- THE BLIND CONSPIRACY: The Gold Market Is Heading Towards A Big Fundamental Change
By The SRSrocco Report,
The gold market is heading towards a big fundamental change that few are prepared. While many analysts in the alternative media community suggest that the gold price is manipulated due to Fed and Central bank intervention, there is another more obscure rationale that is the likely culprit. I call it, “The Blind Conspiracy.”
But, before I get into the details of this Blind Conspiracy, there are a few very troubling developments in the alternative media community that I would like to discuss first. The bulk of these concerns has to do with the increasing amount of faulty analysis and misinformation as well as the peddling of lousy conspiracy theories on the internet.
Why is this a big problem? Because a lot of readers are being misguided as to the true nature of the serious predicament we are facing. Half of the emails that I receive are from readers who are bringing up doubts based on other analysts’ faulty analysis and misinformation. Thus, it takes a great deal of effort to provide the real facts and data to counteract the damage being done by certain individuals, even those with good intentions.
Furthermore, an increasing number of so-called precious metals analysts have switched over to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, believing that gold and silver will no longer function as monetary metals. However, some of these analysts suggest that silver will still be valuable because it will be used as critical raw material in advanced products in our new HIGH-TECH WORLD. I find this idea of a future modern high-tech world quite amusing when we can’t even maintain the failing complex infrastructure we are currently using.
American Society Of Civil Engineers 2017: U.S. Infrastructure Grade Is…???
According to the Amercian Society Of Civil Engineers, ASCE, they just came out with their grade this year for U.S. infrastructure. Does anyone want to guess what overall grade we received here in the good ole U.S. of A? The ASCE gave us a D+:
Well, at least a D+ isn’t an “F” grade. Here is the ASCE’s Infrastructure Report Card Grading Scale for receiving a “D”:
“D” GRADE = POOR, AT RISK
The infrastructure is in poor to fair condition and mostly below standard, with many elements approaching the end of their service life. A large portion of the system exhibits significant deterioration. Condition and capacity are of serious concern with strong risk of failure.The ASCE U.S. Infrastructure Report also provides separate grades for different aspects of U.S. infrastructure. For example, the U.S. Energy Infrastructure received a “D+” as well. This is a brief description of the Energy Infrastructure:
Much of the U.S. energy system predates the turn of the 21st century. Most electric transmission and distribution lines were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s with a 50-year life expectancy, and the more than 640,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in the lower 48 states’ power grids are at full capacity.
Moreover, the report states that $4.5 trillion needs to be invested 2016-2025 to raise the U.S. infrastructure to a “B’ Grade. However, only $2.5 trillion has been budgeted. Thus, we are $2 trillion short of the total amount needed. Regardless, I doubt we will be able to spend anywhere close to the budgeted $2.5 trillion over the next decade for our infrastructure. Unfortunately, I see the U.S. Government and private sector running into serious financial trouble by 2020 as the massive amount of debt and derivatives finally take down the system.
So, the question remains. How are we going to move into a new HIGH-TECH world if we can’t even maintain our current infrastructure?
The notion that we can bring on some new “Energy Technology” fails to consider the tremendous amount of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, and logistics to repair and maintain our current infrastructure. You see, we have much bigger problems than just replacing an energy source or technology. But, to understand that principle, you must look past superficial thinking and “Silver-Bullet energy technologies.”
Now, if you hear certain analysts suggesting that gold and silver will no longer be used as money in the future because cryptocurrencies will take over the monetary role in our new high-tech world, you may want to contact them and provide the link to the U.S. Infrastructure D+ Grade Report.
Destroying Once Again…. Certain Myths About The Gold Market
If I collected an ounce of gold for every email that I have received about patently false gold myths and conspiracies; I could buy one hell of a lot of silver….LOL. Gosh, if I went back to my email folder and added up all the emails on this subject, it would number well over 500 in my ten years publishing articles in the alternative media community. However, I continue to receive the same type of emails because individuals are still being misled.
Before I begin, let me say that I focus my work on disproving the faulty analysis by other individuals, and not directing anything negative towards the person. I am adamantly against the idea of “targeting the messenger.” Rather, I like to target the faulty message. So, there is nothing personal in my attempt to set the record straight.
Let me start off by saying…. THERE AREN’T MILLIONS OF TONS OF HIDDEN GOLD in the world. Anyone who continues to believe this needs to pay close attention to the following information.
One of my readers sent me the following recent YouTube video by Bix Weir, titled “Vast Gold Riches Hidden In The Grand Canyon“:
In the video, Bix quotes a New York Times article published on June 19, 1912, that proclaimed vast gold riches in the Grand Canyon. According to Bix, this massive gold find is what prompted the starting of the Federal Reserve because billions of ounces of new gold from the Grand Canyon dumped into the market would destroy the monetary system.
While this may sound plausible to the layman, if we carefully read the article and do some additional research, we will come to a much different conclusion than what Mr. Weir is suggesting.
First, Bix makes a grave error during the interview when he states “billions of ounces of gold,” rather than “billions of Dollars of gold.” Here is the segment of the article:
There’s a big difference between a billion ounces of gold and a billion dollars worth of gold. For example, the market price of gold in 1912 was $20.65 an ounce. If we assume that $2 billion worth of gold was extracted from the Grand Canyon, it would equal approximately 100 million oz of gold. If we take it a step further and convert it to metric tons, it would equal 3,110 metric tons…. a figure much much lower than one million tons stated by Mr. Weir.
Second, the article provides us with an idea of the very low quality of the gold found in the silt on the banks of the Grand Canyon:
As we can see, the individual in charge of the mining operation in the Grand Canyon stated that the value of gold was worth 50 cents per yard. When gold miners refer to a “yard,” they mean a cubic yard or a volume that equals 1.3 tons. With an ounce of gold worth $20 in 1912, 50 cents a yard is a tiny amount of gold. Thus, 50 cents worth of gold in a yard is approximately 0.025 oz or one-fortieth of an ounce of gold.
Let’s compare the supposed vast Grand Canyon gold riches worth 50 cents a yard to the gold mining that took place in Alaska during the same period. According to the data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1912 Report:
This chart represents “Placer” gold mining in Alaska, which was the same type of gold mining that took place on the banks of the Grand Canyon. Placer gold mining is the process of washing gold from gravel, sand or silt. Lode mining is extracting gold ores from veins in rock. Here we can see that the average value of gold recovered in Alaska in 1912 was $2.10 per cubic yard. Now, why on earth would anyone want to go to the remote location in the Grand Canyon and mine gold for 50 cents a yard when you could receive four times as much in Alaska??? Please, someone forward that information to Mr. Weir.
Third, the notion of extracting Billions of Dollars of gold from the Grand Canyon fails logistics miserably. Let’s overlook Mr. Weir’s error in quoting billions of ounces of gold rather than billion dollars of gold and consider the tremendous logistics of mining that amount gold out of the Grand Canyon. According to the same U.S. Bureau of Mines 1912 Report linked above, Alaska produced a total of 7.4 million oz of gold worth $154 million between 1880 and 1912:
So, in over three decades of mining placer gold in Alaska, the total amount was $154 million. Furthermore, the value of the gold per yard was likely much higher between 1880-1900. Regardless, it took a great deal of human resources, energy, and capital to produce the $154 million worth of gold and the most ever produced in one year during that time-period in Alaska, was 1,066,000 oz of gold in 1906 valued at over $22 million.
Which brings us to the next logical conclusion…. was it ever possible for anyone to produce billions of dollars worth of gold valued at 50 cents a yard in the Grand Canyon when a small percentage of that amount ($154 million) took over three decades to produce in Alaska? Hell, even during the mighty California Gold Rush of 1848, the peak year of 3.9 million ounces in 1852 was only worth $80 million. However, the average annual gold production for the California gold rush was only 1.3 million ounces per year valued at $26 million. It would take a great deal of time mining gold during the famous California Gold Rush to equal just $1 billion.
Even at $1 billion, that is only 50 million oz of gold or a measly 1,555 metric tons of gold. Again, nowhere near the one million tons of gold suggested by Mr. Weir.
Lastly, the supposed vast gold riches in the Grand Canyon came to a dismal end. That’s correct. If we spent a few minutes doing a bit of research on the internet, we would find out The Rest Of The Ugly Story.
(American Placer Gold – Spencer Mining Operation 1911, Grand Canyon)
According to Arizona State history of gold mining at Lee Ferry in the Grand Canyon, the American Placer Gold company needed coal to process the gold. Unfortunately, the only coal seam was 28 miles away. So, the gold mining investors decided to incorporate a steamboat to transport the coal:
Investors decided a 92-foot steamboat would improve coal transport and gold production; it was ordered and assembled by late February 1912. Dubbed the Charles H. Spencer, the steamboat performed the way it was supposed to, but it burned most of the coal it transported in the process. Spencer also had trouble with his amalgamator and by 1912 his investors had seen enough and shut the project down. Spencer left, and his boat sank to the bottom of the Colorado River. The Charles H. Spencer is now on the National Register of Historic Places as a shipwreck in Arizona.
Just consider for a moment the type of intellectual thought process taken by these investors who couldn’t understand that the steamboat would consume most of the coal during its 28-mile trip.
Thus, the LIFE & DEATH of the Great Vast Gold Riches in the Grand Canyon came to an abrupt end, not because there were billions of ounces of gold that would destroy the global monetary system, but rather due to the typical mistake made by investors. And that is… the belief that utterly incompetent management and miners could extract low-quality gold that is uneconomical to produce.
So, if we look at the New York Times article that Mr. Weir quotes as his source of billions of ounces of gold, we can logically assume that it was likely written by the company spokesman to get more POOR UNWORTHY INVESTOR SLOBS to purchase the American Placer Gold stock before it went belly-up. It’s called the PUMP and DUMP…. a shady stock marketing technique that has been going on for hundreds of years.
If we can have an open mind and the ability to discern fact from fiction or lousy conspiracy theories, we can finally put an end to the notion that the world has a Million Tons of Hidden Gold in the world.
THE BLIND CONSPIRACY: The Gold Market Is Heading Towards A Big Fundamental Change
Now that we have dispensed with certain conspiracies that don’t pass the smell test, there is a real one that very few are aware. I call it the BLIND CONSPIRACY. The interesting thing about this conspiracy is that nobody really knows about it. However, it behaves like a conspiracy because many individuals and parties are manipulating the market which is providing a false sense of security to the average investor.
Thus, investors with a false sense of security, continue to invest in STOCKS, BONDS, and REAL ESTATE at amazing inflated values. Today, the Dow Jones hit a new record high of 24,272 points:
If you look at this chart of the Dow Jones Index, it is starting to resemble the Bitcoin chart. However, Bitcoin’s graph is moving up at a level ten times more insane than the Dow Jones Index:
While the Dow Jones Index increased 4,200 points, or 21% since the beginning of 2017, the Bitcoin price has surged more than $9,000, or a staggering 1,125% increase. Furthermore, the Bitcoin price doubled in just the past month. This is completely insane. Even though a lot of Bitcoin enthusiasts are shouting for $20,000 and $100,000 Bitcoin, if we are ever going to get there, there needs to be a serious correction first. However, we may have already seen the top of Bitcoin at $11,400.
Folks, nothing goes straight up and then continues even higher. I would be very cautious about investing in Bitcoin at this time. Both the stock market and cryptocurrencies are extremely overbought… to say the least. On the other hand, gold and silver have been selling off over the past several days and are even closer to their lows and cost of production.
Getting back to the Blind Conspiracy and the Big Fundamental Change in the gold market, investors are entirely in the dark about the dire energy predicament we are facing. I continue to receive emails from individuals in various industries that tell me the “Situation is MUCH WORSE than you realize.” Also, there are good CLUES published in the media if you are IN-TUNE to this information.
According to this jewel, titled Oil Major: 70% Of Crude Can Be Left In The Ground, by Nick Cunnigham:
“A lot of fossil fuels will have to stay in the ground, coal obviously … but you will also see oil and gas being left in the ground, that is natural,” Statoil’s CEO Eldar Saetre told Reuters in an interview. “At Statoil we are not pursuing certain types of resources, we are not exploring for heavy oil or investing in oilsands.
If heavy oil and oil sands are to be left unproduced, then a lot of oil will need to stay in the ground. According to the USGS, about 70 percent of the world’s discovered oil reserves are in the form of heavy oil and bitumen. Much of that comes from Venezuela – one of the last places in the world that an oil company wants to do business in these days – and Canada.
Last year, Statoil abandoned Canada’s oil sands, selling off its assets to Athabasca Oil Corp. But Statoil is hardly alone in the exodus. ConocoPhillips unloaded a whopping $13.3 billion of oil sands assets to Cenovus Energy earlier this year. Shell sold off $4.1 billion in oil sands assets to Canadian Natural Resources. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil wrote off 3.5 billion barrels of oil sands from its book in February, admitting that they were unviable in today’s market.
ConocoPhillips’ CEO said that it would no longer invest in any oil project that needs a breakeven price of $50 or higher, according to the FT.
If the Major Oil Industry believes that upwards of 70% of the oil reserves should be left in the ground, how much do we really have left to produce?? Furthermore, it was quite surprising to see that the ConocoPhillips CEO said they would no longer invest in oil projects with a breakeven above $50. Folks, there aren’t many oil discoveries available with a price tag less than $50 a barrel.
Again, the clues are all around. Let me repost the completely awful financial results by the second largest natural gas producer in the United States. Chesapeake Energy produced the second highest amount of natural gas during the first nine months of 2017 at 2.9 billion cubic feet per day compared to ExxonMobil’s 3.1 billion cubic feet per day. So, what benefit did Chesapeake receive for producing the country’s second largest amount of natural gas? Take a look at the Q3 2017 Cash Flow Statement:
After everything was considered, Chesapeake’s operations provided $273 million in cash (shown in the highlighted yellow). For those who are not familiar with Cash Flow Statements, we subtract capital expenditures from cash from operations to arrive at their FREE CASH FLOW. Unfortunately for Chesapeake, they spent a staggering $1.6 billion (highlighted in blue) on drilling and completion costs (capital) to produce their natural gas and oil. Thus, Chesapeake’s Free Cash Flow was a negative $1.3 billion.
That would have been terrible news if it wasn’t for the sale of properties of worth $1,193 million ($1.2 billion.. two lines below the highlighted blue line). Which means, the financial wizards at Chesapeake used asset sales to help pay for their natural gas drilling capital expenditures. How long can Chesapeake sell properties to fund their drilling costs??
Are we starting to get a PICTURE here? Regrettably, even highly trained energy analysts do not understand that the oil and gas industry is cannibalizing itself just to stay alive. If investors do not understand just how bad our energy situation has become, they are BLINDLY investing in the worst assets (STOCKS, BONDS & REAL ESTATE) that derive their value from the burning of ENERGY.
This is the BLIND CONSPIRACY. It’s taking place right in front of our eyes, and virtually no one sees it.
We are going to experience a Massive Fundamental Change in the gold market because investors will finally begin to understand what a true store of wealth is versus one that is an ENERGY IOU. Stocks, Bonds, and Real Estate get their value from burning energy IN THE FUTURE, while a gold or silver coin bought today, received its value from burning energy IN THE PAST. That is a big difference that investors, even precious metals investors fail to realize.
Lastly, if you want to pay more for precious metals, than I suggest you don’t check out our PRECIOUS METALS INVESTING section or our new LOWEST COST PRECIOUS METALS STORAGE page.
Check back for new articles and updates at the SRSrocco Report.
- THE BLIND CONSPIRACY: The Gold Market Is Heading Towards A Big Fundamental Change
By The SRSrocco Report,
The gold market is heading towards a big fundamental change that few are prepared. While many analysts in the alternative media community suggest that the gold price is manipulated due to Fed and Central bank intervention, there is another more obscure rationale that is the likely culprit. I call it, “The Blind Conspiracy.”
But, before I get into the details of this Blind Conspiracy, there are a few very troubling developments in the alternative media community that I would like to discuss first. The bulk of these concerns has to do with the increasing amount of faulty analysis and misinformation as well as the peddling of lousy conspiracy theories on the internet.
Why is this a big problem? Because a lot of readers are being misguided as to the true nature of the serious predicament we are facing. Half of the emails that I receive are from readers who are bringing up doubts based on other analysts’ faulty analysis and misinformation. Thus, it takes a great deal of effort to provide the real facts and data to counteract the damage being done by certain individuals, even those with good intentions.
Furthermore, an increasing number of so-called precious metals analysts have switched over to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, believing that gold and silver will no longer function as monetary metals. However, some of these analysts suggest that silver will still be valuable because it will be used as critical raw material in advanced products in our new HIGH-TECH WORLD. I find this idea of a future modern high-tech world quite amusing when we can’t even maintain the failing complex infrastructure we are currently using.
American Society Of Civil Engineers 2017: U.S. Infrastructure Grade Is…???
According to the Amercian Society Of Civil Engineers, ASCE, they just came out with their grade this year for U.S. infrastructure. Does anyone want to guess what overall grade we received here in the good ole U.S. of A? The ASCE gave us a D+:
Well, at least a D+ isn’t an “F” grade. Here is the ASCE’s Infrastructure Report Card Grading Scale for receiving a “D”:
“D” GRADE = POOR, AT RISK
The infrastructure is in poor to fair condition and mostly below standard, with many elements approaching the end of their service life. A large portion of the system exhibits significant deterioration. Condition and capacity are of serious concern with strong risk of failure.The ASCE U.S. Infrastructure Report also provides separate grades for different aspects of U.S. infrastructure. For example, the U.S. Energy Infrastructure received a “D+” as well. This is a brief description of the Energy Infrastructure:
Much of the U.S. energy system predates the turn of the 21st century. Most electric transmission and distribution lines were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s with a 50-year life expectancy, and the more than 640,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in the lower 48 states’ power grids are at full capacity.
Moreover, the report states that $4.5 trillion needs to be invested 2016-2025 to raise the U.S. infrastructure to a “B’ Grade. However, only $2.5 trillion has been budgeted. Thus, we are $2 trillion short of the total amount needed. Regardless, I doubt we will be able to spend anywhere close to the budgeted $2.5 trillion over the next decade for our infrastructure. Unfortunately, I see the U.S. Government and private sector running into serious financial trouble by 2020 as the massive amount of debt and derivatives finally take down the system.
So, the question remains. How are we going to move into a new HIGH-TECH world if we can’t even maintain our current infrastructure?
The notion that we can bring on some new “Energy Technology” fails to consider the tremendous amount of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, and logistics to repair and maintain our current infrastructure. You see, we have much bigger problems than just replacing an energy source or technology. But, to understand that principle, you must look past superficial thinking and “Silver-Bullet energy technologies.”
Now, if you hear certain analysts suggesting that gold and silver will no longer be used as money in the future because cryptocurrencies will take over the monetary role in our new high-tech world, you may want to contact them and provide the link to the U.S. Infrastructure D+ Grade Report.
Destroying Once Again…. Certain Myths About The Gold Market
If I collected an ounce of gold for every email that I have received about patently false gold myths and conspiracies; I could buy one hell of a lot of silver….LOL. Gosh, if I went back to my email folder and added up all the emails on this subject, it would number well over 500 in my ten years publishing articles in the alternative media community. However, I continue to receive the same type of emails because individuals are still being misled.
Before I begin, let me say that I focus my work on disproving the faulty analysis by other individuals, and not directing anything negative towards the person. I am adamantly against the idea of “targeting the messenger.” Rather, I like to target the faulty message. So, there is nothing personal in my attempt to set the record straight.
Let me start off by saying…. THERE AREN’T MILLIONS OF TONS OF HIDDEN GOLD in the world. Anyone who continues to believe this needs to pay close attention to the following information.
One of my readers sent me the following recent YouTube video by Bix Weir, titled “Vast Gold Riches Hidden In The Grand Canyon“:
In the video, Bix quotes a New York Times article published on June 19, 1912, that proclaimed vast gold riches in the Grand Canyon. According to Bix, this massive gold find is what prompted the starting of the Federal Reserve because billions of ounces of new gold from the Grand Canyon dumped into the market would destroy the monetary system.
While this may sound plausible to the layman, if we carefully read the article and do some additional research, we will come to a much different conclusion than what Mr. Weir is suggesting.
First, Bix makes a grave error during the interview when he states “billions of ounces of gold,” rather than “billions of Dollars of gold.” Here is the segment of the article:
There’s a big difference between a billion ounces of gold and a billion dollars worth of gold. For example, the market price of gold in 1912 was $20.65 an ounce. If we assume that $2 billion worth of gold was extracted from the Grand Canyon, it would equal approximately 100 million oz of gold. If we take it a step further and convert it to metric tons, it would equal 3,110 metric tons…. a figure much much lower than one million tons stated by Mr. Weir.
Second, the article provides us with an idea of the very low quality of the gold found in the silt on the banks of the Grand Canyon:
As we can see, the individual in charge of the mining operation in the Grand Canyon stated that the value of gold was worth 50 cents per yard. When gold miners refer to a “yard,” they mean a cubic yard or a volume that equals 1.3 tons. With an ounce of gold worth $20 in 1912, 50 cents a yard is a tiny amount of gold. Thus, 50 cents worth of gold in a yard is approximately 0.025 oz or one-fortieth of an ounce of gold.
Let’s compare the supposed vast Grand Canyon gold riches worth 50 cents a yard to the gold mining that took place in Alaska during the same period. According to the data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1912 Report:
This chart represents “Placer” gold mining in Alaska, which was the same type of gold mining that took place on the banks of the Grand Canyon. Placer gold mining is the process of washing gold from gravel, sand or silt. Lode mining is extracting gold ores from veins in rock. Here we can see that the average value of gold recovered in Alaska in 1912 was $2.10 per cubic yard. Now, why on earth would anyone want to go to the remote location in the Grand Canyon and mine gold for 50 cents a yard when you could receive four times as much in Alaska??? Please, someone forward that information to Mr. Weir.
Third, the notion of extracting Billions of Dollars of gold from the Grand Canyon fails logistics miserably. Let’s overlook Mr. Weir’s error in quoting billions of ounces of gold rather than billion dollars of gold and consider the tremendous logistics of mining that amount gold out of the Grand Canyon. According to the same U.S. Bureau of Mines 1912 Report linked above, Alaska produced a total of 7.4 million oz of gold worth $154 million between 1880 and 1912:
So, in over three decades of mining placer gold in Alaska, the total amount was $154 million. Furthermore, the value of the gold per yard was likely much higher between 1880-1900. Regardless, it took a great deal of human resources, energy, and capital to produce the $154 million worth of gold and the most ever produced in one year during that time-period in Alaska, was 1,066,000 oz of gold in 1906 valued at over $22 million.
Which brings us to the next logical conclusion…. was it ever possible for anyone to produce billions of dollars worth of gold valued at 50 cents a yard in the Grand Canyon when a small percentage of that amount ($154 million) took over three decades to produce in Alaska? Hell, even during the mighty California Gold Rush of 1848, the peak year of 3.9 million ounces in 1852 was only worth $80 million. However, the average annual gold production for the California gold rush was only 1.3 million ounces per year valued at $26 million. It would take a great deal of time mining gold during the famous California Gold Rush to equal just $1 billion.
Even at $1 billion, that is only 50 million oz of gold or a measly 1,555 metric tons of gold. Again, nowhere near the one million tons of gold suggested by Mr. Weir.
Lastly, the supposed vast gold riches in the Grand Canyon came to a dismal end. That’s correct. If we spent a few minutes doing a bit of research on the internet, we would find out The Rest Of The Ugly Story.
(American Placer Gold – Spencer Mining Operation 1911, Grand Canyon)
According to Arizona State history of gold mining at Lee Ferry in the Grand Canyon, the American Placer Gold company needed coal to process the gold. Unfortunately, the only coal seam was 28 miles away. So, the gold mining investors decided to incorporate a steamboat to transport the coal:
Investors decided a 92-foot steamboat would improve coal transport and gold production; it was ordered and assembled by late February 1912. Dubbed the Charles H. Spencer, the steamboat performed the way it was supposed to, but it burned most of the coal it transported in the process. Spencer also had trouble with his amalgamator and by 1912 his investors had seen enough and shut the project down. Spencer left, and his boat sank to the bottom of the Colorado River. The Charles H. Spencer is now on the National Register of Historic Places as a shipwreck in Arizona.
Just consider for a moment the type of intellectual thought process taken by these investors who couldn’t understand that the steamboat would consume most of the coal during its 28-mile trip.
Thus, the LIFE & DEATH of the Great Vast Gold Riches in the Grand Canyon came to an abrupt end, not because there were billions of ounces of gold that would destroy the global monetary system, but rather due to the typical mistake made by investors. And that is… the belief that utterly incompetent management and miners could extract low-quality gold that is uneconomical to produce.
So, if we look at the New York Times article that Mr. Weir quotes as his source of billions of ounces of gold, we can logically assume that it was likely written by the company spokesman to get more POOR UNWORTHY INVESTOR SLOBS to purchase the American Placer Gold stock before it went belly-up. It’s called the PUMP and DUMP…. a shady stock marketing technique that has been going on for hundreds of years.
If we can have an open mind and the ability to discern fact from fiction or lousy conspiracy theories, we can finally put an end to the notion that the world has a Million Tons of Hidden Gold in the world.
THE BLIND CONSPIRACY: The Gold Market Is Heading Towards A Big Fundamental Change
Now that we have dispensed with certain conspiracies that don’t pass the smell test, there is a real one that very few are aware. I call it the BLIND CONSPIRACY. The interesting thing about this conspiracy is that nobody really knows about it. However, it behaves like a conspiracy because many individuals and parties are manipulating the market which is providing a false sense of security to the average investor.
Thus, investors with a false sense of security, continue to invest in STOCKS, BONDS, and REAL ESTATE at amazing inflated values. Today, the Dow Jones hit a new record high of 24,272 points:
If you look at this chart of the Dow Jones Index, it is starting to resemble the Bitcoin chart. However, Bitcoin’s graph is moving up at a level ten times more insane than the Dow Jones Index:
While the Dow Jones Index increased 4,200 points, or 21% since the beginning of 2017, the Bitcoin price has surged more than $9,000, or a staggering 1,125% increase. Furthermore, the Bitcoin price doubled in just the past month. This is completely insane. Even though a lot of Bitcoin enthusiasts are shouting for $20,000 and $100,000 Bitcoin, if we are ever going to get there, there needs to be a serious correction first. However, we may have already seen the top of Bitcoin at $11,400.
Folks, nothing goes straight up and then continues even higher. I would be very cautious about investing in Bitcoin at this time. Both the stock market and cryptocurrencies are extremely overbought… to say the least. On the other hand, gold and silver have been selling off over the past several days and are even closer to their lows and cost of production.
Getting back to the Blind Conspiracy and the Big Fundamental Change in the gold market, investors are entirely in the dark about the dire energy predicament we are facing. I continue to receive emails from individuals in various industries that tell me the “Situation is MUCH WORSE than you realize.” Also, there are good CLUES published in the media if you are IN-TUNE to this information.
According to this jewel, titled Oil Major: 70% Of Crude Can Be Left In The Ground, by Nick Cunnigham:
“A lot of fossil fuels will have to stay in the ground, coal obviously … but you will also see oil and gas being left in the ground, that is natural,” Statoil’s CEO Eldar Saetre told Reuters in an interview. “At Statoil we are not pursuing certain types of resources, we are not exploring for heavy oil or investing in oilsands.
If heavy oil and oil sands are to be left unproduced, then a lot of oil will need to stay in the ground. According to the USGS, about 70 percent of the world’s discovered oil reserves are in the form of heavy oil and bitumen. Much of that comes from Venezuela – one of the last places in the world that an oil company wants to do business in these days – and Canada.
Last year, Statoil abandoned Canada’s oil sands, selling off its assets to Athabasca Oil Corp. But Statoil is hardly alone in the exodus. ConocoPhillips unloaded a whopping $13.3 billion of oil sands assets to Cenovus Energy earlier this year. Shell sold off $4.1 billion in oil sands assets to Canadian Natural Resources. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil wrote off 3.5 billion barrels of oil sands from its book in February, admitting that they were unviable in today’s market.
ConocoPhillips’ CEO said that it would no longer invest in any oil project that needs a breakeven price of $50 or higher, according to the FT.
If the Major Oil Industry believes that upwards of 70% of the oil reserves should be left in the ground, how much do we really have left to produce?? Furthermore, it was quite surprising to see that the ConocoPhillips CEO said they would no longer invest in oil projects with a breakeven above $50. Folks, there aren’t many oil discoveries available with a price tag less than $50 a barrel.
Again, the clues are all around. Let me repost the completely awful financial results by the second largest natural gas producer in the United States. Chesapeake Energy produced the second highest amount of natural gas during the first nine months of 2017 at 2.9 billion cubic feet per day compared to ExxonMobil’s 3.1 billion cubic feet per day. So, what benefit did Chesapeake receive for producing the country’s second largest amount of natural gas? Take a look at the Q3 2017 Cash Flow Statement:
After everything was considered, Chesapeake’s operations provided $273 million in cash (shown in the highlighted yellow). For those who are not familiar with Cash Flow Statements, we subtract capital expenditures from cash from operations to arrive at their FREE CASH FLOW. Unfortunately for Chesapeake, they spent a staggering $1.6 billion (highlighted in blue) on drilling and completion costs (capital) to produce their natural gas and oil. Thus, Chesapeake’s Free Cash Flow was a negative $1.3 billion.
That would have been terrible news if it wasn’t for the sale of properties of worth $1,193 million ($1.2 billion.. two lines below the highlighted blue line). Which means, the financial wizards at Chesapeake used asset sales to help pay for their natural gas drilling capital expenditures. How long can Chesapeake sell properties to fund their drilling costs??
Are we starting to get a PICTURE here? Regrettably, even highly trained energy analysts do not understand that the oil and gas industry is cannibalizing itself just to stay alive. If investors do not understand just how bad our energy situation has become, they are BLINDLY investing in the worst assets (STOCKS, BONDS & REAL ESTATE) that derive their value from the burning of ENERGY.
This is the BLIND CONSPIRACY. It’s taking place right in front of our eyes, and virtually no one sees it.
We are going to experience a Massive Fundamental Change in the gold market because investors will finally begin to understand what a true store of wealth is versus one that is an ENERGY IOU. Stocks, Bonds, and Real Estate get their value from burning energy IN THE FUTURE, while a gold or silver coin bought today, received its value from burning energy IN THE PAST. That is a big difference that investors, even precious metals investors fail to realize.
Lastly, if you want to pay more for precious metals, than I suggest you don’t check out our PRECIOUS METALS INVESTING section or our new LOWEST COST PRECIOUS METALS STORAGE page.
Check back for new articles and updates at the SRSrocco Report.
- China's Infrastructure Boom Heading For Rapid Slowdown In 2018
There have been signs since October’s Party Congress that China’s infrastructure boom was about to cool off as the leadership seeks to contain debt levels and focus on the quality not the quantity of growth. Subway building is one sector which has seen some high-profile project cancellations. In mid-November 2017, Caixin reported that China’s top economic planning authority, the National Development and Reform Commission, was “raising the bar for subway proposals” – increasing scrutiny in terms of fiscal conditions, population and GDP. In recent weeks, we’ve seen two large subway projects shelved, one in Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia (worth 27 billion Yuan) and another in Baotou, another Inner Mongolian city (worth 30 billion Yuan). As Caixin noted.
The cancellation of the Inner Mongolia subway projects is having a ripple effect in other cities. Several city governments, including those of Xianyang in Shaanxi province and Wuhan in Hubei province, said in statements that their subway plan are unlikely to win immediate approval under the central government’s crackdown on financial risks related to borrowing for such projects.
The crackdown on local government debt, a key source of infrastructure financing, will have a knock-on effect on Chinese GDP growth. A difficulty for China’s central planners is that the infrastructure share of Chinese fixed asset investment has been on a rising trend, surpassing 20% during 2017 versus just over 15% in early 2014. While we’ve been expecting China’s infrastructure spend to slow next year, we are surprised by the rate of slowdown estimated by Bloomberg, which surveyed a large number of forecasters.
China’s frenzied construction of roads, bridges and subways is set for a major slowdown, adding a headwind to economic growth in 2018. The nation’s fixed-asset investment in infrastructure will grow 12 percent next year, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey, down from almost 20 percent in the first ten months this year. All 18 economists in the survey anticipated a moderation, adding to reports by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS Group AG predicting a similar trend.
The cooling construction fever is taking shape as authorities renew a pledge to focus on debt management following the Communist Party Congress in October. In a rare move, China has suspended subway projects in some cities, and scrutiny has also toughened on public-private partnerships — until now a widespread way to fund projects. The easing could even threaten global capital expenditure growth, as China represents one-fifth of the world’s total investment, according to estimates by Oxford Economics.
Infrastructure investment "grew much faster than other investments in the past five years," Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong, wrote in a note. "Policy makers might be able to accept slower growth for infrastructure spending from next year, as the growth in the past five years is unsustainable."
Slowdown or not, the scale of spending on Chinese infrastructure remains vast, about $1.7 trillion during January-October 2017. The pick-up in spending during the last two years followed efforts by the authorities to promote PPP (public-private partnerships) to finance infrastructure projects as one way to limit the growth in local government debt. As is the case with many things related to investment in China, the policy was quickly subject to abuse. In the majority of cases, the “private” partner in PPP projects turned out to be a state-owned firm, which merely added to the state’s debt burden via a different route. Eight local governments have been reprimanded by the finance ministry and the National Audit Office for “disguised borrowing”. We can only imagine the degree of abuse when local governments guaranteed returns on PPP-funded projects. According to Bloomberg.
The Ministry of Finance last month banned local governments from guaranteeing returns for private investors in PPP projects or backing a project’s debt. The national watchdog for state-owned enterprises also published rules to regulate state companies’ participation — a potential blow to a major source of funding.
"A change in central government’s attitude towards PPP does not bode well for infrastructure in 2018," according to Yao Wei, chief China economist at Societe Generale SA in Paris. "A slowdown from the rapid pace this year looks inevitable."
The challenges for Xi Jinping and his top bureaucrats are mounting, as 2018 looks like it will see the convergence of a host of major reforms of which slower infrastructure spending and altering PPP funding arrangements are a small part. Other major ones include cooling the property market, reducing overcapacity in heavy industry, pollution control, continuing the crackdown on corruption, deleveraging and reforming the out-of-control shadow banking sector.
The China bulls will undoubtedly downplay the scale of these challenges, expecting little deceleration in Chinese growth, helped by a near seamless transition from investment to consumer-led growth. We will be
amazedvery impressed if Xi can pull it off.
- Paul Craig Roberts Exposes "Plunder Capitalism"
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,
I deplore the tax cut that has passed Congress. It is not an economic policy tax cut, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with supply-side economics. The entire purpose is to raise equity prices by providing equity owners with more capital gains and dividends.
In other words, it is legislation that makes equity owners richer, thus further polarizing society into a vast arena of poverty and near-poverty and the One Percent, or more precisely a fraction of the One Percent wallowing in billions of dollars. Unless our rulers can continue to control the explanations, the tax cut edges us closer to revolution resulting from complete distrust of government.
The current tax legislation drops the corporate tax rate to 20%. This means that global corporations registered in the US will be taxed at a lower income tax rate than a licensed practical nurse making $50,000 per year. The nurse, if single, faces in 2017 a 25% marginal tax rate on all income over $37,950.
A single person is taxed at a rate of 33% on all income above $191,651. 33% was the top tax rate extracted from medieval serfs, and approaches the tax rate on US 19th century slaves. Such an upper middle class income as $191,651 sounds extraordinary to most Americans, but it is so far from the multi-million dollar annual incomes of the rich as to be invisible. In America, it is the shrinking middle and upper middle class incomes that bear the burden of income taxation. The rich with their capital gains from their equity holdings are taxed at 15%.
Even single individuals who earn between $1 and $9,325 are taxed at 10% on their pittance.
The neoliberal economists who are the shills for the rich, Wall Street, and the Banks-Too-Big-Too-Fail claim, erroneously, that by cutting the corporate income tax rate to 20% all sorts of offshored profits will be brought back to the US and lead to a booming economy and higher wages.
This is absolute total nonsense. The money won’t come back, because it is invested abroad where labor costs are lower, if invested at all instead of buying back the corporation’s stock or buying other existing companies. After 20 years of offshoring US manufacturing and professional tradable skills and the incomes associated with the jobs, who is going to invest in America? The American population has no income with which to purchase the goods and services from new investment, and the American population’s credit cards are maxed out.
All that is going to happen is that Wall Street will calculate the lower tax rate into a higher equity price. Wall Street can do this without any of the offshored earnings coming home. Suddenly, everyone who owns equities will experience a boost in wealth, or the boost has already occurred in anticipation of the handout.
The deficit-conscious Republicans have put into the Bill for Enhancement of the Rich’s Wealth, cuts in social services in order to “save workers from higher interest rates from budget deficits.” This is more dishonesty. If the Fed lets real interest rates rise to any meaningful amount, derivatives will unwind, and the Fed will have to create trillions more in new dollars to keep its ponzi scheme in place. The deficit that results from the tax cut will be covered by the Fed purchasing the Treasuries, not by a rise in interest rates.
What we are witnessing in the US and indeed throughout the western world is the total failure of capitalism. Capitalism is now merely a looting machine. The financial sector no longer supplies capital for production. What the financial sector does is to turn discretionary consumer income into interest and fee payments to banks. Aggregate demand can only grow through debt expansion, and the consumers reach a point where they cannot expand their debt.
Capitalism, hiding behind “globalism,” which is misrepresented as a good thing when it is death itself, locates production where labor is cheapest, thus depriving First World labor of good wages and work opportunities and putting First World countries on the path to becoming Third World countries.
Short-term profits and executive and board bonuses and stock options are maximized at the cost of the destruction of the domestic consumer market.
Plunder Capitalism also privatizes as much of the public sector, such as the military, as possible, thus driving up the cost of the Pentagon’s budget. Jobs that the soldiers themselves formerly did are given to politically-connected firms. What was once KP (kitchen patrol) is now provided by an outside private service. Private mercenaries hired by the Pentagon collect as much in a month as troops in the line of fire earn in a year. I don’t know that the army any longer has a supply organization other than the private business that has the contract.
Medicare and Medicaid are the next to be privatized, along with Social Security. The tax cut will result in deficit and high interest rate hype, and these lies will be used to save the workers from high interest rates on their mortgage, credit card, and student loan debt by scaling back or privatizing Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
The environment and public lands will be sacrificed to the private profits of timber, mining, and energy companies. Grizzly bears and wolves are losing their protection under the endangered species act so that states can sell trophy hunting licenses to men who have to prove their manhood by killing an animal with a high-powerful rifle at a safe distance.
What we are witnessing is the complete looting of America and the entirety of the West. While the Western World collapses, the insouciant, submissive people sit there sucking their thumbs while they are being ruined.
Nothing is left of the West except looters at work.
This tax bill is an abomination, an act of brutal plunder. Its sponsors should be tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail, if not hung from a lamp post.
- Nationwide Net Neutrality Protests Planned For Thursday
Last Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its plan to reverse net neutrality regulations that were put in place under the Obama administration in 2015. Net neutrality is the concept that all internet traffic should be treated equally by internet service providers (ISPs), regardless of the content that is delivered or who it was created by.
Statista's Felix Richter explains that the new proposal, named the Restoring Internet Freedom order, would no longer classify ISPs as public utilities but rather as information services, meaning that telecommunication companies such as Comcast or Verizon would be legally allowed to create so-called fast lanes for content by providers that either pay for preferential treatment or that the ISP itself has a financial stake in, such as Comcast has in NBC Universal. While the FCC argues that scrapping net neutrality rules would boost investments and innovation by limiting government regulation, advocates of net neutrality argue that the concept creates a level playing field for content providers and fear that getting rid of net neutrality would stifle competition and further increase concentration in the online media landscape.
As Statista's chart below, based on a Consumer Reports survey, shows, the majority of Americans support the current net neutrality rules and don’t think that ISPs should be allowed to regulate what content their customers can access.
You will find more statistics at StatistaConsidering the Republican majority in the commission, it is expected to pass regardless of the vocal opposition from companies and consumers alike.
More than 600 demonstrations are planned at Verizon stores across the United States on Thursday amid the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) plan to kill net neutrality.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai made it clear last month that the FCC will vote on the fate of net neutrality on December 14. The rules currently prohibit internet service providers from charging extra fees, censorship and throttling website speeds.
The rollback is expected to pass the FCC vote next week. However, that is not stopping Demand Progress, Fight for the Future and the Freepress Action Fund who have formed the coalition called “Battle for the Net”.
Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future said in a statement: “This is the free speech fight of our generation and internet users are pissed off and paying attention. Ajit Pai may be owned by Verizon, but he has to answer to Congress, and lawmakers have to answer to us, their constituents.”
Common Dreams, a non-profit news-oriented website claims, since Pai revealed his plan to kill net neutrality rules back in mid-November, public outrage has continued to expand– despite the lack of coverage from major media outlets. Since the phone lines opened on November 21, more than 774,325 calls have flooded congressional phone lines.
On Thursday, Americans will take to the streets outside their local Verizon stores and congressional offices to protest against rolling back net neutrality, exactly one week ahead of the FCC’s planned vote.
Mark Stanley, director of communications for Demand Progress said, “With what would be a catastrophic vote by the FCC to repeal net neutrality looming, people are ready to take to the streets in protest and to offer Congress one last chance to answer the question: ‘Do you stand for your constituents’ ability to communicate and connect, or do you stand for Verizon’s bottom line?”
Verizon stores were chosen as the premiere site for the demonstrations because FCC Chairman Ajit Pai previously was the company’s associate general counsel from 2001 to 2003.
The FCC has gone rogue. Congress: do your job and stop @AjitPaiFCC from killing #NetNeutrality on Dec 14. https://t.co/xSJHbLq2Wn
— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) December 4, 2017
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Do you think Facebook, Google, and Twitter have too much power? Killing #NetNeutrality would give them even more by squashing startups and competition. Let's save it: https://t.co/S8d0OxZQe0 pic.twitter.com/p1iVxtVx5p
— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) December 5, 2017
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Do you think Facebook, Google, and Twitter have too much power? Killing #NetNeutrality would give them even more by squashing startups and competition. Let's save it: https://t.co/S8d0OxZQe0 pic.twitter.com/p1iVxtVx5p
— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) December 5, 2017
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Below is a list of websites, companies, and organizations who are defending net neutrality:
Here are the companies who want to end net neutrality:
Common Dreams said 27 senators including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have sent Pai a letter on Monday demanding the FCC to delay the vote. Also, 40 consumer protection groups have sent a letter to Pai asking for a delay as well.
Building on the outrage expressed by the American public, a group of 27 senators including Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) delivered a letter to Pai on Monday demanding that the FCC vote be delayed in the face of evidence that the public “record may be replete with fake or fraudulent comments, suggesting that your proposal is fundamentally flawed.”
A coalition of over 40 consumer protection groups also called on the FCC to postpone its vote on repealing net neutrality in a letter to Pai on Monday, citing a pending court case that could ultimately “leave consumers at the mercy of internet service providers.”
The attempt seemed promising on Monday, but earlier on Tuesday the FCC rejected all calls to delay the net neutrality vote, according to The Hill.
The FCC said in a statement Monday that “the vote will proceed as scheduled on December 14.” In a separate statement provided to Ars Technica, the FCC hit back at those seeking a delay:
This is just evidence that supporters of heavy-handed Internet regulations are becoming more desperate by the day as their effort to defeat Chairman Pai’s plan to restore Internet freedom has stalled.
With the delay thwarted by the FCC, and over 600 demonstration sites planned at Verizon locations across the nation on Thursday, and with the US already in a state of constant and belligerent outrage, one wonders what else could possibly go wrong on the day the US government itself at risk of being shut down.
- The Collapse Of Media (And What You Can Do About It)
Authored by Nafeez Ahmed and Andrew Markell via CounterPunch.org,
When a system enters into the final stage of its deterioration – whether that is an institutional system, a state, an empire, or the human body – all the important information flows that support coherent communication breakdown. In this final stage, if this situation is not corrected the system will collapse and die.
It has become obvious to nearly everyone that we have reached this stage on the planet and in our democratic institutions. We see how the absolute dysfunction of the global information architecture?—?represented in the intersection of mainstream media outlets, social technology platforms and giant digital aggregators?—?is generating widespread apathy, despair, insanity and madness at a scale that is terrifying.
And we are right to be terrified, because this situation is paralyzing us from taking the action required to solve global and local challenges. While liberals fight conservatives and conservatives fight liberals we lose precious time.
While progressives fight government, the corporations and the super-rich we drown in despair. While philanthropists, fueled by their own certainty and wealth, fight for justice or equality or for some poor hamlet in Africa we become apathetic and distracted from the real source of the problem. And while the president fights everyone and everyone fights the president, the collective goes mad.
In the background, however, the game of hoarding resources and not redistributing them accelerates; absorbing the sum total of our collective actions and commitments into a singular unacceptable future. There is only one way to avoid this fate; uncover the source of the disease and cure it by mobilizing solutions.
We are about to break down for you the source of this disease of information that is accelerating us to ecological and institutional collapse because once you see it, you will be free to act and build something else.
The Collapse of Democratic Institutions
Industrial civilization is in the throes of a great disruption, a systemic transition which could either lead to regression, crisis and collapse; or a new way of working and living, a new mode of prosperity, a new narrative of success.
The global media industrial complex is not equipped to address this great disruption to civilization-as-we-know-it. To the contrary, it is literally incapable of meaningfully processing information in such a way that it produces, for a significant percentage of the human population, real actionable knowledge? which can render humanity capable of transitioning successfully into the new era.
The global media industrial complex today compounds the problems we are facing.
It does this by providing, despite appearances, no knowledge at all. The prevailing model of media is to monopolize and manipulate information flows to produce beliefs and emotions that will allow giant aggregators to maximize ‘clicks’, to maximize advertising revenues, to maximize profits?—?for a few.
So rather than creating knowledge, the global media industrial complex is designed to generate competing, polarized narratives around which different audiences coalesce into irreconcilable segregated communities; it reinforces beliefs without teaching critical thinking; it blunts an attitude of openness while promoting a banal left-right dichotomy that fuels a global culture of mindless consumerism.
This prevailing media structure constrains the public’s capacity to make intelligent decisions. And that allows global ecological, energy, economic, social and other challenges to accelerate, while we argue amongst ourselves about ideology.
The consequence is that information flows are inexorably linked to dominant processes of profit-maximization for a tiny minority; so much so, that people’s relationship to information is managed as a control mechanism over attention and ideological persuasion.
The Monopolization of Media & Journalism
At the heart of our collapsing democratic institutions sits the global media industrial complex. If you are brave enough to look closely you will see that both ‘free press’ and ‘fake news’ outlets operate as a structural extension of an extreme form of predatory capitalism, using information to capture wealth for the few at the expense of the many, by capturing our minds. They are two sides of one coin that make the same people obscene piles of cash.
We only have to peer under the hood to see this fact staring us in the face.
In the US, six huge transnational conglomerates own the entirety of the mass media, including newspapers, magazines, publishers, TV networks, cable channels, Hollywood studios, music labels and popular websites: Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, News Corp., CBS Corporation and NBC Universal.
In the UK, 71% of UK national newspapers are owned by just three giant corporations, while 80% of local newspapers are owned by a mere five companies.
Today, the world’s largest media owner is Google, closely followed by Walt Disney, Comcast, 21st Century Fox and Facebook. Together, Google and Facebook monopolize one-fifth of global ad revenue. And all these corporations control the bulk of what we read, watch and hear, including online. They define our understanding of the world and ourselves.
Yet they reflect a tiny number of people who have a very narrow outlook on the world.
That’s because these power structures are part of what one study in the journal PLoS One describes as a “network of global corporate control.” The study authors, a team of systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, found that the world’s most powerful 43,000 transnational corporations are dominated by a core 1,318 companies, further dominated by a “super-entity” of just 147 firms.
So most of what we read, watch and hear through the media is structurally conditioned by a network of special interests that are self-supported and self-sustained. This is why the distinction between fake news and real news is both illusory and dishonest. Due to this structure, virtually everything you encounter as ‘news’ functions a subtle or overt piece of propaganda that distracts you from the real activity that is driving the machinery. It matters little whether it comes from Mother Jones, the New York Times, Breitbart or Fox News – everything coming at you within this structure produces the debilitating effect of confusing your mind and stimulating your emotions into a complex mash-up of anger, resignation apathy and sloth.
Through the Google Glass
To understand the power of these special interests to monopolize information in service to their own vested ends, we need look no further than the story of world’s largest media owner of all.
In January 2015, INSURGE broke the exclusive story of how Google was founded and evolved under the wing of the US intelligence community.
The report revealed that during his development of the core code behind the Google search engine as a Stanford University postgraduate student, Sergey Brin received seed-funding from a CIA and NSA-run research program, the Massive Digital Data Systems (MDDS). The confirmation came from a former manager of the MDDS, Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham, who is now the Louis A. Beecherl distinguished professor and executive director of the Cyber Security Research Institute at the University of Texas, Dallas.
This was not necessarily unusual?—?the intelligence community has long been involved in Silicon Valley for all sorts of obvious reasons. What’s interesting is that you probably never knew about how this worked in relation to Google. And that says a great deal about the way the global media industrial complex operates. Her claims are corroborated by a reference to the MDDS programme in a paper co-authored by Brin and fellow Google co-founder Larry Page while at Stanford.
How the Media – All Media – Handles the Truth
This story was totally blacked out in the English-language media: except the US tech news site Gigaom, which recommended our investigation as follows:
“An interesting, if extremely dense, account of Google’s longstanding interactions with US military and intelligence was published on Medium last week.”
This has very important implications that deserve careful scrutiny: In short, the inside story of Google’s seed-funding and founding by the CIA and NSA breaks into the open?—?but not a single English-language newspaper wants to cover or even acknowledge the story. Yet what could be bigger news, than one of the world’s biggest ‘news-facilitators’ being so closely aligned with the US intelligence community at birth?
The lack of interest is not the result of a conspiracy. It’s the predictable outcome of the fact that the global media industrial complex represents a highly centralized institutional structure that perpetuates a culture of slavish obedience to power.
The global media industrial complex largely obscures important knowledge about the very structure and nature of power. That’s why this is probably the first time you’ve seen direct evidence that the most powerful media owner in the world, Google, was conceived with the support of the US intelligence community.
Power and Control Over Your Mind & Your Resources
This is not about whether Google is uniquely ‘evil’. It’s about a wider pattern of unacceptable ownership patterns and social networks across the media landscape.
Consider William Kennard. He served on the board of the New York Times, then became US Federal Communications Commission chairman. He then joined the Carlyle Group as Managing Director. Carlyle majority-owns Booz Allen Hamilton, the defense contractor managing NSA mass surveillance. After Kennard joined the Obama administration as US Ambassador to the EU, he pushed for the secretive, pro-corporate Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Consider John Bryson, Obama’s Secretary of Commerce until 2012. In the preceding decade he sat on the board of the Walt Disney Company, which owns the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). He was simultaneously on the board of US defense contractor Boeing. Despite resigning from those positions after joining government, he held lucrative stock, option assets, and deferred-compensation plans with both Disney and Boeing.
Consider Aylwin Lewis, another Walt Disney Company director and simultaneous longtime director at Halliburton, one of the largest transnational oil services firms, formerly run by Dick Cheney. A Halliburton subsidiary, Houston-based KBR Inc., received $39.5 billion in Iraq related contracts over the last decade?—?many of which were no-bid deals.
Consider Douglas McCorkindale, a director of giant media conglomerate Gannett for decades, and head of various Gannet subsidiary spin-offs. Gannett is the largest US newspaper publisher measured by daily circulation, and owns major US TV stations, regional cable news networks, and radio stations. Yet for about a decade, McCorkindale also served as a director at the US defence giant, Lockhead Martin, resigning in April 2014.
Consider that these individuals, through their media and defense industry interests, profited directly from devastating wars enabled, effectively, by their own propaganda.
And notice that this is a bipartisan game, lavishly benefitting liberals and conservatives alike.
So the global crisis of information and the global Crisis of Civilization? – where we see an escalating convergence of political extremism, ecological destruction, and economic volatility, unravelling our societies and families, decapitating the hopes of our youth? – are clearly one and the same reality.
The commodification of information is part and parcel of the commodification of the planet.
This is a game where your mind, your attention and future are reduced to a worthless asset, traded through the markets until there is nothing left. But there is no need to accept this fate. All that is required is that you see it for what it is.
Once seen, new information and ideas can flow into your mind, new emotions can flow into your body, and you will be empowered to take action. If you see you can act. It becomes obvious that the only solution is to redesign the journalistic format such that new ideas and information lead to constructive action. It becomes obvious that to enliven the public sphere and restore our democratic institutions, we should facilitate the flow of money in media back to where it belongs; into the hands of both journalists and reader-participants committed to the creation of a just and sane future.
- Chinese Stocks Plunge Below Key Support, Global Tech Wreck Escalates
Asia's 'FANG' stocks are tumbling once again as the global tech wreck continues to escalate (TATS down 10% from highs).
Taiwan Semi, Alibaba, Tencent, and Samsung (TATS) are down 7 days in a row and over 10% – the biggest such drop on record…
While Chinese bonds are holding back from their 4.00% yield line of doom, Chinese stocks are tumbling with the benchmark Shanghai Composite breaking below key support to 4-month lows.
But whoile Shanghai Comp is down notably, it is the tech and small cap heavy Shenzhen and CHINEXT that are getting hit hard…
- Bitcoin Blasts Above $12,000, Soars To New All Time High
After slowing down fractionally in its relentless ascent after topping $11,000 for the first time less than a week ago, Bitcoin has brushed off the weekend selloff and on Wednesday morning (Asian time) exploded higher following a renewed burst of buying out of the usual Asian suspect exchanges – and Bitfinex – surging above $12,000 for the first time ever, and trading at a new all time high of $12,200 at publication time.
For those keeping track, this is how long it has taken the cryptocurrency to cross the key psychological levels:
- $0000 – $1000: 1789 days
- $1000- $2000: 1271 days
- $2000- $3000: 23 days
- $3000- $4000: 62 days
- $4000- $5000: 61 days
- $5000- $6000: 8 days
- $6000- $7000: 13 days
- $7000- $8000: 14 days
- $8000- $9000: 9 days
- $9000-$10000: 2 days
- $10000-$11000: 1 day
- $11000-$12000: 6 days
The skeptics can take heart: at least the rate of ascent appears to have slowed down.
There has been no news to catalyze the move, and as most recent buying, it has been attributed to excitement over the upcoming December 10 CFTC bitcoin futures launch.
And speaking of bitcoin futures, the CEO of ICE, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, Jeff Sprecher told a Goldman investor conference on Tuesday that that “we may be stupid for not being first on that” adding that “I don’t have the answers, I wish I knew” how the investments will evolve, he said. “I don’t know what to make of cryptocurrencies.”
In a surprising tangent, Sprecher gave another impetus for the bulls when he questioned the existence of natural sellers of bitcoin futures, or investors who short the contract, noting that much of the wealth in the bitcoin world has been amassed by data miners in China and algorithmic traders.
“To short that, that means they’re deciding to exit” the market through a futures market, Sprecher said. He decided that may not be a good scenario for one of his exchanges.
They may have a reason to do that if there are additional state crackdowns: one emerged on Wednesday morning in South Korea, where according to a Yonhap report a private association of cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea which has emerged as one of the most active trading venues for cryptocurrencies, said that it will voluntarily restrict cryptocurrency transactions with bank accounts starting next year, in a bid to prevent such transactions from being used for money laundering and other crimes.
However, contrary to some headlines that South Korea would restrict crypto transactions, all this means is that the Blockchain Association, an industry group of some 30 cryptocurrency exchanges, including Bithumb and Korbit, said it will encourage customers just one bank account in the selling and buying of cryptocurrencies.
Under the voluntary restrictions, which will be implemented Jan. 1, customers will be discouraged from using multiple bank accounts, the association said. Currently, customers use virtual bank accounts when they buy or sell cryptocurrencies.
South Korea is home to one of the world’s largest bitcoin exchanges, with about 1 million people estimated to trade the digital currency.
- Pentagon: US Troops Will Stay In Syria "As Long As We Need To"
US forces plan to stay in Syria "as long as they need to” support local partners and to ensure that terrorists will not return, a Pentagon official told AFP on Tuesday. The announcement comes as the Islamic State has ceased to be a reality, and as the Syrian Army is on the cusp of final victory over ISIS in remaining pockets of eastern Syria.
“We are going to maintain our commitment on the ground as long as we need to, to support our partners and prevent the return of terrorist groups,” Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said. “To ensure an enduring defeat of ISIS, the coalition must ensure it cannot regenerate, reclaim lost ground, or plot external attacks.”
Artillery support in Syria for the US-backed SDF. Image source: US Marine CorpsThough officials recently hinted that the Pentagon would soon formally acknowledge that it has "about 2,000" American troops in Syria, the long standing official number of 503 still hasn't changed. In late October a top military official briefly admitted to 4,000 troops on the ground in Syria during an interview, but awkwardly backtracked on his statement and said, “I’m sorry, I misspoke there, there are approximately 500 troops in Syria."
As we reported previously, President Trump has made a point of troop levels needing to be kept secret from “the enemy,” but consistent lies from the Pentagon about their deployments have made the figures less a closely guarded secret than a mockery of transparency.
Perhaps more worrisome is that Pahon further said US troop commitment in Syria would be "conditions-based" – which indicates that the Pentagon has no timeline or near-term plans for exiting Syria, though recent reports suggest that after Raqqa was liberated by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) a troop withdrawal of hundreds of Marines may be in progress.
"This is essential to the protection of our homeland as well as to defend our allies and partners… The United States will sustain a 'conditions-based' military presence in Syria to combat the threat of a terrorist-led insurgency, prevent the resurgence of ISIS, and to stabilize liberated areas," Pahon continued.
But all available evidence and the recent history of American action in Syria suggests that the only real reason for open ended commitment in Syria is so that Washington can achieve its own geopolitical goals in the region: to oppose the Damascus government, Iran, Hezbollah and Russia. The stated reason of bombing ISIS inside Syria (without Syrian approval, which amounts to an act of aggression in a sovereign state's territory) never had anything to do with some noble-minded goal of defeating terrorism, but was always the Trojan Horse backdoor attempt to defeat the Syria-Iran-Iraq-Hezbollah 'resistance axis' that stretches from Tehran to South Lebanon.
Though American officials have from day one emphasized the short-term and temporary nature of the Pentagon operations, last summer Turkey controversially exposed the locations of 13 US bases in Syria, and the US-backed Syrian YPG had previously indicated seven American military bases in northern Syria. The Pentagon, however, has never confirmed base locations or numbers – though less than two years ago the American public was being assured that there would be "no boots on the ground" due to mission creep in Syria.
During the last year of the Obama administration for example, State Department spokesman John Kirby was called out multiple times by reporters for telling obvious and blatant lies concerning promises of "no boots on the ground" in Syria – something which US officials falsely and consistently claimed. Yet now the American public is being told, with not so much as even the pretense of national or congressional debate, of "commitment on the ground as long as we need to" in Syria.
But we've pointed out the obvious many times before. Whether it's the Middle East, Africa, or Eastern Europe, the familiar pattern of American military expansion goes something like this: first we are promised that US troops are merely in a country for limited "training" missions with "partner" forces; next we are told of "counter-terror" operations which require an increased "footprint"; after which we are assured once again that there are "no boots on the ground" but a "minimal" increase of train and assist missions; finally, US soldiers begin to come home in body bags at which point the 9/11 era AUMF is cynically invoked (Authorization For Use of Military Force).
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