Business Summary Links By Day
Spain is Greece… Only Bigger and
WorseApril 20, 2012 By gpc1981 http://gainspainscapital.com
Spain on the Precipice http://albertpeia.com/spainontheprecipice.htm ‘On the Surface,
Spain’s debt woes have many things in common with those of Greece:1)Bad age demographics 2)A
toxic bank system However, you’ll note that as we tackle each
of these, Spain is in fact in far worse fiscal shape than Greece.Currently
there is one person of non-working age (65 or older) for every four people of
working age (15-64) in Spain. This is expected to worsen to one person of
non-working age for every three
people of working age by 2025 and an astounding more than one person of
non-working age for every two
people of working age by 2040.These demographics alone set Spain up for a sovereign debt
Crisis. According toJagadeesh Gohkale of the Cato Institute Spain
would need to have 250% of its GDP sitting in a bank account collecting
interest forever in
order to meet its unfunded liabilities without raising taxes or cutting
government outlays.That,
in of itself, is bad news for Spain. But Spain’s banking system are what
really set it apart. Let’s consider the following facts about
Spain’s
banking system: *Total Spanish
banking loans are equal to 170% of Spanish GDP. *Troubled loans at Spanish Banks just hit an 18-year high of over 8%.
*Spanish Banks are drawing a record
€316.3 billion from the ECB (up from €169.2 billion in February). However, even these don’t paint the real
picture. Thanks to a property bubble that dwarfed the US in relative terms, Spain’s economy and corporate arena
are now literally saturated with debt. Consider
the following: *Spanish
non-financial corporations’ gross debts outstanding are equal to 196% of
Spain’s GDP (this is worse than that of Greece, Portugal, even Japan) *Spanish non-financial corporations sport
debt to equity ratios of 152% (only Greece and Japan are worse here) *Spanish household debt is equal to 90% of
the country’s GDP: much higher than the EU average of 70% and roughly inline
with that of the US which has been running a credit bubble for 30+ years. In simple terms, Spain
is like Greece,
only bigger and worse…’ , Dave’s Daily: http://www.etfdigest.com OPTIONS EXPIRATION DISTORTIONS 4-20-13 ‘Beating much lower expectations
can lead to a short squeeze and this was evident the past few days with some
financials and Friday with Microsoft (MSFT) which beat earnings estimates by 3
cents. Remember, MSFT is one of the largest hedge fund holdings so pumping it
higher seems easily job one. MSFT was up nearly 5% after the report which may
strike some as an outsized gain. But the spin was the company reported good
gains from the corporate sector meaning CFOs are loosening their purse strings.
How long can you run XP anyway? The boys in the options pits must be chasing
down options in MSFT and those silly bets made on Apple (AAPL) calls.The other
big news on the day was that the IMF (mostly controlled by U.S. taxpayers) will
pony-up another $400 billion in freshly minted dollars to rescue the euro zone
once again. Even the Bank of Japan
admitted this gesture (thank you America!) will only buy some time
if austerity and reforms aren’t implemented. And, right on cue, we have French
elections on deck this weekend with polls indicating Sarkozy is toast. This
makes his deals with Merkel & Co toast as well. So with the socialists back
in control of Europe’s second largest economy
don’t expect much in the way of austerity and reform. That’s not on any
socialist’s agenda. Also the IMF has secured some “pledges” from BRIC countries
for some contributions. Brazil
wants a larger role without necessarily a larger commitment. Perhaps Argentina’s Fernandez de Kirchner will pledge
the minority balance of Spain’s
YPF she hasn’t seized yet. Anyway, the bottom line for bulls is that the
eurozone is fixed again if only for the trading day and week.The dollar (UUP)
fell sharply (more IMF dollars make them cheaper?) gold (GLD) did little but
other commodities (DBC, USO & JJC) with the weakening dollar were higher. All
this brings us to options expiration which is day most investors should just
take off. Most of what takes place reminds me of packs of wolves chasing down
strike prices to exercise them to the disadvantage of the poor victims. Funny
how this isn’t the feature of those trashing leveraged ETFs wishing to rename
them. What could we rename the options game I wonder? I was an options
principal and I always thought of them as death traps…’ , NSA
Whistleblower Speaks Live: "The Government Is Lying To You" Durden http://albertpeia.com/nsawhistleblowerspeaks.htm
Just
a month ago we raised more than a proverbial eyebrow when we noted the creation
of the NSA's Utah
Data Center
(codename Stellar Wind) and William Binney's formidable statement that "we are this far from a turnkey totalitarian
state". Democracy
Now has the former National Security Agency technical director whistleblower's first TV interview in
which he discusses the NSA's massive power to spy on Americans and why the FBI
raided his home. Since retiring from the NSA in 2001, he has warned that the NSA’s data-mining program has become so vast that
it could "create an Orwellian state." Today marks the
first time Binney has spoken on national TV about NSA surveillance. Starting with his pre-9-11 identification of the
world-wide-web as a voluminous problem since the NSA was 'falling behind the
rate-of-change', his success in creating a system (codenamed Thin-Thread) for
'grabbing' all the data and the critical 'lawful' anonymization of that data
(according to mandate at the time) which as soon as 9-11 occurred went out of
the window as all domestic and foreign communications was now
stored (starting with AT&T's forking over their data). This direct violation of the constitutional rights of
everybody in the country was why Binney decided he could not stay
(leaving one month after 9-11) along with the violation of almost every privacy
and intelligence act as near-bottomless databases store all forms of
communication collected by the agency, including private emails, cell phone
calls, Google searches and other personal data…’ , NASDAPPL
Crumbles Amid Sideways Volatile Week , Guest
Post: Presenting The US Government’s Infographic Of Its Own Insolvency http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2012/04/20120420_info1.png
, Does The I In IMF
Stand For Idiot? , Guest
Post: The Market's Getting A Wedgie , FoodStamp
Nation First and foremost, there are 46.5 million Americans in the program
as of the most recent information available (January 2012), comprising 22.2
million households. That’s 15% of
the entire population, and just over 20% of all
households. Moreover, despite the end of the official “Great Recession”
in June 2009, over 10 million more Americans have been accepted into the
program since that month, and the year-over-year growth rate for the program is
still +5%. , Guest
Post: Why The Left Misunderstands Income Inequality , Europe Is Now Red For
The Year A sea of red is flowing
from European equity markets and it seems they are unable to stem the flow as IBEX (the Italian Spanish equity index) nears
March 2009 lows (down 18% YTD)…’
Miscellaneous Business Headlines
20-Apr-12
05:07PM Next Week's Tape: Wild Cards, Apple, and The Fed at The Wall Street Journal 04:55PM Citi's Pandit Sued Over Excessive Compensation at Forbes 04:43PM Train Reading: Stocks Are Cheap? at The Wall Street Journal 04:39PM Former Fed Official Sketches Out Inflation Surge at The Wall Street Journal 04:23PM Time To Start Thinking About Fed, BOJ Meetings Next Week at The Wall Street Journal 04:19PM STOCKS RISE, APPLE DIVES AGAIN: Here's What You Need To Know
Business Insider 03:58PM U.S. Airways Labors to Get American Onboard at The Wall Street Journal 03:49PM Apple Shares Down 10%; It's a Correction at The Wall Street Journal 02:58PM U.S. Economy: Maybe It Was the Weather After All at The Wall Street Journal 02:52PM Apple Shares Down 10%; It's a Correction at The Wall Street Journal 01:50PM Technical Signs Point to Higher Prices for Gold and Oil at Minyanville 01:24PM Bank of America: Shares Hit Stall Speed at The Wall Street Journal 01:14PM Manufacturing States Post Drops in Unemployment at The Wall Street Journal 01:02PM Nevermind the Short-term Choppiness - What's the Long-term
Outlook for Stocks? ETFguide 12:59PM Fed Names Outside Experts to Review Stress Tests at The Wall Street Journal 12:03PM ECRI Still Driving the Recession Bandwagon at The Wall Street Journal 12:00PM Here's Why Microsoft Shares Are Surging at The Wall Street Journal 11:50AM Here's Why Microsoft Shares Are Surging at The Wall Street Journal 11:36AM Index, ETF option volumes near midday optionMONSTER 11:26AM Index, ETF option volumes near midday optionMONSTER 11:14AM Notable ETF Inflow Detected - SPY, JNJ, PFE, JPM at Forbes 10:54AM When Factories Close, the Pain Lasts for Decades at The Wall Street Journal 10:33AM Microsoft, McDonald's Push See-Saw Market Higher at The Wall Street Journal 10:10AM Secondary Sources: 2011 Repeat?, Earth's Deficit, Bank of
England at The Wall
Street Journal 09:20AM Stocks to Watch: Microsoft, McDonald's, SanDisk at The Wall Street Journal 09:16AM Morning Links: Logic Says Stocks Aren't Cheap at The Wall Street Journal 09:12AM General Electric Earnings Cheat Sheet: Booking a Profit Again
at Wall St. Cheat Sheet 09:10AM Pre-Market Primer: German Business Confidence Shines Despite
Iberian Gloom at
Minyanville 09:07AM General Electric Beats the Street, Again at The Wall Street Journal 08:52AM General Electric Beats the Street, Again at The Wall Street Journal 08:49AM General Electric Earnings Cheat Sheet: Booking a Profit Again
at Wall St. Cheat Sheet 08:47AM World Needs to Create 200 Million Jobs at The Wall Street Journal 08:44AM General Electric Earnings Cheat Sheet: Booking a Profit Again
at Wall St. Cheat Sheet 08:27AM Vital Signs: Tax Revenue Growing at The Wall Street Journal 07:23AM Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News at Seeking Alpha 07:21AM 10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell Business Insider 07:18AM Morning MarketBeat: Volume Equals Validity at The Wall Street Journal
New
federal agency Office of Financial Research stirs ‘Orwellian’ fears
Fox News | It is
the most powerful federal agency you’ve never heard of.
The
Mother Of All Infographics: Visualizing America’s
Derivatives Universe
Zero Hedge | A paper
equivalent of bailing out the US
derivatives market would look like.
Misleading
Chart Understates U.S. Debt
Infowars.com | Debt
owed to the bankers and “foreign investors” is actually $211 trillion.
Goldman
Sachs facing a new insider trading probe
Reuters | Federal prosecutors in California are
investigating a Goldman Sachs employee for insider trading.
Food
Stamp Rolls to Grow Through 2014, CBO Says
Wall St Journal | The
Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that 45 million people in 2011
received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, a 70% increase
from 2007.
BIS: Asian
Central Banks Are Pretty Good!
Daily Bell
| What kind of snow are they eating in Switzerland?
Monopoly private/public central banking has been a failure wherever it has been
tried.
Chimps
Throwing Poop And 29 Other Mind Blowing Ways That The
Government Is Wasting Your Money
The Economic Collapse | Why do
chimpanzees throw poop? The federal government would like to know and is using
your tax dollars to investigate the matter.
AP Business
Highlights
...Yahoo Market
Update…
Infowars.com | Now is the time to put an end to Obama’s
treasonous and tyrannical behavior.
http://albertpeia.com/impeachobama.htm
Nancy Pelosi Wants to Amend the First Amendment Kurt Nimmo | When Pelosi says
“special interests,” she means interests opposed to establishment Democrats. [
Here’s a look at the pelosi / wobama styled new california ( 16 Reasons To
Move Away From California http://albertpeia.com/16reasonstomoveawayfromcalifornia.htm ) . pelosi’s
incompetent / senile in that chronological order. At this point, wobama the b
for b***s*** is just incompetent but acts and seems as if he’s senile,
particularly with regard to previous things he’s said and prior promises that
he’s made. ]
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{ some prior links of current interest }