Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Chinese Stocks Tumble Again, But Other Markets Stabilize
AP & HP | author | 08/24/15

The decline comes despite a multibillion-dollar government effort to stop a slide in prices.

Chinese stocks fell Tuesday for a fourth day, hitting an eight-month low amid signs Beijing was no longer buying shares to stem a price slide, and Japanese stocks also dropped. But other Asian and European markets bounced back from a day of heavy losses. U.S. stock futures were also up after Monday's global sell-off and a tumultuous day on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones closed down 3.6 percent. Analysts said it was unclear whether the rebounds in some markets were indications that worst was over or a reprieve in a longer-term bear market.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 7.6 percent to 2,964.97 points, adding to Monday's 8.5 percent loss and taking the benchmark to its lowest level since Dec. 15. Some 2,000 stocks out of about 2,800 on China's two mainland exchanges fell by the 10 percent daily limit, according to Hexun, a financial news website. ... Read more

July Was The Hottest Month Ever; Cable News Barely Noticed
HP | Sam Stein | 08/24/15

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a dire report about the state of the planet: July 2015 was the earth's warmest month on record, dating back to 1880.

This wasn't some one-off study. It was supplemented by similar findings from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Japanese Meteorological Agency; and, of course, it came on top of other studies underlining the perilous state of global warming. ...

1. MSNBC: Discussed the report five times, not counting the two repeats of Rachel Maddow's show early on Friday morning.
2. CNN: Discussed the report five times, not counting repeat airings.
3. Fox News: Did not discuss the report.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a dire report about the state of the planet: July 2015

The United States Has Had More Mass Shootings Than Any Other Country
MotherJones | Samantha Michaels | 08/23/15

Nearly one-third of the world's mass shootings have occurred in the United States, a new study finds. Adam Lankford, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Alabama, has released the first quantitative analysis of public mass shootings around the world between 1966 through 2012. Unsurprisingly, the United States came out on top--essentially in a league of its own.

Over those five decades, the United States had 90 public mass shootings, defined as shootings that killed four or more victims. Of the 170 other countries examined in the study, only four even made it to double-digits: The Philippines had 18 public mass shootings, followed by Russia with 15, Yemen with 11, and France with 10. ... Read more

US Equity Futures Soar 4% After PBOC Rate Cut; Chinese Futures Jump After Overnight Market Crash
ZeroHedge | author | 08/25/15

The PBOC cut itself was not surprising, considering the PBOC now has to juggle and micromanage every aspect of the economy, from its sliding currency, to the bursting stock bubble, to record capital outflow, to soaring real interest rates, to the slowing economy. In fact, bulls around the globe will welcome the latest central bank bailout. Which also happens to be the worst aspect of today's intervention, because one can once again toss all the talk that China would finally stop intervening in asset pricing, with today's decision merely perpetuating the market's reliance on central banks. As a reference, this was the second time China cut both RRR and interest rates in 2 months: the last time it did so was during the depths of the financial crisis. ... Read more

With Stocks In Free Fall, China Ditches Plunge Protection For Desperation Rate Cuts
ZeroHedge | author | 08/25/15

The dual policy rate cut is a desperate attempt to 1) free up liquidity, and 2) shore up confidence in the stock market. We suspect the effects may be short lived on both accounts because after all, aggressive easing only fuels further depreciation necessitating further liquidity-sapping FX interventions in a vicious loop, and loose monetary policy likely won't be much comfort to China's 90 million retail investors who now, more than ever before, are virtually guaranteed to sell any rip they can get in a desperate attempt to claw back their life savings which they naively poured into stocks back in April and May. ... Read more

Why Did China Just Cut Rates, Again: Here Are Goldman's Three Reasons
ZeroHedge | author | 08/25/15

Goldman's 3 key reasons for China's "surprise" rate cut: 1) Activity growth weakened meaningfully after a brief rebound in 2Q; 2) Outflows re-emerged and drained liquidity; 3) Equity market has been falling very rapidly. The conclusion: "These cuts are positive moves which are much needed to support the economy and market. But they are unlikely to be sufficient by themselves." ... Read more