Subject: Influence, Mind Control, & Rhetological Fallacies

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Tavakoli Structured Finance, Inc.
"Of course, there is still much work to be done. That means honestly confronting the crisis of Islamic extremism and the Islamists and Islamic terror of all kinds." -- President Trump in Riyadh

"Where are you headed, Europe? Rise from your knees and from your lethargy, or you will be crying over your children every day." -- Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo

Influence, Mind Control, and Rhetological Fallacies

Can the media manipulate you? Yes. Being aware of techniques is a first step to self-defense. If you have read Pre-Suasion, you may also enjoy information on cognitive illusions such as Scientific American’sWhat Can Magicians Teach Us about the Brain?”  or “Stage Hynosis—How and Why it Works.”

Even word games can confuse and mislead. Here’s a great review of Rhetological Fallacies that abound in financial, social, and main stream media.

In my novel, Archangels, a targeted PSYOP is used against the protagonist.These techniques are surprisingly effective in practice.

Today marks the first release of the large print edition of Archangels for the minority of people who prefer that format. It conforms to N.A.V.H. standards, except the spine isn’t as flexible. But one can bend it back to lay flat, if desired.
Portfolio Growth in 2018?
No one can time the market, and given the persistent decline in what the dollar buys, everyone's portfolio needs real growth. Morgan Stanley is predicting three Fed rate hikes in 2018, but nothing close to where real rates, much less nominal rates, would be in a fair market. In a manipulated rising stock market, we all look as if we're investment geniuses, even though bubblenomics drives the S&P. Where we'll end up is anyone's guess. Today's investment landscape looks very far away from value investing.
Citi Resurrects Synthetic CDOs, Bane of the Credit Crisis

Sridhar Natarajan, Dakin Campbell and Alastair Marsh of Bloomberg authored an excellent take on Citi's claims (September 26, 2017)  "Citi is Bringing Back One of the Most Infamous Bests of the Credit Crisis." The bottom line is that the risk is mispriced. Oh, but Citi claims this structure is safer.

Here's an excerpt:

“There is a whole generation of people in finance who never knew or forgot what the problems were with synthetic CDOs,” said Janet Tavakoli, a 30-year veteran of the financial markets who runs a consulting firm and has written books on structured credit and CDOs. “Just as derivatives can lever up the upside, they can lever up the downside.”
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