Walmart has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a suit that alleged the chain discriminated against gay employees. …read more
Source: Walmart agrees to $7.5M settlement in discrimination suit
Throughout history, government officials have tried to stop “fake news” through various means before it was published.
The crime of the peddlers of fake news: failing to acknowledge that those in power were perfect saints.
For example, Socrates was killed in 399 BC for spreading “fake news”.
His crime: “Failing to acknowledge the gods that the [mainstream media of the day] acknowledges”.
William Tyndale was killed in 1536 for spreading “fake news”.
His crime: Translating the Bible into English so that everyone could read it for themselves, and no longer had to rely on the clergy to tell them what it said.
In 1616 and 1633, Galileo was tried for spreading “fake news”.
His crime: spreading fake news that the Earth rotates around the Sun.
Scores of people have been killed over the centuries for spreading “fake news”.
Their crime: Saying anything that the church authorities of the day disliked.
In 1773, Ben Franklin was fired as colonial Postmaster General for spreading “fake news”.
His crime: informing the American Colonists about what the British were really doing.
Strongmen of all stripes have cracked down on “fake news”.
The fake news pushers' crime: criticizing the dictator or his policies.
In 1933, the Nazis carried out numerous book burnings of “fake news”. The targeted authors included Einstein, Freud, Kafka, Hellen Keller, Jack London, Thomas Mann, Proust, Upon Sinclair and H.G. Wells.
The authors' crime: their books “acts subversively on our future or strikes at the root of German thought, the German home and the driving forces of our people…”
There have been many other book burnings of “fake news” throughout history.
Mussolini had around 2,000 purveyors of “fake news” killed.
Their crime: opposing Mussolini.
Stalin handled the peddlers of “fake news” by murdering them or throwing them into insane asylums.
Their crime: criticizing the Soviet government or Communism.
China's Mao and other Communist leaders killed many “fake news” spreaders.
Their crime: failing to sing the Great Leaders' praises.
In 1972, CIA director Richard Helms put a stop to those within his agency spreading “fake news” by labeling them “terrorists”.
Their crime: criticizing domestic operations by the CIA on U.S. soil.
See how easy it is?
If only U.S. Supreme Court justices stopped being such sissies.
Source: “Fake News” Has Been a Problem for Thousands of Years … Here’s How It’s Been Stopped
Barack Obama is one of the biggest “Keynesians” of all time, but unfortunately most Americans don’t even understand what that means. In this article, I am going to share with you the primary reason why Barack Obama has been able to prop up the U.S. economy over the past eight years. If Barack Obama had not taken the extreme measures that he did, we would be in the midst of a historic economic depression right now. But by propping things up in the short-term, he has absolutely demolished our long-term economic future. But like most politicians, Obama has been willing to sacrifice the future for short-term political gain.
If you take any basic college course in economics, you are going to learn about John Maynard Keynes. Without a doubt, Keynes was one of the most famous economists of the 20th century, and one of the things that he believed was that governments should go into debt and spend more money when an economic downturn strikes. By injecting additional funds into the economy during a time of crisis, he believed that the severity of recessions and depressions could be reduced. This approach ultimately become known as “Keynesian economics”, and in the post-World War II era virtually the entire world embraced it at least to some degree. Here is more on Keynes from Investopedia…
An economic theory of total spending in the economy and its effects on output and inflation. Keynesian economics was developed by the British economist John Maynard Keynes during the 1930s in an attempt to understand the Great Depression. Keynes advocated increased government expenditures and lower taxes to stimulate demand and pull the global economy out of the Depression. Subsequently, the term “Keynesian economics” was used to refer to the concept that optimal economic performance could be achieved – and economic slumps prevented – by influencing aggregate demand through activist stabilization and economic intervention policies by the government. Keynesian economics is considered to be a “demand-side” theory that focuses on changes in the economy over the short run.
Keynesian economists correctly point out that there is a “multiplier effect” to government spending. In other words, when the government spends money it ends up in the hands of ordinary people. In turn, those people spend that money on various goods and services that they need, thus boosting overall economic activity. And the more the money circulates, the more the economy is stimulated. So one dollar of additional government spending does not just add one dollar to GDP. Rather, the impact on GDP is often significantly greater than that.
Of course the bad news is that whenever the government borrows money it is stealing consumption from the future. So we are literally destroying the future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have in order to make the present look a little bit brighter.
When Barack Obama entered the White House, the U.S. was in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The …read more
Source: The Shocking Truth About How Barack Obama Was Able To Prop Up The U.S. Economy
By Tyler Durden
While paper gold traders can't seem to dump the precious metal fast enough, physical gold demand is soaring around the world. India retail premiums are spiking (amid demonetization), local China premiums soar to a 3-year-high (as capital controls loom), and coin sales from the US Mint have risen for the 4th straight month, accelerating post-election to the highest since July 2015 since Trump's victory at the election.
Following the initial panic-buying across India after Modi's demonetization effort shook the nation's faith in fiat currency (sending local gold premiums soaring), news of reported gold import curbs in China (and looming capital controls) has sent gold premiums in China near three-year highs amid limited supply of the precious metal (as Reuters reports)…
The import curbs may be part of China's efforts to limit outflows of the yuan after the currency's slide to its weakest in more than eight years, traders say. China allows only 15 banks to import gold, including three foreign lenders.
“There is severe restriction on the banks' quota to import gold into China. Each one of them have to justify their need,” a Hong Kong-based banker said.
Gold was sold in China at about $24 an ounce above the international spot benchmark this week. Premiums went as high as $30 last week, the most since January 2014, according to Thomson Reuters data.
“Supply has been limited and so the premiums have held firm,” said Cameron Alexander, analyst with Thomson Reuters-owned metals consultancy GFMS.
And as Jesse's Cafe Americain notes, yesterday saw over 28 tonnes of physical gold taken off the Shanghai Gold Exchange (in one day), easily the biggest day this year for physical gold withdrawals in Shanghai...
But it't not just Asia.
In the US, physical gold demand has soared post-election in The United States as the paper prices was pummeled…
This is the 4th month in a row of rising physical gold demand, to the highest level since July 2015 (as China turmoil began to ripple through the world)…
So unlike with stocks where higher prices create higher demand, some level of economic rationality remains in precious metals as physical bullion demand reacts to take advantage of low prices to buy more.
Source: Sudden Scramble For Gold In China Sends Premiums To 3 Year High
Workers at O’Hare Airport in Chicago will announce Monday when they plan to strike. …read more
Source: Chicago O’Hare workers to announce day of strike
Telecom giant AT&T is said to be close to announcing a deal to buy Time Warner, the owner of CNN, HBO and TNT. A merger would make Ma Bell, which also owns DirecTV, an even bigger player in the media world. …read more
Source: Report: AT&T in talks to buy Time Warner
By Tyler Durden
Two days ago, thrusters intended to slow a European lander as it neared Mars fired for less time than expected before contact with the vehicle was lost, leaving scientists uncertain whether it touched down safely or broke apart; it also left Eurosceptics bemused by what might be the latest symbolic failure of a European craft to escape the graviational hold of the imploding artificial union.
The Schiaparelli probe, part of a broader mission to search for evidence of life on the Red Planet, was to test technologies during the descent and on the surface for a rover scientists hope to send to Mars in 2020. Its descent marked only the second European attempt to land a craft on Mars, but it has shown no signs of life since it stopped transmitting around 50 seconds before Wednesday’s planned touchdown.
“We’ve had two overflights (by Mars orbiters) and there was no signal,” the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Spacecraft Operations Manager Andrea Accomazzo told journalists on Thursday.
This is what the Schiaparelli would have looked like… had it not crashed.
And while there was no signal, there was at least hope. Alas, that too died overnight when according to new data, the Schiaparelli probe was destroyed, crashing on impact. The European Space Agency (ESA) has confirmed the Schiaparelli spacecraft, which was expected to land on Mars on Wednesday, was lost.
ESA David Parker: #Mars exploration is hard but that is why we do it. #ExoMars
— ESA (@esa) October 20, 2016
The ESA craft fell to the Mars surface from a height of 2 to 4 kilometers (1.2 to 2.5 miles), the agency said on Friday. The disc-shaped spacecraft, which weighed 577 kilos (1,272 lb) was destroyed on impact. During a press conference on Thursday, scientists said that Schiaparelli stopped transmitting around 50 seconds before the expected landing.
The agency suspected something went wrong when the parachute was jettisoned: “The ejection itself appears to have occurred earlier than expected, but analysis is not yet complete,” it said in a statement.
Yes, “jettisoning” your parachute when landing on a planet usually does not have a happy ending.
Then again, perhaps the probe was just carrying a little extra debt as Europe was quietly hoping to ship its trillions in excess leverage to a different planet?
ESA’s Director General, Jan Wörner, said Schiaparelli’s primary role was to test whether they could successfully land a probe on Mars. “Recording the data during the descent was part of that, and it is important we can learn what happened, in order to prepare for the future,” Wörner said
Earlier today, the NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter identified new markings on the surface of the Red Planet that are believed to be related to ESA’s ExoMars Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing technology demonstrator module.
Schiaparelli entered the martian atmosphere at 14:42 GMT on 19 October for its 6-minute descent to the surface, but contact was lost shortly before expected touchdown. Data recorded by its mothership, the Trace Gas Orbiter, are currently being analysed …read more
Source: European Mars Lander Crashed On Impact
By Tyler Durden
Yesterday we asked if the stealthy Japanese intention to steepen the JGB yield curve will crash global markets. While a crash, if any, has yet to emerge, overnight we have observed another bond selloffs, particularly at the long end of the curve, which has spilled over into stocks around the world on what Bloomberg dubbed were “signs central banks are starting to question the benefits of further monetary easing.” Oil pared a weekly gain, leading commodities lower.
As predicted yesterday, today longer-maturity bonds bore the brunt of the losses after the European Central Bank on Thursday downplayed the need for more stimulus, sending 30-year German bund yields to the highest since June, while Reuters added that “The Bank of Japan is studying several options to steepen the bond yield curve, say sources familiar with its thinking, as authorities desperately seek out policy tools to revive an economy that has failed to emerge from stagnation despite years of massive stimulus.”
As shown in the chart below, both Japan and German long-term yields are almost back to positive…
… while those invested in Japanese 40-year bond have already suffered a 15% loss.
‘Yes’, #bonds can go down too. #Japan‘s 40-year govt bond down 15% as #BoJ is running out of options. pic.twitter.com/JU7VUv8PG1
— jeroen blokland (@jsblokland) September 9, 2016
The “initial reaction could be that there will be less activity from the ECB and central banks in general,” Frederic Pretet, a strategist at Scotiabank Europe told Bloomberg. “It was a bit unexpected to see no actions from the ECB yesterday at a time when they revised down their growth and inflation forecast. The lack of further activity is surprising and a bit worrying.”
As further expected, the bond selling is spilling over into stocks, with the MSCI All-Country World falling the most in more than a week. The euro rose to a two-week high and the yen strengthened, although it has since tumbled on a rumor from Japan’s Kyodo that the BOJ is “mulling” cutting negative rates further for easing, which as explained yesterday, is the BOJ’s most likely next step: cutting short-rates, while engaging in a “reverse twist” to steepen the yield curve.
As a result, Draghi’s reticence accelerated a selloff in bonds that extended from Europe to the U.S. and Japan, with longer-dated securities, which have been outperforming in recent months, being the hardest hit. While yields are still low compared with historical averages, they are quickly rising from records reached earlier this year, recalling the bond rout of 2015, which saw German 10-year yields climb more than a percentage point in less than two months. The yield on German 30-year bonds climbed six basis points to 0.57 percent at 10:40 a.m. in London, adding to a nine-basis-point jump the previous day, while that on similar-maturity U.S. securities has increased nine basis points since Thursday. Chances of the Fed raising rates at the September meeting climbed to 28 percent, up six percentage points from Wednesday, according …read more
Source: Global Stocks Slide As Bond Curves Steepen On Central Bank Concerns; Oil Falls
By GoldCore
Silver surged 3.5% yesterday rising 65 cents and closing at $20.04/oz and gold rose by 2% or by $23 to close at $1,348.80/oz after poor economic data in the U.S. underlined deepening concerns about the economic and indeed the monetary outlook.
Silver in USD – 10 Years
Gold ended near its late session high of $1351.83 and has consolidated near these levels in Asia overnight and Europe this morning. Silver surged to as high as $20.124 and has since given up some of the gains but remains near the $20 level at $19.95/oz.
The precious metals also saw gains in other currencies. Euro gold rose to about €1,200/oz and sterling gold to £1,004/oz.
Platinum gained $33 to $1095, and palladium also surged.
Yesterday’s abysmal reading regarding the service sector of the U.S. economy following the lackluster jobs report last Friday means that the Fed is likely to remain “looser for longer.” We were quoted by Marketwatch yesterday about gold entering the “seasonal sweet spot” against a highly uncertain geopolitical and financial backdrop:
Still, Mark O’Byrne, a director at GoldCore in Dublin, pointed out to MarketWatch on Tuesday that gold is in a seasonal sweet spot, with autumn often being gold’s best season and the month of September tending to be “one of the best months for gold in recent years.”
“Given the backdrop of one of the most uncertain macroeconomic, systemic, geopolitical and monetary outlooks both the U.S. and the world have ever seen, we are likely to see gold do well in its traditionally seasonal strong period,” he said in a recent blog.
Gold and silver rose sharply on Friday after the U.S. added just 151,000 jobs in August, according to the Labor Department’s report on non-farm payrolls. Much fewer than the 180,000 new jobs that economists were expecting and much lower than the 200,000 that is needed to keep up with new immigrants and others entering the jobs market. The precious metals saw a safe haven bid again yesterday after the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing survey, which clocked in at the lowest reading since 2010.
Gold and silver’s technical picture is now very positive – silver’s technical picture especially. A close above $21/oz could see silver quickly move to the next level of resistance of $23/oz. Longer term, we expect silver to return to and surpass the nominal silver bullion high of $50/oz seen in 1980 and very nearly again in April 2011 (see chart).
Silver Coins VAT Free in Ireland, UK and EU
Gold and Silver Bullion – News and Commentary
Gold Extends Biggest Jump Since Brexit on Lowered Fed Rate Bets (Bloomberg)
Gold steady as weak US data dampens Fed rate hike hopes (Reuters)
Gold jumps after dismal U.S. data dims rate hike prospects (Reuters)
U.S. Services Industries Expand at Weakest Pace in Six Years (Bloomberg)
Source: Silver Bullion Surges 3.5% To Over $20
A coordinated international sting operation has taken down the KickassTorrents website — and arrested its owner. …read more
Source: KickassTorrents’ huge file sharing site shut down by feds
Welcome to Esh Carmel Blog.
