US Bracing for Biblical Rains

BOULDER, Colo. — Widespread flooding that's already killed three Coloradans forced fresh evacuations of thousands of residents Friday, as additional rainfall threatened already swollen rivers and creeks along a 150-mile stretch of the state's Front Range.

About 15 miles north of Boulder, the Colorado National Guard began evacuating up to 2,500 residents of Lyons — isolated, without power and running water because of flooded roads Thursday — at daybreak, according to the Boulder County sheriff's office. In South Boulder County, 500 residents in Eldorado Springs were also under evacuation orders. County emergency personnel said the Guard was using high-clearance trucks to move Lyons residents to safe areas.

"There's no way out of town. There's no way into town. So, basically, now we're just on an island," said Jason Stillman, 37, who was forced with his fiancee to evacuate their home in Lyons after a nearby river began to overflow into the street.

The National Weather Service had a flood warning for Boulder County through early Friday morning. Flood warnings were also issued for the city of Loveland and Big Thompson Canyon, site of the July 1976 flood that killed 143 people. The Big Thompson River was reported over four feet above its flood stage.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said the state has lost "a great deal of infrastructure,'' although an exact assessment over flood damage could take weeks.

Hickenlooper urged residents near flood areas to remain "exceptionally careful" and stay away from swollen streams and rivers. "People try to walk through what looks like a harmless foot or two of water. You have to realize this is like liquid cement and you can be swept away."

In Boulder, officials issued emergency alerts to 8,000 residents along normally tranquil Boulder Creek, urging them to seek shelter elsewhere or move to higher ground. About 4,000 residents along Boulder Canyon faced mandatory evacuation. Officials fear mud and rocks accumulating in Boulder Canyon will clog and cause a sudden surge in water downstream.

Credit to USA Today

Disaster After 1,400-Ton Molasses Spill in Hawaii

Officials expect thousands of fish to die after a leak in Honolulu's molasses pipeline dumped more than 233,000 gallons of the sugary substance into the city's harbor on Monday. The spill has already killed hundreds of fish and other marine life in the harbor, and environmental experts predict it will soon spread to nearby reefs.

"This is the worst environmental damage to sea life that I have come across, and its fair to say this is a biggie, if not the biggest that we've had to confront in the state of Hawaii," Gary Gill, the deputy director for the Environmental Health Division of the Health Department, told Hawaii News Now.

The molasses seeped into the harbor as some 1,600 tons of the syrup was being transferred into cargo ships headed for California. The leak was quickly repaired, according to the ships' owners, Matson Navigation, but the damage had already been done.

"Everything down there is dead." said Roger White, a scuba diver hired by HNN to film the harbor's floor. "Small fish, crabs, mole crabs, eels. Every type of fish that you don't usually see, but now they're dead. Now they're just laying there. Every single thing is dead. We're talking in the hundreds, thousands. I didn't see one single living thing underwater."

The spill is expected to dissipate in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, authorities are warning residents to keep their distance. "While molasses is not harmful to the public directly, the substance is polluting the water, causing fish to die and could lead to an increase in predator species such as sharks, barracuda and eels," the Hawaii Department of Health said in a statement.

And Dr. David Field, an assistant professor of marine sciences at Hawaii Pacific University, told HNN the effects of the spill will likely cause damage for years to come.

"As water does leave this bay area and goes out into the neighboring ocean, we can expect the effects in the long term, in days, weeks, months and probably years, to spread out over some of the South Shore reefs," he said.
Credit to Gawker.com

They Denied That We Were In A Depression In 1933 And They Are Doing It Again In 2013

The more things change, the more things stay the same.  The Great Depression actually started in 1929, but as you will see below, as late as 1933 the Associated Press was still pumping out lots of news stories with optimistic economic headlines and many Americans still did not believe that we were actually in a depression.  

And of course we are experiencing a very similar thing today.  The United States is in the worst financial shape that it has ever been in, our economic infrastructure is being systematically gutted, and poverty isabsolutely exploding.  

Since the stock market crash of 2008, the Federal Reserve has been wildly printing money and the federal government has been running trillion dollar deficits in a desperate attempt to stabilize things, but in the process they have made our long-term economic problems far worse.  It would be hard to overstate how dire our situation is, and yet the mainstream media continues to assure us that everything is just fine and that happy days are here again.

As I have already noted, the mainstream media was doing the exact same thing back during the days of the Great Depression.  The following are actual Associated Press headlines from 1933...

"Decisive Break from Panic Shown in Business Figures"

"Markets Spurt To New Highs"

"New Farm Bill to End Depression"

And the following is a headline discovery from 1933 that was made by Linda Goin...

I was browsing through old newspapers the other day and discovered a page filled with news about the stock market and banks in the Daily Capital Newsfrom Jefferson City, Missouri. The date was March 15, 1933, well into the Great Depression, and the news was cautiously celebratory as a headline read, “Era of Fear is Declared at End Now.”

The Depression-era classic song entitled "Happy Days Are Here Again" was played at the Democratic National Convention in 1932 and it went on to be featured by the Democrats for many years after that.  The following is an excerpt from a Wikipedia article about that song...

Today, the song is probably best remembered as the campaign song for Franklin Delano Roosevelt'ssuccessful 1932 presidential campaign. According to TIME magazine, it gained prominence after a spontaneous decision by Roosevelt's advisers to play it at the 1932 Democratic National Convention, and went on to become the Democratic Party's "unofficial theme song for years to come".

There is only one huge problem.

The election of Roosevelt didn't end the depression.  Years of bitter economic suffering and dust bowl conditions were still ahead.  The Great Depression continued all the way up to the start of World War II, and the war years were certainly no picnic for average folks either.

But at least cheery headlines can make people feel better, right?

That is what some believe.

Others believe that giving people false hope is very cruel and that it sets up people for failure.

The following are some actual headlines that were found on mainstream news sites today...

CNBC: "Recession risk gone in all US states but 1: Moody's Analytics"

CNN: "Foreclosure crisis is drawing to a close"

NBC News: "Stocks close near highs; S&P logs 7-day rally"

Wow, those headlines sound great!

So are happy days here again?

Not quite.

In fact, things continue to get even worse in a whole host of ways.  Just consider the following statistics...

-According to a brand new Gallup poll that was just released, 20.0% of all Americans did not have enough money to buy food that they or their families needed at some point over the past year.  That is just under the record of 20.4% that was set back in November 2008.

-Gallup also found that the ability of American families to meet some of their other most basic needs is near an all-time low...

The Basic Access Index, which includes 13 questions about topics including Americans' ability to afford food, housing, and healthcare, was 81.4 in August, on par with the all-time low of 81.2 recorded in October 2011.

-More than 90 million working age Americans are considered to be "not in the labor force".

-The labor force participation rate is the lowest that it has been in 35 years.

-516,000 Americans "left the labor force" last month.  That was a brand new all-time record high.

-The number of private sector jobs dropped by 278,000 last month.

-77 percent of the jobs that have been "created" so far this year have been part-time jobs.

-Approximately one out of every four part-time workers in America is living below the poverty line.

-Right now, 40 percent of all U.S. workers are making less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968.

-The U.S. trade deficit with China has hit a brand new record high.

-The U.S. trade deficit with the EU has hit a brand new record high.

-The number of U.S. households on food stamps is at a brand new record high.

-One of the largest furniture manufacturers in America was just forced into bankruptcy...

The maker of furniture brands such as Thomasville, Broyhill, Lane and Drexel Heritage said Monday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

-Total mortgage activity has dropped to the lowest level that we have seen since October 2008.

Yes, those in the top 1 percent are doing very well for the moment thanks to the reckless money printing that the Federal Reserve has been doing.

But for most Americans, the last several years have been a continual struggle.  The following is a list that comes from one of my previous articles entitled "44 Facts About The Death Of The Middle Class That Every American Should Know"...

1. According to one recent survey, "four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives".

2. The growth rate of real disposable personal income is the lowest that it has been in decades.

3. Median household income (adjusted for inflation) has fallen by 7.8 percent since the year 2000.

4. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before.

5. The home ownership rate in the United States is the lowest that it has been in 18 years.

6. It is more expensive to rent a home in America than ever before.  In fact, median asking rent for vacant rental units just hit a brand new all-time record high.

7. According to one recent survey, 76 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

8. The U.S. economy actually lost 240,000 full-time jobs last month, and the number of full-time workers in the United States is now about 6 million below the old record that was set back in 2007.

9. The largest employer in the United States right now is Wal-Mart.  The second largest employer in the United States right now is a temp agency (Kelly Services).

10. One out of every ten jobs in the United States is now filled through a temp agency.

11. According to the Social Security Administration, 40 percent of all workers in the United States make less than $20,000 a year.

12. The ratio of wages and salaries to GDP is near an all-time record low.

13. The U.S. economy continues to trade good paying jobs for low paying jobs.  60 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were mid-wage jobs, but 58 percent of the jobs created since then have been low wage jobs.

14. Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

15. At this point, one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less.

16. According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 declined by 27 percent after you account for inflation.

17. In the year 2000, about 17 million Americans were employed in manufacturing.  Today, only about 12 million Americans are employed in manufacturing.

18. The United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001.

19. The average number of hours worked per employed person per year has fallen by about 100 since the year 2000.

20. Back in the year 2000, more than 64 percent of all working age Americans had a job.  Today, only 58.7 percent of all working age Americans have a job.

21. When you total up all working age Americans that do not have a job, it comes to more than 100 million.

22. The average duration of unemployment in the United States isnearly three times as long as it was back in the year 2000.

23. The percentage of Americans that are self-employed has steadily declined over the past decade and is now at an all-time low.

24. Right now there are 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing.  That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.

25. In 1989, the debt to income ratio of the average American family was about 58 percent.  Today it is up to 154 percent.

26. Total U.S. household debt grew from just 1.4 trillion dollars in 1980 to a whopping 13.7 trillion dollars in 2007.  This played a huge role in the financial crisis of 2008, and the problem still has not been solved.

27. The total amount of student loan debt in the United States recently surpassed the one trillion dollar mark.

28. Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago.

29. Back in the year 2000, the mortgage delinquency rate was about 2 percent.  Today, it is nearly 10 percent.

30. Consumer debt in the United States has risen by a whopping1700% since 1971, and 46% of all Americans carry a credit card balance from month to month.

31. In 1999, 64.1 percent of all Americans were covered by employment-based health insurance.  Today, only 55.1 percent are covered by employment-based health insurance.

32. One study discovered that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt, and according to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine medical bills are a major factor inmore than 60 percent of all personal bankruptcies in the United States.

33. Each year, the average American must work 107 days just to make enough money to pay local, state and federal taxes.

34. Today, approximately 46.2 million Americans are living in poverty.

35. The number of Americans living in poverty has increased by more than 15 million since the year 2000.

36. Families that have a head of household under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.

37. At this point, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents.

38. In the year 2000, there were only 17 million Americans on food stamps.  Today, there are more than 47 million Americans on food stamps.

39. Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps.  Today, about one out of every 6.5 Americans is on food stamps.

40. Right now, the number of Americans on food stamps exceeds the entire population of the nation of Spain.

41. According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of “Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.”

42. At this point, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.  This is the first time that has ever happened in our history.  That number has risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year.

43. According to U.S. Census data, 57 percent of all American children live in a home that is either considered to be "poor" or "low income".

44. In the year 2000, the ratio of social welfare benefits to salaries and wages was approximately 21 percent.  Today, the ratio of social welfare benefits to salaries and wages is approximately 35 percent.

But there is no way that we are actually in another economic depression, right?

If that was the case, the mainstream media certainly would have told us, right?

According to John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics, if the U.S. government actually used honest numbers, they would show that the U.S. economy has actually been contracting continually since 2005.

In other words, if the numbers were not being manipulated they would show that we have had negative GDP growth every single year since 2005.

I don't know about you, but that sure sounds like a depression to me.

What do you think?

Credit The Economic Collapse

Nigel Farage confronts Barroso on global warming hoax

Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ - Take the Gospel of John Challenge

Who do you say that Jesus is? Do your thoughts, upbringing, religious background, or personal beliefs about Jesus line up with God’s Christ of the HOLY SCRIPTURES? You might ask, “Well, does it make a difference? My friend, I say unto you, it surely does!

TAKE THE JESUS CHALLENGE

The Bible is the final AUTHORITY on who Jesus Christ is. It is God’s absolute instruction manual and blueprint for life. If you reject the authority of the Word of God, my friend, you are doomed. There is no hope for your lost, sinful condition. The Bible teaches that “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). All! You need to know the True Savior, not a make-believe one. It’s that serious. Don’t let your deceitful heart and pride ruin you and keep you from God’s redemption found in Jesus Christ.

Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ!

Jesus said, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify [speak] of me" (John 5:39).

The purpose of this Bible study is to bring a person through God’s simple plan of salvation using only the Gospel of John. When a Gospel of John is handed out to a person, it is a good idea to give the person this study along with it. The study was written in such a way (question/ answer format) that the person can see for themselves what the Bible really says about who Jesus Christ is, what He has done for us, and the necessity of putting our faith in Him.

For the person doing this study, please answer the following questions by looking up the Bible verses which are given, all of which can be found in the Gospel of John.

Link – Take the Jesus Challenge and the Gospel of St. John Bible study. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

DJP I.F.
Credit to The Ignorant Fishermen Blog

Syria and World War III, Congress Battles Budget and Debt Ceiling, Gold Sells Off Again

Arrow 3 trials successful

 

Seven months after testing of improved system for interception of ballistic missiles, program's announcement as operation may move ahead. Former program head says 'system demonstrated high reliability' Analysis of the Arrow 3 missile launch tests, which took place last February in the Israeli Air Force's Palmachim base in cooperation with American partners, revealed that the experiment was successful beyond all expectations, to an extent that may speed up the timetable for the declaration of the program as operational. Arrow 3 is the Israeli solution to intercepting long-range missiles that exit the atmosphere. The improved missile will be able to stand a future scenario of Iranian launch of a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead. Inbal Kreiss, who until recently headed the Arrow 3 program, said that "the goal is to reach a fully guaranteed interception, after the system demonstrated high reliability." Credit To Ynet News

Russia to expand Mediterranean fleet to 10 warships

Smetlivy

Nikolay Filchenkov

The Russian Navy intends to build its presence in the Mediterranean Sea - particularly in the area close to Syrian shores - to up to 10 battleships, announced Admiral of the Fleet Viktor Chirkov.

“The task is crystal clear: to avoid a slightest threat to the security of the state. This is a general practice of all fleets around the world, to be there when a tension level increases. They are all going to act on operational command plan of the offshore maritime zone,” Chirkov told journalists on Friday. "Russia will be building up its Mediterranean fleet until it is deemed sufficient to perform the task set."

Russia began military build-up in the Mediterranean in 2012, and starting from December last year the Navy established a constant presence in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.

On May 1, 2013 all Russian battleships operating in the area were assigned to a single task force under special offshore maritime zone operation command.

Currently there are seven warships deployed in the area: landing craft carriers 'Aleksandr Shabalin’, ‘Admiral Nevelskoy’, ‘Peresvet’, ‘Novocherkassk’ and ‘Minsk’ from Russia’s Black and Baltic Sea Fleets, as well as the escort vessel ‘Neustrashimy’, and large anti-submarine ship ‘Admiral Panteleyev’.

Two battleships of the Russia’s Black Fleet, guided missile destroyer ‘Smetlivy’ and landing craft carrier ‘Nikolay Filchenkov’ left their bases in Sevastopol and Novorossiysk respectively and early on Friday morning have passed the Bosphorus Strait, heading to the eastern Mediterranean.

Credit: RT

Volcano prompts declaration of emergency in Peru

AFP - Peru declared a state of emergency Thursday in nine districts threatened by the Ubinas volcano, which has erupted seven times since September 1, spewing harmful gas and ash.

Authorities are distributing masks and have given themselves a 60-day period to relocate villagers from areas where ash is damaging crops and polluting water sources.

The explosions have sent a plume of smoke rising to 2,500 meters (2,734 yards) above the crater, according to volcanologists at the Geophysical Institute of Peru.

The first explosion on the night of September 1 was strong and followed by a series of lesser blasts, seismologist Victor Aguilar of the Geophysical Institute of the University of San Agustin de Arequipa told AFP.

The volcano, in the Moquegua department 1,250 kilometers (776 miles) south of Lima, is the most active in the country.

Peru's Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute said the eruption could have been caused by snow accumulating in the crater and preventing normal emissions.

Since 1550, 25 eruptions have been recorded at Ubinas. There are 40 volcanoes in Moquegua and the neighboring regions of Arequipa and Tacna, most of them dormant.

Credit France 24

Syrian launches offensive near Israeli border

Russian President Vladimir Putin, while engaged in active cooperation with President Barack Obama over Syria, was not averse to going over his head to push his agenda with “the American people” in an article he published in The New York Times Thursday, Sept. 12.

He continues to protest against all the evidence that the calamitous chemical attack of Aug. 21, east of Damascus, was perpetrated by Syrian rebels, not the Syrian army.

This is clearly an attempt to turn the American people and its lawmakers once and for all against US military intervention in Syria in any shape or form.

If Putin succeeds in getting his message across, it would be the second time in a decade that Moscow has worked its will on the American people. The first time, the Russians aimed at discrediting the Bush administration by convincing the world ahead of America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, although he was on record as having gassed 5,000 of his Kurdish citizens to death in 1988.
In his article, Putin went on to say sanctimoniously: “It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as one relying solely on brute force.”

The famously peace-loving Russian leader was lambasting an American president known for his extreme shyness of military action. Putin must be utterly confident that Obama is too far along their joint diplomatic path with Iran on Syria to back out now. He is evidently counting on a military attack being finally off the table and the Assad regime guaranteed safe.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the Western military armada built up opposite Syria in the past two weeks was breaking up as the US president’s resolve for military action faded under relentless pressure from Moscow.

The British and French ships headed through the Suez Canal for the Red Sea Wednesday, Sept. 11, and the American vessels pulled back from Syrian shores to waters between Crete and Cyprus.
Obama has therefore caved in on his original intention of keeping the war armada in place - as heat for Assad to comply with the Russian plan for the elimination of his chemical weapons.

Every reputable chemical and military expert has advised the US president that there is no way that Assad’s chemical arsenal can be located and destroyed without importing an army of monitors long term for the job, and this can’t be accomplished while a civil war is raging in the country. Even if it becomes feasible, it will take years.

Meanwhile, the Syrian army is not waiting for diplomacy to run its course and Thursday, resumed offensive operations in the south, targeting Deraa and advancing rapidly towards the Syrian-Jordanian-Israeli border intersection.
The rebels’ morale is in the pits out of a sense of betrayal by the Obama administration and their resistance to the Syrian army’s onslaught is half-hearted at best.

DEBKAfile

ETF Investors Unable To Get Physical Gold

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,340.25, EUR 1,008.54 and GBP 847.46 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 11,365.25, EUR 1,028.98 and GBP 865.73 per ounce.

Gold fell $.20 or .02% yesterday, closing at $1,364.60/oz. Silver rose $0.18 or .78%, closing at $23.14. At 0.11 GMT, Platinum climbed $1.89 or .1% to $1,469.49/oz, while palladium fell $3.04 or .4% to $688.47/oz.

Gold prices fell sharply again just prior to European markets opening, in aggressive selling which saw gold quickly fall from $1,355/oz to $1,343/oz at 0754 GMT. Support at $1,360/oz was breached overnight and gold should now test support at $1,320/oz.


Gold In US Dollars, 60 Days - (Bloomberg)

Gold prices are now at the lowest in almost three weeks after Obama asked Congress to delay a vote on U.S. military action against Syria and hope grew that a U.S. strike on Syria could be avoided diminishing demand for safe haven gold in the short term.

Obama said yesterday he would prefer a peaceful solution to the Syrian conflict and that he saw “encouraging signs” of diplomacy ending the confrontation. In a New York Times opinion piece, Russia’s Putin called on the U.S. to avoid the use of force and "return to the path of civilised diplomatic and political settlement."

Putin’s claim that the Syrian rebels, and not the Assad government, were behind a recent alleged chemical attack is likely to further badly damage relations between the U.S. and Russia and heighten geopolitical tensions in the coming months which will support gold.

Gold jumped 6.3% last month partly due to concerns that political tension in the Middle East could lead to surging oil prices, hurting fragile global economies and stoking inflation.

Continued speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will commit to reducing stimulus next week is also leading to weakness. However, the possible slight reduction in the massive $85 billion a month bond buying programme will only be short term negative for gold. Ultra loose monetary policies with interest rates close to zero are set to continue for the foreseeable future.

Respected investment managers, Grant Williams and John Hathaway, told King World News overnight that customers of the GLD ETF are being told that they cannot have their gold.

The GLD ETF or ‘SPDR Gold Shares’ is the largest gold ETF in the world.

Grant Williams, one of the most highly respected fund managers in Singapore and a perceptive analyst of the gold market said that custodians of the GLD ETF have refused to give people physical gold in exchange for the shares as investors are entitled too.


John Hathaway confirmed that “people have tried to get their gold out of that ETF and you just can’t get it.”

Williams warned that the massive and escalating paper claims on physical gold at COMEX warehouses will create an explosion in the price of gold. Paper claims on gold are now at 55 to 1 meaning that there are contracts worth 55 ounces for every one ounce of actual physical gold in the COMEX warehouses.

“We’ve seen the gold being drained out of the COMEX almost non-stop this year, certainly since the Bundesbank repatriation request. It hasn’t had any noticeable effect just yet, but it really is a spring that is continually being coiled, and at some point it is going to snap back. And when it does, with all of these disparate claims on each ounce of gold, there is going to be some fireworks, no doubt about it,” Williams said.

“There are a lot of people that aren’t going to get their gold” said Williams.

Since the creation of the gold ETFs we have continually warned in our market updates and in our gold guides about the unappreciated counterparty risk in these new financial instruments.

There has been significant skepticism regarding whether many gold and silver ETFs are backing their ETF holdings ounce for ounce. Much of that skepticism has abated, however there is a potentially equally important issue which should be considered.

Gold ETFs are riskier than most forms of allocated gold ownership. This is due to the very high level of indemnifications in the prospectus and in the terms and conditions of many ETFs.

There is also the important fact that you are an unsecured creditor of a large number of banks who are custodians and sub custodians of your bullion holdings.



In the event of one of these banks engaging in dodgy accounting, malpractice or becoming insolvent, one would be an unsecured creditor of one or all of the many custodians and sub custodians who are primarily banks.

In the event of a Lehman Brothers style systemic crisis, there is the risk that your bullion would be subject to a “bail-in” or could be nationalised by an insolvent sovereign nation.
Credit to Zero Hedge