Thanks Janet—Banks Getting $22 Billion From Fed For Doing Nothing!
On October 3, 2008, Section 128 of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 allowed the Federal Reserve banks to begin paying interest on excess reserve balances (“IOER”) as well as required reserves. The Federal Reserve banks began doing so three days later. As interest rates have risen, so has the free money to banks. At 1% interest, banks receive $22 billion in free money every year, nearly all of that goes to the largest banks.
That Was Quick! The Deep State is Back In Charge
In a way, this is good news. “The Donald” is doing the same things, more or less, that anyone else in his position would have done. He is doing what the insiders want. And now that Team Trump and the Deep State are lined up, we can get back to business. No need to focus anymore on day-to-day politics; the program is the same as it has been for the last 30 years. Every government is a conspiracy of the few against the many. Call it communism, socialism, or liberalism… “divine right”… or “dictatorship of the proletariat”… or “Make America Great Again” – it hardly matters.
The Paris Accord Is Back—–Thanks For The Expertise, Ivanka!
The industry campaign to stick with the Paris accord comes amid deep divisions in the Trump administration over the carbon-cutting agreement. Both the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, a White House special adviser, have urged the president to stay in the deal, along with Tillerson…….On the other side are senior adviser Stephen Bannon and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who on Friday said “we need to exit” the pact
France’s Known Unknown—–Presidential Race Most Unpredictable in History
With almost a third of the electorate still undecided, and the front-runners clustered around 20 percent in the polls for the first round on April 23, the race is the most unpredictable the country has seen in recent history. With two of the four candidates also hostile to the institutions of the European Union, the result of the runoff two weeks later will have far-reaching implications not just for France but for the region as a whole…..According to Elabe’s latest poll, released Monday, support for Macron stands at 24 percent, while Le Pen is at 23 percent. Fillon holds 21 percent, followed by Melenchon at 18 percent.
Way Too Good To Be True—The Red Ponzi’s Industrial Production Index Is So Stable It Stinks
The problems with China GDP appear to be spreading to other statistics, particularly Industrial Production. IP had been almost perfectly stable exhibiting, like GDP, very little variation. Prior to this latest update, it was steady between 6% and 6.3% for eleven months in a row, and going back to the start of 2015 only twice did it vary so much on the high side (6.8% in both June 2015 and March 2016). It seems quite reasonable that given global conditions particularly for manufacturing and then the trade of goods during that period China was overstating its industrial production to like GDP make a bad situation appear to be at least somewhat more balanced than it might have been……
The Left’s Descent to Fascism
The Left is morally and fiscally bankrupt, devoid of coherent solutions, and corrupted by its embrace of the Corporatocracy. History often surprises us with unexpected ironies. For the past century, the slide to fascism could be found on the Right (conservative, populist, nationalist political parties).But now it’s the Left that’s descending into fascism, and few seem to even notice this remarkable development. By Left I mean socialist-leaning, progressive, internationalist/globalist political parties.
So Who Are the Debt Slaves in this Rich Nation?
Inflating household wealth was one of the big priorities of the Fed during the Financial Crisis. It would crank up the economy. In an editorial in 2010, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke himself called this the “wealth effect.” So with this colossal wealth of US households, what could go wrong during the next downturn? About half of Americans do not have enough savings to pay for even a minor emergency expense. The Federal Reserve found that 46% of adults could not cover an emergency expense of $400, such as a broken windshield. They would either have to borrow the money or try to sell the couch or something. So nearly half of the adults in the US live from paycheck to paycheck.
Why The Donald Is Off The Deep End On North Korea
It should be taken off the table, pronto. The reason is simple: a military confrontation with North Korean despot Kim Jong-un has a 100% chance of ending in a nuclear conflagration. As retired Col. David Hunt, who served in Korea on the DMZ, told Eric Bolling on Thursday, every war game simulating a war with North Korea has ended in a nuclear conflict. For fifty years, the North Koreans have been preparing for a resumption of hostilities in a war that never formally ended. Positioned in the heights just above the demilitarized zone is a massive array of North Korean artillery pointed at Seoul, the South Korean capital, a city with 3 million inhabitants. Within six minutes, that tremendous firepower would be unleashed, and the casualties would be massive.
Despite What They Say, GM’s Inventory Build Is Anything But ‘Normal’
The second sign of a bubble usually comes when companies issue carefully crafted excuses for their inventory build. And that’s where Alan Batey, GM President of the America’s, comes in to explain that his company’s inventory glut isn’t a sign of the auto industry’s impending implosion but rather a modest build up ahead of planned shut downs and retooling efforts later this summer. Per Automotive News…
The Neocons Have The Donald’s Number—-Next Up Is Renewed Attacks On Iran
The Trump administration’s growing use of military force in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen has neoconservative hawks rooting for armed confrontation with what they view as the root of all evil in the Middle East: Iran. Many of these armchair warriors recently cheered President Trump’s decision to take on the Assad regime — and Moscow — by firing 59 Tomahawk cruise missile at a Syrian air base alleged to be the source of a chemical weapons attack. But they urged him to do more. Weekly Standard editor William Kristol tweeted, “Punishing Assad for use of chemical weapons is good. Regime change in Iran is the prize.”
