Doctor Tongue’s Mystery Science 3D Theatre of Doom Thread

[Carol is Alpha]

Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About the Pharmacy Bubble Imploding and Love the Zombie Central Banker Apocalypse


Today's specials include giant 3D pancakes


and turlemeat etouffee


Sit back enjoy today's special feature:
Big Banks Too Rich for Jail: HSBC Whistleblower John Cruz Pulls Back Curtain on Corruption

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[PharmDBro2017]

 

[Carol is Alpha]

http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/28/news/economy/americans-believe-economy-is-rigged/index.html

 

[Carol is Alpha]

In light of recent events, it appears we are being "astro-turfed". I was wondering what the intelligence agencies had in store, being that yesterday was 7/7/6+1. They like 7/7, remember the training exercise back in 2005 that just happen to go live like our 9/11/01.

So is our color revolution going to be labeled "The Black Revolution"?

Just be wary of all this nonsense. While the system is collapsing financially on the right hand, they need to distract us with these dramas masquerading as social crises on the left hand.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Take. Zyprexa.

 

[Carol is Alpha]

So what's everybody go to do with their helicopter money?

"direct payments to households and businesses to stoke spending"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-13/helicopter-money-a-possibility-says-fed-official/7623888

And here's another trial balloon for helicopter money.



http://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/helicopter-money

 

[Carol is Alpha]

Nothing will stand in their way.



http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/helicopter-money-the-biggest-fed-power-grab-yet/

"By contrast, modern central banking is a doomsday machine of financial booms and busts and ever intensifying financial instability. One of these days—-perhaps when the current mother of all bubbles implodes——even the somnambulant Congressional Republicans may figure out the real enemy of American prosperity and productive capitalism.

That is, a rogue central bank that has seized plenary financial power already, and that is so mummified in groupthink that it will stop at nothing in the expansion of its remit. Even to the extent of sending clueless career apparatchiks like Loretta Mester to the ends of the earth to flog the unspeakable folly of “helicopter money”. "

 

[Carol is Alpha]

http://www.economist.com/news/leade...-business-model-nor-mission-floundering-titan

"Since its acquisition of Bankers Trust in 1999, Deutsche has sold itself as a global investment bank..." Bankers Trusts was the Fed's derivatives book. It wanted it out of the purview of US regulators. It made DB an offer it couldn't refuse. It was only a matter of time before it blew up.

http://gulfnews.com/business/sector...the-next-banking-behemoth-to-emerge-1.1862248

Get a load of the hypothesized deals:

Barclays buys Deutsche Bank

Santander buys Deutsche Bank

JPMorgan buys Standard Chartered

ICBC buys Standard Chartered

Societe Generale buys UniCredit

Wells Fargo buys Credit Suisse

We've got a bunch of zombie banks out there kiddos.

 

[Carol is Alpha]

A primer on SLABS. Ten years ago it was mortgages. Now student loans.
http://www.businessinsider.com/startups-are-securitizing-student-loans-2015-6


And now why shadow bankers like SoFi, CommonBond , and DRB have popped up.
http://abovethelaw.com/2016/01/are-...ity-of-the-federal-student-loan-program/?rf=1

"The student loan business has grown significantly and has contributed to the growing debt burden among young people. But it appears that not all of the money generated from repayment is not going back to the federal government, as I will explain below.

The good loans are refinanced away from the federal government to private banks.

In recent years, the interest rate of most federally backed student loans ranged anywhere between 5% to 8.5%. This is unusually high considering that interest rates for other loans were at their lowest in decades. Regardless, most students applied for federal loans because they were easy to obtain, and income-based repayment (IBR) and deferral options were available in case of unemployment and underemployment.

But those who are able to pay off their loans within the repayment period or do not qualify for IBR are stuck with paying relatively high interest rates. So now comes the private student loan market. Banks and startup online lenders such as SoFi and CommonBond are targeting these well-off graduates by offering refinancing at lower interest rates.

Of course, these companies don’t offer these interest rates to just anyone. According to this article, more than half of SoFi’s borrowers earn at least $100,000 a year and have an average FICO score of 774. CommonBond CEO David Klein points out that his average customer has a credit score north of 760 and makes $140,000 a year. Their target clients appear to be graduates of prestigious institutions.
So that explains why my refinancing application was denied. Repeatedly.

What ends up happening in the long run is that the federal government’s student loan portfolio will be stuck with the defaults, the IBR/PAYE lifers, and the rest of the financial lepers. While the government gets its loan money back plus modest interest and future net interest tax revenue when its good debtors refinance out, I suspect it will not be enough to offset the loss from the bad debtors.

SLABS that may be too big to fail.

Not only are student loan lenders fighting over the good debtors at the expense of the federal government, they are also seeking to profit immensely by selling the loans wholesale through the use of Student Loan Asset-Backed Securities or SLABS."



What is a shadow bank?
https://next.ft.com/content/bd0e1e4e-c274-11e4-bd9f-00144feab7de

Wait it gets better. Just like in The Big Short (which is now available on Netflix streaming), the student loan bubble can now be shorted. So the lender who has no intention of holding the note, but securitizes it to be sold to a yield-starved pension fund and can actually turnaround and bet against you the student. In fact people who are "naked" can make bets buying insurance ( credit default swap or a CBOE option) that pays off if you the student default. "Naked" means the entity has no direct ownership stake in the asset like your neighbor buying fire insurance on your home.
http://www.institutionalinvestor.co...in-the-student-debt-market.html#/.V5JzofkrLX4

 

[Carol is Alpha]

It seems we've hit a tipping point among analysts with impending helicopter money and the acknowledgment that central bankers are trapped.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-...e-qe-forever-cycle-means-catastrophe-inevitab

Here's a fund manager going all-in on the metals.


Here's Karl Denninger saying the system has mathematically 5 years at most just do the costs of healthcare let alone other stressors. And yes, he knows markets will react far ahead of the mathematical limit, so he's closing up shop to "enjoy what time he has left."




Boy does this dude hit it out off the park concerning the student loan bubble.


Keep an eye on Amazon and Google. Amazon's market cap can easily allow it to gobble up a brick 'n'mortar like....Walgreens, maybe? Google has a division devoted just to life sciences. http://www.dw.com/en/google-parent-alphabet-makes-foray-into-futuristic-biotech/a-19441725
Google...Amazon...drones...internet of all things. We are not going to recognize pharmacy 10 years from now, maybe just 5 years.

 

[Dred Pirate]

ever seen a thread where somebody only talks to themselves?

 

[Carol is Alpha]

If I take my Zyprexa then I can't do this every night after looking at my miner portfolio.

 

[Carol is Alpha]

All your pharmacies will belong to Google.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3995215-alphabet-wants-air-traffic-controller-drones

 

[Carol is Alpha]

It's coming fast. Why have all those free-standing stores with all that inventory and the headaches of distribution and reverse distribution? Why not just a backbone network of a few Amazon-like centers with a fleet of drones? Think of the job destruction!

 

[Carol is Alpha]

Maybe I can get a pharmacist yob at a Amazon Click and Collect hub before the drones get up to full throttle. Before all the grocery RPHs get thrown out onto the street.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/...-planning-click-and-collect-grocery/89272842/

 

[Rockinacoustic]

I don't have to be a moderator to know this is the same dude who was banned twice prior. C'mon mods.

 

[Carol is Alpha]

http://money.usnews.com/investing/a...-the-invisible-incredible-drain-on-investment

"I believe we have a higher education bubble," says Derrick Handwerk, managing partner of Handwerk Multi Family Office in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. "When the average family cannot afford the average education or a home, that is a bubble. The government is enabling the prices of a bachelor's degree to grow significantly above inflation by having loans available that many students cannot pay off when they graduate."

http://www.denverrealestatewatch.co...ing_wp_cron=1473943960.4089980125427246093750

"Is Big Short.2 knocking on our door?

The Big Short, a book by Michael Lewis and the Oscar-nominated movie by the same name, chronicled the financial shenanigans that led to the Great Recession and those who profited from it because their crystal balls saw housing prices falling off the cliff.

After banks fail, the commercial, industrial and housing markets crash and credit tightens, throwing the country into an economic tailspin.

It all seems so obvious. We should have known.

But participants in a raging segment of the economy, like we have in real estate now, never know.

Most of them, anyway.

It’s easy to understand why we are blindsided by booms crashing.

It’s not only difficult to predict the end of any bull market, whether in stocks, commodities or real estate, but it contravenes the natural human instinct of optimism.

We want to enjoy good times.

It is hard to fault that desire."

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/15/us-c...generations-harvards-michael-porter-says.html

"The combined failure of the political system and business class has had a greater negative impact on small business, Porter said. That is because large businesses can inoculate themselves from the weaknesses in American competitiveness by virtue of their size, Porter explained."....Yeah, all they have done is financially engineer a higher stock price via buybacks fueled by debt issuance.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-boj-factbox-idUSKCN11L0J7


"BUY FOREIGN BONDS
Under Japanese law, the finance ministry has jurisdiction over currency policy so the BOJ cannot buy foreign bonds in any way that influences exchange-rate moves. Using this option to weaken the yen would also be tantamount to currency intervention, which would violate a Group of 20 agreement to avoid competitive currency devaluation."



http://www.alhambrapartners.com/2016/09/14/in-his-own-words/

"...When the wheels finally come off of what is left of the eurodollar system, propelling the global economy into whatever kind of phase shift that will bring about, there will be a full accounting..."

 

[Carol is Alpha]

"It's still a black swan because it's not priced into the market."--Spitznagel



"There's one big bet out there."

http://www.italy24.ilsole24ore.com/...ld-s-biggest-npl-abs-131249.php?uuid=ADBYwwKB

 

[Carol is Alpha]

Yet another step to be in position to gobble up retail of all sorts especially pharmacy. Maybe if the WBA-RAD deal falls thru, AMZN picks up RAD cheap.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/walterl...revolution-at-the-delivery-door/#5463d2d554f6

 

[Carol is Alpha]

Something has to break here. Either Amazon is overextending or these brick and mortars will have to evolve into some kind of hybrid. Heaven help those with debt laden balance sheets especially if rates rise. Let's see, Wags if it gobbles up RAD will have about 30B running a vig.

http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay...ns-latest-plan-threatens-publix-wawa-and.html

 

[Carol is Alpha]

Why helicopter money won't work. It's already been tried in China and failed. The PPI in China has been declining since 2012. All that stimulus has accomplished is build out overcapacity. We are facing a terrifying global deflation. As the Raoul Pal interview mentioned what will be the first Big Ugly to show up? Europe? China? Japan? US student debt bubble? US auto subprime bubble? US RE bubble redux?

http://asia.nikkei.com/magazine/201...vercapacity-in-China-s-heavy-machinery-sector

https://etapps.indiatimes.com/gcm_webnotification.cms

You know it's bad when...http://www.scmp.com/business/compan...-about-one-industry-china-has-no-overcapacity

All the little guy can do at this point is get out of the game. Limit your exposure to the system as much as possible. For we are getting close to the point when even more bizarre monetary experiments will be rolled out. It's all going to end at the same point. Devaluation against the 79th element. That's the only way to go short, for stocks may go up nominally, but in reality experience a silent crash. Imagine not just the Dow:gold at unity, but the Dow:gold:HUI at unity. Yes. Think about the Dow at 20K, gold at 20K, and the HUI at 20,000 as capital flees the bond markets. What's the HUI at now? 200ish. Crazy? Who would have though the Dow in 1982 would be at 10K in the year 2000. The HUI is a teeny tiny space. To go up ungodly multiples only a mere wafer thin mint of the bond market needs to flow to the sector.

 

[Carol is Alpha]

Something has to break here. Either Amazon is overextending or these brick and mortars will have to evolve into some kind of hybrid.

This is so dumb and show how desperate they are. https://consumerist.com/2016/10/17/walgreens-introduces-in-store-pickup-for-online-orders/

Why the hell would I order something from Wags and have to drive to a store when I could easily have AMZN ship it to me? Please, stop the stupidity.

 

[PharmDBro2017]

This is so dumb and show how desperate they are. https://consumerist.com/2016/10/17/walgreens-introduces-in-store-pickup-for-online-orders/

Why the hell would I order something from Wags and have to drive to a store when I could easily have AMZN ship it to me? Please, stop the stupidity.

They are only doing it because Walmart does it, and it's great honestly. Never have to spend an hour shopping again.

 

[Carol is Alpha]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbest...juggernaut-with-100m-in-revenue/#54fd31cb2ecb

"Feldman: Does Walgreens shutting down Drugstore.com have any impact?

Huang: That would be a tailwind for us. That one is mindboggling to me. No one thought of it five years ago when they bought it? I feel like someone must have won internally."

 

[Carol is Alpha]

How can CVS and Wags compete against this once it sets to tackle pharmacy?

 

[Carol is Alpha]

A must read! This is the UK, but you know the whole world will be like this.
High Street chemists forced ‘to be like Amazon’ under new Government funding cuts
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/724122/High-Street-chemists-Government-NHS-cuts

"However, the National Pharmacy Association believes the cuts are just the tip of the iceberg and are part of a wider package of reforms that could ultimately lead to pharmacists being replaced by robots.

Although the Department of Health has announced a delay to proposals to introduce a “hub and spoke” delivery system, the NPA believes the idea has not been totally ditched and will be resurrected.

NPA chairman Ian Strachan said: “It is clear the Government thinking here is to commoditise medicines like smarties.

“They believe the technology is there to automate about two thirds of the nation’s one billion prescriptions a year.

“But do people really want their pharmacists replaced by a robot?

“Health care is one of those areas where people still want that personal interaction and that’s even before patient safety issues, including the worrying prospect of automation failures, is considered.”

The chief pharmaceutical officer has long made the case for large-scale automation and has argued there are too many pharmacies in England.

In March Mr Ridge said community pharmacists have a “professional obligation” to adopt automated dispensing processes.

He added: “That type of large-scale technology is both safer and more efficient.” "

 

[Carol is Alpha]

How the CIA made Google
Inside the secret network behind mass surveillance, endless war, and Skynet—

https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-the-cia-made-google-e836451a959e#.bvhh06yrq

"In 1999, the CIA created its own venture capital investment firm, In-Q-Tel, to fund promising start-ups that might create technologies useful for intelligence agencies. But the inspiration for In-Q-Tel came earlier, when the Pentagon set up its own private sector outfit.

Known as the ‘Highlands Forum,’ this private network has operated as a bridge between the Pentagon and powerful American elites outside the military since the mid-1990s. Despite changes in civilian administrations, the network around the Highlands Forum has become increasingly successful in dominating US defense policy.

Giant defense contractors like Booz Allen Hamilton and Science Applications International Corporation are sometimes referred to as the ‘shadow intelligence community’ due to the revolving doors between them and government, and their capacity to simultaneously influence and profit from defense policy. But while these contractors compete for power and money, they also collaborate where it counts. The Highlands Forum has for 20 years provided an off the record space for some of the most prominent members of the shadow intelligence community to convene with senior US government officials, alongside other leaders in relevant industries..."

"... this joint CIA-NSA program partly funded Sergey Brin to develop the core of Google, through a grant to Stanford managed by Brin’s supervisor Prof. Jeffrey D. Ullman:
“In fact, the Google founder Mr. Sergey Brin was partly funded by this program while he was a PhD student at Stanford"