Anti-Austerity Left Wins in Greece, But Far-Right Rises across Europe

In European Parliament elections one thing is clear… Europeans are dissatisfied with status quo

Jon Queally

As election results for European Parliament across the continent showed a popular disgust for elite parties and the economic status quo, in Greece it was the leftwing Syriza Party that best exhibited political victory for those pushing a progressive anti-austerity agenda in Europe.

“This is a historic win,” declared Syriza’s youthful leader Alexis Tsipras to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters in Athens early on Monday. “Today, the whole of Europe is talking about Greece because it condemned austerity.”

As Helena Smith reports for The Guardian:

In a historic day for the left, the anti-austerity Syriza won the ballot by a margin of nearly four points over the conservative New Democracy party led by prime minister Antonis Samaras. Addressing supporters as the results rolled in, Alexis Tsipras, Syriza’s leader, called for general elections to be held immediately, saying the outcome robbed the government of any “political or moral legitimacy” to continue enforcing policies that were overwhelming rejected.

As the country on the frontline of Europe‘s debt crisis, Greece has been forced to adopt excruciating reforms and spending cuts in return for rescue packages sponsored by the EU and International Monetary Fund.

In addition to a notable win by Sinn Fein in Ireland, which also embraces a left critique of EU-imposed austerity, the broader election results in Europe suggest that anti-austerity and anti-elite sentiment has also created political opportunity for the continent’s far-right parties who exploit the economic pains many are feeling to push their anti-immigrant and nationalist agendas.

This was true in Greece, where even as Syriza soared in the polls, the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party also secured ten percent of the EU parliament vote. That is enough to send three MEPs to represent the country in Brussels, even as most of the party’s leadership remains in prison on charges of political violence and conspiracy.

And as CNN reports, the rise of ultra-right parties is taking place in numerous other countries as well:

France’s far-right National Front has won a nationwide election for the first time, as far-right parties across Europe caused a political “earthquake,” with a string of victories in voting for the European Parliament.
The National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, notched up 24.95% of the vote in France, according to official estimates, well ahead of mainstream parties UMP and the Socialist Party. Le Pen said the win showed that people want to see change in Europe.
France’s Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the result was “more than a warning. It is a shock, an earthquake.”
Right-wing parties also gained ground in the UK, Denmark and Austria, according to projections posted on the European Parliament’s official elections website.

Across Europe, what are called the ‘Euroskeptic’ parties—who mistrust the dominant role of the European Parliament and the experiment of the EU itself—have now gained the ability to form a sizeable coalition.

As Deutsche Welle reports, the European Parliament, though still likely controlled by the center-right coalition, will now have more than 130 euro-skeptic representatives:

The new European parliament will have 751 representatives in total. With 212 seats, the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) will be the strongest faction, according to recent projections. They’ll be followed by the Socialists with 185 seats, Liberals with 71 seats, Greens with 55 seats and the radical Left with 45 seats.
Marine Le Pen will use the coming weeks to negotiate possible coalitions. After the successes of rightwing populist or extremist parties acrossx Europe, there will be numerous forces in parliament that are ideologically close to the National Front. Le Pen will likely also talk to the euro-skeptic parties, which will have more than 130 seats in the new parliament.
The British UKIP party, which calls for Great Britain to leave the EU, garnered roughly 30 percent of the vote. That should be enough to get at least four seats in Strasbourg. With the “Dansk Folkeparti” (Danish People’s Party), Denmark also saw a rightwing populist party become the strongest political force. It got around 27.5 percent of the vote and will send 23 representatives to Strasbourg.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Common Dreams

Cronyism, bailouts, winners, losers and what’s wrong with America

This is an excellent documentary of who actually got bailed out and who got completely screwed , it’s 41 minutes long and worth every one of them 

Until the back of communism is completely shattered nothing will change in America , I hope that you watch this video , it’s the truth.

Anonymous 

Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/cronyism-bailouts-winners-losers-and-whats-wrong-with-america/#GgwcsZDi15L1PryF.99

Russia And China Are Now Working Together To Organize The Global “De-Dollarization”

The retail death rattles grow louder as more stores are reporting imploding sales. Visa and Mastercard are staying in Russia and will setup system in country. China and Russia have now working together to de-dollarize the world. Both countries do not have faith in the dollar or treasuries. Russia is signing Eurasian economic treaty to secure its future as the dollar collapses. Mass shooting in Santa Barbara to push the disarmament of the American people. Ukraine elected a new puppet government controlled by the US. Syria’s ambassador was asked to leave Jordan. This is in preparation for the next false flag event. The Washington Post is calling for a more assistance to help the rebels and to create a “safe zone” for the rebels.

Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/russia-and-china-are-now-working-together-to-organize-the-global-de-dollarization/#AQsAqFISAfQSV0qT.99

Winner Accuses French Government of “Massive” Election Fraud

Source: Wolf Richter, Testosterone Pit

The French political class, as this lofty and permanent but universally despised layer of society is called in France, is mortified. In a historic victory, the right-wing, anti-EU, anti-euro, anti-French-political-class National Front (FN) won 25.1% of the vote for the European Parliament. It was the highest score the party had ever obtained in national elections – and up from 6.3% in the 2009 elections.
It was a resounding slap in the face of the runner-up, former President Sarkozy’s conservative UMP, which is at the core of that political class, but has been tearing itself apart. It won only 20.2% of the vote. And it was a public shaming of the other major part of the political class, the governing Socialist Party – and by extension of the most unpopular tax-and-retreat President of France, François Hollande. It obtained a meager 14.3% of the vote, just ahead of a bevy of tiny also-ran parties.
FN leader Marine Le Pen has campaigned for years on pulling France out of the Eurozone and reinstituting the franc that can then be printed and devalued in the traditional French manner (a principle now taken to the next level by other central banks, particularly the Fed and the Bank of Japan). She condemns the European Commission as a supranational, non-democratic, out-of-control government and wants to give it the boot. She disdains the Commission’s power to tell France what kinds of deficits it is allowed to incur and what expenditures to cut to stay within the limit – though France sucks on the EU’s teat more than any other EU country.
A “massive rejection of the European Union” is what she called the victory. “The sovereign people have proclaimed that they want to take back their destiny into their own hands,” she declared triumphantly, clamoring more broadly for the “return of the nation” across all of Europe.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls, the youthful embodiment of the political class, didn’t share her enthusiasm. He called the election outcome a “shock,” an “earthquake,” and a “most grave moment for France and Europe.” It was “more than a new warning.” So there would be more reforms, he said, which is precisely what the French hate, hate, hate the most – unless they’re government giveaways. And he promised to push them forward “faster,” as there was “no moment to lose.”
The political class might squabble amongst each other and mutually scratch up their faces, but they take turns governing and enriching themselves based on a set of rules they all follow, and they can’t even envision letting outsiders, like Marine Le Pen and her cohorts, into their elite self-propagating club. And they don’t have to. Not anytime soon.
Voter turnout was an anemic 42.5%. The rest didn’t want to waste a perfectly good Sunday on a vote for a purposefully emasculated European Parliament that can’t even initiate legislation. Only the most motivated went to the polls; and Marine Le Pen had motivated her troops. Those closer to the center and those on the left were disillusioned and frustrated – so they had another aperitif among family and friends and complained instead of voting.
While all this gloating and hand-wringing  was going on, the FN published on its website a sobering accusation against the government, and particularly the Ministry of the Interior which organizes elections: reports had come in that at a number of polling stations around the country, including in the 3rd arrondissement in Paris, FN ballots were either missing or from another polling station, and thus useless.
“The multitude of the occurrences leads us to believe that the fraud is massive,” the statement said. And it went on with the FN’s usual linguistic panache that occasionally verges on humor:

The Ministry of the Interior has chosen to try to prevent the victory of the National Front by prohibiting it simply from competing in some areas of the country. This is a most grave obstacle to democracy.
The National Front therefore accuses the government of Manuel Valls, and his Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve, of having rigged by the most odious means the vote of the French people. This industrial manipulation of the vote of the French people should be stopped immediately, and the prefects must make every effort in the shortest time to bring National Front ballots to all communities in France.

The FN had inquired about these issues at the Ministry of the Interior “several times” Sunday morning, but the Ministry has responded “with only vague disinterest,” which proved “a desire to interfere with the proper proceedings of the election.” And there would be consequences. Sort of. The FN would demand after the election that “light be shed on the manipulations perpetrated by the government....”
The French system, like so many electoral systems, is rigged against those outside the established two-party spectrum, and despite its relative popularity, the FN has almost no political power at the national level. During the 2012 elections, it won only two seats out of 577 in the National Assembly. So France’s “democratic” institutions know how to deal with outsiders and gadflies, no matter what their popularity.
By Monday, the accusatory page had garnered over 4,400 Facebook likes, as opposed to the 77 likes of the preceding post, in which the FN lambasted the EU’s decision to include the results of criminal activity in its GDP figures to make them look better. And the fact that these accusations of election fraud were made not by a sore trampled-into-the-ground loser, but by the ecstatic winner that had kicked the despised political class into the groin adds a flavor of bitter irony to the collective aperitifs with which France washed down the election results.
True to his Frenchness, Airbus CEO Fabrice Brégier spoke out at the ILA Berlin Air Show against Boeing’s grabbing more orders than his outfit. To rectify this ridiculous injustice, he exhorted the ECB to do what central banks are supposed to do. Read.... Airbus CEO Calls For Currency War, Shoots Himself in Foot

NASA may shut down one of its four great observatories

Lack of funds may soon force American space agency NASA to shut down one of its four great observatories - the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Launched in 2003 to study the universe through the lens of an infrared camera, the Spitzer has so far remained one of the most fruitful pieces of equipment owned by NASA.
Liquid nitrogen, which is essential to keep its instruments cool, ran out in 2009, making it lose functionality on two of its three key instruments. In April this year, a NASA advisory panel reluctantly recommended that the space agency should close the project unless it finds a way to bring its cost down. Currently, the project costs the exchequer nearly $16.5 million per year.
Spitzer managers admitted that government's budget for space projects was under intense pressure. However, even the Senior Review Panel warned that that lack of funds for space projects could damage the US' preeminence in the space study to an irreparable level.
The advisory panel said, "The operation of the nation's space-borne observatories is so severely impacted by the current funding climate that the SRP feels that American preeminence in the study of the universe from space is threatened to the point of irreparable damage."
Using longer wavelengths of infrared light, the Spitzer can see through the profuse amounts of dust & gas clouds in the deep space and observe the origins of stars and galaxies. At its existing 'warm' mission state, the telescope logs in nearly seven thousand observation hours per year.

Jim Rogers – China To Be Most Important Country In 21st Century

Published on May 26, 2014 

Sanction threats against Russia sent shock waves of panic across the world of investment. There’s still those who still believe in the prospects of the Russian economy, despite the political turmoil. So, what are these prospects? How are sanctions affecting the financial balance of power? And, finally, what does Moscow’s turn to Beijing mean for the future of the global economy? We ask these questions to a renowned investor and businessman – Jim Rogers.

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Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/jim-rogers-china-to-be-most-important-country-in-21st-century/#8IJhM7i7FZE4Wq5I.99

ELECTION EVE APPEAL: "LET'S KICK WALL STREET OUT OF OUR PARTY"

The Kesha Rogers for Senate Campaign today announced that it has purchased a barrage of radio ads on 30 radio stations around Texas, for election day. The ads zero in on the Wall Street control of the Democratic Party under Obama, and urge voters to choose Rogers as a means of crushing Wall Street, especially by reinstating Glass-Steagall.
Supplementing the radio barrage is a small army of volunteers which is deployed in cities throughout the state, seeking to bring out the vote for Rogers in a runoff election which, so far, appears to be slated to bring out a very small electorate.
In addition, the campaign has purchased a new round of digital ads, which will appear on the websites of major newspapers such as the Houston Chronicle.
At the same time, candidate Rogers is making several campaign appearances per day, visiting a wide swath of her constituency, ranging from the African-Americans who attended the unveiling of a memorial to Martin Luther King yesterday, a regional meeting of LULAC (Hispanics), and largely white veterans gathered at a VFW hall. In each venue she found people willing to respond to Kesha's leadership, both in facing the depth of the current crisis, and the actual pathway to overcome it.

The Size Of The Derivatives Bubble Hanging Over The Global Economy Hits A Record High

By Michael Snyder

The global derivatives bubble is now 20 percent bigger than it was just before the last great financial crisis struck in 2008.  It is a financial bubble far larger than anything the world has ever seen, and when it finally bursts it is going to be a complete and utter nightmare for the financial system of the planet.  According to the Bank for International Settlements, the total notional value of derivatives contracts around the world has ballooned to an astounding 710 trillion dollars ($710,000,000,000,000).  Other estimates put the grand total well over a quadrillion dollars.  If that sounds like a lot of money, that is because it is.  For example, U.S. GDP is projected to be in the neighborhood of around 17 trillion dollars for 2014.  So 710 trillion dollars is an amount of money that is almost incomprehensible.  Instead of actually doing something about the insanely reckless behavior of the big banks, our leaders have allowed the derivatives bubble and these banks to get larger than ever.  In fact, as I have written about previously, the big Wall Street banks are collectively 37 percent larger than they were just prior to the last recession.  “Too big to fail” is a far more massive problem than it was the last time around, and at some point this derivatives bubble is going to burst and start taking those banks down.  When that day arrives, we are going to be facing a crisis that is going to make 2008 look like a Sunday picnic.

If you do not know what a derivative is, Mayra Rodríguez Valladares, a managing principal at MRV Associates, provided a pretty good definition in her recent article for the New York Times…

A derivative, put simply, is a contract between two parties whose value is determined by changes in the value of an underlying asset. Those assets could be bonds, equities, commodities or currencies. The majority of contracts are traded over the counter, where details about pricing, risk measurement and collateral, if any, are not available to the public.

In other words, a derivative does not have any intrinsic value.  It is essentially a side bet.  Most commonly, derivative contracts have to do with the movement of interest rates.  But there are many, many other kinds of derivatives as well.  People are betting on just about anything and everything that you can imagine, and Wall Street has been transformed into the largest casino in the history of the planet.

After the last financial crisis, our politicians promised us that they would do something to get derivatives trading under control.  But instead, the size of the derivatives bubble has reached a new record high.  In the New York Times article I mentioned above, Goldman Sachs and Citibank were singled out as two players that have experienced tremendous growth in this area in recent years…

Goldman Sachs has been increasing its derivatives volumes since the crisis, and it had a portfolio of about$48 trillion at the end of 2013. Bloomberg Businessweek recently reported that as part of its growth strategy, Goldman plans to sell more derivatives to clients. Citibank, too, has been increasing its derivatives portfolio, despite the numerous capital and regulatory challenges, In fact, its portfolio has risen byover 65 percent since the crisis — the most of any of the four banks — to $62 trillion.

According to official government numbers, the top 25 banks in the United States now have a grand total of more than 236 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives.  But there are four banks that dwarf everyone else.  The following are the latest numbers for those four banks…

JPMorgan Chase

Total Assets: $1,945,467,000,000 (nearly 2 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $70,088,625,000,000 (more than 70 trillion dollars)

Citibank

Total Assets: $1,346,747,000,000 (a bit more than 1.3 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $62,247,698,000,000 (more than 62 trillion dollars)

Bank Of America

Total Assets: $1,433,716,000,000 (a bit more than 1.4 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $38,850,900,000,000 (more than 38 trillion dollars)

Goldman Sachs

Total Assets: $105,616,000,000 (just a shade over 105 billion dollars – yes, you read that correctly)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $48,611,684,000,000 (more than 48 trillion dollars)

If the stock market keeps going up, interest rates stay fairly stable and the global economy does not experience a major downturn, this bubble will probably not burst for a while.

But if there is a major shock to the system, we could easily experience a major derivatives crisis very rapidly and several of those banks could fail simultaneously.

There are many out there that would welcome the collapse of the big banks, but that would also be very bad news for the rest of us.

You see, the truth is that the U.S. economy is like a very sick patient with an extremely advanced case of cancer.  You can try to kill the cancer (the banks), but in the process you will inevitably kill the patient as well.

Right now, the five largest banks account for 42 percent of all loans in the entire country, and the six largest banks control 67 percent of all banking assets.

If they go down, we go down too.

That is why the fact that they have been so reckless is so infuriating.

Just look at the numbers for Goldman Sachs again.  At this point, the total exposure that Goldman Sachs has to derivatives contracts is more than460 times greater than their total assets.

And this kind of thing is not just happening in the United States.  German banking giant Deutsche Bank has more than 75 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives.  That is even more than any single U.S. bank has.

This derivatives bubble is a “sword of Damocles” that is hanging over the global economy by a thread day after day, month after month, year after year.

At some point that thread is going to break, the bubble is going to burst, and then all hell is going to break loose.

You see, the truth is that virtually none of the underlying problems that caused the last financial crisis have been fixed.

Instead, our problems have just gotten even bigger and the financial bubbles have gotten even larger.

Never before in the history of the United States have we been faced with the threat of such a great financial catastrophe.

Sadly, most Americans are totally oblivious to all of this.  They just have faith that our leaders know what they are doing, and they have been lulled into complacency by the bubble of false stability that we have been enjoying for the last couple of years.

Unfortunately for them, this bubble of false stability is not going to last much longer.

A financial crisis far greater than what we experienced in 2008 is coming, and it is going to shock the world.

DOLLAR COLLAPSE: Russia and China to Kill the Dollar with Landmark Energy Deal

[SOURCES]

Russia and China seal historic $400bn gas deal
http://rt.com/business/160068-china-r… 

Russia, China Plan to Expand Payments in National Currencies
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140520/1899… 

Russia And China Sign Gas Pipeline Megadeal
http://www.businessinsider.com/russia… 

China and Russia Reach 30-Year Gas Deal
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/wor…

Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/dollar-collapse-russia-and-china-to-kill-the-dollar-with-landmark-energy-deal/#9wAi4w26OfQHLJSS.99

First the Fed now the Bank of England, as Austria wants to Inspect their Gold

The distrust of central banksters continues to expand as now Austria follows Germany by sending a delegation to the United Kingdom to verify that their gold holdings are in fact even there and on deposit at the Bank of England. From the GoldReporter.de:

(translated via Google)

Austria can check the gold reserves at the Bank of England

The Court of Austria is sending  a delegation to the Bank of England. It is to examine the existence and condition of an estimated 150 tons of Austrian monetary gold.

The  gold is stored at the Bank of England’s gold reserves Austria to be subjected to an inventory. According to business magazine Trend of the Austrian Court of Audit is planning to send a delegation to London to inspect the gold bars on site.

There are no official figures on how much gold is stored exactly in London. In the Press is talk of about 150 tons of gold. The total gold reserves are estimated at 280 tons of Austria. Only 17 percent (47.6 tons) of gold should be located in their own country.

The decision to an examination of the Austrian gold reserves is ultimately the result of rising public Drucks. After the federal bench with her ​​last year repatriation program was active, and political forces tried in Austria for more transparency and a proof that the gold bars abroad actually exist are. Among other things, the FPÖ’s initiative, “Save our Austrian Gold” mood.

“I understand the suggestion. Every grocer must take inventory once a year. Just as the absurd rumors can be removed from the world, “said Ewald Nowotny, Governor of the Austrian National Bank.

If Austria and Germany can not trust the Federal Reserve and Bank of England, why should any citizen in the United Kingdom or United States have faith in the activities of these den of thieves and their activities? Of course the Fed would never lie about how much gold it has, after all, why should they?

State Income Tax Revenues Fell in 2014 First Quarter; Ohio (-19%), California (-11%) Among Biggest Revenue Losers

By Paul Caron

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Wall Street Journal, Income Tax Yo-Yo Hits U.S. States:

Many state governments were pulled out of the recession by a surge in tax revenue from their residents' stock-market gains. But that money spigot has slowed, leaving budget holes and debates over the reliance on the wealthy just as many governors face re-election.

While a number of states had forecast lower growth this year in personal income-tax revenue—which is derived in part from capital gains on investments—they failed to project the degree of the decline.

Government figures show that state income tax collections nationwide slipped 0.4% in the first quarter, the first drop since the end of 2009, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. But the decline is magnified in some states.

Ohio	-19.3%
North Dakota	-19.1%
Maine	-15.3%
California	-11.1%
North Carolina	-9.2%
Iowa	-4.1%
Mississippi	-3.7%
South Carolina	-3.7%
Virginia	-1.1%
Kansas	-0.1%

A Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago study found that over the last decade, state revenues have become increasingly sensitive to the economy, with tax revenue from residents' investment returns a key reason. There are indications the increased volatility is here to stay, said Richard Mattoon, an economist at the Chicago Fed and one of the authors of the 2012 report [State Tax Revenues over the Business Cycle: Patterns and Policy Responses].

Financial Collapse Will Happen, Catastrophic Outcomes May Come Faster Than Expected-James Rickards

THE GREAT WESTERN GAS FIASCO

GENEVA – Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin usually wears a perfect poker face. But last week in Shangahi, the icy-cold Russian president came awfully close to bursting into a big grin.
And why not? Putin had just stolen a march on his western rivals. The US-British attempt to wound Russia’s economy and punish Putin for disobedience had just blown up in their red faces.
After 20 years of difficult talks, Russia and China had just signed a huge deal that called for Russia to export 38 billion cubic meters of gas worth some $400 billion to China. The agreement begins in 2018 and will involve one of the globe’s largest engineering projects that links Russia’s remote gas fields to China’s pipeline system.
In addition, China will invest at least $20 billion in Russian industry and boost imports of Russian products, notably military systems. China will become Russia’s largest trade partner.
This was not the much ballyhooed “pivot to Asia” that President Barack Obama expected. It is, however, the long-dreaded embrace between the Chinese dragon and Russian bear that has given western strategists the willies.
One must suspect that the recent fracas in Ukraine was the last straw that pushed China to make a strategic alignment with Russia. Until now, the two great powers had quietly cooperated, not always without problems. Thanks to all the bluster and sabre-rattling from the US and its allies over Eastern Europe and the South China Sea, China decided to deepen and expand its entente with Moscow.
The Republicans in the US Congress who have been beating the war drums and calling for Obama to get tough with Russia (whatever that means) now share blame for pushing Moscow into China’s arms. All perfectly predictable and perfectly dumb. A diplomatic fiasco of the first water.
Russia has thus given its economy a big boost and made western sanctions look inconsequential. Chinese funds will allow cash-strapped Russia to modernize its oil and gas industry. The new gas pipelines will be a major economic boost for Russia’s distressed eastern regions and Siberia.
If the gas deal works and prospers, it will serve as a template for heightened Sino-Russian cooperation in military projects, such as fifth generation fighter aircraft, missile systems, naval forces and advanced electronics. Until today, Russia had been reluctant to share more advanced military systems with China because of China’s copying of Russian technology, then refusing to pay adequate royalties.
For China, the deal offers many advantages. China has been energy deficient for years. Beijing desperately needs to find new energy sources to fuel its growing economy. Russian gas offers a clean alternative to the filthy coal China has used for power and heat. Estimates are that a switch to gas will reduce air pollution by at least 25% in China’s northern cities, maybe much more. Having gasped for air through numerous Beijing nights, I fully appreciate what this means.
Russia has long been reluctant to cooperate too closely with China on Far East industrial projects. Russians have little love for China – or “Kitai” – because China evokes memories of the Mongol-Tatar invasions that ravaged large parts of Russia for hundreds of years. Distrust and even straight out dislike is wired into the mentality of many Russians. During the 19th century, Russia joined the western powers and Japan in raping China.
Demography lies at the heart of Russia’s fears of China. Russia’s far eastern regions, with the vital port of Vladivostok, has only 7.4 million citizens. Ten times as many Chinese lived just across the border in the northeast region known as the “Dongbei.” This highly strategic region and Manchuria became an arena of conflict at the end of the 19th century between Russia, Japan, and China, leading to the bloody 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War, the first big, modern war of the 20th century.
Some 1.5 million Chinese infiltrate annually over the Russian border and settle illegally, producing a situation akin to that between the US and Mexico. Fears are expressed in Moscow that the 2 million illegal Chinese settlers in Russia’s Far East may one day expand to 20 or 30 million, outnumbering Russian inhabitants.
When I was invited in 1980 by Chinese military intelligence to “exchange views” in Beijing, I cheekily asked how long it would take for the Chinese Army to take Vladivostok. After a long, uncomfortable silence, a general spat out, “one week.”
Russia still holds vast tracts of land seized in the mid 1800’s from China. Beijing and Moscow will have their work cut out to resolve lingering disputes and build mutual respect and trust. There is a big deficit on both sides right now.
Today, China’s growing energy imports are very vulnerable to interdiction. The US and lately India have the capability to block inbound Chinese oil tankers and maritime cargo exports, either of which would shut down China’s major industries.
Key choke points would be the inner and outer island chains of the South and North China Seas, and the narrow Malacca Strait. India’s new aircraft carriers and submarines are being specifically built to interdict China’s oil imports.
Pipeline oil from Russia would be secure from most attacks and offer China its long-sought energy security.
This new deal is so good on many levels that old fears and mistrust must yield to its logic.
Most important, the Sino-Russian energy deal may further alter the world’s balance of power to the East. Russia and China working in tandem could offset the great power and wealth of the US and its rich allies. It is a major geopolitical event.
30
copyright Eric S. Margolis 2014
This post is in: Asia, China, History, International Politics, Natural Gas, Oil, Russia, Uncategorized

Dave Kranzler on Gold, Housing and Silver

Dave Kranzler, from Investment Research Dynamics, is the kind of person you just like speaking with. He shoots straight, speaks in plain, easy to understand language and, most importantly, gosh-darn-it, he’s just a super nice guy.
Who is keeping the criminals on Wall Street criminals out of jail? Eric Holder? Is Covington/Burling, Eric Holders law firm, the most powerful law firm in the country? Remember, Holder was the Chief legal counsel for JPMorgan prior to becoming the Attorney General of the United States.
When was the last major gold deposit discovered, 10 million ounces or more, 10 years ago, 12 years ago? Barrick, GoldCorp, Newmont have all high-graded their existing mines to appear to be making money. What this means is they are processing the highest grade ore, the ore with the most gold per ton, to maximize their profits. This will not last long and these giant holes, with little gold left to process, is all that will remain. With the price of gold so low they are working over-time to produce as much gold as possible and get it to market. All of this just to try to stay profitable. How long will they be able to keep up this charade?

We then review the housing market, and what is happening out in the open, as well as what the zombie banks have been doing with all the REO properties. With the number of mortgages that are currently underwater, how or why would the debt holder sell? If they sell, they would lose money in two ways. First, the sale itself, and second, the cost of moving. This explains why there is a lack of inventory in some markets. Some markets were not hit at all by the 2008 crash, but the vast majority of the housing markets are currently paralyzed. The shadow inventory still exists and has moved very little. The big investors have all pulled out and this leaves a major gap between sellers and buyers. Dave gets down and dirty with all the facts, statics and a great explanation of what is going on and how it may be effecting the area you live in.
We conclude the conversation discussing silver and more specifically the “fix” for both gold and silver. Does the fix play a role in the pricing? Not really, it hasn’t since the advent of electronic contracts being generated twenty-three hours a day six days a week. Does anyone really think the Rothschilds are going to walk away from the massive profits they have been raking in for the past two-three DECADES?! Seriously? Not going to happen. Naked Shorting, check. High-frequency trading, check. Profits on the long and short side, check. Twice daily fix, who cares?
Delivered by The Daily Sheeple

Peter Schiff: Media Reports Rising Food Prices as Positive News

The Schiff Report (5/20/2014)
Listen to The Peter Schiff ShowThe day after recording this video blog, the release of the most recent FOMC minutes revealed that the Fed see no risk that its stimulus policy will result in a rise in inflation, and expects the inflation rate to remain well below its 2% target, despite the fact that as of April the official annual inflation rate is already 2%!

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Faber On Gold: “I Buy More Every Month”

by GoldCore

U.S. & UK markets are closed today for a national holiday.
Friday’s AM fix was USD 1,292.00, EUR 948.61 and GBP 767.18 per ounce.

Gold fell$1.60 or 0.1% Friday to $1,291.70/oz. Silver slipped $0.18 or 0.5% to $19.388/oz. Gold was flat for the week while silver gained 0.5% for the week. Palladium gained 0.6% last week and platinum climbed nearly 2%.

Gold in U.S. Dollars, Daily, 2014 Year To Date – (Thomson Reuters)

Gold remains in lock down in the unusually tight range seen in recent days between $1,284/oz and $1,306/oz. Overnight, gold in Singapore traded in a very narrow $3 range between $1,291/oz and $1,294/oz and gold remained around the $1,292/oz level in morning trading in London.

The gold market continues to digest the news Friday, that the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority fined Barclays £26 million ($43.9 million) after one of its traders manipulated the London gold fix global price benchmark.

The fact that this was done over a long period of time and even on the day after Barclays was fined £290 million for manipulating Libor suggests that there may be more to this manipulation and may be other skeletons in the gold rigging closet.

“The Barclays incident is likely just the tip of the iceberg in respect of today’s gold market,” said Brien Lundin, editor of Gold Newsletter told Dow Jones Marketwatch.

The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) has extended by one week the deadline for a consultation on the future of the daily silver fixing mechanism to give the industry more time to respond.

Russian Central Bank Gold Reserves, Millions of Troy Ounces  – (Gold Charts R Us)

IMF data on Friday confirmed that Russia increased its gold holdings by a hefty 27.7 tonnes in April taking its total to 1,068 tonnes, while Turkey raised its bullion reserve by 13 tonnes to 497 tonnes. Kazakhstan raised its holdings by 2.7 tonnes to 151 tonnes.

Eurosceptic nationalists saw stunning victories in European Parliament elections in France and Britain on Sunday as critics of the European Union more than doubled their seats in a continent-wide protest vote against austerity, unemployment and the centralisation of power in the EU. Some political analysts have called the elections a political “earthquake”.

Marc Faber told Bloomberg in an interview that he will “never sell his gold” and that “I buy more every month.”

Faber, managing director and founder of Marc Faber Ltd., discussed the state of the Chinese economy, the outlook for the U.S. stock market, gold and bitcoin with Trish Regan on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.”

“The momentum sell-off has caused internal market damage” and “every asset in the world is over-inflated right now…” Faber warns.

China worries him the most and he warns that Chinese growth figures are a fallacy.

“If one analyzes the data carefully” it is clear that “China is growing at most 4%.” Given the“gigantic credit bubble” the outlook is not hopeful as the sharp deceleration in growth is likely to continue. Faber also has strong words for Western nations treatment of the rest of the world and “the US will have to back off.. because China is so important.”

“I like the concept of Bitcoin”…  “Bitcoin has its merits since you may not be able to carry gold across borders,” Faber said.

“People think they know what the future holds… and what Central banks are up to.. they don’t… I will never sell my gold and I buy more every month… I would not be short gold,” Faber said.

Faber adopts the prudent strategy of dollar cost averaging or gradually accumulating a position over time rather than investing a large lump sum at once.

Our recent extensive interview with Faber on gold, silver and investment risks and opportunities today can be watched here.

'Saya tak bertanggungjawab pada janji menteri'

Calon BN di Teluk Intan Mah Siew Keong berkata, beliau tidak boleh dipertanggungjawabkan atas janji-janji yang dibuat oleh menteri-menteri tanpa kehadirannya.

Mengulas janji yang dibuat beberapa menteri semasa perjalanan kempen, presiden Gerakan itu berkata beliau tidak berada di situ ketika janji itu dibuat.
Katanya lagi, ia janji-janji mereka dan bukan beliau.
"Ia tiada dalam manifesto. Saya hanya letakkan apa yang saya fikir mampu lakukan sebagai anggota Parlimen," katanya.
Mah bagaimanapun berkata, jika salah bagi BN menabur janji dalam pilihan raya, Pakatan Rakyat juga melakukan perkara sama.
"Pakatan kata jika mereka menang, mereka akan turunkan harga petrol. Bagaimana dengan perkara itu? Adakah itu tak sama?" soalnya.
[Baca berita penuh]

Barkleys Small Fine

Too Big to Audit? Pentagon multi-trillion budget under congressional fire

Catastrophic Outcomes May Come Faster Than Expected-James Rickards

James Rickards, author of the new best-selling book called “The Death of Money,” says the financial collapse will happen, but he is not sure of when it will come. Rickards explains, “It is the thing you won’t see coming that will take the system down. Things happen much more quickly than what investors expect.” Rickards adds, “What will happen in gold is that it will chug along and then all of a sudden–boom. It will be up a $100 an ounce, and then the next day it will be up another $200 an ounce. Then everyone will be on TV saying it’s a bubble—boom. It’s up $300 an ounce and, before you know it, it will be up $100 per ounce. Then people will say gee, I better get some gold, and they’ll find out they can’t get it because the big guy will get it. You know, like central banks and sovereign wealth funds will be able to get the gold. The typical investor will run down to the coin shop and they will be sold out, and the U.S. Mint will say sorry we’re not shipping. You’re going to find out you can’t get it because the whole thing is set up for massive shortages in supply.”

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with financial expert and best-selling author James Rickards.
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“WOW” HSBC Bank Refuses To Give Customers There Damn Money

Jim Rogers: Giants ditching dollar over US foreign policies

Sears closing store, ending a century in Sodo building

Troubled retailer Sears will close its Sodo store and auto center at the Starbucks Center, a building where it has operated for more than a century and that played a key role in its westward expansion. The closure will result in 79 lost jobs.
Beleaguered giant Sears is pulling out from the historic Sodo location where it has operated for more than a century, cutting its last ties to a building complex that in better days played a critical role in its commercial conquest of the West.
A Sears spokesman said Friday that the company is laying off 79 employees — 66 who work at the store, at 76 S. Lander St., and 13 at the neighboring Sears Auto Center. Both will close to the public in early June, and a liquidation sale at the store will start April 3.
The move comes as Illinois-based Sears fights for its life in the midst of shrinking sales and mounting losses. Competition from online retailers and hipper brick-and-mortar rivals such as Target and Costco Wholesale have cut into the aging retail giant’s bottom line; store closures are part of what Sears is doing to cut expenses and overhaul its business model.
Sears’ departure is also a milestone for the historic complex, which Sears topped with a tower in 1915 to mark its massive catalog warehouse.
According to Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry, early in the 20th century the complex was the site of Sears’ new western branch, from where it supplied the Western U.S. “with everything from underwear and alarm clocks to farm equipment and metal ceilings.”
Now the building is a landmark for a different kind of retail giant. Starbucks put its headquarters there in 1997 and added to the tower its green-and-white mermaid logo.
A Starbucks spokesman said that the company doesn’t have any plans to expand its space in the 2.1 million-square-foot development, which also houses other tenants.
There are conflicting stories about the site’s early days.
Owner Nitze-Stagen, which bought the building complex in 1990, says it was built in 1912 by Union Pacific Railroad, using heavy timbers from Yesler Mill, to lure Sears to Seattle.
An architectural review on the city of Seattle’s website says Sears in 1910 had already set up shop on Third Avenue South, but then decided to erect its own building, closer to the rail tracks.
The building first operated as a warehouse for its catalog business and an administrative office, and the retail store opened in 1925, the city says. Sears closed its mail-order business there in 1987.
There are also diverging tales about how long the existing Sears store there has been in operation.
Nitze-Stagen says on its website that Sears opened the retail store in 1925, which coincides with the information provided by the city. Nitze-Stagen called the site the oldest continuously operated Sears store in the world.
A Sears spokesman, however, said that the current store opened in January 1951. He had no information about its earlier history.
In any case, for decades the scope of the Sodo Sears outlet impressed locals such as Stan Bear, a 73-year-old resident of Shoreline who worked for Acme Fast Freight in Sodo from the early 1960s through 1982.
“Their farm store was an enormous store in its own right,” he said.
Ángel González: 206-464-2250 or agonzalez@seattletimes.com. On Twitter: @gonzalezseattle