U.S. Stocks Drop as Fed’s Yellen Outlines Stimulus Exit

U.S. stocks fell for the first time in three days as Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the central bank’s stimulus program could end this fall and benchmark interest rates could rise six months later.

Walt Disney Co., General Electric Co. and Boeing Co. lost at least 1.4 percent to lead theDow (INDU) Jones Industrial Average lower. Consolidated Edison Inc. led utilities to the biggest decline among 10 groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Newmont Mining Corp. lost 3 percent as gold tumbled the most in six weeks after the Fed’s decision to reduce asset purchases.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.6 percent to 1,860.77 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow slid 114.02 points, or 0.7 percent, to 16,222.17. About 6.7 billion shares changed hands in the U.S., in line with the three-month average.

“The pace of tightening, once the Fed starts tightening, is a little bit faster than thought before and I think that’s why we’re getting this market reaction,”John Canally, an economic strategist at LPL Financial Corp., said in a phone interview from Boston. His firm oversees about $438.4 billion. “Being reminded that the Fed will eventually raise rates is getting traders’ attention.”

By keeping its benchmark interest-rate target near zero and conducting three rounds of asset purchases, the Fed has helped push the S&P 500 up as much as 178 percent from a 12-year low as U.S. equities enter the sixth year of a bull market that started in March 2009.
Higher Rates

Stocks turned lower today as the Fed’s statement said officials predicted their target interest rate would be 1 percent at the end of 2015 and 2.25 percent a year later, higher than previously forecast, as they upgraded projections for gains in the labor market. The central bank said it would trim its monthly bond purchases by $10 billion, to $55 billion.

Credit to Bloomberg

Russia's Warning To America Ukraine Destabilization Grows

Russia threatens to change stance on Iran because of Crimea sanctions

In clearest threat to US, Russia warns it will take advantage of nuclear talks with Iran to 'raise stakes' in response to actions taken by US and EU in wake of Crimea annexation.

A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow may change its stance in the Iranian nuclear talks amid tensions with the West.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted Wednesday as saying by the Interfax news agency that Russia didn't want to use the Iranian nuclear talks to "raise stakes," but may have to do so in response to the actions by the United States and the European Union.

The statement is the most serious threat of retaliation by Moscow after the U.S. and the EU announced sanctions against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.

World powers have not seen any impact so far from tension with Russia over the Ukrainian region of Crimea on nuclear talks with Iran, a spokesman for the European Union's foreign policy chief said on Tuesday.

Credit to Ynet

Putin Could Win World War III Without Firing a Shot

Putin may win WW III without firing a shot.

Putin is poised to run through Ukraine like a hot knife through butter. Short of launching ICBM’s with nuclear weapons, there is little that NATO can do to counter the Russian takeover of Ukraine.

The 21st century has been widely touted as the Chinese century. That proclamation may be a bit premature. Putin is piling up an impressive string of victories and when the smoke clears from the present crisis, Putin may have established the Russians as the emerging dominant power on the planet.

By losing Ukraine to the Russians and thwarting the EU’s attempts at persuading Ukraine into joining the European Union, bad days lie ahead. The IMF, the World Bank, NATO, the Obama Administration and the Petrodollar are about to be dealt a devastating blow.

Putin is about to unleash a series of “secret weapons” so devastating, that the West may not be able effectively respond. Thus, the West, that would be you and me, will not recover.

Putin’s Secret Weapon Number One

The end of the NATO alliance and the seeds of America’s decline are explained in the following chart. Germany, America’s most important NATO ally, receives 36% of its gas from Russia. Italy receives 27% and France receives 23% of it gas from Russia.

Sixty six percent of exported Russian natural gas and oil run through Ukraine. When Ukraine is firmly in the hands of Russia, Putin will hold the trump card over a large portion of European energy needs. How generous is Putin feeling?

Putin’s energy trump card lies in the fact that he can charge almost whatever he wants for gas being shipped into Europe. Some are speculating that Putin will use a classic divide and conquer strategy to drive a wedge between European interests and that of the United States.

Imagine the following scenario for a moment. Putin informs the European Union that he will no longer accept the dollar (i.e. the world’s reserve currency) as an acceptable form of currency from which to purchase their Russian imported energy products. This will have a crippling effect on the dollar, and thus, the American economy.

If Putin does refuse to accept the dollar as payment from Europe for its gas, what effect will that have on the NATO alliance? Will France, Italy and Germany succumb to Putin’s coming blackmail and will the Europeans chose economic solvency over military alliances? I would strongly suggest that the Europeans will choose economic solvency. As a result, NATO will be permanently fractured.

It is not difficult to see that Putin will forge a two tiered pricing for his exports. A discounted price will be offered to those countries desiring to make their purchase in the Euro. A elevated price will be charged to those nations who still insist on using the dollar as the medium of exchange in order to not offend their American allies. The dollar, as the World’s reserve currency is in a lot of trouble.

Putin Secret Weapon Number Two

As the world watches Putin spit in the eye of the Federal Reserve, what impact will this have on other oil producing nations? The rest of the world will undoubtedly feel emboldened to pursue the best medium of exchange for their individual situation. If the Saudi’s can exploit the situation, they will do so as well other Middle Eastern Nations. If Obama does nothing, the Petrodollar will be dead in 2014. Without a viable Petrodollar, there is no dollar. The austerity coming to America would make the economics of Italy, Greece and Spain look like a walk in the park.

Putin has time on his side as he has the ability to bleed the American economy dry. As he manipulates the world to abandon the dollar, the US economy will come to a grinding halt. Hyper-inflation will be upon us. The American standard of living will plummet. The percentage of GDP being invested into the military will go into a tail spin. Spare parts technology, the lifeblood of any fighting force will erode and much of the American military will resemble a junkyard more than a modern military fighting machine.

American Counter-Measures

In order to stop the bleeding, Obama only has a small window in which to act. Obama may not be able to control the demise of the dollar with regard to Europe’s soon-to-be energy purchases, however, it is likely that Obama will soon stage a false flag event, blame Syria, in order to have a pretext from which to invade Syria as a precursor to invading Iran and slowing the demise of the Petrodollar in the Middle East.

NATO will still disintegrate, but Obama would slow the bleeding of the Petrodollar while he and his puppet masters search for answers.

Putin’s Secret Weapon Number Three

Will Assad become a modern-day General Vo Nguyen Giap who drove America from Vietnam?

My sources tell me that Putin is furiously arming Assad, in Syria, with high grade military equipment and numerous battlefield ready weapons in anticipation of a coming American military intervention. Assad is being armed with the capability to turn Syria into a modern-day Vietnam. Again, time is on the side of Putin. Can America afford another military quagmire? It is likely that Obama will be checkmated again by the much more savvy Putin.

Conclusion

Will they support America or Russia?

The conclusion to this story is that there is no conclusion, yet.

There are still some extraneous variables which have yet to come into play. The $64,000 question centers on what China will do? Remember, the Chinese own a large percentage of our debt and their economic future, in large part, is based upon the maintenance of a somewhat healthy dollar. However, China has been a major participant in the BRIC nations undermining the Petrodollar by purchasing Iranian oil with gold. On the surface, it appears that China is talking out of both sides of their mouth. Make no mistake about it, China is posturing by playing both sides of the fence. In the next part of this series, an analysis of who China will ultimately side with and why will be offered.

America is not without options, but the options are not pleasant and World War III will result and the only winners will be the banksters. This will also be examined in more detail in the next article.

Finally, does anyone else find it curious that the movie, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, is predicated upon a Russian attack upon Wall Street? And one of the versions of Call of Duty is based upon the same scenario.

Credit to Common Sense

Boosting Longevity with Massive Genome Sequencing and Cyborg Technology

As genome sequencing technology increases in speed and plummets in cost, research companies can usually accomplish the task now within a few days for less than $5,000 per genome.

To highlight just how far the technology has advanced, the Archon Genomics XPRIZE presented by Express Scripts in 2006 offered $10 million to the first team that could rapidly and accurately sequence 100 whole human genomes to a standard not yet achieved back then, at a cost of $10,000 or less per genome.

As growing numbers of genome-wide studies become established, so too the impetus for further investigation. As of 2011, for example, genome sequencing has helped associate 1,450 genes with 240 diseases.

With the aim of helping researchers understand and address diseases associated with age-related decline, the DNA of humans from children to centenarians will be decoded by San Diego-based Human Longevity, Inc. and compiled into a database which will include information on both genome and microbiome (the microbes that live in our gut). Illumina, Inc., which holds a stake in the company, will provide machines needed for the testing.

Spearheading this project are J. Craig Venter, Peter Diamandis and Robert Hariri. Venter led a private team that sequenced one of the first two human genomes more than ten years ago; he is current chairman of the J. Craig Venter Institute and CEO of Synthetic Genomics Inc., a closely held San Diego-based company that is working on developing algae biofuels with funding from Exxon Mobil Corp.

Diamandis is XPrize Foundation chairman and co-founder with Venter, and stem cell researcher Robert Hariri is founder and chief scientific officer of Celgene Cellular Therapeutics—a unit of Celgene Corp. that is working on stem cell treatments.

These combined talents will merge within the company to create new tests and therapies which will help extend healthy human life spans by scanning the DNA of some 100,000 people per year into a massive database for study, with the intent of making “100-years-old the new 60.”

Venter noted that for the first time, the speed and accuracy of DNA-scanning machines has increased to the point where massive clinically oriented sequencing efforts are truly possible.

“I have been waiting for 13 years for the technology to jump up to a scale that is needed for genomics to have a significant impact” in medicine, Venter said. “We have just crossed that threshold.”

“We are setting up the world’s largest human genome sequencing facility,” Venter revealed in a telephone interview. “The goal is to promote healthy aging using advanced genomics and stem cell therapy,” he said.

With an initial $70 million in funding, the company plans to focus first on cancer.

Genome sequencing of patients at the Moores Cancer Center will be performed by the University of California at San Diego, in an agreement with Human Longevity, Inc. Plans are in the works to make individual genome data directly available to doctors at UCSD as well as to patients, according to an email from Heather Kowalski—spokeswoman for Venter and the new company—once it meets U.S. regulatory standards for providing clinical-level information.

Data on biochemicals and lipids circulating through patient body systems will also be collected, in addition to genome and microbiome data.

Google Inc. announced last September that it was also investing in a new company, Calico, focused on aging and age-related diseases, to be led by former Google director Arthur Levinson, chairman of Roche Holding AG’s Genentech unit.

Accessibility to longevity is rapidly gaining ground via bionics, once merely the stuff of science fiction. Replacement of faulty or missing body parts with high tech machine parts that integrate and function with the body, is not only already reality, but increasingly blurs what remains of a disappearing fine line between what’s human and what’s technology. Cyborg humans are here now, living among us, and are clearly harbingers of future “technological singularity”.

Artist Neil Harbisson was born with achromatopsia—extreme colorblindness which allowed him to see only in black and white—yet now he is able to “see” colors beyond the scope of normal human perception. How? Via a specialized electronic eye called an “eyeborg” that likens perceived color with sounds on a musical scale so that Harbisson “hears” color. As a result of incredible adaptation, Neil’s brain has formed new neural pathways allowing him to perceive in an advanced manner.

In a recent TED talk, Harbisson reported, “At the start, I had to memorize the names you give to each color and I had to memorize the notes, but after some time, all this information became a perception,” but “When I started to dream in color, I felt the software and my brain had united.”

Harbisson’s success in merging body with machine inspired him to establish the international Cyborg Foundation, an organization that assists others in transitioning from human to cyborg.

As an amputee, Jesse Sullivan became one of the world's first cyborgs to be equipped with a bionic limb connected through a nerve-muscle graft, which he can control with his mind. Sullivan can also feel hot, cold, and applied pressure differences in his grip. Check out Jesse in this video clip.

After losing a finger in a motorcycle accident, Jerry Jalava implemented a do-it-yourself cyborg application by embedding a 2GB USB port into his prosthetic. No, it doesn’t upload data into his nervous system, but he never has to worry about misplacing a USB zip drive anymore. Click here for a demonstration of Jalava’s genius.

The next generation of technological connectivity to our environment and to the world has moved far beyond our laptops, smartphones and tablets. As we catapult from human manipulation of external technology, to human integration with technology, will we ultimately remain in control of what we’ve created? Or are we stepping into an uncharted minefield of smart cyborg machines that can “learn” and “think” for themselves.




Credit to Prophecy News Watch
Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/March18/184.html#MskuYo74igh1dz1d.99

Petition Urges Russia Be Suspended from UN Human Rights Council

A new petition to the White House urges President Barack Obama to immediately take all necessary steps to suspend Russia from its seat on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council (HRC).

The petition launched Monday evening on Change.org urges Obama to live up to his promise to sanction Russia following its military incursion into the Ukraine’s Crimea region by suspending Moscow from the HRC, which oversees global human rights abuses.

“True international isolation requires the immediate removal of Russia from the United Nation’s top human rights body, the U.N. Human Rights Council,” states the petition, which was created by Human Rights Voices, an advocacy group that exposes global human rights violations.

It pushes for the United States to file a resolution at the U.N. General Assembly “calling for the suspension of Russia as a Council member” as a result of its “aggression against Ukraine and egregious human rights abuses.”

Additionally, Obama should take “all necessary steps immediately to suspend Russia from membership on the U.N. Human Rights Council.”


Credit to Washington Free Beacon

Corruption Rules World's Governments

28-Year Old Former JPMorgan Banker Jumps To His Death, Latest In Series Of Recent Suicides

Not a week seems to pass without some banker or trader committing suicide. Today we get news of the latest such tragic event with news that 28-year old Kenneth Bellando, a former JPMorgan banker, current employee of Levy Capital, and brother of a top chief investment officer of JPM, jumped to his death from his 6th floor East Side apartment on March 12.

From the NY Post:

Bellando, a former investment bank analyst at JPMorgan, is the son of John Bellando, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Condé Nast. His brother, John, a top chief investment officer with JPMorgan, works on risk exposure valuations.

Several John Bellando emails were cited during testimony at the Senate Finance Committee’s inquiry into the bank’s losses during the infamous London Whale trade fiasco.

Kenneth Bellando — who grew up in Rockville Center, LI, and was a Georgetown graduate — worked as a summer analyst at JPMorgan while in school. Upon graduation in 2007, he was hired as an investment bank analyst and worked there for one year before moving on, according to his LinkedIn page.

The investment banker then went to Paragon Capital Partners, according to his LinkedIn page, until leaving at the end of 2013.

And so another young life is tragically taken before his time, the 11th financial professional to commit suicide in 2014, and the third in as many weeks. How many more to come?

In summary, here are all the recent untimely financial professional deaths we have witnessed in recent months:

1 - William Broeksmit, 58-year-old former senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG, was found dead in his home after an apparent suicide in South Kensington in central London, on January 26th.

2 - Karl Slym, 51 year old Tata Motors managing director Karl Slym, was found dead on the fourth floor of the Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok on January 27th.

3 - Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old JP Morgan employee, died after falling from the roof of the JP Morgan European headquarters in London on January 27th.

4 - Mike Dueker, 50-year-old chief economist of a US investment bank was found dead close to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State.

5 - Richard Talley, the 57 year old founder of American Title Services in Centennial, Colorado, was found dead earlier this month after apparently shooting himself with a nail gun.

6 - Tim Dickenson, a U.K.-based communications director at Swiss Re AG, also died last month, however the circumstances surrounding his death are still unknown.

7 - Ryan Henry Crane, a 37 year old executive at JP Morgan died in an alleged suicide just a few weeks ago.  No details have been released about his death aside from this small obituary announcement at the Stamford Daily Voice.

8 - Li Junjie, 33-year-old banker in Hong Kong jumped from the JP Morgan HQ in Hong Kong this week.

9 - James Stuart Jr, Former National Bank of Commerce CEO, found dead in Scottsdale, Ariz., the morning of Feb. 19. A family spokesman did not say whatcaused the death

10 - Edmund (Eddie) Reilly, 47, a trader at Midtown’s Vertical Group, commited suicide by jumping in front of LIRR train

11 - Kenneth Bellando, 28, a trader at Levy Capital, formerly investment banking analyst at JPMorgan, jumped to his death from his 6th floor East Side apartment.

Credit to Zero Hedge

WAR IN UKRAINE: U.S. Coup Authorizes Military Force

US tells Syrian embassy to cease operations

The conflict is shifting from a political to a military stage…one dead

Ben Brown reports from outside the Simferopol base where automatic gunfire has been heard

Ukraine's military says an officer has been killed in an attack on a base in Crimea, the first such death since pro-Russia forces took control in February.

Ukraine has now authorised its troops to fire in self-defence.

The attack came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Crimea signed a bill to absorb the peninsula into Russia.

Western powers condemned the treaty and a G7 and EU crisis meeting has been called for next week in The Hague.

The Ukrainian crisis began in November last year after pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned an EU deal in favour of stronger ties with Russia. He fled Ukraine on 22 February after protests in which more than 80 people were killed.

'Military stage'

An eyewitness told the BBC that armed men arrived in two unmarked vehicles, storming the base in Simferopol and firing automatic weapons.




Putin told Russia's parliament Crimea had "always been part of Russia"

The Ukrainian government said a junior officer who was on duty in a park inside the base had been killed and another officer injured. A third serviceman had leg and head injuries after being beaten with iron bars, it said.

The government said the commander of the unit was captured by men wearing Russian uniforms.

Defence ministry spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov told Reuters the attack was by "unknown forces, fully equipped and their faces covered".

The Ukrainians had had their IDs, weapons and money confiscated, he said.

Interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told an emergency government meeting: "The conflict is shifting from a political to a military stage.

Credit to BBC