iftttwall – Page 22826

UK PM David Cameron Explains He Did Not Have Tax Evasion Relations With An Offshore Account – Live Feed

After growing pressure from an increasingly angry populous, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain speaks to parliament on measures to curb tax evasion after admitting last week that he had profited from an offshore account. Of course, he “did nothing wrong,” but opposition leaders smell the blood in the water so close to the Brexit decision… pushing for an Icelandic end to this controversy.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/22oI53i Tyler Durden

An Earnings Recession Is Great News For Stocks, No Really: The Media Explains

First, the facts, courtesy of Bloomberg:

* * *

This is how Forbes laid out the threat of the Q1 earnings collapse just 4 months ago:

Turns out not only was it likely but Q1 earnings are about to plunge the most in 8 years, which means that now that the threat has materialized, it is time for spin. A lot of spin. courtesy of everyone.

First Reuters:

Then MarketWatch:

Then MarketWatch, again, just in case:

And, of course, CNBC:

We eagerly look forward to the BTFD “explanations” when the earnings recession becomes an earnings depression.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1XqONob Tyler Durden

Gold Jumps To $1255 As USDJPY Pumps’n’Dumps

Business as usual this morning. In order to sustain the dream into the US Open, USDJPY was ramped – running stops to 108.50 to ensure the smoke-and-mirrors gains on another Italian bank bailout rumor enable just the right amount of reytail traders to get muppeted.

USDJPY completes infamous "stops taken out" formation

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 11, 2016

Once the open struck, USDJPY dumped sending Gold soaring back above $1255.

It appears Goldman's "dubious advice" to sell gold was indeed "dubious" after all.

But it's not just Goldman, here is The Wall Street Journal last Sunday…

Hmm..

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1VirQpV Tyler Durden

Putting Today’s “European Banks Are Fixed” Bounce In Context

This morning's 160 point spike in Dow Futures – out of nowhere – was predicated on hopes of an Italian bank bailout. While this may seem like an odd reason to "buy buy buy" US equities, in the new normal, it really is not.. and when put in context, the 'bounce' in EU banks should do more to scare than soften investors' concerns…

Remember the last time headlines hit that Italian banks were to be bailed out (by ECB buying that time)…

Oh and Deutsche Bank hardly blinked…

Still think this is sustainable…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1qDFg2M Tyler Durden

In Bizarre Letter, Overstock CEO Announced Leave Of Absence

When it comes to its business practices, online retailer Overstock and its CEO Patrick Byrne have a history of being unconventional. From being the first major retailer to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment, to creating a subsidiary which uses the blockchain and related technologies to build services that can track the exchange of financial securities, to Byrne’s relentless crusade against Wall Street, all the way to being a quasi prepper (recall “Overstock Holds 3 Months Of Food, $10 Million In Gold For Employees In Preparation For The Next Collapse“).

So it is only fitting that when Patrick Byrne unexpectedly announced he would take an indefinite leave of absence for medical reasons this morning, that he would do it the way he does everything else. Unconventionally.

Here is the full press release:

“Dear Owners,

‘I myself never surrendered. But they got my horse, and it surrendered.’

– Chief Dan George in Outlaw Josey Wales

I must take an indefinite medical leave of absence. The proximate cause is that for over a year I have been gutting it out through a Stage IV diagnosis of Hepatitis C, contracted (to save awkward questions) in 1984 in Xinjiang when a barefoot doctor sewed up a head wound under less-than-ideal conditions. I have finished treatment and think I have it beat but only time will tell.

Your firm is doing and will do well: I believe that in 2016 we will make $40 million GAAP Net Income (pre-tax) excluding net effect of blockchain efforts and the risk of declared recession.

I have recommended Mitch Edwards as Acting CEO. Mitch is an outstanding full-spectrum entrepreneur who has serving as our general counsel for six months and has learned our business, and understands our t0 efforts to revolutionize the capital markets.

I am intensely proud of my nearly 2,000 colleagues for having built a consistently profitable $2 billion e-tailer (on a fraction of the capital afforded our competitors).

Selah,

Patrick M. Byrne”

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1oQEGgs Tyler Durden

Commodities Spike Amid Currency Chaos

Early USD weakness has suddenly been erased on JPY weakness pushing USD index back to unch. However, the chaos in the currency markets is seemingly sending investors fleeing for silver, gold, and crude as the latter tops $40 and the former hits 3-week highs…

USD Index spikes back to unch on suddeny JPY weakness…

But commdoties don’t care…

Crude tops $40…

Silver to 3-week highs…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1qDFhUr Tyler Durden

Ted Cruz Reiterates His Support for Marijuana Federalism

In two interviews on Saturday, Ted Cruz reiterated his support for marijuana federalism. “Personally,” he told the ABC station in Denver, “I would vote against marijuana legalization. If the state of Texas had a referendum on it, I would vote no. But I think it is the prerogative of the states to make that determination. I think the people of Colorado have the right to make the decision that they’ve made under the Constitution, and as president I would respect that right.”

Talking to The Denver Post the same day, Cruz explained the practical advantages of letting states go their own way. “It is an opportunity for the rest of the country to see what happens here in Colorado, what happens in Washington state, see the states implement the policies,” he said. “If it works well, other states may choose to follow. If it doesn’t work well, other states may choose not to follow.” He said it was too early to say how legalization is going in Colorado.

Those comments comport with what Cruz said at last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference. “I actually think this is a great embodiment of what Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called ‘the laboratories of democracy,'” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “If the citizens of Colorado decide they want to go down that road, that’s their prerogative. I personally don’t agree with it, but that’s their right.” That marked a turnaround from Cruz’s stance a year before, when he was complaining that the Obama administration had abdicated its responsibility to enforce the federal marijuana ban in states that had legalized the drug.

Most of the major-party presidential candidates (including all of those who remain in the race) agreed with Cruz that the feds should not interfere with marijuana legalization in states such as Colorado and Washington. The most vigorous dissenter from that position, Chris Christie, never scored higher than 5 percent in national polls. After quitting the race in February, Christie endorsed Donald Trump, who like Cruz says states should be free to legalize pot.

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Obama Calls Libya Worst Mistake of Presidency, John Brennan Says CIA Won’t Waterboard Even If Ordered, Danny Willett Wins Masters: A.M. Links

President Obama said failing to plan for the aftermath of the U.S. intervention in Libya was the worst mistake of his presidency, and that he won’t interfere in the Department of Justice probe of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails.
CIA Director John Brennan said the agency would not engage in “harsh” enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding even if ordered by a future president.
Court documents reveal former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was accused of child molestation.
Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta said she would declassify UFO files if elected president.
John Kerry visited a memorial near ground zero of the 1945 nuclear strike in Hiroshima.
Another truce starts in Yemen.
A goat in California went on a Starbucks run.
Danny Willett became the second Englishman to win the Masters after Jordan Spieth lost the lead with two tees into the water and a quadruple bogey at the twelfth hole on Sunday afternoon.

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Nick Gillespie Talking Gary Johnson, John McAfee, Austin Petersen at 10 AM ET

I’ll be on Charlotte, North Carolina’s WBT radio station at 10 A.M. E.T., talking Gary Johnson, John McAfee, Austin Petersen, and the Libertarian Party’s chances in the 2016 election with Keith Larson.

Go here to listen along online (takes less than a minute to sign in via Facebook or Twitter).

My most-recent thoughts on Johnson, the former two-term governor of New Mexico and the 2012 LP presidential candidate (who pulled 1.2 million votes and about 1 percent of the popular vote):

This much seems certain: The Libertarian Party will go the farthest in 2016 with Gary Johnson at the top of its ticket. If this is the winter of our electoral discontent, American voters still aren’t so pissed off that novices such as McAfee, whose gnomic invocations of libertarian dogma and piercing eyes can be quite beguiling, or Petersen, no matter how much “pussy” he’s swimming in, are capable of reaching anything like the 11 percent that Johnson has already registered.

The LP meets in Orlando in May to pick its presidential candidate and, even assuming Johnson regains the form that earned him 1.2 million votes in 2012, there’s still a non-trivial chance that the party faithful may dump him in favor of somebody less capable. In the past, after all, the LP has chosen candidates who eschew driver’s licenses and any possibility of electoral success.

But if the party does back Johnson, and he does get his act together, and Hillary and The Donald go after each other like Adams and Jefferson once did…well, let’s just say it will be the most entertaining election this side of South Park‘s [infamous “Douche & Turd” episode, where kids must choose between one or the other to be their new school mascot]. Except that this time, there will be an actual third choice that might actually represent the plurality of American voters who are socially liberal and fiscally conservative.

Iran Releases Video Confirming Receipt Of First Russian S-300 Missile System

Over the past year, the US State Department had repeatedly objected to the proposed Russian delivery of S-300 missile defense systems to Iran. One year ago, the issue first came up when as CNN reported then John Kerry raised objections with Moscow over a plan to sell advanced missile defense systems to Iran. The White House said Kerry made the US opposition clear in a phone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

It wasn’t just Kerry: the Pentagon also expressed concern about the move, saying it was “unhelpful.” At the time, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren told reporters that “our opposition to these sales is long and public. We believe it’s unhelpful. We are raising that through the appropriate diplomatic channels.”

Israel also chimed in and “expressed alarm” over Putin’s announcement that he was lifting the block on the transfer of the controversial weapons system to Tehran, against which both the US and Israel have lobbied hard. “There is concern that the S-300 would seriously complicate any attempt at military intervention against Iranian nuclear facilities” CNN reported.

A senior Israeli official told Haaretz on Monday night that the Kremlin briefed Israel on its decision a short while before announcing the move. The official said Israel is also worried components of the air-defense system will be transferred to Syria and Hezbollah, seriously hamstringing the air force’s ability to dominate the skies over Lebanon or Syria.

And yet, none of these formal diplomatic complaints resulted in anything. As Iranian media reported overnight, Russia has delivered the first part of an advanced missile defense system to Iran, starting to equip Tehran with technology that was blocked before it signed a deal with world powers on its nuclear program.

The S-300 surface-to-air system was first deployed at the height of the Cold War in 1979. In its updated form it is one of the most advanced systems of its kind and, according to British security think tank RUSI, can engage multiple aircraft and ballistic missiles around 150 km (90 miles) away.

In a recorded transmission, state television showed Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari telling a news conference on Monday: “I announce today that the first phase of this (delayed) contract has been implemented.”

Ansari was replying to reporters’ questions about videos on social media showing what appeared to be parts of an S-300 missile system on trucks in northern Iran.