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ABRX....I think we won't see the bottom in share price until we get a few closes below $5 per share. That should get the margin liquidation out of the way and should bring in the selling capitualation that will clear the deck of weak holders.
I think the big money will be pushing for the margin washout below 5 bucks per share. It would fit all the bad fundamental news anyway.....and allow them to load up shares on the cheap.
Just my gut feeling.
Rogue
Dozens arrested as police break up opposition protest in Azerbaijan
AFP, BAKU
May 21: Some 45 protestors were arrested here Saturday as police dispersed an opposition demonstration by 500 people who defied a protest ban to rally for free elections in Azerbaijan, police said. Leader of the opposition Popular Front of Azerbaijan, Ali Kerimli, claimed that 300 people had been arrested and that his assistants had been beaten by police.
However, police said, in a statement quoted by Russian news agency Itar Tass, that 45 people had been arrested.
Earlier this week authorities had refused to sanction an opposition rally on the grounds that it fell too close to the opening ceremony for the four-billion-dollar Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC), which US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to attend on Wednesday. "The events of Saturday showed that the authorities are not ready to hold democratic elections," said Kerimli.
"More than 300 people were arrested including five of my bodyguards. My assistants were brutally beaten by police," he said. "The international community must put pressure on Azerbaijan which is heading towards authoritarianism."
The authorities in the central Asian republic arrested some 30 members of the opposition ahead of the rally in an attempt to derail it, a number of opposition parties allege.
The US embassy in Baku voiced concern on Friday at the arrests, saying the move cast doubt on the legitimacy of upcoming parliamentary elections. The embassy joined the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in voicing concern over the decision to ban Saturday's rally. But Azerbaijan's prosecutor general defended the crackdown on Friday amid the Western criticism.
"Those who think they can violate public order on the eve of the celebration are mistaken," Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov said. "The state's interests are above those of political functionaries," he said of the opposition figures.
Norway's ambassador to Baku Steinar Gil has called on the authorities to release the opposition activists immediately and slammed Garalov's comments. "The prosecutor general is turning it upside-down, the suspension of the fundamental right of assembly is a violation of the constitution," he said. The BTC pipeline, which will ship Caspian oil to the Mediterranean, was built with financial support from the United States, while British oil major BP holds a 30-percent stake in the consortium running it. Other consortium members include Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR, Amerada Hess, ConocoPhillips, Eni, Inpex, Itochu, Statoil, TPAO and Unocal.
Tensions between the authorities and the opposition have been heating up ahead of the November polls, which the Council of Europe has described as a crossroads where "we may become witnesses either to fair and free elections or a bloody confrontation between thousands."
Hundreds of people are feared to have been killed in the bloodshed which started in Andijan on May 13, sparking strong calls, including from the United States, for President Islam Karimov to allow an independent investigation.
Rogue comment.....I've said it before and I will say it again. It sure seems that alot of the conflict and war around the world has some covert connection to oil/gas/energy if you dig beneath the surface of all the propaganda out there.
Rogue
"Da Bottom" for Gold Stocks?
by Frank Barbera
May 19, 2005
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/barbera/2005/0519.html
Over the last few weeks, commodity prices have tumbled as concerns have increased over decelerating global growth. Domestically, a flattening yield curve, continued Fed rate hikes, slowing manufacturing. And high gasoline prices, have all led to lower a trend of slowing growth. Amid this economic “soft spot,” commodity stocks, the former high fliers of the cyclical bull have experienced a sharp decline. Within the group of commodity leaders, steels, base metals and energy stocks have all retraced much of their early 2005 advance. Benefiting from the commodity market weakness and higher short term rates has been the U.S. Dollar, which has soared to multi-month highs. As is commonly understood, Dollar strength often leads to weakness in Gold, which has a strong inverse correlation. Rarely, has this been more correct than over the last few weeks where the Dollar Index has advanced for 5 consecutive weeks, while both Gold and the Gold Stocks have moved steadily lower.
Rumblings In The Market
Liquidity Vacuum
In my view, while I believe the recent “growth scare” may indeed be well founded when viewed in a longer-term context, at the same time, it is equally clear that in many cases, the extent of recent declines in many stocks has been an example of a rather severe downside over-reaction. Put simply, while global growth does appear to be consistently slowing, there are also plenty of other indications that growth is not falling off the table either. During last week, concerns were also voiced about a potential hedge fund debacle in the making—suggesting that a large broker-dealer may have sustained some serious trading losses for its own accounts. This, in turn, may have accounted for some of the liquidity vacuum, which developed in many cyclical names in the weeks just past.
Flattening Yield Curve
The general thinking expressed within the hedged community runs along the lines that since Oil, Steel and Base Metals were hot names recently, margin-related issues may have surfaced over the last two weeks forcing some liquidation in these shares. This was evident in the XOI which fell last Friday, even as Crude Oil closed with a gain of $.13. Yet another troubling factor has been the consistent narrowing of the Treasury Yield Curve, which late in the week, nearly inverted with the 2 Year Treasury yielding 3.62 and the 10 Year Bond yielding 4.10, a razor thin spread of just .48 basis points. As a gauge of liquidity, the ultra-flat yield curve is the market's mechanism for communicating to Fed Chairman Greenspan that he should stop raising interest rates at once. Think about it, another ¼ point hike in June would lift Fed Funds to 3.25% and probably press the 2 Year Note toward 3.80%. At that point, the 2 Yr-10Yr spread could be as thin as just .20 to .25 basis points.
Greenspan's Conundrum
At that point, the Fed Chairman would be asking for serious trouble with the Bond market “carry trade,” which could unwind abruptly. That would pose large systemic risks that could potentially begin to cause major dislocations in Greenspan’s last 10 months in office. Normally, when the 2 Year – 10 year Treasury Curve flattens to this extreme degree, it is an excellent leading indicator for a building economic slowdown with payrolls declining in forward months and manufacturing and purchasing manager activity slowly sharply in its wake. Does Chairman Greenspan truly want a recession and stock market collapse, and maybe even a major derivatives debacle unfolding on his watch—at the end of his long term in office?
Maybe, but I would tend to doubt it. As a result, with growth clearly slowing as reflected by the ISM Index now nearing a 21-month low, rumors flying about mounting hedge fund problems, concerns over deteriorating corporate debt quality (GM,F), liquidity concerns in credit default swaps, along with the dollar stabilized, and Oil (a proxy for inflation pressures) now clearly in decline—the Fed should now have room to take a pass on a rate hike at its next meeting. If not, at the very least, the odds would seem to strongly favor the Fed altering it’s wording to reflect an eased tension with regard to inflation fears. In looking at the forward June to December 2005 Eurodollar contract, the spread has narrowed to only .41 basis points, the lowest since February. This tells me that the market is now pricing in only 1 full ¼ point hike, and less than two ¼ point hikes (.50), for the first time in a long time. To me, this means that maybe we get one more ¼ point hike from the Fed in June and along with it, an announcement of a policy change.
Stronger US Dollar
For Gold Stock investors, the problem of the last several months has been, largely, the strong Dollar. In that regard, much of the Dollar strength stems from the fact that the Federal Reserve has been steadily raising short-term rates, while the European Central Bank has held rates at 2%. 6 Months ago, that spread was zero with Fed Funds at 2.00% and the ECB Rate at 2.00%. Flash forward to present day. We have seen four ¼ point hikes in 6 months from the Fed, which now leave a 100 basis point, or 1% Dollar positive spread. For short-term money, this helps stabilize the Dollar—especially with the forward curve still pricing in more Fed rate hikes. What needs to develop on a fundamental level in the near term is an about-face in Fed policy, which I believe will develop imminently. In fact, quite often with the release of economic data in coming weeks, Fed governors could speak out, at which point an opportunity could present itself to begin reshaping the market view. On May 24th, the FOMC is scheduled to release the minutes of its May 3rd meeting at 2PM EST, which could be an important market moving event.
Anywhere along the line, a few comments well placed would be all that is needed to reverse the downtrend in commodity stocks and accentuate the renewed advance in the overall stock market. This would also simultaneously begin to chip away at the Dollar’s strength leading to an upside reversal in Gold and Gold Stocks.
Future Downward Trend Could Affect Gold Stocks
Importantly, once the Fed moves its policy stance back toward “neutral” and away from further tightening, the odds will grow enormously that the Dollar will once again begin to slide. In my view, the extreme technical readings we are seeing in many markets over the last two weeks, are foreshadowing the larger trend reversal, which is soon approaching. In all likelihood, the Gold Stocks will be among the prime beneficiaries of a change in Fed policy in the weeks immediately ahead.
Why "Da Bottom" in Gold Stock Prices?
While it would be unprofessional for any investment advisor to attempt to "pick THE low” in a market, the selloff seen last week certainly “felt” like a major bottom to me. In fact, I am titling this letter “Da Bottom” for those of you who remember the old Saturday Night Live sketch with the Chicago Bears “Da Bears”.
Gold Stocks Close to Major Long-Term Low
Why “Da Bottom?” In a nutshell, we are still looking at record oversold technical readings for the gold stocks. Further, and of major significance, is the fact that the decline seen last Thursday forced the XAU down to its lower 50-week trading band, which as of last Thursday’s close ended at 80.49 with the XAU closing just below that band with a reading of 80.33. Last Friday, the XAU also closed outside the lower band with a reading of 78.99 versus the lower band at 80.32. This was very important because the XAU will normally not go longer than two to three years without hitting this lower 50-week band. In the most recent instance, it has been over 4 years, since November 2000 when the XAU last hit its 50-week lower band. For many months, this event has been overdue and is now complete and behind the market. What’s more, there are now positive divergences present in the Gold Stocks, with a number of indicators failing to make new and lower lows with the indices late last week . These include the Short Term Ratio of Up-to-Down Volume, the McClellan Oscillator, and 9 day RSI along with (on its inverted scale) and the New TRIN. Does this guarantee that Friday was THE bottom for Gold Stocks? Obviously, in the markets there are never any guarantees. However, I do believe that whether or not, last Friday was the final in the XAU, the odds are high that the gold stocks are close, if not right on, a major long-term low.
History Does Repeat itself
In fact, if we go back and look at the bottom seen in the Gold Stocks in May 2004, we note a number of striking similarities. Who says that history does not repeat??? Looking back at last year’s market bottom for the XAU, we saw a panic low at Point 1 (81.24 on April 28, 2004), followed by an anemic bounce lasting 4 trading days toward 86.46 on May 4, 2004 for a rally of +5.22 XAU points. This was then followed by a 3-day plunge into the final low at Point 3, which saw the XAU bottom at 76.79 on an intra-day basis and 78.13 on a closing basis. The closing low was May 7, 2004 (78.13) with the intra-day low on May 10, 2004 at 76.79.
Now, flash forward to 2005 and we once again see a panic low on April 28, 2005 at 81.79, followed by a 4-day rally peaking on May 4th (sound familiar?) followed a few days later by an aggressive 4-day decline with the XAU closing at 78.99 on Friday, May 13th. The only reason this sequence isn’t a virtual duplication of last year's bottom was that for the 3 days of May 5, 6, and 9, the XAU traded in a tight range near 86 before beginning its final decline. Aside from that, the action over the last 2 weeks is a virtual carbon copy of the May 2004 bottom, with dates and prices nearly the same as 2004!
A Review of Technical Indicators
At the same time, many short-term technical indicators are at virtually the same kind of oversold levels as was seen at the bottom in 2004. Consequently, I expect to see the trading rally, which began early this week continue on the upside very soon potentially lifting the XAU up toward the 86.50 to 87.50 zone between now and late May. At that point, a “would be” Head of a potential developing Inverted Head and Shoulder Base will be complete. From there, the XAU could then begin another, shallower decline. This “right shoulder” decline should then come back down—depressing the XAU toward 82.00 to 81.50 one final time, which would make a symmetrical right shoulder low. From there, a powerful medium-term advance should explode off the bottom—beginning sometime in early to mid-June and quickly lift the XAU up and thru the resistance benchmark of 86.50, which will have been the developed neckline for the Head and Shoulder base (see hourly chart below first printed on Friday, May 13, 2005 ).
Among a number of important technical gauges, my Medium Term A/D Oscillator shows consistently higher lows over the last few weeks indicating a positive divergence with the lower lows seen on the XAU. This gauge, which is normally overbought above +30% and oversold below –30%, has seen readings as follows over the last three weeks. On Friday, May 13th, with the XAU at 78.99, this gauge closed at –33.56. Prior to this, there were troughs at –42.01% on 4/28 with XAU at 82.13, -44.92% on 4/15/05 with XAU at 86.39, and –45.08% on 3/29/05 with XAU at 91.90. Thus, over the last few weeks, we have seen four lower closes on the XAU, with four higher, less negative readings on A/D Oscillator. This shows us that the decline in the gold stocks was “internally” packing less punch, even though the XAU kept moving lower. It also implies that the upside reversal seen this week has an excellent chance of recording a major, long term low.
Moving on, another gauge which is historically oversold is the McClellan Summation for Gold Stocks, which closed last Friday at –590.21. Importantly, at that reading of –590.21, the Summation Index was also still holding above its recent lows of -884.53 seen on 5/02/05.
Even a casual glance at the chart above shows the Gold Stocks to be oversold as was seen at the major bottoms of Nov. 2000, January 1993, August 1988, December 1984, and April 1982.
Saving The Best For Last
Under the header of saving “the Best for Last”, the following charts really drive home the point about what kind of bottom we are looking for in the Gold Stocks at the present time. On the next chart, I show a proprietary timing gauge, which uses a Rate of Change calculations from a Composite Timing Model, which is composed of 24 separate individual, short and medium term timing gauges. Historically, this Rate of Change gauge finds major bottoms below –175.
Looking back at the action on this gauge over the last 25 years, the bottoms accompanying readings below:
–175 have been huge “life altering” opportunities to make money in the Gold Stocks
Starting with the –215.38 reading on June 25, 1982 with the XAU at 42.45.
By June 25, 1983, the index was up 93.86 XAU points, or +222.15% in 1Year!!!
On April 16, 1992, the gauge closed at –219.96 with the XAU at 68.34.
By April 16, 1993, the XAU was at 84.72 up 23.96%
By July 30, 1993 the XAU was trading at 129.56, up 89.49% from the April 1992 bottom.
December 1, 1994 another reading below –175 with the gauge bottoming at –181.86 and the XAU at 102.59.
By February 7, 1996, approximately 14 months later, the XAU was at 155.60, up 51.67%.
December 10, 1997 the gauge at its historically low extreme, during the final collapse of the Great 1996-2000 Bear Market in Gold Stocks we saw a negative value of –269.57. At the time, the XAU bottomed at 67.63.
By April 24, 1998, only 5 months later, the XAU was at 90.34 up 33.57% in 5 MONTHS !!!
This was followed by another signal at the Bear Market bottom on November 7, 2002 with the gauge at –177.12 and the XAU at 44.47.
By June 4, 2002, 19 months later, the XAU was trading at 89.11, up +100.38%.
Next we see the May 2004 low at –200.17 with the XAU at 81.46.
By November 2004, the XAU is at 111.50, up 36.87% in just 6 months.
How often can you make 30% or more on your money in 6 months? That’s a tough proposition for any market to deliver that kind of return, but in the Gold Stocks it can be done with regularity using some market timing. Looking at a close up of this gauge during the last few weeks, the low last Friday was a reading of –192.16. At the present, this gauge, which uses an accompanying moving average cross-over system, has just rendered a final buy, which was accomplished on Wednesday of this week with an upward cross-over of its moving average signal line.
Close up View – ROC Timing Model
Recovery Rally Right Around The Corner
Finally, I want to end with a chart of my Medium Term Dollar Weighted Put-Call Ratio for Gold Stocks. It finished Friday at a reading of 2.11, which was a new all time high. Put another way, this tells us that Gold investors have never been more fearful of a continued decline than they are right now. Literally, over the last few weeks—as fear has increased—everyone has moved to the same side of the boat ,which normally means a recovery rally is just around the corner.
In conclusion, while I know that many Gold investors are extremely distressed by the action over the last few weeks and the cumulative action of the last few months, the bottom line for now is that the Gold Stocks are near a long-term bottom and this is the time to focus on adding money into this market as it begins to turn around and begins to prove itself on the upside. This will develop soon as the technical weight of the evidence is simply overwhelming that a major long-term low is at hand. Personally, I believe a great bull market is about to lift off with a power and ferocity rivaled only by the Internet boom of several years ago. Get ready to have some fun as this should be an exciting ride….
Frank
Rogue
Easymoney101....keep up the good work!!!!!!
I will try to help you educate the "sheople" whenever I can.
I'm proud of courageous people such as yourself!!
Rogue
Politics.....I don't blame you Lentinman. I for one refuse to get sucked into the "Left /Right" Hegalian political bullcrap that others of lesser mentality want to dwell in.
Get rid of all your your preconcieved notions on politics......
all that matters in investing is the "TRUTH".
The market is the ballot box!!
Good luck to all that seek the "TRUTH"........ you shall be rewarded!
God save the Republic!
Rogue
Darth Vader and the New World Order
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith mirrors reality
Infowars.com / May 18, 2005
Alex Jones
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/darth_nwo.htm
The Star Wars story has had, without a question, the greatest impact on popular culture of any movie in world history. We will now explore why it has resonated so strongly with so many people across generations.
At last, the mainstream media is picking up on something we've been talking about for years. The plot lines of George Lucas' six Star Wars films mirror, in many respects, the activities of western governments.
George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars saga, has said over and over again that he simply plays on subconscious archetypal symbols that evoke primeval fears and passions. Lucas has also stated on many occasions that he draws from historical examples of imperial leaders' lust for war and total power.
As a companion to this in-depth article, Infowars presents a spoof on Starwars featuring Darth Vadar and the Emporer. This is dark satire at its most bizarre.
VIEW THE VIDEO:
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Lucas has said that that is why his films have such a powerful effect of people. Deep down, everyone knows that the greatest threat to life and liberty isn't the average criminal on the street, but the monolithic, all-powerful state.
The human desire to resist tyranny is one of the strongest drives we have and Lucas plays upon that instinct masterfully.
While premiering his film, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, at the Cannes Film Festival George Lucas was asked if his new film was a social commentary on George Bush and the Iraq invasion (which even our own government admits is part of America's new "kindly, helpful and loving" imperialism).
How can they not ask this when Darth Vader says to his former teacher Obi-Wan Kenobi, "if you're not with me, then you're my enemy." Remember that Lord Bush, after the 9/11 attacks said, "either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
Lucas responded to the reporters by saying that the original Star Wars was developed in the early post-Veitnam War era shortly after Richard Nixon left office amidst a byzantine scandal.
He continued by saying, "The issue was, how does a democracy turn itself into a dictatorship...When I wrote it, Iraq (the U.S.-led war) didn't exist.. but the parallels of what we did in Vietnam and Iraq are un believable ...I didn't think it was going to get this close."
Article Synopsis
This story deals not only with parallels between Star Wars Episode III and the Iraq invasion, it also details the psychology of government-sponsored terrorism as a tool of empire, and real secret societies like the Order of Death that Darth Vader and the Sith are based on.
Most young people have been fed a false political paradigm and so are bored with history and world events.
When they learn the true nature of the global controllers in a Star Wars context we know they will join the real rebellion.
Learn who the real dark lords are in Martial Law.
[printer friendly version]
Speaking about present day America he said, "I hope this doesn't come true in our country."
There are thousands of examples of classical despotism being practiced in the US and worldwide today. Here are just a couple:
- Our new Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, in published memos told the President and military leaders that US forces could interrogate detainees to death. If the detainees died while being tortured, the military's actions would be legal as long as they hadn't killed them on purpose. The document contained examples of how to strap someone down to a table and lower them into "liquid effluent" until they began to pass out.
Gonzales had the nerve to say that President Bush is the law and that he can break any Federal or international law that he wishes because he is the President. Gonzalez openly defended his view in front of a Senate panel that still confirmed him to be Attorney General.
Remember Hans Solo in the Empire Strikes Back strapped down in a torture chair as Darth Vader administers electric shocks. According the Alberto Gonzales' logic this is good. Vader works for the Emperor and the Emperor is the law.
The Attorney General's dark views are shared by the rest of the White House. They believe that they are above the law. Coupled with the exploding American police state, this reality is the text book manifestation of dictatorship.
Combine this open demonstration of dictatorship with 63 countries on a White House invasion hit-list and tyrannical empire is the only term that fits.
-Under section 802 of the USA Patriot Act, misdemeanor non-terror related crimes are listed as terrorism. Citizens are stripped of their most basic Constitutional rights that were held sacred in the old Republic.
-George Bush has set up a draconian Department of Homeland Security, giving FEMA the power to engage in mass arrests.
-Last year, the outgoing head of CENTCOM, General Tommy Franks, told the press that if America was attacked again the Constitution would be set aside in favor of a military form of government.
-The Federal government is dismantling the last vestiges of States' rights with its new Federally-standardized National ID Card that has been integrated with thousands of private databases to track and trace our every action.
Government-Sponsored Terrorism
When I first saw Episode I, I instantly understood the plot. Being a student of history, it made total sense. But, I was amazed, time and time again, when talking to educated adults who were also Star Wars fans that they didn't get it. They'd say, "it doesn't make any sense."
This phenomenon got even worse when Episode II came out. People were totally confused. They didn't understand a plot that children could grasp.
For those who are still confused, here's a plot synopsis in a nutshell:
In Episode I, Senator Palpatine is an obscure politician from the peaceful world of Naboo. Palpatine influences Naboo not to pay its Trade Federation taxes. The corrupt mercantile Trade Federation cartel then blockades the Naboo system and begins a ground invasion of its capitol, taking its orders from the sinister leader Darth Sidious, Lord of the Sith, who is one and the same with Senator Palpatine.
By manipulating the outcome of the Naboo police action, Palpatine (who then plays the part of resisting an operation that he has launched) is able to springboard into the Chancellery of the Galactic Senate.
Episode II begins with a widening conflict that threatens to destroy the hundred thousand-year-old Republic. The newly- elected Chancellor (Palpatine) is able to use the expanding crisis as a pretext to pass police state legislation and to launch a mammoth military buildup.
As in Episode I, Darth Sidious is in control of the separatists led by the charismatic Count Dooku, who is his secret apprentice, Darth Tyrannus. Darth Sidious uses his agent (Count Dooku) to create a crisis that threatens to destroy the Republic, thus threatening the Republic's very existence and manipulating the Senate into giving him the powers of a dictator.
This is the classic use of problem-reaction-solution. Create a crisis, get the reaction of fear from the population, and offer the solution of a police state that you control.
Real-world examples of this through history are:
-Adolph Hitler, two months after being elected Chancellor, firebombed the German Parliament (Reichstag) building, blamed it on his political enemies and declared martial law in the Reich.
-Most historians now believe that the US government bombed its own ship in Havana harbor as a pretext to launch the Spanish-American war in 1898.
-The LBJ Presidential library in 2003 released taped conversations between President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in which they discussed how the Gulf of Tonkin attack never really took place and how to use it to officially kick of the Vietnam War which resulted in the deaths of over 58,000 US troops and over a million Vietnamese.
-In early 2001, the Baltimore Sun and ABC News reported on a newly-declassified operation code-named Northwoods, where the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed hijacking jets by remote control and crashing them, bombing DC, committing sniper attacks in Miami and DC, having the CIA attack the Guantanamo Bay Marine Corps base with mortars, and how to blame all of this terrorism on Cuba and the Soviet Union, giving the Pentagon the pretext to start World War III.
The plan was green-lighted all the way up to President Kennedy who vetoed the plan. The bottom line is that the US government planned to terrorize its own cities as a pretext for war.
In Episode III, the surviving Jedi realize, when its too late, that the Clone Wars have been systematically engineered by the Lord of the Sith to destroy the Republic and the Jedi.
In the end, the Emperor dispatches his dark apprentice, Darth Vader, to exterminate the Jedi and the leaders of the separatist movement (that the Chancellor controlled), leaving the enemies of the Sith dead and the Sith in control of the Central Government. The despotic Galactic Empire is born.
George Bush: Problem-Reaction-Solution
We look at the real world and the military-industrial-complex that controls George Bush, and it is clear that the government is using the problem-reaction-solution system to bring in their own empire.
Using the threat of terrorism, the Executive Branch has declared authoritarian powers unto itself. At the same time, they tell the people that they won't be safe until every "rogue" nation (nations that are sovereign) are under World Government control.
It is a fact that bin Laden has been a CIA agent since at least 1981. The highest levels of the CIA have publicly said that they do not want to catch him.
Think about who really has the motive for the September 11th attacks. None of the Arab nations have taken responsibility, although they've been falsely accused of carrying out the attacks. Who in their right mind would attack the heart of an unmatched military juggernaut with seven times superiority of any military on earth?
Who stands to gain? Who gets trillions of dollars in Iraqi and Afghan oil? What group gets to sell hundreds of billions in weapons systems? Who gets to be our hero and silence all political opposition? What group is now turning America into a high-tech police state? In the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) documents, Dick Cheney told us in 2000 that the neo-cons and their backers gain.
PNAC documents written by Dick Cheney and other top neo-cons call for a helpful Pearl Harbor-like attack to mobilize the American people in a war for empire. One of the Pentagon's chief strategists, Tomas Barnett, openly calls America an empire and has a laundry list of nations that need to be invaded immediately.
The bin Laden family has been in business with Bushes for over thirty years. Bush Senior and the bin Ladens vacation together. The Bushes and the bin Ladens are on the board of the armament dealing consortium, the Carlyle group whose profits have quadrupled since 9/11.
The press has been forced to admit that the hijackers had their houses, cars and credit cards paid for by the Federal government. They were trained on US military bases. When US Embassies tried to block their entry into the US, the CIA ordered them to allow entry.
There are over 600 pieces of evidence that show that bin Laden is George Bush's Count Dooku, which are covered in detail in my three films on 9/11, the newest being Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State.
Hollywood Movies: Art Imitates Life
I've noticed with fantasy people have trouble understanding the concept of would-be tyrants creating crises so they can offer the solution. We see popular Hollywood films peppered with this idea. For example:
In the blockbuster, The Incredibles, the evil genius, Syndrome, wants to be worshipped as a super hero, so he stages a robotic attack on a US city which he plans to then foil and become the people's savior.
In the film, Final Fantasy, a General who wants to be given dictatorial powers opens the gates so the enemy can attack New York and then discredit his peacenik opponents.
There are countless examples of this, and I've noticed that when I talk to adults who have seen these films they don't understand the plots. But, when I talk to children they completely grasp it.
From a sociological/psychological perspective, why is there this blind spot in adults? Is it being engineered into us? Are we in denial? If so many intelligent people can't grasp a children's plot line, no wonder they can't really understand what's behind 9/11.
Missing the Big Picture
Infowars.com has seen scores of mainline publications from CBS News to Japan Today drawing parallels between America's predatory militarism and the grasping empire of the Star Wars universe.
What they've missed is the central point that Lucas makes time and time again. Criminal elements within the government that seek to overthrow freedom and replace it with slavery get their power through carrying out terrorist attacks and manufacturing enemies that they fund and control.
In some cases, as with the separatists in Star Wars, they don't even know who they are controlled by, just as an Arab suicide bomber might not know that the funds and training that he received came from a western intelligence agency. He doesn't know that his attack will be used to crack down on entire populations and stop any real peace process, because the weapon dealers have no interest in peace. Chaos is the ether in which they swim.
The dominant press also misses the boat on how much Star Wars itself has been influenced by the Third Reich. The uniforms worn by imperial officers are almost identical to the German military staff. Political officers in the empire wear the black uniforms that even more closely resemble the dreaded garb of the German political police, the SS.
Star Wars also acts as a type of cultural feedback loop. Star Wars' villains are modeled after the Nazis (Darth Vader's helmet is simply a slightly more pronounced German artillery solder's head piece), and, in turn, modern governments are themselves influenced by the visigothic-style of Star Wars.
The press reported in the early 1980's that while Ronald Reagan was campaigning for President in 1979 he was camping at Bohemian Grove in Northern California with business leaders. They came up with the idea to give the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) the catchy name "Star Wars." '
Out of SDI grew the US Space Command. Today all US military forces are under the control of the ultra-secretive US Space Command.
In the 1980's military and law enforcement planners wanted to come up with intimidating uniforms for SWAT teams and militarized riot police. They came up with a design which has now been adopted thanks to federal grants in almost every major city. The uniform, which they admit is meant to strike fear into the public, is extremely similar to the suit worn by the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader.
Seattle Riot Cop
A Ringwraith
Or course, long before Darth Vader existed in our minds, every culture had a dark totem representing evil and domination that manifested itself as a tall, pitch-black hooded or helmeted sorcerer. Similar to the ringwraiths of J.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
We should all be concerned that our government is choosing to clothe our police in these macabre get-ups. Throughout history, secret police, torturers, inquisitors, executioners, terrorists, bank robbers and every other form of scum has worn the black mask. Of course, in the Klu Klux Klan, the black mask is only worn by the Supreme Grand Dragon.
The New World Order
In Episode III, the Emperor talks about a "New Order." How many Presidents and leaders have we heard spout off about a "New Order" or a "New World Order?" George Bush Senior, Adolph Hitler, and countless others have all called for a New World Order.
A New World Order is a worldwide dictatorship. At least that is what the encyclopedia said up until the 1960's. Now resource books, especially those for children tell you that it is a loving, wonderful thing that will keep us all safe from terror.
Secret Societies
In the Star Wars universe, the Sith are members of a self-centered secret society that has been passing down its knowledge for thousands of years. The religion revels in death and destruction. War is its sacrament, death stars and war ships its cathedrals. This is one of the central threads that runs throughout the entirety of Star Wars lore.
For over a decade, I have been studying civilization and time and time again in my research I run into the occult, secret societies and, at the top of it all, the Order of Death, known by the public as the order of Skull and Bones.
The only widely known manifestation of the Order of Death is one of its chapters based at Yale University, the Order of Skull and Bones, Chapter 322, of which both George W. Bush and his father are members. Three Presidents have been members of Chapter 322 alone. Eight CIA directors were members. George W. Bush's administration has 11 members currently at the highest levels. And 322 is only one chapter.
In July of 2000, I infiltrated what can be called the mother ship of the Order of Death, the Bohemian Grove. This is the same place where Reagan decided to call SDI "Star Wars." Major California papers have reported on the rumors that world leaders meet there and perform bizarre black magic rituals to the Caananite deity that represented death, Moloch.
While I was inside, I was able to secretly film the bizarre annual ritual, the Cremation of Care, which takes place at the Bohemian Grove every year. The footage I took aired nationally on the Trio Network.
Now, we have come full circle. Why is all of this important? Because, since infiltrating, I have become aware of and have obtained publicly available annals of Bohemian Grove and its correspondence with Skull and Bones. Many of these documents are posted on infowars.com in the Bohemian Grove section.
What we learned shocked me to my very core. Skull and Bones and Bohemian Grove are nothing but US extensions of a germanic death cult that has been operating for thousands of years. This same group, that calls itself the Order of Death, is mentioned as the Tooley and Thule society and respected, mainstream works on the rise of the Third Reich detail how Adolph Hitler was a member of his group, and how they supported his rise to power and his subsequent actions in World War II.
Then I learned that Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the President, had gotten into deep trouble during World War II for trading with the enemy, and that he was on the Board of Directors of the company owned by Fritz Thyssen who was also a member of the Order of Death and the chief financier of Hitler in Germany.
In my new film, Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State I detail these facts with documents from the National Archives, the London Guardian, the New Hampshire Gazette, and Skull and Bones and Bohemian Grove's own annals.
I've really got to hand it to George Lucas. He really did his homework. It took me a decade of intense research to discover the fact that our world is dominated by members of a secret society that give themselves names like "Lord Death," "Lord Longtooth," "Lord Dragon," and "Long Devil."
Lucas was able to expose, if you think he's doing it for good, or desensitize, if you think he's doing it for bad, the entire public to the reality of what is going on, projected onto the backdrop of fantasy.
Take away the light sabers and levitation and you're left with what our world leaders really believe in, what their religion really is, what makes them tick. The global controllers, of whom Bush is just a puppet, are using the same tactics to control populations employed by the Dark Lords of the Sith.
I know this is hard to believe, but if you just research their own publications they brag about it. German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in his own autobiography, Men and Powers, A Political Retrospective bragged that they had their own secret society meeting places in German where they did rituals, but his favorite place was Bohemian Grove.
I probably shouldn't be surprised by George Lucas' insight, his understanding of this greatest of secrets. By telling his Star Wars story and interlacing it with the truth, he touched all of our subconscious minds where we deep down know the truth about the world but don't have the courage to consciously admit it.
In doing so, Lucas has made over 10 billion dollars with his films and merchandise. By telling the truth even in a screened way, he has tapped into our collective unconscious and told us a story that we know is true.
In closing, it's important to see George Lucas' first feature film, THX-1138, based on a student film he produced in college. THX, which has become Lucas' signet, appearing in all of his films and most of his products, tells the story of man totally dehumanized in a forced-drugged, shaved-head police state and how one man stands up and breaks free of that system.
That's the heart of why the public loves Lucas. Not just that he tells the truth in a way that gets past the censors, but that he reminds us that the individual can stand up against organized evil and win.
To learn about the real dark lords of the Sith, visit the links below:
Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State
Art Imitates Reality: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Bohemian Grove
W's "Uncle Bucky" (Secret Society Pal of John Negroponte and Porter Goss) Makes a Killing off Iraq War
How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
The Bush-Nazi Connection
The New World Order elite has big plans for Arnold
In Your Face: The Globalists' Language is Hidden in Plain View
Rogue
Oil...Is it a relevent investment topic????
Politics aside....is WAR and OIL relevent to "investing"??
If you don't believe it is you are quite an investment rookie.
Rogue
British MP: Iraq war was for oil
By Adam Porter in Lisbon
Saturday 21 May 2005, 1:37 Makka Time, 22:37 GMT
Meacher believed the Iraq war was fought to control oil supplies
Labour MP and former UK environment minister Michael Meacher slammed Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush for starting a war he said was to secure oil interests.
"The reason they [US and UK] attacked Iraq is nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction, it was nothing to do with democracy in Iraq, it was nothing to do with the human rights abuses of Saddam Hussein," he said on Friday at the sidelines of the Fourth International Workshop on Oil & Gas Depletion in Lisbon, Portugal.
When asked by Aljazeera.net whether the war in Iraq was about oil he said "the connection is 100%. It is absolutely overwhelming".
Meacher connected the wars in Iraq with a desire by US and UK interests to dominate oil supplies in times of increasing market volatility. He also thought the war was designed to pressure Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil supplier.
Middle East control?
"It was principally, totally and comprehensively to do with oil," Meacher continued. "This [war] was about assuming control over the Middle East and over Iraq, the second largest producer and also over Saudi Arabia next door."
"It was about securing as much as possible of the remaining supplies of oil and also over the Caspian basin, which of course is Afghanistan."
Meacher also said the US had poor environmental standards.
"American power plants waste more energy than is needed to run the whole Japanese economy," he said. "They have set their face against the Kyoto protocol."
He then went on to talk of "apocalyptic" energy problems facing the world, including the possibilities of serious shortages in the world oil supply due to ongoing field depletion.
Meacher painted a picture of spiralling oil costs as high as "$100 or $150 a barrel" creating massive social dislocation. These difficulties could cause "war, revolutions and migration on a scale we have never before seen", he said.
Rogue
OT:Darth Vader and the New World Order
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith mirrors reality
Infowars.com / May 18, 2005
Alex Jones
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/darth_nwo.htm
The Star Wars story has had, without a question, the greatest impact on popular culture of any movie in world history. We will now explore why it has resonated so strongly with so many people across generations.
At last, the mainstream media is picking up on something we've been talking about for years. The plot lines of George Lucas' six Star Wars films mirror, in many respects, the activities of western governments.
George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars saga, has said over and over again that he simply plays on subconscious archetypal symbols that evoke primeval fears and passions. Lucas has also stated on many occasions that he draws from historical examples of imperial leaders' lust for war and total power.
As a companion to this in-depth article, Infowars presents a spoof on Starwars featuring Darth Vadar and the Emporer. This is dark satire at its most bizarre.
VIEW THE VIDEO:
WinMedia: High / Low
Quicktime: High / Low
Lucas has said that that is why his films have such a powerful effect of people. Deep down, everyone knows that the greatest threat to life and liberty isn't the average criminal on the street, but the monolithic, all-powerful state.
The human desire to resist tyranny is one of the strongest drives we have and Lucas plays upon that instinct masterfully.
While premiering his film, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, at the Cannes Film Festival George Lucas was asked if his new film was a social commentary on George Bush and the Iraq invasion (which even our own government admits is part of America's new "kindly, helpful and loving" imperialism).
How can they not ask this when Darth Vader says to his former teacher Obi-Wan Kenobi, "if you're not with me, then you're my enemy." Remember that Lord Bush, after the 9/11 attacks said, "either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
Lucas responded to the reporters by saying that the original Star Wars was developed in the early post-Veitnam War era shortly after Richard Nixon left office amidst a byzantine scandal.
He continued by saying, "The issue was, how does a democracy turn itself into a dictatorship...When I wrote it, Iraq (the U.S.-led war) didn't exist.. but the parallels of what we did in Vietnam and Iraq are un believable ...I didn't think it was going to get this close."
Article Synopsis
This story deals not only with parallels between Star Wars Episode III and the Iraq invasion, it also details the psychology of government-sponsored terrorism as a tool of empire, and real secret societies like the Order of Death that Darth Vader and the Sith are based on.
Most young people have been fed a false political paradigm and so are bored with history and world events.
When they learn the true nature of the global controllers in a Star Wars context we know they will join the real rebellion.
Learn who the real dark lords are in Martial Law.
[printer friendly version]
Speaking about present day America he said, "I hope this doesn't come true in our country."
There are thousands of examples of classical despotism being practiced in the US and worldwide today. Here are just a couple:
- Our new Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, in published memos told the President and military leaders that US forces could interrogate detainees to death. If the detainees died while being tortured, the military's actions would be legal as long as they hadn't killed them on purpose. The document contained examples of how to strap someone down to a table and lower them into "liquid effluent" until they began to pass out.
Gonzales had the nerve to say that President Bush is the law and that he can break any Federal or international law that he wishes because he is the President. Gonzalez openly defended his view in front of a Senate panel that still confirmed him to be Attorney General.
Remember Hans Solo in the Empire Strikes Back strapped down in a torture chair as Darth Vader administers electric shocks. According the Alberto Gonzales' logic this is good. Vader works for the Emperor and the Emperor is the law.
The Attorney General's dark views are shared by the rest of the White House. They believe that they are above the law. Coupled with the exploding American police state, this reality is the text book manifestation of dictatorship.
Combine this open demonstration of dictatorship with 63 countries on a White House invasion hit-list and tyrannical empire is the only term that fits.
-Under section 802 of the USA Patriot Act, misdemeanor non-terror related crimes are listed as terrorism. Citizens are stripped of their most basic Constitutional rights that were held sacred in the old Republic.
-George Bush has set up a draconian Department of Homeland Security, giving FEMA the power to engage in mass arrests.
-Last year, the outgoing head of CENTCOM, General Tommy Franks, told the press that if America was attacked again the Constitution would be set aside in favor of a military form of government.
-The Federal government is dismantling the last vestiges of States' rights with its new Federally-standardized National ID Card that has been integrated with thousands of private databases to track and trace our every action.
Government-Sponsored Terrorism
When I first saw Episode I, I instantly understood the plot. Being a student of history, it made total sense. But, I was amazed, time and time again, when talking to educated adults who were also Star Wars fans that they didn't get it. They'd say, "it doesn't make any sense."
This phenomenon got even worse when Episode II came out. People were totally confused. They didn't understand a plot that children could grasp.
For those who are still confused, here's a plot synopsis in a nutshell:
In Episode I, Senator Palpatine is an obscure politician from the peaceful world of Naboo. Palpatine influences Naboo not to pay its Trade Federation taxes. The corrupt mercantile Trade Federation cartel then blockades the Naboo system and begins a ground invasion of its capitol, taking its orders from the sinister leader Darth Sidious, Lord of the Sith, who is one and the same with Senator Palpatine.
By manipulating the outcome of the Naboo police action, Palpatine (who then plays the part of resisting an operation that he has launched) is able to springboard into the Chancellery of the Galactic Senate.
Episode II begins with a widening conflict that threatens to destroy the hundred thousand-year-old Republic. The newly- elected Chancellor (Palpatine) is able to use the expanding crisis as a pretext to pass police state legislation and to launch a mammoth military buildup.
As in Episode I, Darth Sidious is in control of the separatists led by the charismatic Count Dooku, who is his secret apprentice, Darth Tyrannus. Darth Sidious uses his agent (Count Dooku) to create a crisis that threatens to destroy the Republic, thus threatening the Republic's very existence and manipulating the Senate into giving him the powers of a dictator.
This is the classic use of problem-reaction-solution. Create a crisis, get the reaction of fear from the population, and offer the solution of a police state that you control.
Real-world examples of this through history are:
-Adolph Hitler, two months after being elected Chancellor, firebombed the German Parliament (Reichstag) building, blamed it on his political enemies and declared martial law in the Reich.
-Most historians now believe that the US government bombed its own ship in Havana harbor as a pretext to launch the Spanish-American war in 1898.
-The LBJ Presidential library in 2003 released taped conversations between President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in which they discussed how the Gulf of Tonkin attack never really took place and how to use it to officially kick of the Vietnam War which resulted in the deaths of over 58,000 US troops and over a million Vietnamese.
-In early 2001, the Baltimore Sun and ABC News reported on a newly-declassified operation code-named Northwoods, where the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed hijacking jets by remote control and crashing them, bombing DC, committing sniper attacks in Miami and DC, having the CIA attack the Guantanamo Bay Marine Corps base with mortars, and how to blame all of this terrorism on Cuba and the Soviet Union, giving the Pentagon the pretext to start World War III.
The plan was green-lighted all the way up to President Kennedy who vetoed the plan. The bottom line is that the US government planned to terrorize its own cities as a pretext for war.
In Episode III, the surviving Jedi realize, when its too late, that the Clone Wars have been systematically engineered by the Lord of the Sith to destroy the Republic and the Jedi.
In the end, the Emperor dispatches his dark apprentice, Darth Vader, to exterminate the Jedi and the leaders of the separatist movement (that the Chancellor controlled), leaving the enemies of the Sith dead and the Sith in control of the Central Government. The despotic Galactic Empire is born.
George Bush: Problem-Reaction-Solution
We look at the real world and the military-industrial-complex that controls George Bush, and it is clear that the government is using the problem-reaction-solution system to bring in their own empire.
Using the threat of terrorism, the Executive Branch has declared authoritarian powers unto itself. At the same time, they tell the people that they won't be safe until every "rogue" nation (nations that are sovereign) are under World Government control.
It is a fact that bin Laden has been a CIA agent since at least 1981. The highest levels of the CIA have publicly said that they do not want to catch him.
Think about who really has the motive for the September 11th attacks. None of the Arab nations have taken responsibility, although they've been falsely accused of carrying out the attacks. Who in their right mind would attack the heart of an unmatched military juggernaut with seven times superiority of any military on earth?
Who stands to gain? Who gets trillions of dollars in Iraqi and Afghan oil? What group gets to sell hundreds of billions in weapons systems? Who gets to be our hero and silence all political opposition? What group is now turning America into a high-tech police state? In the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) documents, Dick Cheney told us in 2000 that the neo-cons and their backers gain.
PNAC documents written by Dick Cheney and other top neo-cons call for a helpful Pearl Harbor-like attack to mobilize the American people in a war for empire. One of the Pentagon's chief strategists, Tomas Barnett, openly calls America an empire and has a laundry list of nations that need to be invaded immediately.
The bin Laden family has been in business with Bushes for over thirty years. Bush Senior and the bin Ladens vacation together. The Bushes and the bin Ladens are on the board of the armament dealing consortium, the Carlyle group whose profits have quadrupled since 9/11.
The press has been forced to admit that the hijackers had their houses, cars and credit cards paid for by the Federal government. They were trained on US military bases. When US Embassies tried to block their entry into the US, the CIA ordered them to allow entry.
There are over 600 pieces of evidence that show that bin Laden is George Bush's Count Dooku, which are covered in detail in my three films on 9/11, the newest being Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State.
Hollywood Movies: Art Imitates Life
I've noticed with fantasy people have trouble understanding the concept of would-be tyrants creating crises so they can offer the solution. We see popular Hollywood films peppered with this idea. For example:
In the blockbuster, The Incredibles, the evil genius, Syndrome, wants to be worshipped as a super hero, so he stages a robotic attack on a US city which he plans to then foil and become the people's savior.
In the film, Final Fantasy, a General who wants to be given dictatorial powers opens the gates so the enemy can attack New York and then discredit his peacenik opponents.
There are countless examples of this, and I've noticed that when I talk to adults who have seen these films they don't understand the plots. But, when I talk to children they completely grasp it.
From a sociological/psychological perspective, why is there this blind spot in adults? Is it being engineered into us? Are we in denial? If so many intelligent people can't grasp a children's plot line, no wonder they can't really understand what's behind 9/11.
Missing the Big Picture
Infowars.com has seen scores of mainline publications from CBS News to Japan Today drawing parallels between America's predatory militarism and the grasping empire of the Star Wars universe.
What they've missed is the central point that Lucas makes time and time again. Criminal elements within the government that seek to overthrow freedom and replace it with slavery get their power through carrying out terrorist attacks and manufacturing enemies that they fund and control.
In some cases, as with the separatists in Star Wars, they don't even know who they are controlled by, just as an Arab suicide bomber might not know that the funds and training that he received came from a western intelligence agency. He doesn't know that his attack will be used to crack down on entire populations and stop any real peace process, because the weapon dealers have no interest in peace. Chaos is the ether in which they swim.
The dominant press also misses the boat on how much Star Wars itself has been influenced by the Third Reich. The uniforms worn by imperial officers are almost identical to the German military staff. Political officers in the empire wear the black uniforms that even more closely resemble the dreaded garb of the German political police, the SS.
Star Wars also acts as a type of cultural feedback loop. Star Wars' villains are modeled after the Nazis (Darth Vader's helmet is simply a slightly more pronounced German artillery solder's head piece), and, in turn, modern governments are themselves influenced by the visigothic-style of Star Wars.
The press reported in the early 1980's that while Ronald Reagan was campaigning for President in 1979 he was camping at Bohemian Grove in Northern California with business leaders. They came up with the idea to give the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) the catchy name "Star Wars." '
Out of SDI grew the US Space Command. Today all US military forces are under the control of the ultra-secretive US Space Command.
In the 1980's military and law enforcement planners wanted to come up with intimidating uniforms for SWAT teams and militarized riot police. They came up with a design which has now been adopted thanks to federal grants in almost every major city. The uniform, which they admit is meant to strike fear into the public, is extremely similar to the suit worn by the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader.
Seattle Riot Cop
A Ringwraith
Or course, long before Darth Vader existed in our minds, every culture had a dark totem representing evil and domination that manifested itself as a tall, pitch-black hooded or helmeted sorcerer. Similar to the ringwraiths of J.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
We should all be concerned that our government is choosing to clothe our police in these macabre get-ups. Throughout history, secret police, torturers, inquisitors, executioners, terrorists, bank robbers and every other form of scum has worn the black mask. Of course, in the Klu Klux Klan, the black mask is only worn by the Supreme Grand Dragon.
The New World Order
In Episode III, the Emperor talks about a "New Order." How many Presidents and leaders have we heard spout off about a "New Order" or a "New World Order?" George Bush Senior, Adolph Hitler, and countless others have all called for a New World Order.
A New World Order is a worldwide dictatorship. At least that is what the encyclopedia said up until the 1960's. Now resource books, especially those for children tell you that it is a loving, wonderful thing that will keep us all safe from terror.
Secret Societies
In the Star Wars universe, the Sith are members of a self-centered secret society that has been passing down its knowledge for thousands of years. The religion revels in death and destruction. War is its sacrament, death stars and war ships its cathedrals. This is one of the central threads that runs throughout the entirety of Star Wars lore.
For over a decade, I have been studying civilization and time and time again in my research I run into the occult, secret societies and, at the top of it all, the Order of Death, known by the public as the order of Skull and Bones.
The only widely known manifestation of the Order of Death is one of its chapters based at Yale University, the Order of Skull and Bones, Chapter 322, of which both George W. Bush and his father are members. Three Presidents have been members of Chapter 322 alone. Eight CIA directors were members. George W. Bush's administration has 11 members currently at the highest levels. And 322 is only one chapter.
In July of 2000, I infiltrated what can be called the mother ship of the Order of Death, the Bohemian Grove. This is the same place where Reagan decided to call SDI "Star Wars." Major California papers have reported on the rumors that world leaders meet there and perform bizarre black magic rituals to the Caananite deity that represented death, Moloch.
While I was inside, I was able to secretly film the bizarre annual ritual, the Cremation of Care, which takes place at the Bohemian Grove every year. The footage I took aired nationally on the Trio Network.
Now, we have come full circle. Why is all of this important? Because, since infiltrating, I have become aware of and have obtained publicly available annals of Bohemian Grove and its correspondence with Skull and Bones. Many of these documents are posted on infowars.com in the Bohemian Grove section.
What we learned shocked me to my very core. Skull and Bones and Bohemian Grove are nothing but US extensions of a germanic death cult that has been operating for thousands of years. This same group, that calls itself the Order of Death, is mentioned as the Tooley and Thule society and respected, mainstream works on the rise of the Third Reich detail how Adolph Hitler was a member of his group, and how they supported his rise to power and his subsequent actions in World War II.
Then I learned that Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the President, had gotten into deep trouble during World War II for trading with the enemy, and that he was on the Board of Directors of the company owned by Fritz Thyssen who was also a member of the Order of Death and the chief financier of Hitler in Germany.
In my new film, Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State I detail these facts with documents from the National Archives, the London Guardian, the New Hampshire Gazette, and Skull and Bones and Bohemian Grove's own annals.
I've really got to hand it to George Lucas. He really did his homework. It took me a decade of intense research to discover the fact that our world is dominated by members of a secret society that give themselves names like "Lord Death," "Lord Longtooth," "Lord Dragon," and "Long Devil."
Lucas was able to expose, if you think he's doing it for good, or desensitize, if you think he's doing it for bad, the entire public to the reality of what is going on, projected onto the backdrop of fantasy.
Take away the light sabers and levitation and you're left with what our world leaders really believe in, what their religion really is, what makes them tick. The global controllers, of whom Bush is just a puppet, are using the same tactics to control populations employed by the Dark Lords of the Sith.
I know this is hard to believe, but if you just research their own publications they brag about it. German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in his own autobiography, Men and Powers, A Political Retrospective bragged that they had their own secret society meeting places in German where they did rituals, but his favorite place was Bohemian Grove.
I probably shouldn't be surprised by George Lucas' insight, his understanding of this greatest of secrets. By telling his Star Wars story and interlacing it with the truth, he touched all of our subconscious minds where we deep down know the truth about the world but don't have the courage to consciously admit it.
In doing so, Lucas has made over 10 billion dollars with his films and merchandise. By telling the truth even in a screened way, he has tapped into our collective unconscious and told us a story that we know is true.
In closing, it's important to see George Lucas' first feature film, THX-1138, based on a student film he produced in college. THX, which has become Lucas' signet, appearing in all of his films and most of his products, tells the story of man totally dehumanized in a forced-drugged, shaved-head police state and how one man stands up and breaks free of that system.
That's the heart of why the public loves Lucas. Not just that he tells the truth in a way that gets past the censors, but that he reminds us that the individual can stand up against organized evil and win.
To learn about the real dark lords of the Sith, visit the links below:
Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State
Art Imitates Reality: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Bohemian Grove
W's "Uncle Bucky" (Secret Society Pal of John Negroponte and Porter Goss) Makes a Killing off Iraq War
How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
The Bush-Nazi Connection
The New World Order elite has big plans for Arnold
In Your Face: The Globalists' Language is Hidden in Plain View
Rogue
Darth Vader and the New World Order
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith mirrors reality
Infowars.com / May 18, 2005
Alex Jones
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/darth_nwo.htm
The Star Wars story has had, without a question, the greatest impact on popular culture of any movie in world history. We will now explore why it has resonated so strongly with so many people across generations.
At last, the mainstream media is picking up on something we've been talking about for years. The plot lines of George Lucas' six Star Wars films mirror, in many respects, the activities of western governments.
George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars saga, has said over and over again that he simply plays on subconscious archetypal symbols that evoke primeval fears and passions. Lucas has also stated on many occasions that he draws from historical examples of imperial leaders' lust for war and total power.
As a companion to this in-depth article, Infowars presents a spoof on Starwars featuring Darth Vadar and the Emporer. This is dark satire at its most bizarre.
VIEW THE VIDEO:
WinMedia: High / Low
Quicktime: High / Low
Lucas has said that that is why his films have such a powerful effect of people. Deep down, everyone knows that the greatest threat to life and liberty isn't the average criminal on the street, but the monolithic, all-powerful state.
The human desire to resist tyranny is one of the strongest drives we have and Lucas plays upon that instinct masterfully.
While premiering his film, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, at the Cannes Film Festival George Lucas was asked if his new film was a social commentary on George Bush and the Iraq invasion (which even our own government admits is part of America's new "kindly, helpful and loving" imperialism).
How can they not ask this when Darth Vader says to his former teacher Obi-Wan Kenobi, "if you're not with me, then you're my enemy." Remember that Lord Bush, after the 9/11 attacks said, "either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
Lucas responded to the reporters by saying that the original Star Wars was developed in the early post-Veitnam War era shortly after Richard Nixon left office amidst a byzantine scandal.
He continued by saying, "The issue was, how does a democracy turn itself into a dictatorship...When I wrote it, Iraq (the U.S.-led war) didn't exist.. but the parallels of what we did in Vietnam and Iraq are un believable ...I didn't think it was going to get this close."
Article Synopsis
This story deals not only with parallels between Star Wars Episode III and the Iraq invasion, it also details the psychology of government-sponsored terrorism as a tool of empire, and real secret societies like the Order of Death that Darth Vader and the Sith are based on.
Most young people have been fed a false political paradigm and so are bored with history and world events.
When they learn the true nature of the global controllers in a Star Wars context we know they will join the real rebellion.
Learn who the real dark lords are in Martial Law.
[printer friendly version]
Speaking about present day America he said, "I hope this doesn't come true in our country."
There are thousands of examples of classical despotism being practiced in the US and worldwide today. Here are just a couple:
- Our new Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, in published memos told the President and military leaders that US forces could interrogate detainees to death. If the detainees died while being tortured, the military's actions would be legal as long as they hadn't killed them on purpose. The document contained examples of how to strap someone down to a table and lower them into "liquid effluent" until they began to pass out.
Gonzales had the nerve to say that President Bush is the law and that he can break any Federal or international law that he wishes because he is the President. Gonzalez openly defended his view in front of a Senate panel that still confirmed him to be Attorney General.
Remember Hans Solo in the Empire Strikes Back strapped down in a torture chair as Darth Vader administers electric shocks. According the Alberto Gonzales' logic this is good. Vader works for the Emperor and the Emperor is the law.
The Attorney General's dark views are shared by the rest of the White House. They believe that they are above the law. Coupled with the exploding American police state, this reality is the text book manifestation of dictatorship.
Combine this open demonstration of dictatorship with 63 countries on a White House invasion hit-list and tyrannical empire is the only term that fits.
-Under section 802 of the USA Patriot Act, misdemeanor non-terror related crimes are listed as terrorism. Citizens are stripped of their most basic Constitutional rights that were held sacred in the old Republic.
-George Bush has set up a draconian Department of Homeland Security, giving FEMA the power to engage in mass arrests.
-Last year, the outgoing head of CENTCOM, General Tommy Franks, told the press that if America was attacked again the Constitution would be set aside in favor of a military form of government.
-The Federal government is dismantling the last vestiges of States' rights with its new Federally-standardized National ID Card that has been integrated with thousands of private databases to track and trace our every action.
Government-Sponsored Terrorism
When I first saw Episode I, I instantly understood the plot. Being a student of history, it made total sense. But, I was amazed, time and time again, when talking to educated adults who were also Star Wars fans that they didn't get it. They'd say, "it doesn't make any sense."
This phenomenon got even worse when Episode II came out. People were totally confused. They didn't understand a plot that children could grasp.
For those who are still confused, here's a plot synopsis in a nutshell:
In Episode I, Senator Palpatine is an obscure politician from the peaceful world of Naboo. Palpatine influences Naboo not to pay its Trade Federation taxes. The corrupt mercantile Trade Federation cartel then blockades the Naboo system and begins a ground invasion of its capitol, taking its orders from the sinister leader Darth Sidious, Lord of the Sith, who is one and the same with Senator Palpatine.
By manipulating the outcome of the Naboo police action, Palpatine (who then plays the part of resisting an operation that he has launched) is able to springboard into the Chancellery of the Galactic Senate.
Episode II begins with a widening conflict that threatens to destroy the hundred thousand-year-old Republic. The newly- elected Chancellor (Palpatine) is able to use the expanding crisis as a pretext to pass police state legislation and to launch a mammoth military buildup.
As in Episode I, Darth Sidious is in control of the separatists led by the charismatic Count Dooku, who is his secret apprentice, Darth Tyrannus. Darth Sidious uses his agent (Count Dooku) to create a crisis that threatens to destroy the Republic, thus threatening the Republic's very existence and manipulating the Senate into giving him the powers of a dictator.
This is the classic use of problem-reaction-solution. Create a crisis, get the reaction of fear from the population, and offer the solution of a police state that you control.
Real-world examples of this through history are:
-Adolph Hitler, two months after being elected Chancellor, firebombed the German Parliament (Reichstag) building, blamed it on his political enemies and declared martial law in the Reich.
-Most historians now believe that the US government bombed its own ship in Havana harbor as a pretext to launch the Spanish-American war in 1898.
-The LBJ Presidential library in 2003 released taped conversations between President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in which they discussed how the Gulf of Tonkin attack never really took place and how to use it to officially kick of the Vietnam War which resulted in the deaths of over 58,000 US troops and over a million Vietnamese.
-In early 2001, the Baltimore Sun and ABC News reported on a newly-declassified operation code-named Northwoods, where the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed hijacking jets by remote control and crashing them, bombing DC, committing sniper attacks in Miami and DC, having the CIA attack the Guantanamo Bay Marine Corps base with mortars, and how to blame all of this terrorism on Cuba and the Soviet Union, giving the Pentagon the pretext to start World War III.
The plan was green-lighted all the way up to President Kennedy who vetoed the plan. The bottom line is that the US government planned to terrorize its own cities as a pretext for war.
In Episode III, the surviving Jedi realize, when its too late, that the Clone Wars have been systematically engineered by the Lord of the Sith to destroy the Republic and the Jedi.
In the end, the Emperor dispatches his dark apprentice, Darth Vader, to exterminate the Jedi and the leaders of the separatist movement (that the Chancellor controlled), leaving the enemies of the Sith dead and the Sith in control of the Central Government. The despotic Galactic Empire is born.
George Bush: Problem-Reaction-Solution
We look at the real world and the military-industrial-complex that controls George Bush, and it is clear that the government is using the problem-reaction-solution system to bring in their own empire.
Using the threat of terrorism, the Executive Branch has declared authoritarian powers unto itself. At the same time, they tell the people that they won't be safe until every "rogue" nation (nations that are sovereign) are under World Government control.
It is a fact that bin Laden has been a CIA agent since at least 1981. The highest levels of the CIA have publicly said that they do not want to catch him.
Think about who really has the motive for the September 11th attacks. None of the Arab nations have taken responsibility, although they've been falsely accused of carrying out the attacks. Who in their right mind would attack the heart of an unmatched military juggernaut with seven times superiority of any military on earth?
Who stands to gain? Who gets trillions of dollars in Iraqi and Afghan oil? What group gets to sell hundreds of billions in weapons systems? Who gets to be our hero and silence all political opposition? What group is now turning America into a high-tech police state? In the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) documents, Dick Cheney told us in 2000 that the neo-cons and their backers gain.
PNAC documents written by Dick Cheney and other top neo-cons call for a helpful Pearl Harbor-like attack to mobilize the American people in a war for empire. One of the Pentagon's chief strategists, Tomas Barnett, openly calls America an empire and has a laundry list of nations that need to be invaded immediately.
The bin Laden family has been in business with Bushes for over thirty years. Bush Senior and the bin Ladens vacation together. The Bushes and the bin Ladens are on the board of the armament dealing consortium, the Carlyle group whose profits have quadrupled since 9/11.
The press has been forced to admit that the hijackers had their houses, cars and credit cards paid for by the Federal government. They were trained on US military bases. When US Embassies tried to block their entry into the US, the CIA ordered them to allow entry.
There are over 600 pieces of evidence that show that bin Laden is George Bush's Count Dooku, which are covered in detail in my three films on 9/11, the newest being Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State.
Hollywood Movies: Art Imitates Life
I've noticed with fantasy people have trouble understanding the concept of would-be tyrants creating crises so they can offer the solution. We see popular Hollywood films peppered with this idea. For example:
In the blockbuster, The Incredibles, the evil genius, Syndrome, wants to be worshipped as a super hero, so he stages a robotic attack on a US city which he plans to then foil and become the people's savior.
In the film, Final Fantasy, a General who wants to be given dictatorial powers opens the gates so the enemy can attack New York and then discredit his peacenik opponents.
There are countless examples of this, and I've noticed that when I talk to adults who have seen these films they don't understand the plots. But, when I talk to children they completely grasp it.
From a sociological/psychological perspective, why is there this blind spot in adults? Is it being engineered into us? Are we in denial? If so many intelligent people can't grasp a children's plot line, no wonder they can't really understand what's behind 9/11.
Missing the Big Picture
Infowars.com has seen scores of mainline publications from CBS News to Japan Today drawing parallels between America's predatory militarism and the grasping empire of the Star Wars universe.
What they've missed is the central point that Lucas makes time and time again. Criminal elements within the government that seek to overthrow freedom and replace it with slavery get their power through carrying out terrorist attacks and manufacturing enemies that they fund and control.
In some cases, as with the separatists in Star Wars, they don't even know who they are controlled by, just as an Arab suicide bomber might not know that the funds and training that he received came from a western intelligence agency. He doesn't know that his attack will be used to crack down on entire populations and stop any real peace process, because the weapon dealers have no interest in peace. Chaos is the ether in which they swim.
The dominant press also misses the boat on how much Star Wars itself has been influenced by the Third Reich. The uniforms worn by imperial officers are almost identical to the German military staff. Political officers in the empire wear the black uniforms that even more closely resemble the dreaded garb of the German political police, the SS.
Star Wars also acts as a type of cultural feedback loop. Star Wars' villains are modeled after the Nazis (Darth Vader's helmet is simply a slightly more pronounced German artillery solder's head piece), and, in turn, modern governments are themselves influenced by the visigothic-style of Star Wars.
The press reported in the early 1980's that while Ronald Reagan was campaigning for President in 1979 he was camping at Bohemian Grove in Northern California with business leaders. They came up with the idea to give the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) the catchy name "Star Wars." '
Out of SDI grew the US Space Command. Today all US military forces are under the control of the ultra-secretive US Space Command.
In the 1980's military and law enforcement planners wanted to come up with intimidating uniforms for SWAT teams and militarized riot police. They came up with a design which has now been adopted thanks to federal grants in almost every major city. The uniform, which they admit is meant to strike fear into the public, is extremely similar to the suit worn by the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader.
Seattle Riot Cop
A Ringwraith
Or course, long before Darth Vader existed in our minds, every culture had a dark totem representing evil and domination that manifested itself as a tall, pitch-black hooded or helmeted sorcerer. Similar to the ringwraiths of J.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
We should all be concerned that our government is choosing to clothe our police in these macabre get-ups. Throughout history, secret police, torturers, inquisitors, executioners, terrorists, bank robbers and every other form of scum has worn the black mask. Of course, in the Klu Klux Klan, the black mask is only worn by the Supreme Grand Dragon.
The New World Order
In Episode III, the Emperor talks about a "New Order." How many Presidents and leaders have we heard spout off about a "New Order" or a "New World Order?" George Bush Senior, Adolph Hitler, and countless others have all called for a New World Order.
A New World Order is a worldwide dictatorship. At least that is what the encyclopedia said up until the 1960's. Now resource books, especially those for children tell you that it is a loving, wonderful thing that will keep us all safe from terror.
Secret Societies
In the Star Wars universe, the Sith are members of a self-centered secret society that has been passing down its knowledge for thousands of years. The religion revels in death and destruction. War is its sacrament, death stars and war ships its cathedrals. This is one of the central threads that runs throughout the entirety of Star Wars lore.
For over a decade, I have been studying civilization and time and time again in my research I run into the occult, secret societies and, at the top of it all, the Order of Death, known by the public as the order of Skull and Bones.
The only widely known manifestation of the Order of Death is one of its chapters based at Yale University, the Order of Skull and Bones, Chapter 322, of which both George W. Bush and his father are members. Three Presidents have been members of Chapter 322 alone. Eight CIA directors were members. George W. Bush's administration has 11 members currently at the highest levels. And 322 is only one chapter.
In July of 2000, I infiltrated what can be called the mother ship of the Order of Death, the Bohemian Grove. This is the same place where Reagan decided to call SDI "Star Wars." Major California papers have reported on the rumors that world leaders meet there and perform bizarre black magic rituals to the Caananite deity that represented death, Moloch.
While I was inside, I was able to secretly film the bizarre annual ritual, the Cremation of Care, which takes place at the Bohemian Grove every year. The footage I took aired nationally on the Trio Network.
Now, we have come full circle. Why is all of this important? Because, since infiltrating, I have become aware of and have obtained publicly available annals of Bohemian Grove and its correspondence with Skull and Bones. Many of these documents are posted on infowars.com in the Bohemian Grove section.
What we learned shocked me to my very core. Skull and Bones and Bohemian Grove are nothing but US extensions of a germanic death cult that has been operating for thousands of years. This same group, that calls itself the Order of Death, is mentioned as the Tooley and Thule society and respected, mainstream works on the rise of the Third Reich detail how Adolph Hitler was a member of his group, and how they supported his rise to power and his subsequent actions in World War II.
Then I learned that Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the President, had gotten into deep trouble during World War II for trading with the enemy, and that he was on the Board of Directors of the company owned by Fritz Thyssen who was also a member of the Order of Death and the chief financier of Hitler in Germany.
In my new film, Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State I detail these facts with documents from the National Archives, the London Guardian, the New Hampshire Gazette, and Skull and Bones and Bohemian Grove's own annals.
I've really got to hand it to George Lucas. He really did his homework. It took me a decade of intense research to discover the fact that our world is dominated by members of a secret society that give themselves names like "Lord Death," "Lord Longtooth," "Lord Dragon," and "Long Devil."
Lucas was able to expose, if you think he's doing it for good, or desensitize, if you think he's doing it for bad, the entire public to the reality of what is going on, projected onto the backdrop of fantasy.
Take away the light sabers and levitation and you're left with what our world leaders really believe in, what their religion really is, what makes them tick. The global controllers, of whom Bush is just a puppet, are using the same tactics to control populations employed by the Dark Lords of the Sith.
I know this is hard to believe, but if you just research their own publications they brag about it. German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in his own autobiography, Men and Powers, A Political Retrospective bragged that they had their own secret society meeting places in German where they did rituals, but his favorite place was Bohemian Grove.
I probably shouldn't be surprised by George Lucas' insight, his understanding of this greatest of secrets. By telling his Star Wars story and interlacing it with the truth, he touched all of our subconscious minds where we deep down know the truth about the world but don't have the courage to consciously admit it.
In doing so, Lucas has made over 10 billion dollars with his films and merchandise. By telling the truth even in a screened way, he has tapped into our collective unconscious and told us a story that we know is true.
In closing, it's important to see George Lucas' first feature film, THX-1138, based on a student film he produced in college. THX, which has become Lucas' signet, appearing in all of his films and most of his products, tells the story of man totally dehumanized in a forced-drugged, shaved-head police state and how one man stands up and breaks free of that system.
That's the heart of why the public loves Lucas. Not just that he tells the truth in a way that gets past the censors, but that he reminds us that the individual can stand up against organized evil and win.
To learn about the real dark lords of the Sith, visit the links below:
Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State
Art Imitates Reality: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Bohemian Grove
W's "Uncle Bucky" (Secret Society Pal of John Negroponte and Porter Goss) Makes a Killing off Iraq War
How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
The Bush-Nazi Connection
The New World Order elite has big plans for Arnold
In Your Face: The Globalists' Language is Hidden in Plain View
Rogue
Darth Vader and the New World Order
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith mirrors reality
Infowars.com / May 18, 2005
Alex Jones
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/darth_nwo.htm
The Star Wars story has had, without a question, the greatest impact on popular culture of any movie in world history. We will now explore why it has resonated so strongly with so many people across generations.
At last, the mainstream media is picking up on something we've been talking about for years. The plot lines of George Lucas' six Star Wars films mirror, in many respects, the activities of western governments.
George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars saga, has said over and over again that he simply plays on subconscious archetypal symbols that evoke primeval fears and passions. Lucas has also stated on many occasions that he draws from historical examples of imperial leaders' lust for war and total power.
As a companion to this in-depth article, Infowars presents a spoof on Starwars featuring Darth Vadar and the Emporer. This is dark satire at its most bizarre.
VIEW THE VIDEO:
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Lucas has said that that is why his films have such a powerful effect of people. Deep down, everyone knows that the greatest threat to life and liberty isn't the average criminal on the street, but the monolithic, all-powerful state.
The human desire to resist tyranny is one of the strongest drives we have and Lucas plays upon that instinct masterfully.
While premiering his film, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, at the Cannes Film Festival George Lucas was asked if his new film was a social commentary on George Bush and the Iraq invasion (which even our own government admits is part of America's new "kindly, helpful and loving" imperialism).
How can they not ask this when Darth Vader says to his former teacher Obi-Wan Kenobi, "if you're not with me, then you're my enemy." Remember that Lord Bush, after the 9/11 attacks said, "either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
Lucas responded to the reporters by saying that the original Star Wars was developed in the early post-Veitnam War era shortly after Richard Nixon left office amidst a byzantine scandal.
He continued by saying, "The issue was, how does a democracy turn itself into a dictatorship...When I wrote it, Iraq (the U.S.-led war) didn't exist.. but the parallels of what we did in Vietnam and Iraq are un believable ...I didn't think it was going to get this close."
Article Synopsis
This story deals not only with parallels between Star Wars Episode III and the Iraq invasion, it also details the psychology of government-sponsored terrorism as a tool of empire, and real secret societies like the Order of Death that Darth Vader and the Sith are based on.
Most young people have been fed a false political paradigm and so are bored with history and world events.
When they learn the true nature of the global controllers in a Star Wars context we know they will join the real rebellion.
Learn who the real dark lords are in Martial Law.
[printer friendly version]
Speaking about present day America he said, "I hope this doesn't come true in our country."
There are thousands of examples of classical despotism being practiced in the US and worldwide today. Here are just a couple:
- Our new Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, in published memos told the President and military leaders that US forces could interrogate detainees to death. If the detainees died while being tortured, the military's actions would be legal as long as they hadn't killed them on purpose. The document contained examples of how to strap someone down to a table and lower them into "liquid effluent" until they began to pass out.
Gonzales had the nerve to say that President Bush is the law and that he can break any Federal or international law that he wishes because he is the President. Gonzalez openly defended his view in front of a Senate panel that still confirmed him to be Attorney General.
Remember Hans Solo in the Empire Strikes Back strapped down in a torture chair as Darth Vader administers electric shocks. According the Alberto Gonzales' logic this is good. Vader works for the Emperor and the Emperor is the law.
The Attorney General's dark views are shared by the rest of the White House. They believe that they are above the law. Coupled with the exploding American police state, this reality is the text book manifestation of dictatorship.
Combine this open demonstration of dictatorship with 63 countries on a White House invasion hit-list and tyrannical empire is the only term that fits.
-Under section 802 of the USA Patriot Act, misdemeanor non-terror related crimes are listed as terrorism. Citizens are stripped of their most basic Constitutional rights that were held sacred in the old Republic.
-George Bush has set up a draconian Department of Homeland Security, giving FEMA the power to engage in mass arrests.
-Last year, the outgoing head of CENTCOM, General Tommy Franks, told the press that if America was attacked again the Constitution would be set aside in favor of a military form of government.
-The Federal government is dismantling the last vestiges of States' rights with its new Federally-standardized National ID Card that has been integrated with thousands of private databases to track and trace our every action.
Government-Sponsored Terrorism
When I first saw Episode I, I instantly understood the plot. Being a student of history, it made total sense. But, I was amazed, time and time again, when talking to educated adults who were also Star Wars fans that they didn't get it. They'd say, "it doesn't make any sense."
This phenomenon got even worse when Episode II came out. People were totally confused. They didn't understand a plot that children could grasp.
For those who are still confused, here's a plot synopsis in a nutshell:
In Episode I, Senator Palpatine is an obscure politician from the peaceful world of Naboo. Palpatine influences Naboo not to pay its Trade Federation taxes. The corrupt mercantile Trade Federation cartel then blockades the Naboo system and begins a ground invasion of its capitol, taking its orders from the sinister leader Darth Sidious, Lord of the Sith, who is one and the same with Senator Palpatine.
By manipulating the outcome of the Naboo police action, Palpatine (who then plays the part of resisting an operation that he has launched) is able to springboard into the Chancellery of the Galactic Senate.
Episode II begins with a widening conflict that threatens to destroy the hundred thousand-year-old Republic. The newly- elected Chancellor (Palpatine) is able to use the expanding crisis as a pretext to pass police state legislation and to launch a mammoth military buildup.
As in Episode I, Darth Sidious is in control of the separatists led by the charismatic Count Dooku, who is his secret apprentice, Darth Tyrannus. Darth Sidious uses his agent (Count Dooku) to create a crisis that threatens to destroy the Republic, thus threatening the Republic's very existence and manipulating the Senate into giving him the powers of a dictator.
This is the classic use of problem-reaction-solution. Create a crisis, get the reaction of fear from the population, and offer the solution of a police state that you control.
Real-world examples of this through history are:
-Adolph Hitler, two months after being elected Chancellor, firebombed the German Parliament (Reichstag) building, blamed it on his political enemies and declared martial law in the Reich.
-Most historians now believe that the US government bombed its own ship in Havana harbor as a pretext to launch the Spanish-American war in 1898.
-The LBJ Presidential library in 2003 released taped conversations between President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in which they discussed how the Gulf of Tonkin attack never really took place and how to use it to officially kick of the Vietnam War which resulted in the deaths of over 58,000 US troops and over a million Vietnamese.
-In early 2001, the Baltimore Sun and ABC News reported on a newly-declassified operation code-named Northwoods, where the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed hijacking jets by remote control and crashing them, bombing DC, committing sniper attacks in Miami and DC, having the CIA attack the Guantanamo Bay Marine Corps base with mortars, and how to blame all of this terrorism on Cuba and the Soviet Union, giving the Pentagon the pretext to start World War III.
The plan was green-lighted all the way up to President Kennedy who vetoed the plan. The bottom line is that the US government planned to terrorize its own cities as a pretext for war.
In Episode III, the surviving Jedi realize, when its too late, that the Clone Wars have been systematically engineered by the Lord of the Sith to destroy the Republic and the Jedi.
In the end, the Emperor dispatches his dark apprentice, Darth Vader, to exterminate the Jedi and the leaders of the separatist movement (that the Chancellor controlled), leaving the enemies of the Sith dead and the Sith in control of the Central Government. The despotic Galactic Empire is born.
George Bush: Problem-Reaction-Solution
We look at the real world and the military-industrial-complex that controls George Bush, and it is clear that the government is using the problem-reaction-solution system to bring in their own empire.
Using the threat of terrorism, the Executive Branch has declared authoritarian powers unto itself. At the same time, they tell the people that they won't be safe until every "rogue" nation (nations that are sovereign) are under World Government control.
It is a fact that bin Laden has been a CIA agent since at least 1981. The highest levels of the CIA have publicly said that they do not want to catch him.
Think about who really has the motive for the September 11th attacks. None of the Arab nations have taken responsibility, although they've been falsely accused of carrying out the attacks. Who in their right mind would attack the heart of an unmatched military juggernaut with seven times superiority of any military on earth?
Who stands to gain? Who gets trillions of dollars in Iraqi and Afghan oil? What group gets to sell hundreds of billions in weapons systems? Who gets to be our hero and silence all political opposition? What group is now turning America into a high-tech police state? In the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) documents, Dick Cheney told us in 2000 that the neo-cons and their backers gain.
PNAC documents written by Dick Cheney and other top neo-cons call for a helpful Pearl Harbor-like attack to mobilize the American people in a war for empire. One of the Pentagon's chief strategists, Tomas Barnett, openly calls America an empire and has a laundry list of nations that need to be invaded immediately.
The bin Laden family has been in business with Bushes for over thirty years. Bush Senior and the bin Ladens vacation together. The Bushes and the bin Ladens are on the board of the armament dealing consortium, the Carlyle group whose profits have quadrupled since 9/11.
The press has been forced to admit that the hijackers had their houses, cars and credit cards paid for by the Federal government. They were trained on US military bases. When US Embassies tried to block their entry into the US, the CIA ordered them to allow entry.
There are over 600 pieces of evidence that show that bin Laden is George Bush's Count Dooku, which are covered in detail in my three films on 9/11, the newest being Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State.
Hollywood Movies: Art Imitates Life
I've noticed with fantasy people have trouble understanding the concept of would-be tyrants creating crises so they can offer the solution. We see popular Hollywood films peppered with this idea. For example:
In the blockbuster, The Incredibles, the evil genius, Syndrome, wants to be worshipped as a super hero, so he stages a robotic attack on a US city which he plans to then foil and become the people's savior.
In the film, Final Fantasy, a General who wants to be given dictatorial powers opens the gates so the enemy can attack New York and then discredit his peacenik opponents.
There are countless examples of this, and I've noticed that when I talk to adults who have seen these films they don't understand the plots. But, when I talk to children they completely grasp it.
From a sociological/psychological perspective, why is there this blind spot in adults? Is it being engineered into us? Are we in denial? If so many intelligent people can't grasp a children's plot line, no wonder they can't really understand what's behind 9/11.
Missing the Big Picture
Infowars.com has seen scores of mainline publications from CBS News to Japan Today drawing parallels between America's predatory militarism and the grasping empire of the Star Wars universe.
What they've missed is the central point that Lucas makes time and time again. Criminal elements within the government that seek to overthrow freedom and replace it with slavery get their power through carrying out terrorist attacks and manufacturing enemies that they fund and control.
In some cases, as with the separatists in Star Wars, they don't even know who they are controlled by, just as an Arab suicide bomber might not know that the funds and training that he received came from a western intelligence agency. He doesn't know that his attack will be used to crack down on entire populations and stop any real peace process, because the weapon dealers have no interest in peace. Chaos is the ether in which they swim.
The dominant press also misses the boat on how much Star Wars itself has been influenced by the Third Reich. The uniforms worn by imperial officers are almost identical to the German military staff. Political officers in the empire wear the black uniforms that even more closely resemble the dreaded garb of the German political police, the SS.
Star Wars also acts as a type of cultural feedback loop. Star Wars' villains are modeled after the Nazis (Darth Vader's helmet is simply a slightly more pronounced German artillery solder's head piece), and, in turn, modern governments are themselves influenced by the visigothic-style of Star Wars.
The press reported in the early 1980's that while Ronald Reagan was campaigning for President in 1979 he was camping at Bohemian Grove in Northern California with business leaders. They came up with the idea to give the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) the catchy name "Star Wars." '
Out of SDI grew the US Space Command. Today all US military forces are under the control of the ultra-secretive US Space Command.
In the 1980's military and law enforcement planners wanted to come up with intimidating uniforms for SWAT teams and militarized riot police. They came up with a design which has now been adopted thanks to federal grants in almost every major city. The uniform, which they admit is meant to strike fear into the public, is extremely similar to the suit worn by the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader.
Seattle Riot Cop
A Ringwraith
Or course, long before Darth Vader existed in our minds, every culture had a dark totem representing evil and domination that manifested itself as a tall, pitch-black hooded or helmeted sorcerer. Similar to the ringwraiths of J.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
We should all be concerned that our government is choosing to clothe our police in these macabre get-ups. Throughout history, secret police, torturers, inquisitors, executioners, terrorists, bank robbers and every other form of scum has worn the black mask. Of course, in the Klu Klux Klan, the black mask is only worn by the Supreme Grand Dragon.
The New World Order
In Episode III, the Emperor talks about a "New Order." How many Presidents and leaders have we heard spout off about a "New Order" or a "New World Order?" George Bush Senior, Adolph Hitler, and countless others have all called for a New World Order.
A New World Order is a worldwide dictatorship. At least that is what the encyclopedia said up until the 1960's. Now resource books, especially those for children tell you that it is a loving, wonderful thing that will keep us all safe from terror.
Secret Societies
In the Star Wars universe, the Sith are members of a self-centered secret society that has been passing down its knowledge for thousands of years. The religion revels in death and destruction. War is its sacrament, death stars and war ships its cathedrals. This is one of the central threads that runs throughout the entirety of Star Wars lore.
For over a decade, I have been studying civilization and time and time again in my research I run into the occult, secret societies and, at the top of it all, the Order of Death, known by the public as the order of Skull and Bones.
The only widely known manifestation of the Order of Death is one of its chapters based at Yale University, the Order of Skull and Bones, Chapter 322, of which both George W. Bush and his father are members. Three Presidents have been members of Chapter 322 alone. Eight CIA directors were members. George W. Bush's administration has 11 members currently at the highest levels. And 322 is only one chapter.
In July of 2000, I infiltrated what can be called the mother ship of the Order of Death, the Bohemian Grove. This is the same place where Reagan decided to call SDI "Star Wars." Major California papers have reported on the rumors that world leaders meet there and perform bizarre black magic rituals to the Caananite deity that represented death, Moloch.
While I was inside, I was able to secretly film the bizarre annual ritual, the Cremation of Care, which takes place at the Bohemian Grove every year. The footage I took aired nationally on the Trio Network.
Now, we have come full circle. Why is all of this important? Because, since infiltrating, I have become aware of and have obtained publicly available annals of Bohemian Grove and its correspondence with Skull and Bones. Many of these documents are posted on infowars.com in the Bohemian Grove section.
What we learned shocked me to my very core. Skull and Bones and Bohemian Grove are nothing but US extensions of a germanic death cult that has been operating for thousands of years. This same group, that calls itself the Order of Death, is mentioned as the Tooley and Thule society and respected, mainstream works on the rise of the Third Reich detail how Adolph Hitler was a member of his group, and how they supported his rise to power and his subsequent actions in World War II.
Then I learned that Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the President, had gotten into deep trouble during World War II for trading with the enemy, and that he was on the Board of Directors of the company owned by Fritz Thyssen who was also a member of the Order of Death and the chief financier of Hitler in Germany.
In my new film, Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State I detail these facts with documents from the National Archives, the London Guardian, the New Hampshire Gazette, and Skull and Bones and Bohemian Grove's own annals.
I've really got to hand it to George Lucas. He really did his homework. It took me a decade of intense research to discover the fact that our world is dominated by members of a secret society that give themselves names like "Lord Death," "Lord Longtooth," "Lord Dragon," and "Long Devil."
Lucas was able to expose, if you think he's doing it for good, or desensitize, if you think he's doing it for bad, the entire public to the reality of what is going on, projected onto the backdrop of fantasy.
Take away the light sabers and levitation and you're left with what our world leaders really believe in, what their religion really is, what makes them tick. The global controllers, of whom Bush is just a puppet, are using the same tactics to control populations employed by the Dark Lords of the Sith.
I know this is hard to believe, but if you just research their own publications they brag about it. German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in his own autobiography, Men and Powers, A Political Retrospective bragged that they had their own secret society meeting places in German where they did rituals, but his favorite place was Bohemian Grove.
I probably shouldn't be surprised by George Lucas' insight, his understanding of this greatest of secrets. By telling his Star Wars story and interlacing it with the truth, he touched all of our subconscious minds where we deep down know the truth about the world but don't have the courage to consciously admit it.
In doing so, Lucas has made over 10 billion dollars with his films and merchandise. By telling the truth even in a screened way, he has tapped into our collective unconscious and told us a story that we know is true.
In closing, it's important to see George Lucas' first feature film, THX-1138, based on a student film he produced in college. THX, which has become Lucas' signet, appearing in all of his films and most of his products, tells the story of man totally dehumanized in a forced-drugged, shaved-head police state and how one man stands up and breaks free of that system.
That's the heart of why the public loves Lucas. Not just that he tells the truth in a way that gets past the censors, but that he reminds us that the individual can stand up against organized evil and win.
To learn about the real dark lords of the Sith, visit the links below:
Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State
Art Imitates Reality: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Bohemian Grove
W's "Uncle Bucky" (Secret Society Pal of John Negroponte and Porter Goss) Makes a Killing off Iraq War
How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
The Bush-Nazi Connection
The New World Order elite has big plans for Arnold
In Your Face: The Globalists' Language is Hidden in Plain View
Rogue
ABRX....There will most likely be more bad news thrown at the stock in the next few weeks/months and we will probably see a re-test of the lows from yesterday. It will be interesting to note how the stock reacts to more bad news in the short/intermediate term time frame.
For VERY VERY patient investors(2 year time frame) I believe we can see $20 on this one again.
Rogue
Oil Stocks.....thanks for the link. Looks good.
Rogue
Oil/Oil stocks.....the oil stocks are outperforming the physical commodity right now. Will this continue??? THE $64,000 question I guess.
Stochastics have turned up on most all oil company charts from an oversold position.
Anyone going long in a big way???......or waiting still?
My gut says we may see a bit lower on the oil futures/cash but the stocks may have bottommed.
Any input/comments?
Rogue
Oil/Oil stocks.....the oil stocks are outperforming the physical commodity right now. Will this continue??? THE $64,000 question I guess.
Stochastics have turned up on most all oil company charts from an oversold position.
Anyone going long in a big way???......or waiting still?
My gut says we may see a bit lower on the oil futures/cash but the stocks may have bottommed.
Any input/comments?
Rogue
BATTLEGROUND: PAPER VERSUS THINGS
Early this morning the Labor Department said U.S. consumer prices rose 0.5% with the consensus expecting a gain of 0.4%. The headline number came in slightly above expectations, but the markets reacted more to the core-rate of inflation excluding food and energy. Expectations called for the core-rate to show an increase of 0.2%, but instead, there was no increase. Stocks and bonds both rallied on the news and the dollar slid lower, but the dollar decline was held in check with the U.S. Dollar Index just dipping the 86 level for a brief period, but for now the dollar index is holding 86. What we are witnessing is an all out effort to support the paper asset items of the U.S. dollar, U.S. stocks (especially the Dow Industrials) and U.S. Treasury bonds. While the paper is being pumped higher, tangible items (commodities such as oil, copper and steel) are being talked down with the Wall Street bulls claiming the bull market for commodities is over. The bull market for commodities is NOT over and the demand for U.S. debt paper (and probably U.S. stocks) is declining globally.
The second pleasant surprise for the Wall Street bulls came from the Energy Department when they announced a much bigger than expected build in crude oil inventories. Expectations called for a gain of 500,000 to a million barrels, but the government said crude stocks grew by 4.3 million barrels. The API reported a build of 2.5 million barrels, smaller than the government’s number but clearly building inventory. Crude inventories have moved higher 13 out of the last 14 weeks to 334 million barrels, which is at the higher end of the averages for this time of year. While 334 million barrels sounds like a lot of oil, I believe it represents only about 25 days of supply, therefore we will continue purchasing crude. The market is expected to move toward $45 a barrel, but with solid demand, any supply disruptions will move the price swiftly higher.
On the interest rate front, the Mortgage Bankers Association said their applications index fell by 10.5%, with the purchase index down by 10.8% and the refinance index lower by 10.0%. This is the largest decline for the MBA applications index since December. The 30-year fixed rate dropped four basis points to 5.73% and the one-year ARMS index fell nine basis points to 4.11%. New housing starts were WAY up, but mortgage activity is down. I wonder if any of the home builders are concerned about getting hung with unsold inventory. How much longer will the mania phase last in the real estate boom? Higher mortgage rates will probably answer the question in due time.
A Blast From the Past
In light of the many disconnected movements in the financial markets in recent weeks, especially in the bond markets, the following excerpt really hit home with me. When I read it, I thought it did a good job in shining the light on why so many people felt this uneasy sense of impending doom. Something in the markets just doesn’t feel right…something is wrong. Yesterday Treasuries rallied with higher than expected inflation numbers and today they rallied again with inflation reported lower than expected. Bond prices move higher with an expected economic slowdown and stocks are moving higher in anticipation of the coming “summer rally.” It looks like a manic/depressive market…which is it? All the credit for this excerpt goes to Doug Noland of the Prudent Bear. When I read this, I thought it was an accurate description of what we are seeing today.
“One trouble with every inflationary creation of credit is that it acts like a delayed time bomb. There is an interval of indefinite and sometimes considerable length between the injection of the stimulant and the resulting speculation. Likewise, there is an interval of a similarly indefinite length of time between the injection of the remedial serum and the lowering of the speculative fever. Once the fever gets under way it generates its own toxics.” (page 11)
“Nor was our financial system weakness solely in the banks. Throughout the whole business of providing capital for our economic life there ran a pollution – the habit of making money by manipulation and promotion of securities. And that promotion too often disregarded the merits of the goods it sold. In addition, the financial world, instead of providing merely the lubricants of commerce and industry, had often set itself up to milk the system. Worse still, instead of being financial advisers to commerce and industry, the financiers had, in many ways, set themselves up to dictate the management of it.” (page 23)
“The credit system in all its phases should be merely a lubricant to the systems of production and distribution. It is not its function to control these systems. That it should be so badly organized, that the volume of currency and credit, whether long or short term, should expand and shrink irrespective of the needs of production and distribution; that it should be the particular creature of emotional fear or optimism; that it should dominate and not be subordinate to production and distribution – all this is intolerable if we are to maintain our civilization.” (page 25/26)
“It was difficult for the public to believe that such griefs and tragedies lay hidden in so obscure a process as credit inflation when forced on an already optimistic people.” (page 14)
Now here’s the kicker…Mr. Noland described the quote as follows, “I thought I would share a few excerpts I ponder from The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover – 1929 to 1941 that capture the essence of major systemic Credit Bubble dynamics.” Back then, just as today, people were told debt is a good thing…go out and buy something with your credit card! I also noticed the part that described the fraud and manipulations of Wall Street promoters…looks like there really is nothing new under the sun! In July, Blanchard will get their time in court with J.P. Morgan and Barrick Gold for their alleged role in manipulating the price of gold lower.
Now let’s take a further look at how seemingly desperate our officials are in keeping the system afloat. Have you ever wondered why the Fed does not think it’s necessary to regulate hedge funds? For quite a long time now I have speculated that the Feds have their own “hedge” accounts set up around the globe. This is the first writer I have seen call it like it is…but it will come as no surprise if you know Mr. Bill Murphy of GATA.org. I was especially humored by the title of his Monday missive, “Caribbean Pirates Holding US Financial Markets Together.” Here are some excerpts from his market recap on Monday as they pertain to foreign capital flows. The manufacturing report was bad on Monday, but the March TICS report of diminishing investment in the U.S. was the worst news of the week so far. Here is how Bill Murphy reported on capital flows:
March TICS.
Expect: $70 bil.
Actual: No typo here. $45.7 bil.
This looks to be the case for the low-ball result:
Apparently, US investors unloaded foreign securities to the tune of $14.4 bil, just like
they did in February. At the same time, foreign central banks blew out of $14.98 bil of US securities (the bulk of that is govvies).
Please note that NET FOREIGN PURCHASES OF GOVVIES WERE $42.9 bil in
March. Now look at the specifics:
*Caribbean banking centers: +$32.5 bil
*UK: +$12.2 bil
Korea: +$4 bil
Germany: +$3 bil
China and Japan: both negative at $1.4 bil and $800 mil, respectively.
*Fast money oriented.
So between the Caribbean and UK alone, they purchased $44.7 bil.
There is something way too weird here.
However, foreign official institutions were net sellers of $14.98 billion worth of Treasuries, or 15 times as much as the last dip in 2003.The last time foreign official institutions were net sellers of Treasuries was almost two years ago, when they sold $963 million of Treasuries. Hail to the Caribbean Pirates who came to the rescue.
In other words if it were not for the Caribbean Pirates interest rates would be much higher than where they are today. Who knows where the dollar would be?
Who are those guys, the Caribbean Pirates? The Fed, that’s who, at least most of them. The Fed is printing money and buying US Government Securities through these accounts to disguise the FACT that foreigners are pulling way back in the their support of our credit markets. This should be no surprise as late last year they demanded the US gets its fiscal house in order for them to continue their buying of our debt. We have done nothing to correct the problem
This report almost leaves one speechless. The biggest holders of our debt, the Chinese and Japanese, went negative for the month!!!!
What this tells us (the way I see it) the MIDAS analysis of blatant market manipulation is right on the money. Interest rates have come down to where they are because the Fed is forcing them down in fear of imploding a fragile US economy and the US real estate bubble, which is providing the only real strength in the economy at the moment.
This also lends credence to my notion the PPT and G-7 have maneuvered the dollar to the upside because the US credit market situation is close to a disaster (with foreigners lightening up while credit spreads widen due to the hedge fund trades gone bad). With the dollar firmer and the interest rate vehicles going up, they are placating the current foreign holders of our debt and preventing a fiasco.
I believe Bill Murphy’s claims are true. The Fed openly stated they would use unconventional means to defend our system from a deflationary meltdown. I firmly believe they are using the unconventional means they described; they just haven’t bothered to tell us what they are really doing behind the scenes. Even Richard Russell recently said he believed the Fed was buying stock futures to prop up the Dow whenever it reached the critical 10,000 level. The internet is littered with evidence of market manipulations by the authorities. This screams of desperation, but they must feel justified in what they are doing for the sake of national security. Protect the U.S. dollar, stocks and Treasuries at all costs…even if you have to do it via subsidiary “shell companies” in the Cayman and Caribbean Islands.
The biggest disconnect in the markets over the last couple weeks has been in the bond market, especially U.S. Treasuries. It seems no matter what news comes out, Treasuries move higher. My take on this is pretty simple based on past Treasury auctions. Problems surfaced with hedge funds at an opportunistic time for the Treasury since they had to auction $51 billion of new debt. The hedge fund problems prompted a “flight to safety” and made Treasuries more desirable along with the evidence of a slowing economy. The bonds got sold with decent demand, but remember that the 22 primary bond dealers that deal directly with the Fed are obligated to purchase Treasuries to make sure all the debt gets sold. I believe the dealers are now putting the bonds in “distribution” to get them out of their inventory and off into public hands. Once the distribution is complete, bond prices will head lower pushing interest rates higher again. The ten-year Treasury note is flirting with the 4% level again…WOW, another half-point lower and we could see re-fi madness hit the mortgage markets again. Be careful before shorting Countrywide Mortgage…new housing starts were up an astounding 11% in the last report!
Treasury prices ended higher across the board today, but the stock market bulls are having an even bigger party on Wall Street. Today the Dow Industrials added 132 points to close at 10,464, the NASDAQ Composite gained 26 points to 2,030, and the S&P 500 closed 11 points higher at 1,185. I do not like this manic/depressive stock market.
“NOW IS THE TIME”
Treasury Secretary John Snow came out Monday and explicitly stated, “Now is the time” for China to revalue the yuan. What he was really trying to say to China is…Now is the time we need to devalue the U.S. dollar! Now is the time we need to pay back our debts with cheaper dollars. Now is the time we need to slow down the American consumer by raising import prices. As we devalue the dollar, a pegged yuan just brings deflation back to the United States in the form of consumer goods. We export jobs and debt to China in exchange for more fun stuff we can buy at Wal-Mart.
On Monday the N.Y. Feds Empire index of manufacturing showed industrial production in the U.S. declining by 0.2% in April. This was the lowest reading for the Empire Index since April 2003. Now contrast the U.S. manufacturing decline with Bloomberg’s lead sentence in one of today’s articles. “China’s industrial output rose 16% in April, faster than the highest forecast by economists, as companies including Quanta Computer Inc. and Royal Philips Electronics NV move production to the nation.” The world is changing dramatically right in front of our eyes…no wonder Congress is threatening China with a 27.5% import tariff on all imported goods. Global import quotas were in place for 40 years on textiles from China. The quotas were lifted in January and the U.S. and Europe saw textile imports from China increase by over 30% to European countries and the United States. A week ago the quotas were re-imposed and China is furious! We simply can’t compete with China in low cost manufacturing, so the problem needs to get fixed on the currency side of the equation. Mr. Snow says the U.S. needs to devalue the dollar NOW!!!
As for the current dollar rally, I believe the dollar is being ramped higher for two reasons: one, to offer a renewed confidence in U.S. assets; and two, to ramp the dollar higher in anticipation of a revaluation from China. Bill Buckler, who writes the highly respected “Privateer” newsletter out of Australia, has the following take on the recent movement of the dollar:
A Rising Tide - Or A Sinking Ship?
The biggest "excitement" about the rise in the US Dollar over the period since May 10 has been that the major "victim" of the rise has been the Euro. Many of the biggest hedge fund bets in recent weeks have been based on US corporate debt and corporate pension obligations issued in Europe. It is these which are being liquidated and the resultant capital traded out of Euros and back into US Dollars which has been a MAJOR factor in the sudden Dollar rise of recent days.
Gold has almost perfectly reflected the increase in the US Dollar index this week. For public consumption, this surge in the US Dollar is being "credited" to all the US government statistics which have been released in recent weeks - lower trade deficit, higher employment, increased retail sales, etc., etc.. As has been exhaustively reported by us and by many others across the internet, ALL these statistics have been massaged to an extent far surpassing that which has gone before.
In FACT, this surge in the Dollar is a frantic attempt to shore up defenses in advance of what EVERYONE expects to be an earthquake in the hedge funds. The state of the hedge funds is a window into the state of the fantastic leverage which has built the derivatives reported by the BIS to its appalling present dimensions.
If there has ever been a wakeup call for the ownership of GOLD as the ultimate insurance against financial upheaval, this sudden surge of the US Dollar has provided it. We don't know how far the Dollar can rise and how long the surge can last. We DO know that the rise is NOT based on any kind of "health" in the global financial system and the US financial system in particular. The exact opposite is the case. The tide is not rising. The ship is sinking.
Jim Sinclair also had an interesting analysis of the dollar. He basically said to keep an eye on the TICS report for the next few months relative to our trade deficit. If you recall, Wall Street was euphoric to see the last trade deficit come in at only $55 billion, but net foreign investment to the U.S. was lower at $45 billion. We didn’t borrow enough from foreigners to support the trade deficit. Mr. Sinclair suggests another two months with net investment coming in below the trade deficit, and the dollar will be toast! Earlier I commented the dollar was holding the 86 level, but has since weakened to 85.81 for the close. As Bill Buckler puts it, we don’t know how far the dollar can rise or for how long, but it’s not rising because of exceptionally good health.
Commodities and the Dollar
We are not going to see an end to the bull market in commodities for quite a few more years. Developing nations are just now getting a taste of the good life. With China’s manufacturing growth at 16% there is a tremendous amount of momentum in their economic growth. The same is true for India, Indonesia, some South American countries and many more. The growing demand for commodities is a GLOBAL EVENT. What we have been watching the last few weeks with commodity prices coming down has more to do with the recent dollar rally. As the dollar rallies and foreign currencies decline, commodity prices outside the U.S. don’t come down as fast as they do in U.S. dollar terms. The dollar has strengthened and therefore some commodity prices have declined. We haven’t had a sudden drop in commodity demand and we haven’t heard of any huge commodity discoveries that will increase supply. Fundamentally nothing has changed with commodities…what we are seeing is a battle royal in the currency pits!
Commodities have taken a short-term breather in their ascent to higher prices, but this is just a pause for refreshment. The next round of commodity boom prices will come as soon as the dollar rolls over to reflect the dollar devaluation that Secretary Snow says we need RIGHT NOW! In the meantime, the commodity bull market is preparing to climb the proverbial “Wall of Worry” as the dollar moves lower if we can get the needed cooperation from China. I’ll leave it to Doug Casey, an expert speculator and 25 years an investor and analyst in commodities and resource stocks. Here is a brief excerpt from his piece, “Profiting From the Wall of Worry.”
“Periodically in 2004, and intensively so far in 2005, prices of most resource companies have been driven down, casting a dark cloud over the psychology of most investors and market observers.”
“People are worried for a number of reasons. Technicians fret about the huge run-up and subsequent loss of momentum; they wonder if the mining stocks aren’t about to go right back where they came from. Fundamentalists are concerned that (inevitably) higher interest rates will cause people to buy fewer new houses, cars, and other consumer goods; as demand falls, so would commodity prices. They worry that the boom in China will soon come off the rails. They worry that all the money that’s been raised will result in gigantic new supplies of metal, depressing prices. They worry that environmentalists will make it impossible to develop new properties at any price. They worry that feckless and bankrupt governments might nationalize good-looking discoveries, or tax them into unprofitability. They worry that new technologies will radically reduce the use of some metals, collapsing their prices. They worry that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. And they’re right—but their timing is wrong.”
After Mr. Casey details the Wall of Worry, he goes on to describe some of the reasons the bull market in commodities is not over. Here is what he says:
“There are lots of reasons. Enough that even a cursory discussion of them will take another article. But in brief, to refute some of the current Worries: We’re coming off the longest and deepest secular commodity bear market since the depression of the ‘30s. Commodity prices are still far closer to historic lows than historic highs, at least in “constant” dollars, which is what counts. The world economy is evolving away from the debt-burdened U.S. and towards China, India, and numerous smaller countries; their growth will be volatile, but it’s for real, and they’ll consume unbelievable amounts of raw materials in the coming years. There’s been very little mineral exploration for a full generation, the industry has come nowhere near replacing reserves, and a historic supply crunch in many commodities is in the making. Governments will always act stupidly, but the long-term trend is inevitably towards freer markets, higher standards of living—and higher resource consumption.”
Through the paper Mr. Casey details the three phases of a secular bull market: the Stealth Phase, the Wall of Worry, and finally the Mania Phase. The easy money was already made in the Stealth Phase and we are now in the Wall of Worry. Just listen to the popular media talk down the commodity markets…today will be easy with the decline of $1.77 a barrel for crude today with the close at $47.20. Two things have happened to get oil down in price: first they ramp the “petro-dollar” higher and voila…lower crude price. Second, oil inventories have been growing for 13 out of the last 14 weeks. If they thought crude would be moving so much lower in price (some say going to $35), why have they been building so much inventory with the price was above $50 a barrel? I have heard some analysts suggest they have to top off the tanks if we are going to war with Iran in a month or two…or possibly Syria. They have been pumping oil and importing at breakneck speed to get these inventories higher. High energy prices are taxing the global economy. They needed to get oil lower to avoid choking off more discretionary spending. As we get closer to the driving season we’ll see how much of a choke point there is on global refining capacity.
I like to close with positive comments on my favorite investment. Silver had a good day today by adding 16 cents to close at the high of $7.21. I’ve held firm with my silver calls on the COMEX at $7.50. It appears the commercials now hold the “long” cards and are prepared to take the silver price higher. There is also a lot of talk that there could be a delivery problem brewing for the May contract with over 2,000 longs still outstanding that can either roll-over to June or demand delivery. For the details of this bullish scenario that has shaped up for silver, please read Ted Butler as he is far more qualified to comment on the composition of the Commitment of Traders Report.
The COT’s are now turning favorable for gold, so very soon gold will not be acting to keep silver down. Keep an eye on the dollar, because short-term politics usually has repercussions in precious metals, especially gold with so much going on in the foreign exchange arena. Two weeks ago before the Treasury auctions I said we would have to get beyond the auctions before gold and silver would be free to move higher. We are there now. I’m prepared to see the precious metals climb right over the top of this false dollar strength. We shall see!!! In the meantime…
Have a Great Evening!
Mike Hartman
Rogue
Very interesting article from a while back that I believe is "Dead On".......a good read and I do believe the author has the "big picture" nailed here.
The Trillion-Dollar Head Fake
The Trillion-Dollar Head Fake
By Tobin Smith
03/25/2005
Every once in a while the market does a VERY extraordinary job of confusing the most people possible. This is one of those times, and I am anticipating what I call the Trillion-Dollar Head Fake.
The Trillion-Dollar Head Fake will:
# Take the broader indexes higher for a short while on an over-the-top bearish reversal.
# Take energy and energy infrastructure complex stocks back to January lows via a sharp, secular bull-market correction.
# Suck in a bunch of money at the top of the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq trading ranges.
# Suck money into the Nasdaq 100 stocks and Philly Semiconductor Index.
# Turn that latecomer money into dog poop.
This is the time to re-examine your exposure to the energy sector. Remember, it's important to have the firepower to profit when the head fake itself plays out.
IS THAT A MIRAGE?
#When you combine the critical moves the Fed made yesterday, today's CPI numbers and last week's price-deflator numbers, and the bond futures markets for 2006 delivery, you get one of those rare glimpses of what I call an "investment mirage." Here are the components:
# Look for the oil bubble to burst and take prices to under $50 per barrel. This takes exploration and production stocks down to January support levels -- as much as 20% lower in cases where the companies have no hedging.
The key to this will be the U.S. announcement that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve purchasing is complete, with 700 million gallons of light, sweet crude in the ground. As 400,000 to 500,000 barrels a day come back into the market, we should see another leg down in oil prices to below $50.
# Expect 10-year bond rates to rise to 5%, moving 30-year mortgages to 7% by year-end. This will be hard on housing market demand with a rush to get in starting NOW, with soft demand continuing into Fall.
# Chain-weighted inflation moves to 3%. That's high enough to get the Fed to raise rates 0.5% in June on the way to 4% by November -- with more to come IF we don’t see GDP come back to 3.5%.
# Capacity utilization rises above 80% in the next quarter for first time since 2000. This would be another harbinger of slightly increased pricing power and systemic inflation.
# Unit labor costs continue their 2.4% annual rise, which pressures service companies to raise rates.
# A short-term bottom for stocks on ultra-negative sentiment launches an oversold rally in stocks -- which peters out just around the time that energy complex stock sentiment reaches its nadir.
# Another long-term rally in energy complex stocks takes the leadership of the market back from the Dead Tech bounce.
What does this mean to you? Well, it means you have one more shot at selling your:
# Financial services stocks.
# Mortgage stocks.
# Faux financial services stocks (e.g., General Motors, GE, Ford, Deere).
# Old tech.
# Early-stage cyclicals (e.g., cars, consumer durables, airlines, etc.).
The S&P 500 is down around 7% this year, excluding energy complex stocks. And since energy complex stocks only make up about 7% of the indexes, most investors are down for the year.
The head fake is on. Ignore it at your own peril.
YESTERDAY'S FED CHANGEQUAKE
The Fed is CLEARLY telling us from their notes and new language of yesterday that they will continue to raise interest rates well past the neutral rate if the economic numbers continue to roll around a 4% GDP. And our ChangeWave Alliance research shows that this kind of GDP growth will be the case in Q1 and close for Q2.
Listen, I’ve been a Greenspan Fed watcher for almost 20 years. Historically, ANY expression of concern shown by the Federal Reserve with respect to the inflation outlook has been met with rising interest rates in the bond market.
When the Fed tells us that the inflation rate is on the rise, they are telling anyone who will listen that they will respond to ANY inflation threat by raising interest rates as much as necessary to maintain “containment.”
Here were the cues from the policy statement by the Federal Open Market Committee yesterday when compared to the Feb. 2 statement:
Feb. 2: The committee perceives the upside and downside risks to the attainment of both sustainable growth and price stability for the next few quarters to be roughly equal.
March 22: The committee perceives that, with appropriate monetary policy action, the upside and downside risks to the attainment of both sustainable growth and price stability should be KEPT roughly equal. (My emphasis.)
In February, the Federal Reserve indicated that it believed inflation risks were inherently low. Yesterday the Fed told us that if these risks are to be "kept" low, it will require actions from the Federal Reserve.
Strike one.
Feb. 2: With underlying inflation expected to be relatively low, the committee believes that policy accommodation can be removed at a pace that is likely to be measured.
March 22: With underlying inflation expected to be contained, the committee believes that policy accommodation can be removed at a pace that is likely to be measured.
"Relatively low" is NOT "contained."
This is NOT a subtle change. The Fed told us yesterday that they are no longer characterizing the inflation rate as low. They told us that ACTION, not words, would be needed to keep inflation contained.
I expect the Fed will raise interest rates by a half-percentage point at the June 30 FOMC meeting. And guess what? The market has already priced this into the futures.
This big shift qualifies as a monetary ChangeQuake, and I want us to make money from it.
This is part of the trillion-dollar head fake.
OIL PRICES
The risk here is a faster slide to the $45-$48 per barrel level as the inventories build and 500,000 barrels a day stop flowing into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
I can also tell that the market psychology has gotten too far ahead of itself. The big move to $57 oil seemed to turn the oil bears into roaring bulls. Too many traders on one side of the canoe tips it over, and that is exactly what I see happening right now in the oil trading pits.
Here are my fears -- and the trap I do NOT want to fall into:
1) Oil peaks and sells off fast. Energy exploration and production names and the most extended energy stocks come back 30%-40%.
2) Negative market sentiment measures move to extremes, which cements an S&P 500 bottom.
3) Oil falls further.
4) Non-energy stocks rally further.
5) When oil once again finds its footing around $45-$48 -- end of rally.
6) Energy complex stocks bottom and quickly rise to reflect structural supply/demand imbalances.
This is a classic market “head fake” that sucks in a lot of money at the top.
Then we see a fundamental supply/demand imbalance in oil rally prices back to the highs, and possibly beyond. Ditto the alternative energy and infrastructure plays.
All the while, non-energy and infrastructure stocks (i.e., the S&P 500 index tied primarily to financial stocks) simply run out of steam in a cloud of interest rate hikes.
We are going to make ANOTHER KILLING in the energy complex spaces when this two-step is over. But you gotta be prepared and ready to strike when the time is right.
Sometimes in life, timing IS everything.
LINK: http://www.changewave.com/BreakingWaves.html?Source=/Archive/2005/3/25-69417.html
Rogue
Bill Gross, "bond guru" of Pimco's latest missive.....
http://www.pimco.com/LeftNav/Late+Breaking+Commentary/IO/2005/IO+May-June+2005.htm
Rogue
China Enters Foreign Exchange Arena.
http://216.187.82.180/home.asp
Author: Jim Sinclair
Wednesday, May 18, 2005, 12:22:00 AM EST
However the market, the dollar or gold interprets this move by China be assured of one thing: It is a disaster for the TIC figures as China, along with Japan, have been major dollar buyers as a means of defending their respective currencies.
An upward revaluation of the Chinese Yuan will put irresistible upward pressure on the currencies of China's Asian trading partners for speculative and trade reasons and will relieve China of the need to buy dollars upon which the US is so seriously dependent because of its massive Budget and Trade deficits.
There is no fundamental question that an upward revaluation of the Yuan or its float against a basket of currencies would be a major blow to the dollar by the natural reaction to reduce international dollar demand that will not be offset by higher US interest rates. Therefore, no matter how the market reads it please be calm in your positions as long as you avoided the evils of credit. If your positions are on margin, then you have not taken my advice in gold anything.
At the very least, opening China to world markets for speculation in various currencies is like opening Pandora's box. The Chinese are the world's greatest speculators and they are proud of it. The $2.6 trillion dollar per day currency market just got a boost to probably $4 to $5 trillion per day.
In retrospect, the US hard line against China today opened the Pandora's box that will in time eat the dollar to pieces. The Chinese are master chess players and their reaction will in time be known as the Yuan to Dollar "Check Mate."
China broadens forex system
SHANGHAI, China (Reuters) -- China launched a new foreign exchange dealing system on Wednesday that allows domestic trading in currencies other than the yuan, a milestone in the country's effort to reform its tightly controlled currency regime.
The system, allowing trade in China in eight more currency pairs, came as the U.S. Treasury warned that Beijing could be labelled a manipulative trading partner unless it took swift steps toward a more flexible yuan.
The China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) said the new system hosted trading in the U.S. dollar against the euro, yen, Hong Kong dollar, British pound, Swiss franc, Australian dollar and Canadian dollar, plus the euro versus the yen.
Officials have assembled a strong line-up of pioneering foreign and local banks to launch the system, from ABN AMRO to Bank of China, but economists are divided as to whether the market will attract the business it needs to take off long-term.
More...
Rogue
Chavez: Oil Companies to be Paid in Local Currency
Business News Americas (BNamericas.com) 5/17/2005
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=22578
Private oil companies doing business with Venezuela's state oil firm PDVSA will no longer receive payment in US dollars, but in the local currency, the bolívar, President Hugo Chávez said on Sunday, according to state news agency Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias.
"If they want, they can sue me," Chávez said during his habitual Sunday Aló Presidente broadcast.
PDVSA receives 500,000 barrels of crude a day from 32 oilfield operators, the vast majority of them foreign oil companies. Chávez has already ordered the ending of "operating agreement" status and the migration to "mixed capital enterprises," under which PDVSA will hold at least 51% and the current operators 49%, if they so choose, by the end of this year.
Chávez said the operating agreements were financially detrimental to Venezuela. PDVSA last year paid US$3bn to operators.
In his address Chávez strongly criticized economic theories that oppose socialism. "We must leave the perverted road of capitalism, which means anti-Christianity and anti-Bolivarianism."
Bolivarianism is a term referring to the ideals of Simón Bolívar, who in the 19th century led a revolt against the Spanish empire that eventually resulted in the liberation of what is now Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.
Hmmm.....makes me think maybe there are some "weapons of mass destruction" hiding out somewhere in Venezuela.
Rogue
FinancialAdvisor.....I really like your board here. It is newly discovered by myself.
You really can't be 21 years of age as according to your profile?? That's very very hard for me to believe. If it's true you have restored my hope in the youth of this nation.
Regardless..... Keep up the great work!
Rogue
Venezuela halts US dollar cost payment to oil firms
Sun May 15, 2005 05:20 PM ET
(Adds details, background, byline)
By Pascal Fletcher
CARACAS, Venezuela, May 15 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday tightened a nationalist squeeze on overseas oil companies by ending contracted U.S. dollar cost payments to foreign oil field operators in his country.
The left-wing populist leader said the prohibition was part of a campaign to overhaul foreign energy contracts signed by previous governments, which he said were sucking oil income from Venezuela, the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter.
"They've been robbing us, looting us" Chavez said in a television broadcast.
He added that oil field operating contracts in the 1990s included clauses under which state oil company PDVSA was obliged to pay foreign partners in dollars for local costs like work clothes, vehicles, food and other expenses.
"PDVSA is now prohibited from doing this. I prohibit it," Chavez said.
"And if someone wants to sue me, let them," he added, shrugging off the possibility that his government might face legal action over alleged contract breaches.
"From now onwards, we won't be paying a cent in dollars (of costs) to these transnational companies," he said, without identifying individual contracts or giving figures.
This year, Chavez has already increased income tax for oil field operating contracts held by companies from the United States, Europe and Asia.
Venezuela is one of the leading oil suppliers to the United States and U.S. oil majors like Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , Chevron (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , and ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) paid big bonuses to win oil projects before Chavez was first elected in 1998.
"OIL VAMPIRES"
Chavez said his drive to restore Venezuela's "oil sovereignty" had earned him the enmity of U.S. President George W. Bush, whom he called "Mr. Danger."
"That is why Mr. Danger doesn't want us," he said.
Although Venezuela continues to sell more than half its oil exports to the United States, the Venezuelan leader has frequently accused Bush's government of plotting to overthrow or kill him to seize control of his country's oil.
"That's why they invaded Iraq ... they're desperate for oil, they're like oil vampires," he said. U.S. officials have dismissed these accusations as "wild" and "ridiculous."
Chavez this year ordered that 32 oil field operating contracts signed between 1992 and 1997 be converted into joint ventures under Venezuela's 2001 Hydrocarbons Law.
This law foresees higher royalty payments and gives the state a controlling 51 percent stake.
Late last year, Chavez also unilaterally increased royalties on big foreign-financed extra-heavy oil upgrade projects in the Orinoco Belt.
Industry analysts say the government's nationalist energy policy could hurt future investment and hamper PDVSA's plans to increase output.
They say Venezuela has not fully recovered from an anti-government strike more than two years ago that briefly slashed oil production and exports. They put current output at around 2.6 million to 27 million barrels per day (bpd).
The government says it is above 3 million bpd.
Chavez said industrialized nations should reduce their "unbridled" energy consumption or face a global energy crisis.
"There are no oil reserves any more in the United States, Middle East reserves are decreasing and our reserves are the world's biggest," he added, without offering figures.
He has recently accused foreign spy services and oil majors of masterminding what he calls a campaign of sabotage and vandalism against western Venezuelan oil installations.
But his critics and many industry experts say this is just a smokescreen to conceal corruption and inefficiency in PDVSA.
Rogue
TGB.......probably very true. I'm watching TGB for signs of a good "hard" long-term bottom to build a position.
Rogue
ROYL...Royale Energy getting slammed hard today. Trading at a new 52 week low.....Time to do some bottom fishing in this one?
Comments?
Rogue
Vultures smell drop in hot Florida condo market By Jim Loney
Thu May 12,10:38 AM ET
MIAMI (Reuters) - The vultures are circling the construction cranes and unfinished concrete-and-glass towers of Miami's white-hot condo craze.
A handful of real estate entrepreneurs are forming "vulture capital" funds to pounce on what they call an inevitable downturn in an exploding south Florida real estate market fueled by foreign buyers searching for safe havens and aging baby boomers looking to downsize and move closer to the coast.
Analysts have long predicted a slowdown in the blazing U.S. real estate market, where stock investors scorched by the Internet bubble of 2000 poured money into rental properties and second homes.
Owners in New York, Washington and California cities have seen double-digit annual growth in property values for years. Nowhere is the champagne fizz of the real estate mania more evident than Miami.
In the city of Miami, more than 60,000 high-rise condo units are in some stage of planning or construction, officials say. The city has fewer than 400,000 people, a fraction of greater Miami's 2.3 million population.
Jack McCabe, chief executive of McCabe Research and Consulting of Deerfield Beach, Florida, said he has formed an "opportunity fund" that is nearly "eight figures" to take advantage of a swoon he sees coming next year as a result of a bulge in the south Florida condo pipeline.
"We're seeing people taking equity loans, people emptying their savings accounts. The really giddy are maxing out their credit cards to get in on this gold rush," he said. "We think a lot of people are not going to be able to close."
The median price of an existing U.S. home climbed from $156,000 to $185,000 from 2002 to 2004, according to the National Association of Realtors. The price of a greater Miami home shot from $190,000 to $277,000 in the same period.
Price rises in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach were even higher, and Florida cities like Bradenton, Melbourne and Sarasota were red-hot as well. Buyers who failed to act quickly tell tales of desired properties rising $10,000 or $20,000 from month to month.
FLOOD OF MONEY
A flood of money from Latin America and Europe has financed 30- and 40-story tower projects in Miami's Brickell banking district, downtown's Biscayne Boulevard and on flashy South Beach, as developers sell urban lifestyle and boomers seek water view homes.
"We're getting, easily, between Latin America and Europe, easily 40 to 50 percent of our buyers in this downtown area," said Pedro Martin, chief executive of developer Terra Group.
Miami's condo boom has shown notable signs of excess. When the bayside Mirador rental building was converted to condos last fall, buyers pitched tents in its driveway for days to have a shot at a unit.
In South Beach, the beach/hip-hop/model mecca, developers throw wine-and-hors d'oeuvres parties to open sales offices with the aim of creating buzz for frothy unbuilt projects where $600,000 apartments will sit next to noisy roadway overpasses.
Last week, developer Leon Cohen revealed plans for the Empire World Towers, a 110-story downtown condo project that would be the world's tallest residential building, if it gets off the ground.
"I believe many of them won't get built," said David Dabby, president of Coral Gables-based Dabby Group and a longtime observer of the Miami market. "If all those projects go forward it seems pretty clear that there will be an oversupply."
Local real estate analysts say 80 percent of the units in some projects are bought by speculators. About 48,000 new condos are scheduled to hit the south Florida market -- Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, by 2007, McCabe says.
He believes a market downturn beginning next year will leave some speculators unable to close, buyers in bankruptcy or foreclosure and developers out of business. That's when the vulture capitalists will swoop.
"Some of the greatest fortunes were made in down markets," he said. "A down market sorts out the really savvy from the naive. The savvy will understand what opportunities are out there and the naive will suffer the consequences."
The vultures may flock too early, Dabby said, recalling that the south Florida market took about six years to recover from a condo bubble in the early 1980s.
"That's a fool's game right now," he said.
But with an estimated 1,000 new residents moving to Florida every day and land available for development running dry, particularly in south Florida, some analysts say any downturn will be less a crash than a period of flat or moderately lower prices.
"South Florida will always be an excellent real estate market in the long term," McCabe said. "We have a scarcity of land and we have constant population growth."
(Additional reporting by Michael Christie in Miami
Rogue
Small Oil Company Touts Discovery ........................ PAUL FOY, AP Business Writer
Wed May 4, 5:32 PM ET
SALT LAKE CITY - A tiny oil company has snapped up leasing rights to a half-million acres in central Utah that it says could yield a billion barrels or more of oil.
Geologists are calling it a spectacular find — the largest onshore discovery in at least 30 years, located in a region of complex geology long abandoned for exploration by major oil companies. It's turning out to contain high-quality oil already commanding a premium at refineries.
With the secret out, industry players expect a bidding war to break out at the next Utah leasing auction, set for May 17 in Salt Lake City.
At today's prices the oil reserve could bring Utah $5.6 billion in royalties, state auditors conservatively estimate. Although the discovery is still playing out, the oil will take years to recover and some skeptics question the company's projections for a region yet to be fully surveyed.
"It's just very highly unlikely because the U.S. onshore has been picked clean, if you will," said Fadel Gheit, senior oil analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.
"That's like finding a wallet in the subway after all the cleaners went through it. It's possible, but very highly unlikely," he said.
Gov. Jon Huntsman said he was aware of the discovery "and we are tracking the progress with great interest. If the prospects prove to be true, it will be important that the resources are developed responsibly."
The discovery is playing out just outside Sigurd, Utah, more than 100 miles from any of Utah's other major oil fields and 45 miles from the nearest operating well.
The find, 130 miles south of Salt Lake City, was made by Wolverine Gas & Oil Corp., a privately held company with just 25 employees improbably located in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Wolverine's test well hit "pay" in late 2003, and by May 2004 it started producing from a single deposit estimated to contain 100 million to 200 million barrels of oil.
Wolverine and government geologists said the company is examining 25 deposits in all that could contain 1 billion barrels of oil.
Those underground deposits are widely scattered over a crescent-shaped belt 100 miles long and up to 50 miles wide that contains all the geologic "right stuff" for oil pockets in folds of Jurassic Navajo sandstone, said Tom Chidsey, petroleum section chief for the Utah Geological Survey.
If Wolverine could produce 1 billion barrels at once, it could satisfy the nation's demand for about 45 days — less than the reserve that Congress may open at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which by equally speculative estimates may contain 10 billion barrels of oil.
Chidsey said Wolverine's discovery could dwarf Utah's last major find, the still-producing Pineview field overlapping the Wyoming border. That field, tapped in 1975, has produced 31 million barrels and may contain another 100 million barrels, he said.
Oil companies began exploring central Utah more than 50 years ago without success, even though it's part of an oil-producing belt thrust ranging from Mexico to Alaska. The complex geology of central Utah produced only dry wells — 58 of them in the past 25 years.
In 1999, Wolverine bought Chevron's leasing rights and seismic data and started poking around itself, bouncing seismic waves more than 5,000 feet deep. With just two wells operating at full capacity now, Wolverine is pumping 1,500 barrels of oil a day from the ground and trucking it to Salt Lake refineries.
"The secret's out and we will face competition" at the next BLM auction, said Doug Strickland, a geologist for Wolverine. "We had a year and three months to ourselves."
The BLM will auction 300,000 acres throughout Utah. Acres that Wolverine once picked up for $10 are now being valued at $1,200 in central Utah. Leasing rights are good for five years and as long as a well is producing.
Oil companies pay 12.5 percent of the value of oil taken from federal lands — and half of that comes back to Utah, which shares some of it with local governments, said Steve Schneider, audit manager for the Utah Division of Oil, Gas & Mining.
Rogue
Oil sector/ Rainman? 10-bagger? Others?....please "ring the bell" and "pound the table" when you think it's safe to load up again!
Rogue
Oil sector.....I've got marginal/token long positions on in the oil sector right now. I welcome this correction.......go with "the flow" for now.
I will be looking for bottoming confirmations and loading the boat again. I'll try to "ring the bell" or pound the table when the situation looks ripe for oil stocks.
Rogue
YDHCF....Chinese paper company to check out. I own a good sized chunk. It's cheap and I'm patiently waiting for the market to heat up on China companies again.
A currency re-valuatioin should only help earnings in remnimbi.
Rogue
NXG......Northgate Minerals starting to move upward after a very long and oversold condition. Could see a decent move from here.....is the bottom in here?
It could be.
Rogue
Pope & Talbot Inc (POP)...hitting new 52 week low. Don't own any, but may be worth looking into and keeping an eye on.
Earnings estimates are all over the place.
Rogue
DLWI/sleestack.....Why not just post about it on The "Value Microcap ZipCode Changers" board? Lot's of posters here look at that board. No sense in getting personal!
I do understand your rationale of "value" with DLWI and it may work out going forward. I've speculated on many turnaround stories over the years like this one.
It truly would be funny if you are "allowed" to post here about it a year from now and the price is $6 instead of .60 cents and they then have a low P/E. LOL!
But rules are rules I guess.
Rogue
EGY.....added some more today. It "filled the price gap" that had existed from last weeks upside move. Kind of figured it might do that....so I added today after that "gap" retracement was met.
I still think EGY could be a big upside mover for the rest of
2005.
Rogue
Oildesk/EGY.....do the bashers have anything meaningful to say? I'm a bit befuddled that EGY hasn't performed better.
Am I missing something?
Rogue
Gold and Dollar Market Summary
Author: Jim Sinclair
Thursday, May 05, 2005, 5:49:00 PM EST
Although expected, it’s still shocking to witness the downgrade of the creditworthiness of the largest corporation in US History. Both GM and Ford Motor Company’s debt were officially labeled as JUNK! If conditions present today remain intact for the next 42 months GM will be out of cash!
To rationalize this development without looking at the long term consequences is to ignore:
1. The trickle down impact of the cash flow problems of both these companies on their many suppliers.
2. The negative impact on the many employees of GM and Ford and the buyers of their products.
3. The potential expense that will passed along to all US taxpayers should these companies be unable to fund employee entitlements.
4. The impact on the cost of financing for the many companies now occupying the awful distinction of JUNK as borrowers.
5. The fact that one level of debt always impacts the level of debt above it and so on until you reach government paper.
You have to admit that managing investor perceptions is akin to a choreographic performance of academy award status.
The spin is that this is nothing new at all and has been expected for many months and, as a result, is not a negative for equity investment overall. The Financial TV stations are pounding this out across the airwaves.
Like the Federal Reserve's fortuitous mistake that healed the impact on the equity markets of its hawkish statement earlier this week, congratulations are in order for those whose job it is to manage public perception which as well all know is a keystone of those that support the new economics of Authoritarian Free Enterprise.
There is however a cost to maintaining perspective which is the application of form over substance. That cost was clearly demonstrated yesterday. It can be defined as the “Dollar be Damned” if it is a choice is between maintaining confidence in the equity market and maintaining positive perspective in the dollar market.
The system of Authoritarian Free Enterprise in terms of Federal Reserve management of economic activity is defined as:
1. Maintaining a positive perspective by ensuring the continuation of a positive equity environment which is the most potent perspective engine for the US and world business community.
2. By maintaining a positive feeling and outlook for business, decision makers are likely to be expansive in their business thinking.
3. Expansive decisions by managers will result in maintaining the general level of business conditions and employment expectations.
The management of liquidity in today’s world is a global concept and no longer the insular mechanism it has been since the inception of the Federal Reserve System. Therefore, more hangs on perception than a simple concept of a national economy.
The world will move in tandem, breaking itself down into the Western economy and the Asian economy in the same direction relative to each other. The dance then is all in unison with differences only in the energy level of the participants world wide.
To be able to explain away the junk bond status of GM and Ford is to make it OK for the largest corporation and its nearest rival to run out of cash in 42 months. Now there is an accomplishment that has to get your attention.
The Market that CANNOT be Controlled
The crack in the dyke is this: There is no way that you can talk into the largest market on earth a trend that does not qualify itself fundamentally. The international market in the US dollar turns over $1.6 trillion dollars per day. Yes, you can cause a short term counter-trend rally by catching the short side in an overpopulated condition. But what you cannot do is turn a bear into a bull or a bull into a bear by spin on that great green blob that will in time eat the entire planet.
Conclusion:
The fundamental constitution of the US dollar is putrid. In time, US long debt of ten years and now to thirty years will itself be declared JUNK by interest rates, not Standard and Poors' rating service.
Those of you who have gone long the US dollar and short currencies like the Cando are in for a skinning. Those that have followed the Gold Community advisors who have actually said not to own anything gold have followed false profits.
Those of you who have been run out of your gold shares by professional short sellers - both legal and illegal - are investors and traders whose decisions have been purely emotional and lacking in any common sense.
Here is Kenny Adams take on the markets:
"Gold, silver, and the USDX are still holding fairly well to expectations, as to time and pattern. I continue to think that we are on the very edge of a major move upside for the metals and downside for the dollar.
Rogue
CPTC was trading at $5.20 and euphoria was running high on Jan. 4th of this year when I made this post......
Posted by: roguedolphin
In reply to: wadegarret who wrote msg# 691 Date:1/4/2005 12:51:29 PM
Post #720 of 10910
CPTC looking toppy for the intermediate term. A new high was made recently on much less volume than the previous rally high.....not a good technical confirmation of the new high.
Probably will correct much of it's gains for a while. Profit takers more inclined to take gains in 2005 than last year for tax reasons.
Rogue
.... It would have been a "textbook" short sale at that level that day.
Rogue
"Something's Gotta Give".....and I'm not talking about the Jack Nicholson movie.....
REMEMBER FREE MARKETS? Long Gone Now
by Mark M. Rostenko
Editor, The Sovereign Strategist
May 5, 2005
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/rostenko/2005/0505.html
Forget about market fundamentals: P/E ratios, debt ratios, earnings, blah blah blah. Forget about technicals: Double-tops, support, resistance, who cares? Those concepts were relevant in the good old days, but not in our super-duper never-a-bear-moment, new and improved 21st century government/central bank managed and manipulated market.
That’s right folks. I’m talking about market manipulation and I’m here to tell you that the idea is no longer the exclusive domain of wackos and nutjobs like me. Market management has become so blatant, so undeniable that even Stephen Roach of uber-mainstream Wall Street firm Morgan Stanley recently wrote “I am not a believer in conspiracy theories. But the Fed’s behavior since the late 1990s is starting to change my mind.”
Why talk about manipulation? Why do we care? Because in my estimation, it has become the single, most-dominating force impacting your investments today. I won’t delve too deeply into the mechanism or the means as this information is readily available all over the Internet. But a brief history is in order.
Prior to 1987, we had relatively free markets in this country. Government, albeit stupid overall, had sense enough to leave this one area relatively free of intervention, aware that while they can screw up just about everything else and get away with it, it’s not a good idea to bite the hand that feeds you.
But after “the crash”, Executive Order 12631 created the “Working Group on Financial Markets”, consisting of the Secretary of the Treasury and the chairmen of the Federal Reserve, the SEC and the CFTC (or their designees.) Their goal: to enhance “the integrity, efficiency, orderliness and competitiveness” of our financial markets and to “maintain investor confidence.” The means: “The Department of the Treasury shall provide the Working Group with such administrative and support services as may be necessary for the performance of its functions.”
And what better way to maintain investor confidence than to make sure the stock market doesn’t go down by tossing the Treasury’s unlimited resources at it?
From the WGFM grew what today we nutters and wackjobs refer to as the “Plunge Protection Team.” It is surmised that this group was built upon 1989 suggestions from Fed Governor Robert Heller who felt that the Fed should purchase stock index futures during market “emergencies” in order to halt major declines.
Do we know that the PPT exists? Official government denials of its existence are our first clue that it almost certainly does. But we needn’t resort to cynicism for evidence. If such a creature exists, it must leave footprints in the market. Where there are footprints, there must be creatures. And oh yes, there are footprints.
Since the current cyclical bull began the S&P 500 has never suffered so much as a 10% correction. That is “unusual” like Mt. Everest is “a decent chunk of rock.” In the two years during which the economy has struggled with the worst “recovery” on record, in the face of stagnant job growth and a host of other problems, the market has been so flooded with bullish investors that it couldn’t pull back 10%? Nonsense.
In fact, whenever the market appeared ready to reverse its uptrend at key technical levels, (and it tried PLENTY of times), huge buying appeared in the futures pits. These were obvious levels that, if violated, would have triggered much more substantial selling. Some “market player” was willing to throw oodles and gobs of money at the market to prevent it from falling.
While there are funds that have that kind of capital, there aren’t funds that are stupid enough to step in front of a speeding freight train to take a contrary position when they could make so much more money so much faster by positioning themselves WITH the decline.
Sure, every once in a while some of them get crazy and make a huge contrary bet. But not EVERY time and not at EVERY major turning point. None of them have enough capital, cojones nor dim-wittedness to attempt to halt a decline every time.
Who DOES have enough capital and dim-wittedness? Someone who has access to the United States Treasury. (And in this case, cojones has nothing to do with it. It doesn’t take much cojones to spend other people’s money.)
This behavior has recently become very obvious. On 20 April, the Dow came within a hair’s breadth of the 10,000 level. The market had tanked a few day’s prior and technically, it was clear that a major market top was in place. The psychologically critical support level was about to be violated, likely unleashing a torrent of selling.
In the wee hours of the following morning the stock index futures markets began to rally sharply. By the time the cash market opened the Dow was already up 100 points.
If you watch the futures markets you know that the Dow NEVER climbs anywhere near 100 points overnight, unless in response to a big move overseas or major news. That wasn’t the case this time.
Major players aren’t doing much of anything during those hours. The markets are exceptionally thin. Foreigners and U.S. insomniac traders do not have the means to push the market up 100 points. So why did the market behave so unusually? Because some big, dumb buyer did something that no one else ever would, and did so gladly because “he” was playing with unlimited resources and stood to lose nothing.
Hmmm, let me think now: Big, dumb, unlimited resources. Who could it be?
It was a perfect opportunity for the PPT. Thin markets, no one around to take the opposite side. Push the market up to a sharply higher opening and the public will almost certainly grab the ball and run with it, wildly bullish and afraid to miss “the next big move.”
And so they did. The Dow closed up 206 points on a day with mixed economic news, much of it bearish, none of it all that bullish.
The same thing happened last Friday following Thursday’s downdraft that looked like another inevitable assault on Dow 10,000. Futures rose sharply overnight, the market opened sharply higher and by the end of the day was up 120 points. Another disaster averted at a key technical level.
This is not the way the markets used to trade. This is not the way that traders, the public and funds trade. There is no reasonable way to explain it without positing the existence of a major player with a vested interest in keeping the market from falling. And there is no private or public player big enough to do it and consistently get away with it. In light of the Executive Order and Heller’s 1989 ideas, one has to conclude that the government is involved.
Gold’s another fine example. We won’t get too deeply into that either as plenty of information can be found at www.gata.org. Suffice it to say that the Gold Anti-Trust Action committee (GATA) was formed in an effort to expose this manipulation, resulting in a lawsuit against Alan Greenspan, several large Wall Street firms and the Secretary of the Treasury. The footprints are all too obvious in this market as well.
Commodities are in a huge bull market. The most recent upleg exhibited huge upward momentum. Crude oil surged to record highs. Steel, copper, platinum, aluminum: all at multi-decade highs. Commodities are on fire and inflation is rising even by officially manipulated “feel-good” data. Everything is rising. Except gold.
Gold’s reputation is that of the ultimate inflation hedge. One of its primary roles in modern times has been to sound the inflation alarm, to let us know that the central bankers are screwing up. Yet in the midst of rising inflation and major Fed screwing-up gold is just sitting there. On days when bad inflation news comes out, gold gets hit with selling. Does this make sense? None.
Sure, we can buy the mainstream financial media spin that gold no longer has a monetary role, is no longer an inflation hedge. But tell me how it is that the one thing that has always been known to rise in response to inflation is not rising in price when everything else is? Funny how the one market that should expose the Fed’s quackery is the only one that sinks in a “rising tide that lifts all boats.”
Gold has repeatedly been “whacked” at key technical levels that if penetrated, would have brought in heavier buying. (Thereby alerting the world that the Fed is screwing up.) In most cases gold managed to eventually move higher, but only with great difficulty. And today, with inflation becoming undeniably obvious, the market has stopped rising. Not for legitimate reasons but simply because traders are tired of having their heads handed to them by an unethical, manipulative market opponent.
These are just a few of the more obvious examples. If you look at what’s going on in the markets with an intelligent and perceptive eye, you can’t help but conclude that they are being manipulated by a powerful group, a group that possesses more resources than any fund or individual trader.
Does it matter? Is it wrong? Shouldn’t the government maintain order in the markets? We could go on for days debating the “morality” of it but it doesn’t matter. What does matter is the fact that this IS going on and it’s having an increasingly large impact on our investments and market opportunities. In fact, it’s eroding the quality of both. Long-term interest rates, stocks, gold and other markets have displayed narrow bands of movement for years. Longs aren’t making money. Shorts aren’t making money.
Worse still, these efforts serve only to destroy the function and integrity of the markets. The longer the market is artificially held higher, the longer a real, sustained bull market is postponed. When the market is managed it ceases to fulfill its most important role: price discovery. Buyers and sellers can no longer come together to determine the real value of a stock or commodity. Prices become a sham that no one can trust.
In the end, manipulation will fail as no one is bigger than the market. A market that serves any legitimate, useful function will eventually find its appropriate level. Unfortunately, the failure of that manipulation is likely to cause investors much more headache than a simple secular bear market left to its own devices ever could. Arrogant feds and central bankers will never get it, always seduced by their delusions of grandeur, convinced that they’re smarter than the marketplace. The little guy will reap the fallout of their inevitable failures, but you don’t have to. Know that this is going on and position yourself accordingly...
Rogue
Hmmm, Lumber futures have been weak......here's a post that is somewhat amusing about real estate.......
From: redfish 5/5/2005 5:43:35 AM
Read Replies (1) of 30755
THE KAHUNA'S RANT O' THE WEEK: The Residential Real Estate Speculation Top Is Nigh -- By Tobin Smith
This might sound weird from a guy who just bought a bunch of development lots at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Ariz., but I can now safely say that the TOP in the consumer housing market is here.
In other words, the second derivative (the rate of change of the rate of change) is clearly within three to six months of slowing down SIGNIFICANTLY.
How do I know? From these three irrefutable data points:
1) Donald Trump was just paid $1 million to give a 45-minute talk on getting rich in real estate to 40,000 drooling wannabe millionaires at The Learning Annex. 2) Every non-business newspaper I read this week (The Washington Post, L.A. Times and San Francisco Chronicle) had at least TWO FULL-PAGE ads for seminars claiming to be able to teach me how to make $50,000 in just 90 days in residential real estate. 3) I read this Andrew Carnegie quote five times this week: “90% of all millionaires made it through real estate.” (The fact that Carnegie said this so long ago that buggy whips were a growth industry shouldn't be forgotten.)
Ladies and gents, the EASY money in residential real estate is done. Those who own their homes in areas with strong employment will do just fine -- nothing to worry about there.
But the stupid money is now on the prowl to earn “up to $50,000 in just 90 days” and all it takes is a FREE DIGITAL CAMERA -- an “$80 value”-- to get them in the door.
This cool-off is as predictable as Paris Hilton trying to become the new P. Diddy. (Seriously -- she announced her mogulship plan today.)
READ THE SIGNS
Ladies and gents, every top in ANY market is marked by an irrefutable signal: FREE SEMINARS.
I saw it in the early ’80s with real estate syndication seminars.
I saw the top of the real estate GOLD rush of 1980s -- NO MONEY DOWN was the mantra then. If you could find someone desperate enough to sell you their home by assuming their mortgage and having them take back a second, third or fourth deed on the house (the famous all-inclusive trust deed or AITD), your fortune was assured.
Too bad lenders added "due on sale" clauses to their mortgages to wipe out that fun time.
I saw it again during the late ’90s “Learn How to Make $250,000 a Year Day Trading” frenzy.
And we are seeing this irrefutable topping signal for the residential housing market today.
First off, you MUST understand that these free seminars are simply a sales lead generation system for a $2,000-$5,000 Millionaire Maker training seminar -- on tape, of course.
Second, you MUST understand that the act of buying, refurbishing and remarketing residential real estate is NOT easy. It requires a LOT of debt service and uses HUMONGOUS leverage that can easily go against you if you don’t know what you're doing. I'd compare it to day trading in a sideways or downtrending market -- it's about as easy as getting your cat to do backflips into the backyard pool.
SOMEONE'S NOT PLAYING ALONG
In addition to the 100%-perfect, free-seminar indicator, I’ve observed that many old-time real estate developers in D.C., New York, San Diego and Orange County, Calif., have announced they are selling “every property they own” to huge pension plans for record prices. This the other signal.
When old-time dirt guys sell ENTIRE portfolios they have taken a LIFETIME to build, it reminds me of the developers I used to arrange financing for in the late ’80s who told me, “Toby, when the amateurs are bidding on land I KNOW I can’t make money on, it's time to pack it in … until the middle of the next DOWN cycle. You can reach me in Aspen or the beach if you need me.”
Mark your calendars six months from now and then another six months after that. Those will be the dates when the newspapers report “Home prices in much of the U.S. have leveled off significantly.”
That will be the day that the speculative home buyer with 100% financing will find out that he or she is actually UNDERWATER and will start a mild-but-growing panic.
AVOID any area in the U.S. where more than 20% of new mortgages are to non-owner occupied buyers. These are the areas where the most pain will occur.
Or, even simpler, you'd better get the hell out of your speculative home “investment” wherever the FREE SEMINAR full-page ads are running now.
Based on this theory, won’t I get crushed in my Desert Mountain golf course development lots?
No -- that's a different ballgame. With only 20 lots left in an area where 60% of the homes are owned WITHOUT a mortgage and there will NEVER, EVER be any additional lots or golf courses built (it's bordered by national and state recreation preserve lands), normal residential housing economics do not apply.
Where there is virtually unlimited, financially independent demand for a VERY limited supply of anything, prices go up. That's called "price elasticity" -- look it up.
Where there is virtually unlimited supply (i.e., the areas with 20% or more speculative ownership) and limited price elasticity (where 70% or more households can’t afford to own at today’s record low mortgage rates), there's gonna be some pain.
If you are convinced that there is still a lot of easy money to be made buying residential real estate in the hot zones of the U.S. these days … well, you have about six months to make it happen.
Rogue
Maybe they should just de-value the dollar against the Chinese Remnibi by 50% right now.
We could get a start then on producing things for the instantly wealthier Chinese consumer and start paying back our debts to them.
Of course gasoline will be $10 gallon and everything in Walmart will double in price .....but at least we'll all be working like peasants and the employment figures will look good!
Just joking....or am I??? LOL!
Rogue
S&P Cuts GM, Ford Credit Ratings to 'Junk' By JOHN PORRETTO, AP Auto Writer
16 minutes ago
DETROIT - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut its corporate credit ratings to junk status for both General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., a significant blow that will increase borrowing costs and limit fund-raising options for the nation's two biggest automakers.
Shares of both companies fell 5 percent or more after the Thursday's downgrades, and the news sent the overall market lower.
The decision by one of the nation's most respected ratings agencies comes as the two iconic American automakers are losing market share at home to Asian automakers, seeing sales soften for their most profitable models and are facing enormous health care and post-retirement liabilities.
The credit ratings agency said its downgrade of GM's long-term rating below investment-grade status reflects its conclusion that management's current strategies may not be effective in dealing with the automaker's competitive disadvantages.
In a statement, GM said it was disappointed with S&P's decision but that it and its finance arm, GMAC, have adequate cash and liquidity to fund their operations "for the foreseeable future."
"Clearly, GM has many challenges in North America, but the company is moving aggressively to address these challenges," the company said.
It said its greatest immediate concern for Ford is the prospect that its sport utility vehicle business will not be able to generate the profitability it's enjoyed historically. Ford's financial performance has been heavily dependent on the earnings of its SUVs but sales of midsize and large SUVs have plummeted of late, S&P said.
The rating reductions are significant because some big bondholders such as some pension funds are prohibited from buying bonds that are considered by the major rating houses as speculative, or junk. Both GM and Ford had held credit ratings from S&P that were at the lowest level of the agency's investment grade spectrum. As a result of the new ratings, the automakers may have to pay higher rates of interest to attract enough buyers for their bonds.
GM's consolidated debt as of March 31 was $291.8 billion, while Ford's outstanding consolidated debt totaled $161.3 billion.
GM said it had $19.8 billion in cash at the end of the first quarter, and GMAC had $18.5 billion in cash and securities.
S&P said the outlook was negative for both of the automakers.
The announcement came only a day after billionaire Kirk Kerkorian jolted GM shares higher by offering to invest nearly $870 million in the automaker. Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. offered to pay $868 million for a nearly 5 percent stake, which would boost Tracinda's holdings to about 9 percent and make Kerkorian one of GM's largest shareholders.
GM shares fell to a 10-year low in April after the company reported a $1.1 billion loss for the first quarter. Its sales have slumped in recent months, including those of its most profitable sport utility vehicles, as gasoline prices marched higher. And while GM executives complain about huge increases in medical insurance costs, the United Auto Workers union has said it's not interested in reopening contract talks before 2007 to address those expenses.
GM shares dropped $1.69, or 5.2 percent, to $31.11 while Ford shares fell 62 cents, or 6.1 percent, to $9.54 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Rogue comment.....The US economy is NOT sound. The cheerleaders have there head up their "A##".
With Walmart groveling at it's lows(take a guess what happens wto Walmart with a Chinese currency re-valuation???)and bellweathwer GM teetering on bankruptcy.....opur economy IS NOT sound. It is a house of cards in my opinion.
Remember the old saying????....."as GM goes, so goes the economy".
I hope Kerkorian sold out of his position yesterday on his "pump" of GM. I was thinking of adding to the short GM position earlier today....but didn't pull the trigger.
Rogue