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The deepening trade war between the US and China has roiled complex global supply chains and America’s Heartland. The latest breakdown in negotiations comes at a time when soybean exports to China have crashed, and huge stockpiles are building, have resulted in many farmers teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Mounting financial stress in the Midwest has allowed a public health crisis, where suicide rates among farmers have hit record highs, according to one trade organization’s interview with the South China Morning Post.

Bill Gordon, a fourth-generation farmer in Worthington, Minnesota, who is also vice-president of the American Soybean Association, warned that spot prices for agriculture products have dropped so low, many in the Midwest can’t even service their debts or also pay their bills. Farmers are losing their land to creditors daily. This has triggered the suicide rate among farmers to jump in the last several years.

“The markets are so low, we cannot even break even to pay our bills. Farmers are losing their farms every day. The suicide rate among farmers is at an all-time high,” Gordon said.

“It is not up to us to tell the president how to negotiate, but a handout from the government is not how I want to run my business,” Gordon explained while talking about President Trump’s bailout of farmers and the possible use of the Commodity Credit Corp., a federal agency given authority during the Great Depression, to buy $15 billion worth of agricultural product from farmers.

“It took us 40 years to build these markets … and while no trade deal is perfect, for the most part the agriculture trade with China was on the up and up, or mutually beneficial,” he said.

Agricultural economist Scott Irwin, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told the Post that farmers right now are losing $50 to $100 on corn and soybeans per acre. This excludes the government bailout, he said.

Irwin believes the Trump administration will hand out checks to farmers rather than using the Commodity Credit Corp. to buy physical crops.

“They are likely going to roll out that Market Facilitation Programme and probably expand it because Trump believes he has plenty of money to cover any checks he is going to write the farmers,” Irwin said.

“Every developed country in the world subsidizes its ag sector,” he said. “We have an over 80-year history of doing that here in the US. If it is socialism, it is not new socialism.”

Soybean futures fell 25% in 50 weeks since the inception of President Trump’s trade war early last summer.

CBOT Soybeans futures plunged to their lowest level in a decade as China on Monday said it would raise tariffs on $60 billion in US goods in retaliation for Trump’s decision last Friday to raise duties on $200 billion in Chinese products to 25% from 10%.

Gordon emphasized that farmers are looking to compete on a fair and level playing field, and don’t want government bailouts during a time when spot prices drop.

“What we want people to understand is that we don’t want people to think we are complaining because we are not becoming super profitable,” he said.

“Today, If I plant soybeans, I’m guaranteed to lose $65,000 on this planting. I have to find somewhere else that money just to get me back to zero.”

The trajectory on spot prices for soybeans is down despite several years of bumper crops in the Americas.

The 2019/20 farm crisis is a repeat of the 1980s crisis; farmers back then had heavy debt loads with high stockpiles. Once the US slapped the Soviet Union with trade embargos, crop exports to the country collapsed and triggered an agriculture recession in the Midwest. Very similar to today, Trump administration’s trade war forced China to respond with retaliatory tariffs on American soybeans, thus collapsing soybean exports to China by 80%. With the trade war deepening, financial stress in America’s Heartland will only increase, leading to a continuation of farmer suicides. The moral of the story: get government out of markets. 

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2w3VPtD Tyler Durden

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Normalizing and institutionalizing fraud undermines the foundations of the economy and the financial system.

I am indebted to Manoj Samanta (twitter: @flation_debate) for the insightful concept the commoditization of fraud. The first step in the commoditization of fraud is to normalize fraud as Business as Usual (BAU) to the point that it’s no longer viewed as “wrong,” destructive or an aberration of evil-doers but as an accepted way to maximize gain and offload risk onto others.

The last step in the process is to institutionalize fraud within central banking and government policies.

How is selling shares in a money-losing corporation at outlandish valuations not the commoditization of fraud? The fraud has been normalized into a game of hoping that greater fools will be so enamored of the normalized fraud that they’ll take the IPO shares off your hands at ever-higher valuations until the fraud breaks down.

But by then, the instigators of the fraud–the IPO–have escaped with billions in gains and zero liability.

How is private equity loading companies up with debt as a means of paying outlandish dividends to themselves not commoditized fraud? How is paying dividends with debt rather than earnings not fraud? The net result of this fraud is the debt-burdened company eventually defaults on its debt, defrauding the investors who were suckered into the scam.

But once again, the instigators of the fraud–private equity–have escaped with billions in gains and zero liability.

How is understating inflation so Social Security retirees get near-zero cost of living adjustments as real-world inflation pushes 7% not normalized, institutionalized fraud? We all understand the motivation for this institutionalized fraud: to limit the increasing cost of Social Security and mask the erosion of household income’s purchasing power.

While the Social Security recipient and the minimum wage worker are getting squeezed, those getting nearly free money from the Federal Reserve to plow into stocks are piling up trillions of dollars in gains. How is the Fed’s fee money for financiers not commoditized, institutionalized fraud? Those who can borrow outlandishly large sums at a discount are in effect being given the tools to defraud the financial system and all the other players who aren’t as close to the money spigot of the central bank.

How is charging 20% interest on a credit card balance while financiers pay 2% not commoditized, institutionalized fraud? The cover for this fraud is particularly rich: the high credit risk of the credit card holder demands a high rate of return, while the “low-risk” financier gets 2% financing to blow up the entire financial system and get bailed out by the taxpayer.

Normalizing and institutionalizing fraud undermines the foundations of the economy and the financial system. Calling these commoditized frauds business as usual doesn’t mean they won’t destroy the system from the inside.

*  *  *

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via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2VNMAwX Tyler Durden

EV automaker and Tesla-competitor NIO has said that it is now probing another one of its ES8 models that “caught fire” in Shanghai on Thursday. The probe comes after another ES8, in the city of Xi’an, caught fire about three weeks ago. It’s the fifth electric vehicle fire in China this year. 

In the most recent incident, the NIO vehicle “flared up and emitted a choking cloud of smoke yesterday on the startup’s home turf of Anting Town,” according to Yicai Global. The fire was quickly controlled by firefighters and there were no casualties reported. 

NIO took to social media yesterday to say they didn’t know the cause of the fire, but that they had opened an investigation and would notify the public of their findings. 

Fires seem to be the recurring theme for EV makers recently.

Yesterday, Tesla said it would issue a software update while investigating two recent, apparently unprovoked, vehicle fires of its own – one in China and the other in Hong Kong. Tesla said that the update will change battery charge and thermal management settings in Model S sedans and Model X SUVs.

As we reported yesterday, Tesla claimed that the software update was being done out of “an abundance of caution”. The company said it’s supposed to “protect the battery and improve its longevity”. Because we guess it’s bad PR to come out and say: we’re trying to prevent cars from bursting into flames for no apparent reason at all.

Weeks ago, we were one of the first outlets to report  that a NIO ES8 electric car had suffered a similar fate. A self-proclaimed Tesla owner in Shanghai that Tweets under the name @ShanghaiJayIn posted video about three weeks ago of a NIO ES8 vehicle being extinguished.

NIO had said on their microblog that the vehicle was under repair when it caught fire. After an investigation into that fire, NIO concluded: 

Much of the left-rear shell of the traction battery pack and its cooling plate were buckled as the vehicle had been in a bad accident before being sent for repair. The pack’s crushed internal structure shorted out the battery, sparking the fire.

Last month, we first reported that a parked Tesla had appeared to catch fire in a garage before spontaneously combusting. Tesla is still investigating the incident, despite issuing the software update. “We immediately sent a team onsite and we’re supporting local authorities to establish the facts. From what we know now, no one was harmed,” Tesla said after the incident.

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2WTuFkQ Tyler Durden

Authored by Daniel Payne via The College Fix,

It’s not progress; it’s regression

Several dozen universities now offer graduation ceremonies exclusively for black students. These ceremonies, which are independent of the larger commencement exercises offered at most institutions, are meant to “give extra honors and recognition to black students earning their degrees.” The National Association of Scholars surveyed over 170 schools and found that nearly half of them offer ceremonies such as this.

It is worth asking what, precisely, the point of such events really is.

Why do black students need their own special graduation ceremonies?

Put another way: What is it about being a black American college student that calls for a racially exclusive commencement exercise?

There probably isn’t a good answer for that.

One spokeswoman told The Fix that these exercises “oftentimes incorporate cultural traditions.”

That is a bit of a non sequitur – there is, after all, no single “cultural tradition” that unites all black Americans, any more than there is for white ones. African-Americans throughout the centuries have contributed immense riches to the American cultural tapestry, but those contributions are not monolithic; they are varied and regional and not at all the sort of thing you can cram haphazardly into a seventy-minute ceremony.

In all likelihood these events are little more than sops to campus identity politics. A kind of racial radicalism has gripped many campuses in recent years: demands for racially segregated housing are common in higher education these days, and racial segregation is increasingly common at student centers, workshops and other campus events.

This is not progress; it is regression. The great American political movements of the 19th and 20th century were about bridging the profound and often brutal chasm that has divided the races in this country since its earliest beginnings. Many campuses are now helping to widen that chasm rather than close it further. It’s a terrible thing to witness.

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/30vp1I3 Tyler Durden

The Trump administration has officially pulled a $929 million federal grant to the California High-Speed Rail Authority after terminating a 2010 agreement. 

In a release, the Federal Railroad Association – a component of the US Department of Transportation – said that California’s rail authority “repeatedly failed to comply with the terms of the FY10 agreement and has failed to make reasonable progress on the project. Additionally, California has abandoned its original vision of a high-speed passenger rail service connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles, which was essential to its applications for FRA grant funding,” according to CNBC. 

The FRA added that it “continues to consider all options regarding the return of $2.5 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds awarded to CHSRA.“

President Trump in February called for California to return $3.5 billion in federal funds given to the state for the failed high-speed rail line planned between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The $929 million in grant funds awarded to the state had not yet been paid out. 

Trump’s call for the return of money followed Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom at his first state of the state address on Feb. 12 announcing a reeling in of the state’s high-speed rail project, saying the current plan “would cost too much and take too long.” He added, “There simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to LA.” –CNBC

In a Thursday statement, Newsom said “The Trump administration’s action is illegal and a direct assault on California, our green infrastructure, and the thousands of Central Valley workers who are building this project,” adding “Just as we have seen from the Trump administration’s attacks on our clean air standards, our immigrant communities and in countless other areas, the Trump administration is trying to exact political retribution on our state. This is California’s money, appropriated by Congress, and we will vigorously defend it in court.”

While California canceled the bulk of the high-speed rail project, the state is continuing construction on a 119-mile section in the Central Valley in order to be able to legally keep federal funds for the project. Over $6 billion has already been spent on the project. 

Back in 2008, California voters approved Proposition 1A, authorizing nearly $10 billion in bond money for the construction of the high-speed rail system. Since the vote, though, the project been plagued by delays and cost overruns. –CNBC

Last October, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison panned the $77 billion project. 

“Trains leave when you don’t want to leave, from a place you don’t want to leave from, and take you to a place you don’t want to go to, at a time you don’t want to get there, and then you have to get into a car and go wherever you’re going. It is a crazy system.” 

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/30uy0sE Tyler Durden

A used crack pipe, two DC driver’s licenses, multiple credit cards, a Delaware Attorney General badge and a US Secret Service business card belonging to Hunter Biden were found in a rental car returned to an Arizona Hertz location in the middle of the night, days before the 2016 presidential election, according to Breitbart, which obtained an exclusive copy of the police report.

Hunter, son of former Vice President and 2020 candidate Joe Biden, had rented the vehicle from a California location, intending to return it to the Prescott, Arizona location where iut was discovered after being dropped off with the crack pipe and Hunter Biden’s personal effects. 

Instead of returning the car keys to the drop box where after-hours returns are supposed to go, the car was returned—according to the police report—with the keys left in the gas tank compartment of the vehicle. Also found inside the vehicle, per the police report, were two drivers’ licenses both bearing Hunter Biden’s legal name Robert Biden, as well as “some credit cards with the same name,” “a secret service business card,” and an “Attorney General’s badge” all contained inside a wallet that Hertz rental employees discovered—along with a pipe that Hertz employees thought and police later confirmed was used to smoke illicit drugs, as well as “a white powdery substance in the arm rest of the vehicle.” –Breitbart

Of note, Hunter was discharged from the Navy after he tested positive for cocaine. 

The morning after the car was dropped off, a phone number belonging to a renowned local “Colon Hydrotherapist” called the Hertz. The caller identified himself as “Joseph McGee,” who told the employees that the keys were located in the gas cap as opposed to the drop box. 

“McGee” informed the rental car company employee, according to police, that “his friend was feeling sick so they didn’t know what to do” when the car was returned. Police, according to a supplemental report filed by a Prescott Police Department detective, sought and obtained a subpoena to discover the source of the “Joseph McGee” phone call—and traced it to a phone number owned and operated by a renowned “Colon Hydrotherapist” in the region. –Breitbart

Police were unable to find and interview “Joseph McGee,” as well as contact the younger Biden, however they were unsuccessful at reaching either. The report does say that the Secret Service had located Hunter, and that he was “well.” 

Laboratory analysis by the Arizona Department of Public Safety later determined that the pipe discovered in the vehicle was used to smoke cocaine, not meth, but fingerprints were not found on the device.

The 23 pages of law enforcement and police documents repeatedly refer to the suspect under investigation as Robert Hunter Biden and the report type as a “Narcotics Offense.” Breitbart News is publishing the documents here, with redactions made to remove personally-identifying contact information like addresses and phone numbers as well as the last names of key witnesses. –Breitbart

No prosecution

Despite the overwhelming evidence after an investigation which included two Prescott Police Department officers and a detective, local authorities in both the city and county attorney’s offices declined to prosecute the case. 

A document shows the reason the county attorney declined to prosecute the vice president’s son is because they thought they would only be able to get minor charges to stick, and kicked it down to the city attorney. It is unclear from the documents why the city attorney declined to prosecute.

In addition to local police, FBI and the U.S. Secret Service agents were roped into the case, as well. The FBI dispatched agents to the scene, according to the law enforcement documents, and the Secret Service communicated with the various law enforcement officials investigating and confirmed that Hunter Biden was not in harm’s way. –Breitbart

Read the rest of the report here. 

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2YFt6aN Tyler Durden

An Ohio middle school located less than three miles from a decommissioned uranium enrichment plant has been closed for the rest of the school year after authorities found it was contaminated with radioactive chemicals, according to WLWT. 

A nearby air monitor detected enriched uranium and neptunium-237 at Zahn’s Corner Middle School in Piketon, southern Ohio. 

Today was the last day for Zahns Corner Middle School students in Piketon, OH. School leaders sent a letter home to parents. County health officials tell me if students or staff are exposed to enough enriched uranium, they’re at risk for developing cancer. @WLWT pic.twitter.com/nnJveZVRg5

— Jatara McGee WLWT (@jatara_) May 14, 2019

The nearby Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plant, just 2.7 miles away, enriched weapons-grade uranium from 1954 – 2001. It was operated by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company until 1986 – changing hands until Lockheed Martin bought its owner in 1995. In January, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) announced that the Trump Administration had earmarked $115 million to reopen the facility, which would employ 60 people to operate 16 centrifuges, pending EPA approval. 

“After the Cold War, weapons-grade uranium enrichment was suspended and production facilities were leased to the private sector,” reads the Department of Energy’s website. “In 2001, enrichment operations were discontinued at the site.” 

Local councilwoman Jennifer Chandler told CNN that three children out of five in the school district diagnosed with cancer have died. 

“You don’t want to make a claim that you can’t back up,” she said. “How is this caused? Is this a genetic cancer? Is this an environmental cancer? I’m not a medical professional.” 

“This isn’t a game, you know. These are people’s lives.” 

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2Q9eRaX Tyler Durden

Authored by Victor Skinner via TheAmericanMirror.com,

A new federal report shows non-citizens in the United States commit nearly half of all federal crimes, or more than six times their proportion to the American population.

For 2017, data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Surveyshows non-citizens comprise about 7 percent of the country’s population, but the 2018 Annual Report and Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics shows they committed more than 40 percent of all federal crimes.

The United States Sentencing Commission reviewed 321,000 sentencing documents in fiscal year 2018 and outlined several statistics in the annual report:

In fiscal year 2018, the courts reported 69,425 felony and Class A misdemeanor cases to the Commission. This represents an increase of 2,552 cases from the prior fiscal year, and the first increase since fiscal year 2011.

The race of federal offenders remained largely unchanged from prior years. In fiscal year 2018, 54.3 percent of all offenders were Hispanic, 21.2 percent were White, 20.6 percent were Black, and 3.8 percent were of another race. Non-U.S. Citizens accounted for 42.7 percent of all federal offenders.

Immigration cases accounted for the largest single group of offenses in fiscal year 2018, comprising 34.4 percent of all reported cases. Cases involving drugs, firearms, and fraud were the next most common types of offenses after immigration cases. Together these four types of offenses accounted for 82.9 percent of all cases reported to the Commission in fiscal year 2018.

A breakdown of crimes in the report shows about 92 percent of immigration crimes, or about 21,835 cases, involved non-citizens. But they also committed other crimes at far higher rates than their 7 percent proportion of the population as a whole.

Cases involving drug possession, for example, were nearly evenly split between citizens and non-citizens with 361 and 339, respectively. In other words, non-citizens violated federal drug possession laws at a rate roughly seven times higher than citizens.

Statistics were similar for violations of national defense, with 30 percent of cases involving non-citizens, as well as money laundering at 27 percent, drug trafficking at 24 percent and murder at 18 percent. Other crimes committed at higher rates include kidnapping, fraud/theft/embezzlement, extortion/racketeering, burglary, assault, “commercialized vice,” and environmental crimes, among others.

The largest numbers of crimes occurred in border states, and areas with sanctuary policies. Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Florida and southern California were among the most heavily concentrated areas for federal crimes. Data in the Sentencing Commission’s report show the Fifth Circuit Court covering Texas and the Ninth Circuit Court covering California and Arizona are the busiest, with about 26 and 20 percent of cases, respectively.

In the vast majority of cases involving both citizens and non-citizens – 87.8 percent – the offenders were sentenced to prison. For the roughly 29,000 non-citizens convicted of federal crimes in fiscal year 2018, that statistic was 98.5 percent, according to the report.

via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2HyeByp Tyler Durden