news – Page 26419

US Stocks & Gold Rise As Brits Pound USD On Thanksgiving

With the bulk of the US still sleeping on this day of giving thanks, it is perhaps ironic that the Brits have been pounding away at the USD driving GBPUSD to 2013 highs. S&P futures jerked higher on the European open and clung to those gains, extending yesterday's small green close to new record highs (+4.5 points). US Treasury futures sold off modestly then recovered back to unch as the USD slipped gently lower (even as JPY weakness continued). Gold and silver are up around 0.5% from yesterday's close.

The Brits are punding (pun intended) the USD…

But that won't stop US stocks from rising…

Treasuries round trip from earlier weakness…

but gold has been limping higher (with no ubiquitous smackdown yet) since the US closed…

Charts: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/rISHmV9BFzA/story01.htm Tyler Durden

If You Were Out Shopping on Thanksgiving, You Wouldn't Be Reading This Right Now

[OK, granted, you could be reading this on
a phone or something.]

Here’s the lede from
my latest column at Time.com, which went live just
yesterday:

If there’s one thing even more uniquely American than choking
down mouthfuls of turkey no one wants, green bean
casserole no one admits to preparing, and pumpkin pie that no one
remembers buying on Thanksgiving, it’s going shopping all the time.
For god’s sake, George W. Bush counseled a nation still
reeling from the 9/11 attacks that when the going gets
tough, the tough go shopping. “Take your families and enjoy
life the way we want it to be enjoyed,” he said. Forget
baseball—shopping is the national pastime.

Given that, I’m genuinely
amazed at the pushback against plans by Walmart, Target,
and other major retailers to open their doors on a day that
everyone has off but no one has anything to do. Being disgusted by
the willingness of stores to open for business on, what, the
10th or 20th most solemn day of the year isn’t just
incomprehensible, it’s positively anti-American.

As Calvin Coolidge put it famously to a bunch of
newspaper editors back in 1925, “The chief business of the
American people is business.” Just as you can’t have Thanksgiving
without a meal that fully no one actually enjoys (and a guest list
that always seems only slightly less arbitrary, resentful, and
ill-mannered than the manimals in The Island of Dr.
Moreau), you can’t have a functioning free-market economy
without massive amounts of shopping. Every day is “Buy Nothing Day”
in North Korea and look where that’s got them.

Please check out the whole thing.

Please note that this column in no way is a call for mandatory
shopping or opening of stores on this or any other holiday. But it
is an argument for unfettering markets even on this hallowed day
(wait, is this Gettysburg sesquicentennial?).

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/28/if-you-were-out-shopping-on-thanksgiving
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If You Were Out Shopping on Thanksgiving, You Wouldn’t Be Reading This Right Now

[OK, granted, you could be reading this on
a phone or something.]

Here’s the lede from
my latest column at Time.com, which went live just
yesterday:

If there’s one thing even more uniquely American than choking
down mouthfuls of turkey no one wants, green bean
casserole no one admits to preparing, and pumpkin pie that no one
remembers buying on Thanksgiving, it’s going shopping all the time.
For god’s sake, George W. Bush counseled a nation still
reeling from the 9/11 attacks that when the going gets
tough, the tough go shopping. “Take your families and enjoy
life the way we want it to be enjoyed,” he said. Forget
baseball—shopping is the national pastime.

Given that, I’m genuinely
amazed at the pushback against plans by Walmart, Target,
and other major retailers to open their doors on a day that
everyone has off but no one has anything to do. Being disgusted by
the willingness of stores to open for business on, what, the
10th or 20th most solemn day of the year isn’t just
incomprehensible, it’s positively anti-American.

As Calvin Coolidge put it famously to a bunch of
newspaper editors back in 1925, “The chief business of the
American people is business.” Just as you can’t have Thanksgiving
without a meal that fully no one actually enjoys (and a guest list
that always seems only slightly less arbitrary, resentful, and
ill-mannered than the manimals in The Island of Dr.
Moreau), you can’t have a functioning free-market economy
without massive amounts of shopping. Every day is “Buy Nothing Day”
in North Korea and look where that’s got them.

Please check out the whole thing.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/28/if-you-were-out-shopping-on-thanksgiving
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Bill Gross: "Give Thanks To The Fed, But Not Your Wallet"

Some holiday cheer from the one person who surely has the most reasons (over a trillion) to be thankful to Ben Bernanke for.

Gross: Give “thanks,” but not your wallet to the #Fed. Begin to de-risk if you haven’t already. @federalreserve

— PIMCO (@PIMCO) November 28, 2013

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/GhMLEOeJ8vs/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Bill Gross: “Give Thanks To The Fed, But Not Your Wallet”

Some holiday cheer from the one person who surely has the most reasons (over a trillion) to be thankful to Ben Bernanke for.

Gross: Give “thanks,” but not your wallet to the #Fed. Begin to de-risk if you haven’t already. @federalreserve

— PIMCO (@PIMCO) November 28, 2013

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/GhMLEOeJ8vs/story01.htm Tyler Durden

"I Work At McDonalds, But I Can't Afford To Eat There"

For Shawndraka Mack, a 100% pay rise from her current $7.60 “would do just fine.” While some employees turn to blood plasma donation, and most are on food stamps (and other benefits), the mother of two teenagers (on Medicaid) told Bloomberg Businessweek, “I love what I do, but I don’t want to work for nothing.” Between the 40 hours a week she works and the benefits, Mack explains, “I work at McDonald’s and I can’t afford to eat there. It’s crazy.” Of course, McDonalds has ‘tips’ for surviving on their state-subsidized wages but once again, despite Harry Reid’s extrapolated charts, the reality of raising the minimum wage is lost on most who never stop to think of where the ‘money’ comes from; and besides employees have little to no leverage as we explained here.

Via Bloomberg Businessweek,

Mack, who is 40, has been working in the fast food business for 18 years. For the past six, she’s been at a McDonald’s in South Carolina, working 40 hours a week and making $7.60 an hour. “I love what I do, but I don’t want to work for nothing. I want to work for something,” she says.

…

Her fiancé is on disability, and the $600 he receives every month goes toward insurance for her 1990 Honda Accord, the phone bill, and some spending money for the kids. Her salary covers gas for her commute, electricity, and everything else the family needs. The kids are on Medicaid.

The family gets $345 a month in food stamps. Mack says she goes to the grocery store once a month, and whatever she buys has to last until the next trip. She brings her lunch to work every day. “I work at McDonald’s and I can’t afford to eat there. It’s crazy.”

…

A few weeks ago, Mack joined the effort to raise fast-food workers’ wages to at least $15 an hour. “That would do me just fine,” she says. “I expect to stay at McDonald’s. I just want to get paid more for what I know and what I do. I want to make sure my kids have a better life than I do.”

The harsh reality bottom line is if she wants to be able to afford McDonalds or anything else, she should motivate herself to be something more than a minimum wage food service worker.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/QJ1QUk8io_w/story01.htm Tyler Durden

“I Work At McDonalds, But I Can’t Afford To Eat There”

Via Bloomberg Businessweek,

Mack, who is 40, has been working in the fast food business for 18 years. For the past six, she’s been at a McDonald’s in South Carolina, working 40 hours a week and making $7.60 an hour. “I love what I do, but I don’t want to work for nothing. I want to work for something,” she says.

…

Her fiancé is on disability, and the $600 he receives every month goes toward insurance for her 1990 Honda Accord, the phone bill, and some spending money for the kids. Her salary covers gas for her commute, electricity, and everything else the family needs. The kids are on Medicaid.

The family gets $345 a month in food stamps. Mack says she goes to the grocery store once a month, and whatever she buys has to last until the next trip. She brings her lunch to work every day. “I work at McDonald’s and I can’t afford to eat there. It’s crazy.”

…

A few weeks ago, Mack joined the effort to raise fast-food workers’ wages to at least $15 an hour. “That would do me just fine,” she says. “I expect to stay at McDonald’s. I just want to get paid more for what I know and what I do. I want to make sure my kids have a better life than I do.”

The harsh reality bottom line is if she wants to be able to afford McDonalds or anything else, she should motivate herself to be something more than a minimum wage food service worker.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/QJ1QUk8io_w/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Ramez Naam on the Futility of Digital Censorship

Ramez Naam shares an excerpt from his novel,
Nexus, which takes a fictional look at governments’
desperate efforts to restrict the flow of information on the
Internet. The story dramatizes the futility of government attempts
to stop the spread of a new drug once the knowledge of how to make
it gets on the Internet. The drug in question allows human beings
to link their minds together.

View this article.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/28/ramez-naam-on-the-futility-of-digital-ce
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Thanksgiving Food For Thought: The Misappropriation of Our Freedoms

Today, the ruling triumvirate consisting of the military-industrial complex, global bankers, and governments have misappropriated nearly every pillar of society from religion to politics, education, news media, banking & money, and the legal system in order to subjugate nations, destroy freedoms and control the mob rather than being used to liberate, inspire and provide function and utility to society as they should.

Without understanding how those in power have misappropriated the pillars that serve as the foundation of every modern society, one will never be able to understand what are the end goals of the banking class that is deliberately inflating massive real estate bubbles in Asia and massive stock market bubbles in the Western world.

Without further ado, I present to you below, “The Age of Deceit: The Misappropriation of Freedom”

The Bitcoin Parabola Continues: Up 10% In 12 Hours, Hits $1170

Despite the US being largely on holiday, the demand for digital currencies continues to surge. Bitcoin has rallied another 10% overnight as Chinese appetite for alternative stores of value remains unabated (BTC China is nearing its record highs) as USD/BTC is trading at $1170 – on its way to crossing the Maginot line of gold’s spot price (within a few hours at this pace). Bitcoin though has nothing on its smaller cousin Litecoin which has now run from $1.11 to over $48 in the last 5 weeks. In fact, almost every crypto-currency in the world – from Infinitecoin to AnonCoin is surging… with only the ironically named PhoenixCoin (-68% overnight) not rising from the flames of fiat torment.

Bitcoin is making new highs in USD…