Note:
I’m here in San Diego County in my new/old 39 foot Chevy Motorhome. I can’t get
a signal for my Verizon LG smartphone (I’ll be taking a spin in my Ford
Explorer in search of a signal; my VOIP phone, magicjack requiring a broadband
connection, is currently not up except for voicemail). The radio reception is
also limited which led me to ‘sample’ some limited AM offerings which included
shallow sean hannity the hallmark of insanity, and ‘rush revere’ [limbaugh…
he’s totally burned out (the consequence of his being ‘tired of carrying the
water for the republican party’? - his own words), relegated now to authoring
children’s illustrated books of a simplistic nature]. Shallow sean’s latest
‘crusade’ (beyond the same note/key obvious debacle of wobamacare) was defense
of the indefensible mobster but friend of sean’s, donald trump (trump should be
in jail). In defense of t_rump, he offers up the itsy-bitsy, teeny weeny
wohlman skating rink project as evidence of t_rump’s contribution to NYC (too
small for high new york priority given the magnitude of New York substantial
problems, some largely the result of trumpish tastes, ie., solid gold trump
tower fixtures, etc., that trump’s ‘pre-packaged bankrupcies’ seem to fail to
touch, and which extravagance must be paid for by someone, but not him).
Shallow sean’s excoriation of new york city never seems to link the obviousness
of t_rump’s grandstanding responsibility for same. After all, someone
ultimately has to pay for trump’s disproportionate non-value-added livin’
large. No talk of trump’s ingratiating bribe strategy for protection ( ie.,
retainer’s to law firms linked to state attorney generals, viz., {kimmelman}
wolf and sampson, chris droney’s brother, his sister’s protection/corruption
and quid pro quo from the federal bench, etc., and as well, protection of
drug-money laundering through his now nominal only casinos … See, ie., http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdfhttp://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htmhttp://albertpeia.com/fbimartinezcongallard.htm.Trump’s a fraud! I won’t be listening to ‘rush revere’ or shallow sean
prospectively. They’re a waste of time and preposterous given their unbridled
support of war criminals bush, cheney, etc., and the failed debacles they
created, etc……
"People are, once
again, being fooled,"
fears Bill Fleckenstein in this brief CNBC clip, warning that investors buying
into the stock market at all-time highs here are making a grave error.
Investors are ignoring fundamentals at their peril, "in the stock
mania in 1999, people were bullish because stocks were going up. In 2007,
people were bullish because stocks and real estate were going up. They didn't
look ask - Why are they going up? Is this sustainable?
Is this healthy? - and in both cases, it was not." In the current
environment, the bubble Fleckenstein points to is powered not by tech stocks
or real estate, but by the Fed's quantitative easing program. But, he warns,
the Fed is losing control of one key market...
America has become a gigantic gulag over
the past few decades and most of its citizens don’t know, or just don’t care. One of the primary
causes of the over incarceration in the U.S. is the absurd, tragic failure
that is the “war on drugs”, and indeed nearly half of the folks in prison are
there for drug related offenses.
Making matters worse is a rapidly growing private prison system, which adds a
profit motive to the equation. Recently, we wrote an extensive rant against
the private prison system and provided details on how it works in: A Deep Look into the Shady World
of the Private Prison Industry. Now here are some of the
sad facts...
We previously highlighted Didier
Sornette's excellent work trying to identify pre-crash conditions
in financial markets and John Hussman's chart
below suggests we are indeed heading that way. His warning, however, "Don't
rely on further blow-off - but don't be shocked - risk dominates... Hold
Tight."
Most market watchers expect that Janet
Yellen will grapple with two major tasks once she takes the helm at the Federal Reserve
in 2014: deciding on the appropriate timing and intensity of the Fed's
quantitative easing taper strategy, and unwinding the Fed's enormous $4
trillion balance sheet (without creating huge losses in the value of its
portfolio). In reality both assignments are far more difficult than
just about anyone understands or admits.
Speaking,
ironically, at the Economic Club of Detroit in 1988, Ron Paul warns
oh-so-prophetically of a coming economic crisis and the profound
implications of the government's fiscal and monetary program largesse.
The death of the dollar is coming, and it
will probably be China that pulls the trigger. What you are about to read is understood by
only a very small fraction of all Americans. Right now, the U.S. dollar
is the de facto reserve currency of the planet. Most global trade is
conducted in U.S. dollars, and almost
all oil is sold for U.S. dollars. More than 60 percent of all global foreign exchange
reserves are held in U.S. dollars, and far more U.S. dollars are actually used
outside of the United States than inside of it. As will be described
below, this has given the United States some tremendous economic advantages,
and most Americans have no idea how much their current standard of living
depends on the dollar remaining the reserve currency of the world. Unfortunately,
thanks to reckless money printing by the Federal Reserve and the reckless
accumulation of debt by the federal government, the status of the dollar as
the reserve currency of the world is now in great jeopardy.
When
one steps back from all the frustration, all the confusion, all the
failures both in the rollout and the mass behavioral experimentation, and the
fact that the math just doesn't work, the primary stated
purpose behind Obamacare was simple: to provide uniform, affordable (the A
in ACA) healthcare for all Americans. But especially
to those who are currently uninsured. At least such was the utopian,
egalitarian vision behind its conception. Which is also why, stripping away
the political posturing, the html coding errors, the funding issues, the
biggest failing of Obamacare would be if it opened, and none of America's
uninsured came. Sadly, this last nail in Obamacare's coffin, has just
been confirmed with a just released Gallup poll which
found that a tiny 18% of uninsured Americans - the primary target
population for the exchanges - have so far attempted to even visit an exchange
website.
European
monetary policy/monetary conditions are too tight and, Citi's FX
Technical group explains, the EURO is too strong thereby exacerbating the
effects of the internal devaluation in Europe (as we noted here). Looser
monetary policy and a weaker currency are becoming increasingly necessary
conditions for the Eurozone to recover/survive. The present period in
the Eurozone, Citi adds, where the financial architecture is coming apart at
the seams is not remotely unprecedented and in fact offers a very
compelling historical perspective for significant devaluation of the EUR in
the years ahead.
One of the most trumpeted
stories justifying the US economic "recovery" is the resurgence in
car sales, which have now returned to an annual sales clip almost on par with
that from before the great depression. What is conveniently left out of all
such stories is what is the funding for these purchases (funnelling through to
the top and bottom line of such administration darling companies as GM) comes
from. The answer: the same NINJA loans, with non-existent zero credit rating
requirements that allowed anything with a pulse to buy a McMansion during the
peak day of the last credit bubble. Bloomberg reports on
an issue we have been reporting for over a
year, namely the 'stringent' credit-check requirements for new car
purchasers by recounting the story of Alan Helfman, a car dealer in Houston,
who served a woman in his showroom last month with a credit score
lower than 500 and a desire for a new Dodge Dart for her daily
commute. She drove away with a new car.
This past week saw the initial public
offering of the single most anticipated IPO of 2013 - Twitter. If you tweeted
about it then you are not alone as the news dominated the media headlines and
the market. With Twitter already sporting a 11x price-to-sales ratio, and no
earnings, what could possibly go wrong? However, it is that growing
complacency among investors that should be the most concerning as the general
sentiment has become that nothing can stop the markets as long as the Fed is
in the game.This week's issue of things to ponder over the
weekend provides some thoughts in this regard...
The "commodity king"
author of the "world renowned" Gartman momentum chasing and
perpetual contrarian fade newsletter, if not so much of an ETF under the
same name anymore, does it again. From this morning.
Now with the S&P forging a massive reversal to the
downside, we not only must abandon being bullish we must become bearish...
and very so.... Our bearish friends, having been wrong for so long,
are now right; it is time to be bearish of stocks, while the time for
having been bullish is now past... We trust we are clear. The game’s
changed and when the game changes, we change.... We had heretofore
consistently erred bullishly of simple things… of coal; of steel; of
railroads; of ships and shipping… but we are not now.
And... wrong again. Or said
otherwise, short of subscribers in breaking even terms.
It
seems like the last 2 days have been a massive NASDAQ-TWTR pairs trade...
Today saw broad stock indices best day in a month despite the early "good
news is bad news" sell-off as newly minted TWTR heads towards its first
bear market threshold off the highs. The Dow managed to get back to a
record high close by the end of the day. Treasury prices were clubbed
like a baby seal with yields jumping their most in over 4 months. Shorts were
grossly squeezed today ("most shorted +2.9% vs Russell +1.1%). Gold was
down 1.4% on the day (oil and copper flat) and 2% on the week. VIX was banged
back under 13% and the JPY weakness sparked by the taper-on-driven USD
strength kept carry traders alive. All in all - only equity markets reacted
"positively" to the good news with a panic-buying-frenzy in the last
30 minutes as rates, FX, and precious metals all shifted in a
"taper-on" trend...
At the heart of the matter, money is after
all a claim on real-world resources, goods and services. Printing or borrowing
money into existence does not create more resources, goods or services to
exchange for the money. In this sense, all financial schemes for
retirement are misdirections of the real challenge, which is creating
enough real-world surplus to support 75 million retirees (not to mention the
other 75 million people drawing government benefits). Printing or
borrowing money are both attempts to get a free lunch; alas, there is no free
lunch. We can only spend what we extract or generate in surplus, i.e.
what's left after subtracting the costs of production, labor and capital.
Corey Pepple | McPherson fired six shots into the
vehicle, striking the teen twice and killing him, according to the Iowa state
medical examiner’s office.
CNSNews.com | The unemployment rate increased in
October compared to September, when it was 3.9 percent, but improved overall
since its peak in 2013 when it stood at 5.3 percent in July.
libertyblitzkrieg.com | A
little over a week ago, the world’s first Bitcoin ATM was launched to much
fanfare in a Vancouver coffee shop called Waves Coffee.
Speaking,
ironically, at the Economic Club of Detroit in 1988, Ron Paul warns
oh-so-prophetically of a coming economic crisis and the profound
implications of the government's fiscal and monetary program largesse.
When
one steps back from all the frustration, all the confusion, all the
failures both in the rollout and the mass behavioral experimentation, and the
fact that the math just doesn't work, the primary stated
purpose behind Obamacare was simple: to provide uniform, affordable (the A
in ACA) healthcare for all Americans. But especially
to those who are currently uninsured. At least such was the utopian,
egalitarian vision behind its conception. Which is also why, stripping away
the political posturing, the html coding errors, the funding issues, the
biggest failing of Obamacare would be if it opened, and none of America's
uninsured came. Sadly, this last nail in Obamacare's coffin, has just
been confirmed with a just released 
European
monetary policy/monetary conditions are too tight and, Citi's FX
Technical group explains, the EURO is too strong thereby exacerbating the
effects of the internal devaluation in Europe (as we noted here). Looser
monetary policy and a weaker currency are becoming increasingly necessary
conditions for the Eurozone to recover/survive. The present period in
the Eurozone, Citi adds, where the financial architecture is coming apart at
the seams is not remotely unprecedented and in fact offers a very
compelling historical perspective for significant devaluation of the EUR in
the years ahead.
It
seems like the last 2 days have been a massive NASDAQ-TWTR pairs trade...
Today saw broad stock indices best day in a month despite the early "good
news is bad news" sell-off as newly minted TWTR heads towards its first
bear market threshold off the highs. The Dow managed to get back to a
record high close by the end of the day. Treasury prices were clubbed
like a baby seal with yields jumping their most in over 4 months. Shorts were
grossly squeezed today ("most shorted +2.9% vs Russell +1.1%). Gold was
down 1.4% on the day (oil and copper flat) and 2% on the week. VIX was banged
back under 13% and the JPY weakness sparked by the taper-on-driven USD
strength kept carry traders alive. All in all - only equity markets reacted
"positively" to the good news with a panic-buying-frenzy in the last
30 minutes as rates, FX, and precious metals all shifted in a
"taper-on" trend...
Ben
Bernanke is participating in an IMF panel with Larry Summers, Ken Rogoff, and
fromer Bank of Israel chief Stan Fischer... Full speech below...
It's
quite simple.