Steve Bull's Blog, page 1364
May 22, 2017
US Journalism’s New ‘Golden Age’?
Exclusive: The Washington Post and other big media are hailing a new journalistic “golden age” as they punish President Trump for disparaging them, but is this media bias a sign of good journalism or itself a scandal, asks Robert Parry.
The mainstream U.S. media is congratulating itself on its courageous defiance of President Trump and its hard-hitting condemnations of Russia, but the press seems to have forgotten that its proper role within the U.S. democratic structure is not to slant stories one way or another but to provide objective information for the American people.
The Washington Post building in downtown Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Washington Post)
By that standard – of respecting that the people are the nation’s true sovereigns – the mainstream media is failing again. Indeed, the chasm between what America’s elites are thinking these days and what many working-class Americans are feeling is underscored by the high-fiving that’s going on inside the elite mainstream news media, which is celebrating its Trump- and Russia-bashing as the “new golden age of American journalism.”
The New York Times and The Washington Post, in particular, view themselves as embattled victims of a tyrannical abuser. The Times presents itself as the brave guardian of “truth” and the Post added a new slogan: “Democracy dies in darkness.” In doing so, they have moved beyond the normal constraints of professional, objective journalism into political advocacy – and they are deeply proud of themselves.
In a Sunday column entitled “How Trump inspired a golden age,” Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank wrote that Trump “took on the institution of a free press – and it fought back. Trump came to office after intimidating publishers, barring journalists from covering him and threatening to rewrite press laws, and he has sought to discredit the ‘fake news’ media at every chance. Instead, he wound up inspiring a new golden age in American journalism.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Canadian banks set to reveal quarterly earnings amid housing & debt concerns
Ratings agency Moody’s downgraded the credit ratings for Canada’s big banks earlier this month, citing concerns that over-stretched borrowers and high house prices have left lenders vulnerable to potential losses. (Dillon Hodgin/CBC)
The Canadian banks are expected to benefit from rising U.S. interest rates and fewer bad loans in the oilpatch as they start reporting their latest quarterly results this week, but analysts say worries about the housing market and consumer debt remain key concerns.
“The reality is that given all of the fears about the Canadian mortgage market, I think that even if the results are good, people will dismiss them as being backward-looking,” said analyst Meny Grauman of Cormark Securities.
The Bank of Montreal will kick off the earnings parade on Wednesday, followed by Royal Bank, TD Bank and CIBC on Thursday. Scotiabank will report May 30.
Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan said fee income from trading activities and other types of charges was a key driver of earnings growth last quarter.
That likely moderated during the second quarter, but a strengthening in net-interest margins — stemming from U.S. interest rate hikes in December and March — will likely pick up some of the slack, he said.
BMO and TD are most likely to benefit from the rate increases, Shanahan said.
The banks could also see some improvement in their loan loss provisions as stability has returned to the oilpatch.
“From a credit perspective we should see some continued improvement within the oil and gas portfolios,” Shanahan said.
However, analysts said concerns about high home prices, debt-laden consumers and a liquidity crisis at mortgage lender Home Capital Group could all weigh on the bank stocks.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
India: Why its Attempt to Go Digital Will Fail
India Reverts to its Irrational, Tribal Normal (Part XIII)
Over the three years in which Narendra Modi has been in power, his support base has continued to increase. Indian institutions — including the courts and the media — now toe his line.
The President, otherwise a ceremonial rubber-stamp post, but the last obstacle keeping Modi from implementing a police state, comes up for re-election by a vote of the legislative houses in July 2017. No one should be surprised if a Hindu fanatic is made the next President. India is rapidly entering a new phase.
Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on the cover of an Indian magazine in 2002, when he was the Chief Minister of the Indian province of Gujarat. During his reign in Gujarat, a civil-war like situation erupted, which seriously segregated the province’s society. It brought Hindus into a state of trance and excitement and provided them with the fake-security of the collective. Alas, wealth and civilization are created by an intense focus on value-addition, not from the short-term escapist excitement of mobs expressed through riots and rape. Destructive endeavors are a major vulnerability of poor societies, given their irrationality and lack of foresight and planning, and their short-sighted focus on high time-preference, pleasure-centered activities.
Modi, a major world-traveler, who has run around quite a bit to please foreign governments and win the support of identity-lacking non-resident Indians, is no longer going abroad with the same abandon. Historically and even today, whatever gained approval in the West is what Indians have looked up to.
But Modi has matured. Modi has directed the attention of Indians to nationalism, Hindutava (fanatic Hinduism), the army, the flag, the anthem, and other superficial collective “causes” not underpinned any values or wealth-creating, civilization-producing objectives.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Sergey Lavrov Says US Media Reminds Him of Soviet Union’s “Pravda”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a few choice words for the U.S. media during a press conference in Cyprus a few days after the NYT and WaPo unleashed a pair of dubiously sourced accusations about what was said between President Trump and the minister during a meeting in the Oval Office.
“I sometimes get the impression that many U.S. media outlets work according to a principle which was common in the Soviet Union. Back then, people used to joke that the newspaper Pravda Truth] had no truth in it, and the Izvestia [News] paper has no news in it. I get the impression that many U.S. media operate in the same way.”
U.S. media were barred from Lavrov’s meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, but that didn’t stop WaPo from reporting that Trump allegedly shared classified information with Lavrov about the source of intelligence that inspired the U.S. to ban travelers from 10 airports in the Middle East and North Africa from storing laptops in carry-on luggage. The report added that the decision to share that information jeopardized the source in the process. Meanwhile, the NYT reported that Trump said he fired Comey because the FBI director was a “nut job” and that the decision had eased pressures from the FBI’s investigation into collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Lavrov has denied that any classified information was shared during the meeting. Though it’s important to remember that, even if Trump did share classified intelligence, doing so wouldn’t be a violation of U.S. law.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Greek Authorities To Launch Mass Confiscation Of Safe Deposit Boxes, Securities, Homes In Tax-Evasion Crackdown
Last week, the Greek parliament once again approved more austerity to unlock withheld Greek bailout funds in Brussels: a symbolic move, which has little impact without any actual follow through, like for example, actually imposing austerity. And while Greeks have been very good in the former (i.e. promises), they have been severely lacking in the latter (i.e. delivery).
That may be changing. According to Kathimerini, Greek Finance Ministry inspectors are about to start seeking out the owners of all local undeclared properties, while the law will be amended to allow for financial products and the content of safe deposit boxes to be confiscated electronically. The plan for the identification of taxpayers who have “forgotten” to declare their properties to the tax authorities is expected to be ready by year-end, according to the timetable of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue.
What follows then will be a wholesale confiscation by the government of any asset whose source, origins and funding can not be explained.
The Greek tax authorities will receive support from the Land Register to that end, as by end-September IAPR inspectors are set to obtain access to the company’s database to draw details on properties. Any taxpayers identified as having skipped the declaration of their assets to the tax authorities will be asked to comply and declare them, along with paying the tax and fines dictated by law. Should taxpayers fail to do so, the asset will be “sequestered.”
Kathimerini also notes that the IAPR is also waiting for Parliament to pass regulations permitting the mass confiscation of safe deposit box contents and financial assets such as securities.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
David Stockman Sounds The Alarm – Fiscal Bloodbath and Market Crash to Occur “Between August and November”
As time goes on, it’s becoming abundantly clear that Trump isn’t going to be able to prevent a major financial crisis in this country. Depending on your beliefs, that’s either because he’s inept in some way, or because he’s being hamstrung by a political system that’s determined to keep our nation on the same unsustainable path. Whatever the case may be, it seems that there is no way that we can change course at this point. We’re headed for a financial crisis, and it’s going to happen sooner rather than later.
That’s also the opinion of David Stockman, a former Congressman and director of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan. In this interview with USA Watchdog, he reveals why the market rally that broke out after the last election, “was the greatest sucker’s rally we have ever seen.” He also explains why the economy could go off the rails this year, after our government endures a major budgetary crisis.
Earlier this month our government avoided a shutdown, because Trump decided to sign Congress’s $1.2 trillion spending bill. In effect, he postponed a serious fight with Congress for later this year.
On May 2nd he tweeted “Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!” So clearly, next time he’s going to be a lot less compromising in his efforts to change the budget. That’s going to spawn a fight over the budget between Trump and both political parities, and according to Stockman, that’s when the next wave of our financial collapse is going to arrive.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Neocons Are Still Writing The Script
Iran has been in neocon crosshairs for a very long time. U.S. Presidential Administrations come and go, Democrat and Republican, but the neocon script has remained the same.
President Trump, voted in as an “outsider,” has adopted the insider script.
Today’s speech in Saudi Arabia was crafted by Trump’s neocon Senior Policy Advisor Stephen Miller.
Miller’s “long-time mentor” is David Horowitz.
Here are Horowitz’s thoughts on Bush’s invasion of Iraq:
“Baghdad is liberated,” he wrote for his FrontPage Magazine in April 2003. “In the days to come let us not forget that if it were not for one man, and one man alone—George Bush—the people of Iraq would not be celebrating in the streets and pulling down Saddam’s statues today. … We have entered the era of a new civil war between the forces of freedom and the powers of Islamo-fascist and communist darkness, and once again the left is clearly determined to take its stand on the other side. The good news is that America is back. Our military has performed superlatively. Our leadership has stood tall. We ourselves can celebrate over this and look confidently toward what lies ahead.”
Long story short…Trump may be a different face, but the neocon goal has remained the same.
Here’s the relevant part of today’s speech about Iran that neocon Stephen Miller wrote for Trump:
But no discussion of stamping out this threat would be complete without mentioning the government that gives terrorists all three—safe harbor, financial backing, and the social standing needed for recruitment. It is a regime that is responsible for so much instability in the region. I am speaking of course of Iran.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
May 19, 2017
Warnings from Mount Vesuvius
“Injustice, swift, erect, and unconfin’d,
Sweeps the wide earth, and tramples o’er mankind” – Homer, The Iliad
When Mount Vesuvius Blew
Everything was just the way it was supposed to be in Pompeii on August 24, 79 A.D. The gods had bestowed wealth and abundance upon the inhabitants of this Roman trading town. Things were near perfect.
The lucky residents of Pompeii lived in large homes with elegant courtyard gardens and all the modern conveniences. Rooms were heated by hot air flowing through cavity walls and spaces under the floors. Running water was provided to the city from a great reservoir and conveyed through underground pipelines to houses and public buildings.
Fresh fish from the Bay of Naples were readily available in the Macellum (great food market) and countless cauponae (small restaurants). Entertainment was on hand at the large amphitheatre. Life was agreeable, affable, and idyllic for all – and it was only getting better. Everyone just knew it. They could feel it. They believed it.
By 79 A.D. Pompeii had experienced nearly uninterrupted advancement from its founding almost 700 years earlier. That this would ever change was unthinkable. On the morning of August 24th, who but a doomsayer would suggest there wouldn’t be another 700 years of progress?
Yet, just then, when things couldn’t have seemed more certain, Mount Vesuvius blew. Nineteen hours later, where there had been life and a thriving civilization, there was silence for the next 1,669 years.
Praying for Death
Viewing events through the lens of history and hindsight is unfair to its participants. Their missteps are too obvious, their vanities are too abundant, and their inferiorities too absurd. They appear to be mere imbeciles on parade.
Was George Armstrong Custer really just an arrogant Lieutenant Colonel who led his men to massacre at Little Bighorn? Maybe. Especially when Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and numbers over three times his cavalry appeared across the river.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Lower 48 Production Nears Cycle Highs As Rig Count Rises For 18th Straight Week
While much was made of this week’s drop in US crude production, it was driven by an Alaskan supply drop, not the Lower 48 whose production is at Aug 2015 highs. WTI back above $50 on the back of more OPEC jawboning appears to have everyone convinced this time is different, but for the 18th week in a row US oil rig counts rose (by 8 to 720).
*U.S. OIL RIG COUNT +8 TO 720 , BAKER HUGHES SAYS :BHI US
*U.S. GAS RIG COUNT 180 , BAKER HUGHES SAYS :BHI US
The 18th weekly oil rig count rise…
Production from the Lower 48 continues to soar…
And WTI dipped a little on the print…
And while prices hover above $50, OilPrice.com’s Brian Noble warns that as breakeven prices converge an oil price crash nears…
No one should underestimate the impact of AI (artificial intelligence) on the future of the entire capital markets complex. The LinkedIn group, Algorithmic Traders Association, has recently been running a series of articles warning of the seismic shift that is and will continue to be felt in the global hedge fund industry as machines take over from people on trading desks.
But what intelligent human being would ever suddenly have turned bullish on the morning of Monday 15 May 2017 just because of renewed jawboning from Saudi Arabia and Russia, indulging in the same old two-step as they did at Doha in April 2016 and Vienna in November of last year. That is however precisely what the machines did. Hallelujah.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
