Economy
China Gears Up to Weaponize Rare Earths in Trade War (tmn)
A flurry of Chinese media reports on Wednesday, including an editorial in the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party, raised the prospect of Beijing cutting exports of the commodities that are critical in defense, energy, electronics and automobile sectors. The world’s biggest producer, China supplies about 80% of U.S. imports of rare earths, which are used in a host of applications from smartphones to electric vehicles and wind turbines.
A Million People Could Lose Their Pensions If Congress Doesn’t Act (edelinski)
Brown’s is what’s known as a multiemployer pension plan. Anywhere from a handful to hundreds of companies contribute funds to these plans on behalf of their workers, with payments negotiated through union contracts. The plans are common in the construction, transportation and service sectors, providing a portable benefit in cyclical industries where workers frequently change jobs. But many plans have run into trouble, losing their stream of income, as industries change and unionized employers go out of business.
Dressbarn, CVS, Pier 1 and Topshop shuttering stores, pushing planned closures to 7,150 (Thomas R.)
The store closures already announced this year also mean more bad news for U.S. mall owners, which have already been struggling with traffic to department stores, their anchor tenants, largely on the demise. So these mall owners are having to get creative, bringing in more food options, and even apartments and office spaces, to their properties.
After Destroying Brick and Mortars, Amazon Reportedly Planning to Cut Ties With Thousands of Small Vendors (Thomas R.)
Because Amazon controls a huge chunk of market share, the company wields immense power over the sellers on its platform—everything from reportedly pushing brands to change their packaging to dictating which brands can and cannot advertise their products on its platform. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that smaller vendors that are currently turning around less than $10 million in sales will now no longer receive bulk orders from the company.
From Colombia, Venezuelan defectors arm themselves to ‘liberate’ their homeland (thc0655)
A Colombian intelligence official, who asked not to be identified, said the intelligence service had detected an unspecified number of Venezuelan militia groups in the country but could not act against them because they had not yet committed any crimes. Separately, a high-level Colombian government official who asked not to be named said arrestable offences could include illegal possession of weapons and conspiracy to commit a crime.
In Venezuela, criminals feel the pinch of an economic crisis (Sparky1)
In something of an unexpected silver lining to the country’s all-consuming economic crunch, experts say armed assaults and killings are plummeting in one of the world’s most violent nations. At the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, a Caracas-based nonprofit group, researchers estimate homicides have plunged up to 20% over the last three years based on tallies from media clippings and sources at local morgues.
Silver – Eight Years Later (GE Christenson)
Over the long term, nominal prices for stocks, commodities, crude oil, gold and silver rise. The primary driver is currency unit devaluation. That new Ford truck which cost $2,500 fifty years ago now costs $50,000. The dollar of 1913 is now a mini-dollar in purchasing power.
Serbian troops on full alert after Kosovo police arrests (Sparky1)
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Kosovo police arrested 23 people, including Serbs, Bosnians and a Russian, after “bursting” into several northern villages and the town of Mitrovica with armored vehicles. Vucic said he had seen video of the police firing “live ammunition” over the heads of unarmed Serbs, and said the operation was designed to intimidate minority Serbs in Kosovo, whose population is mostly ethnic Albanians.
Miliband: Ebola situation is getting worse (Sparky1)
International Rescue Committee Chief Executive David Miliband speaks with Christiane Amanpour about the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Globalists Only Need One More Major Event To Finish Sabotaging The Economy (thc0655)
War with Iran at this time makes no sense whatsoever unless you look at it from a globalist perspective. The globalists are the only group that stands to gain from such catastrophe, as war with Iran would seal the fate of the US economy. The most immediate threat would be the potential shutdown of the Straight of Hormuz by Iran, which would take nothing more than sinking a few large cargo vessels along the narrow and more shallow portions of the straight, placing mine fields, or staging anti-ship missiles within striking range. The subsequent explosion in oil prices would be devastating to the global economy and the US economy would struggle under high energy prices even with expanded domestic oil drilling.
In Rural West Texas, Illegal Border Crossings Are Routine For U.S. Citizens (tmn)
If you are in Texas and get sick or have an accident, you can walk across the river — using ropes to cross above the water — to a clinic in San Antonio del Bravo where treatment and medicine are free, paid for by the Mexican government even if you’re a U.S. citizen. In the U.S., the nearest hospital is a long drive away in Alpine, Texas.
“A 10-minute walk versus three hours to the hospital,” Tellez said, detailing her options.
South Sudan struggles to increase oil production after war (Sparky1)
Earlier this month President Salva Kiir confirmed plans to allot 30,000 barrels of oil per day to fund a road construction project signed with China’s state-owned Shandong Hi-Speed Group. Instead of putting the oil money into South Sudan’s Central Bank, as stipulated by last year’s peace deal, the money is being deposited into a “special fund” in China to make the transfers easier, Information Minister Michael Makuei told the AP.
IEA rings alarm bell on phasing out nuclear energy (Thomas R.)
Over the past 20 years, wind and solar capacity has increased by 580 gigawatt GW in advanced economies. Despite that, however, IEA estimates that the 36 percent share of clean energy sources in global power supply in 2018 was the same as two decades ago because of the decline in nuclear.
Crop Catastrophe In The Midwest – Latest USDA Crop Progress Report Indicates That A Nightmare Scenario Is Upon Us (yogmonster)
Last year, 53 percent of all soybean acreage had been planted by now. This year, that number has fallen to 19 percent.
And the percentage of soybeans that have emerged from the ground is just 5 percent compared to 24 percent at this time last year.
Gold & Silver
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