Illinois

The entrance to The CME has been blocked for most of the morning by "Soros-paid Morons" according to one trader. Rick Santelli has a few opinions on the apparently ill-informed protesters' actions, and concluded, "It would be sad commentary - based on what the politicians have done with the budget - to chase more companies out of Illinois."

No, Ben S. Bernanke will be someday remembered as the world’s most destructive battleship admiral. Not only was he fighting the last war, but his whole multi-trillion money printing campaign after September 15, 2008 was aimed at avoiding an historical Fed mistake that had never even happened!

"We have long lines, but they're patient with it because Illinois is not paying. They're all coming here and saying, 'I'm from Illinois, how do you play it here?'"

Curious how Jim Cramer's stock picks perform? One person decided to test them out in an audited environment. Here are the results...

America is not Greece, but judging from the Obama administration's just-unveiled plans to bailout Puerto Rico's disastrous debt situation, the American territory may have to sacrifice a little more sovereignty to get some relief. Obama is pressing for Congress to give Puerto Rico (PR) sweeping powers to reduce its $73 billion debt burden through a form of bankruptcy protection not now available to American territories and will also ask lawmakers to establish an independent body to monitor the island’s fiscal affairs (a la Troika).

26 years ago, today was envisioned as day when cars flew, holographic movies were box office hits, hoverboards roamed, and people were fired by fax. None of the happened. Instead the only "back to the future" moment this morning is a deja vu one we have seen every day for the past 7 years: bad economic news leading to surging stocks.

Last week, beleaguered Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger admitted that, thanks to the bitter budget battle going on in Springfield, the state would miss a $560 million pension payment in November. Now, in a move that shouldn't exactly surprise anyone, Fitch has cut the state's GO rating citing the budget impasse. The move affects some $27 billion in debt.

If you play the Illinois lottery and win more than $600, you are getting an IOU...

ILLINOIS WILL DELAY PENSION PAYMENT BECAUSE OF CASH SHORTAGE

Admittedly it's not Mayweather-Pacquiao, but Las Vegas is buzzing ahead of tonight's rumble-in-the-jungle between Bernie and The Battle-axe. While Joe Biden remains the most notable absentee (or will he?) there are three other 'debaters' to carry water and towels for Hillary and Bernie as they drag one another left-er and left-er and more populist-er. In the pre-fight Sanders has lobbed some awkward Iraq War questions at 'hawkish' Hillary but as Clinton's 2008 campaign manager notes, "she's rolled out Latinos for Hillary, Women for Hillary, and met the leadership of Black Lives Matter; she has checked a lot of boxes walking into this debate."

With the latest swarm of mass shootings still in the headlines, and of course the ubiquitous call for gun control/prohibition, the Supreme Court's decision this week on whether it will hear a challenge to a suburban Chicago law banning firearms commonly known as assault weapons seems more critical than ever. As NBC News notes, if the court agrees to hear the case, it would cast a shadow over similar bans in seven states; but declining to take it up would boost efforts to impose such bans elsewhere.

With the latest school shooting, all humane people are expected to jump up and do something to stop the next shooting. The most popular response among media pundits and national policymakers right now is an expansion of the various prohibitions now in place against guns. For anyone familiar with the history of prohibitions on inanimate objects, however, these appeals to prohibition as a “common sense” solution are rather less convincing.

Someone in Chicago has been shot every 2.84 hours this year for a total of 2,349 shootings during the period of January 1, 2015 to October 6, 2015 (and 2015 is likely to eclipse 2014's record 2.587 shooting victims); but, Chicago, for all intents and purposes, is a “gun-free zone.” But all the state and city regulations associated with firearms in Chicago have failed to produce a safe city, and these are the policies that President Obama and Secretary Clinton wish to extend to the rest of the country.

• MOAR: Euro-Area Growth Seen Slowing in Sign More Stimulus May Be Ahead (BBG)
• MOAR: Japan's wage growth slows in August, keeping pressure on BOJ for more stimulus (Reuters)
• MOAR: Stocks, Copper, Emerging Markets Jump as Fed Delay on Rates Seen (BBG)
• And yet... Central Banks Lose Bond-Market Credibility as Woes Mount (BBG)
• World Bank cuts Asia growth forecast on China and US rates (BBC)