tyb
After $30,000 falls off truck, Michigan police ask people to return cash
(sure, be right over with it)
GRAND HAVEN, MICHIGAN - Police in Michigan are appealing to people to surrender their instant riches after a box with $30,000 fell off the back of a truck.
Authorities in Grand Haven say drivers stopped Thursday to pick up cash for themselves.
Only $2,500 was immediately recovered and returned to the owner, who had forgotten that a cash box was on the truck’s bumper. Traffic was backed up on U.S. 31 after money hit the ground.
But by Saturday, more money was trickling in. The Department of Public Safety says two teenagers turned in $630, and a woman gave up nearly $3,900.
The department says on Facebook : “We commend you for your honesty!!”
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/28/world/offbeat-world/30000-falls-off-truck-michigan-police-ask-people-return-cash/
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-24/rothschilds-liquidating-royal-heirlooms-massive-auction
Alarms Go Off As Credit Card Charge-Offs Soar To Seven Year High
(The big bank's and many other's shift around this amount so that they can lower it and then take the difference as a profit-in other words if you buy a car from someone for less than the asking price can you treat that saving's as income?- they do and have for year's)
Regular readers may recall that two years ago we wrote that "Credit Card Defaults Surge Most Since Financial Crisis." And while this deteriorating trend had more or less plateaued for much of 2018, it has taken another big step higher and as Bloomberg reports "red flags are flying in the credit-card industry after a key gauge of bad debt jumped to the highest level in almost seven years."
According to advance data from Bloomberg Intelligence, which will soon flow through to the S&P/Experian Bankcard Default Index, after staying largely flat for much of 2017 and 2018, the first three months of 2019 saw a troubling jump in the nationwide credit card charge-off, or default rate to 3.82%, the highest in seven years or since the second quarter of 2012. At the same time, the number of loans 30-days past due, a leading indicator of future write-offs, jumped at all seven of the largest U.S. card issuers.
Some examples: Capital One said this week that its first-quarter U.S. card charge-off rate climbed to 5.04% from 4.64% at the end of 2018. At Discover Financial Services, which also reported results on Thursday, the charge-off rate rose to 3.5% from 3.23% in the prior quarter.
As for what is causing this sharp jump in charge offs, some credit card issuers blamed artificially increased FICO scores. This means that when a recession finally happens, there could be a larger than expected fallout for both lenders and investors."
There are around 15 million more consumers with credit scores above 740 today than there were in 2006, and about 15 million fewer consumers with scores below 660, according to Moody’s.
The problematic implication is that while FICO scores may represent a far stronger US consumer, the reality is just the opposite, as Capital One implied during its Thursday conference call, when Richard Fairbank, CEO of Capital One which is the country's third-largest credit card issuer, warned that there’s been a "degradation" in credit quality for certain customers, adding that "some customers with negative credit events during the financial crisis are now seeing those problems disappear from their credit-bureau reports." And yet, the same customers are just as unlikely to repay their credit card bill whether their FICO score is 750 or 680.
Did someone say non-GAAP credit scores? Because that's precisely what the artificially inflated FICO scores have become, and they are presenting an unreliable picture of a customer's ability, or eagerness, to pay down their credit card debt. Hence the jump in charge offs.
Almost as if those artificially higher non-GAAP FICO scores no longer represent reality… just like non-GAAP financial results.
Meanwhile, as Bloomberg adds, the credit card industry’s latest warnings build on developments in January, when fourth-quarter results showed charge-off rates near the lowest in decades were coming to an end, something we discussed at the time. As a result, competition for the highest-quality customers remains fierce, leading many issuers to spend more on marketing and rewards to gain market share with that group.
But a growing wariness about the potential for a rise in bad debt has led many issuers to tighten underwriting and to make issuance of new credit more problematic, creating a vicious loop where those who need credit the most are also the least likely to get it.
That said, it's certainly not a crisis yet: charge-offs remain not far from historic lows as banks benefit from low unemployment rates in the US. On the other hand, with overall interest rates in the US still near historic, record lows, the fact that charge offs are already surging is just another reason why the Fed will find it impossible to hike rates higher, and in fact, if the deteriorating default trend continues, the central bank may have no choice but to cut rates soon. And while that may kick the can for a few quarter, all such a goosing of US consumer will achieve, is make the next recession - and financial crisis - that much worse when it finally hits, because if American's can make their credit card payment when unemployment is a record low and GDP is - allegedly - growing above 3%, one wonder what will happen when the next recession does finally hit.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-26/alarms-go-credit-card-charge-offs-soar-seven-year-high
US Govt Failed To End JP Morgan’s Gold & Silver Manipulation
(this guy was a commissioner at COMEX and presided over the silver market manipulation investigation-the biggest pile of shit ever-DID NOTHING and then walked out and got a TV show to boot-good riddance)
A recent interview with former CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton nearly knocked me off my feet because it confirmed what I have alleged, starting more than 12 years ago. I’ll include the interview later, but first I will set the background of the subject and timeline in order put Chilton’s words into the proper perspective. The subject is JPMorgan’s manipulation of the silver market. The timeline is important because Chilton does misstate some facts that need to be corrected. I’m not a big fan of articles that include lots of links to past articles, but in this case it’s unavoidable.
Shortly after Bart Chilton took office as a commissioner in August 2007, he began to make public speeches in which he asserted that the CFTC was no regulatory pushover, like Barney Fife on the “Andy Griffith Show” but more like Elliot Ness or James Bond and that the agency was a tough cop on the beat. I assumed Chilton was genuine in his faith in the agency, but since he was brand new to commodity regulation I was sure that he was unaware of my allegations to the agency over the prior 20 years about a silver manipulation due to a concentrated short position on the COMEX. So I wrote to him about his claims of regulatory toughness at the agency and encouraged others to do so as well.
To his credit, Commissioner Chilton, responded to my and others’ emails quickly, pointing out that CFTC staff were aware of the allegations and having responded in the past, they would do so again in the future.
I would ask you to note that my first contacts with Commissioner Chilton took place shortly after he assumed office in 2007 and the subject matter revolved around the concentrated short position in COMEX silver futures, an issue that has remained at the heart of the allegations of price manipulation to this day.
I continued to email him personally and encouraged others to do so as well, in addition to sending him and the other commissioners all articles I wrote. I think it’s fair to say that close to 99% of the thousands of public emails sent to Chilton concerned the silver and gold price manipulation and there can be little doubt that all of those emails came directly or indirectly at my urging. What else could possible account for the high volume of public correspondence with an official of the CFTC?
Early in 2008, Commissioner Chilton indicated to me privately that the agency would be coming out with a new finding concerning the continued numerous public allegations of a silver price manipulation. This new finding would supersede the 15 page public letter of 2004. Perhaps I misinterpreted his message, but I came to believe that the new finding would be much different than the original finding. Instead, on May 13, 2008, the CFTC published another 16 page denial that anything was wrong with the concentrated short position in COMEX silver futures.
Feeling betrayed (something I don’t believe I revealed previously), I told Chilton in not-so-polite terms how I felt and ceased personal email contact with him (although I did continue to send my articles to him and all the other commissioners, since they concerned regulatory matters).
In March 2008, nearly two months before the CFTC’s 2ndpublic silver letter was published, the largest concentrated COMEX silver (and gold) short, Bear Stearns, failed and its short positions were assumed by JPMorgan.
I certainly knew that Bear Stearns collapsed and was taken over by JPMorgan, but I had no idea at the time that Bear was the biggest single short in COMEX silver and gold or that JPMorgan assumed those short positions. I would only learn of this months later, after the August 2008 Bank Participation Report was issued and revealed for the very first time an enormous silver and gold short position held, as it turned out, by a single US bank. (The reason Bear Stearns had never appeared in the Bank Participation Report was because it was an investment, not a commercial bank like JPMorgan).
Importantly, as a result of this article and others, which encouraged readers to again petition the CFTC, the agency confirmed it had initiated a formal investigation by its Enforcement Division. Fortunately the record of the timeline is clear, although the original confirmation was buried in an overall press release on Oct 2, 2008 –
The termination of the investigation was more fully announced five years later –
rest at link
https://www.silverdoctors.com/silver/silver-news/ted-butler-outrage-disgust-that-us-govt-failed-to-end-jp-morgans-gold-silver-manipulation/
'ole mick very under-rated imo. Listen to it frequently. Width of a circle is my favorite for the guitar work
learned long ago to keep the person producing the product separate. No surprises for this anon. Know it. Small music library if I did not.