Brinkmanship on a sinking ship?
I don’t think Mr. Obama and the EU leaders will get many points with their unwashed masses for their efforts to curtail Russia’s ambitions.
“U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday promised to increase Russia’s isolation, as the United States and the European Union agreed to work together to prepare possible tougher economic sanctions in response to Russia's behavior in Ukraine.
Speaking after a summit with top EU officials and quoted by Reuters, Obama declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin had miscalculated if he thought he could divide the West or count on its indifference over his annexation of Crimea.
"If Russia continues on its current course, however, the isolation will deepen, sanctions will increase and there will be more consequences for the Russian economy," he told a joint news conference with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.”
Meanwhile:
“Russia has increased its gold holdings by 7.247 tonnes to 1,042 tonnes in February. Turkey and Kazakhstan also raised their bullion reserves, data from the International Monetary Fund showed today.
Turkey's gold holdings rose 9.292 tonnes to 497.869 tonnes, the data showed.
Many analysts are ignoring the important context of today's new geopolitical backdrop. Russia alone has some $400 billion in foreign exchange reserves - mostly in U.S. dollars. If they were to diversify just 5%, worth some $20 billion, of those reserves into gold - it would be equal to nearly 500 tonnes of gold or nearly 25% of global annual production.”
China is now the world’s largest consumer of gold.
Jim Rickards is the author of the bestseller“Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis” and the forthcoming, “The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System”.
He is a portfolio manager at West Shore Group and a partner in Tangent Capital Partners, a merchant bank based in New York. He is an advisor on capital markets to the U.S. intelligence community and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
“The best guide is to assume China has some target in mind, probably 5,000 tonnes or higher, and will continue to accumulate through diverse channels until that target is reached. My estimate is that China will announce it has over 5,000 tonnes of gold in early 2015. It probably has at least 3,000 tonnes today.”
At Bank of America:
“Here’s a story that’s starting to sound weirdly familiar: Bank of America Corp. just agreed to pay $9.5 billion to settle U.S. claims linked to mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from 2005 to 2007. The deal, which roughly $6.3 billion in cash to end legal claims and an agreement to buy back $3.2 billion worth of mortgage-backed bonds, might seem like a landmark … if it was not so similar to multi-billion dollar agreements Bank of America signed in 2011 and 2013.
The 2013 deal, signed that January, also involved paying $3.6 billion in cash and buying back mortgages with billions of dollars in outstanding principal. At the time, Bank of America CEO Brian T. Moynihan called the 2013 agreements “a significant step in resolving our remaining legacy mortgage issues.” One analyst told Bloomberg that the deal would let Bank of America put its Fannie and Freddie issues behind it.
Apparently not. But there’s more. The current deal doesn’t just come on top of the 2013 settlement. It also comes on top of a $3 billion deal with Fannie and Freddie in 2011. Not to mention an $8.5 billion settlement reached with mortgage bond investors the same year. The consensus then was also that Bank of America seemed to be climbing out of the mortgage crisis pit. “The good news for BofA is that it seems to be putting a significant chunk of its Countrywide problems behind it,” Forbes wrote. Sound familiar?”
At Citigroup:
Citigroup Inc.’s capital plan was among five that failed Federal Reserve stress tests, while Bank of America Corp. won approval for its first dividend increase since the financial crisis.
And another meanwhile:
It looks like the National Science Foundation has been handing out grants for some unorthodox research projects, according to House Republicans.
This includes $700,000 in funding for a climate change musical.
House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith questioned White House science czar John Holdren in a Thursday hearing over whether or not the National Science Foundation (NSF) should have to justify its use of taxpayer dollars to fund projects. Smith pointed out some examples of questionable projects the NSF has funded.
- $700,000 on a climate change musical
- $15,000 to study fishing practices around Lake Victoria in Africa
- $340,000 to examine the “ecological consequences” of early human fires in New Zealand
- $200,000 for a three-year study of the Bronze Age around the Mediterranean
- $50,000 to survey archived 17th Century lawsuits in Peru
“The Administration’s willful disregard for public accountability distracts from the important issues of how America can stay ahead of China, Russia, and other countries in the highly-competitive race for technological leadership,” said Smith, a Texas Republican.
- $20,00 to look at the causes of stress in Bolivia
http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/26/feds-spent-700000-on-a-climate-change-musical/
I’m thinking of the Titanic and “The band played on” Steve Turner wrote a book about:
“Rats deserting a sinking ship” is a more likely term.
“I believe the band took the courageous decision to play because of the moral character of their leader, the violinist Wallace Hartley. This musician, who’d previously played on both the Mauretania and the Lusitania, was from the small town of Colne in Lancashire, England, and was raised in the Methodist church. His father was the choirmaster there and responsible for introducing the hymn ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee’ to the congregation.But I don’t believe our leaders have the principles as Hartley.
By all accounts Hartley was a highly principled person and a devout Christian. He’d recently been engaged to a young Christian girl, Maria Robinson, and they planned to marry after he’d completed a few trips on the Titanic. He was personable, cheerful and would always attend church when he was back on land.”
“Rats deserting a sinking ship” is a more likely term.
