U.S. Hyperinflation Warning, Part I

Hyperinflation (i.e. the U.S. dollar going to zero) is not a “possibility” for the U.S. economy. Rather, it is an absolute certainty. Indeed, as was clearly demonstrated in a previous commentary, the U.S. dollar is already worthless, based upon three, distinct analyses of the dollar’s fundamentals.
This future destiny of the dollar is also graphically depicted, in one of the Federal Reserve’s own charts:

The mere shape and magnitude of this extreme, exponential function is a classic/obvious representation of a hyperinflation-in-progress. Any exponential function this extreme is a mathematical definition of the phrase “out of control”. Not only can this money-printing never be undone, there is no way to reverse/alter the consequence: hyperinflation.
Even if the U.S. government or Federal Reserve simply “pulls the plug” on their ultra-insane/ultra-extreme money-printing, the deflationary collapse which would be triggered would necessitate a new wave of hyperinflationary money-printing (to “bail out” the U.S. economy), unless the government – and the bankers – were willing to accept all of the following, catastrophic consequences:

1) Complete debt-default of the U.S. economy, and thus the instant vaporization of the U.S. Treasuries market

2) Total collapse of U.S. equities markets

3) Total collapse of the “derivatives market”

4) A domino-like collapse of most/all of the bankers’ other, fraudulent currencies

5) A Soviet Union-style disintegration of the U.S. war-machine

6) The Mother of All Depressions in the U.S., along with all the civil unrest and political upheavel which such an economic catastrophe implies.

Because it is extremely unlikely that either the One Bank or its servants in the U.S. government would ever be willing to (voluntarily) accept the consequences of “pulling the plug” on this Ponzi-scheme economy; it is reasonable to conclude that hyperinflation is the only, possible economic outcome for the United States.

Furthermore, the chain of events listed above would/must still result in the destruction of the dollar, for reasons which will be made clearer later in this analysis. Therefore, since even suffering all of the consequences above would not/could not save the dollar, there is little-to-no incentive to avoid hyperinflation – as a means of at least briefly delaying this cataclysm.
However, in reality (and as has also been previously pointed out); hyperinflation is almost always a “confidence event”, not an economic event. This means that in a typical hyperinflation episode, the fundamental value of the currency falls to zero considerably sooner than its official exchange rate collapses, which is not triggered until the Average Person loses confidence in that particular currency.
Thus because hyperinflation is generally the final result of a Grand Deception (and fraud), our best clues as to when this monetary collapse will occur come from looking at developments which can/will (must?) cause confidence in the dollar to collapse, and so reveal its real value – zero. In this respect; we have recently been provided with a very significant “clue”, from the statistical reporting of the U.S. government itself.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently (and very reluctantly) announced that U.S. food-inflation has exploded this year. Just until May; beef/veal prices have already risen by 10%, which works out to an annual inflation rate of 22%. Egg prices increased by 15% in the month of April, alone (an annual inflation rate of 180%). Pork prices have risen even faster – but at least there government can point to disease as the (partial) culprit.
It further warned of (imminent) future price-shocks of a “large and lasting” nature for fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. We know the USDA was very reluctant in releasing this tiny glimmer of the Truth, for several reasons. First of all, this announcement comes from the same government which continues to yammer on and on that inflation is (supposedly) “too low”. Understand the absurdity of this lie.
As a matter of simple logic and simple arithmetic, it is impossible for inflation to ever be “too low”. As with all central banks; the U.S. Federal Reserve has a statutory duty to “preserve the value” of the U.S. dollar. This means exactly the same thing as keeping inflation as low as possible, since this is literally two sides of the same coin.
The Federal Reserve is supposed to keep inflation as close to zero as possible. And should inflation ever go “below zero”, it is no longer “inflation”, at all. It is deflation. Thus inflation can be low, it can be high, or it can be too high. But inflation can never, ever be “too low”.
Our starting-point for analysis is not simply that the U.S. government is lying to us about inflation, but, rather, it is telling huge/absurd lies about inflation – which would not be able to fool any eight-year-old child with a reasonable grasp of arithmetic. Regular readers are aware that there are a multitude of purposes for this Great Inflation Lie, but ultimately, at the top of the list, the biggest reason to lie about inflation is to delay/conceal the inevitable hyperinflation which is on the way.
We can further detect the reluctance of the USDA to reveal this sliver of Truth via the facile “reason” it provides to explain these alarming numbers/warning (and thus mollify the Sheep).  Supposedly this sudden, official spike in inflation – in the Land of Too-Low Inflation – is because of “the drought in California”.
However, this pretend-reason was fully/competently rebutted by another commentator:

…“large and lasting effects” on agricultural production in California will be avoided this year by pumping 5 million acre feet of groundwater from underground lakes, known as aquifers. The aquifers are a relic of the era when the Pacific Ocean covered much of the state. California has over 850 million acre feet of water stored in 450 known groundwater aquifers, enough to cover the state to a depth of 8 feet.

The State of California-sponsored UC Davis/ERA Economics farm report dated May 19^th stated that only about 410,000 acres or 7.5% of California’s Central Valley farmland will be taken out of production this year. Losses for the 80,500 farms and ranches in California due to the drought will be limited to only be about $738 million, or 2% of the state’s $42.6 billion annual agricultural revenue. [emphasis mine]

So the data from the State government for California totally contradicts the propaganda of the USDA. The only way in which a minor supply-disruption of this level could possibly produce the impact on prices previously described would be if these “drought conditions” were a global phenomenon – and thus the shortfall could not be met simply/easily by increasing imports (at little additional cost).
We can therefore state with confidence that this sudden spike in U.S. food-inflation is a direct consequence of the insane/extreme money-printing depicted in the chart above, and the strongest visible sign of the inflation tidal-wave that is coming, to date. Here readers require some additional explanation, in order to be able to put the significance of this inflation data fully into context.
The U.S. Greater Depression continues to relentlessly transform the Middle Class into the Working Poor, for the steadily shrinking number of Americans lucky enough to have any employment at all. For the 50+ million U.S. unemployed, all of their dependents, and nearly everyone on “fixed incomes”, they’re simply poor.
With the U.S. standard of living having fallen by more than 50% over the past 40+ years, this means that the “basket of goods” being purchased by the Average Consumer circa 1970 is dramatically different from the basket of goods being bought by the Average Consumer in the Impoverished States of America, of 2014.
Specifically, today’s (much poorer) consumer spends a much greater percentage of their incomes on food than any generation of Americans since (at least) the Great Depression. As the Working Poor/poor continue to get poorer and poorer; the percentage of their disposable dollars going to food purchases steadily approaches 100%.
For the vast majority of Americans; the “food inflation rate” is the inflation rate.
So, as one branch of the (lying) U.S. government claims that inflation is below 2% (and falling), we have another branch of the same government reporting food-inflation (real inflation) of 20%-or-more (and rising) for much of the average “food basket”. How does any compulsive liar destroy confidence in their lies? By saying totally opposite things – simultaneously – out of either side of his/her mouth.
Skeptics would insist that it is premature to start writing of a “collapse in confidence” of the U.S. dollar (and the hyperinflation that will come with it), even if an inflation-rate of 20+% percent became widely known/accepted among the general population. But even this glimmer of Truth from the USDA is still nothing but tip-of-the-iceberg numbers.
Part II will show readers how the inflation numbers already officially acknowledged by the USDA would have been much worse, if not for a plethora of other lies and mega-crimes on the part of the One Bank which served to significantly depress their magnitude. Additionally; readers will be made aware (again?) of how perilously close this particular, economic Sword of Damocles now hovers above the U.S. economy – and the One Bank’s entire empire of fraud/crime.

Gold To Hold $1,240 – $1,255 Ahead Of ECB: Peter Hug

Peter Hug comments on gold before the much anticipated ECB meeting and nonfarm payrolls data, both to be later this week. “It appears that what will happen on Thursday…is that Draghi will propose some cut in ECB rates, probably not a lot,” Hug says. “If the ECB lower rates… it will continue to be dollar positive and create headwinds for the metals.” Hug also comments on silver coin sales as well as the nonfarm payrolls expected on Friday. “I think the market will have some reaction if the nonfarm payrolls come out under 250,000,” he says. “I’m expecting a number north of 275,000.” Tune in now to get Hug’s ranges for gold & silver as well as hear why he thinks Europeans may favor leaving the EU. Kitco News, June 3, 2014.

Bankruptcy court approves new appraisal of Detroit Institute of Arts collection

Thomas Gaist
The city of Detroit’s bankruptcy lawyers are involved in renewed efforts to appraise the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts on behalf of large creditors seeking to “monetize” the artwork. Whereas previous appraisals covered a small fraction of the collection, or some 2,000 pieces, the new evaluation will cover the entire 66,000-piece collection, according to attorney statements in court last week.
A group of major creditors want to increase their payouts and are objecting to the current distribution of financial resources contained in Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s Plan of Adjustment. These objectors include bond insurers Syncora and Financial Guaranty Insurance Company, which could lose hundreds of millions covering the losses of big investors that control unsecured debts.
The bond insurance firms have consistently demanded a selloff of the publicly owned artwork and have charged that the first appraisal—done by Christie’s Auction House—underestimates the value of the art. Outside bids solicited by the creditors offered $2 billion for the world famous artwork.
Earlier this month, creditors asked Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes to authorize the removal of many as 12,000 pieces from the museum temporarily, as part of the assessment process. The judge denied the motion citing museum officials’ warnings about possible damage to the priceless collection, including paintings by van Gogh, Bruegel and Rembrandt. However, the judge ruled creditors could work with DIA officials to inspect artwork in storage at the museum.

Detroit residents have been subjected to a relentless promotion that the “Grand Bargain” reached by the state legislature, private foundations taking over control of the museum, the trade unions and the DIA itself had “saved” the DIA. In reality, the sale of the collection remains a serious possibility.
The big creditors are not the only forces pushing for the sale of the DIA collection. The city’s largest union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), has thrown its support behind the drive to squeeze every penny out of the historic museum, together with other municipal unions.
The unions have taken every opportunity to perpetuate the reactionary notion that workers must choose between access to culture and other basic necessities, including pensions. As Jeff Pegg, president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association, commented in April, “Art is a luxury. It’s not essential, like food and health care.” Pegg’s comment echoed that of AFSCME official Ed McNeil, who declared his support for the sale of the artwork last year, saying, “You can’t eat art.”
The reality is that the unions favor the selloff of the DIA to protect the income and upper middle class lifestyles of their leading executives. Proceeds from the sale of the art will not benefit city workers who will still face devastating cuts in pensions and health care benefits. Instead, the union executives are seeking a more advantageous carve up of public assets in order to boost the value of their pension investment fund and union-controlled retiree health care trust.
The Michigan Senate voted 21-17 Tuesday to approve a one-time payment of $195 million for the so-called grand bargain, down from the original proposed sum of $350 million over 20 years. The vote clears the way for approval of the funds by Governor Rick Snyder.
The authoritarian and pro-corporate character of the deal can be inferred from the praise heaped on the funding bill by Business Leaders for Michigan association. “The 9-bill package of legislation provides a significant contribution to the comprehensive financial restructuring plan for Detroit and the establishment of a financial oversight process to ensure the maintenance of sound fiscal practices that will improve city services.”
As the business group noted, provisions included in the legislation will create a financial control board, appointed from above by the governor and leading state legislators to restructure the city’s finances for at least 13 years. Thus, the financial dictatorship established through the installation of an unelected emergency manager will continue indefinitely.
Snyder responded to the vote with a public statement echoing Orr’s threat to retirees that they should vote for the Plan of Adjustment or face even more draconian pension cuts. “I clearly encourage everyone to vote ‘yes.’ Kevyn said it well up on Mackinac Island: a protest vote is not helpful,” Snyder said.
The bargain includes the de facto privatization of the DIA through its transfer to the Ford, Kellogg, Kresge and other wealthy foundations. By ending the century long city ownership of the DIA the bargain signifies a frontal assault on the public’s access to artwork and culture. Even now, the DIA closes portions of the museum to the public to facilitate private social events for the city’s upper crust. Once the museum is put in private hands public access will be restricted even further.
The foundations themselves, though dressed up as charities acting in the public interest, are in fact the means through which powerful corporate and financial interests manipulate policy across the country. Such “philanthropic” foundations have played a major role in the drive to destroy public education in favor of for-profit charter schools.
In his statement responding to the approval of funds by the state senate, Judge Gerald Rosen—the federal mediator appointed by the bankruptcy court who crafted the deal—effusively praised the foundations for “setting the tone” for the bargain as a whole.
Meanwhile, plans are moving ahead for the transfer of other precious city assets to corporate hands. Recent reports have noted that the Emergency Manager’s office may confirm a plan to privatize the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD)—one of the largest municipally owned water systems in the US within the next two weeks.
Republished with permission.

Elizabeth Warren and Thomas Piketty: "Wealth Does Not Trickle Down... It Trickles Up."

Both issues show clearly that 'we have a rigged system, where a handful are able to reap benefits at the cost of everyone else.'

haring a stage with French economist Thomas Piketty on Monday night in Boston, Sen. Elizabeth Warren discussed a range issues related to economic inequality during a joint interview with the Huffington Post, but said that people should be careful not to separate the far-reaching implications that outsized wealth and power in the U.S. can have on vital, planetary issues like climate change.

Piketty, the author of the groundbreaking and bestselling book Capitalism in the 21st Century, offered his perspective on the rise of global wealth disparity as Warren focused on her familiar rhetoric surrounding the politics of inequality by describing the numerous ways in which "the system is rigged" against working people in favor of the financial and political elite.

In a direct refutation of the infamous Reagan-era ethos of "trickle-down economics," Warren said that Piketty's invaluable research presented in his book shows that "wealth does not trickle down... it trickles up."

"It trickles from everyone else," she said, "to those who are rich."

In a striking moment of the discussion, Warren stopped to make a cogent point about the intersection between the inequality that Picketty has so well documented and the overwhelming issue of climate change which she argued should not be treated as something separate from the current political realities created by enormous wealth inequality.

"I think [these two issues] are the same debate," said Warren as she crossed her arms to represent intersection. And continued:

Think of it this way: We have tens of millions of people who live right near coasts, just to pick one example. And so what's happening right now in the debate in the United States? There are giant industries that pollute and the consequence is they make immediate profits and the effects of their pollution will be felt by lots and lots people around this country and ultimately around the globe. Now, it's in their interest to continue to be able to pollute, because they make short term profits and everyone else will bare the costs."

Think about it, they are able to amass the lobbyists to go to Washington, to influence the lawmakers,to influence the regulators, to do everything they can to maintain their opportunities to foul the air and poison the water in order to support short-term profits. Everyone else—who has to pay the price on that—doesn't have that same kind of organized ability to make their voices heard in the same way with lobbyists and lawyers in Washington.

And so for me, this is just one more example of how we have inequality, of how we have a rigged system, where a handful are able to reap benefits at the cost of everyone else. And I think climate change, like economic inequality, are both symptoms of the same problem. The same problem of this with enough power writing the rules too much in their favor, and leaving everyone else behind.

JIM WILLIE: “WE’RE WATCHING A SYSTEMIC BREAKDOWN, & THE DEATH OF A NATION!”

US economy contracts as tens of thousands are laid off

Matthew MacEgan
In recent days, several reports have surfaced that paint a grim picture of the United States economy. They provide details on how US gross domestic product (GDP), wage growth and consumer spending either stagnated or declined during the first quarter of 2014. This economic downturn corresponds with an increasing number of layoffs, which exceeded 14,000 in May alone.
The 1 percent decline in GDP during the first quarter of 2014 marks the first contraction of the US economy in three years. Wall Street had initially estimated growth of 0.1 percent during this period and blames an “unusually harsh winter” for the recent decline. The contraction came as a surprise to Federal Reserve policymakers.
Similarly, wage and salary income growth also stagnated during the first few months of 2014, growing a mere 2 percent over the previous year after adjusting for inflation. The lack of significant income growth also led to a decline in consumption. During the month of April, consumer spending fell for the first time in a year even as inflation continued to rise.
These indices have begun to manifest themselves in mass layoffs in recent weeks. During April and May, approximately 17,000 US workers were laid off, with several thousands losing their jobs during the last week alone. Many large corporations have begun laying off hundreds and in some cases thousands of workers at a time in order to keep their investments profitable.

On May 23, customer support agency Stream, in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, announced that it would be cutting 150 jobs by the end of July. Stream’s parent company Convergys employs 125,000 worldwide. This decision came after a client decided to move a program away from Sergeant Bluff, which had a population of 4,269 in 2012. Employees have the option of relocating to other regions to compete for jobs at other Stream facilities.
Marshfield Clinic, which operates 50 medical centers in Wisconsin, announced May 24 that it would be cutting 80 to 120 management positions, roughly 1 or 2 percent of its workforce. Marshfield laid off 100 workers in 2012 and earlier this year announced massive budget cuts, resulting in pay cuts for several of its doctors and other employees.
On May 27, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) announced that it plans on cutting as many as 400 jobs in the US. The London-based bank is looking to shrink its US mortgage trading business by two thirds due to the impending implementation of stricter regulations being imposed by the Federal Reserve in 2014. Foreign operated banks will now be held to the same regulations already imposed on domestic banks. The RBS employs about 2,400 workers in the US.
On May 28, Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa Valley, California announced it would be shedding about 10 percent of its workforce in the coming months. The announcement came just a month after the organization began creating a “comprehensive improvement plan” to create greater financial stability, mainly through service reductions and employee layoffs.
The most devastating announcement came May 29, when Source Interlink Distribution, a Florida-based magazine distribution company, announced it was immediately and permanently shutting its doors, effectively laying off its entire national workforce of over 6,000.
Source Interlink Companies had moved its world headquarters to Bonita Springs, Lee County, in southwest Florida in 2002 to take advantage of tax incentives totaling $1 million. Lee County had already made $250,000 in incentive payments to the company after Source demonstrated that it had invested $600,000 in buildings and equipment in this Florida community of approximately 40,000. The payments came with the stipulation that Source maintain the existing 238 employees on staff locally for 48 months, while creating an additional 50 local jobs during the same period.
On April 22, Source notified county officials that its local employee roster had dropped to 222 people, after which a meeting was scheduled for June 4 between the county and the company to discuss the default on the agreement. Lee County officials have stated that they still expect to hold this meeting, although it seems the local operation is finished.
County Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass told reporters that the county would continue to pursue the incentives already paid. “We have to make sure we have checks and balances for these companies that are using Lee County tax dollars,” he explained. “They have to be held accountable.”
In addition to announcing the closing of the company prior to the June 4 meeting with county officials, it has also been discovered that Source Interlink Distribution did not file a state notification of mass layoffs on Friday. Such a notification would make resources available to dislocated workers who need help finding new jobs. A spokesman for CareerSource Southwest Florida told reporters that such assistance can only be provided once the employer has taken such an initiative.
Despite the sustained decline of the largest economy in the world, US financial leaders continue to spout predictions that the situation will improve as the year continues. Charles Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, believes that the remainder of 2014 will bring a 3 percent growth in economic output in the US, with the GDP growing nearly 3.5 percent during the second quarter alone. He, like other officials, blames the “terrible winter” that included a polar vortex and frequent delays of product deliveries.
Such optimistic declarations have been inadequately buttressed by dubious employment reports that show the number of jobs increasing and unemployment falling. However, the jobs actually being created have proved inadequate to increase wages and thus consumer spending.
In a recent statement, Sterne Agee’s chief economist Lindsey Piegza reported, “We are not seeing job gains translate into wage pressures. It’s a question not just of quantity but also of quality.” She explained that the majority of new jobs being created in the United States are either temporary or part-time jobs coming in low-paying industries.
Although the 6.3 percent unemployment rate recorded in April is the lowest number in six years, this decline in jobless statistics has largely resulted from the exit of enormous numbers of workers from the workforce. A report released in April showed that the labor force participation rate had plunged to 62.8 percent, a percentage not seen since the 1970s.
Republished with permission.

Government Treated Peaceful Boycott As Terrorism

Anyone Who Questions the Powers-That-Be May Be Labelled a “Terrorist”

The Partnership for Civil Justice (a public interest legal organization which the Washington Post called “the constitutional sheriffs for a new protest generation”) reported this week that the Obama administration treated a peaceful boycott as a terrorist threat:
4,000 pages [of documents] obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund [through Freedom of Information Act requests] reveal that Fusion Centers and their personnel even conflate their anti-terrorism mission with a need for intelligence gathering on a possible consumer boycott during the holiday season. There are multiple documents from across the country referencing concerns about negative impacts on retail sales.
The Executive Director of the Intelligence Fusion Division, also the Joint Terrorism Task Force Director, for the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department circulated a 30-page report tracking the Occupy Movement in towns and cities across the country created by the trade association the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).
He directed that the recipients of the document, who included top staff at the Washington, D.C. Fusion Center, “develop a one page product that we can send to our District Commanders to make them aware of the potential threat.”

The Executive Director of the Intelligence Fusion Division, also the Joint Terrorism Task Force Director, for the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department instructs D.C Fusion Center regarding the “potential threat” of the Black Friday Boycott
Page 7 of an International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) report on Occupy’s planned Black Friday Boycott, circulated through counter-terrorism officials
Page 18 of an International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) report on Occupy’s planned Black Friday Boycott, circulated through counter-terrorism officials
The ICSC report detailing Occupy Black Friday “threats” includes images of “Sample Anti-Black Friday Icons and Posters” with slogans urging people to “buy local” or “do your shopping at a small independent merchant.” The report identifies among “Specific Known Threats” “buy nothing day tactics which might be used by Occupy and other protesters” including credit card cut ups, free non-commercial street parties, and alternative mass green transport activities.
Additional “Specific Known Threats” in the report are identified by individual Occupy locations from Occupy Bee Cave, Texas (“Assessment … Aim: to educate how military spending has affected the economy – consistent with anti-war agenda of the group”) to Occupy Seattle (“Assessment … leafleting likely in order to draw attention”).
The intelligence reporting and communications apparatus was in full throttle over potential Occupy Black Friday boycotts. One sample document issued from the Baltimore police shows a distribution list ranging from the Maryland Fusion Center, the FBI, the DHS, the Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network, the Secret Service, the NYPD and other city and state law enforcement, the manager of corporate security for an energy company, university personnel, and the Federal Reserve.
The “counter-terrorism” documents contain multiple references to Black Friday boycotts as well as potential negative impacts on retails sales.
PCJF Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard stated: “It is outrageous that counter-terrorism officials used their anti-terrorism authority and funding to “protect” corporate America from a consumer boycott. It is well past time that the vast flow of tax-payer money to the Fusion Centers be ended.”
Watch this must-see interview for context:

In fact – through both word and deed – the government has repeatedly demonstrated that it may treat anyone who questions mainstream ideology as a terrorist.

Andrew Hoffman – Two Thirds of the World is Getting Worse

from FinancialSurvivalNetwork.com:

Manipulation Mondays with Andrew Hoffman:

ISM dropped from 55 to 53 but corrected to 56 after seasonal adjustment;
Construction spending was awful;
Chicago PMI awful;
Birth Death fix for this May is same as last May;
Japanese and Chinese data awful and off the charts;
2/3 of all the world’s PMI’s are negative;
ECB meets on Thursday—what will they do;
Gold never allowed to go up and Stocks not allowed to go down.

Click Here to Listen

When QE & “Wealth Effects” Are Not Enough: Stock Index Up 200% From Low—But Nearly One Quarter Of US Families Still Worry About Food

Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com  www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter

It was a very basic question: “Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy the food that you or your family needed?” In wealthy countries, the percentage of those answering “yes” should be very small, and given all the money-printing, it should be zero, you’d think.

But when Gallup surveyed families in the 34 member countries of the OECD, the richest countries in the world, it found a reality on the ground that turned out to be an indictment of the Fed, other central banks, their policies, and bailouts in general.

Topping the list of the 10 countries with the highest incidence of families reporting difficulty in buying food over the past 12 months are, as you’d expect, the OECD’s poorest members. Turkey, with the second lowest per-capita GDP in the group, is number one: 50% of the families with children and 40% of the families without children reported difficulties buying food. It’s followed by Hungary, which has been hit by all sorts of economic and currency crises, self-inflicted or not, and multiple recessions over the past few years. So 47% of the families with children and 35% of those without had trouble buying food. Mexico is in third place, with 33% and 30% respectively.

And then come two of the formerly wealthy countries in the Eurozone that were felled by the debt crisis. The solution was to bail out the holders of sovereign bonds and investors in the hopelessly hollowed-out banks. To make that work, incomes, social services, pensions, health care services, and a million other things were slashed, and taxes on the masses were raised, all under direction of the bailout Troika (IMF, ECB, and the EU). Unemployment shot into the sky. And that more and more families would have trouble buying food surprised no one. So number four and five on the list are Greece (28% and 26%) and Portugal (25% and 16%).

You’d also expect Spain to be next in line. It has been wracked by the same problems, and has been prescribed the same medicine, leading to sky-high unemployment, reduced social services, pensions, health care services, etc. [read.... Wreckonomics: Troika Accelerates Demolition of Spain’s Economy].

But no. The next country in line isn’t Spain. Nor another Eurozone debt-sinner country, nor some former East-Bloc country, but the country where the central-bank money printing binge since 2008 has been taken to new heights, from which benefitted a small number of people enormously, a country whose central bank defined the “wealth effect”: the USA.

In 2013, as the S&P 500 index, including dividends, shot up 32.4% – after an already blistering 16% in 2012 – and as the Fed’s trillions inflated just about every asset class, from modernist paintings to farmland, well just then, 23% of the families with kids and 19% of the families without kids in America reported difficulties buying food.

In Spain, by the way, “only” 18% of the families with kids reported having these basic problems; and Spain didn’t even make the list of the top 10 for families without children.

Starting with 2008, the fate of poor families has gotten worse in most of these 34 countries, though considered the richest in the world. It was the kickoff of the money-printing campaigns and the enormous gifts that the Fed and other central banks handed to banks and to the largest corporations – including such luminaries as GE – and even, more or less indirectly, to individuals such as Warren Buffett to keep them and their financial empires from toppling under their reckless bets. Big investors were bailed out. The poor not so much.

By the time 2013 rolled around, Hungary’s families had seen the worst setbacks: in 2007, 15% had trouble buying food. In 2013, 47% did. A 32-point jump! Turkey was in second place with a 22-point jump, Greece in third place with a 20-point jump. Families in some other countries were hit less hard: the incidence increased 5 points in France, 3 points in Japan (despite the horrific earthquake and tsunami that struck in 2011), and decreased 1 point in Germany.

On average, this is what happened to the difficulties families in the 34 OECD countries faced in buying food once central banks took over running the economy and bailing out the wealthy who owned the largest portion of the assets:

The country with the fourth largest increase over the past seven years? The USA, with a 12-point jump for families with children. The Fed has chosen the winners. It printed nearly $4 trillion and repressed interest rates to near zero, allowing Wall Street to borrow short-term for free to wager this newly created money by buying up all sorts of assets, inflating their prices in the process, and enriching those who own them. And the Fed has designated the losers. This too is the “wealth effect” in all its untarnished glory.

This is precisely what shouldn’t have happened but was destined to happen: as prices are soaring, only luxury home sales are growing … 1% of the market! Something has to give. Read…. Housing Bubble 2 Already Collapsing for the 99%

Fornicalia makes a “budget whoopsie” of $31.7 BILLION DOLLARS :

Governor Jerry Brown and Controller John Chiang

From my local paper, the SacramentoBee.com:

Audit: State Controller’s Office accounting riddled with errors

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/29/6442109/audit-state-controllers-office.html#storylink=cpy

by John Ortiz
State Controller John Chiang’s office has understated liabilities, miscalculated debt payments and, in one instance, made a data-entry error that added three additional zeros to a revenue figure, changing the figure from millions of dollars to billions of dollars.
Meaning: those tasked with ensuring Fornicalia’s cash is well cared for — in this ultimate case, John Chiang, who is the state controller — have frakked up to the Nth degree.  In other words, to the tune of $31.7 billion dollars.  Yes.  With a B.
That’s like saying, in your checkbook, your spouse somehow “misplaced” $31,000.  Where did it go? you ask.  Wouldn’t you want to find out?  Wouldn’t you be concerned?  Wouldn’t you want to ensure that didn’t reoccur?  And wouldn’t you be just a tad upset?
Further: controller John Chiang is running for State Treasurer.  Fornicalia’s election is today.
A summary of the “mistakes”:

• Understating some federal trust fund revenues and expenditures by $7.7 billion.
• Overstating state general fund assets and revenues by $653 million.
• A reporting error that understated a public building construction fund by $9.1 billion.
• Overstating by $8 billion the California State University system’s bond debt.
• Posting a deferred tax-revenue figure as $6.2 billion when it was actually $6.2 million.
  

Those mistakes and others were so glaring, auditors said, that they should have been caught.
Jeff Dunetz at TruthRevolt.org has a great article about the situation as well.
This is just one audit, ladies and gentlemen.  A “general overview” if you will.
As a state taxpayer, I demand here and now that a detailed audit be made of EVERY department in the State of Fornicalia, involving every Secretary, every Division head, every Branch Chief.  And making the Governor ultimately responsible.
In my opinion, $31.7 BILLION DOLLARS would be a drop in the proverbial bucket in terms of dollars wasted and pissed away by persons in the State of Fornicalia, much less money simply “misplaced” as in this event.
Heads must roll, Secretaries, budget coordinators, Division heads and Branch Chiefs must be fired and severed from their potential pensions.
This is only the tip of the iceberg.
Blood must flow.
BZ

This entry was posted in California and tagged California $31.7 billion dollars, California budget, data-entry error, deferred-tax revenue, demand an audit of California finances, Fornicalia, hold Governor Brown accountable, John Chiang, John Chiang State Controller, miscalculated debt, overstating bond debt, overstating state general funds, reporting error, State Controller's office audit, State Controller's office riddled with errors, understated liabilities, understating federal trust fund revenues by BZ. Bookmark the permalink.

3 thoughts on “Fornicalia makes a “budget whoopsie” of $31.7 BILLION DOLLARS”

1. HGPSURF on Tuesday, June 3, 2014 at 19:07 said:
   Don’t you think it’s time you move out of state?
   
   Reply ↓
2. Pingback: Fornicalia makes a “budget whoopsie” of $31.7 BILLION DOLLARS | Beat the rich
   
3. Pingback: Fornicalia makes a “budget whoopsie” of $31.7 BILLION DOLLARS « Truth Is Rising
   

Our Economy Wants You to Be In Debt: 5 Things You Can Do to Take Charge

Last month PM Press published the Debt Resisters’ Operations Manual —also known as “the DROM.” But don’t let that menacing-sounding acronym fool you: this is a book written in plain English and filled with tips and tactics for dealing with debt.
The book has been available online since September 2012, but this publishing marks the first time the manual has been printed, bound, and sold. Don’t worry, you can still find a free copy online. But, hopefully, getting this book into stores will help its message reach more people—however ironic it might seem to buy one with a credit card.
“Everyone is a debtor so there’s no limit to the audience” said Andrew Ross, a member of the Occupy Wall Street offshoot called Strike Debt, in an interview with Guernica Magazine. Although Ross has gone public, most of the authors of the Debt Resister’s Operations Manual have chosen to remain anonymous.
The book explains how creditors, big banks, and other lenders operate and how debtors can navigate both in and outside of the system.
“From a young age, we are conditioned to feel that being in debt is shameful and worthy of punishment,” the manual’s anonymous authors explain.

Debtors shouldn’t feel that way, the DROM argues, because the situation is largely unfair and out of their control. “The reason you have tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills is that we don’t provide medical care to everyone,” the authors write. “The reason you have tens of thousands of dollars of student loans is because the government, banks, and university administrators [are] … driving college costs through the roof.”
All that debt adds up. About 75 percent of Americans are in debt right now and owe a total of more than $11.5 trillion, according to Forbes magazine. That’s about three times the amount of spending the Obama Administration requested in its 2015 federal budget.
And it’s not necessarily spent on expensive handbags, sports cars, and vacations. A2012 studypublished by the left-leaning thinktank Demos found that 40 percent of American households in debt use their credit cards to pay for living costs like rent, food, and utility bills. Additionally, about half of household debt comes from medical bills.
While the authors clearly worked hard to make the manual’s language accessible, that doesn’t mean it’s a quick read. If you lack time or patience to sit down and wrap your head around how FICO credit scores are generated, here are five tips from the DROM that you can start using today.
Read more

FINRA Bombshell: Biggest Wall Street Banks Are Trading Their Own Stock in Dark Pools

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 2, 2014
Major business media is hot on the story tonight of which major Wall Street bank traded the most shares in their dark pool during the week of May 12 – 16. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) – a self policing body on Wall Street – released detailed dark pool data for the first time today.
Thus far, the business media has overlooked the bombshell in the data: the biggest banks on Wall Street — the same ones the U.S. taxpayer bailed out in 2008 – have been making a market in their own stock inside the dark pools they own, right under the nose of FINRA and the SEC to the tune of tens of millions of shares a year if this data is typical of an average week.
This is the equivalent of Bank of America or Citigroup being a specialist in their own stock on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
During the week of May 12 – 16, Merrill Lynch’s dark pool is shown executing 16,246 trades in the stock of its parent, Bank of America, for a total of 8,207,150 shares. This figure represents 12 percent of the 67.8 million shares of Bank of America that traded in dark pools that week.
See our full report tomorrow.

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After Charges of Running a Price Fixing Cartel on Nasdaq in the 90s, Wall Street Banks Are Now Trading Their Own Stocks in Darkness →

• © 2014 Wall Street On Parade. Wall Street On Parade ® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
• WallStreetOnParade.com is a public interest web site operated by Russ and Pam Martens to help the investing public better understand systemic corruption on Wall Street. Ms. Martens is a former Wall Street veteran with a background in journalism. Mr. Martens' career spanned four decades in printing and publishing management.

China and Russia to establish joint rating agency

Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation (RIA Novosti / Igor Russak)

No more Fitch, Moody’s, or Standard & Poor’s for Russia and China, as they have agreed to establish a rating agency on joint projects, and later, international services, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Tuesday.
“The establishment of an independent rating system is being discussed. Many countries would like to have more objectivity in the assessment of rating agencies,” Siluanov said.
“There will be a Russian-Chinese rating agency, which will use the same tools and criteria for assessing countries and regional investments that existing rating agencies use,” the minister said.
Foreign investors are influenced by rating agencies, which provide analysis for companies investing in capital, especially abroad. Standard & Poor’s recently downgraded Russia’s credit rating to just above junk status citing concerns over the significant capital outflow as a result of Russia’s action in Ukraine. In the first three months of 2014, a record $51 billion left the world’s eighth largest economy.
In China, officials are worried that negative feedback from rating agencies could derail their economy. China has had negative interest rates for nearly a decade and has pockets of mounting property bubbles across the country. According to Siluanov, the agency will “not be political.”
"At first, the agency will evaluate projects and investment between Russia and China, as well as with a number of Asian countries. Then, the system will be exported “as it gains prestige and authority,” the minister said.
Siluanov did not make clear if a new agency will be established, or there will be an extension to the existing Chinese-Russian rating agency Universal Credit Ratings Group (UCRG), which was set up this time last year. It has been reported that the Chinese Dagon rating agency would team up with the American and Russian RusRating in the UCRG venture.
Breaking free of the troika of credit rating agencies isn’t only a phenomenon in Russia and China, but worldwide. More and more countries, including the US, are breaking ties with the international ratings agencies.

The Next Shot Has Been Fired at Your IRA

It’s no secret that governments strapped for cash commonly turn to plundering retirement savings. They are a juicy, irresistible, low-hanging fruit.
In recent years, it’s happened in some form in Argentina, Poland, Portugal, and Hungary, just to name a few countries. The truth is that it could happen in any country drowning in debt and financial troubles—the US included.
It’s usually accomplished by forcibly converting retirement assets into government bonds under the guise of helping people manage their risk.

I’m From the Government and I’m Here to Help

Anytime any government claims that it wants to help you manage your retirement savings, I believe the best course of action is to run as far away as you possibly can. Taking your IRA offshore and out of reach is the only way to really protect yourself—more on that in a moment.
Earlier this year, Obama announced the myRA program, which ostensibly helps people save for retirement (though it offers no benefits over existing options).
In case you missed it, an earlier article I wrote spells it all out. It’s a must-read and can be found here.
In short, Obama’s myRA program was the opening shot in the undeclared war on your retirement savings.
And I believe an eyebrow-raising ruling in the US Tax Court is the second shot.

New Risks for IRA Owners

The recent decision in the case of Bobrow v. Commissioner places new limits on a maneuver known as an IRA rollover.
A rollover is used to move your retirement funds to a new account without taxes or penalties if certain conditions are met.
Perhaps the most compelling reason that someone might want to do a rollover is that it allows you to escape the investment straitjacket of a standard retirement account with a big custodian like Prudential, Schwab, Fidelity, or T. Rowe Price. Usually these accounts offer a very limited menu of investment options.
An offshore IRA, on the other hand, can unshackle your retirement savings. It can invest in almost anything anywhere in the world. Whether it’s a rental apartment in New Zealand, a private company in Panama, an offshore bank account in Hong Kong, or physical gold stored in Singapore, your offshore IRA can invest in it.
Another problem with these big custodians is that if the US government were ever to do what many other bankrupt governments have done and forcibly convert retirement assets to government bonds, all they would have to do is simply issue notices to them and Poof!—your account would be frozen, and the holdings would be converted in some proportion to “safer” Treasury securities. For your own good, of course.
However, if your IRA is offshore and some Orwellian-named bill like the Safeguarding America's Retirement Act is passed, your life savings won’t be on the chopping block.
How will the government convert your retirement savings if it’s in the form of physical gold held in Singapore, or foreign real estate, or an offshore bank account, or any type of offshore asset? The answer is: not very easily, and they probably won’t bother. They’ll likely be focused on the sitting ducks—including the IRAs with the large custodians.
In all likelihood, if you have offshored your IRA, you’ll be grandfathered in and exempt from the new requirements.
So, the biggest benefits in taking your IRA offshore are that doing so:

1. Puts you in the driver’s seat (not the custodian);

2. Significantly expands your investment options; and most important

3. Puts your retirement savings out of the immediate reach of the government.

But in order for you to move your IRA offshore, you’ll likely have to do a rollover to move your funds from your existing custodian (likely one of the large firms) to one that allows you to take your funds abroad (likely a smaller firm).
That’s where the recent court ruling comes in.
In Bobrow v. Commissioner, the court ruled that taxpayers can only do one rollover per 12-month period.
Prior to the ruling, the IRS had long allowed—and officially sanctioned in Publication 590—doing one rollover per IRA in every 12-month period. For example, this meant that if someone had two separate IRAs, they could perform two rollovers each 12-month period.
The new ruling, however, throws this completely out the window despite the fact that it had appeared in IRS guidance. Now you can only have one rollover in a 12-month period, regardless of how many retirement accounts you have.

It’s Not the End, It’s the Beginning

There are three disturbing aspects to this ruling.
First, IRA owners now face new risks. People considering multiple rollovers have to be extremely careful. There’s no margin for error, so be sure you consult with a tax professional. If you don’t do it correctly and your rollover is disallowed by the IRS, you will likely be subjected to an enormous bill of taxes and penalties.
Second, it shows that IRS guidance isn’t worth much. The judge in the case said as much when he declared, “Taxpayers rely on IRS guidance at their own peril.” While this is remarkable, nobody should really be that surprised that the government can and will make up the rules as it goes along.
Third and most importantly, this ruling is another incremental step to the eventual end game—the conversion of retirement assets to Treasuries. This ruling hinders the ability of some people to move their IRAs away from the big custodians, which is a necessary step in taking them offshore. Before any potential conversion to Treasuries, you can be sure that the government will have sealed off all the exits from the big custodians to optimize their harvest. This is a step in that direction.
So I don’t think this is the end. I think it’s the beginning. I fully expect incrementally more severe restrictions on IRAs in the future.
With this ruling and the myRA program, the government clearly has its attention set on retirement savings and slowly chipping away your options, as—not coincidentally—it slides further into debt and bankruptcy.
Given the recent history of governments around the world pilfering the retirement savings of their citizens, the jaw-dropping dismal financial condition of the US government, and the creeping measures directed at retirement assets, it’s absolutely critical for you to offshore your IRA before it’s too late.
But it’s not just a defensive measure. Offshoring your IRA will unlock a whole world of new international investment opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable.
For more on exactly how you can offshore your IRA, I’d suggest you check out our Going Global publication, where we discuss this important diversification strategy in actionable detail.

Interview: “Are We Going To See Massive Confiscation Of Wealth By Banks!?”

by GoldCore

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,246.00, EUR 915.84 and GBP 744.73 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,244.25, EUR 914.42 and GBP 742.26 per ounce.

Gold climbed $3.20 or 0.26% yesterday to $1,246.30/oz. Silver rose $0.03 or 0.48% to $18.84/oz.

Gold rose for the first day in six yesterday but remains near a four month low in London. Overnight, Singapore gold traded sideways very close to the $1,245/oz level again and remained tied to this price in trading in London. Futures trading volume at this time of day was 55% below the average for the past 100 days, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Gold’s price weakness in recent days is leading to some activity. Directionless trade in recent weeks had led to lackluster trading but gold’s price weakness in recent days has led to more activity and both an increase in selling and buying.

Sellers are nervous that technical damage has been done and momentum is down. They are concerned that this could lead to further price falls.

Buyers are more focused on the long term and view the price falls as a buying opportunity. Buyers are almost solely focused on the fundamentals and are tuning out the negative short term technical picture.

Gold in U.S. Dollars – 2014 YTD – (Thomson Reuters)

Continuing revelations regarding gold manipulation by banks continues to be ignored, for now.

The Financial Times reports today that when the UK’s financial regulator(FSA)  slapped a £26 million fine on Barclays for lax controls related to the gold fix, it offered more ammunition to critics of the near-century-old benchmark. But it also gave precious metal traders in the City of London plenty to think about.

“While the Financial Conduct Authority says the case appears to be a one-off — the work of a single trader — some market professionals have a different view. They claim that the practice of nudging a tradeable benchmark to protect a “digital” derivatives contract — as a Barclays employee did — was routine in the industry,”according to the FT.

Gold bullion is due a bounce as it appears oversold. Gold’s 14-day relative-strength index was at 28.1 today and since May 29, it has been below the level of 30. This suggests a potential impending rebound to technical analysts.

The dollar reached an almost two-month high versus 10 major currencies before the U.S. government releases a jobs report on Friday. Friday’s jobs report is forecast to show employers added 215,000 jobs in the U.S., just above this year’s average. A worse than expected number is quite possible given the state of the struggling U.S. consumer and retailers. This would lead to a safe haven bid for gold.

Silver for immediate delivery added 0.3% to $18.86/oz in London. Silver reached $18.63 on May 30, the lowest since June 28, 2013. Palladium fell 0.6% to $833/oz. Palladium reached $845.24 on May 28, the highest since August 2011 due to concerns about Russian supply. Platinum lost 0.6% to $1,422.51/oz, after falling to $1,421.75, the lowest since May 12.

Interview: “Are We Going To See Massive Confiscation Of Wealth By Banks!?”

GoldCore’s Head Of Research, Mark O’Byrne was interviewed on Rick Wile’s Trunews radio programme on Monday night. Topics discussed in the 30 minute interview were

- China and Russia’s gold hoarding
- Ireland and Europe’s perspective on the dollar
- Denial and complacency amongst the public
- Deflation and inflation risk
- Do not trust government ‘headline inflation’
- Ecuador’s pawning their gold to Goldman Sachs
- The importance of owning physical gold internationally
- The likelihood of deposit bail-ins in G20 countries
- Cyprus bail-in did not hurt Russians – rather Cypriot working and middle classes
- You have to be prepared. Better to be a year early than a day late
- And how this all factors into the coming restructuring of the global financial system

Transcript of First 4 minutes:
Rick Wiles: A lot of news out today about a major change coming in the global financial system and at the center of it is gold.

Mark O’Byrne: Absolutely I’ve switched off the last few days and made the weekend sacrosanct with family. The stories you alluded to are hugely important. There are more pieces in the jigsaw puzzle which is increasingly suggesting that we are approaching what we suspected for sometime, that there would be problems in the international monetary system and problems with the dollar.

It all comes back to gold ultimately. Gold has been at the cornerstone of our monetary system for centuries and its only in recent years that it has been demonetized. It looks like we heading back to some form of quasi gold standard and all the signs are pointing in that direction now.

Rick Wiles: What are you hearing in Ireland about the fate of the U.S. dollar?

Mark O’Byrne:  A lot of people are lulled into a false sense of security, there is a lot of complacency. Most of the media is basically suggesting that everything will be fine … trust in the politicians … trust in the ECB … trust in our great leaders …

And there is only a minority of people who see beyond that and instinctively they know some things are wrong. Some people have an understanding of events from a historical perspective and they realize intuitively things are not as kosher as is being suggested.

In terms of the dollar, we are very dependent on the U.S. – we have huge multinationals based here, including huge tech firms and many immigrants based in the U.S. and our economy is very dependent on exports to the U.S. and on the U.S. economy.

I think there is a lot of wishful thinking. There is a complete failure to look at the fundamentals of the U.S. economy especially the $17 trillion national debt and $100 to $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

There are very few people or companies that are asking questions about this and we have done and say that these are real, real risks and you need to take actions to protect yourselves and your families, it’s probably similar to America, the minority of people are aware and the vast majority do not understand the risks.

The whole propaganda recently is the Keynesian propaganda that we need to print money and if we keep printing money and we kick the can down the road, everything will be fine. But anybody knows anything about economic or monetary history knows that this is not a recipe for a sound economy in the medium and long term and ultimately it leads to some form of monetary disaster.

Rick Wiles: So Ireland has so much riding on the U.S. dollar and the U.S. economy and most of the people including your leaders and the news media simply are putting the blinders on their eyes saying we don’t want to look at what’s going on with the U.S. dollar.

Mark O’Byrne: Yes. It’s a form of denial and people are putting their heads in the sand.

It’s a similar to our property market here, I don’t know if you know but we also had a huge property bubble here . A few of us back in early 2000 were warning about the property bubble and we were just completely shut out of the media and dismissed as doom and gloom merchants and the usual pejorative things where people are being called names at instead of looking at the substantive points people are making.

It is safer to look at the research, let’s look at the evidence, instead of engaging in childish name calling. People were sidelined and dismissed – subsequently, the property bubble burst and prices fell between 50% in Dublin and up to 60-80% in the country outside of Dublin. There has been a bit of recovery in the past 2 years and a bit of recovery but I think we are entering a mini bubble again in Dublin. Its just complacency on every level. Ireland is a tiny economy of 4 million people and what happens in …

GoldCore Founder and Director of Research Mark O’Byrne

Transcript of Last 4 minutes:
Rick Wiles: Mark I feel that there’s another way of financial trouble coming in the next year and what I’m seeing is a number of nations getting into place the mechanism to do with the so called bank bail-ins – what we first saw in Cyprus when the ECB just reached in and stole billions of dollars from the people, just took it out of their bank account and now countries all over the world have been implementing regulations that will enable their central banks to do bank bail-ins.

Do you think that we are going to see this in the next year or so or are we going to see massive confiscation of wealth by banks?

Mark O’Byrne: The short answer is yes we will. The timing is of course is uncertain but I believe we will see it, even potentially in the coming months. I have expected them in recent months, but the authorities have managed to kick the can down the road, further than we thought.

Bail-ins will happen. We did a huge amount of research on bail-ins. When it happened in Cyprus, many of our clients got on the phone asking us questions regarding bail-ins, including from our U.S. clients.

We put our hands up and said we honestly don’t know. We don’t think so as we are not aware of any legislation in place.  But we do not know and we will go and do some research and come back to you.  So we did a huge amount of research on it. We hired outside consultants and we also brought in an academic one of the most trusted financial academics in Ireland and he reviewed it and wrote the foreword to our piece.

Basically we came to the conclusion that absolutely this is a real risk …

You have to be prepared. Better to be a year early than a day late.

The good rule of thumb is the old Wall Street adage – you out 10% of your wealth in physical gold coins and bars and you hope it does not go through the roof as if it does, then it means that the economy and the rest of your investments are not doing well.

It is a classic hedge and a form of financial insurance and it is vitally important that everybody own at least 5% or 10% of their wealth in gold or maybe even a little bit more given the circumstances that we have spoken about today.

Rick Wiles: Alright and your company GoldCore in addition to offering the sale of gold krugerrands, American eagles, maple leafs, gold sovereigns and so forth you also have storage facilities around the world – Australia, Singapore other places, so our listeners could if they’re interested in storing some gold in different vaults around the world, they could work through you?

Mark O’Byrne: Yes, absolutely that is what we specialize in. For U.S. citizens, we advise you should take delivery and have some gold in your possession and we deliver and some gold in storage in the U.S.. In addition, given the world that we live in, it’s nice to have some offshore in a location that you can get on a plane or a boat to -  if need be. Its worst case scenario stuff and we hope it does not come to pass. It’s great financial insurance to have. Zurich and Singapore are two of the favourites among gold investors and two of the safest places.  There is great faith both in Zurich and Switzerland given its history and its respect for private property rights and similarly in Singapore which is fast becoming a new global precious metals storage hub.

We basically believe if you own gold you need to own it in the safest way possible and that is why we work with the safest counterparties in both Zurich and Singapore and we work with a lot of U.S. clients in that regard.

Rick Wiles:  Alright, my guest today was Mr. Mark O’Byrne from GoldCore in Ireland and the website is www.goldcore.com Mark thank you appreciate you being on Trunews today.

Mark O’Byrne: Absolute pleasure Rick, thank you for having me on.

The full interview can be listened to from the 36th minute here

Russia And China Are Making Deals With Each Other, They Are Creating A Combined Credit Rating Agency. Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/russia-and-china-are-making-deals-with-each-other-they-are-creating-a-combined-credit-rating-agency/#XDcIfJpJrLAfTSaT.99

US factory order beat expectations but when you remove defense orders factory orders declined. Many clients in the big financial institutions are now shorting treasuries. It seems Senators are becoming very wealthy in government, half are millionaires. Russia and China are making deals with each other, they are creating a combined credit rating agency. The US government/central bankers are beefing up military assets throughout Europe. Syrian elections are now in favor of Assad and the US government/central bankers are working on a plan to strike into Syria. Holder is now creating a home grown terrorist force to go after American citizens, it begins, this lists are distributed and the forces are being created. We have 2 weeks before a major cyber attack hits which will in turn take your private information, your bank funds and bring the economy to its knees. Be prepared for a false flag.