Export prices for Brazilian pig iron were unchanged this week, due to a lack of trading activity.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for Minas Gerais-origin pig iron exports was stable week-on-week on Friday May 11 at $390-395 per tonne fob.In the same comparison, Metal Bulletin's price assessment for Caraj??s-origin pig iron exports was steady at $400-405 per tonne fob.Offers for materials p...Read More
Some children are better at paying attention than others. Some can cope with, or even enjoy, a school classroom setting. Some kids have more energy than others. Some are good at following directions, and some are easily distracted.But just because a classroom is not a good environment for many children does not mean they have a disorder. They may have an Attention Deficit because they are bored. T...Read More
Stress will kill you. Most people know this intuitively. Stress weakens your immune system. Stress allows your body to be more easily controlled by pathogens.A recent study compared two sets of mice. One set had a certain stress receptor cell, and one set did not. Normal mice exposed to stress had a higher rate of disease than mice exposed to stress who lacked the stress receptor cell. This held...Read More
Turkish steel producers have continued their silence in the deep-sea scrap markets amid high prices and weak demand for finished steel in their export markets. And the approaching Islamic holy month of Ramadan was also expected to reduce demand for both finished steel and raw materials, sources said on Friday May 11.Although the mills in Turkey were expected to book more cargoes for May deliveries...Read More
It is true, the National Security Agency created part of the code for Bitcoin.When you first hear that, it is pretty jarring. It seems like a smoking gun! Case closed, conspiracy theory proven.But the NSA creates a lot of cryptography code. Some of it works and is widely adopted.The piece of the Bitcoin code created by the NSA is a hash function called SHA-256. SHA stands for Secure Hashing Algori...Read More
Via Sovereignman.comAfter having traveled to more than 120 countries in my life, the only person I know who's been to more places than I have is Jim Rogers.Jim is a legend- a phenomenal investor, author, and all-around great guy.(His book Adventure Capitalist is a must-read, chronicling his multi-year driving voyage across the world.)Some time ago while we were having drinks, Jim remarked that h...Read More
More terrifying than monsters, murderers, snakes, and rats: politicians. They create horror stories that go on for decades. And their tales are real.It is not just the likes of Hitler that destroy generations. Countless much more subtle politicians have exerted influence on hundreds of millions of lives for decades after their stint in government. Yet most people don’t even blink an eye at t...Read More
American companies actually want to stay in America now!The corporate tax cut in the new tax law is a big deal. The top rate went from 35% down to 21% flat, across the board. I hate taxes in general, but that reduction is nothing to shake a stick at. It makes America competitive for businesses, and you know how I love to talk about the competition among governments.Okay, so it seems we have a fede...Read More
Parenting for Freedom article series: This is the fifth in a series of articles that analyzes how freedom-loving people can align their parenting with their political philosophy, and how doing so will allow ideas about personal liberty to carry on to the next generation.For a long time, the issue that held me back from being a full-fledged anarchist was the question of children. In a truly free so...Read More
You could turn $100 into a fortune!That is why ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) boomed last year. New projects launched their own digital tokens. Everyone wanted to get in on the bottom of a skyrocketing cryptocurrency.Bitcoin easily fueled that desire. If you put $100 into Bitcoin in January of 2012, you would be sitting on over 200 grand now, assuming you didn’t get excited and sell when Bitc...Read More
The FBI Trump investigation is perfect fodder for the mainstream media. It fits the right versus left paradigm like a glove.It gives each side everything they desire. An enemy to hate. Someone to blame. And a good show.For the right, the text messages between agents on the investigation team prove that there was an anti-Trump bias. They feel vindicated in their choice of Trump. If he wasn’t...Read More
Deliverable copper stocks at Shanghai Futures Exchange-approved warehouses rise 5.8% or 15,240 tonnes since Friday May 4 to stand at 279,925 tonnes as of May 11.SHFE inventories are usually published on FridaysThis week, Zhongchu Dachang in Shanghai had the most copper stock arrive with 6,814 tonnes entering its sheds. Copper stocks in SHFE warehouses have been on an uptrend since Chinse sellers.....Read More
I won’t pretend that I particularly enjoy impromptu religious sermons in public places. But regardless of my personal feelings, I believe people have the right to free expression, including religion and speech.But live and let live is apparently not the philosophy of New Jersey cops. When they saw two people preaching on the property of the New Jersey Transit system, they had to step in. Th...Read More
Spot iron ore prices strengthened on Friday May 11 following increases in the steel and futures markets.Metal Bulletin 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $67.42 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up by $0.59 per tonne Metal Bulletin 58% Fe Premium Index: $55.07 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up by $0.67 per tonne Metal Bulletin 65% Fe Iron Ore Index: $86.10 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up by $0.90 per tonne Metal Bulletin 62% Fe China...Read More
What is this wizardry?We live in the future now. Backflipping robots, driverless cars and now the Shapeshifters have arrived.Have you heard of the new software that can make a sunny street appear snow covered in real time? It’s called ‘Image Translation.’Put on some goggles and you’ll make Alaska look like Hawaii.Or how about the software that changes the facial movements y...Read More
Asteroid strikes, flu plague, and economic meltdown.According to CNN, that is what we should fear from this “government shutdown.”People have to hype it up in order to give the impression that the government matters.In reality, this just reveals why we shouldn’t trust the government to do anything essential in our lives.If political fights in DC can put people at that kind of ris...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices softened on Friday May 11, though market participants in China said that they do not expect any significant drops in the coming week. A cargo of premium hard coking coal changed hands at $181.50 per tonne fob Australia during the day, sources told Metal Bulletin. A trade involving premium materials was also concluded at $185 per tonne fob Australia a day earlier, they s...Read More
Dropping Population Means Less Representation in CongressThe census bureau came out with estimates on which states will gain or lose congressional seats after the 2020 census. Congressional seats are apportioned by population.Most of the states with dropping populations are high tax states. California, Rhode Island, and New York are all expected to lose Congressional seats. Illinois is hit especi...Read More
"It's important, given these rumors that are out there, to let people know - more specifically today, employers - that if they voluntarily start giving up information about their employees or access to their employees in ways that contradict our new California laws, they subject themselves to actions by my office," [California] state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said at a news conference. "We w...Read More
In light of feedback received as part of the consultation on its international cobalt price specifications, Metal Bulletin will change the names of its benchmark in-warehouse Rotterdam assessments from January 2019. From January 2019, the name 'standard-grade' will replace the name 'low-grade'. The name 'alloy-grade' will replace the name 'high-grade'. The last date prices will be published under...Read More