Thursday, October 15, 2015

Preview of things to come in America: Refugees fight over food in Europe’s version of a FEMA camp

by: J. D. Heyes
refugees

(NaturalNews) Even the usually docile, uber-tolerant Europeans are likely getting fed up with the tens of thousands of migrants flowing into the continent from the war-torn Middle East, where a failure of U.S. leadership and an escalation of conflict in Syria by Russia is likely to drive even more people eastward.
One reason why European hospitality and tolerance could be waning is due to what many see as the regrettably ungrateful nature of some of the newly arrived, but not universally accepted, “guests.”
Given this scenario, what is happening to the migrants — from Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and Egypt — is likely a precursor to what life will be like in the United States if the government ever finds it necessary to mass-incarcerate large segments of the population.
In recent days, more than 60 people were injured at a tented refugee camp in Germany after a mass riot erupted over food. As reported by the UK Daily Mail, the melee forced police to break up a huge brawl involving an estimated 400 refugees.
The paper further reported:
“The riot at Calden near Kassel came on the the same day Germany’s biggest police union called for a new ‘apartheid’ system to be enforced in refugee homes — the separation of people according to religion — after a number of flare ups in recent weeks.
“Meanwhile, Germany’s domestic intelligence chief warned of a radicalization of right-wing groups amid a record influx of migrants as xenophobic rallies and clashes shook several towns at the weekend.”
The paper added that conservative politicians are supportive of calls by some in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to construct separated refugee centers; they say Christians in the homes are being persecuted and harassed by hardline Muslims, which tends to happen frequently in the Muslims’ home countries.

Separation of asylum seekers based on religion, necessary

“It is sad, but obviously necessary that we require the separation of asylum seekers according to religion,” former minister of the interior Hans-Peter Friedrich said, according to the Daily Mail.
“Muslim associations should clearly renounce attacks on Christians in the asylum homes,” added current chairman of the ruling CDU parliamentaty group, Volker Kauder.
“What we’re seeing in connection with the refugee crisis is a mobilization on the street of right-wing extremists, but also of some left-wing extremists who oppose them,” said Hans-Georg Maassen.
He also said that for the past few years, the agency — the Office for the Protection of the Constitution — had witnessed a “radicalization” and “a greater willingness to use violence” by all manner of extremist organizations, left and right.
In recent days, police and soldiers could be seen guarding buses carrying about 100 migrants to a shelter in the town of Niederau, in the eastern Saxony state, after right-wing groups had staged a rally at the site, which is a former supermarket.

Could it happen in the U.S., which has its own migrant problem?

Most experts viewing the clashes expect two things — that they will escalate as more migrants arrive, and that the two extremes, left and right, will remain combative and use violence to undermine the other and force their will.
Imagine a similar scenario in the United States, where we are experiencing our own mass migration problem, mostly from south of the border. The Obama administration, at the direction of the president himself — who has used what critics have called an unconstitutional executive order to change current immigration law — is thwarting efforts to deport tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who have arrived over the past year. And while the government is not (yet) putting them into FEMA-like camps, it has certainly distributed them to various communities around the country.
Is there a danger that right and left-leaning groups in the U.S. could clash over Obama’s policies at some point? And if so, is it then possible for him to decide that one side or the other represents a greater-than-usual threat?
Given this president’s penchant for bypassing Congress and using his “pen and phone” to rule by decree, the answer would be a resounding yes. So far, few on Capitol Hill have shown much will to oppose him.
And this doesn’t even take into account what may happen — how most Americans would react — if some sort of event or social collapse were to strike, wiping out food logistics chains and overwhelming FEMA’s limited capacity to intervene.

《南京大屠殺檔案》入遺‧安倍遺憾楊潔篪反駁

（日本‧東京14日訊）正在日本訪問的中國國務委員楊潔篪，週三與日本首相安倍晉三會晤。會談期間，安倍晉三就中方申報《南京大屠殺檔案》登錄世界記憶遺產一事表示遺憾，楊潔篪隨即反駁稱二戰相關事宜已有國際定論。此外，雙方也達成共識，力爭早日啟用旨在避免中日偶發性衝突的防衛部門間的海上聯絡機制。日本媒體報道，安倍晉三在會晤期間，就中方申報《南京大屠殺檔案》登錄世界記憶遺產一事表示遺憾。楊潔篪則向安倍指出，切實承認歷史並向著未來邁進很重要。安倍則再強調：不能把焦點過度集中在過去的不幸歷史上，而是應該構建面向未來的關係。外，安倍指出基於戰略互惠關係，中日雙方應反覆舉行高級別對話，展現期待進一步改善中日關係和召開首腦會談的意願。楊潔篪則回答說，希望與日方相向而行，推進關係的改善與發展。安倍又表示，期待在秋季的一系列國際會議中，與中國國家主席習近平、國務院總理李克強會面。意推進雙邊談話潔篪週二與日本國家安全保障局局長谷內正太郎會晤，一致同意推進包括首腦級別在內的雙邊對話。約4個小時的會談中，雙方圍繞儘早啟用避免兩國間偶發性衝突的防務部門間“海上聯絡機制”等問題展開磋商。另外，谷內正太郎也對中國《南京大屠殺檔案》申報世界記憶遺產一事提出了抗議。新華社援引楊潔篪指，希望日方可恪守承諾，切實落實中日就處理和改善中日關係達成的四點原則共識，妥善處理歷史問題、軍事安全等重大敏感問題。
（星洲日報／國際）

面對現實維繫成果‧張夏堅持“九二共識”

（中國‧廣州14日訊）中國國台辦主任張志軍與台灣陸委會主委夏立言週三早上在廣州會面，張志軍和夏立言均再次表示堅持“九二共識”。立言13至15日訪問廣州與深圳，週三上午9時在廣州東方賓館與張志軍，舉行第四次兩岸事務首長會議（張夏二會）。立言在致詞時表示，“九二共識”至今仍是兩岸和平對談的基礎。表示，希望雙方在交流過程中“面對現實、累積成果、培養共識”。他承認兩岸存在差異，因此更要努力溝通，並談到雙方的交流成果若不能維繫，將是“功虧一簣”。他並邀請張志軍在適當時機訪問台灣。志軍則強調“九二共識”和反對“台獨”。志軍表示，兩岸關係一度走到危險邊緣，但從2008年5月以來，在兩岸雙方共同堅持“九二共識”，反對“台獨”的政治基礎上，兩岸關係得以穩定交流；而今兩岸關係又再次面臨道路選擇的問題，“兩岸是不可分割的共同體”。
星洲日報／國際）

- See more at: http://news.sinchew.com.my/node/448093?tid=2#sthash.QcpOx4qF.dpuf

面對現實維繫成果‧張夏堅持“九二共識”

- See more at: http://news.sinchew.com.my/node/448093?tid=2#sthash.QcpOx4qF.dpuf

周永康第5個心腹受審‧李東生受賄擇期宣判

（中國‧天津14日訊）中共五中全會前夕，中央加速審判前政治局常委兼中央政法委前書記周永康的心腹，天津市第二中級人民法院，週三開庭審理公安部前副部長李東生受賄案，檢方指控李東生非法收受財物逾2198萬元（人民幣‧下同），庭審結束後法庭宣佈擇期宣判。李東生是3天內第5個受審的周永康心腹。津市人民檢察院第二分院起訴指控，1996至2013年，被告人李東生利用其擔任中央電視台副台長，公安部黨委委員、副書記、副部長，中央政法委員會委員等職務上的便利以及職權和地位形成的便利條件，為北京雷明頓廣告發展中心某實際控制人、北京韓建集團有限公司董事長等11個單位和個人，在獲取廣告代理權、調動工作、案件處理、戶口辦理等事宜上提供幫助。2007年至2013年，李東生直接或通過其親屬索取、非法收受上述單位或個人給予的財物共計折合2198萬多元，應以受賄罪追究李東生的刑事責任。庭上，檢察機關出示相關證據，李東生及其辯護人進行質證，李東生亦在庭上進行最後陳述，庭審結束後法庭宣佈休庭，擇期宣判。星洲日報／國際）

- See more at: http://news.sinchew.com.my/node/448095?tid=2#sthash.6EVmUuJG.dpuf

獅城“森林黑店＂案‧4銷售員判監

（新

（新加坡14日訊）新加坡“森林黑店”案中的4名銷售員今天全被判坐牢。名被告分別是林志偉、許源成、林福清和甘國強。（檔案照）被告是許源成（38歲）、甘國強（31歲）、林福清（34歲）和林志偉（32歲），分別面對15項、9項、2項和1項共謀教唆欺騙控狀。官判許源成坐牢14個月、甘國強監11個月、林福清和林志偉分別坐牢6個月和4個月。被告案發時是設在森林商業中心的手機店Mobile Air的兼職銷售員，手機店老闆是周邱侖（34歲）。周邱侖共面對28項控狀，預料將在本月28日認罪。被告於去年4月15日到10月27日之間犯案，涉款1萬6千149元（約4萬8千700令吉）。受騙者大部份是外籍人，包括建築工人、女傭和學生等。們本月1日認罪，控方指周邱侖以欺詐手法做生意，誘騙顧客付款買下手機後要他們購買保修服務。庭上也公開他的欺騙伎倆，包括用“SINGAPORE”的英文字母作為暗號標明最低售價。（人名譯音）

How the entire facade is kept afloat: 10 year yield versus US government debt.

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Northy @NorthmanTrader

How the entire facade is kept afloat: 10 year yield versus US government debt.

1:33 AM - 12 Oct 2015

Negative rates they are a’ coming:
Federal Reserve officials now seem open to deploying negative interest rates to combat the next serious recession even though they rejected that option during the darkest days of the financial crisis in 2009 and 2010.
“Some of the experiences [in Europe] suggest maybe can we use negative interest rates and the costs aren’t as great as you anticipate,” said William Dudley, the president of the New York Fed, in an interview on CNBC on Friday.
The Fed under former chairman Ben Bernanke considered using negative rates during the financial crisis, but rejected the idea.
“We decided — even during the period where the economy was doing the poorest and we were pretty far from our objectives — not to move to negative interest rates because of some concern that the costs might outweigh the benefits,” said Dudley.
Bernanke told Bloomberg Radio last week he didn’t deploy negative rates because he was “afraid” zero interest rates would have adverse effects on money markets funds — a concern they wouldn’t be able to recover management fees — and the federal-funds market might not work. Staff work told him the benefits were not great.
But events in Europe over the past few years have changed his mind. In Europe, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the central banks of Denmark and Sweden have deployed negative rates to some small degree.
“We see now in the past few years that it has been made to work in some European countries,” he said.
“So I would think that in a future episode that the Fed would consider it,” he said. He said it wouldn’t be a “panacea,” but it would be additional support.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-officials-seem-ready-to-deploy-negative-rates-in-next-crisis-2015-10-10

Reality Check: What We Know About TPP Makes It The Worst Trade Deal Ever

Right here in Atlanta, a dozen Pacific nations along with the United States have finalized a massive trade agreement called the Trans Pacific Partnership. But is the TPP literally the worst trade deal in the world?
This is a Reality Check you won’t see anywhere else.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, like President Barack Obama, is a big supporter of the TPP. The mayor told Sharon Reed that what is really important about the TPP is beating China to other Asian-Pacific countries.
“It really is essential that we beat China into a relationship with these Asian-Pacific countries and that the United States the rules of the road and the terms of the engagement and we have an important ally in Japan and that we send a message about who they want to place their global future,” Reed said.
Is that the case?
The truth is that defining what the TPP actually is, is very, very difficult. Why? Because the text of the agreement is super secret.
Seriously—it is so secret that not even all members of Congress have been allowed to read it. Even weirder, those who have been allowed to read it must do so in a secret room in the basement of the Capitol building. Seriously.

That doesn’t mean, however, that we don’t know anything about the TPP. And the bits that we do know about it reveal that this really isn’t a trade deal.
Take, for instance, the latest meeting over the TPP with world leaders who met here in Atlanta. What were they discussing?
The United States argued for longer protections for exclusivity for prescription drugs. The U.S. delegation was arguing that the trade agreement should expand globally at a 12-year exclusivity period for drugs that treat diseases like cancer.
Australia, which only allows five years of exclusivity, and five other delegations argued against it, saying that would keep life-saving medicines from patients who cannot afford them.
Doctors Without Borders came out against this stating:
“TPP countries have agreed to United States government and multinational drug company demands that will raise the price of medicines for millions. . . . The big losers in TPP are patients and treatment providers in developing countries. . . . The TPP will still go down in history as the worst trade agreement for access to medicines in developing countries.”
That’s not very encouraging. What else do we know about the TPP? Well, it is not just an agreement extending monopolies for drug companies. It is also an agreement that creates massive copyright protections.
The Electronic Freedom Foundation says that, “Despite its earlier promises that the TPP would bring ‘greater balance’ to copyright, more than any other recent trade agreement, the most recent leak of the intellectual property chapter belies their claims. The U.S. Trade Representative [Michael Froman] (USTR) has still failed to live up to its word that it would enshrine meaningful public rights to use copyrighted content in this agreement.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said otherwise: “…It will create jobs. The net result for the United States is that it will grow our economy and strengthen America’s position in the world.”
But that’s not actually true, according to the Washington Post who gave Kerry four “Pinochios” for that statement.
The claim that the TPP would create jobs does not take into account income gains and changing wages. According to the government’s own sources, imports and exports would increase by the same amount, resulting in a net number of zero new jobs.
A trade agreement that creates no jobs sounds like NAFTA (North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement). A trade agreement that creates greater global monopolies on medicine, and one that creates more enforcement of copyright and intellectual property, would make it much worse than NAFTA.
President Obama must wait at least 90 days after notifying congress of the deal before he can sign it and sent it to Capitol Hill, and the full text of the agreement must be made public for at least 60 of those days. We’ll learn more then.
But what you need to know is that the worst thing about the TPP is something called the ISDS—the Investor-State Dispute Settlement.
Under the ISDS, foreign corporations would be allowed to appeal legal decisions to international tribunals rather than face domestic courts.
That’s Reality Check. Let’s talk about that on Twitter @BenSwann_

Newborn baby died after family evicted from social housing

A 10-week old baby, born prematurely, died after his parents and sister were evicted from social housing in Warwickshire following the withdrawal of tenancy support, a serious case review has found.

“John,” who was ten-weeks old, died on the night the family was forced from their home in September 2013.
He died during the night while sharing his grandparents’ sofa with one of his parents, Warwickshire Safeguarding Children Board (WSCB) said.
A serious case review into the incident found the eviction had taken place after the social housing agency had withdrawn the family’s tenancy support.
The damning report also ruled a wide range of organizations and state agencies “could have done more” to help the family handle the eviction.
Agency responses were sometimes “superficial and do not always get to the heart of what the issues are, and therefore do not fully address risk,” the report said.

Figures published by homelessness charity Shelter at the start of the year warned that 3 million households across the UK fear missing mortgage or rent payments.
The research found that an overwhelming 60 percent of Britons struggled to cope with their monthly housing costs in January.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister David Cameron unveiled plans to tackle the Britain’s housing crisis by changing planning regulations and providing 200,000 discounted ‘starter homes.’
The policy was criticized by Eileen Short of campaign group Defend Council Housing, who told RT it will divert funds away from the vulnerable families.
“These proposals will make things worse for renters and all those in housing need. Diverting help and funds towards those most able to buy, will leave the 4.5 million on waiting lists, the homeless families, and all those living in insecurity, damp and overcrowding without any help.
“We have to stop this government’s housing plans which are damning a whole generation,” she added.
This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.
Via RT.

Late Aug: 44% NYSE stocks hit new 52wk low. From 1955, readings >40% were linked to Bear Mkt or just preceded Bear

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The Leuthold Group @LeutholdGroup

Late Aug: 44% NYSE #stocks hit new 52wk low. From 1955, readings >40% were linked to Bear Mkt or just preceded Bear

2:13 AM - 14 Oct 2015

Eighty Percent of Us Owe Money to Institutions; Can We Leverage It to Reduce Inequality?

Among the most fascinating aspects of debt today is the fact that just about everybody has some. While we may not agree on which institutions are responsible or who should pay, at least 80 percent of us owe money – to banks, hospitals, universities or otherwise. How can organizers leverage this sad fact to build movements? Can the ubiquity of debt open the door to solutions that address its root causes, like severe inequality and massive disinvestment in the public sphere?

A number of organizations are attempting to do just that, by situating campaigns against debt within struggles for economic freedom and racial justice, imagining creative approaches for taking it on at the personal, institutional and systemic level.
To hear more about this work, YES! and the New Economy Coalition put together a conversation between organizers who each approach debt from a different angle. Alexandra Flores-Quilty is elected president of the United States Student Association, the country’s oldest and largest student-led organization. Saket Soni is co-founder and executive director of the National Guestworker Alliance, formed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to organize immigrant workers at the heart of New Orleans’ reconstruction – many of whom took out large loans just to enter the country. And Luke Herrine is legal coordinator for the Debt Collective, a membership-based organization that offers debtors – including the debt-striking students of the Corinthian 200 – a shared platform for organization, advocacy, and direct action.
This interview has been edited for clarity – but you can watch the whole conversation at the bottom of the page.
Kate Aronoff: I want to start with a really basic question: What’s wrong with debt and why is it worth fighting against?

Recession Setting Sail For Europe?

In this excerpt from The Macro Show this morning, Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough responds to a subscriber’s (flawed) question on “accelerating” European economic data. He cautions viewers about the “unequivocally red” data out of Germany and how recent developments may change the monetary calculus of ECB President Mario Draghi and roil global markets.

Tech company investors hate earnings. As soon as you get them you can value a company. Best to not have them so you can continue to evaluate the company on “growth” and “eyeballs” and “market share.

Netflix (NFLX) is one I am tracking as a bell weather for “loss of faith in the dream.”
It’s got a p/e of 246 (ugh!) and is a full double this year alone.

Yes, NFLX is down since August, but it’s got a very loooong way to fall if it ever decides to get around to getting back to a fair value p/e or 10 or 15.
On the other side of the hope ledger, we find that Twitter has been a real destroyer of capital and dreams.

That’s a roughly 50% loser from the peak…and probably will go a lot further. Of course it doesn’t even have a p/e to report because it’s lacking a full year of positive ‘e’ to put in the equation.
But it does have a market capitalization of $19 billion. As soon as TWTR earns $10 million over the course of an entire year, finally, then it will sport a p/e of 1,900. But if it could earn $100M, then the p/e would shrink to “just” 190. To justify this company in a long-term portfolio you’d want to see a p/e in the vicinity of 15-20…and that would require earnings of ~$1 – $1.2 billion.
This is why tech company investors hate earnings. As soon as you get them you can value a company. Best to not have them so you can continue to evaluate the company on “growth” and “eyeballs” and “market share.”

Chris

Fed Officials Call For NIRP To Prop Up The Economy As The Collapse Accelerates

Central Bankers decide to impose stricter capital controls in Greece.Youth homelessness is on the rise in UK. Gallup reveals that Americans are using gas saving to purchase more gas and things they need not want. .1% of the US households have as much wealth as the other 90%. Central banks are selling treasury bonds at an accelerating pace. The FED is now calling for NIRP and a ban on cash. The TPP will increase the cost of drugs to the everyday person. The TTIP is pushing the privatization of water

All Wars Are Bankers' Wars

US not headed in right direction, some on Main Street say

NFIB surveyed small businesses on issues as the election season intensifies

As the presidential debate season intensifies, small-business owners are pessimistic about the business climate and feel America is on the wrong track, according to a new survey.
The wide-ranging survey, "Opinions of Small Employers," from the conservative-leaning National Federation of Independent Business released Monday found nearly 70 percent of small-business owners believe the overall U.S. business climate is fair or poor. What's more, six years out of the Great Recession, 63 percent of those polled said the country is on the wrong track. The NFIB surveyed 500 business owners with up to 250 employees.
"Small-business owners just aren't convinced that things are headed in the right direction," said Holly Wade, director of research at the NFIB. The survey was conducted during the second quarter of this year.

The report comes as optimism among small businesses is holding steady, but still lingering below historical averages.The NFIB's Small Business Optimism Index for September, released separately Tuesday, found confidence edged up slightly to 96.1 last month. But fewer business owners expect strong sales.
Looking ahead to the 2016 election year, the NFIB found business owners believe Washington should prioritize dealing with the federal budget as their top economic problem with a third of the vote, followed by slowing the rise of health-care costs with 23 percent and reforming the federal tax code with 18 percent.

DreamPictures | Getty Images

The NFIB also weighed in on the so-called gig economy in which freelancers and employers are connected, sometimes for smaller short-term projects. The NFIB survey found 50 percent of respondents strongly opposed the government further restricting the ability of workers to be classified as independent contractors.
President Barack Obama weighed in last week at a White House event and said the gig economy trend could pose issues for employee rights and benefits in the future.
Read MoreOur 'gig' workforce could become a problem: Obama

Walmart Warns Profit Will Fall As Much As 12 Percent In Next Fiscal Year

(Shannon Pettypiece) Wal-Mart Stores Inc. suffered its worst stock decline in more than 15 years after predicting a drop in annual profit, underscoring the giant retailer’s struggles to reignite growth.
Earnings will decrease 6 percent to 12 percent in fiscal 2017, which ends in January of that year, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said at its investor day on Wednesday. Analysts had estimated a gain of 4 percent on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The outlook was “far worse than anyone expected,” Charles Grom, an analyst with Sterne Agee & Leach, said in a note to clients.
Wal-Mart has been pumping money into its workforce and e-commerce capabilities in a bid to reignite stagnant sales growth — investments that will continue in fiscal 2017. The company raised its base employee wages to $9 an hour in April and plans to boost hourly pay to at least $10 next year. The effort, combined with an expanded training program, added about $1 billion in costs this year and $1.5 billion next year.
The retail chain also said its board has authorized $20 billion in stock buybacks over a two-year period. That’s on top of a $15 billion repurchase program begun in 2013, but the move did little to placate investors. In addition, Wal-Mart is actively reviewing its portfolio for ways to streamline the business, Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said at the event.
Wal-Mart shares fell as much as 9.9 percent to $60.12 in New York, the biggest drop since February 2000. The stock was already down 22 percent this year before the decline.
The buybacks could be a sign of further trouble, Grom said. The move “implies significant margin contraction along with modest sales growth,” he said.

Fixing Stores

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is trying to win back customers by improving the shopping experience, expanding its online grocery pickup service, and opening more small-format stores, called Neighborhood Markets. It has also been spending $1 billion to improve its website and opening new distribution centers, aiming to speed the delivery of online orders. Investors, though, have been skeptical that the changes will reignite growth.
The company previously cut its profit forecast for this year. Wal-Mart said in August it expects earnings of $4.40 to $4.70 a share, down from an earlier projection of as much as $5.05 a share.
Wal-Mart said on Wednesday that net sales will grow 3 percent to 4 percent annually over the next three years, though they’ll be “relatively flat” in the current year.
“This is a growth company — it just happens to be a really large growth company,” McMillon said.
Wal-Mart also posted second-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates. Profit amounted to $1.08 a share in the period, excluding some items, the company said in August. Analysts had expected profit of $1.12 a share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It’s due to report its next quarterly results on Nov. 17.
“There is no way they can continue to grow, they are just too big,” Ivan Feinseth, chief investment officer at Tigress Financial Partners, said before Wednesday’s forecast. “They do $500 billion worth of revenue — how are you going to grow that?”

This Picture of a Weathered Sign Shows The Creeping Hints of Ghost Towns

TOPICS:Heather Callaghan School

October 14, 2015

By Heather Callaghan
There is argument over what currently constitutes a full blown ghost town – total abandonment typically due to economic crises. Author Lambert Florin, however, once wrote that a ghost town is simply “a shadowy semblance of a former self.”
The sign above promised potential home buyers that a thriving school would serve their children when they moved in. The catch-22 of it is – the school needed home buyers in order to be built. The sign is actually more of a foreshadowing into a bleak outlook for a part of Roseville, California and a reminder of what might have been.
Slowly but surely, residents of West Roseville are coming out of denial about a school for which they’ve been waiting to arrive for nine years. So long, that some of their children have long since grown beyond high school age. The parents who moved there with younger or unborn children still hold out hope as they hear assurances it will be built…give it more time. Still, the lot adjacent to Bob Doyle Drive with a sign that reads “Planned site of Roseville Joint Union High School,” is a symbol of a broken promise, in the words of KCRA news. Parents will finally confront current administrators tonight in a meeting – but they are already being told not to hold their breath.

The other catch-22 is that the sign that taunts them represents dropping home values as a result of the empty lot, much like abandoned business buildings scare away new residents. And new residents are needed in order to start and support businesses. But in order to justify the new school the expectation was for 25,000 homes to be built – much more than the 4,000 currently there. While that’s not exactly a ghost town, it shows an economic stand-off that could unravel the town’s main threads.
This conflict is similar to news this past summer that a Utah city declared a state of emergency as it was fading into a ghost town. It demanded federal attention and relaxed standards on restricted land use. When the economy forces people to huddle back into congested cities it pulls from both home-building and the area school systems which could fail for lack of attendance (funding). (Another side effect is that a vacuum is then created allowing federal workers to foist Common Core standards by waving money if they enact them.)
Ben Dalton, Garfield County School District superintendent in Utah had summarized the problem:

We do know we do not have economic development in our communities. We need economic development. Without jobs we don’t have families, without families we don’t have students.

Are these signs just more symptoms of a disappearing middle class and a menacing presence of Agenda 21?
Photo: Mike TeSelle/KCRA
Heather Callaghan is a natural health blogger and food freedom activist. You can see her work at NaturalBlaze.com and ActivistPost.com. Like at Facebook.
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UBS Sees Sovereign Assets Shrinking by $1.2 Trillion

Wealth funds and central banks drawing down foreign savings
Sovereign wealth funds may have to stop buying trophy assets

Central bank and sovereign wealth fund assets will shrink by $1.2 trillion, or almost 7 percent, by the end of the year as China and petrostates including Russia and Saudi Arabia dip into their savings amid slower growth and lower crude revenues, according to UBS Group AG.
The decline will be driven by China withdrawing its foreign exchange reserves, while oil-producing countries tap foreign assets to support government spending, Massimiliano Castelli, head of global strategy at UBS Asset Management, said in a phone interview from Zurich Tuesday. The fall in sovereign assets will likely continue into next year and also be driven by an expected drop in investment returns, he said. Assets held by central banks and sovereign wealth funds amounted to more than $18 trillion at the end of 2014, according to Sovereign wealth funds from Oslo to Riyadh and Doha to Moscow are preparing to withdraw savings built up during periods of high oil prices to compensate for a more than 50 percent slump in the price of crude since August last year. These countries led a surge in state investments in the U.S. and Europe that now totals about $7.3 trillion globally, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, and includes stakes in Barclays Plc, EMI Music Publishing, plus swathes of London property and Manhattan hotels.
“This is the beginning of a reversal in the trend we have seen of sovereign wealth funds and central banks accumulating assets,” Castelli said. “We will see more outflows from central banks and sovereign wealth funds over the next few quarters.”
Norway’s sovereign fund said it expects to tap its $820 billion stockpile for the first time next year to balance its budget, while Saudi Arabia’s central bank has withdrawn $72 billion from its foreign assets. Russia expects to spend as much as 4.7 trillion rubles ($70 billion) of the Reserve Fund, one of its two oil funds, this year and next to weather its first recession in six years.
High oil prices helped drive an expansion in sovereign wealth fund assets, which rose by an average of 12 percent a year over the five years to 2014, according to TheCityUK, a lobby group for the financial services industry in London. The process of government surpluses being reinvested in trophy assets in advanced economies may now come to an end, forcing sovereign funds to reconsider some of their investments.
“Oil is unlikely to go back up a level that generates fiscal surpluses in the producing countries, so they will have to start adjusting their spending to the new reality and avoid running down their savings,” said Castelli. “Sovereign wealth funds’ appetite for high-yielding, direct investments won’t dry up, but some of them will need to behave less like private equity investors and change the mix of their investments towards more liquid assets.”
Abu Dhabi, home to the $773 billion Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, is reassessing its largest state companies with an eye toward selling assets, four people with knowledge of the matter said. Qatar Investment Authority sold its 10 percent stake in Hochtief AG this week, marking its third publicly announced disposal in three months.
(An earlier version of this story was corrected to reflect a missing word in the first paragraph.)