Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Another 1/2" of rain in Ojai, CA...
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Every 7 to 10 days since Halloween....
Friday, February 27, 2015
How Many Constitutional Rights Have We Lost? ALL OF THEM!
How Many Constitutional Freedoms Have We Lost?
This post explains the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution – and provides a scorecard on the extent of the loss of each right. (This is an updated version of an essay we wrote in February. Unfortunately, a lot of information has come out since then.)First Amendment
The 1st Amendment protects speech, religion, assembly and the press:The Supreme Court has also interpreted the First Amendment as protecting freedom of association.Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
However, the government is arresting those speaking out … and violently crushing peaceful assemblies which attempt to petition the government for redress.
A federal judge found that the law allowing indefinite detention of Americans without due process has a “chilling effect” on free speech. And see this and this.
There are also enacted laws allowing the secret service to arrest anyone protesting near the president or other designated folks (that might explain incidents like this).
Mass spying by the NSA violates our freedom of association.
The threat of being labeled a terrorist for exercising our First Amendment rights certainly violates the First Amendment. The government is using laws to crush dissent, and it’s gotten so bad that even U.S. Supreme Court justices are saying that we are descending into tyranny. (And the U.S. is doing the same things that tyrannical governments have done for 5,000 years to crush dissent.)
For example, the following actions may get an American citizen living on U.S. soil labeled as a “suspected terrorist” today:
- Taking any steps to protect your privacy (and see this)
- Complaining about the taste of your tap water
- Being young (if you live near a battle zone, you are fair game; and see this)
- Reporting or doing journalism (and here and here)
- Having “strange odors” or “bright colored stains on clothes” (what if you eat mustard or ketchup?)
- Protesting anything (such as participating in the “Occupy” or “Tea Party” movements). For example, Department of Defense training manuals classify all protest as “low-level terrorism”. And see this, this, this and this
- Questioning war (even though war reduces our national security; and see this)
- Criticizing the government’s targeting of innocent civilians with drones (although killing innocent civilians with drones is one of the main things which increases terrorism. And see this)
- Stocking up on more than 7 days of food (even though all Mormons are taught to stockpile food, and most Hawaiians store up on extra food)
- (Not having a Facebook account may soon be added)
- Liking the Founding Fathers
- Being a Christian
- Being “anti-nuclear”
- Being “anti-abortion”
- Being “anti-Catholic”
- Being “anti-global”
And 1st Amendment rights are especially chilled when power has become so concentrated that the same agency which spies on all Americans also decides who should be assassinated.
Second Amendment
The 2nd Amendment states:Gun control and gun rights advocates obviously have very different views about whether guns are a force for violence or for good.A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
But even a top liberal Constitutional law expert reluctantly admits that the right to own a gun is as important a Constitutional right as freedom of speech or religion:
The gun control debate – including which weapons and magazines are banned – is still in flux …Like many academics, I was happy to blissfully ignore the Second Amendment. It did not fit neatly into my socially liberal agenda.
***
It is hard to read the Second Amendment and not honestly conclude that the Framers intended gun ownership to be an individual right. It is true that the amendment begins with a reference to militias: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Accordingly, it is argued, this amendment protects the right of the militia to bear arms, not the individual.
Yet, if true, the Second Amendment would be effectively declared a defunct provision. The National Guard is not a true militia in the sense of the Second Amendment and, since the District and others believe governments can ban guns entirely, the Second Amendment would be read out of existence.
***
More important, the mere reference to a purpose of the Second Amendment does not alter the fact that an individual right is created. The right of the people to keep and bear arms is stated in the same way as the right to free speech or free press. The statement of a purpose was intended to reaffirm the power of the states and the people against the central government. At the time, many feared the federal government and its national army. Gun ownership was viewed as a deterrent against abuse by the government, which would be less likely to mess with a well-armed populace.
Considering the Framers and their own traditions of hunting and self-defense, it is clear that they would have viewed such ownership as an individual right — consistent with the plain meaning of the amendment.
None of this is easy for someone raised to believe that the Second Amendment was the dividing line between the enlightenment and the dark ages of American culture. Yet, it is time to honestly reconsider this amendment and admit that … here’s the really hard part … the NRA may have been right. This does not mean that Charlton Heston is the new Rosa Parks or that no restrictions can be placed on gun ownership. But it does appear that gun ownership was made a protected right by the Framers and, while we might not celebrate it, it is time that we recognize it.
Third Amendment
The 3rd Amendment prohibits the government forcing people to house soldiers:A recent lawsuit by a Nevada family – covered by (Mother Jones, Fox News and Courthouse News – alleges violation of the Third Amendment.No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Moreover, the military is arguably quartering “digital” troops within our homes.
Painting by Anthony Freda: www.AnthonyFreda.com.
Fourth Amendment
The 4th Amendment prevents unlawful search and seizure:But the government is spying on everything we do … without any real benefit or justification.The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Indeed, experts say that the type of spying being carried out by the NSA and other agencies is exactly the kind of thing which King George imposed on the American colonists … which led to the Revolutionary War.
And many Constitutional experts – such as Jonathan Turley – think that the police went too far in Boston with lockdowns and involuntary door-to-door searches.
Fifth Amendment
The 5th Amendment addresses due process of law, eminent domain, double jeopardy and grand jury:But the American government has shredded the 5th Amendment by subjecting us to indefinite detention and taking away our due process rights.No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
The government claims the right to assassinate or indefinitely detain any American citizen on U.S. citizen without any due process. And see this.
For example, American citizens are being detained in Guantanamo-like conditions in Chicago … including:
- Brutality
- Being held in secret
- Not even telling a suspect’s lawyer whether his client is being held?
As such, the government is certainly depriving people of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
There are additional corruptions of 5th Amendment rights – such as property being taken for private purposes. And the right to remain silent is gone.
The percentage of prosecutions in which a defendant is denied a grand jury is difficult to gauge, as there is so much secrecy surrounding many terrorism trials.
Image by William BanzaiSixth Amendment
The 6th Amendment guarantees the right to hear the criminal charges levied against us and to be able to confront the witnesses who have testified against us, as well as speedy criminal trials, and a public defender for those who cannot hire an attorney:Subjecting people to indefinite detention or assassination obviously violates the 6th Amendment right to a jury trial. In both cases, the defendants is “disposed of” without ever receiving a trial … and often without ever hearing the charges against them.In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
More and more commonly, the government prosecutes cases based upon “secret evidence” that they don’t show to the defendant … or sometimes even the judge hearing the case.
The government uses “secret evidence” to spy on Americans, prosecute leaking or terrorism charges (even against U.S. soldiers) and even assassinate people. And see this and this.
Secret witnesses are being used in some cases. And sometimes lawyers are not even allowed to read their own briefs.
Indeed, even the laws themselves are now starting to be kept secret. And it’s about to get a lot worse.
Moreover, government is “laundering” information gained through mass surveillance through other agencies, with an agreement that the agencies will “recreate” the evidence in a “parallel construction” … so they don’t have to admit that the evidence came from unconstitutional spying. A former top NSA official says that this is the opposite of following the Fourth Amendment, but is a “totalitarian process” which shows that we’re in a “police state”.
And there are two systems of justice in America … one for the big banks and other fatcats, and one for everyone else. The government made it official policy not to prosecute fraud, even though fraud is the main business model adopted by Wall Street. Indeed, the biggest financial crime in world history, the largest insider trading scandal of all time, illegal raiding of customer accounts and blatant financing of drug cartels and terrorists have all been committed recently without any real criminal prosecution or jail time.
On the other hand, government prosecutors are using the legal system to crush dissent and to silence whistleblowers.
And some of the nation’s most powerful judges have lost their independence … and are in bed with the powers-that-be.
Seventh Amendment
The 7th Amendment guarantees trial by jury in federal court for civil cases:But there are two systems of justice in America … one for the big banks and other fatcats, and one for everyone else. So good luck going after the powers-that-be.In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
And the World Justice Project – a bipartisan, independent group with honorary chairs including numerous current and former Supreme Court Justices – released a report saying that Americans have less access to justice than most wealthy countries … and many developing nations. The report finds that Americans have less access to justice than Botswanans, and that only the wealthy have the resources to protect rights using the court system:
For example, Germans sue equally whether they are rich or poor … but in America, only the wealthy have the resources to protect rights using the court system:
And the austerity caused by the highest levels of inequality in world history – which are in turn is caused by socialist actions by our government, which have destroyed the Founding Fathers’ vision of prosperity – is causing severe budget cuts to the courts, resulting in the wheels of justice slowing down considerably.
Finally, federal judges have recently decided that they can pre-judge cases before the plaintiff even has the chance to conduct discovery … and throw cases out if they don’t like plaintiff’s case.
Painting by Anthony Freda: www.AnthonyFreda.com
Eighth Amendment
The 8th Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment:Indefinite detention and assassination are obviously cruel and unusual punishment.Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
The widespread system of torture carried out in the last 10 years – with the help of other countries – violates the 8th Amendment. Many want to bring it back … or at least justify its past use.
While Justice Scalia disingenuously argues that torture does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment because it is meant to produce information – not punish – he’s wrong. It’s not only cruel and unusual … it is technically a form of terrorism.
And government whistleblowers are being cruelly and unusually punished with unduly harsh sentences meant to intimidate anyone else from speaking out.
Ninth Amendment
The 9th Amendment provides that people have other rights, even if they aren’t specifically listed in the Constitution:We can debate what our inherent rights as human beings are. I believe they include the right to a level playing field, and access to non-toxic food and water. You may disagree.The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
But everyone agrees that the government should not actively encourage fraud and manipulation. However, the government – through its malignant, symbiotic relation with big corporations – is interfering with our aspirations for economic freedom, safe food and water (instead of arsenic-laden, genetically engineered junk), freedom from undue health hazards such as irradiation due to government support of archaic nuclear power designs, and a level playing field (as opposed to our crony capitalist system in which the little guy has no shot due to redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the super-elite, and government support of white collar criminals).
By working hand-in-glove with giant corporations to defraud us into paying for a lower quality of life, the government is trampling our basic rights as human beings.
Tenth Amendment
The 10th Amendment provides that powers not specifically given to the Federal government are reserved to the states or individual:Two of the central principles of America’s Founding Fathers are:The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Today, most Americans believe that the government is threatening – rather than protecting – freedom. We’ve become more afraid of our government than of terrorists, and believe that the government is no longer acting with the “consent of the governed“.(1) The government is created and empowered with the consent of the people
and
(2) Separation of powers
And the federal government is trampling the separation of powers by stepping on the toes of the states and the people. For example, former head S&L prosecutor Bill Black – now a professor of law and economics – notes:
Indeed, the federal government is doing everything it can to stick its nose into every aspect of our lives … and act like Big Brother.The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the resident examiners and regional staff of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency [both] competed to weaken federal regulation and aggressively used the preemption doctrine to try to prevent state investigations of and actions against fraudulent mortgage lenders.
Conclusion: While a few of the liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights still exist, the vast majority are under heavy assault.
Other Constitutional Provisions … and The Declaration of Independence
In addition to the trampling of the Bill of Rights, the government has also trashed the separation of powers enshrined in the main body of the Constitution.The government is also engaging in activities which the Founding Fathers fought against, such as taxation without representation (here and here), cronyism, deference to central banks, etc.
As the preamble to the Declaration of Independence shows, the American government is still carrying out many of the acts the Founding Fathers found most offensive:
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. [Background here and here]
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. [Background here, here, here, here and here]
***
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: [Background]
***
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences [Background]
***
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the
Head of a civilized nation. [Background]
***
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. [Background here, here and here]
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Ojai Valley Ca and the Sierras Rainfall, every 10 days since halloween 2014
Rainfall in Ojai!
Rainfall in the Sierras!
Exceeding yearly seasonal averages!
WHAT DROUGHT?
Rainfall in the Sierras!
Exceeding yearly seasonal averages!
WHAT DROUGHT?
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Debt Crash: History and Introduction
Debt Crash: History and Introduction: We go to grade school to get a good knowledge base to go to high school. When in high school the generally accepted goal is to get in to a...
Tesla, going green con games, and restricting human "use" of resources. MEaning, you get hustled, financially raped, and conned into living like a trapped animal in mass housing.
The trouble with the money printing madness in the Eccles Building is that it generates huge deformations, misallocations and speculative excesses in the financial markets. Eventually these bubbles splatter, as they have twice this century. The resulting carnage, needless to say, is not small. Combined financial and real estate asset markdowns totaled about $7 trillion after the dotcom bust and $15 trillion during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
Yes, the Fed has managed to reflate this cheap money bubble for the third time now, but the certainty that it will splatter once again is not the issue at hand. What gets lost in the serial bubble-making process of modern central banking is that vast real resources—labor, capital and materials—- are misallocated owing to mispricing of stock, bonds and real estate during the bubble inflation phase.
During the bust phase, of course, these excesses are written-down on financial statements and often liquidated entirely on an operational basis. But that’s just the problem. These bust-phase corrections amount to deadweight losses to the economy—-a permanent setback to growth and societal prosperity.
The Wall Street casino is now festooned with giant deadweight losses waiting to happen. But perhaps none is more egregious than Tesla—–a crony capitalist con job that has long been insolvent, and has survived only by dint of prodigious taxpayer subsidies and billions of free money from the Fed’s Wall Street casino.
Not surprisingly, the speculative mania on Wall Street has reached such absurd lengths that Telsa is being heralded and valued as the second coming of Apple and its circus barker CEO, Elon Musk, as the next Henry Ford. Indeed, so raptured were the day traders and gamblers that in the short span of 33 months between early 2012 and September 2014 they ramped up Tesla’s market cap from $2.5 billion to a peak of $35 billion.
That’s a 14X gain in virtually no time—-and its not due to the invention of a revolutionary new product like the i-Pad. Instead, we’re talking about 4,600 pounds of sheet metal, plastic, rubber and glass equipped with an electric battery power pack that has been around for decades, and which is not remotely economic without deep government subsidies.
Beyond that, the various Tesla models currently on the market carry price tags of $75k to more than $100k. So they are essentially vanity toys for the wealthy—–a form of conspicuous consumption for the “all things green” crowd.
But notwithstanding all the hype on Wall Street, there was nothing remotely evident in its financials that justified Telsa’s $35 billion peak market cap. Net sales for the LTM period ended in September amounted to $2.9 billion, meaning that speculators were putting a silicon valley style multiple of 12X sales on a 100-year old industrial product; and one sold by a fly-by-night company distinguished from its auto company peers, which trade at 0.5X sales, only by marketing hype and a high cost power plant that could be made by any of two dozen global car companies if there was actually a mass market demand for it.
Needless to say, Tesla’s meager LTM sales were not accompanied by any sign of profits or positive cash flow. September’s LTM net income clocked in at negative $200 million, and operating cash flow of $150 million was dwarfed by CapEx of $700 million.
Unless you are imbibing in the hallucination-inducing Cool Aid dispensed by Goldman Sachs, which took this red-ink machine public in 2009 and has milked it via underwritings, advisories and early stage investments for billions, Tesla’s valuation was patently absurd. Yet the gamblers piled-in based on the utterly improbable assumption that oil would remain at $115 per barrel for ever; that a mass market for electric battery autos would soon develop; and that none of the powerhouse marketing and engineering companies like BMW, Toyota or even Ford would contest Tesla for market share at standard industry profit margins.
The truth is, there is massive excess capacity in the global auto industry owing to government subsidies and bailouts and to union protectionism that keep uncompetitive capacity alive; and that chronic condition is now especially pronounced due to the wildly soaring growth of unused production capacity in China. This means that the global economy is literally saturated with expert resources for auto engineering, design, assembly, machining and component supply.
Consequently, if a mass market were to develop for battery powered vehicles these incumbent industry resources would literally swarm into Tesla’s backyard. So doing, they would eventually drive margins to normal levels, sending Elon Musk’s razzmatazz up in the same cloud of smoke that has afflicted many of his vehicles.
These is no reason to think that any long-term mass market player in the auto industry could beat Toyota’s sustained performance metrics. In the most recent period, its net profits amounted to 7.5% of sales and it traded at 11X LTM net income. So even if you take as granted the far-fetched notion that in a world of $2-3 per gallon gasoline——-which is likely here for a sustained duration—-that a mass market will develop for electric battery vehicles, Telsa would still need upwards of $50 billion of sales at Toyota profit rates and valuation multiples to justify last September’s peak market cap.
So let’s see. Tesla’ CY 2014 sales totaled $3.2 billion, meaning that you would need to bet on a 16X gain in sales over the next few years and that today’s rag tag start-up manufacturing operation could achieve levels of efficiency, quality and reliability that it has taken Toyota 60 years to perfect. Yet take one hard look at Tesla’s historical financials and it is blindingly evident that there is no reason for such an assumption whatsoever.
In fact, Tesla is not a Toyota in the making; it is a Wall Street scam in plain sight. It has been a public filer for seven years now, and here are the horrific figures from its financial statements.
Since 2007 it has booked cumulative sales of just $6.1 billion, and that ain’t much in autoland; it amounts to about one week of sales by Toyota and two weeks by Ford. Its cumulative bottom line has been a net loss of $1.4 billion, and the losses are not shrinking—-having totaled nearly $300 million for 2014 alone.
More significantly, during its entire seven years as a public filer, Tesla has failed to generate any net operating cash flow (OCF) at all, and has, in fact, posted red ink of $500 million on the OCF line. During the same 7-year span ending in Q4 of 2014, its CapEx amounted to a cumulative $ 1.8 billion.
So go figure. Combining OCF and CapEx you get a balance sheet hemorrhage of nearly $2.4 billion. The real question, therefore, is not why Tesla was worth $35 billion, but why it wasn’t bankrupt long ago?
The answer is that it was and should be now. Tesla would not have even made it to its Goldman-led IPO without a $500 million bailout by Uncle Sam. That the hard-pressed taxpayers of America were called upon to underwrite a vanity toy for the wealthy—–and one peddled by a serial milker of the public teat—is surely a measure of how deep crony capitalist corruption has penetrated into the business system of America.
But even these egregious windfalls do not begin to compare with the gifts showered on Elon Musk by the money printers in the Eccles building. Tesla has stayed alive only because it has been able to raise billions of convertible debt in the Wall Street casino at yields which are the next best thing to free money. In short, it has been burning massive dollops of cash for years and replenishing itself periodically in capital markets which are rife with momo speculators flying high on cheap carry trades and the Fed’s buy-the-dip safety net.
During the spring of 2014, for instance, it raised $2.3 billion of 5- and 7-year money at interest rates ranging between 25bps and 125bps. That’s right. This company is a red ink spewing rank speculation, but the money printers have enabled it to raise cash that costs virtually nothing on an after tax basis. Call it free money for the Telsa bonfire of the vanities.
True enough, these miniscule interest rates were attached to convertible bonds—-so supposedly the “upside” justified giving a proven red ink machine free money. Yes, and the strike price on those converts implied a market cap of about $50 billion!
In truth, Tesla’s true losses are even greater than its accounting statements suggests. For instance, it has booked upwards of $500 million of revenue and profits owing to ZEV (zero emissions vehicle) credits. The latter were invented by Al Gore after he finished inventing the internet, and amount to nothing more than bottled air—-clean or not.
Also, Tesla’s affluent customers pocket about $10,000 per vehicle of Federal and state tax credits, meaning that taxpayers have fronted another $500 million or so to stimulate Tesla sales.
Finally, Tesla’s marketing machine has even converted itself into a repo man for the wealthy. That is, Tesla guarantees a large share of its customers that it will buy back their vehicles at no loss after three years.
So how does it possibly make a profit deploying this blatant free rent-a-car gimmick? Ask its accountants. In their wisdom and clairvoyance, they have undoubtedly assumed that the residual value of these vehicles will be levitated by the same juice which fuels Tesla’s stock price.
Yes, Tesla is a bonfire of the vanities. In due course, the bubble will collapse and billions will have been wasted—-much of it with taxpayer money—on things like its imaginary gigafactory in Nevada. But that’s what happens when central bankers destroy honest price discovery and turn capital markets into a gambling casino.
Oh, yes, and the whole “green” story is a crock, too.
* * *
Eric Peters lays that out in chapter and verse below.
By Eric Peters
Yes, the Fed has managed to reflate this cheap money bubble for the third time now, but the certainty that it will splatter once again is not the issue at hand. What gets lost in the serial bubble-making process of modern central banking is that vast real resources—labor, capital and materials—- are misallocated owing to mispricing of stock, bonds and real estate during the bubble inflation phase.
During the bust phase, of course, these excesses are written-down on financial statements and often liquidated entirely on an operational basis. But that’s just the problem. These bust-phase corrections amount to deadweight losses to the economy—-a permanent setback to growth and societal prosperity.
The Wall Street casino is now festooned with giant deadweight losses waiting to happen. But perhaps none is more egregious than Tesla—–a crony capitalist con job that has long been insolvent, and has survived only by dint of prodigious taxpayer subsidies and billions of free money from the Fed’s Wall Street casino.
Not surprisingly, the speculative mania on Wall Street has reached such absurd lengths that Telsa is being heralded and valued as the second coming of Apple and its circus barker CEO, Elon Musk, as the next Henry Ford. Indeed, so raptured were the day traders and gamblers that in the short span of 33 months between early 2012 and September 2014 they ramped up Tesla’s market cap from $2.5 billion to a peak of $35 billion.
That’s a 14X gain in virtually no time—-and its not due to the invention of a revolutionary new product like the i-Pad. Instead, we’re talking about 4,600 pounds of sheet metal, plastic, rubber and glass equipped with an electric battery power pack that has been around for decades, and which is not remotely economic without deep government subsidies.
Beyond that, the various Tesla models currently on the market carry price tags of $75k to more than $100k. So they are essentially vanity toys for the wealthy—–a form of conspicuous consumption for the “all things green” crowd.
But notwithstanding all the hype on Wall Street, there was nothing remotely evident in its financials that justified Telsa’s $35 billion peak market cap. Net sales for the LTM period ended in September amounted to $2.9 billion, meaning that speculators were putting a silicon valley style multiple of 12X sales on a 100-year old industrial product; and one sold by a fly-by-night company distinguished from its auto company peers, which trade at 0.5X sales, only by marketing hype and a high cost power plant that could be made by any of two dozen global car companies if there was actually a mass market demand for it.
Needless to say, Tesla’s meager LTM sales were not accompanied by any sign of profits or positive cash flow. September’s LTM net income clocked in at negative $200 million, and operating cash flow of $150 million was dwarfed by CapEx of $700 million.
Unless you are imbibing in the hallucination-inducing Cool Aid dispensed by Goldman Sachs, which took this red-ink machine public in 2009 and has milked it via underwritings, advisories and early stage investments for billions, Tesla’s valuation was patently absurd. Yet the gamblers piled-in based on the utterly improbable assumption that oil would remain at $115 per barrel for ever; that a mass market for electric battery autos would soon develop; and that none of the powerhouse marketing and engineering companies like BMW, Toyota or even Ford would contest Tesla for market share at standard industry profit margins.
The truth is, there is massive excess capacity in the global auto industry owing to government subsidies and bailouts and to union protectionism that keep uncompetitive capacity alive; and that chronic condition is now especially pronounced due to the wildly soaring growth of unused production capacity in China. This means that the global economy is literally saturated with expert resources for auto engineering, design, assembly, machining and component supply.
Consequently, if a mass market were to develop for battery powered vehicles these incumbent industry resources would literally swarm into Tesla’s backyard. So doing, they would eventually drive margins to normal levels, sending Elon Musk’s razzmatazz up in the same cloud of smoke that has afflicted many of his vehicles.
These is no reason to think that any long-term mass market player in the auto industry could beat Toyota’s sustained performance metrics. In the most recent period, its net profits amounted to 7.5% of sales and it traded at 11X LTM net income. So even if you take as granted the far-fetched notion that in a world of $2-3 per gallon gasoline——-which is likely here for a sustained duration—-that a mass market will develop for electric battery vehicles, Telsa would still need upwards of $50 billion of sales at Toyota profit rates and valuation multiples to justify last September’s peak market cap.
So let’s see. Tesla’ CY 2014 sales totaled $3.2 billion, meaning that you would need to bet on a 16X gain in sales over the next few years and that today’s rag tag start-up manufacturing operation could achieve levels of efficiency, quality and reliability that it has taken Toyota 60 years to perfect. Yet take one hard look at Tesla’s historical financials and it is blindingly evident that there is no reason for such an assumption whatsoever.
In fact, Tesla is not a Toyota in the making; it is a Wall Street scam in plain sight. It has been a public filer for seven years now, and here are the horrific figures from its financial statements.
Since 2007 it has booked cumulative sales of just $6.1 billion, and that ain’t much in autoland; it amounts to about one week of sales by Toyota and two weeks by Ford. Its cumulative bottom line has been a net loss of $1.4 billion, and the losses are not shrinking—-having totaled nearly $300 million for 2014 alone.
More significantly, during its entire seven years as a public filer, Tesla has failed to generate any net operating cash flow (OCF) at all, and has, in fact, posted red ink of $500 million on the OCF line. During the same 7-year span ending in Q4 of 2014, its CapEx amounted to a cumulative $ 1.8 billion.
So go figure. Combining OCF and CapEx you get a balance sheet hemorrhage of nearly $2.4 billion. The real question, therefore, is not why Tesla was worth $35 billion, but why it wasn’t bankrupt long ago?
The answer is that it was and should be now. Tesla would not have even made it to its Goldman-led IPO without a $500 million bailout by Uncle Sam. That the hard-pressed taxpayers of America were called upon to underwrite a vanity toy for the wealthy—–and one peddled by a serial milker of the public teat—is surely a measure of how deep crony capitalist corruption has penetrated into the business system of America.
But even these egregious windfalls do not begin to compare with the gifts showered on Elon Musk by the money printers in the Eccles building. Tesla has stayed alive only because it has been able to raise billions of convertible debt in the Wall Street casino at yields which are the next best thing to free money. In short, it has been burning massive dollops of cash for years and replenishing itself periodically in capital markets which are rife with momo speculators flying high on cheap carry trades and the Fed’s buy-the-dip safety net.
During the spring of 2014, for instance, it raised $2.3 billion of 5- and 7-year money at interest rates ranging between 25bps and 125bps. That’s right. This company is a red ink spewing rank speculation, but the money printers have enabled it to raise cash that costs virtually nothing on an after tax basis. Call it free money for the Telsa bonfire of the vanities.
True enough, these miniscule interest rates were attached to convertible bonds—-so supposedly the “upside” justified giving a proven red ink machine free money. Yes, and the strike price on those converts implied a market cap of about $50 billion!
In truth, Tesla’s true losses are even greater than its accounting statements suggests. For instance, it has booked upwards of $500 million of revenue and profits owing to ZEV (zero emissions vehicle) credits. The latter were invented by Al Gore after he finished inventing the internet, and amount to nothing more than bottled air—-clean or not.
Also, Tesla’s affluent customers pocket about $10,000 per vehicle of Federal and state tax credits, meaning that taxpayers have fronted another $500 million or so to stimulate Tesla sales.
Finally, Tesla’s marketing machine has even converted itself into a repo man for the wealthy. That is, Tesla guarantees a large share of its customers that it will buy back their vehicles at no loss after three years.
So how does it possibly make a profit deploying this blatant free rent-a-car gimmick? Ask its accountants. In their wisdom and clairvoyance, they have undoubtedly assumed that the residual value of these vehicles will be levitated by the same juice which fuels Tesla’s stock price.
Yes, Tesla is a bonfire of the vanities. In due course, the bubble will collapse and billions will have been wasted—-much of it with taxpayer money—on things like its imaginary gigafactory in Nevada. But that’s what happens when central bankers destroy honest price discovery and turn capital markets into a gambling casino.
Oh, yes, and the whole “green” story is a crock, too.
* * *
Eric Peters lays that out in chapter and verse below.
By Eric Peters
There is an episode of the TV show Top Gear involving a Prius hybrid and automatic weapons. God, I wish I could afford to do the same to a Tesla.
Unfortunately, I (and thee) are too poor to afford a Tesla. But that doesn’t mean we won’t continue to be forced to “help” Elon Musk build these mobile – just barely (and briefly) monuments to crony capitalism.
This is a company that bleeds money like a machine-gunned hemophiliac, yet doesn’t die because fresh transfusions are always available. Just last week it was announced the company lost another $100 million and change while delivering fewer than 10,000 cars. Tesla has yet to earn – properly speaking – a single honest dollar. The money it takes in (a very different thing) is obtained chiefly via carbon tax credits ($130 million from the state of California alone; that is to say, from the pockets of the taxpayers of the state of California) and everyone knows all about the $7,500 per car subsidy Uncle dangles in front of prospects to lure them into buying one of these flashy, yet functionally useless, electric Edsels. There are in addition state-level subsidies (in 23 states) ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 per “sale.”
Do you know what a “carbon tax credit” is? It’s a tax, first of all – only one paid to an entity (I won’t call it a company, as companies are businesses and Tesla is neither) like Tesla rather than to the government. Here’s how it works. I own a business that makes things people are actually willing to buy without being coerced or subsidized. But, alas, my manufacture of this product results in “greenhouse gasses” – carbon dioxide having been decreed the primary one (even though it far less of one than several other gasses, such as methane and also water vapor; but we’ll leave that aside for now).
Well, I want to make the thing and you want to buy the thing, but in order for me to be allowed to make it, I must send money to an entity like Tesla as a kind of (no, an actual) kickback. Because Tesla is “green” while I am not – except of course as regards the color of the money that’s been transferred to Elon Musk’s ever-growing bank account – which is very green indeed.
The argument is that each Tesla built with these kickback dollars amounts to “x” quantity of carbon dioxide negated overall. I’m allowed to build my economically viable product, so long as I “help” Tesla manufacture his not-economically viable products.
But they are “green,” right?
Certainly. In the same way that an outhouse is clean… before you use it. Only with Tesla, it’s the reverse. The finished car may not produce any noxious emissions, but it took a lot of noxious emissions to build the thing. Do American haters of internal combustion ever stop to wonder why Tesla is building its “Gigafactory” in… China?
Where there is no EPA?
Do you know what goes into making a Tesla’s lithium-ion electric battery pack? Caustic, highly reactive solvents and cobalt oxide, a nasty compound that is uber poisonous and carcinogenic. Carbon dioxide and water vapor have been accused of triggering “global warming” (oops, “climate change” now) but breathing either will not give you cancer or neurological problems.
Cobalt, on the other hand… .
And how do you get cobalt? By mining other materials such as nickel and copper. Then, using various noxious processes to separate out the cobalt, such as “froth flotation,” “roasting” and “leaching” with sulfuric acid.
Mmmm mmmmm good!
This form of Gaia-rape is ok, though, because it does not occur within sight of Al Gore’s house. Most of the cobalt needed to make Tesla and other electric batteries is located in places like China, Afghanistan and Africa. Those parts of the earth are ok to fist and finger.
Battery production (like sausage making) is an aspect of EVs that is routinely overlooked – deliberately. Because the picture isn’t pretty. In addition to the environmental nastiness of the materials, it takes a great deal of un-green energy to transform those materials into the finished product (a battery). Nearly twice the energy that goes into making a conventional (internal combustion engined) car, as it turns out.
Where does this energy come from? Like mountain oysters, you really don’t want to know. But maybe you should. Coal and oil. Which are used to run the heavy industry plants that make the damned things. And which also make most of the electricity that powers the damned things. Did you know that electric cars that depend on coal and electric utilities are actually 17-26 percent worse, in terms of their total “carbon footprint, than a gas or diesel-engined car? (Those interested in more will find this study worth a look.)
Captain Planet, phone your office.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk continues to suckle the teat of Uncle. Which he must, because his operation is fundamentally a con. Without the force of government backing him, he’d have to bankroll this epic failure himself – which a smart guy like Musk would be unlikely to do. If we had a free market, he’d have no choice but to do that… or shut down.
Instead, he does the corporatist thing.
Which would less obnoxious if he didn’t constantly preen about the virtues of lightening the wallets of millions of average people so as to further fatten the wallets of millionaires and billionaires, who are the only people buying Teslas and profiting from their existence.
Throw ‘em in the Woods.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
This is why you SHOULD NOT do banking of any kind from ANY KIND of SMART PHONE
About 16 million mobile devices are infected by malicious software that is secretly spying on users, stealing confidential information and pilfering data plans.
That’s the word from Alcatel-Lucent’s Motive Security Labs, which in a study found that malware infections in mobile devices rose a full 25% in 2014, compared to a 20% increase in 2013. In fact, the uptick is so spectacular that Android devices have now caught up with Windows laptops, which had been the primary workhorse of cybercrime, with infection rates between Android and Windows devices split an even 50/50 in 2014.
“With one billion Android devices shipped in 2014, the platform is a favorite target of cybercriminals who can have lots of infection success without a lot of work,” said Kevin McNamee, director of Motive, in a blog. “Android is more exposed than rivals because of its open platform and by allowing users to download apps from third-party stores where apps are not always well-vetted.”
The mobile infection rate in 2014 was 0.68%. Fewer than 1% of infections come from iPhone and Blackberry smartphones.
Malware growth continues to be aided by the fact that a vast majority of mobile device owners do not take proper device security precautions. But here, service providers can be the hero. The survey found that 65% of subscribers instead expect their service provider to protect both their mobile and home devices. Fifty-five percent indicated they would be willing to pay for such a service. And of course, service providers have a vested interest in ensuring malware doesn’t invade their network or sour the subscriber service experience.
“With malware attacks on devices steadily rising with consumer ultra-broadband usage, the impact on customer experience becomes a primary concern for service providers,” said Patrick Tan, GM of network intelligence at Alcatel-Lucent, in a statement. “As a result, we’re seeing more operators take a proactive approach to this problem, by providing services that alert subscribers to malware on their devices along with self-help instructions for removing it.”
Motive also said that mobile malware is increasing in sophistication with more robust command and control protocols. For instance, mobile spyware is on the rise. It tracks the phone’s location, monitors ingoing and outgoing calls, text messages and email, and tracks web browsing. Additionally, the first distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks launched from mobile phones took place last year, suggesting how so-called ‘hactivism’ movements against the mobile infrastructure might be launched in the future.
“The rise of mobile malware threats isn’t unexpected. But as Google Wallet, Apple Pay and others rush to bring us mobile payment systems, security has to be a top focus,” McNamee noted. “And malware concerns become even more acute in the workplace, where more than 90% of workers admit to using their personal smartphones for work purposes.”
When it comes to residential networks, Motive’s malware report also concluded that infection rates also rose significantly in 2014, with malware found in 13.6% of residences. That’s an increase of 5% over the previous year.
The report found that the rise is mostly attributable to an increase in infections by moderate threat level adware. High-level threats such as bots, rootkits, and banking trojans remain steady at around 5%.
The Motive report also noted that 2014 saw an increase in DDoS attacks using network infrastructure components such as home routers, DSL modems, cable modems, mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, DNS servers and NTP servers. And, it looked at the digital commerce channel and found that consumers who avoid shopping online out of fear that their credit or debit card information may be stolen are actually exposing themselves to greater risk.
Motive pointed out that the rash of retail cybersecurity breaches in 2014 were all the result of malware infections on cash registers or point-of-sale terminals, not online stores, largely because stolen cards from online retailers are not as valuable to criminals because they can only be used for online purchases.
Mobility however is the next big threat bubble to keep an eye on.
“By the end of 2015, the number of smartphone users worldwide will surpass 2 billion, representing more than a quarter of the global population,” McNamee said. “There’s no reason to believe malware threats won’t be even more intrusive this year and the foreseeable future.”
That’s the word from Alcatel-Lucent’s Motive Security Labs, which in a study found that malware infections in mobile devices rose a full 25% in 2014, compared to a 20% increase in 2013. In fact, the uptick is so spectacular that Android devices have now caught up with Windows laptops, which had been the primary workhorse of cybercrime, with infection rates between Android and Windows devices split an even 50/50 in 2014.
“With one billion Android devices shipped in 2014, the platform is a favorite target of cybercriminals who can have lots of infection success without a lot of work,” said Kevin McNamee, director of Motive, in a blog. “Android is more exposed than rivals because of its open platform and by allowing users to download apps from third-party stores where apps are not always well-vetted.”
The mobile infection rate in 2014 was 0.68%. Fewer than 1% of infections come from iPhone and Blackberry smartphones.
Malware growth continues to be aided by the fact that a vast majority of mobile device owners do not take proper device security precautions. But here, service providers can be the hero. The survey found that 65% of subscribers instead expect their service provider to protect both their mobile and home devices. Fifty-five percent indicated they would be willing to pay for such a service. And of course, service providers have a vested interest in ensuring malware doesn’t invade their network or sour the subscriber service experience.
“With malware attacks on devices steadily rising with consumer ultra-broadband usage, the impact on customer experience becomes a primary concern for service providers,” said Patrick Tan, GM of network intelligence at Alcatel-Lucent, in a statement. “As a result, we’re seeing more operators take a proactive approach to this problem, by providing services that alert subscribers to malware on their devices along with self-help instructions for removing it.”
Motive also said that mobile malware is increasing in sophistication with more robust command and control protocols. For instance, mobile spyware is on the rise. It tracks the phone’s location, monitors ingoing and outgoing calls, text messages and email, and tracks web browsing. Additionally, the first distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks launched from mobile phones took place last year, suggesting how so-called ‘hactivism’ movements against the mobile infrastructure might be launched in the future.
“The rise of mobile malware threats isn’t unexpected. But as Google Wallet, Apple Pay and others rush to bring us mobile payment systems, security has to be a top focus,” McNamee noted. “And malware concerns become even more acute in the workplace, where more than 90% of workers admit to using their personal smartphones for work purposes.”
When it comes to residential networks, Motive’s malware report also concluded that infection rates also rose significantly in 2014, with malware found in 13.6% of residences. That’s an increase of 5% over the previous year.
The report found that the rise is mostly attributable to an increase in infections by moderate threat level adware. High-level threats such as bots, rootkits, and banking trojans remain steady at around 5%.
The Motive report also noted that 2014 saw an increase in DDoS attacks using network infrastructure components such as home routers, DSL modems, cable modems, mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, DNS servers and NTP servers. And, it looked at the digital commerce channel and found that consumers who avoid shopping online out of fear that their credit or debit card information may be stolen are actually exposing themselves to greater risk.
Motive pointed out that the rash of retail cybersecurity breaches in 2014 were all the result of malware infections on cash registers or point-of-sale terminals, not online stores, largely because stolen cards from online retailers are not as valuable to criminals because they can only be used for online purchases.
Mobility however is the next big threat bubble to keep an eye on.
“By the end of 2015, the number of smartphone users worldwide will surpass 2 billion, representing more than a quarter of the global population,” McNamee said. “There’s no reason to believe malware threats won’t be even more intrusive this year and the foreseeable future.”
Drunken Cop Who Drove Head-on Into Other Cop After Fleeing from Hit & Run, goes free
43-year-old police officer Shawn Norton was released from jail on a meager $100 bail after he was caught driving drunk and leaving the scene of an accident.
The 16-year veteran of the police department was reportedly so drunk when he was arrested that he could not even stand, and had trouble getting out of his vehicle.
Just before midnight on Wednesday night, Norton was driving drunk when he got into a car accident with another vehicle and kept on driving.
A witness followed Norton and reported his vehicle to police, who tracked him down and arrested him. When police found Norton, he was driving in a vehicle with severe front-end damage near the intersection of Hartshorn Street and John Carver Road. When police pulled up behind him and put on their flashing lights Norton continued to drive away, making several turns.
Norton was chased by police until he eventually stopped at Birch Meadow School. Norton’s arrest was reportedly slow and difficult because he was so drunk that he was unable to cooperate with police.
According to reports, Norton drove head-on directly at another police officer. Not only is it a travesty of justice that he has been released on such low bail, but a normal citizen would most likely have been shot nd killed by officers who “feared for their lives” as this maniac drove straight at them.
7News Boston WHDH-TV According to reports, Norton drove head-on directly at another police officer. Not only is it a travesty of justice that he has been released on such low bail, but a normal citizen would most likely have been shot nd killed by officers who “feared for their lives” as this maniac drove straight at them.
Reading police officer says alleged drunk driver Medford cop.. Shawn Norton drove at him head on. Forced cruiser off road #wcvb
— Jack Harper (@JackWCVB) February 12, 2015Read more
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Saturday, February 7, 2015
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Thursday, February 5, 2015
Living under the satanic network system of Earth 2015
The Narrator: You walk into this room at your own risk, because it leads to the future; not a future that will be, but one that might be. (Camera pans to Narrator) This is not a new world: It is simply an extension of what began in the old one. It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time. It has refinements, technological advancements, and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the super states that preceded it, it has one iron rule: Logic is an enemy, and truth is a menace. (Camera switches to the convicted man) This is Mr. Romney Wordsworth, in his last forty-eight hours on Earth. He's a citizen of the State, but will soon have to be eliminated, because he's built out of flesh and because he has a mind. Mr. Romney Wordsworth, who will draw his last breaths in the Twilight Zone.
Doctor admits ON AIR that 5% of all flu vaccine recipients get parazlyed FOR LIFE from flu shots...woah...and this shit isn't banned?
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Greek Election Results Worry The Bankers
It becomes easier and easier to translate the propaganda of the One Bank (delivered by its messengers in the Corporate media) because the patterns of behavior of this crime syndicate continue to become more blatant/obvious.
The One Bank does not want to see any ‘defections’ amongst the member-states of the EU (i.e. any splintering of this totalitarian entity). The obvious reason for this is that the EU has morphed into a monetary straitjacket, as a single banking entity (the ECB) controls the printing presses of all EU states. To grasp the significance of this; we need merely refer back to the words of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744 – 1812), the original patriarch of the Rothschild clan, and architect of the One Bank.
Give me control of a nation’s money supply, and I care not who makes the laws.
As has been observed previously; this mantra simply expresses the ‘logic’ of the criminal mind. Any corrupt operator of a nation’s printing press has effective access to unlimited amounts of “money”. And with all that currency; the Criminal can then buy all the makers-of-laws – as we see today with all these puppet regimes.
The One Bank does not want to see the EU begin to splinter, because it is much more efficient to rape Europe’s economies with a single central bank than to have to perpetrate its financial terrorism with multiple entities. Consequently, the One Bank had a clear “favorite” in Greece’s just-completed election: the incumbent coalition, whom it had previously bullied into submission.
That corrupt coalition lost, and lost badly. But that’s only the first of the banksters’ problems. Greece’s Syriza Party (a protest-party which rose up after it became obvious to the people that all established political parties had been corrupted/bought-off by the One Bank) is officially described as being “anti-austerity”.
Here it is important to note that Europe’s utterly failed experiment with “Austerity” was nothing but a sham, simply a dramatic acceleration of the economic rape being inflicted upon all Western nations by the One Bank. Out of the West’s crippled economies; which ones boast the least economic carnage today? Those nations who never embarked upon this economic suicide.
Furthermore, all of the European nations which had been perpetrating hardcore Austerity on their own populations have all been forced to back-off (to “Austerity Lite”), in order to prevent the total implosion of their economies. But to officially acknowledge that (so-called) Austerity was never a legitimate policy brands most of the governments of Europe as traitor regimes. Thus Austerity is still, officially, a “good idea” in the fantasy-world created by the One Bank – which readers now know as the Wonderland Matrix.
The problem faced by this crime syndicate as “the Greek crisis” deepens is the same problem which eventually besets all psychopaths: they create a no-win scenario which threatens them with their own demise. While the One Bank (and psychopaths, in general) attempt to engage in long-range strategies, problems inevitably arise in the tactical execution of such strategies.
The principal problem is the psyche of the psychopaths, themselves. They don’t simply “want” things, they want them now. Thus inevitably psychopaths adopt the behavior pattern of the bully/criminal (or “terrorist”). Instead of employing subtlety and patience; psychopaths generally cannot resist the urge to resort to brute-force, as the quickest/easiest way to get from where they are to where they want to go.
What happens to those who go through life as the proverbial bull-in-the-china-shop? They break a lot of china – and that produces consequences. It is these “consequences” for which psychopaths inevitably fail to plan: the repercussions of their own crimes.
These consequences then inevitably lead to “crises” (of one form of another), prompting yet more brute-force tactics from the psychopaths (as a response), which then produces still more unintended consequences. Eventually, the psychopath creates the no-win scenario. At this point, with no more “solutions” available (legal or illegal); the psychopaths are relegated to simply delaying their own loss.
This, in general, summarizes the current paradigm involving Greece and its status as an EU member-state. The One Bank destroyed Greece’s economy in 2010, as a warning/demonstration to other EU governments of what it could do – and would do – should any seek to defy its tyrannical, financial hegemony.
The banksters felt it necessary to conduct this (at that point) unprecedented act of economic terrorism after Iceland had broken free of its financial choke-hold, and other Western governments (including Greece) were showing similar inclinations. It’s method of destroying Greece’s economy was to manipulate interest rates on Greece’s debt to ultra-extreme levels, thus guaranteeing the bankruptcy of that economy, simply from the interest payments on its huge, national debt.
The chart below shows how Greek interest rates were manipulated higher (to destroy the economy), and then immediately manipulated back lower, once its incumbent political parties capitulated to the One Bank’s economic terrorism. We know this was all manipulation, because all during the time that Greece’s interest rates catapulted higher, and then immediately plummeted lower, nothing changed in Greece’s economy.
Since its economy was destroyed in 2010, there is still no economic growth of any kind, there is still obscene unemployment throughout the nation, and despite already defaulting on 75% of its debts, and despite the dramatic drop in interest rates, it continues to teeter on bankruptcy. The dramatic drop in Greek interest rates could only be an act of fraudulent manipulation, thus the equally extreme spike which preceded it had to be a reciprocal act of fraudulent manipulation.
The reason that Greece’s economic demise has deteriorated into this no-win scenario, which threatens the viability of the European Union itself, is that all the One Bank knows how to do is to destroy things, and the economic paradigm it has brutally imposed upon Europe is capable of doing nothing but raping-and-pillaging. Thus, after totally destroying Greece’s economy; the One Bank is now face-to-face with the children’s fable of “Humpty Dumpty”.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king’s horses
and all the King’s men
couldn’t put Humpty together again.
The One Bank decided it had to destroy Greece’s economy to “send a message.” The problem is that it never occurred to these psychopaths that it would be necessary to fix Greece’s economy (at least somewhat), in order for its paradigm of economic oppression to remain viable.
Now, with Greece’s economy totally/utterly destroyed; the One Bank sees that it has run out of “plans”. None of its “horses” (the central bankers), and none of its “men” (the traitor politicians) can “put Humpty together again.”
The problem is that if they do take any positive actions to even slightly repair Greece’s economy, such actions would have to be virtually totally opposite to all their current “policies” (of endless raping-and-pillaging). In turn; taking such actions would reveal that the “policies” of all Europe’s other Traitor Governments were/are entirely opposite to what they should have been doing, all along. Gluing Humpty Dumpty back together would reveal the Invisible Hammer which the One Bank is still using to smash all of Europe’s other economies.
Enter the Syriza Party. What would be the only thing “worse” (for the One Bank) than using its own traitor politicians to fix Greece’s economy? Watching as a new political party not (yet) under its thumb was successful in doing so.
What would go through the minds of the peoples of Europe (as their own economies crumble) if they see a “new political party” rise up in Greece, and actually fix things? The peoples of Europe would think to themselves “we need a new political party, too.” By the time the dominoes had finished falling; all of the One Bank’s puppet regimes would be swept out of power.
No win.
Here is where we see the repetitive patterns of behavior. What does the One Bank do each time it creates some “no-win scenario” for itself? Lie, stall, and whack precious metals. Thus we see the following (predictable) script unfold, after the victory.
Gold prices are moderately lower in early U.S. trading Monday, on a classic “sell-the-fact” scenario following the Greek election results on Sunday. Traders had “bought the rumor” last week…
For those readers who aren’t familiar with such market lingo, let’s translate this into plain english. Precious metals prices were rising as we headed toward the Greek election, for the obvious reason that the expected result (a Syriza win) instantly/obviously destabilizes the EU – causing any Smart Money that still exists to move toward the eternal, financial security of precious metals.
What we’re supposed to believe (if we listen to the Liars) is that the “reason” that gold and silver prices are lower today, after this protest party has successfully come to power, is because traders are “selling the fact”. However, the Liars themselves immediately point out that their own explanation is utter nonsense:
Important weekend news saw the Greek anti-austerity party win by a wider-than-expected margin on Sunday. [emphasis mine]
With Syriza’s win described by the propaganda machine itself as both “important” and “wider than expected”; it is logically impossible for traders to be “selling the fact” today – because they had never previously “bought the rumor”. With the wider-than-expected victory being (by definition) a surprise; the only possible direction in which legitimate gold/silver markets could have moved today is higher.
As the dust settles; the One Bank is now left to choose between bad and worse options. If it allows Syriza to fix Greece’s shattered economy (and make the EU economically viable), it creates the political “domino effect” previously described. Conversely, if it now seeks to undermine and sabotage Greece’s new government at every opportunity (which is how it usually deals with its “enemies”), it simply accelerates the speed with which Greece’s economy folds completely, it’s forced to leave the EU, and thus the EU itself begins to splinter back into its various, sovereign entities.
Lose/lose.
With the psychopaths of the One Bank being (by definition) completely amoral, and thus inherently atheistic; it should be of no surprise that they are oblivious to the wisdom passed down via religious Scriptures:
As ye sow; so shall ye reap.
Actions have consequences. It’s a simple concept, yet one which remains eternally beyond the grasp of the psychopathic mind, even when they mouth the words with their own drones.
The One Bank created Syriza (as a consequence of its own acts). The One Bank elected Syriza. And now it has absolutely no idea as to what to do about it.
Jeff Nielson for Sprott News
The One Bank does not want to see any ‘defections’ amongst the member-states of the EU (i.e. any splintering of this totalitarian entity). The obvious reason for this is that the EU has morphed into a monetary straitjacket, as a single banking entity (the ECB) controls the printing presses of all EU states. To grasp the significance of this; we need merely refer back to the words of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744 – 1812), the original patriarch of the Rothschild clan, and architect of the One Bank.
Give me control of a nation’s money supply, and I care not who makes the laws.
As has been observed previously; this mantra simply expresses the ‘logic’ of the criminal mind. Any corrupt operator of a nation’s printing press has effective access to unlimited amounts of “money”. And with all that currency; the Criminal can then buy all the makers-of-laws – as we see today with all these puppet regimes.
The One Bank does not want to see the EU begin to splinter, because it is much more efficient to rape Europe’s economies with a single central bank than to have to perpetrate its financial terrorism with multiple entities. Consequently, the One Bank had a clear “favorite” in Greece’s just-completed election: the incumbent coalition, whom it had previously bullied into submission.
That corrupt coalition lost, and lost badly. But that’s only the first of the banksters’ problems. Greece’s Syriza Party (a protest-party which rose up after it became obvious to the people that all established political parties had been corrupted/bought-off by the One Bank) is officially described as being “anti-austerity”.
Here it is important to note that Europe’s utterly failed experiment with “Austerity” was nothing but a sham, simply a dramatic acceleration of the economic rape being inflicted upon all Western nations by the One Bank. Out of the West’s crippled economies; which ones boast the least economic carnage today? Those nations who never embarked upon this economic suicide.
Furthermore, all of the European nations which had been perpetrating hardcore Austerity on their own populations have all been forced to back-off (to “Austerity Lite”), in order to prevent the total implosion of their economies. But to officially acknowledge that (so-called) Austerity was never a legitimate policy brands most of the governments of Europe as traitor regimes. Thus Austerity is still, officially, a “good idea” in the fantasy-world created by the One Bank – which readers now know as the Wonderland Matrix.
The problem faced by this crime syndicate as “the Greek crisis” deepens is the same problem which eventually besets all psychopaths: they create a no-win scenario which threatens them with their own demise. While the One Bank (and psychopaths, in general) attempt to engage in long-range strategies, problems inevitably arise in the tactical execution of such strategies.
The principal problem is the psyche of the psychopaths, themselves. They don’t simply “want” things, they want them now. Thus inevitably psychopaths adopt the behavior pattern of the bully/criminal (or “terrorist”). Instead of employing subtlety and patience; psychopaths generally cannot resist the urge to resort to brute-force, as the quickest/easiest way to get from where they are to where they want to go.
What happens to those who go through life as the proverbial bull-in-the-china-shop? They break a lot of china – and that produces consequences. It is these “consequences” for which psychopaths inevitably fail to plan: the repercussions of their own crimes.
These consequences then inevitably lead to “crises” (of one form of another), prompting yet more brute-force tactics from the psychopaths (as a response), which then produces still more unintended consequences. Eventually, the psychopath creates the no-win scenario. At this point, with no more “solutions” available (legal or illegal); the psychopaths are relegated to simply delaying their own loss.
This, in general, summarizes the current paradigm involving Greece and its status as an EU member-state. The One Bank destroyed Greece’s economy in 2010, as a warning/demonstration to other EU governments of what it could do – and would do – should any seek to defy its tyrannical, financial hegemony.
The banksters felt it necessary to conduct this (at that point) unprecedented act of economic terrorism after Iceland had broken free of its financial choke-hold, and other Western governments (including Greece) were showing similar inclinations. It’s method of destroying Greece’s economy was to manipulate interest rates on Greece’s debt to ultra-extreme levels, thus guaranteeing the bankruptcy of that economy, simply from the interest payments on its huge, national debt.
The chart below shows how Greek interest rates were manipulated higher (to destroy the economy), and then immediately manipulated back lower, once its incumbent political parties capitulated to the One Bank’s economic terrorism. We know this was all manipulation, because all during the time that Greece’s interest rates catapulted higher, and then immediately plummeted lower, nothing changed in Greece’s economy.
Since its economy was destroyed in 2010, there is still no economic growth of any kind, there is still obscene unemployment throughout the nation, and despite already defaulting on 75% of its debts, and despite the dramatic drop in interest rates, it continues to teeter on bankruptcy. The dramatic drop in Greek interest rates could only be an act of fraudulent manipulation, thus the equally extreme spike which preceded it had to be a reciprocal act of fraudulent manipulation.
The reason that Greece’s economic demise has deteriorated into this no-win scenario, which threatens the viability of the European Union itself, is that all the One Bank knows how to do is to destroy things, and the economic paradigm it has brutally imposed upon Europe is capable of doing nothing but raping-and-pillaging. Thus, after totally destroying Greece’s economy; the One Bank is now face-to-face with the children’s fable of “Humpty Dumpty”.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king’s horses
and all the King’s men
couldn’t put Humpty together again.
The One Bank decided it had to destroy Greece’s economy to “send a message.” The problem is that it never occurred to these psychopaths that it would be necessary to fix Greece’s economy (at least somewhat), in order for its paradigm of economic oppression to remain viable.
Now, with Greece’s economy totally/utterly destroyed; the One Bank sees that it has run out of “plans”. None of its “horses” (the central bankers), and none of its “men” (the traitor politicians) can “put Humpty together again.”
The problem is that if they do take any positive actions to even slightly repair Greece’s economy, such actions would have to be virtually totally opposite to all their current “policies” (of endless raping-and-pillaging). In turn; taking such actions would reveal that the “policies” of all Europe’s other Traitor Governments were/are entirely opposite to what they should have been doing, all along. Gluing Humpty Dumpty back together would reveal the Invisible Hammer which the One Bank is still using to smash all of Europe’s other economies.
Enter the Syriza Party. What would be the only thing “worse” (for the One Bank) than using its own traitor politicians to fix Greece’s economy? Watching as a new political party not (yet) under its thumb was successful in doing so.
What would go through the minds of the peoples of Europe (as their own economies crumble) if they see a “new political party” rise up in Greece, and actually fix things? The peoples of Europe would think to themselves “we need a new political party, too.” By the time the dominoes had finished falling; all of the One Bank’s puppet regimes would be swept out of power.
No win.
Here is where we see the repetitive patterns of behavior. What does the One Bank do each time it creates some “no-win scenario” for itself? Lie, stall, and whack precious metals. Thus we see the following (predictable) script unfold, after the victory.
Gold prices are moderately lower in early U.S. trading Monday, on a classic “sell-the-fact” scenario following the Greek election results on Sunday. Traders had “bought the rumor” last week…
For those readers who aren’t familiar with such market lingo, let’s translate this into plain english. Precious metals prices were rising as we headed toward the Greek election, for the obvious reason that the expected result (a Syriza win) instantly/obviously destabilizes the EU – causing any Smart Money that still exists to move toward the eternal, financial security of precious metals.
What we’re supposed to believe (if we listen to the Liars) is that the “reason” that gold and silver prices are lower today, after this protest party has successfully come to power, is because traders are “selling the fact”. However, the Liars themselves immediately point out that their own explanation is utter nonsense:
Important weekend news saw the Greek anti-austerity party win by a wider-than-expected margin on Sunday. [emphasis mine]
With Syriza’s win described by the propaganda machine itself as both “important” and “wider than expected”; it is logically impossible for traders to be “selling the fact” today – because they had never previously “bought the rumor”. With the wider-than-expected victory being (by definition) a surprise; the only possible direction in which legitimate gold/silver markets could have moved today is higher.
As the dust settles; the One Bank is now left to choose between bad and worse options. If it allows Syriza to fix Greece’s shattered economy (and make the EU economically viable), it creates the political “domino effect” previously described. Conversely, if it now seeks to undermine and sabotage Greece’s new government at every opportunity (which is how it usually deals with its “enemies”), it simply accelerates the speed with which Greece’s economy folds completely, it’s forced to leave the EU, and thus the EU itself begins to splinter back into its various, sovereign entities.
Lose/lose.
With the psychopaths of the One Bank being (by definition) completely amoral, and thus inherently atheistic; it should be of no surprise that they are oblivious to the wisdom passed down via religious Scriptures:
As ye sow; so shall ye reap.
Actions have consequences. It’s a simple concept, yet one which remains eternally beyond the grasp of the psychopathic mind, even when they mouth the words with their own drones.
The One Bank created Syriza (as a consequence of its own acts). The One Bank elected Syriza. And now it has absolutely no idea as to what to do about it.
Jeff Nielson for Sprott News
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