The Draghi Affair

Mario The Magic Man Draghi, leader of the European Central Bank, has spoken.

The Wall Street Journal today reported, as many expected, the ECB will continue its handouts of money via its bond purchasing program though the amount purcashed each month will be less. So there are no real surprises here, including Draghi's comment obviously designed to sooth some nerves about the bank's presence in markets will be around for a while.

FRANKFURT—The European Central Bank decided Thursday to extend its asset-purchase program to the end of 2017, but will buy bonds at a reduced monthly rate.

It will maintain its monthly purchase volume at €80 billion ($86.2 billion) until March 2017 as planned, but will reduce it to €60 billion as of April. It kept all its interest rates unchanged.

Speaking in a news conference, ECB President Mario Draghi said the decision didn’t constitute a move to “taper,” or gradually phase out the bond-buying program.

“Tapering has not been discussed today,” he said. “The presence of the ECB on the markets will be there for a long time.”

Mr. Draghi said the governing council had also considered a six-month extension to the bond-buying program at the current monthly rate, but that there was a “very, very broad consensus” in favor of the alternative.

When it launched the program in March 2015, the ECB bought €60 billion a month, but that was increased in March 2016.

“We basically judged that the outlook of a sustained return to the inflation objective is not very different from the beginning of the program,” Mr. Draghi said. “More specifically, the risk of deflation has largely disappeared.”

wsj.com/articles/ecb-to-extends-stimulus-program-by-nine-months-at-reduced-rate 

Overnight

A stronger yen helped curtailed further gains in the Japanese market overnight as the Nikkei 225 rose 0.8% to 18,649.03 mid-morning following a big up move in the Dow and S&P 500 as those two indexes hit record highs.

The Trump effect seems to  have resurfaced as investors warmed to his expected fiscal stimulus plans and the prospect of higher inflation coupled with lower taxes. How long this rally will last is also a topic of conversation and concern. These same things have boosted the U.S.dollar higher against the yen though the yen has regained some of its losses of late.

Japan, however, grew at a slower rate in the July-August quarter than previously thought, according to data out Thursday. The Wall Street Journal reported: "The economy grew at an annualized pace of 1.3% in the third quarter of 2016, down from a preliminary figure of 2.2%, the government said. Annualized growth in the first quarter was 2.8% and in the second quarter was 1.8%, both higher than previous estimates, it said. Such revisions happen every quarter as the government refines earlier estimates using new data."

It wasn't just the above mentioned items, however, that helped propel Asian shares as the European Central Bank is expected to continue its handouts to continue to stimulate growth in the eurozone. The ASX 200 rallied 1.2%; the Hang Send 0.7% and the Kospi moved 1.3% higher while in China the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.1% as  government concerns grew about aggressive insurance company stock buying. The ECB decision also aided  Asian-Pacific government bonds, Reuters reported, with yields on Australia’s 10-year debt falling 6.3 basis points to bid at 2.743% and New Zealand’s 10-year debt yield down 5 basis points to bid at 3.20%, according to Thomson Reuters. Yields fall as bond prices rise.

The dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, traded at 100.03 at one point. Meanwhile, gold was up at $1174.90, up 1.60. The decline in gold might be temporarily over setting the stage for a bear market rally.

Not The Catalyst

What you see here is a disgusting example of MSM journalistic hypocrisy. This is why MSM must be brought down.

This is why change is necessary if there's ever going to be any semblance of truth and hope for a civilized world and even a semi-free society. A more apt name for Hillary would have been an American Hoses as she tried to hose millions. Time is like many of its MSM brethren, on the way to the boneyard of journalism history, irrelevant to its core.

Damning with faint praise is their time-worn, trite MO. They're like the preacher preaching to the choir. But there are no more souls to be converted. Half the nation in an equally divided nation is onto your bullshit and biases. Without significant changes and an end to this PC bullshit madness,we all know what the next step is likely to be. The new levels of anger and fear preceded not followed Trump. And that's what these myopic know-it-alls masquerading as objective journalists backed by their elite, moneyed friends didn't want to see. The hour glass has be upended for a while now. Trump symbolizes the capstone, not the catalyst.
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What a difference 4 months makes... From Meltdown to Total Meltdown to Man Of The Year...

As FoxNews notes however, while President-elect Donald Trump was named Time magazine's Person of the Year on Wednesday, the honor basically ended there.

While describing Trump as the real change-maker of 2016, the magazine also ragged on the Republican president-elect as a “huckster” and “demagogue” while reserving its most glowing praise for runner-up Hillary Clinton -- whom the edition breathlessly described as “an American Moses.”

In describing Trump, Time's article almost exclusively used backhanded compliments. For instance, while the piece said he “did what no American politician had attempted in a generation,” it added that he “magnified the divisions of the present, inspiring new levels of anger and fear within his country.”
 ....  The article on Hillary Clinton is much different. Subtitled “The winner of the popular vote leaves a complicated legacy,” the tone is worlds away from the fulminating darkness that permeates the Trump piece.

The opening paragraph reads more like the prologue of St. John’s Gospel than an essay on a presidential runner-up, saying of Clinton: “she became a symbol in a fight that was about much more than symbolism."

"She’s the woman who was almost President, she is what might have been and what will yet be."

“Like an American Moses, she was an imperfect prophet, leading women to the edge of the Promised Land. Now it’s up to another woman to enter it.”

The big question is, will TIME name Putin 'Man of the Year' in 2017?

 zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-07/collapse-real-media-credibility-3-simple-images

A List Of Quislings

More on the fake news front. We just got this handed to us and we won't delay getting out there. Fake news is extremely deleterious to your health and welfare and must be interdicted at all cost. Here's the latest list of those sidewinders who are trying to curtail your lives and your freedom to live free.

                                   FULL LIST OF FAKE NEWS OUTLETS
– The New York Times – The Washington Post – CNN – NBC News – MSNBC – CBS News – ABC News – Salon.com – The Huffington Post – Rolling Stone – BBC News – Sky News – Financial Times – Politico – New York Daily News – L.A. Times – USA Today – US News & World Report – CBC – Gawker – Newsweek – Time – Business Insider – Daily Beast – VICE – Yahoo News – Daily Kos – Young Turks – Slate – NPR – PBS – Raw Story – New Yorker – Buzzfeed – MoveOn – Think Progress – Media Matters – Wonkette – Center for American Progress – Little Green Footballs
– The Economist

Here's a list below of those American Vidkun Quislings

 blacklistednews.com/The_Ultimate_%E2%80%9CFake_News%E2%80%9D_List/55661/0/38/38/Y/M.

















                                        

Nasal Passages Cleared

That this article ran in the Financial Times must have been painful for their editorial board..

It's a rare jester of journalistic objectivity from a media source drowning in Keynesian dogma. We don't know what happened. Maybe a little too much ale at the pub last night or whatever.

Keep your stinking monkey paws off my economy, you dirty ape. That goes for [liberal economist Paul] Krugman, that goes for Yellen, that goes for all of these would-be dictators of the economy Arthur Laffer.

Laffer's characterization of Janet Yellen and Paul Krugman is--and this is just for the FT--spot on, mate.



 Laffer was a member of the Ronald Reagan administration, perhaps best known for his Laffer Curve connecting tax cuts to tax revenue. It's pretty simple but you can bet the FT hates it. Lower taxes and tax revenues go up because it simplifies a humongous tax code no human being has ever read in its entirety because that would make most people give up their first born just to avoid so painful an experience.Can anyone here say hello to  Brussels?

Forget waterboarding at Guantanamo. Just threaten those detainees with the prospect of reading every single word that code. It's something that should be required of every politician from both of these pathetic political parties if they want to run for re-election. That would clear out some nasal passages.

ft.com/content/8cb63288-bc85-11e6-8b45-b8b81dd5d080#comments 

Neocons

Senator Lindsey Graham is a dangerous neocon. No less dangerous than neocon Hillary would've been.
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Having dropped out of the primary race almost exactly a year ago, prominent foreign policy hawk, Republic Senator Lindsey Graham told CNN during an interview today that he plans to launch two separate probes (from both of his subcommittees) into Russia's "hacking" and demand that President-elect Trump "take a much tougher tone towards Russia... or they will break up our alliances."

In intente, GRAHAM announces plans for two new investigations into Russia hack, calls on Trump to toughen tone. Graham is the first Republican to call for an investigation into Russia after constant demands from the Democrats, and noted that he and John McCain support further sanctions on Putin.

He and his sidekick McCain are both neocons controlled by their globalists friends. McCain thinks he is above reproach because of his admirable war stint. He isn't. It got him out of the Keating scandal and has carried him for years.
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What taxpayers need with the national debt soaring is two more phony investigations into the alleged Russian hacking bullshit, especially one headed up by Lindsey. The last thing Trump should do is take a tougher stance with Russia. As Lincoln once noted the real enemies aren't outside the borders of this country; they're inside. Beware of neocons in neocon dresses.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-07/lindsey-graham-launches-2-russian-hacking-probes-demands-trump-toughen-tone

The Face Of Hypocrisy

Here is the face of hypocrisy.

Barry Diller taking about concerns that Trump would not "manhandle people" or "do one-off thing, is laughable. Does he mean like the previous administration routinely did or what would've happened if the Hillary tribe took over?

Diller was just down right hateful toward Trump before he got elected. And let's emphasize something here. He got elected. Like this previous White House mess wasn't a grand experiment. Another elitist, Mr. Diller needs to review those votes. Fifty-five million voted one way and 55 million another. You aren't running the lives of one of those groups, sir. So just run your own damn businesses because most likely half the damn country doesn't give a damn what your opinions are. The fact that you have to go to CNBC to express them speaks volumes.

Media executive Barry Diller said a Donald Trump administration is kind of like a "grand experiment."

"Every day, we see things we've never seen before," Diller said Tuesday on CNBC's "Fast Money."
While he remains skeptical of Trump, Diller, chairman of IAC, said he's interested to see what this development will bring.

"Look, 50 percent of the country wanted things to continue as they were, 50 percent wanted change. The 50 percent that wanted change has gotten the chance for it. As far as I'm concerned, bring it on," he said.


Diller said it appears the president-elect will bring about "almost undiluted change."
One of the changes the United States will see is that Trump "is a better negotiator than someone who has trained in government," Diller said. He added that he's hopeful that Trump will actually be "really good across the table" and not "manhandle people" or "do one-off things that just sound good."
As Trump pressures companies to keep jobs in America while threatening to slap them with tariffs for moving jobs, Diller said he has a feeling he won't be getting one of those calls. When asked about his opinions on Trump's recent dealings with Boeing and United Technologies, Diller said that "it's interesting stuff" and that "it's never happened before."

cnbc.com/2016/12/06/trump-administration-a-grand-experiment-says-barry-diller.

You Had To Know

You had to know that this was underway for a longtime.

A recent columnist for Time magazine suggested that Hillary supporters protest that she won the popular vote but lost owing to the electoral college rules by not paying their 2016 federal taxes.

That's interesting. You have the female czarist Janet Napolitano in California who runs the University of California system ordering campus police not to cooperate with either federal or local authorities if the new administration comes after all the illegal immigrant students currently in the system being paid by California taxpayer funds, many who fervently disagree with their taxes being used to support such illegal programs and blatant confiscation of tax dollars without an input from those who pay those taxes.

We have heard from some who intend to request for the state a complete breakdown of where their tax dollars are spent and if any are going to support this program intend to deduct that amount from the taxes in the upcoming tax season. These places in the system are being given to illegals at the expense of native born citizens who are not only qualified but in many cases more qualified for those seats. Those students' parents have been paying taxes to the state for in many cases years. More important Nepolitano is forcing public employees to possibly violate the law to keep their jobs. Is there any doubt given a PC zealot like Napolitano anything other would result?

If you or I urged people to violate federal laws you know what would happen. So why hasn't anyone filed a suite against Nepolitano and the university system?

Now we could call that Times columnist stupid, ignorant, rolling out one of their hateful epithets, but that would be pulling a page from their hateful tactic book. We actually support his motion and hope those disgruntled Hillary supporters do withhold their tax payments.We've felt overtaxed for years as we know millions of others have and that much of our tax receipts are going to support programs as we find just as egregious as they claim the election  results are. So lets get this party started.
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There have been murmurs about it all along.
Someday, they simply wouldn’t allow certain things to remain on the Internet any longer. The potential to reach a global audience with important information, and the idea that it could be in the hands of anyone is just too big.

So it is no surprise that many corporate giants from Silicon Valley are now putting forward a unified front to silence free speech on social media.
Hashtags, keywords and flagged accounts, logged in various databases, will be shared and enforced across the web. Shutting down content identified as unacceptable will now be streamlined, and leave unpopular posters with fewer places to peddle their extremist, outside views.



Many current incidents are being used to push the idea that a new online policing – and a pulling of the weeds – is now necessary.

The “fake news” purging campaign has reached across the blogosphere and alternative media and punished websites that have dared to report on such taboo topics as Pizzagate, Wikileaks email dumps, any controversial aspects of the Syrian war and many other serious topics which these agenda-driven companies have opted to suppress.

While these platforms offer the opportunity to reach a wide audience, the centrality of ubiquitous platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter is, obviously, that they have the power to delete accounts and drive down audience response by tweaking the algorithm.
They can make you invisible.

That is the state of free speech in 2016. It can be eradicated at a moment’s notice, and perhaps for reasons you aren’t even aware of.

shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/this-is-the-purge-we-all-knew-was-coming-shutting-down-extremist-content

Evil Incarnate

If you don't like billionaire George Soros, then you shouldn't like Kellogg's Corn Flakes. And you most likely shouldn't be eating them either, including your children.

Nor should you like other billionaires who have more money than they can spend and in their self-righteous boredom

consequently turn to trying to run the world by telling the rest of us what we ought to eat, drink and think, not to mention whom to vote for.

According to reports, Kellogg is giving funds to a Soros-based political activity group and leftist hate groups. Kellogg's also one of the 10 giant corporations that monopolize nearly everything sold in supermarkets around the globe for the most part. That's how you spell globalization, line the pockets of the elites and destroy free choice and competition.

naturalnews.com/2016-12-02-kelloggs-found-to-have-financial-ties-to-the-money-man-for-cop-killing-left-wing-hate-groups-george-soros.

Vigilance

It's about time someone high up in the MSM stepped froward and unleashed the truth.

But don't look for it to come from Henry Blodgett, the former Wall Street analyst who was barred from working on Wall Street for purposely pushing what became known after the TMT crash in the early part of the first decade of this century his pieces of  high tech dung.

This is just one of many attempts to circumvent the truth and enchain your freedom of movement and speech. All  the more  reason for constant vigilance when it comes to government and politicians, especially big government.
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Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes told Business Insider's Henry Blodget on Tuesday that the "real threat" to the First Amendment did not come from President-elect Donald Trump during the campaign, but rather from the Democratic Party.

Bewkes was speaking at Business Insider's annual IGNITION conference, during which he was asked about Trump's frequent campaign threats to open up libel laws.
Trump has also set his sights on Bewkes' own media property, CNN, which he consistently ridiculed along the campaign trail and even after Election Day.
"Do you worry about that at all?" Blodget asked.

Bewkes said he didn't "think that's a serious thing," adding that "we should all worry" if someone were seeking to change the First Amendment. He suggested that came from the Democratic Party, which "had a campaign plank to change the First Amendment, and they were doing it in the guise of campaign finance reform."

"And that was worrying me more," Bewkes said. "The press tends to miss that because they tend to lean that way, and therefore they were supporting what they were viewing — I think overly charitably — as something in cleaning up money in politics when in fact what it would do is restrain multiple voices."

Democrats, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, vowed to engage in campaign finance reform following the election — a cause that has been bolstered in recent years by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. The 2010 ruling deemed that corporations and labor unions were people who could flex First Amendment rights in contributing to campaigns, and it led to the advent of so-called super PACs.

"So I thought the real threat to the First Amendment came from the Democrats' side more," Bewkes said. "There's not going to be a serious effort on the Republican side
http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bewkes-time-warner-first-amendment-democrats-trump-2016-12