As stocks fall, volatility spikes, perceived safe haven yields hit
record lows, potential criminal Libor charges loom, and headlines tout
"Global Economy in Worst Shape Since 2009," a large group of investors
are meeting in Vancouver for the Agora Financial conference. The theme
of the conference is 'Innovate or Die: Empire at a Turning Point.' We
check in with the organizer, Eric Fry, Editor of the Daily Reckoning and
Chief Investment Strategist at Agora Financial to find out why high
profile investors and economic experts see such high stakes and what
answers they may have.
23 Jul 2012
UK police Overkill facing difficult questions over brutality, racism, criminality and murder x 65 per year since 1990 + 0 convictions!
Overkill: "Shot 7 times in the head!" Some figures the UK police do not like talking about are 1,433 people
killed after contact with them since 1990 and zero, the number of police
officers to have ever been convicted for those deaths. Source
Why We Can All Kiss This Financial System Goodbye - Michael Pento
The wages of QE are dividends, Bernanke is up for more of it - The Slog
False dividend bonanzas don’t benefit anyone but the rich
The first six months of what should be a flatlining year for business
is showing big returns for those who are, um, big. And multinational.
And being handed cheap aka free money by a combo of QE and Zirp from
those
Libor-fixers
careful money managers at the Bank of England.
Libor-fixers
careful money managers at the Bank of England.
Q2 dividends paid to shareholders by large UK-based companies leapt
18% to hit just under £23bn. The 2012 half-year total so far is £41.4
billion – up 21%. The slow-down reflects the fact that there was less
free money in Q2 than in Q1…and Mervyn King was outvoted in his desire
to have another bash with QE3 last week. Very little of this profit
growth reflects ‘business’. It is simple treasury investment by finance
directors on the whole. The global business picture is awful, but that
hasn’t stopped UK directors from slashing out on big dividends for
investors in their own concerns.
The reason for this isn’t hard to discern: big dividends and
profits push up share-prices, which in turn allow stockholders on the
Board to cash in and take out cash at relatively low tax rates. But
here’s the bad news for Britain…and capitalism:
1. The real sales picture in many cases is pretty dreadful. Now would
be a good time, in fact, to invest in having better products
and greater productivity, ready for the time when consumers start to
consume again. Unfotunately,
2. The corporate investment sector is very depressed indeed. As in,
lower in relative terms than it has been at any time this century.
TSA scum update: Ashes Spilled After TSA Confrontation
A man carrying his grandfather’s ashes home from Florida’s Orlando
airport is furious after a confrontation with a Transportation Security
Administration ended with the deceased man’s ashes spilled on the
airport floor.
John Gross was leaving Florida with the remains of his grandfather in a tightly sealed jar marked “Human Remains, ”
Ask the hard questions - SilverFuturist + WAKE UP! AMERICA, UK, the WEST IS COLLAPSING!!!
U.S. Anaheim Police try to buy videos from witnesses after releasing attack dog on families and firing rubber bullets, After Crowds Gather To Protest Man's Shooting
By Madison Ruppert: Police in Anaheim, California have a lot of explaining to do after
attempting to buy the videos captured by witnesses after shooting people
with rubber bullets and releasing an attack dog on a crowd including a
mother and her child.
Usually, we see people get arrested, brutally beaten, or labeled “professional agitators” for legally
filming police activities. Trying to actually buy the video from the
witnesses is, at least in my opinion, a novel tactic in the ongoing war
on accountability.
The video (at the bottom of the post) is nothing short of disturbing
as it shows police shooting seemingly wildly into a crowd which includes
young children and, most troubling of all, it even shows police
releasing a dog which heads straight for a mother and her child.
The mother was able to react quickly enough to get her child out of
harm’s way but a bystander wasn’t so lucky. We see the dog clamp down on
his arm in the video as he is struggling to break free from the jaws of
the police attack dog while officers try to separate them.
The individuals gathered in order to protest the shooting – which
they maintain was unjustified – of a young man at the hands of police.
The shooting occurred on Saturday around 4 PM in front of an
apartment complex after a foot chase, according to Orange County
Sergeant Bob Dunn, quoted by the Associated Press.
Iran's intelligence arrests 30 Mossad hired terrorists
Rezaeinejad was gunned down by Mossad armed terrorists in Tehran on July 23rd, 2011. Source
RED ALERT – EXHAUSTION SYNDROME ACTIVATED
John Hussman points out the obvious. Obvious to everyone
except the the big swinging dicks on Wall Street and the high frequency
trading computer nerds. If the market has not fallen because it believes
Ben Bernanke will come to the rescue with QE3, then it is already
priced in. The previous QE efforts have been nothing but a dose of
adrenaline to a patient dying of cancer. They have had zero impact on
the real economy. QE has created no jobs. QE has not raised wages. QE
has only enriched Wall Street traders and banksters. Recession is here.
Europe is imploding. Greece is dead country walking. The market is
poised to drop. Are you poised to survive the drop?
Extraordinary Strains
John P. Hussman, Ph.D.
Just weeks after the enthusiasm over Europe’s plan to plan for the
possibility of using the European Stability Mechanism to bail out
Spanish banks, the subtle technicality – that direct bailouts would make
all of Europe’s citizens subordinate to even the unsecured
bondholders of Spain’s banks – has predictably deflated that enthusiasm.
On the growing recognition that addressing Spain’s banking problem will
mean taking those banks into receivership, wiping out unsecured debt
(much of which unfortunately was sold to unknowing Spanish savers as
secure “savings” vehicles), and having the Spanish government sort out
the damage, Spanish 10-year debt plunged to new lows last week (see
chart below), and Spanish yields hit fresh Euro-crisis highs. At the
same time, interest rates in Germany, Finland, Holland, Denmark and
Switzerland all moved to negative levels looking 2-5 years out. The world is paying
these governments to lend money to them, because the only way to
acquire other default-free, non-commodity assets is to hire armored
trucks and secure vaults to take delivery of physical currency. This set
of conditions is not normal or sustainable, and indicates extreme
credit market strains in Europe.
The Euro also hit a fresh 2-year low last week at 1.21, just a shade above its 2010 crisis low of 1.20. Likewise, the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds dropped to 1.45%, matching the historic low it reached a few weeks ago. Yields were higher even in the depths of the Great Depression
Why All Must Demand A Stop To Financial Fraud - Karl Denninger
Why All Must Demand A Stop To Financial Fraud
By Karl Denninger:
Oh boy, what a minefield to wade into today...First, let's start with Draghi.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said that revelations about the setting of the Libor, or London offered interbank rate, undermine confidence in the the world’s financial system, according to an interview with French newspaper Le Monde.Of course the problem is that he and his cohorts knew about it and did nothing. That much is documented fact at this point, just as it is documented fact that The Fed knew in early 2008 (and perhaps earlier) and did nothing.
The problem with these sorts of "exhortations" is that the way to restore confidence in the system is for those in government who knowingly averted their eyes to commit seppuku. They won't, of course.
Why not prosecute them? Because we as citizens have consented to laws that have no "or else." Look at The Federal Reserve Act over on The Fed's own web site. Read the whole thing. Do you see an "or else" anywhere? There is no penalty clause anywhere within the "act"; it is therefore nothing more than a grant of power with a suggestion, but not a stricture, on how it is used and abused. And abused it has been -- serially and wantonly.
Barofsky, Mr. TARP, has written a book. It is due out Tuesday and I may well pick up a copy and read it. I don't know if I need to read it though; the story says: