This story was originally published here.
The raging pandemic has served one high and worthy purpose:
It has made obvious — to all with open eyes — that the stock market is a crook’s game, a vast swindle.
How else could the stock market regain so many of its initial pandemic losses… while 16 million Americans file unemployment claims… and second-quarter GDP may contract 40%?
The Federal Reserve has expanded its balance sheet some $1.6 trillion these past four weeks.
There is your answer.
All vestiges of fair and honest markets have gone whooshing down the chute.
A Tremendous Gambling Racket
The Federal Reserve heads a tremendous gambling racket. It deals dishonest cards. It weights the dice. It tinkers the slots.
Anything and everything it will do to rook bears out of their rightful jackpots.
And so we ask:
Where would the stock market presently sit without the Federal Reserve’s massive fixing?
The numbers men at One River Asset Management have tackled the question.
Their conclusion shortly.
First we look in on the blackjack table…
A Touch of Reality
The Dow Jones shed 445 points yesterday. The S&P gave back 62; the Nasdaq, 122.
Why today’s setback?
We learn this morning that March retail sales plunged a savage 8.7% — a record jolt to business. No previous figure approaches it.
We further learn that United States industrial production plunged 5.4% month over month.
That represents its steepest monthly fall since January 1946… not long after the nation began beating its belligerent swords into peaceful plowshares.
Meantime, earnings season is once again upon us. And corporate earnings are presently dropping away…
Bank of America claims first-quarter profits plummeted 45%. Citigroup profits went 46% backward. Goldman Sachs also reported a violent 46% retreat.
Quincy Krosby — Prudential Financial’s chief market strategist — drips icy sweat as he canvasses the numbers:
If this is a precursor to what we can expect throughout the U.S.… there’s no word for it. This reflects the complete shutdown of the economy.
Yes it does. Yet the abysmal numbers were all but guaranteed. And still the stock market jumped for weeks.
Yes, the market was down today.
Yet we suspect further pledges of Federal Reserve trickery will coax stocks up again — for a time at least.
The New Investment Strategy
BlackRock is the largest asset manager on Earth. It is also in command of the Federal Reserve’s asset-purchasing program.
This is the program that is lifting creaky debt off corporate balance sheets… and dropping it into taxpayers’ laps.
And what is BlackRock’s present investment strategy?
To simply hitch its cart to whichever assert the Federal Reserve purchases. Explains Mr. Rick Rieder, director of BlackRock’s global allocation unit:
We will follow the Fed and other [developed market] central banks by purchasing what they’re purchasing, and assets that rhyme with those.
That is, the central banks will ultimately select BlackRock’s investments. What kind of capitalism is this?
And is there not something uniquely swinish about this arrangement… perhaps even unlawful?
BlackRock is directly involved in the Federal Reserve’s asset purchases. It therefore knows which assets will get a lift. It can place its wagers accordingly — before all others.
Where is the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate insider trading?
Editor's Note: For the full story, click here. But first, scroll down for a message from Jim Rickards, a former CIA insider and a best-selling author
Man who Predicted 2008 Collapse Makes SHOCKING new Prediction for 2020
I helped save America from a $1.3 trillion banking crisis…
I predicted the Great Recession of 2008…
I predicted Trump’s 2016 election…
But now I’m issuing my most urgent warning yet.
If I’m right again, God bless America…
