The Federal Reserve is in Panic: the Growth of Employment is “Submerged in Economic Stagnation” (Source globalresearch.ca) In her public discourses, the president of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, has avoided the serious problems that the United States economy suffers. In accord with the President of the Federal Reserve, the process of recovery of the North American economy has been strengthening for considerable time. And, because of this, if the FOMC has not raised the cost of credit is due, above all, to a high rate of “obligation” and “responsibility” with the rest of the world. Nevertheless, the truth is that the United States economy is not exactly in good health. The labour market data published during the 12 months before March of 2015 is not as robust as was presumed by the Federal Reserve: the Department of Labor recognized recently that it had overestimated the jobs created by the private sector by at least 255,000. On the other hand, during the month of September the non-agricultural employment reached 143,000, much less than the 200,000 hoped for. The greatest reversals were in sectors tied to external trade and energy. The rise of the dollar, and the fall in prices of commodities and the extreme weakness of global demand with the rest of the world precipitated the structural deterioration of the US economy. The bad news does not end here: the numbers of the jobs generated in July and August were also lower. Now we know that in August only 136,000 jobs were created, rather than the 176,000 originally reported: while in the month of July there were created 21,000 fewer jobs than those counted in the previous revision. Hence it is now clear that the fall of the unemployment rates in recent months depends more on the reduction of the rate of participation in the labour market — as a consequence of the despair of thousands of US citizens — and less on the creation of quality long range jobs: on Friday October 2 it was announced that in September 350,000 persons abandoned the search for work. There is no turning around, in the United States job growth has been submerged in stagnation.

Oversold Markets, Rising Equities, the Derivatives Implosion, The Fed Looses Credibility (Source jsmineset.com) While the markets were oversold and due a bounce, the “bounce” came with a backdrop of very dire news! Day after day brought forth new and consistently worse news. In no particular order of importance;

Deutsche Bank reported a $6.5 billion loss (10% of their net equity), UBS joined the derivatives implosion party and required a capital raise, Glencore ‘fessed up to $100 billion in debt versus the previous $19 billion (with three or four other major commodity firms in the same boat), the Bank of England required their banks to disclose how much of this debt they were exposed to, China’s yuan surpassed the yen in the settlement of global trade, China also went live with their alternative settlement of trade in yuan (non dollars), Saudi Arabia and Norway disclosed they are now in deficit and thus no longer “buyers” of dollars (are they now sellers?) …

and the U.S. was effectively kicked out of the Middle East!

A Serious Meltdown is Underway? The Fukushima Daiichi Plant No. 2 Nuclear Reactor Fuel is Missing (Source Dissident Voice)  The World’s Never Seen Anything Like This.The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant No. 2 nuclear reactor fuel is missing from the core containment vessel.1. Where did it go? Nobody knows. Not only that but the “learning curve” for a nuclear meltdown is as fresh as the event itself because “the world has never seen anything like this,”  Never. Utilizing cosmic ray muon radiography with nuclear emulsion, researchers from Nagoya University peered inside the reactors at Fukushima. The nuclear fuel in reactor core No. 5 was clearly visible via the muon process. However, at No. 2 reactor, which released a very large amount of radioactive substances coincident with the 2011 explosion, little, if any, signs of nuclear fuel appear in the containment vessel. A serious meltdown is underway. “The researchers say further analyses are needed to determine whether molten fuel penetrated the reactor and fell down.”2 In short, researchers do not yet know if the molten hot stuff has penetrated the steel/concrete base beyond the containment vessel, thus entering Earth. The Nagoya University research team, in coordination with Toshiba Corporation, reported their findings at a meeting of the Physical Society of Japan on September 26th.

U.S. drawing a line against Putin in Europe (Source politico.com) Often criticized for being naïve and complacent about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions, the Obama administration and its European allies are intensifying their planning and training for a potential conflict on NATO’s eastern flank, hoping to send the strongest possible message about Russian aggression. Deterring Putin was a central theme at a conference here hosted by the U.S. Army, attended by generals from 38 European countries. Officials described escalating NATO activity — including a massive training exercise now underway and talk of U.S. troop increases — in terms reminiscent of the 1980s, when the alliance stared down Soviet-made Warsaw Pact tanks in central Europe. Tan and brown desert camouflage is out; forest greens are in. The NATO exercise, named Trident Juncture, is the largest in more than a decade; it began in mid-October and wraps up late next week. It involves 36,000 troops responding to the invasion of a fictitious region called Ceresia by a hostile neighbor employing so-called hybrid guerrilla warfare tactics like those Putin has adopted in Ukraine. Operating in Spain, Portugal, Italy and surrounding Atlantic waters, the counter-force includes submarines, fighter jets and U.S. Marines storming beaches with landing craft. The training is partly designed to increase military readiness—a sign of concern that Putin might launch another rapid military operation like his March 2014 seizure of Crimea, which caught the U.S. and Europe flat-footed.

NATO discussing increasing troops near Russia’s borders: WSJ (Source Reuters) Member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are discussing increasing the number of troops stationed along the Russian border and putting them under formal alliance command, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing diplomats and military officers. One plan would place battalions in Poland and three Baltic states, while another would have a single NATO battalion in the area, according to the newspaper. Since Russia annexed Crimea from neighboring Ukraine last year, countries in the area have been concerned about its next move, especially after the Russian military stepped up its exercises in the region, according to the Journal. Reuters did not confirm the report.

China signs giant Airbus deal as Merkel visits (Source Yahoo) China inked a giant aircraft contract with European manufacturer Airbus Thursday, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel began a visit with European leaders increasingly competing for market share in the world’s second largest economy.  Merkel’s trip comes between a high profile visit to Britain by Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month, when he stayed at Buckingham Palace in London, and ahead of a trip to China by French President Francois Hollande next week. China is the European Union’s largest trading partner and several major EU countries including Germany, Britain and France are wooing the country in the hope of winning business and becoming hubs for the growing overseas trade of China’s yuan currency. The competition has made for awkward moments between the countries and their ally the US, China’s greatest geopolitical rival, including their decisions to join Beijing’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank despite Washington’s opposition. Observers question whether the increased investment comes at the cost of softening stances against human rights abuses by the Asian giant, which has used political access as a cudgel to punish countries that criticise its behaviour. However Merkel, who met with both the Chinese president and Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing on Thursday, also held talks with human rights activists on the first day of her trip to China, her spokesman said Thursday.

Russian warplanes intercepted near US carrier off Korean peninsula (Source AFP) Fighter jets from South Korea and the United States intercepted two Russian warplanes after they flew near a US aircraft carrier operating off the Korean peninsula, officials said Thursday. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the USS Ronald Reagan — a massive, nuclear-powered supercarrier — was involved in a military exercise with South Korean partners when two Russian Tu-142 Bear aircraft flew past the ship. “These Russian aircraft were intercepted first by Korean military aircraft that were operating in the region,” Earnest said. Four American F/A-18s were then mobilized. Earnest sought to downplay the incident in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), calling it “not a particularly threatening encounter” and noted that the USS Ronald Reagan was operating in international waters at the time. “This is a particular situation that did not result in a significant confrontation,” he said. The two Russian Tu-142 Bear aircraft were flying about a mile from the carrier at an altitude of 500 feet (150 meters) on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.

Here’s How Russia Can Destroy The West Without Weapons (Source valuewalk.com) Russian spy ships and submarines navigating international waters have become the center of attention among many American military and intelligence officials. Russian vessels have been showing aggressive behavior near some of the most vital undersea cables that carry pretty much all communications, including the Internet. What Washington officials are concerned about is that Moscow ships might be planning to cut those lines during tensions or military confrontation, and given that West’s governments, economies and citizens have become largely dependent on communications, such a move would give Russia a crucial edge in a possible war. What’s especially alarming to the U.S. is that such sneaky operations could involve cutting the fiber-optic cables to disrupt the instant communications at some of their hardest-to-access locations, which would make it costly and time-consuming to repair them. And although there have not been an instant of Russian ships cutting undersea cables yet, the growing concerns over the issue are part of Western wariness over the rate at which Russia beefs up its military activity around the globe. According to The New York Times, more than a dozen U.S. officials confirmed that the Russian naval threat, particularly the possibility of cutting global Internet communications, has been in the focus of the Pentagon’s attention.