$180 Billion Asset Manager: "There Is No Way Out, Fed Policies Can No Longer Be Exited Without Provoking The Next Crisis"

When just over three years ago, TCW's Chief Investment Officer in Fixed Income, Tad Rivelle, who oversees roughly $180BN in assets, or more than Jeff Gundlach, stated that we are now living through the third consecutive asset bubble in a row, "the central bankers' bubble" which followed the dot com and housing bubbles…

… he naturally caused a stir as back then he was still one of the first established professionals to confirm and admit that this particular "tinfoil conspiracy theory" website had been right all along: the market's performance was entirely due to the Fed, and that the longer the Fed's "emergency" measures continued, the more locked in the central bank would be as the reverse process, namely price discovery without Fed intervention, would result in a catastrophic crisis that could even lead to global war.

A few years later, Tad Rivelle's then shocking report would have barely registered, as it is now common knowledge that every single market is distorted beyond comprehension due to Fed policies (with a handful of idiots still pretending that's not true), and while everyone knows that continued central bank intervention will only make the ensuing final crash that much greater, nobody has any idea how to detach the Fed from capital markets.

Which brings us to Rivelle's latest note, which while far less controversial this time, still manages to hit the nail on the head with punchlines which once again excoriates the "free market" for becoming more centrally planned than the USSR had ever hoped to become.

We urge everyone to read it.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/180-billion-asset-manager-there-no-way-out-fed-policies-can-no-longer-be-exited-without

Pharma Founder Gets 66 Months For Bribing Doctors To Overprescribe Deadly Opioids

Millions of Americans who lived through the financial crisis probably recall that not a single executive of a major investment bank was jailed in the aftermath, despite running organizations seemingly dedicated to perpetuating a criminal fraud on nearly every counterparty and client.

But when Americans look back at the opioid crisis, they'll remember that at least one executive of a major opioid manufacturer and distributor was sentenced to a fairly weighty sentence - five-and-a-half years (66 months) in federal prison - for an illegal kickback scheme that effectively involved bribing doctors to prescribe potentially lethal doses of fentanyl. That's right: Packaged under the name brand Subsys, Insys sold a painkiller made from the same ultra-powerful synthetic opioid responsible for tens of thousands of deaths across America.

According to the FT, which, in partnership with PBS's Frontline, is producing a documentary on the opioid crisis, John Kapoor, the founder of Insys, was sentenced to prison time on Thursday after being prosecuted under the RICO act - a law adopted decades ago to help the DoJ prosecute the mafia.

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/pharma-founder-gets-55-years-bribing-doctors-prescribe-deadly-opioids

Air Force Needs More Money, Stealth, and Drones: Report

Burdened by old, maintenance-heavy Cold War-era planes, the Air Force needs a cash bump to meet its obligations to the National Defense Strategy, according to a report from a respected defense think-tank.

But growing the force in size isn’t enough alone, according to the Jan. 22 report, which makes four other key recommendations.

The report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments says that the Air Force needs to be able to operate inside the reach of China and Russia’s long-range missile systems—a zone of military discomfort called a “contested environment.”

To achieve this, it needs more stealth aircraft, more drones, and to be able to hunker down in better-protected allied airbases. It also needs to pack next-generation weapons such as hypersonic missiles, along with incorporating technology that allows the military to integrate and function as a whole team.

“Creating a more range-balanced, survivable, and lethal force will require a commitment by DoD and the Congress to significantly increase the Air Force’s annual budgets,” says the report.

The Pentagon will put forward its 2021 defense budget proposal in the spring, which will go through the grinder of Congress in the autumn.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/air-force-needs-more-money-stealth-and-drones-report_3213861.html

WTF????

Twatter changed

More chaos on campus? Soros pumps $1bn into ‘global education network’ to fight ‘climate change & dictators’ like Trump, Xi & Modi

Billionaire George Soros has unveiled a new ambitious project: creating a global university network that would save the world from climate change and rescue democracy itself from ‘dictators’ like US President Donald Trump.

The 89-year-old grey eminence of liberal globalism announced “the most important project of my life” on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Describing the current state of the world as dire, with the strongest powers “in the hands of would-be or actual dictators,” Soros said he would put forth $1 billion towards the creation of the Open Society University Network, revolving around his own Central European University (CEU).

Soros revealed that CEU has already partnered up with Bard College in the US and a network of European social science schools called CIVICA, which includes the London School of Economics and the Paris Institute of Political Studies, also known as Sciences Po. He seeks to expand the network into something “truly global” in the coming years.

The announcement came as part of Soros’s meandering speech to the gathering of global elites, which painted a dire picture of the world in the hands of “would-be or actual dictators” – he singled out by name Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi – and paragons of “open society” such as the European Union defeated by the UK decision to vote in a pro-Brexit government.

Soros described Trump as a “con man and the ultimate narcissist who wants the world to revolve around him,” accusing the US leader of wanting to “impose his alternative reality not only on his followers but on reality itself.” Just moments later, however, he praised Trump’s hard-line China policy and lamented that it does not go far enough.

https://www.rt.com/news/479034-george-soros-education-dictators/

Dem impeachment witness Vindman unloads on Blackburn as Dems wrap 3rd day of Trump's trial

As the third day of the ongoing impeachment trial of President Trump wrapped up in the Senate chamber, most of the drama was elsewhere – with one witness for the Democrats accusing a Republican senator of "defamation" and "slander," and Republicans vowing to aggressively highlight alleged corruption by Hunter Biden.

The off-field spat began Thursday evening on Twitter, when Tennesse GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn quoted the commanding officer of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman as saying that Vindman was a "political activist in uniform."

Vindman, a National Security Council official, has testified that Trump's Ukraine dealings left him in a state of "shock," and Democrats were quoting from Vindman's remarks during the trial. Vindman has denied knowing the identity of the whistleblower who flagged Trump's fateful July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president – a claim that Republicans have questioned, because under cross-examination last year, Vindman apparently admitted to leaking the contents of Trump's call to whistleblower.

At the time, California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, presiding over the House impeachment inquiry, shut down GOP attempts to press Vindman as to whom he had leaked information about Trump's call, saying it would potentially reveal the whistleblower's identity.

Blackburn tweeted as Schiff spoke on Thursday evening: "Adam Schiff is hailing Alexander Vindman as an American patriot. How patriotic is it to badmouth and ridicule our great nation in front of Russia, America’s greatest enemy? … Alexander Vindman broke the chain of command and leaked the contents of the President’s July 25th phone call to his pal, the 'whistleblower.' Over a policy dispute with the President! How is that not vindictive?"

"It makes sense that Alexander Vindman leaked the July 25th phone call to his friend (aka the 'whistleblower')," Blackburn continued. "They both have lots in common: —Held the same NSC job —Liberals who worked under Obama —Wanted to take out Trump."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-trial-marsha-blackburn-vindma

>>7896168

I'm banned but follow the qanon thread at times layout is completely different