Bank of China and England Prepare Interest Rate Hikes, Charts on Roman Currency Devaluation and Unused Federal Property, Juan Williams on the "Political Age of Ron Paul," and Jim Rogers Warns Long Term Dollar Disaster

Both the Bank of England and Central Bank of China are signaling interest rate hikes as inflation is driving up consumer prices.  From MarketWatch:

The Bank of England signaled Wednesday that its key lending rate is likely to rise before the end of the year in order to bring inflation back down to target by 2013.

The central bank lowered its outlook for growth, but raised its inflation expectations in its quarterly inflation report.

“The recent pattern of revisions to the projections over the next year — downward to growth and upward to inflation — has continued,” said Bank of England Governor Mervyn King in a news conference. “But looking further ahead, the horizon relevant for policy, the big picture has not changed much since February.”

And Bloomberg:

China’s inflation held above 5 percent in April and lending exceeded analysts’ estimates, signaling that further monetary tightening may be needed to cool the fastest-growing major economy.
Consumer prices rose 5.3 percent from a year earlier and banks extended 740 billion yuan ($114 billion) of local-currency loans, according to reports from the statistics bureau and central bank. Weaker industrial-output growth, also reported today, may diminish price pressures in coming months.

Is anybody surprised?  Mish sums it up quite perfectly:

The irony in this mess is that Central Banks purport to want to do something about inflation when they are the cause of it.

Currency debasement is of course nothing new.  See this cool chart of the Roman money supply during the 3rd century fiscal crisis:

So you hear all the fear mongering going around about raising the debt ceiling?  Well Business Insider has provided a map with an easy solution:

Chances of the debt ceiling being raised: 100%
Chances of even a quarter of these unused properties being sold: 0%

If you haven't read Juan Williams' The Hill article on "The Political Age of Ron Paul," see his recent appearance on Judge Napolitano's Freedom Watch:

If we are truly living in the political age of Ron Paul, I am going to need to see more candidates besides Gary Johnson talk about monetary policy, drug legalization, and withdrawing the troops.  Still, Juan is right in one regard; Paul not getting booed off the stage in South Caroline after advocating for the legalization of all drugs including heroin really does say something.  Even though Ron Paul has been warning of a dollar crisis for years, Jim Rogers is chiming in now.  From Bloomberg:

The U.S. dollar is going to be a “total disaster” in the long term because of the country’s position as the world’s largest debtor and the policies being pursued by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, according to investor Jim Rogers.

I will end by mentioning two articles.  First is Simon Black from Sovereign Man warning of the government taxing pensions.  This of course stems from the recent announcement by Irish authorities that they will tax private sector pensions (not public of course) for more revenue.  Here is an excerpt from Simon's fantastic article:

Somehow, the government expects to be able to create 100,000 jobs to bring down an unemployment rate at 14.7%.  Perhaps they plan on hiring 100,000 new workers to go around the country and collect the tax.

It reminds me of what I saw in Bolivia a couple of weeks ago– there’s a tax or toll or fee for nearly everything you do. Driving on the highway (if you can call it that) outside of Santa Cruz, you pay a toll… obviously not for the maintenance of the road, but to pay the salary of the toll collector.

At the airport, you have to pay an airport tax before departure… obviously not for the upkeep and efficiency of the airport (it took 2-hours to make it to my gate), but to pay the salaries of the guys who collect the airport tax.

This is what politicians consider ‘job creation,’ yet these positions only serve to destroy value.  That they would stick up the retirement funds of hard working people is even more immoral.

Here’s the best part, though. If you are a government worker in Ireland, your pension is exempt. They’re only going after people in the private work force.

I will also mention this Rolling Stone article from Matt Taibbi on why criminal charges should be brought to Goldman Sachs.  I haven't read it yet, but I am sure it will be interesting.

Update- Taibbi's article was 6 long pages of everything you have heard before.  Goldman Sachs shorted the mortgage industry, lied before Congress about it, and faced no criminal charges.  The world keeps turning and Taibbi acts surprised.  For a more interesting article (rather post) see Barry Ritholtz on Microsoft's $8.6 billion purchase of Skype.  An excerpt:

Microsoft remains hugely profitable today, but increasingly irrelevant. Their purchase of Skype is an attempt to buy back some relevance. They are the rich, uncool fat kid at school, trying desperately to buy their way into some popularity.

And here is a cool chart from Bloomberg (via The Big Picture) on the world's strongest banks:

Citigroup at #16? WTF....weren't their shares at like $4-$5 for months?  Oh now I see, per WSJ:

Citigroup Inc. became a $40 stock for the first time since late 2007, as its share price appeared to rise more than 850% from Friday's close. One catch: Investors didn't earn a dime on Monday.

Citigroup, the heaviest-traded U.S. stock that accounted for 6.8% of total U.S. stock trading volume last year, drastically shrunk its share count. The move instantly erased its single-digit stock price, which has been a persistent reminder of the trauma the bank suffered during the financial crisis.

Update 2- 2 controversial videos, get'em while you can!  First up is police brutality in Greece:

Next is General Wesley Clark telling Democracy Now! that the decision to invade Iraq was made just days after 9/11 and that we plan to invade 7 countries in 5 years including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and then Iran for the clincher.  Take a look before it's taken down:

Here is Robert Wenzel (obviously not a gov't sympathizer) on General Clark:

Clark is no flunky. He was as valedictorian of his class at West Point, and  he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford. He was also the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000.

Where the hell is the media on this?