Month: December 2014

 

Jeff Neilson for Sprott Money

 

 

It was recently reported in the news that Walmart is engaged in a(nother) “food drive” to help feed the needy. Isn’t that nice? Well, it would be, if it weren’t for the fact that the “needy” in these food-drives are its own employees. “Let’s succeed by donating to associates in need,” says the sign in an Oklahoma Walmart.

 

The dictionary defines “associate” (in this context) in two ways:

–   A partner or colleague in business or at work.

–   A person with limited or subordinate membership in an organization.

 

 

There is no doubt which definition applies to Walmart’s “associates”. It’s hard to get more “subordinate” than to work all day, and still need hand-outs to make it to the end of each month. The word that really describes (most of) the workers at Walmart (and most of all the workers in our societies) isn’t “associate” or even “employee”, but rather serf.

 

Merriam-Webster defines “serf” for us:

 –   A person in the past who belonged to a low social class and who lived and worked on land owned by another person

 

 

The only thing faulty about that definition is the need to erase the phrase “in the past”. The fact that the serfs of Walmart “belong to a low social class” (through no fault of their own) is indisputable. North American societies are now unequivocally divided into the “have’s” and “have-not’s”, with a microscopic demographic in between – the nearly-extinct “Middle Class”.

 

 

 

 

For the Privileged (especially those near the very top); life is a never-ending gravy-train. Their incomes soar higher and higher and higher – at a rate never before seen in our society. Their wealth soars higher and higher and higher – at a rate never before seen in our society.

 

 

Should they lose their pampered positions through sloth, or incompetence (or anything short of direct, criminal conduct); they are rewarded with a Golden Parachute. These rewards given to the Privileged for their failure often exceed the entire, lifetime income for the Serfs. And then after failing; the Privileged are (almost always) handed another Silver Spoon position – where once again it is immaterial whether they are either competent or productive.

 

 

Conversely; life for the “low social class”, the Serfs, is entirely opposite in every respect. Their standard of living falls lower and lower and lower – having collapsed by more than 50% since 1970 (when the Nixon regime assassinated the gold standard). Their wealth/possessions fall lower and lower and lower. Only their debts keep going up and up and up.

 

 

 

The median (nominal) income in the United States is approximately $27,600, or roughly $12/hr. The term “median” means that half of all American incomes are higher, and half are lower. That nominal income level is virtually unchanged over the past decade. Meanwhile the cost-of-living has soared higher (particularly food and housing costs), the same “inflation” which the lying politicians, lying central bankers, and lying media tell us does not exist – hundreds of times each day.

 

 

And that is how life is for the lucky Serfs. For the unlucky Serfs (over 50 million in the U.S. alone), they are not even given the opportunity to “work on land owned by another person” – for their slave wages. Those 50+ million are all unemployed; with millions of them having descended to a socio-economic class even below the Serfs: the Homeless.

 

 

The lying politicians, lying bankers, and lying media tell all of the Serfs and the Homeless that this is “the New Normal”: their lives are supposed to get worse and worse and worse every year (while the lives of the Privileged get better and better and better). There’s “no money” to pay the Serfs a fair, livable wage claim the corporate Robber Barons.

 

 

Another lie. While Serf incomes remain permanently frozen (and their standard of living spirals relentlessly lower); corporate profits for U.S. corporations have more than doubled since 2000. This isn’t “normal”; it’s simple, economic rape: the Rich stealing from the (Working) Poor day after day, every day or their lives. How successful have they been with this stealing? The “Poor” used to be the Middle Class.

 

 

How is the situation in Canada? Even worse, thanks to Stephen Harper. The median wage in Canada is virtually identical to the median wage in the U.S. However, when Harper (and his hand-picked Loonie Assassin, Mark Carney) came to power; the first thing he did (right after breaking his promise on “income trusts”) was to begin to destroy the value of the Canadian dollar.

 

 

His gross economic mismanagement, and Carney’s deliberate sabotage of the Canadian dollar caused our currency to quickly lose nearly 30% of its value versus the U.S. dollar. It went from being worth more than 15% more than the USD to being worth more than 12% less. In other words; the standard of living for Canada’s Working Poor majority has gone from being 15% higher than the Working Poor of the U.S. to being 12% lower than them.

 

 

Understand that the standard of living for Canadian Serfs during Stephen Harper’s eight years of abuse-of-power hasn’t merely fallen by 25%. It has fallen by 25% more than the plummeting standard of living for American Serfs. When Harper assumed power in 2006; Canada’s economy was the envy of the entire Western world. Now it lies in ruin.

 

 

North American politicians, our representatives, don’t simply endorse this economic rape of our previously prosperous societies. They go out of their way to deceive us, in order to defend this corrupt status quo for the oligarchs they serve.

 

 

They produce fraudulent/falsified economic “statistics” (which are bereft of even the tiniest degree of legitimacy) in order to attempt to hide this economic rape from their own populations. With respect to all the signs of this economic oppression which these Traitors can’t hide with their lies; they pat the Serfs on the heads, tell them this is all “normal” – and then order them to shut-up, and get back to serving the Privileged.

 

 

More specifically; we all serve the rapacious financial parasites whom readers now know as “the One Bank”. It is this cabal which has planted traitors like Stephen Harper and Barack Obama (and George Bush Jr., before him) on the thrones of these now-feudal societies. It is this cabal which pulls the strings of these political puppets, commanding them to lie, cheat, and steal from the very people they are (supposedly) sworn to serve.

 

 

There is much more wealth in our societies today than in the “prosperous” 1960’s, the zenith of the Middle Class in North America. Where is all that wealth? Stolen, and hidden, in the vaults of the One Bank.

 

 

All that those parasites have, we earned. Sadly, after decades of relentless brainwashing by the Corporate media (merely one of the One Bank’s economic tentacles); the Serfs of North America – who only one generation earlier were Middle Class citizens – now believe that they deserve to be serfs.

 

 

Our salvation, ironically, will only come once the One Bank has completed its economic rape of our societies. When our Serf-majorities are not merely poor and oppressed, but begin to starve (like the Homeless); then and only then will enlightenment begin to spread.

 

 

The endless lies/brainwashing by the thieving bankers, traitor politicians, and corrupt media will not be able to feed the hungry stomachs of the Serfs. Then and only then; the Serfs will open their eyes – and begin to look for where all their wealth (and food) has disappeared. Then and only then; the Serfs will discover the wealth-hoards of these oligarchs: mountains of money far, far greater than any hoards ever accumulated by any other tyrants of humanity.

 

 

All of these hoards of wealth are stolen, via the illegal manipulation of markets, or blatant, criminal, frauds. All of it belongs to the Serfs. Hundreds of years of history tell us that at that point “justice” will be meted-out via the guillotine, or similar instrument of socio-economic retribution. It’s time for the Serfs to start sharpening some blades…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1wcedfz Sprott Money

Did Icahn just cover? Cramer’s view: “that’s silly” And no – there’s no catalyst – this is your most liquid efficient stock market in the world at work…

 

 

and close-up

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1wcedfm Tyler Durden

After last night’s big flush across commodities, they have rallied notably. Gold is now up over $50 from those lows, with Silver, copper, and even crude bouncing hard (after testing below $64 overnight). The USD is notably weaker, stocks lower, and bond yields testing mid-October flash-crash Bullard lows…

 

Gold dumped and pumped

 

and the rest of the commodity complex bouncing hard this morning

 

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1vJuaqW Tyler Durden

Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

The correlation between gold and the national debt was clear for 13 years. It made perfect sense in a free market. You can’t print more gold. It is a relatively scarce metal that has represented wealth for centuries. Fiat currency can be printed at will by corrupt bankers and politicians. Every paper currency ever created eventually reached its intrinsic value of ZERO, as human beings always take the easy way in attempting to create wealth.

 

 

So what happened in 2013? The national debt has gone from $16.5 trillion to $18 trillion, but the price of gold has dropped from $1,750 to $1,200. Is gold no longer a store of value? Is creating $2.5 billion per day in new debt now the path to long term prosperity and wealth accumulation? If gold is no longer insurance against the corrupt machinations of bankers and politicians, then why are China and Russia accumulating as much physical gold as they can get their hands on?

There seems to be only one logical explanation for the abrupt break in the correlation between gold and the national debt. The free market has been manipulated to artificially suppress the price of gold. A rising gold price reveals the inflationary monetary policies of the Fed and the outrageous spending of politicians. The Fed and their owners on Wall Street, with the approval of their captured political hacks in D.C., are using the paper markets, derivatives, and lack of market transparency to keep the price of gold from rising.

The bankers are winning for now. Can they suppress the price of gold forever? Can they prop up the stock market forever? Does history provide even one example of a fiat currency that did not ultimately reach its true intrinsic value?

Are you going to bet on Grandma Yellen or gold?

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1pGVG8W Tyler Durden

With the apparent goal of ‘protecting civilians’ from ISIS and Syria’s al-Assad, the US and Turkey appear to be close to agreeing on the creation of a no-fly-zone along a portion of the Syrian border. As WSJ reports, U.S. and Turkish officials have narrowed their differences over a joint military mission in Syria that would give the U.S. and its coalition partners permission to use Turkish air bases to launch strike operations against Islamic State targets across northern Syria. The no-fly-zone would provide sanctuary to Western-backed opposition forces and refugees. As Bloomberg notes, this is a significant reversal of Obama’s earlier policy (fearing it would be a significant strain on the U.S. Air Force and put fliers in mortal danger) pushing US closer to outright proxy war with Russia via direct confrontation with al-Assad’s airforce. 

 

As WSJ reports,

U.S. and Turkish officials have narrowed their differences over a joint military mission in Syria that would give the U.S. and its coalition partners permission to use Turkish air bases to launch strike operations against Islamic State targets across northern Syria, according to officials in both countries.

 

As part of the deal, U.S. and Turkish officials are discussing the creation of a protected zone along a portion of the Syrian border that would be off-limits to Assad regime aircraft and would provide sanctuary to Western-backed opposition forces and refugees.

 

U.S. and coalition aircraft would use Incirlik and other Turkish air bases to patrol the zone, ensuring that rebels crossing the border from Turkey don’t come under attack there, officials said.

 

Turkey had proposed a far more extensive no-fly zone across one-third of northern Syria, according to officials. That idea was, however, a nonstarter for the Obama administration, which told Ankara that something so invasive would constitute an act of war against the Assad regime.

Which the US could never admit to – putting the US in direct conflict with al-Assad’s airforce and thus engaging the proxy war with Russia.

As Bloomberg adds,

Ever since the Syrian civil war broke out in early 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama has resisted calls from Congress to establish a no-fly zone in the country. Now we have learned that one of Obama’s top envoys is negotiating just such a plan with Syria’s neighbor Turkey.

 

The new proposal would be called an “air-exclusion zone,” a buffer area inside Syria along the Turkish border that would be manned by Turkish troops and protected by U.S. air power, according to three senior U.S. officials who have been briefed on the discussions. The goal would be to give some Syria rebels and civilians protection from both Islamic State and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Syria through the zone. The idea was last floated in 2012 by the French government, and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was reported to support it at that time.

 

John Allen, the retired Marine general who is the Obama administration’s lead coordinator for the international coalition against IS, discussed the air exclusion zone with high ranking Turkish officials during his trip there earlier this month, according to these three officials.

 

If Obama approves the plan being negotiated by Allen, it would mark a reversal from his earlier policy. Since 2012, the White House has resisted calls from both parties in Congress to establish such protected areas in Syria, in part because it would be a significant strain on the U.S. Air Force and put fliers in mortal danger. But the White House has also been wary that a no-fly zone could drag the U.S. into a shooting war with the Syrian regime at the very moment it is trying to wage a war against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, two groups that have also fought the regime.

 

“You can’t have an exclusionary zone and not be in conflict with the regime,” said a former Obama administration Pentagon official who worked on the Middle East. “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”

 

…

 

“Ultimately, I’m not sure this division of labor between sectarian rebels against ISIS but not against the regime is sustainable,” he said. “Ultimately if we are going to arm a moderate rebel force, we are going to have to protect them. That means if the regime goes after them, we are going to have to take the necessary steps to protect them.”

*  *  *

We can only imagine the quid pro quo Kerry had to offer to get Erdogan in on the deal given his recent strong anti-American rhetoric. However, the crucial point is Obama’s reversal and more explicitly aggressive stance against al-Assad that will likely warrant a Russian response (in words or deeds).

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1rMlCRC Tyler Durden

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Given the presumed 17% expansion of the global economy since 2009, the tiny increases in production could not possibly flood the world in oil unless demand has cratered.

The term Black Swan shows up in all sorts of discussions, but what does it actually mean? Though the term has roots stretching back to the 16th century, today it refers to author Nassim Taleb's meaning as defined in his books, Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets and The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable:

"First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility.

 

Second, it carries an extreme 'impact'.

 

Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable."

Simply put, black swans are undirected and unpredicted. The Wikipedia entry lists three criteria based on Taleb's work:

1. The event is a surprise (to the observer).

2. The event has a major effect.

3. After the first recorded instance of the event, it is rationalized by hindsight, as if it could have been expected; that is, the relevant data were available but unaccounted for in risk mitigation programs.

Every sustained action has more than one consequence. Some consequences will appear positive for a time before revealing their destructive nature. Some will be foreseeable, some will not. Some will be controllable, some will not. Those that are unforeseen and uncontrollable will trigger waves of other unforeseen and uncontrollable consequences."

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1rMaUuF Tyler Durden