In the first half, financial analyst Mish Shedlock talked about the state of the economy. Regarding the possible bankruptcy of the corporate owner of Kmart and Sears, he commented that "vulture capitalists" came in and stripped out the company's assets and unleashed its debt causing the stock price to soar. They made huge amounts of money, he cited, but now the company is languishing again. Payless Shoes is also said to be moving toward filing for bankruptcy. A lot of retail purchasing has shifted to online outlets such as Amazon, and "I think the whole retail mall structure is in for an enormous shock," and along with that will come many lost jobs, he cautioned.
Homes are back up at "bubble prices" and the National Association of Realtors suggested that there is a lack of inventory. There's a lack of inventory because home prices have advanced beyond the affordability of the average consumer, he remarked. There is also a massive glut of used cars on the market, and prices for them have gone down for eight months in a row, Shedlock added. He is suspicious of the "healthy" US jobs reports over the last year and believes that many people are taking multiple part time jobs which fall outside of the government report.
------------------
Political consultant and strategist Roger Stone appeared in the latter half, talking about the 2016 presidential campaign, and news and controversies associated with himself and the Trump administration. Stone spoke about recently recovering from a severe illness-- he believes he was poisoned with polonium, as well as being the victim in a seemingly deliberate hit-and-run broadside car crash in Broward County, while he was on his book tour. He suspects these attacks might have been done to prevent him from testifying in the government hearings on Russian involvement with hacking and election interference. Stone said he's had no associations with any Russians, and his Twitter exchange with Guccifer 2.0 (alleged to be a Russian hacker) was inconsequential.
According to Stone, Trump's election is a repudiation of the globalist agenda of the Clinton/Bush years-- endless wars, erosion of civil liberties, massive spending, huge debt, defacto open borders, and a trade policy sending American jobs overseas. Further, he declared that "there is no doubt whatsoever that Donald Trump was under surveillance at Trump Tower...his phones were bugged, not only at his New York office," but his private residences in Manhattan and Palm Beach, going back years, and this has recently been justified because of the suspicion of his colluding with the Russians.
--------------
During the first half-hour, Coast producer Tom Danheiser described his journey on NASA's Airborne Observatory Sofia, along with Steve Kates, "Dr. Sky."
News segment guests: John Curtis, Charles R. Smith
Couldn't catch this episode of the show? Sign up for Coast Insider to listen at your leisure and never miss another program again!