John Rubino – Are Speculators the Dumbest People on the Planet?

from Financial Survival Network John Rubino returns… A listener question triggers an interesting debate about the Commitment of Traders (COT) Report. How can the so-called Speculators keep on losing every month? How do the Commercial Traders always get it right? And who in their right mind is coming back month after month only to lose bigly? John … Read more

The Erosion of Everyday Life

by Charles Hugh-Smith Working hard and doing what you’re told is no longer yielding the promised American Dream of security, agency and liberty. Volume One of Fernand Braudel’s oft-recommended (by me) trilogy Civilization & Capitalism, 15th to 18th Century is titled The Structures of Everyday Life. The book describes how life slowly became better and freer as the … Read more

Oroville Dam Leaking Again

by Natura Naturans Is Oroville dam going to fail AGAIN? This article notes it is leaking in the same places it did in the last failure under the spillway: March 18, 2019 Complete failure at Oroville Dam By Chriss Street The $1.1 billion spent to repair Oroville Dam is failing as water is seeping through the … Read more

Fed nominee Stephen Moore warns of ‘biggest selloff in the stock market in American history’

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/dow-2400-anyone-11556549091 Moore said that if Trump loses the Dow will crash 91%. Obviously, this is bullshit, but markets do not like it when the Fed’s independance is threatened, and it seems like the nominee has a lot of political bias. Do you think this news will affect the market in any way? Not because of … Read more

Chinese car hailing company demands compensation from Tesla via advertisements in Times Square

What is going on with Tesla in China? Global Times (aka the Chinese Communist Party) reports on “Chinese car hailing company demands compensation from Tesla in Times Square, NYC” According to information released by the company, Shenma Zhuanche is the biggest buyer of Tesla cars in the Asian Pacific region, having purchased 278 vehicles from … Read more

Chart Shows Glaring Economic Risk That Could Wipe out Record Highs

via CNBC: Economic forecaster Lakshman Achuthan is warning Wall Street that the market’s new highs don’t signal a revitalized growth cycle. Achuthan, co-founder of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, believes it’s not an ideal environment for sustainable gains. “All the optimism is really in these risk-on assets,” he said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation. ” … Read more

Deutsche Bank Is on the Ropes Without a Plan to Fight Back

via CNN: London (CNN Business)Deutsche Bank is in rough shape and its leadership has gone silent on their plans for the future. First quarter results from Germany’s largest bank on Friday showed that revenue is falling faster than costs, one day after merger talks with crosstown rival Commerzbank (CRZBF) were called off. Yet CEO Christian Sewing has been … Read more

Uber and Lyft’s accounting both define drivers as customers, not passengers, and this definition increases their sales $ by over 10%

From Wall Street Journal: Uber and Lyft each provide substantial discounts and incentives to riders, which subsidize the cost of trips and encourage usage. But they don’t account for these amounts in their sales numbers. Instead they categorize them as marketing expenses. That inflates reported gross profits and distorts common analyses of the companies’ unit economics. … Read more

Morgan Stanely: Don’t bet on a melt-up

via themarketear: Wilson´s worried: 1. We do not change our broader call for a multi-year trading range of 2400 – 3000 for the S&P. With valuations at the high end of fair value and continued conviction that earnings estimates still need to be lowered, we would avoid betting on a melt up 2. The high … Read more

Vanguard Drops The Hammer In ETF Fee War With 21 Price Cuts

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vanguard-drops-hammer-etf-fee-143705599.html On April 26, Vanguard said it’s lowering fees on 21 of its ETFs, including its two largest funds, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: VOO) and the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSE: VTI). VTI and VOO are the third- and fourth-largest U.S.-listed ETFs, respectively, and are two of the four ETFs with more than $100 billion in … Read more