Demand for physical gold across the world continues to surge at an unprecedented pace leading India to blame its soaring current account deficit, sliding currency and even deteriorating economy on it (even if failing in its attempts to regulate demand for the yellow metal), and yet gold continues to slide. How come? One word - paper, or rather, ETF paper." Continue reading →
"Whew! The Fed is number one in central banking. And it's finding out just how tough it can be to meddle with a $16 trillion economy. On Wednesday, Ben Bernanke came out with a public statement. He said that if all went well... and he didn't change his mind... and nothing unexpected came up...and the Fed's Open Market Committee felt like it... the Fed would begin tapering its bond buying sometime soon. That was all it took to send a shiver up investors' spines... and a sell signal to Wall Street. Everything sold off – stocks, bonds, commodities, gold... you name it." Continue reading →
"On June 19, 2013, US President Obama, hoping to raise himself above the developing National Security Agency (NSA) spy scandals, sought to associate himself with two iconic speeches made at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Fifty years ago, President John F. Kennedy pledged: 'Ich bin ein Berliner'. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan challenged: 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.' Obama’s speech was delivered to a relatively small, specially selected audience of invitees. Even so, Obama spoke from behind bullet proof glass. Obama’s speech will go down in history as the most hypocritical of all time. Little wonder that the audience was there by invitation only." Continue reading →
"New York State Senate approved a bill exempting retired law enforcement officers from a new seven-round limit on the number of rounds people are allowed to have in their guns. The amendment is simply about elevating one class of citizens above another, which is especially objectionable in this context because supporters of the exemption argue that the difference between seven rounds and 10 rounds can be the difference between life and death. Retired cops want to make sure their capacity for self-defense exceeds that of their fellow citizens, even though by their own account people may die for want of that advantage." Continue reading →
"The top federal prosecutor in Montana — Mike Cotter, the U.S. attorney appointed by President Obama in 2009 — is breaking his silence and speaking publicly, for the first time, about his two-year crusade to shutter the medical marijuana industry and put its practitioners behind bars, in many cases for life sentences. And he is mincing no words. He says that pot has no medical value at all, for anyone, and that if you think otherwise, you are a sucker who has been duped 'by slick Madison Avenue marketing' employed by pot dealers. He says pot is a dangerous drug and growing it is a federal crime that must be punished." Continue reading →
"The Internal Revenue Service targeted progressive groups applying for tax-exempt status in addition to conservative ones, according to IRS documents released by congressional Democrats on Monday. The documents and an internal IRS report being sent to congressional committees reveal that the tax agency used terms that included 'progressive' and 'occupy' to flag progressive organizations for extra scrutiny before the 2012 elections. The revelations greatly complicate the political scandal that has engulfed the IRS over the past few weeks. A request for comment from the IRS was not immediately returned." Continue reading →
"Innocent motorists are getting tickets in The Netherlands from average speed cameras that are miscalculating the speed of some vehicles by as much as 18 MPH. National Ombudsman Alex Brenninkmeijer announced his office had opened an official investigation into the matter. Several members of parliament called for the system to be shut down until the problem is resolved, arguing there are many who just pay the fines of around 220 euros (US $290) without knowing whether they are legitimate. Fredrik Teeven, State Secretary for Security and Justice, rejected that proposal outright on Tuesday, saying a 'software update' would take care of the problem." Continue reading →
"For months the speed limit on that portion of River Watch was marked incorrectly. Police say the tickets they issued during that time are valid, but some drivers are wondering whether they should have been charged for violating an incorrect speed limit. Augusta Traffic Engineer Steve Cassell said the contractor in charge of the project had authorization to reduce the speed limit, but only during specific hours and under certain conditions. According to a plan approved by Georgia DOT, the speed limit could be reduced between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., but not during peak traffic times, such as when drivers were leaving work." Continue reading →
"In the video, off-duty BRPD officer David Stewart pulls over a swerving white pickup truck that he says was doing more than twice the 45 mph speed limit. The stop happened on Juban Road in Livingston Parish. Stewart said he pulled the vehicle over and contacted the Livingston Parish Sheriff's department because he thought the driver may be impaired or having a 'road rage' fit. However, after the driver, Cpl. Brian Harrison, identified himself as a Baton Rouge police officer, the dash-mounted camera in Stewart's vehicle then captured a heated 4-minute exchange between the two men." Continue reading →
"China's central bank, breaking its long silence on a liquidity squeeze that has strained funding at many of the nation's banks, suggested they shouldn't look to authorities to solve their cash shortage. The surge in the cost of short-term funds, which banks use to lend to each other, stemmed from an overstretched financial sector—as inflows of funds from abroad slowed—and a mismatch between banks' short-term funding needs and long-term loans. On Monday, concerns over the funding problems led to a wave of selling in shares of midsize banks, many of them heavily reliant on the interbank market for their funds." Continue reading →