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Politicians are clueless and their policies are more like strip-mining. They are destroying the economy right down to the foundation and fail to grasp that they keep raising taxes to support unfunded liabilities for state workers. This is destroying the productive sector of the economy to fund the sector that produces nothing to increase the national wealth.
Martin Armstrong
The Major U.S. Banks Are Financial Hoods
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary(http://www.jsmineset.com)
The most endangered species on the planet is the pensioner and to become a pensioner.
Banksters help cull the geezers.
Swaps Probe Finds Banks Manipulated Rate at Expense of Retirees
By Matthew Leising – Aug 2, 2013 2:00 AM ETU.S. investigators have uncovered evidence that banks reaped millions of dollars in trading profits at the expense of companies and pension funds by manipulating a benchmark for interest-rate derivatives.
Recorded telephone calls and e-mails reviewed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show that traders at Wall Street banks instructed ICAP Plc brokers in Jersey City, New Jersey, to buy or sell as many interest-rate swaps as necessary to move the benchmark rate, known as ISDAfix, to a predetermined level, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
By rigging the measure, the banks stood to profit on separate derivatives trades they had with clients who were seeking to hedge against moves in interest rates. Banks sought to change the value of the swaps because the ISDAfix rate sets prices for the other derivatives, which are used by firms from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System to Pacific Investment Management Co., said the person, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public.
U.S. Gold Mine Output Falls 5% In April – USGS
By Kitco News
Monday July 29, 2013 12:11 PM
(Kitco News) -U.S. gold mine output was 17,600 kilograms in April, the U.S. Geological Survey said Monday.April output was 5% under March production of 18,500 kgs. April output was also modestly below year-ago production of 17,800 kgs.
The average daily production rate in April was 587 kgs of gold, USGS said. This compares to March’s average daily rate of 596 kgs, the April 2012 average daily rate of 593 kgs, and the 2012 average of 639 kgs.
For more information, see: http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/gold/mis-201304-gold.pdf
Spain Taxing Sunlight
Posted by Martin ArmstrongSpain’s Secretary of State for Energy, Alberto Nadal, has signed a draft royal decree taxing energy derived from photoelectric cells. If they can’t derive taxes from utilities, what the hell – tax the sun. Next comes a tax on clean air to breath to live. They already tax food.
————————————-Governments are having difficulty coming up with debt payments. All this is heading our way and is just a matter of time before new and expanded taxes become our obligations.
Squeeze the people.
Jim Sinclair has been warning of a big government money grab coming soon.
Visit his website to get the particulars.
People do not appreciate how economic shocks are always followed by economic reforms. The rise in taxes and the global G20 effort to seize everything and imprison people who have offshore accounts was instigated by Hollande of France. At this stage during the government implosion is being caused by those in power who cannot see that they are the PROBLEM. Hollande is typical of someone who has mental disorder found in children known as Oppositional Defiant Disorder whereby they blame others for their own mistakes. This is our general crisis in which we find ourselves. Those in power will destroy the world economy convinced that if they could just get their hands on every piece of wealth, then their faulty ideas would succeed.
Martin Armstrong
WWII Shipwreck Gives Up 61 Tons From Atlantic Seabed
By Sonja Elmquist – Jul 22, 2013 8:46 AM MT
Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. (OMEX), a deep-sea salvage company, said it retrieved more than 61 tons of silver bullion this month from a World War II shipwreck nearly three miles (4.8 kilometers) below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.
Odyssey recovered 1,574 silver ingots weighing a total of about 1.8 million ounces from the SS Gairsoppa, the Tampa, Florida-based company said in a statement today. The 412-foot (126-meter) British cargo ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat in February 1941, Odyssey said on its website.
Enlarge imageForty-eight tons of silver bullion has been recovered from the SS Gairsoppa and returned to the British government, Odyssey Marine, Inc. announced on July 18, 2012. The record-breaking operation has so far produced the heaviest and deepest recovery of precious metals from a shipwreck.
Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. Remotely Operated Vehicle pilots navigate the advanced robotics used to recover silver bars from the SS Gairsoppa shipwreck site, which lies approximately 4,700 meters deep in the North Atlantic, in this handout photo on July 2, 2012. Source: Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc.
Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. uses advanced robotics to recover silver from the SS Gairsoppa shipwreck site, in this handout photo on July 8, 2012. Source: Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. via Bloomberg
The metal was worth about $630,000 when the Gairsoppa was sunk and about $36 million at today’s prices. Odyssey has recovered a total of 2,792 ingots from the wreck, about 99 percent of the insured silver reported to be aboard when the vessel sank.“We have accomplished a world-record recovery at a depth never achieved before,” Odyssey Chief Operating Officer Mark Gordon said in the statement.
July 19, 2013 jsmineset.com
I listened carefully to yesterday’s Bernanke speech. He seemed ill at ease and almost stumbling. I truly believe that Bernanke is confused and even frightened by the results of all his manipulations. But what he’s most confused about is the poor results he’s been getting from both the economy and the markets. Bernanke appears to me to be a man trapped and confused by his own unorthodox tactics. Bernanke wanted to be a hero when he stepped in during 2009 to halt the panic in the markets. Now I believe he wishes that he had never tried to turn the markets during 2009. The consequences of his actions turned out to be worse and far more confusing than anything Bernanke imagined.
–Richard Russell July 18, 2013JP Morgan Is Reportedly Getting Ready To Settle For $1 Billion For Manipulating Energy Markets
Steven Perlberg Jul. 17, 2013, 4:41 PMU.S. regulators and J.P. Morgan Chase are close to a monster settlement over allegations that the banking giant tampered with electricity markets in California and the Midwest, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Ok J.P. Morgan got caught but where are the refunds to California residents?
Years ago the media prided itself on reporting and journalism. Today they are puppets for their masters. Don’t forget that if you boil it down, almost 90% of the media is ultimately owned by just 6 major corporations. You get to hear what they want you to hear.
Rob Reiner – The International Forecaster
According to Wikipedia:
Capitalism is an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital assets and goods. In a capitalist economy, investors are free to buy, sell, produce, and distribute goods and services with at most limited government control, at prices determined primarily by a competition for profit in a free market.[1][2][3] Central elements of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, and a price system.
“With at most limited government control”
It’s quite apparent government these days is seeking more and more control. Or should it be said that big bankers are grabbing our wealth through their financial schemes supported by their paid shills?
Our free market system has been invaded by hack regulators not voted in by the people but put in place by our so-called representatives.
Now recently the big man just wrote an executive order giving him complete power over the nation’s communication systems. Will there be another executive order written describing what we can and can not say on Face Book and through our e-mails even though the NSA is recording EVERYTHING and storing it on their computers?
This is not “limited government control.”
The bottom line is all this information is being collected for blackmail for greater control over the common folk. Hoover at the FBI blackmailed many in government with their collected information. Imagine what it will be like with all those computers NSA is proposing to house in their new very large facility currently under construction in Utah?
The people are bound to show their disgust with the growing presence of a third party come election time 2016.
Weighing in on our company, we would be much better off today if the capitalistic theory would have been respected by government:
1- Capital accumulation – How much time and money did that law breaking pack of independent attorneys steal from shareholders when they were let out of their cages?
2- Competitive markets – Loving gold and mining has been severely disturbed by the added expense of having to react to accusers and regulators in shrinking our profit margins or just sinking us into the red most of the time.
3- Price system – Oh Gee whiz, how have we ever survived with the central banks of the world leaning on and suppressing the price of our final product?
The system by which all these players are controlling us is not free enterprise and most certainly, not true capitalism.
test
Great News
Posted on July 11, 2013 by Martin Armstrong
There are a group of Senators who want to bring back Glass-Steagall separating commercial banks from investment banks. That was removed by Goldman Sachs’ Robert Rubin under Bill Clinton.
Nevertheless, the Fed is already advising banks that they will not insure losses on the trading side. The Fed has been advising banks they will only cover commercial banking deposits and loans period! Trading losses will be on them.
Glass-Steagall is coming back if they like it or not. The banks are not going to be handed blank checks anymore so the future will be strikingly different.
Wayne Root supports workers.
http://www.kitco.com/news/video/show/FreedomFest-2013/362/2013-07-12/Wayne-Root-What-Fuels-Gold
According to Wayne Root in an interview on kitco.com stated:
In the first 90 days of 2013 the Obama administration added 6,118 new rules and regulations.
If you break rules and regulations you get fined. It’s a real money maker for the government. These types of aggressive government actions are exactly the same that Rome’s government cast on its citizens prior to its collapse.
Achieving Independence
By James Corbett
It’s the day after the day after Independence Day. Sadly, for many Americans this means that the fireworks have all been set off, the hot dogs have all been grilled and eaten, the hangover fog has started to lift, and it’s time to carry on with business as usual in the great American Empire. Another year of working as a cog in the great corporate machine of America’s increasingly fascistic system. Another year of being openly surveyed, spied on, and tracked by the NSA. Another year of inflating bills and mounting debt as the talking heads crow about an “economic recovery.” Another year of food stamps and Obamacare, NDAA arrests and police brutality, quantitative easing, social dissolution, and racial tension. Another year before anyone bothers to once again give lip service to the great American tradition of independence that has long since been abandoned in favor of “national security” and “social welfare.” The founding fathers must be spinning in their graves.The 4th of July
In 1775, people in New England began fighting the British for their independence. On July 2, 1776, the Congress secretly voted for independence from Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence was first published two days later on July 4, 1776. The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was on July 8, 1776. Delegates began to sign the Declaration of Independence on August 2, 1776.
Prior to this historic event, the King of England was severely taxing the colonies. In addition, the people of the colonies had few rights especially when British soldiers wanted entry into their homes.
What is really different today? a small elite group operating behind the curtain is doing the same thing. Their front is the Wall Street banks and, or course, those in power.Today there is growing restlessness with the people flavored with constant quoting from our Founding Fathers who entended much more for us than we have today. And then we have Homeland Security, who have amassed large supplies of bullets and armored vehicles.
Not to forget, the warrantless intrusions into our personal financial information, our emails and private? phone conversations now being stored for what?
I’m not celebrating the 4th this year as I fear the likes of the English are back.
Something doesn’t smell right.
Squeeze The People
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The most endangered species on the planet is the pensioner
California on the Brink: Pension Crisis About to Get Worse
By Elizabeth MacDonald
Published June 12, 2013A growing number of key California cities are a lot worse off than previously thought, thanks to new changes coming in the way state and local governments must account for their pension costs.
The pension changes from Moody’s, and separately the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, scheduled for this month, could result in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Azusa and Inglewood joining fiscally troubled Stockton and San Bernardino, among others, as severe credit risks. It’s all largely due to soaring employee retirement costs, according to new analysis based on the methodology by Bob Williams and his team at State Budget Solution (SBS), a non-partisan organization that studies state budget crises.
The new rules could nearly double California’s unfunded liabilities to $328.6 billion. Moreover, California cities that have already filed for bankruptcy protection, like Stockton and Vallejo, will fall deeper into the red.
Officials in these California cities did not return calls for comment.
The credits below belong to Martin Armstrong:
If you don’t trust people, spy on them
British intelligence GCHQ has spied on the Transatlantic fiber optic cable grabbing ALL German e-mails and phone calls. Just what the hell is going on in this world? This is like a jealous girl/boyfriend trying to make you account for every minute you are not with them. Enough is enough! Any politician who defends this nonsense should be run out of office PERMANENTLY. There is nobody guarding the guards. There were 19 guys + perhaps a camel who attacked the World Trade Center. Government knew all about that plot 1 year in advance because the FIRST World Trade Center Bombers drew the twin towers on the wall of their cell at MCC New York on level 9 South with planes going into it one year BEFORE! I suppose that was not reliable because they didn’t have to torture them for that info. Yes the correction office was Wm Kumb and no NY Newspapers would dare report the truth – New York Times included. This is why they created Homeland Security to gather all evidence from the agencies who had the info. They don’t want to publicly acknowledge that one.
So let’s see; we need to seize everything to keep society safe when they could not stop the Boston Bombers who used cell phones. The more you seize, the long it will take to sift through everything and you will NEVER prevent an attack tomorrow. The truth? They are too busy looking for taxes and money to seize while pretending to be looking for terrorists – good one! The real formula:
Terrorists = More Power = more TAXES
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jun/21/legal-loopholes-gchq-spy-world
Me feels that most politicians suck.
Our political governments are infested with lawyers who know how to write and prosecute laws, but are braindead when it comes to creating an economy. They have ZERO skills in the creation department This is the same disease that kills corporations. It is the entrepreneur who creates the entity from his vision (Henry Ford, Steve Jobs), but then the company is taken over by the accounts and lawyers who dominate the board. People like Steve Jobs are thrown out for they can only create, not manage. Then bureaucratic corporations, like government, are incapable of creation and this causes them to take over start-ups paying a fortune to kids who can create because the board of directors lack those skills.
Eventually, the corporation dies void of any creative skills. Government follows the same exact path to extinction. In ancient history it was called becoming Byzantine. Over-regulation to the point the cost of government was so oppressive the economy simply died. The same pattern emerged in Venice as the state wanted to own everything. When Florence because a corrupt bureaucracy, the same fate awaited it in the dawn. Genoa rotated the office of the Doge on an annual basis. That prevented an infestation of bureaucrats and allowed Genoa to outlast both Venice and Florence. Hence – term limits are ESSENTIAL!
Martin Armstrong
Switzerland Show Some Guts At Last
Posted on June 18, 2013 by Armstrong Economics
Legislation that would have ended the Swiss banking laws and handed everything to the USA was defeated in a recent vote. The secrecy laws was put in place in 1934 to protect the Jews and Germans from Hitler who attempted the same thing making it criminal for a German to have an offshore account. The Sovereign Debt Crisis cannot be solved by even raising taxes to 120%. The politicians are desperate to hold on to power and cannot see their own destruction of the world economy is taking place because of their greed and corruption.
http://m.europe.wsj.com/articles/a/SB10001424127887324021104578552930613288170?mg=reno64-wsj
How the politicians are destroying the world economy.
How to Protect The People from the NSA – Easy
Posted on June 18, 2013 by Armstrong Economics
If this whole affair is really about terrorists, then enact legislation that states no American can be prosecuted for any crime based upon any evidence obtained from the NSA. So if ANYTHING is handed to the Justice Department, SEC, CFTC, or IRS, then a citizen shall be ABSOLUTELY IMMUNE from civil or criminal prosecution.
This would be a simple solution. They listen to a phone call and call the IRS, you cannot be prosecuted civilly or criminally – you get ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY just as government prosecutors get from prosecuting innocent people.
END of debate.
Just what we need. NOT!
The G8 this week is looking to regulate mining with new laws.
“These G8 partnerships will also stress “introducing stronger legal frameworks to regulate the extractives sector by introducing new laws that make EITI standards a legal requirement,” said the PM’s office.”
No public borrowing and no career politicians. Virtually every department should be privatized to prevent state pensions. Those in government just cannot keep their fingers out of other people’s pockets – impossible! This is behind everything from the NSA to Homeland Security. Instead of reform, they are digging in their heels to defend their right to exploit your money. Government is NOT society. They are two distinct entities.
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” Tacitus, 56 AD–117 AD
The city of Detroit defaulted on $2.5 billion of its outstanding debt. The creditors are getting what they deserve. He who lends to government depends on the exploitation of the people to get repaid. The city’s retired city workers were also warned that significant cuts in pensions and health insurance would take place. This is the problem all governments face. They promised the moon. Then when those workers retired, they had to be replaced. The cost of government is rising exponentially and this causes higher taxes and it becomes a dog chasing its own tail. There is NO way out but collapse. The economic model upon which government has been designed post-WWII is simply braindead. Dumb and Dumber could have done a better job.
The size of government escalates and this creates a deflationary vortex through which the economy is sucked dry. There is no surviving this crisis. Politicians are desperate to cling to power so they buy tanks and guns to defend against the inevitable.
Martin Armstrong
Too many regulators?
Claimed sand and gravel operation near Placerville levied $11 million in fines
for, according to the State and county, for violations in operating a gold mine.http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-gold-news?oid=194226&sn=Detail
California on the Brink: Pension Crisis About to Get Worse
By Elizabeth MacDonald
Published June 12, 2013A growing number of key California cities are a lot worse off than previously thought, thanks to new changes coming in the way state and local governments must account for their pension costs.
The pension changes from Moody’s, and separately the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, scheduled for this month, could result in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Azusa and Inglewood joining fiscally troubled Stockton and San Bernardino, among others, as severe credit risks. It’s all largely due to soaring employee retirement costs, according to new analysis based on the methodology by Bob Williams and his team at State Budget Solution (SBS), a non-partisan organization that studies state budget crises.
The new rules could nearly double California’s unfunded liabilities to $328.6 billion. Moreover, California cities that have already filed for bankruptcy protection, like Stockton and Vallejo, will fall deeper into the red.
Officials in these California cities did not return calls for
Paranoid or Conservative
Posted on June 11, 2013 by Armstrong Economics
Securing Phone Calls and Emails should no longer be for the paranoid, but good old fashion conservative business & personal practices as long as people like Feinstein pretend to represent people instead of the government institution. We have no control over her. She was sent to do “God’s Work” like Goldman Sachs.
The problem is who is their “GOD”? It sure is not the one that says treat everyone as yourself and “thous shalt not covert thy neighbor’s goods” since that is all they are ever after.
You should talk to anyone who grew up in East Germany. When the government fell, their files on everyone came out. They threatened everyone just as the USA threatens newspapers and Google – do as we direct or else. People then renovated their apartments. What they discovered were hidden microphones in everyone’s apartment. The NSA along with Feinstein and her thugs, are acting EXACTLY as in George Orwell’s 1984 where there was a picture frame in every house that monitored what they were doing. God help us, a terrorist might come over for dinner.
What is going on down there is typical. They make a lot of noise, but expect it to blow over and everyone will forget in a few weeks as usual. Most do not take this serious and Feinstein defends her spying on everyone to her dying breath. She should resign !!!!! She is a disgrace to all the people who died for this country to defend the constitution she swept away. How can you ask people to lay down their lives to defend what people like her do not respect? She is a international disgrace.
This achieve is massive. They can call up anything on any individual exactly like the Stassi. There is no difference.
Government is in your house.
Check out the most recent article written by Martin Armstrong in the linked section below.:
How does this sound to you? It sounds good to me. This morning’s thoughts from Martin Armstrong:
Since money is electronic and nearly 40% of government exists to extort money from the public to sustain itself, the solution can only be total reform. We must eliminate income tax, reduce the size of government dramatically as a result, collapse all regulation of any industry into a single agency, privatize virtually everything so it is far better to have private companies bidding for the job where their workers must perform and live like the rest of us without special exemptions, eliminate career politicians by creating one-term one-time one-year intervals where people from the private sector actually oversea government, no major spending or program without a real democratic vote – no representatives, do all of this and we will eliminate most lobbying and corruption since the bulk of that is for taxation.
Concerning the conspiracy to create a world order, Martin Armstrong gives us his opinion:
I have said this many times. This is just gibberish. Yes those in government try to manipulate society and the economy. They are fools and it always fails. What we face is far worse than some sinister group in absolute control. This is out of control and we are in the back seat of a car driven by a Kangaroo. There is nobody in control. They do not even comprehend how to control what they cannot understand.
I have always stood up for what is right. I would be the first screaming if there was some sinister group in control. Sorry – there is none. We are not only on our own, but we have nobody to even lead us in the right direction. We get what we vote for.
Big banks being allowed to write their own ticket while Congress does what it does best, not much. 2016 should be the year of voter rebellion with growing numbers of American showing their frustration by voting against the two-party system.
From today’s International Forecaster:
Big Banks Still Write the Rules: Fmr. Inspector General of Bank Bailout
By Lauren LysterFormer Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker has announced he’s taking on the public’s eroding faith in government with a new foundation called the Volcker Alliance. He’s set to address an audience today in New York on the challenges facing regulatory reform, including how slowly Washington has moved on putting Dodd-Frank financial reform into effect.
The New York Times recently reported Citigroup’s (C) input was reflected in more than 70 lines of an 85-line bill that sailed through the House Financial Services Committee this month. The bill would exempt broad swathes of derivatives trades from new regulation. Two key paragraphs, according to the Times, prepared by Citigroup together with other Wall Street banks, were copied almost word for word.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/big-banks-still-write-rules-fmr-inspector-general-131105952.html?=vp1Enough Is Enough
Outrageous is what I have to say. The Patriot Act that our blind representatives couldn’t read but signed anyway? The Sixteen to One has no such requirements to buy our shares.
A question is, when does all this squeezing the people stop?
Some brokerage firms really suck. As an example, my daughter was holding shares of a US company that took over a Canadian one which she originally put her money in. When it came time for her to sell the US company she put in a market order. The report that she received was from the pink sheets, not the American Stock Exchange where the US company was listed.
Strange? Very, very strange. She went back to the broker and checked the price as it was 30 cents lower than the American’s last sale when the currency exchange was at par, meaning 1 US dollar buys exactly 1 Canadian dollar. She was told since she bought the shares in converted Canadian funds from US funds then they have to be sold in Canadian funds to be transferred back into US dollars. What a pile of meadow muffins. Remember she was selling a US security in the United States and expecting funds in US dollars. That brokerage firm had a real big software problem. She complained and the reviewing regulators said the brokerage firms acted in good faith. Of course, she got really hosed in the Pink Sheets which the regulators said was the best market in town at the time. Total BS.
She wrote a letter of protest to a congressman and never heard back. The commercial banks affiliated with brokerage firms are stealing from America but no one seems to care. We are all way over regulated by buffoons.
To prove this point, let’s take another simple transaction. I buy a gold coin in Mexico for Pesos. I return to the US and sell it to a coin dealer. Does he ask me in what type of currency it was acquired with, of course not.
What do we need a stock exchange for, it used to be a convenience. Now we have the Internet and PayPal. Try putting up a bid for your shares on Craig’s list, see what happens. I bet if you make a transaction from a holder of physical stock no one will ask you for anything but the money. The shares can easily have their names changed at the transfer agent. Or better yet, just give Rae a call and she’ll help you with a purchase of our shares. At least you and your wife won’t be frisked here.
Another thing I came across on the Patriot Act, a year or so ago I tried to open a new brokerage account at Vanguard for my wife and me.
They told me they would not do it unless I had a good copy of her SS card, a photo I.D. and at least one other source of I.D.
I couldn’t believe it! I NEVER needed that kind of stuff to open a new account before. They apologized but told me they had to have it. They blamed it on the “Patriot Act”. I asked them why they just needed it for my wife and not for me and they weren’t really able to answer that.
In the end, we did not open the account. I thought PHOOEY! That’s too much trouble for what I was trying to do!
Go figure.
Regards,
Fred M. Cain- AuthorPosts
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