The Worrisome 1999 Vibe To Markets

The Worrisome 1999 Vibe To Markets

Authored by Tobias Levkovich, Chief US Equity Strategy at Citi since 2001, op-ed via The Financial Times,

For equity markets, the parallels between current conditions and those of 1999 are striking and worrisome.

The investor mood in markets has been in ebullient territory since last November, when high-efficacy vaccine news lifted spirits as a budding light at the end of the tragic pandemic tunnel.

That is the signal from Citigroup’s gauge of investor sentiment – the Panic/Euphoria Model – which takes into account factors including the amount of investor positions anticipating a fall in stocks, the level of funds borrowed to purchase securities and commodity price futures.

The last time we saw such an upbeat zeitgeist that did not coincide with an immediate equity market correction was in 1999 when the dotcom bubble was in full bloom.

Typically in the past, when our gauge is at such high levels, it would indicate a 100 per cent probability of lower share prices over the next 12 months. This is despite the current powerful US economic growth expectations buoyed by fiscal stimulus and business reopening.

The notion that “this time is different” can be noted in various institutional client conversations. A pliant US Federal Reserve, massive consumer savings, substantial free cash flow generation, powerful government spending, money on the sidelines with negative real bond yields are the fodder that allegedly can sustain the rally even after a gain of nearly 90 per cent from 2020 lows.

A significant and recent recovery of equity inflows also is boosting shares due to ‘fomo’ (fear of missing out) for professional asset allocators: ‘fomu” (fear of meaningfully underperforming). As such there is an element of trend-following, or “chasing the tape”.

Yet, the US household sector’s ownership of equities as a per cent of their financial assets is hovering at 50-year highs and, as a result, it is difficult to argue that Americans are underinvested.

Additionally, our late-March poll of money managers showed median cash as a proportion of assets under management had dipped to 3.5 per cent from 10.0 per cent a year earlier, and is below the historical average of 5.0 per cent. Thus, it appears that most investors are all in already.

While bottom-up consensus estimates are calling for 20 per cent earnings growth for the S&P 500 companies to $174 per share this year, many think upside surprises are likely given predicted rapid GDP growth and cost efficiency initiatives undertaken by management teams during Covid-related shutdowns. Furthermore, we believe that stocks are baking in growth of around 30 per cent to something closer to $190 per share, leaving little room for disappointment.

Our “lead margin indicator” on profitability — based on surveys by trade group NFIB on the ability to raise prices relative to rising input costs — implies that there could be trouble ahead. 

Additionally, the feeling is palpable that every development is being treated as good news even though higher corporate taxes could bite into the earnings expansion thesis.

While determining the catalyst for changes in market direction and timing them can prove tricky, vulnerabilities exist and therefore chasing the rally does not appear to be prudent now.

Investors will also need to take into account the rotation away from so-called growth companies towards more undervalued stocks. Secular growth companies account for as much as 55 per cent of the market capitalisation of the S&P 500 index while value stocks in the cyclical and financial sectors comprise less than 30 per cent. Hence, the overall index could slip some (up to 10 per cent) because of the weight differential, but stock pickers still do well.  Note that in the first quarter this year, almost 33 per cent of the S&P 500 constituents beat the market by more than 10 per cent, suggesting it is not just a few names that can make or break a portfolio. Moreover, in the fourth quarter of last year, 37 per cent did the same. In this context, it is less about the index and more about the stocks within it.

Given this less-than-compelling backdrop, we contend that one may be best off looking at companies that have pricing power (to offset labour or input expense escalation) as well as those names that have strong balance sheets and offer better than average dividend yields.

There is also a procyclical bias to our investing approach. We particularly favour areas encompassing capital goods, financials and leisure. In the latter, explosive demand should evolve as inoculations allow people to move about more freely and indulge in the activities they have sorely missed.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/23/2021 – 16:20

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3exTmNY Tyler Durden

The Cops Trashed Her House. She Says She Was Targeted for Retaliation.


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A Virginia attorney says police destroyed her unlocked front door and ransacked her house based on a bogus search warrant, all as an act of retaliation.

In a civil rights lawsuit filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Roanoke resident Cathy Reynolds alleges several officers in the Roanoke City Police Department obtained a search warrant on false information, despite her giving consent to a search, and then tore her house apart while a huge crowd watched.

“I was humiliated,” Reynolds says. “I was embarrassed, hurt. I felt like I was treated like a common criminal. I’m still wrapping my head around it right now, to be honest, still trying to sort through why it happened, and I don’t know if I have words for it all to this day.”

Three days prior to the raid, Reynolds’ stepson was acquitted of murder charges. Reynolds represented her stepson in the case. The lawsuit says the acquittal “sparked outrage in the Roanoke law enforcement community.”

On September 29, 2019, several officers from the Roanoke City Police Department showed up at Reynolds’ front door looking for Ozmeik Clements, who had an arrest warrant for an unrelated murder.

Reynolds says she told them Clements wasn’t there, and had never heard of him. She says she eventually gave the officers consent to search her house, but instead, they left. According to the lawsuit, Reynolds “specifically informed officers that her front door was unlocked and would remain unlocked should they desire to enter her home to look for Clements.”

About two hours later, a mix of local police and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents arrived, cordoned off the street, and brought in a SWAT team and armored vehicle.

According to a search warrant issued at 6 p.m. that evening, an ATF agent had called a Roanoke police officer to tell him that a confidential informant had seen Clements hanging out with Reynolds’ stepson at her house several times over the past few days.

Reynolds’ lawsuit alleges the phone call and tip were fabricated. The officer “knew that no tip had been received from a confidential informant, but provided this information in his affidavit for the purpose of misleading the magistrate in order to secure a search warrant of Ms. Reynolds’ home.”

By this time, a large crowd, including local news outlets, had gathered to watch. Police then used an entry tool attached to the front of the armored vehicle to rip the unlocked screen door of Reynolds’ house out of its frame.

Local TV news footage and Facebook videos from neighbors show the door being destroyed (at around 39:00 in the video below).

The lawsuit dryly notes that SWAT officers then entered her home “by turning the doorknob of the storm door which remained on Ms. Reynolds’ home, still unlocked, and pushing the door open in the manner a door is designed to operate.”

Reynolds says officers then went room to room through her house, emptying drawers and dressers.

“My daughter has an armoire in her room, and they opened that and took all the clothes out of it and left them on the floor,” Reynolds says. “The house was undergoing renovation prior to all of this going on, so we still had some of the installation in one of the closets in my kitchen. They ripped all of that stuff out, left it on the floor.”

The lawsuit says police flipped mattresses and poured open cans of soda onto the floor.

No sign of Clements, though. Reynolds says the police left without an apology.

Several days later, Clements turned himself in. He pleaded guilty to murder this March.

As for Reynolds, she says she had trouble finding a contractor to repair the damage to her house, and on top of that, her homeowners insurance wouldn’t cover it, leaving her to foot the bill for the mess.

Reynolds’ suit seeks damages for violating her Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as her First Amendment rights, exercised in the defense of her stepson, and 14th Amendment rights against discrimination based on race.

Reason has reported for years on destructive, dangerous police raids based on sloppy search warrants. The Chicago Police Department drew national condemnation last year after body camera footage was released showing police handcuffing and humiliating a naked woman during a wrong-door raid. 

Another federal civil rights lawsuit filed last August alleges Chicago police ransacked a woman’s house and held a grandmother and 4-year-old at gunpoint based on a sloppy search warrant.

The city of Roanoke did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Stocks & Bonds Shrug Off Biden Battering, Dollar & Cryptos Tumble

Stocks & Bonds Shrug Off Biden Battering, Dollar & Cryptos Tumble

Today’s sudden panic-bid at the US cash open, dragged stocks back to unchanged-ish on the week (Small Caps outperformed, ending up around 1% on the week after being down 4% by Tuesday close)…

Recovering all of yesterday’s Biden Tax Plan losses, until the late-day tumble…

So, aside from paying away over 50% of your capital gains to fund gawd-knows-what social justice agenda, on the week, you get nothing too… and like it…

Nasdaq’s trading patterns this week were somewhat comical…

Healthcare stocks outperformed on the week as Energy stocks lagged…

Source: Bloomberg

Growth and Value stocks were unable to distinguish themselves this week, ramping back to unch today…

Source: Bloomberg

Treasuries ended the week practically unchanged after roundtripping up and down around 4bps either way on the week…

Source: Bloomberg

10Y has traded in a very tight range the last three days…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar dived again this week – to its lowest since Feb – and we note an interesting pattern at the EU open where the dollar was dumped every day… This was the 3rd weekly drop in a row, the longest such losing streak since December

Source: Bloomberg

The Turkish Lira tumbled back near record lows after Biden announced he would call Armenian massacre a genocide…

Source: Bloomberg

Cryptos were down for the second week in a row with Ripple worst and Ethereum the bad horse in the glue factory…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin broke back below $50k and made all the headlines but we note that this is the 4th such plunge the leading cryptocurrency has suffered in the last 8 months and each previous one has seen dip-buyers move in rapidly…

Source: Bloomberg

But by the end of the day, bitcoin was back above $50k…

Source: Bloomberg

Ether outperformed on the week, reaching a new record high before today’s tumble, but relative to bitcoin, it’s at its highest since Auguest 2018…

Source: Bloomberg

Crude was down on the week as copper rebounded, with PMs flat, after taking a hit today…

Gold futures failed to top $1800…

WTI ended the week on a higher note but down overall, closing around $62…

 

Finally, after this morning’s surge in PMIs, it is now clear that once again the world is awash in “hope” as ‘soft’ survey data is dramatically decoupling from ‘hard’ real economic data…

Source: Bloomberg

Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/23/2021 – 16:00

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3tIiyYe Tyler Durden

Race and Mass Shootings

I often urge my students to always read, quote, and cite original sources, rather than relying even on seemingly trustworthy intermediate sources (such as law review articles or court opinions). Not everyone has the luxury of time needed to do that, I realize. But if you can do it, you should.

I was reminded of this when I saw this passage from one of the top law journals in the country (emphasis added):

2. Disparate Rates of Crime Commission?

The second possible explanation for racial disparity in past-arrest rates is a difference in the underlying incidence of crime. This possibility arises because crime is the product of complex social and economic determinants that, in a race-and class-stratified society, may also correlate with demographic traits. Where that is so, the incidence of a given type of crime may vary among demographic groups. A number of recent studies have found, for instance, that contemporary white and Hispanic college students use illicit drugs at significantly higher rates than African American and Asian students. White men have committed the vast majority of mass shootings in the United States during the last thirty years. [Footnote: Number of Mass Shootings in the United States between 1982 and November 2018, by Shooter’s Race and Ethnicity, STATISTA, https://ift.tt/3aCoM4n [https://perma.cc/238C-PVZR].]

But when one goes to the source, one sees that it reports 107 mass shootings, for 103 of which the shooter’s race was indicated. But of those 103, 60 were white: 58%, hardly a “vast majority.” And if there is a “disparate rate[] of crime commission” here, it shows that non-Hispanic white shooters were underrepresented, though not by much: Non-Hispanic whites were roughly 70% of the population at large at the midpoint of the date range (2000). (Men, of course, were vastly overrepresented, as they are for basically all violent crimes, but white men were not, compared to men of other groups.) See this post for more.

I’m pretty sure this was an honest mistake, both by the author and the cite-checkers. Perhaps it might have been influenced in some measure by ideological blind-spots, of the sort to which all of us are vulnerable; but such mistakes happen to everyone (doubtless including me, in some of my articles).

That, though, is the point: Even seemingly credible sources, such as a serious scholar in a serious academic journal, make errors. If you’re writing on the subject and relying on the source, don’t let their errors become your errors: Read, quote, and check the original source, going as far back in the chain of citations as is feasible.

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Biden Informs Incensed Erdogan Of Armenian Genocide Recognition In Friday Phone Call

Biden Informs Incensed Erdogan Of Armenian Genocide Recognition In Friday Phone Call

On Friday President Biden informed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call that the White House will formally recognize the Armenian genocide on Saturday.

Biden is expected to for the first time specifically invoke the word “genocide” in the Saturday commemoration of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, which will make him the first ever US president to do so. 

Via AP

This has been among the most controversial topics in modern Turkish society, and throughout past decades, which is subject in some cases to criminal prosecution by the Turkish state. And it remains a Turkish ‘red line’ for which all the country’s recent modern leaders have reacted fiercely at the mere suggestion, and which only thirty countries in the world officially acknowledge. The Untied States will now the be the 31st, and likely more will follow the example of the Biden move. 

A no doubt stung and angry Turkish leader had this statement following the tense call, which simply acknowledged the two leaders spoke on a “constructive bilateral relationship with expanded areas of cooperation and effective management of disagreements” – yet without recognizing the contentious Armenian issue. 

Given this will see US-Turkey relations spiral further downward, the Turkish lira plunged to its weakest point since November on the news Friday afternoon…

As Bloomberg notes, the lira fell as much as 1% to 8.4050 per dollar Friday afternoon, which is “the weakest level since March 30, after report that President Biden tells his Turkish counterpart Erdogan that he will call Armenian Massacre a genocide.”

Congressional leaders as well as Armenian-Americans have for decades lobbied for greater recognition of the event which was carried out by the Young Turk government during the World War I period. It saw the the mass systematic killing of over one million Armenians in Asia Minor from 1915-1917 at the end of the Ottoman Empire. Hundreds of thousands of Greek and Assyrian Christians were also slaughtered in the name of achieving ‘Turkification’.  However, the term itself has for years been banned in Turkey’s parliament and results in swift crackdowns and legal measures for any journalist wishing to write about it within the country. 

Turkey’s longtime pressure campaign has worked in many Western countries. For example, the Trump administration had blocked a 2019 bipartisan Congressional effort to pass legislation recognizing the Armenian genocide. Thus Biden’s recognition will mark a major break from all predecessors, who didn’t want to rile relations with the powerful NATO ally. 

Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/23/2021 – 15:45

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3eveN1M Tyler Durden

Race and Mass Shootings

I often urge my students to always read, quote, and cite original sources, rather than relying even on seemingly trustworthy intermediate sources (such as law review articles or court opinions). Not everyone has the luxury of time needed to do that, I realize. But if you can do it, you should.

I was reminded of this when I saw this passage from one of the top law journals in the country (emphasis added):

2. Disparate Rates of Crime Commission?

The second possible explanation for racial disparity in past-arrest rates is a difference in the underlying incidence of crime. This possibility arises because crime is the product of complex social and economic determinants that, in a race-and class-stratified society, may also correlate with demographic traits. Where that is so, the incidence of a given type of crime may vary among demographic groups. A number of recent studies have found, for instance, that contemporary white and Hispanic college students use illicit drugs at significantly higher rates than African American and Asian students. White men have committed the vast majority of mass shootings in the United States during the last thirty years. [Footnote: Number of Mass Shootings in the United States between 1982 and November 2018, by Shooter’s Race and Ethnicity, STATISTA, https://ift.tt/3aCoM4n [https://perma.cc/238C-PVZR].]

But when one goes to the source, one sees that it reports 107 mass shootings, for 103 of which the shooter’s race was indicated. But of those 103, 60 were white: 58%, hardly a “vast majority.” And if there is a “disparate rate[] of crime commission” here, it shows that non-Hispanic white shooters were underrepresented, though not by much: Non-Hispanic whites were roughly 70% of the population at large at the midpoint of the date range (2000). (Men, of course, were vastly overrepresented, as they are for basically all violent crimes, but white men were not, compared to men of other groups.) See this post for more.

I’m pretty sure this was an honest mistake, both by the author and the cite-checkers. Perhaps it might have been influenced in some measure by ideological blind-spots, of the sort to which all of us are vulnerable; but such mistakes happen to everyone (doubtless including me, in some of my articles).

That, though, is the point: Even seemingly credible sources, such as a serious scholar in a serious academic journal, make errors. If you’re writing on the subject and relying on the source, don’t let their errors become your errors: Read, quote, and check the original source, going as far back in the chain of citations as is feasible.

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21 Remarkable Stats For ’21

21 Remarkable Stats For ’21

In his latest Flow Show report, Bank of America’s Chief Investment Strategist, Michael Hartnett has compiled 21 remarkable statistics for 2021, which we republish below.

1 billion: COVID-19 vaccines will be administered as of 24th April 2021

3 million: global deaths from COVID-19.

60 million: global deaths from all causes in 2019; global births 140 million.

14 million: US job gains since May’20, follows 22 million lost during COVID-19 pandemic.

$30 trillion: global policy stimulus in ’20 & ’21 ($17tn fiscal + $13tn monetary).

201: central bank interest rate cuts since Feb’20 (989 since GFC).

$1 billion: central banks purchased $1bn of financial assets every hour since Feb’20 ($21tn since GFC).

$0.4 trillion: QE in ‘22, down from $3.4tn in ’21 & $8.5tn in ’20.

$78,591: US national debt per taxpayer in ’25 (debt to equal $27tn).

1%: global market cap of Bitcoin & other cryptocurrencies ($2.3tn) as % of global equities ($112tn) and bonds ($118tn).

$4.5 trillion: issuance of US Treasuries in ’21 set to easily exceed GDP of Germany.

Q1’21: worst first quarter return ever for 30-year Treasury, worst for IG bonds since 1980, worst for gold since 1982.

$51 trillion: gain in global equity market cap since Mar’20 lows (fastest/largest rally all-time).

$8.2 trillion: market cap of Apple ($2.2tn) + Microsoft ($1.9tn) + Amazon ($1.7tn) + Google ($1.5tn) + Facebook ($0.9tn) = all Emerging Markets ($8.2tn, population 6 billion).

1557: # of stocks in MSCI ACWI index (3042 constituents) currently in bear market (20% below their all-time high).

29%: US bank stocks record 29% above 200dma

$602 billion: inflow to global stocks past 5 months exceeds inflow of prior 12 years ($452bn).

64.3%: BofA private client allocation to equities at record highs

64.7: ISM manufacturing PMI highest since 1984.

59%: YoY gain in BAC credit card data (barometer for US consumer spending – week ended April 10th).

52%: YoY gain in US used car prices & US house prices +17% YoY highest ever …both lead barometers for US inflation.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/23/2021 – 15:30

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2QuPHs7 Tyler Durden

6 Rioters Arrested For Defacing Central Park Monument In NYC’s Latest “Peaceful” Protest

6 Rioters Arrested For Defacing Central Park Monument In NYC’s Latest “Peaceful” Protest

As far-left activists work to provoke as much public outrage as possible over the killing in Columbus, Ohio, of teenager Ma’Khia Bryant, the latest police-involved killing to make national news, a relatively small but determined crowd of rioters attacked NYC’s Columbus Circle Thursday night, defacing monuments while chanting “f**k the police.”

Ultimately, six people were arrested, including one protester who tried to flee in a cab, only for it to be surrounded by police. The arrests all took place near the USS Maine National Monument in Columbus Circle, which was defaced with graffiti reading “ACAB” – ie “all cops are bastards” – and “f**k 12” which essentially means “f**k the police.”

In one magical one point, they group of about 100 protesters stopped outside the New York Times building in Times Square to shout “F**k the New York Times!”

“Stonewall was a riot,” was also sprayed in pink font, according to the New York Post report on the riot. Video shared to social media showed a handful of protesters climbing the vandalized monument, which sits at the entrace to Central Park, waving flags and shouting slogans.

According to the NY Post, the crowd grew out of a weekly gathering of queer activists in Greenwich Village. The group, known as “the Stonewall Protests” bills itself as a “black queer and trans activists centered on the acknowledgment of all black life.” according to an Instagram post. The protest was billed as “the March on Broadway” according to social media posts.

The NYPD condemned the incident in a series of social media posts condemning the vandalism and exclaiming that defacing statues is not an act of “protest”.

Videos also showed protests pushing and shoving police as a swarm of officers attempted to make arrests. Some of the demonstrators shouted at them, “Disgrace!” and “What is wrong with you?”

Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/23/2021 – 15:16

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3dJBn7O Tyler Durden

The Surge in Drug-Related Fatalities During the Pandemic Highlights the Root Causes of Addiction


drug-kit-michael-longmire-unsplash

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded more drug-related deaths in 2019 than ever before, and the latest preliminary data indicate that record was broken again in 2020—by a lot. The CDC estimates that more than 90,000 Americans died during the 12-month period ending in September 2020, up 29 percent from the previous 12-month period. The COVID-19 epidemic probably had a lot to do with that striking jump, an explanation that highlights the faulty premises underlying the government’s response to the “opioid crisis.”

These drug-related deaths mainly involve opioids, overwhelmingly heroin and illicit fentanyl. “Synthetic opioids other than methadone,” the category that includes fentanyl and its analogs, accounted for 73 percent of opioid-related deaths in 2019, up from 14 percent in 2010. “Natural and semisynthetic opioids,” the category that includes commonly prescribed analgesics such as hydrocodone and oxycodone, were involved in 24 percent of those deaths, but half of those cases also involved heroin or fentanyl.

According to the CDC WONDER database, three-quarters of the deaths involving pain pills in 2019 also involved illicit opioids, alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, or methamphetamine. Pain pills by themselves (i.e., not combined with other drugs) accounted for less than 6 percent of opioid-related deaths and no more 4 percent of all drug-related deaths.

Yet President Joe Biden still wants to “stop overprescribing while improving access to effective and needed pain management,” which is code for continuing to discourage and restrict opioid prescriptions. That strategy already has deprived bona fide patients of the medication they need while driving nonmedical users toward black-market substitutes that are far more dangerous because their potency is highly variable and unpredictable. The results can be seen in the ever-rising number of opioid-related deaths, a trend that not only continued but accelerated after the government succeeded in driving down prescriptions for pain medication.

Deaths involving pain pills rose more than fivefold between 1999 and 2017, then fell by 18 percent as of 2019. Meanwhile, deaths involving the category of drugs that includes fentanyl rose 50-fold, and total opioid-related deaths sextupled. That does not seem like a good tradeoff.

The attempt to reduce opioid-related deaths by making pain pills harder to obtain failed because it was based on the misconception that exposure to these drugs causes addiction. That is clearly not true.

Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) indicate that about 2 percent of people who had used prescription opioids in the previous year (for medical or nonmedical purposes) might qualify for a diagnosis of “substance use disorder,” a broad category of drug-related problems that includes what used to be called “substance abuse” and “substance dependence.” By comparison, according to the latest NSDUH results, about 8 percent of past-year drinkers experienced an “alcohol use disorder.”

Exposure to opioids obviously is not a sufficient explanation for opioid addiction, just as exposure to alcohol is not a sufficient explanation for alcoholism. What other factors are important? The experience with the COVID-19 pandemic suggests a few.

While opioid-related deaths were already rising, The New York Times notes, “the pandemic unquestionably exacerbated the trend, which grew much worse last spring: The biggest jump in overdose deaths took place in April and May, when fear and stress were rampant, job losses were multiplying and the strictest lockdown measures were in effect.” The Times cites a study by Brendan Saloner, an addiction researcher at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, who found that many drug users had increased their consumption during the pandemic. They also were more likely to take drugs on their own, which increases the risk of a fatal outcome, and most reported consuming mixtures of drugs, “another red flag.”

In other words, pandemic-related isolation, psychological stress, and economic difficulty help explain last year’s surge in drug-related deaths. The pandemic magnified the problems that make drug use more attractive, but it did not create them. Reducing opioid prescriptions does nothing to address those problems; it merely encourages people who experience them to use other, more dangerous drugs.

Contrary to the conventional narrative, which blames the “opioid crisis” on an oversupply of pain pills, “drug-related deaths have been rising since the late 1950s,” as a 2019 report on “deaths of despair” from the Joint Economic Committee noted. The increase in opioid-related fatalities is the latest manifestation of that long-term trend. When it comes to drug-related “deaths of despair,” the root problem is the despair, not the drugs.

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Wokeness Reaches The Final Frontier: NASA Shifts Focus To Space ‘Diversity’

Wokeness Reaches The Final Frontier: NASA Shifts Focus To Space ‘Diversity’

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

Are you ready for this week’s absurdity?

Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.

Drug overdose deaths surged during lockdowns

The rate of US drug overdose deaths surged during the pandemic lockdowns, accounting for up to nearly 20,000 additional deaths.

The CDC measures the number of US drug overdose deaths over the previous year. In September of 2019, 68,757 people had died of a drug overdose in the previous year.

By September 2020, the number of deaths in the previous year rose to 87,203.

The biggest leap in deaths (+3,643) occurred between April and May 2020— just after lockdowns began in most of the US.

The CDC also notes that these numbers may be “Underreported due to incomplete data.” In other words, it’s likely that thousands more drug overdose deaths were ‘erroneously’ counted as COVID-19 deaths…

Click here to read the data from the CDC.

NASA shifts goal from space exploration to space diversity

NASA has been a driving force of scientific innovation and advancement ever since its creation in the 1950s.

After more than six decades of space exploration, you’d think NASA would be an organization free of petty politics and idiotic logic.

As an agency dedicated to the future, for example, one might imagine that NASA’s top priority would be hiring the brightest, most talented people they can find, irrespective of irrelevant characteristics like skin color, gender, or sexual orientation.

Sadly this is not the case.

Science is once again taking a back seat with the agency’s “Artemis Project,” whose goal is “to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.”

Again, it seems like NASA wouldn’t notice or care what’s swinging (or not swinging) between someone’s legs.

If the entire crew of the next voyage happens to consist exclusively of people who identify as seedless watermelons, because those are the most qualified individuals for the mission, then it shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t even make the news.

But instead they’re going to spend $86 billion of taxpayer money to show the world how woke they are.

Click here to read the full story.

China creates “Rumor Refutation Platform”

A new app and hotline allow Chinese citizens to more easily report their neighbors to the government for having “mistaken opinions.”

The “Rumor Refutation Platform” allows users to report rumors and false information which go contradict the Chinese Communist Party. The party will determine what is truth in categories such as science, history, and of course, current political affairs.

China believes this will, “improve the ability of readers to identify rumors and false information.”

Officials “hope that most internet users will play an active role in supervising society…and enthusiastically report harmful information.”

Harmful information includes “distorting, slandering and denying Party, national, and military history. . . in an attempt to confuse people’s thinking.”

In other words, it’s anything that goes against the official narrative.

How jealous the US twitter mob must be.

Click here to read China’s official press release.

Covid Hypocrites: Michigan Governor and two officials caught traveling

The Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, has been one of the strictest governors in enforcing lockdowns.

She still tells residents to only travel out of absolute necessity.

But she decided it was fine for her to travel to Florida before she was vaccinated to see her father.

She has a great excuse— he’s ill. Too bad that was no excuse for the peasants.

Even worse, two of Whitmer’s top administration officials traveled recently for vacations.

One was the director of the Department of Health and Human Services— the very department issuing the warnings not to travel!

Another took a spring trip to the state of Florida, while Whitmer specifically encouraged people NOT to go to Florida for spring break.

I guess those rules don’t apply to important bureaucrats.

Click here to read the full story.

Cheese is racist

At a local council meeting in the UK discussing food choices in schools, a member of Extinction Rebellion environmental group said:

“Arguably, there is a racist element to serving dairy too much because 65 per cent of the world’s population are lactose intolerant, many from the BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) community.”

She has started a petition to offer only plant based meals at council run events, and introduce at least two meat-free school lunch days per week in all public schools.

That will apparently be better for the planet, and less racist.

But it’s also about the pandemic: “intensive animal farming poses a significant threat for the development of new pandemics.”

So clearly a ban on meat in the name of Covid-19 is appropriate.

Click here to read the full story.

Teacher who raised money for charity facing $16,000 tax bill

No good deed goes unpunished when it comes to the government.

A Connecticut teacher used Facebook to raise over $40,000 for things like rental assistance and groceries for needy families in his community affected by Covid-19.

Then in January, he received a 1099 form from Facebook stating that he could owe as much as $16,000 in taxes for collecting the charity money.

Facebook tells users that they report to the government when over $20,000 is raised. And without being a registered tax-exempt charity, the government will want a cut.

The teacher has been forced to hire a local tax attorney, and says he expects to pay some amount of taxes on the money, but hopefully not the full $16,000.

Let’s make sure poor people are dependent on the government, and punish good Samaritans who take matters into their own hands.

Click here to read the full story.

“Nextdoor launches anti-racism notification to prevent discriminatory language”

The website Nextdoor.com is used by community members to share information about their neighborhood.

Now the app is launching tools to help people sensor themselves if they accidentally try to post something racist, like, “All lives matter.”

The company’s announcement explains:

“The new anti-racism notification detects certain phrases such as “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter,” and prompts the author to consider editing their post or comment before it goes live.”

“All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter content is explicitly prohibited on Nextdoor when used to undermine racial equality or the Black Lives Matter movement.”

Click here to read the full blog post.

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On another note… We think gold could DOUBLE and silver could increase by up to 5 TIMES in the next few years. That’s why we published a new, 50-page long Ultimate Guide on Gold & Silver that you can download here.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/23/2021 – 15:01

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3es6zrp Tyler Durden