Good For Them, Great For You

How do you know when you have a real pathetic leadership problem, one full of weak wusses, who want to bribe their way out of the ever-present clutches of big bankers and those ubiquitous, vindictive EU bureaucrats?

If you're a UK citizen who voted for Brexit you are now learning the hard way. The issue here is jobs. In this case, banking jobs in London's financial center. Under a scheme being considered, the Financial Times reports, "Britain would continue to pay billions of pounds in the EU budget after Brexit to maintain cherished single-market access for City of London and other sectors being discussed...."

What's supposedly at stake here is "passporting" rights--that is, one of the phony code terms globalists love to toss around to described their beloved free trade meme. It's free trade alright as long as we say it is. The EU is crumbling before the eyes of the globe. It was a bad idea, badly concocted by some very bad bureaucrats and anti-anxiety prescriptions sales are soaring.

As the Brussels' preference given to the big boys--France and Germany just in the case of banks for openers--proves, it was as layered as a wedding cake from the start. Corruption reigns today as it has for a long, long time. That will never get corrected--if ever--by wusses and stomach-less leaders. Nor will a docile populous solve anything. Leverage to masses comes around rarely.

One of the Times other stories today centers on "too big to fail banks," i.e., Wells Fargo, the San Francisco mortgage juggernaut caught creating phony customer accounts that cost 5,300 presumably miscreant junior employees their jobs. So far only two senior ones have paid any tariff and in their case they're off to a well-paid retirement and most likely in a few seasons lucrative consulting work or seats on boards of directors, all good paying gigs.

So how do you know there is corruption from the top down? Here's one way. The FT, quoting another source, "Since 2012, the top five executives at Wells have banked $450m in performance pay..." And the Times goes on: "Despite the recent disgorgements, only a fraction has been returned."

As we've said before, white collar criminals, if punished at all, go to the local spa. Only blue collars ones hear that clanging sound of steel doors and gates closing behind them. It all seems so corrupt, one wants to conjure the name Warren Buffett, a huge shareholder in the firm, and asked again: What did he know and when did he know it?

As we said: Leverage to the masses comes rarely. There's an old Zen point: People treat us exactly the way we want them to, meaning we allow them to. In sports a big meme is next man when something goes wrong. Corporations follow a similar code. Politicians and bureaucrats who fail to follow the will of the voters need to be held to the same code. Next person up. No loitering or lingering.

It's one of the lessons brought to us by the PC, Zero-tolerance crowd. If it's good for them. It should be great for you.

News Flash

Julian Assange has had his Internet cut by a government called the Democrat party.
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The Smell In The Air

The neocons in Washington, Chicago or wherever never seem to tire pounding the tocsins of war. One would think by now they'd come down with a bad case of tenosynovitis of the wrists. No such good fortune, yet.

Who is Ivo Daalder? Well, in short, he's an academic think tanker, an OB crony, a neocon masquerading as a security expert. There's that damn term again, expert, more dangerous now than ever.

In July of 2013, Daalder became President of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs – an independent, nonpartisan think tank that convenes leading global voices, conducts independent research, and engages the public to provide insights and influence the public discourse on critical global issues. Under Daalder, the Council has extended the reach and relevance of its global work by increasing its roster of experts and portfolio of issues; extending the Council’s historic platform for global leaders to engage the public; building a global audience by connecting through digital and social media channels; revitalizing the Council’s brand; and growing its financial, foundation, and membership support. Daalder also conceived and spearheaded the 2015 Chicago Forum on Global Cities, a now annual conference in partnership with the Financial Times that convenes leaders and delegates from around the world for a cross-sector exploration of the influence and impact of global cities in shaping the world's future. Following this rapid growth, the Council was ranked the top "Think Tank to Watch" by the University of Pennsylvania's 2015 Global Go To Think Tank Index.

In short, he's a quasi-intellectual mercenary: people who rile up the masses and then hire others to do their dirty shit for them. At the moment Daalder and his fellow necons, right and left, are pushing their vile Russian meme. These are globalists easily recognized because they usually need a war to cover up their gross incompetence.That and kill off a bunch of  opposing naysayers. It's called collateral damage. Note in the description above. This is Davos Chicago style.

The first rule of propaganda is there's no such thing as an independent, nonpartisan think tank. Especially in Chicago. Note too he's a guest political warbler for the Times. It's not the company you keep. It's the scribes you read. Nor should it surprise you there's actually an Ivy League Global Go To Think Tank Index. Which came first, the chicken or the dot-plot index?

In today's FT Opinion sector, Daalder plays one his his favorite neocon tunes, containment, "The best answer to Russian aggression is containment." It's the requisite rhetoric, a prelude to get the masses whipped in order. It's also a ploy to misdirect focus, take the heat off the Wikileaks that, if nothing else, have shown how widespread government corruption around the globe is. And you thought it was just those EU bureaucrats in Brussels or the IMF or World Bank.

Daalder concludes his diatribe against Russia with this gem, comparing it with the Cold War years.
"Russia is far weaker now than the Soviet Union was then, but it will still take years to change the way it behaves. Like then, containment requires patience and firmness to succeed."

What you need to know about Daalder and his fellow globalist travelers, it isn't just the way the Russia behaves they are trying to change or contain.These are people who want what the want and will stop at nothing including starting wars to get it. If you can't smell it from here, you will if the whole thing goes snap, crackle and boom.

The Face Of Dirt

Earlier this year Hillary was extremely confident she would be elected, such that after her bout with her motor disorder fobbed off as pneumonia and dehydration, she so stated with a certain flair of arrogance.

Now with emails like this maybe this is why she was so arrogant about it. But we have it on the good word and the integrity of CNN that reading such faire is illegal, only the media is entitled to read them without legal consequences, just before the edit them to their liking. Who's going to do the editing: Cuomo, Cooper or Blitzer. Sounds like they could hook up to a sleigh later this year. The only question is which one will have the biggest presidential brown ring around his nose?

We're happy someone is finally shining the light on Google, the big search engine firm, owned by its parent Alphabet whose CEO schmoozes with Hillary campaign officials: "Schmidt also quietly funds a data company that provides services to the Clinton campaign. Podesta wrote to Schmidt on April 3, 2014, saying he would like him to speak with Robby Mook, now Clinton’s campaign manager, and Cheryl Mills, a longtime Clinton aide."
 freebeacon.com/politics/podesta-linked-googles-executive-chairman-cheryl-mills-robby-mook/
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More evidence Donald Trump is right.

Democrats fix elections.

The evidence is contained in the Podesta emails released by WikiLeaks. John Podesta was Clinton’s campaign manager in 2008.

In an email message, Podesta mentions two “old friends of the Clintons,” James Lyons and Michael Driver. They were responsible for “caucus protection, election protection and to raise hard $” for the 2016 Colorado caucus.

Podesta said Lyons and Driver believe the Obama campaign had “flooded the caucuses with ineligible voters,” reports the Daily Caller, citing the Podesta emails.

“I met with Jim and Mike in Denver,” said Podesta. “They are both old friends of the Clintons and have lots of experience. Mike hosted our Boulder Road Show event. They are reliving the 08 caucuses where they believe the Obama forces flooded the caucuses with ineligible voters. They want to organize lawyers for caucus protection, election protection and to raise hard $. They are not just Colorado focused and have good contacts in the region.”

Trump has doubled down on the theme. Last week he renewed his warning the election would be stolen by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. In addition to election fraud, Trump said the establishment media has shown bias in favor of his opponent.

“This election will determine whether we remain a free nation or only the illusion of democracy,” he said in West Palm Beach, Florida on Friday. Trump said the system is “in fact controlled by a small handful of global special interests, rigging the system.”

Although establishment commentators have dismissed Trump’s warning as paranoia, others have lent credence to the claim.

Manipulating the outcome of elections does not necessarily rely on voting machines or flooding polls with ineligible voters. Technology has perfected the practice.

“Research I have been directing in recent years suggests that Google, Inc., has amassed far more power to control elections—indeed, to control a wide variety of opinions and beliefs—than any company in history has ever had. Google’s search algorithm can easily shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or more—up to 80 percent in some demographic groups—with virtually no one knowing they are being manipulated, according to experiments I conducted recently with Ronald E. Robertson,” writes Robert Epstein for Politico.

In August Newsweek admitted there is a possibility the election will be stolen by Democrats
Politico reports Trump is preparing the groundwork for a refusal to concede on November 8. “Republicans and Democrats, in Washington and beyond, fear that the aftermath of the 2016 election will create a festering infection in the already deep and lasting wound that the campaign is leaving on America,” writes Edward-Isaac Dovere.

The “festering infection” is the direct result of the political class and its domination of national politics.

Donald Trump is merely pointing out what has been obvious for decades—elections are not only routinely rigged, but wholly artificial affairs stage managed by the elite to maintain their dominance and control while fostering the illusion of democracy.

blacklistednews.com/Podesta_Emails%3A_Evidence_Democrats_Steal_Elections 

Overnight

The U.S. dollar back off its highs overnight against the yen as some pundits claimed the market is supported the dollar "being above the 104.00 yen since Friday when U.S. retail sales" turned up, according  to Reuters.

The dollar dropped below the 104 level and the Nikkei declined by 0.1% to 16,844.51 after being up earlier. The yen meanwhile was up 0.2% as Japanese investors confronted what many were saying was softer tones Monday from Bank of Japan Governor abut further monetary easing. The Journal quoted Kuiroa: “We will continue to make necessary policy adjustments to maintain the momentum toward our price-stability target, based on economic and price conditions,” Mr. Kuroda said.

Regional investors will be watching  China's 3Q  GDP numbers this Wednesday. Couple this with Fed Chair Janet Yellen's Friday Boston speech which many believed sent  mixed messages and at present you have all the ingredients for some mixed up investors.  The hang Send was off -0.45%; the ASX 200 down-0.71%; the Shanghai Composite rallied 0.13% and the Korean Kospi edged 0.41% higher.

The Yellen rhetoric sent mixed signals as some saw it as a sign a December rate hike was not a done deal while others viewed it as much more certain. Oil prices were down overnight with Brent at $51.86. Gold prices remained mostly unchanged on Monday on a firmer U.S. dollar after positive U.S. economic data late last week appeared to raise the chance of an interest rate hike by year-end. U.S. gold futures were off 0.3 percent at $1,252.30 an ounce.

How Dirty Is Dirt?

How dirty is John Podesta. Well, from the looks of it, pretty dirty appears too kind. For a longtime we've been saying the editorial board at the WSJ was complicit with their failure to look into Hillary's health issue.

The board is a party of know nothings whose beloved Grand Old Party originated from know nothings and chose to do just that--know nothing when it came to her health problems because they were not getting their whinny ass way this election. Among independent voters, at least, there can be no contempt too great for these people, their love for the insipid Paul Ryan, the dismissive Mitch Romney and their stodgy old exclusive party.

Nor can there be any tears or sadness when this party puts out to sea on its way to the insignificant bowels of political history. A push here, a shove there, that's a rousing gathering every independent voter should love to attend. Starting time: Right after this election.
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Among the latest, ninth round of Podesta email releases by Wikileaks this morning, is a July 31, 2015 email by Hillary Clinton's National Press Secretary Brian Fallon who lays out the agenda for the day's rollout of Clinton's tax record and, more importantly, Hillary's "excellent health" medical statement, where once again the media, listed as "AP, Politico, WSJ, WaPo, etc" is exposed as coordinating and colluding with the campaign to send a message that Hillary is in great health.
In the email written in the early hours on Friday, Fallon writes that in the "rollout plan" for that same day, the campaign will "Pitch the first round of stories to the travelling press corps (AP, Politico, WSJ, WaPo, etc) with a 2 pm embargo."

He goes on to say that for these stories "we will provide the full text of HRC’s physician’s letter, summarizing that she is in excellent health and is medically fit to perform the duties of President. We will push that she is the FIRST presidential candidate to release this info."
In further evidence of the prepared media narrative, Fallon points out that "we expect the stories that pop at 2 pm to have headlines such as “CLINTON IN ‘EXCELLENT HEALTH,’ MEDICAL RECORDS SAY” … “CLINTON RELEASES HEALTH REPORT."

Fallon also plans how to approach the "friendly" press in an attempt to "one-up" Jeb Bush, who at the time was seen as her biggest challenger, in terms of financial disclosures, and specifically her tax filings.

 The Russians did it is a theme without any traction. And even if they did--and they didn't--the emails show the enormous layers of dirt, how the whole election process to these people, both parties, has nothing to do with, by, for anyone but themselves.

In  Emil Zola's classic Gernimal there's a scene where some of  the young miners are sitting around discussing the prospect tearing down the system and rebuilding it again (Think here all the recent articles coming from those whining conservative Republicans at the WSJ about doing the same for their party after this election!) when one of them raises a bigger, more important question: What happens if after you rebuild it, it's just as corrupt as it was before?  Then you tear it down and leave it down because it doesn't deserve to exist, another participant says.

That's exactly why the gutless Republican party as it currently is won't exist. It doesn't deserve to. Usually one or two lessons bubble to the surface out of these trumped up, phony elections every four years.That's why this is one of the healthiest elections of modern times.

Our Amendment But Not Yours

Without commerce everything is dead. Isn't that the argument of globalists?

So why doesn't it apply to local businesses in America?
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As U.S. cities struggle to address rising homelessness, they increasingly​​ are turning to policies pushed by commercial-property owners that ban people from sitting or sleeping on sidewalks and begging for money.

Business improvement districts—groups of commercial property owners who pool their resources to revitalize their neighborhoods—have worked with some city councils to create and help enforce new laws targeting public conduct in busy commercial districts. In Denver, Berkeley, Calif., and Portland, Ore., for example, BIDs have campaigned to prohibit people from sitting or lying in public rights of way, and even sued to reverse policies that encouraged tent cities and homeless camps.
City lawmakers and officials who manage BIDs defend the arrangements, arguing the ordinances target discourteous or even dangerous conduct that prevents everyone from enjoying shared space. The homeless and their advocates say the policies amount to an effort to push the poor out of the sight of customers and tourists.

“To them this is about creating a shopping-mall environment,” said Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, a homeless-assistance nonprofit. “If you think about shopping malls, you don’t think about homeless people in the hallways.”
Business improvement districts formed in droves in the U.S. over the past three decades, usually by petition, as cities revitalized their downtowns, hoping to lure back businesses and customers who long ago fled to the suburbs. They typically spend their pooled funds on security, landscaping, cleaning and maintenance.

The growth of BIDs—at a rate of about 3% a year, experts estimate—coincided with a rise in ordinances that advocates say disproportionately affect the homeless. And many of the ordinances have passed in fast-growing cities with rising homeless populations, they said.
A 2015 study of 187 cities by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty found that more than 60 cities had laws banning public camping and about 100 prohibited sitting or lying in public places—increases of 60% and 43%, respectively, since 2011.

Another 2015 survey by researchers at the Policy Advocacy Clinic at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law found California cities with more BIDs had a higher number of ordinances targeting conduct associated with homelessness.

 The Obama administration has taken a dim view of the trend. The Justice Department weighed in on the side of homeless people in Boise, Idaho, over sleeping and camping bans in an August 2015 brief filed in federal court. The brief argued that laws prohibiting people from sleeping outside even when shelters are full may violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Pushing these unfortunates--and they're by any means all unfortunates--out of sight of customers and tourist is bad?. One would think ,given the current opinion of elites, would  not want these remiders of just how badly they've screwed up  the world. 

 As for the OB lameduckers they seem not to mind protecting one Constitutional amendment as long as it suits their concerns.

wsj.net/public/resources/images

The Leftist Hate Spreaders

“Nazi Republicans get out of town or else."

It's seems the Podesta-driven bunch will apparently stop at nothing to carry the South. This incident occurred in South Carolina.
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Hillsborough police are investigating an apparent firebombing of the Orange County Republican headquarters, an incident that one state GOP official called an act of “political terrorism.”
Police say the incident occurred when a bottle of flammable liquid was thrown through the front window of the office on Ja-Max Dr
.
“The office itself is a total loss,” said Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of state GOP. “The only thing important to us is that nobody was killed, and they very well could have been.”
Police said the words, “Nazi Republicans get out of town or else” were spray painted on the side of an adjacent building.

“This highly disturbing act goes far beyond vandalizing property; it willfully threatens our community’s safety via fire, and its hateful message undermines decency, respect and integrity in civic participation,” Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens said in a statement.

 charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article108627627

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article108627627.html#storylink=cpy

House Of Pain

There is something about leverage that people love.....and hate.

Back in the pre-crash subprime days real estate agents thrived, and prospered, on telling clients to buy the biggest house they couldn't afford. That's right couldn't afford. Add many did. Mortgage interest payments was one of the few deductions--some of your friends on the left call it a loophole--many have left.

But as many painfully discovered, leverage is a two-way thoroughfare. The pain was not limited, however, to just the ones who lost their houses. And it won't be next time around either. Here's another house of pain that awaits.
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One year ago we showed the following chart to explain the relative strong dollar that was on everyone’s mind at the time. With a second leg higher in the US dollar imminent, this particular chart will be more important than ever. Claims to dollars, such as demand and time deposits, or even more opaque money-like products created by the shadow banking system is just that, a claim or derivative on the final mean of payment, namely base money. When trust breaks down and owners of dollar claims rush to exchange them for actual dollars, the price of dollars goes up in relation to goods and services because there are not enough dollars to satisfy all the claims outstanding. In monetary terms deflation takes hold and there are no market mechanism that can clear this anomaly (because it was never a proper market to begin with) as the price of the underlying and the derivative will move in perfect proportion to each other. In enter the Federal Reserve with their QE programs, id est base money creation, to meet dollar demand and stem the ensuing panic.

Unfortunately, something even more sinister has been going on with dollar derivatives internationally. In addition to domestic claims to dollars, there are a massive market for dollars internationally called Eurodollars. Foreign banks, particularly European banks, help global investors, merchants, exporters and importers trade and settle in USD, with very few actual dollars present. As long as everybody trust each other, this highly efficient system can operate smoothly with a high degree of leverage. Money market funds and filthy rich commodity exporters have a long tradition for placing their money in these markets allowing the financial system to benefit greatly.

 bawerk.net/2016/10/15/usd-ready-for-a-second-leg-higher-then-what

In every over-leveraged system, small changes can have great ripple effects. Money market reform fully implemented last week forced money markets to float their NAV and implement liquidity fees and suspension gates as means to prevent a run on the fund; unless these are invested in government securities of course. If they do, the new rules do not apply. Therefore, it is of no surprise that money has rushed out en masse from prime funds and subsequently into government money market funds. Implementation of the new rules happened just as oil exporters from the Middle East and other SWFs had to pull out from money markets to fund rapidly rising twin deficits. The result has been a notably increase in the TED spread, signalling scarcity in available dollar funding internationally. Troubled banks, like Deutsche Bank and the rest of its brethren in Europe, undercapitalized, burdened by an overzealous DoJ with a “you-tax-Apple-we-take-down-your-banks” attitude and funded mostly by AT1 CoCo bonds have felt the effects of higher funding costs more than any. A scramble for dollars are likely to ensue when one of the European behemoths fall.



A massively overleveraged financial system is once again on the brink. All it take is a second leg higher in the USD and European banking is dead in the water with monstrosities like Deutsche Bank being one of the most interconnected institutions on the planet. Knock-on effects on the global economy will be severe as dollar funding dries up. The USD SWAP line between ECB and the Federal Reserve will quickly reach a trillion dollars and the newly elected US Congress will throw hissy-fits as they are essentially asked to bail out the international Eurodollar market.

Political risk in Europe are on the rise as the once prosperous middle class are forgotten, both financially (cannot compete with low cost Chinese workers) and culturally (if you do not like what is happening to your neighborhood you are a deplorable and irredeemable racist bigot and we do not need to listen to you). Losing life savings as deposits are bailed in left and right will be the straw that bring down any pretense of political correctness.

Choose Your Thugs Carefully

There are thugs and then there are thugs. Not all are tatted up and roam the mean streets or dark alleys of run-down areas.

Some wear suits and ties and work the halls of Congress. Bob Beckel was one of those, a big time Democrat thug for labor. Other thugs populate the passages of academia, spewing forth their don't-you-dare-question-our agenda-driven spiels. Still others find their way into political office. Anyone care to recall the name Adam Clayton Powell? Or a host of others, right and left. And we all know about the ones in MSM.

Then there are the central bank thugs, particularly those who arrogantly in their elitist roles believed killing the COLA crowd with their bottom-fishing interest rates would save the economy. How? That's the question one is never supposed to ask these glib history-directing bureaucrats. Like those once-popular pinball machines somewhere along the way their constipated econometric models went tilt. The nation's already savings-poor, ignorant consumers would keep on keeping on--that is, accumulating more Chinese junk to store in their garages, if they still had one after the subprime mess. Or so these Lords of Eccles believed and were willing to bet your future on.

And here's more thuggery, this time from Wall Street. Another unexpected thug about to make an appearance near one of your handouts soon is a macro one, slow growth and inflation. Don't worry, the Fed is helpless to do anything about it.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-15/here-are-hillary-clintons-three-speeches-goldman-sachs-which-she-was-paid-