Alternative News

A Confiscation Tax is Headed Your Way …

"Scariest of all in the IMF’s assessment is the phrase: 'If it is implemented before avoidance is possible.' The IMF reflexively recognizes that the medicine it prescribes will not go down without force, and that those of us who can will rapidly seek ways to keep the government’s greedy paws away from our personal wealth. To counter that, the IMF implicitly advocates a blitzkrieg approach to governmental thievery. Imagine waking up some random Monday to find that the federal government has imposed a week-long 'bank holiday' that limits your access to your own money to maybe $200 a day through an ATM, and that the government is imposing a new 'wealth tax'. Can’t happen here in America?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA Confiscation Tax is Headed Your Way …

What the Fed Can Learn From the McDonald’s Dollar Menu

"We live in parallel universes. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is said to have a healthy concern about deflation. McDonald’s franchisees, on the other hand, not so much. The chain of Golden Arches fame will give up its Dollar Menu after 11 years, renaming it 'The Dollar Menu & More' next month. It turns out you simply can’t make a buck selling burgers for a buck. It must be hard to give up on such an amazing marketing gimmick, generating one-seventh of all sales since its inception. If Ben Bernanke is paying attention, he is no doubt thrilled to hear about rising price pressures." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat the Fed Can Learn From the McDonald’s Dollar Menu

How to Make $15.6 Million, Risk-Free

"You can buy CDSs without owning the underlying bond, which is essentially a speculation that McDonald's will default on that bond. Unless, of course, you have influence over the fast-food giant's management. Then it's not a speculation at all. It's a can't-lose trade. That's what Blackstone did. It took out an insurance policy on Codere, persuaded it to default, then collected $15.6 million in payouts. There was never a chance Blackstone would lose money on this arrangement. It was literally a risk-free trade." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow to Make $15.6 Million, Risk-Free

Finally, the End of Keynesianism

"Are you a Keynesian? So many seem to be. Do you really believe that a properly functioning, mathematically literate approach to high finance can salvage what's left of the financial systems of the US, the West, the entire world? Top central bankers apparently don't. Just look at this article excerpt. They've retreated from the idea of tapering until 2014 and Peter Schiff was probably correct that they won't really taper at all because they can't. That should put an end to Keynesianism, though probably it won't. The technocratic meme of money control is the most cherished of all dominant social themes." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFinally, the End of Keynesianism

Doug Casey & Jim Rogers Legendary Investors’ Roundtable

"Jim and Doug discuss today's world economic and financial situation within the context of financial history and past financial panics. Jim and Doug talk about central planning, central banking, big government and how governments have only 3 real options to raise money. Next, Jason asks Doug and Jim about competing currencies like Bitcoin, gold and silver and whether they will be allowed under any circumstance. Jason asks Jim and Doug about the turmoil in the currency and bonds markets. Doug and Jim also talk about commodities like farmland, cattle, gold and other natural resource investing opportunities. Jim Rogers was in Singapore and Doug Casey was in Argentina." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDoug Casey & Jim Rogers Legendary Investors’ Roundtable

Cybersecurity: The NSA’s Big Budget Action Movie

"The exercise had an awesome name, inspired by the movies: 'Quantum Dawn 2.' On July 18, scads of U.S. banks, stock exchanges and government agencies took part in a digital fire drill — a practice run in the event all of Wall Street came under massive cyberattack. The scope of this exercise was systemwide, full-on meltdown. 'In some cases,' reads a new account of the exercise from Reuters, 'a blue chip stock started to plummet inexplicably. Soon, shocking news about the company hit the market, but unbeknownst to the participant, the news was fake. For others, trading systems were on the fritz, or government websites stopped functioning.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCybersecurity: The NSA’s Big Budget Action Movie

The Markets Are Rigged! How to Opt Out and Still Profit

"Call me nostalgic, but I remember a time when a bad jobs outlook sent the large-cap companies down, not up. The economy is weak, so a company's profit expectations suffer. The logic makes sense. Today, however, we live in the topsy-turvy world of government-manipulated markets, where such asinine statements make complete sense… until they don't. The problem with a market that lives at the teat of Washington's policies is that it can be reversed in mere moments. One election. One popular news story. One social media outcry. One back-channel policy. One bloody coup d'état. That's all it takes." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Markets Are Rigged! How to Opt Out and Still Profit

Bloated Fed Balance Sheet Propelling Market Rally

"Like preceding surges, the rally's latest chapter is disconnected from the real economy's fundamentals. Instead, what we are witnessing is the direct result of an unprecedented expansion of the Fed's balance sheet. Recently, it has become clear just how addicted the stock market is to easy money policies, as even the slightest hint of the Fed tapering its asset-purchasing program sends the markets into a frenzy. When the Fed might actually rein in its money printing is anyone's guess, but if the chart above is any indication, there's only one direction the market is headed once its life support is yanked away." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBloated Fed Balance Sheet Propelling Market Rally

European Parliament votes to suspend US SWIFT data exchange

"The European Parliament has voted to suspend its SWIFT data exchange agreement with the US. They’ve called for US access to the SWIFT database to be halted following concerns that the US is spying on the EU, and not simply trying to combat terrorism. EU lawmakers suspect that the US has abused an agreement giving it limited access to SWIFT. As such, they voted to freeze Washington’s capacity to track international payments through the site. The worry comes after leaked American documents indicating the US was covertly tapping into SWIFT were aired on Brazilian television. The US denies any wrongdoing." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEuropean Parliament votes to suspend US SWIFT data exchange