Sunday, November 29, 2015

Jim Rogers: There will be a nightmare!

"Hedge fund legend Jim Rogers talks to DAF about the markets. He was one of the view, who predicted the recent decision of the Swiss National Bank to revoked ..."

http://jimrogers1.blogspot.com.tr/2015/11/jim-rogers-there-will-be-nightmare.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/WOHK+(Jim+Rogers+Blog)

The U.S. Dollar Has Already Caused A Global Recession And Now The Fed Is Going To Make It Worse

"The 7th largest economy on the entire planet, Brazil, has been gripped by a horrifying recession, as has much of the rest of South America.  But it isn’t just South America that is experiencing a very serious economic downturn.  We have just learned that Japan (the third largest economy in the world) has lapsed into recession.  So has Canada.  So has Russia.  The dominoes are starting to fall, and it looks like the global economic crisis that has already started is going to accelerate as we head into the end of the year.  At this point, global trade is already downabout 8.4 percent for the year, and last week the Baltic Dry Shipping Index plummeted to a brand new all-time record low.  Unfortunately for all of us, the Federal Reserve is about to do something that will make this global economic slowdown even worse.
Throughout 2015, the U.S. dollar has been getting stronger.  That sounds like good news, but the truth is that it is not.  When the last financial crisis ended, emerging markets went on a debt binge unlike anything we have ever seen before.  But much of that debt was denominated in U.S. dollars, and now this is creating a massive problem.  As the U.S. dollar has risen, the prices that many of these emerging markets are getting for the commodities that they export have been declining.  Meanwhile, it is taking much more of their own local currencies to pay back and service all of the debts that they have accumulated.  Similar conditions contributed to the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s, the Asian currency crisis of the 1990s and the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.
Many Americans may be wondering when “the next economic crisis” will arrive, but nobody in Brazil is asking that question.  Thanks to the rising U.S. dollar, Brazil has already plunged into a very deep recession
As Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff combats a slumping economy and corruption accusations, the country’s inflation surged above 10 percent while unemployment jumped to 7.9 percent, according to the latest official data. The dour state of affairs has Barclays forecasting a 4 percent economic contraction this year, followed by 3.3 percent shrinkage next year, the investment bank said in a research note last week.
The political and economic turmoil has recently driven the real, Brazil’s currency, to multiyear lows, a factor helping to stoke price pressures.
And as I mentioned above, Brazil is far from alone.  This is something that is happening all over the planet, and the process appears to be accelerating.  One of the places where this often first shows up is in the trade numbers.  The following comes from an article that was just posted by Zero Hedge…"

at http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-u-s-dollar-has-already-caused-a-global-recession-and-now-the-fed-is-going-to-make-it-worse

"On The Cusp Of A Staggering Default Wave": Energy Intelligence Issues Apocalyptic Warning For The Energy Sector

"The Energy Intelligence news and analysis creator and aggregator is not one to haphazradly throw around hyperbolic claims and forecasts. So when it gets downright apocalyptic, as it did this week in a report titled "Is Debt Bomb About to Blow Up US Shale?", people listen... and if they are still long energy junk bonds, they panic.
The summary:
"The US E&P sector could be on the cusp of massive defaults and bankruptcies so staggering they pose a serious threat to the US economy. Without higher oil and gas prices -- which few experts foresee in the near future -- an over-leveraged, under-hedged US E&P industry faces a truly grim 2016. How bad could things get?"
The full report by Paul Merolli, a senior editor and correspondent at Energy Intelligence:
Debt Bomb Ticking for US Shale
The US E&P sector could be on the cusp of massive defaults and bankruptcies so staggering they pose a serious threat to the US economy..."

at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-27/cusp-staggering-default-wave-energy-intelligence-issues-apocalyptic-warning-energy-s

Gold Backwardation Showing Signs of a Bottom, Potential For Fed Misfire – ETF Securities

"The gold market was in backwardation this week, and according to one research director, it was the most prolonged period in history that it has been in this state. ‘Right now, what’s been happening [in gold] lately is almost unprecedented,’ Mike McGlone of ETF Securities told Kitco News Friday, adding that this is a sign that the market is bottoming out. According to McGlone, backwardation is a sign of strong physical demand in the market. ‘It’s almost the perfect storm for gold,’ he said. ‘This whole process is the market bottoming, the question is how long will it take.’ Looking ahead to the imminent rate hikes in December, or so the market seems to think, McGlone says there is potential of a ‘misfire’ by the Federal Reserve. Looking at data, particularly declining retail sales figures, he said the Fed is taking a big risk to raise rates as U.S. economic data remains mixed. ‘The Fed expects that to shift up, and that’s a tremendous risk. Last time they tightened, these trends were moving higher,’ he said. ‘That is very disconcerting.’ Kitco News, November 27, 2015..."

at http://investmentwatchblog.com/gold-backwardation-showing-signs-of-a-bottom-potential-for-fed-misfire-etf-securities/

Jim Willie: $1 Trillion/month in Reverse Repos Keeping Zombie System Alive

"This is an interesting 90+ minute interview.
Questions/Topics for the interview include:
• Recently, there was a secret meeting between Russia and a Saudi Prince- Was the meeting about a coordinated oil production cut to move the price higher to save the world’s largest oil producing countries? Or about what to do about Syria and pipelines? Or a mix?
• The IMF has said Saudi Arabia can only survive at most 5 years of low oil prices at their current burn rate in foreign exchange reserves before they go bankrupt too. Almost every other OPEC producer has spent most of their oil profits almost as soon as the profits come in and are in much worse shape than the Saudis. Will OPEC be going to China begging for a bailout if oil prices don’t rise again soon?
• Some Wall St commodity traders are illegally buying $10/barrel oil on the black market from ISIS. Why haven’t the buyers gotten caught?
• In our last interview you talked about a massive oil bust that was coming, but why haven’t we seen banks go bust from shale oil loans yet? Is the Federal Reserve secretly bailing these banks out?
• Christine Lagarde of the IMF seems to approve of the RMB going into the SDR very soon but the US government appears committed to blocking the RMB into the SDR. How much longer can the US government block the RMB going into the SDR?
• What happens to gold and silver supply available if many gold and silver mines shut down and miners start going bust?
• Do you think Wall St is planning on buying gold and silver mines up as they go bankrupt?
• Why do you think Wall St banks are starting to rapidly embrace the block chain technology behind Bitcoin? Is this another part of the elite’s plan for a cashless society where all transactions are taxed and tracked?
• China is negotiating a large currency swap bailout with Venezuela probably in exchange for a massive amount of oil. Will this be the model how the developing world/commodity producing countries with too much US Dollar denominated debt will strategically default on their US debt and then get financing from China and Chinese banks?
• Do you think currency swaps will be the main bailout tool for central banks going forward?
• In early November, Bloomberg put out an article how Wall St banks are trying to offer discounted interest rate swaps to attract more buyers of these products. Why are the banks trying to sell more of these when there’s already so many?..."
at http://investmentwatchblog.com/jim-willie-1-trillionmonth-in-reverse-repos-keeping-zombie-system-alive/

NASA-funded study: Over 32 advanced civilizations have collapsed before us, and we're next in line Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/052129_NASA_study_societal_collapse_preparedness.html#ixzz3suXtt5zt

"(NaturalNews) As any long-time reader of this column knows, we routinely draw from historical lessons to highlight that this time is not different. (Story by Simon Black, republished from SovereignMan.com)

Throughout the 18th century, for example, France was the greatest superpower in Europe, if not the world.

But they became complacent, believing that they had some sort of 'divine right' to reign supreme, and that they could be as fiscally irresponsible as they liked.

The French government spent money like drunken sailors; they had substantial welfare programs, free hospitals, and grand monuments.

They held vast territories overseas, engaged in constant warfare, and even had their own intrusive intelligence service that spied on King and subject alike.

Of course, they couldn't pay for any of this.

French budget deficits were out of control, and they resorted to going heavily into debt and rapidly debasing their currency.

Stop me when this sounds familiar.

The French economy ultimately failed, bringing with it a 26-year period of hyperinflation, civil war, military conquest, and genocide.

History is full of examples, from ancient Mesopotamia to the Soviet Union, which show that whenever societies reach unsustainable levels of resource consumption and allocation, they collapse.

I've been writing about this for years, and the idea is now hitting mainstream.

A recent research paper funded by NASA[1] highlights this same premise. According to the authors:

"Collapses of even advanced civilizations have occurred many times in the past five thousand years, and they were frequently followed by centuries of population and cultural decline and economic regression."

The results of their experiments show that some of the very clear trends which exist today-- unsustainable resource consumption, and economic stratification that favors the elite-- can very easily result in collapse.

In fact, they write that "collapse is very difficult to avoid and requires major policy changes."

at http://www.naturalnews.com/052129_NASA_study_societal_collapse_preparedness.html#ixzz3suY4EEB2

How A Secretive Elite Created The EU To Build A World Government

"Authored by Professor Alan Sked - original founder of UKIP, via The Telegraph,
Voters in Britain's referendum need to understand that the European Union was about building a federal superstate from day one
As the debate over the forthcoming EU referendum gears up, it would be wise perhaps to remember how Britain was led into membership in the first place. It seems to me that most people have little idea why one of the victors of the Second World War should have become almost desperate to join this "club". That's a shame, because answering that question is key to understanding why the EU has gone so wrong.
Most students seem to think that Britain was in dire economic straits, and that the European Economic Community – as it was then called – provided an economic engine which could revitalise our economy. Others seem to believe that after the Second World War Britain needed to recast her geopolitical position away from empire, and towards a more realistic one at the heart of Europe. Neither of these arguments, however, makes any sense at all.
The EEC in the 1960s and 1970s was in no position to regenerate anyone’s economy. It spent most of its meagre resources on agriculture and fisheries and had no means or policies to generate economic growth.
When growth did happen, it did not come from the EU. From Ludwig Erhard's supply-side reforms in West Germany in 1948 toThatcher's privatisation of nationalised industry in the Eighties, European growth came from reforms introduced by individual countries which were were copied elsewhere. EU policy has always been either irrelevant or positively detrimental (as was the case with the euro).
Nor did British growth ever really lag behind Europe's.Sometimes it surged ahead. In the 1950s Western Europe had a growth rate of 3.5 per cent; in the 1960s, it was 4.5 per cent. But in 1959, when Harold Macmillan took office, the real annual growth rate of British GDP, according to the Office of National Statistics, was almost 6 per cent. It was again almost 6 per cent when de Gaulle vetoed our first application to join the EEC in 1963.
In 1973, when we entered the EEC, our annual national growth rate in real terms was a record 7.4 per cent. The present Chancellor would die for such figures. So the economic basket-case argument doesn’t work.
What about geopolitics? What argument in the cold light of hindsight could have been so compelling as to make us kick our Second-World-War Commonwealth allies in the teeth to join a combination of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany and Italy?
Four of these countries held no international weight whatsoever. Germany was occupied and divided. France, meanwhile, had lost one colonial war in Vietnam and another in Algeria. De Gaulle had come to power to save the country from civil war. Most realists must surely have regarded these states as a bunch of losers. De Gaulle, himself a supreme realist, pointed out that Britain had democratic political institutions, world trade links, cheap food from the Commonwealth, and was a global power. Why would it want to enter the EEC?
The answer is that Harold Macmillan and his closest advisers were part of an intellectual tradition that saw the salvation of the world in some form of world government based on regional federations. He was also a close acquaintance of Jean Monnet, who believed the same. It was therefore Macmillan who became the representative of the European federalist movement in the British cabinet.
In a speech in the House of Commons he even advocated a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) before the real thing had been announced. He later arranged for a Treaty of Association to be signed between the UK and the ECSC, and it was he who ensured that a British representative was sent to the Brussels negotiations following the Messina Conference, which gave birth to the EEC.
In the late 1950s he pushed negotiations concerning a European Free Trade Association towards membership of the EEC. Then, when General de Gaulle began to turn the EEC into a less federalist body, he took the risk of submitting a full British membership application in the hope of frustrating Gaullist ambitions.
His aim, in alliance with US and European proponents of a federalist world order, was to frustrate the emerging Franco-German alliance which was seen as one of French and German nationalism..."
at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-28/how-secretive-elite-created-eu-build-world-government

ALERT: Gold War Heating Up As Western Central Banks Move To Destroy Currencies

"On the heels of the Chinese stock market plunging 5.5 percent and gold hitting 5 1/2 year lows, today one of the top economists in the world sent King World News an incredibly powerful piece warning that the war in gold is now heating up as Western central banks move aggressively to destroy the purchasing power of their currencies.  Below is the fantastic piece from Michael Pento.
By Michael Pento of Pento Portfolio StrategiesNovember 28 – (King World News) – ECB Sinks the Euro and All Fiat Currencies
European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi, has been trying to lower the value of the euro by promising to pursue inflation with a vengeance. His inflation rhetoric was stepped up during a speech he gave to Germany on November 20th of this year. In that speech Mr. Draghi vowed to “do what we must to raise inflation as quickly as possible.”…"
at http://kingworldnews.com/alert-gold-war-heating-up-as-western-central-banks-move-to-destroy-currencies/

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Chaos In The Middle East, Collapse In The Baltic Dry Index And The War In Gold

"Question: Hi Bill: As you certainly know the BDI, the Baltic Dry Index has reached the low of 498 as compared to 12000 reached in 2008, a 96% decline. How much importance do you give to that index and what kind of repercussions do you expect in the US and Global stock market, if any? Thank you
KWN Fleckenstein I 11:24:2015
Answer from Fleck:  I don’t tend to pay attention to them, as there are other ways to get a read on economic activity and the freight indices are impacted by more than just “trade” as I understand it (e.g., the increasing size of new ships), so they aren’t as great of a barometer as one might expect them to be. Still, I think they do tell you that trade is somewhat weak.”
at http://kingworldnews.com/chaos-in-the-middle-east-collapse-in-the-baltic-dry-index-and-the-war-in-gold/

Monday, November 23, 2015

Soaring Global Debt – The Reality Check in Numbers

"The fact that global debt is growing throughout the world is widely acknowledged and well documented. However, when faced with the numbers, the magnitude of the problem is still quite shocking to read. An article last week in Washington’s bloggives us a stark and timely reminder of those facts. The volatile geo-political environment we are entering into, coupled with this growth-stifling debt, makes for a dangerous economic combination.
[Click to expand]
GoldCore: Total Global Debt since 2007[Source: Forbes Business/Statista]
“The debt to GDP ratio for the entire world is 286%. In other words, global debt is almost 3 times the size of the world economy. Both public and private debt are exploding and – despite what mainstream economists think – 141 years of history shows that excessive private debt can cause depressions”.
These global debt figures cannot be ignored. Indeed, many erudite economic commentators have been highlighting the reckless monetary policies being pursued by governments around the world that is feeding our debt crisis.
“The underlying cause of this debt glut is the $12 trillion of free or cheap money created by central banks since 2009, combined with near-zero interest rates. When the real price of money is close to zero, people borrow and worry about the consequences later.” Paul Mason (See: “Apocalypse Now: Has Next Giant Financial Crash Already Begun?”)

at  http://www.goldcore.com/us/gold-blog/soaring-global-debt-the-reality-check-in-numbers/

ISIS Coverup: US Centcom Accused Of Lying To President, Congress, Public About Airstrikes, Ground Fight

"“...there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist Principality in eastern Syria(Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).”
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it as many times as it takes for the naive, largely aloof American public to catch on: the quote excerpted above is the smoking gun when it comes to Washington’s ISIS “strategy.” 
Note that no tin foil hats or conspiracy theories are needed. The passage shown above is from a 2012 declassified Pentagon report on the situation in Syria (you can read it in full here). What it says is that US intelligence was well aware of the possibility that Sunni extremists working to destabilize the Assad government might move to establish a proto-state in eastern Syria based around orthodox, ultra-conservative, Sunni Islam. It also says “the supporting powers to the opposition” (i.e. the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey) would be delighted with such an outcome as it would “isolate” Assad on the way to dealing a strategic death blow to Iran’s Shiite crescent (i.e. Tehran’s regional ambitions). That’s the only possible interpretation of the quote shown above and it’s completely consistent with the information contained in a leaked diplomatic cable sent in 2006 by acting Deputy Chief of Mission in Syria William Roebuck which contained the following “advice” on how to go about destabilizing the Assad government: 
PLAY ON SUNNI FEARS OF IRANIAN INFLUENCE:  There are fears in Syria that the Iranians are active in both Shia proselytizing and conversion of, mostly poor, Sunnis.  Though often exaggerated, such fears reflect an element of the Sunni community in Syria that is increasingly upset by and focused on the spread of Iranian influence in their country through activities ranging from mosque construction to business. Both the local Egyptian and Saudi missions here, (as well as prominent Syrian Sunni religious leaders), are giving increasing attention to the matter and we should coordinate more closely with their governments on ways to better publicize and focus regional attention on the issue..."

at  http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-22/isis-coverup-us-centcom-accused-lying-president-congress-public-about-airstrikes-gro

National Economic Activity Contracted For 3rd Month In A Row, Chicago Fed Signals

"National Activity contracted for the 3rd month in a rowaccording to The Chicago Fed's index. Printing -0.04 (missing expectations of +0.05 for the 9th time of the last 11 months), CFNAI has now been below 0 (contraction) for 8 months this year. Under the surface the biggest problem is the collapse in the sales-to-inventories index to cycle lows (contracting 7 of the last 8 months).
The heradline index is seen contracting for the 3rd month in a row...

as sales collapse relative to inventories...

at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-23/national-economic-activity-contracted-3rd-month-row-chicago-fed-signals

David Stockman – This Will Scare The World To Death

"Today David Stockman, the man President Ronald Reagan called upon along with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts to help save the United States from disaster in 1981, spoke with King World News about what he believes is going to “scare the world to death.”  Stockman also spoke about what is really happening with the global economy and why Western central banks are finally hitting the wall.
David Stockman:  “We’re headed for a very severe monetary crisis and period of great instability — the very opposite of what has been experienced for the last six or seven years, when these markets have been effectively tranquilized by the central banks and their massive quantitative easing and intrusion into financial markets…

at http://kingworldnews.com/david-stockman-this-will-scare-the-world-to-death/

The $500 Trillion Ticking Time Bomb That Will Devastate The Global Financial System

"Today the man who has become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, and major global events warned King World News about a $500 trillion ticking time bomb that will devastate the global financial system.
Egon von Greyerz:  “Eric, markets are waiting for the Fed decision on December 16.  At this point the Fed doesn’t have a clue what to do.  Since they have no long-term policy and only react to events, they hope that in the next 26 days they will have more clarity…

at http://kingworldnews.com/the-500-trillion-ticking-time-bomb-that-will-devastate-the-global-financial-system/

Monday, November 16, 2015

What are falling commodity prices telling us about the world economy?

"by Shaun Richards 
One of the features of 2015 has been the fall in price of so many basic staples of life. By this I mean the price of energy metals and some foods. Putting it another way we have seen a sort of currency revaluation where most people can now buy more and often considerably more product for the same monetary outlay. This is certainly true for those who use the US Dollar and even the Euro’s fall has only offset part of it. This currency revaluation has spread to much of the world and only has a downside for those who are producers where places like Western Australia and the oil producers come to mind.
If we look at things this way and again look at the Euro area I note that Mario Draghi has again indulged in Open Mouth Operations to drive the Euro lower today and thereby offset some of the commodity price fall. Does anybody in authority even question the wisdom of this?
The price of oil
if there is an equivalent to “the spice must flow” theme of the novel Dune for the world economy it is the supply of oil. That is why so many wars have sprung up around the middle-east in recent times. However the latter part of 2014 saw a sea change in the pattern of the price of oil as it fell and fell to a nadir in Brent Crude Oil terms of just below US $50 as 2015 began. This was very different to the period where as we observed on here a Star Trek style tractor beam kept pulling it back to the US $108 level..."
at http://investmentwatchblog.com/what-are-falling-commodity-prices-telling-us-about-the-world-economy/

Stunning Global Demand Has Now Created Major Gold Shortages In The Financial System

"Today the man who has become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, and major global events warned King World News that stunning global demand has now created major gold shortages in the financial system.
Egon von Greyerz:  “Eric, what’s happening in the gold and silver markets is totally unreal.  The discrepancy between physical demand and paper gold manipulation is continuing to grow to ridiculous levels…

at http://kingworldnews.com/stunning-global-demand-has-now-created-major-gold-shortages-in-the-financial-system/

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Did Russia Just "Gently" Threaten The USA?

"nteresting stuff today.  A major Russian TV channel just aired a report about Putin meeting with his top military commanders.  I don’t have the time to translate what Putin said word for word, but basically he said that the USA had refused every single Russian offer to negotiate about the US anti-missile system in Europe and that while the US had initially promised that the real target of this system was Iran, now that the Iranian nuclear issue had been solved, the US was still deploying the system.  Putin added that the US was clearly attempting to change the world’s military balance.  And then the Russian footage showed this:

Status6

According to the Kremlin, it was a mistakenly leaked secret document.  And just to make sure that everybody got it, RT wrote a full article in English about this in an article entitled “‘Assured unacceptable damage’: Russian TV accidentally leaks secret ‘nuclear torpedo’ design“. According to RT
The presentation slide titled “Ocean Multipurpose System: Status-6” showed some drawings of a new nuclear submarine weapons system. It is apparently designed to bypass NATO radars and any existing missile defense systems, while also causing heavy damage to“important economic facilities” along the enemy’s coastal regions. The footnote to the slide stated that Status-6 is intended to cause “assured unacceptable damage” to an adversary force. Its detonation “in the area of the enemy coast” would result in “extensive zones of radioactive contamination” that would ensure that the region would not be used for “military, economic, business or other activity” for a “long time.” According to the blurred information provided in the slide, the system represents a massive torpedo, designated as “self-propelled underwater vehicle,” with a range of up to 10 thousand kilometers and capable of operating at a depth of up to 1,000 meters...1

at  http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-12/did-russia-just-gently-threaten-usa

Something Very Strange Is Taking Place Off The Coast Of Galveston, TX

"Having exposed the world yesterday to the 2-mile long line of tankers-full'o'crude heading from Iraq to the US, several weeks after reporting that China has run out of oil storage space we can now confirm that the global crude "in transit" glut is becoming gargantuan and is starting to have adverse consequences on the price of oil.
While the crude oil tanker backlog in Houston reaches an almost unprecedented 39 (with combined capacity of 28.4 million barrels), as The FT reports that from China to the Gulf of Mexico, the growing flotilla of stationary supertankers is evidence that the oil price crash may still have further to run, as more than 100m barrels of crude oil and heavy fuels are being held on ships at sea (as the year-long supply glut fills up available storage on land). The storage problems are so severe in fact, that traders asking ships to go slow, and that is where we see something very strange occurring off the coast near Galveston, TX.
 
FT reports that "the amount of oil at sea is at least double the levels of earlier this year and is equivalent to more than a day of global oil supply. The numbers of vessels has been compiled by the Financial Times from satellite tracking data and industry sources."
The storage glut is unprecedented:
Off Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, Asia’s main oil hub, around 35m barrels of crude and shipping fuel are being stored on 14 VLCCs.
 
“A lot of the storage off Singapore is fuel oil as the contango is stronger,” said Petromatrix analyst Olivier Jakob. Fuel oil is mainly used in shipping and power generation.
 
Off China, which is on course to overtake the US as the world’s largest crude importer, five heavily laden VLCCs — each capable of carrying more than 2m barrels of oil — are parked near the ports of Qingdao, Dalian and Tianjin.
 
In Europe, a number of smaller tankers are facing short-term delays at Rotterdam and in the North Sea, where output is near a two-year high. In the Mediterranean a VLCC has been parked off Malta since September.
 
On the US Gulf Coast, tankers carrying around 20m barrels of oil are waiting to unload, Reuters reported. Crude inventories on the US Gulf Coast are at record levels.
 
A further 8m barrels of oil are being held off the UAE, while Iran — awaiting the end of sanctions to ramp up exports — has almost 40m barrels of fuel on its fleet of supertankers near the Strait of Hormuz. Much of this is believed to be condensate, a type of ultralight oil.
And unlike the last oil price collapse during the financial crisis only half of the oil held on the water has been put there specifically by traders looking to cash in by storing the fuel until prices recover. Instead, sky-high supertanker rates have prevented them from putting more oil into so-called floating storage, shutting off one of the safety valves that could prevent oil prices from falling further.
A widening oil market structure known as contango — where future prices are higher than spot prices — could make floating storage possible.
 
 
 
The difference between Brent for delivery in six months’ time and now rose to $4.50 last week, up from $1.50 in May. Traders estimate it may need to reach $6 to make sea storage viable..."

at  http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-12/something-very-strange-taking-place-coast-galveston

Chinese Scientists Unveil New Stealth Material Breakthrough

"A group of scientists from China may have created a stealth material that could make future fighter jets very difficult to detect by some of today’s most cutting-edge anti-stealth radar.
The researchers developed a new material they say can defeat microwave radar at ultrahigh frequencies, or UHF.  Such material is usually too thick to be applied to aircraft like fighter jets, but this new material is thin enough for military aircraft, ships, and other equipment.
Today’s synthetic aperture radar use arrays of antennas directing microwave energy to essentially see through clouds and fog and provide an approximate sense of the object’s size, the so-called radar cross section. With radar absorbent material not all of the signal bounces back to the receiver. A plane can look like a bird.
“Our proposed absorber is almost ten times thinner than conventional ones,” said Wenhua Xu, one of the team members from China’s Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in a statement.
In their paper, published today in the Journal of Applied Physics, the team describes a material composed of semi-conducting diodes (varactors) and capacitors that have been soldered onto a printed circuit board. That layer is sitting under a layer of copper resistors and capacitors just .04 mm thick, which they called an “active frequency selective surface material” or AFSS. The AFSS layer can effectively be stretched to provide a lot of absorption but is thin enough to go onto an aircraft. The next layer is a thin metal honeycomb and final is a metal slab..."
at http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2015/11/chinese-scientists-unveil-new-stealth-material-breakthrough/123622/

European Union Refuses To Recognise Israeli Sovereignty over Occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, Syrian Golan

"European Union refuses to recognize Israeli sovereignty over Occupied Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem or the Syrian Golan
Consequently, all illegal settlers should be repatriated back to Israel, ­ all 500,000. 
Then, and only then, can there be a peace accord.
European Commission  Brussels, 11.11.2015 C(2015) 7834 final Interpretative Notice on indication of origin of goods from the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967
‘(1) The European Union, in line with international law, does not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, namely the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and does not consider them to be part of Israel’s territory1, irrespective of their legal status under domestic Israeli law2. The Union has made it clear that it will not recognise any changes to pre­ 1967 borders, other than those agreed by the parties to the Middle East Peace Process (MEPP)3′
at http://www.globalresearch.ca/european-union-refuses-to-recognise-israeli-sovereignty-over-occupied-west-bank-gaza-strip-east-jerusalem-syrian-golan/5488339

We Are Now Witnessing Unprecedented Action In The War In The Silver Market

"We are now witnessing unprecedented action in the war in the the silver market.
Jason Goepfert at SentimenTrader:  “Last week we noted the historically persistent selloff in gold, and now silver has joined it. Silver has declined for the past 10 sessions for only the third time in 50 years…"
at http://kingworldnews.com/we-are-now-witnessing-unprecedented-action-in-the-war-in-the-silver-market/

Did We Just Witness One Of The Greatest Sell Signals In History?

"Today King World News is pleased to share a fantastic piece which address the all-important question:  Did we just witness one of the greatest sell signals in history?  This piece also includes a key illustration that all KWN readers around the world must see.
Jason Goepfert at SentimenTrader:  “The art market continues to be in the throes of euphoria. An auction this week scored the 2nd-largest sale in history, second only to one from May of this year…

at http://kingworldnews.com/did-we-just-witness-another-one-of-the-greatest-sell-signals-in-history/

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

NATO’s biggest military exercise since the Cold War looked pretty damn giant

"This is not the beginning of WWIII—at least not just yet. This is NATO’s Trident Juncture 2015. The largest military exercise in decades. The month-long training was held in Spain, Portugal, and Italy during October and November..."

at http://investmentwatchblog.com/natos-biggest-military-exercise-since-the-cold-war-looked-pretty-damn-giant/