The Fed Rings a Warning Bell: Hedge Funds and Life Insurers Are Reporting Historic Leverage

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: December 3, 2024 ~ The semi-annual Financial Stability Report released recently by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors rang a loud warning bell about high levels of leverage at hedge funds and life insurers. Wall Street watchers will no doubt recall that in 2008, during the worst Wall Street collapse since the Great Depression, Bear Stearns went under after it blew up two internal hedge funds the prior year and the giant life insurer, American International Group (AIG), blew itself up by acting as a counterparty to Wall Street’s derivative schemes and had to be taken into receivership by the U.S. government. On the matter of leverage at hedge funds, the Fed wrote this in its most recent Financial Stability Report: “Comprehensive data collected through SEC Form PF indicated that measures of leverage averaged across all hedge funds were at or near the highest level observed … Continue reading →

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Trump’s Nominee for FBI Director, Kash Patel, Has Businesses Financially Intertwined with Trump

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: December 2, 2024 ~ Based on his Trump-related online merchandise offerings, Kashyap (Kash) Patel exudes the persona of a slick marketing agent and image handler for President-elect Donald Trump rather than a serious candidate for Director of the FBI. Nonetheless, Trump nominated Patel for the post of FBI Director on Saturday, keeping with his penchant for naming outrageously unsuitable candidates for high office. Patel’s merchandise offerings include a children’s book trilogy he authored, titled The Plot Against the King. Patel, apparently, has no problem profiling Trump as a King to whom he owes unwavering loyalty. Patel portrays himself in the books as the brilliant wizard who reveals the truth to the populace. Patel is also hawking his book on the first Trump administration, titled Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy. Notably, Patel sees no evil intent on the part … Continue reading →

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Donald Trump Is at Risk of Getting Named in a Fossil Fuels Conspiracy Lawsuit

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 27, 2024 ~ According to reporting at the New York Times, on April 11 Donald Trump hosted oil executives and their lobbyists to a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida and requested a quid-pro-quo. If they donated $1 billion to his campaign for president, “he would roll back environmental rules that he said hampered their industry….” Among attendees at the event, according to The Times, were executives from ExxonMobil, EQT Corporation and the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies for the oil industry. Trump must have liked what he heard from the fossil fuel industry because when he accepted the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention on July 18, he told the crowd this: “We will drill, baby, drill…We will do it at levels that nobody’s ever seen before.” By October 21, when Trump delivered remarks to a crowd of the religious … Continue reading →

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Made in America returns! Consumer-goods supplier Reckitt Benckiser is looking to respond faster to shifts in demand for over-the-counter pharmaceuticals by moving more of its manufacturing to the U.S., its largest market. Reckitt is investing $200 million into a factory in Wilson, N.C., that it acquired last month, part of an effort to rewire its supply chain […]

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– Israel Agrees to Cease-Fire With Lebanon’s Hezbollah—But What About Gaza?, Common Dreams. After months of slaughtering those not responsible, then you ask for a truce? “A cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to be within reach on Monday amid reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly scuttled diplomatic efforts in recent months. – The Global […]

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Back when Trump rebranded NAFTA as “USMCE,” here’s what he said about it: “We have negotiated this new agreement based on the principle of fairness and reciprocity…. This is a terrific deal for all of us….This new deal will be the most modern, up-to-date, and balanced trade agreement in the history of our country…. With […]

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Brief commentary by Dr. Kahn who is in the thick of the discussion on Medicare Advantage Costs. Health Justice Monitor, Medicare Advantage Overpayment >$100 Billion, Jim (James G.) Kahn, MD, MPH Summary: Physicians for a National Health Program released a valuable summary of Medicare Advantage overpayments. The scope and scale is breathtaking: $100 billion annual payoff […]

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I have begun a possibly long series on people’s heuristics and biases when we try to think about probability. I posted one explanation of the Allais Paradox. Click on the link for definitions as I go on assuming earlier posts have been read (this will create problems but I can’t avoid it). Briefly the Allais […]

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November 25, 2024 By Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American Today, President Joe Biden laid out very clearly the argument behind the economic policies his administration has put into place. He writes . . . “When I took office, the pandemic was raging and the economy was reeling. From Day One, I was determined […]

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Special counsel Jack Smith moves to drop both federal criminal cases against Trump, POLITICO U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan quickly granted the motion to dismiss Trump’s Washington D.C. case, in which he was charged with conspiring to subvert the 2020 election. A similar motion in the Florida case, in which Trump was charged with hoarding […]

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– by Steve Roth Originally posted at Wealth Economics This post is in response to a very brief Bluesky exchange I had with Dan Rohde and DT Cochrane about the origins of “The Dollar” (specifically U.S.). It led me to read about the U.S. Coinage Act of 1792. Here’s the Wiki, and the Act itself — which I can’t believe […]

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Monthly Full Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, & Orders – Press Release, Census.Gov, November 4, 2025. Briefly – New orders for manufactured goods in September, down four of the last five months, decreased $2.8 billion or 0.5 percent to $584.2 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. This followed a 0.8 percent August decrease. – […]

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Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales: September 2024, Census.Gov Friday, November 15, 2024 Sales The combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for September is adjusted for seasonal and trading day differences but not for price changes. It was estimated at $1,881.2 billion, up 0.3 percent (±0.2 percent) from August 2024 and was […]

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Reading this, about companies reacting (if the author is correct) to tariffs is not a good sign for us. We already have seen an example of the morality of companies in their downsizing of packaging (which has yet to go away) of their food product plus an adder of a few pennies here or there. […]

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 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. Briefly . . . With the hurricane-induced weakness past, the short term forecast has improved to very positive. At the same time, while a few series have whipsawed the coincident nowcast to a neutral status. Importantly, consumer spending still remains strong. As […]

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Other groups interested in who wins the election as well as SEnate races, etc, Crypto’s $245 million campaign finance operation filled airwaves with ads not about crypto, CNBC In Nevada’s 4th Congressional District, a crypto PAC spent nearly $2 million on ads this cycle to support the reelection of Steven Horsford, a Democratic congressman who’s […]

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I believe it is more than just GM sticking it to Labor. Increasing food prices. Each major automotive company laid off thousands. Some examples of sticking to the population. Eggs in particular saw an increase. Packaging was made smaller. Some examples: – Fritos Scoops: “Party Size” bags used to be 18 ounces, but are now 15.5 […]

The post The Reason Dems Lost this Election? Layoffs and Prices. appeared first on Angry Bear.

Trumps 2017 Tax Break Extension chart and explanation . . . Sources: CBO (for most provisions), *JCT( R&E provision), **CRFB (Interest provision) New estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) put a price tag of nearly $5 trillion on extending all the Trump-GOP tax law, which is mostly scheduled to expire at the end of 2025. That is more […]

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Dean Baker: “Story telling attracts attention and sells newspapers.” I was reading at another site which was making the argument of Medicare Advantage plans being less costly than Traditional Medicare. It cites a truism that Medicare Advantage offers Part D and Supplemental in its package while Traditional Medicare does not. That is true. However, Medicare […]

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If it bleeds, it leads. CNN has a piece about Ramon Rivera, who randomly stabbed three people in NYC. He was mentally ill, in and out of Rikers and mental health facilities. He’s like a drunk driver who has a history of alcoholism. “New York City Mayor Eric Adams described Rivera as a homeless man […]

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