@Hisah. The decline of Rome began from the rule of Septimius Severus (145 – 211), also known as Severus, was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211 to Aurelian (214 or 215 – 275), was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. Aurelian tried to reform Rome back to the glory days of Marcus Aurelius who was a Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. The decline took a period of 77 years. After Aurelian, the next reformer was Diocletian (245 - 316) who was Roman emperor from 284 to 305. The Roman Empire would fall in 476 AD.

Western civilisation is following the Roman decline and fall. The politicians will not reform and will ratchet up their chase for private assets to pay the bankers.

"As early as the time of Cicero and Varro, it was the opinion of the Roman augurs, that the twelve vultures which Romulus had seen, represented the twelve centuries, assigned for the fatal period of his city. ^75 This
prophecy, disregarded perhaps in the season of health and prosperity, inspired the people with gloomy apprehensions, when the twelfth century, clouded with disgrace and misfortune, was almost elapsed; ^76 and even posterity must acknowledge with some surprise, that the arbitrary interpretation of an accidental or fabulous circumstance has been seriously verified in the downfall of the Western empire. But its fall was announced by a clearer omen than the flight of vultures: the Roman government appeared every day less
formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects. ^77 The taxes were multiplied with the public distress; economy was neglected in proportion as it became necessary; and the injustice of the rich shifted the unequal burden from themselves to the people, whom they defrauded of the indulgences that might sometimes have alleviated their misery. The severe inquisition which confiscated their goods, and tortured their persons, compelled the subjects of Valentinian to prefer the more simple tyranny of the Barbarians, to fly to the woods and mountains, or to embrace the vile and abject condition of mercenary servants. They abjured and abhorred the name of Roman citizens, which had formerly excited the ambition of mankind. The Armorican provinces of Gaul, and the greatest part of Spain, were-thrown into a state of disorderly independence, by the confederations of the Bagaudae; and the Imperial ministers pursued with proscriptive laws, and ineffectual arms, the rebels whom they had made. ^78 If all the Barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honor." The Decline and Fall of Rome, Book 3, pg 217

Capital controls are coming to a US/European bank near you. Cyprus was a test case that opened the Pandora's Box to bail-ins. Bureaucrats were high-fiving because there were no street demonstrations.

"In an apparent effort to front-run official government capital controls, JP Morgan Chase has issued letters to all its business account holders notifying them that as of November, 17 the bank will limit all cash transactions (including deposits, withdrawals, and ATM usage) to $50,000 per month, and will prohibit all outgoing international bank wires. JP Morgan Chase later disclaimed, however, that the news that the bank is exerting new capital controls on certain bank accounts are an overreaction to a "streamlining" and "derisking" process.

Chase Bank has moved to limit cash withdrawals while banning business customers from sending international wire transfers causing speculation that the bank is preparing for a looming financial crisis in the United States by imposing capital controls.Bank officials confirmed Wednesday that the new capital limits apply to all business account holders, the bank will stop processing any outgoing international bank wire, and that any monthly cash transactions in excess of the new $50,000 limit will be subject to penalties and fees..."

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com...ank-officials-say-0524/

@Pedes. Here is where up is down and right is left, so to speak. The new bail-in concept has favoured equity investing as one of the ways to guarantee RETURN OF CAPITAL. To protect one's wealth, an investor should seek to take delivery of share certificates. This has perhaps been one of the engines behind equity markets appreciating in major Western nations. Thy call it the "Great Rotation".

"The nation’s largest manager of money market mutual funds said Wednesday that it no longer holds any U.S. government debt that comes due around the time the nation could hit its borrowing limit.

Portfolio managers at Fidelity Investments have been selling off their government debt holdings over the last couple of weeks, said Nancy Prior, president of Fidelity’s Money Market Group. While Fidelity expects the debt ceiling issue to be resolved, the Boston-based asset manager said it is taking steps to protect investors..."

Read more:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101075950


The NSE is too small in the greater scheme of things to matter. Markets to watch are the DOW, FTSE, DAX, Hang Seng and NIKKEI. The NSE can fall under the basket of emerging markets which have been underperforming for several quarters now. Watch the 5000 point level.

The Euro bond market is another kettle of fish. As Europe falls into dis-repair, coupled with capital leaving emerging markets, the dollar may stage a remarkable safe haven rally akin to post-1931 Sovereign Debt Crisis. Such a move would endanger the growing Euro Bond market.

http://www.scribd.com/do...-the-Rise-of-the-Dollar

Zimbabwe sues EU over ‘sanctions losses’ - http://www.bdlive.co.za/...u-over-sanctions-losses

"One of Silicon Valley’s most respected technology experts, Steve Blank, says he would be “surprised” if the US National Security Agency was not embedding “back doors” inside chips produced by Intel and AMD, two of the world’s largest semiconductor firms, giving them the possibility to access and control machines.

The claims come after The ­Australian Financial Review revealed that computers made by Chinese firm Lenovo are banned from the “secret” and “top secret” ­networks of the intelligence and defence services of Australia, the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand because of concerns they are vulnerable to being hacked..."

Read more:

http://www.afr.com/p/tec..._ymrhS1HS1633gCWKt5tFtI



The aforementioned back door is known as Remote Repair on the 4th Generation Intel® Core™ vPro™ Processor Family.

"Using integrated platform capabilities and popular third-party management and security applications, Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) allows IT or managed service providers to better discover, repair, and protect their networked computing assets. Intel AMT enables IT or managed service providers to manage and repair not only their PC assets, but workstations and entry servers as well, utilizing the same infrastructure and tools across platforms for management consistency. For embedded developers, this means that devices can be diagnosed and repaired remotely, ultimately lowering IT support costs. Intel AMT is a feature of Intel® Core™ processors with Intel® vPro™ technology1,2 and workstation platforms based on select Intel® Xeon® processors."

Read more:

http://www.intel.com/con...agement-technology.html

^If wishes were horses, Zim winning this case ASAP would resolve the USD11B debt overhang owed mostly to the Euro-bankers, overturning the "who owes who" status quo. (since 2003)

Since that will take time, Zim is on the IMF SMP (Staff Monitored Program) ending Dec 2013. Thereafter, expected to see the overhang resolved and fresh multilateral funding unlocked.

Meanwhile...THE top leadership of the Antwerp World Diamond Council arrived in Harare yesterday to map out modalities for the trade of gems from Chiadzwa on the international scene, following the lifting of sanctions on the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation and its subsidiaries. http://www.herald.co.zw/...bosses-jet-in-for-trade/

Venezuela creates Ministry of Happiness - http://zeenews.india.com...s-president_886166.html

Indeed the need it with the serious inflation they're facing...

Interesting, a while back they were opposed to the idea because of the Euro problem

Still very skeptical about this thing sana. Smh...

How does this bitcoin thing work? Who is the issuer? Who will control is supply? Is it immune to inflationary pressures?
It presents more questions than answers to me.