Today is quite a day for prophetically related news. What's new - this has become common over the past several months as the road is constantly being paved for what is to come:
European Commission vice-president Viviane Reding has predicted that the eurozone will become a federal state, while urging the UK not to leave the Union.
The Luxembourg politician in Cambridge University on Monday (17 February) recalled a speech by Britain’s World War II leader, Winston Churchill, in Zurich in 1946.
“In my personal view, the eurozone should become the United States of Europe. Like Winston Churchill, I believe that the UK will not be part of this, but it should remain a close ally with the federated eurozone, with which it would continue to share a common market, a common trade policy, and, hopefully, a common security agenda,” she said.
Reding noted that euro countries have made an “extraordinary” leap in terms of integration due to the economic crisis.
Citing the commission’s new powers to scrutinise national budgets and plans to create a banking union, she said: “a few years ago no one could have imagined member states being prepared to cede this amount of sovereignty.”
The French and German leaders will in Paris on Wednesday (19 February) discuss what France is calling “the revival of Europe.”
French President Francois Hollande has announced that his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers will launch three projects: harmonisation of French and German corporate tax; the creation of a joint company, on the model of aeronautic firm Airbus, specialising in renewable energy; and “a Franco-German partnership for European defence.”
He said in a speech last month the initiatives will open a new chapter in European politics after the economic crisis.
“Initiatives for Europe must first be agreed between France and Germany,” he said. “This Franco-German momentum will enable us … to revitalise the European ideal.”
Israel may try to assume more control over Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, a government minister told American Jewish leaders.
Naftali Bennett, the chairman of the Jewish Home party and the minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, on Monday told leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations at the group’s annual meeting in Jerusalem that his office has taken steps to exercise greater Israeli sovereignty over eastern Jerusalem, Haaretz reported.
In addressing the issue of the Temple Mount, Bennett reportedly said, “Unfortunately, the Temple Mount today doesn’t allow for the full exercise of freedom of religion, and there is discrimination against Jews there. But we have to be very careful when dealing with the Temple Mount because of the huge sensitivity of the site.”
The Temple Mount is under the control of the Islamic Wakf.
Bennett’s speech came a day after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a group of visiting Israeli students that he would not be willing to share sovereignty over the Temple Mount but would allow Jews to worship at the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites.
On Sunday, lawmakers in Jordan threatened to shut down the country’s embassy in Tel Aviv and expel Israel’s ambassador to Amman if Israeli lawmakers drafted a law to end the Wakf’s authority over Muslim and Christian holy places in Jerusalem, calling it a breach of the Jordan-Israel peace treaty.
A Knesset plenum debate on “the loss of Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount” is scheduled for Tuesday.
Soros Fund Management has doubled up a bet that the S&P 500 SPX is headed for a fall.
Within Friday’s 13F filings news was the revelation that the firm, founded by legendary investor George Soros, increased a put position on the S&P 500 ETF SPY +0.12% by a whopping 154% in the fourth quarter, compared with the third. (A put or short position basically gives the owner the right to sell a security at a set price for a limited time, and in making such a bet, an investor generally believes the security is going to decline.)
Soros and his hedge fund aren’t alone if they’re feeling unease at the bull run for markets. It’s been roughly 28 months since a substantial correction for the S&P 500, which is down 0.5% for the year after having endured a pullback earlier this month, triggered in part by jitters over emerging markets. Strategists have been debatingabout when and how the correction is going to happen.
It was Soros himself who famously once said: “I rely a great deal on animal instincts.” And as we all know, George’s made some big, crazy, winning bets in the past.
If there’s one thing that’s certain about what’s happening in the world right now it’s that uncertainty is pervading every aspect of the global economy. From fabricated employment statistics and consumer spending reports to obscene levels of debt and a failing domestic monetary policy, the writing is on the wall.
According to top Casey Research analyst Marin Katusa, who has met with energy ministers and business leaders in over 100 countries, it’s only a matter of time before the world’s reserve currency goes the way of the German Reichsmark and Zimbabwe Dollar.
What we’re talking about here is nothing short of an outright collapse of our banking system, hyperinflation of the US dollar, and a complete destruction of the world as we have come to know it.
This is a must-watch for those trying to understand what’s happening with the economic landscape, how to position yourself for an unprecedented paradigm shift in how Americans live their lives, what to expect as this crisis unfolds, and how to find opportunities when everyone else is in panic mode.
If the petro-dollar ends, the American way of life will be something that will be destroyed.The inflation will be over 100% because Americans are getting their lifestyle subsidized by the rest of the world.This is a very complicated issue… but to be summed up quickly, the world has already started trading commodities and oil, not in the petro-dollar.And if the petro-dollar finally does die, the American way of life is gone.
It should be clear that China, Russia, oil-producing nations and emerging markets are positioning themselves for exactly what Marin Katusa describes. They have already established unilateral agreements to replace their petro-dollar transactions with either their own currencies or gold. When the timing is right, they’ll pull the plug, at which point all hell will break loose.
The only assets that will survive the destruction will be physical goods such as those commodities essential to survival – food, energy, water, etc.
[This is all moot anyway, as Iran is past the point of no return anyway]
Nuclear talks between Iran and world powers moved to the next level Tuesday as negotiators began work on transforming an interim deal into an ambitious lasting accord.
Expectations were not high, however, for the scheduled three-day Vienna meeting between Iran and the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany, the first in a likely series of tricky encounters.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Monday he was “not optimistic” and that he expected the talks to “lead nowhere” — although he also said he was not against the negotiations.
Russia will form a new strategic military command by the end of 2014 to protect its interests in the Arctic, a high-ranking military source told RIA Novosti Monday.
“The new command will comprise the Northern Fleet, Arctic warfare brigades, air force and air defense units as well as additional administrative structures,” the source in Russia’s General Staff said.
The military has already begun deployment of aerospace defense units in the Arctic and construction of an early warning missile radar in Russia’s extreme north, according to the commander of the Aerospace Defense Forces, Maj. Gen. Alexander Golovko.
The Defense Ministry has also announced plans to reopen airfields and ports on the New Siberian Islands and the Franz Josef Land archipelago, as well as at least seven airstrips on the continental part of the Arctic Circle that were mothballed in 1993.
Arctic territories are believed to hold vast untapped reserves of oil and gas. They have increasingly been at the center of disputes between the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark as rising temperatures lead to a reduction in sea ice and make energy reserves more accessible.
Russia has made claims to several Arctic shelf areas and plans to defend its bid at the United Nations.
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