Are We Enjoying The Scam Yet?

The List of Offenses… [Morning Reckoning] May 16, 2024 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Are We Enjoying The Scam Yet? Asti, Northern Italy May 16, 2024 [Sean Ring] SEAN RING Good morning Reader, As I watch from afar, I wonder how Americans can take it. Seriously, American taxpayer largesse pays for untold amounts of charity, though it’s coerced from them through tax. I don’t know who said it, but he was right: the profits of capitalism pay for the follies of socialism. How do we measure such things? It seems that deficits still don’t matter to most; in fact, too many people profit from them to force the government to be fiscally responsible. Even if The Donald gets back behind the Resolute desk after the election, he certainly won’t make Congress behave with America’s money. He almost certainly will prove Milton Freeman correct. Freeman once wrote, “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” As Obama’s programs became Trump’s, Trump’s programs became Biden’s (and then some). I suspect a Trump 47 presidency will return the favor. This won’t stop until the American people force their government’s hand. And, quite frankly, the people aren’t angry enough yet. So, the goal of today’s piece is to get you angry. And then, I’d like you to pass this piece along to get your friends angry. And then they can pass it to their friends and so on. You’ll sit there in astonishment as you read and ask yourself the same question I’ve been asking myself: What’s the diameter of the American taxpayer’s cornhole? [[ALERT] The #1 AI Stock To Buy Now!]( [Click here to learn more]( James Altucher just released an urgent video detailing a brand-new AI stock that could grow by 10X or more over the next few years. But you have to hurry. A major piece of news could be released any day, and it could be what sends this stock SOARING, outperforming AI giants like Nvidia. [Click here for exclusive urgent access.]( [LEARN MORE]( How Dare You? It’s a fair question, though not as bad as asking a woman how old she is. It's harsh but fair. The way it should be. The last time someone got bent over this hard, Chevy Chase was singing Moon River. And it’s the entire country’s tax base! Take, for instance, this peach of a piece that’s no longer available on Ukrainska Pravda: Credit: [@Liz_Churchill10]( Luckily, a website called [The Intel Drop]( got to the article before it was unceremoniously taken down. It reads: Military and civilian authorities in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region paid millions of dollars to fake companies for the supply of non-existent building materials to construct defensive fortifications, the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reported on Monday. With no fortifications built, Russian forces have advanced rapidly through the region. Russia has seized dozens of towns and villages in the northern part of Kharkov Region after launching an offensive last Friday. According to the latest update from the Russian Defense Ministry, Russian troops had captured the village of Bugrovatka on Monday and are inflicting losses on Ukrainian manpower and hardware near Veseloye, Volchansk, and Liptsi, the latter of which is located just 20km from the outskirts of Kharkov city. Writing in Ukrainska Pravda on Monday, Ukrainian anti-corruption activist Martina Boguslavets explained that Kharkov’s Department of Housing and Communal Services (ZhKG) and Regional Military Administration (OVA) had been given 7 billion hryvnias ($176.5 million) to build fortifications to hold back this advance. The article continued: Much of this money was embezzled, Boguslavets claimed. For the supply of wood, the ZhKG and OVA signed contracts worth 270 million hryvnias ($6.8 million) with five companies that were set up immediately after the contracts were announced. No bidding process took place, and at least two of these companies were owned by the same person, Boguslavets wrote. “Moreover, the owners of these firms do not resemble successful businessmen and businesswomen,” she wrote. “They have dozens of court cases, from whiskey theft to domestic violence against a husband and mother; some of them are deprived of parental rights and have had enforcement proceedings for bank loans.” Boguslavets described these business owners as “avatars,” placed in charge of the companies either for a small fee or without their knowledge. One of the supposed CEOs, whose firm was paid 52 million hryvnias ($1.3 million), is an agricultural laborer, according to Boguslavets’ documents. “The naked eye can see how a government official mercilessly registers new companies, using for this purpose people who, due to the circumstances, may not be aware of this,” she wrote. “And this someone continues to make money on blood.” Ah, it’s only $175 million of the $61 billion the House sent to Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion for Taiwan. As Senator John Blutarsky might have said, “$95 billion down the drain.” But let’s not even worry about the money going out of the country. What about the money staying in the country? The List of Offenses Redistribution. The Left loves it. The Big Government Right pretends not to. The Small Government Right and every American breadwinner hates it. My good friend and ace copywriter at Paradigm, Mohan Garikiparithi, put together a list of all the perks the undocumented migrants get. You know, those people who illegally invade America through the unprotected southern border. Mohan lives in Kanada, so he’s just an innocent bystander taking notes. In case you're wondering, he entered Kanada by plane. Let’s get into it. New York City The former Greatest City on Earth™ pays over $300 per night for budget hotel rooms to house migrants. According to Bloomberg, the cost of housing migrants is an estimated $4.3 billion between April 2022 and July 2024. Mayor Eric Adams says he must cut city services to afford it. On the bright side, Adams would like these migrants to become lifeguards. “How do we have a large body of people that are in our city, our country, that are excellent swimmers and at the same time we need lifeguards — and the only obstacle is that we won’t give them the right to work to become a lifeguard. That just doesn’t make sense.” Mayor or Village Idiot? You be the judge! Michigan Governor Whitmer is offering homeowners $500 per month to host illegal immigrants so those new people can vote for her in the next election. Colorado The state of Colorado is purchasing a gym for $4 million to house immigrants. Colorado is also giving stipends of up to $2,000 to host migrants. This is what happens when too many Left Coast skiers invade your polity. Minnesota Minnesota introduced guaranteed basic income for migrants in HF 2666 in March. It provides $500 monthly payments for 18 to 24 months to help support an undocumented immigrant’s basic needs. I’m sure the residents of Little Mogadishu are pleased as punch, as they won’t be paying for it. Other Here’s a list of other crimes against common sense: - In 45 states, police don’t have the authority to ask for immigration status. This is utter lunacy. - Twenty states allow illegal immigrants to attend public college at regular in-state fees. (Normally, aliens pay 3x to 4x the in-state fees.) - Ten states allow illegal immigrants to get a driver's license even though they don’t have a Social Security Number (SSN). Americans must show an SSN to get one. - Asylum seekers can get an SSN even if their papers aren’t processed after 6 months. - 4 million illegal migrants will get work permits and protection against deportation. This isn’t some naive bit of compassion or pity. This is bribery, pure and simple. But the Democrats are bribing the invaders, not the natives, for their vote. And you wonder why Democrats are against voter ID? Wrap Up Of course, this is The State redistributing your money to some stranger who came into America without an invitation. You didn’t get asked, but you’re paying for it. I hope the country comes to its senses. From Ukraine to Israel to Taiwan and back to America, citizens are parted from their Treasury. It’s your money. You must decide what to do with it. If you keep leaving the allocation decisions to the government, you won’t have much treasure left. As for your cornhole, keep it tight! All the best, [Sean Ring] Sean Ring Contributing Editor, The Morning Reckoning feedback@dailyreckoning.com X (formerly Twitter): [@seaniechaos]( [Warning: Biden’s revenge against Trump voters?]( [Click here to learn more]( [Is THIS Joe Biden’s planned revenge]( against Trump? Bumbling Biden will lose in November. But a former CIA advisor [now holds evidence]( That Biden has already started rolling out one extreme act of revenge… Against Donald Trump… And EVERY good American who supports our next President. Please view his warning before election day. [ See how to protect yourself HERE ]( [LEARN MORE]( In Case You Missed It… The Revenge of the Meme Stock Greg Guenthner, Editor [Greg Guenthner] GREG GUENTHNER Good Morning Reader, Just when you thought trading couldn’t get any crazier, meme stocks have suddenly reappeared – along with some of the more prominent speculators from the Covid Bubble era. “Roaring Kitty” – the infamous trader who made a killing by starting the grassroots short-squeeze movement that gave birth to some of the wildest runs in stock market history – suddenly reappeared on Twitter/X late Sunday following a three-year hiatus to spark another run in his beloved GameStop Corp. (GME). GME exploded higher in 24-hour trading on Robinhood late Sunday evening. The stock then promptly doubled Monday morning before getting hit with a mid-morning volatility halt. When the dust finally settled, GME closed with a gain of 75% on the day. The Kitty didn’t post anything of substance to spark this furious rally – just a quick meme that made no mention of GME by name. But anyone who was even remotely in tune with the underbelly of the meme market knew exactly what he meant… For starters, GME shares were already on the move last week. The stock jumped 70% in just three trading days leading up to this week’s explosive move. The fuse was lit – and Roaring Kitty pounced, inspiring an army of speculators to follow his lead. I opted for a longer-term view on this chart going back to 2020 to help put this recent rally into context. You can clearly see the huge move that catapulted GME into early 2021 on the left edge of the chart. While we’ve seen some echo rallies since the roaring Covid Bubble, nothing has come close to that epic run more than three years ago. Until now. Is this the beginning of another outrageous meme stock rally? If so, can a sober trader actually make money on these stocks… without losing his mind? Before we attempt to answer these questions, let’s take a look at what happened to these stocks after the squeeze was over. A Short History of Meme Squeezes Months after the echo rallies faded into oblivion, the formerly unstoppable meme stocks that captured the market’s imagination faded back into obscurity. And late last summer, we finally put them to bed. The army of ragtag names was two years removed from its brief era of market domination – and most of the names were nearly unrecognizable from the early days of 2021. AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) resided at the bottom of the pile, down a cool 99% from its 2021 highs (a couple of reverse splits kept the stock afloat and listed in August 2023). Of course, AMC wasn’t the only garbage stock to parlay its pandemic fame into a couple more years of reverse splits and common stock offerings. GameStop (GME) and Bed Bath & Beyond rounded out the ranks of the more popular trading names. And let’s not forget the pandemic round-trippers. Zoom Video Communications (ZM), Peloton Interactive Inc. (PTON), and others experienced a brief yet powerful boom-bust cycle. But there was a distinct lack of hype during the late summer doldrums last year. At the time, I was able to dig up some stray articles on how AMC raised hundreds of millions of dollars issuing stock to the deluded masses of online stock gamblers. Other than that, there was no media coverage at all – and this was a stock that was on the news every single day in early 2021. In the early days of the raging pandemic bull market, you couldn’t escape these ridiculous meme stocks – and the throngs of speculators who believed they were somehow sticking it to the man by temporarily bullying the shares of a failing movie theater. But two short years later? Crickets… The meme stock revolution hit the market with a bang, we noted. And it died with a whimper. No one was buying these stocks. No one wanted to talk about them. There was a time when these trades couldn’t lose. But in late 2023, it seemed as though no one could remember what all the fuss was about in the first place. The biggest, wildest speculations of the early part of the decade were no longer delivering the insane gains everyone expected. Traders cashed in what’s left of their chips and went home. At the time, I assumed they wouldn’t be back anytime soon. Yet here we are less than a year later, watching the familiar story beginning to emerge… Is it really happening all over again? Embrace the Chaos It can be nearly impossible to maintain sanity and objectivity as these short squeezes unfold. Some investors become downright angry as these speculative bubbles develop, mainly because the extreme price action tends to reward bad behavior. Imagine practicing sound trading techniques for years, only to watch some kid with a Robinhood account book a six-figure gain YOLO-ing out-of-the-money weeklies. It’s enough to drive a trader completely nuts… Unfortunately, most of these speculators won’t keep the money they make on these trades. They’ll plow the winnings into another long shot. And eventually, the market will even the score. One of the main mistakes I see when I venture onto the message boards is inexperienced traders putting way too much money into a single play – almost as a “get rich or go broke trying” strategy. But when you’re dealing with these extreme stock moves, you don’t have to risk a ton of capital to get involved and put up some impressive gains. Why bet the farm on what amounts to a spin of the roulette wheel? I’m not sure that any “advice” like this is useful when it comes to meme trades. But if you are going to venture into these shark-infested waters, try not to get sucked into the hype. These are not long-term investments. Don’t sweat perfect entries. Take what you can get with tiny positions. And pack your bags early… When that last plane takes off, you don’t want to be left standing on the runway. Best, [Greg Guenthner] Greg Guenthner Contributing Editor, Morning Reckoning feedback@dailyreckoning.com Thank you for reading The Morning Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:dr@dailyreckoning.com) [Sean Ring] [Sean Ring, CAIA, FRM and CMT]( is a former banker and financial educator and is the editor of the Rude Awakening. Sean has trained interns and graduates from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Bank of America, Standard Chartered Bank, DBS (Singapore), the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Bank Indonesia (the central bank), HSBC, Barclays, RBS, and BlackRock. He knows the global economy is being corrupted by forces that most people can't understand and has used his unique and worldly experiences to help people navigate the markets. 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