Tag: finance

EURUSD is sliding in early Asian trading after Greece’s government is reportedly planning to forego its next bailout payment (of around EUR7bn) if no debt relief is offered by creditors (thus leaving it likely to default on its next round of repayments).

Bloomberg reports, Greece’s government preparing to possibly go without next bailout payment if creditors don’t agree on debt relief for the country according to German newspaper Bild (without saying where it obtained the information).

While probably just another negotiating step, it is weighing on EURUSD.

via http://ift.tt/2s8lAG2 Tyler Durden

Authored by Eric Peters via EricPetersAutos.com,

Naturally, the solution to the problem of police abusing their authority is to hold them less accountable when they do exactly that.

Leave it to “law and order” Republicans such as Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Ted Poe to evolve such logic. They have put forth the Black and Blue – whoops, Back the Blue – act (see here) which would make it harder to sue run-amok law enforcers in civil court to recover damages resulting from actions undeniably illegal – while at the same time imposing more severe penalties on Mundanes who affront the holy person of a law enforcer than those imposed on Mundanes who do exactly the same thing.

As regards the first:

So long as the victim – er, perp – was “engaged in felonies or crimes of violence” (how this it to be determined in the heat of the moment remains unclear) the law enforcer administering the wood shampoo or “directory assistance” (beating administered with a phone book in between the flesh and he nightstick, to keep the bruising down) or some other such informal technique, will be immunized from subsequent civil suit by his victim, provided the abuse suffered occurred while the enforcer was acting in a “judicial capacity.”

Breathtaking.

It is obvious – or should be – that this only encourage more lawless “street justice” by the enforcers of the law. It will also encourage more generous application of the law – i.e., of bogus/trumped-up charges (such as felony “resisting”) in the immediate aftermath of an otherwise legally unjustifiable beatdown, to immunize the beaters from the legal consequences of said beatdown.

This GOP act of cop suckage is even better than a throw-away stiletto  – which dirty cops used to keep on hand to leave adjacent to the bloodied corpse of their victim, so as to justify his aeration.

That was at least illegal.

Now, they won’t have to bother.

 

What these Republican brownshirts – and that term isn’t too strong; if anything, it is too soft – propose to do is legalize objectively criminal conduct, the conduct to be justified by eructing that the victim was a “law breaker” and so – presumably – deserved to have more than the legally prescribed justice meted out to him and – critically – before he has been duly convicted of anything at all.

Under the proposed Black and Blue lawlessness, law enforcement is to be given discretion to administer street justice, according to its lights – and the victim of this is to be rendered legally helpless. No damages are to be awarded for any violations of law that occurred during “any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in the judicial capacity of that officer.”

Hut!Hut! Hut! You will respect my authoritah!

 

At the same time, any assault upon the person of a law enforcer by a Mundane becomes a separate federal crime with a mandatory two-to-five-year stint in federal prison. Twenty if the accused was in possession of a weapon during the incident.

The legal definition of “assault” can be a trivial as jabbing a finger onto someone else’s chest. Or – in the case of law enforcement – defending oneself against an assault by a law enforcer. Attempt to ward off a wood shampoo –  a reflex action that is almost impossible to suppress, and – to well-practiced cries of “stop resisting!” – you have just purchased a two-to-five-year ticket to the federal prison of their choice.

It goes without saying that a law enforcer who commits exactly the same offense – assuming he is even charged – will suffer nothing of the sort.

Cannot suffer anything of the sort, because the the law specifies more lenient treatment for assault-by-cop upon a Mundane.

And the lights just got a little dimmer.

One hates to trot out the Nazis, but they seem never to go away. They merely change uniforms. In the Third Reich, to strike an officer of the Reich was an enormous crime, far worse – and treated far more severely – than the treatment meted out to officers of the Reich who abused citizens of the Reich. For which acts, the officers of the Reich were usually rewarded.

As is often the case, the words of the brutal but never truckling Reichsmarschall Herman Goring are worth recalling.

But first, it is worth recalling that Goring was Nazi Germany’s chief law enforcer for a time. Head of the Prussian State Police, creator of the first German concentration camps and founder of the Gestapo, the acronym standing for geheim staats polizei, or secret state police. He was hanged – well, supposed to have been hanged – after the judgment at Nuremburg precisely for his activities as Nazi Germany’s Top Cop.

And here is what Goring had to say about his law enforcers, when the question of excesses arose:

“Shoot first and inquire afterwards; if you make mistakes, I will protect you. Every bullet which leaves the barrel of a police pistol is my bullet. If one calls this murder, then I have murdered. I ordered all this. I back it up. I assume the responsibility and I am not afraid to do so.”

One can imagine Cornyn or similar “law and order” Republican – including the current orange-tinctured buffoon – saying pretty much the same.

What the hell happened to us?

Well, to some of us.

There has always been a jackbooted strain in American politics, the bloody lust of the Red Queen to “off with their heads.” But until recently, it was backwater  – along with things like handling snakes, jabbering in “tongues” and sipping strychnine.

But these and worse barbarisms wax mainstream.

Rather than hold those who enforce the law to at least the same standard expected of the rest of us – if not a higher standard – they are to be held to a lesser standard. We, meanwhile, had best not so much as raise our voices to these dispensers of “justice.”

Remarkable.

And it’s only taken 70 years for us to get from there to here.

via http://ift.tt/2rySX7V Tyler Durden

Last summer, when the Syrian conflict was near its peak under the Obama administration, China unexpectedly warned it was ready to enter the proxy war when in a stunning announcement, Xinhua reported that Beijing was prepared to side with Syria – and Russia – and against the US-led alliance, and that Xi and Assad had agreed that the Chinese military will have closer ties with Syria and provide humanitarian aid to the civil war torn nation.

A high-ranking People’s Liberation Army officer also said that the training of Syrian personnel by Chinese instructors has also been discussed: the Director of the Office for International Military Cooperation of China’s Central Military Commission, Guan Youfei, arrived in Damascus on Tuesday for talks with Syrian Defense Minister Fahad Jassim al-Freij, Xinhua added. Guan said China had consistently played a positive role in pushing for a political resolution in Syria. “China and Syria’s militaries have a traditionally friendly relationship, and China’s military is willing to keep strengthening exchanges and cooperation with Syria’s military,” Xinhua quoted Guan.

Rear Admiral Guan Youfei

As Reuters also added at the time, China tends to leave Middle Eastern diplomacy to the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, namely the United States, Britain, France and Russia, while relying on the region for oil supplies. But over the past two years, China has been trying to get more involved, including sending envoys to help push for a diplomatic resolution to the violence there and hosting Syrian government and opposition figures.

Fast forward to today when the Syria proxy war is once again at an impasse – especially after today’s warning by Macron that France would get involved after another “chemical attack” –  and once again it may be up to China to be the decisive tiebreaker.

According to both Sputnik and the Daily Sabah, Moscow is once again hoping “for China’s help in solving the Syrian crisis and restoring the country: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said Monday.

“Our cooperation with China on Syria at various international venues is unprecedented. We blocked six attempts to pass anti-Syrian resolutions in the U.N. Security Council,” Morgulov said at “Russia and China: Taking on a New Quality of Bilateral Relations” international conference.

The Russian deputy foreign minister added that Russia values Beijing’s position on the Syrian crisis, and hopes that, “the Chinese partners will continue their efforts to promote a political settlement.”

“Together we call for a peaceful and political-diplomatic solution to conflicts, without double standards, unilateral action or attempts at ousting regimes. Our approaches coincide, among other things, on the uncompromising fight against terrorism,” Morgulov said.

To be sure, Russia and China are already largely alligned at the United Nations, where the two nations have repeatedly vetoed Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions against the Assad regime. Moscow has long-standing links to the Assad regime and is its key ally, while China has an established policy of non-intervention in other countries’ affairs, although as noted above that appeared to change in 2016.

Needless to say, should China break from its policy of direct foreign non-intervention, and should it indeed side with Syria, and Russia, as it hinted it would do last year, the shape of middle eastern geopolitics would change overnight. And now we await the official, or unofficial, response from China to Russia’s “indecent” diplomatic proposal for a joint effort in Syria against the US-led alliance.

via http://ift.tt/2qvI2rd Tyler Durden

Authored by Mark St.Cyr,

On this holiday weekend known here in the U.S. as Memorial Day, I would like to make a slight turn in the narrative that many give little to no attention too, yet, is one of the most important underlying principles or fundamentals which helped shape, lift, mold, sustain, and create one of the world’s greatest economic powerhouses bar none.

That “turn” is in remembering: The liberty to create, and own, one’s own business.

As true as holding the principles of liberty close to one’s heart is near-and-dear to every American. What gets forgotten all too easily is what enabled many of those immigrants that fled here during its rocky beginnings, and still continues today, to shape and mold a better life for themselves and their families. That other foundational principle is this:

The ability to create, and pursue, a business idea that could, or would, allow them to acquire economic liberty based on their own self-expression made manifest via perseverance, and sometimes a little luck. And with that – create a foundation which could either be passed on, or sold, by their heirs, giving them possibly one further step-up, or ahead, onto firmer ground to take another. And maybe another, and another, and so forth.

Only through the pursuit of business was the true circumvention of any stigmatized political or economic class, ethnicity, and more so truly held in one’s own hands. Self-actualization, the pursuit of economic riches, the ability to ingratiated oneself by their own means to not only claim to be part of the American experiment, but to actually be American regardless of where one began, either from abroad or born within – was not inconsequential.

Being an American businessman, regardless of ethnicity, political class, economic class, religious persuasion, gender, or anything else, in many ways was the embodiment for something to be cherished and honored by the owner.

Being the sole-owner of one’s own economic future was either unattainable, or unavailable anywhere else.

It embodied everything the American principle was created for and rose upon. Without it – we would have just been another ruled monarchy; socialist; communist; caste; (fill-in-the-blank) or combination of all system under a different name with better topography. It’s the only thing that separates the U.S. from all others that came before and since.

(Note: The gender neutral term “business-person” just doesn’t flow and only emboldens the gender-sensitivity-police and I’m personally sick-and-tired of them. Women with true business fortitude understand there’s no derogatory slight in the term “businessman.” Period. For those wanting more on my thoughts about women in business see my article “The Bull On Bossy” for more insight.)

The term, as well as structure, that has allowed the U.S. to grow as to become such an economic powerhouse is called: Free Market Capitalism (FMC.) And its foundational starting point is the sole-person who decides to either create their own product, or work with (and yes even for) others who are in need of their talent. Then, decide where, and on what agreed upon price commerce takes place. (Examples of such are Family Dr’s., accountants, bakers, tattoo artists, waiters, waitresses, plumbers, electricians, salespeople, and far too many more to list. And yes, even bankers.)

Again, at its foundational point is the solitary person who decides to take matters and consequences under their own purview and either rise, or fall, on their own business prowess upon the battlefield known as business or commerce.

What is taking shape today, and what’s worse – growing – is anything but.

What most have no understanding of, let alone idea, that’s taking place today is the circumvention of Free Market Capitalism, and in its place, the insertion of its hybrid, ever-morphing, evil twin. e.g, Cronyism, aka Crony Capitalism (CC.)

I could go on for days explaining why this insertion of CC into the FMC model is not only egregious, but dangerous. However, all one has to do is look at the current economic landscape with an eye for truth – and its perversions and consequences can be seen everywhere.

It’s like a visible, metastasized cancer encroaching upon economic liberty. i.e., Forget about the “golden egg” its wrapping its hands firmly around the goose’s neck in broad daylight. And never mind those not bothering to look. What’s worse – is those who can’t turn their eyes away seem to think there’s anything wrong with this picture! e.g., Ivory Towered academics, main stream business/financial outlets, et al.

A few years ago I penned the following article, “It’s The Entrepreneur That Saves An Economy – Not The Fed” and in it I made the following point. To wit:

“The problem that’s taking place right now within the economy is exactly what you get when you take a free market economy and try to impose a command and control blanket over it: you smother it.

 

The Ivory Tower academics have no real understanding of what “free” actually entails when it’s expressed through the economy as a whole. The ability to build a better mouse trap, or, solve a previously unsolvable riddle all while charging a price two parties can both bear, profit by, and have satisfaction in the transaction does not, nor ever will take place within a command and control base. Ever.

 

Free markets allow for competition to find equilibrium as to provide and deliver a service or good someone will pay a fair price for. And yes, even for such an item such as a stock price.

 

Command and control fosters either the “State” to be the only provider, or, a fostered crony capitalism styled arrangement which is nothing more than another iteration of some communist system in prettier buildings wearing better suits. Harsh? Yes. Off point? Hardly. And that’s the problem.

 

The great capital formation experiment and enterprise known as Wall Street and its Exchanges, once the envy of the world, has now been transformed into nothing more than a rigged casino where Fed fueled “hot money” front runs orders in ways so egregious to the principal of fair play; walking into “a den of thieves” would be considered a step up.”

Here’s a bit more from that article directed squarely at the Fed. (or central banks in general) and its interventionist policies. At the time my accusations were excoriated as derisive, uneducated, (fill-in-the-blank.) However, with that said I’ll let you be the judge as to just whom seems to be “uneducated” when it comes to economic theory and practices. Again, to wit:

“Business people know and understand this intuitively. Ivory Tower academics, intellectuals, and economists are not only clueless, it’s their wanton indignation of these facts that move their policies beyond destructive right into outright dangerous territory for any free market based economy.

 

The only one’s that can benefit from such a business environment are those that gorge and reward themselves via the availability current Fed. policy fosters. And the name for it is: crony capitalism.

 

Whether the Fed. wants to admit or not, that’s what their current policy and communication fosters and bolsters which is the antithesis of what the Fed. itself states as its primary objective; for there is no wage growth, no true job creation, no sustainable capital formations, and not stable markets.

 

The Fed. is killing the economy – not helping it. And as de facto proof I point to their own measurements of achievement. The markets, the labor participation rate, small business formation, wage growth, and on, and on. It’s all pathetic.

 

The Fed’s QE program has adulterated valuations so much it will be a wonder if we ever get back to a more normalized set of business values let alone their valuations and away from this calamity.

 

There are entrepreneurs along with CEO’s of companies who are quite literally chomping at the bit to try new or improved innovations – yet don’t dare for either their competitors are being kept alive via cheap money afforded them under current ZIRP policy, or worse, don’t dare hire or spend for who knows if the Fed. will raise out of the blue or announce some new program that runs anathema to basic sound monetary policies.

 

You don’t invest in cap-ex or hiring for the long-term if you don’t know what the rules might be tomorrow never-mind next year. Period.”

If you gauge the current economy via the abomination now known as “markets” (which the Fed. clearly does) this “success” is all but missing its own “Mission Accomplished” banner. However, if you measure the economy via its true measurements of health like jobs, small business creation, cap-ex, and more? You go from banner to tombstone. Yet – the epitaph reads the same as “banner.” It only depends on perspective as to what the words mean. Think about it.

To make my point even further on just how far economic “thinking” has gone off the rails. I was reminded of it by none other than Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook™ via his latest speech or commencement address.

Nowhere in my recent memory has the idea of small business, along with what it means for the economic health (e.g. Free market Capitalism) been so avoided, so adulterated, so perverted in its messaging and delivery than what I witnessed when viewing Mark Zuckerberg’s address to this year’s graduating class at Harvard University.

In my opinion: It was the epitome of everything going wrong in business today. I also viewed it as one of the most tone-deaf, quasi-political speeches ever given at a commencement speech via someone who should be the embodiment of this time in history’s most celebrated and espousing Free Market Capitalism entrepreneurs.

It was so dreadful, and full of what I view as socialistic laced mumbo-jumbo, I couldn’t listen to much more than a few minutes. Again, via my interpretations; it was agonizingly void of anything resembling free market business principles.

Only a speech delivered by Hilary Clinton compared for substance and delivery. And that’s being kind.

This so-called “address” was anything but “uplifting” for those who are supposedly about to enter the work force and help create the next wave of dynamism for economic growth for the U.S. and subsequently the global business environment.

No, instead, after listening about such themes as “guaranteed universal basic income”, “we are the world”, “save the planet”, and more; it would make perfect sense after receiving their diplomas they simply returned home to their parents basements and waited for the world to offer them a corner office, 7 figure starting salary, trophy-spouse, 2.2 children (gender to be determined) and world peace. Just make sure you’re logged into FB as you wait. Because that’s how Mark gets paid, even if you don’t.

It seemed when listening that in a Zuckerberg vision of the world: Don’t pull on your own bootstraps. Wait! Sooner or later they’ll be able to offer you Utopia. And you’ll thank him for it. Just remember to vote “Like” to show your support behind him if, or when, he decides to run for office. Because for what that speech lacked in spoken words of business ideals, it was laced with more unspoken terms of the political which could not be ignored even when trying. i.e., I couldn’t help but think at any moment I would hear something to the effect of: “And be on the lookout for Zuckerberg for (fill in the blank) in 20??”

Compare Mark’s recent with the one delivered in 2005 by the late Steve Jobs at Stanford University. The two could not be more striking in both tone, as well as delivery. The difference is utterly remarkable and is clearly visible:

One is a businessman explaining via his own words and experiences how one may go about changing the world for the better via FMC principles and ideas eschewing anything to do with the political. The other? The antithesis of the former, delivering a speech more in-tune as if it were written by Mrs. Clinton’s former speech writers.

Don’t take my word for it, view both of them yourself and come to your own conclusions. The differences couldn’t be more striking.

The only way forward for this nation (e.g., U.S.) is for the rebirth of quest and zeal for small business America. It is what built this nation, continues to support it (although it is being waged war upon by crony capitalist benefactors and devotees daily) and is the only way to reassert and preserve the foundations of the Free Market Capital system.

What we are experiencing today is an adulterated, ever-growing, Frankenstein perversion of those once pristine principles that is growing ever-the-more unstable with each passing day and is showing signs that it’s about to break loose of its creators (The Federal Reserve) control at any time.

The current “market” is nothing more than a bull looking for a china shop. Ironically, it may be China that subsequently puts the “bull” into a place which no one “thinks”, let alone, believes.

For those of the newly minted “graduate class” let me offer you an example of just how cronyism works and is prevalent at the very core of what many of you use and treat almost as sacrosanct for entrepreneurialism in today’s business and “market” climate. e.g., Social media, and the companies that fuel it.

If you are one of the few that believed (or still does) Snapchat™ was possibly the next Facebook and invested in its stock, only to see your profits or initial investment go “poof” much like its core product? And yet – have watched simultaneously as FB shares rise and think there must be some “business” reason as to why this happens or “business acumen” you don’t fully yet comprehend? Hint: Welcome to central bank manipulation for picking winners and losers 101.

As I’ve stated too many times to count over the years: This is why having (or picking) a company with a stock price which has a central bankers “bullseye” on it is the only thing that matters. And guess what – Facebook does and Snapchat doesn’t. Want proof. Fair point. To wit:

“Swiss National Bank’s U.S. Stock Holdings Hit A Record $63.4 Billion”

The real issue here as I’ve reiterated time, and time again, is this:

When your investment loses value – you lose money and net worth. When a central banks “investment” loses value – they just print more, and buy more, allowing the pretense of “health” to perpetuate inducing even more to buy alongside them furthering the charade of a “market” based price or demand. Rinse, repeat.

Hint: Facebook is on that “Bullseye” list. Along with a few other notables. Snapchat? See latest stock price for clues. And that’s just the SNB. You still have the Fed’s proxies, ECB, BoJ, PBoC and their proxies buying who knows what else.

Is it any wonder why small businesses are having such a hard time competing with these new-found business behemoths of today? For others, its having to compete with companies which are clearly “over.” e.g., See Sears™ for clues and why it has been able to stay open via cheap capital facilitated via Fed. policies unavailable to small businesses.

So with that all said: Long live small business! It may be badly banged up, battered, and bruised. But it’s far from dead just yet. We only need to remember its importance too all of us. Our nations health, and very survival depends on it. It’s a too often overlooked part of our fundamental liberties. Brave men and women of all stripes have, do, and hopefully will, continue to fight for its preservation along with our other sacred liberties.

To all of them: past, present, and future – you have my sincere gratitude. Both military, as well as business people.

via http://ift.tt/2rgVnqA Tyler Durden

Defense Secretary James Mattis appeared on “Face the Nation” with John Dickerson on Sunday and repeated his warning that an armed conflict with North Korea would be “catastrophic” for US allies in the region, and that it "would be probably the worst kind of fighting" because of the North's proximity to the South Korean capital, Seoul.

 

“A conflict in North Korea, John, would be probably the worst kind of fighting in most people's lifetimes. Why do I say this? The North Korean regime has hundreds of artillery cannons and rocket launchers within range of one of the most densely populated cities on earth, which is the capital of South Korea."

Mattis told a Pentagon news conference earlier this month that a war with the north would be “tragic on an unbelievable scale," suggesting that the Trump administration would seek to exhaust all alternatives before resorting to military action. 

“We are working with the international community to deal with this issue. This regime is a threat to the region, to Japan, to South Korea. And in the event of war, they would bring danger to China and to Russia as well. But the bottom line is it would be a catastrophic war if this turns into a combat if we're not able to resolve this situation through diplomatic means.”

Mattis affirms that the North is a threat to the US, but he stops short of drawing a line in the sand when he tells Dickerson he’d prefer not to answer a question about what the North could do, if anything, to provoke a response from the US. The president, Mattis said, needs “political maneuver room on the issue.”

“It is a direct threat to the United States. They have been very clear in their rhetoric we don't have to wait until they have an intercont- intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear weapon on it to say that now it's manifested completely.”

"Yeah, I'd prefer not to answer that question, John. The president needs political maneuver room on this issue. We– we do not draw red lines unless we intend to carry them out. We've made very clear that we're willing to work with China and we believe China has tried to be helpful in this regard.”

North Korea launched another missile into the Sea of Japan Sunday evening, a few hours after Mattis appeared on the show, and shortly after the Pentagon said it is preparing to test its capability to shoot down an intercontinental-range missile next week.

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Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Sunday condemned a vivid example of reverse racism, when she called for a black feminist festival in the French capital to be banned, saying it was “prohibited to white people.” The first edition of the Nyansapo Festival, due to run from July 28 to 30 at a cultural center in Paris, bills itself as “an event rooted in blackfeminism, activism, and on (a) European scale.”

According to AFP, four-fifths of the festival area will be set aside as a “non-mixed” space “for black women,” according to its website in French. Another space will be a “non-mixed” area “for black people” regardless of gender, while a final space would be “open to all” although as the French media explains, the English version of the site does uses the word “reserved” instead of “non-mixed.”

The announcement prompted an angry response from Hidalgo, a socialist, who said on Twitter that she “firmly condemned” the organisation “of this event, ‘prohibited to white people‘.”

“I am asking for this festival to be banned,” Hidalgo said, adding she also reserved the right “to prosecute the organisers for discrimination.”

She wasn’t the only one: French antiracist and antisemitism organisations strongly condemned the festival. SOS Racisme described the event as “a mistake, even an abomination, because it wallows in ethnic separation, whereas anti-racism is a movement which seeks to go beyond race.” LICRA, the International League against Racism and Antisemitism, said “Rosa Parks would be turning in her grave,” a reference to the American civil rights icon.

Attention to the festival was first brought up by Wallerand de Saint-Just, the regional head of Marine Le Pen’s National Front party, who challenged Hidalgo on Friday to explain how the city was putting on an event “promoting a concept that is blatantly racist and anti-republican.”

As for the response by the organizers of the clearly racist event, it was just as one would expect: instead of taking responsibility they blamed “fake news” and the “far right”:

The cultural centre La Generale, where the event was to be hosted, and the collective Mwasi, which organised the event, said Sunday they were the “target of a disinformation campaign and of ‘fake news’ orchestrated by the foulest far right.”

 

“We are saddened to see certain antiracist associations letting themselves be manipulated like this,” according to a statement posted on the Generale website.

Because when all else fails, and one has no arguments, what does one do? Blame “fake news” and/or the “alt-right”, which at least in this case means those who point out the facts.

The Nuansapo is not the first prominent French reverse-racist event: a “decolonisation summer camp” in the northeastern French city of Reims elicited similar outrage last year, as it billed itself as a “training seminar on antiracism” reserved for victims of “institutional racism” or “racialised” minorities — excluding by default white people.

AFP adds that police prefect Michel Delpuech said in a statement that police had not been advised about the event by Sunday evening. But, Delpuech added, the police “would ensure the rigorous compliance of the laws, values, and principles of the republic”.

In a subsequent update reported by Bloomberg, Hidalgo said her “firm”
discussion with organizers had yielded a satisfactory clarification: the
parts of the festival held on property would be open to everyone and
“non-mixed workshops will be held elsewhere, in a strictly private
setting.” Although even this prompted confusion: MWASI, the Afro-feminist collective sponsoring the three-day
event, responded to the mayor’s latest comments by saying it hadn’t
changed the festival program “an inch.“

Meanwhile, last week several women attempting to stage a “burkini party” were detained in Cannes after a ban against the full-body beachwear favored by some Muslim women was upheld in a fresh decree.

via http://ift.tt/2rdRnFm Tyler Durden

Authored by Paul Sperry, op-ed via NYPost.com,

New revelations have surfaced that the Obama administration abused intelligence during the election by launching a massive domestic spy campaign that included snooping on Trump officials.

The irony is mind-boggling: Targeting political opposition is long a technique of police states like Russia, which Team Obama has loudly condemned for allegedly using its own intelligence agencies to hack into our election.

The revelations, as well as testimony this week from former Obama intel officials, show the extent to which the Obama administration politicized and weaponized intelligence against Americans.

Thanks to Circa News, we now know the National Security Agency under President Barack Obama routinely violated privacy protections while snooping through foreign intercepts involving US citizens — and failed to disclose the breaches, prompting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court a month before the election to rebuke administration officials.

The story concerns what’s known as “upstream” data collection under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, under which the NSA looks at the content of electronic communication. Upstream refers to intel scooped up about third parties: Person A sends Person B an email mentioning Person C. Though Person C isn’t a party to the email, his information will be scooped up and potentially used by the NSA.

Further, the number of NSA data searches about Americans mushroomed after Obama loosened rules for protecting such identities from government officials and thus the reporters they talk to.

The FISA court called it a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue” that NSA analysts — in violation of a 2011 rule change prohibiting officials from searching Americans’ information without a warrant — “had been conducting such queries in violation of that prohibition, with much greater frequency than had been previously disclosed to the Court.”

A number of those searches were made from the White House, and included private citizens working for the Trump campaign, some of whose identities were leaked to the media. The revelations earned a stern rebuke from the ACLU and from civil liberties champion Sen. Rand Paul.

We also learned this week that Obama intelligence officials really had no good reason attaching a summary of a dossier on Trump to a highly classified Russia briefing they gave to Obama just weeks before Trump took office.

Under congressional questioning Tuesday, Obama’s CIA chief John Brennan said the dossier did not “in any way” factor into the agency’s assessment that Russia interfered in the election. Why not? Because as Obama intel czar James Clapper earlier testified, “We could not corroborate the sourcing.”

But that didn’t stop Brennan in January from attaching its contents to the official report for the president. He also included the unverified allegations in the briefing he gave Hill Democrats.

In so doing, Brennan virtually guaranteed that it would be leaked, which it promptly was.

In short, Brennan politicized raw intelligence. In fact, he politicized the entire CIA.

Langley vets say Brennan was the most politicized director in the agency’s history. Former CIA field operations officer Gene Coyle said Brennan was “known as the greatest sycophant in the history of the CIA, and a supporter of Hillary Clinton before the election. I find it hard to put any real credence in anything that the man says.”

Coyle noted that Brennan broke with his predecessors who stayed out of elections. Several weeks before the vote, he made it very clear he was pulling for Hillary. His deputy Mike Morell even came out and publicly endorsed her in the New York Times, claiming Trump was an “unwitting agent” of Moscow.

Brennan isn’t just a Democrat. He’s a radical leftist who in 1980 — during the height of the Cold War — voted for a Communist Party candidate for president.

When Brennan rants about the dangers of strongman Vladimir Putin targeting our elections and subverting our democratic process, does he not catch at least a glimpse of his own reflection?

What he and the rest of the Obama gang did has inflicted more damage on the integrity of our electoral process than anything the Russians have done.

 

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Back in August 2014, we first reported that in what appeared a suspicious attempt to boost the pool of eligible, credit-worthy mortgage and auto recipients, Fair Isaac, the company behind the crucial FICO score that determines every consumer’s credit rating, “will stop including in its FICO credit-score calculations any record of a consumer failing to pay a bill if the bill has been paid or settled with a collection agency. The San Jose, Calif., company also will give less weight to unpaid medical bills that are with a collection agency.” In doing so, the company would “make it easier for tens of millions of Americans to get loans.”

Then, back in March of this year, in the latest push to artificially boost FICO scores, the WSJ reported that “many tax liens and civil judgments soon will be removed from people’s credit reports, the latest in a series of moves to omit negative information from these financial scorecards. The development could help boost credit scores for millions of consumers, but could pose risks for lenders” as FICO scores remain the only widely accepted method of quantifying any individual American’s credit risk, and determine how much consumers can borrow for a new house or car as well as determine their credit-card spending limit

Stated simply, the definition of the all important FICO score, the most important number at the base of every mortgage application, was set for a series of “adjustments” which would push it higher for millions of Americans.

 

 

The outcome of these changes was clear for the 12 million people impacted: it “will make many people who have these types of credit-report blemishes look more creditworthy.“

Now, as the Wall Street Journal points out today, efforts to rig the FICO scoring process seems to be bearing some fruit.  The average credit score nationwide hit 700 in April, according to new data from Fair Isaac Corp., which is the highest since at least 2005.

Meanwhile, the share of consumers deemed to be riskiest, with a score below 600, hit a new low of roughly 40 million, or 20% of U.S. adults who have FICO scores, according to Fair Isaac. That is down from 20.5% in October and a peak of 25.5% in 2010.

 

Of course, to be fair, we are also reaching that critical 7-year point where the previous wave of mortgage foreclosures start to magically disappear from the FICO scores of millions of Americans. 

Mortgage foreclosures stay on credit reports for up to seven years dating back to the missed payment that resulted in the foreclosure. Foreclosure starts, the first stage in the process, peaked in 2009 at 2.1 million, according to Attom Data Solutions. They totaled nearly 1.8 million in 2010 and remained above one million during each of the next two years.

 

Personal bankruptcies are more complicated and can stay on credit reports for seven to 10 years.

 

Consumers who filed in 2007 for Chapter 7 protection—the most common type of bankruptcy, in which certain debts are discharged and creditors can get paid back from sales of consumers’ assets—are now starting to see those events fall off their reports. Some 500,000 Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases were filed in 2007, a figure that swelled to nearly 1.1 million in 2010, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

 

Chapter
13 bankruptcies, in which consumers enter a payment plan with creditors, usually stay on reports for at least seven years. Those filings reached a recent peak of nearly 435,000 in 2010 and are set to start falling off reports this year.

 

All of which, as the WSJ points out, will help to “boost originations of large-dollar loans for cars and homes.”  Which is precisely what the average, massively-overlevered American household needs…more debt.

Fresh starts for credit reports are likely to help boost originations of large-dollar loans for cars and homes. Consumers have a greater chance of getting approved for financing if they apply for loans after negative events fall off their reports, in particular from large banks that have stuck to strict underwriting criteria, says Morgan Whitacre, who oversees consumer-loan underwriting at Bank of America Corp.

 

Credit-card lending, already on the rise, could increase further as a result of fresh starts. Consumers who have one type of bankruptcy filing removed from their credit report experience a roughly $1,500 increase in spending limits and rack up $800 more in credit-card debt within three years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

So maybe that auto lending bubble has a little room left to run afterall…

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Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Fed Chairs Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen re-blew the Alan Greenspan initiated housing bubble.

However, the trend towards higher and higher home prices started well before that dynamic trio made a mess of everything.

The following picture shows the true origin of escalating home prices.

Median Home Prices 1963-Present

To be fair, homes have gotten larger, with more features, better windows, etc.

However, it is safe to say the explosion in credit that started when Nixon closed the gold window, ending convertibility of dollars for gold accounts, coupled with inane policies of the last three Fed Chairs accounts for nearly all of the price acceleration.

Real Homes of Genius

Dr. Housing Bubble provides an excellent example in Real Homes of Genius, including pictures of tiny homes listed for close to $500,000 in the Los Angeles area.

Today we salute you Los Angeles with our Real Homes of Genius Award. When half a million dollars isn’t worth moving a trash bin:

 

 

3525 Portola Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90032
2 beds 1 bath 572 sqft
This place is tiny. 572 square feet.

 

I actually like the trash can being left in the picture overfilled with crap to show you a better perspective on how small this place is. The ad is written in beautiful prose that really makes your heart jump with joy:

 

“Why Rent when You Can Buy! This House Features 2 Bedrooms and 1 bathroom with lots of potential especially for a First Time Home Buyer. Great Location close to Downtown Los Angeles, centrally located near Schools, Parks and Shopping. This house has been nicely upgraded.”

 

So let us take a Google Street View here:

 

 

More trash cans! One trash can looks like it is crossing the road or gearing up to strike a pose for another realtor’s ad. Now some might say “hey, this is a working class neighborhood!” And to that I would say, of course it is! That is why it is so mind numbing to see this tiny place listed at $470,000.

Explaining Balance of Trade

Total Credit Market Debt Owed

“Our Currency but Your Problem”

Starting in 1971, credit soared out of sight to the benefit of the banks, CEOs, the already wealthy, and the politically connected.

The source of global trading imbalances, soaring debt, escalating median home prices, declining real wages, and the massive rise of the 1% at the expense of the bottom 90% is Nixon closing the gold window.

At that time, Nixon’s Treasury Secretary John Connally famously told a group of European finance ministers worried about the export of American inflation that the  “dollar is our currency, but your problem.”

Balance of trade issues, soaring debt, declining real wages, and the demise of the US middle class are now our problem.

The Fed, ECB, Larry Summers, Paul Krugman, Donald Trump, and economists in general cannot figure out the real problem.

Bernanke proposes a “savings glut”, and Larry Summers proposes “secular stagnation”.

My challenge to the Secular Stagnation Theory of Summers has gone unanswered.

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The stabilization of oil prices in the $50-60/bbl range was meant to have one particular, material impact on Saudi finances: it was expected to stem the accelerating bleeding of Saudi Arabian reserves. However, according to the latest data from Saudi Arabia’s central bank, aka the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, that has not happened and net foreign assets inexplicably tumbled below $500 billion in April for the first time since 2011 even after accounting for the $9 billion raised from the Kingdom’s first international sale of Islamic bonds.

As the chart below shows, according to SAMA, Saudi net foreign assets fell by $8.5 billion from the previous month to $493 billion the lowest in six years, bringing the decline this year to $36 billion. Over the past three years, Saudi foreign reserves have dropped by a third from a peak of more than $730 billion in 2014 after the plunge in oil prices, prompting the IMF to warn that the kingdom may run out of financial assets needed to support spending within five years, according to Bloomberg.

Analysts were puzzled by the ongoing sharp decling in Saudi reserves, especially since Saudi authorities recently embarked on a very public and “unprecedented” plan to overhaul the economy and repair public finances.

Quoted by Bloomberg, Mohamed Abu Basha, a Cairo-based economist at EFG-Hermes said that he “didn’t really see any major driver for such a huge drop, especially when accounting for the sukuk sale.” He added that even if the proceeds from the sale weren’t included, “the reserve decline remains huge.”

Adding to the confusion, the pace of the decline in reserves this year “has puzzled economists who see little evidence of increased government spending, fueling speculation it’s triggered by capital flight and the costs of the kingdom’s war in Yemen.” Of course, the recent purchase of $110 billion in US weapons will be an even greater drain on Saudi finances, and begs the question whether the Saudis can even afford it.

Ironically, the reserve decline has continued even after the introduction of sharp austerity measures, designed to reduce the budget deficit, which have weighed on the economy and brought non-oil growth to a halt last year. According to Bloomberg data, loans, advances and overdrafts to the private sector declined 0.6 percent in April compared with the same month a year earlier, central bank data show. Furthermore,  GDP growth in the world’s biggest oil exporter will likely drop to just barely above contraction, and is expected to grow by just 0.6% this year from 1.1% in 2016.

Meanwhile, local authorities disagree with the consensus and say growth will exceed 1%, in part because of a plan to launch a four-year, 200 billion-riyal ($53 billion) stimulus package targeting the private sector. Additionally, Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said in April that the government didn’t withdraw from its central bank reserves during the first quarter. He said the decline could be attributed to local contractors paying overseas vendors after the government settled its arrears.

Adding to the variables, last year Saudi Arabia revealed it is carrying out the biggest economic shakeup in the kingdom’s history to reduce its reliance on oil revenue. The measures include reducing subsidies and selling government stakes in several companies, including Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, which has been the other main driver behind Saudi insistence on keeping oil prices higher even if it means losing market share to US shale producers, a stark change from its strategy at the end of 2014 when it hoped to put low-cost producers out of business. In an attempt to boost its funds, the kingdom also allowed qualified institutional investors from outside Gulf Arab states to trade Saudi stocks directly from June 2015, and introduced additional changes this year to attract more funds.

Taking the other side of the argument, speaking to Bloomberg, BofA’s Hootan Yazhari said that the continued drawdown was something “he had been expecting” even though he expects continue lacklustre growth and predicts that 2017 will be a very difficult year for Saudi banks.

Whatever the reason, one thing is becoming clear: if Saudi Arabia is unable to stem the reserve bleeding with oil in the critical $50-60 zone, any further declines in oil would have dire consequences on Saudi government finances. In fact, according to a presentation by Sushant Gupta of Wood Mackenzie, despite the extension of the OPEC oil production cut, the market will be unable to absorb growth in shale production and returning volumes from OPEC producers after cuts until the second half of 2018. Specifically, the oil consultancy warns that due to seasonal weakness in Q1 for global oil demand, the market will soften just as cuts are set to expire in March 2018.

Additionally, below we present some further critical perspectives from a reader on what the continued decline in Saudi reserves means:

Saudi Arabia is in big turmoil. One third of GCC is now quasi- junk rated (Oman and Bahrain both are now BB rated) which is effectively a junk rating.

 

Oman is already siding with Iran due to business (new ferries, 2 new China Dragon malls, all trade going via Oman instead of Dubai ports, more flights and opening of the first bank in the world from Oman, inside Iran, are just a few signals aside from all Iranian conferences being held in Oman and the first trip of President of Iran to Oman).

 

Now Qatar wants to side with Iran which is having massive repercussions (cancelling of OSN Saudi subscriptions by Qatari’s, blocking Al Jazeera TV in Saudi and UAE, war of words by UAE and Saudi Ministers but most importantly the call between Iran President and Qatari Emir yesterday etc).

 

One third of GCC is now actively siding with Iran. To say there is a crisis in the GCC is an understatement! This is bound to escalate.

 

This is occurring at a time when reserves are plunging at a rapid speed, despite issuing bonds in mega sizes of tens of billions per annum!

 

Saudi has lost one third of it’s reserves in less than 3 years!

 

If Saudi lost 11% of their reserves in 2014, 11% reserves in 2015 and 11% in 2016, can you guess how much reserves will Saudi lose in 2017? Total Saudi reserves are now at USD 493bn which will drop another 11% to USD 438bn or lower maybe closer to USD 400bn by the end of 2017!

 

All remaining assets are typically in hard assets like long term investments, oil and other assets overseas, real estate (towers around the world), all of which are not at all easy to sell. As I have predicted that GCC currency peg should break. My target of 2018 remains.  It may begin with Oman and Bahrain buckling under pressure first. If they depeg or depreciate, then others must follow because all business will only go those 2 countries otherwise due to being “cheaper”.

 

The rationale being the oil plunge in June 2014. First 2 years, GCC could use it’s reserves. Next 2 years until until end of 2017 they can keep borrowing by issuing the bonds. The pressure escalates dramatically when they start getting downgraded due to excessive borrowings (as has happened both to Oman and Bahrain as well as Saudi but they are not yet junk, just Single A rated).

 

Sovereign fund assets in global equities have dropped 18% between 2014 and 2016. Expect decline to rise to 31% and drop from their peak sovereign fund assets in 2014 at USD 3,256 billion and should be down to USD 2,200 billion by end of 2017!

 

VAT is coming in 2018 to GCC along with corporate taxes. Do not be surprised if Oman or Bahrain CANCEL VAT. If they do so, they will get more business that will compensate for lost revenues but will be the end of GCC union as well.

 

Saudi and UAE are already dealing with China actively and Saudi King made a historic visit to China 2 months ago. Most likely a timeline has been set when China will be able to pay Saudi and UAE in Chinese Yuan instead of US dollars (which China pays to Nigeria, Iran, Russia, Venezuela etc already for buying oil from them). 

 

That event will bring USD to it’s knees and also be the end of the US petrodollar system and the end of GCC peg or at least a massive depreciation.

 

Trump has done a massive coup by taking hundreds of billions dollars away from Saudi and possibly also from UAE soon to provide them with “security”. This will cause a further massive dip in their reserves over the next 1 year.

 

So expect monetary, fiscal and real turbulence in the months ahead. And yeah, more taxes or fees or fines too!

Finally, there is the possibility that as sov-wealth funds seek to liquidate to boost liquidity, a repeat of the inverse petrodollar episode observed in 2015 emerges once again:

• Sovereign-wealth funds could pull another $404 billion out of stock market
• Sovereign funds pull $18.4 billion from global markets in first quarter 2017
• Low Oil Price is Testing GCC Commitment to Currency Pegs

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