President Trump has been labeled a racist for using the word “infested” to describe Baltimore’s rat problem, but Elijah Cummings used the exact same word to describe the city back in 1999.
As the video below highlights, CNN slammed Trump for using the word “infested” to describe Baltimore, suggesting that the president was dehumanizing black people.
However, during 1999 testimony, Elijah Cummings referred to his own district as a “drug infested area.”
I guess Elijah Cummings is racist too.
As we previously highlighted, Bernie Sanders also claimed Trump was “attacking” an American city by calling Baltimore rat infested yet Sanders himself repeatedly said the place resembled a “third world country” back in 2015.
Meanwhile, Benny Johnson visited residents in Rep. Cummings district to find out what life is really like there.
Common themes; Rats, trash, crime, corrupt politicians.
Are they all racist too?
We are in a political firestorm over the condition of Baltimore.
So what is life really like there?
I spoke with residents in Rep. Cummings district.
Here’s what they had to say: Rats. Trash. Crime. Abandoned by politicians. Begging for change.
Want the truth?
Please WATCH @TPUSApic.twitter.com/rkHwwHc1kf
LPs pulled money from hedge funds at an alarming rate last year after a stretch of abysmal returns. Yet, apparently, the highest-performing funds have no reason to be worried. With the Fed about to phase in QE4, investors are scrambling for allocations at the best-performing funds, and Elemental Capital, a macro fund that has averaged annual returns north of 20% since 2005, has decided it’s going to buck the trend of falling fees and hike them, instead.
According to the FT, the fund’s motive isn’t pure greed: It also wants to shake out some investors and reduce its AUM, allowing it to shift its investing strategy to focus on smaller, less liquid markets. The Va.-based fund, which boasts a stunning $18 billion AUM, was founded by Jeffrey Talpins, a former bond trader at Goldman and Citi who had emerged as an industry star. He was already charging a 2.5% annual fee and a 25% performance fee. That’s far higher than the industry average, which has sunk below the traditional ‘2-and-20’ threshold (charging 2% management fee along with a 20% management fee).
The fund is planning to hike its performance fee to 40%, and lower its management fee to 2%.
The $18 billion hedge fund founded by Jeffrey Talpins, a former bond trader at Goldman Sachs and Citi who has emerged as one of the industry’s brightest stars, already charges a 2.5%annual management fee and 25% of gains, far higher than the industry average.
“While a seemingly bleak snapshot, a small cohort of funds are prospering,” said Mark Connors, global head of risk advisory on Credit Suisse’s hedge fund servicing team. “Some have even been able to maintain pricing power, distancing themselves even further from the average manager.”
Over the summer, Elemental made some changes at the portfolio-management level, shuttering its portfolio management program of quasi-independent trading centers. But the fund is up 6% on the year through June.
In order for any society to function smoothly, the vast majority of the people need to behave at least somewhat rationally. Of course there are always going to be exceptions, and we understand that, but most of us operate under the assumption that most of the people that we are going to encounter in our daily lives are not going to act like nutjobs. Unfortunately, that may not be a safe assumption any longer. As our society literally degenerates right in front of our eyes, it seems like someone has opened up the barn doors and let out all the crazies.
And the truth is that “our leaders” are some of the best examples of this phenomenon. Just look at some of the winners that we have running for president. Quite a few of them are far more qualified for the insane asylum than they are for the highest office in the land. Of course it doesn’t end with our politicians. All across this country, it seems like people in positions of power can’t think straight any longer.
If you doubt this, just consider what just happened to a 79-year-old woman in Ohio named Nancy Segula. When her neighbor moved away, he left a couple cats behind, and they became very hungry. So Segula would feed them and care for them, because she didn’t want them to suffer. Well, eventually one of her neighbors found out about this, and the animal warden was called…
“It began in 2017 with me feeding stray kitties. I used to have a neighbor that had a couple cats and he moved away so he left them,” Segula said. “I would always feed them and care for them because I was worried about them and I’m a cat lover. Once my neighbors got upset about it, they called the animal warden.”
She got her first citation in 2017.
Segula wasn’t about to abandon the suffering cats, and so she just kept on feeding them, and the neighbors kept calling the animal warden.
Over time, she received a total of four citations.
Unfortunately, the most recent citation required her to appear in court, and when she did a judge sentenced her to 10 days in jail…
Her latest citation required her to appear before Magistrate Jeffrey Short last week. He sentenced her to 10 days in the Cuyahoga County Jail.
“I couldn’t believe what my mother was telling me. She gets 10 days in the county jail, I couldn’t believe it,” said Dave Pawlowski, her son son. “I’m sure people hear about the things that happen downtown in that jail. And they are going to let my 79-year-old mother go there?”
Seriously?
Is this what our society has become?
Putting a 79-year-old woman in prison for feeding stray cats is stone cold crazy, but this judge in Ohio is actually doing it.
Are we going to start putting all senior citizens that feed cats in prison? If so, then my parents are in all sorts of trouble, because they have been feeding stray cats for many, many years.
Having compassion for those in need should never be against the law. In previous articles, I have written about how many major cities in America are now passing laws against feeding the homeless.
Well I am sorry – if I see someone in need and I want to give that person some food, no law is going to stop me from doing so.
Let me switch gears for a moment and share another example of the craziness that is sweeping across America.
Within the last few days, police in Pennsylvania arrested a woman that was caught urinating on the potatoes in her local Wal-Mart. The following comes directly from the West Mifflin Borough Police Department…
On July 25, 2019 at 08:41 hours a West Mifflin Police Officer responded to Walmart in West Mifflin for a criminal mischief report. The Officer was met by a Walmart Loss Prevention officer who reported the following incident.
The LPO was informed by an employee that on the day before he noticed urine on the floor near the potatoes in the produce area. The LPO then pulled video that depicted a female at approximately 22:10 hours on July 24, 2019 urinating in the potato bins. The LPO then reported the incident to the West Mifflin Police.
The Detectives of the West Mifflin Police Department investigated the incident and were able to identify the actor as Grace Brown and made contact with her. Ms. Brown along with her attorney came to the station where she identified herself as the person urinating on the potatoes.
Who in the world would do such a thing?
Perhaps she really had to go, and perhaps she didn’t realize that Wal-Mart has restrooms.
But it is probably much more likely that this woman was following an extremely disturbing new trend that has emerged on social media. According to CNN, it originally started with ice cream…
It’s just flat-out gross.
People go into grocery stores, open a container of ice cream at random, lick the top, put it back in the freezer and then just walk away. Oh, and then they put a video of the entire grotesque display on social media for all to see.
The #IceCreamChallenge, as it’s now called, is just one of many social media trends over the past couple of years that has had people (mostly young people) doing questionable things and documenting them online.
But since that time this “challenge” has spread to all sorts of other consumer food products. The more disgusting someone can be as they defile food, the more views and likes they will get on their social media profiles, and that is apparently the goal.
Of course this is yet another sign that America is degenerating into an “idiocracy”, because you would have to be an idiot to think that defiling food in a grocery store is a good idea, and you would have to be an idiot to be entertained by watching someone else do so.
Jailed pedophile Jeffrey Epstein wanted to seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating scores of women at his giant ranch in New Mexico, according to the New York Times. He also wanted his penis and head cryogenically frozen.
Epstein shared his scheme with scientists and other confidants over the years, according to four people who were in on the plan – which “reflected his longstanding fascination with what has become known as transhumanism: the science of improving the human population through technologies like genetic engineering and artificial intelligence,” according to the report.
“On multiple occasions starting in the early 2000s, Mr. Epstein told scientists and businessmen about his ambitions to use his New Mexico ranch as a base where women would be inseminated with his sperm and would give birth to his babies, according to two award-winning scientists and an adviser to large companies and wealthy individuals, all of whom Mr. Epstein told about it,” according to the report.
Once, at a dinner at Mr. Epstein’s mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Mr. Lanier said he talked to a scientist who told him that Mr. Epstein’s goal was to have 20 women at a time impregnated at his 33,000-square-foot Zorro Ranch in a tiny town outside Santa Fe. Mr. Lanier said the scientist identified herself as working at NASA, but he did not remember her name.
According to Mr. Lanier, the NASA scientist said Mr. Epstein had based his idea for a baby ranch on accounts of the Repository for Germinal Choice, which was to be stocked with the sperm of Nobel laureates who wanted to strengthen the human gene pool. (Only one Nobel Prize winner has acknowledged contributing sperm to it. The repository discontinued operations in 1999.)
Mr. Lanier, the virtual-reality creator and author, said he had the impression that Mr. Epstein was using the dinner parties — where some guests were attractive women with impressive academic credentials — to screen candidates to bear Mr. Epstein’s children. –New York Times
Epstein, charged in July with sexual trafficking of girls as young as 14, was a prolific liar and manipulator according to the Times, which notes that the ‘serial illusionist’ lied about his clients’ identities, his net worth, his financial prowess, and other personal achievements – all in an effort to worm his way into the upper echelons of society.
As the Times goes on to note, even after his 2008 conviction on charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor, Epstein was able to ingratiate himself with the scientific community, attracting a “glittering array of prominent scientists.”
They included the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann, who discovered the quark; the theoretical physicist and best-selling author Stephen Hawking; the paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen J. Gould; Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and best-selling author; George M. Church, a molecular engineer who has worked to identify genes that could be altered to create superior humans; and the M.I.T. theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek, a Nobel laureate. –New York Times
Scientists had regular parties at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, drinking Dom Pérignon and other expensive libations. The wealthy financier also hosted buffet lunchest at Harvard’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics – to which he contributed $6.5 million in order to get it off the ground.
Harvard cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker says he was invited to “salons and coffee klatsches” at which Epstein would ‘hold court.’
While some of Mr. Pinker’s peers hailed Mr. Epstein as brilliant, Mr. Pinker described him as an “intellectual impostor.”
“He would abruptly change the subject, A.D.D.-style, dismiss an observation with an adolescent wisecrack,” Mr. Pinker said.
Another scientist cultivated by Mr. Epstein, Jaron Lanier, a prolific author who is a founding father of virtual reality, said that Mr. Epstein’s ideas did not amount to science, in that they did not lend themselves to rigorous proof. Mr. Lanier said Mr. Epstein had once hypothesized that atoms behaved like investors in a marketplace.
Mr. Lanier said he had declined any funding from Mr. Epstein and that he had met with him only once after Mr. Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea. –New York Times
One scientist who was aware of Epstein’s eugenics plan said he was told about it at a 2001 dinner at Epstein’s townhouse, while another scientist recalls hearing about it at a 2006 conference hosted by Epstein in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands – just a short distance from his infamous ‘pedo island.’
Cryogenics
One transhumanist interviewed by the Times notes that Epstein had discussed his interest in cryogenics – the preservation of human bodies via freezing in order to be revived in the future. Epstein said he wanted his head and penis to be frozen.
Southern Trust Company, Mr. Epstein’s Virgin Island-incorporated business, disclosed in a local filing that it was engaged in DNA analysis. Calls to Southern Trust, which sponsored a science and math fair for school children in the Virgin Islands in 2014, were not returned.
In 2011, a charity established by Mr. Epstein gave $20,000 to the Worldwide Transhumanist Association, which now operates under the name Humanity Plus. The group’s website says that its goal is “to deeply influence a new generation of thinkers who dare to envision humanity’s next steps.” –New York Times
Powell over-promised and under-delivered to a market that will “take a mile when given an inch”…
“His comment about an ‘adjustment’ probably means that those looking for an aggressive easing cycle over the next six to nine months are not going to see it. What it means is that there was a divergence between what investors were saying and what they were pricing in.
Investors wanted Powell to say that he’s cutting, but they really wanted to see the Fed embarking on a rate-cutting cycle. The consensus belief on what the Fed would do was correct. It’s just that the markets pricing in an aggressive cycle of rate cuts were way off.” – Matt Maley, equity strategist at Miller Tabak + Co.
“The catalyst for sell-on-the-news was that phrase. He made it explicit — basically, that’s what that phrase means. An insurance cut implied ‘Hey, it’s just an insurance policy. It’s a one-time premium and we’re done.’ And then he made it explicit with that sentence and the market figured it out.” – Charlie Smith, founding partner and chief investment officer at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.
And the result… (Is Powell the lady on the rope or Stallone trying to save us all?)
This should help..
China ends the month mixed with tech-heavy ChiNext performing well but the broader Shanghai Comp in the red…
European stocks were also mixed with UK’s FTSE best (as the pound collapsed) and Spain and Germany weakest…
US stocks were all positive on the month with Small Caps worst and Nasdaq best (even with today’s ugliness)…
Bonds and the dollar held gains as stocks and gold sank post-Powell…
This is the 10th time out of 12 press conferences that Powell has done that stocks have tanked – not great!!
VIX spiked up to 16.5 intraday, dipped and then pushed back above 15 into the close…
Thanks to today’s turmoil in the bond market, 30Y Yields ended the month lower and the short-end higher in yields…
The yield curve (3m10Y) very briefly un-inverted but tumbled on the day – staying back inverted…
And the 2s30s curve crashed most since Brexit (June 2016)…
The dollar surged 2.5% in July – its biggest monthly gain since Nov 2016 (Trump election)
Cable crashed over 4% in July – its worst month since Oct 2016 – with the lowest monthly close since 1985
Bitcoin bounced back above $10,000…
But cryptos have been ugly on the month…
Commodities were broadly lower today as the dollar spiked but Silver massively outperformed for the month…
Silver surged back above $16 intra-month – its best month since Dec 2018…
And this was silver’s best month relative to gold since Brexit (June 2016)
Finally… Trump demanded a rate-cut – gets one but the dollar soars and stocks tank – who will be blamed for that?
An adviser to two presidents warns that if the United States gives free health care to illegal aliens, as some Democratic candidates advocate, it would be “the end of the country as it now exists.”
Doug Wead is a New York Times bestselling author and is credited for coining the term “compassionate conservative.”
“If the United States becomes the first nation on Earth to offer free healthcare to anyone who enters its borders, even illegally, it would result in massive immigration and the end of the country as it now exists,” said Wead.
Despite nearly 60 per cent of Americans opposing free healthcare for illegal aliens, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders once again advocated the policy during last night’s debate in Detroit.
“I happen to believe that when I talk about health care as a human right, that applies to all people in this country,” said Sanders.
* * *
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via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/315te4v Tyler Durden
If one had to summarize Powell’s press conference, in which he was so dazed and confused after facing a barrage of questions forcing him to explain just why he is cutting rates now when in the Fed’s own words the US economy is doing great and “confidence is rebounding”, and just what a mere 25bps “insurance” cut will achieve that it was painfully uncomfortable to watch, it was with the following two quotes:
POWELL: THIS ISN’T THE START OF A LONG SERIES OF RATE CUTS
… but
POWELL: I DIDN’T SAY IT’S JUST ONE RATE CUT
And as markets shook, stunned by Powell’s revelation that today’s rate cut was just a “mid-cycle adjustment”, with the Dow Jones plunging briefly by over 400 points as hopes for an easing cycle were promptly dashed, Wall Street analysts sent out their hot takes of what Powell just did and said. Courtesy of Bloomberg here are some of the most notable responses, besides today’s winner from Chris Rupkey of course:
Delores Rubin, a senior equity trader at Deutsche Bank Wealth Management
“The market was fine with the statement, but as seems to be the case, the press conference reveals details that do not sit well with the market. The response that this is a mid-cycle adjustment and not part of a longer term accommodative stance has raised concerns. The market has really talked itself into a need for lower rates. Obviously the FOMC still feels strongly the economy is resilient.”
Zhiwei Ren, Penn Mutual Asset Management portfolio manager.
“The market pricing is for 3 more cuts for the next one year. He is pushing back that market pricing. He says this is a mid-cycle rate cut, which means it is 1-2 cuts and done…he is not giving the market what it wants — three cuts for next year. He basically said ‘At the beginning of the year, we were pricing a few hikes and turned patient — no rate hike, no cut — and now we’re cutting 25 bps. We think that’s accommodative enough.’ he didn’t say they need to cut more. That’s a big surprise to me and the market.”
Max Gokhman, the head of asset allocation for Pacific Life Fund Advisors.
“Two possible reasons. One is that the market thinks an ‘adjustment’ is a one-and-done thing. I doubt that’s the case, especially because there was also language in the statement about the ‘future path’ of rates being a subject of future data. To be clear, I’m not saying the market isn’t worried that it’s one-and-done — that’s just not how I’m seeing it. The second reason is perhaps the market thinks that when Powell says “mid-cycle” he is giving credence to the (ahem) fact that business cycles have a beginning, middle and… END. Most likely the first reason is what moved prices though.”
Charlie Smith, founding partner and chief investment officer at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.
“The catalyst for sell-on-the-news was that phrase. He made it explicit — basically, that’s what that phrase means. An insurance cut implied ‘Hey, it’s just an insurance policy. It’s a one-time premium and we’re done.’ And then he made it explicit with that sentence and the market figured it out.”
Matt Maley, equity strategist at Miller Tabak + Co.
“His comment about an ‘adjustment’ probably means that those looking for an aggressive easing cycle over the next six to nine months are not going to see it. What it means is that there was a divergence between what investors were saying and what they were pricing in. Investors wanted Powell to say that he’s cutting, but they really wanted to see the Fed embarking on a rate-cutting cycle. The consensus belief on what the Fed would do was correct. It’s just that the markets pricing in an aggressive cycle of rate cuts were way off.”
And now, we wait for Trump to tweet his reaction to his demands for a rate cut… when what he got was a stock plunge and a dollar surge.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2LPKZkV Tyler Durden
Hours after Reuters reported that the Saudi Binladin Group is looking to restructure between $20 and $30 billion in debt, the infamous construction family was hit with the news that son and potential successor of al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is dead, according to NBC News, citing three US officials regarding intelligence obtained by the United States.
It is unclear whether the US played a role in the death of Hamza bin Laden, who was approximately 30-years-old.
Hamza bin Laden is believed to have been born around 1989. His father moved to Afghanistan in 1996 and declared war against the U.S. Hamza went with him and appeared in al Qaeda propaganda videos. As leader of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden oversaw operations against Western targets that culminated in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and on the Pentagon. –NBC News
In February, the State Department announced a reward of up to $1 million for information on Hamza’s whereabouts – describing the younger bin Laden on Twitter as “an emerging al Qaeda leader” who “has threatened attacks against the United States and allies.”
Meanwhile, the Binladin Group is reportedly seeking a financial adviser to restructure their debt – after the Saudi government took a roughly 1/3 stake in the conglomerate after family members were swept up in an anti-graft campaign launched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.
The company, which has dominated the construction sector for years, is crucial to the kingdom’s plans for tourism and infrastructure projects aimed at diversifying the economy away from oil revenues by 2030.
The Binladin Group has sent a request for proposals to a select group of international advisers over the past few weeks to reorganize the debt of the whole group, said the five sources, speaking anonymously because the matter is private. –Reuters
The debt restructuring is likely to concern Saudi banks and other creditors, who had been expecting the Saudi finance ministry to provide the group with government loans.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2K5Sdz1 Tyler Durden
Given the market’s expectations for 4 rate cuts and more if it really wants, Fed Chair Powell just stole the jam out of the market’s donut by saying this was a “mid-cycle adjustment” confirming that this is “not the start of an easing cycle.”
Stocks tumbled….
This presser marks the 10th time out of 12 that S&P has dropped during Powell presser. Not a great record.
And the yield curve crashed…
And the dollar surged to its highest since My 2017…
Stocks down and dollar up – Trump won’t be happy!!
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2KeOiPj Tyler Durden
Never before have presidential candidates offered voters so much “free” stuff.
Kamala Harris wants you to “collect up to $500 a month.”
Elizabeth Warren says, “We need to go tenfold in our research and development in green energy.”
No one has tracked the cost of all of the promises. So my video team did!
Who will spend the most?
Here are the new spending proposals from the five most popular (according to ElectionBettingOdds.com) candidates.
In my latest video, we break it down by category, education spending first:
Joe Biden wants to “triple the amount of money we spend for Title I schools” ($32 billion) create “universal pre-K” ($26 billion), provide “free community college” ($6 billion per year) and double the number of psychologists and social workers in schools ($14 billion) — $78 billion total.
That’s a lot, but much less than what Kamala Harris would spend.
She too wants to “make community college free” ($6 billion), but she’d add debt-free “four-year public college” ($80.1 billion), “increase government’s investment in childcare” dramatically ($60 billion) and “give the average public school teacher a $13,000 raise” ($31.5 billion) for a total of $177 billion.
Pete Buttigieg rarely says what his proposals would cost, but he at least seems to want to spend less than Harris.
He touts “free college for low- and middle-income students” and would give teachers more money. Assuming his plan is like Harris’, that brings his education total to $87 billion.
Elizabeth Warren would spend much more.
“You’ll be debt-free!” she tells students. Taxpayers, unfortunately, will be deeper in debt, since she would “forgive” most existing student debt and make public college tuition-free ($125 billion).
She also wants a “Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act” ($70 billion).
These big-ticket items put her in the first place so far.
But wait! Bernie Sanders would spend even more.
He’d completely “eliminate student debt,” “make public colleges and universities tuition-free” and provide universal daycare and pre-K. That totals $280 billion, so Sanders “wins” in education spending.
I assumed the self-described socialist would be the biggest spender, but he’s got lots of competition!
Let’s look at health care spending.
Harris, Sanders and Warren all propose “Medicare for All,” including for people here illegally.
Sanders goes further, saying, “Under our plan, people go to any doctor they want.” He admits it will cost between $3 trillion and $4 trillion per year, about what the government now spends on everything. How will he pay for that? Well, somehow the rich will pay. Or Martians. Somebody.
Sanders, Harris, and Warren all said they’d ban private health insurance — although Harris now says she’d let private companies sell “Medicare plans” that “adhere to strict Medicare requirements on costs and benefits.” She also claims her “Medicare for All” will be cheaper than Sanders’ version, but as of now, there is no independently calculated cost.
When it comes to the environment, all Democratic candidates but Biden say they support the Green New Deal, which Republicans say would cost $93 trillion. For our ranking, I went with the lowest estimate we could find: An economist who likes the idea says it will cost around $500 billion a year.
Welfare? Harris would increase benefits and have the government pay your rent if it’s over 30% of your income ($94 billion), and Friday she offered $75 billion to black colleges and minority entrepreneurs.
Warren wants to spend more ($50 billion) on housing.
Sanders would increase food stamps for kids ($10.8 billion), boost Social Security benefits ($19 billion) and guarantee everyone a government job ($158 billion), for a total of $187.8 billion.
President Donald Trump, who says America will never be a socialist country, hasn’t been a responsible spender either.
Since he took office, spending increased about $500 billion per year. Trump did propose some cuts, but when Congress ignored his cuts and increased spending, he signed the bills anyway.
Now he says he’d spend even more: $200 billion a year for infrastructure, $8.6 billion for the border wall construction, $1.6 billion for more NASA funding and on and on, for a total of $267 billion.
We can’t afford it! The federal government is already $22 trillion in debt — $150,000 per taxpayer.
While Trump’s $267 billion is bad, the Democrats’ plans are worse. We counted $297 billion proposed by Biden, $690 billion from Buttigieg, $3.8 trillion from Warren, $4 trillion from Sanders and $4.3 trillion from Harris. That would double what the entire federal government spends now.
Senator Harris “wins” the free stuff contest.
Taxpayers lose.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2GECB3d Tyler Durden
