Nikkei futures rallied post-Fed into the Japanese open (despite weakness in USDJPY) and then when trade data struck (and exposed the utter failure of competitive devaluation), everything went into freefall. The Nikkei crashed 700 points and USDJPY plunged to its lowest since QQE2...
.... which prompted us to summon the cartoon character at the head of the BOJ as follows:
YEN CLIMBS PAST 110.99 PER DOLLAR TO STRONGEST SINCE OCT., 2014. Time for Peter Panic
And sure enough, just moments later right on cue "someone" started panic selling JPY, sending the USDJPY soaring higher by over 100 pips.
So just as USDJPY hit QQE2 lows, someone stepped in large
Which juiced the NKY right back up:
As we noted literally moments ago "for now the dollar is weaker, however that is only until the ECB and BOJ intervene once again to crush their currencies - because as a reminder while China wants a weaker dollar, both Japan and Europe want precisely the opposite - which we believe is imminent."
The Army's top general says military forces on the ground face a high level of risk if the United States gets into a large-scale conflict against a power such as Russia or China.
Testifying Wednesday on Capitol Hill, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley says years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, constrained budgets and troop cuts have had a cumulative effect on the service.
In the sketch the ‘comedians’ throw further jibes at the Royal family, blast Britain’s so-called “special treatment" from the EU and mock the UK for being too tough on migrants.
The shocking video, which has gone viral, then sees them rejoice at Britain’s proposed Brexit and dub the UK the “Planet of the Island Apes” - much to the roaring delight of the baying studio audience.
Presenter Oliver Welke starts off by blasting Britain’s "special treatment" in the union. He said: “The British! For centuries they pick the cherries. They pay less fees. They are allowed to have real money instead of Euros.
“One special treatment after another.”
He continues by saying "we never liked you" before adding: “Why do we wait till 2016? Can’t we get rid of the English now?”
YOUTUBE•GETTYThe German TV show went even further this time in the shocking anti-British outburst
The shot cuts to a sketch of a board game played by actors who are representing different nations, with the British man winning.
The voiceover says: “The great ‘take the mickey out of Europe’ game. A game for one British guy and many idiots from other countries. It is great to be English.
“Every time Europe annoys you, you just choose an extra sausage [i.e. special treatment].
“The other idiots pay and you are the only one who takes. How great is that!
“Extra sausage: The game where only England wins.”
The voiceover continues by saying: “Attention there is a boat full of refugees. But not with you: you just take the extra sausage. Send the Africans right to the continent.
“And when mainland idiots complain, you just say… tea time.
The tech giant and Terasem Movement Foundation look to explore artificial intelligence by developing fully evolving humanoid replacements
Artificial intelligence experts speculate that in the not-so-distant future people will replace dead relatives with cloned robots installed with downloaded variants of that person’s brain.
Vermont’s Tersem Movement Foundation, a research institute whose stated mission is to “transfer human consciousness to computers and robots,” is leading the charge to doppelganger replacements for the everyman.
Foundation director Bruce Duncan suggests that the concept is neither disturbing nor altogether unusual. “It’s like when people stuff a pet cat or dog. We don’t stuff humans, but this is a way of ‘stuffing’ their information, their personality and mannerisms.”
His firm has begun efforts to “stuff” cyber analogs of dead relatives. Since 2010, Terasem has created thousands of highly detailed “mind clones,” logging the memories, values and attitudes of specific people. Their first and most highly publicized clone was Bina48, one of the world’s most socially advanced robots, built as a replica of founder Martine Rothblatt’s transgender wife.
The creation of Bina48 was spearheaded by Rothblatt, who is also transgender and the highest paid female CEO in America. She created Bina48 by installing a “mind file” of her wife Bina Aspen into a robot designed to resemble her. Bina48’s mind file was created from 100 hours of audio data recorded by Aspen about her memories and beliefs.
Like Aspen, Bina 48 also has mocha-colored skin (made of specialized rubber), loves flowers, and has a self-deprecating sense of humor. Unlike her source human, however, Bina48 suffers major glitches in social settings.
Terasem remains optimistic in their research and development efforts. Duncan speculates that more advanced robots like Bina48, including replications of dead loved ones, could hit the market within 10 to 20 years for the equivalent of roughly $25,000 to $30,000 in today’s dollars.
Terasem is not alone in anticipating a burgeoning market for robotic replacement clones.
Last year, tech giant Google filed patent papers for a product that replicates a human personality, including a “deceased love one” or a “celebrity,” per a company filing. The company updated their patent filing in mid-February, indicating an intention to move forward with the program.
Exports fell precipitously during the last two recessions, and now it is happening again. So how in the world can anyone make the claim that the U.S. economy is in good shape? On my website I have been repeatedly pointing out the parallels between the last two major economic downturns and the current crisis, and I am going to discuss another one today. Since peaking in late 2014, U.S. exports have been steadily declining, and this is something that we never see outside of a major recession. On the chart that I have shared below, the shaded gray bars represent the last two recessions, and you can see that exports of goods and services plunged dramatically in both instances…
And this chart does not even show the latest numbers that we have. During the month of January, U.S. exports fell to a five and a half year low…
The U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected in January as a strong dollar and weak global demand helped to push exports to a more than 5-1/2-year low, suggesting trade will continue to weigh on economic growth in the first quarter.
The Commerce Department said on Friday the trade gap increased 2.2 percent to $45.7 billion. December’s trade deficit was revised up to $44.7 billion from the previously reported $43.4 billion. Exports have declined for four straight months.
Because our exports are falling faster than our imports, our trade deficit is blowing out once again. Every year we buy hundreds of billions of dollars more from the rest of the world than they buy from us, and this is systematically wrecking our economy. Over the past several decades, we have lost tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities, millions of good paying manufacturing jobs, and major exporting nations such as China have become exceedingly wealthy at our expense.
We are being absolutely killed on trade, and yet very few of our politicians ever want to talk about this.
A brand new study that was recently discussed in the New York Times is bringing some renewed attention to these problems. It turns out that the promised “benefits” of merging the U.S. economy into the global economic system simply have not materialized…
In a recent study, three economists — David Autor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David Dorn at the University of Zurich and Gordon Hanson at the University of California, San Diego — raised a profound challenge to all of us brought up to believe that economies quickly recover from trade shocks. In theory, a developed industrial country like the United States adjusts to import competition by moving workers into more advanced industries that can successfully compete in global markets.
They examined the experience of American workers after China erupted onto world markets some two decades ago. The presumed adjustment, they concluded, never happened. Or at least hasn’t happened yet. Wages remain low and unemployment high in the most affected local job markets. Nationally, there is no sign of offsetting job gains elsewhere in the economy. What’s more, they found that sagging wages in local labor markets exposed to Chinese competition reduced earnings by $213 per adult per year.
Another study conducted by some of the same researchers discovered that 2.4 million American jobs were lost between 1999 and 2011 due to rising Chinese imports.
The China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI), published weekly, tracks contractual and spot-market rates for shipping containers from major ports in China to 14 regions around the world. Unlike most Chinese government data, this index reflects the unvarnished reality of the shipping industry in a languishing global economy. For the latest reporting week, the index dropped 4.1% to 705.6, its lowest level ever.
How many numbers like this do we have to get before we will all finally admit that we are in the midst of a major global economic meltdown?
Here in the United States, the recent rally in the stock market has most people feeling pretty good about things these days. But the truth is that there are ups and downs during any financial crisis, and this recent rally is putting the finishing touches on a very dangerous leaning “W” pattern that could signal a big dive ahead.
The bull market from early 2009 into May 2015 looks just like every bubble in history, and I’m getting one sign after the next that we did indeed peak last May. The dominant pattern in the stock market is the “rounded top” pattern:
After trading in a steep, bubble-like channel from late 2011 into late 2014, with only 10% maximum volatility top to bottom, the market finally lost its momentum… just as the Fed finished tapering its QE. That’s because the Fed was the primary driver in this stock bubble in the first place!
Now is not the time to relax at all.
In fact, now is the time to sound the alarm louder than ever.
That is one reason why my wife and I have started up a new television program. It will be airing on Christian television, but it will also be available on YouTube as well…
As I have said before, 2016 is the year when everything changes.
So don’t be fooled just because the stock market had a couple of good weeks. The truth is that global economic activity is slowing down significantly, geopolitical instability continues to get even worse, and this political season has caused very deep, simmering tensions in the United States to rise to the surface.
Let us hope that we have a few more weeks of relative stability like we are currently experiencing so that we can have more time to get prepared, but I certainly wouldn’t count on it.
The United Nations Security Council met in an “emergency” closed door session on Monday March 14th to discuss Iran’s recent testing of ballistic missiles reportedly designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The words “Israel must be wiped out” were written in Hebrew on the side of the missiles. These most recent tests followed in the wake of missile tests conducted last fall, which the Security Council did nothing about at the time.
While North Korea was finally hit with more UN sanctions for its nuclear and missile tests, North Korea’s nuclear weapons collaborators in Iran continue to be let off the hook without even a slap on the wrist.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power told reporters, after the March 14th meeting produced no concrete results, that she will keep trying “no matter the quibbling that we heard today about this and that.” She said that Iran’s missile tests were “in defiance of provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, the resolution that came into effect on January 16, on Implementation Day for the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action].”
The quibbler in chief is Russia. Its UN ambassador said that Iran has not violated the resolution and that there was no need for any punitive measures against Iran.
The truth is that the Obama administration is now hoisted with its own petard. Ambassador Power complained that “Russia seems to be lawyering its way to look for reasons not to act rather than stepping up and being prepared to shoulder our collective responsibility.” Yet that would not have been as easy for Russia to do if the Obama administration had not allowed a loophole in the nuclear deal wide enough for Iran to fire a whole bunch of missiles through.
President Obama wanted the nuclear deal with Iran so badly that he gave in to Iran’s last minute demands to preserve its missile program. Iran insisted that all prior UN Security Council resolutions which had unambiguously prohibited Iran’s development, testing or procurement of ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons must be terminated. Otherwise, Iran would not go forward with the JCPOA. To make matters worse, even though Iran had held the JCPOA hostage to its missile demands, the Obama administration also bowed to Iran’s insistence that its missile program would not be covered by the JCPOA itself. Thus, Iran would not be subject to the automatic “snap back” of sanctions when Iran is found to have violated the JCPOA, because its missile tests would be outside the scope of the JCPOA. In fact, the Obama administration agreed to language in the JCPOA to clarify that such separation of Iran’s missile program from the JCPOA was the intent. All reliance for dealing with Iran’s missile tests would be placed on the much weaker Security Council Resolution 2231.
The new Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the JCPOA but drafted as separate from the JCPOA, used weaker language than the outright prohibition that had existed under the prior resolutions that were now superseded. Calling upon Iran to refrain from doing something is not the same as an enforceable ban. Moreover, even this insipid “call upon” language is included in an annex to the resolution. This annex is little more than a statement of intent by the parties negotiating with Iran, which Iran does not consider binding on itself.
The Obama administration missed the window of opportunity to clamp down on Iran’s missile testing when those tests were being conducted last fall. The previous Security Council resolutions that prohibited Iran’s missile program outright, and the sanctions regime against Iran, were then still in effect. Those resolutions were referenced in the JCPOA itself as still being binding until the JCPOA was actually implemented. Implementation in turn was dependent on verification of Iran’s compliance with certain commitments set forth in the JCPOA having to do with its enrichment and plutonium programs. Until the JCPOA’s formal implementation date of January 16, 2016, when those resolutions were terminated, the missile program ban had not been technically untethered from the JCPOA.
All the Obama administration had to do last fall was to declare Iran in breach of the JCPOA because the missile ban under those resolutions that Iran breached were effectively incorporated into the JCPOA until terminated. The sanctions were still in place. Iran’s assets were still frozen. Russia’s “lawyering” would have done it little good last fall when the United States still had the upper hand both legally and in practical terms. But President Obama frittered away the last real chance to hold Iran’s feet to the fire before the sanctions were lifted. He wanted the nuclear deal to go forward as a centerpiece of his “legacy” and let the next president worry about its fallout.
In fact, instead of pressing the case against Iran and threatening to walk away from the JCPOA when he had the leverage, Secretary of State John Kerry actually defended Iran’s position on its missile tests. “The issue of ballistic missiles is addressed by the provisions of the new United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR), which do not constitute provisions of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),” Kerry wrote in a letter to Senator Marco Rubio last September. “Since the Security Council has called upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology, any such activity would be inconsistent with the UNSCR and a serious matter for the Security Council to review.”
Rubio raised his concern with Kerry that the language in the new Security Council resolution did not appear to require Iran to refrain from pursuing its ballistic missile tests. Rubio seized upon the weak “call upon” language discussed earlier as the basis for his concern. Kerry’s response was that “if Iran were to undertake them it would be inconsistent with the UNSCR and a serious matter for the Security Council to review.”
Senator Rubio had a right to be concerned. Kerry had deliberately agreed to a circular process to deal with Iran’s missile program violations, which was doomed to fail. To placate Iran, he kicked the can down the road until the JCPOA was actually implemented and the prior, much stronger Security Council missile resolutions that were initially tied into the JCPOA by reference went away. The separation of the JCPOA and the new Security Council resolution was completed as of the formal implementation date. Kerry had to know that once the JCPOA was implemented and in full force, with sanctions lifted and the missile program separated out from the JCPOA with its automatic “snap back” provisions, Russia would likely veto any separate sanctions resolution against its ally and missile purchaser based on Iran’s missile tests. The American people got suckered by President Obama’s reckless concessions.
Iran not only will have a pathway to nuclear enrichment sufficient to produce nuclear weapons when the deal’s restrictions sunset – if not before. Thanks to the Obama administration, Iran presently has a free hand to develop and test ballistic missiles capable of delivering those nuclear weapons along any pathway of attack it chooses.
On Sunday, North Korea warned the United States that it could wipe out Manhattan with a single hydrogen bomb, and earlier this month North Korea threatened to make a “preemptive and offensive nuclear strike” on the United States in response to aggressive military exercises currently being jointly conducted by South Korea and the U.S. military. So does nuclear war with North Korea actually pose a significant security risk to this country? Well, according to the Washington Post the entire west coast of the United States is within reach of North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missiles. The only question is whether or not North Korea’s ultra-paranoid leader Kim Jong Un would ever actually press the button.
Most Americans don’t realize this, but nuclear war with North Korea is now closer than it has ever been before. In the past, North Korea’s technical capabilities were greatly limited, but now all of that has apparently changed. Just consider what has taken place within just the past few months. The following comes from a timeline that was put together by the Arms Control Association…
January 6, 2016: North Korea announces it conducted a fourth nuclear weapons test, claiming to have detonated a hydrogen bomb for the first time. Monitoring stations from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization detect the seismic activity from the test. The type of device tested remains unclear, although experts doubt it was of a hydrogen bomb based on seismic evidence.
February 7, 2016: North Korea launches a long-range ballistic missile carrying what it has said is an earth observation satellite in defiance of United Nations sanctions barring it from using ballistic missile technology, drawing strong international condemnation from other governments which believe it will advance North Korea’s military ballistic missile capabilities.
March 2, 2016: The UN Security Council unanimously adopts Resolution 2270 condemning the nuclear test and launch of early 2016, and demanding that North Korea not conduct further tests and immediately suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program. Resolution 2270 expands existing sanctions on North Korea by adding to the list of sanctioned individuals and entities, introducing new financial sanctions, and banning states from supplying aviation fuel and other specified minerals to North Korea. Resolution 2270 also introduces a requirement that UN member states inspect all cargo in transit to or from North Korea for illicit goods and arms.
In response to these moves, South Korea and the U.S. military have launched the largest military exercises in the history of South Korea. More than 300,000 troops have gathered to simulate an invasion of North Korea and practice the elimination of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction. These military exercises being held over a period of eight weeks, and this is precisely what caused North Korea to threaten us with a “preemptive and offensive nuclear strike“.
“Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union,” DPRK Today, a state-run outlet, reported Sunday. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
“If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes,” the report said, citing a nuclear scientist named Cho Hyong Il.
I don’t know about you, but I find statements such as these to be quite alarming.
Earlier this month, Kim Jong Un put his nuclear weapons on alert “for use at any time”, and Reuters is reporting that he has just ordered his military to conduct even more nuclear weapon tests.
So why is there so little concern about this in the United States?
Sometimes it is the enemy that you underestimate the most that ends up being your greatest threat.
Meanwhile, in the midst of everything else, a North Korean submarine “has gone missing”…
The North Korean regime lost contact with one of its submarines earlier this week, three U.S. officials familiar with the latest information told CNN.
The U.S. military had been observing the submarine operate off North Korea’s east coast when the vessel stopped, and U.S. spy satellites, aircraft and ships have been secretly watching for days as the North Korean navy searched for the missing sub.
The U.S. is unsure if the missing vessel is adrift under the sea or whether it has sunk, the officials said, but believes it suffered some type of failure during an exercise.
At a time when tensions on the Korean peninsula are near an all-time high, this is a very disturbing development. The last thing that we need is some sort of “trigger event” that could cause the North Koreans to want to start pressing buttons.
Most Americans don’t realize this, but hatred for America is one of the centerpieces of North Korean society. In fact, they have an entire month each year during which they celebrate how much they hate us. The following comes form a New York Post article that was published last June…
June is something like Hate America Month in North Korea.
Officially, it’s called “Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism Month” and — more so than usual — it’s a time for North Koreans to swarm to war museums, mobilize for gatherings denouncing the evils of the United States and join in a general, nationwide whipping up of anti-American sentiment.
The culmination this year came Thursday — the 65th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War — with a 100,000-strong rally in Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Stadium.
If Manhattan actually was reduced to a pile of ashes by a hydrogen bomb, there would be dancing in the streets of Pyongyang.
So let us not underestimate the threat that North Korea poses. They hate us enough to want to completely destroy us, they now have the technological capability of hitting major west coast cities with nukes, and they have an ultra-paranoid young leader with his hand on the trigger. Meanwhile, we have an increasingly aggressive leader of our own sitting in the White House that seems to like to yank Kim Jong Un’s chain.
If push came to shove, North Korea would attempt to hit American targets with nukes.
Let us just hope and pray that it does not happen any time soon.
If Iran does not succeed in its goal of wiping Israel off the map, the world may be able to benefit from the stunning technological advances being unveiled by scientists there on a regular basis. The latest advance is nothing less than revolutionary. The Times of Israel reports:
Tel Aviv University unveiled a remote-controlled, bionic heart patch, which researchers say could become a revolutionary alternative to heart transplants for patients whose hearts have been damaged by heart attacks or cardiac disease.
The patch expands and contracts like a human heart, but regulates itself like a machine and can be paced and programmed to release drugs from afar.
“It’s very science fiction, but it’s already here, and we expect it to move cardiac research forward in a big way,” said Prof. Tal Dvir, who pioneered the invention with PhD student Ron Feiner.
“Until now, we could only engineer organic cardiac tissue, with mixed results. Now we have produced viable bionic tissue, which ensures that the heart tissue will function properly,” he said in a statement issued Monday by American Friends of Tel Aviv University.
The Cyborg Cardiac Patch, details of which have been published in the journal Nature Materials, combines real, living cardiac cells able to expand and contract with engineered tissue packed with nano-electronics that can sense what is happening in the patch, provide electrical stimulation and — via electro-active polymers — release growth stimulants or drugs and harness stem cells.
“Imagine that a patient is just sitting at home, not feeling well,” Dvir said. “His physician will be able to log onto his computer and this patient’s file — in real time. He can view data sent remotely from sensors embedded in the engineered tissue and assess exactly how his patient is doing. He can intervene to properly pace the heart and activate drugs to regenerate tissue from afar.
I hope that all members of the BDS movement will refrain from seeking treatment with any medical advances created in Israel. Of course, the Iranian mullahs, and the part of the worldwide Muslim public which seeks Israel’s destruction, fantasize that the parts of the sixth-century world under Mohammed’s direct rule were the ideal state of humanity, so they would not be interested in any modern technologies produced almost exclusively by infidels.
On the other hand, if a Saudi king needs heart surgery...
