CHINA SLOWDOWN = GLOBAL SLOWDOWN

h/t @StockBoardAsset    Chinese sentiment shift: “People across the nation, including the entire bureaucratic elite, feel increasing uncertainty about the direction of the country and a deep sense of personal insecurity. Rising anxiety has spread into a degree of panic.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-07/is-xi-jinping-s-bold-china-power-grab-starting-to-backfire   This week is showing us once again exogenous forces can spill into other markets. … Read more

One Of The Biggest Potential Market Miscalculations Is The Fundamental And Intentional Rejection Of Understanding Monetary History

via @OccupyWisdom : 1/ The majority of “professionals” have not operated in increasing an #interestrate environment 2/ Many “professionals” are just #algos programmed only for the last 30 years of data; all during declining interest rates and “modest” #inflation 3/ Many “professionals” were high schoolers or in university in 2008, have no real life understanding of … Read more

U.S. Can Legally Propagandize Its Own Citizens U.S. Can Legally Propagandize Its Own Citizens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IR8ZUnsO_k The head of the NSA says that the United States is engaged in a war of “weaponized information” with China and Russia… but what about the fact that it is legal for the U.S. government to propagandize its own people? Lets give it a Reality Check. Check out our sponor SmartCash at https://smartcash.cc

Total Recall Becomes Real in Los Angeles as the City Prepares to Install Subway Body Scanners

by Chris Black I know what you’re thinking: there’s a subway in LA? Joke aside, for our younger readers, Total Recall is science fiction movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The movie is based on a dystopian short-story (“We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”) written by one of the best science fiction authors in the world, … Read more

Vanguard Warns of Worsening Odds for Markets

In short, Vanguard forecasts that the next decade (2020 – 2030) will be far less rosy in the markets than this decade (2010 – 2020). What do you think? New investors who have only known a bull market? Old timers who have weathered the storms? What’s your take?   via NYT: The chances of a … Read more

Tesla Drama Continues: Goldman Had No Mandate When Musk Tweeted

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-14/goldman-sachs-is-said-to-have-had-no-mandate-when-musk-tweeted “Goldman Sachs Group Inc. hadn’t been formally tapped as a financial adviser by Tesla Inc.’s chief executive officer when Musk revealed plans last week to take the automaker private and said he’d secured the funding for the transaction, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Musk said on Twitter late Monday that he’s … Read more

Bitcoin dips below $6,000 amid cryptocurrency sell-off, it’s lowest point of the year

Bitcoin’s price dips lower amid cryptocurrency sell-off from CNBC. via CNBC: Bitcoin nears its lowest level of the year with other major cryptocurrencies ether and XRP falling double digits. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization has dropped by $19 billion in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin fell below $6,000 Tuesday for the first time since June as … Read more

Rent the House You Live in… Buy One Far Away to Rent Out…

By Harry Dent I enjoyed two recent articles by Andrea Riquier at MarketWatch. The first was “The new housing play: helping priced-out renters become long-distance landlords.” It was a strategy aimed at people living in unaffordable areas – like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, or New York… By renting there to avoid both high purchase costs and … Read more

“You Didn’t Care About Omarosa Until She Attacked Trump” Sarah Sanders Shuts Up Fake News Reporter

https://youtu.be/YbhYXaesjRQ “You Didn’t Care About Omarosa Until She Attacked Trump” Sarah Sanders Shuts Up Fake News Reporter Today during sarah sanders press conference today she talked about omarosa tapes and omarosa trump this was filmed during the white house press briefing and the white house press conference today this is also a sarah sanders press … Read more

Robinhood shuts customers out of buying shares of MoviePass’ parent company after the stock crashed more than 99.99% (HMNY)

via businessinsider: Robinhood is suspending new purchases of Helios & Matheson, the parent company of MoviePass, after the stock’s drastic 99.99% crash. “In order to protect our customers from the risks associated with some low-priced stocks, we remove the buy option for stocks like HMNY that consistently trade under $0.10,” the company said in an email to … Read more

Buybacks (blue line) going parabolic this year and investors haven’t been this bullish on U.S. stocks since 2015 while all of the monetary aggregates have slowed substantially

h/t @MI_Investments Investors haven’t been this bullish on U.S. stocks since 2015 Overweight positioning is sign returns may have peaked: BofA America most popular equity region for first time in 5 years   All of the monetary aggregates have slowed substantially, and real M1 growth is flagging a 1% stall-speed growth economy once we get passed … Read more

How were the main characters of “The Big Short” not basically dealing in SCDOs themselves, and other questions about the housing market collapse.

by Sporz Cash CDO Were these individuals betting against the entirety of the bonds, or only the lower tranches? They bet against upper tranches too, because those were also too highly rated. In fact often with CDOs you can’t bet against the lowest tranches because they’re held by the structurer. We see a scene in the … Read more

Kohl’s charge dispute nightmare

by thiswastillavailable So someone got into our Kohl’s shopping account and ordered $1000+ worth of stuff and had it shipped to our house. It was an odd thing, why would they do that? I called and disputed the charges as I didn’t really want the goods and they opened a case and said more information … Read more

HousingBubble 2.0

This is what happens when mortgage rates gap up 75 bps in a yr and when house price appreciation more than doubles earnings growth – affordability declines to its worst level for potential homebuyers in a decade. One reason why the homebuilding stocks are down 20% from the highs. pic.twitter.com/5tyHiW9mi7 — David Rosenberg (@EconguyRosie) August … Read more