Genocidal Kissinger, the butcher of Cyprus, Cambodia, Chile, East Timor, Vietnam, Greece, Argentina, Nicaragua, etc. etc. etc. ..defender of "freedom and democracy"? Are You Fucking Kidding?‏

Fred Branfman: It sounds like satire, and it would be funny if it weren't true.
The Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in New York City is planning to give Henry Kissinger an award on May 23rd for "defending freedom and democracy."  
No living American has done more to subvert both freedom and democracy than Mr. Kissinger.¹
Register your complaint with the Intrepid by clicking here.
Kissinger worked with President Nixon to betray the U.S. Constitution by illegally bombing Cambodia without even informing Congress, and committed countless crimes against humanity through his role in dropping 3.7 million tons of bombs

“And the award for the most creative excuse for joining currency wars goes to…”

By Alexander Gloy:

… the Bank of Israel!

• On Monday, Bank of Israel cut interest rates in a surprise decision to 1.5% from 1.75%.
• Also, they are done with watching the Shekel strengthen against the dollar:

“Beginning this year, and in coming years, the Bank of Israel will purchase foreign exchange in order to offset the effect of natural gas production on the exchange rate.”

• Hilarious! The BoI tries to ‘justify’ entering the global currency wars with natural gas production. A top contender in Central Banking Oscar’s for “Most creative excuse for FX manipulation”!

Central banks lose control: Schäuble fears global financial crisis

Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten: Wolfgang Schäuble, the enormous amounts of money scary, the central banks have pumped into the markets. He asks the central banks to collect the cash back. However, these have not the slightest idea how this will go. The central planners dawns on you that the game is likely to lead to banking crash. Therefore, the EU wants to participate savers to banks crashes to avoid a system collapse.

The situation on the stock markets has become quite confusing. (Graphic: onvista.de)

At the meeting of G7 finance ministers said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, the finance minister "increasingly concerned" about "the relative high level of liquidity" were. This was communicated to the central bank chief. Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann assisted and said that monetary policy can not solve the structural problems. According to Reuters, he said, would last The longer the period of low interest rates, the greater the risk to stability.

The rise of the Fourth Reich

By Sarah and Gerhard Pross: “There was the First Reich with all the Habsburgian Emperors, then the Second Reich with the Prussians and Bismarck; Hitler called his dictatorship the Third Reich and now we have the Fourth Reich with Angela Merkel.” I had to think for quite some time, but finally I nodded. The young Cypriot lady was right.
Petroula studies history, archaeology, and German at the University of Cyprus. Like her brother, she wants to continue her studies in Germany. There are five bright kids in the family and due to EU membership, Cypriots pay no university fees in Germany. It is enough to be a good student. Petroula and her brother will make it. They have a future.
“It doesn’t make sense to deny dominance, that is if it exists,” said the German president Joachim Gauck a few days ago. I had to think for quite some time, but finally I nodded. To be aware of power structures is the foundation of rational politics. “Do not expect justice where might is right,” President Anastasiades told a European audience in Limassol by quoting Plato. Why is it such a problem to accept ancient Greek wisdom?

What No One Wants to Hear About Benghazi

By Ron Paul: Congressional hearings, White House damage control, endless op-eds, accusations, and defensive denials. Controversy over the events in Benghazi last September took center stage in Washington and elsewhere last week. However, the whole discussion is again more of a sideshow. Each side seeks to score political points instead of asking the real questions about the attack on the US facility, which resulted in the death of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Republicans smell a political opportunity over evidence that the Administration heavily edited initial intelligence community talking points about the attack to remove or soften anything that might reflect badly on the president or the State Department.
Are we are supposed to be shocked by such behavior? Are we supposed to forget that this kind of whitewashing of facts is standard operating procedure when it comes to the US government?

Muslim students discriminated against in the UK

Press TV: UK's City University has banned Muslim students from praying on its premises because they refused to submit the content of the Friday sermon before it took place. The students say this would have been tantamount to curtailing their free speech and freedom to worship. The university, on the other hand, says that they fear that extremist messages would be preached during the khutba, something the students deny.

JGB Futures Halted (Again) For Biggest 2-Day Plunge Since Lehman; 5Y Yields Hit 13 Month Highs

Submitted by Tyler Durden: Another night; another Japanese government bond futures halt. The last 2 days have seen JGB prices plunge at the fastest rate since the post-Lehman debacles in Sept/Oct 2008 smashing back to 13 month highs. 5Y yields are surging even more - trading above 34bps now (up from 9.9bps on March 5th). These are simply astronomical moves in the context of JGB history and strongly suggest Abe & Kuroda are anything but in control of the quadrillion Yen domestic bond market as they jawbone inflation expectations into the psychology of the people. Of course, the Nikkei is surging (now up 9% in the last 5 days alone) amid JPY breaking above 102 (but for now it has rallied back to 101.80). Japnese interest rate implied volatility is surging once again also (after its epic collapse last week - which appears the worst-timed lifting of hedges ever, or more like a lifting of hedges into an unwind of actual long positions).

The last 2 days (since JPY broke 100) have been tempestuous at best!!

EU DEBATE: Brown Ed, Blue Labour, Black Boris and Brussels bollocks await us

All the sizes in all the colours as the EU antagonists charge out of the blocks

The Slog: The Prime Minister is off to America, where it is expected he will be briefed on what to think during the coming year. But before leaving, he will kick off his big EU fightback with some pro-Brussels spin that is so leaden, it really does feel like something Mandelson might have come up with in 2005. Staying in the EU, Cammers will claim, will earn £10 billion for Britain. This is because the Eton Mess hopes to help clinch a global trade deal with Obama and the EU, so of course it is a very good reason for keeping the Special Relationship as well. By the way, given the likely outcome of these trade talks, while Britain will trouser £10bn, Washington will pick up a mere £63bn, or slightly more than they paid in debt interest last week. ‘The deal could be worth £380 a year for each British family’ puffed the Number Ten Bollockserator.

Anyway, just so we’re clear here, the reason to stay in the EU is because it’s about to do a deal with the US.

Nigel Farage on Tories EU troubles and ex-LibDem Chris Huhne early prison release

liarpoliticians: Edited version of this inteview to show questioning of Nigel Farage on the Conservative's woes on the Queen's Speech and the push to have an EU referendum.

The City of London and the Offshore sector - The Enemy Within

By Rowan Bosworth-Davies: The City of London, the world's biggest tax evasion facilitator and money laundry has just been given some more good news, courtesy of George Osborne and the Coalition Government. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has just sent them a lightly coded message that their offshore revenue stream is guaranteed for the foreseeable future! 

George Osborne has just chaired a G7 ministers' meeting at which the question of tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance was on the agenda!

The Huffington Post reports that "...Osborne G7 Talks Sees Chancellor Criticised After Dodging Details On Tax Avoidance..."

How I Printed So Much Money in Zimbabwe That the Country Experienced Hyper-Inflation

By Robert Wenzel: Who knew?
The former head of Zimbabwe's central bank, Gideon Gono, wrote a book in 2008, Zimbabwe's Casino Economy. The book is about his running of the bank during the country's period of hyper-inflation.
From the blurb for the book:

This is the remarkable first-hand account of the tenure of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, from December 2003 until November 2008. A close colleague of President Robert Mugabe, he explains why he cherishes that opportunity to serve him and his country. [...]  He outlines the Reserve bank response to the challenges, and concludes by mapping a socio-economic roadmap for reform and recovery. After an introductory bio-professional note, the chapters cover: The Invisible Hand's Dirty Politics; The Market Economy as a Casino Economy; Corrupting Banking and the Stock Exchange; Illegal Sanctions as Terrorism; When Things Fell Apart;

CBI SAYS UK ON ROAD TO RECOVERY. Now you should be really afraid!

The Confederation of British Industry has a credibility problem. I wish it would just shut up.

The Slog: “We continue to expect UK economic growth to strengthen and become more broad-based over this year and next,” said Stephen Gifford, the CBI’s director of economics earlier today as, for the 27th time over the last three years, an alleged authority figure came out of the silo to tell us everything is going to be alright really, no - really.

Mr Gifford didn’t quantify exactly how long he’d been continuing to expect, so let me offer a view as to what valuation we should put on this latest CBI forecast.

Late in 2011, an upbeat CBI said the UK economy would return to growth in 2012 at the level of 0.9%. It then downgraded that forecast to 0.6%. In fact, 2012 was economically flat, with a drop of 0.3% in Q4. But at the end of 2012, the CBI said we would return to “modest growth” in 2013. In the first quarter of 2013, growth was confirmed at 0.3%, which is very modest indeed. Taking the last two quarters in fact, it is still (optimistically) flat….and only just avoided a third dip into recession.