Sunday, June 22, 2014

Marc Faber Explains The Fed's Dilemma In 15 Words

For over 5 years we have been explaining the hole that the fed has been digging (most ironically here). This morning's op-ed by Warsh and Druckenmiller highlights many of the problems but we leave it to Marc Faber to succinctly sum up the dilemma that the Fed faces (and by dilemma we mean, the plan) - "The more they print, the more inequality there is, the weaker the economy will become." Simply put, "it's a catastrophe," Faber told CNBC, "what the Fed has done is to lift asset prices, and the cost of living. In the meantime, the cost of living increases are higher than the wage increases. The typical American household income is going down in real terms." Recovery?

As we noted previously, the greatest irony of the entire "record income inequality" debate...
One can read 696 page neo-Marxist tomes "explaining" inequality in a way only an economist could - by ignoring the untold destruction economists themselves have unleashed on society with their "scientific theories" (and providing a "solution" to the inequality problem which we warned readers was coming back in September of 2011) or one can read the following 139 words by Elliott's Paul Singer which in two short paragraphs explains everything one needs to know about America's record class inequality, including precisely who is the man responsible:
 
 
Inequality in the U.S. today is near its historical highs, largely because the Federal Reserve’s policies have succeeded in achieving their aim: namely, higher asset prices (especially the prices of stocks, bonds and high-end real estate), which are generally owned by taxpayers in the upper-income brackets. The Fed is doing all the work, because the President’s policies are growth-suppressive. In the absence of the Fed’s moneyprinting and ZIRP, the economy would either be softer or actually in a new recession. 

The greatest irony is that the President is railing against inequality as one of the most important problems of the day, despite the fact that his policies are squeezing the middle class and causing the Fed – with the President’s encouragement – to engage in the radical monetary policy, which is exacerbating inequality. This simple truth cannot be repeated often enough.
Q.E.D.

The Bank Of England Lost 755 Tonnes Of Gold In 2013

According to the official 2014 report, the BoE had 755 tonnes less gold in their vaults in February 2014 relative to February 2013.
However, when we look at UK’s net gold trade over this period (March 2013 – February 2014), we can see 1593 tonnes were exported.
GLD’s stock lost 451 tonnes over this period.
This leaves a gap of 392 tonnes (1593 minus 1201), which had to be supplied by additional LBMA or private vaults in London.




Submitted by Koos Jansen, In Gold We Trust:

The Bank Of England (BoE) just came out with their annual report 2014.   In the report it’s stated the BoE is the custodian of 5485 metric tonnes of gold (£140 billion pounds measured February 28, 2014).   From the BoE annual report 2014:


The Bank provides custodial services for a range of customers. As at 28 February 2014, total assets held by the Bank as custodian were £594bn, of which £140bn were holdings of gold.


In the BoE’s annual report 2013 it was stated they held 6240 tonnes of gold (£210 billion pounds measured February 28, 2013). From the BoE annual report 2013:


As part of this strategy the Bank also provides custodial services for a range of customers. As of 28 February 2013, total assets held by the Bank as custodian were £699 billion, of which £210 billion were holdings of gold.


(To calculate the tonnage I used a gold price of £1046.719 for February 2013 and £793.931 for February 2014)


According to the BoE they had 755 tonnes less gold in their vaults in February 2014 relative to February 2013 (in contrast to reports the BoE lost 1300 tonnes in 2013).   The BoE is a custodian for central banks and the LBMA, the removed gold from the vaults was most likely from LBMA customers. GLD’s gold inventory is vaulted in London, but I’m not positive how much, if any, of their gold is stored at the BoE. GLD’s stock lost 451 tonnes over this period.   If everything GLD lost came from their own HSBC vault, and nothing from their sub-custodian the BoE, the gold removed from both GLD and the BoE in total is 1206 tonnes.

However, when we look at UK’s net gold trade over this period (March 2013 – February 2014), we can see 1593 tonnes were exported.
UK Gold Trade 2009 - march 2014


This leaves a gap of 392 tonnes (1593 minus 1201), which had to be supplied by additional LBMA or private vaults in London.

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Establishment is Afraid of End The Fed Movement in Germany

Port Klang records unhealthy air pollutant reading as smoke returns

Port Klang records unhealthy air pollutant reading as smoke returns
Almost the entire country is blanketed in smoke this morning, with most states showing moderate air pollution readings as of 10am, according to the Department of Environment's website.
Port Klang, however, is at the unhealthy level with the air pollutant index (API) at 102. The second highest API reading was recorded in Kampung Air Putih, Taiping, with a reading of 98.
Selangor and Perak were among the worst hit, with API readings ranging from 67 to 100. Petaling Jaya, Banting and Kuala Selangor showed moderate API readings of 80, while Shah Alam recorded a reading of 89.
With the exception of Samarahan, both Sabah and Sarawak recorded good air pollutant readings of below 50.
An API reading of between 0 and 50 is considered good; 51 to 100, moderate; 101 to 200, unhealthy; 201 to 300, very unhealthy; and 301 and above, hazardous.
The API calculation is based on five major air pollutants, namely sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ground level ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter with a diametre below 10 micrometres (PM10).
Most of these pollutants come from sources such as industries, motor vehicles, open burning and power generation.
The concentrations of these five pollutants are measured in 52 automatic air quality stations throughout Malaysia, mainly located in industrial and urban areas.
English daily The Star yesterday reported that the smoke emitted from factories and vehicles, as well as lower rainfall, had contributed to the haze.
Malaysian Meteorological Department spokesman Dr Hisham Mohd Anip told The Star that no rainfall was expected until next week, except for local isolated rain in inland areas.
He said the hot spell had also caused an increase in the number of open burning, forest and peat fires.
Last year, Putrajaya declared a state of emergency in Muar and Ledang in Johor which were choked by smoke from forest fires in Indonesia as the API readings crossed 300.
The Muar API reading was Malaysia's highest since the API hit 860 during a severe 1997-1998 haze crisis that gripped the region and thrust the issue onto the Southeast Asian agenda.
In August last year, following an outcry from parents and teachers unions, the Education Minisry declared that schools must close when the air pollutant index (API) reached 200 instead of the previous 300 limit the cabinet recently directed.
A circular on the directive was sent to state education departments by the Education Ministry on August 7.
The National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) had expressed unhappiness at the height of the smoke crisis in June when schools were told to close only when the API reached 300. – June 22, 2014.

Independent experts claim they have zeroed in on MH370 spot, says CNN

An ad hoc group of independent experts are saying they know the approximate location of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, but have yet to be consulted by search officials plotting a new search zone for the missing jetliner.  
CNN reported on Tuesday that after prodding authorities to release satellite data on MH370, the experts said their findings suggest the plane was in a tight cluster of spots in the south Indian Ocean – hundreds of kilometres southwest of the previous search site.
"We recommend that the search for MH370 be focused on this area," they said in a statement on Tuesday.
"While there remain a number of uncertainties and some disagreements as to the interpretation of aspects of the data, our best estimates of a location of the aircraft (are) near 36.02 South 88.57 East," according to the statement, which was approved by 10 named experts.
According to CNN, the group opted to release its statement on Tuesday ahead of the Australian government's announcement on the focus of the search, so that there would be no question about the independence of their findings.
One member of the group, American Mobile Satellite Corp co-founder Mike Exner, told CNN that “We wanted to get our best estimate out”.
CNN quoted Exner as saying that the group believed that after the Boeing 777-200ER (9M-MRO) circumnavigated Indonesia, for reasons that were still unknown, the plane travelled south at an average speed of 470 knots, probably at a consistent altitude and constant heading.
He added that all five computer models developed by the experts place the aircraft in a “pretty tight cluster... plus or minus 80km of each other”.
The plane and its 239 passengers on board dropped off radar March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
In a blog post, another group member Tim Farrar called the recommended search site “our best estimate – but not the only possible – location for a potential search.”
The group has yet to be consulted by search officials despite releasing its estimates way in advance of an announcement that a new search area for flight MH370 will be made known in the next two weeks.
Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein yesterday told reporters after a working visit to klia2 that he was confident a new search area would be announced within the next one to two weeks.
“Once the actual new search area has been identified and announced, then China, Australia and Malaysia will begin the full deployment of assets.
“This includes assets contributed by Petronas, Deftech and Sapura Kencana,” Hishammuddin said.
Exner, however, said he believed the authorities were narrowing in on the correct search site, but were thrown off course when searchers detected acoustic pings northwest of Australia.
"It's my personal opinion that the official search team weighed too heavily" on the acoustic pings,” he said.
Exner said the informal group of experts has volunteered to work with the US National Transportation Safety Board and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
But, while the government agencies have been polite, they have been reticent to release additional information that could further help the independent group, he told CNN. – June 21, 2014.

Malaysia drops to Tier 3, lowest ranking in US human trafficking report

The United States government has downgraded Malaysia along with three other countries – Thailand, The Gambia and Venezuela – to Tier 3 in its annual Trafficking of Persons (TIP) Report.
Listing out these countries' "broken promises" over several years, the US said placing these countries on the lowest possible ranking was due to the lack of insufficient action against human trafficking, CNN reported today.
The TIP report released by the State Department is a gauge of a particular country's response to fighting modern-day slavery.
In a damning statement on the Malaysian government's poor efforts in this regard, the report noted that  there is ample evidence of forced labour and sex trafficking in Malaysia.
According to CNN, the report especially highlights Malaysia's problem with migrants from other Asian nations who seek work on farms, factories and construction sites only to be trapped and have their passports taken and wages withheld.
The report ranks governments based on their perceived efforts to acknowledge and combat human trafficking, advance reforms and target resources for prevention, protection and prosecution programmes.
Beyond just a negative perception, a Tier 3 status can also mean less funding for the countries concerned as the US government may use the designation to withhold or withdraw assistance that is unrelated to trade or humanitarian aid, CNN reported.
An even bigger financial implication could be a direct intervention or opposition from the US when it comes to Tier 3 countries seeking development aid from international financial institutions, like the World Bank or International Monetary Fund.
The TIP report said that Malaysia had made "inadequate efforts to improve its flawed victim-protection regime" and had investigated fewer trafficking cases in 2013 than in 2012. The Malaysian downgrade had been largely expected.
Luis CdeBaca (pic), ambassador-at-large of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, cited Malaysia's repeated non-compliance in meeting minimum anti-trafficking standards.
"Malaysia continues to have a victim care regime that basically locks up the victims," Cdebaca told CNN, adding "... the report doesn't look at promises. It looks at results."
According to CNN, four other countries had faced possible downgrades to Tier 3, namely Afghanistan, Barbados, Chad and the Maldives.
However, Cdebaca said each of these countries had demonstrated over the past year that their governments were serious about stopping human trafficking.
"In Afghanistan, for the first time now, we're seeing 14 traffickers being convicted. We're even seeing the conviction of soldiers," CNN quoted Cdebaca as saying.
The TIP report divides nations into three tiers based on their compliance with 11 "minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking".
– Tier 1 countries include governments fully compliant with the minimum standards.
– Tier 2 countries do not fully comply, but are making significant efforts to do so. (A Tier 2 Watch List includes countries with a high number of victims, or where the numbers are significantly increasing. It also includes countries where there is insufficient evidence of acceptable efforts to improve anti-trafficking programmes).
– Tier 3 countries do not fully comply with the minimum standards and have not shown the US they are making significant efforts to do so.
Apart from the three other countries which had been downgraded, Malaysia joins a Tier 3 list of countries which comprises Algeria, Central African Republic, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, North The page dedicated to Irene Fernandez, a Malaysian activist who was devoted to the plight of the immigrants and victims of human trafficking. - Pic courtesy of US State Department website, June 20, 2014.Korea, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Uzbekistan, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
More than 20 million people worldwide are believed to be ensnared in some form of human trafficking, according to the International Labour Organization.
It was not all negative news on Malaysia in this year's report, however, as the US government paid tribute to the late Irene Fernandez in a Memoriam page under the 2014 TIP Report Heroes section. – June 20, 2014.The statistics on East Asia and Pacific nations in the 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report released by the US government today. - Pic courtesy of US State Department, June 20, 2014.

Thousands of Portuguese protest against government's austerity measures

Thousands of Portuguese took to the streets in the national capital of Lisbon Saturday to protest against government's austerity measures while calling for the government to step down.
"We are having a boot held on our throats," said Candida Carvalho, 52, a pensioner, adding that despite having worked for 40 years, she was earning a pension below the national minimum wage of 485 euros a month.
"Next year the government will make cuts worth thousands in education, which means they'll close more schools and lay off teachers," said Paulo Macedo, 52, a secondary school teacher. "My position has been frozen and I am forced to take yearly auditions. "
The protest, organized by national trade unions, came after the country's Constitutional Court recently struck down several measures in the state budget for the year of 2014, including further cuts to pensioners and salary cuts in the public sector.
The country's national trade unions want the center-right ruling coalition to ease off spending cuts and lift the national minimum wage to 515 euros.
Source and full story: Xinhua News Agency, 21 June 2014

Buying Up the Planet: Out-of-control Central Banks on a Corporate Buying Spree

Finance is the new form of warfare – without the expense of a military overhead and an occupation against unwilling hosts. It is a competition in credit creation to buy foreign resources, real estate, public and privatized infrastructure, bonds and corporate stock ownership. Who needs an army when you can obtain the usual objective (monetary wealth and asset appropriation) simply by financial means?  Dr. Michael Hudson, Counterpunch, October 2010
When the US Federal Reserve bought an 80% stake in American International Group (AIG) in September 2008, the unprecedented $85 billion outlay was justified as necessary to bail out the world’s largest insurance company. Today, however, central banks are on a global corporate buying spree not to bail out bankrupt corporations but simply as an investment, to compensate for the loss of bond income due to record-low interest rates. Indeed, central banks have become some of the world’s largest stock investors.
This is a rather alarming development. Central banks have the power to create national currencies with accounting entries, and they are traditionally very secretive. We are not allowed to peer into their books. It took a major lawsuit by Reuters and a congressional investigation to get the Fed to reveal the $16-plus trillion in loans it made to bail out giant banks and corporations after 2008.
What is to stop a foreign bank from simply printing its own currency and trading it on the currency market for dollars, to be invested in the US stock market or US real estate market?  What is to stop central banks from printing up money competitively, in a mad rush to own the world’s largest companies?
Apparently not much. Central banks are for the most part unregulated, even by their own governments. As the Federal Reserve observes on its website:
[The Fed] is considered an independent central bank because its monetary policy decisions do not have to be approved by the President or anyone else in the executive or legislative branches of government, it does not receive funding appropriated by the Congress, and the terms of the members of the Board of Governors span multiple presidential and congressional terms.
As former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan quipped, “Quite frankly it does not matter who is president as far as the Fed is concerned. There are no other agencies that can overrule the action we take.”
The Central Bank Buying Spree
That is how “independent” central banks operate, but it evidently not the US central bank that is gambling in the stock market. After extensive quantitative easing, the Fed has a $4.5 trillion balance sheet; but this sum is accounted for as being invested conservatively in Treasuries and agency debt (although QE may have allowed Wall Street banks to invest the proceeds in the stock market by devious means).
Which central banks, then, are investing in stocks? The biggest player turns out to be the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the Chinese central bank.
According to a June 15th article in USA Today:
Evidence of equity-buying by central banks and other public sector investors has emerged from a large-scale survey compiled by Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), a global research and advisory group. The OMFIF research publication Global Public Investor (GPI) 2014, launched on June 17 is the first comprehensive survey of $29.1 trillion worth of investments held by 400 public sector institutions in 162 countries. The report focuses on investments by 157 central banks, 156 public pension funds and 87 sovereign funds, underlines growing similarities among different categories of public entities owning assets equivalent to 40% of world output.
The assets of these 400 Global Public Investors comprise $13.2 trillion (including gold) at central banks, $9.4 trillion at public pension funds and $6.5 trillion at sovereign wealth funds.
Public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are well known to be large holders of shares on international stock markets. But it seems they now have rivals from unexpected sources:
One is China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), part of the People’s Bank of China, the biggest overall public sector investor, with $3.9 trillion under management, well ahead of the Bank of Japan and Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), each with $1.3 trillion.
SAFE’s investments include significant holdings in Europe. The PBoC itself has been directly buying minority equity stakes in important European companies.
Another large public sector equity owner is Swiss National Bank, with $480 billion under management. The Swiss central bank had 15% of its foreign exchange assets – or $72 billion – in equities at the end of 2013.
Public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds invest their pension contributions and exchange reserves earned in foreign trade, which is fair enough. The justification for central banks to be playing the stock market is less obvious. Their stock purchases are justified as compensating for lost revenue caused by sharp drops in interest rates. But those drops were driven by central banks themselves; and the broad powers delegated to central banks were supposed to be for conducting “monetary policy,” not for generating investment returns. According to the OMFIF, central banks collectively now have $13.2 trillion in assets (including gold). That is nearly 20% of the value of all of the stock markets in the world, which comes to $62 trillion.
From Monetary Policy to Asset Grabs
Central banks are allowed to create money out of nothing in order to conduct the monetary policies necessary to “regulate the value of the currency” and “maintain price stability.”  Traditionally, this has been done with “open market operations,” in which money was either created by the central bank and used to buy federal securities (thereby adding money to the money supply) or federal securities were sold in exchange for currency (shrinking the money supply).
“Quantitative easing” is open market operations on steroids, to the tune of trillions of dollars. But the purpose is allegedly the same—to augment a money supply that shrank by trillions of dollars when the shadow banking system collapsed after 2008. The purpose is not supposed to be to earn an income for the central bank itself. Indeed, the U.S. central bank is required to return the interest earned on federal securities to the federal government, which paid the interest in the first place.
Further, as noted earlier, it is not the US Federal Reserve that has been massively investing in the stock market.  It is the PBoC, which arguably is in a different position than the US Fed. It cannot print dollars or Euros. Rather, it acquires them from local merchants who have earned them legitimately in foreign trade.
However, the PBoC has done nothing to earn these dollars or Euros beyond printing yuan. It trades the yuan for the dollars earned by Chinese sellers, who need local currency to pay their workers and suppliers. The money involved in these transactions has thus doubled. The merchants have been paid in yuan and the central bank has an equivalent sum in dollars or Euros. That means the Chinese central bank’s holdings are created out of thin air no less than the Federal Reserve’s dollars are.
Battle of the Central Banks?
Western central banks have generally worked this scheme discreetly. Not so much the Chinese, whose blatant gaming of the system points up its flaws for all to see.
Georgetown University historian Professor Carroll Quigley styled himself the librarian of the international bankers. In his 1966 book Tragedy and Hope, he wrote that their aim was “nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.” This system was to be controlled “in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements,” central banks that “were themselves private corporations.”
It may be the Chinese, not acting in concert, who break up this cartel. The PBoC is no more transparent than the US Fed, but it is not an “independent” central bank. It is a government agency accountable to the Chinese government and acting on its behalf.
The Chinese have evidently figured out the game of the “independent” central bankers, and to be using it to their own advantage. If the Fed can do quantitative easing, so can the Chinese – and buy up our assets with the proceeds. Owning our corporations rather than our Treasuries helps the Chinese break up US dollar hegemony.
Whatever power plays are going on behind the scenes, it is increasingly clear that they are not serving we-the-people. The global central banking scheme is systemically flawed and needs to be radically overhauled.
Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute and the author of twelve books, including the best-selling Web of Debt. Her latest book, The Public Bank Solution, explores successful public banking models historically and globally.
Source: Center for Research on Globalization, 21 June 2014

Big Agri's GMO "Super Bananas for Brown People"

Perhaps the most racist, disgusting public relations stunts yet to sell genetically modified poison to the masses and monopolize the world's food supply.

Tony Cartalucci
Activist Post

Much of the starvation and malnutrition across the so-called "developing" or "Third" world, is due to the unmitigated, global campaign of human exploitation driven by globalization. The Walmarts and Tescos of the world line their shelves with goods cultivated, manufactured, and otherwise sourced from millions of people living under unhealthy, inhumane conditions up to and including literal slavery across the Third World. This system of global interdependency, lorded over by Wall Street and London corporate-financier monopolies, doesn't just coincidentally allow such conditions to exist, but is built on this perpetual and ever expanding socioeconomic disparity.

Clearly the solution to solving destitution that leads to malnutrition and starvation is addressing the socioeconomic disparity that created it in the first place, but the monopolies that benefit from this disparity the most are in no way about to do so. Instead, their proposal is to feed the Third World with genetically modified gruel to make up for the fact that poor populations cannot access a normal, balanced diet.

This "GMO gruel" not only allows big-agricultural monopolies to expand their markets under the guise of "charity," but allows them to monopolize a greater portion of the world's food supply. By hooking the Third World on "GMO gruel" that will be patented, centrally controlled, and beyond the means of local populations to reproduce independently, the very perpetrators of global disparity will only tighten their grip on humanity tighter still.

From "Golden Rice" to "Super Bananas," this GMO gruel represents the very worst of a long history of inhuman, racist imperialism. It is essentially corporate-financiers handing out "Super Bananas for Brown People."




The same propaganda networks focused on keeping consumers globally ignorant about what is in their food through anti-GMO labeling campaigns, are pushing poisoned, monopolizing GMO schemes like "Golden Rice" and "Super Bananas," disguised as "socially conscious" biotech "charity." But GMO gruel for the most destitute of society is not an answer. At best, it is a cheap publicity stunt designed to push GMO into new markets while painting opponents of big-agri multinationals as "promoting starvation." At worst it is a sovereignty usurping assault on a global, national, local, and even personal level. Either way, it should be wholly condemned and rejected.

The Real Solution

The real and most obvious solution is not peddling GMO gruel to the impoverished to make up for the fact that they don't have access to a normal diet, but to give them access to a normal diet in the first place. This is done with first stabilizing the geopolitical chaos that creates and perpetuates socioeconomic injustice. This must be done by exposing and foiling the West's various hegemonic geopolitical campaigns in Africa, South America, Asia, and even Eastern Europe.

Next, education and localizing agriculture through training and assistance could be done in the short term, providing a long term, self-sustaining solution. Organic farms producing a variety of crops for local consumption, rather than devastating, debt-incurring monoculture pursued by farmers worldwide in a self-defeating cycle of debt and dependency on big-agri, could begin solving deficiencies in local diets - not to mention a whole host of other socioeconomic challenges.

Image: The multinational corporations pushing for "super bananas for brown people" are the very monopolies that have created and perpetuated the conditions of immense disparity that have caused malnutrition and starvation for millions in the first place. Understanding that these monopolies are the problem, and that decentralizing their power is the answer, is the first step to truly solving injustices now being exploited to further expand the power of these special interests.  
For the hundreds of millions being wasted on "Super Bananas" and "Golden Rice," such funding could be directed toward truly solving malnutrition and starvation. By solving these problems permanently and locally, big-agricultural giants like Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, and others, would be denied an opportunity to exploit human misery they themselves have contributed to creating and perpetuating, to merely expand their monopolies and negative impact on humanity further.

In Thailand, the new military-led government that has come to power is attempting to ween the population off of subsidies and dependency on big-agricultural giants through a national organic agriculture initiative that includes creating localized fertilizer production, local processing, and even training in marketing to give farmers the power to sell their crops directly to the markets rather than depend on big-retail monopolies.

Real solutions that truly help the people, are implemented at the expense of corporate-financier monopolies. By decentralizing everything from fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide production, to distribution and retail, the very existence of multinational monopolies are challenged. Since the governments many people believe serve their interests, in fact are directed by corporate-financier special interests, expect none of these solutions to ever be implemented by "them."

Instead, we must come together as communities to solve these issues locally for ourselves, and create sustainable models that can be replicated around the world by others who need them most. It is not a solution that can be implemented overnight, but it can be done, step by small step, year by year, toward a better tomorrow. Since "Super Bananas" and "Golden Rice" are in fact, not solutions at all, it is guaranteed that the problems of malnutrition and starvation, as well as dependency on unjust multinational monopolies, will persist or in fact, worsen. We have nothing to lose, no matter how slow our progress may seem, by taking the first tentative steps today.  

Tony Cartalucci's articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at Land Destroyer Report, Alternative Thai News Network and LocalOrg.

Read other contributed articles by Tony Cartalucci here.

CBS Admits Inflation 'Potential Problem' As Food & Energy Costs Soar


Doug Casey: Greatest Theft in World History Occurring Right Now


Wall St for Main St interviewed entrepreneur and founder of Casey Research, Doug Casey. In this podcast, we discussed the IMF, World Bank and Federal Reserve and the harm they have done to the global economy. Doug thinks foreign aids does not stimulate the economy or even improve it because the bureaucrats and politicians usually pocket the aids to their swiss account. Also, we talked about Africa and why it is a great place for young entrepreneurs to strive.
Finally, we touched the gold and silver market and the mining stocks. Plus much more!

Super Surge: 1 Million Illegals A Month To Crash Economy


Alex predicts that 5-8 months the super surge of illegals will lead to millions and tens of millions of illegals pouring across the border crashing economy, american civilization and leading to mass crime waves and marshall law
http://www.infowars.com/ice-agent-blo…
http://www.infowars.com/border-agents…

Please spread this video far and wide!

Social Security “closes” offices as baby boomers age


Social Security “closes” offices as baby boomers age

Market Interventionists’ $29 Trillion Roach Motel


Published on Jun 19, 2014
The recent Financial Times article about central bank “market” investments of $29 trillion has been widely misinterpreted in two major ways, and a key question has been left unaddressed.
First, the huge “market” intervention does NOT mean “stock market.” Rather, it refers to nearly all markets generally–including gold.
Second, the interventionists are not limited to central bankers. Instead, the $29 trillion investment figure comes from not only central bankers, but also public pension fund managers and sovereign wealth fund managers.
Missing from the discussion so far is what happens when people start trying to get out of their investments. Alas, the situation now is even worse than in 2007-08. Not only have fundamentals deteriorated beyond where they were back then, but the scope of the inevitable collapse–when nearly all overheated markets regress to the mean–will be far broader.
It would appear that the interventionists have surrounded themselves in a giant circle of lit dynamite in hopes that the fuses all reach their cores simultaneously and in rapturous harmony, and that the resulting explosions will cancel each other out.
Unfortunately, since they’re using public monies–in unprecedented quantities, mind you–we can’t afford the luxury of sarcasm in wishing them the best of luck.
It should go without saying that the media will be there to assure us that “no one saw it coming” when the outcome of this insane experiment is anything less than 100% success.

YELLEN: “The Fed. Will Continue To Hyper-Distort The Stock Market.” By Gregory Mannarino


Gold And Silver – Western World Is Upside Down

In a break from a thematic undertone to link to gold and silver, here are some ramblings
that are more underpinnings to the core problems that have left people unfocused and
dealing with symptoms, no matter how they may seemingly appear to be core issues.
What makes sense any more? In the United States, all one hears in the news is lies, deceit,
and propaganda. In the EU, Mario Draghi “dictates” what is [un]real, backed by a host of
unelected, non-representative NWO bureaucrats. In the UK, do not know if anyone is
really in charge. Regardless, there is no truth being told, in fact, the truth is actively being
hidden and/or suppressed. Governments are circling the wagons against people. Banks
are being protected, at all costs, literally.
We live in an Alice In Wonderland, circa Orwell’s 1984 world. Everything is upside down,
and that includes the price for gold and silver. In the United States, if you do not like what
you hear from the inept central planners, or if you choose to criticise what you hear, you
run risk of being branded a “terrorist,” certainly one who is a threat to the existing regime.
The leader of the corporate federal government. Barack “Yes We Can!” Obama, apparently
referring to the NWO, is like a Forrest Gump box of chocolates. When he opens his mouth
you can never be sure of what he will say. From CNN, Friday 13 June: “OBAMA SAYS NO
COMBAT TROOPS TO IRAQ.” From AP, Monday 16 June: “OBAMA ANNOUNCES 275
TROOPS DEPLOYED TO IRAQ.” Now, there are going to be about 300 or so military
“advisors.” That was a term LBJ used when he was sending “troops” to Viet Nam, back in
the 1960s.
Western governments are openly pushing the elite’s agenda onto a mostly unsuspecting
population, too dumbed down and too compliant to think for themselves. Most people
ignorantly believe the NWO myth of “spreading democracy” [and for the part of the US,
it is at the point of a gun barrel, tank, drone, or, just as worse, a central bank taking over
control of a nation's currency.]  A democracy is the worst form of government, but most
people simply believe in a notion of what democracy means instead of knowing what it is.
We first heard then ex-president George Herbert Walker Bush, formerly in charge of the
CIA, announce that he wanted to see installed, “A NEW WORLD ORDER!” Emphasis
added because he shouted out that part of his speech in 1990. It was somewhat shocking
to hear a then-previous president openly endorsing the most insidious of secretive rulers
whose interests were totally against a free United States population.
Interestingly, Putin’s past as head of the KGB is often mentioned to cast aspersions on
him as President of Russia, but nothing is mentioned about Bush being ex-CIA, the US
counterpart to the KGB.
For clarity, the corporate federal government serves against the interests of the people
who live within the United States. It is a huge mistake for anyone to think the federal
government is “their government,” for it is not. This is a concept most will find hard to
accept, but the clues are everywhere when one finally chooses to look for them and then
think for themselves.
Biden, another NWO lap dog, openly announced Biden Challenges Air Force Academy
Grads to Shape a “New World Order”
 on 30 May 2014. How brazen sycophant-
politicians have become in the service of foreign interests ahead of their own supposed
national interests. Most Americans simply do not get it. It is not an isolated event, either.
Vice President Biden: “The affirmative task we have now, is uh, is to actually um, create
uh, uh, a New World Order…”
 back in late April.
The Council on Foreign Relations is the NWO’s primary leader group in this country, a
fact of which even fewer Americans are aware, or even care. The crass Kardashians are
much more well-known, along with American Idol, The Voice, Dancing With The Stars,
along with an unending host of similar programs that garner more attention than how
one’s own government functions in direct opposition to its people.
Ignorance and an inattentive population is what allows the NWO to breed and take
total control…Master Parasites, and still winning. How? By drowning the Western World
in fiat debt.
Debt has been growing exponentially, while the ability to repay it has been in an unabated
decline. Debts can be refinanced ad infinitum, and interest rates close to zero. The secret
of the elite’s is that there is never enough money to pay off both principal and interest
because only the debt was loaned into existence. From where does the interest come?
Imagine a world of three people: One has a printing press and creates $1,000. The other
two need to borrow $500 each. The money man lends the money to each for one year and
charges 10% interest. At the end of one year, the money man is owed $1,100. With only
$1,000 in existence, from where will the interest come? Just like the Fed prints all the
fiat debt, it never prints the interest to pay it. This is why debt can never be repaid. Not
only do the elites know this, it has been part of their plan from over 200 years ago.
Another not so minor fact of their not being enough “money” to repay the existing debt
is, there is no money. All that exists in circulation is fiat paper debt. As we have said
before, debt is not and can never be money. The only lawful money in the United
States is gold and silver.
 This remains true to this day, but since the questionable
passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the Federal Reserve has destroyed all US
issued Notes that were specie-backed, and gold and silver coin no longer circulate.
How did the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 pass, and how did the elites take over control
of this nation’s money issuance?
“The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second
down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized
version of the first.” Thomas Jefferson
As a nation, the people lost their government to the money changers, and it is now only
criminals that are in control, and so successfully that almost all the people still do not
know.
With the NWO/elites, nothing is as it seems, especially what almost all think is money
““History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue,
deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by
controlling money and it’s issuance.”  
James Madison
To avoid the debt trap, owning physical gold and silver is the best way to preserve and
even grow purchasing power.  Keep on buying when and as much as possible, even
cashing in retirement funds.  Better to pay any tax/penalty for getting out early, for if
there is one thing certain in the not too distant future, the corporate federal government
will confiscate all retirement plans, exchanging them for government bonds that can no
longer be sold to foreigners who refuse to buy them.
It is a choice, at least until the government says otherwise, which it will.
For the present, gold has stopped declining.  Whether this will lead to a change in trend
remains to be seen.  It takes time and a lot more volume effort to change a trend.  Last
week’s close puts gold about in the middle of its TR, [Trading Range].  In the middle of any
TR is where the level of knowledge it at its lowest, for price can go in either direction and
still not change the trend within the established bounds.
While the numbers for  potential events that can keep gold in a sustained rally remain
high, none appear to be in play, at the moment, even with the threat of war in Ukraine,
and the US is pushing Putin hard to provoke him into war, so far to no avail.
GC W 21 Jun 14
What is most reliable in defining the character of any trend is the retest after a move of any
degree.  If 1330 is retested next week, it will be a continuation of recent relative strength.
What will be important is HOW the next retest develops, be it from 1330 or last week’s
rally high.
If the trend is to turn upward, the next correction should show smaller ranges down, and
volume should decrease, indicating less selling pressure.  A correction should also be less
in duration, lasting 3-4 TDs lower, for a relatively stronger trend, to 5 -8 TDs, which would
be more typical in a weaker environment, which is where gold is now. [TD = Trading Days]
By reading how the market develops, it eliminates having to guess in advance…guessing
can be expensive.  Combined with some rules for initiating a position can reduce risk,
as well.
GC D 21 Jun 14
Silver has been more depressed than gold, but it could turn into a more important metal to
watch if price approaches its resistance/support levels ahead of gold.  The down trend is
far from turning, so a look at the daily can be more instructive for change.
SI W 21 Jun 14
Silver would have to rally over 22.90 to about equal the last failed rally which began at the
end of January.  In fact, that last failed rally is sufficient reason to not get overly enthused
about the current rally.  There needs to be some kind of confirming indicator that a trend
change has occurred, and none is apparent, yet.
When the next correction is marked by smaller ranges, without the larger numbers of
down days since the February high, and not last as long in duration, these will be more
reliable signs of change.
SI D 21 Jun 14