(Negative) Convexity Cuts Both Ways: Nomura Confirms ‘Gamma’ Remains Most Important Flow In Market Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/04/2020 – 10:35
Yesterday’s sudden and violent, non-news-catalyst-driven collapse in Nasdaq (and the rest of the US equity market), especially focused on the go-go momo names, has brought home to many freshly-minted stock market gurus that risk is real and markets don’t always go up.
Simply put, as the Nomura MD has explained numerous times before, the great and austere US equity market is nothing more than a weak dog being wagged by the tail of speculative mania in options markets – in other words, gamma is the market’s most important flow.
(Negative) Convexity cuts both ways:
Yesterday was obviously the “…as it turns the other way to the downside” part, with the coiling convexity that is the reality of hedging “short gamma” as it relates to the sensitivity of the options that dealers are short to the then vacuum-like collapse in price of the underlying securities, i.e. the single-name Tech momentum longs which saw all the buying of calls, call spreads and riskies traded recently as part of the large upside buying flow from the institutional mkt participant as well as the Robinhood short-dated OMT Calls in said “gamma proxies” (i.e. continue to watch TESLA spot as a “leading indicator” today); to single-name delta and the NQ & ES “upside” & futs bot by dealers to hedge “CRASH UP” over the past few weeks).
So as to the point of my recent notes, the Vol market told us that something was going to happen (as foretold by the epic and perverse recent moves in skew, implied vs realized vol, “vol-of-vol,” SPX- and VIX- term structure…need I go on?!)…and the Equities market caught-down to that reality yesterday in self-fulfilling “tail wags the dog” fashion.
Yesterday saw some sanity / rationality restored, and that’s a healthy development:
SPX 1m tenor jump +2vols, QQQ outperforming at +3vols
SPX 3m-1m term structure was smashed -1.5vols
SPX Put Skew (ratio of 10d puts v 25d) came off from local highs
1m “vol of vol” jumped 15vols higher
UX2-UX1 spread flattened 2 vols, with VIX skew flattening off local highs as a function of the move lower in short-dated SPX put skew
But as McElligott notes, this is not over yet.
That much accumulated “short gamma” doesn’t just go away in a ~4% flush – the Street is still very much in a dangerous space, and that flow is still out there in full “Resevoir Dogs” standoff fashion both to UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE (again, short gamma = sell when mkt going lower, buy when mkt going higher)
I also think it is stillworth reiterating what I’ve recently mentioned regarding“extreme” positioning in the market to capture the “length” out there which realistically cannot be cleared in a single session as well: from the unprecedented $Delta from the “heavy” options positioning to the magnitude of the US Eq futs positioning from Asset Managers—remember these charts?
However now, in light of yesterday’s market shock and the mathematically factual “drag-UP” impact it will have on trailing realized volatility windows…
…if we were to see this “realized vol UP” dynamic sustain moving-forward, then Vol-Control as a source of prior enormous releveraging “buy” flow can very easily again turn to a mechanical incremental SELLER – again, all thanks to this market structure built upon “volatility as your exposure toggle.”
So far today is more of the same with pure “gross-down”: Fins, energy, indus, and mats (value cyclicals) are all UP and leading S&P; tech conm svc and cons disc (secular growth)…all down… crushing the momo factor…
What goes up (on negative gamma) comes down even harder…
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2QVcAkZ Tyler Durden
New York City residents still dependent on public schools received good-ish news this week. The teachers’ union—which threatened to strike unless the city met its demands for COVID-19 precautions—finally came to an agreement with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza. Under the deal, union leaders get to say they protected their members’ interests, while city officials get to claim that schools are safer than ever. And parents get to figure out what to do with their kids during unplanned days of idleness as the beginning of classes is pushed back a week and a half.
“Under the terms of the agreement, all New York City public school buildings will remain closed to students until Sept. 21, while final safety arrangements are completed, including the assignment of a school nurse to every building, ventilation checks and the presence of sufficient protective and cleaning supplies,” boasted the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) labor union. “The decision on whether to reopen a building to students will be based on the UFT 50-item safety checklist, including social distancing of student desks, the availability of masks and face shields, and a room-by-room review of ventilation effectiveness.”
“This is a great day for every public school student in New York City,” insisted de Blasio. “We face a return to school unlike any in our city’s history, but New Yorkers have made it possible because of their extraordinary work fighting back COVID-19. Our agreement puts the health and safety of our 1.1 million students, teachers, and school staff above everything else.”
The announcements resolved weeks of uncertainty for students and parents that saw the UFT threatening to strike as recently as the day before the deal was finalized. Families counting on the public schools for their children’s education had no way to know if they were actually going to get any education in return for the $25,000 that New York City schools extract from taxpayers and spends per pupil every year.
The UFT isn’t alone in its brinksmanship. Unions from Sacramento, California to Andover, Massachusetts held up the reopening of government schools, overtly using kids as bargaining chips to extract concessions over working conditions.
The United Teachers of Los Angeles went further, at one point demanding wealth taxes, police reform, and a moratorium on charter schools as necessary preconditions for reopening public schools. The union settled for remote-only classes.
Threatening strikes and refusing to show up for work have been effective tactics so far, since there’s a lot of leverage to be had in keeping parents uncertain as to the educational fate of their children, or even as to where they will spend the day while their parents work. But the labor actions have also created openings for education alternatives.
Private schools, learning pods, microschools, charters, and homeschooling approaches offer parents options that suit their preferences—options that can usually be adopted without waiting on the pleasure of third parties with their own agendas. With their public spats, last-minute agreements, and one-size-fits-few compromises government schools and teachers unions are handing unprecedented marketing opportunities to the competition.
“If your school in the Greater Boston area has a delayed opening or is going fully remote, check out our website to find a Catholic school near you that is offering live in-person instruction,” tweeted the Catholic Schools Office of the Archdiocese of Boston on August 28. “All are welcome—learn more today!”
“Do you know what you are doing for school this fall?” Prenda, which offers a model for microschools, posted on Facebook on August 27. “Join us to learn more about Prenda Family, our full-service at-home education program with a learning model, community, and curriculum that is designed to help your kids become empowered learners.”
In other cases, parents tackle education with a DIY approach.
“Nobody working in education today can escape pandemic learning pods: the increasingly popular phenomenon in which families band together and hire a private tutor to offer in-person learning to a small group of children,” The Washington Postnoted this week.
Families that have neither the resources nor the inclination to pay tuition or a share of a tutor’s fees are taking on the task themselves and discovering that education doesn’t have to be expensive.
“Interest in homeschooling has ‘exploded’,” the Associated Press reports. “Some are worried their districts are unable to offer a strong virtual learning program. For others who may have been considering homeschooling, concerns for their family’s health amid the coronavirus and the on-again, off-again planning for in-person instruction are leading them to part ways with school systems.”
Kids are increasingly being educated by their own relations, or in co-op style by groups of like-minded parents who share responsibilities for a pool of children.
The move by motivated families who can manage education alternatives even as they pay taxes for institutions plagued by squabbling amongst union leaders and government officials has some people worried about inequality. Public schools are poised to become the Medicaid of learning—lower-quality government offerings of last resort.
If—when, more likely—that happens, education bureaucrats and union officials will have nobody to blame but themselves.
“Somewhere along the way, I believe we flipped the purpose of this,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the New York Daily News editorial board during a 2015 discussion about schools. “This was never a teacher employment program and this was never an industry to hire superintendents and teachers. This was a program to educate kids.”
But, as Cuomo acknowledged, kids are beside the point when government officials and union leaders keep them waiting on negotiations that serve everybody but the people who depend on public schools. So families are leaving to explore the world beyond.
And as families grow accustomed to choosing what works for their children rather than accepting what they’re given, fewer of them are going to be eager to return their kids to the roles of hostages in labor negotiations. If we’re serious about educating everybody, all families should be allowed the freedom to do the same.
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New York City residents still dependent on public schools received good-ish news this week. The teachers’ union—which threatened to strike unless the city met its demands for COVID-19 precautions—finally came to an agreement with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza. Under the deal, union leaders get to say they protected their members’ interests, while city officials get to claim that schools are safer than ever. And parents get to figure out what to do with their kids during unplanned days of idleness as the beginning of classes is pushed back a week and a half.
“Under the terms of the agreement, all New York City public school buildings will remain closed to students until Sept. 21, while final safety arrangements are completed, including the assignment of a school nurse to every building, ventilation checks and the presence of sufficient protective and cleaning supplies,” boasted the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) labor union. “The decision on whether to reopen a building to students will be based on the UFT 50-item safety checklist, including social distancing of student desks, the availability of masks and face shields, and a room-by-room review of ventilation effectiveness.”
“This is a great day for every public school student in New York City,” insisted de Blasio. “We face a return to school unlike any in our city’s history, but New Yorkers have made it possible because of their extraordinary work fighting back COVID-19. Our agreement puts the health and safety of our 1.1 million students, teachers, and school staff above everything else.”
The announcements resolved weeks of uncertainty for students and parents that saw the UFT threatening to strike as recently as the day before the deal was finalized. Families counting on the public schools for their children’s education had no way to know if they were actually going to get any education in return for the $25,000 that New York City schools extract from taxpayers and spends per pupil every year.
The UFT isn’t alone in its brinksmanship. Unions from Sacramento, California to Andover, Massachusetts held up the reopening of government schools, overtly using kids as bargaining chips to extract concessions over working conditions.
The United Teachers of Los Angeles went further, at one point demanding wealth taxes, police reform, and a moratorium on charter schools as necessary preconditions for reopening public schools. The union settled for remote-only classes.
Threatening strikes and refusing to show up for work have been effective tactics so far, since there’s a lot of leverage to be had in keeping parents uncertain as to the educational fate of their children, or even as to where they will spend the day while their parents work. But the labor actions have also created openings for education alternatives.
Private schools, learning pods, microschools, charters, and homeschooling approaches offer parents options that suit their preferences—options that can usually be adopted without waiting on the pleasure of third parties with their own agendas. With their public spats, last-minute agreements, and one-size-fits-few compromises government schools and teachers unions are handing unprecedented marketing opportunities to the competition.
“If your school in the Greater Boston area has a delayed opening or is going fully remote, check out our website to find a Catholic school near you that is offering live in-person instruction,” tweeted the Catholic Schools Office of the Archdiocese of Boston on August 28. “All are welcome—learn more today!”
“Do you know what you are doing for school this fall?” Prenda, which offers a model for microschools, posted on Facebook on August 27. “Join us to learn more about Prenda Family, our full-service at-home education program with a learning model, community, and curriculum that is designed to help your kids become empowered learners.”
In other cases, parents tackle education with a DIY approach.
“Nobody working in education today can escape pandemic learning pods: the increasingly popular phenomenon in which families band together and hire a private tutor to offer in-person learning to a small group of children,” The Washington Postnoted this week.
Families that have neither the resources nor the inclination to pay tuition or a share of a tutor’s fees are taking on the task themselves and discovering that education doesn’t have to be expensive.
“Interest in homeschooling has ‘exploded’,” the Associated Press reports. “Some are worried their districts are unable to offer a strong virtual learning program. For others who may have been considering homeschooling, concerns for their family’s health amid the coronavirus and the on-again, off-again planning for in-person instruction are leading them to part ways with school systems.”
Kids are increasingly being educated by their own relations, or in co-op style by groups of like-minded parents who share responsibilities for a pool of children.
The move by motivated families who can manage education alternatives even as they pay taxes for institutions plagued by squabbling amongst union leaders and government officials has some people worried about inequality. Public schools are poised to become the Medicaid of learning—lower-quality government offerings of last resort.
If—when, more likely—that happens, education bureaucrats and union officials will have nobody to blame but themselves.
“Somewhere along the way, I believe we flipped the purpose of this,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the New York Daily News editorial board during a 2015 discussion about schools. “This was never a teacher employment program and this was never an industry to hire superintendents and teachers. This was a program to educate kids.”
But, as Cuomo acknowledged, kids are beside the point when government officials and union leaders keep them waiting on negotiations that serve everybody but the people who depend on public schools. So families are leaving to explore the world beyond.
And as families grow accustomed to choosing what works for their children rather than accepting what they’re given, fewer of them are going to be eager to return their kids to the roles of hostages in labor negotiations. If we’re serious about educating everybody, all families should be allowed the freedom to do the same.
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Warning Flashes As Corporate Execs Dump Most Stocks Since 2015 Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/04/2020 – 09:57
The S&P500 hit an all-time high price earlier this week, with a forward P/E multiple surpassing the dot com peak of 27x, printing at 27.02x. These mind-numbing valuations (before Thursday’s panic sell) have been met with intense insider selling as corporate executives dump billions of dollars worth of their stock into unsuspecting Robinhood traders.
Data compiled for the Financial Times by Smart Insider shows insider selling by 1,042 chief executives, chief financial officers and company directors in Aug. was the highest dollar amount since Nov. 2015. The total number of execs disposing of their stock as valuations, in some cases, surged beyond dot com levels, was the highest since Aug. 2018.
The insider selling frenzy has been happening as only a handful of technology stocks push overall main equity indexes to record or near-record forward P/Es. The optics of insiders selling in force is not a good one, indicating these business elites don’t believe in today’s rich valuations as the economic recovery stalls.
“Chief executives have been much more downbeat in their outlooks than investors,” said Max Gokhman, head of the asset allocation for Pacific Life Fund Advisors.
“If you think that your future is dim, but your stock is soaring, then it makes sense to sell,” Gokhman said.
For some historical context, after insiders dumped billions of dollars worth of stock in Nov. 2015, the S&P500 tumbled nearly 14% over 65 days into a low in late Jan.-Feb. 2016.
FT outlines the most significant insider selling transactions in Aug.:
Steven Rales and his brother Mitchell, founders of US industrial conglomerate Danaher, were the biggest sellers in August, offloading nearly $1bn worth of stock in technology specialist Fortive Group, which was spun out of Danaher in 2016.
Steven Rales pocketed $606m while Mitchell took home $363m. Fortive’s stock is up about three-quarters since the March trough. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Leslie Wexner, the founder of L Brands, which owns Victoria’s Secret, sold $89m of the company’s stock — which has more than tripled since the rally began. Mr. Wexner has made headlines in recent years for hiring Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in prison last year, to manage his personal fortune. L Brands did not respond to a request for comment. -FT
In a separate report via StoneX, a brokerage, insider selling of Nasdaq 100 tech stocks over the second quarter hit $10.4 billion, up 171% over the same quarter in 2019.
“Insiders at Nasdaq 100 index companies are harvesting a once-in-a-millennium bonanza,” said Vincent Deluard, a macro strategist for StoneX.
Insiders are suggesting that current valuations aren’t just rich, but the latest rally in stocks this summer is not sustainable, rather it could be viewed as a blowoff top.
For more color, we recently penned a couple of pieces (see: here & here) that shows insiders have been dumping through the summer, meanwhile, Robinhood daytraders are panic buying every dip as they might just be transformed into bagholders.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2R828a9 Tyler Durden
India On The Cusp Of Passing Brazil As World’s 2nd-Biggest COVID-19 Outbreak: Live Updates Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/04/2020 – 09:42
Summary:
India nears 4 million cases, on track to top Brazil
Berlusconi hospitalized with COVID
South Korea extends tight restrictions
Hungary reports single-day record as central European outbreak smolders
* * *
US coronavirus numbers continued to slow this week, even as rising numbers in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Alabama stoked concerns that the US pandemic is merely migrating once again. But as we head into the long holiday weekend in North America, the biggest story internationally is India, which is on the cusp of surpassing Brazil as the world’s largest outbreak.
Government officials in New Delhi have been pushing a mass testing drive to try and eradicate the virus from the hardest-hit areas, which include the densely populated slums of Delhi and Mumbai.
Once again, India reported 80k+ new infections in 24 hours on Friday, with 83,341 coronavirus infection, to be exact. The latest numbers put India’s total at 3.94 million, health ministry data showed on Friday, putting it within striking distance of 4 million, and surpassing Brazil, whose outbreak has finally begun to slow.
Asia’s worst-hit country is now just around 60,000 cases behind Brazil, which has around 4 million confirmed cases. The US, the worst-affected country, has more than 6 million cases.
India has recorded the largest daily tally in the world for the past month, as PM Narendra Modi continues to push ahead with reopening his economy after an economically devastating lockdown.
GDP data reported earlier this week revealed that India’s economy took a beating during the quarter ended in June, as the strict lockdown forced the people inside, and away from commerce.
While cases have soared, deaths in India from COVID-19 have remained relatively low, a sign of the aggressiveness of the government’s testing campaign. The ministry said on Friday that 1,096 people died from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking India’s death toll to 68,472.
Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has been admitted to a hospital in Milan after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this week. The 83-year-old, who still leads the Forza Italia party, had been isolating at his home near Milan. A spokesman insisted his hospitalization was “a precautionary measure.”
As an outbreak in central Europe continues to smolder, Hungary reported a daily record of 459 coronavirus infections Friday, with new cases mostly affecting young people. Active cases climbed to 2,817, while the number of deaths rose by one to 621.
In South Korea, authorities are extending a set of strict social distancing measures in the Seoul area by a week to Sept. 13, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said. The country will also extend nationwide level 2 social distancing steps by two weeks, and delay the start of in-person education until Sept. 20, vs Sept. 11.
Earlier Friday, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun warned that rushing to ditch the precautions could open the door to another flareup.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/354uEBu Tyler Durden
“Great Jobs Numbers!” Trump Booms As US Unemployment Rate Unexpectedly Tumbles To 8.4% Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/04/2020 – 09:35
Amid a wide range of sellside estimates, and a whisper number that was either too high or too low depending on whom you asked, moments ago the BLS reported that in August, the number of payrolls was almost unexpectedly in line with consensus expectations: according to the August jobs report, some 1.371MM payrolls were created, essentially on top of the 1.35MM expected.
But if the Establishment survey was strong, the Household Survey was a blockbuster print, where a whopping 3.8 million newly employed workers were uncovered, as the total rose from 143.5 million to 147.3 million.
This was clearly a better than expected report, where some had expected a substantial slowdown in August due to a spike in virus cases across Sunbelt states, and U.S. labor-market rebound unambiguously extended for a fourth month in August, giving hope that the economy can continue to recover – and that Trump can parade with a strong labor market in the next two months – despite Washington’s standoff over further government aid to jobless Americans and small businesses.
That said, a quarter of all job gains were thanks to government jobs (Census hiring), so we are confident that one can find issues with the report.
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised down by 10,000, from +4,791,000 to +4,781,000, and the change for July was revised down by 29,000, from +1,763,000 to +1,734,000. With these revisions, employment in June and July combined was 39,000 less than previously reported.
The one series tracked by all, the number of “temporarily” unemployed surprised as it dropped by more than 3 million to just 6.2 million, from 9.2 million the month before. As usual, debate over what defines “temporary” unemployment remains in the foreground.
This was offset by the number of people in the U.S. seeing permanent job losses, which rose by about half a million to 3.4 million, the highest level since 2013. “It points to the ongoing business closures, bankruptcies, and investment cuts across the country.” as BBG’s Katia Dimitrieva said.
Meanwhile, the percentage of the labor force unemployed for more than 15 weeks: this jumped to 5.1%, the highest since the financial crisis.
The average hourly earnings also printed generally in line, rising by 4.7% in August, unchanged from the previous month, and above the 4.5% expected.
According to the BLS, average hourly earnings for all employees rose by 11 cents to $29.47. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 18 cents to $24.81, following a decrease of 10 cents in the prior month. As the BLS notes, the large employment fluctuations over the past several months–especially in industries with lower-paid workers–complicate the analysis of recent trends in average hourly earnings.
Also worth noting is that the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.1 hour to 34.6 hours in August. In manufacturing, the workweek rose by 0.3 hour to 40.0 hours, and overtime increased by 0.1 hour to 3.0 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.0 hours.
The labor force participation rate rose modestly, from 61.4 to 61.7, as the Civilian Labor Force rose by 1 million to 160.8 million in August while the population rose by just 200K to 260.558MM.
Where there was a surprise was in the unemployment rate, which unexpectedly tumbled from 10.2% in July to 8.4%, smashing expectations of a 9.8% print. It looks like Trump wants to go into the November elections with a 7% or lower unemployment rate.
Despite all the superlatives, let’s not forget that In August, nonfarm employment was below its February level by 11.5 million, or 7.6 percent. Looking at the sector breakdown, government employment rose in August, as expected, reflecting temporary hiring for the 2020 Census. Notable job gains also occurred in retail trade, in professional and business services, in leisure and hospitality, and in education and health services.
Some more details:
Employment in government increased by 344,000 in August, accounting for one-fourth of the over- the-month gain in total nonfarm employment. A job gain in federal government (+251,000) reflected the hiring of 238,000 temporary 2020 Census workers. Local government employment rose by 95,000 over the month. Overall, government employment is 831,000 below its February level.
Retail trade added 249,000 jobs in August, with almost half the growth occurring in general merchandise stores (+116,000). Notable gains also occurred in motor vehicle and parts dealers (+22,000), electronics and appliance stores (+21,000), and miscellaneous store retailers (+17,000). Employment in retail trade is 655,000 lower than in February.
Employment in professional and business services increased by 197,000. More than half of the gain occurred in temporary help services (+107,000). Architectural and engineering services (+14,000), business support services (+13,000), and computer systems design and related services (+13,000) also added jobs over the month. Employment in professional and business services is 1.5 million below its February level.
Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 174,000 in August, with about three-fourths of the gain occurring in food services and drinking places (+134,000). Despite job gains totaling 3.6 million over the last 4 months, employment in food services and drinking places is down by 2.5 million since February.
Employment in education and health services increased by 147,000 but is 1.5 million below February’s level. Health care employment increased by 75,000 over the month, with gains in offices of physicians (+27,000), offices of dentists (+22,000), hospitals (+14,000), and home health care services (+12,000). Elsewhere in health care, job losses continued in nursing and residential care facilities (-14,000). Employment in private education rose by 57,000 over the month.
Employment in transportation and warehousing rose by 78,000 in August, with gains in warehousing and storage (+34,000), transit and ground passenger transportation (+11,000), and truck transportation (+10,000). Employment in transportation and warehousing is down by 381,000 since February.
The other services industry added 74,000 jobs in August, reflecting gains in membership associations and organizations (+31,000), repair and maintenance (+29,000), and personal and laundry services (+14,000). Employment in other services is 531,000 lower than in February.
Financial activities added 36,000 jobs in August, with most of the growth in real estate and rental and leasing (+23,000). Employment in financial activities is down by 191,000 since February.
Manufacturing employment rose by 29,000, with gains concentrated in the nondurable goods component (+27,000). Despite gains in recent months, employment in manufacturing is 720,000 below February’s level.
Employment in wholesale trade increased by 14,000 in August, reflecting an increase of 9,000 in the nondurable goods component. Wholesale trade employment has declined by 328,000 since February.
Employment was changed little in mining, construction, and information.
The August payrolls report also provided some curious supplementary data, as follows:
In August, 24.3 percent of employed persons teleworked because of the coronavirus pandemic, down
from 26.4 percent in July.
In August, 24.2 million persons reported that they had been unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic–that is, they did not work at all or worked fewer hours at some point in the last 4 weeks due to the pandemic. This measure is down from 31.3 million in July. Among those who reported in August that they were unable to work because of pandemic-related closures or lost business, 11.6 percent received at least some pay from their employer for the hours not worked.
About 5.2 million persons not in the labor force in August were prevented from looking for work due to the pandemic. This is down from 6.5 million in July. (To be counted as unemployed, by definition, individuals must either be actively looking for work or on temporary layoff.)
The bottom line, as Tony Bedikian, head of global markets at Citizens Bank, summarized: “We are still moving in the right direction and the pace of the jobs recovery seems to have picked up, but it still looks like it will take a while and likely a vaccine before we get back close to where we were at the beginning of this year. We continue to be optimistic that the economy has turned a corner and that we’ll continue to see steady progress.”
The report was certainly enough for Trump to declare that it was a “Great Jobs Numbers!” one which “broke the 10% level faster and deeper than thought possible.”
Great Jobs Numbers! 1.37 Million Jobs Added In August. Unemployment Rate Falls To 8.4% (Wow, much better than expected!). Broke the 10% level faster and deeper than thought possible.
Even so, employment remains 11.5 million below pre-pandemic levels and the level of long-term and permanent unemployment is rising. Much hinges on fiscal stimulus for states and companies from the government in months ahead.
In terms of market impact, Bloomberg speculates that “the lower unemployment rate is likely to force Fed officials to rethink their most pessimistic forecasts for employment and other economic projections.”
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3bvqx2K Tyler Durden
Has there ever been a time in your life when you haven’t had enough food to make it through the week? If you have never experienced this, you are extremely fortunate. Even during the best of times, millions of Americans struggle with hunger, and these definitely are not the best of times. Because of all the crazy things that have happened so far in 2020, large numbers of people have been forced into dramatic lifestyle changes. Many Americans have deeply cut their food budgets due to a lack of income, others are now only eating one or two meals a day, and we are seeing more demand at food banks around the country than we ever have before.
It is quite obvious that massive numbers of people are really hurting, and Bloomberg is reporting that it is being projected that the number of Americans that are “fighting hunger” will rise to “more than 50 million” by the end of this calendar year…
The ranks of Americans fighting hunger are projected to swell some 45% this year to more than 50 million.
To me, that is an absolutely staggering figure.
Right now, the U.S. has a total population of about 328 million people, and so that figure that Bloomberg quoted represents a sizable chunk of the country.
And we certainly don’t have to wait until the end of the year for the numbers to get really, really bad. In fact, it is being reported that one recent survey found that approximately one-tenth of all U.S. households “haven’t had enough food in a given week”…
During the pandemic, about a 10th of American households reported they haven’t had enough food in a given week. That’s a shocking figure for the world’s richest country. It’s more than double pre-Covid figures and the highest since comparable government data starts in 1995.
I feel especially bad for the children that are going hungry.
Can you imagine how bad parents must feel when their children tell them that they are hungry and the parents have nothing to provide?
And this is just the beginning. Food prices are going to continue skyrocketing over the coming year, and that is just going to stretch family budgets even more.
A few days ago, I strongly urged my readers to stockpile food for the chaotic times that are ahead. Food prices are only going to go higher, and economic conditions are going to continue to deteriorate.
In fact, some more major job cuts were just announced. For example, Ford just announced that it will be eliminating “1,400 white collar jobs”…
Ford is looking to cut 1,400 white collar jobs in a cost-savings move.
The automaker sent out letters to employees Wednesday saying that salaried staff eligible for retirement would be getting early retirement offers next week. Those who take the offer by October 23 would be leaving the company by the end of the year.
With no air travel rebound or new federal help in sight, United Airlines says it will furlough about 20% of its frontline employees in less than a month’s time.
In a new memo to its employees, United (UAL) says that 16,370 employees will be furloughed when payroll restrictions attached to a federal bailout expire October 1.
Because most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, a job loss can plunge a family into dire straits very rapidly. All over the U.S., we are seeing long lines of people driving very nice vehicles waiting for up to six hours to get food at local food banks.
Over the past 23 weeks, more than 58 million Americans have filed initial claims for unemployment benefits, and many of them have “suddenly” found themselves in need of food. For a lot of them, it is the first time something like this has ever happened to them.
And so many people that I talk to believe that what we have experienced so far is just the tip of the iceberg and that much worse is coming. There is such a sense of urgency in the air, and gun sales just keep setting record after record. In fact, we just learned that gun sales during the month of August were 57 percent higher than last year…
The Washington Free Beacon reported Tuesday that the U.S. saw more gun sales in August 2020 than any other August since the FBI has been logging data on the subject. According to the outlet’s analysis of FBI background check data, there were at least 1.6 million firearm purchases during the past month, a 57% increase compared to August of last year.
Other Americans are responding to our current circumstances by wallowing in depression and despair. According to the Daily Mail, the number of Americans reporting symptoms of depression has “tripled over the last eight months”…
Researchers found that the percentage of US adults reporting mild, moderate or severe symptoms tripled over the last eight months.
And as things get even worse, a ton of people out there simply are not going to be able to handle what is happening.
That is why I really wanted my new book to be a book of hope. Yes, we are entering a chapter of history that is going to be far more horrible than most people would dare to imagine. But I believe that there is hope in understanding what is happening, there is hope in getting prepared, and there is hope in trusting that God has everything in His hands.
So many people out there still have so much faith in the system, but when things really get crazy the government is not going to be delivering big baskets of food to your door for you and your family.
Tonight, millions upon millions of American families do not have enough food to eat, and more jobs are being lost with each passing day.
You might think that your job is safe, and hopefully that is true, but millions of others also thought their jobs were secure right before they were let go.
Recently, I have had a lot of people ask me about gold and silver, and I have always thought very highly of precious metals.
But you can’t eat gold or silver. Before you ever focus on precious metals, make sure that you have enough food stored up for yourself, your family, your friends and your neighbors, because having enough food is going to be absolutely critical during the times that we are moving into.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Fa3VZa Tyler Durden
Crippled Supertanker Off Sri Lanka Could ‘Explode Due To Fire’ Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/04/2020 – 09:05
New Diamond, a very large crude carrier (VLCC) measuring 333 meters, is engulfed in flames about 20 nautical miles off the east coast of Sri Lanka, Refinitiv data showed.
The supertanker is fully loaded with about 2 million barrels of oil.
The Sri Lanka Air Force took pictures and videos showing the extent of the damage.
The Sri Lankan Navy is assisting the crippled supertanker.
Fire spreads to the vessel’s bridge.
Video shows Sri Lanka Air Force dropping water on the fire via a helicopter water bucket.
🔥 Un incendie fait rage depuis hier à bord du pétrolier New Diamond situé au large de la côte sud-est du Sri Lanka après une explosion dans la salle des machines. Un marin philippin est décédé et les 22 autres membres d’équipage ont été secourus pic.twitter.com/NmJY94olja
Reuters quoted Commander Ranjith Rajapaksa, who said the military sent aircraft and several ships to help contain the fire. He said one of the vessel’s crew members perished when an explosion was seen in the engine room.
“The fire is still raging there,” Sri Lankan Navy spokesperson Indika Silva said Friday, adding the fire has yet to spread into the oil storage part of the ship.
The tanker is powerless, drifting off the Sri Lankan coast at a speed of 0.7 nautical miles per hour and could arrive onshore by Sunday, Terney Pradeep, general manager of the Sri Lanka Marine Environment Protection Authority, said on local television.
“If an oil spill happens after it reaches near the coast, there could be massive damage on the beach.
“The damage could rise further if the ship explodes due to the fire. If that happens, there could be huge damage,” Terney warned.
A statement by the vessel’s insurer, West of England, seen by Bloomberg, said: “We can confirm that these two vessels are entered in the West of England. The Club is liaising closely with our members and the relevant authorities, and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
Readers may recall the second vessel referred to is Gulf Livestock 1, a specialized cargo ship measuring 139 meters, currently capsized off the coast of Okinawa, a Japanese island in the East China Sea between Taiwan and Mainland Japan.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/331fyu5 Tyler Durden
In a coordinated development which signals more than meets the eye, the Bank of England and London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) have together moved to begin reporting gold and silver vault holdings data on a 1 month lagged basis instead of the 3 month lagged basis under which they had been previously reporting vault stocks since 2017.
London Vault Reporting – As Clear as Mud
In addition to the Bank of England’s gold vaults in London, LBMA vault reporting applies to commercial precious metals vaults in London operated by the LBMA bullion banks HSBC, JP Morgan and ICBC Standard Bank, and vaults operated by the LBMA security providers Brinks, Malca-Amit, Loomis and G4S.
Under these new vault reporting changes, it for example now means that as of the end of August, the Bank of England and LBMA have reported claimed gold bar holdings in the London vaults for month-end July (a 1-month lag) instead of for month-end May (a 3-month lag).
The LBMA has also made the same reporting change (from a 3-month to a 1-month lag) for Good Delivery silver bar inventories claimed to be in the LBMA London vaults. Note that while the Bank of England London vaults hold gold bars in custody storage for central bank and bullion bank clients, the Bank of England does not store silver, so the silver data reported by the LBMA applies to just the other seven vault operators listed above.
Putting aside for a moment as to why gold and silver vault stocks in London are not already reported at the end of each and every business day as happens in the COMEX precious metals vaults in New York, this London vault reporting change is suspicious in that the reason stated from both the LBMA and Bank of England is that its an altruistic move to improve gold market transparency. Furthermore, both parties claim that they are following a recommendation (for improved transparency) set out in the UK regulators’ Fair and Effective Market Review (FEMR).
The trouble with this claim is that the FEMR’s final report (of which the Bank of England was one of the authors) was published over 5 years ago in June 2015, so the explanation now being pitched by the LBMA and Bank of England is both hard to fathom as difficult to swallow. That card had already been played by the LBMA in 2017 so the real motive is something else.
Convincing the world that the London gold and silver vault inventories are healthy may be part of the strategy, but not in the way you might think. The real agenda in my opinion is to prepare the London vaults for COMEX gold and silver contract delivery by giving a more recent glimpse into vault stocks but without giving COMEX like visibility. How could a one month lag meet COMEX vault approval requirements you might ask? By bending the rules would be the answer. Whether this plays out the way I think it will, we will have to wait and see.
Gold in the Vaults but already Owned
The London gold stocks as of July month-end now total a claimed 8,790 tonnes. Of this total, 5,342 tonnes is claimed to be stored at the Bank of England, meaning that 3,448 tonnes are claimed to be stored in the LBMA London commercial vaults. Subtracting the 2,588 tonnes of ETF gold held in the LBMA London commercial vaults at the end of July, this leaves just 861 tonnes of gold not at the Bank of England and not in ETFs. This 861 tonnes represents gold held by other allocated holders such as institutions, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and ultra high net worth individuals. The bullion banks gold and silver floats then have to compete with these entities to get their fill as well as by raiding GLD and by borrowing gold from central bank clients at the Bank of England.
Total gold stocks CLAIMED to be held in the London vaults as of the July month-end, Bank of England, LBMA vaults, and ETFs. Source: www.GoldChartsRUs.com
“The Bank of England will now publish gold holding data with a one-month lag. The reduction from a three-month lag will increase transparency around gold holdings, in line with the Fair and Effective Market Review’s goal to increase transparency in the gold market.”
“In a move towards greater transparency, LBMA, the Bank of England and the commercial vaults announced earlier today that they will now publish the gold and silver holdings of the vaults in London with just a one month lag (instead of the earlier three-month delay)”
Logically, the LBMA can’t shift its reporting lag from 3 months to 1 month without the Bank following suit and vice-versa, as the two entities and their vault reporting are embedded into each other. So when one moves the other has to also.
Bizarrely, in a second press release on the same day, this one titled “Latest LBMA Data – Clearing and Vault data”, the LBMA self-referentially welcomes its own move, stating that “we welcome the announcement to reduce the time lag for publication of London vault holdings”. Since it was the LBMA itself which actually made both the announcement and the data publication change, you can see that corporate spin is alive and well in London.
As well as trying to justify the change based on the FEMR report which was published more than 5 years ago by three of the tentacles of the City of London financial octopus (Bank of England, HM Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority), this sudden ‘Road to Damascus’ impulse by the Bank of England and LBMA to ‘improve transparency’ around London precious metals vault inventories doesn’t cut the mustard because both parties said the exact same thing back in 2017 when first reporting London precious metals vault holdings.
Additionally, as one of the very authors of the FEMR report in 2015, its rich of the Bank of England, five years later, to now claim its reporting change is based on a recommendation it made to itself five years ago.
As a leading custodian of gold, with one of the largest vaults in the world, the Bank of England’s decision is highly significant. Not only will it enhance the transparency of the Bank’s own gold operations; it will also support the drive towards greater transparency across the gold market.
“These figures provide an important insight into London’s durability and reinforce the underlying strength of the physical OTC Market.”
“LBMA is therefore very pleased to be able to offer this information on a more timely basis”
At that time, the LBMA also quoted FEMR’s recommendation as follows:
“Transparency
According to the Fair and Effective Markets Review …in markets where OTC trading remains the preferred model, authorities and market participants should continue to explore the scope for improving transparency, in ways that also enhance effectiveness.”
Some questions for the Media
Fast forward to today, more than 3 years later, and its déjà vu all over again with the LBMA and Bank of England now going through the same motions, with the exact same language about transparency, and with the exact same claims. This throws up a number of interesting questions such as:
With the LBMA now trying to claim that the current move to reporting 1 month lagged vault data is in the interests of transparency, this begs the question as to what exactly was the 3 month lagged data, a mere partial demystifying of London’s gold and silver vault holdings?
Why does the LBMA now feel the need to again “reinforce the underlying strength of the physical OTC Market” by moving to a 1 month reporting lag? Could it be that the underlying strength of the physical OTC market is not so strong?
Why was this precious metals vault data not provided on a more timely basis over 3 years ago when the LBMA began vault reporting in 2017?
Why did the FEMR committee not pull up the LBMA and the Bank of England back in 2017 to direct them to report vault data on a 1 month basis instead of on a 3 month lag?
Why is this move now happening more than 3 years after the initial reporting, and more than 5 years after the FEMR’s final report was published in June 2015?
Why are the mainstream financial media not asking these simple questions to the Bank of England and the LBMA?
Why are the mainstream financial media not covering the recent move by COMEX to ‘mass approve’ for COMEX contract delivery, all LBMA gold and silver refiner bar brands, both on the current and former London Good Delivery Lists?
2,587 tonnes – Total gold held in gold backed Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in London as of month-end July 2020. Source: www.GoldChartsRUs.com
Fair and Effective Markets? Pull the other one
Nor is it wise for the LBMA and the Bank to have raised the word FEMR, for as in the old adage, they should have let sleeping dogs lie. When it was launched in June 2014, the remit of the Fair and Effective Markets Review (FEMR) was to investigate the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities (FICC) markets in the wake of massive benchmark manipulation scandals that had taken place in LIBOR, in the London Gold Fix, and in Foreign Exchange indexes. Its final report (the FEMR report) published in June 2015 was a summary of these investigations as well as recommendations (recommended with a straight face) to improve market trading standards and to crack down on market abuse.
Hilariously, while one of the outcomes of the FEMR recommendations was the 2017 implementation of the LBMA Global Precious Metals Code, a Code of Conduct which all LBMA members had to sign and commit to, manipulation in the precious metals markets continued apace for years after the FEMR report was published, with LBMA heavy weights such as JP Morgan and Scotia being progressively involved in bigger and bigger gold and silver price manipulations since then. See Scotia misconduct here in 2020 and JP Morgan here in 2019.
The LBMA also had to contend with the embarrassment that one of the LBMA Board members, Michael Nowak of JP Morgan fame, was charged in 2019 by the US Department of Justice (DoJ)for engaging in a racketeering conspiracy under the “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, as well as other federal crimes in connection with manipulating precious metals futures markets.“
A further outcome of the FEMR report was that the LBMA Gold Price auction (i.e. the re-disguised former London Gold Fix auction launched in March 2015 by the LBMA bullion banks) became a Regulated Benchmark under which manipulation is now a criminal offence. However, this too turns out to have been nothing more than a sham because for example, as recently as last week on 27 August 2020, as the COMEX gold price was being slammed, the afternoon LBMA Gold Price auction took 33 rounds to settle over 21 minutes, while the 12 direct participants (all LBMA members and mainly LBMA bullion banks) collectively first held the bid volume unchanged for 16 rounds, then after round 17 when the price had fallen by $28, then held the ask volume unchanged until round 33. More on that auction in due course.
In the auction, as COMEX price was being slammed, LBMA banks (which control the auction) held bid volume at 73,298 for 16 rounds even as price dropped from $1940.5 to $1912. Bid volume only changed in round 17. LBMA banks then held the ask volume at 108,511 for another 16 rounds. pic.twitter.com/9jFsJmKE2Y
Turning to the most recent vault data now available following the LBMA – Bank reporting change, there is also nothing obvious in the data that would explain a rationale for the Bank and LBMA making move at this time. Granted, the LBMA claims the London gold vault stocks are at an all time high.
However, with most of that gold held by long term holders and at least some of it claimed by multiple parties, a record gold vault stock in itself doesn’t mean much. Changing from a 3-month to a 1-month reporting window for a one hit wonder record claim would be like firing all your ammo for little or no effect. While the new data itself doesn’t justify the change, its worth highlighting all the same.
Before this week’s change, the LBMA and Bank of England would have, at the end of August, been reporting vault holdings as of May month end. With the move to a 1-month reporting lag, the LBMA and Bank of England have now reported three month end vault holdings totals at the same time, up until July month end. from next month they will just report one month’s data with a 1 month lag.
5,342 tonnes – Total gold CLAIMED to be held in the Bank of England vaults on behalf of central bank and commercial bank customers. July month-end 2020. Source: www.GoldChartsRUs.com
Note that the Bank of England reports its gold vault data separately, while the LBMA vault data figures include all the London vaults, both commercial vaults and the Bank of England vaults. As such the Bank of England data is a subset of the overall totals. Looking first at the Bank of England (BoE) gold vault data, the BoE vaults lost a net 59.9 tonnes in May, lost a net 29.4 tonnes in June, and lost another net 33.1 tonnes in July. In total over the three months from April month-end to July month-end the BoE vaults saw a net outflow of 122.4 tonnes of gold from 5464.4 tonnes at the end of April to 5342 tonnes of gold at the end of July.
Could this be central bank gold sales or withdrawals from the Bank of England vaults? Possibly. However, the more intriguing possibility is that these outflows are SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) gold bar holdings that had been allocated to the GLD over April to June using the Bank of England as gold sub-custodian, and that over May to July were being transferred out of the Bank of England vaults to the HSBC vault in London. This possibility was covered in the BullionStar article a few weeks ago titled “GLD continues to source gold at the Bank of England, at an escalating rate“.
The reason that this is possible is that using GLD SEC filings and GLD daily gold holdings changes, the SPDR Gold Trust could have transferred out up to 110 tonnes of gold over May and June. GLD was also was also still holding 40 tonnes of gold in the Bank of England at month end. The majority of this too could have been transferred out of the Bank of England vaults in July. For more details see the screenshot below.
Looking at the overall London vault data for gold (including the Bank of England vaults) the overall figure claims a net addition of 308 tonnes of gold between the end of April and the end of July, comprising a net 2.3 tonnes in May, a 184 tonnes net inflow in June, and a 121.7 tonnes net inflow in July.
Given the 122.4 tonnes outflows from the Bank of England vaults over that time, this means that the other vaults (excluding the BoE) together saw a net 430.4 tonnes increase over the May to July period, which comprised 62.2 tonnes in May, 213.3 tonnes in June, and 154.9 tonnes in July.
LBMA claims to have 34,011 tonnes of silver stored in London vaults, of which an estimated 20,761 tonnes is held in silver-backed ETFs. Source: www.GoldChartsRUs.com
Turning to silver, which is not held at the Bank of England vaults, the LBMA vaults claim that between the end of April and the end of July, the amount of silver held in the London commercial vaults fell from 35,667.8 tonnes to 34,011.9 tonnes, for a net outflow of 1,655.9 tonnes. The bulk of those net silver outflows were in June and July, with the vaults recording a net withdrawal of 915 tonnes of silver in June and 690 tonnes in July, with a residual 51 tonne net outflow in May. With 1600 tonnes of silver leaving the London vaults over June and July, that may be a story for Bloomberg to follow up on.
Bullion bankers review proposal on delivering COMEX gold using London vaults
Conclusion – A More Compelling Reason
On first principles, the LBMA and Bank of England want their vault holdings a) to appear more transparent and b) to create a perception that total metal stocks are deep, and healthy.
But the new claims about transparency and the FEMR report are risible. There is nothing transparent about the London gold and silver markets. Unlike the equity and bond markets, there is no reporting of transactions and trades in the OTC London gold and silver markets. There is no data whatsoever about positions and transactions in the London gold lending market, no data on which commercial banks hold gold accounts at the Bank of England, no data on the identities of central bank gold custody customers of the Bank of England, no data on the size of the enormous unallocated gold and silver liabilities of the bullion banks, no published data on the location of the London commercial vaults, and no published audits of the claimed gold and silver inventories in the LBMA and Bank of England vaults. And that’s just a flavour.
In short, the LBMA bullion banks and Bank of England couldn’t care less gold and silver market transparency. What they do care about though is projecting the illusion of transparency. No more so than when COMEX soon moves to allow gold and silver in the LBMA London vaults to be delivered against the COMEX GC 100 and SI 5000 gold and silver futures contracts.
Last week here I covered the recent move by the COMEX to mass approve all of the gold and silver refiner bar brands of the LBMA (both those on the current and on the former London Good Delivery lists for gold and silver), which is a prelude to facilitating London gold and silver inventories delivery against the COMEX flagship GC 100 oz gold and Si 5000 oz silver futures contarcts . See “LBMA-COMEX collusion intensifies as CME approves 267 LBMA gold and silver bar brands” for details.
As the CME rule wording for the GC 100 contract will probably be when its made: “The depository for gold deliverable against the Gold futures (GC) contract must qualify and be designated a weighmaster and must be located within a 150-mile radius of the City of New York or in London, UK.”
Anyone familiar with the approved COMEX vaults in New York and environs will knows that these vaults publish daily end of day inventory totals of the amount of gold and silver held in each of the vaults, e.g. the New York vaults of HSBC, JP Morgan and Brinks.
In early July when highlighting the recently launched COMEX (Enhanced Delivery) 400 oz contract (4GC), which was a trail balloon for London vault delivery, a Bloomberg article spelled out these requirements:
“Exchange rules require vaults to report daily inventory levels even when metal isn’t marked for delivery. “When London vault applications are submitted and approved, they will follow the same guidelines as those of all exchange-approved facilities for metals,” a CME spokesperson said.
…The same rules will apply to storage facilities in London, potentially bringing more transparency if vaults apply to hold inventory backing the contract.”
My contention however, is that it’s a bridge too far for the secretive and sensitive LBMA vaults in London (HSBC, JP Morgan, Brinks Radius Park, Malca-Amit etc) to allow daily publications of the amount of gold and silver in these commercial vaults. Powerful holders would not want the veil lifted. Hence, to railroad through the London vault delivery into COMEX contracts, a compromise has been reached between the bullion banks and regulators via upcoming CME and CFTC rule changes. After all, as a Scotia or JP Morgan bullion bank trader might say “Rules are made to be broken”.
Thus with this new shift from a 3 month to a 1 month vault reporting lag, the COMEX-LBMA gold pool tag team can, with a bit of spin, hold up a copy of the FEMR report and claim that the London vaults have made a Herculean transparency effort, indeed one that has the blessing of regulators, and successfully ‘lobby’ for a COMEX rule change to allow the London vaults a derogation to only report to COMEX on a 1 month lagged basis instead of the daily end of day requirement of their New York brethren.
“Investigators haven’t yet determined how many rounds were fired.” A few hours after the release of a video outing himself as the person who fatally shot a Patriot Prayer protester in Portland, Oregon, last week, 48-year-old Michael Forest Reinoehl was himself shot and killed by police. The shooters were part of a federal task force that included U.S. marshals and FBI agents as well as local law enforcement, and they were there to take him in as a suspect in the August 29 slaying of 39-year-old Aaron “Jay” Danielson.
Reinoehl was “an Army veteran and father of two who has provided what he called ‘security’ at Black Lives Matter protests,” reportsVice News. Reinoehl told journalist Donovan Farley that he shot Danielson in self-defense, believing that Danielson was about to stab him and his friend.
“You know, lots of lawyers suggest that I shouldn’t even be saying anything, but I feel it’s important that the world at least gets a little bit of what’s really going on,” Reinoehl said on camera. “I had no choice. I mean, I, I had a choice. I could have sat there and watched them kill a friend of mine of color. But I wasn’t going to do that.”
Reinoehl “had described himself in a social media post as ‘100% ANTIFA,’ and suggested the tactics of counter-protesters amounted to ‘warfare,'” notes Seattle’s KOMO. “He had been shot at one protest and cited for having a gun at another.”
On Thursday night, Reinoehl allegedly pulled a gun on a team of federal agents who showed up to arrest him. “Initial reports indicate the suspect produced a firearm, threatening the lives of law enforcement officers,” said the U.S. Marshals Service in a statement.
“Thurston County Sheriff’s Lt. Ray Brady said four members of the fugitive task force fired their weapons, including two Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies, an officer from the Lakewood Police Department and an officer from the Washington State Department of Corrections,” reports KOMO. “Brady said investigators haven’t yet determined how many rounds were fired.”
FREE MINDS
The District of Columbia admits racist gun-law enforcement. The Washington Post reports:
An initiative cracking down on gun crimes in the District targeted three predominantly Black wards and was not enforced citywide as announced, U.S. prosecutors acknowledged in court records, drawing attacks that the policy disproportionately subjected African American defendants to lengthier prison terms.
The geographic targeting of the program launched in February 2019—under which felons caught illegally possessing guns are charged under federal statutes—was recently disclosed after a defendant challenged the program backed by D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D).
FREE MARKETS
English tutors and teachers caught up in TikTok ban. Trump’s executive order targeting ByteDance, the company behind popular video app TikTok, also hits the nearly 4,000 U.S. teachers who teach English to Chinese children through the ByteDance-owned app GOGOKID.
The Trump administration is also considering banning even more apps as part of the president’s paranoid crusade against products from China. The administration says it’s a matter of national security.
QUICK HITS
• The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may start demanding biometric data from all immigration applicants. A new proposal at the agency “would give DHS the authority to require biometrics for every application, petition or related immigration request,” reports CNN, which notes that “currently, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the DHS agency responsible for managing immigration benefits, requires biometrics only for applications that require background checks.”
• The Tax Foundation analyzes the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which is scheduled to get a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives later this month.
• Jessica Krug, a professor of African-American history at George Washington University, was just pretending to be black.
• An array of anonymous sources in The Atlantic have tales to tell about Trump’s alleged disrespect for the military and dead troops. Make of them what you will.
• “Right under the nose of a president who promised to drain the swamp, one of the government’s shadiest handouts to large banks and big companies looks like it will be renewed for another 25 years,” writesReason columnist Veronique de Rugy in The New York Times.
• Former Massachusetts governor and 2016 Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate Bill Weld is endorsing Joe Biden. According to The Hill, Weld joins “a group representing almost 100 former Republican lawmakers and officials” who want to see Trump defeated.
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