SAR #16188

Technology makes a thin religion.

Exorcism: Director James Comey has pronounced the FBI satisfied that – despite using not one but a series of private email servers for her government business and not archiving various records as old servers were “decommissioned in various ways”, and despite destroying at least 30,000 of the 60,000 that survived these various adventures – the remaining 30,000 emails contained no incriminating evidence of intent to commit the multiplicity of crimes she and her agents committed. While the statues do not consider intent in the definition of the crimes, Hillary gets a pass because there was no “clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws… there is abundant evidence that they did so.” The investigation was not aimed at what had been hidden or destroyed, which is where the corruption would have been. Nor did the FBI ask NSA for their copies of Ms Clinton's emails, which they most certainly have. Even so, the Bureau is confident that “computer intrusion by hostile actors” was likely, if unproven. Presto, the toothpaste is back in the tube and Bill's excellent adventure was unnecessary. Or perhaps very successful.

[Short Form: Did former Secretary of State and putative Ruler of the World Hillary Clinton commit what for normal people would be considered crimes and misdemeanors? Yes, at minimum by destroying government records. Will she be prosecuted? No, because the records she did not destroy contain no evidence of intent to commit any crimes.]

Asked & Obvious: Does the day-care-for-adults 'security' at our airports enhance our security, or does it simply motivate would-be mass killers to seek less protected targets?

Carousel: Since the Fed nudged up the effective federal funds rate last December, long term rates have kept falling. The yield curve (10-year rates – two-year rates) has become negative. Banks, whose business is to borrow short and lend long, do not prosper in such an environment. Every recession in the last 40 years has been closely preceded by a negative yield curve. Does 'closely preceded' sound a lot like 'imminent'?

Noted: Weakness in capital goods orders, which were weak in May, reflect a reluctance of businesses to invest in capital goods, which comes from a decided weakness in business' expectations. The inventory of unfulfilled orders is negative y/y.

Caged: Brexit may be the forerunner of a much broader backlash against the EU's “free trade” anti-labor rules, the area's growing migration problems, and the authoritarian high-handedness of unelected elites. France, Italy and Denmark are the likely next canaries to keel over..

Hazard Pay: : Since 2007 the US has added about 10 million renter households while home ownership has stagnated – the 7 million foreclosures offsetting new purchases. Since 1960 inflation-adjusted rents are up 64% while real incomes are up only 18%.

Clarification: The first black slaves arrived in what is now the United States in 1619. The enslavement of the native Indians followed apace. In 1776 the US was founded as the first apartheid state. The freedom sought by the colonial 1% was for them, the masters and owners. Their revolution was designed to change the names running things, not the social-economic system.

Our Town: “Orphanages are often run as businesses, the children being the assets.”

A Parting Shot: