What investors may get for the holidays — another selloff

Critical intelligence ahead of the U.S. market’s open

Sure, it’s only Tuesday, but it looks like the market’s ability to extend its streak of weekly wins has hit a bump.

Following the biggest drop in six weeks for U.S. stocks, some out there are scratching their heads, while others are a little alarmed.  Read more

OBAMACARE’S HEALTH INSURANCE TAX COULD DEVASTATE SMALL BUSINESS

The Affordable Care Act’s HIT could result in hundreds of thousands of job losses, according to new research.

Nearly two-thirds of small business owners concerned about how the ACA’s new health insurance tax (HIT) will affect them. And that comes as open enrollment has officially begun for 2016 coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

This is just one of several alarming statistics—including that more than half (55 percent) of small biz owners anticipate increased insurance costs due to the new tax—among the findings of a survey released by the Stop the HIT Coalition.  Read more

This Group Wants To Make It Easier For Democrats To Win Elections

A Democratic-leaning group wants to make it easier for Americans to register to vote when they obtain their drivers’ licenses.

As The New York Times reports, the group iVote, comprised primarily of Clinton and Obama administration veterans, wants to expand the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to offer people the opportunity to register to vote once they obtain a driver’s license. iVote wants to make registration automatic. From the group’s website:  Read more

State athletic association bans Catholic school’s pre-game prayers

FARGO, N.D. – A picture of praying high school football players posted to Facebook recently sparked controversy about prayer during the state’s playoff season, and prompted North Dakota’s athletic association to decree it’s unconstitutional.

But officials at the Catholic Shanley High School are challenging the rule as a violation of free speech and religious rights, and are calling on the North Dakota High School Activities Association to reconsider its stance, Minnesota Public Radio reports.  Read more

Against the Doomsayers

People have been predicting calamities for countless generations, but the sky stubbornly refuses to fall. Reject the politics of doom.
I am always fascinated at how many people seem to cultivate predictions of disaster. One reason I find it so interesting is that I don’t habitually expect the end of America, or civilization, or life as we know it. I don’t expect that things will get dramatically worse at all. I expect that they will probably continue more or less as they have been. Uniformitarianism isn’t always right, but it’s a good first guess, and a hard presumption to overcome. Or at least it should be.  Read more

Media Double Standard;Ben Carson Is a Liar,But Hillary and Obama Are Not!!!

The media is all in a salacious twitter over  the fact that Ben Carson wrote in his book about him saying he had a scholarship to West Point when he didn’t go there and all military school enrollees are on as scholarship because it is a commitment. .First of all he was top in his ROTC class. Gen. Westmorland met with him and offered him a chance to go to West Point which he turned down. Since he was in high school at the time he no doubt thought it was a scholarship not knowing that all military school students are on scholarships paid by the government because it is a commitment. In a damning accusation Friday, Politico claimed Carson’s campaign “admitted he did not tell the truth” about having been accepted into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  Read more

More Restaurants Go the No-Tipping Route

High profile restaurants that are joining the trend include Per Se in New York; Berkeley, California's Chez Panisse; Bar Marco in Pittsburgh, and Alinea in Chicago. The restaurants of the Union Square Hospitality Group in New York City, including the Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Café, and Blue Smoke, will be transitioning to a tip-free environment with the first restaurants converting in November.  Read more

MARK LEVIN: ‘DESTROY-THE-CONSTITUTION’ TPP DEAL WOULD ALLOW OBAMA TO ‘TAKE US TO FAST TRACK TO HELL’

Conservative talk radio host and scholar Mark Levin says no conservative in Congress should vote for the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, which he referred to as a “destroy-the-Constitution deal” that would enable President Barack Obama to take “us to the fast track to hell.”  Read more

ECB Considers Pushing Negative Rates Lower; Yellen Might Follow Lead

While Janet Yellen keeps hinting at a “possible” US interest rate hike – something Peter Schiff has argued for months is highly unlikely – it appears the European Central Bank (ECB) will soon take rates deeper into negative territory. Americans should take note of what is happening across the pond, because it may eventually happen here.  Read more

Syrian Army Kills 40 Militants, Destroys 20 Armored Vehicles Near Palmyra

The Syrian army has hit terrorist positions in the as-Sufouh district which is very close to Palmyra, destroying several mortars and armed vehicles, an army spokesman said Monday. Syrian Deir ez-Zor airport defenders have also been fighting to force out terrorists from the airbase.   Read more

Anti-ISIS activists use horrific Jihadi propaganda film to claim brutal militants executed hundreds of children

A horrific ISIS video which purportedly shows 200 Syrian children being lined up and gunned by militants has been revealed to be a jihadi propaganda video from 2014.

The sickening mass execution video was posted online by an anti-ISIS activist based in Yemen and quickly started to draw condemnation from social media users shocked by the atrocities.

However the footage is believed to have filmed in late August 2014 and the victims are prisoners of war who were caught by ISIS after the jihadi group overran the Assad held Tabqa airbase in Syria.  Read more

Bid To Cover Plunges To 6 Year Low, Indirects Slide In Weak 3-Year Auction

On the surface, the just concluded auction of $24 billion in 3 Year paper was solid: printing at a high yield of 1.271% (22.93% allotted) while highest since April 2011, this priced 0.4 bps though the When Issued of 1.275%.  Read more

Did ISIS bomb Metrojet?

“Let’s assume [ISIS is responsible for the crash], I think it is the worst mistake that ISIS has ever made for plenty of good reasons, domestic politics as well as international affairs, Vladimir Putin would respond very harshly with a strong military retaliation against some part of the ISIS network near its headquarters in Syria.”  Read more

6 charts capturing James Bond’s legacy as ‘Spectre’ debuts

Five decades of 007 history in charts


Fifty-two years after “Dr. No” first opened in May 1963, the world’s most famous secret agent is still going strong with a total of 24 films including the weekend debut of “Spectre.” The latest James Bond installment has a high bar to clear following the critical and financial success of 2012’s “Skyfall,” whose world-wide gross has surpassed $1.1 billion.  Read more

Fed’s Rosengren sees possible bubble in commercial real estate

Financial stability concerns grow at U.S. central bank


Eric Rosengren, the president of the Boston Fed, said Monday he is worried about the rapid rise in commercial real estate prices, becoming the latest U.S. central banker to be worried about financial stability concerns in the real estate sector with interest rates close to zero.  Read more

On the brink: Christianity facing Middle East purge within decade, says group

The dwindling Christian population of the Middle East could vanish completely within a decade unless the global community intervenes, say alarmed aid groups who say followers of the Bible are being killed, driven from their land or forced to renounce their faith at an unprecedented pace.   Read more

GAO: Climate Change Could Cause More: Cardiovascular Disease in Northwest, Allergies on Great Plains, Drownings in Midwest

So we are to believe that something that doesn't exist will cause all these problems?  Wow, the climate extremist must really think we are stupid.  Richard Medlock

Other potential impacts of climate change include a disruption of community water supplies in Alaska, more cases of dengue fever in Hawaii and West Nile virus in the Northeast, higher incidents of heat stress in the Southwest and increased fish poisoning in the Southeast.  Read more

Obamatrade's Preamble Backs Government Ownership of Business

The preamble to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal that the Obama administration has negotiated with eleven other governments—including what the U.S. State Department describes as a Communist regime in Vietnam—expressly affirms the “legitimate role” of “state-owned enterprises.”

According to the Congressional Research Service, 40 percent of Vietnam’s output comes from state-owned enterprises (SOEs).  Read more

The U.S. education bubble is now upon us

If the government doesn’t act, bailing out graduates will come next

One of the fundamental purposes of government is to advance important public goods. But, if not handled carefully, the pursuit of significant social goals can have unfortunate economic and financial consequences, sometimes even leading to systemic disruptions that undermine more than just the goals themselves.

This happened a decade ago in the United States, with the effort to expand home ownership. It has been playing out more recently in China, following an initiative to broaden stock-market participation. And it could happen again in the U.S., this time as the result of an attempt to improve access to funding for higher education.  Read more

University of Missouri president resigns over handling of racial issues

More than 30 members of football team had threatened to boycott games

University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe resigned on Monday amid accusations that he mishandled racial tensions at the flagship Columbia campus.

Calls for his ouster piled up this weekend after dozens of members of the football team threatened to boycott games and practices over accusations he is mishandling racial tensions on campus.

“Please use this resignation to heal and not to hate,” he said in a news conference Monday.  Read more

New reports suggest October jobs blowout is an outlier

The surprisingly large 271,000 increase in U.S. jobs in October is likely to prove an exception and not the new normal, according to a fresh pair of employment indicators.

The Federal Reserve’s gauge of labor-market health and a privately run employment trends index suggest the economy will continue to spit out a steady number of new jobs. Just not at October’s heady pace.  Read more

Ex Reagan adviser Peter Schiff hits out at Fed for creating bubble economy, predicts bigger crisis

Peter Schiff, former adviser to President Ronald Reagan and CEO of Euro Pacific Capital has said Americans should prepare for “a horrible Christmas” even as they wrap gifts as they are going to face a big recession because of the Fed’s wrong policies.

“I expect job layoffs to start picking up by the end of the year,” Schiff said told CNBC’s Future Now program and added that retailers are going to be the first victim.  Read more

OPRAH’S ‘TEACHABLE MOMENT’ ON ISLAMIC JIHAD: SUBMISSION ‘CREATES RADICAL SENSE OF EQUALITY’

Classic case of projecting one's jihad on everyone.  Nice try, but it won't fly.  Richard Medlock

 

An Islamic scholar, Varun Soni, the dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California, recently appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s Belief series, and explained that all the head choppers and rapists and suicide bombers who do their deeds while screaming “Allahu akbar” are all misunderstanding jihad.  Read more

Veterans Day parade rejects ‘Confederate Lives Matter’ float, but accepts CAIR

The organizers of the Tulsa, Oklahoma Veterans Day parade think a group remembering the Confederacy is too controversial, but the radical Muslim group CAIR is okay.  Read more

China to Allow Direct Conversion Between Yuan and Swiss Franc

China took another step to boost the yuan’s global usage, saying it will start direct trading with the Swiss franc, as the nation pushes its case for reserve-currency status at the International Monetary Fund.

The link will start on Tuesday, the China Foreign Exchange Trade System said in a statement, making the franc the seventh major currency that can bypass a conversion into the U.S. dollar and be directly exchanged for yuan. The rate will be allowed to fluctuate a maximum 5 percent on either side of a daily fixing, according to CFETS.  Read more