It is NOT low oil prices - it is President Maduro's socialist's policies that will drive his country into further starvation, anarchy, leading to total collapse!

Venezuela's new decree: Forced farm work for citizens

In a vaguely-worded decree, Venezuelan officials indicated that public and private sector employees could be forced to work in the country's fields for at least 60-day periods, which may be extended "if circumstances merit.""Trying to tackle Venezuela's severe food shortages by forcing people to work the fields is like trying to fix a broken leg with a band aid," Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas' Director at Amnesty International, said in a statement.  President Nicolas Maduro is using his executive powers to declare a state of economic emergency. By using a decree, he can legally circumvent Venezuela's opposition-led National Assembly -- the Congress -- which is staunchly against all of Maduro's actions.

Venezuela once had a robust agricultural sector.  But under its socialist regime, which began with Hugo Chavez in 1999, the oil-rich country started importing more food and invested less in agriculture. Nearly all of Venezuela's revenue from exports comes from oil.  With oil prices down to about $41 a barrel from over $100 about two years ago, Venezuela has quickly run out of cash and can't pay for its imports of food, toilet paper and other necessities. Neglected farms are now being asked to pick up the slack.

DYI 

Generational Dynamics

John J. Xenakis

We truly live in magical times. 

Earnings have been falling, but the stock market keeps going up. 

It's as if the law of gravity has been repealed. Or perhaps the alchemists have finally found a way to turn lead into gold. 

Let's start, as I often do, with price/earnings ratios, also called stock valuations. 

According to Friday's Wall Street Journal, the S&P 500 Price/Earnings index (stock valuations index) on Friday morning (July 29) was at an astronomically high 25.03. This is far above the historical average of 14, indicating that the stock market bubble is still growing, and could burst at any time. Generational Dynamics predicts that the P/E ratio will fall to the 5-6 range or lower, which is where it was as recently as 1982, resulting in a Dow Jones Industrial Average of 3000 or lower.

 

The last time I wrote about this, the P/E ratio was a mere 24.23. That astronomically high number has now shot up to 25.03. That's because stock prices have been staying steady or going up, while earnings have been falling so that the ratio (price/earnings) goes up. 

Why are stock prices going up? It's because central banks around the world are "printing money" through quantitative easing (QE) at huge tsunami rates. 

According to Deutsche Bank, the European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of Japan (BOJ) are together buying around $180 billion of assets a month. 

And that's not the end. The ECB is expected to increase its QE to $110 billion, and the BOJ is expected to increase its QE program to $80 billion. The Bank of England (BoE) is expected to reactivate its QE program, and supply $197 billion more QE. 

It's mind-boggling beyond anything in history. There's never been anything like it. 

It's a credit bubble of such enormous size that it's impossible to predict the enormity of the disaster that will ensue when it finally implodes -- which it certainly will. 

Here's a quote from someone on tv described as a "tenured university professor of economics at University of Maryland." It's one the stupidest things I've ever heard, so I transcribed it: 

"Companies are learning how to use capital much more effectively. So central banks may have printed a lot of money, they are using money more efficiently, which lowers the price of capital, and essentially raises P/E ratios. We are now trading at about the 25 year average, but the long-term average the moving average over time is trending up. My feeling is that we could be looking at P/E ratios that are stable at 30 or 35 long-term. The average historically is 25, and that's where we are now."

Since I hear stupid things all the time on financial news channels, let's pull this apart for educational purposes. 

First, the P/E ratio now is around 25, but historically it's around 14, not 25. You'd think a "tenured professor of economics" would have a clue about that. 

Next, a P/E ratio is not stable at 25, and will certainly never be stable at 30-35. So let's explain what's going on here, and why the tenured professor is so confused. 

The P/E ratio is actually the reciprocal of a low-risk investment yield or interest rate. That is, the historical value of the P/E ratio is 14, and its reciprocal is earnings/price, which is historically around 1/14, or around 7%. This value, 7%, seems to be some sort of natural constant, the natural value that investments pay in "normal" times. That's why, in the decades after World War II, you had investments that paid around 7%, and you had mortgage rates around 7%. Savings accounts paid a little less, because banks had to make money, and government bonds paid a little less, because they were considered as safe as cash. 

So now you have a P/E ratio around 25, which corresponds to a 4% investment yield, is far below the "natural" value of 7%, but is possible because bond yields are now close to zero or are negative in many parts of the world. At such low yields, an average investor (without access to the huge floods of government money) is not willing to invest his money. That's one reason why investments are so low today. Who wants to invest in a shoe factory, if the most you can get is 4%, and you could lose everything if the shoe factory fails? 

So the tenured university economics professor says that he thinks the P/E ratio will stabilize around 30-35, pushing the investment yield down to 3%. That would only happen if much more of the world's government bonds go to negative interest rates, and that can't continue forever, meaning that a 30-35 P/E ratio is far from stable. 

So this really is truly a magical, marvelous time to be alive. Enjoy it while it lasts, Dear Reader.

DYI Comments:  Will the U.S. stock "mean invert" Shiller PE10 from the secular 2000 top at 43.77 all the way under 10?  If history is any sort of the guide most likely "YES."  When this bubble bursts the U.S. will go into a massive deflationary depression smash.  Shiller PE10 is currently at 26.95 a high flying market all propelled by cheap money provided by world wide central banks. Many years after it bursts economic historians will mark this period as a redo of the tulip bulb craze of Holland or England's South Sea Company.

So hang onto your hats and your cash better values are ahead!

DYI   

Forget What the Government Says…This Key Indicator Says the Economy Is In Big Trouble

The price of oil has fallen each of the last six days. It’s now down 19% since the second week of June. And it’s trading at its lowest level since April(as of 7-29-16 $42.38). 

You see, new methods like “fracking” made it possible for companies to pump billions of barrels of oil that were once out of reach. U.S. oil production has nearly doubled since 2006. Last year, production hit its highest level since the 1970's.  Output from other key oil producing countries also spiked. 

Overall, the price of oil fell nearly 75% from its 2014 high. Then, earlier this year, oil started to rally. It surged 89% from February to June…only to crash again recently. 

But, this time, oil is falling for a different reason. As you’re about to see, it's the latest sign that the global economy is headed for big trouble…

Caterpillar just put the global economy on watch

Because of the global scale of Caterpillar's operations and its involvement in long-term capital projects, the company's outlook is used as an informal bellwether of future economic conditions. 

"World economic growth remains subdued and is not sufficient to drive improvement in most of the industries and markets we serve," the company said in its statement.

DYI Comments:  Too soon to make a recession call.  This economy has been "dancing on the head of a pin" between ultra slow growth and recession and has been growing(what little there is) since it's bottom in 2009.  This economy is very long in the tooth, increasing the expectations for recession, nevertheless we are not there yet.

With an overvalued and over bullish stock and corporate bond market along with an economy that has been growing since 2009 now is not the time for wholesale commitments to stocks and bonds. There are bad times to invest and this is one of them.

 Updated Monthly

AGGRESSIVE PORTFOLIO - ACTIVE ALLOCATION - 7/1/16

Active Allocation Bands (excluding cash) 0% to 60%

87% - Cash -Short Term Bond Index - VBIRX

13% -Gold- Precious Metals & Mining - VGPMX

 0% -Lt. Bonds- Long Term Bond Index - VBLTX

 0% -Stocks- Total Stock Market Index - VTSAX

[See Disclaimer]

     Keep your powder dry better values are ahead!

DYI

Mexican Newspaper: Build a Trump-Style Wall with Central America

The editorial board of El Mañana, one of the largest newspapers in the border state of Tamaulipas,  penned a piece called “Yes to the Border Wall … but in Mexico’s South.” The piece praises the idea of border wall, not on the border with Mexico, but on the border with Central America. 

“Along the Mexican border peace and quiet came to an end, Central Americans played a large influence,” El Mañana’s piece claimed. 

Trump’s idea of a border wall is a good one but it should be on the southern border with Central America in order to stop the flow of Central Americans from entering both countries, according to El Mañana. The newspaper also calls for proper immigration checkpoints where documentation must be presented in order to gain access into Mexico. 

The Mexican newspaper called out Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton for not having even mentioned the issue of border security.

DYI 

Pension Funds Are Underwater – And Taking Us With Them

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has announced its worst performance in seven years. Its meager rate of return for the fiscal year ending June 30 just managed to squeak by .6%, not even beating our current meager rate of inflation. 

After two successive years of tepid returns, long-term fund averages have sunk far below the critical 7.5% benchmark. It’s bad news for California taxpayers, because if returns don’t soon show a long-term average of 7.5%, they’ll be the ones who will have to make up the difference. Ted Eliopoulos, the fund’s chief investment officer, admits the massive pension fund’s long-term returns are well below anticipated levels, telling the Los Angeles Times, “We’re moving into a much more challenging, low-return environment.” 

The bad news is: If you’re a California public employee, you’re going to take a hit. But even if you’re not a public employee, but merely a California taxpayer, you’ll also take a hit. In addition, while private employee pension funds don’t pose the same financial risk to non-participants, their members run a similar risk; after all, they’re toiling in the same universe of stocks and bonds. 

According to a 2014 article written by David Stockman and posted on his blog, the former Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan says eighty-five percent of pensions will fail if their returns average just four percent. CalPERS is reaping less than one.

The uncertainties that are constricting growth in bond yields and dividends – and therefore in the pension funds that invest in them – are the very same uncertainties currently driving the bull market in physical gold.  Don’t abandon your pension fund or employer plan by any means. But in the long run it may work out better if you’re at least as conscientious, if not more so, about setting aside a monthly amount for your safe haven precious metals.

DYI Comments: As 1st world wide central banks embarked upon massive QE, sub atomic/negative rates, many years from now economic historians will compare this mania to the speculative tulip bulb craze of Holland or the South Sea bubble of England.  The unintended consequences are already here as current retirees who augment Social Security by living off their CD's.  With rates so low they have to spend more and more of their principal to make ends meet. Many have already depleted their savings living in poverty due to these misguided policies.  Soon it will be pensions such as CalPERS and then it will be the holders of 401k's.

Why has the Fed's pushed this policy?  The real reason. Our central DOES NOT work for the American public.  Their goal from day one of their existence in 1913 are to privatize their gains and socialize(taxpayers) their losses for the New York and London centered banks.  An excellent book regarding the Fed, its true mission, along with its history, without all of the economic jargon:  The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin.   And by the way the author's prose flows like butter making for a delightful read.  Informative and entertaining.

DYI   

Fences are all the rage these days...Keeping out the Bernie Sanders Supporters??? The Bernie Barrier?

The Democratic National Committee has reportedly installed a border wall of sorts, specifically an eight-foot fence that supposedly spans four miles, around its convention venue.

DYI

DYI Comments:  Divergence between stock prices and margin debt.  If this continues setting up a crash scenario culminating with a two or three trading day sell off in the magnitude 12% to as high as 20%.  Not predicting this as a sure thing.  However, with markets as over valued, over bullish and trading above the 20 day Bollinger band plus a drop off in margin debt marking a dangerous time to be holding or buying stocks on a whole sale basis.   

THERE ARE BAD TIMES TO INVEST.  During more normal times DYI is buying and holding stocks sometimes more and sometimes less depending upon our weighted averaging formula.  Today valuations are so elevated our formula has "kick us out" of the market and rightfully so!  To achieve the long term rate of return, whatever that will be, on a no if, or buts basis now requires a holding period of 48 YEARS!  Simple calculation to obtain the duration of the market: 1 /div. yield x 100 = years.  1 / 2.06 x 100 = 48.54 years.  That's fine and dandy if you are a well healed youngster drinking out of his or hers sippy cup watching barney!

This is a bad time to buy stocks on a whole sale basis.  Don't go and lose lose your head while everyone else is losing theirs.

DYI

Why this Spike Will Perforate Yield Chasers

by Wolf Richter • July 24, 2016

Record moneys suddenly pile into the material of debt crises.

The Institute of International Finance opined last week that “the ‘low for long’ interest rate outlook now looks more like ‘low forever’ – an outcome that has unleashed a powerful renewed search for yield.” 

Japanese investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies, are swarming into US Treasuries now more than ever. 

Europeans are doing the same thing, buying US Treasuries, but also US corporate bonds, and even US junk bonds. 

“NIRP refugees” we’ve come to call them. They’re trying to escape their central bank’s iron-fisted financial repression where bond buyers are guaranteed to lose money if they hold bonds to maturity, which many institutional investors need to do – such as pension funds and insurance companies. It impacts everyone since they’re managing the money of regular folks. 

But where do American investors go to chase yield, now that Treasury yields are disappearing before their very eyes? 

Junk bonds. And they have soared, and yields have plunged over the past few months. 

And dividend stocks. Even classic bond buyers are switching to stocks that pay a dividend, to get a little extra yield. But companies can eliminate dividends in no time, and the yield goes to zero while the stock dives. A bond would be in default if the issuer were to stop paying the coupon. By that time, bankruptcy lawyers are circling. But cutting a dividend is routinely done during market downturns, and yield investors who switched from bonds to dividend stocks have a rude awakening. 

Investors who chased yield this far and got in late, especially in bond mutual funds and ETFs, are going to pay the price. Chasing yield, especially late in the game, is one of the more costly forms of excitement.

DYI comments:  We are in a "double hit collision" ending phase, cyclical and secular tops for stock and bonds especially corporate and very low quality junk bonds.  When a world wide recession arrives causing a deflationary smash here in the States - stocks, corporate bonds and especially low quality junk bonds will be smashed.  Treasury bonds however will move up smartly in price dropping yields for 10 year T-bonds below 1% and 30 year T-bonds below 2% with 5 year notes and bills going negative!  Gold will move up nicely in price along with the U.S. dollar and Treasury securities as world wide players seek a "flight to safety" irregardless of yield or no yield in the case of gold. 

Chasing yield I don't believe the average Joe way of excitement but more out of desperation especially for retiree's attempting to stretch their remaining dollars.  QE, operation twist, outright buying of stocks and bonds(foreign central banks) is complete insanity.  When the deflationary smash arrives the Fed's along with 1st world central banks will QE to staggering levels setting up DYI's scenario for the inflationary 2020's.  Until then ultra low inflation/deflation will rein supreme.       

No matter how this plays out we know for certain stock and corporate bond markets are insidiously overvalued.  How ruinous to one's financial health?  A standard pension asset allocation of 60% stocks - 30% bonds - 10% cash(T-bills) estimated average annual REAL return is now 0% to 2% FOR A 20 YEAR HOLD!

HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS AND YOUR CASH - BETTER VALUES AWAIT!

Updated Monthly

AGGRESSIVE PORTFOLIO - ACTIVE ALLOCATION - 7/1/16

Active Allocation Bands (excluding cash) 0% to 60%

87% - Cash -Short Term Bond Index - VBIRX

13% -Gold- Precious Metals & Mining - VGPMX

 0% -Lt. Bonds- Long Term Bond Index - VBLTX

 0% -Stocks- Total Stock Market Index - VTSAX

                                                               [See Disclaimer]

DYI    

US War In Afghanistan Is Fueling Global Heroin Epidemic & Enabling The Drug Trade

When the U.S. overthrew the Taliban in the wake of 9/11, it set the stage for the explosive growth of Afghanistan’s opium industry. In this episode of ‘Behind the Headline,’ host Mnar Muhawesh explains how the global war on terror created a global epidemic of heroin overdoses.

 In the summer of 2000, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar announced a total ban on the cultivation of opium poppy, the plant from which heroin is made. Those caught planting poppies in Taliban-controlled parts of the country were beaten and marched through villages with motor oil on their faces.

The War in Afghanistan saw the country’s practically dead opium industry expanded dramatically. By 2014, Afghanistan was producing twice as much opium as it did in 2000. By 2015, Afghanistan was the source of 90 percent of the world’s opium poppy.

MINNEAPOLIS — The “War on Drugs” and the “War on Terror” are more intertwined than that media and our elected officials would like us to think. 

And this became full front and center when the U.S.-led global crusades overlapped in Afghanistan, leaving in their wake a legacy of death, addiction and government corruption tainting Afghan and American soil. 

In the U.S., the War in Afghanistan is among the major contributing factors to the country’s devastating heroin epidemic.

 Despite our promises to eradicate the black market, the U.S. actually enables the illegal drug trade. As journalist Abby Martin writes, the U.S. government has had a long history of facilitating the global drug trade: In the 1950s, it allowed opium to be moved, processed and trafficked throughout the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia while it trained Taiwanese troops to fight Communist China. In the 80s, the CIA provided logistical and financial support to anti-Communist Contras in Nicaragua who were also known international drug traffickers. 

And in 2012, a Mexican government official claimed that rather than fighting drug traffickers, the CIA and other international security forces are actually trying to “manage the drug trade.”

DYI Comments:  The CIA has been involved in the drug trade since at least Vietnam and possibly earlier.  Has been used to fund covert operations instead of requesting Dollars from Congress and all of their questions.  No doubt certain actors within the agency have become wealthy dealing in drugs as well.

From day one the attack on Afghanistan was not about terrorism but as an avenue to overwhelm the Taliban with U.S. forces and regain control over the heroin trade!

DYI      

July 25, 2016

Speculative Extremes and Historically-Informed Optimism

John P. Hussman, Ph.D.

There’s a field in one of our data sets that rarely sees much play, being driven primarily by only the most extreme combination of overvaluation, overbullish sentiment, and overbought conditions we’ve identified across history. It’s one of a variety of such syndromes we track, and I’ve simply labeled it “Bubble,” because with a single exception, this extreme variant has only emerged just before the worst market collapses in the past century.

Prior to the advance of recent years, the list of these instances was: August 1929, the week of the market peak; August 1972, after which the S&P 500 would advance about 7% by year-end, and then drop by half; August 1987, the week of the market peak; March 2000, the week of the market peak; and July 2007, within a few points of the final peak in the S&P 500, with a secondary signal in October 2007, the week of that final market peak.

The advancing segment of the current market cycle was different in its response to historic speculative extremes. Air-pockets, panics and crashes had regularly followed these and lesser “overvalued, overbought, overbullish” extremes in every previous market cycle, and our reliance on that fact became our Achilles Heel during the advancing half of this one. In an experiment that will ultimately have disastrous consequences, the Federal Reserve’s policy of quantitative easing intentionally encouraged yield-seeking speculation in this cycle far beyond the point where these warning signals emerged. 

In other cycles across history, patient adherence to a value-conscious, historically-informed investment discipline was rewarded, if occasionally after some delay. In the advancing portion of this cycle, Ben Bernanke’s blind, stubborn recklessness made patient adherence to a value-conscious, historically-informed investment discipline itself indistinguishable from blind, stubborn recklessness. In mid-2014, we adapted our own investment discipline to address this challenge (see the “Box” in The Next Big Short for the full narrative). While lesser overvalued, overbought, overbullish syndromes in 2010 and 2011 were followed by significant market losses, the pattern changed once the Fed drove short-term interest rates to single basis points. In the face of these near-zero interest rates, one had to wait for market internals to deteriorate explicitly (indicating a shift toward risk-aversion among investors) before adopting a hard-negative market outlook.

DYI Comments:   DYI's weighted dividend averaging formula has "kick us out" of the stock market and rightfully so!  Anytime stock prices as measured by the S&P 500 is elevated beyond 100% of its mean dividend yield we are "kick out" of the market.  Today the S&P 500 dividend yield(2.05%) expressed as price to dividends as 49 to 1.  The mean or average dividend yield since 1871 is 4.39% or price to dividends(PD) 23 to 1.  So.  A little easy math (49 - 23) / 23 x 100 = 113% beyond its mean.  This is a very pricey market; so buyer beware!  

DYI for little more than two years has seen itself as the boy who cried wolf only for the townsmen to find no wolf.  What has happened world wide central banks have gone sub atomic low/negative rate crazy followed by more insane QE. This has done nothing more than "jack up" stock and bond prices to absurd levels and has done nothing to help the real economy.  Dismal returns(I'm being polite) are now baked into the cake.

A typical 60% stock - 30% bond -10% T-bills pension fund invested in that allocation held for the next 20 years after all fee's, commissions, trading impact costs, and inflation their return will be around 0% to 2%.  To say this is a horrible time to invest is an understatement.

So hang onto your hats and your cash better values are ahead!

  Updated Monthly

AGGRESSIVE PORTFOLIO - ACTIVE ALLOCATION - 7/1/16

Active Allocation Bands (excluding cash) 0% to 60%

87% - Cash -Short Term Bond Index - VBIRX

13% -Gold- Precious Metals & Mining - VGPMX

 0% -Lt. Bonds- Long Term Bond Index - VBLTX

 0% -Stocks- Total Stock Market Index - VTSAX

                                                                  [See Disclaimer]

DYI 

U.S. sides with HSBC to block release of money laundering report

The U.S. government asked a federal appeals court on Thursday to block the release of a report detailing how HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) is working to improve its money laundering controls after the British bank was fined $1.92 billion. 

In a brief filed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. Department of Justice sought to overturn an order issued earlier this year by U.S. District Judge John Gleeson to make public a report by the bank's outside monitor.

"Public disclosure of the monitor's report, even in redacted form, would hinder the monitor's ability to supervise HSBC," the government's court filing said, adding that bank employees would be less likely to cooperate with the monitor if they knew their interactions could be released. 

 HSBC concurred with the court's finding. "HSBC also argues that the Monitor's report should remain confidential, as have the Monitor, the UK Financial Conduct Authority, the US Federal Reserve and other HSBC regulators," HSBC said in a statement. "The effectiveness of the monitorship is dependent on confidentiality."

DYI Comments:  Oh! Please! What nonsense "Public disclosure of the monitor's report, even in redacted form, would hinder the monitor's ability to supervise HSBC,"  Here we go again! Bank managers break all kind of laws and everyone walks, so much so, they are now concerned if the poor dears feelings are hurt.  Our American government desperately hungry for revenues has become part of the criminal class by scraping off a portion of ill gotten gains.  To keep the game going "NO ONE GOES TO PRISON!'

Any wonder why the British people rejected the EU?  It is my opinion there was massive voter fraud yet the vote to leave the EU won.  Most likely - my opinion - the referendum to leave somewhere along the lines of of 7 to 3!  Moving across the pond - back here in the good old USA everyday folks have become so despondent they have thrown their hands up in complete despair.

After eight years of sub atomic low interest rates and "what ever it takes" mentality including pushing short term rates to zero(negative in Europe) massive repeated QE, has done nothing more than create an environment of malinvestment that has "jacked up" financial engineering and massive private/public debt creation here AND among ALL 1st world countries!

Why was this done?  So that bankers in New York and London - by stealing from the common man of both countries - would never have to face the music:  They made bad speculation/investments - along with fraud - they are bankrupt!  

Too big to fail - then too big to exist!  It's time to bust up the top 25 banks into 5,000 to 7,500 new banks AND bring back the Glass - Steagall act separating investment banks from commercial banks.

The U.S. is now governed by a system; if you are high level politically connected, CEO of major corporations, bankers, and now unfortunately many police officers(not all) commit crimes - they are exempt from prosecution.  If this is not checked it will filter down to lower levels of our society once low enough the rule of law will cease and be replaced by the rule of the jungle!  Anarchy/civil war/civil disobedience(riots) will become the mainstay of American society if this criminal movement is not stopped.

The first lower level of criminal behavior - only in its infancy and thank God - our police departments.  Confiscation laws - written immorally - are seizing suspects cash and property WITHOUT due process of law.  Cash or prepaid debit cards are seized during traffic stops - stating this money is part of the drug trade - NO ARREST - sending the individual(s) on their marry way is becoming common.  Anyone who doesn't believe the police would "skim off the top" money for themselves is a damn fool.  Also the act itself is nothing more than grand theft!  No matter how guilty we believe this person(s) is - everyone has their day in court.

        

How Police Officers Seize Cash From Innocent Americans

On February 17, 2014, a 24-year-old college student named Charles Clarke checked a bag at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and parked himself in a chair near the boarding gate. Having just visited relatives, he was in high spirits, and eager to return to his home in Florida. But Clarke’s day took an unexpected turn.  

Two uniformed men -- an airport police detective and a local Drug Enforcement Administration officer -- approached by Clarke and corralled him into a fluorescent backroom. His checked bag sat on a table. One of the men turned to him and grunted, “This smells like marijuana.” An extensive search ensued, which yielded no trace of drugs in Clarke’s luggage. But buried between t-shirts, in the young man’s bag, the officers discovered something of greater interest: $11,000 in cash. 

The cash, earned through five years of hard work at fast-food restaurants and retail outlets, represented Clarke’s life savings -- money he intended to use for tuition fees. But the officers didn’t buy his story. Based solely on the fact that his bag “smelled like weed,” they claimed that the $11,000 was related to drug trafficking and seized it. 

***

Under the umbrella of “civil forfeiture,” officers of the law confiscate millions of dollars in cash from thousands of individuals like Charles Clarke every year. In doing so, they need no proof that the money is obtained through illegal means. They do not need to file a criminal charge. The law flips the American justice system upside down: the burden of proving innocence is on the “suspect” -- and if he or she can’t do that, the property is fair game for officers to take.

In a 2014 investigation, The Washington Post identified 61,998 cash seizures made by federal, state, and local authorities on highways over the past decade, totalling in excess of $2.5 billion. 

$2.5 billion! 

The vast majority of the seizures were of relatively small amounts (50% were under $8,800), and due to the high costs of legal counsel, only 1 in 6 cases were challenged. 

Upon analyzing 400 of these cases more closely, The Post  found that those pulled over were predominantly Black, Hispanic, or members of another minority group. 

As The Post writes, a “thriving subculture of road officers...now competes to see who can seize the most cash and contraband.” Some officers are so good at sniffing out cash that they make a living as consultants, traveling to different agencies and “coaching” them on the best approaches to utilizing civil forfeiture. One of these men, Joe David, who runs a “stop-and-seizure” firm called Desert Snow, single-handedly brought in $427 million over a five-year period -- 25% of which his firm was permitted to keep. Eddie Ingram, an Alabama-based deputy, purports to have brought in $11 million over a similar span.

Unfortunately, authorities don’t just use civil forfeiture on traffic stops. Until recently, the IRS and Department of Justice also seized property due to violations of an arcane “structuring” law. Federal law requires that individuals report bank transactions over $10,000; if large amounts less than that are deposited in separate chunks, the government assumes the account holder is trying to intentionally evade the law. 

Terry Dehko, the owner of a small supermarket in Fraser, Michigan, learned this the hard way. After making several consecutive deposits between $5-8,000 in cash, the government “cleared out” his bank account -- more than $35,000 -- without offering any warning or explanation.

DYI Continues:  The list has become endless as bankers are fined - repeatedly - politically connected such as Hillary's email and their slush fund foundation - CEO's committing securities and other fraudulent activities - legalizing immoral seizure laws corrupting our police departments.  Yet no one goes to prison.  If not stopped withing 20 to 30 years America will end up being a second world rated country along the likes of Brazil or Argentina!

DYI    

Ted Cruz Booed For Refusing To Endorse Trump; Heidi Cruz Escorted Out To Shouts Of "Goldman Sachs"

Cruz's wife, Heidi, was seen leaving the arena when the booing started getting very loud. Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli told ABC News that he escorted Heidi Cruz out of the convention hall because “it was volatile and the Trump folks were physically approaching and confrontationally yelling,” he said via text. 

According to CNN's Manu Raju, as Heidi was being escorted out, one angry Trump supporter was shouting "Goldman Sachs" at her.

 CFR and Conservative Cruz

Facts are facts.  Heidi  Cruz  was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  The same CFR that Ted calls a den of pernicious snakes.  Heidi helped to write the manual on how to merge the United States into the North American Union.  Her name is on the list of those on the Task Force Sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations in association with the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales.  The Task Force to devise a plan to merge America, Canada and Mexico into a borderless North American Union.  Her name is proudly listed on the Manual, not as a conservative but as a member of the CFR Task Force.   This is a fact.

Meanwhile, Ted mentions nothing about his wife’s big banking connections.  But, she says she loves helping entrepreneurs so she gets a pass on that, right?  Goldman Sachs is well known for helping all the small business guys right?  Wrong. 

Ted needs to figure out a few more canned defenses and practice them in front of the mirror.  Get the correct hand and arm movements going on, the perfect pauses down and slant his eyes to look real sincere.  Yea…that might work.  While he’s at it, he should be sure to say that as a Christian and a father he only wants what is best for America. 

CFR Website 

Building a North American Community

Task Force Members

HEIDI S. CRUZ is an energy investment banker with Merrill Lynch in Houston, Texas. She served in the Bush White House under Dr. Condoleezza Rice as the Economic Director for the Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council, as the Director of the Latin America Office at the U.S. Treasury Department, and as Special Assistant to Ambassador Robert B. Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative. Prior to government service, Ms. Cruz was an investment banker with J.P. Morgan in New York City.

DYI Comments:  For those who are unaware The Council on Foreign Relations are most definitely promoting a one world government. The problem is what does one do when a one world government becomes tyrannical?  Where do you flee?  Mars? Or for Star Trek followers Vulcan? 

Building a North American Community sounds soooo friendly just as European Union was suppose to only be about trade agreements; from day one both are to create a political union.  Then merge all of the political unions into one world government.  Hopefully Ted Cruz political career, at least as a potential president is finished.  

DYI      

Since the Miner's Big Run - Waiting for a Pull Back is Sensible Before Making Further Commitments!

DYI

When it comes to crimes against the state - follow the money - and you will find big business protecting their industry!

The Real Reason Pharma Companies Hate Medical Marijuana (It Works)

Whenever an irrational and inhumane law remains on the books far longer than any thinking person would consider appropriate, there’s usually one reason behind it: money. 

Unsurprisingly, the continued federal prohibition on marijuana and its absurd classification as a Schedule 1 drug is no exception. Thankfully, a recent study published in the journal Health Affairs shows us exactly why pharmaceutical companies are one of the leading voices against medical marijuana. It has nothing to do with healthcare and everything to do with corporate greed.

Pharmaceutical companies have also lobbied federal agencies directly to prevent the liberalization of marijuana laws. In one case, recently uncovered by the office of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the Department of Health and Human Services recommended that naturally derived THC, the main psychoactive component of marijuana, be moved from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substances Act — a less restrictive category that would acknowledge the drug’s medical use and make it easier to research and prescribe.  

Several months after HHS submitted its recommendation, at least one drug company that manufactures a synthetic version of THC — which would presumably have to compete with any natural derivatives — wrote to the Drug Enforcement Administration to express opposition to rescheduling natural THC, citing “the abuse potential in terms of the need to grow and cultivate substantial crops of marijuana in the United States.” 

The DEA ultimately rejected the HHS recommendation without explanation. 

Yes, this DEA…

DYI