Month: September 2019

Joe Biden’s campaign has lashed out over “sustained and vitriolic” attacks on the 76-year-old Democrat’s troubling senior moments (which even Democratic media operative Stephen Colbert called him out on last week). 

“I don’t know of anybody who has taken as sustained and vitriolic a negative pounding as Biden and who has come through it with the strength he has,” a top Biden adviser told Politico. “So why isn’t the argument not that he’s a ‘fragile front runner,’ but instead why is this guy so strong?” 

Among the more recent campaign trail fumbles, Biden confused New Hampshire with Vermont, said the Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations happened in the late 1970s, claimed he was Vice President during the 2018 Parkland mass shooting, and so on. 

And while not necessarily new to politicians, Biden has been lying about a war story while on the campaign trail. 

On the stump, Biden often recounts a trip he made to Afghanistan while serving as vice president, frequently shifting the details of the trip, which the Post reported were demonstrably false. According to the Post, Biden visited the Middle Eastern country in 2008 when he was a senator, not vice president, and got nearly every other major detail of the trip wrong several times.

Biden doubled-down on the story however, rejecting the claims by the Washington Post and standing by his statements regarding the fabricated trip. –The Federalist

That said, Biden remains the Democratic frontrunner despite his competitors catching up in most public opinion polls – and has even led President Trump in most hypothetical matchups. 

The Washington Examiner, meanwhile, asked voters likely to participate in the Iowa Democratic caucuses about Biden – many of whom revealed misgivings over his age (at 78, he would be the oldest president to be inaugurated should he win), and whether he can go toe-to-toe with President Trump in the general election.

“I like him a lot. I’m concerned about his age,” Democrat Cindy Schuman told the Examiner. “I’m just concerned about his energy.”

Shcuman’s 66-year-old husband Jon, a CPA, who said he is worried about Biden “as it relates to energy to do the job, not [to] beat Trump, because Trump’s just as old and probably in worse shape.” 

Apparently 73 is the new 76… 

Still, many Biden supporters are happy to look the other way. 

“Why do you keep asking about Biden’s gaffes when we have put up with three years of Trump’s absolute nonsense?” asked 80-year-old Democrat Virginia Peterson, who attended a Biden rally near Des Moines. 

A Vanity Fair article, which was well-sourced within the Biden campaign, referred to news coverage as “Joe Biden outrage porn” and quoted former Fox News campaign correspondent Carl Cameron, now helming a liberal website, saying: “The idea that Joe Biden has loose lips is as old as Biden himself.

“The problem for the press is that Trump says so much more stuff, all the time, and the ratio is just beyond description. He makes what we used to cover as gaffes look meaningless. So are we really going to have a gaffe-fest over Joe Biden?”

Biden has acknowledged that his age is an issue. In a brief interview with reporters after a campaign rally in central Iowa during which Biden spoke extemporaneously for more than 60 minutes and then stuck around to take selfies with voters for another hour, he said voters will have to observe and decide for themselves. –Washington Examiner

“It’s a legitimate thing to [be] concerned about my age, just like it was legitimate to discern when I was 29 whether I had the judgment to be a United States senator. I think it’s totally legitimate,” said Biden, adding “The only thing I can say is watch — watch. Check my energy level, determine whether I know what I’m talking about, make a judgment. That’s totally appropriate.” 

And according to Biden communications director Kate Bedingfield in an interview with MSNBC, “I think the press has to be more careful about applying an unfair standard to Joe Biden than they’re applying to other candidates,” adding “He’s always speaking from his heart. And sure, that means sometimes he’s going to misstate a couple of things. But frankly, so does every other candidate.”

Heading into today’s auction, there was speculation that as a result of the recent blow out in yields and pile up in shorts, which had sent the repo rate on 10Y as negative as -0.60%, indicating a substantial shortage of paper, there would be a powerful squeeze headed into the auction.

That failed to materalize moments ago when the Treasury sold $24 BN in a 10Y reopening, which priced at a high yield of 1.739%, up from last month’s 1.67%, which in turn was the lowest since Sept 2017, and tailed the When Issued 1.736% by 0.3bps. This was the 5th consecutive tailing 10Y auction in a row.

And yet, the internals were notably stronger than the headline tail would suggest, with the Bid to Cover jumping from 2.20 last month to 2.46, the highest since June, and above the 6 auction average of 2.40. Indirects were likewise strong, taking down 62.6%, up from 55.7% last month, and inline with the six auction average, while Directs ended up with 12.7% of the auction, just below last month’s 13.6%, which left 24.7% for Dealers, the lowest since June.

Overall, this was a disappointing, if hardly poor, 10Y reopening, with solid internal demand if one ignores the relatively weak headline performance which suggests that an even bigger short base has to emerge before the auction breaks the recent trend of tailing and finally stops through.

 

 

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

We haven’t seen survey results like this since just before the last recession.  Right now, 60 percent of Americans believe that a recession is “very or somewhat likely in the next year”, and the reason why that figure is so high is because there is already a tremendous amount of evidence that the economy is slowing down all around us.  As I have been documenting repeatedly, U.S. economic performance has not been this dismal since 2008 and 2009, and the slowdown seems to be gaining pace as we move toward the end of 2019. 

So it really shouldn’t be a surprise that a solid majority of the country thinks that the next recession will officially begin very soon.  The following comes from ABC News…

Ratings of the U.S. economy overall, 56% positive, are down from 65% last fall in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates. Most ominously, 60% see a recession as very or somewhat likely in the next year. That’s within sight of the 69% who said so in November 2007, in advance of the Great Recession.

But at the same time, U.S. consumers continue to pile up more debt at a frightening pace.

According to NBC News, total revolving credit shot up at an 11.25 annual pace during the month of July…

According to the Federal Reserve’s consumer credit tracker, revolving credit — a category in which credit card debt predominates — increased at an annualized rate of 11.25 percent in July, the most recent month for which data is available.

“In terms of revolving debt, we see spikes like this every so often, but they don’t jump by double digits all that much,” said Matt Schulz, chief industry analyst at CompareCards. Typically, big jumps occur around the holidays, though — not in July.

If a severe economic downturn really is coming, the smart thing to do would be to get out of credit card debt.

But these days Americans have been trained to be very short-term thinkers.  And when things start to get tight, it is really easy to put expenses on a credit card and worry about them later.  This is something that I did when I was a much younger man, and it is something that millions of American families all over the nation are doing right now.

When the money simply isn’t there, it is just so tempting to whip out a credit card.  But credit card debt is one of the most insidious forms of debt because of the high interest rates most credit card companies charge.  And at this moment credit card companies are jacking up rates to a degree that we haven’t seen in many years…

WalletHub says average credit card APRs for people with good credit and business credit cardholders — at 20.9 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively — are the highest they’ve been since it began tracking rates in 2010.

For people with less than stellar credit, even those rates might be out of reach, McClary said. For example, a new applicant with a credit score in the low 600s might be offered an APR of about 22 percent, he said.

Unfortunately, the more debt that you accumulate, the less likely it becomes that you will ever start building up substantial wealth of your own.

Today, tens of millions of Americans are deep in debt and are working exceedingly hard to make other people rich.  And this is one of the biggest reasons why well over half the nation is currently living in “asset poverty”…

Many Americans claim they simply don’t earn enough money to build any type of savings account or amass any meaningful financial assets. Now, a troubling study out of Oregon State University finds some definite statistical truth to these sentiments, concluding that over 63% of American children and 55% of Americans live in “asset poverty.”

In other words, most Americans are living right on the edge financially, and that is a very dangerous place to be.  If you are not familiar with the term “asset poverty”, the following is a pretty good definition…

Asset poverty means having few or no financial assets to fall back on in the event of a financial calamity, such as losing one’s job or encountering a medical crisis. Some examples of common financial assets are vehicles, houses, savings accounts, and investments. Without these assets, weathering a financial crisis is extremely difficult.

When you really don’t have any real wealth of your own, you are essentially living paycheck to paycheck, and a single major setback can be absolutely disastrous.

In America today, financial difficulties are one of the biggest reasons why so many of us are completely stressed out, and the next recession hasn’t even officially begun yet.

But with each day we continue to get more numbers that tell us that big trouble is on the way.  For example, we just learned that the U.S. lost 4,500 trucking jobs last month…

The trucking industry has been battling challenging circumstances so far in 2019 – which includes the loss of thousands of positions last month.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the industry lost 4,500 jobs between July and August.

And of course trucking companies continue to go bankrupt at a staggering pace.  According to Business Insider, more than 600 trucking companies have already gone bankrupt so far this year…

Indicators from the trucking industry have been sour in 2019. In the first half of the year, around 640 trucking companies went bankrupt, according to industry data from Broughton Capital LLC. That’s more than triple the number of bankruptcies from the same period last year — about 175.

Sometimes people think that I exaggerate when I warn people about what is coming.  But the truth is that I am not exaggerating at all.  If anything, I feel frustrated that I am not able to effectively communicate how bad it will actually be when things start to get really crazy.

As a nation, we have been making incredibly bad decisions for decades, and we have been running in the exact opposite direction of where we should be headed as fast as we can.

In life, all decisions have consequences, and we are going to pay an extraordinarily high price for our exceedingly foolish decisions.

For the moment, things are relatively quiet.  But that quietness will not last for much longer.

After 100s of mysterious lung-related injuries among the e-cig community, President Trump called vaping a “problem” and said that his health secretary would force companies to remove flavored vaping products from the market.

“Not only is it a problem overall, but really specifically with respect for children,” Trump told reporters at the White House after a meeting with advisers including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Norman Sharpless.

“We may very well have to do something very, very strong about it,” Trump said.

While Altria shares are down, it seems traders are not convinced…

Azar said the FDA would soon issue regulatory guidance allowing the agency to remove flavored vaping products that are believed to appeal to children.

Five million children are using e-cigarette products, Azar said, calling it an “alarming” trend.

Authored by Marie Huillet via CoinTelegraph,

Grammy award-winning music artist Akon has rebuffed Bitcoin naysayers who claim that the asset lacks intrinsic value.

image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

In a radio interview published on Sept. 10, Akon lambasted the perception that fiat currencies are any less vulnerable to this same critique, arguing that:

“Nothing backs the dollar. The U.S. doesn’t have natural resources that back the dollar. What they do have is the military.”

People give cryptocurrency value, not governments

Akon – who has twelve Billboard Top Ten Hits to his name, including the popular single “Smack That” – spoke out during the interview in favor of decentralization and trustless blockchain-based mechanisms that underpin the value of cryptocurrencies. 

National fiat currencies have long ceased to be backed by physical commodities or natural resources, he noted, going on to argue that the United States dollar is ultimately sustained only by convention and military might. 

He is bullish on cryptocurrency, he revealed,  because it’s the people — not the vested interests of national governments — that wield control over their value.

The rapper’s comments come as his cryptocurrency project for a pan-African digital currency to replace fiat currencies, dubbed Akoin, gathers pace.

As Cointelegraph has previously reported, Akon had first revealed the initiative in the context of a Senegalese smart city project back in June 2018, arguing at the time that crypto can empower African citizens and bring security to the continent’s currency system.

A peace prize for Satoshi

Akon’s fresh endorsement of cryptocurrency chimes with the perspective of American investor Morgan Creek Digital Assets co-founder Anthony Pompliano, who recently argued that Satoshi Nakamoto should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for inventing Bitcoin. 

Pompliano said that with Bitcoin, we finally have “a currency that can assume global reserve status without anyone having to engage in violence.”

The Australian and Iranian governments are in intense negotiations for the release of three detained Australian citizens, some of whom have been in Iranian detention for months, The Guardian reported Wednesday. 

The UK Foreign Office is also believed involved in pursuing their release, given two of the detained also hold British passports. They include a female British-Australian professor who was arrested months ago and given a steep 10 year prison sentence, and reportedly now being held in solitary confinement. Ten-year terms are common in Iran in spying-related cases, though the specific charges are as yet unconfirmed.

The other two, arrested weeks ago, are identified as a female blogger and her male traveling companion who had reportedly camped out in a military area around Jajrood in Tehran province, according to reports. 

It’s presumed that the three foreign nationals were all detained under suspicion for spying; however, the blogger was told by authorities that “she was being held in order to facilitate a prisoner swap with Australia,” reported The Guardian. The two women are currently at Evin prison in Tehran while the third Australian’s location is unknown. 

As a result of the detentions Australia updated its travel warnings for Iran, saying, “There is a risk that foreigners, including Australians, could be arbitrarily detained or arrested in Iran. We can’t guarantee consular access if you are detained or arrested. We also can’t guarantee access to legal representation.”

Most notable is that the new official warnings advise travelers to avoid any military or nuclear development sites, which it adds “are not always clearly marked”. 

It’s believed the pair of backpackers came under suspicion for unknowingly camping near a military base outside of Tehran. 

The now public standoff over their confinement comes on the heels Australia announcing it would join a US-led maritime coalition in the gulf to monitor the Iranian military’s “destabilizing behavior”. 

Iran is still in possession of the British-flagged Stena Impero as well, even after the Adrian Darya was released from UK/Gibraltar captivity last month and is now believed to have successfully offloaded its oil to Syria. 

Authored by John Vibes via TruthTheory.com,

September 11, 2001, was nearly 20 years ago, and after all this time, so many questions still remain about what exactly happened. It is not socially acceptable to question the official explanation that was given for the collapse of the towers and the other events of that day, but now these questions are being taken more seriously.

However, the rushed and poorly managed 9/11 commission report did not do an adequate job at investigating the crimes, which left experts in a variety of different fields with questions about the official story. Many of these professionals belong to an organization called Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, who have been pushing for a new investigation into the attacks for many years.

This July, they announced a major breakthrough in their fight for a proper investigation. According to a press release published on the group’s website, New York Fire Commissioners who were closely involved with the events of that day, have called for a new investigation into the 9/11 attacks.

On July 24, the Franklin Square and Munson Fire Districts voted unanimously for a new investigation, citing “overwhelming evidence” that “pre-planted explosives . . . caused the destruction of the three World Trade Center buildings.”

The resolution was written by Commissioner Christopher Gioia, and received overwhelming support from Commissioner Dennis Lyons.

“We have a memorial — a piece of steel from the World Trade Center with 28 holes where the nuts and bolts used to go. Every year on the 11th, we put a rose in each hole for the 24 Nassau County firefighters and four Franklin Square residents who died on 9/11,” Commissioner Lyons said.

When the vote was passed, the families of 9/11 victims showed up in the audience to express their support for the cause and their gratitude to the departments for making this issue a priority.

Commissioner Gioia said that he expects support from other districts throughout the city, and hopes that they will be passing similar resolutions in solidarity.

“We were the first fire district to pass this resolution. We won’t be the last,” Gioia said.

This renewed interest in a proper investigation was sparked last year, when Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, filed a petition on behalf of the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry.

The petition highlighted a large body of evidence about the World Trade Center attacks, which was ultimately presented to a grand jury. Berman’s success through the courts gave many New York City firefighters hope that they could finally get to the bottom of what happened on that day, and find justice for the friends and loved ones who were lost.