Friday, May 16, 2014
Guess which company now has 100,000 patents
Our corporations are beyond patent-happy, to the point now where companies own hundreds of thousands of patents on very basic ideas to the detriment of humanity’s progress. 3M just secured its 100,000th patent; Amazon just patented taking an image of something on a white background; Nike patents hundreds of “inventions” every year; now someone is trying to lay claim to owning podcasting. This MINE MINE MINE mentality of our corporations could spell disaster. The Resident discusses.
RON PAUL: Gold Wins Out In The End
Kitco News sits with Ron Paul, a keynote speaker at the Metals & Minerals Investment Conference, to talk about gold, the Fed and the US dollar. “It’s not about the brilliance of knowing how to manage monetary policy, it’s the wisdom to know that you can’t manage the economy through monetary policy,” Paul said when asked about Janet Yellen’s role as Fed chair. Don’t miss our continued coverage of the Metals & Minerals show in New York.
Cable Industry's Own Numbers Show General Decline In Investment Over Past Seven Years
from the net-neutrality? dept
So, yesterday we wrote about the cable industry lobbying group NCTA blatantly misleading
with statistics about how much broadband investment is coming from the
cable side. The story it was pushing was that investment in broadband
has continued to go up and up (and thus, "changing" the rules would
somehow lead to less investment).
Beyond changing the number of years before showing the totals, this chart is exceptionally misleading in that it is showing cumulative investment, rather than the actual rate of investment. Matthew Yglesias called NCTA out on this, leading NCTA to more or less admit Yglesias was right,
though denying that he was. Still, NCTA finally released some actual
year-by-year numbers. Of course, as people quickly noted, those
year-by-year numbers seemed to support Yglesias' point. Furthermore,
they weren't adjusted for inflation.
Thankfully, one of our readers using the name cincinnatus (nice one), posted the inflation adjusted numbers, and we've taken the liberty of making a new chart with those numbers:
From there, the story of cable continually increasing investment
looks... very different. There was that big initial build-out of
broadband in the late 90s/early 2000s, but then expenditures dropped,
and other than minor ups and downs it's been pretty flat. In fact, since
2007, the trend is pretty clearly downward on investment. Yes, there's a
tiny bump in the last two years, but that's at best flat spending, not
any real increase.
Now, it's possible to claim -- as some cable industry supporters have been -- that because of greater efficiency and better technology, spending the same amount is fine because they get more value out of fewer dollars. But, if that's the case, then that's the argument the cable industry should be making, rather than the wholly misleading argument that investment in infrastructure has continued to rise over the last decade. It's quite clear from the chart that this is simply not true.
Thankfully, one of our readers using the name cincinnatus (nice one), posted the inflation adjusted numbers, and we've taken the liberty of making a new chart with those numbers:
Now, it's possible to claim -- as some cable industry supporters have been -- that because of greater efficiency and better technology, spending the same amount is fine because they get more value out of fewer dollars. But, if that's the case, then that's the argument the cable industry should be making, rather than the wholly misleading argument that investment in infrastructure has continued to rise over the last decade. It's quite clear from the chart that this is simply not true.
Defensive Time? Russell 2000 In Correction Territory, Bond Market Now Showing Signs Of Fear, Panic Buying
“If you ask me about the Russell and the
Nasdaq Composite and the S&P MidCap, I think you’re talking
about 20, 25 percent. And I call it a stealth bear market going on.”
S&P
500, Dow near session lows; Russell 2000 in correction territory
First off,
we had hedge-fund starDavid
Tepper coming out with a less than enthusiastic show of support for
the U.S. stock market.
Here’s what he said, according to a report
filed from the hedge-fund gabfest in Las Vegas:
“We’ll probably be okay,” but it’s time
to be nervous, says Tepper. Asked if there are any plays he likes
right now, he answered with a curt “no.”
So what to do?
“I’m not saying go short, just don’t be
too freakin’ long,” he said.
….
Russell 2000 index is officially in correction
territory. It’s down 10.3% from the peak reached on March 4.
…
Timothy Leach, chief investment officer at the
U.S. Bank Wealth Management Group says that markets were handed a
reality check today when economic data from Europe came in very weak.
“When you have Germany’s Bundesbank saying
they are open to underwrite stimulus, you know things are worrying.
In the U.S. the tapering of the Fed stimulus
will finish by this fall, while the economy is growing at a lot
slower pace than was forecast. This has been weighing on markets as
we have in sideline trading.”
US
output slides at fastest rate in nearly 2 years
U.S. industrial output
fell at its fastest rate in more than 1-1/2 years in April as
factory production slumped, tempering hopes for a big jump in
economicgrowth after a winter slowdown.
Bond
market now showing signs of fear, panic buying
Commentary: There may be movement
in stocks investors are not anticipating, writes Michael Gayed.
For now, our ATAC models used for managing our
absolute-return and equity-sector-rotation mutual funds and separate
accounts remain in expansion mode, but the weekly nature of our
approach could result in another very aggressive position into
defensive stance.
This
took place in 2000 & 2007…happening again? Defensive time???
CLICK
ON CHART TO ENLARGE
Defensive stocks started to reflect relative
strength to Discretionary stocks back in 2000 & 2007 and when
they did, the S&P 500 ended up falling in price.
Is a “defensive” breakout taking place in
the lower right corner above? Nothing proven at this time… for sure
has my attention !!!
-
Homebuilder Confidence Unexpectedly Falls
The NAHB housing market index (HMI), a gauge of
homebuilder sentiment, fell to 45 in May.
This missed expectations for a rise to 49. A
reading over 50 shows that more builders view conditions as good than
poor.
Wal-Mart Blows Quarter, Blames Weather
Huge
Break Or A Full-Blown Stock Market Crash Is Coming
Fleckenstein: “No
one has ever seen these sort of financial policies that the world is
pursuing. We’ve never had the world’s central bank engaged in a
massive QE operation and later been dialing it back, followed by what
the Bank of Japan is doing, the Swiss National Bank, the Brits, and
all of that….
“So you can’t necessarily look at things
and say, ‘Well, this has to happen,’ because if you said that you
would say, ‘Well, there is no way stocks could stay up with the Fed
backing off from QE,’ but they have so far. Bonds — the same.
Russia is Almost Ready to Dump the U.S. Dollar
‘DUMP THE DOLLAR’
Russia is Almost Ready to Dump the U.S. Dollar
Russian Finance Minister Claims Country is “Preparing a Mechanism” That Will Allow Them to Dump the Dollar in Global Trade
FTMDaily.com – Just as Western
sanctions designed to torpedo Russia’s geopolitical ambitions have been
implemented, Russian citizens are dumping their own currency (the Ruble)
in exchange for the U.S. Dollar and the Euro.
In March, as the world watched the Russian annexation of Crimea, Russian citizens were rushing to buy foreign currencies
in order to lower their exposure to the weakening Russian economy.
Russian foreign currency demand in March rose to levels not seen since
2009.This double-sided pressure on Russia’s economy has greatly hampered the government’s efforts to protect the Russian currency. In the wake of Western sanctions, Russia’s GDP growth rate has fallen into negative territory, and to levels not seen since 2009.
The sanctions imposed by the West were specifically — if not, cleverly — designed to target Russia’s geopolitical ambitions, particularly in neighboring oil markets. Now, in response, Russia is reportedly “looking at ways for major state-owned exporters such as energy giants to be paid in rubles.”
According to the report:
“The idea of major exporters being paid in rubles rather than dollars has been gaining ground in recent weeks in response to sanctions imposed by the West on officials and companies over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and an uprising in Ukraine’s east.”While such a move carries financial risks for Russia’s current international trading relationships, Russia’s Finance Minister, Anton Siluanov, recently explained that the country is aware of these issues and is currently working on solutions. While speaking to reporters in Kaliningrad, Siluanov stated:
“There are certain risks, but we are preparing a mechanism, we are working on it.”So, the Russians are “preparing a mechanism” that will allow them to dump the dollar in international trade? Of course they are. And they won’t stop until they succeed.
As I explained in the April 14 edition of the FTMDaily Briefing, “Russia Declares War on U.S. Dollar“:
“The entire global economic infrastructure is designed to run on U.S. dollars. Changing that system will be expensive and difficult. Nevertheless, the discussions on how to make the switch from the U.S. dollar are currently taking place, and plans are no doubt being hatched to eventually make the switch.”Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev revealed that the government was in high-level discussions with major state-owned companies about converting their export contracts into rubles.
Russia has avoided making the switch away from dollars in the past over concerns that the move would make Russian exports less competitive.
But now, with Russian citizens dumping the Ruble and more Western sanctions looming, any measure that boosts demand for the Ruble is starting to sound like a good idea to Putin’s government.
But Putin also knows that such a move away from the dollar would provoke the wrath of the U.S. government, and very likely, the U.S. military.
This is all beginning to get very interesting.
Until tomorrow,
Jerry Robinson
Dubai Is Building A Multi-Million Gold Refinery Which Is Set To Become The World’s Biggest
Dubai is building a multi-million gold refinery which is set to become the world’s biggest. Hayley Platt looks at how the gold industry is shifting to Asia’s fast-growing economies.
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