Mês: junho 2018

Fato e Opinião

Por | 29 jun, 2018 | |

American Totalitarianism and the Culture of Fake News   Finian Cunningham Jun. 26, 2018   American citizens have a problem telling the difference between facts and opinion. That’s the finding of a recent survey carried out by the respected Pew organization. It was found that only a quarter of the people polled were able to correctly distinguish between a factual statement and an opinion claim. In other words, the majority of those Americans surveyed wrongly believed that information presented to them purporting as facts were indeed facts, when the information was actually merely a subjective claim or opinion. For example, when an opinion statement like “democracy is the best form of government” was read to them, most of the respondents defined that as a fact. Only some 25 per cent of the more than 5,000 people surveyed by Pew could correctly differentiate between facts and subjective statements. Moreover, as the Reuters report on the study, put it: “They tend to disagree with factual statements they incorrectly label as opinions, Pew said.” The latter tendency suggests that Americans are easily misled by false information, and perhaps more disturbingly, that they are closed-minded towards information that challenges their prejudices. This commentary is not meant to unduly denigrate American citizens. It would be interesting to see what the results would be from a similar survey conducted in Europe, Russia or China. Regardless of not...

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Trump-Putin Summit

Por | 28 jun, 2018 | , |

Putin-Trump Summit Should Focus on Syria   Tom Luongo Jun. 26, 2018   Where there’s smoke there is fire. And there is enough smoke coming from the Trump administration about wanting a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that we should take it seriously. Trump is obviously feeling confident he can weather any storm of criticism for such a meeting from the usual suspects from his opposition before the mid-term elections – the DNC, Congress, the Deep State, or do I repeat myself? In fact, I would argue Trump is right to continue the peace path in the wake of his success with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore earlier this month. The obvious partisanship evinced by these same people have helped to marginalize them with the center of the US electorate. These are the coveted swing voters that Trump will need to not only secure some crucial wins in November, but also to force a makeover of the GOP leadership going forward for the second half of his first term. Americans are tired of war. They are tired of being lied to. They want their cost of living to stabilize or, if possible, drop. Both sides of the political spectrum rallied behind the populist idea of more money for the 99% and less money for the 1% in 2016. That dynamic is still in play. And Trump...

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Trade War

Por | 26 jun, 2018 | , , |

The Great Canadian Shoe Heist   Bill Bonner Jun. 20, 2018   POITOU, FRANCE – Yesterday, when the Chinese woke up and heard The Donald threatening to impose an import tax on Chinese-made goods, they practically fell out of bed. There’s a 10% daily circuit-breaker limit in the Chinese stock market. As the name suggests, when stocks fall too far, too fast, they flip a “circuit breaker.” Trading stops to stem the losses. By the end of the day, more than 1,000 Chinese stocks had hit it. U.S. investors were worried, too. Our message for today: They should be. After falling for five days in a row, the Dow slid almost 200 points yesterday. By our reckoning, the primary trend for stocks is down. If we’re right, stocks will probably not hit January’s high – above 26,600 – again in our lifetimes. At least, not in real terms. When hyperinflation gets underway – as we expect it will in a few years – who knows what will happen. Empire of Debt Meanwhile, the Russians, Japanese, and Chinese are all dumping U.S. bonds. As we pointed out 10 years ago in our book, Empire of Debt (written with Addison Wiggin), the U.S. empire is funded neither by tribute, like Rome, nor by trade, like Britain. It runs on debt. Properly adjusted for inflation, their trade surpluses (where they give us...

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SI

Por | 24 jun, 2018 | , , |

Situação Internacional     S 18 – INVESTIDORES : Jim Willie, “O Apocalipse Financeiro”. Quê que os chineses estão fazendo? Eles estão mentindo para mentirosos… The dólar vai subir e subir até morrer por asfixia. Os Estados Unidos não querem competir na guerra monetária. . . INVESTIDORES : Jim Rogers, “A Pior Crise de Minha Vida”. Os Estados Unidos são a nação mais endividada da história mundial e a divida está aumentando… Os Estados Unidos é a maior economia e se a maior economia tem um problema todo o mundo tem um problema. . . INVESTIDORES : Jim Rickards [Não está mais disponível devido à reivindicação de direitos autorais Physical Gold Fund]. Sobre objeções comuns (e falsas) ao padrão ouro. Desde que Richard Nixon suspendeu “temporariamente” o resgate do dólar em ouro em 1971 ouvimos algumas objeções à posse de ouro. Rickards aprendeu com os fundadores de Bretton Woods, que adotaram o padrão ouro. A primeira objeção era de que simplesmente não existe ouro suficiente. Milton Friedman acreditava numa porção de teorias que não são verdadeiras. Ele advogava o “dinheiro elástico” (elastic money), como bitcoin, por exemplo. Precisamos distinguir entre o dinheiro oficial e o ouro. Se a oferta do ouro é curta, a solução simples é elevar seu preço, o que significa a desvalorização do dólar. Sempre se tem assim ouro suficiente. É questão de preço. Não existe mercado tão líquido quanto...

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Corruption

Por | 22 jun, 2018 | , |

Has Our Government Spent $21 Trillion Of Our Money Without Telling Us?   Laurence Kotlikoff with Mark Skidmore Dec. 8, 2017   “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.” ~ Article I, Section 9, Clause 7, The US Constitution   On July 26, 2016, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a report “Army General Fund Adjustments Not Adequately Documented or Supported”.  The report indicates that for fiscal year 2015 the Army failed to provide adequate support for $6.5 trillion in journal voucher adjustments.  According to the GAO’s Comptroller General, “Journal vouchers are summary-level accounting adjustments made when balances between systems cannot be reconciled. Often these journal vouchers are unsupported, meaning they lack supporting documentation to justify the adjustment or are not tied to specific accounting transactions…. For an auditor, journal vouchers are a red flag for transactions not being captured, reported, or summarized correctly.” (Note, after Mark Skidmore began inquiring about OIG-reported unsubstantiated adjustments, the OIG’s webpage, which  documented, albeit in a highly incomplete manner, these unsupported “accounting adjustments,”  was mysteriously taken down. Fortunately, Mark copied the July 2016 report and all other relevant OIG-reports in advance and reposted them here. Mark has repeatedly tried to contact Lorin Venable,...

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