Economy

Yemen In ‘Clear And Present Danger’ Of Massive Famine After Years Of Violence (Thomas R.)

Based on new surveys and analysis, his office said as many as 14 million people — or about half the whole country’s population — could soon be “entirely reliant on external aid for survival.” And with violence still raging in the key port city of Hodeidah, where Saudi-backed Yemeni forces launched an offensive on Houthi rebels earlier this year, the international aid operation risks disruption in its own right.

Pipe bombs target Democrats, CNN as political tensions mount (TS)

The attacks overtook other news in an already-tense political season that could reshape Congress and serve as a referendum on the first two years of Trump’s presidency. The actions, which caused panicked building evacuations and reports of additional explosives that later proved unfounded, are bound to add to fears that overheated rhetoric could lead to deadly violence as the parties engage in bitter fights over immigration, the Supreme Court and the treatment of women.

Stuck In The Twentieth Century (yogmonster)

My views are very “Twentieth Century.” I am taking the liberty to include the first decade of the Twenty First Century in that statement. That’s one of the nice things about writing my own newsletter. I get to “take liberties.” I have never abandoned my Twentieth Century views on gold, silver, inflation, debt and money creation. I don’t care what the price of gold is or where the Dow is, as the longest bull market in stocks on record comes to an end, my Twentieth Century views will serve me well.

New-home sales plunge to a near two-year low as housing picture deteriorates (Thomas R.)

The government’s reports on residential construction are based on small samples and often revised heavily, making it unwise to rely on data from any single month for the big picture. But the story so far in 2018 has been one of continuing deterioration. For the year to date, sales are just 3.5% higher than in the same period last year, a measurement that’s been falling steadily throughout the year.

Wikipedia – a tool of the ruling elite (Paul D.)

On the latest episode of On Contact, investigative journalist Helen Buyniski exposes Jimmy Wales’ egalitarian Wikipedia as yet another tool of the ruling elite.

Why Economists Can’t Understand Complex Systems (Paul D.)

Nordhaus’ approach to climate change mitigation highlights a general problem with how economists tend to tackle complex systems: their training makes them tend to see changes as smooth and gradual. But real-world systems, normally, do what they damn please, including crashing down in what we call the Seneca Effect.

Americans teens love shopping on one website way more than anywhere else (Thomas R.)

Amazon is particularly dominant among upper-income teenage boys, 53% of whom picked Amazon as their online shopping destination of choice. That was down by two percentage points from the same time last year. Thirty-eight percent of upper-income teenage girls picked Amazon as their preferred website, up from 33% in 2017.

Yahoo agrees to pay $50 million to data breach victims (Thomas R.)

The $50 million fund will compensate affected account holders $25 for every hour spent dealing with the fallout from the breach. Those with documented losses can claim up to $375, while those without records of their losses can ask for up to $125. Account holders that paid for a premium email account will also be eligible for a 25 percent refund. The company will also have to pay for at least two years of credit monitoring services for some 200 million users who had personal information stolen.

Ford Motor Company Profit Slips 37% on China Woes (Thomas R.)

The good news is that those products are coming and the restructuring work has begun, though it’s too early to say when those efforts will show results on the bottom line. In the meantime, other parts of Ford’s business continued to do well: North America, Ford Credit, and Asia Pacific (outside China) all posted solid results.

About 800,000 pounds of ready-to-eat products were just pulled from Trader Joe’s and Harris Teeter (Thomas R.)

Why?: The USDA says the meat was recalled due to contamination of salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes.

Bigger picture: Bakkavor Foods discovered the hazard on Oct. 16 when supplier McCain Foods USA recalled onions because of contamination concerns, Fortune reports.

The Great Biofuel Swindle (Michael S.)

Biofuel has often been touted as the clean energy solution that will change the world, but it turns out, it may have just been hot air, and it’s looking like the biofuel bubble may be bursting

Oil market trusts Saudi Arabia for now to temper impact of Iran sanctions (Thomas R.)

The Iranian sanctions are expected to remove about 1 million barrels a day from the global market by the end of the year, and some analysts had expected the price of crude to move higher ahead of the Nov. 5 sanctions. That was even before Saudi Arabia became a wild card, with lingering questions about whether its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had any role in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Remote Hawaiian Island Wiped Off The Map (Sparky1, Thomas R.)

East Island was destroyed by storm surge from Hurricane Walaka, which roared through the northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a powerful Category 3 storm this month. Seven researchers, including three studying green sea turtles on East Island, were forced to evacuate from French Frigate Shoals before the storm.

Study finds availability of nitrogen to plants is declining as climate warms (Paul D.)

Researchers studied a database of leaf chemistry of hundreds of species that had been collected from around the world from 1980-2017 and found a global trend in decreasing nitrogen availability. They found that most terrestrial ecosystems, such as forests and land that has not been treated with fertilizers, are becoming more oligotrophic, meaning too little nutrients are available.

Dozens more breakfast foods test positive for trace amounts of weed killer, report says (Thomas R.)

The environmental group says its lower threshold includes an added buffer for children, as “exposure during early life can have more significant effects on development later in life,” according to Dr. Alexis Temkin, the lead scientist on EWG report.

Gold & Silver

Click to read the PM Daily Market Commentary: 10/24/18

Provided daily by the Peak Prosperity Gold & Silver Group

Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to [email protected]. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the "3 Es."