Tax payments for big businesses are declining much faster than was initially anticipated due to Republican tax cuts, according to Politico. As we profiled earlier this year, this could provide significant ammunition for Democrats who are calling for corporate tax increases as a staple of many 2020 platforms. The US Treasury says that they saw […]

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The American Institute for Economic Research, Facebook changed the way we communicate, interact, and gather information. You don’t have to love all the results. But the reality of the shift in our lives is undeniable. Will Facebook’s new initiative to create a cryptocurrency do the same for money and payment […]

Amid fears that the US is running headlong into yet another sure to be disastrous war in the Middle East, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters Friday that the Pentagon is prepping “contingency plans” should things quickly escalate militarily. “When you look at the situation… 15 percent of the world’s oil flows through the Strait […]

Authored by EconomicPrism’s MN Gordon, annotated by Acting-Man’s Pater Tenebrarum, A Loose Relationship The Dow Jones Industrial Average made another concerted run at the elusive 27,000 milestone over the last several weeks.  But, as of this writing, the index has stalled out short of this psychosomatic barrier.  By our estimation, this is for the best. Since early […]

A Tesla driver appeared to be “fully sleeping for at least 30 miles” while barreling down a Southern California freeway, according to NBC. A passenger alongside of the vehicle, Shawn Miladinovich, began taking video when he noticed that the driver was passed out, and that he had something “tied to the steering wheel” that the report assumes […]

And maybe other folks, up for the Fed? Well, Judy Shelton says gold might be the way to go… That’s from an interview Erik Brynjolffson, Tod Loofbourrow and I conducted back in 1982 for the Harvard International Review. So, if Obama’s November 2008 election could’ve caused the Great Recession that started in December 2007 (and […]

Via CaseyResearch.com, Doug Casey says we’re well into what he calls the Greater Depression. America is headed for trouble… and it’s critical to know exactly what’s going on. That’s why today’s essay is so important. In it, Doug explains the source behind every negative thing that’s happening right now… and what’s really going on behind the […]

In what appears to be a “stunning” and “unprecedented” victory for the leaders of Hong Kong’s massive protest movement (and a similarly unexpected capitulation from the city’s leaders), City Executive Carrie Lam announced on Saturday that her government would suspend the hated extradition bill “indefinitely,” leaving it unclear whether the legislation would ever be brought […]

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com, For this weekend’s roll-up of bizarre and disturbing stories from around the world, we found ourselves zeroing-in on some ridiculous data privacy violations. Soccer app spies on fans The Spanish soccer (sigh, OK– football) league, known by fans around the world simply as La Liga, knew that most pubs across […]

This week, we speak with Jonathan Stein, founder and CEO of Betterment, an online automated firm with $16.4 billion dollars under management. At Harvard, he studied under Martin Feldstein, chief economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan. There he noticed the distinction be academic theory of economics and how different investor behavior was in the real […]

Now, in a strange turn more than three decades after the meltdown, the exclusion area around Chernobyl is gaining a following as a tourism destination, apparently propelled by the popularity of a TV mini-series about the blast that was broadcast in the United States and Britain last month. The mini-series, HBO’s “Chernobyl,” fictionalizes the events […]

The Army expects to procure its Multi-Mission High Energy Laser (MMHEL) by 2022 and a hypersonic weapon prototype by 2023, said Lt. Gen L. Neil Thurgood, director of hypersonics, directed energy, space, and rapid acquisition, reported Army News Service. The MMHEL is a 50-kilowatt laser through a precision pointing, high-velocity target tracking beam control system. […]

Authored by Simon Watkins via OilPrice.com, Underlying the one-year anniversary in mid-August of the signing of the ‘Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea’ is one of the greatest oil industry swindles in recent years. When representatives of the five Caspian littoral states meet on the 11th and 12th of August, Iran intends to […]

by Calculated Risk on 6/15/2019 08:11:00 AM

Trump says his UK visit was the most fun Queen had in 25 years NY Post. Indeed. Darwin’s Finches Are In Danger Because a Parasite Is Changing Their Mating Song Vice (see the website of the Galapagos Conservation Trust for background and context: DARWIN’S FINCHES) A deadly deer disease is spreading. Could it strike people, […]

Jerri-Lynn here. This Real News Network interview with Rob Wallace of the Agroecology and Rural Economics Research Corps discusses what’s caused the current outbreak of African swine flu – the largest animal epidemic in history –  which is currently rampaging throughout China and other parts of Asia. Pork prices have shot up 40% globally. This […]

By Gareth Dale, who teaches at Brunel University. He publishes occasionally in The Ecologist. This article includes passages from previously published texts, including ‘The tide is rising, don’t rock the boat!’ Economic growth and the legitimation of inequality (2018), Seventeenth century origins of the growth paradigm (2017), and The growth paradigm: A critique (2012). Originally […]

Worse than you think, I enjoyed the discussion of dictionaries most of all: One of the most unreasonably difficult things about learning Chinese is that merely learning how to look up a word in the dictionary is about the equivalent of an entire semester of secretarial school. When I was in Taiwan, I heard that […]

Authored by Danny Sjrusen via The American Conservative, The brass are careerists, never punished for their mistakes, quietly assenting to the latest doomed interventions. Poll after poll indicates that the only public institution Americans still trust is the military. Not Congress, not the presidency, not the Supreme Court, the church, or the media. Just the American war machine. But […]

Acting division chief of operations with the Fremont (California) Fire Department, Jeff Kleven, told VOA News that every firetruck would carry a drone. The department already operates 14 drones, uses the aerial vehicles to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance of an incident scene. The fire department is supplied with drones from Shenzhen-based SZ DJI Technology Co. […]

Authored by Ray McGovern via ConsortiumNews.com, With Justice Department investigators’ noses to the ground, it should be just a matter of time before they identify Brennan as fabricator-in-chief of the Russiagate story… The New York Times Thursday morning has bad news for one of its favorite anonymous sources, former CIA Director John Brennan. The Times reports that the Justice […]

To provide storage space for the huge coils of wire, three great tanks were carved into the heart of the ship.  The drums, sheaves, and dynamometers of the laying mechanism, occupied a large part of the stem decking, and one funnel with its associated boilers had been removed to give additional storage space.  When the […]

Calgary-based Walton Group had delivered 12% annual returns in the past, so when the company made its pitch to retail investors, planning to build suburbs on speculative land in the U.S., it likely looked like a good bet. The group was selling the idea of investing $10,000 or more in rural properties outside of fast […]

Authored by Joaquin Flores via The Strategic Culture Foundation, The wildest single phenomenon as we come close to a clearer picture of the Democratic Party’s election strategy for 2020, is that there really isn’t a single candidate that the party has been able to coalesce around. And without this, it would appear difficult to see […]

Uber on Wednesday announced that it will begin using drones for its Uber Eats service, and had gained regulatory approval to begin testing the service in San Diego, California.  Uber announced it will begin testing drones for food delivery for its Uber Eats service, and over time will land the aircraft on its cars for […]

Authored by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog, Well, that was timely. The US Treasury just posted a record $207 billion deficit for May and record monthly spending of $440 billion. That brought the rolling 12 month deficit to just shy of the trillion dollar mark at $986 billion. The timely part is two-fold. First, […]

Approximately 5,200 adult migrants in US custody for illegally entering the country have been quarantined by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being exposed to mumps or chicken pox, according to the agency.  An ICE official told CNN on Friday that of the quarantined individuals, approximately 80% (4,200) were exposed to mumps, 800 were exposed to chicken pox, […]

Submitted by Nick Cunningham of OilPrice.com A top U.S. financial regulator is worried that climate change could threaten global financial markets. Rostin Behnam, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said that the financial system was at risk from the growing frequency and severity of storms. “The impacts of climate change affect every […]

by Calculated Risk on 6/14/2019 08:51:00 PM

After a decade of misery and a string of taxi driver suicides, New York City is finally taking action to assist cab drivers who have seen their net worth and livelihoods decimated by ridesharing services. On Wednesday, Corey Johnson, the speaker of the City Council, unveiled a package of bills preventing the medallion crisis from happening […]

by Calculated Risk on 6/14/2019 06:52:00 PM

Succinct Summations for the week ending June 14th, 2019 Positives: 1. MBA mortgage apps rose 10.0% w/o/w, greater than previous decrease of 2.0%.2. MBA mortgage refinance apps rose 47.0% w/o/w, greater than previous 6.0% increase.3. Job openings came in at 7.449M for April, higher than the expected 7.400M.4. Industrial production rose 0.4% m/o/m, greater than […]

“When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’” —Matt 9:11 By Lambert Strether of Corrente Those who have followed Chris Arnade on Twitter or Flickr will be gratified that his new book, Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America has arrived. I bought it […]

Enlarge this image A view of New York City from above. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Drew Angerer/Getty Images Remember those stories about someone leaving their small town, moving to the big city, starting in the mailroom at a company and working their way up? Well, upward mobility ain’t what it used to […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, this is a bit short because I was finishing up my status report on Grenfell Tower, and my sorta not review of Chris Arnade’s Dignity. I’ll see what I can do to fill this out later. –lambert UPDATE Sadly, I cannot. I must push along to other matters, […]

Earlier today we demonstrated that while both rate and commodity vol is spiking, in the case of bonds even surpassing the December 2018 peak, equities remain suspended in a cloud of bizarre calm, with the VIX simply refusing to move higher. That will, however, change with a vengeance next week, when two of the year’s […]

CoinTelegraph’s Marie Huillet reports that Facebook has allegedly sealed backing from over a dozen firms that include Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Uber for its soon-to-be-unveiled cryptocurrency project. The news was reported by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on June 13. image courtesy of CoinTelegraph Source ostensibly familiar with the matter told the WSJ that the firms — extending across the finance, e-commerce, venture capital […]

A few days ago, when President Trump was “triggering” the media with his comments about accepting foreign oppo research, the Hill highlighted this national poll from Quinnipiac showing Biden would win in a head-to-head matchup against the president by the “landslide” margin of 53% to 40%. Unsurprisingly, Twitter immediately pointed out that this was exactly […]

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, We continue to get more indications that U.S. economic conditions are going to deteriorate rapidly during the second half of this year.  Yesterday, I reported on a brand new survey which found that 69 percent of U.S. CFOs believe that a recession is coming “by the end of 2020”, […]

It’s shaping up to be Albert Edwards‘ year, if not decade and century. Three years after the stock of global debt with negative yields hit an all time high just above $12 trillion, the NIRP trap is back, and the amount of sovereign debt sporting a negative yield is just shy of all time highs, […]

Update: After holding a ‘super secret’ drawing that was closed to the press (even its own reporters weren’t allowed in the room, or so they say), NBC News has released the lineups for its first round of primary debates, set for later this month. The draw to determine who will debate whom on what night […]

Retailers looking to offset added costs stemming from the U.S.-China trade war by hiking prices should rethink their strategies, retail consultant and former department store executive Jan Kniffen said Friday. “It won’t get passed through, because the consumer won’t accept it,” the J. Rogers Kniffen Worldwide Enterprises CEO told CNBC’s “Squawk Box, ” saying consumers […]

An internal Facebook document reveals that the social media giant monitors its users’ offline behavior as part of how the company determines whether a person should be classified as a “Hate Agent,” according to Breitbart‘s Allum Bokhari who has reviewed the document.  Titled “Hate Agent Policy Review,” the document reveals that Facebook employs a series of “signals” which include a person’s […]

Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org, “History is repeating itself, and with a vengeance,” John Dean told the judiciary committee, drawing a parallel between Watergate, which brought down Richard Nixon, and “Russiagate” which has bedeviled Donald Trump. But what strikes this veteran of Nixon’s White House is not the similarities but the stark differences. Watergate […]

One week ago, Jeff Gundlach urged his twitter followers to take profit on his “top trade of 2019” he had put on just one month earlier at the Ira Sohn conference, buying rate vol, when the trade (in the form of a put-call straddle on TLT) had returned 22%. In retrospect, Gundlach may have just […]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente Today, June 14, is the second anniversary of the GrenFell Tower fire in London, a public housing block where 72 people died in a conflagration where the proximate cause was inflammable cladding installed on the outside of the building during a remodelling, and the ultimate cause was Thatcherite deregulation and […]

Today we are fortunate to present a guest contribution written by Yin-Wong Cheung (City University of Hong Kong), Sven Steinkamp (Universität Osnabrück) and Frank Westermann (Universität Osnabrück). This contribution is based on a paper forthcoming in the Open Economies Review. In recent years, large and sustained current account imbalances have been a focus of research in international economics. While there […]

Perhaps President Trump wanted to distract from Joe Biden, who has just ramped up his campaign, or maybe Trump wanted to distract us from the possibility that we might soon be at war with Iran. But in a blitz of interviews with ABC and Fox, the president offered his latest update on the possibility of […]

Lawmakers need to strike a balance between calls for breaking up Big Tech and focusing more on data privacy regulation, former Federal Trade Commission Chairman William Kovacic told CNBC on Friday. “There’s a synthesis of these two positions,” Kovacic said in a “Squawk Box ” interview. He led the FTC during George W. Bush’s presidency from 2008-2009. […]

by Calculated Risk on 6/14/2019 09:29:00 AM