Donald Trump

"They don't understand the treacherous path they are going down. God knows where this is going. It's very dangerous and could be disastrous."

"The people that want to come in and replace Assad, nobody knows who they are and they could end up being worse. We're constantly going out and siding with people and they turn out to be worse than the people who were there before."

If Congress understood the Austrian theory of the business cycle, it would have allowed the recession that followed the housing bubble’s inevitable collapse to run its course. Recessions are the economy’s way of eliminating the distortions caused by the Federal Reserve. Attempts by Congress and the Fed to end a recession via inflation and government spending will only lead to future, and more severe, economic downturns.

We call on central banks to abolish their zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) framework before more harm is done. In our assessment, ZIRP is bad for all stakeholders and may even lead to war.

The solution is not to let politicians redistribute the wealth from the rich to the poor. Crony capitalism must be replaced by true free market capitalism, practiced with integrity, fairness, principled conduct, intelligence, and high moral standards. Profits generated by corporations are not evil, but seeking profits at any cost to society is reckless, shortsighted and immoral. Capitalism without capital is destined for failure. When corporate CEOs, Wall Street bankers, and shady billionaires exercise undue influence over the financial, political and judicial systems, their short-term quarterly profit mindset and voracious appetite for riches override the best interests of the people and create a sick, warped, repressive society. Today our system is in the grasp of psychopaths whose hubris and myopic focus on enriching themselves will ultimately be their downfall.

"Did Charlie Rose look like a f##king idiot last night on 60-Minutes, or what...?"

Republican presidential nominee front-runner Donald Trump, amid massively variant poll numbers (Fox >40%, WSJ ~21%?), plans to unveil his tax plan today, that, as WSJ reports, would eliminate income taxes for millions of households, lower the tax rate on all businesses to 15% and change tax treatment of companies’ overseas earnings. Trumps's plan claims to bring "sanity, common sense and simplification to the nation's catastrophic tax code," and, despite plans to end "carried interest" tax breaks - most loved by hedge fund managers - Carl Icahn has come out and endorsed Trump as "the only candidate that speaks about the country's problems."

• Headline winner: "Read Beyond Massive Job-Cuts Headlines: Labor Market Is Fine" (BBG)
• And speaking of lies: The More Yellen Talks Up Inflation, the Less Traders Believe Her (BBG)
• How Some Investors Get Special Access to Companies (WSJ)
• Victorious Catalan separatists claim mandate to break with Spain (Reuters)
• Russia seizes initiative in Syria (Reuters)
• Former VW boss Winterkorn investigated for fraud (Reuters)
• Investors Pull Back From Junk Bonds (WSJ)

Great companies like Hewlett-Packard are now being run not by adult professionals but day-trading punters. Carly Fiorina was one of the latter. She excelled at mastering her flash cards and pitching financial bubbles from the time of the misbegotten Lucent IPO, to her campaign for the Compaq acquisition, to her final days at Hewlett-Packard. What she didn’t excel at was learning a single thing that qualifies her to be President of the United States - not the least of which is humility. Fiorina needs to shut-up, sit down and flush her flash cards. The furtherance of liberty, prosperity and peace are not what Torquemada’s do.

“Unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.”

Yellen's Last Hurrah: at this point, Janet "the antichrist" Yellen will have license to do Whatever The Hell She Wants to "fix" things. This will be her last free pass to do so.

Last week was the watershed for central banking and for the illusion that the current disposition of things has a future. 

A problem can turn into an opportunity if tackled with a clear mind and a kind heart; seldom can it be solved with fear; and never, ever with hate.

"I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that."

"It’s my sense that this is happening, unless they change their minds"...