Tag: finance

Submitted by Ronan Manly of Bullionstar Blogs

Following on from last month in which BullionStar’s Koos Jansen broke the news that Venezuela had sent almost 36 tonnes of its gold reserves to Switzerland at the beginning of the year, “Venezuela Exported 36t Of Its Official Gold Reserves To Switzerland In January“, there have now been further interesting developments in this ongoing saga.

It has now come to light that on Tuesday 8 March, the Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV) sent another 12.5 tonnes of gold by air freight to Switzerland (via Paris), and fascinatingly in this instance, the exact details of the transfer are already available, including the cargo manifest, courtesy of Venezuelan newspaper El Cooperante which broke the news on 11 March.

As per the January gold exports to Switzerland, which most likely were part of a gold swap to generate much-needed financing for the crisis-ridden Venezuelan economy, this latest shipment appears likewise.

Air France flight AF 385 and Brinks Switzerland

The BCV’s 12.5 tonne gold shipment was flown out of Caracas International Airport (Maiquetia Simon Bolivar) on Air France flight AF 385 to Paris, leaving at 5:49pm local time on Tuesday 8 March, and arriving into Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport at 7:54am on Wednesday 9 March.

FlightAware screenshot of Air France flight 385 on 8 March 2016 – Source: El Cooperante

The sender of the shipment was Banco Central de Venezuela, and the consignee (initial receiver) was Brinks Switzerland. Given that Brinks Switzerland was listed as the consignee for a flight arriving into Paris Charles de Gaulle at 8am, then there would have been a second flight from Paris to presumably Zurich in Switzerland which is the main destination airport for gold arriving into Switzerland. As giant Swiss refiner Valcambi says under Transportation Services, it provides “Import services and transportation from Zürich airport to Valcambi“.

The 3 immediate direct flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Zurich after 8:00am are Swiss Air flight LX 655 at 09:55, Air France flight AF 1614 at 12:55, and Swiss Air flight LX 639 at 15:05. Brinks has its operations centre headquarters in Zurich at Zurich Airport (and also a Geneva office at Geneva Airport).

The Cargo Manifest

The Cargo Manifest from Maiquetia Airport (Caracas International Airport) shows that the BCV’s gold shipment was described as ‘GOLDS BARS’, with tracking number 057-91145645, and comprised 12,561 kilos,  packed in 318 packets, which are listed somewhat surprisingly as being ‘caja de carton’ (which translates as cardboard box). Super-strong cardboard presumably.

Cargo Manifest for 12.5 tonnes of gold on Air France flight 285 from Caracas to Paris – Source: El Cooperante

If each bar weighed approximately 400 ozs, there would have been about 1,009 or 1,010 bars in the shipment. With 318 packets, and with 12,561 kgs = 403,845.53 troy ounces = 12.56 tonnes, then on average there were 39.5 kgs per packet (12561 / 318 = 39.5), which is a little but more than 3 bars per packet. But since gold bars can’t obviously be divided, then these gold bars may have been slightly larger US Assay Office bars weighing more than 400 ozs. Remember that the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) Good Delivery specification for gold bars ranges from 350 oz up to 430 oz. Alternatively, most of the packets could have contained 3 bars each and the remaining packets 4 bars each.

Air France has a web-based cargo tracking number website but unfortunately, it does not return any information on tracking number 057-91145645. See screenshot:

However, the Air France website doesn’t return any data on other known gold shipments of Venezuelan gold, for example Air France tracking number 057-53208470 from late 2011, which was actually displayed on Venezuelan TV (see below bar code).  Therefore, tracking information on gold shipments may not be publicly available for security reasons.

Some of the repatriated gold (inbound to Venezuela) was flown in on Air France in late 2011, tracking number 057-53208470

Swiss Refineries

It’s important to consider the extent to which this latest  BCV gold shipment may be scraping the barrel in terms of the BCV’s remaining unencumbered gold reserves. My theory at this stage is that the gold bars being sent to Switzerland are being sent to Swiss refineries to be refined into modern Good Delivery bars, and not to be refined into 1 kilo gold bars for the Asian market. This would be the case if all of the 160 tonnes of gold (in modern good delivery form) that had been repatriated during late 2011 / early 2012, was already in play (i.e. encumbered, under lien or claim or pledge).

This is assuming that the gold in transit are the gold legs of USD – gold swaps, whereby the gold is then held (and used) by a commercial bank counterpart or via some gold swap arrangement between the BCV and a commercial bank facilitated by the Bank for Settlements (BIS) in Basel. Furthermore, the legal wording of gold swaps would normally stipulate that gold held as part of a gold swap would need to be deposited into the gold vault of an institution such as the Bank of England, FRBNY, or the BIS’ storage facility at the Swiss National Bank etc.

Consider some facts about the BCV’s gold reserves and the gold swap activity and rumoured gold swap activity by the BCV in the recent past, using a reverse timeline:

• The BCV exported 12.56 tonnes of gold to Switzerland on 8 March 2016

• Venezuela (assumed to be the BCV) exported 35.8 tonnes (specifically 35.835 tonnes) of gold to Switzerland in January 2016 (from Swiss Customs Data)

• The BCV agreed a gold swap with Deutsche Bank in late 2015 (Reuters February 2016)

• Venezuela exported 24 tonnes of gold to Switzerland in 2015, nearly 35 tonnes in 2014, and approximately 8 tonnes in 2013, after exporting far smaller amounts in any of the 7 prior years (about 0-4 tonnes per annum over 2006 -2012). See chart from Nick Laird’s www.sharelynx.com below.

• The BCV had carried out gold swaps with the Bank for International Settlements ‘in recent years’, with up to 7 swap transactions (Reuters February 2016). These swaps would have to have used gold held outside of Venezuela, i.e. either at the Bank of England or using gold that was exported from Venezuela to Switzerland in 2013-2015

• The BCV shipped an unspecified quantity of gold out of Caracas airport to an international destination on 2nd, 3rd and 7th July 2015 (re-exported for pledging)

• BCV’s gold reserves fell by 60 tonnes over the period March – April 2015

(For the above 2 points see “Venezuela says Adiós to her gold reserves“)

• The BCV entered into a 4 year gold swap with Citibank (announced in April 2015). This Citibank swap most likely used the 50 tonnes of Venezuelan gold that had been left at the Bank of England in 2011.

• Venezuelan opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, had information in March 2015 that suggested the BCV was engaging in an even larger gold swap that the Citi bank swap: “¿Es cierto que estarían negociando una segunda operacion de empeño similar a la anterior por un monto aun mayor?“

(For the above points, see “Venezuela’s Gold Reserves – Part 2: From Repatriation to Reactivation“)

• 12,819 good delivery bars (160 tonnes) were repatriated to Venezuela in late 2011 / early 2012

• About 4,089 bars (about 51 tonnes) of Venezuela’s gold was left in London after the 2011/ 2012 repatriation

• There were 12,357 bars (about 154.5 tonnes of gold) held in the BCV vaults in Caracas before the gold repatriation started in late 2011. These bars that were originally in Caracas are mainly if not exclusively US Assay office bars since they were repatriated from the FRB in New York in the late 1980s

•  There were 25,176 bars (about 315 tonnes) in the BCV vaults when the repatriation to Caracas completed (in early 2012)

(For the above bar number quotes, see “Venezuela’s Gold Reserves – Part 1: El Oro, El BCV, y Los Bancos de Lingotes“).

Conclusion

Approximately 50 tonnes of BCV gold has been exported from Venezuela to Switzerland within the first 10 weeks of 2016. How much longer can this outflow continue? This gold is being exported by the BCV in order to participate in swaps (or maybe even outright sales) in order to provide external financing to the Venezuelan Government. The fact that the gold is being picked up by Brinks Switzerland suggests it is being brought to a Swiss gold refinery. The main reason gold is sent to Switzerland is so that it can be refined or recast.

At least 3 entities have been associated with this external financing so far, namely Citibank, Deutsche Bank and the Bank for International Settlements. Bullion banks and the BIS hold gold in long-term holdings in the form of Good Delivery Bars, and enter into gold transactions using Good Delivery bars, not kilobars. With 50 tonnes of Venezuela’s gold left behind at the Bank of England in 2011, there were only another 160 tonnes of gold bars at the BCV vaults that were not old US Assay Office bars. The gold now going from the BCV to Switzerland is, in my view, old US Assay Office bars. This would suggest that more than 200 tonnes of Venezuela’s gold is already in play, as well as the 50 tonnes from Q1 2016.

With the BCV being totally opaque about the real state of its gold holdings, and with the IMF / World Gold Council still reporting the fantasy that the BCV  / Venezuela holds 361 tonnes of gold in its official reserves,  some speculation is in my view acceptable, and the above information should go someway towards illuminating a truer state of Venezuela’s gold holdings, but what that true state of play is, only the BCV, Venezuelan Government and associated insider bullion banks and central banks know.

Note, that it’s also possible that Venezuela exported gold to Switzerland (or elsewhere) in February 2016. Swiss customs data, which shows (non-monetary) gold imports and exports, including de-monetised gold, is available each month but with a lag of 3 weeks. Therefore the February 2016 data is available on Tuesday 22 March, on the Swiss Customs website.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1pSX1dZ Tyler Durden

“The dollar rally is far from over,” Goldman’s Robin Brooks said, just hours before this week’s FOMC announcement.

“We expect the Fed to signal that it wants to continue normalizing policy, which means three hikes this year and four in 2017,” Brooks continued. “Overall, our sense is that the outcome will be more hawkish than market pricing.”

Yes, “a hawkish outcome” was on the way, which should have led directly to a DM monetary policy divergence the size and scope of which would be unprecedented in the post-crisis era. 

Our warning to the market: “Given the fact that i) Brooks’ calls are generally about as accurate as Gartman’s, and ii) Goldman is one for six so far on its Top Trades for 2016, you might want to go with the market’s view on this one to avoid getting the muppet treatment.”

A few hours later, citing growing risks to global financial markets, the FOMC delivered an exceptionally dovish decision, as the median forecast for 2016 rate hikes dropped to just 2 from 4 previously. Here’s what happened next: 

Apparently, the Fed’s dovish lean was part of a coordinated effort on the part of global central banks. Have a look at our annotated chart:

We also found a video:

Anyway, Goldman is apparently convinced that it’s not so much the bank’s forecast that was wrong, but rather the FOMC is simply mistaken in its projections about what it will itself eventually do.

As the bank’s chief economist Jan Hatzius explains, Goldman is “more confident than the FOMC that both wage and core price inflation have started to move higher,” and “therefore, [Goldman] continues to expect three Fed hikes this year,” not two.

Generally speaking, Goldman isn’t buying the whole global coordinated easing argument. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. Hatzius agrees that’s what’s been going on this month, but doesn’t think the Fed will be willing to play along for that much longer. Here’s Goldman on central banks’ collective effort to keep the spigots open and avoid the type of USD strength that suppresses commodities and adds to the deflationary impulse: 

One interpretation of the recent moves by the major central banks is that they represent a coordinated attempt to ease global financial conditions while avoiding upward pressure on the US dollar, especially against the Chinese renminbi. The FCI easing that has resulted from these moves is highly welcome in much of the world, and to some degree also in the US.

But the supposed relative strength of the US economy versus peers doesn’t support the Fed’s playing along in perpetuity: 

But the US economy’s stronger cyclical position compared with its peers is likely to keep this episode short-lived. We are more confident than the FOMC that both wage and core price inflation have started to move higher. And once the economy reaches full employment—we think late this year—further above-trend growth will become less welcome.

Here’s a look at the effect recent easing has had on Goldman’s DM FCI index: 

Yellen, Goldman imagines, was more than happy to contribute – this time: 

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

On March 3, Mitt Romney made a horrible mistake.

He got up in front of a crowd at the University of Utah and lambasted Donald Trump. “If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished,” Romney said. “If Donald Trump’s plans were ever implemented, the country would sink into prolonged recession.”

And that was the nice part of the speech.

Romney has thrown his hat – and voice – into the GOP melee as the party becomes more desperate to put the brakes on the Trump freight train. In what will almost certainly turn out to be an ill-fated effort to play party elder, Romney has inserted himself into a battle between Trump and the establishment and in case Mitt didn’t get the message, the establishment is on the ropes.

But Romney has another disadvantage when it comes to trading barbs with Trump. He lost the national election to President Obama in 2012. In other words, he’s a “loser.” And Trump hates losers.

Well, on Friday night, Trump was in Salt Lake City –  home to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ headquarters – for a characteristically raucous campaign rally that largely consisted of the frontrunner explaining how “great” everyone is, how great he is, and how unbelievably bad he beat the field last Tuesday. But it was Trump’s Mormon comments that stole the show.

Watch below as the billionaire – who appears to think that everyone in Utah is a Mormon – asks the crowd if they know how much he loves Mormons. Next, he calls Romney a “choke artist” before asking whether anyone has actually bothered to verify Romney’s Mormon credentials.

Donald Trump: “I have a lot of friends,… Mitt Romney is not one of them. Are we sure he’s a Mormon?” https://t.co/jP5Pet0Xu6

— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) March 19, 2016

And outside of the rally, poilce stood guard and did their best to keep the peace as angry protesters demanded the event be “shut down.”

BREAKING: ugly scene as trump protesters tear down security tent. Officers forcefully pushed back http://pic.twitter.com/VLEebqVUZA

— Peter Doocy (@pdoocy) March 19, 2016

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

Not everyone was delighted by Mario Draghi’s decision on March 10 begin monetizing corporate bonds: chief among them was Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann whose opposition to unorthodox monetary policies is well known, and whose “Northern Block” was among those voting against the ECB’s QE expansion (Weidmann himself was not among those voting last week). Of course, complaining about it does not mean stopping it, and for three years now the “Germans” on the ECB council have complained loudly even as the ECB is on track to double its balance sheet in the next few years.

And, as is customary, after every dramatic easing step by the ECB, Weidmann takes to the media to express his frustration with the ECB’s ever bolder attempts to recreate Weimar, something the German press has repeatedly made clear is not welcome:

 

According to Bloomberg, this time Weidmann preempted the next central bank step, namely helicopter money, and warned against starting a discussion about handing out cash to stimulate growth, Funke Mediengruppe reported, citing an interview.

“Helicopter money isn’t manna falling from heaven, but would rip huge holes in central bank balance sheets,” Weidmann, who heads Germany’s Bundesbank, said, according to the newspaper. “The euro area states and taxpayers would pay the bill in the end.”

Dear Jens: in case you have still failed to grasp the greatest stealthy wealth transfer in history, one from the middle class to the 1% rent-seeking financial oligarchy, that is precisely the point!

Weidmann, aware how the ECB’s game ends, warned that “instead of suggesting ever more reckless monetary policy experiments, it would make sense to pause,” Weidmann was cited as saying in German. “Monetary policy is not a panacea, doesn’t replace the necessary reforms in individual countries and won’t solve all of Europe’s growth problems.”

No, but it does kick the can so Europe’s dysfunctional governments, whose bonds would be trading with double digits yields if it wasn’t for the ECB’s backstop, can pretend all is well and avoid making any difficult decisions as they all know the moment the apple cart lans over there would be a groundswell in anti-establishment sentiment and the legacy status quo would be swept from power, something which would also impair the ECB, and Europe’s banking system. After just look at the “unprecedented” rise of Donald Trump.

Weidmann was also cited as saying he was not convinced on the whole by the measures the ECB announced this month. “I’ve always said the effect of ultra loose monetary policy gets weaker the longer it lasts. At the same time, the more you put your foot on the gas, the bigger the risks and side effects become,” Weidmann said.

Separately, Weidmann said he doesn’t think that eliminating the 500 euro note would “noticeably” reduce criminal activity. Such a move would also present a logistical challenge, he said, according to Funke.

It will indeed, however, if it means eliminating 30% of the physical European currency in circulation…

… a critical condition for even more unorthodox monetary policies  – it will happen.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1Zd9aXh Tyler Durden

For the fourth time this year and the second time in seven days, one of Turkey’s major cities has been hit with a deadly suicide bombing.

Just six days after an explosion ripped through a transit hub in Ankara’s Kizilay neighborhood killing 34 people and wounding more than 100, a bustling shopping street in Istanbul was shaken by a powerful blast on Saturday.

The death toll now stands at 5 and frankly, it probably would have been much, much worse had the blast come later in the day. “The attack took place on Istiklal Caddesi, a pedestrian street that was relatively quiet Saturday morning but is usually thronged with shoppers, strollers and buskers later in the day,” AFP reports. “The street, which adjoins Taksim Square in the European part of the city, was evacuated after the attack.”

The area is extremely popular with tourists. The TAK – the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons – have warned foreigners about supporting the country’s tourism industry which the group says feeds the Erdogan regime. 

“Tourism is one of the important sources feeding the dirty and special war, so it is a major target we aim to destroy,” the group said flatly, after last weekend’s bombing which was carried out by a 24-year-old female student and apparent TAK sympathizer named by the group as Seher Cagla Demir. “We warn the foreign and native tourists not to go to the tourist … areas in Turkey.

It wasn’t just the TAK warning tourists. The US embassy in Ankara cautioned American citizens that more attacks could be forthcoming ahead of Kurdish Nevruz.

CCTV caught the moment of Saturday’s blast:

Istanbul terror attack http://pic.twitter.com/APC3uSnLyt

— Malcolmite (@Malcolmite) March 19, 2016

Authorities say at least three dozen people were injured, seven of which are in critical condition. 

Source via @ValkryV http://pic.twitter.com/EZtjbf5mY7

— Michael Horowitz (@michaelh992) March 19, 2016

The Kurdish New Year (March 21) is expected to be a dangerous time in Turkey. Erdogan has stepped up the military siege on Kurdish enclaves in the southeast and the PKK and TAK have responded in kind. Cities like Cizre have been reduced nearly to rubble and look more like Aleppo than they do like Turkish urban centers. Erdogan is also irate about Syrian Kurds’ move to declare federalism on Turkey’s southern border. Here are images from the aftermath of today’s attack:

And here’s a Google street view, which should give you an idea of what kind of targets are being hit in Turkey. 

Expect either the PKK or the TAK to be blamed/claim the attack in fairly short order. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy and it was set in motion intentionally by Erdogan in the wake of last June’s elections. The more Kurdish-linked attacks there are, the more excuses Ankara has to crack down on the Kurds. 

The President will use this as still more evidence of why the definition of “terrorist” needs to be expanded, why Kurdish strongholds in the southeast must be kept under curfew, why HDP lawmakers should be stripped of their immunity, and, ultimately, why the powers of the presidency need to be expanded. 

It’s all very simple, you see. Don’t you get it now?…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1Piv83E Tyler Durden

A Boeing 737-800 operated by Dubai-based budget carrier Flydubai, flying from Dubai to Russia, crashed yesterday at 0340 local time (0040 GMT) on its second attempt to land at Rostov-on-Don airport on Saturday, Russian officials said. All 62 people on board, most of whom were Russian. were killed.

“The aircraft hit the ground and broke into pieces,” the Investigative Committee of Russia said in a statement on its website. “There were 55 passengers aboard and seven crew members. They all died.” Six of the crew were non-Russians, with LifeNews reporting citizens of Cyprus (captain), Colombia, Kirgizia, Russia, Spain (2) and the Seychelles were among the crew members.

“During the landing approach a Boeing-737 crashed. It had 55 passengers on board. All of them died,” a regional spokesman told TASS. “The plane, according to preliminary data, crashed during the second approach,” the source told Interfax.

Flydubai said in a statement that there were 44 Russians among the 55 passengers, eight Ukrainians, two Indians and one Uzbek. Four children were among the dead.

According to Reuters, both of the plane’s flight recorders have been recovered undamaged, the committee said in a statement. “Different versions of what happened are being looked into, including crew error, a technical failure and bad weather conditions,” the committee said. RT adds that according to the spokesman for the southern bureau of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Oksana Kovrizhnaya, there have been put forward two versions of the crash: “Pilot error in deteriorating weather conditions or a technical failure,” she said.

 A view shows the crash site of Flight FZ981

Flydubai’s CEO Ghaith al-Ghaith told a press conference in the Gulf Arab emirate that it was “too early” to determine the cause of the crash. “We will have information about the circumstances of the incident and the black box in the future, and an investigation is being conducted in cooperation with the Russian authorities and we are waiting to see the results,” Ghaith said.

The CEO added that he had no information to indicate that the pilot had issued a distress call and said both the pilot and co-pilot, a Cypriot and a Spaniard respectively, each had over 5,000 hours of flight experience.

As can be seen in the flight map below, the plane was in a mid-air holding pattern for about two hours and the crash occurred more than two hours after the plane, flight number FZ981, was scheduled to land.

Flight radar route of #FZ981 that crashed on landing https://t.co/bfeuoVdREn http://pic.twitter.com/QFVm3WKyX6

— RT (@RT_com) March 19, 2016

The plane came down inside the airport’s perimeter, about 250 meters (yards) short of the start of the runway. ITs wing hit the ground on its second attempt to land and burst into flames, the Rostov region’s emergency ministry said in a statement.

Dramatic, if grainy, footage from a security camera pointing towards the airport, which were broadcast on Russian television, showed a large explosion at ground level, with flames and sparks leaping high into the air.

 

According to the Flight Safety Foundation, there was strong wind with a speed of 12 meters per second, with gusts up to 19 meters, but visibility was reasonable. According to RT, flight FZ981 arrived in Rostov-on-Don at about 1:30am, but due to harsh weather conditions, strong side winds gusting at 25-30 meters per second, it spent the next two hours in the air, picking its moment to land. As FZ981 was cruising near Rostov-on-Don (ROV), several other flights opted for alternative airports, but the captain of FZ981 decided to wait for a chance to land at ROV.

The crash is the budget airline’s first since it started flying in May 2009. It last suffered a major safety incident when one of its planes was shot at while landing at Baghdad airport on Jan. 27, 2015.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered for assistance to be given to the relatives of those killed.

“The head of state said that now the main thing is to work with the families and the loved ones of those who had died,” the Kremlin said in a statement on its website. “The Russian president feels deeply for all those who lost their loved ones in the Boeing 737 crash in Rostov-on-Don,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Saturday, stressing that the president has made it a priority to provide all possible assistance to the relatives of the victims.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a probe into the incident with preliminary data indicating that the plane disintegrated and caught fire upon touching the ground. The head of the Emergency Ministry Vladimir Puchkov has held a special meeting, with all the ministry’s efforts, and resources of the local response teams and authorities, directed to the crash site.

There are over 700 response team specialists and about 100 special vehicles operating at the Rostov-on-Don Airport right now. Relatives of the victims are gathering at the airport, Vasily Golubev, governor of Rostov region, told media. He stressed that everyone will get sympathetic and personal attention.

Golubev said most of the Russian passengers were tourists. The governor said the weather conditions at the crash site are better than they were at nighttime, and though it is still raining, the wind has weakened and the well-equipped response teams will continue to work while there is light.

The last recorded conversation of the pilots of the crashed Boeing with Rostov airport dispatch is captured in the following recording.

 

More dramatic footage from the site of the crash below:

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1Mh9VN0 Tyler Durden

By EconMatters

Valeant Pharmaceuticals – need a ‘fix it” third party to come in stop the bleeding. Moreover, the current management team is stuck in the deer in headlights mode, and needs to start taking proactive steps to resolve the overhangs that our weighing down investor confidence on the street.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1Vmr3mg EconMatters

Submitted by Jake Anderson via TheAntiMedia.org,

A few years ago, the Center for Disease Control launched a zombie preparedness initiative that drew significant attention. The Department of Defense followed suit and developed an entire training course intended for the Joint Operational Planning and Execution System (JOPES). The complete response plan, called CONPLAN888, was recently declassified, and it’s just as weird and creepy as you might imagine.

The Black Vault posted two documents retrieved from the NSA using the Freedom of Information Act.

The purpose of the plan, according to the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), was to use a fictitious scenario to prepare for real-world emergencies.

“[The training focused on how to] undertake military operations to preserve ‘non-zombie’ humans from the threats posed by a zombie horde. Because zombies pose a threat to all ‘non-zombie’ human life (hereafter referred to as ‘humans’), USSTRATCOM will be prepared to preserve the sanctity of human life and conduct operations in support of any human population-including traditional adversaries.”

The objective of the three-fold plan includes the neutralization of zombies through “denial, deception, disruption, degradation or destruction,” though with the exception of ‘destruction,’ it is unclear what is meant by these terms with regard to fighting zombies.

Reading at times like the treatment to a campy science fiction script, CONPLAN888 categorizes eight classes of zombies:

1. Pathogenic zombies — Zombie life forms created after infection by a viral or bacterial contagion.
2. Radiation zombies — Zombie life forms created after infection from electromagnetic or particle radiation.
3. Evil Magic Zombies — Zombie life forms created by occult experimentation, or “evil magic.”
4. Space Zombies — Zombies that come from space or are created by extraterrestrial toxins (this also includes Zombie Satellites that could pose a threat to SATCOM services like DirecTV)
5. Weaponized Zombies — Zombie life forms engineered through bio-mechanical technology for the purposes of attacking another nation.
6. Symbiant-Induced Zombies — Zombie life forms created after the “introduction of a symbiant life form into an otherwise healthy host.”
7. Vegetarian Zombies — Zombie life forms that cause no threat to humans because they only eat plant life (could nevertheless “cause massive de-forestation or elimination of basic food crops essential to humans [rice, corn, soybeans])”
8. Chicken Zombies (yes, this is real)— Zombies that are essentially old hens that can no longer lay eggs. Farmers euthanize them with carbon monoxide and stack them in piles; however, some of the hens are still alive and crawl out. Though they ultimately die of organ failure, chicken zombies are “simply terrifying to behold” and are likely only to make people become vegetarians in protest of animal cruelty.

CONPLAN888 consists of multiple striking passages, given this is a government agency assessing a fictitious zombie uprising. More practical factors concern environmental issues such as groundwater contaminated with zombie pathogens.

Other, more ominous notes, include references to the government declaring martial law within the United States. There is also a reference to epidemiologic surveillance for the purposes of watching changes in disease vectors.

The government response to a zombie uprising unleashed by a nation-state, large corporation, or terrorist group includes the following additional measures: HAND SANITIZER, which, marketing materials say, kills 99% of germs (they note that hand sanitizer has never been tested on biohazard level 4 pathogens like ebola); and FIREPOWER TO THE HEAD (“the human brain will still be functioning in the zombie state, but it is universally agreed that the only part actually active will be the brain stem”).

The document’s assessment of zombies states that they are “undead and thus feel no pain or fear of death, (therefore) riot control counter-measures would be completely ineffective.”

CONPLAN888 references the books and articles The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z; An Oral History of the Zombie War, and “Zombie Chickens Taking Over California,” among others.

CONPLAN 8888 by JDStuster

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

Earlier this month, a reader noticed something rather disturbing. Piraeus Bank seemed to have added a new line item in one of its reports and that new line item appeared to suggest that the bank was set to charge customers for exchanging €500 notes for smaller bills.

And it wasn’t just Piraeus. Other Greek banks looked to be doing something similar.

Now it would be bad enough if this was just another example of banks making up for lost margins by passing ZIRP and NIRP onto customers via fees or if this were simply Greek banks being forced to squeeze a little extra out of their retail business because they are still wholly insolvent. But it’s the timing of these new exchange taxes that raises eyebrows.

Remember, reports began to circulate earlier this year that the ECB was considering doing away with the €500 note. That was distressing news for many Greeks who last year, fearing the troika may one day threaten to essentially confiscate their savings (again), eschewed the bank in favor of the mattress. Obviously, much of that mattress money is denominated in €500 notes – notes which Draghi is now set to phase out.

Upon hearing the news, “many in Greece – especially older people – rushed to deposit the money in their accounts,” eKathimerini wrote last month, adding that “bank officials say depositing the 500-euro notes at a bank is the only way for people to rid themselves of them without losing the money, as it is not possible to exchange them for smaller notes.”

Or at least it wouldn’t be once they’re taken out of circulation, but in the meantime it is possible, and as it turns out, Greek banks are indeed doing precisely what we suspected they were doing: they’re charging to exchange the €500 notes for smaller denominations.

Here’s eKathemirini again:

Banks collect a commission of 1.5 percent on average when changing 500-euro bills for notes of lower denominations, citing the administrative costs of keeping their branches stocked with notes of smaller value.

 

When exchanging one 500-euro note for smaller bills, the charge is 3-5 euros (depending on the bank), while the maximum charge comes to 200-250 euros regardless of the amount a customer wishes to exchange.

Right. Greek banks need to offset “the administrative costs of keeping their branches stocked with notes of smaller value.” Normally that would translate roughly to this: “we need to offset the administrative costs of being a bank,” but because this is Greece, the banks get to blame the ECB and Brussels: 

In response to criticism about the commission they charge, banks counter that the administrative cost of supplying their branches around the country with smaller banknotes is unusually high at present with the capital controls still in place and a 420-euro cap on the weekly amount that can be withdrawn in cash.

It’s not immediately clear why that makes sense, but we’re sure they’d have an answer should anyone care to ask.

As eKathimerini continues, “people started going to banks to exchange top-denomination euro bills after it was reported that the European Central Bank intends to withdraw them as a measure against money laundering.” So if you are Greek and you were effectively forced to take your money out of the bank because after last summer you feared a depositor bail-in might be right around the corner, you now have the distinct pleasure of having to pay a fee to exchange your large bills for smaller ones at the very same banks where you withdrew the money in the first place. But that’s all part of living in a debt colony of Germany we suppose.

The question now is how long before banks in countries that aren’t Greece adopt the very same fees? And what will their excuse be? Does the ECB really intend to to allow banks to make a profit off of the gradual phasing out of physical bank notes?

There’s no fee in Greece, of course, if you simply deposit the €500 notes in your account. Just like they’ll be no fee when the final push to a cashless society begins and everyone is forced to turn in all their physical money in exchange for 0s and 1s on a computer screen. Or at least they’ll be no initial fee. But trust us, you’ll pay later when the economy starts to slow down and, without the option of resorting the physical cash, you’ll be forced to choose between swiping your debit card or seeing the bank confiscate a portion of your deposits once central banks cut rates to -20%.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1S98Tl6 Tyler Durden

Submitted by Robert Gehl via DownTrend.com,

An Illinois college has reversed its position and will allow students to pass out copies of the U.S Constitution on campus.

It’s a good move, since the Alliance Defending Freedom threatened to sue them if they didn’t.

Under the old policies, students were threatened with arrest if they passed out the founding documents on the campus of the College of DuPage.

The exchange between a police officer and student Joseph Enders, captured on video, shows the officer telling Enders that, under campus policies, he needs a permit to offer the Constitution to passing students.

The revised policies respect the constitutional freedoms of students by allowing them to pass out literature in outdoor areas of campus without prior permission, as the old policies required.

“It makes no sense for a public college to censor distribution of the very document that ensures free speech for all Americans,” said ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer. “The college has done the right thing in revising its policies so that the school can once again function as the marketplace of ideas that an institution of higher education is supposed to be.”

 

Enders, a political science major, has been working to start a Turning Point USA chapter at the college. TPUSA is a non-partisan student organization dedicated to promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government. He was standing on a campus sidewalk, handing out copies of the Constitution and asking fellow students if they would be interested in joining the group, when he was approached by the officer, who stated that his actions were against school policy and that he would have to go to the Student Life office to acquire a permit for his activities.

 

“The First Amendment does not tolerate this blatant suppression of speech,” ADF wrote in its letter to the college on behalf of Enders in October of last year. “The College’s…policy is unconstitutional because it requires prior permission before students are allowed to exercise their First Amendment rights, and it grants unfettered discretion to College officials in determining whether to grant permission to speak. To its credit, it is my understanding that the Board indicated that it would be reviewing and revising the College’s policies to ensure that they no longer restrict the First Amendment rights of students on campus.”

 

In response to the ADF letter, the college invited Langhofer to attend a meeting of the Board of Governance “to make a presentation concerning free speech policies at public universities.”

 

“With these changes, the college has taken a big step towards truly being a marketplace of ideas, where students of all different backgrounds and beliefs will be free to communicate their opinions and ideas without fear of censorship or punishment,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Hacker. “We hope that other colleges will follow DuPage’s example and ensure that the constitutionally protected freedoms of their students are thoroughly protected.”

Still…

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