The Automatic Earth

The United States’ Desperate Solutions For Not Sinking Alone

Apr 202014

April 20, 2014 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 11:58 am Finance 6 Responses »

The United States' Desperate Solutions For Not Sinking Alone

LEAP2020 is a European political/economic research institute that doesn’t shy away from volunteering opinions on the topics it researches, something that works both for and against it. It publishes a new GEAB (Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin) report every month. I thought I’d share the ‘public announcement’ of the April 2014 issue with you, because it provides a clear idea of what some people think is going on with regards to the US/EU involvement in Ukraine and the war of verbal

Debt Rattle Apr 18 2014: When Men Travel First Class And Literature Goes As Freight

Apr 182014

April 18, 2014 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 3:13 pm Finance Tagged with: dreams, greatness, literature, Márquez 4 Responses »

There are times when time needs to stand still for a seemingly fleeting moment that lasts until the end of time. Yesterday was such a time. But it didn’t happen. Nothing stood still. News was slow coming in, and trickled on as the hours passed, to reach a minor crescendo later, that the world’s greatest living writer had died. And I know it’s because I’m an incurable romantic (I know because incurable romantics are not that stupid) that I feel

Debt Rattle Apr 17 2014: Scary Numbers (and Super Creeps)

Apr 172014

April 17, 2014 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 3:28 pm Finance Tagged with: China, Fed, Japan, numbers, US No Responses »

Last week we saw that China exports were down 18% in February and 6.6% in March, and that US mortgage originations are at their lowest level in 14 years. This week, the scary numbers just keep rolling in. Still, markets are up because Beijing has claimed a 7.4% GDP growth rate for 2014, and initial jobless claims in the US are falling somewhat, and most of all because everyone wants to believe in the recovery because they’re to scared of

The Voice Of The Moon: A Rare Interview With Ilargi

Apr 172014

April 17, 2014 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 10:39 am Finance 2 Responses »

The Voice Of The Moon: A Rare Interview With Ilargi

I did an interview last Saturday with KMO at C-Realm, who serves up a great free podcast every week on a wide variety of topics. Here’s his description of this one: KMO welcomes Ilargi of The Automatic Earth to the C-Realm to talk about the sorry state of watchdog journalism, the unhelpful rhetoric of American politicians and pundits around Vladimir Putin’s actions with regard to Ukraine, the media’s failure to examine the US role in bringing down the Yanukovych government,

Debt Rattle Apr 16 2014: Overpopulation Is Not A Problem For Us

Apr 162014

April 16, 2014 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 2:55 pm Earth Tagged with: overpopulation 16 Responses »

On a day like this, when Bloomberg runs the hilarious and preposterous headline “Euro Periphery Emerges as Haven as Bonds Rise”, and markets are up because the Chinese government announces a 7.4% GDP growth number, which might as well be 4.7% for all we know given the opaqueness and rosy bubbly with which Beijing is known to “calculate” these numbers, let’s talk about something entirely different. And what better to talk about than a topic I know beforehand will antagonize

Debt Rattle Apr 15 2014: This Is Where We Say Good Night And Good Luck?

Apr 152014

April 15, 2014 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 2:57 pm Finance Tagged with: China, economists, Hersh, Ukraine, US 21 Responses »

Update: Michael Ruppert Has Committed Suicide RIP Let’s start the day with the best – or should I say the funniest – graph I’ve seen in a while, picked up from Tyler Durden. It speaks for itself. If this means things are going according to plan, we might want to wonder what the plan is. American markets went up yesterday, and it was suggested that this had something to do with March retail numbers, which were up 1.1%. But then

Debt Rattle Apr 14 2014: The Parable Of The Blind Man And The Steep Cliff

Apr 142014

April 14, 2014 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 3:07 pm Finance Tagged with: blind, economists, Growth 4 Responses »

It’s hard enough to be optimistic about the future of mankind, and his habitat, on any given day of the week. And then there are days when it’s impossible not to lean towards utter despair. There was a meeting in Washington this weekend, organized by the IMF, during which all kinds of economists discussed how to squeeze more and faster growth out of the world, and it people. Because, as all economists have learned, and just about everyone else believes,

Debt Rattle Apr 11 2014: Manipulated Markets And The Empty Bag

Apr 112014

April 11, 2014 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 6:41 pm Finance Tagged with: empty bag, graphs, markets 5 Responses »

Well, stocks are down substantially over the past few days, with internet and biotech taking big hits, and we see people like Marc Faber and Dennis Gartman urging people to get out of stocks. Something’s definitely going on. Time for a bunch of charts. And let’s start with a few of the comparison ones that everybody loves to hate, where you overlay when time period on another, and suggest similarities between both periods. This first one was used by Tyler

Debt Rattle 10 2014: They Snuck In Eurobonds Through The Backdoor

Apr 102014

April 10, 2014 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 4:17 pm Finance Tagged with: ECB, Eurobond, Germany, Greece No Responses »

Debt Rattle 10 2014: They Snuck In Eurobonds Through The Backdoor

The headlines are great, but then so is the headfake. “Greece makes ‘triumphant’ return to the markets in €3 billion bond sale”, says the Guardian. CNBC speaks of a “voracious appetite” for Greek bonds, but does question whether it’s justified. Still, at first glance it certainly looks like the Greeks have been welcomed back into the fold of civilized people: Greece, the country once held responsible for sparking the sovereign debt crisis, managed to attract €20 billion ($27.7 billion) of

Debt Rattle Apr 9 2014: The Great Unwashed American Energy Independence

Apr 092014

April 9, 2014 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 3:15 pm Finance Tagged with: Bakken, EIA, energy, fracking, Shale 6 Responses »

Debt Rattle Apr 9 2014: The Great Unwashed American Energy Independence

The eurocrisis is over, the US Navy makes fuel from seawater, and America will be energy independent by 2037, according to the EIA. Boy, where do we begin? We’re getting flooded with an increasing amount of sheer nonsense wrapped in sheep’s clothing, and it’s hard to keep up. We not only live in a pretend economy, by now most of what we think we see isn’t really there at all. Indeed, there’s not even a there there anymore. Look, if

Older Entries

Daily Links :	• Peak 'Greatest Fool' (Zero Hedge)	• Japan Consumer Confidence Collapses to Lowest Since 2011 (Bloomberg)
	• Shell Chief Committed To Russia Despite Ukraine (Reuters)	• Energy Needs Curb Eastern EU Hunger for Russian Sanctions (Bloomberg)
	• US Aligned Regimes Across The Globe Are Stockpiling Weapons (RT)	• Despite De-Escalation Deal, US To Deploy Troops To Poland (WaPo)
	• British Gas Denies Paying Staff Extra For Bumping Up Customers' Bills (PA)	• BP Oil Spill Crisis Manager Managed Crisis By Selling BP Stock (Bloomberg)
	• The Astounding Power Of "Economic Elites" (Yahoo!)	• Detroit Gives Pensioners a Sleight of Hand (Bloomberg)
	• US Tells China It Must Allow Its Currency To Strengthen (BBC)	• Ukraine Through the US Looking Glass (Robert Parry)
	• Advice To Democratic Candidates: Don't Mention 'Economic Recovery' (AP)	• QE Follies: Bernanke’s Swell Gift To The Big Four Banks (Stockman)
	• Ohio Decision Makes Fracking Debate More Complicated (CNBC)	• Obama Administration Delays Keystone XL Pipeline Decision (LA Times)
	• The Miraculous Life of Gabriel García Márquez (TIME)	• Gabriel García Márquez: 25 Quotes (Outlook)