In the aftermath of the Fed's decision to lower interest rates, Bill Fleckenstein spoke with King World News about the dark side, what the Fed is now facing, and what to expect in the gold market.
The post Bill Fleckenstein Discusses The Dark Side, What The Fed Is Now Facing, And What To Expect In The Gold Market appeared first on King World News.
from Financial Survival Network
Dr. Joel L. Nitzkin joins the program… The recent vaping scare has been caused by illegal black market THC cartridges. I has nothing to do with nicotine vapors. There’s no high school vaping epidemic. While huge numbers of kids are experimenting, very few are becoming smokers. Less than 3 percent of all vapers are children and less 1 percent of the total papers are children. The banning of the flavors will do nothing to reduce nicotine use. The absence of the flavors will hurt people trying to give up cigarettes. It’s the Classic Baptist Bootlegger Scenario. Banning vaping will put the vape shops out of business. They provide high quality products at low prices. Big tobacco is lobbying to ban flavors to protect their business. There’s an estimated 10-12 million adult vapers who’ve used them to quit smoking. So what’s more of a threat to public health, vaping or smoking?
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Fed again cuts interest rates as economic growth slows (TS)
“We now have a phase one trade agreement with China, which, if signed, could go toward reducing trade tensions, and would bode well for business confidence over time,” he said. In addition, “It appears that the risk of a no-deal Brexit seems to have materially declined,” he noted.
Dow Jones Futures Fall On China Trade Deal News; Apple, Facebook Lead Big Earnings Movers (Thomas R.)
Dow Jones futures fell 0.3% vs. fair value, while S&P 500 futures dipped 0.2%. Nasdaq 100 futures clung to a gain of 0.1%. Apple is the world’s most valuable company and a member of the Dow Jones, S&P 500 index and Nasdaq composite, while Facebook stock is an S&P 500 and Nasdaq megacap.
Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn’t necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.
Police blew up an innocent man’s house in search of an armed shoplifter. Too bad, court rules (Sparky1)
The Lechs had sued under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause, which guarantees citizens compensation if their property is seized by the government for public use. But the court said that Greenwood Village was acting within its “police power” when it damaged the house, which the court said doesn’t qualify as a “taking” under the Fifth Amendment. The court acknowledged that this may seem “unfair,” but when police have to protect the public, they can’t be “burdened with the condition” that they compensate whomever is damaged by their actions along the way.
The Global Protest Wave, Explained (tmn)
Democracy’s once-steady growth around the world has stalled, and is maybe beginning to reverse.
For the first time since World War II, the number of countries moving toward authoritarianism is exceeding the number moving toward democracy, according to a recent study by Anna Lürhmann and Staffan Lindberg of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
Yes, Virginia, There Is A Deep State And It’s Feeding The Anti-POTUS Mob (Matt H.)
Stated more crudely, Washington overthrew the duly elected government of Ukraine in early 2014 because its leader was deemed too cozy with Moscow. And in the vanguard of that illegal meddling in the governance of a sovereign foreign state was Obama’s state department led by neocon Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland, Washington’s self-appointed roving proconsul John McCain and at length Vice-President Joe Biden.
White House Ukraine Expert Sought to Correct Transcript of Trump Call (TS)
Colonel Vindman did not testify to a motive behind the White House editing process. But his testimony is likely to drive investigators to ask further questions about how officials handled the call, including changes to the transcript and the decision to put it into the White House’s most classified computer system — and whether those moves were meant to conceal the conversation’s most controversial aspects.
Russia To Stop Using Internet (AKGrannyWGrit)
The first phase of the testing is already scheduled to take place in November and will see the regular global Internet temporarily replaced with a national system known as RuNet. The experiment is also intended to shield Russian communications from cyber-attacks from government hackers from the US and UK.
White House Pressed Car Makers to Join Its Fight Over California Emissions Rules (jdargis)
Carmakers have long feared that Mr. Trump might retaliate, either with tariffs or trade restrictions, if they didn’t support his effort to dismantle the rules, which were designed to fight climate change. After California struck its deal with the four automakers, the administration and Justice Department pushed a series of unusual legal and policy moves against the state and those companies — including an antitrust investigation — that were widely perceived as retaliatory.
Welcome to “Cancer Alley,” Where Toxic Air Is About to Get Worse (jdargis)
Though the air quality here has improved significantly since the 1980s, as it has in the rest of the nation, the recent history is less encouraging. Not only is toxic air pollution in Louisiana’s industrial belt rising in absolute terms, the estimated air quality relative to its peers is getting worse, an analysis by ProPublica, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate found.
Greta Thunberg turns down environmental award and $51,000 in prize money (TS)
Thunberg thanked the Nordic Council for the award, but she said she cannot accept it. “What we need is for our politicians and the people in power start to listen to the current, best available science,” she wrote in the post.
Click to read the PM Daily Market Commentary: 10/30/19
Provided daily by the Peak Prosperity Gold & Silver Group
Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to dd@peakprosperity.com. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the "3 Es."
The post Daily Digest 10/31 – The Global Protest Wave Explained, Toxic Air In “Cancer Alley” Is About to Get Worse appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
Here is a look at the situation post Fed decision.
The post Here Is A Look At The Situation Post Fed Decision appeared first on King World News.
Here is an important gold and silver update after the Fed decision to lower interest rates.
The post Gold & Silver Update After Fed Decision To Lower Interest Rates appeared first on King World News.
from Financial Survival Network
Frank Vernuccio is back… Corruption in the swamp knows no bounds. The Bidens have been cashing in on Joe Biden’s political connections for years. Whether it’s Ukraine, China or Romania, they’ve had their hands out. Now they’re trying to blame Trump for their own corrupt acts. And now there’s Bull Durham. His investigation has officially become a criminal matter. Can a grand jury and indictments be far behind? Some might call it a coup and others may call it treason. Will heads roll and indictments follow?
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Expect a rate cut today from the Federal Reserve, plus this just tumbled to the lowest reading since 2015!
The post Fed To Cut Interest Rates Today, Plus This Just Tumbled To The Lowest Reading Since 2015! appeared first on King World News.
A deficit looming for L.A., city departments are asked to find a way to save $100 million (Saxplayer00o1)
In a report released last week, the city’s budget chief, Rich Llewellyn, outlined projected deficits of $200 million to $400 million in the coming years, if the city does nothing.
Treasury Prepares Another Debt Deluge as Fed Wades Into Market (Saxplayer00o1)
The U.S. Treasury this week releases the next stage of its strategy to cover a deficit that’s expected to surpass $1 trillion this fiscal year, as the department continues to search for new ways to attract buyers for its record debt issuance.
It needn’t agonize just yet, however. For the next few months the Federal Reserve will be scooping bills out of the market — part of its effort to calm the repo market — about as fast as the government can pour them in.
How the Student Debt Complex Is Crushing the Next Generation of Americans (Saxplayer00o1)
According to research from the Federal Reserve, indebted graduates are less likely than their debt-free peers to buy homes.
They also possess less wealth, save less for retirement, and are less satisfied with their work. Paying back student loans compromises the very middle class aspirations they are supposed to support.
When recession comes, expect central banks to rewrite the rules (Nouriel Roubini) (Saxplayer00o1)
Following this logic, in the UK, the Labour party has proposed a “People’s QE,” whereby the central bank would print money to finance direct fiscal transfers to households rather than to bankers and investors. Others, including mainstream economists such as Adair Turner, the former chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority, have called for “helicopter drops”: direct cash transfers to consumers through central-bank-financed fiscal deficits. Still others, such as former Fed vice-chair Stanley Fischer and his colleagues at BlackRock, have proposed a “standing emergency fiscal facility”, which would allow the central bank to finance large fiscal deficits in the event of a deep recession.
The Fed may have to do more to calm the stress in the short-term lending market (Saxplayer00o1)
The Fed is responding by expanding its balance sheet by more than $400 billion through the purchase of Treasury bills. It also immediately started open market operations and has since expanded them. It increased its overnight operations to $120 billion last week and is doing longer-term 14-day operations to assure the markets are liquid ahead of the end of the month and end of the year.
G.D.P. Grew at 1.9% Rate in Quarter, a New Sign of Slowdown (RS)
Several analysts emphasized that the economy remained rooted in solid ground. “If I saw cracks in the consumer sector, I would be worried, but I don’t see that yet,” said Ben Herzon, executive director of United States economics at Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting firm. “The economy is not slowing into a recession.”
Privacy is a collective concern (jdargis)
Just as violations of privacy can be caused individually or collectively, the consequences of the erosion of privacy are also both individual and collective. As an individual, you may suffer identity theft, public humiliation, extortion, or discrimination as a result of others knowing more about you than they should. As a society, a culture of exposure can damage our social fabric, threaten our national security, and even endanger democracy.
Let’s talk about bagging the Big Baghdadi Wolf (Don R.)
Video
16 Tons and A Briefcase (GE Christenson)
The owners paid in script which coal miners used as currency. Script had no intrinsic value and was only good at the company store. The owners increased profits by coercing miners to buy goods at higher prices. Script cost next to nothing to produce.
We use dollar bills (paper and digital) that have no intrinsic value as currency in the U.S. The dollars cost next to nothing to produce and are used because of ‘legal tender’ laws.
The fight to stop Nestlé from taking America’s water to sell in plastic bottles (tmn)
Critics characterize Nestlé as a “predatory” water company that targets struggling communities with sometimes exaggerated job promises while employing a variety of cheap strategies, like donating to local boy scouts, to win over small town officials who hold the keys to valuable springs.
Its spending on lobbying and campaign contributions at the federal and state levels totals in the millions annually, the revolving door between the company and government perpetually turns, and it maintains cozy relationships with federal officials from the Forest Service to Trump administration.
Climate Stalinism (thc0655)
Whatever its failings, twentieth-century socialism was growth-oriented and in principle devoted to expanding working-class wealth. In contrast, the green version of socialism consciously seeks to depress the average family’s prospects, since prosperity will generate more greenhouse gases. Some zealots, such as the Guardian’s George Monbiot, argue in favor of economic recession as a way to reduce carbon emissions, even if it causes people to lose their jobs and homes.
Rising sea levels pose threat to homes of 300m people – study (TS)
Researchers said the magnitude of difference from the previous Nasa study came as a shock. “These assessments show the potential of climate change to reshape cities, economies, coastlines and entire global regions within our lifetimes,” said Scott Kulp, the lead author of the study and a senior scientist at Climate Central.
Jakarta Is Crowded And Sinking, So Indonesia Is Moving Its Capital To Borneo (TS)
The new capital, which has yet to be named, would be in eastern Borneo, hundreds of miles northeast of Jakarta across the Java Sea. While the selected area is close to the cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda, the region is mostly known for its beaches and dense rainforests. Borneo’s lush jungles also form large national parks that are vital habitats for orangutans.
Click to read the PM Daily Market Commentary: 10/29/19
Provided daily by the Peak Prosperity Gold & Silver Group
Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to dd@peakprosperity.com. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the "3 Es."
The post Daily Digest 10/30 – Deficit Looms For L.A., How Student Debt Is Crushing the Next Generation of Americans appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
In my post yesterday Survival Learnings From A California Fire Evacuee, I promised to share the specific resources that have proved especially valuable during my family’s emergency evacuation due to the Kincade fire. So I’d better get to it…
Having now been surprised by two massive fires within the past two years, in both instances, the preparation I was most immediately grateful for — hands down — was having sufficient on-property stores of gasoline and cash.
The moment your community realizes that flight may be necessary, forget going to the gas station. In my area, the lines were 20+ cars deep.
Waiting in those kind of lines (when there’s no guarantee there will be gas left when your turn finally comes) can easily cause you to miss your window of safety. As I mentioned yesterday, my friends who tried to evacuate just 45 minutes after I did eventually had to turn back home because the roads out of town had become hopelessly gridlocked.
So get in the habit of keeping your cars’ fuel tanks topped off, especially during times of seasonal risk (fire season, hurricane season, flood season, etc). Make it a point never to return home with the gauge below half-full.
Also, keep at least a tank’s-worth of gasoline stored on your property. In my case, I have four 5-gallon gas cans. This ensures I can get to safety even if I’ve forgotten to keep the car tank full. And if I’ve remembered, I can throw the cans in the car for an extra 300+ miles of range.
Similarly, once the electricity goes out, the ATMs stop working. Having $500-$3,000 of emergency cash on hand to take with you makes a huge difference.
First, you don’t need to attempt to hit the ATM on your way out of town, losing valuable time. Those long gas lines? You’ll have the same experience at the ATM (provided it’s still working).
Second, you never know where you’ll end up. Your escape route can easily change based on the on-the-ground realities. You may end up in an entirely different place than your intended fallback destination due to road closures, etc. Having cash on hand gives you plenty of opportunities you may not have otherwise for obtaining food, lodging, medication and other essentials.
As I type this, due to PG&E’s mandatory blackouts, there are still millions without power in the areas surrounding Sonoma County. This is a stark reminder that you may end up fleeing to a place that is similarly compromised, where credit cards may not work. Cash goes a long way in those situations.
As strongly as I advise you be prepared for situations in which your phone doesn’t work (dead battery, downed communications grid), if mobile service is available to you, a smart phone is practically invaluable.
In addition to the basic calling function, which by itself is extremely useful for updating and coordinating with others, today’s apps and services have turned our phones into a Swiss army knife-style smorgasbord of utility.
GPS/Maps are incredibly valuable for navigation and directions, and increasingly suggest alternate routes when your intended path is compromised by accidents or traffic. Weather apps with forecasts tell you what to prepare for. Heck, most phones can now operate as pretty effective flashlights.
But beyond those standard apps, there are a number of others I’ve found particularly useful in persevering through these latest fires.
Nixle sends you text and email updates from your local public safety departments. It’s invaluable during an emergency; letting you know when and where power shut-offs will occur, which roads are being closed, what actions are being taken by the authorities. It has been the primary source of information for everyone in my community during this crisis. When I got the notice that evacuation in my area was mandatory and I had to leave? That came from Nixle.
Nextdoor is a local group messaging provider connecting neighbor-to-neighbor. It’s an easy way to communicate with folks in your immediate neighborhood to keep each other updated, or ask for assistance. During the past few days, neighbors have used Nextdoor to report where the fire was spreading, identify who in the area needed assistance with evacuating (e.g., the elderly and infirm), and ask for help with transporting heavy livestock to safety.
Social media & texting have proved to be an effective way to broadcast your status to those worried about you. Many of you have tracked my posts to Facebook throughout this fire situation. I’ve really valued how this one-t0-many form of communication saves me lots of time that would otherwise be spent on the phone updating folks one at a time. By being able to blast my status out to my entire community within minutes, I have had a lot more time and mindspace to devote to the primary task of keeping my family safe.
Radio streaming apps like TuneIn have been surprisingly valuable. Our local radio stations banded together to create a war room that reported on the crisis, and all channels broadcast the same feed. This was incredibly appreciated and was the best resource for staying informed of where the fires were, what the authorities expected, and what they planned to do next. But as we were mobile, in many areas, my actual radio encountered trouble finding and/or holding the signal. Using TuneIn, I was able to stream the broadcast through my phone at a much more dependable and higher-quality fidelity than my actual radio.
During a crisis, authorities will often post interactive maps to show where the danger is, where it’s mostly likely to progress next, and which towns could be affected. In my region, everyone has been glued to this fire incident map, and Windy.com‘s wind forecast map for the area.
With much of the power still out, finding a working television to watch live news updates is challenging. But with today’s mobile internet, you can stream most TV station live feeds online.
All the above shows how your smart phone is truly a miracle resource — as long as the cell towers are still operational. Or as long as your phone has battery life.
Which is why having multiple ways to recharge your phone is highly advised. Probably more than any other responsibility, keeping an eye on our phones’ juice has occupied my family’s attention constantly since we fled our home.
There are great portable battery rechargers available for between $60-$200. Get one. Keep it charged up at all times and ready to grab & go. It will be worth its weight in gold should you be forced to hit the road.
We’ve been making good use of a battery-powered LED lantern that has USB ports for charging digital devices. It charges our phones pretty quickly, and will keep doing so as long as our supply of batteries lasts. I recommend getting one (or several) of these.
If time allows, before you leave your home for safety, take a few minutes to walk through your house while using your phone to make a video recording of each room and its possessions. This will prove extremely useful should you file an insurance claim for any damage incurred during a disaster.
I did this once evacuation became a possibility. It only took about 5 minutes, walking around the house and providing some high-level narration to the video for clarity.
You do this because, if your house burns down/is leveled by a tornado/floods out/etc, your possessions and any receipts will be gone. If you then file a renters/homeowners claim, it will be your words vs the insurance adjuster’s when it comes to determining how much you should be reimbursed for.
But if you have a video record, your case becomes significantly stronger:
What matters is that you have a list, pictures, and/or video of everything in your home. That’s not as daunting of a task as it sounds. Walk around your home or apartment and slowly take video or photos of each room, making sure to get each wall. It’s a good idea to open cabinets and drawers, as well to capture the contents – that’s all the stuff that you’d forget if you were making a list after a loss!
Adjusters love video because it’s easy for them to pause and dig in on a particular area to make sure they’re giving you full value for the items, but pictures also work. In either case, make sure you upload them to the cloud somewhere. If your phone suffers a loss and the video is on your phone, you’re in trouble!
(Source)
Note the wisdom of uploading the video to the cloud in case your phone gets damaged. If pressed for time, just text it to a family member or friend, who can keep it as a backup copy.
As I ended yesterday’s post, I want to again express my thanks for the many of you who have sent well-wishes and offers of assistance. Literally hundreds of friends, acquaintances and near-strangers have contacted me via email, text, social media and PeakProsperity.com over the past 4 days. I’ve received offers to put up my family from folks throughout California and now 5 other states. It has been a tremendous honor to be on the receiving end of such kindness.
So many of you who have asked “What can I do to help?”. Personally, I’m safe and being well-cared for where we’re currently staying.
But I’ll be honest: the gesture that would benefit me (and my business partner Chris Martenson) the most at this point would be for anyone with the means and interest to purchase a premium subscription to PeakProsperity.com.
The thrash that these fires are inserting into my bandwith is impacting PeakProsperity.com at an important time, when Chris and I are taking big strategic steps to substantially expand this website’s audience and offerings.
So if you want to help us with that mission, while enjoying valuable insight in return, please subscribe. Even just for a single month.
With great gratitude,
The post Essential Bug-Out Resources appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
Is the public about to get torched in the stock market?
The post Is The Public About To Get Torched In The Stock Market? appeared first on King World News.
from Financial Survival Network
David Morgan a/k/a Silverguru returns… The fundamental case for precious metals has never stronger. Earlier in the year the technical case became overwhelming and we saw major price increases in gold and silver. Now the market is taking a breather, but we could well see the traditional Q4 rally could take prices much higher. There have been persistent rumors about a coming silver shortage, but David is unconvinced. But that doesn’t mean there’s not one looming, especially if investment demand picks up.
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Here is a look at 1929 and today, plus is there pressure for a trade deal?
The post 1929, Today, Plus Is There Pressure For A Trade Deal? appeared first on King World News.
from Financial Survival Network
We’re big fans of our sponsor Auryn Resources (ticker AUG on the TSX and NYSE) and especially its Executive Chairman Ivan Bebek.
While recent Committee Bay’s drill results have been extremely encouraging, the major action is taking place at the Auryn’s Sombrero project in Peru. Already a huge 1200 square kilometers, they’ve staked out another 8500 hectares of additional land. Best of all, permitting is moving ahead unimpeded. Ivan believes issuance will be done shortly.
And then there’s Curibaya. It’s on a confluence of two major belts. 22 samples have been taken of multi-kilo per ton silver. Could there be a world-class silver project lurking thereunder? Results will be coming out shortly. Interestingly, since it’s located in a low population density area, permits are much easier to come by.
Peru is a great mining jurisdiction because it knows that it needs mining and the government wants to further raise its production profile. All the majors miners are in Peru for the long haul. And it’s the place to go for major potential Tier 1 projects.
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Stocks slide after some disappointing earnings from McDonald’s, Travelers (Thomas R.)
United Technologies shares rose 2.2% after the company posted earnings that topped analyst expectations. Better-than-expected revenues from the company’s Otis, Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace divisions helped drive the beat.
Procter & Gamble climbed 2.6% after its results topped expectations. The company’s numbers were driven by Procter’s beauty, health care and fabric and home care lines.
Protests trigger crisis of confidence in Lebanon economy (Sparky1)
In an exclusive interview, Lebanese Central Bank Governor Riad Salame tells Becky Anderson that a political solution is needed within days to avoid economic collapse.
Gold prices to hit $1,600 in April and it’s not because of the Fed (Thomas R.)
A hawkish tone from Powell should be expected: “Chair Powell will have a fine line to walk… to satisfy market participants… as well as the critics of insurance cuts… we expect a slightly hawkish tone, with Powell alluding to a baseline of unchanged policy but emphasizing data-dependence and the ability to respond quickly if the outlook deteriorates,” Hill added.
DeVos Held In Contempt Of Court For Enforcing Loans On Defrauded College Students (edelinski)
Instead, according to the ruling, the department “erroneously” sent messages to more than 16,000 borrowers to pay up. Some did so voluntarily. Others had their wages garnished or tax refunds seized by the government. Ten third-party contractors were involved in collecting the loans, and the judge’s opinion notes that the Education Department didn’t do much to make sure it followed the orders, beyond sending a few emails.
Virgin Galactic celebrates first day on the New York Stock Exchange (Thomas R.)
Virgin Galactic raised half a billion dollars… We were going to do a deal with the Saudis which we turned down a few months ago, because of the Khashoggi incident. Having that money in the company, it replaces the Saudi money, and it will be very helpful in getting more people, getting more spaceships on the way to be developed, getting another mothership built and finishing up the job.
Working Americans Are Getting Less Sleep, Especially Those Who Save Our Lives (edelinski)
Detective Lt. John Foster, a 25-year veteran of the Ball State University police department, says work-related stress interferes with police officers’ lives every day. “I don’t think it makes a difference whether they’re a patrol officer or a detective; we certainly see some of the worst things that a person can imagine in this profession,” he says.
And at night when he should be sleeping, “it just replays in your mind over and over again,” he says. “I don’t think there is any way for me to forget some of the things that I have seen.”
CVS to test drone delivery for your medications (Sparky1)
UPS is focused on health care in its drone delivery program and approached CVS about working together. UPS has said it has already made 1,100 medical sample deliveries at a Raleigh, North Carolina, hospital as part of a government pilot program. It’s also expanding to a Utah hospital in the coming weeks, in partnership with the drone company Matternet.
Pentagon awards controversial $10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft in Amazon snub (Thomas R.)
A Defense Department official who recently departed and is familiar with the discussions of the contract told CNN that Trump’s animosity toward Amazon and Bezos was well known among senior Pentagon officials. Trump’s opposition to awarding the coveted contract to Amazon would flare periodically with news reports focusing on the online giant, the official said.
Scientists Were Hunting for the Next Ebola. Now the U.S. Has Cut Off Their Funding. (tmn)
Dennis Carroll, the former director of USAID’s emerging threats division who helped design Predict, oversaw it for a decade and retired when it was shut down. The surveillance project is closing because of “the ascension of risk-averse bureaucrats,” he said.
Because USAID’s chief mission is economic aid, he added, some federal officials felt uncomfortable funding cutting-edge science like tracking exotic pathogens.
How Renewable Energy Models Can Produce Misleading Indications (thc0655)
The problem with nearly all energy analyses today is that they use narrow boundaries. They look at only a small piece of the problem–generally the cost (or “energy cost”) of the devices themselves–and assume that this is the only cost involved in a change. In fact, researchers need to recognize that whole new systems may be required, analogous to the extra stomachs and ever-growing teeth. The issue is sometimes described as the need to have “wide boundaries” in analyses.
As fires rage, California refines an important skill: Evacuating (Sparky1)
Memories of the fires in Sonoma County a mere two years ago — which claimed 22 lives — are still fresh here in this area which saw an exodus of 200,000 residents over the weekend. In interviews, businesses, families and others expressed a remarkably similar sentiment: this time, the evacuation went much smoother.
How The Internet Is Killing The Planet (Michael S.)
Let’s put that into perspective: Consider that the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that global electricity demand rose by 4 percent in 2018, the fastest pace since 2010. Our planet consumed a staggering 26,700 TWh of electricity in 2018, with China gobbling up the lion’s share at 6,167 TWh, while the United States was the second largest consumer at 3,971TWh, and India third at 1,243TWh.
Click to read the PM Daily Market Commentary: 10/28/19
Provided daily by the Peak Prosperity Gold & Silver Group
Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to dd@peakprosperity.com. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the "3 Es."
The post Daily Digest 10/29 – Protests Trigger Crisis Of Confidence In Lebanon, How The Internet Is Killing The Planet appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
As I type this, there are over 16 large wildfires currently burning across northern and southern California. Hundreds of thousands of residents have been displaced. Millions are without power.
My hometown of Sebastopol, CA underwent mandatory evacuation at 4am Saturday night. I jumped into the car, along with our life essentials and our pets, joining the 200,000 souls displaced from Sonoma County this weekend.
Even though I write about preparedness for a living, fleeing your home in the dead of night with a raging inferno clearly visible on the horizon drives home certain lessons more effectively than any other means.
I’d like to share those learnings with you, as they’re true for any sort of emergency: natural (fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, blizzard, etc), financial (market crash, currency crisis) or social (revolution, civil unrest, etc).
And I’d like you to be as prepared as possible should one of those happen to you, which is statistically likely.
Your survival, and that of your loved ones, may depend on it.
As mentioned, I’ve spent years advising readers on the importance of preparation. Emergency preparedness is Step Zero of the guide I’ve written on resilient living — literally the first chapter.
So, yes, I had a pre-designed bug-out plan in place when the evacuation warning was issued. My wife and I had long ago made lists of the essentials we’d take with us if forced to flee on short notice (the Santa Rosa fires of 2017 had reinforced the wisdom of this). Everything on these lists was in an easy to grab location.
The only problem was, we were 300 miles away.
There are too many variables that accompany an unforeseen disaster to anticipate all of them. Your plan has to retain enough flexibility to adapt to the unforeseen.
In my case, we were down at Parents’ Weekend at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, where my older daughter recently started her freshman year.
As the text alerts warning of the growing fire risk started furiously arriving, we monitored them closely, reluctant to leave the festivities and our time with our daughter. But once the evacuation warning came across, we knew it was serious enough to merit the 6-hour mad dash home to rescue what we could.
The upside of that long drive was that it gave us time to alter our bug-out plan according to the unfolding situation. We decided my wife and younger daughter would go directly to safety; that reduced the lives at risk in the fire zone down to just 1 (mine). And I used the phone to line up neighbors who could grab our stuff should I not be able to make it home in time.
The learning here is: Leave plenty of room in your plan for the unexpected. If its success depends on everything unfolding exactly as you predict, it’s worthless to you.
Once an emergency is in full swing, things start happening more quickly than you can process well.
Even if developments are unfolding in the way you’ve anticipated, they come at an uncomfortably fast rate that adrenaline, anxiety and fatigue make even more challenging to deal with.
Just as The Crash Course chapter on Compounding explains how exponential problems unfold too fast to avoid once they become visible, it’s very easy to get overwhelmed or caught off-guard by the pace required to deal with a disaster.
The Kincade fire started at 9:30pm the night before I left Sebastopol for Cal Poly. When I went to bed that night it was a mere 300 acres in size. Two days later it was 25,000 acres. (it’s currently at 66,000 acres).
It went from “nothing to worry about” to “get out NOW!” in less than 48 hours.
Watching who fared well during the evacuation and who didn’t , those who took action early out of a healthy sense of caution had much more success than those who initially brushed off the potential seriousness of the situation.
Here’s how much of a difference timely action made:
The ‘evacuation warning’ advisory became a ‘mandatory evacuation’ order at 4am on Saturday night. My car was ready to go and I was on the road out of town within 5 minutes.
Several friends of mine left home just 45 minutes after I did. By that time, the fleeing traffic made the roads essentially immobile. My friends had to turn back to ride things out in their homes, simply hoping for the best.
So I’m reminded of the old time-management axiom: If you can’t be on time, be early. In a developing crisis, set your tolerance level for uncertainty to “low”. Take defensive measures as soon as you detect the whiff of increasing risk; it’s far more preferable to walk back a premature maneuver than to realize it’s too late to act.
Related to Rule #2 above, you’re going to bungle parts of the plan. Stress, uncertainty and fatigue alone pretty much guarantee it.
You’re going to forget things or make some wrong choices.
Case in point: as I was evacuating, the plan was to take a less-travelled back route, in order to reduce the odds of getting stuck in traffic. But, racing in the dark and checking in on the phone with numerous friends and neighbors, muscle memory took over and I found myself headed to the main road of town. Too late to turn back, I sat at the turn on, waiting for someone in the line of cars to let me in.
It then hit me that perhaps no one might. Folks were panicked. Would someone be willing to slow down to let me go ahead of them?
Obviously someone did, or I wouldn’t be typing this. But that mistake put everything else I’d done correctly beforehand in jeopardy.
So, as the decisions start to come fast and furious, your key priority is to ensure that you’re focused on making sure the few really important decisions are made well, and that the balls that get dropped won’t be ones that put your safety at risk.
Forget to pack food for the cat? No big deal, you’ll find something suitable later on. Miss your time window to evacuate, as my friends did? That could cost you your life.
A good bug-out plan covers preparing to take essential clothes, food & water, medications, key documents, communications & lighting gear, personal protection, and irreplaceable mementoes.
But when the stakes escalate, you quickly don’t care about any of those. It’s only living things — people, pets & livestock — that you’re focused on.
The rest, while valuable to have in an evacuation, is ultimately replaceable or non-essential.
I very well might have rolled the dice and stayed down at Cal Poly if it weren’t for the cat. But family is family, no matter how furry. I just couldn’t leave her to face an uncertain fate. And I believe strongly you’ll feel the same about any people or pets in your life — it’s a primal, tribal pull to take care of our own. If you don’t plan for it, it will override whatever other priorities you think you may have.
So prioritize accordingly. Build your primary and contingency plans with the security of people and animals first in mind. If there’s time for the rest, great. But if not, at least you secured what’s most important (by far).
Beyond the universal rules above, my current experience as an evacuee has emphasized the out-sized importance of several essential resources for those bugging out. These are the things that have proved most valuable during and after the emergency evacuation.
I will share these in tomorrow’s post. But before I do, I want to express my thanks for the many of you who have sent well-wishes and offers of assistance. Literally hundreds of friends, acquaintances and near-strangers have contacted me via email, text, social media and PeakProsperity.com over the past 72 hours. I’ve received offers to put up my family from folks throughout California and 4 other states. It has been a tremendous honor to be on the receiving end of such kindness.
So many of you who have asked “What can I do to help?”. Personally, I’m safe and being well-cared for where we’re staying.
But I’ll be honest: the gesture that would benefit me (and my business partner Chris Martenson) the most at this point would be for anyone with the means and interest to purchase a premium subscription to PeakProsperity.com.
The thrash that these fires are inserting into my bandwith is impacting PeakProsperity.com at an important time, when Chris and I are taking big strategic steps to substantially expand this website’s audience and offerings.
If you want to help us with that mission, while enjoying valuable insight in return, please subscribe. Even just for a single month.
The post Survival Learnings From A California Fire Evacuee appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
Gold is back but here is what you need to watch right now.
The post Gold Is Back, But Here Is What You Need To Watch Right Now appeared first on King World News.
from The Morgan Report
David Morgan‘s weekly perspective…
The world’s governments will turn to gold, not Bitcoin in case of an economic crisis. Gold and Silver, not their digital competitors, will be used as a hedge currency in case of a potential economic crisis. While some think gold and silver are outdated, its digital version is too volatile to become a viable replacement.
Today’s monetary system is based upon a lie. The lie is that you can get something for nothing, or perhaps more simply stated, wealth can be printed. History has shown throughout 5000 years that whenever a country has tried to maintain this illusion (lie), failure has been the result.
You can continue to grow your wealth regardless of the changing winds of politics, the economy and the financial markets. Let me show you how…
Click Here to Listen to the Audio
Sign up (on the right side) for the instant free Financial Survival Toolkit and free weekly newsletter.
U.S. government’s annual budget deficit largest since 2012 (tmn)
It is the first time since the early 1980s that the budget gap has widened over four consecutive years. The figures reflect the second full budget year under U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, and come at a time when the country has an expanding tax base with moderate economic growth and an unemployment rate currently near a 50-year low.
The Kingpin Problem (TS)
To the extent that widespread deaths among ISIS middle- and upper-management ranks made it difficult for the organization to function—a tactic Barack Obama also relied on to help cripple terrorist networks—there was no symbolic victory like the death of the very top leader. And Baghdadi’s death is indeed a turning point in the War on Terror, just as Osama bin Laden’s was in 2011. It’s just not clear what the war is turning to.
Let’s talk about the US deploying more troops to Syria (Don R.)
Video
Trump wants to make a deal with Exxon or others to tap Syrian oil: ‘We should be able to take some’ (Sparky1)
“This was the chief source of revenue for a long time for ISIS,” Graham said. “It is now in the hands of Syrian Democratic Forces, which are Arabic Kurds, mostly Kurds, with the partnership with the United States. So, no this doesn’t violate any law. In my view, what it does is just good common sense foreign policy.”
“This is a win-win,” he continued. “The SDF will get more money if we can modernize the oil fields.”
Your Uber Driver Is ‘Retired’? You Shouldn’t Be Surprised (jdargis)
Despite spending 40 to 60 hours a week picking up riders in his 2015 Subaru Forester, Mr. Ellenbogen is barely surviving financially. He had to give up his apartment and move into his mother’s condo in Verona, N.J. He relies on Medicaid for health care.
“It’s something I’m accepting because I’m in need of money,” he said of his Lyft gig. “I’m capable of better things, but this is what’s available to me.”
German X-Ray Telescope Takes First Images of Universe. Here They Are (Thomas R.)
“These first images from our telescope show the true beauty of the hidden universe,” Peter Predehl, principal investigator of eROSITA, said in a statement. “To meet our science goals, we needed enough sensitivity to detect the most-distant clusters of galaxies in the universe over the whole sky and resolve them spatially. These first light images show that we can do exactly that, but we can go a lot further.”
A health care algorithm offered less care to black patients (jdargis)
When the researchers compared black patients and white patients to whom the algorithm assigned similar risk scores, they found the black patients were significantly sicker, for example with higher blood pressure and less well-controlled diabetes. This had the effect of excluding people from the extra care program on the basis of race. The hospital automatically enrolled patients above certain risk scores into the program or referred them for consideration by doctors.
Elon Musk Set Up His Shanghai Gigafactory in Record Time (tmn)
Sometime in late 2019, the first Chinese-made Tesla Model 3 destined for customers will roll off an assembly line at Tesla Inc.’s new Shanghai Gigafactory. When that happens, it’ll be a rare case in which Elon Musk, the company’s famously scattered chief executive officer, has managed to hit one of his famously ambitious deadlines.
Kincade Fire: The Age of Flames Is Consuming California (tmn)
There’s good reason that, for the past three years, Northern California has seen particularly massive, fast-moving wildfires tear through communities. Every autumn, winds blow in from the northeast, heating up and picking up speed as they descend through mountain valleys. This sucks moisture out of vegetation, turning it into the perfect fuel for wildfires.
As many as 2 million in California may have power cut as fires rage (tmn)
There are already indications that, despite earlier power shutoffs in anticipation of the week’s fire weather, the largest of the state’s fires, the Kincade fire in Sonoma County, started near a PG&E transmission tower that malfunctioned around the same time, authorities said.
Wind-Fueled Wildfires Push California Governor To Declare State Of Emergency (Thomas R.)
The Kincade Fire is just 5% contained after three days and has burned about 54,000 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Smoke from the fires is affecting the entire Bay Area, though in most of the region, air quality was not expected to exceed the “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” range.
Click to read the PM Daily Market Commentary: 10/25/19
Provided daily by the Peak Prosperity Gold & Silver Group
Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to dd@peakprosperity.com. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the "3 Es."
The post Daily Digest 10/28 – U.S. Budget Deficit Largest Since 2012, Fires And Power Outages In CA appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
Here is a very important Monday gold market update, plus a shocking chart.
The post Very Important Monday Gold Market Update, Plus A Shocking Chart appeared first on King World News.
Auryn Samples High-Grade Silver and Gold over 4.5 km² at Curibaya Vancouver, Canada – October 28th, 2019 – Auryn Resources Inc. (TSX: AUG, NYSE American: AUG) (“Auryn” or the “Company”)
The post Auryn Samples High-Grade Silver and Gold over 4.5 km² at Curibaya appeared first on King World News.
Here is a look at Albert Edward's warning, plus gold, silver, 1929, 1987, today, and the good ol' days.
The post Albert Edwards Warns, Plus Gold, Silver, 1929, 1987, Today, And The Good Ol’ Days appeared first on King World News.
Lebanon could be headed for a cash crisis as banks remain shut a week into mass protests (Sparky1)
“The cash of the banks are in reserve at the Central Bank or are in Treasury bills. The cash of the banks are not in the bank deposits, so no, they don’t have enough cash for everyone that would come and ask for any cash of transfer. So this is the main problem, we have to reduce the panic.”
At least 40 killed as fresh protests engulf Iraq (Sparky1)
The unrest has broken nearly two years of relative stability in Iraq, which lived through foreign occupation, civil war and an Islamic State (IS) insurgency between 2003 and 2017. It is the biggest challenge to security since IS was declared beaten.
Fisher withdrawals top $3 billion as Texas retirement plan exits (Thomas R.)
In just over two weeks, Camas, Washington-based Fisher has lost more than $3 billion in assets as nine institutional clients — seven of which were government pensions — severed ties. The divestitures arrive on the heels of lewd comments Ken Fisher made at a conference on Oct. 8.
Outfoxed and Outgunned: How China Routed the U.S. in a U.N. Agency (newsbuoy)
Five months later, the race ended in a stinging defeat for the United States. Beijing’s candidate, Qu Dongyu, the vice minister of agriculture and rural affairs, overwhelmingly won the June 23 election with 108 out of 191 votes from the organization’s 194 member countries. U.S. diplomats initially anticipated their favored candidate, a former Georgian agriculture minister, receiving at least 60 votes. He ended up getting 12.
The dollar’s position as the leading global reserve currency has long afforded the US what Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, then France’s finance minister, dubbed an “exorbitant privilege”: America can print money at negligible cost and use it to purchase goods and services globally. But, with the opening up of global capital markets, the US has also gained exorbitant leverage over the rest of the world.
He revolutionized how millions of people spend money in India. His next target: America (Sparky1)
His business philosophy is fuelled by a phrase that echoes throughout Paytm’s office in Noida, an industrial hub on the outskirts of New Delhi: “Go Big or Go Home.” The concept is driven home on a frosted glass wall of Paytm’s main boardroom, on office stationery and on countless coffee mugs in its pantry.
It’s an outlook that has helped Sharma, 41, grow Paytm into a company valued at $15 billion in less than a decade.
Target Slashes Employees’ Hours After Raising Its Minimum Wage to $15 An Hour (thc0655)
Heidi Shierholz, who was the chief economist at the Labor Department during the Obama Administration, said the wage hike is being counter-attacked by the company slashing employees’ hours, “Most workers aren’t getting any more of what they really need.”
The USA PATRIOT Act: The Story of an Impulsive Bill that Eviscerated America’s Civil Liberties (Alex)
Title VIII is where the rubber meets the road: What exactly is terrorism, according to the federal government? Unfortunately, this Title does little to clarify what terrorism is, instead focusing on declaring a number of actions (such as attacks on transit) as “terrorism,” regardless of intent.
A Drug Cartel Just Defeated The Mexican Military In Battle (Thomas R.)
The eight-hour battle ended when government forces, outgunned and surrounded, without reinforcements or a way to retreat, received an order directly from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to release their prisoner and surrender. Lopez Obrador later defended this decision, insisting that his security strategy is working and saying, “Many people were at risk and it was decided to protect people’s lives. I agreed with that, because we don’t do massacres, that’s over.”
In just a few days, investors could take a stake in a space tourism company for the first time (Sparky1)
The management team of Galactic, which is debt free, will stay in place after the merger, and existing investors in Galactic are being offered a combination of SCH stock and cash. Galactic’s primary backers are Branson and his own Virgin Group, a UK-based investment and branding company that functions as his private wealth management firm.
Europe’s Space Agency Wants People to Live Inside Moon Caves (Thomas R.)
The caves could “shield astronauts from cosmic radiation and micrometeorites and possibly provide access to icy water and other resources trapped underground,” said Franceso Sauro, director of ESA’s PANGAEA planetary geology astronaut training, in a statement.
Exclusive: Wells Fargo lays off more than 200 business bankers in U.S. – sources (Sparky1)
Representatives for Wells Fargo confirmed the cuts but did not elaborate on how many agricultural bankers were laid off.
Over the summer, 22 bankers were axed from its energy team, according to two other sources. The cuts represented about 7% of the energy group, a spokeswoman said.
Argentina central bank bleeds reserves ahead of election, peso crumbles anyway (Sparky1)
The formal peso, supported by the central bank, fell 0.3% to 59.99 versus the greenback, having weakened 24.4% over 11 weeks since the shock result of the country’s presidential primary dumped cold water on the markets.
The bank spent $220 million on interventions on Friday, traders said, as the peso continued its four-year swoon under President Mauricio Macri, a free-markets advocate and Wall Street darling expected to lose his re-election bid on Sunday.
Massive American Dream mall opens but will shoppers come? (Thomas R.)
Amid that new reality, American Dream is looking to draw 45 million to 50 million visitors in its first year. Entertainment will account for more than half of its space, including attractions like a bunny field and an aviary. There will also be a doggy day care and a luxury wing, where shoppers can sip champagne and sample caviar as they wait for their designer handbags to be wrapped.
AP PHOTOS: A look at the faces of Argentina’s poor (Sparky1)
Luciano Carpigniano lost his job at a Buenos Aires appliance store a year ago. The 37-year-old says inflation has made him seriously consider starting his own business, so as not to depend on an employer, or move to Spain. “Here the economy changes your reality in a few days,” he says. He doesn’t think any of the presidential candidates can change that.
Our government makes us play with Monopoly money (Thomas R.)
Boom and bust economic cycles are made worse by government interference. Left alone, the markets most often smooth themselves out with fewer extreme highs and lows.
After the economic debacle of 2008, the government once again tried to fix the mess it created and as a result extended the economic recession.
Esper: US troops, armored vehicles going to Syria oil fields (Sparky1)
Adding armored reinforcements in the oil-producing area of Syria could mean sending several hundred U.S. troops — even as a similar number are being withdrawn from a separate mission closer to the border with Turkey where Russian forces have been filling the vacuum.
California wildfires: Millions warned of possible power cut (Thomas R.)
PG&E on Friday warned about 850,000 customers – whose households are estimated to contain about 2 million people – that they “may be impacted” by a power cut between Saturday evening and midday on Monday, citing forecasts of potential extreme weather.
“PG&E will need to turn off power for safety several hours before the potentially damaging winds arrive,” the company said in a statement.
Without Food, You Are Dead (thc0655)
Food has always been used to control people. Always. Think of Joseph in Egypt. His father and brothers had to come and beg for food. They had the money to pay for it, but that didn’t mean they would receive any. It’s no different today. Look around the world. Look at how interdependent everyone is. Some countries have oil. Some have water. Some have the type of land and soil that will grow food, some don’t. If any one thing goes wrong, one spoke of the wheel breaks, all systems fail. No water, no food. No oil, no fertilizer, no commercial farming apparatus, no food. No transportation, food rots in the field. No workers, no food.
Click to read the PM Daily Market Commentary: 10/24/19
Provided daily by the Peak Prosperity Gold & Silver Group
Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to dd@peakprosperity.com. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the "3 Es."
The post Daily Digest 10/26 – Wells Fargo Lays Off 200+ U.S. Business Bankers, Will Shoppers Come To The Massive American Dream Mall?https://www.peakprosperity.com/forum-topic/pm-daily-market-commentary-10-24-2019/ appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
Today one of the greats in the business said the price of gold may be preparing to break out.
The post Alasdair Macleod – Gold Preparing To Break Out appeared first on King World News.
With the gold market taking the world by surprise this week breaking above $1,500, one of the most important interviews of 2019 has just been released with Michael Oliver, the man who is well known for his deadly accurate forecasts on stocks, bonds, and major markets.
The post ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT INTERVIEWS OF 2019: Michael Oliver – This Is About To Put Massive Wind At The Back Of The Gold Market appeared first on King World News.
One Of The Most Important Audio Interviews Of 2019 From The Man Who Worked Directly With The Chairman Of The Comex In The 1970s And Called The Stock Market Crash Of 1987!
The post Michael Oliver: Broadcast Interview – Available Now appeared first on King World News.
One Of The Most Important Audio Interviews Of 2019 From The Man Who Worked Directly With The Chairman Of The Comex In The 1970s And Called The Stock Market Crash Of 1987!
The post Michael Oliver appeared first on King World News.
If you have not yet read Part 1: Could Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) Actually Save Us?, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.MMT is a financial Roach Trap — it’s impossible to back out of MMT once it’s launched. The demands for more spending will skyrocket, and there will be no politically viable way to say “no” to additional spending. The initial surge of spending will likely be highly successful: as trillions of dollars gush into the economy, spending and tax revenues will leap and the illusion of sustainability will be anchored in the public’s mind and in the media: look, MMT is working just like we said it would! Inflation is still tame. Yes, inflation will be tame for a brief honeymoon, as inventories can be drained without raising prices. But once the higher demand races through the supply chain, prices will rise in correlation to scarcity, competing demands, etc. One can easily imagine the land rush of special interests and constituencies to demand a new piece of the “free money” pie in this honeymoon phase: “free” medications (at full Big Pharma prices, of course); “free” university (at full tuition, of course); “free” childcare; “free” Social Security increases, and so on in a tsunami of demands. Once inflation starts rising, the current rigged methodology of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) will mask it for a time, just as it does now. But eventually, reality will break through the artifice and
The post Life Under MMT: A Self-Reinforcing, Inflationary Feedback Loop appeared first on Peak Prosperity.