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Black Monday, 1987: Inside The Birth Of Stock Market Moral Hazard, 34 Years Ago Today Authored by Liam McPherson via Global Macro Monitor, Originally posted October 19, 2020. The following exchange took place between President Reagan and reporters after the market close on Black Monday, October 19, 1987.  Leaving to visit the First Lady in the hospital, President Reagan spoke just after the market lost over 20 percent of its value on the day. Q: What about the market? Tomorrow will it go down again? President Reagan:  I don’t know. You tell me. Q: Is the market your fault? President Reagan: Is it my fault? For what, taking cookies to my wife? Q: Reaganomics? President Reagan:  I just told you. Good Lord, we reduced the deficit over last year by $70 billion. And all the other things I’ve told you about the economy are as solid as I told you. So, no, I have no more knowledge of why it took place than you have. Thirty-four years ago today, now infamously known as Black Monday, my grandfather, M. Peter McPherson, was Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury and acting Secretary that day, while Treasury Secretary James Baker was in the air traveling to Europe. McPherson was the most senior Treasury official left in Washington to handle the crisis. The stock market had already peaked in August after an almost 100 percent rally in the prior two years.  By late August, the DJIA had gained 44 percent in a matter of seven months, raising concerns of an asset bubble, and had become very volatile as interest rates had been rising rapidly since bottoming in September of the prior year. Similar to 1929, where the stock market peaked in early September, the markets had already begun to unravel, foreshadowing the record losses that would develop that Monday in October. As the markets around the world began to crash, my grandfather convened with the U.S. Treasury’s Undersecretary of Domestic Finance and the Department Chief of Staff to discuss the government’s appropriate response.  The Dow Jones eventually closed 508 points down, or a 22.61 percent, almost double the historic Crash of 1929, where the Dow fell 12.8 percent in one day. Government Kicks Into Action According to my grandfather, the situation demanded that his team put together a plan to calm the markets. The economy was doing fine, and there were no signs of recession.  Real GDP growth came in at 3.5 percent in 1987. Jitters about the U.S. trade deficit, rising interest rates, and the path of the U.S. dollar during the Plaza Accord are oft-cited as the fundamental reasons that triggered the crash, but nobody knows for sure.  Trees don’t grow to the sky, and neither do markets.  Stocks markets do what stocks markets do, keep their own schedule, and march to their own drummer. The team’s conclusion at Treasury that day was the market was under severe strain for technical reasons and complicated by the new computerized program trading related to portfolio insurance.  Nevertheless, the steep losses were causing significant dislocations in the financial markets. Many large firms were under heavy liquidity pressure and were dangerously close to not making their margin calls and on the brink of failure. My grandfather and his team placed a call to the then-new Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, only a month into the job, to encourage the issuance of a Fed statement that it would do whatever it takes to provide the liquidity to keep markets functioning. It wasn’t the time to think about the policy’s broader economic implications, such as the potential moral hazard, as the plane was on fire and going down and desperately needed a rescue plan. It was also clear Greenspan had been thinking along similar lines. Fed officials drafted much longer statements for release, but Greenspan reasoned that a short, clear message would do the most to stabilize markets. It is also important to point out that when Secretary Baker arrived in Europe late that day, he immediately began communicating with key finance ministers, such as those from Germany, Japan, France, and the UK to coordinate a global response to the financial crisis. October 20 Greenspan issued his statement the next morning, October 20, “The Federal Reserve, consistent with its responsibilities as the Nation’s central bank, affirmed today its readiness to serve as a source of liquidity to support the economic and financial system.” – FRB In typical Greenspan fashion, the statement was vague in methodology yet resolute in purpose. The market opened down and continued falling, there were no buyers and it appeared, at one point, the global financial system was headed for a complete meltdown. “Tuesday was the most dangerous day we had in 50 years,” says Felix Rohatyn, a general partner in Lazard Freres & Co. “I think we came within an hour” of a disintegration of the stock market, he says. “The fact we didn’t have a meltdown doesn’t mean we didn’t have a breakdown.  – WSJ Then at about 12:38 pm, with many stocks not trading and pressure growing to close the markets a miracle seemed to happen. With the closing of the Big Board seemingly imminent and the market in disarray, with virtually all options and futures trading halted, something happened that some later described as a miracle: In the space of about five or six minutes, the Major Market Index futures contract, the only viable surrogate for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the only major index still trading, staged the most powerful rally in its history. The MMI rose on the Chicago Board of Trade from a discount of nearly 60 points to a premium of about 12 points. Because each point represents about five in the industrial average, the rally was the equivalent of a lightning-like 360-point rise in the Dow. Some believe that this extraordinary move set the stage for the salvation of the world’s markets. – WSJ  The rest, as they say, is history. My grandfather felt that the Treasury’s phone call contributed to Greenspan’s thinking and as he made the decision to issue a statement to calm the market.  The statement was the most critical event in stabilizing the markets and preventing substantial economic damage to the U.S. and the global economy. My grandfather spoke about how the simplicity of the message prevented speculation while instilling confidence.  Not unlike ECB President Mario Draghi’s, “whatever it takes” July 2012 speech, which saved the Euro currency, the European banking system, and ultimately the European Union during their debt crisis in 2011-12. The Birth Of Stock Market Moral Hazard    Some argue, including one of the regular authors on this website, the Fed’s response to Black Monday ushered in a new era of faux investor confidence and the moral hazard that the central bank will always backstop falling markets.  Thus, forever distorting market risk and real price discovery and contributing to the current boom-bust asset market cycle the global economy now experiences and will be extremely difficult to reverse. Global Macro Monitor (GMM) often argues, which is not necessarily my own opinion, what was supposed to be a one-off market intervention in 1987 has now become the norm, which monetary policymakers will find it impossible to extract itself from, ultimately resulting in a major market and economic dislocation.  We shall see. President Reagan’s Confidence And Sense of Calm During the crisis, President Reagan, whose administration my grandfather served several key roles in, was an excellent communicator and never once conveyed a sense of panic in October 1987. Though not having a financial background, President Reagan did have a degree in economics and understood the nature of markets and how they coveted a sense of calm and leadership from the government during such a crisis. The following video is President Reagan speaking to the press at the White House on Black Monday as he is preparing to board Marine One to visit the First Lady in the hospital. Skip to the dialogue, which starts 5:40 minutes in. Note President Reagan’s incredibly calm demeanor and sense of confidence after the most massive stock market crash in U.S. history. [ZH: Of course, it's different this time... Source: Bloomberg Excerpted from Art Cashin's reminisces of that day in 1987 (rings a lot of bells for 2021)... The first two-thirds of 1987 on Wall Street was nothing short of spectacular... Fear seemed to disappear, and junior traders laughed at their cautious elders. The brash youngsters told each other to “buy strength” rather than sell it, as each buying wave was soon followed by another. [ZH: Robinhooders?] One thing that helped banish fear was a new process called “portfolio insurance.” It involved use of the newly expanded S&P futures. Somewhat counterintuitively, it involved selling when prices turned down. [ZH: Nasdaq Whale buying calls, driving dealer gamma to extremes] The rally topped out about Aug. 25, with the hitting 2,722 (less than a tenth of its current numerical value). Interest rates had begun creeping up amid concerns of early signs of inflation. [ZH: Rally topped a week after that in 2021] ... On Wednesday, Oct. 14, there were widely discussed rumors of a new punitive tax on takeover profits. [ZH: Worries over Biden's tax plan or the IRS crackdown?] ... Now that would be an 'October Surprise'... Tyler Durden Tue, 10/19/2021 - 13:25

Dip-Buyers Pile Into Crypto, FundStrat Forecast Bitcoin $168k From Expected ETF Flows Update (1300ET): "Sell the news" has morphed into "buy the dip" as BITO and Bitcoin surge back towards the highs of the day... And Bitcoin is pushing up to $63,500...   *  *  * Update (1030ET): "Sell the news"? After an initial burst of euphoria higher, both BITO and spot bitcoin is tumbling... BITO broke below its opening price... And Bitcoin dived... Dragging the rest of the crypto space with it... The seemingly endless flip-flopping of Guggenheim's Scott Minerd continues with him now appearing to be positive once again on the crypto space: *MINERD: BITCOIN ETF COMPELLING FOR INVESTORS TO BYPASS WALLETS *MINERD SAYS BIG WINNERS IN CRYPTO STILL REMAIN TO BE SEEN *MINERD: CENTRAL BANKS CAN'T SIT BY ON CRYPTO WITHOUT GETTING IN Bloomberg's Eric Balchunas notes that BITO has officially passed BUZZ in opening day volume with over $440mm traded so far, making it the biggest new launch of 2021 by that measure. It is now number 7 on the all-time list (and number 1 if you filter out the massive seed ones). All that in under an hour. *  *  * The first US Bitcoin ETF has just started trading. ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) tracks bitcoin via actively-managed exposure to future contracts. image courtesy of CoinTelegraph ProShares CEO Michael Sapir said the launch marks an important milestone for cryptocurrency ETFs in the U.S. following several years of effort to list one on an exchange: “BITO will continue the legacy of ETFs that provide investors convenient, liquid access to an asset class. 1993 is remembered for the first equity ETF, 2002 for the first bond ETF, and 2004 for the first gold ETF. 2021 will be remembered for the first cryptocurrency-linked ETF.” Sapir went on to say that the Bitcoin ETF’s debut on NYSE unlocks massive exposure for investors in traditional financial markets. “BITO will open up exposure to Bitcoin to a large segment of investors who have a brokerage account and are comfortable buying stocks and ETFs, but do not desire to go through the hassle and learning curve of establishing another account with a cryptocurrency provider and creating a Bitcoin wallet or are concerned that these providers may be unregulated and subject to security risks,” he said. BITO opened at 40.88 and is trading higher...That opening price is over 2% above the $40 reference price. Spot Bitcoin prices just broke above $63k... The futures-based Bitcoin ETF could attract more than $50 billion in inflows in its first year given the hype around it, according to noted Bitcoin bull Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors. With bitcoin block rewards at $10 million per day, the equilibrium between the supply and demand of bitcoin will not be balanced unless the price of bitcoin moves significantly higher. "The equilibrium price to clear this, based on analysis by our data science team, is $168,000," Fundstrat said. However, as we detailed yesterday, caveat emptor just a little on this futures-based ETF, given its contango-heavy structure. Which makes it painstakingly obvious that the approved ETF is not suitable for long term investment, and serves only as yet another way for day traders to partake in the exact ‘highly speculative’ activity that Gary Gensler regularly criticizes. And since ‘uber-wealthy’ Gensler, ex-Goldman Sachs, (how else would he have gotten his current position) knows all too well how this contango effect plays out, one has to wonder what exactly his angle is in approving such a product. Meanwhile, Grayscale Investments LLC said Tuesday its filing as soon as Tuesday to convert the world’s biggest Bitcoin fund into an ETF. While the Securities and Exchange Commission has allowed a derivatives-based product to launch, it has yet to permit the kind of structure used by Grayscale, which directly holds the largest cryptocurrency. Finally, it is worth noting that despite all the FUD, bitcoin's price is up 50% since China banned crypto. As CoinTelegraph reports, it’s been 150 days since China banned Bitcoin (BTC) mining - and BTC price action has only benefited as a result. Tyler Durden Tue, 10/19/2021 - 13:06

FBI Raids D.C. Home Of Russian Billionaire Energy Tycoon Known For Putin Ties On Tuesday morning the FBI has raided the home of billionaire Russian oligarch and energy tycoon Oleg Deripaska in a posh Washington D.C. neighborhood. His name began appearing in US media over the past years based on his ties to Paul Manafort. He's also widely considered part of Vladimir Putin's "inner circle".  An NBC correspondent posted video of the FBI "court-authorized law enforcement activity" in progress, however it's as yet undisclosed why they're after Deripaska - who is founder of Basic Element, among Russia's largest industrial groups - or exactly what it is US authorities are looking for. By the looks of it, multiple dozens of agents and police are present for the large high-profile raid. Nothing like an FBI raid in a DC NW neighborhood on a beautiful fall morning. @nbcnews @PoPville⁩ pic.twitter.com/KVaN0t9dxU — Laura Strickler (@strickdc) October 19, 2021 According to Reuters, "NBC’s Tom Winter said federal agents were outside the property and restricting access. Federal Bureau of Investigation representatives could not immediately be reached to comment on the report." FBI and local police have so far kept mum, but the powerful Russian oligarch's checkered past is already causing speculation to mount: Deripaska became widely known in the U.S. for his ties to Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who was convicted on fraud charges stemming from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Then-President Donald Trump pardoned Manafort in his final month in office. In 2018, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Deripaska and about two dozen other oligarchs and Kremlin officials with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. Deripaska sued over the sanctions, but a U.S. judge in June dismissed his lawsuit. Getty Images The 53-year old's prime home residence is in Moscow, and Forbes recently estimated his net worth at about $5 billion. That's no way to treat Christopher Steele's client! https://t.co/LXOxOjanza — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) October 19, 2021 Deripaska is among the 800 wealthiest people on the planet, and pre-2008 was briefly in the top ten. Here's a quick review major stories centered on the Russian oligarch via Forbes:  Oleg Deripaska is the founder of Basic Element, a Russian industrial group with interests in aluminum, energy, construction, agriculture and more. In April 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions against Deripaska and some of his companies. In January 2019, OFAC lifted sanctions on En+ Group, UC Rusal and Eurosibenergo, and Deripaska agreed to permanently reduce his stake to 44.95%. He was the richest person in Russia and the 9th richest in the world in 2008 before nearly losing it all due to crashing markets and heavy debts. In an IPO in November 2017, En+ Group, which combined Deripaka's stake in UC Rusal and assets in the electric power industry, raised $1.5 billion. Reminder: In 2012, Lawyer Adam Waldman hired Steele’s firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, on Deripaska’s behalf in order to assist Deripaska against a lawsuit filed “by a business rival” [likely Michael Cherney]. Steele brought up Deripaska's VISA Case to Bruce Ohr in early 2016. https://t.co/B2Cgx9nUk6 — Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) October 19, 2021 Getty Images developing... Tyler Durden Tue, 10/19/2021 - 12:30

Interest In Store Credit Cards Plunges By Marianne Wilson, editor-in-chief of Chain Store Age Summary: Only one in three consumers with a store card said they currently have debt associated with that card, down from 49% in 2020.  Twenty-nine percent of consumers would be more likely to pay with a store card this holiday season, while 21% would turn to buy now, pay later financing. Nearly four in 10 people with a store card today have regretted opening one in the past. Consumer interest in-store credit cards is on the wane this holiday season. Only 29% of consumers said they are likely to apply for a store credit card this holiday season compared to 44% in 2020, according to a report from LendingTree. However, consumers are still slightly more likely to use store cards to shop during the holidays versus using a buy now, pay later option. In other findings, 42% of consumers have closed a store credit card and an additional 13% have had a store card closed by the issuer. The main reasons for voluntary closures were no longer shopping at the store (46%) and high-interest rates (35%).  The average APR on a new retail credit card offer was 24.27%, up very slightly from 2020’s 24.24% in 2020. “The average store credit card APR is still several points higher than the average for all credit cards,” the report stated,  “For example, we found eight cards from six retailers with APRs of 29.99%. A bit of good news: For the second straight year, no store card that we reviewed had an APR of 30% or higher.” More retailers offer store credit cards than buy now, pay later loans, though many offer both. Sixty-seven of the 126 retailers’ websites reviewed by LendingTree offered a store credit card, while 56% offered buy now, pay later. However, 42 retailers made both options available. available. Among Gen Z, 32% said they’d be more likely to use buy now, pay later — the same percentage that would use a store credit card. But only 9% of baby boomers said they’d be more likely to use buy now, pay later, versus 19% who said store credit cards. Tyler Durden Tue, 10/19/2021 - 11:59

Trafigura Revealed As Culprit Behind Copper Market Mayhem Update (1130ET): It appears the culprit for the chaos in the copper markets has been identified. Bloomberg reports, citing 'people familiar with the matter' that Trafigura Group was behind a significant proportion of the orders to withdraw copper from London Metal Exchange warehouses. It’s not unusual for physical traders to withdraw metal from the exchange to ship to their customers, and Trafigura isn’t the only trading house to have taken metal off the exchange in recent months, the people said. And the move comes against a backdrop of very low inventories globally. Still, total requests to withdraw more than 150,000 tons of copper from LME warehouses in the past two months have all but drained the available stocks on the exchange, and Trafigura represents a significant proportion of those, the people said. This is not that much of a surprise since during the pandemic, Trafigura emerged as one of the most high-profile bulls in the global copper market, with head trader Kostas Bintas predicting that prices will hit $15,000 in the coming years as the industry witnesses a new supercycle underpinned by booming demand in electric vehicles and renewable energy. Additionally, Trafigura traded 4.4 million tons of copper last year, one million tons more than its largest rival, Glencore. *  *  * The chaotic moves in various energy markets around the world have spread to the metals markets with copper inventories available on the LME plunging to the lowest on record (since 1974), in a dramatic escalation of a squeeze on global supplies that sent spreads spiking and helped drive prices back above $10,000 a ton. Copper tracked by LME warehouses that’s not already earmarked for withdrawal has plunged 89% this month after a surge in orders for metal from warehouses in Europe. Source: Bloomberg As Bloomberg reports, the last time that type of dynamic developed was during a historic squeeze in 2006, when a buying spree early on in China’s industrial boom drained LME on-warrant inventories to a near-record low. LME inventories are now at even lower levels than was the case then, while Chinese inventories also dropped Friday. “If more metal doesn’t make it into the exchange, then it really is in a difficult position,” Michael Widmer, head of metals research at Bank of America, said by phone. “Right now the LME is running a physical contract that effectively is not really backed by physical metal.” And that 'difficult position' just showed up in a huge way in the copper spread as spot/cash contracts on the LME traded at more than a $1,000 premium to those maturing in three months, the widest spread since at least 1994, surging higher in recent days as freely available stock on the London bourse dwindled... Source: Bloomberg “The LME notes recent price activity in the copper market. We will continue to closely monitor the situation, and have further options available to ensure continued market orderliness if these are required,” the exchange said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg. Is another oil-esque delivery debacle here? Tyler Durden Tue, 10/19/2021 - 11:30

Winter Is Coming: Russia Signals No Extra Gas For Europe Without Nord Stream 2 The big picture was clear to anyone who bothered to keep their eyes open: back in August, when we first reported that Russian supplies of nat gas via the Yamal pipeline had collapsed and when the first stirrings of the upcoming surge in nat gas prices were emerging, we said to "call it a perfect storm of declining supplies, lack of sufficient inventories and ongoing geopolitical posturing as Russia piles pressure on EU authorities to approve the dual-pipeline Nord Stream 2 project through the Baltic Sea and into Germany, while gas shippers are running low on time and, indeed, options to keep Europe adequately supplied this winter." Specifically, we also warned that "a worst case scenario could see European gas prices explode to suborbital levels that would make Jeff Bezos proud should the continent fail to stock up on sufficient nat gas amounts." Indeed, that's precisely what happened in the ensuing two months But more importantly, even though Europe is now facing a devastating cold winter with widespread blackouts, Europe's unelected bureaucrats still refuse to accept the reality in which Putin calls all the shots. So perhaps to make it very clear what it would take to avoid a miserable, freezing winter, today Russia signaled that it won’t go out of its way to offer European consumers extra gas to ease the current energy crisis unless it gets something in return: regulatory approval to start shipments through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. In exchange for upping supplies, Bloomberg reports citing people close to state-run gas giant Gazprom and the Kremlin - that Russia wants what was clear to anyone - i.e., to get German and European Union approval to begin using the pipeline to Europe. “We cannot ride to the rescue just to compensate for mistakes that we didn’t commit,” Konstantin Kosachyov, a top pro-Kremlin legislator in the upper house of parliament, said in an interview, without specifying what Russia is seeking. “We’re fulfilling all our contracts, all our obligations. Everything on top of that should be a subject for additional voluntary and mutually beneficial agreements.” Well, Russia clearly has good lawyers to find all the loopholes that allow it to ship far less gas than it has recently while remaining in compliance with its contractual terms. To underscore the point, Nord Stream 2 said Monday its first line is full of so-called technical gas and ready to begin operation, though it can’t ship it until regulatory approval is granted. That announcement came hours after European gas prices spiked on news that Gazprom had again bid for only a small amount of capacity to ship the fuel to Europe via other routes. Amusingly, Bloomberg spins the narrative as if it is somehow Moscow's responsibility to keep Europe warm saying that "as surging fuel costs have caused increasing economic havoc, pressure has grown on Russia, Europe’s largest supplier, to pump more. Extra Russian gas is seen as the main way to avoid an even deeper supply crunch in the middle of the winter." Actually, the truth is that if energy prices don't plunge - and soon - the pressure will grow on Europe's politicians to find gas at any price or meet an angry mob. As for Russia, as long as it complies with its contract, if it is willing to forego on marginal profits for additional gas exports well that's entirely it's decision. Meanwhile, amid deep sanctions targeting the Kremlin which has emerged as the "biggest western enemy" as a distraction for Hillary Clinton's catastrophic failure to win the 2016 presidency, the Kremlin has zero appetite to do any favors. Although exports to Europe are up this year from last year’s depressed levels, they lag those seen in 2019, according to the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. Daily flows have dropped in October and Gazprom has been slow to refill storage facilities it owns in Europe, adding to upward pressure on prices. Russia has blamed an overly hasty shift to relying on spot markets and alternative energy sources for the crisis. Mocking the gullible Europe, last week President Vladimir Putin suggested at an energy conference that Russia could offer more gas. But he also lamented the slow progress on getting approval for Nord Stream 2, a process that could take until well into next year. German regulators are currently reviewing its application for certification but have said their initial decision could come only in January, after which the European Commission would also have to give the go-ahead. “If we could increase deliveries through this route, this would substantially ease tension on the European energy market,” Putin said. “However, we cannot do this so far because of the administrative barriers.” In other words, if Europe freeze this winter it has nobody to blame but itself... and the ESG lobby of course, whose impact has led to a collapse in traditional fossil fuel investments and a decimation of Europe's legacy energy infrastructure. Tyler Durden Tue, 10/19/2021 - 10:55

Exactly As Trump Predicted: "Racist" Jefferson Statue To Be Removed At NYC Council Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News, A 200-Year-Old Thomas Jefferson statue is to be removed from the chambers of the New York City council after a unanimous vote by the nine members of the Mayoral appointed Public Design Commission. Several lawmakers testified that the statue is ‘offensive’, with Democratic Assemblyman Charles Barron of Brooklyn even declaring that Jefferson was a “slaveholding pedophile.”  Barron added “I think it should be put in storage somewhere, destroyed or whatever.” A statue of Thomas Jefferson will be removed from the City Council chambers in New York after a debate over his legacy and association with slavery. https://t.co/24p8qloLdn — The New York Times (@nytimes) October 18, 2021 Barron continued, “How the hell can people see as a hero someone who had hundreds of enslaved Africans, someone who was a racist and who said we were inferior and someone who was a slaveholding pedophile?” He further proclaimed that “For [Jefferson] to be canonized in a statue is incredible — incredibly racist.” The New York Post notes that in 1834 the statue was given to the city by Uriah Phillips Levy, “the nation’s first Jewish Naval commodore and an admirer of Jefferson’s belief in religious freedom.” The New York Times notes of the statue that “The painted plaster version was later donated to New Yorkers and arrived at City Hall around 1834. When it first arrived in New York, Levy charged to view it and used the proceeds to feed the poor. It was installed in the City Council Chamber in the 1910s.” NYC votes to remove statue of Thomas Jefferson This shows the distorted perspective in current debate on history. To even contemplate that simply owning slaves outweighs writing the Declaration of Independence is beyond absurd. It's an assault on America.https://t.co/LADCepu3HY — Save Our Statues -Robert Poll (@_SaveOurStatues) October 18, 2021 A local ABC affiliate reports that the statue is “expected to go on ‘long term loan’ to the New-York Historical Society by the end of the year, where it would be included in educational exhibits with the proper historical context that likely will include discussion of Jefferson’s slave ownership.” NYC Mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa expressed opposition to the move, asking “Do we suddenly wipe out the images, the markings, the names of all those great patriots because they were slaveholders and slave holding was quite common at that time?” Republican City council member Joe Borelli also accused NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio of waging a “progressive war on history.”  “The de Blasio administration will continue the progressive war on history as he, himself, fades away into a portrait on a City Hall wall,” the Staten Island member told the New York Post.  Back in 2017, after statues of Confederate figures were targeted, President Trump predicted that soon enough it would be statues of Jefferson and Washington that would face the axe. “This week it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is George Washington next week and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You really do have to ask yourself: ‘Where does it stop?’” Trump asked at the time. https://t.co/N8JBQX9nNY pic.twitter.com/pRHOIEnF9X — Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 18, 2021 The media said Trump was overreacting and pointing to a ‘false slippery slope’. John Oliver devoted an entire segment to mocking Trump over the statement: 2017: So-called comedian John Oliver mocks President @realDonaldTrump for suggesting statues of Washington and Jefferson would be next. Trump was right. pic.twitter.com/wV5SkslFMw — Yanky (@Yanky_Pollak) June 21, 2020 Wrong. Trump was 100% correct. Again. It hasn’t stopped. History is being systematically erased. Earlier this year we reported on the woke mob succeeding in influencing a MUSEUM in New York to remove a statue of former President Theodore Roosevelt. Called it. Now the statues can't even be part of museums. https://t.co/SXs5toe4Vw — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) June 21, 2020 *  *  * Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/ In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, we urgently need your financial support here. Tyler Durden Tue, 10/19/2021 - 10:31

What The SEC Got Wrong In Its Meme Stock Report Late on Monday, the SEC released a watered down report suggesting popularized retail brokers lured investors to increase their trading via mechanisms like payment for order flow and gamified user interfaces. The report comes after speculative commentaries on online social media fueled a price rise in shares of highly-shorted meme stocks, before the risk management of clearing agencies resulted in brokers imposing synthetic supply imbalances. Moreover, the report found that the “act of rebellion,” on the part of retail market participants, did not result in markedly high amounts of short-covering by institutions. Additionally, the report found that the price rise was “not consistent with a gamma squeeze.” Well, in keeping with the SEC's abysmal track record of publishing catastrophically wrong post hoc "analysis" - like finding that the entire May 2010 Flash Crash the work of one solitary basement-dwelling spoos trader, Nav Sarao - the agency best known for Sucking Elon's C**k has just unleashed another steaming pile of horseshit, and our friends at SpotGamma have fundamentally disagree with the report's conclusion that options were not a major catalyst to the aforementioned price rise. The report concludes with the staff identifying areas of market structure and our regulatory framework for potential study and additional consideration. These include: Forces that may cause a brokerage to restrict trading; Digital engagement practices and payment for order flow; Trading in dark pools and wholesalers; and The market dynamics of short selling. BUT WHERE IS THE SQUEEZE? Tune in for full analysis from SpotGamma on the role that the options market played and the mechanics behind a gamma squeeze that made GameStop (GME) the poster child for the meme stock mania in early 2021. The SpotGamma team will be going live today at 10:30 AM ET to unpack what the SEC got WRONG in its 45-page meme stock analysis (or use this link). Tyler Durden Tue, 10/19/2021 - 10:10

Biden Secretly Flying In Underage Migrants To NY, Spreading Border Crisis Across US Late last night, the New York Post published a story about what appears to be a federal program secretly moving undocumented migrants arrested at the border - who are mostly teens and young adults - to shelters and other "resource centers" in suburban communities in New York, Connecticut and elsewhere. The story, which is almost too crazy to believe given what's going on right now at the southern border, was, quite frankly, as long as it was shocking. And what was almost as surprising is that the Biden Administration has been carrying on with the program - with complete acquiescence from local Democratic Party officials in New York - since at least mid-summer - potentially since as early as April - without saying anything to the press, or anywhere, in any official record. According to the Post, the flights originate in Texas, where the border crisis has overwhelmed local resources once again, and land at a Westchester County Airport, where the detainees who are being transported are sometimes driven as far away as Florida, according to what the Post has observed. And, most critically, the Post has also been able to confirm that 2,000 migrants arrested after sneaking into the US from Mexico have arrived at the airport on 21 flights since Aug. 8.  These flights apparently made quite a disturbance in the neighborhood around the airport, since they were almost always carried out in the middle of the night when the airport was supposed to be closed. Last week, The Post saw two planes land at the Westchester County Airport, where most of the passengers who got off appeared to be children and teens, with a small portion appearing to be men in their 20s. Westchester County cops stood by as the passengers — whose flights arrived at 10:49 p.m. Wednesday and 9:52 p.m. Friday — got off and piled into buses. Some of them were later seen meeting up with relatives or sponsors in New Jersey, or being dropped off at a residential facility on Long Island. Official data also shows that the CBP has nabbed nearly 38K unaccompanied minors at the border during July and August alone. A source at the airport told the NYP the new arrivals are typically sent by car or bus out to Connecticut or somewhere Upstate. Although at least some of the migrants have been moved to a shelter in Syosset, Long Island. Around 12:30 a.m. Saturday, it stopped in Syosset, Long Island, at the campus of MercyFirst, a nonprofit sponsored by the Catholic Sisters of Mercy that provides housing and services for “children and adolescents who are the victims of societal problems,” according to its website. But wait a second. This isn't some Catholic charity organization. MercyFirst has a contract with the federal government to provide services related to "the emotional and physical needs of children and adolescents who are the victims of societal problems". The company's CEO didn't return a request for comment, according to the New York Post. Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, told the Post he was outraged by the Biden Administration carrying out such an operation in such a cloak-and-dagger fashion, and apparently not telling anybody in Florida, or New York, about the operation (but we'll get to New York's "leaders" and what they have to say later). Some of the children who were flown out to Westchester were ultimately driven as far south as Tallahassee, per the Post. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed outrage at The Post’s findings, with a spokeswoman saying: "If the Biden Administration is so confident that their open-border policy is good for our country, why the secrecy?" "Why is the Biden Administration refusing to share even the most basic information about illegal alien resettlement in communities throughout our state and the entire country?" spokeswoman Christina Pushaw said. “Washington DC sets immigration policies that do not affect them, and states — that lack information about migrant resettlement and do not have the authority to change federal immigration policy — are expected to bear the brunt of Biden’s reckless open-borders agenda.” Apparently, whoever is running this program isn't practicing very strong operational security. Most of the minors were seen being placed on buses, and some were eventually picked up by individuals in plain clothes who didn't appear to be employees or agents of the federal government. On Wednesday, The Post also saw two buses leave the Westchester airport carrying about 100 passengers who arrived on a McDonnell Douglas MD-83. One bus stopped at the Thomas Edison Service Area off the New Jersey Turnpike in Woodbridge, where the migrants got off around 12:45 a.m. Thursday. Over the next two hours, they were driven away in cars by people who met them there — without anyone appearing to have to show identification to the officials overseeing the operation. The Post even spoke to a woman who lives nearby, and she confirmed that the flights appear to have been happening for weeks, forcing her family to become accustomed to the sounds of airplanes landing overhead in the middle of the night, since the "middle of the summer". A woman who lives near the airport told The Post on Monday that a flight arrived there “around 3 or 4” that morning “and it was shaking the house” and awakened her 8-month-old baby boy. "He’s been waking up for the last month around 2, 3, 4 because of the noise," she said. "I got used to the regular airport noise but these planes or jets sound different. Lower, more bass. And they’re coming in the middle of the night!" The neighbor also said that she “can see the airport perfectly from my upstairs” and has noticed “a few buses that say ‘Out of Service’ hanging around” that aren’t the usual county buses or airport shuttles. And she said the airport has lately been “much darker than usual” overnight. “I liked the way it looked like a little city — blue and white lights,” she said. “But since the middle of this summer, they are all off, except one or two of them on the top of the Flexjet hangar…I guess so you can’t see what’s going on.” They also spoke to former Westchester County Exec Rob Astorino, the GOP candidate vying to run for governor, who said he learned about the program after locals complained about curfew violations. He's saying that the operation has been going on since at least April, and what started with "smaller planes" has evolved into planeloads of presumably unaccompanied migrants - at least 50 to 75 who appear to be mostly men older than 20. "No one has explained where they’re going and who they are,” he said. "The Biden administration is systematically spreading the southern border crisis to communities all around the country, often shrouded in secrecy and under the cloak of darkness." At this point, we would like to know: what's going on here, Joe? A spokeswoman for the Democrat currently running Westchester County said the program is "nothing new" and that it was similar to something that President Trump would have done. If that's true, then it looks like President Biden is caught in a real bind here - politically speaking. Is he "like Trump" on immigration? Or isn't he? After all, this isn't the first time we have seen this come up. Tyler Durden Tue, 10/19/2021 - 09:11

Doctors Can Prescribe Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine Off-Label For COVID-19: Nebraska AG Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson issued a legal opinion saying that his office won’t seek disciplinary action against doctors who prescribe hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin as off-label medicines to treat or prevent COVID-19, as long as they are not engaging in any misconduct. The opinion (pdf), issued on Oct. 15, was in response to a request from Dannette Smith, CEO of the state’s Department of Health, which licenses and disciplines doctors. Smith asked whether it would be “deemed unlawful or otherwise subject to discipline” for doctors to prescribe ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, or other “off label use” medications to treat or prevent COVID-19. The Republican attorney general said in the opinion that his office finds “the available data does not justify filing disciplinary actions against physicians simply because they prescribe ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine to prevent or treat COVID-19.” Health care providers in general may be subject to discipline if they “neglect to obtain informed consent, deceive their patients, prescribe excessively high doses, fail to check for contraindications, or engage in other misconduct,” wrote Peterson. He said his office is not recommending any particular treatment options for COVID-19, but only the off-label early treatment options as raised by the health department “and conclude that the available evidence suggests that they might work for some people.” The opinion continues, “Allowing physicians to consider these early treatments will free them to evaluate additional tools that could save lives, keep patients out of the hospital, and provide relief for our already strained health care system.” The legal opinion also noted that there may be other promising off-label medicines to tackle the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19. Hydroxychloroquine, an anti-inflammatory and anti-malarial medication, gained prominence and heavy scrutiny after former President Donald Trump said he was taking it as a prophylactic. Last year, medical journal The Lancet initially published a paper condemning hydroxychloroquine before retracting it after more than 100 medical professionals raised major issues with the study. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in July 2020 removed videos of a group of doctors who advocated for its use as early treatment and prophylaxis amid the pandemic. A study published in the American Journal of Medicine on Jan. 1 found that hydroxychloroquine helped lower mortality in the early treatment of COVID-19. The World Health Organization in March advised against the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. Ivermectin, a generic medicine widely used against some parasitic worms as well as to treat scabies, lice, and rosacea in humans, has been praised by some doctors as a life-saving early treatment for COVID-19. Two groups, the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance and the British Ivermectin Recommendation Development Group, have urged for the off-label use of ivermectin for COVID-19. There are at least 63 studies, of which 45 are peer-reviewed, on the treatment of COVID-19 with ivermectin. The American Medical Association, the American Pharmacists Association, and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, said in a joint statement in September they were against its use outside of a clinical trial as a COVID-19 drug. In Australia, the therapeutics regulator has restricted the prescription of ivermectin for COVID-19 and other off-label use only for certain specialists, including infectious disease physicians, dermatologists, gastroenterologists, and hepatologists. *  *  * Jarrad Winter, via AmericanThinker.com, has broken down a few key sections from the AG's lengthy opinion. As to the question of ivermectin as a treatment option: The Mahmud study–a CRT that explored ivermectin as an early treatment for 363 individuals–concluded that “patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infection treated with ivermectin plus doxycycline recovered earlier, were less likely to progress to more serious disease, and were more likely to be COVID-19 negative on day 14. And Niaee’s research team found that ivermectin can help even hospitalized patients. That group conducted a “randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter clinical trial” with 180 hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19. They concluded that ivermectin “reduces the rate of mortality and duration of hospitalization in adult COVID-19 patients,” and the improvement of other clinical parameters showed that the ivermectin, with a wide margin of safety, had a high therapeutic effect on COVID-19. What initially made ivermectin a target for all the inexplicable slander? Why would ivermectin’s original patent holder go out of its way to question this medicine by creating the impression that it might not be safe? There are at least two plausible reasons. First, ivermectin is no longer under patent, so Merck does not profit from it anymore. That likely explains why Merck declined to “conduct clinical trials” on ivermectin and COVID-19 when given the chance. Second, Merck has a significant financial interest in the medical profession rejecting ivermectin as an early treatment for COVID-19. As to the question of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment option: In 2004, long before the COVID-19 pandemic began, a lab study revealed that chloroquine "is an effective inhibitor of the replication of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in vitro" and thus that it should be "considered for immediate use in the prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV infections". The following year, another paper explained that "chloroquine has strong antiviral effects on SARS-CoV" and "is effective in preventing the spread of SARS[-]CoV in cell culture." It is widely recognized in the medical community that hydroxychloroquine is generally safe, so safe in fact that it may be prescribed to pregnant women and "children of all ages." What made hydroxychloroquine controversial in the first place? A striking example features one of the world’s most prestigious medical journals–the Lancet. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lancet published a paper denouncing hydroxychloroquine as dangerous. Yet the reported statistics were so flawed that journalists and outside researchers immediately began raising concerns. Then after one of the authors refused to provide the analyzed data, the paper was retracted, but not before many countries stopped using hydroxychloroquine and trials were cancelled or interrupted. The Lancet’s own editor in chief admitted that the paper was a “fabrication, a monumental fraud,” and “a shocking example of research misconduct in the middle of a global health emergency." Interesting note about ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine hesitancy: As for professional associations' and physician groups' views on hydroxychloroquine, it appears they generally adopt the same position they did on ivermectin. Those like the AAPS who support ivermectin as an option for early COVID-19 treatment generally support hydroxychloroquine too, while those like the AMA, APhA, and ASHP that oppose one typically resist the other. The AG's conclusion: Allowing physicians to consider these early treatments will free them to evaluate additional tools that could save lives, keep patients out of the hospital, and provide relief for our already strained healthcare system. *  *  * Read the full opinion below: Tyler Durden Tue, 10/19/2021 - 08:45