By Mac Slavo

The Dow Jones continues to hit record highs and yesterday it reached a milestone not seen since January of 1987.

Back then, the band Starship was at the top of the charts with their hit song Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now, which appears to also be the rallying cry of Wall Street, Main Street and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue today.

Of course, for those who are familiar with their history, that year didn’t end up so well for investors. On ‘Black Monday’, October 19th, 1987, the U.S. stock market suffered the largest crash in history with the Dow Jones losing 22.6% in value, amounting to roughly $500 billion in losses by the end of the trading day.

And if the exuberance of 1987 is any guide, we may be looking at a similar set of events over the course of 2017:

The Dow finished with a more than 30 point gain Thursday and hit its tenth record closing high in a row.

…

But what makes this rally truly historic is the fact that the market is also continuing to hit new highs during this epic run. That hasn’t happened since Ronald Reagan’s second term.

The Dow wound up hitting 12 consecutive records in January of 1987, and it went up 13 straight days overall.

Of course, market historians might ominously note that 1987 was also the year that the stock market suffered its worst one-day drop ever. (CNN Money)

The records in and of themselves aren’t necessarily an indicator of a coming crash, but they should certainly be raising warnings signs, especially considering that many experts, including traditional bulls and bears, are noting that markets have gone up too high, too fast.

“We’re due for at least a rest, if not a correction. We’re way overbought,” said Steve Massocca, managing director with Wedbush Securities. Massocca said the market will continue to focus on data, with a truck load of reports next week on everything from fourth-quarter GDP to inflation and auto sales. The other focus, of course will be on Washington. (CNBC)

But don’t take our word for it. Here is what the Federal Reserve had to say about stocks just a few months ago, before we started breaking historical records like we did on Thursday:

As the analysts at Zero Hedge highlight, we are literally at a point where major banks andanalysis firms are justifying corporate valuations at 20+ price/earnings ratios with “animal spirits” as a driving force.

No, seriously, we’re not kidding:

Carbon-based traders of a certain vintage – which excludes today’s 20-year-old hedge fund managers – may recall a time when a 15x P/E was considered “fair.” Not any more. In fact, according to a new analysis by Barclays’ equity strategist Keith Parker, which tries to factor in so-called “animal spirits” as a driver of valuation has found that 20x P/E is perfectly normal and fair for the current market, further demonstrating just how deep into the goalseeking rabbit hole US capital markets have fallen.

First, to prove we are not joking, here is Barclays explaining why it is important to quantify animal spirits as a input factor of “permanently high plateaued” P/E multiples:

Core drivers of the P/E multiple and animal spirit indicators

In order to estimate the effects of “animal spirits”, or the potential effects of some of President Trump’s agenda, we first model the S&P 500 P/E using the core fundamental drivers of equity valuations. We then compare the residual from the model (actual minus fitted P/E) to various indicators of “animal spirits” or potential policy changes, including: tax policy, credit spreads, inflation, macro volatility, long-term growth expectations and corporate/consumer sentiment data.

The punchline: “Based on our findings we incrementally add other variables to build a more comprehensive P/E model, to better evaluate the potential effects of “animal spirits” on equity valuations”

At this point Barclays provides numerous pages of tortured, goalseek “empirical evidence” to extract the result it is after. What it “finds” is that what was once a “fair” 15x P/E is now really 20x P/E thanks to, drumroll, animal spirits

Full report: How A Major Bank “Calculated” That 20x P/E Is Now “Fair Value”

We’re not going to attempt to predict what happens next, but history suggests that extreme valuations, consecutive all-time record highs, and media exuberance often lead to the same end result.

But this time it’s different, right?

Perhaps. But we suggest preparing for the worst just in case the experts are wrong. That may include re-balancing your existing portfolio with precious metals assets, moving some of your holdings into cash, and positioning yourself with essential supplies in anticipation of a widespread credit event like the one witnessed during the crash of 2008.

You can read more from Mac Slavo at his site SHTFplan.com.

(activistpost.com)

By Matt Agorist

A Chinese-American businessman, who was ousted and convicted for his role in an illegal fundraising plot between China and the Clintons, made a secret tape because he feared being assassinated over what he knew. Portions of that tape were just released to the Daily Mail.

Before the Washington Post turned into a propaganda arm for the Clintonian deep state they used to expose them. In 1996, the DNC and the Clinton administration were exposed in an illegal campaign finance scheme, known as Chinagate. China’s role in this campaign finance scheme was exposed when Bob Woodward and Brian Duffy of The Washington Post published a story stating the Department of Justice investigation into the fund-raising activities had uncovered evidence that agents of China sought to direct contributions from foreign sources to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) before the 1996 presidential campaign.

These contributions from China were in direct violation of United States law forbidding non-American citizens or non-permanent residents from giving monetary donations to United States politicians and political parties.

When federal investigators discovered these illegal donations, they moved in to makes arrests. However, not a single DNC staffer nor either of the Clintons was arrested. Only Johnny Chung — the man who made the secret video fearing the Clintons would have him murdered — would take the fall.

As the Daily Mail reports,

In the never-before-released footage, Chung described how he feared for his life after he publicly admitted to funneling money from Chinese officials to President Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign.

He also claimed Democrats pressured him to stay silent about his dealings with the Clintons and said the FBI tried to enlist him in a sting against a top Chinese general at a Los Angeles airport.

After Chung agreed to cooperate with prosecutors on the Chinagate investigation, he feared his knowledge of the Clinton campaign finance scandal and the Chinese influence operation could make him a target for assassination.

The video was given to the Daily Mail by author and historian Doug Wead for his new book Game of Thorns, which, according to the Mail, traces Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful 2016 campaign and the Chinese government’s long-running operation to buy political influence in Washington.

Chung “received a friendly visit from a retired government official, friendly with the FBI, who perhaps felt guilty about the treatment Chung had been given after agreeing to come forward and tell the truth,” reported Wead. “And so, with assistance from the former government official, Johnny Chung produced an elaborate videotaped testimony that was secreted to friends and family to be forwarded to the media in the case of his death.”

Bob Abernethy, a California software executive, was the man who interviewed Chung in the video. The two had become friends while attending the same church.

In an interview with the Mail, Abernathy noted that Chung recorded the film as a type of ‘life insurance’ before he testified to Congress.

“The reason Johnny asked me to do this interview with him was to make the information publicly available [in case of his death] and also as a type of ‘life insurance’ since he was very concerned about his safety,” said Abernethy.

“His concern about his safety was understandable, given that there had been three attempts on his life which required FBI protection… and given his knowledge of what happened to people such as Ron Brown, who as Secretary of Commerce, was deeply involved in arranging – and selling seats on – Clinton administration trade missions to China,” added Abernethy.

Brown was killed, along with 34 others, when his Air Force plane slammed into a mountain over Croatia. Some have speculated that he was preparing to go public about this illegal Chinese campaign finance scheme just before his death.

After Chung blew the whistle, he and his family were placed under round-the-clock FBI protection. However, just a few days before Chung was set to testify before a grand jury, the FBI headquarters in DC called off the detail. Chung was told he was now on his own.

“I called the FBI office and offered to [speak with] the US assistant attorney again on the phone,” said Chung.

“And he said ‘Mr. Chung your case is over. As a normal American citizen, what do you do if you feel your life is in danger? You just call 911.”

Chung visited the White House 57 times in a two-year span – eight of these meetings were ‘off the books.’

During these visits, Chung would meet mostly with Hillary Clinton. In some of the meetings, he would hand checks directly to the Clintons’ chief of staff Maggie Williams, for tens of thousands of dollars.

After their illegal activities gained the attention of federal investigators, Chung spilled the beans and confessed that the money was coming from a top Chinese military official, who Bill Clinton met in person and an LA fundraiser.

To highlight just how high the Clinton’s influence and corruption spread, not a single person in the DNC was prosecuted for accepting the illegal funds — in spite of Chung’s prosecution and confession.

“It’s very strange that the giver pleads guilty and the givee gets off free,” said U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real of the case. Strange indeed — unless one is familiar with the Clinton’s dark and secret history.

After Chung was snared in Chinagate, others soon followed suit, including Ng Lap Seng, a Macau billionaire tied to the Chinese government. Ng was accused of pouring $1 million into Clinton’s 1996 reelection bid. However, he escaped prosecution at the time.

This is when things get really weird.

While Ng escaped prosecution in 1999, in 2015, he was arrested for bribing a United Nations official. That official was the former president of the UN, John Ashe.

Ashe was due in court last summer appearing with his co-defendant Ng. However, he would never make it as he died. He was found dead in his private gym after having his throat crushed by a barbell.

As the Free Thought Project reported last year, adding to the intrigue surrounding Ashe’s death, an anonymous source who spoke the New York Post’s Page Six, said prosecutors had intended to use the fact that Ng had funneled money to the DNC during Bill Clinton’s presidency in an effort to link Ashe directly to Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton.

“It would have been very embarrassing,” the source added. “His death was conveniently timed.”

As the Mail notes, in his book, Wead reports that the New York FBI office wanted to investigate Ng’s connections to the Clintons last year, but the case was shut down by the Obama administration’s Department of Justice.

And just like that, this entire case goes full circle with the corrupt Clinton family right in the center. But this is all just ‘conspiracy theory’, right?

Below is the clip from Chung’s anti-assassination ‘life-insurance’ video. The Mail was unable to reach Chung for an interview, but it is assumed he is living in China.

(activistpost.com)