Pope Francis: Use intelligence to understand signs of the times

During his daily Mass, Pope Francis spoke of the importance of man's intellect in understanding the Lord, and cautioned those present against “restricted” thought which keeps us focused on ourselves.

“What path does the Lord want? Always with the spirit of intelligence with which to understand the signs of the times. It is beautiful to ask the Lord for this grace,” the Pope said in his Nov. 29 daily homily.

Pope Francis directed his reflections to those present in the Saint Martha guesthouse of the Vatican, where he has chosen to reside.

He began by recalling of how in the Gospels, the Lord taught his disciples to pay attention to the signs of the times, which the Pharisees failed to understand, emphasizing how one must think not only with the head, but also with the heart and the spirit in order to fully comprehend “way of God in history.”

“In the Gospel, Jesus does not become angry, but pretends to when the disciples do not understand him,” the Pope explained, adding that at Emmaus Jesus says, “'How foolish and slow of heart.'”

“He who does not understand the things of God is such a person,” noted the pontiff, emphasizing how “The Lord wants us to understand what happens, what happens in my heart, what happens in my life, what happens in the world, in history.”

“What is the meaning of what is happening now? These are the signs of the times!”

“On the other hand,” he continued, “the spirit of the world gives us other propositions, because the spirit of the world does not want a community: it wants a mob, thoughtless, without freedom.”

Explaining that while the spirit of the world tries to lead us down a “restricted path,” the Apostle Paul warns that this spirit “treats us as thought we lack the ability to think for ourselves; it treats us like people who are not free.”

“Restricted thought, equal thought, weak thought, a thought so widespread. The spirit of the world does not want us to ask ourselves before God: ‘But why, why this other, why did this happen?’”

Or, the Pope observed, this worldly spirit “offers a prêt-à-porter ('ready to wear') way of thinking, according to personal taste: ‘I think as I like!’”

While there are many who say that this attitude is ok, the Pontiff noted, the spirit of the world does not want “what Jesus asks of us: free thought, the thought of a man and a women who are part of the people of God, and salvation is exactly this!”

Pope Francis then encouraged the Mass attendees to think of the prophets who proclaimed that “You were not my people, now I say my people,” stating that “so says the Lord.”

“And this is salvation: to make us people, God’s people, to have freedom.”

Reflecting on how Jesus asks us to “think freely…in order to understand what happens,” the Pope stressed that “we are not alone,” and that “we need the Lord’s help” in order to “understand the signs of the times.”

In order to do this, the Pope went on to say, the Holy Spirit “gives us this present, a gift: the intelligence to understand.”

Emphasizing how the Lord always wants us to walk along the path of intelligence, Pope Francis highlighted how “it is beautiful to ask the Lord for this grace, who sends us this spirit of intelligence, in order that we avoid weak thought, we do not have a restricted thought and we do not have a thought according to personal preference.”

We must only have “a thought according to God,” he stated, adding that “with this thought, which is a thought of the mind, of heart, and of soul; with this thought, which is the gift of the Spirit, (we) look for the meaning of things, and to understand the signs of the time well.”

Bringing his homily to an end, the Pope said that we must ask the Lord for the grace to have “the ability which gives us the spirit” to “understand the signs of the time.”




Credit to Chatolic News Agency

'Saudis, Israelis developing new ‘super Stuxnet’ against Iran nuclear program'

Saudi Arabia and Israel’s Mossad intelligence division are co-conspiring to produce a computer worm “more destructive” than the Stuxnet malware to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program, according to a report from the semi-official Iranian Fars news agency.

“Saudi spy chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency Tamir Bardo sent their representatives to a meeting in Vienna on November 24 to increase the two sides' cooperation in intelligence and sabotage operations against Iran’s nuclear program,” an anonymous source close to the Saudi secret services told Fars over the weekend.

The source noted that one of the major methods discussed was “the production of a malware worse than…Stuxnet.”

Stuxnet, a computer worm discovered in 2010, formed the basis of a cyberattack that sabotaged Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Its complexity prompted researchers to claim that it could only have been developed by a nation state.

It was generally believed to have been developed by the US and Israel, with former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden only confirming their covert roles in an interview this July.

The intention behind the development of the new malware would be “to spy on and destroy the software structure of Iran’s nuclear program.” The source expressed a desire to remain anonymous on account of the sensitivity of information being shared.

The plan would need a great deal of time and funding, with a rough figure of US $1 million being given as an estimate. It was apparently welcomed by Saudi Arabia with open arms.

Saudi spy chief Bandar met with Mossad’s Bardo in Jordan’s Aqaba port city, inciting some concern from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulazi, who had advised against Bandar engaging in direct consultations, instead deeming ‘clandestine’ discussions with Israel over strategic Middle Eastern issues more appropriate.

The Fars source mentioned that a recent agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) unsettled Saudi officials, with Bandar having previously denounced the interim deal as the “West’s treachery.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lambasted the agreement, which was reached on November 23, as “a historic mistake.”

On November 17, The Sunday Times reported that the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency and Saudi officials were working together to develop a contingency plan should Iran’s nuclear program not be adequately curtailed. Both governments reportedly expressed concern that negotiations could result in concessions being made to Iran.

Prince Bandar also participated in a meeting in Tel Aviv with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Francois Hollande to discuss US relations with Iran last week, according to local media.

Credit to RT

Georgia not ready to join European Union yet

What Will the Coming Civil Unrest Look Like?

According to a survey conducted by the Adelphi University Center for Health Innovation, 55 percent of Americans believe that the government will come to their rescue when the proverbial poop hits the fan because your big brother really cares. Literally, every alternative media outlet could show conclusive proof that an EMP was going to wipe out the power grid. We could conclusively prove that nuclear bombs were going off in 39 American cities in the most horrific false flag attack in world history and it would not make any difference to 55% of all Americans because of their cognitive dissonance.

In Part One of this series, I detailed how the present administration, through Executive Order 13603, is positioning itself to impose martial law and subsequently control all food and food production. Part One further pointed out that despots use the control of food, and subsequent starvation of millions, as a means to subjugate an unruly population.

The United States is staring at an economic collapse in the face with its $17 trillion dollar deficit, $238 trillion dollars of unfunded mandates (e.g. social security, Medicare, etc.) and a one quadrillion dollar derivatives debt in which the governments of the world are being forced to assume in the form of the “bailouts”. Even if Obama and his bankster puppet masters never had any intention of executing a false flag event in order to put this country into martial law in order to fully complete the coup d’état that is already underway, a crash is coming. The banks are going to collapse, the people will riot, there will be food shortages, whether they be planned or unplanned. I do, however, believe that food will undoubtedly be used to control the unruly masses, despite the DHS and their new found friends in the Chinese and Russian armies which are on our soil.

Are you prepared? At the bottom of this article, I will visually demonstrate to the reader with real time examples of human behavior in groups, how each of us is going to be in very grave danger when the collapse comes. But first, let’s analyze America’s present level of individual and collective preparedness.

How Prepared Is America?
Last year, the Adelphi University research center tells us that 53% of all Americans do not have a three day supply of nonperishable food and water in their homes. FEMA and DHS are not about serving the needs of the American people; These agencies are about preserving the status quo of the powers that be. But don’t try and tell that to 55% of the citizens of this country.

Most Likely Causes of a Societal Breakdown
As the TV show by the same name, there are literally a 1,000 ways to die. The following six events represent some of the most likely events which would mortally wound our society.

1. World War III

2. False flag attack as a result of a series of nuclear explosions

3. False flag attack as a result of a chemical and biological attack

4. EMP attack

5. Military coup resulting in civil war

6. Economic collapse

America’s Level of Preparedness
A brief summation of the Adelphi study reveals the following:
44 percent don’t have first-aid kits
48 percent lack emergency supplies
53 percent do not have a minimum three-day supply of nonperishable food and water at home
55 percent believe local authorities will come to their rescue if disaster strikes

This means that 56% of those with first-aid kits, 52% of those with emergency supplies, and 47% of those who have more than three days worth of water, will be victimized by those who have not properly planned. Please allow me to put this into a real number for you. Over 130 million teenagers and adults will be in the streets seeking to obtain life-sustaining resources in a very short time following the disaster event. This is a train wreck starting to happen.

Time Frame for Societal Breakdown
Those that would be fortunate enough to survive the initial event, or series of events, would face the following timetable of events.

In the first one to two days, all shelves would be emptied of food, water, guns and medical supplies. There will be no resupply as nothing will be shipped.

On the beginning of the third day, individuals will be in the streets scavenging for anything they can find that will keep themselves and their families alive. If there is a loss of power, many will die as a result of exposure to the elements.

By the fifth day, desperate people will organize into collectives (i.e. gangs) and will go house to house looking for stored supplies from the half that has somewhat prepared. Neighborhoods will begin to organize themselves into local vigilante groups for protection from local gangs who have become desperate. This is the day that many of the police walked off the job in New Orleans in order to protect their families. Groups of police could become the most dangerous groups in society.

In the days that follow, nobody can be trusted. There will be people who will dress up in official looking uniforms (e.g. military, national guard, police) in order to gain entry into a fortified home.

The game changing event will be a civil war. Not only will you have to deal with marauding hordes of resource deficient people, you could also be caught in the crossfire between two, or more warring armies.

Casualty Rates
1. World War III. The casualty estimates dating back to the 1960′s and 1970′s related to an all-out nuclear war was placed at 150 million Americans or at 80-85%.

2. False flag attack as a result of a series of nuclear explosions. The casualty rate is indeterminable and would depend of the number of cities involved and their relative populations and the size and placement of the nuclear device. Generally speaking, one nuclear device in a city the size of Phoenix would kill 20,000 to 100,000 people. Many more would die in the upcoming weeks due to the effects of radiation.

3. False flag attack as a result of a chemical and biological attack. The casualty rates are indeterminable.

4. EMP attack. The Naval War College tells us that within two years of a power grid take down, that 90% of us would be dead.

5. Military coup resulting in civil war. The casualty rates of war as well as civilians victimizing each other would be impossible to calculate. Conservative estimates would place the rate at 5% to 25%.

6. Economic collapse. It is impossible to exactly determine. I think a safe bet would place this event in the category of an EMP attack in which the effects would only be felt for a month. The government would be able to establish order following a brutal crackdown. However, in our weakened state, we would be inviting an invasion. A civil war could break out as well.
What Will the Riots Look Like?

NORTHCOM, DHS, FEMA and the Russians have all practiced on quelling domestic disturbances and conducting gun confiscation. Even the elite have gathered their own private armies in preparation for the same civil unrest.

Unfortunately, DHS is not releasing any videos which demonstrate the severity of the civilian uprising that they are practicing for. However, we do have some Black Friday drills which exemplify how crazy it will get in the first few hours of a societal breakdown.

The following video is from the 2012 version of Black Friday. It raises the question, that if people will act like animals with depraved indifference towards the welfare of their fellow human beings in the first few minutes of a Black Friday sale, what will they do when it comes to food, water and guns?



If you think that this phenomena is just confined to 2012, think again. The following two videos from yesterday’s 2013 version of Black Friday.




And if this is not enough for you, take a look at what was going on in Texas on Friday.


 

Conclusion
At minimum, there is an economic collapse in our near future with the massive debt which is unsustainable. The presence of the NDAA and EO 13603 speaks to the government’s plans to deal forcefully with any disturbances. The preparation by DHS is unmistakable with its acquisition of over two billion rounds of ammunition and 2700 armored personnel carriers. And when we see foreign troops (e.g. the Russians and the Chinese), we should all be gravely concerned.

To the 55% who are clueless, take out an insurance policy and begin to store food, water guns and ammunition. To everyone else, who has at least some idea of what is going on, begin to reach out to your neighbors because you will need the additional safety that numbers can bring.

Credit to The Common Sense Show

Expectations of Troublous Times

I have had some individuals write to me asking me what my expectations are for the end of this year, and for 2014. Some are mindful of an article I posted earlier in the year that discussed an advertisement in ESPN Magazine.



It is a bit premature to offer any conclusions of this year, or the fourth quarter in particular, as there is more than a month remaining. It is possible that we will experience some further shaking before this year is out, but I will share publicly, as I have with others in private, that my anticipation lies more with what will occur in 2014.

Last January I posted a blog titled 2013 - Year of Acceleration.

http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/2013-year-of-acceleration.html

In that post I shared my expectations for this current year. I foresaw it as a time when darkness would accelerate, and when events would occur in rapid fire order to set the stage for the establishment of a New World Order (Satan’s kingdom). This year has certainly fulfilled those expectations. We have observed in this year an immense focus on government spying programs. The mainstream media has even given this subject great attention, which leads me to conclude that the powers that be want the populace to become conditioned to the thought of government intrusion into all areas of their lives.

This topic has been discussed at great length, especially as it relates to the disclosures of Edward Snowden. With each new announcement of some further government spying program, the people become inured to such news. They are growing accustomed to the thought of the government breaching everyone’s privacy. The result is that mankind is becoming more accepting of the idea of a global caretaker government that reaches into the most private parts of every citizen’s life.

We have also seen an acceleration of the militarization of America’s police organizations. We observed one of America’s great cities, Boston, Massachusetts, locked down under martial law with all citizens commanded to remain in their homes. That the citizens passively accepted such an extreme suspension of their personal liberty, all because the authorities were searching for a single person, reveals how far American attitudes have changed in the last decade since the “war on terror” was first declared.

Another area of acceleration has been the expansion of the Executive Office of the President. Throughout Obama’s tenure he has relied upon Executive Orders to alter laws and set in place national policies that will have far reaching repercussions in coming days. He has used Executive Orders to empower agencies under his authority to wrest control of all facets of national life during a time of emergency. All travel can be suspended at the President’s command (it worked just fine in Boston.) All communications can be placed under the government’s control. All farming activity can be federalized, including taking possession of the private property, lands and farming equipment, that belong to private citizens.

In recent months we have observed the President making alterations to laws without consultation, deliberation, or vote of Congress. At his whim, the President has altered dates for compliance with various parts of the Affordable Care Act. This is a serious infringement of the powers of the Congress who alone are tasked with writing the nation’s laws. All of this is further conditioning the people to receive their direction from a single figure who acts with dictatorial powers.

This year has seen a great acceleration of moral depravity. Homosexuality is now not only accepted in the military, but expressing any judgment of homosexuality as immoral will result in acts of discipline, even discharge, from the military ranks. In the nation at large, the government has overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, removing anything that would hinder homosexuality from being normalized, even redefining marriage to include two members of the same sex. Such actions have been forced upon the people, despite the objection of the majority of voters. This too serves to demonstrate to the people that their government does not serve them, but they serve the government.

This year has seen 15 states make homosexual marriage legal. It has also seen California laws enacted that would permit school students to choose which sex bathrooms they will use, opening the door (literally) for young men to go into girl’s bathrooms. Such immoral policies are also being adopted in other states. When two young girls in a Colorado public school complained that a male transgender student was harassing them in the girl’s bathrooms, they were threatened by the school staff, being told that they could be banned from participating in school athletic teams and could even be charged with a hate crime.

Transgender advocates are now declaring that the story was fake, citing an article in the Transadvocate (a publication promoting transsexuality) that reports that the school officials have not been able to substantiate that actual harassment took place. The basic facts of the matter, however, are not disputed. The school does have a male student who is transsexual who has been using the girl’s bathrooms, and some of the girls have reported harassment. America is quickly becoming Sodom, and the government is intentionally corrupting the lives of the nation’s youth.

I could go on and on citing examples of the different ways in which great darkness is falling upon the nation. The economy is in no better shape. The number of unemployed is over 20% yet the government touts numbers that are far less. The nation is hemorrhaging jobs, and the obviousness of America’s dire state would be far more obvious if the government were not creating so many federal jobs, massively expanding the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. All of these government jobs add a further drag to the economy as salaries must all be paid from taxes, or from the trillions of dollars the government is borrowing from the international bankers who own the Federal Reserve.

The charade of a healthy economy is further bolstered by a record stock market, one that is very clearly manipulated by the government’s plunge protection team and the Federal Reserve. The nation is being subjected to increasing deception, as lies are now the norm, rather than the exception, in the pronouncements of the mainstream media and the government.




This year has most assuredly seen an acceleration of all forms of darkness. Lying and deceit are the principles upon which the government and media now subsist. The populace are becoming accustomed to feeding upon falsehood. Right has become wrong, and wrong has become right.

Isaiah 5:20
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Darkness is accelerating in order to prepare the way for the establishment of Satan’s kingdom. His kingdom is marked by lies and deception, for he is “the great deceiver who deceives the whole world,” and Christ declared Satan to be “the father of lies.” His kingdom is marked by stealing, violence, and murder, for he is the thief who comes only to “kill, steal, and destroy.” Is it any wonder that in a nation of growing darkness that youth are now roaming the streets of their respective cities and sucker punching strangers in what has become known as “the knockout game”? When joy is found in acts of random violence committed upon women, the elderly, the homeless, and others who are unable to defend themselves, a nation’s epitaph is not long to be written.

Why do I have an anticipation that the darkness that has been accelerating in this year will manifest in profound changes to this nation in the next? There are numerous reasons. First is the record of history. Satan follows patterns in the same way that Yahweh does.

I mentioned in an earlier post that America’s capital, Washington, D.C., was burned by the British in the year 1814. This is symbolic of the destruction of government.




Washington, D.C. in Flames

This happened during the time of the 13th Congress. The number 13 in Scripture signifies “rebellion, apostasy, defection, corruption, disintegration, revolution, or some kindred idea.” (Source: E.W. Bullinger, Number in Scripture) It seems hardly coincidental that it was in the year 1913 that the Federal Reserve Act was passed, leading to the American government falling under the control of international bankers. The Affordable Care Act that has kicked off in 2013 is simply a continuation of the transformation of American society into a socialist/communist system ruled by the global money powers. The middle class will be completely destroyed as the entire burden of paying for trillions of dollars of medical care is placed upon their shoulders. It is the greatest redistribution of wealth ever carried out in America. Thus the years 1913 and 2013 stand forth as the darkest of years for this nation.

The 113th Congress runs through the end of the year 2014. I therefore anticipate far greater “rebellion, apostasy, defection, corruption, disintegration, and revolution” to manifest before the end of this Congress’ present term. Additionally, the One World Trade Center is scheduled to be opened for occupancy in 2014. This is 13 years after the destruction of the former World Trade Center towers.

For a greater understanding of the symbolism of this tower, and what it signifies for America and the world, I recommend the following two writings.

Babylon Rising
http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/babylon-rising.html

The Darkness Draws Nearer - Part One
http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-darkness-draws-nearer-part-one.html

Satan has certainly chosen the date and time for this occult monument to be completed. It parallels the rise of his own kingdom of darkness.




One World Trade Center - Almost Complete

There is a parable to be observed in the construction of this tower, which is a monument to Satan’s New World Order, his one world government. Even as the previous towers were destroyed in a planned, cataclysmic event that occurred suddenly, so too must the New World Order arise out of the ashes of the old system. There has to be a complete destruction of the Old World Order of independent nations, and specifically of America’s government as a constitutional republic, in order for that which is new to replace it. Like a great phoenix rising from the ashes of destruction, the New World Order must arise out of the ashes of the old order. The ushering in of the New Order will be accomplished only through great violence, massive destruction, and the loss of millions of lives.

A brother in Christ (thank you Mark) informed me yesterday of a movie to be released in March of 2014. The movie is titled Noah. Understanding that Hollywood is controlled by Satan, I look with suspicion upon the messages being proclaimed in any production that arises there. Following is a movie poster for Noah. Pay attention to the words on the poster.




The words under the name Noah state, “The end of the world... Is just the beginning. COMING SOON.”

This present world system must end in order for Satan to initiate something new. This message is further revealed in the movie trailer.

http://youtu.be/6qmj5mhDwJQ

Note that at the beginning of the trailer that Noah, played by Russell Crowe, dreams of walking outside and he finds that blood is leaching up out of the ground. This is an allusion to the following Scripture.

Genesis 4:10
The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground.

Truly, the blood of more than 60 million babies is crying out from the soil of America. Their voices are crying out for judgment, and judgment will come. The trailer proceeds to reveal that Yahweh is judging the earth due to the violence and bloodshed that has become rampant. Is not the world ripe once more for judgment?

The movie focuses on the destruction of the earth and new beginnings that follow. Christians should anticipate that this movie strays widely from the Biblical narrative. It has many embellishments, including Emma Watson playing the character of Noah’s adopted daughter, and the presence of six angels that protect Noah and his family from wicked men, and a fallen angel named Samyaza. There is also a character named Og, who is described as a Watcher, who aids Noah and his family. This is part of Jewish myth.

Og is mentioned in Jewish literature as being alive from the time of Noah up until the time of his death in battle with the Israelites. It is also written in the Midrash that he had a special compartment in Noah's Ark just for him. Aggadah suggests an alternative to this; that he sat upon the top of the ark, riding out the flood for the duration of the storm from this location.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Og]

Christians should not expect in this Hollywood production a faithful Bible narrative of the story of Noah, but I believe there are messages in the movie of which they should be aware. Satan is announcing the destruction of the world in order to start over with a new beginning. He would mimic what Yahweh did in the days of Noah, seeking to annihilate all who stand against his kingdom and his wickedness. He would promise his human servants a future world in which they rule, and have the mastery of all things and all people.

A few days ago I received a visit from a brother in Christ named Joe Boes. He told me of an experience he had recently. He was driving in his car (he is from the Atlanta area) when the vehicle directly in front of him was involved in a very serious collision. A pick-up truck pulling a large trailer with landscaping equipment on it, pulled out directly into the path of the person in front of him. Joe said he barely saw the car’s brake lights flash before the vehicle struck the trailer. The car was demolished.

Joe got out of his vehicle and cautiously approached the wrecked car. He did not know what he would find. Someone shouted out to him to not move the person. He did not know whether the driver was dead, alive, or greatly injured. Upon getting closer he saw that every airbag in the car had deployed. There was an Asian woman inside, and she was shaking violently in a state of shock. She was initially unresponsive to his words, but after a while began to calm down. She was encouraged to remain seated until the ambulance arrived as there did not appear to be any danger of her vehicle catching fire.

The woman was checked out on site by EMTs when they arrived, and appeared to be fine, complaining only of soreness where her seat belt had restrained her. Joe was asked by police to write up a report as he was a direct witness to what occurred.

Joe expressed to me that he had a strong witness from the Father that what is coming to the nations will be very much like this accident. Something sudden and shocking will happen. He will be a witness to it. I believe Yahweh has been preparing a remnant to render assistance, counsel, and comfort to many in the days ahead.

Will we see some calamitous event before 2013 has closed? I have no revelation from the Father on the matter. My anticipation is more toward the year 2014. I believe 2013 has been a year when the plans of the adversary have been accelerating and many things prepared for that which is to follow. Even as this year saw great progress in the construction of One World Trade Center, and it will be open for occupancy in 2014, I anticipate that we will see a fuller revelation of Satan’s kingdom in the coming year.

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.


Credit to Joseph Herrin

15 Signs That We Are Near The Peak Of An Absolutely Massive Stock Market Bubble

One of the men that won the Nobel Prize for economics this year says that "bubbles look like this" and that he is "most worried about the boom in the U.S. stock market."  But you don't have to be a Nobel Prize winner to see what is happening.  It should be glaringly apparent to anyone with half a brain.  The financial markets have been soaring while the overall economy has been stagnating.  

Reckless injections of liquidity into the financial system by the Federal Reserve have pumped up stock prices to ridiculous extremes, and people are becoming concerned.  In fact, Google searches for the term "stock bubble" are now at the highest level that we have seen since November 2007.  

Despite assurances from the mainstream media and the Federal Reserve that everything is just fine, many Americans are beginning to realize that we have seen this movie before.  We saw it during the dotcom bubble, and we saw it during the lead up to the horrible financial crisis of 2008.  

So precisely when will the bubble burst this time?  Nobody knows for sure, but without a doubt this irrational financial bubble will burst at some point.  Remember, a bubble is always the biggest right before it bursts, and the following are 15 signs that we are near the peak of an absolutely massive stock market bubble...

#1 Bob Shiller, one of the winners of this year's Nobel Prize for economics, says that "bubbles look like this" and that he is "most worried about the boom in the U.S. stock market."

#2 The total amount of margin debt has risen by 50 percent since January 2012 and it is now at the highest level ever recorded.  The last two times that margin debt skyrocketed like this were just before the bursting of the dotcom bubble in 2000 and just before the financial crisis of 2008.  When this house of cards comes crashing down, things are going to get very messy...

"When the tablecloth gets pulled out from under the place settings, you're going to have a lot of them crash and smash on the floor," said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners hedge fund. "That margin's going to get pulled and everyone's going to have to cover. That's when you get really serious corrections."

#3 Since the bottom of the market in 2009, the Dow has jumped 143 percent, the S&P 500 is up 165 percent and the Nasdaq has risen an astounding 213 percent.  This does not reflect economic reality in any way, shape or form.

#4 Market research firm TrimTabs says that the S&P 500 is "very overpriced" right now.

#5 Marc Faber recently told CNBC that "we are in a gigantic speculative bubble".

#6 In the United States, Google searches for the term "stock bubble" are at the highest level that we have seen since November 2007 - just before the last stock market crash.

#7 Price to earnings ratios are very high right now...

The Dow was trading at 17.8 times the past four quarters of earnings of its 30 components, according to The Wall Street Journal on Friday. That was up from 13.7 times its earnings a year ago. The S&P 500 is trading at 18.7 times earnings. The Nasdaq-100 Index is trading at 21.5 times earnings. At the very least, the ratios are signaling that stock prices are rich.

#8 According to CNBC, Pinterest is currently valued at more than 3 billion dollars even though it has never earned a profit.

#9 Twitter is a seven-year-old company that has never made a profit.  It actually lost 64.6 million dollars last quarter.  But according to the financial markets it is currently worth about 22 billion dollars.

#10 Right now, Facebook is trading at a valuation that is equivalent to approximately 100 years of earnings, and it is currently supposedly worth about 115 billion dollars.

#11 Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital recently stated that he believes that "markets are riskier than at any time since the depths of the 2008/9 crisis".

#12 As Graham Summers recently noted, retail investors are buying stocks at a level not seen since the peak of the dotcom bubble back in 2000.

#13 David Stockman, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, believes that this financial bubble is going to end very badly...

"We have a massive bubble everywhere, from Japan, to China, Europe, to the UK.  As a result of this, I think world financial markets are extremely dangerous, unstable, and subject to serious trouble and dislocation in the future."

#14 Bob Janjuah of Nomura Securities believes that there "could be a 25% to 50% sell off in global stock markets" over the next couple of years.

#15 According to Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge, the U.S. stock market is repeating a pattern that we have seen many times before.  According to him, we are experiencing "a well-defined syndrome of 'overvalued, overbought, overbullish, rising-yield' conditions that has appeared exclusively at speculative market peaks – including (exhaustively) 1929, 1972, 1987, 2000, 2007, 2011 (before a market loss of nearly 20% that was truncated by investor faith in a new round of monetary easing), and at three points in 2013: February, May, and today."

As I mentioned at the top of this article, this stock market bubble has been fueled by quantitative easing.  Easy money from the Fed has been artificially inflating stock prices, and this has greatly benefited a very small percentage of the U.S. population.  In fact, 82 percent of all individually held stocks are owned by the wealthiest 5 percent of all Americans.

When this stock market bubble does burst, those wealthy Americans are going to be in for a tremendous amount of pain.

But there are some people out there that argue that what we are witnessing is not a stock market bubble at all.  That includes Janet Yellen, the new head of the Federal Reserve.  Recently, she insistedthat there is absolutely nothing to be worried about...

"Stock prices have risen pretty robustly," Yellen said. "But I think that if you look at traditional valuation measures, you would not see stock prices in territory that suggests bubble-like conditions."

We shall see who was right and who was wrong.  Let's all file that one away and come back to it in a few years.

So where are stocks going next?

If you had the answer to that question, you could probably make a lot of money.

Yes, the current bubble could burst at any moment, or stocks could continue going up for a little while longer.

After all, the S&P 500 has risen in December about 80 percent of the time over the past thirty years.

Perhaps that will be the case this December as well.

Perhaps not.

Do you feel lucky?

Credit to Economic Collapse

Fukushima? 5 Million Seabirds Estimated to Have Died on the Beaches of Australia and New Zealand

Reports are coming out that unusually high counts of dead seabirds are winding up on shores in Australia and New Zealand. All the birds that have been tested by vets so far were found to be starving and emaciated.

One theory is insufficient predatory fish to herd baitfish inland for the birds to feed on, but as YouTuber Pinksapphiret2 asks at the end of her video report below, “Is it a lack of baitfish or is it radiation?”

Or is the radiation ultimately causing the lack of baitfish?

The video’s narrator is surely referring to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on the coast of Japan which still spills 400 tons of irradiated groundwater a day, every day, into the Pacific Ocean and has since it was struck by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011.

While the mainstream media continues to play off the Fukushima disaster and the Japanese government and mostly government-owned TEPCO, the power company which owns the plant, continue to reassure everyone that everything is under control and the irradiated water is just hanging out in the bay in front of the plant (the most absurdly unbelievable story maybe in the history of ever), it would seem we are all somehow supposed to believe that the ocean is basically a giant Mr. Clean Magic Eraser for all of this radiation and that it will not have any real or far-reaching consequences on the delicate balance of the biosphere.

We are supposed to believe this and go back to whatever it was we were doing, even as more and more reports of radiation-tainted wildlife, contaminated foodstuffs and mass animal illnesses and die-offs surrounding Pacific coastal areas continue to be reported seemingly every other day.

If the questions above were asked of Yachtsman Ivan Macfadyen, who sailed from Melbourne to Osaka and then on to San Francisco earlier this year and noted how quiet the ocean was most of the voyage due to the lack of seabirds, he would straight up answer “The ocean is broken”.


Credit to Activist Post

Why It's Going To Be A Whole Lot Worse Than In The 1930s

As Mike Maloney forecast in the mid-2000s, the roller-coaster ride continues in world markets and economies. His - so far - spot on projection that "first the threat of deflation (1), followed by a helicopter drop (2), followed by big reflation (3), followed by a real deflation (4), and then followed by hyperinflation (5)," appears to be rotating from stage 3 to stage 4 (as we noted here). However, as Maloney explains in this brief clip, while we have seen great deflations before, in the '30s one-third of the monetary base was backed by gold, now we virtually nothing as "people do not understand the scale of the emergency that's going on right now."

Five brief minutes on a Sunday... watch!

Credit to Zero Hedge

Enough enriched uranium in Iran for 4 nuclear weapons

Saudi King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu were not won over by President Barack Obama's pledges in personal phone calls to the two Middle East leaders last week not to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. Their skepticism only grew.

This development in the Iranian nuclear controversy finds two of the three leaders trapped in a credibility gap between their public pronouncements and the Iranian reality which has long overtaken them both.

Obama’s oft-repeated pledge is canceled out by most Western nuclear experts, who are convinced that Iran managed to advance to a capacity for producing four nuclear bombs, under cover of protracted diplomacy. In their view, the current first-step deal, followed by a comprehensive accord in six months' time, are merely an attempt by the six world powers to hold Iran back from expanding its arsenal any further.

The US president’s avowals are therefore hollow.

Saudi princes and officials have often said that if Iran acquires a nuclear weapon or reaches the threshold of this capacity, the oil kingdom will not lag behind.

All Riyadh needs to do now, say DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources, is to invoke the agreement signed with Islamabad in 2004, under which Saudi funding was provided for Pakistan’s nuclear bomb program in return for some of the bombs or warheads produced to await Saudi Arabia’s call for their delivery, complete with the appropriate missiles.
Pakistan denies the existence of this transaction.

However, military and intelligence experts in the West are certain that although this transfer has not yet taken place, it will soon, in the light of the edge Iran has gained in its current negotiations with the West.

Therefore, Obama’s phone conversation with Abdullah was more concerned with keeping a nuclear bomb out of Saudi hands than out of Iran’s.

Since 2008, the Israeli prime minister has vowed time and time again to prevent Iran reaching a nuclear threshold, making it clear that the Israeli armed forces would be sent into action - if need be.

So his credibility deficit is on a par with Obama’s.

At the Western Wall, Thursday, Nov. 11, on Hanukkah eve, Binyamin Netanyahu paraphrased a popular festival song to declare: “We came to drive out the darkness and the largest darkness that threatens the world today is a nuclear Iran!”

What did he mean by those words, if not an intention to exercise Israel’s military option to “drive out the darkness?”

Maj. Gen. (res) Yakov Amidror – until recently National Security Adviser to the prime minister - wrote last week in The New York Times that Iran already has enough enriched uranium to make four bombs. “The Geneva deal, in short, did not address the nuclear threat at all,” he wrote

Iran reached that point more than a year ago, so how to take the repeated pledges by the prime minister to “act itself, by itself” to prevent this happening?

Prime Minister Netanyahu has carefully avoided presenting the Knesset or the people with a clear picture of where Israel stands in relation to Iran’s nuclear program, has never laid out his policy on the question or depicted what the future may hold.

And so his “military option” has progressively waned in credibility both at home and abroad.
In Obama’s phone call to Netanyahu, DEBKAfile’s intelligence and Washington sources report that the president described at length the US intelligence measures to be applied for verifying Iran’s compliance with the Geneva deal. He said that its findings would be referred to Israeli intelligence for a second assessment.

Obama also suggested a visit to Washington by an Israeli military intelligence delegation of nuclear experts to finalize the details of US-Israeli collaboration for verifying that Iran was living up to its commitments under the near accords.
When this US-Israeli dialogue reached their ears, the Iranians were furious. Thursday, Nov. 28, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, dropping the genial mien he assumed in Geneva, reverted to harsh Islamic Republican-speak when he said: “Never such a thing will happen and definitely we will not be in the room in which representatives from the Zionist regime will have a presence!”

It was clear that Tehran would boycott the technical discussion on the details of the Geneva accord if Israeli experts were to sit in a side room, a proposal which might also be extended to Saudi Arabia, as the two Middle East nations most directly at risk from an Iranian nuclear capacity.

Then, Friday, President Hassan Rouhani weighed in to further devalue the Geneva accord’s international worth. In an interview with The Financial Times, he said Iran would never dismantle its atomic facilities. Asked whether this was a "red line" for the Islamic republic, Rouhani replied: "100 per cent."

In other words, not only Netanyahu but Obama too can forget about any hopes they may have entertained of Iran shutting down its Fordo enrichment plant, or holding up the construction of its heavy water plant in Arak for the production of plutonium.

Tuesday, Nov, 26, two days after the six powers signed their first-step nuclear accord with Iran, Netanyahu called the security cabinet into special session which went on into the night to hear and debate briefings from IDF intelligence (AMAN) officers.

No word has leaked from that session, but some sources claimed anonymously that the ministers received the most optimistic outlook they had heard in years.

Before giving weight to such possible optimism, DEBKAfile’s analysts recall AMAN’s 2011 prediction that Bashar Assad’s downfall was imminent, and its misreading of the situations prevailing in Washington and Tehran.

Credit to DEBKA File

Currency Suicide: Japan Experiencing The Ugly Effects Of Its Own Policy

Exactly a year ago, Japan announced its monstrous monetary stimulus, beating even Helicopter Bernanke who had just started its fourth round of QE. The Japanese government was fed up with deflation and decided to stimulate their economy with massive liquidity (QE).The Nikkei index started an historic rally with a gain of 50% in less than half a year (see barchart on the chart below). The value of the Yen dropped like a stone (see black line on the chart below). The aim of a weaker Yen was to stimulate exports. So it should have been a win-win-win situation, at least on paper.



We are lied to told every day again that weak currencies are a good thing as they stimulate export and increase the economic output (rising GDP). While that could be true, there are a lot of conditions and consequences that are associated with it. One condition, for instance, is that all other countries should keep the value of their currency flat, which is obviously not the case in Currency War III.

Patrick Barron explains how mainstream economists believe that currency devaluation exports unemployment to its trading partners, apart from enhancing sales from exports. “They call for their own countries to engage in reciprocal measures. Recently Martin Wolfe (Financial Times in London) and Paul Krugman (New York Times in the US) both accuse their countries’ trading partners of engaging in this “beggar-thy-neighbor” policy and recommend that England and the US respectively enter this so-called “currency war” with full monetary ammunition to further weaken the pound and the dollar.” This is no currency war, this is currency suicide. Source: Mises.org.

One of the consequences of Japan’s intended currency debasement is now starting to show its ugly head. The cheaper Yen may be intended to stimulate exports but it simultaneously makes imports more expensive.

From Japan Times:

Japan is likely to post a record trade deficit in fiscal 2013 because the weaker yen and soaring demand for energy have driven up the cost of importing fossil fuels, according to a projection by a trade business group.

The deficit is expected to expand to ¥12.1 trillion during the year through next March, much worse than the ¥8.18 trillion in fiscal 2012 and the largest since comparable data became available in fiscal 1979, the Japan Foreign Trade Council Inc. said Thursday.

The economy will log a trade deficit for the third straight year, according to the organization, which is composed of companies involved in international trade activities.

Exports in fiscal 2013 are forecast to rise 9.8 percent from the previous year to ¥70.18 trillion, sustained by the yen’s fall, while imports are expected to climb 14.1 percent to ¥82.28 trillion, JFTC said.

A sliding yen usually supports exports by making Japanese products cheaper abroad and boosts the value of overseas revenues in yen terms, but it also increases import prices. Japan depends on imports for more than 90 percent of its energy needs.

Unfortunately, the economy is not as simple as central planners pretend it to be, at least not in the 21st century. The globally interconnected world, the huge volumes of derivatives (currently tenfold the global GDP), the increasingly complex financial world, the “easy money” policies from competing regions … all play an almost unpredictable role. We have not seen to date a model from the academicians at the central banks taking those variables into account.
Speculative effect

The consequence in the real world of the weaker Yen is not only limited to more expensive imports. Another ugly effect is that the speculative effect kicks in, accelerating the “unintended consequences.” As the Yen got back into is declining trend, hedge funds took notice of this and are now betting on a continuing decline. As Zerohedge notes: “While ‘economists’ are less convinced that the JPY will weaken further, and even the Japanese officials somewhat jawboning the currency’s stability now, futures traders have pushed ‘net shorts’ (i.e. bets against the JPY) to their highest since July 2007. Between the possibility of a Fed taper (stronger USD) and fading economic gains (more BoJ QQE), it would appear that Japan’s $70bn per month buying program is not going to shrink anytime soon. While the world has grown accustomed in recent months to ‘hating’ gold – despite the ECB and BoJ rumors of more money-printing and an inevitable un-taper by the Fed – for now, the ‘dislike’ of the JPY has exploded.” Precious metals investors have learned in 2013 that a price crash is likely when hedge funds go aggressively short.





The message we are trying to bring across is not that a crash is inevitable and imminent. We point out that it is likely to happen and that these are consequences of interventions.

The sentiment indicators provide a confirmation of the ultra weak Yen. As the latest Sentimentrader report shows, the Yen carries the most negative sentiment of the major currencies.



Precious metals sentiment is not much better, but that is not surprising, at least not in the worst year for the metals since four decades.


Credit to Gold Silver Worlds

Netanyahu orders Mossad to find proof Iran violating nuclear accord

'Sunday Times' quotes Israeli defense sources as saying Jerusalem wants to discredit Geneva deal by finding evidence of Iranian duplicity.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has ordered both the Mossad and Military Intelligence to search for evidence that Iran is continuing nuclear activities forbidden under the Geneva accord signed with world powers last week, The Sunday Times quoted Israeli defense sources as saying.

Proof that Iran was violating the terms of the six-month interim deal would complicate US President Barack Obama'spush to delay the passage of new congressional sanctionsagainst Iran while a long-term deal with Iran is being negotiated.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said, both before and after the signing of the deal in Geneva, that the agreement does not sufficiently curb Iran's ability to obtain nuclear weapons and prematurely offers the Islamic Republic sanctions relief.

“Everyone has his own view regarding the Geneva agreement,” the Times quoted an Israeli intelligence source as saying. “But it is clear that if a smoking gun is produced, it will tumble like a house of cards.”

The Times quoted Israeli defense sources as saying that Israeli intelligence was seeking to uncover clandestine activity in three areas of Iran's nuclear program - hidden uranium enrichment sites, ballistic missiles and bomb design.

“Iran would not have invested such a fortune [estimated at $200 billion] if in the end it does not produce nuclear weapons and turn Iran into a regional superpower,” the paper quoted an Israeli official as saying.
Credit to Jerusalem Post