I. Global 2.0: From Slow Burn to Pressure Cooker
A. Controlled Demolitions Accelerate
Pension Funds:
- Global Pension Underfunding Will Grow To $400 Trillion Over Next 30 Years
- Illinois Too Broke to Fix: Chicago Police Pension Fund Broke by 2021 at the Latest
- Fix for troubled Dallas Police and Fire Pension System Passes Senate
- Texas Senate Passes Bill Overhauling Houston’s Troubled Pension Systems
- Teachers Retirement System of Texas is ‘Too Big to Fail’
- Michigan Teacher Pension Fight Pits Portability vs. Risk
- Ohio’s Public-Employee Pensions Face Cutbacks
- Puerto Rico Budget to Protect Pension Payments
- Fitch: Pension Impact Adjusted in U.S. Public Finance Criteria
- Factors Aligning to Accelerate Pension Activity
- The Hartford Transfers 29% of Pension Plan Obligations
- General Mills to Freeze U.S. Pension Plans
- The $31 Billion Hole in GE’s Balance Sheet That Keeps Growing
Insurance Companies:
- Insurers Look to Ramp Up Premiums in Health Law Exchanges (subscription)
- Aetna Fully Exits Obamacare Exchanges with Pull-out in Two States
- Anthem to Leave Ohio’s Obamacare Insurance Market in 2018
Bankruptcies and Failures:
- Illinois Tax Rate Soars 32% After Senate Overrides Governor Veto
- A Message to all Illinoisans about the Budget Crisis
- New Jersey, Maine Reach Budget Deals, Ending Government Shutdowns
- Welcome To The Third World, Part 23: Illinois Death Watch
- Pushed Into Poverty, How Student Loan Collections Threaten the Financial Security of Older Americans
- “The Crisis Has Become Pandemic” – System To Collect Defaulted Student Loans Is No Longer Functioning
- Gov. Christie Orders New Jersey Government Shutdown Amid Budget Impasse
- 78 Rural Hospitals Closed since 2010; Look at the Impact on One Tennessee Community
- Puerto Rico, Creditors Face Off for First Time in Bankruptcy Court
- Puerto Rico to Shut 179 Schools, Relocate 27k Students Amid Historic Bankruptcy
- Uber Board Member Resigns After Making Sexist Joke at Company Meeting About Sexism
- Unicorns Watch In Horror As Uber Careens Towards A Possible Extinction Event
- Warren Buffett Just Confirmed the Death of Retail as We Know It
- The Decline of Established American Retailing Threatens Jobs
B. The Debt Growth Model is Dying
- Japan Is Writing Off Nearly Half Its National Debt Without Creating Inflation. We Could Do It Too.
- Fed Insider: We Have Been Put On Notice, The Debt Is Unsustainable:Danielle DiMartino Booth
- David Stockman On The Anything President And The Everything Bubble
- It Looks Like the US Economy Just Ground to a Halt
- As Americans Take on More Debt, Some Pockets of Concern
- Canada’s Housing Bubble Explodes As Its Biggest Mortgage Lender Crashes Most In History
The War on Cash:
- Empire Endgame: Digital Slave Population
- IMF Tells Governments How to Subvert Public Resistance against Elimination of Cash
- United Nations Sends Aid to 10,000 Syrian Refugees Using Ethereum Blockchain
- Bernard Lietaer Joins Bancor Protocol Foundation as Chief Monetary Architect
US:
- Senate Passes Bill Requiring Citizens Report Privately Stashed Cash
- Uniform Regulation for Virtual Currency Businesses: Coming to a State Near You
- Delaware House Passes Historic Blockchain Regulation
- New York Preschools Accept Bitcoin and Ether for Tuition Payments
- Arizona Passes Bill To End Income Taxation On Gold And Silver
- Fidelity Is Mining Bitcoin, CEO Abigail Johnson Admits
- Signed Into Law: Nevada Becomes Free-Trade Zone for Bitcoin And Other Blockchains
BRIC’S:
- Bank’s Blockchain Consortium Picks IBM for Trade Finance Platform
- India Taxing Gold
- China’s Central Bank Has Begun Cautiously Testing a Digital Currency
- Russian Central Bank Piloting Digital Currency Schemes
- Moscow And Beijing Join Forces To Bypass US Dollar In Global Markets, Shift To Gold Trade
- China Moves to Stabilize Currency, Despite Promise to Loosen Control
- Suddenly Vladimir Putin Meets Vitalik Buterin, Endorses Ethereum
- Bitcoin Surges Back Above $2700 As India “Legalizes” Cryptocurrency
The End of the Bond Bull:
- “Canada Hasn’t Seen A Bank Run Such As This In Decades” – Home Capital Bailout Is Possible
- Loonie, Bank Bonds Drop as Moody’s Downgrades Canada Lenders
- Another Poor Auction: 30Y Paper Received Badly With Big Tail, Sliding Bid-To-Cover And Indirects
- Both ECB And BOJ Are Just Months Away From Running Out Of Bonds To Buy
Equity Bull Markets:
- One Plunging Stock Shows Exactly What’s at Risk with the Trump Trade
- Calpers Looks to Shake Up Private Equity
- Walmart – The Walton Family Is Selling A Lot Of Stocks
- BAML: The ‘$1 Trillion Flow that Conquers All’ Explains Everything Happening in Markets
- Why an Australian Fund Manager Decided to Sell Everything
- Paramount’s New Chief Jim Gianopulos Revives $1 Billion China Slate Deal
- China’s on an IPO Frenszy – and it Looks Set to Continue
- Guangzhou Rural Bank Launches up to $1.1 Billion Hong Kong IPO
- MSCI Inclusion Points China’s Stock Market in Right Direction
Negative Interest Rates Turn to Rising Interest Rates:
US Dollar:
- The Dollar Just had it’s Worst Quarter in Years, and That’s Exactly what Trump Wants
- Asia Shares Dragged Under by U.S. Tech Slide, Dollar Firm
The Future of the Euro:
Inflation/Deflation:
- “Central Banks Are Now In A Desperate Dilemma”…”Start Buying Volatility”
- Rejoining the Dark Side
- Weak Inflation Erodes Conviction at Fed on Rate Hikes
- Rising Inflation Dampens Americans’ Personal Financial Satisfaction
- The Trump Reflation Fantasy Ends on Day 100
- Visualizing the Buying Power of the U.S. Dollar Over the Last Century
US Budget Hot Potato:
- Feds Collect Record Income and Payroll Taxes Through March–Still Run $526,855,000,000 Deficit
- Recession Alert: Government Revenues Suffer Biggest Drop Since The Financial Crisis
- Trump Budget Plan Slashes Food Stamps, Healthcare for Poor
II. Inside the Pressure Cooker: Will We Expand or Shrink the Pie?
A. Return on Investment to Taxpayers: Will It Turn Positive Or More Negative?
- Mary Meeker Includes US Budget in Internet Trends – Reaches Upside Down Conclusions
- Happy Tax Day! Here’s How Corporations Plan to Mess You Over
- This Loophole Will Let Hedge-Fund Managers Dodge $18 Billion in Taxes This Year
- Killing Small Business: The Number Of Self-Employed Americans Is Lower Than In 1990
- Alabama Sees 85% Drop In Food Stamp Participation After Work Requirements Reinstated
- Thousands Drop off Food Stamp Rolls in Georgia After State Implements Work Requirements
- Ohio Becomes One of Last States to Mandate Autism Coverage
- Sen. Paul, Scott Bullock: Civil Forfeiture Ruined Countless Lives. Long Overdue for Reform
- Dow, DuPont Merger Wins U.S. Antitrust Approval with Conditions
- Airbnb Growth Slows Worldwide as Regulations Increase
Productivity Growth: Labor vs. Human Productivity:
- Global Productivity Slowdown Risks Creating Instability, Warns IMF
- Chart of the Day: Number of Jobless Adults Up 36% So Far This Century
- Economic Reality: Bottom 50% of Americans No Longer Save
B. Piratization: Could the Rape of Greece Happen Here?
- Greek PM says Debt Relief is a Condition for more Austerity
- U.S. Has Regressed To A Third-World Nation For Most Of Its Citizens
- Africa Subsidies the Rest of the World by Over $40B in One Year, According to New Research
C. National Security State Costs Are Out-of-Control
- McCain & Neocons up DOD budget by $100 billion
- U.S. Drops Largest Non-Nuclear Bomb on ISIS Target in Afghanistan, Military Officials Say
- Black Budget Wars & Central Bank Panic!
- Oliver Stone Rages Against The Deep State’s “Wonderful Job Of Throwing America Into Chaos”
- WikiLeaks Just Dropped the CIA’s Secret How-To for Infecting Windows
- Army Lost Track of More than $1 Billion in Humvees, Weapons in Iraq, Report Says
D. More Cut & Run
E. Corruption: Out of Control
- Never Forget: Hero Cop Who Blew Whistle On OKC Bombing Did NOT Commit Suicide
- NYPD Says it is Now Investigating the Hudson River Death of a Pioneering African American Judge as ‘Suspicious’ even Though She was Initially Thought to have Committed Suicide
- Deutsche Bank Sued For Running An “International Criminal Organization” In Italian Court
- Wasserman Schultz Threatens Police Chief For Investigating Her IT Staff’s Crimes
- Hillary Clinton Told FBI’s Mueller To Deliver Uranium To Russians In 2009
- The “Market Forces” Behind the Obamas’ Record-Setting Book Deal
- James Comey Being Sued in Bombshell Lawsuit
- Retired FBI Special Agent Blows the Whistle on the Real Robert Mueller
- US Committee on Judiciary Opens Probe into Hillary’s Links to Yunus to Sway Hasina
- The Lawsuit That Could Sink the Clintons: A 30-Year Murder Cover-up Is Going to Court
- Pump and Dump 2.0 Auto Loaning Fraud
- JPMorgan Beats Madoff Customers’ Appeal
- Jamie Dimon Warns “Something Is Wrong” With The US
- Deutsche Bank’s $10-Billion Scandal
Pedophilia & Control Files:
- Veterans Exposing Pedophiles & Rescuing Children
- Takedown of Underground Pedophile Network Nets 900 Arrests
- Haitian Girl Forced to Have Sex with Nearly 50 UN Workers as Part of Child Sex Ring
- Former Dyncorp VP Charged With Rape Of A Minor
- Dutch Banker Ronald Bernard Blows the Whistle on World’s Satanic Elite
- The Virginia Shooting is Tied to Sex Trafficking
Voter Fraud:
- Netanyahu Interfering in US Election Israel’s Opposition Leader Says
- DNC Battling Class-action Suit Alleging Sanders was Robbed in 2016
- Susan Rice Ordered “Detailed Spreadsheets Of Intercepted Phone Calls Trump Team
- JW Sues for Records about Obama Administration’s Unmasking of Trump Associates
- Rubio Corners Comey and Lays Rest to Trump-Russia Question
- It Doesn’t Take a Russian to Hack an American Election
- Family’s Private Investigator: Evidence Seth Rich had Contact with WikiLeaks Prior to Death
- Was the Election Rigged Against Bernie Sanders? DNC Lawsuit Demands Repayment for Campaign Donors
- Donna Brazile Warned Off Private Eye on Seth Rich Murder
- Three Attorneys Found Dead In Wasserman Schultz Florida District In 2 Weeks
- Kim Dot Com Statement on Seth Rich
- Seth Rich Murder #6
- Nearly 50,000 Urge Trump to Probe Seth Rich Murder
- Seth Rich’s Neighbors Sound Off on Murder Mystery
- Trump Picks Al Capone of Vote Rigging To investigate Federal Voter Fraud
Obama Kickbacks:
- Obama Details Plans for Chicago Presidential Center
- Sweet: Obama Foundation Ramps Up Fundraising
- The Obama’s $60M Book Deal is Way Over-Priced
- Proposed Golf Course at Obama Library Draws Criticism
Politicians and Government Officials with Dual Citizenship:
- Time to Outlaw Dual Citizenship for Government, Military and Elected Positions
- Central Banks Should Look Abroad For Talent
F. Decentralization: Can We Re-Localize? Can It Work?
- Dr. Cynthia McKinney: “Congress Is Nothing But Theatrics” – VL Interview Part 2
- Monopoly Power and the Decline of Small Business: The Case for Restoring America’s Once Robust Antitrust Policies
- What a State-Owned Bank Can Do for New Jersey
G. Equity Creation Greater than Controlled Demolitions?
- If China Can Fund Infrastructure with Its Own Credit, So Can We
- Aldi FIres #3.4 Billion Shot in U.S. Supermarket Wars
- Amazon’s New Prime Wardrobe Lets You Try Clothes for Free (AMZN)
- Amazon to Buy Whole Foods for $13.7bn in All-Cash Deal
- Amazon’s Grocery Ambitions Are Far Bigger Than Whole Foods
- Tech’s Wealthy Enclaves Hurt the Country—and Tech Itself
- The Bespoke “Death by Amazon” Indices
- Public Sector Investors Favor Real Estate, Renewables
- Global Real Estate Bubble Index: Top 15 World Cities
- JP Morgan Chase Doubles Down on Detroit Investment
- Big Pharma’s Anti-marijuana Stance Aims to Squash the Competition
- After Legalizing Weed, Unemployment In Colorado Has Collapsed To Record Lows
- BP’s Dudley Seen Reigning for Years to Restore Major’s Might
H. Covert Cash Flows: Black Budget, Secret Dividends
- ShadowBrokers: The NSA compromised the SWIFT Network
- Interest Rate Swaps with Rob Kirby
- Terror in Britain: What Did the Prime Minister Know?
- Rodrigo Duterte Vows to Cut Off ISIS Drug Money
III. Global 3.0 Rising
A. Space
- SpaceX Successfully Lands its Falcon 9 Rocket After Launching Military Satellite
- Unmanned U.S. Air Force Space Plane Lands After Secret,Two-Year Mission
- India Space Research Organisation Plans Complex Manuevers
- Bill Ryan Update – “The Truth about Corey Goode”
B. Automation (and Digitization)
- Unicorns Watch In Horror As Uber Careens Towards A Possible Extinction Event
- Jack Ma Sees Decades of Pain as Internet Upends Old Economy
- Ukraine to Launch Big Blockchain Deal with Tech Firm Bitfur
- At BlackRock, Machines Are Rising Over Managers to Pick Stocks
- Digitisation Shakes Up Corporate-bond Markets
- Business in the Age of Ethereum
- U.S. Awards AT&T Contract to Build Wireless Network for First Responders
- Steve Ballmer Serves up a Fascinating Data Trove
- Dubai Government Taps IBM For City-Wide Blockchain Pilot Push
- BP, Eni Deepen Blockchain Trading in European Gas
- Goldman-backed Startup Circle Launches No-fee Foreign Payments Service
- Bernard Lietaer Joins Bancor Protocol Foundation as Chief Monetary Architect
- Facebook Working on Brain-Computer Interface to Translate Thoughts to Text
- David Hasselhoff Stars in a New Short Film—and All His Lines Were Written by AI
C. 5G is Coming
- What 5G Means to You with Jason Bawden-Smith
- The Race to 5G: Inside the Fight for the Future of Mobile as We Know It
D. Surveillance Capitalism
- Hacker Group Releases Password To NSA’s “Top Secret Arsenal” In Protest Of Trump Betrayal
- Leaked NSA Malware Is Helping Hijack Computers Around the World
- Tracking Hacking: The World’s Biggest Data Breaches
- Massive Cyberattack Spreads Around the World
- Dozens of Countries Hit by Huge Cyberextortion Attack
- British Intelligence Passed Trump Associates’ Russian communiques on to US
- Symantec Says CIA Hacking Tools Found Operating in 16 Countries
- Google Starts Tracking Offline Shopping — What You Buy at Stores in Person
- Facebook Developing ‘Talk,’ a Messaging Service For Teens
- WikiLeaks Just Dropped the CIA’s Secret How-to for Infecting Windows
- Secret Court Rebukes NSA for 5-Year Illegal surveillance of U.S. Citizens
- This Creepy Patent Proves They Can Remotely Hijack Your Nervous System
- Standing Rock Documents Expose Inner Workings of “Surveillance-Industrial Complex”
IV. How Will Investors Handle This Much Uncertainty?
- Former Clinton Foundation Donors Flocking To The McCain Institute
- McCain Institute Refuses to Disclose Big Donations
- The Astonishing Reinvention of Donald Trump
- Unicorns Watch In Horror As Uber Careens Towards A Possible Extinction Event: A Down Round
- Americans Still Favor Real Estate for Long-Term Investment
- Ethereum Surges To All Time High As SEC Considers Ether-based ETF
- Norway’s $940 Billion Wealth Fund Eyes Possible Repatriation of Tax Haven Subsidiaries
- NYC Pension Funds to Back Out of Investments in Private Prisons
- Why an Australian Fund Manager Decided to Sell Everything
- Costco Sees an Extremely Damaging Flush In Aftermath of Amazon’s Big Whole Foods Deal
A. The Rise of Index Funds
- Jack Bogle Warns Of Market “Chaos, Catastrophe” If Passive Investing Wins
- World’s Biggest Wealth Fund Refuses to Be Silenced
B. Volatility
- Jack Ma Sees Decades of Pain as Internet Upends Old Economy
- Want to See How America is Changing? Property Taxes Hold the Answer
- Why an Australian Fund Manager Decided to Sell Everything
C. Pretend Central Banks Will “Fix It”