Tag: Wall Street

Good News For Some

If you are a normal working stiff then there has been very little to call ‘good news’…..but if you are among the ‘robber barons’ then you should be all smiles.

Bonus season is back on Wall Street, at least on paper. Axios reports that the average bonus for New York City securities industry workers hit $246,900 last year, a 6% jump from the previous year, according to a new report from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Total profits in the securities industry climbed more than 30%, to $65.1 billion, while the overall bonus pool reached a record $49.2 billion, up 9%. The gains were fueled in part by heavy trading during market volatility linked to tariffs enacted by the Trump administration.

Bloomberg reports it’s the highest bonus pool on record, going back to 1987. There’s a caveat, however, per Axios: Adjusted for inflation, the bonus pool actually reached its highest level in 2006 at $53.7 billion, and it remains below the highs of 2020 and 2021, when pandemic-era markets and deal-making surged. The comptroller’s estimate is based on income tax withholding data for New York City employees and excludes stock options and other types of deferred pay.

DiNapoli said Wall Street’s strength is a plus for state and city budgets that depend heavily on its tax revenue, but he cautioned that weaker job growth and geopolitical tensions could pressure the industry, as well as the broader economy. Fortune reports that this year’s bonus outlook “is already darkening,” with the outlet noting some of the city’s budget planning “may … be too rosy,” with some targets seemingly “out of reach.”

If you are a billionaire then all is coming up roses…..the rest of us peons are struggling with day to day life.

Eat The Rich!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What F*cking Game Is This?

Donny and his tariffs is nothing more than a wealth generating scheme for him and his billionaire buds….it is a game.

Just yesterday his wild swings on tariffs was something out of an economic nightmare…

It began with his statement….

Consumer confidence is sinking, China and the EU have introduced retaliatory tariffs within the last few hours, and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says we’re likely spiraling toward a recession. The president’s response? “Be cool.” President Trump took to Truth Social Wednesday morning to share the following:

  • “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” (link)
  • “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT” (link)
  • “This is a GREAT time to move your COMPANY into the United States of America, like Apple, and so many others, in record numbers, are doing. ZERO TARIFFS, and almost immediate Electrical/Energy hook ups and approvals. No Environmental Delays. DON’T WAIT, DO IT NOW!” (link)
  • The president was unequivocal in comments made Tuesday night at the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner in Washington, DC. “I know what the hell I’m doing,” Trump said.  (He does and it is not something for you or your family).

Then later Wednesday he made another of his wold swing on this moronic idea of tariffs….

President Trump said Wednesday that he paused most of his “reciprocal” tariffs on other countries because people were getting “yippy” and “afraid.” The president said he had been watching the bond market, where there has been a major sell-off, and he thought people were “getting a little queasy,” the AP reports. He said that he expects to reach trade deals with most countries, but “nothing’s over yet.”

  • Leavitt says tariffs will be held at 10%: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the tariff rate would be brought down to a universal 10%, a major reduction from the level imposed on imports from many countries in “Liberation Day” tariffs that took effect early Wednesday, the New York Times reports. She spoke to reporters after Trump posted about the pause on Truth Social and stocks soared. Trump said more than 75 countries had called to seek trade deals—but tariffs on imports from China, which brought in retaliatory tariffs, would be raised to 125%.
  • “Bespoke” trade deals: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump would negotiate “bespoke” trade deals with other countries. He said this has been the president’s strategy “all along,” the Washington Post reports. “You might even say he goaded China into a bad position—they have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors,” Bessent said.
  • ‘WTF. Who’s in charge?’ Trump’s announcement came as US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was testifying in front of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Wall Street Journal reports. After Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford asked him if he knew about the pause, Greer said he found out about it a few minutes earlier. “WTF. Who’s in charge?” Horsford asked. He told Greer: “This is amateur hour. It needs to stop. How are you in charge of negotiations if the president is tweeting about this from wherever the hell he is?”
  • ‘He is reeling, he is retreating’: Trump “is reeling, he is retreating, and that is a good thing,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a press conference moments after Trump’s announcement, the Hill reports. Schumer said he would keep pressure on Trump despite the pullback. “This is chaos. This is government by chaos. He keeps changing things from day to day. His advisers are fighting among themselves, calling each other names,” Schumer said. “And you cannot run a country with such chaos.”
  • Market swings could continue: Stocks jumped on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq up more than 11% in the afternoon, the S&P 500 up almost 10%, and the Dow up 8%, but investors are worried that volatility will continue. “The tariff clouds parted for the first time today, but it’s too soon to know how sunny the skies will be tomorrow—or 90 days from now,” said Daniel Skelly at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, per the Times. “As welcome as the announcement was, investors can’t assume it’s the end of the tariff story, or that the market’s day-to-day volatility will disappear.”
  • ‘Pause’ could be permanent: “Our working assumption now will be that, cowed by the market response, Trump will repeatedly extend the ‘pause’ meaning that this will end up looking a lot like the 10% universal tariff that he campaigned on,” Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, said Wednesday, per the Journal. “In return, other countries will offer minor concessions on their own tariffs and trade practices.”

After telling his butt buddies to buy stocks and then announcing a the ‘pause’…..markets hit record numbers…..and then set about using the American people as an excuse to help his cronies make lots of cash….

US stocks soared to one of their best days in history on a euphoric Wall Street Wednesday after President Trump said he would back off on most of his tariffs temporarily, as investors had desperately hoped he would.

  • The S&P 500 rocketed higher by 474.13 points, or 9.5%, to 5,456.90. It was the index’s third-best day since World War II.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial leaped 2,962.86, or 7.9% to 40,608.45.
  • The Nasdaq composite jumped 1,857.06 points, or 12.2%, to 17,124.97.

So I ask again….what is this f*cking game?

You guys really do not see what all this economic games is doing?

Looks to me like all this tariff shit is just a cover to help himself and his ass kissers make lots of cash.

At what point do you allow this type of blatant bullshit to continue….time to get off your ass!

(I sit and shake my head)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What About This Inflation Thing?

I have heard much ‘good’ news about the economy lately….but unfortunately the real facts say different….

Investors were fully expecting good news from the new monthly inflation report out Tuesday. But instead of declining, prices actually rose in August. Which means the Federal Reserve is all but certain to forge ahead with an aggressive rate hike at its Sept. 20-21 meeting. Details:

  • Monthly rise: Prices rose 0.1% in August from July, according to the Consumer Price Index, reports CNBC. Most analysts had forecast a decline of 0.1%. Investors were hoping for a sign that inflation had peaked.
  • Yearly increase: Compared to a year earlier, prices in August were up 8.3%, which is extremely high by historical standards, though below the annual figures of 8.5% in July and 9.1% in June, per the Wall Street Journal.
  • Market flips: Dow futures were up about 200 points before the report came out, with investors hoping an inflation cool-down would convince the Fed to temper its interest-rate hikes. But as soon as the report came out, Dow futures were down by 300 points, per CNBC.
  • The Fed: The new report is all but certain to keep the Fed “firmly in inflation-fighting mode,” per the New York Times. Most observers expect another hike of three-quarters of a percentage point. “Inflation is far too high, and it is too soon to say whether inflation is moving meaningfully and persistently downward,” Christopher Waller, one of the Fed’s governors, said last week. “This is a fight we cannot, and will not, walk away from.”

So the news is not so good and Wall Street reacting as could be predicted…..

The stock market fell the most since June 2020 following Wall Street’s humbling realization Tuesday that inflation is not slowing as much as hoped. The S&P 500 fell 177.72 points, or 4.3%, to 3,932.69. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,276.37 points, or 3.9%, to 31,104.97. The Nasdaq fell 632.84 points, or 5.2%, to 11,633,57. A hotter-than-expected report on inflation has traders bracing for the Federal Reserve to ultimately raise interest rates even higher than expected, with all the risks for the economy that entails. Bond prices also tumbled, sending yields sharply higher, after the government reported inflation decelerated last month by less than economists forecast.

Investments seen as the most expensive or the riskiest are the ones hardest hit by higher rates. Bitcoin tumbled 7.1%. In the stock market, all but four of the stocks in the S&P 500 fell. Technology and other high-growth companies fell more than the rest of the market because they’re seen as most at risk from higher rates, the AP reports. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon all fell more than 4% and were the heaviest weights on the market. The communication services sector, which includes Google’s parent company and other internet and media companies, sank 4.8% for the largest loss out of the 11 sectors that make up the S&P 500 index.

Most of Wall Street came into the day thinking the Fed would hike its key short-term rate by a hefty three-quarters of a percentage point at its meeting next week. But the hope was that inflation was in the midst of quickly falling back to more normal levels after peaking in June at 9.1%. The thinking was that such a slowdown would let the Fed downshift the size of its rate hikes through the end of this year and then potentially hold steady through early 2023. Tuesday’s report dashed some of those hopes. “Right now, it’s not the journey that’s a worry so much as the destination,” says Brian Jacobsen at Allspring Global Investments. “If the Fed wants to hike and hold, the big question is at what level.”

Not to worry they will manipulate the economy to make everything look okay for us mere peasants…..but if you have to earn a living you know it is not ‘healthy’ by any stretch of the imagination.

But go ahead bury your head and plug along barely making it….or do something about it.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–03May21

When elected Biden was said by conservs that the markets would suffer…..but all their doom and gloom from the GOP and its spokesmen…….happily they were WRONG.

Modest gains for stocks nudged the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to more record highs on Wall Street as investors braced for a deluge of earnings reports from big US companies. Of the 500 members of the S&P 500 index, 181 will report their results this week. Apple, Microsoft, McDonald’s, and Caterpillar are among the big-name companies that will be telling investors how they did in the first three months of the year. Ten of the 30 members of the Dow will also release their results.. The S&P 500 rose 7.45 points, or 0.2%, to 4,187.62. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 61.92 points, or 0.2%, to 33,981.57. The Nasdaq rose 121.97 points, or 0.9%, to 14,138.78. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 26.15 points, or 1.2% to 2,298.01

The stakes for investors are high this week, the AP reports. With millions of vaccines going out daily and trillions of dollars worth of government-led economic support being paid out, investors have turned much of their attention to how well the global economy—and corporate profits—will do in the recovery. Corporate profits in the S&P 500 are expected to be up 24% from this time a year ago, according to FactSet. Earnings growth is being welcomed by investors who have had to justify high stock values as many companies continue to emerge from a pandemic slump. About a quarter of S&P 500 companies have reported quarterly results so far this earnings season. Of these, 84% have delivered earnings that topped Wall Street’s estimates, according to FactSet.

Not to worry the CEOs are raking in the cash for themselves.

Once again the GOP has shown just how bad they lie and just how outta touch they truly have become.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Bested By Amateurs

Have you heard the news?

The news where the hedge funds lost their collective butts.

A bunch of non-professional day traders pulled the veil over the big hedge funds…..all around the stock for Game Stop……

Two major players have admitted defeat in the “David and Goliath” battle over GameStop’s share price—but other Goliaths have made a fortune. The stock surged to a new high of $347.51 at the close of trading Wednesday, up almost 135% for the day, making a profit of around $2 billion for the firm’s largest three shareholders, and smaller profits for a horde of others, the Guardian reports. On Tuesday, two of the short-sellers targeted by an army of Reddit users closed their positions after taking major losses, reports CNBC. Andrew Left of Citron Research said the loss had been “100%.” Melvin Capital is believed to have lost billions on its bet that the retailer’s share price would drop, but fund manager Gabe Plotkin said rumors of a bankruptcy filing were untrue. More:

  • What happened? NBC explains how the struggling video game retailer became Wall Street’s hottest stock, rising more than 8,000% in six months. The frenzy began when amateur investors on the Reddit r/wallstreetbets community and other forums began buying stock and pushing the price up. Hedge funds that had shorted the stock—borrowing shares with the aim of profiting by selling them and rebuying them at a lower price later—were left in a squeeze when they had to rebuy the stock at a higher price, which sent the price even higher.
  • Professionals are “reeling.” The Wall Street Journal says professional investors are “reeling from their losses” as power shifts from them to day traders and newbie investors who use sites like Discord and Reddit to discuss which stock to pile into next—and to mock short sellers for their massive losses. On Wednesday alone, investors who took short positions in GameStop lost an estimated $14.3 billion.
  • White House is monitoring the situation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that the White House and Federal Reserve are monitoring the situation with GameStop and other companies that have seen meteoric share price rises, reports Reuters. Fed chief Jerome Powell rejected suggestions that policies including ultra-low interest rates were the cause of asset bubbles.
  • Forum goes private. The r/wallstreetbets forum on Reddit was taken private late Wednesday and reappeared with a note from moderators saying that with a flood of new users, it was becoming impossible to enforce content policies, the Verge reports. “We have grown to the kind of size we only dreamed of in the time it takes to get a bad nights sleep,” they wrote.
  • AMC is also heating up. The nightmare for short-sellers is continuing with steep rises in the shares of struggling companies including AMC Entertainment and BlackBerry. The Wall Street Journal reports that the flurry of activity was so intense Wednesday that AMC Networks, which has no connection to the other AMC, also spiked more than 20%
  • AOC speaks out. “Gotta admit it’s really something to see Wall Streeters with a long history of treating our economy as a casino complain about a message board of posters also treating the market as a casino,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Wednesday. Sen. Elizabeth Warren also weighed in, tweeting: “With stocks soaring while millions are out of work and struggling to pay bills, it’s not news that the stock market doesn’t reflect our actual economy.”
  • Where will it end? The New York Times notes that despite the hype, GameStop the company “isn’t noticeably different from a month ago,” which makes its share price appear “wildly inflated” and a risky bet indeed. The “weird little bubble” could cause the price of more solid stocks to drop if big investors have to offload them to cover their losses, according to the Times.

I love it!

The elites were beaten at their own game.

Well done!

After years of the 1% sticking it to the country they have been bested at their own game.

I think the Biden admin will either find the move illegal or they will put in massive restrictions and regulations.

Until then…let the ‘little guy’ hit back at the slugs on Wall Street.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Economy, Stupid!

The markets have had wild swings for about a year now….but with that the profits roll on for the corporations…..the president’s lack of economic knowledge and the wild lies of something good is just making things worse.

And this past week it has come to a head (as they say)…..it happened in the bond markets……

An economic alarm bell has sounded in the US, sending warnings of a possible recession ahead—and sending the Dow plunging 800 points by the end of the day. Yields on 2-year and 10-year Treasury notes inverted early Wednesday, a market phenomenon that shows investors want more in return for short-term government bonds than for long-term bonds. It’s an indication that investors have lost faith in the soundness of the US economy, the AP reports. What appeared to be a slight thaw in trade relations between the US and China that had sent markets sharply higher Tuesday was quickly forgotten, with the Dow opening down 400 points. By 12:30pm ET it was down nearly 650 points; a half-hour later it had plunged 737 points, or 2.6%, reports CNBC. By end of day it was down 800, the S&P 500 was down 86, and the Nasdaq was down 242, per Marketwatch.

CNBC notes that bank stocks like Bank of America and Citigroup have been the big losers today, down 5% and 5.2% respectively, as “it gets tougher for [them] to make a profit lending money in such an environment.” The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note hit 1.622%, falling below the yield of a 2-year, which was 1.634%. The last inversion of this part of the yield curve was in December 2005, two years before a recession brought on by the financial crisis hit. An inversion like the one taking place Wednesday has preceded the last nine recessions dating back to 1955. When a recession might hit, if it does, is a little hazier. Months or even years have passed after an inversion takes place, and before economists can connect the two. Marketwatch notes Wednesday was the Dow’s worst day this year.

Here comes the “R” word…. a “recession”…..some are running worried….

Then there are the multiple lies about China and tariffs….remember when he said China would pay for the tariffs not the American people?  That was the same lie as Mexico would pay for that damn silly border wall.  Don’t forget the lie about all the billions flowing into the coffers of the nation…that was a lie as well…..

If China was gonna to pay and the pain would all be on someone else then why did Trump decide to postpone tariffs until mid-December?

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed off his Sept. 1 deadline for 10% tariffs on remaining Chinese imports, delaying duties on cellphones, laptops and other consumer goods, in the hopes of blunting their impact on U.S. holiday sales.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-trade-china-tariff/trump-backs-off-china-tariff-plan-with-delays-for-cellphones-laptops-idUKKCN1V31CR

Would “impact US holiday sales”…..that should tell you everything you need to know about these pseudo-economic solutions….even if you are not a genius like our Supreme Leader Trump.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

 

Just How Cozy Is Hillary Clinton With Wall Street? – BillMoyers.com

You recall recently Bernie made a statement that Clinton was part of the “establishment” and the media world went batcrap crazy looking for what he really meant to say……

A manufactured issue….the rest of the country knew what he meant when he uttered the word……in case you are dense…..he meant that she was in the pocket of the special interests (you may define that in any manner you prefer)……..she is a member of that “establishment” just like hubby Bubba….I mean look at the favor he did for agri-business with NAFTA and Wall Street when he helped repel Glass-Steagall…….fast forward to today….how much does his Clinton Global thingy rake in annually….mostly from wealthy people…..who do you think that favors?

But do not take my word for it……there is much that explains her connection to the “establishment”…..

This post first appeared at Mother Jones. Hillary Clinton has received a lot of campaign money from the financial industry over the years, and after she left the State Department she gave several lucrative speeches to Goldman Sachs and other big banks. As Michael Hirsh puts it, this has given her a reputation for being “more than a little cozy” with Wall Street. But is she? Continue reading

Source: Just How Cozy Is Hillary Clinton With Wall Street? – BillMoyers.com

Vote from knowledge not from slogans and applause……this country has enough super wealthy people….what we need is someone that see to the Middle Class and our seniors…..”the poor get poorer and the rich get richer” should NO longer be a mantra to describe America.

Sen. Bernie Sanders: Man Of The People

There are not many in Washington that I would give the time of day……my two faves are Eliz.. Warren and Bernie Sanders……I have been a fan of Sanders since his days in state politics in Vermont……he has consistently been a person of the people…..there have been others that I respected their time in DC but not many…..

Sanders has always been a proponent of the poor and the middle class……he has been vocal and demanding….few in DC would listen and even fewer would have his back when it came to the nut cutting……

He and Warren are making a dynamite one two punch…….the Left is very fortunate to have these two people as their spokesperson…….Sen. Warren let the Congress have it over the latest government funding bill…..she withheld NO punches.

Remember 2008….I know it is a sore subject that few want to revisit……but to solve the problem from ever happening again there was a call to break up the big banks and eliminate the “too big too fail” syndrome where the taxpayer had to cover them for their bad business practices…….Sanders is trying again to do the right thing for the country with his 12 point plan………

Sanders detailed a 12-point economic program to,

– Invest in our crumbling infrastructure with a major program to create jobs by rebuilding roads, bridges, water systems, waste water plants, airports, railroads and schools.

– Transform energy systems away from fossil fuels to create jobs while beginning to reverse global warming and make the planet habitable for future generations.

– Develop new economic models to support workers in the United States instead of giving tax breaks to corporations which ship jobs to low-wage countries overseas.

– Make it easier for workers to join unions and bargain for higher wages and benefits.

– Raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour so no one who works 40 hours a week will live in poverty.

– Provide equal pay for women workers who now make 78 percent of what male counterparts make.

– Reform trade policies that have shuttered more than 60,000 factories and cost more than 4.9 million decent-paying manufacturing jobs.

– Make college affordable and provide affordable child care to restore America’s competitive edge compared to other nations.

– Break up big banks. The six largest banks now have assets equivalent to 61 percent of our gross domestic product, over $9.8 trillion. They underwrite more than half the mortgages in the country and issue more than two-thirds of all credit cards.

– Join the rest of the industrialized world with a Medicare-for-all health care system that provides better care at less cost.

– Expand Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and nutrition programs.

– Reform the tax code based on wage earners’ ability to pay and eliminate loopholes that let profitable corporations stash profits overseas and pay no U.S. federal income taxes.

I have NO problem with his plan…..which is unusual for I seldom find a plan coming out of the Senate that I agree with…….Americans need to get informed and back Sanders plan…….another 2008 is only a tick away from happening again…….

Because of the collective ignorance of the American people will ensure that we will face another economic crash…..and this one may not be as easy to repair as the last…….

Keep your head in the sand and you will make it possible for more suffering of the American people……I know most could care less about their fellow Americans and that is why we are doomed to keep making the same mistake time and time again……..

McKinsey Article Lays Out How to Rethink Capitalism – US News

American capitalism is killing the American Dream…..it is crapping all over those who actually have to work…..call me anything you like….communist, socialist, anarchist….I do not much care as long as you pull your head out of your butt and take a good look at the damage capitalism is doing to the average American family.

Capitalism can work but it needs re-doing……..a task few are unwilling to sow the guts to even consider much less attempt……

 

McKinsey Article Lays Out How to Rethink Capitalism – US News.