Friday, April 24, 2020

Massive Job Losses Continue, But Pace Slows

Initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 4.43 million for the week ending April 18, marking the fifth consecutive week of massive, record-shattering layoffs, and dwarfing the previous high of 695,000 in October 1982. However, on a positive note, the latest tally is the third week of declines in the number of initial claims since the 6.87 million claims during the week of March 27.

During the Great Recession in 2008-09, total job losses were 8.8 million over 25 months versus the current 5-week total of 26.5 million initial claims. The unprecedented flood in claims is the leading edge of a tsunami of negative economic statistics that reflect the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and the drastic policy reactions implemented to contain the spread.


Sales of new single-family homes tumbled 15.4 percent in March to a 627,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate. Sales are now down 9.5 percent from a year ago. Sales fell in all four regions tallied: sales plunged 41.5 percent in the Northeast, putting sales 4.0 percent below year-ago levels while sales plummeted 38.5 percent in the West and were 30.8 percent below the year-ago level. The Midwest region saw an 8.1 percent decline as the South, the largest region by volume, posted a 0.8 percent pullback. From a year ago, sales are down 9.2 percent in the Midwest but up 1.3 percent in the South.

Total inventory of new single-family homes for sale increased 2.8 percent to 333,000 in March, pushing the months' supply (inventory times 12 divided by the annual selling rate) up to 6.4, up 23.1 percent from February and 10.3 percent above the year-ago level.

Since home buying is often a long process, the sales recorded for March were likely initiated before the worst of the outbreak. It is probable that home sales over coming months may see further sharp declines.

The outbreak of COVID-19 and government policy responses have resulted in massive distortions to economic activity including a sharp rise in layoffs, plunging consumer confidence and retail spending, and declining housing market activity. Expect extraordinarily weak economic reports over the next several months.

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Oil: Troubles are Just Beginning, But Won't Last Forever

Wall Street tumbled for a second straight day on Tuesday as a collapse in U.S. oil prices and glum forecasts by companies worsened fears of a deep economic downturn.

All 11 S&P 500 sector indexes fell 1.6% or more, with energy sliding for the seventh time in eight sessions a day after the WTI contract crashed below zero as oil traders ran out of storage for May deliveries.

With the collapse spilling into June futures contracts, equity investors became wary of the extent of the economic damage from sweeping lockdown measures that have halted business activity and sparked millions of layoffs.

The May Crude Oil Contract took a destructive hit April 20 as the contract traded into negative territory. Crude Oil plunged to all-time lows surpassing levels not seen since 1983. A variety of factors contributed to the heavy selling pressure and the lack of demand remains a major concern. The Light Sweet Crude Oil May 2020, (CLK20) contract traded well below the $0 price point, dropping as low as -$40.32 per barrel and finally closing at a dismal -$37.63 yesterday.

What does this mean for the trader? As prices dropped below $0 the long holder of a CLK20 contract would be required to pay in order to close their position and relinquish their obligation to buy 1,000 barrels of oil per contract. This means at the contracts daily low from yesterday, long holders were willing to pay $40,320 in order to avoid taking delivery of 1,000 barrels of oil.

What caused this severe move? Lack of demand caused by COVID-19 remains the driving force of the turmoil in the crude oil contract. Production has well outpaced the demand and caused significant excess supply.

Stockpiles at the Cushing Oklahoma delivery point have risen by 48% since the end of February, currently at 55 million barrels according to the Energy Information Administration report released last week. Cushing is quickly reaching their carrying capacity of 76 million barrels.

Crude oil production was down slightly week over week by -0.8% to 12.3 million barrels per day seen in data released on April 10. However, U.S. production reached an all-time high during February at 13.1 million bpd, contributing to this oversupply.

Data released last week from Baker Hughes showed that as of April 17 the United States has 438 active oil rigs, down by 66 rigs since their last report. This should be favorable for the bull camp but even with production decreases demand cannot meet these supply levels.

Last week, US Oil Fund ETF (USO) initiated its monthly roll from the front month expiring contract to the upcoming June expiration month. USO held nearly 25% of all outstanding CLK20 contracts and through their routine roll the fund was forced to close positions at levels that continued to drop dramatically. This fury of selling pressure created a snowball effect of an already vulnerable crude oil contract.

Trading on the US Oil Fund ETF was halted this morning in response the significant downside move.

COVID-19-related business closures and stay-at-home orders around the globe have sharply reduced demand for oil, and U.S. oil producers can’t cap their oil wells quickly enough to reduce supply to match lower demand. Oil storage facilities around the country are nearing full capacity, so producers are having pay to get rid of their oil.

While there were complications surrounding the expiration of the May crude oil futures contract, the cash market was the main source of the volatility. Oil scheduled to be delivered in June also fell, sliding 16% to about $21 a barrel.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has forecast global oil demand to fall by more than 23 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2020, or about 23%. But implied demand in the U.S. has dropped even faster, with refineries cutting back liquid fuel production by more than 40%, according to the April 10th EIA report.

In the U.S. oil market, major oil companies plan big production cuts, net oil imports continue to fall sharply, and new drilling is coming to a halt. However, it will take some time to implement production cuts, and U.S. oil storage capacity is quickly being filled by the excess supply. U.S. storage tanks will be full in less than two months if the pace of inventory increase continues, according to the EIA.

Saudi Arabia recently made a deal with 23 oil-producing countries to cut production by nearly 10 million barrels per day. However, even that will still be well short of what will be needed to balance the global oil market.

What should investors do?

The price of oil will continue to experience heightened volatility until supply and demand can be balanced. While oil companies are dealing with significant short-term inventory issue, energy company stocks are heavily influenced by the future price of oil—that is, one to two years out. Those prices are still positive, which helps explain why energy company stock prices did not fall by as much as one might have expected today.

Still, with oil prices well below profitable levels, the impact of COVID-19 on energy companies is expected to be enormous, particularly for smaller exploration & production and oil services companies. In a recent Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank survey, nearly 40% of oil companies said they would be insolvent within a year if oil prices were to stay at or below $30 per barrel.1 Larger oil companies—while still likely to see sharp financial losses—are in relatively better shape. The biggest companies have greater ability to make cost cuts, as well as access to credit lines, which can limit insolvency risk.

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

It's a Crazy, Crazy World Out There


Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Cheers Oil Futures Price Plunge, Then Deletes Tweet: “You absolutely love to see it,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, responding to a tweet on the unprecedented crude oil price drop resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

Sixty percent of Democrats blame Trump for the coronavirus: Poll: A majority of Democrats blame President Trump for the nationwide outbreak of the coronavirus, according to a new poll. A total of 60% of Democrats reported that Trump is more to blame than China and the World Health Organization for the pandemic, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey. Seventy-one percent of Republicans said they do not blame Trump.

NYC Mayor Shocked To Hear Newly Released “Empty The Jails” Inmates Commit New CrimesThe “empty the jails” initiative has really been picking up steam in cities around the country. This is particularly true of New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio authorized the release of roughly 1,500 inmates, including more than 650 from Riker’s Island. This was ostensibly done to avoid a massive outbreak of COVID-19 in the jails. So what did the newly released inmates do with their newfound freedom? Some of them simply went home to wait out the pandemic, I suppose. But according to the New York Post, at least fifty of them were back in jail in a matter of days, having committed a fresh round of crimes.

TOP 16: Journalists Coldly Claim Trump and GOP Want Thousands to Die: Liberal journalists and hosts exhibited little sympathy for protestors wanting to go back to work as they belittled them as zombies and a “doomsday cult.” The President and conservatives that shared their concerns were derided as “reckless and “dangerous.”

NBC Fears ‘Environmental Benefits’ of Pandemic ‘May Not Last’: On Saturday, NBC’s Today show worried that all of the “environmental benefits” of the coronavirus pandemic “may not last” after the crisis is over. While devoting a full report to touting “cleaner air and cleaner water” due to less human activity amid global economic shutdowns, the coverage cautioned that it could all be lost “if we return to business as usual.”


Monday, April 20, 2020

The Great Shutdown: We're in a Recession (Depression?)

The collapse of oil

The front-month May WTI contract plunged as much as 23% overnight to under $15/bbl, the lowest level since March 1999, after losing almost a fifth of its value last week. Production cuts agreed by top producers are barely making a dent in the demand destruction wrought by COVID-19 as the world rapidly runs out of places to store crude. While the May contract expires tomorrow, adding to reasons for prices to crater, the June WTI contract also fell more than 7% to $23/bbl (the spread is usually around $0.50 - it's now around $8-10). Besides the crude slump, U.S. stock index futures are off by 1% as investors look ahead to a busy week for earnings (nearly a fifth of S&P 500 companies report) and gauge the early financial effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Retail Sales

US retail sales fell a record 8.7% in March, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The previous record slump for any month was a 3.8% fall in November 2008.

The decline in retail sales came as the coronavirus pandemic and strict bans of nonessential business froze consumer wallets. Clothing and accessories led the fall, down 50.5% from the previous month. Furniture sales dropped nearly 27%, restaurant sales fell 26.5%, and motor vehicles and parts slipped 25.6%. Sporting goods, hobby, and book stores, gas stations, and other miscellaneous retailers also posted double-digit declines in just one month.

Food and beverage stores were one bright spot, gaining 25.6% from February, as US consumers stocked up on supplies for the coronavirus lockdown.

Industrial Production

Industrial production and manufacturing output posted their largest declines this month since 1946, the Federal Reserve said in a Wednesday report. Manufacturing output fell 6.3% in March, while total industrial production fell 5.4%.

The decline was led by motor vehicle output, which slid 28% in March, according to the report. Utilities fell 3.9%, while mining output slumped 2% in the month. Across market groups, all recorded declines in March, the report showed.

Unemployment



US weekly jobless claims were 5.2 million for the week ending April 11, the Labor Department said in a Thursday report. Claims declined slightly from the previous week, when 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance.

While this showed a positive declining trend, it brought the four-week total of displaced American workers filing for unemployment to 22.03 million. That means that coronavirus-related layoffs have effectively erased the 22 million jobs that the US economy added since the post-Great Recession recovery starting in mid-2009.

Housing Starts

US housing starts plummeted by 22.3% in March, the Commerce Department announced Thursday. The decline is the largest since 1984.

It shows that the housing market has deteriorated rapidly amid the coronavirus pandemic. Homebuilders had been operating at decade highs as recently as January before the global health crisis forced business closures and outsized job loss, and signaled a likely recession would soon hit the US.

Why are we still on lockdown?

Across the nation, state and local governments have used the Wuhan virus scare to take draconian measures to curtail civil liberties. Some states, like the fascist paradise of Gauleiter Gretchen, have forbidden the sale of garden seeds and child passenger safety seats as non-essential. She has forbidden Michiganders from traveling from one residence in the state to another residence. Over Easter, states and municipalities across the country directly banned religious services. Not merely services in a church, but services in a parking lot. Curfews have been imposed because, I guess, viruses are more active at night. California is filling in skate parks.

There are plenty of other draconian policies that are not necessary.

None of these policies, none, not a single one, make you safer or prevent the spread of the virus. They are nothing more than government-ordained virtue signaling. It is not sufficient that you don’t become infected with Wuhan virus or that you observe a correct treatment protocol if you are infected, you must do it in the correct way and you can’t be allowed to enjoy anything while the mandated lockdown period goes on. To be effective, the policy must make you as miserable as possible. What all these policies have in common is that they are calculated to impress upon you that your ability to move, to shop, to travel, to work, to wear what you wish, to engage in legal activities, to congregate, to worship or just to f*** off a bit are all dependent upon some level of government deciding that no emergency exists.

Now that we’ve eliminated a good swath of the Bill of Rights with barely a whisper from the citizenry and with total cooperation of the media, ostensibly to protect us all from virus, do you really think government, having learned this lesson, is going to stop using this power any more than a tiger who has tasted human flesh is ever going to forego it again?

Right now we are in a perfect storm of fear and cowardice and stupidity. The modelers who drove this bullsh** frenzy desperately need to not be exposed as the buffoons they are. Politicians and the media who have fanned the flame need a body count to justify their abuse of power. Corrupt governors are trying to turn this crisis into a profit center to shore up budgets that are now dangerously out of kilter because they’ve destroyed the economies of their states. And we are all going along with it because we are either too scared to see this for what it is or we’re too cowardly to say enough is enough and f*** these people and their face masks and ‘social distancing.’

In the county where I live, with a population of 500,000, there are less than 150 confirmed cases. Yet we're in total lockdown, an environment which will take years to recover. Many small businesses will close up forever. But people are safe from the virus. More people died from the flu. 


Sunday, April 19, 2020

Why the News Media Has Failed Us in this Crisis

Watching the media deal with the daily White House briefings reminds the country that we have never had journalism of this low character before—not in the acrimony over the Founding, not in the furor during the Civil War, not even in the age of yellow journalism at the turn of the 20th century.

Reporters do not wish to transmit knowledge to the public that might aid in confronting the virus. They do not even wish to clarify murky statements from public officials to ensure Americans know exactly what the government wants them to do.

Instead, journalists during White House briefings fixate on two agendas.

One is to goad the president into saying something sloppy, by repeatedly suggesting that in reacting to the virus, he was in error, that he is cruel and heartless, or that he is dangerous. That gotcha obsession explains why the media can call Trump a xenophobe and racist for issuing a travel ban against China—contrary to the earlier advice of WHO, the Centers for Disease Control, the media, and the entire Democratic Party hierarchy—then silently support it. It explains why they then use doctored Chinese data and propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party to convince Americans that China—a nation that lied about the origins, spread, and nature of the virus—is admirably doing a
better job in containing the virus than is their own country. Even the media cannot keep straight their own anti-Trump gymnastics.

If evidence convinces Trump to let the public know that hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin are efficacious in treating patients infected with coronavirus, then reporters will seek to persuade Americans that such off-label uses have no utility and are dangerous—even if they have to stoop to find some nut who drank fish-tank cleaner, clearly marked unfit for human consumption, to argue that a nonpotable chloroquine derivative cleaning agent provides proof of “Dr.” Trump’s deadly ignorance.

But the White House press obsesses over a second agenda, too. It must always prove that previously respected figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, once embraced by the liberal media in their pre-Trump days, either are in revolt against their doltish boss or brain-washed into obsequious enslavement to the president. Often the media advances both antithetical scenarios near simultaneously.

The third rail for the media is that Fauci and Birx are empirical and sound mostly politically disinterested. They seek to provide Trump with scientific data about the virus to balance his incoming streams of financial, economic, military, and cultural information.

When Trump accepts their advice over objections from other advisors with competing national concerns, the two feel it was for the good of the country. When he demurs, they press their arguments as advocates of public health. And when they rarely lose an argument the two concede the president has to balance dozens of existential concerns.

In other words, it would be hard, for anyone other than the current press corps, on Monday to paint Fauci and Birx as frustrated scientists at the mercy of a moron who refuses to listen to science, while on Tuesday writing off both as Trump toadies who have joined the forces of darkness.

But that is currently the schizophrenic state of the American media. The only constant is that whatever Trump advocated, they are against, even if lives are at stake. And whatever Trump policy seems to be working for the good of the country, they either deny or ignore it.

Another irony: While the current media is the logical culmination of the liberal biases of the more polite leftwing domination of network and print media of the late twentieth century, it is now also far more vulnerable to exposure and ridicule. After all, it was progressive Silicon Valley’s creation of the Internet website and social media that have allowed truth to emerge past even media filters, truth that has largely exposed the media as incompetent, meanspirited, and increasingly irrelevant.

Pelosi Becomes Increasingly Dangerous to Nation, People

Update: April 19, 2020:
Pelosi Is Pushing a Coronavirus Lie Even Though It's Been Debunked

by Victor David Hanson, PhD
Stanford University

(April 16, 2020) As the COVID-19 outbreak begins to reach its zenith, it remains unclear whether the measures taken to stem its tide will prove sufficient, insufficient, or an overreaction. What is certain, however, is that a number of individuals and entities have behaved shamefully and demonstrated no capacity for leadership or usefulness in this moment.

Nancy Pelosi: Gone are the mythologies that Nancy Pelosi was a pragmatic liberal voice of reason among the otherwise polarizing American Left, honed after years of paying her dues to the Democratic Party, as the mother of five dutifully ascended the party’s cursus honorum.

It does not matter whether her political and ethical decline was a result of her deep pathological hatred of Donald Trump. Who cares that her paranoia arose over the so-called “Squad” that might align with socialist Bernie Sanders to mesmerize Democrats to march over the cliff into McGovern-like oblivion? All concede that very few octogenarians have the stamina and clarity to put in the 16-hour work-days and transcontinental travel required by a Speaker of the House.

Instead, all that matters is that for a nation in extremis she is now puerile, even unhinged—and increasingly dangerous.

In retrospect, the public will remember how in fear and confusion she reversed course to spearhead impeachment, outsourced the task in the House of Representatives to its most incompetent and perfidious members — Representatives Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — and wasted weeks of the country’s precious energy and time as it was on the cusp of an epidemic.

Pelosi then quickly weaponized the viral crisis in hopes that COVID-19 could do what Robert Mueller’s dream team and impeachment had not done — destroy the administration of Donald Trump before the November 2020 election. Only such an obsession explains why any sober politico would damn Trump as culpable in January for ignoring the viral dangers, while nearly a month after his necessary and controversial travel ban of January 31—that stopped perhaps 7,000 Chinese citizens entering California per day, some on direct flights from Wuhan—she was doing a photo-op tour to urge the public to get out and shop in San Francisco’s crowded Chinatown: “That’s what we’re trying to do today is to say everything is fine here."

Such a crazy juxtaposition is not just politics or hypocrisy—it’s insanity. The night before an impeached Trump was acquitted in the Senate, and five days after Trump had controversially stopped incoming Chinese visitors, Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address before a national television audience, a level of spiteful vitriol not seen in the U.S. Congress since the years leading up to the Civil War.

When the Congress finally agreed to call a truce and pass a bipartisan “rescue bill” to stave off a depression and deliver some relief to millions of unemployed, Pelosi single-handedly delayed passage to insert irrelevant progressive treats into the authorization—until she was reprimanded by her own party to cease and desist.

She is now, in the middle of an epidemic, insanely talking about a “truth” impeachment-light commission to investigate Trump. She is absolutely clueless of the nihilistic circus that would ensue when her own previous on-the record statements, the parasitic investment practices of U.S. senators of both parties, the bizarre behavior of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, the empty January braggadocio of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Joe Biden’s smearing of the Trump travel ban would be fully aired.

Does she have any idea that by forcing Trump to “own” the virus—predicated on the notion of trusting in bleak but widely criticized Armageddon modeling—she is greenlighting Trump to take credit for the response, especially if coronavirus proves in the end comparable to the 60 million infected, roughly 1 million hospitalized, and 15,000-60,000 dead in the prior influenza epidemics of 2009 or 2017?

It is difficult to find one thing Pelosi has said or done that has not made the country worse off since the virus officially hit our shores in late January.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Killing the Economy to Kill a Virus

by Gary D. Halbert

While this may not come as a surprise, many US small businesses that are shuttered right now face a financial disaster. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly clear that millions of small businesses may not be able to reopen their doors when the economic lockdown ends.

Karen Mills, the previous head of the US Small Business Administration (SBA), said on April 4 that “20%, even 30%, of small businesses could fail even in a good scenario.” She warned that without immediate support to buffer the cash flows of stalled businesses waiting for the economy to reopen, it is a matter of days until millions of companies begin to shut their doors permanently – driving unemployment up significantly and sending the economy into a tailspin.

Small businesses make up over 90% of US businesses, employ almost half of the American workforce (over 60 million people), create over 60% of new jobs and account for almost half of GDP. If 20%-30% of small businesses go under just ahead, we’re looking at a Depression!

It remains to be seen if the new “Paycheck Protection Program,” included in the latest $2.2 trillion stimulus bill, can ramp up fast enough and expand sufficiently to avert this small business crisis. 

Last Thursday, the Labor Department reported that another 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance in the latest week, following a revised 6.9 million in the previous week and 3.3 million in the week before that. In the last four weeks alone, new claims for unemployment benefits topped 17 million, the worst in American history including the Great Depression. Put differently, we have now lost 10% of the American workforce in just a month! And, unfortunately, the job losses are far from over.

At the same time the jobs report was released last Thursday morning, the Federal Reserve announced a stunning new stimulus program which will provide up to $2.3 trillion in additional lending to small- and medium-sized businesses, state and local governments and even consumers. That will bring the Fed’s balance sheet to an unprecedented $5+ trillion.

Upon making the unprecedented announcement of an additional $2.3 trillion, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the Federal Reserve stands ready to do whatever is necessary to stabilize the economy and the financial markets. Specifically, he said:

“The Fed’s role is to provide as much relief and stability as we can during this period of constrained economic activity, and our actions today will help ensure that the eventual recovery is as vigorous as possible."

Fast Facts Regarding Small Businesses & Role They Play

Before I get into the specifics of the financial crisis facing US small businesses that are shuttered, let’s look at some fast facts about American companies with 500 or fewer employees. There were just over 30 million small businesses at the end of 2018, according to the US Commerce Department.

In recent years, there have been over 600,000 new small businesses started every year – although that number is expected to fall significantly in 2020 due to the recession. Some 60%-65% of all new jobs are created annually by small businesses.

Over two-thirds (22 million) of small businesses are sole proprietors, meaning there is typically only one employee, the owner. Over half of small businesses (52%) are home-based. Of these companies, the average annual salary was $50,347 in 2018.

75% to 80% of small businesses are self-financed, meaning the owner put up his/her own money to start the business. Only about 16% started the business with loans from banks, family members, friends, etc.

The vast majority of small businesses are owned by white men, according to the Commerce Department. Just over one-third of small businesses (38.7%) are owned by women and this number is growing rapidly. Less than one-third of small businesses (8 million) are owned by minorities.

Over 71% of small businesses reported they had a website in 2018, and most that didn’t said they had plans for one soon. Of those that had a website, 71% said they use social media to attract more customers.

Finally, if you think it’s easy to start a successful small business, it isn’t! The Small Business Administration reports that 20% fail in year one, 30% fail by year two and 50% fail by year five. Starting a new small business is very risky but, nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of American entrepreneurs try it each and every year (2020 notwithstanding).

Over Half of Small Businesses Can’t Survive Past 1-3 Months
In March of this year, Goldman Sachs surveyed over 1,500 small business owners with a variety of questions. Most importantly, virtually all of the respondents (96%) expressed serious concerns over the coronavirus crisis and the economic lockdown. That’s not surprising.

However, what was surprising was the fact over half of small businesses surveyed (51%) reported they have only 1-3 months of cash reserves to carry them through the lockdown and the recession we’re now in.

Over half (53%) said their employees were not able to work from home. Only 13% said they were confident about their contingency plan to meet the needs of their business during this troubling period in the economy. Here are the highlights of the small business survey:



Let’s pay particular attention to the last factoid in the graphic above, bearing in mind that the Goldman Sachs survey of small businesses happened in March. At that time, over two-thirds (67%) of small business owners were unsure about how to apply for emergency funding under the new Paycheck Protection Program.

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a loan designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll. The SBA will forgive the loans if all employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the money is used for payroll, rent, mortgage interest or utilities associated with the business.

There is evidence that a lot of small business owners did learn how to apply for PPP loans over the last month based upon the huge amount of applications that were filed in the first five days the program was available earlier this month. A spokesman for the SBA stated on Thursday of last week that more loan applications were received in those first five days than they normally receive in an entire year!

Then last Saturday morning, the SBA reported that banks had approved more than 725,000 loans for the $349 billion available through the PPP, totaling over $182 billion – over half the money currently available. That's progress, for sure, coming a week after business owners could first begin applying, a launch marked by chaos and confusion. But the problem is, most of the approved applicants have not received any money yet and don’t know when they’ll get it.

A new website, CovidLoanTracker, is designed to track PPP loans to small businesses, but as of Saturday, it reported that only 2% of approved applicants have received funding. Surely the process will speed up significantly between now and the end of the month, but that remains to be seen.

Then there is the issue of the PPP running out of money. President Trump has asked Congress for an additional $250 billion right away, but Republicans and Democrats couldn’t immediately agree on how the money should be allocated. We’ll see how that turns out.

But the bottom line is: Many small businesses are out of time and money now! They simply cannot wait several more weeks or longer to get their loans approved and hold on until the money arrives. Hopefully, the PPP process will speed up in time to save the day, but we’ll have to see, especially with Congress bickering over additional funding for this critical program.

If more progress is not made really fast, I unfortunately fear that millions of small businesses may never reopen. I hope I am wrong! As I stated in the introduction above, if we lose 20-30% of US small businesses just ahead, that’s a Depression.

Goldman Sachs Now Says Stock Market Has Bottomed

Wall Street behemoth Goldman Sachs abruptly reversed its previously bearish forecast for the US stock market yesterday. Previously, Goldman had forecast the S&P 500 Index, currently trading just above 2,700, would fall to 2,000 (a new low) before bottoming.

Goldman now predicts the S&P 500 Index will rise to 3,000 by year-end, a gain of about 8% from current levels. Goldman now believes the US stock market bottomed on March 23 when the S&P 500 Index fell to 2,237.

Goldman cited the fact that the Fed promised $2.3 trillion more in stimulus last week and new evidence that the coronavirus crisis appears to have peaked, or at least slowed its rate of growth. Let’s hope Goldman’s latest bold forecast is correct! 


Monday, April 13, 2020

Same Ol' Shit, Just a Different Day

Congressional stalemate deepens as Pelosi, Schumer say they won’t budge on coronavirus funding demands: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Monday that they won’t agree to the Trump administration’s insistence on more money for small business loans unless their demands are met for additional funding for hospitals, state and local governments and food stamp recipients.

Nancy Pelosi Reveals Plan To Steal 2020 Election: In an interview with CBS News, Pelosi claimed that not supporting vote-by-mail is “not what our founders had in mind” and claimed that the effort would be something Democrats focus on in the next bill…

'Absolute chaos' as businesses try to tap into rescue funds:  NEW YORK (AP) — Desperate small business owners who hoped for a quick government lifeline to help them survive the coronavirus crisis are still without funds, instead battling red tape, wary banks and swamped computer systems.

Michigan Gov. Whitmer facing backlash for going to 'radical extremes' with stay-at-home order: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is facing backlash following an expansion to her state's stay-at-home order that prohibits not just public gatherings, but private ones as well -- regardless of size or family ties -- in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Whitmer’s order says residents are now prohibited from visiting family or friends, with exceptions for providing care, as the state currently has the third-highest number of COVID-19 cases with upwards of 21,000.

Coronavirus and socialism – AOC and friends peddling false cure for what ails US: Many times, when Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar talk, it’s their lips that move but the voice of Karl Marx that comes pouring out...The coronavirus outbreak is a perfect example of why the government should not be charged with managing even greater parts of the economy.

MSM “Speculation”: Fauci On The Way Out After Trump RetweetReading the future in RTs! Reuters, the New York Times, and other national media outlets report that Donald Trump has fallen out with Anthony Fauci on the basis of this tweet from the president.

Hysterics on CNN: ‘People Are Dying' Because Trump 'Acting a Fool': CNN’s so-called “Reliable Sources” was known for being a place where professional journalism was shunned in favor of hysterics and theatrics. During Sunday’s edition of the show, frequent guest David Zurawik, a media critic for The Baltimore Sun newspaper, was unhinged from the get-go as he blamed the over 20,000 Wuhan Virus deaths in the U.S. on President Trump, who was “acting a fool” according to him.

Bill Maher Slams Liberals Trying to Shield China Over COVID-19On Friday's Real Time show on HBO, host Bill Maher delivered another of his lectures against his fellow liberals on the issue of political correctness as he argued that they should stop trying to shield China in its culpability for allowing the deadly COVID-19 virus to get out by claiming that valid criticisms of China are racist.


Saturday, April 11, 2020

What to Read this Weekend

Chronology: Trump Was On Top Of Coronavirus While Biden Mocked: No media or Nancy Pelosi false narratives or phony Joe Biden campaign ad can change the truth about the real chronology of the coronavirus.

The FDA Graveyard: Absurd Bureaucratic strictures are hindering the efforts to fight Covid-19
Americans are dying daily because of FDA regulations that have repeatedly delayed testing for the Covid-19 virus and impeded the manufacture and deployment of masks and other protective equipment.

Pelosi Says Congress Will NOT Reopen In April, Warns Trump Not To Restart Economy: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told Politico Friday that she is considering keeping the House of Representatives out of session longer than the April 20th return-from-recess date, and may not bring Congress back until well into May — and she’s warned President Donald Trump to keep the country under lockdown even longer.

Not everyone is getting a $1,200 coronavirus stimulus check: Not everyone qualifies for one of the payments, which will be distributed under a new federal law that aims to give Americans a quick cash infusion and help the economy recover from the devastation wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Virus-Panicked Liberal Gun Buyers Are Getting Angry When They Discover Their Own Gun Control Laws: My friend’s father owns a gun range near me and she said he’s seen a huge amount of liberals coming in to purchase weapons in recent weeks. How does he know they’re liberals? “They’re shocked to discover they can’t just walk out of the store with a gun.”

Texas to Ease Copronavirus Lockdown: Republican governor of Texas Greg Abbott said he plans to allow businesses to reopen with an executive order that would lift the coronavirus lockdown in a "safe" way. Abbott said Texas, which would be the world's 11th largest economy it were an independent country, could find a balance between personal safety and economic security.

Don’t Let Liberals Federalize Elections: You have no constitutional “right” to vote by mail. You have no constitutional “right” to vote six days after an election is over. Nor do you have any “right” to censor information related to an election. Not even during a pandemic.

As Trump Battles Coronavirus, Democrats Plot More Partisan Probes: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has spent the last three-plus years investigating President Trump, and each time she’s come up empty. But she’s going to give it another go, this time as Americans are locked down while the coronavirus sweeps across the nation.


Friday, April 10, 2020

Avoid These Five Financial Errors

1. Not having an emergency fund. The goal should be six months expenses, but start with $1,000 as a minimum.

2. Not having an automated savings system. Don't save what's left over. That rarely works. Pay yourself first, with an automated system.

3. Not having health insurance. While it looks like an unnecessary expense, you must have some type of catastrophic coverage.  Consider an HSA as a minimum.

4. Buying things to impress other people. Don't do this. Develop an attitude that doesn't wrap your self-worth in material things.

5. Not having an investing education. This should be a continuous, life-long learning process.

https://youtu.be/s8mgyuUPRZY


Pelosi Claims There's No Data to Support Small Business Aid

by Emily Zanotti
Daily Wire

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the architect behind Democrats’ decision to block $250 billion in additional funding to small businesses suffering because of coronavirus-related lockdowns, now says there’s “no data” to support an influx of emergency cash, even as banks are reaching their lending capacity due to unprecedented demand for aid.

Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) moved to block Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) from passing the emergency bill by unanimous consent on Thursday morning. McConnell had hoped that the need for assistance would be evident enough that he would not have to call Congress back from recess to vote on the measure, but Democrats disagreed.

McConnell was left incensed, noting that the $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program fund, which guarantees entrepreneurs with fewer than 500 employees low-interest loans that will be forgiven if they use the money to keep workers on the payroll, is “on track to be depleted by the end of this month.”

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin reportedly told McConnell the funds are going fast and, according to Fast Company, some banks, including Wells Fargo, have actually reached their lending capacity after loaning out a shocking $10 billion in just the first week of the program — and Wells Fargo limited its loans to small businesses with 50 or fewer employees.

“Given the exceptionally high volume of requests we have already received, we will not be able to accept any additional requests for a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program,” the company said in a statement. “We will review all expressions of interest submitted by customers via our online form through April 5 and provide updates in the coming days.”

In her weekly news conference, Pelosi made the shocking claim that American small businesses are not in desperate need of help, claiming there’s “no data” to support expanding the Paycheck Protection Program.

“There is no data as to why we need the rest when there are outstanding needs,” Pelosi said, calling McConnell’s decision to bring the emergency measure to the floor a “stunt.”

But Pelosi told Anderson Cooper later that the PPP “really needs money right away, we know that, because of the demand,” according to the Hill, and acknowledged that “the $350 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) included in the last round of coronavirus relief is insufficient to meet the demand.”

What she wants from McConnell, though, is a guarantee that the funds will help only specific Americans, according to identity, and that any new relief package will provide additional funding to cities, states, and health care systems that just received an influx of cash under the third coronavirus relief package, negotiated and passed in late March. Healthcare systems received $150 billion under the CARES act and cities received $340 billion.

“When the secretary called this morning to ask for the additional funds, we were like, we want to make sure that the program is administered in a way that does not solidify inequality in how people have access to capital,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi and Democrats want money earmarked for “community-based financial institutions that serve farmers, family, women, minority and veteran-owned small businesses and nonprofits in rural, tribal, suburban and urban communities across our country” — requirements that would complicate the first-come, first-served nature of the program with further government checks and red tape.

Of course, Pelosi and the Democratic caucus are hard at work on a separate relief package of their own, thought to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 trillion.

Thursday, April 9, 2020

A Roaring Giant or Crying Baby?

by Victor David Hanson
Stanford University

Marshal Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto commanded the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II until he was killed in April 1943. Despite the dialogue from the 1970 WWII film "Tora! Tora! Tora!" Yamamoto probably did not say in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

But Yamamoto likely either wrote or said something similar: "I can run wild for six months ... after that, I have no expectation of success."

Yamamoto summed up a general feeling among the Japanese admirals that the huge industrial capacity of the U.S. -- which had been asleep during the Great Depression -- along with the righteous anger and frenzy of an aroused American democracy would ensure the destruction of the Japanese Empire in short order.

They were right.

In 1940, there were fewer than 500,000 service members in the U.S. military. At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, that number had grown to nearly 2.2 million. By 1945, more than 12 million Americans were in the armed services. It was an astonishing mobilization for a nation of fewer than 140 million people.

The U.S. started the war with seven fleet aircraft carriers and one escort carrier. By war's end, it was deploying 27 fleet and 72 escort carriers.

The U.S. Navy ended the war with a fleet eight times larger than it was at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The American armada would become larger in total tonnage than all the world's fleets in 1945 combined.

More incredible, by the end of 1944, the American gross domestic product exceeded the economic output of all the major belligerents on both sides of World War II put together: the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy and Germany.

As we struggle to defeat the coronavirus, an aroused America is talking grandly of restructuring the U.S. economy.

Politicians promise that major industries -- pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, rare earths, military technologies -- will return home to create millions of new jobs and better protect the population in times of crisis.

There are other vows to recalibrate our relationship with China to ensure that when the next successor to SARS and COVID-19 hits, American lives will not be jeopardized by the duplicity of the Chinese government. At the beginning of the outbreak, Beijing hid the origins, nature and transmissibility of the virus, then lied about its supposedly brilliant control of the epidemic.

The American public is already asking tough questions.

Does the U.S. really need almost 15,000 people flying in from China each day? At a time when American students owe $1.5 trillion in student loans, it is smart to have some 360,000 Chinese students enrolled in U.S. colleges? Is it safe to fund hundreds of labs on university campuses that conduct joint research with Chinese academics?

Does the United States really wish to curtail fracking, which has made it the largest producer of natural gas in the world and ensured that a quarantined America has plenty of fuel?

Is it prudent to release precious irrigation water out to the Pacific Ocean when California is the richest and most diverse producer of food in America?

Post-virus America can awake from this epidemic and economic shutdown in one of two different ways.

One, we can wake up as we did on December 8, 1941, to ensure that Americans control their own fundamentals of life -- food, fuel, medicine and strategic industries -- without dependency on illiberal regimes. The military can refocus our defenses against nuclear missiles, cyberwarfare and biological weapons. On the home front, diversity is fine, but in a national crisis as serious as this one, the unity that arises from confidence in shared American citizenship saves lives.

Our other choice is to keep bickering and suffering amnesia, remaining as vulnerable as we were in the past.

We can scapegoat and play the blame game. We can talk not of an America in crisis, but of the virus' effects on particular groups. We can decide that it is mean or even racist and xenophobic to hold the Chinese government accountable for its swath of viral destruction -- and so we will not.

We can ridicule the idea of Americans again making their own things and call it protectionism or economic chauvinism. We can conduct endless congressional inquiries about who said what and when about the virus, and perhaps reopen impeachment.

Or we can have bipartisan commissions decide how best to return key industries to the U.S., prepare for the next epidemic, and pay down the enormous debt we have incurred to defeat COVID-19.

In other words, the choice is ours whether America awakens as a roaring giant or a crying baby.

Monday, April 6, 2020

4 Simple Steps to Save the Planet --- And Destroy the Human Race

By Hayden Ludwig
The Heartland Institute

Population control is back in the news—and for Progressives, what’s old is new again.

In November, a group of 11,000 signatories calling itself the Alliance of World Scientists released a dire public letter urging the return of population pseudoscience by declaring “clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency.

“The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected,” according to these experts, whose ranks are rife with psychologists, computer consultants, sociologists, and about 1,100 PhD students. “It is more severe than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity.” Left unchecked, global warming could “potentially [make] large areas of Earth uninhabitable.”

In other words, it’s a typical news day for the climageddon folks, who have ratcheted up the alarmism so much recently that Oxford dictionary made “climate emergency” its 2019 word of the year.

But don’t worry, they have the solution—and it only involves surrendering your car, your lifestyle, your dinner, and your children.

Big Green is a big business. With billions of dollars in research grants at stake it’s little wonder that liberal academics use ever-worsening scare tactics to justify their unscientific assertions. After all, in how many industries can you be called an “expert” after being wrong in every prediction for the last 40 years?

Hence the transparently ridiculous claim that the world has “just over a decade to get things under control” before climate change kills us all, hyperventilated by such luminaries as Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). These politicians aren’t scientists, nor are they even serious policymakers; yet their histrionics are tacitly endorsed by the supposed experts in climatology.

In any other field—like nuclear power—that would be considered unconscionable. Instead, we’re treated to a doubling down of far-left ideology disguised as an optimistic commitment to the welfare of future generations.

Supporters of the radical Green New Deal want a marshalling of the country’s resources akin to World War II to combat global warming. Activist Al Gore has also likened global warming to war: “It is [our] Thermopylae, Agincourt, Trafalgar, Lexington and Concord, Dunkirk, Pearl Harbor, the Battle of the Bulge, Midway and Sept. 11,” he wrote last year in the New York Times.

It’s an intriguing metaphor—save one obvious difference. Those were wars waged against other countries; the eco-Left wants to fight a war against ourselves. Why else would the 11,000 signatories to the latest doomsday letter bemoan “excessive consumption of the wealthy lifestyle”?

Profoundly troubling signs from human activities include sustained increases in both human and ruminant livestock populations, per capita meat production, world gross domestic product, global tree cover loss, fossil fuel consumption, the number of air passengers carried, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and per capita CO2 emissions since 2000 [emphasis added].

In short, there are too many people making too much money, flying and driving too often, and eating too many hamburgers. Unsurprisingly, this cabal has a list of demands posing as “solutions”:

First, dump all cheap and abundant energy—oil, natural gas, and coal—and replace it with unaffordable and unreliable renewables like wind and solar.

Second, get rid of the cattle—you should be eating a “sustainable diet” of vegan soy bratwurst and avocado toast, anyway.

Third, reduce income inequality. That’s right, billionaires are the leading cause of global warming—and you thought the climate had something to do with it!

Fourth, organize unprecedented global population controls to end growth entirely. Think I’m kidding? Never mind that it would take the kind of totalitarian world dictatorship the Soviets dreamed of—this has been the overt goal of environmental leftists since the 1960s.

There are a whole host of groups that want to just that, such as the appropriately named Zero Population Growth (now Population Connection), founded by arch-doomsayer Paul Ehrlich, who thought the world would end in mass starvation in the 1980s. The Atlantic even proposed “voluntary family planning” in 2014, the updated name for eugenics policies favored by Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger and other Progressives in the last century.

Or take it from left-wing evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, who tweeted fondly about eugenics in February:

It’s one thing to deplore eugenics on ideological, political, moral grounds. It’s quite another to conclude that it wouldn’t work in practice. Of course it would. It works for cows, horses, pigs, dogs & roses. Why on earth wouldn’t it work for humans? Facts ignore ideology.

It goes without saying that these extremists’ demands aren’t scientific. Why else use Sierra Club-style chants like “keep it in the ground” to propose serious public policies, or humor wingnuts like Ehrlich who supported adding sterilant to Americans’ drinking water to reduce population growth and pressuring “pregnant single women to marry or have abortions”?

There are real consequences to this unfounded and dangerous alarmism. Teenagers told all their lives that the end-of-days is nigh are now seeking therapy for nightmares and eating disorders emanating from their “eco-anxiety.”
Case-in-point: the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, whose parents have described her descent into “some kind of darkness” in which she “refused to speak to anyone but her parents and stopped eating to the point where her family considered admitting her to emergency care.”

The world would rightly condemn anything which afflicted this kind of mental disease on children; instead, the Left rewards it as “heroism.”

One day, when the fantasy of global warming has gone the way of global cooling, phrenology, and eugenics, future generations will shake their heads in disbelief that we once entertained such mass delusions—and wonder why we ever listened to pompous plutocrats in the first place.

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Politics is Downstream of Culture

Excerpts from an editorial by Nick Searcy, actor, director and writer:

The most overused quote in 21st Century conservative columns and speeches has got to be this one, and the reason it is so overused is that we have not addressed it to this day. As the late great Andrew Breitbart famously said, “Politics is downstream of culture.”

We have let the Hollywood Left define the culture for at least the last 50 years. We had already conceded academia to the leftists, and as a result of their long march through the institutions, we have an army of socialist youth that rally to socialist superstars like Bernie Sanders and AOC because of their sheer ignorance of the death cult that is socialism. But now, we have been given an opening...

We ceded academia to the Left 70 or so years ago, and they have been running up the score in our school systems and universities ever since. You can see the consequences of that at any Bernie Sanders rally. We now have a vast number of historically ignorant and poisoned college students who want to vote for an unashamed Communist, and who think Chernobyl, if they even watched it, is about Trump...

Now add the fact that nearly every bit of mainstream entertainment they consume reinforces the same ideas — Republicans are racist, Christians are hypocrites, progressives are compassionate, policemen are corrupt, real socialism has never been tried, America is evil and imperialist, etc. — and you have a societal problem among our younger generation that is a hell of a lot worse than vaping...

So stop fooling yourselves, conservatives, that they give a damn whether you watch their shows or not. They don’t. They are no longer making shows for a mass audience comprised of both left and right, Democrat and Republican. There aren’t any more MASHes or Andy Griffiths. They are making shows to impress each other, to prove that they are in the Club. Their next job is not going to come because the audience liked their show. It’s going to come from impressing the person above them in the food chain...

At their insufferable awards shows, the winners use their speeches not to thank anyone or show the slightest bit of gratitude, but to go on and on about how morally superior they are to you awful people sitting out there in your little pink houses ruining the planet by eating Doritos and watching NASCAR. They are intentionally sending this message to other artists: if you ever want an award, you better get in the No Trump Club. And if you want to make a movie that conservatives might like, you are OUT...

The Left never wants to win fair and square in the marketplace of ideas because they know they can’t. The Left’s intention is always to keep their opposition off the field and march down it unopposed. They throw the word “fascism” around, and they couldn’t define it if their next bloated government program depended on it. They try to silence anyone who disagrees with them, whether on campus or onscreen. They are the fascists, and that is why they call us that...

See part 1 here.

See part 2 here.

See part 3 here.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Headlines: More of What the Media Gets Wrong



Biden and Whitmer ticket?

Former Vice President Joe Biden confirmed this week that he is considering Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to be his running mate if he is chosen as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

I guess one incompetent deserves another.


Democrats Gear Up For All-Out Attack On Trump

Congressional Democrats are gearing up for another all–out assault on President Trump, this time even more absurd than the last.

Despite being in the midst of fighting a pandemic that is tearing through the nation, Democrats are more concerned with waging war on the president as he looks to guide the nation through this troubling time.

Democrats are reportedly in the early stages of putting together a “9/11-style commission” to investigate the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to an NBC News report, “informal discussions” have begun on the possibility of forming up an investigative committee, and that plans are still “very preliminary.”

Schumer re-writing history

Sen Shumer claims today on MSNBC that on Jan 26 it was he that declared the COVID-19 outbreak a national disaster. Good thing he did that on MSNBC, which has the lowest viewership of any news outlet and its audience is rather ignorant. Shumer at that time was focused on the impeachment and called Trumps ban on China travel as racist and xenophobic.

See: After attacking Trump's coronavirus-related China travel ban as xenophobic, Dems and media have changed tune

April 1


As in any crisis, it's easy to pick out the winners, the losers, the heros and those that seem to be against what all of us are trying to do: get through this in the best way possible with the best outcomes. 

I've come to learn -- or have reaffirmed -- that the left-wing and the Democratic Party in this country, supported by many in the media, have been not only abusive, but outright assholes and liars. Some names come to mind: Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Chuck Todd, as well as others. 

Dems are Saying Trump Didn’t Act On the Virus Soon Enough, So Here’s a Supercut of How Serious They Were Taking It Themselves

The Democrats are clearly trying to rewrite history here. For example, while Pelosi was handing out impeachment pens, Trump was meeting with CDC and other officials to come up with a plan. Even as late as Feb. 24, Pelosi was urging people to visit China town. There are too many examples of this, but I'm sure they are depending on the ignorance of the average voter.

Still others claiming that President Donald Trump or Fox News is somehow responsible for “downplaying it.”

But what was Trump doing in January? He was activating the CDC, forming a task force, cutting travel with China and declaring a public health emergency.

What were Democrats doing? They were trying to impeach Trump and calling cutting travel racist or xenophobia.

So if we accept the Democrats/media new rewrite then what can we have to say that people like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in NYC and New Orleans who urged people to go out to events and mingle with people? Pelosi, touring San Francisco's Chinatown on Feb. 24: "We do want to say to people, come to Chinatown, here we are ... come join us."

March 31


Joe Biden Makes a Pathetic Attempt to Achieve Relevance and Claims Credit for the Wuhan Virus Response

With his campaign stagnating and reduced to ‘live,’ nearly embalmed would be a better description, statements on Facebook where he loses his place and falls asleep, Biden has been further shunted to the side by the Wuhan virus crisis. Now, in an attempt to show President Trump how ‘it’s really done,’ Biden has attempted to interject himself into the management of that travesty.

CNN Called Trump a Liar a Month Ago, Now They Admit He Was Right 

If you’ll recall, about a month ago, the liberal news network was trashing the President for suggesting that the death rates for Wuhan virus in the U.S. would be lower than some of the results we were seeing from other places. At the time, the rate was 3.4% globally, a number anyone with the ability to critically think should have been questioning.

Well, CNN is changing its tune, as they are now reporting the death rate will be under 1% via a new study.

BLACKOUT: TV News is Silent on New Biden Sex Abuse Allegations

It’s been nearly a week since a former Joe Biden staffer leveled disturbing accusations of sexual misconduct against the Democratic presidential frontrunner, and yet ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN haven’t said a single word...

Party’s over, Florida. Advisers see trouble looming in state’s economy

A recession could be coming for the Sunshine State, says a Wells Fargo Securities analyst. This is why I don't use a financial adviser. They are usually a day short.

I'll leave it at that. And to make matters worse. the climate change alarmists are starting to get involved. Climate change and the virus. 

Interesting times.

Top Five Consumer Cyber Security FAQs

By Equifax Business, technology, environmental and economic changes are a part of life, and they are coming faster all the time. All of thes...