3 Sept 2012

Federal Reserve has already started QE3, says investor Jim Rogers

Veteran US investor Jim Rogers believes the Federal Reserve has already launched a third round of quantitative easing, despite chairman Ben Bernanke failing to mention stimulus measures in his Jackson Hole speech last week. 

Mr Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros, believes that America's central bank is secretly printing money to avoid "getting egg on their face again" after previous attempts to kickstart the faltering economy with $2 trillion of QE failed.
"I do not know if they [the Fed] will announce it," he told India's Economic Times. "I know they are going to print more money. They already are. If you look at their balance sheets, you will see that something is happening, assets are building on their balance sheets and they are not coming from the tooth fairy.
"They are a little bit embarrassed because they announced QE1 and QE2, and it did not work. So they may try to discuss it. They may just continue to do it without getting egg on their face again, but they are going to print money, they are all going to print money. It is the wrong thing to do, but that is all they know how to do."

Planned Obsolescence Documentary - Everlasting lightbulbs and the evil Apple

Pyramids of Waste (2010) also known as 'The lightbulb conspiracy'
The untold story of planned obsolescence
Did you know that the lifetime of light bulbs once used to last for more than 2500 hours and was reduced -- on purpose -- to just 1000 hours?
Did you know that nylon stockings once used to be that stable that you could even use them as tow rope for cars and its quality was reduced just to make sure that you will soon need a new one?
Did you know that you might have a tiny little chip inside your printer that was just placed there so that your device will "break" after a predefined number of printed pages thereby assuring that you buy a new one?
Did you know that Apple originally did not intend to offer any battery exchange service for their iPods/iPhones/iPads just to enable you to continuously contribute to the growth of this corporation?

The BIG Bankster Survey - In South Africa + The Big Case 'Sheriff served the four major banks!'

Aare asking anyone and everyone in South Africa to complete this Survey:

(Click here, link to the survey) They say: All over the country, more and more people are experiencing financial hardship. All over the world, the pinch is getting worse. Instead of assisting people, banks are making life far more difficult, possibly even breaching human rights. This puts pressure on good people and their families.

Information is gold. We need to know what is really going on. Tell us your story. Your personal data is kept confidential.

Additional: The Sheriff of the Court has just served the four major banks, and the Reserve Bank, with a summons from the New Economic Rights Alliance: Case number 27478/12.
Put simply, the NewERA is asking the High Court to declare our money lending system fraudulent and unconstitutional. We are not suing for money. Alternatively, we are asking the Court to suspend all legal action currently taken against every South African by the banks, until a full investigation has been undertaken into our banking system.

War crime! So called "Syrian free army" execute POW's

A horrifying amateur video from Syria emerged online, showing an apparent mass execution of Assad supporters in Aleppo at the hands of rebels from the Free Syria Army.
The footage shows several bloodied men stripped down to their underwear being forced to kneel by a wall amidst a throng of excited, machine gun-touting men.
Once their captors open fire, the camera jerks away as the crowd momentarily disperses, seemingly unprepared for the nearly 40 seconds of uninterrupted shooting that follows. As the gunfire dies down, shouts of “Allahu Akbar!” resound as the once skittish onlookers victoriously raise their guns in the air, approaching what appears to be a pile of stripped-down corpses.
One of the victims has been identified as Ali Zein Al-Abidin Al-barri; the rebels accused him and his family of killing 15 FSA soldiers during a truce in Aleppo on Tuesday.
The video depicting the apparent massacre has not been verified, though the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said such vengeance was a crime as Islamic law does not authorize the execution of prisoners.
Clive Baldwin, a senior legal adviser for Human Rights Watch (HRW), told BBC News: "What it looks like is execution of detainees and if that is the case, that would be a war crime."

How the super-rich scramble for 5-star property and siphon off the gold output + what might be heading 'off to the moon' - The Slog

Safe houses and raw gold are being snaffled up by the 3%
I read this kind of analysis four or five times already today:
‘…gold will head towards $1,700 an ounce or higher as central bank moves into purchase and production problems increase the demand for gold, analysts said…’
As we’ll see, those ‘production problems’ are not all they seem.
Yes – these are factors about the resurgent gold price, no doubt about it. Also a third factor is folks gambling on the alleged certainty of QE3…although the logic behind the gamble continues to elude me: QE means messing with the Dollar and thus compromising its value, but rather more directly it leads to higher stock market dividends and consequently reduced interest in gold as a stock market hedge.
However, none of that explains the overall sentiment for alternatives to cash, stocks and commodities in the context of falling global confidence in fiat currencies per se.
The Spanish bank run is the start of the accelerator against the euro, but when any currency is withdrawn, do people just stick it under the mattress? Peasants do, but the sleazy elite doesn’t.
The growing appetite for glitzy bricks
Here’s some fascinating news about top-end property prices in Five-Star locations: there is a rush to buy. In France, for example, while anything up to €550,000 simply isn’t selling, stuff in the €950,000-€3million band over the last three weeks has been flying off the agency shelves. So-called ‘known’ or ‘famous’ locations have been reporting a rush since the middle of August at the top end: it doesn’t matter whether it’s Nice on the /cote D’Azure or Issigeac in the Dordogne, the money is pouring in – at over 80% cash levels, and not for occupation, but for investment.
A similar syndrome has been under way in central London, as well as top-end Los Angeles, the West Indies, Singapore, Zurich and Vienna. But it is especially marked in ‘Raj’ Manhattan.

US companies conduct fire drills in case Greece exits euro

Preparations include planning to fill trucks with cash to send into the country, reconfiguring computers to immediately handle new currency

By Even as Greece desperately tries to avoid defaulting on its debt, American companies are preparing for what was once unthinkable: that Greece could soon be forced to leave the euro zone.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has looked into filling trucks with cash and sending them over the Greek border so clients can continue to pay local employees and suppliers in the event money is unavailable. Ford has configured its computer systems so they will be able to immediately handle a new Greek currency.
No one knows just how broad the shock waves from a Greek exit would be, but big American banks and consulting firms have also been doing a brisk business advising their corporate clients on how to prepare for a splintering of the euro zone.
That is a striking contrast to the assurances from European politicians that the crisis is manageable and that the currency union can be held together. On Thursday, the European Central Bank will consider measures that would ease pressure on Europe’s cash-starved countries.
JPMorgan Chase, though, is taking no chances. It has already created new accounts for a handful of American giants that are reserved for a new drachma in Greece or whatever currency might succeed the euro in other countries.
Stock markets around the world have rallied this summer on hopes that European leaders will solve the Continent’s debt problems, but the quickening tempo of preparations by big business for a potential Greek exit this summer suggests that investors may be unduly optimistic. Many executives are deeply skeptical that Greece will accede to the austere fiscal policies being demanded by Europe in return for financial assistance.

What the Economic Crisis Really Means - and what we can do about it


Humanitarian situation worsens in Southern Hebron Hills - Remember Palestine

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a press release that the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory Maxwell Gaylard, led a visit of representatives of the international humanitarian community today to Jinba in the southern Hebron Hills. Almost 1,000 people living in this and seven other nearby communities are at risk of forced displacement due to the designation of the area by the Israeli authorities as a "firing zone" for military training.

Approximately 18 percent of the West Bank has been designated by the Israeli authorities as "firing zones". Most of these are located in Area C, over which Israel retains full control of security and planning. Some 5,000 Palestinians, mostly Bedouin and herders, live in localities now designated as firing zones

Immoral Bush and Blair must stand trial for war crimes: Tutu

South African Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu has called for the trial of former US President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for their role in the Iraq war.


The immorality of the United States and Great Britain's decision to invade Iraq in 2003, premised on the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, has destabilized and polarized the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote in an article in The Observer on Sunday.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner called for the trial of the pair at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Tutu added that, instead of recognizing the sophistications and issues of the world, the then-leaders of the US and UK fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart.”
He further argued that,
the suffering and loss of the victims of the war were beyond the killing fields, in the hardened hearts and minds of members of the human family across the world.”

Immoral Tony Blair, naturally, responded to Tutu in a statement saying that
“this is the same argument we have had many times with nothing new to say.”

Reggie Middleton on banking problems

Financial analyst and investor Reggie Middleton -- author of the BoomBustBlog.com -- discusses the problems in our banking system with GoldMoney's Alasdair Macleod. Reggie states that the current zero-interest rate policy being pursued by the Federal Reserve (often referred to as "ZIRP") is masking problems with banks, but not solving them. He points out the basic truth that money-lending institutions make money off of interest, and that as long as rates remain artificially suppressed, this will constrain lenders' profits. This is an issue all over the world -- something that makes investing in this sector tricky.

US Government criminalizes rainwater collection from your own property - outrageous assault on freedom + interview between Mike Adams and John B Wells "The Great Cull is ON!"

Collectivism is spreading like a cancer across America, where a private property owner in Oregon is now in jail for the "crime" of collecting rainwater that falls on his own property!