Author: admin

In a stunning claim, Germany's Der Speigel reports that the US targeted Angela Merkel's private mobile phone for years…

• *MERKEL TOLD OBAMA TAPPING WOULD BE UNACCEPTABLE, SEIBERT SAYS
• *MERKEL COMPLAINED TO OBAMA ABOUT PHONE SURVEILLANCE: SPIEGEL
• *MERKEL DEMANDS FULL EXPLANATION FROM OBAMA, SPIEGEL SAYS

So Obama promptly complied:

• *OBAMA TOLD MERKEL U.S. NOT TAPPING HER PHONE, SPIEGEL SAYS

We await Snowden and Greenwald's clarification…

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/AF_0_GO-yZg/story01.htm Tyler Durden

In a “Sponsorship Agreement” between the Maryland Health Connection and the Ravens, Judicial Watch reports that the state (read taxpayers) will pay the Super Bowl champs $130,000 to push Obamacare on television, radio, the team’s official website, its newsletter and in social media. If Obamacare is the great thing that we are constantly reassured it to be, why are we seeing the administration feeling the need to constantly market, pitch, and sell the idea by any means possible (from keg standing college students to Superbowl shuffles)?

 

Of course, they may be on to something with this one…

 

Via Judicial Watch,

The professional football team that won this year’s Super Bowl is getting $130,000 from American taxpayers to promote Obamacare, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch this week.

 

The deal was secured on September 9 between the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL) and Maryland health officials. The White House has tried recruiting professional sports leagues—especially the NFL and the National Basketball Association (NBA)—to help promote the president’s healthcare law but they have declined.

 

In fact, the NFL confirmed months ago that it would not participate in the Obamacare public relations campaign, offering the media this written statement: “We have responded to the letters we received from members of Congress to inform them we currently have no plans to engage in this area and have had no substantive contact with the administration about [the health-care law’s] implementation.” Washington D.C.’s mainstream newspaper called it a “blow to the administration.”

 

But Maryland officials evidently appealed directly to the home team, announcing in early September that the Ravens would help market the state’s Obamacare exchange known as Maryland Health Connection. Both parties refused to offer specifics when the deal was initiated and Judicial Watch filed a Maryland Public Information Act request for details.

 

In a “Sponsorship Agreement” between the Maryland Health Connection and the Ravens, the state will pay the Super Bowl champs $130,000 to push Obamacare on television, radio, the team’s official website, its newsletter and in social media. This includes the Ravens Report Show on cable TV and a number of pre and post-game radio segments as well as Facebook and Twitter plugs.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/oOKPF8-WXRQ/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Which comes first, Dow 20,000 or Dow 5,000… and when?

 

Via Gordon T. Long,

DOW 20,000?

with Special Guest LANCE ROBERTS

Principal of STA Wealth Management

& Charles Hugh Smith & Gordon T Long

20 Minutes, 25 Slides

In Part I of this multi part series we ask Lance Roberts whether he sees DOW 20,000 or DOW 5,000 ahead, and when?

The economics and fundamentals overwhelmingly suggest the US equity market is now being driven solely by Federal Reserve liquidity injections.

The only way Lance can see DOW 20,000 is to see the market as being in stage 3 of a classic 'blowoff' market cycle:

• Phase 1:  What Bull Market?  Just A Bounce Before The Next Crash.
• Phase 2:  I Missed The Bottom So I Will Wait For A Pullback.
• Phase 3:  Market Is Going Up Forever, Just Get On And Ride.

He argues convincingly that Bull Markets don't start from these levels and with these market metrics. His Economic Output Composite Index supports this view.

Listen as Lance kicks-off this discussion with Charles Hugh Smith and Gordon T Long, who share their views as the three go around the table outlining out their respective views (Part II – Charles Hugh Smith and Gordon T Long).

 

 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/zNwRQA8_KLY/story01.htm Tyler Durden

When economic troubles strike, policymakers are eager to do something (anything) to try to help the citizenry. But, as Prof. Lawrence H. White argues in this brief clip, government doesn’t necessarily know how to relieve economic woes, and in fact, often wastes and mismanages resources. Individuals in the market know better what they need in their circumstances, as economist Friedrich Hayek argued during the Great Depression. Critically, he points out, relying on government to fix our economic woes instead of allowing individuals to make decisions for themselves means putting all of our eggs in one basket. Individual decisions in the market won’t be mistake-free, but each individual mistake will be smaller and will correct more quickly. The unusually slow and painful recovery that we have seen in this recession surely points to problems with the “government should do something” view.

 

“Who in his right mind would suggest, ‘do nothing’?”… hhmm

 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/TtQ_DM8vHNo/story01.htm Tyler Durden