FIRST, A FEW OPENING THOUGHTS OF MY OWN
OK
it’s after three and it’s officially raining outside. I’m watching Washington Journal on C-Span now
on President Obama’s executive authority.
The President has had fewer executive actions than most of his recent predecessors. First the President says “I can’t do
anything about this immigration situation.
Congress has clearly defined the terms of the law”, but of course then
he had a change of heart. I replayed
both the Presidential and the Republican morning address, given by Paul
Ryan. If you know a person by his
enemies, then Paul Ryan is solidly behind the Trans Pacific Partnership
agreement, every bit as gung ho as the President. This is not a good sign at all. This is a bit later and I went out in the
rain, which lessened as I was out there.
I got cigarette number twenty from Paul.
Marco Rubio gave a pretty good speech (for a Republican) at the Faith
and Freedom conference- in Iowa, naturally.
He sounded almost like Obama when he spoke of controlling the costs of
student loans, and students getting assurances “exactly what they were getting
into” and the sort of income, as it were, that they were buying into with this
loan. He spoke of the need for training
in this new technological age. A message
not too different than from what I myself heard fifty years ago. I’m not sure who he was referring to when he
spoke of “Our Allies”.
"DEAR DIARY, - - - "
If
being against the Trans Pacific Trade Agreement is “crazy” in terms of its
inflamed rhetoric, then put me down as one hundred percent certifiable. Chuck Schummer has switched from Pro Wall
Street to now being against this agreement because it won’t help industrial
espionage from China or their currency manipulation or any of the problems that
a lot of American CEO’s are secretly worried about. But Chris Matthews and his cronies on the
program are mounting a pro TPP campaign on that show. I got coffee in the courtyard and had two
cups from Rico, and borrowed another cigarette from Paul. If I didn’t say, Glenda is having surgery on
her bones and joints and it sounds both painful and one with a slow
recuperation time. She made it sound
like some kind of a massive bone and joint disease. It will be in a few days. We’ll all be praying for her. Right now I’m missing Melinda Lee. I took two acedophelis capsules for my guts-
- in hopes that will help reestablish bacterial balance in my gut.
THE UNITED STATES IS PROMOTING THE NEXT WORLD WAR
“We
have come to Yemen, with men hungry for your blood to avenge the Sunnis…”
Meanwhile,
the Obama regime has again “insisted that the US will
continue to endorse the Saudi war”. The US is providing material,
political, and physical assistance to the Wahhabis, including re-arming and
re-fueling them and providing ~20 US advisers to Saudi Arabia to select targets
in Yemen to be attacked. (See articles.)
As
an example of one such attack, the UN reports that on Wednesday, in a
move with US fingerprints all over it as it was reminiscent of the US “double tap”
terror-technique made notorious by Obama, Saudi militants “killed 40 civilians,
including seven children,” when they “bombed a bridge then returned and bombed
the bridge a second time as “civilians gather[ed] to help those injured by the
first airstrikes”.
Blowing
up bridges is itself a technique infamously employed in US aggressions.
Washington
this week affirmed that it continues to refuel Saudi bombers, with an official stating, “We are
still flying a tanker a day to be available if needed,” adding, apparently for
clarification, “It’s like having a gas station in the sky.”
Noted
commentator Sheldon Richmond reminds that “Iran has not been
found shipping arms, but you won’t learn that from mainstream news
accounts”. US intelligence states that the Houthis of Yemen are actually
disregarding Iran’s advice in making a bid for control, and
are not an Iranian proxy.
However,
even if Iran were shipping arms to and/or directing the Houthis, the US is the
world’s biggestarms dealer and empire.
Adoption of a “we can do anything we want, but you can’t do anything” argument
is spurious and naturally merits dismissal, except in one situation: when the
group making the loony argument will, as George
Carlin put it, “fucking bomb you”. Alice Cooper once said "We're all going to Rock by the Rules that I Make". Now we are all Rocking to that hit tune "Bomb, Bomb Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran!"
KATIE, BAR THE DOOR! ECONOMIC STORM ALERT
Well, the Nasdaq finally did it. It has climbed all the way back to where it was at the peak of the dotcom bubble. Back in March 2000, the Nasdaq set an all-time record high of 5,048.62. On Thursday, after all these years, that all-time record was finally eclipsed. The Nasdaq closed at 5056.06, and Wall Street greatly rejoiced. So if you invested in the Nasdaq at the peak of the dotcom bubble, you are just finally breaking even 15 years later. Unfortunately, the truth is that stocks have not been soaring because the U.S. economy is fundamentally strong. Just like the last two times, what we are witnessing is anirrational financial bubble. Sometimes these irrational bubbles can last for a surprisingly long time, but in the end they always burst. And even now there are signs of economic trouble bubbling to the surface all around us. The following are 11 signs that we are entering the next phase of the global economic crisis…
#1 It is being projected that half of all fracking companies in the United States will be “dead or sold” by the end of this year.
#2 The rig count just continues to fall as the U.S. oil industry implodes. Incredibly, the number of rigs in operation in the United States has fallen for 19 weeks in a row.
#3 McDonald’s has announced that it will be closing 700 “poor performing” restaurants in 2015. Why would McDonald’s be doing this if the economy was actually getting better?
#4 As I wrote about the other day, we could be right on the verge of a Greek debt default. In fact, we learned on Thursday that the Greek government has been “running on empty” for months…
#5 Coal accounts for approximately 40 percent of all electrical generation on the entire planet. When the price of coal starts to drop, that is a sign that economic activity is slowing down. Just prior to the last financial crisis in 2008, the price of coal shot up dramatically and then crashed really hard. Well, guess what? The price of coal has been crashing again, and it is already lower than it was at any point during the last recession.
#6 The price of iron ore has been crashing as well. It is down 35 percent in the last nine months, andDavid Stockman believes that this is because of a major deflationary crisis that is brewing in China…
There is no better measure of the true contraction underway in China than the price of iron ore. The Wall Street stock peddlers will tell you not to be troubled by the 70% plunge from the 2012 highs and the 35% drop just in the last nine months. According to them, its all the fault of the big global miners who went overboard opening up massive new iron ore pits and mining infrastructure.
#7 At this point, China accounts for more total global trade than anyone else in the world. That is why it is so alarming that Chinese imports and exports are both absolutely collapsing…
China’s monthly trade data shows exports fell in March from a year ago by 14.6% in yuan terms, compared to expectations for a rise of more than 8%.Imports meanwhile fell 12.3% in yuan terms compared to forecasts for a fall of more than 11%.
#8 The number of publicly traded companies in the United States that filed for bankruptcy during the first quarter of 2015 was more than double the number that filed for bankruptcy during the first quarter of 2014.
#9 New home sales in the United States just declined at their fastest pace in almost two years.
#10 U.S. manufacturing data has been shockingly weak lately…
On the heels of weak PMIs from Europe and Asia, Markit’s US Manufacturing PMI plunged to 54.2 in April (from 55.7). Against expectations of a rise to 55.6, this is the biggest miss on record. Of course, this is ‘post-weather’ so talking-heads will need to find another excuse as New Orders declined for the first time since Nov 2014.
#11 When priced according to “the average blue-collar hourly wage“, U.S. stocks are the most expensive that they have ever been in history right now. To say that this financial bubble is overdue to burst is a massive understatement.
For a long time, I have been pointing to 2015 as a major “turning point” for the global financial system, and I still feel that way.
But for the first four months of this year, things have been surprisingly quiet – at least on the surface.
So what is going on?
Well, I believe that what we are experiencing right now is the proverbial “calm before the storm”. There is all sorts of turmoil brewing just beneath the surface, but for the moment things seem like they are running along just fine to most people. Unfortunately, this period of quiet is not going to last much longer.
And those that are “in the know” are already moving their money in anticipation of what is coming. For example, consider the words of Snapchat founder and CEO Evan Spiegel…
Fed has created abnormal market conditions by printing money and keeping interest rates low. Investors are looking for growth anywhere they can find it and tech companies are good targets – at these values, however, all tech stocks are expensive – even looking at 5+ years of revenue growth down the road. This means that most value-driven investors have left the market and the remaining 5-10%+ increase in market value will be driven by momentum investors. At some point there won’t be any momentum investors left buying at higher prices, and the market begins to tumble. May be 10-20% correction or something more significant, especially in tech stocks.
It may not happen next week, or even next month, but big financial trouble is coming.
And when it finally arrives, it is going to shock the world, even though anyone with any sense can see the coming crisis approaching from a mile away.
IF YOU HAVEN'T SOLD ALL YOUR STOCK HOLDINGS ALREADY - - WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
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