Germany Vs Japan Currency War Heats Up

Submitted by Tyler Durden: Germany and Japan have a long tradition of cooperating, at least when it comes to various iterations of world war, generically in the conventional sense (and where they tend to end up on the less than winning side). Which is why it may come as a surprise to some that earlier today German politician Michael Meister launched what is now the third shot across Japan's bow in what is rapidly escalating as the most dramatic case of global currency warfare between the world's net exporters (at least legacy net exporters: thanks to Japan's recent political snafus, it has now become a net importer as it is rapidly losing the Chinese market which accounts for some 20% of its exports) which started as long ago as 2010 when it was quite clear that currency warfare is what the insolvent world can expect, before it devolves into outright protectionism, and finally regular war as Kyle Bass explained recently. To wit: “What can Japan’s competitors do?” Meister said today in a telephone interview. “Either we’re all smart and do nothing, or we follow suit and create a spiral that hurts us all.”

Something tells us the "we will follow suit"

CYPRUS, THE EU & GEOPOLITICS: Germany out to damage Cyprus-Greece-Israel energy triad….

….IMF out to strengthen US influence

Result: stalemate….and a tectonic shift in alliances?

The Slog: Those who doubt that geopolitics have been at the centre of the Greek debt saga since Day One should read the piece below carefully. The demands being made on Cyprus by Berlin are a thinly veiled attempt to challenge the Greek EZ – and by the IMF, to enhance the American-backed energy/exploitation triad in the region. The Slog outlines the real reasons why Germany and the IMF are at odds.
There can be no doubt that the Cypriot debt (and the dubious nature of the island’s financial dealings) leave much room for justifiable doubt among EU officials. By mid-2012, larger banks like Bank of Cyprus or Cyprus Popular Bank were each reporting loans to Greek borrowers that exceeded the entire gdp of the island. Cyprus is in turn infamous for being a haven in the Turkish half for Islamist refugees – and overall for money laundering, reckless government spending, a disturbingly close relationship with Moscow, and levels of tax evasion that make Greece look like Holland by comparison.
But as I’ve written before on several occasions, Cyprus is the Mediterranean’s Cuba: at the geopolitical level, it is vital for the EU to keep a stranglehold on it….and equally vital for the Americans to be able to use it. Further, the Russians have many business and property interests on the island, and Recep Erdogan over in Turkey would dearly love to grab it for himself, should the region ever be distracted by bigger crises.

Your Thoughts Are Not Your Own - Neil Sanders

Morris: Mind Control is a documented fact. The control of the actions and emotions of an unsuspecting victim has been a reality since at least the 1950's. Neil shows the origins, objectives and architects of mind control.
Neil's web site is at http://www.neilsandersmindcontrol.com

Dispelling Vaccination Myths - Meryl Dorey

Morris: Essential Vaccination Info from Pakistan to Bill Gates - Meryl explains a lot. Meryl Dorey was until a couple of weeks ago president of the Australian Vaccination Network. http://avn.org.au
WD: Side effects? Like, the possible side effect of drinking is urinating? These are effects and labeling them so called 'side' effects is blatant fascism.

This is how money dies

By Bengt Saelensminde: Many investors are expecting a financial collapse in 2013. It’s a nervy time!
On Friday, I suggested that many await the collapse alongside a government bond market breakdown. And it’s true – if the great bond bubble were to burst, it would be goodnight Vienna.
But to my mind, it’s looking increasingly like there won’t be a classic bust in this market. As I argued on Friday, the central banks have got the bond market covered.

Some readers pointed out that the central banks can do many things – but they cannot control inflation. And inflation could be the great undoing of the bond market. This is serious stuff. And definitely worthy of a response, so in today’s Right Side, I am going to look at the impact inflation could have on the fragile British economy.

The scene is set for an inflation blow-up

Now, I never suggested that inflation will be purged just because the bond market avoids its date with destiny. And yes, I know that in the past inflation and a bond collapse have gone hand-in-hand.
But what seems to be brewing is the seemingly impossible. That is, the scene is set for inflation, yet no bond blow-up!
Before we consider how this plays out, we need to consider the exact definition of 'inflation'...

Threshold of Tyranny Passed - Max Keiser with Alex Jones!!!

Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the closing of the American mind as intellectual troublemakers like Aaron Swartz are locked up for decades rather than set free to innovate. They look at the two tier justice system in which these intellectual troublemakers are persecuted while political benefactors on Wall Street are allowed to commit an endless array of financial crimes without any fear of prosecution. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Alex Jones about his appearance on Piers Morgan's show on CNN. They also discuss the targeting of activists and the role of new media taking on the dinosaurs of media. Source

Apartheid Gulag: Israel offers real estate deals in West Bank

RT: Israelis willing to risk buying property in disputed area in the West Bank are being offered ‘amazing’ real estate deals. More property deals are likely to come if Benjamin Netanyahu claims victory in the elections in Israel.
­Netanyahu is seeking his third term in the office and has stressed that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are to be expanded by thousands of housing units.
UK-based Jewish filmmaker Nimrod Kamer went to the disputed E1 sector in the West Bank and found out that not only settlements are being expanded, but the real estate deals in the area are beneficial to Jewish people.
In his film, made exclusively for RT, Kamer pretends to be a real estate developer, who together with a rich UK investor goes to the E1 area to acquire land and property. The filmmaker explores the area and negotiates with locals to get him a better deal.
He also reveals the public mood. At one point in the film he talks with a Jewish woman who wants to sell an apartment, who asserts that the land is Jewish, while Palestinians are just renting it.

'US gun laws row masks police state'

The apparent dispute in the United States over gun control laws is a ploy to mask the country's aggressive foreign policy and the fact that it is a police state, an analyst tells Press TV.

The Strange Case Of Diverging Spanish Exports And What It Means For Europe - Who has our gold?

Submitted by Tyler Durden: As we have been warning for over half a year, and as conventional wisdom has finally caught on, the economy most impacted in Europe by the recent surge in the EUR exchange rate (not because of an improvement in the economy but due to wholesale engineering of asset prices by central banks) is the one that has so far been able to keep it all together - Germany, the same country where Angela Merkel last night suffered an embarrassing last minute loss which may be a harbinger of things to come should Germany slide deeper into recession. This, as also noted repeatedly before, is part of the grand paradox in Europe: unlike every other central bank in the world, the ECB's interventions achieve only one thing: to push the EUR higher, in the process stabilizing secondary market indicators (bond prices, the DAX, swap spreads) but destabilizing EUR-denominated exports. And while the adverse impact on core exporting countries from ECB intervention is by know understood by everyone (and this is ignoring the impact of potential inflation as a result of fund flows to the few safe regions in Europe), few appreciate just how big the EUR impact on the periphery is as well. The chart below from the Spanish economy ministry showing the recent stunning divergence of Spanish exports, should explain why a low EUR is good for not only Germany, but certainly the PIIGS, in this case Spain. And vice versa.

CIA will not have to abide by Obama's drone assassination ‘playbook’ - Report

By Madison Ruppert: According to unnamed officials cited by the Washington Post, the CIA will not be subject to the rules outlined in the Obama administration’s still secret document that has been described as a “playbook” for the government’s drone assassination program.
While the Washington Post reports that the document is the result of a year-long effort by the White House to “codify its counterterrorism policies and create a guide for lethal operations through Obama’s second term,” it must be noted that a federal judge ruled the Obama administration never has to explain the supposed legal basis for the assassination of Americans without charge or trial.
The most troubling aspect of this document, which is reportedly expected to be submitted to Obama for his approval within weeks, is that it will allow the CIA to continue their deadly drone operations for a year or more before having to comply with the “more stringent rules” outlined in the document.
While the Washington Post report focuses on the exemption for CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, one must wonder if this would also cover the increasingly common drone strikes in Yemen (which reportedly resulted in at least eight or nine casualties on January 20).
Indeed, last year, the CIA sought the authority to carry out so-called signature strikes on targets in Yemen, showing the rapid expansion of the agency’s operations in that country and around the world including warzones that get very little coverage.

Keynesians and Ponzians

Monty Pelerin's World: The economy cannot recover without a complete cleansing of the excesses that have built up over the last half century plus. This mantra has been repeated again and again on this website and elsewhere. It is not a unique idea. It is a foundational belief of Austrian economics and an integral part of Austrian Business Cycle theory.

Ludwig von Mises provided this fundamental observation:

Credit expansion can bring about a temporary boom. But such a fictitious prosperity must end in a general depression of trade, a slump.

There has likely never been a boom so great (and so fictitious) as the one that this country experienced for the last several decades. Its origins began with the hubris of government economists in the decade of the 1960s who believed that the economy could be managed like a piece of machinery. They believed that they had the tools (and wisdom) to eliminate business cycles by judiciously stepping on and letting off the gas at the correct times.
This incorrect belief is still fundamental to Keynesian economists, despite the impressive string of failures it has produced. Empirics notwithstanding, the belief is maintained. The misjudgments of practitioners, not the theory, are responsible.

WikiLeaks reveals association with Aaron Swartz

RT: In a series of tweets, WikiLeaks disclosed that deceased Internet activist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz contributed to the organization and had even been in contact with Julian Assange. ­WikiLeaks said it was divulging this information “due to the investigation into the Secret Service involvement with #AaronSwartz.”

Swartz, who committed a suicide on Jan. 11, was arrested two years ago for breaking and entering into an MIT storage closet and accessing an Acer laptop that he programmed to download millions of scholarly articles from the JSTOR database. The Secret Service took charge of the Swartz investigation two days before his arrest and provided the prosecution with information that led to its harsh pursuit of the 26-year-old. 
While it is unclear why WikiLeaks decided to disclose Swartz’s involvement with the document archive organization, some have suggested that the alliance may have prompted the US Attorney’s Office and the Secret Service to pursue Swartz more harshly.
WikiLeaks confirmed that Swartz was in contact with its founder, Julian Assange, and indicated that he might have been one of their sources.
“Aaron Swartz assisted WikiLeaks #aaronwartz,”