© Bloomberg
Trader's Almanac - every down January on the S&P 500 since 1938, without exception, has preceded a new or extended bear market, a 10% correction, or a flat year. As we also noted here, The JAJO Effect
Puppet Masters
Trader's Almanac - every down January on the S&P 500 since 1938, without exception, has preceded a new or extended bear market, a 10% correction, or a flat year. As we also noted here, The JAJO Effect
Recent months have seen regular protests by the Ukrainian political opposition and its supporters - protests ostensibly in response to Ukrainian President Yanukovich's refusal to sign a trade agreement with the European Union that was seen by many political observers as the first step towards European integration. The protests remained largely peaceful until January 17th when protesters armed with clubs, helmets, and improvised bombs unleashed brutal violence on the police, storming government buildings, beating anyone suspected of pro-government sympathies, and generally wreaking havoc on the streets of Kiev. But who are these violent extremists and what is their ideology?
"This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario," wrote the late William Safire of The New York Times in 2002, in the panicky aftermath of 9/11. "Here is what will happen to you: Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive . . . will go into what the Defense Department describes as 'a virtual, centralized grand database.' "
Comment: Before they are able to express their opinion, the Americans need to educate themselves, see what is actually going on around the world, and finally express exactly how they feel about their dire situation. This might be a good place to start (warning, you might not be able to watch it fully to the end):
© Bellenews
Russia’s central bank
Russia’s central bank
The regulator said it also revoked the licenses of two regional non-bank credit organizations, OOO RNKO Traditsiya and OAO NDKO MTSM.
My Bank, a top 200 lender by assets, had its license canceled because of "significant misreporting of data and inability to meet creditors' obligations," according to a central bank statement. Priroda Bank was cited for involvement in "suspicious transactions" and not providing sufficient reserves for possible loan losses, the central bank said in separate statement.
The central bank has accelerated its crackdown since Nov. 29 when it revoked the license of Master-Bank, Russia's 41st largest lender by assets, for money-laundering violations. Mid-size lenders Project Financing Bank and Smolensky Bank were also shut on Dec. 13, and Investbank was closed after failing capital-adequacy reviews.
The central bank has revoked about 35 banking licenses since July 1 when Elvira Nabiullina succeeded Sergey Ignatiev as governor, compared with three in the first half of 2013. Nabiullina is striving to tighten regulation of banks and curtail net capital outflow that was forecast at about $55 billion last year.
Eric King: "This emerging markets mess, your thoughts here because there is (so much) turmoil around the world at this point."
Dr. Roberts: "Eric, there are different ways you can look at the emerging markets mess. One is that all the liquidity that the Fed created, some of it flowed into emerging markets, and now that the Fed is indicating an end to quantitative easing the money is flowing out. As it does it causes the sale of those currencies in those countries and they plummet, and this causes all kinds of financial chaos. That's one way to look at it (the way the mainstream media propaganda is leading people to believe).
Comment: In 2010, here at SOTT, we also had a very interesting discussion with Paul Craig Roberts:
The SOTT Report: Interview with Paul Craig Roberts
© AP/Efrem Lukatsky
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has gone on sick leave with a respiratory ailment, his website said on Thursday, with the issue of a new prime minister still undecided. Yanukovich's prime minister, Mykola Azarov, resigned on Tuesday in the midst of mass street unrest and the president has yet to appoint a successor. Serhiy Arbuzov, who was Azarov's first deputy, has stepped in as interim prime minister.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has gone on sick leave with a respiratory ailment, his website said on Thursday, with the issue of a new prime minister still undecided. Yanukovich's prime minister, Mykola Azarov, resigned on Tuesday in the midst of mass street unrest and the president has yet to appoint a successor. Serhiy Arbuzov, who was Azarov's first deputy, has stepped in as interim prime minister.
In a statement Tuesday on the government website, Mykola Azarov offered his resignation in order to encourage what he called "social-political compromise."
© Davis Turner/Getty Images.
The Fed policies of Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, who begins her term Feb. 1, are making former Harvard economist Terry Burnham withdraw his money from Bank of America
The Fed policies of Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, who begins her term Feb. 1, are making former Harvard economist Terry Burnham withdraw his money from Bank of America
Last week I had over $1,000,000 in a checking account at Bank of America. Next week, I will have $10,000.
Why am I getting in line to take my money out of Bank of America? Because of Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, who officially begins her term as chairwoman on Feb. 1.
Before I explain, let me disclose that I have been a stopped clock of criticism of the Federal Reserve for half a decade. That's because I believe that when the Fed intervenes in markets, it has two effects - both negative. First, it decreases overall wealth by distorting markets and causing bad investment decisions. Second, the members of the Fed become reverse Robin Hoods as they take from the poor (and unsophisticated) investors and give to the rich (and politically connected). These effects have been noticed; a Gallup poll taken in the last few days reports that only the richest Americans support the Fed. (See the table.)
© Royal.gov.uk
The Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace.
The Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace.
The report published Tuesday on the finances of Queen Elizabeth II has exposed crumbling palaces and depleted coffers, and discovered that a royal reserve fund for emergencies is down to its last million pounds ($1.6 million).
Legislators on the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee urged royal officials to adopt a more commercial approach and suggested opening up Buckingham Palace to visitors more often.
The panel said the royal household needed more cash to address a serious maintenance backlog on crumbling palaces. It said at least 39 percent of royal buildings - and probably more - were in an unacceptable state, "with some properties in a dangerous or deteriorating condition."
"The boiler in Buckingham Palace is 60 years old," committee chair Margaret Hodge told the BBC. "The household must get a much firmer grip on how it plans to address its maintenance backlog."
© Brian Jackson
"Big Brother is Watching You," George Orwell wrote in his disturbing book 1984. But, as Mikko Hypponen points out, Orwell "was an optimist." Orwell never could have imagined that the National Security Agency (NSA) would amass metadata on billions of our phone calls and 200 million of our text messages every day. Orwell could not have foreseen that our government would read the content of our emails, file transfers, and live chats from the social media we use.
In his recent speech on NSA reforms, President Obama cited as precedent Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty, who patrolled the streets at night, "reporting back any signs that the British were preparing raids against America's early Patriots."
This was a weak effort to find historical support for the NSA spying program. After all, Paul Revere and his associates were patrolling the streets, not sorting through people's private communications.
To get a more accurate historical perspective, Obama should have considered how our founding fathers reacted to searches conducted by the British before the revolution. The British used "general warrants," which authorized blanket searches without any individualized suspicion or specificity of what the colonial authorities were seeking.
At the American Continental Congress in 1774, in a petition to King George III, Congress protested against the colonial officers' unlimited power of search and seizure. The petition charged that power had been used "to break open and enter houses, without the authority of any civil magistrate founded on legal information."
© Enduringamerica.com
Last Friday, security forces cracked down on protests called by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood (MB), killing four and injuring at least 15. According to an Egyptian Health Ministry statement, three protesters were killed in the capital Cairo and one in Fayoum on Saturday. Protesters were also injured in Giza and Minya.
On Monday, a spokesperson for Cairo University - the largest university in Egypt, with 280,000 students - said that the university council had agreed to allow police on the campus. There have been ongoing protests against the military regime, often organized by students close to the MB, throughout this semester. Many students have been killed in clashes with the police forces, including last Thursday.
In a speech at the Police Academy on Tuesday, Defense Minister and de facto dictator General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi threatened that Egyptian army and police will confront with force any attempt to undermine "security and stability." He praised the military and police as "the protective shields of the homeland" and boasted, "the process of securing the referendum proved to the world our ability to enforce security in our country."
Comment:
In Ukraine, fascists, oligarchs and western expansion are at the heart of the crisis
IMF sponsored "Democracy" in the Ukraine