Liberty Blitzkrieg

The Carlyle Group’s Latest Investment…Trailer Parks

October 17, 2013 by Michael Krieger

Earlier this month, I highlighted the fact that the Carlyle Group was the latest in a series of “smart money” private equity firms to decide it was time to exit the suddenly extremely crowded “buy-to rent” residential real estate trade. At the time I noted that:

As it sells apartments, Carlyle is focusing investments in areas such as senior housing, self-storage units and manufactured homes, where demand tends to be driven by life changes such as retirement or marriages, and isn’t so closely tied to changes in employment and gross domestic product, Stuckey said.

Well it appears Carlyle has already started to make its move. As the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday: Carlyle Jumps Into Niche Space – Private-Equity Firm Adds Trailer Parks to Its Diverse Portfolio. In case you can’t figure out what appears to be the key logic behind the shift in focus, try this line on for size:

Because the cost of relocating a home is expensive, residents are less likely to move away. “Our customers have no alternative shot at homeownership, nor do they [normally] even have the credit scores and quality to seek anything better,” Mr. Rolfe said. “They never leave the park they are in, and the revenues are unbelievably stable as a result.”

In neo-feudalistic America, always, always go long serfdom.

Sandy Hook Elementary to be Demolished – Contractors Forced to Sign Confidentiality Agreements

October 16, 2013 by Michael Krieger

Am I the only one that finds this incredibly strange? While I completely understand community concerns surrounding potential exploitation of the tragedy, they seem to be going way overboard in their precautions. I’d love to hear readers’ thought on this because it seems extremely bizarre to me…

From the AP:

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — When the old Sandy Hook Elementary School is demolished, building materials will be pulverized on site and metal will be taken away and melted down in an effort to eliminate nearly every trace of the building where a gunman killed 26 people last December.

Contractors also will be required to sign confidentiality agreements and workers will guard the property’s perimeter to prevent onlookers from taking photographs or videos.

Demolition is set to begin next week and be finished before the Dec. 14 anniversary of the shootings. Town voters last month accepted a state grant of $49.3 million to raze the building and build a new school, which is expected to open by December 2016.

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Gold Price Premiums Hit Record in India – 8% Above London Spot

October 16, 2013 by Michael Krieger

This story is just further proof of the complete and total mess that has been made of the Indian gold market over of the course of this year due to government intervention. The other part of the problem is that when you are dealing in physical supplies you can’t just deliver paper contracts. Somehow I don’t think that would cut it for Indians on festival days or their daughters’ weddings.

From Reuters:

(Reuters) – Gold premiums in India, the world’s biggest buyer of the precious metal, hit a record $100 an ounce, about 8 percent over London prices, on a shortage of supplies to meet festival demand, traders said on Tuesday.

“There are no supplies in the domestic market, and there is a little demand due to festivals… what little supplies that come, go to exporters,” Bachhraj Bamalwa, director at the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) told Reuters.

Most suppliers in Mumbai and Kolkata have started quoting premiums in excess of $100 an ounce above London prices, more than double the $40 charged last week, Bamalwa said.

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Glenn Greenwald: “The Most Shocking Stories Have Not Been Published”…Is This Why He Left The Guardian?

October 15, 2013 by Michael Krieger

Just yesterday, I was taken aback by an article in Time magazine in which Glenn Greenwald was quoted as saying: The archives are so complex and so deep and so shocking, that I think the most shocking and significant stories are the ones we are still working on, and have yet to publish. The above statement … Read more

Chinese Web Search Giant Baidu Now Accepts Bitcoin

October 15, 2013 by Michael Krieger

As I have maintained on many occasions, reports of the death of Bitcoin have been greatly exaggerated. If anything, the news related to the most popular crypto-currency ever has only gotten considerably more positive in the wake of the raid on Silk Road. The most recent development is that massive web services site Baidu, Inc. has started to accept Bitcoin for its Jiasule service. I wonder if this is in any way related to the recent Chinese calls for a new reserve currency, as I can’t imagine the company would go ahead with accepting BTC without at least some “all clear” from authorities. If this signals implicit approval for Bitcoin by political leaders in China (it’s too early to tell), it would have paradigm-shifting global consequences.

Here’s the BTC chart. You make your own judgement:

From CoinDesk:

Search engine giant Baidu has announced it is now accepting payment in bitcoin for its Jiasule service, which improves websites’ performance, speed and security.

Founded in January 2000, Baidu is similar to Google in that its offers a variety of tools and services to produce information and products in response to search terms, however, Baidu is specific to Chinese-language search terms.

Rough translation of the company’s news release:

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N.Y. Fed Looks to Seal Documents in the Latest Whistleblower Case

October 15, 2013 by Michael Krieger

As was widely reported last week in both the alternative media and the mainstream presstitute media, former senior bank examiner at the New York Federal Reserve, Carmen Segarra, has filed a lawsuit against her former employer accusing them of wrongful termination after she determined that Goldman Sachs had insufficient conflict-of-interest policies. As usual, anything that threatens to … Read more

A Political Earthquake Hits France: Is a European Union Referendum Next?

October 14, 2013 by Michael Krieger

I will negotiate over the points on which there can be no compromise. If the result is inadequate, I will call for withdrawal. Europe is just a great bluff. On one side there is the immense power of sovereign peoples, and on the other side are a few technocrats.

– Front National Leader Marine Le Pen

I haven’t been paying as much attention to Europe as I was a few years ago. After all, monitoring the oligarch theft, shit-show in my own backyard is a full time job. Even back when I was watching the Continent more closely, I never paid particular attention to the happenings in France. That needs to change.

Ambrose-Evans Pritchard of the UK’s Telegraph has written an excellent article detailing the extraordinary success of Marine Le Pen’s Front National in recent elections. What was once seen as a fringe right-wing party is now collecting a surprising amount of votes from socialists attracted to the anti-bank/anti-euro platform. With all the talk of Greece, Italy and Spain over the past several years, wouldn’t it be ironic if France was the one country that ended it all…

From The Telegraph:

We have a minor earthquake in France. A party committed to withdrawal from the euro, the restoration of French franc, and the complete destruction of monetary union has just defeated the establishment in the Brignoles run-off election.

The Front National is now the most popular party in France with 24pc according to a new Ifop poll. Both the two great governing parties of the post-War era have fallen behind for the first time ever. The Gaullistes (UMP) are at 22pc, and the Socialists at 21pc.

Asked if she intended to pull France of the euro immediately, she hesitated for a second or two and then said: “Yes, because the euro blocks all economic decisions. France is not a country that can accept tutelage from Brussels.”

Officials will be told to draw up plans for the restoration of the franc. Eurozone leaders will face a stark choice: either work with France for a “sortie concerted” or coordinated EMU break-up: or await their fate in a disorderly collapse.

“We cannot be seduced. The euro ceases to exist the moment that France leaves, and that is our incredible strength. What are they going to do, send in tanks?”

Well now that you mention it…

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Blast from the Past: Harry Reid Claimed Income Taxes are “Voluntary”

October 14, 2013 by Michael Krieger

With Harry Reid in deep negotiations with crony Republican fraud Mitch McConnell, the American public is surely in the process of getting royally screwed once again. Thus, it seems like an appropriate time to revisit an interview in which Mr. Reid claimed on camera that income taxes are “voluntary.” He must have accidentally described the … Read more

Red Cross Launches Emergency Food Aid Plan in the UK – First Time Since World War II

October 12, 2013 by Michael Krieger

Welcome to the global recovery folks. A recovery that is so strong in the UK, the Red Cross has been called in to provide food aid for the first time since World War II. Nothing spells happy days are here again like that sort of news.

Oh, didn’t participate in the global recovery? No worries, oligarchs have got you covered and will happily offer you a piece of bread in between flat purchases in the City of London so that you remain quietly and apathetically planted squarely in front of the television . The “recovery” was and is a gigantic heist. Nothing more, nothing less.

From the Telegraph:

The Red Cross will this winter start collecting and distributing food aid to the needy in Britain for the first time since the Second World War, as welfare cuts and the economic downturn send soaring numbers of people to soup kitchens and food banks across Europe.

In what could be the start of an increased role in Britain for the Geneva-based charity best known for its work in disaster zones, its volunteers will be mobilised to go into supermarkets across the country at the end of November and ask shoppers to donate dry goods. The British Red Cross will then help FareShare, a charity working with the Trussell Trust and Tesco, distribute the packets and tins to food banks nationwide.

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Bill Fleckenstein to Restart Short-Selling Fund He Shut Down at Market Lows

October 11, 2013 by Michael Krieger

I’ll be the first to admit, I haven’t been able to understand or anticipate financial market moves since the fall of 2011, when I believe Central Banks and governments decided enough was enough, and more or less chose to fully micro-manage almost all market moves on a daily basis. One person who has been very astute throughout all of the madness is Bill Fleckenstein, who closed his short-selling fund right around the market lows and for the right reasons. Well he is now reopening it and calling it RTM 2.0, which stands for Revert to the Mean.

In a nutshell, he was waiting for the bond market to show signs that the Fed is losing control and that the lows in yields are in. He sees early signs of that happening.

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