Who are the “Five Eyes”? The Five Eyes are one of the most important and secretive intelligence agency collectives in the world. The Five Eyes are the intelligence services of the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. Intelligence services hold their information closely and are reluctant to share it with other intelligence
The Chinese have a saying: “Kill a chicken to scare the monkeys.” The idea is that when you have powerful enemies, you can single out a weak player for severe public punishment. The enemies conclude that they could be the next one singled out and they decide to keep their activities at a low
In recent issues, we’ve pointed out that warnings of a financial meltdown are no longer confined to the fringes of economics, but are coming from elite economists such as Larry Summers, Nouriel Roubini and from institutions such as the BIS and major central banks. Now comes the most elite warning of all. This article reports that
With a hat tip to Steve Tullar… Autonomous Research, one of the leading independent stock analysis firms in the City of London, is in advanced talks about a $110m sale to AllianceBernstein, the US investment management and broking group. To read more of this article, click here.
Is the thirty-seven year bull market in U.S. Treasury notes dead? Yields to maturity on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes are now at their highest level since April 2011. The current yield to maturity is 3.21%, a significant rise from 1.387% which the market touched on July 7, 2016 in the immediate aftermath of Brexit and
We’ve been writing about the coming trade wars for years and were among the first to spot the launch of a real trade war in early 2018. When President Trump announced tariffs on solar panels, washing machines and aluminum imports last January, most analysts shrugged and said it was just for show or it was
Regular readers know that I don’t think highly of bitcoin. I’ve never owned any, have no intention of buying any and don’t recommend it to readers. I did an interview in December 2017 when bitcoin was around $8,000 and going up almost $1,000 per day. I said that bitcoin could go to $20,000, but
The chorus of those predicting a major financial collapse sooner than later keeps growing. Until recently, those warnings came mostly from the fringe. Today, they are coming from the heart of the financial establishment. In this article, it is Harvard professor and presidential economic adviser Martin Feldstein who sounds the alarm. Feldstein points out that if
Most investors are acquainted with major exchange clearinghouses such as those at the CME or COMEX. But the largest securities clearinghouse in the world is one that few have heard of. It’s the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., or DTCC. The DTCC clears practically all listed stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange and
It’s no secret that the Russian and Chinese central banks are preparing to dump the dollar and escape from the dollar payments system and dollar-based sanctions. Russia and China have both more than tripled their gold reserves in the past 10 years and continue either to reduce holdings of Treasury securities or shorten the
