President Barack Obama will be
announcing
executive actions on immigration tonight during primetime. But
there’s a new episode of Arrow!
A planned sitcom starring Bill Cosby has been
canceled by NBC in the wake of sexual assault allegations
against the comedian.
The first marriage licenses to
gay couples in South Carolina were handed out today, even as
the state’s attorney general fights a federal ruling striking its
ban down.
Five students in Thailand
have been detained for reportedly using the three-fingered
salute invented by the rebels in The Hunger Games in front
of the country’s prime minister.
The Department of Justice announced it has collected a record
$24 billion in penalties for fiscal year 2014, three times the
amount they gathered last year, thanks to some big bank
payouts.
Follow us onFacebook andTwitter,
and don’t forget tosign
up for Reason’s daily updates for more
content.
“Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.
We have never been a people who place all our faith in government to solve our problems. We shouldn’t want to. But we don’t think the government is the source of all our problems, either. Because we understand that this democracy is ours. And as citizens, we understand that it’s not about what America can do for us, it’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but absolutely necessary work of self-government. And class of 2013, you have to be involved in that process.”
The word "volatile" comes to mind when reflecting on today's cross-asset class action. US equities dumped into and beyond the US open, decoupling entirely from JPY carry, only to reverse perfectly at the European close and recover all the way back to USDJPY right as the FOMC minutes hit. A kneejerk sent stocks higher but that quickly decoupled also and stocks fell. Small Caps underperformed and are back in the negative year-to-date. Treasury yields were volatile, ramping higher into the US open, rallying post, then whipsawing on FOMC minutes to close 3-4bps higher on the day.The USD was flat on the day despite the surge in USDJPY back above 118. Commodities were a mess with a big dump on Swiss Gold polls, rip higher on Russian buying rumors and dropped again on FOMC (oil and copper followed suit). HY Credit was "bidless" and continues to decouple from stocks (along with VIX). The Dow was levitated back into the green to close
On the day, Russell 2000 underperformed… and they tried their best to get The Dow green to prove how The Fed is right…
The Russell 2000 was down 1.8% this week, down 1.5% today, and had limped ungraciously back into the red for the year. before bouncing back into the FOMC Minutes release. Since then, it retreated rapidly and is now once again negative for 2014… which is odd given everyone proclaiming growth is back and the domestic economic exposure bias of small caps over big caps…
JPY Carry has decoupled…
HY Credit notably decoupling from stocks still
As Brean Capital's Peter Tchir notes:
I have said since it happened it was particularly focused on the high yield market which had gone bidless and rather than finding real clearing levels they did the QE trick (it was more about hy then stocks). Today they admit the market was right to take their reaction as stepping in when vol increased. By adding the statements about misimpressions today they are resetting the Yellen put – to a lower strike. The bad thing is hy is weak again and it isn't just shale and CCC that is going bidless – there is almost a daily blow up now whether here or in Europe.
And VIX continues to decouple…
Across the asset classes, quite a volatile day…
Commodities all broke aroun 1030ET when rumors of the Swiss poll results started…
Having noted rather pointedly that “there’s a subsidy in the marketplace that’s worked out definitely to those that are holding equities,” Santelli warns, when The Fed removes it, “it creates a problem for equities.” However, when he is asked about the disconnect between the bond market (rates) and what The Fed is telling us, Santelli rightly explodes, lambasting the ‘Hatzuis’ of the world, “if The Fed hasn’t made up its mind” about when and how rates will rise, “how can markets ‘price it in’?” … and the rant ignites from there…
While the general population is aware something is seriously wrong, people remain extremely confused about the root of the problem. This is because what’s happening all around us isn’t socialism and it isn’t free market capitalism. It is actually a return to something much more ancient and much more oppressive. It is a return to serfdom, neo-fedualism and oligarchy.
Well now we have definitive proof. I can’t get more in your face than this.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch)—Faced with an increasing number of White House intrusions that led to the resignation of a Secret Service director, a congressman on Wednesday suggested that maybe a moat should be erected around the president’s home.
The dust has barely settled on the latest high profile banker suicide in which Deutsche Bank’s associate general counsel, and former SEC regulator, Charlie Gambino was found dead, having hung himself by the neck from a stairway banister, and here comes the latest sad entrant in the dead banker chronicles of 2014 when earlier today, the Post reports, a Citigroup banker was found dead with his throat slashed in the bathtub “of his swanky downtown apartment, authorities said Wednesday.”
More:
Shawn D. Miller, Citigroup’s managing director of environmental and social risk management, was discovered around 3 p.m. Tuesday by a doorman in the Greenwich Street building, law enforcement sources said. “We are deeply saddened by this news and our thoughts are with Shawn’s family at this time,” said a statement sent out by Citigroup.
Unlike previous “clearcut” suicides, this time there may have been foul play: the Post adds that “there was no knife recovered at the scene, leading officials to suspect the death was not a suicide, and they were trying to determine who had access to his apartment.”
Miller did well: “one-bedroom apartments at the building are listed at more than $1 million.”
An online profile under the man’s name calls him a “pioneer in sustainable finance” and a specialist in emerging markets at the International Finance Corp., part of the World Bank. Several former colleagues told The Post that Miller was well-liked.
It was unclear why the doorman checked his apartment.
In a nation in which 1 out of every 3 homes is unaffordable, you’d think the primary goal of public policy wouldn’t be to ensure real estate becomes even more out of reach for the average citizen. However, we live in a country in which policy isn’t being driven by logic and what’s in the best interest of “the people,” rather, we live in an neo-feudalistic society in which policy is being driven by what is best for a handful of white-collar criminals.
It’s bad enough that American financial oligarchs have leveraged free money polices of the Federal Reserve to purchase tens of billions of dollars in real estate only to rent it back to people who were kicked out of their homes during the 2008 crisis, but the government is now going out of its way to allow Chinese (and other foreign criminals) to launder money via U.S. property.
In case you aren’t up to speed on this issue, I suggest reading the following:
Apparently, the level of ill-gotten funds flowing into U.S. real estate still hasn’t reached the level desired by policy makers. As such, China and the U.S. have extended the terms of multiple entry short-term tourist and business visas to 10 years from one year. Reuters reports the result has been a 35% jump in Chinese interest:
(Reuters) – Chinese inquiries about real estate investment in the United States surged 35 percent this week after the two countries agreed to extend the terms of short-term visas, China’s top international property portal said on Friday.
The White House announced this week that both countries have extended the terms of multiple entry short-term tourist and business visas to 10 years from one year. Student visas were extended to five years from one year.
The relaxation on student visas could have a bigger impact than the other two, said Juwai.com, an online property marketplace that refers potential Chinese buyers to overseas agents. It said there were twice the number of inquiries about student visas compared to tourist and business visas.
Millennials had better fluff up that basement couch.
There’s an ongoing fight in New Orleans over
policies related to public employees. Apparently the mayor, Mitch
Landrieu, has tried to implement changes under the “Great
Place to Work Initiative.” The changes would increase the
minimum wage for public employees to $10.10, make it easier to give
employees pay raises, and loosen rules requiring hiring managers
consider the best qualified candidates for a position.
Nevertheless, multiple public unions sued over the initiative,
arguing it made the city’s civil service less competitive.
The Civil Service Commission originally approved the proposal in
August, and earlier this month
voted on unspecified changes behind closed doors it said were
meant to knock the wind out of lawsuits. No details were made
available. After a few weeks of criticism, the Commission decided
to vote again, though it has not been transparent about what
exactly it voted in favor of the first or second time around. At
this week’s meeting, however, the Commission also addressed cop
pay. As The Lens
reports:
Later in the meeting, the commission approved a 20 percent pay
raise for police officers, based on a recommendation from the Civil
Service Department staff. Under the proposal, officers would
receive a 10 percent bump next year, to be followed by 5 percent
increases in years two and three.
Landrieu’s 2015 budget proposal, however, only accounts for
a 5 percent increase, and Landrieu has not committed to continued
raises in 2016 and 2017. Funding for the raises will ultimately
have to be allocated by the City Council.
Will Landrieu accommodate the generous raise in exchange for
less opposition to his attempt to take more control over who is
hired to public jobs? No matter who wins, New Orleans residents
lose.
The New Orleans Police Department did not face any serious
reforms despite a decades-long negative image reinforced by the
actions of some cops during and after Hurricane Katrina. A few
months ago,
cops shot a man they pulled over in the head and “forgot” to
tell the media who shot him.
So this
exists and 2 million people have watched it since it was
released in September:
The natural impulse of any sentient being here is to deploy some
serious anti-Nickelback snark, tear apart the poorly thought-out
political philosophy in the lyrics, and then try to locate some ear
bleach.
Here’s what Nickelback’s lead yahoo, Chad Kroeger,
told Yahoo!Music when the album was released last month:
Wiederhorn: Another new thing
on No Fixed Address is you’ve written what might
be your most poignant political song, “Edge of a Revolution.” What
motivated you to go that route?
Kroeger: I don’t know if North America is
on the edge of a revolution, but I wanted it to feel that way in
the song, since it feels that way in so many other parts of the
world. You turn on CNN and it’s like, “Wow!” We’d have it on for 15
minutes and we’d have to shut it off because it was so depressing.
The state of affairs in the world these days is so dismal. And I
think that’s where the song definitely came from. While we were
working, the [shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri] was
a major story and there was rioting like crazy. So it definitely
felt like the seeds of revolution were being planted.
Instead, consider this a barbaric yawp driven by a cultural
swell of disapproval for the kind of behavior exhibited by the
police in Ferguson, both in the shooting of Michael Brown and the
aggressive response to the protests after the fact. And just try to
ignore the fact that the video—after a churn of Guy Fawkes masks,
anti-NSA invective, and little floating nuclear
symbols—confusingly, ends with uniformed children chanting and
thrusting their fists forward in unison. Because…freedom?
Head high, protest line
“Freedom” scribbled on your sign
Headline, New York Times
Standing on the edge of a revolution
Hey, hey, just obey.
Your secret’s safe with the NSA
In God we trust or the CIA?
Standing on the edge of a revolution
Yeah, we’re standing on the edge of a revolution
Revolution, revolution, revolution
No, we won’t give up, we won’t go away
‘Cause we’re not about to live in this mass delusion
No, we don’t wanna hear another word you say
‘Cause we know they’re all depending on mass confusion
No, we can’t turn back, we can’t turn away
‘Cause it’s time we all relied on the last solution
No, we won’t lay down and accept this fate
‘Cause we’re standing on the edge of a revolution
Wall Street, common thief
When they get caught they all go free
A brand-new yacht and a finder’s fee
Standing on the edge of a revolution
Same shit, different day
Can’t keep fed if I can’t get paid
We’ll all be dead if the shit don’t change
Standing on the edge of a revolution
Yeah, we’re standing on the edge of a revolution
Revolution, revolution, revolution
No, we won’t give up, we won’t go away
‘Cause we’re not about to live in this mass delusion
No, we don’t wanna hear another word you say
‘Cause we know they’re all depending on mass confusion
No, we can’t turn back, we can’t turn away
‘Cause it’s time we all relied on the last solution
No, we won’t lay down and accept this fate
‘Cause we’re standing on the edge of a revolution
We’ll all be dead if this shit don’t change
Hey hey hey hey
What do we want? We want the change
And how’re we gonna get there? Revolution
What do we want? We want the change
Standing on the edge of a revolution
What do we want? We want the change
And how’re we gonna get there? Revolution
What do we want? We want the change
Standing on the edge of a revolution
No, we won’t give up, we won’t go away
‘Cause we’re not about to live in this mass delusion
No, we don’t wanna hear another word you say
‘Cause we know they’re all depending on mass confusion
No, we can’t turn back, we can’t turn away
‘Cause it’s time we all relied on the last solution
No, we won’t lay down and accept this fate
‘Cause we’re standing on the edge of a revolution
What do we want? We want the change
And how’re we gonna get there? Revolution
What do we want? We want the change
Standing on the edge of a revolution
What do we want? We want the change
And how’re we gonna get there? Revolution
What do we want? We want the change
Standing on the edge of a revolution
President Barack Obama will be