Tag: finance

Frontrunning: October 2

  • As we warned in May 2013… Gross Exposes $42 Trillion Bond Market’s Key Flaw in Exit (BBG)…. hint: no liquidity
  • WTI Crude Slips Below $90 for First Time in 17 Months (BBG)
  • Traders Thank Fed for Once-in-Decade Surge in Profit (BBG)
  • Islamic State committing ‘staggering’ crimes in Iraq: U.N. report (Reuters)
  • Philippine Islamist militants threaten to behead German on October 17 (Reuters)
  • Draghi’s Buying Spree for the ECB Might Start Modestly (BBG)
  • Russian Officials Say No Plans for Capital Controls (WSJ)
  • Indians Join the Wave of Investors in Condos and Homes in the U.S. (NYT)
  • Leader of Mexican drugs cartel captured (FT)
  • Dallas Ebola patient vomited outside apartment on way to hospital (Reuters)
  • Goldman chat room a message to Wall St (FT)
  • Angry former workers: Angry Birds Maker Rovio to Cut up to 130 Jobs in Finland (WSJ)
  • Steven Cohen Urges Court to Dismiss Ex-Wife’s Fraud Suit (BBG)
  • As PIMCO bleeds assets, Gross shows risk of star culture (Reuters)
  • Caltech Leads World University Rankings for Fourth Year (BBG)
  • U.S. Apartment Vacancies Rise for First Time Since 2009 (BBG)
  • Commodity ETF Outflows Reach Highest This Year on Supply (BBG)
  • China backs Hong Kong leader CY Leung over tear gas (FT)

 

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

* Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigned after coming under intense pressure following an embarrassing breach of security at the White House two weeks ago. (http://on.wsj.com/10m0Iwa)

* Health authorities are monitoring for symptoms of Ebola in at least a dozen people who came into contact with a Liberian man before he was hospitalized in Dallas, a move to prevent the virus’s spread in the U.S. (http://on.wsj.com/1rGPsmT)

* American consumers are buying new cars and trucks at the strongest pace in years, offsetting car makers’ troubles elsewhere and leading the biggest U.S. auto maker to forecast fat profits ahead. (http://on.wsj.com/1sO9y28)

* The Coca-Cola Co, bowing to pressure from lead investor Warren Buffett, announced changes to its executive pay plan that will result in fewer stock awards. (http://on.wsj.com/1E2LU4W)

* Pacific Investment Management said investors pulled $23.5 billion from the Pimco Total Return fund in September, the firm’s largest-ever monthly outflow, with the largest amount on the day founder Bill Gross abruptly quit. (http://on.wsj.com/1sOcig7)

* Bank of America Corp’s board voted to make Brian Moynihan chairman as well as chief executive, capping a comeback for a banker who survived the regulatory scrutiny and huge losses that followed the financial crisis. (http://on.wsj.com/1rGPsn5)

 

FT

* Some of the world’s largest banks have stopped contributing to many of the financial benchmarks to avoid potential litigation, as a result of the Libor and foreign exchange rate rigging scandal.

* German ecommerce company Rocket Internet AG priced its shares at 42.50 euros ($53.6265). The share listing is expected to raise gross proceeds of 1.4 billion euros and give it a market value of 6.7 billion euros.

* France and Italy have increased their defiance of EU budget targets as the two countries go into talks relating to their public finances with their European partners in the coming weeks.

* UK Prime Minster David Cameron vowed to lower income taxes for 30 million people and keep a competitive corporate tax policy. These tax cuts will cost 7.2 billion pounds a year when fully implemented in 2020.

* Google Inc announced it would stop publishing snippets of German publisher Axel Springer’s articles in its search results. This action follows a dispute between both the groups over intellectual property rights. (1 US dollar = 0.7925 euro)

 

NYT

* Pimco’s flagship fund, once billed as the world’s biggest bond fund, is shrinking fast. In September, investors pulled $23.5 billion from the Pimco Total Return Fund, with the largest redemptions coming on Sept. 26, the day Bill Gross stunned Wall Street by resigning from the firm he co-founded more than 40 years ago. (http://nyti.ms/1rNUmjx)

* Coca-Cola Co, facing sharp shareholder criticism of its executive pay, on Wednesday announced changes to the compensation plan that set off the squall. (http://nyti.ms/10lZYXP)

* Federal and state authorities, a group that includes prosecutors in New York, Alabama and Texas, are zeroing in on the most powerful, and arguably the least regulated, rung of the subprime auto loan chain, used-car dealerships, according to people briefed on the investigations. Already, they have found hundreds of fraudulent loans that together total millions of dollars. (http://nyti.ms/1vz65mf)

* A federal bankruptcy judge on Wednesday upended the widely held belief that public workers’ pensions have a special status in California that makes them impossible to cut, further chipping away at the idea that pensions are sacrosanct in a municipal bankruptcy. (http://nyti.ms/1uf22vX)

* David Neil, senior Justice Department Prosecutor said he planned to depart the government at the end of the week, capping an eight-year Justice Department career. (http://nyti.ms/1ps2MIG)

* The proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services amplified calls for Allergan Inc’s board to hold off from making an all-cash acquisition that would scuttle an existing takeover offer from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc and Pershing Square Capital Management. (http://nyti.ms/1oAB502)

* Bank of America Corp said on Wednesday that Brian Moynihan, its chief executive, would assume the additional role of chairman. (http://nyti.ms/1oCs5HM)

* Relational Investors, one of the most prominent activist investors, is planning to start a new fund that will give more day-to-day control to the firm’s younger executives, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. (http://nyti.ms/1rxuRDT)

* The German technology company Rocket Internet priced its initial public offering at the top of its price range at 42.5 euros ($53.8) a share on Wednesday, val
uing the company at 6.7 billion euros, or roughly $8.4 billion. (http://nyti.ms/1tj1QYh)

 

Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** A federal cyberbullying bill, C-13, that includes controversial new surveillance powers – and immunity for telecommunications companies that voluntarily hand over private data to police – has taken another step toward becoming law, despite a recent Supreme Court ruling that critics say is at odds with the bill. (http://bit.ly/1r0pYND)

** Canada’s largest school board is joining a handful of other academic institutions in taking steps to sever its ties to a language and culture program controlled by the Chinese government. A Toronto District School Board committee voted on Wednesday evening to terminate the Confucius Institute. All but one member on the planning and priorities committee voted in favour of terminating the accord. (http://bit.ly/1vzP5wd)

** Tough new federal anti-corruption rules risk disqualifying several key government suppliers, jeopardizing government plans to buy items ranging from ships and fighter jets to computer systems. At least five foreign multinationals – BAE Systems PLC, Siemens AG, Alcatel-Lucent SA, Tyco International Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co have been convicted of crimes overseas and consequently face possible 10-year bans from doing business with Ottawa. (http://bit.ly/1mU12w3)

NATIONAL POST

** The Stephen Harper government plans further changes to its oft-maligned veterans charter, hoping to take the political sting out of complaints by ex-soldiers promising to campaign against them in the next election. (http://bit.ly/1psCwOk)

** As the debate over the Scarborough subway rages in the Toronto mayoral race, Ontario’s transportation minister was forced on Wednesday to clarify again that the Liberal government is “moving forward” with the transit project, after the finance minister refused to commit to such a position. (http://bit.ly/1tjwmkL)

** The Bank of Canada will be forced to renew warnings of the possibility for higher interest rates in order to halt a “bubble” from forming in the housing market, according to Pacific Investment Management Co Managing Director Ed Devlin. (http://bit.ly/1thjewB)

 

Corporate Finance

* Colombian Natural Resources, owned by investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc, will re-start coal exports and re-establish mining operations after the government helped broker a deal for its use of Drummond’s Caribbean Sea port, according to government and industry sources.

* China Investment Corp and AVIC Capital Co Ltd have ended talks to acquire Avolon Holdings Ltd (IPO-AVOL.N), making it likely that the aircraft leasing company will pursue an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.

* Amazon.com Inc’s India unit plans to sell packaged food and beverages, starting mid-October, according to a person with direct knowledge of the launch. (bit.ly/1BAIAtJ)

* Hochtief AG, the German building group controlled by Spain’s ACS, is close to the sale of its Formart real estate business, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

 

 

Fly On The Wall Pre-market Buzz

ECONOMIC REPORTS

Domestic economic reports scheduled for today include:
Jobless claims for week of September 27 at 8:30–consensus 297K
Factory orders for August at 10:00–consensus down 9.3%

ANALYST RESEARCH

Upgrades

Autodesk (ADSK) upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Citigroup
Autodesk (ADSK) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Cowen
Autodesk (ADSK) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse
Bank of America (BAC) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS
Barrick Gold (ABX) upgraded to Hold from Sell at Canaccord
Electronics for Imaging (EFII) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup
Encana (ECA) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank
Equity One (EQY) upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Citigroup
Fossil (FOSL) upgraded to Buy from Hold at ISI Group
Gentex (GNTX) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo
IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank
Kinder Morgan (KMI) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo
Mattel (MAT) upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at BMO Capital
NASDAQ (NDAQ) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank
Pandora (P) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Topeka
Preferred Bank (PFBC) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James
PulteGroup (PHM) upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman
Time Warner (TWX) upgraded to Hold from Sell at Topeka
Twitter (TWTR) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan

Downgrades

A10 Networks (ATEN) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup
Enphase Energy (ENPH) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill
Francesca’s (FRAN) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Canaccord
Intuit (INTU) downgraded to Underweight from Equal-Weight at Evercore
JPMorgan (JPM) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS
Motorola Solutions (MSI) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup
NVR (NVR) downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman
ONEOK (OKE) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan
PNC Financial (PNC) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies
Tower International (TOWR) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo
U.S. Steel (X) downgraded to Hold from Buy at KeyBanc
WebMD (WBMD) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel

Initiations

Delek US (DK) initiated with an Outperform at RBC Capital
Hanesbrands (HBI) initiated with an Outperform at Credit Suisse
HollyFrontier (HFC) initiated with a Sector Perform at RBC Capital
Insys Therapeutics (INSY) initiated with an Outperform at RBC Capital
Madison Square Garden (MSG) initiated with a Neutral at JPMorgan
Marathon Patent Group (MARA) initiated with a Buy at Ladenburg
Marathon Petroleum (MPC) initiated with a Top Pick at RBC Capital
Patent Properties (PPRO) initiated with a Buy at Ladenburg
Phillips 66 (PSX) initiated with a Sector Perform at RBC Capital
Ply Gem (PGEM) reinstated with a Neutral at Credit Suisse
Rightside Group (NAME) initiated with a Buy at B. Riley
Rubicon Project (RUBI) initiated with a Buy at B. Riley
Salesforce.com (CRM) initiated with a Neutral at DA Davidson
Splunk (SPLK) initiated with a Buy at Stifel
Stillwater Mining (SWC) initiated with a Neutral at Goldman
Tesoro (TSO) initiated with an Outperform at RBC Capital
Valero (VLO) initiated with an Outperform at RBC Capital
Varonis (VRNS) initiated with an Outperform at JMP Securities

COMPANY NEWS

BofA (BAC) CEO Moynihan elected Chairman of the Board of Directors
Starboard Value raises stake in RealD (RLD) to 9.9% from 9.1%, proposes $12 buyout
NFL, DirecTV (DTV) extend NFL Sunday Ticket in new multi-year deal
Arotech (ARTX) CEO Robert S. Ehrlich steps down replaced by Steven Esses
Dollar General (DG) extends tender offer to acquire Family Dollar to Oct. 31
EMC (EMC) names Zane Rowe CFO
Liquidity Services (LQDT) announces business realignment, new senior leadership
Netflix (NFLX) signs deal deal with Adam Sandler for four feature films
NewLink Genetics (NLNK) terminates CFO Gordon Link
Qihoo 360 (QIHU) announces $200M shar
e repurchase plan
Tesla (TSLA) CEO says time to ‘unveil D, something else’

EARNINGS
Companies that beat consensus earnings expectations last night and today include:
Global Payments (GPN), McCormick (MKC), National American University (NAUH)

Companies that missed consensus earnings expectations include:
Park Electrochemical (PKE)

Global Payments (GPN) ups FY15 cash EPS view to $4.65-$4.75, consensus $4.60
Darden (DRI) sees Q2 EPS in upper end of 26c-28c, consensus 26c
McCormick (MKC) raises FY14 adjusted EPS view to $3.30-$3.37, consensus $3.28
Agrium (AGU) sees Q3 EPS 45c-55c, consensus 68c
PTC Inc. (PTC) sees Q4 revenue at or above high end of $340M-$355M, consensus $349.03M

NEWSPAPERS/WEBSITES

Masimo (MASI) wins $466M verdict in patent suit with Philips, Bloomberg says 
Royal Bank of Canada (RY) prop desk spin-off plan shot down by regulators, WSJ says
Scripps Networks (SNI) reaches licensing deal with Netflix, WSJ reports
Verizon (VZ) withdraws target to throttle unlimited LTE data plans, Gigaom says
Vivendi looking for acquisitions in U.S. media space, NY Post reports

SYNDICATE

AAC Holdings (AAC) 5M share IPO priced at $15.00
Atento (ATTO) 10M share IPO priced at $15.00
Calithera Biosciences (CALA) 8M share IPO priced at $10.00
Digital Ally (dgly) files to sell 1.19M shares for holders
JP Energy (JPEP) 13.75M share IPO priced at $20.00
Memorial Resource (MRD) files to sell 27.8M shares for holders
Portola Pharmaceuticals (PTLA) files to sell 10M shares
Radius Health (RDUS) files to sell common stock
VWR Corp (VWR) 25.532M share IPO priced at $21.00
Wayfair (W) 11M share IPO priced at $29.00




via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1x2gg2K Tyler Durden

Futures Flat As Japan Tumbles, WTI Slides $90 For First Time In 17 Months

Following yesterday’s acorss the board US stock market drubbing, equity futures are mostly unchanged awaiting today’s key event which is the ECB’s latest announcement in just over an hour and Draghi press conference 45 minutes later, both of which however are expected to be far more muted than last month’s bombastic announcement (which has already led to new European cracks with Germany throwing up all over Draghi’s proposal to buy Greek junk). Additionally there is initial claims and factory orders data, which however will hardly do much to change the recent sharp plunge in global economic momentum as Goldman showed yesterday.

So while equities are hugging the flatline, a bigger story was the overnight crash in the Nikkei225 and the Topix both of which plunged at the fast pace in months, with the Yen spiking, pushing the USDJPY as low as 108.35 after Japan’s Vice Finance Minister, Nobuhide Minorikawa, earlier today told reporters that no further increases in the USDJPY wil be tolerated saying  that “there are companies negatively affected by the weak yen.” In other words, as we have been saying since December of 2012.

But the biggest market development overnight is the plunge in crude, with both Brent and WTI plunging, the latter sliding under $90 for the first time in 17 months, extending yesterday’s selloff after Saudi Aramco cut Arab Light OSP in Asia to 2008 levels. Brent drops to lowest since June 2012. This also confirms that the global slowdown whose can is kicked every so often in a new bout of money printing, is arriving fast. That, and the imminent crackdown on today’s Hong Kong protest will likely be the biggest stories of the day, even as the spread of Ebola to the US is sure to keep everhone on edge.

European equities traded in the red from the get-go at the cash open with the fallout of the US sell-off and declines in Asia weighing on investor sentiment. For anyone interested, an explanation detailing yesterday’s sharp declines can be viewed here. On a sector specific basis, energy names underpeform following the extension of the move lower in the energy complex with WTI dipping below USD 90/bbl. Of note for luxury names, LVMH trade higher by 1.2% after being raised at JP Morgan which is subsequently lifting the consumer discretionary sector.

Looking at the day ahead, the main item on the European agenda is the ECB meeting. Beyond that we will also get the September change in Spanish unemployment, the UK construction PMI (expected in at 63.5) and the euro area August PPI (expected in at -0.1% MoM). In the US we will get initial jobless claims (expected at 297k) and the August factory orders (expected at -9.5%).

US Event Calendar

  • 7:30am: Challenger Job Cuts y/y, Sept. (prior -20.7%)
  • 7:30am: RBC Consumer Outlook Index, Oct. (prior 52.4)
  • 8:30am: Initial Jobless Claims, Sept. 27, est. 297k (prior 293k), Continuing Claims, Sept. 20, est. 2.425m (prior 2.439m)
  • 9:45am:  ISM New York, Sept. (prior 57.1)
  • 9:45am:  Bloomberg Consumer Comfort, Sept. 28 (prior 35.5)
  • 10:00am: Factory Orders, Aug., est. -9.5% (prior 10.5%)

Bulletin Headline Summary from RanSquawk and Bloomberg

  • European equities follow on from their US and Asian counterparts after US equities reached their lowest levels since mid-August and the Nikkei 225 saw it sharpest fall since Aug. 8th.
  • Energy names underperform in Europe after WTI crude futures broke below USD 90/bbl for the first time in 17 months.
  • The USD-index trades with losses of around 0.3% which has subsequently boosted commodity currencies and seen USD/JPY break back below 109.00.
  • Looking ahead, attention turns towards today’s ECB policy announcement where the ECB are unlikely to commit to further tools until after embarking on the newest policy – ABS and Covered Bond purchases.

ASIA

JGBs traded up 1 tick at 145.89 after paring earlier gains seen amid spill-over buying from yesterday’s rally across global fixed income markets, weighed on by today’s disappointing 10yr JGB auction. Asian equities traded lower across the board in tandem with the sharp sell-off in stocks markets across both sides of the Atlantic yesterday. The Nikkei traded down 2.6% in what was the largest decline in the index since Aug. 8th. As a reminder, mainland China and Hong Kong markets are closed today for National Day Holiday with Chinese bourses set to reopen next Wednesday and Hong Kong markets resuming on Friday.

FIXED INCOME

Fixed income markets have seen a relatively tentative session so far as participants await the ECB rate decision with Eurozone supply initially capping any potential upside alongside the softness in equities. In terms of this morning issuance, Spain saw a relatively inline auction of their modest 2020 and 2024 bonds, with record-low yields as has been the case in previous auctions. In terms of the French issuance, all three lines saw lower yields, with fixed income markets following suit with the moves in equity markets when both Spanish and French supply had been absorbed.

EQUITIES

European equities traded in the red from the get-go at the cash open with the fallout of the US sell-off and declines in Asia weighing on investor sentiment. For anyone interested, an explanation detailing yesterday’s sharp declines can be viewed here. On a sector specific basis, energy names underpeform following the extension of the move lower in the energy complex with WTI dipping below USD 90/bbl. Of note for luxury names, LVMH trade higher by 1.2% after being raised at JP Morgan which is subsequently lifting the consumer discretionary sector.

FX

Overnight, the USD-index extended on yesterday’s losses consequently supporting major USD pairs with commodity-linked currencies being the main beneficiaries. USD/CAD briefly broke below the 1.1100 handle to print a fresh weekly low while NZD/USD recovered all of Tuesday’s RBNZ FX intervention-inspired declines. AUD also strengthened further after AU building approvals surged to a 3-month high (3.0% vs. Exp. 1.0%) prompting AUD/USD to break above the 0.8800 handle. In terms of the European session, FX markets have traded in a largely rangebound manner with the USD-index continuing to dictate the state of play and GBP/USD pulling away from its highs after the beat on UK construction PMI (64.2 vs. Exp. 63.5).

* * *

DB’s Jim Reid concludes the overnight recap

In European equity markets the Euro Stoxx, FTSE 100 and DAX lost -1% whilst the CAC and FTSE MIB dropped -1.2% and -0.9% respectively. Over in the US the S&P500 and NASDAQ closed down -1.3% and -1.6% respectively. In credit markets, European iTraxx Main and US CDX IG widened +0.6bps and +0.3bps respectively, whilst European iTraxx Xover widened only +1bps and US CDX HY was unchanged. European financial CDS indices actually ended the day tighter. The big performers yesterday were government bond markets as the US, German and UK 10Yr fell -8bps, -5bps and -7bps respectively.

There were a few stories impacting markets yesterday. We had the after effects of the first reported Ebola case in the US which caused nervousness, especially in some travel and freight stocks. We also had lots of noise about the Russell 2000 now being 10% off its recent highs. Elsewhere we saw an increase in Russia-Ukraine worries after stories from Ukraine that a shell had killed four people at a school in the rebel-held east (BBC) in what remains a shaky ceasefire with continued flare-ups. The EU is set to keep sanctions against Russia in place as they have deemed the peace deal to not be full effective (BBC). Also we had weaker data on both sides of the pond. On this, whilst ADP US employ
ment growth came in marginally ahead of expectation (+213k vs +205k expected), manufacturing PMI (57.5 vs 57.9 expected), manufacturing ISM (56.6 vs 58.5 expected) and construction spending (-0.8% MoM vs +0.5% MoM expected) all disappointed.

In Europe, although Italian manufacturing PMI’s beat expectation at 50.7 (vs 49.5 expected) and the Spanish and French reads came in-line at 52.6 and 48.8 respectively, the German activity dropped to 49.9 (vs 50.3 expected) which brought the broader eurozone number below expectations at 50.3 (vs 50.5 expected). As DB European Economist Peter Sidorov wrote yesterday on the releases, ‚It is worth noting that the ‘periphery’ is now outperforming the ‘core’ euro countries in the manufacturing PMIs, which could help to partially offset its greater vulnerability on the domestic front. A reduction in fragmentation across countries should also make agreeing on common policy measures easier in the euro area, including the ECB’s easing and the European investment initiative proposals currently under discussion.?  Although the market isn’t expecting any new policy action from the ECB today, asset purchases are set to start this month and the technical details of the ECB’s purchase programmes are set to be announced. More importantly any changes in ECB rhetoric will be closely watched as pressure has continued to build on the ECB to bring in full public QE. There will no doubt be questions about whether government bond purchases will be used if the ECB can’t increase their balance sheet by the trillion Euros that Draghi has made a policy aspiration.

In overnight news, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy student protestors have threatened to besiege government offices unless their demands for the resignation of the head of the HK government by Thursday night are met as protests have continued during China’s National Day holiday. This came as China’s Foreign Minister has described the protests as ‚illegal? (BBC). Looking at how markets have reacted overnight they seem largely to be mirroring yesterday’s European and US moves. As we write the Nikkei is down -2% whilst the MSCI Asia Pacific index had been down -0.6% before rallying back slightly to now sit around -0.2%. In credit the iTraxx Asia is wider by around +2bps whilst Japan and Australia’s 10Y government bonds have rallied -0.4bp and -7bps respectively.

Looking at the day ahead, the main item on the European agenda is the ECB meeting. Beyond that we will also get the September change in Spanish unemployment, the UK construction PMI (expected in at 63.5) and the euro area August PPI (expected in at -0.1% MoM). In the US we will get initial jobless claims (expected at 297k) and the August factory orders (expected at -9.5%).




via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1vA3kBV Tyler Durden

Meanwhile In Hong Kong "Tonight Is Going To Get Messy"

While overnight the massive student protest crowd swelled to as much as 200,000 according to eyewitnesses as today’s deadline for their demands that HK Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying resign arrives, the gathering was surprisingly peaceful. That may change at any moment.

As Bloomberg reports, student leaders yesterday said they would escalate the protests and may surround Leung’s residence, which overlooks Central, if he didn’t resign today. This morning, about 100 police officers guarded the road outside the office, a rectangular low-rise block that’s part of the government headquarters complex in Admiralty, facing about 200 protesters wearing black T-shirts.

AP adds that the Hong Kong police have warned of “serious consequences” if pro-democracy protesters try to charge or surround government buildings.

Police spokesman Steve Hui said Thursday that authorities would not tolerate any illegal surrounding of government buildings. He urged the protesters, who want top leader Leung Chun-ying to resign, to remain calm and restrained.

 

The protesters gave a midnight Thursday deadline for Leung to resign and for the government to respond to their demands for a change in political reform plans devised by Beijing.

And according to one SCMP reporter, today’s escalation may have already begun, and “tonight is going to get messy”:

 

And the punchline:

Should the protest turn violent again, with tear gas and/or water cannon, keep a close eye on what the PLA will do: so far they have stayed out of it, but if the Police start losing control of the situation, things may escalate very quickly.




via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1rOwk87 Tyler Durden

Meanwhile In Hong Kong “Tonight Is Going To Get Messy”

While overnight the massive student protest crowd swelled to as much as 200,000 according to eyewitnesses as today’s deadline for their demands that HK Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying resign arrives, the gathering was surprisingly peaceful. That may change at any moment.

As Bloomberg reports, student leaders yesterday said they would escalate the protests and may surround Leung’s residence, which overlooks Central, if he didn’t resign today. This morning, about 100 police officers guarded the road outside the office, a rectangular low-rise block that’s part of the government headquarters complex in Admiralty, facing about 200 protesters wearing black T-shirts.

AP adds that the Hong Kong police have warned of “serious consequences” if pro-democracy protesters try to charge or surround government buildings.

Police spokesman Steve Hui said Thursday that authorities would not tolerate any illegal surrounding of government buildings. He urged the protesters, who want top leader Leung Chun-ying to resign, to remain calm and restrained.

 

The protesters gave a midnight Thursday deadline for Leung to resign and for the government to respond to their demands for a change in political reform plans devised by Beijing.

And according to one SCMP reporter, today’s escalation may have already begun, and “tonight is going to get messy”:

 

And the punchline:

Should the protest turn violent again, with tear gas and/or water cannon, keep a close eye on what the PLA will do: so far they have stayed out of it, but if the Police start losing control of the situation, things may escalate very quickly.




via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1rOwk87 Tyler Durden

Nikkei Plunges 420 Points, Topix Tumbles 3%, Most Since March

Define irony. Literally hours after financial entertainment outlet CNBC wrote an article in which it said that “As fourth quarter kicks off, there’s one market in Asia that has investors excited: Japan” the Nikkei crashed.

First, some more humor from CNBC, which quotes JPM who apparently does not realize that crushing your currency to generate nominal gains is a zero sum game, and instead of pitching Japan as the next big thing, he should be focusing on the “upside” in Venezuela or Argentina:

The world’s third largest economy may be struggling to shake off the drag from the sales tax hike that took effect in April, but a weakening yen, improving corporate profits and attractive valuations will likely power gains in equities in the coming months, say strategists.

 

“We are going to get a combination of value meeting growth – the Japanese market is cheap – so there’s value, and on top of that we are going to get earnings growth,” said Jesper Koll, head of Japanese equity research at JP Morgan Securities Japan. ”

 

Koll’s optimism was shared by several other strategists.

 

“We’re overweight Japan. Abenomics is making progress, albeit slowly, the yen continues to weaken, which is good for stocks, and pension fund reform is a huge potential catalyst,” said Simon Grose-Hodge, head of investment advisory, South Asia at LGT Bank.

So yes, entertainment that is free and funny: a great combination.

In the meantime, someone in Japan finally read Zero Hedge articles from early 2013 which were warning about precisely the kind of hyperstagflation that Japan is currently experiencing. That someone happens to be the former finance minister Hirohisa Fujii who in an interview yesterday, said that further falls in the yen may lead to market intervention.

You read that correct: not yen increases, falls! Which, coming just as the USDJPY touched 110 before plunging nearly 150 pips overnight, appears to have been heard loud and clear.

Some of his other comments, which repeat everything we have said from Abenomics’ Day1:

  • BOJ’s policy of monetary easing leading to weak yen is mistaken
  • Weaker yen hurts general public through high prices for imported food and fuel
  • Delaying sales-tax rise would lead to a collapse in JGB market, rise in interest rates

Ironic how all these people wait until they are “former” this and that before telling the truth.

Perhaps it was these comments that forced Sumitomo Mitsui to admit that the USD/JPY is entering a correction phase this month, says Shinji Kureda, head of FX trading, and as a result it could decline to 108.26, the low on Sept. 23 and possibly even 107.39, the high on September. Or far, far lower once the failure of Abenomics is finally filtered through the skulls of the fat fingering momos that make up the Japanese market.

And since the Nikkei stock market is nothing but a derivative of the Yen, what happened overnight puts the CNBC article above in a further amusing light because as of a few hours ago the Nikkei closed, plunging by more than 420 points, or down 2.6%, the biggest drop in months, with the Topix crashing as much as 3%, the most since March 14, on volume that was 26% above the average, and wiping out all of September’s gains in one session.

Something else those who acted on the CNBC article did not anticipate: all 33 industry groups down, led by real estate and glass/ceramics. The biggest decliners Tokuyama -7.1%, Nippon Electric Glass -5.7%, Suzuki -5.7%.

And now we sit back and await news of another half a trillion plus fat finger as the Bank of Japan desperately struggles to preserve confidence in a crashing economy and market.




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

Gold Is “Universally Acceptable” and Why China Is Buying – Greenspan

Gold Is “Universally Acceptable” and Why China Is Buying  – Greenspan

Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Fed, had an article entitled “Golden Rule – Why Beijing Is Buying” published in Foreign Policy, the journal of the influential Council on Foreign Relations in which he extols the virtues of gold as “universally acceptable.”




Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of the United States from 1987 to 2006, and a key architect in the global financial crisis, points out that if the world’s largest gold consumer, China, used a portion of its massive $4 trillion foreign exchange reserves to buy enough gold bullion it could displace the U.S. as the world’s largest holder of gold bullion.  The U.S. holdings are believed to be just over 8,500 tonnes with an estimated value of just $328 billion as of spring 2014.  





Greenspan points out how gold is the ultimate form of money in the world and is “universally acceptable”.

He concedes that “a return to the gold standard in any form is not on anybody’s horizon” right now but points out that if sovereign governments have financial crises, their fiat currencies may not be accepted as payment.

He highlights that bullion holds special properties that no currency can claim, except maybe silver. The fiat currencies and moving exchange rates that make up our monetary system of today are backed by the tax raising abilities of government’s of sovereign nations.  However, gold bullion for over 2000 years has been an “unquestioned acceptance as payment”, writes Greenspan.


“No questions are raised when gold or direct claims to gold are offered in payment of an obligation; it was the only form of payment, for example
, that exporters to Germany would accept as World War II was drawing to a close.”

“Today, the acceptance of fiat money — currency not backed by an asset of intrinsic value — rests on the credit guarantee of sovereign nations endowed with effective taxing power, a guarantee that in crisis conditions has not always matched the universal acceptability of gold.”

“If the dollar or any other fiat currency were universally acceptable at all times, central banks would see no need to hold any gold. The fact that they do indicates that such currencies are not a universal substitute. Of the 30 advanced countries that report to the International Monetary Fund, only four hold no gold as part of their reserve balances. Indeed, at market prices, the gold held by the central banks of developed economies was worth $762 billion as of December 31, 2013, comprising 10.3 percent of their overall reserve balances. (The IMF held an additional $117 billion.) “

“If, in the words of the British economist John Maynard Keynes, gold were a “barbarous relic,” central banks around the world would not have so much of an asset whose rate of return, including storage costs, is negative.”

In the article, he also suggests that China will find it hard to compete with the U.S. in the long term as China is an authoritarian, one party state and does not have free markets.

This comparison is questionable given that many are concerned that the U.S. markets are no longer free. Markets see daily interventions and manipulations and are increasingly influenced by corporate and banking monopolies including the Federal Reserve itself and its continuing massive intervention in financial markets and the monetary system.

There are also concerns that the U.S. is jettisoning many of the civil liberties, civil rights and freedoms that the Founding Fathers fought for and achieved and the emerging surveillance state has the hallmarks of a potentially authoritarian one or two party, corporate state.


The article shows that senior monetary officials and policy makers continue to see gold as an important part of our modern financial and monetary system and as an important strategic assset. Influential global policy makers do not see gold as a “barbarous relic” as many of Keynes ardent disciples of today, including Paul Krugman, would have people believe.

While  he says that gold is important and the Chinese are right to accumulate it, he appears be warning the Chinese government that accumulating too much gold might lead to a very strong yuan on international markets which could lead to defl
ation and a recession in China’s export dependent economy.




The Council on Foreign Relations may be concerned about the ramifications of China accumulating larger gold reserves than those that the U.S. has and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) giving the yuan some form of gold backing. This would pose serious challenges to the dollar as global reserve currency and thus to U.S. hegemony.

Greenspan has on a few occasions warned that the U.S. needs to be careful not to debase the dollar and engage in fiat money ‘extremis.’ If that happens fiat dollars would no longer be accepted on global markets with attendant difficult financial and economic consequences.

RECEIVE BREAKING NEWS AND UPDATES HERE 




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Why Is the U.S. Government Dictatorial Towards Dissenters … But Casual Towards Ebola Carriers?

3 Supreme Court justices, 2 top level NSA executives, numerous Democratic and Republican Congress members and other top American officials have said that we’re basically in a police state.

Obama has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all other presidents combined.  Obama – even more than Bush – is protecting criminal activity by prosecuting and harassing whistleblowers. Indeed, the Obama administration is literally treating whistleblowers as terrorists.

Dissent is also treated as terrorism, and the massive spy apparatus is focused on crushing dissent.  Even trying to protect oneself from spying is treated as  extremism.

The Obama administration has also criminalized investigative reporting.

And yet the government is allowing people from Ebola-infected countries like Liberia visit America.

Why don’t we enforce a travel ban … just until the African epidemic ends?

Kit Daniels notes:

In mid-August, Korean Air and Kenya Airways announced they were halting flights to the West African countries ravaged by Ebola, and British Airways and Air France also decided to suspend service to the Ebola hot zone a few weeks later.

 

“France is recommending that its citizens leave Sierra Leone and Liberia, two of the countries hardest hit by the worst ever outbreak of the disease,” Jessica Plautz reported for Mashable. “The government said the increasing spread of the disease prompted its request that the airline to suspend flights.”

 

Yet the Obama administration made no such request to U.S. airlines and government flights

Indeed, there’s not only open travel for people from hot zone countries, but there are limited screening procedures at airports, and doctors aren’t screening very vigorously either.

While the Centers for Diseases Control are talking as if they are confident, the reality is different:

  • As Dr. Sanjay Gupta notes, there have been lapses in safety at the Centers for Disease Control and U.S. hospitals in treating infectious diseases

American government officials are acting arrogantly – and may be putting us all at risk – in the same way that:

  • U.S. economic officials thought that the U.S. had the world's strongest financial system – and that they had figured out how to permanently stabilize the economy in a prosperous utopia  – but their models were  completely flawed, and made wildly erroneous assumptions
  • The Japanese had the reputation as being the most technologically sophisticated and conscientious people … but their arrogance and attempt to underplay the dangers of nuclear power caused them to take incredibly risky actions which let Fukushima melt down

Postscript: See this for the contrary – mainstream – view.




via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/ZtTZAa George Washington

The Ethics Of Disease Control

Submitted by Logan Albright via Mises Canada,

As the threat of the ebola virus looms large and the Center for Disease Control issues what are undoubtedly hyperbolic projections of over a million casualties to the disease by January, we owe it to ourselves as libertarians to ask a few questions about the ethics of disease control. Is it acceptable to use force to isolate a person with a contagious disease from society, and if so, under what circumstances? How far are we permitted to go in the invasion of another person’s personal liberty in order to secure a safe environment for the rest of us?

We start, as always, with the Non-Aggression Principle, which states that it is impermissible to use force against another except in self-defense against an actual or threatened attack on another’s life or property. The fundamental issue with disease control, then, becomes whether or not exposing others to a disease qualifies as such an attack.

Clearly, the intentional infection of another human being would qualify. Jamming a hypodermic needle into someone’s skin would be an attack even in the absence of any virus. So would mailing someone an envelope filled with anthrax. So would intentional sexual contact while knowingly carrying a sexually transmitted disease. In all these cases, the intent to cause harm is clear, as well as the actual harm caused, and self-defense to prevent this harm would be entirely justified.

But what about the murkier case where a person carries a disease, with no wish to spread it to anyone else, but with the knowledge that going about his day to day life may result in others becoming exposed?

Philosophers typically try to come to grips with these dilemmas by resorting to analogy. One might argue that going about with a dangerous disease is akin carrying a gun which may at any moment randomly fire. Clearly, if a person were to go about with such a gun (suppose it is strapped to his body and cannot be removed) this would constitute a threat to others, and he would be obligated to take precautions to minimize the risk. But this analogy fails because someone would have had to arrange the gun in the first place, and their agency would bear part of the responsibility. Viruses are, after all, simply very small animals that happen to be quite dangerous. There is no one at fault for the affliction, as there would be for the weapon contrived above.

Another analogy might concern a man forced to go about chained to a vicious dog. By entering into society, the man with the dog endangers others, and it would be justified to prevent him from doing so. But again, the analogy fails because keeping a dog or any pet involves an act of conscious choice. We are responsible for the actions of our pets, but not for those of wild animals. If the dog merely chose to follow the man wherever he went, it would hardly seem just to confine him to his house for the safety of others, for he has not violated anyone’s rights. It is not his fault that the wild dog has a particularly strong attraction to him.

This last analogy may come closest to the truth of the virus situation – an uncontrollable organism attaches itself to us against our will, and thereby poses a threat to others.

From a technical standpoint, the afflicted person is not, through any means of his agency, aggressing against anyone else by going out in public with a communicable disease. The disease consists of autonomous creatures who act on their own, and while they lack will in the sense that man has will, they are still capable of acting without being directed, unlike a gun or a knife, or any other traditional instrument of aggression. It is unclear how the mere action of going outside violates anyone else’s rights, or why he should bear responsibility for the organisms temporarily using his body as a host.

Does intent matter? I think it is clear that it does. To return to the sexually transmitted disease example from earlier, this was clearly a violation of a partner’s rights by taking deliberate action to cause an infection, even if the disease may technically operate on its own. Contrast this with the virus sufferer who merely wants to get on with his daily life without harming anyone. Yet in the latter case the necessity for forceful quarantine is taken as given.

Let us examine this topic from another angle. Suppose instead of a disease like ebola, against which most people have little in the way of defenses, we concern ourselves with a mostly benign virus, to which only 1 in 10,000 people have a fatal susceptibility. Now, for residents of large cities, it is difficult to go about one’s daily business without coming into contact with a great number of people, and the odds are high that at least one would exhibit this sensitivity. Does this mean that carriers of this mostly benign virus are in violation of the rights of others by going outside? Should they be compelled to stay in their homes or move to the country? And if so, should the wearers of perfumes and the eaters of peanuts to whom some percentage of citizens have serious allergies be subject to the same treatment? If we were to apply this rule as a broad principle, covering every circumstance, it would be the rare individual indeed who be permitted any sort of independent activity.

To the defenders of the quarantines, then, this question appears to be one of a degrees. It would be wrong to prevent someone with the common cold from getting on a train, but completely justified if the disease were instead smallpox. Both are contagious, and both are capable of killing, but the relative probability of death is what makes the difference. But if the unintentional spread of disease violates the Non-Aggression Principle, why should this not apply to all diseases, even if they are never lethal? After all, it is still assault to hit someone with a wiffle bat, even if there is no chance of killing them.

As one final point, I’d like to address the element of pre-crime inherent in any attempts at forcible quarantine. A person who goes about with a potentially deadly virus, yet who has not yet infected anyone, and who indeed may never do so, for infection is not certain, has violated no one’s rights. Nor is he making any active and explicit threat to do so. To use force on him, therefore, is to punish him for a crime he has not, and may never have, committed. This sort of preemptive strike is usually condemned by the advocates of liberty as unjust.

So where does all this leave us? It seems clear that a broad application of the Non-Aggression Principle to all communicable diseases would paralyze society’s function and result in the forcible and permanent internment of a great many otherwise innocent citizens not consistent with the ethics of liberty. On the other hand, permitting people to go about with extremely deadly diseases seems equally destructive, even if we cannot justify imprisoning them against their will.

I regret that I cannot provide a more definite resolution to these questions, but this remains one of those thorny areas of libertarian thought that, like the issue of children’s rights, requires more debate and discussion. At present I am inclined against the use of coercive force to implement quarantines, as I believe the potential for abuse and government overreach is simply too great to be tolerated.




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

Meet The 17-Year-Old Leader Of The Hong Kong Protests

Joshua Wong is too young to drive or buy a drink in a bar – let alone vote – yet, as The Guardian reports, has become the face of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and an inspiration to citizens three times his age.

 

 

Via The Guardian:

With his floppy hair, baggy shorts and stripy T-shirt, accessorised with a yellow ribbon around each skinny wrist, the only thing distinguishing the 17-year-old from the other teenagers on Wednesday was the bank of television cameras facing him.

 

Joshua Wong is too young to drive or buy a drink in a bar – let alone vote – yet has become the face of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and an inspiration to citizens three times his age.

 

The co-founder of Scholarism, the student movement which kickstarted the demonstrations, is already a veteran activist. At 15, he battled against plans to introduce “national education”, which critics attacked as pro-Beijing “brainwashing”. Scholarism’s campaign brought more than 100,000 people on to the streets in protest; the proposals were duly shelved and Wong became something of a celebrity. He is probably the first mass protest leader who has had to call a press conference to discuss his exam results (he met university entrance requirements, though he has said in the past: “Teachers have always said my only strength is talking and that I talk very fast.”)

 

But his 40-hour detention from Friday, along with others who stormed into the blocked-off government complex at Admiralty, kickstarted large-scale protests and catapulted him to global attention. The arrests galvanised those previously indifferent to last week’s student protests and sparked the wider civil disobedience movement that has paralysed a large part of downtown Hong Kong.

 

The sudden fascination with Wong’s role is not entirely to his satisfaction. “If a mass movement turns into worshipping a particular person, that’s a great problem,” he warned in 2012, after the campaign against national education. More recently, asked about his own heroes, he stressed: “You don’t need role models to be part of a social movement as long as you care about the issues.”

 

…

 

“He’s so young but so wise that you can’t help but have a lot of time for him … He is every mother’s son – filial, polite, principled, hard-working.”

 

…

 

His greatest success as a campaigner may have been to prove that his role has its limits, because so many more people have been drawn in.

 

“Many citizens have said to me that ‘Hong Kong relies on you’ and some even called me a hero,” he wrote in an essay posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

 

“I feel uncomfortable and even irritated when I hear this praise. When you were suffering pepper spray and teargas but decided to stay for the protest despite the repression from the government, I was not able to do anything other than stare at a meal box and the blank walls of the detention room and feel powerless.

 

“The hero of the movement is every single Hong Kong citizen.”

 

…

 

Chinese state media have attacked Scholarism as extremists and a pro-Beijing Hong Kong-based paper claimed that “US forces” had worked to cultivate Wong as a “political superstar” – accusations Wong has dismissed.

*  *  *

Yeah but how good is he at ‘Call of Duty’?




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Ebola In America: The Confirmed Case In Dallas, Texas Could Change Everything

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,

The day that many of us hoped would never arrive is here.  Ebola has come to America.  Air travel between the United States and the countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone should have been totally shut down except for absolutely essential personnel but it wasn't.  And now our nation may end up paying a great price as a result.  On Tuesday, the CDC announced that there is a confirmed case of Ebola in Dallas, Texas.  We know that this individual is a male and that he traveled by air from Liberia to Texas on September 19th.  At that time, he was not exhibiting any symptoms.  It is being reported that he started developing symptoms on September 24th and that he sought out treatment two days later.  Incredibly, he was turned away and sent home.  Then on September 28th he went to a hospital again and this time he was admitted for treatment.  That means that he could have potentially been spreading Ebola to others for at least four full days before finally getting treated at a hospital.  Now he is in intensive care at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.  The CDC says that "there is no doubt that we will stop it here" and is promising that "it will not spread widely in this country".  The CDC better be right on both counts.

At this point, the CDC is admitting that it is not known if others have been infected by this individual.  The CDC also says that it is tracking down everyone that he has been in contact with.  But over four days in a major U.S. city, you can be "in contact" with a whole lot of people.  And what about all of the people that those people were in contact with?

If I was in charge of this crisis, I would admit that we don't know the full scope of the problem yet but that we are dealing with it the best that we can.

Instead, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is taking an entirely different approach.  Dr. Thomas Frieden insists that we have absolutely nothing to worry about…

"I have no doubt that we will control this case of Ebola, so that it does not spread widely in this country. It is certainly possible that someone who has had contact with this patient could develop Ebola. But there is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here."

Frieden better be right about that.

Other "experts" are being even more dogmatic…

"There is no cause for concern," says Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "The Ebola virus is not easily transmitted from person to person, and we have an outstanding infrastructure in place both to contain the virus and trace contacts. There will not be an Ebola epidemic in the United States."

I have no idea how they can say these things when the outbreak over in Africa is completely and totally out of control.  Despite extreme precautions, hundreds of health workers have gotten the virus, and so far global health officials have not even been able to slow down the exponential growth of the Ebola pandemic in West Africa.

And our health officials should not be so dogmatic about how this virus spreads either.

In a previous article, I discussed a study that was conducted back in 2012 that demonstrated that Ebola could be transmitted through the air between pigs and monkeys that did not have physical contact with one another…

When news broke that the Ebola virus had resurfaced in Uganda, investigators in Canada were making headlines of their own with research indicating the deadly virus may spread between species, through the air.

 

The team, comprised of researchers from the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, the University of Manitoba, and the Public Health Agency of Canada, observed transmission of Ebola from pigs to monkeys. They first inoculated a number of piglets with the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus. Ebola-Zaire is the deadliest strain, with mortality rates up to 90 percent. The piglets were then placed in a room with four cynomolgus macaques, a species of monkey commonly used in laboratories. The animals were separated by wire cages to prevent direct contact between the species.

 

Within a few days, the inoculated piglets showed clinical signs of infection indicative of Ebola infection. In pigs, Ebola generally causes respiratory illness and increased temperature. Nine days after infection, all piglets appeared to have recovered from the disease.

 

Within eight days of exposure, two of the four monkeys showed signs of Ebola infection. Four days later, the remaining two monkeys were sick too. It is possible that the first two monkeys infected the other two, but transmission between non-human primates has never before been observed in a lab setting.

There is much that we don't understand about this disease.

I can understand the need to keep the public calm, but why don't these officials just tell us the truth?

At the same time that they are telling us that there is no chance that there will be an Ebola epidemic in the United States, they are also sending out guidelines to funeral homes on how to deal with dead Ebola victims…

CBS46 News has confirmed the Centers for Disease Control has issued guidelines to U.S. funeral homes on how to handle the remains of Ebola patients. If the outbreak of the potentially deadly virus is in West Africa, why are funeral homes in America being given guidelines?

 

The three-page list of recommendations include instructing funeral workers to wear protective equipment when dealing with the remains since Ebola can be transmitted in postmortem care. It also instructs to avoid autopsies and embalming.

Why are they doing this if there is "no chance" that the disease will spread widely?

Hopefully they isolated this Ebola patient in Dallas in time.

Hopefully he did not infect anyone else.

But we need to be honest about the situation that we are potentially facing.  So far, there have been more than 6,000 cases of Ebola in Africa and more than 3,000 of those have died.  Unfortunately, even WHO officials admit that those official numbers "great underestimate" the scope of this outbreak.  The number of official cases has been doubling approximately every three weeks, and the CDC says that under a "worst case scenario" we could be looking at 1.4 million cases by the end of January 2015.

Right now all of the treatment facilities in Liberia a
nd Sierra Leone are completely full and more than 80 percent of Ebola patients have been turned away and sent home without being treated.  It is an absolute nightmare, and now it has come to America.

And as the virus continues to spread, it is inevitable that more carriers of the disease will get on airplanes headed for America.

Unfortunately for us, according to a recent Defense One article the screening done at airports actually does very little to stop the spread of Ebola…

The bad news is that thermal screenings of the international flying population at airports are not likely to yield much by way of improved safety.

 

Here’s why: fever can be a sign of a lot of different illnesses, not just Ebola. And thermal scanning proved to be a poor method of catching bird flu carriers in 2009 as well. So presenting with an elevated temperature at an airport checkpoint does not indicate clearly enough that the fevered person is carrying the deadly virus. More importantly, the incubation period for Ebola is two days. As many as 20 days can pass before symptoms show up. That means that an individual could be carrying the virus for two weeks or longer and not even know it, much less have it show up via thermal scan. So what good are these scanners?

When I first started writing about Ebola, a few people accused me of "spreading fear".

Well, now that Ebola has arrived in the United States, perhaps they will take a second look at some of my recent articles…

-"The Pure Hell At The Heart Of The Ebola Pandemic In Africa Could Soon Be Coming To America"

-"Computer Models Tell Us That This Ebola Pandemic Could Soon Kill Millions"

-"16 Apocalyptic Quotes From Global Health Officials About This Horrific Ebola Epidemic"

-"Ebola Among Health Workers: More Than 240 Sick, More Than 120 Dead"

-"It Is Becoming Clear – We Are NOT Prepared For An Ebola Pandemic"

Let us pray that this is just one isolated case and that there will not be a major outbreak in this nation.

Because if cases do start popping up around the country, fear will spread like wildfire and we could potentially be facing the greatest health crisis that any of us have ever seen.

One of the individuals that successfully survived this disease was Dr. Kent Brantly.  I think that the following quote from him really does a great job of summarizing what we are potentially facing…

"Many have used the analogy of a fire burning out of control to describe this unprecedented Ebola outbreak," Brantly said. "Indeed it is a fire—it is a fire straight from the pit of hell. We cannot fool ourselves into thinking that the vast moat of the Atlantic Ocean will protect us from the flames of this fire. Instead, we must mobilize the resources … to keep entire nations from being reduced to ashes."

A virus like this could change everything if it starts circulating widely.

Like I have said so many times before, let us hope for the best, but let us also prepare for the worst.




via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1v8MxDP Tyler Durden