Friday, May 26, 2017
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
How A High-School Dropout Became The Most Dangerous Man In Financial News - Business Insider
I used to watch the subject of this feature on Bloomberg daily; a few years ago, however, we cut the cord, as they say, and I lost track of him.
We will always need "print" journalism, imho, because it gives his eminently colorful "back story" (which I didn't know), and as John Lee Hooker might say, his "front story" -- even more remarkable.
Thank you, Lord, that my father forbade me having a motorcycle......
How A High-School Dropout Became The Most Dangerous Man In Financial News - Business Insider
We will always need "print" journalism, imho, because it gives his eminently colorful "back story" (which I didn't know), and as John Lee Hooker might say, his "front story" -- even more remarkable.
Thank you, Lord, that my father forbade me having a motorcycle......
How A High-School Dropout Became The Most Dangerous Man In Financial News - Business Insider
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Friday, May 19, 2017
Thursday, May 18, 2017
Thursday, May 04, 2017
This is where markets meet Bible prophecy....must read
China's Plan To Subvert The Global Dollar Standard | Zero Hedge
Already, China dominates world trade. Her own economy is already significantly larger than that of the US on the purchasing power parity (PPP) estimates. While being the largest consumer of raw materials, China also exports more finished goods by value than any other country. As the Asian powerhouse, she has lifted the economies of all the countries on the western side of the Pacific Ocean, which including her own between them have a GDP of $50 trillion. Her exports into Asia now exceed her exports to the US. Yet despite this dominance, most of China’s trade is conducted in US dollars, something China is bound to change, if she is to contain external economic risk and replace America as the dominant global empire. Both objectives can only be achieved by China replacing the dollar as a medium of exchange.
Already, China dominates world trade. Her own economy is already significantly larger than that of the US on the purchasing power parity (PPP) estimates. While being the largest consumer of raw materials, China also exports more finished goods by value than any other country. As the Asian powerhouse, she has lifted the economies of all the countries on the western side of the Pacific Ocean, which including her own between them have a GDP of $50 trillion. Her exports into Asia now exceed her exports to the US. Yet despite this dominance, most of China’s trade is conducted in US dollars, something China is bound to change, if she is to contain external economic risk and replace America as the dominant global empire. Both objectives can only be achieved by China replacing the dollar as a medium of exchange.
The answers to these questions are likely to be revealed in the coming months, possibly in only a matter of weeks, if North Korea heats up. But if China decides to revalue gold, western capital markets will be wholly unprepared for the fall-out. China itself will be affected, as will all other nations that trade with the US or trade with countries that trade with the US. The advanced welfare-driven nations dependent on capital markets are at risk. The great financial crisis of nine years ago will be a light rehearsal compared with what could follow.
The irony is that the countries isolated from the dollar, especially Russia and Iran, will come out best. Iran will be significantly stronger relative to Saudi Arabia, with important consequences for the power-play in the Middle East. Russia will also have an interest in pushing China for this action, partly because it should tip the balance in Syria in Russia’s favor, and partly because the destruction of US hegemony will free Western Europe from being tied to America’s apron strings.
This is the final prize for the two leading nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: a free trade area which will eventually include the whole Eurasian Continent, with the rest of the world acting as its feedstock. It has always been the ultimate logic behind the Russian-Chinese partnership. Despite all its military power, America will be isolated, unless, like Britain ditching her colonies in the 1960s, America accepts she no longer controls global commerce.
That is hard to imagine.....
Perhaps China and Russia no longer have the luxury of time. America’s increased military belligerence in Trump’s first hundred days might force their hand. Perhaps America, knowing her demise is becoming increasingly inevitable, has some dramatic plan under wraps to seize the financial initiative, as dramatic perhaps as the Nixon shock, when America abandoned the post-war gold standard. The instability brought into the geopolitical equation by the Trump presidency, and the early signs the US economy is grinding to a halt under the sheer weight of consumer and government debt, are increasingly likely to prompt China and Russia into firm financial action, if only to protect themselves in an unstable financial and monetary environment.
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Bob Moriarty - War, Precious Metals, Fate of USA
Bob Moriarty - War, Precious Metals, Mining Stocks
If anybody fires a shot whether it’s the North Koreans, whether it’s the United States, whether it’s the South Koreans, whether it’s Japan, whether it’s China, if anybody fires a shot, it will go nuclear. They war gamed it a number of times and every single time it went nuclear.
Trump came in and said, “I’m going to balance the budget. I’m going to rebuild America. I’m going to make America great.” Promptly hands the military another 54 billion dollars that they don’t need and the military is going after him for more. We are broke. There is no solution to it. There is simply nothing you can do other than to declare bankruptcy.
I predicted many of the things that have happened including the assent of both Sanders and Trump and some reflections on what happens when a country goes into a permanent state of warfare. And basically, you’re either defeated militarily or you bankrupt yourself. It happened to the Spanish. It happened to the Dutch and it happened to the French. It happened to the English. It happened to the Russians. And we act like it’s not going to happen to us. Well, it’s going to. We either get bankrupted or we get defeated militarily.
If anybody fires a shot whether it’s the North Koreans, whether it’s the United States, whether it’s the South Koreans, whether it’s Japan, whether it’s China, if anybody fires a shot, it will go nuclear. They war gamed it a number of times and every single time it went nuclear.
Trump came in and said, “I’m going to balance the budget. I’m going to rebuild America. I’m going to make America great.” Promptly hands the military another 54 billion dollars that they don’t need and the military is going after him for more. We are broke. There is no solution to it. There is simply nothing you can do other than to declare bankruptcy.
I predicted many of the things that have happened including the assent of both Sanders and Trump and some reflections on what happens when a country goes into a permanent state of warfare. And basically, you’re either defeated militarily or you bankrupt yourself. It happened to the Spanish. It happened to the Dutch and it happened to the French. It happened to the English. It happened to the Russians. And we act like it’s not going to happen to us. Well, it’s going to. We either get bankrupted or we get defeated militarily.
Monday, April 24, 2017
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
United passenger hauled from plane is doctor who traded drugs for gay sex with patient, lost license
United passenger traded drugs for gay sex with patient | Daily Mail Online
Met his partner "in church." "He denied the gay sex even though he was caught on camera shirtless and in his pants with Brian Case, his lover, 26, who was a fellow worshipper at his church," reports say.
License was revoked, later reinstated.
It gets stranger: "While he was suspended from practicing, he became a semi-professional poker player, and is said to have won a total of $234,664 since 2006," according to PokerNews.
You can't make this stuff up....
Met his partner "in church." "He denied the gay sex even though he was caught on camera shirtless and in his pants with Brian Case, his lover, 26, who was a fellow worshipper at his church," reports say.
License was revoked, later reinstated.
It gets stranger: "While he was suspended from practicing, he became a semi-professional poker player, and is said to have won a total of $234,664 since 2006," according to PokerNews.
You can't make this stuff up....
Wednesday, April 05, 2017
Saturday, April 01, 2017
Book publishing 101 or: Riding the Waves of Rejection
A friend told me this week his wife is writing a book. The topic is “human struggle.” She is seeking a publisher.
Caused me to hearken back to my own simple, 23-step process to see Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph and Success (EC) through publication. While cleaning out files recently I found these notes on its history. Here’s how it went:
2/1/2001
Concept for EC emerges during jogging. I resist, A still, small voice pushes me on. Can't shake it, and I start to plow some ground.
9/1/2001
Lined up a noted self-help guru as co-author. Why? The magic of collaboration. He already had success in the market, an audience and had a big-time agent. So I started writing, wrote the first 25 of what would (ultimately) become 700 comeback stories.
9/30/2001
My guru, and his agent, renege. I decide to go it alone.
11/16/2001
An editor as Crossing Press expresses interest, then never responds again. Still, I settle in to write the actual book, it would take more than one year.
12/15/2002
Finished principal writing. For the next 16 months or so, I research, rewrite.
4/26/2004
Still believing in the power of celebrity, for better or worse, I seek the support of luminaries for marketing reasons, to provide foreword, blurb or otherwise. I gain the support of a very major luminary. He agrees to provide material help, then reneges, and repeats this process twice more. His paranoid PR people provide me with the shabbiest treatment in memory, accusing me of planning a hatchet job on their media star (!!!); (my background is in PR, and I am astonished).
5/9/2004
Bought Publishers Guide, queried all appropriate tradtional publishers.
6/9/2004
A nibble. An editor at a major independent agrees to see proposal. Immediately sent.
7/8/2004
Editor misplaces, asks for a resend.
9/17/2004
Breakthrough: editor requests the ms.
9/29/2004
Editor declines, citing derivative nature of stories. Very deflating birthday present. I go jogging to try to shake it off. I resolve not to quit.
10/26/2004
Second effort contact with same editor, but no go, editor declines again.
10/26/2004
Same time I recontact major agent who had earlier expressed interest. He sends one email re ms., never responds again. On follow up, no response.
1/1/2005
Extensive review of self-publishers, e.g. Author’s House, and many other such. Not ready to capitulate.
3/8/2005
I go back to independent publisher with proposal on how I would make changes to satisfy them. This time I write to president as well as editor. President agrees to reconsider.
7/26/2005
Publisher accepts ms. for publication
10/25/2005
Date of publishing contract
3/10/2006
Editor requires major changes or says 'no publication'; I agree to rewrite every word. I do.
12/11/2006
Publisher sends cover art 'with title Try, Try Again" vs. my working title “364 Great Comebacks.” They had never bothered to inform me of the change. I hate "Try, Try Again" on a visceral level. It seems to me sing-song, exasperated and patronizing. Title dispute goes on for five weeks.
1/19/2007
Publisher relents, chooses instead a title created by my family member as a compromise: “Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success”
5/1/2007
Publication. Border's buys large quantity, promotes in stores. (Remember book stores?)
Publisher arranges successful “media tour,” radio interviews. Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success goes on to become a category best-seller on Amazon.
EC2, EC3, EC700 follow in subsequent years, as well as numerous other titles.
In subsequent years, life happens. Our poster boy for great comebacks, Lance Armstrong, who beat cancer to win the Tour de France seven times, finally confesses to the doping allegations that dogged him for years. I change my web site, accordingly.
Others of our stars fell from the firmament as well: Bill Cosby, Paula Deen, most notably. One notable symbol of male, Olympian athletic prowess switched genders, creating a media firestorm while winning a major award for his/her courage.
Some climbed even bigger mountains, like debt overcomer and now President, Donald Trump. Some passed into eternity, like we all will some day.
How fragile this thing, life, and how easily a comeback can turn into a comedown. And how fast the clock goes by.
And how long the steeplechase, littered with rejection hurdles, from concept to printed book, in this case, six and one-half years.
And so it is that we wish all prospective authors like our friend's wife only the best, and to keep their eye on the prize, no matter how serpentine the road becomes, and no matter how many tell you that you are lost on the way.
You are not lost. You just have farther to go.....
Caused me to hearken back to my own simple, 23-step process to see Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph and Success (EC) through publication. While cleaning out files recently I found these notes on its history. Here’s how it went:
2/1/2001
Concept for EC emerges during jogging. I resist, A still, small voice pushes me on. Can't shake it, and I start to plow some ground.
9/1/2001
Lined up a noted self-help guru as co-author. Why? The magic of collaboration. He already had success in the market, an audience and had a big-time agent. So I started writing, wrote the first 25 of what would (ultimately) become 700 comeback stories.
9/30/2001
My guru, and his agent, renege. I decide to go it alone.
11/16/2001
An editor as Crossing Press expresses interest, then never responds again. Still, I settle in to write the actual book, it would take more than one year.
12/15/2002
Finished principal writing. For the next 16 months or so, I research, rewrite.
4/26/2004
Still believing in the power of celebrity, for better or worse, I seek the support of luminaries for marketing reasons, to provide foreword, blurb or otherwise. I gain the support of a very major luminary. He agrees to provide material help, then reneges, and repeats this process twice more. His paranoid PR people provide me with the shabbiest treatment in memory, accusing me of planning a hatchet job on their media star (!!!); (my background is in PR, and I am astonished).
5/9/2004
Bought Publishers Guide, queried all appropriate tradtional publishers.
6/9/2004
A nibble. An editor at a major independent agrees to see proposal. Immediately sent.
7/8/2004
Editor misplaces, asks for a resend.
9/17/2004
Breakthrough: editor requests the ms.
9/29/2004
Editor declines, citing derivative nature of stories. Very deflating birthday present. I go jogging to try to shake it off. I resolve not to quit.
10/26/2004
Second effort contact with same editor, but no go, editor declines again.
10/26/2004
Same time I recontact major agent who had earlier expressed interest. He sends one email re ms., never responds again. On follow up, no response.
1/1/2005
Extensive review of self-publishers, e.g. Author’s House, and many other such. Not ready to capitulate.
3/8/2005
I go back to independent publisher with proposal on how I would make changes to satisfy them. This time I write to president as well as editor. President agrees to reconsider.
7/26/2005
Publisher accepts ms. for publication
10/25/2005
Date of publishing contract
3/10/2006
Editor requires major changes or says 'no publication'; I agree to rewrite every word. I do.
12/11/2006
Publisher sends cover art 'with title Try, Try Again" vs. my working title “364 Great Comebacks.” They had never bothered to inform me of the change. I hate "Try, Try Again" on a visceral level. It seems to me sing-song, exasperated and patronizing. Title dispute goes on for five weeks.
1/19/2007
Publisher relents, chooses instead a title created by my family member as a compromise: “Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success”
5/1/2007
Publication. Border's buys large quantity, promotes in stores. (Remember book stores?)
Publisher arranges successful “media tour,” radio interviews. Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success goes on to become a category best-seller on Amazon.
EC2, EC3, EC700 follow in subsequent years, as well as numerous other titles.
In subsequent years, life happens. Our poster boy for great comebacks, Lance Armstrong, who beat cancer to win the Tour de France seven times, finally confesses to the doping allegations that dogged him for years. I change my web site, accordingly.
Others of our stars fell from the firmament as well: Bill Cosby, Paula Deen, most notably. One notable symbol of male, Olympian athletic prowess switched genders, creating a media firestorm while winning a major award for his/her courage.
Some climbed even bigger mountains, like debt overcomer and now President, Donald Trump. Some passed into eternity, like we all will some day.
How fragile this thing, life, and how easily a comeback can turn into a comedown. And how fast the clock goes by.
And how long the steeplechase, littered with rejection hurdles, from concept to printed book, in this case, six and one-half years.
And so it is that we wish all prospective authors like our friend's wife only the best, and to keep their eye on the prize, no matter how serpentine the road becomes, and no matter how many tell you that you are lost on the way.
You are not lost. You just have farther to go.....
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