Puppet MastersS


Stock Down

End of the line! China and Germany stock markets look ready to pop

Harry Dent
Economy and Markets Daily
Fri, 12 Jun 2015 17:42 UTC
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The U.S. stock market has finally hit a speed bump after more than six years of a Fed- and QE-driven rally. The S&P 500 is up 232% since March of 2009 despite this unprecedented stimulus in the feeblest economic recovery in history.

But since late December 2014, U.S. stocks have gone nowhere as investors face some growing realities.

GDP, retail sales, production and exports are slowing.

The dollar's sharp rise in recent years has crushed global exports.

Long term interest rates are rising consistently... what I call the beginning of the end of stimulus policies designed to keep rates low forever.

Meanwhile, in just six months Germany saw its key stock market, the DAX, rise nearly 50% from mid-October into early April.

Germany's bubble has shot up 245% since March 2009 — greater than the U.S., despite its slower economy.

It won't last!

Comment: The warning signs continue to flash something big will happen soon.

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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: Why the World is going to Hell


Sott.net
Sun, 14 Jun 2015 18:00 UTC
Sott Talk Radio logo
Have you noticed? Our planet is in the grip of environmental and social chaos that shows no signs of abating. Quite the opposite in fact. Violent and deadly events across the planet have increased to become almost daily occurences. Prolonged record breaking droughts are followed by torrential rain and flooding. Volcanoes and earthquakes are 'going off' at a rate never before seen. The lives of our planet's billions of poor people are directly threatened by these events, keeping them in a state of stressed distraction. Meanwhile, politicians and other 'elites' continue to plumb new depths of mendacity and corruption. War and bloodshed has been engendered to the point that it is a mainstay of 'normal life', terrorizing some and terrifying others, while rumors of 'world war' are deliberately disseminated to keep those who might know better afraid and silent. Global economic collapse is increasingly touted as just around the corner, starting in the USA, as the 'forces of law and order' there rack up ever more civilian kills.

So what's behind this rapid decay of our 'quality of life' and the impending destruction of our global society?

Join your hosts this Sunday from 2-4pm EST, 8-10pm CET, for the answers.

Running Time: 02:05:00

Download: MP3

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Light Saber

Ecuador President Correa: Alternative news challenges Western media propaganda


Sputnik
Thu, 11 Jun 2015 16:38 UTC
Western propaganda of Latin American news coverage is now counterbalanced by RT and teleSUR, Rafael Correa said.

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© SputnikEcuador President Rafael Correa
Alternative news outlets help counterbalance the editorial slant of Western media broadcasting in Latin America, Ecuador President Rafael Correa said in an interview with RT en Espanol released Thursday.

According to the Ecuadorian leader, the entire region has drawn on information from CNN - a US channel that "defends the capitalist system" - for years before the Latin American television network teleSUR was established.

"There was a shocking disproportion in news coverage. And it still exists. But, luckily, we also have alternative sources like teleSUR and RT," Correa said.

A survey conducted by ICM Research exclusively for Sputnik and released in May, showed that over half of those people polled in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Greece would like to get global news from sources other than mainstream Western media.
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Gold Bar

Texas passes law to build gold and silver bullion depository, repatriate gold

Valentin Schmid
theepochtimes.com
Fri, 12 Jun 2015 17:57 UTC
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© claffra/iStock
The lack of faith in central bank trustworthiness is spreading. First Germany, then Holland, and Austria, and now - as we noted was possible previously - Texas has enacted a Bill to repatriate $1 billion of gold from The NY Fed's vaults to a newly established state gold bullion depository. "People have this image of Texas as big and powerful ... so for a lot of people, this is exactly where they would want to go with their gold," and the Bill includes a section to prevent forced seizure from the Federal Government.

From 2011:
"The University of Texas Investment Management Co., the second-largest U.S. academic endowment, took delivery of almost $1 billion in gold bullion and is storing the bars in a New York vault, according to the fund's board."

The decision to turn the fund's investment into gold bars was influenced by Kyle Bass, a Dallas hedge fund manager and member of the endowment's board, Zimmerman said at its annual meeting on April 14. Bass made $500 million on the U.S. subprime-mortgage collapse.

"Central banks are printing more money than they ever have, so what's the value of money in terms of purchases of goods and services," Bass said yesterday in a telephone interview. "I look at gold as just another currency that they can't print any more of."
And now, after we noted the possibility previously, as The Epoch Times reports, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill into law on Friday, June 12, that will allow Texas to build a gold and silver bullion depository. In addition, Texas will repatriate $1 billion worth of bullion from the Federal Reserve in New York to the new facility once completed.

On the surface the bill looks rather innocent, but its implications are far reaching. HB 483, "relating to the establishment and administration of a state bullion depository" to store gold and silver coins, was introduced by state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione.
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Attention

EU calls for regime change in Macedonia while current PM determined to stay


Sputnik
Sat, 13 Jun 2015 16:23 UTC
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© AP Photo/ Visar Kryeziu
Macedonia continues to go through a political crisis, after Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn and the leaders of the four main political parties in Macedonia failed to reach an agreement on settling the crisis earlier this week.

Western media claims that Nikola Gruevski, the current Prime Minister of Macedonia, created the crisis that puts his government at risk, EUobserver reported.

Recently, Gruevski was accused of mass illegal surveillance, election fraud, as well as abuse of the country's justice system and media.

Now the European Commission wants to send the government in Skopje a list of tough rule-of-law reforms. If Gruevski doesn't react and there is no action taken by his government, the Commission will stop backing Macedonia's EU entry talks, EUobserver said.

Comment: Another mess brewing north of Greece.

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Bad Guys

Escalating tensions: Pentagon preparing to send heavy weapons and troops to Eastern Europe


Deutsche Welle
Sun, 14 Jun 2015 12:55 UTC
Fighter jet lands on warship
© ru.wikipedia.org
The "New York Times" has reported that the Pentagon is "poised" to station heavy weapons for up to 5,000 US troops in several Eastern European countries. The move would escalate tension with Russia.

Citing US and allied officials, the newspaper said that if accepted, the proposal would mark the first time since the Cold War that Washington has stationed heavy military equipment in the NATO member states in Eastern Europe that were once part of the Soviet sphere of influence.

"The proposed 'prepositioned' stocks - to be stored on allied bases and enough to equip a brigade of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers - also would be similar to what the United States maintained in Kuwait for more than a decade after Iraq invaded in 1990 and was expelled by American and allied forces early the next year," the "New York Times" said.

Comment: Also see: Failing at the Great Game: Washington's continuous blunders

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Blue Planet

Russian President Vladimir Putin awards Poklonskaya rank of Major General


Sputnik
Fri, 12 Jun 2015 16:57 UTC
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© Sputnik/ Yuriy LashovNatalia Poklonskaya, Crimea, Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Crimea's Prosecutor General Natalia Poklonskaya with the rank of Judicial Counsellor 3 Class, according to a document.

This military rank is similar to that of Major General. Previously, Poklonskaya served as a Senior Counsellor of Justice, which is equivalent to the rank of colonel.

During the Euromaidan, Poklonskaya handed in her resignation from the Ukrainian General Directorate of Internal Affairs in Kiev on February 25, 2014. In the document, she wrote that she was "ashamed to live in a country where neo-fascists freely walk about the streets."

Comment: Here are more articles on Crimea's Prosecutor General Natalia Poklonskaya:

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Snakes in Suits

Ya think?! A Machiavellian plan against Russia?

Timothy Stanley
Forbes
Thu, 11 Jun 2015 04:14 UTC
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© UnknownJust 'cause yer machiavellian don't mean yer smarter than yer opponents, Barry.
To the Kremlin, recent events in its backyard have proved once and for all that the amorphous body known as 'the West' - its politicians, institutions, media, diplomats, armies, financial architecture and governance bodies - are not to be trusted. The charge sheet is long and contested: it starts with NATO's 'out of theater' bombing campaign in Yugoslavia in 1999, includes broken promises over eastern European integration into the EU and NATO in the early 1990s, color revolutions in neighboring states, botched interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, destabilization in Libya and Syria, repeated attempts to find common security architecture rebuffed, and leads to the revolution/coup that took place in Kiev in March 2014, breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, subsequent political and economic sanctions against Russia and, most recently, threats to remove Russia's FIFA World Cup hosting rights in 2018. Whether all of this is part of some long-term, Machiavellian plan to destabilize Russia - an entirely uncontroversial view at all levels of society here - is questionable, but calls to mind the famous quote from Catch-22: 'Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you.'

Comment: The most interesting thing about this article is not all the factual data presented, or its objective view of U.S. aggression towards Russia which we have seen from many independent sources already - but that it was printed in an on line version of Forbes Magazine and known by its moniker "The Capitalist Tool" - a huge proponent of the "free market" as it is known in Western circles. Are some of these editor jackasses starting to get a clue and waking up from the slumber and illusion that has been foisted upon many in America and Europe? Whatever the case is, it will be interesting to see how many more of these types of articles the mainstream media is able to eke out before all is said and done.

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Briefcase

Putin & Erdogan hold high-level talks behind closed doors in Azerbaijan


RT
Sat, 13 Jun 2015 15:51 UTC
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© RIA Novosti / Alexei DruzhininRussian President Vladimir Putin (L) and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan June 13, 2015.
The leaders of Russia and Turkey have held talks behind closed doors in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. They attended the opening ceremony of the first European Games, before holding talks, most likely devoted to energy issues.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish opposite number, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met face to face on neutral territory on the Caspian Sea to reportedly discuss bilateral relations and energy and hydrocarbon supply.

During a photo session that preceded the talks, the presidents didn't talk much and only exchanged opinions about the previous day's opening ceremony. The presidents agreed the ceremony was superb and wished success to the host team of Azerbaijan.

Comment: Putin smoothing relations with Turkey. Their conversation about Syria would be interesting to hear.

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Treasure Chest

Ukraine to get new IMF loans despite inability to repay private lenders


RT
Sat, 13 Jun 2015 15:33 UTC
Christine Lagarde
© Reuters / Mike Theiler
Despite the grievous state of the Ukrainian economy, the IMF said it will continue to lend money to Ukraine, so Kiev can complete economic restructuring.

"In the event that a negotiated settlement with private creditors is not reached and the country determines that it cannot service its debt, the Fund can lend to Ukraine consistent with its Lending-into-Arrears Policy," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said.

The IMF chief's comments come as Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk wrapped up their promotional trip to US, which also included pleading with the IMF. Kiev hopes to persuade the international lender to release a $1.7 billion tranche of aid in July, as part of a $40-billion aid package that the IMF and Ukraine's foreign allies have committed to.

Comment: Ukraine must be kept in a state of instability to serve the Western masters' plans.

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