- Snakes In Suits: Are Psychopaths Running The World?
Snakes In Suits: Are Psychopaths Running The World?
Authored by Alanna Kelter via Collective Evolution blog,
Often when we think of the word psychopath, we think of deranged serial killers that are hopefully locked up in prison for life.
While there are many psychopaths who kill for reasons that are unfathomable to most of us and who are indeed in prison, there is an even greater number roaming free in our society and often using their condition to their advantage in any way possible.
In fact, it is very likely that you know some – they might even be your colleagues.
Most of us do not know or work with any serial killers, at least not that we are aware of. So, what exactly is a psychopath and how can we define them? The dictionary definition is as follows:
“A person suffering from a chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior.”
As you can probably tell, a lot more than just serial killers will fit into this broad definition. In fact, according to Canadian psychologist Dr. Robert Hare, a world-renowned expert on psychopathy, an estimated 1% of the Earth’s population is psychopathic and around 25% of the population of male inmates at federal correctional facilities are psychopathic.
Psychopathic Traits
It is important to note that, in contrast with the popular image of the ‘deranged psycho,’ psychopaths tend to be very well composed, take good care of their appearance and are very charming (think of Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho). Because of this you may have a difficult time spotting them out, as they are masters of deception and are able to fake a lot of the qualities that define regular people. Some other psychopathic traits, according to Hare’s Psychopath
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Glib and superficial charm
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Grandiose estimation of self
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Need for stimulation
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Manipulative and cunning
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Complete lack of remorse or guilt
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Pathological lying
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Have a parasitic lifestyle, often latching onto and taking from others
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Have a history of early behavioral problems
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Overly impulsive
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Are very irresponsible
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Unable to accept responsibility for actions
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Unable to commit to long-term relationships
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History of juvenile delinquency
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Display criminal versatility
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Experienced a “revocation of conditional release”
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Lacks realistic long term goals
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History of promiscuous sexual behavior
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Have poor behavioral controls
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Are callous and lack empathy
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Have a “shallow affect” (psychopaths show a lack of emotion when an emotional reaction is appropriate.)
You can actually rate yourself to find out if you are psychopath. On each criterion, the subject is ranked on a 3-point scale: (0 = item does not apply, 1 = item applies somewhat, 2 = item definitely applies). The scores are summed to create a rank of zero to 40. Anyone who scores 30 and above is most likely a psychopath. Hare has used this test and checklist to detect which inmates are psychopaths.
Snakes In Suits
What many of us don’t realize is that psychopaths actually thrive in the corporate world. Hare has actually co-authored a book with Dr. Paul Babiak on this topic entitled, Snakes In Suits: Understanding and Surviving the Psychopaths in Your Office. Psychopaths manipulate others to accrue power, sometimes pitting them against each other in an attempt to divide and conquer. They are often attracted to bigger, dynamic corporations with very little structure or supervision. They generally don’t work well in teams because they don’t like to share information or skills and it brings them joy to watch others fail. They are addicted to power, status and money. Sound familiar?
Sadly, the corporate world is set up to favor psychopathic traits such as fearlessness, dominant behavior and immunity to stress. Because of this, psychopaths often find themselves in these types of positions, and then have an easier time climbing the corporate ladder and obtaining positions of great power. This is where they can do real damage to society.
Are Psychopaths Running The World?
Not only as corporate heads do psychopaths find success in our modern-day society, but also within our governments and political system — often as front-line politicians. This may come as a shock to you, but when you really look at some of the atrocities that are taking place on our planet, and if you’ve ever wondered how things that are so inhumane could actually be happening, well, therein lies your answer.
When you consider the war, genocide, senseless murder of civilians, treatment of the indigenous cultures of the world, chemicals in our food, air and water supply, acts of “terrorism”, war crimes and so many other unjust and cruel actions which are often instigated by our political leaders, it becomes easy to see how psychopaths actually fit the requirements for these types of roles quite well. As mentioned before they are masters of deception, pathological liars and often quite charming.
Many soldiers go to war and because they are conditioned to believe that they are fighting an enemy in the name of peace. They do as they are told and commit these heinous acts against other human beings. The reason why so many soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder is because it is not within human nature to murder other humans, and especially innocent civilians
We already know how many politicians are crooked, but perhaps its time to start looking at them with the psychopath checklist in mind so that we can be better equipped to protect not only ourselves but our society from their malicious acts.
But Can’t We Help Them?
It is natural for anyone who is an empath or those involved in spiritual work to have compassion for these individuals and feel compelled to help them overcome their psychopathic behavior. However, most research has pointed towards the understanding that psychopaths are born, not made and therefore cannot be cured. This is one of the main differences that separates sociopaths from psychopaths. Another is that sociopaths have a conscience, albeit a weak one, and will often justify something they know to be wrong. By contrast, psychopaths will believe that their actions are justified and feel no remorse for any harm done. Sociopaths are made, and have a higher likelihood of overcoming their condition. However, many of those with sociopathic behavior will find themselves in similar corporate positions.
Hare’s research discovered that by attempting to heal or help a psychopath, you might actually be strengthening their cunning abilities, as they will find a way to manipulate you into believing that they are remorseful and understand how their actions were wrong.
The best we can do is learn to recognize the traits of psychopaths and be sure to stay clear of their actions and behaviors to protect ourselves from the wake of their inevitable destruction.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/30/2020 – 00:05 -
- After Slashing Bonuses, Deutsche Bank Delays Promised Pay Raises
After Slashing Bonuses, Deutsche Bank Delays Promised Pay Raises
Look on the bright side: At least you still have a job.
After an almost unrelentingly demoralizing 2019, Deutsche Bank’s CEO is asking his bankers to make one last sacrifice for the sake of Sewing’s grand turnaround vision to keep this melting icecube intact just a little while longer.
What’s he doing, exactly? Well, waiting few extra months for pay raises promised last year.
But hopefully employees don’t read too much into the delay: because of the pay raises taking effect on Jan. 1, bankers will need to wait until April Fool’s Day instead, according to Reuters and the New York Post.
“After thorough discussions, we on the Management Board have taken the decision that, from 2020, any fixed pay adjustments in connection with the annual review or promotion process will be effective April 1 (not retroactively effective as of January 1).”
Unsurprisingly, Sewing blamed the many scandals and penalties that have plagued Deutsche Bank, saying they’ve hastened the need for dramatic cost cuts. For context: The bank has paid out more than $20 billion in fines over the last decade.
“We carefully assessed how this decision would impact our employees and benchmarked ourselves against peers,” Sewing said in a memo obtained by the New York Post.
Sewing stressed that for the bank to become more competitive and avoid even more painful cutbacks, it must be run in a “disciplined manner”. Perhaps he should tell that to his predecessors who allowed the global headcount at the German giant to swell to nearly 90,000.
“For the bank to be competitive and meet its goals for sustainable returns to shareholders it is vital that we further manage costs in a disciplined manner,” Sewing wrote. “This also relates to compensation.”
Deutsche Bank isn’t the only European bank embracing “cost cuts” in its investment-banking unit (though DB bankers will also have to do more with less this year), and Sewing assures his staff that DB’s efforts have been “benchmarked against peers”.
“We carefully assessed how this decision would impact our employees and benchmarked ourselves against peers,” Sewing added.
Anybody complaining about the delay should take a second to think about what they have to be thankful for: At least they still have jobs, and will continue to be paid.
“We will continue to compensate employees for their qualifications, experience and skills, commensurate with the requirements, size and scope of their role,” Deutsche Bank said.
Many of their now-former colleagues aren’t so lucky.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 23:45 - Gun Control Folly In D.C.
Gun Control Folly In D.C.
Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,
Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that the homicide rate in Washington, D.C., in 2019 was higher than it was in 2018. There were 166 people killed in 2019, compared to 160 in 2018. In fact, the 2019 D.C. homicide rate is the highest number since 2008.
But isn’t that impossible? After all, our nation’s capital has one of the strictest gun-control laws in the United States.
The Post points out, “D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham has identified illegal firearms as a major factor fueling homicides.”
But how is that possible? Given that the city has such strict gun-control laws, how is it possible that people are still being killed by guns?
The answer is very simple. People who are willing to murder people don’t give a hoot about gun-control laws. Why should they? If they get caught, prosecuted, and convicted of murder, they are going to have to serve a very long jail term, maybe even life in prison. They know that. What difference does it make if a judge adds another 5 years for violating some gun-control law?
Clockwise starting at topleft: Glock G22, Glock G21, Kimber Custom Raptor, Dan Wesson Commander, Smith & Wesson Air Weight .357, Ruger Blackhawk .357, Ruger SP101, Sig Sauer P220 Combat.
That’s what many in the gun-control crowd have never been able to process. They just naively assume that if possession of guns is made illegal, everyone will comply with the law.
In making that assumption, the gun-control crowd, of course, is right. Most people will comply with the law. They don’t want to take the chance of being convicted of a felony. The problem, however, is that those are the people who oftentimes are the victims of violent crime. Thus, what a gun-control law does is disarm those people, thereby preventing them from defending themselves against people who don’t give a hoot for gun-control laws.
The Post adds another dimension to the gun-control equation. It writes: “We also hope that Virginia — a major source of the illegal firearms that flood the District — reimposes a law to limit purchases of handguns to one a month.”
So, you see, it’s not enough to impose strict gun control in D.C. It then becomes necessary to impose strict gun control in Virginia. Once that is accomplished, however, the guns will begin flooding in from Maryland, which means even stricter gun control there. And let’s not forget the likelihood that smugglers from North Carolina, seeing the soaring prices of black-market guns in D.C., will begin flooding guns into D.C. by boats traveling up the Potomac. They’re going to need strict gun control in North Carolina too to ensure that gun control in D.C. works.
In other words, to order to make D.C. a gun-free society, which is what the gun-control crowd really wants to accomplish, a strict gun-control regime will ultimately be needed all across the country. That means disarming law-abiding people in every state, thereby preventing them from defending themselves against the violent people who don’t care whether they violate gun-control laws.
Let’s assume the gun-control crowd got its wish and that the only people who have guns are the Pentagon, the military establishment, the CIA, the NSA, the FBI, the TSA, the DEA, ICE, and other federal officials.
The question then arises: Who protects the citizenry from those people? What if a national “emergency” or “crisis” involving “national security” occurs and those federal people begin rounding up American families who officials think pose a threat to “national security” and placing them in Abu Ghraib prison camps all across the nation? At that point, many American citizens will wish they still had their guns.
But one thing is certain: Once people surrender their guns to the government, they will never make the mistake a second time because they simply will not have the opportunity to make the mistake a second time. That’s because once people give up their guns to their government, there is no possibility that the government will let them ever have their guns back.
The real problem in America is violence, not guns. Enacting a one-per-month purchase of a handgun in Virginia, as the Post recommends, is like putting a Band-Aid on a massive hemorrhaging wound.
There are two major ways to drastically reduce violence in America:
(1) Legalize drugs, all of them. That would immediately put out of business all drug cartels and drug gangs. It would also drastically reduce the price of drugs, thereby reducing robberies, muggings, and thefts to get the money to pay the exorbitant black-market prices for drugs; and
(2) Bring all the troops home from the Middle East and Afghanistan (and everywhere else), where they have been killing and injuring people and wreaking massive destructive violence on a constant level for decades. It is a virtual certainty that this culture of violence has seeped into American society, especially with what appear to be copycat killings that target people for what appears to be no rational reason.
Let’s legalize drugs and end the Pentagon-CIA culture of violence overseas. Violence would plummet here at home, which would thereby eliminate one of the principal excuses for gun control here in the United States.
The right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental, God-given right, one that exists independently of the Second Amendment and the Constitution itself.
It is also a key to a safer, more secure society.
Gun control leads to higher homicides and to the possibility of federal tyranny. Too bad people in Washington, D.C., haven’t figured that out.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 23:25 - San Francisco Poop Patrol Boss Arrested On Felony Fraud Charges Involving 'Multiple Schemes': FBI
San Francisco Poop Patrol Boss Arrested On Felony Fraud Charges Involving ‘Multiple Schemes’: FBI
San Francisco’s Director of Public Works was arrested on Monday by the FBI over a series of suspected pay-to-play schemes, according to the San Francisco Examiner.
Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru has been placed on leave following his arrest Monday by the FBI. (Kevin N. Hume/S.F. Examiner) Mohammed Nuru, 57, was charged alongside San Francisco businessman Nick Bovis are alleged to have engaged in “corruption, bribery, and side deals by one of San Francisco’s highest-ranking public employees. San Francisco has been betrayed as alleged in the complaint,” according to a 75-page complaint unsealed this week.
“The complaint alleges corruption pouring into San Francisco from around the world,” said US Attorney for the Northern District of California, David Anderson, who added that the complaint alleges “corruption, bribery and side deals from one of San Francisco’s highest-ranking public employees.”
Above: David Anderson, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, on Tuesday announced charges against Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru in a public corruption probe. Of note, the Public Works department oversees San Francisco’s ‘poop patrol,’ which pays crews making six-figure salaries to clean up after the city’s notorious homeless population.
Thank you to Nick Bovis for his leadership & all he does for the children of the Bay Area& beyond w/@LODKids pic.twitter.com/xFPbE6MpGi
— Mohammed Nuru (@MrCleanSF) December 24, 2013
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Nuru faces 20 years in prison if convicted on all counts – including an additional five years because he lied to the FBI about not keeping quiet about the investigation as originally agreed upon when he was arrested January 21st.
The alleged actions took place in 2018 and 2019 and were documented during a long-running and broad investigation involving undercover agents, informants, and extensive wire-taps. Other figures Bovis or Nuru interacted with are described obliquely in the complaint. Anderson said he’s certain individuals will recognize themselves and encouraged them to come forward.
“They have an opportunity to do the right thing — for San Francisco and all of us,” he said. “If they are inclined to do the right thing, they should … run to the FBI offices and disclose what they know. Or we’ll do it the other way.”
Bovis, Nuru’s partner in several of “five schemes” outlined today, is facing 20 years in prison. Both are free on $2 million bonds and will next appear in court on Feb. 6.
Anderson and FBI special agent in charge Jack Bennett outlined “five schemes.” The charges stem from the first and the four others are “charged to show state of mind.”
They are: 1. The Airport Scheme; 2. The Multimillion-Dollar Mixed-Use Development Scheme; 3. The Transbay Transit Center Scheme; 4. The Bathroom Trailer and Homeless Shelter Scheme; 5. The Vacation Home Scheme. –Mission Local
(Read about the schemes in detail here)
It is unknown how this might affect the poop patrol.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 23:05 - The Steele Trump-Russia Dossier Was "Completely Fabricated", Leading British Spy Expert
The Steele Trump-Russia Dossier Was “Completely Fabricated”, Leading British Spy Expert
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
In some not so surprising news, a spy expert has come out saying what most of us already knew: the Steele dossier was completely “fabricated.” Nigel West, one of Britain’s leading experts on espionage, was hired to examine the dossier written by his friend Christopher Steele. He concluded it was all manufactured falsehoods.
West, hired to examine the dossier back in 2017, quickly concluded that “there is… a strong possibility that all Steele’s material has been fabricated,” according to the Sunday Times.
Woah. Britain’s @thesundaytimes reports that the infamous “Steele Dossier” on @realDonaldTrump, compiled by a former MI6 spy, which accused the US president of being compromised by Russia & drove the “Russigate” hoax, was a work of “fabrication.” https://t.co/Yyc8Bt5r4M
— Bryan MacDonald (@27khv) January 27, 2020
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Steele’s scandalous document, which claimed extensive ties between the then-US President-elect Donald Trump and the Kremlin, was published by BuzzFeed in January 2017 and quickly became the cornerstone of “Russiagate.” Media talking heads insisted that much of it had been corroborated. In fact, nothing was. –RT
It took West a long time to come out with the information that the dossier was an utter fabrication. It isn’t clear why he waited so long to reveal what most already knew anyway. Even the FBI director at the time, James Comey, described the dossier as“salacious and unverified” in testimony to Congress. But the fact that this dossier was “unverified” did not stop Comey from signing an application for a FISA warrant that the Bureau used to spy on the Trump campaign via one of its advisers, Carter Page.
Steele himself was paid purely above-board, of course: by Fusion GPS, which was a client of the law firm Perkins Coie LLP, on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, at the direction of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
West told RT that he was surprised Steele made such obvious errors in the dossier. Some of the most glaring mistakes were those such as treating one particular source as an expert in three entirely different fields or making up the existence of the Russian consulate in Miami, Florida. The source in question starts out as a middle-manager at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow, but is later described as an expert on cyber warfare, and later yet as an expert on money-laundering by Russian immigrants in the US, West explained.
“On the face of it, it looked inherently improbable that this single source was as proclaimed.”
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 22:45 - Coronavirus Could Hinder Beijing's Ability To Fulfill Phase One Trade Deal
Coronavirus Could Hinder Beijing’s Ability To Fulfill Phase One Trade Deal
China’s next dilemma will be fulfilling the phase one trade deal, which states they must buy $200 billion in additional products from the U.S. over two years on top of pre-trade war levels, reported the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
The outbreak of the deadly virus has dramatically slowed China’s economy, with nearly 57 million people in 15 cities on lockdown for the next several weeks. Factories and transportation networks across much of the country are shut down, which means goods across domestic and international supply chains are not free-flowing in the country.
Cases of the deadly virus continue to exponentially rise, as government numbers on Tuesday night show more than 6,000 infected and 132 confirmed deaths. Comparing the deadly virus with the 2003 SARS outbreak – it’s important to note that coronavirus has already surpassed the number of infected by SARS in a few weeks, compared to the nine-month ordeal almost two decades ago.
Traders who spoke with SCMP had their doubts that China could hit hard targets of an additional $32 billion agriculture and $52 billion energy pledge over the next two years, mostly because the demand for the goods has collapsed. Also, countries like Brazil and Argentina have eroded U.S. market share in China over the last year with cheaper products.
“There are some cities and villages essentially in lockdown, and this will completely hamper the movements of not only people, but also agricultural goods. So hogs that are supposed to be going to the slaughterhouse, will just not be transported,” said Andrei Agapi, associate pricing director for agriculture at S&P Global Platts in Singapore.
Large swaths of the country’s industrial complex have been shut down, expected to last for the next several weeks. Currently, there’s no cure, and the spread of the virus is becoming uncontrollable, this could lead to extended shutdowns.
We noted Monday, Foxconn has a large manufacturing plant making Apple’s iPhones in Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, along with other facilities nearby, are currently closed until February 10.
Besides major industrial hubs closed, critical transportation networks across China remain closed, which has impeded the ability of goods to move freely across the country.
“The viral outbreak definitely throws a wrench into those [purchasing] plans, not just in terms of logistics – as major ports and transport links are closed or disrupted – but also in [terms of] policymaker attention,” said Nick Marro, global trade lead at The Economist Intelligence Unit in Hong Kong.
Marro said the country is occupied with “mobilizing most of its resources to handle the outbreak, which is now the top item on the policy agenda. The trade war with the U.S. inevitably has to come second.“
Agapi said private buyers who want to hedge their import purchases in the futures market might not be able to do so until February 3, when markets open.
“Anybody that wants to buy soybeans will not be able to hedge their crush margins on the futures exchange, and that will be an additional reason why people will just hold off on their buying,” Agapi said. “Some people are also not going to be able to come to work depending on the restrictions on travel. So in practical terms, I think that is going to lower the buying base.“
Carlos Casanova, an Asia-Pacific economist at Coface, said the impact of the economy coming to a halt will be felt on the largest companies with “supply chain exposures to Wuhan and other cities that are locked down. As no merchandise will be leaving soon, we anticipate some degree of disruption and payment delays.”
Renaud Anjoran, CEO of China-focused trade and manufacturing advisory firm Sofeast, said travel bans in the country could lead to a more pronounced industrial slump, where factories could be idled for an extended period that would create further problems with the ability of some companies to purchase U.S. goods.
Coronavirus is China’s new excuse for why they couldn’t meet hard targets in phase one trade deal.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 22:25 - NYC Prof Compares Trump's Actions To "Murder Conspiracy"
NYC Prof Compares Trump’s Actions To “Murder Conspiracy”
Authored by Jon Street via CampusReform.org,
New York City professor suggested on national television that President Donald Trump has engaged in a “murder conspiracy” during his ongoing senate impeachment trial.
Maya Wiley, professor at the New School in New York City, made the comment Thursday during an appearance on MSNBC.
“[W]hen you look at the obstruction, part of what House impeachment manager Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) is saying is, this is suicide for congressional oversight if we do not take action on a president who by the way just yesterday in Davos kind of rejoiced at the fact that they had all the evidence and not Congress…” Wiley said.
The professor appears to be referencing comments in which Trump said during his visit to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland,
“When we released that conversation all hell broke out with the Democrats. Because they said, ‘Wait a minute, this is much different than what [Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)] told us.’ So, we’re doing very well. I got to watch enough. I thought our team did a very good job,” Trump said of the first hours of the Senate impeachment trial.
“But honestly, we have all the material. They don’t have the material,” Trump added.
Wiley then compared the president’s actions to that of a “murder conspiracy.”
“But it’s also a murder conspiracy and the victim here is the Constitution,” Wiley said.
WATCH:
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 22:05 - Coronavirus Attention "Way Overblown", Dr. Ron Paul Warns Real Danger Is Fed "Doesn't Have Control"
Coronavirus Attention “Way Overblown”, Dr. Ron Paul Warns Real Danger Is Fed “Doesn’t Have Control”
Dr. Ron Paul appeared Wednesday on the Quoth the Raven Podcast to speak with host Chris Irons about the coronavirus, Fed policy and gold prices heading into the election.
To start, Dr. Paul claimed that he thought fears about the virus were overblown. He said the virus is being reported on “way out of proportion with the amount of attention people should be giving it.”
“The danger is way overblown. There’s no way what I’m saying is perfectly clear, I’m just going by my best and what’s happened in the past,” he said.
When asked about the origins of the virus and whether he thought it could have been human-made, he said:
“About whether or not it came from a laboratory or was produced deliberately, I just don’t think so.”
“It’s all a gimmick, probably to try and sell more vaccines,” Dr. Paul commented when asked about whether or not he believed China’s data about the virus.
Dr. Paul said he didn’t believe just as he doesn’t believe the U.S. when it came to China’s macroeconomic data. From there, Dr. Paul talked about the addiction to money printing the Fed currently has.
“It’s the middle class that suffers” when the Fed destroys the money, Dr. Paul said. And when asked about whether or not its possible to even gauge risk anymore, given the amount of money printing that has taken place in the U.S., he replied that he didn’t think it was possible.
When speaking about the Trump administration’s policy of continuing to print money, Dr. Paul said there are “short-term benefits” but that ultimately, “the Fed doesn’t have control” of what happens in the long term.
“They don’t have control and it just drives them nuts,” Dr. Paul says.
“The markets are more powerful.”
When asked about what he thought the price of gold would do heading into the November election, Dr. Paul commented: “The gold price is going up. Spending is excessive and it’s going to get worse. And it will be monetized.”
“There’s always an excuse for gold to jump $100,” Dr. Paul concluded.
When asked about the country’s consistent position of being at war in the middle east, Dr. Paul said it “makes him sick” when congresspeople use the constitution and freedom as an excuse to go to war.
Finally, on the topic of the impeachment, Dr. Paul said:
“They’re trying to impeach a President out of clear blue hatred…”
You can listen to the full interview here:
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 21:45 - 5 Reasons Why Big Oil Is Here To Stay
5 Reasons Why Big Oil Is Here To Stay
Authored by David Messler via OilPrice.com,
The investment case for oil companies has been under attack recently. Climate change activists know that the dividends paid by the largest of these companies are among the most lucrative and stable over time, of any payers in the marketplace today. Further, they know these attacks will receive wide coverage precisely because of the criticality of the dividend stability to these companies stock price. It’s a two-fer for these folks. The only thing is…it isn’t true.
Dividends are the principle reason to own the shares of the major oil companies. The dividend payouts these days are yielding 4-7 percent, thanks to the depressed equity valuations of the oil majors. As you will note, this is well above most other options, like U.S. 10-year treasury notes as an example. Any threat to the dividend will absolutely bring a “dog diving under the bed in a thunderstorm” response from the typical investor. They will push the sell button lickety-split. And, of course, that’s just the response hoped for. Smart investors in these companies will pause just a moment for a second opinion. Perhaps one with some facts behind it, like you will read in this article.
“Sustainable” forms of energy are all the rage these days. You can’t watch a money show without hearing from the bloviator de jour about how “Green Energy” will replace traditional hydrocarbon sources in about ten-years or so. Among these worthies are the CEOs of major institutional holders, like Blackrock or Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund and other large banking and fund management companies. These leaders will freely admit they are moving toward divestiture due to the political narratives regarding climate change, stating it as a fact. The truth is they have no rational basis, but are rather yielding to the out-spoken minority “stake-holders,” who are demanding action on their part to divest “dirty energy sources.”
As noted above in this article, we will take a closer look at the investbility of some of the biggest dividend payers on the planet. In doing this we will look past the splashy headlines that the CEO’s of these companies garner in watering-holes like Davos. Get ready for some real analysis, and prepare to sleep well at night knowing your retirement portfolio will be there when you need it.
Climate change propaganda and misinformation
The stimulus for this article was an article I chanced on by a climate change crisis group called the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, or IEEFA.
A little research finds this is an organization that takes its mission as:
“The Institute’s mission is to accelerate the transition to a diverse, sustainable and profitable energy economy.”
Hmmm, what the heck are they talking about, you may wonder? One thing is for sure they have an agenda against the petroleum industry, making their conclusions suspicious to this reader. Now, let’s understand information can be completely accurate and still be misleading.
I haven’t gone back and fact-checked any of the information linked from this IEEFA article. Instead, I did my own investigation using company documents to see if I could justify my faith in the companies whose viability was being questioned. My results will be revealed in the next section of this article.
Like most investigations that start with an agenda, the IEEFA article contains a grain of truth. This “grain” helps to anchor the disinformation that follows. To wit: many oil companies have outspent cash flows maintaining dividends over the time period measured.
IEEFA course provides no context here, just raw data. This can be misleading. In the discussion that follows, we will provide some context to help evaluate the concerns that we really have.
What is the trend for the future? Are our investments safe, as safe as any stock investment can be, and are the dividends many of us rely upon to maintain our retired standard of living, likely to continue?
That’s what I want to know, and I expect if you are reading this article, you do as well.
Reasons why super major stocks will remain investible
Let me offer the following points that should give you more confidence in the ability of these companies to continue earning your trust and your capital on into the future.
1. Dividend Payout Patios (Net income/dividend)
Ratios below 1:1 are considered “safe,” classically, but safe is a relative term. Over the past five years all of these companies with the exception of Total (NYSE:TOT) bonds sales have been the way they covered the dividend. Currently, they are in the range of or slightly above historical sub 1:1 levels.
The context lacking in the IEEFA article, denoted by the hump in the middle of the chart above, represents the full impact of the “lower for longer” oil price. The impact of these lower price realizations, and the fact that these companies were also slow to whittle down their capex budgets, meant that the dividend was being supported by borrowing.
So what is the truth, if that IEEFA article is so offbase? What are these companies telling us about coverage projections going forward? Let’s look at a few cash flow projections from this cohort.
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Based on a Brent price of $60, Shell, (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B) projects free cash flows to rise from around $28 bn in 2020 to about $35 bn by 2025. With current obligations of about $16 bn for dividends, that leaves an increasingly fat amount for stock repurchases. Dividend coverage should improve consistently over this time and shareholders should lose no sleep. The check will be in the mail.
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ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) recently has struggled to maintain a sub-1:1 cash flow to dividend ratio as my chart above shows. Currently, it is well above that and the current 5.15 percent yield notes the markets dissatisfaction with that situation. That will change and soon. With the Liza field coming on line and with break-even costs in the $30/bbl range, as much $5 bn of free cash could be generated from that project alone. XOM is on track to produce a million barrels a day from the Permian by 2025 with BE costs as low as $20/bbl. Bank America Merrill Lynch recently put out a bullish call on XOM with a price target based on increasing cash flow from these projects of $100/share.
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Chevron (NYSE:CVX) is a dividend champion that has been increasing its dividend in recent years and lowering capex resulting in its current 0.53 coverage ratio. Market sages will tell you that the safest dividend is one that’s just been raised. CVX consistently ranks as one of the best-managed companies and has a project portfolio that will keep profits gushing in years to come. It grew cash flow by 50 percent YoY in 2018, and current management’s fiscal discipline should maintain that trend over the next few years. It currently covers capex and dividends with a $52 oil price, and has been buying back stock currently at a clip of $4 bn per annum.
This has turned into a long article so I will skip the same type of analysis for (NYSE:BP) and (NYSE:TOT) in terms of project portfolios and capex restraint. All of these companies have redesigned their upstream projects to be cash flow positive with oil prices much lower than they are now. In this core group of Super Major energy companies, investors should sleep well at night.
2. Stock buybacks.
These companies are all buying back billions of dollars of their common stock every year. This decreases the total dividend payout, and makes the dividend safer for each remaining share of stock. In the past year, Shell has bought back about $12 bn worth of its stock, on a 2018 commitment of $25 bn by 2020. Shell recently announced that weaker than expected oil prices might drag this out a bit. That knocked the stock price down a bit, which I saw as a buying opportunity.
Shell will buy another ~$3 bn in Q-1 of 2020. Do investors care if this happens by the end of 2020 or takes a quarter or two more? They shouldn’t. On the plus side, oil prices might rise more than anticipated and share repurchases could be accelerated. As you may have noted things can change rapidly in the oil market.
3. Debt reduction.
This is a priority for all of these companies and is being funded through free cash and assets sales with the proceeds going to debt reduction. Portfolio “high grading” is underway. It’s not perfect and sometimes it one step back for every two steps forward. Picking on Shell once again, the official target for debt to capital is 25 percent. Moving toward that goal for most of 2018, the company has taken a stutter-step higher to the 28 percent range. Part of this was due to lease costs hitting the balance sheet in late 2018. There can be no doubt that lower than anticipated oil prices has slowed this process.
Shell management reminds us of this regularly during the analyst calls. What matters to us is that they consider it a matter of the utmost priority. Ben Van Beurden comments in response to an analyst’s question regarding the timing of stock buybacks and debt reduction:
“So, very clearly, we are still completely intent on buying back $25 billion of shares and we are also completely committed to strengthening the balance sheet by bringing debt down.”
4. Diversifying the product mix to include “Green Energy.”
Green energy or sustainable energy sources is the path to the future, or so we are repeatedly told. It is only prudent for the big oil companies to seed research and startup companies in this area. So far, none of these efforts have reached the level where they are accounted for separately on the balance sheet however, with the notable exception of LNG. Whether it’s biodiesel in Brazil, or electrical charging stations in the UK, or wind farms in the Permian, or LNG, efforts are being put forth by them all. Whether any of these can turn a profit down the road remains to be seen. For now, it is enough that the exercise is underway, as it raises their ESG profile.
5. Investing in new technologies.
These companies all have and are developing more AI expertise with big data. The Shells and BPs of the world all generate huge amounts of data every day. Terabytes upon terabytes of it daily. Historically, the resources to manage this information efficiently just did not exist. Now it does these companies are moving rapidly to integrate and perhaps monetize this technology.
“AI can help find those cost reductions by tackling a range of problems. Its deployment in upstream operations could yield collective savings in capital and operating expenditures of $100 billion to $1 trillion by 2025, according to a 2018 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Most companies declined to discuss their exact spending on AI.”
As these resources are deployed in remote locations or refineries, costs will come down as the article quoted above notes.
Risks
Oil prices carry the key risk to dividend sustainability over the near and medium term. As we’ve seen in a plus-$50 environment they can all make money and cover their dividends.
West Texas Intermediate- WTI, has fluctuated wildly in price over the last 10 years. For the last four however, it has been above $50 except for a couple of very brief periods. I’m ok with economics built on $50 oil.
Environmental and Social Governance-ESG, risk must now be built in to the risk profile in owning these stocks. It can be thought of as replacing the old exploration risk that modern technology has reduced dramatically. When I entered the oilfield 40+ years ago, dry holes- ones with no hydrocarbon shows, ran as high as 85 percent of the exploration wells drilled. Today that ratio has more than flipped with dry holes being a rarity. Just what is the extent of this risk?
No one really knows for sure. That said, a measure of comfort can be taken in the broad ownership of legacy oil stocks. For example, have a look at the top ten institutional holders of ExxonMobil below.
Your takeaway
These are the companies that hold the trillions of retirement dollars from 401Ks and Roth IRAs. They are invested in the big oil companies for yield, stability, and to an extent growth. I don’t mind keeping company with the tens of thousands institutional holders of XOM and the other companies we’ve been discussing.
The key takeaways for you as an investor in the big oil company dividend payers is that they are all on track to deliver the cash flow that underpins the dividends they are committed to pay.
As investors, there is no doubt we need to keep an eye on this ESG divestiture movement. For the short term it represents little threat to the value of our investments. It is worth noting however, the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth fund has endorsed companies like Shell and BP expressly. In a recent Financial Times article Norway’s Finance Minister, Siv Jensen commented that:
“Ms Jensen said the largest oil and gas majors were given a reprieve because Norway believed such groups were “in all likelihood” the ones that would make the main investments in renewable energy in the future.”
You have a responsibility here as well. That is the task of vetting what you read and take stock in. Ask yourself as read if there is an under-lying agenda that is masked behind the seemingly objective and forthright information being presented?
We’ve shown here that information presented this way can be completely factual and still be misleading. Potentially with portfolio damaging consequences if acted upon. Caveat emptor! Protect your wealth!
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 21:25 -
- Flashback: Schiff Says John Bolton Has "Lack Of Credibility" As Resurfaced Video Clips Ruin 11th Hour Hail Mary
Flashback: Schiff Says John Bolton Has “Lack Of Credibility” As Resurfaced Video Clips Ruin 11th Hour Hail Mary
Several resurfaced clips concerning former national security adviser John Bolton reveal that Democrats, in particular Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said his 11th hour impeachment messiah had a “lack of credibility,” and was prone to “conspiracy theories” – and that Bolton thought there was nothing untoward about Trump’s interactions with Ukraine.
“This is someone who’s likely to exaggerate the dangerous impulses of the president toward belligerence, his proclivity to act without thinking, and his love of conspiracy theories,” Schiff told MSNBC‘s Rachel Maddow during a March 22, 2018 appearance (via Fox News) after Bolton was named national security adviser.
“And I’ll, you know, just add one data point to what you were talking about earlier, John Bolton once suggested on Fox News that the Russian hack of the DNC [Democratic National Committee] was a false flag operation that had been conducted by the Obama administration,” Schiff continued. “So, you add that kind of thinking to [former U.S. attorney] Joe diGenova and you have another big dose of unreality in the White House.”
Adam Schiff slams John Bolton as a liar (2018) pic.twitter.com/tXLghhpMLW
— Jack Posobiec🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) January 30, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
And in another clip posted by Donald Trump Jr. from 2005, Schiff asks during the Bush administration “why we would want someone” like Bolton “with that lack of credibility.“
Mr. Bolton has been AWOL – he’s been focused more on the next job than doing well at the last job – and particularly given the history, where we’ve had the politicization of intelligence over WMD. Why we would pick someone who the very same issue has been raised repeatedly – that is John Bolton’s politicization of the intelligence he got on Cuba and on the other issues. Why would we want someone with that lack of credibility, I can’t understand.
FLASHBACK: Adam Schiff In 2005 Said John Bolton Has A “Lack Of Credibility” – YouTube https://t.co/Mc7U3rVrNa
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 30, 2020
As Fox News notes, “Then-Sen. Barack Obama, in 2005, echoed those arguments, calling Bolton “damaged goods” whose appointment as ambassador means “we will have less credibility and ironically be less equipped to reform the United Nations in the way that it needs to be reformed.”
Obama separately had said that Bolton “bullies, marginalizes and undermines those who do not agree with him.” Other prominent Democrats agreed at the time.”
Now, however, Schiff loves the guy – telling CNN on Monday that Bolton is “essential to the “search for truth.”
“I think for the senators, and I’m just not talking about the four that have been so much the focus of attention, for every senator, Democrat and Republican, I don’t know how you can explain that you wanted a search for the truth in this trial and say you don’t want to hear from a witness who had a direct conversation about the central allegation in the articles of impeachment,” Schiff said on CNN’s “New Day.”
Bolton himself had said in the past that he would be more than willing to lie if he felt it was in the nation’s interest.
“If I had to say something I knew was false to protect American national security, I would do it,” Bolton said in an interview with Fox Business in 2010. –Fox News
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
And on Wednesday, President Trump tweeted an August 2019 clip of Bolton in which he made no mention of any quid pro quo, and that battling “corruption” was a “high priority” for the White House. Bolton said that Trump’s communications with Ukraine’s new President, Volodomyr Zelensky, was “cordial.”
GAME OVER! pic.twitter.com/yvMa6bPqfy
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2020
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 21:05 - Thai Government Admits "Unable To Stop" Spread Of Coronavirus
Thai Government Admits “Unable To Stop” Spread Of Coronavirus
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
At least one establishment government is finally admitting that the ruling class of the world is going to be unable to stop the spread of the coronavirus. While globalists desperately attempt to craft a vaccine and save the day, other rulers think it could be too late.
According to the Daily Mail, Thailand’s government admits it’s “unable to stop” the spread of the coronavirus. The virus has already proven deadly and could be spreading much more rapidly than mainstream media and establishment ruling classes are willing to admit. Health minister Anutin Charnvirakul said there are too many Chinese visitors to stop the virus from spreading.
At least 22,000 people from Wuhan are believed to have visited Thailand in January alone.
With 14 confirmed cases of the disease, Thailand is the worst-affected nation outside of China. According to the Daily Mail‘s numbers, almost 4,600 people have caught the Wuhan coronavirus around the world so far, and 106 have died in China.
“Our target is we will be able to detect all carriers entering Thailand and we will apply necessary measures as the situation develops,” said Charnvirakul. “Of course, we expect more people to get sick but we are able to identify all of them.”
Countries all over the world are taking extraordinary steps to stop the coronavirus reaching their shores.
Hong Kong today said it would stop trains and ferries, Russia and Mongolia have closed land borders with China and airport screening is in place globally.
Thailand is screening all passengers from China at its airports and has planes on standby to retrieve an estimated 64 people who are stranded in the locked-down Hubei region. –Daily Mail
The coronavirus has been sickening people since December 31, 2019. Unfortunately, there have also been what are called “super-spreading” events in which one person can infect multiple others before they recover, speeding up the rate of transmission.
All you can do is arm yourself with the knowledge of how to beat a pandemic.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 20:45 - Lindsey Graham Says Has Votes For Witnesses, "There's A Tsunami Of Evidence" Of Biden's Inappropriate Ukraine Links
Lindsey Graham Says Has Votes For Witnesses, “There’s A Tsunami Of Evidence” Of Biden’s Inappropriate Ukraine Links
Despite Democrats constant proclamations that Hunter Biden, who was – unarguably – paid millions to serve on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, is irrelevant to the impeachment charges against Trump and has no knowledge of the president’s conduct related to Ukraine, GOP Senator Lindsey Graham vehemently disagrees.
In a brief press conference this evening, Graham went ‘scroched earth’ blasting that:
“…there’s not a scintilla of evidence that the Bidens’ connection to Ukraine was inappropriate, there’s a tsunami of evidence.”
Graham added that while the House managers claimed this was “debunked,” the White House counsel “made a damning indictment” of what Hunter and Joe Biden allowed to happen and predicted that all 53 Republicans would vote to call Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden as a witness if Democrats get enough votes to subpoena any witnesses.
“The only thing I know for sure, that if we call one witness, there’ll be 53 votes — not 51, not 52, but 53 — to call Hunter Biden because he’s incredibly relevant as to whether or not the president, Trump, had a reason to believe that corruption was afoot in the Ukraine,” said Graham.
Finally the Senator warned that “if we’re gonna open this up to further enquiry, we’re going to go down the road of whether it was legitimate of the president do believe their was corruption and conflicts of interest on the Bidens’ part… and whether there is any credibility to the reports that the DNC met with Ukraine official in 2016.”
Watch the full clip below:
🔥SCORCHED EARTH🔥
Lindsey Graham says that if the Senate chooses to bring in impeachment witnesses, there will be “a lot” of them, including the Bidens, Schiff and the whistleblower whose complaint began impeachment.
GAME ON💪 pic.twitter.com/36UithmCrJ
— Racy 🇺🇸🇮🇹🇺🇲 (@RacySicilian) January 29, 2020
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 20:26 - Why America Needs A Trump Vs. Sanders Election
Why America Needs A Trump Vs. Sanders Election
Authored by Roger Simon via The Epoch Times,
The Democratic Party presidential race these days appears to be tilting toward Sen. Bernie Sanders.
It could turn into a runaway if Bernie wins by solid margins in the rapidly approaching Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. His chances in the Feb. 22 Nevada Democratic caucuses, which are traditionally dominated by the unions, aren’t bad either.
A lot of people are alarmed, not the least of whom is Hillary Clinton, who branded Bernie as “disliked” in a new documentary and is reported as having the “urge” to run herself. (When has she not?) More substantively, mainstream Democrats, even those who lean pretty far left, such as New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait, are concerned they could be headed for “McGovern II”—in other words, a blowout.
I am pleased, not just because of the potential for an electoral college Armageddon that may or may not take place, or even because such an election would quickly put the bogus impeachment trial in the rearview mirror, but because, for the first time in decades, we would have a true election of opposites.
This wouldn’t be a so-called “uni-party” election resulting in minor differences in the tax code, as it usually does.
Trump versus Sanders would be capitalism versus socialism!
And Sanders’s version of socialism is the real deal, and not socialism “lite,” amounting to a couple of instances of tweaked welfare legislation. Bernie is the man who chose to have his honeymoon in the Soviet Union and who still refuses to brand Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro a despot.
Trump, of course, is a businessman-turned-president. There have been others, but, as never before, he is capitalism personified.
It’s high time that something this serious, this contrasting, were put before the public. I say, bring it on.
The battle would be epic. Sanders has remarkably devoted supporters who have been with him for two elections. His fundraising capabilities are legendary. He is the master of the grassroots, a leftwing rock star who overcame a coronary, seemingly in minutes. In a very real sense, Bernie will have deserved his nomination.
The challenge to Trump wouldn’t be simple. Merely calling Sanders “Crazy Bernie” would not suffice. Indeed, as yesterday’s strategy, it could well backfire by seeming to trivialize important distinctions.
Socialism is taken seriously by a large portion of America’s youth over several generations now. They have been taught that way from kindergarten through doctorate by an educational system that is largely socialistic in structure and ideology.
The media has reinforced this viewpoint, as has the entertainment industry. Would Robert DeNiro, Rob Reiner, et al., be supporting Bernie over Donald, despite that being contrary to their class interest? Well, we know.
Whose side would The New York Times and The Washington Post finally be on if it were Sanders versus Trump, not to mention the networks? They may have misgivings about Bernie, some of these outlets anyway, but their entrenched enmity for the president would undoubtedly prevail. They would “give socialism a shot.”
Trump will have to counteract all this. He’ll have to explain to the public why the ”fairness” and “social justice” that’s seemingly so attractive in socialist rhetoric is misleading and that capitalism is a better way to uplift the lower and middle classes, and that societal wealth isn’t a zero-sum game.
This won’t be easy for Donald – as a businessman, he’s a doer, not an educator – but he will have to learn how to do it, to slow down and perhaps be a bit didactic. He should explain, as Friederich Hayek did over a half-century ago, why socialism so often leads to totalitarianism.
He owes that to all of us, especially our miseducated youth.
Timing, however, will be on Trump’s side. This is a unique moment in history to resolve this eternal conflict, at least temporarily. Via capitalism, America has a boom economy, with salaries among the poor and middle class growing faster than for the upper classes. We are largely at peace and have been for a while.
Trump would win this epic battle, and it will be better for the country in the long run.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 20:05 - JPMorgan To Slash Hundreds Of Jobs Across Consumer Division
JPMorgan To Slash Hundreds Of Jobs Across Consumer Division
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is expected to announce several hundred layoffs in the coming weeks, according to a Bloomberg source.
Layoffs could be seen across the company’s consumer unit, which houses 50% of the bank’s revenue. The most affected subunits could include auto lending, home mortgages, and credit cards.
The cuts come at a time when JPM recorded some of the highest profits ever with $36.4 billion, due to a 56% increase in stock and bond trading in the fourth quarter, after it single-handedly triggered the repo crisis, forcing the Fed to launch ‘Not QE.’
The layoffs are expected to be announced on February 6th, the source said, adding that the cut will be about 1% of employees in the unit.
We noted Tuesday that JPM decided to keep annual bonuses flat across its investment bank segment for the 2019 year.
Banks around the world who are supposed to benefit from rising asset prices thanks to the central banks’ injecting unprecedented liquidity into markets – unveiled last year, the most significant round of job cuts in four years.
Banks are slashing jobs at record speeds in response to a synchronized global slowdown and adoption of automation.
JPM has cut more than 7,000 jobs from the consumer unit in the four years through 2018, and it’s likely the cuts will continue.
Fifty banks in 2019 slashed upwards of 78,000 jobs, the most since 91,448 announced in 2015.
Morgan Stanley last month fired 2% of its workforce, or approximately 1,500 workers, due to slowdown fears.
Earlier this month, Barclays Plc slashed 100 senior staff at its investment bank unit. These cuts were primarily made in Europe and the U.S.
Goldman Sachs has had its fair share of layoffs and pays reduction in 2019.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 19:45 - The Biggest Problem Facing The $2.7 Trillion Space Industry
The Biggest Problem Facing The $2.7 Trillion Space Industry
Authored by Michael Kern via OilPrice.com,
The space race has begun. Private companies have exploded, soaring beyond multiple billion-dollar valuations seemingly overnight. Some of the hottest tech companies on the planet are already facing off for a piece of the pie. But there’s a looming crisis that, if not addressed, could bring the entire industry crashing down. Literally.
After over 60 years of space exploration, humankind has left a lot of trash behind. Already, hundreds of thousands of pieces of space debris are in orbit. This is a terrifying reality, especially considering just a tiny 1mm object can have a catastrophic effect on a satellite or spacecraft.
Holger Krag, head of the space debris office for the ESA, notes,
“Even today we are losing satellites due to debris and it is only a matter of time before more start colliding. If we continue the way we do, 10 years from now some regions in space will be too risky to visit.”
With companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic eyeing commercial space flight within the next few years, and even more looking to roll out an array of new private satellites, the space debris risk has never been greater. And if Krag is correct, the more crowded our orbit gets, the more dire the threat will become.
Just last year, space companies raised over $5.8 billion dollars, Virgin Galactic launched its much-anticipated IPO, and pure-space plays spiked in trading interest. Space Angels CEO Chad Anderson sees this number going even higher in 2020, predicting that more companies are gearing up to hit the public markets. Anderson explained,
“These companies are graduating and going from concept to scale,” Anderson said.
“All the companies that are in space in the last 10 years are new. They’ve all entered a different point over that timeline and you need to see them graduate as, in venture capital investing, graduation rates are really important.”
What Is Being Done About Space Debris?
Government organizations are currently taking the lead on the space cleanup initiative, with the U.S. Air Force, NASA and the European Space Agency dedicating sizable budgets to the effort. But some private organizations are looking to contribute, as well.
Take Astroscale, for example. The Japanese firm is already in the construction stages of a space junk removal project, ELSA-d, that it hopes to launch by mid-2020.
ELSA-d will consist of two separate spacecrafts. A 180-kilogram “servicer” spacecraft, and a 20-kilogram “client” spacecraft. The Servicer is equipped with proximity rendezvous technologies and a magnetic docking mechanism, while the Client has a ferromagnetic plate which enables it to be docked with. The Servicer will repeatedly release and dock the Client in a series of technical demonstrations proving the capability to find and dock with debris.
Nobu Okada, the founder and chief executive of Japan-based company Astroscale, explains,
“Cleaning up space is critical,” adding,
“People know about global warming. People know about ocean clean-up. But they don’t know anything about the space debris issue.”
Another private company looking to tackle the problem is D-Orbit. While the Italian startup hasn’t raised the funds that Astroscale has, it is still pushing forward in its ambitious mission to reduce space debris through new innovative technology. While Astroscale is dedicating much of its focus on a single project, D-Orbit is experimenting with a little bit of everything.
D-Orbit’s flagship product is the D3, an “independent, smart motor optimized for decommissioning maneuvers.” The D3 is a preemptive end-of-life solution for satellite manufacturers which is attached to new satellites with the goal of being able to remove them from orbit quickly and safely when they have reached the end of their lifespan.
The company is also actively cutting deals with other startups, including a Swiss startup called Astrocast that has raised about $4.2 million, including from Airbus, to deploy a constellation of 80 cube satellites for the Internet of Things, which could even compete with bigger, more expensive IOT networks like those operated by ORBCOMM.
The Future Of Space Travel
Take one look at any major investment website, and you’re sure to be bombarded with stories about the next big space company on the horizon. Though the billionaires of the bunch often get the most attention, none of their endeavors will be possible if the space debris crisis isn’t addressed.
Matt Ocko, a partner at Data Collective, a San Francisco venture capital firm invested in Rocket Lab, explains, “There needs to be pressure from the space community and governments to monitor these companies.”
And that pressure is sure to come.
Right now, space is still the wild west, but when government regulations start to take root, and the space junk problem becomes a full-blown crisis on the scale of global climate change, early innovators in the debris removal sector could explode.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 19:25 - Children With "Stealth" Coronavirus Infections Raise Fears Of 'Community Outbreaks'
Children With “Stealth” Coronavirus Infections Raise Fears Of ‘Community Outbreaks’
Over the past week, as China has shared data about the novel coronavirus with foreign partners who quickly mapped its genome as the world races to develop a vaccine for the virus which can develop into a potentially deadly case of pneumonia. But several experts, including the drug company Novartis, warned that developing a vaccine might take a year.
In the meantime, epidemiologists are still struggling to understand the mysterious new virus (a virus that some fear was once studied as a potential biological weapon). So far, researchers have determined that the average incubation period for the virus is between five and six days. But as more cases are confirmed, researchers are finding a surprisingly large number of young people and children infected with the virus who display few or no symptoms – yet they’re still contagious.
Bloomberg shared the story of a 10-year-old boy from Wuhan whose entire family including his grandparents fell ill. Yet he displayed no symptoms, and wasn’t tested for the virus until both his parents insisted.
The boy’s case was first made public by the Lancet medical journal, which received attention from the international press after publishing research on the outbreak last week. Only five members of the family, including the boy, were infected during a trip to Wuhan. They infected a sixth relative after returning to their unnamed hometown.
A professor of microbiology who spoke with Bloomberg said the case of the 10-year-old boy is extremely concerning because it suggests that many of those infected with the virus might be able to evade typical screening techniques. This could easily fuel a community outbreak if the original case isn’t quickly discovered.
“You may have mild disease spreaders that would be feeding sort of a community outbreak and they don’t go to hospital because they don’t feel that bad,” said Ralph Baric, professor of microbiology and immunology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who has studied coronaviruses for decades and warned about their threat before the 2003 SARS outbreak.
We already knew that patients who have contracted the virus have shown a wide range of symptoms, ranging from what presents as a mild cold, to something more akin to life-threatening walking pneumonia.
It was “a rather unexpected finding,” Yuen and colleagues wrote. Yet it doesn’t come as a complete surprise to doctors in China trying to unravel the means and ways the new virus is spreading.
“Children and infants’ symptoms are comparatively mild, while older people have more severe symptoms, as of our findings so far,” Feng Zijian, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters Wednesday.
“One of the worrying things is the walking pneumonia and especially the younger kids in whom you don’t get as much of an immune reaction,” said John Nicholls, a clinical professor of pathology at the University of Hong Kong and part of the research team that isolated and characterized the SARS virus.
As more cases of the new coronavirus appear around the world, doctors and medical research teams are rushing to try to develop a vaccine or treatments that could prevent its spread. But, as in the SARS outbreak, the most effective methods are thought to be in identifying and isolating patients soon after infection, and then tracing and isolating their potential contacts.
Hesitant to completely close travel with China, most airports, airlines, railroads and some governments have instead opted for increasing screenings (though several airlines recently announced plans to cancel flights to China – at least for now) of travelers as their first and most important line of defense.
But if thousands of children exhibit no symptoms, instead acting as silent carriers of the virus, this will undoubtedly complicate efforts to combat the virus’s spread, even with 56 million quarantined and transportation links between the mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan temporarily severed.
“Public health controlled SARS because SARS let it,” said Mark Denison, director of infectious diseases and and a pediatrics professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. That’s unlike influenza, where a larger portion of patients transmit the virus while they are silently incubating the infection.
“So the question is, is this virus more SARS-like, or is it more flu-like?” Denison said. “The data suggests that it’s somewhere in the middle: that it is a more mild disease, but that there may be more transmission.”
This could lead to a growing number of the most vulnerable patients – senior citizens and those with co-occurring health problems – contracting the virus across the world, as whole families catch the virus from asymptomatic children.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 19:05 - Reporters Claim To Have Proof China Lying About Virus Death Toll As Total Cases Near 8,000; Another 12,000 Suspected
Reporters Claim To Have Proof China Lying About Virus Death Toll As Total Cases Near 8,000; Another 12,000 Suspected
Summary:
- Death toll climbs to 170 from 132, with 7,711 cases confirmed in China and 7,814 worldwide, while the number of suspected cases has soared by 2,928 to 12,167 from 9,239 yesterday
- Reporter claims local media has evidence Beijing lying about death toll
- British Airways cancels flights to China
- Trump says he spoke with Xi over the phone
- Angry mobs spotted in Sichuan
- CDC sending representatives to China
- 3 Japanese aboard evac flight test positive for coronavirus
* * *
Update (1850ET):
China’s NHC just released another up . China now admits to 7,771 cases across the country, Adding nearly 1,800 from 5,974 yesterday. The death toll has climbed to 170, and 170 patients have been cured. Some 31 cases were labeled “severe” and nearly 82,000 are under observation. What is perhaps most shocking is that the number of suspected cases soared by nearly 3,000 overnight from 9,239 to 12,167.
In another major development, state media reports that the first case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Tibet. It was the only region in China with zero confirmed cases, though that streak is now over.
In a disturbing development, three of the Japanese citizens rescued from Wuhan aboard Japan’s evac flight Wednesday have tested positive for cornavirus – so now the Japanese government is essentially importing the virus on the evacuation flight. We hope all those on the flight will be quarantined for a while given the virus’s reputation of spreading asymptomatically.
Here’s a breakdown of all the revisions…
- Confirmed cases +29% (from 5974 to 7711)
- Suspected cases +32% (from: 9239 to 12167)
- Severe cases +10% (from 1239 to 1370)
- Death toll +29% (from 232 to 170
…and here’s a copy of the announcement from China’s National Health Office, translated into English via Google:
At 04:00 on January 29, 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps reported 1737 new confirmed cases (the first confirmed case in Tibet), 131 new severe cases, and 38 new deaths. (37 cases in Hubei and 1 in Sichuan), 21 new cases were cured and discharged, and 4148 suspected cases were added.
As of 24:00 on January 29, the National Health and Health Commission has received a cumulative report of 7711 confirmed cases, 31 cases of severe cases, 170 death cases, and a total of 170 patients who have been cured and discharged. There were 124 cases with 12,167 suspected cases.
At present, 88,693 close contacts have been tracked. Of the 2,364 people who were released from medical observation on the same day, a total of 81,947 people are receiving medical observation.
A total of 25 confirmed cases were reported in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan: 10 in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 7 in the Macao Special Administrative Region, and 8 in Taiwan.
And the updated chart…
In other news, as economists worry about the blowback to China’s already slowing economy, Peter Navarro said late Wednesday that the Trump administration will keep its tariffs in place no matter what happens with the outbreak.
That’s probably why there have been so many rumors about the fraught relationship between Trump and Xi, and reports that Trump never actually spoke with the Chinese leader after claiming that they had discussed the outbreak.
Once again, we’d like to point out that we’re ahead of this supposedly “alarmist” and “fearmongering” model (h/t @abuforlife1):
* * *
Update (1720ET): The government in Hubei has announced another slate of cases and deaths.
- CHINA’S HUBEI REPORTS 37 ADDITIONAL DEATHS FROM CORONAVIRUS
- CHINA CORONAVIRUS DEATH TOLL RISES TO AT LEAST 169
- CHINA’S HUBEI REPORTS 1,032 MORE CORONAVIRUS CASES FOR JAN. 29
Meanwhile, 26,632 people are still undergoing medical observation, and another 4,334 cases are still being treated in the hospital. The CDC has just confirmed that it’s sending representatives to China to help suppress the outbreak.
House lawmakers were told today that the CDC is traveling to China to cooperate on Wuhan virus control
— Erik Wasson (@elwasson) January 29, 2020
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Just look at that slope.
* * *
Update (1650ET): Several epidemiologists have suggested that many of the deaths caused by the coronavirus that surfaced in Wuhan last month have probably ‘slipped through the cracks’ – either having been misdiagnosed or deliberately attributed to something else. Many suspect that Beijing is concealing the true extent of the outbreak. And now, one reporter claims that a Chinese media organization has found proof.
The East Asia Correspondent for DW cited reports in a tweet claiming that health officials have been secretly moving some bodies directly from the hospital to the crematorium.
Also, one thing that #China is hiding is the number of death caused by the virus. Credible Chinese media outlet @initiumnews interviewed people working at local cremation centers, confirming that many dead bodies were sent directly from the hospitals to the cremation centers…
— William Yang (@WilliamYang120) January 29, 2020
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… without properly identifying these patients, which means there are patients who died from the virus but not adding to the official record. That shows the current death toll of 133 that we are seeing is way too low.
— William Yang (@WilliamYang120) January 29, 2020
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So there are reasons to remain skeptical about what #Chins has been sharing with the world because while they have been more transparent about certain things related to the virus, they continue to be sketchy and unreliable in other aspects.
— William Yang (@WilliamYang120) January 29, 2020
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Meanwhile, research published in the Lancet, a medical journal, claimed the true mortality rate is closer to 11% (the official rate is 2%-3%).
The latest clinical report on 2019-nCoV: 99 patients from Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital. Important: a key group of patients progress rapidly to ARDS, septic shock, and multiple organ failure. 23% ITU admission, 17% ARDS, 11% mortality. https://t.co/Hr0XIfK6M1
— richard horton (@richardhorton1) January 29, 2020
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If they’re lying about the death toll, then it’s likely they also know the true number of infections is much higher than the ‘official’ number. .
* * *
Update (1345ET): Russia is the latest country to partially restrict travel with China. Russian Newswire Interfax reports that Russia has ordered the closure of some of its rail links with its close geopolitical ally. Restrictions will begin as of Jan. 31.
Though the number of cases outside China is climbing only slowly, the number is still climbing. There are now seven confirmed cases in Australia: four in NSW, two in Victoria and one in Queensland. In Europe, France has confirmed its fifth case.
* * *
Update (1150ET): During a press conference to commemorate the signing of his USMCA trade agreement, President Trump mentioned for the first time that he had spoken directly with President Xi about the coronavirus outbreak.
“We’re very much involved with them right now on the virus that’s going around. We’re working very closely. I spoke with President Xi.”
The president tweeted earlier this week that the US was in very close communication with China over the outbreak, and offered any assistance necessary.
* * *
Update (1130ET): The Global Times has confirmed another death, bringing the death toll to 133, and another ~30 cases have been confirmed on the mainland.
* * *
Update (0950ET): Germany’s Lufthansa and American Airlines are the latest airlines to suspend flights to China. American is cancelling flights from LAX to Shanghai and Beijing beginning Feb. 9 through late March. Other airlines that have cancelled some or all flights to China since earlier this morning include Air Canada, Lion Air, Seoul Air and a handful of others around the world.
Asiana Airlines Jeju Air Jin Air Co Finnair Oyj Lion Air Jetstar Airways’ Singapore Ops and Air Macau have also cancelled flights.
Representatives for Lufthansa are reportedly denying reports that it plans to suspend flights. It seems only time will tell. BBC reports that Britons who have been evacuated from Wuhan will be kept in quarantine for two weeks. Japan and the US have also evacuated citizens from Wuhan via chartered plane. Australia and New Zealand are also planning evacuations.
Mark Woolhouse, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, told the AP the UK’s steps are justified.
“There’s always a balance between the draconian measures of public health and what people might want to do, and obviously it’s regrettable if people who turn out not to have the virus are quarantined unnecessarily,” he said.
We’re still waiting on confirmation regarding whether the White House will ban flights into and out of China. And just like that, an already dismal outlook for the airline industry is getting worse.
* * *
Update (0910ET): You had to know it was coming.
As more local governments on the mainland (including Beijing and Wuhan) mandate that facemasks be worn at all times, price gouging throughout Asia and even in certain parts of the US has become extremely common. Locals say Chinese everywhere are snapping up masks and mailing them to family in the mianland.
Of course, stores around China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau can’t get their hands on more facemasks fast enough (Japan is reportedly preparing a shipment to assist the Chinese government). As a result, lines outside shops and factories are growing to a staggering degree.
One line outside a factory in in Changhua City reportedly stretched for more than a kilometer (0.62 miles).
【抢购口罩 台湾彰化工厂排长龙】
【绵延一公里 工厂存货卖光】
武汉肺炎疫情严峻，台湾虽然还没全面扩散，但民众已经十分警觉，市面上的零售点已经买不到大量口罩。在彰化一家创意生活馆，民众排队买口罩的队伍近一公里。工厂发1000张号码牌，每人限购一盒。加班生产12万份口罩在春节三天销售一空。 pic.twitter.com/JIMhqpanXA— 自由亚洲电台 (@RFA_Chinese) January 29, 2020
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Lines were everywhere across China – Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau – as well as Australia, New Zealand and the US.
【中国人全球抢购口罩】
不论是中国大陆、香港，还有世界各地都掀起口罩抢购潮，29日，上海和香港的药房门口都大排长龙，不少人为买一盒口罩，不惜清晨就开始排队。就连美国、澳洲、新西兰，口罩都突然间供不应求，据当地人说，都是华人在抢购口罩，然后寄回中国大陆。#口罩#武汉肺炎 pic.twitter.com/AUX3x6Hd7L— 自由亚洲电台 (@RFA_Chinese) January 29, 2020
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One video from Sichuan depicts an angry mob crowding the home of a family that allegedly ignored a case of the virus, allowing it to spread. The scene was reminiscent of something out of ‘Lord of the Flies’, a book that we imagine is probably banned in China.
In Hong Kong, where SARS killed roughly 300 people back in 2003, public-transit workers are threatening to strike if the city government doesn’t widen its closures.
【港铁新工会促港铁要求政府封关】
新成立的港铁工会“港铁新动力”，周三(29日)到港铁总部请愿，促请港铁在1月30日前，要求政府关闭罗湖及落马洲口岸，否则将不排除发起进一步工业行动，包括罢工
工会认爲，有近一半的内地旅客从罗湖及落马洲口岸来港，期望港铁能尽社会责任，保护员工及乘客安全 pic.twitter.com/MZiU5YDNV0
— 自由亚洲电台 (@RFA_Chinese) January 29, 2020
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The New York Times Beijing bureau chief shared photos from across China and Hong Kong, depicting empty public transit stations and barren streets.
Temperature check stations are set up at the exits of every train along with a computer that my be screening people’s ID card origins. They didn’t screen me, but then I got checked as I left the station and again at a toll. First thing cabbie asked me: “where you coming in from?” pic.twitter.com/zweFKAFePS
— Paul Mozur 孟建国 (@paulmozur) January 29, 2020
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And streets are pretty empty in Guangzhou too. Apparently most shops closed, more so than simply for CNY. The approach seems to be put up checkpoints absolutely everywhere to scan temperatures. Luckily everyone has contactless thermometers. pic.twitter.com/xgHcoQKKD1
— Paul Mozur 孟建国 (@paulmozur) January 29, 2020
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In other news, after the White House denied weighing a complete shutdown of all passenger air traffic between the US and China, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has confirmed that a complete ban is, in fact, one of several options being considered.
Different governments have been throwing out estimates for the timeline of developing a usable vaccine for the virus. According to CNBC, the latest estimate comes from Swiss drug giant Novartis, which said finding a vaccine will take “over a year” – much longer than the timeline for developing a vaccine for SARS, 17 years ago. But clearly, the market isn’t worried, even as SocGen recommended to clients that they wait until the virus situation has “stabilized” before taking on more risk.
Back in China, health officials in Guangdong confirmed that two Australians and one Pakistan student have contracted the virus – making them the first confirmed foreigners to contract the virus in China. Another report claims four other Pakistanis have been diagnosed in Wuhan.
In the UK, a gathering of regional leaders from the UK and China that was set to take place in Birmingham in February has been cancelled, according to the SCMP. Following British Airways decision to close all flights to China, Germany’s Focus Magazine has reported that Lufthansa plans to follow suit.
A few more cases have been confirmed, as the global total approaches 6,200.
More cases are gradually being announced as airlines and governments around the world tighten travel restrictions in response to the virus. The WHO is expected to hold a press conference shortly.
* * *
Update (1925ET): Though it still far outpaced all of its western rivals, China’s annual GDP growth rate decelerated to its slowest level in 29 years last year, a factor, economists said, of the destabilizing trade war with the US.
Now, a senior economist with the Chinese government in Beijng is warning that annualized GDP growth for 2020 could dip below 5% if the virus isn’t contained. This is based on an assumption that the virus will peak before March.
- CHINA GOVT ECONOMIST ESTIMATES THAT IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS ON CHINA’S ECONOMY COULD BE SIGNIFICANTLY BIGGER THAN THAT OF SARS OUTBREAK
- CHINA GOVT ECONOMIST SAYS BEIJING LIKELY TO STEP UP POLICY SUPPORT FOR ECONOMY, WHICH COULD BOOST BUDGET DEFICIT TO OVER 3% OF GDP IN 2020
- CHINA Q1 GROWTH MAY DIP BELOW 5% AS VIRUS SPREADS – GOVT ECONOMIST
- CHINA GOVT ECONOMIST SAYS FORECAST BASED ON ASSUMPTION THAT VIRUS OUTBREAK WILL PEAK BY MID-FEBRUARY AND END BY END OF MARCH
Remember: China’s econ data is notoriously unreliable. When they announce 7% growth, skeptics claim the reality is closer to 4%. A break below 5% could, in reality, be a break below 3%.
Such an announcement is hardly a surprise…
In 2019, China’s slowdown was blamed on trade war
In 2020, it will be blamed on a virus https://t.co/9HIar0GYuk— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 21, 2020
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…but Beijing’s promise to “step up policy support for the economy” means China will embark on another round of massive fiscal stimulus (at a time when economists have been begging Germany to consider loosening its purse strings to revive a sluggish Europe).
* * *
As the Trump Administration denies plans to shut down all passenger air traffic to China, more airlines around the world are suspending routes, a sign that the coronavirus outbreak could do permanent damage to the industry.
Just hours after the UK Foreign Office warned Britons against traveling to China, British Airways, Britain’s flag carrier, and its second-largest airline in the UK. British Airways operates direct flights from Heathrow to Beijing and Shanghai, but right now, passengers can’t book flights on those lines until Feb. 29. CNN called it “the most drastic action yet by a major airline” in response to the crisis. The decision comes after United Airlines said it would temporarily reduce the number of flights between the US and China.
“We have suspended all flights to and from mainland China with immediate effect following advice from the Foreign Office against all but essential travel,” British Airways said in a statement Wednesday.
This comes after United said Tuesday that it had seen a “significant decline in demand” and been forced it to suspend flights from Feb. 1 through Feb. 8 between its US hubs and Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai. In total, 24 round trips have been impacted between Hong Kong to San Francisco and Newark; Beijing to Dulles, O’Hare and Newark; and Shanghai to San Francisco, Newark and O’Hare.
Some airlines have cancelled flights as far out as March.
American Airlines, Delta and United all extended change fee waivers through the end of February, while Hong Kong flagship carrier Cathay Pacific said it will reduce the capacity of flights to and from mainland China by half or more until the end of March.
Finland’s Finnair is canceling three weekly flights between Helsinki and Beijing between Feb. 5 and March 29, and two weekly flights between Helsinki and Nanjing between Feb. 8 and March 29, because of the suspension of group travel by Chinese authorities. It will continue to operate flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou.
There are now 5,974 cases in China, with 1,239 of whom are severely ill, according to state media on Wednesday. Initial theories, put forward by some infectious disease experts, that the mortality rate of the virus is much lower than reflected in press reports because thousands with mild cases are likely toughing it out in their homes. If anything, it looks like the virus is more lethal than we previously believed.
And it’s certainly more infectious.
Per the SCMP, a 48-hour span of no new nCoV infections came to an end Wednesday when Hong Kong authorities announced two more patients tested positive for the potentially deadly illness, bringing the local total to 10, as the HK government suspends high-speed rail travel between the Special Administrative Region and the mainland. The HK Department of Health said the two new patients, an elderly couple, aged 72 and 73, tested positive at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam, and, because of their age, fall into the high-risk category of infections. More than 100 people are still in isolation in HK.
The situation is growing increasingly worrisome in Guangdong province, which is centered around the city of Guangzhou, the fifth-largest in China.
Guangzhou is at the center of a massive conurbation stretching out all the way to Shenzen, and to the other neighboring cities of Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan and several other neighboring provinces. This agglomeration is one of the largest of its kind on Earth, home to more than 100 million. City officials announced five new infections, two locals and three foreigners. With more than 270 confirmed cases, this well-connected and economically important province is behind only Hubei and Zhejiang in terms of number of cases.
Now that several countries have copies of the coronavirus genome, the race for a workable vaccine is intensifying. Russia joined that race on Wednesday after receiving a copy of the virus genome from China, Russian state media reported on Wednesday. The US said on Tuesday that it would take three months to start initial trials for a vaccine that it’s developing, and three further months to gather data.
In Hong Kong, infectious diseases expert Professor Yuen Kwok-yung said on Tuesday that the city’s researchers had stumbled on a vaccine, but that it would take months to test on animals and at least another year to conduct trials on humans before it could be confirmed ready for human use. Scientists in Melbourne said they grew the virus from a patient sample, which could prove a “game-changer” in combating the outbreak. It was the first time the virus had been grown in a cell culture outside China (here’s hoping it isn’t misused as a potential bioweapon).
The Hong Kong high-speed rail link to China is well and truly a ghost station. Normally crowded facilities were surreally empty. I have a whole train car to myself. HK government is closing the station at midnight. pic.twitter.com/YfEx6ZB0U1
— Paul Mozur 孟建国 (@paulmozur) January 29, 2020
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After confirming the first case of human-to-human transmission in Japan, health officials in Tokyo have shared more information about the case with the press: The man did not travel to Wuhan but drove buses with tour groups from the city twice this month. The man is in his 60s and lives in Nara Prefecture, according to the Japan Times.
Overnight, the first case of the virus in the Middle East have been confirmed in the United Arab Emirates, according to the country’s Ministry of Health and Community Protection. The 4 infected patients are members of a family that had traveled from Wuhan. In its statement, the health ministry reported the family as being in a stable condition under medical observation, according to CNBC.
As hysteria surrounding the outbreak grows, SCMP reports that resentment toward people from Wuhan is growing across China, as provincial authorities ramp up screenings of those from Wuhan, and citizens build unauthorized roadblocks to keep strangers out of their towns.
Meanwhile, President Xi said Wednesday that “preventing and containing the virus remains a severe and complex task,” a follow up to his claims that China would do whatever is necessary to contain the “demon” virus.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 19:01 - Flynn's Defense Files Motion Saying His Former Legal Team "Betrayed Him"
Flynn’s Defense Files Motion Saying His Former Legal Team “Betrayed Him”
Authored by Sara Carter via SaraACarter.com,
Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn filed a supplemental motion to withdraw his guilty plea Wednesday citing failure by his previous counsel to advise him of the firm’s ‘conflict of interest in his case’ regarding the Foreign Agents Registration Act form it filed on his behalf, and by doing so “betrayed Mr. Flynn,” stated Sidney Powell, in a defense motion to the court.
Flynn’s case is now in its final phase and his sentencing date, which was scheduled for Jan. 28, in a D.C. federal court before Judge Emmet Sullivan was changed to Feb. 27. The change came after Powell filed the motion to withdraw his plea just days after the prosecutors made a major reversal asking for up to six months jail time. The best case scenario for Flynn, is that Judge Sullivan allows him to withdraw his guilty plea, the sentencing date is thrown-out and then his case would more than likely would head to trial.
Powell alleged in a motion in December, 2019 that Flynn was strong-armed by the prosecution into pleading guilty to one count of lying to FBI investigators regarding his conversation with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Others, close to Flynn, have corroborated the accounts suggesting prosecutors threatened to drag Flynn’s son into the investigation, who also worked with his father at Flynn Intel Group, a security company established by Flynn.
In the recent motion Flynn denounced his admission of guilt in a declaration,
“I am innocent of this crime, and I request to withdraw my guilty plea. After I signed the plea, the attorneys returned to the room and confirmed that the [special counsel’s office] would no longer be pursuing my son.”
He denied that he lied to the FBI during the White House meeting with then FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Special Agent Joe Pientka. The meeting was set up by now fired FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was also fired for lying to Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigators. Strzok was fired by the FBI for his actions during the Russia investigation.
Flynn stated:
“When FBI agents came to the White House on January 24, 2017, I did not lie to them. I believed I was honest with them to the best of my recollection at the time. I still don’t remember if I discussed sanctions on a phone call with Ambassador Kislyak nor do I remember if we discussed the details of a UN vote on Israel.”
Powell Targets Flynn’s Former Legal Team
Powell noted in Wednesday’s motion that Flynn’s former defense team at Covington & Burling, a well known Washington D.C. law firm, failed to inform Flynn that their lawyers had made “some initial errors or statements that were misunderstood in the FARA registration process and filings.” She also reaffirmed her position in the motion that government prosecutors are continuing to withhold exculpatory information that would benefit Flynn.
A spokesperson with Flynn’s former law firm Covington & Burling, stated in an email to SaraACarter.com that “Under the bar rules, we are limited in our ability to respond publicly even to allegations of this nature, absent the client’s consent or a court order.”
In Powell’s motion, she stated that Covington and Burling was well aware that it had a ‘conflict of interest’ in representing Flynn after November 1, 2017. She stated in the motion it was on that day, when Special Counsel prosecutors had notified Covington that “it recognized Covington’s conflict of interest from the FARA registration.” Moreover, the government had asked Covington lawyers to discuss the discrepancy and conflict with Flynn, Powell stated in the motion.
“Mr. Flynn’s former counsel at Covington made some initial errors or statements that were misunderstood in the FARA registration process and filings, which the SCO amplified, thereby creating an ‘underlying work’ conflict of interest between the firm and its client,” stated Powell in the motion.
“Government counsel specified Mr. Flynn’s liability for ‘false statements’ in the FARA registration, and he told Covington to discuss it with Mr. Flynn,” states the motion.
“This etched the conflict in stone. Covington betrayed Mr. Flynn.”
Powell included in her motion an email from Flynn’s former law firm Covington & Burling between his former attorney’s Steven Anthony and Robert Kelner. The email was regarding the Special Counsel’s then-charges against Paul Manafort, who had been a short term campaign manager for Trump. Manafort and his partner Rick Gates, were then faced with ‘multiple criminal violations, including FARA violations.”
Internal Email From the motion:
In the internal email sent to Kelner, Anthony addresses his concerns after the Manafort order was unsealed.
I just had a flash of a thought that we should consider, among many many factors with regard to Bob Kelley, the possibility that the SCO has decided it does not have, [with regard to] Flynn, the same level of showing of crime fraud exception as it had [with regard to] Manafort. And that the SCO currently feels stymied in pursuing a Flynn-lied-to-his-lawyers theory of a FARA violation. So, we should consider the conceivable risk that a disclosure of the Kelley declaration might break through a wall that the SCO currently considers impenetrable.
In February, 2017, then Department of Justice official David Laufman had called Flynn’s lawyers to push them to file a FARA, the motion states. In fact, it was a day after Flynn was fired as the National Security Advisor for Trump. Laufman made the call to the Covington and Burling office “to pressure them to file the FARA forms immediately,” according to the motion.
Laufman’s push for Flynn’s FARA seemed peculiar considering, Flynn’s company ‘Flynn Intel Group’ had filed a Lobbying Registration Act in September, 2016. Former partner to Flynn Bijan Rafiekian, had been advised at the time by then lawyer Robert Kelly that there was no need for the firm to file a FARA because it was not dealing directly with a foreign country or foreign government official, as stated during his trial. In Rafiekian’s trial Kelly testified that he advised the Flynn Intel Group that by law they only needed to file a Lobbying Disclosure Act and suggested they didn’t need to file a FARA when dealing with a foreign company. In this instance it was Innova BV, a firm based in Holland and owned by the Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin.
Flynn’s former Partner’s Case Overturned, Powell Cites Case In Motion
In September, 2019, however, in a stunning move Judge Anthony Trenga with the Eastern District of Virginia Rafiekian’s conviction was overturned. Trenga stated in his lengthy acquittal decision that government prosecutors did not make their case and the “jury was not adequately instructed as to the role of Michael Flynn in light of the government’s in-court judicial admission that Flynn was not a member of the alleged conspiracy and the lack of evidence sufficient to establish his participation in any conspiracy…”
An important side note, Laufman continually posts anti-Trump tweets and is frequently on CNN and MSNBC targeting the administration and its policies.
These despicable remarks reflect contempt for democracy and government accountability, and constitute further evidence of the President’s unfitness to lead our great nation. Republican Members of Congress, stand up and fulfill your oaths.https://t.co/a8BwWkLTkv
— David Laufman (@DavidLaufmanLaw) September 26, 2019
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Powell said prosecutors reversed course on their decision to not push for jail time for Flynn in early January because she said, her client “refused to lie for the prosecution” in the Rafiekian case.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 18:45 - Watch: Biden Again Gets Physical In Tense Confrontation With Iowa Voter
Watch: Biden Again Gets Physical In Tense Confrontation With Iowa Voter
The latest incident went down Tuesday night in Iowa when former Iowa state representative Ed Fallon — who’s actually a well-known figure among progressives for his environmental activism — approached the former vice president to simply asked about building new pipelines and where he stands on climate change.
A visibly frustrated Biden pointedly told Fallon, “go vote for someone else” and then proceeded to dress the Democrat voter down apparently on the assumption he was being trolled by a Bernie Sanders supporter. The video of the encounter wherein Biden actually gets physical with the former state rep quickly went viral.
A man in Iowa asks Joe Biden to stop supporting the building of new pipelines. Joe Biden tells him to go vote for someone else and then starts accusing him of voting for Bernie Sanders. Actually, the man says, he’s voting for Tom Steyer. Very awkward. pic.twitter.com/OOuGiypED8
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) January 28, 2020
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In a summary of the Democratic candidate’s recent series of strange and tense run-ins with his own constituency, The Guardian aptly observed: “Biden apparently doesn’t care if you vote for him. No, really.”
It was Biden that took the encounter from peaceful to contentious and awkward in a matter of seconds.
Mr Biden poked and grabbed Ed Fallon, who served in Iowa’s general assembly and leads an organisation aimed at tackling the climate crisis, after the candidate pressed him about his loyalty in the election.
In a video of the exchange, Mr Fallon asks the candidate: “I like you, and I’m going to support you if win the nomination because we have to get rid of [Donald Trump], but what are we going to do about climate change? … We have to stop building and replacing pipelines.” — The Independent
The exchange went like this:
“You’re asking [for] a picture of me, coming in to tell me you don’t support me, my plan,” Biden said.
“In the general. I’m running for a primary, a caucus, that’s what I’m running for, OK,” he said pointing in the man’s chest.
Biden then assumed the man was a Sanders supporter, to which the man replied: “I’m actually supporting Tom Steyer.”
Steyer actually responded to the incident on Twitter. “This is no way to treat an Iowan,” he said.
Hi @JoeBiden,
This is no way to treat an Iowan. He said he’d vote for the Dem in the general b/c he knows how important it is to beat Trump.
We need immediate action on climate. If you don’t agree, happy to talk @ debate.
But don’t take it out on voters we need to win in Nov. https://t.co/gG6UTDGL15
— Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) January 28, 2020
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A number of commentators also noted that like with other moments Biden got unnecessarily confrontational, his hands went straight to the man’s chest, and at one point Biden even appears to firmly poke the man in the chest with his finger.
Liberal commentators are starting to note that this unwelcome ‘handsiness’ is a serious problem, and will continue to be.
I’m sorry, but we need to talk about how @JoeBiden’s physicality with voters and journalists and others is often aggressive and toxic. We’ve all gone to school with these boys. Then you grow up, hopefully. Would Kamala or Cory get away with this? pic.twitter.com/qAuG07uWCc
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) January 29, 2020
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* * *
And now a quick trip down memory lane. The Guardian notes these other incidents of the past few months:
“You should vote for Trump,” Biden told a protester.
“You should vote for Trump,” Joe Biden tells @CosechaMovement protester Carlos Rojas at tonight’s town hall in Greenwood, S.C.
Rojas and other protesters from the group were criticizing Obama-era deportations and asked Biden to say he’d end all deportations — which he rejected. pic.twitter.com/od188WIlrQ
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) November 22, 2019
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And who can forget the “damn liar” and what sounded like “Look, fat” moment:
WATCH: A tense exchange with a voter at @JoeBiden’s event in New Hampton, IA this morning, where a voter started out by telling Biden he had two problems with him: he was too old, and his son’s work in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/ok7m0ShFPd
— Molly Nagle (@MollyNagle3) December 5, 2019
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There’s this one too, which perhaps received less media attention:
The previous month in North Carolina, Biden was dismissive of an 18-year-old member of the Sunrise Movement who expressed concern over his acceptance of Super Pac donations. “Look at my record, child,” he said.
The same activist group, the Sunrise Movement, then later confronted Biden, who taking an immediate aggressive posture where he grabs the man by the shoulders, had this to say:
Here’s a thought, @JoeBiden. Maybe your climate policy advisor shouldn’t be somebody who has taken a million dollars from the fossil fuel industry 🤔
Otherwise your commitment to averting the climate crisis sounds like a bunch of…well, malarkey. pic.twitter.com/JnfRvOer45
— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) December 5, 2019
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And it’s not just voters…
Biden gets angry and lays hands on members of the press:
WATCH: After a campaign event in Mason City, Iowa, @joebiden reacts to @edokeefe‘s question about his ongoing feud with @berniesanders: “Calm down, it’s okay.” https://t.co/a2hmMbnjnf pic.twitter.com/ymOMWRR2zP
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 22, 2020
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“Why why why why why why… You’re gettin nervous man!” Biden said.
Indeed Joe Biden’s campaign continues to implode.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 01/29/2020 – 18:25
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