October 25, 2010 posts

Business / Economic / Financial

[ This link to a somewhat more cumulative blog posts page will precede current days news since most all topics remain current in terms of impact and longer-term effect and can be searched by topical index term more easily. The same is provided since the blog site http://alpeiablog.blogspot.com has just been censored as to size by google which is typical for google as nsa / cia / gov’t shill as more are becoming aware of. The same is true for microsoft, another co. that’s seen their best days and relies on the government to maintain their monopoly. Up to now the better page http://www.scribd.com/alpeia is provided for ease of formatting and clarity thereby while the Washington Post page is the real deal but without formatting http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/community/mypost/index.html?plckPersonaPage=PersonaComments&plckUserId=alpeia&newspaperUserId=alpeia ]

Don't Trust the Rally: "Its Just High-Speed Guys Chasing Each Other, Saluzzi Says ‘Major averages are hovering near their highest levels since September 2008, but retail investors continue to flee the market. Domestic equity funds have suffered outflows for 24 consecutive weeks through Friday, and over $81 billion has come out of domestic equity mutual funds year to date, according to Morningstar.At the risk of stating the obvious, several factors explain why investors simply don't trust the rally. Twice bitten, thrice shy: Having been burned by the bursting of the tech stock bubble in 2000, the housing bubble and the financial crisis of 2008, investors are understandably wary of getting sucked in again. A "lost decade" for index investors hasn't helped either. It's the Economy Stupid: With the "real" unemployment rate near 17%, millions of Americans simply have no money to put into the market; many are cashing out their 401(k) plans and otherwise raiding their nest eggs in an effort to stay afloat. Given the economic backdrop, it's no surprise many investors see the rally as being detached from reality and due only to the Fed's easy money policies...and the promise of more! "We're not seeing any sort of growth other than stimulus," says Joseph Saluzzi, co-founder of Themis Trading. "That is a very disturbing thing -- the constant stimulus that keeps on coming that really does nothing other than barely keep you above [breakeven] on the GDP print." In addition, Saluzzi says investors are rightfully worried about a market dominated by "high-speed guys just chasing each other up and down the price ladder." Unsafe at High Speeds As has been widely reported, high-frequency trading routinely accounts for more than 50% of daily U.S. equity trading volume and regularly approaches 70%. Saluzzi isn't opposed to high-frequency trading per se, calling it a "byproduct of the market structure," as detailed in the accompanying video. But he believes that structure is broken, thanks to rules promoting computer-driven trading, most notably Reg NMS. As a result of regulatory changes and new technology, events like the May 6 ‘flash crash' "will happen again," he says. "There's not a doubt in my mind." Many retail investors feel the same way, another reason for the mistrust of the rally and why about $65 billion of the equity fund outflows this year have occurred in the five months since the "flash crash".’

Wall St advances on dollar weakness, Fed bets (Reuters) – [ Look at the aforementioned headline. Isn’t anyone getting the sense of how totally preposterous this is? Then there’s the ‘market frothing’ used home foreclosure / distressed home sales number … previous wall street b*** s*** story, the election and consequent gridlock story … as if they’re substantially different …perpetual war, runaway nation-bankrupting record deficit spending, incompetence, corruption (still no prosecution of the wall street frauds), etc. What total b*** s***! ] U.S. stocks rose to a five-and-a-half month high on Monday as a falling dollar, partly driven by expectations of further stimulus by the Federal Reserve, prompted investors to buy riskier as... [ Davis: ‘… all profits are inflated by 10% (from falling, debased dollar) and that 10% is the E that gets divided from the P and gives us a much better price/multiple to hang our hats on and that gets investors to BUYBUYBUY …’ Previous pre-crash: The bull market that never was / were beyond wall street b.s. when measured in gold ] This is an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits (these lower dollar, hyperinflationary currency manipulations / translations to froth paper stocks will end quite badly as in last crash)! This is a global depression. This is a secular bear market in a global depression. The past up moves were manipulated bull (s***) cycles (at best) in a secular bear market. This has been a typically manipulated bubble as has preceded the prior crashes with great regularity that the wall street frauds and insiders commission and sell into. This is a typical wall street ‘programmed computerized high-frequency churn and earn pass the hot potato scam / fraud as in prior crashes ( widely reported, high-frequency trading routinely accounts for more than 50% of daily U.S. equity trading volume and regularly approaches 70%. )’. This national decline, economic and otherwise, will not end until justice is served and the wall street frauds et als are criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed.The Stock Market's Long Decline Has Begun Smith ‘The Fed's campaign to boost the risk-trade in equities by destroying the dollar has reached its limits. Now gravity will take hold as stocks enter a Long Decline.On Monday, Daily Finance published my article Is the Market Ready to Roll Over? These Signs Say Yes.

Are TIPs a Gip?: Dave's Daily The story of the day was the Treasury's five-year TIP sale. I'm as shocked as Cosmo Kramer on this but shouldn't be since TIP yields were heading in this direction. Who would buy a bond with a negative yield? What's the message for investors? Hyperinflation and soon! If it goes that way the government will have to reconfigure the CPI to ex everything we do except the cost of government. Elsewhere there was news existing home sales were higher--big whoops! Markets rallied higher early mostly on the same old theme: a weak dollar is a good thing since not much was accomplished at the G-20. The USA is rapidly becoming the world's laughing stock ... [ Laughing stock indeed! ]

Hope Is Not a Strategy: Or Is It? Moenning ‘Anyone who has been around the investing game for any length of time is likely familiar with the old saw, “Hope is not a strategy.” This famous Wall Streetism reminds investors and traders alike that holding onto a losing position in the hope that it will come back to your purchase price is not a sound strategy. Nor is hoping that the stock in question will suddenly come through with blowout earnings, surprise with a new product, or be bought out by a competitor. No, the stock market game is about dealing with what is happening, not what you hope to see in the future. However, it appears to be quite clear that hope is indeed the singular driving factor in the stock market these days. For example, there is the hope that Bernanke and Co. will ride in on their white horses to save the economy with a little something they like to call QE II. There is hope that the elections will bring an end to the anti-business environment and perhaps remove some of the uncertainty surrounding taxes, regulations, etc.There is hope that the economy will continue to improve and that the Chinese will be able to walk the tightrope between avoiding bubbles and maintaining a strong economy. There is hope that the G20 gathering will put an end to the “competitive currency devaluations” (aka currency wars). There is hope that the American consumer will continue to avoid saving and return to spending everything they make (and then some). And there is a fair amount of hope that the PIGI’S acronym will quickly fade from people’s memories. It is my humble opinion that hope relating to any or all of the above has been responsible for pushing up the stock market indices since September 1st. At last check, the S&P sports a gain of nearly 13% over the last 38 trading days while the venerable DJIA is up 11.2% and the NASDAQ has climbed a nifty 17.3%. Not bad for a couple months work, eh?. Lots of people are comparing the current joyride to the upside to the February-April affair, during which S&P gained roughly 15% over a period of two and one-half months. Perhaps the comparisons are being made because of the similarities of the rallies in terms of breadth and duration. Perhaps the comparisons are being made because the Dow is now back to within a stone’s throw of the highs for this bull market cycle that were set on April 26th. And perhaps the comparisons have arisen from the idea that during the Feb-April jaunt, it was also hope that things would be better going forward that drove the action. However, I’d like to take exception with that last idea as the current rally’s brand of hope is a horse of a completely different color. You see, during the market’s spring fling, the economic data was coming in consistently better than expectations. If you will recall, this was before the public knew that the recession had ended (although we had been suggesting such since late summer). Thus, the hope at that time had to do with the idea that the economic recovery might actually be better than expected. And since no one in their right mind was overly optimistic about the outlook at that point in time, suddenly there was a lot of room for discounting the upside. Of course, the fun ended abruptly when the world started to fret over the idea that Greece’s financial woes were going to drag the world back into crisis. And then once that concept took hold, traders immediately tossed aside the rose colored glasses and started employing the “R” word with regularity. But, once it became clear that the “soft patch” had subsided, traders began to once again look ahead to blue skies. Which bring us back to hope. While I am a trend-follower at heart, I DO need to understand and accept the reasoning behind the move in order to be wholeheartedly onboard the train. And as such, I’m growing more than a little concerned that the hope trade may be setting us up for disappointment at some point in the near future. Unlike the Feb-April rally, which was based on data, this rally is based on hope and hope alone. (Well, okay, there have been some decent earnings numbers showing up now and again and the economic data hasn’t exactly been a disaster.) In short, the hope is that David Tepper is right – that stocks win regardless of whether or not the economy grows from here. Now toss in the idea that the Fed’s latest plan involves pushing rates that it normally doesn’t control lower and you’ve got a recipe for a declining dollar. And since traders have their fancy new computers set to buy “risk assets” (commodities, stocks, emerging markets) whenever the dollar falls, well, it’s been a good time to own equities. However, at some point, this “trade” is going to run its course. At some point, the dollar’s decline will end. At some point, reality will set in that the current economic growth rate (said to be in the 2% - 2.5% range for 2011) can only generate so much in terms of earnings power. And unless the Fed can magically engineer a recovery in jobs sooner rather than later, at some point, disappointment might rear its ugly head. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer on this first day of ski season (yes fans, Loveland ski area in Colorado once again takes home the prize as the first resort to crank up its lifts), but I’m of the mind that, at some point, traders will be reminded of the fact that hope is not a strong reason to keep buying stocks. But until then, I plan to continue to enjoy the view from these rose-colored glasses and ride the tide. Disclosure: No positions

Andy Xie: “If You Print A Trillion, I’ll Print A Trillion The Daily Bail | The world seems on course to another crisis in 2012.

The Great IMF Fire-Sale of the UK has Begun Phil Brennan | This is a fight against neo-feudalism, a fight for our very lives.

Germany Accuses US of Indirectly Manipulating Dollar Reuters | German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle took issue with what he called a U.S. policy of increasing liquidity, saying it indirectly manipulated exchange rates.

Ohio Congressional Candidate Calls for an Audit of Federal Reserve Constitution Party Candidate David Ryon, running for the 15th District of Ohio, called for an Audit of the Federal Reserve in an interview with Jerry Revish on WBNS-10tv.

Dollar at Risk of Becoming ‘Toxic Waste’ The dollar’s slump could get far worse if the dollar index takes out last year’s low, Robin Griffiths, technical strategist at Cazenove Capital, told CNBC Monday.

WIRE: Fed’s secretive $300B CITIBANK bailout The late Bloomberg News reporter Mark Pittman asked the U.S. Treasury in January 2009 to identify $301 billion of securities owned by Citigroup Inc. that the government had agreed to guarantee. He made the request on the grounds that taxpayers ought to know how their money was being used.

Goldman: The Fed Needs To Print $4 Trillion In New Money With just over a week left to the QE2 announcement, discussion over the amount, implications and effectiveness of QE2 are almost as prevalent (and moot) as those over the imminent collapse of the MBS system.

Peter Schiff: ‘US No.1 offender to blame for global imbalances’ A U.S. proposal to restrict how much countries should be allowed to borrow or export has run into opposition at a G20 meeting in South Korea. Japan, Germany and Russia have criticised the so-called “planned economy” thinking. Investment strategist Peter Schiff told RT that Washington is the one to blame for creating the global imbalances that threaten the world’s financial stability.

100 Dollar Oil Is Coming The price of oil has been hovering around 80 dollars a barrel for quite some time now, but get ready, because it is going to move significantly higher.

(10-25-10) Dow 11,164 +31 Nasdaq 2,490 +11 S&P 500 1,185 +2 [CLOSE- OIL $82.52 (-54% for year 2008) (RECORD TRADING HIGH $147.27) GAS $3.00 (reg. gas in LAND OF FRUITS AND NUTS $3.15 REG./ $3.29 MID-GRADE/ $3.39 PREM./ $3.79 DIESEL) / GOLD $1,338 (+24% for year 2009) / SILVER $23.54 (+47% for year 2009) PLATINUM $1,695 (+56% for year 2009) / DOLLAR= .71 EURO, 80 YEN, .63 POUND STERLING, ETC. (How low can you go - LOWER)/ 10 YR NOTE YIELD 2.55% …..… AP Business Highlights ...Yahoo Market Update... T. Rowe Price Weekly Recap – Stocks / Bonds / Currencies - Domestic / International This Is a Secular Bear Market and The End of Buy and Hold … and Hope MARKET MANIPULATION AND HOW THE LATEST BUBBLE-FRAUD PRE-COMING CRASH IS BEING ACCOMPLISHED 3-11-10 6 Theories On Why the Stock Market Has Rallied 3-9-10 [archived website file] Risks Lurk for ETF Investors The bull market that never was/were beyond wall street b.s. when measured in gold Property Values Projected to Fall 12% in 2010 Jan 31, 2010 The Week Ahead: Risk Is Off the Cliff; Unwind Has Begun Jan 31, 2010 01-13-10 Forecast for 2010 from Seeking Alpha Contributor THE COMING MARKET CRASH / CORRECTION 1-28-10 Maierhofer (01-15-10) 11 Clear Signs Economy Sinking Economic Black Hole 1-22-10: 20 Reasons Why The U.S. Economy Is Dying And Is Simply Not Going To Recover Current Economic / Fiscal Charts Trendsresearch.com forecast for 2009 1-7-10 Crash is coming! ‘WORST ECONOMIC COLLAPSE EVER’ Must Read Economic / Financial Data This Depression is just beginning The coming depression… thecomingdepression.net MUST READ: JEREMY GRANTHAM’S QUARTERLY UPDATE 25 January 2010 (850 on the S&P) by TPC The Next Wave of Collapse is Coming Sooner than you think Sliding Back Into the Great Depression ABSOLUTELY, ABSURDLY, RIDICULOUS! SELL / TAKE PROFITS WHILE YOU CAN SINCE MUCH, MUCH WORSE TO COME!

National / World

Gadahn Call To Attack Americans Comes From Israel “Israeli terrorist “clones” are responsible for most hard line rhetoric, threats and, if we investigated closely, have actually recruited terrorists and directly inspired, if not planned and executed, attacks on Americans…Gadahn is part of it, so is Wikileaks”

America Is Gone There is a whiff of anarchy in the air this morning. As I sit here writing, a conservative victory in the midterm elections looms. But I find no reason to be optimistic.

American People To Dems And GOP: Get Out Of Office, You Don’t Speak For Us Steve Watson | Public wants a third party, but sees problems with bastardized Tea Party.

Think Soros Leaks RINO Neocon Takeover Doc Kurt Nimmo | One faction of globalist tools outing another faction of globalist tools. That’s how we play politics in America today.

The two most dangerous words you’ve probably never heard of Adam Murdock, MD | It is within the free market that solutions should and can be found for every medical problem.

Welcome to the Greatest Depression: California’s Best and Brightest Face Homelessness, Poverty Kurt Nimmo | Intelligent people are spinning their wheels as they are systematically being pauperized and converted into the latest class of serfs by the banksters.

Cyberwarfare: US Seeks To Shut Down Enemy Power Grids Paul Joseph Watson | When an extremist group shuts down US infrastructure, it’s labeled a terrorist attack, but when the US does it to another country, it’s merely cybersecurity.

American People To Dems And GOP: Get Out Of Office, You Don’t Speak For Us A whopping majority of 62% of the American people believe it will be a good thing for the country if almost all incumbents from both parties were removed in the upcoming midterm election.

Minority Of Americans Now Have Faith In Two Party Scam Only a minority of American voters now have faith in either Democrats or Republicans according to a new Rasmussen poll out today, with favorability toward a third party surging amidst a wave of anti-incumbent success.

Think Soros Leaks RINO Neocon Takeover Doc One faction of globalist tools outing another faction of globalist tools. That’s how we play politics in America today.

Welcome to the Greatest Depression: California’s Best and Brightest Face Homelessness, Poverty I don’t know why CBS insists on calling what’s happening economically in this country the “Great Recession.” It’s the Greatest Depression. It is quickly shaping up to be worse than the first Great Depression.

Debt Has Increased $5 Trillion Since Speaker Pelosi Vowed, ‘No New Deficit Spending’ When Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave her inaugural address as speaker of the House in 2007, she vowed there would be “no new deficit spending.” Since that day, the national debt has increased by $5 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Cyberwarfare: US Seeks To Shut Down Enemy Power Grids While proponents of cybersecurity continually emphasize the necessity of passing legislation that will hand the Obama administration the power to shut down the Internet in the name of defending critical infrastructure, every indication suggests that cybersecurity is nothing less than an offensive agenda to enable the US government to launch its own attacks against other groups and countries.

600 foreign troops killed in Afghanistan in 2010 The number of foreign troops to die this year in Afghanistan has reached 600, by far the highest annual toll in nine years of war despite tentative reconciliation efforts with the Taliban.

Former Chairman of Joint Chiefs Hugh Shelton: Bush officials pushed Iraq war ‘almost to the point of insubordination’ Gen. Hugh Shelton, who served as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1997 to 2001, told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour on Sunday that top officials in the Bush Administration pushed for war in Iraq “almost to the point of insubordination.”

Julian Assange to RT: WikiLeaks gives ‘most accurate picture of war’ The shocking WikiLeaks release, which has revealed thousands of unreported civilian casualties in Iraq, is the most accurate picture of war ever made, and it is food for thought, says the website’s editor-in-chief. The report, condemned by the Pentagon, claims that US commanders in Iraq ignored evidence of torture and the murder of civilians.

Drudgereport: Dark clouds for Dems as Obama embarks on last push...
Dem Hopeful Says Obama Can 'Shove It'...
'He ignored us and now he's coming into Rhode Island treating us like ATM machine'...
Debt Has Increased $5 Trillion Since Speaker Pelosi Vowed, 'No New Deficit Spending'...
States Weigh Letting Noncitizens Vote...
REALCLEAR WRAP: SENATE HOUSE...
ABCNEWS NOTE MIKE ALLEN PLAYBOOK MSNBC FIRST READ WASH POST RUNDOWN...
REPUBLICANS 'GOTTA SIT IN THE BACK' [ The regressive veiled reference to ‘sit in the back of the bus dark-skinned freedom riders’, the already mentally trouble wobama has really lost it … he’s such a desperate and pathetic b*** s*** artist … who can take him seriously? I mean, really! What an insult to the so-called base of constituents he’s appealing to … and, haven’t his actions, ie., no-pros the wall street frauds, more war, etc., belied his words? He’s so pathetic! So typical! ]

REPORT: First lady 'likely' to meet 'commercial sex workers' in India!
Presidential entourage books all 570 rooms in 5-star Taj Mahal Hotel...
Teleprompter to debut at India's Parliament when Obama speaks...

Photos show Israeli troops 'abusing Palestinians'...

WIRE: Fed's secretive $300B CITIBANK bailout...

Dollar at Risk of Becoming 'Toxic Waste'...
Hits new 15-year low versus yen...
Inflation-Protected Securities Yield Goes Negative for First Time...
FDIC Head Sounds Alarm on Foreclosure Litigation...
China, India, Brazil, Turkey get more power at IMF...
Deficit Panel Targets Areas to Cut...
U-TURN: Obama 'to focus on deficit in next 2 years'...
CLINTON PLAYS TO HALF-EMPTY HIGH SCHOOL GYM

70% Of All Stock Market Trades Are Held for An Average of 11 SECONDS [ This is a scam / fraud of huge proportion; a scam / fraud of a magnitude that most people could neither imagine nor comprehend. ] In the stock market, program trading dominates volume. I heard recently that 70% of trade positions are held for an average of 11 seconds.

Regulators shut down 7 banks Bank regulators closed seven banks Friday, bringing the total of number of bank failures for the year to 139, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said.

Strauss-Kahn Says Officials at G-20 Agreed on `Biggest Reform Ever’ of IMF Group of 20 nations agreed on an overhaul of the International Monetary Fund that gives a larger voice to emerging market nations, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

Las Vegas Unemployment Rate Hits 15 Percent While unemployment statewide remained unchanged in September, jobless numbers in Las Vegas rose to 15 percent, a new record.

Reid: ‘But For Me, We’d Be in World-Wide Depression’ [ Wow! … I’m sure it’s the water in D.C. … they’re all drinkin’ it! ] Where would the world be without Harry Reid?

WikiLeaks papers detail Iraq torture, US killings Al-Jazeera on Friday released what it called “startling new information” from US documents obtained by WikiLeaks, alleging state-sanctioned Iraqi torture and the killing of hundreds of civilians at US military checkpoints.

Spiegel: WikiLeaks logs may reveal war crimes In its early analysis of the Iraq war logs released by whistleblower site WikiLeaks on Friday, the German paper Der Spiegel pointed to several accounts of what it calls “dubious attacks” by US Apache helicopters that may have amounted to war crimes.

Issa: ‘Not a chance’ of Obama impeachment under GOP House If Republicans take control of the House, there is “not a chance at this point” that they will try to impeach President Obama, a top Republican lawmaker said this week.

Angle Targets Obama, Not Reid, in New Ad Republican challenger Sharron Angle rolled out a harsh welcome for President Obama, who dropped into Las Vegas last night in a desperate bid to save Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Democrats Behind Tea Party Cyber Attacks? Speculation is rife that Democrat activists or even the Obama administration itself may have been responsible for an attack which brought down a prominent Tea Party website right as the organization targeted was running a major fund-raising drive and on the day after Obama directed the Pentagon to attack “cyberthreats” within the United States.

Wikileaks: Secret Iraq War Death Toll Set at 285,000 In what is being described as the largest release of secret U.S. military documents ever, whistle-blowing web site WikiLeaks has released a trove of classified reports about the war in Iraq, including a secret U.S. government tally that put the Iraqi death toll at 285,000, according to news sources that received advanced copies of the documents

WikiLeaks papers detail Iraq torture, US killings Al-Jazeera on Friday released what it called “startling new information” from US documents obtained by WikiLeaks, alleging state-sanctioned Iraqi torture and the killing of hundreds of civilians at US military checkpoints.

Spiegel: WikiLeaks logs may reveal war crimes In its early analysis of the Iraq war logs released by whistleblower site WikiLeaks on Friday, the German paper Der Spiegel pointed to several accounts of what it calls “dubious attacks” by US Apache helicopters that may have amounted to war crimes.

Issa: ‘Not a chance’ of Obama impeachment under GOP House If Republicans take control of the House, there is “not a chance at this point” that they will try to impeach President Obama, a top Republican lawmaker said this week.

Angle Targets Obama, Not Reid, in New Ad Republican challenger Sharron Angle rolled out a harsh welcome for President Obama, who dropped into Las Vegas last night in a desperate bid to save Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Democrats Behind Tea Party Cyber Attacks? Speculation is rife that Democrat activists or even the Obama administration itself may have been responsible for an attack which brought down a prominent Tea Party website right as the organization targeted was running a major fund-raising drive and on the day after Obama directed the Pentagon to attack “cyberthreats” within the United States.

Wikileaks: Secret Iraq War Death Toll Set at 285,000 In what is being described as the largest release of secret U.S. military documents ever, whistle-blowing web site WikiLeaks has released a trove of classified reports about the war in Iraq, including a secret U.S. government tally that put the Iraqi death toll at 285,000, according to news sources that received advanced copies of the documents

2010 Is Just Deck Chair Politics on the USS Titanic Ron Holland | America today is a one-party state much like the Soviet Union, China or Nazi Germany.

Establishment Tea Party Moneybomb Hit by Denial-of-service Attack Kurt Nimmo | One week after Alex Jones’ Infowars Moneybomb, Fox News host Glenn Beck shilled a FreedomWorks moneybomb.

Fabian Society’s London School of Economics Predicts “Savage Austerity” in America Infowars.com | Quantitative easing by Federal Reserve will impose “savage austerity” on the American people.

What’s in WikiLeaks’ Iraq war logs? Pakistan News 24 | Whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks on Friday released nearly 400,000 classified US military files chronicling the Iraq war from 2004 through 2009, the largest leak of its kind in US military history.

Wikileaks Hacked By “Very Skilled” Attackers Prior To Iraq Doc Release Andy Greenberg | Source said attack represented the first breach in Wikileaks’ history.

Secret Iraq war records reveal grim new details (Washington Post) Logs released by WikiLeaks offer chilling insights about conflict's death toll and the tactics of Iraqi leaders who have taken over as U.S. troops exit. [ Now why did I think the u.s. military’s numbers were all wet? Poll: Does WikiLeaks put soldiers in danger? I haven’t looked at this poll, but my inner poll says needless wars in other people’s lands put soldiers at risk, particularly when your nation is defacto bankrupt. ] Previous: 77,000 Iraqis killed from 2004 to August 2008, U.S. military says (Washington Post) [ And you can take that to the fraudulent american bank … riiiiight! … Come on … americans lie about everything and certainly this … A conservative estimate from AP through only 2007: Study: 151,000 Iraqis died in conflict’s violence Surveyors face danger to count casualties from 2003 to 2006 The Associated Press - updated 1/9/2008 7:15:50 PM ET 2008-01-10T00:15:50 About 151,000 Iraqis died from violence in the first three years after the United States invaded, concludes the best effort yet to count deaths — one that still may not settle the fierce debate over the war's true toll on civilians and others … americans are just lying war criminal american scum. Obama’s Finest Hour: Killing Innocent People For “Made-Up Crap” Floyd Empire Burlesque Oct 22, 2010 If ever I am tempted by the siren songs of my tribal past as a deep-fried, yellow-dawg Democrat, and begin to feel any faint, atavistic stirrings of sympathy for the old gang, I simply think of things like the scenario below, sketched last week by Johann Hari, and those wispy ghosts of partisanship past go howling back to the depths:

Imagine if, an hour from now, a robot-plane swooped over your house and blasted it to pieces. The plane has no pilot. It is controlled with a joystick from 7,000 miles away, sent by the Pakistani military to kill you. It blows up all the houses in your street, and so barbecues your family and your neighbours until there is nothing left to bury but a few charred slops. Why? They refuse to comment. They don’t even admit the robot-planes belong to them. But they tell the Pakistani newspapers back home it is because one of you was planning to attack Pakistan. How do they know? Somebody told them. Who? You don’t know, and there are no appeals against the robot.Now imagine it doesn’t end there: these attacks are happening every week somewhere in your country. They blow up funerals and family dinners and children. The number of robot-planes in the sky is increasing every week. You discover they are named “Predators”, or “Reapers” – after the Grim Reaper. No matter how much you plead, no matter how much you make it clear you are a peaceful civilian getting on with your life, it won’t stop. What do you do? If there was a group arguing that Pakistan was an evil nation that deserved to be violently attacked, would you now start to listen?…[This] is in fact an accurate description of life in much of Pakistan today, with the sides flipped. The Predators and Reapers are being sent by Barack Obama’s CIA, with the support of other Western governments, and they killed more than 700 civilians in 2009 alone – 14 times the number killed in the 7/7 attacks in London. The floods were seen as an opportunity to increase the attacks, and last month saw the largest number of robot-plane bombings ever: 22. Over the next decade, spending on drones is set to increase by 700 per cent.

Friends, it’s very simple: if you support Barack Obama and the Democrats — even if reluctantly, even if you’re just being all sophisticatedly super-savvy and blogospherically strategic about it, playing the “long game” or eleven-dimensional chess or what have you — you are supporting the outright murder of innocent people who have never done anything against you or yours. You have walked into a house, battered down the bedroom door, put the barrel of a gun against the temple of a sleeping child, and pulled the trigger. That is what you are supporting, that is what you are complicit in, that is what you yourself are doing.

]

Black Panther case reveals schism (Washington Post) [ I mean, really … You’d think a black president and black ag would have more sense … Drudgereport: WASHPOST: Black Panthers case taps deep racial divisions at Justice... Previous: UPDATE: MORE CLAIMS OF RACE BIAS AT JUSTICE... CIVIL RIGHTS PANEL TO PURSUE FED PROBE IN BLACK PANTHER CASE... ex-Justice official quit over the handling of a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party accused his former employer of instructing attorneys in the civil rights division to ignore cases that involve black defendants and white victims US v. AZ... Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud Obama broke promises ) Disclaimer: I have been and continue to be opposed to an end to a trade embargo on cuba; not because of their communist system (I’m staunchly opposed to communism – ‘everybody’s equal except some bureaucrats are more equal than others’, etc.), but solely because of their grant of asylum to a black panther member who murdered a state trooper: ‘Assata Shakur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Assata Olugbala Shakur (born July 16, 1947^[1] as JoAnne Deborah Byron, married name Chesimard^[2]) is an African-American activist and escaped convict who was a member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA). Between 1971 and 1973, Shakur was accused of several crimes, of which she would never be charged, and made the subject of a multi-state manhunt.^[3][4] In May 1973, Shakur was involved in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike, during which New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and BLA member Zayd Malik Shakur were killed and Shakur and Trooper James Harper were wounded.^[5] Between 1973 and 1977, Shakur was indicted in relation to six other alleged criminal incidents—charged with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery, and kidnapping—resulting in three acquittals and three dismissals. In 1977, she was convicted of the first-degree murder of Foerster and of seven other felonies related to the shootout.^[6] Shakur was then incarcerated in several prisons, where her treatment drew criticism from some human rights groups. She escaped from prison in 1979 and has been living in Cuba in political asylum since 1984.’ - The black panthers are not a bunch of ‘warm and fuzzy’ people. As for cuban rhetoric, I don’t take anything they say seriously (I remind people that if you said something anti-government in cuba, you’d be dead or in jail), although I’m not hesitant to include a good point if made (ie., castro recently talking about nuclear holocaust risk, etc.). Suit over voter intimidation -- reported by poll-watcher Chris Hill, above -- roils Justice Dept.

Title insurers seek insulation from foreclosure losses (Washington Post) The industry is maneuvering to protect itself from losses if courts rule that banks have played fast and loose with the foreclosure process. But people who buy foreclosed properties from banks may face some degree of loss despite having a title policy.

Foreclosure crisis puts Wall St. reform to the test (Washington Post) [ What reform? Those manipulated, high-frequency computerized churn-and-earn trades have never been … more frequent … and the churn and earn fraud never so lucrative … Previous: Survey: Half of Wall Street expects bigger bonus this year (Washington Post) [ This is nothing short of incredible … What they should be expecting, for the sake of the nation and the world, is an 8 by 10 jail cell! ] Bloomberg The percentage anticipating a bigger bonus increased from last year. Gerald Celente: “The selloff of America” Financial institutions on Wall Street are preparing to pay a shocking record $144 billion dollars in compensation & benefits. This amid spiraling foreclosures and an economic crisis that has devastated Americans, leaving many out in the street. Gerald Celente of the Trends Research Institute says that the gap between rich and poor in the US will continue to get larger because of the bank bailout that Washington shelled out in 2008. Meyerson: Wrong way for banks to get rich (Washington Post) [ Goldman Sachs Beats Estimates as Banking Revenue Rises Christine Harper (bloomberg.com) ...Oct. 19 – More unequivocal proof that crime in defacto bankrupt america pays … and pays well … especially with other peoples money … though many don’t realize that yet … no there’s no alchemy that produces real money out of thin air and the money for the wall street frauds, high-frequency computerized churn and earn must come from some place … guess … ]

Bernanke can't save the economy himself (Washington Post) What Bernanke needs to say [ … he resigns … yes, no-recession-helicopter ben shalom or b.s. for short, bernanke, with green shoots wilting on the vine, should resign … other than frothing that fraudulent wall street market with high-frequency programmed trades and debased dollars he can’t seem to print enough of, and for all but wall frauds churn and earn profits as they retain their fraudulent gains from the last debacle and this one, his policies are nothing short of disaster for this nation and the world. That money going into wall street pockets has to come from somewhere … guess. ] Another round of quantitative easing isn't enough. Congress needs to take action, too.

G-20 split over Geithner plan (Washington Post) [ Riiiiight! When tiny tim ‘God bless us everyone’ talks, like that old defunct Hutton brokerage firm, people listen … then do the opposite … after all, defacto bankrupt american can hardly be said to be nothing short of disasterous for not only this nation, but the world as well. ]Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner urged G-20 powers to cap the amount of mismatch between what they produce and invest and how much they consume.

7 banks closed in Fla., Ga., Ill., Kan., Ariz. WASHINGTON (AP) – ‘Regulators on Friday shut down a total of seven banks in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas and Arizona, lifting to 139 the number of U.S. banks that have fallen this year as soured loans have mounted and the economy has sputtered …’

Three Outrageously Contrarian Predictions - Simon Maierhofer, On Friday October 22, 2010, 7:10 pm EDT If you've lost money over the past 10 years, this statement may seem like a personal assault: 'Timing the market is easy and profitable.' That's the implied conclusion from a recent TrimTabs study.What's the recipe? A recent Wall Street Journal article drew this lesson from the study: 'Over the past decade, it was actually quite simple to time the market. All you had to do was buy when the public was selling and sell when the public was buying.'Naturally, going against the crowd is easier said than done. That's why it's often said that successful investing is simple, but it isn't easy.Good investment opportunities come along only so often. Now seems to be the time. A good opportunity offers more profit potential than risk of losses. Do the Opposite 'Buy when the public was selling and sell when the public was buying,' was the Wall Street Journal's conclusion. So, what's the public doing right now? The public - this includes individual investors and Wall Street - is buying everything. Look around you, the S&P (SNP: ^GSPC), Dow Jones (DJI: ^DJI), Nasdaq (Nasdaq: ^IXIC), small caps, mid caps, international stocks (NYSEArca: EFA - News), emerging markets (NYSEArca: EEM - News), bonds (NYSEArca: AGG - News), gold (NYSEArca: GLD - News), silver (NYSEArca: SLV - News), and many other commodities (NYSEArca: DBC - News) are up, up, up. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar (NYSEArca: UUP - News) is down. According to Wall Street and the media, the investment universe is full of profit sweet spots. Stocks right now are a win-win scenario, at least so they say. Any bad news is viewed to bring about more quantitative easing and is, therefore, good news and good news is good news anyway. Gold is another sweet spot. There's no need to worry about inflation or deflation. Gold is sure to profit either way, or so they say. From a fundamental point of view, gold is as sound an investment today as real estate was a few years ago. Of course with gold, this time is different. Isn't it always? The U.S. dollar is doomed because more quantitative easing (more dollars in circulation) will reduce the value of the current dollars in the system. The government doesn't care if the dollar falls to oblivion, so why should you? Engrained Opinions Actually, there's a good reason to watch what's going on with the dollar. All the assets mentioned above (stocks, bonds and commodities) are denominated in dollars. A cheap dollar means higher prices and vice versa. Over the past five months, the U.S. Dollar Index dropped as much as 15%. Interestingly, it's after a 15% slide that the greenback has become despised. Investors dislike the dollar as much today as they did in late 2009 when it was about to lose its reserve currency status. At that time, the ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter went out on a limb and predicted a major U.S. dollar rally. From November 2009 to June 2010, the dollar soared as much as 20%, a diabolical move for currencies. In June, when fears about Europe and a crumbling euro currency made the rounds (and optimism surrounding the dollar was plentiful), the newsletter called for a dollar correction. Prediction #1 - The Dollar will Rally This correction has morphed into a decline pervasive enough to push dollar sentiment to an extreme that, historically, has foreshadowed significant turnarounds. The notion of a trend reversal is confirmed by technical indicators. Sunday night's Technical Forecast (part of the ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter) stated: 'Last week's dollar action was encouraging as the U.S. Dollar Index finished with a green candle low on Friday and since pushed above the lower acceleration band. That's what bottoms are made of.' Friday's green candle low was followed by two more green candles. On Tuesday (October 19), the U.S. Dollar Index closed above its middle acceleration band. [chart] As far as a candle formation goes, those are the initial stages of a trend reversal. Once again, a rising dollar is bad for stocks and commodities. Prediction #2 - Commodities (Including Gold and Silver) Will Decline Not only is the dollar way oversold, the commodity rally is stretched to a point where a sharp and prolonged reversal could happen any moment. Net speculative positions in many commodities are at record highs, as is the percentage of bullish traders. We've seen time and again that extreme optimism is unhealthy for any market. Albeit not a short-term timing tool, it's a big red flag. Once underway, the selling pressure should affect nearly all commodities, including oil (NYSEArca: USO - News) and agricultural commodities (NYSEArca: DBA - News). Prediction #3 - Nasdaq Should Lead Equity Decline It's been publicized surprisingly little that the Nasdaq 1000 (Nasdaq: QQQQ - News) has already moved above its April recovery high. This has largely been due to Apple's stellar performance. The Nasdaq's performance from here will be very telling. If it's able to establish support above Monday's $51.52 high, the slide in equity prices may be halted temporarily. If it isn't, watch out for a Nasdaq-led decline across the board. Third One 'Free' - QE2 Won't Work If you took a poll on Wall Street, 8 out of 10 Ivy League educated, Armani wearing, Mercedes driving Wall Street Banksters would probably tell you that QE2 will work. The media agrees. When September's jobless numbers went public, the figures were much worse than expected, but stocks surged. Why? Associated Press headline: 'Faith in Fed pushes Dow past 11,000.' When stocks slid on October 14, hope of QE2 kept things from getting worse. AP headline: 'Stocks dip; Likely Fed move keeps losses in check.' QE2 may end up working for Wall Street, but it seems not to have worked for the economy. If it did work, why would we need QE2? Obviously, the rumor of QE2 was enough to drive up stocks. Will the actual news deliver the steak or just the sizzle? In POMO They Trust The fact is that the Federal Reserve's Permanent Open Market Operation (POMO) purchases of Treasuries have had a direct and delayed effect on the market's performance. Certain purchases translated into positive performance 89% of the time (a detailed performance analysis and schedule of future POMO purchases is available in the November issue of the ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter). Should You Fight the Fed? Will the Fed win the tug-of-war against sentiment, valuations, and technical analysis, all of which point towards a correction, perhaps a drastic one? If history is a guide, the market will win ... sooner or later. One way of navigating the current uncertainty is via support and resistance levels. A break through overhead resistance is likely to result in higher prices, while slicing through support may open the floodgates. The ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter, along with the semi-weekly Technical Forecast, highlights the most recent and applicable support/resistance levels along with corresponding target levels.

Wall St circuit breakers fail to ease market nerves [High frequency churn and earn in motion, and draining main street / the nation! ] Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) – ‘Market circuit breakers put in place after the May 6 "flash crash" have not stopped large swings in U.S. stocks and traders remain wary of glitches in the trading system. The speed of trading, owing to high frequency strategies, means plenty of trades can take place even after a halt is put in place by circuit breakers. The last stock to be halted due to a circuit breaker, Progress Energy Inc, had more than 100 trades occur after the stock triggered a halt and resulted in nearly 60 canceled trades. "It's under the spotlight more now since May 6," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. "I don't want to say it's knocking at confidence, but some people get frustrated about it." The circuit breakers were imposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to prevent the kind of turmoil seen on May 6 when the Dow Jones industrial average lost then recouped around 700 points in about 20 minutes. With the new regulations, head-scratching moves in individual issues are increasingly under the microscope. On Monday, nearly $500 million in trades in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust were cancelled. The trades occurred at a price of 106.46, several points below where the index was trading at that time. The NYSE Arca exchange attributed the trades being completed to an issue with a software release, causing the closing auction cycle to run at 4:15 p.m. and the trades to be ruled broken by NYSE Arca Market Management. Large orders filled on illiquid exchanges -- a practice known as "ripping the book" -- have resulted in halts of large stocks such as Nucor Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. "It shows you the fragmented market isn't necessarily working. When you had a central liquidity place when there was two dominant exchanges you didn't have that type of situation," added Saluzzi. Lately a handful of very small stocks have been the target of trading strategies that result in sharp upward moves, seemingly without news. LiveDeal, a company with a tiny market capitalization of $2.68 million, saw its share price more than triple to $14 a share on Thursday from $4.42 the day before. Shares fell to $9.89 on Friday …’

Trouble Comes in Threes: Dave's Daily

Putting an End to the 'Cash on the Sidelines' Myth Roche ‘We’ve highlighted the financial punditry’s obsession with “cash on the sidelines” over the course of the last year in attempts to show that there is really no such thing. The argument from an investment perspective is utterly absurd. In general, investors like to think that their cash is some sort of fuel for the market that will drive prices higher. This is easily debunked simply by looking at the transactions at work. When you buy stocks you are effectively swapping cash with the seller. It’s that simple. There is no change in net financial assets. You merely swapped cash for stock and the seller swapped stock for cash. The price you arrive at is merely a function of psychology. Who is the more eager buyer or seller? While there is technically “cash on the sidelines” this amount of cash on the sidelines is relatively stable in any given period. It’s not changing with every transaction as many would have you believe. Therefore, there is no fuel or pile of cash that is just waiting to be injected into the market and drive prices higher. In terms of corporate balance sheets the argument is equally misleading. You’ll often hear the financial punditry discuss the asset side of the balance sheet while ignoring the liability side. There’s all this “cash on the sidelines” just waiting to hire people, merge with other companies, etc. The only problem is, debt has been surging at the same time that cash levels rise. We’ve discussed this thoroughly in the past (see here), but Mish at Global Economic Analysis (with the help of Tableau Software) provided a great visual tool today that puts this reality into perspective. We can see from the following tool that corporate balance sheets aren’t nearly in the excellent condition that most people believe. CASH ON THE SIDELINES? DON’T BELIEVE IT. [CHART] TOTAL CASH $3,705.5 BILLION - TOTAL DEBT $4,455.1 BILLION = NET CASH (749.6 BILLION)’

Rallyin’ into the close to keep suckers suckered on top of bad news! The October Philadelphia Fed Index hit 1.0, below the 1.5 that had been widely forecast. Meanwhile, Leading Indicators for September increased 0.3%, as expected ( but based upon the ‘stock prices floating on air and b*** s***’ component of same – the ultimate ‘bootstrap’ ). This is an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits (these lower dollar, hyperinflationary currency manipulations / translations to froth paper stocks will end quite badly as in last crash)! This is a global depression. This is a secular bear market in a global depression. The past up moves were manipulated bull (s***) cycles (at best) in a secular bear market. This has been a typically manipulated bubble as has preceded the prior crashes with great regularity that the wall street frauds and insiders commission and sell into. This is a typical wall street ‘programmed computerized high-frequency churn and earn pass the hot potato scam / fraud as in prior crashes’. This national decline, economic and otherwise, will not end until justice is served and the wall street frauds et als are criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed.The Stock Market's Long Decline Has Begun Smith ‘The Fed's campaign to boost the risk-trade in equities by destroying the dollar has reached its limits. Now gravity will take hold as stocks enter a Long Decline.On Monday, Daily Finance published my article Is the Market Ready to Roll Over? These Signs Say Yes.

QE2 Not Such a Slam-Dunk? Krasting The 100% certain sure thing in the market today is that QE-2 will come on November 3rd and that it will be decisive in its scope. Well I am not so sure any more.

• The Fed’s Beige Book from Wednesday did not make a case for an economy that needed emergency measures. Yes there was some discussion about the weak housing market and soft loan demand. But we know that QE-2 is not going to fix those problems.
• It is of significance to me (and should be to all) that Zero Hedge was featured in a Time/CNN article titled, Will the Federal Reserve Start a Civil War?

I am certain that the Fed reads Zero Hedge. But how much influence they have is a question. When it gets up to Time magazine however, it is another matter altogether. It is not possible for the Fed to avoid the collective roar that is coming from across the country at this point. If the Fed blunders with an unpopular QE-2 the results will be disastrous. Not only will the economy tank but the Fed will have lost a good chunk of its remaining credibility. The downside risks to Bernanke are enormous. I don’t think he believes he is in a popularity contest, but he does know he can’t run monetary policy with protesters outside his door. How much is he prepared to gamble given that he clearly does not have a consensus amongst his own board? He is an academic, not a gambler.

• Today St. Louis Fed Bullard made remarks to reporters that were a warning sign to me (and the market). He talked a much different game than what has been dished out of late. He made reference to a smaller program. Maybe less than $500billion (about half what is now in the street). He also threw out something that blew me away. He suggested that the 11/3 decision was in someway dependant on the Q3 GDP numbers that come out before the Fed meets. Bullard even “spun” the numbers on the hot side:

it may come in a little stronger than the second quarter. So we have to keep our eye on that.

Bond traders panicked and hit bids on long coupons. I like that read. Bullard gave us a hint that maybe this QE-2 is not such a slam-dunk. (See ZH story on Bullard)

• The WSJ had a market story about Bullard’s comments but their big gun on QE, Jon Hilsenrath, has been quiet. Should the press follow with the new question mark on the timing and scope of QE2 we may have an October surprise that is bigger than a SF-Texas series.

I started this with; “The 100% certain sure thing in the market today is that QE-2 will come on November 3rd and that it will be decisive in its scope.” If that certainty factor falls to 50% the S&P is going to take a big dump. That possibility was simply not in the print at the close.

The Unintended Consequences of QE2 Roche ‘It looks like the Fed is already beginning to worry about the unintended consequences of QE2. In a speech earlier this week Richard Fisher discussed an important consequence of QE. He said:

In my darkest moments, I have begun to wonder if the monetary accommodation we have already engineered might even be working in the wrong places.

It certainly is working in the wrong places. While the Fed creates paper profits in stocks and bonds QE appears to also be influencing the price of commodities. Commodity prices have surged in recent weeks as the Fed has driven the dollar lower. What’s so pernicious here is the margin compression that Gaius discussed the other day. This is crucial because the margin recovery has been the single most important component of the equity market recovery.

What’s so interesting here is that Ben Bernanke might actually be creating a double headwind for the economy in the coming quarters. Not only is he reducing margins for many corporations, but because quantitative easing is inherently deflationary (because it replaces interest bearing assets with non-interest bearing assets) it is not helping aggregate demand. From the perspective of a corporation this means stagnant revenues and higher input costs. That will only increase the reluctance to hire. Of course, the Fed thinks they can prop up particular markets and generate a “wealth effect” that is unsupported by the underlying fundamentals. Interestingly, in the long-run, Mr. Bernanke might be creating more damage than he even understands. But at least someone at the Fed is beginning to wonder if this strategy is viable.‘

Jim Rogers: “US will lose economic war” China has become the world’s fastest growing economy, what can the US be taught from the Chinese as the US economy continues to struggle? Jim Rogers, co-founder of the Quantum Fund says that US citizens should save and invest their money as their Chinese counter parts have. The Chinese are saving and investing an average of 35% of their income, taking an age old US principle and using it to their advantage.

Las Vegas Unemployment Rate Hits 15 Percent While unemployment statewide remained unchanged in September, jobless numbers in Las Vegas rose to 15 percent, a new record.

Reid: ‘But For Me, We’d Be in World-Wide Depression’ … Wow! …’

Stimulus Swindle: Los Angeles Spent $70 Million in Stimulus Funds to Create 7.76 Jobs A new piece of evidence has emerged in the debate over the effectiveness of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package, and it’s not good for Democrats.

Strapped UK to pay for EU’s ‘fraud, waste & mismanagement’? The European Union is demanding an additional 900 million pounds from the UK. It comes as the largest public spending cuts since the Second World War was announced. Thousands of protestors took to the streets of London saying it will condemn the UK to years of brutal unemployment. For more on the topic RT talks to Robert Oulds – Director of think tank the Bruge Group.

Geithner’s Goal: Rebalanced World Economy Wall Street Journal | Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he would use weekend meetings of G-20 finance ministers to advance efforts to “rebalance” the world economy so it is less reliant on U.S. consumers.

The Big Wall Street Banks Have Found A New Way To Strangle The American People: Predatory Property Tax Collection The Economic Collapse | Today, millions of American families are barely hanging on to their homes by their fingernails.

Currency Wars: A Race to the Bottom of the Inflationary Barrel Ron Paul | Inflation fears are heating up this week as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a speech in Boston on Friday, causing further frantic flight into gold by those fearful of the coming “quantitative easing” the Fed is set to deliver in November.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac bailouts could hit $363 billion, report says The taxpayer bailouts of housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could cost as much as $363 billion through 2013, according to government projections released Thursday.