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Archives for April 26, 2016

On the 30th Anniversary of #Chernobyl, Here’s What We Are Still Not Being Told

April 26, 2016 by claire bernish

 

Claire Bernish
April 26, 2016

(ANTIMEDIA) On the 30th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear catastrophe yet, a new report shows radioactive contamination from the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl in Ukraine still lingers in startlingly large amounts across the border in neighboring Belarus.

In an exclusive report by the Associated Press, fresh milk from a Belarusian dairy farm contained a radioactive isotope, traceable to the Chernobyl disaster, at “levels 10 times higher than the nation’s food safety limits” — thirty years after the accident occurred.

Though the AP turned to a laboratory to test the milk, dairy farmer Nikolai Chubenok called the results “impossible.”

“There is no danger,” Chubenok asserted to AP journalists at his farm, just 28 miles from the site of the 1986 explosion and meltdown. “How can you be afraid of radiation?”

Though Chubenok and the Belarusian government — itself notoriously authoritarian and intent on denying the dangers still present — might insist on the area’s safety, other reports from doctors and scientists paint the landscape in a vastly different light.

Belarusian milk, though indicative, is inadequate in illustrating the astronomical devastation of the Chernobyl legacy.

In 1996, ten years after the explosions, meltdown, and raging nuclear fires at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimated the disaster had spewed “400 times more radioactive material into the Earth’s atmosphere than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.”

Lichens and mushrooms so thoroughly absorbed this radioactivity, in particular radioactive cesium, that reindeer over 1,000 miles away in Norway — where the meat is eaten — remain unfit for human consumption. Wormwood Forest, near the accident site, stands as an eerie monument of contamination with dead trees turned ginger-colored. Mass evacuations of humans from the areas surrounding Chernobyl naturally led to an explosion in wildlife numbers in species such as boars and wolves. And, as scientists discovered in 2011, birds displayed 5 percent smaller brains than average due to radioactivity lingering in the atmosphere.

Estimating the total number of human casualties resulting from the spectacularly failed foray into nuclear energy has largely been an exercise in futility. Greenpeace estimated ten years ago the total number of cancer cases resulting from Chernobyl would top 250,000 — with around 93,000 of those being fatal. Based on a Belarusian study, Greenpeace surmised 60,000 people had perished in Russia and potentially an additional 140,000 in the Ukraine and Belarus would die directly as a result of Chernobyl radioactive contamination. That study challenged the lowball estimate of 4,000 total deaths proffered by the United Nations in 2005 — a figure eventually abandoned once it realized “unacceptable uncertainties” made quantifying fatalities too tricky.

As Timothy A. Mousseau wrote for U.S. News & World Report, “in the past decade population biologists have made considerable progress in documenting how radioactivity affects plants, animals, and microbes […]

“Our studies provide new fundamental insights about consequences of chronic, multigenerational exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation … The cumulative effects of these injuries result in lower population sizes and reduced biodiversity in high-radiation areas.

“Radiation exposure has caused genetic damage and increased mutation rates in many organisms in the Chernobyl region. So far, we have found little convincing evidence that many organisms there are evolving to become more resistant to radiation.”

In myriad ways, the Chernobyl catastrophe earned the distinction of being a darkly pivotal moment in history — not only did world perception of nuclear power drastically change, but an unsuccessful attempt by government to downplay the extent of the accident is widely believed to have cemented the downfall of the Soviet regime.

Though the devastation at Fukushima often earns comparisons to Chernobyl, the latter still stands dubiously as the worst civic nuclear calamity in history. Thirty years after Chernobyl became a household name, its impacts are still experienced on an eye-opening scale.

Perhaps, when considering both Chernobyl and Fukushima, it’s imperative we ask whether risks of potentially devastating consequences resultant of human error or technical failure could possibly be worth our continued attempts to harness nuclear energy — particularly when advances in solar and wind could make the long-term ‘experiment’ technologically and critically obsolete.


This article (On the 30th Anniversary of Chernobyl, Here’s What We Are Still Not Being Told) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Claire Bernish and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Chernobyl, Environment, News, Science, Technology, World

This Precious Metals Ratio Signals A Big Move Ahead: “We Will Ultimately See Triple Digit #Silver Prices” #gold

April 26, 2016 by mac slavo

silver-rise

Earlier this year, as investors around the world panicked and stock markets crashed across the board, one asset class held strong and actually gained. It was, by all accounts, a capital flow panic out of broader stocks and into precious metals. As a safe haven, precious metals like gold and silver have long been sought by a panicked populace during times of crisis and given the current economic and monetary debacle created by central banks, we can safely forecast a continued rise over coming years for this reason alone.

But according to Keith Neumeyer, there is another key reason for why we could see explosive prices, specifically in silver, because major shortages loom and current valuations for the precious metal are nowhere near where they should be. Given his experience and current position as the CEO of billion-dollar mining company First Majestic Silver and Chairman of mineral bank First Mining Finance, there is no better source for understanding what’s happening in silver markets today and where we can expect them to go in the mid to long-term.

As Neumeyer notes in his latest interview with The Daily Coin, gold is currently selling for about 75 times the price of an ounce of silver, but from a mining and production standpoint, the physical ratio is about 10-to-1. Coupled with growing global supply shortages for this essential metal, that means prices for silver should be trading significantly higher than they are today:

We are currently trading about 75-to-1 thereabouts and the mining ratio is about 10-to-1… so for every ounce of gold we’re mining 10 ounces of silver… so that tells you it’s way rarer than the market understands… I think that as gold goes higher over the next couple years, the ratio is going to collapse on a percentage basis… and that’s why I think we will ultimately see triple-digit silver.

Watch the Full Interview via The Daily Coin:


(Watch At Youtube)

Neumeyer goes on to note that the silver shortage is already becoming apparent in electronics markets, citing a recent discussion with a large electronics company that was having problems acquiring the precious metal for components in their products:

Markets go through periods of time where they’re imperfect, but they do perfect themselves over time. What I mean by that is eventually supply and demand will take over, particularly in the silver space where it’s such a tight market… We have seen in 2015, lower production across the board… and silver is a lot more rare than most people actually think it is…

We were contacted by a a big electronics manufacturing company… a manufacturer of televisions and cell phones looking for silver supply… In the thirteen year history of First Majestic I have never been contacted directly by an electronics manufacturer for supply of silver… so that’s telling me there is something different going on in the market place… 

What’s happening is that mine production slow-downs and global shortages are finally catching up with the market and electronics companies are having difficulty sourcing silver. This has been seen in other sectors as well, including the U.S. Mint and Canadian Royal Mint, both of which were forced to suspend sales of silver coins and bars respectively in 2015 as a result of high demand and lack of supply.

These are key indicators that industries dependent on silver are already running into problems acquiring the supplies needed to continue operations.

And while prices have yet to catch up, the trend is clear, especially considering the recent admission by Deutsche Bank that it has been complicit in the suppression of precious metals prices and that other large financial institutions are in on the scheme.

Given the dire state of the global economy, failing monetary policies from central banks around the world, supply-demand fundamentals, and the fact that price suppression schemes have now been exposed, one can’t help but consider that the current gold-to-silver ratio will, as Neumeyer suggests, collapse to its natural state in the near future.

That can only mean one thing: higher silver prices, and perhaps as the Chairman of First Mining Finance notes, triple digit prices that will see massive capital flows into silver related assets.

To learn more about Keith Neumeyer and what his company First Mining Finance is doing to take advantage of the coming boom in silver click here.

For more informative financial interviews like the one you just watched visit The Daily Coin. 

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: gold, Precious Metals, silver

Did #GoldmanSachs’ Latest Move Into Main Street #Banking Just Give Us A Warning About The Coming Financial Crisis?

April 26, 2016 by mac slavo

goldman-lloyd-blankfein2

goldman-lloyd-blankfein(Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has claimed his company is “Doing God’s Work.”)

If there were ever a signal that large investment banks may be preparing for financial crisis and that they’ll be using your money to bail themselves out when it hits, this could be it.

According to a new report from the Financial Times via The Daily Star, mega-banking giant Goldman Sachs is now getting into the retail banking business and looking for more depositors to help fund their operations. The bank has reportedly “been under pressure to develop new streams of funding” after posting lower than usual equity returns in the first quarter of 2016. In response, Goldman recently acquired a portfolio of 145,000 retail depositors from GE Capital totaling some $16 billion in deposits.

Goldman now intends to aggressively pursue retail depositors whose accounts they will then tap to help fund their investing and trading operations:

The bank last week launched GSBank.com, a platform it inherited via the acquisition of a $16bn book of deposits from GE Capital.

Through that deal it gained about 145,000 retail depositors and is now seeking more, offering annual interest rates of 1.05 per cent on a savings account – many times better than the rates of the biggest US brick-and-mortar lenders such as Citibank, JPMorgan Chase or Bank of America. Stephen Scherr, Goldman’s chief strategy officer, said the aim was to broaden sources of funding for GS Bank, its New York State-chartered lender. Until now, the unit has focused on wholesale funding sources and so-called “brokered deposits”, which are bulk sums that banks acquire from brokers in exchange for high interest rates.

By tapping regular retail depositors, Mr Scherr said, the bank can open up “a different avenue to use, with a different orientation and a different tenor”.

For as little as $1 you can now start your own savings account with Goldman at a whopping annual interest rate of 1.05%.

What could possibly go wrong when you deposit your money with one of the firms directly responsible for the fraud that led to Crash of 2008? They are, after all, doing God’s work according to Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

While depositing your money at Goldman’s new bank could well be a spiritual experience, we highlight for our readers the fact that Goldman is doing this for one specific reason: to fund their trading operations with new deposits from retail customers. And if they’re doing business anything like they did ahead of the 2008 crash, we can assume that when the whole thing blows up again Goldman is going to be in serious trouble, and that means depositors will be in serious trouble. Back in 2008 Goldman Sachs was “forced” to take a $10 billion TARP bailout from the Federal government.

According to Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, the next time such a crisis strikes, there will be bailouts, but not like before. This time, those bailouts, dubbed “bail-ins” will not come from the government, but rather, from you, the bank account holder.

Recent comments delivered by Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer suggest that not only are global and domestic economies still struggling, but the U.S. government itself is preparing financial contingency plans in anticipation of another widespread economic event.

However, this time around, according to Fischer, the government won’t be bailing out financial institutions in need of cash. Instead, failing banks will turn directly to their unsecured creditors when they need money. And within this context, that means you:

As part of this approach, the United States is preparing a proposal to require systemically important banks to issue bail-inable long-term debt that will enable insolvent banks to recapitalize themselves in resolution without calling on government funding–this cushion is known as a “gone concern” buffer.

Though Fischer doesn’t detail exactly what “bail-inable long term debt” actually is, one only needs to look to Europe, namely Cyprus, to understand what he means.

When the Cypriot banking system collapsed because of an inability to service its debt in 2013, the government forced bank depositors to cover the debts. This led to banks forcibly seizing funds from depositor accounts in order to pay their debts.

Goldman Sachs needs more money for their Wall Street gambling houses.

They’re coming to you to get it.

And when the whole thing detonates, they’ll simply seize your funds to compensate for their losses… and every other retail bank in America will do the same.

Just so we’re clear, we are all bank creditors by these definitions, thus the regulations being created apply not to just large bond holders, but every individual depositor.

Notice how they didn’t say “in case future bank rescues are necessary.” That’s because they know what’s coming.

…When the next banking crisis hits the United States you can be assured that creditors (i.e. individual depositors) will be forced to ‘bail them in.’

…So, if you’ve got any significant amount of money at financial institutions, you’d better think twice about how safe it is.

You’ve been warned.

 

Hattip Durango Kid

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: banking, crisis, goldman sachs, main street

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