The Debt To GDP Ratio For The Entire World: 286 Percent

Did you know that there is more than $28,000 of debt for every man, woman and child on the entire planet?  And since close to 3 billion of those people survive on less than 2 dollars a day, your share of that debt is going to be much larger than that.  If we took everything that the global economy produced this year and everything that the global economy produced next year and used it to pay all of this debt, it still would not be enough.  According to a recent report put out by the McKinsey Global Institute entitled “Debt and (not much) deleveraging“, the total amount of debt on our planet has grown from 142 trillion dollars at the end of 2007 to 199 trillion dollars today.  This is the largest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and those numbers mean that we are in substantially worse condition than we were just prior to the last financial crisis.

When it comes to debt, a lot of fingers get pointed at the United States, and rightly so.  Just prior to the last recession, the U.S. national debt was sitting at about 9 trillion dollars.  Today, it has crossed the 18 trillion dollar mark.  But of course the U.S. is not the only one that is guilty.  In fact, the McKinsey Global Institute says that debt levels have grown in all major economies since 2007.  The following is an excerpt from the report…

Seven years after the bursting of a global credit bubble resulted in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, debt continues to grow. In fact, rather than reducing indebtedness, or deleveraging, all major economies today have higher levels of borrowing relative to GDP than they did in 2007. Global debt in these years has grown by $57 trillion, raising the ratio of debt to GDP by 17 percentage points (Exhibit 1). That poses new risks to financial stability and may undermine global economic growth.

What is surprising is that debt has actually grown the most in China.  If you can believe it, total Chinese debt has grown from 7 trillion dollars in 2007 to 28 trillion dollars today.  Needless to say, that is absolutely insane…

China’s debt has quadrupled since 2007. Fueled by real estate and shadow banking, China’s total debt has nearly quadrupled, rising to $28 trillion by mid-2014, from $7 trillion in 2007. At 282 percent of GDP, China’s debt as a share of GDP, while manageable, is larger than that of the United States or Germany. Three developments are potentially worrisome: half of all loans are linked, directly or indirectly, to China’s overheated real-estate market; unregulated shadow banking accounts for nearly half of new lending; and the debt of many local governments is probably unsustainable. However, MGI calculates that China’s government has the capacity to bail out the financial sector should a property-related debt crisis develop. The challenge will be to contain future debt increases and reduce the risks of such a crisis, without putting the brakes on economic growth.

What all of this means is that our long-term global economic problems have gotten much, much worse.  This short-lived period of relative stability that we have been enjoying has been fueled by unprecedented amounts of debt and voracious money printing.  Anyone with half a brain should be able to see that this is a giant financial bubble, and in the end it is going to unwind very, very painfully.  The following comes from a Canadian news source…

At the beginning of 2008, government accounted for a smaller portion of the debt pie than corporate, household or financial debt. It now exceeds each of those other categories.

“The current situation is much worse than in 2000 or 2007, and with interest rates near or at zero, the central banks have already used up their ammunition. Plus, the total indebtedness, especially the indebtedness of governments, is much higher than ever before,” said Claus Vogt, a Berlin-based analyst and co-author of a 2011 book titled The Global Debt Trap.

“Every speculative bubble rests on some kind of a fairy tale, a story the bubble participants believe in and use as rationalization to buy extremely overvalued stocks or bonds or real estate,” Mr. Vogt argued. “And now it is the faith in the central-planning capabilities of global central bankers. When the loss of confidence in the Fed, the ECB etc. begins, the stampede out of stocks and bonds will start. I think we are very close to this pivotal moment in financial history.”

But for the moment, the ridiculous stock market bubble continues.

Internet companies that didn’t even exist a decade ago are now supposedly worth billions upon billions of dollars even though some of them don’t make any money at all.  There is even a name for this phenomenon.  Internet companies that have gigantic valuations without gigantic revenue streams are being called “unicorns”…

A dizzying mix of bold ideas and lavish investments has catapulted dozens of privately held start-ups to unicorn status, defined as having market valuations of at least $1 billion often without soaring revenues to match. Social-sharing site Pinterest has soared to $11 billion. Ride-hailing company Uber is now worth a staggering $50 billion.

How long can the party last?

And these days, Wall Street even rewards companies that lose huge amounts of money quarter after quarter.  For example, just check out what happened when JC Penney announced that it only lost 167 million dollars during the first quarter of 2015…

Yippee!!! JC Penney ONLY lost $167 million in the first quarter. The Wall Street shysters are ecstatic because they BEAT expectations. Buy Buy Buy.

This loss now brings JC Penney’s cumulative loss since 2011 to, drum roll please, $3.5 BILLION. They haven’t had a profitable quarter in over four years. But, they are always on the verge of that turnaround just over the horizon.

Wall Street has told you to buy this stock from $42 in 2012 to it’s current pitiful level of $9. They tout the wonderful 3.4% increase in comparable sales. They fail to mention that first quarter 2016 sales are only 30% below first quarter sales in 2011.

They fail to mention that JC Penney burned through another $274 million of cash in the first quarter. Their equity has dropped by $1 billion in the last year, while their long term debt has gone up by $500 million.

This is how irrational Wall Street has become.  JC Penney is ultimately going to zero, and yet there are still people out there that are pouring huge amounts of money into that financial black hole.

Sadly, the truth is that Wall Street is headed for a very painful awakening.

What we are experiencing right now is the greatest financial bubble of all time.

What comes after that is going to be the greatest financial crash of all time.

199,000,000,000,000 dollars of debt is about to come crashing down, and the pain of this disaster will be felt by every man, woman and child on the entire planet.

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The truth about poo: We're doing it wrong

© Sciepro/Science Photo Library/Corbis
The gut is not designed to ‘open the hatch completely’ when we’re sitting.

    

Charming Bowels,

In my large Italian family, I grew up with the subject of poo, bottoms and constipation readily - and far too frequently - discussed at the dinner table. I'd be about to raise a ravioli to my mouth, only to hear how someone's piles had popped, just that morning.

This doesn't mean I'm anal (sorry) about the subject. It's fascinating away from the lunch table. Late last year, I read that we are pooing all wrong: we should be squatting, not sitting, on a toilet bowl. Then a book called by Giulia Enders caused something of a storm in its native Germany and I got fully immersed in the subject.

Enders is studying in Frankfurt for her medical doctorate in microbiology. She is utterly, charmingly obsessed with the gut, gut bacteria and poo. She writes and talks about her subject matter with such child-like enthusiasm, it's infectious. And, yes, we have been pooing all wrong. Enders tells me about various studies that show that we do it more efficiently if we squat. This is because the closure mechanism of the gut is not designed to "open the hatch completely" when we're sitting down or standing up: it's like a kinked hose. Squatting is far more natural and puts less pressure on our bottoms. She says: "1.2 billion people around the world who squat have almost no incidence of diverticulosis and fewer problems with piles. We in the west, on the other hand, squeeze our gut tissue until it comes out of our bottoms." Lovely.

But not to worry. Although you can climb on your toilet seat and squat ("It might be fun!"), we can iron out the kink by sitting with our feet on a little stool and leaning forward. The book even has a helpful drawing by Enders' sister.

Then there are the sphincters. One of them we probably all know about - the one we open consciously - but there is also another, inner one, which is operated unconsciously. This sends a sample into the chamber between the inner and outer sphincter for the sensor cells to analyse and decide if it's "safe" to fart or poo: "Yes, you're at home. No, you're in the office." If it's not safe, the sensors send it back in. But, if the inner sphincter is ignored enough times - say, because we are too shy to go to the loo for fear of being overheard - it sulks and can switch off. That's one of the reasons constipation can occur.

Enders loves her inner sphincter. "Learning about those two sphincters really changed my perspective on life," she says. "Those inner nerves don't care for other people; they have no eyes or ears. Finally, something that only thinks of me! So, now I can go to the toilet anywhere. I worship that muscle!"

But the gut - and Enders' book - is about far more than poo (although there is plenty there, about consistency, frequency, buoyancy, colour and laxatives, to keep the most forensic of scatologists happy). Enders' big thing is bacteria. Our gut, which comprises two-thirds of our immune system, is full of the stuff. Two kilos' worth, in fact. Our bacteria fight pathogens, are involved in blood-group development, digest our food, extract energy, produce hormones and can affect our mood. This gut/brain connection is a fairly new area of medicine, which Enders is very excited about. And she's not alone: the American biochemist Rob Knight told science journal that the field "offered at least as much promise as stem-cell research".

"There is an increasing interest in the gut microbiota and health and disease," confirms Dr Ayesha Akbar, consultant gastroenterologist at St Mark's hospital in London.

"There is a huge number of gut bacteria which, in health, maintain a balance. However, an imbalance has been linked to many chronic disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease and obesity. There is a suggestion that they may also be linked to psychiatric disorders and mood, with the majority of evidence coming from animal studies. Further research needs to be performed in humans in this area."

Enders' own interest in this link started when she was a new student. She met a man at a party whose breath was "the worst I have ever smelled - almost faecal". The next day, he killed himself. "Could a diseased gut," she wonders, "also have affected his psychological state?" She is keen, though, to point out that depressive disorders are multifactorial and not always connected to the gut; much more research is needed. The first human study of the effect of intestinal bacteria on the brain was only conducted only two years ago.

Enders admits that writing about a possible connection between our psychological state and the gut was "the hardest part of the book for me. A professor would have been scared of putting it in the book, but I feel people are being robbed if they don't know about this research."

As well as some serious issues, there are plenty of entertaining nuggets in the book. Did you know that our spit contains a painkiller more powerful than morphine: opiorphin? We have it only in minute quantities, so that we're not off our heads all the time. Eating, though, releases more of the chemical and Enders wonders if this is one factor in comfort eating. And guess what? Your appendix - that bit of people always say is of no use - is actually made entirely of immune tissue and is a veritable larder of the best, most useful bacteria for the gut.

Enders' book is full of stuff like this. I hate to say it, but it is the perfect toilet book. Thankfully, it has also been translated into Italian, so that's Christmas sorted.

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Japanese court upholds injunction banning restart of Takahama nuclear reactors

Anti nuclear activists celebrate in Fukui on April 14, 2015 after an earlier court ruling blocking the restarting of two atomic reactors at Takahama nuclear power plant

    

A Japanese court upheld an injunction banning the restart of two nuclear reactors, a report said Tuesday, in a blow to the government's ambitions to return to atomic power generation.

Fukui District Court in central Japan dismissed Kansai Electric Power's motion for a stay on an earlier decision to temporarily bar the restart of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at plant in Takahama, Kyodo News said.

The decision made Monday comes as the government and Japan's powerful utility companies work to get reactors back online, more than four years after the disaster at Fukushima.

The accident forced Japan's entire fleet of reactors offline over the following months amid deepening public suspicion over the technology.

Tokyo says the world's third largest economy needs nuclear power—a technology that once supplied more than a quarter of Japan's electricity—to meet its energy demand.

But the populace is still wary, and images of tens of thousands of people displaced from ancestral lands at Fukushima continue to haunt the national dialogue.

The Fukui court earlier said the safety of the nuclear reactors at Takahama has not been proven

    

Issuing the injunction on the restart, the Fukui court earlier said the safety of the reactors at Takahama had not been proved, despite a green light from industry watchdog the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), whose guidelines, the court said, were "too loose" and "lacking in rationality".

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has backed an industry push to return to nuclear power, with Japan's manufacturers complaining about the high cost of electricity produced from dollar-denominated fossil fuels.

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Georgia, USA: Mom arrested, shackled, because her child had 3 unexcused absences from school

    

Mother and substitute teacher Julie Giles was arrested this week because her son had too many unexcused absences from public school.

Writing on her Facebook page before turning herself in, Giles said "If anyone feels the need to go public with this feel free to do so....the facts are Sam originally had what they consider 12 unexcused absences, 6 are allowed per year, so he had 6 more than is acceptable, but the doctor reissued 3 excuses that Sam didn't turn in, so basically I am being arrested for THREE days."

She also noted that her child has all A's and B's in school.

    

WTOC's Don Logana contacted Screven County Schools Superintendent William Bland, who told him that the school district is working within the law.

"It's important for these children to be in school and I think the courts recognize that," he said. Logana also learned during his investigation that several other parents have been convicted for the same offense at this school this year alone. Luckily, Giles was quickly released, but now she will still need to appear in court to defend herself.

"I am home. I was actually placed in ankle shackles!! I was told that doing so is procedure. I was respectful and followed directions. Sheriff Mike Kile allowed me to leave after being booked and photographed without having to call a bondsman. I will call tomorrow to get my court date. Thanks for the support!!" Giles wrote to WTOC when she returned home.

This is what public education looks like in a police state.

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Joint pain, from the gut

    

Doctors aren't entirely sure what triggers rheumatoid arthritis, a disease in which the body turns on itself to attack the joints, but an emerging body of research is focusing on a potential culprit: the bacteria that live in our intestines.

Several recent studies have found intriguing links between gut microbes, rheumatoid arthritis, and other diseases in which the body's immune system goes awry and attacks its own tissue.

A study published in 2013 by Jose Scher, a rheumatologist at New York University, found that people with rheumatoid arthritis were much more likely to have a bug called in their intestines than people that did not have the disease. In another study published in October, Scher found that patients with psoriatic arthritis, another kind of autoimmune joint disease, had significantly lower levels of other types of intestinal bacteria.

This work is part of a growing effort by researchers around the world to understand how the microbiome—the mass of microbes that live in the gastrointestinal tract—affects our overall health. The gut contains up to a thousand different bacteria species, which together weigh between one and three pounds. This mass contains trillions of cells, more than the number of cells that make up our own bodies. Over the past several years, scientists have compiled a growing collection of evidence that many of these bugs may have a major effect on our well-being, with some triggering chronic, non-infectious ailments such as rheumatoid arthritis, and others protecting against such diseases.

"It's become more and more clear that these microbes can affect the immune system, even in diseases that are not in the gut," says Veena Taneja, an immunologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who has found clear differences in the bacterial populations of mice bred to be genetically prone to rheumatoid arthritis. In those more susceptible to the disease, a species of bacteria from the family dominates. In mice without arthritis, other strains flourish, and the strains are scarce.

"This is frontier stuff," says Scher, the director of the NYU's Microbiome Center for Rheumatology and Autoimmunity. "This is a shift in paradigm. By including the microbiome, we've added a new player to the game."

Scientists are especially intrigued by how these bacteria influence the immune system. In recent decades, the incidence of many autoimmune diseases has been increasing; many microbiome researchers argue that at least some of this rise is due to changes in our bacterial ecosystem. Altered diet, the explosion of antibiotic use, and decreasing contact with the microbe-packed natural world of animals and plants have all combined to transform the bacteria that call humans home. "Our microbiome has changed significantly over the past century, and especially over the past 50 years," says NYU microbiologist Martin Blaser, who puts much of the blame on widespread use of antibiotics. "We're losing microbes with each generation; they are going extinct. These changes have consequences."

Blaser points to his own research on a species of bacteria called (so named because it looks something like a helicopter). He sampled the gut bacteria of a group of U.S. children, and found that existed in only 6 percent of them. By comparison, other research has shown that the strain is common in the vast majority of people from many parts of the world, especially in developing countries. The decline of in the West, which is likely related to the spread of antibiotics as well as improved sanitation, may have medical consequences: Some research indicates that the bacteria may reduce the risk of asthma, perhaps by curtailing the body's immune response to airborne stimuli. Blaser suspects that asthma is one of the illnesses affected by our changing microbiome: Rates in the U.S. have been climbing for three decades, and grew by more than 28 percent between 2001 and 2011.

Blaser argues that and other gut microbes are so deeply involved in our bodily operations that they shouldn't really be considered aliens. "They are part of who we are," he says. "These organisms are part of our developmental choreography; they have an enormous amount to do with how our immune system develops."

In fact, these bacteria have a powerful vested interest in controlling how our bodies respond to interlopers. Blaser and others say that it appears that many of the bugs that live inside us have thrived by modulating the immune system to avoid being recognized—and attacked—as invaders; in essence, these organisms train immune cells not to be trigger-happy. A microbiome with the wrong sorts of bugs, or the wrong ratio of bugs—a situation known as dysbiosis—may unbalance this immune system, causing immune cells to assault not only bacteria, but also the body itself.

Microbes are especially influential in the gut, which houses two-thirds of the body's immune cells. As the pathway for digestion, the gastrointestinal tract must deal with a constant stream of food-related foreign microbes, which must be monitored and, if they are harmful, destroyed. To do this, our intestines have developed an extensive immune system, whose effects reach far beyond the gut. Immune cells in the gut seem to be able to activate inflammatory cells throughout the body, including in joints.

But while many scientists are confident of the link between the microbiome and arthritis, they haven't pinned down what particular role bacteria play in triggering the disease. Scher says may stimulate an immune reaction that then targets joint tissue. Or it may crowd out beneficial microbes that keep immune-system attack cells being too aggressive [a theory supported by the fact that people with high levels of also had reduced amounts of the bacteria , which seems to restrain the immune system. Scher suspects that a similar mechanism may explain the results in the psoriatic arthritis study; the missing microbe species—, , and —may signal the immune system to ease off.

Scher thinks that eventually, it will be possible to treat arthritis by adjusting the microbiome. Dozens of researchers, including Scher and Blaser, are looking into a range of potential strategies to use bacteria as medicine for immune disorders. Already, millions of Americans ingest probiotics—cocktails of supposedly beneficial bacteria that claim to treat everything from acne to insomnia. Scher, like many microbiome scientists I spoke to, is skeptical that these products are useful. "Probiotics are generally safe and almost completely untested," says Scher. "There's this idea that you can simply replace certain bugs that are missing. I don't think it's as simple as that." For one, he says, it's not clear whether most microbes from probiotics can survive the digestive process.

Scher puts more faith in modifying the microbiome through diet. He notes that some patients with rheumatoid arthritis have benefitted from cutting out meat, or adopting a Mediterranean diet (high in fish, olive oil, and vegetables, and low in meat and saturated fat), though scientists don't know exactly why this helps. In a separate study, Finnish researchers found that a vegan diet changed the gut microbiome, and that this change was linked to an improvement in arthritis symptoms.

Others are focusing on particular bugs over diet. At the Mayo Clinic, Taneja has found that a species of bacteria, , can prevent or halt the mouse versions of both rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease of the brain and nerves. She is hoping to begin studies on humans in the next few months.

And some scientists are focusing not on the microbes, but on the compounds they produce. , for instance, may ease autoimmune disease by releasing a molecule called polysaccharide A, or PSA. Harvard University microbiologist Dennis Kasper, who discovered the compound, has found that when given PSA, mice are protected from certain autoimmune diseases, including MS.

Kasper says PSA may be a more effective and reliable way to modify the immune system than adjusting the balance of microbes. PSA also has an advantage over medicines now used for autoimmune disease, Kasper says: It is subtle. Rather than suppressing the entire immune system—an approach that has obvious disadvantages to the patient—PSA instructs immune cells to continue to patrol without going after harmless targets. "This is a molecule that we have lived with for eons," Kasper, who has recently begun working on ways to turn PSA into medicine for humans, told me. "We know that our bodies can live with it."

Right now, doctors aren't using microbes or their metabolites in patients with arthritis or M.S., but Scher, like Kasper, is optimistic: "In 10 or 15 years I think the microbiome will be a key therapeutic option for some of these diseases," he says. "There will be challenges, but I don't see why it can't happen. This isn't science fiction."

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Representatives of international finance warn world leaders of coming economic crisis

© Sputnik/ Igor Samoilov

    

Heads of international financial companies have warned of the possible bursting of asset bubbles and called on state governments to better control the granting of loans to avoid a new financial crisis, DWN reported.

The paper released under the moderation of the World Economic Forum (WEF) points out that fundamental problems of the financial markets have not been resolved, despite the fact that central banks pumped millions into money markets.

Matthew Blake, Head of the Banking and Capital Markets Industry at the WEF, is one of the authors of the paper.

"In the past nine months, we have dealt intensively with the questions of financial and economic stability. We don't want to make any proposals with our declaration, but raise awareness among all stakeholders about possible dangers and the question of how to mitigate them," he said in an interview with DWN.

Blake could not name any geographical areas posing significant dangers. But the paper identified potential trouble spots, including the real estate market and shadow banks. Despite numerous announcements, shadow banks still remain unregulated and carry out high-risk which may threaten financial stability, the paper said

Blake stated that the key point — in the US as well as in Europe — is to better control the allocation of capital so that the economy does not face new imbalances. Interaction between banks and political circles is necessary to limit damage in the event of a new crisis, he claimed, adding that he expects policymakers to deal with the issue.

Comment: There has already been plenty of "interaction" between banks and political circles, and that's one of the problems in an oligarchy. For a great overview of this economic quagmire, check out 2015 the BRICS checkmate Western finance:

Long story short, banks are investing way more money than they own. Thanks to those investments that reach into the $trillions, they totally control most markets and, of course, they make huge profits when the market goes in the direction they want. But they also take tremendous risks if the market goes in the other direction.

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1,300 dead seabirds found on beach in Lenga, Chile

© Paolo Avila / AFP / Getty Images
A dead bird lies on the beach of Concepcion, 310 miles south of Santiago, Chile, May 18, 2015, one of 1300 birds of different species that were found dead on the shore.

    

At least 1,300 dead birds found on a beach in Chile is a mystery that officials may have finally narrowed down. MSN reports that Chilean authorities are investigating what killed so many seabirds belonging to the family.

It's possible that these birds may have drowned after getting trapped in fishing nets — or died from a disease related to bird flu. The country's Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG) says that the bird flu isn't endemic to Chile.

The 1,300 dead birds on the beach were discovered Sunday afternoon by visitors to a small "black-sand beach in the southern town of Lenga, a cove with several hundred inhabitants who live mainly on fishing and tourism," the report states.

SAG planned to analyze the birds in an effort to determine their cause of death.

This isn't the first time several seabirds were found dead on the beach. Hundreds of birds were found dead in the around the same area back in 2010. At the time, experts learned they were killed after getting trapped in fishing nets.

Raw Story reported in May of 2012 that around 2,000 birds were found dead on the beaches of central Chile. Fishermen were blamed for snagging them in their nets and allowing them to drown. The dead birds covered some four miles of beach around Santo Domingo. The main species of those found dead were gray petrels, but there were also pelicans, gannets, and Guanay cormorants.

The fishermen were accused of "doing nothing" when the birds got trapped in their nets. The fisherman essentially allowed the birds "to drown before throwing the bodies back into the sea," said San Antonio Natural History and Archeology Museum Director, Jose Luis Brito.

Around the same time the dead birds were found on the beach, thousands of dolphins and other seabird carcasses were discovered on beaches in Peru. This included pelicans. Oil exploration work was blamed by environmental groups. Peru's deputy environment minister, Gabriel Quijandria, disagreed with the animals' cause of death. He argued that warming waters resulted in their deaths due to food supplies being disturbed by the radical change.

The 1,300 dead birds found on a beach is an alarming number of animals to die from fishing nets. Any time a large volume of animals mysteriously show up dead, it appears some sort of imbalance in nature is going on until scientists learn what the actual cause is and how it can be remedied.

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