Best Minds Inc.

12/02/2016

EUROZONE ON A KNIFE-EDGE: Italy scuttles off to Brussels over BAILOUT of its oldest bank

Next up, the Italians vote on Sunday. Should stock investors be concerned with the Dow up almost 1400 points in 17 days by the end of November, the banking index up 19% in 17 days, and the Dow at its highest ever? Let's see, the cost of borrowing money for the US government is up 80% from its historic low in July (10 year treasury yields) and the largest monthly loss in global debt on record just took place in November too. Oh, and the Federal Reserve is all but certain to raise interest rates again on Dec 14th. But hey, real world problems need every impact the Dow again.....right?

"Italy's lenders hold around £270billion of so-called non-performing loans - a third of the eurozone's total - and need fresh funds to restore confidence."

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/739218/Eurozone-Italy-EU-Commission-talks-Monte-dei-Paschi-bailout

ITALY has today taken its begging bowl to Brussels as it attempts to thrash out the terms and financing of a bailout deal for its oldest bank.

12/01/2016

Global Bonds Lose $1.7 Trillion In November, Worst Monthly Meltdown On Record | Zero Hedge

Bond markets are yelling at stock investors, "Do not ignore this!"

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-01/global-bonds-lose-17-trillion-november-worst-monthly-meltdown-record

Less than two months after Ray Dalio warned about a potential wipe out in the bond market, he has been proven right: the November surge in global yields has resulted in the worst monthly loss in the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Total Return Index, which lost 4% in November, a record drop, and...

11/28/2016

Where Are We In The Business Cycle: A Troubling Chart From Morgan Stanley | Zero Hedge

Where do crowds go the craziest about diving into an investment asset? AFTER it has gone to extremes. The largest inflow into US equities this year was the week ending Nov 16th. It was also the third largest on record.

Markets have moved in cycles for centuries before they "needed" constant money printing "assistance" by central banks. The chart below is a reminder to tens of millions of very complacent investors. Yes markets, like mountains, have peaks. If you don't change strategies or take gains, they are lost on the trip back down to the "debt overload" valley.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-28/where-are-we-business-cycle-troubling-chart-morgan-stanley

According to Morgan Stanley, 2017 will be a year in which odds of a boom and bust have materially increased, consistent with a late-cycle US environment. So late, in fact, that one look at the chart below shows the US cycle has not only plateaued but is now stalling and is turning over.

11/25/2016

Indian Currency Crashes To Record Low As Cash Exchange Of Old Notes Suspended | Zero Hedge

Doors close even harder on Indian public to hold cash. 60% of old banknotes still in circulation have one day to exchange for new cash. They can deposit old cash until December 31st.

"It appears the social unrest, economic collapse, and currency crisis sparked by Indian PM Modi's decision to demonetize 'corrupt' high-denomination bank-notes was not enough.

As the Rupee crashed to a record low overnight, officials announced a suspension of the exchange of 'old notes' as of tomorrow to, in their words, 'encourage people to deposit old notes in their bank accounts.' With as much 60% of banknotes still un-exchanged, we suspect chaos will be the operative word for the immediate future."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-24/india-panics-rupee-crashes-record-low-modi-cuts-banknote-exchange-6-weeks-early

It appears the social unrest, economic collapse, and currency crisis sparked by Indian PM Modi's decision to demonetize "corrupt" high-denomination bank-notes was not enough. As the Rupee crashed to a record low overnight, officials announced a suspension of the exchange of 'old notes' as of tomorro...

11/18/2016

200 years of US interest rates on one chart

This summer a colleague of mine I have grown to respect, Michael Oliver (http://www.olivermsa.com/) who has provided technical analysis to large institutions since the 1970s was showing charts regarding a major top, possibly the end of a 35 year bond bull market in US Treasury bonds. This was news then. It has grown even more important as of November as I have watched yields rise, and prices drop in the world's bond markets.

This morning, another individual I greatly respect, Louise Yamada, formerly head of Technical Research for Smith Barney (Citigroup) for 25 years, made comments about this huge change of trend as well. This trend change impacts interest rates all over the world.

Share this with every investor, adviser, business owner, and leader. This is a piece of world history EVERYONE needs to watch and understand. Everyone needs a plan for financial change.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/17/200-years-of-us-interest-rates-on-one-chart.html

Technical analyst Louise Yamada outlines 200 years of U.S. interest rates, explains why the bottom is in.

11/17/2016

Saudis, China Dump Treasuries; Foreign Central Banks Liquidate A Record $375 Billion In US Paper | Zero Hedge

If you have money in a bond fund, you need to understand the history taking place since this summer. We have watched the British Gilt, German Bunds, and US Treasury yields reach their lowest levels in 3 centuries. No investor or adviser has ever seen this. YET, history does have lessons on what this could mean.

This year is the 35th year of the US Treasury bond bull run. The previous period from 1946 to 1981 was a bond bear. Yields went from 2% on to 15% on 10 year Treasuries in this period. Massive losses came to those "holding for the long term" as yields rose.

Month by month we are watching huge amounts of US Treasuries SOLD by foreign central banks and the Sovereign Wealth Funds around the world.

This is not a "panic" alert. This is a "be informed and have an alternate plan" reality.

If there was ever a time for American retail investors and advisers to learn from history, is now. Sadly, most will not.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-16/saudis-china-dump-treasuries-foreign-central-banks-liquidate-record-375-billion-us-p

It is official: Trump or no Trump, foreign central banks, SWFs and virtually every other official institution in possession of US paper, and as of this month, private investors too, are liquidating their Treasury holdings at a record pace.

11/16/2016

www.acting-man.com

While investors continue in total complacency about risk under their money as algos hum right under Dow 19,000, the other side of the world is seeing what happens when the state takes larger bills from circulation. If you are in India right now, keep talking with those of us in the West. We need to watch and understand these recent events. The author, Jayant Bhandari, is in an Austrian economics chat group I have been involved with for a decade.

http://www.acting-man.com/?p=47768

11/16/2016

Gold Price Skyrockets in India after Currency Ban – Part II

This article was written a few days after the nation of India banned the use of its 500 and 1000 rupee bills. 88% of the nation uses cash in transactions, and these amount equal $7.50 and $15.00 US dollars. This is life changing for the people in India.

http://www.acting-man.com/?p=47842

Chaos in the Wake of the Ban Here is a link to Part 1, about what happened in the first two days after India’s government made Rs 500 (~$7.50) and Rs 1,000 (~$15) banknotes illegal. They ca…

11/14/2016

Retail investors and advisers have no training or teaching on the history of financial bubbles, and major bubbles span 4 centuries! For the largest bank in America to watch its own stock go up 19% in the last 6 days - reaching 4 standard deviations above its average over the last 240 days - is a signal of a classic blowoff. An overbought level from the last few years has been at 2 deviations, so this is screaming problems ahead!

The cost of my own insights and guidance through my research writings (questions always welcomed) grows smaller as risks shoot skyward and opportunities rise sharper for those knowing what to do with this information.

To sign up for The Investor's Mind, go to www.bestmindsinc.com, look on the left hand side of the page, and click on "Newsletter". For private consulting send me an email at [email protected] with the subject, "consulting in bubble".

11/04/2016

For my research paper, Riders on the Storm: Short Selling in Contrary Winds (Jan '06) - Google, you can download and read for free - I was able to interview David Tice who started the Prudent Bear Fund and is known throughout the industry for his institutional research. He was constantly belittled and ridiculed by the financial media during the late 1990s. He was called in by Congress to testify on why he KNEW the bubble would end badly in 2001. Doug Noland worked with him at the time and is one of those big data guys who has called the bubbles since the 1990s.

Here is what I pulled from a post by financial writer Grant Williams, in Linkedin. Google Doug Noland. Read his comments. To hope central banks keep artificially inflating this bubble is flat out denial of all the lessons of history, and the effects of debt overload.

"Studying credit data, he was initially concerned about the balance sheet expansion of Freddie and Fannie in the early 90s and started writing about the mortgage finance bubble in 2002. He also called the government finance bubble in April 2009. In a recent interview for Real Vision TV, I had the pleasure of discussing the current global bubble with Doug, who believes we’re in a dangerous place with a major shift from other boom bust scenarios. He also shares his insights into how support from central banks has led the markets to ignore the risk - and what happens when that support is taken away."

Share if you know others in complete denial that another bust is coming.

11/02/2016

Deutsche Bank Accuses ECB Of "Creating Asset Bubbles, Expropriating Savers And Backdoor Socialization" | Zero Hedge

"Backdoor socialisation, expropriated savers and asset bubbles." - David Folkerts - Landua, Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank, the 11th largest bank in the world describing the consequences to Europe and world markets from the European Central Bank's money printing - asset inflating intervention schemes over the last several years.

Are you and your adviser discussing the financial bust ahead? Do you have a plan....a strategy?

Sign up for The Investor's Mind as we watch history and change together. There are solutions for those willing to change, a lesson we learned from 2008. www.bestmindsinc.com

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-02/deutsche-bank-accuses-ecb-creating-asset-bubbles-expropriating-savers-and-backdoor-s

"And so the ECB is stuck, as it has been since 2012, between an unfavourable equilibrium of low growth, high unemployment and zero reform momentum on the one hand, and growing risks to core country balance sheets on the other. It remains to be seen how it will escape from this dilemma of its own mak...

10/31/2016

Democrats should ask Clinton to step aside

How much longer can US stock indices ignore this election? Closes in the Dow - Sept 9 - 18,085/Sept 23 - 18,261/Oct 7 - 18,240/ Oct 21 -18,145/ Last week,Oct 23-28 - 18,223...169...199...169...161. Are you noticing how different the markets look from politics?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-hillary-clinton-emails-kass-1030-20161028-column.html

Democrats should call for Hillary Clinton to step down

10/31/2016

A REAL scary story on Halloween. Consider these numbers. 24 out of the last 37 days the Dow has crossed its 100 day moving average. Random? It dropped app. 400 points on Sept 9th. Today is the 11th week since the Dow and S&P 500's reached their highest level ever on August 15th, yet the Dow's high today is less than 500 points from that historic high. Massive confusion, massive intervention, or both? Either the computers are leading us all with some "assistance", or the entire world is obsessed with one moving average. Eat some candy; stay or get safe.

Oh, and by the way, we are now more than 500 trading days since first coming to the magic "18,000" level. (17,991 on 12/5/14)

10/19/2016

Hussman Funds - Weekly Market Comment

-- As a fully-leveraged “lonely raging bull” in the early 1990’s, I found it nearly impossible to convince investors that market prospects were positive, as they imagined that the “Bush recession” would never end. In 2000 and again in 2007, it was nearly impossible to convince investors of the speculative extremes and downside risks of markets where the “old rules” didn’t seem to apply. Once a market cycle is completed, everything seems obvious in hindsight. Soon enough, investors will wonder why they didn’t consider the extreme risks of the current environment to be just as obvious.--- quote from Dr. John Hussman of the Hussman funds, in his most recent release, Calm Before the Storm. http://hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc161017.htm

Several weeks ago, we shifted from a rather neutral near-term stock market view, to a hard-negative outlook, based on fresh deterioration in various trend-sensitive components within our broad measures of market action. From a cyclical perspective, the stock market has effectively gone nowhere since...

10/13/2016

Royal Air Force Pilots Ordered To Shoot Down "Hostile" Russian Jets Over Syria | Zero Hedge

"The first thing a British pilot will do is to try to avoid a situation where an air-to-air attack is likely to occur — you avoid an area if there is Russian activity," an unidentified source from the UK's Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) told the Sunday Times. "But if a pilot is fired on or believes he is about to be fired on, he can defend himself. We now have a situation where a single pilot, irrespective of nationality, can have a strategic impact on future events."

NASDAQ 100 hit its highest level ever Monday, Oct 10th. The London FTSE 100 hit its highest ever on Tuesday, Oct 11th. The breaking of Dow 18,000 is still key. These are very dangerous markets, having been artificially inflated by central banks for so long that the public is totally dismissing real world risk.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-13/royal-air-force-pilots-ordered-shoot-down-hostile-russian-jets-over-syria

"We need to protect our pilots but at the same time," said a Sunday Times source "we're taking a step closer to war. It will only take one plane to be shot down in an air-to-air battle and the whole landscape will change."

10/03/2016

Russia warns against US attack on Syrian forces

Have we really come to believe that geopolitical risks are no risk to our financial markets and personal finances?

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/b1dff53fa4664a28ad9fbd6d4949fe71/russia-warns-against-us-attack-syrian-forces

BEIRUT (AP) — Russia warned the United States Saturday against carrying out any attacks on Syrian government forces, saying it would have repercussions across the Middle East as government forces captured a hill on the…

10/03/2016

US Suspends Bilateral Diplomatic Relations With Russia On Syria | Zero Hedge

Have we really come to believe that geopolitical risks are no risk to our financial markets and personal finances?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-03/us-suspends-bilateral-diplomatic-relations-russia-syria

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SAYS SUSPENDING BILATERAL DISCUSSION ON SYRIA WITH RUSSIA RUSSIA FAILED TO LIVE UP TO ITS COMMITMENTS, STATE DEPT SAYS

10/03/2016

How much longer can the Dow be played to hold these levels? Do you have hedges in place to protect or grow your money when the largest financial bubble on record burst? Nobody can ever say we weren't warned. Notice where the Dow stands after 22 months. The best upside from 18,000 has only been 3.7% and that all time high made on August 15th was wiped out in under a month?!

For clear ongoing insight during this time of great gaming, deception and risk, subscribe to The Investor's Mind.

http://www.bestmindsinc.com/research_signup.php

09/30/2016

Will focus on the collapse of the 11th largest bank in the world bring the risk reality to global market? Record levels of intervention around the world by central banks in the 3d quarter (over a half a trillion into global markets) has not pushed major European and Asia and most US stock markets above their 2016 highs reached 7 weeks ago. Stalling the decline is only going to make the impact that much worse when it slams investors

Seeking insight into how retail investors can learn from big money where to go next? Subscribe to The Investor's Mind.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-29/run-begins-deutsche-bank-hedge-fund-clients-cut-collateral-exposure

09/29/2016

January 2016. Former head of research for the Bank of International Settlements warns of coming debt defaults around the globe. These statements require more than for us to quickly look for the "simple" money answer, but to go deeper, asking spiritual questions like, "How much faith have we placed in a small group of bankers to constantly 'rescue' the markets and big banks with more debt....and thus remove my own financial plans from real world problems?

Never have we needed to think and talk more openly about money and this will impact all of our lives. Never have we wanted to ignore these real world issues and this topic.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/davos/12108569/World-faces-wave-of-epic-debt-defaults-fears-central-bank-veteran.html

09/29/2016

NATIONAL SECURITY PROFESSIONALS AND CYBER EXPERTS CALL FOR PENTAGON INTERVENTION ON SURRENDER OF THE INTERNET

The US is set to give up control of the internet tomorrow, Sept 30th. How could that impact national security?

http://globaleconomicwarfare.com/2016/09/national-security-professionals-and-cyber-experts-call-for-pentagon-intervention-on-surrender-of-the-internet/

We are publishing the following Press Release due to the importance of the issue and the crucial timing of the message. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 26 September 2016 For more information contact: Jody We…

09/29/2016

How Much Money Have Humans Created?

How much is enough money? Check this out. Mindboggling. Remember, in 1912 before the Federal Reserve began in 1913, the US national debt was 2.9 BILLION. Financial derivatives did not come about until the 1970s, and the US national debt did not reach 1 trillion until 1981.

http://money.visualcapitalist.com/much-money-humans-created/

It's so much, that just telling you wouldn't convey the magnitude. That's why we created this video, which visualizes all money and markets in context.

09/27/2016

"It All Has A Very 2008 Feel To It" - For Deutsche Bank, The News Just Keeps Getting Worse | Zero Hedge

Keep watching Deutsche Bank. With the Dow closing today merely 100 points above where it was over 477 days ago when it almost reached 18,000 for the first time on Dec 5, 2014, every investor and adviser should be on high alert. The trading world can see a massive collision coming. Some investors will win, most will lose, just the opposite of what we have seen since 2009. The one's hit the most will be retail investors. I can't remember a time where I have seen so much complacency and so much risk.

Giving insight to traders, investors and advisers in The Investor's Mind since 2006 and through the 2008 collapse. Click here to join. http://www.bestmindsinc.com/research_signup.php

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-26/it-all-has-very-2008-feel-it-deutsche-bank-news-just-keeps-getting-worse

For most of 2016, Deutsche Bank sahres have been sliding fast. On Monday, they crashed again, down more than 7%. The bank's bonds have slumped as well, while the cost of credit default swaps have jumped. As some have correctly put it "It all has a very 2008 feel to it."

09/20/2016

Is Deutsche Bank Cooking its Derivatives Book to Hide Huge Losses? | MishTalk

"Investors think that trees will continue to grow to heaven. What a shock they will get."

The quote above can be found in the letter below. It is in conjunction with Deutsche Bank, one of Europe's largest banks, that is in critical condition. I have linked the article it came from below as well as a chart of DB stock spanning the last 15 years.

Should American investors and advisers know this information? Should they understand a collapse of this bank, like Lehmans in 2008, could impact world markets and their own finances?

____________________________________________________________

Thank for this Lars.

I would not be surprised if they are moving balance sheet risk to derivatives. This is a very common trick to reduce official exposure. Greece did this with the help of Goldman Sachs.

Share price confirms something is seriously wrong.

I saw the “Big Short” for the second time on Saturday. It’s a great film. I told my wife that what happened in 2007-2009 is a walk in the park compared to what we will see next. It’s only a question of when.

Still only 0.5% of world financial assets are insured in the form of physical gold. Investors think that trees will continue to grow to heaven. What a shock they will get.

Kind regards
Egon von Greyerz
Founder & Managing Partner
Matterhorn Asset Management AG
GoldSwitzerland

https://mishtalk.com/2016/09/20/is-deutsche-bank-cooking-its-derivatives-book-to-hide-huge-losses/

[This should be taken as specific investment advice, but as education regarding a time of enormous deception. Best Minds Inc]