THe FaLL oF BeN...

williambanzai7's picture

 

THE FALL OF BEN (reliced version)

.

Ben's Adam and Janet is Eve

These morons are simply naïve

The forbidden fruit

Is infinite loot

But the serpent named Keynes they believe

The Limerick King

.

Visual Combat Fine Art Prints

Inquiries: [email protected]

 

 

 

"Obama Built That" - Behold Obamacare In All Its Lines Of Code Glory

"Obama built that"...  And now good luck tearing it down and its several hundred million lines of code, and rebuilding it from scratch.

 

False Alarm: Obama Will Continue Spying On "Allies" After All

In a dramatic change of events that is a) sure to not win the administration any goodwill point with the citizens of the free, or enslaved, world or their insolvent leaders so desperately reliant on the US for day to day funding, and b) will confirm the state of complete policy chaos that is at the core of the Obama administration's handling of the ObamaPhone spygate (where for some reason the fact that the US spied on foreigners, as it should, has taken far more precedence over the NSA intercepting and recording each and every domestic communication, with neither checks nor balances), the earlier reported news originating from the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dianne Feinstein, who said that "the White House has informed me that collection on our allies will not continue, which I support" was a fabrication.

 

29 Uncomfortable Truths About Soaring Poverty In America

Did you know that the number of Americans on welfare is higher than the number of Americans that have full-time jobs?  Did you know that 1.2 million public school students in the U.S. are currently homeless?  Anyone that uses the term "economic recovery" to describe what is happening in the United States today is being deeply insulting to the nearly 150 million Americans that are considered to be either "poor" or "low income" at this point.  Yes, things are great in New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, but almost everywhere else economic conditions continue to steadily get worse.  The gap between the wealthy and the poor is at a level that America has never seen before, and this is beginning to create a "Robin Hood mentality" that could cause a tremendous amount of social chaos in the years ahead. Despite unprecedented borrowing by the federal government in recent years, and despite unprecedented money printing by the Federal Reserve, poverty in the United States keeps getting worse with each passing year. The following are 29 incredible facts which prove that poverty in America is absolutely exploding

 

Abenomics One Year Later

One year later and due mainly to the fact the Japanese stock market has risen an astounding 70% year-over-year, talking-heads, politicians, and central bankers proclaim Abe's trip into the monetary policy black hole as a success (it would seem on that basis that the head of Venezuela's central bank deserves a Nobel prize). Abe has managed to devalue his nation's currency by 25.5% against the USD in that time and the price of Japanese government bonds (despite some early teething trouble with the government's repressive activity) is practically unchanged up 0.75% on the year. But away from the 'market', inflation is rising (but thanks to import prices) and wages languish down 0.9% as the trade balance is collapsing. One thing is for sure - dueling QEs between Japan and the USA make for highly correlated FX and equity market co-movements...

 

Nobel Prize Winner: Bubbles Don't Exist

No wonder investors don't take economists seriously. Or if they do, they shouldn't. Since Richard Nixon interrupted Hoss and Little Joe on a Sunday night in August 1971, it's been one boom and bust after another. But don't tell that to the latest Nobel Prize co-winner, Eugene Fama, the founder of the efficient-market hypothesis. No matter the facts, Fama has his story and he's sticking to it. "I think most bubbles are 20/20 hindsight," Fama told Cassidy. The rest of us, who lived through the tech and real estate booms while Fama was locked in his ivory tower, know that in a boom people go crazy. There's a reason the other term for bubble is mania.

As Obama Asks If He "Should Be Worried" About Bitcoin, ATMs Arrive In 5 Canadian Cities

The world's first Bitcoin ATM will be ready for use this week at a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. Created by Las Vegas based Robocoin, the new ATM in Vancouver will allow users to turn bitcoins directly into Canadian dollars, or turn Canadian dollars into bitcoins. As The Telegraph reports, the ATM first scans the user's palm to ensure security and transfers are limited to CAD$3,000 per day. Until now, the currency existed only on the web but the introduction of these ATMs brings bitcoin-as-cash usage closer. The RoboCoin kiosks are expected to make the process of buying and selling Bitcoins much easier says Jordan Kelley, the company's chief executive. "Our goal is to make Bitcoin truly grandma-friendly," says Kelley. This is especially notable in light of President Obama asking Eric Schmidt if "Bitcoin is anything he has to worry about?"

 

Gold Tests 5-Week Highs. "Should Continue Pushing Higher": Citi

On the back of dismal data this morning merely compounding the belief that whatever happens, there will be no Taper anytime soon (and record high physical premiums over spot as Indian demand surges), gold prices broke back above $1360 this morning to five-week highs. Of course, that 'rise' was very quickly squelched as stocks POMO'd higher from the US open; but, as Citi's FX technicals group notes, the break of $1343 points to a test of $1430 and a bias to testing back above the $1522-32 region.

 

 

Did The Fed Kill The Long-Term Investor?

Gone are the days where people looked towards next year when building their portfolios, or five years down the road as they approach retirement. Now from a combination of apprehensiveness and shear paranoia in our unstable markets, investors are looking only as far as they can throw for their personal investment decisions. In more than 30 years of money management, Lance Roberts has never seen such a rapid change in the way people make financial plans. Instead of saving for the future, many are opting for fast gains - yet at the same time they want low risk. Others are playing it completely safe. In fact, in a quarterly poll, 83% of respondents said they were holding on to their cash versus investing in the stock market.

 

White House To Stop Spying on Allies, Dianne Feinstein Promises

Continuing to play Obama like a fiddle, the Snowden revelations have done more to change US foreign policy in a few short months, than all laws passed since the advent of the Patriot Act. In the latest example of just this, moments ago, USA Today first and the WSJ and others subsequently, reported that according to Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and an NSA supporter, the National Security Agency has stopped gathering intelligence on allied political leaders, a practice that has drawn global criticism. "The White House has informed me that collection on our allies will not continue, which I support," according to Feinstein. It was not immediately clear if this is an implicit admission that the White House actually did know about the NSA's spying on foreign leaders over the past decade, and lied about being unaware. Recall that Obama denied just this last night, but at this point the pit of lies is so deep, few actually care or are keeping track.

 

5 Years & 6000 Points: Can Janet Yellen Make It Different This Time?

The NYSE Composite is indicating some uncomfortable symmetry currently. As NewEdge's Brad Wishak notes, the index (which represents 61% of the market capitalization of globally listed companies) has risen about the same amount over the same period as in the run-up of the last debt-fueled bubble (only this time the valuations are notably richer). Will Janet Yellen make sure this time is different...? Or is the right question, 2007 USA or 2006 Zimbabwe?

 

 

Guest Post: Culture Of Ignorance - Part I

The kabuki theater that passes for governance in Washington D.C. reveals the profound level of ignorance shrouding this Empire of Debt in its prolonged death throes. Ignorance of facts; ignorance of math; ignorance of history; ignorance of reality; and ignorance of how ignorant we’ve become as a nation, have set us up for an epic fall. It’s almost as if we relish wallowing in our ignorance like a fat lazy sow in a mud hole. The lords of the manor are able to retain their power, control and huge ill-gotten riches because the government educated serfs are too ignorant to recognize the self-evident contradictions in the propaganda they are inundated with by state controlled media on a daily basis.

 

Ron Paul On Faux Fed Transparency: "Believe Me, The 'Big Stuff' Is Done In Secret"

As Rand Paul grows more vociferous with regard the Janet Yellen nomination, he and his father are once again pressing for more transparency into what really occurs at the Fed. While some argue that there has never been a more 'transparent' Fed as we are plagued with volumes of double-speak (projections and prognostications), Ron Paul explains in this brief clip that "the big stuff is done in secret," including international central bank bailouts. His hope, based on the fact that Janet Yellen is a self-described agent of transparency that "the time is ripe," to truly audit the Fed.

 

Did Apple's Cash Holdings Of $146.8 Billion Just Peak?

While the market is focused on AAPL's income statement, we decided to take a quick glance at its balance sheet, where we looked at - what else - its infamous cash hoard. Once the envy of every company in the universe, AAPL's cash and equivalents, while still very impressive at a record $146.8 billion, is potentially a reason of concern. Because while AAPL's Q4 $9.9 billion in cash from operations were certainly impressive as a result of the company's recent shareholder friendly overtures it has been burning cash at a far faster clip than in prior quarters and spent $7.8 billion in Q4 in dividends and share buybacks. So much so, that the amount by which its total cash holdings grew in the quarter was a tiny $140 million, a far cry from prior quarters when it generated billions in cash in any given quarter. So one wonders: was this the peak for the most fantastic cash balance growth in history?

 

Apple Beats Q4 Earnings But Guides Lower On Q1 Margin Sending Stock Lower

Moments ago, AAPL beat the top and bottom line as follows:

That was the good news: the bad is as follows:

Welcome to the commodity world: after all this is what AAPL wanted with the 5C right?

 

 

Last-Minute Buying Frenzy Sends S&P 500 To New All-Time Higherer High

Shitty data, worse earnings, worst volume, new highs. Among the lowest volume days in NYSE single-stocks, S&P futures trading, and VIX options saw stocks levitate back to overnight highs during the day only to slide lower to around unch by the close. Trannies have managed 11 up days in the last 13 and gained 10.3% - sure why not? S&P 500 hit new all-time highs but ended the day well off its highs. Gold hit 5-week highs but faded back to modest gains. The USD rallied early and faded to unch by the close. Treasuries rallied early on but faded into close +/1bp on the day... The pattern was the same across most assets but a very last minute 4.5 point rampapalooza closed the S&P at all-time highs.

 

 

 

Environmental Fascism: The Ecofascists Are Slowly But Surely Taking Over America

The environmental fascists believe that if people are allowed to have large amounts of freedom and liberty that the planet will literally be destroyed.  That sounds crazy, but that is what they actually believe.  Left to our own devices, they are fully convinced that global warming and out of control pollution will transform the earth into an uninhabitable hellhole.  Therefore, they believe that it has become necessary to strictly manage human behavior “for the good of the environment”.  With each passing year, the control of the social planners gets even tighter.  Today, they have banned certain kinds of light bulbs, they are putting mandatory “smart meters” into our homes, and they have instituted all kinds of ridiculous regulations concerning what you can do with your own land.  Tomorrow, they plan to put “black boxes” into our vehicles and move most of us into “stack-and-pack” housing that has communal bathrooms and no elevators.  There is a reason why these people are called ecofascists.  The “true believers” of the environmental fascism movement actually believe that they are “saving the world” by being control freaks.  They truly believe that they know better than the rest of us, and they love to get into positions of political power so that they can impose their will on everyone around them. (Read More.....)

 

 

Something Is Killing Life All Over The Pacific Ocean – Could It Be Fukushima?

Why is there so much death and disease among sea life living near the west coast of North America right now?  Could the hundreds of tons of highly radioactive water that are being released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day have anything to do with it?  When I wrote my last article about Fukushima, I got a lot of heat for being “alarmist” and for supposedly “scaring” people unnecessarily.  I didn’t think that an article about Fukushima would touch such a nerve, but apparently there are some people out there that really do not want anyone writing about this stuff.  Right now, massive numbers of fish and sea creatures are dying in the Pacific Ocean.  In addition, independent tests have shown that significant levels of cesium-137 are in a very high percentage of the fish that are being caught in the Pacific and sold in North America.  Could this have anything to do with the fact that the largest nuclear disaster in the history of mankind has been (Read More....)

 

 

Did Google Collude With Obama Administration to Censor Video?

Paul Joseph Watson | Clip exposing atrocities of US-backed rebels in Syria was sent out by Obama’s hijacked Twitter account.

 

Biased Politifact Website Claims Obama Promise On Existing Health Plans Still “Half True”

Steve Watson | Despite Mass Cancellations, rate hikes.

 

Barack Obama’s Twitter & Facebook Hijacked by Syrian Electronic Army

Paul Joseph Watson | Video about US-backed rebel atrocities sent to 76 million followers.

 

ICE memo: Obamacare eligibility info will not be used to enforce immigration law

Daily Caller | The Obama administration is assuring immigrants that applications for Obamacare will not be used to enforce immigration law.

 

Dems demand refund from ObamaCare website contractors

The Hill | Five House Democrats are asking the Obama administration to seek a refund from the companies that built the ObamaCare website.

 

“This Morning” Report: Policy Cancellations, Premium Increases Add To Obamacare Frustration

CBS News | Some Americans are being surprised, not only that they are being booted off their current plans, but at how much they’re being asked to pay for new ones.

 

Report: White House stopped phone tapping of foreign leaders this summer

CNN | The Journal report did not specify who gave the shutdown order or the date it was issued.

 

AP Photo: Checkpoint Cops Point Guns at Americans’ Heads

Paul Joseph Watson | Fallujah-style security comes to Sacramento.

 

A Welcome US/Saudi ‘Reset’

Ron Paul | Last week it was reported that Saudi Arabia decided to make a “major shift” away from its 80 years of close cooperation with the United States.

 

Spain summons US ambassador over claim NSA tracked 60m calls a month

London Guardian | El Mundo newspaper reports having seen NSA document that reveals extent of agency’s monitoring of Spanish phone calls.

 

Food Stamp enrollment more than doubles in a decade

UPI | Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has more than doubled in the past decade even during times of economic growth, U.S. researchers say.

 

Mark Faber Fears “Stocks Could Be Dead Money For A While” But “Gold Has Bottomed”

Zero Hedge | “Since September 2011′s $1921 peak, gold has been in correction mode,” Mark Faber tells Barrons in this brief clip.

 

The Entire US Fiscal And Monetary Policy Gambit (In One Cartoon)

Zero Hedge | It’s like deja vu all over again…

 

29 Incredible Facts Which Prove That Poverty In America Is Absolutely Exploding

Michael Snyder | Did you know that the number of Americans on welfare is higher than the number of Americans that have full-time jobs?