Archive - Sep 2015 - Story

Is it ever legal to shoot cops? A growing number of states are passing laws that say that yes, in fact, sometimes it is well within a citizen’s rights to shoot a police officer.

While the official "data" was bad, and confirmed the economy remains in contraction, the Caixin - aka the new HSBC - Markit PMIs were absolutely atrocious. We bring you... the HSBC Manufacturing print, which dropped from 47.3 to 47.2, and which according to Caixin was the lowest print since March 2009.  And it was the combination of this and the non-mfg PMI that told the full tale: at 48.0, the Caixin Composite index dropped from 48.8, down from 52.3 a year ago and was the lowest print on record.

Believe it or not, American soldiers fighting against ISIS in Syria and Iraq will actually be wearing the emblem of ISIS – the infamous crossed-swords logo. Well, almost. Controversy has stirred because many think the patch looks too much like our boys are fighting for the enemy… just another sign of confusion about the counterproductive Obama-led war against the notorious and shamefully exploitative jihadist army.

Now, the only thing left to do is either stand down and let Moscow do as it pleases in support of the Assad regime, or else get on board and acquiesce to the inevitable...

Now that the yuan deval debacle has served to accelerate capital outflows, Beijing is set to double down on efforts to curb the degree to which capital controls are openly subverted and as WSJ reports, China is has now “put a new annual cap on overseas cash withdrawals using UnionPay.”

Either, a) BLS payrolls data is entirely 'made-up', or b) US jobs are being created in some other regions than the six major Fed surveys. Either way, this chart will strike fear into the heart of Janet Yellen as she 'hopes" for some cover for her rate-hike... before the whole house of cards collapses...

Nope, no bubble here at all... "I have literally just been shown a bed under the stairs for £500 a month... F You London!"

In a recent appearance before Congress, Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates declared that the US Department of Justice is going to ratchet up its prosecution of individuals employed in corporations as part of a larger push against “white collar crime.” Within the next year, we should expect to see mid-level business and finance executives doing “perp walks” in front of the news media, as federal prosecutors will charge them with various “economic crimes” in hopes that they will implicate their superiors. All of us by now know the drill and in a time of anemic economic growth complete with business failures, it won’t be hard to find scapegoats.

Nothing highlighted a malinvestment-driven "if we build it they will come" boom (and subsequence complete bust) better than China's so-called "ghost cities." But now, thanks to The Fed's "lower for longer" enabling of every and any zombie company in the world, many previous oil-boomtowns across Texas and North Dakota are facing a real-estate crisis. As Bloomberg reports, the former bustling "man-camps" of towns like Williston, ND are now desolate with hundreds of skeletons or wood & cement as predictions that fracking would sustain production and a robust tax base for decades have failed completely.

Most foreign countries have similar regulations concerning the import and export of gold bullion and collectible coins. These regulations tend to track U.S. rules closely, and generally, as long as people follow them, there isn’t much friction over international travel with precious metals. Recently, however, we’ve been hearing reports that some foreign countries are starting to ask more questions, and require more searches, when someone declares that they are transporting gold or other precious-metal coins.

Overheard (allegedly) at The UN...

"We are seeing more globalization as Southern California has become a destination for international buyers," said Mark Hughes, chief operating officer with First Team Real Estate, covering the Southern California market. "Eighty percent of new construction in Irvine last year was sold to Chinese buyers. International buyers are driving home prices up and sometimes out of reach for many local residents."

As the regional proxy wars heat up, Saudi Arabia seizes an Iranian "fishing" vessel that, in addition to fishing poles and tackle boxes, also happened to be carrying missile launchers, anti-tank weapons, and firing guiding systems likely bound for the Houthis in Yemen.