Strassel and Intimidation Tactics - More Relevant With Each Passing Day!.

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Israel remains safe.  Chicago is not safe. (See 1 and 1a below.)

And

I think Congressmen should wear uniforms. You know, like NASCAR
drivers, so we could identify their corporate sponsors!

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Yesterday, I posted a wake up article by Dr Emanuel Tanya.

In the article he talked about the fact that perhaps most Muslims were peace loving but the reality is too many radical ones are not and they are being allowed to take over while/because too many remain silent.

I began to think about this and what happened in Birmingham, Alabama.

Bull Connor, The Klan, members of The White Citizen's Council were able to run the city (and into the ground) for decades because few were willing to stand up and speak out and the city still suffers from the Connor stigma to this day,  as does Alabama, for that matter.

I have a personal affection for Kim Strassel, because she is/has been willing to speak out and wrote a wonderful, thoroughly researched book about Intimidation Tactics. I had her come speak here in Savannah about the book, which, I believe,  is even more relevant today. Anyone who has not read it should.

What is being successfully attempted by those who run The Justice Department and the actions of some in The FBI is an effort to intimidate Congress.  Republicans, as is their usual stance, seem willing to allow themselves to be run over and the nation.  

Those who impede legitimate investigations by legitimate authorities should be hailed before Congress and forced to be forthcoming or jailed until they are so willing.  If not, then what good is the fact that we profess to be a nation that respects its laws?

We should have learned from the recent treatment of Hillary, Ms. Rice, Obama's disdain for immigration enforcement that we are on a path of two standards.

Our Founders made an effort to form a more perfect union and because we are human that will remain an open ended effort but at least we can try and always do better. If we fail to speak out we are surely doomed because, as Franklin warned us, we have a Republic if we can keep it.

I do not claim to have answers. My memos are simply a poor attempt to get those who read them to think and to care. 
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There is always a price to pay but it does not have to be this high. (See 2 below.)
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The Rant has returned. (See 3 below.)
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Dick
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1)Last week, relating to the Palestinian protests following President Trump’s declaration recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, I wrote “Normally Friday is a good day for Islamic protests; however the weather forecast after the afternoon prayers is for rain. There’s nothing like wet weather to dampen a protest.” I was wrong, bright sunny weather favoured the protestors and it should have encouraged a more impressive turnout. Notwithstanding that, reporters for many foreign news media outlets were quick to determine that the demonstrations at the end of the week were in fact another Intifada. Admittedly the anguish and indignation were reminiscent of past Palestinian uprisings, but the protests in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem and a few places in Israel fell short of anything that resembled an Intifada.

Ha'aretz correspondent Dina Kraft said, "Overall the response – especially in Jerusalem – has been muted, at least in terms of physical protest.

To be sure there is outrage, but there is also deep despair, for Mr. Trump’s declaration was issued after two decades of a Middle East peace process so stuck it has already been given up for dead by many."  

Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist for the same paper, reminded us that Saturday was the 30^th anniversary of the outbreak of the first intifada. It lasted for nearly six years, ending officially only with the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. 

He went on to describe the first and second Intifadas;"In retrospect, the first intifada had been an event waiting to happen. It just needed a spark to ignite it.

The second intifada differed in many respects. At first it was spontaneous and ‘popular’ marked by rioting that broke out in Jerusalem following Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount. Nonetheless, from a very early stage it was better organised with the paramilitary groups of the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other organisations competing with each other to carry out armed attacks on Israeli soldiers and terror bombings against civilians in Israel.

Seven years after the start of the Oslo process, it was an attempt by the Palestinians to make gains they had failed to achieve by diplomacy.

By 2005 it had petered out. Viewed in retrospect it was a failure. 

Although Israel vacated the Gaza Strip and dismantled its settlements there, the Palestinians remained divided: Hamas ruling Gaza, the PA the West Bank, both cut off from each other and from Jerusalem by border fences and the separation barrier. 

In the 12 years since, many have anticipated a third intifada, but so far there have only been sporadic flare-ups. With every new outbreak of violence, there was an expectation of a full-blown intifada following in its wake. 

On Friday   approximately 3,000 Palestinians took to the streets protesting and rioting at some 20 flash points across the West Bank. The following day about 500 Palestinians came out to protest President Trumps epic declaration and on Sunday the turnout was even lower.”

Pfeffer pointed out that in the two intifadas, the uprising took place almost simultaneously in all three Palestinian communities living under Israeli occupation – the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Currently, not only are these groups physically divided to an unprecedented extent, they also have different agendas.

In Gaza, Palestinians are eagerly awaiting the implementation of the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, which hopefully will lead to the easing of the siege imposed on Gaza by Israel and Egypt, and a much-needed boost to the local economy.

In the West Bank, the economic situation is less is comparatively better, but there is concern about the future of the dysfunctional Palestinian Authority. Fatah in the West Bank is more focused on maintaining the security coordination with Israel, which helps keep Hamas out and President Abbas in control.

The Palestinians of East Jerusalem are probably more disposed toward a confrontation with Israel. But as they contemplate their foreseeable future under Israeli civilian control, they are beginning to explore less violent tactics in a quest for equal rights as Jerusalem residents.

"The Palestinian Authority   in the West Bank and Hamas leaders in Gaza are loath to back a new round of all-out violence in their fiefdoms. They still feel they have too much to lose from chaos. Hamas is calling for an intifada, but only in the West Bank and Jerusalem where they don’t have any control. But an intifada in the West Bank will almost certainly mean the end of the Palestinian Authority – and when tens of thousands of officials and security personnel rely on the Palestinian Authority for their livelihood, there is a vested interest to continue coordinating with Israel while controlling the simmering protests." 

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Pfeffer concluded, "In 1987, there was no accepted local leadership that had anything to gain from maintaining the status quo. In 2000, Arafat took a gamble that Israel would not dare dismantle his hierarchy. He ended his life trapped in the PA’s headquarters in Ramallah. Abbas is no gambler.

The memory of the thousands of deaths in two intifadas and four Gaza conflicts inhibits any mass outpouring of rage. The Palestinians are acutely aware of the chaos and desolation caused by the Syrian civil war and in other parts of the Arab world.  There may be hundreds of individuals motivated to take a knife or homemade Carl Gustav submachine gun and attack Israelis in the hope of becoming martyrs – but that is not a feeling common to wider swathes of Palestinian society. The critical mass of tens of thousands, prepared to risk their lives in a desperate uprising isn't apparent so far.

There are other contributory elements minimising the chances of an intifada breaking out. The Israel Defence Forces in the West Bank and police in East Jerusalem have tightened their rules of engagement, reducing the number of serious casualties among Palestinian demonstrators. 

Likewise, the policy of the coordinator of government activities in the territories to continue letting over 50,000 Palestinian workers from the West Bank to commute daily to jobs in Israel has created a major incentive for maintaining the calm. At least half the families in the West Bank are reliant in some way on the Israeli economy. They haven't forgotten that during the last Intifada Israel brought in foreign workers to replace Palestinians.

There is plenty of Palestinian despair and anger at the lack of any prospect of diplomatic progress and an end to the occupation. But there is also political pragmatism and the necessity of making a living.

 For the overwhelming majority of Palestinians, the price of another intifada is simply too high."

However, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across the Muslim world on Friday expressing their outrage at US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

In a speech screened from his bunker in Beirut, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said “We’re facing a second Balfour Declaration” and called for another Intifada.

Hassan Nasrallah

At a mass rally in Gaza  today celebrating the 30th anniversary of the founding of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh said, “There is no such thing as the State of Israel, so it cannot have a capital called Jerusalem,” he too called for another Intifada.

Seeking a united stance against Trump's decision, leaders from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) gathered in Istanbul on Wednesday for an extraordinary session.. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sharply criticised Israel calling it a "terror state." 

                     Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Prime Minister Netanyahu told reporters at a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.”I'm not used to receiving lectures about morality from a leader who bombs Kurdish villages in his native Turkey, who jails journalists, helps Iran evade international sanctions and who helps terrorists, including Hamas  in Gaza, kill innocent people." 

Nonetheless, business between Israel and Turkey remains unaffected by recent events. According to the Israeli Chamber of Commerce, Israeli exports to Turkey rose 39% to $950 million, and imports from Turkey rose 16% to $1.05 billion. Turkey is Israel's sixth-largest export destination. Chemicals and oil distillates are the primary exports.

Following that positive news snippet I want to conclude on a festive note.

This week we are celebrating Hanukkah.

It was about this time of year, at Hanukkah, fourteen years ago  that  I wrote” Although the weight of evidence  points against there being a  miracle of the  flask of oil, so far no one has suggested  expunging  all mention of it and all that is associated with it .

In Israel this year it is expected that more than 90% of the secular population  (the majority) of the country will light Hanukkah candles. 

The legend has become an inseparable part of the festival. The historical accuracy is less important than the tradition and the beautiful symbolism of Hanukkah.”

Happy Hanukkah

1a)  Policy speeches vs. policy

It's only fair to share...

By Caroline Glick

What is President Donald Trump’s Middle East policy?

Monday Trump is scheduled to release a new US national security strategy on Monday. This past Tuesday Trump’s National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster gave a speech laying out some of its components in a speech in Washington.

McMaster’s speech was notable because in it he laid out a host of policies that McMaster himself has reportedly opposed since he was appointed to his position in February.

McMaster for instance has been open in his opposition to linking terrorism with Islam. He has also reportedly insisted on limiting US actions in Syria and Iraq to defeating Islamic State. McMaster reportedly fired his deputy for Middle East policy Derek Harvey last summer due to Harvey’s advocacy of combating Iran’s consolidation of control over Syria through its proxies President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah.

In his speech on Tuesday, McMaster embraced the policies he has reportedly opposed. He discussed at length the threat of what he referred to as “radical Islamist ideology.”

That ideology, which the US had previously interpreted “myopically,” constitutes “a grave threat to all civilized people,” he said.

McMaster regretted US myopia noting, “We didn’t pay enough attention to how it’s being advanced through charities, madrassas and other social organizations.”

McMaster fingered Turkey and Qatar, two ostensible US allies, as the main sponsors and sources of funding for Islamist ideology that targets Western interests.

He noted that in the past Saudi Arabia had served as a major sponsor of radical Islam. But Riyadh has been replaced by Qatar and by Turkey, he said.

Trump’s electoral victory raised hopes of his supporters and some of his advisers that the US would designate the Muslim Brotherhood has a terrorist organization. The Brotherhood has spawned multiple jihadist terrorist groups including al-Qaida and Hamas. President Recep Erdogan’s AK Party is a Turkish version of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Whereas McMaster reportedly opposed those calls, and his opposition played a role in Trump’s avoidance of the designation to date, McMaster took a significant step on Tuesday toward designating the Brotherhood a terrorist group.

While stipulating that not all Muslim Brotherhood groups are alike, McMaster said there is a “big problem when Islamist radical ideology bridges into political Islam.” He criticized the short-lived Muslim Brotherhood regime of Mohamed Morsi in Egypt and singled out Qatar for its support of “the Morsi model.”

He also noted that Turkey’s ruling AK Party operated through civil society to “consolidate power through one party.” He then said that the AKP’s consolidation of power “is a problem contributing to Turkey’s drift from the West.”

McMaster referred to Iran as a “rogue regime and a revisionist regional power.”

He said the US must “counter destabilizing [Iranian] activity, especially in Syria.”

Among other things, he said this includes blocking Iran’s path to nuclear weapons and blocking support for Iran’s proxies.

The problem with McMaster’s speech and the policy paper it set the stage for is that it is hard to know if they reflect an actual change in policy. Certainly his position and general drift haven’t been reflected in US actions in several key countries this week.

The day after McMaster’s speech the US Embassy in Beirut announced delivery of another $120 million in military assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces.

As Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has repeatedly stated, the LAF is a wholly owned subsidiary of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps controlled directly by Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese proxy army.

The Hezbollah-controlled LAF is the fifth-largest recipient of US military assistance worldwide.

According to Ambassador Elizabeth Richard, the LAF has received in excess of $1.5 billion in military aid over the past decade.

The newest arms shipment will include six MD 530G light attack helicopters, six Scan Eagle drones, and communications and night vision equipment.

Earlier shipments this year included Hellfire missiles, M1A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, rocket-propelled grenades, carbines and ammunition as well as helicopters, fighter jets, drones, advanced night vision and communications equipment.

Recently, Iran has become brazen in asserting its military control over Lebanon. A YouTube video posted this week portrayed Kais al-Ghazali, an Iranian- controlled Iraqi militia commander, standing 200 meters from Lebanon’s border with Israel. He and his colleagues were all wearing military uniforms.

Ghazali declared, “I am here with my brothers from Hezbollah. We announce that we are fully prepared and ready to stand as one with the Lebanese people with the Palestinian cause.”

If the LAF is a wholly owned subsidiary of Iran-Hezbollah, the Lebanese government is Iran’s satrapy.

Through Hezbollah, Iran controls every aspect of governmental activity.

In an attempt to force the West to recognize that basic truth, last month Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad summoned Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to Riyadh. Hariri’s father, former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, was assassinated by Hezbollah in 2005.

In Riyadh, an ashen-faced Hariri announced his resignation, acknowledging that Iran controls both his government (and him) and the LAF.

Hariri’s resignation was a great loss for Iran-Hezbollah and Western countries that do not wish to acknowledge the obvious. And so, represented by French President Emmanuel Macron, the West joined with Iran to demand that Hariri return to Lebanon.

The Saudis obliged. Hariri returned to Beirut and rescinded his resignation.

Hariri was embarrassed by Ghazali’s video. So Iran’s satrap denounced Ghazali and said his “activities of a military nature” 200 meters from Metulla were illegal.

He also insisted that his satrapy “is not a banana republic.”

Ahead of the US Embassy’s announcement of the new tranche of military hardware going to the Hezbollah- controlled LAF, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made clear that the Trump administration continues to view the LAF and Hariri as positive bulwarks against Iran and Hezbollah. Tillerson met with Hariri in Paris. After their meeting, Tillerson praised the French government for pressuring Saudi Arabia to permit Hariri to return to Lebanon where he could continue to pretend that he isn’t controlled by Iran.

Rather than shake their heads at the irony of Hariri becoming the servant of the forces that murdered his father, the Trump administration embraced the absurd lie of Lebanese independence.

Last Friday, Tillerson met with Hariri in Paris. After their meeting Tillerson praised the French government for pressuring the Saudis to let him return to Beirut to serve as Iran’s fig leaf.

“I think as to Lebanon, things have worked out in a very positive way, perhaps even more positive than before, because there have been very strong statements of affirmation for Lebanon, which will only be helpful,” Tillerson said.

He also expressed criticism of Saudi Arabia. Whereas Trump has backed the Saudis’ war against Iran’s Houthi proxies in Yemen, their political and economic campaign against Qatar designed to compel Doha to end its support for jihad and its alliance with Iran, and their moves in relation to Hariri, Tillerson criticized those efforts.

“With respect to Saudi Arabia’s engagement with Qatar, how they’re handling the Yemen war that they’re engaged in, the Lebanon situation, we would encourage them to be a bit more measured and a bit more thoughtful in those actions to, I think, fully consider the consequences.”

Tillerson also belittled the importance of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying that the embassy won’t be moved to Jerusalem for years.

In recent weeks, members of Congress have expressed anger at statements by both US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin that indicated the administration is not requiring Qatar to stop funding Hamas.

Lawmakers sent separate letters to Haley and Mnuchin requesting clarification of the administration’s position. Whereas the administration informed Congress it continues to view Hamas as a terrorist group and demands Qatar end its support for Hamas, the administration’s diffident approach to Qatar has raised eyebrows.

Since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a blockade on Qatar in June in retaliation for its sponsorship of terrorism and its alliance with Iran, administration officials have pointed to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar as a reason for US’s hesitant approach. Al Udeid is the air operations center for all US air operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.

US Air Force Gen. Charles Wald transferred US air operations from Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan’s Air Base to Al Udeid in 2001. According to Wald, the US has several readily available options to replace Al Udeid. The Saudis have expressed willingness for the US to move their operation center back to Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon recently budgeted $143m. to expand its air base in Jordan.

It isn’t surprising, and to a degree it is reasonable, that the US is of two minds about its Middle East policy. For decades the US has both opposed and appeased its Middle Eastern enemies, and supported and turned on its allies.

Under Obama, the two-faced policy was driven by Obama’s ideological conviction that the US must align its Middle East policy with Iran and away from its traditional allies led by Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Under other presidents – including Trump – the US’s double-dealing has been more a testament to the US’s inability to tell its friends from its foes.

Over the years, the US has been unable to tell its allies from its enemies because they were fluid.

As McMaster rightly recalled, for years the Saudis behaved like the Qataris. And they also served as the anchor of the US alliance system with the Sunni Arab world.

Even today, as Crown Prince Muhammad and Saudi Arabia and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in Egypt make unprecedented steps to fight both jihadist forces and the ideology of jihad, the US cannot know whether either leader will be alive tomorrow or if they will have a sudden change of heart and leave the US high and dry.

Yet despite the uncertainty about their future, today we have more clarity than we had in the past.

Today it is obvious that Iran, its satellites Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Gaza and its allies Turkey and Qatar are the ascendant enemies of the US and its allies.

The forces willing to confront and fight them – Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE – are also self-evident.

True, Muhammad and Sisi may not be around forever. But the steps they have already taken to move their nations and Sunni Islam more generally away from jihadist ideology and practice are unprecedented.

Their actions to date have earned them Washington’s support.

The significant positions McMaster set out on Tuesday will in all likelihood be reflected in the document Trump will release on Monday. But as the arms transfer to Lebanon, Tillerson’s remarks in Paris, and the administration’s incoherent position on Qatar make clear, even the best national security strategies are not worth the paper they are written on unless they are translated into real policies implemented on the ground.

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2)

Illegal Immigration Costs U.S. Taxpayers a Stunning $134.9 Billion a Year

Illegal immigration costs American taxpayers a mind-boggling $134.9 billion annually, according to a detailed analysis of federal, state and local programs that include education, medical, law enforcement and welfare. Conducted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a Washington D.C. nonprofit dedicated to studying immigration issues, the in-depth probe reveals that state and local taxpayers get stuck with an overwhelming chunk—$116 billion—of the burden. State and local expenditures for services provided to illegal aliens total $88.9 billion and federal expenditures $45.8 billion, the analysis found. For those who claim illegal immigrants contribute by paying taxes, government figures show that only $19 billion was recouped by Uncle Sam.

“A continually growing population of illegal aliens, along with the federal government’s ineffective efforts to secure our borders, present significant national security and public safety threats to the United States,” the FAIR report states. “They also have a severely negative impact on the nation’s taxpayers at the local, state, and national levels. Illegal immigration costs Americans billions of dollars each year. Illegal aliens are net consumers of taxpayer-funded services and the limited taxes paid by some segments of the illegal alien population are, in no way, significant enough to offset the growing financial burdens imposed on U.S. taxpayers by massive numbers of uninvited guests.” This defies a myth, long promoted by influential open border groups, that illegal aliens pay their fair share of taxes.

More than 12.5 million illegal immigrants and their estimated 4.2 million citizen children benefit from the U.S. government’s generosity. The biggest expenditure ($17.14 billion) on the federal level is for medical services, which include uncompensated hospital costs, Medicaid births, Medicaid fraud and Medicaid benefits for U.S.-born children (anchor babies) of illegal immigrants. The second-largest federal expenditure is law enforcement and justice ($13.15 billion), which includes incarceration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and an alien assistance program. The feds spend $8 billion on general government programs and $5.85 billion on welfare, which consists of free school meals, food stamps, a supplemental nutrition program known as Women Infants and Children (WIC) and temporary assistance for needy families. FAIR points out the profound impact that illegal immigration has on programs intended to provide services exclusively to low-income Americans.

For state and local governments education is by far the largest expense, an eye-popping $44.4 billion that goes mostly to K-12 public schools nationwide, though over a billion of it is spent on college tuition assistance. General public services, described as expenses associated with garbage collection, fire departments and other locally-funded services total $18.5 billion for illegal aliens, the analysis found. Medical expenses came in third ($12.1 billion) for state and local governments and law enforcement ($10.8 billion) in fourth. FAIR researchers determined that a large percentage of illegal aliens work in the underground economy and frequently avoid paying income tax, leaving law-abiding, taxpaying Americans to foot the exorbitant tab for public services. The report also breaks down expenditures by state, with the top four spenders to provide illegal alien benefits California ($23 billion), Texas ($10.9 billion), New York ($7.5 billion) and Florida ($6.3 billion).

Over the years Judicial Watch has reported on a variety of studies and assessments involving the huge cost of supporting illegal immigrants, but this appears to be the most thorough and alarming in recent memory. The breakdown by category, state and federal services offers an incredibly detailed account of a major crisis perpetuated by a famously porous southern border. As FAIR writes in its report, it’s not just about money though the cost of supporting illegal immigrants should outrage every legal U.S. resident and American citizen. “A continually growing population of illegal aliens, along with the federal government’s ineffective efforts to secure our borders, present significant national security and public safety threats to the United States,” FAIR writes. Judicial Watch has also extensively covered the dire national security crisis along the Mexican border, including an investigative seriesdocumenting how Islamic terrorists have joined forces with Mexican drug cartels to infiltrate—and attack—the United States.

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3)The wave of maturing CMBS loans from 2006-2007 is now past, and the disruption was nil. Loans either got paid off, were foreclosed, or the borrowers infused equity and refinanced at a lower leverage, but the process went much more smoothly than many of feared. With that now in the rearview mirror, CMBS issuance has surpassed payoffs for the first time in 7 years. This is a very positive event since it means the market is stabilized, no new crisis is going to  occur, and funding is happening for new loans on a smooth basis. This is all good for the health of the real estate market, and for the banks. Now with rates about to rise banks will have improved profits and with tax reform that will increase banks’ profits further since they are big tax payers. This is also a positive since the bank balance sheets will improve and they will be able to make more loans.  There is a bill in Congress to start unwinding the worst parts of Dodd Frank and it will pass. This is mainly designed to help smaller banks which are the key to loans to small business. Again, a very good event when it happens. Underwriting generally remains reasonably tight at the major banks, but there is more flex at the shadow lenders. At this moment there is no chance another crisis caused by bad underwriting will occur for at least several years. One day things will get too loose again, and there will be problems, but that is far off and not issue for now.

Where there are real issues are student loans which are defaulting at astronomical rates, states like IL,CT and NJ which are fiscal disasters due to past years of Democrats granting massive pension benefits to unions, and total lack of discipline on spending for entitlements and useless programs. Even with Republican governors working to fix things, there is so much required liabilities built in that it may take a bankruptcy of a state to fix the problems. At the federal level, if GDP growth hits 4%, and if the Republicans can get real control of the Senate in 2018, then there is a small chance we can start to deal with the deficit.

It is becoming much harder for Wall St to earn the levels of profits to keep top staff. There is a new set of regulations coming from the EU which requires all commissions to be unbundled. Forever the commissions paid by institutional investors to banks and brokers were a single amount that was then allocated by the bank to the trader, research and marketing. The buy side never knew how the commission was allocated.  This is how research groups earned their money. Now the commission must be unbundled by who gets it so research is now going to suffer because many investors will say we don’t want to pay for it or do not want to pay as much. Jan 1 is the date it goes into effect and so there will be a massive reduction in the number of research analysts at year end. The market will be reduced to 5-7 top analysts per sector and the rest will likely lose their jobs. While this is an EU rule, the major banks all do business internationally so they are adopting the EU rules to keep life simple instead of having differing rules in the US and the EU. This will mean smaller firms may have a harder time making money since firms like JP Morgan can subsidize research from other areas. There is a major reduction in fees all across the board in law, accounting, and investment banking. Doctors are moving to salaries as they find it hard to have a private practice now. The combination of the internet transparency and the crash combined to compress fees and commissions across many businesses. This is just one small aspect of why inflation is low.

The west coast is now facing a real crisis of homeless on the streets. First we ask why there. Simple- they make it inviting and provide all sorts of aid, so the homeless who are unmotivated people generally, flock to the financial incentives and lack of hassle from the cops. So now the merchants in downtown Portland OR are closing their shops and leaving because the homeless use their entry areas for bathrooms and they threaten the merchants and customers. They city does nothing to deter the problems and seems more inclined to be tolerant of disgusting behavior than to crack down on this. In San Diego they have to bleach the sidewalks regularly because there is a disease epidemic forming caused by all the use of the sidewalks as bathrooms. There are many more examples, but the picture is the same in San Fran, LA, Santa Monica or any city with this attitude of welcoming for the homeless.  In New York the problem is far worse since Deblasio became mayor and now we again have problems in the subways and on the streets that had been eliminated. It is not reaching near crisis levels again. This is one more example of the liberals saying they are compassionate, but in fact creating another major problem for everyone and a lowering of quality of life.

Joel Ross

Citadel Realty Advisors