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The Red Chip casino took another one of its patented 6.5% belly flops last night. In fact, more than 1,300 stocks in Shanghai and Shenzhen fell by 10%—the maximum drop permitted by regulators in one day—–implying that the real decline was far deeper.

This renewed carnage was the worst since, well, the last 6% drop way back on January 29, and It means that the cumulative meltdown from last June’s high is pushing 45%. And all this red chip mayhem did not come at an especially propitious moment for the regime, as the Wall Street Journal explained:

It comes at an awkward moment for the Chinese government, which is hosting the world’s leading central bankers and finance ministers starting Friday. China has been expected to use the G-20 meeting to address global anxiety about its economy and financial markets. Worries about China’s economic slowdown and the volatility of its markets have weighed on investment decisions around the world.

But if we are remarking on “awkward”, here’s awkward. The G-20 central bankers, finance ministers and IMF apparatchiks descending on Shanghai should take an unfiltered, eyes-wide-open view of the Red Ponzi fracturing all about them, and then make a petrified mad dash back to their own respective capitals. There is nothing more for G-20 to talk about with respect to China except how to get out of harms’ way, fast.

China is a monumental doomsday machine that bears no more resemblance to anything that could be called stable, sustainable capitalism than did Lenin’s New Economic Policy of the early 1920s. The latter was followed by Stalin’s Gulag and it would be wise to learn the Chinese word for the same, and soon.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

World Trade Collapses Most Since Crisis

February 26, 2016

World Trade Collapses Most Since Crisis

One question now dominates the global macro discussion: has subdued global growth and trade become the norm in the post-crisis world?

That is, have lackluster growth and trade become structural and endemic rather than transient and cyclical?

Those are the burning questions that keep central bankers (not to mention sellside economists) up at night and they are front and center at the G-20 in Shanghai.

Warning signs abound. The Baltic Dry is in a veritable free fall. Germany’s manufacturing juggernaut is showing signs of faltering. The BRICS have ceased to be a reliable driver of global growth. US freight volumes are falling for the first time in years. And the list goes on.

“We have seen this burst of globalization, and now we’re at a point of consolidation, maybe retrenchment,” WTO chief economist Robert Koopman said last autumn. “It’s almost like the timing belt on the global growth engine is a bit off or the cylinders are not firing as they should.”

As we noted earlier this month, to the extent Maersk is a bellwether, things are looking pretty grim. Maersk Line – the company’s golden goose and the world’s largest container operator – racked up $182 million in red ink last quarter and the outlook for 2016 isn’t pretty either. The company now sees demand for seaborne container transportation rising a meager 1-3% for the year.

On Thursday we got the latest evidence that the wheels are falling off. According to new data from the Netherlands Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis’s World Trade Monitor, global trade (defined as the value of goods that crossed international borders) plunged nearly 14% in 2015.

That’s the first contraction since 2009.

“The new data released on Thursday represent the first snapshot of global trade for 2015,” FT notes. “But the figures also come amid growing concerns that 2016 is already shaping up to be more fraught with dangers for the global economy than previously expected.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

G20 Countries Must Improve Credibility of Their Paris Climate Pledges, Report Warns

February 2, 2016

G20 Countries Must Improve Credibility of Their Paris Climate Pledges, Report Warns

The credibility of countries’ climate pledges agreed in Paris in December particularly those of the G20 nations must be strengthened, warns a new report out today.

While much attention has been given to scrutinising the level of ambition of each country’s intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, less focus has been paid to exactly how credible these pledges are.

In December 2015 more than 180 countries agreed an historic deal to limit global warming to “well below 2C” and to make every effort to keep temperature increase to 1.5C.

However the report, published by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the ESRC Centre for Climate change Economics and Policy at the London School of Economics (LSE), argues that countries should strengthen the credibility of their climate pledges in order to build confidence in the Paris Agreement.

Most notably, the LSE report shows that G20 countries scored lower on the degree of transparency, inclusiveness, and effectiveness of their decision-making processes. These countries also scored lower on the level of political constraints to limit policy reversal, and on the existence of dedicated and independent public bodies on climate change.

Argentina, Canada, China, India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia were singled out as those which “have scope for significantly increasing credibility”.

The targets set by the EU (and its individual member states) as well as South Korea were found to be “largely supportive” in terms of credibility while countries such as South Africa, the United States, Australia, Russia, and Brazil had a “significant weakness” in at least one area.

The report suggests that the credibility countries’ climate targets can be increased by strengthening their policies and legislation as well as the transparency, effectiveness and inclusiveness of their decision-making process. Strengthening governments’ public climate change bodies would also help boost credibility the report says.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

What are Human Rights? Do They Include Property & Class?

January 2, 2016

What are Human Rights? Do They Include Property & Class?

The real definition of a human right is a right that is believed to belong justifiably to every person. The United Nations defines Human Rights as:

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.

The question is simply this: why is discriminating against class acceptable, as advocated by Karl Marx, which has become fundamental in politics as with Hillary in the States or Hollande in Europe? Those of us who are producers are looked down upon by the state as a possession as in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”. The G20 is on a witch hunt to track down every person to find where they have any money stashed. This greed of politicians to fund their mismanagement of the state violates our HUMAN RIGHTS.

We are economic slaves who are unable to be free because we cannot live in peace. We are not always free to resign our nationality and the United States claims that human rights include “nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status.” Class is a status.

What the G20 has agreed to violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights supported by all countries. Article 2 states:

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

A Crisis Worse than ISIS? Bail-Ins Begin

December 29, 2015

A Crisis Worse than ISIS? Bail-Ins Begin

While the mainstream media focus on ISIS extremists, a threat that has gone virtually unreported is that your life savings could be wiped out in a massive derivatives collapse. Bank bail-ins have begun in Europe, and the infrastructure is in place in the US. Poverty also kills.

At the end of November, an Italian pensioner hanged himself after his entire €100,000 savings were confiscated in a bank “rescue” scheme. He left a suicide note blaming the bank, where he had been a customer for 50 years and had invested in bank-issued bonds. But he might better have blamed the EU and the G20’s Financial Stability Board, which have imposed an “Orderly Resolution” regime that keeps insolvent banks afloat by confiscating the savings of investors and depositors. Some 130,000 shareholders and junior bond holders suffered losses in the “rescue.”

The pensioner’s bank was one of four small regional banks that had been put under special administration over the past two years. The €3.6 billion ($3.83 billion) rescue plan launched by the Italian government uses a newly-formed National Resolution Fund, which is fed by the country’s healthy banks. But before the fund can be tapped, losses must be imposed on investors; and in January, EU rules will require that they also be imposed on depositors. According to a December 10th article on BBC.com:

The rescue was a “bail-in” – meaning bondholders suffered losses – unlike the hugely unpopular bank bailouts during the 2008 financial crisis, which cost ordinary EU taxpayers tens of billions of euros.

Correspondents say [Italian Prime Minister] Renzi acted quickly because in January, the EU is tightening the rules on bank rescues – they will force losses on depositors holding more than €100,000, as well as bank shareholders and bondholders.

. . . [L]etting the four banks fail under those new EU rules next year would have meant “sacrificing the money of one million savers and the jobs of nearly 6,000 people”.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Australia Cannibalizing its own Economy

December 29, 2015

Australia Cannibalizing its own Economy

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has applied to access to everything to hunt for money. They want access to phone calls, emails, posts, and SMS text messages. We have verified this with several sources. Like Rome, Australia is cannibalizing its own economy. They will succeed in destroying Western civilization and when the G20 tracks every penny in 2017, the 2017-2020 period will look like a cliff on a global scale.

The ATO asked for these powers back in 2012. Guess what? They are getting them. They have already begun using children to hunt their parents. This is precisely how they force people to to hoard their savings and withdraw it from banks, which become highly dangerous whenever government needs money. They have created wars to enable taxation. For you see, historically the king had NO RIGHT to impose taxes. He had to summon Parliament and ask for their “consent” to tax the people and the only justification was war to DEFEND the country, not to invade another, hence 100 year war. Even in the USA, income taxes are technically “voluntary” and Congress must introduce legislation to raise taxes by pretending to be the people requesting to be taxed. They cannot imprison you for NOT PAYING your taxes, the crime is failure to “file” as it is your criminal obligation to tell them you owe taxes. They cannot imprison you if you cannot pay what you do not have.

A reader forwarded this except from a professional accounting newsletter in Australia. As the reader points out, Australia is copying USA’s every move. At least our politicians are openly saying they are hunting taxes instead of pretending the phone tapping is to prevent terrorism!

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Putin: ISIS financed from 40 countries, including G20 members

November 17, 2015

Putin: ISIS financed from 40 countries, including G20 members

President Vladimir Putin says he’s shared Russian intelligence data on Islamic State financing with his G20 colleagues: the terrorists appear to be financed from 40 countries, including some G20 member states.

TrendsIslamic State, Russian anti-terror op in Syria

During the summit, “I provided examples based on our data on the financing of different Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) units by private individuals. This money, as we have established, comes from 40 countries and, there are some of the G20 members among them,” Putin told the journalists.

Putin also spoke of the urgent need to curb the illegal oil trade by IS.

“I’ve shown our colleagues photos taken from space and from aircraft which clearly demonstrate the scale of the illegal trade in oil and petroleum products,” he said.

“The motorcade of refueling vehicles stretched for dozens of kilometers, so that from a height of 4,000 to 5,000 meters they stretch beyond the horizon,” Putin added, comparing the convoy to gas and oil pipeline systems.

It’s not the right time to try and figure out which country is more and which is less effective in the battle with Islamic State, as now a united international effort is needed against the terrorist group, Putin said.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

It is Time to Knock off the Bullshit About Surveillance for Terrorism

November 15, 2015

It is Time to Knock off the Bullshit About Surveillance for Terrorism

The worldwide collection of phone calls, emails, text messages and our total loss of privacy is all about taxes – NOT terrorism. With all this power and the demand that encryption be outlawed, not any of this surveillance has stopped one terrorist act. There was the Boston bombers, two kids using cell phones. They didn’t catch that either. Then there was the two guys dressing up as women who attacked the NSA itself. They didn’t know about that. Then Charlie Hebdo, that too was a surprise. Now we have an all out assault on civilians in Paris carried out by 3 suicide squads and again they were clueless.This surveillance does not work because they are really monitoring the people for taxes or they would not be storing everything forever.

Ministry for State Security (Stasi) smelling jars _ From the Vault

Let’s get honest here. The only other intelligence agency to collect evidence on everyone was the notorious Stasi of East Germany. When the Wall came down, the extent of the secret police operations targeted against their own people was mind-blowing. What surfaced was their “smelling jars” collection. Yes, the Stasi used odour recognition to keep tabs on anyone they suspected. The Stasi often collected the samples covertly by breaking into homes to stealing a suspects’ used underwear. They then kept them in jars in case they turned up missing to hunt them down.

A friend grew up behind the Wall. When it fell, his father obtained the Stasi file on him just as the NSA now builds on everyone. In that file he read that all his friends were reporting on him to the Stasi. He no longer retains any friends for his trust in humanity was destroyed.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Don’t Forget China’s “Other” Spinning Plate: Trillions In Hidden Bad Debt

September 5, 2015

Don’t Forget China’s “Other” Spinning Plate: Trillions In Hidden Bad Debt

To be sure, there’s every reason to devote nearly incessant media coverage to China’s bursting stock market bubble and currency devaluation.

The collapse of the margin fueled equity mania is truly a sight to behold and it’s made all the more entertaining (and tragic) by the fact that it represents the inevitable consequence of allowing millions of poorly educated Chinese to deploy massive amounts of leverage on the way to driving a world-beating rally that, at its height, saw day traders doing things like bidding a recently-public umbrella manufacturer up 2,700%.

The entertainment value has been heightened by what at this point has to be some kind of inside baseball competition among media outlets to capture the most hilarious picture of befuddled Chinese traders with their hands on their faces and/or heads with a board full of crashing stock prices visible in the background. Meanwhile, the world has recoiled in horror at China’s crackdown on the media and anyone accused of “maliciously” attempting to exacerbate the sell-off by engaging in what Beijing claims are all manner of “subversive” activities such as using the “wrong” words to describe the debacle and, well, selling stocks. Finally, China’s plunge protection has been widely criticized for, as we put it, “straying outside the bounds of manipulated market decorum.”

And then there’s the yuan devaluation that, as recent commentary out of the G20 makes abundantly clear, is another example of a situation where China will inexplicably be held to a higher standard than everyone else.That is, when China moves to support its export-driven economy it’s “competitive devaluation”, but when the ECB prints €1.1 trillion, it’s “stimulus.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

China’s Central Bank Chief Admits “The Bubble Has Burst”

September 5, 2015

China’s Central Bank Chief Admits “The Bubble Has Burst”

In a stunningly honest admission from a member of the elite, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of China’s central bank, exclaimed multiple times this week to his G-20 colleagues that a bubble in his country had “burst.”While this will come as no surprise to any rational-minded onlooker, the fact that, as Bloomberg reports, Japanese officials also confirmed Zhou’s admissions, noting that “many people [at the G-20] expressed concerns about the Chinese market,” and added that “discussions [at the G-20 meeting] hadn’t been constructive”suggests all is not well in the new normal uncooperative G-0 reality in which we live.

Surprise – The Bubble Has Burst!!

But, as Bloomberg reports, the admission that it was a bubble and it has now burst is a notablke narrative change for the world’s central bankers…

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of China’s central bank, couldn’t stop repeating to a G-20 gathering that a bubble in his country had “burst.”

It came up about three times in his explanation Friday of what is going on with China’s stock market, according to a Japanese finance ministry official. When asked by a reporter if Zhou was talking about a bubble, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso was unequivocal: “What else bursts?”

A dissection of the slowdown of the world’s second-largest economy and talk about the equity rout which erased $5 trillion of value was a focal point at the meeting of global policy makers in Ankara.That wasn’t enough for Aso, who said that the discussions hadn’t been constructive.

…

It was China, rather than the timing of an interest-rate increase by the Federal Reserve, that dominated the discussion, according to the Japanese official, with many people commenting that China’s sluggish economic performance is a risk to the global economy and especially to emerging-market nations.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Debt As Wealth; The Caution of Unfit Past Experience

February 15, 2015

Debt As Wealth; The Caution of Unfit Past Experience

With the G-20 recoiling itself back into the same kinds of mistakes made in the 1960’s, leading directly to the Great Inflation, we will have to take into account the other end of that, namely other forms of “stimulus.” With the global economy sinking, and worries about it beginning to resound beyond just inconvenient bears, there is growing official consensus on central banks taking a clearer approach but also that governments need to face up to “austerity.”

Paul Krugman has been leading the critique against what he sees is a disastrous and ignorant deformation against debt. In times like these, which he “predicted” based on too little government spending, Krugman derides fiscal sense as “cold-hearted.”

This misplaced focus said a lot about our political culture, in particular about how disconnected Congress is from the suffering of ordinary Americans. But it also revealed something else: when people in D.C. talk about deficits and debt, by and large they have no idea what they’re talking about — and the people who talk the most understand the least…

People who get their economic analysis from the likes of the Heritage Foundation have been waiting ever since President Obama took office for budget deficits to send interest rates soaring. Any day now!

The above quoted passage was taken from a column he wrote back on New Year’s Day 2012. While it has aged three years, given the global slowdown that was about to take place and the ineffectiveness of monetarism alone to dispel it, his words are being taken increasingly as both prescient and prescriptive. However, the logic behind his anti-austerity agenda is more of a sleight of hand than actual argument.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Here’s a $9 Trillion Question

February 13, 2015

Here’s a $9 Trillion Question

(Bloomberg) — When Group of 20 finance ministers this week urged the Federal Reserve to “minimize negative spillovers” from potential interest-rate increases, they omitted a key figure: $9 trillion.

That’s the amount owed in dollars by non-bank borrowers outside the U.S., up 50 percent since the financial crisis, according to the Bank for International Settlements. Should the Fed raise interest rates as anticipated this year for the first time since 2006, higher borrowing costs for companies and governments, along with a stronger greenback, may add risks to an already-weak global recovery.

The dollar debt is just one example of how the Fed’s tightening would ripple through the world economy. From the housing markets in Canada and Hong Kong to capital flows into and out of China and Turkey, the question isn’t whether there will be spillovers — it’s how big they will be, and where they will hit the hardest.

“Liquidity conditions globally will start to tighten,” said Paul Sheard, chief global economist at Standard & Poor’s in New York. “Emerging markets won’t be the only game in town. You will have a U.S. economy that is growing more strongly and also offering rising interest rates and a return on capital that is starting to vie for new investment opportunities around the world.”

The broad trade-weighted dollar has strengthened 12.3 percent since June, and it’s forecast to advance further as the Fed tightens while the European Central Bank starts buying sovereign debt and Japan extends record stimulus. The stronger greenback will be the main channel through which the rest of the world feels the effects of a tighter Fed policy, according to Joseph Lupton, a senior global economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Destruction of the Middle Class is Nearing the Final Stages | project chesapeake

December 24, 2014

The Destruction of the Middle Class is Nearing the Final Stages | project chesapeake.

The events of the past few months seem astounding when taken in all at once. The plan to destroy the U.S. dollar and the American middle class is moving at an ever increasing speed.

At the recent G20 meeting the nations agreed that bank deposits would no longer be considered money. These bank deposits become the property of the banking institution and as such can be used any way the bank wants. This means that any money you deposit in a bank now is no longer yours but makes you an investor in the bank and subject to lose that money if a banking crisis takes down the bank.

The spending bill just passed by congress makes the American taxpayer responsible for any derivatives loses that banks may suffer. These derivative holders now have first priority when any funds are paid out and depositors are relegated to last place. FDIC insurance will have to pay out these funds but it has no where near enough money to pay the more than 300 trillion in losses that will be suffered in a banking crisis. That means any depositor has little hope of getting anything back. In order for depositors to get anything back massive money printing would have to take place making any payout amount to only pennies on the dollar.

And if you don’t think there is any danger of a banking crisis in America you may want to keep in mind that the Treasury Dept. has recently ordered $200k worth of 72 hr emergency kits for dispersion to every major bank in America. These are known by many as bug-out-bags and are used to support individuals when disaster strikes and they have to care for themselves for the first few days of crisis.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Are We Reliving The 1930s?

December 7, 2014

Are We Reliving The 1930s?.

At the close of last week’s G20 Summit, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron warned that we’re on the verge of another global recession, citing problems like looming deflation, falling prices, and rising protectionist sentiment. This list evokes a sense of déjà vu: not about the Great Recession, but the GreatDepression. That was the last time we ever seriously worried about disinflation, along with every practically other aspect of economic performance raising alarm bells today: low interest rates, weak investment, slow productivity growth, and chronic labor force detachment.

To be sure, this isn’t an easy comparison to swallow. The Great Depression is the ultimate measuring rod of economic catastrophe to which every other downturn is compared. But as time goes by and forecasts of full recovery keep getting deferred like an ever-fading mirage, it’s one worth examining. How does the Great Depression of the 1930s compare with the Great Recession of the 2010s? Let’s look at the GDPs of the U.S., U.K., and continental Western Europe from 1929 on and from 2007 on, using the base year as an index.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

New G20 Rules: Cyprus-style Bail-ins to Hit Depositors AND Pensioners | WEB OF DEBT BLOG

December 2, 2014

New G20 Rules: Cyprus-style Bail-ins to Hit Depositors AND Pensioners | WEB OF DEBT BLOG.

On the weekend of November 16^th, the G20 leaders whisked into Brisbane, posed for their photo ops, approved some proposals, made a show of roundly disapproving of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and whisked out again. It was all so fast, they may not have known what they were endorsing when they rubber-stamped the Financial Stability Board’s “Adequacy of Loss-Absorbing Capacity of Global Systemically Important Banks in Resolution,” which completely changes the rules of banking.

Russell Napier, writing in ZeroHedge, called it “the day money died.” In any case, it may have been the day deposits died as money. Unlike coins and paper bills, which cannot be written down or given a “haircut,” says Napier, deposits are now “just part of commercial banks’ capital structure.” That means they can be “bailed in” or confiscated to save the megabanks from derivative bets gone wrong.

Rather than reining in the massive and risky derivatives casino, the new rules prioritize the payment of banks’ derivatives obligations to each other, ahead of everyone else. That includes not only depositors, public and private, but the pension funds that are the target market for the latest bail-in play, called “bail-inable” bonds.

“Bail in” has been sold as avoiding future government bailouts and eliminating too big to fail (TBTF). But it actually institutionalizes TBTF, since the big banks are kept in business by expropriating the funds of their creditors.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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