Expect Increasing Lies As Global Economy Collapses, & More Insights

Investors' Insights Comments

Any serious investor who believes that the CPI numbers (etc.) created by governments everywhere are real and accurate is the sort of bigger fool everyone is looking for - to support  many ventures. Now, sooner or later, the markets are going to wake up to  this reality,inclusive of  China, to Greece to Brazil and  the USA, plus many more - and then watch the proverbial "you-know-what ' hit the fan.

In turn, the spin doctors and other Pinocchios will be fully employed in very secure long-term activities as they seek to baffle the feeble-minded towards ratification and consumption. So yes, Eric Sprott is right.- so Is Noam Chomsky; so was John Steinbeck..

Never forget Arthur Anderson, Enron , China, the Fed, and all the rest. For as always, remember this utter wisdom -  figures lie, only because liars figure. 

Beware, and good luck!

August 31, 2015

Lies You Will Hear As The

 Economic Collapse 

Progresses

It is undeniable; the final collapse triggers are upon us, triggers alternative economists have been warning about since the initial implosion of 2008. In the years since the derivatives disaster, there has been no end to the absurd and ludicrous propaganda coming out of mainstream financial outlets and as the situation in markets becomes worse, the propaganda will only increase. This might seem counter-intuitive to many. You would think that the more obvious the economic collapse becomes, the more alternative analysts will be vindicated and the more awake and aware the average person will be. Not necessarily...

 

In fact, the mainstream spin machine is going into high speed the more negative data is exposed and absorbed into the markets. If you know your history, then you know that this is a common tactic by the establishment elite to string the public along with false hopes so that they do not prepare or take alternative measures while the system crumbles around their ears. At the onset of the Great Depression the same strategies were used. Consider if you've heard similar quotes to these in the mainstream news over the past couple months:

Optimistic About Inflation, Stanley 

Fischer Suggests

 That Fed Will Stick to Plan on Rates

The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation shows that prices rose 0.3 percent during the 12 months ending in July, well below the 2 percent annual pace the Fed considers healthy. A narrower measure excluding food and oil prices, which the Fed regards as more predictive, increased 1.2 percent over that same period.

Printing Money Goes Haywire in Venezuela 

Venezuela seems to be hovering on the edge of tipping into hyperinflation. Or perhaps it has already fallen into the abyss. Given the paucity of official data -- the none-too-believable official figures were last published in February -- it's a little hard to tell.

China Construction Bank Posts Zero Profit Growth on Weak Economy 

Industrial overcapacity, a build-up of corporate debt and a $5 trillion stock-market slump are making it harder for Premier Li Keqiang to prevent a deeper economic slowdown. The combined earnings of China’s five biggest banks are projected to rise 2 percent this year, the least since at least 2004, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The Coddling of the American Mind 

There’s a saying common in education circles: Don’t teach students what to think; teach them how to think. The idea goes back at least as far as Socrates. Today, what we call the Socratic method is a way of teaching that fosters critical thinking, in part by encouraging students to question their own unexamined beliefs, as well as the received wisdom of those around them. Such questioning sometimes leads to discomfort, and even to anger, on the way to understanding.

Bond Market Explosion Not Stoppable: Craig Hemke 

What I really worry about is that transition from one financial scheme to the next is never done peacefully. The hegemon that has the printing press, that has the reserve currency, they don’t just sit back and say we’ve had our time in the sun. Now it’s your turn. No, they fight as hard as they can to protect and defend that. That’s my biggest concern.

Eric Sprott Was Right,

 Inflation Is Rising

Eric showed the above table in his presentation. It shows that the true level of inflation, a persistent increase in prices, has been sitting around 10% since 2011. Indeed, a far worse picture than what the US Federal Reserve paints. The Fed argues that prices have been rising below 2% for the past four years. That said, the Fed doesn’t include food, petrol and taxes in its inflation index. This is similar to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s inflation calculation.

But then who needs petrol and food, right?

So it’s not surprising that Jim Rickard’s, over at Strategic Intelligence, argues that there’s no worse forecaster in the world than the US Fed.

You may have noticed each year that Australian healthcare companies raise their premiums by roughly 6%. Well, costs are also rising over in the US.

I’ve been speaking to many US citizens up here at the conference. The word on the street is that Obamacare is one of the worst policies of all time. It’s legally forced those who can’t afford health care to buy; at the same time, hiking insurance premiums for those who require modest healthcare.

And it’s only going to get worse…

A Passing Thought...

Learn Easy Way To Lose $2.1 Trillion In Just Six Days! & More #Insights

$2.1 Trillion Erased From U.S. Stocks In Six Days

The enormous losses reflect the deep fears gripping markets about how the world economy will fare amid a deepening economic slowdown in China.

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq have all tumbled into correction territory, their first such 10% decline from a recent high since 2011.

The S&P 500 -- the best barometer for the biggest U.S. companies -- has lost trillions of market value in the six-day selloff through Tuesday, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

To put those losses into perspective, that's roughly equal to the combined market value of these corporate titans put together:

 Apple (AAPL, Tech30), Google(GOOGL, Tech30), Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), ExxonMobil (XOM), Facebook (FB, Tech30), Walmart(WMT) and 21st Century Fox (FOXA).

South Africa's economy contracts, risk of recession grows

PRETORIA (Reuters) - South Africa's economy shrank for the first time in more than a year during the second quarter of 2015, raising the risk that labour disputes and slowing Chinese demand for commodities could push it towards recession.

The economic strain will inhibit the central bank from raising rates further to protect a weak currency and target inflation, while also torpedoing government efforts to keep deficits in check and protect its credit ratings.

EU’s Migrant Crisis

A record 107,500 migrants crossed the EU borders last month to outstrip the previous monthly record in June of 70,000. During the first seven months there were nearly 340,000 migrants, up from 123,500 last year,

Warring Migrant Tribes, Grenade Attacks…What Is Going On In Sweden?

if you bring intolerant people into your country this is what can happen

Immigrants in Germany swell to record high 11 

million

 Information and Communication Technologies is radically changing the world

Not only how we deal with the world and make sense of it, or interact with each other, but also how we look at ourselves and understand our own nature, existence, and responsibilities. 

This is the IT version of my book The Great Field (available in Kindle books).

Real Household Net Worth:

 Look Out Below?

In my last post I pointed out that over the last half century, every time the year-over-year change in Real Household Net Worth went negative (real household wealth decreased), a recession had either started, or was about to.  (One bare exception: a tiny decline in Q4 2011, which looks rather like turbulence following The Big Whatever.) Throughout, click for source. - 

The problem: we don’t see this quarterly number until three+ months after the end of a quarter, when the Fed releases its Z.1 report for the the preceding quarter. The Q2 2015 report is due September 18.

But right now we might be able to roughly predict what we’re going to see four+ months from now, in the report on our current quarter, Q3, which ends September 30. We’re a bit over a month from the end the quarter, and we have some numbers to hand.

The U.S. equity markets are down roughly 7% year-over-year

Learning Success: 

APPLY Tips From The Best

Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group – Anyone who owns more than 400 companies and is worth billions of dollars is clearly doing many things right. I admire Richard Branson’s tenacity, and I admire his personal brand

$48 Billion Cigna Buy Reshapes Industry, Greece Troubles Hit Main St. & More Top Insights

 Investors Insight's Comments

The real engine of any economy is its small and medium-sized business sectors. They are fragile entities that can only afford 3 to 6 months of poor sales, thereupon the slide to closure or bankruptcy begins - taking millions of domestic jobs in the process that do not come back quickly, if ever.

Greece's problems will be intensified by these events, plus the serious shortfall in resource capacity per capita. Greece' s  real solution therefore is depopulation or degrowth per capita to bring its physical input and outputs relationships back into a sustainable relationship.

Old economic thinking is never going to work for Greece, and the many more Greeces in the pipeline, until policy-makers  solve the physical economic issues. That's the new reality when nations pass "peak everything" on a country to country basis hitting the slippery downward slope..

Stay tuned - there is much more to come!

Good Luck, Be Careful Out There.

Anthem Aims to Buy Cigna for $48 Billion

NEW YORK (AP) — Anthem is buying rival Cigna for $48 billion in a deal that would create the nation's largest health insurer by enrollment, covering about 53 million U.S patients.

In just three weeks, starting with Aetna's $35 billion bid for Humana Inc. on July 3, the landscape of U.S. health care has been altered in a buyout frenzy that could transform five massive U.S. health companies into just three, including UnitedHealth Group.

Larger insurers have negotiating power to squeeze better rates from drug companies and health care providers. But the wave of consolidation is likely to lead to fewer choices for consumers in certain markets. Regulators scrutinizing the two mega-deals will be trying to assess whether these combined companies would have so much power that they could dominate markets and drive already high health-care costs even higher.

Mechanic Giorgos Prasinoudis stepped out of his closed motorcycle repair shop in Athens, as a ‘For Sale’ sign was posted on the front window, on Wednesday.

On Greek streets, grim talk and empty storefronts

ATHENS — Giorgos Prasinoudis ran his motorcycle repair shop in Athens for three decades, through good times and bad. Now a ‘‘For Sale’’ sign hangs outside the window.

Empty storefronts are again a feature of Greece’s towns and cities as spending dries up in a crisis that puts Greece’s future in the euro in doubt. The tales of hardship are repeated up and down the country of nearly 11 million people.

Jim Rogers on Fox Business Discussing the Greek Debt Deal & Oil Prices

Jimmy Rogers sees little hope to solve Greece's  issues and he thus confirms and shares our views. Next year we will be back at the bargaining table with this puppy. Time to let go of Greece before it brings down the whole house of Eurozone cards, with a devastating impact on the global economy. 

Either way, we are in for a massive global credit crunch, at some point, when the Bank's start writing down this debt.

Greece Clears Final Reform Hurdle Before New Bailout Talks 

The number of disaffected Syriza lawmakers, who see the reforms as a betrayal of the anti-austerity platform that brought their party to power in January, shrunk slightly compared to last week's similar vote — from 38 to 36. But that is still roughly a quarter of all party lawmakers.

Addressing parliament before the vote, Tsipras said the reforms were a necessary price to pay to keep Greece alive after stormy talks with its creditors nearly collapsed earlier this month.

Economic slump, not natural gas boom, responsible for drop in CO2 emissions 

Between 2007 and 2009, when U.S. emissions 
plummeted by 10 percent, there were changes in how much Americans consumed, what types of products they consumed, the balance of manufacturing and service industries, and the quantity of energy used per dollar of products produced. Together, these changes account for more than three-quarters of the decrease in emissions between 1997 and 2013, with changes in the mix of fuels used to generate energy accounting for just 18 percent, Davis said.

Davis and his co-authors conclude that without new policies that limit CO2 emissions, it may be difficult to keep emissions down as the U.S. economy continues to recover. And in fact, U.S. CO2 emissions rose in 2013 and 2014.

Missing Gold, Unpayable Debts, Financial Crises, Bail-Outs and Bail-Ins… There Must Be a Better Way 

To Congress and the Administration: Give Bail-UPS and Bail-DOWNS a chance. Clearly bail-outs and bail-ins have been problematic, so let’s progress in a new direction that benefits taxpayers and debtors.

New York Plans $15-an-Hour Minimum Wage for Fast Food Workers 

Flavia Cabral, 53, a grandmother from the Bronx who works part-time in a McDonald’s for $8.75 an hour, pointed out the scars where fry baskets had seared her forearms. “At least they listened to us,” she said, referring to the panel. “We’re breathing little by little.”

More Leading Headlines

1. Distressed-Debt Market Upended Amid Deepening Commodities Rout

Central banks dump up to $260 billion FX eserves in second quarter: Citi

1. No Respite for Korean Economy Even as MERS Patients Recover

1. Brazil Cuts Budget Goal as Shrinking conomy Erodes Revenue

1. Social Security disability fund to run dry next year

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An Inconvenient Truth:

What Happens When The Fossil Energy Age Ends?

 EXISTENTIAL REALITY 

End Of Fossil Energy or Archaic Fabrications?