Henry/Mercedes and Ron/Samantha are the same relationship dynamic even though they look very different from the outside.

Literally just. Beautiful, powerful woman (because all women are beautiful and powerful) finds a weird man with no grasp of how society works in the woods/on petfinder. And they just go “yeah, that one actually”.

And then Henry and Ron instantly start chugging that I Love My Wife juice.

The frightening cold case of Kelly Bergh Dove

Missing Since 06/18/1982 Missing From Harrisonburg, Virginia Classification: Endangered Missing Sex: Female Race: White Date of Birth: 08/30/1961 (58) Age when missing: 20 years old Height and Weight: 5'1, 105 pounds Suspect: Unknown Vehicle of the suspect: Possible silver ford

Clothing/Jewelry Description: A light-colored pinstriped v-neck sweater, tan or cream-colored slacks, sandals, and a Turner Ashby High School class ring.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair. Dove has a partial plate in place of her two front teeth. She wears contact lenses or eyeglasses. She has a scar on the back of her head, a scar on her forehead at the hairline, and a scar on the back of her head. Dove smoked cigarettes in 1982. _____________________

Her Story:

Kelly Bergh Dove, a loving mother to her four-year-old daughter, and a good friend was from Bridgewater, Virginia. Happily married, Kelly had been in a relationship with her husband for 5 years.

Kelly was working the overnight shift at the Imperial gas station, despite it being her normal day off. Kelly traded her shift with her sister who also worked there (three of her sisters also worked there). Kelly was brave, her mother Rachel told Dateline, so being the lone employee working overnight didn’t frighten her.

The night was normal enough but things took a turn in the early morning hours of June 18.

At 2:27 a.m., Kelly called the Harrisonburg Police Department to say a man was hanging around the gas station, and that he was “improperly dressed.” It’s still unclear what she meant by this, but Kelly’s mother Rachel speculates that the man flashed Kelly and she did not want to say it on the phone.

The Police did not show.

Two minutes later, she called the police again, according to family. This time, she asked if the police could come to the gas station to check on her. Kelly told police the man had called the gas station from outside and was saying obscenities to her. She said he was on the gas station property, driving a silver Ford, according to Rachel.

The Police did not show.

At 2:31 a.m., Kelly placed a third and final call to police. She again reported that the man was lurking around the gas station, her last words were, "Hurry! Please! He's coming back!" Police say she then pleaded for them to help her.

When Police arrived at the scene shortly after Kelly’s third call to them. When they arrived, Kelly was nowhere to be found, on the counter a cigarette was still burning. A magazine was left open and Kelly's purse remained behind with no signs of a struggle.

Notes: The Police never shut down the gas station to investigate which leaves no evidence to use to help solve this case. No arrests have ever been made.

A local convenience store worker claimed that a caucasian male between 20 to 25 years of age, with blond, shoulder-length hair, was driving a gray car and had stopped at the store about a half-hour before her disappearance. However, no connection between this man and the offender was ever found or confirmed.

Kelly's three sisters said that obscene phone calls and gestures were common when they worked alone during the night and that it has happened on several occasions. However, after Kelly's disappearance, the phone calls momentarily stopped, up until they received one 6 weeks later. It isn't known if harassers stopped calling the store after hearing news of the disappearance as to not draw unwanted attention to themselves, or if one individual was responsible for making such phone calls the entire time.

_____________________________

Suspect 1: The unknown man:

The first suspect was a man Kelly went to high school with. This man has a history of making obscene phone calls and indecent exposure.

The problem with this suspect is Kelly never identified the man in the three phone calls which she would have done if she had known him.

____________________________

Suspect 2: Glenn Haslam Barker

Glenn Barker sometimes drove a ford, and after her disappearance, witnesses reported Barker repainting his car. Barker also had a past of violence against women and young girls.

In 1981, he kidnapped a young woman at knifepoint in North Carolina. He brought the young woman to his house and tied her to his bed. Luckily, however, she was able to escape after he left her alone to move his car. He was arrested for kidnapping but the young woman was too scared to testify. As a result, he received a two year suspended sentence.

He moved to Virginia shortly after.

On June 12, 1982, Two weeks after Kelly Bergh Dove's kidnapping, Twelve-year-old Katie Worsky disappeared from a sleep-over at a friend's house on McElroy Drive. Barker was the first suspect in the crime because he was dating the friend's mother. He claimed the night of the kidnapping that he had snuck over to the house when everyone was asleep. Barker claimed he gave Katie and her friend beer but left the apartment soon after they fell asleep.

The Police weren't convinced.

After getting permission to search Barker's apartment, they found wet clothes with blood on them, some of the blood was type B. Katie's blood type.

Inside his sock drawer, they found a pair of youth's underwear. Blood was on the underwear in the same place Katie had administered her medical insulin. Katie was a diabetic.

Katie's body to this day has not been found.

Without a body, Barker was still convinced of second-degree murder. However, he only served 9 years.

Barker was released in 1992 at the age of 33.

Barker shortly got into a relationship with Cynthia Powers Johnson who was a single mother to her 7-year-old daughter Heather.

On August 29, 1996, The fire department was called to extinguish a fire at the Johnson home. Inside Police found the bodies of both Cynthia Powers Johnson and her daughter Heather Johnson. They were both brutally murdered before the house was set ablaze from seven different starting points throughout the house.

Barker claimed to have an alibi during the murders, but it was proven to be a lie especially when eyewitnesses put Barker's truck in front of the home that night before the fire.

With no evidence to prove Barker committed the crimes, he could not be charged.

Barker is also suspected in the murder of 18-year-old Paula Jean Chandler in Charlottesville.

Chandler went missing, the day after Kelly Bergh Dove, after visiting a coworker's apartment to see a movie. Her body was found two days later in the Rivanna Reservoir. Suffering from two severe blows to the head before being dumped into the river to die.

Chandler worked at a restaurant a mile from Barker's and also Katie's home.

Barker to this day denies being involved in any of the crimes, including the one he was convicted of.

He died in 2014, at age 55, in the golfing resort town in North Carolina.

__________________________________

Kelly Bergh Dove was declared legally dead in 1989, and the gas station has since been torn down.

Dove's case remains unsolved.

If you have any information that may help solve this case please call the Harrisonburg Police Department at 540-434-2545.

Bitcoin Price Correlates With Traditional Assets, but Not Entirely

Since coming to power back in 2016, President Trump seemed to have reinvigorated the United States stock market after it showed signs of slowing down throughout the first half of the previous decade. Just three weeks ago, the American market witnessed a combined gain of 58% compared with the last three or so years. However, following the World Health Organization’s recent declaration of the novel coronavirus pandemic on March 11 — with the independent research body citing 118,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths globally — this rosy picture seems to have reversed almost overnight.

Additionally, ever since news of the medical emergency went live, markets all over the world began to crash at an unprecedented rate, with powerhouse economies such as Australia and India already gearing up for a period of heavy recession.

Not only that, regular office work all over the world has also been disrupted quite heavily — with many companies choosing to adopt work-from-home policies, seriously affecting global supply chains and causing many high-profile public events and major conferences to be cancelled.

The virus effect

In the midst of all this, Bitcoin (BTC) has been on the receiving end of a lot of bearish pressure, with the premier crypto asset falling from $10,000 on Feb. 24, down to $4,800 by March 12. More specifically, Bitcoin’s value slid by more than $3,000 after New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo released a public statement issuing a medical emergency, thus sealing off a one-mile containment area around the NYC suburb of New Rochelle.

Despite the apparent link between BTC’s price drop and the ongoing market slump, some experts believe that the flagship cryptocurrency’s slide has more to do with the recent PlusToken dump and other internal factors rather than the prevailing coronavirus-induced market scare.

Regarding the matter, Bill Herrmann, CEO of alternative investment banking firm Wilshire Phoenix, is of the opinion that Bitcoin’s current negative movement can largely be attributed to the instability of the traditional market. On the subject, he opined: “In times of extreme volatility, which is often followed by panic — most retail investors, whether it’s Bitcoin or in equities, sell first and ask questions later.”

A similar opinion is also shared by Mati Greenspan, founder of Quantum Economics, who told Cointelegraph that it is quite extraordinary that during this period of extreme volatility, “Bitcoin seems to be mirroring stock indices quite concisely.”

However, David Waslen, CEO of HedgeTrade — a blockchain-powered financial trading application — told Cointelegraph that while there is definitely a correlation between Bitcoin’s performance and the traditional market at large, the comparisons are quite limited in nature since a number of niche variables make BTC totally different. Waslen added:

“Bitcoin’s price did react correspondingly to the stock market plunge recently, and continues to correlate to world news announcements. But it also does its own thing, for instance pumping on March 6th while stocks were in a tailspin. It’s also affected by things that have absolutely nothing to do with traditional markets, such as mining, whales, and exchange hacks.”

Is Bitcoin truly an independent store of value?

With Bitcoin seemingly reacting quite strongly to the price corrections being witnessed in stocks, crude, and other commodities, it is worth exploring an answer to the question, “Is BTC really an uncorrelated asset class?”

Greenspan believes the events that are currently unfolding have served a devastating blow to a number of theories that many pro-crypto users gravitate toward whenever the price of BTC rises or falls independently of the traditional stock market:

“This price action is seemingly a damaging blow to two narratives that Bitcoin proponents tend to gravitate to. First, it is an uncorrelated asset class. And second, Bitcoin acting like the stocks during uncertain times means that it is now positioned as a risk asset rather than a safe haven.”

Similarly, Simon Peters, analyst for trading and multi-asset brokerage company eToro, believes that the aforementioned correlation is primarily being witnessed due to the ongoing pandemic underlying the traditional and crypto markets. On the subject, he told Cointelegraph during the London Blockchain Week:

“With coronavirus, it’s not a geopolitical issue as such. It’s a global pandemic. That’s where I think the argument for crypto is, in that area where we see a change in the monetary policy of central banks or an increase in liquidity in the markets.”

Lastly, Brian Hankey, co-founder of Cache, a provider of gold-backed tokens, told Cointelegraph that while gold and silver may be looking at short-term losses, in the medium-to-long term, they will continue to be looked at as good investment avenues. Additionally, he further pointed out that owing to the various industrial use cases associated with silver, the precious metal has a lot of potential upside.

Covid-19 has heavily skewed market indicators

Despite Bitcoin showcasing a mild tendency to start tracking traditional markets from time to time — if not testing some sort of relative correlational patterns — cryptocurrencies are still widely perceived to be a unique kind of uncorrelated, asymmetrical asset class.

However, since a flow of value to crypto has to occur from traditional markets, there is quite obviously a link there. On the subject, Glenn Benavides, co-founder of the Global Crypto Alliance — an organization comprising of experienced professionals with expertise in business development and blockchain ecosystems — told Cointelegraph:

“We saw Bitcoin move positively together with Gold and the S&P500 in the previous months. Now we see Crypto crashing as the rest of the world crashes during the COVID-19 panic. This does not mean Crypto will start behaving as a totally correlated asset from this moment. But, we can expect some more correlation from now on, in my opinion, as Crypto is plugged into traditional markets in order to fuel them.”

Speaking on Bitcoin’s role as a store of value that could rival conventional safe havens such as gold and silver, Jaian Cuttari, CEO at financial services ecosystem BDAM Foundation, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin has failed to live up to its expectations, since many from within the crypto community believed that while markets all over the world were sliding, the premier digital currency would be able to weather the storm and thus serve as the perfect long-term investment vehicle for many, adding:

“It simply is not a viable investment as many had believed. Bitcoin is very controlled by a few groups of large holders. This puts Bitcoin at greater risk of rapid value loss. This can be seen by the $30 billion dollar wipe out on btc market cap in 3 days. This is not normal and shows sophisticated sell offs from high volume holders are bringing btc to historic lows once again.”

Lastly, it bears mentioning that up until March 8, Bitcoin had managed to hold onto most of its value amid the sharp sell-off in equities, oil and most other markets. The only other commodity that proved to be more resilient was gold, with the precious metal trading near its seven-year high levels recently.

The broader cryptocurrency market finally saw a steep liquidation on Thursday and Friday when most digital currencies saw a downward correction of 20% to 40%. Ultimately, Bitcoin has followed the rest of the financial markets lower in response to the coronavirus crisis, albeit with a lag time of about two weeks.

Is a global recession right around the corner or are we in the midst of one?

Even before the threat of Covid-19 started to disrupt supply chains all over the world, there was a looming fear that the global financial system was on the verge of a full-blown recession. Now that the coronavirus has forced a number of markets to slow down considerably, a whole host of experts believe that the effects of a global economic slowdown are starting to show.

Expounding his views on the matter, Hankey is of the opinion that there is a strong possibility that a recession-type scenario could be real as “It’s clear that the global financial system is extremely overburdened by debt,” due to the fact that years of low-interest rates have fuelled clearly reckless malinvestment, adding:

“Many stocks have obscenely high P/E ratios (if they have any earnings at all). It’s unclear what the catalyst will be or if it has occured yet. It may or may not be the Coronavirus. In any case, I think it’s hardly controversial to say that we’re long overdue for a major recession.”

It is also important to point out that the Federal Reserve’s recent $1.5 trillion liquidity injection into the market — after Wall Street circuit breakers went off twice this week — seems to be a clear signal that the coronavirus panic is being taken seriously and a global recession might be around the corner.

However, not everybody seems to agree with the hypothesis that a bear market is here to stay. In this regard, Cuttari believes that as things stand, it is the virus scare rather than a market recession that is causing all of the ongoing economic chaos. Similarly, Benavides also is of the opinion that a relative crisis that is affecting some networks of institutions and traditional organizations, but not a global recession per se:

“I don’t see a real recession, but many new powerful groups replacing the old ones, as new forms of value take the place of the traditional ones. In my opinion, Bitcoin and crypto will fuel a big portion of this revolution.”

What does the future hold for the crypto market?

With central banks all over the world lowering benchmark rates en masse and steering toward negative interest rates, it may be hard to think positively about the world economy at the moment.

However, unlike other times in the past when the only way out for the masses was to depend on traditional monetary systems, this time around there is an option to turn to the crypto market. The crypto ecosystem serves a global audience and has provided the masses with peer-to-peer trading capabilities. This makes it one of a kind, especially at a time when the global economy is being faced with a potential catastrophe.

On the issue, Waslen is of the opinion that in the short-to-medium term, global markets will most likely be defined by cash infusions to industries that are currently under siege. He also believes that with precious metals continuing to showcase steady growth as stocks fall, Bitcoin too will rise and fall with the same macro events affecting traditional markets along with other factors like the upcoming halving.

Greenspan, on the other hand, told Cointelegraph that the events that are currently unfolding are showing the global crypto community at large that Bitcoin was never designed to be a solution for an economic decline and thus its future in relation to this ongoing crisis is still not fully clear:

“Bitcoin was invented as an alternative to fiat money, which is controlled by governments and banks. So, unless the value of fiat money comes into question, I don’t see bitcoin playing any significant role.”

Lastly, Hankey is cautiously optimistic that Bitcoin has the potential to weather the storm it is currently being faced with. He believes that if Bitcoin does survive a major global recession, chances are high that its perception and overall market reputation as a legitimate financial instrument will increase even more.

Simon Peters interview was conducted by Joseph Birch during the London Blockchain Week.

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The post Bitcoin Price Correlates With Traditional Assets, but Not Entirely appeared first on For Crypto.

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Bitcoin Price Correlates With Traditional Assets, but Not Entirely

Since coming to power back in 2016, President Trump seemed to have reinvigorated the United States stock market after it showed signs of slowing down throughout the first half of the previous decade. Just three weeks ago, the American market witnessed a combined gain of 58% compared with the last three or so years. However, following the World Health Organization’s recent declaration of the novel coronavirus pandemic on March 11 — with the independent research body citing 118,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths globally — this rosy picture seems to have reversed almost overnight.

Additionally, ever since news of the medical emergency went live, markets all over the world began to crash at an unprecedented rate, with powerhouse economies such as Australia and India already gearing up for a period of heavy recession.

Not only that, regular office work all over the world has also been disrupted quite heavily — with many companies choosing to adopt work-from-home policies, seriously affecting global supply chains and causing many high-profile public events and major conferences to be cancelled.

The virus effect

In the midst of all this, Bitcoin (BTC) has been on the receiving end of a lot of bearish pressure, with the premier crypto asset falling from $10,000 on Feb. 24, down to $4,800 by March 12. More specifically, Bitcoin’s value slid by more than $3,000 after New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo released a public statement issuing a medical emergency, thus sealing off a one-mile containment area around the NYC suburb of New Rochelle.

Despite the apparent link between BTC’s price drop and the ongoing market slump, some experts believe that the flagship cryptocurrency’s slide has more to do with the recent PlusToken dump and other internal factors rather than the prevailing coronavirus-induced market scare.

Regarding the matter, Bill Herrmann, CEO of alternative investment banking firm Wilshire Phoenix, is of the opinion that Bitcoin’s current negative movement can largely be attributed to the instability of the traditional market. On the subject, he opined: “In times of extreme volatility, which is often followed by panic — most retail investors, whether it’s Bitcoin or in equities, sell first and ask questions later.”

A similar opinion is also shared by Mati Greenspan, founder of Quantum Economics, who told Cointelegraph that it is quite extraordinary that during this period of extreme volatility, “Bitcoin seems to be mirroring stock indices quite concisely.”

However, David Waslen, CEO of HedgeTrade — a blockchain-powered financial trading application — told Cointelegraph that while there is definitely a correlation between Bitcoin’s performance and the traditional market at large, the comparisons are quite limited in nature since a number of niche variables make BTC totally different. Waslen added:

“Bitcoin’s price did react correspondingly to the stock market plunge recently, and continues to correlate to world news announcements. But it also does its own thing, for instance pumping on March 6th while stocks were in a tailspin. It’s also affected by things that have absolutely nothing to do with traditional markets, such as mining, whales, and exchange hacks.”

Is Bitcoin truly an independent store of value?

With Bitcoin seemingly reacting quite strongly to the price corrections being witnessed in stocks, crude, and other commodities, it is worth exploring an answer to the question, “Is BTC really an uncorrelated asset class?”

Greenspan believes the events that are currently unfolding have served a devastating blow to a number of theories that many pro-crypto users gravitate toward whenever the price of BTC rises or falls independently of the traditional stock market:

“This price action is seemingly a damaging blow to two narratives that Bitcoin proponents tend to gravitate to. First, it is an uncorrelated asset class. And second, Bitcoin acting like the stocks during uncertain times means that it is now positioned as a risk asset rather than a safe haven.”

Similarly, Simon Peters, analyst for trading and multi-asset brokerage company eToro, believes that the aforementioned correlation is primarily being witnessed due to the ongoing pandemic underlying the traditional and crypto markets. On the subject, he told Cointelegraph during the London Blockchain Week:

“With coronavirus, it’s not a geopolitical issue as such. It’s a global pandemic. That’s where I think the argument for crypto is, in that area where we see a change in the monetary policy of central banks or an increase in liquidity in the markets.”

Lastly, Brian Hankey, co-founder of Cache, a provider of gold-backed tokens, told Cointelegraph that while gold and silver may be looking at short-term losses, in the medium-to-long term, they will continue to be looked at as good investment avenues. Additionally, he further pointed out that owing to the various industrial use cases associated with silver, the precious metal has a lot of potential upside.

Covid-19 has heavily skewed market indicators

Despite Bitcoin showcasing a mild tendency to start tracking traditional markets from time to time — if not testing some sort of relative correlational patterns — cryptocurrencies are still widely perceived to be a unique kind of uncorrelated, asymmetrical asset class.

However, since a flow of value to crypto has to occur from traditional markets, there is quite obviously a link there. On the subject, Glenn Benavides, co-founder of the Global Crypto Alliance — an organization comprising of experienced professionals with expertise in business development and blockchain ecosystems — told Cointelegraph:

“We saw Bitcoin move positively together with Gold and the S&P500 in the previous months. Now we see Crypto crashing as the rest of the world crashes during the COVID-19 panic. This does not mean Crypto will start behaving as a totally correlated asset from this moment. But, we can expect some more correlation from now on, in my opinion, as Crypto is plugged into traditional markets in order to fuel them.”

Speaking on Bitcoin’s role as a store of value that could rival conventional safe havens such as gold and silver, Jaian Cuttari, CEO at financial services ecosystem BDAM Foundation, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin has failed to live up to its expectations, since many from within the crypto community believed that while markets all over the world were sliding, the premier digital currency would be able to weather the storm and thus serve as the perfect long-term investment vehicle for many, adding:

“It simply is not a viable investment as many had believed. Bitcoin is very controlled by a few groups of large holders. This puts Bitcoin at greater risk of rapid value loss. This can be seen by the $30 billion dollar wipe out on btc market cap in 3 days. This is not normal and shows sophisticated sell offs from high volume holders are bringing btc to historic lows once again.”

Lastly, it bears mentioning that up until March 8, Bitcoin had managed to hold onto most of its value amid the sharp sell-off in equities, oil and most other markets. The only other commodity that proved to be more resilient was gold, with the precious metal trading near its seven-year high levels recently.

The broader cryptocurrency market finally saw a steep liquidation on Thursday and Friday when most digital currencies saw a downward correction of 20% to 40%. Ultimately, Bitcoin has followed the rest of the financial markets lower in response to the coronavirus crisis, albeit with a lag time of about two weeks.

Is a global recession right around the corner or are we in the midst of one?

Even before the threat of Covid-19 started to disrupt supply chains all over the world, there was a looming fear that the global financial system was on the verge of a full-blown recession. Now that the coronavirus has forced a number of markets to slow down considerably, a whole host of experts believe that the effects of a global economic slowdown are starting to show.

Expounding his views on the matter, Hankey is of the opinion that there is a strong possibility that a recession-type scenario could be real as “It’s clear that the global financial system is extremely overburdened by debt,” due to the fact that years of low-interest rates have fuelled clearly reckless malinvestment, adding:

“Many stocks have obscenely high P/E ratios (if they have any earnings at all). It’s unclear what the catalyst will be or if it has occured yet. It may or may not be the Coronavirus. In any case, I think it’s hardly controversial to say that we’re long overdue for a major recession.”

It is also important to point out that the Federal Reserve’s recent $1.5 trillion liquidity injection into the market — after Wall Street circuit breakers went off twice this week — seems to be a clear signal that the coronavirus panic is being taken seriously and a global recession might be around the corner.

However, not everybody seems to agree with the hypothesis that a bear market is here to stay. In this regard, Cuttari believes that as things stand, it is the virus scare rather than a market recession that is causing all of the ongoing economic chaos. Similarly, Benavides also is of the opinion that a relative crisis that is affecting some networks of institutions and traditional organizations, but not a global recession per se:

“I don’t see a real recession, but many new powerful groups replacing the old ones, as new forms of value take the place of the traditional ones. In my opinion, Bitcoin and crypto will fuel a big portion of this revolution.”

What does the future hold for the crypto market?

With central banks all over the world lowering benchmark rates en masse and steering toward negative interest rates, it may be hard to think positively about the world economy at the moment.

However, unlike other times in the past when the only way out for the masses was to depend on traditional monetary systems, this time around there is an option to turn to the crypto market. The crypto ecosystem serves a global audience and has provided the masses with peer-to-peer trading capabilities. This makes it one of a kind, especially at a time when the global economy is being faced with a potential catastrophe.

On the issue, Waslen is of the opinion that in the short-to-medium term, global markets will most likely be defined by cash infusions to industries that are currently under siege. He also believes that with precious metals continuing to showcase steady growth as stocks fall, Bitcoin too will rise and fall with the same macro events affecting traditional markets along with other factors like the upcoming halving.

Greenspan, on the other hand, told Cointelegraph that the events that are currently unfolding are showing the global crypto community at large that Bitcoin was never designed to be a solution for an economic decline and thus its future in relation to this ongoing crisis is still not fully clear:

“Bitcoin was invented as an alternative to fiat money, which is controlled by governments and banks. So, unless the value of fiat money comes into question, I don’t see bitcoin playing any significant role.”

Lastly, Hankey is cautiously optimistic that Bitcoin has the potential to weather the storm it is currently being faced with. He believes that if Bitcoin does survive a major global recession, chances are high that its perception and overall market reputation as a legitimate financial instrument will increase even more.

Simon Peters interview was conducted by Joseph Birch during the London Blockchain Week.

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The post Bitcoin Price Correlates With Traditional Assets, but Not Entirely appeared first on CoinRetreat.

from CoinRetreat https://ift.tt/38Py2hG

Bitcoin Price Correlates With Traditional Assets, but Not Entirely

Since coming to power back in 2016, President Trump seemed to have reinvigorated the United States stock market after it showed signs of slowing down throughout the first half of the previous decade. Just three weeks ago, the American market witnessed a combined gain of 58% compared with the last three or so years. However, following the World Health Organization’s recent declaration of the novel coronavirus pandemic on March 11 — with the independent research body citing 118,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths globally — this rosy picture seems to have reversed almost overnight.

Additionally, ever since news of the medical emergency went live, markets all over the world began to crash at an unprecedented rate, with powerhouse economies such as Australia and India already gearing up for a period of heavy recession.

Not only that, regular office work all over the world has also been disrupted quite heavily — with many companies choosing to adopt work-from-home policies, seriously affecting global supply chains and causing many high-profile public events and major conferences to be cancelled.

The virus effect

In the midst of all this, Bitcoin (BTC) has been on the receiving end of a lot of bearish pressure, with the premier crypto asset falling from $10,000 on Feb. 24, down to $4,800 by March 12. More specifically, Bitcoin’s value slid by more than $3,000 after New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo released a public statement issuing a medical emergency, thus sealing off a one-mile containment area around the NYC suburb of New Rochelle.

Despite the apparent link between BTC’s price drop and the ongoing market slump, some experts believe that the flagship cryptocurrency’s slide has more to do with the recent PlusToken dump and other internal factors rather than the prevailing coronavirus-induced market scare.

Regarding the matter, Bill Herrmann, CEO of alternative investment banking firm Wilshire Phoenix, is of the opinion that Bitcoin’s current negative movement can largely be attributed to the instability of the traditional market. On the subject, he opined: “In times of extreme volatility, which is often followed by panic — most retail investors, whether it’s Bitcoin or in equities, sell first and ask questions later.”

A similar opinion is also shared by Mati Greenspan, founder of Quantum Economics, who told Cointelegraph that it is quite extraordinary that during this period of extreme volatility, “Bitcoin seems to be mirroring stock indices quite concisely.”

However, David Waslen, CEO of HedgeTrade — a blockchain-powered financial trading application — told Cointelegraph that while there is definitely a correlation between Bitcoin’s performance and the traditional market at large, the comparisons are quite limited in nature since a number of niche variables make BTC totally different. Waslen added:

“Bitcoin’s price did react correspondingly to the stock market plunge recently, and continues to correlate to world news announcements. But it also does its own thing, for instance pumping on March 6th while stocks were in a tailspin. It’s also affected by things that have absolutely nothing to do with traditional markets, such as mining, whales, and exchange hacks.”

Is Bitcoin truly an independent store of value?

With Bitcoin seemingly reacting quite strongly to the price corrections being witnessed in stocks, crude, and other commodities, it is worth exploring an answer to the question, “Is BTC really an uncorrelated asset class?”

Greenspan believes the events that are currently unfolding have served a devastating blow to a number of theories that many pro-crypto users gravitate toward whenever the price of BTC rises or falls independently of the traditional stock market:

“This price action is seemingly a damaging blow to two narratives that Bitcoin proponents tend to gravitate to. First, it is an uncorrelated asset class. And second, Bitcoin acting like the stocks during uncertain times means that it is now positioned as a risk asset rather than a safe haven.”

Similarly, Simon Peters, analyst for trading and multi-asset brokerage company eToro, believes that the aforementioned correlation is primarily being witnessed due to the ongoing pandemic underlying the traditional and crypto markets. On the subject, he told Cointelegraph during the London Blockchain Week:

“With coronavirus, it’s not a geopolitical issue as such. It’s a global pandemic. That’s where I think the argument for crypto is, in that area where we see a change in the monetary policy of central banks or an increase in liquidity in the markets.”

Lastly, Brian Hankey, co-founder of Cache, a provider of gold-backed tokens, told Cointelegraph that while gold and silver may be looking at short-term losses, in the medium-to-long term, they will continue to be looked at as good investment avenues. Additionally, he further pointed out that owing to the various industrial use cases associated with silver, the precious metal has a lot of potential upside.

Covid-19 has heavily skewed market indicators

Despite Bitcoin showcasing a mild tendency to start tracking traditional markets from time to time — if not testing some sort of relative correlational patterns — cryptocurrencies are still widely perceived to be a unique kind of uncorrelated, asymmetrical asset class.

However, since a flow of value to crypto has to occur from traditional markets, there is quite obviously a link there. On the subject, Glenn Benavides, co-founder of the Global Crypto Alliance — an organization comprising of experienced professionals with expertise in business development and blockchain ecosystems — told Cointelegraph:

“We saw Bitcoin move positively together with Gold and the S&P500 in the previous months. Now we see Crypto crashing as the rest of the world crashes during the COVID-19 panic. This does not mean Crypto will start behaving as a totally correlated asset from this moment. But, we can expect some more correlation from now on, in my opinion, as Crypto is plugged into traditional markets in order to fuel them.”

Speaking on Bitcoin’s role as a store of value that could rival conventional safe havens such as gold and silver, Jaian Cuttari, CEO at financial services ecosystem BDAM Foundation, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin has failed to live up to its expectations, since many from within the crypto community believed that while markets all over the world were sliding, the premier digital currency would be able to weather the storm and thus serve as the perfect long-term investment vehicle for many, adding:

“It simply is not a viable investment as many had believed. Bitcoin is very controlled by a few groups of large holders. This puts Bitcoin at greater risk of rapid value loss. This can be seen by the $30 billion dollar wipe out on btc market cap in 3 days. This is not normal and shows sophisticated sell offs from high volume holders are bringing btc to historic lows once again.”

Lastly, it bears mentioning that up until March 8, Bitcoin had managed to hold onto most of its value amid the sharp sell-off in equities, oil and most other markets. The only other commodity that proved to be more resilient was gold, with the precious metal trading near its seven-year high levels recently.

The broader cryptocurrency market finally saw a steep liquidation on Thursday and Friday when most digital currencies saw a downward correction of 20% to 40%. Ultimately, Bitcoin has followed the rest of the financial markets lower in response to the coronavirus crisis, albeit with a lag time of about two weeks.

Is a global recession right around the corner or are we in the midst of one?

Even before the threat of Covid-19 started to disrupt supply chains all over the world, there was a looming fear that the global financial system was on the verge of a full-blown recession. Now that the coronavirus has forced a number of markets to slow down considerably, a whole host of experts believe that the effects of a global economic slowdown are starting to show.

Expounding his views on the matter, Hankey is of the opinion that there is a strong possibility that a recession-type scenario could be real as “It’s clear that the global financial system is extremely overburdened by debt,” due to the fact that years of low-interest rates have fuelled clearly reckless malinvestment, adding:

“Many stocks have obscenely high P/E ratios (if they have any earnings at all). It’s unclear what the catalyst will be or if it has occured yet. It may or may not be the Coronavirus. In any case, I think it’s hardly controversial to say that we’re long overdue for a major recession.”

It is also important to point out that the Federal Reserve’s recent $1.5 trillion liquidity injection into the market — after Wall Street circuit breakers went off twice this week — seems to be a clear signal that the coronavirus panic is being taken seriously and a global recession might be around the corner.

However, not everybody seems to agree with the hypothesis that a bear market is here to stay. In this regard, Cuttari believes that as things stand, it is the virus scare rather than a market recession that is causing all of the ongoing economic chaos. Similarly, Benavides also is of the opinion that a relative crisis that is affecting some networks of institutions and traditional organizations, but not a global recession per se:

“I don’t see a real recession, but many new powerful groups replacing the old ones, as new forms of value take the place of the traditional ones. In my opinion, Bitcoin and crypto will fuel a big portion of this revolution.”

What does the future hold for the crypto market?

With central banks all over the world lowering benchmark rates en masse and steering toward negative interest rates, it may be hard to think positively about the world economy at the moment.

However, unlike other times in the past when the only way out for the masses was to depend on traditional monetary systems, this time around there is an option to turn to the crypto market. The crypto ecosystem serves a global audience and has provided the masses with peer-to-peer trading capabilities. This makes it one of a kind, especially at a time when the global economy is being faced with a potential catastrophe.

On the issue, Waslen is of the opinion that in the short-to-medium term, global markets will most likely be defined by cash infusions to industries that are currently under siege. He also believes that with precious metals continuing to showcase steady growth as stocks fall, Bitcoin too will rise and fall with the same macro events affecting traditional markets along with other factors like the upcoming halving.

Greenspan, on the other hand, told Cointelegraph that the events that are currently unfolding are showing the global crypto community at large that Bitcoin was never designed to be a solution for an economic decline and thus its future in relation to this ongoing crisis is still not fully clear:

“Bitcoin was invented as an alternative to fiat money, which is controlled by governments and banks. So, unless the value of fiat money comes into question, I don’t see bitcoin playing any significant role.”

Lastly, Hankey is cautiously optimistic that Bitcoin has the potential to weather the storm it is currently being faced with. He believes that if Bitcoin does survive a major global recession, chances are high that its perception and overall market reputation as a legitimate financial instrument will increase even more.

Simon Peters interview was conducted by Joseph Birch during the London Blockchain Week.

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The post Bitcoin Price Correlates With Traditional Assets, but Not Entirely appeared first on Tip Crypto.

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Bitcoin Price Correlates With Traditional Assets, but Not Entirely

Since coming to power back in 2016, President Trump seemed to have reinvigorated the United States stock market after it showed signs of slowing down throughout the first half of the previous decade. Just three weeks ago, the American market witnessed a combined gain of 58% compared with the last three or so years. However, following the World Health Organization’s recent declaration of the novel coronavirus pandemic on March 11 — with the independent research body citing 118,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths globally — this rosy picture seems to have reversed almost overnight.

Additionally, ever since news of the medical emergency went live, markets all over the world began to crash at an unprecedented rate, with powerhouse economies such as Australia and India already gearing up for a period of heavy recession.

Not only that, regular office work all over the world has also been disrupted quite heavily — with many companies choosing to adopt work-from-home policies, seriously affecting global supply chains and causing many high-profile public events and major conferences to be cancelled.

The virus effect

In the midst of all this, Bitcoin (BTC) has been on the receiving end of a lot of bearish pressure, with the premier crypto asset falling from $10,000 on Feb. 24, down to $4,800 by March 12. More specifically, Bitcoin’s value slid by more than $3,000 after New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo released a public statement issuing a medical emergency, thus sealing off a one-mile containment area around the NYC suburb of New Rochelle.

Despite the apparent link between BTC’s price drop and the ongoing market slump, some experts believe that the flagship cryptocurrency’s slide has more to do with the recent PlusToken dump and other internal factors rather than the prevailing coronavirus-induced market scare.

Regarding the matter, Bill Herrmann, CEO of alternative investment banking firm Wilshire Phoenix, is of the opinion that Bitcoin’s current negative movement can largely be attributed to the instability of the traditional market. On the subject, he opined: “In times of extreme volatility, which is often followed by panic — most retail investors, whether it’s Bitcoin or in equities, sell first and ask questions later.”

A similar opinion is also shared by Mati Greenspan, founder of Quantum Economics, who told Cointelegraph that it is quite extraordinary that during this period of extreme volatility, “Bitcoin seems to be mirroring stock indices quite concisely.”

However, David Waslen, CEO of HedgeTrade — a blockchain-powered financial trading application — told Cointelegraph that while there is definitely a correlation between Bitcoin’s performance and the traditional market at large, the comparisons are quite limited in nature since a number of niche variables make BTC totally different. Waslen added:

“Bitcoin’s price did react correspondingly to the stock market plunge recently, and continues to correlate to world news announcements. But it also does its own thing, for instance pumping on March 6th while stocks were in a tailspin. It’s also affected by things that have absolutely nothing to do with traditional markets, such as mining, whales, and exchange hacks.”

Is Bitcoin truly an independent store of value?

With Bitcoin seemingly reacting quite strongly to the price corrections being witnessed in stocks, crude, and other commodities, it is worth exploring an answer to the question, “Is BTC really an uncorrelated asset class?”

Greenspan believes the events that are currently unfolding have served a devastating blow to a number of theories that many pro-crypto users gravitate toward whenever the price of BTC rises or falls independently of the traditional stock market:

“This price action is seemingly a damaging blow to two narratives that Bitcoin proponents tend to gravitate to. First, it is an uncorrelated asset class. And second, Bitcoin acting like the stocks during uncertain times means that it is now positioned as a risk asset rather than a safe haven.”

Similarly, Simon Peters, analyst for trading and multi-asset brokerage company eToro, believes that the aforementioned correlation is primarily being witnessed due to the ongoing pandemic underlying the traditional and crypto markets. On the subject, he told Cointelegraph during the London Blockchain Week:

“With coronavirus, it’s not a geopolitical issue as such. It’s a global pandemic. That’s where I think the argument for crypto is, in that area where we see a change in the monetary policy of central banks or an increase in liquidity in the markets.”

Lastly, Brian Hankey, co-founder of Cache, a provider of gold-backed tokens, told Cointelegraph that while gold and silver may be looking at short-term losses, in the medium-to-long term, they will continue to be looked at as good investment avenues. Additionally, he further pointed out that owing to the various industrial use cases associated with silver, the precious metal has a lot of potential upside.

Covid-19 has heavily skewed market indicators

Despite Bitcoin showcasing a mild tendency to start tracking traditional markets from time to time — if not testing some sort of relative correlational patterns — cryptocurrencies are still widely perceived to be a unique kind of uncorrelated, asymmetrical asset class.

However, since a flow of value to crypto has to occur from traditional markets, there is quite obviously a link there. On the subject, Glenn Benavides, co-founder of the Global Crypto Alliance — an organization comprising of experienced professionals with expertise in business development and blockchain ecosystems — told Cointelegraph:

“We saw Bitcoin move positively together with Gold and the S&P500 in the previous months. Now we see Crypto crashing as the rest of the world crashes during the COVID-19 panic. This does not mean Crypto will start behaving as a totally correlated asset from this moment. But, we can expect some more correlation from now on, in my opinion, as Crypto is plugged into traditional markets in order to fuel them.”

Speaking on Bitcoin’s role as a store of value that could rival conventional safe havens such as gold and silver, Jaian Cuttari, CEO at financial services ecosystem BDAM Foundation, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin has failed to live up to its expectations, since many from within the crypto community believed that while markets all over the world were sliding, the premier digital currency would be able to weather the storm and thus serve as the perfect long-term investment vehicle for many, adding:

“It simply is not a viable investment as many had believed. Bitcoin is very controlled by a few groups of large holders. This puts Bitcoin at greater risk of rapid value loss. This can be seen by the $30 billion dollar wipe out on btc market cap in 3 days. This is not normal and shows sophisticated sell offs from high volume holders are bringing btc to historic lows once again.”

Lastly, it bears mentioning that up until March 8, Bitcoin had managed to hold onto most of its value amid the sharp sell-off in equities, oil and most other markets. The only other commodity that proved to be more resilient was gold, with the precious metal trading near its seven-year high levels recently.

The broader cryptocurrency market finally saw a steep liquidation on Thursday and Friday when most digital currencies saw a downward correction of 20% to 40%. Ultimately, Bitcoin has followed the rest of the financial markets lower in response to the coronavirus crisis, albeit with a lag time of about two weeks.

Is a global recession right around the corner or are we in the midst of one?

Even before the threat of Covid-19 started to disrupt supply chains all over the world, there was a looming fear that the global financial system was on the verge of a full-blown recession. Now that the coronavirus has forced a number of markets to slow down considerably, a whole host of experts believe that the effects of a global economic slowdown are starting to show.

Expounding his views on the matter, Hankey is of the opinion that there is a strong possibility that a recession-type scenario could be real as “It’s clear that the global financial system is extremely overburdened by debt,” due to the fact that years of low-interest rates have fuelled clearly reckless malinvestment, adding:

“Many stocks have obscenely high P/E ratios (if they have any earnings at all). It’s unclear what the catalyst will be or if it has occured yet. It may or may not be the Coronavirus. In any case, I think it’s hardly controversial to say that we’re long overdue for a major recession.”

It is also important to point out that the Federal Reserve’s recent $1.5 trillion liquidity injection into the market — after Wall Street circuit breakers went off twice this week — seems to be a clear signal that the coronavirus panic is being taken seriously and a global recession might be around the corner.

However, not everybody seems to agree with the hypothesis that a bear market is here to stay. In this regard, Cuttari believes that as things stand, it is the virus scare rather than a market recession that is causing all of the ongoing economic chaos. Similarly, Benavides also is of the opinion that a relative crisis that is affecting some networks of institutions and traditional organizations, but not a global recession per se:

“I don’t see a real recession, but many new powerful groups replacing the old ones, as new forms of value take the place of the traditional ones. In my opinion, Bitcoin and crypto will fuel a big portion of this revolution.”

What does the future hold for the crypto market?

With central banks all over the world lowering benchmark rates en masse and steering toward negative interest rates, it may be hard to think positively about the world economy at the moment.

However, unlike other times in the past when the only way out for the masses was to depend on traditional monetary systems, this time around there is an option to turn to the crypto market. The crypto ecosystem serves a global audience and has provided the masses with peer-to-peer trading capabilities. This makes it one of a kind, especially at a time when the global economy is being faced with a potential catastrophe.

On the issue, Waslen is of the opinion that in the short-to-medium term, global markets will most likely be defined by cash infusions to industries that are currently under siege. He also believes that with precious metals continuing to showcase steady growth as stocks fall, Bitcoin too will rise and fall with the same macro events affecting traditional markets along with other factors like the upcoming halving.

Greenspan, on the other hand, told Cointelegraph that the events that are currently unfolding are showing the global crypto community at large that Bitcoin was never designed to be a solution for an economic decline and thus its future in relation to this ongoing crisis is still not fully clear:

“Bitcoin was invented as an alternative to fiat money, which is controlled by governments and banks. So, unless the value of fiat money comes into question, I don’t see bitcoin playing any significant role.”

Lastly, Hankey is cautiously optimistic that Bitcoin has the potential to weather the storm it is currently being faced with. He believes that if Bitcoin does survive a major global recession, chances are high that its perception and overall market reputation as a legitimate financial instrument will increase even more.

Simon Peters interview was conducted by Joseph Birch during the London Blockchain Week.

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Bitcoin Price Correlates With Traditional Assets, but Not Entirely

Since coming to power back in 2016, President Trump seemed to have reinvigorated the United States stock market after it showed signs of slowing down throughout the first half of the previous decade. Just three weeks ago, the American market witnessed a combined gain of 58% compared with the last three or so years. However, following the World Health Organization’s recent declaration of the novel coronavirus pandemic on March 11 — with the independent research body citing 118,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths globally — this rosy picture seems to have reversed almost overnight.

Additionally, ever since news of the medical emergency went live, markets all over the world began to crash at an unprecedented rate, with powerhouse economies such as Australia and India already gearing up for a period of heavy recession.

Not only that, regular office work all over the world has also been disrupted quite heavily — with many companies choosing to adopt work-from-home policies, seriously affecting global supply chains and causing many high-profile public events and major conferences to be cancelled.

The virus effect

In the midst of all this, Bitcoin (BTC) has been on the receiving end of a lot of bearish pressure, with the premier crypto asset falling from $10,000 on Feb. 24, down to $4,800 by March 12. More specifically, Bitcoin’s value slid by more than $3,000 after New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo released a public statement issuing a medical emergency, thus sealing off a one-mile containment area around the NYC suburb of New Rochelle.

Despite the apparent link between BTC’s price drop and the ongoing market slump, some experts believe that the flagship cryptocurrency’s slide has more to do with the recent PlusToken dump and other internal factors rather than the prevailing coronavirus-induced market scare.

Regarding the matter, Bill Herrmann, CEO of alternative investment banking firm Wilshire Phoenix, is of the opinion that Bitcoin’s current negative movement can largely be attributed to the instability of the traditional market. On the subject, he opined: “In times of extreme volatility, which is often followed by panic — most retail investors, whether it’s Bitcoin or in equities, sell first and ask questions later.”

A similar opinion is also shared by Mati Greenspan, founder of Quantum Economics, who told Cointelegraph that it is quite extraordinary that during this period of extreme volatility, “Bitcoin seems to be mirroring stock indices quite concisely.”

However, David Waslen, CEO of HedgeTrade — a blockchain-powered financial trading application — told Cointelegraph that while there is definitely a correlation between Bitcoin’s performance and the traditional market at large, the comparisons are quite limited in nature since a number of niche variables make BTC totally different. Waslen added:

“Bitcoin’s price did react correspondingly to the stock market plunge recently, and continues to correlate to world news announcements. But it also does its own thing, for instance pumping on March 6th while stocks were in a tailspin. It’s also affected by things that have absolutely nothing to do with traditional markets, such as mining, whales, and exchange hacks.”

Is Bitcoin truly an independent store of value?

With Bitcoin seemingly reacting quite strongly to the price corrections being witnessed in stocks, crude, and other commodities, it is worth exploring an answer to the question, “Is BTC really an uncorrelated asset class?”

Greenspan believes the events that are currently unfolding have served a devastating blow to a number of theories that many pro-crypto users gravitate toward whenever the price of BTC rises or falls independently of the traditional stock market:

“This price action is seemingly a damaging blow to two narratives that Bitcoin proponents tend to gravitate to. First, it is an uncorrelated asset class. And second, Bitcoin acting like the stocks during uncertain times means that it is now positioned as a risk asset rather than a safe haven.”

Similarly, Simon Peters, analyst for trading and multi-asset brokerage company eToro, believes that the aforementioned correlation is primarily being witnessed due to the ongoing pandemic underlying the traditional and crypto markets. On the subject, he told Cointelegraph during the London Blockchain Week:

“With coronavirus, it’s not a geopolitical issue as such. It’s a global pandemic. That’s where I think the argument for crypto is, in that area where we see a change in the monetary policy of central banks or an increase in liquidity in the markets.”

Lastly, Brian Hankey, co-founder of Cache, a provider of gold-backed tokens, told Cointelegraph that while gold and silver may be looking at short-term losses, in the medium-to-long term, they will continue to be looked at as good investment avenues. Additionally, he further pointed out that owing to the various industrial use cases associated with silver, the precious metal has a lot of potential upside.

Covid-19 has heavily skewed market indicators

Despite Bitcoin showcasing a mild tendency to start tracking traditional markets from time to time — if not testing some sort of relative correlational patterns — cryptocurrencies are still widely perceived to be a unique kind of uncorrelated, asymmetrical asset class.

However, since a flow of value to crypto has to occur from traditional markets, there is quite obviously a link there. On the subject, Glenn Benavides, co-founder of the Global Crypto Alliance — an organization comprising of experienced professionals with expertise in business development and blockchain ecosystems — told Cointelegraph:

“We saw Bitcoin move positively together with Gold and the S&P500 in the previous months. Now we see Crypto crashing as the rest of the world crashes during the COVID-19 panic. This does not mean Crypto will start behaving as a totally correlated asset from this moment. But, we can expect some more correlation from now on, in my opinion, as Crypto is plugged into traditional markets in order to fuel them.”

Speaking on Bitcoin’s role as a store of value that could rival conventional safe havens such as gold and silver, Jaian Cuttari, CEO at financial services ecosystem BDAM Foundation, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin has failed to live up to its expectations, since many from within the crypto community believed that while markets all over the world were sliding, the premier digital currency would be able to weather the storm and thus serve as the perfect long-term investment vehicle for many, adding:

“It simply is not a viable investment as many had believed. Bitcoin is very controlled by a few groups of large holders. This puts Bitcoin at greater risk of rapid value loss. This can be seen by the $30 billion dollar wipe out on btc market cap in 3 days. This is not normal and shows sophisticated sell offs from high volume holders are bringing btc to historic lows once again.”

Lastly, it bears mentioning that up until March 8, Bitcoin had managed to hold onto most of its value amid the sharp sell-off in equities, oil and most other markets. The only other commodity that proved to be more resilient was gold, with the precious metal trading near its seven-year high levels recently.

The broader cryptocurrency market finally saw a steep liquidation on Thursday and Friday when most digital currencies saw a downward correction of 20% to 40%. Ultimately, Bitcoin has followed the rest of the financial markets lower in response to the coronavirus crisis, albeit with a lag time of about two weeks.

Is a global recession right around the corner or are we in the midst of one?

Even before the threat of Covid-19 started to disrupt supply chains all over the world, there was a looming fear that the global financial system was on the verge of a full-blown recession. Now that the coronavirus has forced a number of markets to slow down considerably, a whole host of experts believe that the effects of a global economic slowdown are starting to show.

Expounding his views on the matter, Hankey is of the opinion that there is a strong possibility that a recession-type scenario could be real as “It’s clear that the global financial system is extremely overburdened by debt,” due to the fact that years of low-interest rates have fuelled clearly reckless malinvestment, adding:

“Many stocks have obscenely high P/E ratios (if they have any earnings at all). It’s unclear what the catalyst will be or if it has occured yet. It may or may not be the Coronavirus. In any case, I think it’s hardly controversial to say that we’re long overdue for a major recession.”

It is also important to point out that the Federal Reserve’s recent $1.5 trillion liquidity injection into the market — after Wall Street circuit breakers went off twice this week — seems to be a clear signal that the coronavirus panic is being taken seriously and a global recession might be around the corner.

However, not everybody seems to agree with the hypothesis that a bear market is here to stay. In this regard, Cuttari believes that as things stand, it is the virus scare rather than a market recession that is causing all of the ongoing economic chaos. Similarly, Benavides also is of the opinion that a relative crisis that is affecting some networks of institutions and traditional organizations, but not a global recession per se:

“I don’t see a real recession, but many new powerful groups replacing the old ones, as new forms of value take the place of the traditional ones. In my opinion, Bitcoin and crypto will fuel a big portion of this revolution.”

What does the future hold for the crypto market?

With central banks all over the world lowering benchmark rates en masse and steering toward negative interest rates, it may be hard to think positively about the world economy at the moment.

However, unlike other times in the past when the only way out for the masses was to depend on traditional monetary systems, this time around there is an option to turn to the crypto market. The crypto ecosystem serves a global audience and has provided the masses with peer-to-peer trading capabilities. This makes it one of a kind, especially at a time when the global economy is being faced with a potential catastrophe.

On the issue, Waslen is of the opinion that in the short-to-medium term, global markets will most likely be defined by cash infusions to industries that are currently under siege. He also believes that with precious metals continuing to showcase steady growth as stocks fall, Bitcoin too will rise and fall with the same macro events affecting traditional markets along with other factors like the upcoming halving.

Greenspan, on the other hand, told Cointelegraph that the events that are currently unfolding are showing the global crypto community at large that Bitcoin was never designed to be a solution for an economic decline and thus its future in relation to this ongoing crisis is still not fully clear:

“Bitcoin was invented as an alternative to fiat money, which is controlled by governments and banks. So, unless the value of fiat money comes into question, I don’t see bitcoin playing any significant role.”

Lastly, Hankey is cautiously optimistic that Bitcoin has the potential to weather the storm it is currently being faced with. He believes that if Bitcoin does survive a major global recession, chances are high that its perception and overall market reputation as a legitimate financial instrument will increase even more.

Simon Peters interview was conducted by Joseph Birch during the London Blockchain Week.

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St. Thomas Attempts a Leap From Division III to Division I

ST. PAUL, Minn. — In Division III college football, few rivalries match the one between the University of St. Thomas and St. John’s University, two Catholic institutions in Minnesota. Their football games have long attracted some of the largest crowds and cheekiest T-shirts in Division III. That showed last month when an overflow crowd of 19,508 fans jammed Allianz Field, home to Minnesota United of Major League Soccer, for the annual game between the Tommies and the Johnnies.

On a warm, sunny fall day, the atmosphere sizzled. Enthusiastic St. Thomas students in purple-and-white scarves filled a section behind one end zone, where United’s chanting, singing regulars normally stand. On the Great Lawn north of the stadium, hundreds of fans in Johnnie red and Tommie purple mingled around beer tents and sampled burgers and tacos from food trucks.

Tommie fans left doubly disappointed, first by the 38-20 loss to St. John’s, and second knowing that this rivalry — which dates to Thanksgiving Day of 1901 — may be ending.

St. Thomas announced last spring that it was leaving the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, its home since the conference’s founding in 1920. U.S.T. chose to depart before the conference’s members — who made their intentions of booting the university clear — voted to kick out the school to make the league more equitable.

Last season, the U.S.T. men’s and women’s athletics programs won the MIAC All-Sports Trophies — an award given to the university with the best collective finishes across all varsity sports — for the 12th consecutive year.

That run was not a surprise. St. Thomas spends more on athletics — about $4.9 million in 2017-18, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Education — than any other MIAC school. Its undergraduate enrollment of about 6,200 is twice that of its nearest MIAC competitor. Two years ago, its football team routed three conference opponents by a combined score of 244-0.

In the eyes of their peers, the Tommies are too good for their own good. The MIAC allowed St. Thomas to remain through the 2020-21 season while it found a new home.

Yet instead of seeking another Division III conference, St. Thomas chose a bold, unusual path: petitioning the N.C.A.A. for a waiver to reclassify directly to Division I in 2021. The transition normally takes 12 years, including a minimum of five years of competition in Division II.

The N.C.A.A. requires a conference invitation for reclassification, and U.S.T. secured one from the Summit League, a nine-school, mid-major Division I conference in the Midwest that sponsors most sports U.S.T. plays, except football and hockey.

“Why they didn’t move up sooner to Division II is beyond me,” said Summit League Commissioner Tom Douple. “We felt it was an excellent fit for us.”

In 2011, the N.C.A.A. prohibited teams from jumping directly from Division III to Division I, believing that the differences in structure, rules, staffing and revenue needs required a lengthy adjustment period, an N.C.A.A. spokeswoman, Meghan Durham, said. The biggest difference: Division III bans athletic scholarships.

Neither Durham nor Douple could recall any Division III school moving directly to Division I before the N.C.A.A. explicitly banned it.

But in mid-October, the N.C.A.A. Division I Council, spurred in part by the St. Thomas application, agreed to study a potential direct pathway from Division III to Division I. Whether that helps U.S.T.’s argument is unclear. Key rulings on a waiver for U.S.T. could come in January at the next Division I Council meeting, Douple said, though its decisions are more likely to come in April.

“One of the things we knew from the beginning is, it’s a difficult task, a daunting task, but it’s one we feel is worthwhile,” said Douple, who guided four current Summit League members through reclassification from Division II to Division I. “We feel we do have a compelling case, one we can hopefully work through the committees and bring to fruition.”

The Summit League and U.S.T. prefer an answer by April, Douple said, to plan schedules for 2021-22. U.S.T. Athletic Director Phil Esten, who was previously an athletics administrator at Penn State, California, Ohio State and Minnesota, would not predict how the N.C.A.A. might rule.

“It’s an extraordinary situation,” said Esten, a former Tommies baseball player. “The circumstances are as extenuating as I think anybody can imagine.”

Once St. Thomas exhausted efforts last summer to remain in the MIAC, the university’s president, Julie Sullivan, appointed an 18-member task force to determine what to do next. Esten contacted conferences in all three divisions.

“We were primarily looking at Division II and Division III options because we didn’t think there was a Division I option,” Sullivan said. “When the Summit League expressed an interest, they seemed like a really good fit for a number of reasons.”

Douple said he had heard “rumblings” last spring about U.S.T.’s possible expulsion from the MIAC, and a mutual friend set up an introduction to school officials. Impressed by the university’s profile, including an alumni base of 110,000 and a $519 million endowment, Douple visited the campus in April while in Minneapolis for the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball Final Four. The school’s Twin Cities location was another plus.

St. Thomas’s undergraduate enrollment is similar to several Catholic universities in the Midwest, including Notre Dame (8,576), Marquette (8,335), Saint Louis (7,411) and Creighton (4,255). All, Sullivan noted, play in Division I.

This is not the first time St. Thomas has considered moving up. In 2005, the university’s trustees hired an outside firm to explore a move to Division I in hockey, but the estimated costs of travel, scholarships and facilities proved prohibitive.

Things have changed since then. U.S.T.’s endowment has almost doubled. A move to the Summit League, Esten said, would not be as costly as joining one of the so-called Power Five conferences. Esten declined to estimate U.S.T.’s budget in Division I, though it is likely to at least triple to account for scholarships, additional staff members and travel.

“The budget increase is not as large as some people might imagine it would be,” Esten said. “I’m coming from a $170 million budget at Penn State. That’s not what Summit League budgets are.”

Those ranged from $11 million to $28 million in 2017-18, according to the USA Today N.C.A.A. Finances database. By comparison, Augustana, a private university in Sioux Falls, S.D., that is moving to Division I from Division II with an eye on the Summit League, expects its athletic budget to rise from $10 million — double that of U.S.T. — to about $16 million once its reclassification is complete, said Josh Morton, its athletic director. The school also hired its first associate athletic director for development to lead fund-raising.

St. Thomas would still need to find leagues for its football and hockey teams. If the waiver is approved, Esten plans to approach the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League — which is in Division I and includes schools known for other sports like Butler, Davidson and Dayton — about associate membership. Jen Flowers, the women’s league commissioner for the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, confirmed she and Esten had spoken informally about associate membership.

Sullivan said the university will cover initial Division I costs from a special endowment fund for start-up programs. Then comes fund-raising. St. Thomas needs a bigger hockey arena (the current one seats 1,400), and possibly expanded facilities for football (5,025) and basketball (2,000). Attendance for St. Thomas football games is modest, except for Tommie-Johnnie football games. Last season, when the football game was held at St. John’s, U.S.T.’s on-campus attendance averaged 2,673 for football and 701 for men’s basketball.

“Let’s demonstrate we can sell out our basketball arena or our football stadium,” Esten said. “When we get to the point that we’ve got demand for that, then we’ll think about the next step.”

There is one big drawback if U.S.T. ultimately moves to Division I: The end of the Tommie-Johnnie rivalry. It could be salvaged for a few years if the N.C.A.A. makes U.S.T. take the traditional path through Division II; games between Division II and III opponents are not unheard of. But if St. Thomas jumps to Division I, next year’s game at St. John’s could be the last.

“There are many things that are disappointing and sad about this,” said the Tommies’ football coach, Glenn Caruso. “That’s certainly one of them.”

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Biologists answer fundamental question about cell size

MIT biologists have discovered the answer to a fundamental biological question: Why are cells of a given type all the same size?

In humans, cell size can vary more than 100-fold, ranging from tiny red blood cells to large neurons. However, within each cell type, there is very little deviation from a standard size. In studies of yeast, MIT researchers grew cells to 10 times their normal size and found that their DNA could not keep up with the demands of producing enough protein to maintain normal cell functions.

Furthermore, the researchers found that this protein shortage leads the cells into a nondividing state known as senescence, suggesting a possible explanation for how cells become senescent as they age.

“There are so many hypotheses out there that try to explain why senescence happens, and I think this data provides a beautiful and simple explanation for senescence,” says Angelika Amon, the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor in Cancer Research in the Department of Biology and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

Amon is the senior author of the study, which appears in the Feb. 7 online edition of Cell. Gabriel Neurohr, an MIT postdoc, is the lead author of the paper.

Excessive size

To explore why cell size is so tightly controlled, the researchers prevented yeast cells from dividing by modifying a gene critical for cell division, so that it could be turned off at a certain temperature. These cells continued to grow, but they could not divide and they did not replicate their DNA.

The researchers discovered that as the cells expanded, their DNA and their protein-building machinery could not keep pace with the needs of such a large cell. This failure to produce enough protein led to the dilution of the cytoplasm and disruption of cell division. The researchers believe that many other fundamental cell processes that rely on cellular molecules finding and interacting with each other may also be impaired when cells are too big.

“Theoretical models predict that diluting the cytoplasm will decrease reaction rates. Every chemical reaction would occur more slowly, and some threshold concentrations of certain proteins may not be reached, so certain reactions would never happen because the concentrations are lower,” Neurohr says.

The researchers showed that yeast cells with two sets of chromosomes were able to grow to twice the size of yeast cells with just one set of chromosomes before becoming senescent, suggesting that the amount of DNA in the cells is the limiting factor in the cells’ ability to grow.

Experiments with human cells yielded similar results: In a study of human fibroblast cells, the researchers found that forcing the cells to grow to excessive sizes (eight times their normal size) disrupted many functions, including cell division.

“It’s been clear for some time that cells do control their size, but it’s been unclear what the various physiological reasons are for why they do so,” says Jan Skotheim, an associate professor of biology at Stanford University, who was not involved in the research. “What’s nice about this work is it really shows how things go wrong when cells get too big.”

Age-related disease

Amon says excessive growth likely plays a major role in the development of senescence, which occurs in many types of mammalian cells and is thought to contribute to age-related organ dysfunction and chronic age-related diseases.

Senescent cells are often larger than younger cells, and this study, which showed that unchecked cell growth leads to senescence, offers a possible explanation for this observation. Human cells tend to grow slightly larger throughout their lifetimes, because every time a cell divides, it checks for DNA damage, and if any is found, division is halted while repairs are made. During each of these delays, the cell grows slightly larger.

“Over the lifetime of a cell, the more divisions you make, the higher your probability is of having that damage, and over time cells will get larger,” Amon says. “Eventually they get so large that they start diluting critical factors that are important for proliferation.”

A difficult question that remains unanswered is how different types of cells maintain the appropriate size for their cell type, which the researchers now hope to study further.

The research was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at MIT, a National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship, the William Bowes Fellows program, and the Vilcek Foundation.

Biologists answer fundamental question about cell size syndicated from https://osmowaterfilters.blogspot.com/

Trump condemns social media censorship ‘must stop’

August 20, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – President Donald Trump joined the discussion about political censorship by social media giants such as Facebook and Google over the weekend, calling for unfettered debate and hinting at some sort of government action on the issue. “Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices,” Trump tweeted Saturday. “Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others.” Calling censorship “very dangerous” and “absolutely impossible to police,” the president used his own high-profile battles with the mainstream media as an example. “There is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed,” he said. “Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen,” Trump declared. “Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!” Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others……. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018 …..Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police. If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don’t watch at all.. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018 ….Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018 Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others have restricted a wide range of right-of-center figures and groups in various ways since the 2016 election, such as Prager University, the “Activist Mommy” Elizabeth Johnston, theologian Dr. Robert A.J. Gagnon, prominent Republican officials, various ads from GOP candidates, conservative video bloggers Diamond and Silk, and numerous pro-life videos and advertisements. The companies tend to reverse the most highly-publicized incidents after a few days of public outcry, blaming them either on isolated human errors or unintentional side effects of their content prioritization algorithms. Conservatives remain skeptical, however, citing their continuing frequency and the lack of comparable examples on the left. Critics also cite insiders at Facebook and Twitter who have admitted to intentionally targeting conservative accounts and topics, analyses that have found that Facebook’s algorithm changes have disproportionately impacted publishers with an express viewpoint while benefiting left-leaning media outlets that present themselves as impartial, and social media companies’ partnerships with left-wing organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). In perhaps the most high-profile recent incident, several companies bannedconspiracy theorist Alex Jones from their platforms, in a move that mainstream conservatives (and some liberals) have condemned as starting a slippery slope for open debate. Critics have also noted that Facebook has not banned fringe figures on the left, such Nation of Islam leader and avowed anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. It’s unclear what actions Trump has in mind to not “let happen,” if any, but conservatives are currently divided on whether government intervention is appropriate. Conservative Review’s Allie Beth Stuckey, the host of one of the Prager University videos temporarily deleted by Facebook on Friday, said Sunday that she doesn’t want “government intervention and regulation here,” because it “would probably end up worse for conservatives in the long run.” Writing Saturday in the Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, University of Tennessee law professor and Instapundit blogger Glenn Reynolds suggested that social media companies discriminating against conservatives may be incompatible with the 1996 Communications Decency Act, in which Congress exempted internet platforms from publishers’ normal liability for things like libel and copyright infringement on the grounds that the platforms are truly neutral forums that don’t exercise their own editorial judgment. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, has suggested that Congress should revoke that immunity, while Rep. Matt Gaetz R-FL, has filed a Federal Elections Commission complaint against Twitter for temporarily shadow-banning him on the grounds that restricting himself but not his Democrat opponent was the functional equivalent of an illegal corporate donation. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-CA, who was also shadow-banned, said last month he was “looking at any legal remedies we can go through” to address the problem. Read the full article

NEWS: HILL LEADERS to the W.H. next WED. — FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: The plan for debt limit, gov’t funding and Harvey relief — ANNIE KARNI on the thinning West Wing – B’DAY: Warren Buffett

Good Wednesday morning. CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP is going to the White House next Wednesday at 11 a.m. for a meeting with President Donald Trump. We hear this will be the Big Four: Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer.

REPUBLICANS say this will be a critical touch-the-gloves moment as they enter a brutal month. DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP AIDE: “The Republicans are in charge, from the White House to the Hill so the onus of governing is squarely on them. We expect to hear their proposal for getting done all that we have to get done in September.” IN OTHER WORDS: Ball is in your court, guys.

Story Continued Below

NEW — THE THROW-IT-ALL-TOGETHER STRATEGY: One of the new leading theories among Senate and House Republicans in Washington is that Congress will combine a three-month stopgap spending bill to keep the government open, the first installment of hurricane relief for Texas and Louisiana and an increase of the federal debt limit. The idea is this package would create an undefeatable constituency across the Capitol. Here are a few things to understand:

— FEMA HAS ENOUGH MONEY right now for its immediate response to Harvey. We were told by multiple sources involved in the talks the agency has roughly $1.3 billion in its coffers. But Congress will need to act on disaster funding in September to give them more.

— THE STATE OF TEXAS AND THE WHITE HOUSE have to work quickly to estimate how much more money they’ll need. This will impact the contours of the debate. The damage in Texas is so extensive and unknown that no one knows how much money the government will have to shell out. THE LIKELIHOOD: Congress will need to insert disaster relief money into a stopgap bill in September — the CR, or continuing resolution — and then appropriate more money as part of an omnibus spending bill in December. That omni would keep government open until Oct. 2018.

— SMART MONEY IS ON — NO SHUTDOWN IN SEPT., BUT POSSIBLE IN DECEMBER. The thinking is this will put off the shutdown debate until the last month of the year. Capitol Hill will be far more interested in figuring out how to get America’s fourth-largest city out from underwater than in building a border wall, multiple sources told us. It’s unclear whether President Donald Trump will force the issue.

— ON THE DEBT LIMIT … BULLET COULD BE DODGED. This package, if crafted carefully, could be just the mix of good and bad that it would get widespread bipartisan support in both chambers. Who could vote against helping the second-largest state in America rebound from a disaster? Key Republicans involved with planning told us they would be willing to lift the debt limit past the 2018 elections.

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REMEMBER: THE FAA’s authority needs to also be renewed in September.

A WORD OF CAUTION — It makes sense that GOP leaders want to find a way to take care of all of the “must-pass” legislation in one package and tie it up neatly in a bow. Lawmakers haven’t come back yet. Expect at least one or two hiccups along the way. Typically whatever leadership starts with isn’t the package that ends up passing, particularly in the House.

BULLETIN at 4:59 a.m.: “CAMERON, La. (AP) – National Hurricane Center: Tropical Storm Harvey makes 2nd landfall just west of Cameron, Louisiana.”

HOUSTON CHRONICLE A1 — “EPIC FLOODING SHOWS NO MERCY” http://bit.ly/2vryWlN

THE LATEST ON HARVEY — HOUSTON CHRONICLE, story updated at 3:45 a.m. — “Harvey begins to push out of Houston as curfew set and new shelter opens,” by Brooke A. Lewis, Brian Rogers, Margaret Kadifa, Susan Carroll, and Andrew Kragie: “Hordes of new shelters began to open up across the city as more residents were ordered to evacuate from their flooded homes. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett confirmed Tuesday evening that NRG Center [where the Texans play] will provide the next major shelter for area residents affected by Hurricane Harvey. …

“Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner issued a curfew Tuesday in effect from midnight to 5 a.m. During a press conference late Tuesday, the mayor said it was necessary for public safety. He originally said the curfew would begin at 10 p.m., but an hour later he changed it to midnight, tweeting that moving it later would allow volunteers and others to continue doing their work.” http://bit.ly/2wi6QbD

–NYT’s JACK HEALY, RICHARD PEREZ-PENA and ALAN BLINDER: “Local officials in Texas said at least 30 deaths were believed to have been caused by the storm through Tuesday, up from eight a day earlier. … Parts of the Houston area broke the record for rainfall from a single storm anywhere in the continental United States, with a top reading on Tuesday afternoon, since the storm began, of 51.88 inches in Cedar Bayou, east of Houston, the National Weather Service reported. The previous record was 48 inches in Medina, Tex., from Tropical Storm Amelia in 1978, and with the rain still falling along the Gulf Coast, Harvey could top the 52 inches recorded in Kauai, Hawaii in 1950 from Hurricane Hiki.” http://nyti.ms/2x4d13K

–“Photos: Trump visits hurricane-ravaged Texas” — 19 pix http://politi.co/2x38cHM

— “Harvey triggers spike in hazardous chemical releases,” by Ben Lefebvre: “Hobbled oil refineries and damaged fuel facilities along the Gulf Coast of Texas from Tropical storm Harvey have released more than two million pounds of dangerous chemicals into the air this week, adding new health threats to Houston’s already considerable woes. The big spike in releases, which include carcinogenic benzene and nitrogen oxide, will add an environmental and long-term health risk to the region that’s struggling with the massive flooding that Harvey has brought to the country’s energy capital, according to environmental watchdogs. The jump in emissions has been noticed on the ground in Houston, where residents have taken to Twitter to report a stronger-than-normal chemical smell in some areas.” http://politi.co/2xLcd0W

— “Houston’s ‘Wild West’ growth,” by WaPo’s Shawn Boburg and Beth Reinhard: “Houston calls itself ‘the city with no limits’ to convey the promise of boundless opportunity. But it also is the largest U.S. city to have no zoning laws, part of a hands-off approach to urban planning that may have contributed to catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey and left thousands of residents in harm’s way. Growth that is virtually unchecked, including in flood-prone areas, has diminished the land’s already-limited natural ability to absorb water, according to environmentalists and experts in land use and natural disasters. And the city’s drainage system — a network of reservoirs, bayous and, as a last resort, roads that hold and drain water — was not designed to handle the massive storms that are increasingly common.” http://wapo.st/2iHTJvD

NEXT UP: “Western Louisiana in crosshairs as Harvey moves back to land,” by AP’s Jeff Amy and Michael Kunzelman in Lake Charles, Louisiana: “Western Louisiana residents braced for more wind and water Wednesday as Tropical Storm Harvey headed their way after dumping record rainfall on Texas. National Weather Service meteorologists expect the deadly storm to make another landfall early Wednesday in southwestern Louisiana, after it lingered over Texas for days before meandering back into the Gulf of Mexico.

“Forecasters say another 5 to 10 inches of rain could fall in western Louisiana. ‘We are starting to get down to the end of the tunnel of all this rain,’ Meteorologist Roger Erickson said. Erickson warns that some coastal rivers won’t be able to drain effectively because Harvey’s winds are pushing in storm surge, aggravating flooding in areas already drenched by more than 20 inches of rain. Gusts up to 50 mph are predicted for coastal areas and up to 40 mph in Lake Charles and along the Interstate 10 corridor.” http://bit.ly/2vIjayo

GLENN THRUSH in the NYT, “Harvey Gives Trump a Chance to Reclaim Power to Unify”: “Hurricane Harvey was the rarest of disasters to strike during the Trump presidency — a maelstrom not of Mr. Trump’s making, and one that offers him an opportunity to recapture some of the unifying power of his office he has squandered in recent weeks. … [H]urricanes in the post-Katrina era are also political events, benchmarks by which a president’s abilities are measured. Mr. Trump is behaving like a man whose future depends on getting this right. …

“The president, who prefers to skim rather than delve, has seldom been more engaged in the details of any issue as he is with Harvey, according to several people involved in disaster response. Mr. Trump, one aide said, was fascinated by the long-term effect of water damage on structures in the Gulf Coast, peppering FEMA and National Security Council briefers with detailed questions about the flooding in Houston and Galveston. As the extent of the projected devastation became apparent over the weekend during a meeting at Camp David, he shook his head in disbelief and compared the situation to problems he experienced when managing his family’s apartment buildings in New York. ‘Water damage is the worst,’ he told one staff member, ‘tough, tough, tough.’” http://nyti.ms/2x2qHwn

JOSH DAWSEY in Corpus Christi: “It was a presidential trip to a deluged state where the president didn’t meet a single storm victim, see an inch of rain or get near a flooded street. But the daylong visit, during which President Donald Trump spent far more time in the air than on the ground, gave the optics-obsessed president some of the visuals he wanted, as he checked in on the government apparatus working on relief efforts and was buoyed by a roaring crowd of locals.

“And it showed that the president, who often obsesses about crowd size and fame while speaking in hyperbolic superlatives, would not drop those traits even amid hurricane cleanup. He praised his [FEMA] administrator, Brock Long, for becoming ‘famous’ during his frequent TV appearances, talked repeatedly about the historic nature of the storm and marveled at adoring Texas residents who greeted him.” http://politi.co/2vE6n0u

****** A message from the American Bankers Association: America’s small businesses most often turn to banks when looking for financing. Banks have responded by increasing small business loans each of the past six years, reaching $331 billion in credit as of January. Learn more: http://politi.co/2wchpez ******

HEELGATE — “Melania’s stiletto sideshow: As the first lady departed to see storm fallout in Texas, Twitter erupted with critiques of her shoe choice,” by Annie Karni: “The emblematic first image of the first lady heading off to visit a hurricane in heels — a moment that the president has seized on as an opportunity to project strength and show off decisive leadership — instead became another symbol of a White House that can often seem out of touch. … On board Air Force One to Corpus Christi, as the picture of the delicate heels ricocheted across the Internet, Melania Trump changed into a pair of bright, white sneakers, which looked fresh out of the box. She wasn’t the only female member of the Trump delegation wearing questionably appropriate footwear — two other women were spotted on Air Force One wearing pumps and suede heels.” http://politi.co/2goqCN3

— WAPO’S ROBIN GIVHAN: “There was no pretense about Melania Trump’s heels. But sometimes, a little pretense helps”: “Trump’s fashionable ensemble was defined by its contradictions. She was wearing a working man’s jacket but it was juxtaposed with sexy limousine shoes. The trousers and the top were basic black — utilitarian. The oversize aviator sunglasses were Hollywood. It’s an image that would have been at home in any fashion magazine, which is so often the case with the first lady. She knows fashion. She knows her angles. …

“It was also an image that suggested that Trump is the kind of woman who refuses to pretend that her feet will, at any point, ever be immersed in cold, muddy, bacteria-infested Texas water. She is the kind of woman who may listen empathetically to your pain, but she knows that you know that she is not going to experience it. So why pretend?

“Well, sometimes pretense is everything. It’s the reason for the first lady to go to Texas at all: to symbolize care and concern and camaraderie. To remind people that the government isn’t merely doing its job, that the government is engaged with each and every individual. Washington hears its citizens. That’s what the optics are all about. Sitting around a conference table and talking into a speaker phone are not good optics. A politician has to get on the ground in work boots and a windbreaker. Rolled-up sleeves. Galoshes. Baseball caps.” http://wapo.st/2whj3x6

SNEAK PEEK — NICK CONFESSORE’S NEW NYT MAGAZINE COVER STORY – “How to Get Rich in Trump’s Washington: His presidency has changed the rules of influence in the nation’s capital — and spawned a new breed of lobbyist on K Street” (print headline: “I Can Teach YOU How to Influence the President: The Art of Lobbying in Trump’s Washington” with a pic of Corey Lewandowski): “Like virtually every other candidate for president, Trump campaigned against this thicket of money and influence, positioning himself as an outsider who would ‘drain the swamp.’ This pledge would soon prove more rhetorical than real, but it contained a grain of truth. Trump arrived in Washington with a relatively short baggage train of Beltway relationships and obligations. He didn’t read policy briefs; he barely had policies.

“His inner circle was a hodgepodge of Breitbart alumni, nominally Democratic financiers, Trump Organization employees on loan, the odd reality-show star and Republicans who would have been unemployable in almost any other administration. The smart money in Washington — K Street and K Street’s clients, the big corporations and trade associations — didn’t quite know what to expect. But mostly, they didn’t know whom to call.” With cameos by Robert Stryk, Brad Gerstman, Brian Ballard, Bruce Mehlman, Stuart Jolly, and Barry Bennett http://nyti.ms/2gpGQFx … The cover http://politi.co/2xw2Oe3

FOR YOUR RADAR — “NKorea leader urges more missile launches targeting Pacific,”by AP’s Foster Klug and Kim Tong-Hyung in Seoul, South Korea: “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for more weapons launches targeting the Pacific Ocean to advance his country’s ability to contain Guam, state media said Wednesday, a day after Pyongyang for the first time flew a ballistic missile designed to carry a nuclear payload over Japan. Tuesday’s aggressive missile launch — likely the longest ever from North Korea — over a close U.S. ally sends a clear message of defiance as Washington and Seoul conduct annual military drills. The Korean Central News Agency said the launch was a ‘muscle-flexing’ countermeasure to the Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint exercises that conclude Thursday. Pyongyang views the drills as invasion rehearsals and often conducts weapons tests and escalates its rhetoric when they are held.” http://bit.ly/2wnxZbH

— REUTERS: “The Trump administration plans to name a former White House official, Victor Cha, as the next U.S. ambassador to South Korea, according to an administration official. Cha served as deputy head of the U.S. delegation in multilateral talks with North Korea over its nuclear programme during the administration of President George W. Bush.” http://reut.rs/2wIoLcD

IMPORTANT STORY — ANNIE KARNI — “Trump’s shrinking West Wing”: “When President Donald Trump asked Hope Hicks to step into the role of communications director, his longtime aide hesitated before taking on a management position overseeing more than 40 staffers who work in White House media relations.

“It was Hicks who insisted on ‘interim’ being part of her new job title before accepting the post, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. But since her appointment on Aug. 16 – when Ivanka Trump went on Twitter to congratulate her ‘talented friend & colleague Hope Hicks on being named WH Communications Director,’ leaving out any mention of the ‘interim’ part – no active search has been launched to find a more permanent successor to the short-lived Anthony Scaramucci era. After a summer of distracting staff churn, the communications director job is just one of a number of top-level West Wing positions that has ultimately been filled by an existing staffer – or not filled at all – after an official has quit or been let go.

“Interviews with six White House staffers and people close to the president attribute Trump’s shrinking West Wing to three factors: chief of staff John Kelly’s careful review process, which has led to the paring down of an organization that many inside have complained was top-heavy; the chilling factor of five open-ended Russia investigations hanging over the White House, making it hard to attract new talent; and the president’s own dark mood this summer, which has left him increasingly isolated and in the mood to hunker down, not hire up.” http://politi.co/2vrydB5

NEW POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL — “Poll: Voters split on Afghanistan troop increase, oppose shutdown for border wall,” by Steven Shepard: “Voters are divided on President Donald Trump’s plans to send more American troops to Afghanistan, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. Forty-five percent of voters support increasing U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, the poll shows — only slightly greater than the 41 percent who oppose the plan. The other 14 percent have no opinion.

“While support for Trump’s plan marginally outpaces opposition, the 20 percent of voters strongly opposed to a troop increase are slightly greater than the 17 percent who strongly support it. Backing for a troop increase is greater among Republicans than Democrats or independents. Sixty-eight percent of self-identified GOP voters support increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan, but only 30 percent of Democratic voters and 35 percent of independents agree.” http://politi.co/2gor7GI

WHAT TRUMP’S POLITICAL TEAM IS READING — “Pittsburgh focus group tanks Trump,” by Isaac Dovere: “‘Outrageous,’ ‘disastrous,’ ‘abject disappointment,’ ‘unique,’ ‘off the scale,’ ‘contemptible,’ ‘crazy’: Donald Trump seems to have lost Pittsburgh, at least based on a focus group, sponsored by Emory University, held in the city Tuesday night. The group, a mix of people who’d voted for Trump and Hillary Clinton (plus one Jill Stein voter), came down hard on the president and Vice President Mike Pence—three people called him a ‘puppet,’ and several used variations of ‘waiting in the wings,’ though he was also called ‘quiet’ and ‘reasonable.’

“To a lesser degree, the voters also complained about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Asked to grade Congress, participants gave a collection of Cs, Ds and Fs, with most complaining that nothing is getting done. Not many knew much about special counsel Robert Mueller, who’s leading the Russia investigation, but several singled out Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, as a problem due to his inexperience.” http://politi.co/2vJ5Zgl

HAPPENING TODAY — “Trump to seize populist mantle for pitching messy tax overhaul,” by Ben White and Tara Palmeri: “President Donald Trump will launch a major push for a sweeping tax overhaul with a speech Wednesday in Missouri aimed at convincing his base — and the rest of the nation — that he has a fresh vision for ‘unrigging’ the American economy and isn’t just repackaging the trickle-down economics of past Republican presidents.

“It could be a tough sell for the president as he fights with saturation coverage of Hurricane Harvey and as Democrats prepare to frame Trump’s approach as a giveaway to corporate fat cats and the nation’s richest taxpayers. Wednesday’s speech in Springfield is being built around the sale of tax reform as a populist policy, according to five senior administration officials. The tax speech is being drafted by senior White House aide Stephen Miller, a leader of the nationalist wing of the administration. In Trumpian style, he’ll try out new phrases for selling the policy like ‘Jump-start America’ and ‘Win again.’” http://politi.co/2wQST5K

— ATTENDING TODAY’S EVENT: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, NEC Director Gary Cohn, SBA Administrator Linda McMahon, Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, Gov. Eric Greitens, Lt. Gov. Mike Parson, Republican Reps. Ann Wagner, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Vicky Hartzler, Sam Graves, Billy Long and Jason Smith.

— REPUBLICANS WE SPOKE TO YESTERDAY are happy Trump is going on the road, but worried that one off-topic comment will undermine anything positive he does.

— KEVIN ROBILLARD in Branson, Missouri: “Why Claire McCaskill Is Holding Her Fire: President Trump has already taken shots at the vulnerable Democratic senator but she’s determined not to anger the rural voters who put him in office”: http://politi.co/2wh2xxa

THE JUICE …

NOT BAD — OBAMA LOOKING FOR MVY SPOT — BOSTON GLOBE’S MARK SHANAHAN: “Chicago will always be President Obama’s hometown — that’s where the Obama Presidential Center is being built — but it looks like he may be spending a lot more time on Martha’s Vineyard in the future. Word around the island is that the Obamas, who’ve rented a place on the Vineyard for the past several summers, are looking to buy … The 44th president and his wife, Michelle, are believed to be focused ‘up island,’ looking at homes or buildable lots in the rural communities of Aquinnah, Chilmark, and West Tisbury. …

“No one’s talking, least of all realtors, but we’re told that one property that may be getting a long look is a magnificent waterfront outpost in Aquinnah owned by Caroline Kennedy and her husband, Edwin Schlossberg. A few years ago, the couple, who inherited from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis the 377-acre Red Gate Farm overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, subdivided the property and put two parcels on the market.” http://bit.ly/2wQdaZg

— “Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Hamptons Summer Rental Sells,” by WSJ’s Katy McLaughlin: “A Hamptons mansion that served as a summer vacation rental for Bill and Hillary Clinton has sold for $29 million. The Clintons stayed in the home for part of August in both 2011 and 2012, said Apolonia Baptiste, assistant to seller Elie Hirschfeld; she declined to say what the Clintons paid. Current listing agent Rebekah Baker of Sotheby’s International Realty in the Hamptons said that in recent years the property has rented for between $350,000 and $500,000 for the summer, or for about $150,000 a month. … The roughly 10,000-square-foot shingled house has 8 bedrooms, all of which have en suite bathrooms, a formal dining room and six fireplaces.” http://on.wsj.com/2wHpavC

— “Sean Spicer finally gets to meet Pope Francis,” by America Magazine’s Michael J. O’Loughlin: “A group of legislators and politicians from around the world gathered in Italy this week for a meeting of the International Catholic Legislators Network, where they were received by Pope Francis at the Vatican. Among those gathered was Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary who was … left off the list of U.S. officials who accompanied the president to the Vatican. … A photo posted to the Vatican Radio Facebook page shows Mr. Spicer using his cell phone to snap a photo of Pope Francis, who in an address to the group urged cooperation and bridge-building. Several other images posted to the Vatican’s photo service page show Mr. Spicer greeting the pope personally.” With a pic of Sean and the Pope http://bit.ly/2vCLWBd

PHOTO DU JOUR: Volunteer Elizabeth Hill, 8, plays with evacuee Skyler Smith, 7, at a shelter at St. Thomas Presbyterian Church in west Houston as Tropical Storm Harvey continues to affect the area on Aug. 29. | Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP

COMING ATTRACTIONS — “Trump at war with himself over ‘Dreamers,’” by Andrew Restucci and Eliana Johnson: “The president has waffled between his campaign pledge to kill the policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and his sympathy for the nearly 800,000 people whose lives could be upended if it’s repealed, aides say.

“As an unofficial Sept. 5 deadline looms, there are growing signs that Trump will decide to phase out the program. But administration officials say he remains conflicted, trying to find a middle ground that balances his instinct to be tough on immigration and his personal feelings. Trump’s final decision could drastically change the lives of the country’s ‘Dreamers.’ Participants in the program — which permits some people who were brought to the United States as children to live and work in the country temporarily — worry they could lose their jobs or be subject to possible deportation if the program is suddenly ended.” http://politi.co/2xxvLGz

— MANY REPUBLICANS WE TALK TO say they believe there’s a border wall/DACA deal to be made in the coming months.

POLITICO SCOOP — “Virginia received DHS warning before Charlottesville rally,”by Josh Meyer: “The Department of Homeland Security issued a confidential warning to law enforcement authorities three days before the deadly Aug. 12 Charlottesville protest rally, saying that an escalating series of clashes had created a powder keg that would likely make the event ‘among the most violent to date’ between white supremacists and anarchists. The ‘law enforcement sensitive’ assessment, obtained by POLITICO and reported for the first time, raises questions about whether Charlottesville city and Virginia state authorities dropped the ball before, and during, a public event that was widely expected to draw huge crowds of armed, emotional and antagonistic participants from around the country.” http://politi.co/2gofe3R

BEYOND THE BELTWAY — “Report: ‘Anti-protester’ bills gain traction in state legislatures,” by USA Today’s Heidi M. Przybyla: “Republican legislators in 20 U.S. statehouses have proposed — and six legislatures approved — new restrictions on the right to assemble and protest so far this year, according to a new report by the Democrat-aligned State Innovation Exchange. … Among the states approving what SiX calls ‘anti-protester’ legislation were Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Georgia and South Dakota. Arkansas, for instance, has passed a new ‘anti-loitering’ bill that makes it an offense if a person ‘lingers, remains or prowls in a public place or the premises of another without apparent reason and under circumstances that warrant alarm or concern for the safety of persons or property in the vicinity.’” https://usat.ly/2gnM5FL

THE RUSSIA PROBE — “Special counsel subpoenas Manafort’s former attorney and spokesman,” by CNN’s Evan Perez: “The subpoenas seeking documents and testimony were sent to Melissa Laurenza, an attorney with the Akin Gump law firm who until recently represented Manafort, and to Jason Maloni, who is Manafort’s spokesman … It’s unclear what specific information the Mueller investigators believe Laurenza and Maloni may have. But issuing subpoenas to a lawyer of someone under investigation is unusual, in part because it raises potential attorney-client privilege issues that prosecutors tend to try to avoid. Maloni, as a public relations representative, doesn’t have the same attorney-client privilege protections.” http://cnn.it/2vHDQGx

— “Donald Trump Jr. set to testify before Senate Judiciary panel,” by Ali Watkins and Josh Dawsey: “The Senate Judiciary Committee has reached an agreement and set a date for Donald Trump Jr. to testify behind closed doors to the panel, the committee confirmed on Tuesday. The committee would not divulge the exact date, but another source familiar with the matter said the testimony would likely occur in the ‘next few weeks’ Trump Jr. is expected to be grilled about his meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer during his father’s presidential campaign in which he was promised compromising information on Hillary Clinton. … Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Ia.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the panel leaders, said in July that they still intend to hold a public hearing with Trump Jr. after speaking with him privately, and would subpoena him to appear in open session if necessary.” http://politi.co/2vpLfiK

****** A message from the American Bankers Association: America’s banks play a critical role in generating economic growth while delivering safety and convenience for customers. The two million women and men who work for America’s banks safeguard $12.9 trillion in deposits and originate $2.4 trillion in home loans. They provide $331 billion in loans to small businesses and $175 billion in loans to farmers and ranchers. Banks’ fraud protection measures stop at least $11 billion in attempted fraud each year. And thousands of banker volunteers deliver financial literacy lessons annually to millions of young Americans to help them become financially successful adults. Find out more at www.aba.com/AmericasBanks, #AmericasBanks ******

IN THE BATTLEFIELD — “Mattis allows transgender troops to serve as Pentagon studies Trump’s ban,” by Bob Hillman: “Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday transgender troops will continue serving in the military while the Pentagon studies the issue. Mattis said he’ll establish a ‘panel of experts serving within the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security’ to provide advice and recommendations on the implementation of President Donald Trump’s order to bar transgender individuals from serving in the military.

“In the interim, Mattis said, ‘current policy with respect to currently serving members will remain in place’ with interim guidance from him, including ‘any necessary interim adjustments to procedures to ensure the continued combat readiness of the force until our final policy on this subject is issued.’” http://politi.co/2vqGPIp

VALLEY TALK – “Uber Faces Investigation of Possible Foreign-Bribery Law Violations,” by WSJ’s Douglas MacMillan and Aruna Viswanatha: “The Justice Department has taken preliminary steps to investigate whether managers at Uber Technologies Inc. violated a U.S. law against foreign bribery, according to people familiar with the matter. The agency has begun to review allegations that Uber may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bans the use of bribes to foreign officials to get or keep business … Based on what it finds, the Justice Department may or may not decide to open a full-fledged FCPA investigation into Uber. It is unclear whether U.S. authorities are focused on one country or examining activities in multiple countries where the company operates.” http://on.wsj.com/2xLj1LQ

MEDIAWATCH — “In the Trenches of Trump’s Leak War: How the administration has changed the game between investigative reporters and their government sources,” by Vanity Fair’s Joe Pompeo: “On July 6, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs issued a scathing report detailing what the Committee characterized as a seething epidemic of classified information making its way into the press. Titled, ‘State Secrets: How an Avalanche of Media Leaks Is Harming National Security,’ the 23-page document cites ‘at least 125 stories’ between Inauguration day and May 25 ‘with leaked information potentially damaging to national security.’ … Consternation about the report was particularly high in The Washington Post’s newsroom, not only because 33 of its journalists’ stories were in the crosshairs, but also because ‘State Secrets’ was being promoted on Twitter by one of their own.

“Jerry Markon was a longtime Post reporter who covered the Department of Homeland Security until February, when he left the paper to work for the Committee on Homeland Security as senior policy adviser to its chairman, Senator Ron Johnson. When the report landed, along with six retweets from Markon touting its findings, jaws hit the floor. At least one of Markon’s former colleagues, according to people with knowledge of the matter, e-mailed him to ask if he’d written the report himself. Adam Goldman, who worked with Markon at the Post and even shared some bylines with him, was blunt in his assessment. ‘Many former colleagues at the Post were disappointed,’ Goldman told me. ‘It was a betrayal.’ (I reached out to Markon through the Committee’s press office but he was not made available.) A Johnson aide emphasized that Johnson’s ‘concern is about the leakers and the national-security threats their leaks pose, not individual journalists.’” http://bit.ly/2iHDWgi

SPOTTED: Steve Hadley, Pam Stevens, Ben Chang, and Mark Pfeifle (Bush 43 NSC) at Equinox yesterday. Kellyanne Conway was also there, dining at a different table.

WEEKEND WEDDING — ROLL TIDE — Andres Peña, a U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce alum now in government relations for San Antonio firm Kaufman & Killen, and Dorothy Griffith, a Gula Graham and Aflac government relations alum now in communications at Whataburger, got married Saturday in Fernandina Beach, Florida, with festivities at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort. The couple met as undergrads at Alabama. Pic http://politi.co/2xKY0kr SPOTTED: Ian Sams and CadeAnn Smith, John Hammontree, Marc Rodriguez, Carl Holshouser and Andy Smith, Paul Jimenez and Regina Peña.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Tony Lombardo, executive editor for Military Times, and Jessica Coomes, deputy news director for Bloomberg BNA, recently welcomed Leo Thomas Lombardo. Leo came in at 8 pound 4 ounces and join his two sisters. Pic http://politi.co/2w4VKVI

TRANSITIONS — Ben Sparks has started as director of political affairs at Red Rock Strategies. He most recently was director for political and public affairs at digital ad firm Arena. … Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has hired Beth George in the San Francisco office for the firm’s privacy and data protection practice. She previously served as deputy general counsel at the Defense Department in the Obama administration. … Geoffrey Baum has started as director of media relations at the Milken Institute. He is a former C-SPAN Washington Journal executive producer and Sunnylands communications director.

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): WSJ DC bureau chief Paul Beckett. He celebrated his 50thwith champagne with colleagues in the office. (hat tip: Brody Mullins)

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: LA Times’ Christi Parsons, who’s currently writing a “book about de-segregation of the Tuscaloosa, Alabama public schools in the 1980s.” How she’s celebrating: “This is Big Fifty, so I’m celebrating all year! Every day I do something special with someone dear.” Read her Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2goCtL0

BIRTHDAYS: Warren Buffett … CNN’s John King … Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) … Jordan Kauflin … Ginny Hunt, principal for strategy and civic innovation at Google … Kerri Collins … Caitlin Girouard, comms. director for Sen. Klobuchar … Patrick Kerley, managing director at Burson-Marsteller … Corley Kenna, director of global comms and PR at Patagonia (h/ts Ben Chang) … WaPo’s Martine Powers (h/t Lauren Dezenski) … Politico’s analytics and search guru Mitch Schuler … Politico’s Jennifer Dreyer and Catherine Pritchard … Elizabeth Harball, reporter for Alaska’s Energy Desk … Gary Ginsberg, EVP of Time Warner and founding editor of “George” together with JFK, Jr. (h/t Jewish Insider) … Kimmy Railey, reporter at National Journal’s Hotline (h/t Zach Montellaro, filing from Chicago) … Margy Levinson of BerlinRosen Public Affairs … Fox News’ Eldad Yaron … Bradley Silverman … Alex Cathcart of Federal Capital Partners …

… Murray Weiss of CBS News’ “48 Hours” … John Donner of Glendale, CA (h/t son Jason Donner, ace Fox News producer roaming Capitol Hill) … Ariana Berengaut … Eric Pooley, SVP of strategy and comms at the Environmental Defense Fund … Susan Holappa … George Riccardo … Christine Marlowe … Karl Russo … Minna Elias … Bush SBA alum Cheryl Mills … Sara Cooper … Christine Mangi … Heidi Aldrich … Rob Dettbarn … Jody Day … Greg Spring, spending his BIG day dancing the night away in Minneapolis … Ruthie Posekany … Justin Paschal … Jadyn Gilbert (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Charlie Pope … Terry Bish … Sean Finnegan … Andrey Che … Cristine Russell … Pam Gibson … comedian Lewis Black … Cameron Diaz … Lisa Ling … Andy Roddick (h/ts AP)

****** A message from the American Bankers Association: America’s banks play a critical role in generating economic growth while delivering safety and convenience for customers. The two million women and men who work for America’s banks safeguard $12.9 trillion in deposits and originate $2.4 trillion in home loans. They provide $331 billion in loans to small businesses and $175 billion in loans to farmers and ranchers. Banks’ fraud protection measures stop at least $11 billion in attempted fraud each year. And thousands of banker volunteers deliver financial literacy lessons annually to millions of young Americans to help them become financially successful adults. Find out more at www.aba.com/AmericasBanks, #AmericasBanks ******

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Trump condemns social media censorship ‘must stop’

August 20, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – President Donald Trump joined the discussion about political censorship by social media giants such as Facebook and Google over the weekend, calling for unfettered debate and hinting at some sort of government action on the issue. “Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices,” Trump tweeted Saturday. “Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others.” Calling censorship “very dangerous” and “absolutely impossible to police,” the president used his own high-profile battles with the mainstream media as an example. “There is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed,” he said. “Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen,” Trump declared. “Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!” Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others……. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018 …..Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police. If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don’t watch at all.. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018 ….Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018 Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others have restricted a wide range of right-of-center figures and groups in various ways since the 2016 election, such as Prager University, the “Activist Mommy” Elizabeth Johnston, theologian Dr. Robert A.J. Gagnon, prominent Republican officials, various ads from GOP candidates, conservative video bloggers Diamond and Silk, and numerous pro-life videos and advertisements. The companies tend to reverse the most highly-publicized incidents after a few days of public outcry, blaming them either on isolated human errors or unintentional side effects of their content prioritization algorithms. Conservatives remain skeptical, however, citing their continuing frequency and the lack of comparable examples on the left. Critics also cite insiders at Facebook and Twitter who have admitted to intentionally targeting conservative accounts and topics, analyses that have found that Facebook’s algorithm changes have disproportionately impacted publishers with an express viewpoint while benefiting left-leaning media outlets that present themselves as impartial, and social media companies’ partnerships with left-wing organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). In perhaps the most high-profile recent incident, several companies bannedconspiracy theorist Alex Jones from their platforms, in a move that mainstream conservatives (and some liberals) have condemned as starting a slippery slope for open debate. Critics have also noted that Facebook has not banned fringe figures on the left, such Nation of Islam leader and avowed anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. It’s unclear what actions Trump has in mind to not “let happen,” if any, but conservatives are currently divided on whether government intervention is appropriate. Conservative Review’s Allie Beth Stuckey, the host of one of the Prager University videos temporarily deleted by Facebook on Friday, said Sunday that she doesn’t want “government intervention and regulation here,” because it “would probably end up worse for conservatives in the long run.” Writing Saturday in the Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, University of Tennessee law professor and Instapundit blogger Glenn Reynolds suggested that social media companies discriminating against conservatives may be incompatible with the 1996 Communications Decency Act, in which Congress exempted internet platforms from publishers’ normal liability for things like libel and copyright infringement on the grounds that the platforms are truly neutral forums that don’t exercise their own editorial judgment. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, has suggested that Congress should revoke that immunity, while Rep. Matt Gaetz R-FL, has filed a Federal Elections Commission complaint against Twitter for temporarily shadow-banning him on the grounds that restricting himself but not his Democrat opponent was the functional equivalent of an illegal corporate donation. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-CA, who was also shadow-banned, said last month he was “looking at any legal remedies we can go through” to address the problem. Read the full article