from Sprott Money
Tomorrow, Come Here Tomorrow…
by James Howard Kunstler
Kunstler.com
The Coen Brothers must be writing Nancy Pelosi’s script now, a kind of Macbeth update set in a swampy Potomac lowland at Halloween time: Madam Speaker rides her fabled scepter up in the night sky, around the capitol dome, across the moon’s laughing face, to the White House, trailing vapors of hatred and malice as she curses the Golden Golem within. Her mask matches her designer frock, woven of cobwebs with dark strands of enmity. Her hair is perfect. Her flight-path not so much, as the Golem below easily shoots her down through the oval office window with a rubber band and a paper clip and she augers, smoldering, into the rose garden… Fade out….
Well, tomorrow is here, and exactly the hour this blog regularly gets posted is when Mrs. Pelosi aims to announce her latest scheme for ousting Mr. Trump: perhaps a bill for some kind of new 25th Amendment commission to work around the inconvenience of the law as currently configured, that is, an executive branch prerogative. The stunt has two purposes: 1) to paint Mr. Trump as unfit — a song as old and boring now as I am Woman, Hear me Roar — and 2) to put up a smoke-screen diverting voters’ attention from her obdurate refusal to compromise on the latest Coronavirus relief bill.
Washington Post Rebukes Harris’ ‘History Lesson’ About Lincoln
by Penka Arsova
LaCorte News
The Washington Post fact-checked Sen. Kamala Harris’ (D-CA) story about Abraham Lincoln’s stance on nominating a Supreme Court candidate close to a presidential election and determined she was off base.
What she said: During the vice presidential debate with Vice President Mike Pence, Harris mentioned that Lincoln had the chance to pick a Supreme Court nominee before the presidential election. She argued that he chose not to because it was too close to the election.
“In 1864 … Abraham Lincoln was up for reelection. And it was 27 days before the election. And a seat became open on the United States Supreme Court. Abraham Lincoln’s party was in charge not only of the White House but the Senate. But Honest Abe said, ‘It’s not the right thing to do. The American people deserve to make the decision about who will be the next president of the United States, and then that person will be able to select who will serve on the highest court of the land,’” Harris said.
Fed’s Evans Says More QE Coming “If the Recovery Slows Down”
from Zero Hedge
Two days ago, when we noted that according to a recent research report by a top Fed economist, the US economy would need another $3.5 trillion in QE to offset the Fed’s inability to cut rates below zero, we said that this would be the academic strawman used by Fed members to justify trial baloons of much bigger QE (which is need if for no other reason, then to monetize the trillions in new debt issuance in coming years).
We didn’t have long to wait to see this in action, and on Friday morning, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said that the Fed would ramp up QE if the recovery were slower:
“If things were somewhat worse, if the recovery was slower, I think we’d still be having interest rates at the zero lower bound, but I think we would also be following it up with more asset purchases and hoping that there would be more fiscal support as well.”
Addictus Stimulitus
by David Stockman
LewRockwell.com
It’s hard to say who is loonier – the guy in the White House East Wing hopped up on steroids or the Wall Street robo-machines and Robin Hooders who slobber incontinently upon the slightest hint of another “stimulus” injection.
Either way, exactly seven hours after he implanted a tiny quotient of sanity into Washington’s fiscal madhouse yesterday afternoon by terminating talks on Everything Bailout 5.0, the Donald proved once again that he is a clear and present danger to the nation’s solvency and that Wall Street is flat-out disease-ridden with addictus stimulitis.
The fact is, the airlines don’t deserve nor need a bailout, while the idea of handing out another $135 billion of walking around money to small businesses who might otherwise lay-off redundant employees is just plain ludicrous.
No More Debates, Kamala is Speaking, Sick Economy
Greg Hunter’s Weekly News Wrap-Up for October 10th, 2020
by Greg Hunter
USA Watchdog
It’s official, there will be no more debates unless Joe Biden decides to take on the President in person. The so-called “Presidential Debate Commission” now says the next debate should be virtual, and President Trump said no way. The Trump campaign says, “Swamp creatures . . . to now rush to Joe Biden’s defense by universally cancelling an in-person debate is pathetic.” President Trump says he will “do a rally instead” now that he has been cured of Covid and released by his doctors. Something else that is “pathetic” is Speaker Pelosi taking another run at President Trump using the 25th Amendment. It ain’t going to work.
Touting the Success of Jawboning, Fed Steps Away from Corporate Bond Market, Having Bought Almost No Bonds & Bond ETFs
by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
Fed’s ETF holdings fell for second month, corporate bond holdings barely ticked up: This “$750 billion” SPV is over before it really got started. But the hype had been huge.
The Fed’s super-hyped, glorified, deified, and ballyhooed $750-billion buying-program of corporate bonds and bond ETFs, including junk bonds and junk-bond ETFs, had triggered one of the most magnificent credit-market rallies ever. And then the Fed hardly bought anything. Now the Fed is touting its success in jawboning the markets into a frenzy without having to do hardly any actual purchases. And it put a number on it – what percentage of the bond market rally was caused by jawboning, and what percentage was caused by actual bond purchases. And now, the Fed appears to be winding down the program altogether.
Capitalists Should Be “Lined up Against the Wall and Shot”
by Sovereign Man
Sovereign Man
Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.
Former Twitter CEO says capitalists will be the first to be shot in the revolution
The CEO of the digital currency exchange Coinbase recently banned politics at work, and he offered generous severance packages to anyone who didn’t like that decision.
But the former CEO of Twitter from 2010-2015, Dick Costelo, thinks staying out of politics deserves a death sentence.
With Facebook, Antitrust Officials Advertise Astonishing Ignorance
by John Tamny
The American Institute for Economic Research
Entrepreneurs open up shop with dreams of profoundly changing how us consumers do things. Yes, monopoly profits are their goal. Thank goodness they’re the goal. They’re trying to win our business by virtue of making our lives so much better that we cease patronizing their competitors.
Really, what’s the point of going into business unless it’s to achieve market dominance? How obnoxious for a wannabe entrepreneur to hog precious capital if the goal is mediocrity. How is that helping consumers? Think about it.
Hard as this will be for the overly sensitive to accept, monopoly profits are a triumph. For consumers. Think about that for a second. Or maybe more. Monopoly profits signal that a previously unmet market need was met brilliantly, or a whole new need was fulfilled that existing businesses never knew existed.
The Stock Market and Gold Are Up, Why?
by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
The Street
Let’s investigate claims as to why the market does this or that.
Claim of the Day
Here’s the claim of the day: Wall Street Opens Higher as Faith in Stimulus Persists; Dow up 130 Pts
Reality
No one really has any idea on most days why the market does this or that.
It’s likely the market and gold are both higher not because of any deal between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and president Trump, but for something not so obvious.
If the market falters this afternoon there will be another reason perhaps the opposite: Market down as stimulus hopes fade.
Stop Blaming Classical Liberalism for the Problems of Human Nature
by Zachary Yost
Mises.org
In a recent essay at the new online conservative magazine IM-1776, writer Alex Kaschuta argues that the contemporary world is under “The Heavy Chains of Liberalism” that have, in her mind, destroyed humane life, abolished tradition, and left atomized individuals increasingly “free” from all social and personal restraint. These complaints are nothing new, and some of the problems she points to are all too real, however, her broadside attack against liberalism misses the mark on nearly every front.
For one thing, like many labels in use today, the word liberal has become so broad that its use encompasses many divergent streams of thought and bulldozes over important differences and nuances. Libertarians and classical liberals are intimately familiar with this problem, having adopted those labels as a means to try and deal with the bastardization of the term liberal.
The Stage Has Been Set for a Historic National Meltdown
by Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog
Everything that has happened in 2020 so far has set us up for a grand finale that none of us will ever forget. This year we have already witnessed the worst public health crisis in about a hundred years, widespread lockdowns all over the nation, a crippling economic collapse and civil unrest in major cities across America. To say that the American people are in a bad mood would be a major understatement. Now we are less than a month away from a bitterly contested presidential election, and as you will see below, one survey recently found that a majority of Americans are expecting violence. That is extremely unfortunate, but these are the times in which we live. Our country is literally falling apart all around us, and nobody seems to have a way to stop it from happening.
The Fed’s Quest for Higher Inflation: What Could Go Wrong?
by Stefan Gleason
GoldSeek
The Federal Reserve is warning investors in no uncertain terms that higher rates of inflation are coming. Yet markets, for the most part, have disregarded that warning.
Bond yields, for example, remain well below 2% across the entire duration range. Stock market valuations continue to reflect a sanguine outlook for inflation. And crude oil futures suggest limited upside pressure on prices.
It seems the Fed has a credibility problem.
In August, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced that the central bank would begin targeting an inflation “average” of 2%.
By the Fed’s measures, inflation has been running below 2% in recent years. So getting to a 2% average in the years ahead will require above 2% inflation for a significant period.
Breonna Taylor Boyfriend ‘Had Numerous Conversations About Drug Trafficking,’ Investigators Said
by Amanda Prestigiacomo
Daily Wire
Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker “had numerous conversations about drug trafficking” in his phone, investigators said, according to a document dump from the the Louisville Metro Police Department.
Walker, who fired at plainclothes officers during a raid on Taylor’s home on March 13 that tragically left her dead and one officer shot, allegedly had more than two dozen customers he dealt to, according to chats spanning from the fall of 2019 to March of this year, The Daily Mail reported Wednesday.
Released photos also show Taylor and Walker brandishing weapons, one of which is captioned “partners in crime.”
Russiagate Hoax Mastermind Must Be Exposed
by J. D. Gordon
DailyCaller.com
In the bureaucratic struggle to declassify Russiagate-related documents before the Nov. 3 elections and help ensure they aren’t buried forever, some valuable nuggets have just been partially unearthed by the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe.
Like handwritten notes by then-CIA Director John Brennan.
During the summer of 2016, he briefed President Obama and top advisers that the agency learned of startling intelligence about the Clinton campaign and Russia.
Brennan’s bullet points include:
Pelosi Announces Bill on 25th Amendment After Questioning Trump’s Health
Pelosi says Trump needs to reveal more about his health since he tested positive for COVID-19
by Marisa Schultz, Adam Shaw
FOX News
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday announced legislation to create a commission that would allow Congress to oust a president from office, using the 25th Amendment, a day after she accused President Trump of being “in an altered state” from his coronavirus treatment.
“This is not about President Trump,” Pelosi maintained Friday. “He will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents.”
Pelosi denied that the timing of the legislation had anything to do with the election and argued that setting up a commission on presidential capacity is needed to “give some comfort to people” on the stability of the government.