From James Harkin (Webmaster & Editor of LindseyWilliams.net). Here is a summary of articles of interest from around the world for this week. Please LIKE the Lindsey Williams Online Facebook Page to see stories posted daily regarding the current state of the economy around the world.

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Latest News From January 20, 2017 to January 26, 2017:

• Michael Snyder: 25 Things I Think That I Think About The Future Of America
  Is there hope for the future of America? Following the election of Donald Trump, such a question often evokes some extremely strong emotions from people. And even more surprising, it can turn people that are supposedly on the same side viciously against one another. Because of what I do, I spend an enormous amount of time on the Internet, and it greatly saddens me when I see people that should be working together attacking each other instead. No matter what your perspective may be, and no matter how right you think you are, the truth is that this nation is not going to have any hope for the future unless we start to learn how to love one another.
• Brexit ruling: Supreme Court judges defy Government and empower Parliament
  The Government will bring a Bill to Parliament to start the legal Brexit process “within days”, after the Supreme Court ruled against Theresa May's plans and decreed that MPs were entitled to vote on whether to trigger Article 50. Sources within the Conservative Party told The Independent legislation could be published by Friday and the initial stages potentially put to a vote by Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Brexit Secretary Mr Davis told the Commons: “I can announce today that we will shortly introduce legislation allowing the Government to move ahead with invoking Article 50, which starts the formal process of withdrawing  the European Union.”
• Employment Boom: 10 Companies That Have Promised To Add Jobs In The United States Since Trump Was Elected
  One of the primary things that Trump’s presidency will be judged upon is his ability to encourage the creation of good paying jobs for American workers, and so far the results have been quite promising.  Since Trump’s surprise election victory in November, a whole bunch of companies have either promised to bring jobs back into the country or have pledged to create new ones.  Ultimately time will tell if those jobs actually materialize, but for the moment there is a tremendous amount of optimism in the air.  In fact, I don’t know if we have ever seen anything quite like this at the beginning of a new presidency.  The following are 10 companies that have promised to add jobs in the United States since the election of Donald Trump…
• CDC cancels upcoming climate conference, won't say why
  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has canceled a conference on climate change that was scheduled to be held next month in Atlanta, Ga. The government's top public health agency gave no official reason for the cancellation, but some involved with the conference have suggested that the cancellation may be an attempt to avoid political friction with President Trump's new administration. While there is a consensus among most scientists that humans have a leading role in climate change, Mr. Trump has called the phenomenon a hoax on more than one occasion.
• Foreigners Are Dumping U.S. Debt At A Record Pace And Our $20 Trillion National Debt Is Poised To Become A Major Crisis
  While most of the country has been focused on the inauguration of Donald Trump, a very real crisis has been brewing behind the scenes. Foreigners are dumping U.S. debt at a faster rate than we have ever seen before, and U.S. Treasury yields have been rising. This is potentially a massive problem, because our entire debt-fueled standard of living is dependent on foreigners lending us gigantic mountains of money at ultra-low interest rates. If the average rate of interest on U.S. government debt just got back to 5 percent, which would still be below the long-term average, we would be paying out about a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt. If foreigners keep dumping our debt and if Treasury yields keep climbing, a major financial implosion of historic proportions is absolutely guaranteed within the next four years.
• RIP TPP: ‘Obama kept Americans in dark on major trade deal'
  We don’t know a lot about it, but Obama pushed it as “the most progressive trade deal in US history,” publisher of Trends Journal Gerald Celente told RT. RT America's Ed Shultz, and Jack Rasmus, Professor of Political Economy, also provided comments. US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. TPP is a free trade agreement between America and the Asia Pacific region. It was due to cover 800 million people and encompass 40 percent of the global economy. However, the proposed agreement, much of which was negotiated in secret behind closed doors, was met with tremendous public resistance in several countries.
• Clinton Charity is Massive Global Swamp
  Wall Street financial analyst Charles Ortel has applied the same research skills he does to see if a company has sound solvent accounting to the Clinton charity machine. Ortel has called the Clintons the “Bonnie and Clyde” of charity fraud.  What does Ortel say now that the Clintons are shutting down there so-called global charity?  Ortel contends, “The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) was a fraud from the very beginning.  It started in September of 2005 as an interesting idea that you would convene around the time of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.  You would convene world leaders, former government officials, investors, corporate officers and members of the media in closed sessions where you would talk about high sounding topics, and noble people would stand up on stage and say how much good they were going to do under the guise of charity.  The trouble with that is . . . the CGI was an activity so distinct and so different than the main authorized activity of being a library and being a presidential archive based in Little Rock that it should have sought approval from the IRS . . .  and it never did that.”
• Keystone XL Still Faces Obstacles Even With Trump’s Approval
  President Donald Trump moved to fulfill one of his campaign promises on Tuesday, signing an executive order to revive the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. The former had been rejected outright by the Obama administration while the latter had been given an indefinite delay. The industry hailed the executive order, but just because President Trump wants to see the pipeline built does not mean TransCanada will move to break ground anytime soon. There are a number of uncertainties that could prevent construction from progressing.
• Why Trump Will Be Blamed For Coming Economic Collapse!
  Long before Wikileaks let the cat out of the bag about the level of corruption and the amount of collusion between the highest levels of the mainstream media and the Democrat party, earlier in the year a poll revealed that only six percent of Americans said they had “a great deal of confidence” in the mainstream media. What percentage have confidence now? Zero? After the election, the mainstream media had a choice to make. They could either recognize that the American people were tired of being lied to by both a dishonest media and corrupt Washington politicians, or they could double down on their lies and deceit. Sadly, they chose the latter.
• Henry Kissinger advice to President Trump – Davos 2017 – A Conversation with Henry Kissinger on the World in 2017. 
  Henry Kissinger advice to President Trump – Davos 2017 – A Conversation with Henry Kissinger on the World in 2017.
• Trump Signs Executive Orders To “Begin Immediate Construction Of Border Wall”, Immigration Enforcement
  President Trump on Wednesday signed directives to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and crack down on U.S. cities that shield illegal immigrants, proceeding quickly on sweeping and divisive plans to curb immigration and boost national security. As Reuters summarized, the Republican president is also expected to take steps in the coming days to limit legal immigration, including executive orders restricting refugees and blocking the issuing of visas to people from several Muslim-majority Middle Eastern and North African countries including Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Yemen.
• Bill introduced to remove US from United Nations
  A proposed House Resolution would set the stage for the United States to remove itself from the United Nations. The proposed “American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2017” is sponsored by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL). It was introduced in the House on Jan. 3 and referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, according to the Congress website. The bill proposes that the United States terminate its membership in the UN, that the UN removes its headquarters from the US, and that the US stops participating in the World Health Organization. Should it pass, the act would take effect two years after it is signed.
• China’s Newest Problem With Fakes Threatens Bond Market Pain
  Forged seals, fake letters, and counterfeit documents. They’re all part of China’s recent spate of fraud coming to light in the country’s $3 trillion corporate debt market amid a rout that has analysts predicting a record number of defaults in 2017. As it becomes harder for Chinese companies to issue new notes to repay maturing debt, expect more scandals to come — and to worsen the bond market’s already-precipitous downturn.
• Trump Formally Invokes U.S. WITHDRAWAL from the Trans-Pacific Partnership – Then Declares Re-Negotiation of NAFTA!
  Less than one day after being sworn-in as President, Donald Trump has formally invoked the withdrawal by the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and has also formally invoked Renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a trade pact championed by former President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
• Hours After The Inauguration, The Surprising Truth About Mike Pence Is Exposed
  It’s fair to say that until recently, most Americans had never heard of “Mike Pence.” But ironically, this relatively unknown man will soon take the second-highest office in the country. Today he’s mostly known for being President-Elect Donald Trump’s sidekick, but truth be told, there’s a side of Mike Pence that many haven’t seen. When I learned more about Mike Pence, my respect and admiration for America’s Vice President-Elect only grew all the more.
• Dow Jones finishes above 20,000 milestone for first time
  Wall Street stock markets hit a fresh record on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending above 20,000 points for the first time. The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq also achieved new highs, fuelled by hopes that President Donald Trump's policies will boost the US economy. The Dow, which has nudged the 20,000 milestone during January, rose 0.8% to 20,068.51. Investors' cash has poured into shares on hopes of tax cuts and higher growth.
• Donald Trump's entire CIA speech
  President Donald Trump gave remarks at CIA headquarters a day after being sworn-in as the 45th president.
• As Its Housing Bubble Pops, Chinese Real Estate Firms Halt Monthly Pricing Data
  That didn't take long. Earlier this week we reported that after 19 straight months of continued acceleration in home prices, China's latest housing bubble may have finally burst (again) after December prices in the 70 cities tracked by the NBS, rose by 12.7%, below the 12.9% annual growth rate in the previous month – the first annual decline in nearly 2 years.
• Asian Media Warns Of Conflict, Economic Turmoil Under “Trump World Order”
  Following German media's outcry that “the demons have been unchained”, Asian media decried President Trump's isolationist policies, fearing they will chill the global economy and sow widespread international discord, as “the reality show has become reality,” warning the world was now in “unpredictable territory… spreading unease, division, and conflict throughout the world.” While perhaps not as entirely hysterical as German media's ‘opinion'…
• Billionaire George Soros has ties to more than 50 ‘partners’ of the Women’s March on Washington
  In the pre-dawn darkness of today’s presidential inauguration day, I faced a choice, as a lifelong liberal feminist who voted for Donald Trump for president: lace up my pink Nike sneakers to step forward and take the DC Metro into the nation’s capital for the inauguration of America’s new president, or wait and go tomorrow to the after-party, dubbed the “Women’s March on Washington”? The Guardian has touted the “Women’s March on Washington” as a “spontaneous” action for women’s rights. Another liberal media outlet, Vox, talks about the “huge, spontaneous groundswell” behind the march. On its website, organizers of the march are promoting their work as “a grassroots effort” with “independent” organizers. Even my local yoga studio, Beloved Yoga, is renting a bus and offering seats for $35. The march’s manifesto says magnificently, “The Rise of the Woman = The Rise of the Nation.”
• Trump Fires Up Europe's Anti-Establishment Movement
  Inspired by the inauguration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump, the leaders of Europe's main anti-establishment parties have held a pan-European rally aimed at coordinating a political strategy to mobilize potentially millions of disillusioned voters in upcoming elections in Germany, the Netherlands and France. Appearing together in public for the first time, Marine Le Pen, leader of the French National Front, Frauke Petry, leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy's Northern League and Harald Vilimsky of Austria's Freedom Party gathered on January 21 at a rally in Koblenz, Germany, where they called on European voters to participate in a “patriotic spring” to topple the European Union, reassert national sovereignty and secure national borders.
• Trump may not enforce individual health insurance mandate: aide
  The Trump administration may no longer enforce a rule requiring individual Americans to carry health insurance or pay a penalty if they do not, a senior White House official said on Sunday Speaking on ABC's “This Week” program, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said President Donald Trump “may stop enforcing the individual mandate.” Separately, on CBS' “Face the Nation” show, she reiterated Republican promises that no one would lose their health insurance under Obamacare while a replacement is being developed. “For the 20 million who rely upon the Affordable Care Act in some form, they will not be without coverage during this transition time,” she said.
• The Collapse Of The Left's Great Con
  The Left is not just in disarray- – it is in complete collapse because the working class has awakened to the Left's betrayal and abandonment of the working class in favor of building personal wealth and power. The source of the angry angst rippling through the Democratic Party's progressive camp is not President Trump–it's the complete collapse of the Left globally. To understand this collapse, we turn (once again) to Marx's profound understanding of the state and capitalism. We turn not to the cultural Marxism that is passingly familiar to Americans, but to Marx's core economic analysis, which as Sartre noted, is only taught to discredit it.
• Hawaiians call Mark Zuckerberg ‘the face of neocolonialism' over land lawsuits
  A few days after Christmas, Mark Zuckerberg shared a series of photographs of his family at their $100m, 700-acre property in Kauai. The Facebook CEO and his wife “fell in love with the community and the cloudy green mountains”, he wrote, and decided to “plant roots and join the community ourselves”. Two days later, Zuckerberg’s lawyers filed lawsuits against hundreds of Hawaiians who may own an interest in small parcels within the boundaries of Zuckerberg’s estate. The “quiet title” suits, first reported by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, are used to clarify the often complicated history of land ownership in Hawaii and can result in owners being forced to sell their land at auction. In some cases, defendants are even required to pay the legal fees of the plaintiff – in this case, the world’s fifth richest man.
• Anti-Vaxxer Biologist Stefan Lanka Bets Over $100K Measles Isn’t A Virus; He Wins In German Federal Supreme Court
  By prophylactic vaccination of adults and especially children against measles, the pharmaceutical industry has earned Billions over a 40-year period. The judges at the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) confirmed in a recent ruling that measles virus do not exist though. Furthermore: There is not a single scientific study in the world which could prove the existence of such virus so far. This raises the question of what was actually injected into millions of German citizens over the past decades. According to the judgment by the Supreme Court, it may not have been a vaccine against measles.
• It's Official: Clinton's Popular Vote Win Came Entirely From California
  Democrats who are having trouble getting out of the first stage of grief — denial — aren't being helped by the fact that, now that all the votes are counted, Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote has topped 2.8 million, giving her a 48% share of the vote compared with Trumps 46%. To those unschooled in how the United States selects presidents, this seems totally unfair. But look more closely at the numbers and you see that Clinton's advantage all but disappears. As we noted in this space earlier, while Clinton's overall margin looks large and impressive, it is due to Clinton's huge margin of victory in one state — California — where she got a whopping 4.3 million more votes than Trump.
• Is the EU's TTIP now under threat? Donald Trump scraps controversial TPP trade deal
  DONALD Trump has withdrawn the USA from the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement just days after coming into power – leaving Eurocrats fearing TTIP could be next. In an Oval Office ceremony, Mr Trump called the order a “great thing for the American worker.” The move will now raise fears in Brussels the TTIP deal, promoting cross-Atlantic trade with the EU, could also be under threat. The TPP agreement was a huge part of former president Barack Obama’s eight-year term, with the long-negotiated deal covering 40 per cent of the world economy.
• Trump withdraws from Trans-Pacific Partnership amid flurry of orders
  Donald Trump has begun his effort to dismantle Barack Obama’s legacy, formally scrapping a flagship trade deal with 11 countries in the Pacific rim. The new president also signed executive orders to ban funding for international groups that provide abortions, and placing a hiring freeze on non-military federal workers. Trump’s decision not to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) came as little surprise. During his election campaign he railed against international trade deals, blaming them for job losses and focusing anger in the industrial heartland. Obama had argued that this deal would provide an effective counterweight to China in the region.
• Trump plan calls for nationwide concealed carry and an end to gun bans
  Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump — who said he has a concealed carry permit — called for the expansion of gun rights Friday, including making those permits applicable nationwide. In a position paper published on his website Friday afternoon, Trump called for the elimination of gun and magazine bans, labeling them a “total failure.” “Law-abiding people should be allowed to own the firearm of their choice. The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own,” Trump wrote.
• Trump And A New Gold-Backed Dollar
  On August 15, 1971, President Nixon killed the last remnants of the gold standard. Since then, the dollar has been a pure fiat currency, allowing the Fed to print as many dollars as it pleases. Removing the US dollar’s last link to gold eliminated the main motivation for foreign countries to store large dollar reserves and to use the dollar for international trade. At this point, demand for dollars was set to fall… along with the dollar’s purchasing power. So the US government concocted a new arrangement to give foreign countries another compelling reason to hold and use the dollar.
• Pope warns against Hitler-like leaders coming to power on wave of populism
  Pope Francis warned against populist leaders, saying that Germany came to elect one in 1933, and ended up with Adolf Hitler as its dictator. “Crises provoke fear, alarm. In my opinion, the most common example of European populism is Germany in 1933… A people that was immersed in a crisis, that looked for its identity until this charismatic leader came and promised to give their identity back, and he gave them a distorted identity, and we all know what happened,” he said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais. “Hitler did not steal power,” the Pope said. “He was elected by his people and then he destroyed his people.”
• Minimum Wage Hikes Will Help Amazon Kill Millions Of Traditional Sales Jobs Sooner Than Later
  In a few years, local communities in America will be totally different places. There will be very few iconic retail chain stores, or sales people behind counters and on the shopping floor. Automated Amazon Go stores and remote warehouses will replace most local retail stores, killing millions of sales jobs, and bring further losses to investors in these icons. And making this transformation happen sooner rather than later? Minimum wage hikes. For years, American retail icons like Macy’s, JCP, and Wal-Mart colored the lives of local communities, providing sales jobs for millions of people. Then came on-line retailer Amazon to crush these icons, as evidenced by their sluggish sales, falling margins, and equity price performance.
• Canadian Urban Farmer Grows 50,000 Lbs Of Food On Less Than 1 Acre Of Land
  “What if I told you that there was a way you could live off the land, farm commercially, be a direct solution to food security, economic inequality, and environmental degradation, build community ties and social capital, and make a living out of it?”, says urban farmer Curtis Stone, CEO of Green City Acres. Green City Acres grows vegetables on donated plots of land throughout Kelowna, B.C., and transports them to consumers using only bicycles and custom-built trailers.  In 2012, they grew over 50,000 lbs of food on less than 1 acre of land, using organic methods and only 80 litres of gasoline (used to run a rototiller).
• A Major Prophetic Sign Appeared The Moment Donald Trump Stepped To The Inauguration Platform
  It was one of those magical moments that you will never forget. The inauguration of Donald Trump was being watched live by tens of millions of people all over the world, and it was at that precise moment that God gave all of us another little reminder that He is in control. It had not been raining prior to the time that Trump stepped up to the Inauguration platform, but when he did, the rain began to fall. Considering everything else that was going on at the time, it would have been really easy to miss that little detail, but fortunately there was someone there that perfectly understood what was happening.
• The Rise Of Satanism
  Interest in Satan and Satanism has experienced a tremendous resurgence in recent years. At one time, Satanists were generally feared and shunned by society, but now Satanism is steadily being accepted into mainstream culture. Up until recently, the Church of Satan that was founded by Anton LaVey in 1966 was the most prominent Satanic organization in the world, but now it is rapidly being overtaken by a relatively new group known as the Satanic Temple. It is headquartered in Salem, Massachusetts and was founded in 2013 to combat the influence of evangelical Christianity in politics. It has grown explosively over the past several years, and at this point the organization’s leadership claims that it has a global membership of somewhere around 100,000.
• It’s Finally Morning Again In America, And A New Day For Our Country Starts NOW
  For the first time in decades, it feels like morning in America again. I was quite young when Ronald Reagan was president, and I only have vague memories from those days. But I do remember the extraordinary optimism that his leadership inspired, and my hope is that Donald Trump’s leadership will be just as inspirational. For such a very long time, it has seemed as though a giant dark cloud has been hanging over America, but now a new day is starting. If Donald Trump can be president of the United States, it seems like just about anything can be possible. And even though our nation is facing incredibly serious challenges, could it be possible that we can find a way to turn things around if we all work together?
• The End Of The Obama World Order
  For the past eight years, Barack Obama has been using the power of the U.S. presidency to impose his vision of a progressive world order on the entire globe.  As a result, much of the planet will greatly celebrate once the Obama era officially ends on Friday.  The Obama years brought us the Arab Spring, Benghazi, ISIS, civil war in Syria, civil war in Ukraine and the Iran nuclear deal.  On the home front, we have had to deal with Obamacare, “Fast and Furious”, IRS targeting of conservative groups, Solyndra, the VA scandal, NSA spying and the worst “economic recovery” since the end of World War II.  And right at the end of his presidency, Barack Obama has committed the greatest betrayal of Israel in U.S. history and has brought us dangerously close to war with Russia. So is the end of the Obama world order worth celebrating? You better believe it is.
• The changes Donald Trump has already made since he was sworn in as President
  President Donald Trump promised a lot would happen on “day one” during his election campaign – although he later clarified he meant on his first Monday in office, rather than today. Apparently keen to get down to business, the billionaire tycoon went to the Oval Office immediately after yesterday’s swearing-in ceremony but before the inauguration ball. The first order he signed related to Obamacare – which he has pledged to repeal. The President signed an order to federal departments to “minimise the economic impact” of the Affordable Care Act, which grants health insurance to all Americans.
• What Trump Could Do
  Today Donald Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States. American voters rejected the devil they know so well — Hillary Clinton — for the devil they don’t. Why they did so, and how Trump prevailed, is the biggest political story of our age. But the rejection of progressive hubris, what Friedrich Hayek called the “fatal conceit” of those who would presume to plan our lives, is at the heart of that story. The Left views Trump’s election as an absolute calamity, despite his support for unions and protectionist trade policies, despite his identity as a New York elite rather than some despised red state politician, and despite his ambivalence toward the social issues that animate Christian conservatives. One would think Democrats would be relieved not to suffer an ideologue like Santorum or Cruz in the White House. Yet their hysteria and lack of self-awareness prompt them to attack the Electoral College, of all things.
• How Deutsche Bank Made a $462 Million Loss Disappear
  On Dec. 1, 2008, most of the world’s banks were still panicking through the financial crisis. Lehman Brothers had collapsed. Merrill Lynch had been sold. Citigroup and others had required multibillion-dollar bailouts to survive. But not every institution appeared to be in free fall. That afternoon, at the London outpost of Deutsche Bank, the stolid-seeming, €2 trillion German powerhouse, a group of financiers met to consider a proposal from a team led by a trim, 40-year-old banker named Michele Faissola. The scion of an Italian banking family, Faissola was the head of Deutsche’s global rates unit, a division that created and sold financial instruments tied to interest rates. He’d been studying the problems of one of Deutsche’s clients, Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which, as the crisis raged, was down €367 million ($462 million at the time) on a single investment. Losing that much money was bad; having to include it in the bank’s yearend report to the public, as required by Italian law, was arguably much worse. Monte dei Paschi was the world’s oldest bank. It had been operating since 1472, not long after the invention of the printing press, when the Black Death was still a living memory. If investors were to find out the extent of its losses in the 2008 credit crisis, the consequences would be unpredictable and grave: a run on the bank, a government takeover, or worse. At the Deutsche meeting, Faissola’s team said it had come up with a miraculous solution: a new trade that would make Paschi’s loss disappear.
• Biden Announces 2020 Presidential Run: “We Have No Freakin' Idea What Trump's Gonna Do”
  In the sappiest of sappy interviews, outgoing vice president Joe Biden looks back, and forward. ‘I Wish to Hell I’d Just Kept Saying the Exact Same Thing’ says Biden in a New York Times interview. The title is cryptic but it pertains to a speech Biden gave in July that he wishes he repeated more often instead of attacking Trump.
• China Housing Bubble Finally Pops: First Slowdown After 19 Months Of Acceleration
  After several months of slowing price growth across China's housing market, if mostly in the lower-tiered cities, China's National Bureau of Statistics reported that average mothly property prices growth in December continued to slow from November across the 70 cities tracked by the NBS, and this time impacted even the formerly untouchable, “Tier 1” cities. Housing prices in the primary market increased 0.4% month-over-month after seasonal adjustment (weighted by population) in December, lower than the growth rate in November. Out of 70 cities monitored, 61 saw housing prices increase in December from the previous month, the same number as November.
• China Central Bank Injects A Record 1.035 Trillion In Bank Liquidity This Week
  Heading into the Chinese Lunar New Year, local banks are suddenly starved for liquidity like never before. On Tuesday China’s benchmark money-market rate jumped the most in two years, with unprecedented cash injections by the central bank being overwhelmed by demand before the Lunar New Year holidays. Demand for cash in China tends to increase before the Lunar New Year holidays, when households withdraw money to pay for gifts and get-togethers. Month-end corporate tax payments are adding to the pressure this time, with the break running from Jan. 27 through Feb. 2. At that point the PBOC usually steps in with liquidity “injections” in the form of reverse repos. However, what it has done this year is literally off the charts.
• Chinese Province Admits It Fabricated Economic Data For Three Years
  While it will hardly come as a surprise to China watchers who have for years mocked China's cooked “data”, overnight the state-run People's Daily reported that the severely impacted by the commodity crunch of the past 2 years rust-belt province of Liaoning fabricated fiscal numbers from 2011 to 2014, raising fresh doubts about the accuracy of China’s economic data just two days ahead of the release of China's GDP report. City and county governments in the northwestern region committed fiscal data fraud in the period, Governor Chen Qiufa said at a meeting with provincial lawmakers Tuesday, Bloomberg adds. Not surprisingly, the fabricated economic data was meant to show a state of economic strenght with fiscal revenues inflated by at least 20%, and some other economic data were also false, the paper said, without specifying categories.
• Oxfam's Hypocrisy on Private Wealth
  Earlier this week, the Oxfam organization published a “report” about global inequality. It’s not really a report, since most of it consists of babble-economics with little empirical foundation, and the hard data that it includes comes from an external source: the Credit Suisse Report. In any case, this data indicates that there is a lot of poverty in the world, whereas in some other places there is relatively much more wealth. This has led to loudly shouted statements in the media of how 8 people in the world have more wealth than half of the world population combined.
• Inequality Doesn't Create Poverty
  Oxfam, the leftwing NGO devoted to poverty relief has released a new report blaming poverty in wealth inequality. In other words, its central claim is that the existence of very wealthy people creates poverty. The report is largely just an extended op-ed that asserts that the existence of some very wealthy people is the cause of poverty in the world. Notable buzzwords and phrases include “trickle down,” “obscene levels of inequality,” and “neoliberalism.” The “solution” to the alleged problem, which should surprise no one, is a list of taxes that should be either introduced or raised significantly, including higher income taxes, “a tax on financial transactions,” a “global wealth tax,” and a so-called “anonymous wealth tax.”
• Chinese foreign investments hit record high in 2016
  China’s foreign direct investments last year hit a record $189 billion dollars, a report released this week showed. According to the study done by the German Mercatur Institute for China Studies (MERICS) and Rhodium Group, China’s investments abroad rose an overall 40 per cent, with money going to the European Union amounting to $37.1 billion – 77 per cent more than in 2015. Chinese investors looked to pour funds towards acquiring advanced manufacturing equipment and technology.
• Trump Deficits Will Be Huge
  There is much we don't know about how the Trump presidency will play out. Will the Wall get built? Who will pay for it? Will it have at least some fencing? Will repeal and replace happen at exactly the same time? Will Trump throw a ceremonial switch? Will there be a Trump National Golf Course in Sochi? It's anyone's guess. But of one thing we can be fairly certain. President Trump is very likely to preside over the largest expansion of Federal budget deficits in our history. Trump has built his companies with debt and I'm sure he thinks he can do the same with the country. His annual budget deficits are likely going to be huge. This development will make a greater impact on the investment landscape than most on Wall Street can imagine. In the past half-century, Republican presidents have been the going away winners at the deficit derby, a fact that should make any true conservative blush. The sad truth is that annual deficits exploded under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and generally contracted under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Some of the explanation is just luck of the draw, some walked into office in the midst of recessions they didn't create. But the better part of the explanation is baked into the political dynamics.
• Pension Funds Need Gold before It’s Too Late
  Tens of millions of Americans and their employers pour money into pension plans each month, counting on those funds to grow and to be there when needed at retirement. But a time bomb awaits. The bulk of U.S. pension funds are dangerously underfunded, and the assets are often invested in securities that have bleak prospects for providing income that keeps up with a general decline in purchasing power. A pension plan requires an employer to make contributions into a pool of funds set aside for a worker’s future benefit. In 1875, when the American Express Company established the first private pension plan in the United States, the face of retirement was fundamentally changed. Before that time, private-sector pension plans did not exist, as most employers were small “mom-and-pop” businesses.
• US Financial Markets – Alarm Bells are Ringing
  When discussing the outlook for so-called “risk assets”, i.e., mainly stocks and corporate bonds (particularly low-grade bonds) and their counterparts on the “safe haven” end of the spectrum (such as gold and government bonds with strong ratings), one has to consider different time frames and the indicators applicable to these time frames. Since Donald Trump’s election victory, there have been sizable moves in stocks, gold and treasury bonds, as the election result has strongly boosted certain market expectations.
• Red Flags Over Goldman Sachs
  Just to prove that I am an even-handed insulter, here is a rant about my former employer, Goldman Sachs. The scandal at 1MDB, the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund from which it appears that billions were stolen by politicians all the way up to the Prime Minister, continues to unfold.
• Xi: Global growth requires cooperation, joint governance
  Don’t pursue your own interests at the expense of others, Chinese President Xi Jinping told world leaders and delegates at the Davos World Economic Forum on Tuesday in staunch support of multilateralism and globalization. Xi’s participation at Davos is the first such visit by a Chinese head of state. The Chinese president emphasized that globalization should not be blamed for the lackluster performance of the global economy.
• Hope That Trump Will Be the Peace President That Obama Was Not
  With Donald Trump set to become president tomorrow, many proponents of the US government refraining from intervening in other countries have their fingers crossed, hoping that a Trump administration will bring an improved US foreign policy. In particular, there is hope that Trump’s statements that he wants the US and Russia to have friendlier relations will mean the Trump administration will work to reverse the much increased tensions of the last few years between the nations — tensions characterized by harsh words, sanctions, and military deployments.
• Gerald Celente – Even Trump Said This Grand Experiment Will End Badly
  Today the top trends forecaster in the world spoke with King World News about 2017 and why even Trump said the Grand Experiment will end badly. Eric King:  “Gerald, you are keenly aware of the massive debt levels and the market bubbles, how do you square that with a positive future for the United States going forward when we are in the midst of the greatest monetary experiment in history that you and I both know is destined to end badly?” Gerald Celente:  “Even Trump said it would end badly.  He kept saying that during his campaign.  And there may be a sharp downturn in the stock market.  There’s no question about it.  However, when you look at what’s going on in the rest of the world, the United States is in much better shape.  But we are talking about a global slowdown.  So just because the United States may do better, that doesn’t mean the rest of the world will.
• Obama's Wasted, Deadly, and Destructive Presidency
  Eight years ago, President Obama’s administration started with hope and change. Eight years later, we end up with a legacy of nothing but waste, death, and destruction. Libertarians never had any hope, of course, that Barack Obama would dismantle any aspect of the welfare state. As a died-in-the-wool liberal, his commitment to socialism, regulation, and economic interventionism is unwavering. When, for example, he addressed the healthcare crisis brought on my Medicare, Medicaid, regulation, and interventionism by foisting Obamacare onto the American people, we libertarians were not surprised. Where libertarians (and lots of liberals) had hope was that Obama would change the direction that the George W. Bush administration had set for America with respect to foreign policy and civil liberties.
• Dimon Says Euro Zone May Not Survive If Concerns Are Ignored
  The euro region could break up if political leaders don’t get to grips with the discontent that’s spurring support for populist leaders across the continent, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said. Dimon said he had hoped European Union leaders would examine what caused the U.K. to vote to leave and then make changes. That hasn’t happened, and if nationalist politicians including France’s Marine Le Pen rise to power in elections across the region “the euro zone may not survive,” Dimon, 60, said in a Bloomberg Television interview with John Micklethwait.
• Physical Will Trump Paper Gold
  Gold rose 8.5% for the year while gold-mining stocks (XAU – Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index stocks) rose 75%. On an annual basis, results were highly satisfactory. However, there was considerable drama beneath the surface that left precious metals investors in a state of anxiety by year-end. Precious metals and mining shares rose sharply through August, and then spent the rest of the year giving back much of the first-half gains. The second half downtrend accelerated into early December, following the unexpected victory by Trump and a hawkish statement after the December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.
• Keiser Report: Health Care Plan for Trump Voters
  We discuss the health care plan that Trump voters really want… and it’s not the one the Republicans in Congress plan on delivering. In the second half, Max interviews Obi Egbuna, the first US Correspondent to the Herald – Zimbabwe’s National Newspaper – and Co- Executive Producer of the BattleCry For Cuba and Zimbabwe. They discuss the embargo on Cuba and the sanctions on Zimbabwe and why he’s calling for a complete end to them.
• Here's how much debt the US government added under President Obama
  As part of the broader economic legacy of President Barack Obama, from jobs to the stock market, one of the most notable changes has been the increase in the national debt. Based on quarterly data released by the US Treasury, the debt at the end of 2008 — just before Obama took office — stood at roughly $10,699,805,000,000. As of the third quarter of 2016, the most recent data available, the debt as Obama is set to leave office stood at $19,573,445,000,000. Based on the website USdebtclock.com, which extrapolates the US national debt in real time based on committed government spending, the debt will be roughly $19.97 trillion when President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Friday.
• Will Our Grandchildren Wonder Why We Didn’t Build a Renewable Power Grid When It Was Still Affordable?
  Anyone seeking clarity on the energy picture a decade or two out is to be forgiven for finding a thoroughly confusing divide. On the one hand, we have reassuring projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) that assume current production of fossil fuels will remain steady for decades to come. Coal will continue to decline as a share of total energy consumption, and renewables will rise modestly. In other words, everything’s hunky-dory, there’s nothing to worry about.
• Donald Trump’s full inauguration speech transcript, annotated
  The president of the United States is now Donald Trump, who just took the oath of office and, shortly thereafter, delivered his inaugural address.
• Donald Trump’s inaugural address: Full text as prepared for delivery
  Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, and people of the world: thank you. We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people. Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for years to come. We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done. Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent.
• Donald Trump Inauguration: A Day of Ceremony, Protests and Celebration
  President Trump’s era on the government web began almost immediately with the wiping out of Obama-era initiatives and a new brand of policy pronouncement. But two sides can play that game. As Mr. Trump dined with dignitaries and members of Congress in the Capitol, the police skirmished with protesters, hurling flash-bang grenades to drive them from the inauguration parade route. Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote by nearly three million but lost the presidency, was on hand for her former rival’s swearing-in at the Capitol.
• Stock Market Genius Gives Market Predictions For 2017
  How should people know they cannot trust the U.S. mainstream media when it comes to giving accurate information about the dire state of the U.S. economy? For starters, look at how dishonest the media was while covering the U.S. presidential election, and everything having to do with politics since. Next, consider the fact that one of nation’s highest end retailers, Nordstrom’s, sold out nationally this past Christmas on one of their red hot new items: An $85 Pet Rock that came with matching leather pants. Americans were so clueless about the actual state of the economy, they caused a national retailer to sell out of “pet rocks.” Is there any better way to demonstrate a total lack of valuable information?
• End of 2017 Gold Up & Dollar Down
  Best-selling author Nomi Prins says two of the big wild cards are Donald Trump and Europe. Prins explains, “The biggest wild card is a combination. Trump is a wild card, but so is Europe. Right now, the political lens goes over to Europe. It’s caught between its old and potentially new structure and potential new political leadership. I think that is a major wild card now. That snakes through Russia, and that snakes through Eurasia relationships, and that relates back to Trump. The wild card is the linkages among those things.” Prins, who is a former top Wall Street banker, also thinks it’s hard to define the bad guys and the good guys. Prins contends, “From an economic standpoint, everyone has side deals. So, there is no positive or negative economy. . . . All countries do good things, and all countries do bad things. What is happening right now is all of the alignments between countries have been changing. . . . The reality is there are going to be a lot of things renegotiated, and it’s not just Trump and the U.S. doing the renegotiating. All the other countries are negotiating as well. If there is enough antagonism with how Trump is going to renegotiate those agreements . . . that could limit trade into the U.S., and that could limit our bargaining power. . . . That is all in flux this year.”
• Theresa May To Call For “Clean And Hard Brexit” As UK Warns Of “Market Correction”
  While the track record of the Sunday Times over the past 24 hours is somewhat spotty, following a report that as his foreign trip abroad once officially president, Trump is planning a summit with Putin in Reykjavik, which in turn was promptly denied by Trump staffers who called the story “fantasy”, overnight the paper also reported that UK Prime Minister Theresa May will announce that Britain is “seeking a clean and hard Brexit” in a speech this week that will promise to create a “strong new partnership” with the European Union. The paper further notes that in the speech, scheduled for Tuesday, the PM will “finally lay her cards on the table”, making clear that the UK is set to pull out of the single market and the European customs union in return for the ability to curb immigration, strike commercial deals with other countries, and escape the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, the Sunday Times said without saying how it obtained the information.
• GEORGE SOROS: Trump is a con man and he will fail
  Billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros on Thursday reiterated his belief that President-elect Donald Trump is “an imposter and con man and a would-be dictator.” Soros, 86, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he is convinced the president-elect will fail. “He stands for that other form of government, which is the opposite of an open society,” said Soros, who is a Holocaust survivor and Hungarian immigrant. “It's really better described as a dictatorship or a mafia state.” Soros said Trump “would be a dictator if he could get away with it,” but that US institutions are strong enough to prevent that scenario. He also said the ideas that guide Trump are “inherently self-contradictory” and that those contradictions are “embodied by his advisers.”
• Why Is Obama Moving Troops Into Poland And Provoking A War With Russia Right Before The Inauguration?
  January 20th cannot come soon enough.  Instead of stepping back and trying to ensure a smooth transition for Donald Trump, Barack Obama has decided to go hog wild and use every ounce of presidential power still available to him.  He has been establishing a bunch of new national monuments, he just stabbed Israel in the back at the United Nations, and on Thursday he even took time to give Joe Biden a Presidential Medal of Freedom.  But one of the things that has people the most concerned is his endless provoking of Russia.  Every few days it seems like Obama is doing something else to aggravate Russia, and if he wasn’t leaving office in about a week I am sure that the mainstream media would be full of speculation about a possible war. Lame duck presidents are not supposed to make risky moves like this once a new president has been elected.  On Thursday, we learned that U.S. troops have been permanently deployed to Poland for the very first time…
• Alibaba'a Jack Ma Drops a Redpill in Davos: The U.S. Wasted $14 Trillion on Wars Over the Past 30 Years
  And there it is, the unvarnished, raw, truth about how everything went wrong for middle class America. Since the Vietnam war, more than 45 years ago, the US has embarked on a neocon strategy of war in an effort to build a global empire. The result of that strategy has left American infrastructure second rate, its school system in shambles, and its healthcare system a complete and utter joke. Just imagine what America could've done with $14t of investable dollars, instead of waging wars. Aside from the wars, America spends more than 50% of its discretionary budget on the military, per annum, 16% of its overall budget.
• Why Has The White House Suddenly Released A Strategy For Dealing With The Threat Of A Catastrophic Meteor Impact?
  Does the White House know something that the rest of us do not? As the Obama administration draws to a close, the White House has suddenly released a major document that details a multi-pronged strategy for dealing with the threat of a catastrophic meteor impact. Most of us remember movies such as “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon” that attempted to depict what such a crisis would look like, but up until fairly recently the U.S. government has never seemed to take this kind of threat very seriously. So what has changed? Of all the things that the White House could be focusing on, why this?
• Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen – January 19, 2017
  Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen with his regular short weekly video for readers of Pastor Williams’ weekly newsletter.

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From James Harkin (Webmaster & Editor of LindseyWilliams.net). Here is a summary of articles of interest from around the world for this week. Please LIKE the Lindsey Williams Online Facebook Page to see stories posted daily regarding the current state of the economy around the world.

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Latest News From January 13, 2017 to January 19, 2017:

• America Became A Lot Less Christian During The Presidency Of Barack Obama
  In 2006, Barack Obama famously said that “we are no longer just a Christian nation“, and after the last eight years that is now more true than ever. The Pew Research Center has just released a major report entitled “How America Changed During Barack Obama’s Presidency“, and what struck me the most about the report was the fact that it showed that the United States became a lot less Christian while Obama was in the White House. Of course this trend did not begin under Obama, but it seems to have accelerated during his presidency. In particular, the percentage of Americans that have no religion at all is really growing rapidly. According to the report, “nones” now make up nearly a fourth of our entire population…
• Davos Elite Seeks Fixes to Defend the System From Populists
  The great and the good of Davos agree they have a problem with populism. Finding a solution is the hard part. On the second day of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss Alps, delegates disagreed on how best to address the upending of the western political order, a debate made doubly urgent by the string of elections in Europe this year where anti-establishment parties could gain more ground. While International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde urged a list of policies from programs to retrain workers to more social spending, others fretted that the turbulence is only starting. Hedge Fund billionaire Ray Dalio warned on a panel chaired by Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua that “we may be at a point where globalization is ending, and provincialization and nationalization is taking hold.”
• 2017 Prediction-Global War Cycle Coming into Danger Zone
  Renowned financial and geopolitical analyst Charles Nenner correctly predicted there would be no market crash in 2016. 2017 is going to be a very different story.  Nenner explains, “There are going to be some serious corrections and some bounces.  I don’t thing we are going anywhere until the fall of 2017 when the whole bottom is going to fall out.  If you are a very good stock picker, you’ll be okay, but I am talking about the indices (overall financial markets).  It continues to be dangerous, and most of the good news is already in this rally.  The hope that Trump will do the right thing is still there, but it will take too long.  People will realize it is not going to happen tomorrow, and they will get disappointed.  So, I am still not very much into the stock market.  I don’t think there is much to gain over there.  I have been saying that for the next couple of years, try not to lose your money.  That’s the major thing you should be doing.”
• More Davos Elites Suggest Banning Cash…
  A central theme for the Davos World Economic Forum is a push to ban cash. Yesterday we outlined how Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz was urging the US to do away with physical cash. Today, Paypal CEO Dan Schulman is doing much the same thing although in this case he claims that getting rid of cash will end “leakage” (Stiglitz and most elites usually suggest a cash ban will end money laundering or crime).
• Why Are Wal-Mart And Boeing Laying Off Workers If The U.S. Economy Is In Good Shape?
  The stock market has been on quite a roll in recent weeks, but signs of trouble continue to plague the real economy.  Earlier this week, I talked about the “retail apocalypse” that is sweeping America.  Major retail chains such as Sears and Macy’s are closing stores and laying off workers, but I didn’t think that Wal-Mart would be feeling the pain as well.  Unfortunately, that is precisely what is happening.  USA Today is reporting that approximately 1,000 jobs will be cut at Wal-Mart’s corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas by the end of this month…
• US Marines Land In Norway For The First Time Since World War II, Angering Russia
  Just one week after thousands of US troops arrived in Poland to “support NATO's Anti-Russian buildup” across Eastern Europe, 300 U.S. Marines from Camp Lejeune landed in Norway on Monday for a six-month deployment, marking the first time since World War II that foreign troops have been allowed to be stationed there, in a deployment breaking with decades of tradition by Norway not to host foreign forces, and angering Norway's Arctic neighbor Russia, according to Reuters.
• Can Trump Take Back The Presidency From The CIA?
  If Trump intends to survive, he must break the CIA into a thousand pieces as President John F. Kennedy intended before the CIA assassinated him. Trump must arrest for treason the neoconservatives and put them on trial. Trump must curtail NSA’s spying, which is in complete violation of the US Constitution, on all communications of all Americans. Trump’s oath of office is to the Constitution, not to war on the American public. Trump must ban all presstitute print and TV media from White House press conferences and only give credentials to the alternative Internet media. The print and TV media are operatives of the CIA and are totally devoid of integrity. Indeed, perhaps the presstitutes should be arrested for treason and put on trial along with the neoconservatives and the CIA.
• EPA says it can’t pay economic damages from massive mine spill that sent tainted water into Utah
  The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday it will not repay claims totaling more than $1.2 billion for economic damages from a mine waste spill the agency accidentally triggered in Colorado, saying the law prohibits it. The EPA said the claims could be refiled in federal court, or Congress could authorize payments. But attorneys for the EPA and the Justice Department concluded the EPA is barred from paying the claims because of sovereign immunity, which prohibits most lawsuits against the government. “The agency worked hard to find a way in which it could pay individuals for damages due to the incident, but unfortunately, our hands are tied,” EPA spokeswoman Nancy Grantham said.
• Boeing: Three More Waves of Layoffs in 2017, as Orders Collapse to 7-Year Low. Shares Near All-Time High
  This is not the way to start your workday… to find this email from your boss in your inbox: “As we enter 2017, our plan calls for us to reduce our Engineering staff. I realize some of this news is unpleasant. But I wanted to respect your right to know what is occurring this year.” But that’s what happened on Tuesday at Boeing. Hammered by slowing aircraft sales and a declining order book, Boeing warned on Tuesday in an internal memo that it would conduct involuntary and voluntary layoffs of engineers in Washington state, southern California, and South Carolina, according to The Seattle Times. The memo did not mention the size of the staff cuts.
• Anarchists Plan To Target Balls, Events And Trump Supporters All Over D.C. During Inauguration Week
  The radical left is promising to make this the most chaotic inauguration in U.S. history. As I have written about previously, anarchists plan to do whatever they can to disrupt the inauguration of Donald Trump, but their plans are not just limited to the main event. As far as the protesters are concerned, any event that has anything to do with the inauguration of Trump is fair game, and so if you plan to attend a lunch, a ball or even a prayer meeting you will need to take precautions. Every single officially sanctioned event is on their radar, and those that do not have heavy security will be easier for them to hit. The anarchist leaders know that their people aren’t likely to be able to get anywhere near Trump, and so they are focusing on how they can make headlines in as many other ways as possible. According to the Daily Caller, this includes disrupting “several of the balls on inauguration night”…
• Will There Be War On The Streets Of Washington D.C. During The Inauguration On Friday?
  The stage is set for a potentially very ugly confrontation between radical leftist protesters on one side and law enforcement authorities and Trump supporters on the other side.  It is being estimated that hundreds of thousands of supporters will be arriving in D.C. to celebrate the inauguration of Donald Trump, but it is also being estimated that hundreds of thousands of people will be coming to D.C. to specifically protest the inauguration of Trump.  These protesters plan to set up blockades, disrupt inaugural balls and generally cause as much chaos as they possibly can.  In fact, a spokesperson for #DisruptJ20 says that the goal of his organization is for Trump to be inaugurated “amid complete chaos”…
• Davos elites struggle for answers as Trump era dawns
  The global economy is in better shape than it's been in years. Stock markets are booming, oil prices are on the rise again and the risks of a rapid economic slowdown in China, a major source of concern a year ago, have eased. And yet, as political leaders, CEOs and top bankers make their annual trek up the Swiss Alps to the World Economic Forum in Davos, the mood is anything but celebratory. Beneath the veneer of optimism over the economic outlook lurks acute anxiety about an increasingly toxic political climate and a deep sense of uncertainty surrounding the U.S. presidency of Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on the final day of the forum. Last year, the consensus here was that Trump had no chance of being elected. His victory, less than half a year after Britain voted to leave the European Union, was a slap at the principles that elites in Davos have long held dear, from globalization and free trade to multilateralism.
• This Pension Thing Is About To Get Real
  Though it may not be instantly clear, in the above quote Michael Lewis is talking about public sector pensions and how over the course of several decades, mayors and governors across the US have colluded with police, firefighter and teachers unions to promise outrageously-generous benefits and then failed to put aside enough money to pay for them. As a consequence two things are happening. In dozens if not hundreds of cities and towns, services are being cut to the bone to pay for ballooning pension benefits, and – when even these cuts prove inadequate – pensions are being drastically reduced. Which in turn means two other things. First, life isn’t nearly as easy or pleasant as it used to be in a lot of places, as library hours are cut, trash piles up and police response times lengthen. And second, hundreds of thousands of public sector workers who expected to retire comfortably are staring at major lifestyle shrinkage.
• IMF Downplays Trump Stimulus Effect; Slashes Saudi, Mexico Growth In Latest World Economic Outlook
  As the world's elite gather in Davos to decide for the minions what the world should look like, The IMF has taken a far dimmer view of global (and by that we mean Trumpian) economic growth than markets appear to be. In addition to slashing Brazilian, Mexican, and Saudi Arabian economic growth forecasts, Lagarde's lackeys are taking a cautious stance toward the policies of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office this week, assuming only a modest boost to the U.S. economy from his promise of fiscal stimulus. As Bloomberg reports, The IMF maintained its forecast for global growth in 2017 of 3.4 percent, the Washington-based organization said Monday in a quarterly update to its World Economic Outlook. Expansion for 2018 is forecast at 3.6 percent, also unchanged from the fund’s previous forecast in October.
• Examining RFK Jr.'s claim that the CDC “Owns over 20 vaccine patents.”
  Mr. Kennedy is in very safe territory by reporting that the CDC has over 20 patents that create vast, undisclosed conflicts of interests in vaccine safety. This past week, President-Elect Trump invited Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to discuss Mr. Kennedy leading a vaccine safety commission.  The mainstream media coverage of the meeting was widespread and furious. The vaccine industry and its media lap dogs do not want their corruption exposed in any official forum, and they have pointed their fury at Mr. Trump and Mr. Kennedy. We have seen a great deal of media on Kennedy and his vaccine safety and corruption claims in the last week.  The nice thing about that is this – because he has been in the mercury fight for so long, and started investigating the claims of moms of vaccine injured children more than a decade ago, his coverage has returned  the spotlight to the corruption that was uncovered in the early days of the realization that the vaccine program was hurting our kids.
• Ushering In a Totalitarian Police State in Cashless “Smart Cities”
  From Scandinavia to Amsterdam to India and elsewhere, the trend of going “cashless” is gaining traction. We have been covering the shortcomings of what is rightly called the War On Cash here at TDV for a while now and have shown just how negative the effects can be on an unsuspecting nation’s people. Chandigarh, India, which is the capital of the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, is like one of India’s labrats. Indian officials are working hard toward making it into India’s first cashless city. This initiative is part of the Prime Minister of India’s call for state governments to begin developing what he’s calling “smart” cities. That means cities attached to the latest internet technology. However there is nothing intelligent about his plan.
• Foreign Central Banks Liquidate Record $405 Billion In US Treasuries As China Sells Most US Paper Since 2011
  The wholesale liquidation of US Treasuries continued in November, when according to the just released TIC data, foreign central banks sold another $936 million in US paper in November 2016, which due to an offset of $892 million in buying one year ago, means that for the 12 month period ended November, foreign central banks have now sold a new all time high of $405 million in the past 12 months, up from a record $403 million in LTM sales as of one month ago. Where did the selling come from? While Japan sold about $23 billion in November, its fourth month of consecutive selling, it was China which drove the selloff, dumping a whopping $66.4 billion in US Treasuries in its 6th consecutive monthly sale of US paper, and the biggest monthly selloff since December 2011. The monthly sale also brings China's total Treasury holdings to the lowest level since early 2010.
• THE FUTURE OF SPYING Earth’s atmosphere can be turned into massive surveillance system using LASERS, scientists discover
  EARTH’S atmosphere can now be turned into a massive spy lens using cutting edge technology. BAE Systems are designing a directed energy laser system that could allow military commanders to spy on enemy activities from space. BAE believe that within 50 years, one of their aircraft could use an “atmospheric lens” to observe people from very long distances using the Earth’s atmosphere as a tool. The lasers temporarily change the Earth’s atmosphere into magnifying glass structures which can alter light and radio signals. This means users can listen into radio signals for thousands of miles.
• Obama transferred $500 million to a climate fund days before Trump is scheduled to take office
  With just days left in his final term as president of the United States, Barack Obama is taking steps to safeguard the historic Paris climate agreement he helped secure — to the tune of $500 million. On Tuesday, Obama transferred the sum to the Green Climate Fund, a trust created in 2010 to allow wealthy countries to financially assist developing nations in reducing emissions. The United States has pledged a total of $3 billion to the fund. Combined with an earlier $500 million payment made in March, Tuesday's payment leaves the country with a balance of $2 billion — a debt of which President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to pay none. Obama's decision to transfer the funds as the clock runs out on his presidency is a major victory for a group of petitioners who had pressured him to make the payment ahead of Trump's inauguration.
• Former President Bush moved to intensive care as wife Barbara also hospitalized
  Both President George H.W. Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush are now in a Houston hospital and will not attend Friday's inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. The 92-year-old former president on Wednesday was moved to intensive care at Houston Methodist Hospital after being admitted on Saturday, his office said in a statement. “Shortly after our previous report on President Bush’s condition, he was admitted to the ICU at Houston Methodist Hospital to address an acute respiratory problem stemming from pneumonia,” the statement read. “Doctors performed a procedure to protect and clear his airway that required sedation. President Bush is stable and resting comfortably in the ICU, where he will remain for observation.”
• What ‘border adjusted’ tax means — and why it could be coming to America
  Talk of a “border adjusted” tax has gone from the sidelines to center stage in Washington, which has a lot of people asking: What is it exactly? House Speaker Paul Ryan and members of President-elect Donald Trump's transition team met Monday night for 2 1/2 hours to discuss the House GOP's corporate tax reform plan — including a controversial provision that would essentially subsidize exports and tax imports. Emerging from the meeting, Trump's Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon told Reuters that they discussed “border adjustability,” which is one of the key provisions of Paul Ryan's tax blueprint. Currently, U.S. corporations are taxed on their worldwide profits at 35 percent. The House GOP plan would change that radically.
• U.S. import prices rise at fastest pace since 2012
  The cost of imported goods rose at the fastest pace in four years at the end of 2016, largely because of higher oil prices that have added to some upward pressure on inflation as they rose. The import-price index increased 0.4% in December, the second sizable move in three months, the government reported Thursday. For the full year, import prices advanced 1.8%. That is the largest 12-month increase since the spring of 2012 and ends almost 2½ years of basically negative import inflation. Most of the weakness, and now the uptrend, in import prices is tied to large swings in the global cost of oil. Oil prices have ended a two-year slide and are now somewhat higher compared to a year ago.
• US religion is worth $1.2T/year, topping the 10 biggest tech companies, combined
  Big religion makes up $1.2 trillion of income, yearly, in the United States.  The organizations make their money, tax free, from religious “healthcare facilities, schools, daycare and charities; media; businesses with faith backgrounds; the kosher and halal food markets; social and philanthropic programmes; and staff and overheads for congregations.” The authors of the program have noted that, even though religion has been on the decline in recent years, spending on religious “social programs” has tripled since 2001, to $9T.
• Walmart layoffs just the latest cuts in retail industry
  Walmart’s plan to lay off of hundreds of employees is the latest ripple in a wave of job cuts and store closures that are roiling the retail industry. The world’s largest retailer is cutting roughly 1,000 jobs at its corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., later this month, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak about it. In a statement, Walmart spokesman Greg Hitt did not confirm the job cuts. “We are always looking for ways to operate more efficiently and effectively,” he said. “While we continually look at our corporate structure, we have not made any announcements.  Like any organization, we make decisions based upon what’s best for our business and the customers we serve.”
• How To Fund A Universal Basic Income Fairly
  A universal basic income (UBI) – an idea in which the government replaces all other forms of monetary assistance (welfare, social security, etc.) with yearly stipend – has enormous potential to radically transform our current unsustainable consumer economy based on individual ownership into a much more sustainable economy based on access if it is designed and funded carefully. Implementing a UBI would require a cultural shift in our attitudes towards work and money but in a world where money is access, the idea of granting everyone enough money to meet their basic needs has sound philosophical logic behind it.  However, all of this potential is highly dependent on the way a UBI is funded. A poorly conceived plan may wind up doing far more harm to a society already ravaged by class divisions and extreme inequality.
• 10 Medicinal Plants For Your Survival Garden
  A lot of the medicine that is currently distributed by the United States health system is extremely expensive and filled with unnatural chemicals that have horrible side effects. Adding medicinal plants to your garden can not only save your pocketbooks, it can also save your life! These 10 medicinal plants can be grown in your garden: 1. Aloe Vera, 2. Stinging Nettle, 3. Marsh Mallow, 4. Fenugreek, 5. Great Burdock, 6. Arnica, 7. Sea Buckthorn, 8. Tea Tree, 9. Chamomile, 10. Sage.
• The Ancient Tibetan practice for Health and Vitality
  The Five Tibetans or the Five Rites of Rejuvenation, is a system of five, believed to be Tibetan, Yogic exercises said to be over 2500 years old. You flow through the five exercises almost in a meditative dance. Each exercise stimulates a particular chakra or hormonal system and revitalises certain organs, so that the five rites together form a complete workout for the body as a whole. This series of movements also known as “The fountain of youth” are credited with the ability to heal the body, balance the chakras and reverse the ageing process in just ten minutes a day.
• Why has NATO chosen Russia as its enemy instead of ISIS?
  According to statements made at last weekend’s summit in Warsaw, NATO regards Russia as a bigger threat than ISIS. Of course, that's ludicrous but when you scratch beneath the surface, the use of these falsehoods makes perverted sense. Gleb is a Russian student in Dublin. Recently, at the request of a mutual friend, I’ve been helping him with his university thesis which focuses on the reasons Ireland is one of the few Western European countries that has resisted NATO membership. A distinction that most Irish people are extremely proud of. As an Irishman myself, I’ve always been baffled by why so many members of the British and continental European elite see NATO as a good thing. After all, where’s the glory in being dictated to by an external power whose interests are often at marked variance with your own?
• This Interview With Robert Kennedy Jr A Is A MUST Read
  Do you know why RFK Jr is the best person to lead the new Trump Commission? Because he’s not a “vaccine activist.” He tumbled into learning about vaccines through his research on the impact of mercury on the environment. The interview conducted by Autism File executive editor Rita Shreffler who spoke with Kennedy about CDC corruption, pharmaceutical industry greed, media malpractice and his vision for the World Mercury Project. Now that Kennedy has agreed to take over such a role within the Trump Administration, his background on the subject becomes even more important.
• Obama Opens NSA’s Vast Trove of Warrantless Data to Entire Intelligence Community, Just in Time for Trump
  WITH ONLY DAYS until Donald Trump takes office, the Obama administration on Thursday announced new rules that will let the NSA share vast amounts of private data gathered without warrant, court orders or congressional authorization with 16 other agencies, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security.  The new rules allow employees doing intelligence work for those agencies to sift through raw data collected under a broad, Reagan-era executive order that gives the NSA virtually unlimited authority to intercept communications abroad. Previously, NSA analysts would filter out information they deemed irrelevant and mask the names of innocent Americans before passing it along.
• Chinese Companies to Build $1 Billion Solar Panels at Chernobyl Site
  Solar energy will be harnessed from the nuclear contaminated Chernobyl reactor site in Ukraine, after two Chinese companies formalised plans to erect a 1GW solar power plant. A 2600km exclusion zone surrounding the reactor has been in place since the nuclear disaster occurred in 1986, but following the construction of a steel-clad arch enveloping the site, interest in the area has developed. The race to renovate the deserted site has been won by GCL System Integration Technology (GCL-SI), a subsidiary of Golden Concord Holdings (GLC), one of China’s biggest renewable energy companies and China National Complete Engineering Corp (CCEC). The former company will supply and install solar panels on the site, while the latter will construct and run the plant upon completion.
• North Dakota Bill Would Protect Drivers Who ‘Accidentally’ Hit And Kill Protesters
  Republican lawmakers in North Dakota are taking aim at protesters with a handful of bills that would make another pipeline protest far more dangerous. The oil-friendly legislature argues that its constituents are frustrated over the protests, which led federal authorities to halt construction of the $3.8-billion Dakota Access Pipeline as thousands of protesters braved cold weather and violence for months. A bill that state GOP Rep. Keith Kempenich introduced would exempt drivers from liability if they accidentally hit a pedestrian, according to the Bismarck Tribune. House Bill 1203 was written up in direct response to groups of protesters blocking roadways, Kempenich told the paper. He claims protesters were seen jumping out in front of vehicles.
• Aid in reverse: how poor countries develop rich countries
  We have long been told a compelling story about the relationship between rich countries and poor countries. The story holds that the rich nations of the OECD give generously of their wealth to the poorer nations of the global south, to help them eradicate poverty and push them up the development ladder. Yes, during colonialism western powers may have enriched themselves by extracting resources and slave labour from their colonies – but that’s all in the past. These days, they give more than $125bn (£102bn) in aid each year – solid evidence of their benevolent goodwill. This story is so widely propagated by the aid industry and the governments of the rich world that we have come to take it for granted. But it may not be as simple as it appears.
• Senior DARPA Scientist Warns of Widespread LETHAL ATTACKS Upon the Public Coming From Microwave Towers
  It is an old issue, but with a new revelation by the most credible insider source to date. Recently, I was contacted by Dr. Paul Batcho. Batcho is a former DARPA senior scientist who worked at Los Alamos and held a top secret security clearance. In short, Batcho asserts that clandestine forces are purposely engaging in “acts of terrorism” against the general public through emission of dangerous frequencies from cell phone and microwave towers in the St. Petersburg/Orlando/ Tampa, Florida area.
• The Clinton Foundation Shuts Down Clinton Global Initiative
  The Clinton Foundation’s long list of wealthy donors and foreign government contributors during the 2016 elections provoked critics to allege conflicts of interests. Clinton partisans defended the organization’s charitable work, and dismissed claims that it served as a means for the Clintons to sell off access, market themselves on the paid speech circuit, and elevate their brand as Hillary Clinton campaigned for the presidency. But as soon as Clinton lost the election, many of the criticisms directed toward the Clinton Foundation were reaffirmed. Foreign governments began pulling out of annual donations, signaling the organization’s clout was predicated on donor access to the Clintons, rather than its philanthropic work. In November, the Australian government confirmed it “has not renewed any of its partnerships with the scandal-plagued Clinton Foundation, effectively ending 10 years of taxpayer-funded contributions worth more than $88 million.” The government of Norway also drastically reduced their annual donations, which reached $20 million a year in 2015.
• The True Reason behind The 40-Hour Work Week And Why We Are Economic Slaves
  What is the true reason behind the 40-hour work week? Economic slavery, or wage slavery, refers to one’s total and immediate dependence on wages to survive. Although people throughout history have had to work to get by, we now live in a culture where we are led to believe we have economic freedom, when unbeknownst to most citizens, we are in fact bound in servitude. We automatically accept a 40-hour workweek with meager hourly pay as normal, even though many work overtime and still struggle to survive. There are also those who make enough to live comfortably but are unable to request less hours—you either work 40 hours a week, or you don’t get to work at all. We submit when told what to wear, when we have to arrive and depart, when we’re allowed to eat, and even when we’re allowed to use the restroom. How is it we have come to allow this?
• American Force of 4,000 Arrives in Poland at Taxpayer Expense
  It took a year, and now it’s a fact: American troops are in Poland in rather large numbers. The rotating deployment of 4,000 American soldiers and forces in Poland was budgeted at $3.4 billion. It costs roughly $1 million a year to keep a single soldier overseas in a place like Poland. (In Afghanistan, the cost is well over $2 million a year for a single soldier.) This is said to deter Russia, but it’s totally unrealistic to think that Russia intends to attack Poland. Materially, the military-industrial complex benefits from keeping Russian-American tensions alive. Peace and disarmament are not in its interest; they mean much lower power and profits. Philosophically, the guiding concept that vivifies the military-industrial complex is to show the Russians and the world that the U.S. is a superpower and that it intends to spread its ways worldwide, with Russia included as a target for coming under American influence and domination.
• The Soft Coup Collapses – CIA Bluffing, Russia Did Not Hack, Blackmail Revealed – What Next?
  CIA was bluffing, produced no evidence – Russians did not “hack” the election. Is this the beginning of the end of the Deep State in the USA? Can Trump clean house & wage peace? Aided by enormous restraint on the part of Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, the soft coup in the USA has collapsed. Not only has the US Intelligence Community (US IC) lost all semblance of credibility with incoming President Donald Trump, but the blackmail by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham has been revealed by investigative journalist Wayne Madsen.
• Trump calls CIA chief ‘fake news leaker’ after Brennan warns him about ‘talking & tweeting’
  Donald Trump branded outgoing CIA chief Brennan “the leaker of fake news” after he told Trump to grasp the “Russia threat” instead of “talking and tweeting,” stirring up another feud between the incoming administration and the intelligence community. Tensions between US President-elect Donald Trump and the intelligence community escalated once again this weekend as outgoing CIA Director John Brennan fiercely attacked Trump’s views on US-Russia rapprochement. “I don’t think he has a full understanding of Russian capabilities and the actions they are taking on the world,” Brennan said on Fox News Sunday. With just several days to go until his inauguration, Trump “has to recognize that his words do have impact,” the CIA chief said.
• Trump vows ‘insurance for everybody’ in Obamacare replacement plan
  President-elect Donald Trump said in a weekend interview that he is nearing completion of a plan to replace President Obama’s signature health-care law with the goal of “insurance for everybody,” while also vowing to force drug companies to negotiate directly with the government on prices in Medicare and Medicaid. Trump declined to reveal specifics in the telephone interview late Saturday with The Washington Post, but any proposals from the incoming president would almost certainly dominate the Republican effort to overhaul federal health policy as he prepares to work with his party’s congressional majorities. Trump’s plan is likely to face questions from the right, after years of GOP opposition to further expansion of government involvement in the health-care system, and from those on the left, who see his ideas as disruptive to changes brought by the Affordable Care Act that have extended coverage to tens of millions of Americans.
• 70 Nations Gathered In Paris Unanimously Call For The Creation Of A Palestinian State
  On Sunday, the 70 nations that gathered in Paris for a conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unanimously agreed to call for the creation of a Palestinian state. The joint declaration that was issued at the conclusion of the conference also endorsed UN Security Council Resolution 2334 which was adopted on December 23rd and the six principles that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry laid out in his 71 minute speech on December 28th. If you would like to read the final draft of the joint declaration, you can do so right here. The good news is that this conference did not immediately recognize a Palestinian state, nor does it appear that additional action will be taken at the UN Security Council before Donald Trump is inaugurated on Friday. It had been feared that this conference may attempt to impose some sort of a solution on the Israelis and the Palestinians, but that didn’t come to pass. Instead, the conference participants agreed to work toward “a negotiated solution with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security“.
• Mid-East Prophecy Update – January 15th, 2017
  Pastor J.D. focuses in on the significance of all that's happened in just the first fifteen days of the year, namely, that of the unprecedented UN Resolution and Paris Peace Summit, taking place at the time of today’s prophecy update. By way of a clarification and an apology concerning Obama chairing the UN Security Council, I misspoke and should have said that he “was” (in 2009) and not “will become” (in 2017) the first president in history to do so.
• Welcome To One of The Most Pivotal Weeks In Modern American History
  Many are anticipating that a wonderful new era of peace and prosperity is just a few days away, but others are using terms such as “civil unrest” and “civil war” for what they believe is about to happen in America.  Without a doubt, Donald Trump is one of the most electrifying politicians in modern American history, but he is also one of the most polarizing.  So will the next four years bring us together as a nation, or will anger, frustration, strife and discord tear us much farther apart?  It is being projected that extremely large crowds of supporters will attend Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20th, but the mainstream media is also reporting that “hundreds of thousands of protesters” are on their way to Washington.  Many on the far left are hoping to turn Trump’s inauguration into one of the biggest riots in U.S. history, but thousands of law enforcement personnel are going to do their very best to prevent that from happening.
• Rex Tillerson Says Oil Companies Don’t Take Handouts. Exxon Mobil Gets $1 Billion A Year.
  Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, denied that tax breaks to fossil fuel companies amount to subsidies during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Yet Exxon Mobil Corp., the oil giant Tillerson worked at for 41 years and led for 10, receives between $700 million and $1 billion per year in government giveaways, according to a new analysis by Oil Change International, a nonprofit research firm that tracks the fossil fuel industry. During the hearing, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) asked Tillerson if he would pursue a 2009 pledge ― led by the United States and backed by Russia, China, India and 16 other nations ― to scale back subsidies for oil and other carbon dioxide-spewing fuels. Tillerson argued that he would have little influence over incentives baked into the tax code, and said he was “not aware of anything that the fossil fuel industry gets that I would characterize as a subsidy.”
• California Gets a Trillion Gallons in Fresh Rainwater and Tosses it in the Ocean
  California just received enough fresh rainwater to entirely end the drought and still set some aside for later, but they still continue to dump water in the ocean for a bait fish. Liberals have a tendency to do more harm than good, especially when it comes to micromanaging the environment. Every year, California sends full amounts of rainwater out into the ocean. A giant swath of what used to be called, “the breadbasket of the world” is a desert because Sacramento with the help of Washington refuses to divert water to the farmland.
• Trump blasts ‘sleazebag operatives’ for ‘Russian dossier’ release, pledges hacking report in 90 days
  The US president-elect has accused unnamed ‘sleazebag political operatives’ in both parties for publishing a dubious dossier alleging that he has ties to Russia, while pledging a full report on the alleged ‘Russian hacking’ of the US election in 90 days. In a series of tweets, Donald Trump reiterated his denial of the uncorroborated allegations published by Buzzfeed that claimed he had ties with the Russian government and was the target of potential Kremlin blackmail. “Totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both Democrats and Republicans – FAKE NEWS! Russia says nothing exists. Probably released by ‘Intelligence’ even knowing there is no proof, and never will be. My people will have a full report on hacking within 90 days!” Trump said.
• Morgan Stanley to pay $13 million for overbilling clients: SEC
  Morgan Stanley (MS.N) will pay $13 million (£10.6 million) to settle civil charges, after it overbilled some of its wealth management clients because of coding and other billing system errors, U.S. regulators said Friday. The Securities and Exchange Commission said the bank was also charged with violating custody rules designed to safeguard investor assets. The bank agreed to settle the case without admitting or denying the charges. A spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley's wealth management unit said the company was pleased to have the matter resolved. “All affected clients have been reimbursed and the firm has enhanced its policies and procedures, including discontinuing the use of certain legacy systems,” company spokeswoman Christine Jockle said in a statement.
• The Privacyless, Freedomless Smart City of 2030 the Elite Are Engineering
  Well here's a fat bag of crazy for you, courtesy of the elites over at Davos ahead of their 2017 meeting. Add cashless in there of course, we would have but there are only so many words that will fit into a YouTube video title. If you look around at the way things are being manipulated on nearly every level right now, you can clearly see how society is being engineered for this future, as insane as it sounds…
• Trump’s Decision to Study Vaccine Safety with Controversial Activist Backed by Undeniable Evidence
  Already President Elect Donald Trump has made a series of decisions that have caused holistic health advocates to raise their eyebrows in disbelief — including the appointment of an agricultural community packed with Big Ag executives that are closely allied with the chemical giants and big environmental polluters. However, there is one decision just announced that could benefit the lives, and health, of many children in the long run. The issue at hand is the safety of vaccinations, particularly children’s vaccinations. Trump, who has previously met with safe vaccine activists such as Vaxxed director Dr. Andrew Wakefield during his campaign, and gave money to support Jenny McCarthy’s fight for safer vaccines, has now asked Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine researcher and the nephew of former president John F. Kennedy, to lead a study on vaccine safety.
• New Report Exposes Rockefeller Dynasty's Role in “Climate” Scam
  An unfathomably wealthy banking and oil dynasty has been hijacking governments, media organs, universities, non-profits, and other power centers to expand its control over the economy and the energy sector in particular, according to a recently released investigation by a watchdog group. That dynasty, of course, is the Rockefeller family. In essence, they have largely created, bankrolled, and weaponized what is known as the “green” movement “as a means to expand their empire over the past three decades,” the report found. Under the guise of fighting alleged “man-made global-warming,” the Rockefeller family and its billions have been bankrolling everything from “climate” journalism (propaganda) efforts, politicians, and “academia” to politically motivated “investigations” of energy companies and non-profit organizations by government officials. Billionaire extremist George Soros also helped fund the efforts, according to the report by the Washington, D.C.-based watchdog Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) entitled The Rockefeller Way: The Family’s Covert “Climate Change” Plan.
• Cabinet of Donald Trump
  The cabinet of Donald Trump will replace Barack Obama's cabinet when each nominee is confirmed by the United States Senate and administered the oath of office, on or after January 20, 2017. Before confirmation, a high level career member of an executive department heads this pre-confirmed cabinet on an acting basis. The cabinet's creation is part of the transition of power following the 2016 United States presidential election.
• What Does The Future Hold For ‘Average Joes'? (Spoiler Alert: Feudalism)
  What does the future hold for average people? Feudalism. And they’ll welcome it with open arms, convinced that they are embracing a smart, fair system that eliminates poverty. The greed, entitlement, and lack of ambition that seems inherent in many people today will have them slipping on the yoke of servitude willingly.
• What’s Going on with the Banks? Citi Cuts Goldman to “Sell,” after Goldman Cut Citi to “Neutral”
  Citigroup hit back at Goldman Sachs, after Goldman Sachs had slammed Citigroup in September. Citi analyst Keith Horowitz, in a note to clients, downgraded Goldman from the already dismal “hold” to a rare “sell” rating, citing Goldman’s valuation. He said Goldman would need an additional $4 billion in full-year revenues above current estimates – which, according to Reuters, are pegged at $32.3 billion – to get to a return on equity (ROE) that would justify the valuation. “While we expect Goldman will see improved trading revenues going forward, the path is relatively uncertain and the bar is relatively high,” he wrote. Goldman is scheduled to report earnings on January 18. So time to take profits and move on, according to Citi.
• Man Who Advises Top Sovereign Wealth Funds In The World Says 2017 Will Be ‘The Year Of Reckoning’
  On the heels of the Dow hitting a new all-time high, today King World News spoke with the man who advises the most prominent sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, and institutional funds in the world. Expect Major Market Turmoil In 2017. Michael Belkin:  “Eric, 2017 is going to be the year of reckoning. Many global markets are at a major turning point.  For example, the FT just reported that speculators have an all-time record 816,000 short positions in Treasuries.  There has never been a number that high.  I had my global clients short bonds and we took out 15 points on the short side.  But recently I recommended they go long bonds because I think there is going to be a huge short squeeze in U.S. Treasury bonds.
• The False Economic Recovery Narrative Will Die In 2017
  Yes, the narrative of the “new normal” has been around for so long now that many people have simply grown used to it. The assumption is that the fiscal “new normal” has become the fiscal “normal,” and though the fundamentals continue to strain under the weight of poor global demand and historic debt levitated by extraneous fiat stimulus, the masses feel far less fear than is warranted. Hey, why should they? We’ve managed around eight years skating on thin ice, why shouldn’t we expect eight more years of the same? The banking elites have done the job they set out to do, which was to drive the economy to the very edge of the financial cliff, and then keep it suspended there until the general public became comfortable living next door to the abyss.
• The “Curse” of Labor-Saving Machinery Is Nothing New
  At the end of last year, Amazon unveiled, “Amazon Go,” a futuristic, fully-automated convenience store set to open its doors in Seattle, Washington, within the next few months. While this exciting new venture promises to make quick-stop shopping trips easier for busy consumers, critics are wary of this type of advanced automation, and fear its widespread use could jeopardize a vast amount of jobs. Amazon Go is a truly unique shopping experience free of lines, registers, and checkouts of any kind. Instead, the store utilizes its customers’ smartphones and “grab and go technology,” which allows the consumer to simply walk in, grab desired items, and then get on with the rest of their day.
• Will Automation Make us Poor?
  Automation has become a huge concern in recent years. With computer algorithms getting more and more sophisticated, machines are becoming increasingly able to do jobs that are many people’s bread and butter. Driverless cars have been tested on our roads for years. Although they aren’t commercially available yet, they eventually will be. Once that happens, they’ll replace cab drivers, as well as people currently contracted by rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft. After all, if employers can remove the expense of paying drivers, they can provide their services for much cheaper while still retaining a greater net profit. Automated vehicles will also replace commercial freight drivers.
• D.C. National Guard Chief Fired Days Before Trump Inauguration: “The Timing Is Extremely Unusual”
  “It doesn’t make sense to can the general in the middle of an active deployment,” rages D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) after Maj. Gen. Errol R. Schwartz, who heads the D.C. National Guard and is an integral part of overseeing the inauguration, has been ordered removed from command effective Jan. 20, 12:01 p.m., just as Donald Trump is sworn in as president. As The Washington Post reports, Maj. Gen. Errol R. Schwartz’s departure will come in the midst of the presidential ceremony, classified as a national special security event — and while thousands of his troops are deployed to help protect the nation’s capital during an inauguration he has spent months helping to plan.
• What Puerto Rico Can Teach Us About the Minimum Wage
  This week, twenty states began implementing minimum wage increases that were passed during 2016. As the country waits to see how these increased wages this will affect the economy, the U.S. territories have already provided us with a grim example. After the 2007 Fair Minimum Wage Act was passed, each of the fifty states was required to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour in 2006, to $7.25 by 2009. Few Americans realize that this legislation was also applied to the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands, who were also forced to raise wages.
• Venezuelan president hikes minimum wage by 50 per cent, 5th raise in a year
  Venezuela‘s socialist President Nicolas Maduro announced on Sunday a 50 percent hike in the minimum wage and pensions, the fifth increase over the last year, to help shield workers from the world’s highest inflation rate. The measure puts the minimum monthly salary at 40,683 bolivars – about $60 at the weakest exchange level under the state’s currency controls, or $12 at the black market rate. “To start the year, I have decided to raise salaries and pensions,” he said on his weekly TV and radio program.
• China's $3 Trillion In Reserves Questioned After PBOC Reports $41 BIllion In December Outflows
  In late December, ignoring the official Chinese monthly reserve data and instead using a dataset provided by China's FX regulator SAFE on cross-border RMB flows and on onshore FX settlements, Goldman calculated the true amount of Chinese FX outflows and found that Beijing has continued to mask the full extent of its capital flight, which in November spiked to $69 billion (well above the reported, currency adjusted number of $34 billion). Furthermore, it found that “since June, this data has continued to suggest significantly larger FX sales by the PBOC than is implied by FX reserve data.” Even more troubling, Goldman calculated that cumulatively since August 2015 through November 2016, FX outflow totaled roughly US$1.1 trillion, while implied FX sales suggested by PBOC’s FX position (headline reserves after adjusted for currency valuation effect) were approximately US$630bn (US$540bn), indicating that the real rate of reserve depletion was nearly double that represented by PBOC reserve data.
• China Launches Bitcoin Crackdown: PBOC Will Probe Abnormal Investor Behavior “And Rectify Misbheavior”
  Having long been advocates of Bitcoin (ever since Sept. 2015 when it traded at $230) for the simple reason that we were confident the digital currency would eventually become China's favorite means of circumventing capital controls – precisely as has transpired – two months ago we warned that the unprecedented surge which made bitcoin the best performing asset in the past year with a 5x return, may be ending as “China Prepares To Impose Curbs, “Capital Controls” On Bitcoin.” Since then, and especially over the past week, China has launched a series of incremental steps designed to do just that, which culminated on Friday when China's central bank issued a statement calling the changes in the virtual currency “abnormal”, and said authorities have required the trading platform to operate in compliance. They urged the platform to “probe investors' behavior and to “rectify misbehavior.”
• Hungary Plans to Crack Down on All Soros-Funded NGOs
  Hungary plans to crack down on non-governmental organizations linked to billionaire George Soros now that Donald Trump will occupy the White House, according to the deputy head of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party. The European Union member will use “all the tools at its disposal” to “sweep out” NGOs funded by the Hungarian-born financier, which “serve global capitalists and back political correctness over national governments,” Szilard Nemeth, a vice president of the ruling Fidesz party, told reporters on Tuesday. No one answered the phone at the Open Society Institute in Budapest when Bloomberg News called outside business hours.
• Ron Paul Sums Up Nobel-Peace-Prize-Winning President Obama In One Short Sentence
  Following our discussion of the unprecedented bombing-fest that has been undertaken during President Obama's reign… Seven years after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” despite having been in office for less than one year and having pretty much no actual, tangible foreign diplomacy accomplishments at the time, President Obama will depart the White House having dropped 26,171 bombs on foreign countries around the world in 2016, 3,027 more than 2015. According to an analysis of Defense Department data from the Council on Foreign Relations, a non-partisan think tank, the majority of Obama's 2016 bombs were dropped on Syria and Iraq.  Meanwhile, Afghanistan, a country President Obama vowed U.S. troops would evacuate completely by the end of his Presidency, was also bombed over 1,300 times, a 40% increase over 2015.
• The ‘party of Davos' wakes up to the new, new world order
  Influential business leaders and lawmakers once again descend on the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos next week against a backdrop of rising populism, and early indications suggest they will at least acknowledge the dramatic political shifts of the last twelve months. Election wins for Donald Trump and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, as well as the U.K.'s vote to leave the EU, were widely seen as a rejection of current socio-economic models. Populism became a key story of 2016 and will be front and center in Davos ahead of elections this year in France, Germany, the Netherlands and most likely Italy. In a nod to this current mood, this year's World Economic Forum (WEF) is titled “Responsive and Responsible Leadership” and its official agenda describes a “weakening of multiple systems” that has eroded confidence and speaks of a possible “downward spiral” fuelled by protectionism, populism and nativism.
• Wal-Mart To Cut “Hundreds” More Jobs Before End-January
  Despite the proclamations from The White House and its lackeys that this is the best jobs recovery ever and we are at full employment, it appears all is not well at the world's third largest employer. We've discussed many times the fact that Walmart had been overly eager to boost everyone's wage in order to appease the living wage crowd, and as a result the company had to move forward with massive layoffs and store closings to try and mitigate the impact on profits. Earlier last year we also noted that Walmart is testing out drones that when operational, will be able to carry out what once were human tasks in its large distribution centers. This effort will further position the company to be able to shed more labor and benefit expense in the future. That said, Walmart isn't waiting for the drone initiative to come online. After firing 7,000 in September, The Wall Street Journal reports, Wal-Mart is preparing another round of job cuts at its headquarters before the end of the month, according to people familiar with the situation.
• Healthcare Chaos Emerges After Trump Backtracks, Demands Immediate Repeal Of “Catastrophic” Obamacare
  Perhaps as a result an angry backlash to last night's report by the WSJ that President-elect Donald Trump had allegedly sided with Rand Paul in pushing to delay the repeal of Obamacare until such time as there is a suitable replacement option, which as we explained are two entirely distinct processes, and that an ACA replacement could take years as it would require bipartisan support, moments ago the the NYT reported that Trump appears to have backtracked on his position as recently as yesterday, and has pressed Republicans to move forward with the “immediate repeal” of the Affordable Care Act and to replace it very quickly thereafter, saying, “We have to get to business. Obamacare has been a catastrophic event.”
• The Dakota Access Pipeline is the Best Way to Move Bakken Crude Oil to Market.
  The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is the safest and most environmentally sensitive way to transport crude oil from domestic wells to American consumers. It is the result of an extensive process that involved review and approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and regulators in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. It will be among the safest, most technologically advanced pipelines in the world.
• Trump’s Approval Rating Is Supposedly Only 37 Percent, But Small Business Optimism Just Hit The Highest Level In 12 Years
  A Quinnipiac University Poll that was released on Tuesday says that Donald Trump only has an approval rating of 37 percent.  Meanwhile, that same survey found that Barack Obama currently has an approval rating of 55 percent.  Of course considering the fact that Quinnipiac polls showed Hillary Clinton winning the election in November easily, perhaps we should not put too much stock in these results.  But other polling organizations have come up with similar results.  In fact, an average of nine recent polls indicates that Trump’s approval rating is somewhere around 42 percent.  So without a doubt there are a whole lot of people out there that do not like Donald Trump.
• Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen – January 12, 2017
  Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen with his regular short weekly video for readers of Pastor Williams’ weekly newsletter.

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From James Harkin (Webmaster & Editor of LindseyWilliams.net). Here is a summary of articles of interest from around the world for this week. Please LIKE the Lindsey Williams Online Facebook Page to see stories posted daily regarding the current state of the economy around the world.

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Latest News From January 6, 2017 to January 12, 2017:

• The 70 Nations That Will Meet In Paris On January 15th Are Going To Publicly Commit To Dividing The Land Of Israel
  A draft of the summary statement that will be released at the conclusion of the 70 nation conference in Paris on Sunday has been leaked. As you will see below, this communique is going to call for the division of the land of Israel, for the establishment of a Palestinian state, for the 1967 borders to serve as the basis for final negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and for the condemnation of any officials that refuse to support a two state solution. Of course this comes on the heels of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which many believe represented America’s greatest betrayal of Israel. Israeli government officials are publicly warning that there is a possibility that the principles agreed upon at this conference may form the basis for another Security Council resolution before January 20th, and this is something that we should all be watching for very closely.
• Activists Are Hoping To Turn Donald Trump’s Inauguration On January 20th Into One Of The Biggest Riots In U.S. History
  Radical leftists are planning to make January 20th the most chaotic Inauguration Day in American history.  Their stated goal is to “disrupt” the Inauguration festivities as much as possible, and they are planning a wide range of “actions” to achieve that stated goal.  Some of the more moderate groups are using terms such as “civil resistance” and “civil disobedience”, but others are openly talking about “blockades”, jumping barricades, throwing projectiles and “citywide paralysis”.  My hope is that all of their efforts will turn out to be a big flop, but it is important to understand that these groups are well funded, highly organized and extremely motivated.  The election of Donald Trump has been perhaps the single most galvanizing moment for the radical left in modern American history, and they are working very hard to turn January 20th into a major political statement.
• U.S. Trade Deficit Widened in November to a Nine-Month High
  The U.S. trade deficit widened to a nine-month high in November as exports fell and companies and governments imported the most since August 2015. The gap grew by 6.8 percent to $45.2 billion from a revised $42.4 billion in the prior month, Commerce Department figures showed Friday. The November shortfall was in line with the Bloomberg survey median for a $45.4 billion gap. Weaker overseas sales of U.S.-made goods and stronger domestic demand for imported merchandise indicate trade weighed on economic growth in last year’s fourth quarter. America’s net export position has also been made even more tenuous given the dollar’s rally in late 2016.
• Vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr. says Trump asked him to lead commission on ‘vaccine safety’
  Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a proponent of a widely discredited theory that vaccines cause autism, said Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump asked him to chair a new commission on vaccines. Hours later, however, a spokeswoman for Trump’s transition said that while Trump would like to create a commission on autism, no final decision had been made. If Trump follows through, the stunning move would push up against established science, medicine and the government’s position on the issue. It comes after Trump — who has long been critical of vaccines — met at Trump Tower with Kennedy, who has spearheaded efforts to roll back child vaccination laws.
• Factory orders tumble 2.4% in November
  Factory orders retreated in November, snapping a four-month winning streak, the Commerce Department said Friday. The 2.4% decline was a bit stronger than the 2.3% forecast by economists surveyed by MarketWatch, but it followed an upward revision to October’s gain, taking that to 2.8%. Compared to a year ago, orders were down 1.8%. Orders for durable goods slid 4.5%, while orders for nondurable goods were down 0.2%. Shipments declined 0.1% in November, as did unfilled orders. Inventories increased 0.2%. Economists are hoping that the long slump in manufacturing will reverse as the shock to oil LCOH7, +0.34%  recedes.
• Report: Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion In Public Assistance
  Walmart's low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing, according to a report published to coincide with Tax Day, April 15. Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of 400 national and state-level progressive groups, made this estimate using data from a 2013 study by Democratic Staff of the U.S. Committee on Education and the Workforce. “The study estimated the cost to Wisconsin’s taxpayers of Walmart’s low wages and benefits, which often force workers to rely on various public assistance programs,”
• Trump Bump: Small Business Optimism Soars To 12-Year High
  Small business owners' optimism soared in December to the highest level since 2004, the National Federation of Independent Business said Tuesday, as President-elect Trump unleashes “animal spirits” on Main Street, even as corporate titans such as General Motors (GM) and Ford (F) tread carefully with the president-elect. NFIB's small business optimism index shot up 7.4 points to 105.8, the best reading since December 2004. It was the biggest monthly gain in decades. A net 50% of smaller firms see business conditions improving vs. 12% in November and -7% in October. “We haven't seen numbers like this in a long time,” said NFIB President and CEO Juanita Duggan. “Small business is ready for a breakout, and that can only mean very good things for the U.S. economy.”
• Rep. Dave Brat: ‘We Have Five or Six Plans’ to Replace Obamacare; GOP Leadership Needs to ‘Pick One’
  Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA) discussed repealing Obamacare with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Monday, as well as alternate plans, including one he recently introduced in the House. The Daily Signal reports, “Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., has introduced a bill in the House that, if passed, will allow individuals to decide how they want their health care funds to be spent, without the influence of the government or health insurance providers.” Brat said that the health savings account legislation is a way for lawmakers to prove to the American people that they have a plan to replace Obamacare after repealing it. Brat discussed several domestic alternatives, as well as systems other nations use. “We’re waiting for leadership to coalesce around a plan,” said Brat.
• Pope Francis Now International Monetary Guru
  As the new year dawns, it seems the current occupant of St. Peter’s Chair will take on a new function which is outside the purview of the office that the Divine Founder of his institution had clearly mandated. Neo-Papist transmogrification. We highly recommend the economic thought of one of Francis’ storied predecessors, John Paul II, which we have written about on previous occasions. In “A Tale of Two Popes” and “Papal Eco-Hysteria”, we have contrasted Francis and John Paul II and quoted from the latter’s seminal encyclical “Centesimus Annus”, which probably contains the most clear-headed thinking on human liberty and economics that has ever emerged from the Vatican. Francis strikes us as a throwback to a completely discredited and dangerous ideology by comparison. Lately he is even calling for the establishment of a global central bank!
• Banks Not Going Broke, They Are Broke-Rick Rule
  Rick Rule is an expert on investing in all sorts of natural resources, and that includes gold and silver. He thinks it won’t take a “catastrophic event” to move prices higher in precious metals.  Rule explains, “You remember the decade of the 1970’s?  The shocks to the financial system were severe but survivable.  The gold price went from $35 per ounce to $850 per ounce.. . . As you can see, I am not a young guy.  I was a finance major, and the way I learned accounting, it’s not like the banks are going to go broke, the banks are broke. . . . It isn’t a question of ongoing bank solvency.  It’s a question of real bank solvency and how long people will believe in the system. . . . If the major players had to face a liquidity squeeze, even the level of magnitude they faced in 2008, I suspect the fiscal tools available are constrained enough now that they would be unsuccessful in containing a broad liquidity base contagion.”
• ALERT: One Shock After Another Will Create The Biggest Collapse Ever In World Financial Markets In 2017
  As we kickoff the second week of trading in the new year, today the man who has become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, warned King World News that one shock after another will create the biggest collapse ever in world financial markets in 2017. Terrifying Worldwide Panic In 2017. Egon von Greyerz:  “We are only a week into 2017 but some longer-term trend changes are developing. It is interesting how a new year, combined with a new U.S. president act as a catalyst for what will be the start of monumental events in the world economy. Not that many of these will come as a surprise to the well-informed KWN audience, but for the rest of the world there will be one shock after the next that will create terrifying panic…
• Wholesale Sales Disappoint Sending Inventories-Ratio Back Into Recession Territory
  November saw inventories rise more than expected (+1.0% MoM vs +0.9% exp) and sales disappoint (+0.4% vs +0.5% exp) and were notably revised lower. This sent the inventories-to-sales ratio back up again – stubbornly stuck in recessionary territory. Both Inventories and sales grew year-over-year… But the gap between inventories and sales grew in absolute terms for the first time since July… Sending the inventories-to-sales ratio back up again… Automotive inventories-to-sales jumped higher once again – back near cycle highs.
• The World Has Never Been In A Mega-Crisis Like This In All Of Human History
  Today one of the greats in the business told King World News that the world has never been in a maga-crisis like this in all of human history. Storm Clouds Are Gathering Everywhere. John Embry:  “Eric, I must begin by wishing you and your readers and listeners a belated happy new year.  However, I question how happy a new year it is going to be as storm clouds have been steadily gathering everywhere…
• China’s plan to dominate the global gold market
  Status as one of the world’s biggest bullion importers, participation in the gold fix at the London exchange and a plan to establish a jewelry gold investment center in Shanghai has turned China into one of the leading players in the global gold market in 2016. Gold entered the New Year in a downward trend. In 2016, prices of the yellow metal have continued to drop, for the fourth year in a row. The last time such a trend was registered  was between 1988 and 1992. A drop in global gold prices was advantageous for China, the world’ biggest importer of gold bars, gold investment coins and refined gold.
• Is The S&P 500 Developing Into A “Bull Trap”?
  Monday morning may have marked the beginning of a “bull trap,” should the S&P 500 price remain under the breakout high. Will it? Our bullish V-Spike Reversal off 2,228 set the stage for a continuation of the uptrend and bull market. After two pullbacks (retracements), price surged to new all-time highs Friday. However, Friday afternoon into Monday morning gave us a pullback under 2,270 which is a make-or-break point. Should price remain beneath 2,270, expect a swing back toward 2,255 (failure to break out). Any move back above 2,270 could trigger a powerful short-squeezed breakout but we’re not quite there yet.
• 10 ways the mainstream media creates fake news
  The basic purpose of these ten forms is the presentation of a false picture of reality. You could find more forms, or divide these ten into sub-categories. The ten basic forms are: Direct lying about matters of fact. Leaving out vital information. Limited hangout. Shutting down the truth after publishing it. Not connecting dots between important pieces of data. Censoring the truth, wherever it is found. Using biased “experts” to present slanted or false “facts.” Repeating a false story many times. Claiming a reasonable and true consensus exists, when it doesn’t. Employing a panoply of effects. These are all traditional forms and methods.
• Top Five Monetary Policy Issues To Watch In 2017
  With a new year come new opportunities as well as new issues to take into consideration. Here are the five most important issues to keep an eye on in 2017. 1. Trump Presidency. 2. Ongoing Weakness in Europe. 3. China Is Still a Wild Card. 4. The Relentless War on Cash. 5. A Coming Financial Crisis. As the reality sets in that massive amounts of resources have been malinvested in unproductive sectors of the economy, the bubbles that were blown will inevitably burst.
• The Globalists’ Russia Game
  Thanks to Barak Obama’s most recent expression of his low character and a foreign policy weirdly akin to fantasy-baseball gone bad, thirty-five U.S.-resident Russian diplomats and their families targeted for rapid deportation feared a frantic search in the holiday crunch for open seats on flights to Moscow. On Friday, Russia sent an Ilyushin 11-96 to collect everyone and the families’ panic that they might not make their deportation deadlines receded.  The embassy’s two retreats, one in New York and another in Maryland, were closed on schedule. Thus was the Obama administration’s maximally-inconvenient timing accommodated.
• Boeing: Three More Waves of Layoffs in 2017, as Orders Collapse to 7-Year Low. Shares Near All-Time High
  This is not the way to start your workday… to find this email from your boss in your inbox: “As we enter 2017, our plan calls for us to reduce our Engineering staff. I realize some of this news is unpleasant. But I wanted to respect your right to know what is occurring this year.” But that’s what happened on Tuesday at Boeing. Hammered by slowing aircraft sales and a declining order book, Boeing warned on Tuesday in an internal memo that it would conduct involuntary and voluntary layoffs of engineers in Washington state, southern California, and South Carolina, according to The Seattle Times. The memo did not mention the size of the staff cuts.
• 2016 Past is 2017 Prologue
  With us being just over a week into the New Year, we feel it worthwhile to look back just one last time at 2016. We believe that many of the themes and risks of 2016 continue in 2017 and that they are likely to impact markets in the coming months – especially the precious metal markets. We always enjoy new perspectives and every year we enjoy the witty, comprehensive and insightful analysis review of the year past by David Collum. His‘2016 Year In Review’ is in the same vein and was missed by many when it was released over the Christmas period.
• Don’t Count On Trump Being Inaugurated — Paul Craig Roberts
  The Ruling Establishment Does Not Intend For Trump To Become President. The latest “explosive” fake news is that “multiple US officials with direct knowledge” told CNN that they have “classified documents” that Russia has compromising documents on Trump that would allow them to blackmail the US President. The documents consist of memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative “whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible.” According to antiwar.com “the dossier claimed several figures in the Trump campaign were in league with the Russian government during the campaign, and that Russia had been conspiring with them to groom Trump as an ally for ‘at least five years.’ It also claims exchanges of information between Trump and the Kremlin for ‘at least eight years,’ . . . The dossier names former Trump adviser Carter Page, his personal lawyer Michael Cohen, as well as incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn as having personally and repeatedly met with Kremlin officials on anti-Clinton leaks.”
• Hideous Constellation of Threats and Challenges Facing Mexico
  Things are rapidly going from bad to worse in Mexico. Hundreds of people were arrested and a handful of people killed over the past week as peaceful protests against the government’s hike of gasoline prices (by as much as 20% in some states) descended into widespread looting and rioting. The mood on the street was hardly helped when Mexico’s deeply unpopular president, Enrique Peña Nieto, tried to defend his actions by asking the public, “What would you have done?” For a lot of people, the answer’s clear: a lot of things, very differently. Right at the top of the list would be launching an all-out war against the endemic culture of corruption plaguing virtually all levels of government. But now, time is fast running out as Mexico now faces a hideous constellation of threats and challenges, all at the same time.
• Get Ready to Pay $500 More in Taxes
  It’s tax time again, and President-elect Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress have promised to slash them—especially for corporations and the rich. For millions of Americans, however, a tax increase will be the first thing they see. About 12 million workers will pay more this year because of an automatic adjustment in their payroll taxes. Unlike previous years, this rise in the Social Security “taxable minimum”—the amount of income subject to tax—is a whopper: 7.3 percent, the most in 34 years. That could cost each affected worker as much as $539, and much more if they’re self-employed. Why is 2017’s increase so huge? And where does this taxable minimum come from, anyway?
• The Oil Supply Glut is Here to Stay in 2017
  It has become painfully obvious that the much-hyped OPEC agreement to reduce global oil production by close to 2 million bpd won’t have the effect that its initiators had hoped for. True, crude has jumped above US$50 but failed to pass the US$55 barrier and move closer to US$60, which would have solved a lot of problems for some of the world’s biggest producers. This price increase, however, has spurred optimism among some producers and motivated them to plan output ramp-ups, which will in turn dampen the upward potential of crude more effectively than growing doubts about top producers’ willingness to stick to their commitments under the historical agreement.
• Obama Regime Moves To Federalize Elections — Paul Craig Roberts
  The ruling establishment has responded to Donald Trump’s election by laying the groundwork to federalize, and thus control, future elections. The federal government does not have the constitutional authority to administer elections, only to set the date. The Obama regime’s designation of elections as “critical infrastructure” seems to have no function other than to put in place a way to prevent voters from overthrowing an entrenched establishment, as the establishment fears the voters did when they elected Trump president. The distrubing question is: Why do it now after Trump’s election? Could there be a plot to rescind Trump’s election on the basis of the ongoing lies that Trump was elected not by the voters but by Russian interference? Federalization can be used to remove the states from the picture and prevent the states from challenging an establishment coup against the voters.
• US Currency Crisis Coming in 2017
  When the cost of importing goes up, it’s not like Americans are just going to switch from buying goods made in China to goods make in America. No, they’re just going to have to pay more to buy the goods made in China. If they don’t have the extra money, they just won’t buy as much.  So, what’s going to happen as a result of increasing the cost of importing is that consumers will spend less and the bubble economy will deflate. There will be less consumer spending because consumers won’t have as much money or won’t be able to afford the higher prices. It’s going to have a negative effect on GDP.
• Nobel Peace Prize Winner Obama Has 14 Days To Start World War III
  Barack O’Bomber was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize before he even became President. And he hasn’t had one day of peace in his eight years. And, he now has 14 days left and appears to be trying to foment World War III with his remaining opportunity. Long ago O’Bomber accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, but didn’t do anything to either justify or deserve it. More recently he’s actually done a lot to repudiate it. In fact, according to an analysis done by the Council on Foreign Relations of Defense Department data, the U.S. dropped over 26,000 bombs in 2016 during Obama’s final year in office, that’s over 3,000 more than in 2015!
• In 2017 Trump will be Presiding Over a Bankruptcy-Bill Holter
  Financial writer Bill Holter says 2017 will be “the year of the Truth Bomb.” Holter explains, “I have been talking about ‘Truth Bombs’ for about a year and a half. I think what is going to happen in 2017 is that this hologram we’ve been living in, the curtain is going to be pulled back. . . . I want to see the truth come out, and that’s why we do what we do.” One of the big truths that will explode is about the economy, and this will be one of Trump’s biggest problems. Holter goes on to say, “Trump is a smart guy, and he understands that really what he’s going to be doing is presiding over a bankruptcy. That’s what his main job is going to be, and that’s reorganizing this country.”
• Debt Surge Producing Fake Recovery
  What do the following headlines have in common? US wages grow at fastest pace since 2009. Euro area economy ended year with strongest growth since 2011. Surge in home prices is beating the one in mortgage rates. Manufacturing in U.S. Expands at Fastest Pace in Two Years. German Inflation welcomed back. Obviously they’re all favorable, with the possible exception of German inflation – though even that is “welcome”. Taken together they paint a picture of a global economy that’s finally returning to the kind of solid growth and steady, positive inflation that most people consider both normal and good. Unfortunately, the reason for the improvement is emphatically not good: In 2016 the world borrowed a huge amount of money and spent the proceeds. The result is “growth,” but not sustainable growth.
• 11 Numbers That Connect The Year 2017, Israel And Donald Trump
  Is 2017 going to be the most important year that we have seen in a very, very long time? Because of the work that I do, I am constantly immersed in research, and lately I keep coming across very strange “coincidences” regarding the year 2017. The numbers that I am about to share with you certainly appear to be quite remarkable, but there will be many out there that will question their significance. To the naysayers, I would suggest that God has always put a lot of emphasis on numbers from the very beginning. For example, He created the world in precisely seven days, and on the seventh day He rested. All throughout Scripture, we see certain numbers showing up over and over again, and God has a purpose in that. So please keep that in mind as you consider the following 11 numbers that connect the year 2017, Israel and Donald Trump…
• Elitists Hope That Injecting The Blood Of Younger People Into Their Bodies Will Radically Extend Their Lifespans
  Is the blood of young people a “fountain of youth” that will enable those that can afford the treatments to be able to live much longer lives? No matter how much money someone has, life inevitably ends at some point, but there are some extremely wealthy individuals that want to change all that. Billionaire technology investor Peter Thiel, among others, is very excited about advances that have been made in the field of parabiosis. According to Google, parabiosis is “the anatomical joining of two individuals, especially artificially in physiological research.” Based on research that has been done on mice, it is believed that blood transfusions could potentially slow or even reverse aging in humans. The Bible tells us that “the life of the flesh is in the blood”, but now these elitists want to greedily use the blood of younger people to greatly extend their own lifespans. If it turns out that this method is highly successful, will the blood of young people become a greatly valued commodity? When I first started hearing about this, I thought that it all sounded very strange. After all, if people were to drink the blood of young people we would call them vampires, but somehow it is okay to inject it directly into your veins?
• It’s A Retail Apocalypse: Sears, Macy’s And The Limited Are All Closing Stores
  It has only been two weeks since Christmas, and already we are witnessing a stunning bloodbath of store closings.  Macy’s shocked the retail industry by announcing that they will be closing about 100 stores.  The downward spiral of Sears hit another landmark when it was announced that another 150 Sears and Kmart stores would be shutting down.  And we have just learned that The Limited is immediately closing all stores nationwide.  If the U.S. economy is doing just fine, then why are we experiencing such a retail apocalypse?  All over America, vast shopping malls that were once buzzing with eager consumers now resemble mausoleums.  We have never seen anything quite like this in our entire history, and nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next. Not too long ago I walked into a Macy’s, and it was eerily quiet.  I stumbled around the men’s department looking for something to buy, but I was deeply disappointed in what was being offered.  After some time had passed, an employee finally noticed me and came over to help, but they didn’t have anything that I was looking for.
• New Legislation Establishes Orwellian Propaganda Agency
  Our elected officials in Washington have a habit of passing the laws that the American people would probably most like to know about at times when very few are likely to see it. On December 23rd of last year, while we the people were busy making preparations for the holidays, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 into law. Deep within this vast jungle of ink, paper, and legalese, lies a brand new federal agency created to combat what Hillary Clinton has called an “epidemic of fake news and malicious false propaganda.”
• Donald Trump's big week
  Donald Trump is embarking on the most crucial week of his transition into the presidency — and, as usual, he's at the epicenter of multiple controversies. Several of the President-elect's most prominent Cabinet picks will appear on Capitol Hill this week for confirmation hearings that could be brutal. Trump will also hold his first formal news conference since the summer on Wednesday to address potential conflicts of interest that could surround his presidency. President Barack Obama will move closer to exiting the stage when he delivers a farewell address Tuesday night from Chicago. Though the inauguration is less than two weeks away, the swirl of events means Trump's presidency effectively begins this week.
• The True History of Chemotherapy & The Pharmaceutical Monopoly
  In 2016, approximately 1,685,210 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States alone, and approximately 600,000 people will die from the disease. The number of new cancer cases is 454.8 per 100,000 men and women per year, based on cases from 2008-2010. Men have almost a 50 percent chance of contracting the disease at some point in their lifetime, and women have a 1/3 chance. Pretty crazy isn’t it? In a time where so much information is coming to light, challenging the belief systems of so many, it’s important to keep an open mind to new information to help us see through what’s really been happening on our planet. It’s no secret that a small group of corporations dominates almost every aspect of our lives, from energy to education, all the way to modern day healthcare.
• A Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dropped 26,000 Bombs in 2016
  According to an estimate conducted by Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and national security expert Jennifer Wilson, a CFR research associate, President Obama dropped over 26,000 bombs in 2016. Syria was hit with 12,192 bombs, the highest number of any country on Obama’s hit list. Iraq came in a close second, receiving 12,095 bombs. Altogether, the peace prize laureate dropped at least 26,171 bombs in seven countries last year.
• The Chinese Chart That Keeps The IMF Up At Night
  As the IIF reported yesterday, in the first 9 months of 2016 global debt rose by $11 trillion, hitting an all time high of $217 trillion, ro 325% of world GDP. Of this increase, the IIF said that China accounted for the “lion's share” and while China's relentless debt-funded stimulus continues to be ignored by markets, one other organization that begins with I and ends with F has also noticed that China has a big problem. As the IMF recently wrote in its IMFDirect blog, China urgently needs to tackle its corporate-debt problem before it becomes a major drag on growth in the world’s No. 2 economy. Corporate debt has reached very high levels and continues to grow.
• Venezuela's March Toward Default
  It is only a matter of time until Venezuela will default on its foreign debt. After a short peak in 2009, when the country’s foreign exchange reserves stood at over $40 billion, Venezuela has been steadily hemorrhaging its reserves down to $10 billion. In 2016, Venezuela started to sell gold in order to compensate for the loss of its monetary reserves. As a consequence, Venezuela’s gold reserves plunged from over 360 tons down to less than 190 tons. Other than in the case that some foreign power, such as China, for example, would jump in as a lender, Venezuela’s default seems unavoidable.
• US drops more bombs in Obama’s final year of office than in 2015
  President Obama's shifting approach to the conflict is a lens through which to judge his legacy as a wartime leader. New York Times. The U.S. dropped 26,171 bombs last year, 3,027 more than 2015. According to an analysis of Defense Department data from the Council on Foreign Relations, a non-partisan think tank, the majority of the bombs were dropped in Iraq and Syria. The U.S. leads an international coalition fighting the Islamic State group in both countries and has carried out air operations in attempt to reduce the area controlled by the terrorist organization. Nearly the same amount of bombs were dropped in Syria (12,192) and Iraq (12,095) last year.
• Obama Seized Enough Land and Water in 8 Years to Cover Texas Three Times
  Last week, in one of his final moves out of the Oval Office, Obama executively designated more than 1.5 million acres of land as national monuments, preserving their untouched façade while closing them to human expansion, development, energy use, ranching or state or local jurisdiction. In a move ignored by the liberal media last week, Obama unilaterally seized more than 1.3 million acres from Utah to establish the Bears Ears Monument, preserving it at the behest of conservationist groups and Native American tribes who claimed the land was sacred. Utah’s state legislature, however, opposed the unilateral land grab across party lines, with many speculating that Obama’s move is the latest in an attempt to limit efforts from incoming President Donald Trump to expand domestic energy production.
• The War On Cash Ratchets Up In Greece With “Soft Cash” Ban
  It wasn’t long ago that it came out that the IMF intentionally wanted to create a “credit event” in Greece – part of a larger plan to destabilize Europe. The country has already fallen victim to the repercussions of the war on cash, but now the grip of capital control is growing tighter. The Greek Finance Ministry in their infinite wisdom has decided that its nation’s taxpayers will only be granted deductions or tax-allowances if payments are made using a debit or credit card. This comes after numerous efforts intended to restructure debt. The Greek crisis started in late 2009, as the great recession revealed problems with the Greek economy. These involved difficulties with deficits, especially those that had not been properly accounted for by the Greek government.
• Gold: Getting There A Little At A Time
  One of life’s hardest-to-learn but most necessary lessons is that things usually take a lot longer to work out than you’d like them to. That’s where the sayings “Being too early is the same as being wrong” and “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent” come from. A current case in point is gold. After the metal’s decade-long bull market, a correction was inevitable. But when it finally came, rather than being short and cathartic it was long and grinding, stretching from 2012 through 2015 and causing many who got back in prematurely to eventually walk away in disgust. Then, after a nice pop in the first half of 2016, came the current long, slow-mo correction that’s fraying the nerves of remaining gold-bugs.
• In Obama's Final Jobs report, A Record 95.1 Million People Were Not In The Labor Force
  As it began so it will finish. Putting the exclamation point on a trend that has marked Obama's entire presidency, in the final Obama jobs report, the BLS announced that the total number of people not in the labor force grew once more, rising by 18,000 in December, and a whopping 841,000 in the past three months, to a new all time high of 95.102 million Americans no longer in the workforce. This meant that the perennial bogeyman of the Trump administration, the collapsing labor force participation rate, remained flat near 35 year lows, risint fractionally from last month to 62.7% as a result of 152.111 million people employed in a civilian non-institutional population of 254.742 million.
• Trump Is Working On A Plan To Restructure, Pare Back The CIA And America's Top Spy Agency
  Just in case the accusations that president-elect Donald Trump is a puppet of the Kremlin, intent on destabilizing and weakening the US weren't loud enough, moments ago the WSJ assured these would hit an unprecedented level with a report that Trump, a harsh critic of U.S. intelligence agencies, is working with top advisers on a plan that would restructure and pare back the nation’s top spy agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, prompted by a belief that it has “become bloated and politicized.” The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, was established in 2004 in large part to boost coordination between intelligence agencies following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
• Looting, Riots In Mexico Spiral Out Of Control Over 20% Gas Hike; Hundreds Arrested
  Four days after the first sporadic protests emerged in Mexico City, following the infamous “gasolinazo”, or mandatory 15%-20% increase in Mexican gas prices which went into effect on January 1, the mood across the country has significantly deteriorated, with hundreds of demonstrators blocking highways, snarling traffic, raiding gas stations, jeopardizing critical supplies, and looting stores as angry but impotent motorists lashed out at the price surge, which is only going to get worse as inflation spikes even more following the record plunge in the Mexican Peso. As a reminder, the price of oil rose Sunday by as high as 20.1% to 88 cents per liter, with diesel at 83 cents — the equivalent of 12 days of a minimum wage to fill a tank of gas – compared to the U.S.’s seven hours — and the price ceiling will be adjusted daily starting Feb. 18, before letting supply and demand determine them in March.
• US national debt soars by $100 billion. . . in just 8 hours
  According to the latest statement issued yesterday afternoon by the Department of Treasury, the US national debt has reached $19,976,826,951,047.80. That’s $19.976 trillion, as of the close of business on Friday December 30, 2016. That number itself is obviously remarkable, just shy of $20 trillion. But what’s even more astounding is that, according to the Treasury Department’s own figures, they STARTED the day with a debt level of ‘just’ $19.879 trillion. So literally in the span of a single 8-hour workday, the US government amassed an astonishing $97 billion in debt. That’s simply incredible– $97 billion is larger than the entire GDP of New Mexico or Luxembourg. In 8 hours.
• What does Donald Trump expect to happen to the price of gold?
  Q: What does Donald Trump expect to happen to the price of gold? A: The public record is clear that on a personal, company and image basis, he loves gold. He does not have the fiat money religion prejudice of the central banker politicians. He will be favourable for gold. Q: Please connect this back to the five dimension analysis. A: You want to be able to go into the fifth dimension and bring back useful information and apply it physically. All successful geniuses have done this. Nikola Tesla comes to mend. He explicitly referenced this in his autobiography. If you wish to join a study group exploring this then you can apply by filling out the registration form at the link below and submitting it.
• Graceland Updates: “Gold: The Cost Of Production Is Near”
  1. Gold is no longer vulnerable. It has entered a nice buying area. 2. The $1225 – $1200 price zone is both technically and fundamentally important. Here’s why: 3. The average cost of producing gold is now approximately $1210. Fundamentally oriented money managers of size are almost always buyers when gold dips into the cost of production zone. 4. For a look at the technical action, please click here now. Double-click to enlarge. 5. The $1225 – $1200 zone is decent support. It’s not huge support, but it’s decent.  I was a modest buyer in the $1220 area this week, after being a seller at $1305 – $1320 last week.
• Bank of England admits ‘Michael Fish' moment with dire Brexit predictions
  The Bank of England has admitted its dire warnings of a downturn in the wake of the Brexit vote were a “Michael Fish” moment and said that the economics profession was now in “crisis”. Andy Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief economist, said there was a “disconnect” between political warnings about Brexit and the “remarkably placid” state of the markets, adding that the worst predictions may turn out to be “just scare stories”. He made the concession as new figures suggested Britain was the fastest growing of all advanced economies last year after the services sector defied gloomy forecasts to hit a 17-month high.
• World’s Largest Democratic Country to Endorse Universal Basic Income
  With Finland implementing a universal basic income (UBI) experiment that will run for the next two years, it seems that UBI is getting more attention as a viable system. Now, a leading advocate of UBI has said that the government of the world’s largest democratic country, India, is going to release a report endorsing UBI as “basically the way forward.” The report, which will be part of the Ministry of Finance’s annual Economic Survey, is expected to be released this month. India has had considerable experience with UBI pilot programs in the country. Behind these programs is Guy Standing, a founding member of the Basic Income Earth Network, and he is the UBI advocate who says that India’s report will endorse the system.
• Central Banks Have Robbed Us Of the Benefits of Free Trade
  The term “globalization” — in the sphere of economics — describes an increase in trade, and greater movement of capital and labor across national and regional boundaries. Free trade has long been among the driving factors behind economic globalization, and for centuries, economists have generally agreed that free trade is an important force in building wealth and economic growth. Even economists who disagree on almost everything else, can often agree that lowering barriers to trade is a good thing.
• In Stunning Last Minute Power Grab, Obama Designates Election Systems As “Critical Infrastructure”
  In a stunning last minute power grab by the Obama administration with just 14 days left in his Presidency, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement this evening officially declaring state election systems to be “critical infrastructure.”  The statement from DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson defines “election infrastructure” as “storage facilities, polling places, centralized vote tabulations locations, voter registration databases, voting machines” and all “other systems” to manage the election process…so pretty much everything. Of course, it's likely not a coincidence that the DHS made this announcement just hours after the “intelligence community” declassified their “Russian Hacking” propaganda which basically noted that RT has a very effective social media distribution platform while once again providing absolutely no actual evidence.
• Every Asset Class Will Collapse: ‘You Need To Be Looking At Your Wealth In Terms Of How Many Chickens And How Much Gas You Can Buy’
  There’s no other way to put it. The system as we know it will collapse. This, argues Karl Denninger of the Market Ticker, is a mathematical certainty. In a recent interview with Future Money Trends Denninger touches on the various dire challenges facing America. From the Presidential election to the rampant corruption in our financial, political and healthcare systems, he pulls no punches and warns that the worst is yet to come unless real action is taken immediately. Failure to do so, says Denninger, will lead to a collapse of everything we consider to be a part of our current way of life.
• 5 Tricks Gun-Control Advocates Play
  There’s been little talk of gun control this presidential election cycle, although state-level proposals continue to make it onto state ballots. Gun control positions have come down along the usual partisan lines. It was clear from Clinton’s comments in the final presidential debate, for example, that she desires greater restrictions on access to firearms for private citizens. She expressed no such caution about weaponry carried by government employees, of course. While the candidates have declined to make gun control a central issue in the campaign, mainstream media outlets, academics, and pundits continue to press for greater government restrictions and prohibitions on firearms access for private citizens. Meanwhile, of course, government agencies continue to purchase more powerful and more deadly weaponry.
• UK military to begin work on high-energy laser weapons for British armed forces
  The UK military has kick-started work on the development of high-power laser weapons after being awarded a £30m contract to build a prototype system. The UK Dragonfire consortium will build a laser weapon “demonstrator” designed to track targets across long distances at land and sea, and under variety of weather conditions. The UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) is exploring the potential of Laser Directed Energy Weapons (LDEWs) as a means of defending British forces against emerging threats from drones and ballistic missiles. If the prototype is deemed successful, service-ready laser weapons will be considered for distribution across the UK military.
• Grave Danger Elite Bankers Might Make Trump Fail-Lior Gantz
  Financial expert Lior Gantz says there is good news and bad news for the economy with the election of Donald Trump. Gantz explains, “If he changes the equation, it could cause a lot of inflation in the U.S.  U.S. banks are so liquid and have so much excess cash because of TARP programs and QE programs that this could prompt them to start lending, and lend to the wrong people.  It could prompt the government to start issuing increased food stamps, universal unemployment checks and all kinds of stuff that can create large inflation in the U.S.  So, that is one side that is problematic.  The other side is very spectacular for the U.S. economy because Trump is doing a lot of things that should have been done years ago:  deregulation, cutting back on taxes, cutting the red tape and making sure that businesses are more comfortable with opening new branches in the U.S.  The best indicator of this is the Russell 2000 index that is up much more than the Dow because the small cap companies are mostly based in the U.S., and the large cap companies are international.”
• Corporations Control Our Lives
  In our nation, finance has a hold on almost every single part of our lives – from the day we’re born, until we take our last breath. Capitalism and the quest for larger profits have taken hold of our healthcare, our education, our homes, our communication, and even our government. Today, most babies are born in for-profit hospitals, and their medical claims are paid by for-profit insurance. As children grow, many go to for-profit charter schools or private schools, and our public education system continues to crumble. Young adults are forced to deal with for-profit lenders to go to college at for-profit universities, and everything from their backpack to their first home will generate a profit for someone on Wall Street.
• Race to replace Ecuador’s Correa begins amid corruption scandal, uncertainty
  Ecuador kicked off its presidential campaign Tuesday amid a looming economic crisis, a lingering corruption scandal and a thirst for change that analysts say may hamper President Rafael Correa’s hopes of putting a successor into power to continue his “Citizens Revolution.” Lenín Moreno, Correa’s handpicked candidate and one-time vice president, is leading polls ahead of the Feb. 19 race against a divided opposition. However, if he doesn’t win in the first round with at least 40 percent of the vote and a 10-point lead over his nearest rival, he’ll be forced into an April 2 runoff that could be tough. “The government has to put all its meat on the grill for this first round,” said Sebastian Hurtado with the Quito-based political analysis group Profitas. If the opposition rallies behind a single candidate in the second round, “ it will be much more difficult,” he said.
• 2017: a Volatile Year from All Angles – Where to now… after what 2016 dished out?
  First, there was the surprise upset of the presidential election of dear old Donald. Then came the surprise shift in sentiment about the election. Before, he was a wrecking ball. After, he’s suddenly Jesus walking on water. Never mind that he’s already pissed off China… twice! Or that many are worried about his overly cozy relationship with “Darth” Putin, as with his new Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who is also cozy with Putin. And let’s not forget the markets that were already overvalued suddenly breaking up irrationally on promises that Trump can deliver sustainable growth rates of 3% to 4% again. So, we’ll just grow our way out of this big fat bubble, shall we? Ha! That has never happened – not once in history – and there’s NO CHANCE this will be the first time… not given our aging populations, low productivity and unprecedented debt burdens!
• Power & Profit Fuel War on Cash in Europe
  In the wake of the attack on the Christmas market in Berlin in December, the European Commission granted customs and police authorities sweeping new powers to seize cash or precious metals carried by “suspect individuals” entering the EU. People carrying more than €10,000 euros in cash already have to declare this at customs when entering the EU. The new rules would allow authorities to seize money (or precious metals or bitcoin) below that threshold “where there are suspicions of criminal activity.” It was the latest step in the War on Cash. The powers that want to kill off cash include private and central banks, fintech firms, Silicon Valley magnates like Tim Cook and Bill Gates, telecom behemoths, credit card giants, assorted NGOs, a bewildering alphabet soup of UN agencies and many national governments. They all have their own disparate motives for taking out physical money.
• How Bad Will the “Bond Massacre” Get? Worse “than the 1994 ‘Bond Massacre,'” with “sustained double-digit losses on bonds, subpar growth in developed markets, and balance sheet risks for banking systems….”
  The backdrop: after 36 years of bond bull market, the amount of US bonds has ballooned to $47 trillion, up 24% from just ten years ago: US Treasurys ($19.8 trillion), Municipal bonds ($3.8 trillion), Mortgage related bonds ($8.9 trillion), Corporate bonds ($8.6 trillion), Federal Agency bonds ($2 trillion), Money Markets ($2.6 trillion), Asset backed Securities ($1.3 trillion), Bonds dwarfs the US stock market capitalization ($27 trillion). Bonds are a global phenomenon with even bigger bubbles elsewhere, particularly in NIRP countries, such as those in Europe, and in Japan. That’s why bonds matter. They’re enormous. And the damage they can do to investors is huge.
• Masses Shocked By Philly Beverage Tax Impact
  Philadelphia rang in the new year with a controversial new beverage tax on soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks. The tax, which went into effect on Sunday, is the first one of its kind in a major city in the United States. While the tax is technically 1.5 cents per ounce, which doesn’t sound too terrible, when buying a 10-pack of 20 oz bottles those numbers climb pretty quickly. In this case, a 10-pack of Propel flavored water that originally retailed for $5.99 had an additional three dollars tacked on to it in taxes. Chuck Andrews picked up a $1.77 gallon jug of tea, got home and looked at his receipt. “When I read the receipt I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. I paid more in tax than I did for the product,'” Andrews said.
• Dow 20K Is Just The Beginning Of A Massive Rally In 2017
  Interest rates have rocketed since the election. In the past month, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note – a bellwether debt security for long-term interest rates – is up 60 basis points to post the largest monthly spike in three years. Interest rates rose into the Federal Reserve’s most recent FOMC meeting, on Dec. 13 and 14. Fed officials did the expected at the meeting and raised the range on the federal funds rate 25 basis points to 0.75%-to-1%. After the meeting, Fed Chair Janet Yellen hinted that three more increases could be in store for 2017.
• Doug Kass Explains Why He Is Aggressively Buying Gold
  The broad consensus is to own stocks and to sell gold. But, as I have discussed since 2003 in my annual Surprise Lists, the broad consensus of investors is often wrong. Indeed, it is often the case that the very coalescing of popular opinion behind an investment tends to eliminate its profit potential. While the animal spirits may have taken over the equity markets and have ignored the gold market, we should recall that there is a reason why Keynes called them animal and not human spirits. That's because animals are a lot dumber than humans! As excited as investors are about stocks, they are now uninterested in gold.
• Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen – January 5, 2017
  Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen with his regular short weekly video for readers of Pastor Williams’ weekly newsletter.

Precious Metals Are The Only Lifeboat! I have persistently WARNED you what was happening in the gold market and why you needed to convert your paper assets to physical gold and silver by the middle of September 2015. You need to hedge against the financial instability with physical gold and silver. Call the experts to help you convert your IRA or 401k into Gold, Silver and Other Precious Metals. Call GoldCo NOW before it's too late! Call Toll-Free 1-877-414-1385.

From James Harkin (Webmaster & Editor of LindseyWilliams.net). Here is a summary of articles of interest from around the world for this week. Please LIKE the Lindsey Williams Online Facebook Page to see stories posted daily regarding the current state of the economy around the world.

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Latest News From December 30, 2016 to January 5, 2017:

• 10 Ways That Donald Trump Could Try To Reverse The Curse That Obama Has Put On America
  When Barack Obama betrayed Israel at the United Nations, that put a curse on our nation.  But that doesn’t mean that we have to stay cursed.  In the coming days, the new Trump administration should immediately start taking steps to reverse the curse that we are under as a result of what Obama has done.  Perhaps if Donald Trump takes strong enough steps to try to undo what Obama has done, instead of being cursed we can once again return to being blessed. One thing that Trump will not be able to undo is UN Security Council Resolution 2334.  It would take another UN Security Council resolution to undo it, and the votes simply wouldn’t be there.  UN Security Council Resolution 2334 passed by a vote of 14 to zero with the U.S. abstaining.  And even if Trump could miraculously pull together enough votes, one of the other permanent members of the Security Council (Russia, China, the UK or France) could just veto it. So it looks like we are stuck with UN Security Council Resolution 2334, but that doesn’t mean that Trump can’t do anything to try to address this matter.
• House Passes Bill To Undo Months Of Obama Regulations With Just One Vote
  The House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday giving Congress the power to kill so-called “midnight rules”, months of recently enacted Obama administration regulations with just one vote, as Republicans charged ahead on their campaign to strip down federal regulations. If passed by the Senate and signed by President-elect Donald Trump, the legislation would amend the Congressional Review Act to allow lawmakers to bundle together multiple rules and overturn them en masse with a joint resolution of disapproval. The White House has already threatened to veto the bill if it were to make it to President Obama's desk before he leaves office. “Because outgoing administrations are no longer accountable to the voters, they are much more prone to issue midnight regulations that fly in the face of the electoral mandate the voters just gave the new, incoming administration,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte before the vote. “Waves of midnight rules can also be very hard for Congress or a new administration to check adequately.”
• Global Debt Hits 325% Of World GDP, Rises To Record $217 Trillion
  While we eagerly await the next installment of the McKinsey study on global releveraging, we noticed that in the latest report from the Institute for International Finance released on Wednesday, total debt as of Q3 2016 once again rose sharply, increasing by $11 trillion in the first 9 months of the year, hitting a new all time high of $217 trillion. As a result, late in 2016, global debt levels are now roughly 325% of the world's gross domestic product. In terms of composition, emerging market debt rose substantially, as government bond and syndicated loan issuance in 2016 grew to almost three times its 2015 level. And, as has traditionally been the case, China accounted for the lion's share of the new debt, providing $710 million of the total $855 billion in new issuance during the year, the IIF reported. Joining other prominent warnings, the IIF warned that higher borrowing costs in the wake of the U.S. presidential election and other stresses, including “an environment of subdued growth and still-weak corporate profitability, a stronger (U.S. dollar), rising sovereign bond yields, higher hedging costs, and deterioration in corporate creditworthiness” presented challenges for borrowers.
• Donald Trump Was Born Exactly 700 Days Before Israel Became A Nation
  Do you want to see something amazing?  If you go to any of the major search engines and ask when Donald Trump was born, you will be told that it happened on June 14th, 1946.  And then if you go to any of the major search engines and ask when Israel became a nation, you will be told that it happened on May 14th, 1948.  If you take both of those dates and plug them into the handy calculator provided by timeanddate.com, you will discover that Donald Trump was born exactly 700 days before Israel became a nation. I was first alerted to this incredible fact by Daily Crow.  Here are some other incredible numbers that link Trump and Israel from that same source… -Israel was 77 days old exactly 777 days after Donald Trump was born. -Israel’s 70th birthday will come exactly 700 days after Trump’s 70th birthday. -Donald Trump won the election on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 7th year, 7th month and 7th day in office. On top of everything else, Donald Trump will be 70 years, 7 months and 7 days old on his first full day in the White House.
• Three ridiculous ways Congress plans to Keep America Safe Again
  It’s amazing that this is what passes as Defense policy… THIS is how they plan on spending hundreds of billions of dollars to keep you safe– sending useless reports to their central bureaucracy. Then, of course, there’s section 1287, my personal favorite. Section 1287 requires that, within 180 days of the bill being signed to law, a new agency called the Global Engagement Center will be created under the State Department. The Global Engagement Center’s job is to combat FAKE NEWS around the world, with sweeping powers to train and fund legions of journalists and bloggers to inundate the world with US propaganda. Politicians have been praising the idea for the Global Engagement Center as a landmark new tool to keep Americans safe. This is totally bogus; the US government has had propaganda and psychological warfare resources for decades.
• Ford to scrap Mexico plant, invest in Michigan; CEO cites Trump policies
  Before he's even taken office, President-elect Donald Trump has proven to be quite the job creator. Ford Motor Company announced Tuesday it will cancel a $1.6 billion plant planned for Mexico and will instead invest $700 million in a Michigan assembly plant, directly tying the decision to “pro-growth policies” championed by President-elect Donald Trump. Trump had previously been critical of Ford’s plans to build in Mexico. After the announcement, Trump tweeted a link to a story about the Ford decision and then added in a subsequent message: “Instead of driving jobs and wealth away, AMERICA will become the world's great magnet for INNOVATION & JOB CREATION.”
• Scotland set to pilot universal basic income scheme in Fife and Glasgow
  A councillor has backed the introduction of a universal basic income in Scotland because he says it is the best way to tackle poverty. A radical scheme to give every citizen a universal basic income (UBI), regardless of whether or not they work, is set to be piloted by two Scottish councils this year. Labour-run Glasgow and Fife councils are designing trial schemes following meetings held late last year. It has not yet been announced what level the basic income will be set at, but the councils are to proceed with the pilots, subject to sufficient funding being secured.
• 47% of Jobs Will Disappear in the next 25 Years, According to Oxford University
  The Trump campaign ran on bringing jobs back to American shores, although mechanization has been the biggest reason for manufacturing jobs’ disappearance. Similar losses have led to populist movements in several other countries. But instead of a pro-job growth future, economists across the board predict further losses as AI, robotics, and other technologies continue to be ushered in. What is up for debate is how quickly this is likely to occur. Now, an expert at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania is ringing the alarm bells. According to Art Bilger, venture capitalist and board member at the business school, all the developed nations on earth will see job loss rates of up to 47% within the next 25 years, according to a recent Oxford study. “No government is prepared,” The Economist reports. These include blue and white collar jobs. So far, the loss has been restricted to the blue collar variety, particularly in manufacturing.
• Is the 2nd Half of 2017 when Sears Finally Kicks the Bucket?
  Sears Holding Corp., which owns the Sears and Kmart stores and is run by hedge-fund manager Eddie Lampert, who is also its largest shareholder, pulled off another little trick when it announced today that it had lined up $200 million “to fund its operations,” but not cash, which is what Sears needs more than anything, given the rate at which it is burning it, but a Secured Standby Letter of Credit, which may be expanded to $500 million, “with the consent of the lenders.” This announcement gives some clues that after many years of disappointment, Sears doom-and-gloomers might finally approach the end of their long wait.
• The Death Of The U.S. Petrodollar, and What Comes After
  In the following interview, Turd Ferguson of TF Metals Report interviews the one and only Dr. Jim Willie, in what is undoubtedly one of the best Dr. Willie interviews I’ve ever heard. The article that follows the interview is also from TF Metals Report, and it’s written by Grant Williams, who is a Singapore-based hedge fund manager. First, the interview covers three main areas of discussion. First, Ferguson and Dr. Willie review the generally accepted narrative that has been coming from the mainstream media more or less since Donald Trump won the election. We keep hearing how bonds are selling off, which is sending interest rates higher, and making the stronger Dollar. There’s nothing to worry about, and the Dow will be at 25,000 in no time, right?
• America’s Economy Before Versus After Obama
  Something that is happening with increasing regularity across today's mainstream media, is that regardless of what subject matter is being discussed, and despite the need today more than ever before for Americans to have access to accurate information that could prove vital for the safety and well-being of their families, almost without exception the information the mainstream media is providing as “real news,” is almost always woefully incomplete, or lacking any information that resembles news with an ounce of journalistic integrity. He who controls information, controls absolutely, and “The Powers That Be” have made sure that we the people do not have access to real information. Instead, what the mainstream media calls “real news,” is little more than sound bites and propaganda intended to keep the masses distracted and pacified.
• A great story from when America was still the Land of Opportunity
  Last week during a long overdue vacation, a close friend of mine recommended reading the autobiography of Rich DeVos called Simply Rich. DeVos is a billionaire entrepreneur who started countless ventures during his nine decades on this earth. Back in the 1946, for example, DeVos started an airline… virtually overnight. He just bought an airplane and started flying people around. No rules. No regulations. They didn’t even have an airport. The local airfield north of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they were based, hadn’t been completed yet. As DeVos recounts in his book, “We put pontoon floats on our plane and took off and landed on the Grand River, which ran along the airfield.” His first office at the airfield was an old chicken coop that he found, washed in the river, and re-painted. The following year he and his partner opened up one of Michigan’s first “Drive Through” restaurants at the airfield, catering to passengers, workers, flight students, and spectators who came by in the evenings just to marvel at the planes.
• A Terrifying Warning That The West Is Now Approaching The ‘Brick Wall’
  As we kickoff the first week of trading in January, today the man who has become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, warned King World News that the West is now approaching the “brick wall.” West Rapidly Approaching The “Brick Wall” Egon von Greyerz:  “On the first day of the new year it would be totally natural to forecast what the likely events and trends will be for the coming year. A lot of experts around the world will predict a number of ‘new’ events as if a lot of things will change just because we are entering a new year…
• 2017 SHOCKER – Banks Near All-Time Record Long Positions In Major Market, Plus A Look At Gold
  As we get ready to head into 2017, banks now have near all-time record long positions in a major market, plus a look at gold. The following charts are from SentimenTrader. Commercial Long Positions Near All-Time Record! The commercials have continued to dramatically increase their long positions in the U.S. 10-Year Treasury market to near all-time record levels.
• The Almighty Dollar and the Currencies that Crushed it in 2016
  Much of the strength of the dollar in 2016 has been ascribed to rising interest rates in the US and minuscule tightening by the Fed – or rather “removing accommodation,” as it likes to say – even as other central banks still engage in QE and negative interest rate absurdities. So the US became a destination for the hot money. By December 20, the dollar reached the highest point since December 2002 against the basket of currencies in the Dollar Index, though it has since eased off somewhat since then. But the Dollar Index contains only six currencies: euro, yen, pound sterling, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona, and Swiss franc. It doesn’t even include the currencies of two of the four largest US trading partners, Mexico and China. So how has a broader range of currencies fared against the dollar? Turns out, some soared, others plunged.
• US Government Attacks Drudge Report? Conservative Website Down Because Of Distributed Denial Of Service Attack, Matt Drudge Tweets
  A tweet from conservative media icon Matt Drudge's verified Twitter account Thursday night appeared to accuse the government of interfering with his website, DrudgeReport.com, just hours after the Barack Obama administration announced new sanctions against Russia over election hacking. “Is the US government attacking DRUDGE REPORT? Biggest DDoS since site's inception. VERY suspicious routing [and timing],” the tweet to Drudge's 457,000 followers read. There were no other tweets from the account at the time. A large-scale distributed denial of service attack, or DDoS, can cause major Internet disruptions. In the past, such attacks have shut down major websites such as Twitter, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, Tumblr, and Reddit. The attack sends a server many illegitimate requests to make it hard for real requests to get through, effectively shutting down the site.
• Bitcoin Surges Above $1,000 As China Unveils New Capital Controls
  As noted yesterday, for the first time in three years, and only the second time in history, bitcoin rose above $1,000 in Yuan-denominated Chinese trading, however it was limited to the lower side of this “round number” psychological barrier in US trading, as BTC flirted with $999.99 for most of the day on the popular Coinbase exchange, without crossing it. Overnight, however, Chinese demand proved too great and US markets had no choice but to arb the difference. So with Bitcoin trading in China at an implied price of over $1,050 at this moment, bitcoin finally soared above $1,000 in the US as well, trading just around $1,024 on Coinbase as of this moment.
• China tightens control of personal forex purchases
  China has tightened checks on citizens exchanging foreign currency in anticipation of renewed downward pressure on the renminbi in the new year. Banks have been asked to improve standards for verifying customers’ identities and to report “large or questionable transactions”, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe) said in a public statement at the weekend. “There have been leaks in China’s system of personal foreign exchange purchases,” the statement said, giving as an example the way individuals and companies avoid capital controls on overseas investments by disguising their transactions as goods purchases.
• China’s Credit Engine Is Running Out of Gas
  The People’s Bank of China faces a reckoning after revving its credit engine for years. Three conditions suggest traditional financing and shadow banking are due to cool: Restrictions on property markets are poised to start weighing on mortgage issuance; bond market turbulence has spurred widespread cancellation of new corporate issues; and banks face more curbs on selling wealth-management products amid a regulatory tightening. With economic expansion on pace to meet the government’s objective and inflation pressure rising, leaders are signaling tighter monetary policy as they seek to reduce risks. The PBOC also cut language from its last quarterly statement saying it would reduce lending costs.
• Deutsche Bank chairman rules out European merger – Frankfurter Allgemeine
  Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) Chairman Paul Achleitner has ruled out a European merger or a state bailout after the lender's mortgage settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported. The bank, Germany's biggest, last week announced a $7.2 billion (5.83 billion pound) settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over its sale and pooling of mortgage securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. “The management board in principle looks at everything that could help the business,” Achleitner said in an interview with the weekly newspaper published on Sunday.
• The New World Order Has Collapsed – Predictions for 2017
  The beauty of our current situation lies in the sheer unpredictability of it all. A lot of long-term plots and schemes got derailed this past year, and even one of the great architects of the project, Zbigniew Brzezinski, has declared the New World Order agenda obsolete. The Globalists went for too much, too soon, and inadvertently triggered a worldwide populist uprising. Heading into 2017, there are very few safe bets. Certain trends are evident, and a few projections can be made. Barring a wave of suicides and single-car accidents, a tsunami of tell-all books about the Hillary Clinton campaign should hit the shelves by spring. Every excruciating detail of working for a brain-damaged alcoholic closet lesbian psychopath will be revealed. Her vicious temper and open contempt for her staff will become the stuff of political legend. By November, it’ll be hard to find anyone willing to admit that they voted for her. I doubt that we’ll ever get to the bottom of the Podesta Pizzagate emails. Whatever he’s referring to, it sure as hell isn’t pizza. Maybe drugs, but it doesn’t sound like it. I wouldn’t want to be in close proximity to John Podesta. He looks unlucky to me.
• U.S. Special Operations Numbers Surge In Africa's Shadow Wars
  AFRICA HAS SEEN the most dramatic growth in the deployment of America’s elite troops of any region of the globe over the past decade, according to newly released numbers. In 2006, just 1% of commandos sent overseas were deployed in the U.S. Africa Command area of operations. In 2016, 17.26% of all U.S. Special Operations forces — Navy SEALs and Green Berets among them — deployed abroad were sent to Africa, according to data supplied to The Intercept by U.S. Special Operations Command. That total ranks second only to the Greater Middle East where the U.S. is waging war against enemies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. “In Africa, we are not the kinetic solution,” Brigadier General Donald Bolduc, the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, told African Defense, a U.S. trade publication, early this fall. “We are not at war in Africa — but our African partners certainly are.”
• Get Ready for Passport “Globalization”
  “The bottom line is that anyone can be ISIS. We therefore need an approach to securing civilized societies that doesn't allow individuals to hide behind the cloak of Western passports… The time has come for a “global passport,” a parallel digital certification of a person's identity, background, criminal record, travel history, and other details. The digital record would be regularly updated based on databases from airlines, customs agencies, banks and other sources, and could be managed by an independent international authority.” The quotation above comes from CNN, an American news network that has done such an exemplary job in recent years in serving as a mouthpiece for the US Government. The argument for global passports is a familiar one: “You are in danger of being killed by terrorists. We will save you by removing yet another of your freedoms.” Or, as Hermann Goering said, “The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
• What Is The Obama Regime Up To? — Paul Craig Roberts
  Obama has announced new sanctions on Russia based on unsubstantiated charges by the CIA that the Russian government influenced the outcome of the US presidential election with “malicious cyber-enabled activities.” The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a report “related to the declaration of 35 Russian officials persona non grata for malicious cyber activity and harassment.” The report is a description of “tools and infrastructure used by Russian intelligence services to compromise and exploit networks and infrastructure associated with the recent U.S. election, as well as a range of U.S. government, political and private sector entities.” The report does not provide any evidence that the tools and infrastructure were used to influence the outcome of the US presidential election. The report is simply a description of what is said to be Russian capabilities.
• What is Henry Kissinger Up To? — Paul Craig Roberts
  The English language Russian news agency, Sputnik, reports that former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is advising US president-elect Donald Trump how to “bring the United States and Russia closer together to offset China’s military buildup.” If we take this report at face value, it tells us that Kissinger, an old cold warrior, is working to use Trump’s commitment to better relations with Russia in order to separate Russia from its strategic alliance with China. China’s military buildup is a response to US provocations against China and US claims to the South China Sea as an area of US national interests. China does not intend to attack the US and certainly not Russia.
• Keiser Report: Outlook for 2017
  We discuss the outlook for 2017: from Trump’s first 100 hours, not days to fake news and a market crash following the biggest rally since Hoover. In the second half Max is joined by Gerald Celente of trendsresearch.com to discuss the big trends of 2017: Rustbelt 2.0, economic disorder and ‘Sell, Buy China’.
• “Trumpflation” Will Have Big Ramifications For Gold In 2017
  Something is brewing in the economy. Since the election of Donald Trump, interest rates have spiked, copper prices have surged, and various sectors of the stock market have swung bigly on speculation of what “Trumponomics” will bring. Scores of triumphant Republican commentators are already painting a bullish picture of the Trump economy. The GOP – which will control the White House, Congress, and most state governments – has a rare opportunity to implement a pro-growth agenda. Republicans squandered their last great window of opportunity. George W. Bush and his Congressional allies grew government spending at a faster clip than the economy and saddled the country with trillions of dollars in new debt.
• Will Gold & Silver Finally Bottom In 2017?
  There has indeed been an ongoing cleansing in the precious metals market since the spike highs five years ago. Remember, there have been calls for a massive turnaround in prices for both gold and silver since 2013…2014…again, even more so in 2015. 2016 has just freshly passed, and both metals continue to flirt with their lows from a year ago. A few years ago, all the rage was for the man and woman on the street to be buying gold and silver coins, long lines, especially in China, forming for blocks to make purchases for the inevitable rally “sure” to soon follow. During that time, we mentioned that individuals, small traders, et al, rarely, if ever, get in at the bottom or get out at the top of market turns. Both gold and silver were much higher, a few years ago, but the moneychangers continue to prevail as the “cleansing process” is still ongoing, tiring out the masses who had been certain that gold and silver would soar to $5,000+ in gold, $200-$300 in silver.
• Barack Obama’s Legacy: War, Debt and Poverty
  As 2016 winds down, so does Barack O’Bomber’s $80 million in paid vacations and his legacy of war, debt and poverty. It’s quite amazing how much one man can ruin a country while playing so much golf. WAR Just 12 days after being elected, Barack Obama was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He accepted the prize in Oslo on December 10, 2009. It was assumed that he would shut down Guantanamo Bay and end the military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Finland to pay unemployed basic income of $587 per month
  Finland has become the first country in Europe to pay its unemployed citizens a basic monthly income, amounting to 560 euros ($587), in a social experiment hoped to cut government red tape, reduce poverty and boost employment. Olli Kangas from the Finnish government agency KELA said Monday that the two-year trial with the 2,000 randomly picked citizens who receive unemployment benefits kicked off Jan. 1. Those 2,000 unemployed chosen will receive 560 euros every month, with no reporting requirements on how they spend it. The amount will be deducted from any benefits they already receive. The unemployment rate of Finland, a nation of 5.5 million, stood at 8.1 percent in November with some 213,000 people without a job — unchanged from the previous year.
• European Commission Threatens Widespread Asset Confiscation
  The “war on terror” continues… The US and the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization (NATO) attacked Libya and Syria and began transporting Muslims to Europe as a means of destabilization. They have also conducted numerous other false flag attacks, such as Charlie Hebdo, by which to further confuse and imprison the local population. The most recent was the so called “terror attack” which occurred several days before Christmas in Berlin, Germany. A truck was deliberately driven into a crowded market killing 12 people and leaving 48 injured. Now it reaches a logical conclusion with cash and gold being confiscated in the name of making people “safe”. There is always an ulterior motive which becomes clearly apparent after such “terror” events. It is no coincidence that in Europe, the European Commission just made a new capital control proposition.
• Obama Chaos Before Leaving Office, Obama Punishes Russia Hacking & Economic Warning
  The Obama Administration basically stabbed Israel, its top U.S. Middle East ally, in the back by not stopping a UN resolution that makes the Western Wall occupied Palestinian territory. It also makes building Israeli settlements in the West Bank an international crime.  This is all taking place less than thirty days before Trump’s inauguration.  Is Obama creating as much chaos as possible before he leaves office?  I say YES!!! On another front, President Obama has expelled 35 Russian officials from the U.S. because of allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The Russians say Obama is “paranoid” and denies the charge.  Now, the Kremlin is vowing retaliation for expelling its diplomats and seizing Russian property in the U.S.  Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has negotiated a ceasefire in Syria without any involvement from the Obama Administration.
• 2017 Predictions on Trump, Gold, Silver, Housing, Stocks, Bonds & Antarctica-Clif High
  Internet data mining expert Clif High says forget about the rumors and predictions of Donald Trump being blocked from taking office. High says Trump will be sworn in as the 45th President and explains, “I don’t have any data that says, hard stop, Trump is assassinated.  I don’t have that . . . . I am willing to back my data with real money, an ounce of silver, and I have an ounce of silver, and I would be willing to bet the inauguration part goes through smoothly given the emotional data sets we have now.” High, who calls what he does “Predictive Linguistics,” mines the internet and collects billions of data points to produce forecasts of the future.  On the financial markets, High simply says, “We’re screwed. . . . The equity markets in our data sets are highly manipulated.  So, if you ask will there be a crash?  I say there already is a crash.  Everybody that is not part of the financial system at the top end is currently living in a depression, and the media does not acknowledge this.”
• Army’s brain: Russia’s ‘colossal’ supercomputer helps predict wars, defense minister says
  A “colossally powerful” supercomputer installed at Russia’s military headquarters helps the country’s armed forces tackle emerging threats by analyzing previous conflicts, such as the Yugoslavian war and the like, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said. The supercomputer is a key part of the headquarters’ IT infrastructure and is so powerful that the military uses less than half of its capacity, Shoigu told Rossiya 24 TV channel, which filmed a documentary about Russia’s National Defense Management Center (NDMC). “It has open architecture – you can add or remove specific elements, build up, increase and expand its capacities, it has plenty of them,” the minister said. The center’s supercomputer was designed to predict the development of current or future wars by analyzing the current security environment and drawing conclusions from past conflicts. It not only stores data on all major wars and conflicts, but also helps predict upcoming ones, Shoigu explained.
• Germany Unveils “Cash Controls” Push: Ban Transactions Over €5,000, €500 Euro Note
  It was just two days ago that Bloomberg implored officials to “bring on a cashless future” in an Op-Ed that calls notes and coins “dirty, dangerous, unwieldy, and expensive.” You probably never thought of your cash that way, but increasingly, authorities and the powers that be seem determined to lay the groundwork for the abolition of what Bloomberg calls “antiquated” physical money. We’ve documented the cash ban calls on a number of occasions including, most recently, those that emanated from DNB, Norway’s largest bank where executive Trond Bentestuen said that although “there is approximately 50 billion kroner in circulation, the Norges Bank can only account for 40 percent of its use.” That, Bentestuen figures, “means that 60 percent of money usage is outside of any control.” “We believe,” he continues, “that is due to under-the-table money and laundering.” DNB goes on to say that after identifying “many dangers and disadvantages” associated with cash, the bank has “concluded that it should be phased out.”
• Three Mini-Bubbles Are Bursting
  The world has gotten so used to ultra-low interest rates that even economists and money managers seem to be shocked by what happens when rates start creeping back towards normal levels. Some of the mini-bubbles that formed in an essentially free-money environment are now starting to leak. Notably: US Housing – While the action in this sector is nothing like the raging mania of the 2000s, prices in many hot US markets are at all-time highs, while affordability is at or near an all-time low. And now rising mortgage rates are beginning to bite. US Auto Sales – Cars and trucks have been one of the economy’s bright spots for several years — which seems to have gotten everyone just a little too excited. Auto financing practices have lately begun to resemble those of the subprime mortgage bubble: Today’s average loan is for more money, lasts much longer, and is held by a much weaker credit than ever before. Now, with interest rates rising and pretty much every potential buyer already locked into a car mortgage, the bubble optimism is evaporating. China – That the world’s second largest economy — with a debt load that has quintupled in the past seven years — can be called a “mini-bubble” illustrates the size of the meta-bubble in which it has emerged.
• Trump’s Border Wall, Deportation Plans Face Pushback From GOP
  Donald Trump’s pledges to deport undocumented immigrants and build a U.S.-Mexico border wall helped fuel Republicans’ surprising election victories, but they now face growing challenges from fellow party members. Three Republican senators are working with Democrats to shield about 750,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation if Trump cancels a 2012 order from President Barack Obama that let them stay in the U.S.
• Brits Are Hoarding Cash Amid “Economic Uncertainties” As FTSE Hits Record High
  Despite the FTSE 100 soaring to new record highs, Britons are holding onto their cash in a sign that they may be hunkering down in the face of economic uncertainties, according to the British Bankers Association. As Bloomberg reports, personal deposits grew an annual 4.8 percent in November, data compiled by the BBA show. They increased by 32.4 billion pounds ($39.7 billion) in the first 11 months of the year, outstripping the 19.8 billion-pound growth in the same period of 2015. But while the economy has held up well so far, most economists foresee a slowdown in 2017 as businesses seek more clarity on the nation’s future relationship with the world’s largest trading bloc.
• Mining 24 Hours a Day with Robots
  Mining companies are rolling out autonomous trucks, drills, and trains, which will boost efficiency but also reduce the need for human employees. Each of these trucks is the size of a small two-story house. None has a driver or anyone else on board. Mining company Rio Tinto has 73 of these titans hauling iron ore 24 hours a day at four mines in Australia’s Mars-red northwest corner. At this one, known as West Angelas, the vehicles work alongside robotic rock drilling rigs. The company is also upgrading the locomotives that haul ore hundreds of miles to port—the upgrades will allow the trains to drive themselves, and be loaded and unloaded automatically. Rio Tinto intends its automated operations in Australia to preview a more efficient future for all of its mines—one that will also reduce the need for human miners. The rising capabilities and falling costs of robotics technology are allowing mining and oil companies to reimagine the dirty, dangerous business of getting resources out of the ground.
• Italy's Insolvent Monte Paschi To Issue €15 Billion In Debt
  For a glimpse into just how insane modern finance and capital markets are, look no further than Italy's thrice insolvent (in three years) bank Monte Paschi, which after failing to finalize a private, is finalizing the terms of its nationalization with the Italian government: a rescue which will cost Italian taxpayers at least €6.6 billion, and likely more. The bailout, however, is not the punchline. What is, is that according to Reuters, Monte dei Paschi di Siena – which has yet to be bailed out, plans to issue no less than €15 billion of debt next year “to restore liquidity and boost investor confidence.” According to daily La Repubblica, Monte dei Paschi would issue the debt in the form of bonds and commercial paper. A third of that debt would have a short-term maturity date, while the rest would mature in three years, it added. The bank could not immediately be reached for comment.
• John McAfee on Russian hacking allegations: “If it looks like the Russians did it, then I can guarantee you it was not the Russians”
  Following the release of an FBI report outlining Russia's alleged role in hacking the 2016 election, Larry King sat down to talk with tech pioneer John McAfee to discuss the current state of cybersecurity. McAfee is no stranger to cybersecurity. As the developer of the first commercial antivirus program, he has been a major player in the industry for the past 50 years. He is also the CEO of MGT Capital Investments, and an outspoken former presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party. Based on all of his experience, McAfee does not believe that Russians were behind the hacks on the Democratic National Committee (DNC), John Podesta's emails, and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. As he told RT, “if it looks like the Russians did it, then I can guarantee you it was not the Russians.”
• Republicans Consider Obamacare Repeal Without A Replacement Strategy
  Republicans have spent a lot of time in recent weeks vowing to repeal Obamacare.  But, it is quickly becoming apparent that, since precisely zero people expected the 2016 election cycle to end with Republican control of all three branches of government in Washington D.C., no viable alternative has been fully vetted and stands ready to replace the failed legislation.  According to Bloomberg, the lack of a fully negotiated replacement option could result in Republicans repealing the bill on a piecemeal basis with a replacement to be implemented at a later date. While Trump has repeatedly called for expanding the use of Health Savings Accounts and allowing insurance companies to sale policies across state lines, none of those policies have been officially written into a bill at this point.  And while dozens of Obamacare alternatives have been introduced in Congress over the years none of them have actually received enough support to get off the ground.
• Walking your children home from school and driving while caffeinated are now felony crimes in police state America
  In Magnolia, Texas, it is now a felony crime to walk your own children home from school. Er, I mean the “government indoctrination center.” Seriously, parents can now be charged with serious crimes for merely meeting their children at the school and walking them home. “The principal has decided that no matter how close the student lives to the school, the student must either take the bus, or the parent must wait in a long car pickup line,” reports Fox 26 in Houston. “Try to walk your student off the campus and you could face criminal charges… Fox26 knows of 2 other parents who were just threatened with arrest.” This is yet more evidence that even in Texas, the government thinks it owns your children. Parental rights are being obliterated across the country at a breathtaking pace, including in California where the state can now mandate government injections of your children with aluminum, mercury and other toxic substances that cause autism and neurological disorders.
• 5 Pieces of News That Show Global Warming Still Isn't Happening The Way Leftists Say
  As 2016 comes to a close, it's important to realize that the left's continuing hysteria over global warming still does not match reality. The current facts show that there are not rising temperatures at alarming levels and, if anything, the planet seems to be experiencing more of a cooling phase than a warming phase. Here are five pieces of news that show that global warming is not causing armageddon. 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) graphs showing accelerated increases in temperature appear to be fabricated. 2. The evidence points to record amounts of cold weather. 3. The polar bear population seems to be thriving. 4. There were 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers in 2016 that concluded there was not wide-scale global warming. 5. The weather trends don't indicate that anything severe is occurring.
• Europe Proposes Confiscating Gold In Crackdown On “Terrorist Financing” 
  Hot on the heels of China gold import restrictions, and India's demonetization and gold confiscations, The European Commission proposed tightening controls on cash and precious metals transfers from outside the EU under the guise of shutting down one route for funding of militant attacks on the continent, following the Berlin Christmas attack. China has already begun de facto gold import restrictions, and as Jayant Bhandari detailed previously, India is experiencing a continuation of new social engineering notifications, each sabotaging wealth-creation, confiscating people’s wealth, and tyrannizing those who refuse to be a part of the herd, in the process destroying the very backbone of the economy and civilization. There are clear signs that in a very convoluted way, possession of gold for investment purposes will be made illegal. Expect capital controls to follow.
• JP Morgan Gobbles up a Minimum of Over 31 Tons (Possibly up to 186 Tons!) of Physical Gold!
  Back in August 2015, I noted that Goldman Sachs and HSBC had taken delivery of a huge tonnage of physical gold, probably purchased near the lows. Physical bars of gold are, by definition, a very long term investment in the yellow metal. At the time, the two banks were telling clients and others not to buy gold, even as they were loading up on it, themselves. Let’s fast forward… Starting in December 2015, JP Morgan began buying tremendous quantities of physical gold, as opposed to paper/electronic gold futures, forwards, ETF certificates etc. From December 1, 2015 to December 29, 2016, the big bank purchased and took physical delivery of over 31 metric tonnes worth of bars of the yellow metal for its house account at COMEX alone.
• Italy Urges Europe To Begin Censoring Free Speech On The Internet
  First it was the US, then Germany blamed much of what is wrong in society on “fake news”, and not, say, a series of terrible decisions made by politicians. Now it is Italy's turn to call for an end to “fake news”, which in itself would not be troubling, however, the way Giovanni Pitruzzella, head of the Italian competition body, demands the European Union “cracks down” on what it would dub “fake news” is nothing short of a total crackdown on all free speech, and would give local governments free reign to silence any outlet that did not comply with the establishment propaganda. In an interview with the FT, Pitruzzella said the regulation of false information on the internet was best done by the state rather than by social media companies such as Facebook, an approach taken previously by Germany, which has demanded that Facebook end “hate speech” and has threatened to find the social network as much as €500K per “fake” post. Pitruzzella, head of the Italian competition body since 2011, said “EU countries should set up independent bodies — co-ordinated by Brussels and modeled on the system of antitrust agencies — which could quickly label fake news, remove it from circulation and impose fines if necessary.”
• Geoengineered Winter Weather Whiplash With Patented Climate Engineering Processes 
  Patented processes for artificially ice nucleating winter storms are owned by our government and have existed for many decades (the Chinese have openly stated they are “engineering snowstorms”). Weather warfare has been waged against populations all over the globe for decades, this includes the US population. Engineered winter weather events are now the norm. Though US media has done their best to sweep the subject of weather warfare under the rug in recent decades, there is a great deal of historical coverage. The US military has made clear the fact that they have long since considered climate change to be the greatest national security threat of all, are we to believe they would ask our permission before they would modify the weather and climate to suit their own agenda? Global geoengineering programs are not about the common good, they are not about saving the planet or humanity. The ongoing climate engineering insanity is about power, control, and attempting to mask the damage already done to our climate system while inflicting unimaginably more destruction to the climate and biosphere in the process.
• Putin mic drops Obama: Russia retaliates against US retaliations… by inviting families of US diplomats to New Year's party at Kremlin, wishes Obama and family all the best 
  The Russian president has rejected a suggestion of the foreign ministry to expel 35 American diplomats in response to a similar move by the US. He said Obama's act was designed to provoke a reaction, but Russia would not take the bait. “We reserve the right to retaliate, but we will not sink to the level of this irresponsible ‘kitchen' diplomacy. We will take further moves on restoring Russian-American relations based on the policies that the administration of President-elect Donald Trump adopts,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a statement published by the Kremlin website. Putin said that, unlike the Obama administration, Russia will not target foreign diplomats and their families days before New Year's celebrations. “We will not forbid families and children from spending the New Year's holidays at the places they are used to. Moreover, I invite the children of all American diplomats with accreditation in Russia to New Year's and Christmas festivities in the Kremlin,” the Russian president said.
• Trump praises Putin for holding back in U.S.-Russia spy dispute
  U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Friday praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for refraining from retaliation in a dispute over spying and cyber attacks, in another sign that the Republican plans to patch up badly frayed relations with Moscow. Putin earlier on Friday said he would not hit back for the U.S. expulsion of 35 suspected Russian spies by President Barack Obama, at least until Trump takes office on Jan. 20. “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!” Trump wrote on Twitter from Florida, where he is on vacation.
• Why Lew Rockwell is Optimistic the Drug War Will End
  Look to the war on drugs to understand why the United States has become “a prison state,” says Lew Rockwell in a new video interview with Future of Freedom Foundation President Jacob Hornberger. And, says Rockwell, look to educational efforts and state governments’ “nullification” of US drug laws for indications why drug prohibition will end. While Rockwell notes there are powerful interests fighting to perpetuate the war on drugs, Rockwell also declares in the interview his optimism that educational efforts will help increase public support for ending drug prohibition. Pointing to states “nullifying” US government anti-drug laws through actions including medical and recreational marijuana legalization, Rockwell says “we have every reason to be optimistic” that the drug war “will eventually come to an end.”
• Two of the world’s most evil people – Bill Gates and George Soros – behind Facebook’s news censorship agenda
  If there’s one thing the political Left hates more than anything else it’s an honest, open debate over ideals. Authoritarian to the core, Leftists shun debate and discussion because deep down, they know they cannot defend their positions—more and bigger centralized government, top-down government-imposed “solutions,” big expensive bureaucracy, limited freedom and individualism. So what does the Left seek to do instead? It seeks to shut down debate, shout down opponents, wall off competing ideas and censor anyone who doesn’t toe the liberal line. That’s what this business of rooting out so-called “fake news” by Facebook, Google, and other social media giants is really all about. After GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump mopped the floor with the Left’s anointed candidate, four-time loser Hillary Clinton, the insane Left began blaming “fake news” from alternative media sources (like ours) who dared to publish the truth about what Clinton stood for and how she, not Trump, was the one “unfit” for the Oval Office.
• Bank Bailout Balloons, Tab for Italian Banking Crisis Soars
  Over the Christmas holidays, when no one was supposed to pay attention, and when the markets were closed, the bailout costs of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the third largest bank in Italy, and the center of the Italian banking crisis, suddenly jumped by 75% to €8.8 billion ($9.2 billion)! Just how immense the black hole inside of a bank really is remains unknown until the bank collapses entirely and the pieces are sorted out. No one wants to know, especially not bank regulators. But when banks are teetering, and a bank bailout, or rather a bondholder bailout is being discussed, the aspects of that hole begin to emerge, and the hole keeps getting bigger the longer someone looks at it. Earlier this year, the ECB’s stress tests of 51 large European banks determined that Monte dei Paschi was the shakiest among them. The ECB gave the bank until the end of 2016 to raise enough capital or contemplate the prospect of being wound down.
• Trump Inherits Political and Economic Titanic-Warren Pollock
  Analyst and financial expert Warren Pollock says Donald Trump has been dealt a horrendous hand when it comes to the political environment and the economy. Pollock explains, “Trump inherited the Titanic or a nuclear reactor that is about to explode.  As he tries to fix this giant mess, he’s bound to upset the apple cart.  The economy is fragile.  The society is fragile.  If he touches anything, something is liable to break somewhere.  People want Obama Care removed immediately.  They want to see the swamp drained immediately.  I think these are things he believes in, and he is certainly a pragmatic manager compared to Hillary Clinton, who would have been an utter disaster for everyone in this country. . . . The problem for Trump, besides the piranhas that are circling him, both the Democrats and Republicans, is that he has inherited the Titanic, which means he can cause us to sink faster simply by touching something.  That’s why Obama Care can’t be turned off overnight.  That’s why he can’t impose massive tariffs on China overnight.  Whatever he does will cause tremendous dislocations.  Any corrective action that he takes will have unintended consequences, and he understands that.  He’s a pragmatist, and I think he is prepared to deal with this.  All the people he has chosen, all have differing opinions, but they are all excellent in one way or another.”
• Those That Bless Israel Will Be Blessed And Those That Curse Israel Will Be Cursed – So Now America Is Greatly Cursed
  There are consequences for our actions, and on a national level we are going to experience tremendous consequences for the very foolish decisions of our national leaders. When Barack Obama decided to betray Israel at the United Nations, he made the most fateful decision of his entire presidency. Because the Scriptures tell us that those that curse Israel will be cursed, and so America is now under a great curse due to what Barack Obama has done. All throughout the Scriptures there are equations. What I mean by that is there are many passages that tell us that if we do things God’s way we will get one result, and if we do things another way we will get another result. One of my favorite examples of this is Matthew 5:19. I have been on both sides of that particular equation, and being on God’s side of the equation is much better by far. As far as Israel is concerned, all throughout the Bible we see the principle that those that bless Israel are blessed and those that curse Israel are cursed. The very first place where we find this is in Genesis chapter 12 where God makes his famous promise to Abraham.
• John Kerry Unveils His Plan For A Palestinian State Based Upon 1967 Borders With East Jerusalem As The Capital
  Barack Obama stabbed Israel in the back on Friday, and now John Kerry has slapped Israel in the face just five days later.  In a shameful speech that lasted for 71 dreadful minutes, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry laid out his plan for peace in the Middle East on Wednesday.  His six-part plan is being welcomed warmly by the Palestinians, but it has further infuriated the Israelis.  Kerry claims that his plan reflects the emerging global consensus as to what a “final solution” will look like, and now we will wait to see what the 70 nations that will be gathering in France to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on January 15th will do.  There is a great deal of concern that the principles agreed upon at that conference will form the basis for a UN Security Council resolution that will be rushed to a vote before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20th. The core of Kerry’s plan is the division of the land of Israel into two states.  The borders between Israel and “Palestine” would be based upon the 1967 ceasefire lines with mutually agreed upon land swaps.
• 100% Of US Warming Is Due To NOAA Data Tampering
  Climate Central just ran this piece, which the Washington Post picked up on. They claimed the US was “overwhelmingly hot” in 2016, and temperatures have risen 1,5°F since the 19th century. The first problem with their analysis is that the US had very little hot weather in 2016. The percentage of hot days was below average, and ranked 80th since 1895. Only 4.4% of days were over 95°F, compared with the long term average of 4.9%. Climate Central is conflating mild temperatures with hot ones. They also claim US temperatures rose 1.5°F since the 19th century, which is what NOAA shows. The problem with the NOAA graph is that it is fake data. NOAA creates the warming trend by altering the data. The NOAA raw data shows no warming over the past century. The adjustments being made are almost exactly 1.5°F, which is the claimed warming in the article.
• Circle January 15th: 70 Nations Will Gather In Paris To Discuss The Creation Of A Palestinian State
  On January 15th, representatives from 70 different countries will gather in Paris, France for an unprecedented global conference.  The stated goal of this conference is to promote a “two-state solution” as the way that lasting peace will be brought to the Middle East.  In Israel, there is a tremendous amount of concern that whatever is agreed upon at this conference will immediately be used as the basis for a UN Security Council resolution that would permanently divide the land of Israel and create a Palestinian state.  But things would have to move very rapidly in order for that to happen, because Barack Obama’s time in the White House comes to an end on January 20th, and Donald Trump has already made it exceedingly clear that he would never support such a resolution. The UN Security Council resolution that was passed on Friday was one of the most significant events that we have witnessed in decades.  Resolution 2334 made all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem illegal, it set the 1967 ceasefire lines as the border between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and it granted every single inch of East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.  But it stopped short of giving official UN Security Council recognition to a Palestinian state, and that is why this conference on January 15th is so important.
• Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen – December 29, 2016
  Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen with his regular short weekly video for readers of Pastor Williams’ weekly newsletter.

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