Tuesday, April 07, 2020

Was the Fed Just Nationalized? / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Ellen_Brown

Did Congress just nationalize the Fed? No. But the door to that result has been cracked open.

Mainstream politicians have long insisted that Medicare for all, a universal basic income, student debt relief and a slew of other much-needed public programs are off the table because the federal government cannot afford them. But that was before Wall Street and the stock market were driven onto life-support by a virus. Congress has now suddenly discovered the magic money tree. It took only a few days for Congress to unanimously pass the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which will be doling out $2.2 trillion in crisis relief, most of it going to Corporate America with few strings attached. Beyond that, the Federal Reserve is making over $4 trillion available to banks, hedge funds and other financial entities of all stripes; it has dropped the fed funds rate (the rate at which banks borrow from each other) effectively to zero; and it has made $1.5 trillion available to the repo market.

Tuesday, April 07, 2020

Gold & Silver Mines Closed as Physical Silver Becomes “Most Undervalued Asset” / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020

By: MoneyMetals

A surge in coronavirus cases, an expansion of economic lockdowns, and an explosion in unemployment claims hit markets this week.  But this deluge of bad news didn’t seem to catch investors by surprise.

Instead of crashing to new lows, the stock market held within a trading range and rallied yesterday following the release of a horrific jobs report. 

It’s been a huge week for commodity markets as oil prices posted their biggest single day percentage gain ever Thursday, popping more than 25%.  Oil prices lifted from their severely depressed $20 per barrel level after President Donald Trump met with oil executives and announced Russia and Saudi Arabia would agree to curtail production.

Tuesday, April 07, 2020

US Coronavirus Blacktop Politics / Politics / US Politics

By: Richard_Mills

Benjamin Franklin once said; “Out of adversity comes opportunity.” 

The adversity the United States now faces with the coronavirus pandemic is the worst national emergency the country has faced since World War II, more serious, far more deadly, than any natural disaster, 9/11, the War on Terrorism, the Korean War, maybe even Vietnam. 

As of this writing, there are 211,143 cases and 4,713 deaths. More coronavirus patients have now died in the United States than in China, the pandemic epicenter, where extraordinary measures were taken to successfully contain it, including locking down entire cities (pop. 50 million), and contact tracing tens of thousands of people connected to those infected, so they could self-quarantine.  

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said he believes the virus could kill 100,000 to 200,000 before it is done ravaging the US population. That “middle of the road” estimate is at least double the 58,200 American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War. 

Depending how long this goes on, the economic fallout from covid-19 could be twice as bad as the Great Recession. A record 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment insurance last week. If that keep up, one in three will be jobless by summer - more than during the Great Depression. 

Monday, April 06, 2020

Coronavirus is America's "Pearl Harbour" Moment, There Will be a Reckoning With China / Politics / China US Conflict

By: Nadeem_Walayat

The Coronavirus catastrophe continues to unfold which makes a mockery of all those from the President downwards who used to peddle the line that it was not much worse than the flu. Well whilst many including the President have since changed their tune, however a significant number of people continue to not take it seriously stating that the high death rate is as a consequence of lack of testing..

However, if the coronavirus was little worse than the flu then as the US has now increased testing to over 100,000 per day then the case fatality rate should be falling. But that's not what's happening as the more the US tests then the higher the death rate climbs each day and each week.

So the problem with the not much worse than the flu assumption is that the Case Fatality Rates are INCREASING WITH MORE TESTING!

Monday, April 06, 2020

Coronavirus Crisis Exposes Consequences of Fed Policy: Americans Have No Savings / Economics / Coronavirus Depression

By: MoneyMetals

Two weeks ago, during a March 17 address to the nation in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, President Donald Trump asked that Americans work from home, postpone unnecessary travel, and limit social gatherings to no more than 10 people.

And last week, on March 27, Trump signed a stimulus package of over $2 trillion dollars to provide relief to an economy on the precipice of collapse.

The aid package includes handouts and loans to individuals, small businesses, and other distressed industries.

Monday, April 06, 2020

The Stock Market Is Not a Magic Money Machine / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020

By: Jared_Dillian

I am writing from my home library since I’m no longer working in my office in downtown Myrtle Beach.

I’ve always resisted working from home because I don’t want to stress out in my own house. But it hasn’t been bad. I have a hot tub, a pool, cigars, and the cats.

Things are much worse for most other people. The virus and the protective measures have done untold economic damage. Some people are openly talking of a depression.

Monday, April 06, 2020

Gold Stocks Crash, V-Bounce! / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2020

By: Zeal_LLC

Gold miners’ stocks have endured epic volatility in this past month, literally crashing before blasting back higher in a violent V-bounce.  That preceding wicked capitulation flush savagely forced the weak hands out, paving the way for gold stocks’ next major upleg.  The resulting fierce rebound signals it is already underway, with plenty of speculators and investors now chasing the huge gains this sector is famous for.

Perspective is essential and exceedingly-valuable for traders.  If you don’t know where we’ve been and how we got here, you can’t figure out where we’re likely going.  Context is necessary to frame this past month’s extraordinary gold-stock action, and to successfully game where this sector should be heading.  Extreme volatility creates extreme opportunities, neither of which come around very often.  Carpe diem!

The leading and most-popular gold-stock benchmark is the GDX VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF.  It was the first gold-stock ETF launched way back in May 2006, giving it a first-mover advantage that has grown into an insurmountable lead.  GDX’s $10.2b in net assets this week were running 34.4x larger than the next-biggest 1x-long major-gold-miners ETF!  GDX’s recent raging action reveals what just transpired.

Monday, April 06, 2020

How Can Writing Business Essay Help You In Business Analytics Skills / Personal_Finance / Education

By: Submissions

Sunday, April 05, 2020

PAYPAL WARNING - Your Stimulus Funds Are at Risk of Being Frozen for 6 Months! / ConsumerWatch / Scams

By: N_Walayat

Paypal seeing an opportunity in a crisis, one of wanting to manage the US Governments distribution of $1200 Coronavirus stimulus payments to every adult American who earns under $75,000 per year and $500 for each child and thus have started a campaign of buttering up the public and politicians in allowing PAYPAL access to YOUR STIMULUS FUNDS including sending out emails to account holders full of promises of help in this time of national crisis.

Sunday, April 05, 2020

Stocks Hanging By the Fingernails? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020

By: P_Radomski_CFA

After Wednesday’s slide, the S&P 500 moved higher yesterday. While the move itself hadn’t surprised us as we’ve earlier called for a pause in the downswing, the question is whether we can expect some more upside shortly.

Long story short, that’s unlikely. Let’s open today’s analysis with the daily chart examination (charts courtesy of http://stockcharts.com).

Sunday, April 05, 2020

US Federal Budget Deficits: To $30 Trillion and Beyond / Interest-Rates / US Debt

By: John_Mauldin

In my decade forecast, I projected that in the next recession that the deficit would climb to over $2 trillion. Clearly, that demonstrates I am an optimist. Here’s a chart I shared back in January.

Between reduced tax revenues and increased spending, I now expect this year’s deficit will be at least $4 trillion.

Sunday, April 05, 2020

The Lucrative Profitability Of A Move To Negative Interest Rates - Pandemic Edition / Interest-Rates / Negative Interest Rates

By: Dan_Amerman

When it comes to the recession that is being created by the pandemic lockdowns - then the U.S. government and Federal Reserve have no intention of just letting the market forces play out. Instead, the intention is to contain a potential deeper round of crisis with the most extreme interventions yet. One very real possibility is for the Fed to follow the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan, and to spend trillions of dollars to buy government (and corporate) debt while creating negative interest rates.

Sunday, April 05, 2020

Visa Denials: How to avoid it and what to do if your Visa is denied? / Personal_Finance / Credit Cards & Scoring

By: Submissions

When it comes to visa stories, there are as many success stories out there as there are sob stories. It is even safe to say that the sob stories exceed the success stories these days. And they continue to grow by the day.

In fact, according to a recent survey conducted on U.S. immigration history, it has been established that the United States alone denies nearly 4 million visa applications every year for a variety of reasons. And like that wasn’t enough; under the administration of Donald Trump, the denial rate has jumped from 8.3% to 11.3 percent in the last few years, a 37% jump in rejection rate.

Saturday, April 04, 2020

WARNING PAYPAL Making a Grab for US $1200 Stimulus Payments / Personal_Finance / Scams

By: N_Walayat

Paypal seeing an opportunity in a crisis, one of wanting to manage the US Governments distribution of $1200 Coronavirus stimulus payments to every adult American who earns under $75,000 per year and $500 for each child and thus have started a campaign of buttering up the public and politicians in allowing PAYPAL access to YOUR STIMULUS FUNDS including sending out emails to account holders full of promises of help in this time of national crisis.

Saturday, April 04, 2020

Stock Market Enters a 25-35year Crisis Cycle Re-evaluation Event / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020

By: Chris_Vermeulen

We can only imagine what many of you are thinking and feeling right now.  Shock?  Concern?  Despair?  Some of you have already emailed us asking about the US and Global markets to find out what our predictive modeling systems are suggesting.  Today, we’re going to show you what the longer-term Adaptive Fibonacci Price Modeling system is suggesting for the S&P and NASDAQ.

First, we want to ask you to slow down, take a few seconds to realize we will recover from this virus event and the smart thing to do is protect your family, protect your assets, and prepare for the future.  Market crashes happen only 2-3 times in a lifetime and they, not the end of the world or financial system. 

Saturday, April 04, 2020

US Stock Market Next Heavy Down Leg Believed Imminent / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020

By: Clive_Maund

Technical analyst Clive Maund discusses what he sees ahead for the markets.

We are going to look at an array of important factors pointing to another severe drop in the broad U.S. stock market imminently, both factors external to it and indications on the charts for the S&P 500 index (and other indices which we won't have time to look at).

First it is well worth watching another classic video from Greg Mannarino posted on March 30: WOW...ZERO Economic Activity in which he puts into words what many of us are thinking, and it's worth watching this at least a couple of times. Rather amusingly, "The Dark Side" tried to buy Greg off to shut him up, but he wasn't having it. This is how they operate – they buy you off, marginalize you, or take you out, whether you are an individual, a company or a country.

Saturday, April 04, 2020

The Opening Salvo in the Renewed Stock Downswing / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020

By: P_Radomski_CFA

As expected, the S&P 500 had a down session yesterday. Opening with a sizable gap, the bears continued their push to move prices lower. Since the futures have been pointing higher before the unemployment claims came in, does it mark a tradable turnaround?

In short, that’s unlikely. Let’s start though with the daily chart examination (charts courtesy of http://stockcharts.com).

Saturday, April 04, 2020

The US Dollar Index: How Can it Help You Trading? / Currencies / US Dollar

By: Submissions

Luckily, there are various ways to optimize your trading besides technical and fundamental analysis, especially when it comes to forex trading. Chances are that you are currently thinking about the live forex rates, however, there is an even more powerful tool to take advantage of the US dollar Index.

Saturday, April 04, 2020

US COVID-19 Death Toll Higher Than China’s Now. Will Gold Rally? / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020

By: Arkadiusz_Sieron

This week, the US scored a sad record. The number of deaths related to the coronavirus in the US surpassed the death toll in China. What does it imply for the US economy and the gold market?

US Epidemiological Situation Is Grim
Just as people were overly optimistic before the stock market top, they can be too pessimistic right now. This is a real risk and we take it into account. However, the incoming data confirm our view expressed in the April edition of the Gold Market Overview that “the US will be severely hit” and that “the worst is yet ahead for the States”. Unfortunately, it turned out that we were right. On Monday, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States. So much for the claims that influenza is worse than coronavirus. The U.S. coronavirus-related deaths reached more than 4,000 deaths, which is behind only Italy and Spain! The US death toll has actually surpassed the number of deaths in China (much more populous country), as you can see in the chart below.

Saturday, April 04, 2020

Concerned That Asia Could Blow A Hole In Future Economic Recovery / Economics / Coronavirus Depression

By: Chris_Vermeulen

Thinking somewhat far off into the future, our researchers believe China/Asia could become the next Black Hole in the global economy.  China recently released its March PMI number which came in at 52.0 – showing moderate expansion in Chinese manufacturing.  The February Chinese PMI level was 35.7.  We strongly believe China wants to show some strength in their perceived economic recovery and that these PMI numbers are somewhat “manufactured for effect”.