Dow plunges 3,000 points in biggest single-day drop

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is displayed after closing bell on floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ©  REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Source: RT News

The Dow Jones plummeted nearly 3,000 points (2,997.1, to be exact) at the close of trading on Monday, finishing down 12.93 percent as markets continued to slide despite tripping a circuit-breaker minutes after opening.

The S&P 500 sank by a whopping 12 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 13 percent. The Dow has dropped over 30 percent since opening at a high on February 12. This latest Dow drop is the worst since the infamous Black Monday crash in 1987.

While the Federal Reserve has cut rates toward zero in an effort to boost the economy, the continuing closure of schools, restaurants, bars, movie theaters, etc. across the country is affecting the market dramatically, and with no end in sight to the coronavirus panic, it’s an unsure market for investors.

Confidence in the markets was not helped by a Monday afternoon press conference in which President Donald Trump said the federal government could be responding to the coronavirus until “July or August,” possibly longer.

Precious metals have also been sent into free fall, with gold dropping by 1.3 percent to just over $1,500 an ounce. Silver, platinum, and palladium have seen even steeper declines, each falling by over 12 percent on Monday.

Brent and WTI crude tumbled by 9 and 11.3 percent respectively, taking a toll on petrol giants including Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and Suncor Energy, each of which saw more than a 15-percent decline in stock price. Apache was among the worst affected, down by over 30 percent.

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France 2017 - Marcon vs Le Pen and a Warning

By: Stewart Brennan

The stage is set for a showdown in France between the European Union, French deep state candidate “Emmanuel Macron” and ultra nationalist candidate “Marine Le Pen”…

Here are my thoughts on the French election:

The Euro dictatorship in Brussels has their deep state candidate running in the French Elections, Mr. Emmanuel Macron -“ni” or “nyet”?

The question is, “What do French citizens want?” Do they want to lose their cultural identity, their social programs and social reforms through EU dictates and austerity or do they want to save their cultural identity and their way of life by returning to a national state of economics?

All the chips are in the pot at this poker game and it looks like Macron’s pair of Queens bluff will be called by Le Pens and her Full House…

Warning!

If Macron wins this high stakes poker game, France will be history… the people of France will lose everything they've gained socially and go down the path of an EU bankruptcy…a bankruptcy filled with austerity that will continue to rip France apart and bleed jobs away from the country the way they did to Greece…and of course, we must not forget that the EU also has a belligerent US economic foreign policy driving it. The USA does NOT like Socialist countries and is doing its best to destroy every single one of them…that is one of the reasons why the EU was created in the first place…to end European Socialism.

“One Bank to rule them all, one Bank to fine them, One Bank to in-debt them all and in austerity bind them…”

The US foreign and economic policy is against socialism of any kind because it is practiced by nations that have their economic independence; nations that don’t like being told what to do…and we all know how the USA responds to nations that seek their economic independence…

France and all other European nations have been held hostage to an unelected executive EU governance which has held them in an iron grip of economic obedience…is it any wonder why we are hearing the sounds of revolt and revolution reverberating across Europe…Le Pen has the Eurocrats freaking out because if she wins, the dictatorship of the European Union will be over and so the European, US and French Deep State are going to do everything they can to stop Le Pen from winning…

The French and European Deep State are warning of an economic catastrophe if Marine Le Pen wins the French election in May 2017…yet in reality, no matter who is elected, the economy is going to crash anyways. But if France wants to save itself, then they should circle the national wagons and protect their culture and way of life.

France needs to drop out of the Euro to regain its national sovereignty if they are going to survive down the road when the European Union crashes under deeper austerity measures through the American economic de-socialism agenda.

In fact, I would warn the people of France that if they vote for Macron, they will lose their nation to wealthy speculators in a privatization blitz that will leave the people of France impoverished without their social and health programs, which of course will be whittled away under Euro austerity and deep budget cuts due to having to “Borrow” its budget money with interest to provide the goods and services the country needs.

Macron is all for de-nationalizing industry and selling it to special interests, which is one of the ways in which a country is taken apart economically…that is what Macron has done in the past and will do in the future if he is elected. In reality, Emmanuel Macron is anti-national and anti-France…

The people of France have to realize that no matter what candidate they choose, the economic picture is going to be very bad…however, it would be in the French peoples best interests to not go down with the European ship and instead regain their national identity…get out from under the EU before France is crushed by a crippling debt and austerity…Protect yourselves with your own national central bank and monetary system…a monetary system owned by the French people…money that would not be borrowed for budget expenditures but created by the government OF the French People and spent into existence without debt or interest…regain your Industries and make your own trades…don’t let the USA / EU dictate who you can trade with…the election is in 2 weeks, so you can either choose the status quo candidate and Eurocrat “Macron” and fade away into a global soup of anti-culture, debt and austerity OR choose the nationalist candidate “Le Pen” and retain your historical, political and economic identity…the Future is yours to decide…What have you got to lose? Everything…

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CrossTalk - Le Pen vs Macron



Video Source: RT

Italy may abandon euro if debt not renegotiated - Beppe Grillo

 

Beppe Grillo (Reuters / Giorgio Perottino)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/grillo-italy-euro-abandon-731/

The economic crisis may see Italy abandoning euro and returning to lira, says comedian-turned-politician, Beppe Grillo, who’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement became a major power in the country’s politics after the last week’s general election.

In his interview with German Focus magazine, Grillo urged for the renegotiation of Italy’s €2-trillion debt, which is the second highest in the euro zone after Greece, at 127 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

“Right now we are being crushed, not by the euro, but by our debt. When the interest payments reach €100 billion a year, we’re dead. There’s no alternative,” the 64-year-old said.

According to the Five Star Movement leader’s forecast, the Italian political system has "only six months" left before it collapses and the state will no longer be able "to pay pensions and public sector salaries".

If there’ll be no changes to the debt obligations, Grillo believes, the option for his country would be to leave the euro and return to it's former national currency, the lira.

"If I've bought shares in a company that goes bankrupt, then that's my bad luck. I took a risk, and lost," he explained, drawing a comparison with the private market. “If the conditions remain the same, Italy would leave the euro and return to the lira.”

The Five Star Movement has attracted the sympathy of nearly a quarter of the many austerity-weary voters to win 109 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 54 seats in the Senate in the general election on February 24-25. This has created a political deadlock.

Neither Pier Luigi Bersani‘s center-Left Democratic Party nor the center-Right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi currently have sufficient majority in in both chambers to form a government. The conditions of the parliament’s newcomers is unacceptable to the established parties preventing the formation of a coalition government.

"If Bersani's PD and Berlusconi's PDL suggest an immediate change in the electoral law, cancellation of election expenses reimbursement, and a maximum of two terms for any deputy – we would of course support such a government immediately," Grillo said."But they won't do that. They are just bluffing to win time."

"If we get into parliament we would bring the old system down, not because we would enjoy doing so but because the system is rotten," he added.

The Five Star Movement has everything it takes to become a huge headache for the European leaders, who have urged Italy to stay on the economic course laid out by Mario Monti ‘s outgoing government.

"Italy, as a major European economy, has a great responsibility,” Philipp Roesler, Germany's Economy Minister, was quoted in the same edition of Focus. “There is no alternative to the policy of structural reforms... I'm confident that those responsible in Italy recognize the importance of stability.”

Beppe Grillo was a popular comedian on Italian television in 80s, but he disappeared from the screen in the 90s, with many suggesting that his harsh satire was too much to handle for Italian politicians.

After that he mainly performed in theatres and staged a series of mass rallies, including the 2007 V-Day celebrations, which gathered around 2 million people, protesting against the criminal activities of the Italian political elite.

The Five Star Movement was started by Grillo in 2010 and has made a splash at local elections, receiving the third highest number of votes overall and winning the mayoral election for Parma before the latest success in the general election.

For the Italian government to be able to pass legislation, it must have a majority both in the Chamber, and the Senate, and to achieve this majority coalitions are often formed.