- Plastic Apocalypse: Dangerous Microplastics Now Turning Up In Human Stool
Plastic Apocalypse: Dangerous Microplastics Now Turning Up In Human Stool
Last month we revealed how high levels of dangerous microplastics had been detected in some of the most remote regions of the world. Now there are new reports that microplastics are turning up in human stool, a new study suggests.
The study, Detection of Various Microplastics in Human Stool: A Prospective Case Series, examined human stool from eight people around the world and found all had microplastics.
“This small prospective case series showed that various microplastics were present in human stool, and no sample was free of microplastics,” wrote the team of scientists, led by Dr. Philipp Schwabl of the Medical University of Vienna.
“Larger studies are needed to validate these findings. Moreover, research on the origins of microplastics ingested by humans, potential intestinal absorption, and effects on human health is urgently needed.”
Schwabl said volunteers came from Japan, Russia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Finland, and Austria. Their daily food intake was the likely entry point for microplastic exposure.
The study didn’t rule out that microplastic exposure could be coming from food wrappers and bottles. None of the volunteers were vegetarians, while six out of the eight had consumed ocean-going fish.
All stool samples were examined at the Environment Agency Austria for ten different types of plastics. As many as nine plastics were found in sample stool, ranging in size from 50 to 500 micrometers. Schwabl said the most common plastics were polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate.
On average, each stool sample contained about 20 microplastic particles per 10g of stool.
The study wasn’t entirely sure where the microplastics came from or how they were ingested, but because there were various types of plastics, Schwabl said the sources could be from food processing and packaging to seafood consumption.
Since microplastics is relatively a new topic for the scientific community – health impacts, of tiny bits of plastics in human bodies are still unknown.
“Discussion is ongoing about the potential health effects of ingested microplastics and nanoplastics, which (at least in animals) may translocate into gastrointestinal tissues or other organs and cause deleterious effects,” he noted.
Jennifer Adibi, an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, told Reuters that the new study offers “no insight into health implications” of microplastics in the human body.
Our report from last month shows how microplastics come from industrial economies where rubber and paints are used.
The tiny fragments end up in the sea, where they’re broken down by waves and ultraviolet radiation, before absorbing into the atmosphere. From there, the plastic particles are captured from the air during cloud development, can drift across the Earth via jet streams. At some point, the particles act as a nucleus around supercooled droplets can condense, and travel to Earth as snow or other forms of precipitation.
As far as environmental and health impacts of microplastics, these two studies could suggest a silent plastic apocalypse has infected Earth.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/10/2019 – 02:45 - Europe's Full-Blown 'Stockholm Syndrome' In Face Of US Bullying
Europe’s Full-Blown ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ In Face Of US Bullying
Authored by Finian Cunningham,
The psychological condition known as Stockholm Syndrome, in which hostages irrationally sympathize with their captors, could well be applied to European leaders when it comes to US bullying.
The US has always been the dominant –and domineering– party in the transatlantic relationship. But past administrations in Washington have been careful to indulge European states as “partners” in a seemingly mutual alliance.
Under President Donald Trump, the Europeans are pushed around and hectored in a way that shows their true status as mere vassals to Washington.
Take the Nord Stream 2 project. The 1,220-kilometer-long undersea pipeline, which will significantly increase delivery of gas to Europe, is due to be completed by year’s end. The new supply stands to benefit the European Union’s economy, in particular Germany’s, by providing cheaper energy fuel to drive businesses and heat homes.
Yet last week, US Senator Ted Cruz threatened that his country “has the ability to halt” the entire project being completed. Cruz is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which in July passed a bill that will impose sanctions on companies involved in the construction of the pipeline. Germany, Austria, France and Britain are part of the building consortium, along with Russia’s Gazprom.
Ironically, the Senate bill is called ‘Protecting Europe’s Energy Security’. It’s a curious form of ‘protection’ when US-threatened sanctions will deprive European businesses and consumers of affordable gas. Cruz, as with President Trump, has accused Russia of trying to tighten its economic grip on Europe. Closer to the truth, and more cynically, Washington wants Europe to buy its more expensive liquefied natural gas. Texas, the biggest source of US gas, is Cruz’s home state. Maybe his bill should be renamed ‘Protecting American Energy Exports.’
Related to that is the wider imposition of sanctions by Washington and Europe against Russia since 2014. Several reasons are cited for the punitive measures on Moscow, including alleged destabilization of Ukraine and the ‘annexation’ of Crimea, alleged interference in elections, and the dubious Skripal poisoning affair. The sanctions policy has largely been promoted by Washington, with Europe dutifully following.
Last week, EU ambassadors voted to extend sanctions for another six months, in spite of the fact that they have been substantially more harmful to Europe’s economy than America’s, and in spite of the fact that German businesses in particular are opposed to the futile economic hostility towards Moscow.
The lack of any European pushback to such blatant American interference in its supposed sovereignty and independence on matters of vital interest is simply astounding.
Another glaring example is the way the Trump administration is insisting that European states abandon major investment plans with the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei to modernize mobile phone and internet infrastructures. Washington hasthreatened reprisal sanctions if Europe goes ahead in partnering with Huawei. The US has also warned that it may withhold “intelligence sharing” from European “allies” on security and terror risks. How’s that for a ‘friend’?
Again, there is the same pattern of mealymouthed acquiescence from European leaders, instead of a robust censure to the US to mind its own business.
The international JCPOA nuclear accord with Iran is another crowning demonstration of the fundamentally abusive relationship Washington has with Europe. This week, the Trump administration poured cold water on a French proposal to extend a $15 billion credit line to Tehran. The French move was meant to ease economic pressure on Iran and to keep it onboard the faltering nuclear accord.
Washington declared that “it will sanction anyone buying Iranian crude oil exports”. There will be no waivers or exceptions to American sanctions. That pretty much tells the European Union to forget about its hesitant efforts to save the Iran nuclear deal, to which it is a signatory, along with Russia and China.
So, because Trump crashed out of the accord, that means the Europeans have to as well, in his domineering view. Evidently, the EU has no freedom to act independently from American diktat. Wrecking relations between Europe and Iran will jeopardize economic interests and security concerns over conflict and non-proliferation of weapons in the region. Are European concerns so irrelevant to Washington?
Now steel yourself for the following stupendous double-think. US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper last week lectured European “friends” to be more vigilant in fending off alleged Russian and Chinese malignancy.
Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London, it was billed as a showpiece address, Esper’s first major speech since becoming Pentagon chief in July.
“It is increasingly clear that Russia and China want to disrupt the international order by gaining a veto over other nations’ economic, diplomatic, and security decisions,” he said.
“To put it simply, Russia’s foreign policy continues to disregard international norms,” added the former lobbyist for Raytheon and other American weapons manufacturers, without a hint of shame.
Europe’s response? Did European leaders and media laugh uncontrollably at such patent absurdity, hypocrisy and vice-projection? Were there stern official statements or editorials telling the American representative for the military-industrial complex to not insult ordinary intelligence?
Europe’s tolerance for abuse by its American ‘partner’ really does invoke a Stockholm Syndrome problem. Sure, sometimes the European leaders like Merkel or Macron snivel about the need to be more independent from Washington, but when the chips are down, they all show a contemptible toadying to American policy even when it is actually damaging to their own national interests.
When Trump recommended that Russia be admitted to the Group of Seven economic powers at last month’s summit in France, the rest of the group reacted in horror, demanding Moscow’s exclusion. How twisted is that? The pathetic European leaders want to stay in a club with their biggest tormentor – Washington – while shutting out a country which is a neighbor and a potentially important strategic partner. How irrational can you get?
Psychologists explain Stockholm Syndrome as a “coping mechanism” to deal with trauma. It is observed among hostages, prisoners of war, survivors of concentration camps, slaves and prostitutes. Irrational sympathy with a party that actually inflicts hardship and injury is a way to minimize trauma by seeming to adopt the same values.
Apparently, the syndrome can be treated. Victims have to gradually be introduced to the objective truth of their situation. Europe needs to wake up from delusions about its American ‘ally.’
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/10/2019 – 02:00 - US Army Major (Ret.) Explains How The US Shattered The Middle East
US Army Major (Ret.) Explains How The US Shattered The Middle East
Authored by Danny Sjursen via TruthDig.com,
Yemen is a nightmare, a catastrophe, a mess – and the United States is highly complicit in the whole disaster. Refueling Saudi aircraft in-flight, providing targeting intelligence to the kingdom and selling the requisite bombs that have been dropped for years now on Yemeni civilians places the 100,000-plus deaths, millions of refugees, and (still) starving children squarely on the American conscience. If, that is, Washington can still claim to have a conscience.
The back story in Yemen, already the Arab world’s poorest country, is relevant. Briefly, the cataclysm went something like this: Protests against the U.S.-backed dictator during the Arab Spring broke out in 2011. After a bit, an indecisive and hesitant President Obama called for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. A Saudi-backed transitional government took over but governed (surprise, surprise) poorly. Then, from 2014 to 2015, a vaguely Shiite militia from Yemen’s north swarmed southward and seized the capital, along with half the country. At that point, rather than broker a peace, the U.S. quietly went along with, and militarily supported, a Saudi terror-bombing campaign, starvation blockade and mercenary invasion that mainly affected Yemeni civilians. At that point, Yemen had broken in two.
Now, as the Saudi campaign has clearly faltered—despite killing tens of thousands of civilians and starving at least 85,000 children to death along the way—stalemate reigns. Until this past week, that is, when southern separatists (there was once, before 1990, a South and North Yemen) seized the major port city of Yemen, backed by the Saudis’ ostensible partners in crime, the United Arab Emirates. So it was that there were then threeYemens, and ever more fracture. In the last few days, the Saudi-backed transitional government retook Aden, but southern separatism seems stronger than ever in the region.
Like Humpty-Dumpty in the nursery rhyme, it’s far from clear that Yemen can ever be put back together again. Add to that the fact that al-Qaida-linked militants have used the chaos of war to carve out some autonomy in the ungoverned southeast of the country and one might plausibly argue that the outcome of U.S.-backed Saudi intervention has been no less than fourYemens.
What makes the situation in the Arabian Peninsula’s south particularly disturbing is that supposed foreign policy “experts” in D.C. have long been hysterically asserting that the top risk to America’s safety are Islamist-occupied “safe havens” or ungoverned spaces. I’m far from convinced that the safe-haven myth carries much water; after all, the 9/11 attacks were planned in Germany and the U.S. as much as in, supposedly, the caves of Afghanistan. Still, for argument’s sake, let’s take the interventionist experts’ assumption at face value. In that case, isn’t it ironic that in Yemen—and (as I’ll demonstrate) countless other countries—U.S. military action has repeatedly created the very state fracture and ungoverned spaces the policymakers and pundits so fear?
Let us take an ever-so-brief tour of Washington’s two-decade history of utterly rupturing Greater Mideast nation-states and splintering an already fractious region.
Here goes, from West to East, in an admittedly noncomprehensive list.
U.S. airstrikes and regime change policy in Libya has unleashed an ongoing civil war, divided the country between at least two warlords, and enabled arms and militiamen to cross the southern border and destabilize West Africa.
Which means that Niger, Libya, Cameroon, Mali, Chad and Nigeria have seen their shared territory around Lake Chad become a disputed region, contested by a newly empowered array of Islamists. That, of course, led the U.S. military to plop a few thousand troops in these countries. That deployment is unlikely to end well.
In Israel/Palestine, decades of reflexive U.S. support for Israel and Donald Trump’s doubling down on that policy—by moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and turning a blind eye to Israeli plans to annex much of the West Bank—have ensured, once and for all, that there can be no viable Palestinian state. Which means that the area is divided into at least three (for the Palestinians, at least) noncontiguous entities: Gaza, Israel and the West Bank.
In Syria, American meddling in the civil war, self-destructive support for various Islamists groups there and military intervention on behalf of the Kurds have broken Syria into a mostly jihadi, rebel-held northwest, Assad-regime center and U.S.-backed Kurdish east.
Just over the border in Iraq stands the gold standard of counterproductive U.S. fracture. There, an ill-fated, illegal U.S. invasion in 2003 seems to have forever broken into an autonomous Kurdish north, Shiite-held east and south and Sunni-controlled west. It is in that contested western region that Sunni jihadism has long flourished and where al-Qaida in Iraq, and its more extreme stepchild, Islamic State, metastasized and then unleashed massive bloodletting on both sides of the border.
Finally, in Afghanistan, the U.S. invasion and occupation—as well as any impending peace deal—ensured that this Central Asian basket case of a country will divide, for the foreseeable future, into Taliban-dominated Pashtun south and east and tenuous Tajik/Uzbek/Hazara minorities held north and west.
The point is that the U.S. has irreparably fractured a broad swath of the globe from West Africa to Central Asia. Interventionist pundits in both parties and countless think tanks insist that the U.S. military must remain in place across the region to police dangerous “ungoverned spaces,” yet recent history demonstrates irrefutably that it is the very intervention of Washington and presence of its troops that fragments once (relatively) stable nation-states and empowers separatists and Islamists.
The whole absurd mess boils down to a treacherous math problem of sorts.
By my simple accounting, a region from Nigeria to Afghanistan that once counted about 22 state entities has – since the onset of the U.S. “terror wars” – broken into some 37 autonomous, sometimes hardly governed, zones. According to the “experts,” that should mean total disaster and increased danger to the homeland. Yet it’s largely U.S. military policy and intervention itself that’s caused this fracture. So isn’t it high time to quit the American combat missions? Not according to the mainstream policymakers and pundits. For them, the war must (always) go on!
Counterproductivity seems the essence of U.S. military policy in Uncle Sam’s never-ending, post-9/11 wars. Call me crazy, or wildly conspiratorial, but after serving in two hopelessly absurd wars and studying the full scope of American military action, it seems that maybe that was the idea all along.
* * *
Maj. Danny Sjursen is a retired U.S. Army officer and former history instructor at West Point. He served tours with reconnaissance units in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has written a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, “Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge.” He lives in Lawrence, Kan. Follow him on Twitter at @SkepticalVet and check out his new podcast “Fortress on a Hill,” co-hosted with fellow vet Chris “Henri” Henrikson.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/10/2019 – 00:05 - Suicide Rates In Rural America Jump, Nearly Half A Million Dead
Suicide Rates In Rural America Jump, Nearly Half A Million Dead
A new study published last week sounds the alarm on a suicide crisis that is crushing rural America.
From 1999 to 2016, the suicide rate of Americans ages 25 to 64 jumped 41%, researchers noted in JAMA Network Open. The study found Americans living in rural communities had a 25% higher probability of taking their own life than those in cities.
The study, Contextual Factors Associated With County-Level Suicide Rates in the United States, 1999 to 2016, was led by Danielle Steelesmith, a postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, said suicide rates have been increasing in rural America thanks to increasing poverty, low incomes, farming bust, deindustrialization, and vast amounts of underemployment.
“Those factors are really bad in rural areas,” said Steelesmith.
Steelesmith said from 1999 to 2016, there were 453,577 suicides among Americans ages 25 to 64, with the most significant amount occurring after 2010 through 2016. About 350,000 of the deaths were male, and many were middle-aged adults.
The highest observed suicide rates were in the West, including in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming; Appalachia, including counties in Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia; and the Ozarks, including counties in Arkansas and Missouri.
“Long-term and persistent poverty appears to be more entrenched and economic opportunities more constrained in rural areas. Greater social isolation, challenges related to transportation and interpersonal communication, and associated difficulties accessing health and mental health services likely contribute to the disproportionate association of deprivation with suicide in rural counties,” Steelesmith said.
The study’s social fragmentation index includes levels of single-person households, unmarried residents, and resident impermanence. High social fragmentation was associated with counties with higher suicide rates.
With the availability of guns at Walmart and the proliferation of gun shops across the Central and Midwest states over the last two decades, access to firearms in rural communities has notably driven up suicides.
Oren Miron, a researcher at the Clalit Research Institute in Israel, said the jump in suicide rates in rural counties is “alarming.”
Miron wasn’t involved in the study but said the primary factor for high suicide rates was unemployment.
Suicide “is a growing American tragedy,” Dr. Albert Wu, an internist and a professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“It has become a leading cause of death in the U.S., and is a major public health problem.”
In rural communities, “many of the most pernicious health and social problems intersect,” Wu said.
Lack of health care and mental health facilities in rural areas further compounds the problem. “Insurance can be a proxy for people’s access to mental health care,” Steelesmith said.
Wu agreed. “Lack of health insurance kills people,” he said. “More insurance, including the expansion of Medicaid, could help.”
Still, “the social determinants of health are really important,” said Dr. David Brent, the endowed chair in suicide studies and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. “You can’t make a dent in these kinds of public health problems without doing something to deal with [those social determinants]. Yes, you can provide more services to impoverished people, but there’s nothing like helping people get out of poverty.”
And since the study only examined 1999-2016 suicide data, it’s likely that suicides in rural America from 2016 to present have increased, thanks to a farming bust and a manufacturing recession.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/09/2019 – 23:45 - Big Tech & Big Brother Are Going To Join Forces To "Secure Elections"
Big Tech & Big Brother Are Going To Join Forces To “Secure Elections”
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
Security teams for Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft met with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence’s office to coordinate a strategy to “secure” the 2020 elections. And by “secure” they mean to manipulate the results of the election in any way possible to get the outcome they desire.
According to a report by RT, the big tech platforms met with government officials at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters on Wednesday, the company has confirmed, boasting that Big Tech and Big Brother have developed a “comprehensive strategy” to get control of previous election-related “vulnerabilities” while “analyzing and getting ahead of new threats.” Those vulnerabilities and threats are the free thinkers who don’t buy the official narrative and dissent against the ruling class.
This is quickly escalating.
Expect the censorship, social credit scores, and gun control talk to ramp up as the political class realizes people may not be as easily enslaved as they have imagined. Facebook has scrambled to get in front of the 2020 election after being blamed for Trump’s 2016 electoral victory over merely allowing the “Russian trolls” to buy a bunch of ads. Most of those ads appeared after the vote and had nothing to do with the election. Google, on the other hand, actively attempted to manipulate and rig the election in favor of Hillary Clinton, and the evidence of that indiscretion is rapidly becoming overwhelming.
Google’s potential to sway elections has been the subject of Senate hearings, and yet the company has remained silent on addressing the problem. Subsidiary YouTube, meanwhile, conducted another round of mass censorship last month even while declaring it was an open platform for controversial ideas.
Facebook insisted last week it had tightened its rules for verifying purchasers of “political” ads, for real this time, after the 2018 contest showed they could still be duped into running obviously-fake ads “paid for by” the Islamic State terror group and Cambridge Analytica.
For all intents and purposes, this meeting was to make sure certain ideas are censored so that only government-approved opinions can be made available as information. The electoral meeting of the minds came less than a week after the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) declared war on deepfakes and other potentially discord-sowing information (like memes), promising to neutralize all “malicious” content within four years – if not for this election, then certainly for the next.
Until DARPA is ready to censor information and punish people for “wrong thinking”, there’s Microsoft’s ElectionGuard software. The company announced in July, that they would provide this software to all the nation’s voting machines, free of charge and out of “the goodness of their hearts” (and the Pentagon-owned contractor that helped develop the program’s heart).
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/09/2019 – 23:25 - San Diego Home Construction Plunges. Biggest Drop In SoCal
San Diego Home Construction Plunges. Biggest Drop In SoCal
According to the Real Estate Research Council of Southern California, San Diego County built 43% fewer homes in 1H19 YoY, the most significant drop in all of Southern California (SoCal), an ominous sign that one of the hottest housing markets in the country is weakening.
The softness in housing comes as San Diego officials are desperately trying to pass legislation that would be stimulative, reported The San Diego Union-Tribune.
There are other reports that the governor has endorsed a statewide rent cap bill, could further complicate the housing industry and lead to a further slowdown in building.
Home construction in all of SoCal is down 25% YoY, mostly due to the slowdown in apartment building.
Homebuilding was also down 40% in Santa Barbara County, 29% in Los Angele County, 20% in San Bernardino County, 9% in Riverside County and 7% in Orange County. Ventura County was the only region where homebuilding marginally increased.
Borre Winckel, CEO of the local Building Industry Association, said, homebuilders, are under pressure at the moment, due to increasing regulations, high labor, and material costs, have dramatically increased the price of the build which is being passed onto buyers. These buyers have gone on strike this summer, not willing to buy homes in SoCal because of affordability issues – this has sent sales and prices tumbling in some regions.
Alan Nevin, an industry analyst at Xpera Group, said San Diego multifamily permits for apartments, townhomes, and condos crashed 50.1% in 1H19 YoY.
Single-family homes in San Diego plunged 26.1% in 1H19 YoY. Nevin said the lack of land to build single-family homes is the main reason for the slowdown in building.
High prices in SoCal this summer led to some of the weakest sales in 5 years.
Sales slipped 6.9% in June MoM and were down 8% YoY, according to CoreLogic. That is the slowest June pace since 2014.
Sales have been falling on a YoY basis for 11 straight months. Even though mortgage rates have plunged, buyers still aren’t showing up.
The SoCal housing market is stalling as a whole; record-high prices has led to an affordability crisis. The median price for SoCal homes sold in June increased to a record $541,250, up 1.2% YoY. That is the smallest increase since 2011, hints that years of rapid price growth could be coming to an end.
Annual price gains in SoCal risk going negative as the overall West Coast housing market stalls.
Last month, we detailed how a nationwide housing bust is underway with the first cracks showing up in Seattle-area home prices.
The price of a Seattle single-family home in May fell 1.2% YoY, the first negative change in a major US city in this cycle, according to new data from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller.
With home construction faltering in San Diego and the rest of SoCal, and, a significant slowdown in the overall housing market on the West Coast, this could be an ominous sign that a real estate downturn for the US could be nearing.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/09/2019 – 23:05 - Is Walmart Working With The Govt To Distribute Everything When The SHTF?
Is Walmart Working With The Govt To Distribute Everything When The SHTF?
Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,
In conspiratorial circles, it’s long been rumored that Walmarts across the country would become FEMA camps after an epic disaster. Some folks even suggested that once you were in the camp, you would not be able to leave. Sort of like those old roach motel commercials.
If you’re not familiar with it, here’s the Wikipedia link for a general overview of the FEMA camp theory. And here are 16 mindblowing facts about Walmart and its arguable quest for world domination.
While the FEMA camp theory has some holes in it, a long-time employee of Walmart contacted me to tell me about a direct link between Walmart and the government. We’ll call him Frank. (I generally hate those “unnamed source” articles, but occasionally the option to share someone’s name just isn’t there. I know this fellow personally and he has no reason to make this up.)
Some people will dismiss this article because I’m unable to disclose the gentleman’s name or the store where he works. That’s totally up to you.
Now, according to what Frank told me, it looks like Walmart’s world domination plan may not have anything to do with housing people after all.
The italicized text is Frank’s own words.
The connection between Walmart and the government
So where do I start? I still work for Walmart, but I’m not sure for how much longer. I’ve been employed by them for 25+ years, but may not survive the next restructuring.
I have seen many things and have witnessed a clear connection between Walmart and the government. Remember after the tragedy of September eleventh all the Walmart TVs had the “if you see something say something” commercials playing 24-7. That’s an example of those connections I was talking about.
Going back to the early to mid-1990s, the US military studied Walmart logistics system and implemented that technology in their own logistics network. Walmart is a facilitator. We’ll talk more about those logistics in a moment.
How everything came to be made in China
Why do you think everything is made in China?
Walmart approached China in the ’90s to build products. Then they went to the vendors telling them we want you to build your items in China. That way you can make more $ and give us a cheaper price. We know people and will introduce you.
This has influenced other large American businesses.
Then other companies followed suit. The same goes for managing their employees. What Walmart does, other companies follow.
Here’s how Walmart is tied into national preparedness
Now let’s apply that philosophy to preparedness. Walmart wants more business, right? Well, if you’re the only store open after a disaster you will have business up the ying-yang.
Walmart’s logistics network is coast to coast with its own trucks, warehouses, supply networks, and retail stores. If the power goes down and Walmarts still can operate (with government help and security) how much money will they make?
I don’t buy into the Walmart FEMA camp theory.
However, I do believe Walmarts will be used as a distribution hub in local communities for essential goods like food and medicine. All of this would be under government control and protection. Need your prescription after an EMP? Stand in line at Walmart with Humvees keeping order.
Then there is the psychological aspect. After hurricanes local governments want the Walmarts to be the first businesses to reopen. Why is that? To restore a sense of normalcy to communities and get people to move on. Walmart will most certainly be part of a post-event world. Their warehouses will collect goods, their trucks will deliver under government security, and their stores will provide the distribution place for your food and medicine. All under the watchful eye of the authorities.
How Walmart could play a key role in restoring order
There is also market saturation. Many communities have a Walmart, but larger cities have several at key locations along major highways and intersections. Perfect places for checkpoints to keep things under control. There are Walmarts everywhere so they could be the face of restoring order.
Let me also touch on civil unrest. If an area is acting up, they’ll close the Walmart to force compliance.
The camera systems in stores are everywhere and those images pop up everywhere. How many times have you seen a picture of someone stealing or something and have seen this person on FB or some other platform? So that system could be used to identify trouble makers and is, therefore, an intelligence-gathering device. This system is already well known to local law enforcement as a tool of identification. The connections are already in place.
Remember, Walmart is a facilitator.
I believe the things I have mentioned are one major event from becoming a reality. The systems are in place and the planning becomes more refined every day.
What if you could only buy supplies in one store?
Imagine a world in which there was only one place you could get supplies. This store is backed and secured by the United States military. This store still has cameras everywhere, it has all the essential supplies like food, medicine, hardware, winter coats.
If Frank is right about all this, imagine the level of control that kind of monopoly could provide. If you don’t behave, you can’t get into the store to get the things your family needs. You will be surveilled constantly when you’re in the store. (Heck, you’re already surveilled constantly in Walmart.)
Maybe while everyone has been worried about Big Tech and Amazon controlling the country, what we should have been worried about is Walmart. Perhaps Walmart has been quietly positioning itself to be the only source of food, medicine, and supplies available in the aftermath of a national SHTF event.
Talk about power. They wouldn’t need FEMA camps if all the merchandise available is owned by one company and that company is in cahoots with the government.
What people can do to avoid the power play
I’ve been writing for years about the value of storing food and being producers instead of consumers. I have published articles by Selco about barter and trade. In a situation like this, the black market will almost certainly arise, and quickly.
The ability to be self-reliant will never be more important than during a time in which distribution is centralized. When you must have a certain life-saving supply, like antibiotics for your child, you will have no option but to comply with the rules of those who hold that merchandise.
It’s a chilling thought, isn’t it?
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/09/2019 – 22:45 - After $74BN Weekly Record, Bond Boom Continues With Another $14 Billion In New Debt Borrowing
After $74BN Weekly Record, Bond Boom Continues With Another $14 Billion In New Debt Borrowing
Ever since a thunderous start to September’s bond calendar, which saw a record 20 companies issue $26 billion in record cheap investment grade debt in a single day, corporate America has been on a historic bond selling spree to lock in ultra-low rates and refi existing debt (making Wall Street i-bankers quite happy in the process). For the entire week, companies borrowed a total of $75 billion in investment-grade paper, the most for any comparable period since records began in 1972. Since Tuesday, corporations including Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, and Apple sold notes as yields have dropped.
The frenzy isn’t letting up. According to Bloomberg and Bank of America, at least another $50 billion is projected for the rest of the month, with the activity expected to spill over to junk bonds and leveraged loans as well, and not even today’s Ford downgrade to junk affecting $84 billion in debt, is expected to put a damper on the party.
The reason for the bond issuance frenzy? Rates have never been lower – according to Bloomberg Barclays index data, the average yield on bonds was 2.77% as of last week, effectively at all time lows, and almost 2% lower compared to late November, when that figure was above 4.3%. For a company selling $1 billion of debt, that amounts to $15.3 million of annual interest savings. Junk-bond yields have dropped too, with notes rated in the BB tier, the uppermost high-yield levels, paying a near record-low 4.07%.
“This is a great time for companies to refinance,” Christian Hoffmann, a portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, told Bloomberg. “Financing costs are near all-time lows, so I would not be surprised to see better high-yield companies coming to market and treating debt capital markets like a cheap buffet.”
As we noted last week, borrowers are taking advantage of the recent drop in rates to refinance their outstanding bonds at lower costs. As BofA noted last week, the new issuance “use of proceeds” has shifted from supporting re-leveraging activities to refinancing in the currently low interest rate environment.
Investors who believe this seemingly perpetual credit rally is finally losing steam may be looking to own the highest quality, most liquid bonds as a haven. Lower-coupon, longer-maturity paper is also attractive should rates continue to grind lower
Foreign investors, meanwhile, may be seeking to maximize their yield pickup amid rock bottom rates in Europe and Japan.Yet even with today’s sudden spike in yields, which saw the rate on the 10Y TSY jump to 1.65% from 1.55% earlier, in the process unleashing a historic quant factor liquidation as momentum stocks got crushed and value stocks soared, the bond issuance frenzy continued as sixteen issuers priced $13.7 billion following last week’s historic calendar, as companies across sectors and ratings buckets continue to tap high-grade debt capital markets in droves.
Some more details on this year’s frenzied bond issuance, from Bloomberg:
- Nearly 3x as many companies have tapped the market month-to-date vs the same period last year – 67 companies have sold debt vs 24 in 2018
- September supply is 55% ahead of last year’s pace (and that includes Cigna’s $20 billion deal 12 months ago). YTD issuance is now about 3% behind last year’s pace, after lagging by as much as 13% in recent months.
- While some have argued the surge is simply a reversion to the mean following the summer slowdown, August supply was in-line with dealer projections
Finally, some advice from Bloomberg: if you were hoping for a quieter day Tuesday, don’t hold your breath, as it’s shaping up to be another active session, especially as demand simply, contrary to previous years, refuses to go away despite record supply.
In fact, credit spreads have not only held in, but tightened, and strong investor appetite has led to minimal to negative new issue concessions.
Investors who believe this seemingly perpetual credit rally is finally losing steam may be looking to own the highest quality, most liquid bonds as a haven. Lower-coupon, longer-maturity paper is also attractive should rates continue to grind lower. Meanwhile, as BofA speculated last week, foreign investors may be seeking to maximize their yield pickup amid the rock bottom rates in Europe and Japan.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/09/2019 – 22:43 - Hedge Fund Titan Ken Griffin Buys $99 Million Palm Beach Mansion
Hedge Fund Titan Ken Griffin Buys $99 Million Palm Beach Mansion
Billionaire hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin has been splurging hundreds of millions of dollars on real estate across the country in the last several years. The latest purchase is a $99.13 million mansion at 60 Blossom Way, just footsteps from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
According to Palm Beach Daily News’ sources, a transaction with a deed for the mansion was filed Friday at the Palm Beach County Courthouse.
Sixty Blossom Way is located on the north side of Griffin’s main estate.
The $99.13 million transaction was the second-largest ever in Palm Beach.
Courthouse records show financier and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank H. McCourt Jr. sold Griffin the house last week. Records show McCourt paid $77.06 million in April 2017.
The off-market deal adds nearly four acres and about 320 feet of beachfront to Griffin’s main estate, which already has 17 acres of ocean-to-lake property. Sources say that Griffin now has nearly a quarter-mile of beachfront access.
Griffin’s primary estate is located about a quarter-mile south of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf course in a region known to locals as Billionaires Row.
The sale of 60 Blossom Way trails a transaction recorded at $105 million earlier this summer for an estate just south of Griffin’s.
Griffin has spent an estimated $350 million on the main estate, acquiring land in multiple purchases since late 2012.
“He has razed several houses there, but has kept and remodeled two homes on the property for himself and his family to use on their stays in Palm Beach. In May, he got the town’s permission to demolish a third house, the only lakefront property on his estate,” Palm Beach Daily News said.
Court records show Griffin used a limited liability company named Providencia Partners LLC as the ownership entity for 60 Blossom Way.
Palm Beach Daily News said 60 Blossom Way has a 27,000 square feet mansion that was built in 2000. Sources that were familiar with the transaction weren’t sure if Griffin would demolish any structures on the property.
Griffin has long family ties in South Florida, and he’s worth about $12.7 billion. In March he was number four on Forbes’ list of the country’s highest-earning hedge-fund managers.
Griffin’s claim to fame is that he founded the highly leveraged US global financial institution called Citadel LLC.
Earlier this year, Griffin purchased a $238 million penthouse at 220 Central Park South. Then before that, he paid $122 million for a 200-year-old mansion a half-mile from Buckingham Palace.
Griffin already owns real estate in New York and Chicago worth more than half a billion dollars.
When Page Six reported on Griffin’s real estate dealings in February, the online publication said that Griffin’s friends told them not to report on his future real estate portfolio.
It’s still unclear why Griffin is quickly diversifying into real estate as the mansion bust across the US gains momentum.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/09/2019 – 22:25
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