StubHub sells record-high ticket to Game 7 of NBA Finals
StubHub sold a ticket to Game 7 of the NBA Finals for a record price — $49,500. …read more
Source: StubHub sells record-high ticket to Game 7 of NBA Finals
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
We Look at the Grains, Softs and Meats for a Rebound in Food Inflation (Video)
By EconMatters
By EconMatters
New money came into a lot of the commodities, especially the Grains and Softs in March, fueled in some part by a weaker dollar, and the thought that a lot of these commodities have bottomed.
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Source: We Look at the Grains, Softs and Meats for a Rebound in Food Inflation (Video)
Socialism’s One-Percenters: "The Rich People Are Thieves… Our Socialist Dream Is Falling Apart"
By Tyler Durden
Submitted by Thomas DiLorenzo via LewRockwell.com,
A defining characteristic of socialism in all its forms in all places and at all times is a relatively small political elite (and its “private sector” cronies) that lives lavishly by plundering its population, destroying its economy, imposing a regime of equality of poverty and misery; and turning almost everyone into a dependent on the state for survival. Joseph Stalin was the wealthiest man in the world during his time, not the Rockefellers, Morgans, or anyone else, as the de facto “owner” of the entire Soviet Union. African and Latin American socialist political thugs in the “post-colonial era” have long been notorious for becoming millionaires or billionaires, with Swiss bank accounts galore, while their people starved and begged them for subsistence. Socialism’s one percenters make today’s Wall Street plutocrats seem impoverished by comparison.
The latest glaring example of the disgusting and immoral corruption of socialism’s one percenters is Venezuela, a country that has “long been the darling of the [socialist] Left,” according to a June 16 article in the Daily Mail. The article, authored by Jake Wallis Simons, has the headline: “Super-rich socialists quaff champagne in Venezuelan country clubs while middle-class mothers scavenge for food in the gutter . . . even the dogs are starving.”
Venezuelan socialism, known as “Chavismo,” after the wealthy socialist one percenter Hugo Chavez, has indeed destroyed the country’s economy. Thanks to government-imposed price controls that hold prices below costs, supermarkets are empty, everything is in short supply or simply unavailable, and middle-class people are literally “rummaging in stinking piles of rubbish for cabbage leaves . . . and fetid meat,” according to the Daily Mail article, which includes dozens of pictures of these pathetic scenes. Among the most disturbing pictures are those of starving dogs and other animals in this socialist “paradise.”
Nationalization, price controls, and suffocating government regulations have so destroyed the remnants of capitalism that hospitals can’t afford toilet paper, let alone medicine; people wait in queues for ten our twelve hours a day, just like in the old Soviet Union, in hopes of buying something – anything – that might come up for sale in hopes of trading it for things they actually need; there is raging hyperinflation as the government tries to print money like mad to continue paying for its socialist fantasies; and crime is the worst of anywhere on earth. One middle-class woman is quoted in the article as saying “Chavez’s legacy is people like me looking for food in the garbage.”
Black markets are pervasive, also just like the old Soviet Union, but the wealthy make out the best from this situation because only they can afford to pay the astronomically higher black-market prices or to pay the bribes demanded by black marketeers. The politically-connected socialist elite lives high on the hog, entertaining themselves quite lavishly at such places as the Caracas Country Club, where the membership fee alone is almost 500 times the …read more
Source: Socialism’s One-Percenters: "The Rich People Are Thieves… Our Socialist Dream Is Falling Apart"
This Is What The Coming "Bond Shock" Will Look Like
By Tyler Durden
With the Fed failing to stimulate “animal spirits” and reflate risk assets over the past 18 months, the one remaining trade in a world of central bank “Policy failure” was buying bonds, both government and now that the ECB is in the game, corporate too. Sure enough the world did just that: as we pointed out yesterday, with central banks having broken every market, the only possible “sure thing” is to frontrun even more future central bank action (and faillure) which as of this moment means just one thing: buying even more bonds.
This has led to a stunning outcome: as reported on Friday, from an absolute return perspective, US equity & global credit prices have been stronger than fundamentals imply. Paradoxically, as BofA’s Michael Hartnett points out, this is due to the Mountain of Cash (i.e. bearish sentiment) & the fact that every interest rate in the world has been plunging toward zero. As a result, global government bonds are annualizing 23% YTD total returns, the highest in 30 years (see below). And currently, $9.7tn of global bonds are yielding <0%. This number will only grow as everyone rushes into the "safety" of bonds.
As BofA adds “despite unprecedented central bank policies of QE, ZIRP & NIRP, 655 rate cuts since the Lehman bankruptcy, $12.3tn of central bank financial asset purchases, prospect of a “one & done” Fed, central banks have lost the “War against Deflation”. They have failed to stimulate animal spirits depressed by the 4D’s of excess Debt, financial Deleveraging, aging Demographics and technological Disruption.” This “central bank failure” helps explains the recent unprecedented scramble into bonds: a deflationary instrument… and trade.
But will it continue?
The only thing that can halt the tsunami of bond buying, would be a Bond Shock, an event that is certain to take place, the only question is when (the last time it took place was just over a year ago as described in “Two Years Later, The VaR Shock Is Back“.
As Hartnett adds, the relentless buying of TSY paper changes “if Quantitative Failure spreads from Europe & Japan to the US.” Here’s how to time it:
The precipitating factors would include a “rise in US bank CDS and/or a dive in assets related to consumer & housing credit would be very negative for global asset prices in our view. Note the new whispers of a peak in the US consumer credit cycle which, if true, at a time of zero rates in an $18 trillion, consumer-led economy would be concerning.”
Alternatively, with interest rates dropping so sharply and bond yields in unprecedented territory, we believe vulnerability to a “bond shock” (a fast, unexpected rise in yields) is growing. A bond shock happened in Germany 2015, US 2013, Spain 2012, Japan 1998, 2003, 2005, and happens in EM quite often. Signs of credit market excess are evident today with HY Energy (H0EN) the most overbought in 6.5 years (14% >200dma) and US IG (C0A0) the most overbought in …read more
Source: This Is What The Coming "Bond Shock" Will Look Like
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So, You Want To Invest In Unicorns?
As an investor in private companies, one of the biggest issues you’re potentially facing is a lack of liquidity.
When buying shares of a listed company, most of the time you have a luxury of being able to sell your shares literally in seconds.
It’s not quite that easy when investing in private businesses, though. More often than not, there’s no convenient way to sell (or buy) the shares you hold in a private company. Even if you’re looking to unload your shares of Airbnb, Uber, or some other “unicorn”, you’ll realize it’s not an easy feat. At least it wasn’t until recently.
As TechCrunch reports:
On December 4, 2015 President Obama signed into law the FAST Act, which is mainly about transportation funding. Included within the FAST Act is a section, the Reforming Access for Investments in Startup Enterprises (“RAISE”) Act, which codifies a previously unwritten means through which startup employees, ex-employees, early investors, and other shareholders have been legally allowed to sell their shares.
This is a big leap forward, especially considering that unlike during the dot-com mania, startups today are not rushing to go public, but in large part actually prefer to stay private. And for the few that do go public, the returns are, at best, lukewarm as most of the cream has been skimmed by private investors long before.
So with that in mind, today I want to share with you a recording of a conversation I did quite some time ago – back when I was still largely focused on investing in early stage companies.
In the conversation I discuss this topic with Shriram Bhashyam, co-founder of Equity Zen (and also the author of the TechCrunch article I quoted above). Equity Zen is a platform matching shareholders of startup companies (often times these are employees of those companies looking to cash in some of their equity) with outside investors looking to participate in those companies.
And this is exactly what Shriram and I cover in today’s podcast: what are the changes that the RAISE Act brings and, perhaps more importantly, what does the Act mean for us as investors (there’s been quite a few ambiguities around it)?
If you’re even remotely interested in startup companies (either as an investor or entrepreneur), then you’re going to want to listen in here.
Enjoy!
– Chris
“Capital formation at early stages has fundamentally changed. It now takes, on average, 10-11 years for a company to go public. There is ample funding available via private markets, and companies increasingly want to retain control and avoid the scrutiny of public markets and sell-side analysts. All of this means that classic public market investors are losing a lot of value to the private markets, as much of the growth is being claimed during the private phase and companies are going public at much higher market cap’s then 10 or 20 years ago.” – Shriram Bhashyam
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Source: So, You Want To Invest In Unicorns?
Tensions Between US/NATO & Russia Are Flaring Dangerously
By Tyler Durden
Submitted by Chris Martenson via PeakProsperity.com,
As if there weren’t enough crises to worry about in the world already, from shooting rampages to accelerating species loss, the US and NATO continue to ‘poke the bear’ and risk an outbreak of war with Russia.
I wish this were idle speculation. But if you haven’t been paying close attention, you'll probably be shocked at just how much direct military and diplomatic provocation has been going on between NATO/US and Russia over the past several years — and in recent weeks, in particular.
Even more shocking is that no one in power can provide us with a compelling reason for exactly why these tensions are flaring. It seems that Russia’s main sin is in not entirely, completely and immediately giving the US/NATO anything and everything they request.
In other words, it’s imperial hubris and petulance that seems to be driving the ship of state. That’s a dangerous thing.
I’ve written extensively on the dangers of war with Russia as my concerns have mounted ever since the situation in Ukraine devolved in 2014.
There have been plenty of chances to dial down the rhetoric and mend fences, but they've all come and gone without healing. In fact, as we detail below, quite the opposite has happened.
The bottom line is this: If you're not already mentally and physically prepared for the prospect of a NATO/US war with Russia, you really should be.
Perhaps the chances of outright war are still low on a relative scale, but the costs would be catastrophically high — making this worthy of your attention. A low risk of a catastrophic outcome is the very reason we all buy insurance – life, auto, and home. Not because we wish things to go wrong in our lives, but because they sometimes do nonetheless.
A Russian Warning
The list of aggressive provocations by NATO that have been received as belligerent acts by Russia is quite long. It stretches back several years and continues to grow rapidly, making the chance for an ‘accident’ or unplanned incident quite high.
I was impressed with a recent piece penned and signed by eight prominent writers and blogger with Russian heritage. Titled A Russian Warning, it ran on a wide variety of blogs knowledgeable about the Russian situation including Dmitry Orlov’s and The Saker’s. I encourage you to read the whole thing. Right now, if you've got the time. I can wait.
To cut to the chase, the harsh conclusion of the piece is this: “If there is going to be a war with Russia, then the United States will most certainly be destroyed, and most of us will end up dead.”
Russia is, of course, a major nuclear power with a long history of surviving being attacked by outsiders. But for some reason, US/NATO military and diplomatic efforts have all been geared at further encroaching upon and/or isolating Russia.
They note:
The US leadership has done everything it could to push the situation to the brink of disaster. First, its anti-Russian policies have convinced …read more
Source: Tensions Between US/NATO & Russia Are Flaring Dangerously
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Head Of India Central Bank Unexpectedly Announces Intention To Leave
By Tyler Durden
In many ways, Reserve Bank is India’s version of Paul Volcker.
When the former IMF chief economist took over the reins of the Reserve Bank of India in September 2013, the rupee was plummeting and inflation was at double-digit levels. Since then he has waged a determined battle against India’s spiralling prices, persuading New Delhi to adopt a formal inflation-targeting framework for its once ad hoc monetary policy. Inflation, nearly 11% in 2013, tumbled to 5.8% last year (helped by plunging oil prices), succeeding in not only stabilizing the rupee and the local stock market, but making India the world’s fastest growing major economy, overtaking China.
Furthermore, Rajan has been a central banker cut from a different cloth than most of his peers: unlike Yellen, Draghi, Kuroda et al, Rajan’s frequent warnings about the state of the global economy, about asset bubbles and the shortcoming of unconventional monetary policy, have served as a welcome indicator that at least some of the world’s most powerful economists are not utterly clueless (a topic discussed by Citigroup just yesterday).
However, Rajan’s determined fight with inflation courtesy of high rates also set the seeds for his own destruction.
As the FT wrote in May, “to many international investors, the Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan is a near-hero — the articulate, market-savvy central banker who tamed India’s inflation, restored its macroeconomic stability and is driving a banking system clean-up. But admiration is not universal. Many Indian businessmen are frustrated that interest rates have not fallen faster. Some tycoons are unhappy with growing pressure to repay their overleveraged companies’ debts to ailing state banks, despite tough economic times.”
Ironically, political sentiment against Rajan – the man who saved India’s economy in 2013 – was rising to the point where many suspected he may simply leave when his term expired in September.
Now, with Mr Rajan’s first term ending in September, an influential politician from prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party has launched a scathing attack, accusing the RBI governor of a “wilful and apparently deliberate attempt . . . to wreck the Indian economy”.
In his letter last week to Mr Modi, Subramanian Swamy, a 77-year-old Harvard-educated economist, complains about high interest rates and claims that Mr Rajan is “mentally not fully Indian” because he has a green card permitting him to live and work in the US.
The criticism, by a prominent lawmaker to whom the BJP gave a parliamentary seat only last month, has worried investors, who were already anxious that Mr Rajan might be replaced by someone more pliant — and less voluble.
And, as Rajeev Malik, senior economist at CLSA, said one month ago, the fate of Rajan “does give palpitations to investors. Raghu stands out as the single most potent policymaker, who has enthused foreign investors in terms of macro-stability and encouraged their confidence in Indian policymaking.” He added that “Raghu would leave very big shoes to fill”.
None other than Jeffrey Gundlach, during his latest call with DoubleLine investors, said that India …read more
Source: Head Of India Central Bank Unexpectedly Announces Intention To Leave
Hong Kong Bookseller Who Was ‘Disappeared’ By Chinese Authorities Tells Of What Happened
By Tyler Durden
It's no secret that the Chinese government has no problem making people disappear that are causing a problem for the communist regime – we have written about the topic many times (here, here, and here).
However, the latest case of a disappearance (that we're aware of) is most interesting. Beginning late last year, five booksellers from the shop Causeway Bay Books (which among other things sells books containing political gossip) in Hong Kong went missing, and all of them later surfaced in China in police custody for illegally trading banned books in mainland China. All have returned to Hong Kong except one, and the most recent to be returned home is Lam Wing-kee, who was reportedly back in Hong Kong earlier this week. At the time, Lam didn't have anything to say about what happened, “he refused to disclose other details regarding his absence” the police said.
It appears that now, Lam has a lot to say about what happened. In a televised news conference, Lam said he was detained by Chinese authorities while visiting the mainland city of Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong, and his travel documents were confiscated. Lam was then blindfolded, handcuffed, and taken by train to the eastern city of Ningbo about 13 hours away where he would spend the next five months in a 200 to 300 square foot cell before being moved to an apartment. Lam would be watched 24 hours a day by Chinese guards, and even something as simple as brushing his teeth would be monitored. A string was even tied to the toothbrush for fear Lam may want to harm himself. Lam said the he was detained by a little known “Central Examination Group” of the Chinese Communist Party, a special task force that reports to senior Beijing leaders.
“I couldn't call my family. I could only look up to the sky, all alone.”, “they wanted to lock you up until you go mad” Lam said.
Lam said he had to sign away his right to a lawyer and right to contact his family, and was subsequently questioned 20 to 30 times about his role in Hong Kong's publishing industry. At one point, Lam said that he was forced to sign a confession that books were unlawfully sold in order to harm the Chinese society. The confession also was also written to incriminate his colleague (who also has been disappeared, and has yet to return).
“It was a show, and I accept it. I had to follow the script. If I did not follow it strictly, they would ask for a retake” Lam said regarding the confession.
Chinese authorities thought that Lam would continue to cooperate, so Lam was apparently allowed to travel back to Hong Kong after promising to return to the mainland with a hard drive full of information on customers. Instead, Lam held a press conference, and said “I dare not go back. I don't plan on setting foot in mainland China ever again.”
The details provided …read more
Source: Hong Kong Bookseller Who Was ‘Disappeared’ By Chinese Authorities Tells Of What Happened
"Something is Going On" – And It’s Worse Than You Thought
By Tyler Durden
Submitted by Justin Raimondo via Anti-War.com,
I used to wonder why in the heck right-wing commentators on Fox News kept repeating the same mantra over and over again: sitting through the Republican debates, my eyes glazed over when I heard each and every candidate denounce the Obama administration for refusing to say the Sacred Words: “radical Islamic terrorism.” What are these people talking about, I thought to myself: they’re obsessed!
In short, I wrote it off as Fox News boilerplate, until the other day when, in the wake of the Orlando massacre, Donald Trump said the following on Fox: “Something is going on. He doesn’t get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands. It’s one or the other.” Reiterating this trope later on in the same show, he averred that the President “is not tough, not smart – or he’s got something else in mind.”
The Beltway crowd went ballistic. Lindsey Graham had a hissy fit, and other Republican lawmakers started edging away from the presumptive GOP nominee. The Washington Post ran a story with the headline: “Donald Trump Suggests President Obama Was Involved With Orlando Shooting.” Realizing that this level of bias was a bit too brazen, the editors changed it an hour or so later to: “Donald Trump Seems to Connect President Obama to Orlando Shooting.” Not much better, but then again we’re talking about a newspaper that has a team of thirty or so reporters bent on digging up dirt on Trump.
In any case, Trump responded as he usually does: by doubling down. And he did it, as he usually does, on Twitter, tweeting the following:
“Media fell all over themselves criticizing what Donald Trump ‘may have insinuated about @POTUS.’ But he’s right:”
The tweet included a link to this story that appeared on Breitbart: an account of a 2012 intelligence report from the Defense Intelligence Agency predicting the rise of the Islamic State in Syria – and showing how US policy deliberately ignored and even succored it. Secured by Judicial Watch thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, the document says it’s very likely we’ll see the creation of “an Islamic State through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria.” And this won’t just be a grassroots effort, but the result of a centrally coordinated plan: it will happen because “Western countries, the Gulf states and Turkey are supporting these efforts” by Syrian “opposition forces” then engaged in a campaign to “control the eastern areas (Hasaka and Der Zor) adjacent to Western Iraqi provinces (Mosul and Anbar).”
This is precisely what happened, and, as we see, the Iraqi Army is now in the field – with US support – trying to retake Mosul and Anbar, with limited success. Yet it’s not like we didn’t know this was coming – and didn’t have a hand in creating the problem we are now spending billions of dollars and even some American lives trying to “solve.” Things …read more
Source: "Something is Going On" – And It’s Worse Than You Thought
Elizabeth Warren’s War On The Poor
By Tyler Durden
Submitted by Patrick Trombly via The Mises Institute,
There is no American politician more closely associated with “progressive” economic causes than Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. The senator is widely regarded by the political Left as an expert on financial issues, is a self-professed champion of the “working poor,” and is a proud, finger-wagging chastiser of the 1 percent and Wall Street. Her cause is to lift up the least powerful and protect them from the most powerful. She appears to genuinely believe in this cause, and has made several policy proposals that she believes will serve it. Because of her position and the public’s association of the senator with this cause, it is assumed that the policies she proposes will in fact serve it, and that anyone who supports the same causes should get on board and support her proposed policies.
Senator Warren’s stated objective of helping the least powerful is laudable. The problem is that, though well-intentioned, many of Senator Warren’s proposed policies would actually harm the very people whom she intends to help, while her other proposals represent distractions from the real threats to the least powerful, and thus have the effect of allowing these threats to continue. By occupying the seat of defender of the least powerful while advocating policies that would harm the least powerful, the senator has become a danger to her own cause. Below are three examples.
Minimum Wage / “Fight for $15”
Senator Warren has long advocated an increase in the minimum wage, to $15/hour, on the premise that raising the minimum wage will lift the wages of the working poor — people presently earning, say, $9 per hour. The problem is that that is not how minimum wage, or any other price floor, works. The minimum wage is a price floor. A price floor does not magically lift prices, but merely establishes a legal minimum price below which exchanges are not allowed to take place, rendering exchanges that would have taken place at lower prices illegal.
Much in the way that a $15 minimum price for a hamburger would not raise the price that people pay for a McDonald’s hamburger from about $2 to $15. A $15/hour minimum wage would not raise the price that McDonald’s franchises will pay for unskilled labor. Instead, it would force McDonald’s franchises and other employers of low-skilled individuals to replace staffs of several low-skilled employees with staffs comprising fewer, skilled employees, and/or to automate. In either case, some low-skilled workers presently earning $9/hour to $11/hour would lose their jobs, or have their hours cut significantly back, to make room for the fewer, higher-skilled laborers and/or robots. While Senator Warren may not intend for this result to occur, it is what would occur if her policy recommendation is adopted. Her proposed policy would transform millions of working poor people into unemployed poor people.
Payday Lenders
Similarly, Senator Warren has recently proposed restrictions limiting the ability of lenders, known as “payday lenders,” to make short-term, fast-approval, …read more
Source: Elizabeth Warren’s War On The Poor
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