Category: zerohedge

After several days of terse negotiations, on Tuesday evening House Democrats readers a deal with Republicans on a stopgap funding bill to keep the government operating after restarting talks over disputed farm assistance. Shortly after, just after 8pm ET, lawmakers passed the bill in a bipartisan vote of 359-57.

With government funding set to run out on Sept. 30, leaders of both parties had been working on legislation to continue funding most programs at current levels and thus avoid a government shutdown in the middle of a pandemic, and with the Nov. 3 elections fast approaching.

House Democrats announced Monday they had filed the stopgap funding legislation to last until Dec. 11, which however angered Republicans by leaving out some farm money that Trump wanted.  The Monday version did not include the $21.1 billion the White House sought to replenish the Commodity Credit Corporation, a program to stabilize farm incomes, because Democrats considered it a blank check for political favors.

Republicans had been furious at the omission. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Pelosi’s resistance to including farm aid in the bill had been “basically a message to farm country to drop dead.”

In response House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a subsequent statement announcing a deal with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Republicans on the continuing resolution, or CR, which included the farm relief as well as nutritional assistance sought by Democrats. Trump had promised more farm aid last week during a political rally in Wisconsin, a key battleground state in the Nov. 3 elections.

The agreement struck between the two parties adds $8 billion in nutrition assistance programs and allows for the farm aid distributed through the CCC to continue, but with measures sought by Democrats to prohibit payments to fossil fuel refiners and importers.

“We have reached an agreement with Republicans on the CR to add nearly $8 billion in desperately needed nutrition assistance for hungry schoolchildren and families,” Pelosi said in a statement, adding that “we also increase accountability in the Commodity Credit Corporation, preventing funds for farmers from being misused for a Big Oil bailout.”

Separately, the funding deal prohibits financial aid to oil refiners that have been denied waivers from having to comply with biofuel mandates. The bill  prohibits the Commodity Credit Corporation or the Department of Agriculture from “providing payments or otherwise supporting fossil fuel refiners and importers.” This comes after Trump administration officials had been developing a plan to help small refiners who may have suffered financial damage after the EPA denied waivers they sought to avoid complying renewable fuel standard requirements

The rest of the bill generally continues current spending levels. It would give lawmakers more time to work out spending through September 2021, including budgets for military operations, healthcare, national parks, space programs, and airport and border security.

The Senate is likely to take up the bill – which will now set up a clash over government funding in the lame-duck session after the November elections – as soon as this week.

Senate Republicans hoped to avoid a damaging potential government shutdown and instead are focusing on filling the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday.

Tesla shares tumbled 12% in after hours trading after the much awaited Battery Day event showcasing the company’s technology on Tuesday evening, despite CEO Elon Musk promising a $25,000 vehicle that will be built as a result of advancements in battery technology.

“In about three years from now, we are confident we can make a compelling $25,000 electric vehicle that is also fully autonomous,” Musk said at the event. “This has always been our dream from the very beginning.”

Yesterday brought a solid hint that Battery Day would be a disappointment for Tesla fanatics after Elon Musk broke character and – dare we say it – offered up a bit of reality and reason as it related to timelines he would be discussing at today’s event.

Maybe Musk was paying extra close attention the hot water Nikola CEO Trevor Milton has gotten himself into as a result of aggressive timelines and misstatements about products that may or may not exist – ironically, a move Milton likely took out of Musk’s playbook. That’s because Musk felt the need to set timeline expectations on Monday when he Tweeted: “This affects long-term production, especially Semi, Cybertruck & Roadster, but what we announce will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022.” 

Important note about Tesla Battery Day unveil tomorrow. This affects long-term production, especially Semi, Cybertruck & Roadster, but what we announce will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 21, 2020

Thus the fate of battery day was sealed before it even began.

Perhaps market participants, after watching the Nikola One roll down a hill in the desert all week, are asking themselves where the Tesla Semi is? Perhaps instead of being excited about what likely would have been an aggressive timeline for the new $25,000 vehicle, traders are drinking a cold glass of reality about Musk’s three year timeline for the cheaper vehicle. Perhaps they are wondering where the $35,000 Model 3 is? And perhaps these same participants are asking themselves where the Roadster, Cybertruck, Full Self Driving and Solar Roof Tiles are, when they forked over deposits for them years ago. 

Or maybe they recall that Musk already promised a $25,000 EV within 3 years – back in 2018 on a YouTube interview. 

Regardless, the market didn’t seem to take to battery day where the theme was getting the cost of batteries down: “One of the things that troubles me the most is that we don’t yet have a truly affordable car, and that is something that we will make in the future. But in order to do that, we’ve got to get the cost of batteries down,” Musk said, in what appears to be admission that demand for the “cheap” Model 3 is waning.

The company said new “tabless” batteries and new materials inside its cells would allow them to “halve” the cost of their batteries, which would essentially put EVs on the same cost playing field as internal combustion engine cars. As the Verge notes:

The price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the unit of energy most commonly used to measure the capacity of the battery packs in modern electric vehicles. Those prices have been falling dramatically over the last decade, from $1,100/kWh in 2010 to $156/kWh in 2019, a drop of 87 percent.

Tesla is aiming to take packs that cost between $10,000 and $12,000 and reduce the cost to less than $6,000. 

Musk also predicted Tesla could produce 20 million cars per year. That’s about twice what companies like GM and Volkswagen are producing currently. 

At the company’s annual general meeting, which took place before the battery day event, Musk said he expected 30% to 40% growth in 2020. He also said: “The future is looking very promising from an annual profitability standpoint,” leading many to wonder if that was a tacit admission that a quarterly profit for the upcoming quarter is unlikely.  

Recall, Musk proudly declared back in January: “Battery Day people. Wait until Battery Day. It’s gonna blow your mind. It blows my mind, and I know it!”

Judging by the stock reaction, minds were not blown.

We can’t help but wonder: if the Nikola fiasco hadn’t taken place what wild promises would have been made at battery day. Would a $25,000 vehicle have had a more aggressive timeline? Would deposits have opened up already?

Regardless, for a stock that is fueled almost exclusively by hype, today’s reality check – even despite the muted promises – may reverse what has been a truly historic ascent.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reports Vice President Pence’s plane has returned to the airport in Manchester after a bird strike during takeoff. 

“Reporters traveling with Vice President Pence were just told Air Force Two turned around after taking off from New Hampshire because of an issue with the plane’s engine. Pence and staff are now taking a cargo plane back to Washington,” Collins tweeted. 

She said, “WH official tells me Air Force Two hit a bird and they returned out of an abundance of caution.” 

Here’s a video of Air Force Two striking a bird after takeoff at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.

*Developing 

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

After a bout of inflation and “socialism-light”, we could end up with even more extreme inequality when the whole rotten structure collapses.

Imagine owning a Buffett-Bezos fortune of bilious billions, or even 10% of these mega-fortunes, i.e. between $5 billion and $20 billion. Heck, imagine owning 1% of these mega-fortunes, i.e. $500 million to $2 billion.

You’re extremely rich so you can buy the best advice. Your capital is mobile, and so are you. You can live anywhere and shift your capital anywhere.

Your advisors have noted an increase in media chatter on inequality, for example: The Bill for America’s $50 Trillion Gluttony of Inequality Is Overdue, and they’re busy preparing plans to weather the storm and preserve your fortune come what may.

It’s all too obvious that a claw-back of the trillions plundered by America’s 0.1% is now inevitable as the pendulum has swung to extremes of looting and parasitic predation that have destabilized the social and economic orders. So Job One is managing this claw-back politically and financially to leave the fortunes of the super-wealthy either unscathed or even more magnificent after the dust settles.

The super-wealthy have two key weapons at their disposal: inflation and “socialism-light.” Once the world’s governments borrow and spend enough money supporting all the insiders, bread and circuses for the masses (Universal Basic Income) and giveaways to industry and construction (under the happy rubric The New Green Deal), inflation will be roaring higher in no time.

What happens in runaway inflation? Tangible assets soar: land, timber, railroads, gold, mining companies and stocks of truly profitable enterprises (not zombies propped up with debt and bogus “profits” ginned up by accounting tricks).

What do the super-wealthy own? Land, timber, railroads, gold, mining companies and stocks— all the tangible assets that will maintain or increase their value in runaway inflation.

(Recall that “inflation” is not one dynamic; many are protected and others actually gain while the masses are impoverished: “Inflation” and America’s Accelerating Class War 9/18/20.)

“Socialism-light” is equally beneficial to the super-wealthy. “Socialism-light” is my term for the Aristocracy’s management of the extreme inequalities of wealth, income, power and privilege. The basic idea of “socialism-light” is to spread a thick layer of gooey PR over the same old system of legalized looting, parasitic exploitation and neofeudal predation and then have the government borrow endless trillions to fund bread and circuses for the masses (Universal Basic Income).

The irony will not be lost on the super-wealthy. As the state borrows endless trillions to send every household $1,000 a month, this borrow-and-spend orgy will push inflation higher, stripping away the purchasing power of the household’s income.

In no time at all the $1,000 in “free money” will only buy $500 of goods and services. The cries for “more stimulus” will reach a crescendo and the bread and circuses will double to $2,000 a month.

But this money-printing-to-the-moon will only increase real-world inflation (as I explained in This Is Why Inflation Will Rip Everyone’s Face Off 9/17/20), so the end result will be the $2,000 only buys $200 of goods and services.

Meanwhile, the super-wealthy are minting fortunes as everyone desperately seeks a hedge against inflation, which is wiping out cash, low-interest bonds, etc.

Banks–a core source of wealth and power for the super-wealthy–also anticipate this, which is why they immediately sell all the loans they originate to pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other bagholders whose losses will be stupendous once inflation shreds the value of low-interest rate debt.

Banks won’t be able to survive unless they 1) grab the most valuable collateral underlying their loan portfolios and 2) move their lending into short-term debt so they can jack up interest rates to match inflation.

Meanwhile the gooey, easily digestible PR will include a “wealth tax” that ends up being a pinprick on the total wealth of the super-wealthy who have sequestered their wealth in philanthro-capitalist foundations that are nothing but power grabs by other means, and various other forms of legalized looting.

The “wealth tax” will end up stripmining professionals and entrepreneurs, not the super-wealthy. Those earning $1 million with a net worth of $20 million will be gutted, while those worth $5 billion will pay a pittance. This is the inevitable result of the best government money can buy.

Eventually the entire house of cards collapses and if there is no replacement of the current political power structure that actually changes the way currency is created and distributed, the pathways to ownership of capital and labor’s share of the economy, then the system will simply return to the existing inequality with a new currency.

As I often say: if you don’t change the way money is created and distributed, you’ve changed nothing. If you don’t change the means of acquiring capital and political power, you’ve changed nothing. If you don’t change labor’s share of the economy, you’ve changed nothing.

Money-printing, inflation and “socialism-light” are just what the super-wealthy ordered: so by all means spark runaway inflation with “free” (heh) bread and circuses, provide trillions in “stimulus”to corrupt insiders, industry giveaways (New Green Deal, carbon credits, etc.), and slap a feel-good “wealth tax” that mysteriously misses the super-wealthy but guts the tattered remains of the productive class.

After a bout of inflation and “socialism-light”, we could end up with even more extreme inequality when the whole rotten structure collapses. Be careful what you wish for and cui bono–to whose benefit? To answer that, look beneath the gooey layer of PR.

It doesn’t have to be this way. My new book outlines a much different way of organizing capital, labor and the creation of money: check out the free bits: Excerpts of the book (PDF) The Story Behind the Book and the Introduction.

*  *  *

My recent books:

A Hacker’s Teleology: Sharing the Wealth of Our Shrinking Planet (Kindle $8.95, print $20, audiobook coming soon) Read the first section for free (PDF).

Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World
(Kindle $5, print $10, audiobook) Read the first section for free (PDF).

Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($5 (Kindle), $10 (print), ( audiobook): Read the first section for free (PDF).

The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake $1.29 (Kindle), $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF)

Money and Work Unchained $6.95 (Kindle), $15 (print) Read the first section for free (PDF).

*  *  *

If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

High-frequency economic indicators suggest “V”-shaped recoveries touted by the Trump administration across major US metro areas could be overhyped; after all, President Trump has an election to win – so pump away… 

Given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, where certain economic activities, such as travel and tourism, going to restaurants, and or just traveling to local shops, have been hampered not only by social distancing restrictions but also by consumer choices. 

Without a vaccine, nevertheless, who in their right mind will take a drug with expedited clinical trials, the ability to convince the public to rush back to restaurants, movie theaters, and or retail stores will be a significant challenge for late 2020. More than likely, people will stay home this holiday season, adding to the increased downward pressure on the economy. 

Conventional economic indicators do suggest unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus, in the trillions of dollars, was able to floor the crash in early spring – but now, heading into fall, the recovery is waning as a fiscal cliff enters the 49th day on Saturday (Sept. 19). 

For more color on what high-frequency data suggests, TomTom Traffic Index data for the most populated US metro areas continue to show a sluggish recovery. 

Analyzing traffic data of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia, the most populated cities in the US, a recovery in traffic congestion to post-virus levels has yet to be recognized. 

New York City

Los Angeles

Chicago

Houston

Philadelphia

Readers may recall, we shared a KPMG International report in July specifying “an unprecedented decline in travel” is ahead with “14 million fewer cars” expected on US highways.

For further clues on the recovery shape, high-frequency data from Goldman Sachs’ latest Activity Tracker points to a recovery that has stalled, not just in the US, but elsewhere. 

Movie theater box office revenues show some signs of life in the US and other countries but remain below pre-virus levels. China appears to be an anomaly. 

US Department store sales remain on a virus low. 

US labor market recovery has stalled. Increasing permanent job loss is causing deep economic scarring. 

The virus pandemic is a defining event, more or less, a transitional period for the country, one where society, politics, and business will be reshaped, and the deep economic scarring today will result in a paralyzed economy, with the need for structural reform. 

Authored by Robert Wheeler via The Organic Prepper blog,

After years of constant media fear-mongering, a sizeable number of Americans continue to believe in the disproven “Russiagate” conspiracy theory.

Putin, the story goes, owns Donald Trump and engaged in a massive propaganda campaign via social media, hacking elections, and other collusion forms to ensure that Trump was elected. Now, Putin sits like Cobra Commander in the Kremlin, directed Trump’s actions, and Trump does what he is told.

Yet these same Americans harbor little fear of China, the nation to which America’s economy was sold decades ago and the only real aggressive empire (though admittedly the Russian bear is beginning to wake up) outside of the United States.

Despite China’s imperial ambitions, leftists all across the United States reacted in outrage and mockery when Donald Trump announced plans to ban TikTok, the Chinese owned social media firm. According to them, the idea that China may be using TikTok for nefarious purposes is beyond the scope of reality. It is yet one more conspiracy theory conjured up by Trump and QAnons…

Except…

Trump might not be so wrong after all.

In a new report from VICE (not a Trump or Q sympathizer by any means) “China has Been Doing ‘Mass Surveillance’ on Millions of Citizens in the US, UK, Australia, and India,” Gavin Butler writes:

A Chinese technology company with links to Beijing’s military and intelligence agencies has been compiling personal information on millions of people from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, India, and Japan.

The database was put together by the private firm Zhenhua Data: a Shenzhen-based company that lists the People’s Liberation Army and Chinese Communist Party among its main clients.

Contained therein were the names and personal details of some 2.4 million people, including 35,000 Australians, 40,000 Britons, and many high-profile figures such as senior politicians, royal family members, religious leaders, and military officers.

Those details included dates of birth, addresses, marital status, relatives, political associations, and social media IDs. While a lot of data has been “scraped” from social media and other open-source material, some appears to have been sourced from confidential bank records, job applications, and psychological profiles and is believed to have been acquired via the dark web.

According to the ABC, one intelligence analyst described the giant global database as “Cambridge Analytica on steroids,” At the same time, the Telegraph reported that intelligence sources described the scale of information as “frightening.” Both publications were among the international consortium of media outlets that the database was shared with, including others in Australia, the UK, the US, Canada, Italy, and Germany.

Professor Christopher Balding, the US academic and cybersecurity expert to whom the database was initially leaked, described the revelation as “something akin to discovering the Holy Grail.

“What cannot be underestimated is the breadth and depth of the Chinese surveillance state and its extension around the world,” Balding wrote in a statement on Monday. “The world is only at the beginning stages of [understanding] how much China invests in intelligence and influence operations using the type of raw data we have to understand their targets.”

The intended use of the information contained in the database is not entirely clear. Still, Zhenhua Data—whose official website has since been taken down—claims it provides “services for military, security and foreign propaganda” and describes its mission as influencing the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

The company’s chief executive Wang Xuefeng has also previously used the Chinese social media app WeChat to endorse waging “hybrid warfare.” A term that refers to unconventional methods such as cyber attacks, fake news, and electoral intervention to disrupt and disable an opponent without engaging in open hostilities.

Is China using Psychological warfare?

There are legitimate concerns here for those who sneer at the idea that China has amassed the deeply personal data of so many individuals outside of its borders. Note that China maintains the personal data of elected officials and that of “regular” citizens.

The issue here is that China can use that data to manipulate those individuals through a professional understanding of their psychology (their desires, drives, biases, etc.). Even more so, it allows China access to data that those officials do not want out. In other words, it makes those officials susceptible to blackmail..

Even “ordinary” citizens could be recruited as Chinese agents to keep some of their most private thoughts or actions secret.

Don’t understand how this could happen? Just watch Black Mirror’s episode, “Shut Up And Dance.”

Given America’s constant kowtowing to China and the American industry’s shipping to that country over the past 40 years, it appears someone is already dancing.

Waiters and food service worker have arguably been hit the hardest by the pandemic, alongside of those who work in hospitality and tourism. Not only have their industries been the slowest to re-open, many who work as bartenders, waiters and waitresses often live day to day and have few benefits.

While the government has been bickering with itself in an attempt to figure out how many more trillions it wants to print out of thin air and call a “stimulus package”, the rank and file restaurant workers continue to struggle mightily. And now, heading from summer to fall, outdoor dining will likely start to pare back.

AP told the story of one such waiter, who went from working at a steakhouse chain restaurant – always with enough money for groceries and his car – to now being homeless.

42 year old Jeff Lello, who had been waiting tables his whole life, was laid off back in March as a result of the pandemic. He was clearing about $100 per night in cash at his job and “often picked up extra shifts”. He never had to rely on food stamps or unemployment his whole life, the article notes.

But while he watched his savings dry up and he waiting for Florida’s backlogged unemployment system, he eventually couldn’t afford rent or his car. He went from living in an apartment with a roof over his head to literally living in a tent that he “purchased with his last $75”. 

He had been living in his tent “deep in the woods” near “other homeless campers”. He had a cot with a sleeping bag and a shelf for food and belongings. He keeps one corner of his tent for clean clothes and the other for dirty. Most days he would wake up around 7AM and find a bathroom at a local store to freshen up and wash a shirt. From there, he would go to the food bank and grab a bag of pasta and sauce. Most of the food he would give away, since it required pots and electricity – but he would keep the peanut butter and granola bars. 

He spent his days begging for money, food or jobs. “6 weeks with no help. Please,” his sign he would hold on the side of the road reads. He said people weren’t exactly eager to help: “I think the most I ever got was one dollar and a bag of oranges.”

He said: “I was truly, truly alone. I was going back to no one.”

He spent most days of summer in the library, charging his phone, applying for jobs – and checking on the status of his unemployment claim. On his inability to get government benefits, Lello said: “I don’t understand what I did wrong. Why me? I had just lost all hope in everything.”

One of his closest friends supported him by bringing him all of her spare change, allowing him to forward his mail to her and allowing him to shower at her home. Finally, at the end of July, she called him to inform him that his unemployment check had finally arrived: it was $4800 in back pay. Lello took her out to Dennys, then bought a van with AC, a roof, doors and an alarm to live in.

“When you’re homeless, the hardest thing is to get something hot,” he said.

His experience is a microcosm of the rest of the country right now. There are 20 million people currently living paycheck to paycheck that spend more than 30% of their income on rent, AP notes. These people are “likely to experience homelessness at some point, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless”.

Florida’s situation has been disproportionately worse. In fact, by June, the state had not paid 40% of its 2.2 million outstanding unemployment claims. 

The National Coalition for the Homeless also predicts the number of people would could experience homelessness could rise by 45% due specifically to the effects of Covid. 

Authored by Zachary Steiber via The Epoch Times,

The COVID-19 pandemic and the violence that’s taken place in cities across the country this year are among the topics chosen by Fox News moderator Chris Wallace for the first debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Biden and Trump are scheduled to face off on Sept. 29 at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Wallace chose the following six topics for the candidates to answer questions on.

1. COVID-19:

2. Race and Violence In Our Cities

3. The Candidates’ Track Records

4. The Integrity of the Election

5. The Economy

6. The Supreme Court

Each topic will be tackled for 15 minutes.

The debate is slated to go on for 90 minutes.

The Commission on Presidential Debates, a self-described nonpartisan commission that arranges the debates, announced the topics on Tuesday.

The sun sets behind the US Capitol Building the day after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Washington on Sept. 19, 2020. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

The topics are announced ahead of time “in order to encourage deep discussion of the leading issues facing the country,” the commission stated.

The topics could change “because of news developments,” it added.

Wallace was chosen by the commission to moderate the first debate.

The second debate, slated for Miami on Oct. 15, will be moderated by Steve Scully, an executive producer for C-SPAN.

Kristen Welker, a White House correspondent for NBC News, was tabbed to moderate the third debate, scheduled in Nashville, Tennessee, on Oct. 22.

USA Today’s Washington bureau chief Susan Page is marked down to moderate the sole debate between the vice president and the Democrat nominee.

Vice President Mike Pence and Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), will debate in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Oct. 7.

Readers may recall, back in 2018, we noted how the armored car business in Mexico was flourishing, thanks to cartel wars erupting across the country.

We even said, “As global automakers now realize that there is money to be made in bulletproofing a car, it is only a matter of time before these cars hit the streets of the United States.”

This leaves us with today: America has transformed into a chaotic mess. Social unrest and violent crime plague major US metro areas. Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing cities for suburban life. 

There’s also been panic-buying of guns, ammo, and bulletproof vests since the virus pandemic began in March. Another round of buying was observed when social unrest was sparked across the country following George Floyd protests in Minnesota in late May.

With no end to the unrest and violence, nevertheless, an upcoming presidential election that is undoubtedly going to lead to chaos no matter who wins, the next trend in security could be wealthy folks buying low-key armored vehicles.

Canadian firm Inkas are offering armored vehicles indistinguishable from an ordinary Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Range Rover, Cadillac, and or Lincoln.

The Toronto-based company even sells a “military-style, ultra-high-end SUV that puts any Hummer, Jeep, or G-Wagen to shame,” said Bussiness Insider. 

“The Sentry Civilian boasts a private jet-like cabin complete with leather captain’s chairs, an entertainment system, and a long list of optional luxury features. But you’d never know that looking at the vehicle’s exterior — on the outside, the SUV gets bullet-resistant glass, run-flat tires, and an armored passenger compartment.” 

Here’s an inside view of the Sentry Civilian, a blend of security and luxury. 

The civilian use of armored vehicles made national attention earlier this year when InfoWars founder Alex Jones rolled up to an anti-gun control rally in Richmond with a ‘battle tank.’ 

So the big question we ask since Americans have panic bought pretty much everything under the sun – will they start buying low-key armored vehicles as the country becomes more dangerous?

Senior editor, Ash Bennington, welcomes back Tony Greer, editor of the Morning Navigator, to discuss the ongoing inflation trade. Tony expounds on his bullish posture toward oil and some of the technical indicators he uses to analyze different securities. He also reviews some of the current policy stances that emerged from last week’s FOMC meeting, explaining how he leverages these policy shifts to seek out price inflation across different asset classes. Real Vision reporter Haley Draznin monitors the continued volatility in the markets and addresses the potential risks investors are paying close attention to in the coming weeks including another stimulus relief bill out of Congress, a new spending bill, and surging coronavirus cases in the U.S. and abroad.