Recap – Despite a huge gain on Friday, the SPY continued the bullish trend and ended up 1%. The Momentum plays on Friday were BHC and HPE. They finished at +6.55% and 4.37% respectively. If you played these in the after-hours market Friday you should have made out pretty well. Unfortunately, my limit orders were never filled. The Classic UOA picks of SABR and APA collectively did okay. SABR was quite a bit higher in the morning at 11.50 but proceeded to drop for the rest of the day ending at -1%. If you had a reasonable take profit that should have hit. The second pick, APA, ended up 9.77%.
Site update – Economic Calendar has been updated to be more useful. This week I am going to focus heavily on the resources area so be sure to check it out. Eventually it will be a database with the most useful sites both free and paid that could help you to make the best decisions possible. There is also an email subscribe button now (it has yet to be tested).
Here’s the Option Activity Summary for today –
June 8th, 2020 Option Activity Fast Facts (Stocks >$6)
Highest Multiple over Daily Avg (with ADV >5k) – IVR with 11x it’s ADV of 20,489. 202k calls traded and 31k puts.
Ticker with most contracts Traded – GE with 591k contracts traded and 2x it’s ADV of 285k. 462k calls traded and 128k puts.
Largest Put to Call Ratio (w/ Option volume over 10k) – IEF with P/C ratio of 70 and 159 calls and 11k puts.
Largest Call to Put Ratio (w/ Option volume over 10k) – SONO with 33 C/P ratio. 37k calls and 1.1k puts.
1. Ticker : FTCH
Spot Price : $15.58 +1.55, +11.05%
Company Summary (from Yahoo Finance): Farfetch Limited, through its subsidiary, Farfetch.com Limited, provides an online marketplace for luxury goods in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in three segments: Digital Platform, Brand Platform, and In-Store. The company operates Farfetch.com, an online marketplace, as well as Farfetch app for retailers and brands. It also offers web design, build, development, and retail distribution solutions for retailers and brands. In addition, the company operates two Browns retail stores in London; one Stadium Goods retail store in New York; and two New Guards Off-White stores in Las Vegas and New York. Further, it operates approximately 50 New Guards franchised retail stores. Farfetch Limited was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
Special Considerations : None
Next Earnings date: 08/06/2020
Option Information :
Today’s Option Volume : 28,438 Average Daily Volume : 3,433 Multiple over ADV:8
Total Calls : 27,462 Total Puts : 976 C/P Ratio : 28
Calls at ask % : 45 Calls at bid % : 24
Puts at ask % : 11 Puts at bid % : 52
Notable strikes : JUN 19 ’20 $16 strike with 18.7k volume today. Previous OI of 575.
My Impression : FTCH is presenting at the Deutsche Bank dbAccess 17th Global Consumer Conference 2020 June 11th, 2019.It had a large spike today, but has been as high as $16.59. The Calls at ask % looks pretty bullish to me. This is similar to FLEX, BHC, and HPE. This is mostlikely buying the rumor and selling the news. Looks solid to me, I bought shares AHs.
2. Ticker : EVRI
Spot Price : $7.88, +.90, (+12.86%)
Company Summary (from Yahoo Finance): Everi Holdings Inc. provides technology solutions for the casino gaming industry in the United States, Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America, and Asia. The company operates in two segments, Games and FinTech. It offers gaming products, such as classic mechanical reel games, video reel games, core HDX, Empire MPX and the Texan HDX, wide area progressive games, and slot tournament systems; and sells player terminals, licenses, back office systems, and other related equipment. The company also provides Cash access services; Casino Cash Plus 3-in-1 ATM, a cash-dispensing machine that enables ATM cash withdrawals, POS debit card cash access transactions, and credit card cash access transactions; check verification and warranty services; CashClub that provides gaming establishments with a single dashboard interface to streamline credit and debit card cash access transaction processing and check warranty transactions; fully integrated kiosks that provide multiple functions to the casino floor; and other integrated kiosk solutions. In addition, it offers Everi Compliance, a suite of compliance software to assist with anti-money laundering regulations; Central Credit, a gaming patron credit bureau service; non-ATM terminals that perform authorizations for credit card cash access and POS debit card transactions; database services; and an online payment processing solution for gaming operators in states that offer intra-state, and Internet-based gaming and lottery activities. The company was formerly known as Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Everi Holdings Inc. in August 2015. Everi Holdings Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Special Considerations : Earnings 06/02/2020
Next Earnings date: 08/4/2020
Option Information :
Today’s Option Volume : Average Daily Volume : 2,537 Multiple over ADV : 9
Total Calls : 22,837 Total Puts : 293 C/P Ratio : 77
Calls at ask % : 48% Calls at bid % : 24%
Puts at ask % : 11% Puts at bid % : 16%
Notable strikes : JUN 19 ’20 10C with 12.9k vlm and 4.94 OI. 3.28k VLM at the 12.5C same expiry.
My Impression : Calls at ask % looks very bullish. 9x ADV. With the run up of PENN and DKNG I am amazed this fell through the cracks. It’s 52 wk high was $15. I don’t see any news on briefing to warrant the sharp increase.
CLASSIC UNUSUAL OPTIONS ACTIVITY –
Summary : Friday’s picks HPE and BHC ended up pretty well today. Keep in mind, both of these stocks have conferences coming up. BHC has the Goldman Sachs 41st Annual Virtual Global Healthcare Conference June 10th and HPE has the conference tomorrow. Keep this in mind if you held through today. Buying the rumor and selling the news is usually a safe bet.
Regarding the momentum stocks, EVRI and FTCH look solid to me. With the recent run up of gambling stocks EVRI seems all around solid for a shorter-term hold. I bought both EVRI and FTCH in after hours. As for the Classic UOA stocks, I’m not playing either of these but will likely do a call spread on TSLA tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.
DISCLAIMER – These are my observations that I have made at the end of each day and trades that I am considering placing or watching. I am not responsible for your financial losses if you follow any of these trades. As always, do your own due diligence.
​
Edit: If you liked the post please don't forget to upvote and or leave a comment!

Junk bonds are bonds issued by companies with poor credit ratings, such as CCC, as opposed to investment-grade bonds that are issued by companies with a AAA credit rating.

Chronology

• 1946 = Michael Milken is born in Encino, California.
• 1957 = wrote a letter to President Eisenhower saying he wanted to lead the nation into space.
• 1968 = graduated from the University of Berkeley magna cum laude with a degree in finance.
• 1969 = gets married to his high school sweetheart.
• 1970 = receives an MBA from Wharton Business school, according to Milken he had the highest grades ever achieved at the school. Starts working for an investment firm called Drexel that would soon merge and be known as Drexel Burnham.
• 1976 = made $5 million ($23 million in 2020 dollars) from Drexel Burnham.
• 1977 = buys his current home in Encino, California that cost $587,500 (over $2.5 million in 2020 dollars). 7 bedrooms. over 7,000 square feet. Milken and the Drexel Burnham firm began to underwrite junk bonds.
• 1978 = moved his trading desk from New York to his hometown of Los Angeles, bringing about 20 traders with him. Milken stayed on the NYC schedule while in Los Angeles, waking up at 3am and working from 4:30am to 7:30pm.
• 1979 = First Predator's Ball, a financial conference hosted by Milken that continues to the present with over 3,500 people from over 50 nations attending.
• 1981 = by this time, Drexel Burnham is issuing over 60% of junk bonds in America. Milken committed to buy or sell junk bonds that Drexel Burnham had underwritten, offering liquidity and security to the market. This allowed for junk bonds to be more accurately priced and it brought new customers and their money into Milken’s junk bond market.
• 1982 = started the Milken Family Foundation with his brother Lowell Milken as a tax shelter.
• 1986 = There are more companies issuing junk bonds than investment-grade bonds. Drexel Burnham became the leading investment bank in America. Milken made $296 million ($698 million in 2020 dollars) from Drexel Burnham.
• 1987 = made $550 million ($1.25 billion in 2020 dollars) from Drexel Burnham.
• 1988 = Drexel Burnham launches an internal investigation into Milken and uncovers a shadow entity called MacPherson Partners that was engaging in suspicious financial activity. Drexel Burnham pleads guilty to 6 counts of stock parking and stock manipulation. Milken leaves Drexel Burnham to start his own firm.
• 1989 = indicted by Rudy Giuliani and charged with 98 counts of financial crimes which included insider trading, securities fraud, stock parking, and racketeering.
• 1990 = pleads guilty to 6 charges of criminal violation of securities laws and is ordered by the SEC to pay a $200 million fine plus $400 million to defrauded investors. Additional Milken has to pay a civil lawsuit settlement of $500 million to Drexel’s private investors who lost money after his crimes caused the firm to go bankrupt.
• 1992 = his jail sentence is reduced from 10 years to 2 years and Milken is released from prison after serving 22 months. After paying over $1 billion in fines, Milken still has a fortune of $2.5 billion ($4.6 billion in 2020 dollars).
• 1993 = diagnosed with prostate cancer and given 18 months to live. Milken, with the help of his money, beats the odds and his cancer has been in remission for over 25 years. Buys a vacation in Lake Tahoe for $8 million ($14.3 million in 2020 dollars) and then tears down the house and builds a new house.
• 1998 = paid $47 million to settle SEC claims he had violated his lifetime ban from the industry.
• 2009 = Milken buys his daughter an $8.75 million mansion in Beverly Hills.
• 2011 = bought a house in Malibu for $13.75 million.
• 2013 = committed another violation of his lifetime ban from the securities industry by loaning a senior executive at a financial firm $50 million.
• 2014 = George Washington University named its public health school after Milken because of his donation of $50 million.
• 2019 = bought a Beverly Hills Mansion for $19 million cash.

His Crimes

The junk bond scheme:

1. Milken controlled both sides of the deal, he controlled both the lenders and the borrowers.
2. he controlled the lenders because he controlled a huge network of federally insured Savings and Loan banks, reputable insurance companies, and junk bond funds.
3. so Milken would then raise money from his network of lenders to buy junk bonds from a junk company (borrower), with the promise that the junk company will use some of that capital to buy junk bonds from other junk companies (borrowers) in Milken’s junk bond empire. This inflated the demand for the junk bonds.
4. junk bonds yielded Milken a high commission, and Milken would also get equity in the junk companies that he had just financed with capital.

Junk bonds financed corporate raiders, and information about those takeover bids was improperly shared, creating criminal insider trading opportunities.
Milken often tried to get as much as five times the maximum markup on trades that was permitted at the time.
Milken’s friend and business associate, Ivan Boesky:

1. Ivan Boesky’s conviction of insider trading in 1986 is what lead to Milken’s downfall.
2. Milken had substantial business dealings with Boesky.
3. the first lead into Milken’s crimes was a payment of $5.3 million by Ivan Boesky to Drexel Burnham listed as a consultation fee. Boesky told the SEC this payment was for Milken’s profits form an illegal trade.
4. Boesky implicated milked in insider trading, stock manipulation, fraud, and stock parking.

Milken’s shadow entity, MacPherson Partners:

1. Drexel’s internal investigation discovered suspicious activity in one of the limited partnerships Milken had set up to allow members of his department to make their own investments called MacPherson Partners.
2. Members of MacPherson Partners included: Milken, other Drexel Burnham executives, a few high value Drexel Bernham customers, as well as a few managers of money market funds - all friends of Milken.
3. MacPherson Partners acquired several stock warrant)s for the stock of Storer Broadcasting in 1985. At the time, the powerful private equity firm KKR was in the midst of a leveraged buyout of Storer Broadcasting, and Drexel Burnham was the lead underwriter for the bonds being issued.
4. One of Drexel Burnham’s other clients bought several Storer Broadcasting warrants and sold them back to the high-yield bond department (controlled by Milken) at Drexel Burnham.
5. Drexel Burnham’s high-yield bond department in turn sold them to MacPherson Partners (also controlled by Milken).
6. Those warrants were then handed out by Milken to members of his family, and the money managers bought the warrants for themselves without notifying the clients of the funds they were managing.
7. By allowing his wealth fund management friends to buy the warrants, Milken was essentially bribing them so they would in turn help him with his junk bond manipulation.

​

His Trial, Conviction and Sentence

During the trial, Milken spent $3 million a month on his legal defense and an expensive public relations firm.
He ultimately pleaded guilty to 3 counts of securities fraud, 2 counts of tax evasion, and 1 count of conspiracy to commit the other 5 crimes.
Milken was ordered by the court to pay a fine of $200 million and to pay $400 million to defrauded investors.
In a separate civil suit Milken had to pay out an additional $500 million to defrauded investors. Sentenced to 2 years for each of the 5 counts of tax and securities fraud for 10 years total.
When the judge read the sentence, Milken misunderstood and thought he had received 2 years total. After his lawyer told him that he was getting 10 years, the blood drained out of Milken’s face, he took his wife into a witness waiting room, closed the door and let out a blood-curdling scream.

Clemency from President Trump

​
On February 18, 2020 Trump granted clemency to Milken, although his lifetime ban from the securities industry is still in effect.
America’s Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, is longtime pals with Milken, and was the prime mover in convincing President Trump to pardon him. Mnuchin has flown on Milken’s private jet.
Another fat cat advocating for Milken was Nelson Peltz, who has raised over $10 million for Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.
And don’t forget Trump's fattest fat cat, Sheldon Adelson, who also advocated on behalf of Milken.
Many powerful figures in high finance came together to lobby the White House on behalf of Milken, including:

1. Sheldon Adelson: a major Republican donor and Trump supporter, Adelson is the chief executive officer of casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp.
2. David Bahnsen: a former Morgan Stanley managing director and wealth management executive who wrote Trump in 2017 urging him to pardon Milken, calling the junk bond king’s prosecution a result of “a period of class envy run amok.”
3. Tom Barrack: the chief executive officer and chairman of Colony Capital Inc., Barrack is long-time Trump ally. He faced a call from an investor in November to step down in part over distractions from investigations into his political and personal activities.
4. Rupert Murdoch: a powerful media mogul and longtime Trump ally who put the power of News Corp. behind the president.
5. Maria Bartiromo: a popular anchor on Fox Business, Bartiromo has interviewed Milken as recently as 2018 (and has also interviewed Trump). The network is part of Murdoch’s media empire.
6. Ron Burkle: a billionaire investor who controls Yucaipa Cos., Burkle made his fortune in the grocery-store industry. Burkle, a Democratic fund-raiser famous for his friendship with Bill Clinton, made news last year when he was rumored to be interested in acquiring the Trump-friendly National Enquirer.
7. Elaine Chao: the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Chao was a key speaker at the Milken Global Conference last year, where she spoke about the future of mobility as well as women in government. She’s married to Republican Senate Majority Leader and top Trump ally Mitch McConnell.
8. Rudy Giuliani: Trump’s personal lawyer, the former New York mayor has lately been embroiled in the Ukraine scandal. As chief federal prosecutor in New York in the 1980s, Giuliani sought to prosecute Milken.
9. Rabbi Marvin Hier: dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Hier was invited by Trump to speak at his inauguration. The rabbi in 2018 called on Trump to fight extremism in the U.S. after a shooting at a synagogue.
10. Ray Irani: chairman and chief executive officer of Ray Investments Ltd. and former CEO of Occidental Petroleum, Irani stepped down as a board member at Wynn Resorts Ltd. following a sexual harassment scandal involving company founder Steve Wynn.
11. Robert Kraft: owner of the New England Patriots and a longtime Trump supporter.
12. Richard LeFrak: a billionaire developer and Republican donor, LeFrak appeared in a 2010 episode of Trump’s reality TV show “The Apprentice.”
13. Randy Levine: the president of the New York Yankees and a longtime supporter of Republican politicians, including Trump.
14. Kevin McCarthy: a Republican congressman from California, McCarthy is the House Minority Leader and a longtime Trump supporter.
15. Larry Mizel: chairman and CEO of home-builder MDC Holdings Inc.
16. Arte Moreno: owner of the Anaheim Angels, which he purchased from The Walt Disney Co. in 2003
17. Sean Parker: Napster co-creator and Facebook Inc. billionaire who has attended the annual Milken Institute Global Conference.
18. John Paulson: founder and owner of Paulson & Co., a New York-based investment adviser that manages about $9 billion, Paulson is best-known for making $15 billion in 2007 on a bet against mortgage bonds.
19. Nelson Peltz: founder and chief executive officer of Trian Fund Management LP, Peltz is well-known as an activist investor in companies like Wendy’s and Dupont.
20. Steven Roth: chairman and chief executive officer of Vornado Realty Trust, a REIT that holds more than 22 million square feet in commercial property, mainly in New York.
21. David Rubenstein: co-chairman and co-founder of The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm with $222 billion in assets under management.
22. Larry Ruvo: senior managing director of Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada, the state’s largest liquor wholesaler.
23. Marc Stern: the chairman of TCW Group Inc. hosted a $10,000 per person fund-raiser for Trump at his Malibu home in 2018 attended by Vice President Mike Pence.
24. Steven Tananbaum: the founder and chief investment officer of GoldenTree Asset Management LP, one of Wall Street’s biggest investors in distressed debt.
25. Ted Virtue: the chief executive officer of MidOcean Partners, the middle-market private equity and credit firm, who previously oversaw Deutsche Bank AG’s $35 billion direct investment portfolio.
26. Andrew von Eschenbach: a U.S. Food and Drug Administration chief under President George W. Bush, he now serves on the board of Bausch Health Cos.
27. Mark Weinberger: the chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young LLP, Weinberger quit Trump’s business council after the Charlottesville white supremacists rally but later dined with the president.

Conclusion

Milken likes to tell his life story as a smart guy who grew up wanting to be a scientist and lead America in the space race, but after his first year in college the Watts riots happened and it made him rethink his life. After talking with a Black man who told him that he couldn’t get access to capital because he was Black, Milken decided he would dedicate his life to making sure people with ability would have access to capital.
So Milken changed from a science major to finance, went to business school, made $billions on Wall Street all so he could help Black people?
There are plenty of people who in part owe their wealth to Milken and his junk bonds, and these people heap praise on Milken saying he created a lot of wealth in America and helped society tremendously.
The wealth, though, went to those people heaping the praise!
As for the companies Milken financed helping society, it would be difficult to argue that case. The big name companies that were financed by Milken include: CNN, Rupert Murdoch’s empire, Wynn casinos, Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital, etc.
Milken was not helping society, he was helping people on Wall Street get rich.
Government watchdogs are usually too weak to take on the crimes of the super rich, because the government watchdog worker still gets paid whether for not the Wall Street crook gets busted.
There is no incentive to play by the rules.
Milken has done a lot of philanthropic work especially in regards to cancer research with that $2.5 billion he had leftover after getting out of prison, although he hasn’t given away that much money considering his net worth in 2020 is $3.8 billion.
What I find most fascinating about the Milken story is the power of his public relations machine. All the major media outlets cast Milken as a philanthropist and not a criminal.
Another sign of the overwhelming influence of the wealthy on the American zeitgeist.

We'll start with his debt owed to George Soros (the globalist bogeyman for most fans or people who excitedly say Trumptrain!
No other politician in America has gotten as much money directly into their accounts from George Soros than Donald Trump has. The people that call Trump a nationalist and like him for it would never give anyone else a pass or make the excuses for them that they do with our current President.
He said Soros in a tweet once? Cool. But Soros was Trump's oldest business partner in real estate. Hell they both got a RICO suit filed against them for one of their developments.
One of the Trump organization's largest investors outside of Deutsche Bank and possible Russian launderers was Steven Mnuchin's hedge fund Dune Capital. Dune capital of course started as a branch within the Soros fund before being spun off into it's own business with Soros owning 50% stake.
From that time to 2016, with the financing of the DC Trump International Hotel, the company loaned about a quarter of a billion dollars to his various projects. This included the Trump hotels in Chicago, Hawaii, and Las Vegas.
He went default in 2008 on $40 million of those loans that he personally guaranteed. They had action in court for a while and I'll be damned if the same month they settled with him, CNN didn't start putting him on air every time he tweeted about anything.
From that moment on, he appeared on the MSM as a leading story every single week until the primary season for 2016 began. The public was groomed for years for the "rivalry" between Trump and the MSM. This rivalry is the #1 reason Trump fans give for their near zealous support.

4th October 2018
#EARNINGS
Constellation Brands (STZ) Q2 EPS USD 2.87 vs. Exp. USD 2.58, revenue USD 2.30bln vs. Exp. 2.24bln. Q2 comparable EPS USD 2.87, consensus USD 2.60. FY 2019 EPS guidance raised to USD 9.60-9.75 from USD 9.40-9.70. (Newswires)
SYNNEX (SNX) Q3 Adj. EPS USD 2.57 vs. Exp. USD 2.46, revenue USD 4.9bln vs. Exp. USD 4.88bln; sees Q4 Adj. EPS USD 2.90-3.10 vs. Exp. USD 3.07, sees revenue USD 5.2bln-5.4bln vs. Exp. USD 5.36bln. (Newswires)
#DJIA
American Express (AXP) – The credit card provider is planning major changes to its Gold Card to attract millennials with rewards programme, exclusively focusing on food and travel rather than on purchases made at US gas stations. (Newswires)
Apple (AAPL) – The tech behemoth has outreached to some iPhone XS and XS Max users who have suffered from weak LTE connection. It is also being sued by Uniloc, again, over its AirDrop technology. (Newswires)
Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) – The two co.s denied a Bloomberg’s report that their systems contained malicious chips inserted by Chinese intelligence to give Beijing access to internal networks. (Newswires)
Merck (MRK) – The pharma co.’s HIV-1 treating Phase 3 DRIVE-SHIFT trial for drug DELSTRIGO has reached its primary endpoint showing promising results. (Newswires)
Verizon (VZ) – The telecoms co. has sent voluntary severance packages to 44,000 employees, over a quarter of its workforce, in an effort to cut USD 10bln in costs as it upgrades to a 5G network. (Newswires)
Walgreens (WBA) – The drug store giant is ramping up its beauty efforts with a new partnership with Birchbox, a pilot programme will see 11 stores selling Birchbox products as well as the online store. (Newswires)

S&P500

Activision Blizzard (ATVI) – The video-game maker has appointed company veteran J. Allen Brack as its president of Blizzard Entertainment. (Newswires)
Albemarle (ALB) – The chemicals co. will find out next week if Chile’s state government agency Corfo will take the co.’s contract dispute to arbitration. (Newswires)
AT&T (T) – The telecoms co. has announced it plans to implement 5G Evolution in over 400 markets by the year-end, making it available to over 200 million people. (Newswires)
Campbell Soup (CPB) - Third Point seeks the co.’s board records. (Newswires)
CBS (CBS) – The broadcaster confirmed its executive Vincent Favale has been placed on leave as the co. performs an additional review. (Newswires)
Chipotle (CMG) – The restaurant chain has launched a partnership with the esports organisation, TSM. Elsewhere, the co.’s head of food safety, James Marsden, is retiring next year. (Newswires)
Cummins (CMI) – Suzuki is to hold talks with the industrial machinery co. to enter a partnership on engine development. (Newswires)
Eli Lilly (LLY) – The drug maker mid stage trial of its experimental type-2 diabetes drug showed clinically meaningful blood sugar reduction by up to 2.4% and weight loss by approx. 12.7%; according to a statement. (Newswires)
FirstEnergy (FE) – The electric co. has announced a Request for Proposal for the purchase of Solar Renewable Energy Credits and Renewable Energy Credits for its Ohio utilities; helping the co. meet its renewable energy targets. (Newswires)
Garmin (GRMN), Spot (SPOT) – Garmin has announced it will integrate Spotify on its new electronic watches. (Newswires)
General Motors (GM) – Cadillac surpassed Tesla (TSLA) in a new ranking of partial automated vehicles tested by Consumer Reports. The institution compared systems from Cadillac’s Super Cruise and Tesla’s Autopilot with others from Nissan and Geely’s Volvo Car; Nissan’s ProPilot Assist was ranked third and Volvo’s Pilot Assist fourth. (Newswires)
HP (HPQ) – The computer co. announced its FY19 Adj. EPS view at USD 2.12-2.22 vs. Exp. USD 2.17. It also raised its quarterly dividend by 15%. (Newswires)
McKesson (MCK) – Change Healthcare, which MCK has majority ownership, has tapped underwrites for an IPO that could be values as much as USD 12bln. (Newswires)
MGM Resorts (MGM) – The resorts co. has been denied a bid to centralise the lawsuits filed against it by victims of last year’s mass shooting in Las Vegas. (Newswires)
Morgan Stanley (MS) – A federal judge determined that a former black employee, who filed a suit against the bank for exhibiting racial bias, must pursuit his claims in private arbitration. (Newswires)
United Continental (UAL) – No incident was reported after a flight from Los Angeles to Sydney landed as an emergency was triggered by a call caused by low fuel. (Newswires)
V.F.Corp (VFC) – The apparel co. has announced it will sell its Reef brand to The Rockport Group of Newton, Massachusetts, terms not disclosed. (Newswires)

NASDAQ

Comcast (CMCSA) – The broadcaster said it has agreed to buy a 39.1% stake in Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA) for USD 15.10blntaking the co. closer to its finalisation of the USD 40bln takeover of Sky (SKY LN); Comcast has now secured over 75% of Sky’s shares. (Newswires)
Facebook (FB) – The social media giant will now make users wait 30 days to delete their accounts rather than 14. (Newswires)
Semiconductors (MU, AMD, INTC, QCOM, AVGO) – Deutsche Bank is very cautious on semiconductors; states estimates are trimmed on cyclical concerns. (Newswires)
Tesla (TSLA) – BMW (BMW GY) has said that the automaker is increasing competition in the US luxury market. Elsewhere, some board members have recommended FOX (FOXA) CEO, and existing Tesla board member, should take over as CEO from Elon Musk. (Newswires)

OTHER NEWS

Alnylam (ALNY) – The pharma co. announced positive results of its Phase 1/2 study of its primary hyperoxaluria type 1 treating drug Iumasiran. (Newswires)
Avon (AVP) – The cosmetics co.’s former global head of procurement has filed a lawsuit claiming she was fired after revealing she was a high-risk pregnancy. (Newswires)
Barnes & Noble (BKS) – The book store has gained pre-market after it entered a formal review process to discuss strategic alternatives for the co. (Newswires)
Blackstone (BX) – The investment firm is to acquire a leading global life sciences investment firm which has raised USD 2.6bln since founding; terms not disclosed. (Newswires)
Cloudera (CLDR), Hortonworks (HDP) - The two software groups have made pre-market gains on the announcement of a merger, in an all-stock deal. Cloudera shareholders will own 60% of the equity and Hortonworks will own 40%. (Newswires)
Penn National (PENN), Pinnacle Entertainment (PNK) – The casino co. (PENN) has received final regulatory approval for its acquisition of Pinnacle, anticipated to close in mid-October. (Newswires)
Sarepta (SRPT) – The pharma co.’s gene therapy AAVrh74.MHCK7 micro-Dystrophin for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy showed functional improvements across all measures. (Newswires)
Trinity Industries (TRN) – The co. withdraws its FY18 EPS guidance. (Newswires)

Trump shows he doesn’t know how the economy works by thinking he can fix the debt by just printing more money.

• http://heatst.com/politics/just-print-dollars-donald-trump-wants-america-to-be-zimbabwe/
  
• http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/09/politics/donald-trump-national-debt-strategy/
  
• http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ae30974c-13a6-11e6-bb40-c30e3bfcf63b.html#axzz4BbLvmwCV
  

Trump wants to go back to the Gold standard despite warning from economists.

• http://www.npr.org/2016/06/16/482279689/trump-favors-returning-to-the-gold-standard-few-economists-agree

Trump proposes tanking the economy so he could renegotiate the public debt and pay discounted prices to investors of US Treasury bonds.

• http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-treasury-haircut-idea-insane-2016-5
  
• http://www.salon.com/2016/05/10/donald_trump_is_just_this_dumb_he_doesnt_even_know_what_he_doesnt_know_but_his_latest_ignorance_is_breathtaking/
  

Trump proposes plan that would shrink the economy by 2% according to experts.

• http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-deportations-idUSKCN0XW0TP
  
• http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/278818-study-trumps-deportation-plans-would-cost-country
  
• http://www.voanews.com/content/report-trump-deportation-plan-would-shrink-us-economy/3316722.html
  
• http://www.follownews.com/donald-trumps-deportation-plan-could-shrink-economy-by-2-percent-study-finds-17r90
  

Trumps Trade War with China would increase the price of everyday goods and products up to 40% or more.

• http://www.nationalreview.com/article/429510/donald-trump-trade-deficits-china-what-he-doesnt-get

Trumps current spending plan would bankrupt the country.

• http://thefederalist.com/2016/05/02/why-trumps-government-spending-will-destroy-the-economy/

Trumps Tax cuts would add $24.5 trillion to the national debt

• http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/12/23/Trump-s-Tax-Cuts-Would-Add-245-Trillion-Debt

Trump wants a $3.2 trillion tax cut for millionaires.

• http://www.politicususa.com/2016/04/28/donald-trump-tax-plan-scam-exposed-3-2-trillion-tax-cut-millionaires.html

Trump thinks unemployment is really 40% despite the fact that would put the unemployment rate at twice the height it was during the great depression.

• http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-metestatements/2016/feb/11/donald-trump/donald-trump-repeats-pants-fire-claim-unemployment/
  
• http://www.factcheck.org/2016/02/trump-wildly-inflates-unemployment/
  
• http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/09/28/trump_unemployment_rate_as_high_as_40.html
  
• http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-metestatements/2015/sep/30/donald-trump/donald-trump-says-unemployment-rate-may-be-42-perc/
  

Trump lowers his number and thinks unemployment is 20% which is still wrong.

• http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-metestatements/2015/jun/16/donald-trump/donald-trump-says-real-unemployment-rate-18-20-pe

Trump win would tank stock market according to billionaire financial guru.

• http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/16/investing/mark-cuban-stocks-tank-donald-trump/

Trump ranked on the same level as ISIS in terms of causing global economy instability by Economist Intelligence Analysts.

• https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/ma17/president-trump-sixth-list-major-threats-global-economy-republican-trade-eiu

Trumps claim about trade deficit is $200 billion dollars off.

• http://sputniknews.com/us/20160115/1033165617/trump-us-impose-china-tariffs.html

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html

Trump promises to decrease taxes without increasing the national deficit despite the fact that is literally impossible.

• http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-metestatements/2015/nov/05/donald-trump/donald-trumps-false-claim-his-tax-plan-wouldnt-inc/
  
• http://taxfoundation.org/article/details-and-analysis-donald-trump-s-tax-plan
  

Far Right Conservative Think Tanks and Republican professors acknowledge Trumps plan would not only create an economic collapse but a breakdown of basic everyday life.

• https://www.aei.org/publication/donald-trump-flunks-econ-101-when-it-comes-to-international-trade-assignment-watch-a-1978-milton-friedman-video/

Trump declares bankruptcy… Four, Six separate times.

• http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/31/news/companies/donald-trump-bankruptcy
  
• http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-filed-bankruptcy-times/story?id=13419250
  
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trumps-bad-bet-how-too-much-debt-drove-his-biggest-casino-aground/2016/01/18/f67cedc2-9ac8-11e5-8917-653b65c809eb_story.html
  
• http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/04/whats-the-deal-with-donald-trump/309261/
  
• http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/06/donald-trump-companies-bankruptcy-atlantic-city
  
• http://thelawdictionary.org/article/how-is-donald-trump-able-to-file-for-bankruptcy-so-many-times/
  
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconno2011/04/29/fourth-times-a-charm-how-donald-trump-made-bankruptcy-work-for-him/#75049d06f7a6
  
• http://www.ibtimes.com/donald-trump-questioned-his-bankruptcies-279717
  
• http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-metestatements/2016/jun/21/hillary-clinton/yep-donald-trumps-companies-have-declared-bankrupt/
  

Trump $3 billion dollars in debt in 1991.

• http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/nyregion/donald-trump-atlantic-city.html?_r=0

Trumps Entertainment Resorts are forced to declare bankruptcy. Trump lies and claims “I have nothing to do with the company,”

• http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2068227_2068229_2068237,00.html

Trumps Casinos were failures.

• http://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-casinos-were-failures-2016-6

Trump refuses to pay back wages to his wife's personal assistant unless he signed a non-disclosure agreement.

• https://casetext.com/case/jones-v-maplestrump

Trump accused of illegally withholding checks from employees.

• https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160307/soho/trump-soho-hotel-stiffed-caterers-out-of-tips-lawsuit-charges

Trump hires illegal workers and pays them below minimum wage.

• http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/nyregion/after-15-years-in-court-workers-lawsuit-against-trump-faces-yet-another-delay.html?pagewanted=all

Trump accused of engaging in incidents of physical assault, verbal abuse, intimidation, and threats of physical harm towards workers to suppress unions.

• http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/10/19/trump-hotel-las-vegas-takes-unions-to-court.htm
  
• http://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-long-trail-of-litigation-1457891191
  

British Human Rights Journalist says conditions for workers at Trumps Dubai Golf course are “The worst I have ever seen”

• http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/watch-vice-reveals-horrific-living-conditions-for-migrants-building-trump-dubai-golf-course/

Trump tries to start his own Mortgage company right before the housing bubble crash and fails.

• http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/04/whats-the-deal-with-donald-trump/309261/
  
• http://www.unionleader.com/Trump-The-loser-Donalds-decades-of-failure
  

Trump tries to start his own airline and in three years never turns a profit.

• http://fortune.com/2015/07/06/failed-trump-businesses/
  
• http://time.com/money/3923629/donald-trump-name-business-failures/
  

Trump tries to make his own monopoly ripoff, twice. Predicted 2 million units sold. It gets no where near that and fails.

• http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-board-game-milton-bradley-2015-8
  
• http://time.com/3988970/donald-trump-business/
  

Trump tries to make his own Vodka line. He promises it will beat Grey Goose and it fails.

• http://gawker.com/a-complete-list-of-donald-trump-s-business-disasters-1764151188
  
• http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/donald-trumps-13-biggest-business-failures-20160314
  
• https://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2016/02/16/donald-trumps-record-of-business-failures-and-bluste
  

Trump tries to make his own steak line. It’s discontinued due to poor sales and he fails.

• http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/03/04/3756135/trump-steaks-a-definitive-history/
  
• http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/history-donald-trump-business-failures-article-1.2526913
  

Trump tries to start his own magazine, it fails.

• http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/remembering-failed-wealth-porn-trump-magazine-article-1.2528638

Trump tries to start his own travel site, it fails.

• http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/pictures/the-many-business-failures-of-donald-trump-20110511/gotrump-com-0978622

Trump tries to make a Tour De France rival called Tour de Trump that fails.

• http://deadspin.com/remembering-the-tour-de-trump-donald-trumps-failed-bik-1735454622
  
• http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/05/sports/what-s-in-a-name-it-s-tour-de-trump.html
  

Trump tries to make his own football league it fails, he loses $30 million dollars. Then he tries to sue the NFL for $1.7 billion.

• http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432826/donald-trump-scandals-business-failures-roundup

Trump starts his own line of vitamins, consumer watchdog groups and health experts label it as a scam. It also fails.

• http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/25/inside-donald-trump-s-vitamin-scam.html
  
• https://www.statnews.com/2016/03/02/donald-trump-vitamin-company/
  
• http://nymag.com/news/business/70831/
  

Trump somehow thinks ISIS has become competition against him in the real estate industry after falsely believing they started building their own Hotels.

• http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-metestatements/2015/jun/16/donald-trump/donald-trump-isis-built-hotel-syria/
  
• http://journalistnote.info/2016/03/donald-trump-isis-built-a-hotel-in-syria/
  

Hundreds claim Trump refused to pay bills.

• http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/
  
• http://talk.baltimoresun.com/topic/272022-hundreds-allege-donald-trump-doesn%E2%80%99t-pay-his-bills/
  
• http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hundreds-claim-donald-trump-doesn-t-pay-his-bills-n589261
  
• https://politicalwire.com/2016/06/09/hundred-allege-trump-doesnt-pay-his-bills/
  
• http://www.drudge.com/news/199888/hundreds-allege-trump-doesnt-pay-his-bills
  

When asked about his companies regularly violating the Fair Labor Standards Act Trump says, “That’s the way it should be.”

• http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/10/politics/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-reports/

Trump defrauds students through scam university.

• http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/trump-university/485060/
  
• http://www.nationalreview.com/corne432010/trump-university-scam
  
• http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/29/politics/trump-university-fraud-claims/
  
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checkewp/2016/02/29/a-trio-of-truthful-attack-ads-about-trump-university/
  

Trump makes racist comments about Judge in the class action lawsuit involving said scam university.

• http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/article/2016/jun/08/donald-trumps-racial-comments-about-judge-trump-un/
  
• http://www.marketwatch.com/story/paul-ryan-rips-donald-trumps-racist-comment-on-judge-in-trump-university-case-2016-06-07
  
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/03/jake-tapper-asked-donald-trump-if-his-judge-attack-was-racist-then-followed-up-23-times/
  

Trump takes a $40 million dollar loan from Deutsche Bank and when they ask him to repay the loan he refuses and sues them for $3 billion dollars.

• http://www.wsj.com/articles/when-donald-trump-needs-a-loan-he-chooses-deutsche-bank-1458379806
  
• http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-sued-bank-40m-debt-housing-crash-article-1.2648758
  
• http://www.dialoginternational.com/dialog_international/2016/03/fraud-as-business-model-donald-trump-and-deutsche-bank.html
  

Trumps daughter recalls story during her childhood when Trump pointed at a homeless man saying he was 4 billion dollars richer than him because, “that’s how much debt I’m in.”

• https://mic.com/articles/136534/john-oliver-finally-took-down-donald-trump-uncovered-the-trumps-dirty-little-secret#.0CX21YZJG
  
• http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-on-the-lowest-point-in-his-career-2011-7
  

Trump Bribes corrupt government officials to seize elderly woman’s house using eminent domain to get more Limo Parking Space.

• https://reason.com/blog/2015/10/07/donald-trumps-shameful-eminent-domain-ab
  
• http://www.policestateusa.com/2015/donald-trump-vera-coking/
  
• http://www.ij.org/casino-reinvestment-development-authority-v-coking
  

Trump tried to use eminent domain to steal the house of a Holocaust survivor.

• http://www.ij.org/case/atlantic-city-eminent-domain/

Trump uses slumlord tactics of hiring thugs to physically intimidate tenants.

• http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/28/news/trump-apartment-tenants/

Trump retaliates against tenant for filing complaint by drilling holes in her ceiling and filling her apartment with construction dust. (Tenant later dies of lung cancer.)

• http://usuncut.com/politics/donald-trump-abused-tenants/

Trump picked stock fraud felon as senior adviser.

• http://bigstory.ap.org/article/29c255c0b69a48258ecae69a61612537/trump-picked-stock-fraud-felon-senior-adviser
  
• http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/12/04/misconduct-allegations-follow-trump-associate-with-mob-past
  

Trump brand used to swindles buyers out of life savings through fraud in failed Condo project.

• http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/buyers-still-feel-burned-by-donald-trump-after-tampa-condo-tower-failure/2239499
  
• http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/nyregion/feeling-deceived-over-homes-that-were-trump-in-name-only.html
  

Trump named in over 3,500 lawsuits.

• http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/01/donald-trump-lawsuits-legal-battles/84995854/

Trump uses bribery and secret financing to circumvent state law and stop competitors.

• http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/06/nyregion/trump-and-others-accept-fines-for-ads-in-opposition-to-casinos.html
  
• http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/trump-250g-fine-lobbying-article-1.885295
  

Trump is fined 200,000$ in 1992 by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement for not allowing blacks or women onto his casino floor while racist Mafia leader is gambling.

• https://web.archive.org/web/20121115053737/http://www.tdbimg.com/files/2011/05/26/-trump—barrett-book—supplemental-report-12-1992-6_165247103386.pdf

Trump tries to violate Antitrust regulations through purgery and identity theft to steal two separate companies.

• http://articles.philly.com/1986-12-06/news/26071103_1_bally-stock-bally-manufacturing-marvin-roffman
  
• http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1988/Trump-Agrees-To-Pay-$750-000-Penalty-To-Settle-Antitrust-Lawsuit/id-54ea0dc590fc97d9e9e86c65336649a1
  

Court case implicated Trump in fraud, money-laundering, conspiracy, perjury and the theft of trade secrets.

• http://articles.philly.com/2000-03-12/news/25604405_1_donald-trump-trump-hotel-private-investigator

Trump violates federal gambling laws.

• http://articles.philly.com/1991-04-09/news/25780577_1_casino-control-act-donald-trump-casino-owners

Trump outright commits tax evasion.

• http://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/061516/new-evidence-trump-didnt-pay-taxes.asp
  
• http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/ma12/donald-trump-briarcliff-manor-golf-course-tax
  
• http://www.lohud.com/story/news/2015/09/03/trump-seeks-90-percent-tax-cut-briarcliff-golf-club/71520582/
  
• http://www.redstate.com/sweetie15/2016/05/19/trumps-long-list-tax-troubles/
  
• http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/time-donald-trump-undersells-tax-time/story?id=39133709
  
• http://anonhq.com/breaking-abc-news-fingers-donald-trump-massive-tax-evasion-scandal/
  
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanellis/2016/03/08/donald-trump-and-the-empty-jewelry-box-tax-scam/#720f5d106aa7
  
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/25/exclusive-donald-trump-signed-off-deal-designed-to-deprive-us-of/
  
• http://www.mediaite.com/print/old-donald-trump-tax-returns-show-he-paid-zero-taxes-for-at-least-two-years/
  

Trump commits felony and lies to the Securities and Exchange Commission about company earnings with the hope of cheating taxes.

• http://money.cnn.com/2002/01/16/news/sec_trump/
  
• http://www.sec.gov/news/headlines/trumphotels.htm
  
• http://fortune.com/2016/03/14/donald-trump-sec/
  

Trump steals over $300,000 from worker pensions.

• http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/deal-sealed-trump-tower-suit-article-1.834028

Trump hires Illegal Immigrants over U.S citizens.

• http://www.dailywire.com/news/3725/did-donald-trump-use-illegal-labor-yup-michael-qazvini
  
• https://www.ijreview.com/2016/02/546532-donald-trump-turned-down-hundreds-of-american-workers-and-hired-immigrants-instead/
  

Trump hires Illegal Immigrants again but this time defrauds them of pay.

• http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/realestate/fifth-avenue-bonwit-teller-opulence-lost.html
  
• http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/donald-says-controversy-over-his-tower-was-trumped-n397821
  
• http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/02/25/details_on_the_donald_trump_polish_worker_lawsuit.html
  
• http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence2016/02/rubio-google-trump-and-polish-workers.html
  

Trumps makes majority of products in China.

• http://www.factcheck.org/2016/05/trumps-made-in-the-u-s-a-spin/

Not even Trumps Make America Great Again Hats are made in America.

• http://fortune.com/2016/07/08/make-america-great-again-hats-trump/

Trump violates immigration laws by sneaking Illegal Immigrants into the U.S for modeling jobs then refuses to pay them.

• http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/10/news/trump-model-visas/
  
• http://pix11.com/2015/09/11/as-his-popularity-over-immigration-issues-grows-donald-trumps-court-case-involving-immigration-and-fashion-models-lingers/
  

Trump hires a financial analyst to gauge his Taj Mahal Casino project, the analyst says that the project would fail by the end of that year. Trump sues the analyst demanding he says it will succeed. By the end of the year the Casino declares bankruptcy.

• http://www.barrons.com/articles/donald-trumps-1990-campaign-against-a-securities-analyst-1444451156
  
• http://articles.philly.com/1991-10-04/business/25813811_1_donald-trump-taj-marvin-b-roffman
  

Trump sues small travel agency founded in 1985 for coincidentally sharing his name.

• http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/donald-trump-bully-sued-tiny-travel-agency-article-1.2641738

Trump sues small Georgia business for making “Trump Cards” in 1988 despite the fact they weren’t even referencing his name.

• http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/the-trump-files-trump-cards

Trump sues a small Indian restaurant for sharing the name of one of his Casinos. That restaurants name? “The Taj Mahal”

• http://articles.philly.com/1996-03-08/news/25635573_1_shah-jahan-trump-palace-favorite-wife

Trump sues union when they reveal that Trump doesn’t even stay in his own hotels.

• http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/10/19/trump-hotel-las-vegas-takes-unions-to-court.htm

Trump tries to sell the Empire State Building despite not owning it. He then sues the real owner in retaliation.

• http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/31/nyregion/helmsley-countersuit-against-trump-alleges-conspiracy-big-empire-state.html
  
• http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1995-02-18/news/9502180382_1_leona-helmsley-donald-trump-john-scanlon
  

Author Timothy O’Brien calls Trump a millionaire instead of a billionaire. Trump responds by suing him for $5 billion dollars. O’Brien gets to court and is able to prove Trump had been lying about his net worth and was in reality worth between $150 and $250 million.

• http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/donald-trump-loses-libel-lawsuit-232923 http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=8100467
  
• http://www.nationalreview.com/article/431575/donald-trump-tim-obrien-courtroom-story
  

Comedian, Bill Maher responds to Trumps demands for Obama to release his birth certificate to prove he was born in America saying Trump should release his to prove his mother had not mated with an orangutan. Trump responds by suing Bill Maher for 5 million dollars.

Later when asked if Trump knew Maher was joking and didn’t actually think Trump was the product of bestiality Trumps responds with “I don’t think he was joking. He said it with venom.”
(I just want everyone reading this to take a moment and wonder how people would react if Hillary tried to take away a comedians free speech and make them pay her millions over making a joke about her)

• http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/06/showbiz/trump-bill-maher-suit/
  
• http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/donald-trump-to-sue-bill-maher-after-bet-feud-087125
  
• http://newsone.com/2184315/donald-trump-sues-bill-mahe
  

Trump sues employee for quitting.

• http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/donald-trump-lawsuit-against-chef-jose-andres-washington-120873

Trump threatens to sue artist after his supporters find where she lives, stalks and attacks her because she made a painting of him with a small penis.

• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/donald-trump-nude-picture-small-penis-illma-gore-lawsuit-a6988111.html#commentsDiv
  
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3545115/LA-artist-1m-Trump-micropenis-painting-said-threatened-legal-team.html
  

News outlet threatened with lawsuit over writing story about Trumps hair plugs.

• http://theweek.com/speedreads/630265/gawker-threatened-lawsuit-over-story-donald-trumps-hair

Donald Trump committed felony Obstruction of justice by destroying thousands of emails subpoenaed by a federal judge during legal hearings against Trump.

• http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/13/trump-accused-destroying-email-evidence-lawsuit-10-years-ago-republican-hillary-president/85795082/

Trump outright committed tax evasion.

• http://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/061516/new-evidence-trump-didnt-pay-taxes.asp
  
• http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/ma12/donald-trump-briarcliff-manor-golf-course-tax
  
• http://www.lohud.com/story/news/2015/09/03/trump-seeks-90-percent-tax-cut-briarcliff-golf-club/71520582/
  
• http://www.redstate.com/sweetie15/2016/05/19/trumps-long-list-tax-troubles/
  
• http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/time-donald-trump-undersells-tax-time/story?id=39133709
  
• http://anonhq.com/breaking-abc-news-fingers-donald-trump-massive-tax-evasion-scandal/
  
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanellis/2016/03/08/donald-trump-and-the-empty-jewelry-box-tax-scam/#720f5d106aa7
  
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/25/exclusive-donald-trump-signed-off-deal-designed-to-deprive-us-of/
  
• http://www.mediaite.com/print/old-donald-trump-tax-returns-show-he-paid-zero-taxes-for-at-least-two-years/
  

Trump committed felony and lied to the Securities and Exchange Commission about company earnings

• http://money.cnn.com/2002/01/16/news/sec_trump/
  
• http://www.sec.gov/news/headlines/trumphotels.htm
  
• http://fortune.com/2016/03/14/donald-trump-sec/
  

Trump solicited campaign donations from foreign elected officials in Iceland and Scotland, a violation of FEC guidelines and federal law.

• http://fusion.net/story/319256/trump-emails-scotland-campaign-finance/
  
• http://grapevine.is/news/2016/06/22/donald-trump-asking-icelandic-mps-for-donations/
  

Trump is found to have connections to organized crime.

• https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-challenged-over-ties-to-mob-linked-gambler-100050602.html
  
• http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/31/politics/trump-mob-mafia/
  
• http://www.nationalmemo.com/21-questions-for-donald-trump/
  
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trump-swam-in-mob-infested-waters-in-early-years-as-an-nyc-develope2015/10/16/3c75b918-60a3-11e5-b38e-06883aacba64_story.html
  
• http://www.state.nj.us/sci/pdf/ocbars2.pdf
  

Trump was fined 200,000$ in 1992 by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement for not allowing blacks or women onto his casino floor while racist Mafia leader and personal friend of Trump was gambling.

• https://web.archive.org/web/20121115053737/http://www.tdbimg.com/files/2011/05/26/-trump—barrett-book—supplemental-report-12-1992-6_165247103386.pdf

Trump stole over $300,000 from worker pensions.

• http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/deal-sealed-trump-tower-suit-article-1.834028

Trump illegally withheld checks from employees.

• https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160307/soho/trump-soho-hotel-stiffed-caterers-out-of-tips-lawsuit-charges

Trump engaged in incidents of physical assault, verbal abuse, intimidation, and threats of physical harm towards workers to suppress unions.

• http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/10/19/trump-hotel-las-vegas-takes-unions-to-court.htm
  
• http://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-long-trail-of-litigation-1457891191
  

Trump bribed corrupt government officials to seize elderly woman’s house using eminent domain to get more Limo Parking Space.

• https://reason.com/blog/2015/10/07/donald-trumps-shameful-eminent-domain-ab
  
• http://www.policestateusa.com/2015/donald-trump-vera-coking/
  
• http://www.ij.org/casino-reinvestment-development-authority-v-coking
  

Trump uses previously mentioned tactic to steal the house of a Holocaust survivor.

• http://www.ij.org/case/atlantic-city-eminent-domain/

Trump used slumlord tactics of hiring thugs to physically intimidate tenants.

• http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/28/news/trump-apartment-tenants/

Trump retaliated against tenant for filing complaint by drilling holes in her ceiling and filling her apartment with construction dust. (Tenant later died of lung cancer.)

• http://usuncut.com/politics/donald-trump-abused-tenants/

Trump picked stock fraud felon as senior adviser.

• http://bigstory.ap.org/article/29c255c0b69a48258ecae69a61612537/trump-picked-stock-fraud-felon-senior-adviser

Trump takes a $40 million dollar loan from Deutsche Bank and when they ask him to repay the loan he refuses and sues them for $3 billion dollars.

• http://www.wsj.com/articles/when-donald-trump-needs-a-loan-he-chooses-deutsche-bank-1458379806
  
• http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-sued-bank-40m-debt-housing-crash-article-1.2648758
  
• http://www.dialoginternational.com/dialog_international/2016/03/fraud-as-business-model-donald-trump-and-deutsche-bank.html
  

Trump brand used to swindles buyers out of life savings through fraud in failed Condo project.

• http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/buyers-still-feel-burned-by-donald-trump-after-tampa-condo-tower-failure/2239499
  
• http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/nyregion/feeling-deceived-over-homes-that-were-trump-in-name-only.html
  

Trump tried to violate Antitrust regulations through purgery and identity theft to steal two separate companies.

• http://articles.philly.com/1986-12-06/news/26071103_1_bally-stock-bally-manufacturing-marvin-roffman
  
• http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1988/Trump-Agrees-To-Pay-$750-000-Penalty-To-Settle-Antitrust-Lawsuit/id-54ea0dc590fc97d9e9e86c65336649a1
  

Trump hires Illegal Immigrants and defrauds them of pay.

• http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/realestate/fifth-avenue-bonwit-teller-opulence-lost.html
  
• http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/donald-says-controversy-over-his-tower-was-trumped-n397821
  
• http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/02/25/details_on_the_donald_trump_polish_worker_lawsuit.html
  
• http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence2016/02/rubio-google-trump-and-polish-workers.html
  

Trump violates immigration laws by sneaking Illegal Immigrants into the U.S for modeling jobs then refuses to pay them. (This is a separate incident then the one mentioned above by the way.)

• http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/10/news/trump-model-visas/
  
• http://pix11.com/2015/09/11/as-his-popularity-over-immigration-issues-grows-donald-trumps-court-case-involving-immigration-and-fashion-models-lingers/
  

Trump uses bribery and secret financing to circumvent state law and stop competitors.

• http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/06/nyregion/trump-and-others-accept-fines-for-ads-in-opposition-to-casinos.html
  
• http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/trump-250g-fine-lobbying-article-1.885295
  

Court case implicated Trump in fraud, money-laundering, conspiracy, perjury and the theft of trade secrets.

• http://articles.philly.com/2000-03-12/news/25604405_1_donald-trump-trump-hotel-private-investigator

Trump violates federal gambling laws.

• http://articles.philly.com/1991-04-09/news/25780577_1_casino-control-act-donald-trump-casino-owners

Trump is accused of rape by his ex-wife.

• http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/638063/Donald-Trump-rape-ex-wife-Ivana-plastic-surgery-operation-documentary
  
• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/donald-trump-ex-wife-claim-he-raped-her-resurfaces-in-new-documentary-a6836151.html
  
• http://gawker.com/the-time-donald-trumps-ex-wife-accused-him-of-brutally-1721129617
  
• https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/he-raped-me-when-donald-trump-was-accused-of-sexual-assault?utm_source=vnfbus
  

Trump is accused of rape or sexual assault by numerous women over several decades. (This includes a case where a 13 year old accuses Trump of raping her while he was at a party hosted by personal friend of Trump and now convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein)

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3578088/Dark-tales-molesting-beauty-queens-raping-ex-wife-Claims-racism-cosying-mafia-gets-closer-White-House-TRUMP-stripped-bare.html
  
• http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/donald-trump-accused-rape-woman-7858242#rJUj9YEHx7x9Hf8m.97
  
• http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/donald-trump-denies-rape-teenage-7857357
  
• https://www.mrconservative.com/2016/04/72311-breaking-trump-accused-of-raping-13-year-old-girl/
  
• http://www.inquisitr.com/3044556/donald-trump-rape-lawsuit-claims-trump-forced-12-and-13-year-old-girls-to-peform-oral-sex-on-him/
  
• http://www.redstate.com/sweetie15/2016/04/29/donald-trump-named-lawsuit-alleging-rape-teen-girl/
  
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3546047/Beauty-pageant-organizer-accused-Trump-unwanted-fondling-contestant-claimed-said-women-bimbos.html
  
• http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/gossip/harassment-suit-trumped-article-1.764918
  

Woman claims Trump tried to rape her her and told her he wanted to, “Make her his sex slave.” Afterwards Trump ruins her and her husband financially.

• http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/gossip/harassment-suit-trumped-article-1.764918
  
• http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/03/07/donald-trump-has-a-125-million-sexual-assault-lawsuit-that-he-didnt-want-you-to-know-about/
  

Multiple women working on Trump campaign file complaints with Civil Rights Commission against Trump for sexual harassment or sexual discrimination.

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/01/31/donald-trump-denies-allegations-of-gender-based-discrimination-from-former-employee/

Pageant Contestants claims Trump sexually assaulted her.

• http://www.newser.com/story/225129/donald-trump-kissed-pageant-contestants-on-the-mouth.html

Trump investigated in felony criminal charges for bribery.

• http://dcgazette.com/2016/donald-trump-facing-criminal-charges-bribing-ben-carson-here-are-the-details/
  
• http://www.politicususa.com/2016/04/01/trump-facing-criminal-investigation-illegal-job-offer-ben-carson.html
  
• http://deadstate.org/donald-trump-could-face-felony-charges-after-allegedly-bribing-ben-carson-for-endorsement/
  
• http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2016/04/trump-facing-criminal-charges-for-bribing-carson-for-endorsement/
  

North Carolina Authorities considered prosecuting Trump over charges of inciting a riot.

• http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/272923-authorities-consider-charging-trump-with-inciting
  
• http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/15/how-donald-trump-could-go-to-jail-for-inciting-a-riot.html
  
• http://variety.com/2016/biz/news/donald-trump-riot-charges-police-1201729567/
  
• http://theweek.com/speedreads/612640/donald-trump-could-charged-inciting-riot
  
• http://www.cbsnews.com/news/n-c-sheriff-considers-inciting-a-riot-charge-against-trump/
  

Trump violated civil rights act by refusing to rent homes to black people.

• http://www.nytimes.com/times-inside2015/07/30/1973-meet-donald-trump/
  
• http://new.www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/29/donald-trump-blacks-lawsuit_n_855553.html
  
• http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/15/doj-trump-s-early-businesses-blocked-blacks.html
  

Trump named in over 170 federal lawsuits and criminal court cases.

• http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/we-investigated-donald-trump-is-named-in-at-least-169-federal-lawsuits/

I'm sure I missed a ton of examples if anyone else has any more for me to add just make a comment about it.

31 December 2015
Directed by Adam McKay; screenplay by McKay and Charles Randolph, based on the book by Michael Lewis
Adam McKay’s new film The Big Short is a hard-hitting comedy-drama about the historic collapse of the US housing bubble in 2008.
Based on Michael Lewis’s book, The Big Short: Inside The Doomsday Machine (2010), the film offers a picture of rampant criminality on the part of the financial establishment and its government co-conspirators who, while systematically looting the American economy, created a financial disaster.
The calamity was further deepened by the use of hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to bail out the biggest Wall Street firms. For millions of people in the US and around the world, the 2008 collapse was a social tragedy from which there has been no meaningful recovery. Yet, as The Big Short points out, the bankers and speculators––who ought to be sitting in prison––are richer and more powerful today than ever.
McKay’s The Big Short centers on a number of Wall Street “outliers” who, despite the efforts of the banks, government regulators and media lackeys, uncover the truth about the explosive market for bonds based on subprime mortgages: that the latter are “junk” and a rotten foundation for an economic boom.
The film takes the form of a series of vignettes involving these figures, a number of whose paths cross at critical moments.
Bankers, The Big Short’s narrator (Ryan Gosling) explains at the outset, were once perceived as staid and conservative. Now, as the trade in mortgage-backed securities mushrooms and a vast housing bubble develops, they have gone “from the country club to the strip club,” a function of the degree of parasitism and degeneracy in the system.
Christian Bale plays the real-life San Jose, California neurosurgeon-turned-money manager Michael Burry, who sports a glass eye and has a penchant for heavy metal. With a manic focus, he spends the end of 2004 and early 2005 scanning hundreds of home loans that are packaged into mortgage bonds, eventually discovering an alarming pattern. As opposed to the prevailing wisdom that “the housing market is rock solid,” Burry comes to believe it is a flimsy house of cards.
Burry approaches Goldman Sachs, seeking to purchase hundreds of millions of dollars in credit default swaps (a form of insurance against a loan default or other credit event) that amount to a bet against the housing market. His hedge fund’s owners and investors are apoplectic, but the eccentric, anti-social Burry is convinced that patience is the key as he waits for the bottom to drop out and his assumptions to pay off. (According to Lewis’s book, Burry explained, “I’m not making a bet against a bond, I’m making a bet against a system.”)
He admonishes his skeptics: “[Federal Reserve Chairman] Alan Greenspan assures us that home prices are not prone to bubbles––or major deflations––on any national scale. This is ridiculous, of course…. In 1933, during the fourth year of the Great Depression, the United States found itself in the midst of a housing crisis that put housing starts at 10 percent of the level of 1925. Roughly half of all mortgage debt was in default. During the 1930s, housing prices collapsed nationwide by roughly 80 percent.”
Jared “Chicken Little” Vennett (Gosling, playing a fictionalized Greg Lippman), a Deutsche Bank subprime mortgage bond manager, gets wind of Burry’s astonishing gamble. Vennett, slick, sleazy and smart, crunches the numbers and sees a potential gold mine.
Vennett solicits financial backing from Wall Street-bashing Mark Baum (Steve Carell, based on Steve Eisman), head of FrontPoint Partners, a unit of Morgan Stanley. Vennett explains the certainty of a housing catastrophe. The irascible Baum, who continues to suffer from his brother’s suicide, is chronically appalled by the banks’ shenanigans.
To investigate Vennett’s claims, Baum sends his colleagues to a subdivision in Florida, where they discover homes in foreclosure, delinquent mortgages that were purchased in the name of family pets, and a stripper who owns several properties—all with adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs)—and was told that continuous refinancing would always work in her favor. In one abandoned south Florida home, an alligator has taken over the swimming pool. One of Baum’s associates says, “It’s like Chernobyl.”
Baum also talks to cocky young mortgage brokers who inform him, with a laugh, that they have made millions selling subprime mortgages to poor people and immigrants. He subsequently meets with a Standard & Poor’s representative (Melissa Leo), who tells Baum she has to rate all the banks’ financial vehicles at AAA (the top rate) to keep their business.
Another of The Big Shor t’s plot strands involves young, inexperienced money managers, Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) and Charlie Geller (John Magaro), who parlay $110,000 of their own money into a $30 million fund. Also seeing the writing on the wall for the housing market, they enlist the help of retired guru/trader and drop-out Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt, based on Ben Hockett), whose connections help them secure an agreement enabling them to work directly with the banks.
The filmmakers intersperse the narrative with comic interludes featuring what they call “celebrity explainers,” brought in to help make the complicated terminology comprehensible. In the movie’s production notes, director McKay elaborates: “Bankers do everything they can to make these transactions seem really complicated, so we came up with the idea of having celebrities pop up on the screen throughout the movie and explain things directly to the audience.”
Sipping champagne in a bubble bath, actress Margot Robbie discusses mortgage-backed securities, while chef Anthony Bourdain compares a “toxic financial asset” to a seafood stew. (McKay recruited Bourdain after reading the latter’s recommendation that no one should “order seafood stew because it’s where cooks put all the crap they couldn’t sell.”
The director goes on, “I thought, ‘Oh my God that’s a perfect metaphor for a collateralized debt obligation, where the banks bundle a bunch of bad mortgages and sell it as a triple-A rated financial product.’”)
Economist Dr. Richard Thaler and actress Selena Gomez take part in a casino sequence to demonstrate how synthetic Credit Default Obligations (CDOs)––essentially groups of bad mortgages bundled together to hide the real likelihood of default––are the means of arranging numerous layers of speculation. Says McKay: “It was investors making those kinds of side bets on mortgage-backed securities through CDOs that drove the whole world economy to where it was poised to crash.”
The film’s tipping point comes when Vennett convinces Baum to attend the American Securities Forum in Las Vegas, an event whose out of control goings-on prove to the latter that the housing market is a gigantic Ponzi scheme.
The vindication of the nay-sayers is delayed when the housing market begins to collapse, but the value of the CDOs remains steady. Only then do the protagonists realize that the banks are concealing the toxicity of their holdings on a massive scale.
As the meltdown approaches, the mood of The Big Short markedly darkens. Baum starts to believe the “party’s over” and that “the world economy will collapse.” He is convinced the bankers “are crooks and should be in jail.”
This is effectively highlighted by a scene where Baum debates a representative of Bear Stearns. The latter sings the praises of the housing market even as the firm’s stock price falls off the cliff.
The Big Short’s approach to the run-up to one of the greatest financial crises in history, despite its comic-absurdist mode, is a serious one. The filmmakers do their best to bring this crisis and its human dimensions to life.
The film touches upon the systemic and far-reaching character of the 2008 crash. McKay and his collaborators are obviously appalled by its outcome and consequences, and even invent an alternative scenario in which the bankers responsible for the crash are jailed and the banks become regulated. They point the finger at not only those who issued the mortgages, but those who sliced and diced them into rotten products and the credit agencies that gave them top ratings. They conclude that the financial establishment made super profits through the immiseration of the population. The various actors, as clearly demonstrated by their performances, were fully committed to the project.
Of course, dramatizing something as complex as the 2008 financial collapse is an immense undertaking, involving a mass of historical and social questions. The Big Short’s makers have chosen one means of treating it. This film is clearly not the final word. While McKay and the others involved obviously feel sympathy for those devastated by the crisis, the mass of the population is largely absent. Their attitude to capitalism is a critical one, but they are not opponents of the profit system.
However, at a time when most filmmakers seem obsessed with gender, sexuality and race (and themselves), McKay and the others have chosen to treat—and treat trenchantly—one of the critical events in recent times. Genuine credit is due them.
http://xenagoguevicene.livejournal.com/73346.html

31 December 2015
Directed by Adam McKay; screenplay by McKay and Charles Randolph, based on the book by Michael Lewis
Adam McKay’s new film The Big Short is a hard-hitting comedy-drama about the historic collapse of the US housing bubble in 2008.
Based on Michael Lewis’s book, The Big Short: Inside The Doomsday Machine (2010), the film offers a picture of rampant criminality on the part of the financial establishment and its government co-conspirators who, while systematically looting the American economy, created a financial disaster.
The calamity was further deepened by the use of hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to bail out the biggest Wall Street firms. For millions of people in the US and around the world, the 2008 collapse was a social tragedy from which there has been no meaningful recovery. Yet, as The Big Short points out, the bankers and speculators––who ought to be sitting in prison––are richer and more powerful today than ever.
McKay’s The Big Short centers on a number of Wall Street “outliers” who, despite the efforts of the banks, government regulators and media lackeys, uncover the truth about the explosive market for bonds based on subprime mortgages: that the latter are “junk” and a rotten foundation for an economic boom.
The film takes the form of a series of vignettes involving these figures, a number of whose paths cross at critical moments.
Bankers, The Big Short’s narrator (Ryan Gosling) explains at the outset, were once perceived as staid and conservative. Now, as the trade in mortgage-backed securities mushrooms and a vast housing bubble develops, they have gone “from the country club to the strip club,” a function of the degree of parasitism and degeneracy in the system.
Christian Bale plays the real-life San Jose, California neurosurgeon-turned-money manager Michael Burry, who sports a glass eye and has a penchant for heavy metal. With a manic focus, he spends the end of 2004 and early 2005 scanning hundreds of home loans that are packaged into mortgage bonds, eventually discovering an alarming pattern. As opposed to the prevailing wisdom that “the housing market is rock solid,” Burry comes to believe it is a flimsy house of cards.
Burry approaches Goldman Sachs, seeking to purchase hundreds of millions of dollars in credit default swaps (a form of insurance against a loan default or other credit event) that amount to a bet against the housing market. His hedge fund’s owners and investors are apoplectic, but the eccentric, anti-social Burry is convinced that patience is the key as he waits for the bottom to drop out and his assumptions to pay off. (According to Lewis’s book, Burry explained, “I’m not making a bet against a bond, I’m making a bet against a system.”)
He admonishes his skeptics: “[Federal Reserve Chairman] Alan Greenspan assures us that home prices are not prone to bubbles––or major deflations––on any national scale. This is ridiculous, of course…. In 1933, during the fourth year of the Great Depression, the United States found itself in the midst of a housing crisis that put housing starts at 10 percent of the level of 1925. Roughly half of all mortgage debt was in default. During the 1930s, housing prices collapsed nationwide by roughly 80 percent.”
Jared “Chicken Little” Vennett (Gosling, playing a fictionalized Greg Lippman), a Deutsche Bank subprime mortgage bond manager, gets wind of Burry’s astonishing gamble. Vennett, slick, sleazy and smart, crunches the numbers and sees a potential gold mine.
Vennett solicits financial backing from Wall Street-bashing Mark Baum (Steve Carell, based on Steve Eisman), head of FrontPoint Partners, a unit of Morgan Stanley. Vennett explains the certainty of a housing catastrophe. The irascible Baum, who continues to suffer from his brother’s suicide, is chronically appalled by the banks’ shenanigans.
To investigate Vennett’s claims, Baum sends his colleagues to a subdivision in Florida, where they discover homes in foreclosure, delinquent mortgages that were purchased in the name of family pets, and a stripper who owns several properties—all with adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs)—and was told that continuous refinancing would always work in her favor. In one abandoned south Florida home, an alligator has taken over the swimming pool. One of Baum’s associates says, “It’s like Chernobyl.”
Baum also talks to cocky young mortgage brokers who inform him, with a laugh, that they have made millions selling subprime mortgages to poor people and immigrants. He subsequently meets with a Standard & Poor’s representative (Melissa Leo), who tells Baum she has to rate all the banks’ financial vehicles at AAA (the top rate) to keep their business.
Another of The Big Shor t’s plot strands involves young, inexperienced money managers, Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) and Charlie Geller (John Magaro), who parlay $110,000 of their own money into a $30 million fund. Also seeing the writing on the wall for the housing market, they enlist the help of retired guru/trader and drop-out Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt, based on Ben Hockett), whose connections help them secure an agreement enabling them to work directly with the banks.
The filmmakers intersperse the narrative with comic interludes featuring what they call “celebrity explainers,” brought in to help make the complicated terminology comprehensible. In the movie’s production notes, director McKay elaborates: “Bankers do everything they can to make these transactions seem really complicated, so we came up with the idea of having celebrities pop up on the screen throughout the movie and explain things directly to the audience.”
Sipping champagne in a bubble bath, actress Margot Robbie discusses mortgage-backed securities, while chef Anthony Bourdain compares a “toxic financial asset” to a seafood stew. (McKay recruited Bourdain after reading the latter’s recommendation that no one should “order seafood stew because it’s where cooks put all the crap they couldn’t sell.”
The director goes on, “I thought, ‘Oh my God that’s a perfect metaphor for a collateralized debt obligation, where the banks bundle a bunch of bad mortgages and sell it as a triple-A rated financial product.’”)
Economist Dr. Richard Thaler and actress Selena Gomez take part in a casino sequence to demonstrate how synthetic Credit Default Obligations (CDOs)––essentially groups of bad mortgages bundled together to hide the real likelihood of default––are the means of arranging numerous layers of speculation. Says McKay: “It was investors making those kinds of side bets on mortgage-backed securities through CDOs that drove the whole world economy to where it was poised to crash.”
The film’s tipping point comes when Vennett convinces Baum to attend the American Securities Forum in Las Vegas, an event whose out of control goings-on prove to the latter that the housing market is a gigantic Ponzi scheme.
The vindication of the nay-sayers is delayed when the housing market begins to collapse, but the value of the CDOs remains steady. Only then do the protagonists realize that the banks are concealing the toxicity of their holdings on a massive scale.
As the meltdown approaches, the mood of The Big Short markedly darkens. Baum starts to believe the “party’s over” and that “the world economy will collapse.” He is convinced the bankers “are crooks and should be in jail.”
This is effectively highlighted by a scene where Baum debates a representative of Bear Stearns. The latter sings the praises of the housing market even as the firm’s stock price falls off the cliff.
The Big Short’s approach to the run-up to one of the greatest financial crises in history, despite its comic-absurdist mode, is a serious one. The filmmakers do their best to bring this crisis and its human dimensions to life.
The film touches upon the systemic and far-reaching character of the 2008 crash. McKay and his collaborators are obviously appalled by its outcome and consequences, and even invent an alternative scenario in which the bankers responsible for the crash are jailed and the banks become regulated. They point the finger at not only those who issued the mortgages, but those who sliced and diced them into rotten products and the credit agencies that gave them top ratings. They conclude that the financial establishment made super profits through the immiseration of the population. The various actors, as clearly demonstrated by their performances, were fully committed to the project.
Of course, dramatizing something as complex as the 2008 financial collapse is an immense undertaking, involving a mass of historical and social questions. The Big Short’s makers have chosen one means of treating it. This film is clearly not the final word. While McKay and the others involved obviously feel sympathy for those devastated by the crisis, the mass of the population is largely absent. Their attitude to capitalism is a critical one, but they are not opponents of the profit system.
However, at a time when most filmmakers seem obsessed with gender, sexuality and race (and themselves), McKay and the others have chosen to treat—and treat trenchantly—one of the critical events in recent times. Genuine credit is due them.
http://xenagoguevicene.livejournal.com/73346.html

31 December 2015
Directed by Adam McKay; screenplay by McKay and Charles Randolph, based on the book by Michael Lewis
Adam McKay’s new film The Big Short is a hard-hitting comedy-drama about the historic collapse of the US housing bubble in 2008.
Based on Michael Lewis’s book, The Big Short: Inside The Doomsday Machine (2010), the film offers a picture of rampant criminality on the part of the financial establishment and its government co-conspirators who, while systematically looting the American economy, created a financial disaster.
The calamity was further deepened by the use of hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to bail out the biggest Wall Street firms. For millions of people in the US and around the world, the 2008 collapse was a social tragedy from which there has been no meaningful recovery. Yet, as The Big Short points out, the bankers and speculators––who ought to be sitting in prison––are richer and more powerful today than ever.
McKay’s The Big Short centers on a number of Wall Street “outliers” who, despite the efforts of the banks, government regulators and media lackeys, uncover the truth about the explosive market for bonds based on subprime mortgages: that the latter are “junk” and a rotten foundation for an economic boom.
The film takes the form of a series of vignettes involving these figures, a number of whose paths cross at critical moments.
Bankers, The Big Short’s narrator (Ryan Gosling) explains at the outset, were once perceived as staid and conservative. Now, as the trade in mortgage-backed securities mushrooms and a vast housing bubble develops, they have gone “from the country club to the strip club,” a function of the degree of parasitism and degeneracy in the system.
Christian Bale plays the real-life San Jose, California neurosurgeon-turned-money manager Michael Burry, who sports a glass eye and has a penchant for heavy metal. With a manic focus, he spends the end of 2004 and early 2005 scanning hundreds of home loans that are packaged into mortgage bonds, eventually discovering an alarming pattern. As opposed to the prevailing wisdom that “the housing market is rock solid,” Burry comes to believe it is a flimsy house of cards.
Burry approaches Goldman Sachs, seeking to purchase hundreds of millions of dollars in credit default swaps (a form of insurance against a loan default or other credit event) that amount to a bet against the housing market. His hedge fund’s owners and investors are apoplectic, but the eccentric, anti-social Burry is convinced that patience is the key as he waits for the bottom to drop out and his assumptions to pay off. (According to Lewis’s book, Burry explained, “I’m not making a bet against a bond, I’m making a bet against a system.”)
He admonishes his skeptics: “[Federal Reserve Chairman] Alan Greenspan assures us that home prices are not prone to bubbles––or major deflations––on any national scale. This is ridiculous, of course…. In 1933, during the fourth year of the Great Depression, the United States found itself in the midst of a housing crisis that put housing starts at 10 percent of the level of 1925. Roughly half of all mortgage debt was in default. During the 1930s, housing prices collapsed nationwide by roughly 80 percent.”
Jared “Chicken Little” Vennett (Gosling, playing a fictionalized Greg Lippman), a Deutsche Bank subprime mortgage bond manager, gets wind of Burry’s astonishing gamble. Vennett, slick, sleazy and smart, crunches the numbers and sees a potential gold mine.
Vennett solicits financial backing from Wall Street-bashing Mark Baum (Steve Carell, based on Steve Eisman), head of FrontPoint Partners, a unit of Morgan Stanley. Vennett explains the certainty of a housing catastrophe. The irascible Baum, who continues to suffer from his brother’s suicide, is chronically appalled by the banks’ shenanigans.
To investigate Vennett’s claims, Baum sends his colleagues to a subdivision in Florida, where they discover homes in foreclosure, delinquent mortgages that were purchased in the name of family pets, and a stripper who owns several properties—all with adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs)—and was told that continuous refinancing would always work in her favor. In one abandoned south Florida home, an alligator has taken over the swimming pool. One of Baum’s associates says, “It’s like Chernobyl.”
Baum also talks to cocky young mortgage brokers who inform him, with a laugh, that they have made millions selling subprime mortgages to poor people and immigrants. He subsequently meets with a Standard & Poor’s representative (Melissa Leo), who tells Baum she has to rate all the banks’ financial vehicles at AAA (the top rate) to keep their business.
Another of The Big Shor t’s plot strands involves young, inexperienced money managers, Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) and Charlie Geller (John Magaro), who parlay $110,000 of their own money into a $30 million fund. Also seeing the writing on the wall for the housing market, they enlist the help of retired guru/trader and drop-out Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt, based on Ben Hockett), whose connections help them secure an agreement enabling them to work directly with the banks.
The filmmakers intersperse the narrative with comic interludes featuring what they call “celebrity explainers,” brought in to help make the complicated terminology comprehensible. In the movie’s production notes, director McKay elaborates: “Bankers do everything they can to make these transactions seem really complicated, so we came up with the idea of having celebrities pop up on the screen throughout the movie and explain things directly to the audience.”
Sipping champagne in a bubble bath, actress Margot Robbie discusses mortgage-backed securities, while chef Anthony Bourdain compares a “toxic financial asset” to a seafood stew. (McKay recruited Bourdain after reading the latter’s recommendation that no one should “order seafood stew because it’s where cooks put all the crap they couldn’t sell.”
The director goes on, “I thought, ‘Oh my God that’s a perfect metaphor for a collateralized debt obligation, where the banks bundle a bunch of bad mortgages and sell it as a triple-A rated financial product.’”)
Economist Dr. Richard Thaler and actress Selena Gomez take part in a casino sequence to demonstrate how synthetic Credit Default Obligations (CDOs)––essentially groups of bad mortgages bundled together to hide the real likelihood of default––are the means of arranging numerous layers of speculation. Says McKay: “It was investors making those kinds of side bets on mortgage-backed securities through CDOs that drove the whole world economy to where it was poised to crash.”
The film’s tipping point comes when Vennett convinces Baum to attend the American Securities Forum in Las Vegas, an event whose out of control goings-on prove to the latter that the housing market is a gigantic Ponzi scheme.
The vindication of the nay-sayers is delayed when the housing market begins to collapse, but the value of the CDOs remains steady. Only then do the protagonists realize that the banks are concealing the toxicity of their holdings on a massive scale.
As the meltdown approaches, the mood of The Big Short markedly darkens. Baum starts to believe the “party’s over” and that “the world economy will collapse.” He is convinced the bankers “are crooks and should be in jail.”
This is effectively highlighted by a scene where Baum debates a representative of Bear Stearns. The latter sings the praises of the housing market even as the firm’s stock price falls off the cliff.
The Big Short’s approach to the run-up to one of the greatest financial crises in history, despite its comic-absurdist mode, is a serious one. The filmmakers do their best to bring this crisis and its human dimensions to life.
The film touches upon the systemic and far-reaching character of the 2008 crash. McKay and his collaborators are obviously appalled by its outcome and consequences, and even invent an alternative scenario in which the bankers responsible for the crash are jailed and the banks become regulated. They point the finger at not only those who issued the mortgages, but those who sliced and diced them into rotten products and the credit agencies that gave them top ratings. They conclude that the financial establishment made super profits through the immiseration of the population. The various actors, as clearly demonstrated by their performances, were fully committed to the project.
Of course, dramatizing something as complex as the 2008 financial collapse is an immense undertaking, involving a mass of historical and social questions. The Big Short’s makers have chosen one means of treating it. This film is clearly not the final word. While McKay and the others involved obviously feel sympathy for those devastated by the crisis, the mass of the population is largely absent. Their attitude to capitalism is a critical one, but they are not opponents of the profit system.
However, at a time when most filmmakers seem obsessed with gender, sexuality and race (and themselves), McKay and the others have chosen to treat—and treat trenchantly—one of the critical events in recent times. Genuine credit is due them.
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