There’s a simple reason your new smart TV was so affordable: It’s collecting and selling your data, and serving you ads

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If you don’t pay full price for the product, you are the product. That awesome new TV will be sure to make your life better, just don’t talk too loud near it.   The vast majority of televisions available today are “smart” TVs, with internet connections, advertising placement, and streaming services built in. Despite the … Read more

Large U.S. study finds that marijuana laws (both recreational & medical) appear to significantly reduce prescription opioid use.

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Abstract While recent research has shown that cannabis access laws can reduce the use of prescription opioids, the effect of these laws on opioid use is not well understood for all dimensions of use and for the general United States population. Analyzing a dataset of over 1.5 billion individual opioid prescriptions between 2011 and 2018, … Read more

Stocks Start 2020 In Expensive Territory

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by UPFINA 2019 was a costly year for future returns if you believe that when valuations get more expensive, it lowers future returns. That’s because almost all of the gains came from multiple expansion and not from earnings. Earnings barely increased and stocks had an amazing year. According to FactSet, S&P 500 earnings growth was 0.3%. … Read more

No matter how divided Congress pretends to be they always agree to spend more money…

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The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a $1.4 trillion spending package that includes a provision prohibiting the sale of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products to people under the age of 21. U.S. lawmakers on Monday negotiated a deal to add the provision, as well as other changes to health-care law, to the spending bill that funds … Read more

Michael Pento: The future guarantees that the junk bond market will someday implode, and probably soon. Repo borrowing costs will soar, the liquidity in the junk bond market will evaporate and equity prices will begin to free-fall.

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via pentoport: The global fixed income market has reached such a manic state that junk bond yields now trade at a much lower rate than where investment-grade debt once stood. Investment-grade corporate debt yields were close to 6% prior to the Great Recession. However, Twitter just issued $700 million of eight-year bonds at a yield of … Read more

Chinese corporate debt is the ‘biggest threat’ to the global economy, says Moody’s chief economist – CNBC

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Chinese corporate debt is the 'biggest threat' to the global economy, says Moody's chief economist – CNBC https://t.co/HhyYQMTIRB — Michael Ron Bowling (@mrbcyber) December 17, 2019 While corporate debt is a “fault line in the financial system and the broader economy,” Moody’s Chief Economist Mark Zandi flagged Chinese indebted companies as the “biggest threat.” A … Read more

Everything is priced in.

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by zsd99 Don’t even ask the question. The answer is yes, it’s priced in. Think Amazon will beat the next earnings? That’s already been priced in. You work at the drive thru for Mickey D’s and found out that the burgers are made of human meat? Priced in. You think insiders don’t already know that? … Read more

Are millennials a lost generation financially?

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Are millennials a lost generation financially? https://t.co/5kOPr06Pz0 pic.twitter.com/UK9JcAji4J — St. Louis Fed (@stlouisfed) December 17, 2019 Great Recession and Younger Families First, the Great Recession was devastating to many families, but younger families were hit harder and lost a larger share of their wealth than older families. To dive deeper, we looked at families grouped … Read more

May I point out that the previous times the Fed was forced to spike repurchase agreements where associated with market excess, crashes & recessions.

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https://twitter.com/NorthmanTrader/status/1206921566140940290 The Fed is printing money like it’s the depth of the GFC! It’s dealing with a repo liquidity crisis like 2008 but mystified as to the cause. The Fed's panic at this point in the economic cycle may hasten the unwinding of the imbalances it is so desperate to maintain. #GotGold? pic.twitter.com/oRQ7UfwwHW — Kevin … Read more

Americans Are Back To Using Their Home Prices As ATMs: Most Cash Pulled Out in 12 Years!

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by Jason Burack of Wall St For Main St Refinance lending has nearly doubled over the past three quarters, according to Black Knight. Cash-out refinances were up 24% since the last quarter of 2018 and made up 52% of all refinances. Homeowners withdrew a collective $36 billion in home equity, the highest amount in nearly 12 years. Commit … Read more

TRUMP WRITES letter TO PELOSI to “REGISTER HIS PROTEST OF IMPEACHMENT”!

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Trump sends letter to Pelosi registering his protest of impeachment pic.twitter.com/IEniQTGkkZ — Jordyn Phelps (@JordynPhelps) December 17, 2019 Jordyn Phelps @JordynPhelps Trump sends letter to Pelosi registering his protest of impeachment Trump tells Pelosi in blistering letter that Dems are ‘declaring open war on American Democracy’   That letter will go down in the historical … Read more

$1 Trillion Fed Money Flood as Global Economic Fallout Since 2018! Here’s Proof.

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The Fed will be printing $1 trillion in a very short period of time. This is absolutely historic and yet nobody is complaining. They’re actually cheering the monetary easing to occur. Make it happen to ensure everything stays afloat. This financial magic cannot persist forever. It must eventually revert to the mean. The higher up … Read more

REALCLEARINVESTIGATIONS: IG Report Undercuts Credibility of Impeachment Manager Nadler.

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via realclearinvestigations: Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman who has drawn up articles of impeachment accusing President Trump of abusing his power, last year falsely accused a Trump campaign aide of being a Russian spy who helped Moscow interfere in the 2016 election — an accusation the Justice Department’s watchdog declared unfounded in … Read more

Small men can start big wars

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HMM: Is China Planning To Incite A “People’s War” To Dominate The South China Sea? Party leaders have regaled the populace with how they will use seagoing forces to right historical wrongs and win the nation nautical renown. They must now follow through. It was foolish to tie China’s national dignity and sovereignty to patently absurd … Read more

TRUMP makes A SUBTLE THREAT TO SCHIFF

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https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1207025178045231110 Trump suggests Adam Schiff should face severe punishment for paraphrasing his Zelensky call during a hearing: "In Guatemala they handle things much tougher than that." pic.twitter.com/bUMrsKJpyv — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 17, 2019   AC

Feds bust illegal streaming site that boasts more content than NETFLIX, AMAZON

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Two programmers pleaded guilty to copyright charges in association with two illegal streaming services, including one site that had more content than Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, according to the Department of Justice. Darryl Julius Polo, 36, pleaded guilty last week to running Las Vegas–based streaming site iStreamItAll as well as working on the illegal streaming … Read more