Global Systemic Risk Is Rising Rapidly Again

"The risk of the 30 most systemically important financial institutions (SIFI) in the world has risen over 30% in the last three weeks as the effects of LTRO fade and encumbrance becomes the new reality. This less-manipulated, government-bank-reacharound-driven bond-market sense of reality has retraced almost 40% of its improvement from its peak last November at 311bps to its best level mid-March at 171bps. The current 226bps level is extremely elevated and as one would expect is dominated by European and US banks (with US banks on average trading wider than Europeans - which may surprise many but Europeans dominate the worst names - most specifically the Spanish banks)."







Source: Capital Context

at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/global-systemic-risk-rising-rapidly-again?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29

The Shocking Truth About Unemployment In America In One Chart

"The mainstream media is not telling you the truth about unemployment in the United States. The percentage of working age Americans that are employed is not increasing. In March 2010, 58.5 percent of all working age Americans had a job. In March 2012, 58.5 percent of all working age Americans had a job. So if the employment rate is exactly the same as it was two years ago, then how in the world can the Obama administration claim that things have gotten significantly better since then? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the official unemployment rate in the United States was 9.8 percent in March 2010 and it declined to 8.2 percent in March 2012. So how is this possible if the percentage of working age Americans that have jobs hasn't moved? Well, what they do is they claim that there are millions upon millions of Americans that have "left the labor force". In other words, they claim that there are millions upon millions of unemployed Americans that don't want jobs anymore. Of course that is a total farce, but the mainstream media and most Americans are buying it. They actually believe that the unemployment rate is going down. But the truth is that the unemployment crisis in America has not subsided. In fact, we are pretty much exactly where we were two years ago, and things are about to get a whole lot worse.
If you want to know the shocking truth about unemployment in America, all you need to do is to look at one chart. The chart posted below shows the change in the employment-population ratio over the past few years. What the employment-population ratio measures is the percentage of working age Americans that actually have jobs. As you can see, it fell dramatically during 2008 and 2009, and since then it has been hovering between 58 and 59 percent...."



at http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-shocking-truth-about-unemployment-in-america-in-one-chart

MARC FABER: This Is Just The Beginning

"Stocks are off of their highs.
Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom Boom & Doom Report, thinks they'll go down a lot more before they start heading up again.
In an interview with CNBC this past weekend, Faber said that last Friday's disappointing jobs report only affirms his opinion that the U.S. economy remains anemic.
And he thinks stocks are headed for a correction or even a bear market, which translates to a sell-off of at least 10 to 20 percent..."

at http://www.businessinsider.com/marc-faber-correction-bear-market-2012-4#ixzz1rZZRx54N

The CIA's 'Persia House' Has Been Sending Stealth Drones Deep Into Iran For Years

"The RQ-170 Sentinel drone lost over Iran late last year was not the United State's first foray into Iran with the stealth UAV, and the Sentinel was not simply plying the northern border of Afghanistan as officials have maintained.

The doomed flight, where the Iranians claim they brought down the drone electronically, and the U.S. says it went down due to a malfunction, was simply the most recent reconnaissance mission deep into Iran by the CIA in the three years since the missions began.
Joby Warrick and Greg Miller at The Washington Post report that RQ-170s have flown more than 600 miles inside Iran for that long before the most recent incident brought the surveillance program into the limelight.
The effort began with president Bush who committed to increased intelligence on Iran's nuclear program during the final years of his presidency, and has been turning out choice information for years.
The drone operations are one part of a multi-agency effort.
The CIA's Iran Operation Division, known internally as "Persia House," is working with the NSA to pull high quality intelligence out of the Middle East country to offer President Obama the options he'll need to decide if Iran's nuclear program focuses on weapons...."

at  http://www.businessinsider.com/the-cias-persia-house-has-been-sending-stealth-drones-deep-into-iran-for-years-2012-4#ixzz1rZZ0Cuqy

2018: China to Overtake USA in GDP? You Decide

"Michael Pettis recently challenged The Economist to a bet. Pettis bet the Economist that China’s GDP will NOT surpass America’s in 2018.
Pettis believes China’s GDP growth will be less than 3% a year, while the Economist, thinks it will be above (more details below).
Mr Pettis is a finance professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Managemen.
AMERICA’S GDP of approximately $15 trillion is approximately double the size of China’s. The Economist provided an interactive chart where readers can decide for themselves when this historic event will occur.
Below are some important notes about China and America’s GDP. The Economist also makes an important note that exchange rates are an important factor in the calculation. Obviously the other important components are inflation and GDP growth per year.
Below are some stats from the Economist:
Over the past ten years, real GDP growth averaged 10.5% a year in China and 1.6% in America; inflation (as measured by the GDP deflator) averaged 4.3% and 2.2% respectively. Since Beijing scrapped its dollar peg in 2005, the yuan has risen by an annual average of just over 4%. Our best guess for the next decade is that annual GDP growth averages 7.75% in China and 2.5% in America, inflation rates average 4% and 1.5%, and the yuan appreciates by 3% a year. Plug in these numbers and China will overtake America in 2018. What do you think?
Chart from 2011:.."




at http://www.valuewalk.com/2012/04/2018-china-to-overtake-usa-in-gdp-you-decide/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2018-china-to-overtake-usa-in-gdp-you-decide