More signs of macro slowdown, and what this means for stocks

by Troy Throughout this extremely persistent rally, the stock market keeps ramping higher in the final hour of each trading day. While some bearish traders see this as a sign of government “manipulation”, it probably doesn’t mean anything of substance. 99% of conspiracy theories turn out to be false. Go here to understand our fundamentals-driven long term outlook. Let’s … Read more

The Importance Of All This Central Bank Gold Buying

by Avi Gilburt of Elliott Wave Trader via Gold Seek There is an old Yiddish expression called a bubbe meise (pronounced my-seh). I guess the closest English interpretation of this expression would be a grandmother’s tale, or in the common vernacular, an old-wives’ tale. Of late, I am seeing a bubbe meise about the importance of central bank buying of … Read more

Venezuela Struggles To Find Buyers For Its Oil After U.S. Sanctions

By Tsvetana Paraskova Following the U.S. sanctions, Venezuela’s oil inventories have swelled to a five-year high, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing satellite data—a sign that Venezuelan oil buyers are fleeing and the country sitting on top of the world’s largest crude resources is struggling to sell its oil. At the end of January, the U.S. imposed … Read more

European Oil Demand Is Shockingly Weak

By Nick Cunningham One of the unexpectedly soft spots in global oil demand recently has been in Europe. To be sure, Europe was never expected to be a major driver of oil demand growth. Consumption has been mostly flat for a long time. However, demand has actually declined year-on-year in the past few months, which … Read more

Tucker Carlson DESTROYS CNN’s Don Lemon over Jussie Smollett Coverage… Kamala Harris Speaks Out On Jussie Smollett

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9V8tEuR21w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqBlXcanlP4 Jussie Smollet has been taken into custody and in the future will likely end up bankrupt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rdb5saiv0k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbn51s9xRSI Jussie Smollett, the ‘Empire’ actor and social justice activist who allegedly faked his own hate crime, has been released on bail and ordered to surrender his passport, after he was charged with filing a false … Read more

Trade Table Talks & Global Housing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqqUIUBUAuc With the U.S. and China coming back to the trade table to talk, we’ve got Peter Schiff from EuroPacific Capital to get some thoughts on what this could mean! Housing is a big market, but are domestic and international markets going to make or break homeowners and buyers? Steve Malzberg, Debbie Bloyd, and Boris … Read more

Israel Braces For Temple Mount Violence… Netanyahu In Political Fight Of Life

60 arrested as police brace for Temple Mount violence after Friday prayers Security forces were gearing up Friday morning for anticipated violence ahead of Friday prayers at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount as police announced 60 people were arrested overnight on suspicion of planning violence. The Kan public broadcaster reported the arrested individuals were all residents of … Read more

“Wars And Rumors Of Wars”: The U.S., Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, India And Pakistan All Move Closer To Military Conflict

by Michael Snyder Humanity never seems to learn.  During the 20th century, at least 108 million people were killed during all wars combined, and you would think that after so much bloodshed humanity would never want to go down that road again.  And in this century, an enormous amount of American blood has already been … Read more

10 Common-Sense Amendments to the U.S. Constitution

by Charles Hugh-Smith These are my suggested loophole-closing amendments. Unfortunately, my recent essay Let’s Face It: The U.S. Constitution Has Faileddeeply offended readers whom I had no intent to offend. One reader even decided to stop reading my work, which is extreme in the polite and cordial little world of Of Two Minds, where differences of opinion … Read more

The US Housing Market Begins to Feel the Pain

Wolf Richter wolfstreet.com, http://www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter Fact is, home prices cannot outrun wages forever. The market, if it’s allowed to, can fix the affordability problem that exists in many cities in the US by finding price levels were first-time buyers can afford to buy a home with the income they’re making. At its glacial pace, this is … Read more

What the Fed Actually Said About Ending the QE Unwind

Wolf Richter wolfstreet.com, http://www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter A plan is forming with a slow-motion component, and everyone wants to get rid of MBS In the minutes of the January 29-30 FOMC meeting, published yesterday, the Fed added some tidbits about how it wants to deal with its “balance sheet normalization.” These minutes are always the most mind-numbing repetitive prose available … Read more

The Average Time Until A Great Civilization Collapses Is 336 Years, And The U.S. Is Now 242 Years Old

by Michael Snyder Every great civilization throughout human history has eventually collapsed, and if we want to have any hope of escaping the same fate, we need to be willing to learn some lessons from the past.  Because many of the same factors that caused the collapse of previous civilizations are weighing very heavily on … Read more

Kraft Heinz misses earnings, slashes dividend and discloses SEC investigation, down almost 20% AH

by timeinthemarket CNBC: Kraft Heinz slashes dividend, discloses SEC subpoena — stock tanks Kraft Heinz disclosed it has received a subpoena from the SEC as part of an investigation into the company’s procurement accounting policies. The company is also trimming its dividend as it seeks to strengthen its balance sheet. It also reported fourth-quarter earnings and … Read more

OPEC+ Compliance With Oil Production Cuts At 83% In January

By Tsvetana Paraskova A technical committee monitoring the implementation of the OPEC/non-OPEC production cuts has found that the allies achieved an 83-percent compliance with the pledged reduction, four delegates told Reuters on Wednesday. OPEC and a group of non-OPEC producers led by Russia decided in December to cut production by a total of 1.2 million bpd between January and … Read more

What’s Wrong With Amazon’s Tax Bill

By Harry Dent Amazon is the best of this bubble, and in some ways the worst! Yet again, it’ll pay zero taxes to the IRS for 2018! No taxes on sales of $233 billion and profits of $10.8 billion last year. Not a dime. Nada! This is just wrong. And it’s one of many things that are … Read more

Yikes – Duke Basketball Star Player Injured After Nike Shoe Blows Apart During Game…

by sundance Something completely different.  Duke University star player Zion Williamson’s Nike basketball shoe ripped in half less than one minute into the game against the University of North Carolina. “We are obviously concerned and want to wish Zion a speedy recovery,” Nike says. “While this is an isolated occurrence, we are working to identify the … Read more

Would You Do This to Pay Zero Income Taxes for Life?

by Frank Holmes, CEO, U.S. Global Investors Hungary has a problem. Like many Eastern European and former Soviet countries, its population is shrinking thanks to a plunging birthrate and outmigration as young workers seek better opportunities and fatter salaries elsewhere in the European Union (EU). In 2017, the most recent year of data, Hungary had … Read more

Jeff Socha – The Case of the Vanishing Tax Refund

from Financial Survival Network Tax expert Jeff Socha returns… The new tax law definitely put more money in most people’s pockets. However, due to an anomaly of the tax tables and payroll tax computation software, many people have received smaller refunds. What they fail to understand is that they still ended up with more money and paid less … Read more