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Post: Cause, Effects & The Fallacy Of A Return To Normalcy Durden
3-6-12 The most profitable business of the
future will be producing Space Available and For Lease signs. Betting on the
intelligence of the American consumer has been a losing bet for decades. They
will continue to swipe that credit card at the local 7-11 to buy those Funions, jalapeno cheese stuffed pretzels with a side of
cheese dipping sauce, cartons of smokes, and 32 ounce Big Gulps of Mountain Dew
until the message on the credit card machine comes back DENIED.
There will be crescendo of consequences as these stores are closed down. The
rotting hulks of thousands of Sears and Kmarts will
slowly decay; blighting the suburban landscape and beckoning criminals and the
homeless. Retailers will be forced to lay-off hundreds of thousands of workers.
Property taxes paid to local governments will dry up, resulting in worsening
budget deficits. Sales taxes paid to state governments will plummet, forcing
more government cutbacks and higher taxes. Mall owners and real estate
developers will see their rental income dissipate. They will then proceed to
default on their loans. Bankers will be stuck with billions in loan losses, at
least until they are able to shift them to the American taxpayer –
again. , Market Takes First Big Loss Of 2012 As Investors Eye Greek Debt
Swap Forbes , 15
Potentially Massive Threats To The U.S. Economy Over The Next 12 Months http://albertpeia.com/15massivethreatstoeconomy.htm
‘‘We live in a world that is becoming increasingly
unstable, and the potential for an event that could cause "sudden
change" to the U.S. economy is greater than ever. There are dozens
of potentially massive threats that could easily push the U.S. economy
over the edge during the next 12 months. A war in the Middle East, a
financial collapse in Europe, a major derivatives crisis or a horrific natural
disaster … , European
Banks Now Face Huge Margin Calls As ECB Collateral Crumbles Durden 3-6-12 In what could prove to be
the most critical unintended consequence of the ECB's
LTRO program, we note that as of last Friday the ECB
has started to make very sizable margin calls on its credit-extensions to
counterparties. While the hope was for any and every piece of lowly
collateral to be lodged with the ECB in return for freshly printed money to
spend on local government debt, perhaps the expectation of a truly virtuous
circle of liquidity lifting all boats forever is crashing on the shores of
reality. This 'Deposits Related to Margin Calls' line item
on the ECB's balance sheet will likely now become the
most-watched 'indicator' of stress as we note the dramatic acceleration from an
average well under EUR200 million to well over EUR17 billion since the LTRO
began. The rapid deterioration in collateral asset quality is
extremely worrisome… , Financials
Implode As Volatility And Volume Explodes Durden
3-6-12 , Allen
Stanford Found Guilty Of Being Not Too Big To Fail; In Other News Jon Corzine
Walking Free Durden
3-6-12 … Of course, his real crime was
not realizing that if you are going to get busted for ponzinomics,
you better make sure everyone goes down with you. In the meantime, rejoice,
sheep, for the theater of Ponzi crime and punishment
continues. Then again one wonders: why are the perpetrators of the biggest Ponzi of all time, i.e., the central bankers, walking free?
Or Jon Corzine for that matter?, Worst Day In
Europe Since Rally Began Durden
3-6-12 While we have noted the comparative weakness in European credit
and sovereign markets, stocks had so far remained hopeful until today. Bloomberg's
broad BE500 index of European stocks fell 2.8% today, its worse performance since mid-November when the recent rally began. This
one-day drop has wiped out the gains of the last five weeks in stocks and
credit is even worse as it continues to lead risk lower. European financial
stocks are catching up to European credit's weakness (and we note US financial
credit is really coming off today)., On
China And The End Of The Commodity Super-Cycle Durden
3-6-12 , ECB
Surpasses €3 Trillion, Still Most Undercapitalized Hedge Fund In The World Durden 3-6-12 , Dave’s Daily: http://www.etfdigest.com NEWS COMES BACK TO HAUNT
BULLS 3-6-12 ‘Was there much news that wasn’t known by investors Monday? I
don’t think so. Eurozone economic contraction data
was in full view Monday as was a report of a slowdown in China’s
economic growth. The only thing causing a “stick save” Monday was a Morgan
Stanley note suggesting the odds of QE3 had grown to 75% before June so as not
to interfere with (cough) the November election. Since bulls are QE-addicted
that sparked an afternoon rally (2:15 Buy Program Express—I should trademark
this) lifting stocks off their lows.Yes, there was
more news
about a Greek structured default but that isn’t anything new or unexpected.
Creditors have until Friday to accept or participate in a bond swap and Greece said it
will not extend the offer. , Vital
Signs: Slowing Services Hiring The Wall Street Journal , 15
Reasons Why U.S. Economic Crisis Is An Economic Consolidation By Elite Banking
Powers The
American Dream March 6, 2012 | The real estate market will
continue to suffer because banks are raising their standards and are lending
less money. http://albertpeia.com/15reasonscrisisconsolidation.htm
, Ben
Bernanke Says That His Son Will Graduate With $400,000 Of Student Loan Debt http://albertpeia.com/studentloandebtbubble.htm The New
York Fed says that there is a total of $870 billion owed on student loans in
the United States right now. Other sources claim that the total amount of
student loan debt in the United
States will soon exceed one trillion dollars. , “Dr
Doom” sees Iran-Israel clash, says buy precious metals Mar 6th, 2012 by News , Bernanke Gets Back to His Academic Roots WSJ Kristina Peterson ‘…Later this month, Mr.
Bernanke will become the first sitting Fed chairman to deliver a college
lecture series…’ [ Now, if a resignation preceded
same; eh, who cares. Or, if he wasn’t the dismal fed failure he is (as his
recent predecessors); eh, not so much. But this blatantly failed reappointed
debacle walking should be in no wise spending any time or energy spouting his
‘pearls of is dumb’ ( http://albertpeia.com/30bunglebenbernankequotes.htm ) to
albeit captive academic audiences in the soft, warm, womb-like hallowed halls
of academia. If he wants to curl up in a fetal position, let him do so at the
crumbling failed fed building. Absolutely preposterous! ] , Guest
Post: Welcome To Year Five In The Crazy House Durden
3-6-12 Welcome to the Crazy House, a rotting
McMansion ruled by power-drunk megalomaniacs
suffering from delusions of invulnerability and god-like powers. Why are we
here, you ask? Because the drunks who run the household make it so darned easy:
just keep quiet, listen politely to their ravings, and you
get subsidized meals, free rent, a houseful of techno-gadgetry and nonstop
entertainment--and that's not even counting the amusement value of their
delusional, sloppy-drunk ramblings out by the rust-stained pool. , Fed
economists slam TARP (LTRO?) in a paper measuring the rescue fund's effect on
risk-taking at TBTFs : Daily Collateral : 03/06/2012 Paging the eurozone: Forcing banks to lend in a recession didn't work
here in 2008. It made things worse.
Next:
Bankruptcy for a whole Generation : testosteronepit
: 03/06/2012 A dysfunctional
system takes its toll. , At
Least 4 Greek Pension Funds, Including That Of Police, Refuse To Go Ahead With
PSI Durden
3-6-12 , Jon
Corzine's Family Responds To Accusations Against The Patriarch Durden 3-6-12 - 14:59 MF
Global Next, it is turn for the families of the thousands of people
whose money was stolen by MF Global (and apparently Fabrice
Tourre, since nobody at MF Global was responsible for
anything... or else it just vaporized) to send in their letters. , With
$700 Billion In QE3 Already Priced In, Who Will Blink First? Durden 3-6-12 Something interesting happened when the ECB
announced last week that its balance sheet was about to rise by €1 trillion
gross, and hit a record €3 trillion net earlier today: the EURUSD barely
budged. Why? Because as a reminder, the key driving relationship for relative
risk performance of 2012 as we forecast
back in December is the correlation of the Fed and the ECB's
balance sheets, and the EURUSD, respectively, because while we may pretend that
there is still alpha in this joke of a market, the truth is that in this new
normal only beta matters (the more lever the better), and the only beta that
matters is that generated by relative USD strength/weakness. , The
Latest Hamptons' Tennant: The US Military Durden
3-6-12 As Iran tensions mount, even the
US Military needs a break and where better than The Hamptons to practice
desert-driving skills? , Have
Wall Street Bonuses Become Too Big To Fall? Durden
3-6-12 For all the drama surrounding Wall Street bonuses in a year in which
Wall Street profitability was cut in half to just $13.5 billion, the worst
since the collapse and bailout of 2008 and 2009 (and compared to $27.6 billion
in 2010 and $61.4 billion in 2009), one would think that the average banker
would see zero bonus in 2011, or in some cases, especially if they worked at a
Greek bank, be told to pay for the privilege of working. The truth is that
according to official data
from the NY City Comptroller, the average bonus dipped by just 13% in 2011,
declining modestly from $138,940 to $121.150. , Some
Observations On Recent Gold (And Silver) Volatility Durden
3-6-12 On February 29, gold dropped 4.8% and silver 6.2% (based on London fix prices).
That's quite the fall for one day. We've seen prices that have risen that much,
too. But as I'm about to show, these ain't
nothin', baby. Based on our experience, we've been
saying for some time that volatility will increase as the markets fight their
way to the mania phase of this cycle – and that once there, the gyrations will
jump even higher. This call doesn't exactly require one to go out on a limb; it
makes sense since more investors will be crowding in – and volatility was high
in the 1979-'80 mania.... , The
Mainstream Media Still Doesn’t Get the ECB Greek Debt Swap March 6, 2012 By gpc1981 http://gainspainscapital.com ‘First off, the details of the swap are as
follows: the ECB simply exchanged 50€ billion worth of old Greek sovereign
bonds (which were soon to be worth much less if not be outright worthless) for
50€ billion worth of new Greek
sovereign bonds which would not be exposed to default risk or any kind of debt
restructuring (unlike those bonds held by private Greek bond holders).I want to
mention here that the ECB only owned about 50€ billion worth of Greek sovereign
bonds to begin with. So they exchanged roughly ALL of their exposure to Greece
to new bonds that will not lose money during a restructuring or default.The message here is clear: all private investor
sovereign bond holdings are now subordinate to those of the Central Banks/ the
IMF…