InvestWithAlex.com 

Stock Market Update. April 2nd, 2014. InvestWithAlex.com

z34

A relatively flat day with the Dow Jones up 40 points (0.24%) and the Nasdaq up 8 point (0.20%)

The Dow tried to push for an all time high, but thus far, has failed to do so. Stopping and reversing right at 16,588. The exact top previously achieved on December 31st, 2013. A perfect double top…so to speak. While most bulls are celebrating the recent upswing I am a lot more cautious. All markets left a number of large gaps on the downside that they must go and close over the next few trading days. In fact, if Mr. Putin delivers on Ukraine and/or the jobs report on Friday disappoints, I would expect the market to take a significant beating. 

Plus, based on our timing and mathematical work the bear market of 2014-2017 is just around the corner. When it starts it will quickly take the market below it’s February 5th low. If you would be interested in learning when the bear market will start (to the day) and it’s internal composition, please Click Here 

Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!


Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

 

Stock Market Update. April 2nd, 2014. InvestWithAlex.com Google

Investment Grin Of The Day

investment grin of the day 3

z32

Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!


Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

Google

Shocking News: Congress Lies About Federal Budget

Today, most Americans believe that borrowing from Peter to pay Paul is normal. In fact, many run their households in exactly the same fashion. Yet, Bill White, former mayor of Houston suggests that today’s heavy borrowing in unprecedented in American history. The only time it was done before, on the scale it is being done today, is during major wars or other very unique circumstances.   Not to buy every member of Federal Government an iPad or to juice the stock market. 

We couldn’t agree more with Mr. White. The Federal Government and their Central Banker shills are destroying the America we all love and cherish. By promoting war, speculation, financial bubbles, foreign affairs meddling, torture and spying instead of piece, fundamental economic growth and liberty for all, the American Government is destroying this nation. Those who are not paying attention will suffer greatly. It is time to rise up against every level of this government and take back what our founding fathers left us. It is time for a revolution, oh wait a second…….American Idol is on tonight….maybe next week. 

Congress lies to american people

Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!


Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

 

Shocking News: Congress Lies About Federal Budget  Google

 

The Daily Ticker Writes: Congress is deceiving the American people about the federal budget: Bill White

Bill White, former mayor of Houston, believes that our country has veered way off course with our federal debt.

“For 90% of our country’s history, we only borrowed for extraordinary purposes…to wage war, plug holes during severe downturns or to acquire territory,” says White in the video above. He argues that borrowing money to keep the government functioning normally is deceitful and goes against the “fiscal constitution” that our forefathers created. 

“The founding fathers realized that there might be a temptation to use debt to disguise the routine operating expenses of government and taxes are the price that allow consumers to figure out what government costs them,” explains White.

When it comes to balancing today’s budget, the debt ceiling is a joke, says White. “Congress votes to spend money that is greater than the available tax revenue and then they debate later on whether or not to raise the debt to pay for the spending that they’ve already authorized.”

White believes lawmakers should go back to the way they used to fund policy—votes on government spending had to happen immediately and agreed to that day.

“That way the American people knew what you were borrowing money for. That way the American people could hold people accountable,” says White.

 

Brazil’s Inflation Accelerates. Pick Your Poison

While the Central Bankers in the US are doing everything in their power to avoid deflation, their Brazilian counterparts can’t wrap their heads around Brazil’s accelerating inflation. In fact, the Brazilian Central Bank is widely expected to raise its benchmark Selic rate to a whopping 11% on Wednesday to try and stop accelerating 6.1% inflation.  An excellent and a must read article from the WSJ in regards to Brazil if you follow their economy/markets. While my mathematical and timing work shows that deflation and inflation is cyclical in nature (as opposed to fundamental), the WSJ article below brings out a number of important points.  

brazil inflation soars Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!


Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

 

Google

WSJ Reports: With Rates Poised to Hit 11%, Brazil Offers Lessons for the World

The eyes of the world should be focused on Brazil right now — and not just because it will host the World Cup in two months’ time.

It’s also because Brazil’s struggle with rising prices is a reminder that even in this era of global disinflation, flawed policies can years later saddle countries with an intractable inflation problem.

 

The Brazilian Central Bank is widely expected to raise its benchmark Selic rate to a whopping 11% on Wednesday. It must do so because inflation won’t let up.

Contrast that with the European Central Bank, which Thursday will weigh whether to cut the rate its sets on banks’ deposits into negative territory, all because of data like Wednesday’s euro-zone producer price index, which was down 1.7% on the year.

Brazil is an odd man out in a world where the biggest economies are more worried about deflation than inflation. Despite having jacked up the Selic from 7.5% in the first half of 2013, the central bank last month had to increase its full-year 2014 inflation forecast to 6.1% from 5.6%. That’s well above the midpoint of its target range of 2.5% to 6.5%.

Brazilian society is paying the price for this. The economy has barely grown over the past two years.

It all seems unfair. In most countries with runaway inflation–like Argentina or Venezuela–the blame lies with a central bank that’s manipulated by growth-obsessed governments to keep real, inflation-adjusted interest rates negative. But Brazil’s central bank has for the most part been vigilant. Its rates are even higher than crisis-wracked Turkey’s, where the central bank hiked a key rate to 10% from 4.5% in January to stem outflows from its currency, the lira — both in absolute terms and in real terms.

The roots of Brazil’s problem are mostly structural. Brazilian wages and other contracts are often indexed to inflation–legacy of the hyperinflation of the 1980s and 1990s. That indexing creates a vicious cycle of tit-for-tat price increases to keep ahead of rising costs. There has been discussion for years about how to reduce indexation in the economy, but it’s hard to do so because no one wants to be the first to give up gains.

There’s also insufficient flexibility in the labor market. Despite sub-2% GDP growth for the past three years, unemployment was last cited at 5.1% in February and got as low as 4.3% in December. U.S. and European policymakers would kill for such unemployment numbers. The problem is they partly reflect rigidities. It is difficult to fire workers, which in turn leads to wage inflation.

Add into the mix some rampant government spending attached to poorly budgeted public-works projects — for the World Cup, the 2016 Olympics and port upgrades to enhance the exporting infrastructure — and you have a recipe for inflation.

This is far from Brazil’s hyperinflationary past, when the central bank printed money to finance profligate governments. But even in an era of seemingly responsible monetary policy, the central bank is in a bind.

Self-fulfilling expectations are now entrenched among the population, which believes that inflation — and its corollary, high interest rates — will continue. Business models are built around returns to be derived from those higher rates. There’s also a dependence on funds from abroad as speculators borrow at near-zero rates in dollars, euros or yen andplow that money into far higher-yielding Brazilian reals. This inflow keeps important price-setting sectors of the economy, such as real estate and rents, in a frothy state. It has also begun to bolster what had been a stubbornly weak real, now up 8% versus the dollar from early February — and that’s not good news for the country’s commodity exporters, which have struggled because of a slowdown in China, their biggest market.

Four years ago, the government moved to curtail these dangerous “hot money” inflows by raising taxes on foreign-exchange rates. But it backfired, starving Brazil of foreign capital right when a global slowdown coincided with an exodus from emerging markets as the U.S. Federal Reserve started talking about easing back on monetary stimulus. The policy also gave the central bank an excuse to lower rates, which meant that inflation crept back into the economy.

For those sins — modest as they are — Brazil is now paying the price. The solution does not lie with the Brazilian central bank, but with a government that needs to modernize its labor laws, rein in fiscal excess and dismantle indexation.

How well it achieves that could provide a valuable lesson for others. Once the stimulus policies employed in the advanced countries finally generate the inflation they seek, they will need to ensure that regulations and other structural components of their economies don’t create inefficiencies that breed Brazil-like problems down the road.

Attention: Central Bankers Are Terrified Of 2007-2009 Repeat

As we reported here earlier, debt securitization and junk bond sales are surging higher. In many cases surpassing their 2007/08 levels. As the FT article below shows, some Central Bank officials are now starting to ring the bell, indicating that today’s situation is not that dissimilar to the one preceding 2007-09 collapse. 

This should not come a surprise to the readers of this blog. Today environment is nothing more than a continuation of disastrous FED policies. Instead of letting defaults work through the system after 2008 collapse, the FED stepped on the Credit Accelerator, flooding the market with the same money that caused the problem in the first place. I am truly dumbfounded why it is so difficult for most people (including our “brilliant” economists and FED officials) to see this. 

Once the bear market of 2014-2017 kicks into high gear and the US Economy slips into deep recession, excesses above will be exposed, once again. As Warren Buffett says, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked”. You must protect yourself now. If you would be interested in learning exactly when the bear market of 2014-2017 will start (to the day) and it’s internal composition, please Click Here. 

private debt investwithalex

Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!


Click here to subscribe to my mailing list


Google

FT Writes: Credit bubble fears put central bankers on edge

By Tracy Alloway, Michael Mackenzie and Arash Massoudi in New York

On a mild spring day in New York, representatives from Citigroup set out to introduce investors to the bank’s new subprime securitisation platform.

This might sound like a scene plucked from 2007, at the height of the credit bubble that eventually sparked the financial crisis, but Citi’s “roadshow” began only this week. The US bank is prepping the market in advance of a debut securitisation from OneMain Financial, its subprime consumer lending arm.

In doing so, Citi is aiming to tap into a wave of investor demand for higher-yielding securities created from sliced-and-diced loans that it makes to riskier borrowers.

The planned sale is symptomatic of a wider development in credit markets as the thirst for increased returns has led to fears about possible overheating and provoked public soul-searching by central bankers.

Parts of Wall Street’s securitisation machine have shifted into higher gear, while sales of junk-rated bonds have surged and lending to highly-leveraged companies has surpassed its pre-2008 level.

“We are beginning to see the build-up of speculative excess. It’s more advanced in the US, and starting to come through in Europe,” says Chris Watling, chief market strategist at Longview Economics.

Central bankers have been debating whether monetary policy should take into account asset bubbles ever since the low interest rates cultivated under Alan Greenspan were blamed for herding investors into riskier investments in the years preceding 2008.

However, in recent months, that debate has become increasingly public as credit markets continue their upward trajectory.

While many members of the Federal Reserve Board argue that the central bank should not risk derailing longer-term economic growth in order to respond to potential market excesses, some have argued the reverse.

Daniel Tarullo, Fed board governor and its top banking regulator, said in February that the central bank should reserve the option of using monetary policy to fight latent bubbles.

Jeremy Stein, Mr Tarullo’s colleague on the board, argued late last month that the central bank should incorporate financial stability risks into its monetary policy. He added that the Fed should consider raising interest rates when estimates of so-called risk premiums in the bond market are abnormally low.

Just days before Mr Stein’s speech, one such risk premium measurement had dropped to its lowest level since early 2007. The difference, or “spread,” between Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s index of high-yield bonds and 10-year US Treasuries, fell to 291 basis points – not far from the 288 bps recorded in 2007.

“Here is where one can get into hard-to-resolve debates about bubble spotting and about whether one can expect the Federal Reserve to be smarter than other market participants,” Mr Stein said in the speech.

For bankers, the idea of a central bank using its authority to deflate market bubbles is more than theoretical. They argue that leveraged lending guidance issued last year by regulators including the Fed, is as much about reining-in overly buoyant markets as it is about ensuring that banks do not make loans that are too risky.

“They’re trying to make sure whatever banks hold in leveraged loans is safe,” says one banker at a major lender. “But clearly the second major reason is to curb the market because they’d like to take the wind out of a perceived credit bubble.”

According to market participants, the guidance has yet to have a significant impact.

Banks sold $161.8bn worth of leveraged loans in the first quarter of 2014, according to S&P Capital IQ data. That is below the $189bn sold last year in the same period, but still ranks as one of the highest quarterly levels ever recorded.

“It’s affecting [individual bank] behaviour but I’m not sure it’s affecting the market,” says the banker. “If there’s a significant supply-demand imbalance for a product of any type, it will find its way from the guys who have it to the guys who want it – it’s just going to move to unregulated areas.”

paper prepared for the 2014 US Monetary Policy Forum argued that financial stability risks could arise even outside of the big banks, prompting further discourse over how regulators should be approaching financial stability.

The paper’s message was later echoed by Mr Stein who warned that “the rapid growth of fixed-income funds – as well as other, similar vehicles – bears careful watching.”

According to the paper’s figures, based on Morningstar data, investors worldwide have poured almost $2tn into fixed income funds between the start of 2008 and April 2013, eclipsing the less than $500bn placed into stocks.

“An under-appreciated factor in discussions about owning sectors of the fixed income market is the that of liquidity,” says Michael Fredericks, portfolio manager at BlackRock, meaning that investors may find it difficult to exit their positions should rising interest rates spark a sell-off in credit.

For some analysts, far removed from the responsibility of selling bundles of subprime loans, the question is simply when credit markets will turn – not if.

“It increasingly feels like the credit cycle is on borrowed time,” Hans Lorenzen, credit strategist at Citigroup, said in a note this week.

Attention: Central Bankers Are Terrified Of 2007-2009 Repeat

Putin’s Divorce Finalized. About To Invade Ukraine

What does every Alpha male needs to do after his divorce is finalized? Grab a few drinks and punch another man in the face, of course. Been there and done that. Yet, Putin is about to put every other man on the face of this earth to shame by invading another country shortly after finalizing his divorce. According to today’s NATO report, Russian forces are in full battle alertness and high state of readiness. Of course, the US stock market could care less as of right now. Expect it to crater as soon as Russia sets foot in East Ukraine. 

Last Friday I warned that Russia will invade East Ukraine this Thursday. I got that information from a Russian business associate who is very well connected within Russian military. An ex General. Yet, after trying to verify the information from other sources, I was unable. In short, no one in Russian is talking and/or answering my questions. It would be very interesting to see if Russia does go in tomorrow as my friend had suggested. It would make a lot of sense from Russia’s perspective to do just that considering Ukraine’s recent NATO joint exercise announcement. If Russia goes in, expect tensions to spike and economic warfare to intensify.  

RUSSIA-PUTIN-KABAYEVA
Putin’s Girlfriend

Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!


Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

 

Putin’s Divorce Finalized. About To Invade Ukraine Google

Bloomberg Reports: NATO Warns Russia Force on Ukraine Border Ready to Act

NATO leaders warned today that Russian forces massed near the country’s border with Ukraine are in a high state of readiness and that any incursion across the frontier would be a “historic mistake.”

The presence of as many as 40,000 soldiers along Ukraine’s eastern border is fueling concern that Russia is poised to invade on the pretext of protecting Russian-speaking inhabitants of eastern and southern Ukraine. Backed by state-run media, President Vladimir Putin says the Kiev-based government is influenced by Russophobe extremists and hasn’t done enough to stop them from persecuting Russian-speakers.

“We have seen a very massive Russian military buildup along the Ukrainian borders,” North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after a two-day meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Brussels. “We also know that these Russian military armed forces are at very high readiness.”

Earlier today, Russia pressed Ukraine to disarm nationalists it says are oppressing its compatriots there, echoing comments it made in the run-up to its military occupation of Crimea and its annexation last month following a Kremlin-backed referendum. Ukraine’s government denies that Russian speakers are at risk.

Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

The “hammer and sickle” emblem of the Russian state sits on display above the offices… Read More

“We urge the Ukrainian authorities not to limit themselves to sham statements about the fight against radical forces in Ukraine and to take decisive measures to disarm the militants,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.

Military Buildup

NATO ministers vowed yesterday to boost support for eastern nations unnerved by Russia’s actions. Today, Rasmussen restated that the alliance hasn’t seen signs of a significant reduction in Russian military forces along Ukraine’s border.

“This is really a matter of grave concern,” he said. “If Russia were to intervene further in Ukraine, I wouldn’t hesitate to call it a historic mistake.”

The alliance’s top military commander, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, echoed Rasmussen’s concerns in an interview with Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.

Russia’s military is “ready to go and we think it could accomplish its objectives in between three and five days if directed,” Breedlove said in the interview. “This is a very large and very capable and very ready force.”

Ruble Rout

Potential objectives include an incursion into southern Ukraine to establish a land corridor to Crimea, pushing beyond Ukrainian port of Odessa or moving toward Transnistria, a breakaway pro-Russian region of Moldova, the general was reported as saying.

The worst confrontation between the U.S. and European states and Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union has rattled markets.

The Micex stock index fell 0.2 percent to 1,373.33 in Moscow, extending to 4.9 percent its decline since March 1, when Putin’s intervention sparked the standoff between Russia and the U.S. The ruble has depreciated 7 percent against dollar this year, making it the second-worst performer of 24 emerging-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

Ukraine, whose hryvnia has lost 27 percent against the dollar this year, may return to international markets with a Eurobond sale in the second half of this year, Finance Minister Oleksandr Shlapak said today in Kiev. He said the government was willing to pay 6 percent to 7 percent, versus the 8.574 percent yield on its 2023 dollar bond as of 6:15 p.m. today.

Growth Threat

The standoff over Ukraine poses a threat to a global economy that’s already “too weak for comfort,” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said today. The Washington-based IMF is preparing to lead a $27 billion global bailout for cash-strapped Ukraine.

Shrugging off U.S. and European sanctions, Putin has justified the annexation of Crimea, a region with a majority of Russian speakers with historic ties to Moscow, away from Ukraine as righting a historical wrong that split the province from Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed.

NATO has decided to halt “all practical cooperation” with Russia, Rasmussen said yesterday. Russia condemned the NATO decision, saying this would hurt joint efforts to fight terrorism, piracy and other global problems.

“It’s not hard to guess who will benefit from halting the joint work of Russia and NATO in countering modern threats,” the Foreign Ministry said on its website. “In any case, it certainly won’t be Russia and the members of NATO.”

U.S. Navy

Options being considered by Breedlove also include putting an additional U.S. warship in the Black Sea, beefing up previously scheduled NATO exercises and improving the readiness of the alliance’s 13,000-member rapid-response force, according to an American defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military planning.

“We directed our military commanders to develop additional measures to enhance our collective defense and deterrence against any threat of aggression,” Rasmussen said.

Russia is pressuring Ukraine to change its constitution to cede more autonomy to its regions and enshrine Russian as a second official language. After a deadly clash between Ukrainian police and far right activists as well as confrontations between pro-Russian and pro-Kiev protesters last month, the parliament in Kiev voted yesterday for a resolution backing the immediate disarmament of illegal military groups.

“The two sides are talking totally different languages,” Timothy Ash, a London-based economist foremerging markets at Standard Bank Group Ltd., said in e-mailed comments today. “While the battle for Crimea may have been lost, the stealth war for Ukraine is only just beginning.”

The US Government Is For Sale….Again

In yet anther “politically driven” and idiotic decision by the Supreme Court, you can now, once again, buy your favorite Senator.   In 5-4 decision the Supreme Court strikes down political donation limits. 

 “The Supreme Court majority continued on its march to destroy the nation’s campaign finance laws, which were enacted to prevent corruption and protect the integrity of our democracy,” said Democracy 21 president Fred Wertheimer, a longtime advocate for election money reforms. “The court re-created the system of legalized bribery today that existed during the Watergate days.”

Right after the decision, bribery premiums for your favorite Senator or Congressman surged 100%. Yep, we are moving in the right direction. 

the us government is now for sale investwithalex

Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!


Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

The US Government Is For Sale….Again Google

 

CNN Writes: Justices strike down political donor limits

 
Posted by

Washington (CNN) – In another blow to federal election laws, the Supreme Court on Wednesday eliminated limits on the total amount people can donate to various political campaigns in a single election season. However, the court left intact the current $5,200 limit on how much an individual can give to any single candidate.

At issue is whether those regulations in the Federal Election Campaign Act violate the First Amendment rights of contributors.

The divided 5-4 ruling could have an immediate impact on November’s congressional midterm elections, and add another layer of high-stakes spending in the crowded political arena.

Possible 2016 GOP contenders pow-wow with big donors

“We conclude that the aggregate limits on contributions do not further the only governmental interest this court accepted as legitimate” said Chief Justice John Roberts, referring to a 1976 precedential ruling.

“They instead intrude without justification on a citizen’s ability to express the most fundamental First Amendment activities.”

Roberts was supported by his four more conservative colleagues.

In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer said the majority opinion will have the effect of creating “huge loopholes in the law; and that undermines, perhaps devastates, what remains of campaign finance reform.”

The ruling leaves in place current donor limits to individual candidates, and donor disclosure requirements by candidates, political parties, and political action committees.

Parties tout fundraising figures

The successful appeal from Shaun McCutcheon, 46-year-old owner of an Alabama electrical engineering company, is supported in court by the Republican National Committee.

They object to a 1970s Watergate-era law restricting someone from giving no more than $48,600 to federal candidates, and $74,600 to political action committees during a two-year election cycle, for a maximum of $123,200.

McCutcheon says he has a constitutional right to donate more than that amount to as many office seekers as he wants, so long as no one candidate gets more than the $5,200 per election limit ($2,600 for a primary election and another $2,600 for a general election).

But supporters of existing regulations say the law prevents corruption or the appearance of corruption. Without the limits, they say, one well-heeled donor could in theory contribute a maximum $3.6 million to the national and state parties, and the 450 or so Senate and House candidates expected to run in 2014.

Opponents of some of the current regulations applauded the court’s reasoning.

“What I think this means is that freedom of speech is being upheld,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “You all have the freedom to write what you want to write donors ought to have the freedom to give what they want to give.”

But supporters of the limits expressed disappointment.

“The Supreme Court majority continued on its march to destroy the nation’s campaign finance laws, which were enacted to prevent corruption and protect the integrity of our democracy,” said Democracy 21 president Fred Wertheimer, a longtime advocate for election money reforms. “The court re-created the system of legalized bribery today that existed during the Watergate days.”

The individual aggregate limits were passed by Congress in the wake of the Watergate scandal, and upheld by the high court in 1976.

The current competing arguments are stark: Supporters of campaign finance reform say current federal regulations are designed to prevent corruption in politics. Opponents say they criminalize free speech and association.

The current case deals with direct political contributions. A separate 2010 high court case dealt with campaign spending by outside groups seeking to influence federal elections. There, the conservative majority – citing free speech concerns – eased longstanding restrictions on “independent spending” by corporations, labor unions, and certain non-profit advocacy groups in political campaigns.

The Citizens United ruling helped open the floodgates to massive corporate spending in the 2012 elections. It also led to further litigation seeking to loosen current restrictions on both the spending and donations.

After the high court’s oral arguments in October, President Obama had weighed in, saying he supports the current law.

“The latest case would go further than Citizens United,” a three-year-old ruling expanding corporate spending, he said, “essentially saying: anything goes. There are no rules in terms of how to finance campaigns.

Did The US Navy Land Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 At It’s Diego Garcia Base In The Indian Ocean? (Final Chapter)

An excellent report from RT (see below) asking some incredibly important questions. It would be wonderful if CNN can look into some of the questions below instead of “spotting and analyzing garbage” in the Indian Ocean. Conspiracy theory or not, those questions must be answered. As far as I am concerned there are two possible explanations. 

Main Stream Media/Governments:  Flight 370 turned off transponders, communication, turned around for no apparent reason and flew for 8-9 hours only to crash in the middle of the Indian Ocean. WTF? Even if there was a catastrophic failure on board, they didn’t have 2 seconds to put their oxygen masks on and send some sort of a distress signal? Give me a break. If that was the case, the plane would crash right away. Basically, this view has more holes than 10 pounds of Swiss cheese.  Even if true, the questions below must be answered. 

Conspiracy Theory:  Flight 370-Boeing 777 was intercepted by the US Military forces and flown remotely to the US Secret Diego Garcia military base. Mind you, the US Military has the technology to control Boeing planes like drones (with Boeing being one of the largest US defense contractors). Read my previous report here. 

Yet, not a single Western “main stream” media outlet has even mentioned that Diego Garcia Base was in the direct fly path or that it even exists. Why?   

The bottom line is, there are more questions than answer. Yet, no one is asking the right questions. Based on my analysis of the situation I expect the plane to be found at some point in the future around the region where they are searching today. However, we will never know which scenario had transpired. If it was indeed a conspiracy, there will no evidence found. The US would simply crash the plane in the Indian Ocean (if they haven’t done so already) and all evidence will be destroyed….even if the plane is found. My condolences go out to the families.  

Yet, the right questions remain (read the report below)…….   

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 investwithalex

Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!


Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

 

Did The US Navy Land Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 At It’s Diego Garcia Base In The Indian Ocean? (Final Chapter) Google

Disappearance of MH 370 flight: The trillion dollar question to the US and its intelligence services

Malaysian media should pose critical questions to the US and its Intelligence Services and not to the Malaysian Government.

Let me state from the outset that I totally agree with the press statements by Malaysia’s Defence Minister and Acting Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein that “we have conducted ourselves fairly, responsibly and history will judge us for that.”

And to a mischievous and presumptuous question from a correspondent of the Financial Times, Datuk Seri with confidence and integrity rightly said without any fear of contradiction that, “I don’t think we could have done anything different from what we have already done.” Well done!

The Financial Times, CNN and other foreign media ought to pose similar questions to the US and its intelligence services and stop insinuating that Malaysia has not been transparent and/or engaged in a cover-up. Foreign media should stop engaging in dirty politics!

It is my hope that following the publication of this article, Malaysian mass media will focus on questioning the integrity of the US’s assistance to Malaysia in the first three weeks of the SAR mission, notwithstanding its recent offer of more assistance.

I take comfort that my reservations about the US and its intelligence services as well as other intelligence services closely linked to the US, especially British secret service, have been more than vindicated by Reuters in its news report on 28th March, 2014 entitled Geopolitical games handicap hunt for flight MH370:

As mystery deepened over the fate of the Boeing 777 and its 239 passengers and crew, most of them Chinese it became clear that highly classified military technology might hold the key. But the investigation became deadlocked over the reluctance of others to share sensitive data, a reticence that appeared to harden as the search area widened.

“‘This is turning into a spy novel,‘ said an envoy from a Southeast Asian country, noting it was turning attention to areas and techniques few countries liked to publicly discuss.

Ultimately, the only country with the technical resources to recover the plane – or at least its black box recorder, which could lie in water several miles deep – may be the United States. Its deep-sea vehicles ultimately hauled up the wreckage of Air France 447 after its 2009 crash into a remote region of the South Atlantic.” (emphasis added)

 

Wing Commander Rob Shearer looks through binoculars on the flight deck of a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion aircraft during a search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 over the southern Indian Ocean, March 29, 2014. (Reuters)

Wing Commander Rob Shearer looks through binoculars on the flight deck of a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion aircraft during a search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 over the southern Indian Ocean, March 29, 2014. (Reuters)

WantChinaTimes, Taiwan reported:

The United States has taken advantage of the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight to test the capabilities of China’s satellites and judge the threat of Chinese missiles against its aircraft carriers, reports our sister paper Want Daily.

“Erich Shih, chief reporter at Chinese-language military news monthly Defense International, said the US has more and better satellites but has not taken part in the search for flight MH370, which disappeared about an hour into its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in the early hours of March 8 with 239 people on board. Shih claimed that the US held back because it wanted to see what information China’s satellites would provide.”

The above is the reality which we have to confront. Therefore, desist any attempt to label the above mainstream media articles as a “conspiracy theory”. Reuters has let the Genie out of the bottle!

Malaysia’s Minister of Transport Datuk Seri Hishammuddin gave hints of Malaysia’s difficulties (as his hands were tied by intelligence protocols and or refusal by the relevant foreign intelligence services and diplomatic reluctance) but our local media failed to appreciate the nuances of his statements by not directing their questions at those parties that have failed Malaysia as their neighbour and in their duties under various defence treaties and arrangements.

Malaysian media, please read at the minimum three times, the sentences in bold AND WAKE UP TO THE REALITY that our country has been badly treated even though our country put all its national security cards on the table so that countries whose nationals are passengers on flight MH 370 could come forward with sincerity to assist in resolving this unfortunate tragedy which is not Malaysia’s making.

Malaysia is but a victim of this tragedy whose plane, MH 370 was used for a hidden agenda for which only time will reveal.

In my previous article posted to the website on the 27th March, 2014, I exposed how Israel is exploiting the tragedy to create public opinion for a war against Iran, a Muslim country that has close ties with Malaysia.

At the outset of the SAR Mission, all concerned stated categorically that every scenario, no matter how unlikely would be examined critically with no stones left unturned – terrorist hijacking, suicide mission, technical failures, inadequate security, criminal actions of the pilot and or co-pilot etc.

Given the above premise, families of the passengers and the crew of MH 370 have every right to ask the following questions of the US and other countries that have sophisticated technologies to track and monitor airplanes and ships in all circumstances.

 

Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein (L) speaks about the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 during a news conference at The Everly Hotel in Putrajaya March 29, 2014. (Reuters)

Malaysia’s acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein (L) speaks about the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 during a news conference at The Everly Hotel in Putrajaya March 29, 2014. (Reuters)

 

Such questions should not be shot down by those who have a hidden agenda that such queries amount to “conspiracy theories”. Far from being conspiracy theories, we assert that the questions tabled below and the rationale for asking them are well founded and must be addressed by the relevant parties, failing which an inference ought to be drawn that they are complicit in the disappearance of MH 370.

Lets us begin.

1) Was the plane ordered to turn back, if so who gave the order?

2) Was the plane turned back manually or by remote control?

3) If the latter, which country or countries have the technologies to execute such an operation?

4) Was MH 370 weaponised before its flight to Beijing?

5) If so, what are the likely methods for such a mission – Biological weapons, dirty bombs?

6) Was Beijing / China the target and if so why?

7) Qui Bono?

8) The time sequence of countries identifying the alleged MH 370 debris in the Indian ocean was first made by Australia followed by France, Thailand, Japan, and Britain via Immarsat. Why did US not offer any satellite intelligence till today?

9) Prior to the switch of focus to the Indian ocean, was the SAR mission in the South China seas, used as a cover for the deployment of undersea equipment to track and monitor naval capabilities of all the nations’ navies competing for ownership of disputed territorial waters? Reuters as quoted above seems to have suggested such an outcome.

10) Why was there been no focus, especially by foreign mass media, on the intelligence and surveillance capabilities of Diego Garcia, the strategic naval and air base of the US?

11) Why no questions were asked whether the flight path of MH 370 (if as alleged it crashed in the Indian Ocean), was within the geographical parameters of the Intelligence capabilities of Diego Garcia? Why were no planes deployed from Diego Garcia to intercept the “Unidentified” plane which obviously would pose a threat to the Diego Gracia military base?

12) The outdated capabilities of the Hexagon satellite system deployed by the US in the 1970s has a ground resolution of 0.6 meters; what’s more, the present and latest technologies boast the ability to identify objects much smaller in size. Why have such satellites not provided any images of the alleged debris in the Indian Ocean? Were they deliberately withheld?

 

A family member of a passenger onboard the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 shouts slogans during a protest outside Lido Hotel in Beijing March 29, 2014. (Reuters)

A family member of a passenger onboard the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 shouts slogans during a protest outside Lido Hotel in Beijing March 29, 2014. (Reuters)

 

13) On April 6th, 2012, the US launched a mission dubbed “NROL-25” (consisting of a spy satellite) from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The NROL-25 satellite was likely rigged with “synthetic aperture radar” a system capable of observing targets around the globe in daylight and darkness, able to penetrate clouds and identify underground structures such as military bunkers. Though the true capabilities of the satellites are not publicly known due to their top-secret classification, some analysts have claimed that the technology allows the authorities to zoom in on items as small as a human fist from hundreds of miles away. How is it that no imagery of MH370 debris was forwarded to Malaysia, as this capability is not classified though other technologies might well remain classified? (Source: Slate.com)

14) Could it be that the above capabilities were not as touted?

15) However, in December, 2013, the USAtlas V rocket was launched carrying the spy satellite NROL-39 for the National Reconnaissance Office, an intelligence agency which is often overshadowed by the notorious National Security Agency (NSA), only it scoops data via spy satellites in outer space. The “NROL-39 emblem” is represented by the Octopus a versatile, adaptive, and highly intelligent creature. Emblematically, enemies of the United States can be reached no matter where they choose to hide. The emblem boldly states “Nothing is beyond our reach”.This virtually means that the tentacles of America’s World Octopus are spreading across the globe to coil around everything within their grasp, which is, well, everything (Source: Voice of Moscow). Yet, the US with such capabilities remained silent. Why?

It cannot be said that it is not within the realm of probabilities that the US may not want the plane MH 370 to be recovered if rogue intelligence operators were responsible for the disappearance of MH 370.

If the above questions have been posed to the US and other intelligence agencies and answers are not forthcoming, I take the view that the Malaysian government ought to declare publicly that our national sovereignty and security have been jeopardized by the disappearance of MH 370 and that the relevant intelligence agencies have been tacitly complicit in the disappearance of MH370.

By coming out openly to explain the predicament faced by our country, Malaysia may prevent a hostile act against a third country.

I therefore call upon Malaysian mass media to be courageous and initiate such queries as only the US and other intelligence agencies can give definitive answers to the above 15 questions.

It is futile to demand answers from Malaysia as we are not in any position to supply the information as we do not have the capabilities of the global and regional military powers.

Malaysians must unite behind the government so that our leaders need not feel that they are alone shouldering this enormous burden.

John Stewart On High Frequency Trading

In more proof that high frequency trading will soon be outlawed (I hope), John Stewart jumps on the bandwagon in a funny kind of way. For those of you not particularly caught up on the issue, this is a great place to start. In addition to HFT, John also goes after inept and fraudulent main stream financial media for perpetuating and defending this fraud. I couldn’t agree more.  

 

Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!


Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

 

Google

Janet Yellen: Forget About Rate Hikes

As per report below, according to Janet Yellen’s indicators the US Economy is nowhere near where it should be for the rates to rise anytime soon. That is despite the stock market being up over 150% over the last 5 years. In fact, today’s ADP Job Report missed the mark for the 4th month in a row with 191,000 jobs created VS 195,000 expected. Becoming just another confirmation of what we have been saying all along here.

Forget about any rate increases over the next few years. That becomes more apparent when you look at our mathematical and timing work forecasts. Once again, they predict a sharp bear market between 2014-2017 and a subsequent deep recession in the US Economy. Under such circumstances, the FED will be looking for every possible avenue to re-inflate the markets instead of raising rates. In other words, as of today, most market participants are positioned in precisely the wrong way.  If you would be interested in learning exactly when the bear market of 2014-2017 will start (to the day) and it’s internal composition, please Click Here.  

no rate hikes investwithalex

Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!


Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

 

Janet Yellen: Forget About Rate Hikes  Google

Bloomberg Writes: Yellen Jobs Dashboard Shows Rate Rise Far on Horizon: Economy

More than two-thirds of the gauges on Janet Yellen’s labor-market dashboard are still showing worse readings than before the recession, reinforcing her belief that the economy will need “extraordinary support” from the Federal Reserve for “some time to come.”

Only two of the nine indicators flagged by the new Fed chair — payroll growth and layoffs — are back to where they were in the four years leading up to the last economic downturn. The seven others, including joblessness, underemployment and labor-force participation, have yet to return to their 2004-to-2007 averages.

“The unemployment rate and a lot of these other series aren’t where the Fed thinks they need to be,” said Joe LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities in New York and the top forecaster of unemployment over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Policy makers are “going to need a general sense that the labor market has entered a more sustainable path before they start to consider the possibility of raising interest rates.”

Yellen is using what she calls her “dashboard” of jobs data to justify the Fed’s easy-money policies and to argue that there’s still considerable slack in the labor market almost five years after the recession’s end. While the job market has strengthened considerably from the depths of the downturn, it is “not back to normal health,” the Fed chief said in a March 31 speech in Chicago.

Main Laggards

The biggest laggards have been long-term unemployment and participation. More than a third of the jobless have been out of work for more than 26 weeks, while the share of the working-age population in the labor force is at an almost 36-year low.

“The indicators are mixed,” said Roberto Perli, a partner at Cornerstone Macro LP in Washington and a former central bank economist. “That allows the Fed to stay the course” and keep interest rates low.

Yellen’s console of statistics has pluses and minuses. While it provides a broader picture of the labor market than focusing on the unemployment rate alone, it can confuse investors about the Fed’s intentions because it introduces additional variables without making clear how much weight the central bank is giving to each statistic.

“The market is more vulnerable to surprise in some of these other labor-market data,” LaVorgna said.

Some economists, including Michelle Girard of RBS Securities in Stamford, Connecticut, also worry that the instrument panel overestimates the amount of slack in the labor market and includes gauges that aren’t susceptible to changes in Fed policy.

The Fed is projected to begin raising interest rates in the third quarter of next year, according to the median estimate of 65 economists in a Bloomberg survey conducted March 7-12.

Jobs Report

Yellen, 67, will get an update on five of the indicators — joblessness, payrolls, underemployment, long-term unemployment and labor-force participation — on April 4 when the government releases employment data for March. The other four gauges — measuring the rate of hiring, layoffs, quits and job openings — are included in the monthly labor turnover summary, next out on April 8.

Chris Collins doesn’t need a basketful of statistics to tell him the labor market isn’t working. The 37-year-old operating engineer in Henderson, Nevada, has been unemployed since April 2013, when his last construction project ended.

“I try to stay upbeat, because sometimes that’s all you have to hold onto is the hope that there’s going to be a big project that breaks loose and you’re going to get back to work and get back on your feet,” said Collins, who specializes in heavy-machinery operation, including work with cranes and paving. “In the meantime, I’m looking outside the industry, just trying to find something to put a little change in the pocket and help my family.”

Threshold Discarded

Fed policy makers put the focus on a broad range of economic and labor-market data last month after junking their strategy for guiding financial markets based on an unemployment threshold. Under its previous plan, the Fed pledged not to consider raising its benchmark interest rate, now zero to 0.25 percent, at least until the jobless rate fell to 6.5 percent.

In place of that quantitative guidance, the central bank adopted a more qualitative approach, saying on March 19 it “will take account of a wide range of information” in deciding when to raise rates.

Policy makers abandoned their jobless marker after unemployment fell faster than they had projected, hitting 6.7 percent in February. Much of the decline was due to Americans dropping out of the labor force, rather than more hiring. Yellen and most Fed policy makers reckon that the long-run sustainable jobless rate is between 5.2 percent and 5.6 percent.

Readings Improving

At a press conference after the March 18-19 policy meeting, Yellen said most of the labor-market statistics she looks at are getting better. “If you ask about my dashboard, the dial on virtually all of those things is moving in the direction of improvement,” she said.

Economists are expecting further gains with the release of jobs data on April 4. Payrolls are projected to have risen 200,000 in March, according to the median prediction of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. That compares with a monthly average of 194,250 last year and 161,800 between 2004 and 2007. Still, total payrolls remain 666,000 below the pre-recession peak.

March unemployment is forecast to come in at 6.6 percent, down from 6.7 percent in February and a 26-year high of 10 percent in October 2009. It averaged 5 percent from 2004 to 2007.

Slack Exaggerated

Long-term joblessness hasn’t shown nearly as much improvement. At 37 percent, the share of unemployed who have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer still is almost twice its pre-recession average. It reached 45.3 percent in April 2010, its highest level in government records dating to 1948.

This gauge is “probably the most controversial” on Yellen’s dashboard, said Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist for Barclays Plc. in New York. That’s because it may exaggerate the amount of excess manpower in the labor market.

When people are out of work for so long, they tend to become less active in seeking a job, and employers consider them less suitable for hiring, according to studies by economists at Princeton University, Columbia University and the Boston Fed.

That suggests that wages could pick up as the labor market improves, even if the share of long-term unemployment stays high, Maki said.

The participation rate also may be giving the Fed an inflated view of the number of potential workers available, said Girard, chief U.S. economist for RBS in Stamford, Connecticut. At 63 percent in February, it’s near an almost 36-year low of 62.8 percent in December and down from a 66.1 percent average in the four years ending in December 2007.

Rejoining Workforce

While some of the drop in participation comes from the retirement of Baby Boomers, a “significant amount” is due to labor market slack, Yellen said on March 31. “Some of these workers may rejoin the labor force in a stronger economy,” she said.

Girard disagreed. “In 2012 and 2013, the bulk of the labor force exits were retirements,” she said. “We’re highly skeptical that these individuals will be pulled back into the labor market even if economic conditions improve.”

“I’m not saying there is no slack” in the labor market, Girard added. “My concern is that some of these measures may not reflect the amount of slack the Fed thinks they do.”