White House

Everybody can see Janet Yellen standing naked in that corner - more like a box canyon - and it’s not a pretty sight. But the mundane truth probably is that events have finally caught up with the structural distortions of a financial world running on illusion. To everything there is a season, turn, turn, turn, and economic winter is finally upon us. All the world ‘round, people borrowed too much to buy stuff and now they’re all borrowed out and stuffed up. Welcome to the successor to the global economy: the yard sale economy, with all the previously-bought stuff going back into circulation on its way to the dump.

Having crushed the "greatest global threat" over the weekend with a "bullshit" deal, President Obama turns his attention back to that other thing... the war on terror. In a statement which will, in The White House's words, "update the nation on the US campaign to Degrade and Destroy ISIL," Obama will, we are sure, explain why they didn't bomb ISIS' oil facilities, why they are still allies with Saudi Arabia, why Russia's "success" is just propaganda, and how awesome the US-based coalition is (as opposed to the bad guys, which includes Putin). Grab your popcorn.

"It's a fraud really, a fake," says James Hansen rubbing his head. The former NASA Scientist, considered the father of global awareness of climate change, exclaimed "It's just bullshit for them to say: 'We'll have a 2C warming target and then try to do a little better every five years.' It's just worthless words. There is no action, just promises. As long as fossil fuels appear to be the cheapest fuels out there, they will be continued to be burned."

The real problem for the Fed will be how foolish it will look if it does raise by 25 basis points and is then forced by a slowing economy to lower rates back to zero soon after liftoff. At that point, the markets should finally understand that the Fed is powerless to get out of the stimulus trap it has created. But it looks like the Fed would rather look foolish later when it's forced to cut rates, than look foolish now by not raising them at all. The Fed’s rocket to nowhere will hover above the launch pad for a considerable period of time before ultimately falling back down to Earth.

At one time, the United States had the most vibrant middle class the world had ever seen. We were the envy of the rest of the planet, and people all over the world wanted to come here and live out “the American Dream”. Unfortunately, “the American Dream” is now dying, and most Americans don’t seem to care. Politicians of all stripes are saying the exact same thing during this election season... Sadly, when we send these politicians to Washington D.C. they just continue on with business as usual. No matter who resides in the White House and no matter who controls Congress, the game remains the same and the middle class just continues to suffer.

Elections are misunderstood. On the surface they are contests between zombies and cronies. The zombies (leftists, socialists, Democrats) want lots of little handouts. The cronies (rightists, Wall Streeters, Republicans) want fewer but bigger ones. All the loot comes from the voters – who willingly give up both their money and their liberty believing that, somehow, they are better off for it. But the real winner is the Deep State. It usually controls the candidates... and continues to gain power and resources, no matter which side wins. But the Deep State is not immune to setbacks.

As President Obama prepares executive action to pass further gun control legislation, one errant reporter dared to ask the White House press secretary exactly how such proposals would have prevented any recent mass shootings. The response was... as expected.

Everyone Agrees that We Need to Stop Mass Shootings ... But This ISN'T the Way to Do It

More Americans - republicans and democrats - support Trump's idea of banning the entry of Muslims into America than oppose it, and now that it is 'polling' as a populist idea, we await Hillary Clinton to jump on the bandwagon.

Though none of these men are perfect or trustworthy with ultimate power, President Obama and his team make Donald Trump and Rand Paul look like founding fathers.

The chart below crystalizes why the Fed is stranded in a monetary no man’s land. By the time of next week’s meeting the federal funds rate will have been pinned at about 10 bps, or effectively zero, for 84 straight months. After one pretension, delusion, head fake and forecasting error after another, the denizens of the Eccles Building have painted themselves into the most dangerous monetary corner in history. They have left themselves no alternative except to provoke a riot in the casino - the very outcome that has filled them with fear and dread all these years.

Flashing red headlines, business media anchors exuberant as gun-maker stocks weresold after CT Governor Malloy unveiled his executive order and following White House chatter that officials were finalizing proposal that would expand background checks on gun sales without congressional approval. We thought the following charts would provide a little context for this "selling"...

"This should be a wakeup call for all of us. This is a moment to seize here in America," Gov. Dannel Malloy plans to sign the first executive order in the nation to ban the sales of guns to people on government watch lists.

"The United States is prepared to assist the Iraqi Army with additional unique capabilities to help them finish the job, including attack helicopters and accompanying advisers."

"By the time we figure out how to stop that, ISIS will have the next thing. They use tricks. Always they are a step ahead of you, no matter how smart you are."

Making preposterous and outrageous proposals hardly disqualifies you for the White House. In fact, some of our “best” presidents – at least, according to historians and the public – were those who did the looniest things... things that were completely at odds with the Constitution, the spirit of liberty, and their own policy goals.