Category: zerohedge

After years of sexting scandals that cost him his marriage with Huma Abedin and potentially even cost Hillary the White House, disgraced former Democratic congressman and New York Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner is set to appear in a federal courtroom in Manhattan today to enter a guilty plea for sexting with a minor.

According to the New York Times, Weiner will plead guilty to a single charge of transferring obscene material to a minor, pursuant to a plea agreement he struck with the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan. Weiner reportedly surrendered to the F.B.I. early Friday morning.

As a result of the guilty plea, Weiner will likely end up as a registered sex offender, although a final determination on that issue has yet to be made.  The charge carries a potential sentence of between 0 – 10 years in prison, meaning Weiner could avoid prison time though the ultimate sentence will be determined by a judge.

As you’ll recall, the FBI only discovered those last minute Hillary emails due to their ongoing criminal investigation of Anthony Weiner.  The “tens of thousands of emails”, many including exchanges between Huma Abedin and Hillary Clinton, discovered on Weiner’s computer ultimately prompted James Comey to make his now infamous October 29th announcement that the Hillary email investigation had been re-opened.  Hillary has since attributed her loss to Comey’s decision.

Of course, as you may recall, Weiner’s latest sexting scandal came to light back in September 2016, a very critical time for the Hillary campaign, when it was exposed by the Daily Mail.  Unfortunately, this time the scandal involved a girl that Weiner knew to be a 15-year old Sophomore in high school.  But, that didn’t seem to stop him from telling the teenager that he would like to “bust that tight pussy so hard.” 

Anthony Weiner’s latest alleged scandal involves a 15-year-old high school student

The girl first reached out to Weiner in January 2016.  In that initial discussion, the girl openly admitted that she was a high school student. 

 

But, that didn’t seem to stop Weiner from later telling the girl over a sexting app that he “would bust that tight pu**y so hard and so often that you would be limp for a week.”

In an interview with the Daily Mail, the high school student said that Weiner pushed her to “dress up in school-girl outfits” and engage in “rape fantasies” over skype.  He also felt the need to inform the young girl that he and his wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin, hadn’t had sex in a year.

“When we would Skype, he would tell me that he was very lonely and that it had been a year since he and his wife [Huma] had sex, and that she really didn’t pay him any attention.  We would talk, just chatting for about 30 minutes and it would lead to more sexual things…asking me to undress…he’d comment on my body. He asked me about masturbation, and that kind of thing.”

 

“He would pretend like he was a teacher and I was a student. And he’d talk about me sitting in the front of his class, and him taking me after school.”

 

“He had some rape fantasies. It would just be him showing up at my house when my dad was out of town.  And just start undressing me, being forceful, asking me if I want to be dominated, strange questions.”

 

She said when she told him she was uncomfortable with this, he quickly agreed to change the subject.

 

The girl said she started feeling guilty about hiding the relationship, and told her father and a teacher about it in late April.

After ruining her shot at the White House, you had to know that Hillary wouldn’t let Weiner escape this one.

via http://ift.tt/2qyW65V Tyler Durden

Back in 2014, just as the market was plunging, St Louis Fed’s Bullard stopped the bleeding when in a Bloomberg interview said that a “logical response” to the tumbling market, would be to “delay the end of QE” and strongly suggested ed that “QE4” would be considered to prevent further market losses. The S&P exploded.

Well, this morning the Fed’s nonvoting converted permadove (Bullard used to be the most hawkish Fed member until his unexpected conversion in 2014), is back and in prepared remarks for a speech in St. Louis is once again suggesting that all the talk of an “overheating” economy was just that saying that “financial market readings since the March decision have moved in the opposite direction” of what would normally occur after a rate hike, adding: “this may suggest that the FOMC’s contemplated policy rate path is overly aggressive relative to actual incoming data on U.S. macroeconomic performance.”

Speaking in St. Louis, Bullard admitted that U.S. macroeconomic data have been relatively weak, on balance, since the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met in March and raised the fed funds rate. He said that economic growth is unlikely “to move meaningfully” this year from the current trend of about 2 percent.

He also said that inflation and inflation expectations “have surprised to the downside” and noted that financial market readings since the March decision have been opposite of expectations.

Additionally, “even if the U.S. unemployment rate declines substantially further, the effects on inflation are likely to be small” and notes that “labor market improvement has been slowing, perhaps close to a trend pace, given the current labor productivity growth regime.”

Bullard also commented on the slowing GDP growth rate, saying that “tracking estimates for second- quarter real GDP growth suggest some improvement from the first quarter, but not enough to move the U.S. economy away from a regime characterized by 2 percent trend growth.”

“This may suggest that the FOMC’s contemplated policy rate path is overly aggressive relative to actual incoming data,” Bullard said. He also discussed the relationship between unemployment and inflation and said that, even if U.S. unemployment declines substantially further, the effects on inflation are likely to be small.

Translated: Bullard confirms that the Fed once again top-ticked the economy, something only the S&P appears to have missed.

As for the Fed’s expectations of 2 rate hikes for 2017… let’s just say the economy disagrees.

The result: both USDJPY and S&P futures are not happy with today’s admission by at least one non-voting Fed president that the Fed may have one again made a “policy error.”

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As one would expect, in a week that saw the biggest one-day drop in US equities since last September, retail investors bailed on US stocks resulting in what BofA dubbed “risk-off flows” as $1.6 billion was pulled from global equities – with active managers once again getting the short end of the stick, with $4.3 billion in outflows from mutual funds, largest in 7 weeks while another $2.7 billion flowed  into ETFs – offset by $9.7 billion inflows to bonds and $0.2 billion to gold.

That said, the bifurcation in equity flows has continued as European equity funds continued to see inflows for an 8th consecutive week (a $1.1 billion inflow) although the pace has slowed from a record level a week ago. The monthly data reveal that the asset class recorded the highest inflow since Dec’15 and the second positive in a row.

The flows reflect big asset allocation preference for EU disclosed previously in the Fund Managers Survey, shown below; rotation into EU from US ($8.9bn outflow) continues

As for the US, it could get worse: BofA’s Mike Hartnett notes that DC disruption presents a new risk as the Washington political malaise causes capital flight from US. YTD foreigners have bought $71.4bn US stocks, corporate bonds & government bonds. The question now is whether they will sell.

Looking across other asset classes, bonds saw solid inflows in the past week, with IG & HY inflows biggest in 6 weeks; YTD inflows to bonds of $154bn outpacing inflows to stocks of $125bn

Meanwhile, until Thursday’s Brazilian crash, money continued to flow into emerging markets, with EM seeing both debt ($1.6bn) & equity ($3.9bn) inflows this week; In fact, piggybacking on Gundlach’s emerging market enthusiasm, EMs are the YTD flow winner and YTD return winner (stocks +18%, bonds +7%) as the weaker dollar, lower yields overwhelm China credit fears. 

Some other fund flows observations:

• Flow leadership YTD: 1. bank loans (annualizing inflows of 49% of AUM) 2. EM debt (26%) 3. tech (25%) 4. financials (20% – Chart 2)

• Tech mania: as shown recently when we broke down the latest 13F filing, tech inflows are annualizing at the strongest pace in 15 years, or since the dot com bubble; the risk is that the longer it takes economy & yields to pick-up, the greater risk of tech mania – note Nasdaq Internet index (QNET) annualizing 75% gain YTD

Meanwhile, the active vs passive decoupling noted above continued: passive equity inflows this week ($2.7bn) vs active outflows ($4.3bn); YTD passive = $178bn inflows, active = $52bn outflows; past 10 years, $2.2tn into passive and $2.2tn outflows from active

And a detailed breakdown of asset class flows :

• Bonds: inflows 20 of the last 21 weeks ($9.7bn)
• Equities: $1.6bn outflows ($2.7bn into ETFs, $4.3bn outflows from mutual funds, largest in 7 weeks)
• Precious metals: inflows 5 of past 6 weeks ($0.2bn)

Equity Flows

• US: $8.9bn outflows, 3rd straight week
• EM: 9 straight weeks of inflows, largest in 39 weeks ($3.9bn)
• Japan: outflows 4 of past 6 weeks ($1.5bn)
• Europe: 8 straight weeks of inflows ($1.1bn)

By style:

• US value fund outflows 8 of past 9 weeks ($2.0bn), outflows from US small caps ($1.5bn)

By sector:

• inflows to tech ($1.0bn, 11 straight weeks),
• healthcare ($0.1bn), infrastructure ($40mm),
• energy ($0.1bn); outflows from financials ($1.0bn),
• consumer ($0.1bn), utilities ($0.1bn),
• materials ($0.1bn),
• real estate ($1.5bn, largest in 4 years)

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After a private investigator claimed there was proof that murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich gave Wikileaks the infamous leaked emails from the 2016 presidential campaign (statements which the PI walked back the following the day) – Reddit and 4chan have been hard at work trying to connect the dots surrounding Rich’s murder.

To that end, a user in Reddit’s ‘the_donald’ forum has found Seth Rich’s Reddit account – ‘MeGrimlock4’ (a Transformers reference) revealing much about the slain DNC staffer. For the most part, Rich seems like a regular guy – into football, dogs, patriotism, riding his bike, fun clothes, and volunteering at the Washington Humane Society.

The link – Seth Rich posts his email address while trying to help get the word out about his parents’ missing dog

His last submitted topic was about patriotic clothes

(jacket, shorts)

Seth loved pandas

Really

Really

Really

Loved Pandas

He was a Joe Rogan fan

He took a picture with Warren Buffet

He believed in the Armenian genocide

He had a guiding quote

Then, Redditor /u/FricasseeingRabbit then found what appears to be a pro-Bernie Sanders alternate twitter account which is very close in spelling to Rich’s primary account.

———-

(post here)

Seth Rich’s twitter is @panda4progress, which follows @Reddit, which led us to believe he was in fact a redditor. That seems consistent with this reddit account, in that they’re both in DC and have an interest in bicycles. Edit: not JUST bicycles. A company named “split” which this account is talking about here @Panda4Progress talks to them here. Also /u/MeGrimlock4 is posting about Nebraska football.

Rich was from Omaha. No cornfed midwestern kid from Nebraska isn’t a Huskers fan. THIS IS DEFINITELY SETH RICH’S ACCOUNT

Here’s where it gets interesting: /u/pandas4bernie and a tumblr by the same name ALSO stopped posting at the same time as this account. If that’s Rich, then that proves motive. Rich was a BernieBro.

———-

Which may be why Rich gave WikiLeaks the DNC emails – after they false flagged Bernie…

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) uses an outside software partner “NGP VAN,” founded by Nathaniel Pearlman, chief technology officer for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. Their ‘VoteBuilder’ software was designed for Democratic candidates (Bernie, Hillary, etc.) to track and analyze highly detailed information on voters for the purposes of ‘microtargeting’ specific demographics.

On December 16th, 2015, NGP VAN updated the Votebuilder with a patch that contained a bug – allowing the Sanders and the Clinton campaigns to temporarily access each other’s proprietary voter information for around 40 minutes. Lo and behold, the Sanders campaign National Data Director, Josh Uretsky, was found to have accessed Clinton’s information and promptly fired.

Uretsky’s excuse was that he was simply grabbing Clinton’s data during the window of vulnerability to prove that the breach was real.

Bernie cried false flag!

Sanders claimed that Uretsky was a DNC plant – “recommended by the DNC’s National Data Director, as well as a former COO of NGP VAN.”

Of note, Seth Rich was not the National Data Director. According to the DNC’s 2016 roster, Seth Rich was the DNC’s “Voter Expansion Data Director” while Andrew Brown was the National Data Director – who Bernie said referred Uretsky.

So Seth Rich, a Bernie supporter, would have known people involved in the ‘hack’ Bernie says was meant to frame him…

It’s easy to speculate how Seth Rich could have become disgruntled after witnessing the DNC attempt to sabotage the Sanders campaign. As such, it’s not a stretch to imagine that Rich – a guy with access  to sensitive emails and technical skills, did in fact communicate with Wikileaks in order to expose and root out the DNC’s misdeeds.

(OR, Rich was involved in the DNC breach)

Another rumor floating around is that Rich was involved in the December 2015 ‘hack’ on the Clinton DNC files, since he was one of about four people who would have had access during the 40 minute window of vulnerability.

Given Rich’s apparent support of Bernie Sanders, however, it seems unlikely he would work to frame his campaign for hacking.

Whatever the truth, I’m sure Reddit and 4chan anons will fill everybody in.

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When Nassim Nicholas Taleb looks at President Donald Trump, he doesn’t see “a trainwreck.” The real trainwreck, according to the trader turned author, is “unfettered globalization." That's the real danger that members of "the resistance" should be worried about, Taleb says during an interview with Bloomberg.

While he may not be a staunch "anti-globalist", at least Trump has promised to fix some things in system that, left unchecked, will sooner or later lead to wealth accumulating disproportionately at the top end of income earners as wave after wave of corporate consolidation lines the pockets of the transnational corporate class. When he wrote about the dangers of globalization in his book “The Black Swan, “everybody cheered," Taleb reminds his host. But now, people are defining their views on globalization based on their blanket opposition to Trump, causing them to overlook an even more sinister threat to their economic well being.

Trump could still prove to be a disappointment if he ends up abandoning his promises. But Taleb rejects the narrative of Trump that “some people” – the readers of The New York Times and Washington Post – are buying into: That Trump tried to pressure former FBI Director James Comey into dropping the bureau’s investigation into Mike Flynn, and is on the verge of being impeached.

Ignoring the ceaseless fearmongering in the media, Trump isn’t really that different from other politicians, Taleb says: The main differences are “his language and how he does things in an accelerated way.”

"Trump is not an idiot. There’s a logic to Trump that you can only get if you forget about the news and you look at Trump as Trump.”

By vowing to fix America's “metastatic” tax code, Trump is on the cusp of accomplishing something truly remarkable by solving a problem 32 years in the making. Taleb also believes that Obamacare should be replaced with something “more rational." Though he stopped short of saying whether the AHCA is the right answer, he made it very clear: It's not single-payer.

“We’re not Canadians. Canada is a small country you cannot scale things up. We need something different,” Taleb says. However, Trump has made one major mistake when it comes to message: He's tried to own the market’s performance since the election. By doing so, Trump “bought at the top,” unlike Obama, who took office at the outset of an eight year bull market.

“Claiming credit for that rise in the market makes him vulnerable to a selloff.” While Tuesday's selloff was likely just a “blip," the tail risk in the market increases with each new record high in the S&P 500.

“If you own stocks without a hedge [right now], it’s not rational.”

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If the protests that have rocked Venezuela over the past few months can teach us anything, it’s that the Maduro regime is desperately clinging to power. As SHTFplan.com's Mac Slavo writes, protests are normal in any country, but when they occur every day for weeks on end, and result in dozens of deaths, it’s obvious that the government is in an unstable position. And as the government grows more desperate, their methods of controlling the population will always become more extreme.

That’s what’s happening in Venezuela, where the police have unleashed a devastating water cannon on protesters, which has been referred to as “La Ballena,” or “The Whale.”

You may be wondering how the police in Venezuela could live with themselves after inflicting this kind of carnage on their fellow citizens, week after week. How could they physically defend such an atrocious regime? It turns out that the riot cops in Venezuela are just as desperate and fed-up with the government as everyone else in that country.

The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed eight police officers in Venezuela, and discovered that the police are completely demoralized. Many of them hate the government, but they can’t find work anywhere else. They’re willing to fight the protesters for a mere $40 a month.

“One day I will step aside and just walk away, blend into the city,” she said. “No average officers support this government anymore.”

 

The security forces’ once fierce loyalty to Mr. Maduro’s charismatic predecessor Hugo Chávez has largely given way to demoralization, exhaustion and apathy amid an economic collapse and endless protests, said eight security officers from different forces and locations in interviews with The Wall Street Journal.

 

Most of them say they want only to earn a steady wage amid crippling food shortages and a decimated private sector. Others say fear of a court-martial keeps them in line.

 

“We’re just trying to survive,” said Caracas police officer Viviane, a single mother who says she shows up for protest duty so she can feed her 1-year-old son. “I would love to quit but there are no other jobs.”

And that, as SHTFplan.com's Mac Slavo concludes, is how a socialist government keeps its boot on the neck of the population. They keep everyone so poor, that the only way the average person can survive, is by brutalizing their fellow citizens.

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• Dollar remains weak as beating eases for global stocks (Reuters); Global Stocks Edge Higher as Commodity Prices Rise (WSJ)
• Trump Mideast Trip Aims to Bolster Ties, Shift U.S. Spotlight (WSJ)
• Trump Heads Abroad With White House in Crisis (BBG)
• Russia Probe Heats Up as Trump Tries to Limit Damage (WSJ)
• Iranians queue up to vote in fiercely-contested presidential election (Reuters)
• Iran’s Presidential Election Exposes Family Divides (WSJ)
• Saudis Turn to Trump for Cash (BBG)
• Kremlin Grows Anxious Over Trump White House (BBG)
• Oil heads for second week of gains as output cut extension expected (Reuters)
• Trump Aims to Balance Budget With Deep Cuts, Bullish Forecasts (WSJ)
• Full tanks and tankers: a stubborn oil glut despite OPEC cuts (Reuters)
• Uber Threatens to Fire Self-Driving Car Executive (WSJ)
• Chaffetz Will Resign, Raising Doubts About Trump Probe (BBG)
• U.S. air strike in Syria hit ‘military point’, caused deaths: Syrian military source on state media (Reuters)
• As Allegations Swirl Around SoftBank, It Calls Them ‘Sabotage’ (WSJ)
• BofA opens debate on lowering mortgage down payments (Reuters)
• Risky and Complex U.S. Loan Wagers Are Hot in Low-Yield Asia (BBG)
• The Giddy Messages Citi Traders Sent While Lehman Died (BBG)
• French researchers find last-ditch cure to unlock WannaCry files (Reuters)
• Supermarkets and large chain retailers in NYC will soon be required to post calorie counts for prepared foods (WSJ)
• Americans Die When They Have to Work at Being Healthy (BBG)
• China issues draft rules cleaning up property sales and rental market (Reuters)

 

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

– The Federal Communications Commission approved a plan to begin rolling back Obama-era net-neutrality rules, reopening a battle over internet regulation that has raged for much of the last decade and siding with cable and wireless internet providers who say the current rules go too far. on.wsj.com/2qxUFEH

– Salesforce.com posted a 26 percent jump in deferred revenue for its first quarter, easing concerns after the company provided a lukewarm forecast for billings three months ago. Results were much better than expected and Salesforce lifted its outlook for revenue for the year by $100 million from what it had anticipated last quarter. on.wsj.com/2qxNuMH

– Roger Ailes, who combined political savvy with television showmanship to build the Fox News Channel into a conservative media juggernaut, but whose fabled career ended abruptly last year amid a sexual-harassment scandal, died on Thursday. Ailes, a hemophiliac who had been in failing health, was hospitalized in recent days after complications from a fall. on.wsj.com/2qxzvGU

– An 18-year-old woman was killed and 22 people were injured when a car plowed through a crowded sidewalk in Times Square around mid-day Thursday. Richard Rojas, a 26-year-old U.S. citizen who served in the Navy, was apprehended by police and civilians after the car he was driving crashed into a stanchion. on.wsj.com/2qxJI67

 

FT

Facebook Inc has struck a deal with Major League Baseball to show 20 of the league’s games live this season in an agreement that expands the social media network further into the world of live programming.

Bombardier Inc and China’s Comac have held talks about a deal that could inject new life into the debt-laden Canadian company’s passenger jet business.

The criminal investigation into a wide range of practices at Fox News is now on shaky ground after the death of the cable channel’s founder, Roger Ailes, according to two people briefed on the inquiry.

 

NYT

– When securities regulators sued the hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman last year, accusing him of violating insider trading laws, he vowed to fight to the bitter end. And now, nearly eight months later, he and his firm, Omega Advisors, have agreed to settle, paying just under $5 million in civil penalties and forfeited profits. nyti.ms/2pQT2Dv

– Roger Ailes, who shaped the images that helped elect three Republican presidents and then became a dominant, often-intimidating force in American conservative politics at the helm of Fox News until he was forced out last year in a sexual harassment scandal, died on Thursday morning. He was 77. nyti.ms/2pRgEHL

– President Michel Temer of Brazil defied calls to resign on Thursday as an exploding scandal over claims that he authorized the payment of hush money to a jailed ally engulfed Latin America’s largest country. nyti.ms/2pRbsDU

– Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, one of the world’s biggest carmakers, said on Thursday that it was in talks with the Department of Justice to settle an investigation into diesel deception, as growing evidence points to the carmaker’s use of illegal software to evade emissions tests. nyti.ms/2pRxoPd

– The legal battle over the deadly flaws in Takata airbags moved a step closer to resolution on Thursday when four automakers agreed to compensate owners of recalled cars. nyti.ms/2pRbUSC

 

Britain

The Times

– National Grid Plc reported a 3 percent drop in pretax profits to 2.9 billion pounds ($3.75 billion) as it counted the costs of demolishing old gas holders in the United Kingdom and remediation of old gas production sites in the United States. bit.ly/2pQNIQn

– Shire Plc was boosted on Thursday by promising trial data for a drug to treat a rare and sometimes deadly hereditary disease. The pharmaceutical company, which has grown dramatically through acquisitions, was among the top performers in an otherwise downbeat blue-chip index. bit.ly/2pQTPUS

The Guardian

– Transline, the controversial employment agency, has been bought out by rival Russell Taylor Group after falling into administration. bit.ly/2pQOxZt

– Cineworld Group Plc has agreed to meet union representatives to try to resolve a long-running dispute over pay and conditions at its Picturehouse chain. Staff at the Ritzy in Brixton and five other Picturehouse cinemas have gone on strike in recent months. bit.ly/2pQY4jj

The Telegraph

– British companies will be protected from foreign buyers who do not have their best interests at heart under proposals contained in the Conservative manifesto. bit.ly/2pQPd0X

– Royal Mail Plc Chief Executive Moya Greene said the firm would continue to target overseas acquisitions to expand GLS, its international delivery arm. Revenue from GLS grew 9 percent in the year to March 26, while the UK business shrank 2 percent. bit.ly/2pQit8d

Sky News

– The luxury brand Burberry Group Plc has reported a 5 percent dip in annual pretax profits despite a boost to revenues from the weak pound in the wake of the Brexit vote. bit.ly/2pQLpgb

– Facebook Inc has been fined 94.5 million pounds ($122.33 million) by EU competition regulators in relation to its takeover of WhatsApp. bit.ly/2pQdh4d

The Independent

– Retail sales jumped by 2.3 percent in April, according to Office for National Statistics release, reflecting good weather but also suggesting the UK consumer might be more resilient than feared. ind.pn/2pQUmWI (

 

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Despite Bitcoin dropping below 50% of total cryptocurrency market cap for the first time, the dominant virtual currency has continued to soar this week, breaking above $1950 this morning (as the dollar drifts lower).

Bitcoin is now up 110% against the dollar in 2017…

 

And this comes as Bitcoin loses its dominance. As the first of its kind to emerge, bitcoin has become synonymous with “cryptocurrency”. But lately it’s been joined by a lot of others – which together now account for more than half of the cryptocurrency ecosystem:

For First Time, Bitcoin Accounts for Less Than Half Of Market Cap Of All Cryptocurrencies

(Forbes) – For the first time, Bitcoin’s market capitalization as a percentage of all cryptocurrencies has dropped to below 50%.

 

It is a symbolic turning point for the first cryptocurrency, which for a long time accounted for more than 90% of the value of all blockchain-based assets combined, particularly through a period when so-called alt-coins that were only minor tweaks to bitcoin proliferated.

 

Its market capitalization then comprised over 80% of all cryptocurrencies for years, a range that held true until two months ago when it dipped below 80% and not only did not recover but did a quick dive straight down.

 

 

 

Several factors are driving the drop from its status as the clear leader.

 

1. Bitcoin’s development is stalled.

A more than two-year-long saga has left progress on its network stymied. With the various factions unable to compromise and no clear method for moving beyond the impasse, the network has been stuck staring down the same question of how to expand the network to accommodate more transactions that it first faced in early 2015. Meanwhile, as no decisions get made, transaction fees have risen from about 11 cents a year ago to $1.70 now, and the time to confirm a transaction has nearly doubled to almost 20 minutes. Because the community has been unable to resolve its divisions, some of the technological advances people were excited to see on bitcoin will be adopted on other tokens, such as Litecoin, which could emerge as the payment token, while bitcoin evolves more into a digital gold, because its software will only ever release 21 million units.

 

2. Ethereum continues to grow.

Ethereum has, for a while, been the cryptocurrency with the second-largest market cap, but in recent months, its greater rise has further has eroded bitcoin’s dominance. While throughout 2016, its share of the market cap of all cryptocurrencies was in the single digits, it has, in the last couple months, inched closer to 20% as its price has risen from $8 in early January toward $100 in recent days.

 

3. New ICOs add value to the crypto space every day.

Third, a wave of new cryptocurrency launches in crowdsales called initial coin offerings has so far raised $380 million for new networks that have functions beyond just currency. For instance, a few new storage coins aim to facilitate payments between computers needing more storage space and computers with excess drive space to offer in networks like Filecoin, Sia and Storj. Meanwhile, Golem Network Tokens are used for payments between computers that need extra computing power to, say, train a machine-learning algorithm, and computers that have spare GPU and CPU cycles to offer while its owner sleeps. So many new tokens with uses different from bitcoin’s are bound enlarge the pie, but still narrow its dominance.

 

4. Speculation is driving up the value of all tokens.

Because the ICOs are proving to be such an easy way to crowd fund, they are also being used just as that — as an easy way to raise money — for projects for which tokens don’t even particularly make sense, as well as scams. Speculation is also running rampant as investors who don’t understand the technology or what makes a token valuable snatch up both promising as well as poorly conceived tokens. One project that raised eyebrows recently was a crowdsale of Gnosis tokens, which, because of the way the ICO was designed, left Gnosis, which is only in beta and doesn’t yet have a product to offer consumers, with a valuation of $300 million right after its ICO. Now, speculative trading has now multiplied its valuation to $1.2 billion.

 

5. Ripple is seeing a big spike.

While the other trends have been driving bitcoin’s share of all cryptocurrency market caps down broadly, what appears to have finally tipped bitcoin below the 50% mark is the 24% surge of XRP, the token of the Ripple network, in the last 24 hours. Since Chinese regulators began enforcing basic know-your-customer, anti-money-laundering procedures earlier this year, Japan has overtaken China as the country with the highest crypto trading volume. XRP is popular in Japan, and one writer surmises it is because of the work Ripple does in Japan, such as through its joint venture, SBI Ripple Asia, with SBI Holdings.

 

7. Tezos is about to launch.

Okay, so this last one might not have pushed bitcoin below the 50% threshold, but it is likely to help keep it below that threshold. Tezos may be one of the most anticipated ICOs, about to launch in June and stay open for two weeks. The code is written in OCaml, a language that has the ability to formally verify smart contracts to ensure that they execute as the creators intended them to. Tezos is also generating excitement because the software has, built into it, a mechanism for resolving issues such as the scaling debate in bitcoin. Therefore, even if bitcoin exceeds 50% market share for now, it will likely again fall under that threshold once the Tezos ICO begins.

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Gold and Silver Bullion Coins See Sales “Explosion” In UK On “Wave Of Political Turmoil”

by Jan Harvey of Reuters

In a warehouse a dozen miles to the northwest of Cardiff, the Royal Mint is running its machines through the night to keep up with demand for one of the big beneficiaries of the last year’s political turmoil – gold and silver bullion.

Gold Sovereigns

The 1,100-year-old Mint, based here since the 1960s, is producing 50 percent more gold bullion coins and bars than it was this time last year, director of bullion Chris Howard says, while its sales in January rose by a third.

With growth prospects for its core minting business limited by the advent of the cashless society, the Mint has focused heavily on growing its bullion arm in the last few years.

Its contribution to the overall business’s bottom line has gone from negligible levels in 2012 to more than a quarter in the last year.

“We used to send these out by the box,” head of bullion sales Nick Bowkett says, indicating stacks of silver coins packed for transit in the Mint’s bullion striking room. “Now we ship them out by the pallet.”

Next door, the Mint’s core business — producing commemorative coins and legal tender for 60 different countries — is churning out crates of coinage, including the new 12-sided British pound, due to launch in March.

But it’s the bullion arm that is really ramping up.

While in global terms the Mint is still small — its total gold sales of 237,000 ounces last year were dwarfed by the U.S. Mint’s 1.2 million ounces of gold Eagle and Buffalo coin sales, the Austrian Mint’s 534,000 ounces of gold Philharmonic coin sales, and the Perth Mint’s 520,000 ounces of gold sales — its bullion unit expanded both revenue and profit by two-thirds last year.

It is forecasting similar growth this year, through expansion in its already core U.S. and German markets, and elsewhere.

About 30 percent of its bullion sales – largely Britannia gold coins, but also sovereigns, and bars ranging in size from 1 gram to 1 kilogram – are made through the Mint’s website, while a further 70 percent goes to wholesale clients.

RETAIL GOLD BULLION EXPLOSION

Global retail investment in gold has exploded in the last 15 years. At nearly 1,000 tonnes last year, it was two and a half times the levels seen in 2001.

While a sharp rise in investors selling gold back onto the market after prices surged last year weighed on the net demand figure, gold sales in Europe jumped after the Britain’s Brexit vote and resulting fluctuations in the currency markets.

The government-owned Mint’s sales to Germany more than doubled last year in volume terms, while UK sales rose by more than a quarter.

“The excitement around Brexit, and the uncertainty, brought a lot more (business), especially on to our ecommerce platform,” Howard, a veteran of designer retail brands such as Guess and Swarowski, said.

“The level of trading after Brexit was much higher than it was before, and it has continued to be at that level.”

Gold prices ( XAU ) rose for the first year since 2012 last year, by 10 percent, while in sterling terms ( XAUGBP ) gold performed even more strongly, climbing 30 percent.

The turmoil seen in stock markets this month after U.S. President Donald Trump took office and optimism over his plans for the U.S. economy dissipated suggests that investors will continue to need safe havens from risk.

Full Article On Reuter UK here

News and Commentary

“Gold is likely succumbing to some funds taking profits” said GoldCore (MarketWatch.com)

Gold rises, set for biggest weekly gain since mid-April (Reuters.com)

ANZ says possibility of gold through $1300 if the political situation in US worsens (ForexLive.com)

Asia Stocks Fall as Caution Remains; Brazil Roiled (Bloomberg.com)

Gold snaps 6-session win streak as stocks rebound (MarketWatch.com)

WORLD SILVER SURVEY 2017 (SilverInstitute.org)

Will next market crash be like 2008 or 1973? (Mining.com)

Gorbachev Warns of Growing Danger (ConsortiumNews.com)

We face a complete collapse of the property market (TheSun.ie)

Goldman Says Swedish, Kiwi Housing Markets Most at Risk of Bust (Bloomberg.com)

Avoid Digital & ETF Gold – Key Gold Storage Must Haves

Gold Prices (LBMA AM)

19 May: USD 1,251.85, GBP 962.17 & EUR 1,122.03 per ounce
18 May: USD 1,261.35, GBP 968.21 & EUR 1,133.95 per ounce
17 May: USD 1,244.60, GBP 961.70 & EUR 1,122.13 per ounce
16 May: USD 1,234.05, GBP 958.98 & EUR 1,117.93 per ounce
15 May: USD 1,231.50, GBP 952.32 & EUR 1,124.61 per ounce
12 May: USD 1,227.90, GBP 955.06 & EUR 1,129.55 per ounce
11 May: USD 1,221.00, GBP 945.66 & EUR 1,122.95 per ounce

Silver Prices (LBMA)

19 May: USD 16.77, GBP 12.90 & EUR 15.02 per ounce
18 May: USD 16.81, GBP 12.90 & EUR 15.10 per ounce
17 May: USD 16.90, GBP 13.03 & EUR 15.22 per ounce
16 May: USD 16.72, GBP 12.97 & EUR 15.13 per ounce
15 May: USD 16.59, GBP 12.83 & EUR 15.12 per ounce
12 May: USD 16.30, GBP 12.68 & EUR 14.99 per ounce
11 May: USD 16.37, GBP 12.70 & EUR 15.06 per ounce

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It could be the single best unlevered investment in recent history.

A portrait by New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat sold for a remarkable $110.5 million – nearly double the $60 million expected take – during a Sotheby’s auction Thursday night in New York, according to Bloomberg. The sale set a new record for an American artist, and has become one of now 10 paintings in the “$100 Million Club,” according to the New York Times.

The sale of the painting, “Untitled,” made for a thrilling moment at Sotheby’s postwar and contemporary auction as at least four bidders on the phones and in the room sailed past the $60 million level at which the work — forged from oil stick and spray paint — had been guaranteed to sell by a third party.

The Basquat is now among the most-expensive pieces of contemporary art ever auctioned. It set a new record for any U.S. artist at auction, besting the $105.4 million paid four years ago for Andy Warhol’s “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster).”

“It’s a really historical moment,” said Larry Warsh, a longtime Basquiat collector. “It does cement this artist once again.”  Warsh also said that the sale was “mind-blowing" and added that “I’m not usually impressed by numbers, but this is really out of the boundaries.”

But what’s even more striking is that the painting, created in 1982, was first bought at auction in 1984 for $19,000 by the late collectors Jerry and Emily Spiegel. It's sale 33 year later for over $110 million is equivalent to a total return of over 5,815x, or a compounded annualized return of some 30%, perhaps the single best unlevered investment of the past 3+ decades, and outperforming the return of even the most legendary hedge funds over the same period.

The buyer was Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, who posted a shot of him posing with his newfound purchase on his Twitter account.

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? #jeanmichelbasquiat http://pic.twitter.com/xZrhCcX7bz

— ???? Yusaku Maezawa (@yousuck2020) May 19, 2017

As the auction was still going on, Mr. Maezawa announced that he was the buyer, posting a photo of himself with the work on Instagram. “When I first encountered this painting, I was struck with so much excitement and gratitude for my love of art,” he said in the post. “I want to share that experience with as many people as possible.”

Last May, Mr. Maezawa snapped up $98 million worth of contemporary art at auctions

As for Basquiat, the sale shows “He’s now in the same league as Francis Bacon and Pablo Picasso,” art dealer Jeffrey Deitch told the New York Times.

“I remember astounding the art world back in 1980s when I set an auction record for Basquiat at $99,000,” said Jeffrey Deitch, an art dealer who was the artist’s friend and champion. “All of us, Jean-Michel’s friends, we totally believed in his genius. I always thought he would be one day in the legion of Picasso, Bacon and Van Gogh. The work has that iconic quality. His appeal is real.”

Last year, Basquiat became the highest-grossing American artist at auction, generating $171.5 million from 80 works, according to Artprice. The former grafitti artist, known for his gritty, surreal portraits, was one of the most lauded American artists of the 1980s up until his death in 1988 of a drug overdose at the age of 27. 

via http://ift.tt/2rlm8KW Tyler Durden