Lucky Charms I'm never giving em up!
"We Are Now A Global Destabilizer": Larry Fink Stunned By Trump Tariffs
"We Are Now A Global Destabilizer": Larry Fink Stunned By Trump Tariffs
Speaking after BlackRock's Q1 earnings report on a call with Wall Street analysts, CEO Larry Fink said he was troubled by the size of President Trump's tariff war with China.
"The sweeping US tariff announcements went beyond anything I could have imagined in my 49 years in finance," Fink told analysts.
As of Friday morning, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/where-next-wall-streets-thoughts-after-activation-trump-put
against President Trump's tariffs by hiking levies on U.S. goods to 125%, up from the prior 84%. The retaliation came a day after Trump hit China with an effective tariff rate of 145% as both the U.S. and China are locked in a heated, once-in-a-century trade war.
"This isn't Wall Street versus Main Street," Fink emphasized, adding, "The market downturn impacts millions of ordinary people's retirement savings."
The good news: Two days earlier, Trump announced a https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/china-holds-back-retaliation-opts-strategic-messaging-through-white-paper-trade
of additional country-specific tariffs for countries that have refrained from taking retaliatory measures—an apparent attempt to isolate China and use tariffs to get Beijing to strike a trade deal.
"Yes, in the short run, we have an economy that is at risk," Fink said, but noted that artificial intelligence and rising infrastructure demand present "transformative investment opportunities."
After the earnings call, Fink joined CNBC, where the globalist voiced even more concerns...
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is in full panic mode over Trump’s new tariffs, warning they’re shaking global markets and pushing the U.S. toward deeper economic trouble.
He says the U.S. has gone from being a global stabilizer to a destabilizer under Trump’s leadership.
Fink also… https://t.co/j5bBa8aqtU
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) https://twitter.com/ShadowofEzra/status/1910693995698700558?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Yet Trump’s trade war is fundamentally about reviving America’s hollowed-out manufacturing base. Naturally, reshaping global supply chains will come with disruptions.
?itok=lDKM5qJ6
To end the week, there are no indications that either China or the U.S. is willing to sit down and resolve trade disputes, while new evidence mounts that dislocations in global trade have begun to emerge:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/amazon-cancels-orders-walmart-pulls-forecast-tariffs-take-hold
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chinese-sellers-amazon-panic-after-trumps-tariff-bazooka
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/tesla-quietly-removes-model-sx-order-now-button-chinese-site
Separately, HSBC Head EM strategist Alastair Pinder and the legendary Matt King (formerly Citi's top strategist who correctly called the Lehman collapse) debated on https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/hsbc-and-former-citi-heavyweights-breakdown-tariffs-impact-global-economy
on Thursday night with warnings about the incoming economic fallout from the trade war...
?itok=ZrUCm6ZM
Continuing on the theme of global trade disruptions, Goldman analysts Dominic Wilson and Vickie Chang provided clients earlier with a note titled: Too Early for the "All Clear" that https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/goldman-explains-why-its-too-early-all-clear
:
?itok=Ja72MeuH
Substantial tariffs remain in place and the outcome even as it stands today looks considerably hawkish than was expected ahead of April 2. A simple thought experiment is to imagine that the current outcome—a 10% across the board tariff, a more than 100% China tariff, potential sectoral tariffs and large reciprocal tariffs to be implemented after a 90-day pause—had been announced. The implied roughly 15pp overall effective tariff rate increase would still have been a significant negative surprise to markets and its impact is still likely to be meaningful without further changes.
While the pause to reciprocal tariffs reduces some key tail risks, policy uncertainty remains very high, and businesses and consumers are likely to continue to be wary of making long-term commitments when the path of policy going forward remains very unclear.
Allocators are also likely to remain worried about the institutional and policy uncertainties that have led them to question their historic overweight in U.S. assets, while the recent price action has highlighted the risks both to longer-dated Treasury holdings and to the potential for simultaneous declines in U.S. equities and the USD that are especially painful for unhedged overseas investors. With some of the financial stress risk receding that often ultimately works to push the USD stronger (the left edge of the "dollar smile"), we think the case for ongoing USD weakness is intact, if not clearer.
The turmoil has revealed some cracks in the ability of the market to function effectively in the face of these kinds of large shocks. Confidence that Treasuries will provide an effective "safe haven" in periods of extreme risk is likely to have been dented and the back end of the UST curve could remain fragile.
What's clear is that global trade disruptions are emerging, and this risk suggests to Goldman analysts that it's still too early to give the "all clear" for markets.
As we were the first to warn this week - all eyes are on the Basis Trade blowing up (read https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/absolutely-spectacular-meltdown-basis-trade-blowing-sparking-multi-trillion-liquidation
).
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Fri, 04/11/2025 - 10:45
It needed to be destabilized.
The Wicked Flee...
The Wicked Flee...
https://www.kunstler.com/p/the-wicked-flee
"No more government in the shadows."
- Mike Benz
The decade-long treasonous hectoring of Mr. Trump keeps on coming, you understand, for the simple reason that there have been absolutely zero consequences for any of the vicious rogues behind it.
Not so much as a rap on the knuckles for seeking to overthrow a president, steal elections, hide high crimes, rob the treasury, and recklessly frame the innocent.
And suddenly this week, as startling as a mythic goddess of justice riding a spring zephyr, comes a brisk demonstration of exactly what-to-do.
?itok=_Si6NVwq
Days ago, Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey ordered his state police to not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement officers (ICE) — a nice bit of grandstanding for a guy seeking to occupy the Democratic Party’s leadership vacuum. So, Thursday night, newly-appointed US Attorney for the New Jersey federal district, Alina Habba, opened a criminal investigation against Gov. Murphy for “obstruction and concealment.”
That means, possibly, jail. Badda-bing! This ain’t no foolin’ around.
The reason the Democrat pols and their activist agents pule and mewl about “retribution” is because they know they are guilty of so many manifest crimes against the country and against decency, that a fair system would have jailed or hanged them by now.
They evaded their reckonings only because their own filthy mitts gripped the levers of justice until very recently.
Since January 20, that has obviously changed.
But two questions have dogged the necessary restoration of fairness and good faith in the backbone of government we call the law. 1) Since the culpable are such well-known figures — the Clintons, Obama, Biden, Comey, Brennan, Mayorkas, Garland, Wray, Fauci, Collins, Pelosi, Eisen, Weissmann, McCord, Schiff, and dozens more:
how do you seek justice without appearing to “go after” individuals in the old Soviet mode of “show me the person and I’ll find you the crime”? And
where do you begin with such a cosmic-scale panorama of treasonous malfeasance spanning many years and many theaters-of-action?
I’d say US Attorney Alina Habba’s move this week is an excellent place to start.
For one thing, Governor Murphy’s defiant act is a fresh crime, only days old, and a clear-cut one: you can’t order state officials to flout federal law, especially where public safety is concerned. Ms. Habba smacked him instantly, like an insolent biting insect. Now, follow through. Prosecute. Mere apologies not accepted. No “mulligan” on that shot. If she brings a case, then other mayors and governors of the many self-proclaimed “sanctuary” jurisdictions around the country, trolling for virtue brownie points in their Woke waters, will rethink their lawless posturing.
Couple of other good starts just this week.
Mr. Trump issued executive orders yesterday that will afford a fresh look into some older but critical crimes against the nation.
One directs US Attorney General Bondi to investigate the actions of a key player in wide-ranging 2020 election mischief. From the White House memo itself:
Christopher Krebs, the former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is a significant bad-faith actor who weaponized and abused his government authority. Krebs’ misconduct involved the censorship of disfavored speech implicating the 2020 election and COVID-19 pandemic. CISA, under Krebs’ leadership, suppressed conservative viewpoints under the guise of combatting supposed disinformation, and recruited and coerced major social media platforms to further its partisan mission. CISA covertly worked to blind the American public to the controversy surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop. Krebs, through CISA, promoted the censorship of election information, including known risks associated with certain voting practices. Similarly, Krebs, through CISA, falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, including by inappropriately and categorically dismissing widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities with voting machines. Krebs skewed the bona fide debate about COVID-19 by attempting to discredit widely shared views that ran contrary to CISA’s favored perspective.
Next, the White House directed an investigation of Homeland Security officer Miles Taylor who proclaimed, during the first Trump term in an anonymous New York Times op-ed, that he was party to “a resistance within the Federal Government that ‘vowed’ to undermine and render ineffective a sitting president... [T]his conduct could properly be characterized as treasonous and as possibly violating the Espionage Act,” the EO said.
Sounds serious, a little bit.
Next, in another EO, the White House severely disciplined the swamp law firm Susman Godfrey for its racist DEI activism in the federal agencies it did work for, saying, “Lawyers and law firms that engage in activities detrimental to critical American interests should not have access to our nation’s secrets, nor should their conduct be subsidized by Federal taxpayer funds or contracts.” Hence, Sussman Godfrey lost its security clearances, its federal work contracts were cancelled, and its lawyers are barred from entering federal buildings, including courthouses.
FAFO.
Next, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard announced at Thursday’s cabinet meeting that her office has obtained evidence of massive vulnerabilities in voting machines that allow hackers to flip votes. This has long been written off as “baseless conspiracy theory” for years by degenerate news outlets like The New York Times. The key word in Ms. Gabbard’s statement, is “evidence.” You realize, of course, that there is no reason to use vote-counting machines in our election except for the purpose of hacking and cheating. Most other putatively “democratic” nations use paper ballots and manage to tabulate and report election results within twenty-four hours.
Of course, this motley batch of sudden cases — Gov. Murphy of NJ, Chris Krebs, Miles Taylor, Susman Godfrey — are relative outliers to the notorious operations such as RussiaGate, the Schiff-Vindman-Ciaramella-Eisen plot behind Impeachment No. 1, The Covid-19 intrigue, The BLM rampage, the Hunter Biden Laptop ruse (and Biden family’s bribery and treason), J-6 riot and the DNC Pipe-bomb caper, and four years of a wide-open border.
That long train of crimes, seditions, and treasons came close to wrecking the country.
We know exactly who was behind and involved in all of that.
What remains is the heavy-lifting to build cases that can be brought to grand juries in good faith.
Perhaps a comprehensive omnibus RICO case can incorporate all of these in what appears to amount to a single, complex orchestrated, long-running attempted coup. Don’t bet that this isn’t coming. And, by-the-way, the infamous “Crossfire-Hurricane” binder was just released last night. As of this writing, there is almost no analysis available yet. Stand by.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Fri, 04/11/2025 - 16:20
I love this!! There must be consequences for trying these things whether they succeeded or not.
Otherwise they will never stop trying it.
Make.examples of these ones.
DOJ Launches 'Second Amendment Task Force' To Guard Gun Rights
DOJ Launches 'Second Amendment Task Force' To Guard Gun Rights
(emphasis ours),
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced the establishment of a task force aimed at protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens.
?itok=ksxDvxK0
“For too long, the Second Amendment, which establishes the fundamental individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms, has been treated as a second-class right. No more,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi wrote in a Tuesday https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1395956/dl?inline
to all DOJ employees.
“President [Donald] Trump has made protecting the Second Amendment rights a priority for this administration,” she said.
The attorney general said the president directed her to propose a plan of action designed “to protect the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.”
Bondi said the prime objective of the “Second Amendment Task Force” is to develop policies and legal strategies to “advance, protect, and promote compliance with the Second Amendment.”
The task force, chaired by Bondi, will consist of staff members from her office and from the Deputy and Assistant AGs’ offices, from the Solicitor General’s office, the Civil Division, the Civil Rights Division, the Criminal Division, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the FBI.
Personnel from additional agencies may be summoned to assist in the task force’s operations as needed.
Trump’s Executive Order
The task force serves to implement Trump’s https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/protecting-second-amendment-rights/
, “Protecting Second Amendment Rights,” which instructed the attorney general to review all of the Biden administration’s firearms-related actions.
In a Wednesday https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-pamela-bondi-statement-regarding-creation-2nd-amendment-task-force
, Bondi said the “prior administration placed an undue burden on gun owners and vendors by targeting law-abiding citizens exercising their 2nd Amendment rights.”
On Monday, the ATF said it had https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/doj-repeals-zero-tolerance-firearm-rules-5838363
President Joe Biden’s Enhanced Regulatory Enforcement Policy. The 2021 initiative—also known as the “Zero Tolerance Policy”—set strict inspection standards for arms dealers and allowed the ATF to revoke licenses over minor clerical errors that were previously considered excusable.
“This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right,” Bondi said in an ATF https://www.atf.gov/news/press-releases/doj-atf-repeal-ffl-inspection-policy-and-begin-review-two-final-rules
.
“The prior administration’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy unfairly targeted law-abiding gun owners and created an undue burden on Americans seeking to exercise their constitutional right to bear arms—it ends today,” she said.
The DOJ and the ATF are also planning to revise the “stabilizing brace rule” and the boundaries for determining who is considered “engaged in the business” of selling firearms.
The stabilizing brace rule sought to reclassify guns with attached stabilizing braces—accessories originally designed to help people with disabilities shoot pistols more comfortably—as short-barreled rifles, which implies stricter regulations. Critics argued the rule turned millions of law-abiding gun owners into potential felons overnight by reclassifying their legally purchased pistols.
?itok=2U1n7O1S
The 2024 “engaged in the business” of firearms dealing rule expanded the definition of who qualifies as a firearms dealer under federal law, which critics said blurred the line between private sales and commercial dealing, potentially criminalizing hobbyists.
Then-acting ATF Director Kash Patel, who was succeeded at the ATF by Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll on Wednesday, called the measures “a pivotal step toward restoring fairness and clarity in firearms regulation.”
The DOJ said it will work with gun rights organizations, gun manufacturers, and legal experts over the coming months to ensure that the polices align with Americans’ constitutional rights.
From https://www.ntd.com/doj-launches-second-amendment-task-force-to-guard-gun-rights_1059570.html
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Fri, 04/11/2025 - 17:40
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doj-launches-second-amendment-task-force-guard-gun-rights
Holy shit, I never thought I'd see the day!
I do feel bad for all the good workers who will lose their jobs and did nothing to deserve it but most of those jobs simply shouldn't exist and have to go away.