Congress, Not The Fed, Is The New Driver Of Financial Markets

For as long as you’ve known me, I’ve been saying the Fed is the single most dominant player in the markets. That changed as of this year. The chart below may surprise you. Since the start of the pandemic, the ups and downs of the markets have exactly tracked changing inflation expectations.

Why is this significant? While the Fed can control short-term or long-term interest rates, they cannot directly control inflation. They can only influence inflation by changing interest rates, which are already anchored at close to zero. So the Fed is largely helpless in stimulating the economy and the markets. It is now in an era where it must rely on Congress bills in order to enact expansionary monetary policy.

Up until 2008, the Fed controlled the economy and the markets through short-term interest rates. By setting expectations of future short rates, the Fed can also indirectly influence long rates, thus impacting the financing rates of capital transfers over various time frames.

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/congress-not-fed-new-driver-financial-markets

Carney: 7 Winning Policies That Trump Deployed to Revive U.S. Manufacturing

Americans are about to decide whether or not to give President Donald Trump a second term. One of his key selling points is the progress we have made in restoring American manufacturing.

Here you can read how much the Trump administration has led the nation in rebuilding jobs, output, wages, and exports. But how did that happen? What policies created the Trump boom?

Tax cuts helped all U.S. businesses. The general approach of economic nationalism boosted confidence. But there were at least 7 specific policies that gave a bit lift to manufacturing:

1. Tearing up the Trans-Pacific Partnership. President Trump immediately — on the third day of his presidency — withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, known as the TPP. He rejected the deal negotiated under Barack Obama’s administration as not providing enough protection for U.S. jobs or opportunities for U.S. businesses. Critics of the TPP said it would cost more than 400,000 U.S. jobs.

1. Pulling U.S. Out of Paris Climate Agreement. On June 1, 2017, Trump announced the U.S. would pull out of the Paris Climate Accord. The agreement would have greatly hampered U.S. factories while allowing China to continue record-levels of pollution.

1. Protecting Domestic Washing Machine and Solar Panel Producers from Unfair Competition. Trump approved global safeguard tariffs on $8.5 billion in imports of solar panels and $1.8 billion of washing machines on January 22, 2018.

1. Saving American Aluminum and Steel. The Trump administration’s investigations revealed that a global glut of metals — due to vast overproduction in China — was imperiling U.S. capacity to produce steel and aluminum. That, in turn, was a serious threat to U.S. national security. On March 1, 2018, Trump announced tariffs on all trading partners of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum under national security grounds. A week later, he signed the tariff order.

1. Imposing Tariffs to Stop China’s Predatory Mercantilism.

In the summer of 2017, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced an investigation into China’s policies that might be hampering U.S. property rights, innovation, or technology development.

The devastating report found China was stealing U.S. technology by forcing U.S. companies to handover tech to Chinese-controlled joint-ventures. The Trump administration responded with a $50 billion list of 1,333 Chinese products on which it intended to impose 25 percent tariffs. When

After China published its own list of U.S. products—from cars, to aircraft, to agricultural goods—that it would subject to forthcoming 25 percent tariffs as retaliation, Trump told Lighthizer to put a 10 percent tariff on $200 billion of additional goods.

In the summer of 2018, U.S. imposed the 25 percent tariff on the first list of $50 billion of goods. Trump threatens to impose tariffs on all US imports from China, which totaled $504 billion in 2017.

By September 2018, the 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese products take effect.

Trump declared a trade truce in December 2018, but said if talks did not produce an agreement, the 10 percent tariffs would rise to 25 percent.

China and the U.S. spent much of 2019 in stop and start negotiations. In May, the U.S. raised the 10 percent tariff to 25 percent and then makes plans to raise tariffs on all remaining Chinese goods.

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2020/11/01/carney-7-winning-policies-that-trump-deployed-to-revive-u-s-manufacturing/

Joe Biden Tells Philly Crowd “I Got My Eagles Jacket On” …Except It’s Not. It’s a Blue Hen

Joe Biden was campaigning in Philly today screaming at cars.

During the event Joe Biden told the Philadelphia crowd he was wearing his Eagles jacket.

Except that it wasn’t. It was his Blue Hens jacket.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/oomf-joe-biden-tells-philly-crowd-got-eagles-jacket-except-not-blue-hen/

Cartel Assassins Murder Mexican Border State Police Commander South of Texas

A group of cartel gunmen murdered a border state police commander in a Saturday morning surprise attack. The late commander received several threats by organized crime prior to his execution.

The murder took place on Saturday morning in the Tamaulipas capital city of Ciudad Victoria. Commander Tomas Charles Ortiz and his brother Alejandro pulled up to a pharmacy in the bureaucrat’s neighborhood. An unknown number of gunmen went up to the duo and shot them several times with handguns before escaping. Residents called 911 to report the murder. State investigators responded to the scene and sealed the area as they carried out the preliminary investigations.

Tomas Charles Ortiz had served as the Tamaulipas State Police Delegate in Reynosa and had been in charge of overseeing numerous operations by state police officers. A motive for the murder has not been revealed. Law enforcement sources revealed to Breitbart Texas that one of the main investigation theories points to gunmen from the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas. In recent days, state authorities seized several weapons and armored vehicles from cartel gunmen in the area known as La Riberena that is located immediately south of Starr County, Texas.

Breitbart Texas reported that the area has been the source of much conflict as the CDN worked to systematically take away control of that region from the Gulf Cartel. The region is one of the main smuggling areas in Tamaulipas since it has approximately 43 miles of unfenced border area where the only obstacle for cartel smugglers is the shallow waters of the Rio Grande.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2020/11/01/mexican-border-state-police-commander-murdered-by-cartel-gunmen/

‘Sweet, I Will Take The Slave’: 2 Men Charged With Selling, Buying 19-Year-Old Woman, Keeping Her In Dungeon

The men who bought and sold a 19-year-old woman as a “sex slave” have been charged with human trafficking, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox.

Following an intensive investigation, Alfonso Orozco Juarez, 35, and Robert Hubert, 66, were charged via criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Juarez was arrested at his home in Dallas and made his initial appearance in court in Dallas on Wednesday; ubert was arrested at his home in Roebuck, SC, and made his initial appearance in court in Greenville, SC last week.

“This victim endured horrific abuse at the hands of these defendants. It’s unthinkable and frankly, difficult to learn that this type of thing is happening in our District,” said U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox. “I am grateful that our North Texas Human Trafficking Task Force was able to act swiftly and aggressively. The Northern District of Texas and its partners in the District of New Mexico are committed to ending the scourge of human trafficking, one brutal case at a time.”

“Anyone that is involved in human trafficking activities – either as a member of a transnational criminal organization, a business owner exploiting his/her employees, or a street level pimp – should be viewed as a vicious predator. These despicable people who enrich themselves by exploiting the innocent have no place amongst law-abiding citizens and HSI will always combat it with every resource at our disposal. We will continue to collaborate with any law enforcement agency at any level of government in our shared efforts to bring human traffickers to justice,” said Ryan L. Spradlin, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations Dallas.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed yesterday afternoon, Juarez contacted the Santa Fe-based victim via a dating app MeetMe in 2019. In September 2019, they met in person inside a Dallas motel room, where Juarez pistol whipped the victim, bruising her hand and jaw. He later gave her a “slave name” and threatened to kill her and her family if she did not consent to being sold for sex. At one point, Juarez pointed an unloaded gun at her head and pulled the trigger.

After repeatedly selling the victim for commercial sex, Juarez advertised her as a “slave” on a fetishism website, where he offered to sell her to the highest bidder. Hubert, screen name “The Darkest Lord,” offered $5,000.

In text messages with Hubert, Juarez referred to the victim as “the property” and bragged that she “submitted fully” after he “pistol whip[ped]” her.

“She’s totally dependent on me,” he wrote.

“SWEET,” Hubert responded. “I will take the slave.”

The men met up at a gas station in Dallas, where Hubert put the victim in his car to drive her to his home in South Carolina. After Hubert clamped a metal collar around her neck, threatened to brand her, and provided her with a list of “fetishes he likes,” the victim texted Juarez, pleading for help:

“I’m afraid if I don’t do something, he’s going to hurt me,” she said.

“Endure what you have to,” he responded. “He’ll punish you whip you . . . but not kill you.”

When they reached Hubert’s home — where there was a room he described as a “dungeon” Hubert required the victim to remove her clothes and “be naked all the time.” Terrified, the victim persuaded Hubert to let her call her parents.

The victim’s father begged Hubert to let his daughter go, but Hubert informed him that he had purchased the victim for $5,000 and demanded $5,000 back in exchange for her safe return. He even sent the victim’s father a “contract,” signed by both Juarez and Hubert, as proof of the “sale.” Eventually, Hubert relented, and the victim was able to escape by bus.

https://breaking911.com/sweet-i-will-take-the-slave-2-men-charged-with-selling-buying-19-year-old-woman-keeping-her-in-dungeon/

Caravan Of Vehicles For Trump Shut Down New Jersey Highway

Days after a vehicle convoy of President Trump's supporters escorted the Biden-Harris Bus down a Texas highway, another caravan of Trump supporters shut down a stretch of New Jersey roadway on Sunday.

Videos surfaced on Twitter Sunday afternoon of what appears to be hundreds of vehicles, could be a lot more, of Trump supporters shutting down a stretch of Garden State Parkway in New Jersey.

One Trump supporter could be heard saying: "We shut it down."

Around noon, it appears one stretch of the Garden State Parkway was in gridlock,

ne Twitter user said: "whoever organized the trump parade on the garden state parkway, f**k you man, now i'm late to work."

Ironically, some Trump supporters have previously complained about radical leftists shutting down highways; so it seems, no matter the political affiliation, shutting down roads and cities to make a political point appears to be a way to be heard.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-caravan-vehicles-trump-shut-down-new-jersey-highway

>>11397659

May your notes be full and comprehensive!!!

>>11397843

kek

Jewish Prof. who called every election since 1984 predicts Biden will win

In essence, "It's governing, not campaigning, that counts," American University's Prof. Allan Lichtman explained.

A Jewish-American historian who correctly predicted the outcome of every US presidential election since 1984 has weighed in on the outcome of the 2020 election, predicting a Joe Biden victory.

Speaking to Fox News, American University's Prof. Allan Lichtman explained his prediction for a Biden victory based on his Keys to the White House model. First created in 1981 alongside Russian scientist Vladimir Keilis-Borok and later published in a book in 1996, the model is based on earthquake studies and has a set of 13 "keys" that are used as predictors for determining the outcome of the US presidential elections. Notably, it is based entirely on the performance of the incumbent and their party, which will determine if their party will secure the Oval Office for another term or if it will be lost to the opposition. These keys cover a wide variety of topics, including scandal, a party's control of the House of Representatives, the state of the economy, social unrest, foreign/military successes and failures, charisma and so on.

In essence, "It's governing, not campaigning, that counts," Lichtman explained. Under this theory, whichever side holds six or more Keys in their favor will win the election, while campaigning and comments made during the campaign are dismissed by the voters as campaign rhetoric and spin.

It was utilizing this theory that Lichtman successfully predicted Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 election, being one of the few forecasters to do so rather than favor Hillary Clinton. This did not go unnoticed by Trump, who actually wrote Lichtman a thank-you note on a copy of a Washington Post article about the prediction.

But this time, Trump's prospects don't look as strong.

"Now that Trump is the incumbent, he has seven Keys against him," Lichtman explained to Fox News, compared to the six Keys in his favor in 2016. "My prediction is that Donald Trump will become the first sitting president since George H. W. Bush in 1992 to lose a reelection bid, and Joe Biden will become the next president of the United States."

Lichtman attributed these results entirely to the events of 2020. Prior to this, Trump's prospects looked far better, with only four Keys out against him. However, this was changed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and its resulting economic crisis, as well as the widespread social unrest sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Lichtman quoted former US President Herbert Hoover, who sat in the Oval Office at the start of the Great Depression.

https://www.jpost.com/us-elections/jewish-prof-who-called-every-election-since-1984-predicts-biden-will-win-647699

‘Lockdowns KILL’: Trump Covid adviser Atlas forced to APOLOGIZE for RT interview as media uproar deflects to ‘Russian propaganda’

Trump administration Covid-19 adviser Scott Atlas ripped public-health officials for “egregious” policy failures – only to be forced to apologize after mainstream media deflected his points by attacking him for appearing on RT.

On Saturday, the Stanford University doctor, who has emerged as President Donald Trump’s top adviser on responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, called the lockdown policies an “epic failure” and argued they are “killing people,” while speaking with Afshin Rattansi on RT’s Going Underground show.

“The public-health leadership have failed egregiously, and they're killing people with their fear-inducing shutdown policies,” Atlas told RT.

“The lockdowns will go down as an epic failure of public policy by people who refuse to accept they were wrong – were wrong, refused to accept they were wrong, didn’t know the data, didn’t care. And it became a frenzy of stopping Covid-19 cases at all costs, and those costs are massive,” he said.

The argument is undeniable: The lockdowns are killing people.

Atlas then pointed to job losses, rising suicides, rising drug abuse and the harm being done to young people, tying the issues to the Covid-19 restrictions put in place. One study showed that 25 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 thought about killing themselves in June “due to the lockdown,” he said.

We’re creating a generation of neurotic children, forcing them to wear masks and be six feet apart from their friends, or not even have school in person.

While Atlas’ counter-narrative comments might have been fodder for a serious discussion of public-health policy, mainstream media outlets instead spun the interview into a controversy over a Trump administration official granting an interview to a Russian state-owned outlet.

https://www.rt.com/usa/505211-atlas-lockdowns-going-undergound-apology/

Collapse of the 2020s

Mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis initiated a socioeconomic chain reaction that has only begun to play out. This story has a silver lining; a chance to make the world a better place. But it has to start with an honest assessment of how we got here, and point to a positive course of action.

Imagine ten years ago if someone described to you what the world would look like as we entered the 2020s. Would you have believed them?

Interesting times eh? It’s about to get a lot more interesting.

History will remember this decade as a critical turning point. The end of an era.

2020 was the year that ideas like this went mainstream. Headlines that used to be relegated to the lunatic fringe were now being promoted by the corporate media. Credible economists warning that a banking crisis, a sovereign debt crisis and ultimately a monetary crisis were on the horizon. Prominent researchers projecting more riots and unrest and potentially a civil war.The U.N. calling for urgent action to avert a global food emergency. And world leaders warning that military conflict between the United States and China “was no longer inconceivable”.

Then of course we had the COVID-19 debacle. Though the ‘authorities’ would blame the disease itself, it was their ill-conceived response that actually served as the catalyst. Their short sighted policies initiated a chain reaction. Some consequences of this chain reaction are inevitable (like a bullet that has left the barrel of a gun). Others hang in the balance. There will not, however, be any going back to normal.

This story has a silver lining; a chance to make the world a better place. But it has to start with an honest assessment of how we got here, and point to a positive course of action.

In the winter of 2020 as COVID-19 went exponential a panic was spreading even faster. Borders around the globe slammed shut in rapid succession and the vast majority of the world’s population was placed under some form of curfew or stay at home order. Businesses deemed non-essential were shuttered. Events cancelled. Gatherings banned. In some countries people weren’t even allowed outside to exercise.

The public accepted these policies at first because they were led to believe they would only last a few weeks. But as weeks became months, and infections soared in spite of summer temperatures it became clear that the lockdowns were never going to eradicate this virus. At best they would slow or delay the spread. And at what cost?

Those who hatched this plan had made no provision for a pandemic that would linger on for months or years. They didn’t even account for the socioeconomic chain reaction that the first round of lock downs would set in motion.

With businesses shuttered and movement highly restricted, millions were left unemployed virtually overnight. The scale and speed of these job losses broke all previous records. Even the great depression didn’t come close.

By the summer of 2020 flash points of violence and social unrest were flaring up in cities around the world. Pent up frustrations were building, for obvious reasons. Billions of people had just spent months locked in their houses. Millions had been thrown into extreme poverty. Most stress relieving activities had been banned: social gatherings, sports, time with friends at restaurants or bars… even places of worship were restricted. This was a powder keg waiting for a match.

Politicians obviously saw the danger in this equation. When millions of people are suddenly left hungry and homeless that’s a recipe for revolution. Something had to be done, and quickly. So they did something. Boy did they do something.

When all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail, and the governments around the world were looking at a very, very large nail. The fiscal stimulus programs of 2020 were epic; absolutely off the charts. By June over 18 trillion had been disbursed globally. Some of this stimulus came in the form of checks sent directly to every single taxpayer. In the U.S. these checks shipped with a autograph of Donald J. Trump… so you would know who to thank.

Unemployment benefits were also expanded in many countries. In the United States for example unemployed workers were given an extra 600 dollars a week. This meant that many were earning more staying home than they had been on the job. In fact personal income in the United States soared by 10.5 percent in April; the largest monthly increase ever recorded.

http://stormcloudsgathering.com/collapse-of-the-2020s/

>>11397931

Kushner kek