The Price Of Copper And 11 Other Recession Indicators That Are Flashing Red
USA - There are a dozen significant economic indicators that are warning that the US economy is heading into a recession. The Dow may have soared past the 15,000 mark, but the economic fundamentals are telling an entirely different story.
If historical patterns hold up, the economy is heading for a very rocky stretch. For example, the price of copper is called "Dr Copper" by many economists because it so accurately forecasts the future direction of the US economy. And so far this year the price of copper is way down. But that is not the only indicator that is worrying economists. Home renovation spending has fallen dramatically, retail spending is crashing in a way not seen since the last recession, manufacturing activity and consumer confidence are both declining, and troubling economic data continues to come pouring out of Asia and Europe.
So why do US stocks continue to skyrocket? Will US financial markets be able to continue to be divorced from reality? Unfortunately, as we have seen so many times in the past, when stocks do catch up with reality they tend to do so very rapidly. So you better put on your seatbelts because a crash is coming at some point.
Michael Snyder: “We inherited the greatest economic machine the world has ever seen and we have wrecked it, and now a very painful day of reckoning is approaching”!
NAYPYIDAW, BURMA/BERLIN, GERMANY - The German Foreign Ministry is strengthening Berlin's anti-China position in Southeast Asia, through a new training program for employees of several of Myanmar's ministries.
If one seeks to "roll back" the influence of the People's Republic of China, Myanmar is "a very interesting partner," affirmed a specialist on Southeast Asia at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. The German government is expanding cooperation with that country accordingly, and in addition to broadening cooperation on political projects, seeks particularly to enhance its economic influence.
The EU recently lifted the economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar due also to German pressure. The German Ministry of the Economy is supporting new business deals.
Lord Lawson calls for UK to exit EU
CommentUK - The former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Lawson, has called for the UK to leave the European Union. Writing in the Times, he said British economic gains from an exit "would substantially outweigh the costs". He describes the EU as "a bureaucratic monstrosity" and added that after an association with Brussels of 40 years "the case for exit is clear". The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said Lord Lawson's intervention was a "big moment" in the EU debate.
Islamic Groups Against Likud’s Temple Mount Plans
CommentTEMPLE MOUNT, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL- Islamic groups have begun an internet campaign opposing Likud members’ plans to visit the Temple Mount, Temple Mount organizations report. Likud members are planning a joint visit to the holy site in protest of the fact that their fellow Likud MK, Moshe Feiglin, has been barred from visiting.
An invitation sent by organizers to Likud members read, “46 years after the liberation of Jerusalem, 46 years since the historic shofar blast that made thousands of hearts tremble, and the emotional cry, ‘The Temple Mount is in our hands!’ the Likud-Beytenu movement has decided to end the shameful neglect of Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth to the Jewish people!”
Islamic groups have called on supporters to spend all day Tuesday on the Temple Mount in order to prevent the Likud group for touring the area.
In light of recent tension as Muslims try to prevent Jews from visiting the holy site, Temple Mount groups are throwing their weight behind a proposal to avoid tension by splitting visiting hours at the site. The proposal would see certain times and places set aside for Jewish prayer, while other times are set aside exclusively for Muslim prayer.
Does your child really have a behaviour disorder?
UK - From depression to anxiety and ADHD, more of us now suffer from mental health problems and need pills to treat them — or so we’re told. But in this shocking indictment of modern psychiatry, James Davies suggests that this rise in mental illness is down to the greed of drug companies and the pursuit of medical status. The author is a psychological therapist who has worked for the NHS and the mental health charity Mind.
Israeli airstrike in Syria aimed at Iran
ISRAEL/SYRIA - From Israel's perspective, its airstrikes near Damascus were more about Iran than Syria: Tehran's shipment of guided missiles destroyed in the weekend attacks would have posed a potent threat had the weapons reached Iranian proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon. While Israel says it has no interest getting involved in the Syrian civil war, it could find itself drawn into the conflict if Syrian leader Bashar Assad's Iranian patrons continue to use his territory to ship arms to Hezbollah.
California Girds for Severe Fire Season as Dry Lands Burn
USA - Californians are preparing for a prolonged season of wildfires after an unusually dry winter that left millions of acres of scrub brush in the most populous US state primed to burn. The tinder-box conditions have sparked more than 840 wildfires since January, about 320 more than the five-year average, according to the state Forestry and Fire Protection Department, known as Cal Fire. A fast-moving fire in Ventura County over the weekend charred an area the size of San Francisco, forced the evacuation of a college with 4,900 students and threatened 4,000 homes northwest of Los Angeles.
Espionage fuels China's fast-paced military buildup: Pentagon
USA/CHINA - China is using espionage to acquire technologies to fuel its fast-paced military modernization program, the Pentagon said on Monday in an annual report that for the first time accused Beijing of trying to break into US defense computer networks. The report said China's cyber snooping was a "serious concern" that pointed to an even greater threat because the "skills required for these intrusions are similar to those necessary to conduct computer network attacks."
German euro founder calls for 'catastrophic' currency to be broken up
CommentGERMANY - Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister who launched the euro, has called for a break-up of the single currency to let southern Europe recover, warning that the current course is "leading to disaster".
"The economic situation is worsening from month to month, and unemployment has reached a level that puts democratic structures ever more in doubt," he said. "The Germans have not yet realised that southern Europe, including France, will be forced by their current misery to fight back against German hegemony sooner or later," he said, blaming much of the crisis on Germany's wage squeeze to gain export share.
Mr Lafontaine said on the parliamentary website of Germany's Left Party that Chancellor Angela Merkel will "awake from her self-righteous slumber" once the countries in trouble unite to force a change in crisis policy at Germany's expense. His prediction appeared confirmed as French finance minister Pierre Moscovici yesterday proclaimed the end of austerity and a triumph of French policy, risking further damage to the tattered relations between Paris and Berlin. "Austerity is finished. This is a decisive turn in the history of the EU project since the euro," he told French TV. "We're seeing the end of austerity dogma. It's a victory of the French point of view."
Bad is the new good – except that it isn’t
CommentUK - The craze for taking something we all think is bad and telling us that it’s good is crazy. There is a brand new fashion in management circles. It doesn’t yet have a name so I’m calling it “White is the new black”, because it involves taking something we all think is bad and telling us that it’s good (or vice versa). Everyone loves this latest fashion. It’s refreshing. It’s counter-intuitive. It’s liberating. And it’s so cool. On LinkedIn and the Harvard Business Review website, readers can’t get their fingers on the “like” button fast enough.
Obama To Grads: Reject Voices That Warn About Government Tyranny
USA - US President Barack Obama - to the graduating class of The Ohio State University on May 5, 2013 in Columbus, Ohio...
“Unfortunately, you've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They'll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can't be trusted.”
Pope Encourages Protection of Children From Abuse
VATICAN CITY- Pope Francis is calling for courageous defense of children to protect them from abuse. Francis made no mention of the church scandals in many countries in which clergy abused children and hierarchy covered up for them.
At a Mass he celebrated Sunday in crowded St Peter's Square, Francis said abuse victims are in his prayers. He stressed that all must work with courage so that children, who are among the most vulnerable people, be always defended and protected.
Ignoring sometimes heavy rain, Francis toured the square in a popemobile, but left the vehicle to embrace disabled adults and children along his route. In a surprise, he ventured beyond the Vatican's confines, riding the popemobile down a Rome boulevard to greet thousands of cheering faithful who couldn't fit in the square.
Israel strikes Syria, says targeting Hezbollah arms
ISRAEL - Israeli jets devastated Syrian targets near Damascus on Sunday in a heavy overnight air raid that Western and Israeli officials called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah.
As Syria's two-year-old civil war veered into the potentially atomic arena of Iran's confrontation with Israel and the West over its nuclear program, people were woken in the Syrian capital by explosions that shook the ground like an earthquake and sent pillars of flame high into the night sky. "Night turned into day," one man told Reuters from his home at Hameh, near one of the targets, the Jamraya military base.
The Syrian government accused Israel of effectively helping al Qaeda Islamist "terrorists" and said the strikes "open the door to all possibilities"; but Israeli officials said that, as in January, they were calculating Assad would not pick a fight with a well-armed neighbor while facing defeat at home.
UK - Big Headline – but a very short posting to the links to the official figures just published by Public Health Wales. You will not believe your eyes – so download them and see for yourself. Links to the full official statistics reports below from Public Health Wales.
If you take any notice of the British press you will know that the “epicenter” of this British epidemic of epic earthquake proportions – is Swansea in Wales UK. That is where all the fuss is about. There was just ONE laboratory confirmed case out of 183 notified cases – that is 18,200% over-diagnosed – or put another way – 0.005 of notified measles cases were really measles.
For the entire period 1 January to March 31, 2013 for the whole of Wales there were just 26 laboratory confirmed cases out of 446 notifications: 10 in January, 8 in February. And in March just eight cases out of 302 notifications for the whole of Wales.
That is a percentage rate of over-diagnosis and over-notification in March of 3774% or just 0.027 of notified cases were actually measles – and it is medical professionals who do the diagnosing and notifying. Kind of knocks your faith in the ability of doctors to diagnose a basic childhood illness.
UK - Two centuries of UK, USA and Australian official death statistics show conclusively and scientifically modern medicine is not responsible for and played little part in substantially improved life expectancy and survival from disease in western economies.
The main advances in combating disease over 200 years have been better food and clean drinking water. Improved sanitation, less overcrowded and better living conditions also contribute.
Can “vaccinatable” diseases “return” despite vaccination? Yes. If you are too poorly nourished your body is likely to lack essential nutrients needed to maintain its immune system sufficiently to withstand disease. This will happen regardless of how many vaccinations you have had. This was experienced in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the old Soviet Bloc and the economic chaos which ensued, leaving many in great poverty.
For the same reason vaccines do not “work” and “save” lives in impoverished African and other third world economies. The majority of third world child deaths still occur despite vaccination. These children need proper food, clean water to drink and wash in and sanitation. We give them vaccines instead.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.
