Yearly Archives: 2013

Vast Greek war claims against Germany explode like a ‘time-bomb’

"Premier Antonis Samaras held a special meeting with the foreign minister Dimitris Avramopoulos and other key officials this morning to limit the diplomatic damage from the 80-page report. The document – stamped 'Aporito', or secret – was drafted by a panel of experts appointed by the Greek finance ministry and delivered to officials last month. The alleged claim against Germany reaches a grand total of €162bn, including €108bn for rebuilding the country’s infrastructure after the Nazi occupation from 1941 to 1944. This is 80pc of Greek GDP." Continue reading →

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Discovery Of A 17th Century Spanish Shipwreck Yields Awesome Treasure

"A great superpower, weakened by economic calamity at home and staggering under the debt from years of war in the Middle East, finally collapses. A new political best-seller, or an apocalyptic Hollywood blockbuster? Neither — it's the story told by a 1622 shipwreck whose treasures were desperately needed to shore up the finances of the struggling Spanish Empire. The galleon Buen Jesus y Nuestra Senora del Rosario was one of 28 ships in the Tierra Firme fleet; all were sailing from the New World back to Spain, laden with colonial treasures, when they were struck by a powerful hurricane off the Florida Keys." Continue reading →

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A Ton Of Gold Bricks: What Capital Flight Looks Like In Italy

"Curious why so little has been said about cash flowing out of Italy's banks, especially when even UniCredit's CEO today proudly warned everyone he is all for confiscating uninsured deposits as long as 'everyone else is doing it' - and no, he is not kidding, so when it does happen, nobody will be able to say they weren't warned. Maybe it is because Italian cash is actually not leaving the country at all. Instead, real 'wealth' is departing the boot-shaped nation, quietly and under the radar, as fast as it can in another form: gold. Continue reading →

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Indian gold smugglers take body route to outwit customs

"Smugglers and couriers who bring gold into the country illegally, have usually been known to bring the commodity by hiding it outside their body through various means. But with air intelligence units of the customs wising up to myriad modes of concealment, smugglers have resorted to reshaping gold to get it through. In Monday’s incident two men who arrived from Sri Lanka at the airport had shaped crude gold bits to fit inside the base of their mouth under the tongue. In another incident, a buxom lady was arrested after sleuths found that her bosom appeared extra-large as she had sewn 4 kg of shaped gold into her brassiere." Continue reading →

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Slump in gold price releases years of pent-up retail demand

"Gold retailers struggled to cope this week as parents buying dowries, casual shoppers and tourists snapped up bars, coins, nuggets and jewellery as a slump in the price of the yellow metal released years of pent-up retail demand. The price decline in the past week, the steepest in 30 years, has tarnished gold's appeal for the portfolio investors whose money had fuelled a 12-year bull run. As investors rush out, consumers that were priced out of the market for years have rushed in. In the United States, sales of American Eagle gold for two days this week topped the volumes for the whole of March." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSlump in gold price releases years of pent-up retail demand

Gold Crash 2013 – Deliberately Engineered?

"Traders will be looking for a significant turnaround to the upside in price before entering long positions. However, a long-term, fundamentals-based trader has to look at the low price as a buying opportunity. I can't prove it, but I think the fundamentals will drive the long-term market more than these short-term events. The fight between pricing from the physical market for bullion and that from the 'paper market' of futures is showing signs of discrimination and disagreement, as the physical market is booming, while prices set by futures are seemingly pressured to go nowhere. In short, I think this is a strong buying opportunity." Continue reading →

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War Street Journal Declares the USA to be a Battlefield

"What these people are saying: Federal law must assume that every inch of continental U.S. soil is a battlefield in which the rules of battle apply and that due process of law goes out the window. A permanent battlefield is not a place where people can enjoy any freedoms at all except for those temporary refuges that come about when government lifts an order for a short time. As for anything like a free economy, forget it. A nation under permanent martial law -- and that is what the WSJ really is advocating -- is a nation of drones serving a governmental master." Continue reading →

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is American

"He is described as 'Russian' or 'Chechen.' In fact he is American. Even though the Framers of the Constitution meant protections provided therein to be applicable to 'all persons' it is nevertheless all the more chilling that the most vicious of the anti-American neo-conservatives are calling for him to be denied any protections of the US Constitution under which he became a US citizen. As Ron Paul has long argued, hundreds of individuals who carry out such heinous acts as these have been successfully tried in the US court system with all the protections therein, have nevertheless been convicted of their crimes, and now serve long prison terms." Continue reading →

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After Boston: Arrest Kerry and the Neo-Cons!

"The perpetrators are said to be radical Chechen Muslim extremists. The same types the US has just announced it is stepping up funding to in Syria, to the tune of $130 million. In fact, the Chechen extremists feel such a strong kinship with the US-allied insurgents in Syria, that many of them have made the trip to Syria to fight alongside their fellow Jihadis. Secretary of State John Kerry, who announced the increasing support for the Syrian rebels, should be indefinitely detained by the US government without charge or trial for 'substantially support(ing)...associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States.'" Continue reading →

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Japanese police ask ISPs to block Tor

"Japanese citizens who want to use Tor for whistleblowing or simply to stay invisible don't have to worry quite yet about the agency's desire to crack down on Web freedom. One industry insider told The Mainichi that 'Communication privacy is our lifeline. We won't be able to accept such a request,' and with any luck, an industry backlash could force the agency to look at more sensible ways to combat cybercrime and piracy -- or they could simply go back to chasing cats." Continue reading →

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