Business

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

I know some people don’t like charts, but I think they tell stories. The two charts below tell a story the mainstream media, Trump, Wall Street, and the Deep State don’t want revealed.

The first chart shows the year over year percentage change in personal income taxes collected by the Federal government and the second chart shows the year over year percentage change in corporate income taxes collected by the Federal government.

While not quite as damning as its 2018 credit forecast, Morgan Stanley's chief equity strategist Michael Wilson released his 2018 equity outlook this morning, and unlike his last full year forecast which in retrospect was surprisingly accurate, is far more contained, if not outright pessimistic. Wilson himself is quick to remark on just how much conditions have changed over the past 11 months:

Authored by Chris Whalen via The Institutional Risk Analyst,

The term “Greenspan Put” was coined after the stock market crash of 1987 and the subsequent bailout of Long Term Capital Management in 1998. The Fed under Chairman Alan Greenspan lowered interest rates following the fabled event of default and life continued. 

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan just went full 1996 Greenspan...

In an esay designed to explain "A Balanced Approach to Monetary Policy", Kaplan included an ominous section pointing at the very significant bubbles that have been blow in recent years...

Monitoring for Evidence of Building Imbalances

Retail may be hurting, but fashion seems to be thriving: just ask Victoria Beckham - the luxury empire, not the woman - who just got a $40 million investment from Neo Investment Partners, a firm run by a former Goldman banker. According to the NYT, "after years of speculation that her fast-growing namesake fashion brand was a prime takeover target, it was announced on Monday that Ms. Beckham had received £30 million, or almost $40 million, from the private equity firm Neo Investment Partners in exchange for an undisclosed stake in the business."