- The Last Rebels: 25 Things We Did As Kids That Would Get Someone Arrested Today
Submitted by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,
With all of the ridiculous new regulations, coddling, and societal mores that seem to be the norm these days, it’s a miracle those of us over 30 survived our childhoods.
Here’s the problem with all of this babying: it creates a society of weenies.
There won’t be more more rebels because this generation has been frightened into submission and apathy through a deliberately orchestrated culture of fear. No one will have faced adventure and lived to greatly embroider the story
.
Kids are brainwashed – yes, brainwashed – into believing that the mere thought of a gun means you’re a psychotic killer waiting for a place to rampage.
They are terrified to do anything when they aren’t wrapped up with helmets, knee pads, wrist guards, and other protective gear.
Parents can’t let them go out and be independent or they’re charged with neglect and the children are taken away.
Woe betide any teen who uses a tool like a pocket knife, or heck, even a table knife to cut meat.
Lighting their own fire? Good grief, those parents must either not care of their child is disfigured by 3rd-degree burns over 90% of his body or they’re purposely nurturing a little arsonist.
Heaven forbid that a child describe another child as “black” or, for that matter, refer to others as girls or boys. No actual descriptors can be used for the fear of “offending” that person, and “offending” someone is incredibly high on the hierarchy of Things Never To Do.
“Free range parenting” is all but illegal
and childhood is a completely different experience these days.
All of this babying creates incompetent, fearful adults.
Our children have been enveloped in this softly padded culture of fear, and it’s creating a society of people who are fearful, out of shape, overly cautious, and painfully politically correct. They are incredibly incompetent when they go out on their own because they’ve never actually done anything on their own.
When my oldest daughter came home after her first semester away at college, she told me how grateful she was to be an independent person. She described the scene in the dorm. “I had to show a bunch of them how to do laundry and they didn’t even know how to make a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese,” she said. Apparently they were in awe of her ability to cook actual food that did not originate in a pouch or box, her skills at changing a tire, her knack for making coffee using a French press instead of a coffee maker, and her ease at operating a washing machine and clothes dryer. She says that even though she thought I was being mean at the time I began making her do things for herself, she’s now glad that she possesses those skills. Hers was also the room that had everything needed to solve everyday problems: basic tools, first aid supplies, OTC medicine, and home remedies.
I was truly surprised when my daughter told me about the lack of life skills her friends have. I always thought maybe I was secretly lazy and that was the basis on my insistence that my girls be able to fend for themselves, but it honestly prepares them for life far better than if I was a hands-on mom that did absolutely everything for them. They need to realize that clothing does not get worn and then neatly reappear on a hanger in the closet, ready to be worn again. They need to understand that meals do not magically appear on the table, created by singing appliances a la Beauty and the Beast.
If the country is populated by a bunch of people who can’t even cook a box of macaroni and cheese when their stoves function at optimum efficiency, how on earth will they sustain themselves when they have to not only acquire their food, but must use off-grid methods to prepare it? How can someone who requires an instruction manual to operate a digital thermostat hope to keep warm when their home environment it controlled by wood they have collected and fires they have lit with it? How can someone who is afraid of getting dirty plant a garden and shovel manure?
Did you do any of these things and live to tell the tale?
While I did make my children wear bicycle helmets and never took them on the highway in the back of a pick-up, many of the things on this list were not just allowed, they were encouraged. Before someone pipes up with outrage (because they’re *cough* offended) I’m not suggesting that you throw caution to the wind and let your kids attempt to hang-glide off the roof with a sheet attached to a kite frame. (I’ve got a scar proving that makeshift hang-gliding is, in fact, a terrible idea). Common sense evolves, and I obviously don’t recommend that you purposely put your children in unsafe situations with a high risk of injury.
But, let them be kids. Let them explore and take reasonable risks. Let them learn to live life without fear.
Raise your hand if you survived a childhood in the 60s, 70s, and 80s that included one or more of the following, frowned-upon activities (raise both hands if you bear a scar proving your daredevil participation in these dare-devilish events):
- Riding in the back of an open pick-up truck with a bunch of other kids
- Leaving the house after breakfast and not returning until the streetlights came on, at which point, you raced home, ASAP so you didn’t get in trouble
- Eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the school cafeteria
- Riding your bike without a helmet
- Riding your bike with a buddy on the handlebars, and neither of you wearing helmets
- Drinking water from the hose in the yard
- Swimming in creeks, rivers, ponds, and lakes (or what they now call *cough* “wild swimming“)
- Climbing trees (One park cut the lower branches from a tree on the playground in case some stalwart child dared to climb them)
- Having snowball fights (and accidentally hitting someone you shouldn’t)
- Sledding without enough protective equipment to play a game in the NFL
- Carrying a pocket knife to school (or having a fishing tackle box with sharp things on school property)
- Camping
- Throwing rocks at snakes in the river
- Playing politically incorrect games like Cowboys and Indians
- Playing Cops and Robbers with *gasp* toy guns
- Pretending to shoot each other with sticks we imagined were guns
- Shooting an actual gun or a bow (with *gasp* sharp arrows) at a can on a log, accompanied by our parents who gave us pointers to improve our aim. Heck, there was even a marksmanship club at my high school
- Saying the words “gun” or “bang” or “pow pow” (there actually a freakin’ CODE about “playing with invisible guns”)
- Working for your pocket money well before your teen years
- Taking that money to the store and buying as much penny candy as you could afford, then eating it in one sitting
- Eating pop rocks candy and drinking soda, just to prove we were exempt from that urban legend that said our stomachs would explode
- Getting so dirty that your mom washed you off with the hose in the yard before letting you come into the house to have a shower
- Writing lines for being a jerk at school, either on the board or on paper
- Playing “dangerous” games like dodgeball, kickball, tag, whiffle ball, and red rover (The Health Department of New York issued a warning about the “significant risk of injury” from these games)
- Walking to school alone
Come on, be honest. Tell us what crazy stuff you did as a child.
Teach your children to be independent this summer.
We didn’t get trophies just for showing up. We were forced, yes, forced – to do actual work and no one called protective services. And we gained something from all of this.
Our independence.
Do you really think that children who are terrified by someone pointing his finger and saying “bang” are going to lead the revolution against tyranny? No, they will cower in their tiny apartments, hoping that if they behave well enough, they’ll continue to be fed.
Do you think our ancestors who fought in the revolutionary war were afraid to climb a tree or get dirty?
Those of us who grew up this way (and who raise our children to be fearless) are the resistance against a coddled, helmeted, non-offending society that aims for a dependant populace. In a country that was built on rugged self-reliance, we are now the minority.
Nurture the rebellion this summer. Boot them outside
. Get your kids away from their TVs, laptops, and video games. Get sweaty and dirty. Do things that makes the wind blow through your hair. Go off in search of the best climbing tree you can find. Shoot guns. Learn to use a bow and arrow. Play outside all day long and catch fireflies after dark. Do things that the coddled world considers too dangerous
Teach your kids what freedom feels like.
- Cities, States Shun Moody's For Blowing The Whistle On Pension Liabilities
A little over a month ago, Moody’s downgraded the city of Chicago to junk, triggering over $2 billion in accelerated payment rights for creditors and complicating an effort by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to refinance some $900 million in floating rate debt and borrow another $200 million to pay off the related swaps.
The decision by Moody’s came on the heels of an Illinois Supreme Court decision that struck down a pension reform bid. Although not binding on other states, that verdict effectively set a precedent as it relates to ‘implicit contracts’ between employers and employees, meaning state and local officials across the country will need to find creative ways to fill budget gaps.
When it comes to underfunded pension liabilities one major concern is that in a world characterized by ZIRP and NIRP, it’s not entirely clear that public pension funds are using realistic investment return assumptions. As you can see from the table below, the assumed rates of return for Chicago’s pension funds are nowhere near the risk-free rate, meaning one of two things must be true: 1) fund managers are taking greater risks to hit the targets, or 2) the targets won’t be hit. If the latter is true, then the present value of the funds’ liabilities is likely much larger than reported.
After 2008, Moody’s stopped relying on the investment return assumptions of cities and states opting instead to use its own models. Unsurprisingly, this led the ratings agency to adopt a much less favorable view of state and local government finances and as WSJ reports, rather than admit that their return assumptions are indeed unrealistic, local governments have opted to drop Moody’s instead. Here’s more:
More than a year before Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Chicago’s bonds to junk status, one of its senior analysts asked top city officials to explain why the third-largest U.S. city was healthier than a troubled island commonwealth flirting with insolvency, according to people familiar with the conversation.
“Help me understand why Chicago is different than Puerto Rico?” said the Moody’s analyst, Rachel Cortez, during a February 2014 meeting that Mayor Rahm Emanuel attended, two of these people said. A spokesman for Moody’s and Ms. Cortez said the firm doesn’t discuss “private meetings with issuers or other capital-market participants.”
The exchange inside City Hall came to embody a more aggressive stance by the world’s second-largest ratings firm as Moody’s cut Chicago’s credit rating by seven notches over a two-year period. City officials were taken aback by the Puerto Rico comment and then angered by Moody’s final move to junk in May 2015, a stance that differed from more optimistic conclusions made by other ratings firms. Since last summer, the city has left the Moody’s Corp. unit off four bond deals..
Tim Blake, a Moody’s managing director who heads its public pension task force, said the firm is “rationally applying” its ratings models. “Our job is to make judgments on credit risk as we see it,” said Mr. Blake, noting some issuers with improved pension situations have been upgraded.
Other cities and counties from California to Florida are reconsidering their relationship with Moody’s as it expands its stricter ratings approach around the U.S., threatening a seal of approval that for decades was all but a necessity in the municipal-bond world..
Moody’s metamorphosis began after the 2008 crisis as ratings firms drew criticism in Congress and from regulators for their rosy grades on mortgage bonds that went sour. For local governments, the key change came in 2013 when Moody’s decided it would no longer rely on cities’ and states’ targets for investment returns when it calculates pension liabilities—one of the biggest costs shouldered by local governments. Moody’s own estimates are more conservative, meaning holes in pension funds look bigger.
As Moody’s adopted the stricter ratings methodology, it diverged from rivals Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and Fitch Ratings in its assessment of problems facing local governments across the U.S. From 2002 to 2007, Moody’s and S&P upgraded issuers at about the same rate. But from 2008 to 2014, S&P had seven upgrades for every one of Moody’s, according to a recent Nuveen Asset Management LLC report.
Santa Clara County, Calif., omitted Moody’s from its past two deals because of the firm’s disagreement over how some property-tax revenues were to be distributed. “We became convinced that Moody’s was not being responsible and so therefore we moved away from them,” said Jeff Smith, who oversees the operations of the county, which includes San Jose. “We don’t think it has had, or will have, any effect on our ability to sell bonds.”
The latest government to back away from Moody’s is Miami-Dade County, which last week decided to hire Kroll Bond Rating Agency Inc. instead of Moody’s for its $534 million sale of airport bonds. Kroll’s rating is two notches higher than Moody’s.
“We wanted a fresh set of eyes,” said Anne Lee, chief financial officer of the Miami-Dade aviation department, of the decision to not hire Moody’s, which she adds charges “30% to 40%” more than other rivals.
Yes, a “fresh set of eyes,” and preferably a set that will not take a realistic look at pension fund return assumptions.
Perhaps the most unnerving thing about the above is that state and local governments across the country are already facing huge pension funding gaps using their own unrealistically high return assumptions.
If they were to adopt Moody’s standards, they would likely find that the holes are orders of magnitude larger and rather than face reality, officials have apparently opted to go with the Wall Street approach to dealing with people who try to spoil the fun: namely, when someone blows the whistle, you simply fire them.
Pray for the pensioners.
- Debt: War And Empire By Other Means
This video below may help one to understand some of the seemingly obtuse demands from the Troika with regard to Greece.
The video is a bit dated, but the debt scheme it describes remains largely unchanged. The primary development has been the creation of an experiment called the European Union and the character of the targets. One might also look to the wars of 'preventative intervention' and 'colour revolutions' that raise up puppet regimes for examples of more contemporary economic spoliation.
From largely small and Third World countries, the candidates for debt peonage have become the smaller amongst the developed Western countries, the most vulnerable on the periphery.
And even the domestic populations of the monetary powers, the US, Germany, and the UK, are now feeling the sting of financialisation, debt imposition through crises, and austerity. What used to only take place in South America and Africa has now taken place in Jefferson County Alabama. Corrupt officials burden taxpayers with unsustainable amounts of debt for unproductive, grossly overpriced projects.It would be wrong in these instances to blame the whole country, the whole government, or all corporations, except perhaps for sleepwalking, and sometimes willfully, towards the abyss. For the most part a relatively small band of scheming and devious fellows abuse and corrupt every form of government and organization and law in order to achieve their private ambitions, often using various forms of intimidation and reward. It is an old, old story.
And then there is the mass looting enable by the most recent financial crisis and Bank bailouts. If the people will not take on the chains of debt willingly, you impose them indirectly, while giving the funds to your cronies who will use them against the very people who are bearing the burdens, while lecturing them on moral values and thrift. It is an exceptionally diabolical con game.
The TPP and TTIP are integral initiatives in this effort of extending financial obligations, debt, and control. You might ask yourself why the House Republicans, who have fought the current President at every turn, blocking nominees and even stages many mock votes to repeatedly denounce a healthcare plan that originated in their own think tank and first implemented by their own presidential candidate, are suddenly championing that President's highest profile legislation, and against the opposition of his own party?
The next step, after Greece is subdued, will be to extend that model to other, larger countries. And to redouble the austerity at home under cover of the next financial crisis by eliminating cash as a safe haven, and to begin the steady stream of digital 'bailing-in.'This is why these corporatists and statists hate gold and silver, by the way. And why it is at the focal point of a currency war. It provides a counterweight to their monetary power. It speaks unpleasant truths. It is a safe haven and alternative, along with other attempts to supplant the IMF and the World Bank, for the rest of the world.
So when you say, the Philippines deserved it, Iceland deserved it, Ireland deserved it, Africa deserves it, Jefferson County deserved it, Detroit deserved it, and now Greece deserves it, just keep in mind that some day soon they will be saying that you deserve it, because you stood by and did nothing. Because when they are done with all the others, for whom do you think they come next? If you wish to see injustice stopped, if you wish to live up to the pledge of 'never again,' then you must stand for your fellows who are vulnerable.
The economic hitmen have honed their skills among the poor and relatively defenseless, and have been coming closer to home in search of new hunting grounds and fatter spoils. There is nothing 'new' or 'modern' about this.You may also find some information about the contemporary applications of these methods in The IMF's 'Tough Choices' On Greece by Jamie Galbraith.
The International Monetary Fund’s chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, recently asked a simple and important question: “How much of an adjustment has to be made by Greece, how much has to be made by its official creditors?” But that raises two more questions: How much of an adjustment has Greece already made? And have its creditors given anything at all?
In May 2010, the Greek government agreed to a fiscal adjustment equal to 16% of GDP from 2010 to 2013. As a result, Greece moved from a primary budget deficit (which excludes interest payments on debt) of more than 10% of GDP to a primary balance last year – by far the largest such reversal in post-crisis Europe.
The IMF initially projected that Greece’s real (inflation-adjusted) GDP would contract by around 5% over the 2010-2011 period, stabilize in 2012, and grow thereafter. In fact, real GDP fell 25%, and did not recover. And, because nominal GDP fell in 2014 and continues to fall, the debt/GDP ratio, which was supposed to stabilize three years ago, continues to rise.
Blanchard notes that in 2012, Greece agreed “to generate enough of a primary surplus to limit its indebtedness” and to implement “a number of reforms which should lead to higher growth.” Those so-called reforms included sharply lower public spending, minimum-wage reductions, fire-sale privatizations, an end to collective bargaining, and deep pension cuts. Greece followed through, but the depression continued.
The IMF and Greece’s other creditors have assumed that massive fiscal contraction has only a temporary effect on economic activity, employment, and taxes, and that slashing wages, pensions, and public jobs has a magical effect on growth. This has proved false. Indeed, Greece’s post-2010 adjustment led to economic disaster – and the IMF’s worst predictive failure ever.
Blanchard should know better than to persist with this fiasco. Once the link between “reform” and growth is broken – as it has been in Greece – his argument collapses. With no path to growth, the creditors’ demand for an eventual 3.5%-of-GDP primary surplus is actually a call for more contraction, beginning with another deep slump this year.
But, rather than recognizing this reality and adjusting accordingly, Blanchard doubles down on pensions. He writes:
“Why insist on pensions? Pensions and wages account for about 75% of primary spending; the other 25% have already been cut to the bone. Pension expenditures account for over 16% of GDP, and transfers from the budget to the pension system are close to 10% of GDP. We believe a reduction of pension expenditures of 1% of GDP (out of 16%) is needed, and that it can be done while protecting the poorest pensioners.”
Note first the damning admission: apart from pensions and wages, spending has already been “cut to the bone.” And remember: the effect of this approach on growth was negative. So, in defiance of overwhelming evidence, the IMF now wants to target the remaining sector, pensions, where massive cuts – more than 40% in many cases – have already been made. The new cuts being demanded would hit the poor very hard.
Pension payments now account for 16% of Greek GDP precisely because Greece’s economy is 25% smaller than it was in 2009. Without five years of disastrous austerity, Greek GDP might be 33% higher than it is now, and pensions would be 12% of GDP rather than 16%. The math is straightforward.
Blanchard calls on Greece’s government to offer “truly credible measures.” Shouldn’t the IMF do likewise? To get pensions down by one percentage point of GDP, nominal economic growth of just 4% per year for two years would suffice – with no further cuts. Why not have “credible measures” to achieve that goal?
This brings us to Greek debt. As everyone at the IMF knows, a debt overhang is a vast unfunded tax liability that says to investors: enter at your own risk. At any time, your investments, profits, and hard work may be taxed away to feed the dead hand of past lenders. The overhang is a blockade against growth. That is why every debt crisis, sooner or later, ends in restructuring or default.
Blanchard is a pioneer in the economics of public debt. He knows that Greece’s debt has not been sustainable at any point during the last five years, and that it is not sustainable now. On this point, Greece and the IMF agree.
In fact, Greece has a credible debt proposal. First, let the European Stabilization Mechanism (ESM) lend €27 billion ($30 billion), at long maturities, to retire the Greek bonds that the European Central Bank foolishly bought in 2010. Second, use the profits on those bonds to pay off the IMF. Third, include Greece in the ECB’s program of quantitative easing, which would let it return to the markets.
Greece would agree to fair conditions for the ESM loan. It does not ask for one cent of additional official funding for the Greek state. It is promising to live within its means forever, and rely on internal savings and external investment for growth – far short of what any large country, controlling its own currency, would do when facing a comparable disaster.
Blanchard insists that now is the time for “tough choices, and tough commitments to be made on both sides.” Indeed it is. But the Greeks have already made tough choices. Now it is the IMF’s turn, beginning with the decision to admit that the policies it has imposed for five long years created a disaster. For the other creditors, the toughest choice is to admit – as the IMF knows – that their Greek debts must be restructured. New loans for failed policies – the current joint creditor proposal – is, for them, no adjustment at all.
* * *
This is as old as Babylon, and evil as sin. It is the power of darkness of the world, and of spiritual wickedness in high places. The only difference is that it is not happening in the past or in a book, it is happening here and now.
"Economic powers continue to justify the current global system where priority tends to be given to speculation and the pursuit of financial gain. As a result, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of the deified market, which becomes the only rule."
Francis I, Laudato Si
"Plunderers of the world, when nothing remains on the lands to which they have laid waste by wanton thievery, they search out across the seas. The wealth of another region excites their greed; and if it is weak, their lust for power as well. Nothing from the rising to the setting of the sun is enough for them. Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich. Robbery, rape, and slaughter they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."
Tacitus, Agricola
- IMF Humiliates Greece, Repeats It Will Keep Funding Ukraine Even If It Defaults
One week ago, we were stunned to learn just how low the political organization that is the mostly US-taxpayer funded IMF has stooped when, a day after its negotiators demonstratively stormed out of the Greek negotiations with “creditors”, Hermes’ ambassador-at-large Christone Lagarde said that the IMF “could lend to Ukraine even if Ukraine determines it cannot service its debt.”
In other words, as Greece struggles to avoid a default to the IMF on debt which was incurred just so German banks can remain solvent and dump trillions in non-performing loans to US hedge funds and Greek exposure, and which would result in the collapse in the living standards of an entire nation (only for a few years before an Iceland-recovery takes place, one which Greece would already be enjoying had it defaulted in 2010 as we said it should), and as the “criminal” IMF does everything in its power to subjugate an entire nation, or else let it founder, the IMF told Soros’ BFFs over in Kiev, that no matter if they default to its private creditors (in fact please do since Russia is among them), the IMF would keep the debt spigot flowing.
Courtesy of the US taxpayer of course.
Fast forward one week when, with Greece one step closer to a full-blown financial collapse, the IMF comes out and tell Ukraine – which already passed a law allowing it to impose a debt moratorium at any moment – not to worry, that even in a default it will keep providing unlimited funds. From Reuters:
Ukraine’s efforts to strike a debt restructuring deal with its creditors will allow the International Monetary Fund to continue to support the country even if the talks are not successful, the head of the IMF said on Friday.
“I … welcome the government’s continued efforts to reach a collaborative agreement with all creditors,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a statement. “This is important since this means that the Fund will be able to continue to support Ukraine through its Lending-into-Arrears Policy even in the event that a negotiated agreement with creditors in line with the program cannot be reached in a timely manner.“
We will pass comment on this latest grand IMF hypocrisy and ask if Greece would rather be in Kiev’s place which at the behest of “Western” leaders, it sold, liquidated, and otherwise “lost” all of its gold. Or, like Ukraine, Athens is willing to part with its $4 billion in gold just to appease the Troika as it sells all of its 112.5 tons of official gold to unknown buyers. A transaction which would buy Greece about 3-6 months of can kicking and a few stray smiles from Chrstine Lagarde.
- Fearing Capital Controls, Tourists Request Hotel Safes In Greece
On Friday, Austrian finance minister Hans Schelling said he assumed Austrian tourists vacationing in Greece would still be able to withdraw money from ATMs on Monday, but if not, Schelling indicated he would need to “discuss with leaders what positions have to be taken.”
If that doesn’t inspire much confidence or perhaps makes you rethink any plans you might have had to join Yanis Varoufakis for a scenic Aegean sunset on the island of Aegina, you’re not alone. In fact, ATM operator Travelex has the following tip for anyone considering a trip to Greece: “Our advice is to exercise caution.”
In a sign of the times, Bloomberg reports that contentious negotiations between Greece and the troika combined with talk of looming capital controls have sparked renewed interest in a long-forgotten hotel perk. Here’s more:
Greek resort manager Kostas Dimitrokalis’s customers have started asking in recent weeks about an amenity often ignored in an age of online and credit card payments: reliable hotel safes to stash their money.
“Clients want to feel secure that if something happens, they’ll have funds,” Dimitrokalis, who heads the KD Hotels chain with six resorts on the island of Santorini, said in a telephone interview. “They’re coming with more cash.”
Helping travelers rest easy is something Dimitrokalis can handle. More troubling for him is what if they simply don’t come at all? While his hotels are full right now, Dimitrokalis says forward bookings are weak given the uncertainty surrounding the country’s financing.
That’s a sentiment echoed by Greece’s tourism industry as a whole. The Association of Greek
Tourism Enterprises, which said last month that a strong start to the year had been trailing off, declined this week to discuss the possible impact of the government’s showdown with creditors because “the situation is just too fluid”..
Tourism generates 17 percent of gross domestic product in Greece, meaning any slowdown would hit the economy hard. Before the latest flareup in the funding dispute, the country was heading toward a record year for visitors, with the number of tourists surging 46 percent in the first quarter to 1.73 million, according to the latest data from the Bank of Greece.
TUI AG, Europe’s largest tour operator, said it’s only had sporadic inquiries from travelers about the impact a Greek exit from the euro would have on their holiday, while Thomas Cook Group Plc said it still sees strong demand for travel to the country. Both companies said trips wouldn’t be affected because they are selling package tours to customers.
The advice from experts for travelers heading to the country is to keep abreast of the latest developments and bring along enough cash to last 3-4 days just in case, said David Swann, a spokesman for Travelex.
This speaks to why a dramatic VAT hike has been a non-starter for Greece in its negotiations with creditors — Athens fears it will kill the “one industry that’s doing well,” to quote the country’s tourism chief. In fact, the VAT issue is so sensitive that Yorgos Hatzimarkos, governor of vacation destinations such as Mykonos and Santorini, has threatened to hold a referendum on the issue. Now, the threat of a bank holiday and restricted access to deposits has given vacationers one more reason to avoid Greece.
In short, just about the last thing the country’s tourism industry needs is capital controls. If the ATMs go dark next week, the flow of vactioners will likely dry up quickly, safes or no safes.
- Rand Paul: "Americans See The Rot In The System…And Want It To End!"
Authored by Rand Paul, originally posted at The Wall Street Journal,
Some of my fellow Republican candidates for the presidency have proposed plans to fix the tax system. These proposals are a step in the right direction, but the tax code has grown so corrupt, complicated, intrusive and antigrowth that I’ve concluded the system isn’t fixable.
So, I am announcing an over $2 trillion tax cut that would repeal the entire IRS tax code—more than 70,000 pages—and replace it with a low, broad-based tax of 14.5% on individuals and businesses. I would eliminate nearly every special-interest loophole. The plan also eliminates the payroll tax on workers and several federal taxes outright, including gift and estate taxes, telephone taxes, and all duties and tariffs. I call this “The Fair and Flat Tax.”
President Obama talks about “middle-class economics,” but his redistribution policies have led to rising income inequality and negative income gains for families. Here’s what I propose for the middle class: The Fair and Flat Tax eliminates payroll taxes, which are seized by the IRS from a worker’s paychecks before a family ever sees the money. This will boost the incentive for employers to hire more workers, and raise after-tax income by at least 15% over 10 years.
Here’s why we have to start over with the tax code. From 2001 until 2010, there were at least 4,430 changes to tax laws—an average of one “fix” a day—always promising more fairness, more simplicity or more growth stimulants. And every year the Internal Revenue Code grows absurdly more incomprehensible, as if it were designed as a jobs program for accountants, IRS agents and tax attorneys.
Polls show that “fairness” is a top goal for Americans in our tax system. I envision a traditionally All-American solution: Everyone plays by the same rules. This means no one of privilege, wealth or with an arsenal of lobbyists can game the system to pay a lower rate than working Americans.
Most important, a smart tax system must turbocharge the economy and pull America out of the slow-growth rut of the past decade. We are already at least $2 trillion behind where we should be with a normal recovery; the growth gap widens every month. Even Mr. Obama’s economic advisers tell him that the U.S. corporate tax code, which has the highest rates in the world (35%), is an economic drag. When an iconic American company like Burger King wants to renounce its citizenship for Canada because that country’s tax rates are so much lower, there’s a fundamental problem.
Another increasingly obvious danger of our current tax code is the empowerment of a rogue agency, the IRS, to examine the most private financial and lifestyle information of every American citizen. We now know that the IRS, through political hacks like former IRS official Lois Lerner, routinely abused its auditing power to build an enemies list and harass anyone who might be adversarial to President Obama’s policies. A convoluted tax code enables these corrupt tactics.
My tax plan would blow up the tax code and start over. In consultation with some of the top tax experts in the country, including the Heritage Foundation’s Stephen Moore, former presidential candidate Steve Forbes and Reagan economist Arthur Laffer, I devised a 21st-century tax code that would establish a 14.5% flat-rate tax applied equally to all personal income, including wages, salaries, dividends, capital gains, rents and interest. All deductions except for a mortgage and charities would be eliminated. The first $50,000 of income for a family of four would not be taxed. For low-income working families, the plan would retain the earned-income tax credit.
I would also apply this uniform 14.5% business-activity tax on all companies—down from as high as nearly 40% for small businesses and 35% for corporations. This tax would be levied on revenues minus allowable expenses, such as the purchase of parts, computers and office equipment. All capital purchases would be immediately expensed, ending complicated depreciation schedules.
The immediate question everyone asks is: Won’t this 14.5% tax plan blow a massive hole in the budget deficit? As a senator, I have proposed balanced budgets and I pledge to balance the budget as president.
Here’s why this plan would balance the budget: We asked the experts at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation to estimate what this plan would mean for jobs, and whether we are raising enough money to fund the government. The analysis is positive news: The plan is an economic steroid injection. Because the Fair and Flat Tax rewards work, saving, investment and small business creation, the Tax Foundation estimates that in 10 years it will increase gross domestic product by about 10%, and create at least 1.4 million new jobs.
And because the best way to balance the budget and pay down government debt is to put Americans back to work, my plan would actually reduce the national debt by trillions of dollars over time when combined with my package of spending cuts.
The left will argue that the plan is a tax cut for the wealthy. But most of the loopholes in the tax code were designed by the rich and politically connected. Though the rich will pay a lower rate along with everyone else, they won’t have special provisions to avoid paying lower than 14.5%.
The challenge to this plan will be to overcome special-interest groups in Washington who will muster all of their political muscle to save corporate welfare. That’s what happened to my friend Steve Forbes when he ran for president in 1996 on the idea of the flat tax. Though the flat tax was surprisingly popular with voters for its simplicity and its capacity to boost the economy, crony capitalists and lobbyists exploded his noble crusade.
Today, the American people see the rot in the system that is degrading our economy day after day and want it to end. That is exactly what the Fair and Flat Tax will do through a plan that’s the boldest restoration of fairness to American taxpayers in over a century.
- Disgraced, Demoted Pathological Liar To Collect $10 Million At MSNBC
Brian Williams – the disgraced lying ex-anchor of NBC Nightly News – has been demoted drastically to breaking news on MSNBC. He also took a significant pay cut. But do not feel too bad for the pathological narcissist. As TheWrap reports, the newsman will still earn a stunning $8-10 million. In today’s consequence-less world, it appears it now pays to lie, but do not be disturbed as Williams has allegedly commented that he “identifies as an honest news anchor.”
Brian Williams will still make close to $10 million per year despite his demotion to a breaking news role at MSNBC, which has at best just 10 percent the audience of the “NBC Nightly News” broadcast, an individual with knowledge of his compensation told TheWrap.
The insider said that Williams would be making “between $8 and $10 million,” adding that the figure represented what the former anchor considered a big cut in pay.
The disgraced news anchor was making closer to $15 million at the network, not the $10 million that has been previously reported, the insider said.
An NBC News spokesman declined to comment, saying that the network won’t discuss personnel contracts.
But multiple individuals told TheWrap that Williams’ salary cut was not as significant as might be expected, given how much smaller the MSNBC audience is than that of the network he was leaving.
In early June, the half-hour “NBC Nightly News” averaged 7,868,000 viewers per night and 1,928,000 in the 25-54 demographic, according to Nielsen figures. By contrast, on Tuesday, June 16, MSNBC’s highest-rated show was “The Rachel Maddow Show,” an hour-long broadcast with 742,000 viewers and just 166,999 in the 25-54 demo.
* * *
To summarize – a man who profers to deliver unbiased personal reporting but instead lied through his teeth to enrich his own ego has been demoted to an audience 90% lower but still gets paid $10 million!!!!
Welcome to the new normal America.
- The "Obvious" Question
- Carl Icahn: Donald Trump Is Completely Correct That "We Are In A Bubble Like You've Never Seen Before"
Yesterday during an interview on MSNBC, presidential candidate Donald Trump said he has some big names in mind for the Treasury secretary if he wins the White House. “I’d like guys like Jack Welch. I like guys like Henry Kravis. I’d love to bring my friend Carl Icahn.” He also opined on the economy and the stock market, admitting that the Fed has benefited people like him but that the economy and is in a “big fat economic and financial bubble like you’ve never seen before.“
Moments ago Carl Icahn decided to use his Shareholders’ Square Table as the venue in which to respond to his quasi-nomination for Treasury Secretary (he politely declines), and also to opine on Trump’s warning that the market is “one big fat bubble” (he agrees).
I was extremely surprised to learn that Donald was running for President and even more surprised that he stated he would make me Secretary of Treasury. I am flattered but do not get up early enough in the morning to accept this opportunity.
There are others much more knowledgeable than I concerning Presidential elections. I will therefore decline to opine on his chances. But I am knowledgeable concerning markets and believe Donald is completely correct to be concerned that we have “a big fat bubble coming up. We have artificially induced low interest rates.”
I personally believe we are sailing in dangerous unchartered waters. I can only hope we get to shore safely. Never in the history of the Federal Reserve have interest rates been artificially held down for so long at the extremely low rates existing today. I applaud Donald for speaking out on this issue – more people should.
Some of us do. And what about AAPL? Is that still a double (pending some $500 billion in stock buybacks)?
And now, time to insert the obligatory reminder about music playing and people dancing.
- This Is The Most Profitable "Strategy" Of The World's Biggest Hedge Fund In The Past Decade
There is a reason why Bridgewater is the world’s biggest hedge fund with $171 billion in assets: it generally, and consistently, tends to generate more alpha than its competitors. Granted, there was the whole “beautiful deleveraging” phase (just ask Greece how that worked out), and the fact is that risk parity is just a ticking time bomb waiting for the worst possible time to explode (usually just when central banks lose control of historical correlations) but on the whole Ray Dalio has proven his investing talent since inception.
So for those wondering which “strategy” has been the biggest contributor to Bridgewater’s flagship $82 billion Pure Alpha funds over the past decade, the answer is shown in table below. It is not stocks.
- Inciting Bank Runs As A Negotiating Tactic
Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,
The troika of Greek creditors has gone into full-frontal morals-be-damned attack mode, handpicking arms from a weapons arsenal we haven’t seen used before, and that we never should have seen in an environment that insists – and prides – on presenting itself as a union, both in name and in spirit. Now that they are being used, there no longer is such a union other than in name, in empty words.
This has turned into the kind of economic warfare one would expect to see between sworn and lethal enemies, that the US would gladly use against Russia for instance, but not between partners in a union founded on principles based entirely and exclusively on being mutually beneficial to everyone involved.
Those principles, and everything that has been based on them, the common currency, the surrender of ever more sovereignty on the part of the nations involved, the relinquishing of national powers to the various supra-national bodies in Brussels, has for everyone involved been based on trust. Nobody would ever have signed up to any of it without that trust. But just look where we are now.
When spokespeople at the troika side of the table stated on Thursday that they don’t know if Greek banks will be open on Monday, they crossed a line that should never even have been contemplated. This is so far beyond the pale, it should by all accounts, if everyone involved manages to keep a somewhat clear head, blow up the union once and for all. If a party to a negotiation that can’t get its way stoops to these kinds of tactics, there is very little room left for talk.
And all EU nations should understand by now that this is not about Greece anymore, it’s about all of them. Any member nations that does not fall into -goose- step with Brussels must from here on in be prepared to deal with attempts to crush it economically and politically.
Whatever trust there once was is now gone. And trust, once blown, is painfully difficult to regain. The negotiations on the Greek debt crisis have become just another dirty business deal, and have nothing to do anymore with conversations between equal partners in a union. Even though that is still what they’re supposed to be. Officially.
Translation: there are no equal partners in Europe. There only ever were in name. When people thought they signed up for a tide to lift all boats. The Greek crisis has destroyed that lift-all-boats notion once and for all. All that’s left of the union is power politics, of those (s)elected to represent all member nations, working to crush one of them with all weapons at their disposal.
One of those weapons is utilizing the media to incite a bank-run in Greece, aimed at paralyzing the Greek government into full submission. The run-up to the bank-run has been building up steam ever since Syriza took over 5 months ago, but apparently not fast enough for the troika.
The threat has always been simmering below the surface; what changed is that the moral constraint which kept the creditors from speaking out loud in public about it, was dropped yesterday. And that changes everything.
The European Union cannot deliberately aim at a bank-run in an individual eurozone member nation without quashing the very trust that holds the union together. The only remaining question after this is: who’s next in line?
This is from the Guardian:
Greece Faces Banking Crisis After Eurozone Meeting Breaks Down
Greece is facing a full-blown banking crisis after a meeting of eurozone finance ministers broke down in acrimony and recrimination on Thursday evening, bringing the prospect of Greek exit from the eurozone a step nearer. Some €2bn of deposits have been withdrawn from Greek banks so far this week – including a record €1bn yesterday – triggering fears that a breakdown in talks would spark a further flight of funds.
[..] leaders of the eurozone and the IMF aimed bitter criticism at the leftwing Greek government, accusing it of lying to its own people, misrepresenting and misleading other EU leaders, refusing to negotiate seriously, and taking Greece to the brink of catastrophe.
‘Not negotiating seriously’ translates as ‘not doing what we tell you to do’. It’s absurd to claim that Syriza, which has tabled an entire range of proposals, one even more detailed than the other, does not attempt to negotiate seriously. It’s a claim the Greek side can make just as well. The underlying tendency is that the troika does not see the talks as taking place between equal partners. And that is lethal for the whole idea behind the European Union. It’s its instant death even if people will be slow to realize it.
Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, said there was an urgent need for dialogue “with adults in the room”. She added: “We can only arrive at a resolution if there is a dialogue. Right now we’re short of a dialogue.”
This is something only a juvenile mind would come up with. Lagarde is obviously not worried about her reputation, she feels -nigh- omnipotent, but she really should be. She’s causing enormous damage to the IMF, and its future standing in the world. There are many IMF member nations who now know they can and must expect to be treated in the same way should there ever be a conflict involving their nation and the Fund.
Lagarde has taken a tough line on debt talks with Athens over the past four months, since the radical leftist Syriza government took control and insisted creditors drop proposals for further austerity as the price of releasing the last tranche of bailout funds. At the talks in Luxembourg she reportedly introduced herself to Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis as “the criminal in chief”, in reference to Tsipras’s claim earlier this week that the IMF bore “criminal responsibility” for the situation in Greece.
Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner for economic affairs, who has been more sympathetic to the Greek case, said: “There’s not much time to avoid the worst.” He appealed to the Tsipras government to return to the negotiating table, making it plain that Athens has been treating its creditors and EU partners with contempt.
Who’s been treating whom with contempt? Have the Syriza team ever been treated as equal partners in the conversation? This is perhaps best expressed by Bob Dylan’s “It’s a restless hungry feeling that don’t mean no-one no good; when everything I’m-a-sayin’, you can say it just as good”.
Dijsselbloem demanded that the Greek government act quickly to restore trust and stem the haemorrhaging of deposits. “It’s a sign of great concern for the future,” he said. “It can be dealt with, but it requires quick action.”
It’s Greece that caused the deposit flight? The only sense in which that could be true is that is has refused to bend over and let the troika have its way with its democratically elected government.
Top officials from the ECB told the meeting that Greece might need to impose capital controls within days. They said the banks would be open on Friday. “On Monday, I don’t know,” Benoit Coeure from the ECB board was said to have told the ministers.
There is no longer even any semblance of equality among partners either in the eurozone or at the negotiating table. It’s important to see this not just in the light of the current talks, but in that of future of the European Union as a whole, and in that of future talks about debts that EU member nations have incurred with any of the troika parties.
What the antagonism is about is really quite simple. Though the fact that the troika is split doesn’t make it any simpler. The IMF won’t budge on imposing additional austerity measures, but wants Europe to execute debt relief. Europe is more flexible on austerity but refuses debt relief.
Or, actually, it says debt relief can be discussed, but only after Greece has signed on for a list of demanded ‘reforms’. For the Greeks, that’s the wrong way around. Not in the least because the EU floated debt relief back in 2012 but has never delivered.
Politicians and media in countries like Germany and Holland have engaged in so much rhetoric about Greeks living lavishly off other nations’ taxpayers’ money that they fear for their political careers if they were to offer an overt restructuring and tell the truth about wat actually happened in the bailouts.
The IMF’s Olivier Blanchard this week held out some vague idea of even longer maturities and even lower interest rates as the definition of debt relied for Greece, but what is needed is a much more comprehensive restructuring. Along the lines of a 50% or so reduction of the debt.
The problem is that Germany, France and Holland used the money that Greece now supposedly owes, to bail out their own banks. And never presented it domestically this way. But that is not Greece’s fault, or its responsibility.
The second main issue, austerity measures, comes in the shape of ‘reforms’ to the Greek pension system. Which badly needs a revamp, and Syriza is the first to acknowledge that. What it doesn’t want, though, is for the system to be cut first, and changed only later. Because that would mean that many Greeks who are already in dire need would from one day to the next be made even poorer.
And since any comprehensive change to the pension system would be laborious and time consuming even under advantageous circumstances, and there is little faith that Europe wouldn’t stretch it out even further, cutting now and talking about it later is not acceptable for Varoufakis and his people.
To add to the vicious irony of the situation, as Paul De Grauwe noted, Greece is illiquid -it has no access to capital markets-, but it’s not insolvent.
Greece Is Solvent But Illiquid. What Should The ECB Do?
[Greece's] headline debt burden of 175% of GDP in 2015 vastly overstates the effective debt burden. The latter can be defined as the net present value of the expected future interest disbursements and debt repayments by the Greek government [..] Various estimates suggest that this effective debt burden of the Greek government is less than half of the headline debt burden of 175%.
[..] the effective debt burden of the Greek government is lower than the debt burden faced by not only the other periphery countries of the Eurozone but also by countries like Belgium and France. This leads to the conclusion that the Greek government debt is most probably sustainable provided Greece can start growing again[..]. Put differently, provided Greece can grow, its government is solvent. [..]
Today Greece has no access to the capital markets except if it is willing to pay prohibitive interest rates that would call into question its solvency. As a result, it cannot rollover its debt despite the fact that the debt is sustainable. There is something circular here. If Greece is unable to find the liquidity to roll over its debt it will be forced to default. [..] The expectation that the Greek government will be faced with a liquidity problem is self-fulfilling.
If the ECB would simply include Greece in its €60 billion a month QE bond-buying scheme, and buy Greek bonds as well as allow Athens to access international capital markets through one of Mario Draghi‘s whatever-it-takes statements, the crisis would be lifted in very substantial ways, in a heartbeat.
Instead, the troika part of the ‘negotiations’ does not involve trying to find such a solution, what they want is for Greece to give in, give up, bend over, and take it up the @$$
The powers that be are so full of hubris and of themselves that they ignore the fact that their actions today sow the seeds for the demise of all three of their constituencies, IMF, ECB and EU.
None of these institutions has any raison d’être or any claim to fame unless there is explicit trust in what they represent. That trust is now gone, and it’s hard to see how it can ever be recovered.
Whatever happens to Greece going forward, that is perhaps the biggest gain its dramatic crisis will gift to the rest of Europe, and indeed the world. Which therefore owe it a debt of gratitude, and of solidarity.
- "The Fed Has Wreaked Havoc" Ron Paul Warns Markets' "Day Of Reckoning" Looms
"I am utterly amazed at how the Federal Reserve can play havoc with the market," Ron Paul exclaimed on CNBC's "Futures Now" referring to Thursday's surge in stocks, warnings that he sees it as "being very unstable." As Paul rages, "the fallacy of economic planning" has created such a "horrendous bubble" in the bond market that it's only a matter of time before the bottom falls out. And when it does, it will lead to "stock market chaos."
While pinpointing a time for the inevitable endgame is impossible, Paul warns "after 35 years of a gigantic bull market in bonds, [the Fed] cannot reverse history and they cannot print money forever," and there "will be a day of reckoning" that will lead to a collapse in both the fixed income and equity markets.
- The Glorious Imbecility of War
Submitted by Bill Bonner via Bonner & Partners,
Napoleon Returns
Today, on the eve of the bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo, we do not celebrate war. Only a fool would celebrate something so horrible. But we pay our respects to the glorious imbecility of it.
War may be dreadful, little more than a racket in many ways, but it is also a magnificent undertaking. It engages the heart and the brain at once and exposes both the genius of our race and its incredible stupidity.
But we are talking about real war. Not phony wars against enemies who pose no real threat. Phony wars earn real profits for the war industry, but only an ersatz glory for the warriors. Real soldiers take no pride in them. Instead, to a real hero, they are a source of shame and embarrassment.
Wars are not conducted to “Free the Holy Land.” Or “Make the World Safe for Democracy.” Or “Rid the World of Tyrants.” Or “Fight Terrorism.” Those are only the cover stories used by the jingoists to get the public to surrender its treasure… and its sons. Wars are fought to release the fighting spirit – that ghost of many millennia – in the scrap for survival.
And so it was that, 200 years ago tomorrow, one of the greatest military geniuses of all time, Napoleon Bonaparte, faced the armies of the Seventh Coalition – principally, the British, under the Duke of Wellington, and the Prussians, under Gebhard von Blücher.
Napoleon Bonaparte, born in Ajaccio, Corsica, later emperor of France and famous (and usually victorious) general, and later still, pensioner on the island of St. Helena
Napoleon had been run out of France, but he had come back. The veterans of the Napoleonic Wars rallied to his cause, and he soon had an army of 73,000 seasoned soldiers. Moving fast, he put his forces in his favored “central position” between Wellington and Blücher.
On June 16, he attacked the Prussians at the Battle of Ligny and drove them back. Then he turned to Wellington, who had formed his army on a low ridge, south of the Belgian village of Waterloo.
Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, here seen trying to imitate Napoleon
Napoleon knew how to plan and execute a campaign. He was where he wanted to be, with two of his best commanders on either side of him, Marshal Grouchy on his right and Marshal Ney on his left.
But two things conspired against Napoleon. The Prussians had been beaten, but not destroyed. They quickly regrouped and then marched on Waterloo. And it rained. Soft ground always favors the defender. The attacker wears himself out in the mud. Wellington only had to hold his position. Napoleon had to break the British line before the Prussians arrived at his back…
Prince Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, who upset Napoleon’s plans at Waterloo by arriving a lot earlier than expected, shortly after having been defeated already at Ligny two days earlier.
“Wellington Is a Bad General”
And so, the stage was set, on June 18, for one of the most extravagant showdowns in military history. Napoleon was having breakfast on the morning of the battle when one of his generals suggested a reorganization that might strengthen the French position. Bonaparte replied:
“Just because you have all been beaten by Wellington, you think he’s a good general. I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad troops, and this affair is nothing more than eating breakfast.”
Wellington shared Napoleon’s opinion of his troops. He thought they were bad, too. They were a collection of soldiers drawn from many different units. They had not seen action in almost 20 years. Many were poorly trained. Of his cavalry he wrote:
“I didn’t like to see four British opposed to four French. And as the numbers increased and order, of course, became more necessary, I was the more unwilling to risk our men without having a superiority in numbers.”
The battle began in the late morning. No one knows exactly when. Quickly, the “fog of war” descended on the battlefield, with no one sure what was going on. Crucially, Napoleon missed the rapid approach of the Prussians. He had expected them to need two days to get back in fighting order after their defeat at Ligny.
The Battle of Waterloo
An Englishman describes the scene once the battle was under way:
“I stood near them for about a minute to contemplate the scene: It was grand beyond description. Hougoumont [the escarpment where British and other allied forces faced off against the French] and its wood sent up a broad flame through the dark masses of smoke that overhung the field; beneath this cloud the French were indistinctly visible.
Here a waving mass of long red feathers could be seen; there, gleams as from a sheet of steel showed that the cuirassiers [armored French cavalry] were moving; 400 cannon were belching forth fire and death on every side; the roaring and shouting were indistinguishably commixed – together they gave me an idea of a laboring volcano.
Bodies of infantry and cavalry were pouring down on us, and it was time to leave contemplation, so I moved towards our columns, which were standing up in square.”
A map of the battle: Napoleon’s troops in blue, Wellington’s in red, and Blücher’s in gray, by Ipankonin – click to enlarge.
To win the battle, the French had to dislodge Wellington from his ridge at Hougoumont. Again and again, they attacked. And again and again, they failed. The Englishmen – along with a large number of Irishmen, Scots, and Germans – held their ground.
The Royal Scots Greys, the Gordon Highlanders, the Irish Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers – all fought better than Bonaparte or Wellington had expected. But the “bravest of the brave” was on the French side – Marshal Ney, whose statue we encountered on Sunday.
Good old Marechal Michel Ney, who was responsible for tactics on the battlefield. He had one horse after another shot out from under him. Not a quitter, that’s for sure.
A Hero’s Hero
When we saw the statue, we wondered: What sort of people are these who execute a man for treason and then honor his memory with a statue of him in their capital city?
Ney was a hero’s hero – a man whose military career was such a long shot… that so defied the odds… it was hard to believe he ever existed. He was everything our modern military lard-butts are not. He was the fighting spirit in the flesh.
The French launched as many as 12 separate attacks against Wellington’s lines. Ney, leading the charges personally, had five horses shot from under him.
A British infantryman remembers what it was like to see him coming:
“About 4 p.m., the enemy’s artillery in front of us ceased firing all of a sudden, and we saw large masses of cavalry advance: Not a man present who survived could have forgotten in after life the awful grandeur of that charge.
You discovered at a distance what appeared to be an overwhelming, long moving line, which, ever advancing, glittered like a stormy wave of the sea when it catches the sunlight.
On they came until they got near enough, whilst the very earth seemed to vibrate beneath the thundering tramp of the mounted host. One might suppose that nothing could have resisted the shock of this terrible moving mass.
They were the famous cuirassiers, almost all old soldiers, who had distinguished themselves on most of the battlefields of Europe.
In an almost incredibly short period they were within twenty yards of us, shouting “Vive l’Empereur!”
The word of command, “Prepare to receive cavalry,” had been given, every man in the front ranks knelt, and a wall bristling with steel, held together by steady hands, presented itself to the infuriated cuirassiers.”
Marshal Ney leading the charge of the French cavalry.
Marshal Ney’s cavalry overran the British cannons. But without infantry and artillery support, he could not break the cavalry-proof defensive squares Wellington’s infantrymen formed.
And then Blücher arrived … and Napoleon was beaten. His “central position became a trap.” The Prussians hammered the French against the British anvil. At the end of the battle, Ney led one of the last infantry charges, shouting to his men, “Come see how a marshal of France dies!”
Prince Blücher’s Prussian troops, in form of the remainder of the IV. corps led by Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bülow, attack Plancenoit, at the right flank of Napoleon’s troops.
Four days after the battle, Major W.E. Frye described what he saw:
“22 June – This morning I went to visit the field of battle, which is a little beyond the village of Waterloo, on the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean; but on arrival there the sight was too horrible to behold. I felt sick in the stomach and was obliged to return.
The multitude of carcasses, the heaps of wounded men with mangled limbs unable to move, and perishing from not having their wounds dressed or from hunger, as the Allies were, of course, obliged to take their surgeons and wagons with them, formed a spectacle I shall never forget. The wounded, both of the Allies and the French, remain in an equally deplorable state.”
More to come … on what happened to brave Marshall Ney.
This house served as Napoleon’s headquarters during the battle of Waterloo
Photo credit: Kelisi
The battle between 5:30 to 8:00 pm: Bülow’s attack on Plancenoit begins at 5:30 pm. Ney and his cavalry take La Haye Sainte around 6:00 pm and the Old Guard launches an attack on the British center at 7:00 pm. Map by Gregory Fremont-Barnes.
The storming of La Haye – Marshal Ney can be spotted to the right, sword pointing to the sky.
Painting by Richard Knötel
* * *
Addendum: Lord Uxbridge’s Leg
Lord Uxbridge led countless charges of British light cavalry, and similar to Marshal Ney, had numerous horses shot from out under him in the process. One of the last cannonballs fired in the battle shattered one of his legs (Uxbridge to Wellington: “By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg!” Wellington pauses, takes a look. “By God sir, so you have”). The leg, as well as its replacement, subsequently attained considerable, if somewhat morbid, fame.
Lord Uxbridge’s famous wooden leg. His real leg was hit by a cannonball during the battle and had to be amputated without antiseptic or anesthetics. Lord Uxbridge reportedly remarked during the procedure that “the knives appear somewhat blunt”.
Photo credit: Andreas von Einsiedel
Uxbridge’s real leg got its own burial place, while his wooden prosthetic leg is these days exhibited in a museum. The inscription on the tombstone of his leg reads:
“Here lies the Leg of the illustrious and valiant Earl Uxbridge, Lieutenant-General of His Britannic Majesty, Commander in Chief of the English, Belgian and Dutch cavalry, wounded on the 18 June 1815 at the memorable battle of Waterloo, who, by his heroism, assisted in the triumph of the cause of mankind, gloriously decided by the resounding victory of the said day.”
The leg’s burial site soon began to attract tourists from all over Europe, which proves that one definitely shouldn’t let a shattered leg go to waste.
George Canning was even moved to write a poem about Uxbridge’s leg:
“Here rests, and let no saucy knave
Presume to sneer and laugh,
To learn that mouldering in the grave
Is laid a British calf.
For he who writes these lines is sure
That those who read the whole
Will find such laugh were premature,
For here, too, lies a sole.
And here five little ones repose,
Twin-born with other five;
Unheeded by their brother toes,
Who now are all alive.
A leg and foot to speak more plain
Lie here, of one commanding;
Who, though his wits he might retain,
Lost half his understanding.
And when the guns, with thunder fraught,
Pour’d bullets thick as hail,
Could only in this way be taught
To give his foe leg-bail.
And now in England, just as gay –
As in the battle brave –
Goes to the rout, review, or play,
With one foot in the grave.
Fortune in vain here showed her spite,
For he will still be found,
Should England’s sons engage in fight,
Resolved to stand his ground.
But fortune’s pardon I must beg,
She meant not to disarm;
And when she lopped the hero’s leg
By no means sought his harm,
And but indulged a harmless whim,
Since he could walk with one,
She saw two legs were lost on him
Who never meant to run.
* * *
Image captions and addendum by Acting-Man.com's Pater Tenebrarum
- Bonds & Bullion Beat Stocks As Fed Frenzy Fades
Do not worry… "it's contained"
From The FOMC Statement, Gold is 1st, Bonds 2nd, and Stocks 3rd…
and on the week the same picture…
WEAK CLOSE…
Trannies remain the big squeeze post-FOMC winner but Dow is the laggard…
On the week, however, Trannies lagged and ended the week red (down 4 of the last 5 weeks) as Small Caps (dominated by Biotech 'no brainers') led the pop…
Biotechs were up over 5% this week – the best week since Oct 2014 (up 7.25% from the lows of the week)
VIX ended the week unch…
Treasury yields ripped lower today and on the week the entire curve is lower led by a 17bps collapsd in 5y (among the biggest this year)…
The USDollar roundtripped on the day as late-day buying pressure for Swissy pushed it lower (but ended down 1.2% for the 3rd week in a row
Copper and Crude monkey-hammered on the day leaving gold and silver higher on the week…
Remember it's OPEX (Quad Witching)
h/t@NorthmanTrader
* * *
While stocks leaked today, the real Grexit fears are evident in Swissy…
European VIX…
and Bitcoin… (biggest week since January)
With that in mind, we leave you with this thought for the weekend and Monday's bank opening in Greece…
Charts: Bloomberg
Bonus Chart: Moar Flash Crashery…
List of stocks that suddenly jumped at 15:50:00 pic.twitter.com/AAnorFj2tM
— Eric Scott Hunsader (@nanexllc) June 19, 2015
- Black People Are 12 Times More Likely To Die In America Than In Other Developed Countries
The tragic events that unfolded Wednesday evening at the historic Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina served as yet another reminder that race relations in America are rapidly deteriorating.
Although it might be fair to say that this week’s church massacre is a separate and distinct event that can be better understood as an act of domestic terrorism or as a hate crime than as another example of the marginalization of African Americans, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention it in the context of Baltimore, Ferguson, and the death of Eric Garner and Walter Scott.
Indeed, Wednesday’s shooting and the subsequent arrest of a white male suspect who appears to have sympathized with White Supremacist ideologies will likely lead to still more scrutiny on what certainly appears to be a widening racial divide in America.
In this context, we bring you the following graphic which shows that, among countries with relatively high Human Development Index scores (which measure social welfare and standard of living), the number of African Americans killed per 100,000 people in the US each year is around 12 times the average for all people in developed countries.
More from FiveThirtyEight:
Extending on an analysis by the academic Kieran Healy, I calculated the rate of U.S. homicide deaths by racial group, based on the CDC WONDER data.3 From 2010 through 2012, the annual rate of homicide deaths among non-Hispanic white Americans was 2.5 per 100,000 persons, meaning that about one in every 40,000 white Americans is a homicide victim each year. By comparison, the rate of homicide deaths among non-Hispanic black Americans is 19.4 per 100,000 persons, or about 1 in 5,000 people per year.
Black Americans are almost eight times as likely as white ones to be homicide victims, in other words.
So for white Americans, the homicide death rate is not so much of an outlier. It’s only modestly higher than in Finland, Belgium or Greece, for instance, and lower than in Chile or Latvia.
But there’s no other highly industrialized country with a homicide death rate similar to the one black Americans experience. Their homicide death rate, 19.4 per 100,000 persons, is about 12 times higher than the average rate among all people4 in other developed countries.
Instead, you’d have to look toward developing countries such as Mexico (22.0), Brazil (23.6), Nigeria (20.0), Rwanda (23.1) or Myanmar (15.2) to find a comparable rate.
- 5 Things To Ponder: Shades Or Umbrella
Submitted by Lance Roberts via STA Wealth Management,
Since the beginning of this year the markets have primarily treaded water. The primary support for the bulls has been continued acknowledgement by the Fed on an inability to remove accommodative policy by raising interest rates. (Which should make you question what happens the first time they do.) The bears have been feasting on weak economic data and deteriorating fundamentals.
As I discussed with one of my favorite reporters on Friday:
"While the rally this week was nice, it failed to break back above resistance which it needs to do to reestablish the bullish trend. Currently, the markets have held the long-term bullish trend line that has remained intact since December of 2012 with two successful tests over the past month. That is bullish for now and indicates buyers are still in the market. However, there is a BATTLE being waged between the bulls and the bears as prices have continued to deteriorate from early-year highs. That battle should be resolved soon, and for now the bears have the advantage."
Earlier this week, I posted an analysis of various charts to allow investors to answer the question of "bullish or bearish" for themselves.
I also suggested that:
"In a recent study of forecasting, it was determined that 'weathermen' were the most accurate forecasters three days into the future. The reason to watch weather forecasts is to gauge the possibility of needing an umbrella. However, it is interesting that financial media/analysts never forecasts rain even though 'showers'happen on a fairly consistent basis.
Investors, like weather forecasters, should pay close attention to the weather. The technical deterioration, like a storm front approaching, suggests that it is currently 'cloudy with a strong chance of rain.' As an investor, action should be taken to be prepared to REACT if it does rain. In other words, if we think it MIGHT rain we take an umbrella with us, it doesn't mean that we walk around with it open."
This weekend's reading list covers the predictions and forecasts for investors. Is the forecast for a future "so bright I gotta wear shades," or should we be grabbing an umbrella?
1) Don't Let Hypoxia Crash Your Retirement by Dennis Miller via MarketWatch
"The hot air created some turbulence so I headed toward 12,000 feet, higher than I had ever flown before. I was euphoric, I could see all the way across Lake Michigan. This was really cool!
All of a sudden a mental alarm bell went off, I am euphoric, a major warning sign. Every private pilot learns about hypoxia in ground school. Hypoxia is a pathological condition in which the body or a region of the body is deprived of an adequate oxygen supply.
Just a year ago, there were many articles, such this one from USA Today, telling investors the stock market had surpassed 1,000 days without so much as a 10% correction. A correction normally occurs every 18 months on average. A year later we continue to see the market soar even higher, 1,300 days and counting. Rarefied air? Check!"
Read Also: Don't Look Now, The Great Rotation Is Here by Alex Rosenberg via CNBC
Read Also: The Sad State Of The Financial Web by Jimmy Atkinson via Fund Reference
2) If The Economy Is Better, Why Aren't Stocks by IronMan via Political Calculations
"The single best measure of the relative state of the U.S. economy when it is experiencing some degree distress is perhaps the number of publicly-traded U.S. companies that announce they are cutting their dividends each month. Through 12 June 2015, that indicator suggests that the U.S. economy has taken a positive turn beginning in May 2015, which we can confirm because the cumulative number of dividend-cutting firms in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2015 is now coming in quite a bit lower than the pace that was established in the first quarter, which experienced negative GDP growth:"
Read Also: Varieties Of Valuation by Dr. Ed Yardeni via Dr. Ed's Blog
3) Who Gives A #*&$@%^?! by Wade Slome via Investing Caffeine
"Seemingly, on a daily basis, some economist, strategist, analyst, or talking head pundit on TV articulately explains how the financial markets can fall off the face of the earth. Unfortunately, there is a problem with this type of analysis, if your evaluation is solely based upon listening to media outlets. Bottom line is you can always find a reason to sell your investments if you listen to the so-called experts. I made this precise point a few years ago when I highlighted the near tripling in stock prices despite the barrage of bad news."
Read Also: Spectacular Extremes Telegraph An Ugly End by Dr. John Hussman via Hussman Funds
4) In Search Of A Stock Market Bubble by The Brooklyn Investos Blog
"Anyway, as usual, there is a lot of talk of the market being insanely overvalued, median P/E's at post war records and all the usual.
I look at the charts and some are scary, but I still don't get the sense of a bubble. I've seen the Japan bubble in 1989, the 2000 internet bubble and some others.
I see the Chinese bubble going on right now. But I still don't really get the sense that the U.S. stock market is in a bubble. Yes, there is a pocket of bubbliness, like in some parts of the tech sector (social networks, biotech etc.), but overall I just really don't see it."
Read Also: CAPE Fear Of Lower Returns by Ben Carlson via Wealth Of Common Sense
5) Why The Ghost Of 1937 Is Haunting The Fed & Market by Barbara Kollmeyer via MarketWatch
"In 1937, the Hindenburg exploded and swing cats were doing The Big Apple.
That year also marks the last time the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates from zero, and what followed wasn't pretty: a severe recession and a 49% collapse for the Dow industrials. Bank of America Merrill Lynch was among those chattering about 1937 parallels in a recent note, with a not-so-easy-on-the-eyes chart of that stock fallout way back when."
Read Also: BofA Begins 66-Day Countdown To Ghost Of '37 by Tyler Durden Via ZeroHedge
BONUS READS & STUFF
7 Years Of Zero Rates Have Created A New Twilight Zone by Lee Jackson via 24/7 Wall Street
The Market For "Lemons," A Lesson For Dividend Investors by Chris Brightman via Research Affiliates
One More Time, The Economy Is Not The Market by Joe Calhoun via Alhambra Investments
CHART OF THE DAY
"Psychology is the most important factor in the market, and one that is least understood" – David Dreman
Have a great weekend.
- Caption Contest: Merkel's Red Herring?
Michelle Bachmann had her corndog…
but Angela Merkel has something much fishier…
h/t @ewatterbjork
For those seeking analogies – Greece is the pickled herring…
Or perhaps this is a clearer picture…. as the weekend looms.
- The Truth About Greece… and What It Means For Larger Problem Countries
The situation in Greece has very little to do with politics or economics. Instead it is entirely focused on just one thing.
That issue is collateral.
What is collateral?
Collateral is an underlying asset that is pledged when a party enters into a financial arrangement. It is essentially a promise that should things go awry, you have some “thing” that is of value, which the other party can get access to in order to compensate them for their losses.
For large European banks, EU nation soveregin debt (such as Greece) is the collateral backstopping hundreds of trillions of Euros worth of derivative trades.
This story has been completely ignored in the media. But if you read between the lines, you will begin to understand what really happened during the Greek bailouts.
Remember:
1) Before the second Greek bailout, the ECB swapped out all of its Greek sovereign bonds for new bonds that would not take a haircut.
2) Some 80% of the bailout money went to EU banks that were Greek bondholders, not the Greek economy.
Regarding #1, going into the second Greek bailout, the ECB had been allowing European nations and banks to dump sovereign bonds onto its balance sheet in exchange for cash. This occurred via two schemes called LTRO 1 and LTRO 2 which happened in December 2011 and February 2012 respectively. Collectively, these moves resulted in EU financial entities and nations dumping over €1 trillion in sovereign bonds onto the ECB’s balance sheet.
Quite a bit of this was Greek debt as everyone in Europe knew that Greece was totally bankrupt.
So, when the ECB swapped out its Greek bonds for new bonds that would not take a haircut during the second Greek bailout, the ECB was making sure that the Greek bonds on its balance sheet remained untouchable and as a result could still stand as high grade collateral for the banks that had lent them to the ECB.
So the ECB effectively allowed those banks that had dumped Greek sovereign bonds onto its balance sheet to avoid taking a loss… and not have to put up new collateral on their trade portfolios.
Which brings us to the other issue surrounding the second Greek bailout: the fact that 80% of the money went to EU banks that were Greek bondholders instead of the Greek economy.
Here again, the issue was about giving money to the banks that were using Greek bonds as collateral, to insure that they had enough capital on hand.
Which brings us to the other issue surrounding the second Greek bailout: the fact that 80% of the money went to EU banks that were Greek bondholders instead of the Greek economy.
Here again, the issue was about giving money to the banks that were using Greek bonds as collateral, to insure that they had enough capital on hand.
Piecing this together, it’s clear that the Greek situation actually had nothing to do with helping Greece. Forget about Greece’s debt issues, or protests, or even the political decisions… the real story was that the bailouts were all about insuring that the EU banks that were using Greek bonds as collateral were kept whole by any means possible.
So here we are today and Greece I sback in the headlines. Once again the country is out of money and the ECB and IMF are trying to punish it without hurting the larger EU banks.
Why are they making such a big deal about Greece… a country whose GDP is just 2% of the EU?
Because whatever happens in Greece will be used as a template for much larger problems AKA Spain and Italy.
Spain and Italy, by comparison, have €1.78 trillion and €1.87 trillion in external debt respectively.
That is a heck of a lot of collateral that would be in BIG trouble in the event of a bond crash for either country.
And both countries have bond yields that are spiking…
Here’s Italy:
Smart investors should take note of this now. It is a MAJOR red flag to be watched closely.
If you've yet to take action to prepare for this, we offer a FREE investment report called the Financial Crisis "Round Two" Survival Guide that outlines simple, easy to follow strategies you can use to not only protect your portfolio from it, but actually produce profits.
We made 1,000 copies available for FREE the general public.
As we write this, there are less than 50 left.
To pick up yours, swing by….
http://www.phoenixcapitalmarketing.com/roundtwo.html
Best Regards
Phoenix Capital Research
- Girls, Gardening, Puppies, And Pigs: Life On China's Disputed Man-Made Islands
On April 17, we introduced readers to Fiery Cross Reef, one of China’s man-made islands in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. Since then, Beijing’s land reclamation efforts have sparked an international firestorm, complete with war games, threats, a confrontation between a US spy plane carrying a CNN crew and the PLA Navy, World War 3 chatter, and, of course, references to Nazi Germany.
Amid the rhetoric, China has maintained it has every right to protect its “legitimate” territorial claims by constructing thousands of acres of sovereign land and, if necessary, enforcing a no-fly zone above the new islands.
But while Beijing admits its Spratly sand castles will indeed be used for military purposes, it also says the primary goal of the entire dredging effort is to assist China in carrying out the country’s “various civilian demands and international obligations and responsibilities in the area such as maritime search and rescue, disaster prevention and mitigation, marine scientific research, meteorological observation, ecological environment conservation, navigation safety as well as fishery production service.”
Now, Beijing has embarked on what looks like a propaganda campaign to show that despite attempts by the US and its regional allies to cast aspersions, island life in the Spratlys is all about girls, gardening, puppies, and pigs.
Behold: life on Fiery Cross Reef:
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