They Are Calling It “The Tech Bloodbath” – 10 Facts About This Tech Stock Crash That Will Take Your Breath Away

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Thanks to crashing tech stocks, Americans have lost hundreds of billions of dollars in paper wealth over the past three trading days.  As you will see below, we have just witnessed “the biggest market cap loss in history”, and many analysts believe that this is only just the beginning.  At this point, even the mainstream media is fearing the worst.  CNN is boldly proclaiming that “the tech bloodbath is here”, and there is a flood of mainstream articles giving advice to investors about how to ride out this crisis.  But the amount of money that has already been lost is absolutely huge, and it isn’t going to take much to turn this panic into a full-blown stampede.  In a lot of ways, what we are watching is very reminiscent of 2001.  When the original tech bubble burst, the crash was so rapid and so dramatic that many ordinary investors were not able to react in time.  As I have explained so many times before, markets tend to go down a whole lot faster than they go up, and the events of the last three trading days have been completely breathtaking.

A lot of people are responding as if this tech stock crash is a complete surprise, but the truth is that it shouldn’t be a surprise at all.

The only surprise is that the bubble lasted for as long as it did.

Even after the declines of the past three days, some of these tech companies still have some of the most absurd valuations that we have ever seen.  There has been warning after warning that something like this could happen, but the optimists on Wall Street wanted to believe that the party would never come to an end.

Well, now the party is ending, and people are starting to understand the gravity of what we are facing.  The following are 10 facts about this “tech bloodbath” that are almost too crazy to believe…

#1 The 10 leading U.S. tech companies lost an astounding 82.7 billion dollars in stock value on Monday.

#2 Overall, FANG stocks have lost 220 billion dollars in stock value over the last 3 trading days.  According to Zero Hedge, that represents “the biggest market cap loss in history”.

#3 Last Thursday, Facebook had the worst day for a single company in the history of the stock market.

#4 The amount of money that Facebook investors have lost is greater than the entire market value of some of the biggest corporations in America…

The gargantuan one-day loss in the social media company’s market value eclipses the total value of warehouse club Costco, drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb, investment powerhouse Goldman Sachs, defense contractor Lockheed Martin and credit-card company American Express, according to Bloomberg data.

The wealth destroyed also is more than the total value of farm equipment maker Caterpillar, home-improvement retailer Lowe’s, coffee seller Starbucks and drugstore chain CVS.

#5 One prominent ETF manager is saying that he doesn’t “see us being heavily invested in Facebook ever again”.

#6 FANG stocks are collectively down more than 10 percent from the record high last month.

#7 The 5 most valuable companies in the United States are all in the tech sector and they are all located on a stretch between Silicon Valley and Seattle.

#8 Thanks to all of the panic, investors are being forced to pay more for Nasdaq downside protection than they ever have before.

#9 Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. equity strategist is warning that “the selling has just begun and this correction will be biggest since the one we experienced in February.”

#10 One major investor has told CNBC that he believes that the major tech stocks could ultimately lose 30 or 40 percent of their value…

Ahead of Apple earnings scheduled for Tuesday evening, Larry McDonald, editor of the Bear Traps Report, warns to stay away from what has been one of the hottest areas of the market this year.

“These are stocks you want to run away from,” McDonald told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Friday. “I see potentially 30 percent to 40 percent downside on the FAANGs.”

Tech stocks led the way up during the first Internet bubble, and they also led the way down.

Will the same thing happen again this time around?

If some people think that the broader market will be immune as tech stocks continue to crash, they are just deceiving themselves.  To a very large extent, it has been the tech industry that has been responsible for holding the market up in these troubled times.  Right now the housing industry is slowing down substantially, we are in the midst of the worst “retail apocalypse” in American history, and big agriculture is being absolutely devastated by foreign tariffs.

There aren’t too many other bright spots for the U.S. economy at the moment, and so if the tech sector implodes we are going to see a lot of others go down with it.

Look, there is a reason why Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook insiders dumped billions of dollars worth of Facebook stock in the months leading up to this crash.  They all knew that trouble was brewing, and they wanted to get out while the getting out was good.

As I have told my readers so many times before, you only make money in the stock market if you get out at the right time, and those Facebook insiders picked the right time.

Earlier this month, Ron Paul warned that the stock market could be cut “in half” when the “biggest bubble in the history of mankind” finally bursts, and a lot of people laughed at him.

Are they still laughing now?

Hopefully the market will settle down tomorrow, and without a doubt we will see a bounce at some point.  But it is certainly starting to feel like 2001 and 2008 all over again, but this time the bubble is far bigger than ever before.

How will this story ultimately end?

I think that we all know the answer, and it isn’t going to be pretty…

Michael Snyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is publisher of The Most Important News and the author of four books including The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.

The post They Are Calling It “The Tech Bloodbath” – 10 Facts About This Tech Stock Crash That Will Take Your Breath Away appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

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Refusing to Defend Assange, Mainstream Media Exposes Its True Nature

https://theantimedia.com/defend-assange-mainstream-media/

MH370 Mystery Grows as Final Report Says Someone “Manipulated” Controls

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(ZHE) — A comprehensive final report made public by investigators on Monday has stirred fresh controversy as Malaysian authorities say they “cannot determine with any certainty” why Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014. However one key irregular finding in the 495-page report is that the Boeing 777’s controls were most likely deliberately manipulated to take the plane off course, perhaps putting […]

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Selma Blair quits Twitter after Disney fires director James Gunn from “Guardians of the Galaxy”

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“If people are punished despite changing, then what does that teach people about owning mistakes and evolving?”

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Government-Pharma collusion in mass deaths by opioids

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by Jon Rappoport

July 30, 2018

(To join our email list, click here.)

—The 2016 law, hamstringing the DEA, still has not been repealed—

The major pipeline for trafficking opioid drugs starts with pharmaceutical manufacturers, who are intentionally distributing opioids far beyond any legitimate need.

2 MILLION OPIOID ADDICTS IN THE US.

300,000 DEATHS SINCE THE YEAR 2000 IN THE US.

A significant percentage of this human carnage results from illegal distribution of opioids.

Here is the open secret:

A 2016 LAW SIGNED BY OBAMA SHACKLED THE DEA (DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION) IN ITS EFFORTS TO CRACK DOWN ON BIG PHARMA TRAFFICKERS.

That law is the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama on 4/9/16.

And that is the federal government’s role in perpetuating and expanding the opioid crisis.

Honest agents inside the complacent DEA want to have the right to march into a pharmaceutical company headquarters and say, “We know you’re shipping millions of opioid pills to little pharmacies and clinics that, in turn, are selling the pills to street dealers. We’re going to freeze those shipments now, and we’re going to arrest key executives.”

But that 2016 law raises the bar so high, the whole law-enforcement effort is hamstrung, throttled, and loaded down with legal complications.

In essence, the US Congress gave drug companies a free pass.

And no one in the Congress is admitting it or talking about it.

The Washington Post, on October 15, 2017, talked about it. The article was headlined, “The Drug Industry’s Triumph Over the DEA”: “In April 2016, at the height of the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history, Congress effectively stripped the Drug Enforcement Administration of its most potent weapon against large drug companies suspected of spilling prescription [opioid] narcotics onto the nation’s streets.”

“A handful of members of Congress, allied with the nation’s major drug distributors, prevailed upon the DEA and the Justice Department to agree to a more industry-friendly law, undermining efforts to stanch the flow of pain pills, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and ‘60 Minutes’…”

“The law was the crowning achievement of a multifaceted campaign by the drug industry to weaken aggressive DEA enforcement efforts against drug distribution companies that were supplying corrupt doctors and pharmacists who peddled [opioid] narcotics to the black market. The industry worked behind the scenes with lobbyists and key members of Congress [to pass the 2016 law], pouring more than a million dollars into their election campaigns.”

“The new [2016] law makes it virtually impossible for the DEA to freeze suspicious narcotic shipments from the companies, according to internal agency and Justice Department documents and an independent assessment by the DEA’s chief administrative law judge in a soon-to-be-published law review article. That powerful tool [freezing opioid shipments] had allowed the agency to immediately prevent drugs from reaching the street.”

EVERYONE IS NOW AWARE OF THE LAW’S HORRENDOUS IMPACT. WHY DOESN’T THE CONGRESS REPEAL IT?

The fact that no one is stepping up to the plate with a fast repeal is proof that multiple parts of the federal government are, in fact, tacitly supporting the opioid crisis and its devastating impacts on human life.

Failure to act swiftly amounts to collusion in Death by Opioids.

President Obama, the Congress, and key officials within the Justice Department and the DEA are all guilty.

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(To read about Jon’s mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here.)

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Jon Rappoport

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29^th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.

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Government-Pharma collusion in mass deaths by opioids « Jon Rappoport's Blog

https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2018/07/30/government-pharma-collusion-in-mass-deaths-by-opioids/

Trump, the NY Times, and fake news

https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2018/07/30/trump-the-ny-times-and-fake-news/

Is The US "The Worst Place In The World To Give Birth"?

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Authored by Andrea Germanos via CommonDreams.org,

A new USA Today investigation offers a searing indictment of maternal care in the United States, and says the country "is the most dangerous place in the developed world to give birth."

"Deadly Deliveries," the result of a four-year investigation, references federal data showing that more than 50,000 women are "severely injured" and roughly 700 die during childbirth each year. Perhaps even more staggering is that "half of these deaths could be prevented and half the injuries reduced or eliminated with better care," the investigation found.

The findings, based on interviews with women and a trove of internal hospital records, "reveal a stunning lack of attention to safety recommendations and widespread failure to protect new mothers."

Such failures often stem from inadequate or delayed responses to hemorrhages and dangerously high blood pressure.

A disturbing trend noted in the report: from 1990 to 2015, in most developed nations the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 births was steady or dropped. Not so in the U.S., where the figure soared. In Germany, France, Japan, England, and Canada the number had fallen to below 10 in the time frame. In the U.S., meanwhile, the figured soared to 26.4.

California, though, is an exception. The state's maternal death rate fell by half—a drop attributed to it adopting "the gold standard" of safety measures.

Looking at the overall picture in the U.S., though, "it's a failure at all levels, at national organization levels and at the local hospital leadership levels as well," Dr. Steven Clark, a leading childbirth safety expert and a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, said to USA Today.

One of the investigative reporters, Alison Young, talked with "CBS This Morning" about the report:

The investigation follows a related analysis out late last year by ProPublica. Affirming previous studies, its analysis found "that women who hemorrhage at disproportionately black-serving hospitals are far more likely to wind up with severe complications, from hysterectomies, which are more directly related to hemorrhage, to pulmonary embolisms, which can be indirectly related. When we looked at data for only the most healthy women, and for white women at black-serving hospitals, the pattern persisted."

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Health Insurance Mafia & The Heroin Of 'Signing Up' For Obamacare

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Authored by Eric Peters via EricPetersAutos.com,

A good friend urges me to “sign up” for Obamacare.

He knows about the extortion letters I have been receiving from the federal thugs who are now the enforcers for the health insurance mafia – which succeeded in getting a law passed which forces us to buy their services.

Or else.

The “or else” being punishing fines – plus interest. These are called “shared responsibility” payments but – in the first place – nothing is being “shared” (I am being forcibly mulcted) and in the second place  for whom am I “responsible”?

Note the increase SRP for future years. NTTC Training 2014.

Myself, certainly.

But that is precisely the point and the fulcrum of my objection to Obamacare – to this business of being forced to be responsible for other people’s “care” at the expense of my own.

I could afford a high-deductible, catastrophic care insurance policy – something which would “cover” just that, a catastrophic and therefore not-likely event, such as a heart attack or cancer. And precisely because such an event is unlikely, the cost of such a “plan” would actually be insurance and so affordable.

I could therefore afford to be responsible for myself.

But Obamacare has turned the concept of insurance on its head. What is going on now is not insurance. It is wealth redistribution – mostly to the insurance mafia. The law forces me – and you – to pay for things we don’t need or use (for example, maternity care “coverage” for a divorced middle-aged man and “substance abuse counseling” for a man who doesn’t abuse any substances) which means no value received for the money extorted. The money lines the pockets of the mafia, which may perhaps dole out a portion to “cover” some portion of other people’s maternity care or substance abuse counseling.

I resent being mule-hitched to the insurance mafia’s profit wagon and also having the bit shoved into my mouth so that I may be forced to pull other people’s wagons rather than my own wagon – the only wagon for which I am morally “responsible.”

Which brings me back to my dilemma – and my friend’s solution.

Obamacare has made it financially impossible for me to afford “coverage” and so am not “covered,” which makes me all of a sudden a criminal for seeking to take care of myself and not filch other people’s pockets.

For this I am the object of punishment – like any criminal – except I fail to see how I am one given I’ve harmed no one. Not even myself – and even if I do harm myself, that is a matter between me and myself – the aggrieved party. Certainly I have aggrieved no one else, assuming I am not the property of someone else.

Which of course I am, apparently. And you, too. We will get to that momentarily.

At any rate, I am the object of punishment. “Shared responsibility”  fines – technically, taxes – which is how the federal thugs legitimated the illegitimate, arguing that the Congress (more thugs) having empowered themselves to tax us – that is, to steal our money as and how they wish, by voting to do so – therefore has the power to vote to tax us for failing to send money to the insurance mafia as ordered by their other edict.

So, $695 so far –  plus interest, accumulating. My punishment for failing to be “covered” last year. It will be another $695 plus interest for this year, too.

I cannot afford this, either – not without being unable to afford the care I actually do need, such as the old filling I just had replaced and the crown I had to have done last year, which together cost me about what my “shared responsibility” payment would be for last year and this year except I decided to be responsible for myself instead.

My friend urges me to “sign up” for Obamacare” on the “exchanges.” He says it will cost less – and by “signing up” I will avoid the “shared responsibility” fines (taxes) going forward.

This is all true – but entirely beside the point. Or rather, it is exactly the point.

If I “sign up,” I will be as Lee at Appomattox. I will have surrendered. I will have accepted the idea that I am not a sovereign individual who owns himself absolutely – and the corollary of that, which is the absolute right of others to ownership of themselves. That we are each free individuals, responsible for ourselves and our actions only.

Not for the actions of others, nor they for ours.

If we “sign up,we have accepted that we are all somehow each others’ collective property and as such are subject to being used and controlled by our owners, just like a mule or any other form of property.

That we are enslaved – to each other.

This is why I will not “sign up” – in the spirit of Giles Corey, the refusnik of Salem Witch Trials fame, who declined to go along to get along by witnessing falsely against his neighbors. More weight was all he said – with a contemptuous smile – as his tormentors attempted to get him to “share responsibility” by piling stones upon his chest.

If it comes to it, they can do that to me as well.

I won’t  go to the “exchanges.” Will not voluntarily send a single penny of my money to the cretinous insurance mafia. I will not pay the “shared responsibility” tax, either.

I will continue to be responsible for myself.

If that makes me a criminal in a system gone criminal, so be it.

More weight...

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Ordinary US Citizens Now Surveilled By Air Marshals As Part Of Secret New Program

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If you're a law abiding US citizen, a team of armed undercover US Air Marshals could be following you on your next flight, taking minute-by-minute notes whether or not you engage in such threatening behavior as sleeping on the plane, using a phone, going to the bathroom or talking to other passengers. 

The Boston Globe has revealed a new federal program that profiles and surveils ordinary US citizen travelers who otherwise have no legitimate reason for being profiled. The secret program, called "Quiet Skies", was set up to monitor US citizens with no prior record and who don't result in red flags being raised at the airport. The people surveiled and followed in this program are, according to a TSA memo cited by the Globe article, "not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base".

In essence, the program gives the TSA the option to monitor and track whoever it likes for any reason whatsoever, effectively granting TSA agents a green light to violate anyone's personal privacy even as the legal and constitutional implications of such profiling remain unknown. And, understandably, internal pushback against the relatively new program  has emerged as some Federal Air Marshals have noted that it is a drain on resources and is way too time consuming and costly.

Further, concerns have been raised by legal experts, like Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor, who said that "if this was about foreign citizens, the government would have considerable power. But if it’s US citizens — US citizens don’t lose their rights simply because they are in an airplane at 30,000 feet."

Predictably, the TSA defended the program to the Boston Globe when asked and declined to note for the article whether or not the program has been successful in stopping any threats. In fact, it wouldn’t even confirm that the program existed. But documents provided to the Boston Globe by FSA sources confirm that this highly controversial program does, in fact, exist.

So if you're not on any terrorist watch list and you are not under investigation by the Federal Government, what exactly do armed Air Marshals look for when a "small team of them" watches you as you fly or home to visit relatives for the holidays?

Amazingly, the red flag "triggers" for in depth surveillance involve behaviors that essentially all passengers are susceptible to, such as:

• whether or not passengers fidget
• whether or not they are using a computer on the flight
• whether or not they stare off into space
• face touching
• exaggerated emotions
• whether or not a subject has lost or gained weight from the information provided to authorities
• whether or not the subject has facial hair, tattoos, piercings,
• whether not they slept during the flight
• whether not they use the bathroom on the flight
• how they were picked up when they arrive.

The full "behavior checklist", uploaded on the Boston Globe website,  is both astonishing and frightening.

A casual skim of the above "threats" narrows down the list of potential suspects to - well, everybody who flies or has ever flown in an airplane.

And yes, Air Marshal have been instructed to focus especially on people who have "gained weight", have a beard, checked their baggage, and either talk on the phone or have a computer: almost as if the government has granted explicit permission for the FSA to profile just about anyone, for any reason whatsoever.

The article did not reveal how people are initially chosen for the screening, and the TSA naturally refused to share the information. However, what we do know is that once one has made the list and is selected for surveillance...

...a team of air marshals is placed on the person’s next flight. The team receives a file containing a photo and basic information — such as date and place of birth — about the target, according to agency documents.

The teams track citizens on domestic flights, to or from dozens of cities big and small — such as Boston and Harrisburg, Pa., Washington, D.C., and Myrtle Beach, S.C. — taking notes on whether travelers use a phone, go to the bathroom, chat with others, or change clothes, according to documents and people within the department.

Despite its relative recency, the program is already operational across virtually all major airports.

And just like Edward Snowden and the NSA, the Globe points out that pushback against this kind of indescriminate profiling is rising as "dozens of air marshals have raised concerns about the Quiet Skies program with senior officials and colleagues, sought legal counsel, and expressed misgivings about the surveillance program, according to interviews and documents reviewed by the Globe."

Sensing an avalanche of legal fees, experts that specialize in civil liberties and citizens' rights believe that the program may not be lawful:

Experts on civil liberties called the Quiet Skies program worrisome and potentially illegal.

“These revelations raise profound concerns about whether TSA is conducting pervasive surveillance of travelers without any suspicion of actual wrongdoing,” said Hugh Handeyside, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project.

“If TSA is using proxies for race or religion to single out travelers for surveillance, that could violate the travelers’ constitutional rights. These concerns are all the more acute because of TSA’s track record of using unreliable and unscientific techniques to screen and monitor travelers who have done nothing wrong.”

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Quiet Skies touches on several sensitive legal issues and appears to fall into a gray area of privacy law.

The biggest irony, as several Air Marshals observed, is that that potentially illegal program which infringes on the privacy and constitutional rights of US citizens, is also being paid for by those very same US citizens. Just like with the NSA.

Even the president of the Air Marshal Association has spoken out against the program:

Several air marshals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly, told the Globe the program wastes taxpayer dollars and makes the country less safe because attention and resources are diverted away from legitimate, potential threats. The US Federal Air Marshal Service, which is part of TSA and falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has a mandate to protect airline passengers and crew against the risk of criminal and terrorist violence.

John Casaretti, president of the Air Marshal Association, said in a statement: “The Air Marshal Association believes that missions based on recognized intelligence, or in support of ongoing federal investigations, is the proper criteria for flight scheduling. Currently the Quiet Skies program does not meet the criteria we find acceptable.

“The American public would be better served if these [air marshals] were instead assigned to airport screening and check in areas so that active shooter events can be swiftly ended, and violations of federal crimes can be properly and consistently addressed.”

Finally, for those unlucky enough to have "gained weight" since their last observations - or heaven forbid grew a goatee - and triggered the TSA's red flag, once selected for the list they are surveilled for up to 90 days or for their next three encounters, whatever comes first.

While the long running practice of Air Marshals Performing surveillance on those who are the focus of government investigations makes sense – this clear abuse of power and disregard for the rights of US citizens is so egregious that even those tasked with enforcing it can’t get behind it.

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