Tag: news

Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

The problem with poverty in America is that the system is designed to keep you poor. Maybe it’s just because poor people are easier to control. I have written before about how to survive when you’re so broke that you can’t pay your bills and while the comments were largely supportive, there are always a few smug, superior souls who blame the people who are struggling for their problems. The thing is, poverty is a trap, and one seeming small setback can spiral into a disaster from which you cannot extricate yourself.

When you are living a financially fragile life, it seems like someone somewhere is trying to keep you poor. Why is it so hard to get ahead? Well, because the system is rigged against you when you’re living paycheck to paycheck with fee after fee after fee. Because what makes more sense than charging someone who already can’t pay their bills even more money?

Land of the Fee

First, there are the fees. We’ve written here about undisclosed fees that most people are being hit with, but bank fees are even worse.

If you bounce a payment by so much as a penny, then you are hit with a charge from your bank and most times, a charge from the business that was taking the payment from your account. Most banks charge anywhere from $25-$38.50 when you have non-sufficient funds for a payment. Businesses charge in the same range, so that means that if one payment goes awry, you can lose $50-$77 in the blink of an eye.

Banks love NSF and overdraft fees. Why? Because in 2017, Americans paid $34 billion in fees for not having enough money to cover a payment.

Some of these fees come from the automatic payments that come from our accounts. Mortgage, car payments, insurance payments, and other bills are often automatically debited. Other fees come when a person has “overdraft protection” on their debit cards. This is when a person doesn’t have enough money in his or her account for a debit to go through but their credit union or bank covers it anyway.

The government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains just how insane these fees are. (Emphasis mine)

Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a report that raises concerns about the impact of opting into overdraft services for debit card and ATM transactions. The study found that the majority of debit card overdraft fees are incurred on transactions of $24 or less and that the majority of overdrafts are repaid within three days. Put in lending terms, if a consumer borrowed $24 for three days and paid the median overdraft fee of $34, such a loan would carry a 17,000 percent annual percentage rate (APR).

“Today’s report shows that consumers who opt into overdraft coverage put themselves at serious risk when they use their debit card,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “Despite recent regulatory and industry changes, overdrafts continue to impose heavy costs on consumers who have low account balances and no cushion for error. Overdraft fees should not be ‘gotchas’ when people use their debit cards.” (source)

So to be clear, the banking system is set up to take the most money from people with the lowest balances.

One NSF or overdraft fee can unleash financial chaos.

Imagine you have a bill that attempts to debt from your account twice, costing you $50. Then another payment, a smaller one, that would have gone through if the other bill hadn’t gotten there first, bounces too. Now you’ve lost $75.  It’s pretty easy to see how another payment – even one for a few bucks, could bounce next. Now you’ve lost $100.

By the time you actually have the money to cover all the fees, how on earth are you supposed to pay the bill that put your in the negative in the first place?

I know what a lot of you are thinking. “I’ve never bounced a check in my life” or “these people need to get control of their spending and they wouldn’t have these fees.”

But this vicious spiral can be caused by something as seemingly trivial as a person’s pay being direct-deposited one hour late on payday. It can occur when payday is on a Saturday but your funds won’t be deposited until Monday but your debits are still coming out regardless that it’s a weekend. It isn’t always personal irresponsibility that causes a person to be unable to cover the payments coming out of his or her account.

Once you’re in the hole for a couple hundred dollars in NSF or overdraft fees, how in the world do you get out? If your financial situation is so precarious that one bounced payment causes this cartwheel of non-sufficient funds, how are you supposed to ever get caught up?

And that’s not the only fee a person struggling financially can expect.

Next, there are late fees and the re-connect fees.

If one of the payments that went awry in your overdraft avalanche happens to be a utility bill, things get even worse for a person who is struggling. Particularly if you aren’t able to cover the bill in sufficient time to keep your utilities from getting shut off. How much you’ll be charged varies by company but if they really feel like you’ll have trouble paying in the future, they stick it to you, making it nearly impossible to get your power or heat turned back on. Here are some examples

• PG&E: “To restore service, you must pay the full amount due. You may also be required to pay a deposit twice your average monthly bill to re-establish credit.”

• Coast Electric: $35-50 fee to reconnect service, $6.50 late fee, $35 NSF fee, and potentially even a $35 collection fee

• Talgov: $28.50 each for gas, water, and electric

They can be charged late fees by all sorts of businesses. Now they’re really in trouble.

How do they bail themselves out of this mess?

A payday loan can be one way a desperate person chooses to get out of financial trouble.

Payday loans are short-term cash loans based on the borrower’s personal check held for future deposit or on electronic access to the borrower’s bank account. Borrowers write a personal check for the amount borrowed plus the finance charge and receive cash. In some cases, borrowers sign over electronic access to their bank accounts to receive and repay payday loans.

Payday loans range in size from $100 to $1,000, depending on state legal maximums. The average loan term is about two weeks. Loans typically cost 400% annual interest (APR) or more. The finance charge ranges from $15 to $30 to borrow $100. For two-week loans, these finance charges result in interest rates from 390 to 780% APR. Shorter term loans have even higher APRs.  Rates are higher in states that do not cap the maximum cost.

CFPB found that 80 percent of payday borrowers tracked over ten months rolled over or reborrowed loans within 30 days.  Borrowers default on one in five payday loans.  Online borrowers fare worse.  CFPB found that more than half of all online payday instalment loan sequences default. (source)

Now a bad situation has gotten even worse. You’re only getting a portion of your paycheck which means that you’re not going to be able to meet future bills. You’re going to face more late fees, more NSF charges, and more overdraft interest.

The cycle is vicious.

If you’ve ever wondered why broke people tend to stay broke, this is why. Unless the person in financial trouble gets some kind of windfall, they’re going to have great difficulty getting back on their feet. In many cases, it’s impossible.

And that isn’t the only bad part of the war on the poor.  Homelessness has been practically criminalized. Here are some examples of how poor or homeless people can get in trouble with the law.

The criminalization of homelessness refers to measures that prohibit life-sustaining activities such as sleeping/camping, eating, sitting, and/or asking for money/resources in public spaces. These ordinances include criminal penalties for violations of these acts.

There are multiple types of criminalization measures which include:

• Carrying out sweeps (confiscating personal property including tents, bedding, papers, clothing, medications, etc.) in city areas where homeless people live.

• Making panhandling illegal.

• Making it illegal for groups to share food with homeless persons in public spaces.

• Enforcing a “quality of life” ordinance relating to public activity and hygiene. (source)

Of course, not all people financially struggling are out on the streets. Many are quietly struggling in middle-class neighborhoods, in nice homes, driving a late-model car. If they’re upside down in their mortgage or car loan, selling those items is not an option because then they’ll still be making the payments but be without a way to get to work or a place to live.

If they file for bankruptcy, good luck to them getting a cheap place to reside.

Things get harder.

And harder.

And harder.

How to avoid these traps

You may already be in financial trouble, or you may just be in a situation with no emergency fund. If that’s the case, you should know that it only takes something small to send you straight to financial disaster.

Here are a few tips to help you avoid the pitfalls of poverty.

1. Don’t set up automatic payments. Some businesses force you to do this, but often you can cancel the autopay and pay yourself.

2. Have one bank account for bills, and one for spending money. This way, you don’t accidentally spend money earmarked for utilities or your car payment.

3. Don’t have overdraft protection on your account, particularly if the fees and interest rates are high.

4. Don’t turn to payday loans. This is a cycle from which it’s nearly impossible to extricate yourself.

5. Build an emergency fund. Even if you only put in $10 a paycheck, you’re still giving yourself a little bit of a cushion.

Know that you aren’t alone if you’re facing these kinds of problems. Many people in our country are deeply in debt, living paycheck to paycheck, and struggling to pay for basic necessities like food, rent, and medical bills.

Don’t look for things to become more affordable or for your paycheck to magically increase. That’s not the direction we’re going in America. Your only options are to reduce your expenses, eat cheaper food, and bring in some extra cash.  If you get a windfall, use it wisely to build a financial cushion.

The American poverty trap keeps poor people poor. And it’s easier to fall into than you think.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2K9rOjU Tyler Durden

Now that the Fed is once again extremely sensitive to incoming data – or at least that’s what the market thinks – and especially bad incoming data as today’s disappointing ISM demonstrated, which sent stocks surging on hopes of more rate cuts (at least until Trump’s subsequent tariff shocker), tomorrow’s payrolls report is suddenly extremely important for the Fed’s reaction function: a strong beat has the potential to crush stocks and send yields sharply higher, and of course, vice versa. That said, a beat to the relatively modest consensus expectation of 165K is virtually assured due to the wildcard that is census hiring which will be between 10K and 50K, and which the BLS will surely fully milk following political instructions from “above.”

So with that in mind, here is a summary of what consensus expects tomorrow, courtesy of RanSquawk:

US nonfarm payrolls are seen coming in at 165k in July, a reading which would push the three-month average down to 153k from 171k in June. The jobless rate is seen unchanged at 3.7%, though the Conference Board’s consumer confidence data does signal some potential downside. We have seen only a partial slate of business surveys ahead of the NFP report, and they seem to signal some cooling in labour market momentum.

EXPECTATIONS:

• Non-farm Payrolls: Exp. 165k, Prev. 224k.
• Unemployment Rate: Exp. 3.7%, Prev. 3.7%. (FOMC currently projects 3.6% unemployment by the end of 2019, and 4.2% in the longer-run).
  • U6 Unemployment Rate: Prev. 7.2%.
  • Labour Force Participation: Prev. 62.9%.
• Avg. Earnings Y/Y: Exp. 3.1%, Prev. 3.1%;
  • Avg. Earnings M/M: Exp. +0.2%, Prev. +0.2%.
• Avg. Work Week Hours: Exp. 34.4hrs, Prev. 34.4hrs.
• Private Payrolls: Exp. 160k, Prev. 191k; Manufacturing Payrolls: Exp. 5k, Prev. 17k; Government Payrolls: Prev. 33k

The Street expects 164k nonfarm payrolls will be added to the US economy in July, following 224k in June (12-month trend rate is 192k). Fed Chair Powell looks at a three-month rolling average of headline payrolls, which after the upside in June, is running at a clip of 171k, and has been ticking higher for three straight months — a consensus 164k in July would knock the three-month average back to 153k.

Looking at just one bank’s forecasts, Goldman estimates nonfarm payrolls increased 190k in July, 25k above consensus of +165k. While July employer surveys declined on net, jobless claims and job availability measures remain at very strong levels, and we also expect a boost from Census hiring worth 10-20k. Additionally, Hurricane Barry struck the Gulf Coast too late in the survey week to have a significant impact on the report.

JOBLESS CLAIMS:

Weekly claims data within the survey periods is unchanged on June, suggesting some stability; initial jobless claims were 216k in the 13th July week vs 217k in the 15th June week; for reference the four-week moving average was also stable, falling slightly from 219k to 218.75k.

BUSINESS SURVEYS:

Ahead of this month’s payrolls report, we do not have the release of the non-manufacturing ISM. The manufacturing ISM did not bode well for the labour market data, with the employment sub-index falling more than expected, to 51.7 from 54.5. This theme was also seen in the final Markit manufacturing PMI data for July, where the employment index cooled to 49.8 from 50.8 in June (entering contraction territory) (NOTE: the flash reading showed a print of 49.6, which was the lowest since the GFC, which Capital Economics says was consistent with the manufacturing sector shedding 30k jobs per month). The services equivalent reports have not been released ahead of this month’s payrolls data.

CONSUMER SURVEYS:

The differential between ‘jobs plentiful’ and ‘jobs hard to get’ within the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence data rose to 35.4 from 27.6, auguring well for downside in the unemployment rate (analysts note the long-term correlations are decent). The metric was also encouraging since, in June, it declined from a cyclical high suggesting some cooling in labour market momentum. The CB also noted that consumers’ outlook for the labour market was more upbeat in the month, with the proportion expecting more jobs in the months ahead rising from 17.5% to 20.5%, while those anticipating fewer jobs decreased from 13.9% to 11.5%. The CB also said that, in terms of short-term income prospects, the percentage of consumers expecting an improvement rose from 20.5% to 24.7%, while the proportion expecting a decrease declined from 7.5% to 6.3%. RBC cautions, however, that that potential job growth (proxied by the growth in  the labor force) slowed in the last 12 months to just 71k, and accordingly, the bar to continue seeing lower rates of unemployment is low.

CHALLENGER:

The pace of announced job cuts eased in July; the headline was 38,845 versus the 41,977 in June, Challenger said, marking the second consecutive drop in monthly job cut announcements since May, and the lowest total since August 2018. “The US is enjoying the longest economic expansion in American history and the June jobs report documented a decidedly strong labor market,” Challenger wrote, “however, slowing GDP growth in the second quarter, cuts in business investment, and trade tensions led the Federal Reserve to cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point. This move signals trouble on the horizon for the current economic cycle.” It notes that employment tends to be a lagging indicator, as companies often keep hiring up to the edge of a recession, but right now, the labour market is strong. “Employees can continue to anticipate moderate wage growth and advantageous employment prospects for the time being.” Challenger noted that manufacturers were not faring particularly well, not only by shifting consumer behaviour and automation, but also by the imposed tariffs.

ARGUING FOR A STRONGER REPORT:

• Jobless claims. Initial jobless claims remained unchanged at very low levels during the four weeks between the payroll reference periods (at 219k on average). Continuing claims declined from survey week to survey week for the first time in three months (-17k to 1677k).
• Job availability. The Conference Board labor market differential—the difference between the percent of respondents saying jobs are plentiful and those saying jobs are hard to get—rebounded by 5.2pt to +33.4 in July, just below the cycle-high. Other job availability readings are somewhat backward-looking at this point, but were somewhat softer on a sequential basis: JOLTS job openings declined but remained high (-49k to 7,323k in May) and the Conference Board’s Help Wanted Online index edged lower (-0.2pt to 102.4 in June).
• Census hiring. Temporary employment related to the 2020 Census has significantly lagged that of 1999 and 2009. However, address canvassing scheduled for August will require tens of thousands of temporary workers to be hired and trained. Given this and given that the 200+ regional Census offices were opened in late June, expect a visible boost from Census hiring in tomorrow’s report (Goldman assume 10-20k workers).
• Public Education. We believe some of the 20k decline in public education payrolls over the last two months will reverse in tomorrow’s report. Employment in this industry is highly mean-reverting at the end of the school year, and the May/June declines reflected seasonal adjustment issues as opposed to legitimate labor shedding at state colleges and universities.

ARGUING FOR A WEAKER REPORT:

• Hurricane Barry. While Hurricane Barry caused power outages for more than 120k households in Louisiana and other parts of the Gulf Coast, the storm did not make landfall until Friday and Saturday of the payroll survey week. Workers are counted as employed in the establishment survey unless they miss work for the entire payroll reference period. And as shown in Exhibit 1—which plots electricity usage in the areas affected—disruptions during the workweek itself appear minimal. Accordingly, economists do not expect a meaningful impact of the storm in tomorrow’s report.

• Employer surveys. Business activity business surveys were sequentially firmer in July (with small net gains in the manufacturing sector and a moderate increase in the services sector), but the employment components of those surveys underperformed (-1.2pt to 52.3 for manufacturing, -0.9pt to 53.5 for services). As shown in Exhibit 2, however, the level of the labor-market components still suggests job growth running at a healthy pace (of around 175k per month). Service-sector job growth rose 154k in June and averaged 134k over the last six months, while manufacturing payroll employment rose 17k in June and has increased by 8k on average over the last six months.

NEUTRAL FACTORS:

ADP. The payroll-processing firm ADP reported a 156k increase in July private employment, slightly above consensus and a sizeable pickup from the 112k pace it reported in June. The ADP report was slightly firmer than our previous assumptions—and in our view suggests that the underlying pace of job growth remains solid.

Job cuts. Announced layoffs reported by Challenger, Gray & Christmas remained unchanged in July at 47k (SA by GS), but are still somewhat above their July 2018 level (+15k yoy). A retracing of announced layoffs in the automotive industry (-6k mom sa) roughly offset a rise in the transportation industry (+4k) and smaller increases in other industries.

WAGES:

Finally, the other critical data point that could have an outsized impact on risk assets is a hotter than expected wage print: Analysts at Bank of America see average wages growing +0.3% M/M, which is firmer than the consensus view; the bank says this will also push the annualised measure to 3.2% Y/Y. The bank sees average weekly hours worked to  remain unchanged at 34.4hrs. Goldman estimate average hourly earnings increased 0.2% month-over-month, with the
year-over-year rate a tad below that of BofA and in line with consensus, at 3.1%. The forecast reflects unfavorable calendar effects (survey week ended the 13th of the month) but a boost from a further rebound in supervisory earnings—which are underperforming the production worker subset by two tenths on a year-on-year basis (+3.14% vs. +3.35% in June). A monthly increase of 0.3% or 0.4% or an annual increase of 3.3% or more, and risk assets will find themselves in a world of pain.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/335rFVT Tyler Durden

Earlier today, we wrote a post titled “What Would It Take For The Fed To Not Cut Again?”, with Goldman providing a stylized answer, although in retrospect, the post should have been titled “What Would It Take For The Fed To Cut Again“, as that is what the market was far more concerned about after yesterday’s hawkish Powell press conference.

In any case, Goldman hinted at the one specific catalyst that could force the Fed to cut more: “We also see risks in the other direction, especially on a significant escalation of tariffs against China.”

To this, we said that “if an acceleration in the trade war with China is what the Fed will need to cut more, it’s pretty clear what that means for the chances of any trade deal between Washington and Beijing, since even Trump now understands that if he keeps escalating trade war with China, Powell will have no choice but to eventually cut to 0% (and lower).“

Just a few hours later, we were proven right in suggesting that an escalation in the trade war is inevitable and imminent when Trump tweeted that he would hike tariffs on $300BN in Chinese imports to 10% starting September 1, ending the tentative ceasefire with Beijing with a bang, and sending risk prices sharply lower.

And yes, while Trump did suffer a modest drop in his favorite polling indicator – i.e., the stock market – which “cratered” as much as 1.5% below its all time high – far more importantly Trump also called Powell’s bluff, and effectively forced the Fed to prepare for more rate cuts as the trade war with China – which Powell explicitly highlighted as a condition that would result in more easing – is set to escalate further.

Late today, Bloomberg confirmed as much noting that traders “fixated on a timeline in which Powell seems to suggest cooling trade tensions reduced the need for future rate reductions — and a day later Trump revs the tensions back up”, just as we said he would. “It fits the pattern of a president bent on getting the central bank to submit, many thought”, the Bloomberg authors concluded.

“Powell was very careful to say that he was looking at three things, one of which was global growth and the extent to which that is risked by trade tensions,” said Ellen Hazen, senior vice president and portfolio manager for F.L. Putnam, which has $2.2 billion under management. “It’s very logical to conclude that if trade tensions increase, given what Powell said, that would be something he would look at to evaluate a further cut.”

Precisely, hence our prediction first thing this morning.

As for the best assessment of what happened in the past 48 hours, in which one can say that Trump put Powell in a figurative chokehold, it came from Federated Investors fund manager Steve Chiavarone who saw the interaction between Trump and Powell as a “brilliant ploy”:

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence the announcement came today after the rate cut yesterday. It’s possible that while most folks were playing checkers, the president was playing three-dimensional chess here. And if he is, kudos to him.“

Kudos indeed, because if it was Trump’s intention to force the Fed to find itself behind the curve on easing more – at least from the perception of the market – he succeeded. As Goldman – which earlier today stepped up to lead the hawkish Fed #resistance effort against gratuitous Fed rate cuts, saying it “continues to see little need” for a September rate cut – wrote after the close “today’s announcement increases the likelihood of a rate cut at the September FOMC meeting, in our view. We now see a 70% chance of a 25bp cut, a 10% chance of a 50bp cut, and a 20% chance of no policy change in September (vs. 55%, 5%, and 40% previously), and we now see a 90% chance of at least one additional cut (beyond that announced on Wednesday) at some point this year (vs. 80% previously).” Additionally, while Goldman has not yet changed its baseline forecast that the Fed will cut by a total of 50bp, “the announcement tilts the risks toward deeper cuts.”

Finally, while Goldman expects a 70% chance of a rate cut in September, the market – after yesterday’s fiasco – is now convinced that the Fed is again behind the curve, with a September rate cut a lock, with odds surging above 90%…

… and is also convinced that there will be 2 more cuts before the end of the year.

In short, while one can debate if Trump is playing 3D chess, in under 24 hours he managed to force Powell to face a very unpleasant choice: cut at least 2 more times or watch as stocks plunge in a repeat of Q4 2018.

And so, once again Trump is about to get his way.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Kb4i5R Tyler Durden

President Trump’s ‘good friend’, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has formalized Japan’s decision to remove South Korea from its “white list” of 27 countries with preferential trade status, a move that further fuels bilateral tensions.

The move follows a decision by Japan on July 4 to tighten controls on exports for three chemicals used in the production of semiconductor products.

As The Asia Nikkei Review reports, the breakdown in relations was sparked by last year’s decisions by the South Korean Supreme Court to award reparations to the country’s wartime laborers at Japanese companies during Japanese occupation.

The court decisions challenged the understanding that all such claims were already settled “completely and finally” under a 1965 treaty that established diplomatic relations between the two countries. 

Tokyo is asking Seoul to abide by the 1965 agreement and has asked for third-party mediation, fearing that the court ruling would open the floodgates for other victims to seek compensation from these and other Japanese companies. Seoul has so far declined to submit to such mediation.

The decision comes after Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung Wha met on the sidelines of annual ASEAN-related meetings in Bangkok, and clearly were unable to come to a compomise.

Japan’s “White List” removal decision means that South Korea will be stripped of the privileged status that has allowed it to access Japanese goods without going through cumbersome processes. The decision is expected to take effect later this month.

Following the decision, all items except for food and lumber could potentially come under the scope of a Japanese government review when they are exported.  

The Korean Won is extending its losses against the dollar (and yen) following this news…

Japan’s trade curbs have been met with an anti-Japan movement in South Korea, where shops and consumers have organized campaigns to boycott Japanese products and services, including trips to Japan; and Kang said she warned Kono that if Japan goes through with removing South Korea from the white list, Seoul would have no choice but to reconsider its security cooperation with Tokyo.

It would appear a second front has opened in the global trade war.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Mv462W Tyler Durden

Owners of marijuana-based businesses may have another reason to spark one up – this time from an unlikely source; Senate Banking Committee chair Mike Crapo (R-ID), a 68-year-old Mormon who thinks it’s time to end the financial blockade on the cannabis industry, according to an exclusive interview with the Senator by Wikileaf. 

Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo is no fan of marijuana – after all, he represents one of the mere three states that still don’t allow medicinal marijuana (or even CBD for that matter). Still, the Republican chair of the Senate Banking Committee tells Wikileaf for the first time that it now seems evident that Congress needs to stop its blockade and finally allow federally prohibited, though locally legal, pot businesses to use banks like every other business in the nation.

“I think so,” Crapo told Wikileaf at the Capitol when asked if legislation is needed to end the federal hurdles that have forced cannabis retailers to run as all-cash businesses. “Yeah.” –Wikileaf

Crapo raised eyebrows last week when he held a hearing into allowing marijuana-based businesses to access banks – a seeming 180 flip from his prior position on the plant.

“I think all the issues got well vetted. We now need to, I think, move forward and see if there’s some way we can draft legislation that will deal with the issue,” said the Senator. 

Successfully passing stand-alone legislation on the matter will undoubtedly prove to be an uphill battle, according to Crapo. As a result, he says he’s planning to coordinate with the Trump administration to bypass the ‘hyper-partisan and utterly gridlocked Congress altogether.’

“There are other ways it could be solved,” said Crapo. “For example regulatory – they could deal with the issue at the Department of Justice, but I don’t know.”

According to Colorado Senator Cory Gardner (R), Crapo’s hearing last week was “a historic moment in the Senate” by itself. Gardner is one of two senators who testified before the Banking Committee prior to a panel of experts who were overwhelmingly supportive of revamping banking rules in favor of the marijuana industry. 

“It shows that this isn’t just a regional issue, but a national issue that needs to be addressed,” said Gardner. 

While some national media outlets made a fuss that Crapo was the only Republican on the Banking Committee to bother to attend the hearing, Gardner says those outlets missed the bigger picture: the conservative media machine and many GOP senators – professional rhetorical bomb-throwers – surrendered at the feet of marijuana.

“There was some criticism that the Republican attendance wasn’t there, but if they wanted to blow it up they would’ve been there,” Gardner said. “So I look at that as sort of an acknowledgment that this is now just a status quo issue and not something that they’re going to try and interfere with.” –Wikileaf

Democrats, meanwhile, have also heralded Crapo’s action as positive progress. 

“I would like to see it as a positive step forward,” said former Nevada Attorney General Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) in a statement to Wikileaf. “I support doing something in this country for these states that have legitimised marijuana businesses, we’ve got to give them an opportunity to have a financial system for them and…not an all-cash system for them.” 

“I have always been concerned about potential money laundering or crimes that are sort of around these all-cash businesses,” she added. “By having a financial system, it helps.”

One remaining question may determine whether this issue has legs; will Mitch McConnell abide?

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/314ppwm Tyler Durden

How much more US “pressure” can be brought to bear on Venezuela after Washington early this year went so far as to back a failed military coup attempt? Perhaps the Syria treatment: after covert war comes the long “blockade” and economic squeeze precipitating total societal collapse. Perhaps this is what the White House now has in mind after mainstream media attention on Venezuela and its ‘alt-president’ Juan Guaido has dropped off a cliff, via Reuters: 

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was considering a quarantine or blockade of Venezuela, as the United States steps up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to relinquish power.

Is this in addition to the near total oil blockade on state-owned PDVSA? No details were given in the Thursday statement in terms of what such a “quarantine” or “blockade” would look like. 

However, an interesting reference to powerful external backers of the Maduro government was made, bringing up the possibility of a “proxy war” situation developing, as we’ve discussed previously. Reuters continued: 

Asked by a reporter whether he was considering such a measure, given the amount of involvement by China and Iran in Venezuela, Trump said: “Yes, I am.” He gave no details.

And there it is. While confirmation has remained murky, over the past months there’s been widespread reports of Chinese and Russian military advisers working with the Venezuelan national forces. 

Many observers, however, consider recent Trump administration claims of a deep and extensive Hezbollah presence inside the Latin American socialist country a stretch. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly made the charge since at least February.

A month ago Pompeo told Fox Business, “People don’t recognize that Hezbollah has active cells” in the country. “The Iranians are impacting the people of Venezuela and throughout South America. We have an obligation to take down that risk for America,” he said. 

It’s unclear what it would mean for the US to “take down that risk” — but Trump has expressed an unwillingness for “military options” in Venezuela, even recently saying he was “bored” with meddling in such a complex geopolitical climate, according to reports. 

Trump’s new comments in response to “China and Iran” being in Venezuela appear to be a continuation of this “Hezbollah presence” theme. For now, it appears Hezbollah could be for Venezuela what WMD was for Iraq under the Bush administration: a pretext for extreme sanctions and eventual war.

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

Home-improvement chain Lowe’s told thousands of workers this week that their roles were being eliminated and that the company was outsourcing maintenance, assembly and janitorial services, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Maintenance staff and assemblers were notified that they were being laid off, according to employees, and that their roles are going to be outsourced to third-party companies. Every Lowe’s store has several staff members that work in assembly and manufacturing. Workers are being told that they can reapply for other open positions at the company, but they’re not guaranteed the same pay.

Lowe’s employed 90,000 full-time and 110,000 part time workers as of February 1. The company has about 2,000 stores in the United States.

The move comes as a sign that new CEO Marvin Ellison is going to cut costs aggressively after the company lowered its profit targets for the year early in 2019.

And the move comes at a time when many traditional retailers are streamlining their operations, as companies like Walmart and Home Depot have also seen pressure from rising hourly wages and a tight US job market. Both Lowe’s and Home Depot are using self checkout lanes to free up their staff for other roles.

CEO Ellison took over last summer and gave some top jobs to his former colleagues from Home Depot. Lowe’s closed 47 less profitable US stores last year and shut down Orchard Supply Hardware, a small regional chain that it acquired five years ago.

Lowe’s has lagged Home Depot in many metrics over the last few years. Investors have looked at Ellison’s arrival as a chance to boost performance and in the company’s most recent quarter, it outpaced Home Depot in sales growth for the first time since 2016.

Regardless, profit margin declined and the company cut its expectations for the year.

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

Protesters in Hong Kong appear to be keenly aware of the Chinese mainland’s all-pervading Orwellian surveillance system and facial recognition software, and they are already taking action to thwart such systems installed in Hong Kong.

The UK Independent reports based on a viral video posted by a freelance journalist this week:

Protesters in Hong Kong are using lasers to blind security forces and avoid facial recognition cameras used by authorities.

Hong Kong protestors are on another level. Here they’re using lasers to avoid facial recognition cameras. A cyber war against Chinese artificial intelligence. pic.twitter.com/t1hIczr5Go

— Alessandra (@alessabocchi) July 31, 2019

It’s the latest in an array of technological tricks anti-Beijing protesters have used to stay a step ahead of local police as they increasingly resort to harsh riot control tactics to break up masses in the streets, including using virtual private networks on phones to conceal identity, and encrypted messaging services like Telegram. 

The original video had been broadcast by Hong Kong’s Now TV before going viral on social media and shows protesters distorting the view of street security cameras.

In some instances lasers are capable of permanently a damaging surveillance camera’s optics and electronics. 

The video, which has been viewed millions of times, also includes scenes of people pointing their laser pens in Hong Kong police officers’ faces. 

This comes just as on Wednesday the chief of the Chinese Army’s Hong Kong garrison said his forces stand ready to “protect” Chinese sovereignty and condemned reported vandal attacks of government property and buildings in the semi-autonomous city. 

PLA commander Chen Daoxiang said, “The incidents have seriously threatened the life and safety of Hong Kong citizens, and violated the bottom line of ‘one country, two systems’,” according to the South China Morning Post. He concluded, “This should not be tolerated and we express our strong condemnation.”

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/335XUUY Tyler Durden

Authored by Kurt Schlichter, op-ed via Townhall.com,

As I sit in an airport lounge, the CNN feed on the big screen (mercifully silent and utterly ignored except by me) has a chyron reading “POLITICS OF HATE: TRUMP USING RACISM AS A POLITICAL STRATEGY IN NEW RHETORIC.” His “hate crime” was pointing out that Democrats have failed our inner city citizens and that lib pols need to stop doing such a terrible job. You would think that if Trump actually was a racist he’d be demanding Dems do even worse – assuming that’s possible – but it’s all just a bogus distraction and making sense is not a consideration. It’s a lie to shut people up.

Specifically, people who don’t vote Democrat.

Was anyone really shocked to learn that you can’t say that a manifest hellhole is a hellhole anymore, at least according to our moral betters in the media and politics? You have some Democrat politician who represented his district for nearly four decades and if you point out that it’s a mess, the problem is the guy who says so out loud. Not the crime. Not the poverty. Not the rodent infestation. It’s Donald Trump, POTUS for 2.5 years, who is to blame for the real crime, which is pointing out what everyone knows.

Except Trump doesn’t play that. He calls out the elite and its inept members without fear and without apology. He speaks, if you’ll pardon the hackneyed expression, truth to power.

It’s called “accountability,” and it’s exactly what America needs from its ruling caste. Which is why it is exactly what the establishment wishes to put out of bounds. How dare Trump, and by extension you, be so uppity as to demand that our exalted betters not fail at everything they do!

Trump, and you, are not allowed to demand results. You are not allowed to demand competence. You are not allowed to demand integrity. What you are allowed to do is sit there and take whatever garbage they hand you, without complaint, with gratitude even. You are not a citizen. You are a serf. At least, that’s what they want to convert you into – but neither you nor the avatar of your anger Donald Trump are going to accept that.

This is our country, and all their lies about “racism” and whatever other bogus bigotry they try to label you with are not going to shut us up.

What’s amusing is how the criticism of Elijah Cummings’s little slice of Hades is only intolerable because Trump said it. They are free to. After the tweets slamming the Democrats’ utter failure to serve the people of Baltimore, and the resulting backlash against people criticizing its useless government officials, conservative Twitter took great delight in finding and tweeting countless prior narrative-busting stories of Democrat corruption, rampaging rats and street crime in the lib media and even comments by the likes of Bernie Sanders. Everyone knows the sordid truth about Baltimore and the other Democrat-run big cities. In my own LA the homeless crowd the streets littering the sidewalks with syringes and dropping last night’s free meal whenever and wherever their hearts desire. We all see the truth, including the elite. They just want to prevent us from speaking it by branding it, falsely, as racism or some other -ism. They know it’s a lie. They hope that you’ll be intimidated anyway.

But Trump won’t be. Will you?

This demand that we forgo speaking inconvenient truths is a trend. We found out just a couple weeks ago that we aren’t supposed to demand immigrants not hate America and Americans. Again, there’s no debate about the truth of the statements themselves. Ilhan Omar hates America as much as she allegedly loves her brother. The elite knows it, and the elite knows you know it, yet the elite’s tactic is to try to neutralize it by keeping you from saying it. They seek to create a social sanction for criticizing them.

It’s Stalinist, which they would take as a compliment if they knew who Stalin was.

Should we even bother noting that none of this applies when the liberals attack us? Some anti-Christian creep who hates every principle in the Constitution shoots up a gun-free zone and that atrocity is somehow attributable to everyone who believes in the entire Bill of Rights, not just the rights that aren’t there. It’s the NRA’s fault, as is Baltimore’s crime wave, because…because shut up and submit. It’s the same sinister strategy at work, the attempt to place what you and what at least half of America believes outside the bounds of acceptable discourse.

No.

They don’t get to decide what truths may or may not be spoken.

Not going to happen.

See, this is our country, and we will hold corrupt and incompetent government employees accountable. We will call out the ungrateful and the anti-American. We will stand up for our right to keep and bear arms.

You progs will hate us for it, and you’ll lie about us, but why should we care? You’ll do it anyway. Even if we were so inclined to submit, we could never submit enough. Even if you managed to eliminate all us kulak opponents – every leftist’s not so secret fantasy, as history and pinko Twitter blue checks’ tweets demonstrate – you would still need our memory to provide a scapegoat for your inevitable failures. Without us, you might have to explain why you’ve held sway in the big cities for decades and yet it’s only gotten worse. Can’t have that!

The real reason Trump won, and the reason his supporters stay loyal, is that he sees the lies and just doesn’t care. He doesn’t concede your moral or intellectual superiority, like those GOP establishment Fredocon weasels do. He thinks you’re garbage and so he speaks the truth because he doesn’t care what you say.

And neither should we.

*  *  *

For a look at what happens if Trump and the GOP lose this fight, check out my action-packed yet highly amusing novels about the United States’ split into red and blue countries, People’s Republic, Indian Country and Wildfire. These liberal-infuriating thrillers have been called “Appalling” by the loser leftists and the hapless geebos who sank the Weekly Standard, which is awesome.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Kg3ZWm Tyler Durden

In addition to her well-documented history of depression and erratic online behavior, the trans former Amazon employee who was arrested and charged with one of the biggest bank data breaches in history earlier this week also threatened to shoot up an unnamed social media, Bloomberg reports, citing court documents filed by prosecutors.

Paige Thompson, 33, was arrested during a raid of her house Monday morning and charged with illegally accessing Capital One’s files. Sensitive data belonging to more than 100 million people who have applied for credit cards at Capital One may have been exposed, including names, dates of birth and about 140,000 social security numbers.

But Thompson’s roommate and landlord, a convicted felon named Park Quan, was also arrested after agents found more than a dozen guns and explosive material in his room. In arguing that Quan, who has at least three prior felony convictions mostly relating to illegal possession of firearms, should also be detained, prosecutors said the firearms were related to their case since Thompson had been subject to multiple restraining orders, and had made “express threats to harm herself or others.”

“In fact, in late May 2019, Person 1 threatened to ‘shoot up’ the office of a California social media company,” prosecutors wrote in a filing, referring to Thompson. A person familiar with the case said that “Person 1” is Thompson.

Following Thompson’s arrest, Amazon and the FBI have been trying to determine if she accessed files belonging to any other AWS customers or other companies and institutions that are mentioned in her social media posts.

Remember, there actually was a shooting at the offices of YouTube not too long ago.

Italian banking giant UniCredit also said it was investigating the possibility of a breach, as did Ford, and the Ohio Department of Transportation. On Thursday, Linda Lacewell, New York’s financial services superintendent, said UniCredit had alerted her office to “the possible loss of consumer data related to the Capital One data breach.”

Michigan State University, which was also mentioned, said it had found no evidence of a breach.

Amazon said it has so far found no evidence that Thompson hacked into the files of other customers.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Zm2Gvk Tyler Durden