from Stansberry Research
Gold Suddenly Gets Real-ly Interesting
by Craig Hemke
Sprott Money
Since August, we’ve been waiting for a bottom and end of this current consolidation in COMEX gold prices. With the most recent U.S. inflation data, that day may finally be here.
Finally. That’s the key word. As this pullback has dragged out over the past seven months, there have been many possible bottoms. Unfortunately, all of those ended up bringing nothing but false hope. The most recent low near $1680 looked a little different from the others, however, and we wrote about it a few weeks ago. Here’s the link, if you missed it:
Fundamentally Speaking: Earnings Optimism Explodes
by Lance Roberts
Real Investment Advice
As markets surge to record highs, analysts are rushing to ratchet up earnings estimates as optimism explodes.
“The first quarter of 2021 marked the largest increase in the bottom-up EPS estimate during a quarter since FactSet began tracking the quarterly bottom-up EPS estimate in Q2 2002. The previous record was 5.4%, which occurred in Q1 2018 after tax reform was passed.” – FactSet
[…] Of course, with market’s at record highs, Wall Street needs drastically higher estimates to rationalize bullish allocations. However, before we get into the risks of forward expectations, let’s review what happened.
A Disappointing Past
Through the end of 2020, quarterly operating earnings increased $0.01 to $38.19 from $38.18 at the end of 2019.
Keeping the Dance Party Rolling
by Doug Noland
Credit Bubble Bulletin
While ebullient markets have briskly moved on, I’m not done with Archegos. The thesis holds that speculative leverage evolved into an integral source of liquidity throughout historic global market Bubbles. The spectacular collapse of Archegos marks a significant inflection point, ushering in a tightening of lending conditions at the “margin” for increasingly vulnerable Bubbles.
April 8 – Bloomberg (Erik Schatzker and Sonali Basak): “Credit Suisse Group AG is tightening the financing terms it gives hedge funds and family offices, in a potential harbinger of new industry practices after the Archegos Capital Management blowup cost the Swiss bank $4.7 billion. Credit Suisse has been calling clients to change margin requirements in swap agreements so they match the more restrictive terms of its prime-brokerage agreements… Specifically, Credit Suisse is shifting from static margining to dynamic margining, which may force clients to post more collateral and could reduce the profitability of some trades… Swaps are the derivatives trader Bill Hwang used to take highly leveraged positions in stocks at Archegos… When his positions suddenly lost value the week of March 22, Archegos blew through its margin and equity, and Hwang lost $20 billion in just a few days.”
Top Trump Admin Official Praises Biden for Adopting ‘Nearly All’ of His Predecessor’s China Policies
by Christian Datoc
DailyCaller.com
Brooke Rollins, CEO and president of the newly-launched America First Policy Institute (AFPI), commended the Biden administration Tuesday for carrying over key aspects of former President Donald Trump’s general foreign policy and specific approach to China.
Rollins told Daily Caller that “the Trump Administration set and reset policy on our most important foreign relationships in such a compelling fashion that you can even see the Biden Administration beginning to acquiesce to nearly all of it.”
“Despite stumbles out of the gate, you now see his DHS Secretary, for example, discussing building the border wall, and individuals like John Kerry and Tony Blinken grind their teeth at how tough working with China is,” she continued. “Only time will tell whether the Biden Administration is up to meeting the standard of responsible governance that we set.”
Erie County Exec Says Vaccinations Mandatory for Bills, Sabres Games
by Warner Todd Huston
Breitbart.com
A New York politician suggests that only fans who can prove they have been vaccinated for the coronavirus should be allowed to attend Buffalo Bills and Sabers games.
While claiming that officials expect a full stadium for the coming sports seasons, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz nonetheless insisted that it is safer to have sports venues limited only to vaccinated fans, the Buffalo News reported.
Poloncarz exclaimed that people are perfectly free not to take any of the various coronavirus vaccines, but they aren’t free to attend a football or hockey game.
“There is no God-given right to attend a football game,” the Democrat said.
The Free World Died of Covid-19
by Jordan Schachtel
The American Institute for Economic Research
As someone with a background in foreign policy and international affairs, I am often asked to discuss the ramifications of having Joe Biden as the so-called leader of the Free World.
While it is easy to get carried away debating the merits of a heavily compromised man being the physical representation of the Free World, and how cringeworthy and depressing that is, I can’t help but get stuck on the possibility that the term itself is no longer viable.
“What Free World?”
The Free World is a term that was originally used to describe the Allied powers during WWII, but it is most applicable here when discussing what united the anti-Soviet bloc to the United States during the Cold War. It was these “Western world” values of free speech, free media, the freedom of assembly, and freedom of association that united our sovereign states against the evils of Communism.
Psaki Explains the White House is Running PSA’s During NASCAR to Get ‘White Conservative Communities’ Vaccinated
by Damjan Tutarkov
LaCorte News
White House press secretary Jen Psaki stereotyped white people while explaining how the Biden administration was facilitating the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to “white conservative communities.”
During an exchange with a reporter about how the administration was reaching out to rural and white conservative communities, Psaki said they were running public service announcements on “The Deadliest Catch” and cooperating with NASCAR and Country Music TV.
“The New York Times, last week, came out with a story that Mississippi was having a hard time getting folks vaccinated,” a reporter asked.
“But it’s not just Mississippi; it’s a bunch of other rural states — Ohio, Oklahoma. They’re at 34 percent vaccination rate. … [H]as the White House been in touch with these governors to see what they can do now?” the reporter asked. “Because, of course, this impacts herd immunity and the goals of the White House just to get these shots in arms.”
Fauci Dubbed a “Petty Tyrant” for Saying Vaccinated People Can’t “Eat or Drink Indoors”
by Mac Slavo
SHTF Plan
Dr. Anthony Fauci is finally facing some pushback by others in the ruling class. Dr. Rand Paul called Fauci a “petty tyrant” after Fauci said those who have gotten the experimental gene therapy shot still cannot “eat or drink indoors.”
But even Paul is continuing to miss the entire point. These have already been shown to NOT be vaccines, to begin with, so it should come as no surprise that they don’t prevent infection or the spread of the infection.
COVID-19 mRNA Shots Are Legally Not Vaccines
The comments came in response to a Sunday evening interview in which Fauci encouraged vaccinated individuals to continue taking precautions and not resuming normal activities just yet. But Fauci has been on this kick for a while. Telling people to continue to act like slaves even after taking the experimental gene therapies has always been a piece of the official narrative.
Gold Will Shine, Bear Hibernation, New Low, Plus Timber
from King World News
Gold will shine, bear hibernation, new low, plus timber!
Gold Will Shine
April 13 (King World News) – Fred Hickey: The fact gold’s not “participating” along with the objects of speculation is a positive. It’s what’s supposed to occur. It’s a true store of value uncorrelated with the all the bubbles that does best in times of trouble (when reality returns). And reality will inevitably return…
Rule by Fiat: When the Government Does Whatever it Wants
by John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.” – Ayn Rand
Rule by brute force.
That’s about as good a description as you’ll find for the sorry state of our nation.
SWAT teams crashing through doors. Militarized police shooting unarmed citizens. Traffic cops tasering old men and pregnant women for not complying fast enough with an order. Resource officers shackling children for acting like children. Homeowners finding their homes under siege by police out to confiscate lawfully-owned guns. Drivers having their cash seized under the pretext that they might have done something wrong.
The list of abuses being perpetrated against the American people by their government is growing rapidly.
We are approaching critical mass.
The Fraud Collapses: Cheap Meds Better Than Vaccines
by Karl Denninger
Market-Ticker.org
Still not ready to start tossing people in prison, starting with Fraudci, Trump, every one of the pharma companies and now Biden and his jackass cabal as well?
Findings from the phase 2 randomised study, which was supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), were published on the medRxiv pre-print server.
The findings from 146 people – of whom half took 800 micrograms of the medication twice a day and half were on usual care – suggests that inhaled budesonide reduced the relative risk of requiring urgent care or hospitalisation by 90% in the 28-day study period. Participants allocated the budesonide inhaler also had a quicker resolution of fever, symptoms and fewer persistent symptoms after 28 days.
90% effective in preventing hospitalization. Obviously if you don’t go to the hospital you also don’t die.
That’s as good as a vaccine yet it comes with none of the risks of a vaccine, including viral evasion, ADE and direct vaccine-related injury.
University of Oklahoma Diversity Training Forces Students and Faculty to Affirm the School’s Political Views
The mandatory online training requires users to select the “right” speech before they finish.
by Rikki Schlott
Reason.com
After a summer of racial reckoning, the University of Oklahoma instituted mandatory diversity training for students and faculty last fall. According to the OU website, the program addresses power, privilege, and identity as “one element of OU’s efforts to promote systemic change.” In the announcement, President Joseph Harroz Jr. said, “We simply cannot reach our full potential unless we become a true place of belonging where every member of the OU family feels seen, heard, and valued.”
But, for graduate student and staff member Elizabeth Owen, the training had quite the opposite effect.
In order to participate in the 2020–2021 school year, Owen was required to complete three interactive video-based training programs depicting scenarios that a community member might encounter on campus. Participants were presented with several choices of how to respond, and their selections drove the video’s storyline.
“As Boom as it Gets”: Wall Street Has Forgotten All About Covid, Sees “Tantrum” as Biggest Risk
from Zero Hedge
It was exactly one month ago that Wall Street exhaled a sigh of relief, and according to the March BofA Fund Manager Survey, consensus among Wall Street’s professionals was that Covid was unofficially “over“…
[…] … and after a year of covid dominating the league tables as the “biggest tail risk”, both inflation & taper tantrum were now viewed as bigger risks.
[…] Perhaps in retrospect declaring victory over covid was premature in light of today’s J&J vaccine halt, but in the meantime, a bulled up Wall Street has only gotten even more convinced that covid is one for the history books, but that the only risks left are not associated with an economic boom, not a recession, with the latest Fund Manager Survey revealing the following biggest tail risks: i) bond tantrum at 32%, ii) inflation at 27%, iii) higher taxes at 15% and COVID is at a lowly fourth place with 15% of the vote. Only “peak econ growth” was a lesser concern among Wall Street.
Margin Debt Has Exploded by 49 Percent in One Year to $814 Billion. The Actual Figure May Be in the Trillions. Here’s Why.
by Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade
When Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, appeared for an interview this past Sunday night on the CBS investigative program, 60 Minutes, he asserted complete ignorance of the amount of margin debt currently being used to inflate the stock market to one new historic high after another. The exchange between Powell and 60 Minutes host, Scott Pelley, went as follows:
Pelley: “The securities industry has reported that $814 billion has been borrowed by people investing in the stock market, borrowed against their portfolios. That’s a 49 percent increase over last year.
“And the last time it grew that much was in 2007, before the Great Recession. And the time it grew that much before that was 1999, just before the dot com implosion. At what point does the Federal Reserve start to rein in this speculative bidding up of stock prices based on borrowed money?”
The Roadmap for the ‘Great Reset’
by Janet Levy
American Thinker
As far back as 1996, Mikhail Gorbachev laid bare the agenda driving climate alarmism: “The threat of environmental crisis will be the international disaster key to unlock the New World Order.” He was underscoring the importance of advancing Marxist objectives by creating an emergency to convince people they must surrender freedom to be safe. That idea has been parlayed over the decades into a global campaign of the Left to control vibrant economies, end individual freedom and national sovereignties, and impoverish the world. In America, it is being served up as the Green New Deal (GND).
Author Marc Morano exposes that elaborate con game in Green Fraud: Why the Green New Deal Is Even Worse Than You Think. Morano is a former senior staff member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and narrator of the film Climate Hustle. His book shows how the GND — which dovetails with the U.N.’s Agenda 21 — has nothing to do with “saving the planet” and is actually about “transforming modern America into a centrally planned and managed society and imposing an ideology that will rein in the freedoms of individual Americans.”