Iran Taunts Trump With Test-Launch Of New Long-Range Cruise Missile

Earlier this week, the DNI and his CIA director elicited a stern rebuke from President Trump after contradicting him by warning that Iran remained “technically” in compliance with the nuclear deal and that ISIS remained a threat in the Middle East, prompting Trump to warn that Iran remained a threat, and that Trump was right to scrap the Iran deal because “they are testing Rockets (last week) and more, and are coming very close to the edge.”

As it turns out, President Trump had a point. And he only had to wait a few days for Iran to remind the world that it’s missile tests remain a threat not just to US national security, but the global order.

Fire

During a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Islamic Republic on Saturday, Iran carried out a test of its new Hoveizeh cruise missile, which, with a range of 800 miles, is capable of striking Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Iran

What’s more, the missile tests violate the UN resolution that enshrined the Iran deal, which called for Iran to wait eight years before developing new cruise missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload. Iran denies that it violated the resolution because it denies that the missiles are capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, and that they are merely for “defensive and deterrence” purposes, according to Reuters.

The  Hoveizeh is part of the Soumar family of surface-to-air cruise missiles first unveiled in 2015

While western experts warn Iran often exaggerates the capabilities of its weapons, the missile launch is still concerning, according to the Express.

Iran’s Defense Minister Amir Hatami warned that the missile was representative of Iran’s spirit of self reliance.

“The Hoveyzeh missile is the symbol of self-belief and an important defense achievement based on today’s technological progress in the world.”

And in what sounded like taunting the West and Saudi Arabia, Hatami warned that Iran will decisively respond to any threats “on the same level.”

In January, the US warned Iran not to carry out three planned missile tests, but the Islamic Republican proceeded anyway.

Trump pulled out of the Iran deal last year, arguing that, although Iran was technically in compliance, the terms of the deal were too generous to Iran’s domestic weapons industry, which the country has developed internally during years of international sanctions.

And with that, the international community takes one step closer to World War III.

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2Tr4CzD Tyler Durden

A Survival Guide For 2019 – How To Safely Navigate The “Year Of Instability”

Authored by Adam Taggart via PeakProsperity.com,

As the first month of the year concludes, it’s becoming clear that 2019 will be a very different kind of year.

The near-decade of ‘recovery’ following the Great Financial Crisis enjoyed a stability and tranquility that suddenly evaporated at the end of 2018.

Here in 2019, instability reigns.

The world’s central banks are absolutely panicking. After last year’s bursting of the Everything Bubble, their coordinated plans for Quantitative Tightening have been summarily thrown out the window. Suddenly, no chairman can prove himself too dovish.

Jerome Powell, the supposed hardliner among them, completely capitulated in the wake of the recent -15% tantrum in stocks, which, as Sven Henrich colorfully quipped, proved what we suspected all along:

The global tsunami of liquidity (i.e. thin-air money printing) released by the central banking cartel has been the defining trend of the past decade. It has driven, directly or indirectly, more world events than any other factor.

And one of its more notorious legacies is the massive disparity and wealth and income resulting from its favoring of the top 0.1% over everyone else. The mega-rich have seen their assets skyrocket in value, while the masses have been mercilessly squeezed between similarly rising costs of living and stagnant wages.

How have the tone-deaf politicians responded? With tax breaks for their Establishment masters and new taxes imposed on the public. As a result, populist ire is catching fire in an accelerating number of countries, which the authorities are anxious to suppress by all means to prevent it from conflagrating further — most visibly demonstrated right now by the French government’s increasingly jack-booted attempts to quash the Yellow Vest protests:

Meanwhile, two other principal drivers of the past decade’s ‘prosperity’ are also suddenly in jeopardy.

China’s once-unstoppable economic growth engine is now sputtering badly. The slowdown is so pronounced that it’s now feared it will drag world GDP down to a decade low this year:

And all those headlines that claimed the US shale oil ‘miracle’ has ushered in a new era of over-abundant cheap domestic oil? Well, as we’ve long warned, it’s becoming clear that promise was dangerously overhyped. It’s recently been exposed that the shale operators — who have never made a profit as an industry — have been overstating their output by as much as 50%. That, plus a host of geological and financing challenges, is making the future production prospects of the Permian and other major shale basins look a lot dimmer:

Is The Permian Bull Run Coming To An End?

With the big Wall Street players now questioning the value of their existing investments in shale oil, the industry is finding it hard to raise money. Not a single bond sale has come off since November in an industry which must continuously raise capital to survive.

To add to the problems, the future of U.S. shale oil production seems to be in the Permian Basin in Texas which has been providing the lion’s share of oil production growth for the entire country. But ongoing drought in an already arid West Texas has raised doubts about whether the Permian will have enough water to meet all the demand for fracking new wells.

If the needed capital is not forthcoming, it means that companies will be faced with declining revenues from declining production. With lower operating cash flow and little access to additional capital, these companies will be unable to drill enough wells to offset declining ones. That means even lower revenues in the future which will mean even lower investment in new wells. That’s what a death spiral looks like.

(Source)

A Poisonous Cocktail

Mix together a slowing global economy hopelessly addicted to central bank stimulus, festering social unrest and an approaching oil price spike/supply squeeze. The result?

Recession and revolt.

It’s anybody’s guess what will happen from here. But it seems certain that events will not recede back to the tranquility of the past decade.

Our prediction here at PeakProsperity.com is that the long-awaited (and, yes, perhaps too-long-predicted) downturn is nigh.

Either the economy descends into recession, resulting in widespread job losses and a deflationary correction of today’s ridiculously-inflated financial markets. Or the central banks go “all in” and launch QE4ever, leading to runaway inflation (runaway stagflation, more likely) and possibly hyperinflation.

Either way, the pain and losses will be severe. And those hurt the most — the working poor, the elderly unable to support themselves, the younger generations limited by diminished prospects — will have no option but to rise up against the political regimes that have failed them so badly.

A Survival Guide For 2019

With the bursting of the Everything Bubble, we declared last year as the ‘Year Everything Changed’. This will be the ‘Year of Instability’, possibly preceding an upcoming ‘Year Of Woe’ in 2020.

But look, we’re not saying the world is the process of ending imminently. It’s just that we’ve entered the part of the timeline when things are going to start to get really rocky.

And we think it’s much more useful to think of 2019 as the ‘Year Resilience Matters’. It shifts the focus away from fear and instead towards the many things you can do to protect yourself and those you care about – and even to position yourself to prosper through the coming challenges.

Here are recent articles/resources we’ve created to help you get started. Focus on the areas where you currently feel the most vulnerable.

  • Lose weight/Get fit — after all, if you don’t have your health, the rest doesn’t matter. Resilience starts with your most important asset: your body. Our free how-to primers on successful and sustainable weight loss and functional fitness are great resources for everyone looking for guidance on how to boost their physical health.

  • Shore up your key relationships — whatever the future brings, no single person can be prepared for every possible outcome. We’re going to need to rely on others, on key relationships and trusted community ties, when events play to our weaknesses. How do we nurture the kind of relationships that thrive, instead of unravel, during times of stress? Our free report breaks down the science behind successful social bonds.

  • Prepare for deflation — asset prices desperately want to deflate. The past decade of money-printing (QE 1,2 & 3) has blown prices well into bubble territory and allowed for credit to expand way beyond what fundamentals allow. With the bursting of the Everything Bubble, especially if the central banks somehow resume their committed tightening plans, *much* lower prices should lie ahead. A recession will only exacerbate this trend further. So we recommend that investors get liquid and preserve ‘dry powder’ to ride out the correction and be poised to re-enter the market when quality assets can be purchased at much better valuations than today. Our primers on holding cash in short-term US T-bills and in hedging for a major market correction are important resources for anyone looking to position their capital for a deflationary purge.

  • Prepare for inflation — of course, today’s central banks hate deflation. They may well take a “damn the consequences” approach when serious deflation next raises its head and kick-off QE 4-ever — which would have to be on a scale much larger than the previous QE efforts to achieve it’s desired effect. But at that magnitude, it is highly likely the central banks will kill the purchasing power of their underlying currencies — unleashing runaway inflation (runaway stagflation, more likely) and quite possibly hyperinflation. So, it’s wise to have a portion of your portfolio in assets that will weather the ravages of inflation better than most. This is why we recommend folks consider owning precious metals (and why we endorse the Hard Assets Alliance for doing so) as well as invest for inflation-adjusted incomegoing forward (vs speculating for capital gain).

  • Prepare for likely emergencies — one of the few things we can predict with certainty is that 2019 will have its fair share of floods, fires, hurricanes, blizzards, and blackouts. Every location has its own set of probable disasters than can be anticipated. Preparing for these is relatively straightforward and absolutely prudent. Our free guide to emergency preparedness is full of battle-tested recommendations and advice for doing it well.

  • Prepare for unlikely emergencies — another thing we can predict with confidence is that nothing this year will go 100% according to plan. There will be errors, unintended consequences, surprises, and accidents. We’ve written in the past of the wisdom of holding umbrella liability insurance for protection against the unexpected. More than 80% of US households either don’t own any or are under-insured. If you think you may be one of them, read our free primer on the topic. 

  • Develop your master plan — as with most goals, success dramatically improves when working with an experienced coach. Those looking for help in making key decisions and/or getting custom answers to their unique personal situations can schedule a consultation with us. And those looking to have a crash-audit of their investment portfolio can schedule a free review with our endorsed financial advisor.

  • Live resiliently – they say “The best revenge is to live well”. The same is true when it comes to resilience. Creating a resilient life is the best way to overcome adversity and enjoy prosperity in your daily living. Our book Prosper!: How To Prepare For The Future And Create A World Worth Inheriting offers a blueprint for doing just this. As does our intensive 3-day seminar (this year’s is nearly sold out, so register soon if interested), which also connects you into the Peak Prosperity tribe — a worldwide community of smart, accomplished truth-seekers with big hearts eager to support each other in their journey to live more resilient lives.

The goal here is not perfection; no one can be fully prepared for every eventuality. It’s to be “good enough” across as many of these dimensions as possible.

By taking prudent action today in these areas, you’ll be vastly more able to navigate the instabilities that 2019 throws at you.

And, just as important, you’ll be well-positioned to be in service to the many less-prepared folks around you.

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2S7BCk3 Tyler Durden

Northam Will Not Resign, Claims He Wasn’t In Racist Picture: AP

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam does not believe he was in a racist picture in his 1984 medical yearbook and has no plans to resign, according to the Associated Press, citing a Democrat who has spoken with Northam. 

He hasn’t explained his nickname, “Coonman,” however. 

A flood of prominent Democrats have called for Northam’s resignation over the picture, including former Virginia Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris. 

Planned Parenthood and former FBI Director James Comey jumped on the bandwagon Friday as well. 

Developing… 

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2HVfaWK Tyler Durden

In Tit-For-Tat, Russia Suspends INF Treaty; Putin Slams US “Demolishing” Global Security

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) has effectively collapsed following the US announcing Friday that it’s suspending all obligations under the treaty. Predictably Moscow’s response has been swift, with President Vladimir Putin saying in a meeting with his foreign and defense ministers that Russia will now pursue missile development previously banned under its terms.

Putin said “ours will be a mirror response” in a tit-for-tat move that the Russian president ultimately blames on Washington’s years-long “systematic” undermining of the agreement.

Via the Moscow Times

“Our US partners say that they are ceasing their participation in the treaty, and we are doing the same,” the Russian president said“They say that they are doing research and testing [on new weapons] and we will do the same thing.” 

Crucially, however, he noted that there were no plans to deploy short and mid-range missiles to Europe unless the US does it first — a worst nightmare scenario that has rattled European leaders ever since talk began from Trump that the 1987 treaty could be scrapped. 

Putin still seemed to allow some degree space for last minute concessions as “still on the table” possibly in line with the Trump administration’s desire to modernize and update a new treaty taking into account new technological and geopolitical realities, such as China’s ballistic missile capabilities. 

“Let’s wait until our partners mature sufficiently to hold a level, meaningful conversation on this topic, which is extremely important for us, them, and the entire world,” Putin said. But also lashing out during the press conference that followed the meeting with top officials Putin described:

Over many years, we have repeatedly suggested staging new disarmament talks, on all types of weapons. Over the last few years, we have seen our initiatives not supported. On the contrary, pretexts are constantly sought to demolish the existing system of international security.

Specifically he and FM Sergei Lavrov referenced not only Trump’s threats to quit the agreement, which heightened in December, but accusations leveled from Washington that the Kremlin was in violation. The White House has now affirmed the bilateral historic agreement signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan will be suspended for 180 days.

Lavrov insisted that Moscow “attempted to do everything we could to rescue the treaty.” This included “unprecedented steps going far beyond our obligations,” he said, and noted that part of Washington’s “systematic” attempts to undermine the treaty included “testing drones that matched the characteristics” of ground-based cruise missiles banned in the treaty, as well as installing “MK 41 launching systems for the defense shield in Europe that can be used to fire mid-range Tomahawk cruise missiles without any modification.”

Putin noted further in the midst of Lavrov’s remarks, “This is a direct a violation of the INF.” And Lavrov also added, “Such launchers have already been completed in Romania, more are scheduled to be put into service in Poland and Japan.”

Alarmingly, Putin concluded his remarks by saying Washington could be imperiling in the long term the landmark New START treaty, set to expire in 2021.

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2D16ZSU Tyler Durden

Snopes & AP Suddenly Quit As Facebook Fact-Checkers

Two of Facebook’s four fact checkers, Snopes and the Associated Press, have abruptly ended their fact-checking relationship with the social media giant. In a Friday press release, Snopes said that it had “elected not to renew our partnership with Facebook,” and while declining to reveal specifics, added that “Forgoing an economic opportunity is not a decision that we or any other journalistic enterprise can take lightly.” 

Snopes co-founders David and Barbara Mikkelson. Barbara is no longer involved in the company following David’s infidelity with prostitutes and alleged embezzlement.

While Snopes initially agreed to fact check for free, they eventually accepted $100,000 for its fact-checking services last year. 

The announcement comes on the heels of a December report that the two-year relationship between Facebook and its fact checkers was in disarray. 

Current and former Facebook factcheckers told the Guardian that the tech platform’s collaboration with outside reporters has produced minimal results and that they’ve lost trust in Facebook, which has repeatedly refused to release meaningful data about the impacts of their work. Some said Facebook’s hiring of a PR firm that used an antisemitic narrative to discredit critics – fueling the same kind of propaganda factcheckers regularly debunk – should be a deal-breaker. –The Guardian

“They’ve essentially used us for crisis PR, said former Snopes managing editor Brooke Binkowski. “They’re not taking anything seriously. They are more interested in making themselves look good and passing the buck … They clearly don’t care.

Brooke Binkowski, former managing editor of Snopes

Binkowski left Snopes last year and started her own factchecking site, truthorfiction.comShe told The Guardian last year that Facebook ignored her concerns about the spread of misinformation in Myanmar during the anti-Muslim Rohingya crisis when over 500,000 refugees fled Bangladesh amid persecution. 

“I was bringing up Myanmar over and over and over,” said Binkowski. “They were absolutely resistant.”

Facebook also pushed its fact checkers to prioritize debunking misinformation that affected its advertisers, according to Binkowski, something she said crossed a line. “You’re not doing journalism any more. You’re doing propaganda,” she said – a charge Facebook denied in a blogpost

While Snopes and it’s factcheckers grievances are well known, AP gave no explanation for their decision, though they noted in a statement to TechCrunch that while it was “no longer doing fact checking work for the program, it is not leaving it altogether.”

One current Facebook factchecker not authorized to speak publicly questioned why they’re working for the same company that paid a PR firm to promote anti-Semitic fake news about billionaire George Soros

“Why should we trust Facebook when it’s pushing the same rumors that its own factcheckers are calling fake news?” said the factchecker. “It’s worth asking how do they treat stories about George Soros on the platform knowing they specifically pay people to try to link political enemies to him?”

“Working with Facebook makes us look bad,” added the journalist. 

Another factchecker told The Guardian in December that they were demoralized. “They are a terrible company and, on a personal level, I don’t want to have anything to do with them.

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2HPm27N Tyler Durden

Americans Are Losing Interest In The Super Bowl

While last year’s Super Bowl broke plenty of records (along with the hearts of some Patriots fans), the TV ratings record was not one of them.

As Statista’s Felix Richter notes, NBC’s telecast of the game drew an average audience of 103.4 million viewers, more than 10 million short of the all-time record set by Super Bowl XLIX in 2015.

As the following chart illustrates, Super Bowl TV viewership has risen sharply since the 1990s. Super Bowl LII, however, marked the third consecutive year-over-year decline in TV viewership

Infographic: Are Americans Losing Interest in the Super Bowl? | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

Could it be that Americans are losing interest in their favorite pastime?

We’ll find out soon…

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2UzADFR Tyler Durden

Time Is Running Out To Oust Maduro

Authored by Tom Luongo via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

The most welcome news for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in the past month came from Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Maduro and Putin reaffirmed the relationship between the two countries with more than just words.

More than $5 billion in new oil exploration and production deals were signed when the two met in December which will assist Venezuela in establishing its ambitious (or foolhardy) plan to only sell its oil in its oil-backed cryptocurrency, the Petro.

Maduro has insisted that the Venezuelan state oil company PVDSA will only accept Petro for its oil starting this year. By all accounts the Petro looks like a scam and until he can make good on promises to his benefactors, Russia and China, there is no way they will use it.

But, in theory, the Petro is a fine idea. Is it one that Maduro can pull off? It’s a good question. I doubt it.

But if it, or something like it were to succeed, it represents a tectonic shift for the world economy. Not today or tomorrow, mind you, but over time. Why? Because it provides a blueprint for countries which are not on The Davos Crowd’s Christmas card list to extricate themselves from the IMF/World Bank/SWIFT hamster wheel of currency collapse, debt slavery, economic privation and regime change.

Because cryptocurrencies exist outside of the traditional banking system it allows them to skirt sanctions (which are acts of war) and continue engaging in peaceful commerce on their terms, not those set on Wall St. or K Street.

But that said, there’s no real need for the Petro per se. Maduro could simply take Bitcoin.

The other day I wrote an article tying US policy towards Venezuela to Iran, saying Trump’s plans for Energy Dominance are what is driving his foreign policy. Venezuela looks like a dry run for what’s on tap for Iran later this year or early 2020.

And its John Bolton who is the architect of this horrific policy.

This is the John Bolton blueprint for regime change. Demonize the leader of a country that opposes our imperial rule, cut them off from the rest of the world through sanctions and political/military pressure and wait for the society to collapse. Then back a regime change by a US groomed puppet, in this case the nobody who is Juan Guaidó.

Sell it all the entire time as a failure of the other guy in charge. For Chavez and Maduro the spectre of Socialism is all it takes, especially now with the Democrats and the media championing our own female Che, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as the bogeyfem.

If that fails and it looks like it has then threaten to invade on humanitarian grounds. The only way this works with a US population weary of two straight decades of war is for things to get so bad our intervention makes us look like the savior of a blighted people.

Once you make the big move, like Bolton and Pompeo did earlier this week, you have to get the kill shot quickly or things stabilize against you. I told you this last summer when it was Turkey’s lira that was the big story.

And before that it was the Saudis’ attempt to overthrow the government of Qatar through financial and military blockade.

And in late 2014 it was the collapse in oil prices which was supposed to spark a revolt against Putin in Russia which also failed, despite rumors of an internal coup within the Kremlin suppressed by Putin in March 2015.

Every day past the big news day, the crisis day, that the target of that crisis survives raises the odds of the situation improving as the panic subsides, information is disseminated, markets calmed over and allies respond.

The coming days will be key for Maduro. Because once the US makes its big move if it doesn’t get what it wants then it never will. Opposition to our meddling in Caracas will harden, Maduro’s position will strengthen and things will calm down.

It will be up to Maduro then to get serious about making things right in his country. Again, I’m not sure he’s capable of it but once the cat’s out of the bag about how much the West wants him removed from power, the easier it will be to sell the Venezuelans left there that their plight is Washington’s fault, not his.

The only silver lining to all of this is that Trump can then blame Bolton and Pompeo for this sad state of affairs, fire them for incompetence and begin dismantling the policy towards Iran. But, I’m probably just engaging in a bit of wishful thinking here.

Over the past two years Venezuelan oil production has collapsed by nearly 30% from over 2.1 million barrels per day to under 1.5 million late last year. Production numbers have recovered slightly and were back above 1.5 million in December.

But the reality is that those lost barrels are the difference between a stable government and one on the brink of collapse. The focus for Putin and China’s Xi Jinping now should be on getting those numbers back up to 2017 levels quickly and bringing some semblance of normalcy to the situation there.

Collapsing Venezuela’s oil production was the US’s plan all along. And this is, frankly, heartless treatment of the very Venezuelan people the lesser lights of the Trump administration profess to care so much about. Our policy towards them has been nothing more than a variation on the old adage, “the beatings will continue until morale improves.”

In this case, substitute removing Maduro from power for ‘morale’ and regaining access to the global banking system the ‘beatings.’

But it is absolutely no different than the rhetoric used by both Pompeo and Bolton over Iran. Remember Pompeo’s list of 12 demands on Iran last year? This is a clear statement to the Iranian government, “Step aside or we will starve your people to death.”

Then he followed that up by saying exactly that.

Humans would rather starve to death than be saved by megalomaniacs like Bolton, Pompeo and Trump. Our dignity demands more from us than that. What is the saddest part of this is that the Trump base has been sold this policy as some kind of humanitarian mission to save the Venezuelans from Maduro.

That groundwork has already been laid about Iran.

When the reality is that it’s the US’s needs to starve the world of oil to maintain the petrodollar system that they need to be saved from.

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2S5K3Mv Tyler Durden

Super Bowl-Bound L.A. Rams Are Building the NFL’s Most Expensive Stadium, Without Public Money

On Sunday evening, the Los Angeles Rams will battle the New England Patriots for National Football League supremacy—and they’ll do in inside a brand new stadium in downtown Atlanta that cost Georgia taxpayers about $600 million to build (plus another $24 million for a useless pedestrian bridge nearby).

But back in Los Angeles, the Rams are demonstrating that it’s possible to build a sporting cathedral without soaking the public with nine-figures of subsidies, taxpayer-funded bonds, or other corporate handouts.

The Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park figures to be the crown jewel of the NFL when it opens in 2020. It’s already slated to host a Super Bowl, probably the first of many, in February 2022—and it will host part of the 2026 World Cup along with the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2028 Summer Olympics. More than 70,000 spectators will fit inside the ultra-modern glass-enclosed stadium surrounded by a complex that will include a concert hall, shopping center, office buildings, condos, a luxury hotel and a 25 acre park. The entire footprint of the site is three times larger than Disneyland, and with estimated construction costs nearing $5 billion, it’s likely to be the most expensive stadium in American history.

Most remarkable of all, it’s being privately funded.

Stan Kroenke, the Rams’ owner, is financing the project with more than $1.6 billion of his own money and a massive loan from the NFL’s other owners. He plans to profit off not just ticket sales and concessions at Rams games, but by renting all that office and retail space. He’ll have another major tenant as well: the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers. They will pay just $1 per year in rent, but having two teams share the stadium doubles the number of home games on the schedule—and, presumably, the number of fans spending their money at Kroenke’s complex (but make your own joke about the Chargers’ lack of fans).

Kevin Demoff, the Rams’ chief operating officer, tells The Washington Post that the new stadium in Inglewood “will serve as a great model” for the next era of stadium projects. Roger Noll, a Stanford University economist and longtime critic of public spending on stadiums, tells the Post that the Rams new facility is “a really good deal” when compared to any other stadium built in America during the past three decades.

It’s not perfect, of course. Inglewood is allowing Kroenke to pocket some of the sales taxes from purchases made in the stadium complex, a kickback that’s worth an estimated $180 million to pay for infrastructure and an internal bus transit system. Also, as Noll points out in the Post story, it’s possible that other uses for the nearly 300-acre site might have been more productive. But one of the great things about the stadium being privately funded is that those opportunity costs are borne by Kroenke, his fellow investors, and the NFL—instead of by taxpayers.

Contrast that to what’s happening right now at the site of last year’s Super Bowl: U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. After hitting taxpayers with a $500 million tab to build a new home for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, public officials are now shelling out another $3 million to pay for upgrades to a stadium that’s only two years old.

Minnesota’s stadium is also a nice case study in how incentives change when something is paid for by the public or privately. In Los Angeles, Kroenke is willing to share his new football palace with a crosstown rival because it doesn’t make much sense to pay billions for a football stadium that will host no more than 12 games (eight in the regular season, two in the preseason, and a maximum of two in the playoffs) per year. Two teams means twice as many opportunities to earn money.

But in Minnesota, the Vikings owners refused to let a new Major League Soccer franchise rent their stadium—going so far as threatening a lawsuit against the city-run stadium authority that put up the $500 million in public money for U.S. Bank Stadium if a soccer team was allowed to share it. Instead, Minnesota taxpayers ended up chipping in to build a new soccer stadium, too.

Is the L.A. Rams’ new stadium a sign that team owners have finally decided to stop fleecing taxpayers? Probably not. After all, Kroenke is just a few years removed from trying to arm-twist St. Louis into spending $477 million to build a new stadium for the Rams—he moved the team to Los Angeles when St. Louis (wisely) refused to do so.

But the new Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park will be a shining example for other cities to use as a counterargument when team owners plead poverty and beg for a handout.

from Hit & Run http://bit.ly/2Uz3wSL
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European Companies “Won’t Dare” Use SWIFT Alternative To Send Money To Iran

The launch of INSTEX — “Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges” — by France, Germany, and the UK this week to allow “legitimate trade” with Iran, or rather effectively sidestep US sanctions and bypass SWIFT after Washington was able to pressure the Belgium-based financial messaging service to cut off the access of Iranian banks last year, may be too little too late to salvage the Iran nuclear deal.

Tehran will only immediately press that more than just the current “limited humanitarian” and medical goods can be purchased on the system, in accordance with fulfilling the EU’s end of the 2015 JCPOA — something which EU officials have promised while saying INSTEX will be “expansive” — while European companies will likely continue to stay away for fear of retribution from Washington, which has stated it’s “closely following” reports of the payment vehicle while reiterating attempts to sidestep sanctions will “risk severe consequences”.

Image source: DPA picture alliance

As a couple of prominent Iranian academics told Al Jazeera this week: “If [the mechanism] will permanently be restricted to solely humanitarian trade, it will be apparent that Europe will have failed to live up to its end of the bargain for Iran,” said political analyst Mohammad Ali Shabani. And another, Foad Izadi, professor at the University of Tehran, echoed what is a common sentiment among Iran’s leaders: “I don’t think the EU is either willing or able to stand up to Trump’s threat,” and continued, “The EU is not taking the nuclear deal seriously and it’s not taking any action to prove to Iran otherwise… People are running out of patience.”

But Iranian leadership welcomed the new mechanism as merely a small first step: “It is a first step taken by the European side… We hope it will cover all goods and items,” Iranian Deputy FM Abbas Araqchi told state TV, referencing EU promises to stick to its end of the nuclear deal. 

The European side also acknowledged it as a precondition to keeping the nuclear deal alive, which EU leaders sea as vital to their security and strategic interests: “We’re making clear that we didn’t just talk about keeping the nuclear deal with Iran alive, but now we’re creating a possibility to conduct business transactions,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters on Thursday. “This is a precondition for us to meet the obligations we entered into in order to demand from Iran that it doesn’t begin military uranium enrichment,” Maas said.

What is INSTEX?

  • A “special purpose vehicle” that will allow European businesses to trade with Iran, despite strict US sanctions.
  • According to media reports, INSTEX will be based in Paris and will be managed by German banking expert Per Fischer, a former manager at Commerzbank. The UK will head the supervisory board.
  • The European side intends to use the channel initially only to sell food, medicine and medical devices in Iran. However, it will be possible to expand it in the future. DW.com

Technically US sanctions allow some limited humanitarian trade and limited goods; however the White House’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran has still scared away European giants like Seimens, Maersk, Total, Daimler, Peugeot, Renault, and others.

This brings up the central question of whether skittish European countries will actually return to doing business with Iran, the entire purpose on which the new mechanism rests. The dilemma was summarized at the start of this week by outspoken Iran hawk Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who told the AP “The choice is whether to do business with Iran or the United States.” He warned, “I hope our European allies choose wisely.”

Thus far a number of analysts and observers have remained far less optimistic than the European sponsors of INSTEX. One particular interview with geopolitical analyst and journalist Luc Rivet, cited in Russian media, outlines the likelihood for failure of the new payment vehicle“I don’t know what companies will make use of that mechanism to sell to Iran,” Rivet said, noting that countries still consider it “dangerous” to be caught working with Iran.

Addressing the current restriction of INSTEX facilitating medical and pharmaceutical goods transactions, he continued:

Who produces this equipment? You think that Siemens will sell to Iran? Never, because they sell to America many other things as well… And Siemens is afraid of losing the American market.

No matter if a handful of companies resume or continue business with Iran he explained that an “incredible number of companies” won’t. He added: “It’s much easier for Chinese and Russian companies to make deals with Iran. The Europeans are scared in an incredible way. The companies are afraid by ricochet of being in the eye of the storm with the Americans.”

He concluded, “That’s very dangerous for European companies,” and repeated, “I don’t know anybody who will dare to go with this Instex system.”

And the New York Times in asking the same question But Will Anyone Use It? — concludes similarly that “given that most large companies have significant business in the United States, very few — if any — are likely to use the trading mechanism for fear of incurring Washington’s wrath.”

However, the test will be whether or not a steady trickle of small companies gives way to bigger companies. The NYT report continues:

But the financial mechanism could make it easier for smaller companies with no exposure in the United States to trade with Iran and could promote trade in medicine and food, which are not subject to sanctions. European diplomats say that, in the beginning, the concentration will be on goods that are permitted by Washington, to avoid an early confrontation.

But much could also depend on just how fierce the White House reaction will be. If the past months’ Trump administration rhetoric is any indicator, it will keep large companies scared and on the sidelines. 

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2D2WKO4 Tyler Durden

Mutiny Breaks Out At Venezuela’s Central Bank

While the world obsesses how much longer Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro can remain in power before he loses the support of the local military or the US deploys yet another “humanitarian mission” to depose him, forcing the embattled dictator to place several tons of the country’s gold on a cargo plane to a non-extradition destination as he takes one final trip abroad, the ongoing “soft coup” is also playing out within the halls of the central bank, where in addition to a lot of currency printing in recent years, Bloomberg reports that staffers are waging a small mutiny and refusing to sign-off on key bank transactions.

The Central Bank of Venezuela stands in Caracas

According to “four people with direct knowledge of the matter”, some central bank employees received early retirement offers Friday after disregarding orders from upper management. The mini mutiny took place as staffers fret about potential consequences and repercussions of signing off on certain operations that have been barred by US sanctions, and as discontent bubbles over as Venezuela’s economic and political outlook deteriorates.

As previously reported, attempts by Maduro to repatriate $1.2 billion of gold from the Bank of England and plans to ship 20 tons of the metal abroad for cash have been stymied in the past several weeks, bringing close international scrutiny to Banco Central de Venezuela’s $8.4 billion in reserves due to fears the Maduro regime may try to pillage them next, prompting a freeze on Venezuelan assets held in the US.

Meanwhile, National Assembly President Juan Guaido – who in recent weeks was declared the legitimate leader of Venezuela by the US and many Western states, if not Russia and China – has called on the military and government workers to abandon Maduro in order to help form a transition government. While few have heeded the call domestically, some diplomats have broken ranks at embassies and consulates in the U.S. and beyond. And now it appears that Maduro may have to staff the central bank with personally vetted supporters as well.

The good news, so to speak, is that with hyperinflation in Venezuela the central bank doesn’t really do much besides, well, print money (metaphorically that is – the actual money printing takes place offshore and the banknotes are shipped in using 747s). As a result, while central bank jobs were once highly sought after by educated Venezuelans with degrees in economics and statistics, rising political tensions and shrinking wages have reduced most teams to bare bones.

Ironically, protests among underpaid workers complaining about increased workloads have become increasingly common. Ironic, because as said above, the central bank no longer does all that much, and no longer publishes most economic data publicly after the executive branch clamped down on transparency amid Venezuela’s worst-ever economic downturn.

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2t1zxar Tyler Durden