Tuesday, December 10, 2013

MARTIN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST BLOG POSTS

Volcker Rule Begins

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Glass-Steagall Signing-Repeal
The banks lobbied hard against re-instituting Glass-Steagall arguing that this would be the end of Commercial and Investment Banking. Why Congress even bought that nonsense one need only pick up the rug and see the amount of donations that were made. Glass-Steagall went into effect is 1934 and was in place until 1999. The commercial banks and investment banks provided a far greater stability to the economy during that period. Ever since, they would rather play with other people’s money and speculate than lend money to small business and create jobs.
Instead of simply restoring Glass-Steagall, we now have the Volcker Rule that simply says the banks cannot engage in proprietary trading with deposit money. However, how is this going to be enforced when the banks own the FIVEagencies that oversee them? When there is a revolving door for government attorneys all looking for those millions jobs, real prosecution is hopeless. Who will actually prosecute a bank criminally when that will be the kiss-of-death for any hope of getting one of those big paying jobs in New York City? No law firm will hire someone who did that for that would jeopardize their ever getting business from the big banks.
The Volcker Rule can be circumvented. They already place money off-balance sheet into subsidiaries to escape reserve requirements. Moving money off-balance sheet is easy and they can then still use it in more clever ways. It would be nice if this ended the problems. But then this is why it is a “rule” that the agencies have to enforce. Good luck!

Federalizing Europe

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Euro Symbol
The Euro-savior Wolfgang Schäuble and Jean-Claude Juncker could soon be the most important bank directors in Europe. They want a Superbank that has the last word over all of Europe and direct access to taxes if there is a crash. This is the very place they said the Euro would not go. It was why in designing the Euro they did not consolidate the debt because it would look like the Federalization of Europe. Well, we now have the Federalization still arriving and yet the debt is still fragmented. We have worst of both worlds.

Where is Global Warming When We Need It?

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antartica
NASA has recorded the coldest temperature ever -135.4 degrees (-93 c) in Antarctica. You cannot even breath at that temperature. We have record snow falls and really cold weather and winter just started. Our first snow storm dumped more snow in a few hours than we had all last year. So much for Global Warming. Weather is becoming extremely volatile swinging like markets to both extremes.

Global Correlation Model

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GlobalCorrelationModel
The Global Correlation Model is nearly finished. Hopefully, by the conference in Princeton we will have access up and running where questions can be presented to the computer concerning the global correlation of tens of thousands of data series gathered from around the world. This is far beyond any personal opinion that can be argued. The main computer model will not be set up in Switzerland but in another country that will not be disclosed.

NSA Just Off The Charts

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NSA
The NSA has been spying on people who play war games on XBox under the theory perhaps some Islamic Terrorist might do so. The NSA has now been reported that actually nothing from any leaked files suggests that they have caught any terrorists. In fact, they have so may spy teams looking at everyone, one NSA analyst called for a “deconfliction group” to be set up because there was a risk that the agency may be spying on their own people. It would be easier to just withdraw from the Middle East and let everyone just fight it out and we will save American lives on the field and American privacy at home.
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Selfies At A Funeral

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-10/tuesday-unhumor-selfies-funeral


Tuesday (Un)Humor: Selfies At A Funeral

Tyler Durden's picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/10/2013 19:29 -0500



Probably the largest and most watched funeral (memorial service) of the modern era and it appears President Obama just could not resist a selfie with Denmark's leggy blond PM (oh and David Cameron)... as an aside, it seems FLOTUS was not amused.


FLOTUS was not happy...
(h/t NY Post)

If you liked your seat, you can't keep your seat!
(h/t NY Post)
Seems like someone spoiled the "party"
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House and Senate Negotiators Reach Budget Deal

BREAKING NEWSTuesday, December 10, 2013 6:03 PM EST
House and Senate Negotiators Reach Budget Deal
House and Senate negotiators reached a budget deal that would raise military and domestic spending over the next two years, shifting the pain of across-the-board cuts to other programs over the coming decade. The agreement reached by lawmakers on Tuesday includes about $65 billion in across-the-board domestic and defense cuts while adding an additional $25 billion in deficit reduction by extending a 2 percent cut to Medicare through 2022 and 2023, two years beyond the cuts set by the Budget Control Act of 2011.

READ MORE »

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/11/us/politics/party-leaders-indicate-deal-is-reached-on-budget.html?emc=edit_na_20131210
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Trader Dan's Market Views

Gold breaks Resistance

We are experiencing a nice upmove in gold in today's session which is also being participated in by silver.

There are a couple of things at work today. First, after expectations that the Fed was going to announce a tapering at next week's FOMC meeting, traders have now largely dialed that back.

Secondly, and more importantly, this is contributing to further US Dollar weakness. We saw that yesterday but it is more notable in today's session as the USDX slid under the 80 level. 

The Dollar has been recently been trapped in a range trade of its own. The top comes in between 81.40 - 81.00 while the bottom of the range is 79.20 - 79.05. As the Dollar has pushed higher in this range, gold has pushed lower. Now that the Dollar is breaking lower and moving back towards the bottom of the range, gold is powering higher.

In the case of gold, its upward progress has been exaggerated due to the build in hedge fund short positions which are vulnerable anytime one of these overhead chart resistance levels can be violated. That brings on another wave of strong short covering, which coupled with bottom picking, results in some sharp moves higher. 

It should also be pointed out that we are now at that time of the year when some traders are going to begin squaring books for the end of the year. Shorting gold has been a fantastically profitable trade for 2013 and many shorts will look at the recent price action and decide to actually book those profits before they slip away.

Remember the old adage in trading: Bulls make money; Bears make money but Pigs get slaughtered.



In looking at the chart there are two things to note. The first is that HUGE VOLUME that I have noted on the chart when gold went back down and RETESTED the recent low of $1210 on that payrolls number. As mentioned in a post that day, the price action caught my attention as it portended a possible exhaustion day of the bearish leg lower. Gold however was unable to extend past the initial resistance level noted on the chart which would have confirmed that $1210 region as a double bottom on the chart. It did so today however and that needs to be respected.

I have made some annotations on the price chart. Today's move higher does open the door to a move up towards what will be stubborn selling resistance near $1290 - $1295. Bulls will want to see gold maintain these strong early-session gains however as the day wears on to give the market a realistic shot at such a scenario. 

If this move is for real, we will not want to see the rally being losing steam as the day drags on. That would indicate that the short covering burst is failing to attract FRESH NEW BUYING.

Also helping gold is the fact that the HUI has managed to recapture the 200 level. 

I am noticing that interest rates are moving lower once again as traders dial back expectations on the timing of any tapering. That is why the Dollar is seeing selling pressure and why gold is moving higher as a result. Recent action in interest rates reveal that rising rates on the long end of the curve have tended to bring selling into gold. In the absence of any widespread inflation fears, traders have tended to see this as a reason to sell gold.

We'll keep monitoring price action and see if we can decipher what the market is thinking.
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Top five holiday foods that promote cancer, diabetes, heart disease and premature death

http://www.naturalnews.com/043180_holiday_foods_toxic_ingredients_avoid.html
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Monday, December 9, 2013

Meet CO-TRAVELER: The NSA's Cell Phone Location Tracking Program

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/12/meet-co-traveler-nsas-cell-phone-location-tracking-program

An article in the Washington Post has disclosed the NSA's massive cell phone location program. The program, codenamed CO-TRAVELER, is designed to track who meets with whom and covers everyone who carries a cell phone, all around the world. With neither public debate nor court authorization, CO-TRAVELER collects nearly five billion records daily of cell phone user location information, mapping the relationships of cell phone users across global mobile network cables. This reveals data about who you are physically with, and how often your movements intersect with other cell phone users. The program even tracks when your phone is turned on or off.
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Xbox Live among game services targeted by US and UK spy agencies

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/nsa-spies-online-games-world-warcraft-second-life?CMP=ema_565
NSA and GCHQ collect gamers' chats and deploy real-life agents into World of Warcraft and Second LifeRead the NSA document: Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual Environments 
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The Over-Policing of America Police Overkill Has Entered the DNA of Social Policy

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37057.htm

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The Mandela Years in Power

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/12/06/the-mandela-years-in-power/
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The Hijacking of Mandela's Legacy

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37065.htm
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In The Third Quarter, The Rich Got Richer By $1.9 Trillion

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-09/third-quarter-rich-got-richer-19-trillion

The quarterly Flow of Funds report by the Fed has been released and the latest household net worth numbers are out. While not nearly quite as dramatic as last quarter's wholesale dataset revision, which saw all of America suddenly worth $3 trillion more primarily due to a change of how "pension entitlements" (formerly "pension reserves") are calculated (more more in the full breakdown from September), with the resulting total net worth rising to a total of $74.8 trillion, according to the just released data, in the third quarter, US housholds, or rather a very tiny subset of them, saw their net worth rise once again, this time to $77.3 trillion from a revised $75.3 trillion.
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Highest Radiation Level Ever, Lethal In 20 Minutes, Recorded Outside Fukushima Reactor

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-07/highest-radiation-level-ever-lethal-20-minutes-recorded-outside-fukushima-reactor

With all the excitement about Japan's soaring stock market (if plunging wages), crashing non-digital currency (leading to soaring energy prices), recent passage of an arbitrary secrecy bill ("Designed by Kafka & Inspired By Hitler"), and ongoing territorial spat with China, it is almost as if the Abe administration is desperately doing everything in its power, including some of the most ridiculous decisions taken by a government in recent history, to hide some key development behind the scenes. Such as this one perhaps: NHK reported today that TEPCO said radiation levels are extremely high in an area near a ventilation pipe at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. TEPCO found radiation of 25 sieverts an hour on a duct, which connects reactor buildings and the 120-meter-tall ventilation pipe. Putting this number in context the estimated radiation level is the highest ever detected outside reactor buildings. People exposed to this level of radiation would die within 20 minutes.
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MARTIN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST BLOG POSTS

Deflation-Inflation-Hoarding-War

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QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong. Does deflation  accompany hoarding of cash and the velocity you speak of declines? Is this the trait that you write about and part of the reason gold has declined?
George III Emergency 8Reales
ANSWER: People simply save money in times of uncertainty. This is one aspect we have to watch with the turning up of the Cycle of War next year. This can be caused by several different types of events such as civil unrest that materializes into revolution, economic uncertainty during recessions and depressions, and of course times of war. There was such a shortage of money when the Napoleonic War began that England had to simply counterstamp silver coins of Spain with the portrait of George III because there were no coins circulating. The Bank of England began to issue small denomination paper currency notes because of the shortage of coins.
50cents Postage Currency
During the American Civil War there was also a shortage of coins and we find small denomination currency backed by postage stamps.
EncasedPostage
Private companies issues encased postage stamps with advertising on the reverse. This was because of the chronic shortage in coinage.
War Nickels
Silver traditionally becomes cheaper than nickel for it has no practical use as weapons. We saw during the World War II 5 cent nickels replaced with 5 cent silver coins.
As uncertainly prevails, people hoard money and the velocity declines. As a result, unemployment rises for jobs depend upon capital feeling safe and contented. Nobody will start a business when the future is cloudy.

Taxes Alter Behavior

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Row-Homes-Phila
There were two taxes that altered how people lived. There was the Window Taxthat inspired row homes in Colonial America. That simply became the standard and long after the tax was gone, row homes became the norm. Row Homes eliminated the need for windows on two sides of the house.
You will also see some colonial houses had just one step and others two or three. You were also taxed on the number of steps you had. Hence, the saying“taking a step up in life” had its root in the fact that you were rich because you had more than one step and were taxed at a higher rate.
Taxes have always altered behavior. The higher the taxes in a city, the more people moved to the suburbs in ancient times as they do today. WhenMaximinus I had spies seeking people with money in Rome, capital went into hiding. The one way to destroy an economy – keep raising taxes. Unemployment among the youth in Southern Europe is over 60%. Government is destroying their future entirely and altering society by preventing marriage at the same age because there is no job to start a family.
Money today is effectively electronic. Cash forms such a tiny fraction of the money supply it is rapidly on its way out the door. When I park my car in the city, there are only machines to give me a ticket, then to pay and receive an exit ticket, and I see no one. The age of technology is eliminating minor jobs and converting money into simply credit and debt cards. There will be no going back to some gold standard and the younger generation will look at you in amazement as if you are speaking “how for art thou” in some ancient tongue.
USIntAs%Total
We no longer need taxation at the federal level. About 70% of the national debt is simply interest to keep borrowing with no intent of paying anything off anyway. All we need is simply pay for government capping its cost at a maximum of 5% of GDP and prohibit borrowing. State and local government need to tax only because they do not create money. Take this step and we will restore our privacy and freedom. We have once again accomplished “taxation without representation” because we have career politicians who always raise taxes to fund their desires without any regard for society. All we hear about is taxing the rich to help the common man. But the taxes are going to fund the bankers not the poor and the slogans sound nice, but are total bullshit.
I was in Australia when they were proposing the Luxury Tax. They got the people to vote for higher taxes by lying to them. The slogan was they were going to tax the rich with their “Ferraris, Fur Coats, and French Wines.”  Everyone cheered – ya! Get the bastards! When the tax was passed, suddenly the dumb public discovered ALL electrical products were included. You could not buy a clock radio without the Luxury Tax.
People get what they deserve from government – lie, lies, and more lies, and empty pockets to show for it. Like Row Homes, they are altering society reducing our standard of living. Many among the youth no longer have the dream of owning their own home and marriage forever. It is now cheaper to rent and the house may cost more in the long-run. It is hard to find a husband who can even provide for a family at the same age forcing society back to the way it was before Hollywood – the growing age gap between husband and wife and in nearly one-third of marriages the woman earns more than the man.
Hollywood converted lust into love at first sight and created the image of two people meeting in school and marrying for life. Divorce is so high, Mexico is even considering creating temporary marriages that require renewal. The age gap before Hollywood was traditionally 15 years. The man had to go establish himselfBEFORE taking on a wife.If you asked for the hand of someone’s daughter and the father asked what did you have, a response like nothing, but I love herwould have been a good laugh.
The younger generation has watched their parents divorce and the trust in marriage as some institution has declined. Various studies show that the greater the education (really maturity) the lower the divorce rate. But the data also shows that marriage is now at its lowest point in modern history – so much for socialism. Politicians simply ignore the fact that it now takes TWO incomes to support a family when before Socialism – it required just one because there was also no income or payroll taxes.
Girls in their 20s are discovering men in their 20s are still boys. Women simply mature faster than men and this may be the truth within nature. In the animal world, it is the fittest male that gets the female. Among humans, it is the male who is reliable and a good provider, not the one who can down more shots and throw-up more than anyone else because he thinks that’s cool. This change in behavior among humans thanks to taxes has even been promoting studies that show menlive longer when they have younger wives. Taxes are changing everything. It even seems to be divorce declines with the rise in age difference. Perhaps Marxism altered a lot more than we realized. It is time we seriously look at ending the income taxes and stop the borrowing funding government by just increasing the money supply keeping it within 5% of GDP which a central statistical agency calculates for ALL nations eliminating political manipulation.

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Interactive Atlas Of The Leading Causes Of Premature Death

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-08/interactive-atlas-leading-causes-premature-death


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The Triumph Of "Ron Paul"-ism

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-08/guest-post-triumph-ron-paul-ism

The American people are coming to the realization that everything Ron Paul has stood for in the last 40 years is true. He has been proven right regarding the Federal Reserve, the Military Industrial Complex, and the Warfare/Welfare Surveillance State. The American people have grown weary of inflation, wars of choice and being spied upon. Ron Paul’s consistently right message is finally making headway... The corporate media will avoid reporting it. They try their best to ignore Ron Paul’s 30 plus year intellectual march through our institutions. But the facts in Pew Research’s 50 year survey of US views of “America’s place in the world” do not lie: This year the highest percentage of Americans ever — 53 percent — agree with the statement that “the US should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.”
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