The $1 Trillion Short Underlying Stocks’ Spring ... Short interest reaches highest level since 2008 despite gains … Level is contrarian bullish, sets up powerful rally, says BofA ... A funny thing has happened in the U.S. stock market, where rather than loosen their grip bears have grown ever-more impassioned. They've sent short interest to an eight-year high and above $1 trillion, by...Read More

IMF warns of emerging market risk to U.S. stock markets ... Major emerging markets, led by China, are increasingly likely to spread fear to financial markets, leading to poor stock performance in the U.S. and other developed countries, the International Monetary Fund said. -MarketWatchThe IMF is back at work spreading fear. That's not what we are supposed to think of course. We're supposed to b...Read More

A Warning for Gold Bugs: This Rally Won't Last ... Gold prices surged 16.5% in the first quarter ... Gold investors should enjoy the party while they can. -Wall Street JournalThis small article is incorrect in some big ways.It's negative about gold despite the surge (or perhaps because of it) and predicts gold is headed back down against the dollar.It also claims that "gold doesn't have any intrin...Read More

"By virtue of exchange, one man's prosperity is beneficial to all others." – Fre??de??ric Bastiat.It remains one of the most powerful metaphors in economics. In 1850 Fre??de??ric Bastiat gave the world the story of the broken window. The son of a shopkeeper accidentally breaks a pane of glass in the shop. A crowd gathers at the scene.Pretty soon, the onlookers jump to the conclusion that it'...Read More

NASA’s Bolden: Mars mission is ‘closer than ever’ ... In the movie, “The Martian,” Matt Damon was a fictional astronaut stranded on Mars. In reality, the head of NASA says astronauts could set foot on the Red Planet within the next twenty years. “We think we’re on the right trajectory to get humans to Mars in the 2030’s,” NASA Administrator Cha...Read More

Once in a while in our lives we come across a book or an article, perhaps an interview, that causes us to pause and really consider our positions on a particular topic, to question our conclusions and perhaps even adjust our way of looking at and thinking about the issue. In even rarer instances we make changes in the way we live because of such an influence.Libertarian philosopher Tibor R. Machan...Read More

There's A Huge New Corporate Corruption Scandal. Here's Why Everyone Should Care. Bribery fuels political instability - and it's a propaganda tool for terrorists. - Huffington PostThe Huffington Post and Fairfax Media seem to have taken over the Internet with their huge story on corruption in the oil industry.Here’s how they summarize it:A Fairfax Media and Huffington Post investigation has...Read More

One promising new approach is to keep track of the vaccine myths circulating in cyberspace and rebut each one as it appears. This requires tracking information from search engines and following anti-vaccination websites and parents' forums. – EconomistThe battle against anti-vaccine websites and individuals is about to intensify.Rather than fighting on just a PR front, authorities are now p...Read More

Yellen Says Caution in Raising Rates Is 'Especially Warranted' ... Fed Chair makes case for go-slow changes with rate near zero ... Janet Yellen said it is appropriate for U.S. central bankers to "proceed cautiously" in raising interest rates because the global economy presents heightened risks. The speech to the Economic Club of New York made a strong case for running the economy hot to push aw...Read More

… Along with the crackdown on dissent and freedom of speech, as well as an increasingly ideological tone, some observers worry that Chinese politics is now taking a more authoritarian direction of the kind not seen since the days of Chairman Mao. And with the normal political process so opaque and closed, the things we can glimpse on the edges of China’s parliamentary set pieces are...Read More

Tony Blair [in the Sunday Times]: Britain and its western allies must be prepared to send ground troops to "crush" Islamic State forces or risk a terror attack in Europe of "such size and horror" that draconian security measures would have to be introduced, Tony Blair has said. -GuardianIn a widely noted editorial, Tony Blair is speaking up again, pounding the drums for war without apology. This a...Read More

The Rio Olympics Could Be the Next Victim of Brazil's Corruption Scandal ... A massive corruption investigation is reaching into construction deals done for the already troubled Rio 2016 ... Two multibillion dollar projects linked to the troubled Rio 2016 Olympic Games have been drawn into Brazil's ever-growing corruption scandal. -TIMEBrazil is under covert attack from global elites using the US...Read More

Tony Blair has warned against “flabby liberalism” and says there needs to be a tougher centre ground approach to issues such as tackling extremism and responding to the refugee crisis ... He argues that education against extremism and intolerance will come to be seen as an international obligation – in the way that environmental policy, such as tackling pollution, is addressed...Read More

Nixon Aide Reportedly Admitted Drug War Was Meant To Target Black People ... pulls back the curtain on the true motivation of the United States' war on drugs. -Huffington PostThe Huffington Post article, excerpted above, blames the Nixon administration for the "war on drugs" and is based on a cover story in Harper's magazine by Dan Baum.Baum’s long article eventually makes the case for...Read More

The lords of finance are losing their touch. Institutions which dragged the world from its worst depression since the early 20th century are finally seeing their magic desert them, if conventional wisdom is to be believed. -UK TelegraphWe have read a deluge of mainstream media articles about central banking problems and the article quoted above is no exception.When the mainstream media trumpet...Read More

New York Times ... With 'Smog Jog' Through Beijing, Zuckerberg Stirs Debate on Air Pollution ... Some noted he should have worn a face mask ... Others simply took umbrage with where the photo was staged, at the heart of Tiananmen Square."The floor you stepped has been covered by blood from students ..." wrote a user named Cao Yuzhou. - New York TimesMark Zuckerberg’s China trip turned surpri...Read More

“Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability ... Against this backdrop, the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 1/4 to 1/2 percent. The stance of monetary policy remains accommodative, thereby supporting further improvement in labor market conditions and a return to 2 percent inflation.&#...Read More

"Prosperity is like a Jenga tower. Take one piece out and the whole thing can fall."That's a direct quote from John Williams, the President of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank in a speech he gave a few weeks ago.He could have just as easily been talking about propaganda. The Fed, the White House, Wall Street, the media have a vested interest in peddling a certain narrative about the economy....Read More

George Soros Forms Pro "Illegals" Super PAC To Shift Election ... Soros Dumping Millions Into Questionable Voter Influence Campaign - Illegals? ... Their tools in the onslaught are what the New York Times describes as "Latinos and other immigrants." -RickWellsCall this decade "1960's Redux"- mostly because the men at the top want it this way.They want continued and expanded polarization. They seek...Read More

CFR Elites Seek Renewed Military Spending Around the WorldNew World Order is New World Disorder ... Richard Haass, president at Council on Foreign Relations, discusses this weekend’s attacks in Turkey and the Ivory Coast and the importance of international leadership by the United States. He speaks on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” – BloombergThe Council on Foreign Relations is...Read More