A battle is brewing between the federal government and the state of California over financial assistance to victims of the massive wildfires that ravaged California over the past several years. Lawyers for the victims settled with the embattled Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) utility, agreeing on a $13.5 billion settlement fund. But the Federal Emergency […]
Continue Reading
With interest rates having been held at near-zero for nearly a decade, and in Europe and Japan actually being forced into negative territory, it shouldn’t be any surprise that debt issuance around the world has exploded. Total global debt levels are set to hit an all-time high of over $257 trillion. That’s more than triple […]
Continue Reading
Would that we had a political commentator in modern times who could match the insight and the wit of H.L. Mencken. The “Sage of Baltimore” had a way of getting straight to the point, cutting through superficiality to make his observations. He was particularly critical of electoral politics, as the following quote attests: The state […]
Continue Reading
Bitcoin options trading began in earnest last week, with CME Group beginning Bitcoin options trading on the CME Globex exchange last Monday. While competitor ICE’s platform Bakkt has been offering Bitcoin options since December, the new competition should further enliven the Bitcoin investment markets. The Bitcoin price soared nearly 10% in the aftermath of CME’s […]
Continue Reading
By now even the most fervent stock market bulls realize that the current valuations of stock markets are way out of whack with underlying market fundamentals. By just about every measure, stocks are trading at ratios that are far higher than their historical averages. Most people look to the price to earnings (P/E) ratio when […]
Continue Reading
In the wake of the shooting of US military servicemen on the Pensacola naval base by a Saudi military student, the US government undertook an investigation of Saudi military students in the US. The US currently hosts nearly 600 Saudis in the country for military training. As a result of the investigation, 12 Saudi military […]
Continue Reading
Even the most hardcore Trump haters realize by now that the FBI overstepped its bounds in seeking to spy on the Trump campaign in 2016. The pendulum is swinging the other way, now that the never-Trumpers realize that an FBI and Department of Justice that can go after a President can also go after the […]
Continue Reading
With so much competing financial news out there, investors may have a hard time deciding for themselves whether markets are going to continue to grow, or whether they’re going to completely collapse. Certainly the economy is slowing, industrial production is down, and tariffs continue to hurt American farmers and industry. But stock markets continue to […]
Continue Reading
Bitcoin recently set a new record for hash rate, as miners are getting back into the Bitcoin mining game. The total hash rate surpassed 119 exahashes per second (EH/s) in early January, breaking the previous record of 114 EH/s that had been set back in October. These levels are significantly greater than the levels seen […]
Continue Reading
As shooters and ammunition companies continue to learn more and more about ballistics and how to shoot more accurately at long range, more cartridges are developed to enable shooters to shoot at long range. The ability to shoot accurately at ranges out to 1,000 yards or more is important not just to target shooters, but […]
Continue Reading
