"They were so accustomed to non-stop lying, conflict of interest, election-rigging and market manipulation, they didn't see it coming"
Yesterday, Trump's criminal accomplice Roger Stone advised Trump to impose martial law if he loses the election. Like many of Trump's adoring acolytes, Stone is of the mind that Trump should be emperor for life. History will draw a straight line from proven Russian election rigging in 2016 (no collusion ;-), to the tax cut election rigging in 2018, to the Ukraine BidenGate in 2019 for which Trump was impeached, to the current set of all out election rigging criminality taking place this year, not the least of which is shutting down the U.S. postal service:
"President Donald Trump frankly acknowledged Thursday that he’s starving the U.S. Postal Service of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him the election"
Are there any Republicans left who still believe in democracy? Rule of law? Self-respect? Or do they now all believe in clown-for-life dictatorship? History will say there were far too few Republicans with any moral conviction left at this key juncture. They were solely preoccupied with getting their morally challenged avatar re-elected.
The question on the table of course is who will replace King Donny when he chokes on his last Twinkie? Which could come any day now. In the life of Mr. Creosote, emperor for "life" will not be as long as apparently expected. Such is the half life in a double stuffed Idiocracy. Which is precisely what the Republican Party has become, 100% Idiocracy, accept no substitutes. The stain of this presidency will never be removed.
"We have our next candidate lined up"
However, taking into account record deficits, record monetization of debt, record lying about the collapsing economy, and record gambler lubrication, there is one more order of business on the table right now. Trumptopian ground and pound.
It seems so long ago back in February when the exact same extreme risks abided albeit on a far lesser scale. The COVID virus had been circling the globe for well over a month and yet for some reason over-lubricated gamblers were ebullient. And then came the crash, out of nowhere. As always, the party ended "without warning".
Out of the ashes of that "unforeseen" COVID crash has arisen a far more ebullient RISK ON depressionary greed fest than even attended the last debacle. Today's pundits seem to be of the groupthink mind that overall investor "sentiment" is far too dour right now to allow a crash. I suggest that their old fashioned sentiment indicators are not polling the 80% of trading that is now taking place by machine-driven momentum algos, nor are they apparently polling the gamblers who have been using record call option leverage to manipulate the market higher:
"On a scale of 1 to record call option speculation, are you bearish or bullish?"
Rest assured, there will be plenty of surprise to go around. Again.
Because who wouldn't believe that "stocks" could reach new all time highs in a depression pandemic. This is the highest level for the VIX at an all time market high.
As I've said, the last time we saw a headfake double top unconfirmed by the broader market (lower pane) was at the top in 2007:
Barron's this week:
The kiss of death
"Every stock market bubble begins with a story, and make no mistake—this is a stock market bubble."
No, it's THE BIGGEST stock market bubble we've ever seen, and investors are already in deep trouble.
