Month: September 2024

Washington has now taken its war against Russia’s state funded English language broadcaster RT to a global level, and is urging all nations to block its broadcasts and close down offices.

Already back in 2022 after being officially branded a foreign agent by the US government which resulted in major platforms dropping its programing, RT America’s offices in the US were shuttered and it was effectively booted from the country. But on Friday the Biden administration unveiled a new effort which seeks to expose RT as part of “malign global intelligence and influence operations”.

The State Department claims to possess US intelligence reports that suggest Russian intelligence is deeply embedded in RT around the world. 

“Thanks to new information, much of which originates from RT employees, we know that RT possessed cyber capabilities and engaged in covert information and influence operations and military procurement,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Friday.

US officials allege that Russian intelligence efforts utilized RT to the point of crowdfunding for military gear. “Under the cover of RT, information produced through this unit flows to Russian intelligence services, Russian media outlets, Russian mercenary groups, and other state and proxy arms of the Russian government,” Blinken said.

The alleged crowdfunding activity on behalf of the government allowed “sniper rifles, suppressors, body armor, night vision equipment, drones, radio equipment, personal weapon sights, diesel generators” to be sent to Russian units fighting in Ukraine.

Biden officials say that want to put a dent in RT’s operations globally and hope to convince allies and nations from Latin America to Europe to Asia that it is a ‘threat’ to democracy.

CNN, which was the first to report on the new State Department initiative, included the following hilarious line in its reporting:

Asked for comment by CNN, RT responded with a mocking email that read in part: “We’ve been broadcasting straight out of the KGB headquarters all this time.”

The timing of the public rollout of this major anti-RT initiative is interesting and curious to say the least, given the US is getting closer to the November election, and admin officials and the Democratic party are busy resurrecting the old ‘Russiagate’ talking points against Trump. There are also the usual same election ‘foreign interference’ warnings being loudly sounded from US officials. This has also included talk of China and Iran as supposedly meddling in significant ways.

We’ve finally crossed the Rubicon. The Biden regime wants to ban RT. Here is Jamie Rubin, who embodies the deep state more than anyone else, explaining that, unlike RT, U.S. taxpayer-funded media is totally neutral and would never parrot government propaganda. pic.twitter.com/0pXcpJiXAx

— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) September 13, 2024

Is it a coincidence that the administration is talking about RT as if it’s 2016? We think not.

Via The Cradle

An opinion poll published on Friday showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party would win the largest number seats in the parliament if an election were held now.

The poll, published in the Hebrew language Maariv newspaper, showed Likud winning 24 Knesset seats, against the 32 the party now holds. The National Unity Party led by former general Benny Gantz would receive 21 seats.

Though Likud would win the most seats, Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, which includes nationalist-religious and ultra-Orthodox parties, would lose any election held now, with 53 seats in the 120-seat parliament. The main opposition bloc would win 58-seats, according to the poll.

Earlier opinion polls taken after the start of the war in Gaza regularly showed Likud gaining only 16 to18 seats.

Netanyahu and Likud’s popularity fell drastically, as many Israeli voters blamed the Prime Minister for the alleged security failures of the military and intelligence apparatus on 7 October. 

Members of Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, breached the Gaza border fence to attack Israeli settlements and military bases imposing a siege on the strip. Qassam and other Palestinian fighters were able to take 240 captives back to Gaza.

Some 1,200 Israelis were killed during the operation. Some were killed by Hamas fighters, while many were killed by Israeli attack helicopters, tanks, and drones, per the controversial Hannibal Directive.

Netanyahu and his coalition partners, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have refused to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would return the Israelis who are still captive in Gaza, preferring instead to continue the war that has killed a reported more than 40,000 Palestinians and destroy large swathes of the strip.

Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben Gvir established their ruling coalition following elections in late 2022. Israel’s next parliamentary election is not due until 2026.

The survey also showed Netanyahu’s personal popularity is improving. Israelis responding to the poll said they preferred Netanyahu over any alternative potential candidate apart from former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who has retired from public life.

In contrast to Likud, Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party and Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party have fallen in popularity since October 7. Both parties therefore have an incentive not to leave the government and call for early elections, Reuters reported.

New insights from the US Department of Agriculture show an optimistic forecast of improving US chicken supplies. This signals that lower supermarket prices for chicken breasts and nuggets could be ahead amid a food inflation storm. 

The USDA said in a report on Thursday that domestic broiler production is expected to reach 47.1 billion pounds this year, a 1.6% rise from 2023 figures. As of a July report, the agency expected an increase of only .8% before hiking the supply outlook for two consecutive months. 

Bloomberg pointed out that the new USDA report “suggests chicken producers are finally making some strides,” adding, “The number of eggs hatched in the US has risen by more than three percentage points since early July, while the number of chicks placed for production rose to the highest seasonal level in two years.” 

Mark Jordan, a poultry analyst with LEAP Market Analytics, told the media outlet that several hurdles that hindered poultry growth in the US “have been toggled back toward growth that was depressed for a long time.” 

Bloomberg also noted that speculation on increasing supplies has weighed on several producer stocks because of thinner margins. It added that Pilgrim’s Pride, the largest chicken producer in the US and Puerto Rico and the second-largest chicken producer in Mexico, has seen shares slide for the last six sessions—the longest losing streak in a year. Shares of Tyson Foods have also declined for four straight sessions. 

What’s bad for companies is great for consumers. Growing supplies could certainly continue weighing on chicken boneless breast retail prices. 

Sliding chicken prices will likely push cash-strapped consumers to substitute beef for chicken (sorry, Bill Gates, no one is switching real meat for your lab-grown meat). The latest news in the beef space is that US and Brazilian herd sizes are getting tighter. And retail beef prices in the US continue soaring. 

The US beef cattle herd size has collapsed to the smallest level in 73 years. 

The theme is a ‘thrifty‘ consumer that will substitute beef for chicken. Buy local and support mom-and-pop farmers (or start your own micro-farm). Stop supporting the food industrial complex of processed junk foods.

Authored by Connor O’Keefe via The Mises Institute,

In recent weeks, there have been a series of stories about the government cracking down on foreign agents allegedly working to influence the 2024 election.

First, the intelligence community linked the Iranian government to a hacking of Trump campaign documents. Then the federal government seized several websites it claims were linked to a Russian campaign to circulate disinformation—meaning deliberately spread false information.

The biggest story came last week when two employees of the Russian media organization RT—formerly Russia Today—were indicted for allegedly sending nearly $10 million to a Tennessee-based online media company.

US officials claim the scheme aimed to inject Russian government messaging across social media using conservative influencers.

Tenet Media was paying some big-name online conservatives—most of whom the DOJ admits had no knowledge of where the money was coming from—to produce content for Tenet’s YouTube channel. The indictment does allege that Tenet’s founders, Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, were aware that the Russians were providing at least some of their funding, but formal charges have not been brought against either as of yet.

Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke about these cases in a press conference last Wednesday. And they warned about other covert influence campaigns from the Russian, Iranian, and Chinese governments that aim to nudge the American electorate toward their regime’s preferred candidates.

Garland and Wray clearly wanted to convey that the DOJ and the FBI—its most prominent component—stand in total opposition to government officials manipulating public opinion to serve their own ends. But the actions of the DOJ, the FBI, and the political establishment more broadly paint a very different picture.

Obviously, our government conducts the exact kind of influence campaigns they demonize these foreign regimes for carrying out here. Just as Russia has RT, the US government funds a number of media organizations—like Radio Free Europe and Voice of America—that propagate the Washington party line across the globe. Last year, Biden’s USAID administrator Samantha Power was even bragging about launching US government-funded news organizations in Hungary to, in her words, help “build independent media.”

But it’s not as if our government officials are just trying to push their preferred messaging abroad while protecting Americans from similar efforts being directed against us. They’re also using these very same influence techniques against the American public.

The recent revelation from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s open letter to Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) provides a good example.

In the letter, Zuckerberg recounts how, in the lead-up to the 2020 election, the FBI warned his company to be on the lookout for a “Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma (the Ukrainian gas company that appointed Hunter Biden to its board).”

Not long after that, the New York Post broke its now famous story, reporting on evidence of the Biden family’s influence-peddling, obtained from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop. Concluding that that was the “Russian disinformation” operation the FBI had warned about, Meta “demoted” the story on Facebook—ensuring that few users would encounter it.

With all we know today, it’s hard to see the federal government’s conduct in the fall of 2020 as anything other than a disinformation operation of its own.

According to testimony from Laura Dehmlow, the Section Chief of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, the FBI agents tasked with warning social media companies about this supposed Russian disinformation operation already knew about Hunter Biden’s laptop and were already aware that it was authentic and not disinformation. The FBI had, after all, seized the laptop the year before.

The Bureau lied to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media giants for months—priming them to bury the story when it eventually came out. Then, after the New York Post published, the FBI went silent. They refused to confirm that the laptop was authentic. Five days later, fifty-one former “intelligence” officials signed an open letter arguing that the laptop was likely Russian disinformation. That allowed the rest of the political establishment to dismiss the very real story as something cooked up by the Kremlin. The authenticity of the laptop would eventually be confirmed, but not until well after the 2020 election.

So, by all indications, the FBI spread disinformation to American companies to help the rest of the political establishment quash a story that hurt the candidate they clearly liked better. A story that eight in ten Americans believe would have cost Joe Biden the election if the public knew it was true on election day.

Yet nobody in the political establishment condemns what the FBI and DOJ did. They may say they stand against election meddling, but they contradict themselves with their actions.

Our government is not trying to protect us from disinformation. They’re trying to maintain a monopoly on it.

According to a footnote in a Sept. 12 court filing, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has retracted its longstanding characterization of cryptocurrencies as “securities” and intends to use more careful language in the future. 

Specifically, as CoinTelegraph’s Alex O’Donnell reports, the retraction arose from the SEC’s ongoing lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance for allegedly offering and selling unregistered securities. In a 2023 complaint, the SEC identified 10 crypto assets on the Binance platform as “securities,” including the native tokens of Solana, Cardano (ADA) and Polygon.

The SEC “regrets any confusion” caused by its characterization of these tokens as “crypto asset securities” and “no longer uses the shorthand term,” according to the Sept. 12 filing.

“With its use of the term ‘crypto asset securities,’ the SEC is not referring to the crypto asset itself as the security,” the agency said. Instead, a token’s status as a security “consists of the full set of contracts, expectations, and understandings centered on the sales and distribution of the [crypto asset],” it said, citing language from an earlier filing.

Coinbase’s chief legal officer has been critical of the SEC. Source: Paul Grewal

The SEC asserts that even by this narrower definition, Binance remains at fault for unlawful securities offerings because the exchange’s tokens “continue to be offered and sold as investment contracts.”

The securities regulator is advancing a similar argument against crypto exchange Kraken, which the agency charged in November with “operating [a] crypto trading platform as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency.”

The regulator’s emphasis on the context around which virtual assets are sold follows its 2024 approval of Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETF) using a legal entity structure typically associated with funds holding commodities, not securities.

The SEC is also suing Kraken for alleged securities law violations. Source: Kraken

“I’ll say it again:  somehow ETH transaction[s] HAVE changed [in] a meaningful way that the Ten Crypto Assets [referenced in the SEC’s Binance lawsuit] have not so as to avoid the agency’s clutches,” Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, said in a Sept. 13 post on the X platform.

“How? That’s apparently for the [SEC] to know, and the rest of us to find out only if and when we are sued,” Grewal said. Coinbase is also being sued by the SEC for alleged violations of securities laws. 

Pressure is mounting on US financial regulators, including the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to abandon what critics describe as a high-handed and confusing approach to crypto enforcement. 

In a Sept. 4 statement, Summer Mersinger, one of the CFTC’s five commissioners, chastized the CFTC for engaging in “regulation through enforcement” and called for clearer guidance for crypto exchanges. 

“It [is] my hope that one day soon the commission would consider rulemaking, or at the very least guidance, making clear how DeFi protocols could comply with them,” Mersinger said. 

Authored by Juan Carlos Porras via RealClearFlorida,

For many Floridians, living within a Homeowners Association (HOA) can feel like navigating a complex web of rules and regulations that often seem more restrictive than beneficial or sometimes even predatory. A recent survey conducted by the Florida Homeowners Association Reform Coalition reveals just how pervasive this sentiment is. The poll found that a staggering 72% of respondents are dissatisfied with their HOA experiences, with a notable 65% pointing to a lack of transparency and fairness and 58% criticizing the arbitrary enforcement of rules. These figures highlight the widespread frustration felt by homeowners and the undeniable need for substantive reform.

The statute governing HOAs was untouched for twenty years and even the existing statute did almost nothing to govern HOAs beyond establishing their existence. Since my election in 2022, I have championed HOA reform starting with House Bill 919, the Homeowners’ Bill of Rights, and the most recent House Bill 1203. This latest bill seeks to enhance transparency, improve financial reporting, and establish clearer procedures for resolving disputes. It also aims to increase homeowners’ involvement in decision-making processes, aiming to empower homeowners when it comes to their community’s management.

However, while the passage of House Bill 1203 is a promising development, it’s essential to understand that far more is needed to finally resolve the HOA issue and the solution is not exclusively legislative. Even polling data suggests that while there is optimism for change, skepticism remains high. Specifically, 63% of homeowners believe that legislative reforms alone will not be sufficient to rectify the issues without robust enforcement and oversight.

One major concern is the balance of power between HOAs and homeowners. Many residents feel that HOAs wield excessive authority, often enforcing rules in ways that seem punitive rather than constructive or even selectively enforcing particular rules. The bill’s focus on procedural clarity is a positive step, but it must be reinforced by measures that enforce the desired reassessment of power dynamics within HOA governance. For example, rules governing property appearance and maintenance, while intended to maintain community standards, can sometimes lead to unnecessary conflicts, stress, and financial hardship for homeowners. Without future measures that more clearly review how power is distributed and exercised, the reforms risk being undermined by unwavering HOA Boards.

The proposed legislation includes important measures such as more detailed financial reporting requirements for HOAs. This is a crucial step, as financial transparency is often cited as a major concern among residents. Many HOAs operate with little oversight, leading to questions about how fees are utilized and whether they are justified. Improved reporting could help ensure that homeowners have a clearer understanding of how their money is being spent and provide a basis for holding HOAs accountable for mismanagement. It is critical to remember that the funds held by an HOA are made up of the monthly required dues from the residents and the Board is a steward, but not the owner, of those funds.

Another significant aspect of House Bill 1203 is its focus on dispute resolution. Clearer procedures for resolving conflicts between HOAs and homeowners are essential for reducing friction and ensuring that grievances are addressed fairly. This aligns with the poll’s finding that 59% of respondents believe better enforcement and oversight are critical for the success of any reform efforts. Effective dispute resolution mechanisms can help mitigate conflicts before they escalate, fostering a more harmonious community environment and easing tensions between the Board and the residents.

Education and advocacy also play crucial roles in the reform process. Many homeowners are unaware of their rights or lack the knowledge to effectively challenge an HOA’s decisions. By increasing educational initiatives and providing resources to help residents navigate disputes, we can empower homeowners to advocate for themselves and contribute to a more balanced HOA experience. This proactive approach can complement legislative efforts, ensuring that Florida’s homeowners are aware of their rights and powers as members of an HOA.

Despite the promising aspects of House Bill 1203, the real challenge lies in its implementation. For the reforms to have a meaningful impact, they must be supported by effective oversight and enforcement mechanisms. Policymakers and community leaders need to ensure that these new regulations are not merely symbolic but are applied consistently and fairly across all HOA-managed communities. This will require ongoing vigilance and a commitment to addressing any issues that arise as the reforms are put into practice.

Furthermore, the success of these reforms will depend on the active engagement of both homeowners and HOA boards. Homeowners must remain informed and involved in their communities, while HOA boards need to embrace the spirit of reform and work collaboratively with residents. The best way to achieve this goal is through homeowner participation which can shift Board elections, decisions, and community management as a whole. Only through a concerted effort can we hope to achieve a more equitable and functional HOA system.

In conclusion, while House Bill 1203 represents a significant step towards addressing the challenges associated with HOAs in Florida, it is only one piece of the puzzle. Greater reform will require a combination of legislative changes, effective enforcement, and community engagement. The recent polling data underscores the widespread demand for these improvements and highlights the need for a comprehensive approach to overhauling HOA governance.

As Florida moves forward, it is crucial for policymakers, community leaders, and residents to work together to ensure that these reforms result in a more balanced and fair HOA system. The goal should be to create a framework where HOAs genuinely enhance community living rather than create additional layers of frustration and bureaucracy. There are enough problems facing Florida’s homeowners during this tumultuous time. With sustained effort and collaboration, I am committed to resolving HOAs as one of those problems so that we can move closer to peace and harmony in Florida’s beautiful communities.

State Representative Juan Carlos Porras is the youngest member of the Florida House of Representatives and he is the first Gen Z member of the Florida House of Representatives. He is the proud son of Cuban exiles and is grateful for his parents’ sacrifices that allowed him to become his family’s first college graduate. He graduated from Florida International University with a Bachelors in Political Science and also runs a food distribution company specializing in trading produce from Latin America. During his first two years as a member of the Florida House of Representatives he has championed HOA reform, matters of commerce, and has passed extensive healthcare measures. 

Authored by Star Parker via The Epoch Times,

A newspaper story several years ago reported about an elementary school teacher who held elections in his class.

The students picked their candidates—one little boy competing against one little girl.

The little boy stood up before the class and shared his ideas for changes that would improve their lives. The little girl stood up and promised that everyone who voted for her would get ice cream.

The little girl won, hands down.

Maybe it’s a cute story about 10-year-olds.

But it’s far less cute if we consider that the political reality in our country today is not much different.

Two-thirds of federal spending, which now takes almost one-fourth of our GDP, are transfer payments.

As opposed to federal spending that involves direct payments to individuals or firms—like salaries or purchases made by the Department of Defense—transfer payments are payments that are automatically transferred to one set of citizens out of the federal budget, as well as funds that the federal government transfers to the states.

We’re talking about programs such as Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, refundable tax credits, Medicaid, housing, welfare, and transit.

These are automatic, mandatory transfers, which, as a percent of federal spending, have increased by about a factor of 5 since 1950.

Per the House Budget Committee, the percentage of the U.S. population enrolled in Medicaid has increased from 9.3 percent in 1975 to 24.3 percent in 2022, getting food stamps from 7.9 percent in 1975 to 12.4 percent in 2022, and the earned income tax credit from 2.9 percent in 1975 to 9.3 percent in 2021.

The oldest and largest of these programs is Social Security. Whenever I convey that Social Security comes under the heading of federal entitlements, I get irate letters from those getting Social Security telling me they worked to get their benefits.

But that isn’t the point. The point is most Americans have no choice to be or not be in the program, and once in, everything is automatic—when and how much is paid (although there is some latitude when to start receiving the benefit)—and the benefits received are from taxes paid by others.

It is important to appreciate, which most don’t, that these types of transfers were once considered unconstitutional. It was Social Security that changed the game.

Taking from Peter to pay Paul was never understood to be a constitutional authority of the federal government.

But after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Social Security into law in 1935, its constitutionality was challenged in the case known as Helvering v. Davis.

The court, in that case, found Social Security constitutional in a major expansion of understanding of the “general welfare” clause of the U.S. Constitution—“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes … and provide for the common Defense and general welfare.” As result of this ruling, a new understanding of “general welfare” gave Congress vast and wide new authority to tax and finance programs, even though those areas are not clearly enumerated in the Constitution as authority of the federal government.

Thus, the modern American welfare state was born, and the door was opened for politicians to promise ice cream in exchange for votes and power.

It is the main source of the explosion of federal spending, and now federal borrowing.

Change is possible. I began my career working on welfare reform.

With reform of AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and of TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the percentage of the population on welfare dropped from 5.2 percent in 1975 to 0.9 percent in 2019.

The founders envisioned a free nation under God in which the role of government is to protect life and property.

Our real challenge is to restore this mission and vision. It will make us all better off.

*  *  *

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Amid all the volatility of the last few weeks in stocks, money markets have seen a constant inflow of funds (six straight weeks) with the last week adding $23.4BN to total MM fund AUM to a new record high of $6.324TN…

Source: Bloomberg

That is $188BN of inflow in six weeks – the biggest since the turn of the year seasonal flows.

At the same time, US banks saw almost $53BN of deposit inflows in the week-ending 09/04, pushing total (seasonally-adjusted) deposits to their highest since before the SVB collapse…

Source: Bloomberg

On a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, US bank deposits soared $118BN last week – also back to its highest sine SVB…

Source: Bloomberg

Excluding foreign deposits, domestic bank deposits soared on both an SA (+$60BN) and NSA (+$137BN) basis…

Source: Bloomberg

…back above pre-SVB crisis levels…

Source: Bloomberg

After last week’s crash, domestic bank loan volumes rebounded modestly….

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, while US bank reserves at The fed have been trending lower, US equity market cap has stalled (at record highs)…

Source: Bloomberg

Which is more likely? A collapse back to reality for stocks (hard landing) or a huge sudden surge in reserves at The Fed?

Authored by James Howard Kunstler’s substack,

“One debate doesn’t change the issues Americans are facing every day.”

– James Rickards

By now, you’ve probably heard enough debate about The Debate, so I’ll spotlight only a few points everybody else left out. You might know this, but Hollywood plays a larger role in the Kamala campaign than just stuffing the endorsements of celebs such as George Clooney, Taylor Swift, and John Legend into the corporate media tank. In fact, much bigger playas, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg, are producing and directing things backstage at Kamala Central, so what gets in the Kamala news plays as a Spielberg movie like The Color Purple. Just so you know. . . .

Ms. Harris had the advantage Tuesday night of being able to speak in declarative sentences, while her opponent, Mr. Trump, is given, shall we say, to a more choppy, telegraphic speech delivery. It lent Ms. Harris the appearance of being intelligent. The catch was, everything she said was disingenuous or an outright lie.

One whopper — more significant than you might realize — was her stating that she was in the US Capitol building when the J-6 riot happened. You’d think she’d want to be on-hand there, seeing as a joint session of Congress was about to certify her as the first female veep in US history — a chance to be joyful and shine! But, in fact, at 11:15a.m. on 1/6/21 — hours before protesters breeched the Capitol — Kamala Harris was spirited away a few blocks to 430 South Capitol Street, the headquarters building of the Democratic National Committee, where a pipe bomb (or facsimile of one) had been planted hours before by some DC law enforcement person (Capitol police? FBI? DC Metro Police? A paid “contractor” to the preceding outfits?). The exact identity of the culprit has never been released by the FBI, though they have all perp’s cell phone data and closed circuit TV footage.

The plan, you see, was to disrupt the election certification process underway at mid-day in the House chamber by creating a furor over the discovery of the pipe bomb planted to assassinate veep-elect Kamala Harris — a joint blob / Democratic Party operation.

The pipe bomb ruse, it turned out, was never needed because the FBI-instigated riot at the Capitol created a big disruption just in time to send the politicians scurrying for safety and cancel scrutiny of various state’s electors’ reports.

After that scare, the Senators and Congressmen did, in fact, drop the certification challenge and returned to hurriedly finish the certification process later that night of 1/6/21. The pipe bomb story barely made the news, and the scant news about it was expeditiously memory-holed thereafter. After nearly four years, as averred to above, the FBI has come up with. . . nothing. It is important that you understand just how nefarious your federal agencies are, and how corrupt the news is.

Now, as for the Harris-Trump debate, otherwise, and given the rigged features of the exercise, it’s obvious that Mr. Trump muffed several major scoring opportunities. When Ms. Harris dredged up the notorious hoax about “very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville, Mr. Trump could have addressed the moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis and asked them why they did not “fact-check” the utterance, which had been thoroughly debunked by the Left-wing site Snopes.com, advertising itself as “the definitive Internet reference source for researching urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.” Nor did they fact check the likewise debunked “suckers and losers” hoax about US soldiers supposedly uttered by Mr. Trump at the Normandy D-Day cemetery.

Actually, Muir and Davis “fact-checked” Mr. Trump over thirty times and Ms. Harris hardly at all.

In any case, Mr. Trump blew many other chances to pin Ms. Harris with her own lies and hypocrisies — like, failing to state plainly that in nearly four years she never actually visited the Mexican border (whatever her designated title was: “Border Czar,”  “Root Causes Detective”) . . . failing to clarify that the president has been removed from the abortion debate altogether and has no role in telling women what to do with their own bodies under current law. . . that Ms. Harris’s voteless selection as nominee was a paradigmatic affront to “our democracy” that even her own fellow party members ought to recognize . . . that the War in Ukraine was actually started in early 2014 by Barack Obama, Victoria Nuland, and the CIA, not by Mr. Putin . . . and omitting to state that all — every last one — of the 2020 election lawsuits across the nation were dismissed on procedural grounds and not on the merits of their arguments, which were never heard in court. That’s just a short list. It is also rumored that Ms. Harris got the debate questions beforehand, since her husband, Hollywood lawyer Doug Emhoff, is a close friend of Dana Walden, Co-chair of the Disney Corporation board of directors (Disney owns ABC-News.)

Anyway, that much-awaited event is over now and we are into the homestretch of this election. Kamala Harris has still shown no disposition to meet the press, to answer any questions impromptu and unscripted. The voting public seems to be losing patience with that. Her poll numbers are sinking, despite her admirable ability to speak in declarative sentences and lead joyful laugh-fests.

What remains for our sore-beset country beyond that vortex of nefarious blobbery and balloting lawfare is the interesting development that our government is now pressing to commence World War Three before the election can happen. “Joe Biden,” of course, is lately as absent from the public consciousness as Rutherford B. Hayes, but whoever acts in the president’s name these days just gave permission for Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia with long-range missiles. So, far, the UK and the Netherlands have officially jumped in on that decision.

Note that the Ukrainians have no ability to actually do the targeting of said missile themselves, which involves satellite technology, meaning whatever missiles happen to get fired into Russia will be done by NATO personnel. Mr. Putin has made it clear that such action will have consequences. We might infer that means Russia will strike back at some NATO targets. I must imagine his primary target will be NATO headquarters in Brussels. Other targets would probably follow, perhaps even in the USA.

Prepare to duck-and-cover, or possibly to put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye.

An event-full week (US CPI, US PPI, Presidential debate, ECB rate decision, and WSJ Fed whispers) left stocks, bonds, gold, crypto, and crude all higher in price, while the dollar was clubbed like a baby seal.

Soft survey data continues to rebound higher (full of hope) while hard data – most notably labor market-related – has been significantly lagging expectations…

Source: Bloomberg

…which, along with comments from The Wall Street Journal’s Fed-Whisperer (NikiLeaks) on discussions about a 50bps cut next week, sent rate-cut expectations higher on the week (despite plenty of chop around the hotter-than-expected core CPI print)…

Source: Bloomberg

…and shifted the market’s expectations for a 50bps cut next week above 50%…

Source: Bloomberg

Treasury yields were all lower on the week, led by the short-end…

Source: Bloomberg

…but despite bonds being bid, US stocks snapped aggressively higher midweek (after NVDA CEO Jensen Huang said “demand was incredible” and the algos went wild) and extended that sudden squeeze into Friday (with Small Caps and Nasdaq leading). Nasdaq was up just under 6% this week – its best week since the Powell Pivot at the start of Nov 2023…

Small Caps soared 2.5% today as desk chatter was that we saw corporates scrambling to execute permitted buybacks before the blackout period begins (55% of SPX will be in a closed window by Monday)…

…as “Most Shorted” stocks soared all week…

Source: Bloomberg

…and Mag7 stocks were up 5 days in a row (soaring to their best week since March 2023)…

Source: Bloomberg

This week was not just AI stocks but the second-derivatives trades (like powering AI). Goldman’s Power-Up-America basket soared to its best week in the last two years…

Source: Bloomberg

Stocks notably decoupled from bonds this week…

Source: Bloomberg

…as the Treasury curve (2s10s) steepened back into dis-inversion and its steepest since June 2022…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar was slammed lower after the WSJ comments yesterday (its sixth down week in the last seven weeks), but remains in a relatively narrow band for the last four weeks…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar’s weakness helped lift gold, which surged to a new record high with its best week in five months…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices ended the week higher (despite today’s pullback) but WTI remains below $70…

Source: Bloomberg

Which, along with the broad commodity space, is the only aspect of the markets that comes close to pricing in the 230bps of cuts priced into FF futures (a hard landing!!!)…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, bitcoin surged to its best week in two months, testing back up to $60,000 today…

Source: Bloomberg

…as perhaps the lagged impact of the surge in global liquidity (money supply) is about to send it to the moon…

Source: Bloomberg

Gold and stocks are already there… and don’t forget – after Nasdaq’s  best week since the Powell Pivot, we are entering the market’s worst two-week period of the year…

Will Powell let the market down?