My,My,My

Here's a story some of those Trump critics should read. It seems Trump and many of his supporters are not the only ones concerned about foreigners immigrating across borders.

Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is concerned about an influx of immigrants into the country from African and Asian countries, according to a report Thursday in El Universal.

“Many of them will have to return to their home countries,” Socorro Flores, undersecretary of Latin America and the Caribbean for the Mexican Foreign Ministry, said to El Universal.

The Mexican government is now trying to deal with this influx of immigrants by setting up shelters and working with the countries of origin of the immigrants on deportations.

Flores said regarding this immigration that, “yes there is a concern because the flows have increased and there is also a concern because they need to cross many countries to get to their intended destinations.”

Read more: dailycaller.com/2016/09/30/mexico-is-worried-about-an-influx-of-african-and-asian-immigrants

Gold Anyone?

Either it's a big hoax or a really big truth. Either way, the bunker saga won't go away. Bowling alleys and even swimming pools festooning bunkers of the rich. So what's the big deal about those rich folks storing some gold there. With the exception that maybe it's telling you something about those elites not much.

But if you don't have a bunker you could get left holding MSM bag.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-30/swiss-vaults

For decades, Switzerland had a reputation for bank secrecy that made it the most sought after tax haven for billionaires from around the globe.  But, after more than 80 years of secrecy, a series of bilateral agreements with countries around the world, including America’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), have forced the private-banking industry in Switzerland to embrace an entirely new era of transparency that requires a full exchange of tax-relevant information with more than a hundred countries.

Which, as Bloomberg points out, has been a huge boon for Swiss operators of private vaults which are not subject to the same transparency and reporting requirements as banks.  In fact, these super-secret, privately operated storage facilities buried around the Swiss Alps can basically store anything from anybody because they're not even required to report suspicious activity to Switzerland's Money Laundering Reporting Office. 

“There is growth in gold,” Wipfli says. “Since 2008 there has been a real interest in alternatives to bank deposits.” The company explicitly taps into that demand. Swiss Data Safe “is independent from the banking system and any other organization or interest group,” according to a PowerPoint presentation Wipfli shows clients. The company and its anonymous rival aren’t regulated by the Swiss financial-services regulator Finma.

Nor do such companies have to report suspicious activity to Switzerland’s Money Laundering Reporting Office. In the past, submissions to the agency have led the Swiss attorney general to open investigations into corruption at FIFA, the global soccer body, and banking ties to Brazil’s Petrobras bribery scandal.

Moreover, American citizens aren’t required under FATCA to declare gold stored outside of financial institutions either.  So perhaps it's no surprise that, according to the Swiss defense department, of the roughly 1,000 former military bunkers still in existence across Switzerland, several hundred of them have been sold to private individuals who are now operating them as private storage sites for the gold stash of the world's wealthiest of billionaires.

“The gold trade is a huge part of the Swiss economy,” says John Cassara, a former U.S. Treasury special agent and the author of books on money laundering.

“I’m not surprised that there are not more effective efforts in Switzerland to better monitor its misuse. The powers that be don’t want to crack down.” In the first half of this year, 1,357 metric tons of gold—worth about $40 billion—were imported into Switzerland, according to the Swiss customs office, putting the year on course to be the biggest since a record in 2013.

Pathetically Weak Denial

The National Parkinson Foundation has received several questions about whether Hillary Clinton has Parkinson's disease (PD).

The allegations that Hillary Clinton suffers from Parkinson's disease have been reviewed by NPF's National Medical Director, Michael S. Okun, MD, and by others from NPF's Centers of Excellence network and been unanimously dismissed by every Parkinson's expert who has weighed in.

"I have reviewed the video footage and some of the recent claims that Hillary Clinton is suffering from Parkinson's disease. Video analysis and a review of available information does not in any way support a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease," stated Dr. Okun. "This recent flurry of misinformation on social media provides a great opportunity for the public to be educated on the many features of Parkinson's disease."

"These rumors demonstrate the lack of awareness of Parkinson's even among many physicians," said Peter Schmidt, PhD, the foundation's Senior Vice President of Research Programs and Chief Mission Officer. "While Secretary Clinton does not show signs of Parkinson's in the opinions of senior neurologists, even if she did, a diagnosis of Parkinson's should not be seen as a disqualifying condition for high office — and, in fact, in recent times it has not been. We have many people with Parkinson's who have succeeded in very challenging jobs, including Senators, Congressmen, an Attorney General of the United States, and an astronaut who performed admirably in challenging jobs while living with Parkinson's.  People with Parkinson's make amazing contributions in our society every day."

The National Parkinson Foundation offers a toll-free Helpline staffed by nurses and social workers who are experts in Parkinson's and available to answer questions relating to the disease. The Helpline can be reached at 1-800-4PD-INFO (473-4636) orhelpline@parkinson.org.

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You will note here that the good Doctor Okun states he has reviewed the video footage and some of the recent claims, video analysis and a review of available information does not support a PD diagnosis. You will also note he does not say he examined the patient. He points out his organization has received several questions about this issue. Really! We have another question for you, sir,  how much pressure did you receive to put this bulletin out?

This is an interesting denial for many reasons. He says he looked at the tapes and some of the recent claims and they do not indicate Hillary Clinton has Parkinson's disease. Interesting, he doesn't go further and rule out Parkinson's-like diseases that mimic PD. Yet he casually drops in the part about other PD experts without naming them or giving an exact number, a detail he will no doubt probably not overlook in the future.

Then you have this arrogant comment by Peter Schmidt, PhD, the foundation's Senior Vice President of  Research and Chief Mission Officer. We can only speak for us and we're really impressed by your title. With all due respect to you and your big title, you make a statement in your summary you are not qualified to make. That is, even if she has PD it should not be seen as a disqualifying one for high office. One is aware of your research endeavors. And your huge study on PD and your smart phone work, but until one can see a valid medical practitioner's license you remain unqualified to make that statement.

We challenge the good PhD Peter Schmidt to come forth and lecture all the honest, hard-working medically competent practitioners across America who are so woefully lacking any awareness of PD patients and the course of what is a very nasty disease. We further challenge Dr. Schmidt to tell us how many PD patients he's personally treated in and out of clinic. Not researched, but treated. 

The second part of his statement is even more obvious. It's one of those letters that are popular in the medical profession, damning with faint praise. In this case, the reverse. Here you get even if she does have PD it's not debilitating. He then rolls off the obligatory examples, concluding with an often used PC tactic:: "People with Parkinson's make amazing contributions in our society every day."

The question, sir, is a pure one, the kind people like you never enjoy. Let me give an example, one you can even understand. It's a pure question that requires a pure answer. Do you want to have a Myocardial Infarction this week? Does she have PD? That's the question, sir, not what people who unfortunately have been stricken with this terrible disease have contributed to society. Many of us know that. In fact, many of the examples you gave made most of those contributions before their disease progressed and there at present is little way to objectively determine how fast PD will progress since each case is individual. So, kind sir, there's a certain disingenuousness here. We also know that a good percentage suffer from dementia, even delusions, that have to be treated with powerful anti-psychotics.

You conveniently leave out that there is no accurate time table to tell when in the course of the disease those delusions begin and when they end. In fact, earlier this year, as we are sure you are aware, the FDA approved a new PD  medicine that apparently doesn't impact dopamine levels but is able to bypass some of the harsh side effects of the anti-psychotics. 

In fact, from what we read the San Diego-based company that manufactures the drug sees the eventual market for it as a billion dollar one, a fact that you as a former investment banker can readily understand. Meanwhile, the invitation to offer lectures to all of America's decent, dedicated practitioners who are so rumor prone and lack awareness of PD is an open one.

There are some things the public needs to know. Whatever happened to Hillary that weekend, it had nothing to do with either pneumonia or dehydration. And finally, all those so-called rumors and claims about her having PD obviously cut deep to the bone for them to cough up such a pathetically weak denial as this.

Spacey Central Bankers

Two central banks tried it before you with less than good results. But you no doubt believe you and your cohorts can do it better. You didn't learn anything from their mishaps apparently.

This is why Fed Chair Janet Yellen hasn't got a clue. This is why she has to go. It 's no longer just laughable. It's now nearly pitiful how misguided the Eccles Building crew is. They have managed to give even the Peter Principle a bad name. It's one thing to rise to your level of incompetence. It's another all together to take it into outer space. Spacey central bankers can kill more than an economy.
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.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-29/despite-japanese-failure-janet-yellen-suggests-buying-stocks-help-increase-spending

Having hinted overnight that The Fed could buy stocks "maybe in the future," Janet Yellen blurted out confirmation that buying assets other than long-term U.S. debt is on the table. Despite the total and utter failure of SNB and BOJ direct equity buying to create increased consumption, Yellen explained "it could be useful to be able to intervene directly in assets where the prices have a more direct link to spending decisions."

Speaking via videoconference in response to questions raised at forum of Kansas City Fed minority bankers, Fed Chair Janet Yellen says there could be benefits to Fed buying equities or corporate bonds, yet would also likely be costs that have to be considered.

The idea of expanding into areas like equities might be “good thing to think about,” yet is not “something we need now,” Yellen said, noting that (for now) The Fed is more restricted in which assets it can purchase than other central banks.

"If we found, I think as other countries did, that they could reach the limits in terms of purchasing safe assets like longer-term government bonds, it could be useful to be able to intervene directly in assets where the prices have a more direct link to spending decisions."

And as Reuters notes, the Fed could get benefits from buying assets other than long-term U.S. debt if in a future downturn it could not buy any more government bonds, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday.

So let's see how those "other countries" equity buying schemes have done.

Japanese Equity ETF purchases have utterfly failed to spark a rebound in Japanese Household Spending...

Let alone even maintain Japanese stocks!!

Overnight

Thursday was a down day for Wall Street with the Dow off nearly 200 points. Asian shares for the most part played follow the leader Friday in early trade with the Nikkei down 1.5% on poor data about consumers. Though the index is off 1.7% for the month, it's set to finish the quarter nearly 6% higher. Some Bank of Japan board members doubted whether the central bank's overhaul of its massive stimulus programme, announced last week would enhance flexibility of monetary policy, a summary of opinions at the central bank's September rate review showed on Friday.

The Nikkei was at 16447.78., minus 245.93 points, the Hang Seng faded too, 1.25%, lower by nearly 298 points and the ASX 200 retreated 0.86% while the Shamghai Composite index was up slightly, o.19%. Part of the Asian downturn stemmed from before the market opened, Japanese officials released the core consumer index. It fell 0.5 percent on-year, slightly more than the 0.4 percent forecast by a Reuters poll of economists.  The mess called Deutsche Bank didn't either as concerns about the bank's stability had earlier rattled U.S. Markets.

In the currency markets, the yen traded at 101.00 against the dollar, up from its previous level of 101.50 a day earlier. Exports again were bothered by the stronger yen, sinking lower with Toyota off 2.53%, Nissan down 2.36% and Sony dropping 1.48%. The Australian dollar also weakened to 0.76 level. Gold suffered weakness owing to fallout from the Deutsch Bank news spilling over into the currencies market and pushing up the dollar against the euro. Gold, however, moved up a bit in Friday trading at $1323.20 an ounce. Perhaps the surprise of the day was in the oil market with WTI
Up 2.00% at $48 a barrel. The WSJ reported that Saudi agreed to the cut, possible 500,000 barrels a day, after facing the economic percussions of steady low oil prices.

Our View

 
Washington BS has been around a long, long time. It used to be, however, they sprayed it a bit with fertilizer along the way. Now it's just blatant, in-your-face arrogance. FBI Director James Comey's case is one in point.

Pressure on him to keep his job and help Hillary get a new one was obviously enormous. This doesn't means he's owed any sympathy. Just the opposite. He's another example of a public figure who takes an oath, verbal, written or unspoken, to uphold without bias the law. He apparently failed miserably beyond any shadow of doubt. We've suggested that he should be charged with dereliction of duty and perhaps even brought to trial. Short of that, perhaps his pension obviously coming from taxpayer pockets--the very people he's likely failed--should be reduced or completely revoked if cause can be established.

One thing the people of this nation can no longer tolerate is slamming those big steel doors behind blue collar wrong doers while sending white collar miscreants off to the local spa. We're not just talking Wall Street here. Yes, zero tolerance is the birth child of the leftists, a term they revere. Now it's time to make that a two-way thoroughfare.

An Opinion WSJ piece, "The Legend of Saint Comey," is too kind by three-quaters. Mr. Comey--as noted in the piece, and why not he's in Washington--suffers from the politician's disease, flip-flopping. Many of Comey's responses were insulting to the rest of us, left, right or way out there, who are expected to tow the mark. If they were a door with hinges they could pass for an escape hatch on a submarine.

Mr. Comey appears to have granted immunity to everyone except those without a pulse. To all these shenanigans the best ire those astute Journal editorial snobs could muster was: "Far be it from us to call Mr. Comey a weasel, but his highly unusual methods in investigating Mrs. Clinton have tarnished the FBI and certainly knocked off the halo."

Wouldn't you love to have these editorial wusses on your side in a knife fight.

That's our view. We hope you know yours.

Rigged System

No doubt MSM wants to control information, all information. They predictably go on the attack with those who dare disagree with their agenda. We can spare you all the by now trite, inane epithets they roll out to neutralize and vilify.

The Father of the Patriot Act was Joe Biden. Now we all know Joe as a guy who never saw a boast he didn't want to claim. But one has to forgive Joe. He's got a bad case of Al Gore disease, poor fellow. So what's the connection? Americans made a trade off with the devil. Recall at the time the Patriot Act went through the Hollywood loudmouths all went off on Bush for infringing on personal privacy and liberty. This is one of the few things these self righteous asses ever got right. They blamed Bush, as they should've. But big Joe Biden by his own big mouth ran interference for that bill. And as we all know, Joe Biden is big. Just ask him.

Now we have the current lame duck wreaking his last in-your-face havoc before he rides off to his DC tony digs. No envy here. Just par for the DC course. See John Boehner, the Clinton Foundation and a host of other so-called public servants, including one who is currently running for a highbrow titular position, take away the on-going illegal expansion of executive powers since FDR. One of this person's last acts will be out sourcing your Internet.

A story afloat today is the Dem-laded FEC is preparing documents to band other news sources like Fox. We are no defender of Fox other than their right to exist absent centralized government intervention. The same way the leftist organizations like CNN, PBS, MSNBC and others do.

MSM wants you to believe the alternative news columns are written by half-ass freaks and bigots, mostly Caucasian. You can believe that if you want. But we recall seeing a male Caucasian Hillary campaign worker and close insider saying he hated white folks. This came right after some of those email DNC leaks appeared, pointing out this gentleman, we use that term advisedly, was a half-assed, freak bigot. So apparently the old rule holds: Takes ones to know one. And we hope he sees this. As we said before the gauntlet is down. Irrespective of who wins this election, Wall Street's favorite, Hillary, or the editorial board at the Wall Street Journal's most disturbing, Donald, it will solve little to nothing.

Both of these represent the status quo crowd. Without changing the fundamentals it's all just a meretricious face lift. And a cheap one, if there is such a thing, at that. In the meantime, guard your liberty because it slipping away faster than you can shout rigged system. And don't let MSM bully you. They will if they can.
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Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” But for President Obama, those two ideas aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.
In his final speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Obama took the opposite approach to Franklin’s suggestion when he essentially called for a submission to world government. In his mind, giving up small freedoms to achieve international security is well worth the sacrifice.
The president said the world must focus on the promises the U.N. was founded on, and that is to “replace the ravages of war with cooperation” but the only way to realize that is for “nations like my own [to] accept constraints.” In that submission, Obama furthers, America is trading a bit of its freedoms for enhanced security. He said in full:

"We have to put our money where our mouths are. And we can only realize the promise of this institution’s founding to replace the ravages of war with cooperation if powerful nations like my own accept constraints. Sometimes I’m criticized in my own country for professing a belief in international norms and multilateral institutions, but I am convinced that in the long run giving up some freedom of action, not giving up our ability to protect ourselves or pursue our core interests but binding ourselves to international rules, over the long-term, enhances our security."

For anyone counting, Obama has 121 days, 7 hours, 3 minutes, and 42 seconds left in office. There's plenty of time to deal more damage to the foundations of our exceptional country, and he will do all he can to see it through.

marketslant.com/articles/video-who-said-giving-some-freedomenhances-our-security-last-week

How Much More

It's now getting to the point where there isn't anything too unkind to say about those stumbling, bumbling bureaucrats, economists all, at the Federal Reserve who have screwed up not just the economy but millions of innocent, decent folks' lives.

Based on their damage and pathetic performance it might be time for the proletarians to insist on changing the laws of this nation so that government stiffs can be, like nearly ever worker in this country, professional of not, held legally liable for negligence or failure of doing their fiduciary duties. People understand financial pain. Just ask the hoards who have suffered at the hands of these mostly academic-based incompetents.

Here's one more silly idea from the dot-plot crowd at the Eccles Building. This little ditty will instill even more confidence in you to trust these folks. It's also  more fodder for putting this phony central quasi-government creation run by big Wall Street elitists out of its misery and the much more evident misery of the American public. How much more are the decent people of America will to take?
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The end game of central bank lunacy is surely near. Even the Fed heads appear to be mumbling bits and pieces of truth in public.
Former Philly Fed President Charles Plosser, for example, told Bloomberg TV this morning that central bankers “wring their hands all the time,” are very “concerned about credibility,” and are “pretty good at conjuring up reasons not to act.”
Having screwed up his mutinous courage, he then let loose with words that haven’t been heard from a central banker in decades, if ever:

The Fed “shouldn’t be afraid a recession might come,” he exclaimed, “there’s a real problem here”.

Then again, Plosser recently retired and perhaps it wasn’t all that voluntary. By contrast, Stanley Fischer is in line to takeover the joint, and perhaps soon.
That’s because Janet Yellen is surely finished whether the Donald wins or loses. Her dithering and double-talk have become a laughingstock even in the Wall Street casino.
So you might have thought the good professor from MIT—-by way of the IMF and Bank Of Israel—– would be carefully parsing his words. Instead, he was apparently moved during a speech to economics students to confess that he is more or less flummoxed by his own policies:
WASHINGTON—Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer on Tuesday expressed frustration with ultralow interest rates, saying they should rise over time.
“It bothers me, it really bothers me,” he said when asked about low rates at an event for economics students at Howard University in Washington…….I don’t like it, but I don’t want to raise the interest rate too much. I think we should at some point. I don’t know when,” he said. “The interest rate I believe is not at zero at a normal level and it should be [normal] at some point, not immediately.”
“I think there’s also a problem in going to a zero interest rate in the sense that it says that capital isn’t very productive, there’s not much going on in the economy,” Mr. Fischer said, adding that “we would be better off if there was a price for using money.”
More:
davidstockmanscontracorner.com/stanley-fischers-novel-idea-wed-be-better-off-with-a-price-for-using-money 
 

Financial Dyspepsia

We have never had many nice things to say about Goldman Sachs. And not without cause. Terms like smarmy, shady, disingenuous, greedy come to mind. Even if one overlooks their suspicious long term connections to the Federal Reserve, Goldman is one of the main Wall Street titans of financial and political BS. This is a credibility issue and hardly a new one.

Their connection to Hillary is so thick one would need a chain saw to cut it. Even more suspect is their credibility when it comes to research. Here's why and it's only one of many GS financial burps. This is a firm with a definite case of financial dyspepsia. Trust them at your own peril.

Goldman has done it again. Two days after the central banker-incubator cut its year end price target from $50 to $43, admitting the previously anticipated rebalancing will take longer to achieve, and now expects "a global surplus of 400 kb/d in 4Q16 vs. a 300 kb/d draw previously", and followed the next day by a report in which it said that not even an OPEC deal would stop oil going lower, overnight the very same analyst, just 24 hours after saying the opposite, Goldman's Damien Courvalin said that the OPEC agreement will "likely provide support to prices, at least in the short term" and added that the announced production quota should boost the price of oil by $7/bbl - $10/bbl. Again: this is two days after cutting the 2016 price target by $7, and one day after saying an OPEC deal would have no impact.

Still, trying to avoid looking like a total flip-flopper, Courvalin adds that "at the historical average 4.8% production beat relative to quotas, this target would be 33.7 mb/d, above current production levels. It has historically taken a fall in oil demand to ensure quota compliance, as in that case, production is forced lower by a decline in refinery intake around the world. This is not the case today with resilient demand growth" and said that "we maintain our year-end $43/bbl and 2017 $53/bbl WTI price forecasts given: (1) uncertainty on this proposal until it is ratified, (2) likely quota beats if ratified, (3) potential for production above our cautious forecasts in areas of disruptions (as was the case today in Libya and KRG), and (4) our conservative supply forecasts outside of OPEC for next year."

Then again, the only thing that will be stuck in algos' random access memory is that Goldman now expects oil to rebound by up to $10/bbl, which may explain why oil is now rolling over.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-29/goldman-says-opec-deal-may-add-10-price-oil-two-days-after-cutting-oil-price-target