Support for Hillary continues to collapse. Wall Street’s previous expectation was that Hillary would win. That was the opinion of about 80% of the people on Wall Street. That has now crashed to 52%. As Hillary’s email scandal gets worse and worse, and the DNC email scandal adds to the fire, the opinions are starting to turn rapidly. Our computer is still showing that it is entirely possible that Trump could reach the highest percentage of the popular votes, which could be more than anyone in history even surpassing FDR in the Great Depression.

Obama has come out and blamed Russia for hacking the DNC. This, of course, is a diversion to create sympathy for Hillary and change the top of fraud, lies, and conspiracy against Bernie. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has responded by saying that “there is no proof whatsoever” that Russian intelligence is behind the thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee. In fact, Wikileaks has not disclosed the source of the leak. Anything else is bogus for hacking into their emails, as Hillary’s server, could have been done by an 18-year-old. There is no possible way to pin this on Russia. The Democrats are doing so to cast themselves as victims so people will somehow not believe them thinking they came from Russia.

If it were Russia, they would be wise NOT to release them and use them for blackmail politically. If Russia went to the expense of doing this, it would provide no strategic purpose to just embarrass Hillary or Obama. The better hand is to use blackmail – do this or else.

The WikiLeaks release of the Democratic National Committee’s emails and documents have confirmed what has always been self-evidence to those behind the curtain — Hillary does not represent the people, she represents those who give her big money. Hillary takes money from the Wall Street guys and does their bidding. That is why the Clintons repealed Glass Steagall. The biggest hedge funds pour money into Hillary to ensure nothing will change, right down to Soros. 

When Hillary was the Secretary of State, she refused to appoint an Inspector General to monitor her department. It was clear that she did not want anyone snooping around so she could hide her private emails and greed. She even sold positions on the International Security Advisory Board. Commodities trader Raj Fernando “bought” his appointment to a top-secret nuclear weapons security advisory board with no such experience. ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross broke the story after linking Mr. Fernando’s appointment to the prestigious International Security Advisory Board in 2009 based on Fernando’s donations to the Clinton Foundation.

Recently released emails, acquired by Citizens United through the Freedom of Information Act show that career department officials questioned Fernando’s appointment because he had no national security experience. Still, other emails show that Hillary and her Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills bypassed the normal nomination process to put Mr. Fernando on the board. This is outright treason, and Obama is clearly in on this conspiracy by refusing to indict Hillary simply because she is the Democratic candidate.

Now, the WikiLeaks release confirmed that this is standard operational procedure for Hillary and the DNC. The disclosure shows the same pattern whereby the potential Clinton Administration has intertwined the appointments to federal government boards and commissions with the political and fundraising operations of the Democratic Party. Clearly, those voting for Hillary are sublime fools or brainwashed, for they cannot see what Washington has become or prefer to remain in a state of denial while living the dream. Honest governments exist like unicorns.

What Hillary did for Fernando was, once again, confirmed in the WikiLeaks release. For Bernie to stand up and say Trump is the biggest danger to the country is now starting to call his own credibility into question. Has Bernie simply sold out his own supporters because he too is brainwashed, living the dream, and must vote Democratic regardless of the truth?

We need to clean house in Washington on both sides. Enough is enough!

The hacking of the Democratic Party has been an eye-opener. WikiLeaks dumped a massive load of e-mails from the Democratic National Committee onto the web on Friday. The thousands of internal e-mails have shown how crooked the party has become and revealed that a party official tried to use Bernie Sanders’ supposed religious beliefs to derail his presidential campaign by saying he was an atheist who was raised Jewish. Another staffer pitched an idea for a phony, sexist Trump ad. Then, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz tried to score a staggering seven tickets to the Broadway smash “Hamilton,” which go for up to $3,000 each.

The Democratic National Convention got off to a rough start on Monday as tensions over the email scandal has exploded. The party conspired against Bernie and indeed rigged the primary to ensure Hillary would win. The conspiracy against Bernie was fairly obvious without the email leak, but this shows how bad things have become behind the curtain on both sides. The DNC had to publicly apologize:

“On behalf of everyone at the DNC, we want to offer a deep and sincere apology to Senator Sanders, his supporters, and the entire Democratic Party for the inexcusable remarks made over email,” says the statement, signed by incoming interim chair Donna Brazile and other top brass at the DNC. “These comments do not reflect the values of the DNC or our steadfast commitment to neutrality during the nominating process.”

The statement goes on to say the DNC “is taking appropriate action to ensure it never happens again.”

The hacker group Guccifer has released another batch of documents from the Democratic National Committee’s servers.

The top-20 personal individuals donating to Hillary are mostly hedge fund and Hollywood titans:

Haim & Cheryl Saban $10 million (financial services, entertainment, and media)
George Soros $7 million (hedge fund)
James Simons $7 million (hedge fund)
JB & Mary Kathryn Pritzker $6.5 million (venture capital)
Donald Sussman $4 million (hedge fund)
Laure L. Woods $3.31 million (Laurel Foundation)
Daniel Abraham $3 million (Slim-Fast)
Herbert Sandler $2.5 million (banker)
David E. Shaw $2.25 million (hedge fund)
Fred Eychaner $2 million (Chairman of Newsweb Corporation)
Henry & Marcha Laufer $2 million (Renaissance Technologies)
Jon Stryker $1.5 million (Environmental Activist)
Pat Stryker $1.5 million (Bohemian Foundation)
Barbara Lee $1,407,904 (Women’s Advocate)
Jeffrey Katzenberg $1 million (Dreamworks)
John Steven Mostyn $1 million (Lawyer)
Bernard Schwarts $1 million (BLS Investments)
Steven Spielberg $1 million (Hollywood Director)
Thomas Tull $1 million (Legendary Pictures)
Stephen Silberstein $800,000 (Innovative Interfaces)

The tension between China and Taiwan has been going on for decades. Historically, the Republic of China was a state established in East Asia from 1912 to 1949 on mainland China, which included Mongolia and Taiwan. It was preceded by the last imperial dynasty of China, the Qing dynasty, which was the last royal dynasty of China that had followed the Ming Dynasty. Emperors ruled under the theory that they held the mandate from heaven. Hence, even when the Mongols conquered China, it was viewed as fate, as if heaven had handed them the mandate to rule.

Mao Zedong formed the modern-day People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949. The Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek had been defeated and fled to Taiwan, which they continued to refer to as the Republic of China. Chiang Kai-shek established a temporary government in Taipei and established martial law.

Recently, a reporter from the Washington Post asked Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen whether Chinese leader Xi Jinping had a deadline by which he wanted Tsai to agree to the 1992 Consensus. The president stated that it was the first time she “officially refused to accept the 1992 Consensus.” She continued by saying, “It isn’t likely that the government of Taiwan will accept a deadline for conditions that are against the will of the people.” The suggestion that a vote be submitted for the people was not welcomed in China.

Did $78 billion in gold exports from South Africa really go missing? Nope. As taxes rise, so does trade misinvoicing. This confusing term is actually a method for moving money across borders, primarily to avoid taxes.

The Global Financial Integrity Group claims that $465.3 billion was underreported in 2004. They argue that this figure rose to just over $1,090.1 billion in 2013. They attribute this to crime, claiming the number one actor is money laundering by criminals or public officials who may seek to launder the proceeds from crime or corruption. This is highly questionable and turns on their definition of a “criminal” since everyone breaks the law in some manner.

So if you send a gift to a friend in Germany for their birthday and place a value of $500 on it, then your friend will have to go down to the government and pay a tax to receive the gift. If you claim the value is $10, well, you have just entered the dark corner of criminal activity defined as trade misinvoicing.

The amount of gold that has come to the market is much higher than suspected, simply because there is an undervaluing on invoices. Likewise, to help the Japanese reduce their trade surplus with the United States during the 1990s, we directed them to buy gold on the COMEX, take delivery, and export it to Japan. That then entered the gross trade balance and reduced the appearance of a surplus. It is all just a numbers game. If you understand the accounting system, that is 99% of the game.

Even though we have two central banks announcing rate decision this week, in addition to Tuesday being one of the busiest corporate reporting days of the year and hearing from the G20 at the weekend, this week looks to be one of the quietest! Asia had no reaction to anything emerging from the G20 as the most discussed topic happened to be Nintendo shares declining 18%, often the case when buying the hype, selling the release. Over the year, however, the shares are still well into positive territory. Probably not surprising we are seeing a quiet session ahead of the two-day BOJ meeting commencing July 28th.

With Asia not providing much direction given all the potential news avenues over the past weekend, Europe is forced to focus, again, on Italian Bank Stress Tests end of the week. Nerves are obviously around after Banca Monte dei Paschi di Seina (BMPS) shares traded around 8% lower as fears of yet more capital requirements hit the streets. This stock remains close to recent lows with the 1yr return around -84%. German IFO better on all scores but failed to inspire the market either. The G20 did not really have a direct impact on markets this morning but the enthuses remains on BREXIT and the implications for global growth going forward. Core European Indices closed mixed around +/- 0.3% on the day — still plenty to play for in the days ahead of month end and may well be worth keeping an eye on oil.

US closed off the days lows but still negative on the day but did inspire a bounce in the VIX (last seen near 13). We saw gold bounce from the $1312 level and also hear of a report (I believe from BOA) claiming that cash levels are the highest since 2001. Lots of earnings out this week (probably the busiest of the year) and so many are happy for a holiday week in July.

US Treasuries saw more steepening today but admittedly it was only 2bp. 2’s remained heavy today trading down too 0.73%, whilst 10’s closed just 0.5% higher (yield) at 1.57%. This closes the 2/10 curve at 84bp. In Germany, the 10yr Bund closed -0.05%, whilst 2’s closed -0.62%. 10yr Italy closed 1.23% (u/c), Greece 7.91% (+9bp), Turkey 9.64% (-16bp), Portugal 3% (-2bp), and Gilts close 0.80% (+1bp).

If Trump wins, he says he would prosecute Hillary for her crimes. At least in France, the courts are not as corrupt as they are in the United States. The highest court has ruled that the notorious head of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) Christine Lagarde  must stand trial for a financial scandal. Back in 2008, Lagarde approved a payout of €400m to a businessman who was notorious and well connected politically. She is accused of negligence and could face a year in prison along with a €15,000 fine if convicted. She should resign from the IMF. I doubt she would do that one. The IMF spokesman came out and publicly stated that the Executive Board “continues to express its confidence in the Managing Director’s ability to effectively carry out her duties.” Just amazing.

Have you ever wondered why you have to show your boarding pass to purchase something in the duty-free shops, after passing security, when in fact nobody can be there without a boarding pass? The answer is starting to surface.

It turns out the government is tracking the destination of travelers who buy anything in the airport. With such a database, they could take the next step and send that info to your destination to ensure you pay the tax upon landing.

The German magazine GMX has asked the seemingly stupid question: why do duty-free airport shops require travelers to show a boarding pass once they get through security? The hunt for money just keeps getting worse.