Collins – Financial Treason & Crime

JIM COLLINS, 04 June 2021

After today’s brutal miss on the jobs number — 559,000 actual vs. a 671,000 estimate was a 16.7% miss — the normal feedback loop commenced. Economy not that hot = interest rates down (the yield on the 10-year UST has ticked down today to 1.58%) = Nasdaq up. This has been the state of affairs in 2021. Is what it is. I don’t fight it, I just use these mindless bounces to reset my short positions.

Without entering into a long-winded diatribe about Elon Musk, Bitcoin, self-driving, etc., let me just note one key point that has become increasingly apparent to those of us who actually analyze fundamentals this week: the wheels are coming off Tesla (TSLA) . That is true both literally – Tesla has announced two separate recalls this week, the first covering 5,974 Models 3/Y in the U.S. and 734 in China over potentially loose brake caliper bolts and the second covering 7,696 3/Ys in the U.S. owing to potentially loose seatbelt fastener connections – and figuratively. Continue reading “Article: The Wheels Are Coming Off Tesla”

05/19/202105/21/2021

Article: FBI probing federal contractor’s donations to Sen. Collins’ campaign

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FBI probing federal contractor’s donations to Sen. Collins’ campaign

Dennis Hoey, Portland Press Herald, Maine, 19 May 2021

A Department of Defense contractor with ties to Maine is under investigation by the U.S. government for allegedly making illegal contributions to Sen. Susan Collins’ 2020 re-election campaign.

An FBI search warrant in the investigation names Martin Kao and Clifford Chen. Kao is the former president and CEO of Hawaii-based Navatek — now known as Martin Defense Group — and Chen was Navatek’s chief financial officer at the time the contributions were made. The contractor is based in Honolulu and has offices in Maine, Washington, D.C., Rhode Island, Michigan, Oklahoma, Kansas and South Carolina.

Kao and Chen are accused of making illegal contributions of about $45,000 to Collins’ re-election campaign and $150,000 to the independently operated 1820 PAC, which supported the Republican’s re-election bid. Donations of that nature constitute violations of federal law that prohibit federal contractors from making political contributions, according to FBI Special Agent Michelle Ball, who filed an application for a search warrant on April 7. The warrant, which had to be executed before April 21, was authorized by U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey. Continue reading “Article: FBI probing federal contractor’s donations to Sen. Collins’ campaign”

04/11/202104/12/2021

Article: Could The U.K. Secretly Strip Encryption From WhatsApp?

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Could The U.K. Secretly Strip Encryption From WhatsApp?

Barry Collins, 11 April 2021

The U.K. government could secretly force Facebook to strip end-to-end encryption from apps such as WhatsApp, a civil liberties organization has claimed.

The U.K. government has waged a long campaign against end-to-end encryption in consumer apps because it makes interception of communications more difficult. End-to-end encryption thus facilitates crimes such as child abuse, politicians such as the U.K.’s Home Secretary, Priti Patel, have argued. Continue reading “Article: Could The U.K. Secretly Strip Encryption From WhatsApp?”

01/12/202103/13/2021

Article: The Truth about Trade Deficits and Currency Manipulation

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The Truth about Trade Deficits and Currency Manipulation

Michael Collins, 12 January 2021

The U.S. Treasury Department has finally determined that China is a currency manipulator, putting currency manipulation and trade deficits back in the news. Trade deficits, currency manipulation and the strong dollar are complicated economic forces that directly affect the future of American manufacturing. Let’s look at how they affect manufacturing and why we must face the truth and do something around these issues, regardless of the politics.

Trade Deficits: Let me begin by saying that, yes, trade deficits have and will continue to hurt American manufacturing, although many politicians, economists, and industry associations disagree.

Michael Froman, former trade representative: “Every legitimate economist said that measuring trade policy by the size of the goods deficit is probably not a passing grade in a basic economics class,”

Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard economist: “The trade deficit is a terrible metric for judging economic policy.” Continue reading “Article: The Truth about Trade Deficits and Currency Manipulation”

10/24/200802/19/2021

Article: Sad Money: The Backlash Against Jim Cramer

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Sad Money: The Backlash Against Jim Cramer

Brendan Collins, 24 Cctober 2008

“Mad Money” host Jim Cramer, that chrome-domed hero of trashy TV addicts and armchair-finance junkies alike, has fallen on hard times. He appeared on “The Today Show” on October 6th, imploring viewers: “Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market. Right now.” To say this statement fanned the flames of the Wall Street crisis is an understatement. A more apt analogy would be to say that Cramer dumped rocket fuel on a

Continue reading “Article: Sad Money: The Backlash Against Jim Cramer”