communication skills: Bullhorning Shoppers Lined Up For Thanksgiving Sales 2012
‘Be Careful What You Wish for’ Regarding Fiscal Cliff: Jim Rickards
Jim Rickards has a message for investors and politicians monitoring
talks between Congress and the White House to avoid billions of dollars
worth of spending cuts and take hikes set to take effect January 1: Be
careful what you wish for.
"There are only bad outcomes," says Rickards, a
partner at JAC Capital Advisors. "Taxes are going up no matter what.
It's just a question about whether they go up for everybody [failure to
agree] or target certain people [agreement]. Either way you're talking
about a tax increase in the middle of a depression."
David Cameron's arms sales tour in Middle East + Israel's covert airstrike in Sudan
End of free speech in Europe + Eutelsat SA banning Iranian TV channels again - Double Standards
W(h)ither China? "The End Of Extrapolation"
Submitted by Tyler Durden: The question whether China will suffer a
"hard" or "soft" landing is, in the long-term, largely irrelevant and
misleading. A far more critical question is whether the period of 10%,
or even 7% annual growth, for the world's biggest marginal growth dynamo
of the past decade, is now over. Read on for the answer.
On November 5, just as the 18th Chinese
Congress was about to elect a leadership that would merely perpetuate
the status quo, in "The Chinese Credit Bubble - Full Frontal" we presented a little known fact:
namely that while China's sovereign debt is whatever the country wishes
it to be (which due to the SOE basis of its banks is really a hybrid of
sovereign and financial debt), one bubble that the country can not hide
is that of its corporate debt level, which has hit the highest relative
to GDP level in the enitre world.
Ten days later Businessweek followed up with "Corporate China's Black Hole of Debt"
'Direct assault on sovereignty'! While people starve, The EU NWO make resolution to force members to beef up security
MEPs in Brussels have approved a resolution saying the EU must respond to growing geostrategic changes and threats to global security and make full use of all existing means, including military, to secure peace and security for its citizens.
This means a new EU operational headquarters is in the cards, and that Brussels will have the authority to jump into different crises, including what it calls “high intensity conflicts” – otherwise known as wars.
It is a question of business as well. European MPs stressed that building up Europe’s capabilities would save and even create jobs, pumping more investment into the military industry.
Not all EU member states are going to be jumping for joy over the plans. The more ambitious EU common security and defense policy could leave Britain between a rock and a hard place. The UK will end up getting dragged into military campaigns that it's people have no interest in joining. (No change there then.)
Billions subsidy distorts Dutch banking sector
SOMO: The four largest Dutch banks receive an annual hidden subsidy "of between 4.1 and 12.3 billion euros. This is what they save on their financing because creditors assume that the Dutch banks, this will always save. An amount equal to two-thirds to almost double their profits in 2011. This is evident from the new study "The Financial Obesity in the Netherlands' SOMO.It also shows that wages in the Dutch banking sector in recent years not only significantly increased more than in the rest of the Dutch economy, but also stronger than in the financial sectors in other developed countries. Since the crisis, much of bank profits have evaporated, these wages in the Netherlands hardly adjusted.
This large and expensive banking sector is a burden for the Dutch economy. There are important steps to put the banking sector to lose weight, but more is needed. The Wijffels Committee that the government next year will advise on the future of the banking sector, and therefore further unconventional measures immediately.
Hidden subsidy
The four largest Dutch banks can borrow money relatively cheap because financial markets expect the Dutch state them financial assistance will shoot if they get into trouble. That financial advantage from about one percentage point (ING and Rabobank) to more than two percentage points (ABN Amro Bank and SNS).Catalan Gallifa City Council Declares "Tax Rebellion"
Google translation: The mayor announced 'I paid the tax deduction in the tax agency Catalan'
It is the first municipality that has taken this step after citizens did individually
City Council Gallifa (Vallès Occidental) has declared Tuesday "tax rebellion", so that in addition to refusing to pay taxes for the State, the mayor announced that the money paid at the tax office Catalana, which depends of the Generalitat.:Gallifa Mayor, Jordi Fornas, who plays per Catalan Solidarity independence (SI), explained, speaking in the corridors of Parliament, that the "fiscal disobedience against the Spanish state is a logical consequence" of the fact that it fifteen days the town was declared "free sovereign territory."