24 Apr 2013

Global Prosperity Hiding Behind Government Bureaucracy + "The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America"

WikiLeaks wins case against Visa contractor ordered to pay '$204k per month if blockade not lifted'

RT: Iceland's Supreme Court has ruled that Valitor (formerly Visa Iceland) must pay WikiLeaks $204,900 per month or $2,494,604 per year in fines if it continues to blockade the whistle-blowing site.
The court upheld the decision that Valitor had unlawfully terminated its contract with WikiLeaks' donation processor, DataCell.
"Today's decision marked the most important victory to date against the unlawful and arbitrary economic blockade erected by US companies against WikiLeaks," the organization's press release stated.
>>Be interesting to see whether Visa will spend $204k a month in fines rather than lifting the blockade generally. Either way, we win.<<

"Panic" For Physical Gold Spreads To UK Where Royal Mint Sales Of Gold Coins Triple

Tyler Durden's picture Following the entire "developing" world (where faith in paper money "backed" by $1 quadrillion in derivatives is at times questioned, and instead the people, for some inexplicable reason, fall back to hard currency equivalents) scrambling out to their local precious metal dealers to find "out of gold" signs virtually everywhere, yesterday it was the US Mint's turn to announce it had halted shipments of the popular one-tenth ounce gold American Eagle coin as it had run out, following a surge in demand (we expect this shortage will soon spread widely to traditional one-ounce denominations shortly).
Things in the US have gotten so bad, not only are most online dealers backlogged weeks and months in advance for most PMs (as the CEO of Texas Precious Metals explained in detail), but respected bullion vaults are also now on the verge of running out of inventory. As Reuters described, "Michael Kramer, president of Manfra, Tordella & Brookes (MTB), a major U.S. coin dealer in New York, has been inundated by orders from existing and new wholesale and retail customers. "It's panic. This is one of the busiest times in quite a while. People think gold's at the lows and they want to take advantage."

Why Krugman and the Keynesians Are Lackeys for the Neofeudal Debtocracy

Charles Hugh Smith: If you set out to design a system that would implode with devastating consequences, it would be the Keynesian Cargo Cult's neofeudal financialization debtocracy. 
The heart and soul of the Keynesian Cargo Cult is the dogma that the cure for all economic ailments is more aggregate demand, i.e. consumption. The Keynesians' fanatic faith in boosting consumption would be merely childishly naive if it didn't directly support a parasitic neofeudal debt-serfdom. Sadly, Krugman and his fellow cultists' single-minded parroting of "aggregate demand" makes them well-paid lackeys and toadies for an extractive neofeudal-neocolonial debtocracy.
Like all cargo cults, Keynesians maintain a magical-thinking belief in the power of wanting more stuff. But in so doing, they embrace and support the mystification that protects the power structure that is dooming the (US) nation and its economy to stagnation and eventual collapse (call it "reset" if you prefer).
By focusing on increasing demand and consumption by any means, the Keynesian Cultists miss the key dynamics of sustainable growth and fail utterly and completely to acknowledge the corrupt and exploitive nature of our cartel-state crony-capitalism economy.

Fire Sale Europe

Nick Buxton: A massive European fire sale is one way finance is using the crisis to entrench neo-liberalism Source

Jo-Jo-oh-no-José, you Dodo Nero, my tolerance has reached zero

barrosophonesEU President José Manuel Barroso’s awfulness has exceeded its limits

José listening to the call of the Duckbilled Platitude
The Slog: Some of the world’s greatest footballers have had surnames ending in ‘o’: Di Stefano, Gento, Ronhaldo, and the Portuguese genius Eusebio. I understand that Eusebio’s compatriot, EU President Jose Manuel Barroso, played football quite seriously as a youngster, and who knows – with a little luck and some talent he might have joined this élite sporting group.
Alas, instead he became a Communist – and then by some quirk of inexplicably freakish process the joint President of an entire continent. Ask around the halls of Europe about this man (and believe me, I have) and nobody really has the remotest clue as to how he rose without the assistance of any ability whatsoever – a truly remarkable achievement. The nearest any official I met came to an answer was a German lady, who opined “He never made a mistake of any importance”. What a depressing thing that would be to have on one’s gravestone.

Investing public is crazy - Who pissed of the SilverFuturist? - Silver lawsuits?

SilverFuturist: It isn't limited to silverbugs. I am probably crazy as well.

NWO Lockdown Boston Citizens Treated Like ISRAHELL's Palestinians!

Note from Alex Jones: Even though we have seen countless instances of lone gunmen on the street, we have never seen an entire city locked down as we witnessed last week in Boston and its suburbs. The very definition of martial law is when due process is suspended and Americans are under military rule.

Sneak Peek At Celente's New Trends Journal & Boston Tragedy

Hang The War Criminals - Jewish Supremacists

America: #1 In Fear, Stress, Anger, Divorce, Obesity, Anti-Depressants, Etc.

By Michael: The United States is a deeply unhappy place.  We are a nation that is absolutely consumed by fear, stress, anger and depression.  It isn't just our economy that is falling apart - the very fabric of society is starting to come apart at the seams and it is because of what is happening to us on the inside.  
America - #1 In Fear, Stress, Anger, Divorce, Obesity, Anti-Depressants, Etc. - Photo by Ishupragun
The facts and statistics that I am going to share with you in this article are quite startling.  They are clear evidence that America is a nation that is an advanced state of decline.  We are overwhelmed by fear, stress and anxiety, and much of the time the ways that we choose to deal with those emotions lead to some very self-destructive behaviors.  Americans have experienced a standard of living far beyond the wildest dreams of most societies throughout human history, and yet we are an absolutely miserable people.  Why is this?  Why is America #1 in so many negative categories?  Why are we constantly looking for ways to escape the pain of our own lives?  Why are our families falling apart?  There is vast material wealth all around us.  So why can't we be happy?

Physical Gold vs. Paper Gold: The Ultimate Disconnect

By Bud Conrad: How can we explain gold dropping into the $1,300 level in less than a week?
Here are some of the factors:
  • George Soros cut his fund holdings in the biggest gold ETF by 55% in the fourth quarter of 2012.
  • He was not alone: the gold holdings of GLD have contracted all year, down about 12.2% at present.
  • On April 9, the FOMC minutes were leaked a day early and revealed that some members were discussing slowing the Fed $85 billion per month buying of Treasuries and MBS. If the money stimulus might not last as long as thought before, the "printing" may not cause as much dollar debasement.
  • On April 10, Goldman Sachs warned that gold could go lower and lowered its target price. It even recommended getting out of gold.
  • COT Reports showed a decrease in the bullishness of large speculators this year (much more on this technical point below).
  • The lackluster price movement since September 2011 fatigued some speculators and trend followers.
  • Cyprus was rumored to need to sell some 400 million euros' worth of its gold to cover its bank bailouts. While small at only about 350,000 ounces, there was a fear that other weak European countries with too much debt and sizable gold holdings could be forced into the same action. Cyprus officials have denied the sale, so the question is still in debate, even though the market has already moved. Doug Casey believes that if weak European countries were forced to sell, the gold would mostly be absorbed by China and other sovereign Asian buyers, rather than flood the physical markets.