Archive - Oct 20, 2015 - Story

If you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you have just been promoted to the top of the government’s terrorism watch list.

"I believe that being shot should be requirement for gun ownership in America. It’s very simple. You need to have gun, like taking selfies with pistols, can’t live with out it? Then take a bullet and you will be granted the right to purchase the firearm of your choice... Gun praisers are just like the people who were in favor of slavery back in the day - the elite, lazy and ignorant"

Two recent surveys, along with numerous other studies and data, reveal most American households to be living on the brink of catastrophe, but continuing to act in a reckless and delusionary manner. Telling people the truth today is meaningless, as they don’t want their illusions destroyed. But destroyed they will be, when this teetering edifice of debt comes crashing down on their heads.

With Joe Biden still undecided, perhaps the following chart will help make up his mind... for, if Hillary (with all her populist platitudes and elitist sponsorship) were to become Queen President, she will be the most unliked (least favorable) in recent history...

With the ink still damp on voter slips, newly crowned elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wasted no time in fulfilling the first of his liberal "hope" and "change" promises. As AFP reports, hours after defeating Stephen Harper, Trudeau has told US President Obama that he will withdraw Canadian fighter jets from Syria and Iraq, though giving no timeline. So far, the US response is a mutedly diplomatic but tinged with guilt, "We have stood shoulder to shoulder with Canadian armed forces... in Iraq and Afghanistan," from the US State Department.

The terms of Obama’s proposed TPP ‘trade’ treaty with Asian countries won’t be made public until the treaty has already been in force for at least four years. The terms of Obama’s proposed TISA (Trade In Services Agreement) with 52 nations won’t be made public until the treaty has already been in force for at least five years. Obama’s proposed TTIP treaty with European countries has been so successfully hidden, that even the number of years it will be kept from the public isn’t yet known. Hello, international fascism — all in secret, until too late for the public to do anything.

Since China GDP was unleashed, Offshore Yuan (CNH) has weakened significantly relative to Onshore Yuan (CNY). After over 3 weeks of 'stability' with CNY and CNH on top of each other, it appears selling pressure has reappeared suggesting outflows are on the rise (despite PBOC's best efforts to hide/manage them) which may explain why Treasuries were so relatively weak today. The "will-never-learn" Chinese investors pile in once again extending the period of margin debt increases to the most since the peak of the bubble. AsiaPac stocks are mixed with China flat and Japan higher after a mysterious bidder lifted NKY 200 points instantly at the open after disastrous trade data. China strengthened the Yuan fix after 5 days of weakness.

Back in February, we noted that NIRP had officially arrived in the US as JP Morgan announced it was preparing to charge some large institutional customers for deposits. This represented a kind of de facto (if not yet de jure) NIRP. Now, a combination of pinched margins and new regulations has led some of the largest financial institutions in the US to penalize corporate and institutional deposits on the way to instituting what amounts to a stealth version of negative interest rates.

Having spent the last 5 years of his trading career "in short option spreads and Biotech," we are sure Tyler McCain and his Fed-fueled ilk are very well equipped to deal with whatever it is that The Fed has in store for the markets next.

Are you a yield-starved investor? Joshua Siegel has a deal he wants to sell you and it involves subordinated loans originated by "35 community banks, some of them so small they don’t have credit ratings." 

As most people in the country know by now, California is currently suffering from a severe, record-breaking drought. In fact, it’s the worst drought in 1,200 years. While Governor Jerry Brown recently issued a mandate for people to start conserving water, large corporations use up and waste vastly more water than individuals and small businesses, often in ways that are detrimental to the environment. Let’s take a look at five of the most massive corporations in California that are the worst culprits when it comes to wasting water...

Whether one calls it the latest glitch in the matrix, or yet another "market peak" indicator, the outcome will be the same.

While we knew the quantitative answer to the biggest conundrum stumping economists, namely that Americans bought even more gas with their gas savings, we were missing the qualitative one. Courtesy of the NYT we now learn that not only did consumers not redirect their spending to other discretionary items, but engaged in an act that has stunned economists around the globe: they don’t just buy more gasoline; they bought more expensive gasoline!

The recent bi-polar behavior in spot-VIX empirically supports the theory that a structural weakness now exists in this market by crowding of short volatility players. Short volatility sellers ridicule the fact that the prospectus for the iPath Long Volatility ST Index (VXX) clearly states that the ETF has an expected long-term return of zero. They should ask themselves, is it better to know with certainty you are going to go bankrupt slowly, or be completely ignorant of the fact you will go bankrupt suddenly.