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With President Trump’s Signature, the Secure Act is Passed – Here Are the Most Important Things to Know

What the bill includes, and what it may mean for your future

by Alessandra Malito
Market Watch

President Trump signed the SECURE Act this week as part of the government’s spending bill and it will inevitably affect most retirement savers, for better or worse.

The SECURE legislation — which stands for “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement” — puts into place numerous provisions intended to strengthen retirement security across the country.

Part of the bill addresses the grim outlook for many workers who don’t have access to workplace retirement accounts.

It offers small businesses tax incentives to set up automatic enrollment in retirement plans for its workers, or allows them to join multiple employer plans, where they can band together with other companies to offer retirement accounts to their employees in the first place. The bill also eliminates the maximum age cap for contributions to traditional individual retirement accounts.

Continue Reading at MarketWatch.com…

Virginia AG to 2A Sanctuaries: New Gun Controls ‘Will Be Enforced’

by Awr Hawkins
Breitbart.com

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D) released an opinion warning Second Amendment Sanctuary counties and municipalities that new gun controls “will be enforced.”

His opinion comes as at least 86 of Virginia’s 95 counties, and numerous cities too, have declared themselves to be Second Amendment Sanctuaries.

In all, over 100 local governments in Virginia have declared Second Amendment Sanctuary status.

Moreover, Culpeper Count Sheriff Scott Jenkins has made clear he is ready to “deputize thousands” to fight in defense of gun rights.

Continue Reading at Breitbart.com…

Pre-Market Report: Stocks Set for Higher Open




from Gregory Mannarino

Chile is in Danger of Becoming Just Another Crisis-Ridden Latin American Country

by Matheus Fialho Vieira
Mises.org

Although we Latin Americans thought Chile was immune to populism, small protests have grown into the largest ones since the nation’s re-democratization in the 90s. Initially, the protestors were groups of students complaining about a raise in the Santiago subway fare — an increase of 3.75 percent or about five US cents (which could add up to $1.15 during peak hours). They demanded that prices be held lower, and some even called for free passes.

Now, the movement has taken on a whole new character, with protestors’ complaints becoming about income inequality and a poor welfare state. Violence also entered the picture, as protestors started rioting, burning nineteen subway stations. President Sebastian Piñera then declared a state of emergency, calling in troops to restore order.

Continue Reading at Mises.org…

Donald Trump: Peace Candidate, Presidential Warmonger

by Walter E. Block
LewRockwell.com

Mr. Trump ran in 2016 almost on a peace platform in terms of foreign policy. He said things such as this:

“I share the American people’s frustration… I also share their frustration over a foreign policy that has spent too much time, energy, money — and, most importantly, lives — trying to rebuild countries in our own image instead of pursuing our security interests above all other considerations.”

I supported him vis a vis Mrs. Hillary Clinton mainly because she seemed, at least in comparison, to be a pro-war belligerent. From her support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, in Afghanistan and Western Sahara, she has long established herself as a foreign policy hawk. For example, as emblematic of her deeply held views, she favored a: “tough-minded, muscular foreign and defense policy…”

Continue Reading at LewRockwell.com…

Animated Graphic Shows Venezuela’s Year-by-Year Descent to Rock Bottom

by Monica Showalter
American Thinker

Want the 40-second version of what socialism does to a country?

Issues & Insight’s John Merline has found a beaut in the research of economist Mark Perry, who brilliantly placed his findings from International Monetary Fund data on an animated video on YouTube. Get a load:

[…] In 1982, Venezuela ranked number one among all South (Perry mistakenly uses the term ‘Latin’) American nations, and notes that this country was always in the top tier before Hugo Chavez came along in 1998. Today, Venezuela has skidded to the unhappy bottom of the barrel, well below perpetual laggards such as Suriname and Bolivia.

Merline writes:

Continue Reading at AmericanThinker.com…

Trump and the Stock Market Are the Winners in the Fed’s Repo Loan Binge; Here’s the Losers

by Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade

The S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average set new record highs every single day last week. This occurred despite the Federal Reserve justifying its unprecedented hundreds of billions of dollars each week in cheap loans to Wall Street’s trading houses as necessary to stem a “liquidity” crisis.

You can’t have a liquidity crisis when the stock market is setting record highs for an entire week. Those two things just don’t correlate.

The Fed, through its money spigot, the New York Fed, began sluicing these funds to Wall Street on September 17, the day the overnight borrowing rate in the repurchase agreement (repo) loan market spiked from 2 percent to 10 percent. This was the first such intervention by the Fed since the financial crisis. The repo market is where banks, hedge funds and money market funds loan each other money overnight on the basis of good collateral like U.S. Treasury securities.

Continue Reading at WallStreetOnParade.com…

They’re Still After Your Fingerprints! – #PropagandaWatch




from corbettreport

Obama’s Talk About Warren to Big Donors Behind the Scenes Turns Heads

by James Barrett
Daily Wire

Former President Barack Obama is not publicly endorsing any candidate, including, most notably, his former vice president. But according to inside sources, he is quietly vouching for one of the frontrunners behind closed doors: anti-Wall Street Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Despite her repeated attacks on Wall Street, threats to extort “billionaire tears,” and disavowing big dollar fundraisers, Warren isn’t really the threat to the wealthy and Wall Street she appears to be, Obama has reportedly assured high-powered Democratic donors behind the scenes.

Continue Reading at DailyWire.com…

Joe Who? Obama Privately Telling Top Donors to Rally Around Warren

from Zero Hedge

While Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) spent most of her campaign railing against the donor class while refusing to accept large checks from Democratic bundlers, former President Obama has been privately talking up the 2020 candidate who formerly identified as a Native American.

According to The Hill, Obama has advised reluctant donors to back the Massachusetts Democrat despite her plans to separate them from as much of their wealth as she can. If she becomes the nominee, according to Obama, donors will have no choice but to throw their support behind her.

Continue Reading at ZeroHedge.com…

I Didn’t Have Any Luck This Time




from Mark Dice

Russia Boosts Gold Production by 18 Percent in Half a Year

from RT

Russia has produced more than 185.1 tons of the precious yellow metal from January to July this year, according to recent data published by Russia’s Finance Ministry.

This is a 17.8 increase compared to the same period in 2018, when the volume of bullion production stood at nearly 157.2 tons, the ministry said in a statement.

Silver did not post the same gains, however, as the production of the metal saw a 6 percent drop over the reported period. Its year-on-year output fell from 585.3 tons in 2018 down to 549.9 tons in 2019.

Continue Reading at RT.com…

@realNapoleonBonaparte




from PragerU

Spitting in Uber’s Soup

by Pater Tenebrarum
Acting Man

Disrupted Disruptor – Legal Setback Sweepstakes

It seems Uber just can’t catch a break these days. First its license to operate in London was revoked. At issue was apparently that 43 unlicensed drivers were able to take an estimated 14,000 “unauthorized trips” due to a flaw in the Uber app (note that 45,000 licensed Uber drivers are working in London).

[…] How did the regulatory agency Transport for London (TfL) even learn about this? Uber itself informed the regulator about the mishap. It also told TfL that it has immediately fixed the problem to prevent a recurrence (this is to say, it fixed the software glitch and audited all existing drivers to ascertain their ID). TfL decided that Uber’s license should be revoked anyway, on the grounds that it had “identified a pattern of failures by the company, including several breaches that placed passengers and their safety at risk.”

Continue Reading at Acting-Man.com…

Piglets Go to Court to Stop Castration: Get Used to Boar-Taint Bacon




from Bill Whittle

CIA Memo Explains How IMF’s Special Drawing Rights Were Meant to Displace Gold

by Chris Powell, GATA
Gold Seek

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Our friend Stuart Englert, who is writing a book on gold price suppression, calls attention to a declassified 1970 Central Intelligence Agency memorandum asserting that the Special Drawing Rights of the International Monetary Fund were created in 1967 in large part to reduce the world’s demand for gold and particularly to reduce exchange of U.S. dollars, the world reserve currency, for gold.

The creation of SDRs corresponded with the troublesome increase in offtake from the London Gold Pool, through which the United States and seven allied governments in Western Europe dishoarded metal from their reserves to hold the official dollar-gold exchange rate at $35 per ounce. The pool collapsed in March 1968:

Continue Reading at GoldSeek.com…

2020 Mining Investment Trends with Jamie Strauss




from MiningStockEducation.com

Gun Background Checks: How the State Came to Decide Who Can and Cannot Buy a Firearm

by Sam Jacobs
The Daily Bell

Prior to 1968, most adults in the United States could purchase a firearm without state interference. Guns were available in local retail stores, as well as mail-order catalogs, and as long as you hadn’t been convicted of a felony and you had the funds, there weren’t any questions asked.

Things are different now. Depending on where in America you are and what type of gun you want to buy, there’s a good chance you’ll need to pass a NICS-mandated background check to complete your purchase.

Although many people hold a strong opinion for and against gun background checks, they’ve proven to be an integral part of the state’s gun control apparatus – and they don’t appear to be leaving anytime soon.

Continue Reading at TheDailyBell.com…

The Deep State Resistance Terrorized Innocent Americans, Including Me

by J. D. Gordon
DailyCaller.com

Ever since Donald J. Trump was elected to Make America Great Again, the self-declared #Resistance has terrorized him and many innocent Americans.

Yet while they liken themselves to the French Resistance of the 1940s fighting Nazi occupation, or even more fancifully to Star Wars, the part of French history they most resemble is 150 years earlier, never mind that galaxy far, far away.

Today’s Resistance more closely resembles the 18th century French Revolution type – a ruthless mob orchestrated by elites which toppled the government and terrorized countless French citizens for a decade. Their hatred was so deep they even beheaded the statues at Notre Dame Cathedral and the Palais Des Papes in Avignon, home to the 14th century popes and the seat of Western Christianity.

Continue Reading at DailyCaller.com…

Look at What Just Hit the Highest Level Since 2007

from King World News

Look at what just hit the highest level since 2007.

Look At What Is Happening In Real Estate

December 23 (King World News) – Peter Boockvar: New home sales in November totaled 719k, 13k less than expected and October was revised down by 23k to 710k. Months’ supply fell to 5.4 from 5.5, much higher than the inventory in existing homes while the median home price rose 7.2% y/o/y to $330,000, the highest since April. With price, this was influenced by a pick up in the number of homes sold above $400k and a decline in those sold less than $300k. It is the less than $300k price point where new homes are most needed because it is where the biggest demand is and where it competes most with renters…

Continue Reading at KingWorldNews.com…

Federal Student Loans are Making College Unaffordable with Richard K. Vedder

from Financial Survival Network

For years Richard K. Vedder has railed against the dysfunctional federal student loan program. The availability of cheap federal student loans has enabled universities to increase tuition fees aggressively, helping fund an unproductive academic arms race that, among other things, has led to sizable administrative bloat on most campuses. The proportion of recent college graduates from the lowest quartile of the income distribution is lower than it was in 1970, suggesting that student loans have not been a successful vehicle for providing college access to those from low-income backgrounds—a primary program goal. Proof that the student loan program boondogle is accomplishing exactly the opposite of its stated purpose.

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Kirk Cameron | The Ben Shapiro Show Sunday Special (Ep. 82)




from Ben Shapiro

Elizabeth Warren Fails Her Own Public Education Purity Test

She fights against school choice while her kid and grandkids go to private school.

by Corey A. DeAngelis
Reason.com

In last night’s Democratic presidential debate, Mayor Pete Buttigieg warned Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) against “issuing purity tests you cannot yourself pass.” He was talking about the senator’s millionaire status, but his statement applies just as much to her education plan.

The plan, released on October 21, is radically anti-choice. It calls for ending federal funding for public charter schools, banning for-profit charter schools, increasing regulations for all charter schools, and making it more difficult to start new charter schools. Warren wants to stop private school choice programs such as vouchers or tuition tax credits.

Continue Reading at Reason.com…

California Becomes a One-State Homelessness Machine

by Monica Showalter
American Thinker

While California wags its finger at President Trump and blames him for all the ills of their own making, a new Housing and Urban Development report identifies the state as the skunk at the garden party. According to Axios, emphasis mine:

Homelessness in the U.S. has risen for a third consecutive year, driven by a spike in California, the Department of Housing and Urban Development said in a new report.

By the numbers: The annual HUD single-night survey, conducted in January and released Friday found homelessness increased to 567,715, up 2.7% on 2018.

Continue Reading at AmericanThinker.com…