Billionaire Soros Cuts U.S. Stocks by 37%, Buys Gold ... George Soros cut his firm's investments in U.S. stocks by more than a third in the first quarter and bought a $264 million stake in the world's biggest bullion producer Barrick Gold Corp. -BloombergThe billionaires are buying gold.George Soros has just invested in a gold producer, Barrick gold.Soros is not alone. His former chief strategis...Read More

This is one weak nominee: Hillary Clinton's problem isn't Bernie Sanders. It's Hillary Clinton ... -SalonLike machine-gun fire, rat-tat-tat, three major mainstream publications in a row have recently posted stories featuring a "weak" Hillary Clinton.This further strengthens our hypothesis that the Hillary may not ever make it to the presidential race.We first wrote about this late last week in an...Read More

Merkel warns of return to nationalism unless EU protects borders ... German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday urged European leaders to protect EU borders or risk a “return to nationalism” as the continent battles its worst migration crisis since World War II. - YahooMerkel and other Eurocrats are worried about a degeneration of Europe. The idea is that until Europe pulled toge...Read More

U.S. military upping anti-ISIS activity in Libya ... The Pentagon is slightly expanding its efforts to counter ISIS activity in Libya, sending in small teams of troops to try to establish relationships with groups that may be able to form a new nationwide government, according to a U.S. defense official familiar with the operation. -CNNThe US is sending troops into Libya.Libya is seen as a dys...Read More

China asks Britain for advice on creating financial super-regulator ... China has asked Britain for advice on plans to create a financial super-regulator, as it looks to improve financial oversight following last year’s stock market crash, sources with knowledge of the talks told Reuters. -ReutersDevelopments reported in the mainstream media show once again how intertwined China is with We...Read More

Mexico fights back against ‘The Clown’ … Mexican officials are pursuing a counteroffensive to Trump's incendiary rhetoric, reaching out to U.S. business leaders, looking at ways to better use social media, and even encouraging qualified Mexicans to get U.S. citizenship. -PoliticoA few months ago we wrote an article entitled Trump and '60s Propaganda: Strategy to Launch North Am...Read More

Patience Urged as Airport Security Lines ... Travelers across the country have endured lengthy security lines, some snaking up and down escalators, or through food courts, and into terminal lobbies. At some airports, lines during peak hours have topped 90 minutes … The biggest help to ease lines is to have more fliers enroll in the PreCheck program. – Chicago TribuneHomeland Security...Read More

Trump’s ‘Crooked Hillary’ label may stick ... Donald Trump dispatched his Republican rivals by branding each one with an insulting but memorable nickname ... As the general election campaign nears, Trump has settled on a label for the likely Democratic nominee: "Crooked Hillary." "It works," he boasted to the New York Times. "It flows." -Los Angeles TimesWhen we start to see...Read More

Ontario parents who object to vaccines could be forced to take a class in science of immunization ... Parents in Ontario seeking a non-medical exemption to public-school immunization laws will soon have to take a course in the subject first. - National PostAnti-vaccine sentiments seem to be increasing. And such sentiments provide a textbook example of The Daily Bell's arguments regarding the imp...Read More

Western envoys in Uganda walk out of Museveni swearing-in 12 May 2016 ... The swearing-in ceremony was the fifth since President Museveni took power in 1986 Western delegations attending the inauguration of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni have walked out of the ceremony in protest. – BBCThe West has a positive fetish about large-scale justice. And its latest obsession is the Internationa...Read More

The Coup Plot That Seeks to Oust Brazil’s President ... Russia Blames ‘Foreign Interference’ for Brazil Coup ... CIA has an extensive record of carrying out covert operations around the globe aimed at destabilizing governments that refuse to comply with U.S. interests. – TelesurOver the past months, we've written several articles on Brazil and US destabilization of th...Read More

Republicans Pray Trump Will ‘Evolve’ on Foreign Policy ... Donald Trump may eventually find some common ground with Congress on economics, but there's less hope for unity between the Republicans and their presumptive presidential nominee when it comes to foreign policy. Some senior party figures hope Trump's views will "evolve" to the point where the party can feel comfortable defend...Read More

Central banks are loading up on gold ... This has been a great year for gold. The precious metal is up 19%, and recently crossed $1,300 per ounce for the first time in 15 months before pulling back into the $1,265 area. - Yahoo, Business InsiderYesterday, we wrote about two simple, powerful factors boosting gold.First, the equity "bull" market is at least seven years old now and can't be counted...Read More

Global corruption costs trillions in bribes, lost growth ... Public sector corruption siphons $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion annually from the global economy in bribes and costs far more in stunted economic growth, lost tax revenues and sustained poverty, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday. – ReutersThe IMF has just announced that doing away with corruption worldwide is "criti...Read More

Indian central bank governor says helicopter money no panacea ... Indian Central Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Tuesday that he had doubts “helicopter money”, or free cash given directly to citizens to stimulate growth, would be successful if adopted by developed world policymakers. -ReutersRaghuram Rajan has come out against helicopter money and this is probably to be expected f...Read More

Why China Is Prone to Bubbles ... The only sure way for China to prevent new bubbles is to tighten credit, slow money growth and allow risk to price assets properly. If the government keeps stepping in to prevent falling prices and to bail out banks or other investors, the possibility of loss is discounted. The probability of an asset crunch like the ones Japan experienced in the 1990s and the...Read More

Bloomberg Singer Says Gold Rally Just Beginning as Goldman Sees Losses ... Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer said that gold's best quarter in 30 years is probably just the beginning of a rebound as global investors — including Stan Druckenmiller — weigh the ramifications of unprecedented monetary easing on inflation. "It makes a great deal of sense to own gold. Other investors...Read More

Fault lines: GOP civil war deepens ... Donald Trump is poised to breeze through another round of primary contests this week — while the Republican Party splinters around him. Trump’s ascent to the top of the GOP, which was capped last week with Ted Cruz’s devastating loss in the Indiana primary, happened so fast that even the billionaire himself was surprised. And the whipsawed p...Read More

Panama Papers source breaks silence over ‘scale of injustices’ ... Whistleblower says leak of 11.5m Mossack Fonseca files on offshore tax havens has triggered debate but not enough action. -UK GuardianWho is this anonymous person who believes his vast Panama Papers leak hasn't triggered enough "action?"Why does he want Western governments to try harder to prosecute those who have put a...Read More

Creator of online money Liberty Reserve gets 20 years in prison ... Before the virtual currency Bitcoin there was Liberty Reserve — and its founder just got sentenced to 20 years in prison. Arthur Budovsky, 42, ran an online digital money business out of Costa Rica called Liberty Reserve. The U.S. government contended that the whole thing was just a massive, $6 billion money laundering opera...Read More