... as Europe Adapts to Negative Interest Rates: Chart by Oliver Suess and Jana Randow Bloomberg Business (January 27 2016) * Record 1.1 trillion euros of banknotes in use at end of 2015 * Euro banknote circulation boosted by economic growth, markets Europe's ATMs worked overtime in 2015. A record 1.08 trillion euros ($1.17 trillion) … Continue reading Cash Is King … →

by John Michael Greer The Archdruid Report (January 20 2015) Of all the predictions I made for the new year in my post two weeks ago, the one that seems to have stirred up the most distress and derision is my suggestion that the most likely person to be standing up there with his hand … Continue reading Donald Trump and the Politics of Resentment →

by Bruce Schneier   CNN (April 16 2015) Imagine this: A terrorist hacks into a commercial airplane from the ground, takes over the controls from the pilots and flies the plane into the ground. It sounds like the plot of some "Die Hard" reboot, but it's actually one of the possible scenarios outlined in a … Continue reading Could Your Plane Be Hacked? →

... for the Italian Banking Crisis? by Don Quijones {1}, Spain & Mexico, editor at Wolf Street Wolf Street (January 27 2016) The Missing Capital Buffer Six years after Europe's sovereign debt crisis began, the Eurozone's third largest economy, Italy, has finally decided to do what just about every other country has done when facing … Continue reading Who Gets to Pay … →

Can the Federal Reserve ("Fed") Admit it Was Wrong Yet? by Mike Whitney CounterPunch (January 28 2016) America's richest investors are betting trillions of dollars that the US economy will stay lousy for years to come. Who are these wealthy investors? Bondholders. And their views on the state of the economy are reflected in the … Continue reading Seven Years of Monetary Quackery →

by Erin Lace The CoinTelegraph (October 22 2015) http://cointelegraph.com/images/725_aHR0cDovL2NvaW50ZWxlZ3JhcGgucnMvc3RvcmFnZS91cGxvYWRzL3ZpZXcvZWY0ZDNjOGRhMDAxMDNmZDMyZjNjNjFhMDdjMjZjN2EucG5n.jpg A study by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm shows that Sweden is on track to become the world's first cashless country. Today, five of six major banks in Sweden are already refusing to operate with cash. As a result, and considering the latest … Continue reading Sweden to Become World’s First Cashless Country →

by Dmitry Orlov Club Orlov (January 26 2016) If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed that the global financial markets are currently in meltdown mode. Apparently, the world has hit diminishing returns on making stuff. There is simply too much of everything, be it oil wells, container ships, skyscrapers, cars or houses. … Continue reading The Future is Blivets →

The New Bank Bail-In System Goes into Effect In Europe by Michael Snyder The Economic Collapse (December 28 2015) If you have a bank account anywhere in Europe, you need to read this article.  On January 1st, 2016, a new bail-in system will go into effect for all European banks.  This new system is based … Continue reading January 1st 2016 →

The East Knows the West is Bankrupt by Bill Holter via Jim Sinclair's Mineset blog {1} Zero Hedge (January 24 2016) What a tangled web the global geopolitical situation has become.  Geopolitics and finance have always been interrelated but recently much more so.  As many readers know, I have speculated we would be hit over … Continue reading The Ultimate “Truth Bomb” →

by Chrystia Freeland Reuters (April 12 2012) More bad news for the middle class: When the economy recovers, jobs in the middle won't. That is the conclusion of an important new study that connects a long-term trend in the labor market with the business cycle of recession and rebound. Nir Jaimovich, an economist at Duke … Continue reading The Rise of Lousy and Lovely Jobs →