February 13, 2014
- A terror-free Olympics, thanks to a cutting-edge technology that’s highly investable
- Retail looks grim, stocks look glum: Why a pullback now is just the ticket, says Elmerraji
- The mainstream finally catches on to China’s gold grab
- In pursuit of fusion power: Byron King bore witness, months before it became headline news
- “We need your ID to break a $20″… the real secret to successful money laundering (if you have the billions)… the return of Agora Financial “loyalty rewards”… and more!
“We’ve felt very secure, very safe,” says Noelle Pikus-Pace — an American skeleton racer and one of 3,500 athletes gathered at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. She even brought her two young children.
That’s despite two suicide bombings in Volgograd, about 600 miles away, less than two months ago. And despite the fact the security in Sochi is oddly low-key.
In previous Olympics, firearms were readily visible. Months after Sept. 11, National Guardsmen in camo were a constant presence at the 2002 Salt Lake City games.
Now? “There is barely a Kalashnikov in sight,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “Russian security services have taken significant measures to make the operation seem warm and fuzzy, a rarity in a place where police often come across as intimidating.”
Security in and around Olympic Park is decked out in purple gear with the Sochi 2014 logo and traditional Russian patterns.
Olympic security: These guys could pass for Baltimore Ravens fans on game day…
Beyond Olympic Park, however, lies a “ring of steel” — as the organizers themselves describe it. “Along the roads, railways and even airport runways around Sochi stand police sentries, sometimes just a few hundred feet apart,” the Journal says.
As usual, the establishment media are missing a crucial part of the story. The ring of steel isn’t the only reason security inside Olympic Park can afford to look so nonchalant.
“Some of the world’s most high-tech anti-terror gadgets are going in with the troops,” says our military-tech expert Byron King.
“Over six months ago, a highly placed member of the Russian government contacted a global military contractor called the Artec Group. This company holds a small affiliate named Artec ID, a provider of cutting-edge biometric scanning equipment programmed with the latest identification software and database.”
President Putin made sure this technology was installed at the Sochi airport. “The new system comprises at least 550 high-definition cameras,” says Byron, “all pushing terabytes of biometric data into a central computer located in a command center staffed around-the-clock. The computers in the system can identify passersby at a glance, using software that instantly scans your face and compares it with a global database. That, and it looks for suspicious body language and then immediately alerts security personnel of potential threats.”
“Biometric” also goes by a name you might be more familiar with — facial recognition technology (FRT).
“It’s a system of cameras and other sensors,” Byron explains, “that feed precise data about a person’s physical characteristics — facial structure and, in more advanced systems, height, build, maybe even heart rate and body temperature — into a computer, which then cross-references those characteristics with known descriptions of criminals.
“Or in some cases, like in Sochi, those of known and suspected terrorists and their associates.
“It’s said the Russian system can make a positive identification in under one second, even if a person is in motion or obscuring his face with, say, sunglasses or a hat. Designers even claim it can distinguish identical twins. Russia is not going to let a terror suspect get through if they can help it.”
Sorry, there’s no way for Westerners to readily invest in Artec ID. But Byron has dug up a similar player traded on the Nasdaq, with the potential for a 103% gain. “Facial recognition technology, a product of military design, is becoming a staple in the civilian world too. There’s a lot of upside to go.” Indeed, the one he’s spotted has been commissioned by the authorities in Saudi Arabia to put a system in place for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
“I have to confess that this is very much ‘Big Brother,’ in my view,” Byron concedes.
“I’m not entirely comfortable with somebody somewhere having the ability to know when I turn every corner. Still, this is a trend that’s happening because modern society is in a battle against terrorism across the world, wherever it raises its ugly head. Societies everywhere are defaulting toward the so-called ‘security state.’ But at least you can invest in it and make some money until the world starts regaining its sanity.”
That’s the rationale behind Byron’s Military Tech Alert service. Launched less than a year ago, the average play is up 22%. And that number could explode if the event Byron foresees at the end of March comes to pass. Check out his mind-blowing forecast right here.
Stocks are stumbling this morning on news that Crystal Pepsi is coming back and ’90s nostalgia is the next big thing.
Markets do what they’ll do, and the media will forever search for handy explanations, whether they’re plausible or not. The one they’ve settled on this morning is a duo of mediocre economic numbers…
- First-time unemployment claims: Up last week to 339,000 — more than the “expert consensus” was counting on. But the four-week average, a less-noisy number, has hardly budged. Snooze. No, the real scare in the data this morning comes from…
- Retail sales: Down 0.4% in January — and that’s after the usual “seasonal adjustments” to account for the holidays. Worse, the December number was revised down and now shows a year-over-year drop.
OK, some of that is flagging auto sales; inventories are now at their highest since August 2009. (Can’t wait for the sequel to the feds’ “cash for clunkers” program!) But even if you take autos out of the equation, it’s becoming evident the mighty American consumer is losing steam.
Whatever the catalyst, the S&P is down marginally as we write, to 1,816.
And that’s just fine with STORM Signals editor Jonas Elmerraji.
Recall last week Jonas said Wednesday, Feb. 5, was the most important trading session of the year so far — even though the S&P closed up only 0.2%. Jonas said that small move nonetheless signaled an important reversal, and was he ever right: In the following five trading days, the index leaped nearly 60 points.
“After a full week of nonstop buying,” Jonas told his readers after the close yesterday, “I want to see some semblance of a correction in the next few sessions so we can make sure this move holds.”
So far, so good.
Oh, almost forgot — Jonas urged his readers last Friday to pick up some call options on SPY, the big S&P 500 ETF. At last check, they’re up 31%. To take advantage of Jonas’ prescient calls in your own portfolio, look here.
Gold is creeping ever closer to $1,300. At last check, the bid was $1,297.
Yowza… Even the Financial Times has begun speculating China’s central bank is loading up on gold.
“A 500-tonne gap in China’s gold consumption data is fueling talk that the central bank took advantage of weak prices last year to bulk up its holdings of the precious metal,” reports the salmon-colored rag.
The article then rehashes what you already know if you’ve been with us for very long: The last time the People’s Bank of China disclosed its gold holdings was April 2009. No further disclosure has come since.
“But the latest official figures show that China imported and produced far more gold in 2013 than its citizens bought,” the article goes on. Demand totaled 1,176 tonnes last year, according to the China Gold Association. But imports totaled 1,158 tonnes and domestic production totaled 428 tonnes. Figure another 100 tonnes of imports via Shanghai that the Chinese don’t disclose, and there’s your 500-tonne gap.
“In that context, the government buying 500 tonnes of gold last year is quite feasible,” says Tom Kendall of Credit Suisse. “Some people think it’s significantly higher than that.”
Many experts — including Currency Wars author Jim Rickards — suggest the Chinese central bank might do a “big reveal” soon and disclose a new total of gold holdings. Then again, any such announcement would drive up the gold price, and it’s already been rising of late…
The future of cheap and forever-abundant energy is… well, a baby step closer now.
“In experiments done at a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory last fall and published in a scientific journal Wednesday, researchers blasted the world’s most powerful laser at a target the size of a small pea,” says today’s Wall Street Journal. “It triggered a fusion reaction that unleashed a vast amount of energy — for a fraction of a second.”
Says physicist Omar Hurricane at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: “For the first time anywhere, we’ve gotten more energy out of the fuel than what was put into the fuel.”
Says our own Byron King: “It’ll be many years before this kind of energy source powers your can opener or pencil sharpener… but this is what basic ‘big research’ is all about.”
We didn’t mean to turn today’s episode of The 5 into The Byron King Show… but we’re compelled to point out he’s one of the few “outsiders” to see this research in action himself at Livermore last summer… and he delivered his readers a firsthand account.
“I discussed the goal of achieving ‘ignition’ — meaning generating more energy than what goes in in the first place. And now we have net-positive energy output from compressing deuterium-tritium.
“It’s a significant experimental step on the way to Star Trek kinds of power.”
In pursuit of “ignition” [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory photo]
Investable? Not yet. But stay tuned; it’s why we have Byron on the payroll…
“Just wanted to comment on the cash business,” a reader writes, carrying on a now days-long thread on bank privacy.
“I recently took some $20s out of an ATM and immediately went into the branch to have it broken down into $5s and $10s to be able to make change. I don’t have an account at this bank. The teller took my cash, recorded my driver’s license number and put the five $20s in a plastic envelope, held separately from the rest of the cash in her drawer.
“I told her the cash was from their own ATM and had just been withdrawn. Bank policy, she told me.
“Governments are working hard to convince us all that any cash transaction is suspect and should be avoided.
“Yeah, precious metals and Bitcoin!”
“It is a profitable business being the world’s biggest money laundry,” chimes in a reader from across the pond.
“American regulators fry the occasional pair of feet, but they don’t really touch the city of London. So do feel free to bring your smalls here and give them a flush through with Old Father Thames:
1. Give up your USA passport.
2. We sell British passports to the loaded who are investing about $1.5 million here, or who marry a Brit.
3. Then you can live somewhere else. Your Latin American bolt-holes or some warmer and cheaper EU countries.
4. Earn as much as you like outside Britain. HMRC (our IRS) will ask you if you want to declare less, which they will check, or pay a flat fee of 30,000 pounds (about $47,000) per annum.
5. Once you pay that flat tax, you are covered — no more questions asked.
6. Because there are no more questions asked, your family or friends who trust you can hand over their cash for cleaning, which you bring in and bank. HMRC are not asking, so they do not know, or want to know, whose cash it really is.
7. Having cleaned up the cash, you can remove it from U.K. banks reporting (including to Uncle Sam) by moving it ostensibly to the British Virgin Islands, Marshall Islands, Bahamas, Jersey, Isle of Man, etc., whose banks are not really there. They are all brass plates on an attorney’s office wall whose banking is entirely run from London.
8. But because of their banking secrecy laws, they won’t admit that.
“Neat, huh?”
“I have been getting The 5 for a while now,” writes our final contributor.
[Uh-oh. After the “get rich quick schemes” emails the last few days…]
“I’ve enjoyed watching it grow in multiple directions, which includes a form of entertainment now! What does disturb me, though, not just on your site, but on MANY sites, is the evolution of its readers.
[Oh, this might be an unexpected turn…]
“While information flows to the people, we have TOO many, like the one threatening to leave The 5 because it isn’t giving them what they want, who just can’t make a simple decision. People who think their intelligence is superior and want their opinion known by others haven’t figured out where the DELETE button is yet!!!! GGGEEEEZZZZ.
“Reminds me of early school years when someone would say, ‘If you play with Sally, I won’t play with you.’ Grow up, people, and move on. If you don’t like what you read here, just hit delete. You waste my time and perhaps others because you honestly think we care how you personally interpret each and every article… (feel free to hit delete now).
“Keep up the good work, 5.”
The 5: Aw, you made our day!
Cheers,
Dave Gonigam
The 5 Min. Forecast
P.S. Depending on your tolerance for our “get rich quick schemes,” you might want to know we’ve reopened our loyalty rewards program for the next five days.
It’s very straightforward. If you subscribe to any one of these 10 publications…
…our customer care director is ready to cut you a check for $2,005. To learn how to claim this check and a long list of other benefits I can only hint at here, please follow this link.