IMF Recommends Increased Taxes For No-Income-Tax Vanuatu

"Vanuatu has previously been attractive as a retirement and investment destination for Australian citizens, largely due to its lack of an income tax, but there has been enhanced oversight in recent times by the Australian Tax Office of Australian citizens' financial assets in Vanuatu. In that scenario, the IMF now proposes that an income tax could now be imposed, as it has been in other Pacific islands. Vanuatu's domestic revenue, at 18.5 percent of GDP, is low relative to its Pacific island peers, suggesting scope to increase revenue. It is forecast that an income tax, levied on both employees and employers, could yield between 3 and 4 percent of GDP at modest tax rates." Continue reading

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JPMorgan Comes Out With First “Overweight” Call On Commodities Since September 2010

"Metals prices have reached levels that are demonstrably forcing involuntary production cuts and fresh demand. Against one-sided sentiment and following 15 months of destocking, Chinese buyers are going to realize very soon this is the opportune moment to back up the truck and to restock supply channels where China is import dependent. A surge in Chinese buying of a metal at a lower price has already been observed in gold. We expect renewed vigor in imports of copper and oil. It is quite obvious what the Chinese should do here in physical markets, in pursuit of China’s long-run economic and social self-interest." Continue reading

Continue ReadingJPMorgan Comes Out With First “Overweight” Call On Commodities Since September 2010

19-Year-Old Commits Suicide After Sheriff Posts Bullying Facebook Message

"The Latah County Sheriff's Office in Idaho had posted a photo of 19-year-old Pullman, Wash., resident Andrew Cain alongside a message saying, 'We have decided that Andrew Cain is no longer the Wanted Person of the Week… he is the Wanted Person of the Month of June. Congratulations!.' A few days later, Cain took his own life. Whitman County Coroner Pete Martin said that Cain had suffered from depression 'and a number of problems.' The Latah County Sheriff's Office told HuffPost there were three warrants out for Cain: one for driving without privileges and one for possession of a controlled substance, while unable to say what the third warrant was for." Continue reading

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Women Win Lawsuit After Being Violated During Roadside Search

"State Trooper David Farrell claimed he smelled marijuana in the car and decided to do a search. He called female Trooper Kelly Helleson to do the search. Rather than sticking to a standard pat down search, she put on a pair of latex gloves and used her fingers to search the anuses and vaginas of both women. Helleson even used the same pair of gloves for both women. Helleson’s searches turned up nothing, but the women contacted attorney Scott Palmer and filed a lawsuit. The women won their lawsuit and were awarded $185,000. Helleson was fired and charged with two counts of sexual assault and two counts of official oppression." Continue reading

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The Surveillance State: Its Ramifications and Opponents

"Passports and visas have made traveling from one country to another an exercise that demands the approval for the most part of one's home country. It wasn't always this way. The entire passport and visa program, worldwide, has only been generated in the past half-century or so. It corresponds as well to the rise of the global state with instrumentalities such as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, International Criminal Court, etc. It is fairly surprising that people still insist that the globalist structure does not exist or has not expanded, for it does so on a regular basis and without formal consultations with the people it's affecting." Continue reading

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The NSA Has All Non-Gun Show Sales in Its Files.

"On June 27, 26 United States Senators sent a letter to James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence. The letter called attention to the fact that domestic spying by the United States government on American citizens includes the collection of information on firearms sales. The letter said the following: 'And the bulk collection authority could potentially supersede bans on maintaining gun owner databases. . . .' How comprehensive has this collection process been? It appears to have been comprehensive to the extreme." Continue reading

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Regulation Means The Bitcoin Gold Rush Will Not Happen In The US, Say Experts

"Europe is better positioned as a better place to create Bitcoin-based startups than the US. That was the message coming out of Bitcoin London today, the first major conference in London to cover startups, investors and business models. Covering the broad sweep of Bitcoin businesses, technologists and institutions, the conference heard that the US may have made a fatal strategic mistake in classifying Bitcoin as if it were money. Bitcoin is being treated in many different ways: as money, as an asset class, as the first highly secure P2P global information exchange, as a technology platform and even as a if it were a startup entity in its own right." Continue reading

Continue ReadingRegulation Means The Bitcoin Gold Rush Will Not Happen In The US, Say Experts

Humorless Ohio AG mugs ‘prescription’ coffee cup

"Has Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine helped get a potentially dangerous product off the shelves or does he just have no sense of humor? Maybe he should be heeding Alcoholics Anonymous’ famous Rule No. 62: 'don’t take yourself too damn seriously.' Here’s the issue: does a coffee mug that mimics a prescription bottle and says 'Prescription Coffee, RX#: VRY-CAF-N8D, Drink one mug by mouth, repeat until awake and alert' make fun of prescription drug abuse? DeWine thinks so. May was when DeWine and 22 other state attorneys general asked the company to pull the Prescription Line of glasses, coasters, mugs and drink holders." Continue reading

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Florida woman charged with felony battery for kissing cop’s nose

"A Florida woman is in jail on Tuesday after being charged with felony battery for allegedly kissing a police officer on the nose. According to a police report obtained by The Smoking Gun, Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to the home of 62-year-old Peggy Hill on Saturday after a dispute with a neighbor about a fence between their properties. The report claimed that Sgt. Randy Lamb was speaking to Hill when 'she approached him and kissed him on the nose against his will.'" Continue reading

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