TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Japan’s economy minister said Thursday that the government is not worried about a sharp decline in share prices earlier in the day, saying the move represented large-scale profit taking orders triggered by weak Chinese data.
“I thought the pace of the Nikkei’s rise recently was faster than expected,” economy minister Akira Amari said. “The weak Chinese data prompted investors to take profits all at the same time.”
Amari said he is not worried about Thursday’s market developments as he believes the market view on Japan’s economic policies — dubbed Abenomics — remains unchanged.
Have you ever wondered how the government’s misinformation gains traction?
What I have noticed is that whenever a stunning episode occurs, such as 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombing, most everyone whether on the right or left goes along with the government’s explanation, because they can hook their agenda to the government’s account.
The leftwing likes the official stories of Muslims creating terrorist mayhem in America, because it proves their blowback theory and satisfies them that the dispossessed and oppressed can fight back against imperialism.
(NaturalNews) Practically everything you have been told by the mainstream scientific community and the media about the alleged detriments of greenhouse gases, and particularly carbon dioxide, appears to be false, according to new data compiled by NASA’s Langley Research Center. As it turns out, all those atmospheric greenhouse gases that Al Gore and all the other global warming hoaxers have long claimed are overheating and destroying our planet are actually cooling it, based on the latest evidence.
As reported by Principia Scientific International (PSI), Martin Mlynczak and his colleagues over at NASA tracked infrared emissions from the earth’s upper atmosphere during and following a recent solar storm that took place between March 8-10. What they found was that the vast majority of energy released from the sun during this immense coronal mass ejection (CME) was reflected back up into space rather than deposited into earth’s lower atmosphere.
Many people exhibited extreme apathy with regard to the aggressive manner in which the U.S. government went after Julian Assange and Wikileaks for merely doing basic journalism. Now, after the revelations of widespread spying on mainstream journalists in the AP case, and the criminalization of the profession itself in the case of Fox New’s James Rosen, many people are finally starting to wake up as the chickens come home to roost, as they always do eventually.
As such, I think this is a great moment to turn our attention to the Kafkaesque trial about to get underway right here in the “land of the free.” In this case, I am referring to the trial of Bradley Manning. If you are still unaware of this case, I suggest you watch this extremely powerful 5 minute micro-doc called Providence.
Hamilton City Council backs living wage … Hamilton City Council’s lowest-paid staff could receive more than $100 a week after a trailblazing decision to lift workers’ minimum pay rates. The council is set to become the first city in the country to adopt a living wage policy guaranteeing its staff an hourly wage of at least $18.40. In a fiercely debated decision the council voted to introduce a minimum living wage for all staff, phased in over two years, and funded from existing budgets, in a move management said would cost at least $170,000 per year. Council democracy staff last night put the final vote at 7-6 but were checking elected members’ votes because of earlier confusion over the final voting split. – Stuffco.NZ
Dominant Social Theme: Yes, let government print money and pay for all of us. It’s simple, risk free and above all, equitable.
Free-Market Analysis: Because we cover memes, we long ago figured this one out, though admittedly it took some time. But after a while it became clear to us that the globalists were seemingly set on implementing a neo-National Socialist platform around the world if it meant they would be able to maintain their authoritarian grip on money and the governments that print it.
[Ed. Note: They should have put a 20 oz. sugar drink in the bag, and charged them twice... Heck, toss in a handgun and add some firearms charges to the list.]
If in any of these situations even one person of influence had adhered to the basic tenets of liberalism all of these scandals could have been avoided.
“When you grow government this big, these kinds of scandals are inevitable, and (President Obama) bears the responsibility for that,” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told a group of Virginia Republicans over the weekend. Other conservatives are echoing this view — that the scandals embroiling the administration undermine Obama’s push for an activist “big government.”
I guess when you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. For the GOP, anything that goes wrong in the government is instant proof that the government is too big and that the dark tyranny of liberalism is about to overtake us.
by James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute Business Insider
Walter Russell Mead outlines two possible futures for middle-class Americans: one where most of us lose “the race against the machine,”the other where smart government policies enable an eventual successful transition to an economy where IT and robots do a shockingly large percentage of the jobs humans do today — but the carbon-based life forms still have plenty of meaningful work to do.
Mead calls that first scenario, “Bladerunner with food stamps.” Mead:
It’s likely that an information age welfare state would consist of two components: straight out welfare and “social inclusion” payments for some, subsidized make-work jobs (like Postal Service employment in an age of email) for others. …
A Flash Crash in silver is no different than a flash crash in stocks, bonds, or anything else. It is the same root cause of all panics – the lack of bids. Every stock market crash ever since 1907 has been followed by an investigation with the theory that some huge player forced or manipulated the market down. During the 1930s, they summoned everyone and publicly asked if they were short. They found nobody but ruined the lives so so many people with outrageous claims. Fox of 20th century Fox lost the company because so many lawsuits were filed against him based upon groundless allegations on capital hill. Herbert Hoover apologized for what took place saying that sometimes when a government becomes outraged it burns down the barn to get the rat.
A data-based look at the financial context of the past 30 years from the perspective of Gen X.
I am honored to publish an insightful essay by longtime contributor Eric A. on the inconvenient financial era Generation X finds itself in. What sets this essay apart from most other generational analyses is its focus on data and charts.
In The Brewing Generational Conflict (May 15, 2013), I mentioned the Cultural Monster Id (CMI) that arises whenever inter-generational emotions are freely expressed. Every generation– the Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y/Millennials–is slammed for its supposed character flaws.
Personally, I don’t find much value in these outpourings of Cultural Monster Id, for several reasons. One is that generations do not naturally divide into crisp cohorts; people are shaped by the events and shifting myths/worldviews of their culture. As a result there is an inescapable arbitrariness to bright lines between generations.
NOTE: I will be at the Vancouver Investment Conference for the next five days. Because of that, my Friday, Saturday…and Tuesday columns are going to be as short as I can possibly make them. I have other fish to fry while I’m there…and sacrifices have to be made…and this is one of them.
The gold price rallied in fits and starts all through Far East and most of London trading on Wednesday, but got sold down a bit beginning shortly after 9:00 a.m. in New York.
But once the London p.m. gold fix was in, the gold price blasted higher…reaching its high tick of the day of $1,416.00 spot at 10:15 a.m…fifteen minutes later. It took JPMorgan et al almost to the close of London trading at 11:00 a.m. EDT to kill that rally and drive the gold price back below its Tuesday close…safely back under $1,400 spot…and an intraday trading range of seventy bucks.
Today King World News is reporting on incredibly important developments taking place in key markets, including gold and silver. Acclaimed commodity trader Dan Norcini spoke with KWN about the amazing action in gold, silver, oil, stocks and provided a remarkable silver chart. Below is what Norcini had to say in his interview.
Norcini has been stunningly accurate in his predictions of the movement in the gold and silver markets. Now the acclaimed trader discusses these incredibly important developments in key markets: “Yesterday was one of those days in which the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve made a point of saying everything he needed to say in order to cover all of the bases. No matter who was listening they were sure to hear what they wanted.
Yesterday afternoon, following the rout in the US stock market, we made a spurious preview of the true main event:
So selloff in JGBs tonight?
We had no idea how right we would be because the second Japan opened, its bond futures market was halted on a circuit breaker as the 10 Year bond plunged to their lowest level since early 2012, hitting 1% and leading to massive Mark to Market losses for Japanese banks, as we also warned would happen. That was just the beginning, and suddenly the realization crept in that the plunging yen at this point is not only negative for banks, but for the entire stock market, leading to what until that point was a solid up session for the Nikkei to the first rumblings of a ris-off.
The stock of capital flowing into emerging markets has doubled from $4 trillion to $8 trillion since the Lehman Crisis, chasing a catch-up growth story that looks tired and has largely sputtered out in Brazil, Russia and South Africa.
Much of the money has gone into debt, with falling economic returns. This is the next shoe to drop in the festering saga of global imbalances. All it will take is a gear-shift by the US Federal Reserve and the inevitable dollar surge that follows. It was the Volcker Fed that set off Latin America’s defaults in the early 1980s. It was the mighty dollar that set off Mexico’s Tequila crisis, and then the East Asian chain-reaction in the 1990s.
“Every emerging market blow-up that I have seen was preceded by a rise in the dollar,” said Albert Edwards for Societe Generale.
“Investors overlook how vulnerable these countries are to a dollar shock. The whole process of excess liquidity and foreign reserve build-up goes into reverse. It acts like monetary tightening and turns into a vicious circle. Markets look for the weak link with the worst current account deficit, and then the dominoes start to fall,” he said.
As ‘Der Spiegel’ reports, there are efforts underway in the EU to close the tax loopholes used by multinational corporations to quite legally avoid taxes. Allegedly it is a ‘tough battle’ as a few member states are not very happy about these plans. Recently Apple’s CEO was forced to defend his company’s use of such loopholes in front of a very hostile Congress. Everybody seems agreed that tax loopholes are somehow bad. But are they really?
Ludwig von Mises reportedly once remarked that ‘tax loopholes allow capitalism to breathe‘. In a speech he delivered in 1951 at a conference in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, he remarked that so-called ‘loopholes’ are actually simply the law. One should not even call them ‘loopholes’.
[Ed. Note:"It's good to be king and have your own way. Get a feeling of peace at the end of the day. And when your bulldog barks and your canary sings, You're out there with winners, yeah, it's good to be king." -- Tom Petty.]
It appears as if the globe is convinced that any economic recovery is going to begin here in the US first. It certainly is not going to be Europe that is leading the way. Data from China continues mixed while Japan is gaining traction at the expense of their currency. That leaves many investors from abroad looking to put their risk capital to work in the US equity markets. That is creating strong demand for Dollars with which to buy boatloads of US equities.
You can see the effects of this in the dollar chart. Note this is a weekly chart I am using. As it now stands, the Dollar is on track to make its SECOND and a CONSECUTIVE WEEKLY CLOSE above key resistance at last year’s high just above 84.40 or so.
Today’s list of trading “touts” includes tracking guidance for three new positions initiated yesterday. First was a short in the Diamonds (DIA) based on a 155.30 rally target that had been posted on May 8, when the DJIA itself was trading 600 points lower. Our ‘Hidden Pivot’ caught yesterday’s high within 16 cents, just in time to enjoy a subsequent 2% plunge to 152.40. The equivalent reversal in the Dow Industrials, which had risen sharply while Bernanke blathered away on Capitol Hill, amounted to 242 points, or 1.4%. In Johnson & Johnson, although we’d backed away from a short recommendation a while back, giving wide berth to the institutional lunatics who have binged on the stock since December, an 89.46 target was good enough to position subscribers within 53 cents of the 89.99 top. JNJ subsequently reversed down to 88.20, finishing the day at 88.43 on a weak bounce. Finally, subscribers reported buying GLD August 160 calls for 0.21, a penny off the intraday low, based on a 131.83 correction target. The target had been aired intraday in the chat room in response to a timely query.
A few weeks ago, President Obama advised graduates at Ohio State University that they need not listen to voices warning about tyranny around the corner, because we have self-government in America. He argued that self-government is in and of itself an adequate safeguard against tyranny, because voters can be counted upon to elect democrats (lowercase “d”) not tyrants. His argument defies logic and 20th-century history. It reveals an ignorance of the tyranny of the majority, which believes it can write any law, regulate any behavior, alter any procedure and tax any event so long as it can get away with it.
History has shown that the majority will not permit any higher law or logic or value – like fidelity to the natural law, a belief in the primacy of the individual or an acceptance of the supremacy of the Constitution – that prevents it from doing as it wishes.
Today’s AM fix was USD 1,386.00, EUR 1,074.92 and GBP 919.16 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,385.25, EUR 1,071.43 and GBP 917.75 per ounce.
Gold fell $10.20 or 0.74% yesterday to $1,367.60/oz and silver finished up 0.07%.
Gold is up today while stock indices globally are sharply down after the Nikkei crashed 7.3%. The stock crash in Japan is leading to weakness in European equities and will lead to losses when U.S. markets open.
The Nikkei decline is being attributed to the poor Chinese PMI data but the more likely reason is speculators profit taking leading to panic selling. Currency debasement and rampant speculation had led the Nikkei to increase by an incredible 85% in just over 6 months.
The foundation of the Soviet model of trade and investment was centralization under the guise of “universal public ownership”. The entire goal of communism in general was not to give more social and political power to the people, but to extinguish alternative options and focus power into the hands of a select few. The process used to reach this end result can vary, but the goal always remains the same. In most cases, such centralization begins with economic hegemony, and it is in our fiscal structure that we have the means to see the future. Sovietization in our financial life will inevitably lead to sovietization in our political life.
Does the U.S. economy’s path resemble the Soviet template exactly? No. And I’m sure the very suggestion will make the average unaware free market evangelical froth at the mouth. However, as I plan to show, the parallels in our fundamentals are disturbing; the reality is that true free markets in America died a long time ago.
@SenRandPaul:
Instead of examining our broken tax system, the US Senate is about to
harass Apple-one of the greatest business success stories in history.
@SenRandPaul: I am offended by a $4 trillion government bullying, berating and badgering one of America’s greatest success stories.
@SenRandPaul:
To US Senate: I say, instead of Apple executives, you should have
brought in a giant mirror if you want to see who is responsible.
@SenRandPaul: Instead of doing the right thing we drag businessmen and women in here to
berate them for trying to maximize their profits for shareholders.
The recent collapse of a garment factory building in Bangladesh, resulting in the death, at latest count, of more than 1,100 workers who were employed there, has led to international outrage not only against the building’s owner but also against the various retailers in the United States and Europe, many of them prominent, that have sold clothing produced in that building. It is demanded that they assume responsibility for working conditions in the factories that supply them and not deal with factories that do not provide safe and humane conditions and pay fair wages.
Such demands rest on the belief that, if left free of government interference, the profit motive of businessmen or capitalists leads them to pay subsistence wages to workers compelled to work intolerable hours in sub-human conditions. And, more, that the profits wrung from the workers in this way exist in the hands of the capitalists as a kind of disposable slush fund as it were, at least some more or less substantial portion of which can be given back to the workers from whom they were taken, or used on behalf of those workers, with no negative effect except to deprive the capitalists of some of their ill-gotten gains. It is generally taken for granted that the reason the kind of conditions that prevail in Bangladesh and the rest of the Third World do not exist in the United States and Western Europe is the enactment of labor and social legislation, and that what is needed is to extend such legislation to the countries that do not yet have it.
Barry Bannister, Managing Director of Equity Research at Stifel Nicolaus, joins Financial Sense Newshour to discuss whether to “Sell in May and go away” as well as the stark parallels between now and the 1930′s.
Barry is a 5-time winner of WSJ’s All-Star Analyst award, a 7-time winner of Forbes/FT/StarMine top analyst award, the top-10 U.S. Stock Pick analyst for CNBC/Zacks, and a four-time Institutional Investor magazine All-Star Analyst between 2007 and 2010. Here we present a few key excerpts from his interview with Jim Puplava airing Thursday for subscribers.
The outright harassment, intimidation and black bagging of political opponents in the US has reached new levels in recent weeks.
The extortion arm of the US government, the IRS, has admitted to targetting people with certain political beliefs for aggressive shakedowns. And good friend of TDV, Adam Kokesh, who was planning a peaceful armed march in support of the Second Amendment of the Constitution on Washington DC on July 4th was kidnapped in broad daylight on May 18th in Philadelphia.
Here is one of numerous angles showing Adam Kokesh doing nothing but submitting to the people assaulting him and being taken away.
by Chuck Butler, President, Everbank World Markets Casey Research
Markets Take What Big Ben Said Hawkishly?
Good day. And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! What the heck was I thinking, was running through my mind when the alarm went off this morning. In an attempt to relieve Chris from having to write the Pfennig this morning, I told him not to worry about it, I would write it.. All the time knowing that my flight from Houston wasn’t getting in until very, very late.. And that was before all the cancellations! What the heck is going on with the aviation sector? It’s a very long story, so I won’t bore you with the details, but just know that I was ready to raise the white flag and say “you win, you’ve beaten my will”. Darn airlines!
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TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Japan’s economy minister said Thursday that the government is not worried about a sharp decline in share prices earlier in the day, saying the move represented large-scale profit taking orders triggered by weak Chinese data.
Have you ever wondered how the government’s misinformation gains traction?
(NaturalNews) Practically everything you have been told by the mainstream scientific community and the media about the alleged detriments of greenhouse gases, and particularly carbon dioxide, appears to be false, according to new data compiled by NASA’s Langley Research Center. As it turns out, all those atmospheric greenhouse gases that Al Gore and all the other global warming hoaxers have long claimed are overheating and destroying our planet are actually cooling it, based on the latest evidence.
Hamilton City Council backs living wage … Hamilton City Council’s lowest-paid staff could receive more than $100 a week after a trailblazing decision to lift workers’ minimum pay rates. The council is set to become the first city in the country to adopt a living wage policy guaranteeing its staff an hourly wage of at least $18.40. In a fiercely debated decision the council voted to introduce a minimum living wage for all staff, phased in over two years, and funded from existing budgets, in a move management said would cost at least $170,000 per year. Council democracy staff last night put the final vote at 7-6 but were checking elected members’ votes because of earlier confusion over the final voting split. – Stuffco.NZ
A Flash Crash in silver is no different than a flash crash in stocks, bonds, or anything else. It is the same root cause of all panics – the lack of bids. Every stock market crash ever since 1907 has been followed by an investigation with the theory that some huge player forced or manipulated the market down. During the 1930s, they summoned everyone and publicly asked if they were short. They found nobody but ruined the lives so so many people with outrageous claims. Fox of 20th century Fox lost the company because so many lawsuits were filed against him based upon groundless allegations on capital hill. Herbert Hoover apologized for what took place saying that sometimes when a government becomes outraged it burns down the barn to get the rat.
A data-based look at the financial context of the past 30 years from the perspective of Gen X. 
Yesterday In Gold & Silver
John Williams & Chris Waltzek on GoldSeek Radio – May 22, 2013
Today King World News is reporting on incredibly important developments taking place in key markets, including gold and silver. Acclaimed commodity trader Dan Norcini spoke with KWN about the amazing action in gold, silver, oil, stocks and provided a remarkable silver chart. Below is what Norcini had to say in his interview.
Yesterday afternoon, following the rout in the US stock market, we made a spurious preview of the true main event:
Much of the money has gone into debt, with falling economic returns. This is the next shoe to drop in the festering saga of global imbalances. All it will take is a gear-shift by the US Federal Reserve and the inevitable dollar surge that follows. It was the Volcker Fed that set off Latin America’s defaults in the early 1980s. It was the mighty dollar that set off Mexico’s Tequila crisis, and then the East Asian chain-reaction in the 1990s.
The Misguided Urge to Close Loopholes
It appears as if the globe is convinced that any economic recovery is going to begin here in the US first. It certainly is not going to be Europe that is leading the way. Data from China continues mixed while Japan is gaining traction at the expense of their currency. That leaves many investors from abroad looking to put their risk capital to work in the US equity markets. That is creating strong demand for Dollars with which to buy boatloads of US equities.
A few weeks ago, President Obama advised graduates at Ohio State University that they need not listen to voices warning about tyranny around the corner, because we have self-government in America. He argued that self-government is in and of itself an adequate safeguard against tyranny, because voters can be counted upon to elect democrats (lowercase “d”) not tyrants. His argument defies logic and 20th-century history. It reveals an ignorance of the tyranny of the majority, which believes it can write any law, regulate any behavior, alter any procedure and tax any event so long as it can get away with it.
Today’s AM fix was USD 1,386.00, EUR 1,074.92 and GBP 919.16 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,385.25, EUR 1,071.43 and GBP 917.75 per ounce. 
The foundation of the Soviet model of trade and investment was centralization under the guise of “universal public ownership”. The entire goal of communism in general was not to give more social and political power to the people, but to extinguish alternative options and focus power into the hands of a select few. The process used to reach this end result can vary, but the goal always remains the same. In most cases, such centralization begins with economic hegemony, and it is in our fiscal structure that we have the means to see the future. Sovietization in our financial life will inevitably lead to sovietization in our political life.
The recent collapse of a garment factory building in Bangladesh, resulting in the death, at latest count, of more than 1,100 workers who were employed there, has led to international outrage not only against the building’s owner but also against the various retailers in the United States and Europe, many of them prominent, that have sold clothing produced in that building. It is demanded that they assume responsibility for working conditions in the factories that supply them and not deal with factories that do not provide safe and humane conditions and pay fair wages.
Barry Bannister, Managing Director of Equity Research at Stifel Nicolaus, joins Financial Sense Newshour to discuss whether to “Sell in May and go away” as well as the stark parallels between now and the 1930′s.
The outright harassment, intimidation and black bagging of political opponents in the US has reached new levels in recent weeks.
Markets Take What Big Ben Said Hawkishly?
Every Friday 11:00am EST