” “Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property. Corporate personhood is the legal fiction that property is a person.” –– Anonymous

In 2010 the NeoConservative, pro-corporate, anti-democratic Roberts’ 5/4 Supreme Court’s decided in the  Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission ruling to grant personhood to corporations by allowing unlimited, anonymous monetary contributions to political campaigns and candidates. This ruling, called by many to be the worst Supreme Court decision of the past century, has emboldened the already powerful and corruptible multinational corporations (that now have achieved dominion over US politics as well as the economy) to “buy” any number of politicians and brain-wash voters by multi-million dollar ad campaigns that the rest of us can’t afford to counter in state and national elections.

The US Supreme Court has thus made legal the absurd notion that inanimate corporations like PolyMet and GTac (potential despoilers of northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin’s irreplaceable wetlands, aquifers and aboriginal land and water rights) deserve the same privileges (but not the same responsibilities) as living humans.

After the ruling came down, there was only a brief bit of outrage from the so-called national leadership of our essentially “one-party system” (one-party, that is, when it comes to the GOP and Democratic Party’s corporate and militarist agendas). What outrage was expressed was quickly drowned out by a well-timed, mainstream media-orchestrated “tempest in a teapot”, namely Toyota’s recall of tens of thousands of accelerator pedals (that had only infrequently been the cause of significant accidents).

What Should be the Punishment for Corporate Entities That Plunder and Pillage?

The following question about the consequences of the Supreme Court’s democracy-threatening decision must be asked:

If corporations are given the privileges of personhood, shouldn’t they also bear the same responsibilities and incur the same punishments as individuals when they commit crimes, poison the water and air or rape the land?

Peace and justice activists applauded when the citizens of Shapleigh, Maine protected their water rights last year from the insatiable water-extracting corporate giant Nestle. (See video and more information on this episode at: (http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40335).

Nestle, one of the many multinational corporate exploiters, has no allegiance to Maine, Minnesota or Wisconsin or any other state where this foreign entity tries to extract water or minerals that never were theirs to begin with. But when the minerals have been depleted and the water has been polluted or drained, Nestle, PolyMet and GTac will be gone, and so will Exxon/Mobil, British Petroleum, Halliburton, Deep Water Horizon, British Petroleum, Coca-Cola, Perrier or whatever other corporate intruder that ruthlessly extracts or poisons the people’s resources — all for the economic benefit of their faceless investors, shareholders and CEOs at their out-of-state corporate headquarters, none of whom will have to live with the poisoned environment that they have left behind.

The good citizens of Shapleigh recognized the foxes that tried to get inside their henhouse, and they did the right thing by vigorously resisting; and another underdog David — with a lot of justice, a lot of pluck and a little luck on his side — won a rare victory against another evil giant.

 Move to Amend: Overturning Citizens United

That small victory against injustice should illustrate what must be done if American democracy is ever to thrive again. The outrageous Citizens United decision must be overturned with a constitutional amendment. (See www.movetoamend.org for more.) The future of the nation, our children, the planet, our drinking water, natural habitat and aboriginal rights are all at stake. And exploitative corporations, just like other sociopathic entities, don’t seem to care.

It is important to understand that the allegiance of big corporations is to its investors, shareholders, executives and management teams, and not to the people whose lives and health depend on the sustainability of the land, water, air and food supplies.

Most corporate shareholders and executives from multinational corporations that are part of Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Agribusiness, Big Oil, Big Finance, etc are motivated by profits and not the common good, and therefore they are not concerned when local resources are used up and the struggling, degraded communities are left behind to fend for themselves (after being fooled into trusting non-human corporations that are inherently untrustworthy [see below]).

”Trust us: We’re the Experts; Toxic Sludge is Good for You; We’ll Clean up After Ourselves” — and Other Corporate Lies

Conscienceless mega-corporations that swoop down on unsuspecting people and naïve governmental bodies, usually ask them to “trust us” and that — at some time in the uncertain future – they will un-poison the often permanently-toxified environment that they secretly intend to just leave behind. The people, understandably desperate for jobs, are usually fooled into believing well-crafted disinformation that is cunningly delivered — until it is too late and the mess that is left behind is no longer the sneaky corporation’s problem. It’s an old con.

Promises made during the courtship phase are likely to be broken with impunity when these foreign corporations are forced to pull-out, merge with other entities or file for bankruptcy. Silver-tongued experts from out of state are very good at getting us rubes up north all starry-eyed over temporary jobs, jobs, jobs while discounting the huge risks of permanent dead and dying zones being created because of their poisonous chemicals.

Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola and Union Carbide/Dow Chemical and Henry Kissinger

A good example of the many tax-avoiding American mega-corporations is Wal-Mart. A large portion of its profits go to a handful of Walton family billionaires in Arkansas. Wal-Mart successfully — and legally — avoids paying for healthcare insurance and other benefits for most of their exploited, underpaid, part-time employees, who are also victims of the corporation’s notorious union-busting policies.

US taxpayers are left holding the bag while Wal-Mart legally avoids what should ethically be their corporate responsibility: to be fair to their employees. Wal-Mart’s notorious below-subsistence level wages forces many of their workers to work a second or third job and also seek welfare benefits — a cunning cost-shifting tactic that places economic burdens on the tax-paying public.

Another example is Coca-Cola. Coke depends on water that it extracts from any water source or aquifer from which the corporation can economically extract it, including, as a particularly egregious example, the aquifers that are situated beneath thirsty, struggling, starving (and then suicidal) farmers who are losing their farms in newly drought-stricken India.

Millions of gallons of water, that have traditionally been used for farmland irrigation systems, are being depleted by Coca-Cola in order to meet the artificial demand that has been created for the sweet, sugary, caffeinated (and therefore addictive), nutritionally useless, obesity-inducing and diabetes-producing soft drink that contains a few cents worth of ingredients and then is sold to poor people everywhere for as much as the market will bear.

Coke’s predation of poor people in India and elsewhere brings to mind another corporate crime that has never been brought to justice. The infamous 1984 Union Carbide cyanide catastrophe in Bhopal, India that killed 25,000 slum-dwellers, left 100,000 permanently poisoned victims whose lives were ruined, and has left uncounted numbers of people living on poisoned soil, drinking poisoned water and breathing poisoned air.

Every person that has been exposed to……”

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“There’s good propaganda and bad propaganda. Bad propaganda is generally crude, amateurish Judy Miller “mobile weapons lab-type” nonsense that figures that people are so stupid they’ll believe anything that appears in “the paper of record.” Good propaganda, on the other hand, uses factual, sometimes documented material in a coordinated campaign with the other major media to cobble-together a narrative that is credible, but false.

 

The so called Fed’s transcripts, which were released last week, fall into the latter category. The transcripts (1,865 pages) reveal the details of 14 emergency meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in 2008, when the financial crisis was at its peak and the Fed braintrust was deliberating on how best to prevent a full-blown meltdown. But while the conversations between the members are accurately recorded, they don’t tell the gist of the story or provide the context that’s needed to grasp the bigger picture. Instead, they’re used to portray the members of the Fed as affable, well-meaning bunglers who did the best they could in ‘very trying circumstances’. While this is effective propaganda, it’s basically a lie, mainly because it diverts attention from the Fed’s role in crashing the financial system, preventing the remedies that were needed from being implemented (nationalizing the giant Wall Street banks), and coercing Congress into approving gigantic, economy-killing bailouts which shifted trillions of dollars to insolvent financial institutions that should have been euthanized.

What I’m saying is that the Fed’s transcripts are, perhaps, the greatest propaganda coup of our time. They take advantage of the fact that people simply forget a lot of what happened during the crisis and, as a result, absolve the Fed of any accountability for what is likely the crime of the century. It’s an accomplishment that PR-pioneer Edward Bernays would have applauded. After all, it was Bernays who argued that the sheeple need to be constantly bamboozled to keep them in line. Here’s a clip from his magnum opus “Propaganda”:

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”

Sound familiar? My guess is that Bernays’ maxim probably features prominently in editors offices across the country where “manufacturing consent” is Job 1 and where no story so trivial that it can’t be spun in a way that serves the financial interests of the MSM’s constituents. (Should I say “clients”?) The Fed’s transcripts are just a particularly egregious example. Just look at the coverage in the New York Times and judge for yourself. Here’s an excerpt from an article titled “Fed Misread Crisis in 2008, Records Show”:

“The hundreds of pages of transcripts, based on recordings made at the time, reveal the ignorance of Fed officials about economic conditions during the climactic months of the financial crisis. Officials repeatedly fretted about overstimulating the economy, only to realize time and again that they needed to redouble efforts to contain the crisis.” (“Fed Misread Crisis in 2008, Records Show”, New York Times)

This quote is so misleading on so many levels it’s hard to know where to begin.

First of all, the New York Times is the ideological wellspring of elite propaganda in the US. They set the tone and the others follow. That’s the way the system works. So it always pays to go to the source and try to figure out what really lies behind the words, that is, the motive behind the smokescreen of half-truths, distortions, and lies. How is the Times trying to bend perceptions and steer the public in their corporate-friendly direction, that’s the question. In this case, the Times wants its readers to believe that the Fed members “misread the crisis”; that they were ‘behind the curve’ and stressed-out, but–dad-gum-it–they were trying their level-best to make things work out for everybody.

How believable is that? Not very believable at all.

Keep in mind, the crisis had been going on for a full year before the discussions in these transcripts took place, so it’s not like the members were plopped in a room the day before Lehman blew up and had to decide what to do. No. They had plenty of time to figure out the lay of the land, get their bearings and do what was in the best interests of the country. Here’s more from the Times:

”My initial takeaway from these voluminous transcripts is that they paint a disturbing picture of a central bank that was in the dark about each looming disaster throughout 2008. That meant that the nation’s top bank regulators were unprepared to deal with the consequences of each new event.”

Have you ever read such nonsense in your life? Of course, the Fed knew what was going on. How could they NOT know? Their buddies on Wall Street were taking it in the stern sheets every time their dingy asset pile was downgraded which was every damn day. It was costing them a bundle which means they were probably on the phone 24-7 to (Treasury Secretary) Henry Paulson whining for help. “You gotta give us a hand here, Hank. The whole Street is going toes-up. Please.”

Here’s more from the NYT:

“Some Fed officials have argued that the Fed was blind in 2008 because it relied, like everyone else, on a standard set of economic indicators. As late as August 2008, “there were no clear signs that many financial firms were about to fail catastrophically,” Mr. Bullard said in a November presentation in Arkansas that the St. Louis Fed recirculated on Friday. “There was a reasonable case that the U.S. could continue to ‘muddle through.’ (“Fed Misread Crisis in 2008, Records Show”, New York Times)

There’s that same refrain again, “Blind”, “In the dark”, “Behind the curve”, “Misread the crisis”.

Notice how the Times only invokes terminology that implies the Fed is blameless. But it’s all baloney. Everyone knew what was going on. Check out this excerpt from a post by Nouriel Roubini that was written nearly a full year before Lehman failed:

“The United States has now effectively entered into a serious and painful recession. The debate is not anymore on whether the economy will experience a soft landing or a hard landing; it is rather on how hard the hard landing recession will be. The factors that make the recession inevitable include the nation’s worst-ever housing recession, which is still getting worse; a severe liquidity and credit crunch in financial markets that is getting worse than when it started last summer; high oil and gasoline prices; falling capital spending by the corporate sector; a slackening labor market where few jobs are being created and the unemployment rate is sharply up; and shopped-out, savings-less and debt-burdened American consumers who — thanks to falling home prices — can no longer use their homes as ATM machines to allow them to spend more than their income. As private consumption in the US is over 70% of GDP the US consumer now retrenching and cutting spending ensures that a recession is now underway.

On top of this recession there are now serious risks of a systemic financial crisis in the US as the financial losses are spreading from subprime to near prime and prime mortgages, consumer debt (credit cards, auto loans, student loans), commercial real estate loans, leveraged loans and postponed/restructured/canceled LBO and, soon enough, sharply rising default rates on corporate bonds that will lead to a second round of large losses in credit default swaps. The total of all of these financial losses could be above $1 trillion thus triggering a massive credit crunch and a systemic financial sector crisis.” ( Nouriel Roubini Global EconoMonitor)

Roubini didn’t have some secret source for data that wasn’t available to the Fed. The financial system was collapsing and it had been collapsing for a full year. Everyone who followed the markets knew it. Hell, the Fed had already opened its Discount Window and the Term Auction Facility (TAF) in 2007 to prop up the ailing banks–something they’d never done before– so they certainly knew the system was cratering. So, why’s the Times prattling this silly fairytale that “the Fed was in the dark” in 2008? ….”

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“A global currency war is raging, and the results may not be pretty, says Forbes contributor Robin Lewis.

In the United States, exports may benefit temporarily, but not for the long term, he writes.

And overall, “what if this time is different from all past deflationary and inflationary cycles? What if the international monetary system destabilizes and collapses, and inflation does not rise sharply?” Lewis says.

“Just as the Fed’s quantitative easing was supposed to juice our economy, but instead, simply juiced the traders, why would anybody believe that the central banks around the world could stop the enormous forces being set in motion in” so many countries.

People around the world may come to view paper money as worthless, Lewis writes.

The result could be “at best, a global Japan-style deflation, at worst, a worldwide depression,” he says. “Then, maybe we’ll go back to bartering, where borrowing, debt and interest rates will not exist. A time when the value of goods and services actually meant something. Hmm.”

Fears of a messy end to global currency wars have been a current hot topic….”

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“Options (VIX) tied to gains in the benchmark gauge for American stock volatility reached the highest prices in six years last week, reflecting bets that the calm prevailing in equities for the last year won’t last.

A series of calls that appreciate in tandem with the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index climbed to the highest since May 2007 relative to puts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The increase reflects bets that swings measured by the VIX will widen this year after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 30 percent in 2013 without ever suffering a decline of 10 percent or more.

The intensifying standoff between Ukraine and Russia in the Crimea added to concerns facing global stock investors. U.S. equities completed a rebound last week from a selloff spurred by emerging-market turmoil that erased 5.8 percent between Jan. 15 and Feb. 3, the biggest retreat since June.

“Any time geopolitical risks escalate, especially in a major way — and we’d say this is a major escalation and a major increase in risk — you subject global stock markets to increased volatility,”Timothy Ghriskey, chief investment officer at New York-based Solaris Asset Management LLC, which manages about $1.5 billion in assets, said by phone yesterday. “The impact may end up being modest if the situation de-escalates, but right now there is no sign of that.”

Ukraine Crisis

The crisis in Ukraine deteriorated as Russian President Vladimir Putin won parliamentary backing to send troops into Russia’s southern neighbor. Ukraine, which put its forces on combat readiness, said over the weekend an invasion would be “an act of war,” and U.S. President Barack Obamawarned Russia not to intervene. The conflict follows a month in which global equities, bonds and commodities rose together for the first time since July and the S&P 500 rallied 4.3 percent to an all-time high after a 3.6 percent decline in January.

Futures on the S&P 500 slid 0.8 percent at 9:15 a.m. in London today. The HSI Volatility Index, which measures the cost of options on the Hong Kong equity gauge, jumped 10 percent, while the Nikkei Stock Average Volatility Index climbed 7. Europe’s VStoxx Index surged 17 percent, the most since January, to 19.56.

Calls predicting a 10 percent gain in the VIX cost 18.2 points more than puts betting on a 10 percent decrease as of Feb. 28, according to three-month options data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the biggest gap since before the start of the financial crisis.

Market Movement….”

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“With just released inflation figures out of Germany coming weaker than expected, Mario Draghi’s monetary nightmare – how to spur credit creation in Europe to the private sector – just got even worse. Incidentally the topic of Draghi’s “Monetary Nightmare” is well-known to regular readers and has been covered here extensively in the past, most recently here. So while we await to see how the ongoing deflation in Europe, soon hitting its core too, spreads through the system, the most recent data out of Europe is that lending to non-financial corporations declined once again in January, this time by €11.7billion, adjusted for securitizations and sales. On an annual basis, the decline in January was -2.0%, the same as December, and worse than the -1.8% in November as reported by the ECB.

The long-term chart is an absolute disaster.

Here is what SocGen has to say about it….”

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“NEW YORK (Reuters) – What can you do if you deposited bitcoins at Mt. Gox, which shuttered on Tuesday with little explanation? Probably not much.

Customers of the bitcoin exchange may have little chance of recovering their funds if they prove to be missing, legal and regulatory experts said.

Clients could file lawsuits, claiming negligence or breach of contract, but the virtual currency is subject to very little regulatory oversight and no government guarantees.

Japan-based Mt. Gox went dark on Tuesday, weeks after a spate of cyber attacks, leaving customers unable to access their accounts and underscoring the risks associated with bitcoins.

Bitcoins, which exist in electronic form, depend on a network of computers to solve complex mathematical problems in order to verify and record every transaction. Investors deposit their bitcoins in digital “wallets” at various exchanges; Mt. Gox had been the largest as recently as February 7, when it and other exchanges were forced to halt withdrawals following several cyber attacks.

Unlike bank accounts…”

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“Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobile, is a staunch supporter of fracking. But bring that business anywhere near his Bartonville, Texas, ranch and he’ll sue.

Tillerson has developed a reputation for his unwavering support of fracking. The practice is key to Exxon’s business, and Tillerson is highly critical of efforts to regulate it, according to Forbes.

“This type of dysfunctional regulation is holding back the American economic recovery, growth and global competitiveness,” Tillerson lashed out on one occasion, Forbes reported.

Editor’s Note: Free Video — ‘Rogue Calendar’ Could Turn 490% Profits

But when remnants of fracking come to Tillerson’s neighborhood his tune changes. Instead of concerns about America’s best interest and Exxon’s energy future, Tillerson’s focus becomes the unpleasant effects it has on the quality of life and real estate values, Forbes noted. And he’s willing to take legal action.

The Exxon CEO joined a lawsuit to shut down a water tower that’s to be used to supply fracking near his ranch. And Tillerson isn’t just a passive supporter asked to sign a community petition. No, he went to a town hall meeting to personally protest against the construction of the water tower, according to The Wall Street Journal…..”

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“Fears of a bank run in Ukraine are rising, as central bank reserves sink and some 7 percent of bank deposits were lost in just 3 days.

Ukraine’s reserves currently sit at $15 billion, according to the country’s newly appointed central bank governor, Stepan Kubiv. Kubiv said 7 percent of deposits, or 30 billion hryvnias ($3.3 billion), were lost between February 18-20, when the violence in the country reached its zenith and snipers opened fire on protesters.

Goldman Sachs has estimated the country’s foreign currency reserves have declined to $12 – $14 billion….”

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“West Texas Intermediate oil prices climbed to a four-month high above $103 a barrel last week, and Sean Hyman, editor of Newsmax’s Ultimate Wealth Report newsletter and a Moneynews.com contributor, thinks the rally will continue.

Nasty weather in much of the United States and turmoil in oil exporting nations such as Venezuela have helped boost prices. April crude oil futures traded at $101.70 on the Nymex Tuesday morning.

“Oil has been consolidating for several years in a sideways pattern, and I believe that global demand is picking up. That’s going to shoot it through the top of that range,” Hyman tells CNBC. …”

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“The story of former Jefferies MBS trader Jesse Litvak, who is currently on trial in New Haven federal court accused of defrauding investors of $2 million by lying on trades of mortgage-backed securities, is well known to regular readers: it was summarized previously in “We Are Doneski Gorgeous!” – How Bond Trading On Wall Street Really Works. In that article we showed, more than just an isolated case of alleged fraud, that when it comes to OTC trades which do not transact on an exchange but instead take place over the phone between a salesman and a buyer, it is all a game of lies, fraud and misinformation… however one which both it is a game of lies, fraud and misinformation. Today, Mr. Litvak confirmed as much when he said, quoting Bloomberg,  “My lying is part” of making deals, he said, “although I generally consider myself a truthful person.”

And that, in a nutshell is not only Wall Street, but how Wall Street perceives itself: a business in which “truthful people” must resort to lying – even if that means being sued for fraud – to make a living.

More on this story from Bloomberg…..”

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[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wONAqaxgIoo 450 300]

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[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tuhjewGdSo#t=50 450 300]

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“The stock market is likely to double during the next 10 years and then double again in the 10 years after that, as the economy resumes its historical expansion path, says Ron Baron, CEO of Baron Capital.

“The most important thing to think about right now is that growth of our economy is increasing,” he tells CNBC. “Housing is doing great. Cars are doing great. Energy costs are low. Interest costs are low. Credit is widely available. Deficits are falling.”

The economy grew 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter, although that number is expected to be revised downward.

As for the stock market, “stock prices are valued at the median level they have been for 50 or 100 years, . . . or 15 1/2 times [earnings],” Baron notes. “It doesn’t feel expensive to me with the economy improving the way it is.”

Nominal economic growth, not adjusted for inflation, has averaged 6.6 percent a year since 1960, he adds. And he sees the stock market matching the economy’s growth — “almost 7 percent a year, for a very long period of time, 10 or 20 years.”

A 7 percent annual gain means the market would double in 10 years and then again in 20 years. “So that means 30,000 for the market [Dow Jones Industrial Average] 10 years from now and 60,000 in 20 years,” Baron explains.

“It might sound like a huge number, but that’s what compounding is. It makes small numbers get to be real big. In 1982, the market was 880. And now it’s 16,000.

“The most important thing is that the stock market is a hedge against inflation,” he stresses….”

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“The sudden slide of the Chinese currency over the last week has raised fears that the yuan is nearing levels that could trigger an unwinding of billions of dollars in highly leveraged bets on the currency’s appreciation. Traders and strategists say a portion of the yuan’s recent decline can be attributed to investors looking to get out of trades before losses soar.

Daily trading volume in the yuan has exploded recently, tripling to $120 billion a day since 2010, when China allowed trading in its tightly controlled currency. The yuan is now the ninth-most traded currency in the world, according to the Bank for International Settlements, rising from 17th two years ago.

In the past year, trading in derivatives tied to the currency have soared as investors bet on a continued rise in the yuan. According to Deutsche Bank, approximately $250 billion worth of these derivative contracts were traded in 2013, the first year these products took off. Already in 2014, between $80 billion and $100 billion have been traded, the bank says….”

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It has been a great while since i have written a post. I figured most of you have categorized me into your little mental boxes, and for the most part written me off as that “type” of person with those “type” of views. That’s okay as we are all entitled to our opinions, but remember this; a tree that bends in the wind will survive for a very long time. In other words, being inflexible and unable to accept any notion from someone who’s views are opposed to your own belief structure will only allow for no synthesis in the discussion process. Therefore, no change in the real world.

At any rate, i wanted to touch on the subject matter of income inequality and the “demagoguery” of the 1%. To be fair i did just slap the 1% in the face with Immortal Technique, and it is important to state that i do not condone generalization in any way. Poking fun is a way to lighten up the subject matter.

I was watching CNN the other day, while enjoying a cup of joe. The discussion of $FB buying WhatsApp for $19 billion was touted as the benefit of the American dream where a foreigner could go from food stamps in his teenage years to being a gazillionaire in a very short period of time. The deal was used as an excuse to escape the negative connotations  of people becoming incredibly wealthy and subconsciously implying that  being wealthy is all copacetic.

Being and becoming wealthy is in its own right not the issue at hand. What is important is how that wealth is attained. We should never discard ingenuity and business acumen to attain insane amounts of wealth. What we should focus on is the unspoken path to attaining wealth for some people.

You would agree, that attaining wealth through theft, fraud, and or price gouging is unacceptable. But this is precisely what we have in many, not all, but many cases in our society. Lately, i have wondered why something that cost pennies to make is sold for many if not ten’s of dollars. Most will point to a “free market” system and say that the price is based upon supply, demand, and what the market will bear. But is that really the case? I think not when we exploit and pay people a quarter a day to make sneakers. The world is mostly 3rd World born and they are taking notes.

We seem to live in a world where monopolies are all the rage and those monopolies on top of the market place use their wealth to lobby for favorable tax, business, and regulatory conditions. These conditions only serve the few, they actually do away with competition in some instances, and insure that the fraud, theft, and price gouging stays constant. Constant at least for a while.

As an example, during war time as we have witnessed, over the past ten years  we are all too familiar with no bid contracts and watching the military waste oodles of money. Example here , and here. For the record, leasing a vehicle for $40k per year, in some cases $40k per year for 4-7 year minimum contracts, is asinine as they could be bought for that amount of money.

As the saying goes, “the apple does not fall far from the tree,” it is no wonder that when some business leaders and some government officials and or agencies act in a certain way we have individuals running a muck destroying the once respected American reputation.  Yet i digress from the main topic.

I recently posted some videos / articles that display some corporate attitudes and the viability of our economic model. This type of behavior is truly disgusting. More importantly, the issue at hand is that corporations are only beholden to shareholders and maximizing profits. In some cases these attitudes have no regard for humanity, ethics, and what made our country the envy of the world. Given this reality how can we say a corporation is a person? Most persons or citizens are kind, thoughtful, and generous to their fellow citizen. We the people are what makes this country great, but in some cases we the corporation defiles any resemblance to what it means to be human.

It needs to be mentioned that a world fashioned out of a myopic view by the “Bernays effect” and the idea that Darwin’s theories  are a perfect model for our economy is…well a sad result of the dark side of man. Darwin mentions competition and survival of the fittest a few times while he mentions love and community nearly 100 times.

Getting back to the subject one again, the intrinsic value of Gekko’s famous quote “that greed is good” is not inherently bad in and of itself. What becomes unacceptable, is the lengths to which some will go to attain profits through their justified statement.  The problem lies with our fearless leaders both in government and corporate America.

If you want the demagoguery and hatred to disappear then you need to promote a healthy model of business and governing that considers the entire world as your community and brethren. Until then, we will forever remain in a state of “Us and Them” and we will suffer the fate of our disgusting, inhumane, and criminal way of life. This continuance IMO can not and will not end well. If you want to change the future then we must leave the past behind!

On a closing note, i would hate to think that George Carlin could be right. Hopefully, time will prove us not to be a surface annoyance to the planet. I would hope that we survive the wrath of Gaia and ourselves for that matter. Respecting the ideas of the Yin and Yang principle i hope that this article describing the seed of dark blackness is a necessary process to living in the white light.

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLXnuMjx-A8 450 300]

 

 

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[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL6Jv2Jpnpg 450 300]

Watch part two: http://bit.ly/1gC4Nj3

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“It has been awhile since I have posted on the web and thought this was an appropriate article to share. This article focuses on technical analysis of 3 currencies and the US Dollar Index. A lot of the technical indicators I follow are universal, but the way in which they are modified and put together will not be found anywhere else. Developing the Contracting Fibonacci Spiral and the inverse chiral inversion that happened last summer have played a role in the forecast of this article. As unbelievable as the forecast may seem by time the end of this article, there is a significant amount of logic that went into this and may even defy logic. There is a mathematical basis to this pattern and hopefully it will be understood somewhat by the end of this article.

The US Dollar Index has changed its pattern and has confirmed a number of trends discussed over the past few months. I have spent a lot of time reviewing the US Dollar Index this weekend, due to it remaining under pressure and failing to break higher. The Elliott Wave pattern I was following had the longer term pattern fail due to not breaking higher…This has repercussions for everything.

For one, gold and silver are likely to remain in an uptrend for longer than anyone may think…the last update I stated suggested 2-3 months…this could extend into next year, depending upon how the downtrend of the US Dollar Index progresses. The HUI/Gold Ratio is in an uptrend, so holding or adding to precious metal positions is still in effect.

Oil is again over $100/barrel and if it closes above $101/barrel, then it is going to $111 within 6-8 weeks, followed by a move to $130-140/barrel within 8-12 months. Once oil closes above $101/barrel on a daily basis, oil is locked into an uptrend, which will drive energy stocks higher. Conservative investors should look to enter positions once this trigger becomes activated.

Also, I have been thinking more about what the Chiral Inversion of the Contracting Fibonacci Spiral and what that means. From everything what I can fathom at this point in time, things are going to really move higher between now and Q2-Q3 2015. The CFS had a series of higher lows from 1932 until 2013, which had a series of higher lows. The chiral inversion of the CFS that happened last summer implied a reversal to this trend. A cycle low is expected sometime between Q2-Q3 2016 and suggests a series of lower highs from 2016 until 2020. The following time points are required to complete the CFS sequence after 2016: 2, 1 and 1. Two years after 2016 is 2018, which is the next expected cycle low, followed by 2019 and 2020. The 2020 low should mirror of the amount of time taken for the 2019 leg. As we reach the point of singularity in 2020, the volatility of the cycle will only increase.

So, going short at the right point in time during 2015 will be critical, because between now and then, many people are going to get burned and will not even want to try shorting anything again. At the 2016 bottom there should be a very powerful rally that lasts into 2017/early 2018, followed by another crash into mid to late 2018. Knowing the information above is going to be very critical, because a lot of money will either be made, or lost during this period of time.

I have a lot of updates to do this week to get back on track after spending too much time on this side analysis and thought process for how things unfold, but viewed this as a more important step. It is important to anticipate the hypothesis and continue to alter it and make the required changes to fit the model as time progresses. This is what Science is about…forming thoughts around a number of observations and extrapolating the thought into abstract form to model future experimentation. In our case, the field testing of our hypothesis is the market and because time only travels in one direction, we can not repeat the experiment. We can look back at history, but alas, it too only has one path.

One final thought…if the US Dollar Index is going to go down, then commodities are going to rise, which should in turn raise the value of the Canadian and Australian currencies going forward. It appears that Q2-Q3 2015 is going to represent the cycle low for the US Dollar, which should rise during the deflationary bought expected after this point in time.

Based upon this analysis, a list of gold and silver stocks to consider will be posted this week. Hint…most of these are one’s that I have covered in the past, but a few new one’s will be discussed over the coming week’s.

Currencies

The daily chart of the Canadian Dollar Index is shown below, with lower Bollinger bands beneath the current price, suggestive that a bottom was put in place. Full stochastics 1, 2 and 3 are shown below in order of descent, with the %K above the %D in all three instances. Extrapolation of the %K trend in stochastics 1 and 2 suggest at least another 2-3 weeks of further upside before a top is put in place. I will post the monthly chart of the Canadian Dollar Index next week, which suggests the upward trend could last into next year. The Canadian Dollar has been in a down trend for over 18 months, so a bounce is expected.

Figure 1

The daily chart of the US Dollar Index is shown below, with upper 21 and 34 MA Bollinger bands in close proximity to each other with rising stochastics, suggestive that further sideways to upward price action is likely. The lower 21 MA Bollinger band is beneath the 34 MA Bollinger band, suggestive that an oversold condition is developing. Full stochastics 1, 2 and 3 are shown below in order of descent, with the %K above the %D in all three instances. Extrapolation of the %K in stochastics 1 and 2 suggest at least another 2-3 weeks of further upward price action before a top is put in place. There is a noticeable positive divergence between stochastics 1 and 2 relative to the price action of the Aussie dollar, suggestive that further upward price action is pending.

Figure 2…..”

 

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Click here for a recent interview with WSJ

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08sQJxz7o3A 450 300]

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdPkaCTdxBU 450 300]

 

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