Nearly 40% of Americans are anxious about stock market volatility—here's the No. 1 reason why

"When it seems like the sky is falling,"

James C. Kelly, a wealth strategist at PNC Bank, tells CNBC Make It, "do your best to remain calm and remember that corrections and market downturns are normal and healthy. As an investor, you never want to make decisions based on emotions, especially fear, so first and foremost, try to remain calm."

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/26/why-nearly-40-percent-of-americans-are-anxious-about-stock-market-volatility.html

A way for the Fed and Treasury to ease stock market turmoil

So, how can the Fed reduce its balance sheet without negatively impacting financial markets? Almost all of the Fed’s actions are conducted directly or indirectly through the markets, but this is not necessary.

When the Fed buys or sells securities, it does so directly through the markets, and when it receives payoffs on existing securities, the Treasury or agency issuer goes to the financial markets for funds, so the impact remains.

An alternative is to deal directly with banks, bypassing markets. The Fed does this on a small scale with limited direct loans, but the ECB has done this on a large scale with its Long-Term Refinancing Operations (LTROs), loans to banks that will relend the proceeds. The LTROs appear to have less impact on financial markets than direct activity.

Rather than sell its holdings or wait for them to be paid off, the Fed can work with Treasury to exchange Treasury securities for excess deposits at the Fed. The U.S. government is thus exchanging one obligation, a deposit at the Fed, for another, a Treasury security with no change in overall liabilities.

The banks have government-guaranteed, liquid holdings either way with no impact on overall assets. The financial markets get a rest from large scale government refinancing, so they should have less dislocation even while balance sheet reduction can be accelerated.

As it has with other new monetary procedures, the Fed can test this exchange in a trial before full-blown refinancing. Removing the overhang of Fed balance sheet reduction can only benefit Fed operations, the financial markets and thus investors.

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/413327-a-way-for-the-fed-and-treasury-to-ease-stock-market-turmoil

How $21 Trillion in U.S. Tax Money Disappeared. “Full Scope Audit” of the Pentagon

The following are highlights from the DOD

IG “Summary of DOD Office of the Inspector General Audits of Financial Management”:

The financial management systems DOD has put in place to control and monitor the money flow don’t facilitate but actually “prevent DOD from collecting and reporting financial information… that is accurate, reliable, and timely.” (p. 4)

DOD frequently enters “unsupported” (i.e. imaginary) amounts in its books (p. 13) and uses those figures to make the books balance. (p. 14)

Inventory records are not reviewed and adjusted; unreliable and inaccurate data are used to report inventories, and purchases are made based on those distorted inventory reports. (p. 7)

DOD managers do not know how much money is in their accounts at the Treasury, or when they spend more than Congress appropriates to them. (p. 5)18

Nor does DOD “record, report, collect, and reconcile” funds received from other agencies or the public (p. 6),

DOD tracks neither buyer nor seller amounts when conducting transactions with other agencies. (p. 12)

“The cost and depreciation of the DOD general property, plant, and equipment are not reliably reported….” (p. 8);

“… the value of DOD property and material in the possession of contractors is not reliably reported.” (p. 9)

DOD does not know who owes it money, nor how much. (p. 10.)

It gets worse; overall:

“audit trails” are not kept “in sufficient detail,” which means no one can track the money;

DOD’s “Internal Controls,” intended to track the money, are inoperative. Thus, DOD cost reports and financial statements are inaccurate, and the size, even the direction (in plus or minus values), of the errors cannot be identified, and

DOD does not observe many of the laws that govern all this.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-21-trillion-in-u-s-tax-money-disappeared-full-scope-audit-of-the-pentagon/5638534

Israel backs Hungary, says financier Soros is a threat

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-hungary-soros-idUSKBN19V1J4?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29

The Trump Effect.

SF spends $300,000 to register noncitizen voters — a whopping 49 sign up

San Francisco’s effort to get noncitizen parents to the ballot box is pretty much a bust the first time out, with only 49 signing up to vote in the Nov. 6 election. Back in July, the city began registering noncitizens — including undocumented immigrants — to vote in school board elections. (snip)But Donald Trump’s election quickly put a damper on enthusiasm for the idea.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/SF-spends-300-000-to-register-noncitizen-voters-13340917.php?t=1cc71b89e3