Posts Tagged Oil
Be Careful What QE You Wish For #2467: Gas Prices Surging Again
Posted by TheRedPillGuide in Economy, Finance, News on August 8, 2012
via: ZeroHedge
by: Tyler Durden
August 8, 2012
After a drop of more than 20% from late April to mid June in wholesale gasoline prices which was heralded as the great savior of a slowing global economy – all those implicit tax cuts… the hopes and dreams of the next great unsterilized money-printing has not only floated equity asset valuations to near multi-year highs but energy prices across Europe and the US are soaring once again. This ‘transitory’ 25% surge in wholesale gasoline prices in the US in the last two months - now back above $3/gallon implies (given the lag in transmission) that retail gas prices (which historically peak around July 4th) are set to rise notably above last year’s summer peak - back up near record highs and eating into that ever so happy to spend consumer’s pocketbook once again. Meanwhile, Europeans are seeing near-record highs in retail gas prices once again andBrent priced in EUR (which remember is what they ‘care’ about) is now back above 2008 highs and within a few euros of all-time record highs – up almost 30% since Mid-June. Deflationary? Recessionary?
US Crude, Wholesale Gasoline, and Retail Gas Prices are charging higher…
This Is Why Gold & Oil May Explode Higher In August
Posted by TheRedPillGuide in Economy, Finance, News, Silver & Gold on August 7, 2012
via: KingWorldNews
August 7, 2012
Today acclaimed commodity trader Dan Norcini told KWN, “One spark for gold may be at some point in August we begin to have rumors about what is going to happen at the Jackson Hole meeting. The first round of QE was announced during that Jackson Hole Summit in late 2008. So the upcoming meeting may wind up being very significant when it comes to which direction central planners are going to take.”
Dan Norcini continues:
“You may very well get a lift in gold based on the type of monetary response that may come out of Jackson Hole. The other situation which could escalate and have a huge impact in the key markets, particularly crude oil and gold, is the disintegration that is taking place in Syria.
If the war begins to engulf a broader scope of the Middle-East, bringing Israel and Iran into conflict, that powder keg could create an explosion higher in the price of both crude oil and gold….
Did You Have ANY Idea this Happens at Fast Food Restaurants You Eat At?
Posted by TheRedPillGuide in GMOs, Health, News, Whistleblowers on July 25, 2012
via: Mercola
by: Dr. Mercola
July 25, 2012
Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes at fast food restaurants? Fast-food insiders (i.e. former employees) reveal a slew of nasty secrets that may make you think twice about ever eating in one of these restaurants again …
Black Oil, Blood and “Melted” Chicken
The featured article has quite a few doozies, such as a former worker from Burger King who describes the restaurant’s oil rotation policy:1
“Here is how the oil rotation went. You had four vats of oil that you cooked fries in. And boy did you cook fries. Tons of them. After about 2 days worth, the oil got too dark for fries. So we switched it over to the ones for chicken. Since it was darker, it was ok.
Then that goes on for a week. After a week of massive frying. The oil is black as motor oil. At that point, it’s switched to the Fish Filet vat. That’s the only thing you cook in that vat.”
Another former worker, this one from McDonald’s, recalled what happened when a bag of chicken nuggets was left out on the counter for too long:
“They melted. Into a pool of liquid. I never understood why. But they were completely indiscernible as being the nuggets I once knew.”
Other unsavory confessions revealed by these fast-food whistleblowers include:
- Large chunks of mold in ice-cream machines and ice dispensers (which are rarely cleaned)
- A worker continuing to handle food with an open, bleeding wound on her hand
- “Recycling” overcooked burgers into chili, or stripping chicken patties of their breading and passing it off as chicken salad
Startling discoveries like these are all too common when it comes to fast-food … it was several years back when 12-year-old middle schooler Jasmine Roberts won the science fair at her school when she discovered that the ice used in the drinks of fast food restaurants had more bacteria than the toilet water. And in 2010, nearly half of soda fountains at fast food restaurants tested were found to contain coliform (bacteria that grows in feces) while 11 percent also contained E. coli!2
And Then There’s the Food …
Even under the best circumstances, fast-food restaurants fail when it comes to your health.
Eating the food at nearly every fast food chain (except maybe Chipotle and a few other restaurants committed to sustainable, organic suppliers) means you are likely consuming feedlot animal meat – flesh that comes from animals raised in crowded unsanitary conditions, fed massive doses of antibiotics and unnatural “frankenfeed” full of GM crops and some other truly disturbing ingredients.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all the decidedly unhealthy practices that go on at a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation). The problem begins at the massive CAFOs where the beef, chicken or pigs are fed genetically modified corn and soybeans and excessive grains in general (which are not the natural diet of these animals), along with the following almost unbelievable feed ingredients:
- Plastics — for the many animals whose digestive systems need roughage to pass food through them, the CAFOs now use plastic pellets.
- Meat from members of the same species — CAFOs turn farm animals into cannibals. Scientific research has linked this practice to the spread of both mad cow disease and avian bird flu.
- Manure and animal feces– this can include cattle manure, swine waste, and poultry waste. It also includes wood, sand, rocks, dirt, sawdust and other non-food substances.
- Roxarsone – more commonly known as arsenic, which until last year was put into chicken and pig feed to control intestinal parasites that might cause them to eat less and grow slower. Chicken litter (containing the arsenic that passes through the birds) is also collected from chicken CAFOs and fed to feedlot cattle, for some apparent reason that defies common sense.
- Animal byproducts — categorized as “animal protein products,” this includes rendered feathers, hair, skin, hooves, blood, internal organs, intestines, beaks and bones, dead horses, euthanized cats and dogs, and road kill.
Most Fast Food is a Mixture of Chemicals, Sugar, Flavoring and Salt …
From there, fast food is often nothing more than a slew of chemicals, sugar, high fructose corn syrup and salt … for instance, only about half of a Chicken McNugget is actual chicken. The rest is a mix of corn-derived fillers and additives (most likely genetically modified), along with a slew of synthetic chemicals, including:
- Dimethyl polysiloxane, a type of silicone with anti-foaming properties used in cosmetics and a variety of other goods like Silly Putty
- Tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), a petroleum-based product with antioxidant properties
Why virgin coconut oil is superior to highly refined, processed coconut oil
Posted by TheRedPillGuide in Health, News, Vitamins & Supplements on July 23, 2012
via: NaturalNews
Monday, July 23, 2012
By: Donna Earnest Pravel
[NaturalNews] Many people in the natural health community have been well aware of the health benefits of coconut oil and other coconut products for decades. More recently, “clean eaters” and people following an ancestral diet have been replacing canola oil and other cooking oils with coconut oil. Unfortunately, some people do not realize that certain brands of coconut oil pose serious health risks. Innocent health seekers may be consuming a product that makes them sick.
Not all coconut oil is “created equal”
Any coconut oil producer can market a product labeled “coconut oil.” The product on the shelf will, indeed, be coconut oil. However, shoppers may see a big difference in price between brands of coconut oil. Most likely, the less expensive coconut oil has been refined.
Coconut oil is produced in several ways. To extract the oil from a coconut, the manufacturer may dry the coconut meat, called copra, by either smoking it, drying it in the sun, or kiln-drying it. Copra is dried in unsanitary conditions, and cannot be consumed.
The impurities in the copra are released into the coconut oil. Copra-derived coconut oil must be purified, or refined. Once the coconut oil has been refined, it is bleached to remove any remaining impurities and to “improve” the color of the product. Then it is “deodorized” under high heat to remove the coconut fragrance. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), better known as lye, is used to break down the fatty acids so the coconut oil will have a longer shelf life. Some coconut oil producers extract the coconut oil from the copra with toxic chemicals.
Some refined coconut oil manufacturers take the refining process one step further by either hydrogenating or partially hydrogenating the coconut oil in order to keep the product from melting in temperatures above 76 degrees Fahrenheit. This process turns coconut oil, naturally a very healthy saturated fat, into a trans fat.
Select “virgin” coconut oil to get the most health benefits
“Virgin” and “extra virgin” coconut oils are expressed either by quick drying the copra and then pressing the oil out with a machine, or by “wet-milling” the coconut milk. With wet-milling, the oil rises to the top of the coconut milk and is separated through various means.
There is no difference between “virgin” and “extra virgin” coconut oils. In general, the difference in price reflects the intensity of the labor involved in creating a truly natural coconut oil product.
Is This Health Food Imposter In Your Pantry?
Posted by TheRedPillGuide in GMOs, Health, News, Vitamins & Supplements on July 20, 2012
via: GreenMedInfo
by: Sayer Ji, Founder
July 20, 2012
Olive oil comes from olives, corn oil comes from corn and canola oil comes from … canola?
Right… sort of. Canola oil is a genetically modified food made from a hybridized version of the rapeseed plant which is a member of the mustard or cabbage family.
Rapeseed oil is a low quality monunsaturated oil used mostly in industrial applications and in some traditional Japanese, Indian and Chinese cultures. The problem with rapeseed oil is that it’s high (30 to 60%) in a toxin called erucic acid, found to be associated with fibrous heart lesions.
In the late 1970′s, when polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils were beginning to be shunned for their association with high rates of cancer and heart disease, monounsaturated fats like olive oil were being relied on more and more as the best source of healthy monounsaturated oil. However, there was not enough olive oil for world demand, not to mention that it was too expensive for producing cheap processed foods.
Canadian researchers came to the rescue by engineering a new plant from the rapeseed plant which was lower in erucic acid. It was eventually called “canola,” short for Canadian oil, low [erucic]acid.
The Canola Council of Canada defines canola as
…an oil that must contain less than 2% erucic acid, and the solid component of the seed must contain less than 30 micromoles of any one or any mixture of 3-butenyl glucosinolate, 4-pentenyl glucosinolate, 2-hydroxy-3 butenyl glucosinolate, and 2-hydroxy-4-pentenyl glucosinolate per gram of air-dry, oil-free solid.
Sounds yummy! Canola oil was marketed to healthcare professionals and consumers as a health product high in monounsaturated fats and Omega-3 fatty acids, and low in saturated fats.
In 2006, the FDA allowed canola oil and products containing canola oil to be labeled with heart health claims. Labels can say that limited evidence suggests that eating 19 grams (about 1.5 tablespoons) of canola oil daily in place of saturated fat may reduce the risk of heart disease as long as you don’t increase your total caloric intake.
It was quickly embraced as a cheaper alternative to olive oil and endorsed by such health gurus as Dr. Andrew Weil. However, since then Dr. Weil has modified his view, calling canola oil a distant second choice to olive oil and pointing out that there are no long term studies on the effects or benefits of canola oil:
We have a wealth of evidence showing that populations that consume good quality olive oil as a primary dietary fat have significantly lower rates of both heart disease and cancer than those that don’t. We have no comparable epidemiological data for canola. Also unlike extra-virgin olive oil, canola oil doesn’t contain the anti-oxidant polyphenols that are protective against heart disease and cancer.
Metals, Grains & Crude. Oh, My!
Posted by TheRedPillGuide in Economy, Finance, News on July 18, 2012
via: TFMetalsReport
July 18, 2012
A very interesting day in all three. What will Wednesday bring?
First, the metals. As has been the case for all of 2012, The Bernank spoke today and down went gold and silver. After nearly reaching $1600 in early London trading, gold was pummeled well in advance of The Bernank and fell to as low as $1572 shortly after The Great Douchebag spoke. However, contrary to pattern from earlier this year, the metals subsequently reversed and traded higher, reaching $1592 just two hours later. Both metals have since been beaten back but the action today was encouraging, nonetheless. As you can plainly see on the charts below, both metals are rapidly moving toward a conclusion of their multi-month corrections. When they break…which will be soon…they will both break sharply and decisively higher.
Surprising Links: How Big Banks Manipulate and Influence Your Health
Posted by TheRedPillGuide in Red Pills, News, Control Grid, Finance, Big Pharma & Medical Mafia, Health, Cancer, Economy, Banking Cartels & The Fed, Documentaries & Interviews on July 15, 2012
TheRedPillGuide
July 15, 2012
If there is one link you read today from this blog, please let this one be it. The incisive Ellen Brown, who is an attorney, catalogs in her book Web Of Debt the link between the Banking Cartels and the Medical Mafia.
For those who wonder how the Big Banks are linked implicitly to our health, the medical establishment and to cancer, the interview below is a must watch when time permits.
There is a large amount of information out there which goes more in depth as to how the Banking Cartels control nigh every facet of our society. For those interested, the links below give additional information in respect to this abstruse topic.
The History Of The Federal Reserve System – The Secret From Jekyll Island
CNBC Admits We’re All Slaves To Central Banker’s Global Government
The Federal Reserve Cartel [Part 1 of 5] – The Eight Families
The Federal Reserve Cartel [Part 2 of 5] – The 8 Families – The Freemason BUS & The House of Rothschild
The Federal Reserve Cartel [Part 3 of 5] – The Roundtable & The Illuminati
The Federal Reserve Cartel [Part 4 of 5] – A Financial Parasite
The Federal Reserve Cartel [Part 5 of 5] – The Solution
The History Of The Federal Reserve System
Where Does Money Come From? The Giant Federal Reserve Scam That Most Americans Do Not Understand
Ten Things That Every American Should Know About The Federal Reserve
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via: Mercola
by: Dr. Mercola
July 15, 2012
Ellen Brown is a civil litigation attorney who has written 11 books on health and the politics of health, including the Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System (which focuses on the money and banking system itself), and Forbidden Medicine, which traces the suppression of natural health treatment back to the corrupting influences of our financial system.
In the course of writing her books, Brown was asked to join the legal team of Jimmy Keller, an alternative cancer therapist in Tijuana, who was jailed for, as she puts it, “the alleged crime of representing that he had a high rate of cure for cancer.”
“He always showed the movie World Without Cancer to his patients, which is by Ed Griffin,” she says, “so I read the book World Without Cancer, and it linked the cancer industry—the cancer cartel, basically—with the banking cartel. It showed they had the same roots.
It went back to the Rockefeller-Morgan cartel at the turn of the 20th century. Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie supported drugs, funded the medical schools, and basically got the homeopathic schools shut down. (In the 19th century, the homeopathic schools were the leading health treatment.)
… I realized in the course of that that if you wanted to get to crux of the problem, you had to deal with banking, because that was actually where they got their power. They got their power from the power to create money.”
The Shocking Truth about Our Money System, and the Power it Wields Over Your Health
As Brown explains, the shocking truth about our money system is that virtually all of our money is created by banks when they make loans. It’s not created by the government, as most people believe. The way it works is that, while the banks create the principal, they don’t create the interest, so they’re always getting more back than they’re putting out.
“The thing that most people don’t realize is that banks don’t just take in people’s money, and then lend it out again,” Brown explains. “What they do is, literally, every time they make a loan, they create that money on their books. They need the deposits in order to clear the checks, but they’re basically double-counting the money.
… When you’ve put your money in the bank and then you go to withdraw it, they never say, “Sorry, we just lent your money out to your neighbor for 30 years. You’ll have to come back later.” No, they always give you your money. That’s because your deposit’s still there at the same time that they’ve lent it out. So, if you need the money, then they’ll borrow it from somewhere else. But where do they borrow it from? Basically, from the very bank that the check just went into from the loan that they just made.
It’s like a big check-kiting scheme, where you create the money; it goes into another bank; and then you borrow it back. The banks can borrow it back at 0.25 percent at the moment, which is the Fed funds rate. And of course, they lend it out at five percent, or on credit cards 18 percent… or outrageous industry rates. They get a huge spread on money that didn’t actually exist until they created the loan.
… Their control over money is how they manage to corner politics, buy up the media, and basically monopolize the field.”
The Links Between Big Banks and the Drug Industry
Two good primers if you want to learn more about the banking system and the link between the pharmaceutical industry and banking, are The Creature from Jekyll Island, and World Without Cancer.
To me, this link between banking and Big Pharma intuitively makes sense. It was just earlier this year that I came to appreciate what Brown is talking about here. While the focus of this web site is on the damage done by the drug companies, it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that the banking system is the behemoth backing the Goliath-like drug industry.
As explained by Brown, the drug connection goes back to the 19th century. John D. Rockefeller’s father was actually, literally, a snake-oil salesman.
“He was a patent remedy seller. The drugs, of course, are oil-based, and John D. Rockefeller was an oil magnate. He also had a bank. So did J.P. Morgan. The drug industry—the patent remedy industry—was in competition with the natural herbal remedies, and the homeopathic remedies. And the way they prevailed in the whole system was that, first of all, they funded the American Medical Association—the AMA Journal, which got their funding from advertising. And if your drug was advertised in the AMA Journal, then you’ve got the AMA’s seal of endorsement… It was a cartel.”
Where the Federal Reserve Fits in
In this interview, Brown discusses far more than I have included here, so to learn more, I urge you to listen to this fascinating interview in its entirety. Of course, it’s virtually impossible to discuss the financial system without touching on the Federal Reserve. According to Brown, there’s an important distinction that needs to be understood regarding the role of the Federal Reserve, because while both banks and the Fed are creating money out of thin air, there are some differences:
“The Federal Reserve is the lender of last resort, so it is allowed to [create money] without actually backing the money from anywhere… There are basically two banking systems.
This is also very complicated, but there is what’s called ‘base money,’ and that’s created by the Federal Reserve. Those are the banks’ reserves. At one time the reserves were gold. You actually, literally, had to keep a certain amount of gold for your depositors, who could cash in their dollars for gold. But in 1933, everybody stopped trusting the banks, because they knew they didn’t have enough gold, so there were runs on the banks. At that time the dollar was 40 percent backed by gold. So, every time somebody would bring two dollars and cash it in for gold, the bank had to call in three dollars’ worth of loans. The whole money supply was just closing in on itself and collapsing.
That’s why Roosevelt finally took the dollar off the gold standard.
Then, to back the dollar, the Fed created “base money” for the banks to use as reserves. But it’s a separate system. We don’t actually get to borrow the Fed’s reserves. That’s the bankers’ money. The bankers’ bank is the Federal Reserve.”
The Economics of Our Medical System and the Drug Cartel
While at UCLA law school, Brown wrote an article about the economics of California’s regulations on doctors and other medical professions, and how these regulations effectively eliminate all competition to the conventional medical paradigm. It may not be immediately apparent, but the medical profession is very cleverly manipulated and influenced in such a way as to bolster profits for the pharmaceutical industry. It’s a tightly controlled profession, and any competition—such as alternative or integrative treatments related to natural health—is more or less illegal. You cannot claim to treat disease without a medical license.
“I think what’s even worse than that is they control information,” Brown says. “People don’t even know that there are alternative remedies. Or if they do hear about them, they think it’s quackery, and that it’s been disproven, because that’s what the conventional media says [which is largely owned by the same banking cartel as the pharmaceutical industry is]. You really have to dig to find out what’s out there, and how well natural remedies work. Also, you have to dig to find out how drugs don’t work, and how they’ve been over-hyped…”
THE GOOD NEWS IS THE COLLAPSE OF FIAT MONEY, THE BAD NEWS IS…
Posted by TheRedPillGuide in Economy, Finance, News on July 13, 2012
via: SilverDoctors
by: SRSrocco
PEAK OIL & THE FALLING EROI:
This chart from my PEAK SILVER REVISITED article says it all. The downside of the PEAK OIL chart is bad, but not as bad when we factor in the DECLINING EROI. Basically, as energy gets more expensive to explore, drill and produce more and more of the percentage gets eaten up by the process leaving less for market.
That is why we will see PEAK SILVER much sooner than later. Furthermore, the collapse of FIAT MONEY and going back to a GOLD BACKED SYSTEM will not keep the world’s economies from imploding. That is why I differ from some of the rhetoric put out by the AUSTRIAN SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS….. they fail to comprehend the peaking of global oil and the falling EROI.
