Tag Archives: Hedge Funds

Sep 13 2023

Speaker Kevin McCarthy Announces Formal Impeachment Investigation of Biden, Led by James Comer, Jim Jordan and Jason Smith


Posted originally on the CTH on September 12, 2023 | Sundance 

I wish I could find something positive and optimistic in this announcement; unfortunately, the posturing moves of the DC machinery never lead to a genuine level of accountability. The UniParty protects its own.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announces the beginning of a formal impeachment inquiry stemming from the financial fraud and schemes deployed by the Biden family as they sold their positions for personal financial gain. WATCH:

[Transcript] – “In recent months, House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct; taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption.

“Now, here’s what we know so far:

“Through our investigations, we have found that President Biden lied to the American people about knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings.

“Eyewitnesses have testified that the President joined multiple phone calls and had multiple interactions, dinners, resulting in cars and millions of dollars to his son and his son’s business partners.

“Bank records show that nearly $20 million in payments were directed to Biden family members and associates through various shell companies.

“The Treasury Department, alone, has more than 150 transactions involving the Biden family and other business associates that were flagged as “suspicious activity” by U.S. banks.

“Even a trusted FBI informant has alleged a bribe to the Biden family.

“Biden used his official office to coordinate with Hunter Biden’s business partners about Hunter’s role in Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.

“Finally, despite these serious allegations, it appears that the President’s family has been offered special treatment by Biden’s own administration; treatment he would not otherwise have received if he were not related to the President.

“These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption, and they warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives.

“That’s why today, I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. This logical next step will give our committees the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the American public.

“It’s exactly what we want to know, the answers, and I believe the President would want to answer these questions and allegations as well.

“This effort will be led by Chairman James Comer at the Committee on Oversight, in coordination with Chairman Jim Jordan of the Judiciary Committee and Chairman Jason Smith on Ways and Means.

“I don’t make this decision lightly. And Regardless of your party or who you may have voted for, these facts should concern all Americans.

“The American people deserve to know that public offices are not for sale – and that the federal government is not being used to cover up the actions of a politically-associated family.

“I would encourage the President and his team to fully cooperate with this investigation in the interest of transparency.

“We are committed to getting the answers for the American public – nothing more, nothing less.

“We will go wherever the evidence takes us.”

{End Transcript}

Sep 12 2023

Never Forget – 9/11


Armstrong Economics Blog/Violence Re-Posted Sep 11, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

We honor the victims of the worst terrorist attack on American soil — 9/11. Take a moment to remember heroes in the fire department (my cousin was one of them), EMS, police services, and civilians who felt called to help. Never forget those who were lost.

Yet also never forget that the first World Trade Center bombers drew the twin towers in their prison cell with planes going into them. Never forget that the government KNEW and admitted that much, justifying Homeland Security because some agencies did not share information. Never forget, to this day, we still must take off our shoes and cannot have a bottle of water or even a jar of peanut butter. The government knew, and WTC7 was clearly taken down to cover up the place where all the evidence was stored. The claimed plane that hit the Pentagon miraculously destroyed the very room with all the financial records for the audit of missing trillions.

All the tapes from my case that confirmed the manipulation of markets by the bankers were in WTC7.

Aug 28 2023

Teaching Hedging


Armstrong Economics Blog/Trading Re-Posted Aug 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Marty, I just wanted to thank you. I attended your 1985 World Economic Conference, and you taught me how to hedge. That made my career, and now I am about to retire. Nobody was teaching hedging in the early 1980s. You have impacted the world far more than you realize.

I will be at the WEC this year in my official capacity. Next year, it will be for me personally. I sincerely wanted to thank you, and you should post this. The newbies need to know you were there decades before anyone else.

God bless.

GK

REPLY: George, it has been a long journey. I am glad I helped you in your career. You have always been there for me and I appreciate old friends. BTW, they still do not teach hedging in universities. Just amazing.

Aug 26 2023

The Video of Reality


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ethics Re-Posted Aug 26, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Aug 19 2023

The Hypocrisy of the Deep State


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Aug 19, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Aug 18 2023

Japan Exports Fall in July, Driven by 14.3% Decline in Shipments to China


Posted originally on the CTH on August 17, 2023 | Sundance 

Some economic data released by the land of the rising sun points to a larger global weakness in manufacturing demand.   Within the data year-over-year exports from Japan fell in July by 0.3%, which is the first time since 2021 the contraction was noted.

Digging a little deeper, the weakness in Japanese exports is driven primarily by a decline in exports to China of 14.3% in July, which follows a 10.9% decline in June.  Japan is a component supplier to China, which would indicate the demand for Chinese products globally is substantially less than Beijing has previously admitted.

That said, Japan’s direct export of finished goods to the U.S. actually increased 13.5%, mostly driven by the export of electric vehicles.

However, 13.5% is identical to the overall decrease in Japanese imports.

Essentially, component parts to China are down, but completed finished goods to the U.S. are up.  Overall, the results from Japan point to a soft overall global economic status, the result of continued contraction of Western economic activity.

TOKYO, Aug 17 (Reuters) – Japan’s exports fell in July for the first time in nearly 2-1/2 years, dragged down by faltering demand for light oil and chip-making equipment, underlining concerns about a global recession as demand in key markets such as China weaken.

Japanese exports fell 0.3% in July year-on-year, Ministry of Finance (MOF) data showed on Thursday, compared with a 0.8% decrease expected by economists in a Reuters poll. It followed a 1.5% rise in the previous month.

[…] Japanese policymakers are counting on exports to shore up the world’s No. 3 economy and pick up the slack in private consumption that has suffered due to rising prices.

However, the spectre of a sharper global slowdown and faltering growth in Japan’s major market China have raised concerns about the outlook.

The World Bank has warned that higher interest rates and tighter credit will take a bigger toll on global growth in 2024. (read more)

Meanwhile, I would not bet against Michael Burry.

Burry is betting against the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 this week, according to his fund’s latest releases. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.  The filing shows that he is now holding options against the S&P 500, hedging $886.6 million against the index.

The filing also revealed that Burry sold his shares in Capitol One, First Republic, PacWest Bancorp, Wells Fargo and Western Alliance after betting on them earlier this year in Trying to make money from the regional banking crisis.  Burry also sold his stakes in Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com.

In addition, he bought $738.8 million in put options against the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF – a fund made up of popular high-tech Nasdaq companies, such as big tech companies Apple and Microsoft as well as Nvidia, Tesla and PepsiCo.

Burry has pulled money out of China investments and U.S. banks and is hedging against tech and the S&P.  He took these positions before the data from Japanese exports to China was released.

Aug 5 2023

Seriously Sketchy – Judge Boasberg Sits in Back of DC District Court During President Trump Appearance


Posted originally on CTH on August 4, 2023 

As noted in Politico describing President Trump’s court appearance yesterday, “Minutes before Trump entered the pin-drop silent room, several federal judges — who have been processing the carnage of Jan. 6, 2021 for more than two years — filed into the public gallery, turning themselves into spectators in a building they typically rule. Chief Judge James Boasberg, who presided over several of the secret grand jury battles that preceded the charges against Trump, was among those marking the moment.”

[…] “Boasberg’s presence in the courtroom was a statement in itself. Alongside him was Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who has in her own courtroom excoriated Republicans who have refused to contradict Trump’s continued lies about the 2020 election. The pair, flanked by other judges and magistrate judges, watched Trump’s every move intently.”

In March, when I wrote the outline about Judge Boasberg being the corrupt DC judge who broke the constitutional restrictions on executive privilege, which technically forced Mike Pence to turn over his notes and testify to James Smith and the DC grand jury, I said at the time, “The entire judicial system is corrupt, soup to nuts, all of it.”  I was not using hyperbole.

For Judge Boasberg (who is on vacation) to show up in court and sit in the back row of the courtroom is a stunning visible display of judicial ideology and targeting.

In reality, Boasberg is bearing witness to the outcome he created by forcing a Vice President to give testimony against the Chief Executive, thereby establishing the basis for the fraudulent allegations Special Counsel Jack Smith was utilizing to target that same executive, President Donald Trump.

This is the same Judge Boasberg who sat as presiding judge on the FISA court.  The same Judge Boasberg who gave FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith a slap on the wrist for manufacturing evidence used in the Carter Page FISA application that defrauded the court.  The same Judge Boasberg who appointed former DOJ-NSD head Mary McCord as amicus curiae advisor to the court, after she knowingly and fraudulently submitted the FISA application to the court.

Two and a half years ago, while Judge Boasberg was on the FISA Court, I warned about the implications of all these interconnected judicial dots.  The entire DC federal bench is compromised.  The entire judiciary of the FISA Court process is compromised.  The entire federal judicial system is compromised.  Now we are stunningly seeing the scale and scope of that DC judicial corruption in the fraudulent case against President Donald Trump.

Former FISA Court Presiding Judge James Boasberg is no longer on the FISC.  However, he continues to advance the interests of the DC Deep State with rulings specifically tailored to protect the national security state.  [Boasberg Background Here]

Boasberg, an ally of SSCI Chairman Mark Warner, has intercepted several cases that brought sunlight upon the corrupt DC system.  In each case Boasberg ruled in favor of maintaining the corruption, including his willfully blind support of the FBI searching NSA databases to conduct illegal surveillance of Americans, and including Boasberg’s personal appointment of Mary McCord to run defense on behalf of the corrupt DOJ main office.  Keep in mind, Mary McCord’s husband works for Supreme Court justice John Roberts.

Then Presiding Judge James Boasberg, was the decision-maker in the appointment of Amici Curiae to the FISA court. There is no way, NO WAY, Judge Boasberg did not know Mary McCord was at the epicenter of the fraudulent FISA application used against Carter Page. Remember, in addition to being the FISC Presiding Judge, Boasberg was also the trial judge in the case against Kevin Clinesmith, the FBI lawyer who lied about Page working for the CIA on the FISA application. {Go Deep}

Boasberg knows Mary McCord took over from former DOJ-NSD head John Carlin (October 2016); and it was McCord who guided the Carter Page FISA application through the court and across the finish line (October 2016 and January 2017). That FISA application was built upon fraud and Mary McCord was at the center of it.

Mary McCord was also the DOJ-NSD official who went with Sally Yates to confront the White House Counsel, Don McGhan, about the Michael Flynn interview with the FBI. {Go Deep} It was also Mary McCord who had Michael Atkinson as the chief-legal-counsel for the DOJ-NSD -that’s her office attorney- when the FISA application was submitted in October 2016, and renewed in January 2017.

Michael Atkinson went from DOJ-NSD counsel to become the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG). {Go Deep} In that new role, Atkinson changed the rules to allow an anonymous CIA whistleblower (Ciaramella on behalf of Vindman) to file the complaint that led to the Ukraine impeachment effort. {Go Deep} Who was the lead lawyer in the Jerry Nadler led House Judiciary Committee? Why Mary McCord of course. Judge Boasberg knows all of this… AND MORE.

[LINK to Source]

Boasberg knows the details of the fraudulent FISA application. Boasberg knows the details of the Inspector General Michael Horowitz report about the fraudulent FISA application and all the DOJ and FBI participants… which included Mary McCord. Boasberg knows exactly who Mary McCord is, and what activity she has taken on behalf of the political resistance inside the DOJ and inside congress. FISC Presiding Judge James Boasberg also knows Mary McCord has broken the law….

…And yet Boasberg appoints McCord as amici curiae?

Let’s be really clear here. The FISA court is a small unit. The judges in/around Washington DC are also a small unit. They know everything that is going on in and around their DC network. A FISA judge inside that DC system knows every granular detail of everything that comes into their purview. All of it. Judge Boasberg even wrote the last two FISA court opinions (2019 and 2020) about the FBI abuses of the FISA-702 process and warrantless, illegal violations of the NSA database.

There is simply no other way to look at the placement of Mary McCord other than to see what it was.

The FISA court is compromised – AND, McCord is being installed in order to coordinate any defensive measures that are needed to cover up that compromise.

There isn’t another way to look at this other than to see bad motives. There’s not a shred of possibility that Judge Boasberg does not know exactly who Mary McCord is, and what roles she played in the surveillance of candidate Donald Trump, President-elect Trump, President Trump and the House impeachment effort to remove President Donald Trump. Boasberg knows exactly who Mary McCord is.

Boasberg knows what the DOJ and FBI were doing in their targeting of candidate Trump and President Trump.   Perhaps more than any other DC judge, Boasberg has been at the center of it.  Yet Boasberg will force Vice President Pence to turn over executive privilege documents, give testimony against the interests of the President, and then sit in the back of the courtroom to watch the outcomes of all these years of tentacles…..

There has always been no other way to look at this.

I hate to say it so bluntly, but the federal court system in Washington DC is compromised and yes, weaponized….

… That’s the true “conspiracy against rights”.

[Support CTH Here]

Aug 2 2023

The Merging of Intent – Community Organizing and Main Justice


Posted originally on the CTH on August 1, 2023 | Sundance 

Until the era of Barack Obama and Eric Holder, the efforts of the community activists were to excuse and absolve the transparently guilty.  It was only when Barack Obama and Eric Holder moved into office that things changed; the inflection point was achieved.

What we now consider the weaponization of the DOJ is actually the outcome of Main Justice merging with community activism.  Instead of the long-standing method of absolving the transparently guilty, the justice system was repurposed to accuse the transparently innocent.

Only one voice noticed the changed activity as it was taking place and called my attention to it, that voice was author Jack Cashill.

From the Henry Louis Gates (beer summit) in the White House, which targeted Sgt James Crowley, to the accusations against George Zimmerman (Orlando), Darren Wilson (Ferguson), the Baltimore Six accusations, and all the way through to Donald Trump, Michael Flynn et al, there is one continuum of the same justice system ideological effort – to accuse the transparently innocent.  To weaponize the systems of power toward a unified objective.

In the early stages of 2009 to 2012, the media were probed and prodded, tested to identify their willful alignment and train them to assist.  In essence, the goal was to bring the corporate media into the new shifted dynamic of targeting.  The media no longer needed to justify the actions of the transparently guilty offenders.  The new goal was to frame the transparently innocent with accusations that advanced the interests of the regime.

People have noted the shift and realignment in Democrats.  This is all connected to this same shifted dynamic. The activists gained control of the levers of power.  The force of government now shifted the media narrative from bad behavior (targeting the guilty the activist supported) to good behavior (targeting the behavior of innocents the activists do not support).

While this media effort was taking place, Attorney General Eric Holder was transforming the DOJ into an ideological targeting enterprise.  Eventually, leading to what is visible now with a fully weaponized Main Justice and FBI system.  The FBI now protecting the interests of those who weaponize – those who are corrupt.

The 2011/2012 Tea Party targeting did not originate in the IRS; it began with Eric Holder triggering a “special research project” requesting CD ROM’s containing the names, organizations and entities listed on the Schedule-B’s of the various Tea Party group tax filings.  The IRS, via Lois Lerner, was eventually identified in this project by a whistleblower from the Cincinatti office, but it was Attorney General Eric Holder at the DOJ who initiated the entire operation.

The NSA database then became a tool with similar “special research” intent, and that process followed through the 2016 GOP presidential primary to the position it is today. The infiltration of Social Media platforms for this same type of targeting operation is another step in the continuum to notice.

If you step back from the granular details and look at the entire landscape, you can trace this origin to the inflection point where community activism merged with government.  That merge to generate a weaponized DOJ is entirely the result of President Obama’s 2008 election.

There are current voices who notice the Obama operative fingerprints still controlling the mechanisms today; examples like Lisa Monaco as Deputy AG at the Dept of Justice, as well as many more Obama administration officials still in positions of power and direct influence.  Special Counsel Jack Smith and his targeting operation against Donald Trump is simply another example of this extended operation.

All of these participants have some level of stakeholder investment in retaining this weaponized system.  Every tool at their disposal will be used in the retention.

Moving forward to destroy the corruption means we must first accept the origin.

Understanding the toxic outcome of the Obama origin, a fully weaponized American government, is akin to having a discussion about vaccine danger with those who already took the vaccine.   Few will want to accept the conversation!

…After all, it is easier to accept the results of a fraudulent election, than for them to admit their complicity in the demise of our nation.

P

Jul 29 2023

Trying to Make Heads or Tails about Recessions


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics Re-Posted Jul 28, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Looking at Socrates,  do you think that these people who were constantly calling for a recession because there were two quarters that declined with covid really need revision? Socrates was correct, no recession. But it is showing major turning points in 2024 which seem to align with your old ECM forecast calling for commodity inflation into 2024. How would you define a recession?

EJ

ANSWER: In trading, reactions are 1 to 3 time units. I believe that the same definition should be used for classifying a recession. They define a recession as two consecutive quarterly declines. If you look at the “Great Recession” of 2008-2009, you will see three consecutive quarterly declines and a rebound. If we look at the COVID recession caused by locking everyone down, that was just two consecutive quarterly declines.

I personally would argue that a true economic recession MUST exceed three consecutive declines. Here is the chart of GNP from 1929 to 1940. There were three years of negative growth. I simply think that this definition of two quarters is wrong. You can have a slight decline of 1 to even 5%, but that does not suggest a recession. In the case of 1929, that was a decline of 9.5% in 1930 – the first year. Now look at the COVID Crash, which was also a decline of 9.53%. But the difference is that the COVID decline was forced and not natural. That is why it rebounded so quickly. Now the so-called “Great Recession” of 2008-2009 only saw a decline in GDP of 3.47%.

The “Great Recession” was not really so great. It wiped out real estate and bankers but did not fundamentally alter the economy. So who is right and who is wrong will always depend upon the definition. Yes, the AI Timing Arrays point to a recession starting Next Year by their definition. This will most likely be caused by the decline in confidence that will lead to UNCERTAINTY, and as such, the consumer will contract. Up to now, the continued expansion of the economy into 2024 has also been fueled by the shift in assets from public to private.

As originally forecast, we should have seen a commodity boom into 2023,

and we should expect a highly authoritarian attempt by 2028.

Jul 25 2023

If I Were The Deep State – Deploying Relentless Lawfare


Posted originally on the Conservative Tree house on July 24, 2023 | Sundance 

Excellent video presented by Lauren3ve {Direct Rumble Link} WATCH:

https://rumble.com/embed/v2zh8nu/?pub=as0d9

Exceptional article, outlining the Biden DC agenda and the perspective of the American majority.  This is the crux, the essence, the core reason behind the upcoming victory of the American people, through Trump, over a comprehensively corrupt DC apparatus:

[…] What we have seen over the years is that every time the Deep State tries to hurt President Trump, his poll numbers rise, and he is able to fund-raise even more than before. It is an inexplicable reaction that frustrates Democrats, who fail to understand that most Americans are honest, ethical, and busy individuals, committed to caring for their families, attending church, and being active in the community. Most voters do not understand the complexities of national security laws. Nor do they believe that Trump committed felony violations by participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Voters may not remember their civics classes, but they know that Trump has always cared about America’s standing in the world. From the moment he descended the escalator at Trump Tower in 2015, Trump’s brand is that he wants America to win. Even in television interviews in the late 1980s and 1990s, Trump’s single-most consistent grievance against American officials was that they let foreigners take advantage of America and get ahead at the nation’s cost. For Trump watchers, the Make America Great Again campaign started more than 30 years ago. (read more)