Posts Categorized: In The News

In The News Today

Posted September 21st, 2017 by Bill Holter & filed under In The News.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

If you think Russia/China (and the rest of the world) does not know about the gold suppression scheme, you are sorely mistaken!

‘Secret Monetary Policy’: Who Manipulates Gold Prices and Why
September 20, 2017

While major international events, like nuclear tests carried out by North Korea, affect gold prices and result in a situation when investors prefer to invest their money in the noble metal, economic expert Dimitri Speck believes that there are other, more important factors that play a crucial role in influencing the global financial market.

Gold prices have been subject to constant manipulations since 1993, German expert on the gold market Dimitri Speck told Sputnik Germany.

According to him, the manipulation of gold prices has been presented by the media as if it has been initiated by a couple of malicious traders just recently, but this idea is wrong.

“When the gold price manipulation started on August 5, 1993, these were central banks that initiated the process, and namely the then head of the US Central Bank Alan Greenspan. He did not want to let the gold price rise over $400,” Speck said, adding that Greenspan feared that a significant increase in gold prices might affect the “inflation thermometer.”

The expert noted that the US Fed had arranged an agreement among the central banks to keep the gold price below $400 dollars. This was done for several years by means of sales and loans.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

Should we be surprised?

Science For Sale: Shocking Emails Reveal Editor Of Food Science Journal Was On Monsanto’s Payroll At $400 Per Hour
September 21, 2017

(Natural News) Recently released court documents reveal what many people have long suspected: Monsanto had a hand in the retraction of a groundbreaking study that left little doubt about the dangers of glyphosate in a prominent food science journal.

Monsanto will do anything to protect the reputation of Roundup and its other herbicide products – which earned them $1.9 billion in gross profits in 2015 alone – and that includes silencing their detractors.

It has now emerged that the Editor in Chief of the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology who oversaw the famous study’s retraction was on Monsanto’s payroll. This is a conflict of interest at best, and possibly something far more underhanded, and they might have gotten away with it had their lawyers succeeded in preventing their internal documents from being released in a class action lawsuit filed against the firm by cancer patients.

The study, which was carried out by Gilles Seralini, found that Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide is toxic to rats in the long term, even in very small doses. In addition to severe damage to their livers and kidneys, he found a spike in tumor rates. Moreover, the rats in his study who ate corn sprayed with Roundup or drank water laced with various doses of glyphosate died earlier than control rats on a diet of regular corn and water.

When the study was subsequently retracted by the journal, it raised more than a few eyebrows. Many people who are familiar with the way Monsanto operates suspected they were involved in the retraction somehow, and now the connection has come to light.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

Once again, what’s in your pension? And I guess someone has to ask even though “bear markets” no longer exist…what happens when even a garden variety bear market hits?…Not to mention the mother of all bear markets!

1 Million Ohio Public Employees, Retirees May See Pension Cut
September 20, 2017

Ohio’s biggest public pension system is considering cutting the cost of living allowances for its 1-million members as a way to shore up the long-term finances of the fund.

Ohio Public Employees Retirement System trustees on Wednesday discussed options that could affect all current and future retirees, including tying the cost of living allowance to inflation and capping it and delaying the onset of the COLA for new retirees.

No decision has been made and trustees will discuss the options again in October. So far, some 72,000 members responded to an OPERS survey about possible changes. OPERS spokesman Todd Hutchins said 70 percent of retirees responding to the survey report that they prefer that the COLA be capped, rather than frozen.

OPERS is the latest of the five public pensions systems in Ohio to consider benefit cuts.

The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio in April voted to indefinitely suspend the COLA for retired teachers. Trustees said they weren’t certain that the cut would be enough to shore up the finances of the $72-billion fund.

In The News Today

Posted September 20th, 2017 by Bill Holter & filed under In The News.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

How do you hide $14 trillion? I guess in a world of smoke and mirrors, not so hard to do?

Canada Flagged As Hidden $14 Trillion Credit Bubble Stokes Global Crisis Fears
September 18, 2017

The world’s top financial watchdog has uncovered US$14 trillion of global dollar debt hidden in derivatives and swap contracts, a startling sum that doubles the underlying levels of offshore dollar credit in the international system.

The scale of this lending greatly increases the risk of a future funding crisis if inflation ever forces the U.S. Federal Reserve to tighten in earnest and drain worldwide liquidity, potentially triggering a dollar surge.

A forensic study by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) says enormous liabilities have accrued through FX swaps, currency swaps, and “forwards.” The data is tucked away in the “footnotes” of bank reports. “Contracts worth tens of trillions of dollars stand open and trillions change hands daily. Yet one cannot find these amounts on balance sheets. This debt is, in effect, missing,” said the BIS analysis, written by the team under Claudio Borio, the chief economist.

“These transactions are functionally equivalent to borrowing and lending in the cash market. Yet the corresponding debt is not shown on the balance sheet and thus remains obscured,” they wrote in the BIS’s quarterly report.

A breathtaking gap in global accounting rules means that the debt is booked as a notional derivative, “even though it is in effect a secured loan with principal to be repaid in full at maturity.” The hidden lending comes on top of US$10.7 trillion of recorded offshore dollar debt outside U.S. jurisdiction. It pushes the combined total to US$25 trillion, or a third of global GDP. While these contracts serve as a lubricant and hedging device for world commerce, they can be plagued by currency and maturity mismatches.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

Pretty sure “settlement” was not made in Zim dollars… as we shall soon find out, “settlement” will become a very important concept!

They See Me Rollin’! Grace Mugabe’s Oldest Son Celebrates After Importing Two Rolls Royce Limousines ‘Worth £4 Million’ Into Bankrupt Zimbabwe
September 20, 2017

The eldest son of Zimbabwe’s first lady Grace Mugabe has imported two Rolls Royce limousines into the bankrupt country, it has been reported.

Russell Goreraza, 33, offloaded the two luxury cars at Harare International Airport from a plane belonging to the Dutch airline KLM on Sunday.

Goreraza, said to have a ‘chequered reputation’, was also reported to have enjoyed a ‘huge celebration’ with friends after the exotic vehicles arrived, with Champagne flowing freely.

The son of Zimbabwe’s first lady offloaded the two luxury cars at Harare International Airport from a plane belonging to the Dutch airline KLM on Sunday

Bill Holter’s Commentary

A very interesting geopolitical writing by Dmitri Orlov. The man is no lunatic, his final paragraph is proof he sees the very big picture.

Military Defeat as a Financial Collapse Trigger
September 19, 2017

Back in 2007 I wrote Reinventing Collapse, in which I compared the collapse of the USSR to the forthcoming collapse of the USA. I wrote the following:

“Let us imagine that collapsing a modern military-industrial superpower is like making soup: chop up some ingredients, apply heat and stir. The ingredients I like to put in my superpower collapse soup are: a severe and chronic shortfall in the production of crude oil (that magic addictive elixir of industrial economies), a severe and worsening foreign trade deficit, a runaway military budget and ballooning foreign debt. The heat and agitation can be provided most efficaciously by a humiliating military defeat and widespread fear of looming catastrophe.” (p. 2)

A decade later these ingredients are all in place, with a few minor quibbles. The shortfall of oil is in the case of the US not the shortfall of physical oil but of money: against the backdrop of terminal decline of conventional oil in the US, the only meaningful supply increase has come from fracking, but it has been financially ruinous. Nobody has made any money from selling fracked oil: it is too expensive.

Meanwhile, the trade deficit has been setting new records, defense spending has continued its upward creep and the levels of debt are at this point nothing short of stratospheric but continuing to rise. Fear of catastrophe is supplied by hurricanes that have just put significant parts of Texas and Florida under water, unprecedented forest fires in the West, ominous rumblings from the Yellowstone supervolcano and the understanding that an entire foamy mess of financial bubbles could pop at any time. The one ingredient we are missing is a humiliating military defeat.

Military defeats come in many shapes and sizes, and having the enemy slaughter all of your troops is just one of them. Equally palpable is the defeat of being unable to prevail against a weaker and smaller opponent. Accidentally inflicting damage on one’s own forces can also be quite humiliating. And the ultimate coup de grâce for a military empire is to be unable to join the opponent in battle at all.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

Maybe there is hope!!!

WATCH: Here’s What Happened When Trump Supporters Let BLM Take the Stage at Rally
September 20, 2017

A Black Lives Matter group and a Donald Trump rally crossed paths recently — and what occurred then isn’t what you would expect. The two groups are traditionally opposed, but when the BLM group approached the rally, an organizer did the unexpected: he invited them on stage to speak.

In the name of free speech — and not promising the crowd would approve of their message — the Trump organizer took a meaningful action the name of freedom, saying it was about BLM’s “right to have have a message.”

“I’m gonna let Black Lives Matter come up here, while I show them what patriotism is about, all right?” said the man. “It’s about freedom of speech, it’s about celebration, so…we’re gonna give you two minutes of our platform to put your message out.”

BLM Leader Hawk Newsome accepted the invitation, boldly stepping on stage and declaring, “I am an American” to Trump rally-goers who cheered him wildly.

In The News Today

Posted September 19th, 2017 by Bill Holter & filed under In The News.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

These could be very significant TRUTH BOMBS!

WATCH: James O’Keefe Teases ‘Biggest Ever Media Investigation’ — Muses ‘People Will Be Fired’
September 19, 2017

In a video announcement released on Monday, Project Veritas founder and guerrilla journalist James O’Keefe warned his organization is currently operating one of the biggest ever investigations into the mainstream media’s ‘holy grail,’ promising media people will likely lose their jobs over the imminent exposé.

There will be more #AmericanPravda videos coming soon.

To get more hard-hitting investigations, please donate:https://t.co/hYun70OejV pic.twitter.com/USpE5eQA4p

— Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) September 18, 2017

<script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

Bill Holter’s Commentary

This is a very interesting story. Do you recall what Jim said on this weekend’s call regarding “emotion”? Do NOT let them get the best of you!

Advice From The Trader Who Made $1 Billion In 1929…
September 19, 2017

In the late spring of 1720, Sir Isaac Newton decided to sell his stocks.

Newton had been an investor in the South Sea Company, a famous enterprise which effectively commanded a trading monopoly with South America.

The investment had already made Newton a lot of money, he was up more than 100% in a very short time.

In fact, investors were clamoring to buy up the South Sea Company’s stock, and the share price kept climbing. And climbing.

Newton sensed that the market was getting overheated. It no longer made sense to him. So he sold.

There was only one problem: the share price of the South Sea Company kept climbing.

All of Newton’s friends were getting rich. So, against his better judgement, Newton went back in, repurchasing shares at more than three times the price of his original stake.

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Manafort’s human rights have been violated regardless of any excuse. It sounds like the tactics of the SS. This incident reveals the meanness of this investigation. I am sure outlaws will yell “Police, we have a warrant!” as they make entry for a home invasion.

Assume that Manafort had a legal, top of the line means of defense, handy to where he sleeps. Say he had put up a valiant fight? Who is responsible?

I do have protection and I would use it without a second’s delay. My guard dog might pay the ultimate price, but would perform her duty instinctively.

I am in shock that such SS tactics take place and no one says or does anything to those who ordered it. There should be a national outcry.

With a Picked Lock and a Threatened Indictment, Mueller’s Inquiry Sets a Tone
September 18, 2017

WASHINGTON — Paul J. Manafort was in bed early one morning in July when federal agents bearing a search warrant picked the lock on his front door and raided his Virginia home. They took binders stuffed with documents and copied his computer files, looking for evidence that Mr. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, set up secret offshore bank accounts. They even photographed the expensive suits in his closet.

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, then followed the house search with a warning: His prosecutors told Mr. Manafort they planned to indict him, said two people close to the investigation.

The moves against Mr. Manafort are just a glimpse of the aggressive tactics used by Mr. Mueller and his team of prosecutors in the four months since taking over the Justice Department’s investigation into Russia’s attempts to disrupt last year’s election, according to lawyers, witnesses and American officials who have described the approach. Dispensing with the plodding pace typical of many white-collar investigations, Mr. Mueller’s team has used what some describe as shock-and-awe tactics to intimidate witnesses and potential targets of the inquiry.

Mr. Mueller has obtained a flurry of subpoenas to compel witnesses to testify before a grand jury, lawyers and witnesses say, sometimes before his prosecutors have taken the customary first step of interviewing them. One witness was called before the grand jury less than a month after his name surfaced in news accounts. The special counsel even took the unusual step of obtaining a subpoena for one of Mr. Manafort’s former lawyers, claiming an exception to the rule that shields attorney-client discussions from scrutiny.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

When the Soviet Union was collapsing, they would have done anything for dollars…now they don’t want them. Very telling if you understand what Mr. Putin is saying here?

Putin Orders To End Trade In US Dollars At Russian Seaports
September 19, 2017

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to approve legislation making the ruble the main currency of exchange at all Russian seaports by next year, according to the Kremlin website.

To protect the interests of stevedoring companies with foreign currency obligations, the government was instructed to set a transition period before switching to ruble settlements.

According to the head of Russian antitrust watchdog FAS Igor Artemyev, many services in Russian seaports are still priced in US dollars, even though such ports are state-owned.

The proposal to switch port tariffs to rubles was first proposed by the president a year and a half ago. The idea was not embraced by large transport companies, which would like to keep revenues in dollars and other foreign currencies because of fluctuations in the ruble.

Artemyev said the decision will force foreigners to buy Russian currency, which is good for the ruble.

In 2016, his agency filed several lawsuits against the largest Russian port group NMTP. According to FAS, the group of companies set tariffs for transshipment in dollars and raised tariffs from January 2015 “without objective grounds.”

The watchdog ruled that NMTP abused its dominant position in the market and imposed a 9.74 billion rubles fine, or about $165 million at the current exchange rate. The decision was overturned by a court in Moscow in July this year.

Potential Cyberattack – In The News

Posted September 17th, 2017 by Bill Holter & filed under In The News.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

YouTube owes us an apology! Bill and Jim’s discussion for subscribers was taken down two months ago, presumably for being “fake news”. Now it turns out the Navy is investigating whether or not the two mishaps with the Fitzgerald and McCain were “cyberattacks”. Tinfoil hats? You must make the leap, what does a cyberattack mean for the dollar?

U.S. Navy Investigating If Destroyer Crash Was Caused by Cyberattack
September 14, 2017

The military is examining whether compromised computer systems were responsible for one of two U.S. Navy destroyer collisions with merchant vessels that occurred in recent months, Vice Admiral Jan Tighe, the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, said on Thursday.

Naval investigators are scrambling to determine the causes of the mishaps, including whether hackers infiltrated the computer systems of the USS John S. McCain ahead of the collision on Aug. 21, Tighe said during an appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Investigators are not, however, considering the possibility that the USS Fitzgerald collision, which took place on June 17, was the result of hacking.

“With the McCain incident happening so close to the Fitzgerald,” questions immediately arose about whether computer manipulation could have been the cause of the crash, Tighe said. The Navy has no indication that a cyberattack was behind either of the incidents, but is dispatching investigators to the McCain to put those questions to rest, she said.

Tighe said the Navy plans to use the results of the McCain probe to include a look at cybersecurity in future investigations.

In The News Today

Posted September 17th, 2017 by Jim Sinclair & filed under In The News.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

I guess it’s easy to take away rights people don’t even know they have?

Poll: Nearly 4 In 10 Americans Can’t Name Any First Amendment Rights
September 13, 2017

According to Penn’s Annenberg Public Policy Center released Tuesday, 37 percent could not name any of the five rights protected by First Amendment, and just about half (48 percent) could name freedom of speech.

In addition, the survey found that 33 percent of those polled were unable to name one of the three branches of the U.S. government, such as legislative, executive and judicial. And only 26 percent of the respondents could name the three branches.

“Protecting the rights guaranteed by the Constitution presupposes that we know what they are. The fact that many don’t is worrisome,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. “These results emphasize the need for high-quality civics education in the schools and for press reporting that underscores the existence of constitutional protections.”

Trump: US Options On North Korea ‘Effective And Overwhelming’
September 15, 2017

President Trump said Friday that he is confident the United States’ options toward North Korea are “effective and overwhelming.”

“America and our allies will never be intimidated. We will defend our people, our nations and our civilization from all who dare to threaten our way of life,” he told Air Force personnel at Joint Base Andrews. “This includes the regime of North Korea, which has once again shown its utter contempt for its neighbors and for the entire world community.”

“After seeing your capabilities and commitment here today, I am more confident than ever that our options in addressing this threat are both effective and overwhelming,” he continued.

Trump’s comments came after H.R. McMaster, his national security adviser, reaffirmed that the Trump administration has military options in place for dealing with North Korea.

“For those who have said and who have been commenting on a lack of a military option, there is a military option,” he said at the White House briefing, though he noted that it was not the administration’s preferred route for dealing with the nation’s aggressiveness.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

A witch hunt to prevent a vote to exit the matrix?

Spain: Police Confiscate Trove Of Posters For Catalan Vote
September 17, 2017

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s paramilitary national police force says its agents have confiscated more than 1.3 million posters, flyers and pamphlets promoting the planned independence referendum by Catalonia’s regional government.

The Civil Guard said the campaign literature was seized on Sunday during raids of an unnamed business in Barcelona province that distributes advertising material.

The police force says the trove takes the number of items endorsing the independence referendum that have been confiscated to 1.5 million.

The Spanish government has vowed to stop the planned Oct. 1 secession vote, saying it’s illegal. But Catalonia’s leaders have pushed ahead even though Spain’s Constitutional Court suspended a regional law that paved the way for the referendum and has agreed to review the vote’s constitutionality.

Polls show Catalonia’s 7.5 million residents roughly split on independence.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

You know we live in a crazy world when something like this is even debated.

College Park, Maryland Won’t Allow Non-Citizens To Vote In Local Elections After All
September 15, 2017

The College Park City Council voted 4-3 Tuesday night to allow legal permanent residents and illegal immigrants to participate in municipal elections. One council member did not vote.

“For most Council actions, a simple majority of Councilmembers present must vote in favor of an item for it to be adopted,” the city said in a news release. “However, changes to the Charter have a different requirement. The City Charter was amended in June to require the affirmative vote of six elected officials to change the Charter.”

In The News Today

Posted September 16th, 2017 by Jim Sinclair & filed under In The News.

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

The SWIFT system is not such a powerful entity anymore.

I believe this was an error of an intelligence agency (ours), that pulled SWIFT off the shelf to threaten some country over not much at all a few years back.

Now all North Korea will need, in time, is a Mastercard to finance their nuclear program. That is if Russian and China have not hacked STACK first.

STACK™ Partners With Mastercard To Launch The First Digital Money Account With Mobile Tap-To-Pay Functionality
September 11, 2017

STACK announced a partnership with Mastercard today, two weeks ahead of its official Beta launch. More than 20,000 Canadians have registered for the Beta app, which will begin onboarding users this month through Google Play. A public launch for both Android and Apple devices is planned for later this year.

STACK is reinventing financial services with a fee-free alternative to traditional banking. Combining advanced machine learning with customizable tools, the STACK app delivers a smarter way to spend, save and share your money, straight from your smartphone. STACK will be the first financial services provider to offer instant access to multi-currency and crypto wallets as part of a 360-degree solution to personal finance.

STACK accounts will include a chip-and-pin Mastercard prepaid card, providing seamless and secure point-of-sale access to worldwide retailers, global ATM networks and Purchase Protection on every transaction.

“Partnering with Mastercard supports our mission to provide a better alternative to traditional financial services, without compromising convenience or reliability,” said Miro Pavletic, Co-Founder and CEO of STACK. “Mastercard is a trusted technology expert in the payments industry, and we’re committed to working with the best of the best.”

“Canadians want to manage their money on their own terms and STACK is giving them that ability,” said Patrick Sulston, Vice President of Market Development in Canada, Mastercard. “With a Mastercard prepaid card inside the STACK app, Canadians can easily, securely and conveniently access their funds and shop in-store and online.”

STACK is the first financial technology company in North America to offer members a mobile tap-to-pay option attached to a digital money account, enabling members to pay with their mobile phones. Other features like automated savings, instant rewards and social sharing provide a lifestyle-focused approach to financial services.

“Canadians deserve better than what’s available in the current market,” said Pavletic. “With the advancements of tech-enabled financial services, we can finally offer a replacement to legacy institutions with a new, more consumer-friendly alternative.”

Unprecedented Global Risk – No One Cares
September 15, 2017

“Risk involves the chance an investment’s actual return will differ from the expected return. Risk includes the possibility of losing some or all of the original investment.” (Investopedia)

So there we have it. Risk means that you can lose part or all of the investment. Normally valuations take risk into account. But is the world really valuing the following risks accurately:

A very risky world

Wars

North Korea – South Korea – USA – Japan – China – Russia incl. nuclear war

Ukraine – USA – Russia

Syria – Israel – USA – ISIS – Al-Qaeda – Saudi Arabia, Yemen – Iran, Iraq etc.

China – India – Pakistan – Afghanistan – USA

Plus many more

Civil war and terrorism

In most countries including USA and Europe

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

The latest from John Williams’ http://www.shadowstats.com

– Net of Hurricane Harvey Effects, Headline Economic Numbers Still Were Miserable, Suggestive of Recession
– Hurricane Impact on August Activity: Mixed, Probably Net-Neutral for Retail Sales; Accounted for 0.75% (-0.75%) of the 0.90% (-0.90%) Drop in Monthly Production

– August Real Retail Sales Declined by 0.61% (-0.61%) in the Month, Plunged by 1.24% (-1.24%) Net of Downside, Prior-Period Revisions

– Third-Quarter Real Retail Sales Are Contracting at an Early (Two-Month) Annualized Pace of 0.4% (-0.4%)

– Ex-Hurricane, August Industrial Production Declined by 0.15% (-0.15%)

– In the Dominant but Still-Faltering Manufacturing Sector of Production: A Record 116 Months of Continued Non-Expansion, with No End in Sight

“No. 910: August 2017 Retail Sales and Industrial Production”

www.shadowstats.com

In The News Today

Posted September 14th, 2017 by Bill Holter & filed under In The News.

Bubble? Tech Companies “Express Themselves” Through Architecture
September 13, 2017

On August 2, 2004, Bank of America broke ground on its 2.2 million square foot, NYC headquarters – the Bank of America Tower.

The all-glass tower would rise 57 stories above midtown Manhattan, with a giant spire taking the height to 1,200 ft. It’s currently the fourth-tallest building in New York City, and it cost $1 billion.

The next year, investment bank Goldman Sachs broke ground on its $2.4 billion headquarters in downtown NYC.

The investment bank brought an entire village to its Battery Park City digs – including several restaurants from famed restaurateur Danny Meyer, a wine store, a florist, a bakery and a barber shop.

Goldman also bought a nearby hotel (which included a movie theater) and a parking garage.

Bill Holters Commentary

…and how do the “climate change” people explain this?

List of 100 US Patents Related to Weather Modification

Bill Holters Commentary

A 90% cut in pension benefits? What’s in your pension???

Public Workers From Two More Towns Expected To Lose Calpers Pensions
September 13, 2017

Ten workers and retirees from government agencies in two far corners of California likely will see their pensions slashed because their employers have not paid bills to the state’s largest retirement fund in more than a year.

Trinity County Waterworks District No. 1 west of Redding and Niland Sanitary District from Imperial County are in line to become the third and fourth government agencies to break with CalPERS over the past 12 months in a manner that shortchanges their retirees.

The CalPERS Board of Administration is scheduled next week to vote on ending contracts with the two small districts because they’re in default.

The districts are expected to join the town of Loyalton in Sierra County and an organization called the East San Gabriel Valley Health Consortium as small governments that are falling out of CalPERS because of different financial stresses.

In Trinity, five current and former employees will see their promised pensions slashed by 70 percent. Niland’s five beneficiaries will see a 92 percent to 100 percent cut in pension benefits, according to CalPERS’ staff reports.

Bill Holters Commentary

Solid finance? What happens if the foreign capital stops coming in?

Radical Disconnect As Average Metro Vancouver Earner Reaps $72,000 A Year, Pays $1.4 Million For Home
September 14, 2017

Metro Vancouver, one of the world’s more expensive housing markets, lags far behind other Canadian cities in wage earnings according to latest Statistics Canada figures.

The census stats, released Wednesday, underline a radical disconnect between local wages and skyrocketing home prices in Metro Vancouver, according to Simon Fraser University urban expert Andy Yan.

The median total income for households in Metro Vancouver was $72,662 (15th for census metropolitan regions across Canada) in 2015. By comparison, Calgary’s median total income was number one in Canada at $99,583, while the median household income across Canada was $70,336.

Average housing costs for Canadian cities won’t be released by Statistics Canada until late October. But based on general knowledge of real estate trends across Canada, Yan said he can already draw conclusions on Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis.

“It was really surprising to me that we have the 15th highest incomes in Metro Vancouver, even coming behind Toronto,” Yan said. “What we learned today is in Vancouver you are living in paradise, but your wages are in purgatory.”

The Surprising Place Where Cash Is Going Extinct
September 13, 2017

Somaliland, a self-declared republic in East Africa, faces high illiteracy and has an economy ravaged by a civil war. But it might just become the first cashless society on Earth.

Half a dozen men crowd round one of the many small colourful wooden shacks off a main street in Hargeisa, Somaliland, shouting and arguing over the quality of khat – a mild narcotic that has been likened to both coffee and cocaine – that they’ve just been hastily handed by the vendor.

Untold World

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Customers quickly come and go, grabbing bundles of the green leafy, legal plant that they deem good enough before punching digits into phones and disappearing as quickly as they came.

“We need to do everything quickly, and paying with cash here is slow,” Omar, one of the khat sellers says as he chews on the green leafy plant himself. “It keeps people calm if they can get their khat quickly.”

No cash is transferred, and there’s not a credit card in sight. But customers haven’t got their daily khat fix for free; they’ve paid using their mobiles, transferring money on the sandy Somali street in seconds with little more than a mobile phone and a few numbers.

Gorka: Trump Won on ‘Make America Great Again,’ Not ‘Make the GOP Great Again’
September 14, 2017

Sebastian Gorka, former deputy assistant to President Trump, says that Trump’s willingness to work with Democratic leaders shows he’s serious about his agenda.

Some Republicans took issue with Trump striking a budget deal with Democrats last week and then meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Wednesday to discuss border security and what to do about so-called “Dreamers.”

On “Hannity,” Gorka argued that Trump won the election with a message of “make America great again,” not “make the Republican Party great again.”

“It isn’t the Republican Party that won last November the 8th. It is a New York real estate billionaire who won. And there’s a reason for that: because they haven’t served the nation’s interests for more than a decade,” Gorka said.

In The News Today

Posted September 12th, 2017 by Jim Sinclair & filed under In The News.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

Since when has it been OK in the United States to “punish” someone for having an opinion? And what gives the “punishers” the right to decide who is right and who is wrong? The 2nd Amendment was originally enacted to protect against a tyrannical government, little did they know it might also be used in a “snow”storm?

Calls To Punish Skeptics Rise With Links To Climate Change, Hurricanes
September 11, 2017

Calls to punish global warming skepticism as a criminal offense have surged in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, but it hasn’t discouraged climate scientists like Judith Curry.

A retired Georgia Tech professor, she argued on her Climate Etc. website that Irma, which hit Florida as a Category 4 hurricane on Saturday, was fueled in large part by “very weak” wind shear and that the hurricane intensified despite Atlantic Ocean temperatures that weren’t unusually warm.

That is the kind of talk that could get policymakers who heed her research hauled before the justice system, if some of those in the climate change movement have their way.

“Climate change denial should be a crime,” declared the Sept. 1 headline in the Outline. Mark Hertsgaard argued in a Sept. 7 article in the Nation, titled “Climate Denialism Is Literally Killing Us,” that “murder is murder” and “we should punish it as such.”

The suggestion that those who run afoul of the climate change consensus, in particular government officials, should face charges comes with temperatures flaring over the link between hurricanes and greenhouse gas emissions.

Bill Holter’s Commentary

So I ask again and as serious as a heart attack, what happens when “the money runs out”? We have lived the greatest credit wave in all of history and it will crash. When credit crashes, “currencies” will also fail because they are debt based themselves. Markets (and most importantly YOUR institution) will close and thus prevent access to YOUR funds. I can almost guarantee, what is taking place on St. Martin will take place in many U.S. locations where dialing 911 receives no answer!

All Food Is Gone! Violence Erupts On Caribbean Island Of St. Martin
September 12, 2017

Hurricane Irma ravaged the Caribbean islands last week and wiped entire islands off the map. Now that the food and water have been scavenged from every grocery store on St. Martin, people are resorting to violence.

The people obviously started with the grocery stores, scavenging what they needed for sustenance; water, crackers, and fruit. But according to the New York Times, by nightfall on Thursday, what had been a search for food took a more menacing turn, as groups of people (some of whom were armed), swooped in and violently took anything of value that was left. Things like electronics, appliances, and vehicles were all stolen.

Jamie Dimon Kicks Bitcoin Where It Hurts
September 12, 2017

As if Bitcoin hasn’t had a tough time already, the currency dropped another 2% on Tuesday after JPMorgan (JPM – Get Report) CEO Jamie Dimon called the cryptocurrency “a fraud” and “worse than tulip bulbs” at the 7th Annual Delivering Alpha Conference.

Speaking at a conference organised by Barclays Dimon is reported to have said: “It’s worse than tulip bulbs.

“It won’t end well,” Dimon added. “Someone is going to get killed…Currencies have legal support. It will blow up.”

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $4,099, down from $4,368 earlier today.

The cryptocurrency fell last week after Chinese regulators imposed a ban on individuals and businesses from raising funds through initial coin offerings (ICOs).

Senator Warns of Imminent Nuke Attack on Seattle…but a Law Forbids Them From Preparing
September 12, 2017

A United States senator has just warned that a nuclear attack by North Korea is imminent. He wants Washinton state to prepare for the strike, but right now, a little law is getting in his way.

According to Senator Mark Miloscia, the danger to Washington state, which is the closest part of the contiguous US to North Korea, is “starting to become imminent.” Miloscia has warned that the threat of a nuclear attack is growing with each weapons test done by the North and their defiant leader, Kim Jong-Un. He is urging lawmakers to back the bid for an emergency response plan when they meet tomorrow. But he’ll be fighting against a law that says the state of Washington cannot prepare for a nuclear war.

It’s a throwback to the Cold War when it was feared that planning for a nuclear strike might suggest the US was preparing to launch one itself and expected a response.

Most people don’t realize that sometimes, not only does the government not have a plan, they deliberately avoid making a plan for political reasons.

It’s a throwback to the Cold War when it was feared that planning for a nuclear strike might suggest the US was preparing to launch one itself and expected a response.