Source: zerohedge.com
Russia Ministry of Finance is ready to greenlight a plan to radically increase the role of the Russian ruble in export operations while reducing the share of dollar-denominated transactions. Governmental sources believe that the Russian banking sector is "ready to handle the increased number of ruble-denominated transactions". According to the Prime news agency, on April 24th the government organized a special meeting dedicated to finding a solution for getting rid of the US dollar in Russian export operations. Top level experts from the energy sector, banks and governmental agencies were summoned and a number of measures were proposed as a response for American sanctions against Russia.
Meltdown America is a documentary featuring the riveting stories of three people who have survived economic and political collapse in such diverse countries as Serbia, Zimbabwe, and Argentina...
And how their experiences and hardships foreshadow what's happening in America.
Source: caseyresearch.com
What A Bank Run In China Looks Like: Hundreds Rush To Banks Following Solvency Rumors
Curious what the real, and not pre-spun for public consumption, sentiment on the ground is in a China (where the housing bubble has already popped and the severe contraction in credit is forcing the ultra wealthy to luxury real estate in places like Hong Kong) from the perspective of the common man? The photo below, which shows hundreds of people rushing today to withdraw money from branches of two small Chinese banks after rumors spread about solvency at one of them, are sufficiently informative about just how jittery ordinary Chinese have become in recent days, and reflect the growing anxiety among investors as regulators signal greater tolerance for credit defaults.
Source: zerohedge.com
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned or, it seems, like a Chinese real estate speculator who is losing money. After four years of talking (and not doing much) about cooling the hot-money speculation that is the Chinese real-estate bubble (mirroring the US equity market bubble since stock-ownership is low in China), the WSJ reports that the people are restless as the PBOC actually takes actions - and prices are falling. With new project prices down over 20%, 'homeowners' exclaim "return our hard-earned money" and "this is very unfair" - who could have seen this coming... "We aren't speculators. We just want an explanation from the developer," said one 35-year-old home buyer, who said he had bought an apartment and gave his surname as Wu. "This is very unfair." Unfair indeed. How long before we hear they are "entitled" to a fair return on their housing (non) speculation investment? Alas for China's "non-speculators", as we reported last week in "The Music Just Ended: "Wealthy" Chinese Are Liquidating Offshore Luxury Homes In Scramble For Cash" the real anger is only just beginning.
The Music Just Ended: "Wealthy" Chinese Are Liquidating Offshore Luxury Homes In Scramble For Cash
One of the primary drivers of the real estate bubble in the past several years, particularly in the ultra-luxury segment, were megawealthy Chinese buyers, seeking to park their cash into the safety of offshore real estate where it was deemed inaccessible to mainland regulators and overseers, tracking just where the Chinese record credit bubble would end up. Some, such as us, called it "hot money laundering", and together with foreclosure stuffing and institutional flipping (of rental units and otherwise), we said this was the third leg of the recent US housing bubble. However, while the impact of Chinese buying in the US has been tangible, it has paled in comparison with the epic Chinese buying frenzy in other offshore metropolitan centers like London and Hong Kong. This is understandable: after all as Chuck Prince famously said in 2007, just before the first US mega-bubble burst, "as long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance." In China, the music just ended.
Source: zerohedge.com
Ron Paul On The "Illusion" Economy And "Why Socialism Always Fails"
"So sometimes you have housing bubbles and sometimes you have housing busts, then you have housing bubbles and bond bubbles that's all [the] result of the manipulation of interest rates, which is my real objection to it."
"So one half of our economy is socialized, because it's the control of the money supply, the control of the interest rates,"
"We don't believe they're capable of doing it and I think history shows that the record is pretty bad."
"The economy on the surface looks good, but if you look at hardcore unemployment and standard of living of the middle class, there's still a lot of problems out there... So if we look only at the stock market, then we're in denial."
Ron Paul went to note that "low interest rates are not a panacea - though they won't admit this," adding that the reason for a lack of recovery and hiring is all aboyt "confidence" and that can't be manufactured by stock markets... "we are bankrupt and have been encouraged to take on more debt" - simply put, he adds "the financial system is deeply flawed"...
Source: zerohedge.com
With iron-ore stockpiles at record highs in China amid the escalating cash-for-steel financing debacles, one can only imagine the squeeze that is about to occur on the banks of a nation that is almost entirely economically dependent on said iron-ore mining production... which made us think when we saw this sign "justifying" holding low cash amounts in an Aussie bank ATM...
Source: cur.lv
Today's modest bounce in stocks - considerably removed after-hours - does not provide much hope for those looking to buy the dip with the Dow still down over 1000 points year-to-date. In fact, as we discuss below, troubling news just continues to pour in from all over the world... For those that are not interested in the technical details, what all of this means is that global financial markets are starting to become extremely unstable. Consider the following...
-Major currencies all over South America continue to collapse.
-Massive central bank intervention has done little to slow down the currency collapse in Turkey.
-Investors pulled more than 6 billion dollars out of emerging market equity funds last week alone.
-The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) has risen above 20 for the first time in four months.
-Last month, new manufacturing orders in the United States declined at the fastest pace that we have seen since December 1980.
-Real disposable income in the United States has just experienced the largest year over year drop that we have seen since 1974.
-In January, vehicle sales for Ford were down 7.5 percent and vehicle sales for GM were down 12 percent. Both companies are blaming bad weather.
-A major newspaper in the UK is warning that "growing problems in the Chinese banking system could spill over into a wider financial crisis".
-U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is warning that the federal government could hit the debt ceiling by the end of this month if Congress does not act.
-It is being reported that Dell Computer plans to lay off more than 15,000 workers.
-The IMF recently said that the the probability that the global economy will fall into a deflation trap "may now be as high as 20%".
-The Baltic Dry Index is now down 50 percent from its December highs.
Source: theeconomiccollapseblog.com
Bitcoin is Beautiful Life On Bitcoin & Litecoin
"We're going to keep buying Bitcoin until every single banker in the World is euthanized and then dance a jig on their dead corpse."
Marc Faber Warns The Fed "Will Never End Its Insane Policies"
"The Fed will never end QE for good..." blasts Marc Faber, "they may do some cosmetic adjustments, but within a few years, [Fed] asset purchases will be substantially higher than they are today." There will be another weakening in the US economy, Faber warns, and "the Fed will argue it hasn't done enough and will do more... they have been irresponsible for 20 years."
Noting that investors should "not buy stocks but be in cash", the stunned CNBC anchor exclaims "How could you sit in cash when th emarket is on fire and interest rates are so low?" to which Faber blasts, "The market is not on fire, look at IBM, Cisco, and Intel - all lower than 2011; it's on fire if you are in Facebook or Twitter and not everyone owns them."
Use rallies to reduce exposure, he warns, "we will go up until it is over; and when it is over the drop will be larger than 20%"
Source: zerohedge.com
37 Reasons Why “The Economic Recovery Of 2013″ Is A Giant Lie
"If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it." Sadly, that appears to be the approach that the Obama administration and the mainstream media are taking with the U.S. economy. They seem to believe that if they just keep telling the American people over and over that things are getting better, eventually the American people will believe that it is actually true.
Source: theeconomiccollapseblog.com
Ron Paul: The Economic Crisis On Our Doorstep
Dr. Paul spoke today on the American economic crisis.
Oh wait, it's from 1988 ... he was just ahead of his time.
Mark Spitznagel Warns Today's "Distorted" Market Is "Set Up For A Major Crash"
Despite Ron Insana's insta-dismissal of all things "Austrian", and Maria Bartiromo's scoffing at his comments, Mark Spitznagel (who most recently discussed the problems we face here, here and here) ventured on to the unreality channel this afternoon and much eyebrow-raising ensued. Spitznagel, author of The Dao of Capital , explained why he believes "the market is setup for a major crash," and expects a 40% decline in stocks.
The current market "entirely artificial" environment driven by zero-interest-rates and central bank asset purchases, along with valuations and sentiment, has distorted the 'markets' in the same way as "in all other major tops in history." His investing advice is simple, "step aside!" But doesn't expect many to heed his proven advice, because, "it is the hardest thing to do right now, "and makes you look like a fool."
"this notion of a 'catalyst' for the decline is false"...
If you prefer your business media with a sense of reality - the following 210 seconds is must watch!
Source: zerohedge.com
The principle and immediate beneficiaries of increasing the debt ceiling are the wealthy, bond-holders and the medium and long-term beneficiaries are the military-intelligence-empire-builders who can continue to secure over $700 billion in annual budget allocations.
The principle strategic losers from raising the debt ceiling will be the hundreds of millions of beneficiaries of social programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and their family members.
As part of the ‘Grand Bargain’ struck by the Democratic President and Republican Congress – between $1.3 trillion and $1.4 trillion in social cuts will take effect over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The cuts in Social Security will occur by raising the age of eligibility for full benefits to 70 years, resulting in a loss of $120 billion, as many older retired workers would be expected to die before drawing a single payment while millions of Americans will be forced to delay retirement and work an extra five years.