Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Real News with David Knight

9:00 am 12:00 pm



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Court: Online free speech rights trump stalking conviction

A man imprisoned for stalking has had his conviction overturned after North Carolina's Court of Appeals ruled the social media posts underpinning the charges were protected by free speech rights.

A three-judge panel ruled Tuesday for Brady Lorenzo Shackelford, who was sentenced to more than two years for stalking a woman he met at church in 2015. Court documents say Shackelford repeatedly called her his "soul mate" and future wife in Google Plus posts. He also sent handwritten letters and cupcakes, despite her turning down a dinner invitation, according to court documents.

The ruling says Shackelford's conviction was primarily based on social media posts, and thus violated his First Amendment rights.

The attorney general's office didn't immediately respond to a message asking if it will appeal to keep Shackelford imprisoned.

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen to testify before House oversight panel next week

Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, arrives for sentencing at the United States Courthouse in New York
FILE PHOTO: Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, arrives with his daughter Samantha for sentencing at the United States Courthouse in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., December 12, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

February 21, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen will testify in a public hearing before a U.S. congressional committee on Feb. 27 and the panel’s chairman said Trump’s business practices would be a focus of the testimony.

Cohen had originally been scheduled to testify on Feb. 7 but his adviser Lanny Davis said he canceled because of threats against his family from Trump.

“I am pleased to announce that Michael Cohen’s public testimony before the Oversight Committee is back on, despite efforts by some to intimidate his family members and prevent him from appearing,” House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said in a statement.

Cohen has pleaded guilty to crimes including campaign finance violations during Trump’s 2016 election campaign and has cooperated with investigators.

Trump called Cohen a “rat” in a tweet in December for cooperating with prosecutors. Cohen had been Trump’s self-described longtime “fixer” and once said he would take a bullet for the New York real estate developer.

The Oversight Committee said in a memo to its members that Cohen would be questioned about Trump’s “debts and payments relating to efforts to influence the 2016 election,” Trump’s compliance with tax and campaign finance laws, and Trump’s business practices, among other topics.

Davis confirmed in a tweet that Cohen would appear before the Oversight Committee and said Cohen “will speak about his decade long experiences working for Mr. Trump.”

Cohen will report to federal prison on May 6 after a judge granted him a two-month delay to allow him to recover from a surgical procedure and to prepare for his congressional testimony, according to a court filing on Wednesday.

Cohen is also scheduled to testify at a closed hearing of the House Intelligence Committee on Feb. 28.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

0 0

Missing boy’s grandma hopes hoax inspires new leads

The grandmother of a boy who went missing in 2011 from Illinois said she believes her grandson is still alive and hopes publicity surrounding a hoax perpetrated by an Ohio man claiming to be the 14-year-old boy will generate new leads in the authorities search for him.

MAN PRETENDING TO BE MISSING CHILD MAY FACE CRIMINAL CHARGES

Linda Pitzen, 71, told The Wooster Daily Record she tried to manage her expectations when she heard Wednesday that Timmothy Pitzen, missing since age 6, might be the teenager who told police he was Timmothy. She said she found it frightening to wonder whether Timmothy would remember his name after "supposedly being kept captive" for so long.

"You don't want to get your hopes up, but yet you are hoping that it could be him," Linda Pitzen said.

This undated photo provided by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office in Cincinnati shows Brian Rini. A day of false hope has given way to questions about why Rini would claim to be an Illinois boy who disappeared eight years ago. The FBI declared Rini's story a hoax Thursday, April 4, 2019, one day after he identified himself to authorities as Timmothy Pitzen, who disappeared in 2011 at age 6. (Hamilton County Sheriff's Office via AP)

This undated photo provided by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office in Cincinnati shows Brian Rini. A day of false hope has given way to questions about why Rini would claim to be an Illinois boy who disappeared eight years ago. The FBI declared Rini's story a hoax Thursday, April 4, 2019, one day after he identified himself to authorities as Timmothy Pitzen, who disappeared in 2011 at age 6. (Hamilton County Sheriff's Office via AP)

The teen was, in fact, 23-year-old Brian Rini, of Medina, Ohio, a convicted felon released from prison in March after serving a sentence for burglary and vandalism. Rini has been charged with make false statements to authorities in federal court in Cincinnati.

Timmothy vanished after his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, pulled him out of kindergarten in Aurora, Illinois, nearly eight years ago, took him on a two-day road trip to the zoo and a water park, and then killed herself at a hotel. She left a note saying that her son was safe with people who would love and care for him, and added: "You will never find him."

Rini was found wandering the streets Wednesday in northern Kentucky and told authorities he had just escaped his captors after years of abuse, officials said. He claimed he had been forced to have sex with men, according to the FBI.

When confronted with DNA results proving he wasn't Timmothy, Rini acknowledged his identity, saying he had watched a story about the missing boy on ABC's "20/20" and wanted to get away from his own family, the FBI said.

"I just hope this young man who claimed to be Tim realizes how much hurt he caused," Linda Pitzen said. "And now everybody is hurting. And I just don't understand how somebody could be so sick to do this."

She said she hoped Rini would get mental health treatment so that he would never hurt a family like this again.

A court docket shows a Medina Municipal Court judge in 2013 ordered Rini to be "compliant" in taking his psychiatric medication. In 2017, Rini was treated at an Ohio center for people with mental health or substance abuse problems, according to court documents.

Rini's brother, 21-year-old Jonathan Rini, told The Associated Press on Saturday that his family struggled while growing up. He said it has been four years since he has spoken to his brother.

"I wasn't surprised he did something stupid," Jonathan Rini said. "I was just surprised he stooped that low for attention."

Jonathan Rini said that while he has no compassion for his brother, he has "deep sorrows" for Timmothy's family.

"It's too much for them," he said. "They shouldn't have to go through this. "No one in the world should have to go through this."

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Sen. Ben Cardin: Trump Using Asylum Seekers As ‘Pawns’

President Donald Trump is “using immigrants as pawns in his political game of chess” by claiming he’s considering transporting asylum seekers to sanctuary cities around the country, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., charged Sunday.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Cardin said it was his “understanding” such a move is “not legal.”

“There’s no budget for that purpose,” Cardin said. “This is clearly a political move for the president. He’s using immigrants as pawns in his political game of chess. He’s not really interested in a solution. He’s more interested in preserving a political issue for the 2020 election.”

Cardin instead urged Trump to support comprehensive immigration reform and work with Democrats and Republicans.”

“We have the consensus to pass comprehensive immigration reform,” he said. “But the president doesn't want that to happen."

Related Stories:

Source: NewsMax Politics

0 0

Take Five: Spring growth? World markets themes for the week ahead

Traders work on the floor at the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

April 18, 2019

(Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.

1/CENTRAL PLANNING

The 100 years since the Fed’s creation in 1913 is said to be the century of central banking. Well, since the 2008-2009 crisis, we’ve certainly lived through a decade of central banking. But with monetary policy taken to the limit to lift growth and inflation, can central banks do any more?

Of late, some of the economic and business confidence data is giving rise to hopes rate-setters might just be able to hold fire on further action for now. German and Japanese PMIs ticked modestly higher from March, and from China to the United States, the hope is that spring will bring some green shoots on the economic front. Central banks in Japan, Canada and Sweden hold meetings in coming days so we may get some clues on what they are thinking.

ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos and Olli Rehn, widely tipped to succeed ECB Governor Mario Draghi, will also be quizzed on the subject at upcoming speeches, especially since sources tell Reuters “a significant minority” of ECB rate-setters doubt any recovery is underway. Central bankers in Australia and New Zealand have sounded similarly gloomy. A decade of central banking and planning is not over yet

(GRAPHIC: ECB balance sheet – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Hz4sUC)

(GRAPHIC: The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet – https://tmsnrt.rs/2ULcay0)

2/GDP NOW!

The working thesis through the early months of 2019 was that U.S. economic growth would continue to tail off as tailwinds faded from last year’s $1.5 trillion tax cut and headwinds picked up from a weaker global economy, partial federal government shutdown and trade wars. Indeed, that looked to be the case as most economic data through the first quarter fell short of forecasts. As a result, Citigroup’s U.S. economic surprise index came to near the most negative in around two years.

But one closely tracked gauge of quarterly gross domestic product, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow model, has rebounded sharply in recent weeks and may be signaling that the advance reading of first quarter GDP may not be quite so grim.

A month ago, GDPNow estimated an annualized 0.2 percent growth, which would have been the lowest since a one-off GDP contraction in the first 2014 quarter. Now the model forecasts quarterly growth will come in at 2.4 percent. That would not only top current estimates of 1.8 percent but would mean growth actually accelerated from the fourth quarter’s 2.2 percent.

One factor behind the turnaround was a surprise narrowing in the U.S. trade deficit as Chinese imports plunged in the face of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. By some estimates, trade could now contribute as much as one percentage point to first quarter GDP after being a washout in the fourth quarter.

(GRAPHIC: U.S. GDP – in for a surprise? – https://tmsnrt.rs/2VPQsJN)

3/CORNER KICK

As we said above, central banks don’t have much ammunition left in their arsenal. The toolbox is probably lightest at the Bank of Japan.

At the G20 meeting in Washington, BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he was ready to expand monetary stimulus if needed. But he also said he had no plans to change the central bank’s forward guidance, or the message it sends to signal policy intentions to financial markets. To many, that sounded like a man backed into a corner.

Kuroda has a chance to prove otherwise at the upcoming BOJ meeting. Expectations are thin though, given the BOJ’s balance sheet is already bigger than the country’s economy and Japanese financial institutions are suffering immense pain from the prolonged monetary easing.

The world’s No. 3 economy may have contracted in the first quarter, and whether it recovers depends much on first, whether China recovers too and second, on whether the trade conflict between the other two powers sharing the podium reaches a resolution.

(GRAPHIC: BOJ’s bloated balance sheet limits further easing – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DjVE16)

3/TAKING A DIP IN EUROPE

The United States is widely seen as heading into an earnings recession (defined as two straight quarters of negative year-on-year earnings growth) but Europe might, at least for now, escape one.

European firms are expected to deliver their first quarter of negative earnings growth since 2016 – the latest I/B/E/S Refinitiv analysis predicts Q1 earnings to fall 3.4 percent year-on-year. But it expects results to pick up again in Q2.

So despite this quarter’s poor outcome, hopes for a bounce-back could keep equities buoyant. After all, sentiment is already rock bottom – investors surveyed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch named “short European equities” the most crowded trade for the second month running.

The auto sector will be in focus in coming days with a flurry of earnings from Michelin, Continental, Daimler, Peugeot, and Renault. These stocks are particularly sensitive to growth in China and will be watched as the stirrings of a recovery were felt in recent Chinese GDP data .

(GRAPHIC: Earnings chart latest April 17 – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Ip8LCj)

5/ RUSSIAN ROULETTE

The past two years have seen an increasingly bitter rift open up between President Donald Trump’s Republican supporters and his Democrat critics over the alleged collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign in the 2016 U.S. election.

That may not be defused even after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 400-page report on the subject is unveiled by Atttorney General William Barr. He has already told lawmakers the investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

But that is unlikely to stop U.S. politicians from continuing their clamor for sanctions against Russia. As for investors, their appetite for Russian assets has not so far been dented. After plummeting last year, foreign buying of rouble-denominated government bonds has recovered sharply so it remains to be seen whether that bullishness continues.

Meanwhile, Ukraine — the reason behind the original 2014 sanctions on Russia — looks set to elect comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy as president. Could the election of a new leader bring about some rapprochement between Kiev and Moscow? Watch this space.

(GRAPHIC: Foreign investors dipping their toes back in OFZs – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XiDZyC)

(Reporting by Dan Burns in New York, Marius Zaharia in Hong Kong; Sujata Rao, Helen Reid and Tom Arnold in London; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

Source: OANN

0 0

Greek baker who gave bread to arriving refugees dies at 77

Dionissis Arvanitakis, a Greek baker who provided free bread to refugees who arrived on a Greek island, has died of unspecified causes. He was 77.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker released a statement Sunday expressing his respect "for an exemplary European citizen" who showed "rare generosity and sensitivity towards the hundreds of unfortunate immigrants."

Juncker said: "My Europe is the one Dionissis Arvanitakis symbolized."

Raised in a poor family of 10, Arvanitakis emigrated to Australia at age 16 and eventually returned to Greece, settling on the island of Kos in 1970. He opened a bakery with his savings.

In March 2015, he started giving away 100 kilos of bread (220 pounds) a day to the large number of refugees showing up on Kos.

Arvanitakis said at the time: "I know what it feels like to have nothing."

0 0

Decades of Transit Trouble on New York’s Subways

As the New York City subway system continues to deteriorate, this word is verboten by political and media elites here: Privatization.

Even the supposed friends of private enterprise, the Manhattan Institute, don’t argue for the abolition of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the state agency that has run the subways since the late 1960s. Some supposed friends of laissez-faire don’t accept that private transportation systems can ever effectively run the trains and make money.

Instead they argue for new forms of government funding and controls. This reminds one of the comments of Ludwig von Mises that even many of the critics of socialism sound like socialists.

But the problem of government transportation companies is profound. It requires understanding history. Government transportation systems have been a mess, whether in New York, nationally (Amtrak) or the experiences of a state railroad in Michigan in the 19th century.

In New York, we have forgotten the history of subway system just as millions of Americans forgot that private passenger railroads once were profitable until regulated to death by the 1960s. The subways were never privately owned. But private management companies built the first lines. They were considered “an engineering marvel,” wrote Robert Caro in the book The Power Broker. People came from around the world in those first years of the subways to admire them (New Yorkers, please stop laughing).

And the IRT once made a lot of money under a city franchise. It continued making money until about the end of World War I. Then what some would call a “socialism without doctrines” started to operate

Most Americans, until recently, didn’t like the term socialism. So the way to collectivize an industry was, and is, regulating it to death. The IRT, despite repeated requests in the 1920s to raise the nickel fare, was never allowed a higher fare even though costs skyrocketed owing to World War I inflation.

The system began to lose money and deteriorate just as much New York housing has deteriorated under rent controls. A libertarian journalist understood what was happening in 1940 when the city took over.

“The City of New York has set a pattern for the nationalizing of the railroads of the country,” said journalist Frank Chodorov in reviewing the events of 1940. “A regulatory body, with power to fix rates and compel unprofitable operation, squeezes the business into bankruptcy, so that the owners are quite willing to sell their property to the taxpayers, and bureaucracy improves its position.”

The perpetual nickel subway fare under private management — which went up quickly after the city took over — destroyed private management. That’s because price controls — as tempting as they seem to most of us when we want to buy something but not when we want to sell something of ours — never work.

By the late 1930s, the IRT was ready to sell. Supposedly the private transportation system had failed, the good government groups (Goo-Goo’s) said when they bought out the last private management company. And now the city, the Goo-Goo’s said, through government operation would end labor disputes and provide economies of scale, all promises never realized. They also promised to build new lines such as the Second Avenue Subway.

By the way, the latter is finally about 20 percent built and more than a half century late. And this came after voters, on three separate occasions, paid for bond issues. Most of the proceeds were spent to close subway deficits. Indeed, the MTA remains deep in debt.

“The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is facing its greatest crisis in decades. Service has deteriorated and subway ridership is falling despite the largest job expansion in the City’s history,” wrote New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in December.

“Since July 2018, the MTA’s budget gap for 2020 has nearly doubled to $510 million and the 2022 gap has grown to $991 million,” he wrote. “These estimates already assume fare and toll increases of 4 percent in 2019 and 2021.” He added the MTA might “reduce services.”

This documented disaster when the mayor of city of New York and governor of the state of New York — who both agree with the rest of the city and state pols that the system can never be privatized — trade charges over who is responsible. But again, it is the history of government transportation systems that should guide us.

The British economist Alexander Gray, writing about the London Underground almost 75 years ago in the book  The Socialist Tradition, warned that the more the state interferes and controls, “the less does it show a disposition to accept ultimate and direct responsibility for what it has done.”



The ‘non-existent’ border crisis is set to expect up to 1 million illegal immigrants this year.

Source: InfoWars

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Real News with David Knight

9:00 am 12:00 pm



FILE PHOTO: The logo of the OPEC is seen at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

April 26, 2019

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and told the cartel to lower oil prices.

“Gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC, I said you’ve got to bring them down. You’ve got to bring them down,” Trump told reporters.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy near Lyon
Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy in Meyzieu near Lyon, France, April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

April 26, 2019

By Julien Pretot

MEYZIEU, France (Reuters) – Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas was wringing out his women’s team shirts in the locker room on a rainy London day eight years ago when he decided it was time to take gender equality more seriously.

It was halftime in their Champions League semi-final second leg against Arsenal at Meadow Park with 507 fans watching and Aulas realized that his players did not have a another kit for the second half.

“Next time, there will be a second set just like for the men, that’s how it’s going to work from now on,” he said.

Lyon have since won five Champions League titles to become the most successful women’s team in Europe and recently claimed a 13th consecutive domestic crown.

They visit Chelsea on Sunday in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, with a fourth straight title in their sights.

At the heart of their achievements is a pervasive ethos that promotes gender equality throughout the club, starting in the youth academy.

In 2013, Aulas appointed former Lyon and France player Sonia Bompastor as head of the Women’s Academy — the female equivalent of one of France’s top youth set-ups that has produced players such as Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa.

At the Youth Academy, girls and boys share the same facilities.

“Pitches, physiotherapy rooms are the same for all,” the 38-year-old Bompastor told Reuters.

As the girls train under the watch of former Lyon and France international Camille Abily, the screams of the boys practicing can be heard nearby.

The boys and girls also benefit from the same psychological support that includes hypnosis sessions and yoga.

“We have a ‘mental ability’ cell and the hypnotist acts on the girls’ subconscious, on their deeply held beliefs after observing them on and off the pitch,” Bompastor added.

SAME TREATMENT

One message the Academy staff are trying to convey is that girls are as good as boys.

“Women’s nature is such that we have low self-esteem. So self-esteem is a big topic for our girls,” said Bompastor.

This is not the case with the boys, she added.

“Some 14, 15-year-old boys still think they would beat our professional players, we tell them this would not be happening. We still need to work on those beliefs,” she said.

Female players also have to face questions that their male counterparts do not, Bompastor explained.

“In France there is a problem with the way women are considered, there are high aesthetic expectations. So we get heavy questions on femininity, intimate questions that men don’t get,” she said.

OL’s Academy has been held up as a shining example for others to follow, even in the U.S., where women’s soccer has a wider audience than in Europe.

“About one third of the (senior women’s) squad comes from the Academy, we have a good balance,” said Bompastor.

“I’m getting tons of requests from American universities and foreign clubs, who want to come and visit our facilities.”

‘ONE CLUB’

The salaries of the senior players is one area where there remains a large discrepancy between Lyon’s men’s and women’s teams.

While the three best-paid women players in the world are at Lyon with Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg earning 400,000 euros ($445,520) a year, this figure is dwarfed by the around 4 million euros earned annually by men’s player Memphis Depay.

There is, however, a level of interaction between the men’s and women’s players that is not present at many other clubs.

“When you talk about OL you talk about women and men, you talk about one club and you feel it when you are here or outside in the city,” Germany defender Carolin Simon told Reuters.

“We see it when we play in the big stadium. It’s not ‘normal’ for women’s football,” the 26-year-old, who joined the club last year, added.

Lyon’s female players also enjoy respect from their male counterparts, Simon said.

“It’s very cool, it’s a big honor to feel that it doesn’t matter if you are a professional man or woman. We talk with the men, there are handshakes, it’s a good atmosphere and it’s also why we are successful,” said Simon.

“The men respect us and it’s not just for the cameras.”

Her team mate, England’s Lucy Bronze, sees the men’s respect as key to improving women’s football.

“We might not be paid the same but they are just normal with us, they see us as footballers the same as they are,” Bronze told Reuters.

“Being at Lyon has really opened my eyes. To improve women’s football, it starts with having the respect of your male counterparts. It’s the biggest thing because they can influence so many people.”

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen
FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman/File Photo

April 26, 2019

GENEVA (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have rounded up about 3,000 irregular migrants, predominantly Ethiopians, in the south of the country, “creating an acute humanitarian situation,” the U.N. migration agency said on Friday.

“IOM is deeply concerned about the conditions in which the migrants are being held and is engaging with the authorities to ensure access to the detained migrants,” the International Organization for Migration said.

The migrants are held in open-air football stadiums and in a military camp, it said in a statement.

The detentions began on Sunday in the city of Aden and the neighboring province of Lahj, which are under the control of the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran-aligned Houthi rebels control Sanaa, the capital, and other major urban centers.

Both sides are under international diplomatic pressure to implement a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire deal agreed last year in Sweden and to prepare for a wider political dialogue that would end the four-year-old war.

Thousands of migrants arrive in Yemen every year, mostly from the Horn of Africa, driven by drought and unemployment at home and lured by the wages available in the Gulf.

(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
U.S. dollar notes are seen in this picture illustration
U.S. dollar notes are seen in this November 7, 2016 picture illustration. Picture taken November 7. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.

1/DOLLAR JUGGERNAUT

The dollar has zipped to near two-year highs, leaving many scratching their heads. To many, it’s down to signs the U.S. economy is chugging ahead while the rest of the world loses steam. After all, Wall Street is busily scaling new peaks day after day.

Never mind the cause, the effect is stark. The euro has tumbled to 22-month lows against the dollar and investors are preparing for more, buying options to shield against further downside. Emerging-market currencies are also in pain, with Turkish lira and Argentine peso both sharply weaker.

Now U.S. data need to keep surprising on the upside or even just meet expectations. The International Monetary Fund sees U.S. growth at 2.3 percent this year. For Germany, the forecast is 0.8 percent. The U.S. economy’s rude health has given rise to speculation the Fed might resume raising interest rates. Unlikely. But as other countries — Canada, Sweden and Australia are the latest — hint at more policy easing, there seems to be one way the dollar can go. Up.

(GRAPHIC: Dollar outperforms G10 FX – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dz17S5)

2/FED: UP OR DOWN?

Wall Street is near record highs and recession worries are receding, so as we mentioned above, investors might wonder if the Federal Reserve will start raising rates again.

Such a pivot is unlikely after the Fed killed off rate-rise expectations at its March meeting. And the latest Reuters poll all but puts to bed any risk of rates will go up this economic cycle, given inflation remains below the Fed’s alarm threshold and unemployment is the lowest in generations.

Before the March rate-pause announcement, a preponderance of economists penciled in one or more increases this year. But that has flipped. A majority of those surveyed April 22-24 see no further tightening through December and more are leaning toward a cut by the end of next year.

Indeed, interest rate futures imply Fed Funds will be below the current 2.25-2.50 percent target range by this December.

Recent positive consumer spending and exports data have eased market concerns of a sharp economic slowdown. But inflation probably needs to run hot for a long period to panic policymakers off their wait-and-see course.     

(GRAPHIC: Federal funds and the economy – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DzjTZz)

3/HEISEI TO REIWA

Next week ends three decades of Japan’s Heisei era. Heisei, or Achieving Peace, began in 1989 near the peak of a massive stock market bubble and closes with the country trapped in low growth, no inflation, and negative interest rates.

The new era that dawns on May 1 is called Reiwa, meaning Beautiful Harmony. It begins when Crown Prince Naruhito ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne. But do investors really want harmony? What they want to see is a bit of economic growth and inflation to shake up the status quo.

The Bank of Japan’s stimulus toolkit to revive a long-suffering economy is anything but harmonious and yet it’s set to stay. The central bank confirmed recently rates will stay near zero for a long time. But the coming days may not be harmonious or peaceful for currency markets. A 10-day Golden Week holiday kicks off on April 29 and investors are fretting over the risk of a “flash crash” – a violent currency spasm that can occur in times of thin trading turnover.

The year has already seen two yen spikes and many, including Japan’s housewife-trader brigade – so-called Mrs Watanabes – appear to have bought yen as the holiday approaches. Their short dollar/long yen positions recently reached record highs, stock exchange data showed.

(GRAPHIC: Japan stocks: from Hensei to Reiwa – https://tmsnrt.rs/2W6a7Fe)

4/EARNING TURNING

Quarterly earnings were supposed to be the worst in Europe in almost three years, but with a third of results in, things are looking a little rosier.

Two-thirds of companies’ results have beat expectations, and they point to earnings growth of 4.5 percent year-on-year. Financials have delivered the biggest surprises, according to analysis by Barclays.

That might just show how low expectations were. In fact, analysts are still taking a red pen to their estimates.

The latest I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv shows analysts on average expect first-quarter earnings-per-share for STOXX 600-listed companies to fall 4.2 percent. That would be their worst quarter since 2016 and down sharply from an estimated 3.4 percent just a week earlier.

Those estimates may end up being a little too bearish as earnings season goes on, quelling worries that Europe is heading toward a corporate recession.

GSK and Reckitt Benckiser will give the market a glimpse of the health of the consumer products market and spending on everything from toothpaste, washing powder and paracetamol.

(GRAPHIC: Earnings forecasts – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DuO2ZF)

5/WAITING FOR THE OLD LADY

Sterling has gone into the doldrums amid the Brexit delay and unproductive talks between the UK government and the opposition Labour party on a EU withdrawal deal. The resurgent dollar, meanwhile, has taken 2 percent off the pound in April. It is unlikely the Bank of England will be able to rouse it at its May 2 meeting.

Despite robust retail and jobs data of late, the economic picture is gloomy – 2019 growth is likely to be around 1.2 percent, the weakest since 2009, investment is down and Governor Mark Carney says business uncertainty is “through the roof”.

Indeed, expectations for an interest rate increase have been whittled down; Reuters polls forecast rates will not move until early 2020, a calendar quarter later than was forecast a month ago. The hunt for a new governor to replace Carney in October adds more uncertainty to the mix.

The recent run of UK data has fueled hopes of economic rebound. That’s put net hedge fund positions in the pound into positive territory for the first time in nearly a year. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street might temper some of that optimism.

(GRAPHIC: Sterling positions – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XJwUXX)

(Reporting by Alden Bentley in New York, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Karin Strohecker, Josephine Mason and Saikat Chatterjee in London; compiled by Sujata Rao; edited by Larry King)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren suggested that doctors and nurses don’t treat African American women the same way they do white women.

Warren appeared on Wednesday together with a number of other 2020 Democratic candidates at the She The People Forum in Houston, discussing issues concerning women of color.

WARREN’S $1.25T EDUCATION PLAN ‘SWEEPING’ GIVEAWAY TO THE WEALTHY AT EXPENSE OF THE POOR, WAPO EDITORIAL BOARD SAYS

The Massachusetts senator announced on stage a plan to decrease the childbirth mortality rate among black women while identifying a systematic problem with how they are treated.

“And there is a specific problem, as you rightly identified, for women of color who are three, four times more likely to die in childbirth,” Warren said.

“And here’s the thing, even after we do the adjustments for income, for education, this is true across the board. This is true for well-educated African American women, for wealthy African American women, and the best studies that I’m seeing put it down to just one thing, prejudice,” she added.

“That doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way that they hear the same things from white women.”

“That doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way that they hear the same things from white women.”

— Elizabeth Warren

CHARLIE KIRK: WARREN AND OTHER DEMS OFFER FREE MONEY – BUT DON’T TELL YOU PRICE WILL BE YOUR FREEDOM

Warren went on to get into details of her plan, noting that hospitals will be given bonuses if they manage to reduce the childbirth mortality rate among black women in an effort to give financial incentives for those doctors and nurses to provide better care.

“And if they don’t, then they’re going to have money taken away from them,” Warren added.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“I want to see the hospitals see it as their responsibility to address this problem head-on and make it a first priority. The best way to do that is to use the money to make it happen because we gotta have change, and we gotta have change now.”

Source: Fox News Politics

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist