Paul Craig Roberts
The giveaway that Soros is extremely bullish on gold comes not only from his extensive holdings
but also from his $25.2 million call option on junior gold stocks. This is a highly leveraged bet on the weakest gold mines. With high production costs and falling gold price from constant short selling in the paper market, Soros’ bet makes no sense unless he thinks gold is heading up as the short raids concentrate gold in elite possession. at 12:41
Uncommon Wisdom Daily
I’ve put together a list of the top 10 dividend payers among precious-metals miners
KR: If I had any money, I would buy gold miners. at 12:41
Zero Hedge
Caterpillar US machine retail sales just saw the biggest tumble in three years
falling 18% Y/Y: the most since early 2010. What is more disturbing is that CAT equipment is used in far-broader economic activities than merely housing, and likely is a far more accurate indicator of true industrial end-demand than any other number cherry-picked by the government. at 12:38
Carl Futia Guesstimates
Euro-US Dollar: The market is headed below its April 4 low at 1.2744.
Downside target is now 1.2400
June Gold: I think gold is on its way to the next downside target at 1200-50.
In any case there is strong resistance above the market in the 1520-30 breakout zone. at 10:26
Marc Chandler of BBH
Most of continental European markets are closed today for Whit Monday
Canadian markets are closed for Victoria Day. at 09:10
The Economist
How can you tell a charity from a political front?
The New York Times had a nice discussion group the other day between legal experts on how to solve the problem of 501(c)(4)s. Basically, this category of non-profits is supposed to cover groups like the Sierra Club, the NRA, and the AARP, which have clear public-benefit programmes (environmental defence and research, gun-use education, and support and social organisation for seniors) but also naturally want to engage in lobbying and some political activity in pursuit of their causes. However, after the Citizens' United ruling in January 2010, the IRS saw an explosion in applications for 501(c)(4) status; as the tea-party movement gathered strength, applications went from 1,751 in 2009 to 3,357 in 2012. at 03:00
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph
BIS and IMF attacks on quantitative easing deeply misguided warn monetarists
Monetarists across the world have warned that the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements are making an historic error by calling for a withdrawal of emergency stimulus before the global economy has fully recovered. at 03:00
Cerro de las Armas Weather Accuweather 15-day Charts Precipitation
Hoy es lunes, el veinte de mayo
It's still cloudy, but warmer. Sunset is 5:55, so the day's are short. at 00:00
Debka
Syrian-Hizballah’s capture of Qusayr opens direct weapons route to Lebanon
Al-Qasayr, the northwestern town which commands the high road from Syrian Homs to Lebanon’s Hermel Mountains. This was a major victory: Iranian arms for Hizballah can now go through from Syria to destination unobstructed.
Syria prepares missiles to strike Tel Aviv
The Sunday Times reports that Syria is deploying advanced Tishreen surface-to-surface missiles to strike Tel Aviv in case Israel launches another attack. Syria’s Deputy FM said that if Israel again attacked Syria, it would face an immediate and painful response. Asked if he realized that his words meant war between Israel and Syria, Makdan replied: “So what? So there’ll be war.”
at 16:39
time of calamity
We the People Corporations
The rise of the railroad industry sealed the reversal of regulations on corporations. Wealthy businessmen exploited the new 14th Amendment of the Constitution to give themselves power. The 14th Amendment had been written to grant the slaves their freedom and rights. The Corporations argued that they too were “persons”. In 1886, in the case of Santa Clara Country vs. Southern Pacific Railroad they argued to the Supreme Court, that under the new Amendment that they too were guaranteed rights under the new law. The Supreme Court granted them “corporate personhood” and sealed the fate of our country and capitalism at 12:57
The Archdruid Report
The End of the Shale Bubble?
Fracked wells in tight shales like the Bakken and Marcellus quite often stop becoming a significant source of oil or gas within a few years of drilling. The obvious response to this problem is to drill more wells, and this accordingly happened. That isn’t a panacea, however. Oil and gas exploration is a highly sophisticated science, and oil and gas drilling companies can normally figure out the best sites for wells long before the drill bit hits the ground. Since they are in business to make money, they normally drill the best sites first. When that sensible habit intersects with the rapid production decline rates found in fracked wells, the result is a brutal form of economic arithmetic: as the best sites are drilled and the largest reserves drained, drilling companies have to drill more and more wells to keep the same amount of oil or gas flowing. Costs go up without increasing production, and unless prices rise, profits get hammered and companies start to go broke. at 12:21
Counterpunch
The Age of Corporate Treason | Ralph Nader
Why are big, global U.S. corporations so unpatriotic? After all, they were created in the U.S.A., rose to immense profit because of the toil of American workers, are bailed out by American taxpayers whenever they’re in trouble, and are safeguarded abroad by the U.S. military. \\ Mega corporations have abandoned U.S. workers by entrenching “pull-down” trade agreements that make it easier than ever to ship jobs and whole industries to fascist and communist regimes abroad which keep their workers near serfdom. Remember, the U.S. has run large trade deficits for the past 30 years as a result of anti-American trade deals pushed by these global companies. These goliaths are pressing for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that will further pull down our economy. at 09:05
Pressing Issues
Murder is not the role of an intelligence agency in a democracy
Its role is to conduct espionage in order to know our enemy’s thinking, intentions, and capabilities. The C.I.A. should give the Pentagon back its missiles under the laws of war and return to its true mission. Know your enemy: that’s intelligence. The C.I.A. failed in that mission in Iraq and in Afghanistan. If it now botches its mission in Syria, no sniper’s rifle will save us from our inability to harmonize our military, diplomatic, and intelligence instruments of war. If we go to war in Syria, the goal will have to be the death of President Assad. Killing foreign leaders is a bad business; so said Richard Helms, who ran the C.I.A. under Johnson and Nixon. If you try to kill theirs, he said, why shouldn’t they try to kill yours? at 08:28
Public Citizen
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a stealthy policy being pressed by corporate America
600 corporate advisors have access to the text, while the public, Congress, journalists, and civil society are excluded
And so far what we know about what's in there is very scary!
* offshore millions of American jobs
* free the banksters from oversight
* ban Buy America policies needed to create green jobs and rebuild our economy
* decrease access to medicine
* flood the U.S. with unsafe food and products
* empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards at 07:27
Consortium
Reagan and Argentina’s Dirty War
The 87-year-old ex-Argentine dictator Jorge Videla died Friday in prison where he was serving sentences for grotesque human rights crimes in the 1970s and 1980s. \\ Collaborators in the U.S. news media who would defend the junta and heap ridicule on anyone who alleged that the thousands upon thousands of “disappeared” were actually being systematically murdered. One such ally was Ronald Reagan, who used his platform as a newspaper and radio commentator in the late 1970s to minimize the human rights crimes underway in Argentina – and to counter the Carter administration’s human rights protests. For instance, in a newspaper column on Aug. 17, 1978, some 2½ years into Argentina’s Dirty War, Reagan portrayed Videla’s junta as the real victims here, the good guys who were getting a bad rap for their reasonable efforts to protect the public from terrorism.
Videla employed sophisticated public relations methods.
He was fascinated with techniques for using language to manage popular perceptions of reality. The general hosted international conferences on P.R. and awarded a $1 million contract to the giant U.S. firm of Burson Marsteller. Following the Burson Marsteller blueprint, the Videla government put special emphasis on cultivating American reporters from elite publications. \\ Videla’s anything-goes anti-communism struck a responsive chord with the Reagan administration which came to power in 1981. President Reagan quickly reversed President Jimmy Carter’s condemnation of the Argentine junta’s record on human rights. More substantively, Reagan authorized CIA collaboration with the Argentine intelligence service for training and arming the Nicaraguan Contras. The Contras were soon implicated in human rights atrocities and drug smuggling of their own. at 05:19
Kidder Reports is relocating to HERE.
We are closing down the existing Kidder Reports domain (www.kidderreports.com).
Will you please bookmark this new link (krarchives.blogspot.com/) and begin using it immediately.
William Kidder wkidder42@gmail (646) 257-2130 at 07:16
|