Another Bear Throws In The Towel: “Canada’s Most Famous Investor” Closes Bearish Hedges After Huge Loss

Another bear throws in the towel.

Prem Watsa, the CEO of Fairfax Financial, and largely recognized as Canada’s most famous investor, is dropping his bearish stance on the markets. Watsa announced that he is covering his firm’s equity hedges after suffering a $1.1 billion net loss on its investments in Q4, and $1.2 billion for all of 2016.

The reason is a familiar one: Donald Trump.

“[Full-year] net losses on investments of $1,204 million were primarily as a result of fundamental changes in the U.S. in the fourth quarter that may bolster economic growth and business development in the future. Consequently, we removed all our defensive equity index hedges and reduced the duration of our bond portfolios to approximately one year,” Watsa said in a press release late Thursday.

 Net losses on investments of $1,204 million were primarily as a result of fundamental changes in the U.S. in the fourth quarter that may bolster economic growth and business development in the future. Consequently, we removed all our defensive equity index hedges and reduced the duration of our bond portfolios to approximately one year. Our investment actions resulted in our having cash and short term investments in excess of $10 billion at year-end,” said Prem Watsa, Chairman and Cfhief Executive Officer of Fairfax. “In the fourth quarter we announced our agreement to purchase Allied World for $4.9 billion, a transformative acquisition for Fairfax. We continue to be soundly financed, with year-end cash and marketable securities in the holding company approaching $1.4 billion.

“It was a painful quarter and year for Fairfax,” Watsa added during conference call on Friday, adding that “some of you might wonder and might actually think we are doing this at exactly the wrong time.”

Watsa also warned that “we might be in for a period of inflation… based on the latest numbers from the United States.” Actually, the real source of inflation would be China, not the US – an impulse which will soon fade – but he has the right idea.

As BNN reports, Fairfax’s decision to drop its defensive stance marks a swift reversal for Watsa. As recently as Nov. 3, when Fairfax announced its third-quarter earnings, Watsa declared his firm was sticking with its defensive strategy because he was “concerned about the financial markets and the economic outlook in this global deflationary environment.”

But now, suddenly, everything is ok and Fairfax said recent changes in the U.S. have “obviated the need for defensive equity hedges” and as such has closed out all its short positions in the Russell 2000, S&P 500 and TSX 60.

Despite closing his bearish hedges, Watsa joined JPM’s head quant Marko Kolanovic in saying he expects further volatility in the year ahead during the conference call, telling investors 20-30% fluctuations in stocks prices are “very much possible,” warning that quarterly income will fluctuate “wildly” and investment income “will only make sense in the long term”, but highlighting opportunity in volatile markets, so long as investors are extremely selective stock pickers.

He also highlighted the increased prospect for U.S. growth under the new Donald Trump White House, calling for a revival of the “animal spirits” in the U.S. economy.

“The thing about Fairfax and Prem Watsa is that you’ve almost got to regard him in a totally different kind of way,” said Michael Smedley, executive VP and chief investment officer at Morgan Meighen & Associates, in an interview with BNN. “He’s a kind of [Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren] Buffett. So I don’t know that it matters too much. It sort of feels like it’s a little bit late to be doing that [closing shorts], but then how could he have known?”

More from BNN:

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How Two Florida Hospitals Used the Power of the State to Stop Another From Being Built

North Port, Florida, has seen its population triple since the year 2000, and more people means more demand for medical care.

But when a healthcare provider, The Agency for Healthcare Administration, tried to build a hospital in the fast-growing suburb of Sarasota, two nearby hospitals joined forces—and used their influence in the state Department of Health—to block the effort.

It’s yet another example of how state-level Certificate of Necessity laws limit the supply of medical care to the advantage of major hospital chains, leaving patients with fewer options and forced to pay higher prices. These CON licensing processes are supposed to balance the interests of hospitals with the needs of the public, but in reality they are fraught with politics and allow special interests to effectively veto unwanted competition.

A new report at Watchdog.org highlights how two established and politically connected hospitals in the Sarasota area worked together to block the new hospital in North Port, despite widespread community support for the new facility.

“The city delivered approximately 20,000 letters of support for a hospital along with a willing hospital partner to [the Agency for Health Care Administration] and applied for a certificate of need,” Dr. Lee Gross, president of the Docs 4 Patient Care Foundation, a non-profit devoted to preserving patient choices and protecting health care freedom, told Watchdog.

After North Port’s application was initially approved, the surrounding hospitals appealed the decision, and North Port’s certificate of need for a hospital was rejected on appeal. Another application in 2016 also failed.

“That means patients in North Port must travel to Venice, Englewood, or Port Charlotte for the nearest hospital,” writes Erin Clark, Watchdog’s state reporter in Florida. “In many cases, North Port residents are looking at as much as an hour in the car to get to a hospital. With roads clogged by tourists and snowbirds, that can be even longer in the winter.”

The lack of a hospital in North Port isn’t good for anyone, but it’s lucrative for the nearby hospitals that have been able to block the unwanted competition.

The story is the same in other places. Two hospital chains want to build a new facility in Brunswick County, North Carolina, but the state has decided that the rapidly growing county only “needs” one new hospital. Even one new hospital is too much for an existing nearby hospital, which is opposing both applications.

More than 30 states have CON laws on the books, and they can have disastrous real world consequences, as Reason recently highlighted in an investigation that showed how Virginia’s CON laws played a role in the death of an infant.

Even as some states are wisely considering changes to CON laws to allow hospitals more freedom to expand and offer additional medical services, Florida seems to be moving in the opposite direction.

Watchdog reports that Florida subjected only 11 devices and services to CON requirements in 2011, but now has 17 CON restrictions—the state government gets to weigh-in whenever a new hospital wants to open, yes, but also whenever an existing hospital wants to buy a new CT scanner or add a neonatal intensive care unit. Research from the Mercatus Center, a free market think tank at George Mason University in Virginia, suggests that Floridians would have access to approximately 3,428 more hospital beds, 18 more hospitals that offer CT scans, and between five and 10 more hospitals offering MRI scans if the state didn’t use CON laws to restrict the supply of medical services.

Virginia lawmakers tried (for the third year in a row) to reform their state’s hospital licensing laws this year, but the bill failed to gain enough support.

A pair of bills to kill Florida’s CON laws have been introduced this year, Watchdog reports.

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Women’s March Promotes “A Day Without A Woman” General Strike: Platform Is Fiscal Insanity

Submitted by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

The Women’s March organizers are back at it. They now promote a general strike on the sexist theme of “A Day Without a Woman“.

A quick perusal of Women’s March tweets shows a cornucopia of thoughts and retweets by the organization on blacks, gays, transgenders, the EPA, Standing Rock, planned parenthood, living wages, mass immigration, and of course Donald Trump.

Do women, as a class, support all of those things?

The latest proposal, a general strike, comes across with more than a touch of irony and sexism.

womens-march

Come Together by Splitting in Half

In the spirit of coming together, let’s take the population and split it in half.

There are no details of the strike other than a date set for March 8.

I feel no different about this strike than any other wildcat strike: Fire everyone involved for not showing up to work.

I say this despite the fact I donate money to Planned Parenthood, the Nature Conservancy, and likely other causes the group seems to have latched on to.

The group also has causes I am 100% against. For example, public unions. The SEIU, the AFL-CIO, and AFSCME were partners on the March on Washington.

Heavy.Com listed over 200 partners.

Equal Pay, Equal Access

I believe in equal pay for equal work, as long as it is truly equal. But please do not tell me that lifting a pencil is equivalent to lifting a 50-pound bag of salt. 

Within that realm, I do believe many women have been underpaid.

Preemptive Defense

In a preemptive response to being called a sexist pig or worse, here’s a comment I made when I was 17 years old, and still believe today: “A women’s place is not in the home, it’s wherever she wants it to be.

Obvious exceptions include the men’s bathroom.

Guiding Principles

Let’s now discuss two bullet points from the Women’s March “Guiding Principles“.

  • We believe that all workers – including domestic and farm workers – must have the right to organize and fight for a living minimum wage, and that unions and other labor associations are critical to a healthy and thriving economy for all. Undocumented and migrant workers must be included in our labor protections, and we stand in solidarity with sex workers’ rights movements.
  • Rooted in the promise of America’s call for huddled masses yearning to breathe free, we believe in immigrant and refugee rights regardless of status or country of origin. … We recognize that the call to action to love our neighbor is not limited to the United States, because there is a global migration crisis. We believe migration is a human right and that no human being is illegal.

Unworkable Math

Migration is a human right, and so is a living wage.  WTF!?

Was everyone marching aware of this?

If the US were to take on all refugees and give them a guaranteed a living wage, 50 million refugees would come in a single year.

Anyone marching for those two Women’s March guiding principles does not understand math, at best.

In one month or less, (however long it would take for the first few million non-English speaking migrants to arrive, all seeking handouts), most of the marchers mindlessly preaching solidarity at the moment would quickly change their tune.

Even progressive Europe wants to shut down migration.

Please note that a Chatham House Poll Shows Only 20% of Europeans Disagree With the Statement “All Further Migration from Mainly Muslim Countries Should Be Stopped”

Milton Friedman on Free Immigration

Bit of Reality 

If you believe in the Women’s March platform, please play the video, then do the math. You will soon realize the Women’s March guiding principles are laced with more than a bit of fiscal insanity.

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Telecoms Surge As Softbank Reportedly Plans T-Mobile-Sprint Merger

Japanese telecom giant Softbank – which owns Sprint – is reportedly looking at T-Mobile US for a merger. This would be the second attempt after 2014’s approach was rebuffed by US regulators.

It appears the entire sector is bid on the news… even AT&T…

 

As Reuters details, SoftBank has not yet approached Deutsche Telekom to discuss any deal because the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has imposed strict anti-collusion rules that ban discussions between rivals during an ongoing auction of airwaves.

After the auction ends in April, the two parties are expected to begin negotiations, the sources told Reuters this week.

 

Two and a half years ago, SoftBank abandoned talks to acquire T-Mobile for Sprint amid opposition from U.S. antitrust regulators. That deal would have seen Deutsche Telekom retain a minority stake in T-Mobile, down from about 65 percent.

 

Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Tim Hoettges has said in recent months that the German company is no longer willing to part with T-Mobile, prompting SoftBank to explore a new strategy to achieve a potential combination, the people said.

 

SoftBank, which owns about 83 percent of Sprint, has been frustrated with its inability to grow significantly in the United States on its own, where both Sprint and T-Mobile have struggled to compete with Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc, the two largest U.S. carriers with much deeper pockets.

 

Investors have said a merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, ranked third and fourth respectively, would still face antitrust challenges, but made strategic sense as the industry moves to fifth-generation wireless technology. Carriers will need to spend billions of dollars to upgrade to 5G networks that promise to be 10 times to 100 times faster than current speeds.

 

While SoftBank is still open to discussing other options, it is now willing to surrender control of Sprint and retain a minority stake in a merger with T-Mobile, the sources said. They asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential.

 

SoftBank, Sprint, Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile all declined to comment.

“We may buy, we may sell. Maybe a simple merger, we may be dealing with T-Mobile, we may be dealing with totally different people, different company,” SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son told analysts on the company’s latest quarterly earnings call earlier this month, presumably hoping the Trump administration is more amenable than Obama’s.

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Jam with Sun Records on CMT: New at Reason

'Sun Records'Television critic Glenn Garvin digs deep into new CMT miniseries Sun Records, which explores the roots of rock ‘n’ roll:

“All rock ‘n’ roll came out of Sun Records!” declares Jerry Lee Lewis in the opening moments of CMT’s bopping new miniseries. Like a lot of things in Sun Records, it’s not quite true, but you’ll be too busy dancing to care. Sun Records rocks!

Filling out the early-1950s birth certificate of rock ‘n’ roll is no easy task. Did the water break in Chicago, where Chuck Berry was underlining his tone poems about the lives of an emerging demographic, the teenagers, with a jangling guitar? Or Philadelphia, where Bill Haley was punching up western swing music with machine-gun saxophone lines? Or West Texas, where Buddy Holly’s nerd glasses distracted parents from his ragged cries to their kids to rave on?

Memphis, perched just above the Mississippi Delta at a strategic spot where icy bluesmen and hillbilly shouters were bound to collide, has as good a claim as any of them. And Sam Phillips, owner of the corner-store Sun Records, if not the father of rock ‘n’ roll, was surely its midwife.

View this article.

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The biggest transformation story in the world

I’ve written before a number of times about the long laundry list of reasons why I base myself and most of my business operations in Chile.

I could go on forever about this, but in short the country presents an exceptional mix of business, investment, and lifestyle opportunities that are extremely difficult to find just about anywhere else in the world.

But people ask me a lot– if not Chile, where else?

Colombia is definitely on my short list. In fact if I weren’t in Chile, I’d almost certainly be either here in Colombia, or in Puerto Rico.

Colombia ticks many of the most important boxes.

The lifestyle here is just fantastic. In Medellin in particular, the eternal spring-like weather is hard to beat.

Colombia is also absurdly cheap. The cost of living is low, as is the price of residential real estate.

It’s also a lot of fun. From the city vibes to the laid back coffee culture, there’s something for everyone here, whether you’re a young digital nomad or retiree.

From an investment perspective, Colombia is emerging from decades of civil war, and that opens the door to some pretty extraordinary opportunities.

One of the biggest beneficiaries will be the country’s pitiful infrastructure, which is in desperate need of a major upgrade.

For years, the Colombian government never bothered building new roads and fixing the rail system because they figured the FARC would simply blow it all up.

Now with the peace locked in, massive new infrastructure projects have already begun.

The importance of this work cannot be overstated.

The United States invested heavily in its transportation infrastructure in the 1950s, building roads, dams, airports, power plants, etc.

It had an extraordinary impact on the economy– cheaper electricity, more efficient transportation for goods and services, etc. Trade flourished as a result.

I’ve seen the similar effects first hand around the world, from Panama in the early 2000s to Myanmar today.

The same thing can happen in Colombia.

With modern, reliable infrastructure, trade and transportation will soar, and the multiplier effect across the economy could be phenomenal.

Moreover, the peace process has brought back tourists and foreign investors in droves.

Last year foreign investment in Colombia was 2.5x higher than in 2006, ten years prior. Tourism is up 3x from 15-years ago.

And we’re just at the beginning of these trends.

The sheer volume of capital flowing into this country has the potential to supercharge economic growth.

Real estate will increase in value. Businesses will make more money and the stock market will appreciate. The currency will appreciate.

Entrepreneurs will find a treasure trove of opportunities here as well.

Several of the alumni from our annual Liberty & Entrepreneurship camp live here, and they’ve started some amazing businesses, in some cases achieving success by importing a business model that’s already working in North America.

I’m here in the country for a few days meeting with the Board of Directors of a company we invested in last year.

It’s a unique business– they’ll likely become the largest and most cost effective producer of medicinal-grade cannabis oil in the world, which is a $200 billion industry.

This industry didn’t even exist in Colombia two years ago. Now it does, thanks to recent legislation that has legalized production.

It’s a win/win.

Rather than continue to wage a senseless and expensive war on plants that decimated this country for decades, the new legislation ensures that everyone, from foreign investors to local farmers, can prosper.

It’s a great example of the emerging opportunities that make Colombia place so compelling.

Of course, it’s not all rainbows and buttercups here. There are still risks.

One of the things that makes Colombia difficult is its painful bureaucracy.

Even simple, mundane tasks can be enormously time consuming.

More importantly, the Colombian tax system is extremely cumbersome.

It’s not just the high level of taxes that you have to pay, but the total number of taxes.

For example, in addition to a corporate tax of 25%, many companies have to pay an “income equality tax” of 9%, plus another “industry and commerce” tax, and then a financial transactions tax.

Then there are sales taxes and consumption taxes. Property taxes and payroll taxes. Tons of paperwork to fill out.

It can be debilitating, and they know it.

Last year I met with Colombia’s former president Alvaro Uribe at his home here in Rio Negro, and he agreed with me that the system needs to change.

They’re starting to move in that direction; there’s currently legislation in the works to reform Colombia’s Byzantine tax code and break up some of the bureaucracy.

So it’s definitely the right trend.

When you look at the big picture, it’s pretty astonishing.

A decade ago this country was still in the midst of a bloody civil war and dominated by murderous narco-guerilla groups.

The only two legitimate industries that even existed here were flowers and coffee.

Now Colombia is teeming with tremendous opportunities and has an incredibly bright future.

As one of my colleagues remarked this morning, it’s the biggest transformation story in the world.

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Why The Wall Street Journal’s Failed Fake News Attack on PewDiePie May Be What Finally Brings The MSM Down

Interested in precious metals investing? Email us HERE 

 

 

 

 

Why The Wall Street Journal’s Failed Fake News Attack on PewDiePie May Be What Finally Brings The MSM Down

Written by Nathan McDonald (CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL)

 

 

What in the world is going on? What is happening? 2017 is already shaping up to be a year when the world is turned upside down, spun around and jettisoned into deep space.

 

 

The mainstream media, the “lamestream media”, or call them whatever you like is losing their grip on reality. The reason why this is happening is simply because they are losing their grip on the narrative and they can’t stand it.

 

 

For those of us in the gold and silver industry, we are way ahead of the curve. We have been smeared by the financial media for decades. GATA has been targeted as conspiracy theorist, even though just about everything they have said has been proven true over the course of time, as have many other “theories” by prominent names in the industry.

 

 

The tin foil hats have been taken off, thrown in the dustbin, and are never going back on. The mainstream media is losing the culture and information war, and 2017 is the year that it goes into overdrive.

 

 

Hilariously, they are the ones defeating themselves by and large. They continue to come out with fake news story after fake news story based on TRUE conspiracy theories that are easily debunked and dismissed by the mass public who simply won’t swallow their lies anymore.

 

 

Yet, are they backing down? Are they pulling back, reassessing their tactics and saying, “Wait a minute, this isn’t working, more and more people are waking up and changing ranks, less and less people are listening to and reading us!” No.

 

 

No, they certainly are not, as seen with the Wall Street Journal’s recent debacle over PewDiePie, the most famous and followed YouTuber in the world. This mess is now being dubbed #PewDieGate.

 

 

On the face, they are targeting him over some crude jokes they took out of context, which I have to agree, likely took things too far and were in bad taste. But what you need to understand is the real, true motive behind their actions, which is now blowing up magnificently in their faces as the YouTube community rallies behind Felix Kjellberg and defends him almost entirely.

 

 

PewDiePie simply isn’t taking this lying down and is destroying their fake news narrative they are putting out and it is having a monstrous side effect. It is “red pilling” (waking up) his gargantuan audience. They are seeing through the lies and not buying it.

 

 

The real reason why they are attacking him has nothing to do with virtue, which I believe is important, but has everything to do with the power he holds. His influence is far reaching, arguably even more so than ANYONE at the Wall Street Journal. Felix receives tens of millions of views per week, and he is just a dude with a webcam.

 

 

You have to note – to the MSM, this is unacceptable and is just another example of how the old “guardians” of the news are dying off and becoming extinct. The new, alternative media is here, and they can’t stand it. It cuts into their influence, their control, and more importantly their profits.

 

 

As a veteran of the precious metals industry, and therefore a seasoned pro in the span class=”gmail-gingersoftwaremark”>hate that the MSM emits towards our industry, I say the following: too bad, so sad, your time has passed.

 

Questions or comments about this article? Leave your thoughts HERE.

 

 

 

 

Why The Wall Street Journal’s Failed Fake News Attack on PewDiePie May Be What Finally Brings The MSM Down

Written by Nathan McDonald (CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL)

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How to Use, Trade, Store and Invest in Bitcoin Digital Assets – Step by Step, Part 1

I will teach novices and experts alike how to fit Bitcoin into an investment portfolio safely and with the optimum risk-adjusted potential – along with step-by-step guides, instructions and tutorials.

This first part of the series starts with the basics, obtaining and managing your bitcoin.

What is Bitcoin?

First off, we need to know what Bitcoin is since most media pundits and even experienecd financial types truly do not know. Bitcoin (capital “B”) is a protocol driven network (very similar to that other popular protocol-based network, the Internet). This network is a blank tapestry upon which smart and creative actors can paint a cornucopia of applications (just like applications on the Internet). An early example from the Internet is email. It’s now ubquitous, but back in the early 90s very few people knew about it or used it. Fast forward today, and not only does everybody use and know about it, it is accompanied by a cornucopia of considerably richer applications, ie. Facebook, YouTube, Netflix, etc.

The Bitcoin network’s first and most popular application to date is bitcoin (with a lower case “b”). Bitcoin (that’s “b”itcoin – with a lower case “b”) is a digitial currency applictions that uses the Bitcoin blockchain and network as its transportation rails. It is a digital asset that can be a derivative of a physical asset or embedded in a physcial device. Of course, that begs the question, aren’t nearly all stocks, bonds and currencies digital assets. Short answer is yes. So, we are focusing on the next generation of digital assets, those that exist on the blockchain – the Bitcoin blockchain in particular. 

 

Acquisition, Part 1 – Preparing to Safely Recieve Bitcoin  

Before you get you bitcoin you need to keep in mind that as a digital asset, it is susceptible to all of the maladies that befall other things digital, with the primary malady being hacking. The primary cause of hacks are lax password practice and malware. These are generally not diffeicult to proof agaisnt – at least in regards to lower level hackers.

  1. Makes sure you have a clean machine: Use AVG, Norton Anti-virus, Kapersky, etc. to purge malware and viruses off of your computer/phone/tablet. Don’t put your money and assets on a machine that has bad actors waiting in the background to take it.
  2. Use a password manager: The second biggest whole in most people’s computing habits is weak passwords. It’s actually easy to determine if your password is too weak. If you can remember your password, then chances are someone else can as well. Any password that can be memorized probably isn’t complex enough. Password managers store passwords for you, encrypt them and use them on their respective properties for you. This way, you can hundreds of personalized, complex passwords, a unique one for each site or app – yet only have to remember one password.

Acquisition, Part 2 – Choosing an Appropriate Wallet

A wallet is sotware designed to hold and manage you digital assets. You DON’T want a wallet that neuters the primary advantage that your new bitcoin offers you. That advantage is autonomy…

In a nutshell, autonomy is the ability to maintain control over your stuff, vs heteronomy, where you are forced to depend on a 3rd party to manage your assets. Bitcoin is fully autonomous. That’s it’s unique strength. Why should you give that up? You shouldn’t! That means no hosted wallets, at all. A hosted walled is a wallet that its on someone else’s servers to handle you assets. One of the most popular hosted wallets is the typical bank checking account. That wallet entails taking your assets (ie. digital dollars) and sending it to a 3rd party, thus relinquishing your possession, ownerhsip and control of said assets. This has been done historically because most have not had a choice – other than stuffing dollars under the bed. 

Bitcoin alllows you to always maintain:

  1. possession – you always have your assets or have them locked in the blockchain under your control (sending them somewhere else negates this);
  2. ownerhsip –  our assets should always be yours, if you send them off to a hosted wallet or exchange, it becomes theirs and not yours;
  3. and control of your assets – you should always be the one to decide what happens to your assets, and when. This means no one can confiscate, freeze, tamper with and in no way frustrate your access to your assets.

 Examples of heteronomous wallets:

  • Coinbase
  • Nearly all exchanges, particularly the largest entities
    • Bitfinex, GDAX, etc.

Examples of autonomous or semi-autonomous wallets:

  • All wallets that store the assets locally, small sampling (I don’t necessarily endorse any of these)
      • Bitcoin Core
      • Simple Bitcoin Wallet
      • MultiBit HD
      • Armory
      • Dark wallet
      • Bitgo
      • Airbitz (which does store you keys on their centralized server, but does so on an encrypted basis)

 Bitcoin is a bearer asset, just like the dollar bill. Think, would you rather keep your dollars in your pocket or in someone else’s pocket. That’s the difference between these two groups of wallet examples.

Remember, any heteronomous wallet can be seized, hacked or compromised despite your efforts to keep your assets safe – simply because you have relinquished possession and control. The larger the grouping of assets, the larger the prize becomes in targeting said wallet.

Acquisition, Part 3 – How Do I Get Bitcoin?

Actually, it’s just as simple as asking someone to give it to you. I don’t say this in jest. You can get bitcoin in exchange for products and services. If you don’t know anyybody, then pursue http://ift.tt/PdA2lf. This site is old school, P2P. It connects bitcoin buyers and sellers to deal with each other directly. Of course, you will end up payign a premium for your coins if you go through this channel, for there is less liquidity but it does work. These are the prices as of me typing this article…

Compare the prices to a mid level exchange such as Coinbase’s GDAX

 This also brings us back to the autonomy vs heteronomy discussion. Use exchanges as gateways only. Use them to convert fiat (government and faith backed money) into digital asses and vice versa or to trade assets when you can’t find your own counterparties. DO NOT use them as storage facilities. They can and do get hacked. You are not compensated in any way by relinquishing your possession, ownerhsip or control of your assets to these entiteis, yet you do assume materially additional risk. Prudent investors ensure they are overcompensated for risks. Foolish investors are always under compensated or uncompensated for risks. Be a prudent investor!

The next installment of this series will go much more indepth in the investment in and trading of bitcoin, risks vs. rewards and how to integrate bitcoin into ANY portfolio. This will appeal to retail investors, professional traders and institutions alike.

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Just 5 Charts: From “Hope” To “Nope”

The Catalyst forced-buying is over; President Trump's honeymoon is nearing an end; so what happens next?

There is an 'odd one out' in the world…

The last few weeks have been unprecedented…

 

Bottom-up, Hope is becoming 'stretched'…

 

The 'Hard Data' is not backing that hope…

 

And where is the growth expectation that everything is hinging on?

 

Still, Buy The Fucking All-Time-High, right?

US stocks right now are selling at the HIGHEST price-to-sales ratio in at least 15 years, and far higher than it was before the 2008 crash.

Similarly, the cyclically-adjusted Price/Earnings ratio of the US stock market is now at its highest level since the 2000 crash, and higher than it was before the 2008 crash.

Looking at other metrics like Enterprise Value to EBITDA (a measure of a company’s core business operating cashflow), US stocks are also at their most expensive levels since the 2000 crash.

Certainly, US stocks could continue to become more expensive. Perhaps they go up forever?

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Deported for Giving a Handjob?

On September 1, 2016, “Sunny” Kimnam gave a massage and a hand-job to an undercover police informant. Since that day, she has been incarcerated, and faces likely deportation to Korea.

Kimnam’s story is far from unique. Tucked in tales of “human trafficking investigations” and massage-parlor prostitution busts across the U.S., you’ll find that these efforts are almost always aided or led by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents. Sometimes it’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), sometimes the Enforcement and Removal Operations unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE). Since January 1, 2017, DHS has been involved in at least a dozen massage-parlor raids, arresting at least 26 people. Twenty-three of these arrests were women, all Asian and mostly in their 50s.

None were found to be involved in human trafficking, but they were arrested on charges such as prostitution, promoting prostitution, and giving an unlicensed massage. And for those who are immigrants—whether in the country legally or not—it could be just the beginning.

Arrest… But First, Ejaculation

Since at least 2012, Ace Acupressure Spa operated out of the small mountain town of Larksville, Pennsylvania, tucked between a laundromat and a used-car lot in part of town that looks like it has seen better days. Online ads for Ace tout deep tissue massage, care for “frozen shoulder,” and remedies for head, back, and neck pain provided by a professional Asian massage therapist. But the placement of these ads (in “adult” and sensual body-rub sections of ad sites) and the images they contain (wholesome-looking but marginally clothed young women) leave little question that the spa’s appeal might not rest solely in employees’ masseuse skills.

Larksville sits in Lucerne County, a place suggested by Newsweek to hold the key to Donald Trump’s election. It’s one of those oft-mythologized Midwestern areas that broke for Barack Obama in 2012 but turned to Trump—by 20 points—in the past election. Newsweek called it “a county of ‘Firewood for Sale’ signs and volunteer fire departments [and] beautiful views from the tops of mountains.” But it’s also a place where manufacturing jobs have long been disappearing, more than 20 percent of families with children live in poverty, and the Hispanic population in some areas has skyrocketed in recent years. Immigration enforcement was big on the minds of residents that Newsweek talked to post-election.

The employees of Ace Accupressure—”Sunny” Kimnam and at least two other Korean women—were part of a small minority of Asians and Asian-Americans in Lucerne County—just about 1 percent, according to U.S. census data, and just 0.28 percent in Larksville proper. With the stigma already associated with Asian massage parlors, it’s not surprising that Ace attracted local law-enforcement attention. But what’s strange (or should be) in this small-time, small-town vice investigation is its orchestration by DHS officials.

Ultimately, just two women were arrested in the operation, Sunny and 55-year-old K. Suk, both Korean nationals. On September 1, Suk had greeted the undercover police informant at the door, led him to a massage room, and collected $60, the price of a standard massage, before leaving the room. The masseuse, Sunny, went on to explain that it would be $60 more “for topless,” according to the state’s Affadavit for Probable Cause, “and made a hand motion for a hand job.”

After starting with a regular massage, Sunny “began to massage the [informant’s] penis until he ejaculated,” the police affidavit states. He “cleaned himself up and was then escorted out.”

About three hours later, police showed up with a search warrant. They found unused condoms and cash, including the cash paid by the informant earlier, and arrested Sunny and Suk, later determining that both had previous convictions for prostitution and both were involved in Ace Accupressure’s management. From that day on, Sunny and Suk would remain prisoners in county jail until pleading guilty, in January, to one count each of misdemeanor promoting prostitution.

Immigration’s Morality Clause

For U.S. citizens, getting arrested on a misdemeanor charge might not pose an existential threat. But for the women targeted by DHS spa stings, it can upend their whole lives, and it doesn’t necessarily matter whether they’re actually engaged in prostitution. For those who have entered the country illegally, any encounter with authorities is fraught with deportation danger. Others may be here on valid tourist or student visas but not permitted to work, which means that even giving standard massages to pick up extra cash could be an official immigration infraction, thus triggering their removal. And even legal permanent residents can be arrested, fined, and jailed for up to 30 days if they don’t have their green card with them physically when federal agents show up.

Nor do those swept up in ICE’s vice stings necessarily have to be immigration scofflaws to face consequences such as deportation. Even legal permanent residents—i.e. “green card” holders—can be “removed” if found to be sex workers. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, legal immigrants who have not been naturalized as citizens can become deportable for a variety of reasons, including managing or supervising a prostitution business, transporting someone for the purpose of prostitution, or committing crimes of “moral turpitude”—a nebulous concept defined at various points in immigration law as “conduct that is considered contrary to community standards of justice, honesty or good morals” or “an act or behavior that gravely violates the sentiment or accepted standard of the community.”

While federal officials don’t release data on how many people are deported for prostitution offenses or other crimes of moral turpitude, local news stories yield all sorts of stories suggesting that for some unlucky women, wiping a cop’s cum from their massage-table may be one of the last things they do outside bars in this country. And even when DHS isn’t directly involved in an initial sting, immigrant inmates may be held on immigration detainers by police who have agreements with federal authorities.

A 2016 sting on a massage parlor in Macomb County, Michigan, that led to the arrest of five Chinese women on prostitution charges has already led to the deportation of two of the women. Two others are still in custody, awaiting trial. The fifth woman, 50-year-old Meijuan Yu, just recently plead guilty to offering prostitution and was sentenced to two years probation—deferred so that Homeland Security could immediately take her into custody and get started on deporting her back to China.

On February 9, 2017, Homeland Security Investigations teamed up with two county sheriff’s offices to raid Donah’s Massage Therapy in Winnie, Texas, as part of an undercover investigation they’d been plotting since December. Three women—Song Ja Hyun, 59, Shunyu Quan, 53, and Ying Yu Jin, 53—were arrested and charged with misdemeanor prostitution; Jin was also charged with aggravated promoting prostitution, a felony. As of earlier this week, Hyun and Jin were being held in Chambers County Jail on ICE detainers, according to ABC affiliate 12 News Now.

In Amarillo, Texas, local police and Homeland Security worked “for months” investigating prostitution at the local Touch Spa. The fruits of their efforts? One 60-year-old woman arrested for prostitution in early February. “What we do with Homeland Security on this is standby and wait for them to give us information on what’s going on and for them to tell us, hey, we’re going to go in and make an arrest at this point,” Amarillo Police Officer Jeb Hilton told local News Channel 10.

As for Sunny and Kim, the latter must pay $341 in court fees and is still awaiting sentencing otherwise. Sunny was assessed $513.50 in court fees, and sentenced by Judge Joseph F. Sklarosky at the Lucerne County Courthouse on February 8. As of last week, she remained in the local county jail, awaiting transfer to ICE custody at the nearby York County immigrant detention facility.

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