Foreign governments dump US debt at record rate
USA - In a bid to raise cash, foreign central banks and government institutions sold $57.2 billion of US Treasury debt and other notes in January, according to figures released on Tuesday. That is up from $48 billion in December and the highest monthly tally on record going back to 1978.
It's part of a broader trend that gathered steam last year when central banks sold a record $225 billion of US debt. "Foreigners have no longer been our BFF ["Best Friend Forever"] when it comes to buying US Treasuries," Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, wrote in a client note.
So what are foreign central bankers doing with these piles of cash? They're mostly using the funds to stimulate their own economies as the global growth slowdown and crash in oil prices continue to take their toll.
Lord Rothschild Warns Of ‘Big Problems In 2016’
USA - Lord Rothschild Letter to Investors (via RIT Capital): “In my half-yearly statement I sounded a note of caution, ending up by writing that ‘the climate is one where the wind may well not be behind us’; indeed we became increasingly concerned about global equity markets during the last quarter of 2015, reducing our exposure to equities as the economic outlook darkened and many companies reported disappointing earnings. Meanwhile central banks’ policy makers became more pessimistic in their economic forecasts for, despite unprecedented monetary stimulus, growth remained anaemic. Not surprisingly, market conditions have deteriorated further. So much so that the wind is certainly not behind us; indeed we may well be in the eye of a storm.”
The West falls into abyss of liberal Satanism
RUSSIA - The meeting between the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill and the head of the Roman Catholic Church received mixed reactions in the world. The meeting became a hope for some and a terrible omen signaling the collapse of religions for others. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle. Pravda.Ru sat down for an interview to discuss the significance of the meeting with Orthodox publicist Victor Saulkin, a member of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society.
Victor Saulkin: “"During the times of the Soviet Union, many in the country thought that every person in the Christian West had a gospel on their bedside table. Afterwards, it became clear that it was the Soviet Union that was protecting the world from the Golden Calf ideology. When the Soviet empire collapsed, the West assumed that Russia was dead. The country was dismembered, the defense industry and the army were destroyed. That was the time when liberal Satanism triumphed in the West.
"In Catholic Italy, a court decided to take crucifixes out from schools. This is beyond understanding. In France, millions of people took to the streets to protest against gay marriage, but no one listened to them. The West is moving towards liberal Satanism. When we talk about the Islamic extremism of ISIL, we need to understand who created ISIL and what for."
Anti-Trump Groups Threaten ‘Largest Civil Disobedience Action of the Century’
USA - With little fanfare and almost no news media attention, some of the same radical groups involved in shutting down Donald Trump’s Chicago rally last week are plotting a mass civil disobedience movement to begin next month.
They intend to march across the East Coast in order to spark a “fire that transforms the political climate in America.” The operation, calling itself Democracy Spring, is threatening “drama in Washington” with the “largest civil disobedience action of the century.” The radicals believe this will result in the arrest of thousands of their own activists.
“We will demand that Congress listen to the People and take immediate action to save our democracy. And we won’t leave until they do — or until they send thousands of us to jail,” the website for Democracy Spring declares, channeling rhetoric from the Occupy movement. The group is backed by numerous organizations, including the George Soros-funded groups MoveOn.org, the Institute for Policy Studies, and Demos.
“Black students advocate white genocide” I can’t believe this is the level of discourse happening on campuses
USA - I can’t believe this is the level of discourse happening on campuses. This debate about whether white people should be exterminated was held at Harvard University. The pro-genocide team, Damiyr Davis and Miguel Felician, is from the University of West Georgia. The topic of the debate supposed to be renewable energy — not race. The black debaters simply "chose" to point out their opponents’ skin color and begin advocating genocide. They expressly stated that these were their "sincere beliefs", not just an argument to win a debate.
Black students at every major university in the country, including Harvard, Yale, and Johns Hopkins, have joined the “Black Liberation Collective” which endorses the murder of whites in a manifesto called “On Violence.” Amazingly, the University of West Georgia brags about these two anti-white debaters on its website. The duo’s passionate advocacy of white extermination has made them number 2 in the country!
White genocide is even being taught to high-school students. One of the anti-white debaters, Miguel Feliciano works as an instructor at Coppin State University’s Eddie Conway Liberation Institute, run by Professor Shanara Reid-Brinkley of the University of Pittsburg. Young black students are indoctrinated in the same anti-white ideology displayed in this debate.
We Are Being Killed On Trade – Rapidly Declining Exports Signal A Death Blow For The US Economy
USA - Exports fell precipitously during the last two recessions, and now it is happening again. So how in the world can anyone make the claim that the US economy is in good shape? On my website I have been repeatedly pointing out the parallels between the last two major economic downturns and the current crisis, and I am going to discuss another one today.
Since peaking in late 2014, US exports have been steadily declining, and this is something that we never see outside of a major recession. Because our exports are falling faster than our imports, our trade deficit is blowing out once again. Every year we buy hundreds of billions of dollars more from the rest of the world than they buy from us, and this is systematically wrecking our economy.
Over the past several decades, we have lost tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities, millions of good paying manufacturing jobs, and major exporting nations such as China have become exceedingly wealthy at our expense. We are being absolutely killed on trade, and yet very few of our politicians ever want to talk about this.
London mayor Boris Johnson urges Obama not to interpose in EU debate
USA - Mr Obama, who wants the UK to stay in the EU, is expected to visit the UK for the last time as President next month. The London mayor wrote that it would be “wholly fallacious” of Mr Obama to use any trip to warn that the UK will lose global influence if it quits the EU. Mr Johnson is campaigning to leave the EU ahead of the vote on 23 June.
Downing Street has refused to comment on reports that the US president will argue for the UK’s continued EU membership during his reported visit, when he would be expected to hold talks with David Cameron – who is leading the campaign to stay in the EU.
In his regular column for the Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson criticised the US for interfering in the debate, when it defends its own sovereignty with “hysterical vigilance”. He wrote that President Obama would arrive to the UK “sometime in the next couple of months” and “pronounce on the matter”.
The Americans, he said, were “urging us down a course they would never dream of going themselves”, making the point that the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement which the US negotiated with Mexico and Canada in the 1990s was a pure trade deal without any degree of political integration, such as a EU style court, commission or Parliament. The EU, he added, was not suited to becoming a United States of Europe – as some in Washington hope – because it lacks a single culture, language or allegiance.
ICE: 124 illegal immigrants released from jail later charged in 138 murder cases
USA - US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revealed that 124 illegal immigrant criminals released from jail by the Obama administration since 2010 have been subsequently charged with murder. A Center for Immigration Studies report on the data from ICE to the Senate Judiciary Committee added that the committee is not releasing the names of the murder suspects. "The criminal aliens released by ICE in these years — who had already been convicted of thousands of crimes — are responsible for a significant crime spree in American communities, including 124 new homicides.
Ireland to Prosecute Top Banker Who Destroyed Their Economy
IRELAND - A former head of a major Irish bank has been extradited from the US and brought before Dublin District Court to face several charges stemming from the bank’s role in the 2008 financial crisis.
David Drumm, former chief executive of Irish Anglo Bank from 2005 until 2008, had been arrested in Boston in October 2015, and originally attempted to fight extradition — but he recently withdrew the objection and was returned to Ireland early on Monday.
Drumm faces 33 charges in Ireland, which echoes Iceland’s unprecedented move to hold its bankers criminally accountable for their role in that country’s economic meltdown. Though Drumm predictably denied wrongdoing, his charges include “fraud, forgery, misleading management reporting, unlawful lending, falsifying documents, and false accounting, linked to financial transactions prior to the collapse of Anglo,” according to the Irish Times.
Saint Patrick was never canonized a saint by the Catholic Church
IRELAND - The sad news is that Saint Patrick never got the official title. While millions around the world will celebrate Saint Patrick's Day on March 17, the sad fact is that Patrick has never been canonized by the Catholic Church and is a saint in name only. As writer Ken Concannon stated: "There was no formal canonization process in the Church during its first millennium. Patrick was actually the grandson of a priest back when marriage for clerics was not frowned on. His genius was bringing together the old pagan traditions and the new religion together in harmony in Ireland in the 5th century."
Fertilizer applied to fields today will contaminate water for decades
USA - Nitrogen fertilizer applied to farmers’ fields has been contaminating rivers and lakes and leaching into drinking water wells for more than eighty years. Dangerous nitrate levels in drinking water could persist for decades, increasing the risk for blue baby syndrome and other serious health concerns, according to a new study published by researchers at the University of Waterloo. The researchers have discovered that nitrogen is building up in soils, creating a long-term source of nitrate pollution in ground and surface waters. The University reports that their paper presents the first direct evidence of a large-scale nitrogen legacy across the US Mississippi River Basin.
EU referendum 100 days away
UK - Today the EU has its own currency, its own bank, a European Parliament of more than 700 politicians, its own court and judges, a European Commission, the free movement of people, and there is even talk of a European Army.
In the 1940's, when Winston Churchill called for "a kind of United States of Europe", did he foresee what was to follow? Would he approve? He talked of the European "family" and called for the creation of the Council of Europe (which still exists today), but he also said "we are with Europe but not of it. We are linked but not comprised."
More importantly perhaps, when the British people last had its say on Europe in 1975, were they voting for the ever-closer political, as well as economic, union that has followed? Those that argue they were not, say that is precisely why a referendum is needed - to give the British people the opportunity to get out of a club they never chose to join.
World coal giant Peabody faces bankruptcy as industry implodes
USA - The world’s largest private coal company is on the verge of bankruptcy as the commodity crash claims its biggest victim, crippled by fierce competition from cheap gas and a radical policy shift by China. The US-based group Peabody Energy missed interest payments on two sets of bonds worth $1.6 billion, stunning markets with a warning that it may be forced to invoke Chapter 11 protection under US insolvency law.
“There exists substantial doubt whether we will be able to continue as a going concern,” it said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. “There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain additional financing on commercially reasonable terms or at all,” it said. The company’s share price crashed 45 percent in early trading in New York.
The Peabody group dates back 133 years and generated a tenth of America’s electric power as recently as five years ago. It is the first household name to succumb to the deepening coal crisis, which has already forced Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources into bankruptcy and wiped out the stock market capitalisation of the industry.
Snowden Bombshell: Unconstitutional Mass Surveillance “Never Stopped a Single Terrorist Attack”
USA - Bulk data gathering programs used by US intelligence have no effect in combating terrorism and have failed to prevent any attacks in their 10 years of operation, whistleblower and former NSA contactor Edward Snowden, claims in a recent interview.
“In the wake of the revelations of mass surveillance the [US] president [Barack Obama] appointed two independent commissions to review the efficiency of these [surveillance] programs, what they really did and what effect they had in combating terrorism. [The commissions comprised] the highest priests of these programs, they found these programs had never stopped a single terrorist attack and never made a concrete difference in a terrorist investigation,” Snowden told Spanish TV channel.
The whistleblower went on saying, that “they [the NSA, CIA] violated the constitution and the rights of 330 million Americans for 10 years. We have to ask ourselves: was it ever worth it?” He also stated that despite being justified by preventing terrorist attacks, surveillance programs are more often used for completely different purposes.
“It was diplomatic manipulation, economic spying and social control. It was about power, and there is no doubt that mass surveillance increases the power of the government.”
Syria conflict: Russia's Putin orders 'main part' of forces out
RUSSIA - In a surprise move, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to start withdrawing the "main part" of its forces in Syria from Tuesday. He said the Russian intervention had largely achieved its objectives. The comments come amid fresh peace talks in Geneva aimed at resolving the five-year Syrian conflict.
Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his office said in a statement he had agreed to the move. The pullout was "in accordance with the situation on the ground", the statement said. Russia began its campaign of air strikes in Syria last September, tipping the balance in favour of the Syrian government and allowing it to recapture territory from rebels.
Mr Putin is effectively saying "job done" in Syria. He is clear, though, that a Russian air base and a naval base will remain, so this is not a total military pull-out. Coinciding with the Syria peace talks, it is yet another sign of Mr Putin's mastery of diplomatic showmanship.
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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.
