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Theory du jour: the new Star Wars movie is sucking in whatever meager disposable lucre remains among the economically-flayed mid-to-lower orders of America. In fact, I propose a new index showing an inverse relationship between Star Wars box office receipts and soundness of the financial commonweal. In other words, Star Wars is all that remains of the US economy outside of the obscure workings of Wall Street — and that heretofore magical realm is not looking too rosy either in this season of the Great Rate Hike after puking up 623 points of the DJIA last Thursday and Friday. Here...

There's a pall over the financial markets this holiday season, and it has little to do with the shortage of daylight this time of year. The lifeblood of the street -- bonuses -- will be cut, and if you survive, there's no guarantee of a better 2016. That's because Wall Street is bracing for merciless job losses that could total 100,000 in the US alone by June. By this estimate, Wall Street head count in New York City -- some 170,000 today -- could shrink by as much as 17,000, with the downsizing hitting everyone from million-dollar backers to middle-class...

On August 6, billionaire hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman took the unusual step of dialing into an earnings call for one of his fund's holdings and asking a question. It was a second-quarter earnings call for SunEdison, a solar-energy company that went public in 1995. At the time, Omega was the 11th-biggest shareholder of SunEdison, with 8.8 million shares. It's a large stake, but it is still unusual for Cooperman to pick up the phone to publicly ask a question on a company's quarterly conference call. These were no ordinary circumstances, however. After enjoying the benefits of a classic Wall...

The ground effort to destroy Donald Trump begins today in Ohio where several GOPe operatives and advance teams have been positioned to drum up antagonistic protesters and coordinate activity aimed to target Trump. In addition Matt David, the spokesperson for the Kasich Super-PAC “New Day for America”, is now publicly reporting that both Team [Jeb] Bush and Team Rubio donors have pledged financial support to the effort to tear down front runner Donald Trump. The upper echelons within the Wall Street financially-dependent corporate media have also held their meeting to coordinate how they will distribute and promote the anti-Trump narrative....

**SNIP** Clinton responded that she was representing New York in the Senate when downtown Manhattan was attacked and noted that she helped the city's financial hub rebuild. "That was good for New York and it was good for the economy and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country," she said, her voice rising. Her response drew an incredulous response on social media sites like Twitter, and the debate's moderators asked Clinton to respond to one Twitter user, who took issue with her mention of 9/11 to justify the contributions. "Well, I'm sorry that whoever...

Michelle Obama has found herself embroiled in an emails scandal of her own… By Andrew Spalding Commentary by John Velisek USN (Ret), CiR staff writer “As the investigation of Hillary Clinton and her private email scandal is winding down, it’s just been discovered that Michelle Obama may have been involved in an email scandal of her own. The American Medical Association (AMA) released an obesity study last year that revealed that rates have actually changed less than they did in the previous decade. Rather than processing that information, Michelle’s reps decided to claim that obesity in children between ages 2...

Are small, Mom & Pop traders who trust their hard earned dollars to Wall Street being abused? Does a bear wee wee in the woods? A very important trial just started in Chicago that will pull back the curtain on the hidden, high finance trading practice known as spoofing. What is spoofing? Well, the technique combines ultra-fast buys by brilliant computer geeks and smart money guys who make a ton of dough in less time than it takes you to read this sentence. One definition of spoofing says it’s “a fraudulent trading practice that occurs when a trader who owns...

The proposals come just days before the first Democratic presidential debate Tuesday, and mark Clinton's latest leftward pivots as she looks to ward off a strong populist challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Clinton wants to force firms that are "too large and too risky to be managed effectively to reorganize, downsize, or break apart," in the campaign's words, a move aimed at addressing "too big to fail" that echoes calls from lefties like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). She also wants to make sure that when people break the law they actually go to jail, something that rarely happened after...

Wall Street pay exploded last year to a record high. Average salaries, including bonuses, grew by 14% in 2014 to $404,800, according to a new report from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. After inflation, pay in 2014 was the third highest on record. The average Wall Street salary was nearly six times that of the rest of New York City's private sector, where the average salary was $72,300 last year. Bonuses were similar to their levels before the 2008 financial crisis. The average bonus, up more than 50% over the past three years, was $172,900 last year, according to...

To wit, artificial suppression of free market interest rates by the central bank is designed to cause households to borrow more money than they otherwise would in order to spend more than they earn, pure and simple. Its nothing more than a modernized version of the original, crude Keynesian pump-priming theory—–except it dispenses with the inconvenience of getting politicians to approve spending increases and tax cuts in favor of the writ of a small posse of unelected monetary mandarins who run the FOMC and peg money market interest rates at will. But the whole enterprise is a crock. The consumer...

Financial markets falling... Read more here: Click here for story.

McClellan is bullish today, but he expects definitive peak in stocks between Aug. 20 and Aug. 26 Tom McClellan loves doing what financial advisers tell you not to do. He tries to time the financial markets — to the exact day, if his charts align just right. At the moment, they are telling him to be bullish on the stock market for all of his trading time frames, including those that trade every few days, weeks and months. But bulls should be ready to flee, as soon as this week. That’s because McClellan said his timing models suggest “THE” top...

Why Wall Street loves Trump Turney Duff There's a love-fest going on between Wall Street and Donald Trump — but not for the usual political reasons. The truth is, Wall Street loves a circus — and Trump just brought it to town. "The guy is hilarious," said one sales trader. "I can't wait to see what he does next." That's the general consensus of Wall Streeters I spoke with: Trump shoots off his mouth and isn't politically correct, but a lot of folks from the investment community share his views and believe that the government is broken. "I love the...

Aug 4 (Reuters) - Wall Street fell on Tuesday as Apple's shares remained under pressure, hitting their lowest in more than six months, and investors digested earnings reports from a host of companies. The iPhone maker's shares fell as much as 4.4 percent to $113.25, slipping firmly below their 200-day daily moving average, a key technical level closely watched by traders. The stock was also the biggest drag on the three major U.S. indexes. While there was no clear trigger for the selloff, traders said worries over a slowdown in China and skepticism over demand for iPhone 6s were likely...

Hillary Clinton on Friday sought to downplay the latest twist in the long-running scandal over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, saying reports of a possible criminal probe are full of inaccuracies. News emerged on Thursday evening that at least one inspector general passed to the Justice Department evidence of potential mishandling of classified information, a referral that could lead to a criminal investigation. Clinton on Friday said people are getting worked up over not much. “Maybe the heat is getting to everybody,” she said, in remarks before a policy speech in New...

Back in June a bright, young, soon-to-be Deutsche Bank intern prepared for his first summer on Wall Street. He told us he knew what he was getting into: "Terrible hours." He was right. On this 21-year-old's very first day, he was staffed on a project at 8 p.m. and ended up working until 2:30 a.m. His hours have let up somewhat since, but he rarely leaves before 10:30 p.m. or 11:30 p.m. On weekends, if he's not working and can meet a friend for lunch, he'll choose a table near an open window because the fresh air is such a...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Cruz pointed out that big business and big government can go hand-in-hand, hurting economic mobility and the chance for people to live out the American dream.Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz cannot be accused of playing to the audience after some of the things he said at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference. The event took place in New York City before a Wall Street crowd. Cruz pointed out that big business and big government can go hand-in-hand, hurting economic mobility and the chance for people to live out the American dream. Related Stories Here Is A Special Delivery These ISIS...

U.S. stock markets were tipped to open higher on Monday following news that Greece and its international creditors have reached a bailout agreement. European Council President Donald Tusk said early on Monday that euro zone leaders reached an unanimous agreement with Greece after all-night talks in Brussels to move forward with a bailout loan for Greece provided Athens implement tough reforms. "Markets have responded very positively to the news, which comes following months of uncertainty and increasing fears that Greece could suffer a messy exit from the euro zone," Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at currency trading firm OANDA....

International hacking group Anonymous wished Wall Street ill the night before the New York Stock Exchange temporarily suspended trading on all securities. The activist group tweeted late Tuesday: Wonder if tomorrow is going to be bad for Wall Street.... we can only hope. — Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) July 8, 2015 New York trading was suspended around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday due to a "technical issue," the exchange said in a statement posted to Twitter. The Department of Homeland Security said there was no indication the NYSE had been hacked, according to Bloomberg and CNN. The exchange said the glitch could not be...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) met with billionaire hedge-fund manager Dan Loeb on Wednesday, Business Insider has learned. Walker was seeking Loeb's key financial support ahead of his all-but-certain presidential campaign, but he didn't get it. According to sources close to the situation, the sticking point was Loeb's support of same-sex marriage. Last month, Walker called the Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide a "grave mistake." He also called for a constitutional amendment to reverse the decision. “As a result of this decision, the only alternative left for the American people is to support an amendment to the...