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If you thought the recent rally was awesome, you haven’t seen anything yet — according to BofA/Merrill analyst Stephen Suttmeier.

Stephen doesn’t concern himself with the fact that the United States and its trading partners are now beguiled by trillions in debt and productivity losses not seen since the early 1980s. Instead, he fashions this to be equal to the golden age of economic prosperity, last enjoyed post world war 2 — stretching until 1971.

WE HAVE FUCKING DECADES OF GAINS AHEAD.

“We actually think the Dow will surpass 20,000 and go much, much higher than that,” said Stephen Suttmeier, his firm’s chief equity technical strategist. “We do believe that we are in a secular bull trend [that was] signaled on the April 2013 breakout in the S&P 500.”

Suttmeier points out that much like today, rising bond yields also corresponded to a surge in equities in the 1950s. By the time bond yields moved to 5 or 6 percent in the 1960s, the S&P 500 had rallied about 460 percent over the decade or so.

“That bull run into the mid-1960s was actually an S&P secular bull trend that was associated with a low and rising interest rate environment,” Suttmeier said. “That is how we’re set up right here. “

In other words, Suttmeier believes that “there is at least a decade or more to run here on the S&P 500 and other U.S. equity averages.”

It’s the same god damned set up as the 1950s and 60s. Rates are going to skyrocket to 6%, choking  out America with crazy debt servicing fees — all the while stocks sparkle like a pack of jumping jacks on a dark and balmy July 4th night.

Here are some GDP stats for your enjoyment.

I want whatever he’s smoking.

 

 

Content originally generated at iBankCoin.com

via http://ift.tt/2ibZq3E The_Real_Fly

On November 1, one week before the presidential election, when a black Baptist church burned down Greenville, Mississippi with the words “Vote Trump” spray painted on the side, CNN was quick to suggest that the arson could be a “hate crime” targeting the local black community.

CNN quoted Mayor Errick Simmons who said said he spoke to some of the church’s 200 congregants “who were fearful and felt intimidated. They felt the vandalism was not just an attack on the church, but on the black community, he said.” It was all the CNN anchors could talk about for hours, if not days.

To be sure, there were those who suggested that contrary to the forced narrative, the arson could be nothing more than a false flag attack meant to incite anger at Trump supporters, but they were quickly silenced by being branded simply as purveyors of “fake news.”

As it turns out, the “fake news” was right, because as AP reported this afternoon, the arsonist Andrew McClinton, 45, of Leland Mississippi has been arrested, and not only was he a member of the church congregation, but he was also African American. 

So much for a “hate crime” against the black community.

Andrew McClinton

McClinton was charged Wednesday with first degree arson of a place of worship, said Warren Strain, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. 

Hopewell Bishop Clarence Green said McClinton is a member of the church. Green said he didn’t know about the arrest until he was called by The Associated Press.

Bishop Clarence Green stands outside his fire damaged 200-member
Hopewell M.B. Baptist Church in Greenville, Miss

Seemingly perturbed by the realization that the fire was started by a member of his own flock, not to mention a black man intent on provoking racial and political tensions under a “false flag”, the Bishop had little to add: “This is the first I have heard of it,” said Green, who said he was attending to other church duties and didn’t have time for a longer interview according to AP.

Amusingly, even as the police investigation continues, a state official said politics did not appear to be the reason for the fire. “We do not believe it was politically motivated. There may have been some efforts to make it appear politically motivated,” Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, who is also the state fire marshal, told AP.

Well, that’s one way to understate it… just like there are now “some efforts” to forget all about the fearmongering, race-baiting narrative that was spun instantly after the arson, in an attempt to demonize the stereotypical “angry, white, republican” Trump supporter, when it was all nothing more than a false flag attack.

Greenville is a Mississippi River port city of about 32,100 people, and about 78% of its residents are African-American. While it’s not unusual for people of different racial backgrounds to work and eat lunch together, local residents say the congregations at most churches remain clearly identifiable by race.

 

Hopewell was founded in 1905 in the heart of an African-American neighborhood, and the congregation now has about 200 members. While some walls of the beige brick church survived the fire, the empty windows are boarded up and church leaders have said the structure will likely be razed. Rebuilding could take months.

After the fire, Hopewell congregants began worshipping in a chapel at predominantly white First Baptist Church of Greenville where they have been warmly accepted. The Hopewell bishop, Clarence Green, said last month the generosity of First Baptist demonstrates that “unlimited love” transcends social barriers. James Nichols, senior pastor at First Baptist, said the Hopewell members are welcome to stay as long as they need a home.

via http://ift.tt/2he6pcu Tyler Durden

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

Around the time of Passover in 67 AD, the Jews of Judea were in the midst of a major rebellion against the occupying Roman Empire.

Riots and violence were commonplace, and an organized rebel force of more than 25,000 men fought regularly against the imperial legions.

But a small group of zealots decided that conventional warfare wasn’t good enough.

So they went to the nearby town of Ein Gedi in modern-day Israel and killed 700 civilians.

This was one of the first recorded terror attacks in history.

Titus Flavius Josephus, an ancient historian (whose works are frequently disputed) described this massacre in his book The Jewish War, and goes on to explain that Sicarii committed mass suicide rather than be taken prisoner by the Romans.

Terrorism, radicalism, and fanaticism have existed for thousands of years; there have always been people willing to commit unspeakable acts of violence as a means to achieve their goals.

And sadly, though our species has evolved since ancient times, these traits still exist in a dangerous minority that struck at least three times just yesterday alone.

Most of us who don’t have our mental wires crossed can’t understand their belief systems– both ancient and modern-day terrorists alike are not only willing to die, but quite often HAPPY to die for their causes.

Today’s politicians are remarkably ill-equipped to deal with this kind of threat.

Their solution is to fight violent radicals by forming committees, issuing press releases, and passing mountains of legislation.

Case in point: The National Defense Authorization Act of 2017, which is sitting on President Obama’s desk awaiting signature, consists of over 3,000 pages of rules, regulations, and pet projects.

3,076 pages to be exact.

Hell, when dropped from the right altitude, that’s a lethal weapon.

To give you an example of exactly how these people could possibly fill 3,076 pages, there’s a new rule among the bill’s many, many, many passages that redefines administrative leave procedures for civilian contractors.

FINALLY! We’re safer already!

Just imagine all the terrorists quaking in their boots, petrified of carrying out another act of violence, knowing that American’s administrative leave policy has been refurbished.

Another gem is section 1224, which provides authorization to arm Syrian rebels with state-of-the-art weapons from the US military.

I’m not talking about small arms and ammunition. This is the heavy-duty stuff.

Apparently Congress didn’t learn its lesson when a bunch of the weapons they gave to the Iraqi military conspicuously ended up in the hands of ISIS.

Nor did they learn their lesson back in 2010 when it was found that the DEA had completely lost track of the thousands of weapons they supplied to Mexican cartels.

But don’t worry, the law provides plenty of safeguards.

For example, once the military supplies weapons to a Syrian rebel (who are obviously very easy to tell apart from ISIS terrorists), they have to file a report, including: “an explanation of the purpose and expected employment of such systems.”

Are these people serious?

Do they think that these high-tech precision munitions will be used to make coffee?

It’s amazing that this is what passes as Defense policy… THIS is how they plan on spending hundreds of billions of dollars to keep you safe– sending useless reports to their central bureaucracy.

Then, of course, there’s section 1287, my personal favorite.

Section 1287 requires that, within 180 days of the bill being signed to law, a new agency called the Global Engagement Center will be created under the State Department.

The Global Engagement Center’s job is to combat FAKE NEWS around the world, with sweeping powers to train and fund legions of journalists and bloggers to inundate the world with US propaganda.

Politicians have been praising the idea for the Global Engagement Center as a landmark new tool to keep Americans safe.

This is totally bogus; the US government has had propaganda and psychological warfare resources for decades.

Back in my intelligence days, I spent several months working right next to the Psychological Operations guys.

And outlets like Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty have been in existence since the 1940s; both were funded by the CIA for decades.

So it’s not like it’s anything new for the US to be spreading propaganda.

What is new is creating and consolidating a whole lot of new power and authority into a single office to undermine any independent sources that don’t conform to the official narrative.

The Global Engagement Center is basically the Ministry of Truth.

This doesn’t make you safer. It makes you less free.

Do you have a Plan B?

via http://ift.tt/2hUIhst Tyler Durden

Three weeks ago we reported that in what may have been one of the most brazen thefts in Manhattan's jewelry district, a man brazenly swiped an 86-pound bucket full of gold worth $1.6 million from the back of an unattended Loomis armored truck on West 48th Street in the Diamond District on Sept. 29, in broad daylight, as tourists and locals were walking in and out of the jewelry stores that line the block.

The whole incident was caught on closed-circuit camera.

The suspect, decribed as 5 feet 6 inches tall, 150 pounds and in his 50s according to the police, managed to get away without a hitch. The police suspected that the unidentified man was lying low in Orlando or Miami until things blow over in the Big Apple.

Overnight the police not only identified the man, but according to their latest speculation, the gold thief has moved on from Florida, and is now to be found as far away from NY as possible.

On Tuesday, NYPD identified the man as Julio Nivelo. He is now believed to be in Los Angeles. NYPD Det. Martin Pastor says Nivelo, 53, is a convicted felon who's known to the NYPD as Luis Toledo, among other aliases. He's a career thief who's been arrested seven times and deported four times to his native Ecuador, according to Pastor. 

Nivelo, a native of Ecuador, fled to Orlando, Fla., before heading to California, WNBC reported on Tuesday night. Mr. Nivelo, who was living in West New York, N.J., at the time of the theft, had previously been arrested seven times and deported four times, the station reported.

Surveillance video from the the theft showed Nivelo loitering around the truck before one guard goes to make a pickup, and the other guard heads to the front seat to grab his cellphone. Those 20 seconds were long enough for the thief to strike: he goes to grab the 86-pound bucket – roughly half his weight – and makes a run for it, though he clearly has difficulty maneuvering it. The video shows the thief setting down the heavy bucket, putting it on his shoulder, then taking a breather. He takes another few steps and pauses again. The normally 10-minute walk takes him an hour. He then jumps into a van at 49th Street and Third Avenue.

The police released several photos of Mr. Nivelo. Nivelo was a man about town before the heist, it appears: photos show him posing at Washington Square Park and with a figure of the pope at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

 

Loomis has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction, police sources said.

Below is the NYPD post seeking the public's help in finding Nivelo… and the $1.6 million in gold that is supposedly in his vicinity.

* * *

WANTED: Burglary (Manhattan)

The suspect has been identified as follow:

• Nivelo, Julio
• AKA: David Vargas
• 53 year-old Hispanic male
• 5’5″, 155 pounds with dark hair.

************************************

The New York City Police Department is asking the public’s assistance identifying the individual depicted in the attached surveillance video and photographs in regard to a armored truck burglary that occurred within the confines of the MTN Precinct. Details are as follows:

 It was reported to the NYPD’s Major Case Squad that on Thursday, September 29, 2016, at approximately 4:30 p.m. an armored truck company making a pick up discovered that a 5 gallon aluminum pail weighing 86 pounds containing gold flakes (valued at 1.6 million dollars) was stolen from the rear of their armored truck.  The truck was parked in front of 48 West 48th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. The unidentified individual is then seen lifting the 5 gallon pail from the truck and fleeing East bound on West 48 Street toward Third Ave. There are no reported injuries as a result of this incident.

The individual is described as a:

•   Male Hispanic 5’6″, 150 lbs, 50-60 years old wearing a black vest, green shirt, blue jeans carrying a black messenger bag.

 Surveillance video and photos of the individual were captured near the corner of 5th Avenue and 48th Street.  The video shows the suspect fleeing with the stolen black aluminum 5 gallon pail.

 Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS or for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at http://ift.tt/17IHIZe or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

 All calls are kept strictly confidential.

via http://ift.tt/2igKBsB Tyler Durden

Well this was a “no brainer.” The Wall Street Journal reports that billionaire investor Carl Icahn is expected to be named special adviser to the president on overhauling federal regulations, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Icahn, who has spent the past four decades battling big companies as an activist investor, already has been wielding influence in President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team.

 

He is playing a central role in selecting the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the people said. Interested candidates have reached out to him, and he is interviewing others at the request of Mr. Trump, the people said.

 

The 80-year-old has played a similar role in identifying Mr. Trump’s choices for other important posts. Mr. Icahn, who controls an oil refiner and has spent months berating the Environmental Protection Agency over a rule he says hurts the industry, helped Mr. Trump vet candidates to run the EPA.

 

He weighed in enthusiastically as Mr. Trump considered whether to nominate Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross to run the Treasury and Commerce departments, respectively. Both men were picked for the jobs.

Messrs. Trump and Icahn’s relationship dates back to their time running Atlantic City casinos. The pair sat together for the occasional big boxing match. Mr. Icahn’s wife, Gail, is on Mr. Trump’s inauguration committee.

The position isn’t an official government job; Mr. Icahn won’t get paid and won’t have to give up his current business dealings. Yet, as WSJ reports, it is the latest example of a quintessential outsider assuming power as President-elect Donald Trump assembles his cabinet secretaries and advisers.

Messrs. Trump and Icahn say U.S. businesses have been overregulated in the Obama administration, which they argue is causing them to hold back on investments and is slowing the economy. Mr. Icahn will now be a key player in Mr. Trump’s efforts to loosen the regulatory reins.

“I’m involved with Donald where he wants me to be—I believe he respects my views and I think he listens to me,” Mr. Icahn said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “What Trump is trying to achieve is to show business in a lot of this country they aren’t going to be ruined by absurd regulation by bureaucrats.”

via http://ift.tt/2hdShja Tyler Durden