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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Maurice Winn who wrote (139181)2/9/2018 8:07:11 PM
From: Elroy Jetson  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 218169
 
I've bookmarked your post for reference in future years. I bought some shares in Chevron today on the hunch we'll still want oil and gas.

You do have the enviable record of forecasting the price of gold, probably because you have little interest in it as an investment or a future parable.

In Londinium in 100 AD a fine suit of clothing cost almost an ounce of gold, and in London today it still does. — 0% price appreciation is apparently the bomb for 1,918 years of investment.

Incidentally, In 100 AD Martinus Armafortis sold ten acres of farmland in Lodinium for 18 ounces of gold, retaining a 1/4 acre for his home. He promptly buried the gold under his hearth.

The Armafortis home was exactly two stadium west on the road from Londinium to Caleva. If someone can find the current location of his home they could dig down to retrieve the 18 ounces of gold and hopefully buy ten acres of London.

I think it's roughly a two hour walk from this main intersection in Londinium. They used to sell good quality garum at a fair price in the alcove.




To: Maurice Winn who wrote (139181)2/11/2018 10:10:17 PM
From: TobagoJack  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 218169
 
one bit of good news

w/ team usa realistically dropping preconditions

let us see if team n.korea plays well or not

bloomberg.com

The U.S. Is Ready to Talk to North Korea, Pence Tells Washington Post
More stories by David TweedFebruary 12, 2018, 9:26 AM GMT+8

By David Tweed

‘Maximum pressure and engagement at the same time,’ Pence says

U.S. may enter talks without preconditions, Post reports



Mike Pence and Kim Yo-Jong during the Opening Ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Photographer: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images

The U.S. is ready to engage in talks about North Korea’s nuclear program even as it maintains pressure on Kim Jong Un’s regime, the Washington Post reported, citing an interview with Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in agreed on a post-Olympics strategy during conversations at the Winter Olympics in the South Korean resort of Pyeongchang that Pence dubbed "maximum pressure and engagement at the same time." Pence spoke in an interview on his way home from the Winter Olympics.

“The point is, no pressure comes off until they are actually doing something that the alliance believes represents a meaningful step toward denuclearization,” the Post quoted Pence as saying. “So the maximum pressure campaign is going to continue and intensify. But if you want to talk, we’ll talk.”

The comments represent a departure from the Trump administration’s previous stance that it would not engage in any dialogue with North Korea unless Kim Jong Un’s regime first agreed to the goal of denuclearization. Pence endorsed a post-Olympics engagement after Moon assured him that the North Koreans wouldn’t get economic or diplomatic benefits for just talking — only for taking concrete steps toward denuclearization.

Kim’s Smiling Sister Exploits Trump-Moon Rift on North Korea

“I think it is different from the last 20 years,” Pence said, according to the Post. When asked what exact steps North Korea would have to take to get sanctions relief, he said: “I don’t know.”

Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, delivered a letter inviting Moon to a summit in Pyongyang during meetings held around the opening ceremony of the Olympics. She also asked him to play a “leading role” in reuniting the two Koreas after nearly seven decades. A spokesperson for Moon’s office said that pre-conditions needed to be met before the summit takes place.

The invitation had sparked concern that Kim had succeeded in driving a wedge between South Korea and the U.S., which have differed on the best way to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons. The Post reported that Pence and Moon hammered out the new strategy during conversations at the presidential Blue House and during a speed-skating event.



To: Maurice Winn who wrote (139181)2/16/2018 8:05:26 PM
From: TobagoJack  Respond to of 218169
 
it seems arms & legs, iron sand & soya, are not enough

zerohedge.com

Brazilian Army Ordered To "Restore Order" In Rio De Janeiro

With public spending on police and social services collapsing amid Brazil's worsening economic crisis, violent crime has crept back up in Rio de Janeiro, a city widely recognized for its favelas - urban hillside slums teeming with violence, drugs and prostitution, according to Bloomberg.

And ahead of an October election where President Michel Temer will try to win his first full term in office, the president is trying to send in the army to seize control of the city's streets and restore order to an increasingly lawless town.

President Michel Temer issued a decree on Friday putting an Army general in charge of Rio’s security forces, including the state’s civilian police. The intervention, which requires congressional approval, will last until the end of the year, according to the decree.

"Our prisons will no longer be offices for thieves, our public squares party halls for organized crime," Temer said after signing the decree.

"I know it’s an extreme measure but many times Brazil requires extreme measures to put things in order."

But as is often the case with Brazilian politics, Temer has a plausible ulterior motive: By sending in the army, he might create enough of a distraction to avoid voting on an unpopular pension bill because Brazilian law conveniently prohibits making constitutional changes during times of military crisis.

Temer told Reuters that the intervention wouldn't halt negotiations over pension reform or stop a vote on the plan, which is deeply unpopular with the country's retirees, who stand to see their benefits cut.

Meanwhile, crime in the city has erased nearly a decade of progress, climbing back to its highest level since 2009. Temer's decision is the first time the military has intervened in public affairs since the former military dictatorship ended in the mid-1980s and the country returned to democracy.

The decree is still subject to votes in both houses of Brazil's Congress, but is widely expected to pass as crime and stability become the No. 1 political priority of many Brazilians.

The move, the first of its kind since Brazil returned to democracy in 1985, is a response to growing demands ahead of the October general elections for a crack down on crime and violence. It may also provide an excuse not to vote an unpopular pension bill, because by law changes to the Constitution can’t be made while a military intervention is in effect.

Indeed, Lower House Speaker Rodrigo Maia said the decree that would be put to a vote in both houses of Congress over the next few days would make a vote on the pension reform more difficult. The government still lacks the votes needed for the bill investors had hoped would put public finances back on track, Maia said.

“It’s an extreme moment and this is a very serious decision,” Maia told reporters in Brasilia on Friday morning. “Under those circumstances, that’s the way to reestablish order,” he said in reference to a growing sense of insecurity.

But shootings and robberies aside, the intervention will provide an opportunity for Temer - who was famously caught on tape talking with a Brazilian businessman discussing the accepting of bribes in the wide-ranging "operation carwash" - to do something more vital to his political future.

Violence and crime have been soaring in Rio de Janeiro in the aftermath of a deep recession that has left the state lacking funds to invest in its police, and to pay salaries. Public opinion surveys show security to be among Brazilians’ main concerns ahead of the October presidential elections. Jair Bolsonaro, a Rio de Janeiro legislator and former army captain with a hard line against crime, polls second.

‘It’s part of Temer’s effort to find a positive agenda in the elections, something he can point to to show the people he’s doing something," said Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist at the Rio de Janeiro State University. "Bolsonaro has grown a lot in the polls among other reasons because of insecurity.”

Shootings and mass robberies plagued Rio during the recent Carnival celebrations, when scores of tourists visit the city. Rio de Janeiro Governor Luiz Fernando Pezao admitted the state’s security has failed and asked for federal help, according to local media. The rate of violent deaths in the state jumped to 40 per 100,000 residents, the highest since 2009.

Brazil returned to democracy in 1985, after 21 years of military dictatorship, and intervention remains a sensitive topic in the country.

The worst of Brazil's economic collapse - which brought the Brazilian real to record lows - is likely behind it. But as the country recovers from years of economic and monetary policy mismanagement by Temer's predecessor, former President Dilma Roussef, who was impeach and removed from office, maintaining stability - particularly in the urban slums - will be paramount.



To: Maurice Winn who wrote (139181)2/25/2018 8:50:37 PM
From: TobagoJack  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 218169
 
let us see how supposedly-decentralised-freedom and allegedly-guaranteed-anonymity help the soon-to-be-audited 13,000 souls

zerohedge.com

Bitcoin Slides As Coinbase Informs 13,000 Customers Of Imminent Data Handover To IRS
Having neared $12,000 last week, Bitcoin prices have dipped back into the red for February, accelerating below $10,000 this weekend as news that the US' largest cryto-exchange, Coinbase, will be turning over 13,000 customers' information to The IRS.


As CoinTelegraph reports, US-based cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service Coinbase sent an official notice Friday, Feb. 23 to approximately 13,000 of its customers whose information it is legally required to turn over to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).



image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

The IRS had initially asked Coinbase in July 2017 to hand over even more detailed information on every one of its then over 500,000 users in an attempt catch those cheating on their taxes. However, another court order in Nov. 2017 reduced this number to around 14,000 “high-transacting” users, which the platform now reports as 13,000, in what Coinbase calls a “partial, but still significant, victory for Coinbase and its customers.”

On Friday, Coinbase told the around 13,000 affected customers that the company would be providing their taxpayer ID, name, birth date, address, and historical transaction records from 2013-2015 to the IRS within 21 days.

Coinbase’s letter to these customers encourages them “to seek legal advice from an attorney promptly” if they have any questions. Their website also states that concerns may also be addressed on Coinbase’s Taxes FAQ.

The ongoing legal battle between Coinbase and the US government dates back to November, 2016, when the IRS filed a “John Doe summons” in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

On Feb. 13, personal finance service Credit Karma released data showing that only 0.04 percent of their customers had reported cryptocurrencies on their federal tax returns so far this tax season.