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Earlier this month, Moog announced that it would be reissuing an extremely limited number of rebooted instruments from the company's extinct line of crazy modulars from the 1970s. You'll probably never actually get to play one, but at the very least you can revel in the magnificent demo in the video above.

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If there’s one industry that’s been missing out on marketing opportunities linked to big budget feature films, it’s got to be the sex toy industry. Because before Christian Grey and his room full of educational tools got everyone’s moms and aunts texting things we’d rather not read, there really wasn’t an opportune time to peddle promotional Kegel balls.

That time is now: With the Valentine’s Day premiere of the Fifty Shades of Grey movie looming, effectively mainstreaming sex toys on the big screen, the New York Times reports that retailers are stocking up on the whips, blindfolds, handcuffs, masks and other sexual sundries.

The idea being, if the movie does as well as the industry hopes it does, that could send sex toy seekers who like what they see on screen flocking to stores.

Some manufacturers have even changed up packaging and products to go along with the tone and theme of the film, although there’s only one company with the rights to sell official Fifty Shades of Grey adult products, a company called Loverboy that’s selling its products in Target and elsewhere.

Speaking of Target, you may recall that the giant chain recently started shilling official Fifty Shades of Grey products like a “vibrating love ring.” It does not go on your finger, and should not be displayed next to kids’ toothbrushes.

When the first book in the series came out in 2011, retailers say they weren’t prepared for the onslaught of shoppers. The bondage tome sparked a 7.5% jump in sales of sex toys, videos and books in 2013. This time, they’ll be ready.

“It is the biggest moment for our industry in popular culture pretty much ever,” Claire Cavanah, a co-founder of Babeland, an adult novelty retailer, told the NYT. “We’re all sort of preparing for what could be another wave of toys.”

Sex Toy Shops Prepare for Tie-Ins to ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ [New York Times]

If you are an investor, your big concern should not be about stocks… but what happens when the bond bubble goes bust.

For 30+ years, Western countries have been papering over the decline in living standards by issuing debt. In its simplest rendering, sovereign nations spent more than they could collect in taxes, so they issued debt (borrowed money) to fund their various welfare schemes.

This was usually sold as a “temporary” issue. But as politicians have shown us time and again, overspending is never a temporary issue. Today, a whopping 47% of American households receive some kind of Government benefit. This is not temporary… this is endemic.

All of this is spending is being financed by borrowed money… hence, the bond bubble, the biggest bubble in financial history: an incredible $100 trillion monster that is now growing by trillions of dollars every few months.

We do not write that point for effect. The US alone issued over $1 trillion in NEW debt in an eight week period towards the end of 2014.

The reasons it did this? Because it didn't have the money to pay off the debt that is coming due from the past… so it simply issued NEW debt to raise the money to pay back the OLD debt.

Sounds a lot like a Ponzi scheme… but the US is not alone in this regard. Globally, the sovereign debt bubble is over $100 trillion in size. Just about every major nation on the planet is sporting a Debt to GDP ratio of 100%+ and that is just including “on the balance sheet” debts… not unfunded liabilities like Medicare or Social Security.

This is why the Fed and every other Central Bank on earth is terrified of interest rates rising; because anything even resembling the normalization of interest rates would mean entire countries going bust.

Remember when interest rates move, they tend to move quickly. Consider Italy. It was considered one of the pillars of the EU since it adopted the Euro in 1999. Because of this, the markets were happy to allow Italy to borrow at stable rates with the yield on the ten year Italy government bond well below 5% for most of the last decade.

Then, in the span of a few weeks, everything came unhinged and the yields on Italy government bonds spiked, rising over 7%: the dreaded level at which a country is considered to be insolvent and set for default. It was only through extraordinary lending mechanisms from the European Central bank (the LTRO 1 and LTRO 2 programs to the tune of hundreds of billions of Euros… for an economy that is €2 trillion in size) that Italy was saved from potential systemic collapse.

Again, Italy went from being a former pillar of Europe to insolvent in a matter of weeks… all because interest rates spiked a mere 2% higher than usual.

Italy is not alone here. Western nations in general are in a similar state. This is why QE has been such a popular monetary tool for the Central Banks (since 2008 they’ve spent $11 trillion buying assets, usually sovereign bonds). QE was never meant to create jobs or generate economic growth… it was a desperate ploy by Central Banks to put a floor under the bond market so rates wouldn’t rise.

It’s also why Central Banks have kept interest rates at zero or even negative: again, they cannot afford to have rates rise. In the US, every 1% increase in interest rates means between $150-$175 billion more in interest payments on our debt per year.

Forget stocks, forget your concerns about this or that valuation metric, the REAL issue is what happens when the Bond Bubble pops. When that happens it won’t be individual banks going bust, it will be ENTIRE NATIONS.

If you’ve yet to take action to prepare for the second round of the financial crisis, we offer a FREE investment report Financial Crisis "Round Two" Survival Guide that outlines easy, simple to follow strategies you can use to not only protect your portfolio from a market downturn, but actually produce profits.

You can pick up a FREE copy at:

http://www.phoenixcapitalmarketing.com/roundtwo.html

 

Best Regards

Phoenix Capital Research

 

 

For Superbowl Sunday, everyone's favorite astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson posts an image from NASA that compares the length and width of the International Space Station to that of a standard football field, captioned "On this Super Sunday in the United States of America, I'm happy to remind us all that some images need no captions".

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Hong Kong-based toymaker BigBoysToys is working on the next best thing to Street Fighter Amiibo. Its Street Fighter TNC line feature miniature figurines of the World Warriors, with a diorama stand as well as lights and sound effects. First up is Ryu, his hadouken and his Street Fighter II stage.

Here’s a brief demo of the toy:

You can pre-order the Street Fighter T.N.C. 01 Ryu from Play-Asia for $90 (USD). BigBoysToys will release a total of 8 T.N.C. figures; judging from the photos on its Facebook page the second one will be Ken.

[via GoNintendo]

If you’ve ever wanted to slather McDonald’s Big Mac special sauce on a home-cooked burger but didn’t have the energy or motivation to make your own copycat version, then the idea that company is now selling bottles of the yellow-orange sauce is probably exciting. That is until you find out you can only get it in Australia.

ABC News reports that McDonald’s is selling the sauce directly to consumers for the first time.

“For too long Big Mac Special Sauce has been trapped in a beautiful, delicious burger – now we’ve set it free!” the company announced.

McDonald’s restaurants in Australia began selling the 25-milliliter tubes (about an ounce) today, and will continue to do so until they are sold out.

“Big Mac sauce is one of the most iconic McDonald’s ingredients and people often ask us where they can buy it, so we’re excited to be the first country in the world to offer tubes of Big Mac sauce to our customers,” McDonald’s CMO Australia Mark Lollback says.

If about an ounce of sauce isn’t enough for you, then you might be interested in the limited edition large bottle listed on eBay. The sale of the 500-milliliter bottle is being auctioned to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

“With 500 ml to play with, you’ll have enough to impress your friends at dinner parties, cheat your way to cooking show fame, and get elected as Prime Minister!” the listing boasts.

The bottle has so far garnered 135 bids, the highest being $23,100.

Of course if you don’t want to shell out the big bucks – or don’t live in Australia – you can always make the sauce at home. Back in 2012, the company’s executive chef demonstrated in a YouTube video just how you can make the iconic sauce yourself.

McDonald’s Selling Limited Edition Special Sauce for First Time [ABC News]

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The celebration of Three Kings Day is supposed to be fun, not terrifying. Marking the holiday with a cake or sweet bread should not cause dizziness, heart palpitations, and hallucinations among people who are celebrating. Yet that’s what happened to around 40 people who purchased Rosca de Reyes sweet breads from a southern California bakery last month.

You may be familiar with different cultures’ variations on king cakes, which have different ingredients but one thing in common: they conceal a small, non-edible token, and the person who wins that token is king or queen for the day. In the U.S., the holiday is mainly associated with Louisiana, but it’s a tradition in Latin America as well. The bread contains dried fruit and a tiny baby Jesus figurine.

Lab tests performed by the Orange County Register showed that the breads sold in January contained an extra festive ingredient: a synthetic cannabinoid. Specifically, a strain called JWH-122. The lab believes that this contamination isn’t accidental, especially since the substance was found in multiple cakes.

The substance can be sprayed on smokable dried plants: this specific strain is illegal, but the synthetic cannabinoids aren’t hard to find in head shops.

The bakery was closed for much of January for reasons not directly related to the king cake incident. The local health department and police are conducting their own investigations, and haven’t commented publicly on them.

Tests Show Synthetic Drug Contaminated Holiday Bread From CA Bakery [Food Safety News]

GIYP fan Marco sent in this pic with the following message:

i was thinking you want more photos of my girlfriend :D

Not sure if he means we already posted her, or if he’s saying he’ll send more… but either way, yes, we want more photos of your girlfriend. Yes times 100.