by Michael Snyder The U.S. State Department has officially issued a level two advisory for travel to China, and U.S. citizens are being warned that they could “be detained” and “subjected to prolonged interrogations and extended detention”. That sounds extremely ominous, but most Americans typically ignore warnings like this and continue with their normal travel … Read more
Wolf Richter wolfstreet.com, http://www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter Investors are waking up after years of somnolent money-making. Markets are in a tizzy. They’re finally reacting to the Fed’s rate-hike cycle, the slowest rate-hike cycle in history. It took three years to nudge up the effective federal funds rate from near zero to 2.40% now. Throughout, the Fed has … Read more
by Michael Snyder Stock markets are crashing all over the world, we are seeing extremely violent “flash crashes” in the forex marketplace, economic conditions are slowing down all over the globe, and fear is causing many investors to become extremely trigger happy. The stock market crash of 2018 wiped out approximately 12 trillion dollars in global stock … Read more
via visualcapitalist: For a variety of different reasons, there is a growing proportion of young adults that are living with their parents in the United States. As of 2017, it’s estimated that 34.5% of young adults (18-34 years old) in the U.S live at home – one of the highest percentages in recent memory. How does … Read more
Asia markets fall again as Tokyo gets 2019 off to nightmare start There was no respite for Asian investors Friday as most regional markets suffered more losses, with Tokyo tanking three percent and technology firms taking another hiding after Apple’s shock revenue warning. The new year has proved so far to be anything but happy … Read more
by Chris Tons going on today. I’ll get to as much as I can over time. Here’s a quick synopsis: First, the US equity markets had another bad day after several quite valiant rescue attempts. The Dow finished down -660 points, the S&P 500 was -62 points. I sincerely hope that the various entities that … Read more
BY JOHN MAULDIN Last week my British friend Jim Mellon sent me a fascinating article with an alarming title: “News from Euroland—Recession Imminent.” Now, I am not one who falls prey to click-bait headlines (nor is Jim). And I’m also well aware that Europe’s economy is weakening. I would not have said recession was imminent but reading this article … Read more
Today is Speaker Paul Ryan’s last day in office. The Republican leader shafted President Trump, Republican lawmakers and conservative-populist voters. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/01/on-his-last-day-in-office-never-forget-paul-ryan-repeatedly-promised-to-fund-trump-border-wall-repeatedly-lied-video/ h/t Jwnlwplus4
From P.J. O’Rourke and American Consequences: In the interest of adding a little cogitation to the process of governance, let’s conduct a “thought experiment.” Let’s think about just one of the purposes that the federal government has been put to – providing entitlement handouts. Let’s think about not doing that anymore. The term “thought experiment” was coined … Read more
From Vox: The federal government remains partially shut down as President Donald Trump refuses to sign a spending deal that doesn’t include $5 billion for his wall at the US-Mexico border. But as Americans start to think about filing their taxes, they may wonder: How will this affect tax returns and refunds? The short version: If the … Read more
from Financial Survival Network Jeffrey Small returns… There have been warnings for decades and now it’s finally coming to pass. Pretty soon, interest on the public debt will become the largest line item on the federal budget. It’s going to slow down economic growth and require dramatic restructuring of your government and the services it provides. Jeff … Read more
by Martin Armstrong While the BitCoin people have hated me for not agreeing with them that a private currency could displace the currencies of all nations and BitCoin would be the new “reserve currency” killing the dollar, to me they are in serious need of help. They have ZERO comprehension of governmental power and ZERO understanding of what is going on … Read more
via mishtalk: The majority of board members at Banca Carige, Italy’s 10th largest bank, resigned and the ECB took Over. The Telegraph reports ECB Steps in at Italian Bank as Country Teeters on Recession. The European Central Bank has announced the appointment of temporary administrators and a “surveillance committee” at troubled Italian lender Banca Carige, as new … Read more
BILLIONAIRE Mark Zuckerberg has halted the sale of his Facebook stock after the company’s value collapsed last year. The controversial 34-year-old has seen his company fall from grace, and failed to sell a single share in the last three months of 2018. Back in September 2017, Zuck promised to flog between 35million and 75million of … Read more
via Twitter: Meanwhile, look at the things that aren’t tone-policed: Complaints about “tone” are always an attempt to silence the right. That’s true regardless of whether the people complaining about “tone” are Democrats or Republicans. People on the Left can and do say the most extraordinarily incendiary, racist, and divisive things, and they never … Read more
By Rodney Johnson As I’ve written before, Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) has many problems, including quality control (it now ranks 27th out of 29 vehicle makes, according to Consumer Reports) and a quick burn rate. But one issue hit harder on New Year’s Day than all the others. Because the car company reached the milestone of … Read more
by DCG A new law has gone into effect in Washington State where employees have monies deducted from their paychecks to pay for paid family medical leave. Employers also kick in some money into the insurance program. The state is collecting monies a year in advance; benefits won’t be available until 2020. About the program … Read more
by Richard Rosso Bear markets characteristically align with economic contraction. In his seminal tome – “Anatomy of the Bear – Lessons from Wall Street’s Four Great Bottoms,” which should be required reading for advisors and professional investors, author Russell Napier provides comprehensive analysis of market where stocks cycle from overvalued to undervalued (14 years on average) coupled with … Read more
From the Texas Tribune: Law enforcement leaders say civil asset forfeiture is a necessary tool for fighting crime, but several lawmakers see it as a violation of Americans’ civil liberties. Texas legislators are poised to take up the issue once again in 2019. In February 2016, prosecutors in Houston filed a lawsuit against a truck: State … Read more
by Harry Dent of Economy & Markets Bubbles ultimately die of their own extremes, although it always helps to have a trigger like the subprime crisis in 2006. But the San Francisco area takes the cake when it come to the U.S. real-estate bubbles! (That Canadian honor goes to Vancouver and in Australia it’s Sydney and Melbourne.) And … Read more