Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Why Star Trek Is Wrong: There Will Always Be Scarcity / Economics / Economic Theory
Jonathan Newman writes: With the recent successes and announcements of sci-fi movies and TV shows like The Martian, Interstellar, and new incarnations of Star Trek and Star Wars, no one can deny that we crave futurism and stretching our imagination on what advanced technology can accomplish. Many look to the example of these fictional worlds as an indication of what life might be like when technology can provide for all of our basic needs, a condition some call “post-scarcity.”
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Wednesday, October 21, 2015
US Dollar Key Days / Currencies / US Dollar
The next two days are key. If the bounce over the last three days was the start of a new daily cycle then gold will drop down into a hard daily cycle low.
If one the other hand the dollar forms a swing high today and closes significantly back below the 10 DMA and more importantly follows through to the downside tomorrow it will signal that the bounce was a counter trend move and the dollar is going to test the August lows before the cycle bottoms.
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Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Wal-Mart Symbol of U.S. Economic Condition / Companies / Retail Sector
Whether you love it or hate it, Wal-Mart is a goliath among giants. It employs 1.4 Million Americans or 1% of the work force. As a gauge of economic activity, financial analyses weigh the performance, sales and consumer attitudes closely. So with the historic stock crash of 10% in one trading day and 22% overall, quite a lot of attention was reported. Most noteworthy comes from The Street; Did Wal-Mart’s CEO Just Drop a Major Bombshell?
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Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Why Opportunistic Investor Chen Lin Is Hoping for $20/Barrel Oil / Commodities / Oil Companies
A quick drop to $20/barrel oil could be the best thing for energy companies with enough cash in the bank to take advantage of the sharp bounce predicted in the wake of such a dramatic fall. In this interview with The Energy Report, newsletter writer Chen Lin names two companies that could not only survive the oil price downturn, but also are perfectly positioned in the global market to start generating barrels of cash for investors.
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Wednesday, October 21, 2015
David Cameron Grovels At the Feet of Xi Jinping Chinese Emperor Dictator / Politics / UK Politics
David Cameron whilst on the one hand encouraging sanctions against the likes of Czar Putin, Russia's tin pot dictator for his rampage across eastern europe. Instead embarrassingly, when faced with China's Emperor Dictator Xi Jinping, David Cameron has bent over backwards to have not just himself but the whole of the British establishment literally groveling at the feet of the head of the emerging totalitarian global military power, that in many respects is worse than Czar Putin's Russia.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
China’s Stock Market Crash and Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
The stock market crashes were – alongside the devaluation of yuan – the most important recent developments in China. The stock market started rising during the summer of 2014, when the property market started to burst. The timing is no coincidence, as the government wanted to replace one bubble by another. By inflating (or at least cheerleading) the stock market bubble (by cutting interest rates and providing liquidity into the markets via the Pledged Supplementary Lending and Medium-Term Lending Facility, the Chinese version of quantitative easing both worth over the 2 trillion yuan), the Communist Party of China wanted to sell equity stakes of dangerously debt-burdened state enterprises and help clean up messy balance sheets, as well as to create a wealthy middle class, as a condition to move from exports/investment-led growth to domestic-consumption-led growth.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
American Households Confusion, Delusions & Illusions, Living on the Brink of Catastrophe / Politics / Social Issues
Two recent surveys, along with numerous other studies and data, reveal most American households to be living on the brink of catastrophe, but continuing to act in a reckless and delusionary manner. There have certainly been economic factors beyond the control of average Americans that have resulted in real median household incomes remaining stagnant for the last 36 years. The unholy alliance of mega-corporations, Wall Street and bought off corrupt politicians have gutted the nation of millions of good paying jobs under the guise of globalization, while utilizing debt, derivatives and financial schemes to enrich themselves. The malfeasance of the sociopathic privileged class does not discharge the personal responsibility of citizens for living within their means. A lack of discipline, inability to delay gratification, failure to understand basic mathematical concepts, materialistic envy, absence of critical thinking skills, and a delusionary view of the world have left the majority of Americans broke and in debt.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Gold On Verge Of Posting First Positive Year Since 2012 / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
Gold is looking likely to finish the year positive for the first time since 2012, according to Frank Holmes writing in Forbes today. Holmes points to the weaker US dollar, the probability of near-zero interest rates for the remainder of the year and a seasonal increase in demand as underpinning the positive momentum.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Over 65 and Looking for Finance? You’re Barred / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
Over the past few years personal finance products have come under greater scrutiny and tighter regulation in order to protect those with poor credit ratings from borrowing beyond their means. However, while this regulation has been put in place for the right reasons, it is also having a negative impact on older borrowers, who are increasingly facing high minimum income or funding requirements or, even worse, being turned away from finance altogether.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Stock Market Déjà vu 2011- Is the Dow Getting Ready to Soar? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
The paranoiac is the exact image of the ruler. The only difference is their position in the world. One might even think the paranoiac the more impressive of the two because he is sufficient unto himself and cannot be shaken by failure. -
Elias Canetti
Feels like 2011 all over again. The Dow is tracing a pattern that bears an uncanny resemblance to the one set in 2011. History could be repeated again; the Dow could be ready to rumble instead of being taken down for the count. When the markets were plummeting in 2011, many experts were making the same dire predictions, while others were wondering if the bull had bashed its head into a brick wall. Turns out that the so-called crash was nothing but a hiccup in what turned out to be one of the most massive bull run’s of all time. Faced with the same paradigm again, the talking heads (many who actually have the impudence to call themselves experts) are marching to the same drumbeat and chanting the same hymn of doom.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
What is U.S. Congress Proposing Now? / Politics / US Politics
It's no secret that America's highways and bridges are a sham and the overall transportation system is in desperate need of funding.What is troubling is Congress' latest solution.
We pay for our highways and bridges through a tax on gasoline, which puts the cost of the transportation system squarely on users. Currently, the federal tax on a gallon of gas is 18.4 cents. That tax hasn’t changed since 1993, when gas was $1.16 per gallon, making the tax rate 19%.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Revolutionary Statists Means Lower Living Standards / Politics / US Politics
The latest crop of government supplicants lick up the promises of expanded social welfare from the charlatans that run for public office. The first Democratic Presidential debate was a deranged rally for the sickest sociopaths that a terminal society could find. The most radical proponents of insanity were not named Clinton, Sanders or O’Malley; no the mentally ill audience and the dullard clones that support the governance directives of the Democratic Party are most in need of professional mental help. Indeed, the ranks have fallen so far, from the standards under John F. Kennedy, that the party is no longer recognizable. With the paragon of their “Great Society”, the successors to FDR socialism have become the ultimate threat to what remains of the Republic.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
More Bad News From China.... Stock Market Yawns.... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
China reported their growth numbers yesterday and they were very poor. They were lower than expected, and showed the slowest growth in six years. Not good news again on the economic front, especially since China is such an important importer and exporter of goods. This news gave our market the excuse to sell today, since we are overbought not only on the sixty-minute chart, but on the daily charts as well when we look at stochastic's.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
EWI's FOREX FreeWeek is now on: Get free, live forecasts for USD, EUR, JPY and more / Currencies / Forex Trading
Greetings,
Our friends at Elliott Wave International have just announced the start of a rare, free event for forex traders at elliottwave.com:
Forex FreeWeek, Oct. 19-23
Now through noon on Oct. 23, test-drive their trader-focused Currency Pro Service -- at no cost to you.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
(Interview) Forex FreeWeek Preview: "Dollar is at an inflection point" / Currencies / Forex Trading
Forex FreeWeek at elliottwave.com runs Oct. 19-23
Currency Pro Service editor Jim Martens sat down with us Friday, October 16, to talk about what he expects to see from the dollar and related pairs during Forex FreeWeek.
Jim also shares his tips on controlling your emotions when trading and explains the importance of riding the trend in a market.
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Monday, October 19, 2015
Robert Shiller Is Shilling for Socialism / Politics / Social Issues
Peter St. Onge writes: The Nobel Prize just gets cheaper and cheaper. Recent laureate Bob Shiller graces the New York Times with his latest rant that free-markets stink, bolstering his argument by making stuff up.
For starters, Shiller writes that America’s wealth “can be attributed” to regulation. Well, sure, it “can be attributed” to Zeus. Or sunspots. In the real world, America became the richest country long before the regulation age, and that position has been eroding ever since. Maddison (2007) estimates that by 1913 — before the New Deal regulatory explosion — the US was at $5,300 per person PPP (purchasing power parity), against $3,500 in Western Europe, $1,500 in Latin America, and $700 in the rest of Asia and Africa.
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Monday, October 19, 2015
Tea Party is Drinking Too Much Decaf / Politics / US Politics
On December 16th, 1773 the Sons of Liberty in Boston, in protest of the Tea Act, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company, in a political protest referred to as the Boston Tea Party.
Following the Wall Street bail-outs in 2009, a political movement also protesting their lack of representation in government sought a reduction of the U.S. national debt and deficits by reducing government spending and lowering taxes. They were referred to as The Tea Party, named from the aforementioned Boston variety.
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Monday, October 19, 2015
Banking Stocks Sector Now Looking in the Money / Companies / Banking Stocks
A sign on the door of Opportunity reads Push. - Anonymous
The financial sector has pulled back nicely during the market sell off in August, setting up a nice opportunity for the contrarian player. The masses are fixating on whether or not the Fed will raise interest rates by a minuscule 0.25%. While they fixate on this issue opportunity could be at hand;now might be the time to put some money into banks. One simple way to achieve this would be via KBW Nasdaq Bank Index (BKN).
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Monday, October 19, 2015
Crude Oil Market Showdown: Can Russia Outlast The Saudis? / Commodities / Crude Oil
"Two men enter, one man leaves, two men enter, one man leaves, two men enter..." - Mad Max: Beyond ThunderdomeNovember 27, oil consuming countries will celebrate the first anniversary of the Saudi decision to let market forces determine prices. This decision set crude prices on a downward path. Subsequently, to defend market share, the Saudis increased production, which exacerbated market oversupply and further pressured prices.
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Monday, October 19, 2015
Gold Shows Strength as Debt Ceiling Showdown Approaches / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
Stefan Gleason writes: Gold and silver markets enter this week on improved technical footing. The precious metals each rallied above resistance levels last week as disappointing economic data stimulated safe-haven buying.
Silver cleared the $16.00 level, while gold poked above its 200-day moving average for the first time in five months on Wednesday. And prices closed Friday right at the 200-day line and remain there this morning.
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