Turns Out Buying Votes Has Consequences - Go Figure

Washington Post: 

IRS halts processing claims for pandemic tax credit tied to fraud

The measure was meant to help hard-hit firms, but the agency warns it is ‘not operating as it was intended’

The "Employee Retention Credit" that came about as a result of the Covid Scamdemic turned out to be the underwater earthquake that caused a massive tsunami of fraudulent claims...wow, go fucking figure, huh?  The number of fraudulent claims has caused the IRS to suspend the program.  The only reason that there were "hard-hit firms" in the first place was because the goddamned government made them shut their doors....because of the flu season.....mmmmkaaay....

Mr. Haney devises a plan with Ebb to file a claim for an Employee Retention Credit

Americans like to believe that we live in a Norman Rockwell United States and our "elected leaders" like to write policy and law as if we are all the residents of Bedford Falls.  Personally, I think that they know better and deep down most Americans recognize that there is a "critical mass" of assclowns, frauds, scammers, etc.  If you doubt that, just go look at the price of a new car.

Interest Rate Risk

Interest Rate Risk: When interest rates rise, the market value of the debt securities tends to drop.  This makes it difficult for the bond investor to sell a T-bond without losing on the investment.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, it was explained to me that the bond market was gargantuan compared to the other markets like equities.  People far and wide buy and sell the debt paper issued by their own government and the governments of other countries.  U.S. bonds are the King Kong of the bond jungle.  Gamblers line up to buy securities issued by foreign governments with the hope of trading them off to other gamblers for a profit.  The amount of money that trades hands is staggering.  The profits can be huge.  If you bought a high yielding 30 year security issued by a debtor nation deemed to be AAA rated and interest rates (market wide) dropped, you could sell that security to someone else for a large profit.  If you bought at the bottom and interest rates rose, well....not so much.

The last time the 2 year yield rose to a higher level than the 10 year yield was also a long time ago.  January 31, 2006.  That inversion lasted until March 21, 2007.  That inversion lasted a mere 13 months.  The current inversion is still in place but the gap is becoming more narrow by the day.  Up is down and down is up.  Central Bank intervention (buying long term bonds at nosebleed prices thus lowering the yield on the security) in what should be a free market (the market for the time value of money) has consequences.  Powell and company have a choice to make.  Either let markets do their thing and let losers lose and winners win.  Or, intervene again with Q.E. and rate fixing and completely destroy the value of the dollar and force the middle class / poor to take a wheel barrow of cash to Wal-Mart each time that they want to go buy groceries or fill up the Durango with petrol.

 

It is Not the Fall that Hurts. It is the Sudden Stop.

"The calliope crashed to the ground."

The yield inversion between the the 2 year treasury and the 10 year treasury is the flight.  The eventual and unavoidable unwinding of that inversion is the crash.  The longer that the inversion existed and the greater the width of the inversion usually dictates the severity of the recession that follows.  The current inversion between the 2 year treasury and the 10 year treasury began on April 1, 2022 when the yield on the 2 year was 2.44% and the yield on the 10 year treasury was 2.39%.  The gap widened considerably during the past 18 months but has now begun to taper off.  We are still inverted but the gap is not as wide.  As of yesterday, the inversion still exists with the 2 year at 4.98% and the 10 year at 4.27%.  As I have written before, treasuries are very boring.  Watching yields is like watching paint dry.  Make no mistake about it, bond yields will eventually correct and when they do, the shit will hit the fan.

Why You Should Never Listen to Broads and Never Ever Ever Ever Listen to Broads Who are Democrats

"Though she thanked police officers for their response, at the height of the George Floyd riots in June 2020, Sathanandan wrote Facebook posts supporting efforts to "dismantle" the police.

"We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. Say it with me. DISMANTLE. The. Minneapolis. Police. Department," she wrote, "As allies, what can we do right now? LISTEN and LEARN from our Black siblings. And then AMPLIFY this message right now, in this moment. MPD has systematically failed the Black Community c, they have failed ALL OF US. It's time to build a new infrastructure that works for ALL communities. If you are still disagreeing with that BASIC FACT, I'm not sure what to say to you." "

Read about her recent carjacking experience here.

Obviously, the answer to all of this mayhem is for the public to fund more Midnight Basketball programs for the restless youths.  What do we want?  Midnight Basketball!!  When do we want it?  Now!!!

Land of the Scam and the Home of the Fraudster

The I.R.S. should be expanded and more agents should be added.  Why?  Because this country is chock full of liars, cheats and scam artists.

“Pandemic relief fraud by CPS employees causes significant reputational harm to CPS and diminishes trust in the school district,” Fletcher’s office wrote in the report. “This is especially true when the perpetrators are employees responsible for managing public funds.”

Of those 14 employees, the OIG found many are in leadership or central office positions according to the report. In each substantiated CPS case, the person who applied for a PPP loan claimed to be self-employed.

In one case, a district full-time employee who makes more than $140,000 per year claimed in their loan application to have earned more than $100,000 in 2019 alone by working as a chef.

“When interviewed by the OIG, however, the employee admitted that the information provided on the loan application was false,” the report states.

Over paid Chicago public school (CPS) officials who are already ass raping tax payers are never happy.  Fraudulently obtaining PPP Covid 19 Scamdemic funding was just too tempting for these over paid ass clowns.

Why Chicago sucks in a nutshell.

A list of those who got bailouts.  Go check it out - you'll be surprised.  You might even find people you know.  How do you afford your rock-n-roll lifestyle?  In part it may be coming from the gub-mint!

Trump Returning To Office Would Be a Nightmare for a Few People

 

conir·sp·a·cy /kənˈspirəsē/ noun a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful

I don't think Trump's huge ego will allow him to publicly state that he got "had" by a large group of people (a.k.a. "the swamp") but deep down, he knows he got played.  Democrats and a large number of people from within his own party couldn't stand him.

For me watching from the sidelines, they threw out a guy who likes golfing and young, attractive, eastern European women and then replaced him with an obviously corrupt and rapidly deteriorating ass clown who sees no problem with showering with his own daughter (ewww, gross) and who has a drug addict son.

The "Covid 19 scamdemic" was the crowning touch of the "Never Trump" crowd's effort to remove him from office and I believe he got smooth talked into a lot of the bullshit that the government did in response to the virus that was supposed to "end humanity as we know it".  I will bet dollars to do-nuts that the Wu-Flu came out of a laboratory either on purpose or by way of a rather well timed accident.

The entanglement of lawsuits brought against Trump recently is perfectly timed and coordinated to keep him in a web of lawsuits during the upcoming election season.

I'm not a dyed in the wool Trump supporter but I don't like seeing a group of asshats conspiring against a person just because that person is brusque in their speech when stating the obvious.  I like my politicians to be more dull than Trump but that's just me.  Ganging up on a guy just because his statements make the precious, over paid and coddled swamp dwellers uncomfortable or butthurt is wrong and most news outlets are nothing but cheerleaders for anyone who is "anti-Trump".

If he returns to office, I am going to pop a big batch of popcorn and enjoy the shit show as he metes out retribution.  I'd like to see that smug little dickhead Faucci strung up from a lamp post by his testicles and beaten like a goddamned pinata.  

The "Scarf Lady" Birx has come out from under whatever rock she's been hiding beneath for the past few years to start hyperventilating over the dangers of the Covid 19 Election Variant that is supposed to ravage the Unwashed Masses in the upcoming year....during the upcoming election....

What is truly sad is the number of idiotic losers in this country who would gladly go back to Covid restrictions if it resulted in getting some more of those wonderful stimmy checks, PPP grants (not really a loan if it is forgiven), eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, student loan repayment moratoriums, enhanced unemployment benefits, etc., etc., etc.  

I'm going to state what is abundantly clear to anyone who pays attention - a very large number of the "Great Americans" who vote would gladly sell out their freedoms in a heartbeat if it meant that they could collect mailbox money from the "gub-mint", sit on their fat asses and eat Cheeto's while watching YouTube videos.

No Recessions Here (Yet)

What if the Fed threw a party and no one attended?  At the moment, the long awaited "crash" in real estate and equities has not materialized.  The "wealth effect" is alive and well as Great Americans shrug off higher interest rates, a looming end to the student loan repayment moratorium, the end of pandemic a.k.a. "scamdemic" aid, etc.

However, I have recently heard a number of people make the statement "I do not know where my money goes".  It appears on pay day and it just vaporizes in short order because of persistent and relentless inflation.  

My guess is that what has just occurred in the last two years will never be reversed.  You will never again see a trip to the grocery store cost the same or less than it did in 2019.

Watching Treasury yields is like watching paint dry.  Most people do not have the patience for it.  The unwinding of the yield curve inversion between the 2 year and the 10 year is "where the action is" - it's like watching box turtles race.  Prices are falling on the 10 year thus driving up the long term rate - a lot of adjustable rate debt is going to reprice higher starting in 2024.