Last Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that Wells Fargo was paying $185 million in fines and penalties for allowing its employees to open “more than two million deposit and credit card accounts” that were not authorized by its customers. The employees were attempting to “hit sales targets and receive bonuses.” In one of the most audacious forms of …
Charles Hugh Smith – A Psychiatric Diagnosis of the U.S. Market: Schizophrenic Disconnect From Reality
If you think a delusional market is healthy, it’s time for a psychiatric exam. What diagnosis would an experienced psychiatrist offer when presented with the bizarre behavior of the U.S. stock market? We assume that the wild mood swings of greed and fear are “normal” for markets devoted to short-term profit and speculation, but the stock market’s disconnect from reality is …
Alternative Visions – Deutsche Bank & the Deepening Euro Bank Crisis – 09.30.16
Dr. Jack Rasmus reviews recent developments in the growing instability in Germany’s largest bank, Deutsche Bank, and explains how it is a reflection of a deeper, ongoing crisis in the Euro banking system itself. Parallels of Deutsche Bank—the ‘Goldman-Sachs’ of Germany—with the 2008 crash of US Lehman Brothers investment bank are discussed, with Rasmus predicting the German central bank, Bundesbank, will eventually bail out Deutsche—unlike the US decision in 2008 to let Lehman go under. Also addressed: how Rasmus’ theoretical work published earlier this year, ‘Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy’, predicted the growing crisis in the Euro banking system, which is now expanding beyond Italy’s banks to Germany and beyond. How the Deutsche crisis is exacerbating in-fighting between the Bundesbank and the European Central Bank, the ECB, and attacks on ECB chair, Mario Draghi. The Deutsche-Euro bank crisis is a reflection of the growing awareness of the failure of the ECB and other central banks’ QE and negative rates policies—including the US Federal Reserve—to stimulate the real economy and only boost stock and other financial markets. Jack explains how the Deutsche affair is also a reflection of the failed structure of the Eurozone currency union itself. The show concludes with brief comments on Saudi Arabia/OPEC’s recent decision to cut oil supplies to raise global prices, how Japan is considering redefining its GDP in order to raise growth on paper, and on the phony debate on taxes during the recent 1st presidential debates this past week between Clinton and Trump. (For more on Jack’s analysis of the 1stpresidential debate, read his article at his blog, jackrasmus.com, or go to the PRN website articles archive).
Trends This Week – The Presidential Reality Show and the markets – 09.28.16
Global forecaster Gerald Celente discounts and explains why the notion that markets rise on the anticipation that a given presidential candidate can influence and even fix the economy. The campaigns, and especially the debates, are rich with attack lines and sound bites, but entirely void of solutions, ideas and the moral grounding necessary to reverse the downward spiral of the country.
U.S. Bond Market’s Biggest Buyers Are Selling Like Never Before
Central banks have cut Treasuries for three straight quarters Pullback may be a sign the bond market is at a tipping point Share on FacebookShare on Twitter They’ve long been one of the most reliable sources of demand for U.S. government debt. But these days, foreign central banks have become yet another worry for investors in the world’s most important …
Alternative Visions – Central Bankers Out of Control – 09.23.16
Today’s show examines and discusses the past week’s major decisions by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan, and how they represent growing failure and desperation of central bank monetary policy globally. Bank of Japan promises to keep bond rates at zero for another ten years and to continue to inject money until inflation exceeds 2%. The Federal Reserve …
Pam Martens and Russ Martens – The Untold Story of 9/11: Bailing Out Alan Greenspan’s Legacy
Today marks the 15th Anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001 and yet the American public remains in the dark about critical details of hundreds of billions of dollars of financial dealings by the Federal Reserve in the days, weeks and months that followed 9/11. What has also been lost in the official 9/11 Commission Report, Congressional hearings and …
Mike Shedlock – Fed Vice-Chairman Admits Fed Sponsors Wealth Inequality
Federal Reserve Vice-Chairman Stanley Fischer made a couple of controversial statements this week regarding negative interest rates. Fisher stated negative rates “seem to work” while admitting they are bad for savers but they “typically they go along with quite decent equity prices.” There are two problems in play. The first is an explicit admission that the Fed sponsors wealth inequality. …
Trends This Week – No good options – 08.24.16
Trend forecaster Gerald Celente provides a “globalnomic” view of what happens if/when the Federal Reserve hikes interest rates – especially to your bottom line. Celente examines how thew rigged market talk about interest rates affects gold, the strength of the dollar and more.
DIRK BEZEMER – MICHAEL HUDSON – Finance is Not the Economy
Why have economies polarized so sharply since the 1980s, and especially since the 2008 crisis? How did we get so indebted without real wage and living standards rising, while cities, states, and entire nations are falling into default? Only when we answer these questions can we formulate policies to extract ourselves from the current debt crises. There is widespread sentiment …









