Breaking news, updates, and reports on current events.
by confoundedinterest European bond volatility (according to the Merrill Lynch 3-month EUR option volatility estimate) has plunged to the lowest level on record. A similar chart for the US bond market is the Merrill Lynch Option Volatility Estimate for 3-months shows exactly the same thing. The US bond market is grinding to a halt. Note … Read more
Global Economy Weakest Since Financial Crisis (Bloomberg) — The global economy’s sharp loss of speed through 2018 has left the pace of expansion the weakest since the global financial crisis a decade ago, according to Bloomberg Economics. Its new GDP tracker puts world growth at 2.1 percent on a quarter-on-quarter annualized basis, down from about … Read more
by Brian Maher of Daily Reckoning After “the sharpest rally since the global financial crisis recovery” — Goldman’s phrase — has the stock market peaked for the year? Today we weigh the evidence… and hazard a conclusion. The major averages jumped over 20% from their Christmas Eve bottoms. The Dow Jones catapulted over 4,000 points valley … Read more
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in an interview aired Sunday that he does not think he can be fired by President Donald Trump. While continuing to avoid direct comment on the president’s withering criticism of central bank interest rate policy, Powell told “60 Minutes” that Trump can’t remove him from office. “The law is … Read more
via Dailymail.co.uk: Ed lived on the streets of Manchester, Glasgow, and London for two months One night in Glasgow he saw 26 volunteers give food to two homeless people He put on weight as passers-by gave him fast food, burgers, and sandwiches Ed said, although he would not give homeless people money, they still need … Read more
Do you believe that China’s economic data is fake? Also, do all countries do the same thing? The economic data we receive from every country is most likely fake. Or at least padded and puffed up to make it seem stronger in times when it’s weak. Well according to Brookings, they’ve been handing out … Read more
It Exists: DOJ Finds Letter Ordering Scrutiny of Uranium One, Hillary Clinton https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-fin…
I read china halted the use of the 737 Max’s, 2 crashes on new planes seems like an issue. After the devastating Boeing 737 MAX-8 crash in Ethiopia this weekend, China has announced it will suspend the aircraft model in domestic flights until the FAA and Boeing can determine whether the aircraft was the reason … Read more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD5B7bzXgOA Is she gonna tax a Robot? AC
New York will soon have a departure tax… Experts: NYC could go Bankrupt for 1st time in 40 years New York City is headed for financial ruin and could go bankrupt for the first time in 40 years, financial experts say. Financial experts predict that there are already signs the city is headed for financial disaster, … Read more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKk3XfqANcQ Open borders and the welfare state. What could possibly go wrong? AC
Josh Sigurdson talks with author and economic analyst John Sneisen about the continuing decline of the Canadian housing markets as banks like BMO warn that this type of decline normally leads to a recession and that this recession will be worse than the previous. This is an issue we have been covering for many years … Read more
Wolf Richter wolfstreet.com, http://www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter On the surface, consumer debt is a smaller risk factor than it was before the Financial Crisis. But the averages conceal the reality that income & wealth disparities leave in their tracks (11 minutes):
US rating agencies pressure Pemex and the new Mexican government. But Pemex is too big to fail. By Don Quijones, Spain, UK, & Mexico, editor at WOLF STREET. The financial pains and strains continue to grow for the world’s most indebted oil company, Petroleos de Mexico (Pemex). Standard & Poor’s became the latest in a succession of rating … Read more
by Michael Snyder What in the world are they teaching to our young people? As you go through the list of college course titles below, I am sure that many of you will be completely shocked. Most parents assume that they are sending their children to college to get prepared for their future careers, but … Read more
by Charles Hugh-Smith The soaring cost of services is driven by a number of factors. What will the future bring: fire (inflation) or ice (deflation)? The short answer: both, but in very different doses. Goods that are tradeable and exposed to technologically driven commodification will decline in price (deflation) while untradeableservices that are difficult to commoditize will increase in … Read more
by John Rubino This was going to be the year when the other big central banks joined the Fed in “normalizing” interest rates and reversing the past decade’s QE experiment. Instead, the other central banks blinked and went back to aggressive ease, and the Fed is following them. This is a very big deal. Let’s consider … Read more
Democrats, the Party of the Slave States and Jim Crow, became the Party of the Welfare Plantation. Now they are the Party of the Police State. TC
Kirby warns, “Nobody could come to grips with the criminality that was present in our system. . . . The slow burn is probably not in the cards anymore. We are likely to see very significant change in the very near term going forward. . . . We are starting to see signs of admission … Read more
by John Rubino Alasdair Macleod: Is a return to the gold standard possible? … Twitter execs debate censorship bias … Max Keiser: All fiat currency should be burned … David Stockman: The undrainable swamp & the inevitable recession … Wolf Street: Is China the epicenter of the next financial crisis? …
via northmantrader: In last week’s Weekly Market Brief I made the case for a coming $VIX spike: “With a $VIX now at 13.5 and a big open gap at 24+ the $VIX is setting up for a rebellion”. Indeed $VIX rebelled this week with a move from 13.5 to above 18 a move of 33%. The first real volatility … Read more
From The Democrat’s Dilemma: The primary reason that mass immigration destroys the welfare state because immigrants receive more in benefits than they pay in taxes. This is not true for every immigrant—some never collect government handouts—but it is true for the overall immigrant population. Studies from across the Western world prove this point. A recent, and … Read more
by Martin Armstrong There is a real crisis in the fertility rate which has fallen to such a low level that all the socialism going forward will simply collapse. What used to be the Baby Boom is now being called the “Baby Bust,” which means that in all first-world countries there is a real crisis for … Read more
via CNBC: New York conducted about 3,000 “non-residency” audits a year between 2010 and 2017, collecting around $1 billion, according to a data company. New York is looking at cellphone records, social media feeds, and veterinary and dentist records in verifying residency. Auditors are even conducting in-home inspections to look inside taxpayers’ refrigerators. The … Read more