CME Slams “Patently False” Vanity Fair Trump-Frontrunning-Trades Allegations Writing in Vanity Fair earlier this week,  former Goldman Sachs employee William Cohan penned an explosively titled article – “The Fantastically Profitable Mystery of the Trump Chaos Trades” – that raises the possibility traders were tipped off to what President Trump was about to tweet ahead of time and bought massive S&P 500 futures positions right before big market swings. The president’s talk can move markets – and it’s made some futures traders billions. Did they know what he was going to say before he said it? “There is definite hanky-panky going on, to the world’s financial markets’ detriment,” One longtime CME trader says, who has been watching with disgust says he’s never seen anything quite like these … [Read More...]

The Crackdown On Illegal Immigration Is Hurting Oil Drillers Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com, U.S. crude oil production growth may have slowed down this year, but the largest oil-producing counties in the Permian basin continue to feel a shortage of labor.   The predicament for small oil services business owners in New Mexico is aggravated by the surge in worksite audits, investigations, and arrests as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tougher stance on illegal immigration.  A growing number of owners of oil-related businesses in the second-biggest oil-producing county in the United States, Lea County in New Mexico, now avoid hiring undocumented immigrants for oil field work, fearing the clampdown on immigration will affect their business, Reuters reporter Andrew Hay … [Read More...]

Everything You Wanted To Know About The Trump-Biden Ukraine Scandal (But Were Afraid To Be Called Partisan) Authored by Aaron Kesel via ActivistPost.com, Scandal-plagued U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic “wonder boy” candidate Joe Biden have been exchanging political punches over a new scandal that erupted in Ukraine. Trump asked the Ukrainian President to investigate potential corruption involving Joe’s son, Hunter Biden, after a prosecutor investigating his financial dealings was fired in exchange for billions of dollars in U.S. govt aid organized by Joe Biden as Vice President of the U.S. Although, the mainstream media wants the public to believe the Bidens “did nothing wrong.” The truth of the matter is Hunter Biden blatantly used his father’s position of power … [Read More...]

Trump Picks His Florida Doral Resort To Host G-7 Summit In 2020 Donald Trump’s Doral golf resort in Miami will be the site of next year’s G-7 summit, according to a statement by the White House. As Bloomberg reports, the president pitched hosting the 2020 G-7 summit at Trump National Doral at this year’s August gathering of leaders in Biarritz, France, saying that the luxury property is “very big” and that each country could “have their own villa, or their own bungalow.” The announcement by Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney: “It’s almost like they build this facility to host this type of event,” Mulvaney told reporters at the White House, saying “a lot of the same criteria” used for past summits were applied to choosing the … [Read More...]

The Syrian Debacle Is Actually Well-Planned Chaos Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com, For many years now I have focused a considerable amount of analysis on the subject of Syria, with an emphasis on the country’s importance to the global elites as a kind of geopolitical detonator; the first domino in a chain of dominoes that could lead to a war involving international powers. I believe this war will develop on multiple fronts, most importantly on the economic front, but it could very well turn into a shooting war involving numerous actors. Syria is so important, in fact, that the establishment has been careful to smother all discussion about what is really going on there in a fog of propaganda. And make no mistake, … [Read More...]

DC Pundits In Meltdown As Trump Declares Syria & Russia Hate ISIS “More Than Us” “Washington’s in meltdown mode over Trump’s Syria withdrawal and Turkey’s invasion,” independent journalist Rania Khalek observes. This as Trump announced Wednesday that American troops are “largely out” of the area of Turkey’s incursion in northeast Syria. Meeting with Italy’s president, Trump said  in front of reporters: “If Syria wants to fight to take back their land, that’s up to them and Turkey.” He added, “There’s a lot of sand that they can play with.” Trump: “The Kurds know how to fight. As I said, they are not angels.” https://t.co/qKUuPxKCvA pic.twitter.com/QyQiDf0M8y — CBS News (@CBSNews) October 16, 2019 “Syria Is Protecting the Kurds, … [Read More...]

Escobar: Kurds Face Stark Options After US Pullback Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times, Forget an independent Kurdistan: They may have to do a deal with Damascus on sharing their area with Sunni Arab refugees In the annals of bombastic Trump tweets, this one is simply astonishing: here we have a President of the United States, on the record, unmasking the whole $8-trillion intervention in the Middle East as an endless war based on a “false premise.” No wonder the Pentagon is not amused. Trump’s tweet bisects the surreal geopolitical spectacle of Turkey attacking a 120-kilometer-long stretch of Syrian territory east of the Euphrates to essentially expel Syrian Kurds. Even after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cleared with Trump the terms of … [Read More...]

Bank Of America Surges On Report Buffett Seeking To Boost Stake Above 10% Back in the summer 2011, when Warren Buffett first invested in Bank of America stock when it was trading in the single digits, he reportedly did so after a “eureka” moment while dreaming in his bathtub. Fast forward to today when Buffett appears to have again been in the bathroom because as Bloomberg reports, the Omaha Octogenarian (who will turn 90 next August), is now seeking Fed permission to increase Berkshire’s stake in Bank of America to more than 10%, a level that typically triggers a regulatory review. According to Bloomberg, Berkshire – which in July disclosed that it had hit that threshold – filed an application with the Fed in recent weeks making a variety of assurances … [Read More...]

Ecuador… And The IMF’s Killing Spree Authored by Peter Koenig via GlobalResearch.ca, For close to 40 years the IMF has weaponized its handle on the western economy through the dollar-based western monetary system, and brutally destroyed nation after nation, thereby killed hundreds of thousands of people. Indirectly, of course, as the IMF would not use traditional guns and bombs, but financial instruments that kill – they kill by famine, by economic strangulation, preventing indispensable medical equipment and medication entering a country, even preventing food from being imported, or being imported at horrendous prices only the rich can pay. The latest victim of this horrifying IMF scheme is Ecuador. For starters, you should know that since January 2000, Ecuador’s economy is 100% dollarized, compliments of the IMF (entirely … [Read More...]

Margolis: More “Stupid Wars” In Syria Authored by Eric Margolis via LewRockwellc.om, More war in wretched Syria.  Half the population are now refugees; entire cities lie shattered by bombing; bands of crazed gunmen run rampant; US, French, Israeli and Russian warplanes bomb widely. Now, adding to the chaos, President Donald Trump has finally given Turkey, NATO’s second military power, the green light to invade parts of northeastern Syria after he apparently ordered a token force of US troops there to withdraw. You will find more infographics at Statista This, of course, puts the Turks in a growing confrontation with the region’s Kurds, who have occupied large swaths of the area during Syria’s civil war.  The Kurdish militia, known as YPG (confusingly part of the so-called … [Read More...]

Kansas Girl, 13, Charged With Felony For Making “Gun-Like Hand Gesture” Toward Classmates Authored by Elias Marat via The Mind Unleashed blog, A 13-year-old girl in Overland Park, Kansas, was arrested last month and charged with a felony after police say her classmates claim she made a “gun-like hand gesture” at multiple students. The girl, who is a student at Westridge Middle School, flashed the “finger gun” at four fellow students and then toward herself on September 18 after her classmates asked her which five people in the classroom she would kill, said Overland Park Police Chief Frank Donchez. The student, who remains unidentified due to laws protecting her privacy, was arrested and charged the day following the incident for threatening a mass shooting, according to … [Read More...]

China’s Modern Blueprint For Global Power Authored by Lawrence Franklin via The Gatestone Institute, The People’s Republic of China, which celebrated its 70th anniversary on October 1, is led by the Chinese Communist Party’s General Secretary, President Xi Jinping. In his speeches, Xi often refers to “Qiang Zhong Gwo Meng” (“the Chinese dream”), a code phrase for the era of rejuvenation when China will eventually overtake the United States as the most powerful nation in the world. Xi claims that China offers the world a different type of rising global leader — a “guiding power.” Beijing apologists depict China as a non-predatory power, comparing it favorably to Europe’s colonial countries in the past and to today’s United States. Similarly, the state-controlled Chinese media depict Chinese statecraft … [Read More...]

The Beginning Of The End Authored by Sven Henrich via NorthmanTrader.com, They sure are trying their best. To do what? To goose markets higher. It’s been quite the spectacle all year, but this Friday sure took the cake. The entire week had been a giant jerk fest of sudden rips and dips as headline chasing algos were ripping through support and resistance levels unleashed like fat kids at the candy shop. But this Friday was something else, almost designed to have markets overdose on an insulin spike. Ever more hyped up on an impending China deal, every meeting, and movement of negotiators caused market spikes, a Trump tweet about “warm feelings”, a $82.7B repo operation by the Fed to keep things tidy, a sudden out … [Read More...]

National Geographic Warns Billions “Face Shortages Of Food And Clean Water” Over Next 30 Years Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, A lot of people out there don’t like when I write these kinds of articles, because they directly contradict the false narrative that humanity has an extremely bright future ahead.  Sadly, the truth is that our planet and everything that lives on it is rapidly deteriorating. And I am not talking about the false environmentalism being pushed by the mainstream media, Greta Thunberg and countless well-funded NGOs.  What I am talking about is the stuff that is happening right in our face.  We are systematically poisoning our planet, thousands upon thousands of species are going extinct, and we are literally running out of … [Read More...]

The Hidden Costs Of A Universal Basic Income Authored by Arkadiusz Siero? via The Mises Institute, The universal basic income (UBI) is gaining popularity as the alternative to the current welfare system. The idea is to give each citizen the same amount of money, no matter if he or she works or not. Therefore, unlike traditional welfare systems, the UBI has no means test, nor willingness-to-work test. Nobody would be then left without a livelihood even if there is no work for him. Doesn’t that sound great? The problem is that the program must be financed somehow. Let us assume for simplicity that there are 250 million adult Americans and that each of them would receive $1,000 monthly (as presidential candidate Andrew Yang proposes). So we … [Read More...]

Former US-Backed Rebel Leader Now Spearheading Attack On US-Backed Syrian Kurds Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Thursday that his forces have killed 109 Syrian Kurdish militants since the start of the northern Syria incursion, dubbed ‘Operation Peace Spring’.  “The operation is currently continuing with the involvement of all our units… 109 terrorists have been killed so far,” Erdogan stated, as quoted by Reuters. At the same time pro-Kurdish media sources have cited nearly a dozen pro-Turkish forces killed in border areas where both sides have clashed on the ground.  Currently it appears Turkey is mustering large forces and cutting off communications and ground access points outside the largest Syrian population centers near the border, ahead of expected major clashes. #Turkey-backed troops crossing … [Read More...]

PG&E Plunges Most Since Chapter 11 Filing After Losing Bankruptcy Exclusivity Things are getting scary for customers of California’s biggest – and bankrupt – utility, PG&E: not only is the state rolling out unprecedented blackouts which threaten to put as many as 3 million California residents in the dark, but overnight U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali stripped PG&E of exclusive control over its recovery process, which threatens to put the fate of the bankrupt power giant in the hands of creditors and outsiders, wiping out the stock in the process. Immediately after Montali issued his ruling late on Wednesday, PG&E shares crashed as much as 25%. Adding insult to injury, the ruling hit just as PG&E was cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes … [Read More...]

Forget Facial Recog: DHS New Amazon-Based Database Uses Scars, Tattoos, & Your Voice To ID You Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog, These days, you can’t really go anywhere without encountering cameras.  Going into a store? Chances are there are security cameras. Getting money at an ATM? More cameras. Driving through the streets of a city? More cameras still. Your neighbors may have those doorbells from Amazon that are surveilling the entire neighborhood. And many of these cameras are tied into facial recognition databases, or the footage can be quite easily compared there if “authorities” are looking for somebody. But as it turns out, it isn’t just facial recognition we have to worry about. DHS has a new recognition system called HART. Homeland … [Read More...]