Saturday, March 25, 2017
London Terror Attack Red Herring, Real Issue is Age of Reason vs Religion / Politics / Religion
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The British mainstream media has been obsessed over the London terror attack with 24/7 coverage of what in reality was a miniscule pinprick event that the media has blown out of all proportions as though it has any significant baring on the lives of the British people or how the British state functions. Yes for those on the receiving end of the actions of this madman have had their lives devastated but for the rest the attack has virtually zero consequences beyond the anxiety inducing fear mongering relentless press coverage, where the reality is akin to one random road traffic accident, which annually claim some 2,000 lives in the UK, whilst deaths from terrorism average just 2 per year since 2010 to illustrate the point in disparity between media fear mongering vs reality.
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Will Washington Risk WW3 to Block an Emerging EU-Russia Superstate / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Mike_Whitney
The relentless demonization of Vladimir Putin is just one part of Washington’s multi-pronged strategy to roll-back Russian power in Central Asia and extinguish Putin’s dream of a “Greater Europe”. Along with the attempt to smear the Russian president as a “KGB thug” and “dictator”, the media has also alleged that Moscow intervened in the US presidential elections and that Russia is a serial aggressor that poses a growing threat to European and US national security. The media onslaught, which has greatly intensified since the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, has been accompanied by harsh economic sanctions, asymmetrical attacks on Russia’s markets and currency, the arming and training of Russian adversaries in Ukraine and Syria, the calculated suppression of oil prices, and a heavy-handed effort to sabotage Russia’s business relations in Europe. In short, Washington is doing everything in its power to prevent Russia and Europe from merging into the world’s biggest free trade zone that will be the center of global growth and prosperity for the next century.
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Unaccountable Military Industrial Complex Is Destroying America and the Rest Of The World Too / Politics / US Military
By: Jeff_Berwick
On Jan. 17, 1961, US President Eisenhower gave the nation a dire warning about what he described as a threat to democratic government. He called it the military-industrial complex.
He warned, "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist."
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Saturday, March 25, 2017
Police Body-Cam's - Be Careful What You Wish For / Politics / Police State
By: John_Rubino
After the recent deluge of videos showing police abusing and sometimes flat-out murdering more-or-less innocent citizens, the willingness of a growing number of cities to equip officers with video cameras has been hailed as a victory by civil libertarians.
But what if those cameras also extend the surveillance network exponentially? In the future, if a policeman is facing you, he might be filming you. From there, all it will take is real-time facial recognition technology, and Big Brother will be walking the streets with eyes wide open.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
Silver Mining Stock Fundamentals / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2017
By: Zeal_LLC
The silver miners’ stocks have had a roller-coaster ride of a year so far. They surged, plunged, and then started surging again last week on a less-hawkish-than-expected Fed. Such big volatility has spawned similar outsized swings in sentiment, distorting investors’ perceptions of major silver miners. But their recently-reported fourth-quarter operating and financial results reveal the true underlying fundamental realities.
Four times a year publicly-traded companies release treasure troves of valuable information in the form of quarterly reports. Required by securities regulators, these quarterly results are exceedingly important for investors and speculators. They offer a clear snapshot of what’s really going on fundamentally, in individual silver miners and this small sector as a whole. There’s no silver-stock data I look forward to more.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
A Walk Down the Dark Road of Bad Government / Politics / Social Issues
By: David_Galland
Dear Parader,
One of the most fascinating traits of the human herd is its willingness to be led off a cliff by political miscreants.
In modern history, we have two perfect examples to illustrate the point: Zimbabwe and Venezuela.
Accompanying me this morning is a song I first heard in the excellent movie, Hell or High Water starring Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine. If you haven’t seen it, I couldn’t recommend it more highly. The song is Dollar Bill Blues by Townes Van Zandt, and I have tacked some other songs of a somewhat similar genre onto it.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
Stocks Bull Market Time to Get on Board / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Gary_Savage
As I noted in my last COTD, there are signs popping up that stocks are about to, or have completed a very mild intermediate cycle low. The vast majority of traders decide to buy (or join the SMT) after most of the move has already happened. Last summer my biggest influx of new subs occurred right at the summer high in metals. No one wanted to join the SMT in January when I was calling the bottom. They waited till the move had rallied 180% before joining. Go figure.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
Financial Markets Russian Roulette, Central Banks, and Gold / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2017
By: DeviantInvestor
Grab your ultra-reliable 357 magnum revolver and load the cylinder with six, not one, rounds of ammunition. Point the gun at your head if you are a member of the struggling middle-class. Imagine pulling the trigger and hoping …
Do you feel lucky?
The Six Loads of Ammunition for your 357 revolver are:
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Friday, March 24, 2017
Is Stock Market Flash Crash Postponed Until Monday? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
Good Morning!
USD spiked higher overnight, but lost all of its gains after 3:00 am in the Premarket. It hasn’t made a new low yet but, by all appearances, may do so very soon. We will be watching the 98.70 to 99.00 support to see if it is broken.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
Stock Market Bubble and Gold / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
In January, the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke above the symbolic 20,000 for the first time ever. This development raised again concerns about the condition of the U.S. stock market - further gains could be a headwind for the gold market, but the end of the bull market would support the yellow metal. The valuations were at record highs even before the presidential elections, but Trump's rally elevated them further, as the chart below shows.
Friday, March 24, 2017
Maps Of Past Empires That Can Tell Us About The Future / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND JACOB SHAPIRO : Studying history has little practical utility in averting past outcomes. We are doomed to repeat history whether we know it or not.
The value in knowing history is not that one might prevent its recurrence. Its value is that it allows you to identify those things that don’t change and that shape events… no matter the year on the calendar.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
This Single Model Explains Crude Oil Price Swings / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: John_Mauldin
BY JARED DILLIAN : One of the things we learned when oil collapsed a couple of years ago—something I’ve written about previously—was that there was a positive feedback loop embedded in declining oil prices.
Basic economic theory would tell you that as the price declines, so does oil supply. But the opposite turned out to be true. The rice went down, and people pumped more!
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Friday, March 24, 2017
SNP Independent Scotland's Destiny With Economic Catastrophe, the English Subsidy - IndyRef2 / Politics / Scotland
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The SNP have declared there intension's for a second Scottish independence referendum barely 2 years on from the last 'once in a lifetime' referendum was as a consequence of the UK intending to LEAVE the European Union which includes exiting the EU Single Market.
Friday, March 24, 2017
Maps That Explain Why North America Economy Will Flourish / Economics / US Economy
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : The world has seen great change since the end of the Cold War. For much of the past two millennia, political, military, and economic strength has been based in Eurasia. And, since the 1500s, mostly in Europe.
This is no longer true.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the world’s one top power has been in North America. North America is now the center of the international political system. Mainly because of the power of the United States.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
The Best Stock Market Investment Strategy Today: Be Optimistic and Short / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: John_Mauldin
BY JARED DILLIAN : For the last eight years of my life, we’ve been dealing with higher taxes and lots more regulation.
Like I’ve written about before, we’ve been dealing with these things for so long that we’ve forgotten what it was like not having to deal with them.
And if we had elected Hillary Clinton, we would have gotten even more of the same. A few months into the Trump regime, and we have started to figure out that things are going to be very different.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
Stock Market Mixed to Nominally Lower Day with Good Technicals / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Harry_Boxer
The stock market indices had a mixed to nominally lower day with pretty good technicals for a positive down day, which is bullish, but the overall look of the trend wasn’t good. The snapback began yesterday, extended this morning, and came down in a 3-wave corrective pullback. It remains to be seen whether the lows hold, and whether or not this extends to the downside, or if this is just a consolidation before we resume back up. Right now, I favor the downside, so we’ll see if that occurs.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
Stock Market VIX Cycles Set To Explode March/April 2017 – Part II / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Chris_Vermeulen
Back in early February 2017, we posted an article to all our members about how our analysis showed a very strong potential for larger price swings with the potential for a massive explosion in the VIX indicator based on a price cycle pattern we had been studying. Many of you may remember this article, if not Click Here to review the original.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Is Now a Good Time to Invest in the US Housing Market? / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Nicholas_Kitonyi
The US housing market has maintained its subdued growth following Trump’s election to The White House. Towards the end of last year, especially in the run-in to the US presidential elections, there was what appeared to be a strong belief that Trump would be bad for the stock market if elected as president, and by extension the overall economy of the US.However, the US stock market has experienced one of the best runs in history repeatedly breaking the all-time highs from one week to the next. The housing market, on the other hand, has experienced a rather slower growth since Trump’s election, but the point is that it’s been growing, nonetheless.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
The Stock Market Is a Present-Day Version of Pavlov’s Dog / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: John_Mauldin
David Rosenberg is one of the most respected voices in the investing world. His Breakfast with Dave goes out to thousands of appreciative subscribers nearly every business morning.
Rosie is the “Data Meister.” To everyone’s surprise, Rosie turned bullish in a big way six years ago. Now he’s cautious—in a big way—as you’re about to see.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
US Budget - There’s Almost Nothing Left To Cut / Politics / Government Spending
By: John_Mauldin
Every politician in every campaign talks about getting rid of government fraud and waste.
If we could only cut out all of that wasted spending, we would have money either to lower taxes or to spend on something more useful.
Except there is nothing to cut that is of any meaningful consequence.
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