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REPUBLICAN SENATOR — MASSACHUSETTS?

The Republican establishment breathed a sigh of relief when Boston businessman Gabriel Gomez won Tuesday’s GOP primary in the Massachusetts special Senate race, believing he represents the party’s best chance at an unlikely pick-up in liberal Massachusetts.

Gomez, a Hispanic, former Navy SEAL investment firm executive, has the type of outsider credibility and centrist leanings the GOP hopes will play well against 18-term Rep. Ed Markey, the Democratic nominee.
Republicans have begun to privately [...]

Top manager John Hussman: Stock market bears are throwing in the towel

From John Hussman’s Weekly Market Commentary:

“Even the intelligent investor is likely to need considerable will power to keep from following the crowd.” – Benjamin Graham

“Human beings desperately want to belong, but, they also desperately want to understand the environment around them. Often, the desire to belong and the desire to know the truth conflict. The idea of the majority view or the ‘mainstream,’ gives people the sense that they are a [...]

Fiscal Cliff Negotiations Leave Hedge Fund Tax Loophole Unscathed

Wynton Hall
breitbart.com
January 2, 2012

Common ground is hard to come by in Washington these days, but everyone, it seems, hates tax “loopholes.” Democrats claim they rob the government of revenue and benefit the rich. Republicans say tax loopholes distort free markets by letting the government pick winners and losers, thereby potentially introducing artificial and undesirable incentives.

Indeed, during the 2012 presidential race, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan attacked tax loopholes for [...]

Top Online Gun Retailer Suspends Sales of Firearms: “Effective Immediately”

Mac Slavo
December 18th, 2012
SHTFplan.com

 

Online retailer Cheaper Than Dirt!, one of the world’s largest sporting goods stores and a top online gun distributor, has suspended sales of firearms as of Tuesday.

According to an alert posted on its Facebook and Twitter accounts, the “temporary” suspension is effective immediately as the company reviews its policies and promotions related to online gun sales.

Cheaper Than Dirt! has temporarily suspended online sales of firearms. As a long time supporter of the [...]

World Banker Makes Stunning Confession

The former president of the world bank, James Wolfensohn, makes stunning confessions as he address graduate students at Stanford university. He reveals the inside hand of world domination from past, to the present and into the future. The speech was made January 11th, 2010. The next 19 minutes may open your mind to a very deliberate world!

He tells the grad students what’s coming, “a tectonic shift” in wealth from the [...]

Top manager Grantham: Get ready for a global food crisis

From Newsmax:

While the relentless drought affecting much of the United States has increased agricultural commodity prices, a larger force is at work… and this is only the beginning of the price increases, according to Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of the global investment management firm GMO.

We are “about five years into a chronic global food crisis that is unlikely to fade for many decades, at least until the global population has considerably [...]

DEMS TO USE ‘BATMAN’ AGAINST ROMNEY

This summer’s much-anticiapted Hollywood blockbuster, “The Dark Knight Rises,” is getting an unusual boost from Democrats and other foes of Mitt Romney who are eager to tie the Gotham crushing villain to the GOP presidential candidate. Their angle: the mask-wearing, “Venom” gas breathing bad guy has a name that sounds just like Romney’s former investment firm that President Obama has been blasting as a jobs killer.

“Bane” is the terrorist in the [...]

Study: Apple’s Siri is wrong over one third of the time

 

Images from:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/cache/2012/06/Siri-fail/2538165118.jpg

http://thenexusnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Apple-Siri-funny-mistakes-9.jpg

As Apple works diligently on improving Siri before the launch of iOS 6, a new study points out how difficult it is to get Siri to provide accurate results to common questions.

According to a Piper Jaffray study cited by Forbes earlier this week, the investment firm conducted an extensive test of Siri’s accuracy both on a busy Minneapolis street and within a quiet room. The researchers conducting the study asked Siri 800 questions in [...]

China Home Prices Fall in Record No. of Cities (Bloomberg)

China’s home values fell in a record 54 of 70 cities tracked by the government in May as developers cut prices to boost sales amid housing curbs.

The eastern city of Wenzhou led declines with a 14 percent slump in values from a year earlier, while Beijing and Shanghai recorded losses of as much as 1.6 percent, according to data released by the statistics bureau today.

China has pledged to maintain its [...]

It ENDED! 1.53pm: Breaking news — the G7 teleconference call has ended.

Disappointingly, there does not appear to be a joint statement (this could change…), but Japan’s finance minister Jun Azumi has been discussing the call.

• No joint statement as talks end
• Canadian finance minister: Europe’s the main concern
• Europe’s service sector is shrinking…
• …and retail sales fall too
• Today’s agenda

2.32pm: Wall Street has opened for trading, with no real reaction to the news that the G7 teleconference call ended without [...]

‘This is War!’ Italy museum burns art to protest deadly cuts

RussiaToday
Thursday, April 19, 2012

Art is the latest victim of the EU’s debt crisis. A director of an Italian museum is burning works from around the world in protest at the government’s harsh austerity measures. With the permission of the artists, he’s promised to destroy three pieces a week until the government listens to what he has to say. Patrick Young, Executive Director of investment firm DV Advisors says although Italy’s [...]

Property Debt Faces ‘Big Gap’ as $1 Trillion Matures, Boxer Says

More capital is needed for commercial property borrowers as $1 trillion in debt matures over the next three years, according to Michael Boxer of investment firm Ramius LLC.

Refinancing won’t be possible for 77 percent of loans arranged during the height of the property boom, said Boxer, a Ramius partner, in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Scarlet Fu on “Money Moves.” That will leave a “very big gap,” that needs to [...]

Jim Sinclair: The Two Economic Clutch Type Events Of This Period

March 2, 2012, at 12:20 pm
by Jim Sinclair in the category General Editorial

My Dear Extended Family,

The history of this period will focus attention on two economic clutch type events. These events will have mandated the need for the construction of a new monetary system utilizing a virtual reserve currency traded only by central banks. This reserve currency will be related to gold via a global Western world M3.

An economic clutch type event is [...]

The “Greenspan put” has turned into a “Bernanke guarantee”.

From Bill Buckler of The Privateer

The Great Falsification

On February 4, the Wall Street Journal ran an article with the title: Investors Place Their Money On Fed.

The gist of the article is that the markets in the US – and everywhere else to a greater or lesser degree – are still willing to bet on two things. One is that the Fed will come out with a new round of stimulus spending [...]

CHINA BUYS UP FARMLAND IN SOUTH AMERICA TO FEED ITS 1.34B PEOPLE

Washington Times

BUENOS AIRES — Few were surprised when Venezuela announced a deal with China last week to restore 1.4 million acres of unproductive farmland across the oil-rich but impoverished South American nation.

China increasingly is buying farmland and agricultural companies in South America to feed its ever-growing population, currently estimated to be 1.34 billion.

The most important aspect of China’s agricultural investment in Latin America is that “it is a part of the increasing [...]

FREDDIE MAC caught betting AGAINST Homeowners!

LOL, you can’t even make this stuff up. Yet another example of reality being more bizarre than fiction.

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/30/145995636/freddie-mac-betting-against-struggling-homeowners

“ Freddie Mac, a taxpayer-owned mortgage company, is supposed to make homeownership easier. One thing that makes owning a home more affordable is getting a cheaper mortgage.

But Freddie Mac has invested billions of dollars betting that U.S. homeowners won’t be able to refinance their mortgages at today’s lower rates, according to an investigation by [...]

Exclusive: Banker in Olympus scandal steps into public view

(Reuters) – A Japanese banker who is a key figure in the Olympus accounting fraud came into public view for the first time since the scandal broke, appearing on Friday at his divorce hearing in a Florida court.

Hajime “Jim” Sagawa ran a U.S. investment firm that earned a massive $687 million fee for advising Olympus in a 2008 acquisition deal that ranks as the largest advisory payment in history.

Olympus has [...]

DELTA eyes AMERICAN AIRLINES

From breitbart:

Delta Air Lines is eyeing a bid for bankrupt rival American Airlines, a source close to the matter said on Thursday, despite doubts that the proposed mega-carrier would win regulatory approval.

Atlanta-based Delta, the world’s second largest airline after recently merged United-Continental, has enlisted investment firm Blackstone to craft a potential bid, the source said.

American Airlines declared bankruptcy in November, as it struggled to slash its debt burden and costs.

Bankruptcy, a common tactic in [...]

Top MF exec who can’t find missing $1.2 billion is chief adviser to EPA

By Jim McElhatton - The Washington Times

During two days of recent congressional hearings into how as much as $1.2 billion disappeared fromMF Global customer accounts, the chief operating officer of the imploding investment firm responded again and again that he did not know.

Yet as the House and Senate interrogated Bradley I. Abelow and other top executives at MF Global Holdings Ltd., lawmakers did not mention Mr. Abelow’s role as a financial adviser for theEnvironmental Protection Agency, which as of Tuesday listed him [...]

Eric Sprott Fights PM Manipulation Fire With Fire: Calls Silver Producers To Retain Silver Produced As “Cash”

From Eric Sprott

Silver Producers: A Call to Action

As we approach the end of 2011, the silver
spot price has admittedly endured a tougher road than we would have
expected. And let’s be honest – what investment firm on earth has
pounded the table on silver harder than we have? After the orchestrated
silver sell-off in May 2011 (please see June 2011 MAAG article entitled,
“Caveat Venditor”), silver promptly rose back to US$40/oz where it
consolidated nicely, [...]

Debtend: ‘Euro needs surgery, not pills & plasters’

The EU has called for the President of the European Central Bank, among other officials, to stand before a special financial committee, as the debt plague sweeping the bloc threatens its very unity. Talks, which are underway, focus on halting the spread of contagion, as fresh data sows panic with revelations even such economic giants as Germany are not immune. Another priority is addressing [...]

Soon to be released: New camera lets you focus photos after you shoot

(CNN) — An auto-focus camera? Not new. Not exciting.

A camera that lets you focus after you’ve already taken the photo? And lets you focus anywhere within the image you want? That’s got people talking and, according to its creator, is the start of “a picture revolution.”

Oh yeah — it can also transfer a regular photo to 3-D.

Lytro, a company launched Tuesday by 31-year-old entrepreneur Ren Ng, [...]

House Prices Fall to New Post-Bubble Low as More Rent

Leah Nash for The New York Times

An open house in March in Portland, Ore. “There are some amazingly favorable signs. Housing is the most undervalued it’s been in 35 years,” one analyst said.

How low can the market go?For real estate, some economists say, an end to the seemingly endless decline in housing values might be in sight.

Not immediately. At the moment, prices are still dropping. In 20 large [...]

Facebook’s business said to be growing faster than expected, raising assessment of its value – WSJ

From WSJ:

Facebook Inc.’s business is growing faster than it forecast several months ago, raising the stakes for an initial public offering as early as spring of next year, said people who have seen Facebook’s recent financial information.

One of these people said the company is on track to exceed $2 billion in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, in 2011. That is above [...]

Report: Facebook valuation climbs further, Now $65 Billion

By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The valuation of Facebook is taking another leap, according to a report Thursday by CNBC.

General Atlantic, a $17 billion investment firm, agreed to buy one-tenth of 1% of Facebook in a deal that values the social-networking website at $65 billion, CNBC’s David Faber said, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the transaction.

General Atlantic is buying about 2.5 million shares [...]

$120 Oil Coming?

by ZH

All those naively hoping that Saudi Arabia has suddenly developed some altruistic bent and will act against its own interest by increasing excess production (which according to Jim Rogers it simply does not have), to keep oil prices lower, are advised to reevaluate. According to CBS, citing “the conclusion of an internal report prepared by a major investment firm based on information from its extensive [...]

Here comes the dot-com boom 2.0

From Marketwatch.com

One of my 10 surefire predictions for 2011 was that this year would be the biggest for Internet initial public offerings since the first dot-com boom. It’s only mid-February, but barring a sudden market selloff, you can take that one to the bank. Read Gold’s 10 surefire predictions for 2011 on MoneyShow.com.

Amid some media hand-wringing about a new dot-com bubble, IPO activity is picking up [...]