Tag: finance

Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

Is this a sign of what is coming for the rest of the nation? 

In Martin County, Kentucky times are very tough right now.  Thanks to severe budget cutbacks, there are only two paid law enforcement officers covering a deeply impoverished 231-square-mile area that sits right in the heart of America’s raging opioid crisis.  Needless to say, Martin County Sheriff John Kirk feels greatly outnumbered by the thieves, sexual predators and drug dealers that he has to contend with on a daily basis, and he recently issued a very ominous warning to the citizens of his county…

Before making a wave of cutbacks across his department, Martin County Sheriff John Kirk delivered a grim warning to residents of this hardscrabble Appalachian community.

“Law enforcement as we have known for the last four years will not exist,” he posted on Facebook last month.

“WE ARE BROKE… LOCK YOUR DOORS, LOAD YOUR GUNS AND GET YOU A BARKING, BITING DOG. If the Sheriff’s office can’t protect you, WHO WILL?”

So why can’t Martin County afford more law enforcement officers?

Well, like so many other local communities all across America right now, they are deep in debt and flat broke…

The county has accumulated $1.4 million in debt — a surprise to many of its new officials.

“I don’t sleep well,” said Susan Hale, the county’s new treasurer, who is sifting through the bills left by the previous administration: $230,000 to a regional jail that houses its inmates, $140,000 to a state association that provides liability insurance, plus dribs and drabs for mundane items such as office supplies and toilet paper.

As economic conditions continue to deteriorate, we are going to hear a lot more stories like this all over the country.

And the truth is that things will ultimately be far worse in our major cities than in our rural areas.

Just take a look at Chicago.  Today it is a war zone, and the growing poverty in the city has fueled the rapid growth of criminal gangs.

According to a study conducted at the University of Illinois at Chicago, approximately half of the city was considered to be “middle income” in 1970, but now that number has dropped to just 16 percent…

UIC’s maps show that fully half of the city was middle income in 1970, including large swaths on every side of town. Today, just 16 percent of the city’s 797 census tracts are considered middle income. Those middle income areas are confined mostly to the corners of the city, and to thin strips between areas of wealth and poverty.

Those numbers are absolutely staggering.

Right now, there are about 12,000 law enforcement officers and more than 100,000 gang members in the city of Chicago.

That means that the gang members outnumber the police by an almost 10 to 1 margin.

Things are not quite as bad in other major cities, but trouble is definitely brewing.  For example, the murder rate in New York City is up 37 percent so far this year, and more gang members are moving in with each passing day.

Philadelphia has also seen the murder rate rise substantially, and this is something that Jim Quinn commented on in his most recent article…

Facts are always inconvenient to welfare state Democrats, but the ignorance of their constituents is what keeps them in power. The narrative of Philadelphia getting safer is obliterated by the 351 murders in 2018, up 43% since 2013, and the highest level since 2007.

Assaults involving a gun totaled 2,327, up 13% since 2014. There were over 14,000 violent crimes and 63,000 robberies and thefts in 2018. The vast majority of these crimes occur in West and North Philadelphia, as local news stories lead with multiple murders and shootings every night (average of 4 shootings per day).

If things are this bad already, what are things going to look like when economic conditions get really bad?

We live at a time when Americans are becoming increasingly pessimistic.  And even though economic conditions have been relatively stable in recent years, the combined national death rate from alcohol, drugs and suicide has been steadily rising…

Feelings of hopelessness and despair are overwhelming many in the U.S. So much so, that people are turning to alcohol, drugs, and suicide to numb the pain of their lives. Government enslavement and the stranglehold on the economy are making life even more difficult on those already struggling to get by. And this is seen in new death numbers released.

The national rate for deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicide rose from 43.9 to 46.6 deaths per 100,000 people in 2017, a 6 percent increase, the Trust for America’s Health and the Well Being Trust reported Tuesday. That was a slower increase than in the previous two years, but it was greater than the 4 percent average annual increase since 1999, reported USA Today.

The big reason why people are turning to alcohol, drugs and suicide to deal with the pain in their lives is because they don’t have any hope.  And as this country continues to literally fall apart all around us, unfortunately a lot more Americans are likely to give in to anxiety, depression and despair.

If we want to turn this nation around, we need to act now.

Illegal immigration has been one of the biggest factors behind the explosive growth of gang violence in America, and a new report in the Washington Times is telling us that the number of people trying to come across our borders illegally is currently at an all-time record high…

Illegal immigration continues to break records on the southwestern border — and they’re not good ones.

The number of families snared trying to sneak into the U.S. soared by 50 percent in one month alone, setting an all-time record with more than 36,000 family members apprehended, Homeland Security officials announced Tuesday.

The government has also encountered some 70 groups of at least 100 migrants during the first five months of the fiscal year, shattering records and placing new challenges on Border Patrol agents.

Bad choices lead to bad consequences, and we have been making really bad choices for a very long time.

If we are not able to reverse course as a nation, you may want to take Sheriff Kirk’s advice and “lock your doors, load your guns and get you a barking, biting dog”…

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

New statistics from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) show that homicides in the city have surged 37% in 2019.

Murders have spiked to over 50 in NYC year-to-date compared with just 38 in the same period last year. A chaotic Feburary, which had 24 homicides compared with 16 in February last year, helped transform some neighborhoods into warzones.

These statistics were released during a Monday press conference at NYPD headquarters in Lower Manhattan.

Police Commissioner James O’Neill said law enforcement and city officials have been able to suppress violent crime by making abrupt adjustments to policy on the fly.

“Conditions are ever-changing,” O’Neill said. “Every neighborhood has different dynamics that have to be individually addressed. We are always in the process of deploying the right type and amount of resources at the appropriate time and places.”

To combat the recent flare-up in violent crime, NYPD’s strategy will include strengthening gun prosecutions and expanding the CeaseFire Program that provides interventions to gang members, which will occur in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

“New York City has seen massive overall crime reductions over the years and I’m proud of the work our members on the ground do to continually focus – very precisely – on the real drivers of crime,” said O’Neill. “Through the next iteration of Neighborhood Policing, we are bringing together fellow city agencies, elected officials and neighborhood leaders to build trust, strengthen relationships and take action together to further drive down crime and violence.”

One such high-profile murder involved a man fatally shot at a subway station in Queens last month. Graphic video of the incident, which took place in broad daylight, went viral on social media. In an NYPD press conference, it was reported that the shooter was a 26-year-old MS-13 gang member.

Despite the wave of murders, the city’s overall crime rate was down 11% in February and down 9% for the year.

Robberies, burglaries, and grand theft auto have dropped between 10% and 14% this year. Felony assaults are down 8%, but rapes have skyrocketed by 19%, with 285 year-to-date compared with 240 in the same period last year. NYPD has attributed higher rapes with the #metoomovement.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Txfv6p Tyler Durden

Authored by Robert Bridge,

For the first time in years, the drumbeat of civil war has become audible across the United States. The nation looks destined to repeat history thanks to a media that is no longer able to objectively perform its job.

The predominantly left-leaning US media has just entered its third consecutive year of open warfare against Donald Trump. This non-stop assault risks aggravating political passions to the point where ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ snowballs into something completely beyond our ability to control. Like full-blown Civil War.

Over the weekend, the Washington Post, one of most prominent serial producers of partisan agitation, published an article entitled, ‘In America, talk turns to something unspoken for 150 years: Civil War’. The piece, which deftly places Democrats above the fray, opens with the following whiff of grapeshot:

“With the report by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III reportedly nearly complete, impeachment talk in the air and the 2020 presidential election ramping up… there’s talk of violence, mayhem and, increasingly, civil war,” the Bezos-owned paper forewarned.

CNN Asks What Would Happen If Trump Refuses to Accept Defeat in 2020 https://t.co/Rw1r0TqUrz

— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) February 24, 2019

With a level of audacity and self-righteousness that has become a trademark of the Left, not once did the article float the possibility that just maybe the mainstream media is complicit in the ongoing deterioration of political discourse, or that the Democrats are just as much to blame as the Republicans for the political fallout that now presents a grave risk to the Republic.

As many knowledgeable Americans will openly admit, battle lines have been drawn across the political and cultural frontier. This division is perhaps most conspicuous on social media, where friends and family who disagree with our political worldview get the ‘nuke option’ and are effortlessly vanquished (‘unfriended’) with the push of a button. This is a worrying development. The real danger will come when Americans from both sides of the political divide stop talking and start erecting electronic barriers around their political belief systems. Not even family members are spared from the tumult; just because people share the same bloodline does not automatically mean they share the same political views. America, though still green behind the ears, may understand that fact better than many other countries.

The United States has taken part in its fair share of military conflicts over the years, but its deadliest war to date has been the one that pitted Americans against each other. The so-called Civil War (1861-1865), waged between the North and South over the question of Southern secession from the Union, resulted in the death of some 620,000 soldiers from the Union and Confederate armies (and possibly as high as 850,000, according to other estimates).

Put another way, more Americans died in the Civil War than in all of the country’s other conflicts combined. For a country that has been at war for much of its existence that is a sobering fact.

With that historical footnote in mind, the mainstream media should better appreciate its responsibility for presenting an objective and balanced depiction of modern events. Yet nothing today would suggest that is the case. One need only look at the way it has blotched recent politically charged events – like the Covington High School and Jussie Smollett scandals, not to mention the ‘Russia collusion’ hoax – to say that something is seriously out of whack inside of the Fourth Estate. The muzzled mainstream media has simply lost its mind over Donald Trump and can no longer perform its duties with any discernible amount of objectivity.

Indeed, the US leader continues to serve as a piñata for the agenda-driven media, which takes daily swings at him and his administration – and despite the fact that his popularity remains very high among voters. Only on the fringes of the media world, in the far away land of Fox News and Breitbart, will the reader find level-headed reports on the American president. This is not to suggest, of course, that Trump is beyond criticism. Not at all. There is a lot not to like about the 45th president. At the same time, however, to assume that Trump and his administration is the root of all evil, as the media would lead us to believe, is not only ridiculous, it is outright dangerous.

With no loss of irony, a good example of the media bias against Trump can be found in the very Post article that frets over the outbreak of another Civil War. While everyone knows that it takes two to tango, you would never guess that by reading this piece. In the sheltered world of the Liberal-dominated media, ‘tango’ is a solo event where the political right is portrayed as engaged in a dance with itself, while the political left watches – innocuously, of course – from the sidelines.

Michael Cohen, for example, Trump’s turncoat personal lawyer who committed perjury by lying to Congress, was quoted high in the article as saying, “Given my experience working for Mr. Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power.”

Now that is certainly rich. Ever since Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election, Washington has been consumed by the Mueller investigation, and amid mindless chatter that Trump is an illegitimate president slated for impeachment. In other words, the last thing that can be said about the Democrats is that they facilitated a “peaceful transition of power.” In fact, they have hobbled Trump and his administration ever since he entered the Oval Office.

Another pro-Liberal voice dragged into the Civil War story was Robert Reich, who served on Barack Obama’s economic transition advisory board. The Post linked to an article Reich wrote last year where he posited the fictional scenario where an impeachment resolution against the president is enacted, thus kicking off mass civil strife on the direct command of dear leader.

“Trump claims it’s the work of the ‘deep state’”, according to Reich’s febrile imagination. “Sean Hannity of Fox News demands that every honest patriot take to the streets. Right-wing social media call for war. As insurrection spreads, Mr. Trump commands the armed forces to side with the ‘patriots.’”

“The way Mr. Trump and his defenders are behaving, it’s not absurd to imagine serious social unrest,” Reich continued. “That’s how low he’s taken us.”

Now that is some world-class chutzpah. In fact, it is the same self-righteous, ingratiating tone that weaves itself throughout the Post article. In keeping with the mainstream media’s non-stop narrative, Trump and the Republicans are blamed for everything that has gone wrong in the country, while the Democrats come off as little angels trying to piece the fractured country back together.

As already mentioned, Donald Trump is certainly not above criticism. Far from it. But for the mainstream media to place all of the blame for the current political malaise at the Republican’s door is about as responsible as lighting up a cigarette inside of a Chinese fireworks factory. The US media has an unmistakable agenda, and that is to make damn sure Trump is not reelected to another term in 2020. To that end, it has shown a devious willingness to betray all journalistic ethics and standards, which has the effect of increasing the political temperature to boiling point. It then points the finger of blame at the political right for the accumulated pile of pent-up tensions, which are ready to ignite at the first spark.

If the mainstream media continues to slavishly serve just one political master over another, it will only have itself to blame for what comes next. Its prejudiced and agenda-based reporting is a disgrace and really nothing short of a bona fide national security threat.

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

It’s not fair…

Chinese stocks are soaring but US markets are not…

 

Chinese stocks just won’t stop…

 

UK’s FTSE continues to bounce..

 

US equity markets were down notably today led by Small Caps – notably there was barely a bounce in today’s action…

 

Trannies are now down 9 days in a row – the longest losing streak since Feb 2009.

Small Caps are down around 3% this week – the worst 3-day drop since Dec 24 Mnuchin Massacre lows, breaking below the 200DMA…

 

S&P is now well below the key 2800 level…

 

GE was clubbed like a baby seal once again as the early year hype gives way to reality…(filling the gap from 1/30)

 

 

Notably credit markets have snapped decidedly wider in the last few days (HYG is down 5 days in a row)…

 

Credit decoupled from stocks once again…

 

Treasury yields were lower once again…

 

Erasing more of last week’s sell-off…

 

The Dollar Index (DXY) tested 97.00 once again and failed…but ended marginally higher (for the 6th day in a row)

 

EM FX suffered notably today…

As BRL, TRY, ARS, and MXN all got hit

Yuan was notably weaker overnight…

 

Cryptos clung on to yesterday’s gains and once again Litecoin was well bid…

 

Commodities were all modestly lower on the day…

 

WTI ended the day lower but the machines did not like the post-EIA inventory drop and bid oil back up…seemingly keen to keep WTI above $56…

 

 

Finally, is the delusion ending? Global money supply has started to rollover…

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2VI3QPG Tyler Durden

As his former boss struggles through the biggest crisis of his political career, Gerald Butts, who was until late last month the most influential aid to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, appeared before the Justice Committee of the Canadian House of Commons to rebut seemingly damning testimony given last week by Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former Canadian attorney general, who described a campaign of political pressure and “veiled threats” that she said skirted the lines of legality (though she clarified that she wasn’t accusing the prime minister or his henchmen of breaking the law).

During the latest development in the corruption drama that has captivated the Canadian public since an explosive report by the Globe and Mail set it off one month ago, Butts – who resigned in the wake of the allegations – defended the prime minister and insisted that Wilson-Raybould’s abrupt cabinet transfer (which was widely interpreted as a demotion) was unrelated to her decision to allow prosecution of Quebec-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin to continue.

Gerald Butts

Offering his own spin on “nothing to see here”, Butts told the committee “I am firmly convinced nothing happened beyond the normal operations of government”, adding that Trudeau and his office understood Wilson-Raybould would have the final word on the matter (though, of course, Butts’ decision to resign over the scandal would seem to undercut this). Butts, Trudeau and aides within the privy office and prime minister’s office were simply trying to encourage Wilson-Raybould to seek a “second opinion,” according to the BBC.

Butts admitted that Trudeau had encouraged Wilson-Raybould to consider offering SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution agreement that would allow the company to avoid serious penalties that could lead to more than 9,000 Canadians losing their jobs. Because of the jobs at risk, Butts insisted that Trudeau’s and his office’s involvement was a matter of public policy and was completely warranted.

“All we ever asked the attorney general to do was consider a second opinion,” Butts said.

In what sounded like a blatant attempt to undercut Wilson-Raybould’s credibility, Butts offered a dramatically different account of his interactions with the former AG. Whereas she told lawmakers that Butts had told her “there is not solution here that doesn’t involve some sort of interference”, he said his conversations with the AG on the subject of SNC-Lavalin had been relatively limited.

“That’s not what I said,” Butts said.

He then produced text messages between the two which suggested that they had been “friends”, and insisted that Wilson-Raybould didn’t complain about interference until after she had been moved to lead the Ministry of Veterans Affairs.

While Wilson framed the move as political retribution for her decision not to ignore the Trudeau government’s advice, Butts said he had proof that this was definitively not the case. He explained that Trudeau moved her to lead the department after the retirement of another cabinet official because he believed she was “the only one who could handle” managing the ministry.

Butt’s full statement has been published online, and can be found here.

His testimony comes just days after Treasury board chairwoman Jane Philpott resigned because she could no longer support the Trudeau government in good conscience. Meanwhile, two investigations into Trudeau’s involvement in the affair, one by the Canadian government ethics office, and one by the Commons, are underway. While Liberals have (mostly) circled the wagons, the leader of the conservative opposition has called on Trudeau to resign.

For those who are only just becoming acquainted with the SNC-Lavalin scandal, which has already destroyed the Liberal Party’s lead in the polls ahead of a crucial election in October, here’s a quick explainer courtesy of the Financial Times:

What is SNC-Lavalin accused of?

Global engineering and construction management company SNC-Lavalin is facing charges of fraud and corruption in relation to payments worth C$47.7m made to Libyan officials between 2001 and 2011 under Muammer Gaddafi’s regime. If convicted, the company would be banned from bidding for federal government contracts for a decade.

SNC-Lavalin had hoped that the charges would be settled through a so-called deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), whereby, instead of a criminal trial, the company would pay a fine, enforce compliance measures and retain the ability to bid for contracts.

The company had lobbied federal officials for a DPA in more than 80 meetings between 2016 and 2017, according to the Globe and Mail, a Canadian national newspaper. In October 2018, Canada’s director of the public prosecution service refused to negotiate a DPA with SNC-Lavalin, a decision the company appealed against.

How is Trudeau involved?

In February, the Globe and Mail reported that in the autumn of 2018, Mr Trudeau’s office had “attempted to press” Ms Wilson-Raybould, then Canada’s attorney-general and minister of justice, to intervene in the SNC-Lavalin prosecution case to secure a DPA. In testimony to Canada’s parliamentary justice committee last week, Ms Wilson-Raybould said that she had “experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere” in her handling of the case. She said it was “an inappropriate effort to secure a deferred prosecution agreement with SNC-Lavalin”.

Mr Trudeau was part of the intervention, Ms Wilson-Raybould told the justice committee. She said he had asked her to “find a solution” that would avoid SNC-Lavalin having to cut jobs or move from Montreal. Mr Trudeau has challenged her account and has denied any improper attempt to help the company avoid criminal prosecution. Ms Wilson-Raybould was named minister of veterans affairs in a cabinet reshuffle in January. She resigned a month later, following the publication of the Globe and Mail report. Days later, Gerald Butts, Mr Trudeau’s longtime senior adviser, also resigned, and on Monday, Jane Philpott, a senior cabinet minister close to Ms Wilson-Raybould stepped down, saying that she had “lost confidence in how the government has dealt with this matter”.

What does this mean for Trudeau?

Mr Trudeau said that the conversations with Ms Wilson-Raybould about the SNC-Lavalin case were within the rules. Ms Wilson-Raybould echoed this in her testimony, saying the pressure she experienced was “incredibly inappropriate” but not illegal. The controversy, however, continues to escalate and threatens to overshadow Mr Trudeau’s bid for re-election. His approval ratings had slipped dramatically since he took office in 2015 and recent polls show his ruling Liberal party neck and neck with the opposition Conservatives.

Though it’s likely Trudeau will hang on the premiership for now (that is, unless some new evidence contradicting his story surfaces), it’s looking increasingly likely that Canadians will reject Trudeau’s Liberal agenda at the polls in October and boot the political scion out of office after just one term.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2tQ6Qxq Tyler Durden

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

We now have official confirmation that the U.S. economy has dramatically slowed down. 

In recent days I have shared a whole bunch of numbers with my readers that clearly demonstrate that a new economic downturn has begun.  And even though stock prices have been rising, the numbers for the “real economy” have been depressingly bad lately.  But what we didn’t have was official confirmation from the Federal Reserve that the economy is really slowing down, but now we do.  According to the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model, the economy is growing “at a 0.3 percent annualized rate in the first quarter”…

The U.S. economy is growing at a 0.3 percent annualized rate in the first quarter, based on data on domestic construction spending in December released on Monday, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow forecast model showed.

For years, the goal has been to get U.S. growth above the key 3 percent threshold, but what this forecast is telling us is that economic growth is currently at one-tenthof that level.

That is just barely above recession territory.

So when I say that we are teetering on the brink of a recession, I am not exaggerating.

We also just got some really bad news about construction spending…

Construction spending fell 0.6% in December from November, based on a seasonally adjusted annual rate, released today by the Commerce Department. Compared to December a year earlier, total construction spending inched up only 0.8% (not seasonally adjusted), the lowest growth rate since Oct 2011, coming out of the great recession.

Now we can add that to the list of all the other numbers that are telling us that very rough times are ahead.

Meanwhile, debt levels in the U.S. just continue to explode.

According to the latest report, Americans now have 480 million credit cards.  That is about 100 million more than during the last recession.

In other words, there are about 1.5 credit cards for every man, woman and child in the entire country.

The total amount of credit card debt in the United States has now reached a whopping $870,000,000,000.  That number has never been higher in the history of our nation.

And when you total up all forms of individual debt, U.S. consumers are now 13.5 trillion dollars in the hole.

Corporate debt levels are exploding as well, and this is something that Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan warned about on Tuesday…

U.S. nonfinancial corporate debt consists mostly of bonds and loans. This category of debt, as a percentage of gross domestic product, is now higher than in the prior peak reached at the end of 2008, Kaplan said.

A number of studies have concluded this level of credit could “potentially amplify the severity of a recession,” he noted.

The lowest level of investment-grade debt, BBB bonds, has grown from $800 million to $2.7 trillion by year-end 2018. High-yield debt has grown from $700 million to $1.1 trillion over the same period. This trend has been accompanied by more relaxed bond and loan covenants, he added.

Overall, corporate debt has more than doubled since the last financial crisis, and that is just one of the reasons why our financial system is far more vulnerable today than it was just before the last financial crisis.

This week we also learned that the federal budget deficit is exploding as well.  The following comes from Business Insider…

According to a report from the Treasury Department released Tuesday, the budget deficit — that is the difference between what the federal government takes in and what it spends — hit $310 billion in the first four months of fiscal year 2019.

Fiscal years for the federal government run October through September, so the data reflects the shortfall from October 2018 through January 2019. Based on the data, the deficit increased by 77% compared to the same period the prior year.

A 77 percent increase in one year?

I don’t even have the words to describe how foolish this is.

We are on pace to add way over a trillion dollars to the national debt this year, and one of the big things fueling this horrific debt binge is our rapidly expanding interest payments…

Finally, and perhaps most concerning, is that for the first four months of this fiscal year, interest payments on the U.S. national debt hit $192 billion, $17 billion, or 10% more than in the same four-month period last year and the most interest ever paid in the first third of the fiscal year. As Reuters’ Jeoff Hall points out, annualizing the $192BN interest expense means that the interest on U.S. public debt is on track to reach a record $575 billion this fiscal year, more than the entire budget deficit in FY 2014 ($483 BN) or FY 2015 ($439 BN), and equates to 2.7% of estimated GDP, the highest percentage since 2011.

But according to the proponents of modern monetary theory (MMT), we can spend as much money as we want because “deficits almost never matter”…

Because MMT holds that government spending isn’t funded by taxes, the Green New Deal doesn’t include any measures to finance the very large, open-ended fiscal commitments it would undertake. According to MMT economists, the only possible danger from the resultant government debt would be inflation, which can usually be controlled with tools other than raising taxes. In other words, deficits almost never matter. So confident are they of their theory’s universal applicability that MMT proponents often respond to their critics with scorn.

If you can believe it, there are actually members of Congress that believe this stuff.  Of course the truth is that our national debt is an existential threat to the continued existence of our nation, and this is a point that I have made repeatedly.

The U.S. economy was in far better shape just prior to the financial crisis of 2008 than it is now, and today we are drowning in far more debt than we were at that time.

The stage is set for the most terrifying economic horror show in American history, and the clock is ticking away with each passing day.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2H2Ypaz Tyler Durden

The backlash against Captain Marvel has reached a boiling point ahead of Friday’s premiere, after star Brie Larson slammed the number of white male movie critics reviewing her films – while others have taken issue with the feminist marketing campaign behind Marvel’s “big feminist movie.”

The ensuing flood of complaints against both Larson and Marvel Studios resulted in a 28% drop in box office projections, while popular movie review site Rotten Tomatoes made site-wide changes, removing their “Want To See” feature from the website. 

Larson’s “Social Justice Warrior” (SJW) supporters have branded the backlash as a classic case of misogyny; men who simply can’t stand a strong female lead in a superhero movie – however this analysis falls short in light of the overwhelming popularity of hollywood productions such as the Resident Evil, Alien and Kick Ass franchises, not to mention the Hunger Games, the Fifth Element – and of course, badass heroine Sarah Connor from the Terminator series. 

Enter the “Alita Challenge”

Combating the SJWs is a new social media campaign created by comic fans who just want to watch an agenda-free action movie. Dubbed the “Alita Challenge” and operating under the hashtag #AlitaChallenge, moviegoers are encouraged to ditch Friday’s premiere of Captain Marvel and instead see Alita: Battle Angel – an adaptation of the popular Japanese cyberpunk manga series which features a female lead, yet doesn’t include a “girl-power” agenda or feminist marketing. What’s more, while Alita star Rosa Salazar is no fan of President Trump, she hasn’t denounced 30% of the US population. 

In describing the Alita Challenge, OANN‘s Jack Posobiec explains that Disney, which owns Marvel, has been cramming “SJW bullcrap” down people’s throats – noting they “did it to Star Wars,” and the Avengers – and now they’re doing it with Captain Marvel.

“We’re going to stop giving money to people who hate us,” says Posobiec, who wants movie studios to leave their politics at the door. 

This Friday March 8

Send a message to SJW Hollywood

Take the #AlitaChallenge pic.twitter.com/rY9zIvxADp

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) March 4, 2019

Skip Captain Marvel, see Alita instead 😀#AlitaChallenge pic.twitter.com/1yQn052CcG

— Mike Gongolf (@MGongolf) March 4, 2019

#AlitaBattleAngel derails #CaptainMarvel by making it where Disney’s using third-wave feminism as a marketing gimmick a joke, potentially affecting what could be a $20 billion franchise.

Go see it again! #AlitaChallenge pic.twitter.com/EB6BVJCdQi

— Jyn Erso: Battle Angel (@JynErsoRogue1) March 4, 2019

Note the demos on the mixed Captain Marvel reviews

This is supposed to be CAPTAIN FEMINIST: THE MOVIE and even female reviewers only gave it a 7/10

You know why? Because people are sick of ANY POLITICS in their movies #AlitaChallenge pic.twitter.com/RHDmVI8EeP

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) March 6, 2019

The #AlitaChallenge isn’t the first challenge to the toxic femininity surrounding Captain Marvel – as conservative actor James Woods tweeted on Sunday: “When you have a choice, pick a movie where the studio doesn’t hate half its audience…“

When you have a choice, pick a movie where the studio doesn’t hate half its audience… pic.twitter.com/69I3QuCxt3

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) March 3, 2019

Many have also noted that Rotten Tomatoes professional critics have widely panned Alita despite an incredibly high audience score, while giving Captain Marvel rave reviews. 

Thats it. If you had any doubts that the movie critics were bought and paid for. #AlitaChallenge see #AlitaBattleAngel pic.twitter.com/y7ftVSktIU

— Atreides🕇🚵 (@JeffCallahan75) March 5, 2019

Perhaps it should also be noted that the Hollywood Reporter said Captain Marvel is “Mundane” and “marked by unimaginative plotting, cut-rate villains, a bland visual style and a lack of elan in every department.”

Of course, the Hollywood Reporter‘s Todd McCarthy is a white male… and may not be looking for a “her-o”

 

Trailers for both movies can be seen below. Of note, Alita‘s has 129,000 thumbs up vs. 5,700 thumbs down, while Captain Marvel has 1 million thumbs up vs. 93,000 thumbs down.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2u1ZB5P Tyler Durden

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Although many declared the deceleration in the economy in December to be a “soft patch” that we’ve somehow recovered from, others aren’t so sure.  The rest of the global economy is slowing down and sinking at a fairly rapid rate, and the U.S. economy will likely go with it.

According to a report by Forbes, there is no “economic immunity” for the United States once the global economy is in tatters. The report points to many problems in the global marketplace that could signal a major downturn for the economy pushing the U.S. ever closer to an unavoidable recession. When the U.S. consumer goes on strike (quits buying things for any reason), the odds of a recession skyrocket. So, it would behoove market watchers to stop ignoring the growing potential for a significant economic slowdown.

Japan’s latest employment data was very poor while China’s high and rising bond defaults are still showing a contraction although the February number (49.9 PMI – still slightly in contraction) moved up from the 48.3 January disaster. Other problems are arising in the Eurozone as well.  The manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) of 49.3 is the lowest since 2013.  The latest U.S. trade deficit number was a record -$79.5 billion.  Exports fell -2.8%. This confirms the weakness in foreign economies. Perhaps the only good news is that Germany did show decent January retail sales growth. That means consumers spent more of their disposable income.

The U.S. did not fare well when it came to auto sales either.  New car sales in February were at an 18-month low. Part of the problem is that new and used car prices are now at record highs, and bank credit has tightened making getting into a brand new vehicle simply too expensive for many. A report earlier in February also indicated that auto loan delinquencies are now at highs seen right before the Great Recession.

Just on the heels of the United States government’s debt surpassing $2 trillion comes the news that there are now a record number of Americans who are behind on their record high car payments. According to CNBC, more than 7 million Americans are at least 90 days behind on their auto loans, according to the New York Fed. This is a major concern, considering the average car payment in the U.S. is now $523. –SHTFPlan

Forbes states that it may be too soon to come to the conclusion that the U.S. has made it through the “soft patch,” or December of 2018’s market downturn.

Remember, it’s a lag, not a decoupling…

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

The body of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was never recovered because it was incarnated in a large outdoor oven at the Saudi consulate general’s residence in Istanbul, Turkey, a new Al Jazeera report revealed.

The 2-minute special debuted Monday on Al Jazeera Arabic and showed pictures of the large oven in the courtyard of the Saudi consulate general’s residence. Al Jazeera spoke with the builder of the oven who said it “had to be deep and withstand temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius — hot enough to melt metal.”

Cremation of a dead body occurs at temperatures reaching between 1400 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. The extreme heat reduces the body to its basic elements and dried bone fragments. The process usually takes place in a cremation chamber, but in this case, could have taken place in a Saudi outdoor oven.

According to the Al Jazeera report, Turkish authorities monitored the body burning from outside the residence. They recorded large suitcases, thought to contain Khashoggi’s dismembered body, carried inside. They said the cremation took place over three days.

On the third day, the cover-up began: “Large quantities of barbeque meat were grilled in the oven after the killing in order to cover up the cremation,” Turkish authorities told Al Jazeera.

The allegation in the Al Jazeera report coincides with another report from Anadolu, Turkey’s state-run TV station, which in February cited a police report that said Khashoggi’s body was turned to dust at the consulate.

Turkish police searched for Khashoggi’s body for about one month after his disappearance on October 2, 2018.

The only trace of evidence investigators found was Khashoggi’s blood on the walls of the Saudi consul’s office after removing fresh paint.

The Al Jazeera report was based on interviews with law enforcement officials, politicians, and some of Khashoggi’s Turkish friends.

Khashoggi was a major critic of Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed, he entered the consulate in Istanbul to pick up paperwork, but he never came out.

The Saudis initially insisted Khashoggi left the consulate alive before completely modifying their account and admitted the journalist was killed inside.

A US intelligence report stressed that MBS likely ordered Khashoggi’s killing – an allegation Saudi Arabia denies.

United Nation’s special rapporteur Agnes Callamard, who is overseeing the investigation into the murder, called it “a brutal and premeditated killing, planned and perpetrated by officials of the state of Saudi Arabia.”

The international investigation started earlier this year, could release a bombshell report by June.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2H7m6yC Tyler Durden

Canada’s largest grain processor said Tuesday that Beijing has canceled its registration to ship canola seed to China, fueled by the arrest of a top executive for the Chinese tech giant Huawei, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The move suggests that rising diplomatic tensions between China and Canada are damaging commerce between the two countries. Tensions have already crushed hopes that senior officials in Ottawa and Beijing would develop further trade ties.

The import ban against Richardson International Ltd. is due to a series of Chinese non-compliance notices declaring some shipments of canola seed from Canada were contaminated with “hazardous pests.” Canadian officials disputed that claim.

“I am very concerned by what we’ve heard has happened to Richardson. We do not believe there’s any scientific basis for this,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said in Montreal.

“We are working very, very hard with the Chinese government on this issue.”

Revoking the import license comes as Canada is advancing an extradition hearing for Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. She was arrested in early December by the Canadain government at the request of the Trump administration, where she was wanted on fraud charges. 

The Canola Council of Canada, located in Winnipeg, told the Journal that Richardson is a major player in the country’s canola seed to China.

Derek Brewin, a professor of agriculture economics at the University of Manitoba, said the Canadian agricultural and food manufacturing company easily controls 20% of total Canadian export capacity for grains and oilseeds.

The canola council said 40% of the industry’s exports end up in China.

Canada’s agriculture department said the country’s top agricultural export to China is canola seed, with sales valued at $2.05 billion per annum.

A spokesman for the council said, “We are aware of challenges our exporters have faced shipping to China—these are concerning as they create instability and add costs.”

The Journal didn’t say, but the ban went into effect March 01 – as per a document of approved shippers was published on the website of the Chinese customs administration.

The vice president of Richardson told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) that their troubles with the Chinese are due to Wanzhou’s arrest.

“We think this is part of a larger Canada-China issue, and we hope it gets resolved expeditiously,” Jean-Marc Ruest told CBC.

China’s ban on Candian canola hits western Canada the hardest. 

Front-month contracts for Canola Vancouver have plummeted by more than 17% since China’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural exports last summer. 

The industry is worried that canola prices might collapse further, which could spark a farm crisis, similar to what is occurring in the US.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2NJr7hc Tyler Durden