Business Summary Links By Day
S&P
Says Improbable Any Economic Improvement Would Bring Back AAA US Rating Durden 3-15-12 Sigh: *S&P says that
it is impossible that any economic improvement would bring back the AAA rating
*US
deficit progress is needed. *Outlook remains negative.-
And what do stocks do on latest S&P report that America is broke? Why they surge of
course.... , Apple
Weakness Due To Removal From Deutsche Bank Short-Term Buy List Durden 3-15-12 , Spanish
Housing Re-Plunging Durden
3-15-12 , The
"New Normal" American Dream Of Renting Is About To Become Very
Expensive Durden
3-15-12 , Goldman
Again Selling Russell 2000 To Muppets Durden
3-15-12 , Both
The Market and Government Are Irrational Paul Craig Roberts | One of the
great economic myths is that markets are rational. Not a day passes without
this myth being disproved scores of times, but the myth persists. [ The ‘psychological factor’ has always been a component in
the valuation of securities which valuations, good or ill, collectively give
rise to the ‘markets’. The mythical part is the presumption of rationality
accorded the ‘market-makers’ which, despite their glaring irrationality and
propensity for fraud (I’d conservatively say that wall street
is comprised predominantly, I’d estimate 90%, of psycho/sociopathic
personalities), is still decidedly and pathetically vis-à-vis the rest of the
‘go along to get along’ world, criminally insane wall street. , 80
Percent Of Americans Say That They Are Not Better Off Than They Were Four Years
Ago http://albertpeia.com/80percentamericaworsethan4yearsago.htm
, Doomsday
Survey: 51% of Americans Believe a Financial Collapse Is Imminent Mac Slavo | Most of us believe a
doomsday scenario of some kind will occur in the next twenty five years. , Philly
Fed Is Out With Latest "Schrodinger" Economy Print Durden 3-15-12 Remember when the Chinese
PMI posted both a contraction an expansion for the month of March, with Markit
showing a sub-50
contractionary print, while the Chinese version showed 51, or expansion, in
other words China was both stagnating
and growing at the same time, merely the latest indication of
our modern day Schrodinger-ness macro insanity? Well, we just got the US
version of this Heisenberg Economic Uncertainty principle, when as part of the
just released
Philly Fed index (which also printed
better than expected despite a drop in New Orders and Shipments), we saw Priced
Paid.... tumble from 38.7 to 18.7!!?? Why the surprise? Because 90 minutes
prior to this, we just got The New York Fed telling the world that prices paid
in fact soared
by virtually the highest amount in real terms on record! In other words, in
New York
survey respondents are experiencing soaring inflation, while 90 miles Southwest, manufacturing firms were awash in deflation. Do
they even try to manipulate the data anymore?
, Terminated
CBO Whistleblower Shares Her Full Story With Zero Hedge, Exposes Deep Conflicts
At "Impartial" Budget Office Durden
3-15-12 Earlier today, we
suggested that in the aftermath of the Greg "Muppets" Smith NYT
OpEd, contrary to assumptions by Jim Cramer, a bevy of potential whistleblowers
would step up to tell their tale of fraud and corruption across all walks of
life - from Wall Street to, far more importantly, Washington, consequences be
damned. This was paralleled by an alleged JPM
whisteblower describing to the CFTC the firm's supposedly illegal
activities in the precious metals space , Jamie
Dimon Warns Employees To Stay Mum On Muppetgate Durden 3-15-12 , From
One Ex-Goldmanite To Another: Nomi Prins Statement On Greg Smith's Resignation Durden 3-15-12 I
applaud Smith's decision to bring the nature of Goldman's profit-making
strategies to the forefront of the global population's discourse, as so many
others have been doing through books, investigative journalism, and the Occupy
movements over the past decade since my book, Other
People's Money, was written after I resigned from Goldman. It would be
great if Smith's illuminations would serve as the turning point around which
serious examination and re-regulation of the banking system framework would
transpire. , As
Whistleblowing Becomes The Most Profitable Financial 'Industry', Many More
'Greg Smiths' Are Coming Durden
3-15-12 Minutes ago on CNBC, Jim Cramer announced that Greg Smith will
never get a job on Wall Street again as "one never goes to the press. Ever."
Naturally, the assumption is that the secrets of Wall Street's dirty clothing
are supposed to stay inside the family, or else one may wake up with a
horsehead in their bed. There is one small problem with that. Now that
compensations on Wall Street have plunged, and terminations are set for the
biggest spike since the Lehman collapse, the
opportunity cost to defect from the club has also collapsed. And
if anything, Greg Smith's NYT OpEd has shown that it is not only ok to go to the press, but is in fact
cool. So what happens next? Well, as the following Reuters
article reports, 'whistleblowing' over corrupt and criminal practices on Wall
Street is suddenly becoming the next growth industry. , Charting The
Legacy Of The Baby Boomers Durden
3-15-12 While it is difficult to properly attribute blame for the
collapse of the US economy, which commenced in the early 1980s, on either the
Fed's policy of easy money starting with Alan Greenspan (and terminating with
today's statement by Goldman that merely a suggestion of "not easing"
may be equivalent to "tightening" - a symptom of a terminal
junkie), or the resultant self-indulgent lifestyle of the maturing
baby boomers, one thing is certain: the paradigm downturn of the United States
began in the early 1980s. And here we are willing to break the cardinal rule of
statistics and assume that correlation does imply causation. Because the 4 simple
charts below don't lie: the US economy, as represented by its Balance of
Payments, the profligacy of the US consumer, the massive expansion of consumer
leverage, and the collapse in US manufacturing jobs, and specifically its
current near-terminal state, is as much as legacy of the baby boom generation's
actions (and lack thereof), as of everything else that has already been mulled
over and scapegoated an infinite number of times in both the mainstream and
fringe media. , Muppet-Gate
Meets Blank-Berg Durden
3-15-12In one of the strangest headlines from Bloomberg today,
MuppetGate takes on a new life...*MAYOR
BLOOMBERG MEETS WITH GOLDMAN EMPLOYEES AFTER SMITH OP-ED , Guest Post:
Gridlock In DC Durden
3-15-12 The first session of this 112th Congress was spent
with Democrats and Republicans at loggerheads over the debt ceiling, taxes,
spending cuts, the deficit super committee, appropriations bills and finally
the extension of unemployment compensation and a two-month extension of the
payroll tax cut. Standard and Poor's downgrade of the United States' federal
debt was due in part to all the haggling over how, and actually whether, to
reduce the debt. No One Is Willing to
Pay the Political Price to Cut Spending This year Obama asked
Congress for, and was given, an additional $1.2 trillion of borrowing
authority, which will increase the debt limit to $16.4 trillion, just enough to
get him past the 2012 election. It could be close, however. If budget projections
prove to be overly optimistic, Obama could face another cliffhanger over a
further increase in the debt ceiling in the midst of the presidential election
in November. How embarrassing to have to say "re-elect me – and by the
way, I need to borrow some more money to pay this month's bills." , The
Iceland Financial Renaissance Miracle Continues Durden
3-15-12 , Here
Is Why Everything Is Up Today - From Goldman: "Expect The New QE As Soon
As April" Durden
3-15-12 Confused why every asset
class is up again today (yes, even gold), despite the pundit interpretation by
the media of the FOMC statement that the Fed has halted more easing? Simple -
as we said yesterday, there
is $3.6 trillion more in QE coming. But while we are too humble to take
credit for moving something as idiotic as the market, the fact that just today,
none other than Goldman Sachs' Jan Hatzius came out, roughly at the same time
as its call to buy
Russell 2000, and said that the Fed would announce THE NEW QETM,
as soon as next month, and as late as June. Furthermore, as Goldman has
previously explained, sterilization of QE makes absolutely no difference on
risk asset behavior, and it is a certainty that the $500-$750 billion in new
money (well on its way to fulfilling our expectation of a total $3.6 trillion
in more easing to come), in the form of UST and MBS purchases, will blow out
all assets across all classes, while impaling the dollar. Which in turn
explains all of today's action - dollar down, everything else (including bonds,
which Goldman said yesterday
to sell which we correctly, at least for now, said was the bottom in rates)
up. Finally, as we said, yesterday, "In conclusion we wish to say - thank
you Chairman for the firesale in physical precious metals." Because when
the market finally understands
what is happening, despite all the relentless smoke and mirrors whose only goal is to avoid a surge in
crude like a few weeks ago ahead of the presidential election, gold will be
far, far higher. Yet for some truly high
humor, here is the justification for why the Fed will need to do
more QE, even though Goldman itself has been
expounding on the improving economy: "The improvement might not last." In
other words, unless the
"economic improvement" is guaranteed in perpetuity, the Fed will
always ease. Thank you central planning - because of you we
no longer have to worry about either mean reversion or a business cycle. , Obama
Aide Refutes Report On SPR Release Durden
3-15-12 We thought it was getting stupid one post ago., It's
Official - US, UK To Release Strategic Oil Stocks Durden
3-15-12 , The
Big Fat Greek Lie Is Now Obvious to Spain… So Who’s
Next to Default? March 15, 2012 By gpc1981
, The Daily Market Report Mar
15th, 2012 Rising Interest Rates Signal
Oncoming Inflation (USAGOLD)
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{ some prior links of current interest }
