The idea behind private federal prisons was to save money, but they did not. They billed the government the same and now they are losing their business. The US Justice Department has announced that it will phase out its use of privately owned prisons. They are citing safety concerns because of investigations that revealed rampant abuses with dozens […]
The revelations about Hillary are never ending. Even Donald Trump who admits buying politicians donated $100,000 to Hillary’s Foundation back in 2009. While others were handing her tens of millions to get deals from the State Department, with a token $100,000, Trump was obviously just putting his name on the list for influence as he […]
Ahead of Jackson Hole a mixed response in Asia with a choppy day for the Nikkei. Initially, the Nikkei saw a sell-off then an attempted rally just after lunch but that was to fizzle-out eventually closing down 1.1%. The JPY remained in a tight range and continues to play with the par level. There remains a […]
Private Blog Update for the Dow going into the week-end closing today
Of course, Chancellor Angela Merkel has denied that allowing the refugees in has led to the recent Islamic terrorist attacks. She has admitted that fighting crime and Islamist terrorism will be key challenges for the year, and she is adopting a law and order position after attacks in Germany have seen her approval ratings collapse. […]
The condo bubble has broken in many markets. Even rentals in Miami and other prime markets have begun to decline. In part, the rise in the dollar is now curtailing foreign investment. Likewise, I personally know some British friends who are selling property in the states to take advantage of the huge profit in the drop in the pound when converting back […]
With a total debt of almost 250% of GDP, China’s debt problems are well known. Meanwhile, the government is working on resolving the issue by following the playbook of US investment banks and creating securities structures to offload bad debt (remember CDOs?). The slowing economy has caused rising defaults. Analysts suspect the NPLs ratio to […]
Neither the Nikkei nor Hang Seng could decide on a direction today as both flip-flopped between positive and negative territory. Only Shanghai was to remain lower for the whole day closing well above the days lows but still 0.5% weaker. Yesterday we heard that the PBOC added (through 14 day reverse repo’s) cash into the […]
Believe it or not, someone can work hard to get into the Olympics and if they win the gold or silver medals, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is there waiting for their cut. Yes, American Olympians must pay taxes on the value of the medal. They also need to pay taxes on their prize money. […]
