Paul "King" Krugman knocked off his Ivory Tower as Fools Sack the Hill! - Capital Account with Mish

Minutes from the June FOMC meeting came out today. They revealed that a few Fed policy makers believe the central bank will probably need to take further action. Whether you think the Fed has failed by doing too much or too little, there is plenty of evidence it has succeeded in propping up the stock market. But are there signs even this is coming to an end? And though Fed members may expect moderate growth looking forward, Mike Shedlock, Investment Advisor for Sitka Pacific Capital, explains why he thinks the US is already in a recession.

China Imports More Gold From Hong Kong In Five Months Than All Of UK's Combined Gold Holdings

Submitted by Tyler Durden: There are those who say gold may go to $10,000 or to $0, or somewhere in between; in a different universe, they would be the people furiously staring at the trees. For a quick look at the forest, we suggest readers have a glance at the chart below. It shows that just in the first five months of 2012 alone, China has imported more gold, a total of 315 tons, than all the official gold holdings of the UK, at 310.3 according to the WGC/IMF (a country which infamously sold 400 tons of gold by Gordon Brown at ~$275/ounce).

INFOGRAPHIC: The LIBOR Scandal Explained for Laymen

Michael Kelley: The LIBOR scandal is being called the “Wall Street scandal of all scandals” and the “rotten heart of finance,” but the massive fraud can be hard to fathom for anyone who doesn’t follow the markets.

The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is a benchmark interest rate used broadly all over the world and affects trillions of dollars of loans – mortgage loans, small-business loans, personal loans – worldwide.

This nifty infographic from AccountingDegree.net gives non-finance folk an idea of the scope of the scandal (h/t r/Politics):

Turkish Threat of Invading Syria - Sheikh Imran Hosein

The Sheikh Imran Hosein answers questions from YouTube Subscribers.
The questions are listed below:

Why we’re light years away from solving our problems - Simon Black

Simon Black: Porto, Portugal

It’s been said that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again but to expect a different result. On that basis, the western world’s economic policymakers are clearly certifiable.

They cut rates. It does nothing. So they cut rates again. And again.

They in debt future generations to ‘stimulate’ the economy. It does nothing. So they stimulate again. And again.

Nothing that central banksters or politicians have done since the 2008 global financial crisis has fundamentally changed economic conditions. Yet they keep applying the same remedies, drawn from the same old Keynesian playbook.

The false premise which guides their decisions is that we can all grow wealthy by borrowing and consuming, instead of by producing and saving. People have been sold this lie for more than a generation. It is embedded in social DNA.

In the current western economic system, you are rewarded for going into debt with all sorts of tax deductions. Save money, on the other hand, and you are punished through taxation and inflation.

The incentives are all wrong; it’s no wonder that people have over-borrowed and overspent given that the system is so blatantly slanted to promote such behavior.

19 Warnings About A Coming Global Financial Catastrophe

endoftheamericandream.com Global leaders have tried just about everything that they can think of, but the coming global financial catastrophe continues to march steadily toward us.  We have seen "stimulus packages", quantitative easing, bond buying, interest rate cuts, emergency economic summits, bailout packages for banks, bailout packages for entire nations, "Operation Twist", unprecedented government intervention in business and massive amounts of new government debt and yet nothing seems to revive the global economy.  In fact, it looks like we are rapidly heading into the second dip of a "double dip recession".  Unfortunately, many believe that this next dip will be more like a full-blown depression.  All over the world, top economic experts are warning that we are facing an unprecedented crisis of debt and insolvency that will result in a global financial catastrophe.  The eurozone is drowning in debt, the U.S. government is drowning in debt and major banks all over the globe are drowning in debt.  Global authorities have been trying to patch the system together and keep it going, but the incredible damage that all of this debt has done is now becoming apparent to everyone.  The global debt bubble that has fueled prosperity in the western world for the last several decades is getting ready to burst, and when that happens the chaos that will result will be absolutely horrifying.
The following are 19 warnings about a coming global financial catastrophe....
1. "Dr. Doom" Nouriel Roubini says that the rapidly approaching financial crisis will be even worse than 2008....

New laser-based molecular scanner will tell your fascist government everything about you from 164 ft away

By Madison Ruppert: As ludicrously farfetched as the headline sounds, there is in fact a new laser-based scanner built by Genia Photonics – who is currently in “a strategic partnership and technology development agreement with In-Q-Tel” – which can detect traces of just about anything on your person from a stunning 50 meters, or 164 feet, away in somewhere around 1/1000000000000^th of a second.

One must realize that as disturbing as this may sound, it is really not all that shocking when you consider the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Future Attribute Screening Technology or the rise and continuing growth of nearly ubiquitous use of facial recognition technology.

Genia Photonics refers to the ability of these types of picoseconds synchronized programmable lasers to be used for “standoff threat detection.” Essentially, this is just a different way of saying the government will soon be able to scan your body, car or belongings for just about any molecule or substance they please without you knowing, all at unimaginable speeds.

If this is rolled out as soon as Tara O’Toole, under secretary for science and technology of the DHS, claimed it would be during her testimony on November 17, 2011, it will become just one of many parts of the American surveillance state.

O’Toole claimed that the DHS Science and Technology Directorate’s first project with the U.S. intelligence community’s investment arm In-Q-Tel – which includes the work with Genia Photonics – is “expected to produce transition-ready technologies in the next 12 to 24 months.”

Chart Of The Year: The Fed Has Doubled The S&P Admits... The Fed

Submitted by Tyler Durden: 

Prepare to have your minds blown courtesy of what is easily the most astounding chart we have seen in a long, long time, prepared by the economists at the, drumroll, New York Fed, which finds that absent what the Fed calls "Pre-FOMC Announcement Drift", or the move in the S&P in the 24 hours preceding FOMC announcements, the S&P 500 would be at or below 600 points, compared to its current level over 1300. The reason for the divergence: the combined impact of cumulative returns of in the S&P on days before, of, and after FOMC announcements. But, but, fundamental, technical, coffee grinds, Finance 101, Oprah Winfrey, Jim Cramer and Econ 101 (in order of relevance) all tell us this is im-po-ssible? Because if the Fed is right about the Fed induced drift, it is all about, you guessed it, easy money. 

Playing God: Genna Reed Investigates GM Mosquitoes Released Into The Wild

Traitor Gordon Brown: Sold Britain’s Gold at Artificially Low Prices to Bail Out a Large American Bank

By WashingtonsBlog: Governments Don’t Manipulate the Price of Gold … Do They?

The Telegraph’s Thomas Pascoe reported Thursday:

One decision stands out as downright bizarre, however: the sale of the majority of Britain’s gold reserves for prices between $256 and $296 an ounce ….
When Brown decided to dispose of almost 400 tonnes of gold between 1999 and 2002, he did two distinctly odd things. (Left: Cupid Stunt Gordon)
First, he broke with convention and announced the sale well in advance, giving the market notice that it was shortly to be flooded and forcing down the spot price. This was apparently done in the interests of “open government”, but had the effect of sending the spot price of gold to a 20-year low, as implied by basic supply and demand theory.
Second, the Treasury elected to sell its gold via auction. Again, this broke with the standard model. The price of gold was usually determined at a morning and afternoon “fix” between representatives of big banks whose network of smaller bank clients and private orders allowed them to determine the exact price at which demand met with supply.
The auction system again frequently achieved a lower price than the equivalent fix price. The first auction saw an auction price of $10c less per ounce than was achieved at the morning fix. It also acted to depress the price of the afternoon fix which fell by nearly $4.
It seemed almost as if the Treasury was trying to achieve the lowest price possible for the public’s gold. It was.

Nazi Gulag: Israeli drone strikes killed 16 (4 Children) Palestinians in 1 week

Israel used the cover of the troubles and election in Egypt to stick it to the Palestinians! The Israeeli violence against the besieged Palestinians in Gaza saw a sharp increase recently. According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 16 Gazans including 4 children were killed and 73 were injured in only one week of Israeli airstrikes, drone and tank shelling. Source

Chris Hedges - Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt