Tag: news

Sarah Silverman Has Been Canceled

Sarah Silverman is canceled. The actress and comedian told Bill Simmons that she was recently fired from a movie after a picture surfaced from a 2007 episode of The Sarah Silverman Show in which she wore blackface.

Silverman acknowledges that it was wrong. The costuming choice was part of a sketch in which she and a scene partner sought to explore the complexities of racial identity by comedically probing whether or not it was harder to be black or Jewish. But it didn’t sit well with her after the fact, and she said she will spend “the rest of [her] life” trying to make it right.

That wasn’t good enough for the team on this new film. Silverman didn’t elaborate on her firing other than to say she was kicked off the project the night before it was to begin. But she did have choice words for the emergence of cancel culture, calling it a “perversion”—one that is pushed primarily by the left and used by the right when convenient.

“It’s like, if you’re not on board, if you say the wrong thing, if you had a tweet once, everyone is, like, throwing the first stone,” Silverman said. “It’s really, ‘Look how righteous I am and now I’m going to press refresh all day long to see how many likes I get in my righteousness.'”

And that righteousness, see says, leaves no room for growth. Instead of challenging people to be better, cancel culture boots people from polite society without the opportunity for explanation or redemption. Silverman, meanwhile, sees herself as someone who has changed with the times and thus deserves a second chance.

“There was so much I didn’t know,” she said. “I knew there was racism, I knew that there was and I wanted to illuminate that in some way in comedy. But I didn’t know that cops were killing black people and unarmed black teenagers on the regular, and that changed me forever.”

That Silverman has legitimately learned from her mistakes is most evident in the fact that it was Silverman who drew attention to it during an interview with GQ last year.

“I don’t stand by the blackface sketch. I’m horrified by it, and I can’t erase it. I can only be changed by it and move on,” she told the magazine. “That was such liberal-bubble stuff, where I actually thought it was dealing with racism by using racism. I don’t get joy in that anymore. It makes me feel yucky. All I can say is that I’m not that person anymore.”

On Simmons’ podcast, the actress also lamented right-wing figures who adopt cancel culture as a means to get revenge on the left. She mentioned that offensive comments from a comedy routine have been taken out of context by her foes as if she’d used them in a “press conference,” and noted that the proceeding outrage inspired a Florida pastor to call for her death.

An outspoken organizer and activist for left-leaning causes, Silverman is perhaps an unlikely victim of cancel culture. She has consistently tried to rally civic engagement around Democratic politicians, particularly as one of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I–Vt.) more high-profile supporters during the 2016 election. But Silverman’s recent brush with righteous intolerance is a reminder that the mob does not discriminate. One strike, and you’re out.

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Sarah Silverman Has Been Canceled

Sarah Silverman is canceled. The actress and comedian told Bill Simmons that she was recently fired from a movie after a picture surfaced from a 2007 episode of The Sarah Silverman Show in which she wore blackface.

Silverman acknowledges that it was wrong. The costuming choice was part of a sketch in which she and a scene partner sought to explore the complexities of racial identity by comedically probing whether or not it was harder to be black or Jewish. But it didn’t sit well with her after the fact, and she said she will spend “the rest of [her] life” trying to make it right.

That wasn’t good enough for the team on this new film. Silverman didn’t elaborate on her firing other than to say she was kicked off the project the night before it was to begin. But she did have choice words for the emergence of cancel culture, calling it a “perversion”—one that is pushed primarily by the left and used by the right when convenient.

“It’s like, if you’re not on board, if you say the wrong thing, if you had a tweet once, everyone is, like, throwing the first stone,” Silverman said. “It’s really, ‘Look how righteous I am and now I’m going to press refresh all day long to see how many likes I get in my righteousness.'”

And that righteousness, see says, leaves no room for growth. Instead of challenging people to be better, cancel culture boots people from polite society without the opportunity for explanation or redemption. Silverman, meanwhile, sees herself as someone who has changed with the times and thus deserves a second chance.

“There was so much I didn’t know,” she said. “I knew there was racism, I knew that there was and I wanted to illuminate that in some way in comedy. But I didn’t know that cops were killing black people and unarmed black teenagers on the regular, and that changed me forever.”

That Silverman has legitimately learned from her mistakes is most evident in the fact that it was Silverman who drew attention to it during an interview with GQ last year.

“I don’t stand by the blackface sketch. I’m horrified by it, and I can’t erase it. I can only be changed by it and move on,” she told the magazine. “That was such liberal-bubble stuff, where I actually thought it was dealing with racism by using racism. I don’t get joy in that anymore. It makes me feel yucky. All I can say is that I’m not that person anymore.”

On Simmons’ podcast, the actress also lamented right-wing figures who adopt cancel culture as a means to get revenge on the left. She mentioned that offensive comments from a comedy routine have been taken out of context by her foes as if she’d used them in a “press conference,” and noted that the proceeding outrage inspired a Florida pastor to call for her death.

An outspoken organizer and activist for left-leaning causes, Silverman is perhaps an unlikely victim of cancel culture. She has consistently tried to rally civic engagement around Democratic politicians, particularly as one of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I–Vt.) more high-profile supporters during the 2016 election. But Silverman’s recent brush with righteous intolerance is a reminder that the mob does not discriminate. One strike, and you’re out.

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The Big Pharma Takeover Of Medical Cannabis

Submitted by Visual Capitalist

As evidence of cannabis’ many benefits mounts, so does the interest from the global pharmaceutical industry, known as Big Pharma. The entrance of such behemoths will radically transform the cannabis industry—once heavily stigmatized, it is now a potentially game-changing source of growth for countless companies.

Today’s infographic comes to us from CB2 Insights, and explores how and why the notorious Big Pharma are interested in the nascent cannabis industry.

Who are “Big Pharma”?

The term refers to some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, considered especially influential as a group. To give a sense of their sheer size, the market cap of the top 10 Big Pharma companies is $1.7 trillion—Johnson & Johnson being the largest, with a market capitalization of $374 billion.

So far, Big Pharma has watched the cannabis industry from the sidelines, deterred by regulatory concerns. What we are seeing now is the sleeping giant’s takeover slowly intensifying as more patents, partnerships, and sponsored clinical trials come to fruition.

Could Cannabis be Sold Over the Counter?

The cannabis plant has been used in medicine for 6,000 years. However, there is still considerable debate around the role it plays in healthcare today. There are currently almost 400 active and completed clinical trials worldwide surrounding cannabidiol (CBD), a type of cannabinoid that makes up 40% of the cannabis plant’s extract.

Cannabis relies on CBD’s therapeutic properties, and recent studies suggest it may be useful in combating a variety of health conditions, such as:

  • Epilepsy
  • Schizophrenia
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Migraines
  • Arthritis
  • Cancer side effects

As of 2019, 33 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for medical use. Its potential for pain management has led some experts to recommend it as an alternative to addictive painkillers, with one study of 13 states showing opiate-related deaths decreasing by over 33% in the six years since medical cannabis was legalized.

As the industry evolves, data is becoming increasingly important in understanding the potential of cannabis—both as a viable medical treatment, and as a recreational product. The shift away from anecdotal evidence towards big data will inform future policies, and give rise to a new era of consumer education.

Big Pharma’s Foray into Cannabis

Further legalization of cannabis will challenge Big Pharma’s bottom line, and poach more than $4 billion from pharma sales annually. In fact, medical cannabis sales are projected to reach $5.9 billion in 2019, from an estimated 24 million patients.

Seven of Canada’s top 10 cannabis patent holders are major multinational pharmaceutical companies, a trend that is not unique to Canada.

It comes as no surprise that many pharmaceutical giants have already formed strong partnerships with cannabis companies, such as Novartis and Tilray, who will develop and distribute medical cannabis together in legal jurisdictions around the world.

Data is the Missing Link

While the body of knowledge about the many uses of cannabis continue to grow, clinical evidence is key for widespread adoption.

Products backed by data will be a defining criteria for major companies to come into the market en masse. And ultimately, Big Pharma’s entry could accelerate public understanding and confidence in cannabis as a viable option for a range of ailments, and mark the next major milestone for the industry.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/31D61qz Tyler Durden

One Trader Stands To Make $3.5 Billion If Powell Launches QE In The Next 2 Months

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

First the Fed eased, but since it was just a 25bps cut framed as a “mid-cycle adjustment”, it disappointed the market which promptly plunged.

Immediately after, Trump realized that to force a bigger rate cut from the Fed, he has to escalate the trade war with China and destabilize the global economy. He did that by threatening to impose tariffs on the remaining $300BN in Chinese imports, and the market promptly plunged some more.

Then, in a remarkable reversal, hoping to halt the drop in the market, Trump delayed the imposition of most of the consumer-focused tariffs, which helped spark a dramatic market rebound, which however was quickly offset by the 2s10s yield curve – also known as the “recession radar” – inverting, German GDP contracting and China posting the worst manufacturing print in 17 years, and the market crashed.

So with the countdown to a recession officially started, China’s economy reeling and credit-creation engine sputtering, Europe on the verge of a double whammy of economic and political crisis courtesy of Germany and Italy, is a bear market now inevitable?

The answer, at least according to one trader, is a resounding no, because as Bloomberg first reported, an unknown trader just put on a call spread trade on the SPY ETF that stands to make a gargantuan profit if the market surges by 10% by October 18.

Whether this is a bet on Trump amicably concluding trade war with China in just over 8 weeks, or far more likely, that Powell will launch QE in the coming weeks, is unclear, but what we do know is that the biggest trade among U.S.-listed option contracts on woeful Wednesday was a call spread where one investor bought a lot of $315 October calls…

…. and sold $320 October calls on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF.

The trade, according to Bloomberg, amounted to the equivalent of 11 million shares and positions for the ETF to rally about 10%, and was partially funded by selling the $270-$276 put spread on the equivalent of 1.1 million shares.

The punchline: if the S&P500 surges to where the $315 SPY calls end up in the money and are fully exercised, the trade will yield a net position of about $3.5 billion for the investor.

In other words, if Powell folds to presidential pressure and goes all-in to support stocks by launching QE in the next two months, at least one trader will be able to retire very soon.

Of course, if Trump fails to deliver world peace and if Powell disappoints and only cuts another 25bps in the coming months, and stocks plummet, the trade may be stuck working for a long, long time due to his substantial downside risk. 

“While the call spread on the surface looks bullish, being short the downside put spread makes this a very risky trade,” said Alon Rosin, Oppenheimer’s head of institutional equity derivatives. Additionally the strategy could also potentially be a hedge against a large portfolio of shorts and help offset a quick market surge, he said.

While nowhere near as aggressive, in recent days both Goldman and JPMorgan – which have S&P year-end targets of 3,100 and 3,200 respectively – have urged their clients to use index calls to bet on a rebound in the S&P500. That in itself virtually assures that such a dramatic move in the index is unlikely as the banks’ own traders are positioning in the opposite direction, and would do anything to avoid substantial payouts to clients.

In any case, whatever the trader’s underlying motive, one thing is certain: if the Fed does go ahead and announce a new round of asset purchases (i.e. QE), not only will Trump be delighted, but this massively levered bullish trade could end up being one of the most profitable in history. And finally for all those who think there is no chance the Fed will shock the market and unveil QE4, we remind readers that first Bank of America and then JPMorgan both predicted that the Fed may have no choice but to launch QE in the coming weeks as a result of an unprecedented drain in liquidity resulting from the Treasury’s accelerate rebuild of its $350 billion cash balance, which as we saw in yesterday’s “terrible” 52-week auction – and today’s stock market plunge – is already starting to hurt the overall market.

Of course, there is a far simpler reason why the Fed may launch QE soon: the market crashes in the next several days.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2H6Vz2R Tyler Durden

When a ‘Controlled Buy’ Turns Into a Daytime Parking Lot Shootout

On a typical sunny Tuesday afternoon, Northland Plaza on busy McKnight Road in the affluent Pittsburgh-area suburb of Ross Township is buzzing with people. Big Lots is full of daytime shoppers, parents are taking their young children to summer dance classes at Cynthia’s School of Dance, and toddlers are taking advantage of a rare sunny day in Western Pennsylvania by playing on the playground outside of their day care. 

But on July 23, the parking lot was the scene of a botched a drug bust resulting in a shootout between the suspect and undercover agents. The suspect was killed and an undercover agent was shot. 

A witness described the scene as “chaos” with shoppers inside Big Lots reportedly barricading the door with a refrigerator in an effort to protect themselves from gunfire. A 34-year-old mother said her children were rushed inside the daycare building when shots rang out. Four-year-olds were ushered away from windows and huddled into corners as gunfire erupted outside. In the aftermath, frantic parents drove past a gray sedan and a gold SUV surrounded by crime scene tape, both vehicles with bullet holes through the windows.

Why did Pennsylvania’s top law enforcement agency choose this spot for an armed confrontation with a low-level drug dealer?

“Look, this work is dangerous work and we don’t get to dictate the terms of every location where we meet,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D–Pa.) said dismissively in response to questions during a press conference. 

But that’s simply not true. I know, because I was a major crimes detective for nearly a decade.

Parking lots are routinely chosen by police to conduct drug busts because it is easy to hide surveillance vehicles in a crowded parking lot. In training classes for undercover operations, instructors often recommend conducting drug buys in parking lots for this very reason. 

At the Ross shopping center, officers were conducting an “undercover buy/bust operation” when the suspect opened fire on one of the undercover agents, according to Allegheny County Police Superintendent Coleman McDonough. Buy/bust operations are preferred by many police agencies because they are efficient. They typically result in a quick arrest and ensure a successful prosecution because of the large amount of evidence uncovered in a short period of time. In a buy/bust, you have the testimony of surveillance officers, the testimony of the undercover officers making the buy as well as evidence such as marked bills. Buy/busts save money because they do not involve lengthy investigations. 

But buy/bust operations are also notoriously dangerous due to the “shock and awe” aspect of the arrest; they usually involve several screaming cops with guns drawn ordering the arrestee to the ground. This danger is magnified when the undercover officers attempt to make the arrest themselves, because the subject likely doesn’t even realize he or she is dealing with police, as robbery is common in drug transactions.

In this case, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office chose to conduct the most dangerous type of drug bust, using undercover agents to make the arrest—despite having other options.

Buy/bust operations are typically used when the identity of the subject is unknown. But the now-deceased suspect, Omari Thompson, was no stranger to police. Rather, he had an extensive criminal history and was considered to be armed and dangerous. In fact, at the time of this incident, Thompson was on probation for drug and weapons charges, which means he is subject to warrantless searches of his residence. In other words, police had numerous alternatives to make this arrest without a violent confrontation. They did not choose those options.

State agents knew the identity of the suspect, knew he was armed and dangerous, knew he has responded violently to an armed confrontation in the past, knew there was another mechanism to investigate his illegal activity, and they still chose to conduct this operation in mid-afternoon surrounded by innocent men, women, and children.

This isn’t an isolated incident. Another botched drug bust resulting in a shootout at a busy shopping plaza occurred in May at the hands of the Pennsylvania State Police. Undercover cops in Detroit unknowingly attempted to arrest each other in November 2017, resulting in a brawl in the streets. In 2015, an Albuquerque Police Lieutenant shot his own undercover narcotics detective eight times during a drug buy because he mistook him as the suspect. 

Ironically, these operations are known as “controlled buys.” The term gives the false impression that the interaction will be predictable and under the control of the narcotics officers. Officers may even choose them because they believe they will be safer for their colleagues. But as the death of Thompson, the shooting of an undercover officer, and the panic of shoppers and toddlers demonstrate, there was nothing controlled about it.

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When a ‘Controlled Buy’ Turns Into a Daytime Parking Lot Shootout

On a typical sunny Tuesday afternoon, Northland Plaza on busy McKnight Road in the affluent Pittsburgh-area suburb of Ross Township is buzzing with people. Big Lots is full of daytime shoppers, parents are taking their young children to summer dance classes at Cynthia’s School of Dance, and toddlers are taking advantage of a rare sunny day in Western Pennsylvania by playing on the playground outside of their day care. 

But on July 23, the parking lot was the scene of a botched a drug bust resulting in a shootout between the suspect and undercover agents. The suspect was killed and an undercover agent was shot. 

A witness described the scene as “chaos” with shoppers inside Big Lots reportedly barricading the door with a refrigerator in an effort to protect themselves from gunfire. A 34-year-old mother said her children were rushed inside the daycare building when shots rang out. Four-year-olds were ushered away from windows and huddled into corners as gunfire erupted outside. In the aftermath, frantic parents drove past a gray sedan and a gold SUV surrounded by crime scene tape, both vehicles with bullet holes through the windows.

Why did Pennsylvania’s top law enforcement agency choose this spot for an armed confrontation with a low-level drug dealer?

“Look, this work is dangerous work and we don’t get to dictate the terms of every location where we meet,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D–Pa.) said dismissively in response to questions during a press conference. 

But that’s simply not true. I know, because I was a major crimes detective for nearly a decade.

Parking lots are routinely chosen by police to conduct drug busts because it is easy to hide surveillance vehicles in a crowded parking lot. In training classes for undercover operations, instructors often recommend conducting drug buys in parking lots for this very reason. 

At the Ross shopping center, officers were conducting an “undercover buy/bust operation” when the suspect opened fire on one of the undercover agents, according to Allegheny County Police Superintendent Coleman McDonough. Buy/bust operations are preferred by many police agencies because they are efficient. They typically result in a quick arrest and ensure a successful prosecution because of the large amount of evidence uncovered in a short period of time. In a buy/bust, you have the testimony of surveillance officers, the testimony of the undercover officers making the buy as well as evidence such as marked bills. Buy/busts save money because they do not involve lengthy investigations. 

But buy/bust operations are also notoriously dangerous due to the “shock and awe” aspect of the arrest; they usually involve several screaming cops with guns drawn ordering the arrestee to the ground. This danger is magnified when the undercover officers attempt to make the arrest themselves, because the subject likely doesn’t even realize he or she is dealing with police, as robbery is common in drug transactions.

In this case, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office chose to conduct the most dangerous type of drug bust, using undercover agents to make the arrest—despite having other options.

Buy/bust operations are typically used when the identity of the subject is unknown. But the now-deceased suspect, Omari Thompson, was no stranger to police. Rather, he had an extensive criminal history and was considered to be armed and dangerous. In fact, at the time of this incident, Thompson was on probation for drug and weapons charges, which means he is subject to warrantless searches of his residence. In other words, police had numerous alternatives to make this arrest without a violent confrontation. They did not choose those options.

State agents knew the identity of the suspect, knew he was armed and dangerous, knew he has responded violently to an armed confrontation in the past, knew there was another mechanism to investigate his illegal activity, and they still chose to conduct this operation in mid-afternoon surrounded by innocent men, women, and children.

This isn’t an isolated incident. Another botched drug bust resulting in a shootout at a busy shopping plaza occurred in May at the hands of the Pennsylvania State Police. Undercover cops in Detroit unknowingly attempted to arrest each other in November 2017, resulting in a brawl in the streets. In 2015, an Albuquerque Police Lieutenant shot his own undercover narcotics detective eight times during a drug buy because he mistook him as the suspect. 

Ironically, these operations are known as “controlled buys.” The term gives the false impression that the interaction will be predictable and under the control of the narcotics officers. Officers may even choose them because they believe they will be safer for their colleagues. But as the death of Thompson, the shooting of an undercover officer, and the panic of shoppers and toddlers demonstrate, there was nothing controlled about it.

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Curt Schilling Blew $75 Million in Public Funds Making Bad Video Games. Naturally, He Thinks He Should Be in Congress.

Former baseball star and current Donald Trump supporter Curt Schilling is considering running for Congress in Arizona as a Republican. President Trump has declared his support for Schilling on Twitter.

Schilling told the Arizona Republic that he has not decided which of the five Democrats currently holding seats he’d run against, but that he is serious about it. And he made it clear to the newspaper that his platform would be all about blaming illegal immigrants for everything bad:

“The state is not the state I grew up in. Making Arizona citizens of EVERY Race, religion and sexual orientation 2nd class citizens to illegal immigrants is about as anti-American as it gets. When you have homeless veterans, children, and you’re spending tax dollars on people smuggling drugs and children across our border someone in charge needs their ass kicked.”

It’s fascinating that Schilling is complaining about wasting tax dollars on bad ideas given his own history of taking tax dollars and wasting them on his own bad ideas. There’s a brief reference to Schilling’s antics in Rhode Island in the Arizona Republic piece, but Arizona taxpayers should definitely learn more before considering voting for this nominal conservative.

Schilling founded a video game company named 38 Studios in Massachusetts in 2006 and then moved the company to Rhode Island in 2010. The reason for the move was the $75 million in loan guarantees Rhode Island offered to Schilling. The state promised to repay the money if Schilling’s company went belly-up.

And boy, did they. Schilling’s 38 Studios released one video game, Kingdoms of Amalaur: Reckoning, a fantasy role-playing game that found some modest success in a pretty stuffed marketplace. They attempted to follow up with the development of an online fantasy game to compete with the likes of World of Warcraft. This ended in disaster, which could’ve been predicted by anybody who understood the games market of that era.

At the time, World of Warcraft was sitting pretty atop the corpses of every studio that challenged them. Schilling’s firm ran out of money before their game was completed. A postmortem revealed that Schilling had no idea what he was doing and dramatically underestimated the risks and costs of developing a persistent online game world.

Ultimately, 38 Studios went bankrupt, everybody who worked there lost their jobs, and 38 Studios’ assets were sold off. Schilling took it in the shorts as well, losing millions of his own savings and selling off his home in Massachusetts. After years of legal action, Rhode Island managed to recoup $61 million in settlements, including $2.5 million from Schilling himself.

One lesson here is that government has no business subsidizing video game companies. Another lesson is that post-baseball Schilling talks a bigger game than he can actually play. Given what he did with taxpayer money, it’s a bit rich of him to complain about the public (and exaggerated) costs of illegal immigrants. Immigrants (legally here or not) are largely assets to the country and contribute to the economy.

Like Trump, Schilling may talk about cutting government spending, but he’s more than happy to feed at the trough when it comes to their own business dealings.

Below, ReasonTV and Anthony Fisher took a deep dive into Schilling and 38 Studios’ massive failure:

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Curt Schilling Blew $75 Million in Public Funds Making Bad Video Games. Naturally, He Thinks He Should Be in Congress.

Former baseball star and current Donald Trump supporter Curt Schilling is considering running for Congress in Arizona as a Republican. President Trump has declared his support for Schilling on Twitter.

Schilling told the Arizona Republic that he has not decided which of the five Democrats currently holding seats he’d run against, but that he is serious about it. And he made it clear to the newspaper that his platform would be all about blaming illegal immigrants for everything bad:

“The state is not the state I grew up in. Making Arizona citizens of EVERY Race, religion and sexual orientation 2nd class citizens to illegal immigrants is about as anti-American as it gets. When you have homeless veterans, children, and you’re spending tax dollars on people smuggling drugs and children across our border someone in charge needs their ass kicked.”

It’s fascinating that Schilling is complaining about wasting tax dollars on bad ideas given his own history of taking tax dollars and wasting them on his own bad ideas. There’s a brief reference to Schilling’s antics in Rhode Island in the Arizona Republic piece, but Arizona taxpayers should definitely learn more before considering voting for this nominal conservative.

Schilling founded a video game company named 38 Studios in Massachusetts in 2006 and then moved the company to Rhode Island in 2010. The reason for the move was the $75 million in loan guarantees Rhode Island offered to Schilling. The state promised to repay the money if Schilling’s company went belly-up.

And boy, did they. Schilling’s 38 Studios released one video game, Kingdoms of Amalaur: Reckoning, a fantasy role-playing game that found some modest success in a pretty stuffed marketplace. They attempted to follow up with the development of an online fantasy game to compete with the likes of World of Warcraft. This ended in disaster, which could’ve been predicted by anybody who understood the games market of that era.

At the time, World of Warcraft was sitting pretty atop the corpses of every studio that challenged them. Schilling’s firm ran out of money before their game was completed. A postmortem revealed that Schilling had no idea what he was doing and dramatically underestimated the risks and costs of developing a persistent online game world.

Ultimately, 38 Studios went bankrupt, everybody who worked there lost their jobs, and 38 Studios’ assets were sold off. Schilling took it in the shorts as well, losing millions of his own savings and selling off his home in Massachusetts. After years of legal action, Rhode Island managed to recoup $61 million in settlements, including $2.5 million from Schilling himself.

One lesson here is that government has no business subsidizing video game companies. Another lesson is that post-baseball Schilling talks a bigger game than he can actually play. Given what he did with taxpayer money, it’s a bit rich of him to complain about the public (and exaggerated) costs of illegal immigrants. Immigrants (legally here or not) are largely assets to the country and contribute to the economy.

Like Trump, Schilling may talk about cutting government spending, but he’s more than happy to feed at the trough when it comes to their own business dealings.

Below, ReasonTV and Anthony Fisher took a deep dive into Schilling and 38 Studios’ massive failure:

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Is This How The Smart Money Is Betting On A Market Crash?

Despite yesterday’s hope-filled ramp (on tariff-delay headlines) – which has been entirely erased and then some…

…the cost of protecting stocks from a market crash are soaring. Deep out-of-the-money options to protect themselves against drastic downside have seen dramatic increases.

Source: Bloomberg

And so, with the cost of protection so high, traders are looking for cheaper alternatives.

Since the Fed folded in December, basically admitting it is terrified to raise rates any more and willing to backtrack due to market fragility, IceFarm Capital’s Michael Green explained previously, it appears many market participants are piling into Par Eurodollar calls:

[the chart shows the cumulative open interest in par calls on eurodollar futures contracts that expire in 2019, 2020, and 2021 – basically options on short-term interest rates with a strike price of zero, such that they pay out if the Fed takes rates negative]

When queried whether this is indeed a trade to bet on a market drop, Michael Green responded as follows:

[A reader] thought this might be an attempt by hedge funds to hedge out their exposure to rising interest rates very cheaply.

My initial idea was that it’s actually could be a bet on negative rates (if for some reason the Fed had to come back into the picture with more QE).

The bottom line:

“Deep OTM puts on the S&P are very expensive while par ED calls are relatively cheap.  In my view, we are at that inflection point where the Fed is going to start to waffle… the bear market beckons and they will not be able to stick with their [mid-cycle adjustment] rate guidance. Of course, markets tend to frown on Central Bankers revealed as less than omniscient…”

So, stop buying those deep OTM puts and start buying cheap ED Par Calls because the only way we get ZIRP is if the market crashes.

As Bloomberg notes, one such position is a $1.25 million wager – bought Friday and Monday – that the Fed will cut rates by a quarter point three more times this year and at least four times next year, and leave them at the zero lower bound until late 2021.

This fits with an increasing number of analysts who see NIRP coming to USA inevitably, including last week Pacific Investment Management Co. joined the chorus of voices warning that U.S. Treasury yields may eventually go negative.

And the market is already shifting to that opinion with the entire Treasury curve now inverted and 30Y Yields (at a record low) below the Effective Fed Funds rate.

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

The Average US Farm Is $1.3 Million In Debt, And Now The Worst Farming Crisis In Modern History Is Upon Us

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

We haven’t seen anything like this since the Great Depression of the 1930s…

Leading up to this year, farm incomes had been trending lower for most of the past decade, and meanwhile farm debt levels have been absolutely exploding.  So U.S. farmers were desperate for a really good year, but instead 2019 has been a total disaster.  As I have been carefully documenting, due to endless rain and catastrophic flooding millions of acres of prime farmland didn’t get planted at all this year, and the yields on tens of millions of other acres are expected to be way, way below normal.  As a result, we are facing the worst farming crisis in modern American history, and this comes at a time when U.S. farms are drowning in more debt than ever before.  In fact, the latest numbers that we have show that the average U.S. farm is 1.3 million dollars in debt…

Debt-to-asset ratios are seeing the same squeeze, with more farms moving into a ratio exceeding 80%. Barrett notes each year since 2009 has seen an increase in the average amount of total debt among farmers, and 2017 was no exception. Average debt rose 10% to $1.3 million. The biggest increase was in long-term debt, such as land.

Farming in the 21st century has become an extraordinarily risky business, and countless U.S. farmers were already on the verge of going under even before we got to 2019.

Now that this year has been such a complete and utter disaster, many farms will not be able to operate once we get to 2020.

Minnesota farmers Liz and Bob Krocak were hoping for better days ahead as this year began, but things have been really tough and their debts have become overwhelming.  During a recent meeting with their creditors, Liz was so distraught that she literally burst into tears…

They had to face their creditors at a mediation. There was Del, the mechanic, whom they owe $28,000 and who now can’t help his son buy a home. There was Steve, the feed store guy, who is 64 and has delayed his retirement because of the Krocaks’ $311,000 bill.

Liz recalled the mediator opening the meeting by saying, “This is going to be an emotional day. I can see everybody really likes this family.” Liz had burst into tears then – and she was crying again now, describing the scene seven months later.

“We just hope there’s a farm left at the end of it,” she said.

In total, the Krocaks just happen to be 1.3 million dollars in debt.

At this point, there isn’t a prayer that all of that debt will ever be paid off.  All they can really hope for is more patience from their creditors, because without it the farm is going under.

The Krocaks recently received a check for about 12,000 dollars from the federal government, and they are very grateful for the money, but the truth is that it isn’t even going to make a dent in their 1.3 million dollar debt.

If the horrific weather and endless flooding wasn’t enough, about a week ago the Chinese government announced that they would be ending all “purchases of U.S. agricultural products”, and that was a devastating blow for farmers all over the nation.

In particular, soybean farmers are going to see demand for their crops absolutely collapse.  In recent years, China has purchased approximately 60 percent of all U.S. soybean exports.

And even if a trade deal is eventually reached, it is unlikely that all of that demand is ever going to come back.  Right now, the Chinese are spending enormous amounts of money “to build transportation infrastructure to ship soybeans grown in what used to be rain forests” in Brazil.  They aren’t going to abandon all of that just because Trump suddenly changes his mind.

And the truth is that it is extremely unlikely that Trump will change his mind and cave in to the Chinese.

So for the foreseeable future, U.S. farmers are going to be facing weaker markets and lower prices, and that is going to be the final straw for many of them.

Have you ever been at a point in your life where you have endured problem after problem and then one day a final crushing blow comes along that takes away the last shred of hope that you were holding on to?  That is precisely what has happened to farmers like Bob Kuylen of North Dakota…

“It’s really, really getting bad out here,” said Bob Kuylen, who’s farmed for 35 years in North Dakota.

“Trump is ruining our markets. No one is buying our product no more, and we have no markets no more.”

We keep hearing about “government bailouts”, but they aren’t going to be nearly big enough for most farmers.  Kuylen has worked as hard as he possibly could, but he was not able to overcome the challenges he was facing, and now he is facing financial disaster.  He would walk away, but he says he can’t because “I’ve invested everything I have in farming”…

Kuylen, who farms roughly 1,500 acres of wheat and sunflowers, lost $70 per acre this year, despite growing good crops. Current government subsidies only cover about $15 per acre, he said.

“There’s no incentive to keep farming, except that I’ve invested everything I have in farming, and it’s hard to walk away,” he said.

It would be nice to think that all of these farmers will somehow bounce back next year, but that isn’t likely.  It is very doubtful that there will be any sort of a trade agreement with China before the 2020 presidential election, and global weather patterns are not going to be getting any more stable.  Sadly, it is entirely possible that next year could be even tougher for U.S. farmers than this year was.

So please say a prayer for our farmers.  They grow the food that we all eat on a daily basis, and their hard work is rarely recognized on a national basis. They are unsung heroes, and right now most of them are really, really hurting.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2H7X3Kl Tyler Durden