Hannity Promises To Expose CNN & NBC News In "EpicFail"

"Tick tock."

In a mysterious tweet yesterday evening to his 3.19 million followers, Fox News" Sean Hannity offered a preview of what is to come from his show next week, warning that he "will expose" CNN and NBC News for what he calls a "#EpicFail."

He followed up last night"s tweet...

One week from tonight i will expose @CNN and @NBCNews news for #EpicFail. Happy New Year to all irredeemable deplorables. 2018, cling to God Faith Bibles religion.

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) December 27, 2017

With another tonight, highlighting the "fake news" being spewed forth from various media entities...

So @CNN fake news, HRC’s campaign PAID for the RUSSIAN lies in the dossier. That sounds like COLLUSION!! Lies paid for, to RIG an election. https://t.co/b9G6k41LMT

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) December 27, 2017

We will just have to be patient to discover what he has in store for CNN and NBC, but as The Hill notes, Hannity has focused on what he calls "the destroy Trump fake news media" on most nights during his Fox News prime-time opinion program, particularly during his opening monologues that invariably include clips of CNN and MSNBC hosts and pundits going after the president in hyperbolic fashion.

Like many cable news hosts this week, Hannity is on vacation the week between Christmas and New Year"s Day. He will return to the airwaves on Jan. 2.

The past year has been a good one for the 55-year-old staunch conservative, with his candidate of choice in Trump taking office, his move from 10 p.m. to the more-watched time slot of 9 p.m. and his finish on top of the cable news ratings race following the move, averaging 3.2 million viewers.

Star Wars For The Splitting Soul Of America

Via GEFIRA,

The last episode of the successful movie – Star Wars – is actually a lot less about the stars in space and much more about culture and class. Most importantly, it reflects the dangerously growing disenfranchisement of the race-and-gender obsessed liberal upper class and everyone else.

The movie finally came out, the money started flowing and eventually the reviews arrived. The result? On the primary review sites Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes the critics loved it, the public did not, which left many wondering why.

Some explanations came out already: the good results are scientific, the bad ones are there because of internet trolls.Nope, there’s nothing scientific about subjective opinions, even if they (allegedly) represent the majority of those who express them. Science is, or should be, objective.

Trolls, more trolls, and finally, Russian interference.

That’s the cue to solving the enigma of the different ratings: the standard profile of the movie critic is a liberal arts graduate, easily identifiable by the verbosity of his writing and by the fact that he is easily impressed by cheap virtue-signalling elements like token ethnic minority leading characters and a strong female lead. As the movie panders (not even that much to be fair) to his ideological preferences, he gives high scores based on diversity and equality. The average-movie goer probably doesn’t care too much about politics. In a country where a “decisive’’ election like the last one, turnout is 55%, the biggest party by far is the one of those who stay at home. In comparison, in Europe important electoral dates easily get an 80% turnout.

So if the audience isn’t into politics, they might not care about the significance of a strong and independent woman outmanoeuvring a straight white male, the evil of mankind, in a duel with lightsabers to eradicate toxic masculinity⁴⁾.The non-politically biased movie goer wants a nice plot with unpredictable twists, satisfactory fight scenes, and some throwbacks to past episodes; and he didn’t get that. The plot falls flat.

Then there’s the other side of the political spectrum, the underclass who are simply fed up with the increasingly totalitarian tendencies of identity politics by the “liberal” Left and their constant attempts to shove their political beliefs down everyone’s throat. The new fad of the liberal elite, diversity, is being rejected like a bad transplant by the public. Nonetheless, it’s being pursued relentlessly and obnoxiously. The politicization of sports is already causing a haemorrhage of viewers for the NFL (the US football organization). Entertainment is also not immune to these attempts. The calls for the “diversification” of cast actors are regular.

The last two groups represent the “user score” and their review isn’t positive. The most interesting point, however, is another; it’s the reaction of critics to the public having a diverse (the irony!) opinion. That’s where the accusations of trolling or Russian meddling start, but they also reveal the insecurity of critics and especially, their inability to handle an opposite opinion. Just like the liberal political elite can’t accept that the world Obama built in the last 8 years received a negative review by the voters, who opted for the radical (in theory) change by electing Donald Trump, the liberal movie critic can’t accept a negative review of a work that reflects his ideological preference.

We might be seeing now the impact of those infamous participation trophies on the minds of the new generations: they don’t know how to accept defeat, nor any negativity whatsoever. They grew up being told that “everyone is special in their own way”, then Facebook arrived, allowing only likes but not dislikes contributing to the creation of a mindset where negativity is not allowed.

If there is negativity, then it must be from some malign agent… from Russia. One year ago, in one of our articles Russia did it ⁵⁾we spotted a trend: every political shortcoming of the Western elite would be blamed on Russia. We were right as the cases of alleged Russian interference have expanded from Trump and Brexit to the Italian referendum last year, and according to Joe Biden⁶⁾also the rise (and fall) of Marine Le Pen in the French elections and most recently the Green US politician Jill Stein, which may rank as the most hilarious cases of paranoia.

It turns out, however, that the Russian scapegoating is expanding outside the traditional boundaries of politics, as everything becomes increasingly politicized. Hence, even negative reviews of the Star Wars latest movie are now a result of the Russian sabotage.

As millennials, the generation that was put in a bubble protected from negativity by educators and social media and thus unable to handle it, are now fully settling in the job market, the prospect isn’t promising. If you think that’s bad, remember that the new cohorts in college campuses are now fighting to suppress free speech on the basis that it might offend someone’s feelings. Last year we concluded “expect to see more”. This time, expect to see worse.

Retired Green Beret Rages "We Are Long Past The Tipping Point"

Authored by Jeremiah Johnson (nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces) via SHTFplan.com,

So, let’s cite a few passages from President Trump’s National Security Speech:

“Throughout our history, the American people have always been the true source of American greatness. Our people have promoted our culture and promoted our values. Americans have fought and sacrificed on the battlefields all over the world. We have liberated captive nations, transformed former enemies into the best of friends, and lifted entire regions of the planet from poverty to prosperity. Because of our people, America has been among the greatest forces for peace and justice in the history of the world. The American people are generous. You are determined, you are brave, you are strong, and you are wise.”

Determined, brave, strong, and wise. Certainly, the President wasn’t referring to most of the population? Maybe he was in Wal-Mart, looking at these determined, brave, strong, and wise citizens:

But the generosity? Here is the “generosity” in a nutshell, for those can see it for what it is, just after that section:

“Fourth and finally, our strategy is to advance American influence in the world, but this begins with building up our wealth and power at home. America will lead again. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but we will champion the values without apology. We want strong alliances and partnerships based on cooperation and reciprocity. We will make new partnerships with those who share our goals, and make common interests into a common cause.”

Here’s some more generosity, of the “Black Friday” type…with the determined, brave, strong, and wise, once more:

Yes, it sounds very similar to the imperial hubris we have heard parroted for the past half a century and more.  Look at this oxymoronic sentence:

“We will not allow inflexible ideology to become an obsolete and obstacle to peace.”

Not allow inflexible ideology? And if our government is the unbiased “factor” to determine what ideology is inflexible, perhaps it should examine itself, first, as we are the ones not to compromise. Just the statement “we will not allow inflexible ideology,” is an inflexible statement; ergo, perhaps the government should fold.

We are at a very important juncture right now. The President made this speech to galvanize public opinion and support with ratings at about 60% disapproval. There is no clearly defined (let alone productive) foreign policy, with gross inconsistencies throughout this first year of the President’s term. Praising Russia for cooperation and sharing of intelligence to thwart a terrorist attack, just months after we expelled all Russian diplomats from the Russian embassy in California, as well as forcing them to vacate properties…in under a week.

Granted, all embassies (American and foreign nations) are full of spies, however, such a forced eviction has not improved relations with the Russians. The North Korean situation takes center stage:  as mentioned before, North Korea only has two options. They can either relinquish their nuclear weapons and submit to western hegemony as another IMF and World Bank vassal, or they can continue in their present course.

The punch line: they possess nuclear missiles with the capabilities of delivering an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) attack, or a nuclear strike against American cities. The President of the United States just stated (as printed above) “America will lead again.” What better leadership example than to do a 180-degree turn, and try…make the attempt…to extend full diplomatic courtesy to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un? What better strategy than to roll out the red carpet, and treat him with the courtesy of a leader of another nation…one with nuclear missiles…and show yourself to extend the hand of diplomacy?

The President owes that much: owes a legitimate attempt to help to protect the 320 million people of this country, who do not have a Mt. Weather or a Cheyenne Mountain to retreat to. He owes it to 320 million American people who are in the crossfire. And if Un is unresponsive? Then the attempt was made. Lead by example and take the first step, for the welfare of the millions…ours, and yes, theirs.

Any who may be smirking will lose such skepticism if the city their family lives in suddenly becomes a dust cloud spiraling into the upper stratosphere.

There was much the President said that was worthwhile, but he said most of it in the present tense…as if we are “there” already, and not that we have a long way to go. To credit him, the Obama years almost destroyed this country. We are now as the hollowed-out exoskeleton of a cicada…clinging to the Tree of Liberty, but emptied, with barely a pulse.

Determined, brave, strong, and wise? The teleprompter told him that: he certainly wasn’t looking out of the window and viewing actual people. Our people have promoted our culture and our values? And just what would those be?  Reality T.V. shows and professional football players who take a knee in a foreign country, and refuse to stand for the anthem of the United States, but will stand for Britain’s anthem?

Yes, there is our value system: not even pride or loyalty to respect the U.S. when in a foreign land… a nation that we fought two wars against, then saved in World War II.

Their right to “take a knee” exercised their right to freedom of speech, while they also exercised the freedom to make complete jackasses out of themselves. Such freedom was earned for them and is maintained for them by their betters…

Pat Tillman was one of those betters: standing for something he believed in, and remembering that he was an American…something he held higher in importance than being a professional football player in the NFL. We can learn much from the example that he set.

It’s from the ground up that we need to return to our basics, and give all of Washington D.C. and Congress an “enema” to drain the true polluting substance from the “swamp” of D.C.  We are long past the tipping point, and possibly past the point of no return, but we still must try. From the President of the United States down to the rest of us…all of us…We the People. Hopefully we’ll have one more example to go by. Lead from the front, Mr. President, and be a Statesman…and act as the Commander-in-Chief as a last resort.

You have the power, Mr. President, to destroy many nations and enter a war, but do you have the strength to not do this? Remains to be seen. If you care about the American people and the United States as much as you say you do, then the choice is simple, even though the execution of it will be tough.

These PE Firms Are About To Get Crushed By Their Subprime Auto Bets

In the aftermath of the "great recession," private equity firms placed massive bets on subprime auto finance companies with the typical "thesis" going something like this: "well, people have to get to work don"t they?"...genius, if we understand it correctly.

Of course, the "thesis" seemed to be confirmed when auto securitizations performed relatively well throughout the financial crisis, amid a sea of mortgage bonds getting wiped out, and private equity titans were off to the races with wall street titans from Perella Weinberg to Blackstone and KKR scooping stakes in small niche lenders.

Unfortunately, as Bloomberg points out today, the $3 billion bet on subprime auto lenders hasn"t played out precisely to plan as the "well, people have to get to work" thesis has proved to be somewhat less than full proof.

A Perella Weinberg Partners fund has been sitting on an IPO of Flagship Credit Acceptance for two years as bad loan write-offs push it into the red. Blackstone Group LP has struggled to make Exeter Finance profitable, despite sinking almost a half-billion dollars into the lender since 2011 and shaking up the C-suite multiple times. And Wall Street bankers in private say others would love to cash out too, but there’s currently no market for such exits.

 

Since the turn of the decade, buyout firms, hedge funds and other private investors have staked at least $3 billion on non-bank auto lenders, according to Colonnade. Among PE firms, everyone from Blackstone and KKR & Co. to Lee Equity Partners, Altamont Capital and CIVC Partners waded in.

 

Many targeted smaller finance companies that often catered to the least creditworthy borrowers with nowhere else to turn. Overall, subprime car loans -- those extended to people with credit scores of 620 or lower -- have increased 72 percent since 2011. Last year, about 20 percent of all new car loans went to subprime borrowers.

 

“The PE guys sailed into this thing with stars in their eyes. Some of the businesses have done fine and some haven’t,” said Chris Gillock, managing director at Colonnade Advisors, a boutique investment bank. But right now, “it’s about as out-of-favor a sector as I can think of.”

Of course, the turnaround strategy was "simple." Given that subrpime auto collateral held up well during the great recession, private equity investors figured they were sitting on rock solid collateral that would holdup under even the most egregious loosening of underwriting standards.  Therefore, given that there was "no downside", lenders wholeheartedly embraced deteriorating underwriting standards, like stretching out terms so borrowers could "afford" cars they couldn"t really afford, as a way to grow their loans books. 

Alas, it didn"t work out as planned as subprime delinquencies are suddenly soaring and used car prices are tanking...making profits somewhat elusive.

Take Exeter. The company, which is licensed in all 50 states and works with roughly 10,000 dealerships, hasn’t been profitable since 2011, when Blackstone took a majority stake, an S&P Global Ratings report in September showed. That’s after the PE firm invested $472 million to help Exeter expand and cycled through three CEOs at the lender.

 

On a pretax basis, Exeter turned a profit in 2016 and 2017, according to Matthew Anderson, a spokesman at Blackstone. He added the New York-based firm hasn’t tried to sell the lender.

 

Blackstone may look to unload Exeter later next year, said a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because it’s private.

 

Bad loans remain an issue. This year, a rash of delinquencies in two bonds stuffed with loans that Exeter made in 2015 caused the securities to dip into their extra collateral to keep investors whole.

 

Another example is Flagship, which Perella Weinberg bought in 2010. (Innovatus Capital Partners, which manages the lender on behalf of Perella Weinberg, was formed by former Perella Weinberg managers last year after they split from the firm.)

As it turns out, the "well, people have to get to work" thesis only works to the extent that auto manufacturers maintain some level of discipline and refrain from exploiting their captive finance companies to flood the market with new supply...a move which will eventually lead to crashing used car prices and massive subprime securitization losses.

Unfortunately, as we pointed out last month, a review of the latest Fed data on auto loans underwritten by "Banks and Credit Unions" compared to those loans provided by "Auto Finance" companies prove that the nightmare scenario is playing out for subprime lenders...

First, taking a look at auto loans provided by traditional banks and credit unions, one can see some marginal deterioration in subprime auto loans.  That said, the deterioration is certainly nothing substantial with 90-day delinquencies pretty much in line with 2004/2005 levels and no where near the rates experienced in 2008/2009.

 

 

But, a drastically different picture emerges when looking at just the auto loans originated by America"s auto finance captives.  To our great "shock", auto OEMs in the U.S. seem to have been much more "flexible" on underwriting standards over the past couple of years resulting in delinquency rates that nearly rival those last experienced at the height of the great recession.

 

Of course, we"re sure that GM Financial and Ford Motor Credit just got unlucky with their deteriorating credit portfolios...certainly they would never knowingly attempt to game their own short-term financial success by putting millions of Americans into cars they can"t possibly afford, right?

ESPN President Quits Due To "Substance Addiction"

Amid plummeting ratings, mass job cuts, and constant #resistance, ESPN President John Skipper has finally called it quits from running the so-called sports channel.

Here is Skipper’s statement:

Today I have resigned from my duties as President of ESPN. I have had a wonderful career at the Walt Disney Company and am grateful for the many opportunities and friendships. I owe a debt to many, but most profoundly Michael Lynton, George Bodenheimer and Bob Iger.

 

I have struggled for many years with a substance addiction. I have decided that the most important thing I can do right now is to take care of my problem.

 

I have disclosed that decision to the company, and we mutually agreed that it was appropriate that I resign. I will always appreciate the human understanding and warmth that Bob displayed here and always.

 

I come to this public disclosure with embarrassment, trepidation and a feeling of having let others I care about down.

 

As I deal with this issue and what it means to me and my family, I ask for appropriate privacy and a little understanding.

 

To my colleagues at ESPN, it has been a privilege. I take great pride in your accomplishments and have complete confidence in your colective ability to continue ESPN"s success.

The 61-year-old Skipper joined ESPN in 1997 as senior vice president and general manager of ESPN The Magazine. He was promoted to his current job on January 1, 2012.

Here is what ESPN president John Skipper said in a recent memo to staffers:

"ESPN is about sports... It is not a political organization."

So will that agenda change now?

Warning From The World"s Biggest Shipping Line On Outlook for World Trade

The optimism on world trade didn’t last very long.

It was only late September when the WTO issued a “strong upward revision” to their estimate for 2017 world trade. WTO economists raised their forecast to 3.6% from 2.4%, which was at the top end of the previous 1.8-3.6% range. This marked a sharp acceleration from the 1.3% growth in 2016. The IMF’s forecast for 2017 world trade, also made in September, was even higher at 4.2%. Now the Copenhagen-based Maersk, the world’s number one container shipping company, is sounding a warning about softer demand and downward pressure on freight rates. According to Bloomberg.

The world’s largest container shipping line says international freight rates are reversing after climbing for most of this year, raising questions about the sustainability of the global trade recovery. Decade-old oversupply issues swamped demand for containerized sea trade in the third quarter, a senior official at Maersk Line Ltd. said in an interview last week. Over 90 percent of trade is routed through ships, making the industry a bellwether for the worldwide economy.

"We have started to see some pockets of downward pressure," said Steve Felder, Mumbai-based managing director of Maersk’s South Asian unit. The global trade order book at around 13.5 percent of capacity isn’t high, "however, given that freight rates are largely determined on the basis of supply-demand balance, they remain fragile," he said.

Last week, we highlighted the collapse in the share price of Samsung Heavy, the world’s third largest shipbuilder, after unexpectedly forecasting losses for this year and 2018 and announcing a capital raise. The company stated that new order demand is falling which suggested that the revival seen across the industry in 2017 is already fading. Samsung Heavy said it didn’t see a recovery until 2019.

Maersk’s downbeat assessment of the outlook mirrors the view of a number of shipping consultants, banks, other container shipping companies and rating agencies, as Bloomberg notes.

Maersk isn’t alone. Drewry Shipping Consultants expects the container-shipping freight growth rate to drop to less than 10 percent in 2018 from around 15 percent in 2017 as a supply glut hits home. CMA CGM, the No. 3 container shipping company, recently signaled slightly lower rates for 2018 in early negotiations of Asia-Europe contracts, analysts at Credit Suisse Group AG wrote in a Nov. 29 note.

"It remains very early in the negotiation period, but this uncertainty is plainly unhelpful to investor confidence,” they said.

Fitch Ratings expects supply of shipping containers to grow more than 5.5 percent in 2018, outpacing an over 4.5 percent expansion in demand.

The one positive note in the overall world trade outlook right now is air freight, where IATA’s projected growth of 7.5% for 2017 is widely believed to have significant upside potential. However, air freight is a small part of the overall market. The world air freight sector accounts for about $100 billion compared with aggregate world trade of about $15.5 trillion – about 0.6%. 

Drewry Shipping Consultants latest data on spot freight routes points to significant weakness on several routes between Shanghai and developed economies. For example, rates for Shanghai-Rotterdam, Shanghai-Genoa, Shanghai-Los Angeles and shanghai-New York are all down more than 20% versus the first week in December 2016.

Currently, both the WTO and the IMF are expecting growth in world trade to remain buoyant in 2018. The former is projecting growth of 4.0% and the latter 3.6% with a range of 3.2-3.6%. 2017 will be the first year since 2014 when trade growth has exceeded global GDP growth. Based on the current IMF forecasts, the two will be approximately equal next year. However, the weakness flagged by Maersk, Drewry and others suggests that trade could, once again, act as a drag on global growth as we move into 2018.

 

Is The NFL"s Problem "Poor Product", Not "Disrespect"?

Authored by Doug French via The Mises Institute,

President Trump has lambasted the NFL more than 20 times for players’ “Total Disrespect of Our Great Country.”

Ratings are down for NFL games and Trump figures it’s because some players aren’t standing, hand over heart, and mouthing the words to the national anthem.

Trump may have made some political hay out of all this, but one only has to follow the money to learn the real reason pro football ratings are down - competition from college football.

The fact is, “Their product isn’t very good these days,” Nick Bogdanovich told the Las Vegas Sun. He is the chief oddsmaker for William Hill, which operates 107 sportsbooks in Nevada.

The league that used to claim any team could win on “any given Sunday” has turned into a predictable “If you have a quarterback, you have a chance. If you don’t, you don’t,” as Ben Volin wrote of the Boston Globe at the finish of last year’s regular season. As evidence, he pointed to “the four quarterbacks remaining in the playoffs — Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, and Matt Ryan.”

Jimmy Vaccaro has been running sports books for four decades. He says, it used to be, “Nearly $4 on the NFL for every buck on a college game.” That is no longer the case. Now it is more like 60–40 with the college betting handle gaining.

Joe Drape writes of the sportsbook legend,

And when Vaccaro says he is becoming bearish on the betting health of professional football, you lean in and listen. Last month, for three consecutive weeks, for the first time that he can remember, betting on college football at South Point surpassed betting on the NFL, by as much as $400,000.

The Wall Street Journal did a study back in 2010 and found that of the 174 minutes of an NFL broadcast there was 11 minutes of game action. The WSJ found there was about 60 minutes of commercials and “As many as 75 minutes, or about 60% of the total air time, excluding commercials, is spent on shots of players huddling, standing at the line of scrimmage or just generally milling about between snaps.”

This has only become worse with the advent of constantly replaying questionable calls. Meanwhile, many college teams have gone to the no-huddle offense to squeeze in more plays.

Making accurate point spreads on 16 pro games is much easier than getting 50 college games right.

“There’s more volatility and room for mistakes in the college game,” John Avello, a bookmaker at the Wynn Las Vegas, told the Sun. “You can find an edge there, and that is what gamblers do. We are hard to beat when it comes to the NFL.”

Professional gambler Chris Lawless wagers more on college games not only because there are flawed betting lines to take advantage of, but also because the games are more enjoyable.

“There are more momentum shifts and more exciting plays and more passion,” Lawless said.

Vaccaro believes betting on college football will continue to gain on NFL action. Overall, Nevada sports books are expected to post their eighth consecutive year of record handle, with Las Vegas taking in $5 billion in sports wagers.

September saw Nevada set a new betting handle record of $558.4 million, and the Nevada Gaming Control Board has now revealed that the handle in October came in at $522 million, the best-ever performance by Nevada sportsbooks in the month of October, as well as the third consecutive month of a betting handle in excess of $500 million.

NBC Fires Matt Lauer For "Inappropriate Sexual Behavior", Trump Gloats

The latest - and biggest - casualty from the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal was revealed moments ago, when NBC announced it fired its leading morning news anchor Matt Lauer over sexual harassment allegations, the network’s president for news said in a memo to staff on Wednesday.

"Today" star Matt Lauer, the highest paid personality in TV news, was fired following "a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace," NBC News Chairman Andy Lack said in an email to NBC News staff. Lauer, 59, was named a co-anchor of "Today" in January 1997 after three years as the newsreader.

The full email is below:

Dear Colleagues,

 

On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer. It represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company"s standards. As a result, we"ve decided to terminate his employment. While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over twenty years he"s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.

 

Our highest priority is to create a workplace environment where everyone feels safe and protected, and to ensure that any actions that run counter to our core values are met with consequences, no matter who the offender.

 

We are deeply saddened by this turn of events. But we will face it together as a news organization – and do it in as transparent a manner as we can. To that end, Noah and I will be meeting with as many of you as possible throughout the day today to answer your questions.

CNN said that reporters for The New York Times had been investigating Lauer for several weeks, according to sources who had been contacted by the Times. The firing removes one of the most recognizable personalities on television, and at aa time when morning news programs are increasingly important to network news divisions.

The NY Post reports that Lauer allegedly sexually assaulted a female NBC staffer during the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.

An NBC insider said Lauer’s alleged victim complained to HR on Monday: “This happened so quickly. She didn’t go to the media, she made a complaint to NBC’s human resources, and her evidence was so compelling that Matt was fired on Tuesday night. The victim says she has evidence that this has also happened to other women, but so far we don’t have evidence of that.”

Another source told Page Six that the decision to fire Lauer was made late Tuesday night by NBC News chairman Andy Lack.

* * *

The memo announcing the termination of Lauer was read on air during the Today show this morning. Lauer’s co-host, Savannah Guthrie, announced the news on live TV. Appearing on the verge of tears, Guthrie said,

"This is a sad morning at "Today" and NBC News," she said. "As I"m sure you can understand, we are devastated. All we can say is we are heartbroken; I’m heartbroken for Matt. He is my dear, dear colleague."

She described Lauer as “a dear, dear friend,” and said she was “heartbroken for the brave colleague who came forward to tell her story." Calling Lauer’s termination part of a national reckoning, she asked  “How do you reconcile your love for someone with the revelation that they have behaved badly?”

Hoda Kotb, on the set with Guthrie, said she has known Lauer for years and "loved him as a friend and a colleague." "It"s hard to reconcile the man who walks in every day" with the person who was identified in the complaint, she said.

Matt Lauer has been terminated from NBC News. On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment. pic.twitter.com/1A3UAZpvPb

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 29, 2017

Ironically, it was none other than Matt Lauer grilling Bill O"Reilly over sexual harassment:

This didn"t age well. Matt Lauer grills Bill O"reilly over sexual harassment pic.twitter.com/jWMHt2LORe

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) November 29, 2017

Moments after the news, a gloating President Trump seized on Lauer"s termination, going on to ask in a tweet when executives at NBC and Comcast, the network’s parent company, would “be fired for putting out so much fake news.”

"Wow, Matt Lauer was just fired from NBC for “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.” But when will the top executives at NBC & Comcast be fired for putting out so much Fake News. Check out Andy Lack’s past!"

Wow, Matt Lauer was just fired from NBC for “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.” But when will the top executives at NBC & Comcast be fired for putting out so much Fake News. Check out Andy Lack’s past!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2017

He then followed up with the following: "So now that Matt Lauer is gone when will the Fake News practitioners at NBC be terminating the contract of Phil Griffin? And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the “unsolved mystery” that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!"

So now that Matt Lauer is gone when will the Fake News practitioners at NBC be terminating the contract of Phil Griffin? And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the “unsolved mystery” that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2017

2nd Largest Gunmaker Nears Default As Americans Buy Fewer Firearms Post-Obama

2017 has seen the biggest drop in American firearms sales in history.

After 8 years of almost incessant rises in NICS Firearms Checks (a proxy for "legal" arms sales) under President Obama...

source: NICS

2017 has seen a considerable drop (year-to-date) - the biggest on NICS records...

source: NICS

This sudden drop in demand after President Trump"s election has meant Remington Outdoor, the second-largest U.S. gunmaker, has suffered a “rapid” and “sharp” deterioration in sales and a similar drop in profits since January, and faces “continued softness in consumer demand for firearms,” according to credit analysts at Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings.

As Philly.com"s Joseph DiStefano reports, S&P cut the company’s corporate credit rating - already at a junk-bond-level CCC+ - two full notches, to CCC- as:

...a backlog of unsold, unwanted firearms will force Remington to operate at a loss and “pressure the company’s sales and profitability at least through early 2018, resulting in insufficient cash flow for debt service and fixed charges,” unless Remington gives up cash to pay for ongoing operations.

 

S&P expects “a heightened risk of a restructuring” of Remington’s $575 million senior secured loan and asset-based lending facility, which it is supposed to pay back in 2019.

 

If Remington defaults on its payments, based on the company’s current value, S&P expects first-lien creditors may receive around 35 cents back from every dollar they have lent or invested. Lower-rated creditors would get back less, or nothing.

While the report said that default is not yet "a virtual certainty," judging by the collapse in Remington"s bond prices this week... the market is pretty sure.

And while Remington is not public, it is not alone in pain as shown below...

NFL Ratings Slump Worsens As ESPN Forced To Slash $80 Million In Salary Costs

As the NFL continues to try to address the ongoing civil war between Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Commissioner Roger Goodell, not to mention the intermittent hostile fire from the White House, viewers are increasingly deciding they"ve had enough and are abandoning professional football viewership altogether.  As the NY Post points out today, the embattled league saw ratings dip 6.3% in Week 11 meaning 1 million fewer people tuned in to see players take a knee during the national anthem versus last year.

The TV audience for NFL games steepened its slide in Week 11, losing 1 million viewers versus last year’s season-to-date average.

 

The 6.3 percent slump — worsening from comparable declines of 5.6 to 5.7 percent during the previous three weeks — plagued a week whose off-the-field drama made gridiron tackling seem almost tame by comparison.

 

After starting 11.8 percent behind last year’s TV audience for NFL games in Week 1, league viewership had either held its own or narrowed the gap through Week 8.

 

The 6.3 percent shortfall in Week 11 reflects an average viewership of 14.9 million for the NFL’s 68 national telecasts this year versus 15.9 million for the season-to-date in 2016.

Meanwhile, the ratings dip, combined with massive subscriber losses (see: ESPN Lost 15,000 Subscribers A Day In October), has taken a huge toll on ESPN which Yahoo News reports will have to cut some $80 million in salary costs to offset their plunging top line. 

ESPN is poised to slash an estimated $80 million in salaries and other costs in coming weeks, sources tell Sporting News.

 

The third round of layoffs in two years at the Disney-owned sports network is expected to come down after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. Sporting News broke the news that ESPN planned to lay off up to 60 people in late November and early December. Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated followed up with a report that said 100 positions could be impacted.

 

ESPN lost a whopping $1 billion in affiliate revenue after dropping 13 million subscribers in just six years, according to the SportsBusiness Journal. Sports insiders agree ESPN overpaid for the NFL"s "Monday Night Football" ($1.9 billion annually) and the NBA ($1.4 billion a year). During 2016, ESPN"s prime-time viewership fell 19 percent, according to the SBJ. Rather than driving Disney"s profits, ESPN has been dragging them down, spooking Wall Street analysts.

 

Meanwhile, ESPN management threw money at many anchors, analysts and reporters whose contracts were up in recent years to stop them from jumping to FS1 and other competitors. Some lost those high-paid TV gigs this spring. But ESPN is still on the hook to pay their full salaries until they get a new job elsewhere. Not many have over the past six months. Given the length of some of these expensive deals, not many will in the future, according to Awful Announcing.

 

"ESPN is dealing with three simple math problems. They have fewer subscribers than they planned for. They have higher costs than they planned for. They lower ratings than they hoped for," said one source.

Perhaps it"s time for the NFL to admit that while most Americans can agree that professional football is really fun to watch, roughly half of them are going to disagree with whatever political stance its players decide to cram down their throats during games...so maybe best to just stick to football.

"Our Flag Is Very Special" - NFL Superstar Herschel Walker Blames NFL Commissioner For Crisis

Former NFL susperstar Herschel Walker - who aggressively praised America’s military heroes and first responders - slams NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for not quelling the national anthem protests.

NYPost"s John Aidan Byrne reports that the Heisman Trophy winner doesn’t beat around the bush:

“Guys, let me tell you this,” he said. 

 

“Our flag is very special, and black lives matter, but what we should do is go to Washington after the season and protest there instead. We have young men and women fighting for the flag. And we have to respect the White House.”

Walker - who used to play for President Trump’s short-lived USFL New Jersey Generals in the ’80s...

Was not done...

“I absolutely think the protests are so upsetting, and I blame the commissioner,” he said.

 

“I know people are going to be angry when I say it, but he should have stopped the protests at the very beginning.”

All of this comes after a week of turmoil between Goodell and the owners amid a continued slide in ratings.

Goodell-Jones Feud Escalates As NFL Accuses Cowboys Owner Of "Conduct Damaging To The League"

The NFL has decided to escalate its growing feud with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones by alleging that his efforts to "sabotage contract negotiations" with commissioner Roger Goodell is tantamount to conduct that is "detrimental to the league"s best interests."  Ironically, as the Wall Street Journal points out, proving that an owner"s conduct is "detrimental to the league" is exactly what the NFL would have to prove in order to fine Jones and/or impose other penalties on him or his team.

The NFL accused Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones of trying to sabotage its contract negotiations with commissioner Roger Goodell, calling his conduct “detrimental to the league’s best interests.”

 

That language, included in a letter sent to Jones’s attorney on Wednesday and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, escalates a growing conflict between the league and one of its most powerful owners.

 

The tension has grown so severe that the topic of removing Jones has been discussed by at least some owners, according to three people familiar with the matter. That type of drastic action would require the league showing conduct detrimental to the league—which is exactly the language the league used in its November letter to Jones’s attorney, David Boies.

As the New York Times notes, Jones" relationship with Goodell and the NFL has soured since Goodell suspended the Cowboys’ star running back, Ezekiel Elliott, in mid-August.  After the suspension, Jones seemingly retaliated by trying to slow discussions about the commissioner’s new pay package, which the owners on the compensation committee had been working on for months.

Jones has said in recent weeks that he has only been trying to increase the transparency of the contract negotiations and give more owners a voice in the process. Jones voted along with every other owner in May to approve an extension, but he has said that much has changed since then and that Goodell’s new contract should reflect these issues, which include the protests during the national anthem at N.F.L. games.

 

But two weeks ago, Jones, a nonvoting member of the compensation committee, escalated the dispute when he threatened to sue the league and the six owners on the committee if they did not bend to his will.

Not surprisingly, in a radio interview yesterday, Jones was dismissive of his risk of being banished from the league and described any chatter about his ouster as “ridiculous.”

Meanwhile, as the silly bickering and political posturing continues in the NFL, fans are increasingly sending the signal that they"ve had just about enough...as evidenced by Monday Night Football this past week posting the 4th worst ratings in ESPN history...perhaps it"s time to take the hint?

Modi Throws $32bn At Indian State Banks – Share Prices Surge

Share prices of Indian state banks surged as the government announced it would hand over $32bn to recapitalize the sector. According to Reuters, the motivation was a bid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tackle a major drag on the economy that has frustrated his attempts to boost growth.

Once the world’s fastest-growing major economy, India has seen its growth rate plummet to the lowest in three years, far below levels needed to create enough jobs to absorb the million Indians joining the work force every month. Modi’s government has tried to respond by stepping up public spending, but the slowdown has stressed its finances, making it imperative that private investment picks up the slack. Officials privately admit they have struggled to revive private investment because state-owned banks, which provide much of the credit in the economy, are saddled with a mountain of bad debt…

 

Twenty-one state-run banks account for more than two-thirds of India’s banking assets. But they also account for a bulk of the record 9.5 trillion rupees ($145 billion) of soured loans. In addition to repairing their balance sheets, the banks need billions of dollars in new capital to meet global Basel III banking rules, due to fully kick in by March 2019. Fitch Ratings estimates Indian banks will need $65 billion of additional capital by March 2019 to meet Basel III global banking rules. Moody’s expects the top 11 state lenders alone will need nearly $15 billion.

That’s what we call a trend reversal…

Here is Bloomberg’s take...

India’s government has won a resounding reception from investors and credit-ratings firms for its unprecedented pledge of 2.11 trillion rupees ($32 billion) in capital for the country’s beleaguered state banks.

The move, which drove an index of government-run banks up as much as 26 percent, is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal to help lenders meet tighter capital-reserve requirements, as slower economic growth and falling demand erode borrowers’ ability to repay loans. Soured debt is now the highest since 2000, hampering credit expansion that’s needed to spur Asia’s third-largest economy.

“The proposed infusion is a sizable jump over what had been pledged before as India is seeking to plug a large part of the core equity gap at the state-run banks,” said Jobin Jacob, a Mumbai-based associate director at Fitch Ratings Ltd. This addresses “weak core capitalization, one of the key drivers for our negative outlook on the South Asian nation’s banking sector.”

Moody’s Investors Service analyst Srikanth Vadlamani said the move is a “significant credit positive” for India’s state-run banks. The amount of capital pledged is enough to address the lenders’ solvency challenges and recapitalize them adequately, Vadlamani, who is vice president of the financial institutions group at the unit of Moody’s Corp., said by phone.

In the end, there was no alternative than for the Indian government to provide additional capital. While investors have shunned the state-owned banks due to poor profitability and asset quality, the situation was further complicated by the requirement for the state to maintain at least 51% ownership. Ratings agencies, Fitch and Moddy’s have been highlighting the weakness in capital ratios.

Delving into some of the details of the capital injection, Bloomberg explains, the government will sell 1.35 trillion rupees of recapitalization bonds, while banks will raise another 760 billion rupees through “budgetary support” and from the markets, according to the plan announced Tuesday. The funds vastly outstrip the 700 billion rupees that India had pledged two years ago to inject by 2019, and is likely a recognition that the government had underestimated the impact ballooning bad loans would have on credit growth…

“These funds will help in efficiently managing risk and credit capital-related requirements of the banks,” State Bank of India Chairman Rajnish Kumar said in an emailed statement.

Bloomberg summarised market reaction in stream of consciousness fashion.

Analysts say the step is “sentimentally positive” and will help lenders meet over 70% of their capital needs but lending won’t grow immediately. Punjab National Bank jumps as much as 40%, most on record; Bank of Baroda surges as much as 29%, State Bank +25%. Recapitalization amount is “huge,” will help banks meet higher provision requirements under new accounting rules starting April 2018 Citi (Manish Shukla, Abhishek Sahoo) Timely recapitalization of government banks will boost capital adequacy, even after they make provisions for soured loans However, private sector demand -- muted over past few years -- has to revive for loan-growth to recover CLSA (Aashish Agarwal, Prakhar Sharma, Aditya Jain) Plan should help satisfy more than 70% of lenders’ needs required for lending to increase, absorb “haircuts” on stressed loans Punjab National Bank, Union Bank raised to buy from sell JEFFERIES (Nilanjan Karfa) India plan is “sentimentally positive” and makes all state banks “a basket trade” Bank lending won’t improve immediately, but it “partially solves” supply of capital flow; stoking demand needs to be worked at separately MORGAN STANLEY (Anil Agarwal, Sumeet Kariwala, Subramanian Iyer) State lenders can now “take the required hits” arising from soured loans, make proper provisions, and move ahead Insolvency rule was helping bad-loan resolution, recapitalization will accelerate it NOMURA (Adarsh Parasrampuria, Amit Nanavati, Riddhi Jain) “Big state banks recap” is a game-changer; expect re-rating in state-owned banks Infusion “highly dilutive” but very positive for FY19 adjusted books

As ever, you can’t please everybody as Reuters noted...

Mohan Guruswamy, an economist in New Delhi, said the government should have taken action three years ago to revive the banking sector. "Now it"s more expensive, and we will not see results soon," Guruswamy said.