JP Morgan, Citi, Wells Fargo Blow Out Q4 Results on Lower Credit Loss Reserves

The rich get richer.

Citigroup quarterly profit beats estimates as loan loss provisions slow.

Wells Fargo records surprise quarterly profit

JPMorgan posts big Q4 earnings beat, releases credit reserves amid 'economic uncertainty'

JPM Q4 Results
Revenue (adjusted): $29.2 billion vs. $28.65 billion expected

Earnings per share (adjusted): $3.79 vs. $2.62 per share expected

The largest US bank by assets delivered net income of $12.1 billion, or $3.79 per share, up 42% from a year ago. Those results included $2.9 billion of credit reserve releases, resulting in a 72 cent increase in earnings per share, and boosted by surges in markets revenue and investment banking fees.

The bank reported a net benefit of $1.89 billion in credit reserves, but maintains a reserve topping $30 billion — reflecting what the CEO Jamie Dimon called “significant near term uncertainty” as coronavirus cases surge worldwide.

Credit card holders, people with car loans, student loans, personal loans, mortgages get deferrals (skip payments) with interest tacked on. Shareholders get dividends. Executives get huge bonuses. Landlords get shafted on rents. You get $600.

These banks have been fined billions of dollars since the sub-prime scandal of 2008-09.

Here is a partial list of JP Morgan's fines for criminal activity from 2009-2014. The amounts are staggering.

Where does the money go? Good question. To the government, into a slush fund perhaps, and maybe to pay off crooked legislators, judges, and lobbyists who let them get away with such behavior.

The Federal Reserve, under the CARES Act stimulus bill passed last May, gave the banks carte blanc to underreport their loan loss reserve provisions through December 31, 2020 and allows them to report the accurate amounts gradually, over a period of three years. In some circles, that's called fraud. In the banking universe, it's business as usual.

Soon, it's going to come crashing down upon their heads.

President Trump has declassified Obamagate documents:

Joe Biden cancels inauguration rehersal.

The Plan to Save the World
--Joe M

At the Close, Thursday, January 14, 2021:
Dow: 30,991.52, -68.95 (-0.22%)
NASDAQ: 13,112.64, -16.31 (-0.12%)
S&P 500: 3,795.54, -14.30 (-0.38%)
NYSE: 15,044.38, +60.77 (+0.41%)

Too Many Questions and Not Enough Answers; Initial Unemployment Claims at 965,000

Anybody professing to knowing what's going on is either lying or kidding themselves.

Why was it so important to impeach President Trump when he's supposedly leaving office in a week?

Why did the Democrats stage the assault on the Capitol building in the first place?

Why are there 20,000 National Guard troops in DC when there's no actual threat?

Why was a poster calling for armed marches on the Capitol and all 50 state houses circulated?

Who is responsible for creating the poster? No group has taken credit.

Why is Christine Lagarde so worried about bitcoin?

Why have gold and silver languished during this crisis?

Who is Q?

Why did Mitch McConnell, as soon as the House voted to impeach, say that the Senate would not be able to start a trial before the inauguration (January 20)?

Why does the mainstream media lie all the time?

Where is Nancy Pelosi’s laptop and what’s on it?

Why was it so important for Twitter to shut down the president's account and for Google, Apple, and Amazon to take down Parler?

Why has President Trump, since he was de-platformed by Twitter, been so eerily silent?

Why, in the first place, was it so important to steal the presidential election and then cover it up?

There are too many questions and not enough answers. It's OK to be angry. Don't go to the inauguration or to any state capitols to protest. It's a trap.

Moments ago, initial jobless claims for the most recent week were reported ot have soared to 965,000, far beyond estimates of 770,000 and a huge jump from prior weeks.

The economy continues to stall, but Wall Street continues to act like everything is just fine, with all the major indices close to record highs.

The level of disconnectedness has gotten to a point at which there is no return, with the Federal Reserve leading the chorus of money printers and the US government planning to send out more, larger checks to the American people just weeks after doling out $600 each to every adult making less than $75,000 a year, plus another $600 for each dependent.

America's economy is being boosted only by artificial means. At some point, there's going to be hell to pay in terms of inflation and mass discontent from people who would rather work than accept government handouts.

The country - and the rest of the world - is at a precipice. Some answers will be forthcoming within days, but there will remain much skepticism, doubt, fear, and anger.

At the Close, Wednesday, January 13, 2021:
Dow: 31,060.47, -8.22 (-0.03%)
NASDAQ: 13,128.95, +56.52 (+0.43%)
S&P 500: 3,809.84, +8.65 (+0.23%)
NYSE: 14,983.61, -26.68 (-0.18%)

Stocks Grind Slightly Higher; Bitcoin, Gold, Silver on a Break; Crypto vs. MSM; Collectibles FTW?

It appears that the incredible rise of Bitcoin over the past two months is leveling off and there could be further downside, but, as is the case with just about any investment these days, downside risk is a clear and present danger whether it be stocks, fixed income, precious metals, commodities, or baseball cards. Bitcoin offers significant upside in relation to fiat currencies, so this recent stalling and roughly 28% drop is likley nothing to cause worry. Six months from now, this is likely to appear as nothing more than a blip on the longer-term radar screen.

Nothing in the current environment serves as a safe haven because there continues to exist extreme political pressure and lack of price discovery in many asset classes. Probably the most free from manipulation are cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Etherium, collectibles - which have their own immunity system built in from years of data and avid traders - and commodities, while on the other end are stocks (which only seem to go up) and precious metals (which only seem to go down).

Putting money to work in these times, where political, social, and financial events are being compressed into a tight-knit control regime, is challenging and possibly detrimental to longer-term goals. While it's difficult to focus beyond the horizon, it's what is keeping most sane investors from tearing out hair and running wildly down the street screaming "I can't take it any more."

Short-term, markets are very messy. In particular, the NASDAQ, guided, as it is by tech oligopolies like Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft (the FAAMGs) has seen days and weeks of erratic activity and recently has been whipsawed in the wake of the ongoing censorship purge.

At this moment, what's probably the best space for safety purposes is in collectibles. Coins, stamps, comic books, trading cards, art, antiques, and especially things that could actually have real life usefulness like depression-era glassware, sterling silver flatware, old tools, and so forth. Nobody knows, but in the case of a total global meltdown, those items that have useful applications could contribute as life-sustaining elements in addition to being prized possessions.

Outside of complete capitulation of the US dollar, collectibles maintain a unique posture among tradable assets. They're ultimately divisible - think baseball card collections - retain value well and, unlike many other assets mentioned here, have well-developed price discovery mechanisms.

So, instead of scouring stock boards, crypto messages, and coin shops, perhaps the best investments can be found at garage sales and flea markets. Aks anyone who collects anything tangible and they're sure to have a story about a great deal found at a thrift store, yard sale, or other off-the-beaten-path venue.

It pays to be diversified into several asset classes instead of the old 60-40 (stocks-fixed income) rule that many investment advisors are still employing for their clients. That's eventually going to fail. The new breed of investor is into all manner of asset diversification, with varied percentages of real estate, stocks, bonds, physical commodities, collectibles and art, crypto, and even sustainability items like solar panels (best ever hedge), canned goods, energy and water supplies.

This is a new world whether the deep state "Great Reset" comes to fruition or not. While the Klaus Schwaub adherents (download "COVID-19: The Great Reset" here [PDF] instead of paying for it on Amazon) feel comfortable in their castles in the sky above the rabble (us), there continues to be unrest among the populations being subjected to censorship, lockdowns, restricted movement, pushed to take unproven "poisonous" vaccines, and other nasty, harmful measures. The plebes are eventually revolt against the elite and that's not going to be pretty. It always happens. The ruling class overreaches and people just want to be left alone, so they're forced into rebellion. The natives, as they say, are restless.

In conclusion to today's mini-treatise on the human condition and implications for investors, keep thinking with a clear mind, don't let the mainstream media guide you because they are propagandists and liars, and be free to do your own things.

Here's a video from Altcoin Daily, focused on the relationship of mainstream media - specifically, CNBC's Jim Cramer - to Bitcoin. This is the first inclusion of a video from this source. Being that it's excellent, expect more in the future.

Just a note on the Cramer part of the video above: the mainstream, like the central banks (Fed, ECB, BOJ, etc.) have lost control of many elements of the financial system, such as interest rates. Bitcoin and crypto in general they have no control over, so all they can do is "jawbone." it's a sure sign of desperation that when things aren't going as they planned, they start to come out of hiding and into the light, making recommendations with faulty analyses, making spurious claims that cannot be supported by facts. It's best to fade them and stay ahead of the game.

At the Close, Tuesday, January 12, 2021:
Dow: 31,068.69, +59.99 (+0.19%)
NASDAQ: 13,072.43, +36.03 (+0.28%)
S&P 500: 3,801.19, +1.58 (+0.04%)
NYSE: 15,010.29, +72.29 (+0.48%)

Twitter, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple All Lower After Censorship Purge

Publisher's Note: If you're seeing blank spaces on this page or other pages on dtmagazine.com, then Google is still attempting to de-monetize it. Downtown Magazine's relationship with Google dates back to 2003. We've been revenue partners through Adsense for most of those years, but apparently, our commentary isn't to their liking of late, even though we've not been informed of any issues. Google's ads on this site could be replaced in a heartbeat. We have other partners, but Google (used to) pay better and the blank spaces now serve as a badge of honor. Nobody likes censorship, except those who live in fear of the truth. Downtown Magazine has always been devoted to reporting and opining on the truth and will continue to do so. Since the main revenue source has been shut off, if you feel the urge, there's a donation link in the left column on the Money Daily page at dtmagazine.com. Any amount is appreciated. A few bucks from a few people would likely exceed what Google used to pay. As long as there are blank spaces on this page and Google continues its purge of the truth - not just here, but widespread - this note will appear atop every Money Daily post.

I'm going to give it a week or maybe two to see if the censors at Google will come to their senses or the government steps in and seizes their servers (could happen).

Thank you,
Fearless Rick, Publisher, Downtown Magazine, Money Daily

First, the good news:

People like Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, and Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, will probably never be able to go out in public without bodyguards. They've censored tens of thousands of voices with their anti-free speech policies and people aren't happy about it. The first amendment guarantees freedom of speech in America. Those guys are enemies of free speech.

Appropriately, Twitter (TWTR) stock was down more then six percent on Monday. Facebook (FB) was off 4.01%. Fellow travelers at Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL) (each of which killed the Parler app in their app stores), and Amazon (AMZN) (which took the extraordinary step of stifling free speech at Parler completely by shutting down their servers on AWS) were down 2.24%, 2.32%, and 2.15%, respectively.

By their actions, the executives of these companies are destroying the value of their companies. More power to them! They are joined at the hip with the fake news media (you know who they are, or you should) and the democrats in congress who have been trying to get rid of President Trump for more than four years. Should they wish to walk out into the public world, they do so at their own considerable risk and they know that is the case.

So, if these companies wish ot continue distorting news, lying to and censoring the American people, that's their choice. Short at will. (not investment advice)

As an extension of the censorship and denial of first amendment rights, social media site, gab.com has been taking in new users at an astonishing rate, something on the order of 600,000 a day. Conservatives who have had their voices silenced on other social sites are flocking there because the site is self-supported and does not censor its users. What a concept!

Elsewhere, while stocks were taking a little bit of a hit and the major indices were all lower, led by the NASDAQ.

Bitcoin and virtually all cryptocurrencies got hammered on Monday, many of them down 20% or more. Bitcoin touched down at 30,100 early Tuesday morning after reaching nearly $42,000 on Friday. Essentially, Bitcoin is down to where it was a week ago, so this looks like an ordinary correction with a little bit of FUD thrown in from the political and social universes. Probably not a big deal. Bitcoin's future still looks very promising both from an investment standpoint and as a stand-alone unassailable alternate currency.

Supposedly, President Trump plans to speak live from the Alamo (last stand appropriate?) on Tuesday at 3:00 pm ET. Livestream HERE.

Gold and silver made modest gains Monday. Yield on the 10-year note continues to rise, hitting 1.13% on Monday. Oil also continued its rally. WTI crude futures are looking at a $53 handle. The US dollar was higher against the main currencies, Euro, Yen, and Pound on Monday, but it is falling against them as the sun rises on the East coast of the United States.

Futures are pointing towards a relatively quiet, positive open. European stocks are fading. The VIX is higher.

Zero Day, if there is such a thing, looks to be on the immediate horizon.

At the Close, Monday, January 11, 2021:
Dow: 31,008.69, -89.28 (-0.29%)
NASDAQ: 13,036.43, -165.54 (-1.25%)
S&P 500: 3,799.61, -25.07 (-0.66%)
NYSE: 14,937.96, -28.87 (-0.19%)

WEEKEND WRAP: Stocks Rip, Bonds Flip, Metals Dumped, Cryptos Soar (dtmagazine.com demonetized)

Unless you've been under a rock, you're probably aware of the social and political developments that occurred over the past week. Wednesday saw the storming of the Capitol and the illegal, unconstitutional certification of the presidential and vice presidential electors from the states, making Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the choice of the congress, against the will of more than 70 million Americans who feel, justifiably, cheated.

There's no doubt that there was manipulation and tampering with the presidential vote totals from November 3, 2020, and probably of a good number of Senate and House races as well, especially the two just stolen on Tuesday in Georgia, giving Democrats and Republicans an equal 50-50 split in the Senate (Doesn't really matter. The Republicans were in on the scam, too.).

On Friday and Saturday, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon continued efforts to silence President Trump and other conservative voices. The president was banned on Twitter and Facebook, all accounts shut down, along with others like General Flynn, attorneys Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, Rush Limbaugh, many independent bloggers, and many others. Some have estimated Twitter purged more than 10,000 users over the past few days.

In an attempt to avoid over-politicizing this space - there are plenty of websites which cover that better - let's get right to the economic side of the equation.

Amid all the turmoil in the political space, just like public sector employees who haven't missed a single paycheck over the last nine months, Wall Street traders didn't skip a beat over the week, sending all the major averages to record highs.

The real action, however, was at the bond market where the 10-year note exploded higher, which, in the upside-down world of fixed income, meant a huge sell-off was underway. This only makes sense because the Fed believes they can make inflation happen while keeping interest rates near zero. Voodoo Economics has resurfaced, and it's located in the Eccles Building. There are trillions of dollars in malinvestments now, and more to come.

Yield on the 10-year note, which was as low as 0.54% on March 9, 2020, opened the new year on January 4 at 0.93%. By week's end, January 8, it was yielding 1.13%, a full 20 basis points higher. Uh-oh! This is not what the Fed had in mind, but it is what happens when you debase your currency, keeping the printing presses going 24 hours a day. Money in fixed income flees to the risk assets in the stock market.

Yield on the 30-year bond rose, from 1.66% on Monday to 1.87% as of Friday's close. Monday, and moving forward, is going to be interesting, to say the least.

In crypto-land, Bitcoin and Etherium continued their steady, unstoppable ascent. Bitcoin, which touched down at $27,678 on Monday, got as high as $41,986 on Friday, and is holding above $38,000 as of this writing. Etherium rocketed from $886 (Monday) to $1350 (Sunday), an impressive move.

Precious metals continue to be erratic, thanks in large part to being driven solely by the derivative, futures market. On Friday, both gold and silver were devastated by the criminal enterprises controlling the price. Silver was hammered, reaching nearly $28 an ounce on Wednesday. Friday's futures trading took it down as low as $24.41 (that's not a misprint) before closing out the week at $25.40.

Gold was walloped in similar manner. After hitting a three-month high at $1957.20 on Wednesday, controllers took it down as low as $1828.20 on Friday, settling out for the week at a depressing $1850.00.

Buyers and sellers were not amused in the least, as asset values for everything other than real money - which gold and silver have proven to be over thousands of years - were shooting higher. Buyers of physical sensed bargains, but paid severe premiums as supply continues to be strained. This is demonstrated by the weekly survey of prices on eBay, below.

The latest prices for common gold and silver items on eBay (numismatics excluded, shipping - often free - included):

Item: Low / High / Average / Median
1 oz silver coin: 31.05 / 52.00 / 39.64 / 38.48
1 oz silver bar: 34.30 / 49.50 / 39.66 / 39.52
1 oz gold coin: 1,915.00 / 2,054.59 / 1,976.41 / 1,969.40
1 oz gold bar: 1,859.00 / 2,027.00 / 1,953.40 / 1,952.21

Oil continued to rise through the week as anybody checking gas prices will attest. WTI crude and gas at the pump are at the highest prices since March of last year even though most of Europe and half of the US is on lockdown. It's criminal behavior, as prices should be leveling off or dropping post-holiday.

The coming week is going to be epic. Beyond the political struggle, which is rapidly descending into armed camps in Washington, DC (9,000 National Guardsmen on the ground for an indefinite stay) with congress calling for President Trump's impeachment, again, while the president refuses to concede the election.

Earnings begin rolling out this coming week, though on a limited schedule due to the calendar and annual reports being prepared. Friday should be the most interesting day, with reports prior to the opening bell from banking giants JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Citi (C), Wells Fargo (WCF) and PNC Financial (PNC). The rest of the biggest banks - Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Bank of America (BAC) - will report the following week. It will be especially interesting to note which banks, if any, begin to report credit loss reserves that have been building, largely unreported, since the end of the first quarter. Millions have had credit card, mortgage, and personal loan deferrals or forbearance which the banks have not had to report due to regulations enacted under the CARES Act.

Good Luck!

At the Close, Friday, Janaury 8, 2020:
Dow: 31,097.97, +56.84 (+0.18%)
NASDAQ: 13,201.98, +134.50 (+1.03%)
S&P 500: 3,824.68, +20.89 (+0.55%)
NYSE: 14,966.83, +38.08 (+0.26%)

For the Week:
Dow: +491.49 (+1.61%)
NASDAQ: +313.69 (+2.43%)
S&P 500: +68.61 (+1.83%)
NYSE: +442.03 (+3.04%)

December Non-Farm Payrolls -140,000; Stocks Gain, Bitcoin Soars Over $41,000

Heading into the NFL's Super Wild Card Weekend, while the nation tunes into six pro football playoff games, there's a good chance that a lot more will be happening on the ground in Washington, DC.

That's all we know for now. More as the story develops.

In economic news, stocks were up sharply the day after protesters - following ANTIFA radicals disguised as pro-Trump demonstrators in a planned false flag designed to demonize Trump supporters - stormed the Capitol, Wall Street took the news rather lightly, one might assume.

What do they know that the rest of the world does not? There's a very good chance they know almost nothing other than how to push "BUY" buttons and that they're wrong, actually. Things are about to change in meaningful ways.

Some readers may be saying that Money Daily has been saying "change" as often as Obama did in his 2008 campaign, and they're right. But change takes time, or, as in the case of Bitcoin, not very much time. The meteoric rise of the first and largest - by market capitalization - has been flying. Just this morning, it topped $41,000. Bitcoin was at $29,000 just a week ago, on January 1. If that's not change we can believe in, then what is?

Maybe it's the December Non-Farm Payroll report referenced in today's headline. Reading from the BLS press release linked above, notes huge job losses in leisure and hospitality and in private education, partially offset by gains in professional and business services, retail trade, and construction.

Does anybody need a playbook to understand that leisure and hospitality, otherwise know as cruise ships, hotels, bars, and restaurants has been hammered to death by the lockdowns?

From the press release: "In December, employment in leisure and hospitality declined by 498,000, with three-quarters of the decrease in food services and drinking places (-372,000). Employment also fell in the amusements, gambling, and recreation industry (-92,000) and in the accommodation industry (-24,000). Since February, employment in leisure and hospitality is down by 3.9 million, or 23.2 percent.”

“Employment in private education decreased by 63,000 in December. Employment in the industry is down by 450,000 since February.”

Drops in bars and restaurants were the most pronounced, obviously, because that's where humans are not allowed to tread, although it's perfectly OK for everybody to shop at Target or Wal-Mart, because they're public corporations and stocks have to go up. Small business, the kind owned by your neighbors or friends, real people, people who are just trying to get ahead or out of the corporate slog (old-timers used to call it the "rat race") that dehumanizes and demoralizes people, have been shattered by the lockdowns. Not by the virus itself, which, unless your a "maskhole" you know is a complete media-driven sham, just like the fake election and just about everything else coming out of the mainstream media.

And let's not forget that private schools are also bad. Your kids must go to public schools for indoctrination. So much BS.

“The unemployment rate is 6.7 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, at 10.7 million, were unchanged.”

Out of here for the weekend. Stay alert.

Ezekiel 25:17
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

At the Close, Thursday, January 7, 2021:
Dow: 31,041.13, +211.73 (+0.69%)
NASDAQ: 13,067.48, +326.69 (+2.56%)
S&P 500: 3,803.79, +55.65 (+1.48%)
NYSE: 4,928.75, +139.92 (+0.95%)

Best Wishes, Joe & Kamala, From 80 Million Deplorables; Mudville, Bitcoin, and Max Keiser's Reveal

So, it's Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, right?

Congress made it official, albeit a little later than they had planned, thanks to a small insurrection and breach of the nation's capitol. Not a biggie.

What congress and their newly-appointed president and vice have to now consider is how to deal with:

80 million angry, disenfranchised, armed adults

millions more on lockdown

hundreds of thousands of small businesses shuttered for good

millions more unemployed

$600 checks that were spent on guns, ammo, and bitcoin

millions of past due rents of six months or longer

millions of mortgages in forbearance

fake news

tech censorship

fake plague

vaccines that are killing recipients

$27.8 trillion national debt

$4 trillion current deficit

US$ sinking

wealth disparity at all-time high

broken election system

ongoing, self-inflicted pandemic

Those are just for starters. Soon to come on the menu are regional wars, China, Europe's inevitable implosion, unworkable Brexit in the UK, a blizzard here and there, and maybe a natural disaster down the line. Joe has the answer: mandatory mask-wearing everywhere and a 90-day, nationwide lockdown.

This is what is expected to be handled by the uniparty in congress, an aged, grifter president who often doesn't know where he is, and a VP with no foreign relations or governance experience. And Janet Yellen at Treasury. Oh, joy!

They've got less than two weeks to get plans together to deal with all of this, besides the usual moving-in disruptions, internecine office warfare, a few doses of graft and bribery, undermining of plans by their new hires, and more demands of Green New Deals, reparations, and loony leftist ideas from AOC and her "squad."

While a peaceful demonstration turned into a brief storming of the barricades early Wednesday afternoon, wall Street was enjoying another make-believe rally on the back of the falling US dollar. The trading crew in the tall Manhattan buildings expect big spending by Biden and company, and they're not wrong about that at all. There will be massive give-aways of money and priviledge, and inflation running north of 15% per annum.

Joe and Kamala ought to be given a prize or trophy for wishing to inherit the wind... and getting it.

Hosea 8:7: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”

Gold and silver took their usual weekly beating with appropriate humility. An ounce of silver (it's assumed that Mike Pence got a number of those, as a Judas of biblical fame) sold down into the $26.60 range. Since the start of December, it's continued to climb upwards from $23.

Gold stumbled badly, losing nearly $50 an ounce, but it's holding its own between $1910 and $1920. This too has been in rally mode for weeks. It's likely to soar right past $2050 shortly, then beyond. Silver will finally breach $30, then higher.

Bitcoin and Etherium, the two major cryptocurrency assets, continue to amaze. Just a moment ago, Bitcoin topped $38,000. A week ago it was $28,500. Less than a month ago, it was $17,500. Less than a month ago, Ether, or Etherium, was $550. A week ago, it was hovering around $750. This morning it's over $1200.

Bitcoin is a rocket ship to Nirvana. Ether is heading to Valhahla, all because what central banks issue as currency is counterfeit and people are catching on. Not everybody, but enough people are scared to death about what's happening to - as Larry Kudlow calls it - "King Dollar" that they're scurrying to other asset classes besides stocks. One can tell by the dollar index that something is afoot, but looking no further than the yield on the 10-year note, opening today at a nine-month high of 1.04% is as good a proxy for dollar flight as can be found anywhere.

Treasury bonds have reversed course with yields heading higher. This is not a head fake. The Fed's efforts to keep rates low while stoking inflation with ceaseless cutesie "Quantitative Easing" (counterfeiting) is about as crude a bludgeon to the economy as a pole axe to the side of the head. The bleeding will never stop until the victim is exhausted. It's happening. It's not going to stop.

Across America, 787,000 people filed initial jobless claims last week. So much for the V-shaped recovery. The letter q or Q might be a more distinct impression for the chartists.

Although it's the heart of the "dark winter" that Quid Pro Joe has promised us, it's hard not to have some hope that in about seven weeks, young and aging pitchers and catchers alike may possibly be assembling on various playing fields of Florida and Arizona for the start of baseball's Spring Training. If the Ides of March are kind, the regular season might start around the first week of April, if April Fools Day passes without incident and the annual tax filing deadline isn't extended too far into the future.

For those still optimistic about our new congressional and executive branches, and, to all the wheezy economists at the Federal Reserve, offered is the final quatrain of Ernest Lawrence Thayer's humble addition to the national consciousness, Casey at the Bat.

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.

Max Keiser Reveals Bitcoin Price Forecast for 2021:

At the Close, Wednesday, January 6, 2021:
Dow: 30,829.40, +437.80 (+1.44%)
NASDAQ: 12,740.79, -78.17 (-0.61%)
S&P 500: 3,748.14, +21.28 (+0.57%)
NYSE: 14,788.83, +252.30 (+1.74%)

Georgia Goes Full Democrat, Triggering Bond Yield Spike, Gold, Silver, Bitcoin Gains

Just in case you haven’t noticed, Democrats took two more seats in the US Senate on Tuesday, which will put the chamber at an even 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats (two independents, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and angus King of Maine caucus and almost always vote with Democrats). That will leave it to the Vice President (whoever that turns out to be) to break any ties, which may not be a problem as the Republican party features three Senators - Utah's Mitt Romney, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, and Maine's Susan Collins - one of which, if not all, can usually be swayed to vote with the Democrats.

So, you're thinking, great, more free everything for everybody. But, hold on a minute. Wall Street, ever vigilant in keeping their DC enablers on a short leash, don't like the idea of Democrats or Republicans holding all the cards. With a slim margin in the House, a breakable tie in the Senate and Joe Biden ostensibly the next president, Democrats have tipped over the balance of power to their favor.

Wall Street prefers split government, simply due to the idea that when the government is fractured, it can't pass any new laws to screw up the orderly function of business. Thus, they're a little bit miffed over the developments out of Georgia and stock futures are pointed dramatically lower. Gold is adding to Tuesday's gains and silver is approaching $28 an ounce. Bitcoin rallied as high as $35,868 overnight and has settled in around $34,500.

Later today (Wednesday, Jan. 6) a joint session of congress will consider the electors in the presidential race for certification. There will be objections from Republicans and debates on dual slates of electors from as many as seven states, maybe more. Out on the streets of DC, millions - yes, millions - will be rallying for Donald J. Trump and to save the nation from what many consider a stolen election and other grand crimes committed by Democrats in the quest for power. In all likelihood, the pro-Trump demonstrators will be joined by groups from ANTIFA and BLM. It's going to be quite the spectacle, although the mainstream media will give it about 30 seconds of coverage, call the crowds "large" and try to move on to their coronavirus agenda.

That's the agenda today in the newly-crowned banana republic of America, where rich people and Democrats get 60 days for most crimes if they're even arrested, arraigned, tried, and convicted and poor people and Republicans get thrown into dungeons if they aren't shot first.

Perhaps the most alarming number to come out of recent events is the rise in yield of the benchmark 10-year note, which topped 1.00% overnight, a number that everybody agrees is bad for the economy, stocks, the federal debt, this year's deficit, and probably NFL TV ratings. Rising interest rates mean that debt cannot be so easily disposed of and the cost of servicing the massive debt on government, business, and individual books is higher.

If anything is capable, by itself, of bringing down the house of cards that is the US economy, it's higher interest rates. While the appearance of 1.00% on the 10-year yield may be just another number in a sequence, but the psychological impact will be felt far and wide, especially if that sequence continues higher, which has been the recent trend.

The last time the 10-year yield was above 1.00% was on March 19 of last year when it closed the day at 1.12%. It was during that period in which stocks were bottoming out and the Fed was in the process of cutting the federal funds rate to Zero. On Friday, the yield on the 10-year note was clipped by 20 basis points, to 0.92%. By Monday of the next week (March 23), the Fed having issued more emergency policies over the weekend, the 10-year would yield 0.76. The one-month bill caught a yield of 0.01%, its lowest ever.

As yields on bonds rise, issuers scramble to sell what they're holding at discount, as their lower-yielding bills, notes, and bonds are of lesser value. The danger is of setting off a vicious cyclical event, a selling panic in the bond market, pushing yields even higher. In the most extreme cases, yields spiral out of control, much fixed-income wealth is destroyed and lending eventually siezes up. With the Fed intent on keeping interest rates as close to zero as humanly possible, rising rates is the last thing they want to see. It's a sign that they've lost control of the currency, the economy, the whole ball of wax.

While the circus in Washington continues to play out, people with money are going to focus more on the realities of the economy. Rising interest rates natuarally pulls investment away from stocks and into fixed income. If rates continue to rise, the stock market will crash as money flees to the less-risky and more profitable fixed income space.

The trend toward higher rates is not something that began with the election of two Democrat Senators from Georgia. The entire treasury complex has been gradually rising since the March lows, but the 10-year note in particular has been gaining momentum since October of 2020, topping 0.90% a couple of times in November and remaining above that level all of December, the highest yield of 0.97% coming on December 4. The rising yield will probably be hailed as a positive sign that the economy is recovering by the putrid financial press at Bloomberg and CNBC when the truth is that inflation is about to run rampant and push the economy further into recession.

Be prepared for fireworks on political and economic fronts beginning Wednesday and for the immediate future.

Here’s a very entertaining interview with Lawrence Lepard... "The Currency Reset Is Coming | Gold, Silver & Mining Stocks Will Moonshot"

At the Close, Tuesday, January 5, 2021:
Dow: 30,391.60, +167.71 (+0.55%)
NASDAQ: 12,818.96, +120.51 (+0.95%)
S&P 500: 3,726.86, +26.21 (+0.71%)
NYSE: 14,536.53, +159.83 (+1.11%)

BOHICA: On Being A Boy Scout As Government, Economy Disintegrates Into The Greater Depression

Are you thinking about getting some young chicks from Tractor Supply in a couple of months?

You should be, if you like eggs and if you want to stay alive because here in the United States, the Greater Depression - that has been delayed via actions by the Fed and the federal government - is about to go live.

Since March of last year, when the pandemic went live in the US, profound changes to the landscape of life have been underway, though the immediate effects have not been felt. The lockdowns and COVID-related restrictions damaged millions of small businesses and devastated many to the point at which they closed their doors permanently. Incomes were slashed, employees laid off, and extra money was pumped into a collapsing economy via additional unemployment insurance checks, mortgage forbearance, a moratorium on evictions, and other safety net remedies.

While the economy was salvaged for a while and the stock market boomed, there was still a massive degree of income and wealth destruction. Rents and mortgages haven't been paid for nearly in year in many circumstances. A huge number of people are facing either eviction or foreclosure within months, if not weeks.

The Greater Depression (a coinage which should hold up as a comparison to the "Great Depression" of the 1930s) is likely to last anywhere from six to 12 years. There's only so much money and resource that the federal and state governments can throw at the problem. Eventually, either the rents and mortgages get paid or they don't and the probability of them not getting paid is rising by the hour.

Our political class is about to engage in internecine warfare on Capitol Hill. Forget the Georgia elections, which conclude tonight. That's a sideshow to the electoral college counting of votes on Wednesday, January 6 in a joint session of congress. Republicans are poised to contest the electors chosen for Joe Biden in six or seven states, including Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, and possibly New Mexico, where dual sets of electors - one each for Biden and President Trump - have been delivered. Vice President Mike Pence, in his role as President of the Senate, will present, in alphabetical order by state, the slates of electors for confirmation by the House and Senate. When he gets to Arizona, after Alabama and Alaska, the fireworks begin and the process is not likely to go smoothly. It could last days if House members and Senators object and trigger debates on all six or seven contested states.

In the meantime, maybe a million or two million supporters of President Trump, opposed to what they consider an attempt by Joe Biden and the Democrats to steal the presidential election through various means of fraud, will be occupying much of Washington, DC. Along side the protesters will be the National Guard and maybe elements from ANTIFA and BLM, just to make things interesting.

It's going to get crazy and at the end of it, there is going to be one enormous segment of the population that's not going to be happy, and another, equally large segment that thinks it has won. Or, it could drag on and on without resolution for days or weeks, even beyond the scheduled date for inauguration, January 20. There's a chance that the nation's capitol will be under siege, as has been the case in countries that have endured so-called "color revolutions" in places like Tunisia, Macedonia, Armenia, Georgia, and elsewhere.

What a sight for the world to behold would be an encampment of Americans at the seat of government, protesting everything corrupt, everything wrong, everything suspect, basically, everything.

Thus, for those of us not interested or otherwise occupied, the world will seemingly stop. Nobody will really know what's going on for at least 48 hours, probably from the reveal of the Georgia Senate elections around 9:00 pm ET Tuesday through the joint session of congress and bayond, through, at least, 9:00 pm ET Thursday night.

The power may go out. The internet may go down. Telecommunications networks may be compromised, so it would be a good idea to adopt a Boy Scout mentality based on their "Be Prepared" model, to charge up your phones and computers (even though they may not work anyhow), get candles and generators ready, have extra batteries ready for the worst if only because it could happen.

With the coming mad side show in Washington, DC - oh, yeah, and maybe some urban terrorism, like last summer, in big cities, courtesy of our progressive friends - ushering in the Greater Depression, being prepared just makes sense. Beyond the next few days to a few weeks, people should be preparing for the long haul, like making plans for a garden and buying those young chicks or getting some adult ones from producers.

If you've never tended to a garden, you're about to find out how much hard work and fun it is. For those in the Northern exposures, you're going to have a wait a few months for the pleasure (and, not to be facetious, it can be an enjoyable experience) unless you've got a working greenhouse. Southern folks can get an early start because temperatures are warmer and soon will be conducive to growing hardy vegetables like broccoli and various greens.

Let's not forget that the media will be constantly bombarding you with contagious disease stories to keep you off the streets and on your toes... at home. The stock market and all other markets will probably continue to function, albeit imperfectly, and the possibility of not just a long-overdue correction in stocks, but a outright crash is not to be dismissed. After all, the Fed can print up as many new dollars as it pleases and send them to the banks for quick entry into stocks, but only for so long. They've been pumping the market for years with counterfeit funds. Eventually, even big money will seek an escape from hopelessly rigged markets.

As a prelude to where all this is heading, stocks opened trading for 2021 on Monday with a nasty sell-off. At the same time, gold and silver were being bid up, as was Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin actually topped $34,000 on Sunday (Jan. 3) before drifting a little lower. It's still well above $30,000. It was less than $20,000 three weeks ago.

Silver is at its best level since September, checking in above $27 an ounce while gold continues to climb, hitting $1950 as of this writing. Stock futures are pointing toward another negative opening on Tuesday.

At its core, everything in stocks, bonds, crypto, commodities, politics, and daily life is all about the demise of the US dollar, the world's reserve currency, which has been in a downdraft since well before the pandemic struck, continues to this day and will experience unrelenting decline through all 2021.

The era of fiat money is coming to an end. The Fed already has plans in place for a cryptocurrency of its own which is not likely to provide much in the way of a "reset" or restart unless it's backed by gold and is limited, which it won't be, at least not right away. Otherwise, the Fed is prepared to go full frontal MMT, complete with UBI (Universal Basic Income) for the masses. Everybody will get some to spend, but it's going to be like the $600 checks being delivered in the second big COVID relief bill, not enough for anything beyond the basic necessities.

Hollowing out the middle class through inflation and government confiscation (taxes) has been the aim of the Federal Reserve and the central bank global cabal since the GFC of 2007-09. It's now about to reach a new phase with 800,000 new jobless claims every week and even more devastation, lockdowns, forced evictions, crime, and yes, starvation.

Those who have been willing to seek the truth and discount the lies of government, medicine, and media will probably manage to survive most of the coming carnage. It's unavoidable at this point as the politicians, whether by accident or with full knowledge and purpose, have pushed people to the edge and segregated them into two opposing groups of liberals and conservatives, blue team and red team at each other's throats while the real villans play out their evil charade.

The events in Georgia and Washington, DC, may pass without dispute or disruption, but only the most wide-eyed optimists or criminally insane are counting on that. Better to be prepared for the worst than experience it unprepared.

Like all depressions or disruptions of economies, this one will end in war or revolution or both. Probably both.

Get some chicks and some batteries. Be A Boy Scout for once in your life. Be Prepared.

Some Bitcoin wisdom from Michael Saylor:

At the Close, Monday, January 4, 2021:
Dow: 30,223.89, -382.59 (-1.25%)
NASDAQ: 12,698.45, -189.83 (-1.47%)
S&P 500: 3,700.65, -55.42 (-1.48%)
NYSE: 14,376.70, -148.10 (-1.02%)

WEEKEND WRAP: Year-end Prices, New Year Projections, Great Reset?

Well, 2020 is finally over. If you're reading this, you've survived. Now, the focus shifts away from getting through the "pandemic", which is totally fake and contrived just to enslave people and take away their rights, their incomes, their savings, and their humanity and towards either a recovery, a relapse or a reset.

If you don't agree with this, you can just stop reading now. There's no intention to make this blog a sounding board for the status quo, the "conspiracy theory" finger pointers or the President Elect Biden crowd. That's all going down within weeks. In case January 20 comes along and somehow, the most criminal lying traitor to the constitution ever to run for president is inaugurated, everything changes. Nothing goes back to normal. Democracy is dead. Those and other, more serious, severe realities will unfold if the stolen election is allowed to stand.

For purposes of this blog and posts over the coming days and weeks, the next 12 months of living on planet Earth, especially in the USA, Canada and Europe, must be based upon the re-election of Donald J. Trump as the reality. Otherwise, every financial and economic action of consequence will be distorted, but, it is on good information that many Senators and members of the House of Representatives will challenge the electoral slates presented to them by Vice-President Mike Pence on January 6, and a positive resolution for the patriots that have stood up and will not stand down is expected.

With that said, a hop-scotch through the end-of-year market activity, followed by some food for thought going forward can commence.

As the year 2020 came to a close, just about everybody was doing the social distancing and mask-wearing that is either mandated or become social convention. That will wear out in 2021. People have had enough, but, with widespread cancellation of New Year celebrations, it appears that the media/government/medicine deep state cabal still has a pretty good grip on the general population through COVID-19 propaganda.

Stocks just kind of meandered to new highs without much fanfare or catalyst. Indeed, it was almost as though stocks were just supposed to go higher all by themselves, whether the companies behind the securities were faring well or ill. It didn't matter the last few weeks of 2020 and obviously wasn't much of a concern from mid-March forward as the general economy cratered under the weight of lockdowns and civil unrest, stay-at-home orders, and fake science.

For whatever its worth, here's how the various major indices and other assets did in 2020:

Index: Close 12/31/19 / Close 12/31/20 / Gain (Loss) / % Gain (Loss)
Dow: 28,538.44 / 30,606.48 / 2,068.04 / +7.25%
NASDAQ: 8,972.60 / 12,888.28 / 3,915.68 / +43.64%
S&P 500: 3,230.78 / 3,756.07 / 525.29 / +16.26%
NYSE: 13,913.03 / 14,524.80 / 611.77 / +4.40%

Commodities:
Item: Close 12/31/19 / Close 12/31/20 / Gain (Loss) / % Gain (Loss)
Gold: 1517.25 / 1895.10 / 377.85 / +24.90%
Silver: 18.01 / 26.46 / 8.45 / +46.92%
Copper: 6,076 / 7,749 / 1,673 / +27.53%
Nickel: 13,736 / 16,540 / 2,804 / +20.41%
Zinc: 2,283 / 2,729 / 446 / +19.54%
WTI Crude Oil: 63.05 / 48.42 / (14.63) / (23.21%)
Corn: 3.88 / 4.86 / 0.98 / +25.26%
Soybeans: 9.31 / 13.14 / 3.83 / +41.14%
Wheat: 188.50 / 213.50 / 15 / +13.26%

Crypto:
Item: Close 12/31/19 / Close 12/31/20 / Gain (Loss) / % Gain (Loss)
Bitcoin: 7,360.97 / 29,004.26 / 21,643.29 / 394.03%
Etherium: 135.39 / 737.85 / 602.46 / 544.98%

Treasuries:
Item: Close 12/31/19 / Close 12/31/20 / Gain (Loss) / % Gain (Loss)
3-month yield: 1.55 / 0.09 / (1.46) / (94.20%)
10-year yield: 1.92 / 0.93 / (1.01) / (51.56%)
30-year yield 2.39 / 1.65 / (0.74) / (30.96%)

Finally, here are recent prices for commonly-purchased gold and silver items on eBay (numismatics excluded, shipping - often free - included):

Item: Low / High / Average / Median
1 oz silver coin: 31.13 / 42.50 / 35.72 / 34.98
1 oz silver bar: 29.99 / 40.00 / 35.32 / 36.00
1 oz gold coin: 1,975.00 / 2,196.96 / 2,034.16 / 2,012.32
1 oz gold bar: 1,862.00 / 2,071.30 / 1,994.66 / 1,998.54

The dollar index fell from 96.84 to 89.93 over the course of the year 2020, a decline of 7.14% against a trade-weighted basket of six currencies: euro, Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen, Canadian dollar, British pound, and Swedish Krona. Meanwhile, those currencies are have been or are devaluing against each other as they are all fiats, backed by nothing more than promises, as is the US dollar, the world's reserve currency.

So, with all this knowledge in hand on prices, generally rising, other than the obvious declines in treasury yields, what does this portend for 2021 (we knew you'd ask)?

It's important to value everything in something, usually currencies. Valuing oil in terms of gold or corn in terms of zinc may be instructive, but most people are going to view the economic world through a prism of currency, and that usually means the US dollar.

With almost everything higher against the US dollar, is that due to a decline in the dollar itself or are these items (gold, silver, oil) actually more valuable to hold as savings that are not currencies? In a nutshell, an ounce of gold, or silver, or a bushel of corn or some shares of stock did not suddenly become more valuable. What's changed is the purchasing power of the US dollar, and, to varying degrees, that of other currencies. Because faith in fiat currencies and the governments which back them is waning, how people value their cash is eroding, forcing many to flee to hard assets, especially in the case of precious metals and cryptocurrencies, the latter being a special case in that they are babes in the woods. Bitcoin was only birthed in 2009, but, having all of the characteristics of a store of value and a currency, these marvels of block-chain technology have caught on with a fury.

As adoption of cryptocurrencies goes mainstream, holders of Bitcoin (known as HODLers, for Hold On for Dear Life) are creating a virtuous cycle, pushing out the bad money ($$) with good (BTC), replacing central bank debt-based currency with distributed peer-based currency that cannot be inflated away with the striking of a keyboard. Other hard assets such as gold, silver, oil, agricultural land and crops, machinery, equipment, art, collectibles, and business assets found new life and new investors in 2020, a trend that has been growing since the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007-09.

Now, as hard assets threaten to become a crowded trade due to inflation (too much money in circulation), the trend only seems to be accelerating. The advance of copper, zinc, other metals, and agricultural commodities (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc.) are notably pointing toward a massive bull run off of historic lows. The more the Fed and their central bank cohorts continue injecting fresh currency into the system, the more a dozen eggs, a pound of butter, a liter of cola is going to cost. Food is the last thing to experience inflationary pressure because input costs are not uniformly passed along to consumers, and because it is the final hurdle between civil society and disruptive anarchy. A nation's stomachs must be at least partially full to keep the populace from protesting, revolting, rising up and overthrowing the governing class. We're not quite there yet, but, especially if food prices continue rising, social unrest could begin to spread coast to coast and everywhere in between.

This digression into lawlessness can be stopped, but only by consensus of the disenfranchised, which currently are those citizens who voted for Donald J. Trump in the presidential race and feel cheated. Unless and until those people are satisfied, there isn't going to be any kind of peace and harmony in America. That is why making predictions on the future of trading, holding, buying, and selling of assets of all classes so difficult and confounding. The immediate future is not just cloudy, it is downright dense, like a steel wall nobody can break through, see through, or climb over.

Also weighing heavily on future outcomes is the continuation of the COVID conspiracy. The longer the public is led along by fake science and locked down by oppressive governments at the state and local levels, the worse becomes the anger, frustration and outrage, which leads nowhere good.

When these two important elements are finally resolved, then decisions based on real world circumstances can be made.

Outside of anything else, non-dollar assets appear to be on a trajectory straight up, as dollar hegemony has been declining for years, is accelerating, and is unlikely to halt or reverse. The global fiat currency system has been shattered and there's no coming back from currency collapse and solvency crises. The era of centralization and globalization is dying, kicking a screaming all the way towards a new paradigm of decentralized finance and localized commerce. That is an undeniable trend.

Finally, as we enter a new year full of hope, think about this:

Central banks (FED, ECB, BOJ, PBOC, BOE, etc.) create currency with a few keystrokes on a computer. It's the essence of counterfeiting.

With that counterfeit, what are they buying? Corporate debt, mortgages, government debt (treasuries), gold, other assets, maybe even Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

How is this even possible? It is because there isn't much attention paid to, nor knowledge of the global currency creation system.

Central banks are buying up the greatest assets of the world with currency that has no basis, no backing, other than the outstanding debt by which it was sprung into existence. It's like playing a game of monopoly where the bank not only gets to play, but is able to give itself - and only itself - as much money as it needs to win, i.e., controlling the best assets on the board and making everybody else pay rent until they're broke and eliminated from the game.

There are ways out of this mess, but they all involve some degree of pain and destruction. Alternative currencies are one good answer. Owning assets paid for with currencies outside the control of the central banks crimps their monopolistic tendencies, thus the meteoric rise of Bitcoin over the past six months.

Lastly, in case you're interested in what was formerly called a conspiracy theory but is now a conspiracy fact, follow the link for a FREE PDF of COVID-19: The Great Reset authored by World Economic Forum (WEF) founder and director, Klaus Schwaub, and Thierry Malleret.

2020 is finally WRAPPED. Happy New Year!

At the Close, Thursday, December 31, 2020:
Dow: 30,606.48, +196.92 (+0.65%)
NASDAQ: 12,888.28, +18.28 (+0.14%)
S&P 500: 3,756.07, +24.03 (+0.64%)
NYSE: 14,524.80, +47.33 (+0.33%)

For the Week:
Dow: +406.61 (+1.35%)
NASDAQ: +83.65 (+0.65%)
S&P 500: +53.01 (+1.43%)
NYSE: +143.20 (+1.99%)

Some Considerations for Surviving, Maintaining, and Prospering in 2021

Heading into 2021, there's almost universal certainty that the year will offer a multitude of challenges to Americans, be they emotional, financial, or safety-related. The main threats to freedom-loving people come not from they mystery virus, but from corrupt politicians with rapacious taxation schemes and illicit mandates, an out-of-control medical community, or lies and falsehoods from the mainstream media propaganda machine.

The following are suggestions that would apply even in the best of times. Being prepared is just good common sense. Most people aren't capable of handling a crisis without panicking, so avoiding crisis conditions in the first place is recommended. Living conditions can go sideways in a hurry, by natural or man-made forces, so being informed and suitably prepared are primary concerns under circumstances that may well become beyond the control of individuals and families, as many have learned from the various CV-19 restrictions, rules, lockdowns and subsequent reactions.

If your intention is to survive the coming depression that - by all appearances - will arrive and intensify in 2021, the very first thing you have to do is put together a personal or family budget and determine if your income is sufficient and secure enough to afford your current lifestyle and reasonably expected expenses.

The next thing is to make adjustments. Personal preferences may be in favor of a luscious lifestyle in the face of increasingly difficult circumstances or austerity to cope with what may become a stressful situation. In either case, it behooves the prudent to ensure that all life-supporting essentials are in good repair and working order, including everything from checking your roof, windows, doors, and basement for damage or potential failures to keeping your vehicles and appliances in good operating condition. Nothing can be more threatening to safe survival than a car that won't start, a roof that leaks, or a refrigerator or furnace that fails when most needed.

Health is going to be a primary concern, so it's a good idea to stock up on basic first aid materials like aspirin, bandages, antiseptics, and immune-boosting vitamins, especially, C, D3, Zinc, Quercetin, and a good stock of multi-vitamins.

If your pantry isn't already overflowing with canned goods, flour, rice, bottled water, and other basic foodstuffs, the time to stock up in now. Nothing harms the human spirit more than an empty stomach, and, with "food insecurity" rampant in the new American experience, keeping a supply of survival-type items on hand is not just a good idea, it's an essential one.

An even better solution to storing food is to grow some of your own. In case you've never planted a seed or grown some tomatoes, peppers, or lettuce, the time to start learning how was yesterday. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, most families had little garden plots in their back yards so they were at least partially self-sufficient. A 10 x 10 garden can produce quite a few edibles. Bigger is better of course. Even though it's the dead of winter, gathering information and checking on seed supplies right now may be a prudent endeavor. Gardening and farming is not easy. It's time-consuming, but can be fun, and the rewards of fresh produce are without equal.

Mental health may become a greater concern as conditions change. Normalcy bias dictates a certain intellectual comfort level that can be badly challenged when things just aren't going to be the same as they used to be. Developing some flexibility in your mental and emotional outlook may be the most important thing you can do to deal with changing conditions in your life and those around you.

Keep lines of communication open. News you get from television is likely to be distorted and overly pessimistic. Sourcing information off the internet will likely be a viable alternative to mainstream propaganda. Radio is another good source for reasonably good information, though much of it is biased toward either conservative or liberal audiences, so listen with a jaundiced ear.

Get to know your neighbors and their views. You may find that many of them aren't very well-prepared and it may be up to you to get them up to speed on important issues. Banding together on a local basis may become a necessity.

If you're fortunate enough to already have a good source of backup power in case of natural disaster, make sure it will function properly when needed. If you don't have backup power or energy sources, getting your hands on a working gas generator, some solar panels, a converter, and batteries should be a priority.

Keep cash on hand and as little as necessary in the bank. In the case of a national banking emergency, the money in your bank may not be readily accessible. That's been the case in the past and it's sure to be somewhat the same in the future.

Lastly, but obviously not the least of concerns is personal safety and that, for most people, means having guns and ammo at your disposal in case things really get out of control. Owning a gun is great, but better yet is knowing how to use one and keep it in working condition. Some shooting practice makes sense, and understanding how you will react under stressful conditions is also an important consideration. Hitting targets is fine, but what you're likely to be shooting at will be on the move. At the very least, a handgun, shotgun or rifle will give you the upper hand in many situations, whether you choose to use it as deadly force or employ it as a threat to keep dangerous matters under control.

Overall, 2021 isn't guaranteed to be anything. Probably, some of it will be good, some bad. Whether you choose to carry on with life as you always have or develop a hunker down in a bunker mentality is entirely up to you. At least taking the time to assess your personal situation and that of the world around you may offer some advantage toward staying alive, staying safe, and maybe even prospering during disruptive times.

There will be opportunities. There always are for people prepared to discover them. Your garden may feed half the neighborhood. Your skills may be in demand. You may discover things about yourself you never imagined that can be marketed profitably. There will certainly be opportunities to make money in stocks, currencies, commodities and other financial products. Stay aware and on the lookout for ways to make money or improve your net worth.

Here's to a Happy and Healthy New Year in 2021 and hope that conditions improve rather than deteriorate further.

At the Close, Wednesday, December 30, 2020:
Dow: 30,409.56, +73.89 (+0.24%)
NASDAQ: 12,870.00, +19.78 (+0.15%)
S&P 500: 3,732.04, +5.00 (+0.13%)
NYSE: 14,477.48, +79.55 (+0.55%)

Stocks Falter As 2020 Trudges To A Close; 2021 Likely To Be Worse

As capital markets go, there was a disturbance in the farce on Tuesday, as European stocks took off and US stocks stalled out. After making all-time highs on Monday, the three main indices (Dow, NASDAQ, S&P) retreated slightly, expressing at least a little bit of pessimism that economic recovery from the CV-19 pandemic of 2020 was not going as smoothly as anticipated.

A "V-shaped recovery" was never going to materialize while small businesses were shuttered by the thousands, commercial and residential rents were largely deferred until some later date, and residential, government-backed mortgages were placed on hold, put in abeyance or otherwise not serviced in timely manners, and new unemployment claims continued to pour in at levels not seen since the Great Depression.

The only people who believed in such nonsense were the clinically insane, mentally-challenged, and just plain gullible sheep-people who populated most of urban America.

When you have people like Klaus Schwaub, founder and director of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, calling for a Great Reset, well-informed people will quickly come to the realization that "reset" and "recovery" are nearly diametrically-opposed conceptual constructs which cannot, in the real world, be reconciled in an orderly manner.

Taking an analogy of a sick patient, a doctor seeing recovery would find the patient's blood counts improved, breathing more relaxed and natural, color gradually returning to cheeks, and generally better overall mood and bodily function. In the case of a reset, the patient, in a prone position on a hospital bed, wheezes all night, heart rate slows, bodily functions cease functioning until put on life support, pumped with experimental drugs and blood transfusions until reaching a level of functional sustainability with the help of more drugs, stimulants, and maybe a catheter to control the effusion of toxins.

The recovered patient would gradually return to pre-existing condition without after-effects. The reset patient would be molded and coaxed into a condition of dependency on medicine or other ambulatory devices dissimilar to the prior, pre-illness condition.

Instead of a recovery to a so-called "new normal," a reset is where the US and global economies are headed. The promise to "Build Back Better" so often flouted by the elite super-structuralists who view globalization, slavish adherence to dictates, and overt population control as panacea for their new world order failed to mention that what they intend to build back will be better for them, but not necessarily so for the 99% of the world that will be forced to live under the thumb of their dominion.

So, it's crystal-ball-gazing time as the world tries to live out the remaining few days of 2020 without succumbing to depression, disease or starvation, all of which will be in-your-face elements of 2021.

In all seriousness, as bad as 2020 was and continues to be, 2021 is likely to be even worse for a majority of people not in the big club of politicians, bankers, and propagandists otherwise known as the mainstream media.

The year of 2021 will be marked by even more scary stories about diseases led by the CV-19 strain mutating into more virulent forms, government non-legal mandates growing exponentially, economic and mental depression, and living conditions unlike anything seen since the 1930s.

Nothing will be "back to normal." Facial coverings, masks, will likely be mandated to even larger swaths of society. Money will become scarce, the government forced to issue more $600, $1200, or $2000 checks to those deemed worthy of a pittance of hope. The stock market will continue going up until some realization of where exactly we are and where we are all headed (hint: gates of hell) becomes accepted and normative. At that point, one of the greatest economic collapses of all time will commence. 2020 was only a prelude to the actual disaster awaiting in 2021.

There will be no recovery so long as individuals are mandated to do as the government wishes and compliance is high, as it is today, clearly expressed by the preponderance of mask-wearers, social-distancers, and bleating, frightened sheep-people clamoring for more more government benefits, bailouts, buyouts, and biscuits.

Government employees at all levels - local, state, federal - will be well-compensated for their strict adherence to mandates and control over the rest of society. Go to a bank, a school, a police precinct, a court, or any government office and the smug, down-looking attitude of the drone-like civil servants will be obsequious and unrelenting.

You will be told endlessly to do things you would otherwise be opposed to: wear a mask, don't touch anything or anybody, get immunized, carry your papers, be searched, stripped of your rights, dehumanized. The planet will be reduced to a global plantation where you are the slave and the government is the master, the exact opposite of life prior to the pandemic.

Not that everybody will willingly accept what the government, the medical community, and the media is thrusting upon society, there will be protesters, civil disturbances, rule-benders, law-breakers, mass shootings, mass incarcerations, arson, robberies, rapes, murders, looting, and destruction of everything, everywhere. It's not going to be pretty and there's no escaping it other than by individual action as there is no organized resistance. And, even if there were, it would be crushed under the boot of the new tyranny in short order.

If you're thinking that 2020 was other-worldly, just wait until you see what's in store for 2021. It will be like traveling into a different dimension, a twilight zone of despondency, despair, and depression. Klaus Schwaub says, “You will own nothing and you will be happy.” Good luck with that as a leading indicator.

Happy New Year? Not just yet. Some rays of hope and streams of instruction tomorrow in the final 2020 post at Money Daily.

At the Close, Tuesday, December 29, 2020:
Dow: 30,335.67, -68.30 (-0.22%)
NASDAQ: 12,850.22, -49.20 (-0.38%)
S&P 500: 3,727.04, -8.32 (-0.22%)
NYSE: 14,397.92, -7.85 (-0.05%)

Trump Signs CR, COVID-19 Relief Bills, Markets Soar To Record Highs

As 2020, the year from hell, grinds to a close, there was no slowing the Santa Claus rally as all of the major US indices closed at record highs, with the exception of the NYSE Composite, which fell short of the 14,516.73 close on December 17.

The indices took differing paths to greatness. The Dow and spiked early and made the high of the day mid-morning, slumping afterwards, while the S&P meandered along a high plain after a boost at the open. NASDAQ stocks were up, then down, eventually turning in strong gains.

Monday's rally was largely the result of President Trump signing the continuing resolution (CR) which congress handed him - and he objected to - over the holiday weekend. The $2.3 trillion measure included a nearly $900 billion COVID relief bill, extending added unemployment insurance, rent and mortgage deferrals, while doling out millions and billions to states, schools, airlines, and assorted government welfare queens.

The president did promise to send congress a redlined copy of the legislation, singling out various items in the CR, notably, most of the foreign aid packages congress uses for bribery and cash payoffs, and other pork-barrel handouts to various federal agencies and special interests. While President Trump will likely make political hay whenever congress decides to ignore his "rescissions" on spending, his objections have no weight of law, becoming effectively just for political purposes.

Democrats "will reject any rescissions" submitted by the president, said Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-NY, in a statement.

Included in the COVID relief legislation are $600 checks to Americans earning less than $75,000, with similar amounts for qualifying dependents. The president and Democrats in the House lobbied for checks of $2000, but Senate and House Republicans were against the larger amount. During its Monday session, the House passed a stand-alone bill approving $2000 checks. The measure goes to the Senate, where passage is seen as slim, though still a possibility if certain Republicans shift their votes away from the usual conservative, austere bloc.

In any case, larger checks in the future seem almost a surety, and no doubt Wall Street is banking on such an outcome. More handouts and free money from the government is net positive for stocks, as it has been for years.

With full sessions Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, only three days remain to square up positions in 2020. Friday is January 1, New Year's Day. All markets will be closed.

Tuesday morning futures are pointing to another higher open, so expect this rally to extend into the year's end and likely beyond when trading resumes Monday, January 4. Stocks generally have been bid up every January, and there seems to be no impediment other than possible objections or other surprises related to the electoral collage vote for president and vice president on January 6.

For now, all appears to be smooth sailing.

Happy Holidays!

At the Close, Monday, December 28, 2020:
Dow: 30,403.97, +204.10 (+0.68%)
NASDAQ: 12,899.42, +94.69 (+0.74%)
S&P 500: 3,735.36, +32.30 (+0.87%)
NYSE: 14,405.77, +23.27 (+0.16%)

WEEKEND WRAP: Crosshairs On Congress; Max Keiser Parses Bitcoin; Keith Neumeyer Nudges Silver Rationing

Merry Christmas.

And here's hoping for a Happy New Year in 2021, because, to put it mildly, 2020 "kinda sucked."

The trouble that continues to build up in the global economy didn't happen overnight and it didn't happen because of CV-19. Problems in the global economy took decades to develop, mostly since the closing of the gold window by then-president Richard M. Nixon in August of 1971. The pandemic narrative that's been foisted upon the world's malleable and naive general population was the catalyst. Quarantines, masks, social distancing, and lockdowns were the manifestation.

More people will be irreparably harmed or killed by what follows CV-19 than the virus itself. That's not speculation. That's a fact that is already being verified. Food lines, shortages, mental disorders, spousal abuse, violent crime, rape, and murder are all rising dramatically as government's over-reaching response is wreaking havoc upon entire nations, down to cities and towns and neighborhoods.

In the end, it is everybody's fault. We elected people we thought were trustworthy, honest, forthright: people who would do the right thing for the general good.

We were wrong.

We were wrong to trust them and their legions of civil public sector zombies to guide us into the future, to make living easier. Instead, they shafted us at every opportunity, through taxation, fees, regulations, and favoring themselves and their supporters - major financial firms, global corporate donors, elite billionaire special interests - over the desires and needs of the general public.

Over the past nearly 50 years the betrayal has been gradually accelerating to the point at which it is nearly complete and that can be seen clearly in the stolen election, the lockdowns which boosted large corporations and public employees (all of whom continue to be paid handsomely) at the expense of private business and the general public. The idleness and willful ignorance of congress in first delaying passage of needed relief legislation, then fumbling of the same at the last minute while trying to tie the CV-19 to the general government appropriations bill (the continuing resolution) was not an accident, and, even if it was, it was unavoidable.

The bickering Democrats and Republicans don't actually have any moral or economic principle guiding them other then their quest to hold onto power. But, President Trump has pushed them to the limit by denying his signature on their bills, forcing the entire congress to miss their planned year-end holiday recess, to remain in Washington, DC, until satisfactory legislation can be achieved. It's very likely that it won't be. Congress is so massively contorted and corrupted that the chances of it passing meaningful, helpful relief and spending bills are practically nil. So consumed by greed, power, and self-absorbed narcissism, this congress may prove to be the one which eventually fails to fund even itself.

With both the House and Senate set to reconvene on Monday to sort things out, their last continuing resolution expiring that night, they're likely to complete work on a very short-term bill, something along the order of two weeks of funding for the federal government, similar to the last. The president should not sign it. He should allow the government to shut down. After all, practically the entire congress has conspired to get rid of him, so he might as well get rid of them. Shut them down. Take away all their perks, their guards, their security, their staffs, their offices, their phones, close the doors to the Capitol and send them packing. We'd all be better off.

As much as millions of Americans would applaud the actions described in the preceding paragraph, we all know it won't happen. Such raucous behavior and dictatorial actions are reserved for tin-pot, third world, banana republics. But, since congress has set us on a course for third-world status and a fruity future, why not just jump-start the process? If only it were that simple.

Congress will pass horrible bills that serve their intersests - like rehabbing the Kennedy Center, gender studies for Pakistan, graft to other foreign nations - and the president will decide whether to sign them or not, or leave them for his chosen successor to sort out, if such a path is the only one left.

On January 6, Vice President Mike Pence will submit certificates of election from all 50 states from the electoral college to a joint session of congress. However, because the results from some states are still disputed due to widespread irregularities and evidence of manipulation and cheating, seven states have submitted contested certificates: ones for Joe Biden, others for President Trump.

Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico have submitted certificates for both candidates, from the governors or secretaries of state and the legislatures, separately. How this plays out is a weighty matter which needs only a few courageous members of congress to object to any states' ballot. Such objection would then trigger debate on the floor and a vote for resolution. The congress could decide for one candidate or neither. If either candidate fails to receive the necessary 270 electoral college votes, the matter would shift to the House and the Congress, where each state's delegation receives one vote, winner take all, the House choosing the president, the senate choosing vice president. It could literally go either way.

With all of that hanging in the balance, the shortened trading week prior to Christmas was rather subdued as concerned stocks and bonds, practically silent for precious metals, as oil gained in price, and Bitcoin went absolutely ballistic before, during and beyond the holy day holiday.

Major US indices were split, with the Dow and NASDAQ gaining, the S&P and NYSE declining, though none significantly, all moving less then one percent in either direction. It was truly a week spent watching and waiting, squaring up or exiting positions and getting out of town for celebratory affairs.

Treasuries were equally unmoved, the short end of the curve stuck to the zero-bound, 10-year and 30-year yields off one and four basis points, to 0.94% and 1.66%, respectively.

Light sweet crude oil fell slightly, whipsawing from the prior Friday (Dec. 18) close of $49.10 per barrel to as low as $47.02, settling out at $48.30. The national average price of gas at the pump was $2.22 as of 12/21, the highest since mid-September. Pressure on oil and gas prices will abate after the holidays, as it almost always does. Demand is low, supply high. Just watch.

Standing out amongst all asset classes was cryptocurrency, specifically, Bitcoin, which has been rallying for months, nearly without exception, as he new money continues to be adopted by consumers and institutional investors alike. Traded continuously without taking breaks for nights, weekends, or holidays, Bitcoin traded in a range above $22,000 and below $24,000 from the 17th to 23rd of December, then accelerated into and post-holiday, breaking above $24,000, $25,000 and eventually, by Sunday morning, above $28,000. Coinbase charts the price as high as $28,387 early Sunday morning beforre backing off into the $27,000 range, making new highs over and over again.

The reserve currency of the crypto universe, as some call it, has been a spectacular performer all of 2020, but just in the past month has rallied from around $16,500 to current record levels.

Gold was static, closing out at $1,883.20, down only slightly from the prior week's close of $1888.90. Likewise, silver was narrowly traded, down pennies, from $26.03 to $25.91.

Finally, here is the survey of most recent prices for commonly-purchased gold and silver items on eBay (numismatics excluded, shipping included):

Item: Low / High / Average / Median

1 oz silver coin: 33.00 / 49.00 / 40.09 / 39.98
1 oz silver bar: 29.87 / 49.95 / 38.05 / 39.00
1 oz gold coin: 1,991.20 / 2,095.00 / 2,032.98 / 2,024.22
1 oz gold bar: 1,904.20 / 2,043.20 / 1,979.75 / 1,980.17

Premiums on gold, and especially on silver, remain extraordinarily high due to supply constraint with some dealers imposing limits on size per month or week. Suppression of the price by bullion banks, naked shorting commercials, and general scurrilous behavior in futures and spot markets continues, but recently has been less ferocious and having shorter effective durations.

Daniela Cambone of Stansberry Research has been conducting interviews with some of the titans of (for lack of a better term) alternative finance, releasing the series on Youtube recently. Together, they constitute some of the best thinking and opinion of the brightest minds outside of the mainstream media, which, by definition, are less conscripted or otherwise compromised.

First, this awesome interview with Max Keiser on the future of bitcoin and the demise of central banks:

And here's Keith Neumeyer espousing the glories of silver:

At the Close, Thursday, December 24, 2020:
Dow: 30,199.87, +70.04 (+0.23%)
NASDAQ: 12,804.73, +33.62 (+0.26%)
S&P 500: 3,703.06, +13.05 (+0.35%)
NYSE: 14,382.50, -16.11 (-0.11%)

For the Week:
Dow: +20.82 (+0.07%)
NASDAQ: +49.10 (+0.38%)
S&P 500: -6.35 (-0.17%)
NYSE: -85.32 (-0.59%)

Wall Street Shrugs Off DC Drama, Mitch McConnell Faces Tough Choice On Trump Curveball

President Trump's apparent distaste for the small size of direct payments to citizens ($600) and the enormous give-aways to states and foreign countries in the package deal congress sent to him on Monday caused some shock waves at the Capitol on Wednesday, prompting House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to agree with the president on larger stimulus checks ($2000), while Republicans clearly thought the Trump curveball was a split-fingered fastball, consequently whiffing, and looking bad doing so.

Whether intentional or not, Trump's pitch back at congress put Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, in an untenable position. Bear in mind, as a backdrop to the ongoing funding debate, that it was McConnell who, from the Senate floor, recently congratulated Joe Biden on winning the presidency, an outcome vehemently opposed by Trump.

McConnell has warned Republican senators not to challenge the electoral college votes which are to be presented to congress on January 6th, and now he faces a choice of either denying larger stimulus checks to Americans or giving up his long-standing fiscally-conservative position, thereby conceding to both the president and to House and Senate Democrats. No matter which way McConnell leans, he's going to lose stature among colleagues and party loyalists, to be seen as a nothing better than a grand poseur interested only in his political position of power.

Similarly, House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, faces the same choice with regard to the Republican caucus, but he shot back at Pelosi, suggesting that while Democrats clearly favor larger stimulus checks, they are silent on the various pork expenditures that were pointed out as unacceptable by Trump.

Essentially, only President Trump will eventually come out of this mess looking good, preferring that tax dollars (and largely, borrowed dollars) be spent directly on taxpayers instead of special interests, foreign governments, states, and municipalities.

For its part, congress has once again shown its true self to the American people as 535 people who have little interest in the welfare of American citizens, always opting for political expediency over meaningful legislation.

On Wall Street, the reaction was a resounding "meh," the wizened professional bankrollers viewing the latest escapades of fiscal gerrymandering as business as usual from the political crowd.

Stocks were higher, with the exception of the NASDAQ, which posted a minor loss. Precious metals were, on the main, stagnant, while WTI crude oil prices continued to retract from recent highs above $49 per barrel, resting at $47.77 at Wednesday's close. Long-dated treasuries (10-year to 30-year) remain elevated with the short end flatlining at the zero bound, so, nothing much has changed in this shortened holiday week.

Thursday will be a shortened session for stocks, closing at 1:00 pm ET. Futures are pointing to a relatively flat open, as news flow has not provided anything startling in the macro sense and many traders have already exited for Christmas. After today, there will be only four more full sessions for the year as January 1, 2021 falls on next Friday.

How the politicians will sort out their self-engendered fiscal disaster remains up in the air, though the government will run out of money on December 28 if a continuing resolution is not conclusively agreed upon in congress and signed by the president by then.

What's riding on the dual track COVID relief and continuing resolution is which party will ultimately prevail in the eyes of Americans and whether congress sees fit to play Grinch or Scrooge with skinny stimulus checks or put on Santa Claus gear and spread the wealth to the people.

Happy Holidays!

At the Close, Wednesday, December 23, 2020:
Dow: 30,129.83, +114.32 (+0.38%)
NASDAQ: 12,771.11, -36.80 (-0.29%)
S&P 500: 3,690.01, +2.75 (+0.07%)
NYSE: 14,398.62, +77.28 (+0.54%)

Trump Punches Back On Election, COVID Relief; $600 Is "Not Enough"

Just when the grifters in congress thought it was safe to leave town after passing a $900 billion COVID relief bill attached to a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill, President Trump caught most of them wrong-footed, releasing a video overnight indicating that he would not sign off on the legislation in its current form.

Trump, in addition to releasing a 14-minute tirade on election fraud and how the country will not stand for a false Joe Biden victory, claimed congress' measly $600 to most Americans was simply not enough and demanded they return to work and pass a bill that supplies checks for $2,000 to Americans earning less than $75,000 a year.

Now, members of congress will not have the holiday they're so used to, and it's their own fault for delaying passage of not just the COVID relief bill, but stalling on and eventually tying the bill to the government funding legislation. All of this could have been done months ago, but the senators and house members were too preoccupied with politics and getting re-elected, something many of them failed to do.

In normal times, congress would have closed up shop a week before Christmas and not return until after New Year's Day. While they'll likely be back in town and in session on January 2nd, their holiday has been delayed from the planned start date of December 18th, this past Friday.

So, it's on. Trump is not going to back down on his election claims, despite the unrelenting denial by the media that Biden won when the evidence clearly proves Trump won in a landslide. He's also not going to back down on his desire for $2,000 checks to all Americans earning less than $75,000 a year, and $4,000 for married couples. Congress and the media have pushed him too far, to a point at which the election is likely to go to the House and Senate on January 6th, as competing slates of electors have been sent from Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania, with one slate for Joe Biden and another for Trump.

The drama coming out of Washington is noteworthy, historic, and demanding of the attention of every citizen. The fate of the nation resides in actions commencing over the coming three weeks.

Wall Street, meanwhile, seems relatively unconcerned over everything. Despite Tuesday's losses on the Dow, S&P and NYSE, the NASDAQ gained ground, as traders erased huge, early losses. The NASDAQ had shed some 43 points by late morning, but suddenly reversed course, as did the other indices. The Dow Industrials, in particular, never got back to unchanged and ended with a 200-point loss.

These gains and losses are just noise. Investors are mostly hanging on the sidelines, not initiating new positions or fleeing to cash or fixed income as the year comes to an end. While the politics may be entertaining and critical to the future, Wall Street sees it as an unnecessary sideshow to making money, which is their sole reason for being.

Even as another 803,000 Americans filed initial unemployment claims last week - as just reported this morning - investors appear calm as cookies, seemingly immune from political unrest and the effects of the scamdemic and the restrictions imposed by governors in most states which have shut down many small businesses and threatens the existence of many more.

Oddly enough, democrat Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer and house majority leader, Nancy Pelosi, agree with the president on larger stimulus checks. Being a shrewd negotiator, Trump may have congress over the barrel on this one, as they desperately wish to get past the COVID and funding bills, take some time off and get back to their usual wrangling oover non-issues in January, even though it's obvious that congressional actions in January are going to be anything but "business as usual."

The three videos below are essential to understanding what's really at stake in America.

Happy Holidays!

President Trump's White House video outlining election fraud, blaming Democrats and mainstream media:

Senator Rand Paul berates conservatives, Republicans, and all of congress for "monstrosity" spending bill:

Finally, President Trump excoriates congress on COVID relief bill and wasteful spending:

At the Close, Tuesday, December 22, 2020:
Dow: 30,015.51, -200.94 (-0.67%)
NASDAQ: 12,807.92, +65.40 (+0.51%)
S&P 500: 3,687.26, -7.66 (-0.21%)
NYSE: 14,321.34, -57.51 (-0.40%)