The Grinch Who Tweeted Away Christmas

The stock market reeled after Steve Mnuchin, who ought to know better, reassured a bunch of people who weren't panicking that there was no need to panic.

Donald Trump then delivered what is currently my Favorite Tweet EVER!

 The Fed can't putt!

Doesn't matter. Today, we fight! (S&P Futures show a modest bounce, so here's hoping.)

Comments

[henry]

The original Grinch gave everything back.

[rse]

Happy Boxing Day!

Am I the only one who went to see aquaman yesterday? Thought is was fun escapist camp, especially since we saw it somewhere we could imbibe.

[JimNorCal]

"Today, we fight!"

This is a historical quote,yes? I think it is not a line from a movie though Aragon spoke something like "Today is not that day."

[MissMarple2]

An interesting Twitter comment:

Joe Weisenthal
‏ @TheStalwart
7m7 minutes ago

How much of the belief that Trump scandals/chaos are driving the market lower is simply a function of the fact that none of the other popular narratives really fit and it's just the last story standing?

[MissMarple2]

sbw,

I thought you would find this interesting:

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/12/helping-the-ap-get-it-straight.php?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=sw&utm_campaign=sw

[henry]

The Fed has been reducing liquidity with higher interest rates and reduction of it's balance sheet. Bubble deflation seems the correct answer. The question is whether the "wealth" effect of higher 401k balances works in reverse and tanks the real economy.

[Another Bob]

I agree with you Henry.

Also, not quite getting the criticism of Mnuchin. After ten years of free money, now followed by a sharpish tightening, seems reasonable for SecTreas to make sure all is well with the banks no? After all, bankers haven’t shown themselves to be the sharpest knives in the drawer all the time.

[henry]

Bob, any action or inaction by Trump people will be blamed for something. The two legs bad problem.

[Captain Hate]

People lash out during economic turbulence, looking for a convenient scapegoat. That the MFM is in full blame DJT propagandist mode only fuels it more.

[MissMarple2]

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/kansas-city-royals-pitching-prospect-brady-singer-pays-off-parents-debt-for-christmas

[Buckeye]

The press will seize every opportunity to paint any market downturn as Trump's fault.

Fed's actions clearly have investors spooked, but also volume drives trader bonus pools.

They are trading your money...up or down, who cares?

[henry]

"You guys a coupla bookies"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sENssnI9CGc

[Buckeye]

yep Henry:)

[henry]

Those events transpired over the Christmas / New Years week.

[Another Bob]

MM, re. the AP thing you linked...

The problem is AP is so corrupt, the only thing that fixes it is a near death experience. And with isolated exceptions (nods SBW’s way) all of its clients are also corrupt or brainwashed. I don’t know what fixes that.

AP is a perfect place for the progs to police the media, Facebook- and Twitter-style. I’ve wondered if they have any informal power over the member outlets and can’t, or just haven’t seen the need.

[MissMarple2]

One of my sisters just called me. She and her husband went to see the Will Farrell Sherlock Holmes but it was sold out, so they went to see Aquaman.

She said it was so boring that even though it was full of loud explosions she fell asleep! LOL!

[MissMarple2]

Another Bob,

I agree. I don't know how to solve the problem, either.

[MissMarple2]

Peter Nicholas
‏ @PeterWSJ

Former top econ officials have approached the White House about Trump’s tweets and governing style, warning that his behavior is a reason for the stock market downturn. On Xmas Day, 1 former GOP Treas official told Mnuchin to advise Trump to rein in tweets.

The Known Unknowns
‏ @Known__Unknowns
1m1 minute ago

Which ones?

The economic officials that blew the world up in 2008 or the ones that spent tens of trillions of Dollars bandaging the wound without cleansing it first?

[henry]

ZH on WSJ on computer trading algos:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-26/wsj-discovers-how-algos-broke-market

[Narciso79]

Ah Peter nicholas, he was the journals counterpart to mark landler, remember this is the paper that gave us Glenn simpson.

Yes I saw it, of course the film Is absurd but no more than the news

[Another Bob]

This graf being the key takeaway:

“Add to that passive funds, index investors, high-frequency traders, market makers, and others who aren’t buying because they have a fundamental view of a company’s prospects, and you get to around 85% of trading volume, according to Marko Kolanovic of JP Morgan.”

[MissMarple2]

https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/26/ginsburg-discharged-from-hospital/?utm_campaign=atdailycaller&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter

[Narciso79]

As I noted before they flipped the script with momoa doing the thor roll and Wilson doing the hiddleston,

[pagar]

All leftist reporters are pure trash, IMO.

https://www.weaselzippers.us/406634-leftist-ny-mag-reporter-wall-support-based-on-hateful-breitbart-type-worldview/

[henry]

Note from Chitown Lurker:

This is absolutely the key paragraph, IMO, in that ZH piece:

“Odd how electronic traders were not "wreaking havoc in the markets" when the markets were rising. A cynic may almost say that the president, the Fed and/or traders such as Cooperman (who have had an abysmal year) are desperate for a diversionary cover, and hence the WSJ article finally reporting on the other key facet of what made market levitation possible for the past decade: HFTs, algos and various other computerized traders, which however merely do what their human programmers instruct them to do, and which is to simply accentuate momentum either up, or as the case may be for the past 3 months, down by frontrunning key shifts in investor sentiment (as a reminder, all HFTs really do is frontrun orderflow) and in the process confirming that instead of adding liquidity to the market, HFTs were notorious in soaking it all up as recent market moves demonstrate.”

[Narciso79]

She's the gal who volunteered with Weiner, after he embarrassed herself the first time, so her level of facepalm is off the chart.

[pagar]

IMO, the credit card companies should target any one using a credit card to subscribe to the NYTs.

"NYT Reporters Advocate Tracking Gun Purchases Made With Credit Cards" Pure trash 24/7.

https://www.weaselzippers.us/406604-nyt-reporters-advocate-tracking-gun-purchases-made-with-credit-cards/

[Neo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67khpyJTaiQ

[MissMarple2]

Well, I had better get moving and get some chores done. At least I remembered to get the trash out to the curb last night!

Back later.

[Old Lurker]

RG & TomR to the red emergency telephone, STAT:

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/12/are_the_investigations_the_coverup.html

[Narciso79]

I think he left some things out:

https://amgreatness.com/2018/12/25/trumps-syria-withdrawal-hinges-on-turkey/

[Narciso79]

I was watching ths Babylon 5 retrospective and one comes across the historical perspective one with the pollsters most out to lunch in 2262, as they are today even more so 100 years later. And the 500 year minitrue revision

[Captain Hate]

All leftist reporters are pure trash, IMO.

The consent of the governed thing bothers them.

[pagar]

“But one thing’s for sure, the first week of January, we will be passing legislation to open up government,” Pelosi said."

IMO, the Democrats will never pass any legislation that will help America. Their only plan is to keep the border open so that their frauduent voters can attack us.

https://www.weaselzippers.us/406651-government-shutdown-day-4-pelosi-blames-trump-for-using-scare-tactics-over-border-wall/

I hope when the Wall is built they dump Pelosi on the other side of it.

[Narciso79]

Before I saw the film, there was a loud family behind me and they said thrt were looking forward to seeing vice, I hesitated to ask them for their names for the scam liat.

[Another Bob]

OL, it all seems so obvious at this point.

For how long were we hearing that Horowitz was the savior?

When it became clear Horowitz had nothing, hope switched to Huber.

Radio silence from Huber.

“But there just MUST be a pony amid all this horse manure.”

[clarice]

Wages are up, gas prices are down, close to full employment, consumer confidence up.

[jimmyk]

Again, if what Mnuchin did with the banks scared the markets, imagine what TARP and the AIG bailout etc must have done to the markets in 2008. Yet Bernanke, Paulsen, Obama all saved the world, allegedly.

[sbwaters]

Latest missive to the wire service:

What [the wire service] wrote:

On Wall Street, stocks had already been down but intensified their fall after Trump's tweet. Markets are facing their worst month in a decade over fears about a U.S. trade war with China, a slowing global economy and chaos in the Trump White House.

That last media-created narrative was not necessarily true and certainly not conclusive. Besides, I shouldn’t think [you] would have missed the obvious when stock brokers across the country are calling their clients:

Major media reports, including the Associated Press, have failed to report that, following a significant year of advances, stock brokers were advising their clients before Thursday to sell some losing stock positions to pair up with those that had gained. Neutralizing gains and losses avoids paying the IRS capital gains taxes for the 2018 tax year. To avoid taxes, clients may not repurchase those stocks for 31 days.

The Thursday deadline is so stock sales can clear before the end of the year.

[pagar]

The top tier of losers. " The top tier of contenders – former V.P. Joe Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders, and losing Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke – have yet to make any moves in states with early primaries, so donors and campaign workers have yet to decide who to support."

None of the so called contenders are qualified to be dog catcher, IMO, let alone anything higher.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/12/democratic_activists_playing_wait_and_see_in_iowa_and_new_hampshire_comments.html#disqus_thread

[Buckeye]

The problem is AP is so corrupt, the only thing that fixes it is a near death experience.

FIFY AB

[Old Lurker]

Totally, A-Bob.

Some of his commenters said to him "welcome to the party".

The question outstanding in my mind, since of course I agree with the point of the AT piece, is why Trump is going along with it. And he has known it all along, probably well before Adm Rogers told him and probably well before he told his base in the summer of 2016 "She'd be in jail".

I have no answer to my question.

[sbwaters]

AB: AP is a perfect place for the progs to police the media, Facebook- and Twitter-style. I’ve wondered if they have any informal power over the member outlets and can’t, or just haven’t seen the need.

AP staff don’t need progs to coach them. They are pre-programmed. Most are recently “schooled”.

Nor can AP “members” do anything. Most are owned by large corporate entities and toe the corporate line. Besides, AP condescendingly tells members, “You own us”, which actually means we are self-perpetuating and don’t care what you think.

I irregularly tweet coaching to @AP under the hashtag #APEdited, but it will take more than me. Glad Powerline blog weighed in. Thnx for the pointer.

[Another Bob]

OL, remove all the extraneous elements, and you’re left with Trump may have suspected the dem election rigging, didn’t know until Rogers, and is “going along” since he’s mostly politically powerless to do anything about it.

[Narciso79]

He suspected some things but he couldn't grasp the level of subterfuge re the tripwires in the minefield

[Another Bob]

Thank SB. Was thinking more in terms of AP policing the individual members. I think we’re agreeing on that part.

I’m a follow of yours. I’ve seen #APedited ;)

[Narciso79]

Suspecting something and being able to prove it are two things entirely, and being able to change things is yet another step.

[Captain Hate]

I'm still in the dark about nearly everything. I'm sure DJT wants to punish those that came after him, and he usually follows through on those things, but the lack of tangible progress can't be denied.

[Narciso79]

You can tell that Whitaker was over the target because they turned the defense grid on him.

[Narciso79]

The bloom seems to be off golden state, huh captain?

[Texas Liberty Gal]

I have to give a huge shout out to Apple. When changing the password to my MacAir Pro I must have made a mistake when typing in my new password and couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was. Off to the Apple store to make an appointment at the Genius Bar and not only did I get it that day but I was sitting down with an associate in 15 minutes. He not only helped me with my password but also completely cleaned up all the malware that was on my computer. He also put in a program that would keep any further malware from sneaking onto my MAC. I was super impressed!!!

[Narciso79]

I know how relevant are references from a 20 year old admittedly niche TV show, but a frontal assault seems the only way anything gets done.

[peter]

Miss M.’s 8:24 in the last thread making me a little verklempt. God blessed this community when you started posting here.

[Captain Hate]

When The Bron (h/t GUS) left the game and the Warriors had cut the lead to 2, I figured the game would be a 20+ point win...

[Narciso79]

That would be Babylon 5, Sheridan was willing to go ramming speed to disable the defense grid. But only when there was no alternatuve.

[clarice]

David Burge
‏

@iowahawkblog
Dec 24
More
Attention investment bankers: My friend Brian has a '55 Chevy for sale for $3 trillion. Lend me $3 trillion to buy it & when I skip payment, tell DC the economy is in meltdown until they give us $3 trillion. That way you, me & Brian will all have $1 trillion, plus a '55 Chevy
11 replies 41 retweets 237 likes
Reply 11 Retweet 41 Like 237
Show this thread

David Burge
‏

@iowahawkblog
Dec 24
More
Just wait until the housing bubble pops again. Instead of welcoming a return to affordable housing and a chance to renegotiate overpriced mortgages, we'll have a 100% DC consensus to "help homeowners" by giving them $ to make their payments to lenders.
25 replies 58 retweets 245 likes
Reply 25 Retweet 58 Like 245
Show this thread

David Burge
‏

@iowahawkblog
Dec 24
More
Luckily, we have a wide bipartisan consensus that the solution to every crisis caused by cheap money is MOAR CHEAP MONEY
8 replies 32 retweets 167 likes
Reply 8 Retweet 32 Like 167
Show this thread

David Burge
‏

@iowahawkblog
Dec 24
More
Spoiler alert: markets don't give a shit what party is in power, as long as they get to gorge on a free all-you-can-eat buffet of cheap money until they puke in the alley, and begin demanding more cheap money all over again
12 replies 105 retweets 420 likes

[Another Bob]

Don’t know that Whitaker is over anything interesting narc. It’s total war against Trump, they’d go after anyone.

[Old Lurker]

Narc & A-Bob.

He is too street smart to not grasp that these Lilliputians are going to (have already?) tie him in so many knots as to emasculate his presidency and his noble MAGA Agenda. Plus they want his head and those of his entire family so that his like will never attempt this again.

Allowing that is so out of character for a NYC Street Guy that again, I am confuzzled.

[Narciso79]

Well when they went to the trouble of pulling federal trade committee files I'm sure Purdue had some complaints back when holder was representing them.

[Old Lurker]

"Don’t know that Whitaker is over anything interesting "

Has he started work, yet?

[Another Bob]

Perhaps you’re overestimating “NYC Street Guy’s” capabilities against the entirety of a weaponized federal government OL.

[henry]

What is this "work" thing you mention? Nobody at DoJ has ever heard of it.

[Narciso79]

It probably did came as a surprise to him, probably admiral Roger's tipped him off, but hes in grey hat territory until proven otherwise they probably had ghcq surveil him through a cutout so no fingerprints.

[sbwaters]

TLG: He also put in a program that would keep any further malware from sneaking onto my MAC.

Which program?

[Another Bob]

Or, OL, are you hinting that Trump is perhaps a tool of the deep staters?

[matt - deplore me if you must]

If you scanned this morning' major media it would seem that most of the asshats spent Christmas Day writing fables.

The general impression they want to give is that Trump is down in the bunker with Eva waiting for the Red Army aka Media to come crashing in.

Was pissed with a sibling yesterday who blamed Trump's tweets for the market correction.

Many of the assets were overvalued in 2009/10. P/E ratios used to be a guideline. Now it's more like a casino. 8 years of QE and running the presses devalued currency and we never addressed the underlying structural issues.

The market expansion was unprecedented and I think, out of control. We have a good economy, although markets are adjusting. Maybe millennials may be able to afford a home one day because right now they are priced out.

Not sure how markets can balance themselves, but money is historically cheap and available. 2.5% ain't nothing to sneeze at and I find it absurd that pundits and traders would freak at that rate.

One thing that is becoming apparent here in Cali is that the pressure of government policy is playing out. Green taxes and laws are increasing costs across the board. $3.50 Regular in California hits everyone. Not so much in Indian or Texas or Ohio.

[Old Lurker]

A-Bob...not so much that I doubt a NYC Street Guy's ability to actually fix the problems he took on...I think I appreciated how tall that task was from the get go. What does surprise me is that he has given them two extra years to ensnare him in their web and pull him down down down into the swamp without him ever throwing a punch worthy of a NYC Street Guy, and where his legacy will be (maybe) but a few bubbles burping to the surface.

Hence the market.

[Texas Liberty Gal]

sbwaters. I think it’s called malwarebytes That’s what it says when I click on the icon at the top of my screen

[James D.]

Narc, I love your Babylon 5 references!

Personally, I think that our side needs to adopt the Minbari Warrior Caste approach to conflict:

Somebody comes at you, regardless of cause or circumstance, you escalate immediately to a war of extermination against them and their whole species.

[Old Lurker]

A-Bob "Or, OL, are you hinting that Trump is perhaps a tool of the deep staters?"

Don't know, Bob. Just don't know.

[Old Lurker]

Anybody besides me read Kurt Schlichter's trilogy (so far) of life in the US after we split into two countries?

[Old Lurker]

James "Somebody comes at you, regardless of cause or circumstance, you escalate immediately to a war of extermination against them and their whole species."

James I'll bet you thought that is what we elected in 2016.

[Captain Hate]

The market expansion was unprecedented and I think, out of control.

Having an America hating economic retard at the helm for eight years meant there was a lot of pent up growth waiting to explode.

[Jim Eagle]

Happy Boxing Day.

Decided not to open the house this year since it is still in throes of cleaning up the renovations.

Funny, we haven't heard from Zippy about this being "his" economy, when in fact it is, right? If the market is reacting to the Fed, and algos that have Fed market moves factored in, then between W and O, all this sell off is on their shoulders, not Trumps.

In re: Aquaman, according to Frederick, DC makes terrible movies is the reason he hasn't gone to see it yet. And he sees all the trendy movies.

[Narciso79]

Thanks, I really think they should get on the same page, trump should have told Bannon hold your horses the nationalist agenda was coming the second year, donf do something stupid. Re Syria that wasnt unlikely Reagan's moves against Qaddafi in the early 80s in the gulf of Sidra, re dealing with the Kim dynasty it's like making sense of the leadership in centauri prime, you'll deny your skull on the desk.

[Narciso79]

That sould be Warner bros, does Goodell run that too, magic rightball says yes.

[Narciso79]

This time they gave Geoff John's who writes for a living do most of the script, the really stupid stuff you can still chalk up to snyder.

[James D.]

Pretty much, OL.

[Narciso79]

Comics for a living, ultimately though James d the minbari (btw that's an Arab cognate) dix not prevail otherwise Earth would be a cinder.

[jimmyk]

Speaking of tweets, this is a great story:

When New Yorkers encounter rush hour chaos on the subway, they often desperately tweet at the MTA for help.

Often the first response comes not from the struggling agency but from an unemployed 21-year-old Bronx man obsessed with trains who has appointed himself the subway system’s unofficial patron saint.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-metro-derrick-richard-mta-twitter-20181220-story.html

I just wonder how many MTA employees with 6-figure salaries aren't able to do what this is guy is doing.

[Narciso79]

Bibi is the master of the backroom, yet the Israeli deep state seems intent on trapping him too. I guess I look at a real 4 dimensional template both horizontal and vertical

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Why does anyone think the left would allow us to split into two countries?
With control freaks it's all or nothing. They might, if they had the power, herd us all into some desolate corner of Oklahoma or Texas but if they have the power to do what they want, that is the best case scenario.
If they don't have the power to do what they want, why should the rest of us cede any part of the US to them?
They're constantly threatening to move to Canada and seem to want us to become more like Germany which seems to really like taking in "migrants". Let em.

[MissMarple2]

https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/have-courage-daughter-asking-veterans-to-bid-farewell-to-her-late-father-wwii-veteran/

This is Gainesville, Georgia.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--I always thought that somewhere along the line stock prices had to come into alignment with the actual values of the issuing companies.--

The problem with QE infinity and ZIRP is it destroys the price mechanism. You can't have a functional market without price discovery and the most important and fundamental price to discover of all is money. When the Fed destroys that, chaos is inevitable...and here we are.
Moreover, while the Fed has the power to distort things immeasurably it has little to no control over what assets their "largess" will flow to; that is entirely the province of the madness of crowds, including the crowd of corrupt madhatters in DC.

[Stephanie Nene Not Your Normal Granma]

“Hello. Dewey, Cheatam, and Howe. How may I direct your call?”

“ I would like to speak with Lawyer Brown, please”

“Sir, I recognize your voice. You have called 3 times this week. I told you each time that Lawyer Brown died in a violent plane crash last week.”

“ I know. I just wanted to hear it one more time."

[Narciso79]

Heh, stephanie,

[Narciso79]

Now if and when boris Johnson became PM which would be a mixed bag, as opposed to the bag of coal they have now, well the deep state over there would still be trying to hamstring him,

[jimmyk]

Ok, here's an oldie but goodie, told as a Jewish joke, but substitute your favorite religion:

Max is driving downtown for a meeting, and running late. Desperate to find a parking spot, he says, "God, I know I haven't been a very good Jew, but if you can get me a parking place, I promise I'll eat only kosher and go to synagogue every day for the next six months." Sure enough, suddenly a car pulls out of a spot just in front of him. Max says, "Never mind, God, I just found a spot!"

[Narciso79]

Bring another example, dick Cheney had been around Washington for 32 years, most everybody found him pleasant hard working come 2001, all of a sudden hes some sort of demon.

[Stephanie Nene Not Your Normal Granma]

LOL jimmyk.

[clarice]

Heh, Jimmyk

[Old Lurker]

Iggy "If they don't have the power to do what they want, why should the rest of us cede any part of the US to them?"

Maybe because whatever their power is now relative to ours, it is likely to get bigger and bigger in the future until everything collapses down on them and us at the same time?

[JimNorCal]

ManTran: terrific video, highly recommended for any science/geology/geek nerdy person. About 30 min. Despite the site's blurb describing the video I didn't see anything at all specific to AGW.
But I would LOVE to see any piece by this guy on that subject.

Again, highly recommended if you have interest in science, tech or human antiquity.
http://classicalvalues.com/2018/12/connecting-the-dots/

[Neo]

More than 4 million children endured lockdowns last school year, a groundbreaking Washington Post analysis found. The experience left many traumatized.

So, now they don't worry Total Global Thermonuclear War anymore ?

[pagar]

Clarice put up a fine article at American Thinker this morning:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/12/oleg_atbashians_emhotel_ussrem.html

However, I would like to point out another one that everyone should enjoy, IMO

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/12/a_wonderful_unexpected_christmas_gift.html

"Over 40 years ago, Mary's dad and stepmother who raised her accepted their daughter marrying a black guy. Mary's birth mother did not. She refused to meet me."

[Narciso79]

Yes they have licked boot often, not just Chinese or soviet:

https://www.camera.org/article/hitler-sometimes-takes-a-nap-and-other-new-york-times-insights/

[Narciso79]

She warmed about embracing Saddam nearly 30 years ago, did they listen, rhetorical:

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/422361-it-is-irans-war-in-yemen-and-americas-problem?fbclid=IwAR3AaeIIu8Ciu4zahjFQ222D1m4n0_4A3hR40rOZhUemfGhfb9Plf_E1o48#.XCOvab2wE8o.facebook

[Old Lurker]

Fascinating, Jim and ManTran.

[Old Lurker]

BTW, who is that guy and where are his other videos?

[Narciso79]

He used to comment here, a long time ago.