Month: July 2019

As a housing affordability crisis deepens on the West Coast, a new style of living, one that reminds millennials of their college dormitory days, is springing up in cities across California.

Called PodShare, it’s a byproduct of the housing bubble and out of control rents offers bunk beds for $1200 per month.

A PodShare membership allows millennials to sleep in any of the 220 beds at six locations across Los Angeles and one in San Francisco. With no commitments nor deposit, a bed, a locker, WiFi, a personal television, and a communal atmosphere is included. Food staples, like avocados, cereal and ramen, and toiletries like toothpaste and toilet paper, are also included in the flat rate.

PodShare is a co-living space where tenants pay $1,200 a month to rent a “pod,” or bunk bed, in one of its San Francisco or Los Angeles locations https://t.co/xnTJ5xONzh pic.twitter.com/ANeKPghTnh

— CNN International (@cnni) July 5, 2019

Stephen Johnson, a 27-year-old tech entrepreneur, told CNN that high rent for a tiny San Franciscan apartment is absurd.

“I had a micro studio that was $1,750 per month,” said Johnson. “It was less than 200 square feet. This is actually a luxury and costs less than the place that I lived a couple blocks down the street.”

He’s been sleeping at a PodShare for almost half a year and uses the space to work out of.

“I think anyone that’s staying in arrangements like this is just early to a new form of housing,” Johnson said. “There’s so many different living arrangements and I think this will just be one of the available options to everyone in the future.”

Another millennial living the pod life is a 23-year-old software engineer Rayyan Zahid, told CNN he gave up privacy for cheaper living options.

“What does matter is if I’m in the right place and surrounded by the right people and if it is efficient,” he said.

Elvina Beck, 34, established the company several years after the financial crash of 2008, told CNN it’s a perfect solution for millennials. Beck said she has plans to scale up the dormitory-style lodging across the country.

Beck’s mission for PodShare is global: “The goal is to empower the global citizen and live anywhere across the world for one monthly price. A $1,000 a month [membership] should get you a chance to live from here to Taiwan back to Boston. You cover the flight and we’ll cover the housing. It’s all included.”

Residents must adhere to house rules, one being that lights go out at 10 pm each night, and no guests are allowed inside.

“You can’t invite any friends over,” Beck told CNN. “Sorry, just make new ones here.”

This new living arrangement is just more evidence that the standard of living for millennials has crashed. When the next recession strikes, expect dorm-style living to flourish across the country, could be called Hooverville Trumpville.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/32nvNjS Tyler Durden

That’s the title of JPMorgan’s Daily Economic Briefing, and the only correction to Joe Lupton’s daily recap we would make is that the “funny thing” wasn’t one but quite a few.

Let’s start with the S&P500 which today closed at 2,999.91, confirming yet again that the “gamma gravity” monster perched atop 3,000 which we detailed last week was the primary force behind the market’s flows.

How Powell will announce and justify a 25bps, or maybe even 50bps, rate cut in three weeks, well that’s his problem.

But it’s not just the market.

• As JPM lists, since the dovish June FOMC meeting that raised the odds of any rate cut in July from 20% on June 18 to 100% on June 19 (and of a 50bp cut from 0% to 26%), the news flow has been “decisively better than feared”, to wit: 
• The G20 Summit delivered a truce keeping negotiations alive.
• The concerning intermingling of immigration policies with the passage of the USMCA has faded and the odds of enacting the USMCA before year-end have increased (even if still at risk).
• The US labor market bounced back from a weak May reading while weekly claims fell to their lows in mid-April.
• Lastly, the puzzling soft inflation readings from earlier in the year finally reversed in today’s June report, with core CPI rising by the second strongest monthly gain of the expansion.

So with i) the market at all time highs, ii) unemployment at all time lows, iii) payrolls printing above the highest wall street forecast, iv) core inflation above 2.0% and in the range of 2.0 to 2.2% for 11 months in a row confirming that the Fed is right where it should be based on its real mandate, v) US and China trade war currently in a tentative truce the Fed’s next move is… to cut!!??

Of course, as JPMorgan concedes, not all is good news “and so it is understandable that Chair Powell remained committed at today’s Senate testimony to the storyline supporting action in July.” What is in the red column: primarily, the global backdrop remains concerning, as business sentiment continues to deteriorate and the disinflationary headwinds from slowing PPI growth will weigh on corporate profits through the current quarter at least. Combined, this is damping global capex growth and feeding back to weakness in global industry.

Of course, Powell and the rest of the FOMC know the US is not immune to these factors, but since when is it the Fed’s job to make insurance rate cuts – “shocking” ones as Neel Kashkari suggested, demanding a 50bps rate cut – to offset the world’s problem? Ignore that particular rhetorical question: after all 4,000 on the S&P is in sight, and the last thing Powell wants is for Trump to replace with him Draghi, if the market ever has a down day.

That’s not all: to justify its dovish posture, Powell will point out the growing disagreement over what was accepted at the G20 regarding Chinese agriculture imports, which spilled into the headlines today, a reminder that the trade war could flare up at any moment.

Lastly, while the Fed likely feels vindicated in fading the very soft core inflation readings earlier this year, they will also likely fade the strong reading in June as transitory payback.

So while the case for a 50bp cut has been undermined, JPMorgan is confident that the case for 25bp remains firmly in place, although whether this is followed by 25bp in September “will be highly data dependent.”

Away from external politics, there are also internal matters to consider, namely that along with the trade war, US fiscal matters will also be in focus. Along with the need to pass an annual budget that includes an extension of the spending levels agreed to in the February 2018 budget deal, Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling. While expectations had been that Treasury could scrape by until October, this week Sec. Mnuchin suggested the “drop-dead” date may come as early as mid-September. Congress goes on recess starting July 26 and does not return until September 10, leaving little time to strike a deal. Speaker Pelosi today indicated plans to deliver a package that would combine a 2-year budget that extends spending levels with an increase in the debt ceiling. Whether the Senate will pass the suggested package is unclear.

None of this matters, however, as the real reason why the Fed is launching rate cuts, which will eventually culminate with ZIRP and QE is that the Fed will soon have to step in and start monetizing US debt whose issuance is set to explode in 2020 and onward, especially since foreign buyers, as the TBAC warned several months ago, have not added to their net US Treasury holdings in years, and with China set to post a current account deficit this year, the last thing China will focus on is buying US debt when it will need foreigners to buy its own bond issuance instead…

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Sd2PON Tyler Durden

According to a breaking Axios and Israeli Channel 13 report the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has uncovered damning evidence of radioactive material at an Iranian nuclear site. The site at Turquzaba, Iran — which had previously been subject of a prop-laden Netanyahu presentation before the UN in September 2018 — “was used to store nuclear equipment and material” alleges Israel; however, Iran has long asserted the warehouse was nothing but a carpet factory. 

It appears Israeli’s elite intelligence agency Mossad was behind passing the initial information regarding Iranian efforts to “hide evidence” on to the IAEA and UN inspectors. Prime Minister Netanyahu had previously accused Iran of covering its tracks, allegedly removing 15 kilograms of undeclared enriched uranium from the facility a mere month prior to his UN speech. 

According to Israeli reporter Barak Ravid, who broke the story of Israeli intelligence tipping off international inspectors, the IAEA is still sitting on the information and is in the process of prepping a report for UN member states. He reports the following in Axios:

• Israel passed information about the warehouse to the IAEA, and UN inspectors visited the site several months ago, Israeli officials tell me. Their last visit was in March.
• IAEA inspectors took soil samples to try and find evidence of radioactivity. The IAEA has since been analyzing the results and preparing a report.
• The tests came back positive, according to the Israeli officials, and in the last few weeks it became clear that the remains of radioactive material were found at the site. The officials say that indicates Iran was storing undeclared nuclear equipment or materials.

If accurate, this would be a serious breach of the 2015 JCPOA, which both Washington and Tel Aviv have long claimed Iran was already in breach of prior to Trump’s unilateral US pullout from the nuclear deal in May 2018. Israeli officials described it as a “game changer”. 

Israeli officials leaking this information is an attempt to prove a severe violation; however, confirmation will only be determined if and when a final IAEA report does come out, yet no date has been given. 

The Jerusalem Post reports that “top Israeli sources revealed that the IAEA is sitting on the information and has avoided making it public to date.” 

Between the time Mossad supposedly uncovered evidence of radioactive material at the site and IAEA inspectors actually arriving, there was concern that any and all on-site evidence would be wiped. But The Jerusalem Post report notes “there have been instances in the past where the Islamic republic’s cleaning crew was not careful enough and left behind traces which inspectors picked up on.” Apparently that scenario happened in this case. 

Meanwhile, Netanyahu has continued to press the White House on keeping its “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran alive, with Netanyahu holding his second phone call with President Trump of the past week on Wednesday. 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XXNFm8 Tyler Durden

Authored by Walter Williams, op-ed via Townhall.com,

The First Amendment to our Constitution was proposed by the 1788 Virginia ratification convention during its narrow 89 to 79 vote to ratify the Constitution. Virginia’s resolution held that the free exercise of religion, right to assembly and free speech could not be canceled, abridged or restrained. These Madisonian principles were eventually ratified by the states on March 1, 1792.

Gettysburg College professor Allen C. Guelzo, in his article “Free Speech and Its Present Crisis,” appearing in the autumn 2018 edition of City Journal, explores the trials and tribulations associated with the First Amendment. The early attempts to suppress free speech were signed into law by President John Adams and became known as the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Later attempts to suppress free speech came during the Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln and his generals attacked newspapers and suspended habeas corpus.

It wasn’t until 1919, in the case of Abrams v. United States, when the U.S. Supreme Court finally and unambiguously prohibited any kind of censorship.

Today, there is growing contempt for free speech, most of which is found on the nation’s college and university campuses. Guelzo cites the free speech vision of Princeton University professor Carolyn Rouse, who is chairperson of the department of Anthropology. Rouse shared her vision on speech during last year’s Constitution Day lecture.

She called free speech a political illusion, a baseless ruse to enable people to “say whatever they want, in any context, with no social, economic, legal or political repercussions.”

As an example, she says that a climate change skeptic has no right to make “claims about climate change, as if all the science discovered over the last X-number of centuries were irrelevant.”

Rouse is by no means unique in her contempt for our First Amendment rights. Faculty leaders of the University of California consider certain statements racist microagressions:

“America is a melting pot”;

“America is the land of opportunity”;

“Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough”;

and “There is only one race, the human race.”

The latter statement is seen as denying the individual as a racial/cultural being. Then there’s “I believe the most qualified person should get the job.” That’s “racist” speech because it gives the impression that “people of color are given extra unfair benefits because of their race.” Other seemingly innocuous statements deemed unacceptable are: “When I look at you, I don’t see color,” or “Affirmative action is racist.” Perhaps worst of all is, “Where are you from, or where were you born?”

We should reject any restriction on free speech.

We might ask ourselves, “What’s the true test of one’s commitment to free speech?” It does not come when people permit others to say or publish ideas with which they agree. The true test of one’s commitment to free speech comes when others are permitted to say and publish ideas they deem offensive.

The test for one’s commitment to freedom of association is similar. Christian Americans have been hounded for their refusal to cater same-sex weddings. For those who support such attacks, we might ask them whether they would seek prosecution of the owner of a Jewish delicatessen who refused to provide services for a neo-Nazi affair. Should a black catering company be forced to cater a Ku Klux Klan affair? Should the NAACP be forced to open its membership to racist skinheads? Should the Congressional Black Caucus be forced to open its membership to white members of Congress? The true test of a person’s commitment to freedom of association does not come when he permits people to associate in ways he finds acceptable. It comes when he permits people to voluntarily associate in ways he deems offensive.

I am afraid that too many of my fellow Americans are hostile to the principles of liberty. Most people want liberty for themselves. I differ. I want liberty for me and liberty for my fellow man.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2NN4jkh Tyler Durden

A curious footnote has appeared in a court filing by Jeffrey Epstein’s attorneys suggesting that the registered sex offender sold his infamous Boeing 727-200 weeks before his Satuday arrest on suspicion of sex-trafficking minors. 

While arguing for why Epstein should be allowed to remain under house arrest pending trial, his attorneys made the case that the wealthy financier would “deregister or otherwise ground his private jet,” with the footnote reading “Mr. Epstein owns one private jet. He sold the other jet in June 2019,” placing the sale just weeks before his July 6 arrest upon his return from Paris in his Gulfstream G550 according to Bloomberg. 

On other words, it looks like the financier unloaded the potentially ‘evidence-rich’ aircraft – said to have had a bed installed where passengers reportedly had group sex with young girls – right before the hammer came down. 

According to investigative journalist Conchita Sarnoff – who first revealed the former president’s extensive flights on Epstein’s “lolita express” in a 2010 Daily Beast exposé – former president Bill Clinton flew on the ‘lolita express’ no fewer than 27 times. 

Clinton claimed in a Monday statement that he only took “a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane” in 2002 and 2003, and that Secret Service accompanied him at all times – which Sarnoff told Fox News was a total lie. 

Other famous guests include actor Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker, who flew with Clinton to Africa to tour HIV/AIDS project sites, according to New York Magazine in 2002, which notes how much Epstein revered the former president. 

In his eyes, Clinton as a species represents the highest evolutionary form of the political animal. To be up close to him, as he was during the African journey, is akin to seeing the rarest of beasts on a safari. As he put it to a friend upon his return from Africa, “If you were a boxer at the downtown gymnasium at 14th Street and Mike Tyson walked in, your face would have the same look as these foreign leaders had when Clinton entered the room. He is the world’s greatest politician.” –New York Magazine

Epstein’s ‘timely’ sale of the Lolita Express begs the question of what he may have known, and when he knew it. Notably, following a series of reports by the Miami Herald, the Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) in February opened a probe into Epstein’s 2008 ‘sweetheart’ plea arrangement brokered by current Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta.

Timely airplane sales aside, several questions remain to be answered – including a better understanding of Epstein’s relationship with the FBI, and exactly what resulted in his ‘sweetheart’ plea deal in 2008. 

Looks like we have an answer on Epstein’s cooperation with the FBI/DOJ, thanks to great reporting by @MiamiHerald

The DOJ wanted to prosecute executives instead of a child molester.

DOJ priorities. pic.twitter.com/G5wzyac5aK

— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) November 29, 2018

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2YKtFAq Tyler Durden

Authored by Kelli Ballard via LibertyNation.com,

The debate over whether schools should teach sex education to minors has been going on for decades. But now, perhaps more than ever, many parents are horrified by what their children are being taught – especially when parents, despite their religious beliefs, have no say about the teaching materials.

In a small California community, parents and clergy were so appalled at the explicit and LGBTQ-inspired lessons, they went undercover to investigate deeper. What they discovered at a Riverside County Comprehensive Health Education meeting so horrified them, they determined to stop the curriculum.

Our Watch President Pastor Tim Thompson said:

“We don’t want our children exposed to some of these things they are showing, th(is) pornographic, sexually explicit material. It has no place in the classroom. It’s not right, and it won’t be tolerated.”

Thompson was referring to Positive Prevention Plus, the text for sex ed classes. John Andrews, parent of a student in the Murrieta School District, was sick over the explicit material depicted in the “educational” materials. He said:

“They talk about mutual masturbation. They discuss gender roles, the gender spectrum, and in the support materials … they take it even further. They discuss everything, topics like roleplaying for different genders, blood play, dental dams … fisting is mentioned. I mean, they mention it all.

“If I were to show that material to a child, I would be brought up on charges. But somehow our public schools are allowed to teach this to junior high and high school kids.”

The graphics in the instructional guides use cartoon images so detailed that many parents found them inappropriate. Wanting to discover more about what children would be learning, Thompson’s group attended meetings held by the school boards. At one particular meeting in Riverside, a woman went “undercover” and recorded the event. Thompson said he was shocked to discover some of the biggest contributors to the new sex ed curriculum included Planned Parenthood and Cardea Services, which he said is a huge advocate for the LGBT community. Another shocker was that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was on hand to explain how to excuse children from class to get abortions without parents finding out.

“We knew parents had to see for themselves or else they weren’t going to believe it,” Thompson said, referring to the video he posted.

In the video, ACLU Attorney Ruth Dawson can be heard describing how to give students seeking an abortion an excused absence. She explained that the excused absence was necessary to ensure the school would still receive its financial support. However, the schools needed to ensure that the parents would not find out, so they needed to find a way to prevent their phone systems from making automated calls to parents informing them of students’ absenteeism.

Later in the meeting, Dawson explained to the audience the spectrum of gender identity, which is a social construct, not a binary.

“We don’t have male/female full-stop. There are people who identify as non-binary. There are people who identify as gender-queer. There are a bunch of genders. Not only are gender identity and gender expression non-binary, but, really, clinical biological sex is not binary either.”

And if that isn’t confusing enough, she added, “Then we have ‘who are you physically attracted to’? Emotional attraction is also separate from physical attraction.”

But wait, there’s more. Dawson described the complex world of identities in talking about LGBT, and she went on to list some of them:

• Two spirt

• Bi-gender

• Male-to-female

• Female-to-male

• Transsexual

• Masculine women

• Feminine men

• Androgynous person

• Transvestites

• Third gender

• Drag

• Crossdressers

• Gender-queer

• Inter-gender

• A-gender

It is “a clear political agenda to destroy the traditional family in America,” said Parental Rights in Education Executive Director Suzanne Gallagher to the Daily Caller.

“Until now, the American family was considered to be the foundation of civic life; the smallest form of government, where children are taught responsibility, respect for authority, and national pride. Now, legislation passed throughout the states is designed to support minor rights, not parents’ rights. In the name of equity and inclusion, children are required to know and accept every form of sexual behavior, even though those behaviors are dangerous and contrary to their parents’ beliefs.”

Mary Rice Hasson, author of “Get Out Now: Why You Should Pull Your Child from Public School Before It’s Too Late,” attorney, and director of the Catholic Women’s Forum, said that Our Watch’s video was “deadly accurate.”

“Who gave progressive LGBTQ activists, Planned Parenthood, or the ACLU the right to teach other people’s kids about queer identities and explicit sexuality?” Hasson asked. “Especially over the objection of the kids’ own parents?”

Unfortunately, parents’ rights are being usurped by government and schools, and there doesn’t seem to be much hope reclaiming that power any time soon. In the quest for equality and inclusion,  traditional Christian family values are being threatened.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2LJ11fs Tyler Durden