Tuesday, November 5, 2013

The U.S. Government's Totalitarian Creep Is Turning Into A "Grip"

I first want to preface my remarks by saying that, although Obama has tragically and immorally failed to deliver any of the promises on which he rode into the Presidency in 2008, it's not his fault.  He is nothing but a pawn, maybe at best a bishop or rook, on the insidious chessboard of political and economic power and control that is dominated by big bank, oil, defense and other corporate interests and long time elitists like Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Bryzezinski.  Many of the rooks and "royal" players do not have identities because they stay behind the scenes.  But many you've heard of, like Robert Rubin, George Soros and Warren Buffet.  The person who gets put in the charge of the Fed is also a lower-ranking piece on the board, like the President.  This is not about Democrats vs Republicans - that's the distraction they throw out like fish bait to deflect your attention from the real story.  Behind the scenes the big monied interests donate equally to both parties.  They don't care which party fills the seats as long as they control the votes.

Another piece of the overall puzzle fell into place for me when I chatted with a good friend of mine today who was going home from a hedge fund conference.   He said the majority of people there were completely disgusted with our markets and the big buzz was about how the markets are completely out of touch with reality and that it was impossible to value anything.  As an example:  Sovereign Ghana bonds are yielding only 7%.  Ghana for chrissakes. That's a lower rate of interest than many muni bond issues in this country.  They were also disgusted and mystified by the relentless move higher in the U.S. stock market.

He also said that people were talking about how big Wall Street firms were starting to withdraw from trading a lot of markets, especially commodities because they are impossible to trade, so it's not just gold and silver.  As participants and capital leave markets, they become less liquid.

That's when it occurred to me:  this is what the Government and elitists who control the Government want.  To the extent that markets are liquid and freely trading, it's harder for the Government to control them. 

Let me explain this control thing.  I've noticed since the Patriot Act was passed that the Government has been slowly taking away civil and Constitutional rights and taking more control of our lives.  It happened somewhat slowly at first but it's starting to happen very quickly now.  Obamacare is a prime example.  Obamacare is going to "blow up" - doctors are opting out en masse, there will be a shortage of doctors to service patients in the system and many people will only buy insurance when they have to because pre-existing conditions must now be accepted. etc etc.   It will give the Government the perfect excuse to consolidate even more control over our lives by moving the role of healthcare management into the Executive Branch of Government.  All it will take is yet another Executive Order signed by Lefty (for those who never noticed, Obama is left-handed, I'm ashamed to say as a lefty).

Same deal with the markets.   In July the average NYSE volume per day was 952mm shares.  It has declined at a remarkable rate.  Yesterday NYSE volume was under 700mm shares.  It's that way below that on many days.  It's easier for the Fed, with the big banks as their proxy, to keep the market from tanking when the volume is low.  When volume is low a $1.8 billion QE operation like today is all it takes to keep the market from cliff-diving, which it started to do at the open, until the Fed was done with its POMO operation (QE bond buying - today it bought $1.8 billion of 30yr Treasuries).

If the Government can force liquidity to withdraw from the markets, it makes it easier for it to control the markets.  Here's what this means with gold and silver:  Gold and silver have been under oppressive price-capping manipulation since peaking in 2011.  The price of metals were a run-away freight train back then and it was getting to the point at which the dollar's "supremacy" was threatened.  Gold and silver bottomed in June and have been slowly drifting higher, despite daily paper bombing attacks from Australia, London and the Comex.  The underlying strength of the physical market in the eastern hemisphere is preventing them from pushing the metals lower other than an occasional blatant paper raid, typically on Friday when the Comex is the only game going around the world.  From here, I believe gold and silver will start to "leak" higher as we get closer to the tipping point for the U.S. dollar.  At some point the paper manipulators will receive delivery demands that can't be met.  At that point in time gold and silver will go bid without, the dollar collapses and our system implodes.  I don't know how long that will take, but I see that the Government's pace of implementing totalitarian control is moving along a lot more quickly now than it was 10 years ago when I first starting thinking about the end game.

Here's some more unmistakable signs:  1)  The debt ceiling limit is removed, supposedly temporarily.  The jury is out on the "temporary" nature of that - I bet the "no ceiling" status gets extended in February.  No debt ceiling limitation essentially gives the Government its own printing press  2)  Capital controls.  Many are poo-poo'ing JPM's move to limit the ability of depositors to wire money in and out of the country, but I have read that other banks are going to follow suit and I would bet big money that it's a "creep" toward capital controls.  3) NSA.  Diane Feinstein surveillance legislation - need I say more?

There are other signs but those are the big ones.  Whether my overall scenario for how the exact events unfold is accurate or not is not important.  I am becoming more convinced that my thesis is correct.  It doesn't have to be accurate for things to become unbearable here, just correct.  After all, "1984," "Animal Farm" and "Atlas Shrugged" are not necessarily "accurate" in their portrayal of the unfolding of actual events but they sure are correct in their underlying modelling of what has been happening and what will happen.

This is a concept that anyone who has kids, or even only grand kids they care about, can't accept because the implications of what it means about where life in the U.S. is headed are too horrible to contemplate.  Denial sets in and fears are rationalized away as being "irrational" and those "irrational" fears are replaced by hope.   The only "hope" I have right now is that Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" is not only not accurate but not correct.

31 comments:

  1. Dave, I really think it is almost impossible for the stock market to crash any more. The Fed has become the only player there. I'm out of the stock market already. The market has become too ridiculous.
    As for gold and silver, imo, you are a bit too optimistic. The cartel seemingly wants to test the June low or $1000 level in terms of the current price movements.

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  2. Obama is just a pawn then who is the Queen? Trish Regan? Amanda Drury? Beckie Quick? Maria Bartiromo? Erin Burnett?

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  3. Read this today and you know I use to think that I was getting immune to this stuff, but this is what serves as acceptable in the USSR. Dark dark days ahead... I might as well quit school since it won't matter what education I have if the path of the police state keeps on truckin down the road to hell and I just keep going about my business like it is not happening; that there is actually a future ahead.

    Another good site to follow for such news is - http://www.policestateusa.com/

    New Mexico Man Stopped by Police for Traffic Violation Subjected to Forced Anal Exams, Enemas, Colonoscopy and Other Medical Procedures

    http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3209305.shtml?cat=500#.UnmoKBso7mT

    This 4 On Your Side investigation looks into the actions of police officers and doctors in Southern New Mexico.

    A review of medical records, police reports and a federal lawsuit show deputies with the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office, police officers with the City of Deming and medical professionals at the Gila Regional Medical Center made some questionable decisions.

    The incident began January 2, 2013 after David Eckert finished shopping at the Wal-Mart in Deming. According to a federal lawsuit, Eckert didn't make a complete stop at a stop sign coming out of the parking lot and was immediately stopped by law enforcement.

    Eckert's attorney, Shannon Kennedy, said in an interview with KOB that after law enforcement asked him to step out of the vehicle, he appeared to be clenching his buttocks. Law enforcement thought that was probable cause to suspect that Eckert was hiding narcotics in his anal cavity. While officers detained Eckert, they secured a search warrant from a judge that allowed for an anal cavity search.

    The lawsuit claims that Deming Police tried taking Eckert to an emergency room in Deming, but a doctor there refused to perform the anal cavity search citing it was "unethical."

    But physicians at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City agreed to perform the procedure and a few hours later, Eckert was admitted.

    What Happened

    While there, Eckert was subjected to repeated and humiliating forced medical procedures. A review of Eckert's medical records, which he released to KOB, and details in the lawsuit show the following happened:

    1. Eckert's abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found.

    2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.

    3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.

    4. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.

    5. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema a second time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.

    6. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema a third time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.

    7. Doctors then x-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found.

    8. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert's anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines. No narcotics were found.

    Throughout this ordeal, Eckert protested and never gave doctors at the Gila Regional Medical Center consent to perform any of these medical procedures.

    "If the officers in Hidalgo County and the City of Deming are seeking warrants for anal cavity searches based on how they're standing and the warrant allows doctors at the Gila Hospital of Horrors to go in and do enemas and colonoscopies without consent, then anyone can be seized and that's why the public needs to know about this," Kennedy said.

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  4. Eventually, they lose control. We have to remember that we are involved in a large world-wide global society. Other nations won't tolerate the next screw-up when it happens.

    The democrats wants communist russia government and the republicans wants china-style.

    However this ends, it will not be pleasant. In History, there has been major turning points and I fear we are heading towards one (and have for some time). There's no one right now that can take the US place as World Leader and yet world leader is gradually falling apart. It was suppose to be Japan in the 90's and now it's suppose to be China but I think this is all orchestrated "wishful thinking" that doesn't reflect reality.

    Great article, Dave. Your writings are right on the money (Gold).

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    1. This is where you could be miscalculating. Look around you. Almost everyone voted to power in Europe is following the USA line. Even in Asia this is happening. eg. Najib won the elections in Malaysia (of course with vote rigging and other dubious means) and no one questioned him. Btw he supports the USA (check out US influence in all Asia- Pac trade blocs). Whoever opposes the US would find it very difficult to come to power. Its all about world domination to ensure the dollar and US influence remains supreme.

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  5. POG not relevant. I would love to see it drop like a rock...$800, $400... lower?! That would indicate a separation of paper / rock. The end. Let's get it on!

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  6. Good post Dave, what's your opinion on Bitcoin?

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    1. Good question. It's not a long term solution. Too complicated and too susceptible to human error. It's a great signal that people are fed up with fiat money but nothing will ever replace gold and silver.

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    2. What happens to bitcoin if the Fed hits the internet kill switch?

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  7. Dave, your writing this piece is a summation that I have tried to explain to friends and family since 2005. Of course I'm looked at like a screw ball. It's good to know that there are people like yourself who also see the reality of the our current situation. Thanks for having the "cojones" to put it out in public. The majority of the "sheeple" either cannot comprehend the situation or just don't care. I know it's time to get off the reservation. Only question is where to go?

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    1. Thanks. I think people care but the base human instinct for the majority of mankind (see Nietzshe) is to take the path of least resistance, which is to be compliant. I also believe "denial" is the strongest of the human emotional defense mechanisms and the majority, like I wrote, are victims of denial and hope

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  8. Dave, Where are you getting the 700 million volume number? Investors.com shows 3.4 billion and stockcharts.com shows 3.5 billion for Nov 5 for $NYA.

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    1. That's why I don't use those services. I think that volume measures all the markets. If you go to Yahoo/finance they have a TV indicator which correlates with those numbers. It would include NASDAQ and AMEX and maybe even bulletin board. I dunno.

      If you go to the NYSE website and dig around, you'll find daily volume for the precious month. Then there's this, which correlates with the number I get everyday from Fidelity:
      http://wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3021-tradingdiary2.html

      They're showing 750mm total which could be, sometimes Fidelity doesn't get the final tally until about 30 mins after the market closes. My number of 715 is close enough for Govt work. With getting the previous month's number, the correct section of the NYSE site will show you the volume by day and you have to add it up by hand and calculate the daily avg. That's where I got the 952mm for the July. So far no one has disputed my numbers and I've been writing about volume since September...

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  9. The Wall Street Code

    You have to ask, what is the purpose of this system? And if the answer is fairness and soundness of price discovery, and not making the most money for powerful insiders, the answers start to clarify from first principles. These used to be called moral values.

    Some fairly simple changes would fix all this, based on fundamental concepts like transparency and equal protection. The problem is that politicians and private firms make enormous sums by taking some 'vig' or vigorish from each and every trade by the 'dumb' or outsider money. Most frauds have a lot of flash and dazzle, but deep down they are always shockingly simple, and most often based on time honored cheats.

    Eliot Spitzer and Bill Black certainly 'get this.' Lots of good people do. But the Banks use their friendly politicians and the power of money to isolate them. Just denying access to key careers or events is often enough to obtain most people's silence. This is how the status quo perpetuates itself, with money and the credibility trap. It is not dissimilar to organized crime.

    The regulators should be ashamed, but they can point to the politicians, and the politicians can take the 'CEO defense' of not understanding what is going on. And the band plays on.

    http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-wall-street-code.html

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  10. War on the American People - MF Global

    Published on Nov 6, 2013

    MF Global Customers Win 100% Recovery, Everyone with a Bank Account, Brokerage Account, or Commodity Account Loses! Jon Corzine gets a "get out of jail free card" the administration and Eric Holder get a pass and the "War Against the American People" continues.

    http://youtu.be/ZFf8k75GLOs

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  11. TSA to Pre-Screen Air Travelers’ Tax Info, Property Records, Travel History

    Joe Wolverton, II, J.D. writes:

    Owe money to the IRS? Having trouble making your mortgage payments? Ever been sued or been arrested?

    Soon, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will know the answers to these questions before you pass through security, and they might affect whether you are cleared for travel.
    In a recently published article, the New York Timesreported:
    The Transportation Security Administration is expanding its screening of passengers before they arrive at the airport by searching a wide array of government and private databases that can include records like car registrations and employment information.
    The complete list of sources of personal data reviewed by the TSA also includes:

    http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/11/tsa-to-pre-screen-air-travelers-tax.html

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  12. Move Over FX And Libor, As Manipulation And "Banging The Close" Comes To Commodities And Interest Rate Swaps

    The story of crude oil manipulation, primarily involving Platts as a pricing intermediary, has appeared on these pages in the past as far back as a year ago, and usually resulted in either participant companies, regulators or entire nation states doing their best to brush it under the rug. However, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to do so as the following Bloomberg story demonstrates.

    Four longtime traders in the global oil market claim in a lawsuit that the prices for buying and selling crude are fixed -- and that they can prove it. Some of the world’s biggest oil companies including BP Plc (BP/), Statoil ASA (STL), and Royal Dutch Shell Plc conspired with Morgan Stanley and energy traders including Vitol Group to manipulate the closely watched spot prices for Brent crude oil for more than a decade, they allege. The North Sea benchmark is used to price more than half the world’s crude and helps determine where costs are headed for fuels including gasoline and heating oil.



    The case, which follows at least six other U.S. lawsuits alleging price-fixing in the Brent market, provides what appears to be the most detailed description yet of the alleged manipulations and lays out a possible road map for regulators investigating the matter.



    The traders who brought it -- who include a former director of the New York Mercantile Exchange, or Nymex, one of the markets where contracts for future Brent deliveries are traded - - allege they paid “artificial and anticompetitive prices” for Brent futures. They also outline attempts to manipulate prices for Russian Urals crude and cite instances when the spread between Brent and Dubai grades of crude may have been rigged.



    The oil companies and energy-trading houses, which include Trafigura Beheer BV and Phibro Trading LLC, submitted false and misleading information to Platts, an energy news and price publisher whose quotes are used by traders worldwide, according to the proposed class action filed Oct. 4 in Manhattan federal court.

    The method of manipulation is a well-known one to regular readers: spoofing.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-06/move-over-fx-and-libor-wholesale-market-manipulation-and-banging-close-comes-crude-a

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  13. When bonds don’t trade

    In the September issue of Euromoney, Peter Lee has a huge investigation into what he calls “the great bond liquidity drought”. The landing page for the story features subscriber-only links to the whole thing, as well as free-to-access links to various sections. But it also neatly summarizes the problem a single paragraph:

    Liquidity is drying up across the bond markets. Regulations designed to curtail banks’ leverage have had the unintended consequence of also sharply reducing their ability and willingness to make markets in corporate and even government debt. New regulations on the leverage ratio that will reduce banks’ repo funding books threaten to make matters even worse and to spread the drought from credit markets to rates, the underpinning of all financial markets. Secondary markets are close to a breakdown that will soon imperil the primary markets on which companies and sovereigns depend for funding. All that is masking the decay is the extraordinary actions of central banks.

    Here’s a chart from Citigroup which helps show at least part of the story:

    http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2013/11/05/when-bonds-dont-trade/

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  14. Excellent essay, Dave. You're nailing what's going on. There's an additional layer to the oligarchy's thinking. They know that a global system reset is the primary means to fix things. As they delay dealing with the realities of our broken economic system, it enables them to consolidate power prior to the reset AND not care about how screwed--up things become along the way. The more ass-backward reality becomes, it seems the more power they grab before the reset. For example, the federal government now has title to the vast majority of the residential real-estate in the US, all because the oligarchy let insane, unsustainable economic policy drive the financialization of much of the economy to totally insane levels, only to "benefit" the federal government following the 2008 crash. Think about the scenarios that grow out of the government holding those titles following the next hyper-implosion. That's a picture of debt slavery worthy of the middle ages and serfdom.

    The COMEX inventory depletion of gold is another good example. These sociopaths don't mind playing chicken with default and killing and/or wounding that goose -- the CME, commodity markets in general -- that generated wonderful profits because by gaming the system to suppress interest rates unlike anything ever seen, they've been able to funnel wealth and control in other arenas far more valuable than the CME's ability to generate profits for trading firms and the CME itself. That edifice was a goose that lays golden eggs -- small ones. When the world is ready for a system-reset, the oligarchy thinks it will have control over far more assets -- along with the political power that grows out of controlling wealth.

    There's always the difficulty in dealing with the line between what is orchestrated conspiracy and what grows out of elites acting in their own self-interest such that a general agenda is followed without formal organization. A bit of both goes on. But no doubt about it, there's a heck of a lot more coordination at the top than most are willing to perceive.

    Eric Dubin
    Independent buyside/global macro analyst
    Managing Editor, TheNewsDoctors.com

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  15. High time for the NIKKEI to join the free money party, & lift off with others already in orbit?
    We'll know soon.
    http://peterlbrandt.com/never-trust-triple-top-topix-japan-ready-rock-sushi-roll/

    South Africa:
    http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/JALSH:IND/chart

    http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/candleglance.html?EWy,$TSX,$IBEX,$DAX,$PTDOW,$NDX,$SPX,$INDU,$IIX,$NIKK,EWS,$DAX,EWM,$HSI,EWW,$CDNX,EWT|D

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  16. "that it was impossible to value anything" - I agree. Including that too much "digital property" is over valued beyond their worth - twitter, facebook, linklin. These are "given" a certain value by the traffic they create, not by the wealth they are actually worth.

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  17. Dave, this is an absolutely outstanding piece of work, in IMHO, one of your best, perfectly capturing the iniquitous and demoralizing currents of a society and economic system suffering the end game effects of decades of endemic rot and corruption. Not much to add to such a concise and trenchant analysis as this. Truth so spoken has the capacity to "set one free" Kudos!

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  18. Perspicacity, thy name is Dave. A grim but cogent analysis.

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  19. Nevada looks at ‘drones’ for economic development

    "Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), or drones, may be relatively small, but could have a big impact on Nevada’s economy and natural resources, especially when the necessary pieces and experts come together to do the work and research.

    To that end, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and the University’s Center for Economic Development at the College of Business, is holding a public workshop on unmanned aerial systems, with a focus on how communities in Nevada can become involved with this economic initiative."

    http://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/lahontanvalley/8765405-113/nevada-extension-cooperative-university

    [It's hard to fathom such shallow thinking but it's the "let's make an opportunity out of a crisis", ie.e the elimination of our constitutional rights at the State/University level.]

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  20. I had a few people over for a party the other evening and as was expected the topic of conversation gravitated to the economy. What I found to be somewhat shocking is how intelligent people can hang on to the big lie regarding our money system.
    This one guy was pontificating as to how well his friends were making a killing in the stock market.(he must have some very rich friends to begin with).
    Though he wasn't doing as well with his invested funds , none the less he was observing the opposite happening with others.
    Why don't more people wake up to the reality that most of us are getting the royal fiscal screwing of our lives ?!
    One way that I have found to be of help for my fellow man to " Get it ! " is let him or her get a look at this :
    http://hiddensecretsofmoney.com/videos/episode-4

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    1. The Siren-song of Welfare State
      Hugo Salinas Price

      Our world is run – and has been run for some time now – by a relatively very small group of individuals who have it in their power to manage, as they think, the economies of nations. Managing the affairs of a nation implies making people behave in ways in which they would not otherwise behave. National management of an economy thus means making millions of individuals do what they wouldn’t do if left to themselves.

      There is not one single national economy in the world today whose people are free to do as they wish; it is not so much that people are forbidden to do what they think best, as that their choices are being narrowed, day by day, to being able to do only what is allowed.

      One of the very first choices which free individuals made thousands of years ago was the choice of the money they would use in their exchanges of goods and services; after using other substances such as salt, or copper, or sea-shells, they finally chose gold and silver for use as money, because all humanity valued these metals above all other substances, and consequently gold and silver were the most convenient substances to use as money.

      The fact that today we are deprived of the possibility of using these metals as money indicates that we are worse off than our ancestors who lived several thousand years ago. We are forced to use fictitious money provided by our managers and masters. One important consequence of using fiat money is that it inevitably leads to making bad investment decisions.
      http://www.plata.com.mx/Mplata/articulos/articlesFilt.asp?fiidarticulo=223

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  21. Nice article Dave. Good luck and best wishes,

    Bay of Pigs

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  22. Why Chinese People Buy So Many Homes in Palo Alto It's not just because it’s nice: Foreign home purchases by China's wealthy tell us a lot about the country’s economy.

    The rise of the Chinese consumer on the global stage has had a tremendous effect on world markets, shaking up everything from the price of milk powder to impressionist paintings. Now, the impact is being felt all the way in Palo Alto, the Silicon Valley town next to Stanford University.

    Over the past two years, Chinese buyers have been snapping up property in the city, driving up prices and possibly contributing to an emerging bubble. Chinese nationals have tripled their share of home purchases in Palo Alto since 2011, now accounting for around 15 percent of transactions in the city according to Ken Deleon, founder of Deleon Realty, a local firm that has invested heavily in catering to Chinese buyers.

    “If we have seven offers for a home here, three of them will be Mainland Chinese buyers with all cash,” Kim Heng, the Chinese-born head of Asian outreach at Deleon Realty, guessed. “We’ve never seen so much money in all the years we’ve been in the real estate business.”

    http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/11/why-chinese-people-buy-so-many-homes-in-palo-alto/281234/

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  23. Dave, may I suggest another indicator; the militarization of the police.Did you happen to see the response by Denver PD on the 5th of November in regards to the "Million Mask March" protestors downtown? The police equaled the protestors in number and certainly outweighed them in gear and technology. We are talking military humvees, military gear. Clear intimidation tactics and what almost appeared trying to escalate the situation. The police are no longer the friendly neighborhood cop who can be trusted. They are now the enforcement arm to the totalitarian government. Watching it all from a slight distance, it was quite scary.

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