Demands Grow For FBI To Interview Prince Andrew Over Friendship With Jeffrey Epstein
Attorneys for Jeffrey Epstein accusers have called on the FBI to speak with disgraced British royal Prince Andrew over his years-long association with Jeffrey Epstein, which would demonstrate “justice and accountability for the victims.”
Attorney Lisa Bloom told The Telegraph that while it’s “great” that Prince Andrew is stepping away from his royal duties, he needs to cooperate with US investigators.
“It’s great that he’s stepping away from his royal duties, but it’s really not about that — it’s about justice and accountability for the victims, so it’s important that he says he’s going to cooperate with law enforcement,” said Bloom.
Bloom said Prince Andrew should answer questions from all the accusers’ attorneys — in particular the attorney of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who alleges she was coerced into having sex with Prince Andrew on three separate occasions when she was 17.
Giuffre has offered a detailed account of a March 10, 2001, encounter in which she said she danced with the prince at Tramp nightclub in London before he had sex with her.
Guiffre publicly released a photograph of her and Prince Andrew in which he has his arm around her waist, which she says was taken at the house of Ghislaine Maxwell, who an ex-girlfriend of Epstein’s who has been accused of acting as his “fixer” at the time. –Business Insider
Meanwhile, attorney Gloria Allred who also represents Epstein accusers, urged the prince to provide any evidence that might help victims seek justice “without conditions and without delay,” including emails, texts and calendars – adding that the prince’s staff should also provide relevant information, according to the BBC.
Allred added that if the prince didn’t offer information voluntarily, he might be asked to speak under oath in a criminal investigation into potential Epstein co-conspirators, along with civil lawsuits brought by Epstein’s accusers.
“I haven’t made a determination yet as to … whether we will need to take Prince Andrew’s deposition,” said Allred, adding “But I’m saying he should provide it in any civil case as well, where his testimony might be relevant.“
“It’s totally extraordinary,” veteran royal watcher and Majesty magazine editor-in-chief Ingrid Seward told CBS on Thursday. “You don’t expect a member of the royal family to be caught up in the life of a seedy pedophile. You just don’t.“
Really Ingrid?
Prince Charles and notorious pedophile Jimmy Saville
The absolute worst case of professional incompetence and dishonesty is in the area of climate science.
Tony Heller has exposed some of the egregious dishonesty of mainstream environmentalists in a video he’s titled “My Gift To Climate Alarmists.” Environmentalists and their political allies attribute the recent increase in deadly forest fires to global warming. However, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, forest fires reached their peak in the 1930s and have declined by 80% since then. Environmentalists hide the earlier data and make their case for the effects of global warming by showing the public and policymakers data from 1980 that shows an increase in forest fires.
Climate scientists claim that rising sea levels are caused by man-made global warming. Historical data from the tide gauge in Lower Manhattan shows that sea levels have been rising from about the time when Abraham Lincoln was president to now. Heller says that sea levels have been rising for about 20,000 years. He points out that anthropologists believe that when the sea level was very low people were able to walk from Siberia to North America.
Hot weather is often claimed to be a result of man-made climate change. Heller presents data showing the number of days in Waverly, Ohio, above 90 degrees. In 1895, there were 73 days above 90 degrees. In 1936, there were 82 days above 90 degrees. Since the 1930s, there has been a downward trend in the number of days above 90 degrees. If climatologists hide data from earlier years and started at 1955, they show an increase in the number of above 90-degree days from eight or nine to 30 or 40. Thus, to deceive us into thinking the climate is getting hotter, environmentalists have selected a starting date that fits their agenda.
You might ask: “Who is Tony Heller? Does he work for big oil?” It turns out that he is a scientist and claims to be a lifelong environmentalist. From what I can tell, he has no vested interests. In that respect, he is different from those who lead the environmental movement, who often either work for or are funded by governments.
Once in a while environmentalists reveal their true agenda.
Ottmar Edenhofer, lead author of the IPCC’s fourth summary report released in 2007, speaking in 2010 advised:
“One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. Instead, climate change policy is about how we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth.”
U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres said that:
the true aim of the U.N.’s 2014 Paris climate conference was “to change the (capitalist) economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution.”
Christine Stewart, Canada’s former Minister of the Environment said:
“No matter if the science is all phony, there are collateral environmental benefits. … Climate change (provides) the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world.”
Tim Wirth, former U.S. Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs and the person most responsible for setting up the Kyoto Protocol said:
“We’ve got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.”
Not all scientists are dishonest and not all news reporters are leftists with an agenda. But one wonders at the deafening silence where there’s clear, unambiguous evidence.
For example, if ocean levels have been rising for some 20,000 years, why do scientists allow environmentalists to get away with the claim that it’s a result of man-made global warming? Why aren’t there any reporters to highlight leftist statements such as those by Edenhofer, Stewart and others who want to ride global warming as a means to defeat capitalism and usher in socialism and communism?
I would prefer to think that the silence of so many scientists represent their fears as opposed to their going along with the environmental extremist agenda.
Obama Warns Tech Firms Fueling Wealth Inequality, Fears Polarization Could Lead To Social Unrest
Former President Barak Obama was in San Francisco earlier today, giving a keynote speech at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference at Moscone Center, reported Axios.
Obama told hundreds of people in the audience that uncertainty in the global economy remains elevated through the 2020s. That’s because he addressed a significant issue of how technology companies were fueling massive wealth inequality through globalization and automation.
“What I also see is just this sense of anxiety and rootlessness and uncertainty in so many people, some of which is fed by globalization and technology,” Obama said.
Obama then addressed the political turmoil that is spiraling out of control around the world, saying people are feeling economically and culturally insecure.
Obama said globalization and technology have “turbocharged” anxieties around the world, and there needs to be a concerted effort by governments to address the issues that it has created.
“Part of the goal of solving big problems is not just a matter of finding the right technical solution,” he said. “Part of it is also finding out how do we restore some sense of our common values.”We’re chasing after the wrong things,” he said, adding that climate change tops his list of concerns. “There’s such a thing as being too late.”
Obama also points out that it’s incredibly challenging for people to know what’s real and fake news.
He talks about the polarization in the country:
“If you read Fox News, you live in a different reality than if you read the New York Times.”
And bring it all together, Obama could be addressing some of the mechanics of how the US could be thrown in a period of social unrest through the 2020s.
And this comes after Obama said over the weekend that 2020 Democratic candidates should not to move too far to the left, as messages of sweeping societal and government transformations risk turning off the party’s moderate base.
“Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision, we also have to be rooted in reality,” said Obama – who told a room of wealthy liberal donors: “Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision we also have to be rooted in reality.”
“The average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.”
The extreme polarization of the left and right, along with structural issues created by technology is fueling wealth inequality and leading to the further demise of the middle class. Most of the middle class will blame the other political party, though their understanding of how the Federal Reserve is behind their economic malfeasance will never be known.
As for what exactly triggers a Hong-Kong style like protests in the inner cities of the US is still unknown, though when the next recession strikes, it could be millennials with insurmountable debts rioting in the streets demanding the government cancel their student loans.
Broadcast news programming has changed a lot over the past 15-20 years. News magazine programs like “Dateline” covered more than tragic and twisted crimes. They also didn’t use marketing slogans like “Don’t Watch Alone.”
Drama sells and, unfortunately, there seems to be no shortage of it being reported by all media sources. But when is it news and when is it deliberate public manipulation?
Sharyl: You wrote “the American free press has degenerated into a standardless profession, not through government oppression or suppression, but through self-censorship, group think, bias, omission and propaganda.”
Mark Levin: There’s a new doctrine that’s being pushed in journalism school, has been for about 30 years, which is to push what’s called public journalism or community journalism, which is social activism.
And so now you have a lot of reporters, Jim Acosta is a perfect example, who create the drama, then report on their own drama that becomes news for five days. President calls that “fake news.” He’s right. There was a professor Boston who used to head the Library of Congress, but he was a historian at the University of Chicago. Wrote a whole book on it, pseudo events. Our news is filled with phony events and filled with propaganda.
Yikes. No wonder I feel like I’m watching Wag The Dog when I try to catch up on current events.
Watch: SpaceX’s Starship Prototype Dramatically Explodes On Launch Platform
The first beta test of Elon Musk’s “Starship” Mark 1 prototype didn’t quite go exactly as planned unless, of course, the plan was for it to explode on the launch pad. The prototype, which was built as a “pathfinder for SpaceX’s planned human-rated Starship rocket” literally saw its top explode during a pressurization test on Wednesday, according to CBS and – well, video that shows exactly that.
The winged rocket stage, which was being tested without its conical nose, sat upright on its stand releasing all kinds of smoke and vapor into the air after a tank ruptured. We’re sure Mr. Save-The-Environment-Musk will soon assure us that nothing toxic was released into the air as a result, right?
“It appeared that a lower bulkhead might have failed as well,” CBS noted in its obituary of the ship.
SpaceX amusingly played it off by saying it “wasn’t a serious setback” and – wait for it – that the outcome was “not unexpected”.
“The purpose of today’s test was to pressurize systems to the max, so the outcome was not completely unexpected. There were no injuries, nor is this a serious setback,” SpaceX said. SpaceX also said that despite Musk’s earlier comments about the prototype, they had made a decision not to fly the Mark 1.
Sure – we MEANT to do that!
Musk had previously said of the prototype: “This thing is going to take off, fly to 65,000 feet, about 20 kilometers, and come back and land in about one to two months. So that giant thing, it’s going to be pretty epic to see that thing take off and come back. … It’s wild.”
The Mark 1 is intended to eventually carry passengers and cargo to Earth orbit, the moon and Mars. It is powered by six methane burning Raptor engines and requires a huge booster called the “Super Heavy” to reach orbit. It is slated to eventually be about 400 feet tall is expected to replace SpaceX’s entire fleet of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
Have to get it off the ground first, though, Elon. We think Charley Grant of the Wall Street Journal said it best:
Roughly 23,000 years ago in modern-day Israel, a small tribe of ex-cave dwellers built a tiny village near the Sea of Galilee that may have been one of the earliest agrarian societies in human history.
Archaeologists discovered the site more than thirty years ago.
And they found tens of thousands of well-preserved seeds and agricultural tools, suggesting that the people who lived there planted a great deal of food in the fertile lands nearby.
As historian Will Durant once wrote, “the first culture is agriculture.” And he was right. Civilization as we know it has its foundations in agriculture.
When human beings came out of caves, stopped roaming the wild, and began planting seeds to feed their families and tribes, they were able to produce more food than they consumed for the first time in the history of our species.
And because it only took a handful of people to feed an entire village, everyone else was able pursue other vocations like architecture, science, mathematics, medicine, etc.
Freed from the daily toil of survival, our ancestors invented trade, commerce, writing, and everything else that fueled progress over the next 10,000 years.
And this simple concept of producing more than you consume has been the foundation of human prosperity for millennia.
It’s also one of the basic principles of capitalism. People who produce and save are supposed to be rewarded. People who irresponsibly go in to debt to consume are supposed to be punished.
But not anymore.
Back in 2014, the European Central Bank made history when they pushed interest rates into negative territory.
Literally never before in the history of the world had interest rates been negative. And little by little, those negative rates have been spreading.
A recent report published by the Financial Times showed that 60% of German banks are now passing on that negative interest to their customers.
In other words, if you save money, you have to pay the bank interest. And many banks are now starting to pay customers to borrow money.
This is totally upside down. Saving is penalized, and debt is rewarded.
But the breakdown in the system doesn’t stop there.
I’ve written extensively about how some of the most popular investments in the world are companies that lose enormous amounts of money and have no plan to consistently turn a profit… ever.
Uber, for example, lost a whopping $5.2 billion just in the second quarter of this year. WeWork has been a never-ending saga of burning through billions of dollars of investors’ capital.
Even Tesla and Netflix both continue to post multi-billion dollar cash flow losses.
Yet according to a recent Bloomberg survey, these are some of the most popular investments in the world.
It’s almost as if the more money these companies lose, the more desirable they are to Wall Street.
Again– totally upside down. A business is supposed to make money for its shareholders, or at least present a credible plan to eventually do so.
Curiously, though, there are now at least 181 CEOs of some of the largest companies in the United States– from Apple to JP Morgan– who say that driving shareholder value should no longer be the priority of business.
They have re-imagined the “purpose of a corporation” as “not the sole pursuit of profits, but the animating force for achieving them,” whatever the hell that means.
Even the Financial Times– formerly one of Britain’s only sane newspapers– has launched a new project with a tagline, “Capitalism: Time for a Reset”.
You can’t simply go into business to provide value to customers, employees, and shareholders anymore.
Now there has to be some woke purpose that involves diversity, the environment, and whatever else happens to be on the Bolshevik progressive agenda.
Shareholders are not even allowed to decide who should/should not run their own companies anymore.
Multiple countries (Belgium, India, Germany, Norway, Spain, France) and US states (California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey) have already passed some sort of legislation mandating diversity requirements on company boards.
So company director positions must now go to people based on the government’s pre-determined racial and gender criteria, and not to the people who shareholders think will do the best job.
(The criteria themselves are also absurd– women, African Americans, and Latinos are included, but Native Americans, trans people, and anyone who identifies as a seedless watermelon are excluded.)
This is all a total breakdown in the system.
And on top of everything else, of course, we have dozens of Bolshevik US Presidential candidates who are foaming at the mouth with hatred for capitalism and wealthy citizens.
The Bolsheviks want to confiscate wealth, nationalize entire industries, and engage in countless other social/economic programs that are ripped from the pages of the Communist Manifesto.
They despise billionaires in particular– 607 Americans who have generated trillions of dollars of economic activity, created millions of jobs, and donated hundreds of billions of dollars to charity.
Bill Gates uses his wealth to eradicate disease and save lives around the world.
Yet Elizabeth Warren thinks that the US government– the same institution that spent $2 billion to build a website– can deploy his capital more effectively.
These are the new rules of upside-down capitalism:
Debt is wealth
Loss is the new profit
‘Wokeness’ above all else
Rich people are evil
Socialism makes sense
It’s amazing how quickly this new reality took over… and I shudder to think how much more absurd it will become over the next few years.
Bonds, Stocks, Bitcoin, & Bullion All Drop As Trade-Deal Hope Tumbles
Up, down; buy, sell; impeach, don’t impeach; deal, no deal… it’s enough to make you go full Ari
Amid an avalanche of misdrecting headlines and statements on the trade-deal…
Source: Bloomberg
…the market has reduced its odds of a deal happening…
Source: Bloomberg
Chinese stocks extended their losses overnight but ChiNext remains green on the week…
Source: Bloomberg
European stocks ended the day lower despite a desperate rally effort after the early tumble…
Source: Bloomberg
US equities were red on the day led by Small Caps
S&P Futs pinned around 3100 once again as gamma dominates…
Rather notably, the aggregate return of bonds and stocks was negative today…
Source: Bloomberg
Each trade headline was met with a rapid momo ignition as algos attempted to squeeze shorts…
Source: Bloomberg
Vol has been collapsing of late but today we saw the VIX term structure notable flatten…
Source: Bloomberg
Is Equity risk starting to catch up to credit risk’s break?
Source: Bloomberg
Treasury yields rose 2-3bps across the curve today – despite equity weakness…
Source: Bloomberg
The Dollar managed gains for a second day, reversing overnight weakness during the US session once again…
Source: Bloomberg
Offshore Yuan also rallied today…
Source: Bloomberg
Cryptos were pummeled lower today…
Source: Bloomberg
With Bitcoin crashing below $7500 briefly intraday…
Source: Bloomberg
PMs drifted modestly lower today (USD strength) despite trade deal hope fading but oil prices continued to rip…
Source: Bloomberg
WTI surged above $58 on the heels of a Reuters report that OPEC and its allies, including Russia, are likely to agree to extend crude production cuts until mid-2020 when they meet next month…
And finally, we note that Buttigieg has overtaken Biden…
Source: Bloomberg
And just in case you heard someone claiming the equity rally is in tact because credit hasn’t shown any signs of cracking… that’s not true… the junkiest debt is blowing out drastically…
Source: Bloomberg
And then there’s the fun-durr-mentals – Bloomberg reports that The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has fallen three straight months, the worst streak since 2016.
Source: Bloomberg
“The major difference this month is the softening in the labor market, whereas conditions in manufacturing remain weak and show no signs of improvement yet,” Ataman Ozyildirim, senior director of economic research, said in a statement.
15 US Senators Demand President Trump To Halt Huawei License Approvals
Reuters is now reporting that more than a dozen US senators have demanded the Trump administration to halt the Commerce Department from issuing licenses to US firms that conduct business with Huawei.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration allowed some suppliers to restart sales with the Chinese telecom after it was placed on a blacklist for national security threats over the summer.
The Commerce Department started issuing licenses on Wednesday to some US firms to conduct business with Huawei. One US official told Reuters that 300 license requests were filed, and half of those requests were processed by late Wednesday. Another source told Reuters that most of the licenses were for sales of cell phone and non-electronic parts.
But by Thursday, a bipartisan group of 15 US senators had enough with President Trump’s games. They demanded the administration to halt the Commerce Department from issuing licenses immediately.
Senators wanted the administration to provide Congress with a detailed report outlining specific criteria for determining whether or not the approval of any license poses a national security threat.”
The letter was signed by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator Tom Cotton; the demands read: “congressional leaders “be notified prior to the issuance of any licenses to US firms to sell components to Huawei and its affiliates.”
Republicans Ben Sasse, John Cornyn, Josh Hawley, and Rick Scott and Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Ron Wyden, and Cory Booker also signed the letter.
President Trump has slammed Huawei for spying and put it on a trade blacklist over the summer after trade talks with China collapsed. The blacklist has prevented US firms from selling electrical components to Huawei unless granted special licenses.
The Trump administration has spent a great deal of effort in labeling Huawei as a national security threat but now wants companies to do business with the Chinese telecom. The idea behind granting licenses was to produce positive “trade optimism” and save stocks from rolling over.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, (R-SC) confirmed in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News that he is sending a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requesting the transcripts of three phone calls the senator said then-Vice President Joe Biden had with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Graham said the phone calls coincided with the time frame in which a Ukrainian prosecutor, once praised for going after the head of natural gas company Burisma Holdings – a person Graham said was known as the “dirtiest guy in Ukraine” by one top American official – was fired.
Burisma was the company on which Hunter Biden, the son of the 2020 Democratic candidate, sat on the board.
“I want to know are there any transcripts or readouts of the phone calls between the vice president and the president of Ukraine in February [2016] after the raid on the gas company president’s house,” said Graham.
“After this raid, Hunter Biden kicks in. Hunter Biden’s business partner meets with [then-Secretary of State] John Kerry, and Vice President Biden on three occasions makes a phone call to the president of Ukraine and goes over there in March and they fire the guy, and this is the same man that the ambassador wanted investigated in 2015.”
Graham added he found it “odd” that instead of lauding the Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, for investigating the Burisma chairman, he was instead relieved of his duties.
He said that in 2015, President Obama’s ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, said in a speech he wanted Shokin to be more forceful in his investigation of domestic corruption.
“The one person he named as being a sleazebag was the president of Burisma,” Graham remarked.
Amid Record Positioning, Something Just Snapped In The ‘Short-Vol-To-Zero’ Trade
Since The Fed unleashed ‘NotQE’, stocks have soared higher – ignoring every piece of bad news and clinging to the narrative that better-than-feared Q3 earnings, cherry-picked upside-surprises in economic data, and optimism that the worst of trade tensions could be behind us are driving the next leg in the ‘secular’ bull market. At the same time, amid soaring uncertainty, volatility expectations across multiple asset-classes have utterly collapsed.
FX, Equity, and Gold vols are crashing…
Source: Bloomberg
Despite an explosion in global policy uncertainty…
Source: Bloomberg
All thanks to global central banks’ boots on the throats of market uncertainty…
Source: Bloomberg
And as volatility expectations collapsed, so the greatest FOMO trade ever has emerged as traders have never been so short VIX futures…
Source: Bloomberg
Notably, however, Goldman points out that while the VIX has been low (closing at 12.7 on Monday), it has failed to drop below 2019’s low of 12, in part because of call-buying to chase the rally (falling short-dated skew is further evidence of this).
But that hasn’t stopped traders chasing the vol curve carry trade…
Sending the VIX term structure to its steepest since right before the XIVmageddon volpocalypse in early 2018…
Source: Bloomberg
As Nomura’s Charlie McElligott recently noted, a lot of this range-bound, low-vol trading has been driven by massive gamma exposures between S&P 3100 and 3150:
per SPX / SPY consolidated options, we see the $Gamma move incrementally lower as a function of yday’s lower close (from yesterday’s 94.0th %ile since 2013 to today’s 86.5th %Ile) but still stuck very “long,”while $Delta remains very “long” as well at +$427B and 97.5th %ile (barely adjusting lower from yesterday’s 99.0th %ile)—which is a “purge” risk alongside the 99th %ile $notional “long” held across US Equities futures (SPX, NDX, RTY) from Asset Managers.
The fact remains that SPX index will stay “sticky” up here btwn the enormous 3100- ($9.4B $Gamma) and 3150- ($8.4B $Gamma) strikes until the introduction of a fresh macro “shock-down” catalyst, as the current “Long $Gamma” does not “flip” until down at 3055, while the current “Long $Delta” would flip until even lower at 3030(both including this week’s expiries).
But, as one strategist puts it: “Even when you throw a ball against a wall, there’s a brief period when it stops.”
And today we are seeing something change… the volatility term structure has suddenly flattened…
Source: Bloomberg
Most notably at the short-end…
Source: Bloomberg
As it appears the market’s expectations for a trade deal are starting to fade…
Source: Bloomberg
For short vol positioning, the takeaway from this is that short vol can have its highest upside into year-end, but also carries above-normal risk, and as Goldman notes, each new high in the SPX has been coming with the VIX at a higher point, as the floor in SPX implied volatility has been drifting up.
The VIX was close to 13 when it crossed 3075, above its level when most new highs were set over the last three years.
Goldman expects a continued increase in the floor in vol over the coming months given the strong calendar of market-driving political developments.
And perhaps today’s sudden shift in the curve is the start of that repricing as VIX remains stubbornly below its realized vol…
HY risk is starting to signal a change also…
Source: Bloomberg
And with the massive extreme short-positioning, the next inflection could be very fast.
