Category: zerohedge

After more than half a decade of disastrous monetary policy which not only failed to stimulate inflation, boost exports or crush the yen, but has brought Japan’s banks to near disaster, the Bank of Japan has come up with an “ingenious” new plan to flood the system with liquidity: it is paying banks hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to boost lending, a move analysts say is aimed at easing the side-effects of its negative interest rate policy.

And while record bank lending in recent months suggests the BOJ’s plan is working – a very rare success of late in its losing battle to revive the economy – according to Reuters it is also a sign that policymakers’ focus is now more on supporting banks, rather than keeping rates low.

To be sure, the literal wall of money printed by the BOJ in recent years has kept a lid on bankruptcies and job losses as the economy tips into a deep recession, although it has also meant that banks can not survive without continued life support from the central bank. And the prolonged battle with COVID-19 has only added strains on regional banks.

Needless to say, the local bankers are delighted with this latest indirect transfer from taxpayers to the top 1%: “This is one of the most effective policy moves the BOJ has made in recent years,” said Takehiro Noguchi, senior economist at Mizuho Research who personally stands to benefit from this “effective policy move.”

We found his second comment far more illuminating: “The BOJ will likely continue to take steps to alleviate the side-effect of its monetary easing… The BOJ thinks negative interest rates is something it should not have done.”

Oh, so conducting catastrophic experiments with monetary policy that crush savers and the middle class, while making the rich wealthy beyond their wildest dreams is something that “should not have been done”? We agree, and if only the BOJ had listened to us when we said all of this before it launched its idiotic NIRP policy, it would have saved Japan’s population years of misery and pain. Of course, central bankers always “know best”… and then the system collapses.

In any case, it’s too late now to fix anything without a complete systemic reset (and crash), and so the BOJ is forced to engage in increasingly desperate measures to keep it all together. That’s why in March the BOJ cobbled together special “coronavirus relief” operations to help keep cash-strapped companies afloat. Under the scheme, the BOJ lends cash to banks against their lending to the private sector, such as loans and bonds, as collateral.

The operation started off quietly but got a major boost after the BOJ decided in April to add a sweetener by giving banks a bonus of 10 basis points (bps) or 0.1% per year, for using the scheme, a bonanza when 10-year government bonds yield 0.04%.

Yes, if this sounds like a direct money transfer from the central bank to the commercial banks, it’s because that’s exactly what it is. It is also completely illegal in any other context than the one of a “covid emergency.”

Naturally, banks rushed to the plan, gobbling up 27 trillion yen ($250 billion) through the channel by July. And since that is roughly as much as the amount of banks’ deposits on which the BOJ imposes negative interest rates, it appears that banks were quick to use the BOJ’s latest helicopter money scheme to offset the punitive effects of NIRP.

Recall that in 2016 the BOJ went negative in an attempt to weaken the yen and lower corporate borrowing costs (it achieved neither). However, to avoid damaging banks even more, it imposed a minus 0.1% rate on only a small portion of banks’ deposits, amid concerns the policy could squeeze lenders’ margins and possibly reduce the flow of credit to the economy.

Meanwhile, as Reuters notes, the BOJ has paid 0.1% interest to banks on a total of about 208 trillion yen deposits, while the remainder carries zero interest. The complicated, three-tier interest rate system was intended to keep the benchmark interbank lending rate below zero percent while limiting the negative interest banks have to pay to the BOJ.

Of course, as analysts were quick to point out, paying additional interest on the new scheme is undermining the case for negative rates even further, thereby obviating the entire disaster that has been NIRP.

“In the grand scheme of things, we could see this as a policy normalisation as well as enhancing support for banks,” said Katsutoshi Inadome, senior strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

As a result of the BOJ’s move to increase interest payments to banks, the benchmark interbank overnight interest rate has also edged up, staying mostly above minus 0.05%.

The good news is that for now, the BOJ’s latest helicopter money plan appears to be working. Data this week showed banks’ lending rose by a record 6.3% in July from a year earlier to 572.7 trillion yen ($5.36 trillion). That represents an increase of about 26 trillion yen since March, suggesting the BOJ has effectively back-financed nearly all of the bank lending growth since then.

It also means that while the operation was supposed to be temporary, many now expect that the BOJ will gradually make it permanent as it is extended it beyond its scheduled expiry next March.

More importantly, while backtracking on negative rates could – and will – erode the BOJ’s credibility, frankly it’s not like the BOJ had much to begin with as all that now matters is how much the government will order the BOJ to print under the auspices of helicopter money.

Meanwhile, with the BOJ having effectively nullified NIRP, there is confusion as to how monetary policy will look in the future when Kuroda has to ease further, having admitted that NIRP is a failure and rapidly running out of debt and ETFs to monetize.

“Should the BOJ ever need to cut interest rates further to ease its policy, the central bank will combine it with more bonus schemes like this, to the extent that the net effect becomes unclear,” said Izuru Kato, chief economist Totan Research.

Kato is right, and the final bonus scheme will be the BOJ finding an “excuse” to give money directly to Japan’s population, after which it is game over for fiat as first the yen then every other “developed” currency will implode.

Authored by Mark Jeftovic via OutOfTheCave.io,

As I briefly covered in my AxisOfEasy tech digest this week, Uber and Lyft were bracing themselves for a ruling by a California judge that threatened to force them into treating their wage slaves as employees. Lyft said if the ruling went against them it would cause “irreparable damage”. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi penned an op-ed in the New York Times that just so happened to run Monday, pining for a fair shake for gig economy serfs workers.

Khosrowshahi, whose compensation package last year clocked in at $45,000,000 USD, waxed pensively, ‘There has to be a “third way” for gig workers.’ . Ideally one in which Uber wouldn’t be on the hook for their benefits and would be able to continue apace as a Silicon Valley unicorn: posting billions of dollars a quarter in losses and jockeying for Federal bailouts. Meanwhile the early stage backers, the VC’s and the private equity funds, would continue to live large off of financialization, not having to worry about the consequences of being the driving force in a race to the bottom for everybody else (even Uber’s lümpenvestors who bought into the IPO are still underwater).

As it turned out, Judge Schulman ruled that these gig economy workers are to be treated as employees in the State of California, and sure enough, Uber is now threatening to pick up their ball and go home.

People following my writings may be surprised that I’m not approaching this as yet another government inflicted wound against capitalism, like how higher minimum wages increases unemployment. It’s a fair point.

But we’re not talking about countless mom-and-ops and other main street businesses having their costs jacked up by economically illiterate career politicians. Even in a climate of government mis-micromanagement and overreach, the so called “free enterprise” participants should be competing under the same conditions. If an independently owned and operated driver service in the state has to operate under onerous taxation and terms, then being a Silicon Valley unicorn shouldn’t exempt you from suffering the same conditions.

In this case we’re talking about Cantillonaires who feel entitled to special privileges and exemptions but the reality is this:

These companies were never intended to be economically viable.

The only thing that mattered from the outset was to cannibilize the entire market, driving down prices and wages while operating at a loss so that they could garner the next financial event, be it a series D, E or F up-round and then eventually some monster acquisition or IPO. Within truly un-manipulated, free market competition, Uber and Lyft would have either had to compete, viably, with numerous entrants and competitors all fighting under their own steam, or else be snuffed out by economic reality.

The truth is that you can’t actually build a business where every transaction and input is subsidized, ultimately by central bank stimulus, while  all normal course responsibilities of operations, like expenses, are externalized.

With the Everything Bubble finally looking to pop, and pent up reality s-l-o-w-l-y beginning to reassert itself, these Unicorns will have to face the same situation that every other non-unicorn, non Silicon Valley funded business has to face: Whatever your “boil-the-ocean” big idea is, you’re gonna have to do it in an economically viable way, or it’s not going to happen.

Turkey and Greece are on the brink of military conflict in the eastern Mediterranean, with French military assets also now in the area supporting Cyprus and Greece

President Erdoğan in a televised speech Thursday made an alarming claim, saying the Turkish hydrocarbons exploration ship Oruç Reis has come under some sort of “attack”. 

Though he didn’t specify details or offer evidence, he said Turkish forces responded. “We have already told them that if they attack Oruç Reis, in response, there would be a heavy price to pay. And we have given the first response today,” Erdogan said in the address, according to state media.

A build-up of Greek Navy ships and Turkish warships – the latter escorting the Oruç Reis – has already been confirmed after official Turkish government sources released earlier photos showing a military escort while the seismic research vessel probes near Greece’s easternmost islands.

If there was an actual exchange of fire, or perhaps a ramming incident, it likely would not have involved the Oruç Reis directly, but instead one among the multiple Turkish military escort vessels. 

The Oruç Reis does not sail alone, it has a navy escort. Official picture released earlier this week. pic.twitter.com/GBeyxsmD3K

— Hans de Vreij (@hdevreij) August 13, 2020

There have been some Greek media reports suggesting there was a direct, brief encounter between Greek and Turkish warships.

Turkish sources are reporting a Greek frigate was damage after it came too close to the Oruc Reis, while Greek media says merely minor contact – a “kiss” of sorts between the vessels.

Turkish journalist says Greek Limnos frigate today tried to intervene Oruç Reis and provoked a response by Turkish warship Kemalreis.

“Limnos has been damaged and towed to the port” pic.twitter.com/OvrTNEfCGM

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) August 13, 2020

Whatever the case, the two sides are now only likely to build-up their forces in the region further, also given Athens has found new confidence in France’s Emmanuel Macron newly pledging to boost French military presence in support of Greece and Cyprus.

Authored by Michael Kapilkov via CoinTelegraph.com,

We look at the data from Google and DeFi protocols to uncover what’s behind the inexorable rise of LINK.

image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

Chainlink (Link) has experienced a meteoric rise this year, becoming a top-five crypto asset by market capitalization. We took a look at the data from the decentralized finance space as well as Google to help explain this phenomenon.

Source: Kraken

In the past 24 hours, Chainlink has seen another massive rise of 30% (alongside other DeFi tokens like SNX and MKR), which seems tied to demand from yield farmers trying to get their hands on YAM tokens with the much hyped new protocol.

The battle for number five, 2020 edition. Source: CoinMarketCap.

The battle for the number five spot in 2020 has been waged between Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV (BSV), Litecoin (LTC), Cardano (ADA) and Link, the latter entering the year well behind the other competitors. However, Link kept on rising throughout the year, finally, climbing to the fifth spot as of the time of this writing.

Source: CoinGecko

Chainlink has been making partnership and integration announcements nonstop throughout the year, although adversity is no stranger to its path.

There was a dubious report penned by Zeus Capital that called Chainlink a scam and crypto’s version of Wirecard. Zeus also claimed that it was building a short position in Link with a 99% profit target.

The success of the oracle project has also prompted additional competition. Earlier today, it was announced that a major crypto exchange OKEx is getting into the oracle game. Despite competition and critics, the token price continues to rise. Why?

The decentralized finance space has been all the rage in the crypto world this year, with some comparing it to the ICO bubble. The total Ether (ETH) value locked in DeFi has exploded from just over $1 billion in mid-June to over $4.5 billion by early August. 

Total Ethereum value locked in DeFi. Source: DEFI Pulse.

Most, if not all DeFi applications require some sort of price data feed. A robust, preferably decentralized feed is essential to the prosperity and security of most DeFi apps. The lack of such feeds has led to a number of well-documented debacles. Since Chainlink is the best-known player in this space, it stands to win the most from the growth of the DeFi space.

Popular interest in Chainlink is at an all-time high in the United States and globally, according to data from Google Trends. The overall market sentiment plays an important role in crypto price dynamics. Interest in Bitcoin (BTC) peaked in late 2017 when its price reached an all-time high of $20,000, as captured by the same source.

Google searches and Link price. Source: IntoTheBlock

Thus, two disparate data sources seem to at least partially explain Link’s rise. When Framework Ventures co-founder and early Chainlink investor Michael Anderson told Cointelegraph in April that he expected Link to rise above $25 in the near future, his prediction seemed detached from reality. The price of Link at the time was hovering below $4. Today, it is closer to the forecasted value of $25 than to the price at the time when the forecast was made.

France is getting more deeply involved against Turkey’s eastern Mediterranean ambitions for expanded oil and gas exploration, reportedly sending fighter jets and a naval frigate near Cyprus in order to contest Turkey encroachment on EU members’ territorial waters.

Cypriot media has confirmed that so far two French Rafale fighter jets and a C-130H support plane have landed at a base on the island, with international media noting Paris is further deploying the naval frigate ‘Lafayette’ to the region.

President Emmanuel Macron announced via a Twitter statement Wednesday: “I have decided to temporarily reinforce the French military presence in the eastern Mediterranean in the coming days, in cooperation with European partners, including Greece.”

Earlier this week Turkey conducted its own military drills near Greek waters, off some of Greece’s easternmost islands, at a moment Erdogan confirmed the Oruc Reis seismic exploration ship had been dispatched with a military escort. 

Macron had previously slammed Turkey’s expansionist claims, which mostly relies on interpreting waters around all of Cyprus as its own – given its claims over the so-called Turkish Republic of Cyprus – as an act of “unilateral” prospecting.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has hailed France’s military backing after long urging the EU to take more proactive action against Turkey’s energy exploration ambitions. “Emmanuel Macron is a true friend of Greece and a fervent defender of European values and international law,” Mitsotakis tweeted in French after a phone call with Macron.

The Greek prime minister also told the US ambassador that he rejects NATO’s “hands-off approach” to the growing crisis.

“I think within NATO it is very clear that this hands-off approach – that ‘oh we have two NATO partners so we’re not going to go into the details’ – is no longer going to be accepted by me. I raised this with Secretary-General [Jens] Stoltenberg that we’re a NATO contributor and an ally and…when we feel that a NATO ally is behaving in a way that endangers our interests, we cannot expect from NATO a similar approach of ‘we don’t want to interfere in your internal differences.’ This is profoundly unfair for Greece,” Mitsotakis said in Wednesday public comments.

Meanwhile on Thursday Greece and France are holding joint military drills near Crete. 

It’s being widely interpreted as a clear “message” to Turkey of just how serious Macron is in backing Greece’s sovereignty over its territorial waters.

As Tesla’s valuation continues to rocket toward $300 billion, the company is officially facing an onslaught of competition from legacy car manufacturers. 

The latest to jump into the fray is Cadillac, who has confirmed they will be offering their luxury electric SUV, the Lyriq, for less than $60,000 – a competitive price point that was widely expected to be much higher. When Cadillac revealed the SUV last week, they did not put a price point on the model. 

The Lyriq is going to boast more than 300 miles of range for both the rear-wheel and all-wheel-drive versions, according to electrek. The SUV, which is due out in 2022, will also offer 150 kW fast charging. 

Even the pro-Tesla lot over at electrek was forced to admit that the model “could be” a success given its price point. Editor Fred Lambert wrote earlier this week about the Lyriq, conceding that it will definitely act as competition to Tesla’s Model Y (or whatever asinine new model the company is pumping by 2022):

I think that this is probably a great surprise for most people.

After the unveiling, it seemed like most people were expecting a price of over $70,000, but it now sounds like it will be closer to $50,000, making it competitive with the current versions of the Model Y, which starts at $50,000.

With that price, I think it could be successful.

According to General Motors, the Lyriq features:

• Charging options that fit a variety of preferences for home, the workplace and on the road — including DC fast charging rates over 150 kilowatts and Level 2 charging rates up to 19 kW

• Rear-wheel drive and performance all-wheel drive configurations

• LYRIQ will offer the enhanced version of Super Cruise, the industry’s first truly hands-free driver assistance feature, available on more than 200,000 miles of enabled roads and recently updated to include lane change on demand

• New technologies such as dual-plane augmented reality-enhanced head-up display and remote self-parking

• The brand’s most seamless and adaptive technology interaction with the driver and passengers, including the latest Cadillac user experience, which is showcased in a 33-inch-diagonal advanced LED screen the spans the entire viewing area of the driver

“Led by LYRIQ, Cadillac will redefine American luxury over the next decade with a new portfolio of transformative EVs,” said Steve Carlisle, executive vice president and president, GM North America. “We will deliver experiences that engage the senses, anticipate desires and enable our customers to go on extraordinary journeys.”

Jamie Brewer, Cadillac LYRIQ chief engineer, said: “LYRIQ was conceived to make every journey exhilarating and leverages more than a century of innovation to drive the brand into a new era, while rewarding passengers with a more personal, connected and immersive experience. To do this we developed an architecture specifically for EVs.  It is not only an exceptional EV, but first and foremost a Cadillac.”

Here is Cadillac’s reveal of the Lyriq:

President Trump just announced a “historic” deal that will see Israel and the UAE open full diplomatic relations and Israel suspend its annexation plans in the West Bank.

The shock announcement Thursday marks perhaps the biggest diplomatic development out of the Middle East in decades, after the regime change war against Assad in Syria had for years reportedly brought Saudi-led gulf countries of the GCC into quiet, covert cooperation with Israel. 

Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump hailed the “historic day” in tweets confirming full normalization of diplomatic relations between prior enemies that had always lacked official recognition. Trump helped to broker the agreement, which also crucially involves Israel agreeing to halt its hugely controversial plans of annexing sections of the West Bank that included the sprawling Jordan Valley.

HUGE breakthrough today! Historic Peace Agreement between our two GREAT friends, Israel and the United Arab Emirates!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2020

Though it’s still anything but clear whether Israel will abide by this, Reuters writes of the breaking news that:

Under the agreement, Israel has agreed to suspend applying sovereignty to areas of the West Bank that it has been discussing annexing, senior White House officials told Reuters.

This is a major breakthrough for Israel, as Axios notes that the nation does not have diplomatic recognition in many Middle Eastern countries but has been steadily improving relations in the Gulf, largely due to mutual antipathy toward Iran.

The Trump administration announced the deal is being called the “Abraham Accord,” with Senior Adviser Jared Kushner saying “Muslims will be welcome in Israel.”

White House officials confirmed, Reuters writes, that “senior adviser Jared Kushner, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz were deeply involved in negotiating the deal, as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien.”

A joint statement issued by the three nations said the three leaders had “agreed to the full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.”

*  *  *

Joint Statement of the United States, the State of Israel, and the United Arab Emirates

[emphasis ours]

President Donald J. Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates spoke today and agreed to the full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

This historic diplomatic breakthrough will advance peace in the Middle East region and is a testament to the bold diplomacy and vision of the three leaders and the courage of the United Arab Emirates and Israel to chart a new path that will unlock the great potential in the region. All three countries face many common challenges and will mutually benefit from today’s historic achievement.

Delegations from Israel and the United Arab Emirates will meet in the coming weeks to sign bilateral agreements regarding investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare, culture, the environment, the establishment of reciprocal embassies, and other areas of mutual benefit. Opening direct ties between two of the Middle East’s most dynamic societies and advanced economies will transform the region by spurring economic growth, enhancing technological innovation, and forging closer people-to-people relations.

As a result of this diplomatic breakthrough and at the request of President Trump with the support of the United Arab Emirates, Israel will suspend declaring sovereignty over areas outlined in the President’s Vision for Peace and focus its efforts now on expanding ties with other countries in the Arab and Muslim world. The United States, Israel and the United Arab Emirates are confident that additional diplomatic breakthroughs with other nations are possible, and will work together to achieve this goal.

The United Arab Emirates and Israel will immediately expand and accelerate cooperation regarding the treatment of and the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus. Working together, these efforts will help save Muslim, Jewish, and Christian lives throughout the region.

This normalization of relations and peaceful diplomacy will bring together two of America’s most reliable and capable regional partners. Israel and the United Arab Emirates will join with the United States to launch a Strategic Agenda for the Middle East to expand diplomatic, trade, and security cooperation. Along with the United States, Israel and the United Arab Emirates share a similar outlook regarding the threats and opportunities in the region, as well as a shared commitment to promoting stability through diplomatic engagement, increased economic integration, and closer security coordination Today’s agreement will lead to better lives for the peoples of the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and the region.

The United States and Israel recall with gratitude the appearance of the United Arab Emirates at the White House reception held on January 28, 2020, at which President Trump presented his Vision for Peace, and express their appreciation for United Arab Emirates’ related supportive statements. The parties will continue their efforts in this regard to achieve a just, comprehensive and enduring resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As set forth in the Vision for Peace, all Muslims who come in peace to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As set forth in the Vision for Peace, all Muslims who come in peace  may visit and pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque, and Jerusalem’s other holy sites should remain open for  peaceful worshippers of all faiths.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Crown Prince Shah Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan express their  deep appreciation to President Trump for his dedication to peace in the region and to the pragmatic and  unique approach he has taken to achieve it.

* * *

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday morning that he expects other Muslim nations to follow the UAE’s lead.

“Things are happening that I can’t talk talk about,” he said.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Two simple regulations would drive a stake through Wall Street’s corrupt, evil heart.

While the corporate media is focused on the presidential election, perhaps the more interesting question is: could Wall Street Lose the election? That is, could Wall Street face potentially fatal restrictions regardless of who wins?

If this seems farfetched, consider the history of abrupt social-political-financial turn-arounds that surprised the mainstream. Off the top of my head I would point to Big Tobacco and environmental controls on Big Industry.

For decades, Big Tobacco was politically invulnerable. Big Tobacco greased the political machinery with huge contributions to politicos and massive lobbying campaigns to deny the self-evident reality that smoking was hazardous to human health.

Every effort to change this political dominance was thwarted with ease–and then suddenly, Big Tobacco fell out of favor. Politicians who had collected millions of dollars in Big Tobacco bribes–oops, I mean campaign contributions–without any blowback were suddenly in the spotlight as enablers of an industry that had remorselessly killed millions of its customers while claiming that tobacco’s health effects were still a matter of debate and/or choice.

Practically overnight the political walls protecting Big Tobacco crumbled as all the lies and political complicity that had long been accepted as “normal” were denormalized.

Big Industry encountered little political resistance to its decades-long dumping of industrial waste into the nation’s waterways and air until 1970. Images of American rivers catching fire changed public perceptions and eventually even Big-Business-friendly Republicans supported environmental regulations that cost Big Industry tens of billions of dollars in new costs.

Turning our attention to hitherto invulnerable Wall Street: the masses are awakening to what insiders have known all along: Wall Street is nothing but a skimming machine for insiders, and this is generating a fulsome hatred of Wall Street, Big Tech monopolies and the billionaires who’ve added half a trillion dollars in wealth in the current stock market rally while the rest of America crumbles.

When the political winds shift decisively, both parties quickly sense the change in weather. When social-economic tides change, politicos understand they face a binary choice–either get on board or cling to the past and lose elections.

If the cultural tides have shifted against Wall Street and its politically protected skims and scams, every politico will have to get on board in one way or another, or they’ll be left behind. When the social tide shifted, politicos threw Big Tobacco and Big Industry overboard without hesitation.

Two simple regulations would drive a stake through Wall Street’s corrupt, evil heart:

1. A substantial tax on every single transaction of any kind, whether it’s on an exchange or off-exchange, and most importantly, whether the bid for a transaction was executed or not. This would kill high-frequency trading (HFT) and various other front-running games (spoofing the system with bids that are withdrawn in milliseconds, etc.).

A transaction tax wouldn’t affect Mom-and-Pop investors or mutual funds, as they trade infrequently. It would only kill the parasitic Wall Street predators.

2. A ban or even limit on corporate share buybacks would kill the stock market’s primary engine of relentless insider gains: corporations buying back their own shares to goose their stocks higher even as their sales and profits stagnate. It’s estimated that up to 75% of all stock market gains can be traced back to the hundreds of billions of dollars corporations have borrowed to buy back their own shares.

It’s worth recalling that share buybacks were illegal not that long ago, so banning share buybacks would simply be a return to common sense limits on Wall Street’s skims and scams.

Two simple regulations would end Wall Street’s most blatant insider scams. These regulations have now entered the mainstream and are poised to become actionable.

When the social tides shift, politicos have to do something. To do nothing is no longer an option, and there is no creature on Earth more willing to jettison sacred cows than a politico fearful of being left behind as social trends abruptly change.

The rising hatred of Wall Street, Big Tech monopolies and insider scams is not yet visible to the mainstream, but that doesn’t mean the tides aren’t shifting. It just means the corporate mainstream is as clueless as the politicos basking in the billionaires’ bribes.

source: Wolfstreet.com

*  *  *

My recent books:

Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World ($13)

(Kindle $6.95, print $11.95) Read the first section for free (PDF).

Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($6.95 (Kindle), $12 (print), $13.08 ( 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.

Democratic operative David Axelrod says that California Senator Kamala Harris wasn’t Joe Biden’s top choice for running-mate, and that Harris was picked because of political optics.

“He reportedly clicked well with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, but she would not have fulfilled the desire of those who prioritized a candidate of color,” wrote Axelrod in a CNN Op-Ed. “Whitmer, a White moderate pick, also would have raised questions among supporters of progressive champion Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, widely viewed after a lifetime of advocacy and a strong campaign for president as a tough, brilliant and capable policymaker. But some also saw Warren as the most polarizing of the potential candidates, who would have been offered by Trump as evidence that the moderate Biden is merely a Trojan Horse for the left.”

“In the end, Biden seriously considered others but returned to Harris as the ‘do no harm’ candidate, unlikely to thrill or outrage many. She may not seem the most comfortable fit as a governing partner, a quality Biden said he was seeking, but Harris was viewed as the safest pick to win in November,” Axelrod continued.

Harris was picked after Biden promised to pick a female running mate, while a group of powerful black leaders insisted earlier in the week that the former Vice President will lose the election without a black VP.

It seems like Biden has gotten over Harris’s scathing remarks on race during last year’s primary debates.

as far as the grifter olympics go, one year ago kamala harris publicly brought up biden’s complicity with racial segregation and her personal history; now, she’s running with the same man who refused to support bussing and school integration pic.twitter.com/mFlOmBWLwK

— bengali in platforms (@frankoceanhafiz) August 11, 2020

Authored by Sarah Varney via Kaiser Health News,

As scientists race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, experts say obesity could prove an impediment — a sobering prospect for a nation in which nearly half of all adults are obese.

For a world crippled by the coronavirus, salvation hinges on a vaccine.

But in the United States, where at least 4.6 million people have been infected and nearly 155,000 have died, the promise of that vaccine is hampered by a vexing epidemic that long preceded COVID-19: obesity.

Scientists know that vaccines engineered to protect the public from influenza, hepatitis B, tetanus and rabies can be less effective in obese adults than in the general population, leaving them more vulnerable to infection and illness. There is little reason to believe, obesity researchers say, that COVID-19 vaccines will be any different.

“Will we have a COVID vaccine next year tailored to the obese? No way,” said Raz Shaikh, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

“Will it still work in the obese? Our prediction is no.”

More than 107 million American adults are obese, and their ability to return safely to work, care for their families and resume daily life could be curtailed if the coronavirus vaccine delivers weak immunity for them.

In March, still early in the global pandemic, a little-noticed study from China found that heavier Chinese patients afflicted with COVID-19 were more likely to die than leaner ones, suggesting a perilous future awaited the U.S., whose population is among the heaviest in the world.

And then that future arrived.

As intensive care units in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere filled with patients, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that obese people with a body mass index of 40 or more — known as morbid obesity or about 100 pounds overweight — were among the groups at highest risk of becoming severely ill with COVID-19. About 9% of American adults are in that category.

As weeks passed and a clearer picture of who was being hospitalized came into focus, federal health officials expanded their warning to include people with a body mass index of 30 or more. That vastly expanded the ranks of those considered vulnerable to the most severe cases of infection, to 42.4% of American adults.

Obesity has long been known to be a significant risk factor for death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. But scientists in the emerging field of immunometabolism are finding obesity also interferes with the body’s immune response, putting obese people at greater risk of infection from pathogens such as influenza and the novel coronavirus. In the case of influenza, obesity has emerged as a factor making it more difficult to vaccinate adults against infection. The question is whether that will hold true for COVID-19.

A healthy immune system turns inflammation on and off as needed, calling on white blood cells and sending out proteins to fight infection. Vaccines harness that inflammatory response. But blood tests show that obese people and people with related metabolic risk factors such as high blood pressure and elevated blood sugar levels experience a state of chronic mild inflammation; the inflammation turns on and stays on.

Adipose tissue — or fat — in the belly, the liver and other organs is not inert; it contains specialized cells that send out molecules, like the hormone leptin, that scientists suspect induces this chronic state of inflammation. While the exact biological mechanisms are still being investigated, chronic inflammation seems to interfere with the immune response to vaccines, possibly subjecting obese people to preventable illnesses even after vaccination.

An effective vaccine fuels a controlled burn inside the body, searing into cellular memory a mock invasion that never truly happened.

Evidence that obese people have a blunted response to common vaccines was first observed in 1985 when obese hospital employees who received the hepatitis B vaccine showed a significant decline in protection 11 months later that was not observed in non-obese employees. The finding was replicated in a follow-up study that used longer needles to ensure the vaccine was injected into muscle and not fat.

Researchers found similar problems with the hepatitis A vaccine, and other studies have found significant declines in the antibody protection induced by tetanus and rabies vaccines in obese people.

“Obesity is a serious global problem, and the suboptimal vaccine-induced immune responses observed in the obese population cannot be ignored,” pleaded researchers from the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group in a 2015 study published in the journal Vaccine.

Vaccines also are known to be less effective in older adults, which is why those 65 and older receive a supercharged annual influenza vaccine that contains far more flu virus antigens to help juice up their immune response.

By contrast, the diminished protection of the obese population — both adults and children — has been largely ignored.

“I’m not entirely sure why vaccine efficacy in this population hasn’t been more well reported,” said Catherine Andersen, an assistant professor of biology at Fairfield University who studies obesity and metabolic diseases. “It’s a missed opportunity for greater public health intervention.”

In 2017, scientists at UNC-Chapel Hill provided a critical clue about the limitations of the influenza vaccine. In a paper published in the International Journal of Obesity, they showed for the first time that vaccinated obese adults were twice as likely as adults of a healthy weight to develop influenza or flu-like illness.

Curiously, they found that adults with obesity did produce a protective level of antibodies to the influenza vaccine, but they still responded poorly.

“That was the mystery,” said Chad Petit, an influenza virologist at the University of Alabama.

One hypothesis, Petit said, is that obesity may trigger a metabolic dysregulation of T cells, white blood cells critical to the immune response.

“It’s not insurmountable,” said Petit, who is researching COVID-19 in obese patients. “We can design better vaccines that might overcome this discrepancy.”

Historically, people with high BMIs often have been excluded from drug trials because they frequently have related chronic conditions that might mask the results. The clinical trials underway to test the safety and efficacy of a coronavirus vaccine do not have a BMI exclusion and will include people with obesity, said Dr. Larry Corey, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who is overseeing the phase 3 trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

Although trial coordinators are not specifically focused on obesity as a potential complication, Corey said, participants’ BMI will be documented and results evaluated.

Dr. Timothy Garvey, an endocrinologist and director of diabetes research at the University of Alabama, was among those who stressed that, despite the lingering questions, it is still safer for obese people to get vaccinated than not.

“The influenza vaccine still works in patients with obesity, but just not as well,” Garvey said. “We still want them to get vaccinated.”