by Wolf Richter, Wolf Street:
Getting rid of MBS faster and shifting to short-term Treasury bills will be on the list.
The Fed shed $32 billion in assets in January, according to the Fed’s balance sheet for the week ended February 6, released this afternoon. This reduced the assets on its balance sheet to $4,026 billion, the lowest since January 2014. Since the beginning of this “balance sheet normalization,” the Fed has now shed $434 billion.
by Caitlin Johnstone, Caitlin Johnstone:
When Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard announced her candidacy for the presidency on CNN last month, I had a feeling I’d be writing about her a fair bit. Not because I particularly want her to be president, but because I knew her candidacy would cause the narrative control mechanizations of the political/media class to overextend themselves, leaving them open to attack, exposure, and the weakening of their control of the narrative.
by Turd Ferguson, TF Metals Report:
For your holiday listening pleasure, Jim Willie returns for a comprehensive discussion of the petrodollar and how current events around the Arabian Peninsula are a sign of great distress for this monetary scheme.
Again, what is the “petrodollar”. The idea was championed by Henry Kissinger in 1973 as a way to create ongoing demand for US dollars by maintaining the pricing of crude oil in dollars only. The effects of this were two-fold:
To create constant demand for dollars…dollars which were now completely unhinged from any gold backing…and this demand would soak up any excess supply of new currency being printed in the US for military and social purposes.
To force oil-exporting nations to keep their foreign currency reserves in dollars, thus creating an ongoing demand for US treasury bonds. This constant demand for bonds would help to keep interest rates…and thus the US debt service cost…unnaturally low.
Click HERE to Listen
by Matt Agorist, Freedom Outpost:
It is no secret that over the last 4 decades, mainstream media has been consolidated from dozens of competing companies to only six. Hundreds of channels, websites, news outlets, newspapers, and magazines, making up ninety percent of all media is controlled by very few people—giving Americans the illusion of choice.
While six companies controlling most everything the Western world consumes in regard to media may sound like a sinister arrangement, the Swiss Propaganda Research center (SPR) has just released information that is even worse.
Council on Foreign Relations links to major media holdings
Full graphic here: https://t.co/lyMPz4ME2Z pic.twitter.com/mmTNdQa1F9
— Julian Assange ⌛ (@JulianAssange) January 28, 2018
For those who may be unaware, the CFR is a primary member of the circle of Washington think-tanks promoting endless war. As former Army Major Todd Pierce describes, this group acts as “primary provocateurs” using “‘psychological suggestiveness’ to create a false narrative of danger from some foreign entity with the objective being to create paranoia within the U.S. population that it is under imminent threat of attack or takeover.”
A senior member of the CFR and outspoken neocon warmonger, Robert Kagan has even publicly proclaimed that the US should create an empire.
The narrative created by CFR and its cohorts is picked up by their secondary communicators, also known the mainstream media, who push it on the populace with no analysis or questioning.
When looking at the chart from SPR, the reach by this single organization is so vast that it is no mystery as to how these elite psychopaths guide Americans into accepting endless war at the expense of their mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters.
Top journalists and executives from all major media companies are integrated into the CFR. As the chart below illustrates, the CFR has even more control in the mainstream media than even the nefarious Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission.
As SPR points out, Richard Harwood, former managing editor and ombudsman of the Washington Post, wrote about the Council on Foreign Relations Recognizing that its members most likely correspond to what one might call the “ruling establishment of the United States.”
Harwood continued, “The membership of these journalists in the council, however they may think of themselves, is an acknowledgment of their active and important role in public affairs and of their ascension into the American ruling class. They do not merely analyze and interpret foreign policy for the United States; they help make it.”
Let that sink in. This group of unaccountable, unelected, professional propagandists in America doesn’t simply analyze US government policy—they make it.
Read More @ FreedomOutpost.com
from The Black Banners of the East Satellite Station:
In this final episode of the documentary series on PizzaGate, produced by the Black Banners of the East — we will expose the world of satanic child sacrifice; who are some of the big ones involved, where they are committing these acts, how they are trafficking these children, what they are doing to them… and most importantly – why they are carrying out these horrific acts on children.
from ZeroHedge:
The Venezuelan Army could be nearing a collapsing point, as high-ranking military officers and enlisted troops “are joining the exodus of Venezuelans to Colombia and Brazil, fleeing barracks and forcing President Nicolas Maduro’s government to call upon retirees and militia to fill the void,” said Bloomberg.
Venezuela’s economic crisis keeps getting worse, as high desertion rates are now plaguing military bases in Caracas and the countryside, which poses significant security challenges in the upcoming presidential election on May 20. By law, the military oversees all voting centers throughout the country, including the electoral materials and voting machines.
by Stefan Stanford, All News Pipeline:
There has been significant confusion about the March 28, 2018 announcement by the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General, informing the public that a review has been initiated into the actions of the FBI and DOJ in regards to their Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) applications for surveillance in regards to a “certain U.S. person.”
The announcement states the following: (Press release, one page PDF)
Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz announced today that, in response to requests from the Attorney General and Members of Congress, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) will initiate a review that will examine the Justice Department’s and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) compliance with legal requirements, and with applicable DOJ and FBI policies and procedures, in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) relating to a certain U.S. person. As part of this examination, the OIG also will review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source. Additionally, the OIG will review the DOJ’s and FBI’s relationship and communications with the alleged source as they relate to the FISC applications.
by Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit:
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the former chair of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, and her former office manager and Chinese spy Russell Lowe.
Russell Lowe was identified on Monday night as a Chinese spy. He was Senator Dianne Feinsein’s office manager.
Lowe is a Chinese-American who spent 20 years as the aide to Dianne Feinstein.
Lowe worked for Feinstein while she was chair of the US Senate Intelligence Committee.
Now this…
by Michael Pento, Market Oracle:
This powerful and protracted bull market has made Cassandras look foolish for a long time. Those who went on record predicting that massive central bank manipulation of markets would not engender viable economic growth have been proven correct. However, these same individuals failed to fully anticipate the willingness of momentum-trading algorithms to take asset prices very far above the underlying level of economic growth.
Nevertheless, there are five reasons to believe that this fall will finally bring stock market valuations down to earth, and vindicate those who have displayed caution amidst all the frenzy.
by Mish Shedlock, The Maven:
Seldom does one see a report that “debt is the problem” while being 180 degrees wrong as to the cause of the buildup in debt.
The United Nations’ Trade and Development Report for 2018 blames the “Free Trade Delusion” for what ails the word.
by Eric Zuesse, Strategic Culture:
The invasion and occupation of Syria by tens of thousands of jihadists who were recruited from around the world to overthrow Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, was financed mainly by US taxpayers and by the world’s wealthiest family, the Sauds, who own Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest oil company, Aramco. America’s international oil companies and major think tanks and ‘charitable’ foundations were also supportive and providing propaganda for the operation, but the main financing for it came from America’s taxpayers, and from the Saud family and from the Government that they own.
by Harvey Organ, Harvey Organ Blog:
GOLD: $1201.60 UP $3.75 (COMEX TO COMEX CLOSINGS)
Silver: $14.63 UP 5 CENTS (COMEX TO COMEX CLOSING)
Closing access prices:
Gold : 1203.00
silver: $14.65
by Mary Pilon and Marisa Guthrie, Hollywood Reporter:
Dayna Evans, a freelance writer in Brooklyn, was working at her apartment on Oct. 11 when she received a link to a Google spreadsheet curiously titled “Shitty Media Men.”
“When I first got it, there were 12 or so names on it, and you could see people editing it,” says Evans. “I still remember even then thinking how few men there were on it considering how many of them have power.” She left her computer for a few hours, and when she returned, the number had ballooned to more than 50 (a version obtained by The Hollywood Reporter includes 72 names), covering an array of outlets, including The New Yorker, The New Republic, The New York Times, Harper’s, Mother Jones, BuzzFeed and New York.
The wave of sexual harassment and assault allegations against powerful men in the media and entertainment industries in the wake of allegations against Harvey Weinstein shows no signs of abating. Those who have been suspended, resigned, fired or shunned since Weinstein’s dismissal on Oct. 8 include Roy Price at Amazon Studios, Nickelodeon animator Chris Savino, Vox Media editorial director Lockhart Steele, Screen Junkies creator Andy Signore, CBS Diversity Comedy Showcase director Rick Najera as well as political author and NBC News analyst Mark Halperin, fashion photographer Terry Richardson, NPR executive Michael Oreskes, New Republic publisher Hamilton Fish and literary stalwart Leon Wieseltier, whose new magazine Idea was canceled by Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective.
“We all wake up now thinking, ‘What’s next? Who’s next?’ ” says one network public relations chief.
Even before the domino effect began, many companies took steps to reiterate their respective sexual harassment policies and reassure employees that there are safe reporting avenues. Notes a longtime TV producer, “The perception that you are a company that tolerates a culture of sexual harassment can have severe business ramifications that go right to the top of the company.”
Indeed, the Murdochs’ $15 billion proposal to purchase the remainder of British broadcaster Sky has been delayed and possibly imperilled by allegations at Fox News involving its late CEO Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Shine and others. “You have to operate under the assumption that it’s all going to come out,” says one network vp.
While few names on the “Shitty Media Men” spreadsheet have been revealed publicly — Wieseltier and Fish were on it — and it has since been deleted, PDF versions downloaded before it was removed from Google continued to circulate, eventually landing on Reddit and Twitter, and it served as a road map for media reporters investigating a scourge of claims. But the fact that it took the digital equivalent of a “burn book” to get media organizations to address this type of behavior is a testament to outlets’ poor handling of serious harassment complaints and inclusion of women in general. “Obviously harassment and violence contribute to making media inhospitable to women,” says one female magazine editor, “but the Shitty Media Men list I’d really want to see is the one with the names of men who just don’t listen to women.”
As whenever the media attempts to cover itself, conflicts of interest abound. BuzzFeed was the first to report the list’s existence but was also well-represented on the list with at least five current and two former BuzzFeed employees. The company has launched an investigation of the allegations, and has confronted the employees mentioned on the list. Sources close to the situation say some of the specific allegations have been disproven but cautioned that the investigation has not concluded.
The originator of the list is still unknown, and those involved are afraid of being identified. One woman, a magazine editor who several sources said was the list’s creator, denied it when contacted by The Hollywood Reporter but claimed to know who was and added they were receiving “violent” threats as a result.
Read More @ HollywoodReporter.com
by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:
Are you living paycheck to paycheck? Is so, you are just like most other hard working Americans. As you will see below, 78 percent of full-time workers in the United States say that they are living paycheck to paycheck. That is the highest figure ever recorded, and it is yet more evidence that the middle class is under an increasing amount of stress. The cost of living is rising at a much faster pace than our paychecks are, and more families are falling out of the middle class with each passing month. Unfortunately, this is something that the mainstream media really doesn’t want to talk about these days. Instead, they just keep having us focus on the soaring financial markets which are being grossly artificially inflated by global central banks.
When I came across the numbers that I am about to share with you I was actually quite stunned. I knew that things were not great in “the real economy”, but I didn’t expect that the number of Americans living paycheck to paycheck would actually be rising. But that is precisely what a brand new survey that was just released by CareerBuilder is saying…
Seventy-eight percent of full-time workers said they live paycheck to paycheck, up from 75 percent last year, according to a recent report from CareerBuilder.
Overall, 71 percent of all U.S. workers said they’re now in debt, up from 68 percent a year ago, CareerBuilder said.
While 46 percent said their debt is manageable, 56 percent said they were in over their heads. About 56 percent also save $100 or less each month, according to CareerBuilder.
The first thing that we want to note about this survey is that it only includes full-time workers. So the unemployed, part-time workers, those that work for themselves and those that are independently wealthy were not included.
The second thing that we want to note is that these numbers have gotten worsesince last year.
That certainly does not fit with the narrative that we are being fed by the mainstream media, but it does fit with the reality that most people are living on a daily basis.
Most Americans work extremely hard, but they can never seem to get ahead. Most of us are in debt, and a couple of weeks ago I wrote about how the elite use debt as a tool of enslavement. As we work endless hours to “pay the bills”, we are steadily enriching those that are holding our debts.
In addition, the cost of living is steadily going up, and most U.S. families are just barely scraping by from month to month as a result. Just a couple days ago I wrote about how Obamacare was causing health insurance premiums to skyrocket, and today I came across another example of someone that has seen their annual premiums more than double during the Obamacare era…
For some lower-income people in Obamacare, the rising premiums President Donald Trump has talked so much about will barely be felt at all. Others, particularly those with higher incomes, will feel the sharp increases when insurance sign-ups begin Wednesday.
Richard Taylor is one of the people on the wrong end. The 61-year-old, self-employed Oklahoman has meticulously tracked his medical costs since 1994. In 2013, he signed up for an Affordable Care Act plan for the law’s first year offering coverage to millions of Americans.
Four years ago, annual premiums for a mid-level “silver” plan to cover his family totaled $10,072.44. For 2017, they were $21,392.40—up 112 percent.
Who can afford $21,000 a year for health insurance?
I know that I can’t.
And rates are supposed to go up substantially again in 2018. We must repeal Obamacare, and we must do it now.
In addition to financial stress, most Americans are also deeply concerned about the future of this country. Just consider the following numbers from a poll that was released this week…
Almost two-thirds of Americans, or 63 percent, report being stressed about the future of the nation, according to the American Psychological Association’s Eleventh Stress in America survey, conducted in August and released on Wednesday. This worry about the fate of the union tops longstanding stressors such as money (62 percent) and work (61 percent) and also cuts across political proclivities. However, a significantly larger proportion of Democrats (73 percent) reported feeling stress than independents (59 percent) and Republicans (56 percent).
I certainly can’t blame the Democrats for being stressed out. Donald Trump is in the White House and pro-Trump forces are taking over the Republican Party. And if a large wave of pro-Trump activists goes to Congress in 2018, we are going to take this nation in a completely different direction.
That same survey referenced above also discovered that 59 percent of Americans consider this “to be the lowest point in our nation’s history that they can remember”…
A majority of the more than 3,400 Americans polled, 59 percent, said “they consider this to be the lowest point in our nation’s history that they can remember.” That sentiment spanned generations, including those that lived through World War II, the Vietnam War, and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. (Some 30 percent of people polled cited terrorism as a source of concern, a number that’s likely to rise given the alleged terrorist attack in New York City on Tuesday.)
That number seems very strange.
Read More @ TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
