With the Federal Reserve and now Bank of Japan printing massive amounts of money, billionaire investor Jim Rogers told CNBC's "Closing Bell," he is shorting U.S. government debt.
"It's all artificial what's going on right now," Rogers said. "The Federal Reserve is printing money as fast as they can. The Bank of Japan said 'we're going to print unlimited money.'"
He called the Fed's monetary stimulus "outrageous."
All
that money printing has Rogers bearish on U.S. Treasury debt. He said
he's shorting government bonds and that if it's indeed the end of the
30-year bond bull market, those shorts will pay off. In particularly he
said it's time to short long-dated U.S. government debt.
"Stocks may go up too, but I don't know how this can last too long," he added.
While Rogers is negative on the U.S. stock market and said he's been short Apple [ AAPL468.22 +13.52 (+2.97%) ] since the fall, he sees better opportunities in Japan and Russia.
The
Bank of Japan's money printing is not good for the world he said, but
it's making markets go up. "The yen is collapsing, but the stock market
is going through the roof," Rogers said.
And while the Federal
Reserve is also printing money through its quantitative easing program,
Rogers noted that the U.S. equity market is flirting with all-time
highs, while Japanese stocks are down 75 percent from their all-time
high.
"I hope I'm buying low and selling high," he said. He
wondered why the Japanese market couldn't double even while the yen
collapses while the Japanese central bank continues to print money.
Rogers mentioned the WisdomTree Japan Hedged ETF [ DXJ41.00 -0.13 (-0.32%) ] as a currency-neutral way to play Japan.
He
also likes Russia for the first time in his career. Russia is changing
but the market remains unloved. Rogers is buying the bonds, the currency
and stocks.
Obama's headline appearance on the Late Show with Dave Letterman, Sep. 18.
Too scared to say '$16 trillion' on national television, the Deficit President plays dumb on the debt. All politicians should be required to wear clocks around their necks displaying a running tally of the national debt. Something like this: Letterman: "Here’s what I found
troubling at the GOP convention. They had the clock, the debt countdown
clock and, I mean, this thing is moving like crazy and it’s several
trillion dollars. Now, what is that?" Obama responded with a recent history of government spending. Then Letterman went back to the tally: "Now, do you remember what that number was? Was it $10 trillion?" Then came the payoff, as the president
made clear that he really didn’t want to say the word '16': "I don’t
remember what the number was precisely." Obama says the debt is not a
problem in the short term but is a medium and long term concern. We
wonder how he is defining short, medium and long term. To Obama, short
term means the next 4 years if he wins re-election, and medium and long
term are when it becomes someone else's problem.
---
In 2008 candidate Obama said Bush was "unpatriotic" for adding over $4 trillion to the national debt in eight years. But the numbers show that Obama will add $6 trillion to the debt in just 4 years. Perhaps this explains his national debt amnesia on Letterman.
--- One last clip:
Obama also told Letterman that it
isn’t right to refer to political opponents as 'unpatriotic.' Naturally
he didn’t say that he’s the one exception to that rule.
--- Obama is not being honest with the numbers. A brilliant rebuttal from STR. Excerpt
For the record, the national debt was $10.626 trillion the day Obama took office.
Bush increased it by $4 trillion during his entire 8-year presidency
and Obama demonized him. But by the time Obama looks at his calendar on
January 20, 2013, he will have racked up more than $6 trillion in just
four years.
Obama says, “When I walked into office we had a trillion dollar
deficit.” That’s actually a blatant lie. When Obama walked into
office Bush handed him a (still way too high unless you compare it to
Obama) $400 billion budget deficit. That $400 billion was the deficit that Bush left Obama for fiscal year 2009 if Obama hadn’t then loaded and larded it up with debt piled on top of debt.
Obama is blaming Bush for: 1) Obama’s $862 billion stimulus; 2) Obama’s $79 billion bailout for Government Motors and their union Democrats; 3) Obama’s $410 billion Omnibus bill; 4) Obama’s $350 billion in TARP money that
Obama voted for and that Bush left for him. That’s how you turn Bush’s
$400 billion into Obama’s whining about a trillion.
In a way what Obama is trying to do with his deficit is what he’s
trying to do in pretty much everything. Obama spends $79 billion to
bail out GM. Obama takes credit for it as an evidence of his glorious Obamaness.
But who does Obama stick with the bill? Bush. That deal happened in
March of 2009 and therefore is “Bush’s fault.” Bush gets zero credit
but gets stuck with the entire bill for Obama’s extravagance.
Our real debt isn’t the $16 trillion ($6 trillion of which accumulated under Obama’s watch); it’s $222 trillion PLUS because of all the unfunded costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
'After the downgrade the intensity of the investigation significantly increased. And we don’t know why.' More evidence that this was an act of
prosecutorial revenge against S&P for its high-profile downgrade of
the U.S. AAA credit rating in 2011.
And what about Moody's, which happens to be a major holding of Warren Buffett.
A person familiar with the investigation told McClatchy that Moody's was originally part of the government's investigation, but interest in the agency waned at around the same time S&P downgraded the U.S.
S&P is the only one of the three major credit rating agencies currently facing a lawsuit.
--- Full interview:
'Everyone was doing it...'
Abrams also told CNBC that he does NOT plan to use a
First Amendment defense in the case. Experts had expected S&P to
use the same argument ratings agencies have been using for years to
defend wrong ratings -- they’re a matter of opinion and therefore
protected as free speech. Reuters
Standard and Poor's has hired John Keker, one of the country's top
white-collar defense attorneys, to help fight a $5 billion lawsuit
brought by the U.S. government.
Keker, who is based in San Francisco and has represented everyone
from cyclist Lance Armstrong to Enron's Andrew Fastow, was hired at the
recommendation of Floyd Abrams, a prominent New York attorney who also
represents the ratings firm.
--- More on S&P and Moody's:
(Pictured: February 6, 2013:
Greeks reach out to take fruits and vegetables distributed for free by
farmers. Over 100,000 pounds of food was not enough to feed everyone.)
Once a bastion of European success and center of tourism, the country
of Greece has become the harbinger of things to come for the rest of
the world’s developed nations.
Not long ago Greeks were enjoying high paid salaries, early
retirements, excess cash, and seemingly never ending economic growth.
Today, just a short time after a financial collapse that rocked
global financial markets, Europe’s darling has turned into a frightening
example of what happens when governments and their people take on more
debt than they can ever hope to repay.
The end result is a warning to the rest of us.
Hundreds of people jostled for free vegetables handed out
by farmers in a symbolic protest earlier on Wednesday, trampling one
man and prompting an outcry over the growing desperation created by
economic crisis. Images of people struggling to seize bags of tomatoes and
leeks thrown from a truck dominated television, triggering a bout of
soul-searching over the new depths of poverty in the debt-laden country. “These images make me angry. Angry for a proud people who
have no food to eat, who can’t afford to keep warm, who can’t make ends
meet,” said Kostas Barkas, a lawmaker from the leftist Syriza party.
Other lawmakers from across the political spectrum decried the images “of people on the brink of despair” and the sense of “sadness for a proud people who have ended up like this“.
People have seen their living standards crumble as the country faces
its sixth year of recession that has driven unemployment to record
highs.
…
The free food handout in Athens began peacefully as hundreds of
Greeks lined up in advance outside the agriculture ministry, where
protesting farmers laid out tables piled high with produce, giving away
50 metric tonnes (55.11 tons) of produce in under two hours.
Tensions flared when the stalls ran out of produce and dozens of
people – some carrying small children – rushed to a truck and shoved
each other out of the way in the competition for what was left.
One man was treated for injuries after being trampled when he fell to the ground in the commotion. “I never imagined that I would end up here,” said Panagiota Petropoulos, 65, who struggles to get by on her 530-euro monthly pension while paying 300 euros in rent.
“I can’t afford anything, not even at the fruit market.
Everything is expensive, prices of everything are going up while our
income is going down and there are no jobs.” Reuters via Zero Hedge
Desperation, sadness, poverty, disbelief – these are the horrors that await the unprepared.
While European (and U.S.) officials would have us believe they’ve
mitigated the crisis in Greece, the fact is that this experiment in
centralized governance is, in its entirety, on the brink of collapse.
We’ve chronicled the desperate situation in Greece for the last few years.
Personal accounts from some of our readers express their fear and uncertainty as political and socioeconomic conditions have deteriorated.
Shortages of life savings medicines and food have led to widespread riots and looting.
Food has become so expensive in Greece that it has become unattainable
for many, prompting the Greek government to authorize grocery retailers
to sell expired food at discounted prices.
On a national level, Greece’s manipulation of economic health numbers
and their ability to repay loans has left them unable to meet their
financial obligations and has led to talks of their exit from the Euro, a
move that has the potential to destroy the European currency system
altogether.
The debts have gotten so high that the country faced the possibility of a complete collapse of their power and gas infrastructure
when local utility companies were unable to settle their agreements
with regional suppliers – an effect caused by their customers’ inability
to pay their monthly bills.
This is what it looks like when a system collapses. Sometimes it happens overnight in a waterfall event.
In the case of Greece, a country that has the backing of the world’s
two largest central banks, it’s been a slow but steady process of
grinding down all aspects of life.
A similar grinding down should be apparent in other Western nations,
namely the United States, where we’ve seen employment decline unabated
over the last decade and tens of millions of people added to government
funded social safety nets like food assistance and disability.
Make no mistake. We are Greece.
Now is the time to prepare for the desperate situation that will soon be in America. For millions it’s already here.
Have reserve money – real money like gold and silver that can be used as a medium of exchange. At the height of panic, gold was selling for nearly double its value on the Greek black market than it was anywhere else in the world.
If you have the means to do so, relocate out of major cities
and into areas that will afford you the ability to produce your own
food, trade your skills, and stay out of the way of the madness that
comes with large population densities.
Every day we edge closer to disaster. Life in America as we have come to know it is in the midst of a massive paradigm shift.
It will no doubt be difficult. But despite the challenges, with the
proper mindset and preparation, perhaps we can avoid being one of the
many who will be depending on handouts when the worst comes to pass.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has covered world politics and economics for
30 years, based in Europe, the US, and Latin America. He joined the
Telegraph in 1991, serving as Washington correspondent and later Europe
correspondent in Brussels. He is now International Business Editor in
London. Subscribe to the City Briefing e-mail.
David Cameron's pledge for an 'in-or-out' referendum on Europe will
be overtaken by internal events long before we reach 2017. The vote may
never be necessary. He is entirely right to play for time.
The eurozone's North-South misalignment has not been resolved. The
Club Med bloc is still sliding into deeper depression. The financial
crisis — never more than a symptom — has graduated into a more
intractable economic, social, and therefore political crisis.
The ECB's Mario Draghi has taken the risk of a sovereign default in
Spain and Italy off the table, but he has not restored these countries
to economic viability within a D-Mark currency bloc, and nor can he.
Take a moment to read Eurozone crisis: it ain't over yet by Professor Paulo Manasse from Bologna University, posted on VOX EU.
Look at the German-Italian gap below. The… Read More
This paper compares state-by-state
estimates of the top marginal effective tax rates (METRs) on wages,
interest, dividends, capital gains, and business income for tax year
2012 to the rates enacted into law for 2013 by the American Tax Relief
Act of 2012 (ATRA). Overall, the average top METR on wage income
increased by approximately six percentage points (41.8% to 47.9%), while
taxes on dividends and capital gains increased by an average of 9.4
percentage points. The top METRs on wages, interest, and
partnership/sole proprietor income now exceed 50% in California, Hawaii,
and New York City.
Blythe Masters, the Queen Bee of carbon tax.
---
John's weekly update on graft, corruption and waste in the energy sector.
Carbon Markets In Death Spiral As Deutsche Bank Quits
REPORT - Deutsche Bank Quits Carbon Trading
Deutsche Bank is understood to have pulled the plug on its carbon
trading desk, but will continue to operate in the European power and gas
markets. The bank is believed to be in the process of winding down its
emissions trading operations, the bulk of which operates in London.
Answering a question about the business at a press conference at the
German bank’s results announcement, Stephan Leithner, board member for
compliance, said: “We stopped emissions trading, and we have
discontinued it.” Deutsche Bank’s press office refused to comment
further on his statement, but it is understood that the desk in London
is being wound down.
REPORT - Barclays, Deutsche Bank Lose Top Carbon Analysts
LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters Point Carbon) – Investment banks Barclays and
Deutsche Bank have parted ways with their leading carbon analysts,
sources at both firms told Reuters Point Carbon on Wednesday, as banks
continue to pare back activity in the battered emissions trading market.
BUSTED: Deutsche Bank Raided In Carbon Tax Fraud
Two board members at Deutsche Bank, including the CEO, have been drawn into a police investigation into tax evasion related to the group’s carbon trading business.
Jürgen Fitschen, co-chief executive, and Stefan Krause, a director,
are involved in the investigation that on Wednesday saw hundreds of
police and tax officials raid the bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt, as
well as private addresses in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt.
The investigation is centred on 25 of the bank’s staff, according to
German prosecutors, and involves allegations of tax evasion, money
laundering and obstruction of justice linked to carbon trading
certificates.
About 500 police and tax officials were involved in the raids and
five staff members were arrested as part of the carbon trading
investigation.
World Bank To Launch Carbon Fund In Spring
The World Bank aims to launch a new carbon fund this spring after it
was delayed almost a year because falling carbon prices made it harder
to raise cash, a senior official at the bank told Reuters Point Carbon.
Power Chief: Carbon Markets Face Junk Bond Future
Last week, MEP’s on the European parliament’s industry (ITRE)
committee rejected a proposal to firm up carbon prices by withholding –
or ‘backloading’ –
900 million EU allowances from the 2020 auctioning period. Analysts
expect a narrow majority for action in key votes on the parliament’s
environment committee on 19 February and, crucially, in a plenary later
this Spring.
But Hans ten Berge, secretary-general of Eurelectric, warned that “if
we choose the strategy of a lost decade then we are going for a
collapse of the carbon market and it will be impossible to achieve the
2050 decarbonisation targets.”
Carbon prices, which are supposed to entice low-carbon investments, plunged to a record low of
just €2.81 per tonne after the ITRE committee vote, down from a peak of
€32 in April 2006. But ten Berge said that the price could yet fall
further. “Just ask investors what the value is of a bond that you would
not be able to cash before 2025,” he said. “I think that would be
called a junk bond.”
Among Solar Stocks - Who Has The Liquidity To Last? (Good Charts)
With solar power component prices forecasted to decrease again this
year due to continued overcapacity, investors need to assess which of
the world’s largest photovoltaic (PV) suppliers have the liquidity to
sustain additional revenue and earnings shortfalls. With the demand
cycle unlikely to rebalance until 2015, even size won’t save some
manufacturers from being forced out of the solar market.
Energy Secretary Chu To Step Down
Chu was also forced to walk back comments he made several years ago, when he noted that
"we have to figure out a way to boost the price of gasoline to the
levels in Europe." With the average price of gas doubling over Obama's
first term, Chu's remarks were seized on by Republicans.
Obama has not yet named a successor for Chu. The confirmation
process, however, should provide Senators with a vehicle to examine the
Department's loan and grant programs for renewable energy. It is an
opportunity to ensure that better safeguards are in place to protect
taxpayer money.
GOP Senator Slams Chu Over Solyndra
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa
(R-Calif.) is bashing Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s record in the wake
of Chu’s announcement Friday that
he’s stepping down. Issa, who has probed the Energy Department green
technology loan program that backed the ill-fated solar company
Solyndra, cleared his throat with praise for Chu before attacking him in
a Friday statement.
“While I wish Secretary Chu well in his future endeavors and respect
his contributions to his country as a scientist, the direction the
Department of Energy has taken under his leadership has been
disconcerting,” Issa said.
“While many will remember Secretary Chu for his comments about the
need to raise gas prices on American consumers and the high grades he
publicly bestowed on himself, I found taxpayer losses on projects like
Solyndra and the department’s deeply misguided effort to use taxpayer
dollars as an investment bank for unproven technologies to be the most
problematic aspects of his legacy,” he said.
Check out these clips of the fire at First Wind in Hawaii.
UPDATE - Fire At Hawaii Wind Farm Blamed On Fire Department Response
Firefighters responded to the blaze in 14 minutes, but were told by a
representative of First Wind that based on two earlier fires, the
flames were likely to die down on their own. Instead, the fire burned
for more than seven hours and completely destroyed the warehouse,
knocking the 30-megawatt wind farm offline.
Gotcher testified a surveillance camera videotaped the fire, and as a
result, 30 possible causes had been narrowed to just two – a battery
ground fault in the warehouse or some type of foreign object left in the
aisle near the battery rack system. Of the 14 energy storage systems
Xtreme Power has deployed nationwide, only the Kahuku wind farm has
experienced problems with fire, in April and May of 2011, and the fire
earlier this year.
DOJ Must Explain SELECTIVE Targeting Of Energy Industry Over Bird Deaths
Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) asked U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder why he is “targeting” oil and gas companies by prosecuting
them for the unintentional death of birds. The senators said on the
Senate floor Wednesday that they sent Holder a letter asking
him why he is prosecuting oil and gas companies for violating the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) by killing birds, yet he is not going
after wind energy companies.
“This is not even handed enforcement of the law,” Vitter said. “What that is, is targeting one type of energy producer.”
First Wind Takes Steps To Protect Birds
First Wind officials said Tuesday that they have started work on a
program to preserve the population of threatened or endangered Hawaiian
seabirds in West Maui, several miles from the company’s Kaheawa Wind
project. First WInd is constructing two fenced enclosures about 10
miles west of Wailuku to protect the Hawaiian petral, which is federally
endangered, and the threatened Newell’s shearwater. The enclosures,
which will encompass four to five acres, will have features to keep
predators such as rats and mongoose out.
First Wind CEO on learning from mistakes, plays the sympathy card
MY younger sister, Maureen, was born with cerebral palsy. That shaped
my view of the world, as I saw the challenges that she and my parents
had to deal with. My sister went to special schools for years. She
graduated from college and is doing well, but it made me appreciate all
she had to go through and all I had. I look at people with disabilities
personally.
Video: First Wind CEO boasts about getting expedited stimulus money.
Bill Barrett Corp Names Jim Mogg Chairman Note: Mogg is also chaiman of First Wind and sits on many other boards
DENVER, January 7, 2013 – Bill Barrett Corporation (NYSE: BBG)
announced today that its Board of Directors has appointed R. Scot
Woodall, Chief Operating Officer, as interim Chief Executive Officer
following Fred Barrett’s decision to step down as Chairman of the Board,
Chief Executive Officer, President and a director of the Company,
effective immediately. Jim W. Mogg, lead independent director, has been
elected as non-executive Chairman of the Board, effectively immediately.
Chesapeake CEO Resigns After Scrutiny On Personal Loans
Aubrey McClendon’s agreement to resign effective April 1 culminated a
shareholder revolt by Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management
Inc.’s O. Mason Hawkins that earlier had cost the CEO the chairmanship
he’d held for more than two decades. McClendon also relinquished his
annual bonus and saw executive perks curtailed amid federal
investigations of a portfolio of personal loans that topped $840
million.
Here Is What The Analyst Who Uncovered Enron Thinks Of Chesapeake
Clever traders at Enron and El Paso Energy created many financing
tricks that in the years since have become part of the financing trade:
derivatives, synthetic credit default swaps, deals financed with little
or no equity. “Enron was the past master, but the game just
resurfaced,” says Olson, referring to wild west deal making that
inflated the housing bubble and led to the collapse of Lehman Bros. “They took it to a $3 trillion exposure.”
That makes him a little concerned about Chesapeake, which has long
trumpeted its active trading and hedging strategies. “You don’t know
what they have. I know that I don’t know.” “Chesapeake has valuable
assets, but they have a financial dynamic that only works in the fourth
dimension: they need $12 billion when their cash flow is just $2
billion.”
Chesapeake has outspent its cash flow every year for the past decade —
forging ahead with acquisitions of land and drilling more wells than
any operator — convinced that it will be able to find others to finance
its growth. Over the years McClendon has convinced the likes of Total,
Statoil, Cnooc, BHP Billiton Petroleum, BP, ExxonMobil and more to keep
his ship afloat by buying Chesapeake assets. But today with natural gas
prices so low, it has become a buyer’s market. And all the buyers know
that with Chesapeake on the ropes they ought to be able to extract a
good price.
Declassified: Chesapeake Wants Relief From Oklahoma Law It Helped Write
Just two years ago, Chesapeake Energy helped write a state law
mandating staggered terms for the board members of large publicly traded
Oklahoma companies. This week, the Oklahoma City-based natural gas
giant said it would seek “relief”
from the very same law, which was designed to help prevent what’s
essentially happening now at Chesapeake: a takeover of its corporate
board.
The law requires companies incorporated in Oklahoma to have what’s
known as a “classified” board structure. That means board members are
divided into classes with staggered elections so that only one-third of
the members face a vote of shareholders each year. Such classified
structures make companies less vulnerable to board takeovers, a threat
Chesapeake now faces.
After weeks of headlines questioning the
company’s entangled financial relationship with its CEO Aubrey
McClendon, Chesapeake this week bowed to the demands of its two largest
shareholders, which now include billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn.
The activist investor and Southeastern Asset Management will name four
new Chesapeake board members, the company said Monday.
Chesapeake On Shaky Ground With W Va. Land Mortgages
By mortgaging properties that appear to be some of his company's
least desirable assets, Mr. McClendon can raise money off holdings that
might not otherwise be profitable. And should he default on the loans,
he would lose a stake in property that wasn't his company's best bet
anyway.
The arrangement protects Mr. McClendon from bigger personal losses
while exposing the company's shareholders to the kind of risky financial
deals that have drawn scrutiny and caused the stock price to plummet in
recent weeks.
Meanwhile, the private equity firms lending the money for the
mortgages haven't specified what research went into the properties, and
shareholders have been told little about the specific pieces of farmland
that are being used by Mr. McClendon to raise money on the promise of
future drilling.
Everything You Need To Know About Chesapeake
If you’ve been hearing a lot about Chesapeake Energy Corporation and
its CEO Aubrey McClendon as of late, you might have some questions. What
is this company? Who is McClendon and what’s the deal with his wine and
antique map collection? To tackle some of those questions and more,
StateImpact reporters in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas teamed up to
create a reading guide to Chesapeake Energy’s recent financial woes.
How Fracking Dumb Do They Think We Are
While the urban media cover the staged protests and relay the protesters’ talking points, here’s a look behind the curtain. This link describes how the United Arab Emirates government provided funding so the movie Promised Land could be made. Here’s one from
Vivian Krause documenting Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s “partnership
income” from competing pipeline ventures in the U.S., flowed through to
efforts by West Coast Environmental Law and Pembina Foundation to oppose
the Enbridge project. And here’s one where
the executive director of the Sierra Club admits to accepting $26
million from Chesapeake Energy, one of the U.S.’s largest gas companies,
to run a campaign against coal. Michael Brune gamely argues that this
was before Sierra discovered the evils of fracking, and tries to make it
sound like they refused the dirty gas money, but you’ll notice they
didn’t give any of it back.
Due to the blackout at the superbowl, I present this...
The Centre for Industrial Progress plans to film impromptu interviews
with Bill McKibben et al during The Blackout Rally on February 17, 2013
in Washington DC.
The Sierra Club, 350.org, and many other self-proclaimed environmentalist groups are planning the forward on climate rally.
To assess whether this is a good thing, you need know only two facts.
In all of human history, there have been only three cheap,
plentiful, reliable sources of energy: fossil fuel energy, nuclear
energy, and hydroelectric energy. (Solar and wind have always been
radically inferior as they have always been expensive and unreliable.)
The leading “forward on climate” groups seek to destroy not only
vital fossil fuel energy, but also nuclear and hydroelectric energy,
which emit no CO2.
Conclusion: This rally has nothing to do with climate, though I know
many of its participants believe it does. It is about opposing any form
of practical energy for any reason. It is a Blackout Rally. And
today’s so-called environmentalist movement is a Blackout Movement. NOTE: The Rockefeller Fund finances 350.org
Kinder Morgan CEO Stepping Down
During Kinder Morgan Inc.'s fourth quarter earnings call on Wednesday
afternoon, President C. Park Shaper told investors he would be stepping
down at the end of March. Steve Kean, currently executive vice
president and COO, will become president and COO of the company,
effective March 31.
Shaper will continue to serve on the Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) board
of directors, but he is resigning from the boards of directors of Kinder
Morgan Management LLC, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and El Paso
Pipeline Partners LP, all affiliated companies. Oneok To Buy Kinder Morgan Pipelines (2007)
Oneok Partners LP agreed to buy an interstate pipeline system from Houston‐based Kinder Morgan Oneok Shuffles Top Management
ONEOK and ONEOK Partners have generated solid earnings and announced
growth projects in the past year, but have also found themselves snared
in several thorny issues lately. The planned Bakken Crude Express
Pipeline, ONEOK's supposed entry into oil transport from the Bakken
Shale of North Dakota and Montana, was dropped last month due to a lack
of producer commitments.
Trading firm Barcas LLC, meanwhile, sued ONEOK Partners in federal
court, alleging fraud and breach of contract over efforts to secure
commitments on the Bakken Crude Express. Houston-based Barcas accused
the Tulsa leadership of trying to reap the benefits of the Bakken's
financial windfall without compensating the trading firm for its efforts
on ONEOK's behalf.
Norton was one of the executives singled out in the Barcas complaint.
He was quoted as telling the Houston company it was excluded because
one producer, Tulsa-based Samson Resource Co., would not work with
Barcas leader Kevin Foxx. Foxx was a central figure in the financial
collapse and bankruptcy of SemGroup LP four years ago.
Prized Phosphate Drives Controversial Investments In Africa (Must Read)
Last year, the Norwegian government, which has the world's largest
sovereign wealth fund, divested PotashCorp because of its purchase of
Western Saharan phosphate. Several European banks have done the same.
And the European Union last year ended a fishing agreement with Morocco,
which included Western Sahara waters, because of concerns that it
violated international law.
Other resources are still being exploited. Sand is exported to the
nearby Canary Islands, owned by Spain, to bolster beaches there. Several
international companies are exploring for oil in Western Sahara or off
its shores. Activists say the Austin, Tex.-based company Crystal
Mountain Sel Sahara is producing salt in Western Sahara. And several
European companies as well as American company UPC Renewables
are developing wind farms in Western Sahara, with plans to export the
energy. Such investments go forward with little controversy, despite the
legal gray area.
Afghan economy better than expected, says IMF
… In 2013, the economy will continue to grow and inflation is expected
to be stable. An IMF report, released on Monday, noted that a large crop
has boosted real GDP growth to 12 per cent and helped moderate
inflation, which was 6pc year-on-year in December 2012. The IMF team
reached staff level understandings with the authorities on a path to
complete the combined 2nd and 3rd reviews, subject to implementation of
key structural benchmarks for submission of laws to parliament and
strengthening banks’ capital. − Dawn Dominant Social Theme: Let us civilize Afghanistan properly with a stiff dose of Western regulatory democracy. Free-Market Analysis: We often repeat our points
because they are idiosyncratic and no one else will. Perhaps it costs us
readership but the truth is not always convenient.
One important argument is that the West’s current wars are for
control not resources. We get a lot of pushback on this because we don’t
offer the standard argument that the West is in the grip of despotic
corporations looting impoverished countries via military action and
unilateral demands.
In fact, we don’t believe corporations run the world at all. We believe corporations are run by a tiny, ruthless power elite
and that this power elite does not care about resources, as the world
contains plenty of resources and the elite already controls most of
them.
The furor over Peak Oil
is just one example. Turns out that fracking allows US and Australian
industry – just two examples – to turn from oil importers into oil
exporters.
There are also reports (on alternative websites) that fracking is a suppressed technology that has been around for decades.
Oil, like most other resources, would likely be in plentiful supply were the Invisible Hand
allowed to operate. But a power elite struggling to create world
government suppresses easy access to many resources. It even attempts to
make food and water scarce.
Scarcity is a main dominant social theme
of the elite. Another dominant social theme is that modern war is
necessary for self-defense or it is part of a “great game” played by
nation-states to gain resource advantages and strategic dominance.
Today, the Great Game is supposedly being played out between the US and China.
But this is probably nonsense. China was controlled entirely by
British officials throughout the 1800s. And there is ample evidence that
Western powers have steered China’s fate ever since and even conspired
to put Mao in power.
Elites NEED faux opposition in order to make their world-spanning
plans a reality. They create false-flag opposition and resultant
military conflicts all the time.
The war in Afghanistan famously has no purpose and no reason at this point to exist. But the mainstream media
is constantly offering rationales. The most popular ones nowadays often
have to do with occupying Afghanistan so that it does not fall into the
Chinese “orbit.”
Of course, the Pentagon
INVITED China into Afghanistan to exploit Afghan minerals and energy
resources. But we are presumably not supposed to remember this.
The other fortitudinous event that has come out of the war in
Afghanistan is that it has given the West the opportunity to build a
civilized economy in what had been a tribal backwater.
This is the “White Man’s Burden” dominant social theme, a hoary one that has been dusted off with new rhetoric.
The power elite never lets memes go. It just dusts them off and recycles them.
The IMF in this case is the “white man” and this article in Dawn is
intended to be a reaffirmation of how far Afghanistan has come since the
US decided to attack it, er … free it, er … keep it out of the hands of
the Chinese, er … civilize it.
Well, you get the point. Here’s more: The economic outlook for Afghanistan is broadly positive and
growth and inflation in 2912 were better than expected, says the
International Monetary Fund. An IMF team visited Kabul during Jan 19 to Feb 2 to conduct
discussions on the combined second and third reviews of Afghanistan’s
IMF-supported programme under the Extended Credit Facility. To build revenue momentum over the medium term, the Afghan
authorities will continue and intensify their preparations for the
successful implementation of the value-added tax in 2014.
You may believe all this is, dear reader, but we don’t. What it does
tell us is that the REAL reason for the Afghan war had to do with
extending the power elite franchise in order to put the finishing
touches on the feasibility of world government.
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Northern Africa were evidently and
obviously not fully under elite control. That’s the reason that war has
flared up in these regions, from what we can tell.
War is the anvil. Supra-national organizations like the IMF are the hammer.
They are brought in after the fire of war has raged to reshape the
economy. In this case, we can see that the IMF intends to inflict on
Afghanistan all of the failed recipes with which it has tortured other
economies.
Its officials want VAT taxes, austerity and certain economic
policies. In this case, the IMF has done us a service because the
ludicrousness of this report highlights the REAL reason for the Afghan
war.
Afghanistan is in no way a Western country and the latest attempt at
bringing it into the Western orbit has seemingly failed, just as a
previous one 100 years ago failed.
The exact same outcome is anticipated. The stubborn Pashtuns
and devious Punjabis – two of the oldest tribes in the world – have
fought off Western depredations and probably ended incipient hopes of
creating true world government.
The IMF’s ridiculous verbiage is highlighted for us in this regard.
Afghanistan was supposed to be pacified by now. But the idea of the
Taliban paying a VAT tax only emphasizes the disconnect between what the
Western power elite intended and what has actually occurred.
There probably will be no VAT tax in Afghan’s immediate future. There may not even be a Karzai government or a central bank or any of the other “modern” facilities of economic control that the West has tried to emplace.
The IMF may end up exiled. Women may continue to wear veils and be educated separately.
Some of the changes the West wished to bring to Afghanistan were no doubt positive. But these changes were mostly promotional.
The real reason the US and NATO were in Afghanistan was to impose a Western style demos onto a tribal peoples.
Not for resources. Not to fight China.
To control what’s left of the world. The IMF proscriptions show us that.
Western-style regulatory democracy is not an unmitigated blessing, by
any means. The elites that propound it have an agenda that has nothing
to do with the betterment of the world.
They are seeking to rule this weary globe not to better it.
The IMF was supposed to be in charge by now. Instead, its silly – and injurious – recipes ring hollow.
We can see in their purveyance what was really intended – and what will probably not come to pass.
The elites that want to run the world justify war in all sorts of
ways. Do not be fooled. There are plenty of resources and those who run
such places as China have much more in common with Western power elites
than they do with anyone else. Conclusion: Please internalize this insight to better understand the Way the World Really Works.
Top general of Delta force speaks on the planned economic collapse and martial law
Lt. General W.G. Boykin (ret.) warns about the Marxist insurgency in the US government:
KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov’s shockingly prophetic warning from 29 years
ago, describing what’s happening in America today almost to the letter
(A MUST WATCH):
The clock is ticking… (just hit $16.5 Trillion in fact): http://www.usdebtclock.org/
BREAKING INTEL: Obama’s Cyber Warriors Prepping for EconomicCollapse DHS Insider: Obama’s cyber warriors & preparing for collapse
The following information was provided by a DHS contact on two different occasions.
Top level DHS brass, is clamping down on leaks. One way they are
finding leakers is to put out false information specific to certain
individuals. They can trace the information directly to the leaker due
to the nature and specificity of the information.
Two days after the inauguration, at exactly 7:00 a.m. on January 23,
something called “the Cyber-Warriors for Obama Project” was activated. I
heard about this the week after the election, but only saw a hardcopy
draft in late December. From what I was told, I believe this is a
project that is being paid for through funds from Obama’s political
corporation, the 501(c)4 Organizing for Obama.
… The economic devastation that will take place is an attack, a
planned attack on the U.S. Just look at it that way. This “regime”
already knows the outcome, which is the debasement of our national
currency. Like I said, it’s been in the works most recently since the
1990s. A collapse does not happen without a lot of pain – people losing
everything in their retirement accounts, savings and so on. Don’t you
think that will cause one hell of a national security problem? And who
is running our national or domestic security? DHS. http://www.trunews.com/ http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/52923#.URMv_ZHN_ZA.twitter
With time once again running out to avoid $1.2 trillion in automatic
spending cuts, conservative activist Grover Norquist, who invented the
“anti-tax increase” tax pledge embraced by Republicans, tells Newsmax
TV's Steve Malzberg that conservative legislators should allow the cuts
to proceed barring an 11th-hour shift in the president’s negotiating
tactics.
“The president has put exactly nothing on the table with the exception
of sequestration, which is the law of the land,” said Norquist,
appearing Wednesday on “The Steve Malzberg Show” on Newsmax TV in New
York.
“The sequester is going to take effect because Obama has no interest in
managing spending restraint more artfully than the sequester and his
idea of replacing or delaying the sequester is a complete nonstarter,”
said Norquist.
The Malzberg show is broadcast by Newsmax Media Inc. It will also be
carried live on SiriusXM’s Channel 166 nationwide, and will soon air on
major radio stations. The show can be seen live on Newsmax's website.
On Tuesday, Obama urged Congress to postpone the across-the-board
spending cuts scheduled to begin on March 1 to avoid what he described
as “real and lasting impacts” on U.S. economic growth.
He urged lawmakers to instead act on a smaller package of spending cuts
and changes to the tax code that would increase revenue, such as
limiting tax breaks, to replace part of the $1.2 trillion sequestration.
Norquist dismissed the president’s plea as disingenuous.
“Sequestration is a fine way to cut the budget from Obama’s
overspending,” Norquist asserted. “Now the president hoped that
Republicans were so scared by the idea of nicking the Pentagon’s budget
that when push came to shove — when we came to the time for
sequestration to start — the Republicans would come and beg him, ‘Oh
please, let’s do something other than reduce any military spending at
all.’”
Republican leaders have also said they expect the spending cuts to take
effect, partly because they won’t agree to new revenue measures that
Obama and some other Democrats have said they want.
Norquist believes that sequestration is all but inevitable.
“It will begin. It will last 10 years. It will be good for the economy.
It will be very helpful,” he predicted. “Are there alternative ways to
save that same amount of money? Sure, and I know the Republicans will
put those forward. Do I believe for a moment that the president will
entertain those? No.”
While the cuts will be particularly hard on the military, Norquist said
that Republicans know “better than anyone else” that a lot of money can
be saved at the Pentagon.
“Defense is an important thing for the government to do but it’s
important not to waste money, so budget cuts are a good idea,” he said.
“We need to do them as gracefully and as artfully and as thoughtfully as
possible.”
The Harvard-educated president of Americans for Tax Reform started
soliciting signers to the no-tax-increase pledge from state capitols to
Capitol Hill in 1986 with the passage of the landmark Tax Reform Act.
Norquist acknowledges that there could be a better alternative to sequestration if Democrats would be open to compromise.
“Sequestration is a little bit of a meat-ax approach, which is why
Republicans several times, twice now, passed alternative savings for the
same dollar amount, if you wanted to look at doing it slightly
differently,” observed Norquist. “The Republicans are committed to
saving $1.2 trillion of the president’s overspending over the next 10
years. The Republicans are open to saving it different ways.”
He believes that the president’s focus on tax loopholes is yet another
example of class warfare, but one that would not simply affect wealthy
Americans.
“Your home mortgage — interest on your home mortgage — the state and
local taxes, the property taxes that people deduct from their income,
when they pay their income taxes, charitable contributions,” he
explained. “Those are the big ones. That’s what the president’s talking
about. He’s not talking about corporate jets or something like that.”
Congress created the automatic cuts in August 2011 as part of an
agreement to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. They were set to begin in
January, though Congress delayed them for two months in a Jan. 1 measure
that let tax rates rise on top earners’ income.
Norquist added that if Democrats want to avoid the automatic cuts, they
should push through an alternative in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
“This is a law that’s passed. You want to alter this law, you write
something down in legislative language. You get 51 or 60 Democrats in
the Senate to vote for it,” admonished Norquist. “Don’t come and talk to
us about essays written — a haiku about what might be. Write it down,
pass it in the Senate, then we could look at it.”
Economic Collapse – by Michael
Why are corporate insiders dumping huge numbers of shares in their own companies right now? Why are some very large investors suddenly making gigantic bets that the stock market
will crash at some point in the next 60 days? Do Wall Street insiders
expect something really BIG to happen very soon? Do they know something
that we do not know?
What you are about to read below is startling. Every time that the market
has fallen in recent years, insiders have been able to get out ahead of
time. David Coleman of the Vickers Weekly Insider report recently noted that Wall Street insiders have shown “a remarkable ability of late to identify both market
peaks and troughs”. That is why it is so alarming that corporate
insiders are selling nine times as many shares as they are buying right
now.
In addition, some extraordinarily large bets have just been made that
will only pay off if the financial markets in the U.S. crash by the end
of April. So what does all of this mean? Well, it could mean
absolutely nothing or it could mean that there are people out there that
actually have insider knowledge that a market crash is coming. Evaluate the evidence below and decide for yourself…
For some reason, corporate insiders have chosen this moment to unload huge amounts of stock. According to a CNN article, corporate insiders are now selling nine times more of their own shares than they are buying…
Corporate insiders have one word for investors: sell.
Insiders were nine times more likely to sell shares of their
companies than buy new ones last week, according to the Vickers Weekly
Insider report by Argus Research.
What makes this so alarming is that corporate insiders have been exceedingly good at “timing the market” in recent years. The following comes from a recent CNBC article entitled “Sucker Alert? Insider Selling Surges After Dow 14,000“…
“In almost perfect coordination with an equity market
that was rushing toward new all-time highs, insider sentiment has
weakened sharply — falling to its lowest level since late March 2012,”
wrote David Coleman of the Vickers Weekly Insider report, one of the
longest researchers of executive buying and selling on Wall Street.
“Insiders are waving the cautionary flag in an increasingly aggressive
manner.”
There have been more than nine insider sales for every one buy over
the past week among NYSE stocks, according to Vickers. The last time
executives sold their company’s stock this aggressively was in early
2012, just before the S&P 500 went on to correct by 10 percent to
its low for the year.
“Insiders know more than the vast majority of market participants,”
said Enis Taner, global macro editor for RiskReversal.com. “And they’re
usually right over a long period of time.”
There are other indications that the stock market may be headed for a significant tumble in the months ahead. For example, as a Zero Hedge article recently
pointed out, the last time that the financial markets in the U.S. were
as “euphoric” as they are now was right before the financial crisis of
2008.
And as I mentioned above, some people out there have recently made
some absolutely jaw-dropping bets against stocks which will only pay off
if there is a financial crash at some point in the next few months.
According to Business Insider, the recent purchase of 100,000 put options by a mystery investor has a lot of people on Wall Street talking…
According to Barron’s columnist Steven Sears,someone made a big bet against the financialsETF yesterday (ticker symbol XLF), and it has everybody buzzing. The trader bought 100,000 put options on the ETF (a put option increases in value when the price of the underlying asset, in this case, the ETF, goes down).
To put that number in perspective, Sears writes, “Few investors ever
trade more than 500 contracts, so a 100,000 order tends to stop traffic
and prompt all sorts of speculation about what’s motivating the trade.”
According to Sears, the trade “has sparked conversations across the market.”
Reportedly, those put options expire in April.
And as Art Cashin of UBS has
noted, there was also another extremely large bet that was placed
recently that is banking on a financial crash within the next two
months…
A Very Big Bet In A Somewhat Unlikely Instrument – My
friend, Jim Brown, the ever-alert consummate professional over at Option
Investor pointed us to a rather unusual trade. Here’s what he wrote in
last night’s edition of his valuable newsletter:
In past years I have reported on trades that were so large it
appeared someone had inside knowledge of a pending event. Sometimes
those were massive put positions on the S&P. A new trade just
appeared that suggests there will be a market event in the near future. Last week somebody
put on a call spread on the VIX using the April 20 and 25 puts. They
bought 150,000 contracts for a net of $75 per contract. That is an
$11,250,000 bet that the VIX will move over 20 over the next 60 days.
You would have to be VERY confident in your outlook to risk $11 million
on a directional position with the VIX at five year lows and the markets
trying to break out to new highs.
So does all of this guarantee that the stock market is going to move a certain way?
Of course not.
But when you step back and look at the bigger picture, it does appear that Wall Street insiders are preparing for something.
Meanwhile, the government continues to assure us that happy days are
here again for the U.S. economy and that we don’t have anything to worry
about.
The Congressional Budget Office has just released a report that
contains their outlook for the next decade. The report is entitled “The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2013 to 2023″, and if you want a good laugh you should read it.
Here are some of the things that the CBO believes will happen…
-The CBO believes that government revenues will more than double by 2023.
-The CBO believes that government revenue as a percentage of GDP will rise from 15.8 percent today to 19.1 percent in 2023.
-The CBO believes that the unemployment rate will continually fall over the next decade.
-The CBO believes that the federal budget deficit will fall to just 2.4% of GDP in fiscal year 2015.
-The CBO believes that the federal budget deficit will only be $430 billion in 2015.
-The CBO believes that we will not have a single recession over the next decade.
-The CBO believes that inflation will stay at about 2 percent for the next decade.
-The CBO believes that U.S. GDP will grow by a total of 67 percent by 2023.
Wow, all of that sounds great until you go back and take a look at how CBO projections have fared in the past.
In fact, Bruce Krasting has
gone back and looked at the numbers from the Congressional Budget
Office’s Budget and Economic Outlook 2003. I think that you will find
the differences between the CBO projections and what really happened to
be very humorous… Estimated 10-year budget surplus = $5.6T. Reality = $6.6T deficit. A 200+% miss.
Estimate for 2012 Debt Held by Public = $1.2T (5% of GDP). Reality = Debt Held by Public = $11.6T. A 1000% miss.
Estimated fiscal 2012 GDP = $17.4T. Reality = $15.8T. A $1.6T (10%) miss.
So should we trust what the CBO is telling us now?
Of course not.
Instead, perhaps we should listen to some of the men that successfully warned us about the last financial crisis…
-”Dr. Doom” Marc Faber recently stated that he “loves the high odds of a ‘big-time’ market crash“.
-Economist Nouriel Roubini says that we should “prepare for a perfect storm“.
-Pimco’s Bill Gross says that we are heading for a “credit supernova“.
-Nomura’s Bob Janjuah believes that the financial markets will experience one more huge spike before collapsing by up to 50%…
I continue to believe that the S&P500 can trade up
towards the 1575/1550 area, where we have, so far, a grand double top. I
would not be surprised to see the S&P trade marginally through the
2007 all-time nominal high (the real high was of course seen over a
decade ago – so much for equities as a long-term vehicle for wealth
creation!). A weekly close at a new all-time high would I think
lead to the final parabolic spike up which creates the kind of
positioning extreme and leverage extreme needed to create the conditions
for a 25% to 50% collapse in equities over the rest of 2013 and 2014,
driven by real economy reality hitting home, and by policymaker
failure/loss of faith in “their system”.
The truth is that no matter how much money printing the Federal Reserve does, it is only a matter of time before the financial markets catch up with economic reality.
The U.S. economy has been in decline for a very long time, and things just continue to get even worse. Here are just a few numbers…
-The percentage of the civilian labor force that is employed has fallen every single year since 2006.
-According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, truly accurate
numbers would show that U.S. GDP growth has actually been continuously
negative all the way back to 2005.
-U.S. families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.
-One recent survey found that nearly half of all Americans are living on the edge of financial ruin.
-According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 146 million Americans that are considered to be either “poor” or “low income” at this point.
For many more statistics that demonstrate that the U.S. economy has
continued to decline in recent years, please see this article: “37 Statistics Which Show How Four Years Of Obama Have Wrecked The U.S. Economy“.
So where is all of this headed?
Well, after the next major financial crisis in America things are going to get very tough.
We can get a hint for how things are going to be by taking a look at what is going on over in Europe right now.
Can you imagine people trampling each other for food? That is what is happening in Greece. Just check out this excerpt from a Reuters article…
Hundreds of people jostled for free vegetables handed out
by farmers in a symbolic protest earlier on Wednesday, trampling one
man and prompting an outcry over the growing desperation created by
economic crisis.
Images of people struggling to seize bags of tomatoes and leeks
thrown from a truck dominated television, triggering a bout of
soul-searching over the new depths of poverty in the debt-laden country.
The suffering that the Greeks are experiencing right now will come to this country soon enough.
So enjoy this false bubble of debt-fueled prosperity while you can.
It is going to end way too soon, and after that there will be a whole
lot of pain.
+13.52 (+2.97%) ] since the fall, he sees better opportunities in Japan and Russia. 
-0.13 (-0.32%) ] as a currency-neutral way to play Japan. 
