The relentless warehousing of wholesale inventories continues, even if the “any minute now” gusher of wholesale sales continues to be pushed back into the indefinite future. Sure enough, the March data showed that wholesale sales disappointed, and instead of growing 1.5%, declined by -1.6%, below expectations of a 0.1% rise. This was the biggest drop in sales since March of 2009: another nail in the coffin of any recovery dreams. [...]
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Ron Paul and Jim Rogers spoke at the Sovereign Man: Offshore Tactics Workshop in Santiago, Chile, on March 30 – April 1, 2013.
These are clear warnings signs that a rational person simply cannot ignore. Bottom line, Nations are going bust. And the worse things get, the more desperate their tactics become. This isn’t the first time that the world has been in this position. This time is not different. History shows that [...] This is a devastating chart. Eurozone unemployment hits a brand new high of 12.1%. Click the chart to enlarge. Eurostat
What else can you say but that this is a total disaster. From the report: Eurostat estimates that 26.521 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 19.211 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in March 2013. Compared with February 2013, the number of persons unemployed increased by 69 000 in the EU27 [...] Weak corporate top-line growth is likely to spell an equally troubled bottom line for the 11.7 million unemployed. Quarterly earnings thus far have shown the typical strong level of profit beats, with just more than two of three companies in theStandard & Poor’s 500 exceeding Wall Street expectations. But when it comes to actual sales growth, the results have been just north of dismal. A mere 38 percent of the 271 S&P 500 companies [...] From Casey Research: (Interviewed by Louis James) L: Doug, we talked previously about getting assets out of your home country, especially the US, where to take them, and what to do with them. In so doing, you touched on the inevitability of currency controls just ahead, especially for Americans. Can you tell us more about that? Doug: Yes. I’m quite serious about what I said about “the grim reality of impending currency controls.” As the [...] Oil? Financials? Aerospace? When someone asks who the biggest sources of lobby dollars for DC’s politicians-for-purchase are, these are the three usual suspects that come to mind. Some may, therefore, be surprised to learn according to the database kept by OpenSecrets between Pharmaceutical and health product industry, hospital and nursing homes, health professionals and health services, HMOs, or more broadly Pharma/Healthcare/HMO, the total lobby dollars spent between 1998 and 2012 was a staggering [...] A new rule going into effect Sunday could cost you more when shopping with a credit card at some stores. Visa and Mastercard have agreed to let merchants add a service charge equal to the cost of processing a credit transaction to the bottom line. The cost of processing is usually 1.5 to 3 perc cent, and merchants are capped at a 4 per cent fee under the agreement. The rule change [...] CHICAGO (CBS) — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is putting more pressure on gun makers to get behind his push for an assault weapons ban and criminal background checks for gun purchasers. This time, he wants to go after their bottom line. Emanuel is pushing two major financial institutions to stop their financial backing of gun makers, unless those companies support “commonsense reforms, including requiring criminal background checks on all gun sales.” The mayor is [...] (Provided at the link) is a chart that shows the Adjusted Monetary Base. It is a frightening picture and representative of the financial abyss into which we are sinking. From the post-Paul Volcker Fed era, you can see that the base more than doubled from 1984 to 2009. In 2009, the increase in the monetary base was and remains dramatic and unprecedented. It is clear that we are nowhere near the [...]  This isn’t a temporary setback, writes Jeremy Grantham, the 3% U.S. GDP growth rate average of the last century is gone forever. Be wary of Fed policy – set by a man who didn’t recognize a 1-in-1200 year housing bubble – and premised on the idea 3% growth is normal. from Business Insider: Famed investor Jeremy Grantham just released his new quarterly letter to GMO clients, and it’s depressing. He writes that US economic growth will [...] Unique set of charts could be a stock market “early warning system” … One of the sharpest guys there, Arman Melikian followed up with a fairly simple and yet important set of charts his firm uses to detect deterioration in the S&P 500 (through the prism of sharply missed top- and bottom-line analyst [...] From The Daily Gold: … Gross warned that the U.S. debt problems have put the country in this “ring of fire” that will burn most investors. The only investors who will not get “burned?” He says the lucky few will be those that are protected by gold and other real assets, protected from a severe U.S. dollar depreciation caused by the Federal Reserve’s money printing. In a white paper titled “GOLD – [...] According to a brand new book already striking fear in the hearts of public sector union bosses, America’s government workers may be the only men and women in the country still blessing their lucky stars for President Obama. Mallory Factor’s Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blindclaims that government employees make more money, work less, retire earlier, have greater job security, and have more retirement security than their private [...] From Newsmax: The U.S. employment rate dropped to 7.8% in September from 8.1% in August, thanks largely to gains in part-time workers and not due to noted fundamental improvements in the labor market, said Peter Morici, a professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. The economy added a net 114,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, adding its household survey reported that total employment [...] Seeing more of this: the earnings cliff may be here. Reaction is very perverse, these individual stocks get hit, but the indexes look rigged with little response so far. - Norfolk Southern (NSC) lowers its Q3 earnings outlook due to declines in certain markets and lower revenues from fuel surcharges. NSC expects decreased coal and merchandise shipments, offset in part by growth in intermodal volumes, to reduce revenues by ~$120M Q/Q. NSC -5.8% AH - Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY): [...] A week after small businesses warned that Obamacare taxes will eat up to half of their profits, a new government report reveals that simply complying with the new tax rules in the health care act will cost American families and businesses nearly 80 million hours–essentially a whole new tax. Based on Internal Revenue Service figures, the House Committee on Ways and Means has compiled an estimate of the total amount of hours it will take [...] The LIBOR scandal started back in 2007 when a secretive branch of the US TREASURY – Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) used 7 trillion dollars of TBILLS to keep interest rates low. This organization has absolutely no oversight, meaning they operate above/outside of the law. Further, the US Government used JP Morgan as the ‘vehicle’ to get these financial instruments into the market place. What is the bottom line? It has lead to an [...] An equity strategist for Goldman Sachs [GS 106.80 1.08 (+1.02%) ] is predicting a September selloff that happens so rapidly he is telling clients to protect themselves before Sept. 14. The reason: Market disappointment over key meetings of the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve—all within the next 10 days. An ECB Governing Council meeting takes place this Thursday amid growing expectations that ECB President Mario Draghi will lay out some dramatic measures, such as bond purchases or [...] Who owns your tweets? What about all that personal information you’ve givenTwitter? Or tweets you deleted? Or drafts you saved? Those questions are the focus of a battle Twitter is waging with a New York State judge. Twitter says that its users own their tweets, and all that personal information. The court says Twitter does, and should hand them over when subpoenaed. This week Twitter has filed an appeal to New York [...] When your local friendly Too-Big-To-Fail bank needs a ‘helping hand’ loan to get through pay-day or buy some extra S&P futures, it picks up the shiny red phone and asks Ben for unlimited access to free money. When the ‘rest of us’ need a little extra – to get through the next week before our pay-check hits, we call this guy – who charges a 400% APR. The Central Bank [...] From Eric Peters Autos: You don’t have to be a mechanic – or even much of a DIY’er – to save money on car-related expenses. For instance: Use your ears You can avoid costly brake problems by listening to your brakes. If you hear anything, it’s time to do something. Brakes should be silent. When they’re not, it’s a good bet there’s a problem. It might just be a squeak caused by glazed (or [...] by George Washington
Wages need to rise to keep up with inflation, especially since the value of the dollar has been trashed: But Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney of the Hamilton Project document (hat tip Ezra Klein) that real median earnings for men declined between 1969 and 2009: And wages have only kept dropping since 2009. In addition – when those who have only part-time work are taken into account – we havedepression-level unemployment. As Klein notes: “When you take all men, not just [...] Today James Turk told King World News that gold is now in backwardation and about to rocket higher. Turk also warned, “The bottom line is we are in a fiat currency bubble. Eventually this bubble is going to pop because we are using this fiat currency, backed by nothing, not just in one country, but throughout the world.”
Here is what Turk had to say: “This is exactly the kind of action I [...] |
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Woman sued $750,000 after writing scathing YELP review
Better think twice before you slam a business with a bad review on Yelp – one Virginia woman is being sued for it.
Jane Perez was slapped with a $750,000 lawsuit by Dietz Development after she publicly logged complaints about construction work the building contractor performed on her home.
In her write-ups on the popular business review sites Yelp and Angie’s List, Perez accused the company of damaging her house, trespassing and [...]