2016-11-17

From James Harkin (Webmaster & Editor of LindseyWilliams.net). Here is a summary of articles of interest from around the world for this week. Please LIKE the Lindsey Williams Online Facebook Page to see stories posted daily regarding the current state of the economy around the world.

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Latest News From November 10, 2016 to November 17, 2016:

James Turk – What Donald Trump Faces Is Very Different From What Ronald Reagan Faced, Expect Major Market Moves…

As we kick off the third week of trading in November, today James Turk spoke with King World News about why what Donald Trump faces is very different from what Ronald Reagan face, but here is the good news… James Turk:  “Congratulations to Mr Trump. If his presidency is as remarkable as his election, Eric, he could go down in history as a great president. I expect that a lot of things will change because of Trump. That’s what voters want…

A professor has made a list of websites she says publish ‘fake’ or ‘misleading’ news

On Monday, Google and Facebook announced measures to ban fake news websites from using their advertising networks. Previous attempts by Google AdSense and Facebook Audience Network saw the companies ban sites that “misrepresent, misstate or conceal information”. However the proliferation of fake news during the US elections, some argued, swayed votes towards Donald Trump and prompted the social media platform and giant search engine into changing their policies.

Trump’s Victory: A Historical Upset

I have to admit it. I fully did NOT expect Donald Trump to become the 45th President of the United States of America. All of the odds were against him: He was underfunded compared to Hillary’s money machine; Nearly every media source was openly against him; Not one major celebrity came out to support him; He was labbeled a racist and a misogynist; All leading figures of his own party abandoned him; Much of his policies were in direct opposition with the aims of the globalist elite; Robert DeNiro said he wanted to punch him in the face.

Facebook, Google announce new policies to fight fake news

Two of the world’s biggest internet companies, Google and Facebook, are taking new steps to fight the rising tide of fake news — in other words, conspiracy theories and misleading information from no-name sites masquerading as news— that exploded on their platforms during this campaign cycle. The problem has grown to the point that it is now too big to ignore. Both companies have come under fire for widely-shared fake news stories that spread false information about the candidates. In a move disclosed Monday, Google said it will withhold lucrative digital ads from appearing on any sites that “misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information.” The new policy could give news and information sites greater incentive to avoid false headlines or risk losing revenue.

Here’s Where Trillions of Investor Dollars Went After Trump’s Big Win

We expected the Super Shemitah/Jubilee time period (which officially ends on November 20th with the end of the Catholic Jubilee) to be one of dramatic change and chaos. And, did we ever get it! Since the beginning of the Jubilee year, in October of last year, two massive events have happened.  Brexit and Trump. Both were completely unexpected by most. Brexit saw the worst day in worldwide stock markets in history the day after the vote. And, interestingly, Dow futures were down 777 points at one point as it became clear Trump had won the “selection.”  But, then the markets had a massive rebound the next day.

Legend Art Cashin On A Trump Presidency, The New World Order, Gold, Brexit, The Great Depression And Why We Will See Panic

As the bond market continues to melt down, interest rates rise and the Dollar Index surges above 100, legend Art Cashin gave one of his most important interviews ever to King World News about a Trump presidency, the New World Order, gold, Brexit, the Great Depression, and why we will see panic before the end of the year. Eric King:  “In Trump’s acceptance speech he said that we are going to have massive infrastructure spending.  Is that bearish for gold?  I don’t think so.”

This Wasn’t A Vote, It Was An Uprising

The article below has come to me. I am unable to ascertain if it is a published statement or one of those items sent around the Internet. Nevertheless, I do believe that it captures the attitude of those Americans who in the vast majority of the states gave their vote to Donald Trump. The optimism expessed in the article might be unrealistic. In order to prevail over the Oligarchy, President Trump will need a government as strong as he appears to be. He cannot find the strength he needs for his government among the usual Washington, Wall Street, and corporate sources. If he selects from these people, he will be impotent. The question is: who is his transition team? Are they focused on making nice with the Oligachs? If so, there will be no change.

Dow’s Trump-Fueled Surge is Difficult to Explain

From David Fabian: It feels like we have almost packed a full year’s worth of stock market price action into just the last two weeks.  With so many diverging market sectors and overall fluctuations, I thought it would be prudent to do an examination of some key charts. Taking a closer look at these categories can help frame macro views as well as determine areas of strength and weakness.

Here’s Where Trillions of Investor Dollars Went After Trump’s Big Win

From ZeroHedge: The early winners and losers of Trump’s presidential win are very clear, with trillions of dollars flying around as investors attempt to position themselves for the next four years. Despite the repeated warnings by websites such as this one that the polls showing Hillary Clinton ahead of the election were rigged and manipulated, misrepresenting the real popular support of the two candidates, and that the likelihood of a “shock” Trump victory is far greater than anyone was willing to admit, both traders, the media, and the punditry were stunned by the outcome which, just like Brexit, few had actually anticipated. The result, at least in global capital markets, has been an unprecedented repricing of risk assets.

War On Cash Intensifies: Citibank To Stop Accepting Cash At Some Branches

Less than a week after India’s surprise move to scrap its highest denomination cash notes, another front in the War on Cash has intensified down under in Australia. Yesterday, banking giant UBS proposed that eliminating Australia’s $100 and $50 bills would be “good for the economy and good for the banks.” (How convenient that a bank would propose something that’s good for banks!) This isn’t the first time that the financial establishment has pushed for a cashless society in Australia (or anywhere else).

Krugman Gets His Alien Invasion – And Gold Bugs Get Paradise

Nobel Prize winning economist and uber-liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman likes to illustrate his philosophy by noting that the threat of an alien invasion would help the economy by stimulating government spending. Well, last week’s election gave Krugman and the rest of the Keynesian establishment their alien invasion (Trump and company being only partially human when viewed through Beltway-culture eyes).

Twitter cracks down on alt-right accounts

Twitter is cracking down on accounts belonging to members of the alt-right movement in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, USA Today reported Wednesday. The social networking website suspended the accounts of several prominent figures, including Richard Spencer, president of an alt-right think tank. Spencer, who had a verified account, told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Twitter’s action “is corporate Stalinism.”

A Third of Anti-Trump Protestors Arrested in Portland Didn’t Vote

The streets of downtown Portland have swelled with protesters each night since Donald Trump won the presidential election on Tuesday, and on occasion the protests have turned violent. That’s led to 112 arrests in the last week and a review of state election records by a local news station shows that more than a third of those arrested didn’t even vote.

Who will be Trump’s chief of staff? Kellyanne Conway says the announcement of The Donald’s assistant is ‘imminent’

Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, has said that the announcement for the White House chief of staff is ‘imminent’. Conway told reporters late Saturday night that there are ‘several people being considered’ for the position, according to ABC News. But, she added, ‘it’s Mr Trump’s decision ultimately’. She said that she thinks ‘Reince Priebus has expressed interest in the position’ as well.

George Soros

“I cannot and do not care about the social consequences of what i do.” explains it right there folks…..

Permian’s Wolfcamp formation called biggest shale oil field in U.S.

In a troubled oil world, the Permian Basin is the gift that keeps on giving. One portion of the giant field, known as the Wolfcamp formation, was found to hold 20 billion barrels of oil trapped in four layers of shale beneath West Texas. That’s almost three times larger than North Dakota’s Bakken play and the single largest U.S. unconventional crude accumulation ever assessed, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At current prices, that oil is worth almost $900 billion.

REVEALED: Donald Trump vows to ‘reopen 9/11 probe’ that could ‘spark a revolution’

Disenfranchised working class voters propelled the billionaire reality star into the White House this week in one of the biggest election upsets in US history. In his first days as President-elect, Republican Trump has given few clues on how he plans to honour his pledge to “Make America Great Again”. But ahead of his Brexit-style election earthquake, Trump threatened to lift the lid on one of the most catastrophic terror attacks in modern history.

Soros-Funded Anti-Trump Protesters Rioting in Cities Across America: Fomenting National Crisis and Martial Law?

Globalist investor in murder and mayhem George Soros is at it again, funding his MoveOn.org to organize post-election “sour grapes” protests around the country in response to underdog Trump’s surprising President-elect victory. Complicit crime partner mainstream media is having a field day deceitfully spinning these top down, billionaire driven demonstrations as a spontaneous, grassroots populist uprising against racist dictator Donald. From a press release from MoveOn.org: The gatherings – organized by MoveOn.org and allies – will affirm a continued rejection of Donald Trump’s bigotry, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and misogyny and demonstrate our resolve to fight together for the America we still believe is possible.

Goldman Just Killed The “Reflation Euphoria” – Concludes Global Growth Will Suffer Under Trump No Matter What

Earlier today, we presented an analysis by Goldman Sachs which emerged with a lukewarm take on Trump’s policies as to how they stand to impact US domestic growth, with only Goldman’s “adverse” scenario resulting in a “stagflationary”, i.e., recessionary outcome. However, in a follow up report by another set of Goldman economists Nicholas Fawcett and Sven Jari Stehn, one which looks at the broader global set of Trump policy consequences for the entire world – because after all, the US is still a part of it –  it finds that virtually every scenario leads to a global contraction, something we previewed yesterday in our post titled “What’s Good For The US In This Case, Is Not Good For Emerging Markets.”

The Anti-Trump Protesters Are Tools of the Oligarchy — Paul Craig Roberts

Who are the anti-Trump protesters besmirching the name of progressives by pretending to be progressives and by refusing to accept the outcome of the presidential election? They look like, and are acting worse than, the “white trash” that they are denouncing. I think I know who they are. They are thugs for hire and are paid by the Oligarchy to delegitimize Trump’s presidency in the way that Washington and the German Marshall Fund paid students in Kiev to protest the democratically elected Ukrainian government in order to prepare the way for a coup.

Keiser Report: Gaddafi-like Death to Clinton’s Political Career (E992)

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy discuss the gruesome Gaddafi like death to a political career. They look at the role of Obamacare premium increases in middle income voter discontentment with the Democratic Party. In the second half, Max interviews Dr. Michael Hudson about what went wrong for Hillary.

Forget Trump – Is Deutsche Bank The First Domino of the Next Economic Collapse?

The FIRST DOMINO of Contagion: Will Deutsche bank be the catalyst for the collapse of the European banking system?

The Amazing Collapse of Russia’s Auto Market

We don’t hear much from the global automakers and their analysts about the multi-year sales fiasco in Russia, in part because they don’t like to bring up crummy data unless they have to. And they don’t have to. For them, Russia is just a tiny market, compared to China and the US: through October this year, new light vehicle sales in Russia amounted to about 8% of sales in the US. Since 2010, auto sales in China, the US, and many other countries have boomed. And they grew in Russia too, but only until late 2012, when the market began to stall. They declined in 2013. Then, when the sanctions hit in 2014, the market sagged. When the oil bust hit in 2015, the market crashed. And to this day, it continues to head south. The numbers are stunning.

Anti-Vaccination Proponent Melania Trump Delivers Powerful Speech

Vaccinate your kids, they say. It’ll be safe, they say. The only problem is that “they,” isn’t vaccinating their children. Tonight, Melania Trump, the wife GOP Presidential nominee and potential First Lady of the United States, took the stage in grand fashion to endorse her husband’s controversial campaign. Melania has come from a rural town in Slovenia to the brink of being one of the world’s most powerful women. For husband Donald, Melania serves as a puzzle piece that doesn’t seem to fit with liberal rhetoric. Trump’s being painted as a racist and xenophobic and misogynist, something Melania’s presence seems to deny even without her ringing endorsements of him. She’s an immigrant, a woman, a cultural infusion.

The Global “Populist” Doom Tour Swings to Italy

Widespread public disaffection and dissatisfaction are not unique to the UK and US; they’re on the rise all over the developed world. It’s not hard to see why. In the words of Mark Blyth, one of an embarrassingly small number of economists to correctly call both Brexit and the victory of Trump, the last 30 years have seen “a huge amount of economic growth but hardly anyone’s benefited from it.” And now the people are “fed up” and have decided at any opportunity to “give their elites notice that they’ve had enough.”

Here’s My Experience with Healthcare in Mexico

An acquaintance of mine was walking around with a bandaged hand so I asked him what had happened. He was working and something slipped and he ended up with a nasty gash on the back of his hand. He went down to the local clinic and they put in 8 stitches. The total bill was $52. Three years ago, I fell on a tile floor and broke my pelvis in 3 places. I was picked up by an ambulance, driven 40 miles to a private hospital where I spent 6 days and had a 5 hour surgery to repair the damage. They put in 3 pins, a plate, and 6 screws. The total bill was $22,000. I have no idea just how many stitches they put in, but the incision is 14″ long. That was the total bill, no insurance.

The Far Left Is Planning The Biggest Political Protest In United States History For Inauguration Day

We have seen very large protests in major cities all over America since Donald Trump won the election, but the biggest one of all is being planned for January 20th. Radical leftists are calling for thousands upon thousands of activists to descend upon Washington D.C. on Inauguration Day, and they are planning to disrupt the inauguration festivities as much as they possibly can. And if you doubt that the “Not My President” movement can pull this off, you may want to consider that 25,000 protesters showed up in New York City on Saturday on very short notice. These people are bitter, angry, frustrated and incredibly motivated. At this point they still have more than two months to organize their forces, and many are expecting that this is going to be the most chaotic Inauguration Day in American history.

“Is The Market Wrong?”: Financial Conditions Are Tightening At An Alarming Pace

As a result of the recent spike in yields, and surge in the dollar following the Trump victory, the market’s reaction has been to assume that this is a harbinger of rising inflation due to a tidal wave of “imminent” fiscal easing, and has accordingly pushed up the December rate hike odds to above 90%. After all, the logical offset of the expected easing in fiscal conditions is for the Fed to tighten monetary policy, arguably the only source of market gains (and economy support) over the past 7 years. But is the market wrong?

President-elect Trump speaks to a divided country on 60 Minutes

The following script is from “The 45th President,” which aired on Nov. 13, 2016. Lesley Stahl is the correspondent. Rich Bonin and Ruth Streeter, producers. During what seemed an interminable campaign, a divided country found all kinds of ways to describe Donald Trump: visionary businessman, vulgar self-promoter, political neophyte. But after Tuesday, for all Americans, there’s only one description that counts: president-elect.

Bonds bloodied as Trump spending plans spur dollar

Routs in global bonds and emerging markets intensified, while the dollar climbed with base metals as investors positioned for the wave of fiscal stimulus that Donald Trump has pledged to unleash. The yield on 30-year Treasuries rose to the highest since January, with last week’s record debt selloff bleeding into Monday trading and weighing on credit markets.

Democrats Are Now Calling For A ‘Revolution In The Streets’, And I Believe That They Are Quite Serious

The surprise victory by Donald Trump on November 8th has spawned a series of violent protests and riots all over the nation as stunned leftists continue to throw the largest post-election temper tantrum in U.S. history.  Protesters in large cities all across America have been disrupting public transportation, looting stores, hurling objects at the police and burning Trump in effigy.  There have even been shootings at anti-Trump rallies in Seattle and in Portland.  Hundreds of protesters have been arrested so far, and organizers are promising that this is only just the beginning.  Meanwhile, large numbers of enraged leftists are physically threatening Trump on Twitter, and some are even calling for a violent revolution.  Sadly, I believe that they are quite serious about this.

Popular Vote Reality Check

I’ve been listening to the left wingnuts crying foul because Crooked Hillary won the popular vote. They evidently fell asleep during their American government class in high school. The reason there are two senators per state and an electoral college is to keep the large powerful states from wielding too much power in governing the nation. It seems left wing nutjobs seem to be drawn together into 6 liberal enclaves. You may notice the professional violent Soros protestors do their best work in these states. Republican voters in these states know their vote is worthless, because there are far too many irrational, mathematically challenged snowflakes to overcome. So, many don’t even bother to vote.

Monte Paschi Begins Bondholder “Bail-In”: Will Equitize Over €4 Billion In Junior Bonds

Monte Paschi’s long anticipated, if largely undesired bail-in is finally a fact. Ever since the bank failed the ECB’s latest stress test this summer, when it was advised that it needs to raise billions in capital, only to see the process fizzle with virtually no willing sources of new cash emerging due to the opaque labyrinth of the bank’s bilions on NPLs, Italy’s third largest, most insolvent, bank has been hoping to avoid a debt conversion, out of fears it may spook retail bondholders across the capital structure, and in other Italian banks, who may perceive the move even if touted as “voluntary” as a creditor bail-in. Which it technically is.

Why India wiped out 86% of its cash overnight

India is in the middle of an extraordinary economic experiment. On 8 November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave only four hours’ notice that virtually all the cash in the world’s seventh-largest economy would be effectively worthless. The Indian government likes to use the technical term “demonetisation” to describe the move, which makes it sound rather dull. It isn’t. This is the economic equivalent of “shock and awe”.

Anti-Trump Protests: Proof Of Professional Activist Involvement

In a story from November 12, USA Today writes an article to discredit the idea that the professional activist community is involved with organizing anti-Trump protests. They invite you to meet the protesters. USA today presents them as ordinary people. However, WikiLeaks exposes them as experienced protest organizers and activists. USA Today presents the protests as spontaneous, involving people from “all walks of life” – certainly not professional protesters.

Elizabeth Warren: Democracy Demands That We Work Together on America’s Agenda

Elizabeth Warren sparred with Donald Trump throughout the 2016 election campaign. Now, the senator from Massachusetts is ready to work with the president-elect to rebuild the American economy. But if Republicans attempt to remove Wall Street regulations or gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she will fight them. Warren shared her thoughts in a speech to the AFL-CIO executive council in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Iran Nears Pre-Sanction Levels, Starts Pumping Oil At 3 New Fields

Three new oilfields in Iran were put in production mode this weekend at an official ceremony, adding more than 220,000 bpd to the country’s total output. The fields are Yadavaran, North Azadegan, and North Yaran—three of the five fields that Iran shares with Iraq. The launch of North Yaran was reported last week, with initial production seen at 30,000 bpd. North Azadegan will yield 75,000 bpd, and Yadavaran should produce 115,000 bpd. At the ceremony, President Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying that “Oil production west of Karoun must reach one million barrels per day. This is a realistic goal, and we need investment and technology.”

Iran Surprises OPEC With A Further 250,000 Bpd Increase

President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, was poised to announce on Sunday that the nation has increased oil production by 250,000 barrels per day. This was accomplished through the creation of three new fields west of the Karoun River. The addition in production was highly unexpected, especially to neighboring OPEC nations. As of this past Wednesday, Brent crude oil futures have dropped a substantial amount to under $44 per barrel. Three publicly traded companies on three separate exchanges have paid as much as $3 billion to obtain these fields. Sinopec from China has acquired the largest, producing 115,000 barrels per day. China’s National Petroleum Corporation bought the second largest field and the third was given to Persia Oil and Gas Development of Iran. All three of these companies stand to profit from these fields. Iran is in the process of ramping up production to reach their prior unsanctioned levels, which would place the oil majors in a crucial position to grow.

Iran seeks $10 bln in Russian arms

Iran is moving ahead with plans to purchase advanced Russian weaponry now that UN sanctions have been lifted even as Republican president-elect Donald Trump vows to revisit and/or scrap the nuclear deal between the Obama Administration and Tehran. Viktor Ozerov, the Russian Federation Council’s defense and security committee, who is on a visit to Tehran, said on Monday that Iran wants to buy $10 billion worth of weapons including T90 tanks, the most advanced in Russia’s arsenal. Russia has completed the delivery of S-300 air defense systems to Iran in October and these are expected to be ready for deployment by year’s end, Ozerov said. But any weapons that can be used for offensive purposes, such as the T-90s, must be approved by the UN Security Council until 2020.

Trump just laid out a pretty radical student debt plan

Donald Trump is promising the most liberal student loan repayment plan since the inception of the federal financial aid program, in a clear effort to court the millions of Americans struggling with the high cost of college. “We would cap repayment for an affordable portion of the borrower’s income, 12.5 percent, we’d cap it. That gives you a lot to play with and a lot to do,” Trump said at a rally in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday. “And if borrowers work hard and make their full payments for 15 years, we’ll let them get on with their lives. They just go ahead and they get on with their lives.”

Commentary: The unbearable smugness of the press

The mood in the Washington press corps is bleak, and deservedly so.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that, with a few exceptions, we were all tacitly or explicitly # WithHer, which has led to a certain anguish in the face of Donald Trump’s victory. More than that and more importantly, we also missed the story, after having spent months mocking the people who had a better sense of what was going on.

China plays critical role in climate change cooperation – official

China is expected to play a pivotal role in consolidating and enhancing South-South partnership, particularly when it comes to issues related to climate change. Speaking to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, Moroccan Foreign Minister and Climate Change Conference (COP22) President Salaheddine Mezouar said that China has an “extremely important role to play in accompanying, reinforcing and boosting South-South partnership and support sustainable development policies in the African continent”. China is currently participating in the 22nd Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) held in Marrakech, Morocco.

Trump Will Become Third President to Forego a Salary. Here’s What the Other Two Did With Theirs…

Trump Will Become Third President to Forego a Salary. Here’s What the Other Two Did With Theirs… From the start of his campaign, Trump has pledged that he’d put aside his business activities completely if elected, telling CBS’s “Face The Nation” last October that he’s been “phasing out” his role since the beginning of his campaign.

Federal Reserve & Clintons Doomed-Clif High

Internet data mining expert Clif High predicted that “Trump would win” the election and that Hillary Clinton would go “missing” after the election. Sure enough, Hillary was missing the night of her defeat.  What does that mean?  High thinks, “That there was a breakdown among a very delicate relationship among a lot of powerful parties that failed to deliver as promised.  The plan didn’t work.  So, now there is no real plan “B.”  There never could be under the circumstances.  We are in a situation where there can’t be a plan “B” for the Federal Reserve, for example.  They (FED) have to go on a certain path, they’re doomed.  That is true of the criminal organization we call CGI (Clinton Global Initiative).  Any criminal gang, no matter where it is in the social order, progresses along a certain path, runs into opposition and dies.  It always happens, and it always will.”

As Obama buries US-led TPP, focus shifts to China-backed trade deal

The China-proposed Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) will be in focus during the upcoming  Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru from Nov. 19-20 even as the US officially gives up on a rival trade deal, the TPP. Heads of states including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama will be in attendance at the APEC Summit. In Peru, Obama will explain to other TPP nations the reasons for the US government’s failure and the suspensions of its efforts to win congressional approval for the deal. US President-elect Trump has called the TPP a “disaster” and “a rape of our country”.

When People Laughed At The Idea Of Trump Actually Being Elected President!

Never underestimate the power of the silent majority.  Those who kept silent during this campaign had the strongest voices.

Soros And Liberal Mega-Donors Plot For War With Donald Trump

George Soros and other liberal mega-donors are gathering in Washington for a three-day, closed-door meeting where they will discuss opposing Trump’s plan for his first 100 days in office. According to Politico, the meeting, which began on Sunday night at Washington’s Mandarin Oriental hotel, is sponsored by the influential Democracy Alliance donor club and will include darlings of the left such as House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairman Keith Ellison.

58 Facts About the U.S. Economy from 2015 that are Almost too Crazy to Believe

This year the middle class continued to deteriorate, more Americans than ever found themselves living in poverty, and the debt bubble that we are living in expanded to absolutely ridiculous proportions.  Toward the end of the year, a new global financial crisis erupted, and it threatens to completely spiral out of control as we enter 2016.  Over the past six months, I have been repeatedly stressing to my readers that so many of the exact same patterns that immediately preceded the financial crisis of 2008 are happening once again, and trillions of dollars of stock market wealth has already been wiped out globally.  Some of the largest economies on the entire planet such as Brazil and Canada have already plunged into deep recessions, and just about every leading indicator that you can think of is screaming that the U.S. is heading into one.  So don’t be fooled by all the happy talk coming from Barack Obama and the mainstream media.  When you look at the cold, hard numbers, they tell a completely different story.  The following are 58 facts about the U.S. economy from 2015 that are almost too crazy to believe…

EU chief SQUIRMS over questions of legitimacy of ‘undemocratic’ European Commission

THIS is the astonishing moment an EU chief was left squirming as he was questioned on whether the European Commission is truly democratic – when it is made up of unelected representatives. The awkward scenes happened during a citizens dialogue in Helsinki, Finland, when Frans Timmermans, the First-Vice President of the Commission, was challenged over the legitimacy of the institution. Taking the EU representative to task, a Finnish citizen demanded to know why Jyrki Katainen had been allowed to become the country’s commissioner after he resigned as prime minister for “failing” in the leading role.

The sneering response to Trump’s victory reveals exactly why he won

If you want to know why Trump won, just look at the response to his winning. The lofty contempt for ‘low information’ Americans. The barely concealed disgust for the rednecks and cretins of ‘flyover’ America who are apparently racist and misogynistic and homophobic. The haughty sneering at the vulgar, moneyed American political system and how it has allowed a wealthy candidate to poison the little people’s mushy, malleable minds. The suggestion that American women, more than 40 per cent of whom are thought to have voted for Trump, suffer from internalised misogyny: that is, they don’t know their own minds, the poor dears. The hysterical, borderline apocalyptic claims that the world is now infernally screwed because ‘our candidate’, the good, pure person, didn’t get in.

Canadian Parliament Condemns Free Speech

On October 26, Canada’s parliament unanimously passed an anti-Islamophobia motion, which was the result of a petition initiated by Samer Majzoub, president of the Canadian Muslim Forum. The petition garnered almost 70,000 signatures.

Donald Trump could still not become president because of ‘faithless electors’ and the electoral college

It’s still theoretically possible for Donald Trump not to become president. But the near-impossibility all depends on the electoral college and the strange US system. Donald Trump might have won the election by getting more of the votes in the electoral college than Hillary Clinton did. But strictly and legally, it’s not the election that just happened that matters: it’s the one where the members of the electoral college go and represent their voters and pick their candidate. That’s due to happen on 12 December, at meetings in each state where all Republican or Democrat representatives – depending on how each state voted – will cast their vote. And it will almost certainly go one way, with most of the electors casting their ballots for Donald Trump and making him President.

Did America Really Pass The Test? – Hillary Clinton Is Going To Win The Popular Vote By A Wide Margin

The 2016 election was a test, and it would be easy to assume that since Donald Trump won the election that America passed the test. Unfortunately, it may not be that simple. A closer look at the numbers reveals a very sobering reality. Yes, Donald Trump won far more electoral votes than Hillary Clinton did, and that means that he is on track to become our next president. But Hillary Clinton is going to win the popular vote, and it is likely to be by a very wide margin once all the votes are counted.

No Matter What Happens, We Won’t Know Who The Next President Will Be Until December 19th

Most Americans assume that their votes decide who the next president will be, but that is actually not the case.  It is the Electoral College that will elect the next president, and they don’t meet until December 19th.  And the truth is that all of the members of the Electoral College never meet in one place.  Rather, electors gather together in all 50 state capitals on the second Wednesday in December, and it is at that time that the next president and vice president are officially elected.  Of course members of the Electoral College have voted according to the will of the people about 99 percent of the time throughout our history, but with how crazy this election has turned out to be you never know what might happen.  For example, later on in this article you will see that one elector in Washington state has already publicly stated that he will not cast his vote for Hillary Clinton.  If other “faithless electors” emerge, that could potentially change the entire outcome of the election.

For People Who Are Worried About Druckenmiller Selling His Gold…

For people who are worried about Druckenmiller selling his gold… Before we get to Druckenmiller selling his gold, look at the collapse in the 30-year bond market as interest rates continue to surge! I am going to stick with yesterday’s format and try to make sense of the market motion, then turn to the action lower in the column, and I’m doing this in response to all the questions I’ve been getting about how various markets can possibly do what they’re doing, i.e., why are they behaving as they are…

Druckenmiller: “I Sold All My Gold On The Night Of The Election”

Just six months ago, Stanley Druckenmiller saw nothing but pain for the economy: in a presentation to the Sohn Conference in early May, the legendary Duquesne manager delivered what may have been his most bearish fire and brimstone sermon yet, and in fact according to some buysiders who were present, its somber mood and lack of faux optimism was downright apocalyptic. Druckenmiller said that while the Fed and policymakers have no endgame, markets do – hinting that one is rapidly approaching – and suggested that everyone should liquidate their equity holdings and buy a certain 5000 year old shiny asset, which as we reported previously, is Druckenmiller’s “largest currency allocation.”

Toward A New World Order?

A Brave New World is coming? Perhaps. We had a recent discussion with a group of people in the hopeless business of doing long term forecasting. This made us think about what the world will look like over the next 20 to 40 years. A pretty thankless task, but the bottom line is without a damn good war, Asia will be the way of the future. As an experiment, assume, as most long term forecasters do, that both Europe and the US have reached a mature plateau where growth will average around 1.5 to 2 per cent over the long term, while China will slowly decelerate from the current 6.5 to 3 per cent and India from today`s 7 to around 4. In this scenario (which we do not necessarily believe in, as China is up for en epic crash) what will be the share of global GDP by, say, 2060? And what are the geopolitical implications?

China ‘Devalues’ Yuan To Weakest Since Breaking The Peg In 2010

With offshore Yuan tumbling in recent days – echoing the collapse in US Treasury bond prices – the spread to the onshore fix appears to have forced the PBOC’s hand. With a 200 pip cut in the CNY fix tonight, China has all but erased any strength in the Renminbi against the USD since it broke the peg (“enabled more flexibility”) in June 2010. Given the wakness in the Reniminbi basket, one could argue that the Yuan could be sold against the USD considerably more to catch down to the pressure that other major basket currencies have been under…

What Does Trump’s Victory Mean For Energy Policy?

Real estate mogul Donald Trump has won the presidential election, and that likely means the Obama administration’s global warming agenda will be massively scaled back or scrapped altogether. Trump, a Republican, has promised to cut the EPA, scrap the Paris climate treaty and rollback rules holding back U.S. energy production. “Just look at what Trump has promised,” a source close to Trump’s transition team told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Blame the Shrinking Toblerone on the Expanding Money Supply

The confectionery corporation Mondelez International Inc. has announced it will be downsizing its beloved Swiss chocolate bar Toblerone due to the high cost of ingredients. The Illinois-based company, said in a Facebook post: “We carry these costs for as long as possible, but to ensure Toblerone remains on-shelf, is affordable and retains the triangular shape, we have had to reduce the weight of just two of our bars in the U.K.” Adjusting the size and weight of their products is a common practice for manufactures of food and beverages. It’s called “shrinkflation” and works as a cost cutting maneuver. In adjusting the Toblerone, the manufactures reduced its iconic row of triangular shaped pieces, expanding the gaps between each.

Marshall Swing Returns: Read My Lips…THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IS COMING

Well, today is Election Day morning and everybody is wondering what happens in the U.S. Presidential Election and also what happens to gold and silver. People will be holding their breath until polls close in East Coast and Central time zones as most elections are decided and called shortly afterwards. I have not written an article in about 1 year and with good reason.  There really has not been that much interesting, to me, going on with gold and silver.  It is the same old stuff over and over again, wash, rinse, and repeat. Can you spell M – A – N – I – P – U – L – A – T – I – O – N  ?

Will Obamacare morph into Trumpcare?

The buzz following the US elections is all about what to expect from the Trump presidency. At first, there was uncertainty over what, precisely, did he promise to do, but when he released his ‘Contract With the American Voter’ (described in this week’s news) the uncertainty shifted to what Trump will be able to do, considering the fact that almost all of it must be initiated and funded by Congress.

Peter Schiff Calls “Hidden Vote” for Trump Before Election Results

In an interview with RT News Tuesday night just as the election was getting started, Peter Schiff showed, once again, his acumen and insight for reading economic and political situations correctly. After Larry King asked if the election’s comparison to Brexit was appropriate, Peter accurately described the simmering voter angst at the economy and predicted the existence of a “hidden vote” for Trump that would soon prove to have eluded pollsters.

No, the Electoral College won’t make Clinton president instead of Trump

Donald Trump won Tuesday’s presidential election. But many liberals and progressives have begun clinging to one faint hope that he could still be stopped — through the Electoral College. Tuesday’s vote was technically not to make Trump president, but only to determine who the 538 electors in various states across the country will be. It is those electors who will cast the votes that legally elect the president on December 19.

All About Blockchain And Why It’s A Bigger Deal Than Bitcoin

Banks have made the exchange of currency their business. But the digital age has ushered in a new way of banking, disrupting the institutions that have controlled the industry for hundreds of years. It’s the internet of banking, developed by private citizens for private citizens. While innovation in the industry is most commonly linked to Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, it’s the underlying technology, blockchain, that might produce the biggest waves. “Blockchain presents an opportunity to bring disparate things together and allow secure, nonrefutable records of transactions to be done anywhere you need them to be done — quickly, securely and with little chance of fraud,” said Andrew Dare, architect of financial services innovation at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise in Halifax, U.K. “Therein lies the true value of the technology.”

The Chilling Thing Hertz Just Said about the US Auto Boom

Hertz Global Holdings, the giant rental car company which also owns Dollar and Thrifty, got crushed on Tuesday, as is so often the case, by an otherwise boring accounting entry. Depreciation of its cars had to be adjusted. Depreciation of the rental fleet is a huge expense in the industry: for Hertz, 29% of its total expenses. Depreciation is supposed to bring the value of these cars down to what they can be sold for when they’re scratched and dented and have 37,000 miles on them. Depreciating the fleet just a little less aggressively would boost earnings for a little while and is a very tempting strategy. But a few quarters later, when the cars have to be sold, reality comes home to roost.

What the Heck’s going on with Foreclosures? Why this Spike?

The total number of homes with foreclosure filings jumped 27% in October from September, when they’d been at the lowest level since 2006. It was the biggest jump in monthly foreclosure filings since August 2007. Compared to October last year, homes with foreclosure filings still decreased, but this nationwide decrease is covering up what is now happening in 28 states and Washington D.C., according to the Foreclosure Report by ATTOM Data Solutions. There, the inventory of homes with foreclosure filings is beginning to rise even on a year-over year basis.

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Just Warned Trump Could Be Assassinated

Today former U.S. Treasury Secretary just warned that Trump could be assassinated. (King World News) Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Dr. Paul Craig Roberts:  The US presidential election is historic, because the American people were able to defeat the oligarchs.  Hillary Clinton, an agent for the Oligarchy, was defeated despite the vicious media campaign against Donald Trump.  This shows that the media and the political establishments of the political parties no longer have credibility with the American people…

Wow… The Country Is Totally Not Prepared For This…

If you’ve ever been REALLY bored, and wanted entertainment rather than anything even loosely resembling news, you may have stumbled upon cable “news” outlet MSNBC. If so, then it normally takes all of about 5 seconds to determine that the pundits and alleged “news” anchors MUST permanently resided in an alternate universe or dimension. Why? Because that’s the only remotely plausible explanation for some of the stories they report as news on that channel, HOWEVER, in the article and videos below, you’re about to see proof that they’ve returned to our realm, even if just temporarily.

Consumer Credit Increases By $19.3 Billion

The Federal Reserve’s consumer credit report for September 2016 shows a 6.3% annualized monthly increase in consumer credit, and 7.0% for the entire third quarter.  Revolving credit increased 5.2% for the month as well as Q3,.  Non-revolving credit increased 7.4% for September and 7.6% for Q3.  Consumer credit matters due to personal consumption being the driving force in economic growth.

Do You Believe In Miracles?

We have never seen anything like this in the history of American politics.  Donald Trump’s shocking victory on election night is nothing short of a modern day miracle.  Several weeks ago I told my readers that it would take the biggest political miracle ever in order for Trump to win, and I had been strongly urging them to vote, but even early on election night I was skeptical that Trump could actually pull it off.  Initially the results coming out of Florida, North Carolina and Ohio looked rather ominous, and a lot of Trump supporters were freaking out.  But those initial numbers strongly reflected early voting results, and those results typically favor Democrats.  Once the Election Day numbers started rolling in, it was clear that there was a massive unanticipated wave of momentum for Trump.

The defeat of Hillary Clinton just dealt a devastating blow to Monsanto, Big Pharma and the corrupt vaccine industry

The ignorant people voting for Hillary Clinton two days ago had no idea what they were really voting for. That’s by design, of course: They are kept deliberately dumbed-down by the complicit media which packed their brains full of anti-facts and twisted mush. While Clinton supporters mistakenly believed Hillary supported women, children, immigrants and humanity, in the real world Hillary Clinton was an obedient pawn of the most evil, genocidal corporate entities on the planet.

This Trump Economic Advisor Wants America to Go Back to the Gold Standard

Donald Trump is no policy wonk. He is pitching himself as the best man for the presidency based on his track record as businessman, and his ability to surround himself with the “best” people—not on his knack for writing white papers. This, of course, means that it is important for voters to understand whom he is surrounding himself with, and what sort of ideas they hold.

Trump releases seven-point health care reform plan . . . and it’s excellent

A lot more than just getting rid of the lines. I mentioned on Facebook yesterday that I am not that big a fan of election years, and here’s a case in point. At this moment, #NeverTrump is all the rage among conservatives, and there’s a tremendous push to get Republican primary voters united behind one remaining Trump rival to take the nomination away from him. My job is to write what I think about whatever happens on a given day. It’s not to only write what I think will result in a certain outcome. So when I tell you that Donald Trump’s new seven-point health care reform plan is excellent, some of you are going to say: Don’t say that now! It’ll help Trump! # NeverTrump!!!

Kremlin: Hillary Clinton victory would have CAUSED World War 3 between Russia and USA

DONALD Trump’s shock victory in the US presidential election prevented World War 3 erupting between the USA and Russia, a Kremlin official has claimed. The senior Moscow diplomat, who advises Vladimir Putin, said a Hillary Clinton presidency would have plunged the world into a diplomatic crisis. But a former British foreign secretary has warned Mr Trump against cosying up to the Russian strongman, saying the Kremlin was “unafraid to use aggression and intervention to shore up its influence”.

Surging Bond Yields Signalling Pain Not Growth Ahead For US Economy

The US election results are in and the US stock market is enjoying a sharp rally over the shock news of Donald Trump winning the election and becoming the new President elect. On the back of the big rally in US stocks there has also been another big shift occurring in another very important asset class, US Government bonds.

Here Is What Donald Trump Wants To Do In His First 100 Days

At the end of October, Donald Trump spoke in Gettysburg, Pa., and released a plan for his first 100 days in office. The plan (below) outlines three main areas of focus: cleaning up Washington, including by imposing term limits on Congress; protecting American workers; and restoring rule of law. He also laid out his plan for working with Congress to introduce 10 pieces of legislation that would repeal Obamacare, fund the construction of a wall at the Southern border (with a provision that Mexico would reimburse the U.S.), encourage infrastructure investment, rebuild military bases, promote school choice and more.

Over $1 Trillion In Bond Losses In Days: Second Worst Week Ever

Six months after we warned about the massive loss potential resulting from a spike in bond yields, one month after Ray Dalio did exactly the same, when he warned the NY Fed that “it would only take a 100 basis point rise in Treasury bond yields to trigger the worst price decline in bonds since the 1981 bond market crash”, and one day after we documented that MTM losses from surging bond yields had surpassed a third of a trillion, the tally is now three times greater, with total MTM losses soaring to $1 trillion just two days after the presidential election. As Bloomberg calculates, more than $1 trillion was wiped off the value of bonds around the world this week on concerns Trump’s policies will unleash a debt tsunami, and are seen boosting spending and quickening inflation. They are also expected to lead to much more QE as there will be trillions in government budget deficits that need to be funded.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is dead, Schumer tells labor leaders

The Senate’s soon-to-be top Democrat told labor leaders Thursday that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal at the center of President Obama’s “pivot” to strengthen ties with key Asian allies, will not be ratified by Congress. That remark from Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is expected to be the incoming Senate minority leader, came as good news to the AFL-CIO Executive Council, which met Thursday in Washington. Schumer relayed statements that Republican congressional leaders had made to him, according to an aide who confirmed the remarks.

Banning Fracking In The U.S. Would Kill 14.8 Million Jobs, Study Says

A ban on hydraulic fracturing would kill 14.8 million jobs and cost the average American family $4,000 dollars, according to a new report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Were environmentalists to successfully ban fracking next year, 3.9 million jobs would evaporate in 2017, rising to 14.8 million jobs lost by 2022, according to the report. Gasoline prices would almost double as would electricity prices. U.S. household incomes would fall by $873 billion.

Trump Not Seeking Full Repeal Of Dodd-Frank; Opposes Bank Bailout Provision

One of the bigger surprises to emerge from the initial attempts by the Trump transition team to frame

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