4 Jul 2013

Kyle Bass Hunkers Down: "We Dramatically Reduce Portfolio Risk"

Tyler Durden's picture Kyle Bass goes to Japan and finds all as expected...

After traveling through Japan for the past couple of weeks and with their economic experiment at the forefront of the financial press, it is an appropriate time to give an update on Hayman’s current thoughts regarding the island nation. My travels took me from Kyoto, the cultural heart of Japan to Tokyo, Japan’s financial epicenter. I met with all kinds of thoughtful and wonderful people throughout my trip – from tea service with Zen priests in Kyoto to the metaphorical Zen priests of finance in Tokyo. The Japanese people are some of the most inviting, respectful, and thoughtful people with whom I have ever had the opportunity to spend time. There is no doubt that culturally and historically, Japan is one of the richest countries in the world.

Unfortunately, I had this overriding feeling of sorrow and empathy for most of the people with whom I met because my conclusions regarding their potential financial fate were reinforced on this trip.

Crony Capitalism & Collusion with Govt - Max Keiser with Paul Sommerville

Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss Tiny Dick Fuld, the former CEO of Lehman Brothers, who is now working for 'pennies' while the world tries to recover from the global financial disaster that he partly created by acting like a penny stock company. Max and Stacy also discuss interests rates on savings accounts being slashed across the United Kingdom as banks no longer need to attract deposits in this post Tiny Dick Fuld world in which the government and the central bank provide unlimited 'free' cash against which they can lend and in which hunky Mark Carney has been brought in to oversee the new property market 'boom' times.

GRAPHENE: birth of a new future, or death of the past?

drownptThe European Commission is about to spend €2 billion on graphene and human brain research. But the claimed objectives may well be more integrated – and less benignthan they seem The Slog: I’d imagine most of you have never heard of graphene. Graphene is carbon-rich and only one atom thick. It thus qualifies as a near as damnit two-dimensional substance….the first example of such a thing in the real world. Despite being the thinnest material known to exist, it is also the strongest material ever tested— 2-300 times stronger than steel. A lot of atomic and sub-atomic stuff has this ability to defy the size v importance obsession: graphene rocked the world of chemistry in 2004 when UMIST scientists discovered that it had remarkable properties that allow it to conduct electricity better than any other common substance.
As you might expect, most members of our beads-fixated species are interested in how graphene can be used strategically and commercially. China controls 70% of the known supplies of it, and it’s been named a “supply critical mineral” and a “strategic mineral” by the United States and the European Union. It makes semiconductors 100 times faster, and would make every aeroplane 70% lighter. Phones and computer displays made with it can bend and fold. And it has the potential to make people and things completely invisible. Yes, that’s right: invisible.

Orwell Correct - Slavery Returned Precisely by 1984

WealthCycles: On accounts both surveillance and labor.
In 1973, then-U.S. President Richard Nixon said citizens would be okay with the National Security Agency (NSA) doing CIA work, spying on American telecom “to control [the freedom of assembly and speech of] people protesting the Vietnam War.” There’ve been upgrades post 1984, but post telephony, Internet surveillance was “legalized” three years after broad adoption by 1999.
Now they database you, sort you, and geo-locate you. By “you,” we mean all global Internet and telecom communications passing through U.S. fiber. Okay, moving on to labor.

Latin America rising: Outrage at ‘imperial hijack’ of Morales’ plane

Bolivian President Evo Morales talks to journalists on July 3, 2013 at the airport of Schwechat, near Vienna. (AFP Photo/Helmut Fohringer)
RT: Latin American leaders are meeting to discuss the hijack” of Bolivian president Evo Morales’ plane in Austria. Regional leaders presented a united front, defending Latin American sovereignty in the face of what they see as post-colonial imperialism.
The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) will hold an emergency meeting to discuss the EU air blockade that forced the Bolivian President Evo Morales to land in Austria on Wednesday. France, Spain, Portugal and Italy all closed their airspace amid suspicions the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden had stowed away on board the president’s craft.
The 12 nations that are part of the regional block will have a ministerial meeting in the Peruvian capital of Lima to discuss the consequences.
So far Bolivia has already resolved to take an official complaint to the UN over the incident, alleging that the US was undoubtedly the instigator.
"What's at stake here is ... the dignity of Bolivia and the dignity of Latin America," said Sacha Llorenti Soliz, Bolivia’s envoy to the UN on Wednesday in Geneva. Bolivian vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera for his part likened the incident to an imperialist hijack.” 

How America screwed Britain for help during and since the second world war - Benn Steil

Nigel Farage destroys Europe’s latest bad idea "There is a gathering electoral storm" - Nigel Farage MEP

Transcript: Well, for the first time this year we have not just Mr Barroso, but President Van Rompuy has come to the chamber as well.
And yet look around you, and what have we got? Five per cent turn out amongst members? Well they haven't missed much, just the usual drivel about the 'Fight against Youth Unemployment'.

German interior minister: don’t use Google and Facebook if you fear NSA surveillance + A message to O Butthead - WB7

By Madison Ruppert: The German interior minister has advised those who fear being subject to National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance to avoid services offered by U.S. internet giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others.
This seems to be sound advice as U.S. companies have reportedly worked closely with the NSA on their surveillance programs including PRISM.
However, one must note that it won’t necessarily help given that the British GCHQ gobbles up data directly from fiber optic cables, which is then shared with the NSA.
Hans-Peter Friedrich, Germany’s interior minister, may be especially concerned with the issue because his country has been targeted more than any other country in Europe for U.S. surveillance. Europeans have become quite upset about being spied on, evidenced by a student group filing complaints in multiple countries over the surveillance program.
Friedrich told reporters in Berlin that “whoever fears their communication is being intercepted in any way should use services that don’t go through American servers,”

America is God + How can we change things..where are the solutions + I could never vote for New Labour - Owen Jones Interview #22 "fight from within" - BBC Sucks O Cocks News

The Artist Taxi Driver

TELL A JOKE, GO TO JAIL! in the US PIG (Prisoner Industrial Gulag)

A Texas teenager by the name of Justin Carter has been in jail since February for telling an offensive joke. Sign the petition for Justin's release! http://www.change.org/petitions/relea...

Threat Narrative - justifying war

We Are (Still) Winning + Awakening Murmuration

corbettreport: Amidst the doom, gloom and paranoia of the daily headlines, it is all too easy to lose sight of the big picture: that we are transforming the society around us, and we have already had an incredible effect in waking people up and raising awareness of the real issues.