Big Lie

Ron Paul: Iraq Collapse Shows Bankruptcy of Interventionism

"Millions live in constant fear, refugees do not return home, and the economy is destroyed. The Christian community, some 1.2 million persons before 2003, has been nearly wiped off the Iraqi map. Other minorities have likewise disappeared. U.S. support for the Syrian rebels next door has drawn the Shi’ite-led Iraqi government into the spreading regional unrest. The invasion of Iraq opened the door to al-Qaeda in Iraq, which did not exist beforehand, while simultaneously strengthening the hand of Iran in the region. Were the 'experts' who planned for and advocated the U.S. attack really this incompetent?" Continue reading →

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Senator Chambliss: NSA program helped gather current ‘terror chatter’

"'There is an awful lot of chatter out there,' Senator Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on NBC’s 'Meet the Press.' He said 'chatter' – electronically monitored communications among terrorism suspects about the planning of a possible attack – was 'very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11.' Chambliss said one of the surveillance programs revealed by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden had helped. Those programs 'allow us to have the ability to gather this chatter,' he said. 'If we did not have these programs then we simply wouldn’t be able to listen in on the bad guys.'" Continue reading →

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Bankers, bankers uber alles, uber alles in der welt

"The episode has long weighed on the reputation of the BIS. However, what has received less attention is the role of the BoE in the affair. What emerges from the history, which appeared on the BoE's website on Tuesday, is that the UK's central bank prioritised the appeasement of the BIS over the British government's wishes to freeze the sale of Czech assets. The history, written by BoE officials and completed in 1950 but never published, also records that the UK central bank sold gold after this date on behalf of the Nazis -- and without waiting for the consent of the British government -- on the back of pressure from the BIS." Continue reading →

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How to Profit From Stealth Inflation

"Decreasing quality, with rising prices. That’s stealth inflation. And no one — not even the great monetary wizard Ben Bernanke himself — can deny that stealth inflation’s a real problem. Take a look at Kimberly-Clark Corp., makers of Kleenex and other consumer products. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal points out that they’ve quietly… slowly… been 'de-sheeting.' What is de-sheeting? De-sheeting is the reduction in the number of sheets of toilet paper or tissues in each package while holding retail prices constant. The beauty of the de-sheeting process is that it is very hard for consumers to detect." Continue reading →

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The Fed Doesn’t Control as Much as You Think It Does

"In actuality, the Fed has little control or influence over the things that really matter in the real economy. Innovation is often a meaningless buzzword (think 'financial innovation'), but it is also the key driver of wealth creation in the real economy. The Federal Reserve could be shut down and all its asset bubbles could pop, and innovations in energy, agriculture, transportation, education, media, medicine, etc. would continue to impact the availability and abundance of what really matters in the real world: energy, knowledge, water, food, and opportunity, to name a few off the top of a long list." Continue reading →

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The ‘new GDP’ methodology: What you need to know

"The Commerce Department has made changes to how it calculates gross domestic product, designed to have the data better reflect the so-called knowledge economy. The U.S. government adjusted data all the way back to 1929, and other countries have or are about to make similar changes to their data. At the same time, the government also went back and revised data for the past five years.What’s the upshot? The rate of growth hasn’t changed all that much, though there are big shifts in a few time periods. But the level of output is higher — $559.8 billion larger, with $526 billion of that amount due to definitional changes." Continue reading →

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Four False Assumptions That Can Kill Your Portfolio

"It’s been so long since interest rates had a real 'up' cycle that Wall Street — and many average investors — have forgotten what that even looks like. Four toxic interest-rate assumptions have the potential to kill your portfolio: First, Wall Street thinks the Federal Reserve can control all interest rates with a few words or the wave of a monetary wand. Second, Wall Street thinks that when interest rates go up, it’s always a slow and gentle climb. Third, Wall Street thinks that rising interest rates are solely a consequence of an improving economy and nothing else. And fourth, Wall Street thinks that because of that, the impact will be benign." Continue reading →

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Al-Qaeda Backers Found With U.S. Contracts in Afghanistan

"Supporters of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan have been getting U.S. military contracts, and American officials are citing 'due process rights' as a reason not to cancel the agreements, according to an independent agency monitoring spending. The U.S. Army Suspension and Debarment Office has declined to act in 43 such cases, John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, said today. 'I am deeply troubled that the U.S. military can pursue, attack, and even kill terrorists and their supporters, but that some in the U.S. government believe we cannot prevent these same people from receiving a government contract,' Sopko said." Continue reading →

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