsea Clinton modeling high-priced clothing, jewelry and shoes while discussing equal opportunity — all of that made for a discordant note in ClintonWorld’s big week.
One photo in the ELLE article featured this caption:
Chelsea Clinton in a Gucci dress, Mateo New York bracelet, Cartier bracelet, Garland Collection ring, Halleh ring.
Another photo featured this caption:
Derek Lam blouse, Stella McCartney trousers, Bulgari necklace, Tiffany & Co. bracelets, Trollbeads bangle, Garland Collection ring, Halleh ring, Brian Atwood pumps.
Cartier, Gucci, Bulgari — they are some of the most expensive names in the fashion business, and in this case they are the background to Chelsea Clinton’s thoughts on equality of opportunity, especially for women. “One of our core values in this country is that we are the land of equal opportunity,” Clinton told the magazine, “but when equal hasn’t yet included gender, there is a fundamental challenge there that, I believe, having our first woman president — whenever that is — will help resolve.”
Oh the fun we’re all going to have for the next year and a half, my friends.
Read more: http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2015/04/12/hillary-fought-children-and-families/#ixzz3XCGV9YB9
“Chelsea Clinton in a Gucci dress, Mateo New York bracelet, Cartier bracelet, Garland Collection ring, Halleh ring.”
Chelsea Clinton: I tried to care about money but couldn’t
BY Leslie Larson
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, June 23, 2014, 9:36 AM
Hillary Clinton insists she isn’t “well-off” and now daughter Chelsea, according to a recent interview, claims she couldn’t care less about money.
“I was curious if I could care about (money) on some fundamental level, and I couldn’t,” she told Fast Company in an interview that ran in the magazine’s May edition, explaining why she gave up lucrative gigs to join her family’s philanthropic foundation.
Comparing her experience to the average millennial, the 34-year-old former first daughter defended jumping around to different careers — from consulting to a hedge fund to academia to journalism — before finding her true calling working with her parents.
“It is frustrating, because who wants to grow up and follow their parents? I’ve tried really hard to care about things that were very different from my parents … it’s a funny thing to realize I feel called to this work, both as a daughter and also as someone who believes I have contributions to make,” she continued about her reluctant status as a boomerang kid.
The Clinton name likely opened doors for the political heiress, including an eye-popping $600,000 annual salary for an irregular stint as an NBC special correspondent, but Chelsea insists her work speaks for itself.
“I will just always work harder (than anybody else) and hopefully perform better,” said Clinton, who along with former banker husband Marc Mezvinsky, purchased a $10.5-million Gramercy Park apartment in 2013. “And hopefully, over time, I preempt and erase whatever expectations people have of me not having a good work ethic, or not being smart, or not being motivated.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/chelsea-clinton-care-money-article-1.1840138 -
Another nominee for the “Born on Third Base, and thinks she hit a homer” award
Born on third base with a blind catcher in the game.
+1
I bet she’d care about money if she didn’t have the hedgie husband and the non-profit paid her $30K to work the phones.
Chelsea is ALMOST looking sexy these days; what took her so long?
The fact that millions of ‘Muricans will fall for her “fighter for the middle class” BS is a testament to how deep into IDIOCRACY we’ve descended.
When the alternative vision is trickle down economics with a side of assault rifle Jeebus, those that feel compelled to chose a side are hard pressed to choose which crock of feces is the least noisome.
Global markets binge on central banker crack. The financial reckoning day is going to be epic, when it finally arrives.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/04/12/global-financial-markets-go-nuts/
Hank Paulson, who should be in a Federal prison playing nightly games of “the escaped convict meets the warden’s wife” with cellmate Timmy Geithner for their roles in the 2008 financial crash, spouts off about China’s bubble, while ignoring a equally massive bubble closer to home.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hank-paulson-says-china-financial-system-to-face-reckoning-2015-04-13?link=MW_home_latest_news
China stocks may be in serious bubble
Published: Mar 26, 2015 11:45 p.m. ET
As market volumes explode, even teenagers are buying
By Laura He
Asia markets reporter
Reuters
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Some say that when the average “mom-and-pop” retail investors get back into the stock market, it could be time to get out. But what about when even teenagers start buying?
China has entered a new stock frenzy, like something out of America in the Roaring 20s or the dottiest days of the dot-com bubble, with trading volumes continuing to push to new record highs.
On Wednesday, combined trading on the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets hit 1.24 trillion yuan ($198 billion), the seventh straight session in which turnover surpassed the 1 trillion yuan mark. By comparison, the New York Stock Exchange typically saw $40 billion-$50 billion a day in trading during the first two months of this year.
The Shanghai Composite Index is hovering near its seven-year closing high of 3,691, hit on Tuesday when the index completed a 10-session winning streak.
For the year so far, the benchmark is up 13.8%, making it the best-performing major East Asian stock index of 2015 to date, though it still has a way to go to match 2014’s 53% surge.
The lure of flush times on the Shanghai market is sweeping in unlikely investors by the hundreds of thousands. This week, both the China Securities Daily and the Beijing Morning Post had dueling reports about recent college graduates and, yes, teenagers buying shares.
Typically these young investors speculate with money given to them by their parents, according to a Great Wall Securities broker quoted in the Beijing Morning Post story.
Yet another report, this time by the Beijing News newspaper, relates that at the Beijing trading halls of China Securities Co., “even the cleaning lady” has opened an account to play the market.
The data appear to agree with the anecdotes: Within the last week alone, 1.14 million stock accounts were opened in China, the biggest such surge since June 2007, according to China Securities Depository & Clearing Corp.
What does it all mean?
In a note this week entitled “The Worrying Sense of Calm in China,” analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch got right to the point: “Risk-Love (equity sentiment) in China’s equity market is in euphoria territory. It is time to book some profits.”
After holding an overweight rating on Chinese shares since August of last year, Merrill Lynch is now cutting the market to neutral, making it clear that economic problems — especially looming deflation — suggest the current environment doesn’t justify buying into stocks.
“China’s real interest rates remain too high, the currency is too expensive, fiscal policy is tight, and debt deflation is taking hold,” the analysts said.
“We are now concerned that the scale of monetary/fiscal easing required in China is so large, and so radically different from where policy makers’ assessments are, that an overweight [rating] is no longer tenable,” they said.
…
After King Obama has been on the throne six years, the racist New York Times is still playing the Race Card™
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/04/12/fail-new-york-times-tries-to-play-race-card-rewrite-history/
And Breitbart plays the race card card.
Ask Roslyn Jones which card applies to her. This is a golden oldie of an article about the 2000 Cincinnati race riots (that CNN referred to as “demonstrations” LOLZ)
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2001/07/09/loc_riots_effects_wont.html
What does that have to do with NYT editorial and the dopey Breitbart response?
This Week, House Will Spend A Low-Profile $96 Billion On Military Wish Lists of Unneeded Weapons
4/12/2015 @ 4:16PM
Starting this week, the House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee will write the FY2016 defense policy bill. Unleashed from past constraints, it has gotten a $96 billion “below-the-radar” fund for spending even beyond its quite generous $523 billion in regular money. Key source of items: the unneeded weapons on the military’s wish lists.
Major media and the public do not follow this. The Congressional budget resolution, very recently worked out between House and Senate Republicans, seems too technical, and its execution seems far off. And, low-profile defense spending aspects are not “sexy.”
However, the budget resolution gave the store away — not far off, but right now — to the eager-spending House Armed Services Committee. The new Chairman, William “Mac” Thornberry (R-TX), from the Texas Panhandle, will start writing his annual bill (“marking it up”), not later this year, but right now, immediately, the week of April 20.
And, the White House has no commitment to vetoing the defense spending bill to match its vocal commitment to, say, the Affordable Care Act. Quite the contrary, the White House was itself the soul of generosity to the Pentagon budget — and it may not want to face the hawks’ charge that it is “soft” on defense.
Where is this below-the-radar funding? Excuse a bit of background. The spending cap (policed by “sequestration” across-the-board cuts), inherited from the clash of 2011, sets military spending this year at $523 billion. Congressional Republicans oppose lifting the military cap if this price is also lifting the domestic spending cap. So the budget resolution left the caps.
Now, President Obama’s budget provides, along with the regular $523 billion, also, $58 billion in actual war funding (called the “Overseas Contingency Operations”) — funding for combat operations, not big-ticket military hardware. This $58 billion is accepted as a rough planning estimate of the cost of Afghanistan, fighting ISIS, extras like Yemen may become, and so forth.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestiefer/2015/04/12/this-week-the-house-spends-a-low-profile-96-billion-on-military-wish-lists-of-unneeded-weapons/
I’m still waiting for Scott Walker to explain where the money comes from to put “boots on the ground” to fight ISIS
And on a related topic, who would Hillary bomb?
who would Hillary bomb?
Bill’s girlfriends and the vast right wing conspiracy.
She’s already bombed her opening announcement what with that typo.
Doesn’t matter. The Stoopids vote en bloc, and Hillary is their candidate.
How wonderful to be so above it all. All those poor Stoopids. OMG, the typos!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (That’s satire).
Maybe your should get informed on the issues and take some responsibility.
Oh, and beware of trolls.
Hillary would bomb Iran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=857guwaNbRc
As bitcoin continues its relentless slide into obscurity, amid continued look alike startups and hacking robberies, a physical bitcoin is being introduced.
Isn’t that rather oxymoronic?
http://www.coindesk.com/finnish-startup-denarium-launches-low-cost-physical-bitcoins/
“Isn’t that rather oxymoronic?”
Just plain moronic. Also not much different from other ‘community currencies‘ (e.g. Ithaca Hours, Berkeley Bread, etc).
Capitol Report
Why central banks should embrace negative interest rates — and get rid of currency
Published: Apr 13, 2015 11:38 a.m. ET
By Greg Robb
Senior economics reporter
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — During the heart of the Great Recession in 2009, a traditional policy rule used as a informal guide by the Federal Reserve suggested that interest rates should be set below negative 5%.
But economists had long said that interest rates couldn’t go below zero.
To get around this “zero-lower-bound,” then Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke bought billions of dollars of securities and expanded the Fed’s balance sheet to spur low rates and risk-taking, in a policy known as quantitative easing. The move set off a fierce political firestorm that hasn’t subsided even though Bernanke’s steps have been followed by other major central banks, including the European Central Bank.
With this background, economists have pondered what should be done to get ready for the next, inevitable, recession, and the chances that economic conditions may call for rates to go below zero in the future.
Willem Buiter, global chief economist at Citi, is arguing in a new research note that central banks should be prepared to set negative rates.
What is the obstacle? A key reason that central banks can’t set rates as low as they would like is cash. The theory is that savers would take all of their money out of banks rather than be charged a negative rate.
What to do? Well, one idea is to get rid of cash and move to digital payments.
Sound absurd?
Not to Buiter, who is deadly earnest. He said that there are only three constituencies left for cash. The elderly and the poor depend on cash and can be helped, he said. Criminals also depend on cash because it is anonymous. The third complaints will come from libertarians who “should take one for the team,” he said.
…
Some LOLZ for a Monday, Russia to deliver air defense missiles to Iran
http://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-lifts-its-ban-on-sales-of-s-300-missiles-to-iran-1428935224?mod=asia_home
And if any of you joining Tom Cotton’s Iran Liberation Brigade need a ride to the airport, I’ll be happy to come pick you up
Kudos to Rand Paul for being honest:
https://store.randpaul.com/get.php/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/r/a/rand_1024flipflopistandwithrand.jpg
Yup, from the Rand Paul store you can buy Rand Paul flip-flops. Good to see Mr. Libertarian Lite own up to his waffling ways.
As I mentioned before, Rand Paul is the only person RIGHT NOW who has a microphone and a national audience saying that the NSA should stop spying on American citizens
And after he starts losing primaries and drops out of the race, there will be nobody left saying that, nobody
And worse yet, nobody will care
… and how long will President Paul stick to his guns on this when the CIA/NSA/Defense give him a classified briefing and tell him if we don’t have electronic surveillance there will be a terror attack on his watch?
He will never be president
But I want him to have that microphone and national audience for as long as possible, Amerikwa needs to wake the f* up
“And after he starts losing primaries and drops out of the race,”
That’s it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcu5sYxcEuo - 241k -
“And after he starts losing primaries and drops out of the race,”
His staff really should consider oatmeal toupee shampoo.
The redistribution racket
Residents of high-tax states are voting with their feet
By Stephen Moore - - Sunday, April 12, 2015
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren appeared on one of the late night talk shows last week, beating the class warfare drum and arguing for billions of dollars in new social programs paid for with higher taxes on millionaires and billionaires. In recent years, though, blue states such as California, Illinois, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland and Minnesota adopted this very strategy, and they raised taxes on their wealthy residents. How did it work out? Almost all of these states lag behind the national average in growth of jobs and incomes.
So, if income redistribution policies are the solution to shrinking the gap between rich and poor, why do they fail so miserably in the states?
The blue states that try to lift up the poor with high taxes, high welfare benefits, high minimum wages and other Robin Hood policies tend to be the places where the rich end up the richest and the poor the poorest.
California is the prototypical example. It has the highest tax rates of any state. It has very generous welfare benefits. Many of its cities have a high minimum wage. But day after day, the middle class keeps leaving. The wealthy areas such as San Francisco and the Silicon Valley boom. Yet the state has nearly the highest poverty rate in the nation. The Golden State, alas, has become the inequality state.
In a new report called “Rich States, Poor States” that I write each year for the American Legislative Exchange Council with Arthur Laffer and Jonathan Williams, we find that five of the highest-tax blue states in the nation — California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois — lost some 4 million more U.S. residents than entered these states over the last decade (see chart). Meanwhile, the big low-tax red states — Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia — gained about this many new residents.
So much for liberal policies creating a workers paradise.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/12/stephen-moore-residents-fleeing-high-tax-states/#ixzz3XCkqMhhk
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
So are residents of “low tax states”. See below.
Pure bullsh–. “Right to work” states like Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia and Kentucky have the highest level of dependency on federal aid. Oh, and people aren’t leaving California: in 2013, the net loss was a mere 49,000 out of 38 million.
Illegals are moving in while citizens are moving out, leaving a “net” loss of 49,000.
In a new report called “Rich States, Poor States” that I write each year for the American Legislative Exchange Council with Arthur Laffer and Jonathan Williams, we find that five of the highest-tax blue states in the nation — California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois — lost some 4 million more U.S. residents than entered these states over the last decade (see chart). Meanwhile, the big low-tax red states — Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia — gained about this many new residents.
It should be clear what’s going on here. Those high tax states happen to have a lot of jobs that pay well. The low tax states don’t. So the cost of housing is higher is a lot higher in the high tax states. So people move to the warmer low tax states when they retire.
Youngest daughter moved in with me last November, to look for a decent job in KC. Was hired by the first place she applied, a place down in the “Power and Light District” by the Sprint Center
Has done pretty well, just moved into a place south of downtown called the “Crossroad Arts District”. Where all the 20 year olds want to live. Helped her move in; its pretty nice.
Her first comment? “Thank God I dont have ro tell people I live in Kansas anymore”
Her first comment? “Thank God I dont have ro tell people I live in Kansas anymore”
Go Chiefs!
BTW, hope she does well. I’m a dad too.
This reminds me of something but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcu5sYxcEuo - 241k -
Hillary for President…….
If the current crop of nominees is the best we can do, this country is FUBAR
this country is FUBAR
Yes.
The problem is, you and I fundamentally diagree on what the facts are, never mind the solution.
The problem is, you and I fundamentally diagree on what the facts are, never mind the solution.
Articulate a solution. My solution is constitutional government and free enterprise system which is what build this nation in the first place.
My solution is giving me dictatorial powers, then letting me knock a few dumbazzes heads together.
Better yet, apply some of those CIA torture techniques to some people who really deserve them.
Mostly Republican ones, mainly because they are the most bought, and biggest hypocrites.
Yup, you got 7 GOP candidates beating the drums for moar war, a Libertarian Lite who’s a Romney-style shape shifter, and pro-investment bank Hillary. Guess I’ll go the lesser of the 9 evils and vote for Hillary. At least she’ll veto any attempt by the tea partiers to gut Soc Sec and Medicare.
There is nothing to gut. SS and medi-fraud are bankrupt.
Exactly. Of course, they were generational Ponzi schemes from the beginning.
SS and medi-fraud are bankrupt.
No, they’re not. They’re meeting all of their obligations.
And running down their trust funds in the process. They are only taking in slightly over 70 cents for every dollar they are paying out, Obama had the ability to fix the programs when he took office and failed to address them when his bipartisan commission came back with reasonable proposals that he did not like.
Yes they are bankrupt my friend. By their own admission they can’t “meet their obligations” without borrowing.
No, they’re meeting the obligations without borrowing, except for parts of Medicare that are not funded by the trust fund.
Obama had the ability to fix the programs when he took office and failed to address them when his bipartisan commission came back with reasonable proposals that he did not like.
You’re not referring to the Simpson-Bowles commission, are you?
Yes, I am. And please don’t give me the worn out liberal talking point that they vote was not 2/3 in favor, it had a majority of the votes of a bipartisan committee. Obama had supermajorities in congress and should have addressed it. Reagan a real leader fixed social security first thing, he accepted the political heat and it is the reason why the system has any money to make payments.
False. Worse yet, the only way to ‘meet their obligations’ is to rob people blind.
There weren’t enough votes according to the rules that set up the commission. Therefore, the commission made recommendations.
There is also this from Wikipedia:
On March 28, 2012, Representatives Jim Cooper (D-TN) and Steve LaTourette (R-OH) put a bill modeled on the plan, with, according to analyst Ezra Klein, “somewhat less in tax increases,” to a vote in the House where it was rejected 382 to 38. 22 Democrats and 16 Republicans supported the bill.[13]
It seems highly unlikely that the president could have gotten such a thing passed.
Sorry. Just cant vote for Billary.
I’ll be sitting out another one.
The voters here in Kansas are going to continue to vote for Kochistan, right up to the point they become serfs.
The farmers in the western 2/3 of the state dont care who is being screwed, as long as their taxes are low
The Mission Hills residents dont care how much of a s##thole the state becomes, because the get on their jets (hangared in Missouri, to avoid Kansas property taxes) and live in Palm Springs or Scottsdale during the winter, and Vail/Aspen during the summer.
The problem will solve itself in 20-30 years. The kids who can are getting out while the gettings good.. The farmers will have to deal with roaming packs of Mexican banditos in F-150s on their own, because the tax base to pay for law enforcement wont be there anymore.
I love reading dystopian predictions like this, because you are probably right
Most of you do not really have a clue about just how bad the elites of this country have gotten. The elites that control the Dimocratic party crossed out Hillary in ‘08 and are trying to figure out how to do that again. The reasons they do not want her in power are the reasons I do. Yes, it is about SS and Medicare and the Middle Class. They want it gone.
Before your bitch and moan about typos and small shit, you better take a look at what Bush and Obama have been all about. If you realize that it is the middle class, with their size and wealth, who have protected freedoms of the common person, then you better get out there and vote like your lives depended on it. And do not wait for the election. The treachery will occur before the primary as Obama 3.0 emerges from the slimy depths of the elites back pockets. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEM_2016_OBAMA_CLINTON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-04-13-13-49-11
HillaryJeb is a reflection of the IDIOCRACY that has overtaken us. President Comacho waiting in the wings.
I demand that circus music be played at the debates.
Climate Globalists Get Behind Draft Elizabeth Warren Campaign
All establishment party candidates are controlled by the global elite
by Kurt Nimmo | Infowars.com | April 13, 2015
The Elizabeth Warren for president campaign has attracted a number of prominent establishment environmental groups in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s presidential announcement last week.
“Environmental Activists for Warren” has become part of the Ready for Warren group.
“The launch expected to take place later this month is the latest sign that environmentalists fear that Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic frontrunner who announced her candidacy on Sunday, won’t take a strong stand on the issues they care most about,” the National Journal reports today.
Ready for Warren has culled employees, donors, and volunteers from establishment backed “green” groups, including the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Environmental Defense Fund, 350.org, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace USA.
Global Elite Run the Environmental Movement
The Sierra Club is funded by the Rockefeller Brothers and the group in turn funds the League of Conservation Voters and the Environmental Defense Fund.
350.org, described as a “scruffy little outfit,” is also funded by the Rockefellers.
Friends of the Earth has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Rockefeller Brothers. Greenpeace, the largest environmental group in the world, is also on the payroll.
More than saving rain forests and whales, the Rockefeller environmental agenda is centered on population reduction. The Club of Rome, founded on the estate of David Rockefeller in 1968, has long advocated reducing world population.
“The common enemy of humanity is man,” argues the Club of Rome. “In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.”
In order to realize “sustainability” through depopulation, the global elite require a one-world global government. The Council on Foreign Relations was designed to facilitate a one-world totalitarian government. David Rockefeller is its honorary chairman.
“Some governments are prepared to give up elements of sovereignty to address the threat of global climate change,” writes the president of the CFR, Richard Haass.
Elizabeth Warren: Tricking Liberals into Backing the Globalist Agenda
Senator Elizabeth Warren is billed as Wall Street’s worst nightmare. If she becomes president, liberals claim, she will target the 1% and send the wolves of Wall Street packing.
Populist rhetoric aside, this will not happen if Warren is selected as the Democrat nominee and she manages to beat her Republican rival and become president.
Obama also ran as an outsider. Once in office, however, he continued the globalist agenda of his predecessor. President Warren will do the same.
Warren “can rally key portions of the Democratic base — women, African American and young voters — and effectively deliver the populist, progressive message that resonates with blue-collar workers,” writes Emily Zanotti of The Political Insider.
In a repeat of the Obama campaign, these key portions will be used in a faux struggle against the perceived Democrat front-runner, Hillary Clinton, who was prior to Benghazi and the Clinton email scandal favorited by the establishment.
Establishment political candidates are more or less interchangeable. As Secretary of State, Clinton said she often runs to the Council on Foreign Relations for advice in important political matters.
Elizabeth Warren, if nominated and selected, will undoubtedly do an Obama repeat while holding high her populist cred. She will take orders from the very people she claims to oppose.
“She will take orders from the very people she claims to oppose.”
And that my friends, is what Elizabeth Warren is all about. Just like her boss.
The controlled opposition.
“When you’ve got nothing, price doesn’t matter. Just demand someone else pay for it irrespective of the cost.”
More of the “new normal”
Both my former boss and my best friend have taken flying jobs in the Bay Area, both making +/- $200k a year. Because the few flying jobs out here in Flyover mean a step backward in equipment, and a 50-75% cut in pay.
Both are commuting by airline, because neither one of them can afford a decent house in the Bay Area.
This used to be the start of the “climb the ladder” plan for newbie 20 year olds in our business. Time will tell on how well fifty year olds handle the sleep deprivation.
X, maybe China calls:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/New-hanger-maintenance-facilities-planned-for-business-jets/shdaily.shtml
The Long, Dirty Trail of Fake Science
Revealing Big Oil’s Role in Climate Change Denialism
“Big Oil developed a well-funded communications campaign inspired by Big Tobacco’s techniques — funding fake science, think tanks and front groups with innocuous-sounding names such as the Global Climate Coalition (GCC). Supported by energy companies such as Shell Oil, Exxon and BP, the GCC lobbied on Capitol Hill, fighting a global climate treaty and domestic climate legislation by producing issue briefs with the patina of truthiness.”
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/4/the-long-dirty-trail-of-fake-science.html
Pretty sad that Al Jazeera has to step in and tell the story that the MSM won’t touch.
Third world countries wanting the hundreds of billions of dollars in “AGW” aid they have been promised. They are faking ground data to get that aid. The satellites have always been and still are the most accurate, hardest to fake data and they have not shown any warming in almost twenty years, despite soaring co2 emissions. The left cannot refute that so they are attempting to silence the messengers, nothing more complicated than that going on.
The satellites have always been and still are the most accurate, hardest to fake data
Yep. Since 1889. LOL
Satellite measurements of the troposphere confirm warming trend, data shows
http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2015/02/what-do-satellites-measurements-of-the-troposphere-tell-us-about-global-temperature-%282%29/
Hot on the heels of the news that 2014 was likely the warmest year on record at Earth’s surface, scientists have confirmed the lower part of Earth’s atmosphere is warming too.
Since 1979, the troposphere has warmed by 0.14 degrees per decade, scientists at the University of Huntsville (UAH) Alabama conclude.
Whether you choose to look at temperatures at Earth’s surface or higher up in the atmosphere, nine of the 10 hottest years on record have now occurred in the 21st century.
A tropospheric record
Earlier this week, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) confirmed Earth’s surface in 2014 - that’s the air above land and the top of the ocean - was most likely the warmest it’s been during the modern temperature record, stretching back to at least the late 19th century.
It’s natural that we would be interested in Earth’s surface as that’s where humans live. But there’s another way scientists keep tabs on warming. Satellites monitor air temperature up to 10 kilometres above our heads in a part of the atmosphere known as the troposphere.
I have shown numerous times just how cold we are for an interglacial period. We are 2 degrees Celsius colder than the norm for this point in the cycle. Trying to pass off the warmest period (by a few hundreds of a degree) in the last 130 years as significant is little more than fraud, it certainly does not show anything of significance. But get back to the Obama talking points.
I have shown numerous times just how cold we are for an interglacial period.
Thanks. I’d rather consider NASA and Stephen Hawking over you Adan.
Georgia Guidestones anyone?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Georgia Guidestones is a granite monument erected in 1980 in Elbert County, Georgia, in the United States. A set of ten guidelines is inscribed on the structure in eight modern languages, and a shorter message is inscribed at the top of the structure in four ancient language scripts: Babylonian, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian hieroglyphs.
A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines or principles is engraved on the Georgia Guidestones[14] in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the structure from due north, these languages are: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.
1: Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2: Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3: Unite humanity with a living new language.
4: Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5: Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6: Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7: Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8: Balance personal rights with social duties.
9: Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10: Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.
——————————————————————————–
Video: UN Climate Change Official Says “We Should Make Every Effort” To Depopulate The Planet
“There is pressure in the system to go toward that; we should do everything possible”
by Steve Watson | Infowars.com | April 6, 2015
Officials within the UN are pushing the notion that the human population should be reduced in order to effectively combat climate change.
The long standing notion has been continually pushed by Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). In 2013, Figueres had a conversation with Climate One founder Greg Dalton regarding “fertility rates in population,” as a contributor to climate change.
The comments are made at 4.20 into the following video:
“A related issue is fertility rates in population.” Dalton opined. “A lot of people in energy and environmental circles don’t wanna go near that because it’s politically charged. It’s not their issue.” he added.
“But isn’t it true that stopping the rise of the population would be one of the biggest levers and driving the rise of green house gases?” Dalton asked.
“Obviously less people would exert less pressure on the natural resources,” Figueres answered, also noting that estimates suggest the Earth’s population will rise to nine billion by 2050.
Dalton then questioned whether that figure could in some way be stalled or halted.
“So is nine billion a forgone conclusion? That’s like baked in, done, no way to change that?” he asked Figueres.
“There is pressure in the system to go toward that; we can definitely change those, right? We can definitely change those numbers,” Figueres said in response.
“Really, we should make every effort to change those numbers because we are already, today, already exceeding the planet’s planetary carrying capacity.” she also claimed.
“So yes we should do everything possible. But we cannot fall into the very simplistic opinion of saying just by curtailing population then we’ve solved the problem. It is not either/or, it is an and/also.” the UN official also said.
http://www.infowars.com/…/ - 102k -
The planet is gonna depopulate itself when it’s good and ready, and shake off humanity like a bad case of fleas
Regards,
Single occupant, two car household (P.S. I’m driving 500 miles next weekend)
(P.S. I’m driving 500 miles next weekend)
Thank you for helping us avoid an ice age.
Maybe this will work for the UN climate Nazi
http://www.infowars.com/…/ - 102k -
I called it months ago. Get ready for soylent green. As I maintain to this day, those doing the suggesting should just go ahead and volunteer, leading by example.
Capitalism, baby. I’m gonna consume 100 times as much as some poor black/brown before I croak. It was promised to me since I was born, and I’m gonna take everything I was promised and then I’m gonna take some more. America is going down in flames and going out in a blaze of glory, just doing my part to make it blaze a lil brighter
P.S. Millenials, f* your future, I’m burning it to the ground
Comment by phony scandals
2015-04-13 09:43:45
Video: UN Climate Change Official Says “We Should Make Every Effort” To Depopulate The Planet
infowars.com/video-un-climate-change-official-says-we-should-make-every-effort-to-depopulate-the-planet/
“You first”.
I can shoot a lot more people than myself.
For full disclosure, the fixr bloodlines
Ohio-Republican coal miners (the ones who owned/ran the “company store”), mixed with…..
Northern Alabama white trash, who became “Sooners”, stealing their Oklahoma farmland fair and square during the original land rush.
Loved your description of attending a “People of Walmart” wedding some time ago
MOAR of that plz
Are you thinking of having a wedding there, with your new girlfriend with the eight children from eight different baby daddies, at least you will be embracing diversity?
Thank you for helping us avoid an ice age…..at least you will be embracing diversity
As I’ve said for years Adan, I just can’t tell you how funny you are.
Does Law School Destroy Your Sense of Humor?
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2009/01/does-law-school.html
By Legal Profession Prof
And if the product of law school is humorless people, is that caused by the education, or are humorless people drawn to enroll in the first place? That’s after years of people telling them they should go to law school, which was said sarcastically, but they did not get the sarcasm because they are humorless. I do not know, but I hope Bill Henderson launches a multivariate longitudinal study of the phenomenon. Maybe there is grant money available from Pfizer or whoever makes the anti-restless-leg drug.
I think it is pretty clear that legal education at least alters the sense of humor palpably, similar to how Duncan Kennedy’s classic 1982 crit thinkpiece, Law School and the Reproduction of Hierarchy, argued that an ostensibly neutral education is a cover for an intensely person-altering political and social indoctrination. Maybe med school does the same thing to someone’s funny bone–I would never get through the day with a straight face saying “infarction” and “acute angina.” But that only proves I am 14; last week,I kept giggling at an exam answer’s reference to a “federal fee-shitting statute” even though I know it’s just a typo. And for sure law school destroys the ability to say “statue” without thinking twice.
Lawyers have our own sense of humor, which isn’t funny to “laypeople” (heh heh) and objectively isn’t funny. The punch line of several of my conversations is “Well, yeah, res ipsa loquitur!” A student lamented to me just last week that she could not get through a lawyer’s helping her move in his pickup without enduring several attempts to call himself a “lodestar.” That kind of thing. You know, unaware unfunny. I told her to get used to it–you will be this way soon enough. (Sort of like pod people.)
We also don’t laugh at some things lay people find very funny.
I know you are sore because I coined your name Lola. BTW, I am still waiting for you to say something funny or even clever. Probably will be a long wait, like waiting for a economic recovery in Brazil.
I know you are sore because I coined your name Lola.
You have issues that I like to bring out.
Can financial markets function properly when so much market power is concentrated into the hands of a very small number of individuals and financial authorities?
“We like round numbers, like DJIA = 18K, NASDAQ = 5K, or gold = $1200/oz.”
CraterRage Photo Of The Day
http://goo.gl/s64tXa
That’s some 9.0 Richter Rage!!
The rage and desperation has reached 9/10.
Dayam!
http://mises.org/library/ben-bernanke%E2%80%99s-latest-defense-fed%E2%80%99s-failures
Remember in 2012, when Texas was having a drought and Gov. Perry called for prayer to end the drought and the MSM had a field day? Maybe they can stop praying for rain now:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/flood-threat-to-escalate-along-gulf-coast-this-week/ar-AAaVR1z
For the benefit of retards who take Hillary at her word when she says she’ll be a champion of the middle class, here are her list of career donors, which looks like a who’s who of oligarchs and bailout recipients courtesy of taxpayers.
https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&cid=N00000019&type=I
“a champion of the middle class,”
That time worn rusty old lie never dies.
why buy a depreciating asset?
Good point Poet. Especially at current grossly inflated but falling prices.
Dublin, CA Sale Prices Plunge 17% As Housing Demand Craters
http://www.zillow.com/livermore-ca-94568/home-values/
I’ve noticed when I go to my credit union lobby for some routine transaction, the tellers seem to be under orders to get me to buy a credit card or steer me to some other “service” I don’t want or need. They have a kind of sick desperation about them I didn’t notice before. Wonder what kinds of quotas are being forced on them.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/12/well-fargo-workers-protest-sales-quotas?CMP=share_btn_link
I used to work for a TARP bank, selling on commission, you are not imagining anything. It is unfortunate that your credit union has delved to that level of behavior, mine has not, as of now…
I believe it. That is why she was crossed out in 2008. Of course she has wealthy donors. But she has middle class roots and a new granddaughter. There is no other candidate that is willing and capable of protecting SS and Medicaid and Middle Class interests. The elites want it gone. I fought for her unsuccessfully in 2008 and will try again in 2016.
Could I be a fool?
Well I never voted for Bush or Obama.
Of course she has wealthy donors. But she has middle class roots and a new granddaughter. There is no other candidate that is willing and capable of protecting SS and Medicaid and Middle Class interests. The elites want it gone.
Please tell me this is satire. No one could possibly be stupid enough to actually believe what you just wrote.
That all you got, insults? Are you telling me she does not have wealthy donors or middle class root or a new granddaughter? So WTF do we want to hear your hot satirical air for?
Let me guess: you fell for hope ‘n change, too. How’s that working out for you?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hillary-clinton-presidential-announcement-whyimnotvotingforhillary-hashtag-tops-twitter-10173201.html
SS and medic-fraud are bankrupt.
Our bank has gone window deco with construction tools, remodeling bait and signage to entice the slaves you “need” to update your squalor. Lately, I make a deposit I’m pitched “great” rates for HELOC and car loans. I usually quip “nope, just depositing cash today.”
If you like your crony capitalism, you can keep your crony capitalism.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-investigating-white-house-military-aide/story?id=30176394
CBO: Feds Taxing More, Spending More, Running Bigger Deficit in 2015
Biggest source of additional tax revenue for the federal government was the individual income tax
by Terence P. Jeffrey | CNS News | April 13, 2015
The federal government taxed away more money, spent more money and ran a bigger deficit in the first half of fiscal 2015 than it did in the first half of fiscal 2014, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“The federal government ran a budget deficit of $430 billion for the first half of fiscal year 2015, CBO estimates–$17 billion more than the shortfall recorded in the same span last year,” the CBO said in its Monthly Budget Review for March 2015, which was published April 8. “Both revenues and outlays were about 7 percent higher than the amounts recorded in the first six months of fiscal year 2014.”
The federal fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 and ends on Sept. 30.
In the first six months of fiscal 2014, the government took in approximately $1,323,000,000,000 in revenue, according to CBO. In the first six months of this fiscal year, it took in approximately $1,420,000,000,000—an increase of $98,000,000,000.
Did Rubio play the Geritol® card?
Marco Rubio Announces 2016 Presidential Bid
By ASHLEY PARKER and ALAN RAPPEPORTAPRIL 13, 2015
In a direct attack on Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, which she announced Sunday, Mr. Rubio said: “Just yesterday, a leader from yesterday began a campaign for president by promising to take us back to yesterday. Yesterday is over and we’re never going back.”
——————————————————————————-
Top Definition
Geritol Generation
Basically it would be the ‘older’ generation of folks that rely on “Geritol” vitamins to get around and stay healthy. Also known as “Blue Hairs”, they can be seen hanging around casino’s - usually drunk, reeking of smoke, and screaming at the bands that they are “too loud, turn it down!”
Wow - it looks like the “Geritol Generation: beat us to the free buffet this afternoon!
by ElvisLives1 May 20, 2009
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Geritol+Generation - 46k -
The so-faux populism by the oligarchy’s annointed plutocrat candidates begins. And the same morons who fell for hope ‘n change will swallow it hook, line and sinker, as always.
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-hillary-clinton-surprises-with-early-attack-on-ceo-pay-2015-4
The Clowntoons are decamillionaires. They are the pot calling the kettle black. Just like E Warren.
The most disturbing thing is the fools who don’t see this hypocrisy for what it is. They are used and they vote for those clowns.
phony scandals
0:59
Richmond, CA Dirty Bomb Drill 2015
by Courage Sowers
2 days ago11 views
National Guard conducts Dirty Bomb drill in Richmond, CA April 11, 2015. Soldiers conduct riot control drill against “sovereign …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdy-7bPJ2Mw