The most comprehensive scientific study ever done of the subject has shown that America is ruled only by its few richest, not by the public. How can this be the case if its Government is run by two Parties — Democrats and Republicans? Those are merely competing factions within the aristocracy. America is a two-Party dictatorship. A dictatorship can have any number of parties. An aristocracy can have any number of factions.

But who here can remember 1929?

Not I, but I was a little kid who paid attention.

Wandering into a tea at my grandmother's, one of the silver-haired ladies ordained that I come sit by her, and listen.

Old money was sipping Earl Grey and remembering not just 1929 but also 1933 and the govt-violation of safety deposit boxes to confiscate citizen gold, and even jewelry.

They described suicides leaping out of windows and going splat, fortunes lost overnight, factories, farms, homes called in as bank collateral.

Painful sanctions on Iran have demonstrated the long reach of the U.S. Treasury, forcing much of the globe to fall in line and cut oil imports from Iran despite widespread disagreement over the policy. Yet, we are only in the first few chapters of what may ultimately be a long story that ends with the erosion of the power of the U.S. dollar.

The role of the greenback in the international financial system is the reason why the U.S. can prevent much of the world from buying oil from Iran. Oil is traded in dollars, and so much of international commerce is based in dollars. In fact, as much as 88 percent of all foreign exchange trades involve the greenback.

Moreover, multinational companies inevitably have some commercial ties to the U.S., so when faced with the choice of business with Iran or losing access to the U.S. financial system and the American market, the choice is an easy one.

The Turkish lira swung violently, rising to session highs then slumping 1.5% after Turkey presented its medium term economic plan, which together with last week's massive 625bps rate hike was supposed to restore investor confidence in the country's struggling economy.

The Turkish Lira first rose 1.9% during the speech delivered by Turkey's finance minister Berat Albayrak in which he revealed targets for growth and inflation that signaled a somewhat realistic assessment of the economy and its outlook, including a current account deficit that was forecast at 3.3% for 2019, a number seen as realistic and a far-cry from some of the wild estimates recently suggested by analysts.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has authorized the addition of 33 alleged Russian spies, defense and intelligence officials to the US sanctions list. The blacklisting took place following an executive order from President Trump authorizing Steven Mnuchin, in consultation with Pompeo, to employ all powers granted to the President "by IEEPA and certain CATSAA sections" for implementation of certain sanctions with respect to Russia.

A White House official said the new measures were aimed at "imposing costs on Russia in response to its malign activities."

Washington has also imposed new sanctions on a Chinese military unit over the purchase of Russian jets and missiles.The Chinese sanctions are to come into effect immediately.

One of the most heinous things about taxes is that they support the very 'organs' (to quote a Soviet-era term) of government that crush the people... even further. The taxes are weapons used by the authorities...and all authority comes from the barrel of a gun (to paraphrase Mao). The taxes are used to corral in the masses and keep them upon a continuous treadmill that sustains the system...the very system that exploits and enslaves the citizens.

The Federal Reserve’s changing of the guard - the end of Janet Yellen’s tenure and the beginning of the Jerome Powell era - has me remembering what it was like to grow up in the former Soviet Union.

Back then, our local grocery store had two types of sugar: The cheap one was priced at 96 kopecks (Russian cents) a kilo and the expensive one at 104 kopecks. I vividly remember these prices because they didn’t change for a decade. The prices were not set by sugar supply and demand but were determined by a well-meaning bureaucrat (who may even have been an economist) a thousand miles away.

If all Russian housewives (and house-husbands) had decided to go on an apple-pie diet and started baking pies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, sugar demand would have increased but the prices still would have been 96 and 104 kopecks. As a result, we would have had a shortage of sugar — a common occurrence in the Soviet era.

Americans' propensity to use their home equity to pay for routine household expenses - as if it was a credit card - has waned in the years since the financial crisis, largely because home ownership rates have also plunged to the lowest level in modern US history.

But with borrowers sitting on massive amounts of untapped equity, one study by Bankrate.com suggests that millions of Americans are seriously considering tapping to pay for everyday purchases even as interest rates are pushing borrowing costs to their highest level since the financial crisis.

And as anybody who remembers the crisis would remember, this can become extremely problematic when it comes time to roll those loans over at a higher rate.

Almost every aspect of the global economic downturn, which started ostensibly in 2007-2008 and is still ongoing to this day, can be traced back to the actions and policies of central banks. The Federal Reserve, for example, used artificially low interest rates and easy money to create a supposedly no-risk loan environment. This translated into a vast amount of toxic mortgage debt along with a web of derivatives (Mortgage Backed Securities) attached to that debt.

The Fed ignored all the signs and all the alternative analyst warnings. Agencies like S&P backed the Fed narrative that all was well as they gave AAA ratings to endless toxic market products. The mainstream media backed the Fed by attacking anyone that argued the notion that the U.S. economy was unstable and ready to falter. In that era of economics, the truth was effectively hidden from the public by the system through relatively standard means. Today, things have changed slightly.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has authorized the addition of 33 Russian defense and intelligence officials to the US sanctions list.

Washington has also imposed new sanctions on a Chinese military unit over the purchase of Russian jets and missiles. The Chinese sanctions are to come into effect immediately.

On Wednesday, President Moon Jae-in and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un signed a joint statement on the general improvement of inter-Korean relations, capping off a very successful third summit which appears to have gotten the denuclearization operations back on track.

In addition to denuclearization and peace talks efforts, the two Koreas agreed to found a joint military committee, which will be charged with maintaining communication between the two nations, and prevent any accidental clashes.

This is potentially a hugely important step, as the two nations try to reduce decades of military tensions, and negotiate efforts to move their respective forces away from the border as the efforts to negotiate a peace treaty advance.

Cincinnati police officer Kevin Brown’s decision to fire a Taser at an 11-year-old girl suspected of shoplifting from a grocery store in August immediately drew criticism from city officials and advocates.

This is even worse than the police union's take on the incident, which referred to the completely expected backlash as "kneejerk." But, hey, I guess deciding to tase an 11-year-old in the back -- one who reportedly was all of 4'11'' and 90 pounds -- couldn't possibly be portrayed as a kneejerk reaction by a law enforcement officer. When force isn't truly needed, we can be sure some cops will deploy it anyway.

But Rep. John Becker's take is the hottest take of all. Anyone tased by a cop -- even an 11-year-old -- is a person who brought that crackling, barbed punishment down on themselves. There's no reason to question the wisdom or necessity of the Taser deployment. Rather, we should question ourselves. And perhaps society. But mostly ourselves.

Speaking to journalists before meeting his Polish colleague Andrzej Duda, the US President slammed the joint venture to build a direct gas pipeline from Russia to central Europe via the Baltic Sea, calling it "unfortunate for the people" of Germany.

US President Donald Trump and Polish head of state Andrzej Duda have agreed to unite their efforts against the Russian-European Nord Stream 2 project. According to the two leaders, who met in the White House, energy projects "endangering our security, like Nord Stream 2" should be prevented. Trump stressed that nobody should depend on only one energy supply.

However, Donald Trump has stated the US was not planning to slap any sanctions against companies involved in the Russian project when asked about such a possibility.

Heads of state and government of the 28 EU states will not adopt new sanctions against Russia over Russia’s alleged involvement in poisoning of the former Russian military intelligence officer Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, a source in the EU Council told TASS.

"Introduction of new restrictions at the summit is not expected. At the moment no additional sanctions against Russia are planned," the source said.

“History is due to repeat itself” warns Ray Dalio on Bloomberg

– “I think it will be more of a dollar crisis than a debt crisis” says Bridgewater Founder

– “It will be more of a political and social crisis…”

– “Balance is key” and if going to be active investor, you need to be contrarian and “buy when there is blood in the streets”

– Bridgewater continues to own gold and Dalio views gold as a currency and as money

– “It’s not sensible not to own gold…” Dalio told the CFR

“I sit on a man’s back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible … except by getting off his back.” —Leo Tolstoy

A week ago, Apple announced a redesigned smartwatch that could track heart data, run EKGs, and even detect atrial fibrillation, promising that it would save lives. Today, one of America's biggest insurers killed its traditional life insurance policies, replacing them with "interactive" insurance that encourages users to use such devices and share the data with them to get perks.

These are already available, but will soon be the only option on John Hancock's menu.

Policyholders score premium discounts for hitting exercise targets tracked on wearable devices such as a Fitbit or Apple Watch and get gift cards for retail stores and other perks by logging their workouts and healthy food purchases in an app.

Privacy and consumer advocates have raised questions about whether insurers may eventually use data to select the most profitable customers, while hiking rates for those who do not participate.

We're not there yet, but President Donald Trump's escalating trade war with China is threatening to completely cancel out the economic benefits of last year's tax cuts—cuts that the president and his supporters have often credited for the growing economy.

Put another way, the potential costs of Trump's trade war could be even more difficult for the president to swallow. The import taxes imposed by the Trump administration will end up being a larger burden for the economy next year than all the taxes associated with the Affordable Care Act—a law that Trump has often described as "a disaster" for Americans.

While Trump has described tariffs as being "the greatest" and promised that his bellicose trade policies will ultimately benefit American workers and the economy, these two new assessments of the costs of those policies should raise questions among Republicans, who largely favored the tax cuts and opposed the new taxes created by Obamacare.

In retaliation for tariffs leveled on China, the Communist government has returned the favor, and set tariffs on $60 billion worth of goods imported from the United States. It only took mere hours for China to respond to the announcement that the US would place tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods.

If the U.S. continues to raise its tariffs, China will respond in kind, according to a report by NPR. This current ramp up in the trade war sets the stage for yet another set of tariffs and sky-high tensions between the US and China. On Monday, president Donald Trump also threatened to add levies on about $267 billion of additional imports if China retaliated.

When announcing the tariffs against China on Monday, Trump said China’s trade practices, such as forcing U.S. companies to transfer technology to Chinese firms, “plainly constitute a grave threat to the long-term health and prosperity of the United States economy.”

China’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries fell to a six-month low in July, just as a trade war between the world’s two largest economies began heating up.

China’s ownership of U.S. bonds, bills and notes slipped to $1.17 trillion, the lowest level since January and down from $1.18 trillion in June, according to data released by the Treasury Department on Tuesday. Japan, the largest foreign investor in Treasuries after China, increased its holdings, as did Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Singapore and France.

The first salvos in the U.S.-China trade conflict were fired on July 6, when the Trump administration activated tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods, which sparked immediate in-kind retaliation from Beijing. The escalation caused the yuan to drop roughly 2 percent in July, suggesting that the Asian nation shed U.S. bonds as a way to sell dollars and support its currency, according to NatWest Markets.

Estimates of Danske Bank's staggering fraud have grown since news that the US had launched an investigation broke last week. Since then, the total amount laundered through the bank by shadowy figures in the former Soviet Union has risen to an estimated 200 billion euros - or $234 billion. For context, that's many times the roughly $17 billion that flows through Estonian banks during an average year, meaning that the money laundering perpetuated by Danske effectively transformed the Estonian banking system into a giant front for organized crime groups. And as evidence has proliferated that the bank's leadership did nothing to inhibit the financial crimes despite being confronted with evidence from internal and external sources, the bank has determined that the time has come to make a token sacrifice so that the wider institution may survive.

A wave of UK protests were held outside branches of HSBC bank over shares in an Israeli arms company accused of manufacturing internationally banned weapons.

Protestors directed their anger against the bank’s $4.7 million worth of shares in a number of Israeli arms manufactures, including Elbit system, calling on the bank to sever ties with the firms accused of abetting Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.

Elbit Systems manufactures and supplies the Israeli military with drones, which are used regularly in attacks on Palestinian civilians, especially in Gaza Strip. It was recently revealed that an Elbit Hermes 450 drone was used during a 2014 attack in which four Palestinian children were killed on a Gaza beach while playing football.

The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has asked Russia to extend the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline to his country and further into Europe.
Orban, who is on a visit to Moscow, broached this potential project during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. "It's no secret that Hungary wants the pipeline that's being built near the south of the country, to go through Hungary,” Orban said. The countries have also agreed a gas delivery service from Russia to Hungary for 2020.

New Jersey lawmakers shelved a vote on advancing a bill Thursday that would prohibit retailers from refusing to accept cash. The measure was tabled before a Senate Commerce committee hearing after the retail giants and other stakeholders expressed concerns with the bill, said State Sen. Nellie Pou (D., Passaic), who chairs the committee and is sponsoring the legislation.

This is not what the market wants to hear right now.

Hours after China's Foreign Ministry said it would unveil its retaliation to the impending 10% US tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods "at an appropriate time" - a "measured" response that, because it wasn't "the worst scenario that some analysts had expected", helped push global markets higher, China's wealthiest - and recently retired - man warned that the US-China trade spat is far from over.

Alibaba founder - who surprised the market earlier this month when he announced his resignation as CEO - Jack Ma said that what we're seeing now is merely the beginning of a conflict for global economic dominance that could persist "for 20 years" even after the US administration that instigated it has been consigned to the history books, Bloomberg reports.

More and more countries in Asia and Europe are seeking an alternative to the US dollar as Washington has been undermining trust in what has been the world's main reserve currency over years, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Rossiya 1 TV channel Sunday.

“All of a sudden, the country, which issues the US dollar, starts making steps which are shattering trust in this reserve currency. More and more countries, not only in the East but also in Europe, start mulling ways to minimize their dependence on the US dollar. They suddenly realize: A. it is possible, B. it should be done, and C. save yourself if you can, it should be done as soon as possible,” Peskov said.

Over the past decade, in the wake of the 2008-09 debt crisis, the impossible has happened. The sickness of too much debt has been seemingly cured with massive dosages of even more debt. This, no doubt, is evidence that there are wonders and miracles above and beyond 24-hour home deliveries of Taco Bell via Door Dash.

The "dream" of socialism has once again collided with the realities of economics, after nearly 40% of stores in Venezuela have been forced to close following a mandated 3,000% increase in minimum wages by the Maduro government, according to the Miami Herald, citing the National Council of Commerce and Services of Venezuela.

Further complicating the situation are price caps on goods sold in stores - which are now selling below cost, and cannot raise prices to cover the mandatory increases in salaries.

If store owners are caught raising prices, they face fines and prison.

"We have inspections, and they force us to sell at last month’s prices," said Uzcátegui. "That takes money away from the business because of the hyperinflation, when you can’t even sell at yesterday’s prices because you lose money."

If you think gold or silver are the most expensive metals in the world because we call them “precious,” you are wrong. Here’s a list of five most valuable metals.

Upscale U.S. fashion label Henri Bendel - known in recent years for its luxury handbags and shoes - will shut down in January after 123 years in business, parent company L Brands has announced.

The Bendel website and all of the label's 23 stores in the United States, including the flagship location on New York's Fifth Avenue, will remain open through the holiday shopping season, L Brands said in a statement.

But from the start of 2019, the parent company said it will put its focus on the group's more profitable labels.

'We are committed to improving performance in the business and increasing shareholder value,' L Brands chairman and CEO Leslie Wexner said in a statement released Thursday.