Mark Zuckerberg is meeting with prominent figures in media, including Glenn Beck, to discuss the alleged suppression of conservative news stories.
…read more
Source: Zuckerberg to host Glenn Beck at Facebook
By Tyler Durden
Submitted by Chris Hamilton via Hambone's Stuff blog,
“The payment of interest on excess reserves will permit the Federal Reserve to expand its balance sheet as necessary to provide the liquidity necessary to support financial stability while implementing the monetary policy that is appropriate in light of the System’s macroeconomic objectives of maximum employment and price stability.”
Source: Fed Worries About Deflation But Pays Banks Billions Not To Lend QE Proceeds!?
By Tyler Durden
As Venezuela gives the world a first hand look at how socialism ends, the U.S. is growing more and more concerned about how everything is going to play out once the meltdown is complete.
The concern of course is valid, as at this point, the immediate future looks quite grim. Looters have taken to the streets, clearing supermarket shelves of all available food as the country begins to starve, and in order to try and preserve the what little time he has left, president Maduro recently declared a 60-day state of emergency.
According to Reuters, senior U.S. officials doubt that President Maduro will be able to complete his term, which ends after elections in late 2018. As the U.S. kicks around possible scenarios for how this will all end, from a referendum vote to military coup, one thing is becoming more and more certain: “You know there's a crisis coming.”
The United States is increasingly concerned about the potential for an economic and political meltdown in Venezuela, spurred by fears of a debt default, growing street protests and deterioration of its oil sector, U.S. intelligence officials said on Friday.
In a bleak assessment of Venezuela's worsening crisis, the senior officials expressed doubt that unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro would allow a recall referendum this year, despite opposition-led protests demanding a vote to decide whether he stays in office.
But the two officials, briefing a small group of reporters in Washington, predicted that Maduro, who heads Latin America’s most ardently anti-U.S. government and a major U.S. oil supplier, was not likely to be able to complete his term, which is due to end after elections in late 2018.
They said one “plausible” scenario would be that Maduro’s own party or powerful political figures would force him out and would not rule out the possibility of a military coup. Still, they said there was no evidence of any active plotting or that he had lost support from the country’s generals.
The officials appeared to acknowledge that Washington has little leverage in how the situation unfolds in Venezuela, where any U.S. role draws government accusations of U.S.-aided conspiracies. Instead, the administration of President Barack Obama wants “regional” efforts to help keep the country from sliding into chaos.
“You can hear the ice cracking. You know there’s a crisis coming,” one U.S. official said. “Our pressure on this isn’t going to resolve this issue.”
A crisis isn't “coming”, to be clear it has already arrived. Following the state of emergency, which extended a decree granting Maduro extended powers to act in the face of a deep economic crisis, the president threatened to take over idle factories and jail their owners who are trying to “sabotage the country” by halting production. Of course, “sabotage” may be the wrong word to use. Last month, Empresas Polar, the country's largest food and beverage distributor, shut down its last beer plant due to its inability to access dollars needed to pay foreign suppliers. Perhaps Maduro forgot that …read more
Source: "There’s A Crisis Coming" US Officials Increasingly Concerned At Venezuelan Meltdown
By Tyler Durden
Donald Trump certainly knows how to manipulate the media and ruffle some feathers in order to get a reaction, this we know. Trump’s plan to build a wall on the Mexican border doesn’t need to be rehashed here, but one person who has let Trump’s rhetoric on the subject get under his skin is former Mexican president Vicente Fox.
Fox has been on an emotional roller coaster ever since Trump started in with his criticisms of Mexico.
Initially, Fox took to the airwaves to let everyone know that the wall Trump has said Mexico will pay for, ya, he’s not going to be paying for that.
“I declare, I’m not going to pay for that f*cking wall”
As Ben Mathis from Kickass Politics writes:
“in his frankest interview yet, former Mexican President Vicente Fox pulls no punches about the man he calls a “false prophet.” It was recorded the same week as his apology to Donald Trump, and President Fox strike a very different tone, doubling down on “I’m not going to pay for the f_cking wall” and adding “and please don’t take out the f_cking full word.” Vicente Fox compares the man he calls the “hated gringo” and “ugly American” to Latin American dictators like Hugo Chavez and Juan Peron. He also warns that if Trump starts a trade war, then Mexico could retaliate by stopping or limiting money transfers and remittances for US corporations and American tourists in Mexico. Because as Vicente Fox says “Don’t play around with us, we can jump walls, we can swim rivers, & we can defend ourselves.” And he warns that if Trump becomes President, he “could take us to a war, not just a trade war.”
At one point, Fox went as far as to warn Trump not to play around with Mexicans, and that if the rhetoric keeps up it could literally lead to war.
“We’re coming back to the era of the ugly American. The gringo was hated all around the world, and this guy pretty soon he got the title. He is the ugly American, he is the hated gringo, because he’s attacking all of us, he’s offending all of us. Imagine, I mean that could take us to a war. Not to a trade war.“
“Don’t play around with us, we can jump walls, we can swim rivers, we can defend ourselves.”
After all of the venting, Fox then softened a bit, and issued an apology in an interview with Breitbart.
“I’m humble enough, as leaders should be, compassionate leader, if I offended you I’m sorry. But what about the other way around.”
While Vicente Fox may not be indicative of how all world leaders would react to a President Trump, it is safe to say that every single day would be an adventure in the geopolitical arena if and when the former reality tv star and media hungry businessman becomes the next President of the United States.
By Tyler Durden
Following a recent vocal critique by Mark Cuban of the state of the 2016 presidential election, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks said that Anti-Trump Republicans courted him to run for president in a third-party bid, according to a WaPo report. Cuban, who rejected the advances, nonetheless expressed confidence about his ability to take on the presumptive GOP nominee in an election.
“He could come after me all he wanted, and he knows I would put him in his place,” Cuban told the Post. “All that said, again, I don’t see it happening. There isn’t enough time.” Which is unfortunate if only for ad sales: the TV ratings on debates featuring Trump, Hillary and Cuban would have surely broken all records.
“It would have been fun to run against Donald,” Cuban said, in the past tense, in an email to CNNMoney.
Cuban declined to name the republicans who were involved but said they told him that his “bluster and volume, combined with substance and the ability to connect with voters on a more personal basis,” would make him a viable candidate.
“My conversations with them were minimal,” he said. “They reached out to my right-hand man who is my D.C. guy.”
According to CNN, Cuban shares some qualities with Trump – both are brash billionaires with reality TV experience and social media expertise. Cuban-for-president murmurs pop up from time to time, partly spurred by Cuban’s own comments.
Last fall he said he would “crush” both Trump and Hillary Clinton if he ran, but said “I have no interest in running.”
The “Never Trump” forces might have been interested in Cuban because he could “out-trump Trump,” the Post said Saturday.
As CNN adds, Cuban has a Trump-like hold on the media megaphone, but he seems to recognize that a third-party bid for president is fantastical, especially with less than six months to go until Election Day.
In a world where future presidents increasignly have to be billionaires, fellow billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg contemplated a third party bid earlier this year but concluded he could not win. Likewise with Cuban, who told CNNMoney that the discussions with the anti-Trump leaders were short-lived. And “as a third party it’s too late,” he said.
But he also identified a few reasons why the idea intrigued him, no matter how far-fetched it might be.
“I think the time is right for a technology literate entrepreneur to run for president,” he said. “Someone who has had to grind to achieve success and can relate as well to those that follow Bernie as those that think the system is broken and follow Trump. The issue for any such candidate is that the process is broken. It’s a circus rather than a learning process for all involved.”
By Tyler Durden
Submitted by Mike Shedlock of MishTalk
Reader Asks “What Will Happen When Robots Take Our Jobs”
Reader Peter is concerned about the future of jobs, living wages, and displaced workers in a robotic society.
Specifically, Peter asks “how do you think the evolution of robotics will play out?”
Hello Mish
At dinner with friends last evening, we discussed the idealistic thought that robots could one day serve the needs of mankind, allowing us to pursue our interests as we want, without the heavy constraint of having to work to sustain our existence.
I cannot imagine myself not wanting to build and achieve things. But it sure would be enabling if I could choose where I put my efforts based on my personal set of priorities.
While discussing this topic, I realized that as robotics enter our society, socialism would probably be friendlier as to what happens to displaced workers than would capitalism.
What happens if jobs that provide a living wage shrink faster than population growth? Is that a realistic and likely possibility?
I can only imagine that the profits reaped by robotics in a capitalistic system would have no intrinsic vested interest in what happens to these people.
There are strong forces in our capitalistic society that do not welcome the idea and/or cost of a broad social safety net, especially if it were to provide the equivalent of a living wage.
I don’t see a natural path in capitalism where robots working for mankind would free us to pursue our personal interests.
How do you think the evolution of robotics will play out?
Peter
Hello Peter.
No one knows how this will play out.
Regardless, paying people to do nothing, so that people can pursue personal interests is certainly not the answer.
Such actions would encourage people to have more kids for which there are no jobs. That’s clearly an unsustainable model.
If technology does not create jobs, then war is a distinct possibility.
But over the long haul, technology has always created jobs. Why is it different this time?
Unbridled Capitalism Not the Problem
Unbridled capitalism is not the problem. Some will even ask “when has it been tried?”
Yet, the advances in technology that capitalism has provided gives us more leisure time than ever before, despite increasing government interference in the free markets.
We can do more things in more places than any generation in history. We can fly or drive to the Grand Canyon to hike; we can communicate with nearly anyone in the world using Skype, for free; we live longer despite eating unhealthy.
All of these things are because of capitalism, not communism, not socialism.
Living Wages and Inflation
If you hand out a living wage for doing nothing, the amount it takes will escalate rapidly.
Central bank actions are the key problem. They are hell bent on inflation.
Technology is inherently deflationary. People benefit from falling prices, not rising prices.
Thanks to the increased productivity that stems from technology (which in turn stems from capitalism), people today live like kings compared to a few generations ago.
Not only that, but …read more
Source: "What Will Happen When Robots Take Our Jobs"
By EconMatters
By EconMatters
Pension Funds oftentimes are just duplicating existing market strategies and exposure by allocating capital to Hedge Funds while paying higher costs for underperforming a simple SPY Long position the last 7 years.
© EconMatters All Rights Reserved | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Email Digest | Kindle
Source: Most Hedge Funds are really Just Glorified Money Managers (Video)
By Wolf Richter of Wolf Street:
Freight shipments by truck and rail in the US fell 4.9% in April from the beaten-down levels of April 2015, according to the Cass Transportation Index, released on Friday. It was the worst April since 2010, which followed the worst March since 2010. In fact, shipment volume over the four months this year was the worst since 2010.
This is no longer statistical “noise” that can easily be brushed off.
The Cass Freight Index is based on “more than $26 billion” in annual freight transactions by “hundreds of large shippers,” regardless of mode of transportation, including by truck and rail. It does not cover bulk commodities, such as oil and coal and thus is not impacted by the collapsing oil and coal shipments. The index is focused on consumer packaged goods, food, automotive, chemical, OEM, heavy equipment, and retail.
In a similar vein, the Association of American Railroads reported last week that loads of containers and trailers fell 7.5% in April year-over-year. “Intermodal” is a direct competitor to trucking. Combined, they’re a measure of the goods-based economy.
The Cass Freight Index is not seasonally adjusted. Hence the strong seasonal patterns in the chart. Note the beaten-down first four months of 2016 (red line):
And May is not going to look much better. The report:
May is usually a relatively strong month for freight shipments, but given the high inventories with ever slower turnover rates and the decline in new production orders, May could be another soft month.
These inventories are a doozie. Total business inventories have ballooned since late 2014, even as business sales have declined. On Friday, the Commerce Department reported the March installment of that story: total business sales (adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes) fell once again, this time by 1.7% from a year ago; and business inventories rose by 1.5% from a year ago.
As a result, the crucial inventory-to-sales ratio, which tracks how long unsold inventories sit around and gather dust, has blown out to the same crisis level it had spiked to following the Lehman bankruptcy:
With sales down and inventories very high, businesses are trimming their orders to bring inventories back in line, and this is impacting the transportation industry.
Due to falling volume and “very soft rates,” as the report puts it, shippers have spent 8.3% less in April than a year ago, the lowest April spend since 2011. “With ample capacity available across the modes, competition for loads is holding rates down,” the report explains.
Transportation data provider DAT looks at this from the truckers’ point of view. It tracks national spot-market demand for trucks and availability of trucks via its load-to-truck ratio – “a sensitive real-time indicator” of the balance between the two. And the spot market for the largest category, van-type trailers has become ugly: Last month, the load-to-truck ratio for vans …read more
Source: Recession Watch: Freight Volume Drops to Worst Level since 2010
Automation is taking over all aspects of society. In many cases, this is a good thing. As we explain in Splitting Pennies – Understanding Forex – trading Forex manually (Without robots or automation) is basically impossible. But also we’ve learned that when anything is done by the government, it ends up being mismanaged, overpriced, delayed, or worse. In the most extreme example, inmates on death row that are killed by the government, are later found to be innocent with DNA or other hard evidence. Studies show recently that 4% of inmates killed are innocent, but many believe it to be much higher, as much as 50%. Whatever is the number, one person being killed who is innocent is one too many.
So, the state of Florida has implemented an automated toll system, which will not only take a photo of your license plate automatically, it will automatically find your address based on your DMV records, and mail you an invoice!
This invoice was paid promptly via online credit card. What would have been interesting to see how they handle situations where the invoice was not paid! But they fairly billed only the toll, $4.75. It happened on the way from Fort Lauderdale to Miami, on 95’s new overpass, southbound to Miami. There were many flashing signs “Tolls begin Monday (it was Saturday night)” – but no where to pay the toll.
What happens when the IRS automatically deducts your taxes from your bank account? Let’s be practical, any bank or financial institution inside the borders of USA – is open to the possibility of complete control by the Feds, for benign reasons – or in case of emergency, POTUS can always declare some emergency circumstances.. and poof! For example:
“In order to protect your security, and maintain financial stability of the system, we are deducting this temporary lien fine from your account, according to Section 42 Title 9 of the code. Due to paperwork reduction act compliance this notification is electronic only. Have a nice day.”
Sounds far fetched, but so does the automated robotic toll system currently in use by the state of Florida, that automatically photographs cars and mails the registered drivers invoices – to other states!
Practically speaking, systems like this are not new, and have been in use in Europe for decades, and in California. What’s particularly creepy about this though is there was no way to pay the toll in person by car. It wasn’t labelled too well – no sign saying “Drive in this lane and we will mail you a ticket.” Not sure if that’s even legal.
Dear lawyers, is it a legally binding contract, between driver and the State of Florida, by driving in this lane, I have agreed they will photograph my car, and mail me an invoice? Does it violate my privacy? What if I didn’t understand the …read more
Source: Robogov coming to a town near you
By Tyler Durden
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Earlier this week, Ryan Grim and Paul Blumenthal published a blockbuster piece in the Huffington Post, titled: The Vultures’ Vultures: How A New Hedge-Fund Strategy Is Corrupting Washington.
It details the secretive world of the dark money groups representing mercenary hedge funds in their insatiable quest for more and more money. In many ways, it’s merely a microcosm of America in 2016. A culture in which ethics has become so irrelevant, it isn’t even a nuisance; it simply never factors into the equation.
The first few paragraphs set the stage perfectly:
WASHINGTON – Take Robert Shapiro.
A Harvard-trained economist, Shapiro is the head of a consulting firm called Sonecon. That business card doesn’t do it for you? He’s got a few more in his wallet:
Senior fellow at the Georgetown University School of Business.
Adviser to the International Monetary Fund.
Director of the Globalization Initiative at NDN, a progressive think tank.
Shapiro, a Democrat, has advised presidents and presidential candidates, and has held powerful government posts. It stands to reason, then, that when he has thoughts on public policy, he can find an outlet ready to publish them.
Recently, he’s had ideas on how the government can address the debt crisis in Puerto Rico and how it can end the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by moving them into the private market. Before that, he had a take on how to deal with Argentina’s debt crisis. For all three, he produced academic-looking papers, complete with footnotes and charts.
All three situations have one thing in common: If they were resolved the way Shapiro suggested, a variety of bets placed by a select group of the most politically powerful hedge funds would pay off in a huge way. In the case of Argentina, they mostly have. Fights over how to resolve the other two issues are still raging in Washington.
For this article, we called Shapiro to ask on whose behalf he has been waging these intellectual battles. His answer was surprising in its honesty: He’s working with DCI Group, a political dark arts master known to be advocating on behalf of a group of powerful hedge funds that are changing how Washington works.
If you want to get a sense of what’s motivating Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders voters, it’s a desire to take people like Robert Shapiro, remove them from the halls of power, and toss them into a cardboard box on the street. Of course, that won’t be happening any time soon, but that’s what a lot of people want.
What follows are some additional excerpts from the piece, which I strongly suggest you read in full.
Shapiro, it turns out, is but one foot soldier in the hedge fund infantry. A review of public documents, tax filings and interviews with people involved finds that in each of the three campaigns, hedge funds have enlisted the same set of …read more
Source: How Hedge Funds Invest Heavily In Washington D.C.’s Culture Of Corruption
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