Another Republican President, Another Recession.

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
You say it is Russian propaganda? The founder of BLM has admitted she is a Marxists.

New York Post....In a recently surfaced 2015 interview, one of the three Black Lives Matter co-founders declared that she and another co-founder "are trained Marxists."

Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in a newly surfaced video from 2015 that she and her fellow organizers are “trained Marxists” – making clear their movement’s ideological foundation, according to a report.

Cullors, 36, was the protégé of Eric Mann, former agitator of the Weather Underground domestic terror organization, and spent years absorbing the Marxist-Leninist ideology that shaped her worldview.

“The first thing, I think, is that we actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers,” she said, referring to BLM co-founder Alicia Garza.

“We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories. And I think that what we really tried to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk,” Cullors added in the interview with Jared Ball of The Real News Network.

While promoting her book “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir” in 2018, Cullors described her introduction to and support for Marxist ideology.


You say Susan Rosenberg, a terrorist that I had daily contact with for two years is not affiliated with Black Lives Matters? She was a former member of the Weather Underground, terrorist.

As of 2020, Rosenberg serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Thousand Currents, a non-profit foundation that sponsors the fundraising and does administrative work for the Black Lives Matter Global Network, among other clients.

Rosenberg, Weather Underground terrorist. Black lives Matters in charge of fundraising for Black Lives Matters.

Cullors, 36, was the protégé of Eric Mann, former agitator of the Weather Underground domestic terror organization, and spent years absorbing the Marxist-Leninist ideology that shaped her. BLM founder was connected to the Weather Underground.
Why do you think that these people have anything to do with the protests today?

Do you think that these protests would not have happened if someone wouldn't have coined those particular brandnames?


Hunting season wasn't cancelled, the businesses that cater to hunters, restaurants etc. were denied the ability to open due to the Governor's insane lockdown.

Whitmer extended her insane lockdowns after every protest or court win against her policies. She extended those lockdowns for no reason other than her mad fits that people opposed her actions.

Explain to me how my putting a 14 foot fishing boat into the water with a 9 horsepower engine so I can get off of the island I live on to fish was going to spread Covid 19? Explain that to me, please.

Now explain to me why her order did not cover rowboats, kayaks, canoes or sailboats. Is Covid 19 spread by my small fishing boat with a 9 horsepower engine while that 40 foot sailboat the rich people own is immune from Covid 19 while 10 people are out sailing with there rich Lansing and Detroit residents out drinking Champagne on the weekend?
I disagree strongly with your saying that the lockdown is insane.

Maybe on a micro-level (your particular boating situation) I can see that things get lumped in that shouldn't be.

But do you understand the need on the macro-level? Do you understand why chartering us southern michiganders around and having us show up in large numbers for your local restaurants when the virus is spreading around here is just good sense?

Do you not believe that there is a pandemic going on?

I don't know the particulars of boating. I never had the privilege of being on any boat but my buddies row boat and the Bobalo boat when I was a kid. So I am not going to disagree with your particular outrage about people being idiots and non-helpful regulations being in place with large general moves like are needed when dealing with a worldwide pandemic.


But for real, do you not understand that us not coming up to your neck of the woods has most likely saved your hospitals from being overrun (like they are in mid and lower Michigan) because of the current pandemic?
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
Burt Lake State Park, Indian River Michigan. I drove by it on a weekly basis. New sign was posted and remained throughout Spring and Summer that the STATE Park was not open.

Haakwood rustic campground, State Camping Facility. Opens in the Spring each year as it sits on the Sturgeon River between Wolverine and Indian River. Sturgeon River is a premier trout stream. Didn't open until near end of Summer, sign on gate, closed due to Governor's Covid lockdown orders.
https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0,9753,7-406-98163-522730--,00.html
State parks were open, but the campgrounds were closed.So you still had full access to it, and anyone who would be willing to drive there, and then drive home. But just not the idiots that I am surrounded by who would come up there and stay to spread the virus for a few days then leave while your neighbors got hammered with the virus.
 

doug58

Well-Known Member
You say I ignore that the lockdown reduced cases. I say the lockdowns increased cases by stifling herd immunity.

All those downstaters that came to my location on weekends this Summer at their second homes on the lake I live on got up here and didn't wear a mask or socially distanced themselves from anyone. There are a couple hundred houses on the lake, 20 more on the island. Only 6 houses on the island are lived in, a couple are weekly retails. Downstaters come up for a week or two in the Summer and occasionally on weekends. They don't go to stores, they bring food and beer with them. Then the sit around bonfires drinking and grouping with no mask on with other downstaters, partying. Then they go back to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Chicago and Lansing. I gave up social distancing and wearing a mask back in June when I saw Whitmer out marching with Black Lives Matter terrorists and decided no more complying.

I have caught nothing and all those 70 year-old downstaters said they will refuse to be vaccinated before they headed back downstate at the end of the tourist season. Many of them still come up every few weekends. Just yesterday I was walking my dog and ran into and old husband and wife walking towards me with a dozen relatives who live downstate. No one wearing a mask, youngest around two, others in their 20's, 40's and 70's. They called my German Shepherd who ran to greet them with me yelling to my dog to come back. I had to retrieve my dog that everyone is crowded around now petting her and breathing around me. Yeah, that social distancing is working great.

A rental vacation home just a couple houses away from me rents by the week. Huge expensive rental, it gets rented out to large groups, like to women in groups of 12 or more. Six or more cars at a time for every rental. These aren't family units, they are groups of unrelated individuals often up for a week of partying. No masks, no social distancing. Drunk groups of downstaters who come up to me in groups while walking my dog wanting to pet her.
 

doug58

Well-Known Member
Why do you think that these people have anything to do with the protests today?

Do you think that these protests would not have happened if someone wouldn't have coined those particular brandnames?





But do you understand the need on the macro-level? Do you understand why chartering us southern michiganders around and having us show up in large numbers for your local restaurants when the virus is spreading around here is just good sense?

Do you not believe that there is a pandemic going on?

I don't know the particulars of boating. I never had the privilege of being on any boat but my buddies row boat and the Bobalo boat when I was a kid. So I am not going to disagree with your particular outrage about people being idiots and non-helpful regulations being in place with large general moves like are needed when dealing with a worldwide pandemic.


But for real, do you not understand that us not coming up to your neck of the woods has most likely saved your hospitals from being overrun (like they are in mid and lower Michigan) because of the current pandemic?
The people still come up here, they just don't spend any money because the businesses they utilize were shut down on the Governor's orders, beauty shops closed all year, barbers closed, Restaurants closed.

Those who own houses up here do their grocery shopping downstate and bring their food and drinks with them because businesses were shut down. Bars were closed until September or October. Then Whitless ordered them all closed again on November 15th, the opening day of deer season. I told you that previously. She shut them down the day people finally returned to Northern Michigan for two week deer season. The entire Northern 2/3rds of Michigan votes overwhelmingly for Republicans.

You can't see that she intentionally punished those areas that vote republican? She did it intentionally in was to punish those in Northern Michigan who don't vote for her. Everytime a big event like deer hunting season opener or Walleye and Bass season was set to happen she came out with idiotic orders, like close all restaurants again on the opening day of deer season.

Jesus, if you can't see the hypocrisy I don't know what else to say to you.

As far as a pandemic, isn't it funny that deaths due to the common flu are non-existent this year? I read numerous articles concerning yearly flu deaths which were often in the hundreds of thousands. This year none being reported. Why? Could it be because Covid 19 admissions get the hospitals huge amounts of federal funding? Reported $50,000 + per patient.
 

doug58

Well-Known Member
You "State parks were open, but the campgrounds were closed.So you still had full access to it, and anyone who would be willing to drive there, and then drive home. But just not the idiots that I am surrounded by who would come up there and stay to spread the virus for a few days then leave while your neighbors got hammered with the virus."

These are state park campgrounds. They were closed, as in the roads were gated and you couldn't get in unless you walked in to an empty campground. You had access if you were walking in to a frigging empty campground you couldn't use.
 

doug58

Well-Known Member
Politifact, a liberal media site states that the three founders of BLM have admitted in interviews to being Marxists.

One of the founders, Cullors stated support concerning the BLM movement.

It also expresses its appreciation for the work of the US Communist Party, “especially Black communists,” as well as its support for “the great work of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, Young Lords, Brown Berets, and the great revolutionary rainbow experiments of the 1970s,” .
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
The people still come up here, they just don't spend any money because the businesses they utilize were shut down on the Governor's orders, beauty shops closed all year, barbers closed, Restaurants closed.

Those who own houses up here do their grocery shopping downstate and bring their food and drinks with them because businesses were shut down. Bars were closed until September or October. Then Whitless ordered them all closed again on November 15th, the opening day of deer season. I told you that previously. She shut them down the day people finally returned to Northern Michigan for two week deer season. The entire Northern 2/3rds of Michigan votes overwhelmingly for Republicans.
Outside of your troll of her name, I am not saying you are wrong about any of this.

It sucks. This is why we needed a strong federal program to help the people hammered by this pandemic recover. It is a shame that Mitch and Trump shut it down.


You can't see that she intentionally punished those areas that vote republican? She did it intentionally in was to punish those in Northern Michigan who don't vote for her.
This I strongly disagree with. I don't know how to say this in non-troll words, so I apologize ahead of time, but this is just snow flaking.

It has been a long day and don't want to burn each other out because I actually think this is a conversation worth having, so if I don't respond again tonight, I will be around to pick it up where it ends tomorrow.

Everytime a big event like deer hunting season opener or Walleye and Bass season was set to happen she came out with idiotic orders, like close all restaurants again on the opening day of deer season.

Jesus, if you can't see the hypocrisy I don't know what else to say to you.
I really don't see hypocrisy. Because it just makes sense to not have people from down south come up there and pass around the Covid virus in those restaurants.

I know it absolutely sucks, it is a disaster. And that is why a federal response was necessary (and unfortunately lacking).

As far as a pandemic, isn't it funny that deaths due to the common flu are non-existent this year? I read numerous articles concerning yearly flu deaths which were often in the hundreds of thousands. This year none being reported. Why? Could it be because Covid 19 admissions get the hospitals huge amounts of federal funding? Reported $50,000 + per patient.
So that is a no you don't believe that there is a pandemic going on?

These are state park campgrounds. They were closed, as in the roads were gated and you couldn't get in unless you walked in to an empty campground. You had access if you were walking in to a frigging empty campground you couldn't use.
You are right, I am not disagreeing with you at all about this man.


Politifact, a liberal media site states that the three founders of BLM have admitted in interviews to being Marxists.

One of the founders, Cullors stated support concerning the BLM movement.

It also expresses its appreciation for the work of the US Communist Party, “especially Black communists,” as well as its support for “the great work of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, Young Lords, Brown Berets, and the great revolutionary rainbow experiments of the 1970s,” .
My question to you was do you think that this particular brand name had anything to do with the protests over the summer.
 

Herb & Suds

Well-Known Member
My response is Trump made it all far worse than it had to be
And ya wanna know why places were closed
Because Whitmer values human life ...people with common sense weren't headed north this year regardless , and the rest are mouth breathers who base their entire value on monetary

In the words of the mango messiah , "it is what it is "
We don't spend any money cause we see maskless people ignoring any recommendations acting all badd ass
And we don't want to be exposed to that
As far as spread if Whitmer had not put her foot down on travel the UP would be a spreader forever due to anti-vaxers
Now ya'll lost an election legitimately and Mango Mussillini has led us into another recession without any help from any Governor

Enjoy your favorite president
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-jobless-claims-unemployment-coronavirus-pandemic-layoffs-a0931717c499fbb6861a2d4e2dcb78a8
Screen Shot 2021-01-14 at 9.12.28 AM.png
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking unemployment aid soared last week to 965,000, the most since late August and evidence that the resurgent virus has caused a spike in layoffs.

The latest figures for jobless claims, issued Thursday by the Labor Department, remain at levels never seen until the virus struck. Before the pandemic, weekly applications typically numbered around 225,000. Last spring, after nationwide shutdowns took effect, applications for jobless benefits spiked to nearly 7 million — 10 times the previous record high. After declining over the summer, weekly claims have been stuck above 700,000 since September.

Screen Shot 2021-01-14 at 9.13.12 AM.png

The high pace of layoffs coincides with an economy that has faltered as consumers have avoided traveling, shopping and eating out in the face of soaring viral caseloads. More than 4,300 deaths were reported Tuesday, another record high. Shutdowns of restaurants, bars and other venues where people gather in California, New York and other states have likely forced up layoffs.

Some states and cities are resisting shutdowns, partly out of fear of the economic consequences but raising the risk of further infections. Minnesota allowed in-person dining to resume this week. Michigan is poised to do the same. Some bars and restaurants in Kansas City are extending their hours.

In addition to the first-time applications for unemployment aid last week, the government said Thursday that 5.3 million Americans are continuing to receive state jobless benefits, up from 5.1 million in the previous week.

Many more Americans are receiving jobless aid from two federal programs — one that provides extended benefits to people who have exhausted their state aid and another that supplies benefits to self-employed and contract workers.

Those two programs had expired near the end of December. They were belatedly renewed, through mid-March, in a $900 billion rescue aid package that Congress approved and President Donald Trump signed into law. That package also includes $600 relief checks for most adults and a supplemental unemployment benefit payment of $300 a week. Congressional Democrats favor boosting the checks to $2,000 and extending federal aid beyond March, as does President-elect Joe Biden.

The U.S. job market’s weakness was made painfully clear in the December employment report that the government issued last week. Employers shed jobs for the first time since April as the pandemic tightened its grip on consumers and businesses.

The figures also depicted a sharply uneven job market: The losses last month were concentrated among restaurants, bars, hotels and entertainment venues — places that provide in-person services that some governments have restricted or that consumers are avoiding. Educational services, mostly colleges and universities, also cut workers in December. So did film and music studios.

Most other large industries, though, reported job gains. Many economists had expected last spring that job losses would spread to more industries. Though all sectors of the economy initially laid off workers, most of them have avoided deep layoffs. Manufacturing, construction, and professional services like engineering and architecture, for example, all added jobs in December.

At the same time, many companies seem reluctant to ramp up hiring. A government report Tuesday showed that employers advertised fewer open jobs in November than in October. The decline, while small, was widespread across most industries. Even now, the nation has nearly 10 million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic sent the economy into a deep recession nearly a year ago, having recovered just 56% of the jobs lost in the spring.

Many economists say that once coronavirus vaccines are more widely distributed, a broader recovery should take hold in the second half of the year. The incoming Biden administration, along with a now fully Democratic-led House and Senate, is also expected to push more rescue aid and spending measures that could accelerate growth.
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hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/business-janet-yellen-confirmation-hearings-coronavirus-pandemic-economy-9780403bcec08463558fffc1e69c9eb0
Screen Shot 2021-01-19 at 2.32.40 PM.png
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen is calling on Congress to do more to fight a deep pandemic-induced recession, saying the threats of a longer and even worse downturn are too great to cut back on support now.

“Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now — and long-term scarring of the economy later,” Yellen said in testimony prepared for her confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee.

Yellen, who will be the first female treasury secretary in the nation’s history, is expected to have little trouble winning approval in a Senate that will be narrowly controlled by Democrats once two Democratic senators from Georgia are seated.

In her testimony, Yellen, who was also the country’s first female chair of the Federal Reserve, said that the quick action Congress took by passing trillion-dollar rescue packages last spring and an additional $900 billion relief measure last month were successful in “averting a lot of suffering.”

But she said that even with the extraordinary government help, the pandemic has still caused “widespread devastation.”

“Eighteen million unemployment insurance claims are being paid every week. Food bank shelves are going empty. The damage has been sweeping and as the president-elect said last Thursday, our response must be too,” Yellen said.

“Over the next few months, we are going to need more aid to distribute the vaccine, to reopen schools, to help states keep firefighters and teachers on the job,” Yellen said. She said more support would also be needed to keep unemployment benefit checks going out and to help families who are going hungry or in danger of being homeless.

Biden last week unveiled a $1.9 trillion relief plan that would provide more aid to American families, businesses and local communities and provide more support for vaccine production and distribution.

While Democrats have endorsed the effort, many Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns about the price tag given soaring federal budget deficits.

Yellen said that she and Biden were aware of the country’s rising debt burden.

“But right now, with interest rates at historic lows, the smartest thing we can do is act big,” she said. “In the long run, I believe the benefits will far outweigh the costs, especially if we care about helping people who have been struggling for a very long time.”

The Senate Finance Committee hearing with Yellen on Tuesday is one of several that the Senate will be holding as the incoming Biden administration tries to get its top Cabinet officials in office quickly.
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/01/23/covid-relief-biden-gop/
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President Biden’s pitch for bipartisan unity to defeat the coronavirus and resurrect the economy is crashing into a partisan buzz saw on Capitol Hill, where Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on ground rules for running the Senate — let alone pass a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill.

Biden’s relief package is being declared dead on arrival by senior Senate Republicans, some of whom say there has been little, if any, outreach from the Biden team to get their support. Liberals are demanding the president abandon attempts to make a bipartisan deal altogether and instead ram the massive legislation through without GOP votes. And outside groups are turning up the pressure for Biden and the Democrats who control Congress to enact economic relief quickly, even if it means cutting Republicans out of the deal.

In the face of these competing pressures, Biden may discover he can get a big covid-19 stimulus bill or a bipartisan deal — but not both. The path Biden chooses with his first major piece of legislation could set the tone for the remainder of his first term in office, revealing whether he can make good on his promise to unify Congress and the country.

“It’s important that Democrats deliver for America. If the best path to that is to do it in a way that can bring Republicans along, I’m all in favor of that,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said. “But if Republicans want to cut back to the point that we’re not delivering what needs to be done, then we need to be prepared to fight them. Our job is to deliver for the American people.”

Publicly, top aides insist Biden is serious about wanting a bipartisan deal on the relief bill. They say this should be achievable given the magnitude of the economic and health-care crisis besetting the nation a year after the pandemic began, with more than 412,000 dead and the economy newly shedding jobs. Some Democrats have expressed optimism that GOP frustration with how the Trump administration ended could convince some Republicans to be more open to a fresh start with a Democratic president, especially since longtime lawmakers know Biden from his decades in the Senate and as vice president.

But when Biden’s relief plan rang in at nearly $2 trillion this month, and included liberal priorities like an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, some Republicans saw it as a sign that Biden wasn’t really serious about getting their support. Even those Republicans who have suggested they’re open to making a deal have made clear that the package would need to undergo significant changes.

“I suspect the whole package is a nonstarter, but it’s got plenty of starters in it. And a lot of them are things that we proposed in terms of more assistance to the states,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), referring to money for vaccine distribution and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “There’s some things in there that aren’t going to happen. There’s some things that can happen. And that’s how this process should work.”

Outreach to GOP lawmakers before and after the plan’s release appears to have occurred only at the staff level so far and has been confined to a limited number of senators, including members of a bipartisan group who helped break a stalemate over coronavirus relief legislation late last year.

On Sunday, Biden economic adviser Brian Deese is scheduled to directly brief the senators in that group on a Zoom call. But as of Friday, Senate GOP leadership had not been formally briefed, and multiple GOP lawmakers who are part of the bipartisan talks said they had heard nothing from the White House, even though Biden pitched himself on the campaign trail as a bipartisan dealmaker.

“I have not personally [heard from the White House], and I’m disappointed in that, not about me but about, you know, it’s one thing to talk about outreach, another thing to do it,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a senior lawmaker who is a member of the bipartisan group that will confer Sunday with Deese.

“It’s much more successful around here if you try to get the bipartisanship at the start so that it’s a foundation of trust,” Portman added.

Trump impeachment trial will start week of Feb. 8, Schumer says

Instead, Biden unveiled his $1.9 trillion plan without any bipartisan buy-in, leaving Republicans to question the need for such a big new package coming on the heels of the $900 billion Congress approved in December for economic relief, vaccines and more. Including that legislation, Congress has already devoted about $4 trillion to fighting the pandemic and the economic devastation it wrought.

“I look forward to hearing their views. My own thought is that we should only be spending money where there is need that needs to be met, and so I’d like to see the figures and calculations behind their proposal,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), another member of the bipartisan group, said. “I think there’s a recognition on both sides of the aisle that where there’s need, we in Congress have a responsibility to help meet that. But we don’t want to be borrowing money that’s not absolutely necessary.”

Questioned about how a nearly $2 trillion package filled with proposals that are anathema to Republicans could be described as a bipartisan overture, White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted it was.

“Is unemployment insurance only an issue that Democrats in the country want? Do only Democrats want their kids to go back to schools? Do only Democrats want vaccines to be distributed across the country?” Psaki said at a White House press briefing. “He feels that package is designed for bipartisan support.”

She said Biden would be getting personally engaged in finding support for his plan. “He’s very eager to be closely involved, roll up the sleeves … and make the calls himself,” she said.

The Trump economy left Black Americans behind. Here’s how they want Biden to narrow the gaps.

Psaki said that in trying to sell the package to Republicans, the White House approach would be to ask them which priorities they would cut. The wide-ranging proposal includes a new round of $1,400 stimulus checks to individuals, an extension and increase in emergency unemployment benefits that would otherwise expire in mid-March, and an enhanced child tax credit, as well as hundreds of billions of dollars to help schools reopen and increase testing and vaccine production and delivery.

Some Republicans are open to a number of these provisions but view others — such as the minimum wage increase — as unrelated to the coronavirus and designed to appease an antsy liberal base more than garner bipartisan backing.
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hanimmal

Well-Known Member
It's all fun and games until micro donations and Elon Musk's twitter tank the economy.

https://apnews.com/article/gamestop-stocks-reddit-updates-0bfe08b10002e7bb334983948f53b6e4
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Across most of America, GameStop is just a place to buy a video game. On Wall Street, though, it’s become a battleground where swarms of smaller investors see themselves making an epic stand against the 1%.

The funds serving the financial elite are starting to walk away in defeat. Big bets they made that GameStop’s stock would fall went wrong, leaving them facing billions of dollars in collective losses. All the wild action pushed GameStop’s stock as high as $380 on Wednesday, up from $18 just a few weeks ago.

The stunning seizure of power gives some validation to smaller-pocketed investors, many of whom are encouraging each other on Reddit and are trading stocks for the first time thanks to brokerages offering free-trading apps. It’s also left more investors on Wall Street asking if the stock market is in a dangerous bubble about to pop, as AMC Entertainment, Bed Bath & Beyond and other downtrodden stocks suddenly soar as well. The S&P 500 set a record high earlier this week, though it fell Wednesday.

Two investment firms that had placed bets for money-losing GameStop’s stock to fall have essentially thrown in the towel. One, Citron Research, acknowledged Wednesday in a YouTube video that it unwound the majority of its bet and took “a loss, 100%” to do so. But Andrew Left, who runs Citron, said that does not change his view that GameStop’s stock will eventually go down.

“We move on,” Left said. “Nothing has changed with GameStop except the stock price,” He also said he has “respect for the market,” which can run stock prices up much higher than where critics say they should be, at least for a while.

Melvin Capital is also exiting GameStop, with manager Gabe Plotkin telling CNBC that the hedge fund was taking a significant loss. He denied rumors that the hedge fund will fail. The size of the losses taken by Citron and Melvin are unknown.

Before its recent explosion, GameStop’s stock had been struggling for a long time. The company has been losing money for years as sales of video games increasingly go online, and its stock fell for six straight years before rebounding in 2020.

That pushed many professional investors to make bets that GameStop’s stock will decline even further. In such bets, called “short sales,” investors borrow a share and sell it in hopes of buying it back later at a lower price and pocketing the difference. GameStop is one of the most shorted stocks on Wall Street.

But its stock began rising sharply earlier this month after a co-founder of Chewy, the online seller of pet supplies, joined the company’s board. The thought is that he could help in the company’s transformation as it focuses more on digital sales and closes brick-and-mortar stores. Its shares jumped to $19.94 from less than $18 on Jan. 11. At the time, it seemed like a huge move for the stock.

Smaller investors were meanwhile exhorting each other online to keep GameStop’s stock rolling higher.

The raucous discussions are full of sarcasm, self deprecation and emojis of rocket ships signifying belief that GameStop’s stock will fly to the moon.

MORE STORIES:
“WHAT IS AN ACTUAL RATIONAL SELLING POINT, (ABOVE 200? 500?) SO I DONT HAVE TO WATCH THIS TICKER EVERY SECOND UNTIL FRIDAY/MONDAY????” one user wrote in a Reddit discussion Tuesday afternoon as GameStop soared. “I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING,” adding that they had other things to do.

There is no overriding reason why GameStop has attracted this cavalcade of smaller and first-time investors, but there is a distinct component of revenge against Wall Street in communications online.

“The same rich people that caused the market crash in 2007/08 are still in power and continue to manipulate the market to get even richer, we are just taking back our fair share,” one user wrote on Reddit.

“hey mom i can’t come up for dinner,” another user wrote. “i’m bankrupting a 10 figure hedge fund with the boys.”

Beyond personal attacks, the battle has also created big financial losses for Wall Street players who shorted GameStop’s stock.

Full Coverage: Business

As GameStop’s gains grew and short sellers scrambled to get out of their bets, they had to buy shares to do so. That accelerated the momentum even more, creating a feedback loop. As of Tuesday, short sellers of GameStop were already down more than $5 billion in 2021, according to S3 Partners.

Much of professional Wall Street remains pessimistic that GameStop’s stock can hold onto its immense gains. The company is unlikely to start making big enough profits to justify its $22.2 billion market valuation anytime soon, analysts say. The stock closed Wednesday at $347.51. Analysts at BofA Global Research raised their price target Wednesday — to $10.

All the mania is raising some concern that investors are taking excessive risks, and reporters asked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday whether the Fed’s moves to support markets through the pandemic is helping to push stock prices too high.

Powell downplayed the role of low interest rates and pointed to investors’ expectations for COVID-19 vaccines and more stimulus from Washington for the economy as drivers for record stock prices.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday that it’s noticed all the volatility in the market, though it did not name GameStop specifically. The agency said it’s “working with our fellow regulators to assess the situation and review the activities” of investors in the market.

Later Wednesday, the Reddit discussion group where much of the GameStop stock push has taken place, called r/WallStreetBets, was taken private, making it inaccessible to outsiders. Some longtime users also took to Twitter to say they could no longer access it. A Reddit representative confirmed that the group’s moderators took it private but gave no other comment.

In addition, the gamer-friendly platform Discord shut down a text and audio chat group also called r/WallStreetBets for “continuing to allow hateful and discriminatory content after repeated warnings,” the company said in a statement.

Discord said it has been monitoring that group — called a “server” for historical reasons — for “some time” due to repeated violations of its rules, including hate speech, glorifying violence and spreading misinformation and issued multiple warnings to its administrator.

“To be clear, we did not ban this server due to financial fraud related to GameStop or other stocks,” Discord said. “We are monitoring this situation and in the event there are allegations of illegal activities, we will cooperate with authorities as appropriate.”
I wonder how much of a impact this will have on companies that use short selling as insurance to hedge their losses. It's sounds all cool when you have the 'screw the rich hedge fund' angle, but with everything going on, it is hard to not worry about how trolls may be able to use this to fleece people. There is enough washed money with bitcoin now when you read things like the $500k that was sent to right wing domestic trolls.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/january-6th-2021.1041453/post-16073188
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-financial-markets-australia-south-korea-coronavirus-pandemic-80ae9e399bd63d4c68558b09e5666c44
Screen Shot 2021-01-28 at 10.58.55 AM.png
Stocks were recovering in early trading on Thursday, after falling sharply the day before on lingering worries about the long-term economic damage from the pandemic.

Investors continued to watch the nauseating moves of stocks like GameStop and AMC, which have become targets of online retail investors that have sent their shares skyrocketing even as big hedge funds bet they will fall.

The S&P 500 was up 1.2% as of 10:05 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 1.4% and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.7%.

The outsized moves of GameStop, AMC Entertainment and select other previously beaten-down stocks have caught the attention of traditional investors, but also smaller investors and the media. All have notched massive gains in recent days after gaining favor with an online community.

Gamestop was up 10% in early trading after more than doubling in price the day before. The stock, trading at $384 a share, overnight was worth as much as $500 a share. Meanwhile AMC Networks was down nearly 30%, after rising nearly 600% just this month alone. Trading in both stocks was temporarily halted in the morning for volatility.

Investors are also focusing on company earnings. More than 100 companies in the S&P 500 are scheduled to tell investors this week how they fared during the last three months of 2020.

Apple fell 2% after the iPhone maker posted a record quarterly profit, helped by big sales of iPhones and Apple Watches during the holiday season. Investors focused on the fact that Apple was conservative in its full-year outlook for 2021, which the company cited economic uncertainty and the pandemic as part of the reason for the forecast.

Meanwhile. hopes are high for President Joe Biden’s proposed a $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package, but worries are growing the plan might also be scaled back. Adding to caution, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday it would keep its low interest rate policies in place, but it also released a sobering assessment of the gradual recovery ahead.

“Investors will likely focus on the pace of vaccinations around the globe while also keeping an eye on the progress of President Biden’s fiscal rescue plan that may be facing some roadblocks in the U.S. Senate,” Prakash Sakpal and Nicholas Mapa, senior economists at ING, said in a report.

Markets had been meandering near record highs since last week as investors weighed solid corporate earnings results against renewed worries that troubles with COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and the spread of new variants of coronavirus might delay a recovery from the pandemic.
Living in an interesting time blows.

GDP was down 3.5% making 2020 the worst economy since WW2.Screen Shot 2021-01-28 at 11.04.14 AM.png
https://apnews.com/article/business-gross-domestic-product-coronavirus-pandemic-economy-b59f9be06dcf1da924f64afde2ce094c
 

HGCC

Well-Known Member
It's all fun and games until micro donations and Elon Musk's twitter tank the economy.

https://apnews.com/article/gamestop-stocks-reddit-updates-0bfe08b10002e7bb334983948f53b6e4
View attachment 4809626


I wonder how much of a impact this will have on companies that use short selling as insurance to hedge their losses. It's sounds all cool when you have the 'screw the rich hedge fund' angle, but with everything going on, it is hard to not worry about how trolls may be able to use this to fleece people. There is enough washed money with bitcoin now when you read things like the $500k that was sent to right wing domestic trolls.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/january-6th-2021.1041453/post-16073188
Gamestop is a pretty extreme example, but this is just a classic short squeeze in a small stock. Traditionally it has been one hedge fund against another, I dont have a problem with a bunch of little guys that have been shut out of hedge funds (you have to already be rich to get in)banding together to act like one. Common folk should be able to access those managers and not just be limited to mutual funds. It is bad for the common person if they try and catch the knife, that stock will obviously collapse once people aren't pumping it up and someone will be left holding the bag.
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
Gamestop is a pretty extreme example, but this is just a classic short squeeze in a small stock. Traditionally it has been one hedge fund against another, I dont have a problem with a bunch of little guys that have been shut out of hedge funds (you have to already be rich to get in)banding together to act like one. Common folk should be able to access those managers and not just be limited to mutual funds. It is bad for the common person if they try and catch the knife, that stock will obviously collapse once people aren't pumping it up and someone will be left holding the bag.
I really want to enjoy the story.

But I just don't trust that there's Musk all over this.

Yeah the holding the bag is what I hope regular people don't get sucked into. And that this is not weaponized by online trolls to tank some crazy combination of hedge funds that cause a financial crunch as whatever people have their pensions invested in them are on the hook.

That last part is just a random thought, I have no actual idea what all the investment laws are for things like pensions investing in these funds, but it's crazy enough to be a little worried, because we are in the deepest parts of this pandemic and the worst economy in the last 70 years.

idk, maybe I am just paranoid. I am ready for this shit to be over.
 

HGCC

Well-Known Member
Pensions can't get into hedgefunds. They aren't for the common investor as they can be really risky, the theory behind the rule makes sense in that only people who could afford to have their investments go to zero are allowed in. You need to have at least a million in liquid assets to be allowed to invest.

Mutual funds can't short stocks in the same way a hedge fund can, thats to act as a bit of consumer protection. You dont get the crazy upside, but ideally it also prevents people from losing everything. The mutual fund crowd are just sort of along for the ride and if they had a position in gamestop are selling it to lock in gains.

Individuals buying/selling will be who gets caught. There is also the issue of paper gains vs actual. When they go to sell those super pumped up shares there may not be buyers at that price so it will come down fast.

Edit: lol, man this was a confusing ramble of a post.
 
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HGCC

Well-Known Member
The more I look at this...my boner grows. Its really a case of a bunch of little guys getting together and taking down some rich folks, don't let the reporting sway you. It does bother me as they are exploiting the hell out of a loophole/glitch or whatever you want to call it, and I think that's bad for the overall stock market, but well...that stuff exists. It blows a hole in efficient market theory, which I think is a bogus view.
 

Dryxi

Well-Known Member
The more I look at this...my boner grows. Its really a case of a bunch of little guys getting together and taking down some rich folks, don't let the reporting sway you. It does bother me as they are exploiting the hell out of a loophole/glitch or whatever you want to call it, and I think that's bad for the overall stock market, but well...that stuff exists. It blows a hole in efficient market theory, which I think is a bogus view.
Wallstreet is already calling for more regulation now that short sellers have lost billions thanks to this situation. The president or VP of NASDAQ says they need the SEC to get in on it... since when does NASDAQ ask for more regulation lol
 

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
Wallstreet is already calling for more regulation now that short sellers have lost billions thanks to this situation. The president or VP of NASDAQ says they need the SEC to get in on it... since when does NASDAQ ask for more regulation lol
Shorting a stock and then driving the price down with a parade of bad "news" is OK.

Recognizing a weakness and collaborating with other small investors to smash the play of a hedgie who is doing that. Bad. "For the sake of the free world, put a stop to that!"

45% of Gamestop's stock was tied up in short sale contracts. The hedgies got sloppy and they were massacred. They were ripe for a short squeeze. I've seen similar in other situations. People like that, they that love to talk about taking a risk but angrily demand to be made whole if the risk results in a loss. They will only accept upside risk.
 
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