BEWARE OF DICTATORS

There's trouble in Pound Land. The British pound.

Some want to go, some want to stay. In the heat of the fray, the revered pound has lost some of its luster, falling sizeably against the euro, the yen and the dollar. In struggles likes these vested interests roll out their two most precious weapons--the big guns and the big lie.

LONDON—More than one-third of Britain’s 100 largest companies came out in support of the U.K.’s continued membership in the European Union, marking a significant step-up in businesses’ intervention in the debate after Downing Street encouraged them to publicly weigh in.

In private conversations with executives of some of the U.K.’s biggest firms, Prime Minister David Cameron’s advisers have urged executives to set the tone of the debate early, according to a government official familiar with the strategy. In the Scottish referendum in 2014, many businesses kept quiet until the last minute for fears of alienating customers who disagreed with their stance.

“The business community will be more vocal and organized” than it was then, said the chief executive of a large British company familiar with Downing Street’s plans. He added the prime minister’s office has been liaising with companies over strategy for at least several months. Mr. Cameron on Saturday said a referendum on whether the U.K. should remain within or leave the union would take place June 23, officially kicking off the campaign.

The above from today's WSJ tells you all you need to know about the big guns. Note the reference to the Scottish vote about secession. 

The big lie, as it gets told again and again anytime anyone mentions secession is how much businesses, the currency and the people will suffer. These are all globalist vested establishment fear propaganda tactics. Staying in the EU means eventually surrendering the beloved pound. 

If the Brits can't see that coming, they deserve to lose not just their pound but their sovereignty. These globalists will stop at nothing. A cashless society means one without the pound, the yen, the dollar or whatever. It also is one of the most important stepping stones to eradicating sovereignty.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is no novice in spreading the fear as he projected in Parliament earlier this week, "suggesting uncertainty over Britain's intentions toward the bloc (EU) could hurt working people for years, p" the Journal noted.

Much of the furor picked up this week as fellow Conservative Boris Johnson, London's mayor, endorsed the vote for leaving. Cameron wasted no time trying to marginalized Johnson by rolling out the popular tactic used on anyone who differs on such things by suggesting Johnson is a euroskeptic, as if those who are skeptic of the bumbling, stumbling gang in Brussels gives one no reason to be skeptic.

Skepticism, like water, is your friend not your enemy. Your enemy is those who disdain your opinions and seek to dictate your future.

COMMENT ON GOLD

There are some things in life you just learn to love. In fact, that might be a paradigm for most of the things in life each of us learns to love.

For us, it's how in times like these pundits of all sorts keep up their assault on anything that may presage the demise of their revered printing presses. Imagine that! Gold is one of those things.

For a relic that's been around so long and withstood the test of time at least for longevity, it's a pretty maligned element, dental fillings notwithstanding. Usually, when we keep shouting smoke, there's a good reason. And so there's is for those who despise the yellow metal.

With formerTreasury Secretary Lawrence Summers recent frontal lobe assault on the $100 bill, you know there's some flames beneath that smoke screen. Based on a paper by some Harvard economic nerds--just what the world needs, another Harvard-led promulgation to oblivion--you can bet such is not in your interest. On the contrary, it's more of the same.

We won't bore you with the oft-repeated reasons why gold is not a good investment. We could argue that the track record of investing in politicians, bureaucrats and academics hasn't been too hot either. The fact that Harvard and its ilk are two of the most bloated investments around and have been might some day cross your gray matter.

The question you ought to be asking is what have these elites done for you lately. We know what they've done for themselves.The nation's bank vaults and safety deposit boxes are full of it. If you were asked what asset is one of the best performing so far this year, up 16%, would you answer gold?

For sure, staying power, as it always does, will come into play here. And that's precisely what's troubling the anti-gold crowd--the staying power of their beloved flat money. If you're still trying to figure out whom you should listen to, try your own common sense for once, not that of these elite agenda hogs.

Submitted by RLE Ellison

MUST READS

Since this is an election year and in this semi-free nation of ours each is supposed to be entitled to his or her semi-free opinions, we will periodically list what we think are must reads we come across.

Understand what we think a lot don't understand, our semi-free opinions are tolerated, or should we say allowed, for now. That is one of the greatest risks to your investment future, not just here but globally. Politics and economics are inseparable despite what you might think, read or hear.

One of the great paradoxes about MSM is all their babble about truth and freedom of expression they pay so much lip service to. Truth really be told, these are the last two things they want you to have because with them you don't need the media to explain it all to you.

These posts do not necessarily represent our views so much as present ones MSM conveniently glides over daily. People have opinions, oftentimes strong opinions. That's what it really is suppose to mean when you hear that phrase "The land of the free and the home of the brave."

Being free--even semi-free--means being free to succeed. But it also means being free to fail  
So here we go.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-23/dear-bernie-im-sorry-i-am-problem-america

YOU GOTTA LOVE IT

Do they ever get tired of it? Scroll around the web and you'll see tens of article with this kind of theme, go out and consume, consume, consume.

Despite three years of a solid recovery in home prices, a surprising number of homeowners don't realize what they've gained.

Most underestimate what their home is worth and, consequently, the amount of home equity that they could draw upon. Even more striking, just more than half of homeowners with a mortgage don't expect to gain any equity in 2016, despite rising home prices. It may be why home equity lines of credit are far less popular today than they were even before the housing boom.

Despite three years of a solid recovery in home prices, a surprising number of homeowners don't realize what they've gained.

Most underestimate what their home is worth and, consequently, the amount of home equity that they could draw upon. Even more striking, just more than half of homeowners with a mortgage don't expect to gain any equity in 2016, despite rising home prices. It may be why home equity lines of credit are far less popular today than they were even before the housing boom.

 "Homeowners who bought during the housing boom are regaining equity many thought was lost forever, yet too many are not aware of the equity they have gained or they are unclear about how to determine changes in their equity," said Bryan Sullivan, chief financial officer at loanDepot, an independent, nonbank lender.


Fifty-seven percent of homeowners said they believe their home value has improved in the last three years, but the majority, 80 percent, underestimated the amount of value it has gained, according to a new survey conducted by Omniweb and commissioned by loanDepot. The survey was based on interviews with 1,000 borrowers, split evenly between men and women.

There are MSM cheerleader articles that can have serious repercussions. Consumers during the economic mess a few years back were blamed for spending too much, having too much debt and so forth. Now, with perhaps a bit of breathing room, real or not, they're urged to let it rip again.

As we always say, you gotta love it.

ECONOMIC HOGWASH

 How to you recognize economic hogwash when you see it?

Simple. Read more articles like this one from Business Insider.

Global economic growth is sluggish, to say the least.

The low-growth environment the world seems to be trapped in, said Raman Srivastava, Standish Mellon Asset Management's co-deputy chief investment officer and managing director of global fixed income, is probably not going to change anytime soon.

There is, however, one thing that could truly kickstart the global economy: fiscal stimulus.

The issue, Srivastava said, is that no country wants to do it.

"What needs to happen is a coordinated fiscal response on a global scale in order to spur demand," Srivastava told Business Insider. "The problem is there isn't a will to do it, which is why we don't think [growth] rates or inflation is going anywhere."

According to Srivastava, central banks have attempted to kickstart growth with ever-lower (and now negative) interest rates and asset buying programs. But at this point those moves are no longer effective.

"The first venture into things like [quantitative easing] drew a powerful response from markets," said Srivastava. "So now there is no real reaction anymore. The markets is basically saying there is not much more they can do. Further rate cuts aren't going to help, more fiscal stimulus is."

In this scenario the stimulus would be a large infusion of cash from the government in the form of infrastructure development, public employment, and so on. This would drive employment, wage growth, and would make up for the demand gap in private sector expenditures.

The biggest thing standing in the way of this plan, said Srivastava, is politics.

According to Srivastava there just isn't an appetite for a large, debt-financed stimulus package on a global scale, especially in the US.

"Look at the US, we're in the middle of an election year, there's not going to be an announcement of a giant stimulus package in this environment," said Srivastava. "We would really need something economically dramatic to happen before stimulus became possible."

 The U.S. and most other developed countries, not to mention developing ones, is already up to its ear lobes in debt. Politicians and bureaucrats around the globe have a well deserved reputation that is now lower than a fat duck's belly. There was a time when used car sales people had a lower reputation than these so-called public servants. The difference here is used car sales people never boasted having any claims to public service. There's was all personal to begin with.

Just the opposite is needed: cut taxes and regulations, unleash the individual business entrepreneur and create real jobs. Few if any of the excesses have been purged out of  over-bloated, global-govern-dependent systems just aching to find an ideal spot to go flip, fly and flop.

Government bail-ins and government-bailouts, phony accounting and conjured M&A activities, to name just a few, all mask the one term that is more unwelcome and rivals the phony concerns currently about the Zika virus--truth.