Article: Just Keeps Getting Worse: Services Trade Surplus, the American Dream Not-Come-True, Falls to 9-Year Low, Total Trade Deficit Explodes to Worst Ever

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Just Keeps Getting Worse: Services Trade Surplus, the American Dream Not-Come-True, Falls to 9-Year Low, Total Trade Deficit Explodes to Worst Ever

Wolf Richter , 04 May 2021

Back when globalization by Corporate America was still a good thing, anxieties about the ballooning trade deficit in goods were medicated away with promises that exports of services – such as software, movies, and Wall Street efforts to financialize everything – would boom and balance out the trade. We’d buy cheap goods made in other countries, and they’d buy our expensive services, and it would all balance out. That was the rationale. Few economic rationales have failed more spectacularly.

Promised export boom of services turned out to be fake. Continue reading “Article: Just Keeps Getting Worse: Services Trade Surplus, the American Dream Not-Come-True, Falls to 9-Year Low, Total Trade Deficit Explodes to Worst Ever”

Article: The Gamers’ Uprising Against Wall Street Has Deep Populist Roots

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The Gamers’ Uprising Against Wall Street Has Deep Populist Roots

Wall Street may own the country, as Kansas populist leader Mary Elizabeth Lease once declared, but a new generation of “retail” stock market traders is fighting back.

Ellen Brown, SheerPost, 10 February 2021

A short squeeze frenzy driven by a new generation of gamers captured financial headlines in recent weeks, centered on a struggling strip mall video game store called GameStop. The Internet and a year off in this shut down to study up have given a younger generation of investors the tools to compete in the market. Gerald Celente calls it the “Youth Revolution.” A group of New York Young Republicans who protested in the snow on January 31 called it “Re-occupy Wall Street.” Others have called it  Occupy Wall Street 2.0.

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Article: Regulators across Europe clash over bans on short selling

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Regulators across Europe clash over bans on short selling

Philip Stafford, Laurence Fletcher, Robert Smith

Financial Times, 30 March 2020

France, Spain and Italy issued one-day prohibitions against betting on falling share prices for selected companies — and then longer bans of between one and three months, applied to all stocks listed on their domestic markets. Belgium, Austria and Greece swiftly followed suit, while Esma, the pan-European regulator, demanded tighter standards on reporting of short positions. Markus Ferber, an influential European MEP, urged a co-ordinated ban across the continent. But the clampdown has been partial.

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Article: Accounting Fraud & Freight Recession Topple Celadon, Largest Truckload-Carrier Bankruptcy in US History

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Accounting Fraud & Freight Recession Topple Celadon, Largest Truckload-Carrier Bankruptcy in US History

Wolf Richter, 09 December 2019

Celadon Group, one of the larger full-truckload operators in the US with about 3,000 drivers and about 2,700 tractors, said today – confirming days of rumors – that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is ceasing operations. This is the largest truckload carrier ever to file for bankruptcy in US history.

The drivers, hauling loads across the US, Canada, and Mexico were apparently among the last to be informed. According to Freight Waves, they received this message in the middle of the night on their telematics devices: Continue reading “Article: Accounting Fraud & Freight Recession Topple Celadon, Largest Truckload-Carrier Bankruptcy in US History”

Article: Forced End of “Ponzi-Like Leverage” & “Fraudulent Lending” Turns Australia’s House Price Bubble into “Property Bloodbath”

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Forced End of “Ponzi-Like Leverage” & “Fraudulent Lending” Turns Australia’s House Price Bubble into “Property Bloodbath”

Wolf Richter, 19 February 2019

As investors are fleeing Australia’s housing bust, sales of new houses have plunged to record lows, and home prices in the Sydney and Melbourne metros have dropped 12% and 9% from their respective peaks in mid and late 2017. Combined, the two metros account for about two-thirds of residential property value in Australia. A two-decade-long housing boom, interrupted by only a few minor dips, led to two of the most magnificent housing bubbles in the world, and they’re not “plateauing” or anything. Continue reading “Article: Forced End of “Ponzi-Like Leverage” & “Fraudulent Lending” Turns Australia’s House Price Bubble into “Property Bloodbath””

Article: Supreme Court to Hear Appeal of Third Circuit ‘Naked’ Short Selling Securities Suit

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Supreme Court to Hear Appeal of Third Circuit ‘Naked’ Short Selling Securities Suit

Timothy Raub

LexisNexis, 30 June 2015

The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to hear an appeal of a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling remanding a securities class action lawsuit over the alleged illegal “naked” short selling of a company’s stock back to state court Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., et al. v. Greg Manning, et al., No. 14-1132, U.S. Sup.

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Article: European Bailout Fund For Greek Money Laundering And Fraud

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European Bailout Fund For Greek Money Laundering And Fraud

Wolf Richter, 18 November 2011

The ink wasn’t even dry yet on the European bailout fund, the EFSF when it paid $1.3 billion to bail out Proton Bank in Greece. Turns out, Proton had siphoned off $1 billion in a scheme of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, and offshore front companies, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. And then a bomb exploded.

The bomb, fabricated of dynamite, demolished four cars in front of a building in Halandri, a suburb of Athens. Not a coincidence: in the building lived a senior employee of the Bank of Greece, whose meticulous investigation of Proton Bank had exposed the massive criminal scheme. According to the police, the bomb was intended as a warning to those who attempt to shed light on these kinds of machinations. Continue reading “Article: European Bailout Fund For Greek Money Laundering And Fraud”

Article: Exposed by a Short Seller, Luckin Coffee, another Chinese Company that Defrauded US Investors, Filed for Bankruptcy in New York Today

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Exposed by a Short Seller, Luckin Coffee, another Chinese Company that Defrauded US Investors, Filed for Bankruptcy in New York Today

Wolf Richter, 05 February 2011

Luckin Coffee, a Starbucks imitator and one of many Chinese companies with no operations in the US that have their IPOs in the US and raise funds in the US, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in New York today. The downfall of Luckin was triggered by short seller Carson Block of Muddy Waters that published detailed allegations on January 31, 2020, of massive fraud at the company, perpetrated at the highest levels.

By the time the Muddy Waters report came out, the company’s stock – well, American Depositary Receipt (ADR) – had skyrocketed from the IPO price of $17 a share in May 2019, to $50 a share in January 2020, giving the company a market capitalization (share price times shares outstanding) of $12.6 billion. Continue reading “Article: Exposed by a Short Seller, Luckin Coffee, another Chinese Company that Defrauded US Investors, Filed for Bankruptcy in New York Today”

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