Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) busted out an unusual idiom on Sunday as he demanded that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) turn President Donald Trump’s articles of impeachment over to the Senate.
Throughout his interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures, Graham railed against the media, the Democrats, and especially Pelosi’s effort to withhold the articles of impeachment in order to determine the rules the senate will use in their impeachment trial. As Graham slammed Democrats in the House of Representatives for charging Trump with obstruction of Congress, he repeatedly insisted the president was impeached “because he chose to go to court” instead of complying with subpoenas for documents and witness testimony in connection with the Ukraine scandal.
“Instead of allowing the president to exercise his legal rights, they impeached him because he wanted to go to court,” Graham said. “Instead of allowing the president to go to court to exercise executive privilege, they put an artificial time limit and said, if you don’t allow these witnesses to come to the house at a time certain, we’re going to impeach you. They impeached him for exercising his legal rights.”
The impeachment push was a recurring topic throughout the interview, for after slamming the FBI over the Michael Horowitz report, Graham returned to the subject and said “to my Democratic colleagues, impeachment is a dead cat, stop playing with it.”
Bartiromo smiled at that and had Graham repeat the line.
“Impeachment is a dead cat,” Graham said a second time. “Stop playing with it, bury it. It’s going nowhere. Quit violating the Constitution and give [the] president his day in court. And let’s get this behind us so we can talk about things people really care about.”
The Fed Has Repeated The Mistake Of 1998 Which Ended With The Dot Com Bubble
Submitted by Joseph Carson, Former Director of Global Economic Research, Alliance Bernstein
The Politics of "Tariffs" & The Fed
The Trump administration used the hammer of tariffs to negotiate a bi-lateral trade agreement with China, but in doing so also influenced a change in domestic monetary policy. The tariff-led negotiations were part of Trump’s team trade strategy, but were the tariffs also a tool to persuade a change in monetary policy? Whether it was or not, the Fed has now unwittingly entered into symbiotic relationship with fiscal policy and questions over autonomy could very well influence future policy decisions jeopardizing financial stability in the process.
Tariffs and the Fed
The Federal Reserve does not have a seat at the table when fiscal policy decisions like the imposition of tariffs are implemented. As a result, policymakers are forced to accept fiscal policy decisions, like tariffs, as an input into their economic forecasts and policy deliberations.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated that although monetary policy “cannot provide a settled rule book for international trade” monetary policy must take into account how trade disputes are affecting the economic and inflation outlook and adjust monetary policy to meet the mandated objectives.
From a risk management perspective policymakers always enjoy the policy flexibility to take out an “insurance policy” against unknown risks and outcomes. And in the case of the US and China trade dispute with an unknown outcome and time limit it was not unreasonable for policymakers to take out an “insurance policy”. Yet, the main question is how long should an “insurance policy” remain in place when the evidence shows that the perceived economic and financial risks did not materialize?
Despite all of the concerns over potential fallout from US and China trade dispute the US economy’s performance in 2019 was almost exactly in line with policymakers expectations. To be sure, real GDP growth of 2.4% essentially matched policymaker’s forecast of 2.3% and expectations on unemployment rate (3.5%) and core inflation (1.9%) were very close to the actual outcomes of 3.6% and 1.7% respectively.
Nonetheless, even with nearly “perfect” forecasting record for 2019, policymakers went against their initial intentions of hiking rates twice over the course of the year and instead lowered rates three times.
From a monetary policy, domestic economy and financial markets perspective 2019 is analogous to that of 1998.
First, in 1998 policymakers were concerned about how the storm clouds from Asian financial crisis could impact the export performance of US companies, exerting a discernible drag on the economy. In 2019, policymakers saw the US and China trade dispute weighing on export growth and business investment. As such, in both periods policymakers decided to lower official rates three times to cushion the impact on the domestic economy.
Second, in 1998 and in 2019 the overall domestic economy performance was unaffected by the global trade issues; both periods experienced solid gains in consumer spending, with the jobless rate falling to decade lows.
Third, in 1998 and in 2019 the financial markets experienced periods of risk-off directly linked to global issues, but the injection of additional liquidity from the reduction in official rates triggered powerful rallies.
In the late 1990s, policymakers possessed a high degree of independence and there were little, if any, public political suggestions or demands of what to do. Yet, policymakers operating even without any political interference made a “huge” policy mistake as they left easy money in place far too long resulting in finance racing far ahead of the economy as equity prices and corporate debt soared to record levels while operating profits were declining. The end result was a finance-driven recession.
The risk that policymakers repeat the mistakes of the late 1990s is very high.
For one, policymakers are overlooking the possibility once gain that its easy money policy is distorting the financial markets.
Second, the independence of the Fed has never been more threatened and the new role of being an accomplice in fiscal policy decisions is an inherently a political one, and one that policymakers will find hard to exit anytime soon.
Investors are betting that nothing changes in 2020, but the risks of financial excesses creating financial instability are rising. Volatility in politics and market rates could very well be the surprise in 2020.
More than 30 governors have agreed to accept refugees, but about a dozen Republican governors have remained silent on President Donald Trump's executive order.
The controversial "Ground Zero mosque" project that was shelved amid protest apparently has been revived.
A 16,000-square-foot Islamic cultural center is to be built on the site of a building in Manhattan that was damaged by plane parts during the 9/11 attacks, reports Summit News.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's proposal in 2010 to create a 15-story Islamic cultural center on the site sparked a national uproar. At the time, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in an interview the people behind the mosque "are really radical Islamists who want to triumphally prove that they can build a mosque right next to a place where 3,000 Americans were killed by radical Islamists – those folks don't have any interest in reaching out to the community."
Summit News cited New York YIMBY, which reported construction has yet to begin on 51 Park Place, "which is slated to become a 71-foot-tall, 16,000-square-foot Islamic cultural center.”
Anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller writes on her blog that developer Sharif El-Gamal has learned from the Ground Zero mosque controversy and is trying to avoid drawing attention to the new project.
"El-Gamal has many friends and allies among New York City's political and media elites," she writes.
Geller said it's likely that New York City officials under Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York Times and other city papers "met with El-Gamal and agreed to keep the reporting on this project to an absolute minimum, so that it could get built without incurring the righteous anger of the public again."
"The first time around, they courted publicity and tried to make El-Gamal a hero," she says. "We demolished that and destroyed their plans. So now they’ve clearly decided to go ahead surreptitiously."
Geller contends building a mosque at the site where Islamic terrorists slaughtered thousands of Americans is a provocation.
It's an "Islamic pattern to build triumphal mosques on the cherished sites of conquered lands," writes Geller.
"History is riddled with triumphal mosques built on the sites of jihad attacks or appropriated from other religions: the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, and innumerable mosques built on the sites of Hindu temples that were demolished by Muslims all attest to that."
As Kevin Smith returns in 'Jay and Silent Bob Reboot', the actor, director and podcaster tells Gerard Gilbert about the changes in his life post-heart attack, a third Clerks film, and why he doesn't believe 'woke culture' is killing comedy
The launch angle of the U.S. stock market over the past decade has been steep and relentless. The S&P 500, after bottoming out at 666 on March 6, 2009, has rocketed up over 370 percent. New highs continue to be reached practically every day.
Over this stretch, many investors have been conditioned to believe the stock market only goes up. That blindly pumping money into an S&P 500 ETF is the key to investment riches. In good time, this conditioning will be recalibrated with a rude awakening. You can count on it.
In the interim, the bull market may continue a bit longer…or it may not. But, to be clear, after a 370 percent run-up, buying the S&P 500 represents a speculation on price. A gamble that the launch angle furthers its steep trajectory. Here’s why…
Over the past decade, the U.S. economy, as measured by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), has increased about 50 percent. This plots a GDP launch angle that is underwhelming when compared to the S&P 500. Corporate earnings have fallen far short of share prices.
Hence, the bull market in stocks is not a function of a booming economy. Rather, it’s a function of Fed madness. And its existence becomes ever more perilous with each passing day.
Central planners at the Fed – like other major central banks – have taken monetary policy to a state of madness. Zero interest rate policy, negative interest rate policy, quantitative easing, operation twist, quantitative tightening, reserve management, repo market intervention, not-QE, mass-asset purchases, and more.
These schemes have fostered massive growth in public and private debt with nothing but lackluster economic growth to show. What’s more, these schemes have produced massive asset bubbles that have skyrocketed wealth inequality and inflamed countless variants of new populism.
Yet the clever fellows at the Fed are blind to the fact that they’re most responsible for fabricating this monster. And now they want to rectify the ghastly deformities of their creation…
Higher Calling
Earlier this week, for example, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari remarked that:
“Monetary policy can play the kind of redistributing role once thought to be the preserve of elected officials.”
How exactly Mickey Mousing with credit markets could attain this objective is unclear. But, like yield curve control (YCC), Kashkari wants to give it a go. These sorts of amorphous meddling operations is how he answers his higher calling.
You see, Kashkari’s a man with crazy eyes. But he’s also a man with even crazier ideas. He’s an extreme economic interventionist – and a crackpot. Though he wears his burdens on his sleeve.
If you recall, as federal bailout chief, Kashkari functioned as the highly visible hand of the market. When the sky was falling in early-2009, he awoke each morning, put on his pants one leg at a time, drank his coffee, and rapidly funneled Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s $700 billion of TARP funds to the government’s preferred financial institutions.
Incidentally, the experience had an ill effect on Kaskkari’s mental health. Soon after, he became a hermit, took to a cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains – near Donner Pass – and pursued his other life’s purpose of chopping wood. We thought we’d seen the last of him.
But sadly, it’s impossible for true believers to amiably exit the trappings of public life for good. After a failed California gubernatorial campaign in 2014, losing to retread Governor Jerry Moonbeam Brown, Kashkari resurfaced as Minneapolis Fed President in 2016.
We suppose this appointed position was his reward for the abuse heaped upon him from grandstanding Representatives – absolute losers like Barney Frank and Maxine Waters – while handing out vast quantities of taxpayer dollars to Wall Street banks. Of course, for real public servants like Kashkari, appointed positions are the crème de la crème.
Strangely, lightning strikes twice for this guy. Next year, roughly a month from today, Kashkari will be a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee. For the second time in 11 years, destiny will place him at the precise location where he can exact maximum destruction upon financial markets during a colossal crisis.
The Fed’s Answer to the Ghastly Monster of its Creation
As the economy stalls out in 2020, U.S. deficits are going to jump to over $2 trillion a year – and will stay there. So, too, the national debt will run up towards $40 trillion over the next decade. The Fed, through YCC or some other wild scheme, will take on the dirty deed of monetizing this debt. They’ll create money from nothing and loan it to the Treasury.
Then, if Kashkari has his way, the Treasury will send out checks backed by the Fed’s funny money to William Jennings Bryan’s “struggling masses.” All the while, the Fed will be oblivious to the fact that these are the same people who’ve been hollowed out by the Fed’s own policies of wealth inequality. This is their solution to the ghastly monster of their making.
Still, the Fed and Kashkari are only the source of but some of the crazy ideas being burped about. Moreover, an election year always provides a startling preview of the madness coming to Washington – regardless of who wins. The styling may be different. But the results are the same: bigger government, bigger deficits, and greater government control and encroachments upon individual freedom and liberty.
Right now, Presidential candidates are tripping over themselves to see who can make greater and crazier promises to coat the landscape in gravy for voters to sup off of. You know what we’re talking about…
Economic patriotism. Universal basic income. Modern monetary theory. Trade wars. Green new deal. Quantitative easing for the people. Generous spending packages. Free school. Free drugs. Canceling debt. Wealth taxes. Taxes on unrealized capital gains. Outright currency destruction. And much, much more.
The planners and schemers are queuing up these ridiculous plans for just the right moment. That is, when the economy slows, credit market’s freeze, the stock market crashes, the sky falls, and all hell breaks loose. Like TARP, or the Patriot Act, they’ll roll them out at the precise moment of maximum panic.
Alas, the monster will rampage in wild and unexpected ways.
DC Comics has come under fire for deleting a poster from social media after a backlash from China over what they believed to be an endorsement of the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
Judge Michael Simon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon issued a decision halting the Trump Administration’s policy of denying visas to aliens who do not have, or cannot afford, health insurance.
"He called the police and spoke to PC Mansoor Gull who told him that an anonymous person had reported him for hate speech. The caller had found the company he is a director of and reported that his workplace would not be a safe place for trans people," the report aid.
"Gull said that he was in possession of 30 offensive tweets by Harry Miller. Miller asked if he had committed a crime. PC Gull said no. Miller then asked if any of the tweets came close to being a crime. PC Gull then read what he called a 'limerick' which Miller had re-tweeted. Miller did not even write the poem which asserts that transgender women are really men and that trans surgery is artificial. Miller then asked why PC Gull was wasting his time on a non-crime, to which PC Gull replied: 'It's not a crime, but it will be recorded as a hate incident,'" the report said.
Such an "incident" would be those events that are a "non-crime" but are thought by anyone "to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person's race or perceived race/religion or perceived religion/sexual orientation…," the report said.
Dieppe explained, "Basically, if anyone perceives anything as a hate incident then it is a hate incident. The police will then have to record it, and there is no innocent till proven guilty. There is no proven guilty at all. In fact, there is no way to prove innocence either. Such an allegation will be recorded against you forevermore, with no recourse to fact or anything else. No matter whether the motive of the reporting person was actually hate in the first place! When Miller later asked Humberside police to remove him from their hate-crime statistics, they said they couldn’t because they were following the policing guidelines."
The report alarmingly documented that the police officer told Miller he needed to speak with him, even though there was no crime, because, "I need to check your thinking."
The officer told Miller, according to the report, "What you have to understand, Mr Miller, is that sometimes a female brain grows with the wrong body parts and that is what being trans is."
The officer explained he knew that because he'd "been on a course."
Now Miller is suing police.
"Miller wants his name cleared of a hate incident. As far as he was concerned, there was no hate and there was no incident. He is also calling for the College of Policing to immediately withdraw their guidelines on hate incidents," the report said.
A campaign site called Fair Cop also has been set up to fund the legal challenge, which explains police are violating the European Convention on Human Rights by creating official records against people for "incidents" which are not illegal.
Christian Concern explained, "This case is very significant. If he wins, we could see a wholesale change in policing and a real shift towards freedom of speech. If he loses, then this will demonstrate that we are clearly living in a restricted society and that thought police are a reality in the U.K. today."
(CTV) A judge on Thursday rejected part of the appeal of a comedian who joked about drowning a disabled boy.
Comedian Mike Ward must pay $35,000 to Jeremy Gabriel because of a joke he told at shows between 2010 and 2013, the court confirmed.
A panel of Appellate Court judges upheld part of a ruling against Ward handed down in January 2019. Ward had been ordered to pay $42,000: $35,000 to Gabriel, $7,000 to his mother.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) on Monday activated the state's cybersecurity team in response to an attack on multiple state agencies.Edwards tweeted that upon discovering the attempted ransomware attack, Loui...
Netflix said on Thursday it would make changes to maps in a documentary that showed German Nazi death camps inside the borders of modern Poland, after Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki pressed the streaming and production company to act.
Boeing Co has scaled back use of automation to make fuselage sections for its 777 jetliners amid reports of reliability issues and returned to having mechanics do some of the work, the planemaker said on Thursday.
