CBP Baltimore Breaks Record For Recovered Outbound Stolen Vehicles, 95% Of Cars Headed To Africa 

CBP Baltimore Breaks Record For Recovered Outbound Stolen Vehicles, 95% Of Cars Headed To Africa 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – Baltimore Service Port has reported a new record in the number of stolen vehicles being exported from the US. CBP said 246 stolen vehicles, worth over $10.3 million, have been recovered at seaports in Baltimore, Wilmington, Del., and Philadelphia in 2019.

Baltimore ranks second nationally behind New York, in which 257 stolen vehicles were recovered in 2019.

Nationwide, more than 1,000 vehicles have been recovered during import and export inspections, with a majority of the vehicles recovered on East Coast ports. 

CBP said it has been a record year for recoveries in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Wilmington. Recoveries this year are up 112% over last year’s figures. At least 66% of the recoveries occurred at the Port of Baltimore. 

The agency blamed transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) that operate up and down Interstate-95 for the jump in stolen vehicles.

“Export examinations are a critical component to Customs and Border Protection’s border security mission. Transnational criminal organizations use stolen vehicles as currency and they conceal illicit revenue from their illegal activities in outbound cargo,” said Casey Durst, Director of Field Operations for CBP’s Baltimore Field Office. “CBP officers remain committed to striking back at criminal groups where it hurts most, by intercepting their illegal exports and illicit financial gains.”

CBP said at least 95% of the stolen vehicles recovered at East Coast ports were destined to West African nations, including Benin, The Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

CBP provides details of some of the vehicles recovered: 

  • 80% (198 vehicles) were from model years 2015 through 2019.
  • 63% (156 vehicles) were sport utility vehicles. Nationally, SUV’s comprised 45% of CBP’s recovered stolen vehicles during 2019.
  • The top-5 recovered stolen vehicles were the Land Rover Range Rover (28), Toyota Camry (15), Toyota Rav4 (12), Toyota 4Runner (9), and Cadillac Escalade (7).
  • The most expensive recovered stolen vehicle was a 2017 Audi R8, valued at $162,900, was destined to Togo.
  • The newest vehicle was a 2020 Mercedes Benz GLE350, destined to West Africa.
  • The oldest vehicle was a 1988 Mack truck, destined to West Africa. The oldest passenger vehicle was a 2002 Toyota Camry, destined to Nigeria.

The agency warned that the number of recovered stolen vehicles have surged in the last several years, officials said the trend would likely persist into the new year. 


Tyler Durden

Tue, 12/10/2019 – 21:25

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Dem Congressman: Impeach Trump To Heal The Wounds Of Slavery

Dem Congressman: Impeach Trump To Heal The Wounds Of Slavery

Authored by Graham Noble via LibertyNation.com,

It is hardly a surprise when Democrats accuse President Donald Trump of some terrible act. Nor is it shocking to hear the president incriminated for all manner of terrible and tragic events. But to witness a Democrat member of Congress blame Trump for slavery is too much of a stretch. Yet, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) is doing just that – or at least drawing a bizarre link between slavery and the current commander in chief.

Green, with a largely unremarkable political career, is now well known for one thing: his obsession with seeing this president impeached. The representative repeatedly and unsuccessfully introduced motions to impeach Trump – long before any phone calls to Ukrainian presidents.

Green’s Ridiculous Obsession

The congressman did have the courage to say what most Democrats seem to have been thinking for months and what drives the effort to remove the president from office: that his party must impeach Trump to prevent him from winning a second term in 2020. More recently, Green has suggested that should the president survive a Senate trial – which seems fairly certain – the Democrats could and should impeach Trump again, taking advantage of the lack of any law limiting the number of times a president can be impeached.

Al Green

However, impeachment is not enough to satisfy the congressman. Green now says that it must be for the right reason. That seems fair – until one discovers that the right reason for Green is to make amends for slavery.

During an interview on Dec. 7, Green claimed that the American people “understand” Trump must be impeached immediately, but his reasoning got puzzling when he said: “I also think that if we don’t include some of the things that are important to people of color then I think that our business won’t be finished with.”

One can only assume that articles of impeachment must incorporate language, or even charges, that acknowledge what Green described as “the original sin” of slavery. Somehow, impeaching Trump will make amends for an inhumane system officially abolished in America in 1865.

Green added, “Slavery was the thing that put all of what President Trump has done lately into motion.”

Trump And Slavery

Slavery led to Trump becoming president. That makes perfect sense – at least to Green.

“So, I appreciate whatever we will do,” the congressman continued, “but until we deal with the issue of invidious discrimination as [it] relates to LGBTQ community, the anti-Semitism, the racism, the Islamophobia, the transphobia, and also the misogyny that he has exemplified, I don’t think our work is done.”

Knowing they have no case against the president, various Democrats resort to emotional appeals to justify removing Trump from office. Rather than point to evidence of criminality or abuse of power, which they simply do not have, the president’s political enemies pontificate vaguely about honoring the Constitution, protecting democracy, and even – as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) recently suggested – preserving civilization itself.

Green is doing the same thing; he’s just also throwing in the race card for good measure. Is anybody buying what he is selling? In a little under three years, Trump has done far more for the black community than his predecessor did in eight years. The idea that impeaching Trump will heal the vestigial wounds of slavery is more insulting to black Americans than to Trump. How many more years of being patronized, lectured to, and condescended to by Green and his Democrat colleagues must the black community take before it abandons its misplaced loyalty to the very party that resisted the abolition of slavery?


Tyler Durden

Tue, 12/10/2019 – 21:05

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Repocalypse 2.0 On Deck? “Turn” Repo Rates Are Blowing Out

Repocalypse 2.0 On Deck? “Turn” Repo Rates Are Blowing Out

Earlier today, repo market icon Zoltan Pozsar scared the living daylights out of cross-asset traders everywhere with what could be called a doomsday prediction in which the former NY Fed and Treasury staffer warned that as a result of collapsing systemic liquidity and a drought of “excess reserves”, the coming days could see a lock up in the FX swap market (in the process sending the US Dollar soaring), which would then translate to a violent deleveraging of massively levered hedge funds, and a liquidation first in the bond then stock market.

Yet while Pozsar had seemingly no concerns staking his hard-earned reputation on the outcome of a potentially catastrophic event that would subsequently be used by the Fed as a catalyst for QE4, he was far less confident about “when” it would occur:

it’s hard to have a definitive answer: it depends. It depends on how equities do, which depends on the trade deal and other random tweets. It depends on how auctions go, which depends on the equity market and the curve slope relative to actual funding costs.

Still, now that the genie is out of the bottle, everyone will become a cross-asset expert, trying to isolate even the smallest notable deviation from the norm as the horseman of the coming market apocalypse, and focusing first and foremost on the most direct indication that something is (again) broken in the repo market: the overnight general collateral repo rate.

However, what concerned market watchers will find when they pull up the recent O/N G/C repo rates is… nothing. Indeed, after the turbulent repo moves in mid/late September, and one outlier event in mid-October, the past two months have seen O/N repo barely move.

A very different picture however emerges when looking at forward, or “turn” repo rates, those that capture the year-end interview of Dec 31-Jan 2 (hence “turn”), where the past month has seen a sharp, consistent increase in repo rates, which peaked in the past two days around 4.10%-4.20%.

While one can argue that the rising repo pressure on the “turn” was due the traders starting to frontrun the dismal events laid out by Pozsar, there is a more conventional explanation for the upward pressure on the Turn, which as another repo expert, Curvature’s Scott Skyrm writes today, is “due to an abundance of collateral sellers, without any significant new cash entering the market – through end user cash investors or through the Federal Reserve.” Or, as he summarizes, “Basically, more sellers than buyers” of collateral.

That said, following today’s modest drop in the “turn”, we may have found ourselves in a very brief holding pattern, as the market is waiting for the specifics in the next round of Fed RP Operations to be announced on Thursday.

And this is where things get interesting: if Pozsar is right, nothing the Fed announces on Thursday short of QE4, will help relieve the pressure on the “turn” into year end, which the Credit Suisse strategist sees rising ever higher, until it forces dealers to freeze either the FX swap market, or the repo market, or – devastatingly – both. Everything else would, or perhaps should, be ignored by the market as the reserve hold in the financial system is massive and growing by the day as the Fed’s T-Bill QE failed to plug the liquidity drain.

Skyrm, on the other hand, has a more sanguine view, and expects the Fed to announce a $50 billion (at least) term operation for Monday December 23 (double the current term ops) and a $50 billion (at least) term operation for Monday, December 30. Of course, even Skyrm hedges, noting that “if the Fed announces operations of $25 billion or less on those days then Turn rates will immediately spike higher. However, in the past the Fed has always provided enough liquidity to the market and I still have faith.”

The Curvature analyst may have faith, but if Zoltan Pozsar is right – and he traditionally has been – in his apocalyptic forecast, the Fed has not been providing enough liquidity since mid-September, and certainly not in the correct format, and it will fail to do so in the coming days, forcing the “worst case scenario” Pozsar described, one in which the “year-end in the FX swap market is shaping up to be the worst in recent memory, and the markets are not pricing any of this.” It is only once markets “start pricing this”, especially after the liquidity-draining Dec 16 tax deadline, that the Fed will have no choice but to respond to the violent market repricing lower, finally launching the QE4 that mega dealers such as JPM have been begging for all along.

So who will be right: Pozsar, and his fatalistic forecast for a market crash in the coming days (that triggers QE4), or Skyrm’s cautious optimism? The answer will be revealed by the “turn” repo rate: if it resumes rising, and hits 5%, 6%, 7% or more, then all bets are off.


Tyler Durden

Tue, 12/10/2019 – 20:44

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The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly In NAFTA 2.0

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly In NAFTA 2.0

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

Democrats agree to pass USMCA, Trump’s NAFTA replacement.

Goodbye NAFTA, Hello USMCA

In what “seemingly” constitutes a major victory for Trump, Democratic Lawmakers Agree to Support North America Trade Pact.

House Democrats agreed to support the new U.S. trade deal with Mexico and Canada, marking a victory for President Trump who ran for office in 2016 on a pledge to remake or blow up the North American Free Trade Agreement.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the new version of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement a “victory for American workers” at a Tuesday morning news conference. The pact will replace Nafta when ratified and contains provisions aimed at creating more manufacturing jobs, for example, by increasing the proportion of vehicles that must originate in North America for the cars and trucks to receive duty-free treatment.

It also includes updated labor rules and beefed-up enforcement provisions to hold firms in Mexico to account on labor, according to people familiar with the emerging deal.

USMCA had long been supported by Republicans and leading business trade groups but opposed by Democrats over concerns such as the legal language enforcing new labor rules. The Democratic approval Monday comes as a rare bipartisan moment of cooperation on economic policy at a time when Capitol Hill is divided over the impeachment inquiry.

USMCA Key Provisions

  1. Mexican Labor: U.S. labor unions and Democrats have long complained that Mexican workers can’t always form unions freely and demand fair pay, a situation they say puts pressure on U.S. manufacturing jobs. The Trump administration’s USMCA has new additional labor rules, not included in the current Nafta, as well as new enforcement procedures demanded by Democrats.

  2. Auto Rules: Compared with Nafta, USMCA significantly tightens the rules that the auto industry has to follow in order to trade vehicles duty free in North America. A certain proportion of a car will have to be produced by workers with higher wages, and a greater proportion of components will have to originate in North America.

  3. Digital Freedom: USMCA, unlike the current Nafta, includes rules mandating the free flow of data among the three countries. This and other novel provisions on exchange rates and other areas aren’t so crucial for Canada and Mexico but could later be applied to pacts with more restrictive countries or even China.

  4. Agriculture: A deal to pass USMCA means farmers of major crops no longer have to worry about President Trump potentially pulling out of the existing Nafta and leaving them fewer major export markets. USMCA also gives dairy farmers more access to Canada.

  5. Pharma: Big drugmakers are likely to be disappointed, since Democrats pushed the Trump administration to remove language that would have protected expensive biologic drugs from generic imitators for 10 years. The existing Nafta treaty has no such drug protections.

Point by Point Comments

1: Pelosi wanted more, and settled for less. Five days ago, the Wall Street Journal reported Democrats Want to Invade Mexico. Essentially, the unions demanded that the US be allowed to enforce labor laws in Mexico. However, Mexico would not agree. Canada would not have gone alone either.

2: The devil is in the details. I suspect Mexico will be able to circumvent these rules, if it wants.

3: Digital rules accomplish nothing.

4: Agriculture essentially remains the status quo. Wisconsin dairy farmers do get a minor victory.

5: This is a potential victory for US consumers, but one that Trump did not appear to want. In practice, however, I wonder if it does much.

AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka Tweets

Dramatically Worse

Nearly anything the AFL-CIO supports is, by definition, bad for US consumers.

Thus, if this deal really is a “dramatic improvement”, I propose it is dramatically worse.

The one place Trumka is correct, most likely by accident, is on Big Pharma.

Trump on USMCA

Devil in the Details

What this comes down to is how easily Mexico can get around key provisions 1 and 2.

The more Mexico adheres to those points, the worse the deal Trump negotiated.

Good for Unions, Bad for Consumers

If it’s Good for Unions, It’s Bad for Consumers.

I wrote about that construct a couple days ago in France Should Take a Lesson From Ronald Reagan: Fire the Strikers.

Even FDR understood that public unions and public service were impossibly incompatible.

Click on the link for discussion.

Proud Union Hater

Unions promote on seniority, not talent. Anyone who wants to get ahead based on performance, not seniority, should not be a union supporter.

Moreover, corrupt union leaders get into bed with corrupt politicians. The combination is the biggest vote-buying racket in the world.

This puts the public at the mercy of militant teachers’ unions, police unions, and firefighter unions all demanding and receiving untenable pension promises.

GM and Ford

GM’s bonds, despite a bailout (necessary because giving into union demands bankrupted the company) are just a step above Junk.

So are Ford bond.

The strike is over. Hooray. But GM has a second date with bankruptcy court. Ford will have a first.

Pensions

Meanwhile, please note that Illinois pensions are among the worst funded in the entire nation. Things are even worse in Chicago where Each Chicagoan Owes $140,000 to Bail Out Chicago Pensions.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s only solution is the same as that of predecessor Rahm Emmanuel: Raise Taxes.

Get The Hell Out Now

These facts, and they keep piling up, is what prompted me to write on October 4, Escape Illinois: Get The Hell Out Now, We Are

Also consider Chicago Headed for Insolvency, Get the Hell Out Now.

In 2020 we are moving to Utah. We have had enough.

Trump Irony

Trump is bragging about USMCA. And most Trump supporters will see it that way.

But at best, the deal represents no significant changes.

Importantly, the more the AFL-CIO and Pelosi are right, the worse Trump’s deal is in practice.


Tyler Durden

Tue, 12/10/2019 – 20:05

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Yuan Tumbles After Navarro Warns “No Indication That Tariffs Will Be Delayed”

Yuan Tumbles After Navarro Warns “No Indication That Tariffs Will Be Delayed”

While US equity futures have barely dipped, offshore yuan has tumbled – erasing the earlier optimistic spike – after White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro told Fox News that he has “no indication that December tariffs will not be put on.”

Additionally Navarro said that China “was trying to shape the narrative on trade talks to affect the futures market,” and that is up to the Chinese if a trade deal can get done.

Yuan erased all of the gains from China’s comments this morning…

Source: Bloomberg

And while Yuan plunged, Dow futs dropped only 30 points (for now)…

 


Tyler Durden

Tue, 12/10/2019 – 19:52

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Senate Republicans To Let Bidens Off The Hook? May Skip Witnesses In ‘Expedited’ Impeachment Trial

Senate Republicans To Let Bidens Off The Hook? May Skip Witnesses In ‘Expedited’ Impeachment Trial

While House Democrats are about to impeach President Trump for asking Ukraine to investigate the Bidens for what looks like obvious corruption –  Senate Republicans have no interest in calling witnesses to determine whether Trump’s request was justified in the first place.

According to the Washington Examiner, the GOP-controlled Senate have no plans to call key witnesses to testify in an impeachment trial. This means Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, John Kerry’s stepson, Alexandra Chalupa and Ukrainian prosecutors involved in the Burisma case won’t set foot in the Senate.

Their reasoning? Senate Republicans have “no appetite” for it.

Senate impeachment rules require a majority vote to call witnesses, and with just two out of 53 votes to spare, there is no “appetite” among Republicans to pursue testimony from people that Democrats blocked Republicans from subpoenaing during the House investigation. Indeed, Republicans might forgo calling witnesses altogether, saying minds are made up on Trump’s guilt or innocence and that testimony at trial on the Senate floor would draw out the proceedings unnecessarily. –Washington Examiner

Instead, top Senate Republicans are leaning towards calling a quick vote to acquit Trump once House Democrats and the White House have delivered their arguments.

“At that point, I would expect that most members would be ready to vote and wouldn’t need more information,” said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming – the #3 ranked Senate Republican. “Many people have their minds pretty well made up.”

“Here’s what I want to avoid: this thing going on longer than it needs to,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). “I want to end this.

The president is not in danger of being removed from office by the Senate, a move that requires 67 votes.

But in a trial, he is seeking exoneration. Some Republicans question whether that’s possible without hearing from witnesses, whether it be these or other less politically charged figures. “Not sure how you have a fair trial without calling witnesses,” said one Trump ally in the House. But with some Senate Republicans facing uncertain 2020 reelection contests and others privately unhappy with Trump’s behavior, mustering 51 GOP votes for Trump’s dream witness list appears impossible.

How many senators would enjoy a Trump rally? That’s probably your whip count for calling Hunter,” a Republican senator said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. Senate Democrats are not expected to provide any votes to call Biden or the others. Or they might ask so high a price, demanding that in exchange, they be allowed to call Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence, that Republicans balk. –Washington Examiner

“It becomes endless motions to call people, and I’m not sure what anybody gains from all that,” said #2 Senate Republican, John Thune of South Dakota.

That may not play well with Trump’s base, who was expecting to see a doddering Joe Biden and his cokehead son Hunter answer tough questions about Ukraine.

“President Trump’s allies will want to see witnesses called. How many, and which witnesses, will quickly become a dividing line,” said former Trump adviser Jason Miller, who co-hosts an impeachment-centric podcast with Steve Bannon.

Without witness testimony, the Senate proceedings would take roughly two weeks according to the report.

On Tuesday, House Democrats introduced two articles of impeachment accusing President Trump of abusing his power and obstructing Congress. Notably, there is no mention “extortion” or “quid-pro-quo” – accusations Democrats have been pounding on throughout the process.


Tyler Durden

Tue, 12/10/2019 – 19:45

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Paul Volcker: The Last Of His Kind

Paul Volcker: The Last Of His Kind

Authored by Jim Rickards via The Daily Reckoning,

One of the most important figures in the history of U.S. monetary policy, Paul Volcker, died Sunday at the age of 92.

Volcker is famous for having raised interest rates all the way to 20% in June 1981, the highest rates since the Civil War.

His actions are widely credited for ending the great inflation of the 1970s and setting the stage for the Reagan economy of the ’80s (although his sky-high rates nearly sank the economy at first).

Volcker didn’t kill inflation right away — it took another couple of years to finally end it, but rates were never that high again.

Volcker had a solid understanding of inflation and had opposed going off the gold standard in 1971.

He was one of the people in the room at Camp David when Nixon made the decision to close the gold window. He was actually one of the move’s primary strategists.

People assume Nixon and his team intended to permanently sever the dollar from gold. But it’s not true.

What Nixon actually said — and Paul Volcker confirmed this when I spoke to him — is that they didn’t think the U.S. was permanently going off the gold standard.

Nixon, and others involved with the decision, considered it a temporary suspension until the major global powers could get together, rewrite the system and get back to a gold standard at a much higher gold price (it was then pegged at $35/ounce).

Volcker understood that it was necessary to get the gold price right before a gold standard could resume. After all the money printing that went to fund Vietnam and the Great Society in the 1960s, he knew that a higher gold price was necessary.

In other words, Volcker knew the U.S. would have to avoid the mistake Winston Churchill made in 1925 as Great Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer, the equivalent of the U.S. Treasury.

Churchill was determined to fix the gold price (measured in sterling) at the pre-WWI parity. He felt duty-bound to live up to the old value.

But he neglected all the money printing that occurred to pay for the war. A higher gold price was required to reflect the inflation that took place. Otherwise, setting the gold price too low would be extremely deflationary.

And that’s what happened. Churchill fixed gold at the pre-war value.

By failing to set gold at a higher price (again, measured in sterling), Churchill essentially cut the money supply in half. That threw the U.K. into a depression.

While the rest of the world ran into the depression in 1929, in the U.K. it started in 1926. In other words, Churchill’s decision plunged the U.K. into recession three years ahead of the rest of the world.

Going back to gold at a much higher price measured in sterling would have been the right way to do it. Choosing the wrong price was a contributor to the great depression.

So in 1971, Volcker realized that gold would have to be fixed at a higher price to reflect the money-printing that had taken place during the preceding years. Otherwise, it could have dire consequences.

Of course, the point was moot because the U.S. never did reopen the gold window. And the ’70s were certainly marked by inflation, not deflation.

Most people don’t know how close to hyperinflation the U.S. came by the late ’70s, and how close the world was to losing confidence in the dollar.

In 1977, the U.S. had to issue Treasury bonds denominated in Swiss francs because no one wanted dollars, at least at an interest rate that the Treasury was willing to pay.

They were called Carter bonds.

Not surprisingly, the economic morass of the late ’70s cost Carter reelection. Inflation was between 14% and 15% by the time Reagan was sworn in.

Many people forget that Carter appointed Volcker, not Reagan. He began raising rates right away, although they only rose to 20% under Reagan.

Volcker’s extreme interest rates helped send the economy into recession, first in mid-1980 and again in 1982.

Although Volcker had Reagan’s support, many voices in the Republican Party wanted him replaced by a more accommodating Fed chairman. So Volcker was not extremely popular at the time.

But he knew the dollar is ultimately backed by confidence, and he was determined to restore it.

Volcker did tame inflation, which was back down to about 3% in 1983 after peaking near 15% in 1980. The dollar strengthened, the economy recovered and one of the greatest bull markets in stock market history was underway.

So Paul Volcker remains one of the most important Fed chairmen ever.

May he rest in peace.


Tyler Durden

Tue, 12/10/2019 – 19:25

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“Unprecedented” China Auto Market Collapse Heads Into Third Year After November Sales Drop 4.2%

“Unprecedented” China Auto Market Collapse Heads Into Third Year After November Sales Drop 4.2%

The ongoing recession in the global auto market has undoubtedly been lead by China – and if November’s trends are any indication, the entire industry could be setting up for an ugly 2020. 

Sales of sedans in China fell 4.2% in November to 1.97 million units, according to the CPCA on Monday.

This marks the 17th decline in the last 18 months and all but ensures that China will see a second straight annual drop for its auto market, according to Bloomberg

Last year was the first time the market shrunk in decades, with ripple effects extending to places like Europe, Latin America and the rest of Asia. The industry has faced headwinds in the ongoing trade war, in addition to an overstretched consumer and ride-hailing and car-sharing services. 

Areas outside of China’s big cities suffered the most, as a slowing economy kept consumers out of the showrooms that sold cheaper local brands. Experts are predicting consolidation in the industry as a result. Some brands, like Suzuki and PSA Group, have pulled out of China (or are in the process of selling stakes). 

Bigger names like Toyota and BMW have weathered the storm well due to demand for hybrid cars – but this demand is anything but a guarantee moving forward.

EVs were once a reason for optimism, especially with Volkswagen spending $4.4 billion next year to ramp up EV production in the country and Tesla moving a new plant to Shanghai. 

But last month, wholesales of NEVs fell a stunning 42% to 79,000 units. 

Recall, as we reported days ago, it’s looking like Beijing isn’t so excited to help sustain the EV niche of the market anymore.

We also noted that Beijing’s ambivalence was starting to show up in the numbers. EV sales fell off a cliff after June of this year, when the government slashed purchase subsidies. From July to October, sales of new energy cars were down 28% from the year prior. 

Subsidies are unlikely to come back, we noted. The government is now aiming for “quality instead of just quantity”, noting that subsidies would be more costly than they were a few years ago, when the market was smaller. Instead, Beijing said it will spend the money on building out its infrastructure, like its charging stations. 

A Bloomberg NEF report predicts that the EV market will rebound next year, however, stating: “Potential cuts to subsidies at the beginning of 2020 are keeping the industry in limbo. A shrinking market could force the government to give up its plans on cuts.”


Tyler Durden

Tue, 12/10/2019 – 19:05

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University Departments Ditch Genderless-Term “Alumni”… For Genderless-Term “Alumnx”

University Departments Ditch Genderless-Term “Alumni”… For Genderless-Term “Alumnx”

Authored by Jeremiah Poff via The College Fix,

Latin derived word is originally genderless..

College departments across the country are avoiding the term “alumni,” opting instead to use “alumnx,” even though the original term is gender neutral.

Google search of the term “alumnx” returns a long list of results from American colleges using the term, though most are specific to departments and specialized resource centers. They include the University of California-San Diego, Syracuse University, University of Michigan and Loyola University of Maryland, primarily on LGBTQ+ resource pages.

The term “alumni” is a latin word that derives from the root word “alumnus,” meaning “pupil,” according to the online etymology dictionary. “Alumni” is the gender-neutral plural form of the word. Some websites use “alumnx” and “alumni” interchangeably.

The discovery was made Sunday by Jordan Lancaster, a freelance contributor to The Daily Caller and Washington Examiner. She tweeted a series of screenshots from different schools with the caption “seize the endowments.” They included images from Rutgers University, UC-San Diego, UMich and Vermont College of Fine Arts.

The tweet drew attention from many conservative users, who mocked the practice. Lancaster called it “an issue that only matters to people extremely in the university bubble.”

UC-San Diego uses “alumnx” on its critical gender studies major website, including in the URL, but the website also uses the more familiar “alumni” in the text of the page. A request for comment Sunday seeking clarification was not immediately returned.

At Syracuse, the LGBT resource center uses “alumnx” in both the URL and throughout the page, only using “alumni” when referencing the school’s alumni association. Syracuse did not immediately respond to The Fix’s request for comment.

The academic program of “intergroup relations” at the University of Michigan includes the term on its page, but uses it interchangeably with “alumni” and “alumna” on the site, with no clear pattern. A request for comment Sunday was not immediately returned.

The LGBTQ+ services website for Loyola University of Maryland uses “alumnx” for its website, but uses “alumni” as well.

“Welcome to Loyola’s LGBTQ+ Alumnx page! As Loyola starts to expand LGBTQ+ visibility, we are looking to maintain an active database of a/sexuality and a/gender diverse alumni to support, encourage, and connect current students with alumni of Loyola University Maryland,” the website reads, again showing no clear pattern of the use of the terms.

The Fix’s request for comment was not immediately returned.


Tyler Durden

Tue, 12/10/2019 – 18:45

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Meat Prices Spike 8% In Brazil, Threatening A Holiday-Gathering Mainstay For Many

Meat Prices Spike 8% In Brazil, Threatening A Holiday-Gathering Mainstay For Many

Consumers in Brazil are facing a crisis: barbeques, which are a mainstay of Brazilian cuisine and have inspired countless Brazilian steakhouses, are under threat.

The price of beef, pork and chicken in the country are experiencing a sharp rise, even while inflation elsewhere in the country remains low, according to Bloomberg. The meats are up 8.1% month over month in November, threatening to take the main course off the table at many Brazilian celebrations this upcoming holiday season. 

Renata Ziller, a teacher and mother of three in Brasilia, said:

“We’ll have to do something with rice, I guess. I’ll have to use some creativity because the prices are so high.”

Ziller

The price rise has been a result of increased demand for Brazilian meat from China, in addition a drought impacting the quality of many cattle pastures. The price rise has political and economic implications, Bloomberg writes.

Meat was invoked by leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who said he would fight for the rights of Brazilian workers to “hold family gatherings, have a barbecue, and drink a little beer, which is what makes us happy.”

President Jair Bolsonaro also commented on the price hikes: “People are complaining, rightly, that the price of meat has gone up. The world has started to buy more meat from us. Unfortunately that’s what happens.” 

Bolsonaro supports the free market, and said there was little he could do about the price spike – a refreshing take from a politician. 

The price of a chicken in the country was up 8% year over year while pork rose 15% and a filet mignon has risen by about 20%. Meat had the largest impact of all products on the country’s inflation numbers for November. 

Rafael Cortez, from the consultancy Tendencias Consultoria, said: “Inflation in general ought to be a positive factor for the government, however this current rise in a product that is so dear to the average Brazilian could favor the opposition narrative. We are already starting to see this on social media.”

Geovana Santos, a 20-year-old trash collector with a one-year old daughter, said the price spikes have caused her to change her diet:

“Basically I just have to buy sausage, because it’s cheaper,” she concluded.

Eventually, as prices rise, less Brazilians like Santos will eat meat and demand will hopefully taper, causing prices to again slide lower. With free market concepts like these so simple intuitive and effective, it’s no wonder Central Banks can’t appreciate them. 


Tyler Durden

Tue, 12/10/2019 – 18:25

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/38p1yfn Tyler Durden