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I am so happy to read about this company. My husband wears nothing but overalls around the farm. Sounds like a great Christmas gift.
Why L.C. King Manufacturing is a True Tennessee Company
L.C. King Manufacturing Company in Bristol, Tennessee, isn't your average clothing store. It has weathered the Great Depression and the Great Recession, real wars and trade wars, and revolutions in culture and technology. But with a dedication to quality and listening closely to customers, the company's leadership and employees keep this 105-year-old clothing company on the map in 2018.
"We are solely focused on giving the customer a 100 percent made-in-the-USA jean, overall, jacket or coat," owner Jack King says. "That's what we stand by."
His great-grandfather, Landon Clayton King, founded the company in 1913 to create high-performance farming and hunting apparel, leaving his brother's dry goods business to start his own across the street. The next year, he trademarked the Pointer Brand garment label, named after his award-winning bird dogs and inspiring the later slogan "for champion performance." Soon after, he constructed the original wing of the factory that is still in use.
Today, the company retains time-tested cut and sew techniques even as it works with designers to improve workwear fits and add new streetwear styles.
"Being fourth-generation, made in USA still means a lot," plant manager Marinda Lee Holt says. "We try to keep the heritage of our workwear."
Garments are constructed by around 30 pairs of skilled hands – including the owner's – with the help of excellent machinery and two mechanics. (One cutting machine has been going strong since 1918!) "When you see the repairs that come in [under the lifetime repair guarantee], a lot of people have had these overalls or jeans for 20 years," King says. "That shows the craftsmanship."
L.C. King contrasts starkly with today's fast fashion, which is not made to keep for long periods of time. "There's a need to be made in America if you want something to last," King says.
When King started as an employee in 1998 (he didn't work there while growing up), the marketplace was in the midst of significant changes. Under the leadership of King's father and uncle since the 1970s, L.C. King had been a major supplier of hunting apparel for Bass Pro Shops and other retailers. But with trade agreements like NAFTA in place, the company's business with large retailers had evaporated.
If You Go...
24 7th Street Bristol, TN 37620
Hours: Open Monday through Friday. You can request a tour in the factory store, which opens at 10 a.m. Factory hours vary by season.
Phone: (800) 826-2510, (423) 764-5188
Website: lcking.com
"We needed to find a new customer base," King says. He tackled the challenge of better understanding people who actually wore the clothing, rather than retailers who sold it.
To start creating one-on-one relationships with their end customers, the company asked people to send photos – by mail – of themselves wearing L.C. King clothing. "The best thing I got out of that process," King recalls, "was seeing the customer and what they were doing while they wore our clothing. You'd see people at the dinner table. There was a father and son on a tractor. The father's wearing his overalls, and the son's wearing his."
Now, customers show off what it's like to live and work in L.C. King clothing through Instagram. "The customer who buys our product has to commit to wearing it," King says, "because you have to break it in. And in breaking it in, it becomes part of you, part of your memories, and it grows with you as you live your life."
L.C. King Manufacturing may be 105 years old, but it still knows how to connect with new generations of customers. When younger customers concerned about social and environmental responsibility ask, "Who makes my jeans? The denim? The buttons?" L.C. King has an answer.
King can rattle off suppliers: "Fabric comes from Trion, Georgia. Thread comes out of Tallapoosa, Georgia. Buttons are from Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Our tag comes out of Addison, Texas. Oh, our pocketing comes from Trion too."
After its American source for the popular hickory-stripe fabric, also known as railroad stripe, shut down, L.C. King took the initiative to partner with Mt. Vernon Mills in Trion, giving them a reason to start weaving it. L.C. King's new line of American-made, hickory-stripe garments hit the market this fall.
When the same customers once asked, "What do you use when you prewash our clothes?" the company examined its process and stopped using bleach. "It's a win for everybody," King says. "For our utility costs" – washing denim without bleach requires less water – "and we're giving the customer what they're seeking, which is a more [environmentally] sustainable garment."
"For old and new generations, our customers always come first," Roxie Ann Blaylock, quality control inspector, says.
"The world economy can change," King says. "We are determined to make sure the customer gets the best pair of jeans that can be made in America. That's us." That's why L.C. King Manufacturing is gaining customers, nationally and internationally. That's why it invites guests to tour the factory floor, to see firsthand the hard work and skill invested in every garment.
2 Comments
Glad to see made in America still going strong!


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1. Today, Monday, April 30
Campus Greens is hosting a Campus Cleanup on Monday the 30th from 4:30-6:00pm. We'll be cleaning up around the dorms and academic buildings.
The first ten participants will receive some play-doh! There will also be prizes for the strangest and most trash collected! Come by Zabriskie any time during the cleanup to help us out. We'll have gloves, trash bags, and snacks.
2. Subscribe with The Sycamore!
Interested in getting your free copy of The Sycamore four days before its public release?
Just send your name and campus mailbox number to firstname.lastname@example.com, and you'll receive the Spring 2012 "Taboo" issue in your campus mailbox on Monday, May 7th! If you've subscribed with us before, there's no need to repeat the process–you're already on the list.
3. 2nd Annual Wells College Poker Tournament!
Come see the final round of the 2nd Annual Residence Life Poker Tournament where one resident from each residence hall will compete for poker champion of Wells College! A donation item of a non-perishable food item is required to enter the final round on Thursday, May 3rd, in the Sommer Center at 8pm.
4. The Chronicle-Subscriptions
Subscriptions: Wells College's literary magazine, The Chronicle, would cordially like to invite all students to subscibe for an early edition copy of the magazine.
This year's Chronicle is handbound to perfection, containing forty pages of literary awesomeness as submitted by the writers and visual imagineers among you. Each copy will be delivered to you in your mailbox days before it is available to the general public. There are an extremely limited number of copies available. If you want to make certain you get one, subscribe!
To subscribe: email email@example.com with your name and mailbox number.
Happy Reading!
Stephanie Marvin
Co-Chief Editor of The Chronicle
5. Last day to ILL books, DVDs, and VHS is Friday, May 4
Dear Students,
The last day to ILL books, DVDs, and VHS will be Friday May 4th. You may continue to make article requests through the end of the semester.
All ILL material not due before May 14th must be returned by May 14th. If for any reason you need the material beyond this date you MUST contact me so we can make alternate arrangements. Any material not returned by this date, without prior permission, are subject to a non-refundable fine of $100. per item plus replacement costs.
To avoid a pile up in the ILL office, please return any material you are through with as soon as possible! Thanks,

subset: commoncrawl


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I'm so sorry about the silence on my blog this past week. I think I've had a slight case of writer's block, or in this case I guess it's more a case of blog-block. I haven't really done anything in the past several days except catch up on a week's worth of TV that I missed while Chris was out of town, so what in the world could I write about? So, I turned to my archive of images just now to see if there was anything I could use for inspiration. I found this image below from my trip to Florida a couple of weeks ago, and I figured I'd share something that you probably don't know about me.
Random fact about me: I've probably purchased more small fans than anyone you know, because I have to have one to fall asleep at night! There's something about the white noise that I'm addicted to, and it blocks out any ambient noise that would otherwise keep me awake since I'm a light sleeper. I literally wake up immediately if the power goes out and I don't have the fan noise going anymore. And pretty much anywhere I travel, I either bring one with me or I buy one while I'm there. Or sometimes hotels will have them available for guests. One time when I was in London, I called the front desk to request one and the concierge asked if my room was too warm. I explained that I needed it to sleep, and he said he totally understood and even offered to stand in my room and make a "shhhhhhhhhhh" noise for me himself if he couldn't find one! And another time, at a hotel in Hawaii, I requested a fan, but the only kind they had was a HUGE industrial-sized fan used for drying the carpet. Best. Fan. Ever.
I bought this one while I was in Florida, and it happens to be my favorite brand fan. I consider it $20 for a good night's sleep, and if you divide that up over a week of vacation, that's under $3 a night to sleep like a baby. Weird, right?!
Not Weird At All. I am just like you. Well–I haven't bought a million fans but it's b/c I usually pack my own sound machine when I leave home. I cannot stand to sleep in a room w/o white noise. And I obsess with random or repetitive noises like a ticking clock. Makes me insane! I, too, wake up when the power goes out. Or if I accidentally set my alarm with the volume turned completely down I will still wake up when the clock "reacts" even though it is not making a sound. It's a curse. Do you have an iPhone? You can downlaod whitenoise apps for it. As a back up.
[…] supplies: snacks, water, sodas, Us Weekly magazine. Tried to find a fan because I forgot mine and can't sleep without one, only it's impossible to find a fan in the off-season. Settled on a small heater with a fan […]


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Grant Williams, publisher of the economic blog Things That Make You Go Hmmm and principal of Real Vision TV, returns to the podcast this week to discuss his expectation of a return of volatility to the markets.
Grant warns that over the past seven years, the various financial markets around the globe have melded into a single world market dominated by trading algorithms and the central banks. This new system only knows how to operate effectively in one direction: Up.
Grant is very concerned that a return of volatility will act as a wrench tossed into the gears, quickly throwing the world financial system into panic.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about the incredible amount of counterintuitive moves that we see in markets. It's all inextricability linked to the rise of computer trading
Once you get momentum, markets start going up based on the back of algorithms. Then we start to see the day traders coming on the back of it, and everyone starts to gain confidence.
Markets are global now. There really is only one equity market around the world, certainly when they're going up. We'll see when markets turn and start to go down. And I think that's definitely something we need to talk about because I suspect it will be very, very different market action when this trend turns.
So we really do live in an entirely new world. I don't think we've had a bidirectional market through which we can understand what these things do. The markets have been drifting higher, for essentially the entire period of time that these machines have gained ascendency.
And so we as humans are trying to figure out what this means, trying to figure out how it works. And we don't know because we only know which way it works in one direction. When we start to see cold-hearted, trend-following algorithms determine that the path is down, when you really are going to need human beings.
I've talked about this a lot: When markets are going up, I can guarantee you there's an offer. At any price at any hour of the day or night, someone will show you an offer, and it may be significantly higher than the last trade, but there will be an offer. But when markets turn and go down, people forget that oftentimes there are no bids.
People forget, particularly central bankers, that every now and again, the markets tend to punch central bankers in the face. And the last time we really saw this, I think, goes back to the day that Soros forced the pound of the European Exchange Rate mechanism back in the early 90's.
And this was something that Soros bet on. The central bankers had said this is solid. We're not going to do anything. The markets took the other side of that when they sensed weakness. And within a day, the chancellor of the UK was forced very sheepishly to backtrack in front of the TV cameras.
That was the last time that these guys got punched really hard, and it's almost twenty-five years ago. So I think memories are short. I think confidence is high, both on their part and in them on the part of the markets.
But we are, it seems, reaching a point of newly introduced volatility, and it really only takes confidence on the part of the market in central banks to wane for their powers to be weakened considerably. Because without that tailwind of people believing in what they're doing and believing that they will be successful, they then have to prove it.
And I think you and I both understand that really markets are and will always be bigger than a group of eight or nine or ten guys around the world with a plan and a desire. And if they are forced into proving their strength and proving what they can and can't do, I think they are very quickly going to find out that there's an awful lot they can't do. And it could get very, very ugly.
Chris Martenson: Welcome to this Peak Prosperity podcast. I am your host, Chris Martenson, and it is February 2nd, 2017. Wow. Here we are, just a couple of weeks into the Trump presidency, and things could not be choppier or more interesting, I mean, pretty much everywhere.
Socially, politically, geopolitically, everywhere seemingly except in the stock markets of the world, which from the US to Germany to Japan, all applauded the idea of a Trump presidency. And I mean, starting at 1:30 in the morning Wednesday morning as the results flipped from a putative probable Hillary win to Trump.
Now when you put it that way, it's kind of a nonsense statement, the idea that all of these markets from Japan to Germany would all be cheering a Trump presidency. But that's the current narrative, at least in the markets running. Flawed as it is, that's what's being used to explain why things are the way they are in the world of financial assets.
It's highly counterintuitive. I really want to explore this and many other topics besides. I am beyond delighted to have back on the show one of the very best, and I mean that, very best thinkers and observers in the business.
To help us find the signal in this choppy sea of noise is Grant Williams, who has, to his own amazement and chagrin, more than thirty years of experience in investing and finance, and who writes the very popular investment newsletter, Things That Make You Go Hmmm, of which I'm a huge and unabashed fan.
His writing is always witty, full of context, and accurate; easy to follow as well. And he is the principal in the production company known as Real Vision TV, which is the world's only video on demand channel for finance and investors.
Welcome, Grant. As always, really, a huge pleasure to have you back on the show today.
Grant Williams: Chris, thanks for inviting me. It's always so much fun sitting and chatting to you.
Chris Martenson: Let's begin here. I used the word Trump. And I mentioned equity markets, again, all across the Western world plus Japan, they all shot up in lockstep. I can't tell the charts apart if you strip away who's who in this story and just show me the charts.
In response to the Trump victory, what sort of theories should we be entertaining for this very counterintuitive outcome?
Grant Williams: Well, I think it's really interesting because they did all jump up. I think a little bit of reality is starting to dawn in the first five or six days of his actual term, as they've seen unpredictability.
And that's the thing markets hate most is unpredictability. They can deal with good news. They deal with bad news pretty quickly. It's sometimes painful, but they do discount it very quickly. But unpredictability is the enemy of markets.
And I think in President Trump, we have a very unpredictable force who, I suspect, is deliberately unpredictable. I think that's part of his shtick. That's part of his tactic. So markets need to get used to that.
And I think that's what you see in the last week or so. We've started to see that volatility come back. And there's no surprise that the market would rise between the elections and inauguration. That happens fairly frequently.
But I think now scales are starting to fall over the markets, away from the markets. They're starting to think okay, what are we dealing with here. And the answer is an agent of change and an agent of volatility. And that is going to cause problems for markets, I suspect.
Chris Martenson: But still, how do we make sense of the idea of German DAX market rising starting at 1:30 in the morning there, in the dead of night? How does an investor, if this is what's at play, come to the conclusion that the German market needs to rise pretty smartly because Trump seems to be the winner? Really, I'm having trouble connecting that dot through, what I would call, normal transmission mechanisms.
Grant Williams: I think you're absolutely right, and I've spent a lot of time thinking about this. And the more I think about not just that, but the incredible amount of counterintuitive moves that we see in markets.
And I think it's all inextricably linked to the rise of computer trading. I think it's linked to these algorithms that go out into echo chambers, look for words in headlines, and drive the market accordingly.
I think the algorithms predicted that once the election was over, we'd get a period of stability. And I think as the percentage of the trading conducted by these automated trading systems rises, the New York Stock Exchange now is above seventy percent, they manage to actually hijack the direction.
And once you get this momentum, markets start going up based on the back of algorithms. Then we start to see the day traders coming on the back of it, and they kind of get a bit of confidence. And it's not just markets.
Markets are global now. There really is only one equity market around the world, certainly when they're going up. We'll see when markets turn and start to go down. And I think that's definitely something we need to talk about, because I suspect it will be very, very different market action when this trend turns.
But I really do think that this amalgamation of markets in the eyes of computerized trading all around the world is a big factor in why we see markets go up together, go down together, and react in parts of the world to news that's decidedly not local and not necessarily bearish for that particular part of the world.
So, we really do live in an entirely new world. I don't think we've had a bidirectional market through which we can understand what these things do. The markets have been drifting higher, for essentially the entire period of time that these machines have gained ascendency.
And so we as humans are trying to figure out what this means, trying to figure out how it works. And we don't know because we only know which way it works in one direction. When we start to see cold hearted, trend following algorithms determine that the path is down, when you really are going to need human beings.
And I've talked about this a lot. When markets are going up, I can guarantee you there's an offer. At any price at any hour of the day or night, someone will show you an offer, and it may be significantly higher than the last trade, but there will be an offer. But when markets turn and go down, people forget that oftentimes there are no bids.
And I've said this countless times. Every flash crash we've seen in the last five or six years is a dress rehearsal for what happens when markets genuinely want to go down. They're not fat fingers. They are automated trading systems looking for a bid, finding it down ninety percent, and hitting it.
And when you think about what's going to happen with the absence of market makers, thanks to Dodd-Frank, the absence of liquidity providers on the buy side through regulation and through just the restriction of balance sheets amongst the traditional places that people would go for liquidity, I think we're going to see something really quite shocking when the markets really do have a turn.
And I get the feeling that's coming. And I think this introduction of Trump that we talked about and the volatility that he brings with him is going to be an agent of change in the markets. And I'm very, very nervous about what a downward trending market looks like in the age of automated algorithmic computer trading.
Chris Martenson: Well, I am, too, because I've been following the work of Eric Hunsader at Nanex closely, and I'm sure you have as well because he's the only person I know who's really parsing the amount of actual volume that's there in the markets and also liquidity, which are actually separate terms that sometimes...it took me a while to sort of detangle those in my own mind.
But for people who don't want to really get into the market structure deep in this conversation, I don't think it's necessary. Centered on this idea that you said that this is a brave new world. These are new markets. They are run by silicon based trading forms, not carbon based trading forums, which are humans.
So these silicon based forms are out there. They're doing things. We see these flash crashes show up in the markets all the time, which is where a price moves really aggressively in one direction or another.
There's flash crashes upwards as well. There was a flash crash in treasury yields, which was this huge buying panic a little over a year and a half ago now. So these are extraordinary moves.
And I wonder if this isn't part of the reason that I think that the central banks are actually scared of the very markets they've enabled in some sense because I don't think anybody really...you said markets hate uncertainty. But humans do too.
I'm very uncertain about these markets in the same way you are. How much do you think that the so called powers that be at these central banks are also scared in the sense that they don't understand these markets rise well but perhaps stumble badly, is about as much as anybody understands about them at this point. Do you think they share that or do you think they've got better insights?
Grant Williams: I don't think they have better insights. I think they have one thing that we don't, and I think it's actually to their enormous detriment. And I think that's a solid belief that they can control markets. I mean, I really think they do.
Bernanke's famous interview on 60 Minutes when he was asked about his confidence level in being able to control inflation. Without missing a beat, he said a hundred percent. And then he repeated that. When the guy questioned him on it, he said a hundred percent? And Bernanke said a hundred percent.
And I think that attitude pervades those corridors and understandably so in many respects, because they've had a couple of decades of solid success in pushing the markets around where they wanted them to go, rescuing them when they've started to fall oftentimes just with words, not with actions. And I think they were pretty confidence.
But I wrote about this a few months ago, people forget, particularly central bankers, that every now and again, the markets tend to punch central bankers in the face. And the last time we really saw this, I think, goes back to the day that Soros forced the pound of the European Exchange Rate mechanism back in the early 90's.
And this was something that Soros had his bet on. The central bankers had said this is solid. We're not going to do anything. The markets took the other side of that when they sensed some weakness. And within a day, the UK was forced, the chancellor was forced very sheepishly in front of the TV cameras backtrack.
And that was the last time that these guys got punched really hard, and it's almost twenty-five years ago. So I think memories are short. I think confidence is high, both on their part and in them on the part of the markets.
But we are, it seems, reaching a point of newly introduced volatility, and it really only takes confidence on the part of the market in central banks to wane for their powers to be weakened considerably. Because without that tailwind of people believing in what they're doing and believing that they will be successful, they then have to prove it.
And I think you and I both understand that really markets are and will always be bigger than a group of eight or nine or ten guys around the world with a plan and a desire. And if they are forced into proving their strength and proving what they can and can't do, I think they are very quickly going to find out that there's an awful lot they can't do. And it could get very, very ugly.
Chris Martenson: I think this seems like a good time to turn to your latest piece for your subscribers, which is titled Peak Optimism. Of course, I love the word peak in that title. Very well done. You chose a quote for the front of that piece from Voltaire which reads, "one day everything will be well. That is our hope. Everything's fine today. That's our delusion."
First, start there. What can you share with us about this idea of peak optimism? It seems like it's dovetailing into peak confidence in the Federal Reserve at all.
Grant Williams: I was talking at John Mauldin's conference a couple of years ago on a panel, and John asked me where I thought that there were bubbles in the world. I said I think there's a bubble in confidence in central banks. I think that is a bubble, and I think it's going to burst. It's gone on for another couple of years, as these bubbles tend to do.
But it struck me going into this year, to all the things you've spoken about with the response to Trump's election, the optimism on the part of markets...and I choose that word carefully as opposed to market participants because I really do think that the markets have taken on some kind of life of their own through these computers.
The optimism is such that with respect to Trump in particular, since we're discussing him, the belief that he would execute a flawless landing in every area that he was going to try and be an agent of change was remarkable to me.
The comparisons to Ronald Reagan were everywhere going into the inauguration. But when you look at the comparisons between the environments that Trump is inheriting versus that which Reagan inherited, it's really quite stark.
Trump is coming in with the tenure with a one handle on the yield, whereas Reagan came in with, I think, a fifteen handle when he came in. Or certainly a ten handle. Certainly double digits. CPI was in double digits with Reagan. It's down at one. The S&P was trading at seven times earning versus twenty-four for Trump. And he's really inheriting a market that when you look at it compared with Reagan's there's nowhere to go but down.
And even though Reagan's looked great and it was up and the market rallied one percent between election and inauguration, the first eighteen months, he saw a quarter of the value of the S&P wiped off. We saw a horrendous eighteen month bear market.
And so for the markets to assume that this last few years of heavy stimulus based rallies in markets and gentle climbs without any real troughs to continue, I just think, shows a level of optimism, which frankly I don't understand. I really don't understand where it's coming from.
And I think at this point, a lot of human participants in markets don't understand it, either. But they've become conditioned over the last several years to either buy the dip or to just go with the trend. And the trend, until proven otherwise, is up.
And I think they will have taken great solace from this time last year when we saw the first six weeks of 2016 were very, very shaky indeed until, once again, the central bank stepped in to the rescue.
And so you really have conditioned an entire market to believe that this central bank put is alive and well. It's stronger than markets. And Trump is going to achieve the perfect landing. Europe is going to stick together through all this. BREXIT is going to not really matter. China's debt problems are not going to blow up.
I mean, it's remarkable to me the optimism that the markets are investing in...I don't remember a world this uncertain at any point in my thirty year career, actually.
Chris Martenson: I don't either. And let's turn now to this topic of delusion, and perhaps self-delusion. The stress I'm noticing in so many people at individual levels and the markets themselves, it seems quite apparent in its source, at least to me. I see an enormous gap between our current narrative, which boils down to everything's awesome or everything's fine don't worry, and our current reality, which is for all the reasons you just listed and some others everything's not fine.
And it's really an astonishing gap that's opened up where it feels like that last moment in those bubbles where everybody wants to cling to the idea that it's perfectly normal for a hairdresser in Las Vegas to have nineteen homes, which she's not selling or renting because she's decided she's going to sell them at a higher price. Or for a speculator in Monet to say he's perfectly comfortable buying this for twice the price of the last person because these things only go one direction.
It really feels to me like everybody's on the same side of the boat, but there are so many warning signs that say no, this is not the case. And by the way, Grant, I can do this financially. I could do this politically. I could do this socially. Or I could deconstruct this ecologically.
And all of these areas individually have so many troubling signs, that to believe in the narrative that everything's good. Trust the financial masters to just keep running asset prices up and we'll all be happy as a result, it's really breaking down across every dimension I'm tracking.
And yet, the people in charge seem unable to grasp that. And the media seems unable to really wrap their heads around this at this point in time and do anything other than attempt to just stick to the status quo.
So you travel a lot. I'm just wondering, how is this sort of dynamic being felt qualitatively, if you can, or quantitatively? What are you really noticing as you travel the world?
Grant Williams: Well, a very similar dynamic. I think everything you said there, it's fascinating because that's exactly what's going on. But with people talking about it being different this time, the one thing that I've noticed that is a global phenomenon, when you talk about these asset prices going higher as they have done.
Back in 2005, 2006, the price of everybody's home was going up. And this was kind of the ubiquitous phenomenon. Wherever you went, homes were going up. And these Las Vegas hairdressers were buying the nineteen condos, and they were all going up for a time.
What we've seen this time around is that the participation in this incredible rise in asset prices has not been ubiquitous. It's been confined to luxury apartments in New York and Vancouver and Sydney, Australia, and Singapore, where I live, and Hong Kong, and places like this.
It hasn't been something that has touched everybody. The increase in asset prices has gone to the people who own assets, who own fine wines and fine art and classic cars. It's classic, classic signs of a bubble in a very narrow increase in asset prices.
And that's something that I have seen everywhere. I live in Singapore. We're starting to see the housing bubble there burst. There's an island just off the very south of Singapore called Sentosa, which is stacked with a casino and a theme park, but also a lot of luxury apartments, the prices of which went from two million dollars to ten million dollars over the last seven or eight years.
And anecdotally I'm hearing that a lot of those prices, now the houses are back on the market, offered at six but the bid is back at two or three. But people aren't hitting the bids. So, we're not seeing that headline sticker shop when the first deal gets done.
But that rally in asset prices has in certain places petered out. And it's the places that were hottest. And you know as well as I do, this is a chain reaction. Once these things start falling over, people get nervous elsewhere.
And the other thing I would say, when you talk about the media being unable to get this, I tweeted out a link the other day. I was sitting in an airport somewhere, and I forget where. And CNN was on. It was the end of the day, and the headline said Dow plunges more than a hundred points on something Trump had done.
I think it was the immigration ban. Market plunges a hundred points on Trump's immigration ban. Now when you start putting out things about markets plunging a hundred points, which that day was point six of a percent, you understand that the media, which is where everybody really gets their information. Very few people actually do the digging. They take stuff at face value.
When that's the narrative, you try and generate hyperbole. You try and generate sensational headlines to try and attract viewers to attract clicks for advertisers, et cetera, et cetera, you end up creating a very false impression of both sides of this. You exaggerate the good. You exaggerate the bad. And people really don't know anymore.
And I think this phenomenon, nowhere has it been more obvious and more potentially dangerous than in the media's coverage of Donald Trump and the way he's responded to it.
I think he has a very good point about the way the media's covered him and the way quote unquote news is disseminated these days. But you have a guy with an axe to grind in a very powerful position who is about to take on the Fourth Estate, which is a very powerful institution.
And when you get two powerful forces colliding, there is always fallout. And I think the public are going to see that happen and be the victims of it rather than either the media or Trump himself.
So it's a very, very dangerous world. It's a very fragile world. It's a world that is elevated in all sorts of places, whether it be asset prices, whether it be markets, whether it be confidence, and all your points about politics, geopolitics, they're all correct.
But we don't know how this is going to resolve itself. I suspect it will be a loss of confidence somewhere in something. It may be a loss I housing prices. It may be a loss in politicians. It may be a loss of confidence in the media. I don't know.
But as soon as confidence starts to wane, people realize how much of where we are is built on faith and confidence. And that's not something you can print. You can't print confidence. You have to instill it. And you can only instill it really once you've exhausted your words through actions. And the actions that are going to be required to reinstill the kind of confidence that's going to evaporate are going to be really, really painful.
Chris Martenson: This is a perfect segue here, I hope. And I hope I don't go too dark on people with this one. So last night, yesterday, there were some pretty violent protests is one word, but you might call them riots, in Berkeley, California.
And I found them deeply ironic because the protesters or rioters, they were worried that an invited speaker stood for the sort of intolerance that might lead to violence. So the protesters assembled and then rioted in a very intolerant way and became quite violent.
And I look at all of that, and on one level I understand it. It's a reaction to something. And by the way, there's evidence sneaking out now that the mayor basically told the police stand down or these are our people or whatever. It wasn't handled like I've seen.
Like Occupy Wall Street was met with phalanxes of riot police who were ready to do battle. The people at Standing Rock who are protesting a pipeline very peacefully have been met with a degree of violence that was not on display at Berkeley from the authorities.
So anyway, however this is playing out, I'm reminded here of studies they did in the 40's and 50's where they would take a rat, put it in a cage. And there was no way to escape this cage. It was a blank, barren cage. And the floor had a grid on it. And they would start shocking the rat. Very unpleasant for the rat. But the rat would tolerate it and figure out how to curl up in a ball and survive.
The problem came when you would put another rat into that same environment, and the two rats are now being shocked. And now they don't understand the shocks. They can't control them. They can't escape them. But now they have somebody to blame. They look at the other rat and they say it's you. And they will kill each other given the chance.
And I have that sense of people are being shocked but they don't really know why or how yet. And the third irony in this story for me is that I felt the people in Berkeley were right to be angry, were right to feel like they needed to protest for something, but they had the wrong face attached.
They were fighting the wrong rat in the cage, I think, because they should've been protesting Janet Yellen at this point in time. They should've been holding accountable the people who are most responsible for driving the largest wealth and income gaps both in all of recorded history at this point in time.
So it was Plutarch who said that a gap between the rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics. Now leaving aside whether we have a republic or not, there is this extraordinary gap. And these income and wealth gaps, these are the direct and proud achievements of an extremely activist federal reserve and their ilk in other countries.
So in your views, how much of this social tension is really the direct result of policies that everybody knew and should know by now we're really going to create the exact sorts of gaps that we're experiencing now?
Grant Williams: Well, Chris, I think one of the great things that you do, and you should be roundly applauded for it, is you have these conversations. As you said, you talked about being worried about going dark. These are important conversations to have.
And they're important for people to listen to with an open mind because that's the big problem that I've seen as a foreigner traveling around America, which is a country I've loved since I first went there at the age of seven or eight. I've lived there for a number of years, and it's very close to my heart.
But the absence of a willingness and ability to have these conversations with an open mind is the single biggest problem, I think, the country faces because to me, you're absolutely right. The root cause of all this can be laid at the feet of the federal reserve.
But the problem is, it's a very complex transmission mechanism. And it's one that people struggle to understand because it does require an awful lot of commitment on the part of some of the ones who understand it to really figure out how a press conference by a very New York sounding lady once a month is the reason why their groceries are going up, is the reason why they can't afford that house.
These are very complex issues, and people, for the most part, are reluctant to go down the road of discovery to understand what they are. And I totally get that because even for guys like you and me that have spent our lives in finance, we're sitting there going how does this all work now? It's kind of tough to piece together.
But I think you're absolutely right. I think the federal reserve, and not just the federal reserve, I think they're the leader of the pack. But the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan particularly and the ECB and the People's Bank of China, all these guys have followed these policies which have kept the wheels on a very shaky wagon.
I struggle to believe that they didn't and they don't understand what's happening here. I think they went into this believing that this would be a short term solution, that things would organically get better and they'd be able to wind this stuff back.
So I think this was a calculated risk on their part. We are going to increase wealth disparity, but it'll only be for a couple years and then we can get back to normal and wind it back and it'll all be fine. And here they are.
I'm putting a presentation together I'm going to give in South Africa next week, and one of the charts I'm putting in is the total balance sheets of the central banks as the divisor versus total equity market caps around the world.
And when you look at that chart, you see that in 2008 the chart plummets, and then it flat lines, which essentially means the markets are going up exactly in alignment with central bank balance sheets.
And there's no way out for these guys now. They've started doing this thinking it would be short term. They're eight years in. There's no way they can unwind it. We know what happens when they start talking about things like tapers.
So I think they're the root cause of the problem. I think it's a very insidious problem that they have now gone so far that they can't do anything about unwinding it through choice. So what they have left is hope.
The one thing they have left is hope. Okay. Right. Yeah. So they're hoping that they get some growth. They're hoping that things kind of turn around, but if they don't, they're going to go back to printing more because that's really all they have left. They're going to go back to lowering rates because that's all they really have. And they're going to exacerbate the situation here in terms of wealth disparity. That's really all they can do now.
And if you look through history, you will see this happen time and time again. And sadly, it always, and I mean always, ends in great social upheaval, sometimes revolution and oftentimes war. I mean, you talk about going dark, this is why these conversations are so important.
I gave a presentation about this in January 2015, talking about the parallels between 2015 and 1914. And they're eerie. And the first question I was asked after I gave the presentation, a guy put his hand up and he said "so, are you saying there's going to be a war?" I said no, I'm not saying there's going to be a war. But what I am saying, and people need to understand, is that there's not not going to be a war.
And I wasn't being flippant. It's a fine distinction to make. But you have to understand that after fifty years of peace around the world largely, certainly in terms of large style conflicts, the possibility that we could see another conflict is one you have to entertain, because the possibility or the probability of it happening is no longer zero.
And any time you have an event of that magnitude, when the probability of it happening is no longer zero, you have to at least do the exercise of thinking about it, discussing it, thinking your way through it and try to understand how that will change the world and what you need to do to protect yourself.
These are, as I said, important conversations, and kudos to you for being one of the few people out there with the guts to actually have them.
Chris Martenson: Well, thank you for that. Trust me, Grant, there's not a day goes by that I don't wish that I was selling celebrity gossip news instead. But such is my fate. Here I am. But it is vitally important. I really have the sense that we have to really entertain these thoughts.
So, you mentioned this central bank balance sheet expansion. It's driven some extremes. So just one of them, John Hussman, good friend. And I love his work. And I love the math behind it. And he put out a chart recently that is just...I know you picked it up as well. And I'm going to post it below this podcast so people can see it.
But what it is, it's a chart of median price, so this is median price of the S&P, index components, divided by the median revenue. So, it's a ratio. And this ratio, this chart goes back to 1986. And it wobbles around. Somewhere the ratio might be .9, and for periods of time when it got really stretched, it went up to one point three, maybe one point five. In 2007, right before the big plunge, it hit 1.8, and that was really stretched. And then we had our big correction. It went all the way back down to point seven.
Well, it's never been where it is currently. It's at a little over 2.45. It's just this straight line driven right up to the stratosphere. And the central banks did this on purpose. They know that it's creating a wealth disparity. They had their fingers crossed the whole time.
But come on, we're eight years into this. We're out of the idea that we're about to have...they're always like well, we're going to have a first half recovery. And then it's a second half recovery. And now it's a third half recovery. They just keep going around.
And here we are really in just giant nosebleed stretch territory. Now Grant, when I go to these wealth conferences, I find two classes of people in there. One - there are people who have their own money and they're scared. They're worried. They've never seen anything like this. They're pulling their chips off the table.
There's another class of people there who manage other people's money, and they shrug their shoulders and say what are you going to do? I have to stay fully invested.
Again, we look at how stretched things are. Really what is the alternative at this point if we were going to talk to either central bankers or to people who are managing large amounts of money who both feel trapped? They just shrug and what are you going to do? I can't unwind my balance sheet. What are you going to do? I've got to stay fully invested. What's the way out for them at this point in time, if there is any?
Grant Williams: Unfortunately, for the central bankers, I don't think there is a way out. The analogy I came up with when I was trying to describe this to someone was these guys have been backing themselves further and further into a corner for the last seven years through all these extreme policies.
And we got to negative interest rates, and if you remember when that happened and we had twenty-three percent of global GDP being produced in countries that were under a negative interest rate environment, at that point in time I said the market can now see the central bankers' shadow on the wall.
So we didn't know how far away the wall was. But now when you get to that point, they're backing into it. So, they can't see how close they are to the wall, but we can now see that they're really reaching that point.
And when you think back to that moment in time when we had this negative interest rate phenomenon, there was so much written about it at the time. People, very smart people, talking about how this was the new paradigm and interest rates could maybe go to minus two percent.
And most people are sitting there scratching their heads saying how can this possibly continue. But it seemed at that moment that this was the new environment we were going to be in. Negative interest rates were here, and we just had to kind of get used to it and figure it out and this was the new world.
Now six months down the line, you look back on that, and it really was a very, very brief moment in time, even though it seemed almost endless when it happened.
Markets quickly repudiated this whole idea of negative interest rates very, very quickly. And that, to me, was a sign of something. I think you have to pay attention to stuff like this, and you have to try and put it all in context.
But the market rejected negative interest rates essentially. Still around the edges, they're there. But really, as an increasing phenomenon, it's been shot down. And so, that's the first time that these guys have really done something and the market said no, that's not going to work for us.
So, in terms or a way out for them, I don't see it. I think they are now in this so deep that they have to keep going the way they're going. The car's pointed forward so they have to keep their foot to the floor.
And if you think about it in cold, hard terms, you step away. You say what if the market, the loan market, let's talk about the US equity market. What if it fell fifty percent from here? Where would that take it back to? It would take us back a couple of years. Really not that far. It wouldn't take us back to the horrors of the debts of 2008.
They've engineered the ability to allow markets to fall twenty percent, and that is not really going to put us back very far. But the problem with allowing that, and I think this is a big part of their thinking around this, they're thinking of trying to engineer markets higher particularly to avoid any major market dislocations.
When you read those headlines, when the average man in the street who doesn't really follow the market and he may have some passive investments, his pension or 401k, but he doesn't really follow the markets, when he wakes up in the morning to headlines that says stock market crash, he panics. If you can avoid those headlines, you can avoid wide scale panic.
It's an important thing when you're trying to keep the wheels on the whole thing, which is essentially what they've been trying to do since the whole system almost went under in '08.
So, if markets start to fall, ten, fifteen, twenty percent, people will panic. And that has to be avoided at all costs. So they let the markets fall two, three, four, maybe five percent sometimes if they can. But then people started to realize well, this thing is going to start feeding on itself. We can't let it fall any further.
So your question, that's a long winded reply, for which I apologize, but your question about whether there's a way out for them, no, I don't think there is. I think the market is going to show them the way out, but it's going to be a very painful exit for them. And they're now going to exit with their tails firmly between their legs.
And central banking as it has been over the centuries will once again be discredited and will go through a period of remodeling. What that looks like, we don't know. But I think it will be thoroughly discredited at the end of this.
Chris Martenson: Well, that was a fantastic answer. And it leads me to my next question perfectly, which is around the dollar. And noting here that I've got my little Financial Times newsfeed up, and I'm seeing some really troubling stuff out of Europe. So I guess we're going to loop back to the counterintuitive moves as well.
But the headlines here are the Greek manufacturers suffered the worst month since the bailout aftermath. So here they are. They're supposed to be well on the way to recovery according to every IMF forecast, and they're not.
And Greek bonds, of course, are suffering a violent reaction across Europe. We saw bonds in Europe have a very bad reaction, probably one of the worst months of January they've had in a long time. And this is despite eighty-five billion euros a month flowing into those very same bond markets courtesy of the ECB.
Your thoughts on Europe and how this going to, and how this is, influencing the dollar right now?
Grant Williams: Yeah, Europe's...I'm fascinated by Europe, and I have been for the longest time. As a proud Brit who, had I been living in the UK, would've very easily chosen to vote leave in the Brexit Campaign, I'm amazed that Europe has held together this long, frankly.
And I think the chance of it surviving in its current form is essentially zero. They've, again, gone down this road of propping it up and spending all kinds of money to try and maintain the status quo, which is a status quo that doesn't work. I mean, this idea of monetary union without fiscal union is laughable.
It's amazing when you go back and read some of the things Margaret Thatcher said about Europe back in 1979 when she refused to be a part of it as the British Prime Minister. It's so prophetic, it's frightening. And she nailed it when she described what the problems were.
And so I think what Brexit has been a catalyst for, and you mentioned the IMF forecast, which were wildly wrong in terms of growth on the up side. But with Brexit, they're all wildly wrong on the downside.
And they talked about what a catastrophe it would be for Britain the day they left the EU and how Britain would fall into the sea and become a third world country. It was really apocalyptic stuff.
And since Brexit, the UK economy, it was the strongest GA economy in the world last year. They've upgraded the forecast again. Nothing bad has happened. Now that's not to say it won't as it feeds its way through.
But the problem comes with the fact that the French go to the polls in May. The Dutch go to the polls, actually, I think before that. We may have an Italian election after Renzi stepped down coming up. And the Germans go to the polls in October.
And so when all these polls happen, what the people are going to see when they look across the English Channel is a Britain that's thriving outside the EU. Now Britain may encounter some Brexit related problems later in the year. But it'll be too late.
The people who are going to vote, are going to be looking at Britain and go you know what, they stepped away and their economy is doing great. We're here in Italy with this enormously high unemployment rate. We've got a banking system that's on the edge of collapse. We've got no way of competing on level terms with the Germans. We need to devalue our currency, but we can't. They're going to go to the polls thinking vote leave has worked out okay for the Brits.
So, the problem that Brexit is creating for the establishment in Europe is significant. And when you look at the mess in French politics at the moment, Le Pen, it's going to be a stretch for her to win, but she can do some real damage. And let's remember what a long shot Trump was.
So, it's really coming to the point in Europe where those forces of breaking up the union are growing stronger. And in Germany, who are staunch Europeans, you have the other problem, which is rising inflation. And that's the Achilles heel as far as the Germans are concerned.
Once you bring inflation into the equation in Germany, the Germans get very agitated very, very quickly. And we've just seen a sudden spike in inflation in Germany to one point seven percent, which doesn't sound like much, but the speed and the rate of change is worrying to Germans.
We've seen housing market in either Munich or Berlin, I forget which now, which is the fifth most overpriced housing market on the planet. Now anyone that knows anything about the German housing market knows that the Germans are not owners. They rent. So there hasn't been a housing bubble in Germany because it's not an ownership culture.
But with negative rates and with the problems they've had, the Germans are pouring money into housing. And so you've got apartments in the major German cities that are fifteen times income. That's not Germany. That's Shanghai. That's Singapore. It's Hong Kong. It's parts of London. It's not Germany.
So everywhere you look, there are forces pulling the union apart. And the only thing holding it together is a group of people whose life's work has been the creation of this monolith. And they're doing everything they can to defend it purely for reasons of pride, purely because they don't want to see their life's work invalidated.
And again, it's a problem when no one's taking a cold, hard look at what's happened to the poor Greeks being chained to the EU, what's happening to the Italians, what happened to the Spaniards. If this was a fight, the referee would've stopped it. But it goes on.
And at some point, the people are going to get the chance to vote. And if it carries on the way it is, they're only going to vote one way, and that's for less Europe and more individual countries. And the bigger success Britain is, the more problematic that becomes for the European bureaucrats.
Chris Martenson: It's the same problem we've got over here in the US, and I think elsewhere, which is the ruling class said trust us, and they turned out not to be trustworthy. Jeremy Grantham has a very nice piece out recently, which has basically said that every single move has basically been towards marginalizing the middle and lower classes and accumulating more and more wealth towards the top, which you and I understand is partly a feature of a debt based money system, particularly one that's leveraged and full of financialization.
It's something that happens. If Blackstone can go out and get a cost of capital at one percent and buy apartments and be competing with me at four and a half percent, they win. And that's part of the landscape now. But all that's really happened is that we've seen that individual people get left behind.
You're right, Brexit is...I love the way you phrase it. It's a real problem for the ruling class because it showed that people assumed some of the power back, and it actually turned out to be a good thing for them. And that's a genie that's tricky to put back in the bottle at this point in time.
Grant Williams: Exactly right. Exactly right. And Trump has only exacerbated that. And amazingly, when you look at what Trump's done since he got into office, if you take...I mean, I know this is difficult for everybody to do right now. But cooler heads must prevail. If you strip out the emotion surrounding Trump and you look at it through the lens of politics, what he's done is very, very smart politics.
He got voted in as a man of action who was going to drain the swamp and do all these things. And forget whether you agree with what he's doing. He's gone in on day one to try and solidify his base in a very polarized country.
And he's written executive order that means the wall's going to get built. And he's put his immigration ban in place. And he's going to do this, which I think is a great idea, about eliminating two laws for every one you put through.
Chris Martenson: I love that one. That one's great.
Grant Williams: Yeah. But this plays very, very well to his base. Now the wall's not getting built tomorrow. And the immigration ban has already been kind of walked back. But he's gone in. He's done what he's promised people he's going to do, which is very "unpolitician." And so he's solidifying what was a very strong base.
And the people that think he's going to go away quietly or mess this up I think are missing the point here. He's run his campaign very, very cleverly, which is how he managed to talk to people in these echo chambers and put multiple messages out to different groups at the same time. And I mean, it was masterful in the age of the Twittersphere.
But I think the success he's having is in solidifying his base. And that's dangerous because as I said, it's going to create tremendous volatility. And the only way that people are hearing about what Trump's doing is through the media, which as we said at the top of this conversation are pitched squarely against him.
So on the one hand, you've got a man who's doing an awful lot of stuff to appeal to the people who put him in power. You've got an agitated media that don't like what he stands for, don't like what he's doing.
They're reporting on the protests at the airports, for example, with the immigration ban. Well, those protests were in Los Angeles and in New York and in Miami, all fringes around the country where the democrats were strong. You didn't hear about any protests at airports in Des Moines, Iowa, or Boise, Idaho, or anywhere in Pennsylvania.
And so you have a very polarized country, and it's a problem. And until people can try and step away from this polarization and understand what's going on and try and come to terms with it and work out how to deal with it, as I said, this volatility is going to increase. And the rate of change is going to increase. And that makes everybody nervous.
Chris Martenson: Absolutely. And of course, I am a holder of gold specifically because of its role during uncertain moments and during volatile moments. It's not an inflation hedge for me. Great piece about gold a long time ago now, it feels. Nobody cares. Is anybody beginning to care in your travels in the Western world or is it still just sort of this paper trading vehicle that's more or less the anti-dollar to the Westerners?
Grant Williams: Interestingly enough, that kind of echo chamber has maintained its sort of airtight qualities, which I'm interested actually more than surprised about because we've seen a lot of things happen. I think a lot of the driving force for the gold, the falloff in the second half of last year was the dollar.
But we've seen the demonetization in India, which is enormously bullish for gold in the long run certainly. But we haven't reached that point yet, again, where people feel they need it. And a great friend of mine, Simon Mikhailovich talks about this more eloquently than just about anybody, this idea of one point four billion Indians sitting down to their evening meal on November the 8th at one minute to 8:00. And then ninety seconds later, eighty-six percent of the currency was worthless.
These doors close. And once they're closed, you can't open them again. So the whole idea of this gold phenomenon, should I have some, should I not have some, the day you realize you should is the day when you can't get it anymore or it's too late. And so everybody has to kind of understand this themselves.
And I think anybody that puts all their eggs in one basket, and I run into a surprising amount of people that are sort of ninety percent in gold, which I think is a dangerous maneuver, diversifications is always sensible. But to have a portion of your portfolio allocated to gold in a zero interest rate environment, to me it's not really anything to even argue about. I don't understand the counter argument to that.
And at some point, that's going to, at the margin, become more obvious to people. And it really doesn't take many more people to care for a market that size to heat up very quickly, as we saw right after I gave that presentation in December of 2015. We had seven months where the gold price increased by thirty odd percent. And the junior miners were up a hundred and fifty percent. That's what happens when you get some momentum behind this thing.
So, if the correction we've seen in the dollar continues, and certainly the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve are talking down the dollar, I think you could see some real fireworks in gold. But I don't buy it to trade. I don't buy it to sell. I buy it to own it for a time when I might need it.
Chris Martenson: Myself as well. And it is just an enduring mystery to me that at least the press in the West remains very hostile to the idea of gold. Again, when I have private conversations with very wealthy people, they have the same lack of concern and questioning that you do. They're like oh, no, of course we're going to have some gold.
It's really, I feel like, almost like a retail perception management project at this point in time. And somebody should study it from more of a psychological slash behavioral economic standpoint at some point in the future.
But it really feels like one of the more important statements somebody said to me at one point back when I was younger and I was trying to work out how the world worked, they said "justice is a middle class perception. The rich know better. The poor know better, each from different directions."
So really, there's a perception of gold, which is really sort of there's this middle classish sort of Western perception around it, which feels like it will have its awkward moment with an unpleasant policeman at some point in the future.
Grant Williams: Well, it's ironic you say that. And it's the perfect illustration, because the ownership of gold is largely in the East where people are poorer. You talk to wealthy people who understand it as a protection. They have something to protect and they want to protect it. And then you go over to India and Pakistan and Bangladesh and parts of the Middle East where gold is in the DNA.
These have been poor people. They're coming into the middle class now. But they have been poor relatively speaking for generations. And so they understand that. So, I think it's a great point and one that perfectly highlights, I think, why this misunderstanding of gold is because you obviously have a large middle class in the West that don't feel like they need it, which is fine.
But at some point, people are going to be forced into reevaluating what it means, and I suspect at that point in time, they will decide they need some. But whether they can get some or not is a whole other matter.
Chris Martenson: Indeed. Absolutely. Well said. And unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today. Thank you so much for being with all of us, Grant. Please tell our listeners where they can subscribe to your must read newsletter and also about Real TV.
Grant Williams: Sure. Thank you. My website is ttmygh.com. That's Things That Make You Go Hmmm dot com. And realvision.com is another project which I'm very passionate about, which is just our attempt to go around the world and speak to the brightest minds we can find in finance in an environment where we give them a chance and the latitude to say whatever they want, get deep into conversations with them and really try and explore and help make people better investors by learning from the very best.
And seeing as I've got you on, Chris, I want to make sure you confirm this on the air that you and I will sit down for one of these conversations. I need you to say yes in front of all these people.
Chris Martenson: It would be my honor. So, that's a yes.
Grant Williams: We'll get that together. I can't wait.
Chris Martenson: Fantastic. Well, thanks again for your time. We'll talk soon.
Grant Williams: Great. Thanks so much for having me.


text:
I am a hopeless, bleed teal, San Jose Sharks hockey fan. I have spent a gazillion hours at the Tank (otherwise known as HP Pavilion), home of the Sharks, hanging out at practices to get autographs on my jersey, then countless hours at home watching games. There are many more in the area who put me to shame but I think I have the bona fides to claim my title as a genuine Sharks fan.
One of the places I visit during games is Twitter. I follow the Sharks beat writer, David Pollak, @TeamNiemiClowe, the always fun @TheTealLadies and @SharksStats. Darin Stephens, Mr Sharks Stats, is an absolute fountain of information and I am always grateful to learn every little nuance from his tweets. We chit chat a bit and I mentioned to him one night my curiosity about the back stage part of the tv production.
Darin pulled the curtain back for me at Monday night's voyage through the magical world of a Sharks TV broadcast.
My friend Emily, a videographer, and I went to meet with Comcast SportsNet Director of Communications, Jay Dela Cruz in front of the Tank.
From there we were taken to the TV truck to see the magic get created, orchestrated into a "big symphony" as described by producer Sean Maddison
There are lots of cameras as one would expect which are part of the ensemble. This includes the amazing capabilities of the Rambus net cams which are inside the goal and can follow the action from an incredibly unique position on the ice. Those of us watching the TV broadcast have enjoyed seeing the action from behind the goalie to see whether the puck did or didn't cross the line, who got hit by who or who tipped the puck past the goalie. In total, according to the Director of Production, Devon Fox, this is what sends us video from the game: 2 robotic net cams, the robo in the dressing room, the robo at the zamboni entrance and the between the bench robo. So there are 5 robos, 5 hard cameras, 1 Hand Held camera, and 2 overhead cameras (NHL goal cameras).
Action in the tv truck:
Speaking of cameras and their operators, we chatted with Mike Muldowney who was a big camera operator. Mike went to school at College of San Mateo and got into this broadcasting business by getting an internship with the ComcastSportsNet predecessor. He does a number of different sports, including baseball and football. I asked about how the level of difficulty following a hockey game. For those of you who have never had the pleasure, an NHL hockey game can be blindingly fast. The puck is in constant movement, there are not three outs or four downs to change sides from offense to defense. Line changes happen as it is said, "on the fly" so guys are scrambling over the boards to jump in to the play, away from the puck, away from the goal. Shifts usually do not last more that 45 seconds with some going for as few as 15 seconds. But they are FAST seconds and many things can and do happen in that short amount of time. Being a camera operator trying to keep up with the hockey action requires a lot of concentration, attention to detail and ability to think quickly and react quickly. These are highly skilled folks, to say the least, who are helping to provide a seamless viewing experience for those of us not lucky enough to be in the Tank on game night.
Out in the truck, the producers and directors, video tape operators, stats guy (that would be my buddy, Mr Sharks Stats), sound technicians are all packed into the electronic cave taking all those shots, commentary from Sharks announcers Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda and funneling them out into our televisions all over the Bay Area.
The planning and work going into the broadcast is virtually non-stop. Producer Sean Maddison showed us a list of clips that he had put together to insert during breaks in the action. These include video montages of past goals, penalties, significant events in the storyline for the game. He was working on these immediately after the last game for the current game's broadcast. Again, not only is the game of hockey fast but the current storyline for the Sharks has involved changes in their position in the division. With back to back losses recently the team had slid past the dividing line for playoff contention. But now they seem to be back to winning ways, last night being the third win a row.
Four weeks ago the Sharks had traded forward Jamie McGinn to the Colorado Avalanche, Monday night's adversary. In return the Sharks had gained the services of TJ Galiardi and Dan Winnick. McGinn is having a career season, so far scoring 20 goals and 16 assists over the course of the 2011-2012 season. Galiardi and Winnick were not nearly as prolific on either team. Colorado is also one of the teams battling for one of the playoff berths and were one point in back of the Sharks going into Monday night's game.
So there were the obvious stories at play going in to the broadcast: the Sharks playoff chances, the recent trades, the Av's playoff chances, along with stories that occur during the course of the game. Joe Pavelski needed two points to reach 300 career points and Darin alerted the staff and broadcasters that this story was on the sidelines. Pavelski got the two points with two goals and the landmark was celebrated on air. It was great to see what good planning and research will do to improve the product.
Meanwhile, directions were flying in all directions from directors, producers and the stats man. Also through the headphones Drew and Randy were commenting on the game on the air and in to the truck. The video tape editors were trying to "sell" their shots to the directors and producers for use in replays. There were directions for "going to purple". The videos all have different names like purple or letters.
From up in the top of the Tank, Drew and Randy sit with mics on, except when the cough switch is thrown. This prevents coughs or conversation that shouldn't be part of the tv experience from going out on the air. There is a constant dialogue between Drew and Randy and the producers about what is coming up, the script with the story lines becomes all important because those are plugged in all along the way so we get loads of information. Drew is also operating the infamous telestrater.
Drew and Randy are joined by Janice Baker-Kinney who we see in the background whenever the camera wanders up there during the game. She gave me a chance to try the telestrater. Talk about a nerd moment in heaven, I was delirious! All the arrows and circles that Drew uses so effectively during the broadcast to highlight good and maybe some not so good plays are all brought to us through the telestrater. I clicked away and arrowed and circled and did all that stuff on a shot. Wow! Such a cool tool and thanks Janice for letting me get a nerd fix.
Speaking of which, I have to give a shout out to all the women I met last night. While everyone was beyond nice, it was heartening to see so many women working in a field that has been dominated by men. There are seven women on this broadcast team. A number of the team members went to school at San Francisco State and got chances through different internships. They work on baseball, football, basketball hockey, all the high level of sports we enjoy around the Bay Area. A big acknowledgement to ComcastSportsNet for making the right moves to higher all the great talent. Back in my days in college broadcasting, women were definitely an afterthought and certainly weren't offered the same opportunities. I am glad to see so much change.
After the first period we went back in the building and watched the second period inside the Tank. Emily and then returned to mi casita to watch the third and final period. The most important part of the night, the Sharks win 5-1 and go back in to first place in the Pacific division. We started the night outside of playoff position for the Stanley Cup playoffs and finished the night in third place for the conference, back in the Cup playoffs. For now.
So from all the angles, what we see at home is a tight, professional product. How it gets to our televisions requires a great amount of skill, professionalism and concentration to bring us all along on the E ticket ride of a Sharks game. It is chaotic with a focus, intense while providing entertainment. There is truly a person behind the curtain, many persons doing a wide array of jobs to give us top notch game broadcasts. On the nights when we don't get our home town broadcast team, it is obvious the skills and knowledge that our on air folks-Drew Remenda, Randy Hah, Kevin Kurz, Jamie Baker and Brodie Brazil bring to us over the course of the two plus hours of hockey.
Thank you Comcast SportsNet for pulling the curtain back and letting see the magic.


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Books » Author » Victoria M. Azaro
By Azaro, Victoria M.
Whether grandkids are short like a snort, or gigantic like the Atlantic, they all have a special bond with their grandparents. With stunning illustrations, sweet rhyme, and heartfelt sentiments, Victoria M. Azaro handles sensitive issues with a dextrous touch. This is a book abou...t building memories together ... and treasuring them always.Read more
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When Sage, the younger sister of Saffron, brings home the class toy Mr Floppy Ribbon she gets into some tricky situations but then manages to solve them in her own particular way.
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With its outspoken heroine and unique illustrations, Saffron, I have Everything Under Control is a rollicking sequel to Victoria M. Azaro's Saffron.
Meet Saffron. Her mum is an artist who says 'darrling' all the time, her little sister Sage has an unquenchable appetite for asking annoying questions, and her dad is always travelling on business to bring home the bacon. Saffron goes travelling too, usually with her mum and Sage.... And she has an uncanny knack for getting into difficult situations. Join her as she dodges traffic in Buenos Aires, eats escargot in Provence, and gets lost in a Mass Transit Railway station in Hong Kong. Saffron is a joy to read. Quirky, hilarious, irreverent and spirited, it will be loved by parents and children alike. Azaro captures the voice of the child perfectly, while her unique illustrations are full of energy and humour.Read more
Illustrated by Azaro, Victoria M.
1. Saffron. Saffron travels the world with her family. Although she is rather good at packing and quite excellent with tourist guides, she always seems to get into tricky situations. In this book she dodges traffic in Buenos Aires, eats escargot in France and gets lost in the cha...os of a mass transit railway station in Hong kong. 2. Saffron, I have everything under control. Mum is having a baby, Sage is asking a million questions and Saffron's eccentric and peculiar aunties have just arrived from Argentina. But that's ok because Saffron has everything under control, if tuk tuks and collapsing cathedrals don't cause enough mayhem, Saffron must also cope with the arrival of a new family member. 3. Saffron, so quite excellent. When her baby sister, Star Anise, has a sleep problem and Mum can't keep up, Saffron knows exactly what to do, and that's help. But although her ideas for helping are so quite excellent they don't go exactly to plan. In this book, Saffron dances flamenco in Madrid, promenades in Saint Tropez, discovers her calling as a famous choreographer and helps Mum, sometimes. Includes games, facts on countries, a cake recipe, Spanish glossary and book club notes.Read more
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Many a time you may have applications or websites open that you may now want anyone else to see. The best thing one can do to hide such things from others is completely close the application itself.
For example you are watching a funny video at work and may not want your colleagues or far more worse you boss to catch you at it. This is definitely not the best solution as you will have to start the application back up again once they have left.
Hide Windows, Application Hider, Windows Hide


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Apr 22, 2005 (CIDRAP News) – The death toll in Angola's outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic fever has climbed to 244 of 266 people infected, but Angolan officials say the epidemic has been confined to the province where it began, according to news reports today.
The World Health Organization (WHO), in a statement late yesterday, said 239 of 266 people had died of the disease as of Apr 19. But reports from Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) today put the death toll in the world's worst Marburg epidemic at 244. An AFP report on Apr 17 had listed the death toll as 235.
Angola's deputy health minister, Jose Van Dunem, said no new cases have occurred outside the northern province of Uige, according to the AFP report. "We have circumscribed the epidemic to the province of Uige," he said, adding that the disease "is on a decline."
The age distribution of patients has shifted upward, according to health ministry figures reported by AFP. Forty-two percent of patients have been children and 35% have been adults, with no age information available for the other 23%. Earlier in the epidemic, about 75% of patients were said to be children, for reasons that remain unclear.
AFP reported that 518 people are under observation nationwide because of exposure to Marburg patients. The number includes 406 in the city of Uige.
The WHO's latest statement didn't offer a judgment on the overall success of containment efforts, but it said, "Significant progress has been made in increasing the engagement of affected communities. Some cases and deaths have, however, continued to occur within the community. Efforts to rapidly isolate cases, shortly after symptom onset, and follow up contacts need to be further intensified."
Further, the WHO said healthcare teams have learned that some families caring for patients at home have been giving them injections, which can help spread the disease. Officials have prepared materials explaining the dangers of the practice and will add them to the educational messages already being used.
A Canadian disease expert who just returned from Angola said self-treatment with vitamin and herbal injections, often with shared needles, is among factors that appear to be spreading the disease, according to a report in the Toronto Globe and Mail today.
The comment came from Dr. Heinz Feldmann, acting director of zoonotic diseases and special pathogens at the Public Health Agency of Canada in Winnipeg, Man. Feldmann spent 3 weeks in Angola helping to operate a portable laboratory that tested blood samples for the Marburg virus, the report said.
A US scientist said the Marburg outbreak is not yet under control but does not constitute a serious global threat, according to a Reuters report published today.
Tom Ksiazek of the special pathogens branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who has been in Angola since the early stages of the outbreak, told Reuters, "I don't think it's under control, but I don't think it's out of control either. I don't think it's that dangerous in global terms. It doesn't have the ability to go through the general community. The common cold is a lot more transmittable."
The disease spreads through contact with patients' bodily fluids. Reports say most of the victims have been medical workers and family members who cared for other patients. Ksiazek said that if the disease reached a major Western city, it could easily be controlled with measures that prevent contact with bodily fluids.
The Reuters report said markets in Uige remain open and most of the province's half a million people have felt little direct impact from the outbreak.
The WHO said a team of 28 Angolan healthcare workers arrived in Uige yesterday to help with the containment effort. They were to work on infection control, surveillance for new cases, tracing and managing contacts of patients, and public education efforts.
In the Globe and Mail report, Feldmann downplayed reports of violence against WHO teams trying to combat the outbreak. He said he was "never physically threatened" and added that anger can be expected among people dealing with the devastating outbreak.
See also:
Apr 21 WHO update


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Others have summed up the death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Gregory Scalia better than I can. But I wanted to post something to mark the passing of this man.
I don't always follow the workings of the Supreme Court as often as I should, because many different things battle for my time and attention. But one thing that always stood about him was how seriously he took the Constitution. Whereas others were inclined to take the Constitution as a roadblock to their own policy wet dreams, Scalia chose instead to look at it as a guide.
"If the Bill of Rights had intended an exception to the freedom of speech in order to combat this malign proclivity of the officeholder to agree with those who agree with him, and to speak more with his supporters than his opponents, it would surely have said so. It did not do so, I think, because the juice is not worth the squeeze."
Judicial activism is one of the major issues of our time. On what basis did the court rule on gay marriage, either in the affirmative or the negative? The Supreme Court is to handle cases of Constitutional law and crisis, and the Constitution makes no mention of the institution of marriage, much less that of specific demographics. Since powers not expressly granted to the Federal Government are reserved for the states or the people, it should have been struck back down to the states for resolution.
And if people really wanted a law passed, it could have come via Congress.
Scalia's own dissenting opinion on the matter is reflective of his understanding of this issue:
"Today's decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court,"
Scalia may have been a child of Italian immigrants, but he was firmly rooted in the Anglo-American tradition of limited government. Were he alive in the Revolutionary period, I am certain the Founders would have found common cause with him.
And I guess that's why I mourn his passage as I do. He represented what old school Republican government was supposed to look like. He understood the dangers of authoritarianism, and held on to that position despite his appointment to one of the highest offices of the land. In an era of political courts, he was the sole voice of Constitutional reason. His political angle was to go to the Constitution when questions needed answering, instead of going to the opinion polls.
We won't see his like again for awhile. In an era when even "Conservatives" are forgetting just what they were supposed to conserve, when Socialism and Authoritarianism are all the rage, he was a throwback to the days of the early Republic. Even if we had a Conservative Congress (we don't, by the way), and a Conservative President, I doubt another could be found to fill his shoes. As it stands, I despair that we'll find anyone to the Right of Karl Marx.
"God has been very good to us. One of the reasons God has been good to us is that we have done him honor."
He was a Godly man, so I have no doubt that he found his proper reward.


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Loyalty Day
On May 1, the VFW leads ceremonies to recognize Loyalty to America Day when all citizens are encouraged to reflect on the freedoms they have, to support democracy and to honor those who protect America. Loyalty Day began as "Americanization Day" in 1921 to counter the Communists' May 1 celebration of the Russian Revolution. See "Contests and Scholarships" for information about Loyalty Day contests for students and adults.
Memorial Day
Memorial Day, May 30 (traditional), is a sacred day to all war veterans. America's collective consciousness demands that all citizens be reminded of the deaths of their fellow countrymen during wartime. By honoring the nation's war dead, we preserve their memory and their service and sacrifice. All U.S. flags should be at half-staff in the morning hours. At noon, they should be raised to full-staff.
Independence Day
On July 4, 1776, the signers of the Declaration of Independence boldly asserted that all are "created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Every Fourth of July, Americans celebrate this pivotal moment in our history, which set into motion the development of a land of freedom and opportunity.
Patriot's Day
Those whom we lost September 11, 2001, will forever hold a cherished place in our hearts and in the history of our nation. By a joint resolution approved December 18, 2001, (Public Law 107-89), Congress authorized the president to designate September 11 as "Patriot Day" to perpetuate the memory of those who perished in the attack on America, to pursue peace and justice in the world and security at home. Appropriate ceremonies and a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. EDT. Flags should be flown at half-staff.
POW/MIA Commemoration Day
POW/MIA commemoration day honors the commitments and the sacrifices made by our nation's prisoners of war and those who are still missing in action. By custom, it is on the third Friday in September. National POW/MIA Recognition Day is one of the six days specified by law on which the black POW/MIA flag shall be flown over federal facilities and cemeteries, post offices and military installations.
Veterans Day
Veterans Day is an opportunity to publicly commemorate the contributions of living veterans. Armistice Day officially received its name in America in 1926 through a congressional resolution. It became a national holiday 12 years later by similar congressional action. In 1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill proclaiming November 11 as Veterans Day.
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
Observed annually on December 7 to remember and honor all those who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. On August 23, 1994, United States Congress, by Pub.L. 103-308, designated December 7 of each year as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. It is a tradition to fly the Flag of the United States at half-staff until sunset in honor of dead patriots.


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Lenore Balliro, president of Plum Cove Consulting, is
an innovative, hands-on professional educator with proven skills in program design and management, staff development, teacher training and supervision, curriculum design, and direct instruction. She is committed to participatory, strength-based approaches to teaching, learning, and program development.
A dynamic presenter and group leader with national
and international experience, Lenore is an effective communicator within a variety of communities: face-to-face, print, and social media. A creative problem solver, she draws from research in literacy acquisition, adult learning theory, and her experience in studio arts and creative writing to bring refreshing perspectives to work challenges.
- Extensive experience in the field of adult basic education, including ABE, GED, ESOL, and workplace education
- Extensive work with community-based programs serving refugees and immigrants
- International teaching and staff development experience
- Workshop presenter at regional, national, and international juried conferences·
- Published author of articles in professional journals
- Management and supervisory experience
- Online course development and teaching, including webinars
- Extensive experience in editing and publication production
· For more details of Lenore's background, please see her resume.


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Great... AFTER you figure out that you need to be first dealing with UNICODE not UTF-8.
It does work... but you need to be sure you are using it correctly for your application. Here is a simple example.
use Encode qw/encode decode/;
use Text::Unidecode;
$data = decode("UTF-8", $data);
$data = unidecode( $data );
I've not had the chance to use this module (yet). But the documentation is a sheer delight to read, probably because I've been reading too much Ted Dziuba (see bit.ly/e4GAgh). More modules should be this powerfully simple.
Just perfect - Does one job and does it well. It took me about thirty minutes after receiving a problem report from a customer to find this package, install it, integrate it into our code and get it out into production.
A little stale, but a work of brilliance nonetheless
Nice module. Simple interface but no updates for 7+ years and the version number is 0.04 and has this rather long TODO list. Seems to work ok with latin languages but not so sure about the performance/correctness with chinese, japanese or arabic. There seems to be converters for ZH/JP at least but this wheel is not yet re-invented as a whole as it seems :)
Simple interface, and does what it says. Excellent.


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Panasonic 9kg Front Load Washer PSN-NAV90FX1
99.99% Bacteria Elimination
Stain Removal and Allergy Care
Lift Stains Easily
Stylish, Minimalist Design
Safe and Reliable
Protect What You Love. Remove What You Don't.
Protect Your Baby from Bacteria
Baby clothes get dirty easily, and even if you hand wash them it's still hard to remove invisible harmful bacteria. With a combination of UV light and Ag ions, Panasonic's Blue Ag+ technology eliminates 99.99%*1 of bacteria, and has a powerful antibacterial effect. Since it's a normal temperature water wash, there's no worry of damaging your baby's clothes. NOTE: Blue Ag+ can be used for loads of up to 3 kg. *1 Certified by Japan Food Research Laboratories. Test report number: 19085536001-0201
Safe & Reliable
UV-A light is safe for humans, Ag (silver) ions have been proven to be useful for hygiene purposes, and Panasonic has made it easy to replace the device. Dr. Kourai shares his expertise on the effectiveness of Blue Ag+, its safety, and the convenience it offers mothers with daily laundry chores.(Hiroki KOURAI, Dr., an advisor to The Society for Antibacterial and Antifungal Agents, Japan)
Allergen & Stain Removal for Your Baby
Dust mites multiply easily in bedding, towels, etc. and trigger allergies with unpleasant symptoms especially for babies with sensitive skin. StainMaster+ 60/90°C*3 eliminates not only dust mites but also bacteria and allergens for your peace of mind. In addition, it removes oily stains and dirt at 40°C, the temperature at which sebum starts to dissolve. *1 This product has been endorsed by Allergy UK with third-party testing results. *2 Escherichia coli ATCC29922 & Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923 up to 99.9% [Testing Laboratories] Institute of Biotechnology (Hanoi) [Report Issue Date] 23/Oct/2019 Operating condition: Allergy 60°C *3 You can set water temperature with the Temp button.
Easy Daily Washing for You
The ActiveFoam System creates fine, high-density foam before the wash cycle starts to maximize washing performance for cleaner results. Since detergent is turned into foam before washing, less undissolved detergent becomes attached to clothes.Let's make every day's wash easy and extra clean. * The level of foaming depends on conditions such as load size, degree of soiling, detergent type, and water pressure. However, there is no change in washing performance.
Fast, Clean Wash in Just 38 min
Fast washing in just 38 minutes with fine, high-density foam.<br>Active Speed Wash washes clothes in less time, leaving you more quality time to spend with your baby. * Half load, Active Speed course.
Stylish, Minimalist Design
The stylish body has a minimalist design with simple straight and circular lines. Its rounded form features gentle arcs and a simple round door ring.
1. Big, Easy-to-see Center Display
2. Luxury Chrome Plated Door
3. Round Form with Aesthetic Arc
Auto Tub Care Cleans the Tub with Every Wash
Water vigorously pours into the tub as it rotates at a higher speed than during normal rinsing to wash the tub. This prevents the accumulation of detergent residue, which suppresses the growth of mold and bacteria that cause foul odor.
Loading Capacity (Wash): 9 kg
Basic Specification
Spin Speed (max.): 1,400 rpm
Dimensions (W x D x H): 596 x 600 x 845 mm
Weight: 75 kg
Voltage / Frequency: 220 - 240 V / 50 Hz
Drum Opening Size: 360 mm
Control Panel Type: LED Display
Body Color: SUS Silver look
Wash Features
ActiveFoam System: Yes
Active Speed Wash: Yes
3D Sensor Wash: Yes
Blue Ag+: Yes(up to 3 kg)
StainMaster+: Yes
Laundry load sensor
Water temperature sensor
Laundry material sensor
Inverter: Yes
Convenient Features
Detergent Case/ Turbo Mixer: Yes
Child Lock: Yes
Auto Power Off: Yes
Auto Restart: Yes
Alpha Drum: Yes
Guidance Function: Cycle end buzzer
Delay Start (Time Delay): Yes (24 hours)
Drain Pump: Yes
Number of Programs: 14
Normal: Yes
Daily Wash: Yes
Synthetic: Yes
Delicates: Yes
Bedding: Yes
Cotton: Yes
Tub Clean: Yes
Active Speed 38: Yes
Rapid 15: Yes
Soak: Yes
Allergy: Yes
Mud: Yes
Oily Sauce: Yes
Collar & Sleeve: Yes


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Your Order
Orders or parts of an order may be cancelled by our system for various reasons. Possible reasons include:
- Unavailable item(s)
- Difficulty in processing your payment information
- Inability to ship to the address provided
- Existence of a duplicate order
If a part or all of your order is cancelled, you will receive an important notice via email. You will not be billed for any cancelled items. Once all or part of an order is cancelled, it cannot be reprocessed and must be submitted again on our website if the product/s are available.
If you are interested in purchasing items similar to unavailable items, you may contact Customer Service for recommendations.
After you have clicked "Place your Order," you cannot cancel or change your order, as our system is designed to process and ship orders immediately. Once you receive your order, simply return any unwanted items by following our Return Instructions.
You may only cancel your order if you receive an e-mail notifying you that we are unable to process your payment information. If you receive an email advising that we are unable to process your payment information your order has automatically been cancelled and will not be fulfilled.


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Bally Technologies is responsible for developing Quick Hit Slots. It is an only game where the user can play in online as well as offline brick-and-mortar casinos. It is an updated version. You may say that it's a remake of an older version with the same name. Bally developers are known for some excellent graphics and audio quality to make the slots game even more appealing and funny. To get the Quick Hit Slots free coins please go to the page below.
***Use your game username
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The highest payout can be 2,500 credits multiplied by the overall amount you bet in quick Hit. There are lots of other bonus features that make the game even more exciting and fun. The online version of the game is more appealing visual with its vibrant color with the black and purple format.
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