Baltic Dry Index. 1370 -48
LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
"Those entrapped by the herd instinct are drowned in the deluges of history. But there are always the few who observe, reason, and take precautions, and thus escape the flood. For these few gold has been the asset of last resort."
Antony C. Sutton
For more on the EC’s head of lying, JC Junker the failed former
Luxembourg PM, scroll down to Crooks Corner. This being the dying continent of
Europe, where half think it’s their right to steal from everyone else, and the
other half think that it’s mandatory, the EC’s “Mr. Europe” will take a long
time to go, if ever. He’s in the mandatory camp alongside Italy. It would
probably be very different if he were a Greek or Cypriot. Not being a "FOM," Friend of Merkel, they would get the bum's rush to the exit door. [Ed. Juncker
surely.]
We open today with the outcome of APEC, China presses on with the FTAAP.
Below, how the looney left wing, BBC New
Labour Party covered the news.
Never
believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.
Otto
von Bismarck.
11 November 2014 Last updated at 11:58
Apec summit: Chinese trade pact plan backed by leaders
Asia-Pacific leaders meeting in
Beijing have agreed to move towards a new free trade zone strongly backed by
China.
The Free Trade Area of the
Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) is seen by some as a rival to a US trade pact, which
excludes China.
Announcing the creation of a
"road map" at the Apec summit near Beijing, Chinese leader Xi Jinping
called it a "historic" step.
Mr Xi had earlier urged
Asia-Pacific nations to accelerate economic ties.
The US is currently negotiating a
separate Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is considered part of
Washington's "pivot" towards Asia - ensuring continued US influence
in the region in response to growing Chinese power.
The TPP involves 12 countries,
but not China or Russia.
Mr Obama has rejected suggestions
by Chinese commentators that the TPP is a way of countering Chinese influence.
In an interview with China's
Xinhua state news agency, he said the US was in no way trying to contain China.
In
its final communique, Apec - the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic
Co-operation forum - said it would conduct a two-year study into the
establishment of the FTAAP."Currently, the global economic recovery still faces many unstable and uncertain factors," the Chinese leader said earlier.
"Facing the new situation, we should further promote regional economic integration and create a pattern of opening up that is conducive to long-term development."
More
Elsewhere in Asia, in Abenomics nothing seems to be going to plan. With
Japan’s Ponzi Scheme edging closer to collapse next year, Prime Minister Abe is
toying with electoral advantage this year to ride out the coming deluge.
Tax Delay or Boosting Support? Why Abe May Call an Election
Nov 12, 2014 5:37 AM GMT
Japanese lawmakers are preparing for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to call a
snap election and postpone a planned sales-tax increase. Abe is likely to call
a general election on Dec. 14, according to two people with knowledge of the
ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s election strategy, who asked not
to be named because the discussions are private. So why would Abe, less than two years into his four-year term, hold an election next month when he is not compelled to go to the people until 2016?
Abe may be seeking an early election to gain leeway to delay an unpopular sales-tax increase, to prevent his sliding support from dropping further, or to take advantage of a weak opposition to increase control of parliament, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The approval rating of Abe’s cabinet fell to 44 percent this month with a majority of the public opposing the levy rise and Abe’s bid to bolster the nation’s defense, down from a peak of 66 percent in April last year, according to polls by public broadcaster NHK. Even so, the LDP’s support rate of 37 percent compares with 8 percent for the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, its nearest rival.
Here some comments on the main issues surrounding possible elections:
More
In oil war news, some analysis.
Oil price plummet won’t help U.S. with Iran or Russia
By Ian Bremmer November
11, 2014
Plummeting oil prices — down more than 25
percent since June to three-year lows — should relieve pressure on consumers at
the pump. But is it pushing oil-exporting regimes past the breaking point?The answer is no. Despite their reliance on oil revenue, the governments of Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela are not teetering. This is no “oil Arab Spring,” where cratering prices topple governments, spreading like wildfire from one dependent authoritarian state to another. In fact, the price drop won’t even change their stances on the geopolitical issues Washington cares most about.
Cheaper oil won’t shift Iran’s posture in nuclear negotiations. Despite the looming deadline, there is still a huge gulf between the two sides. Iran refuses to eliminate most of its existing stockpile of enriched uranium and centrifuges; Washington insists that any proposal without those concessions would be stillborn. Yet, Iran doesn’t feel pressured to cede ground, particularly when Moscow has offered support to Iran if there is no sanctions relief. And Iran’s economy has stabilized somewhat: since President Hassan Rouhani took office last year, inflation has dropped from 40 percent to 21 percent. A deal could still happen, but it would be the result of creative diplomacy and deeper compromise on both sides — not oil forcing Iran to capitulate.
Nothing will deter Vladimir Putin in his bid to destabilize and maintain influence over Ukraine. Russia can stomach the economic consequences inflicted by Western sanctions and cheaper oil for the foreseeable future. Despite massive capital flight and a battered ruble, Putin still has the will, the foreign reserves, and the popular support — his approval ratings are near historic highs — to continue his offensive.
For the time being, Saudi Arabia remains the oil supplier of last resort. It can cut and expand production to alter global supply-demand dynamics. Riyadh has amassed an enormous rainy day fund to weather storms such as this. Saudi Arabia will participate in Washington’s anti-Islamic State campaign only insofar as it aligns with its own aims. A sectarian anti-Shi’ite stance is the guiding force in Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy; cheaper oil will have no bearing on that.
Lower oil prices are an additional strain on Venezuela’s ailing economy. But $75-80 oil won’t send the country into default.
----Longer term, it’s very clear that these regimes’ overdependence on oil revenue could threaten their survival. But each regime faces unique stresses, and the breaking points, should they come at all, are neither imminent nor interconnected. When it comes to regime stability, don’t read much into this price drop just yet.
But there is an overarching trend
affecting all of these petrostates: a shifting energy landscape will make them
dramatically more dependent on China.
More
http://blogs.reuters.com/ian-bremmer/2014/11/11/oil-price-plummet-wont-help-u-s-with-iran-or-russia/
In the very real march to World War Three news, in the Ukraine, both sides are
rearming and preparing for the coming winter war. With Germany already reeling from the blowback
from US ordered Russian sanctions, Chancellor Merkel seems to be invoking a
woman’s right to change her mind. Is Germany about to jump ship over more
suicidal EUSSR Russian sanctions? The Greatest Disconnect between the real world
and levitating central bankster run stock markets just continues to get wider.
Ukraine says rebels get reinforcements, shelling batters truce
By Natalia Zinets and Anton Zverev
KIEV/DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Kiev accused separatists of preparing for renewed conflict in east Ukraine on Tuesday by bringing in "Russian mercenaries" and rearming as heavy shelling increased strains on a crumbling ceasefire.
In Berlin, the European Union's foreign affairs chief said the bloc's foreign ministers would discuss new punitive measures against Russia next week, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out further economic sanctions for now.
Shelling around Donetsk, the main rebel stronghold, and artillery exchanges elsewhere punctured a truce that has been violated by what Kiev says are armed Russian incursions, and what the rebels call a new offensive by government forces.
"Russian mercenaries are strengthening and reinforcing (rebel) forces near the front line," Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told a news briefing in Kiev.
He said the rebels had beefed up positions around the port city of Mariupol in the southeast, control of which would open up roads to territory in southern Ukraine that some Western leaders say Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes to claim.
The ceasefire agreed on Sept. 5 was intended to end a conflict that has killed more than 4,000 people since the separatists rose up in the mainly Russian-speaking east against the Western-looking government in Kiev.
It has been unravelling quickly since separatist leaders were chosen in an election on Nov. 2 which the West said was illegitimate because it violated the terms of the truce.
In what has become the worst standoff between Moscow and the West since the Cold War, Lysenko said the rebels had received new ammunition, equipment and personnel in the past few days.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned in Berlin against "a return to a situation of two or three months ago with violent clashes and daily killings".
NATO's supreme allied commander, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, also expressed concern about the rebel build-up and criticized several close air, land and sea encounters between Russian and NATO forces in the last few weeks.
"In the air those interactions have multiplied, by some accounts, as many as three times ... We now see larger (Russian) forces participating, as opposed to one or two bombers in the past," he said at a NATO base near Naples.
More
"Gold would have value if for no other reason than that it enables a citizen to fashion his financial escape from the state."
William F. Rickenbacker
At the Comex silver
depositories Tuesday final figures were: Registered 66.20 Moz, Eligible 113.43
Moz, Total 179.63 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
This being the corrupt, dysfunctional, dying, wealth destroying, continent of Europe, don’t expect this modern Junker to come crashing down anytime soon, let alone apologise. There may be a whole lot of smoke from the back of this lying Juncker, but he’s “serene” and not yet ready to crash. Why would anyone want to stay in a dying continental club like this? Joining Iceland makes more sense.
"When it becomes serious, you have to lie"
Jean-Claude Juncker. Failed Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro Group of Finance Ministers. Confessed liar. EC President.
Mr. Europe? The Ghosts of Juncker's Past Come Back to Haunt Him
November 10, 2014 – 05:34 PM
He only recently took office as European Commission president, but now, Jean-Claude Juncker is under pressure due to potentially illegal tax deals forged in Luxembourg during his stint as the country's prime minister. Some believe he may have to resign.
Jean-Claude Juncker's first public appearance as the new European Commission president was a symbolic one. Early this month, he traveled to Frankfurt to present former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's new book in the luxury hotel Villa Kennedy. Called "Aus Sorge um Europa" -- "Out of Concern for Europe" -- the book warns that the pursuit of national interests represents a danger to the European ideal. And Juncker is quick to endorse Kohl, a man he calls "a friend and role model."
"Kohl is right in deploring
the fact that we are increasingly sliding down the slope toward reflexive
regionalism and nationalism," Juncker said.
It is certainly not the first
time Juncker has uttered such a sentence. Indeed, his delivery of the message has
often been even more direct. "I've had it," he erupted during an EU
summit in December of 2012, for example. "Eighty percent of the time, only
national interests are being presented. We can't go on like this!"
Such sentiments have served
Juncker well throughout his career and have helped transform the politician
from tiny Luxembourg into a well-known defender of Europe. Now, though, at the
apex of his European career, Juncker and his beloved European Union are facing
a significant problem. And it is one that has led even advisors close to
Juncker to wonder whether he may soon have to step down from his new position,
despite having taken office only recently.
Last week, several media outlets,
including the Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung, published the most
detailed accounts yet of the tricks used -- and the eagerness brought to bear
-- by Luxembourg officials to help companies avoid paying taxes. The strategies
were often developed together with company leaders and served to entice
multinationals to set up shop in Luxembourg. The tiny country on Germany's
western border, for its part, benefited from tax revenues it wouldn't otherwise
have seen. It was, in short, a reciprocal relationship.
But it was also a relationship
that was disadvantageous for Luxembourg's EU partners -- and for European
cooperation itself. Many of the companies that set up shop in Luxembourg, after
all, no longer paid taxes in their home countries where they produced or sold
the lion's share of their products.´
Morehttp://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/juncker-faces-uncertain-future-amid-tax-loophole-investigations-a-1002062.html#ref=nl-international
Growing calls for Jean Claude Juncker resignation
Bloomberg, the financial newswire, says Mr Juncker 'needs to go' and has been 'foisted on' the countries of the EU
There were growing calls for
Jean-Claude Juncker to resign as President of the European Commission amid allegations
that he presided over potentially illegal tax breaks given to multinational
companies operating in Luxembourg.
Bloomberg, the influential
financial newswire, devoted
its editorial to a call for Mr Juncker’s resignation over revelations multinational
companies were allegedly allowed to create complicated structures to avoid
billions of pounds of tax when he was Prime Minister of the country.
----The editorial, entitled “Jean-Claude Juncker Needs to Go”, describes Mr Juncker as a “bad choice for the job” who has been “foisted on the bloc's 28 national governments by a European Parliament eager to expand its powers.”
The editors of the financial wire
say it is now “becoming clear now just how poor a decision” the appointment of
Mr Juncker was after details emerged of revelations of potentially illegal tax
breaks given to multinationals in Luxembourg, of which he was prime minister
for almost 20 years.
His appointment was fiercely
opposed by David Cameron who was determined to stop Mr Juncker, a federalist,
from becoming president.
However The Prime Minister was
outvoted at a summit in July when the former Prime Minister of Luxemburg took
up his new post at the head of the Commission last week.
Maraget Hodge, the chair of the
public accounts committee has said Mr Juncker should explain what he knew about
the tax arrangements in Luxemburg which he presided over.
“I think he should come clean and
talk about it, certainly try to explain it,” she said. “How can we know he’s
working in the interest of Europe when as prime minister in Luxembourg he has
exploited populations in every European country and elsewhere for decades?”
French, German and Dutch finance
ministers have also rounded on Mr Juncker. Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance
minister, said that laws which helped turn the tiny European country into a magnet
for multinationals who intend to reduce their tax bills showed the Luxemburg “a
lot to do” to meet global standards.
Michel Sapin, the French finance
minister has said such deals were “no longer acceptable for any country”.
The Bloomberg editorial continues:
“Juncker's position as the head of the body investigating the tax practices he
oversaw as prime minister is a clear conflict of interest. It's possible the
commission will find nothing improper about Luxembourg's tax-avoidance
paradise: The EU allows member governments wide latitude in taxing companies,
so long as they don't favour some over others.
“But with Juncker in charge of
the commission, any such exoneration will fail to command public confidence.
Morehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/11222007/Growing-calls-for-Jean-Claude-Juncker-resignation.html
Jean-Claude Juncker Needs to Go
Jean-Claude Juncker, the new president of the European Commission, was always a bad choice for the job, foisted on the bloc's 28 national governments by a European Parliament eager to expand its powers. It's becoming clear now just how poor a decision that appointment was.Juncker was the prime minister of Luxembourg, a tiny nation with a population 1/17th the size of London's, for almost two decades. In that time, he oversaw the growth of a financial industry that became a tax center for at least 340 major global companies, not to mention investment funds with almost 3 trillion euros ($3.7 trillion) in net assets -- second only to the U.S.
Partly as a result of the Swiss-style bank secrecy rules and government-blessed tax avoidance schemes that helped draw so much capital, the people of Luxembourg have become the world's richest after Qatar.
----It's telling that these arrangements have long been shrouded in secrecy. (Only last month did Luxembourg's government drop its opposition to new EU rules on banking transparency.) Juncker, you could say, made his country rich by picking the pockets of other countries, including those of the European Union he is now mandated to serve.
The commission was already conducting an investigation of Luxembourg's tax arrangements. Juncker says he won't interfere -- but he won't recuse himself, either. Indeed, his spokesman says he is "serene" in the face of the revelations. He shouldn't be. At this point, he could best serve the European project by resigning.
More
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-11-09/jeanclaude-juncker-needs-to-go
"The history of paper money is an account of abuse, mismanagement, and financial disaster."Richard M. Ebeling.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished October.
DJIA: +137 Down. NASDAQ: +275 Down. SP500: +210 Down.
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