In The News
Don’t believe everything you read: San Bernardino attackers ‘did not post about jihad on social media’ –
The San Bernardino attackers did not post support for jihad on open social media, contrary to previous reports, the FBI has said.
Instead they expressed support for martyrdom using “private direct messages”, said FBI boss James Comey.
US security officials were criticised for not checking Tashfeen Malik’s social media before admitting her to the US in 2014.
Apparently the reports are based on private, not public, messages found on their computer.
While ISIS took credit for the shooting, the couple had no actual connection to the organization.
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Canada is not happy – Oil drops almost 5% as supplies unexpectedly grow: “Crude for January delivery closed down $1.83, or 4.9 per cent, to $35.52 US a barrel.” Just to make things wonderful, “The loonie lost a quarter of a cent to close at 72.54 cents US. That’s its lowest level since May 2004.” [The ‘loonie’ is the Canadian dollar, so called because it features a loon on the coin.]
When the US Fed raised the prime rate ¼%, things got even more painful.
The snowbirds can’t afford to take vacations on the Gulf Coast, so we are going to share in the pain. 🙁
2 comments
The prime rate at 1/4% is not going to do a whole lot. What it mostly signals is that the Fed wants to get back to regulating the money supply via manipulating interest rates, which became impossible once interest rates hit zero. Since then they’ve regulated the money supply via buying and selling bonds, but that makes them very nervous because that’s not how a central bank is “supposed” to work according to the Gospel of Alan Greenspan. Jerk hasn’t been Fed chairman for almost ten years now yet his malevolent influence is *still* making itself felt at the Federal Reserve….
The real issue is going to be what the Fed does with their bond transactions. If they buy more bonds to keep the money supply afloat despite their prime rate hike, it will basically offset the prime rate hike while keeping real interest rates low. If on the other hand they sell bonds to raise real interest rates, that will have the effect of multiplying the effect on the money supply. At this point in time I have no idea how any of this is going to work out, but I will state that current issues in the oil marketplace etc. have nothing (nada) to do with the Fed’s interest rate hike, and everything to do with too much oil on the market.
Canada is getting mugged: major reduction in tax revenue, falling loonie, and an unemployment rate above 7% – all as the result of falling oil prices.
Not to be suspicious but the only thing that is showing real improvement are wages 👿