Global Market Watch for May 5th, 2014
Downs & Armstrong DIscusion From Capitol Hill May 5, 2014
Topics – Republican Party Civil War & Protecting the Banks
Ukraine – Facts Really Do Not Matter
The Ukrainians continue to try to defend against the Russian propaganda that pictures them as fascists to justify invasion. But facts do not really matter in the game of world politics.
A Russian invasion of Ukraine seems to be increasing in likelihood. With the Russian economy turning down, the economic pressure will continue to increase in favor of an invasion. The Ukrainians have been trying to defend against the West and the East. However, the West is trying to control their government without having to actually offer much but words.
There is no shortage of jokes circulating around Ukraine in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere such as Crimea and Cry me a River. There is clearly a confrontation brewing and we are more-likely-than-not going to see a head-to-head confrontation between USA and Russia after September.
The May 25th elections are in the hands of the West. They are desperately trying to control the outcome no different from they have done throughout Europe and the USA. The Supreme Court’s handing the US Presidency to Bush, Jr. was clearly a rigged game for the numbers show he really lost. Can we expect anything different in Ukraine?
An interesting candidate who was at Maidan was Dmytro Yarosh (born: September 30, 1971). He is the leader of the right-wing Right Sector organization which played a significant role in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution.
During these protests Yarosh advocated for a “national revolution” and dismissed the Viktor Yanukovych administration as an “internal occupational regime” on behalf of Russia. He considers Russia as a main adversary of Ukraine, although he also has little patience for Western influence on Ukraine either. Yarosh warned “Crimea was too small to satisfy the appetite of the ‘Russian Empire…’” Yarosh said: “Sooner or later, we are doomed to fight a war with [the] Moscow empire”.
Yarosh was at least at Maidan. He is for Ukrainian independence – not subordination to the West or Russia.
Collectibles Still Strong
The world’s most valuable stamp is going up for sale at Sotheby in New York. It is the only surviving example of the ‘emergency’ stamps issued by the British Guiana postmaster in 1856. This specimen was discovered in a stack of papers in 1873 and sold for just six shillings. It was later purchased by a Liverpool stamp dealer Thomas Ridpath for $200 (£120).
Ridpath is reported to have then sold it to Philip von Ferrary for $250 (£150) the same year. The stamp was then bought by Arthur Hind in 1922 for $36,000 (£21,000). The interesting aspect is that even with the Great Depression, during the recovery it was sold for $40,000 (£23,700) to Fred Small during a private sale in 1940.
Finally, in 1970, Small auctioned his entire stamp collection and the 1c Guiana was then bought by Irwin Weinberg, for $280,000 (£166,000). About a decade later, John E. du Pont bought the 1c Magenta for $935,000 (£554,000) to add to his private collection, where it remained until his death in 2010.
The stamp is now scheduled to be sold at auction in New York on the 17th of June as part of du Pont’s estate for an estimated $20 million (£11.8 million). It is clear that top end is still booming especially as capital continues to try to get off the grid. With banks questionable and taxes rising, collectibles remain a key market since they are both movable and not subject to property taxes.
Spain & Portugal – Jews Invited to Return
Perhaps it is fate, but Spain was united with the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella and in 1492, they not merely funded Christopher Columbus, they also began the expulsion of the Jews and Muslims. Christopher Columbus’s diary begins: “In the same month in which their Majesties [Ferdinand and Isabella] issued the edict that all Jews should be driven out of the kingdom and its territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake with sufficient men my expedition of discovery to the Indies.”
The beginning of the rise of Spain in 1492 curiously marks 516 years (51.6 * 10) to the start of its economic demise – 2008. The expulsion that Columbus refers to was so cataclysmic an event that ever since, the date 1492 has been almost as important in Jewish history as in American history. On July 30 of that year, the entire Jewish community, some 200,000 people, were expelled from Spain.
What goes around comes around. Now Spain and Portugal want to make amends for their past sins – but they are also in deed of productive people to restore their economy. They will now give citizenship – full passports – to the descendants of families expelled from their countries. The government regards the expulsions as “a tragedy”, or – in the words of Spain’s justice minister – a “historical error”. It was, of course, an ethnic cleansing, a massive crime against humanity. Still, Muslims need not apply. Jewish descendants of those expelled from the Iberian peninsula in the 15th and 16th centuries can claim a passport which will allow them to travel freely in 28 EU countries.
Portugal announced it will exit the bailout feeling it now can sell its own bonds once again. This, of course, will be a brief shining moment for the entire sovereign debt crisis will come to an end for these people borrow, but never reduce their debts.
Scottish Independence
Boy – the difference a year makes. Previously, the claim for Scottish Independence stood at about an expected 7% vote. Now, the landmark ICM survey revealed Sunday a decline of the No vote from 46 per cent to 42 percent over the past month alone. At the same time the Yes vote remained steady at 39 percent. With the “don’t knows” excluded from the count, the No vote stands at 52 percent, just four percent ahead of the Yes vote.
The global movement against government corruption remains at the highest level on a global scale. Support for Scotland’s independence since last August has reached its highest level. With only five months remaining until the September 18th referendum, the poll has shown the rising discontent with Europe in general. At this point, the EU tax on transactions has got to a serious threat to the financial industry in Scotland.
The union of Scotland with England took place in 1707 transforming England into the United Kingdom. Scottish independence was previously a long fought battle. That was the subject of the film Brave Heart by Mel Gibson. This is right on schedule for 309.6 years added to 1707 brings us precisely to 2016. If separation comes, this we may see the old currency revived.
