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They Are Getting Ready: “No Obvious Reason” For Why China Is Massively Boosting Stockpiles of Rice, Iron Ore, Precious Metals, Dry Milk

รัฐบาลจีนกำลังเตรียมพร้อมอะไรอยู่หรือเปล่า "ไม่มีเหตุผลที่สนับสนุนอย่างชัดเจน" สำหรับทำไมรัฐบาลจีนถึงได้สะสมเสบียง สะสมข้าว แร่เหล็ก และวัตถุล้ำค่า, นมผง?

Mac Slavo
January 9th, 2013

อ่านต่อ They Are Getting Ready: "No Obvious Reason" For Why China Is Massively Boosting Stockpiles of Rice, Iron Ore, Precious Metals, Dry Milk


If there were ever a sign that something is amiss, this may very well be it.

United Nations agricultural experts are reporting confusion, after figures show that China imported 2.6 million tons of rice in 2012, substantially more than a four-fold increase over the 575,000 tons imported in 2011.

The confusion stems from the fact that there is no obvious reason for vastly increased imports, since there has been no rice shortage in China. The speculation is that Chinese importers are taking advantage of low international prices, but all that means is that China’s own vast supplies of domestically grown rice are being stockpiled.

Why would China suddenly be stockpiling millions of tons of rice for no apparent reason?

Perhaps it’s related to China’s aggressive military buildup and war preparations in the Pacific and in central Asia.

If a 400% year-over-year increase in rice stockpiles isn’t enough to convince you the Chinese are preparing for a significant near-term event, consider that in Australia the country’s two major baby formula distributors have reported they are unable to keep up with demand for their dry milk formula products. Grocery stores throughout the country have been left empty of the essential infant staple as a result of bulk exports by the Chinese.

A surge in sales of one of Australia’s most popular brands of infant formula has led to an unusual sight for this wealthy nation: barren shelves in the baby aisle and even rationing of baby food in some leading retail outlets.

We’d be more apt to believe the Chinese were panic-buying baby formula had the Chinese milk scandal occurred recently. The problem is that it happened four years ago. Are we to believe the Chinese are just now realizing their baby food may be tainted?

In addition to the apparent build-up in food stocks, the Chinese are further diversifying their cash assets (denominated in US Dollars) into physical goods. In fact, in just a single month in 2012, the Chinese imported and stockpiled more gold than the entirety of the gold stored in the vaults of the European Central Bank (and did we mention they did this in one month?).

Their precious metals stockpiles have grown so quickly in recent years that Chinese official holdings remain a complete mystery to Western governments and it’s rumored that the People’s Republic may now be the second largest gold hoarding nation in the world, behind the United States.

We won’t know for sure until the official disclosure which will come when China is ready and not a moment earlier, but at the current run-rate of accumulation which is just shy of 1,000 tons per year, it is certainly within the realm of possibilities that China is now the second largest holder of gold in the world, surpassing Germany’s 3,395 tons and second only to the US.

But the Chinese aren’t just buying precious metals. They’re rapidly acquiring industrial metals as well.

Spot iron prices are up to an almost 15-month high at $153.90 per tonne. The rally in prices, which started in December 2012, is mainly due to China’s rebuilding of its stockpiles as the Asian giant gears to boost its economy, which in turn, could improve steel demand.

The official explanation, that China is preparing stockpiles in anticipation of an economic recovery, is quite amusing considering that just 8 months ago Reuters reported that China had an oversupply, so much so that their storage facilities had run out of room to store all the inventory!

When metals warehouses in top consumer China are so full that workers start stockpiling iron ore in granaries and copper in car parks, you know the global economy could be in trouble.

At Qingdao Port, home to one of China’s largest iron ore terminals, hundreds of mounds of iron ore, each as tall as a three-storey building, spill over into an area signposted “grains storage” and almost to the street.

Further south, some bonded warehouses in Shanghai are using carparks to store swollen copper stockpiles – another unusual phenomenon that bodes ill for global metal prices and raises questions about China’s ability to sustain its economic growth as the rest of the world falters.

Now, why would China be stockpiling even more iron (and setting 15 month price highs in the process) if they had massive amounts of excess inventory just last year?

Something tells us this has nothing to do with an economic recovery, or even economic theory in terms of popular mainstream analysis.

Why does China need four times as much rice year-over-year? Why purchase more iron when you already have a huge surplus? Why buy gold when, as Federal Reserve Chairmen Ben Bernanke suggests, it is not real money? Why build massive cities capable of housing a million or more people, and then keep them empty?

It doesn’t add up. None of it makes any sense.

Unless the Chinese know something we haven’t been made privy to.

Is it possible, in a world where hundreds of trillions of dollars are owed, where the United States indirectly controls most of the globe’s oil reserves, and where super powers have built tens of thousands of nuclear weapons and spent hundreds of billions on weapons of war (real ones, not those pesky semi-automatic assault rifles), that the Chinese expect things to take a turn for the worse in the near future?

The Chinese are buying physical assets – and not just representations of those assets in the form of paper receipts – but the actual physical commodities. And they are storing them in-country. Perhaps they’ve determined that U.S. and European debt are a losing proposition and it’s only a matter of time before the financial, economic and monetary systems of the West undergo a complete collapse.

At best, what these signs indicate is that the People’s Republic of China is expecting the value of currencies ( they have trillions in Western currency reserves) will deteriorate with respect to physical commodities. They are stocking up ahead of the carnage and buying what they can before their savings are hyper-inflated away.

At worst, they may very well be getting ready for what geopolitical analyst Joel Skousen warned of in his documentary Strategic Relocation, where he argued that some time in the next decade the Chinese and Russians may team up against the United States in a thermo-nuclear showdown.

Hard to believe? Maybe.

But consider that China is taking measures now, in addition to their stockpiling, that suggest we are already in the opening salvos of World War III. They have already taken steps to map our entire national grid – that includes water, power, refining, commerce and transportation infrastructure. They’re directly involved in hacking government and commercial networks and are responsible for what has been called the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world. Militarily, the PRC has been developing technology like EMP weapons systems, capable of disabling our military fleets and the electrical infrastructure of the country as a whole, and has been caught red-handed manufacturing fake computer chips used in U.S. Navy weapons systems.

If you still doubt China’s intentions and expectations, look to other governments, including our own, for signs that someone, somewhere is planning for horrific worst-case scenarios:

The Russians have scheduled 5,000 underground bunkers for completion this year.
Europe rapidly designed, built and stocked the so-called Doomsday Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, which contains tens of thousands of varieties of seeds and is supposed to preserve them in the event of Armageddon style events like asteroid impacts or nuclear war.
The United States government has been stockpiling tens of millions of emergency meals and other supplies and regionalizing their emergency distribution centers across the country (curiously, those supplies never made it to Hurricane Sandy victims)
The government has purchased nearly 2 billion rounds of ammunition in the last few years.
The Pentagon has been Actively War Gaming ‘Large Scale Economic Breakdown’ and ‘Civil Unrest’
China recently made a call, through their Xinhua news agency, for the complete disarmament of the American population (Behind every blade of grass…)

Perhaps there’s a reason why former Congressman Roscoe Bartlett has warned, “those who can, should move their families out of the city.”

As Kyle Bass noted in a recent speech, “it’s just a question of when will this unravel and how will it unravel.”

Given how similar events have played out in history, we think you know how this ends.

It ends through war.

Governments around the world are stockpiling food, supplies, precious metals and arms, suggesting that there is foreknowledge of an impending event.

Should we be doing the same?

 

Some Trader Has Made A Very Big Bet That Something Very Bad Will Happen Within The Next 60 Days

Feb. 6, 2013, 9:37 AM

CNBC
Stocks have been rallying relentlessly to post-crisis highs.
Meanwhile, the volatility index (aka the VIX, aka the "fear index") is near historic lows.

But according to UBS's Art Cashin, some options trader has made an enormous $11.25 million bet that the VIX will explode higher very soon.

And a rally in the VIX is usually accompanied by a drop in the stock markets.

From this morning's Cashin's Comments (emphasis ours):
A Very Big Bet In A Somewhat Unlikely Instrument – My friend, Jim Brown, the ever-alert consummate professional over at Option Investor pointed us to a rather unusual trade. Here's what he wrote in last night's edition of his valuable newsletter:

In past years I have reported on trades that were so large it appeared someone had inside knowledge of a pending event. Sometimes those were massive put positions on the S&P. A new trade just appeared that suggests there will be a market event in the near future. Last week somebody put on a call spread on the VIX using the April 20 and 25 puts. They bought 150,000 contracts for a net of $75 per contract. That is an $11,250,000 bet that the VIX will move over 20 over the next 60 days. You would have to be VERY confident in your outlook to risk $11 million on a directional position with the VIX at five year lows and the markets trying to break out to new highs.
Jim then goes on to list some of the scheduled events and deadlines visible over the next 60 days (mostly in Washington). When you add in the broad variety of geo-political possibilities, it's a decent reason to stay extra alert.
Hopefully, this person is wrong.

UPDATE: Art Cashin issued a correction in his February 8, 2012 Cashin's Comments. Here's what he said:
Optionland Errata – Several of our ever-alert readers pounced on an incongruity in our citation about that big volatility bet in the VIX options. As usual, they were correct. Jim Brown says there was a typo (damn computers). The spread should have read "call spread" (long the April 20 and short the April 25). At $75 per contract, the value of the bet was over $11 million. Mea culpa.

Read more: Art Cashin On Big VIX Bet - Business Insider

Peter Turkson - YouTube

 

ในเดือนเมษาที่จะถึงนี้ อินโดนีเซียมีการแพลน จะเอาพนักงานออก เก้าแสนคน จากอย่างน้อย 1,320 บริษัท ในธุรกิจ อาหาร, ยาสูบ, ตัดเย็บเสื้อผ้า, รองเท้า, อุตสาหกรรมหนัง, ของเล่น, และเฟอร์นิเจอร์ จะถูกคาดว่าจะถูก layoff เร็วๆ นี้ (จาก Hidayat).

อ่านต่อด้านล่างเลย

900,000 workers to lose jobs

Industry Minister MS Hidayat warned on Wednesday of massive layoffs in April if relevant authorities failed to postpone the recent rise in the minimum regional wage for labor-intensive industries.

Around 900,000 workers employed by at least 1,320 companies in the food and beverage, tobacco, textile, footwear and leather, toy and furniture sectors were set to lose their jobs, according to Hidayat.

“Businesses cannot bear the costs incurred by the new minimum wage, which has increased by an average of 43 percent,” said Hidayat.

He added that companies faced difficulties, however, in cutting the number of workers to compensate for the wage rise as severance costs for dismissed workers were extremely expensive.

Regional administrations agreed to increase the 2013 minimum wage late last year by between 30 and 40 percent, mostly due to pressure from striking workers. The figures were well beyond the 15 percent average rise proposed by businesses.

In response to complaints from businesses, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono agreed late last year to exempt labor-intensive sectors from complying with the policy.

Labor-intensive companies need to register with the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry to receive the wage-freeze facility.

However, Hidayat blamed the manpower ministry for not taking the matter seriously as it had failed to immediately process applications from businesses requesting the facility.

One contentious issue, according to Hidayat, was a 2003 manpower ministerial decree that did not permit companies to obtain a wage freeze unless they had suffered financial losses for two consecutive years.

“We need to review the decree because we are in an emergency situation. This is a special case where we need to prevent massive layoffs and save these businesses,” said Hidayat.

“I will be talking to the manpower and transmigration minister very soon to find a solution to the wage freeze holdups.”

In response to the issue, Manpower and Transmigration Ministry spokesman Suhartono said the ministry was in the process of revising the decree as demanded by businesses and relevant ministries.

He added that the ministry was currently in talks with regional administrations, the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) and workers’ unions over the revision.

Suhartono also claimed that, as of Wednesday, the ministry had approved 50 percent of wage-freeze applications filed by 946 labor-intensive companies.

“We have to admit that we cannot approve all the applications. This is not an easy situation,” he said.

Although Indonesia’s economy grew by more than 6 percent during the past couple of years, concerns over high levels of unemployment remain.

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), around 41.4 million people, or 35 percent of the country’s workforce, are categorized as either open (unemployed) or half-unemployed (a few hours of paid work per week).

A worsening jobless rate would undermine the growth in domestic consumerism, which is a key variable and has been the biggest driver of Indonesia’s economic growth since 1999.

Bank Indonesia (BI) had already signaled its concerns over future employment opportunities in its December consumer confidence index (CCI), an important economic indicator in a consumer-reliant economy.

According to the survey, Indonesians remained confident about their country’s economic outlook, but continued to worry about employment opportunities.

Apindo chairman Sofjan Wanandi estimated that 15,000 people in Greater Jakarta had lost their jobs in the past few months because of the new wage policy.

“I am afraid we are going to see more layoffs in the next few months as many companies have stated that they can only survive until March,” Sofjan said.

More than 10 foreign companies, mostly from South Korea and India, have relocated their businesses to other Asian countries, according to Apindo.

900,000 workers to lose jobs | The Jakarta Post

 

A Warning I have received this week from two different Former Government Officials
(One top rank Military – One Intelligence Officer)



I am going ahead and writing about some conversations I have had this week with two different individuals.

Both are former government officials. One was a top ranking Military official and another was an Intelligence Officer. I confirmed both were who they said they were after they had contacted me originally. I have not written about them on this blog or our conversations, as we will discuss current events etc on the phone. They have never given me any “top secret” type information (FYI – for any govt. officials reading this). But they do give me what is real or not real when events happen.

Both had contacted me awhile back and I was very leery in the beginning. I did not know if they were trying to get information about me etc. But after a short amount of time I found they were both genuine and sincere of their contacting me.

This week both of them have contacted me and have been giving me “warnings.”

Two things from past conversations with them about current events:

First they have both told me “Sandy Hook was a false flag.” It is to get into the mind set of people that their children are at risk it is the psychology of fear for the masses. Also the intelligence person said that the Dorner thing, something was really not right about it and he believed the manifesto was written by a few different people due to the way it read and how it was written. We were not able to get into a long conversation about it so I really can’t say much about that here.

Second, I was told all the listening into people’s conversations and reading of the emails, people don’t really need to worry about that. The intelligence officer said “Yes, they are, BUT they don’t give a Sh** about all of our opinions. They care about money. They are paying attention to the big corporation phone calls and emails and to know who is making a big money deal with who, so they can make money off that information.”

He said “The rest of it is boring to them and they couldn’t care less what people think. It is all about money.” He said all that is going on from the top down is not about money, it is simply about Control of the people. They have more money than they can ever spend it is the control and power and making downtrodden slaves of the people.

He told me…. Officers that are in government agencies (FBI etc) right now, know the truth about 9/11 and the Oklahoma bombing but they don’t say anything and evidence proves the truth that has never been released (especially with Oklahoma).

The warnings both called me about this week has been about the break down of the U.S. They both said it is coming this year, with an estimated time of 6 to 12 months at the longest. They both told me the most important things people need to do right now is to have food, water and something to protect that and your family with.

They have both stressed that to me this week, individually. I had mentioned to both that we had expected this in 2008 and 2009 and it didn’t happen so people were weary of those type warnings. They both said “It will happen this year.”

I am not writing this to “freak” people out or to cause “fear of panic.” In fact the intelligence officer said one time to me “Giving predictions just gets people upset and if it doesn’t happen they look at you as a fool, if it does happen they won’t ever remember that you gave that warning out in the first place.”

The Former military officer sent this article from SHTF to me this morning with the subject line: “Warning Report”
Report: Realistic Urban Training is DHS and DOD “Conducting Desensitizing Exercises”


Small Portion:

Preferring to remain unnamed for obvious reasons, he told me, “DHS and DOD are conducting desensitizing exercises all across the U.S.,” he paused, then added, “we’re being prepared for mass civil unrest in major U.S. cities. DOD will be expected to help – when we’re requested.”I asked if there was a timeline for expecting civil unrest in our cities and why should we expect it to begin with.

I was told that there were many reasons, but that the continued devaluation of our currency, the predicted history-setting prices for gasoline this summer and the continued gun control debate are forming a perfect storm of civil discontent. When this storm hits, it will most assuredly produce mass casualties. When does DHS expect this to happen? This summer.

I am going ahead and writing about this and I will simply say: Do what feels right to you. Watch what is going on and see if the current events hint to a break down this year where getting food won’t be as easy as it is right now.

They have said the food part will be because there will not be fuel to get the food to the stores and the shelves will be empty.

So again… I am simply passing along information about “Warnings” I have been given and both were very somber and serious about the warnings when they called me.

 

คำเตือน: เศรษฐกิจโลกกำลังอยู่ในอันตรายและตลาดหุ้นจะจบลงแบบน่าเกลียดปีนี้

Warning: World Economy In Danger & Market Will End Badly This Year

Thursday, March 7, 2013 23:49


Despite the rally.

In the wake of the Italian elections, bullish sentiment measured by the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) plummeted from a high of 41.8 percent down to as low as 28.4 percent last week.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued its bullish march to an all-time high.

This week, AAII bullish sentiment ticked up to just 31.1. This is well below the historical average of 39 percent.

“The Dow’s new record high gave some AAII members reason to believe the current rally will continue,” wrote Charles Rotblutt in a post on Pragmatic Capitalism. “It also heightened concerns other AAII members have about the markets being overbought and due for a pullback in prices.”


Dow Record ‘Eerily Similar’ to 2007: SocGen

The Dow’s record high feels “eerily similar” to the market’s peak in mid-2007 before the global financial crisis, Albert Edwards, the London-based global strategist at Societe Generale, known for his famously bearish stance on equities, said on Thursday.

“Exactly the same jitters abound of a bond bear market and true to form (Federal Reserve Chairman) Ben Bernanke is making the same complacent comments,”, Edwards wrote in a note to clients on Thursday.

Banking Blues: Job Cuts Rise in February

Worst three-year span for wage earners since ’93-95

U.S. productivity slips less than originally believed, but news on wage-growth front is bleak.

Fourth-Quarter Productivity Weakest in Four Years

Banking Job Cuts Rise for Second Month in Row


Marc Faber: Market Will End Badly This Year

The stock market’s run will result in either a 20 percent correction or a more nasty sell off at some point this year, Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom Boom and Doom report, told CNBC’s ”Closing Bell” on Thursday.

Faber pointed out that it’s been almost exactly four years since the stock market bottomed out. “We’re up very substantially, I think investors who today rush into stocks should be reminded of that,” he said.


Read more at WARNING: WORLD ECONOMY IN DANGER AND MARKET WILL END BADLY THIS YEAR | InvestmentWatch