Month: November 2014

Black Friday is the day when the trademark US consumerism takes center stage for its annual manic, full-frontal exposure around the globe. Here is what it looked like around the US…

People buying TVs

 

Thanksgiving Day shoppers line up to start shopping at a Target store in Chicago

 

People carry shoes in Macy’s during Black Friday sales in New York

 

Shoppers line up outside Best Buy before the store opens in Newport, New Jersey

 

People line up outside before the Toys R Us store opened in Times Square

 

Women try on shoes in Macy’s to kick off Black Friday sales in New York

 

Shoppers wait to enter Macy’s to kick off Black Friday sales in New York

 

A girl chooses an item from Disney’s Princess toy line up to purchase at the Toys R Us store in Times Square

 

A shopper carries a TV outside a Best Buy store in Newport, New Jersey.

 

Shoppers enter Best Buy as the store opens in Newport, New Jersey

 

People look in the window before the Toys R Us store opened in Times Square.

 

A girl poses with an Olaf plush toy from Disney’s Frozen toy line at the Toys R Us store in Times Square.

 

Thanksgiving Day shoppers ride an escalator while shopping at a Target store in Chicago

 

Thanksgiving Day shoppers carry televisions at a Target store in Chicago

 

A woman lines up outside before the Toys R Us store opens in Times Square.

 

Shoppers line up outside Best Buy before the store opens in Newport, New Jersey

 

A girl looks at items from Disney’s Frozen toy line at the Toys R Us store in Times Square.

* * *

… And not only, because other countries increasingly adopt the “best” of US traditions. Here is what happened in the UK earlier today:

Black Friday hops the pond: Shoppers compete to purchase retail items on “Black Friday” at an Asda superstore in Wembley.

 

Shoppers wrestle over a television as they compete to purchase retail items on “Black Friday” at an Asda superstore in Wembley, north London November 28

 

… And Brazil:

Here, shoppers crowd outside a store before it opens on “Black Friday” in Sao Paulo.

Photos: Reuters

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The French delivery of two Mistral ships to Russia may be postponed indefinitely (a move which ultimately would cost Hollande over $4 billion in contract breach penalty fees he simply can’t afford to pay), but that doesn’t mean the Russian navy has been hobbled or is hiding in the corner. To the contrary: according to the following tweet from the UK Ministry of Defense, Russia’s navy is getting quite bolder.

Four Russian ships escorted through Dover Strait from North Sea by @RoyalNavy HMS Tyne this morning. Ships have left UK waters.

— Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) November 28, 2014

What happened?

As Bloomberg reports, at least 4 vessels which departed the Russian Northern Fleet main base on November 20, led by anti-submarine ship Severomorsk, entered English channel for exercises that include anti-sabotage training, damage control in case of fire and water intake, state-run news service RIA Novosti says, citing statement from Navy.

Reuters confirms that a squadron of Russian warships entered the English Channel on Friday to hold exercises, RIA news agency reported, the latest apparent show of military might since ties with the West plunged to Cold War lows over Ukraine.

RIA quoted the Northern Fleet as saying its vessels, led by anti-submarine ship Severomorsk, had passed through the Strait of Dover and were now in international waters in the Seine Bay to wait for a storm to pass.

 

“While it is anchored the crew are undertaking a series of exercises on how to tackle … infiltrating submarine forces and are training on survival techniques in the case of flooding or fire,” RIA quoted the Northern Fleet as saying in a statement.

 

The Russian navy could not reached for comment and the Defence Ministry declined to comment on the report.

The Russian navy frigate Smolny is seen at the STX Les Chantiers
de l’Atlantique shipyard site in Saint-Nazaire, western France, November 25, 2014

Naturally, NATO – afraid of looking even weaker than it is – was quick to downplay the incident since a lack of retaliation would make the defensive alliance appear quite prone to “penetrations” by Russian forces:

France’s navy confirmed the location of the ships and said it was not unusual to have Russian warships in the Channel.

 

“They are not holding exercises. They’re just waiting in a zone where they can be several times a year,” said the French Navy’s information service.

 

Lieutenant-Colonel Jay Janzen, NATO’s military spokesman, also said the alliance was aware of the Russian ships’ location.

 

“Our information indicates that the ships are transiting and have been delayed by weather conditions. They are not exercising in the Channel, as some Russian headlines would have us believe,” he said.

And if they were “exercising” it would simply mean that NATO exercises in the Black Sea miles away from the Russian coast, are finally being met in kind by a Russia which with every passing day is making it clear its “concern” of western reprisal and retaliation to Russian actions, which in turn are a consequence of NATO expansion eastward, is increasingly negligible.

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• Oil Seen in New Era as OPEC Won’t Yield to U.S. Shale (BBG)
• Alberta Producers With World’s Cheapest Oil Face Cascading Woes (BBG)
• Bundesbank’s Weidmann Rejects Calls for German Stimulus Plan (WSJ)
• Google Should Be Broken Up, Say Euro MPs (BBC)
• Calm comes to troubled Ferguson; protests dwindle across U.S. (Reuters)
• Russia’s Banks Feel Capital Squeeze in Grip of Sanctions (BBG)
•  Italian Unemployment Rate Rises to Record, Above Forecasts (BBG)
• Hedge Funds Seek to Tie Up Money for Longer (WSJ)
• Laughing Hacker Who Hit Sony, FBI Now Seeks Legal Lols (BBG)
• China Motorists Exceed 300 Million as Cities Struggle (BBG)
• WHO advises male Ebola survivors to abstain from sex (Reuters)
• Why Italy’s stay-home shoppers terrify the euro zone (Reuters)
• Iron Caps Biggest Monthly Drop Since September as Supply Climbs (BBG)

 

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

* Two music publishers are taking aim at a new target in the battle against illegal song downloading: the cable industry. Wednesday afternoon, BMG Rights Management LLC and Round Hill Music LP sued cable giant Cox Communications Inc, claiming that Cox, which provides Internet service to millions, is deliberately turning a blind eye to illegal downloading by its subscribers. (http://on.wsj.com/15F673Y)

* Hedge-fund managers are increasingly persuading investors to lock up their money for longer – in many cases more than double the typical one-year period – and dangling lower fees to close the deal. (http://on.wsj.com/1vr7DyZ)

* European politicians are poised to approve a new generation of lower-cost rockets, partly in response to competition from U.S. launch providers, according to government and aerospace-industry officials on both sides of the Atlantic. (http://on.wsj.com/1xY2DEe)

* Manufacturers are taking matters into their own hands to patch up a weak spot of Thailand’s economy: its worsening shortage of skilled labor. A shrinking labor pool and inadequate training for workers are constraining business and industrial growth, investors here say. Now an increasing number of companies – many in the auto industry – are rolling out apprenticeship programs aimed at beefing up the workforce themselves. (http://on.wsj.com/1HJ21Xh)

* Europe escalated its war against U.S. technology superpowers as the Continent’s two largest economies and the European Parliament on Thursday backed fresh efforts to rein in the growing influence of companies such as Apple Inc, Facebook Inc and Google Inc. (http://on.wsj.com/1zZDYhv)

* Outbrain Inc, a provider of “native ads,” filed confidentially with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month seeking preliminary approval to list shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market, according to people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/1xXb1Uk)

* The financial crisis and its aftermath have revived interest in gold as a monetary policy instrument, especially in Europe, where central banks face public pressure to buy gold or bring back home what they hold overseas. (http://on.wsj.com/1vWk0pg)

* BAIC Motor Corp, a Chinese car maker partly owned by Daimler AG, is planning to start gauging investors’ interest next week in an initial public offering which could raise between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion in Hong Kong, a person familiar with the situation said. (http://on.wsj.com/1tx1blZ)

 

FT

Two senior executives, Kevin Grace, group commercial director, and Carl Rogberg, UK finance director, of troubled British grocer Tesco, left the company on Wednesday.

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is set to become the largest investor in Spanish builder FCC after agreeing to buy top shareholder Esther Koplowitz’s part of a $1.3 billion capital increase. This capital increase will leave Slim with a 25.6 percent stake in the company.

Deutsche Bank AG is winding down its physical precious metals trading business, it said on Thursday, moving to further scale back its exposure to commodities.

Director of Britain’s “Business for New Europe”, a pro-EU lobby group and a non-profit organisation, Alisdair McIntosh, is set to quit after less than a year in office.

 

NYT

* Oil cartel OPEC decided not to cut petroleum production, despite the plunge in prices in recent months that has indicated the diminishing clout of the organization. The price of Brent crude oil fell an additional $4 to a four-year low of about $73. American crude dropped below $70, an even more significant threshold. (http://nyti.ms/1vqEkwq)

* Europe’s resentment of the American technology giant Google Inc reached a new noise level as the European Parliament passed a nonbinding vote to break up the company. European fears of American technology giants have been stoked in the last 18 months by the revelations of Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, about American intelligence agencies’ spying activities and perceived easy access to the world’s tech infrastructure. (http://nyti.ms/120xXWO)

* A London high court judge has ordered Chris Hohn, founder of one of Britain’s largest and most successful hedge funds, to pay his former wife $531 million to settle their messy public divorce, according to statements made in court. The figure demonstrates the immense wealth Hohn has accumulated at the helm of the Children’s Investment Fund, known as TCI. (http://nyti.ms/1rB9PQy)

* Cheyne Capital, a $6 billion hedge fund based in London, plans to buy property it will then rent to organizations that deliver services like affordable housing, aid for the elderly or care through the National Health Service. (http://nyti.ms/1zBFfuq)

* Argentina’s tax agency accused HSBC Bank PLC of helping more than 4,000 Argentines evade taxes by placing their money in secret Swiss accounts. The head of the country’s tax agency said Argentine citizens had evaded about $3 billion in taxes. (http://nyti.ms/120UX8i)

* U.S. Bank, a division of U.S. Bancorp, is being accused of failing to engage with borrowers who missed payments. The legal action could mean fresh problems for other big mortgage banks, as well. (http://nyti.ms/1yiVs8p)

* Japan will follow the United States in forcing automakers to recall all vehicles containing potentially dangerous driver’s-side airbags made by Takata Corp. An order from the Transportation Ministry on the airbags would lead to the recall of an additional 200,000 vehicles in Japan. (http://nyti.ms/1zZHY1E)

 

Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** Canada’s energy sector faces the prospect of a lengthy downturn in oil prices and broad spending cuts after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said it did not intend to cut production – a move that sent crude prices and energy shares plunging. Investors immediately punished Canadian energy companies in reaction to the OPEC’s decision on Thursday to stand firm on its production plans, defying industry hopes for a cut. (http://bit.ly/1zCx9lo)

** It has been a long road to redemption for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, but the lender’s retail banking revamp is finally bearing fruit. For the first time in years, there is a buzz inside CIBC – a confidence instilled in its executives by early signs of above-industry-average growth. After years of lagging its peers, retail banking head David Williamson says he and other executives can’t help but feel a little swagger. (http://bit.ly/121HJIc)

** Patents are a key measure of a country’s ability to turn research into viable products, and Canada is slipping. Per capita patent filings in Canada have been on a steady decline since 2000, according to a study of more than one million applications to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office by the C.D. Howe Institute. (http://bit.ly/11AiBHC)

NATIONAL POST

** Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s Walmart Canada is expanding its ‘grab and go’ locker pickup system for online orders just in time for Christmas, beating Amazon Canada to the punch. Walmart began testing a locker system for web customers at 10 Toronto-area stores in August, offering it as an alternative to home delivery. It allows customers to pick up the goods at a locked unit with a personal PIN code tied to their order, thereby skipping cash register lines and in-store shopping time. (http://bit.ly/1v0D7NH)

** In his blogging about Canada’s hate speech laws, right-wing personality Ezra Levant defamed a young law student as a serial liar, a bigot and a Jew-hating “illiberal Islamic fascist,” bent on destroying Canada’s tradition of free expression, a judge has found. (http://bit.ly/1y7FLmW)

** Canada is sending a team of military medical specialists to Sierra Leone to help combat the spread of Ebola in that country. The government says up to 40 Canadian Armed Forces healthcare and support staff will be deployed to the West African country. (http://bit.ly/1vUeG6z)

 

China

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

– A cut in China’s reserve requirement ratio (RRR) is “imminent” after the central bank slashed interest rates last week, said Wen Bin, senior economist at Minsheng Bank.

CHINA BUSINESS NEWS

– The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, or China’s Cabinet, is seeking public comments on draft rules for the country’s social security fund.

– Balance in China’s margin trading accounts reached a record 800 billion yuan ($130.31 billion), the newspaper said, citing a report.

21ST CENTURY BUSINESS HERALD

– The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will soon release guidelines on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) regarding cooperation between local governments and social capital, said Ou Hong, an NDRC official.

CHINA DAILY

– The people of Hong Kong must respect Beijing’s jurisdiction over the region in order to smoothly implement the “One country, two systems” policy, the China Daily said in an editorial.

 

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Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has had an extremely busy past few weeks. After increasing the sales tax rate earlier this year which caused the GDP to contract by more than 7%, the Bank of Japan announced earlier this month it would step up its game and print money like never before. In a previous column we explained that Japan would print new money at twice the rate the USA was printing cash at the height of its quantitative easing program.

Even though Abe’s economic policy (called Abenomics) seemed to be working in the first phase of the implementation, the progress has stalled and Japan is now back in a recession again. This could be a huge indication that Abenomics is quite dead. In an attempt to resuscitate the policy, the huge money printing program has started and Abe has announced he would postpone a planned increase in the sales tax to 10% by 18 months years as the effect of another increase might have been devastating for the country’s economy. It was already quite weird for someone who wanted to increase the consumption pattern of the Japanese population to increase a sales tax (which obviously reduces the demand for goods) to get the country’s financial situation back in order.

Surprisingly enough, even though Japan’s economy is now officially in recession again Abe has called for new elections within the month. With Abenomics failing and the domestic economy tumbling back into recession, the central bank printing money like crazy leading to a severe depreciation of the Japanese Yen and an unpopular move to increase the sales tax from 5% to 8%, one would definitely not expect a democratic leader to ask the citizens of Japan to vote for him once again.

But Abe has effectively called for elections which will be held on December 14^th which is in less than four weeks from now, now that’s an electoral ‘Blitzkrieg’! It’s also quite easy to understand why the sales tax hike has been postponed as the prime minister needs to make himself popular with his citizens. But more than anything else, the elections were called to take the left side of the political landscape by surprise. As elections are a complete surprise for everyone, the left-wing parties haven’t organized and harmonized their opposition against Abe yet. On top of that, with such a short time frame before the elections it’s extremely unlikely the left side will actually be able to organize themselves and take up the glove Abe has dropped.

By adding this element of surprise, Abe just wants to secure another term in office despite his failing economic policy. As he’s a real politician, Shinzo Abe is still upbeat about Abenomics stating ‘it’s working’ but he seems to forget that even though the unemployment rate decreased and the company’s revenues increased, there still isn’t a noticeable increase in consumption and salaries. Realizing one out of three promises isn’t really what you’d call ‘passing’ the test. It’s also a very wise decision to ask the Japanese population for a vote of confidence before the newly-printed money will be felt by the man in the street through an increasing inflation rate.

Source

The ‘Abenomics -balloon’ is slowly deflating and Abe seems to want to secure his personal future before Japan’s economic situation deteriorates even further. The Japanese Yen has already lost 15% of its value in the past six months and with a failing economy and huge quantitative easing program we are expecting a further depreciation of the Yen. Meanwhile, the gold price in JPY has increased by almost 10% in the same six months, despite a 7.5% drop in the price of gold (expressed in USD). This once again emphasizes every decent investment portfolio should contain some gold and silver to protect yourself against sudden changes in the economic policy.

Our thesis seems to be confirmed as our research has indicated the total amount held in a physical gold ETF issued by Mitsubishi UFJ – “Fruit of Gold” – has increased exponentially since Abenomics went in full force, as can be seen on the following chart.

Source

The amount of gold is expressed in grams. So whereas this ETF had roughly 1 million grams of gold in 2010 ( 32,150 ounces), this increased exponentially and almost eightfolded in just a few years time. The vertical red line is the moment the Bank of Japan started behaving irrational and you can clearly see the interest to hold physical gold has increased since then. The smart Japanese have mobilized their money and invested it in physical gold to safeguard and protect their purchasing power. And they are right to do so!

>>> Check Out Our Latest Gold Report!

Sprout Money offers a fresh look at investing. We analyze long lasting cycles, coupled with a collection of strategic investments and concrete tips for different types of assets. The methods and strategies from Sprout Money are transformed into the Gold & Silver Report and the Technology Report.

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The biggest, and most market-moving, event overnight continues to be yesterday’s shocking OPEC announcement, which is still reverberating across the energy space as markets largely ignore European and Japanese inflation data which is once again sliding back dangerously fast, or Italian unemployment which rose more than expected, and joined France in hitting a new record high. As a result European shares remain lower, close to intraday lows, with the oil & gas and industrials sectors underperforming and telco and travel outperforming as oil continues its decline. EU inflation slowed in Nov. to 0.3%. Italian and Swedish markets are the worst-performing larger bourses, Spanish the best. The euro is weaker against the dollar. And while US equity futures are largely unchanged even as, or perhaps because, the world is screaming economic slowdown, bonds are finally getting the message with U.S. 10yr bond yields falling to only 2.20% as Japanese yields also decline.

Some more detail from RanSquawk:

European equities enter the North American crossover in negative territory albeit off their worst levels. The sole catalyst for price action thus far has been the fallout of yesterday’s decision by OPEC to refrain from altering their output ceiling. More specifically, the energy sector has naturally been substantially weighed on by the ramifications of yesterday, with the top 10 laggards in the Stoxx 600 all being from the sector, with the FTSE 100 feeling the squeeze with BP and shell notably lower, with the two Co.’s accounting for just over 12% of the index. Nonetheless, airliners have provided stocks with some modest reprieve as the lower energy prices will benefit the sector, although the implications for airliners are less substantial than those of oil producers. Elsewhere, in fixed income markets, Bunds opened at fresh contract highs, although now reside in relatively modest territory after failing to make a break above the 153.00 level. One thing to be aware of looking ahead, is that the lower energy prices are likely to filter through to global inflation prospects and thus could have further considerations on central bank policies, notably the ECB, with this also coming in the backdrop of the heightened expectations of a sovereign QE programme.

Market Wrap

• S&P 500 futures down 0.3% to 2067.1
• Stoxx 600 down 0.5% to 345.7
• US 10Yr yield down 5bps to 2.2%
• German 10Yr yield up 0bps to 0.7%
• MSCI Asia Pacific up 0.1% to 140.9
• Gold spot down 0.8% to $1181.5/oz

Bulletin Headline Summary from RanSquawk and Bloomberg

• The OPEC oil-slide continues to cause further turmoil for oil producers and commodity currencies, while lower energy prices provide airline names with some reprieve.
• Looking ahead, today’s calendar is exceedingly thin with ECB’s Weidmann due on the speaker slate, although volumes are expected to be surprised by yesterday’s US Thanksgiving Holiday
• Treasuries head for weekly gain amid well-received 2Y and 5Y auctions and as oil prices slide after OPEC refrained from reducing output at meeting yesterday.
• OPEC’s decision to cede no ground to rival producers underscored the price war in the crude market and the challenge to U.S. shale drillers
• Euro-area inflation slowed in November to match a five-year low, prodding the ECB toward expanding its unprecedented stimulus program
• Draghi yesterday said the ECB is open to buying a wide variety of assets for further stimulus as German and Spanish inflation data highlighted the struggle to revive the euro-area economy
• David Cameron raised the prospect of Britain leaving the EU unless fellow leaders agree to let him restrict access to welfare payments for migrants
• Rating companies say defaults in China will spread as the central bank’s interest rate cut will do little to stop a wave of maturities from worsening record debt downgrades
• China asked state-owned companies to investigate risks associated with commodity trading, said people familiar with the matter, as the government seeks to avoid losses amid a price slump for raw materials
• Brazil’s economy expanded 0.1% in 3Q, less than forecast, as the world’s second biggest emerging market recovers from recession
• Brazil’s Finance Minister-designate Joaquim Levy pledged to adopt more rigorous fiscal discipline without providing details on how he will reduce the country’s debt levels
• Sovereign yields mostly lower. Asian stocks gain; European stocks,  U.S. equity-index futures fall. Brent crude falls; WTI reached $67.75 yday, lowest since May 2010; gold and copper lower

FX

In FX markets, the notable focus has been on commodity currencies with the NOK reaching a 5 year low against the EUR, while CAD has continued its OPEC-inspired losses, with USD/CAD steadily approaching the 1.1400 level; should we trade above 1.1400 in the pair then the 6th of November 2014 high comes in at 1.1443 to the upside. Furthermore, the RUB has also felt the squeeze of lower energy prices and earlier printed a fresh record low against the greenback, with the USD broadly stronger after breaking above the 88.00 level during Asia-Pacific trade, which subsequently saw USD/JPY break above 118.00 overnight. EUR was provided a modest uptick as Y/Y CPI came in-line with expectations at 0.3%, although was not as low as some participants had feared. Furthermore, today is the last trading day before the results of the Swiss national gold referendum with results due on Sunday.

COMMODITIES

In the energy complex, as to be expected, yesterday’s OPEC decision has continued to take centre-stage with energy prices continuing to plummet lower and seemingly unable to find a floor, with analysts at Barclay’s suggesting that Crude prices to drop another USD 10/bbl before new floor is discovered. Elsewhere in metals markets, a strong USD capped any potential pullback in prices and also weighed on metals with COMEX copper, spot gold and spot silver all slipping to their 1-week lows. Elsewhere, Spot iron ore prices rose to around USD 70/ton overnight, boosted by Dalian iron ore futures rising for their 3rd consecutive day as investors covered short positions

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Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

When Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, they don’t know what they are celebrating.

In American folklore, Thanksgiving is a holiday that originated in 1621 with the Pilgrims celebrating a good harvest. Some historians say that this event is poorly documented, and others believe that the Thanksgiving tradition travelled to the New World with the Pilgrims and Puritans who brought with them the English Days of Thanksgiving. Other historians think the Pilgrims associated their relief from hunger with their observance of the relief of the siege of Leiden.

The Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving, if it happened, might not have been the first in the New World. Historians say the Virginia colonial charter declared a Day of Thanksgiving in 1619, and other historians say the first Thanksgiving was observed by the Spanish in Florida in 1565.

Apparently, the different English colonies and later American states each had their own day of Thanksgiving, if they had one. Abraham Lincoln tried to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, but the country was divided by the War of Northern Aggression.

Thanksgiving became a national holiday with the completion of the Reconstruction of the South after the War of Northern Aggression and the extermination of the Plains Indians by the Union generals in the 1870s. This taints Thanksgiving as a celebration of the preservation and expansion of the American Empire and accurately reflects the goal of the political forces behind Lincoln.

Today, Thanksgiving is simply known as “Turkey Day” and a time of retail sales. But as you eat your Thanksgiving meal, contemplate that what you are really celebrating is an Empire rooted in war crimes. If Lincoln had lost, and if there had been at that time a Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan would have been hung as war criminals.

Sheridan was probably the worst of the lot. His war crimes against the South, especially those he committed in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, must have been forgotten by Southerns who vote Republican, the Party of Lincoln and Sheridan. But Sheridan’s crimes against the Indians were worse. He attacked the Indians in their winter quarters, destroying their food supplies, and sent professional hunters to exterminate the Buffalo, declaring: “Let them kill until the buffalo is exterminated,” thus depriving the Plains Indians of their main food source.

Considering the enormity of the Republican Party’s crimes against the South, it is a testament to the forgetfulness of people that Southerners vote Republican. Sheridan expressed well the Republican attitude toward the South, declaring on several occasions that “if I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell.”

In the 1870s when Democrats won elections in Louisiana, Sheridan, who had power over the state, declared the Democrats to be bandits who would be subjected to his military tribunals.

Sheridan graduated near the bottom of his West Point Class, but his immorality and viciousness propelled him to the rank of Commanding General of the US Army. Today he would delight in the endless US bombings of women and children in seven countries.

Note: The War of Northern Aggression is the South’s description for what those dedicated to preserving the Union called the Civil War. The South’s term seems more correct. The Union forces invaded the South. A Civil War occurs when contending parties engage in violence for control of the government. But the Southern states were not contending for control of the US government; they exercised their right of self-determination and withdrew from the union into which they had voluntarily entered. It was an act of secession based in divergent economic interests between an export agricultural economy in the South and a rising industrial economy in the North in need of protective tariffs. The Southern secession was not an act of war for control over the government in Washington.

Unionists saw secession as a threat to empire. Another country could be a contender for the lands to the West. In his books, The Real Lincoln and Lincoln Unmasked, Thomas DiLorenzo makes a case that the War of Northern Aggression was waged in behalf of empire. He quotes Lincoln to the effect that he would preserve slavery if it would preserve the Union, and, if memory serves, DiLorenzo quotes Lincoln’s generals advising him not to throw a bone to abolitionists by saying it was a war to end slavery or much of the Union army would desert.

Today Americans think of themselves as citizens of the United States. But in 1860 people thought of themselves as citizens of states. When Robert E. Lee was offered a top command in the Union army, he declined on the grounds that he could not draw his sword on his native state of Virginia. Lincoln used the war to establish the supremacy of the central government in Washington over the states to which the Constitution had given most functions of government.

The supremacy of the central government that Lincoln established advanced the forces of empire.The “war to end slavery,” like the Iraq war to protect America from “Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction,” looks more like fictional cover for the employment of violence in pursuit of empire than a moral crusade.

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