New Generations Suffer Growing Wealth Gap

Revealed: The 30-Year Economic Betrayal Dragging Down Generation Y’s Income

The full scale of the financial rout facing millennials is revealed today in exclusive new data that points to a perfect storm of factors besetting an entire generation of young adults around the world.

A combination of debt, joblessness, globalisation, demographics and rising house prices is depressing the incomes and prospects of millions of young people across the developed world, resulting in unprecedented inequality between generations.

A Guardian investigation into the prospects of millennials – those born between 1980 and the mid-90s, and often otherwise known as Generation Y – has found they are increasingly being cut out of the wealth generated in western societies.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/07/revealed-30-year-economic-betrayal-dragging-down-generation-y-income

How oil price volatility explains these uncertain times  

Recently it occurred to me that the wave pool provides a metaphor for a complex, but disquieting phenomena that I've have been writing about at Oil-price.net for some time now -for previous articles see 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015.

For anyone who has read one of these pieces you'll know how I have described that every three to four years volatility in the price of oil surges upwards as if spurred by an unseen wave machine.

As Alaska Warms, the Iditarod Adapts   

Winter here is changing rapidly. Of the six warmest November-to-January seasons in Alaska since 1925, three have been in a row, including this one. Anchorage this year had its fourth-warmest February on record — at 29.9 degrees, almost 10 degrees above average — with little snow for weeks.

Afghanistan: The Forever-War We Never Question   

On the Republican side, Ben Carson was asked about Obama’s decision last year to “leave 10,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan” indefinitely. That was in November 2015, and Carson dodged the question, shifting to a question of his own — on humiliation as counterterrorism — that he posed as an answer. “How do we make them look like losers?” he asked, arguably elevating the discourse on foreign policy in this most humiliating of election campaigns.

Final nail in the coffin: Greece faces financial meltdown AGAIN amid threat of end of Euro

GREECE is heading towards another financial meltdown in a repeat of last summer’s fiasco that could see them crash out of the euro.

Greek leaders have failed to make enough progress on reforms aimed at bringing down their monstrous debt after multi-billion pound bailouts last summer.

And now begging Athens chiefs have reached stalemate in negotiations with creditors to decide how to claw back financial stability.

The three main lenders - the eurozone, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – all have different ideas on how much the country should lower spending as part of the bailout programme agreed last August.

Germany is taking a hard-line and refusing to give Greece more time to reach budget goals agreed with international lenders as part of August's bailout programme, despite the country struggling to deal with the migrant crisis.

http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/650508/EUROZONE-CHAOS-Greece-financial-meltdown-AGAIN-threatening-future-euro

Jim Rogers Thinks Deal To Bypass US Dollar Possible? & More

Jim Rogers Russia, China, Brazil Sign Deal To Bypass US Dollar?

Russia has little debt, ample resources and its currency freely floats and he speculates at some point a challenge to the US dollar will take place, he says

Jim Rogers thinks the US is a “flawed currency” that should be replaced and he thinks the BRICs nations can do it, minus India. Jim Rogers: Brazil wants to compete with the US dollar

Discussing the recent BRICs conference, Jim Rogers noted the steady drumbeat to displace the US as the world’s reserve currency of choice. “Brazil wants to compete with the IMF, the World Bank and the US dollar,” as do all participants in the BRICs conference, Rogers said when speaking on an RT interview.

“Brazil, China and Russia could easily put something together to compete with the US dollar,” Rogers said, leaving out one component of the BRICs alliance. “The US dollar is a terribly flawed currency. I’m an American. I hate to say that. But the US has serious problems, the world has serious problems. We need something else” and potentially a competing world currency could be developed. If this were to occur, the US and its economy might be put in a straight jacket as the ability to engage in large deficit spending could be curtailed. Jim Rogers: BRICs developing an alternative banking system

To put together a competing world reserve currency and develop an alternative banking system, the BRICs might consider throwing India out of the equation, Jim Rogers said. India has been said to be the stumbling block in establishing the new world bank. “India and Brazil have big (national) debts. Russia is not a big debtor and has big international reserves,” Rogers noted, pivoting to Russian advantages in the interview. “Russia has a freely convertible currency and none of the others have a freely convertible currency.” 

Jim Rogers thinks Russia should spend its time courting suitors in its own neighborhood, however. “If I were Russia I would be more interested in selling to Asia than South America.”

As reported two days ago in ValueWalk, the leaders of Russia, India, Brazil, China and South Africa are in meetings ending July 17 to bring together plans to create a $100 billion bank to compete with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The planed bank is a piece in a larger puzzle to provide a global alternative to Western dominance of the financial system. This has been a stated goal of Russia and China, both of whom have engaged in trade deals that eschew the use of the US dollar.markets 

Jim Rogers started trading the stock market with $600 in 1968.In 1973 he formed the Quantum Fund with the legendary investor George Soros before retiring, a multi millionaire at the age of 37. Rogers and Soros helped steer the fund to a miraculous 4,200% return over the 10 year span of the fund while the S&P 500 returned just 47%. 

Doomsday clock for global market crash strikes one

 minute to midnight as central banks lose control 

8 - Overvalued US market In the US, Professor Robert Shiller’s cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio – or Shiller CAPE – for the S&P 500 stands at 27.2, some 64pc above its historic average of 16.6. On only three occasions since 1882 has it been higher – in 1929, 2000 and 2007.

A September To Remember?

In terms of overnight action, China’s equity market eked out a positive gain amid a stabilizing yuan, further aided by the Chinese market regulator essentially inferring it would prop up the equity market for years to come. I wonder what we’ll think in 30 years’ time when we look back at the market intervention we have seen across the globe in the last half a decade or so. Hum dee dum.

This Week In Energy: The Growing Threat From China 

In the U.S., low oil prices could be exacerbated by an outage at a major U.S. refinery. The Whiting refinery, based in Indiana right outside of Chicago, was taken offline by its owner BP (NYSE: BP) for unplanned repairs. The refinery’s total output is 410,000 barrels per day, and one of the units (with a 240,000 barrel-per-day throughput capacity) could be offline for a month or two.

The Secrets Of Extraordinary Survivors 

Their successes challenge many of our common notions about the resilience of the human mind. While some people understandably crumble after extraordinarily harrowing events, others, like Eugenie have an extraordinary capacity to rebound and survive. Understanding why could lead us to help many more recover and grow after their experiences.

Europe In Crisis:

Everyone from Putin to ordinary savers is stockpiling gold

European investors snapped up gold bars and coins at a rapid pace in the second quarter as turmoil in Greece threatened to push the country out of the eurozone.

The World Gold Council (WGC) said demand in Europe for the precious metal rose sharply in the three months to June compared with the same quarter last year amid rapid buying of bullion, even as global demand fell by 12pc to a six-year low of 915 tonnes.

The increase in Europe was led by Germany, where sales of bars and coins rose 24pc to 24.1 tonnes in the second quarter. Demand in Austria and Switzerland also rose sharply, according to the WGC's quarterly trends report.

Learning Success: 

APPLY Tips From The Best

Larry Page,  Google – 


Larry Page is another example of a businessperson who can persevere any challenge. Larry and his company have faced much criticism and received ample praise over the years for his company’s actions. But in the midst of the storm, he has never let what others think sway him from pursuing the course for his company that he considers the best.

Top Weekly Ideas and Insights

An Inconvenient Truth

"Battle For Oil" 

What Happens When Political Interests Get Desperate?

EXISTENTIAL REALITY 

"Coming To The End Of Oil Age"

 - Looking Beyond The Brink -

The Middle Class Is Dying, & More

If The American Dream Is To Own A Home, Then It Hasn’t Been In Worse Shape Since 1967

Thanks to the “Obama recovery”, the rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen to the lowest level in 48 years.  The percentage of Americans that own a home is widely considered to be a key indicator of the health of the middle class, and we have just learned that during the second quarter of 2015 that number dropped from 63.7 percent to 63.4 percent.  It is now the lowest that it has been since 1967. 

 Unlike a lot of other government economic statistics, this one is fairly difficult to manipulate.  Either someone owns a home or they do not.  And what the homeownership rate is telling us is that the percentage of Americans that can qualify for a mortgage has been falling dramatically.  Just take a look at the following chart.  This is not just a decline – this is a complete and utter collapse…

Puerto Rico Risking Point of No Return With Debt Payment Default

Puerto Rico is poised to set in motion a chain of events to force investors into negotiating a restructuring of the island’s $72 billion debt burden.

The commonwealth’s Public Finance Corp. will likely fail to make $58 million in bond payments due Aug. 1, the first default since Puerto Rico was ceded to the U.S. following the Spanish-American War. Government officials say they can’t make the payment because the legislature didn’t appropriate the funds last month for the current fiscal year.

A default would be the biggest salvo yet between creditors and the debt-ridden island since Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said in June that Puerto Rico cannot repay its obligations and was seeking to delay debt payments for a number of years. Prices of the securities are tumbling as officials, who are pursuing the use of bankruptcy, prepare to release a debt-restructuring plan by Sept. 1.

“They’re setting up the process of the entire restructuring,” said Lyle Fitterer, who helps oversee $38 billion of municipal securities, including Puerto Rico debt, at Wells Capital Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. “They’re probably getting advice from someone saying if you’re not going to pay on som

Treasury Secretary says U.S. debt limit won't be hit before Oct. 30

The U.S. is not at risk of breaching the debt ceiling before Oct. 30, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Wednesday, in a new estimate sent to Congressional leaders. Treasury has been using so-called extraordinary measures since mid-March. Lew told the lawmakers that those measures will now last through the end of October. The Treasury Secretary urged Congress to raise the debt limit as soon as possible. The debt limit caps how much the government can borrow. It used to be raised routinely but has recently become the source of a bitter political tug-of-war.

China Stocks Fall as Traders Puzzle Over Sudden Late-Day Swings

Chinese stocks fell suddenly in the last hour of trading, almost wiping out Wednesday’s rally and leaving investors in the dark about reasons for the moves.

The Shanghai Composite Index slumped 2.2 percent to 3,705.77 at the close, erasing an earlier gain of 1.5 percent. Drugmakers and technology companies led declines. A gauge of 100-day price-swings rose to the highest level in six years. Trading volumes in Shanghai have halved from their peaks in June, while margin debt, which had fueled a world-beating rally for China’s stocks, declined to a four-month low.

Thursday’s trading was almost a reverse image of the previous day, when the Shanghai Composite surged in the last hour to close 3.4 percent higher. Volatility has increased this week as Monday’s 8.5 percent plunge by the benchmark gauge shredded a calm induced by unprecedented state intervention.

Pensions and Medicare after an Economic Collapse 

As for medical care, there’s always been free medical care in Argentina as well as private medical care. The public one was not very good but it kept you alive before 2001. After the collapse it just became pitiful and patients ended up in leaking, cold, roach-infested hospitals and were asked to bring their own gauze, cotton and bandages due to lack of supplies. The government is now using the private sector to compensate for the poor public one, making the private care much worse than it used to be.

Russian debtors despair as boom turns to bust 

According to the Russian United Credit Bureau (UCB), 40 million Russians have loans or mortgages.

By June, 12.5m of those loans had not been paid for at least a month, and in another 8m cases the arrears stretched back over three months.

Hay For Cheese? Barter Booms In Rural Greece After Bank Shutdown

A rising number of Greeks in rural areas are swapping goods and services in cashless transactions since the government shut down banks on June 28 for three weeks, restricted cash withdrawals and banned transfers abroad to halt a run on deposits and prevent a collapse of the banks.

Learn Success: APPLY Tips From The Best

Jeff Bezos, Amazon– Jeff Bezos is a pioneer in world of internet commerce, and was instrumental in defining this space that is now defining many aspects of the internet world. It is Jeff Bezos who innovated the concept of “predictive analytics”–recommending products to customers based on search history and buying habits. Whether you like the concept or you hate it, the idea has made online commerce more profit rich and efficient, and is making online shopping a better experience for consumers throughout the world.

Top Weekly Ideas and Insights

An Inconvenient Truth:

What Happens When Science Confronts Unsubstantiated Fiction?

 EXISTENTIAL REALITY 

"Humanity Coming of Secular Age"

 - The Last Days of Theism -