China’s Fake Numbers And The Risk They Pose For The Rest Of The World

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BY JOHN RUBINO Not so long ago, London Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard was one of the handful of must-read financial journalists. He probably still is, but since he disappeared behind the Telegraph’s pay wall his work is invisible to non-subscribers, only emerging when a free outlet runs one of his stories. That happened this morning when the Sydney Morning … Read more

Retail’s Existential Threat? Private Equity Firms

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A “bust out” is a fraud tactic used in the organized crime world wherein a business’s assets and lines of credit are exploited and exhausted to the point of bankruptcy — Wikipedia. By John E. McNellis, Principal at McNellis Partners, for The Registry: Bleeding badly, Debenhams, a 200 year old British department store chain, died last week. The … Read more

Debt collectors soon to text, email consumers

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Debt collecting is an age-old business but it may soon receive a 21st-century revamp when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency created in the wake of the financial crisis to protect consumers, proposes new rules for the industry. Among the changes may be whether debt collectors can text and email borrowers as they pursue … Read more

Our Political Class Is Composed Of Idiots

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via Twitter: “Chief Legal Analyst” for CNN. UPDATE: From the comments: “This is not stupid, and it is dangerous to see it that way. This is the deliberate and coordinated big lie, the latest attempt to keep this coup together. All the left united in the latest lie. It is aimed at people so ignorant … Read more

Mueller Report Is Out But Mainstream Media Keep Pushing Their Old Narrative… Tom Fitton: Mueller Report is a Political Document Designed to Smear President Trump

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Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton is sounding off on the special counsel’s findings. One America’s John Hines caught up with Tom Fitton and has this report from Washington. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUtZKOiXbTE Like, for real? Isn’t it kinda weird? US President Donald Trump unleashed scathing remarks about special counsel Robert Mueller’s ‘crazy’ report on Friday, saying it was … Read more

How bullish is the stock market?

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via @gwestr: Today over 1 million shares of $ZOOM, an OTC BB stock, traded up 10% because Robinhood users thought it was the $16B IPO for $ZM. Don’t worry robbin’ hood will give you your money back if you file a support ticket. @RampCapitalLLC @AdamSinger  

Greece Demands Germany to Pay over 300 Billion in WWII Reparations

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Greece’s parliament on Wednesday began debate on a resolution to demand the payment of German war crime reparations. The issue has long been disputed by Berlin. ‘These demands are always active. They were never set aside by Greece,’ parliament chairman Nikos Voutsis said earlier this week. The chamber is expected to approve a resolution calling … Read more

Sears sues Eddie Lampert for looting company

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/18/sears-sues-eddie-lampert-steven-mnuchin-others-for-alleged-thefts.html Sears accuses its former CEO Eddie Lampert of stealing billions of dollars from the once-storied retailer. Sears Holdings filed for bankruptcy in October, after years of losses under Lampert, who was then its chairman, CEO and largest shareholder. “Altogether, Lampert caused more than $2 billion of assets to be transferred to himself and Sears’ … Read more

Post 2008 risk for all monetary minded people

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via @OccupyWisdom : 1/ Post 2008 risk for all monetary minded people A) we are in a 10-yr depression, although it’s been called an expansion After the recession technically ended in summer 2009, we’ve averaged 2% “growth” for 10 years. This is 1% below trend growth of 3%. Long term below trend 2/ growth is the definition … Read more

$SKEW vs $VIX – anyone remember sept?

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$SKEW vs $VIX – anyone remember sept? pic.twitter.com/gAlq9P87m7 — mcm-ct.com (@mcm_ct) April 18, 2019 $NASI is rolling over AND AAII sentiment at levels of Sept Highs pic.twitter.com/LbSnQKdR51 — mcm-ct.com (@mcm_ct) April 18, 2019 https://twitter.com/hks55/status/1119118568837091328 https://twitter.com/Simple_Trends/status/1119040341011836928

AOC: Cutting aid to Israel is “on the table”

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'It's certainly on the table. I think it’s something that can be discussed,” – New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says cutting military and economic aid to Israel would be a good way to aid Israel opposition against newly re-elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pic.twitter.com/QRyQVuEDc4 — RT (@RT_com) April 19, 2019

Contrarian Alert: “Is Inflation Dead?” Makes The Cover Of Businessweek

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by Jesse Colombo In the financial world, those who subscribe to the contrarian school of thought (including myself) keep an eye out for certain cues or indications that a trend has become overcrowded and is nearing its end. Some examples of these contrarian indicators are investor sentiment indexes, fear gauges such as the CBOE Volatility Index or VIX, the … Read more

Reality Vs Fantasy: What To Watch For This Earnings Season

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by Lance Roberts Just recently, David Robertson ran an article discussing the deviation which has grown between “fantasy” and “reality” in the investing markets. “The phenomenon of extreme differences is also increasingly appearing in financial numbers, which are the life blood of markets. Andrew Smithers conducted research on the usefulness of accounting numbers and his work was summarized by Jonathan Ford.  … Read more