Tag Archives: Student Loans

Aug 30 2019

Ingratitude of the Immigrants


by Tabitha Korol

President Trump has been unarguably the most pro-Jewish, pro-Israel President we’ve ever had, surpassing George Washington, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman.  His stand against Iran (vociferous enemy of Israel), finally moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, cutting funds to the PA and closing the PLO office in Washington, his donations to Jewish causes, and developing housing for Russian-Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn are just some of the points, but many non-Orthodox American Jews are calling him antisemitic.  It is primarily the Democrat Jews who appear antisemitic when they continue to support their party whose members explicitly express their hatred of Israel and Jews worldwide.  It may be that their desire to distance themselves from their heritage in eastern Europe and Israel has rendered them irrational, and psychological projection has them denying their own impulses as they attribute them to others – specifically to President Trump.

Most recently, President Trump spoke out against the antisemitism spewed by Muslim Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, and was himself accused of bias.   It is time to review the backgrounds of both women who are recognized as Islamic extremists and antisemites by such as Senator Lindsey Graham, Speaker Newt Gingrich, media personalities Mark Thiessen and Rush Limbaugh, as well as by Imam Tawhidi, who added Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the lot.

  • October 2015, Rashida Tlaib joined and praised activists who support terrorist Rasmeah Odeh, who is guilty of the deadly 1969 bombing in Jerusalem.
  • December 2017, Tlaib shared a Facebook post with Linda Sarsour in support of 17-yr-old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi, who assaulted an IDF soldier and promotes stabbings and suicide bombings.
  • February 2018, Tlaib joined Facebook group, Palestinian American Congress, which demonizes Jews and raised funds for her campaign.  She denied both the Holocaust and the Jewish historical claim to Israel.
  • August 2018, for her victory speech, Tlaib wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag and promised to “fight against every racist and oppressive structure that needs to be dismantled,” later telling the UK’s Channel 4 News that she would vote against US military aid to Israel.  Despite her own foreign garb, she accused Jewish Americans of dual loyalty and has since established a record of Jew-hatred and an affinity for radical Islam.
  • January 3, 2019, in a MoveOn.org reception, Tlaib warned that the President’s days were numbered, and she’d “impeach the motherfu**er.”  She took her oath on the Koran, which is the antithesis of our Bible and Constitution, and affixed a sticker “Palestine” to replace Israel on her wall map.
  • A guest at Tlaib’s swearing-in ceremony and private dinner was Abbas Hamideh, who equates Zionism with Nazism, and who voiced his support for Hassan Nasrallah, violent murderer of an Israeli Jew and his 4-year-old daughter.
  • During the week of January 2019, Tlaib condemned her congressional colleagues who did not support BDS against Israel.
  • March 2019, Tlaib posed with a Palestinian activist who had mourned the death of a Hamas murderer of a rabbi in Israel.
  • August 2019, Tlaib compared Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, and co-sponsored a resolution to support the BDS movement. She consistently shows herself to be an enemy of our ally Israel and the Jewish people.
  • Most recently, Tlaib shunned a bipartisan delegation to Israel in order to schedule her own trip to be led by the anti-Israel nongovernmental organization Miftah, where she could agitate for the anti-Israel boycott and use her disinvitation as an accusation against the Jewish state.
  • Claiming racism, oppression and injustice, Tlaib used the event of her entry rejection into Israel to enhance her victimhood, and a way of showing Gaza’s inhumane conditions.  However, videos of interviews of her family show a healthy grandmother, free-standing home, and plentiful grounds with outdoor furniture on a lovely summer night.
  • Tlaib, Omar, AOC and Rep Prammila Jayapal co-sponsored a bill that accuses the Jewish state of torturing non-Jewish children; the bill was re-introduced by Rep. Beth McCollum.

Ilhan Omar claimed to love America but shows her disdain for our country at every turn with a decided detestation for Israel and the Jews.  She called herself the President’s “biggest nemesis”; said of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, “some people did something”; and wants our greatest ally, Israel, wiped off the face of the earth.  The following are examples of her words and deeds:

  • In November 2012, Omar called Israel an apartheid regime that “hypnotized the world” in order to conceal its “evil doings.”
  • In 2013, Omar said on PBS that she took a college course in terrorism, saying that the professor spoke with pride (his shoulders raised in intensity) about Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, but not when we say America.
  • During 2013-15, Omar, then a member of the Minneapolis City Council, acknowledged her friendship with Al-Shabab, a Somali jihad terror group.
  • Omar often characterized Israel as the “Jewish ISIS,’ on Arab-American television, comparing members of Hamas to Holocaust victims.
  • Following the 2013 terrorist bombing that killed ~70 people in a Kenyan shopping mall, Omar blamed the act on a reaction to American injustices, and how the world contributed to Islamic radicalization.
  • After her election to the MN House of Representatives, November 2016, Omar wrote a judge for leniency in the sentencing of nine Somali-born men found guilty of attempting to join ISIS, blaming their desire for violence on alienation.
  • In 2016, Omar wanted the University of MN to divest its Israel bonds, and in 2017, she opposed a bill designed to counter economic boycotts against Israel, likening Israel to apartheid South Africa.
  • In 2017, Omar was one of two MN House members (out of 129) to vote against a bill that would allow life-insurance companies to deny payments to beneficiaries of suicide terrorists, and one of four to oppose legislation to make it a felony for parents to subject their daughters to female genital mutilation (FGM).
  • After only five days of winning her congressional seat in 2018, Omar worked to institute BDS to financially cripple the state of Israel.
  • In February 2019, Omar tweeted that pro-Israel lobby AIPAC was guilty of paying politicians to favor Israel: “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”
  • March 2019, Omar’s disdain for Israel won praise from Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.
  • March 2019, Omar was keynote speaker for an Hamas-linked CAIR benefit event, along with Hassan Shibley, who will not call out Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations.
  • April 2019, Omar called for the release of a senior Muslim Brotherhood member detained in Egypt.
  • July 2019, Omar, Tlaib and John Lewis co-sponsored House Resolution HR496 for BDS,  comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany.

There is no question that both Omar and Tlaib are antisemites who seek to destroy Israel and endanger Jews worldwide, and that the Democrat Jews who support those policies are collaborators.  Those who speak ill of President Trump and PM Netanyahu and side with the Marxist-Islamic ideology emanating from the Democrat party, who compare the southern-border invaders to the Holocaust’s Jewish refugees, and who failed to attend and celebrate the dedication of the US embassy in Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, cannot be judged otherwise.  Yes, President Trump’s honesty may sting, but it is nevertheless honesty.

According to Jewish law, the Democrat Jews are still Jews, but the betrayal of their own brethren and heritage confirm that they are not in consonance with the laws and morality of Judaism – their hearts are elsewhere.

 

Tabitha Korol
With appreciation to frontpagemag.com for their detailed reporting.

 

Tabitha Korol

https://tinyurl.com/y7e6z63d

Aug 30 2019

Mortgages & Banks when times are bad!


Armstrong Economics Blog/Real Estate

Re-Posted Aug 30, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Hi Martin.. thanks so much for all your world/economic content and perspective. I was reading a comment you made recently concerning real estate mortgages. In the comments, you suggested carrying a low fixed-rate mortgage rather than paying off the property.

My question is what happens when a financial institution goes bust. You’ve taken out a mortgage on your house and deposited the excess money from the mortgage in your bank account. Doesn’t this expose you to bankruptcy risk? If the bank collapses you could potentially lose what’s not covered by FDIC insurance. In one case the house is paid off and the money is out of the banking system. In the second case, the money is held in the banking system and is at risk. Or am I missing something?
Cheers,
Bob

ANSWER: If you have cash at a bank, then you have the risk of the bank failing. However, if you are the borrower and the bank holds the mortgage, then as long as you are current on your payments it cannot foreclose. It will typically sell its assets to raise cash so your mortgage could be resold to another bank or an investment pool.

The problem you will have in a crisis is that real estate is illiquid. When I was growing up, a friend of my father owned virtually the entire main street in town. I recall talking to him and he said that he bought the entire main street in town back in 1937 because he had cash and bought it for 10% of its 1929 value.

If you borrowed and have the cash on the side, you will be in a far better position to sell liquid assets and buy the house at a discount if the bank is in trouble.

Categories: Real Estate
Aug 29 2019

Dollar Contagion & Trump


Armstrong Economics Blog/USD $

Re-Posted Aug 29, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

President Trump just does not understand the dollar. This old school idea that lowering the currency will increase domestic jobs and exports sounds logical, but the value of any currency is determined by the level of international confidence. It is absurd to think you can lower interest rates and the dollar will decline to support more exports. Nobody considered that you then wipe out pensions and force the elderly to work because they cannot live off the interest from the savings.

I really get tired being called into meetings over the same childish one-dimensional theories that it seems only an idiot would believe in. Trump has voiced his dismay over the strong dollar claiming U.S. manufacturers are at a disadvantage. “With substantial Fed Cuts (there is no inflation) and no quantitative tightening, the dollar will make it possible for our companies to win against any competition.”  I testified before the House Ways & Means Committee how the greatest deterrent to American exports are TAXES. An American company bidding on a foreign project must pay domestic taxes on worldwide income. A Germany or British company pays taxes ONLY on domestic business — not international. American companies are at a greater disadvantage because of taxes rather than the value of the dollar.

You would think that a child with a calculator could figure this out. Those in power just cannot bring themselves to address the issue because of class warfare is the main argument the Democrats use to inspire people to vote for them. I have been in meetings with Democrats and never will they listen because they do not know how to run for office without inspiring hatred of the rich and blaming them for every failure in their own policies. The only Democrat to ever listen to me was Governor Jim Florio of New Jersey who I debated at Princeton University. I pointed out that the poor and middle class have to pay income taxes and wait for a refund at the end of the year, so you are borrowing from the poor and middle class and cheat them on interest.

Many analysts believe the Federal Reserve will yield to the demands for a further rate cut at the September meeting. This is due to the world economy imploding outside the USA not simply because of Trump-bashing the Fed. We live in a world where we are in the midst of a Dollar Contagion that is impacting the entire world because SOCIALISM is collapsing outside the United States first.

Aug 29 2019

Big Bang in Full Motion Set to Collide In a Real Mess


Armstrong Economics Blog/Sovereign Debt Crisis

Re-Posted Aug 29, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Marty,
The central banks tell us they will lower interest rates, even into negative territory, in order to stimulate the economy through bank lending. YOU tell this is an outdated theory that has NEVER worked and I believe you.
Surely the central banks persist will this excuse not because they think it will work but because they can use the theory as a smokescreen to hide the real reason.
The real reason is, I believe, that they are being leaned-on by politicians to keep rates low or negative because our governments cannot afford to pay higher interest on the massive debts they have accumulated over the decades and have never paid off.

AB

REPLY: You are correct. We warned that when the Economic Confidence Model turned in 2015.75, it would be the beginning of the Sovereign Debt Crisis. Today, the ECB owns 40% of all Eurozone public debt with no end in sight. They have destroyed their bond market. This cycle should collide with the Monetary Crisis Cycle, so we will have some very interesting times ahead.

We must separate the USA from the rest of the world. Europe especially cannot allow official rates to rise without blowing up the entire EU austerity move. The Fed was raising rates because that was the proper policy. He ran into stiff resistance from outside the USA because Europe left its banks with all the toxic bombs and cut rates hoping they would make enough money to cover their losses. This is why Deutsche Bank is in trouble and rumors are flying about HSBC.

But the Fed cannot stand against the entire world. The USA has the ONLY viable bond market. Lowering rates in the USA will also destroy the US bond market and then we are looking at a not so happy ending to the debt crisis.

Categories: Sovereign Deb
Aug 28 2019

Private v Public Rate


Armstrong Economics Blog/Interest Rates

Re-Posted Aug 28, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: I am a bit confused. You have forecast that interest rates will rise but official rates will decline. Exactly how does this materialize?

Thank you

GF

ANSWER: People seem to look at just the official interest rates set by the central bank and assume what I am saying is wrong. They have to look at what is really going on in interest rates. We have witnessed the greatest gap between official rates and private rates in history. While deposit rates are virtually zero, car loans which are secured, are at about 4.5% in the United States (up to 9.5% outside the USA). The Bank of America, N.A. prime rate was 5.25% as of August 1st, 2019.

In 1981, the Fed’s Discount Rate for banks was 14% at the peak back in 1981. The Prime Rate peaked at 21.5% at that time. This meant that the Prime Rate was 53.5% above the Fed’s Discount Rate. In August 2019, the Fed’s Discount Rate is 2.75% and the Prime Rate is 5.25% or a 90% markup. The spread between public and private rates has nearly doubled.

Official rates can be manipulated by the central bank for it can control the short-term rates, but not the long-term without instituting some form of capital controls. But they close the free markets in government bonds.

The spread on the private rates v official rates has doubled! I am nor forecasting the superficial trend in manipulated rates by central banks, but the real world rates in the private world. I have stated numerous times, the bankers have NOT passed on the lower interest rates to the people. The spreads have doubled – not declined nor did they even stay the same. If the spread was the same as it was in 1981, then the Prime Rate should be 4.2% instead of 5.25% and a secured car loan should be 3.4% instead of 4.5%.

Categories: I
Aug 28 2019

Is the Thai Baht Finally Ready to Decline Against the Dollar?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Thailand

Re-Posted Aug 28, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: The Thai baht has been very strong for some time now. It doesn’t seem to be affected by the China – US trade war. Is the Thai baht a safe haven in your opinion?

MW

ANSWER: Thailand has been benefiting from the China-US trade war as manufacturing has been moving to Thailand from China. Thailand’s automotive industry has contributed to 12% of the GDP with more than 1.94 million vehicles produced. Thailand is now ranked as the largest automotive producer in Southeast Asia and 12th in the world. Many people now call it the “Automotive Hub of Asia.”

On top of that, you have countless Americans who have gone to Thailand to retire on their visa program. Americans can even open bank accounts in Thailand, unlike in Europe. Many have moved out of Bangkok to the southern region in Cho Brui.

People from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, also known as Burma, often move to Thailand to find work. The Thai economy has been stable and a magnet for foreigners. The culture is one of the friendliest in Southeast Asia, more akin to Japan than Hong Kong. The Thai even take their shoes off at the door as do the Japanese.

As far as the currency is concerned, July fell and bounced off of an important Monthly Bearish Reversal for the dollar. As long as the July low holds, the dollar may now begin to rise simply because of the tensions in Asia as a whole.

Aug 28 2019

Life & How it Evolves


Armstrong Economics Blog/Opinion

Re-Posted Aug 27, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Martin;
What was the tipping point in your investing infancy that flung you to believe you could invest for others?

If so can you tell us the trade? And did you mortgage your house for it?
For it appears that the best in the business made it on their own first.

Apprehensive at this point in time;

RH

ANSWER: No. There was no trade. I was very young and was really trading bullion as a dealer in the cash markets prior to 1975. One of my clients was a senior executive at a major New York bank. The floating exchange rate system began in August 1971. There were no courses to take. He knew I understood how to trade and called me in to look at a foreign exchange loss involving the Italian lira. After that, institutions with FX problems would call me more or less saying get that guy that helped the other bank.

That is why by 1985 I was called by Congress for the G5. I was regarded as one of the top forecasters in foreign exchange. I realized that I was called into a dog and pony show where they had already made up their minds to create the G5 and just wanted experts to testify to pretend they relied on someone other than themselves. I protested and wrote to the president warning that lowering the dollar by 40% would cause a panic in 2 years because the Japanese would sell US assets since they would lose a fortune after buying 1/3rd of the US national debt.

The White House had to respond. I suppose that opened the door to governments. Ever since I have been called into just about every single major international event from China to Europe and the Middle East.

As far as trading was concerned, people were soliciting me all the time. I declined to manage money for individuals. Post-1985, I managed money only on an institutional level. I also tended to specialize in crisis management whereas I would be called in to manage a particular market crisis and get them out of some crazy trade.

DeutscheBank-1

I was asked by Deutsche Bank to manage a public fund that would be a hedge fund but onshore in Australia, which would be the first regulated hedge fund. I also manage funds for Magnum.

The London Financial Times had reported on our forecast in 1998. The computer projected the collapse and I took major short positions and more more than 60% in a single month. I was then named Hedge Fund Manager of the Year.

The banks lost big on that and from then on it was outright war. They do their best to try to slander me all the time in desperate hopes somebody will listen. As Nigel Farage said at our WEC in Rome, we have become the alternative to Davos.

Categories: Opinion