Who is Beppe Grillo?

Thanks to the efforts of our Muslim President, the Western Mediterranean and Notrth Africa are once again in the hands of Islamic radicals and so Italy is again a defensive bulwark against them. How good a defensive bulwark? That depends on how strong a government Italy manages to form.

I have already described the difficulty of Italy forming a coalition government. In fact, some people are already looking to a second election in June to resolve the current impasse. In order to do that successfully, Italy must come to grips with who Beppe Grillo is and what he represents.

Eastern Europe and Southern Europe suffers under "Social Democracy" and the cure for that, "austerity." This had given rise to various Fascist movements, including Grillo's Five Star Party. What does Grillo represent?

According to Grillo, AIDS doesn't exist, vaccines will kill you, and the Holocaust never happened.
Big Pharma is out to get you with chemotherapy, and natural treatments (like bloodletting) are better than that awful scientific medicine. The world is run by Jewish bankers like the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds, and those blessed Islamic banks give out free money. Not like the usurious Jews, who want to kill off all their customers. Grillo's Iranian wife has high-level connections in Tehran, where making trouble in Italy is high on the priority list. Grillo has said that "everything I know about the Middle East I learned from my father-in-law," the Iranian bigshot. (Nasratollah Tajik just died in Tehran at the age of 83.) Grillo is threatening "violence in the streets" unless he gets what he wants. What does he want? "We want 100% of the Parliament, not 20% or 25% or 30%. When the movement reaches 100%, when the citizens become the State, the movement will no longer need to exist.

It sounds eerily like another time, does it not? Unlike Benito Mussolini (who was trim, prim and narcissistic) Beppo is a fat slob, but dangerous just the same.

A tidal wave of news.

Julius Caesar was warned about the "Ides of March" and Austria and Hungary had revolutions in March. The currents of human affairs start to speed up in March. So, here is a report.

1. Vatican City.
We are waiting for the election of a new Pope. The previous Pope has resigned and is in seclusion. The College of Cardinals will begin its procedures on March 15, but a formal vote may not take place till later. Ireland's Cardinal is not in attendance, because he was caught in prohibited sexual contact with other men.

2. Rome, Italy.
Formation of a new government is proving difficult.
Pier Louigi Bersani of the Democratic Party is trying to form a coalition government. His platform is to "get out of the austerity cage" and grren industries. Typical Left wing politics in other words, not having learned from the example of Spain. So, whatsa problem? Well, Monti's Party IS committed to austerity, Grillo does not want an Italian government headed by a politician and that leaves the center right. Stalemate.

3. Caracas, Venezuela.
The expected death of Hugo Chavez puts Venezuela in the spotlight. Succession will not be easy and will be contested. Chavez built a communist state with 30 of the 33 Governors being former military officers like Chavez. There is also a militia of 125,000 Chavez loyalists, of whom 30,000 can be considered combat ready troops. Vipe President Maduro is the likely successor, basing his power structure on leftist officers and Venezuela's low information voters, the Indians. Maduro is accusing the opposition to have sabotaged the power grid. Though Venezuela is an oil exporting nation, it has the second highest inflation in the world. As you would expect in a Communist run country, milk, food and toilet paper are in short supply.

4. Back in the USA.
Obama has given orders to make the sequester as painful as possible. He, of course, pretends that it has nothing to do with him.

The biggest bargains out there.

The DOW is close to its high and I have no doubt that it will set that new high before dropping in anticipation of a recession here. The slowdown is best seen in the announced closing of mainline American stores. Sears, Pennys, Best Buys and others are closing nearly a 1,000 stores nationwide because of the dropoff in people's income (which has dropped to a 25 year low). So, the DOW stocks will be no bargains in the near future.

There is one set of stocks that are suffering a bear market: gold and silver miners. Here is the ETF that represents over a dozen of miners:

This is even more evident when XAU is looked at in terms of gold prices:

The XAU/Gold is at its lowest level since XAU was initiated.

Budding Dictatorships.

Social Democracy (Soft Socialism) is imploding in Europe and the United States. The process is slow in Europe, because the Security Apparatus being employed can still handle the situation. But it is getting iffier every day. Many Greeks have been literally thrown into the streets and people are getting desparate. That is why the Greek govt has started recruting foreigners. The Greek Army will not fire on its own citizens, but foreigners will do.

Here in the United States the Obama regime is taking a more indirect(I should say sneakier) approach. The Federal govt has bid for 3.5 Billion hollow point bullets twice. Other things on the Federal shopping lists: 1,800 lightly armored APCs, and drone bases to stage surveillance and attacks against American citizens. How can the FEDs do that? Isn't there a Posse Comitatus Act that forbids the use of American troops against the population? Yes, there was but it had been repealed. And ObamaCare authorizes the hiring of 16,000 new IRS agents. Have you seen Obama replying to questions that "I am not a Dictator?" He is trying to plant the idea with his followers that he should be.

The outlook for Treasuries.

One consequence of low interest rates is low returns on Treasuries. The 10 year Treasury note, for example, yields a 2% return. The CBO predicts that in two years the yield on new Treasuries will rise to 3.1%. Larry Edelson predicts that Treasuries will "crack" in the near future and start losing value. How come?

Allen Sloan of CNNMoney puts it this way: " If you buy a 10-year Treasury today at face value, the interest you receive over its life will total 20% of what you put up: 2% a year for 10 years. But if the yield is 3.2 % two years from now, you would be better off doing nothing for two years, buying the note at well below face value, and collecting 3.2% for 8 years. That would produce 25.6% over 8 years (8 times 3.2), a heckuva lot better than 20% over 10 years.
If the CBO is right and you wait three years to buy the note -- at a steep discount -- you would collect 4.1 % for seven years, or a total of 28.7 % on your money.
Unlike stock prices, which are often ruled by emotion, market prices of Treasury debt securities are ruled strictly by arithmetic. Consult a handy-dandy bond calculator and you'll see that if you pay 100 cents on the dollar for a 10-year, 2% Treasury today, and yields rise to 3.2% in two years, your note would be selling at only 91.65% of face value. In other words, your capital loss would more than offset the interest you had already collected, plus two more years worth. Your choice would be to take the loss all at once by selling, or taking it over time by collecting only 2% while other investors are collecting 3.2%."

And that is why Treasuries will "crack" and soon. That's why the FED can not let go of the interest rate tiger any time soon, at least not untill the economy improves.

There is another problem that arises out of artificially low interest rates: CURRENCY WARS. China is telling us that they are ready. KWN tells us that China has reserves that are equal to twice the value of the gold reserves of the whole world. If China moves, it can drive the price of gold sky high and drive all currencies into the gutter; all currencies that are not covered by gold. We live in interesting times.

Chaos builds in Europe and US.

Chaos in Europe is due to three elements hitting together: 1. fierce cold; 2. continued economic troubles and the Beppe Grillo phenomenon.

Ever since the January thaw was over, Europe has been getting hit with one cold wave after another. The Dutch are getting ready for a 200 kilometer skating marathon on the frozen canals, England has been hit by cold and snow so that their roads are like ice skating rinks and you can get some nice pictures of the Grand Canal in Venice sporting some nice ice flows. At least one hundred people died from the cold. The environmentalist whackoes still drone on about global warming and the necessity of using high-priced energy sources other than oil and gas.

Southern Europe is sliding into even more economic troubles and so is England. Portugal is having big demonstrations against austerity and the people do not understand that they can not solve their problems by having more of what ails them. There is no better example of this than the Beppe Grillo phenomenon:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9904979/Italy-paralysed-as-Grillo-plots-exit-route-from-euro.html

Grillo and his followers understand that Italy's path of more govt spending is not sustainable. They understand that Italy's political class is corrupt. But they offer a mixed bag of tax cuts, "renegotiating" Italy's debt and re-instituting th Lire.

//N.B. Larry predicts that the Euro will disappear along with the EU//
Grillo's followers are young and bets are that they will be co-opted into the Old Left and like in the US, they will simply add to the Nation's woes.

And that takes us back to the US. Here, Obama is busy trying to recreate the Rooseveltian era of economic Depression, putting people on the dole and crushing the opposition via lies parroted by the Media. The entire Liberal Media is jumping on Bob Woodward because he tells the truth about sequestration being Obama's idea and labeling how the budget "cut"is implemented as "madness."

Shepherd's pie, Geezer's style.

Foreword.
Shepherd's pie is a staple of the English pub. It even has the two spices of English cooking; salt and pepper.All kidding aside, Shepherd's pie is a work of genius, because it is simple, good tasting and filling.

Ingredients.
1/2 lb ground beef (called mince in England)
1/2 lb spicy sausage (I use Jimmy Dean's Maple Sausage)
one can (10 3/4 oz) Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
one half onion, chopped
1/2 poblano or other pepper sliced
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one TBSP ketchup
one cup frozen peas+carrots or one cup frozen corn
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2 and 1/2 cups of milk
2 cups instant potato
1/2 cup grated cheddar

Method.
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Saute the beef and sausage.
3. Saute the onion and pepper separately then add to the meat.
4. Add the can of soup, ketchup and frozen veg and stir together.
5. Add this mix to a large pie plate or ceramic dish.
6. Bring the milk to boil and add the potatoes and cheese, mix.
7. Add potatoes on top of meat mix.
8. Bake at 400F tor 15 minutes or untill potatoes are slightly browned.

Disposition.
The Geezerette and I finished one half and put the rest if the refrigerator.
Nuked it for another meal.

Mexican version
No sausage just 1 lb beef. And 1 packet taco seasoning and frozen corn.