Human Interest

A man from Minnesota has been sentenced to six months in prison for installing a wind turbine in his own backyard. Jay Nygard joins a growing list of “off the grid” citizens who have served or are currently serving jail time, as the Federal government wage a war on the rights of private property owners. Nygard’s harsh sentence come amid efforts by the U.S. government to make it illegal to have a garden in your front lawn, collect rainwater on your own property, or live off the grid in the U.S.

Senator Bernie Sanders has spoken out against plans to build an oil pipeline through sacred American Indian land which will undermine clean water resources and Native American rights. Sanders gave a surprise speech outside the White House on Tuesday during a global day of action against the massive Dakota Access pipeline project that attracted demonstrations in over 300 cities across the country and around the world.

Goldman Sachs fired a member of staff after learning that she worked as a porn star in adult videos while a college student. The woman, who went by the name “Shizuka Minamoto” in her acting days, was told that her porn star past violated Goldman Sachs’ code of ethics. The big news here is that Goldman Sachs apparently has a code of ethics. You can imagine the scene. Manager: Shizuka-san, you broke our code of ethics.  You’re fired! Shizuka: Code of ethics? But I joined Goldman Sachs because I heard you didn’t have any ethics. Now we know.

While yesterday speech by Janet Yellen in Philadelphia provided little in terms of actionable insight (but was far more dovish than her hawkish appearance in Harvard less than two weeks ago) and was described by analysts in a way that best validates their particular market outlook, something best summarized by the following tweet:

I've heard people interpret Yellen's speech as hawkish, dovish, and neutral. All 3 interpretations have one thing in common: bullish.