Tag: finance

Towards A ‘Google World Order’?

Submitted by InsideSources via Valuewalk.com,

Government watchdogs and outside experts have long warned that Google had unprecedented and unfiltered access to the Obama White House, which has been a major beneficiary of Google’s massive campaign coffers.

Now, for the first time, two key parts of that entangled relationship, the extensive White House visits and revolving door between Google and the Obama administration, have been documented by the Campaign for Accountability and the Intercept, an investigative news outlet.

“It’s a relationship that bears watching,” Anne Weismann, the head of the Campaign for Accountability told the Intercept. Weismann’s group is starting a project that will bring more attention to Google’s role in Washington. Their joint findings are a vivid reminder of Google’s growing influence in Washington, DC.

From the start of his first term until last October, Google officials met in the White House with Obama administration officials once a week on average for a total of 427 visits. More than 180 White House officials attended those meetings. No other public company comes even close to that many White House visits.

(click image for link to interactive version)

A senior Google lobbyist visited the White House 128 times over that time period. Far more than any other lobbyist from major companies.

Close to 250 Google employees or government officials have travelled through the Google/Obama administration revolving door. Either from Google to the government or the reverse. There were 55 cases of Google officials coming to work for the federal government and 197 cases documented of government employees going to work for Google.

(click image for link to interactive version)

The massive increase in access to the upper echelons of the federal government has corresponded with the loosening of Google Inc. and its employees’ campaign contributions and lobbying purse strings. A few years back Google paid virtually no interest in Washington. In 2015, it spent $16.7 million lobbying, according to opensecrets.org, and it gave President Obama more than $800 thousand during his last presidential campaign.

It is still not precisely clear what Google gets in return, but watchdog groups claim it is plenty. Jeff Chester, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Democracy told the Intercept that “Google has been able to thwart regulatory scrutiny in terms of anti-competitive practices, and has played a key role in ensuring that the United States doesn’t protect at all the privacy of its citizens and its consumers.”

…

Read the full story here at The Intercept…

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The Canary In Canada’s Real Estate Mine Just Died: Toronto’s Urbancorp Files For Bankruptcy

Less than two weeks ago we documented that Toronto based Urbancorp, one of Canada’s largest residential developers, was having significant issues. Its attorney’s had taken the highly unusual step of terminating their contract, it hadn’t released 2015 financials due to the audit committee having “open issues and questions”, and most intriguing, a board member quit just two weeks after being appointed specifically to provide expertise in accounting.

For those unfamiliar with the company, Urbancorp was launched in 1993 by Alan Saskin, a former Cadillac Fairview executive, and has built dozens of condos and other housing developments in the Greater Toronto Area. This is how it describes itself on its website:

Urbancorp is proud to have created some of the most visionary home and condominium communities in the GTA.

 

As the premiere developer of the King West neighbourhood, Urbancorp transformed the old industrial lands of King Street West into the vibrant residential community of King West Village, including Bridge, Fuzion and ,the latest, Kingsclub Condominium. In the West Queen West neighbourhood, Urbancorp built Westside Gallery Lofts, Curve and, most recently, Edge and Epic on Triangle Park.

 

Urbancorp has built thriving new communities in other up-and-coming Toronto neighbourhoods. The Neighbourhoods of Queen Street East is comprised of three stunning new home communities along the Queen Street East corridor. With locations in Riverdale, Leslieville and The Beach, The Neighbourhoods of Queen Street East bring a fresh, modern vibe to the urban renaissance currently underway in Toronto’s east end.

And while the Greater Toronto Area may not be exactly Vancouver (where the real estate situation is getting more outlanding by the day), the local housing market has been consistently portrayed as sufficiently resilient and an indication of Canada’s economic stability.

But perhaps it isn’t, because late last night we learned that Urbancorp has filed for bankruptcy.

The filing which is seeking court approval to sell assets “to maximize real estate values for the benefit of creditors and other stakeholders,” came just four months after the company issued roughly $48 million in debt traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and eight months after reportedly taking out at $225 million loan. To the best of our knowledge, the company failed to pay interest on its new debt even once (also known as a NCAA or No Coupon At All). As The Globe and Mail reports, several contractors have registered construction liens against a project in Toronto’s Leslieville neighborhood, and there are many lawsuits pending against the corporation as a result of contractors and brokers not being paid.

“We determined, after much consideration and consultation, that a court-supervised process is the best way to deal with current cash flow issues. This will allow us to reduce debt in an efficient manner while continuing to focus on our core business.” CEO Alan Saskin said in a statement.

Ironically, in filings with the Tel Aviv securities commission late last year, Urbancorp presented itself as a top ten developer with a “AAA credit rating.” Come to think of it, that’s Canada’s credit rating too…

Urbancorp has more than 1,000 homes under construction in the Toronto area, and the restructuring is meant to ensure the successful completion of those homes.

However, new projects may be a different story. As Bloomberg points out, government regulator Tarion Warranty Corporation has proposed to revoke Urbancorp’s registration. If the registration is ultimately revoked, it would mean that the company wouldn’t be able to build properties. An appeal has been filed.

From Tarion

Tarion has issued a Notice of Proposal (NOP) to revoke the registration of 17 Urbancorp related companies.  As the Registrar, Tarion has a duty to protect new home buyers by requiring builders to adhere to certain requirements in order to obtain registration, and ensure they continue to abide by ongoing obligations under the Act in order to maintain their licence.  The decision to issue this NOP was made due to the builder’s failure to meet Tarion’s ongoing registration requirements.

 

As with all builders who are issued an NOP by Tarion, Urbancorp companies have the right to appeal this proposal to the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT), which they have done.  This appeal is currently in process.  During this time, Urbancorp remains registered under Tarion until the LAT appeal process is concluded. 

 

Despite the NOP, Urbancorp remains obligated to fulfill its commitments to its customers.  This includes addressing warranty claims, seeking registration for any current condominium projects and completing any existing sales.

 

It is important for home buyers and homeowners to know that they remain protected under the warranty, and Tarion will step in to fulfill the warranty obligations if Urbancorp fails to do so.  This includes deposit protection, delay compensation and construction warranties that can last up to seven years on a new home.

The bankruptcy filing of Urbancorp is the second major bankruptcy we have reported in the luxury residential space. Recall two weeks ago Manhattan’s Bauhouse Group filed for bankruptcy after defaulting on $147 million in debt.

The sudden and very rapid deterioration in the high-end real estate segment has received little attention so far. With everyone focusing on energy companies and their cash flow issues, few are paying attention to the fact that luxury real estate is collapsing, and not just in the US but as of last night, in Canada – at least in those cities where Chinese money laundering isn’t encouraged by the authorities – as well.

With the Urbancorp bankruptcy filing, and the first official canary death in Canada’s real estate “coal mine”, we anticipate that the near future for Canada’s real estate sector will be a far more volatile one. Excluding Vancouver of course: that particular Chinese money laundering hub will continue humming until the locals finally decide they have had enough of having their city sold to criminal Chinese oligarchs.

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“It’s A Trojan Horse” – Thousands Of Germans Protest TTIP Trade Deal One Day Before Obama Visit

Whether it is due to Trump’s increasingly vocal anti-free trade rhetoric or due to the ongoing deterioration in the global economy, there has been a big change in the public’s perception toward the transatlatnic deal known as TTIP in the recent months, with support for the agreement which was drafted by big corporations behind closed doors tumbling.

As Reuters reported last week, support for the transatlantic trade deal known as TTIP has fallen sharply in Germany and the United States, a survey showed on Thursday, days before Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama meet to try to breathe new life into the pact.

The survey, conducted by YouGov for the Bertelsmann Foundation, showed that only 17 percent of Germans believe the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a good thing, down from 55 percent two years ago.

 

In the United States, only 18 percent support the deal compared to 53 percent in 2014.

 

Nearly half of U.S. respondents said they did not know enough about the agreement to voice an opinion.

 

To be sure, as Michael Krieger wrote on Thursday, “the writing was already on the wall a year ago, which is why politicians were scrambling to pass TPP fast track as quickly as possible, which, of course, they did. So the good news is the public is clearly waking up. What’s a bit depressing is that it’s taken so many decades. Yes, decades.”

But while Americans seemingly have more important things to be concerned about, in Germany the activists are once again making themselves heard. Recall that it was just last October when a stunning quarter million Germans packed the street of Berlin to protest Obama’s “Free Trade” deal.

 

Fast forward to today when one day before Obama visits Angela Merke in Germany to pitch the trade agreement, thousands of German protesters have once again come out on the streets of Hannover to say ‘No’ to the controversial TTIP US-EU trade deal. Many in Germany fear it will reduce consumer protection and undermine workers’ protection.

While the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the US and Europe is set to create the world’s largest free trade zone, many Europeans worry that the agreement would elevate corporate interest above national interest. TTIP opponents say that cheaper goods and services would only hurt the EU and help the US.

“People say the deal is going to compromise the European Union sovereignty, and would create much more secrecy, with one of the biggest concerns being that the agreement is wrapped in a big veil of secrecy that people are not happy with,” RT’s Anastasia Churkina reported from Hannover.

 

According to BBC, German police estimate that about 30,000 people are taking part in the peaceful protest rally in Hannover. Many are carrying placards with slogans that read: “Stop TTIP!”

The demonstrators have also been voicing their anger over the secrecy surrounding the ongoing TTIP negotiations.

“The
TTIP between the American continent and Europe is very dangerous for
the democracy, for our nature and for the rights of the workers,”
protester Florian Rohrich told the BBC.

“The rights in America for
workers are much lower. It’s like the Trojan horse. They can’t change
our whole system. But they will – because TTIP is written by the groups,
by the companies, not by the politicians,” he added.

The negotiations were launched three years ago, and the next round is due to open on Monday in New York.

Obama’s visit to Germany, which is the US’ biggest trading partner, takes place two days after Obama stood next to the UK’s David Cameron and threatened that if the country votes for Brexit it would be pushed to the “back of the queue” when it comes to trade with the US, confirming Obama increasingly sees the threat of lost trade as a diplomatic weapon. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to discuss the TTIP deal with Obama when he visits a trade show in Hannover on Sunday and Monday. We expect comparable threats to Friday’s to emerge with Obama making it clear that Germany stands to lose if it does not endorse the TTIP.

Sure enough, in an interview with Bild, Obama said that “the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is one of the best ways to promote growth and create jobs.” Ironically, this comes just as support for the TTIP is tumbling on both sides of the Atlantic.

Wrapping up a deal would be a “win-win situation,” Angela Merkel announced in her weekly podcast, adding that “it is good for us as we will be able to appraise our competitors.”

In the best-case scenario, TTIP could cover over 40 percent of global GDP and account for large shares of world trade and foreign direct investment. Washington’s ambassador to Germany, Anthony L. Gardner, said in an exclusive interview with EurActiv in 2014 that “we need this deal to help solidify further the transatlantic alliance, to provide an economic equivalent to NATO and to set the rules of world trade before others do it for us.”

Meanwhile, as Americans mostly disapprove of the TTIP as of this moment if refuse to do anything about it, this is what took place in Hannover.

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US Suicide Rate Soars In 21st Century – Up 80% For Middle-Aged White Women

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, 

Police were also vague about the sign, saying only that it related to “social justice.” Bishop said two others who witnessed the shooting told him that it said, “Tax the one percent,” and that he seemed to raise it just before pulling the trigger.

 

Jim White was at the Capitol Visitor Center when the announcement of the lockdown came over the loudspeaker. He said there was no panic, just chatter about what could be going on outside. His 1:30 p.m. tour went on as scheduled. The only indication that something was amiss: The tour guide kept stretching and extending his talk.

 

Bernard called the incident “a bit unfortunate,” especially with all the tourists in town to see the cherry blossoms.

 

Yes, so unfortunate that someone blowing their brains out potentially due to economic serfdom got in the way of cherry blossom selfies.

 

– From the post: Illinois Man Commits Suicide in Front of U.S. Capitol Holding a “Tax the 1%” Sign

If you’ve lived life on this planet more than a handful of years, you’ve undoubtedly had your fair share of tough times, some of us more so than others. The fact that you’re here today reading this is a testament to your ability to overcome these struggles, and the experiences these hard times have provided you has shaped the person you are today.

For some people, a combination of life circumstances, mental and emotional difficulties, and lack of support from friends and family can lead to suicide. The thought that some people can become so overwhelmed with hopelessness and desperation they take their own lives is a haunting one.

Sadly, it is undeniable that this reality has become more and more prevalent in America as the 21st century has unfolded, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’ve seen this flare up during a decade and a half characterized by a pummeling of the middle class, a decimation of civil liberties, and the entrenchment of a callous and corrupt political and economic oligarchy.

My heart goes out to the families of all those affected by this growing problem, and those who are currently struggling with suicidal thoughts. Although I can’t relate to such thoughts, I can sympathize.

The Washington Post reports:

The U.S. suicide rate has increased sharply since the turn of the century, led by an even greater rise among middle-aged white people, particularly women, according to federal data released Friday.

 

Last decade’s severe recession, more drug addiction, “gray divorce,” increased social isolation, and even the rise of the Internet and social media may have contributed to the growth in suicide, according to a variety of people who study the issue.

 

But economic distress — and dashed hopes generally — may underpin some of the increase, particularly for middle-aged white people. The data showed a 1 percent annual increase in suicide between 1999 and 2006 but a 2 percent yearly hike after that, as the economy deteriorated, unemployment skyrocketed and millions lost their homes.

Hey, at least we bailed out the bankers.

“People [were] growing up with a certain expectation . . . and the Great Recession and other things have really changed that,” said Julie A. Phillips, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University who studies the demography of suicide. “Things aren’t panning out the way people expect. I feel for sure that has had an effect.”

 

The U.S. homicide rate is also down: There are more than two suicides for every homicide. Among whites, there are more than seven suicides for every slaying.

 

 

Screen Shot 2016-04-22 at 10.18.12 AM

 

Overall, the new data show, the age-adjusted suicide rate in the United States jumped 24 percent between 1999 and 2014, from 10.5 per 100,000 people to 13 per 100,000 people. The rate increased for both sexes and in all age groups from 10 to 74. The pace has continued into the first two quarters of 2015, separate data show.

 

Among white women ages 45 to 64, for example, the suicide rate jumped 80 percent, from 7 per 100,000 in 1999 to 12.6 per 100,000 in 2014.

Simply heart-wrenching.

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Meanwhile In China, More Bubble Insanity

The credit-fueled speculative bubble in China’s commodity market, as we detailed previously, exploded this week as the mainstream slowly comes to realize that the gains in industrial metals are not a “sign of strength in China’s and the world’s economic recovery” but merely the next rotation of fast-money slooshing from Chinese equities to Chinese corporate bonds to Chinese real estate and now to Chinese commodity futures…

Trading in futures on everything from steel reinforcement bars and hot-rolled coils to cotton and polyvinyl chloride has soared this week, prompting exchanges in Shanghai, Dalian and Zhengzhou to boost fees or issue warnings to investors.

Deutsche Bank details the total crazinesss…

The onshore China commodity markets this week traded (conservatively) $350bn notional, a 17x increase on the $20bn notional that traded on Feb 1st 2016 i.e. a month ago (is it coincidence that the notional is about the same as at the peak of the equity frenzy?).

 

My calculations are pretty basic; I’ve trawled the screens and chosen 32 commodities in agri, metals and coke/coal and done a quick (contracts x value)/CNY for a dollar amount. I have not used the largest day’s volume either (e.g. Deformed Bar, RBTA has traded close to $100bn, but I used closer to $60bn). Cotton (VVA Comdty) has been trading $15bn, up from $500mm in Feb. In the US, the long established cotton contract (CT1 Comdty) trades $600mm. China listed Sugar (CBA Comdty) has traded $14bn versus the US listed sugar beet at $850mm.

This is what insanity looks like!!

 

The extreme measures China adopted to counter its stock market crash and unfolding crisis have now incited precarious speculative Bubbles in commodities. As CreditBubbleBulletin’s Doug Noland notes, this creates extraordinary uncertainties for China and the world.

A deepening Credit crisis would seem to ensure the usual cautious official measures to counter speculative excesses. So the world has of late been contemplating booming China: ongoing loose financial conditions with 2016 Credit growth in the neighborhood of $3.0 TN – providing extraordinary fuel for a rather destabilizing speculative blow-off.

 

Keep in mind that The Mighty World of Speculative Finance has been positioned long “defensive,” long “deflation,” long “duration” and long sold balance sheets. This world has been short commodities, energy, yields, cyclicals, financials and bad balance sheets. Moreover, many of these (Crowded) macro themes have been combined into leveraged portfolios (“risk parity”, etc.). China with $3.0 TN of Credit growth fueling unpredictable housing and commodities speculative Bubbles upsets the applecart.

 

…

 

At this point, China – as the “marginal source of global Credit and liquidity” – is exacerbating what had already evolved into a powerful central-bank induced short squeeze dynamic. Despite the collapse of Doha talks over the weekend, crude’s march higher ran unabated again this week. Industrial metal prices have been surging. Silver jumped 4.4% this week, with copper up 5.4%. The week saw nickel prices rise to a five-month high and aluminum to eight-month highs. Platinum, palladium, zinc and lead prices have all shot higher. Some iron ore prices have jumped to highs since early 2015.

 

The problem is that China’s newfound commodities speculation is underpinned by historic Credit growth – say, more than $3.0 TN annualized. Meanwhile, global short-squeeze dynamics are bolstered by $2.0 TN of annualized QE (ECB and BOJ). Moreover, there’s the massive pool of speculative finance – including a $3.0 TN hedge fund industry – with large leverage positions throughout global markets. In an extraordinary development, as scores of trades continue to unwind, a destabilizing global dynamic feeds on itself and gathers momentum. It’s monetary disorder on steroids.

 

The “marginal source of global Credit and liquidity” is short-term supportive of global risk markets. Yet its Credit system is self-destructing – and doing so rather conspicuously. If any other country employed a similar policy mix the world would be sprinting from that currency.

 

Thus far, Chinese officials have been determined to carefully manage China’s pegged currency regime. Yet current Credit and market dynamics are inconsistent with a stable currency. I would furthermore argue that breakneck Credit growth in the face of rapidly deteriorating underlying fundamentals is a proven recipe for a crisis of confidence. Global markets are in the midst of a destabilizing adjustment to China’s resurgent booms in Credit and speculation. This ensures real havoc when global markets are confronted with a Chinese Credit and/or currency dislocation.

How much impact is this having on global markets?

At first, very little. Many of the China listed futures started to bottom and rally in Nov and Dec last year, with very little relationship to global peers. This very crude chart below is a simple aggregation of all the prices of the 32 commods that I could find, but many of the underlying constituents are exactly the same. The performance looks inversely correlated with the performance of the underlying economy (and demand) but nicely related to the injection of credit.

But, in recent sessions, some of the US based commods have started to squeeze higher, presumably because the dog and the tail are changing places (clearly these are not apples-for-apples, as it were, in terms of contracts).

There is no correlation between the explosion in interest in Chinese commodity futures and any Chinese economic activity (and it should be a reminder to all who gaze lovingly at the commodity charts of the last decade that credit, rather than true demand, can be the most influential factor in financial markets). Volumes have increased 17 fold in a month. The economy has not. This is simply another speculative excess that will probably (already has) run way beyond fundamentals. It is probably creating a false picture of global demand for commodity stocks of all types, which themselves have rallied far beyond their earnings potential.

Eventually, the excesses will need to be curbed and maybe that starts a new phase of risk-off within China. We leave it to Tiger Shi, a managing partner at Bands Financial Ltd in Hong Kong to conclude:

“The market is moving so quickly, yesterday felt just like the stock market in June last year before the crash… I think how it goes up, that’s how it will come down.”

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From One Extreme To Another: Record Oil Shorts Are Now Record Oil Longs

At the end of January, when looking at the positioning in the oil futures market, we warned that there is a a “Constant Short Squeeze Threat“ because “Oil Shorts Are At All-Time Highs.“

Everyone knows what happened next; for those who missed it we explained precisely two months later, following an epic surge in the price of oil, in: “It’s Official: The Oil Surge Was Driven By The Biggest Short-Squeeze Ever.”

In other words, just as we had warned, the oil trade so far in 2016 has been all about positioning, and the sparking of a historic short squeeze in oil.

We bring this up because less than three months following our warning about a “constant oil short squeeze”, it is time to unveil the next warning: one of a potentially big drop in the oil price as now record speculative oil longs proceed to cover on the other side, unleashing a selling scramble lower.

Is that possible?

Well, according to Deutsche Bank’s latest investor positioning and flow report last night, “oil speculative net longs are at record highs as gross longs rose and shorts fell last week.”

 

So just as the crowd has shifted quickly from one side of the boat, to the other, the risk now is that all those who are long oil are forced to liquidate and since there are virtally no shorts left to cover, we fail to see what major catalysts will be able to prop up the price of oil especially now that all OPEC “oil freeze” headlines are ignored by everyone, even the algos.

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Another Chicago Record: 1,000 Gunshot Victims In Shortest Time In Decades

In an article earlier this month, we said that “Chicago is disintegrating” amidst soaring gun violence and homicides, in large part due to the deteriorating economic situation. Unfortunately, we now have an update to the state of things in the windy city, and it’s getting uglier.

A 16-year old boy who was shot in the knee marked the 1,000th gunshot victim in Chicago this year, as the city returns to a level of shootings not seen since the 1990’s. This past Wednesday, Chicago reached 1,000 victims months earlier than the previous four years. The number of shooting victims year-to-date is up 66.7% from 2015, and 107% from 2014.

At 1,000 victims, this year’s shooting toll exceeds last year’s total at this point — about 600 victims — by more than 66 percent. At this point in 2014, 483 people had been shot.

As one would guess, the homicide rate has steadily climbed as well, and with 161 homicides year-to-date (as of the time of the article), homicides have jumped 64% from 2015. If current trends persist, the city appears likely to top 500 homicides for only the second time since 2008.

 

As the Tribune points out, while the violence pales by comparison to the early to mid-1990s when homicides peaked in Chicago at more than 900 a year, the city still continues to far outpace the nation’s two larger cities, New York and Los Angeles.

So far this year, the number of people shot here far exceeds those two cities combined. Through April 10, New York — a city more than three times the size of Chicago — had seen 246 people shot, while in LA —with over a million more people than Chicago — 328 people had been shot through April 16, both departments reported.

Then again, if Obama’s “recovery” continues at this pace, we would not be surprised to see a record homicide year in Chicago soon.

The Chicago Tribune maintains detailed statistics on the shootings. Here is an infographic that shows the monthly homicide totals, as well as where they are located.

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Continued Financial Market Deterioration Impacts Gold Eagle Sales In A Big Way

SRSrocco Report

By The SRSrocco Report

The financial system is sitting on the edge of a cliff and an increasing number of investors are beginning to realize it.  I hear more and more evidence from contacts in the financial and precious metal industry that the U.S. banking industry and Dollar are in serious trouble.

While some of individuals believe that the Fed and U.S. Government will continue rigging the markets for the next decade or more, I believe we will witness a financial dislocation or black swan event within the next year.

As I have stated in several interviews, I sold my business and left the big city and moved to the country back in the beginning of 2007.   I knew the mortgage industry and economy were going to collapse.  What I didn’t know was the degree to which the Fed and Central banks could prop up the market.

NOTE:  If you haven’t checked out our new PRECIOUS METALS INVESTING PAGE, please do.

It has been eight years now and the silver bullets have run out.  While the Fed and Central Banks will continue to rig the markets as best they can, the amount of debt overhanging the market has become unsustainable.  As Central banks push interest rates negative, it just motivates more investors to get into gold and silver.

Last week there were several emergency Fed meetings followed by China’s launching of its new gold yuan benchmark this Tuesday.   Also, according to Global Research News:

China has reportedly decided ”there can be no conversion of gold-backed Yuan to or from US dollars.”  What China fears is that many countries around the world will want to trade their reserve US dollars  for the new Yuan, leaving China with mountains of worthless US dollars.  China already has several trillion in US dollar reserves and does not want or need more.

If the news reports that China will not allow a conversion of its new gold-backed Yuan to or from U.S. Dollars, this is indeed serious trouble for the United States Empire.  Which is the very reason I believe there were emergency Fed meetings last week.  Even though there hasn’t been any major impact via the mainstream media, the ramifications are likely to become public in due time.
Gold Eagle Sales Surge 3 Times Higher In April

The telltale sign that something isn’t right in the financial industry is a surge in Gold Eagle sales.  Last year, total Gold Eagle sales for April equaled 29,500 oz.  However, in just the first three weeks of April this year, Gold Eagle sales have reached 87,500.  This is three times last years figures and we still have another week remaining in the month:

Gold Eagle Sales APR 2015 vs 2016

We can see in the chart above, the weekly sales in the second (33,000 oz) and third week (34,000 oz) of April surpassed the total for the month last year.  Furthermore, April’s sales so far of 87,500 oz are nearly two-and-a-half times the 38,000 oz sold last month.

Now, if we compare total Gold Eagle sales for 2016 versus the same period last year, we have the following result:

Gold Eagle sales JAN-APR 2015 vs 2016

The U.S. Mint’s Gold Eagle (JAN-APR) sales are 90% higher at 333,000 oz compared to the same period last year of 175,500 oz.  If demand for Gold Eagles continues to remain strong for the remainder of the year, we could see total sales exceed 1 million oz.  This figure hasn’t been seen since 2011 when total Gold Eagle sales reached 1 million oz.

Here are the following annual Gold Eagle Sales totals (troy oz):

2007 = 198,500

2008 = 865,500

2009 = 1,435,000

2010 = 1,220,500

2011 = 1,000,000

2012 = 753,000

2013 = 856,500

2014 =524,500

2015 = 801,500

2016 Ytd = 333,000

With the Chinese recent launch of their new gold-backed Yuan, the days of U.S. Dollar hegemony are numbered.  When the world starts dumping U.S. Treasuries and Dollars, investors better make sure they have already own physical gold and silver.

Please check back for new articles and updates at the SRSrocco Report. 

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FBI May “Leak” Clinton Email Probe If DOJ Blocking Continues, Grassley Warns

The feud between the FBI and the Department of Justice over whether or not to proceed with charges against Hillary Clinton in the ongoing email investigation just took an unexpected turn.

Recall that one month ago, we found out that on one hand, the FBI is seemingly hell-bent on chasing down every possibly angle involving Hillary’s email abuse, when we reported that one hundred forty-seven FBI agents have been deployed to chase down clues and leads and that the FBI has accelerated the investigation because officials want to avoid the possibility of announcing any action too close to the election. A former Clinton staffer is also cooperating with that investigation, and it’s believed Clinton herself will be questioned.

The flipside has been the Department of Justice which has been stonewalling the probe every step of the way. It hasn’t been alone in its unwillingness to pursue Hillary: on April 1, the state department announced that it is suspending its probe of “top secret” Clinton emails.

The divergence of these two paths, one which wants to get to the bottom of Hillary’s email probe and the other which is dead set on blocking it, has led online betting markets such as PredictIt to put the the odds of federal charges being filed against Hillary at record lows.

 

Which, paradoxically, could be bad news for Hillary.

On Friday, US Senator Chuck Grassley who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and who has pushed for additional scrutiny of Clinton’s email use during her tenure as secretary of state, dropped a dramatic “hint” during a breakfast meeting with the Des Moines A.M. Rotary club when he suggested that the FBI “might leak”, hypothetically-speaking of course, reports of its investigation into presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state.

In practically laying out the next steps in Hillarygate, Grassley said “an anonymous and unauthorized release of FBI investigative materials could result if officials at the agency believed prosecution of Clinton was stymied for political reasons” according to the Des Moines register.

“Is there going to be political interference? If there’s enough evidence to prosecute, will there be political interference?” Grassley wondered aloud on Friday. “And if there’s political interference, then I assume that somebody in the FBI is going to leak these reports and it’s either going to have an effect politically or it’s going to lead to prosecution if there’s enough evidence.“

The senior senator’s musing came in response to a long answer to a very general question from one of the Rotarians about the status on inquiries into the email server and Clinton’s handling of the 2012 terrorist attack on a diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.

Which, of course, would be potentially devastating for Hillary as not only would her misdeed as chronicled by the Feds be fully in the open and ammo for any of her competitors in the presidential race, but would also confirm that the Department of Justice is anything but, and has led to such a dramatic perversion of the law as being forced to leak evidence of criminality in the public arena just so the population can be made aware of Hillary’s actions.

As for Grassley’s unorthodox “suggestion”, when asked by Radio Iowa reporter O. Kay Henderson after the breakfast if he was suggesting the FBI should leak investigative findings, Grassley expounded on his comment.

“I wouldn’t be encouraging it because if it’s a violation of law, I can’t be encouraging a violation of law,” he said. “This is kind of my own opinion, this is something I’ve heard.”

Yes, Chuck, we get it. And now we wonder how long before a treasure trove of “leaked” FBI documents exposing the full extent of Hillary’s action is leaked, although we can’t help but wonder that just like the Panama Papers dump, the media will be prepared and will promptly redirect the public’s attention to Vladimir Putin once again as the guilty party behind it all.

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Patrick Buchanan: Dishonoring General Jackson

Submitted by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

In Samuel Eliot Morison’s “The Oxford History of the American People,” there is a single sentence about Harriet Tubman.

“An illiterate field hand, (Tubman) not only escaped herself but returned repeatedly and guided more than 300 slaves to freedom.”

Morison, however, devotes most of five chapters to the greatest soldier-statesman in American history, save Washington, that pivotal figure between the Founding Fathers and the Civil War — Andrew Jackson.

Slashed by a British officer in the Revolution, and a POW at 14, the orphaned Jackson went west, rose to head up the Tennessee militia, crushed an Indian uprising at Horseshoe Bend, Alabama, in the War of 1812, then was ordered to New Orleans to defend the threatened city.

In one of the greatest victories in American history, memorialized in song, Jackson routed a British army and aborted a British scheme to seize New Orleans, close the Mississippi, and split the Union.

In 1818, ordered to clean out renegade Indians rampaging in Georgia, Jackson stormed into Florida, seized and hanged two British agitators, put the Spanish governor on a boat to Cuba, and claimed Florida for the USA.

Secretary of State John Quincy Adams closed the deal. Florida was ours, and Jacksonville is among its great cities.

Though he ran first in popular and electoral votes in 1824, Jackson was denied the presidency by the “corrupt bargain” of Adams and Henry Clay, who got secretary of state.

Jackson came back to win the presidency in 1828, recognized the Texas republic of his old subaltern Sam Houston, who had torn it from Mexico, and saw his vice president elected after his two terms.

He ended his life at his beloved Hermitage, pushing for the annexation of Texas and nomination of “dark horse” James K. Polk, who would seize the Southwest and California from Mexico and almost double the size of the Union.

Was Jackson responsible for the Cherokees’ “Trail of Tears”?

Yes. And Harry Truman did Hiroshima, and Winston Churchill did Dresden.

Great men are rarely good men, and Jackson was a Scots-Irish duelist, Indian fighter and slave owner. But then, Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe were slave owners before him.

To remove his portrait from the front of the $20 bill, and replace it with Tubman’s, is affirmative action that approaches the absurd.

Whatever one’s admiration for Tubman and her cause, she is not the figure in history Jackson was.

Indeed, if the fight against slavery is the greatest cause in our history, why not honor John Brown, hanged for his raid on Harper’s Ferry to start a revolution to free the slaves, after he butchered slave owners in “Bleeding Kansas”? John Brown was the real deal.

But replacing Jackson with Tubman is not the only change coming.

The back of the $5 bill will soon feature Martin Luther King, Eleanor Roosevelt, and opera singer Marian Anderson, who performed at the Lincoln Memorial after being kept out of segregated Constitution Hall in 1939.

That act of race discrimination came during the second term of FDR, Eleanor’s husband and the liberal icon who named Klansman Hugo Black to the Supreme Court and put 110,000 Japanese into concentration camps.

And, lest we forget, while Abraham Lincoln remains on the front of the $5 bill, the war he launched cost 620,000 dead, and his beliefs in white supremacy and racial separatism were closer to those of David Duke than Dr. King.

Alexander Hamilton, the architect of the American economy, will stay on the $10 bill, due in part to the intervention of hip-hop artists from the popular musical, “Hamilton,” in New York.

But Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth, who fought for women’s suffrage, will be put on the back of the $10. While Anthony and Stanton appear in Morison’s history, Sojourner Truth does not.

Added up, while dishonoring Andrew Jackson, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is putting on the U.S. currency six women — three white, three African-American — and King.

No Catholics, no conservatives, no Hispanics, no white males were apparently even considered.

This is affirmative action raised to fanaticism, a celebration of President Obama’s views and values, and a recasting of our currency to make Obama’s constituents happy at the expense of America’s greatest heroes and historic truth. Leftist role models for American kids now take precedence over the history of our Republic in those we honor.

While King already has a holiday and monument in D.C., were the achievements of any of these six women remotely comparable to what the six men honored on our currency — Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Jackson, President Grant and Ben Franklin — achieved?

Whatever may be said for Eleanor Roosevelt, compared to her husband, she is an inconsequential figure in American history.

In the dystopian novel, “1984,” Winston Smith labors in the Ministry of Truth, dropping down the “memory hole” stories that must be rewritten to re-indoctrinate the party and proles in the new history, as determined by Big Brother. Jack Lew would have fit right in there.

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