Bloomberg: No Decency

In MSM the bloom just never comes off the berg. It 's a steady drumbeat of misinformation, distortion and phony good tidings. That's something people need to take a closer look at. Who but the media would continue to publish in many cases what is just bold-faced misinformation?

The recent new housing start numbers missed the hoped for mark and Bloomberg chose to color the numbers cheerful. We understand your chosen candidate is up to her pneumonia vaccine in a tight election race. We understand who you want to win. But one would think you had a modicum of journalistic decency and respect for the truth somewhere in your claim of being professional.

You have no pride, no shame. Decent journalists would print the truth, not spin it, no matter what it looked and smelled like. You're not worthy of any respect. It's a mystery how you look your children, if you have any, in the face every day and give council about their future.

New home starts dipped 5.4%, led by single family starts down 6.0%.
Total starts came in at 1.142 million (SAAR), well under the consensus estimate of 1.190 million, and beneath the entire Econoday Range of 1.170 million to 1.220 million.
Nonetheless the Econoday robot said the “details are not as weak as the headlines”. Let’s investigate the claim.

Bloomberg spin.

The details are not as weak as the headlines as the new home market remains one of the positives for the economy. Housing starts and permits did fall in August, down a sharp 5.4 percent for starts to a lower-than-expected 1.142 million annualized rate and down 0.4 percent for permits to 1.139 million which is also lower than expected. But permit growth for single-family homes, which is a key indication on housing demand, rose a very solid 3.7 percent to a 737,000 rate which is about where permits were trending earlier in the year.

 mishtalk.com/2016/09/20/housing-starts-down-5-4-percent-bloomberg-says-not-as-weak-as-it-looks

 This chart below is further evidence that Bloomberg is one of MSM's leading spinmeisters.
 
 

Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO at Gallup
The Invisible American
I've been reading a lot about a "recovering" economy. It was even trumpeted on Page 1 of The New York Times and Financial Times last week.
I don't think it's true.

The percentage of Americans who say they are in the middle or upper-middle class has fallen 10 percentage points, from a 61% average between 2000 and 2008 to 51% today.

Ten percent of 250 million adults in the U.S. is 25 million people whose economic lives have crashed.
What the media is missing is that these 25 million people are invisible in the widely reported 4.9% official U.S. unemployment rate.
Let's say someone has a good middle-class job that pays $65,000 a year. That job goes away in a changing, disrupted world, and his new full-time job pays $14 per hour -- or about $28,000 per year. That devastated American remains counted as "full-time employed" because he still has full-time work -- although with drastically reduced pay and benefits. He has fallen out of the middle class and is invisible in current reporting.
More disastrous is the emotional toll on the person -- the sudden loss of household income can cause a crash of self-esteem and dignity, leading to an environment of desperation that we haven't seen since the Great Depression.
Millions of Americans, even if they themselves are gainfully employed in good jobs, are just one degree away from someone who is experiencing either unemployment, underemployment or falling wages. We know them all.
There are three serious metrics that need to be turned around or we'll lose the whole middle class.

1. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of the total U.S. adult population that has a full-time job has been hovering around 48% since 2010 -- this is the lowest full-time employment level since 1983.
2. The number of publicly listed companies trading on U.S. exchanges has been cut almost in half in the past 20 years -- from about 7,300 to 3,700. Because firms can't grow organically -- that is, build more business from new and existing customers -- they give up and pay high prices to acquire their competitors, thus drastically shrinking the number of U.S. public companies. This seriously contributes to the massive loss of U.S. middle-class jobs.
3. New business startups are at historical lows. Americans have stopped starting businesses. And the businesses that do start are growing at historically slow rates.

Free enterprise is in free fall -- but it is fixable. Small business can save America and restore the middle class.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-20/we-havent-seen-great-depression-gallup-ceo-destroys-recovery-lie 

Google Spreads It Tentacles

 
We've been warning for a longtime now Google is a huge octopus with more tentacles than the one in Washington. It continues to encroach on your privacy.

Google spread its tentacles further into the world of travel this week with the launch of Google Trips, a new smartphone app described by the internet giant as a “personalised tour guide in your pocket”.

Google, which is also working on a project to prevent ageing, claims Trips will not only help users manage their travel arrangements – from hotel bookings to flights – but also chaperone them around popular tourist attractions. Tour guides will no doubt be worried.  

The app works offline – travellers can download everything to their phone before setting off – though it does require users to log in with a Google account, from which the app extracts relevant information about your trip from Google Mail, such as hotel confirmations and e-tickets.  

Assuming it does work, Google Trips might seem like a handy travel companion. However, there are some issues travellers may want to consider before using it, chiefly privacy. In its policy, Google makes no bones about it: one of the reasons it mines information from you is to better target you with adverts. The more you give it, the better it gets at selling to you

It might not bother you at first, but data in the wrong hands--and as we have discovered with credit cards, that can happen, see Home Depot, Target, Citi and other large firms--but what and where is all that data used for and going? Your local friendly neighborhood terrorist?  There is another issue here, however, just the sheer power of Google.

There also a political issue. Despite statements to the contrary, there no such thing as impartial in today's charged world. And Google, whatever your feelings are, has not been squeaky clean or nonpartisan. There is also Google's role in censorship, a fact not a supposition.

Doing business with firm that might be behind the scenes trying to do in your very core beliefs is an interesting dilemma.

telegraph.co.uk/travel/comment/google-travel-app-wants-to-be-your-tour-guide-but-is-that-a-good-thing/

The Soros Danger

George Soros is a very dangerous man. A meddler in national and local elections, using his millions to push his globalist agenda,. He is a serious threat to individual liberty and freedom.

Billionaire investor George Soros pledged on Tuesday to invest up to $500 million in programs and companies benefiting migrants and refugees fleeing life-threatening situations.

Announced against the backdrop of an ongoing United Nations (U.N.) summit in New York, Soros explained that he wished to harness the power of the private sector for public good.

The life-threatening situations there is a cover up, a carnard for his real, behind the scenes manipulation and agenda. That should read: for public enslavement not for good. He wants to harness power all right, but not the kind that has your interest at heart, especially if you oppose him. Soros is a friend of GMOs; he is a friend of everything that disdains and discredits localism. His money is dirty and all those who accept it are likewise dirty. Mr. Soros is a octogenarian, but that's no excuse. Like everyone else, he needs to be accountable for his acts against humanity.

 The increasing number of asylum seekers from those war-torn nations has sparked political debate in Europe and the U.S. over where the refugees should be resettled. The issue has been clouded by economic migration, with large numbers of people reportedly seeking entrance to developed nations in the hope of better prospects as global growth slows.

Here is another big lie. Many of these refugees are not from war-torn countries. But look no further and you will fine the footprint of another globalists organization your tax dollars are supporting, the UN.

The Open Society Foundations (OSF), a non-profit organization owned by Soros, will be in charge of the funds, the statement said. Any profits from the investments would go to the OSF's migrant and refugee-related programs, which include community centers in Greece and initiatives to provide Syrian refugees with legal advice.

"Refugees need access to financial and legal services, education, and employment opportunities; we believe the private sector is uniquely placed to help build the infrastructure needed to support these services," the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said of the Soros investment.

Overnight

Choppy or otherwise or whatever you want to call it, market activity won't be much until the two central banks much of investors around the globe are currenlthy focused on have their upcoming meetings this week.

Reuters reported earlier that the Japanese stocks traded upward in in choppy markets Tuesday morning with the Nikkei up 0.3% to 16,570 after opening at 16,403.22.  Wednesday is the big day when both banks will meet for two days and the outcome will be interesting.  Reuters, for example, is suggesting that now would be a good time for the Fed to surprise with a rate hike that might help "close" some of the confidence gap the Fed has. For our coin we think that's a bit of  a stretch with not a small patina of propaganda attached.

The Topix index traded nearly flat at 1,312.04. Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi was lower by 0.24 percent. The Japanese yen strengthened to 101.85 against the dollar measured against levels above 102.00 last week. The ASX 200 was off 0.15%., the Hang Seng down 018% while oil prices in Asian U.S. crude futures traded a touch lower, down 0.18 percent at $43.22 a barrel, after finishing up 0.6 percent in the U.S. session. Global benchmark Brent was down 0.11 percent at $45.91, following a 0.4 percent overnight gain.

The odds are better than even whatever either of these two banks unfold it will be wrong or harmful. Investors seem more discombobulated about the BOJ than the Fed where it seems no change in rates is fairly well expected. In the U.S. many believe the markets have already done much of the work for the Fed as sell-offs in long bonds and safer dividend sectors like utilities and telecoms have already sold down some while the dollar has appreciated. The WSJ notes that "Since Labor Day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 1.95%, while the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note has climbed 0.08 percentage point to 1.698% and the WSJ Dollar Index has risen 0.95%. On Monday, the Dow dropped 3.63 points to 18120.17."

 The rising cost of borrowing dollars for brief periods is hitting financial institutions and other companies around the globe, a tightening of conditions that further limits already slim prospects that the Fed will raise interest rates at its meeting ending Wednesday.

The rising cost of borrowing dollars for brief periods is hitting financial institutions and other companies around the globe, a tightening of conditions that further limits already slim prospects that the Fed will raise interest rates at its meeting ending Wednesday.

Oil had rallied on Monday before settling off its highs on scepticism over Venezuela's bid to talk up a potential OPEC output freeze, and on indications U.S. crude stockpiles had risen last week.
Spot gold XAU edged slightly higher to $1,313.80 an ounce.

Peso Election Tool

We've written about this before. Trump's election odds when the peso goes down against the dollar improve and they go down when the peso strengthens against the dollar. Exchange rate below. One week ago the peso was below 18.50. Today, it's 19.90.

People stand outside an exchange house advertising the sale of U.S. dollars at the rate of 19.90 Mexican pesos per dollar in Mexico City, Monday, Sept. 19, 2016. The Mexican currency reached the psychological barrier of 20 pesos per dollar, and analysts and commentators cited the role of the U.S. presidential campaign. 

yahoo.com/news/analysts-cite-clintons-illness-plunge-mexico-peso

If you want to know how Donald Trump is doing, all you need to do is check the Mexican peso.
Over the past four months, Mexico’s currency has repeatedly declined when Trump’s election outlook improves and rallied when his odds of winning slump. The peso tumbled to a 2 1/2-month low Monday after his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, canceled a two-day trip to California because she’s suffering from pneumonia.

financialspuds.blogspot.com/2016/09/backdoor-propaganda.

The Everything Bubble

Maybe you've never heard of the Everything Bubble. Maybe you think all bubbles are like snow flakes, unique.

Like Bigfoot, you probably think it's not out there, lurking in the shadows. The truth is the Everything Bubble and Bigfoot are related. Like Siamese twins joined at the hip. One day one twin said the other: "What do you mean you're going to join the Army?" The truth is it takes one to create the other.

Look at this chart and you'll see the Everything Bubble, alive and well. And now you'll know the the answer to the mystery of Bigfoot and just where he really is.


advisorperspectives.com/commentaries/2016/09/19/support-drops-away 

Close Is Getting Closer

The "news" is that Trump is now up 2 in Colorado. The poll has a MOE of 3.4.
Reuters-Ipsos now has "high confidence" that Trump will win Vermont. Their current Electoral Vote prediction is Trump 243, Clinton 242. They rate Maine as a "toss-up" and do not predict Rhode Island because of insufficient data. (General commentary has recently said Trump has a chance in R.I.)
Their 60% turnout model has Clinton winning the election by 13; their current odds are Clinton 3:2.

Their 60% turnout model has Clinton winning the election by 13; their current odds are Clinton 3:2.

.dailyspeculations.com/wordpress/?p=11278

http://media.wix.com/ugd/3bebb2_b53ca6b673c14cdab9d68832bd7e74cb.pdf

Where Is The Money From?

Everyone professed from the beginning in this election to be concerned about money buying elections.

Is there some correlation between money spent and being owned by those who donate or make such funds available? Or this just a who's spending what and where matter of no consequence? Is Washington really just about money without which there is no entrance to the ultimate prize, power?

Does a sudden upswing in spending say anything about a particular campaign, as in a sense of panic setting in? Why would someone like millionaire George Soros tell one of his PAC committees to donate  money to a local election for, say, sheriff, in a far away state where the billionaire doesn't reside?



Something of note if the polls showing Trump closing the gap and maybe even making it a dead heat, who's trying to buy the election? Another fair question voters need an answer to and have a right to know before November is: Where is all that money coming from?

Interesting Chart

Chart of the day. Again, for those haughty econometric slaves known as economists, this is another example of the unintended versus the expected.





zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-19/how-low-oil-prices-failed-stimulate-economy 

The Elite Beat Goes On

This is a typical Washington Post hit job, something they're famous for. Note the terms "conservative firebrand," as if that's a pejorative. A charge she's embraces "controversial views."

Controversial in whose eyes, the author or his masters on the Post editorial board? The revisionist charge coming from the bowels of the Washington Post is laughable. Does the author means like they've revised much of U.S's. past they find unpalatable and obstructing their implementing their cause?

But ah yes. There is hope. She's is beginning to see the light at the end of the globalist meme tunnel.

Japan’s new defense minister, Tomomi Inada, is pushing her country to become a stronger, more independent actor on the world stage — and trying to make herself prime minister in the process. But as she gets closer to both goals, she’s finding that Japan’s success is more dependent than ever on deepening cooperation with its neighbors and the United States.

Inada rose to prominence in Japan as a conservative firebrand who embraced controversial views, including questioning the facts surrounding Japan’s wartime atrocities. She once suggested that Japan should get its own nuclear weapons. She is often accused of being a revisionist — a term for those who seek to partly rehabilitate Japan’s wartime history. But as was clear to me after an hour-long interview last week during her first trip to Washington in her new role, Inada is coming to terms with the fact that if she wants to lead Japan into the future, she needs to be a globalist first. 

“I think we should have a more global viewpoint and make strategies in that sense,” she said after meeting with Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter at the Pentagon. “I think it is important to develop our own defense posture. But equally important is to enhance the U.S.-Japan alliance cooperation, and another important thing is to build up our relationships with other countries as well.”

This next paragraph is the familiar damning by faint praise and the requisite Hillary plug if you wish to stay employed at the Post. This is cheap, propagandist journalism at it's worst.

Due to her penchant for stylish eyewear and her meteoric rise through the ranks of Japan’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party, some have called her the Japanese version of Sarah Palin. But in her latest iteration, she more closely resembles a Japanese Hillary Clinton: tough on national security, progressive on social issues and committed to moving Japanese politics incrementally from inside the system, not as a disruptive outsider.

It's the eye wear, Jake! It is rumored that he will soon becoming out with here brand of eye wear called, Ambition.

Her explanation for her past work, including suing the media for the alleged defamation of two accused Japanese war criminals, may not satisfy her critics.
“From my lawyer days, due to cases I have been in charge of, people tend to call me a hawkish person,” she told me. “However, I don’t see myself as hawkish; I just want to know what the truth is in history.”

If not for that controversial work, current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would never have plucked Inada from obscurity and encouraged her to run for parliament in 2005. Ever since, she has been groomed by Abe as his successor. She is not shy about her ambitions.

“I think every politician wants to be the prime minister,” she said.

washingtonpost.com/opinions/japans-prime-minister-in-waiting-trades-nationalism-for-globalism