Jun 162018
 
 June 16, 2018  Posted by at 9:08 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Paul Gauguin Nevermore 1897

 

Trump Sets Tariffs On $50 Billion In Chinese Goods; Beijing Strikes Back (R.)
Why The U.S.-China Trade Deficit Is So Huge (MW)
Wall Street Builds Immunity To Trade War Rhetoric (R.)
Nomi Prins: The Central Banking Heist Has Put The World At Risk (UH)
Some Of The ‘Most Systemically Important Banks’ In The World Are Tumbling (ZH)
Merger Mania (Lebowitz)
The Key Word In The Trump-Kim Show (Escobar)
Merkel’s Position As German Leader Under Threat Over Immigration Split (CNBC)
US Government Says 2,000 Child Separations At Mexico Border In 6 Weeks (R.)
French Police Cut Soles Off Migrant Children’s Shoes – Oxfam (G.)
In ‘Calais of Italy’ Tension Soars Over Migrant Crisis (AFP)
Greek Police Hunt Golden Dawn Lawmaker Faced with Charges of Treason (GR)

 

 

Negotiating.

Trump Sets Tariffs On $50 Billion In Chinese Goods; Beijing Strikes Back (R.)

U.S. President Donald Trump said he was pushing ahead with hefty tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports on Friday, and the smoldering trade war between the world’s two largest economies showed signs of igniting as Beijing immediately vowed to respond in kind. Trump laid out a list of more than 800 strategically important imports from China that would be subject to a 25 percent tariff starting on July 6, including cars, the latest hardline stance on trade by a U.S. president who has already been wrangling with allies.

China’s Commerce Ministry said it would respond with tariffs “of the same scale and strength” and that any previous trade deals with Trump were “invalid.” The official Xinhua news agency said China would impose 25 percent tariffs on 659 U.S. products, ranging from soybeans and autos to seafood. China’s retaliation list was increased more than six-fold from a version released in April, but the value was kept at $50 billion, as some high-value items such as commercial aircraft were deleted.

Read more …

Soybeans R Us.

Why The U.S.-China Trade Deficit Is So Huge (MW)

President Donald Trump will let tariffs on Chinese goods worth up to $50 billion take effect after talks between the two countries failed to appease White House demands on reducing huge U.S. trade deficits. The U.S. has run large deficits with China for years and in some cases no longer produces certain goods such as consumer electronics that are popular with Americans. It won’t be easy, and it might even be impossible, to reduce the gap much any time soon. In 2017, the U.S. posted a $375.6 billion deficit in goods with China.

Most glaring is the huge deficit in computers and electronics, but the U.S. is a net importer from China in most market segments except for agriculture. The U.S. is excluding Chinese-made cellphones and televisions from its tariffs. China has been a big buyer of American-grown soybeans and other crops. Planes made by Boeing also are a product in demand in China. What happens next? Trump has vowed to increase tariffs if China retaliates, but the Chinese promised to return the favor. A trade dispute between the two largest economies in the world could result in lasting damage to the global economy if it metastasizes.

Read more …

What happens when there is no price discovery.

Wall Street Builds Immunity To Trade War Rhetoric (R.)

Fears of tariffs and a potential global trade war have jostled U.S. stocks over the past few months, but there is a sense among investors that the market is taking the drum beat of rhetoric and statements more in stride. In the latest salvo, U.S. President Donald Trump announced hefty tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports on Friday, and Beijing threatened to respond in kind. But even as the developments threatened to ignite a trade war between the world’s two largest economies, the equity market largely shrugged it off. The benchmark S&P 500 index ended down only 0.1 percent on Friday.

That paled compared to losses earlier in the year that were sparked by fears of a U.S.-China trade war that would be detrimental to economic growth. “The market has gotten reasonably comfortably numb to this tariff stuff,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. “They are becoming more accustomed to this being a first foray and negotiating tool.” The U.S. Customs and Border Protection is to begin collecting tariffs on an initial tranche of 818 Chinese product categories on July 6. “It’s kind of the cry-wolf syndrome,” said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia. “I think people fear the tariffs and the uncertainty about it, but think, ‘OK, this is just another negotiating point.’”

Read more …

“..a de facto heist that has enabled the most dominant banks and central bankers to run the world”.

Nomi Prins: The Central Banking Heist Has Put The World At Risk (UH)

Over the last decade, she tells me when we meet in London, “under the guise of QE, central bankers have massively overstepped their traditional mandates, directing the flow of epic sums of fabricated money, without any checks or balances, towards the private banking sector”. Since QE began, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, “the US Federal Reserve has produced a massive $4.5 trillion of conjured money, out of a worldwide QE total of around $21 trillion”, says Prins. The combination of ultra-low interest rates and vast monetary expansion, she explains, has caused “speculation to rage … much as a global casino would be abuzz if everyone gambled using everyone else’s money”.

Much of this new spending power, though, has remained “inside the system”, with banks shoring up their balance sheets. “So lending to ordinary firms and households has barely grown as a result of QE,” says Prins, “nor have wages or prosperity for most of the world’s population”. Instead, “the banks have gone on an asset-buying spree”, she explains, getting into her stride, “with the vast flow of QE cash from central banks to private banks ensuring endless opportunities for market manipulation and asset bubbles – driven by government support”. Prins describes “the power grab we’ve seen by the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and other central banks”.

Using QE, she argues, “these illusionists have altered the nature of the financial system and orchestrated a de facto heist that has enabled the most dominant banks and central bankers to run the world”.

Read more …

They run the world and they’re still failing. Follow the money.

Some Of The ‘Most Systemically Important Banks’ In The World Are Tumbling (ZH)

Since the Federal Reserve hiked rates, “big” US banks have dramatically underperformed “small” US banks, continuing a trend that has been going on since February… But it’s broader than that; this “big” bank blow-up is global. The stock prices of 16 of the most ‘Systemically Important Financial Institutions’ (SIFIs) in the world are now in bear market territory (down by 20% or more from their recent highs in dollar terms); and as the FT reports, this has caused Ian Hartnett, chief investment strategist at London-based Absolute Strategy Research, to issue his first “Black Swan” alert since 2009.

Of the 39 SIFIs, these are the 16 in bear market territory: Deutsche Bank, Nordea, ICBC, UniCredit, Crédit Agricole, ING, Santander, Société Générale, BNP Paribas, UBS, Agricultural Bank of China, AXA, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Bank of China, Credit Suisse and Prudential Financial. At some point, says Hartnett, central bankers will have to respond to bearish signals from almost half the global SIFIs, rather than continuing to tighten monetary policy: “The clue is in the name,” he said. “If these banks are supposed to be systemically important then policymakers ought to be watching them to see what is happening.” “The synchronised dips were a sign of global financial stress.”

Read more …

“..there has been $2 trillion in mergers in 2018, and its only June.”

Merger Mania (Lebowitz)

We have written numerous articles describing how cheap money and poorly designed executive compensation packages encourage corporate actions that may not be in the best interest of longer-term shareholders or the economy. The bottom line in the series of articles is that corporations, in particular shareholders and executives, are willing to forego longer term investment for future growth opportunities in exchange for the personal benefits of short-term share price appreciation. Buybacks and mergers, both of which are fueled by the Federal Reserve’s ultra-low interest rate policy have made these actions much easier to accomplish.

On the other hand, corporate apologists argue that buybacks are simply a return of capital to shareholders, just like dividends. There is nothing more to them. Instead of elaborating about the longer term ill-effects associated with buybacks or the true short-term motivations behind many mergers, the powerful simplicity of the following two graphs stands on their own. The first graph, courtesy Meritocracy, shows how mergers tend to run in cycles. Like clockwork, merger activity tends to peak before recessions. Not surprisingly, the peaks tend to occur after the Federal Reserve (Fed) has initiated a rate hike cycle. The graph only goes through 2015, but consider there has been $2 trillion in mergers in 2018, and its only June.

The following graph shows how corporate borrowing has accelerated over the last eight years on the back of lower interest rates. Currently, corporate debt to GDP stands at levels that accompanied the prior three recessions. There is a pattern here among corporate activities which seems similar to that which we see in investors. At the point in time when investors should be getting cautious and defensive as markets become stretched, they carelessly reach for more return. Based on the charts above, corporate executives do the same thing. The difference is that when an investor is careless, his or her net worth is at risk. A corporate executive on the other hand, loses nothing and simply walks away and frequently with a golden parachute.

Read more …

The statement does have substance.

The Key Word In The Trump-Kim Show (Escobar)

The Singapore joint statement is not a deal; it’s a statement. The absolutely key item is number 3: “Reaffirming the April 27, 2018, Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” This means that the US and North Korea will work towards denuclearization not only in what concerns the DPRK but the whole Korean Peninsula. Much more than “…the DPRK commits to work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”, the keywords are in fact “reaffirming the April 27, 2018, Panmunjom Declaration…” Even before Singapore, everyone knew the DPRK would not “de-nuke” (Trump terminology) for nothing, especially when promised just some vague US “guarantees”.

Predictably, both US neocon and humanitarian imperialist factions are unanimous in their fury, blasting the absence of “meat” in the joint statement. In fact there’s plenty of meat. Singapore reaffirms the Panmunjom Declaration, which is a deal between North Korea and South Korea. By signing the Singapore joint statement, Washington has been put on notice of the Panmunjom Declaration. In law, when you take notice of a fact, you can’t ignore it later. The DPRK’s commitment to denuclearize in the Singapore statement is a reaffirmation of its commitment to denuclearize in the Panmunjom Declaration, with all of the conditions attached to it. And Trump acknowledged that by signing the Singapore statement.

The Panmunjom Declaration stresses that: “South and North Korea confirmed the common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. South and North Korea shared the view that the measures being initiated by North Korea are very meaningful and crucial for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and agreed to carry out their respective roles and responsibilities in this regard. South and North Korea agreed to actively seek the support and cooperation of the international community for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

Read more …

The risk is real.

Merkel’s Position As German Leader Under Threat Over Immigration Split (CNBC)

A split over immigration between Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister Christian Social Union (CSU) party is threatening to end her 12-year spell as Germany’s leader. Germany’s grand coalition government was formed in March after five months of political deadlock since an election the previous September. It resulted in Merkel’s fourth term as German chancellor. That vote saw a big upswing in support for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, who campaigned against Merkel’s open-door policy to refugees and migrants arriving from the Middle East and Africa.

Now the CSU, fearful of losing further support from its conservative base, is threatening to withdraw from the country’s grand coalition unless Merkel hardens her immigration stance. “My sources in Berlin say the situation is on a knife-edge right now, some are even giving it an 80 percent probability that Merkel will step down in the next two weeks,” said Nina Schick, director at political consultancy Rasmussen Global, in a telephone call to CNBC Friday. Schick, however, warned that writing Merkel off has long been a dangerous game. “The fundamental rule in German politics since 2006 is don’t underestimate Merkel,” she added.

Read more …

CUT IT OUT! Bunch of crazies.

US Government Says 2,000 Child Separations At Mexico Border In 6 Weeks (R.)

The government said on Friday that 1,995 children were separated from 1,940 adults at the U.S.-Mexico border between April 19 and May 31, as the Trump administration implements stricter border enforcement policies. The number represents a dramatic uptick from the nearly 1,800 family separations that Reuters reported had happened from October 2016 through February of this year. The official tally of separations is now nearly 4,000 children, not including March and the beginning of April 2018. In May, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a ‘zero tolerance’ policy in which all those apprehended entering the United States illegally would be criminally charged, which generally leads to children being separated from their parents.

The families were all separated so the parents could be criminally prosecuted, said a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, who declined to be named, on a call with reporters. “Advocates want us to ignore the law and give people with families a free pass,” said the official. “We no longer exempt entire classes of people.” The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request to provide a breakdown of the age of children separated from their parents and held in custody, but the official said they do not separate babies from adults.

Read more …

I said: CUT IT OUT!

French Police Cut Soles Off Migrant Children’s Shoes – Oxfam (G.)

French border police have been accused of detaining migrant children as young as 12 in cells without food or water, cutting the soles off their shoes and stealing sim cards from their mobile phones, before illegally sending them back to Italy. A report released on Friday by the charity Oxfam also cites the case of a “very young” Eritrean girl, who was forced to walk back to the Italian border town of Ventimiglia along a road with no pavement while carrying her 40-day-old baby. The allegations, which come from testimony gathered by Oxfam workers and partner organisations, come two months after French border police were accused of falsifying the birth dates of unaccompanied migrant children in an attempt to pass them off as adults and send them back to Italy.

“We don’t have evidence of violent physical abuse, but many [children] have recounted being pushed and shoved or shouted at in a language they don’t understand,” Giulia Capitani, the report’s author, told the Guardian. “And in other ways the border police intimidate them – for example, cutting the soles off their shoes is a way of saying, ‘Don’t try to come back’.” Daniela Zitarosa, from the Italian humanitarian agency Intersos, said: “Police [officers] yell at them, laugh at them and tell them, ‘You will never cross here’. “Some children have their mobile phone seized and sim card removed. They lose their data and phonebook. They cannot even call their parents afterwards.”

Read more …

France’s role is not pretty. Macron’s criticism of Italy unveils it.

In ‘Calais of Italy’ Tension Soars Over Migrant Crisis (AFP)

Emmanuel Macron is not a welcome guest in the Italian border town of Ventimiglia, a flashpoint in Europe’s migration crisis. Residents are furious at the French president for charging Rome with “cynicism and irresponsibility” this week after it turned away a rescue boat carrying more than 600 asylum-seekers. “It’s bad what happened to the Aquarius (ship) but how dare Macron criticise Italy!” vented retired teacher Fulvia Semeria who volunteers for the Secours Catholique charity, a key aid group for migrants. “It’s unacceptable from a country that does nothing for migrants and even rejects them,” she said, calling his remarks “insulting and totally unfair”.

The pretty northern town at the gates of the French Riviera has received tens of thousands of asylum seekers pushed back by France since the eruption of Europe’s worst migration crisis three years ago. This is in addition to scores of desperate African refugees landing on its shores after undertaking the perilous journey across the Mediterranean. The influx has seen Ventimiglia dubbed the “Calais of Italy”, in reference to the French coastal town notorious for its sprawling migrant camps. [..] At least 16 migrants have died trying to cross from France into Italy since September 2016, falling off mountains, being hit by cars or electrocuted while hiding under train carriages.

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Pretty crazy. All over a name change.

Greek Police Hunt Golden Dawn Lawmaker Faced with Charges of Treason (GR)

A Golden Dawn lawmaker is on the run after Greece’s authorities issued an arrest warrant following his call in the parliament on Friday for the arrest of the country’s prime minister and president over the provisional ‘Macedonia’ name deal. According to reports, Konstantinos Barbarousis, who could face charges of high treason, escaped a police blockade late on Friday in the western region of Aetoloakarnania where he sought refuge. A huge police operation is under way to locate him and bring him to justice. Judicial authorities do not need Parliament’s approval to lift an MP’s immunity in the case of treason-related charges.

Speaking in Parliament, Barbarousis accused the government of “not legislating in the nation’s interests but in its own.” He called for a coup d’etat and asked on the Greek armed forces to “abide by their oath” and arrest Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos and President Prokopis Pavlopoulos. His outburst led to his expulsion form the extremist party, as the speaker of the house barred any members of Golden Dawn speaking during the debate on a no-confidence motion against the government tabled after the Greece, FYROM agreement.

Read more …

Home Forums Debt Rattle June 16 2018

Viewing 17 posts - 1 through 17 (of 17 total)
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  • #41221

    Paul Gauguin Nevermore 1897   • Trump Sets Tariffs On $50 Billion In Chinese Goods; Beijing Strikes Back (R.) • Why The U.S.-China Trade Deficit
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 16 2018]

    #41222
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    The U.N. completely broken and worthless.
    Orwell’s 1984 inches closer by the day; in fact it’s here, but not yet complete.
    There is no hope to be found; the west is hope less.
    It remains to be seen what the SCO and BRICKS will accomplish beyond an economic union…
    That is said understanding that the west (USA) is in decline; I see collapse velocity increasing until a sudden finish. A most dangerous time for the planet. A cornerd, dying, vicious, beast is at its most dangerous then…

    #41223
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    The children; historically civilization’s most valuable asset, are now relegated to trash; or less?
    Whoa is us…

    #41224
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Tariffs are always and everywhere bad, except we’ve always had them. The U.S. was the country with free(r) trade, while Japan, China — and American cars — were locked out. As the world’s reserve currency, the American empire made up that loss on the Treasury purchases, printing endless free money, some of it off the books. But when the US$ is no longer the reserve currency, then tariffs…? That’s right, the other end of the bridge will collapse, and the U.S. needs to adjust before then.

    So since we all have always had tariffs, and they’re always being adjusted, what is this “Trade War” they name? What does “Metastasize” mean? Not that it isn’t happening, but as usual, a lot of headline-grabbing that misdirects from what might be more important — the collapse of the US$ world reserve currency and U.S. empire, including withdrawing its military.

    The immigration thing is, as all reporting, disingenuine. Bill Clinton’s quote aside, if you are going to have legal immigration, with paperwork, then you need to turn back people at the border. That’s just physics: you either are doing a thing, or not doing. So, after widely advertising that the rules have changed, you stop quite a large number of people, which will include families. That means you are holding them, which must be in official police detention. Okay. So will you a) throw the children and infants into the adult incarceration centers, or b) remove them to be put in a softer facility for children? Don’t answer too quickly: the media will crucify you either way: it’s inhumane to hold the children with the adults, AND inhumane to remove them.

    But I smell a trap: how can every possible response be inhumane? I mean, did they expect that by breaking a law widely reported to be tightening up, we would place whole families in comfortable apartments, with green cards and job placement? Honey, we don’t even do that for our OWN citizens who are dying by the thousands. If not, then being detained by the police MUST involve incarceration, judicial processing, and almost certain deportation until you, like the pizza driver in NY, fill out some paperwork and get some legal standing. I mean: I do it. What do you think they’re going to do to me at the first traffic stop without a driver’s license, or my first IRS inspection where there are no W-4 records of my employment? Jail, jail, jail. Can I bring my kids? No!!!

    So why did you bring your children — infants even — to hop a militarized border? I know things are grave worldwide, and if I had to I would, but no man, no family, would put their children at risk by even attempting it: they’d mail the money home, duh. …Which they’re not risking as the media suggests, they’re safer than with the human traffickers that brought them, since the children and NOT being tossed in with the adults, and I presume the men are not tossed in with the women (as we’ve seen how hazardous the trafficker’s treatment of women can be), but are processed in the government’s ordinary, badly run, not-nice way; the same way me and every other citizen gets treated when we forget to pay so much as a registration fee, or talk too loud at a school board meeting. We get towed, incarcerated and adjudicated, usually badly, and usually convicted.

    They act like this is special: it’s not. If I broke the law, I would expect to be arrested, and take pretty bad treatment for it because the system stinks. There’s also a not-small chance I would be shot for interacting with an officer at all, so it seems generally safer to be an immigrant than a citizen. But I would not expect to be picked up for a felony and let go, much less placed in a medium-term housing center with my family and a full fridge. There’s a well-advertised process called “law” with the offenses and consequences all written down in painful detail. Have these guys been watching too much TV? Where would you get the idea the world works like this? (…I’m talking about the reporters…) In broad terms if you’re not a citizen, you have no rights. It’s a shaky situation at best, and this is not just here, but worldwide. What do you think Mexico will do to me if I sneak in there with no passport and no papers? I suspect it would involve my near-certain death. Canada? Nope. Certain jail and deportation. How about China? Italy? Can I fly there, jump my travel visa, and work in Milan and they’ll let me keep the kids? No. No. No.

    So why these guys?

    “All Americans, not only in the states most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country,” Mr. Clinton said. “The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers.
    “That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens,” he said. “In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace.
    “We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.” – Bill Clinton, 1995

    #41225
    Charles Alban
    Participant

    The African “immigrants”, “refugees”, “asylum seekers” or whatever you call them have to be rounded up and sent home. There is nothing for them in Europe. They are not employable. The wise lament neither for the living nor the dead…Bhagavad-gita. .

    #41226
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Charles Alban
    They are not employable. The wise lament neither for the living nor the dead…Bhagavad-gita. .
    There are always homilies, seemingly appropriate to any given situation; but; where is the empathy and compassion for a people disposessed against their will.
    As MLK said; the U.S. is the largest purveyor of violence on the planet and the refugees (and I’ll not argue semantics here) are a direct result of U.S. war on the M.E. and North Africa.
    I pity the self described civilized world; most of whom have no sense of the word civilized…

    #41227
    oxymoron
    Participant

    I’ve been thinkin’ a lot about media bullshit and how total it is these days and it got me pondering the very direct correlation between debt and slavery and how many journos wanna keep up the house repayments and pay the kids medical bills or afford food basically which I guess puts em in a position where they kinda do what they’re told.
    It’s like the Central Bank Money printing just works on so many levels to keep every one ‘on message’. Cos if you are say 30 and you are paying off a house in Sydney and want to work in news then you can’t be too far from the office most of the time and that means you are paying off a house that costs 1 million dollars! The editor says to you that the thing you wrote about Yemen and the American Military just isn’t gunna cut it so clean up your act or you’ll be looking for another job and you have to think to yourself – Am I gunna wait tables or just scrap the idea of telling the truth? I mean I have a family to feed……
    Any thoughts?

    #41229

    Thoughts-a-plenty Oxy. Good description of how the ‘system’ works. The younger you are, the greater fool you are. A few days ago, I quoted this article about how the mom and pop bank lends money to their kids just to make sure the valuations of their own properties hold up. For now. That fits the description of Ponzi like nothing else.

    #41230
    zerosum
    Participant

    media bullshit

    The media don’t talk about
    A tariff is a tax.

    Its a source of income for all gov.

    Its a tax on their people.

    The media is lying by omission and diversion.

    #41231
    Nassim
    Participant

    oxymoron and Dr D. Spot on.

    I have been saying this stuff for years and have probably lost some friends as a consequence. Others, take me for an old crank.

    A couple of French kids are staying in this airbnb. They go to elite universities – École Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees. Both studying engineering. They told me last night that they voted for Macron – because they could not possibly vote for Marine Le Pen. I told them that they have to vote for people who stop immigration from the 3rd world to France and who start sending these guys back. I said that by the time they get to my age, France will be African – and I am glad that I won’t be around to see it.

    You should have seen their faces fall. They understood the logic of my argument but they were so indoctinated by the neo-Trotskyists who are running the media and who control the political classes of France, UK, US, Israel etc. that they could not handle it. To get to an elite school, you have to pretend to believe the BS that is hitting you every day. If you show the slightest sign of independent thought, you are out in the cold.

    Tonight, I am proposing to show them a detailed picture of a gigantic beam travelling sideways at high speed from one of the 3 buildings of 9/11 and to ask them to explain to me where the energy came from. Newton’s Laws of Motion were suspended on that day according to the 9/11 “investigation”

    https://www.metabunk.org/data/MetaMirrorCache/contrailscience.com_skitch_site1085_20120628_111320.jpg

    It is fun to watch smart people squirming. Call me a sadist. 🙂

    #41232
    V. Arnold
    Participant
    #41233
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    I found this site, and it’s quite interesting and informative.
    Some good sources; Hedges and Martin to name a couple of them.

    https://www.greanvillepost.com/

    #41238
    tabarnick
    Participant

    Nassim,

    Take a bucket of pebbles, and pour them out to the ground. As they hit the ground, or each other, you will notice some of them travelling sideways at high speed. Things falling down may hit an obstacle that is off vertically from their center of gravity and ricochet sideways. The fact that you find this unexplainable by natural means is what is puzzling to me.

    #41239
    tabarnick
    Participant

    Charles Alban,

    You are absolutely correct. In the Netherlands, one of the european countries with extremely low unemployment (3.9% last I checked), 89% of refugees are unemployed 2 and a half years after their arrival. Of those working, only 15% have a full-time job. There you have it: less than 2% have a full-time job, two and a half years after their arrival.

    According to Jan van de Beek, researcher on dutch migrations, many migrants have had no decent education. According to him, the few jobs they qualify for are not interesting to them, since they can get as much or nearly so without doing anything.

    https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/1925440/statushouder-werkloos

    The idea that these migrants are anything but a burden on the society they move to, unannounced, a burden that gets heavier and heavier month after month and year after year, is a pipedream. Unless kept in check, this phenomenon will continue until the standard of living in France or Italy is no better than the one in Nigeria or Morocco.

    #41240
    tabarnick
    Participant

    V. Arnold
    “The refugees are a direct result of U.S. war on the M.E. and North Africa”

    I will lament the idiotic “humanitarian regime change operations” in Iraq, Libya and Syria. I will curse the idiotic war-mongering politicians that launched them, George W Bush, Tony Blair, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nicolas Sarkozy.

    And yet, I will reiterate what I wrote last year in this very comment section last year: “the top country of origin of Mediterranean migrants are Guinea, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Bangladesh”. The migrants, for the most part, are NOT fleeing Syria or Libya. Guinea, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Bangladesh are NOT the theater of war by the US, they are not even part of the Middle-East and North Africa.

    #41242
    zerosum
    Participant

    “… these migrants are a burden on the society…”

    The elites will implement “the final solution” in the countries that you cant imagine.
    (I’m not reffering to a ware zone countries)

    #41244
    tabarnick
    Participant

    zerosum,

    Who are those elites? Donald Trump? Angela Merkel? Rachel Maddow? Matteo Salvini? Angelina Jolie? Bill Gates? Jean-Claude Juncker? Lebron James? Mark Zuckerberg? Vladimir Putin? Oprah Winfrey? Bernard-Henri Lévy? Who? We want names!

    What sinister ‘final solution’ do you imagine they are up to? In what countries (not in a ware[sic] zone), exactly?

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