Obama Administration

Surprise! Just days after the 'deal' to bring world peace a little closer amid much crowing by the Obama administration (ahead of Congress' 60-day decision process), Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday vowed to defy American policies in a speech punctuated by chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel". As Reuters reports, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the speech was "if it is the policy, it's very disturbing, it's very troubling," seemingly surprised at the rhetoric.

If the Fed is concerned that a rate hike cycle might exacerbate the supposed drag on the economy exerted by the strengthening dollar and that tightening when the rest of the world is immersed in competitive devaluation could create FX headwinds for US exports, then why not nominate a currency strategist to the Fed board to weigh in on the subject? Well, as it turns out, that’s precisely what the Obama administration did on Monday.

The Obama administration is pushing to prohibit Social Security benefit recipients from owning firearms if they “lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs,” a move which the Los Angeles Times reports would affect millions of people whose disability payments – for one reason or another – are handled by other people. The idea is to bring the Social Security Administration under the jurisdiction of laws that regulate who gets reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), a database that was initially supposed to pertain to illegal immigrants, drug addicts, and felons. Of course, it should be pointed out that, with the exception of illegal immigrants, prohibiting American citizens who are not confined to a prison cell from owning weapons is itself unconstitutional.

• Gold Plunges to Lowest Since 2010 (BBG)
• In Greek crisis, one big unhappy EU family (Reuters)
• Greek Banks Reopen Their Doors (WSJ)
• Greek reshuffle hints at autumn election (FT)
• Angela Merkel signals conditions for Greek debt talks (FT)
• Dollar hits three-month high on rate view, pans gold (Reuters)
• History Shows Iran Could Surprise the Oil Market (BBG)
• ‘Charlie Hebdo’ Will Cease Publishing Cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (Newsweek)

This is it. It is indeed historic. And diplomacy eventually wins. In terms of the New Great Game in Eurasia, and the ongoing tectonic shifts reorganizing Eurasia, this is huge: Iran — supported by Russia and China — has finally, successfully, called the long, winding 12-year-long Atlanticist bluff on its “nuclear weapons.” And this only happened because the Obama administration needed 1) a lone foreign policy success, and 2) a go at trying to influence at least laterally the onset of the new Eurasia-centered geopolitical order.

It’s not even “Too Big to Jail” any longer. It’s now, “Too Big to Lose Profits.” After all #banklivesmatter

With Puerto Rico missing a payment on a bond overnight "due to non-appropriation of funds" but denying that this constitutes anything close to a default, the territory may be about to retake the limelight as Greece is now "fixed." As Peter Schiff explains, this is far from over... As in Greece, the Puerto Rican economy has been destroyed by its participation in an unrealistic monetary system that it does not control and the failure of domestic politicians to confront their own insolvency. But the damage done to the Puerto Rican economy by the United States has been far more debilitating than whatever damage the European Union has inflicted on Greece. In fact, the lessons we should be learning in Puerto Rico, most notably how socialistic labor and tax policies can devastate an economy, should serve as a wake up call to those advocating prescribing the same for the mainland. 

Hyperinflation in the U.S. is coming sometime in the next 20 years or so, and this isn't a cry from a Chicken Little, but a conclusion that the analysis strongly suggests. It is possible hyperinflation could happen during the next few years, but that seems unlikely since it would require a series of major crises and political blunders – events unprecedented in the history of the United States. If this led to a corruption of Constitutional rights in the midst of an exaltation of the Executive Branch that resulted in loss of the rule of law, hyperinflation might result. It is much more probable that hyperinflation will be preceded by a long slow decline that will include a protracted period of high inflation, and that the crash of the dollar and hyperinflation will be the final tumble off a looming, steep cliff.

It is only fitting that almost exactly 24 hours after the Greek "pre-deal", which may and will end up crashing and burning in very short notice, another long expected "deal", one which has been about a decade in the making, was reached, when Iran reached a landmark nuclear agreement with the U.S. and five other world powers, a long-sought foreign policy goal of the Obama administration. However, just like with the Greek deal celebrations, these too will likely be short lived as the outcome sets the White House on course for months of political strife with dissenters in Congress and in allied Middle Eastern nations.

What message is the coal sector sending to the market?

The Shanghai Composite Index had dropped as much as 3.8% to a 4 month low before the news that the cops were going to arrest anyone who was caught "maliciously shorting stocks", when everything suddenly took off, and the SHCOMP closed  a "Dramamine required" 5.8% higher, the biggest daily increase since March 2009! Stocks around the globe followed, with US equity futures wiping out much of yesterday's losses and up 1% at last check.

The DOL recently proposed raising the overtime threshold from $23,600 to $50,400 making this only the second time they’ve addressed the issue since 1975. According to the department, 62 percent of workers qualified for overtime back then, whereas today, only eight percent do. At the current overtime threshold, Americans would have to live below the poverty threshold ($24,008 for a family of four) before a jobholder could qualify for overtime. 

After failing to criminally prosecute any of the financial firms responsible for the market collapse in 2008, former Attorney General Eric Holder is returning to Covington & Burling, a corporate law firm known for serving Wall Street clients. The move completes one of the more troubling trips through the revolving door for a cabinet secretary. Holder worked at Covington from 2001 right up to being sworn in as attorney general in Feburary 2009. And Covington literally kept an office empty for him, awaiting his return. When the firm moved to a new building last year, it kept an 11th-story corner office reserved for Holder.

Forget the mad spinning. Here it is, in a nutshell, what it really takes for Iran and the P5+1 to clinch a game-changing nuclear deal before the new July 7 deadline.

Earlier this month, news emerged that the US government had suffered its worst cyberattack ever. There’s a good chance the attack is even worse than what we've read about. So what does the Obama administration want to do to solve the problem? For starters, it’s proposed “economic sanctions” against China, which it holds responsible for the attack. And only a few days after the OPM hack, Senate leaders tacked on the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) - which creates a back-door channel for government agencies to retrieve, analyze, and store enormous volumes of personal data - to a defense bill to avoid debate on the measure. It didn’t work – the Senate failed to advance the legislation for now... but it is a good time to begin securing your electronic life. The US government certainly isn’t going to do it for you.