Month: November 2018

“There is no sense of threat from Russia. We feel comfortable back-to-back.” A new deep dive by Bloomberg examining the growing closeness of Russia and China as both face down increased U.S. pressures and sanctions contains some deeply revealing quotes by analysts as well as a high official in the Chinese communist government reacting to Trump’s trade war. 

Russia and China, Bloomberg begins, are currently “as close as at any time in their 400 years of shared history.”

This is due to a perhaps “forced” and largely externally driven developing reconfiguration of the Eastern hemisphere’s superpowers — for most of their history longtime rivals — which involves, as Bloomberg summarizes:

Chinese investment and energy purchases make it easier for Russia to resist economic pressure over Ukraine; Russian sales of oil, missile defense systems, and jets are changing U.S. calculations in the Pacific by raising the potential cost of any future showdown with China.

Fu Ying, the chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, said while confirming the reality that China and Russia now find themselves in the same trenches: “I just hope that if some people in the U.S. insist on dragging us down the hill into Thucydides’ trap, China will be smart enough not to follow.”

Indeed to step back and review the breadth of Russia-China cooperation over the past couple years alone reveals the full potential “cost” of a US-China conflict, given the ways Russia could easily be pulled in. Fu Ying articulated the increasingly common view from Beijing, that “There is no sense of threat from Russia” and that “We feel comfortable back-to-back.”

And participants in a recent study by the National Bureau of Asian Research, a Seattle-based think tank, actually agree. They were asked whether American policy was at fault for pushing China and Russia into closer cooperation, and alarmingly, as Bloomberg notes: “Some among the 100-plus participants called for Washington to prepare for the worst-case scenario the realignment implies: a two-front war.”

Here’s but a partial list of the way Sino-Russian relations have been transformed in recent years:

• China is now Russia’s biggest single trade partner.
• Since 2015 Russia has been China’s top supplier of crude oil, displacing Saudi Arabia. Early this year Russia ramped up its capacity to pipe crude oil to China, to about 600,000 barrels per day, which is about double the prior capability
• Increased coordination at the U.N. Security Council.
• Regional coordination in Asia, such as Russia supplying the engines for Chinese-Pakistani fighter jets, resulting in an increasingly worried India which is seeing Russia move into the Chinese orbit instead of being an arbiter in Chinese-Pakistani relations
• The cooperative “NATO-lite” Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
• The “bromance” at recent summits between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, who meet each other with increased regularity.
• Joint military exercises between the two are now routine.
• This year Russia supplied China with its most advanced S-400 air defense system as well as Sukhoi SU-35 fighter aircraft
• Increased willingness on the part of Russia to thwart Washington’s argument that China is a threat to Moscow’s aims in the East.
• The new “Power of Siberia” natural gas pipeline set to start pumping 38 billion cubic meters (1.3 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas per year to northern China in December 2019. 
• Increasingly discovering non-conflicting interests: Europe and China “are two independent destinations and two independent routes” for gas and oil, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an October interview. “We do not see any need to redirect volumes.”

One observer of Sino-Russian relations and their increased military cooperation, Florence Cahill, recently summarized, “Both Beijing and Moscow are looking to demonstrate that trade wars and sanctions will only push them to develop new alliances.” 

Cahill explained further, “As long as their prevailing worldview is shaped by an animus towards a US-led international order, co-operation on all levels between Moscow and Beijing will likely be more pronounced than competition between them.”

This echoes precisely what President Xi affirmed to Putin  during their last major summit: “Both nations have to oppose unilateralism and trade protectionism, and build a new type of international relations and shared human destiny,” he said. 

It appears the blowback from Trump’s trade war with China will be a hastening in this “new type of relations” between the two superpowers in the East — and it may soon reach a point at which the U.S. will have fewer and fewer options, but only to sit back and watch. 

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Authored by Brian Darling, op-ed via The Daily Caller,

While the nation was gripped by House, Senate and governor races, there was another important contest on the ballot in Tuesday’s midterms related to the future of adult-use and medical-use marijuana. With several ballot initiatives in states that would liberalize laws on marijuana, it was a great day for the idea of federalism in marijuana laws.

Federalism is a core value of America. It is the idea that states, not the federal government, hold powers that are not specifically enumerated to the feds. Police powers have traditionally resided in states and with local officials, yet the federal government has slowly creeped into the law enforcement business when it comes to all forms of crime.

The history of marijuana regulation started with states outlawing the drug early last century, before the issue was federalized with passage of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in 1970.

As Americans have become more accepting of medical uses of the drug and allowing responsible use by adults, states have passed laws that have changed the law to allow different uses for marijuana.

The polling going into election day showed that the American people are becoming more accepting of differing levels of marijuana federalism. The Pew Research Center released a poll on Oct. 8 indicating that 62 percent of all Americans supported legalizing marijuana. The results on election day confirm the shift of the American people to support that idea.

A number of state initiatives on the ballot allowed different levels of legalization of the use of marijuana. Michigan was a big test case with an initiative to legalize adult use marijuana on the ballot. That vote was on the idea that anybody over 21 could possess marijuana and the state was empowered to set up a regulatory framework for growers and retailers. In Michigan Proposition 1 passed with significant support. A state as large as Michigan has followed the lead of California, Colorado and seven states that have allowed adults to use marijuana.

North Dakota was another test with a measure that expanded medical marijuana laws to allow anybody 21 or over to be allowed to use marijuana and, according to Forbes, “would have set no limit on the amount of marijuana that people could possess or cultivate” and mapped out no rules or regulations for the industry. That initiative was a bridge too far for the voters of North Dakota, yet two other states voted to allow medical marijuana. Utah had a medical marijuana initiative pass and becomes one of the most conservative states to adopt a liberalized approach to marijuana as medicine. In Missouri, there were three ballot initiatives that allowed medical marijuana, and at least one of those passed.

One important aspect of protecting federalism in marijuana laws is the candidates the people send to Washington. One race that had the potential to impact the future of marijuana legislation was the race between Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) versus Colin Allred. Sessions is very anti-marijuana federalism and used his position as chairman of the House Rules Committee. Sessions to block votes protecting states that allowed medical marijuana. Sessions lost and many think his strong stance against allowing votes to protect state that have passed medical marijuana laws hurt him.

The big fight going into 2019 will be over something called the STATES Act. With divided congressional power between the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House, there will be some opportunity for bipartisanship on a limited number of issues. The STATES Act may be one. That legislation would protect individuals in the “manufacture, production, possession, distribution, dispensation, administration, or delivery” of marijuana from federal prosecution.

In the Senate, this bill has support from conservative Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), in addition to progressive Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). The House version has support from Republican Reps. David Joyce (R-Ohio), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), in addition to Democrat Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). This is one of the few bipartisan issues that has a chance to pass in a divided Congress.

Although it was not such a great day for many incumbent politicians, it was a great day for marijuana federalism. Politicians should take note and support the STATES Act and other initiatives that protect banking and individuals from federal bullying on the issue when the Justice Department has taken such a strong stand against this idea.

Although Attorney General Jeff Sessions has fought to continue the federal war on marijuana [and has now resigned], former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci proclaimed just before the election, “I think he (President Trump) is going to legalize marijuana” after the midterms.

That would be a smart, and popular, move.

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Tomorrow at 2PM, the Federal Reserve will publish its latest rate decision, in which the FOMC will likely hold the fed funds rate target between 2.00 – 2.25%, and since this is the last meeting with with no economic projections or post-meeting press conference (this changes in 2019, when every meeting will be “live” with a presser) the market’s attention will focus on the statement. Some banks, such as Goldman, will be on the lookout for any Fed references to the 8% October sell-off; should these be present it would be seen as a dovish sign of concern about risk assets.

As RanSquawk summarizes, the FOMC is not expected to tweak the federal funds rate target at its November meeting, with markets seeing this week’s gathering as a pause before the Fed delivers a fourth 2018 hike in December. A hike at the next meeting is almost fully priced in, with a markets-implied probability of around 80%. Looking ahead, the Fed now expects three rate hikes in 2019 and one in 2020, with the 2021 dot plot looking for rates to be between 3.25-3.50%, matching its 2020 projection, hinting that the FOMC will put an end date to its hiking cycle some time in 2020.

ECONOMY: The incoming data supports the Fed’s conviction that the US economy is in good shape; in last week’s jobs report, unemployment held steady at 3.7% and average hourly earnings rose by 3.1% YY – the highest wage growth seen in this cycle (mostly due to calendar affects). On the growth front, Q3 GDP came in at a strong 3.5%. Goldman Sachs believes economic activity will likely continue in this direction, although it highlights that the FOMC may acknowledge the moderation in business fixed investment. In sum, while growth has likely peaked, it remains well above the pace required to stabilize the labor market and the Fed will likely deliver a relatively upbeat statement that sets the table for a December hike. Downside risks remain related to trade war uncertainty as Oxford Economics warns that ‘increasing trade-related supply-chain disruptions are boosting cost-pressures’ with some worried this could cause a ‘late-cycle breakout in wage growth and inflation’, and now forecasting a slowdown in economic growth this year to 2.5% from 3.0%.

STATEMENT: There will be no post-meeting press conference, nor will the central bank update its economic projections; attention, therefore, will be on the statement. Goldman Sachs’ analysts will be watching for three main factors: will the Fed allude to the  recent market sell-off, after stocks have skidded by around 8% since the September meeting. The bank will also be monitoring what the Fed makes of economic activity, after some metrics recently hinted that momentum was slowing.

FINANCIAL CONDITIONS: Goldman will also be monitoring for any comments around financial conditions but doesn’t expect changes on the language around financial developments, which the FOMC has listed as one of the factors it assesses in its policy outlook. “While the Fed has often been sensitive to substantial tightening in financial conditions, we think additional emphasis is on financial conditions in the short statement would send too dovish a policy signal, especially because growth is currently still very strong.” Accordingly, GS expects an upbeat statement.

HIKING PATH: Looking ahead, the bank writes that the increased estimated growth drag in 2019 from its financial conditions index tightening has increased the risk that growth slows to a trend pace earlier than the end of 2019; “we now therefore see the risks around our Fed call of five more hikes through the end of 2019 as symmetric,” Goldman says, “there is still a significant risk of a longer or steeper hiking cycle, but this is now balanced by a risk of a shorter cycle or an extended pause.”

Finally, this is what Goldman believes the Fed’s November statement will look like, redlined for changes with the September meeting:

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Authored by Katherine Lackey via USAToday.com,

While a potential eruption of the supervolcano that lies beneath this iconic park may garner more alarming headlines, the more likely hazard is a major earthquake…

While concerns about a potential eruption of the supervolcano beneath this iconic park may garner the most alarming headlines, a more likely hazard in the coming decades is a large earthquake.

“The biggest concern we have for Yellowstone is not with the volcano, it’s with earthquakes,” said Michael Poland, scientist-in-charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, a consortium of eight organizations led by the U.S. Geological Survey.

“This is an underappreciated hazard in the Yellowstone area. There can and there will be in the future magnitude-7 earthquakes.”

On average, Yellowstone experiences 1,500 to 2,500 earthquakes a year, most of them so small they can’t be felt. But large quakes can – and have – occurred in the not-too-distant past.

On Aug. 17, 1959, a magnitude-7.3 earthquake rocked the park, killing 28 people when a landslide  roared through a campground. More than 80 million tons of rock fell, blocking a river and forming a lake, aptly named Earthquake Lake, that remains today.

Debris from a landslide blocks part of a road in Gibbon Canyon in Yellowstone National Park after a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck the area on Aug. 17, 1959. (Photo: NPS file photo)

At the time, the quake was the second-largest in the lower 48 states in that century. It remains the largest historical earthquake in the Intermountain West, a region between the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada to the west.

Compared with even a minor eruption of Yellowstone’s super-volcano, the threat of an earthquake on a similar scale happening again is more likely.

“That’s something that happens on a human life scale,” Poland said. But unlike a volcano, large earthquakes don’t show warning signs.

“We can say where they are likely to occur, but we can’t say when.”

The hazards posed by a large quake today would be greater than what happened nearly 60 years ago due to a higher influx of visitors, especially in the summer. More than 4 million people visit Yellowstone every year, with peak visitation in July and August.

“It would be a lot worse today with more people in the area,” said Jamie Farrell, a geology professor at the University of Utah.

Yellowstone sits in a rural area with few roads. If one road goes out, it creates a huge detour, Farrell points out. If two roads become impassable, sometimes you can’t even get there by car.

“The good thing is that Yellowstone is one of the best seismically monitored regions in the world,” he said.

Boulders are seen on a road near Gibbon Falls in Yellowstone National Park after a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck the area on Aug. 17, 1959. (Photo: NPS file photo)

More than 40 seismic stations with the University of Utah continuously record the Earth’s movements in and around the Yellowstone region and report back to the National Park Service.

“We can’t predict them, but by looking at past data, these earthquakes tend to cluster in areas,” Farrell said.

“Given what’s happened in the past, we can give a probability of having an earthquake over the next X amount of time.”

Minor earthquakes rattle the park pretty much every day. But visitors wouldn’t know it: The quakes are so small, they’re picked up only on seismographs. 

Scientists watch those quake swarms diligently, keeping a close eye on the timing, location and depth. “We’re well aware there is a potential, because it’s a dynamic system, that we might want to actually move people away from an area or close an area,” said Jeff Hungerford, the park’s geologist.

The Yellowstone system has two main contributors to its earthquakes: the volcanic system, which puts stress on the crust, and the tectonic system, which is represented here by an area of active stretching of the crust from east to west. 

The earthquakes also play an important role in helping keepgeysers like Old Faithful rumbling. 

“We need this seismicity to keep these beautiful features alive because they clean the throat of many of our geysers and pools,” Hungerford said.

In addition to a major quake causing landslides and damaging or collapsing buildings and bridges, there’s another hazard: It could trigger a hydrothermal explosion, a mixture of hot water, mud and rocks that could injure people if they happened to be nearby.

As for a large earthquake triggering a volcanic eruption: While that is possible, a lot of things would need to be in play. The 1959 quake, for example, didn’t trigger a volcanic eruption.

“In order for a large earthquake to trigger a volcanic eruption, you probably already need to have an eruption almost ready to happen,” Farrell said.

Regardless, Farrell said visitors shouldn’t be on high alert for a geological event of any sort.

“We like to talk about these big, grandiose things happening like big earthquakes or large volcanic eruptions, but those are highly unlikely events,” he said.

“You’re in much more danger driving to Yellowstone than you would be by any of these things happening while you’re there.”

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Ever since China’s shadow banking sector peaked two years ago, one of Beijing’s biggest financial and social stability concerns was of widespread, out-of-control bank runs which if left unchecked, could cripple China’s massive, $35+ trillion financial sector, and which prompted the authorities to launch an aggressive deleveraging campaign targeting China’s shadow banks.

And while China has had its close encounters with the occasional bank jog, it always succeeded in intercepting them just in time, or threatening a crackdown if such “behavior” persisted; as a result financial stability was preserved.

That may be about to change: in what the Epoch Times warns could be the “sign of an impending financial crisis”, a small local bank in the southwestern Chinese city of Zigong just suffered a bank run.

Shareholders of Bank of Zigong in Sichuan Province absconded with 40 billion yuan ($5.78 billion), through loans issued to shell companies that they had created, according to a Nov. 2 post in a Chinese social-media account, and a report by Da Zhong, a state-run news website. The loans were long overdue, resulting in huge losses for the bank.

Even though the post was deleted within 20 minutes by internet censors, the news spread like wildfire and scores of bank customers rushed to dozens of bank branches in Zigong City to retrieve their deposits, while long lines of people could be seen from photos of the scene and uploaded by netizens.

Shortly after, the Zigong City branch of the national bank regulator, China Banking Regulatory Commission, sent out an emergency notice seeking to calm customers. The notice indicated that the Bank of Zigong, which was founded in 2001 and has 32 branches in the city of 1.2 million people, is running normally and has sufficient cash flow for reserve funds.

While the local police also announced the arrest of the person who spread the “online rumors”, that didn’t stop customers from rushing to the bank. Though the rumors were unconfirmed, the resulting bank run by panicked customers could spell serious trouble. As more customers try to withdraw funds, Bank of Zigong may eventually default.

That would have broader repercussions for the Chinese economy, as the Bank of Zigong exemplifies a common situation in many regions across China. Like many economic hubs in China, municipal authorities in Zigong have borrowed large sums from the Bank of Zigong to finance local infrastructure projects. The bank explicitly explains on its website that the institution supports initiatives by the city’s Communist Party committee and government authorities such as building projects, city redevelopment, state-owned enterprises reform, and more, according to the Epoch Times.

Zigong City, as with many other municipal governments, has set up local investment firms as a popular option to borrow money. But that has led to enormous debt that governments couldn’t repay. The Chinese regime recently published rules that allow these investment firms to file for bankruptcy if they don’t have the funds to repay their debts—highlighting the severity of the situation.

Economists – at least those outside of China – have warned that when the city investment firms go bankrupt, the domino effect on banks that loaned money to them, as well as the private individuals and companies that invested in them, would be detrimental.

“When city investment firms have no way to repay their debts, the Bank of Zigong will be in a crisis,” said Zhao Pei, a current affairs commentator at NTD Television, part of the Epoch Media Group.

More ominously, Twitter user Cao Ji, a former professor in Shanghai, who now does academic research in Taiwan said that “if there is a bank run at the Bank of Zigong, this means a financial crisis in China will begin from these local small banks.”

Meanwhile, there are also clues that what was said in the initial social-media post that sparked panic may be true. The post listed three companies as the bank’s majority shareholders: a real estate company; a conglomerate with portfolios in residential development, commercial real estate, and manufacturing equipment; and China Western Power, a firm that manufactures and distributes boilers.

China Finance Information, a financial data portal, released a public announcement stating that after China Western Power invested in Bank of Zigong, it became the bank’s largest shareholder, with a 20% stake.

However, according to an Oct. 8 report by the Changjiang Times newspaper, China Western Power is currently in financial distress, due to – what else – high levels of debt. As of the end of June, the company’s debt-to-asset ratio reached 77.52%, an increase of 10% from the end of 2015. The company also needs to repay 1.01 billion yuan (about $146 million) in loans by year’s end, and may be unable to meet its obligations.

The company’s shares have continually fallen since May, and such financial straits would match the claims in the initial social-media post.

There has been no additional information on whether the bank run involving the Bank of Zigong has been successfully halted, however as we noted just yesterday in “China’s Middle Class Is Again Desperate To Move Its Money Out Of The Country“, incidents such as this one demonstrate just how brittle China’s banking system truly is, if the mere speculation of capital or liquidity insufficiency is able to prompt a vicious bank run. And while the large, state-owned banks are sufficiently capitalized, the risk is that either any of the remaining shadow banking institutions or small, undercapitalized regional banks are swept away before the government can respond, resulting in a mass financial crisis.

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Authored by Adam Taggart via PeakProsperity.com,

Mike Maloney, monetary historian and founder of GoldSilver.com, has just released two new chapters of his excellent Hidden Secrets Of Money video series.

In producing the series, Maloney has reviewed several thousand years of monetary history and has observed that government intervention and mismanagement — such as is now rampant across the world — has always resulted in the diminishment and eventual failure of currency systems.

As for the world’s current fiat currency regimes, Mike sees a reckoning approaching. One that will be preceded by massive losses rippling across nearly all asset classes, destroying the phantom wealth created during the latest central bank-induced Everything Bubble, and grinding the global economy to a halt:

Gold and silver are tremendously undervalued right now, and I dare you to try to find another asset that is tremendously undervalued. There just is not. By all measures, everything is just in these hyper-bubbles. OK, real estate is not quite a hyper-bubble; it’s not quite as big as 2005 and 2006, but by all measures, it’s back into a bubble. But now, we’ve got the bond bubble, the biggest debt bubble in the world. These are all going to pop.

We had a stock market crash in the year 2000, and then in 2008, we had a crash in stocks and real estate. The next crash is going to be in stocks, real estate and bonds — including a lot of sovereign debt, corporate bonds and a whole lot of other bonds that will be crashing at the same time. So, it will be all of the standard financial asset classes, including the traditional ‘safe haven’ of bonds that are going to be crashing at the same time that the world monetary system is falling apart.

In response, there’s going to be an emergency meeting of a bunch of like the G20 finance ministers and a bunch of economists or something like that, just like there was in 1922 in Genoa, the Genoa Conference, where they came up with the gold exchange standard. Just like in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference, when they came up with the Bretton Woods system. Just like in 1971, when they came up with the Washington Accord, which was a new monetary system that actually never got implemented because when Bretton Woods fell apart, it just dissolved into sort of a default: everybody had US Dollars, and so the US Dollar was just selected as the international currency. This has been to great benefit of the United States. Every time we create a new dollar and cause inflation, it doesn’t just dilute the dollars within the United States since more than half of the dollars reside outside the United States. So, when we cause inflation of the currency supply that’s outside the United States, it steals purchasing power from other countries and transfers that purchasing power to the United States.

So, we have had this privilege, and we have abused this privilege, starting with George Bush Jr., with the deficit spending that he started and then Obama magnified. And now last year, they’re saying it was $800+ billion, but the national debt went up by like $1.1 or $1.2 trillion. We are already in trillion-dollar deficits right now.

So, we’ve got this convergence of things happening. But it gets worse.

One of things that I discovered when I was updating my book was the relatively recent financialization of government. I was looking at a chart of the tax revenues for the Federal Government. I went “Oh my God, this looks like a chart of the stock market.” I overlaid tax revenues with the Wilshire 5000 total market cap index and loo and behold, they had no correlation before the year 2000, but since the year 2000, when the stock market goes down, so do tax revenues. When the stock market goes up, so do tax revenues. So, the government now is highly dependent on the stock markets doing well. In the stock market crash in 2000, tax revenues fell 18%. In the global financial crisis of 2008, tax revenues fell 28%. It took 4-1/2 years from the crash of 2000 to get tax revenues back up to the breakeven point, where they were in the year 2000. It took 5-1/2 years from 2008 to get tax revenues back up to the breakeven point. During these pullbacks in tax revenues, deficit spending explodes, and currency creation has to explode to accommodate all of the deficit spending. We are already doing these trillion-dollar deficits and that means when the next crisis hits, it’s going to be one hell of a crisis. So, I am expecting the stock market to fall more than it did in the crisis of ’08, and that means the tax revenues are probably going to fall by 50% or 60% or more. 

Click the play button below to listen to Chris’ interview with Mike Maloney (56m:07s).

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Following the disturbing behavior in this morning’s White House press conference, when a journalist from CNN refused to hand his mic back to a White House aide…

Watch Jim Acosta from CNN hit the young intern on the arm to keep the mic. Where’s the #metoo movement when you need them? pic.twitter.com/o59ncCfAO4

— Raynard Esquilin (@tainomessenger) November 8, 2018

White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders announced that CNN’s Jim Acosta has had his media credentials pulled:

“President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration. We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern…

This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history. “

President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration. We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern…

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) November 8, 2018

This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history.

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) November 8, 2018

Sanders continued:

“Contrary to CNN’s assertions there is no greater demonstration of the President’s support for a free press than the event he held today.

Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters over the course of 1.5 hours including several from the reporter in question.

The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it‘s an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this Administration.

As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.”

While some have questioned whether he “acosta’d her”, the CNN reporter has just confirmed it via tweet…

“I’ve just been denied entrance to the WH. Secret Service just informed me I cannot enter the WH grounds for my 8pm hit”

I’ve just been denied entrance to the WH. Secret Service just informed me I cannot enter the WH grounds for my 8pm hit

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 8, 2018

The US Secret Service just asked for my credential to enter the WH. As I told the officer, I don’t blame him. I know he’s just doing his job. (Sorry this video is not rightside up) pic.twitter.com/juQeuj3B9R

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 8, 2018

Shortly after the press briefing debacle, Rawstory reports that CNN President Jeff Zucker attempted to rally the network’s reporters…

“I want you to know that we have your backs,” Zucker said a memo to employees that was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

“That this organization believes fiercely in the protections granted to us by the First Amendment, and we will defend them, and you, vigorously, every time.”

Although not even CNN probably expected this level of escalation. Which is why we wonder, how long before a) the rest of the press corps boycotts the White House briefings, and b) the hashtag #BringBackAcosta starts trending?

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Authored by Sara Tipton via ReadyNutrition.com,

Recent studies have shown that 90% of Americans use digital devices for two or more hours each day and the average American spends more time a day on high-tech devices than they do sleeping: 8 hours and 21 minutes to be exact.  If you’ve ever considered attempting a “digital detox”, there are some health benefits to making that change and a few tips to make things a little easier on yourself.

Many Americans are on their phones rather than playing with their children or spending quality family time together.  Some people give up technology, or certain aspects of it, such as social media for varying reasons, and there are some shockingly terrific health benefits that come along with that type of a detox from technology.  In fact, more and more health experts and medical professionals are suggesting a periodic digital detox; an extended period without those technology gadgets. Studies continue to show that a digital detox, has proven to be beneficial for relationships, productivity, physical health, and mental health. If you find yourself overly stressed or unproductive or generally disengaged from those closest to you, it might be time to unplug.

DIGITAL ADDICTION RESOLUTION

It may go unnoticed but there are many who are actually addicted to their smartphones or tablet. It could be social media or YouTube videos, but these are the people who never step away.  They are the ones with their face in their phone while out to dinner with their family. They can’t have a quiet dinner without their phone on the table. We’ve seen them at the grocery store aimlessly pushing around a cart while ignoring their children and scrolling on their phone. A whopping 83% of American teenagers claim to play video games while other people are in the same room and 92% of teens report to going online daily.  24% of those users access the internet via laptops, tablets, and mobile devices.

Addiction therapists who treat gadget-obsessed people say their patients aren’t that different from other kinds of addicts. Whereas alcohol, tobacco, and drugs involve a substance that a user’s body gets addicted to, in behavioral addiction, it’s the mind’s craving to turn to the smartphone or the Internet. Taking a break teaches us that we can live without constant stimulation, and lessens our dependence on electronics. Trust us: that Facebook message with a funny meme attached or juicy tidbit of gossip can wait.

IMPROVE RELATIONSHIPS AND BE MORE PERSONABLE

Another benefit to keeping all your electronics off is that it will allow you to establish good mannerisms and people skills and build your relationships to a strong level of connection. If you have ever sat across someone at the dinner table who made more phone contact than eye contact, you know it feels to take a backseat to a screen. Cell phones and other gadgets force people to look down and away from their surroundings, giving them a closed off and inaccessible (and often rude) demeanor. A digital detox has the potential of forcing you out of that unhealthy comfort zone. It could be a start toward rebuilding a struggling relationship too. In a Forbes study, 3 out of 5 people claimed that they spend more time on their digital devices than they do with their partners. This can pose a real threat to building and maintaining real-life relationships. The next time you find yourself going out on a dinner date, try leaving your cell phone and other devices at home and actually have a conversation.  Your significant other will thank you.

BETTER SLEEP AND HEALTHIER EATING HABITS

The sleep interference caused by these high-tech gadgets is another mental health concern. The stimulation caused by artificial light can make you feel more awake than you really are, which can potentially interfere with your sleep quality. It is recommended that you give yourself at least two hours of technology-free time before bedtime.  The “blue light” has been shown to interfere with sleeping patterns by inhibiting melatonin (the hormone which controls our sleep/wake cycle known as circadian rhythm) production. Try shutting off your phone after dinner and leaving it in a room other than your bedroom.  Another great tip is to buy one of those old-school alarm clocks so the smartphone isn’t ever in your bedroom.  This will help your body readjust to a normal and healthy sleep schedule.

Your eating habits can also suffer if you spend too much time checking your newsfeed. The Rochester Institute of Technology released a study that revealed students are more likely to eat while staring into digital media than they are to eat at a dinner table. This means that eating has now become a multi-tasking activity, rather than a social and loving experience in which healthy foods meant to sustain the body are consumed. This can prevent students from eating consciously, which promotes unhealthy eating habits such as overeating and easy choices, such as a bag of chips as opposed to washing and peeling some carrots. Whether you’re an overworked college student checking your Facebook, or a single bachelor watching reruns of The Office, a digital detox is a great way to promote healthy and conscious eating.

IMPROVE OVERALL MENTAL HEALTH

Social media addicts experience a wide array of emotions when looking at the photos of Instagram models and the exercise regimes of others who live in exotic locations.  These emotions can be mentally draining and psychologically unhealthy and lead to depression.  Smartphone use has been linked to loneliness, shyness, and less engagement at work. In other words, one may have many “social media friends” while being lonely and unsatisfied because those friends are only accessible through their screen. Start by limiting your time on social media. Log out of all social media accounts.  That way, you’ve actually got to log back in if you want to see what that Parisian Instagram vegan model is up to.

If you feel like a detox is in order but don’t know how to go about it, start off small. Try shutting off your phone after dinner and don’t turn it back on until after breakfast. Keep your phone in another room besides your bedroom overnight. If you use your phone as an alarm clock, buy a cheap alarm clock to use instead to lessen your dependence on your phone.  Boredom is often the biggest factor in the beginning stages of a detox, but try playing an undistracted board game with your children, leaving your phone at home during a nice dinner out, or playing with a pet. All of these things are not only good for you but good for your family and beloved furry critter as well!

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Just two days ago we exposed the abject failure of Abenomics as even allowing for distortions from the natural disasters which hit Japan, the machinery orders data will only embolden the BOJ to stay the course.

September Japanese Core Machine Orders crashed 18.3% MoM (more than double the 9% drop expected and considerably worse than the impact of the tsunami). That is the greatest monthly collapse in orders ever and led to machine orders collapsing 7% YoY (when expectations were for a 7.7% rise YoY)…

Worse still, historically, core machine orders are an early indicator of future capital spending, and exclude volatile orders for ships and orders from electrical power companies’

It comes on the back of the negative print for real cash earnings and the slide in household spending earlier this week. And all this before the sales-tax hike planned for next year.

The utterly dismal data adds to signs that gross domestic product may have contracted slightly in the third quarter…

And just in case you’re holding your breath for some “terrible news is great news” reaction from The Bank of Japan’s inglorious bag of tricks – “Wasurete kudasai”…

As one member of BoJ sheepishly admitted tonight: “Monetary policy can’t solve structural problems.”

I bet the gravely indebted, aging population of Japan wishes he figured that out about 20 or 30 years ago!! Persistent easing is not going away… and if we were betting people, we’d suspect ‘helicopter money’ is coming, after another BoJ member proclaimed:
“closer policy coordination with the government seems needed.”

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As Democrats prepare to take control of the House on Jan. 2, President Trump has a message for his political opponents, who might be feeling emboldened by their soon-to-be acquired subpoena power. If Dems try to use their subpoena power to launch Congressional investigations into his tax returns or Russia ties, the Trump Administration won’t cooperate with them on matters of policy.

During a raucous Wednesday press conference (the same press conference where he mercilessly berated two CNN reporters), Trump again threatened Democrats with partisan gridlock if they try to pursue investigations against him or his administration. Trump said that, since before he announced he would run, Democrats have bombarding him with “investigation fatigue” – as he phrased it. He then threatened to adopt a “war posture” if Democrats try and come after his tax returns, or launch another investigation into his Russia ties. 

He then made clear that, if they pursue an investigation, Republicans in the Senate would launch an investigation of their own into leaks of classified information by Democrats, including former FBI Director James Comey.

“They can play that game but we can play it better,” Trump promised.

But if Democrats want to work with the administration on policy priorities like infrastructure, they would do well to drop any plans for pursuing more investigations involving Trump. Otherwise, Trump said, they can expect two years of partisan gridlock.

“They want to do things. I keep hearing about investigations – fatigue. From almost the time I announced I was going to run, they’ve been giving us this investigation fatigue. We have a thing called the United States Senate – and a lot of questionable things were done. Leaks of classified information. All you’re going to do is end up with a back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth and all of a sudden two years will go by and you won’t have done a thing.”

In a brief respite from his typically antagonistic tone toward Democrats, Trump reversed course minutes later and praised Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi over her calls for bipartisanship Tuesday night, adding that Pelosi “loves this country.” He even sarcastically offered to push Republicans to vote for her as speaker if progressive Dems make good on their campaign threats not to vote for her.

“We actually have a great relationship,” Trump said of Pelosi. “I give her a great deal of credit for what she’s done and what she’s accomplished.”

[…]

Pelosi “loves this country, and she’s a very smart woman,” Trump said, adding that he had “a very warm conversation” with her on Tuesday.

Asked how he would respond to Democratic demands that he release his tax returns, Trump repeated an oft-used line about waiting for audits to be completed.

Trump warns Democrats against using their new power to investigate him after Republicans increased their seats in the Senate #Midterms2018 https://t.co/bxjqu8xnA0 pic.twitter.com/jJpScMTJwy

— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) November 7, 2018

In a press briefing given shortly after the president’s, Pelosi sounded undeterred, clearly stating that Democrats have investigation plans ready.

“We have a constitutional responsibility to have oversight,” Pelosi said. “This doesn’t mean we go looking for a fight.” She added that she hopes the administration will respond to requests for information voluntarily, but regarding a possible inquiry into the policy of separating families at the border, she said: “If that requires a subpoena, so be it.”

Trump used a similarly defiant tone in a tweet posted earlier on Wednesday, where he warned Democrats against “wasting Tapayer Money” on House investigations.

If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level. Two can play that game!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018

But given Democrats’ eagerness to take full advantage of their subpoena power, it appears the era of bipartisan “love” that Trump had promised after Tuesday night’s election might be over before it even began.

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