Month: April 2017

VIX Call volumes had exploded in recent weeks, accelerating to their highest levels since Brexit ahead of the healthcare vote, which saw VIX spike dramatically to 2017 highs.

However, in the aftermath of the pulled vote debacle, VIX collapsed at a near record pace, as did VIX Call volumes (trading at their lowest level since 2016).

The question many had was – why the sudden rush to complacency after an event that merely increases the uncertainty of Trump stimulus – the only leg left standing for any self-respecting asset-gatherer defending "Long Stocks" to his client base.

Well, Pravit Chintawongvanich, head of risk strategy at Macro Risk Advisors, may have found the answer…

A pattern of huge, near-daily trades on the VIX is turning heads in the options market.

 

What's most notable is that even after losing some $75 million by betting on a volatility spike, the huge options buyer known as "50 Cent" shows no signs of slowing down. "I would categorize them as someone who doesn't flinch at losing money," commented Chintawongvanich who flagged the activity in a series of research notes.

 

The money-losing trades in question have been purchases of call options on the CBOE volatility index. These represent bets that market volatility is set to rise, and to a lesser extent, that stocks are set to fall.

 

Sussing out the actions of an institutional trader based on public information about options trades can be difficult, if not impossible. But this trader made it easier by leaving a clue out in the open. "They have a very particular pattern of buying options," Chintawongvanich explained Wednesday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "Basically they come in every day and they buy 50,000 VIX calls worth 50 cents. So in other words, they don't care too much what the strike is; they just pick the option that's worth 50 cents."

 

 

On Thursday, for example, 50,000 of the VIX 21-strike calls expiring in May were apparently purchased at a price of 49 cents. These options will expire worthless unless the VIX skyrockets 82 percent in a bit more than a month and a half, and will lose money unless the VIX closes above 21.49 on expiration (the VIX closed Thursday trading a bit below 12).

 

Since the multiplier on VIX options is 100, the purchase alone comes to nearly $2.5 million. In terms of the number of contracts, it was the single biggest trade of the day on any index or stock. And that wasn't all. Also on Thursday, 15,000 May VIX 20-calls were traded at 51 cents, and 10,000 May VIX 21-calls were traded at 47 cents. In total, the party that has become known as "50 Cent" after its favorite purchase price has spent about $90 million, and has already seen $55 million worth of purchased options expire worthless.

Unsurprisingly, this strategy appears to have a marked effect on the overall market for VIX options. Total VIX call open interest has risen to an all-time high thanks to 50 Cent's purchases, Chintawongvanich said.

And so we come full circle to the question of why the sudden rush to complacency among options traders following the pulled healthcare vote. Ironically, the huge bets on the VIX could end up dampening volatility.

"50 Cent becomes very well hedged in a risk-off event, and would be in a position to provide liquidity for those scrambling for a hedge," Chintawongvanich wrote.

 

"The presence of '50 Cent' could mean that future volatility spikes are muted."

 

 

In fact, Jake Weinig, founding partner at options-centric hedge fund Malachite Capital, commented in an email to CNBC that "the size is probably too big"; the very enormity of the trade "almost makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy that it won't pan out."

So once again the illiquidity of the options-tail-wagging-the-market-dog equity market is exposed (just as it was with Catalyst's levered gamma positions that drive stocks up for an unprecedented winning streak – with no rational economic reasoning).

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Authored by Nicholas Colas via ConvergEx,

Talking to a journalist a few days ago I realized that I can now add “30-year Wall Street veteran” to my list of epithets.  It’s not as catchy as “wily Odysseus” or “wine dark sea”, but then again my life on the Street doesn’t really qualify as Homeric either.  Rather, it’s been more like watching an old school Broadway musical, complete with lots of big personalities whose stories are often best told with small anecdotes.

Along the way those people have taught me everything I know about a career in New York finance.  They all bubble up to what sound like clichés, but only because they are true.  But below the surface… Well, how you learn those clichés is never boring.

Lesson #1: Set expectations and then beat them.  Everything on Wall Street carries with it the weight of expectations, from careers to asset prices.  In both cases, their values only change when outcomes differ from what was expected.

The best example I ever saw: Years ago I worked with a wily investment banker who played the expectations game better than anyone else I ever saw.  He knew that the success of an Initial Public Offering or secondary share issuance often came down to perception.  Did the institutional buyside think he was marketing a hot deal, or a cold one?

Since his deals invariably had roadshow lunches in major cities like New York and Boston, he always did the following:

• If 100 investors had RSVPed for a lunch, he would have the room set for 70 people but order food for 100.
• As the crowd started to file for lunch, he would have the wait staff very ostentatiously reorganize the dining room and roll in those big pieces of plywood that serve as table tops past the waiting investors.
• This always worked to set up a buzz in the room. “This must be a hot deal if this many people showed up unexpected.”

Lesson #2: Know your client.  Another Street cliché, but most people underestimate what the word “Know” really means.

Walking around town many years ago with the CFO of a US auto company as we visited investors, he told me that he knew even before the meeting started if it would be productive.  I found this hard to believe.  The meetings were with all different kinds of Wall Street players, set up by my firm’s salespeople weeks ahead of time.

“You watch…  If your salesperson knows the receptionist by name and talks to them about their kids, that’s going to be a good meeting.”  He was right.  At the next meeting, we saw a chatty salesperson from my company looking at new baby pictures at the receptionist desk.  Next two meetings – no rapport at the front desk, and listless inattentive investors.

Another example: know when your client gets hungry.  Sitting at a conference table working on a large M&A transaction (the largest one in the auto space in the 1990s), the group needed to call the client’s Treasurer.  I reached for the phone.

The senior banker told me to stop; “It’s 11:30am.  Bob (not his real name) is on a diet – he needs to lose a lot of weight.  Let’s let him get lunch.  We’ll wait until 1:30pm.”  And we did.  The call went fine.

Lesson #3: Don’t worry too much about what you don’t know, but rather what you’re sure of that’s actually wrong.  That’s an old Mark Twain saying, but it is a lesson you learn quickly on Wall Street as well.

Take, for example, the most basic assumption that corporate managements who own a lot of stock will try to do what’s best for the company.  I have covered two companies (both investment banking clients of my firm) as a brokerage analyst where the CEOs eventually either went to jail for fraud or narrowly avoided that fate.  A third company went bust in a fairly spectacular fashion, just a year or two after raising equity.

All three CEOs owned a lot of stock – maybe too much, which is combination with a lack of moral compass led them to unwise actions.  Yes, management teams should always own some piece of the business they manage.  But that’s no reason to assume that this will magically guide them to better performance.  Sometimes it just leads to desperation.

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Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time,” finally said something on his late night talk show that seems to make some level of sense.  Just as Hillary has started to take a more active role in organizing the Donald Trump “Resistance” movement, a move that has sparked rumors of yet another presidential run in 2020, Maher took to the airwaves to implore Clinton to go back to the woods where she ‘found’ herself just a few weeks ago.

 “Hillary, stay in the woods. Okay. You had your shot. You f*cked it up. You’re Bill Buckner. We had the World Series, and you let the grounder go through your legs. Let someone else have the chance.”

 

“This to me — the fact that she’s come back, it just verifies every bad thing anyone’s ever thought about the Clintons, that it’s all about them. Let some of the other shorter trees get a little sunlight.”

Of course the comments reference a speech that Hillary gave to “The Society of Irish Women” at a St. Patrick’s Day speech in Scranton, Pennsylvania a few weeks back saying that she’s finally ready to “come out of the woods.”  And while that comment could be interpreted in a whole bunch of different ways, we assume that it was simply a hint that she’s ready to return to public life in some capacity.

“Our country seems so divided right now. I do not believe that we can let political divides harden into personal divides.  And we can’t just ignore or turn a cold shoulder toward someone because they disagree with us politically.”

 

“We’ve gotta keep trying to listen to each other, to reason together and try to work to help people have better lives.”

 

“I’m like a lot of my friends right now. I have a hard time watching the news, I’ll confess.  I am ready to come out of the woods and to help shine a light on what is already happening around kitchen tables, at dinners like this.”

Unfortunately, while Hillary is all too willing to encourage the rest of us to “listen to each other”, she’s apparently not yet ready to listen to the advice of the 60+ million people around the country, plus Bill Maher, who have decided they would prefer she not be an active participant in public life any longer.

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Authored by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg,

In my post published earlier this week, Recent TSA Molestation Video Proves Americans Have Become Authority Worshipping Slaves, I noted the following:

Yeah, it’s disgusting, inappropriate and anathema to a free people, but that’s the point. We aren’t a free people. We’ve become a bunch of authority-worshiping subjects toiling on a plantation dominated by multi-national companies who write our laws and manipulate our thoughts through corporate media. The worst part is we don’t do anything about it. We elect Trump and then puff our chests out yelling stupid slogans like MAGA, as molestations from the TSA get worse. Well done everyone.

I was pleased that the above paragraph connected with many people, but for those of you who think I was being hyperbolic, take a look at the following excerpts from a piece recently published at The Washington Post, Since 2007, the DEA Has Taken $3.2 Billion in Cash from People Not Charged with a Crime:

The Drug Enforcement Administration takes billions of dollars in cash from people who are never charged with criminal activity, according to a report issued today by the Justice Department’s Inspector General.

 

Since 2007, the report found, the DEA has seized more than $4 billion in cash from people suspected of involvement with the drug trade. But 81 percent of those seizures, totaling $3.2 billion, were conducted administratively, meaning no civil or criminal charges were brought against the owners of the cash and no judicial review of the seizures ever occurred.

Remember, the terrorists hate us for our freedom.

That total does not include the dollar value of other seized assets, like cars, homes, electronics and clothing.

 

These seizures are all legal under the controversial practice of civil asset forfeiture, which allows authorities to take cash, contraband and property from people suspected of crime. But the practice does not require authorities to obtain a criminal conviction, and it allows departments to keep seized cash and property for themselves unless individuals successfully challenge the forfeiture in court. Critics across the political spectrum say this creates a perverse profit motive, incentivizing police to seize goods not for the purpose of fighting crime, but for padding department budgets.

 

In the absence of this information, the report examined 100 DEA cash seizures that occurred “without a court-issued warrant and without the presence of narcotics, the latter of which would provide strong evidence of related criminal behavior.”

 

Fewer than half of those seizures were related to a new or ongoing criminal investigation, or led to an arrest or prosecution, the Inspector General found.

 

“When seizure and administrative forfeitures do not ultimately advance an investigation or prosecution,” the report concludes, “law enforcement creates the appearance, and risks the reality, that it is more interested in seizing and forfeiting cash than advancing an investigation or prosecution.” 

 

The scope of asset forfeiture is staggering. Since 2007 the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture Fund, which collects proceeds from seized cash and other property, has ballooned to $28 billion. In 2014 alone authorities seized $5 billion in cash and property from people — greater than the value of all documented losses to burglary that year. 

 

Some of the encounters were based on tips from confidential sources working in the travel industry, a number of whom have received large sums of money in exchange for their cooperation. In one case, officers targeted an individual for questioning on a tip from a travel industry informant that the individual had paid for a plane ticket with a pre-paid debit card and cash.

Forfeiture cases are also legally complex and difficult for individuals to win. Forfeiture cases are brought against the property, rather than the individual, leading to Kafkaesque case titles like United States v. $8,850 in U.S. Currency and  United States of America v. One Men’s Rolex Pearl Master Watch.

 

While criminal proceedings assume the defendant’s innocence, forfeiture proceedings start from the presumption of guilt. That means that individuals who fight forfeiture must prove their innocence in court.

Meanwhile, guess who’s a big fan of civil forfeiture? Yep, you guessed it, Mr. MAGA himself, Donald Trump.

Recall what we learned in the post, Trump’s Policies Are Authoritarian, Not Populist:

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday there was “no reason” to curb law enforcement agencies that seize cash, vehicles and other assets of people suspected of crimes, a practice that some lawmakers and activists have criticized for denying legal rights.

 

The issue of civil asset forfeiture, created to disrupt the activities of organized crime groups, arose when sheriffs from around the United States told Trump at a White House meeting that they were under pressure to ease the practice.

 

“I’d like to look into that,” Trump said. “There’s no reason for that.”

Makes sense. Eliminating due process and providing the feds with open season to steal possessions from American  citizens without charge is clearly a populist position.

This is an issue that’s been very important to me for many years, and I’m absolutely disgusted by Trump for being a defender of something so anti-American and unconstitutional.

In case you missed them the first time around, here are a few prior posts on the topic:

Why You Should Never, Ever Drive Through Tenaha, Texas

Asset Forfeiture – How Cops Continue to Steal Americans’ Hard Earned Cash with Zero Repercussions

Land of the Unfree – Police and Prosecutors Fight Aggressively to Retain Barbaric Right of “Civil Asset Forfeiture”

How the IRS Used Civil Asset Forfeiture to Ruin the Lives of Two Connecticut Bakers

The DEA Strikes Again – Agents Seize Man’s Life Savings Under Civil Asset Forfeiture Without Charges

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While investors had largely given Venezuela’s economic catastrophe the benefit of the doubt for the past two years as crude collapsed and the country’s CDS soared to record highs only to normalize subsequently, yesterday bond investors got very nervous for the first time in a while, as the Venezuela 9.25% of 2027 bonds crashed on fears a presidential coup may be imminent after Wednesday’s decision by the pro-Maduro supreme court to assume the functions of congress, in effect making Venezuela a Maduro dictatorship. The opposition promptly slammed the decision as a “coup” against an elected body and demanded army intervention, and the tipping point came when even a formerly pro-Maduro Attorney General, Luisa Ortega, slammed the “unconstitutional” usurpation of power.

One day later, the bond selloff, coupled with a dire surge in domestic anger and protests, as well as international condemnation, appears to have been sufficient to spook Maduro that this may be one of his last (bad) decisions because on Saturday morning, Venezuela’s Supreme Court reversed its decision to strip congress of its legislative powers.

“This controversy is over … the constitution has won,” Maduro said in a televised speech just after midnight to a specially convened state security committee that ordered the top court to reconsider its rulings. The Supreme Court duly erased the two controversial judgments during the morning, the information minister said.

In an amusing twist, Maduro tried to cast the U-turn as his own personal achievement, one of a wise statesman resolving a power conflict, everyone and certainly his opponents said it was a hypocritical row-back by an unpopular government that overplayed its hand.

“You can’t pretend to just normalize the nation after carrying out a ‘coup,'” said Julio Borges, leader of the National Assembly legislature, quoted by Reuters. He publicly tore up the court rulings this week and refused to attend the security committee, which includes the heads of major institutions.

While the Supreme Court flip-flop may take the edge off protests, Maduro’s opponents at home and abroad will seek to maintain the pressure. They are furious that authorities thwarted a push for a referendum to recall Maduro last year and also postponed local elections scheduled for 2016. Now they are calling for next year’s presidential election to be brought forward and the delayed local polls to be held, confident the ruling Socialist Party would lose.

“It’s time to mobilize!” student David Pernia, 29, said in western San Cristobal city, adding Venezuelans were fed up with autocratic rule and economic hardship. “Women don’t have food for their children, people don’t have medicines.”

Venezuelan Bolivarian National guards officers are confronted by university students
during a protest outside of the Supreme Court in Caracas, on March 31, 2017

As mentioned yesterday, today the National Assembly plans an open-air meeting in Caracas, while South America’s UNASUR bloc was to meet in Argentina with most of its members unhappy at Venezuela. The hemispheric Organization of American States (OAS) had a special session slated for Monday in Washington.

As Reuters adds, even before this week’s events, OAS head Luis Almagro had been pushing for Venezuela’s suspension, but he is unlikely to garner the two-thirds support needed in the 34-nation block despite hardening sentiment toward Maduro round the region.

That said, Venezuela can still count on support from fellow leftist allies and other small nations grateful for subsidized oil dating from the 1999-2013 rule of late leader Hugo Chavez. Maduro accuses the United States of orchestrating a campaign to oust him and said he had been subject this week to a “political, media and diplomatic lynching.”

A woman wears a banner over her mouth with a message that reads in Spanish:
“Venezuela lives in a dictatorship” during a protest, in Caracas

Serious criticism even came from within government, with Venezuela’s attorney general Luisa Ortega rebuking the court in an extremely rare show of dissent from a senior official. “It constitutes a rupture of the constitutional order,” he said in a speech on state television on Friday.

The Supreme Court’s decision helped to further galvanize resistance to Maduro, Pockets of protesters had blocked roads, chanted slogans and waved banners saying “No To Dictatorship” around Venezuela on Friday, leading to some clashes with security forces. Given past failures of opposition street protests, however, it is unlikely there will be mass support for a new wave. Rather, the opposition will be hoping ramped-up foreign pressure or a nudge from the powerful military may force Maduro into calling an early election.

* * *

Meanwhile, the nation continues to disintegrate, with Reuters reporting that Venezuela’s murder rate rose to an average 60 per day last year, up from about 45 per day in 2015, the attorney general’s office said on Friday, as the country’s worst economic and political crisis in history continues to claim victims Official data put the murder rate at 70.1 per 100,000 inhabitants last year, one of the highest in the world and up from 58 in 2015.

Violent crime is one of the most pervasive anxieties for Venezuelans, especially in poor slums dominated by gangs and rife with guns. Numerous state security plans and disarmament drives in recent years have failed to curb violence given easy access to weapons, police participation in crime, and high levels of impunity in the nation of 30 million people.

A brutal economic recession that has millions skipping meals has pushed more Venezuelans towards crime, according to officials, rights groups and neighborhood organizations. Recently, Venezuela – the country’s with the world’s largest proven oil reserves, ran out of gasoline.

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With the Russian election hacking scandal having gone from the merely strange, to the bizarre, to the ironic, to the McCarthyist, and most recently, jumping the patently absurd shark – as of last night, anyone who is against Hillary is “influenced by Russia” according to a former Clinton advisor – Russia decided to have some fun at the expense of US paranoia.

On Saturday, the ministry posted the following audio file of the “new” automated telephone switchboard message for Russian embassies.

“You have reached the Russian embassy, your call is very important to us. To arrange a call from a Russian diplomat to your political opponent, press 1. To use the services of Russian hackers press 2. To request election interference, press 3 and wait until the next election campaign. Please note that all calls are recorded for quality improvement and training purposes.”

Russian MFA developed automated voicemail system – please listen (Russian, then English) and tell us your opinion. Feedback appreciated! https://t.co/HH23WC1THi

— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 1, 2017

???????????? ??????????? ??? ?????? ??????????? ???????? ??????????? ????????????? ??? ?????????? ??????????????? ?????? ?? ??????? http://pic.twitter.com/eLl8Jgcgzt

— ??? ?????? ???????? (@MID_RF) April 1, 2017

And just to make it clear, it is April 1: as AP observes for the countless spy agencies, and congressional committees still trying to explain how Moscow subliminally influenced millions of Americans to vote for Trump instead of Hillary, a ministry officer confirmed that the post was a joke.

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It would not be a Saturday morning if President Trump did not take to Twitter to vent about his latest grievance. This time he took aim at NBC News and in particular Chuck Todd…

When will Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd and @NBCNews start talking about the Obama SURVEILLANCE SCANDAL and stop with the Fake Trump/Russia story?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2017

It is the same Fake News Media that said there is "no path to victory for Trump" that is now pushing the phony Russia story. A total scam!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2017

It was not immediately apparent what NBC coverage Trump was taking issue with, but as The Hill notes, Chuck Todd on Friday interviewed top Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell and former Obama press secretary Josh Earnest on “MTP Daily” about the latest Russia developments.

Clearly, and correctly, President Trump is upset that so little coverage is focused on the increasingly intriguing surveillance state leaks and admissions – supported by facts and actual evidence – rather than trying to keep the Russians-did-it narrative alive in a desperate effort to avoid any blame or self-reflection with regard the election, the Clinton campaign, or the post-election division being sponsored by leftists everywhere.

But then again, as Upton Sinclair famously wrote, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"

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President Trump night released details of the personal finances of his staffers late on Friday, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka, which once again confirmed that most of the people in his immediate circle are very wealthy. The legally required disclosure documents provided a snapshot of assets and positions held by personnel when they first entered their new jobs at the White House, and before they started selling stocks and other assets that could pose conflicts of interest, according to White House ethics officials.

Curiously, the White House did not actually create a public depository of the filings, so AP, Propublica and the NYT created a shared drive for all the disclosures so far.

.@nytimes @AP @politico And we're off. Since the White House is not posting the documents publicly, we (+@nytimes + @AP) are: https://t.co/IG7WfRQG7b

— ProPublica (@ProPublica) March 31, 2017

Here are the key highlights via the NYT and Reuters:

• Jared Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump released a 54-page report which included "scores of assets worth six- and seven-figures". According to a NYT breakdown, the president’s daughter and son-in-law are the beneficiaries of a sprawling real estate and investment business worth as much as $740 million, despite their new government responsibilities. Ivanka will maintain a stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, and earned from $1 million to $5 million from January 2016 to March 2017, the value of stake was estimated at $5 million to $25 million. Kushner held executive positions with 266 LLCs, corporations, groups and non-profits, which he has resigned from since January.
•  Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s senior adviser, made between $1.3 and $2.3 million last year according to his 12 page disclosure report, which showed stakes in various advisory companies and movie studios but no stock holdings. Bannon's pre-White House bank accounts, real estate and other holdings were valued at between $3.3 million and $12.6 million. Bannon disclosed $191,000 in consulting fees he earned from Breitbart News Network, the conservative media organization; $125,333 from Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that worked for the Trump campaign; and $61,539 in salary from the Government Accountability Institute, a conservative nonprofit organization. All three organizations are backed by the major Republican donors Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah profiled recently. According to the NYT, Bannon’s most valuable asset was Bannon Strategic Advisors Inc., a privately held consulting firm from which income from his other investments appeared to flow into. It was valued at $5 million to $25 million. He also listed the value of his Bannon Film Industries at $1 million to $5 million. His bank accounts were valued at as much as $2,250,000, while he listed rental real estate valued at as much as $10.5 million.
• Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs president and now head of the White House National Economic Council, disclosed assets worth $252 million to $611 million. Little information was given on several of his assets and only indicated they were worth more than $1 million. That makes Cohn, now the director of the National Economic Council and a central adviser to Mr. Trump, one of the wealthier members of the already-affluent Trump administration, which includes more than one billionaire. According to the NYT, in addition to the millions of dollars in cash and stock Cohn received from Goldman that made up the lion’s share of his personal assets, he held a slew of positions in publicly traded stocks — many of which he has already said he plans to sell — and in various private entities. Those entities include a stake valued at more than $1 million in a consumer education and consulting business called Payoff, a position in a cosmetics retailer also valued at more than $1 million, investments in several self-storage concerns in Ohio valued at $100,000 or more each, and an investment in a venture capital fund run by Andreessen Horowitz, the Silicon Valley powerhouse, valued at $100,000 or more.
• Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump’s top advisers, was not quite in the same wealth category as some of her superrich colleagues. Conway made over $800,000 last year, her filing shows. As head of her own consulting firm, Conway’s clients included an assortment of conservative causes, including the National Rifle Association and the Tea Party Patriots, as well as Cambridge Analytica, the political data firm that advised Mr. Trump’s campaign. She was also paid for a speaking engagement at Point72 Asset Management, the investment firm run by the billionaire stock picker Steven A. Cohen.
• Reince Priebus, White House Chief of Staff, disclosed assets of between $604,000 and $1.16 million and income of $1.42 million. About $566,000 of his income came from the Republican National Committee and the rest from his partnership in a Milwaukee law firm.
• Reed Cordish, a Baltimore real estate developer before he become Trump's technology adviser, disclosed pre-White House assets of between $92 million and $798 million. He had income of between $48 million and $55 million.
• Julia Hahn, a former Breitbart.com reporter until she went to work in the White House, disclosed a PNC custodial account valued at $500,000 to $1 million. Various stock funds listed on her financial disclosure are worth as much as $1.5 million. As the NYT put, it "her work as a journalist was also nothing to sneeze at." As a reporter, she made $117,217 last year at Breitbart. On top of that, she earned $74,082 from Laura Ingraham’s radio show.
• Dina Powell, who serves on the National Security Council, made between $1.08 and $6 million last year. Her assets stand at over $9 million.
• Donald McGahn, chief White House Counsel, disclosed income of $2.4 million at Jones Day, where his clients included Trump, the NRA, and Aaron Schock (the Illinois lawmaker charged with federal corruption).
• Omarosa Manigault, a former contestant on Trump's reality show the Apprentice and now is a White House adviser, had a modest income under $100,000. The disclosures showed she is a beneficiary of a trust established by her late fiance, actor Michael Clarke Duncan, worth between $1 million and $5 million. Manigault is currently engaged to a Florida pastor. Forms show she received a wedding dress, veil and accessories worth $25,000 for an appearance on the reality show "Say Yes to the Dress."
• Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade czar and resident China hawk, is not a wealthy man, but his salary as an economics professor at a public university wasn’t bad. According to his disclosure form,Mr. Navarro earned $240,000 in salary and bonuses from the University of California, Irvine. He also earned $10,500 for delivering a speech in November to the Casket & Funeral Supply Association of America.
• Sean Spicer, the press secretary, reported stakes in the Coca-Cola Company, McDonald’s and several real estate investments. But, despite his much-discussed taste for cinnamon-flavored gum, he reported no investments in chewing gum companies (although he does invest in Walmart, which sells chewing gum).
• Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to Mr. Trump and a former editor at Breitbart News, reported consulting fees of $38,200 from Breitbart. He also reported royalties of $50,000 to $100,000 for his book “Defeating jihad: The Winnable War” — and also said that he signed a contract for a second book.
• Boris Epshteyn, who served during the presidential campaign as one of Mr. Trump’s chief attack dogs and television talking heads, stills owes over $50,000 on college loans he took out more than a decade ago, his filing indicates. Recently, Mr. Epshteyn left his White House post under circumstances that were unclear.
• Jason Greenblatt, the Trump Organization lawyer tasked with helping to bring peace to the Middle East, disclosed $1,025,000 in compensation from Mr. Trump’s company last year.
• Michael Ellis, who reportedly shared intel on Trump surveillance with House Intel Chairman Devin Nunes, owes more than $30K in student loans.

* * *

The full list of disclosures, which excludes president Trump and vice president Pence

• Stephen K. Bannon, counselor to the president
• Thomas Bossert, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism and deputy national security adviser
• James W. Carroll, senior counsel
• Justin Clark, deputy assistant to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs
• Gary D. Cohn, director of the National Economic Council
• Conway, Kellyanne, counselor to the president
• Reed Cordish, special assistant to the president for intragovernmental and technology initiatives
• Makan Delrahim, deputy White House counsel
• Uttam Dhillon, special assistant to the president, Ethics Compliance Team
• Carlos Diaz Rosillo, director of policy and interagency coordination, Domestic Policy Council
• Jessica Ditto, deputy communications director
• Ann Donaldson, chief of staff to the White House counsel
• John Eisenberg, N.S.C. legal adviser, and deputy counsel to the president for national security affairs, National Security Council
• Michael Ellis, associate counsel
• Boris Epshteyn, assistant director of communications
• Helen Ferre, director of media affairs
• Scott Gast, special assistant to the president, Ethics Compliance Team
• George Gigicos, director of advance and operations
• Robert T. Goad, education policy adviser
• Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president
• Alexander Gray, deputy director for the defense industrial base, National Trade Council
• Jason Greenblatt, special representative for international negotiations
• Stephanie Grisham, deputy press secretary
• Joseph Hagin, deputy chief of staff for operations
• Julia Hahn, deputy policy strategist
• Vincent Haley, adviser for policy, strategy and speechwriting, Domestic Policy Council
• Hope Hicks, director of strategic communications
• Kenneth Juster, deputy assistant to the president for international economic affairs and deputy director of the National Economic Council
• Katsas, Gregory, deputy counsel to the president
• Joseph K. Kellogg, Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary, National Security Council
• Shahira E. Knight, special assistant to the president for tax and retirement policy, National Economic Council
• Andrew D. Koenig, special assistant to the president and policy special assistant
• Jared Kushner, senior adviser to the president for strategic planning
• Gerrit Lansing, chief digital officer
• Chris Liddell, director of strategic initiatives for the White House Strategic Development Group
• Omarosa Manigault, director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison
• Ashley Marquis, chief of staff of the National Economic Council
• John McEntee, personal aide to the president
• Kathleen McFarland, deputy national security adviser
• Donald F. McGahn, counsel to the president
• Bill McGinley, associate counsel
• Stephen Miller, senior adviser to the president for policy
• Peter Navarro, director, National Trade Council
• Reince Priebus, chief of staff
• Marc Short, director of the office of legislative affairs
• Sean Spicer, press secretary

via http://ift.tt/2omOxz1 Tyler Durden