What Could Possibly Go Wrong

Clashes erupt as Islamists push back in Egypt

"Enraged Islamists pushed back Friday against the toppling of President Mohammed Morsi, as tens of thousands of his supporters took to the streets vowing to win his reinstatement and clashed with their opponents in violence that killed 30 and drove the divided nation toward an increasingly dangerous showdown. The clashes accelerated after the supreme leader of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood defiantly proclaimed that his followers would not give up street action until the return of the country's first freely elected president, swept out of power days earlier by the military. Morsi opponents called out the public to defend against the Brotherhood." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingClashes erupt as Islamists push back in Egypt

Detlev Schlichter: Forward Guidance? – Nonsense! Central bankers have no choice.

"This was the first policy meeting under new Bank of England governor Mark Carney, the ‘most talented central banker of his generation’ to some, the most overpaid bureaucrat in the world to others. But credit where credit is due. Carney is a marketing genius. Not only when it comes to marketing himself, but also when it comes to selling policy paralysis as strategy. Never before has the phrase 'What can we do? We can only stick to what we have done for years.', so effectively been presented as at the BoE’s press conference yesterday. It is now called ‘guidance’, and it evidently requires a specific skill-set." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDetlev Schlichter: Forward Guidance? – Nonsense! Central bankers have no choice.

Now They Tell Us: China Debt Levels ‘Unknown’

"A senior Chinese official said on Friday that the government did not know precisely know how much debt local governments had built up and warned that it could be more than previous estimates. Estimates of local government debt range from Standard Chartered's 15 percent of the country's GDP at end-2012 to Credit Suisse's 36 percent. Fitch put the figure at 25 percent when it downgraded China's sovereign debt rating in April. Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said China had not released official figures since a 2010 auditing report that put local government debt at 10.7 trillion yuan." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNow They Tell Us: China Debt Levels ‘Unknown’

Michael Scheuer: For Egypt’s Islamists war is a legitimate option

"What should concern Americans most about the near certainty of war in Egypt, and thus the broadening of the mujahedin’s overall war against the West, is whether Obama’s administration — in league with pro-Israel Republican and Democratic senators, Britain, and Israel — used its intelligence services to help the leaders of Egypt’s anti-democratic opposition to organize, fund, and train the democracy-killing forces that filled Cairo’s streets with demonstrations and prompted the Egyptian army to use that most democratic of all tools — a military coup." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMichael Scheuer: For Egypt’s Islamists war is a legitimate option

US Egypt Policies Don’t Pass the Laugh Test

"Let’s review US policy toward Egypt to see the foolish hypocrisy of the government’s interventionism: First the US props up the unelected Hosni Mubarak for decades, spending tens of billions of dollars to keep him in power. Then the US provides assistance to those who in 2011 successfully overthrew Mubarak. Then the US demands an election. The Egyptians held an election that was deemed free and fair and shortly afterward the US-funded military overthrows the elected president. Then the US government warns the military that it needs to restore democracy – the very democracy that was destroyed by military coup! All this they do with a straight face.." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS Egypt Policies Don’t Pass the Laugh Test

Obama and Israel Stoke a Sectarian Shia-Sunni War

"Obama is acting as an appendage of Israel. He does this by increasing arms shipments to rebels in Syria who are Sunnis. Islamist fighters are flooding into Syria, we read. Obama thereby rewards and encourages extreme religious sentiments, leading to religious conflicts. Moderate Muslims find that their nations are increasingly subject to the drives of the armed extremist contingents who become battle-hardened. Obama and Israel are lighting a keg of dynamite. It will explode in their faces. If enough extremist Muslims become armed and ready to fight, they will eventually turn on Israel." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama and Israel Stoke a Sectarian Shia-Sunni War

Missouri threatens return of gas chambers for death row inmates

"The state of Missouri is threatening to resurrect the use of the gas chamber for executions, as an alternative to its dwindling supply of lethal-injection drugs. Drugs companies in America, Europe and Asia have refused on ethical grounds to sell their products to corrections departments, and the European Commission has imposed tough restrictions on the export of anaesthetics to the US. As supplies became harder to procure, Missouri last year became the only state in the nation to turn to an execution protocol that used just one lethal injection, of the anaesthetic propofol in doses 15 times stronger than in usual surgical procedures." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMissouri threatens return of gas chambers for death row inmates

European Central Bankers Promise Monetary Inflation for Years

"It’s official: the Bank of England and the European Central Bank announced a policy of guaranteed counterfeiting on a permanent basis. They will keep short-term interest rates low for years. They did not say for how many years. The promise of unlimited counterfeiting pushed up European stock markets. This joint announcement makes it clear that Europe’s central banks have no exit policy, any more than the Federal Reserve does. Once a central bank adopts monetary inflation, it cannot stop without creating a recession. Europe’s central bankers have decided that they prefer risking price inflation as opposed to recession." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEuropean Central Bankers Promise Monetary Inflation for Years

Delay in Obamacare requirement puts onus on the honor system

"Delaying the 'employer mandate' already means the government is giving up potential revenue next year, as businesses whose employees buy subsidized coverage on an Obamacare exchange would be fined $3,000 per person. In addition, without the reporting requirements of the employer mandate in 2014, 'the exchanges and the IRS will not be able to verify whether someone’s coverage is unaffordable' and thus whether the person is eligible for subsidies, said law professor Timothy Jost of Washington and Lee School of Law in Lexington, Virginia. That leaves it up to individual consumers to be honest about what they do, or do not, qualify for." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDelay in Obamacare requirement puts onus on the honor system

Dot-Coms and Bonds Aren’t So Different after All

"In the late 1990s, stocks were the asset du jour. Every single year saw inflows and, at the time, it was the single biggest influx of investor cash into any asset class ever. That massive tsunami of investor dollars drove dot-coms to ridiculous valuations, setting the stage for the epic crash that followed. But guess what? It pales in comparison to the amount of cash that has poured into bond funds in the past few years. A stunning $1.15 trillion in investor money flowed into bond funds between 2009 and April 2013. Not one year showed an outflow from bonds. One could argue the bond bubble is at least 30 percent bigger than the late-1990s stock-market bubble." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDot-Coms and Bonds Aren’t So Different after All