When I looked earlier this morning, that one lone silver coin of ours was up to $17.31 an ounce as the major break-out in silver seems to be solidly underway. Went almost vertical this morning up 71-cents…
I’ve been looking for the past several days for the cause of this (platinum is also rising) and seems to be a two-fold process.
On the silver side, an article over here note that there will be very large silver demand for solar panels and this should drive silver higher. The other factor is the platinum outlook has firmed because in addition to the jewelry and other applications, it is a key industrial catalyst. With industrial production failing to fail, as it were, we have the specter of more demand that supply down the road, so up, up, and away.
Speaking of Growth
Philly Fed outlook is just out: and says in part…
‘Firms responding to the Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey reported no improvement in business conditions this month. The indicator for general activity, which rose sharply in March, fell to a slightly negative reading in April. Other broad indicators suggested a similar relapse in growth that was reported last month. The indicators for both employment and work hours also fell notably. Despite weakness in current conditions, the survey’s indicators of future activity showed continued improvement, suggesting that the fallback is considered temporary.
The report also noted that “The diffusion index for current activity decreased from 12.4 in March to -1.6 this month.”
With this, I have to note that the stories are starting to pop up about how the market is closing in on all-time highs. Barring the “out of left field” we should make my May forecast of new all-time highs. Which I made on Coast-to-Coast AM with George Noory back in early January. Said the market should bottom in February and be at all-time highs next month.
Tad-dah!
Stock market continues rebound as it approaches all-time.
I ask you: Where else can you get the news four months in advance?
This’ll Get You 20
Treasury is planning to put Harriet Tubman on the US $20 bill.
Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross; c.?1822[1] – March 10, 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and a Union spy during the American Civil War. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved families and friends,[2] using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped abolitionist John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry, and in the post-war era was an active participant in the struggle for women’s suffrage.
Good news and bad here. Yes, fine recognition and all….
Previously, though, wasn’t it only Treasury Officials and Presidents were on our money? Now in the name of political correctness, we seem to be opening it up. Near as I can figure it will only be a matter of time until we get sports figures on our money. I mean monetizing money makes sense in a weird only-in-America way.
Two facts out of a NY Times discussion here: When Tubman died back when it rated only two paragraphs in the NY Times. And there are 8.5 billion $20-bills in circulation.
Just another Obama administration move to encourage activism, I suppose. I would have suggested that George Washington Carver was more deserving, but again, that’s why I don’t hold high office. And no one asked.
Maybe – in just the right conspiratorial light – one can see the changes to hard money as being yet another bit of grease on the slippery slope to all electronic money which may be mandated even before the Tubman Twenty is out in 2020. But we shall see.
I have to assume Carver didn’t make it because that would be an endorsement of hard work, education, great science, and perseverance. All of which seem no longer to be American values.
No sir, working together on task is not what we do anymore here in the Divided States of America. Instead, let’s organize…mobilize…and be manipulated into the One World plan.
Equality at Work? Bad Medicine?
Life expectancy for white women falls slightly in US. Obamacare, maybe?
Look Out Janet!
The Donald is Coming: Trump: I’d Likely Seek Replacement for Yellen at Federal Reserve.
Breath Deep
This could be a biggie: Justices Consider Whether Police May Force A Breath Test Without A Warrant.
The issue here is all about search and seizure. And since the government has gone on a spending rampage to build the new national DNA database, it could limit whether you can be compelled to give any other internal-to-your body information without a warrant.
Would Paul Ryan Please Be Quiet?
Still trying to run without running, by the sound of this CNN bit.
But it takes only one click from that story to confirm what I told you before: The turncoat republicans (including Mitch McConnell) are not backing the 9/11 lawsuit bill. This is the “protect the Saudis” which everyone knows is where all the 9/11 hijackers came from.
Again, this is the Obama wing of the GOP at work. The same lefty-righties who failed to stop the bad trade bill, didn’t even bark on the budget, haven’t repealed or fixed Obamacare…and oh, the list is a long one.
Apparently Ryan didn’t get the memo about how the realists in the GOP are warming to Trump because of his big win in New York. All of which means McConnell and Ryan are likely to forced, at some point in the future to flip into the democratic ranks more officially than their current voting records suggest when the rest of the GOP figures out how much crap the average American is sick of. You wait…
China has a Commander in Chief
With the elevation of president Xi Jinping to head of the country’s military.
So while Chine restructures its military, ours is being axed across the top and the Chinese are building islands and the Russians are buzzing in the Baltic.
So tell me again about how the “protect and defend” part of the Oath works?
The Pseudo Border and the Half Mile Tunnel
Outside San Diego…2,600 feet long. One ton of blow and 6-tons of weed. But elsewhere, the catch and release game continues.
Another Question About Science
The story over here about how Monkeys Crossed From South America To North America 21 Million Years Ago; Fossils Found In Panama Canal has me wondering just a wee bit.
Are we to believe that a mating pair of monkeys made it across 100 miles of ocean? Bit of a stretch to the logical mind.
I mean unless they were out jet skiing, of course.
\Comparative Science Request
Which gets us to noticing the article about Liver Damage Apparent In Mice From Space.
We have to wonder which gets more liver damage: Mice in space or the rats in Washington?
“The same lefty-righties who failed to stop the bad trade bill, didn’t even bark on the budget, haven’t repealed or fixed Obamacare…”
I think the thing about Obama care is that when Obama ran for his first term the one major concern for the middle class was run away health care costs and the rising costs of medical insurance.( I think you will discover if you dig deep enough that the same people that wrote the obamacare bill probably wrote the trade bill.. or the defective spending bill . as you often say.. follow the money its all a business model ). when I was working in health care one out of three customers that walked in the door didn’t have nor were they offered health insurance coverage by their employers.. with the only recourse for them was to seek out care at the er..
When the democrats got it through Our congress didn’t write it nor did they read it. it wasn’t a simple plan that stopped one of the only institutions the right to openly discriminate or price gouge but an extremely complex bill that would take a team of law professors a long time just to wade through the bill to actually understand it. I think this is because of the extreme influence by the K street croud that has the eyes and ears of our congress.. so much that the congress refuses to even crack the pages of the bills they pass. ( I use to read these idiotic bills just to read what things they were passing that no sane man would ever vote for as a way of entertainment and I only made it a third of the way through) http://www.politicususa.com/2015/02/08/rand-pauls-read-bills-act-relies-congress-truth.html
Because the same people that influenced and wrote the bill doesn’t really want to change it I highly doubt that it will ever be repealed making it another dead issue to drag out of the ground every election.. My thinking on that is.. something had to be done.. no industry can survive a system where one third of its customers can’t afford the services without raising costs.. and it was needed.. and the only way to logically repeal it is to simply write a law that forces one of the very few industries the absolute right to discriminate and price gouge.. and if they opened the boarders that would limit the profits that one company over another could create a system like canada the uk or any of the other forty countries where they have better health coverage..
It such an often repeated lie, that people without insurance could not go to doctors! Where in the heck is the intelligence in this country? Are people REALLY that stupid? Many times in the last 30 years, I have NOT had any “INSURANCE” but I always had access to a DOCTOR and paid IN CASH…remember that, CASH? Yet, yes, I have family members who are that ‘stoooooopid’ and go to ER because they think that is the only place to go to see a doctah!!!! I am not being ugly or sarcastic, I am pointing out the stuuupidity! And to see it repeated here, is sickening!!! Right now, IN THIS COUNTRY, all you have to do is find a primary care physician and walk in (or call ahead) and make an appointment and pay CASH.
Now, IF you are talking about people who are DEAD BROKE and want the system to pay for their healthcare, then by all means walk into ER and walk out without paying. OBVIOUSLY, the word is on the street, for ALL illegals to do this and they do!
REPEAT AFTER ME: YOU DO NOT NEED INSURANCE TO GO TO A DOCTOR IN AMERICA!!!
Just TWO weeks ago, I made an appointment at 10:00 in the morning, to see a doctor at 11:30 THAT SAME DAY FOR AN EMERGENCY!!! It cost me $75.00! Did you read that??? $75.00 in cash to see a DOCTOR!!!
PEOPLE NEED TO GROW UP AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for their lives!!! PUT THESE CRAZY INSURANCE COMPANIES OUT OF BUSINESS, QUIT FOLLOWING THE CROWD LIKE A BUNCH OF LEMMINGS!!!
Obamacare was NOT a step up for ANYONE! No, not even the uninsured or underinsured, it is an abomination! IF Obamacare was the best the most educated and brightest minds in America could come up with, just keep selling us down the river! Wasn’t GOOBER’s taped confessions calling American’s STOOPID enough for anyone?
RUNAWAY HEALTH CARE COSTS? Is $75.00 in 2016 a runaway health care cost to see a doctor? What was it in 2009, 2005, 2001?
IT is BRAINWASHING thinking. As soon as Obamacare was in the works, THEN THE INSURANCE COMPANIES went crazy raising their rates…they did this each year until the law was passed. Yeah, I worked in HR and saw it with my OWN eyes! The outrageous increase in premiums AHEAD of the law being passed! And then it has continued unabated! ALL THAT INSURANCE AND YOU CAN’T EVEN USE IT!!!
All they did was raise the premiums, the deductibles, and cut the services FOR THE WORKING/MIDDLE CLASS!!!!
Insurance Administration takes 20% in this country! 20%!!!! Do you see what the CEO’s are making at these companies???
Canada’s Administration takes 4%! THEREIN LIES THE DIFFERENCE!!! In the words of George, “Everything is a business Model”, and the screwing of the people by the Health Insurance Companies and US government has got to be a new HIGH-Low!
I still do not have insurance and it has saved me thousands of dollars in premiums and deductibles!
But…I have access to healthcare and I use it!
what you miss is people like my best friend who is seriously sick and poor — she is past fifty and has no minor children so she doesn’t qualify for Medicaid in our state — she has no cash to pay the doctor and is taken as a charity case — she can’t afford the insurance nor the penalty for not having it — I told her she should opt for being arrested and sent to one of those country club federal prisons where she would get excellent medical care for free
absolutely you have access to a doctor.. anyone thinking that by having Obamacare is going to make a shortage in doctors is just ignorant.. the fact that they don’t have insurance doesn’t mean they don’t love themselves their families etc.
a friend of the kids..had some troubles..didn’t have insurance so she went to the clinic.. they told her that they needed a thousand to start the test or she could go to the er. she goes into the er.. they do the tests then sent her home.. a couple days later they get in touch with her and tell her the unfortunate information that she has a cancer.. the good news was that it was almost a hundred percent treatable.. she asked when do we start.. they said the minute you bring in fifty thousand to start.. of course she was making eight dollars an hour it could just as well been a million.. what happened is her sister got a second mortgage on her home and came up with the fifty thousand.. same thing helped with the father in law of a friend and his heart valve. he had had the surgery before.. what they didn’t tell him was that the valve has an approximate twenty year life expectancy before a new one would need to be put in.. a year before that the insurance company raised his rates to the point that there wasn’t anyway to pay for it.. he ended up signing over the farm for collateral.
the biggest problem was that for a cold or the flu a broken bone etc.. people can afford to pay that.. it is with the catastrophic events that costs the public so much in price hikes a person making an average wage cannot afford the care. my childs friend went to my employer for care..so I couldn’t say one way or another.. and at that time almost sixty seven percent of the employees didn’t qualify for insurance coverage.. now they are self insured and everyone can get it.. On average a person on an average wage just doesn’t have an extra thirty or forty thousand in their checking account at any one given point.
Oh absolutely.. there is a medication I had to take.. in our town the cost was 1250.00 for one month.. they had a pharmacy here that you took your prescription in and they would fax it off to canada they in turn would fill it and send it to you.. the price difference with shipping.. was 250.00 compared to the 1250.00 and they had the same manufacture and lot numbers on them.. why the thousand dollar difference.. Now if I had been a canadian resident.. I could have gotten the generic for 75.00.. hmm.. yet we cannot buy from these countries even though the majority of the medications are manufactured out side of the USA.. a friend of mine was telling me about a policy he had in Arizona.. what is funny is I cannot buy that policy in my state it isn’t allowed. open the borders..
to see a doctor.. for me with insurance it is a hundred dollars co pay..to see a physicians assistant the co pay is fifty.. generic medications is ten.. and for name brand up to sixty cost of insurance.. my wifes insurance alone was going to go up almost a thousand dollars a month under the health bill from what we were paying with assistance.total we spend just under two thousand a month for insurance
and I highly doubt that anyone no matter which side they are on will actually want to upset those that have so much influence in the governing of our country by opposing or changing a bill that obviously cost a lot to write and the effort to get passed.( follow the money who is really going to benefit)
For our nation To go back to the way it was would still cost the same amount and prices would continue to skyrocket out of proportion for the average citizen to purchase and to change. it would reflect on future profits that can be made by the Frankenstein that created their monster. As of right now the smaller insurers will drop aside leaving a full road for the few big boys who has the blank check to write in what they can charge and the profits that they can make..
Personally I always thought that how it would eventually work is there would be a basic policy that everyone would have to purchase.. then the insurers would sell supplement policies to cover costs not included in the basic policies it would send profits out of this world and they could still openly discriminate and price gouge against the majority.. but then that is only an opinion that I have had since the late seventies when the creation of the millionaire relief act of 78 and insurance was being phased out for the general employee..
Now with the unexpected slow simmering battle rising between the titan’s and the moving sentiment of the public against how the government is presently working and wanting to see a change by voting in someone that cannot be controlled by the puppet masters.
just how it will all play out in the end is a real puzzler.. will the sentiments of the public have the ultimate influence or will it be the few puppet masters being allowed to continue to influence the governing forces.
Personally that wasn’t something I seen coming. The winds of change and how will it effect the outcome of the next administration in the future.
Now a bigger question.. if the puppet masters are still given full access to their greed by the governing forces How will it affect the next election especially after seeing just how much discontent there is during this one.
could there be a future need for the what eighty thousand rounds per person in the united states or the Jade Helm training exercises the camps etc.. possible only time will see how it all plays out in the future.
OK – Obammycare in action!!
My hip replacement surgery bill is going to be $58,884 for three days of hospital stay and the operating room rental. This does not include the orthopedic charges or the anesthesiology charges or the follow up physical therapy. I am fully expecting the final number to be easily rounded up to $100k.
I would love to know what the costs for this same procedure are in other places, because my mortgage was only $120k last time I did a refi…
Hip replacement surgery in Ecuador is less than $8,000 for everything. Doctors have been trained in the USA or Europe.
A plane ticket to Ecuador is less than $700 now.
Consider medical tourism just one more things Americans are kept in the dark about.
Like expatriation, what you think about medical tourism is what someone else wants you to think, and those people do not have your best interests at heart. If you had a government (or health insurance industry) acting in the interests of the people, they would be willing to pick up the bill for medical tourists, saving billion$.
And BTW, there is no MRSA and no AIDS in Ecuador.
We recently had a rickety 80 year old friend repatriate to the USA. He went to the doctor, they determined he needed a hip replacement. Three days after the surgery he died. That’s practicing good medicine in the USA. RIP, Aldo.
Wow, thats heavy duty. When my mom had hers replaced she insisted on spending 2 days in the hilton acrost the street. Cheaper . Broke my heart. After 20+ years of talking of reforming the medical system. No one has sayed a word about real ground level prices in non profit hospitals. I oftin think there is potential for real change that would really help people. Hope your getting better my friend. Best wishes. If you have some downtime i would love to read an update on any of the articales you have writtn.
George,
The half-mile tunnel story reminded me of this idea about the “War on Drugs” I came up with several years ago.
The main idea is that instead of spending roughly a gazillion dollars a year fighting a battle and losing we should just go directly to the main sources, come to a negotiated price, buy the entire amount of product each year and destroy it.
That would solve several problems in one fell swoop. Of course, there would be other issues to work out like start-up competitors trying to sell to the average Joe, but I figure that’s something that could be left to the producers to police. They’re already adept at keeping competitors in check.
Of course, I realize the “War on Drugs” is an industry and is never actually meant to ‘won’ and that there is WAY too much dirty money involved, but I still think it’s a good idea.
MAJ-13
from what the states that have legalized it have found out.. that by legalizing marijuana.. it has increased revenue, decreased crime and accidents.
You’re right, but Mary Jane doesn’t count. Anybody can grow that and it’s not really a problem. I’m talking the hard stuff coming up from Central America and Asia.
Not get the snarky attitude towards the $20 bill. Who cares who’s on it? A lady who helped end slavery, or a guy who helped end polio, or discovered relativity, or etc., etc. — it’s all good. Why is everything a fight?
Also, be careful what you ask for. If the 28 pages show the Saudi govt. had a hand in the attack, that will show that the conservatives and neocons worked even harder to knowingly lie us into their disastrous Iraq war. A war, btw, that put over $6 trillion (and still counting) on the national debt–not to mention killed 5000 splendid American kids and destabilized the Middle East. Mike.
The 28 pages aren’t about the House of Saud and the 9/11 attacks – It’s about the House of Bush knowing it was going to occur – that silly acting job while reading a kid’s book – come on…………
best insight on the 28 pg situation that I’ve read anywhere on the net.
Past topic: BTW Solar Storms have not been proven to cause earthquakes.
neither has fracking – but ask any Okie
See Neil deGrasse Tyson’s observation that other countries put scientists and inventors on their currency, whereas we put politicians (and now social activists) on ours.
Regarding Harriett Tubman on the Twenty: her involvement with John Brown alone should disqualify her. Brown was a vicious murderer whose actions wiped out nearly an entire town and earned my state the nickname of “Bleeding Kansas” prior to the Civil War. He was subsequently captured and hung for his rampage at Harper’s Ferry Va. and yet, a woman who assisted him in his racism is now to grace U.S. currency? This is shameful and an abomination to those of us who actually study history.
Join a health sharing ministry. Look them up online. Samaritan, Liberty, etc.
You might consider the opening of the new Chinese Forex this month and some governments possibly converting to a silver standard.
“I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” – Harriet Tubman
It’s Obama insurance, not care.
Tell it like it is!
No one recives care by paying Obama”care”
Okay, there’s also another point of view (there always is): We’re celebrating someone who encouraged defiance of established law and the stealing of physical property from an entrepreneur while branding said individual a criminal.
Therein lies the dichotomy that is America.
We have this penchant for saying it is, when it really isn’t, and saying it isn’t, when it really is, while at the same time denying any responsibility for our own personal actions.
I’m wondering if there was something besides fluoride in the water.