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 (Only up to 3-11-11-you must be logged in - (Washington Post) [ Comments COMMENTS ARE CLOSED WHILE WE UPGRADE OUR SYSTEMS ] the comments are no longer archived on their site ) . The following is the cumulative archive of blog posts / topics for 2010 as the new year starts anew (and archived by quarter): http://albertpeia.com/December312010postsarchive.htm or PDF formatted version
http://albertpeia.com/December312010postsarchive.pdf ]

Selling In May Is Very Good Advice This Year Harding Stocks slip after three-day rally (Washington Post) [ Top 3 Reasons Markets Tanked with Oil WSCS…

1) Commodities and Oil got slaughtered. .. widening trade gap.

2) Insiders finally getting busted.. but what about what large banks, investment banks, and mortgage companies did to the US economy…these insider trading cases are basically sideshows…

Fed official calls for vigilance (WP) [ Who’s still buying their b***s***! Much higher prices / inflation’s already here. 24 Signs Of Economic Decline In America ‘The US is in the middle of a devastating long-term economic decline’ ] States face shortfall for retirees (WP) (The frauds on wall street et als should be criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed), and have used the mideast turmoil to obfuscate their failure. Dave's Daily 'If you can keep interest rates this low this long, its inevitable cheap financing can allow companies to start cobbling each other up. Further Ben's policies allow companies like IBM to sell bonds at 1% and buy back shares with the proceeds (total paper bubble-scam). POMO is occurring almost daily and Primary Dealers can buy back their shares and pay dividends with what essentially is taxpayer money-- … an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! America Is a Failed State Because It Won’t Prosecute Financial Crime Washington’s Blog / the grim economic reality [ http://albertpeia.com/grimreality.htm ]. Selling In May Is Very Good Advice This Year Harding / April Is a Good Time to Sell Adler Equity Valuations Are Forming the Second Biggest Bubble in U.S. History Kaspar ... According to Yale University’s Dr. Robert Shiller, the market is now 41% overvalued …only time the markets have been more overvalued .. 1929 & tech bubble. http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/4/12/saupload_cape_thumb1.png PRECHTER: We're Still In A Massive Bear Market And Stocks Will Crash To New Lows Bernanke prepares to make history (WP) [ He already has! $6 gas acomin’.. hyperinflation as predicted well on the way from over-printing of fiat paper currency by fed as predicted, etc., Equity Valuations Are Forming the Second Biggest Bubble in U.S. History Kaspar 'Despite the terrible economic performance of the past ten years, equity valuations are the 2nd largest bubble in U.S. history... According to Yale University’s Dr. Robert Shiller, the market is now 41% overvalued according to this valuation metric. The only time the markets have been more overvalued was a few brief months in 1929 and the tech bubble

... growth in earnings have been artificially manufactured...

· The change in accounting rules for the financial sector by FASB has generated massive “false” account profits beginning in 2009…’

Pension plan draws ire of workers Proposal to raise payroll deductions of federal workers could make public sector work less attractive.
Diary: Federal workers are raising the roof Treasury to tap pensions to fund government (Washington Post) [ Most people thought this to be beyond the realm of possibility; yet, it’s happening and far worse is yet to come, their desperation being seen in so many ways. As far as public sector ‘work’ being less attractive, let’s not forget the fact that these non-productive, over-paid, over-valued public employees, like those of the u.s. postal service, are otherwise unemployable, and as such, tend to favor party-campaign benefactors as, ie., fraudulent wall street, etc.. Market's Risk/Reward Ratio Remains Poor McCurdy ‘The S&P 500 index has been in a secular bear market since 2000 and our Secular Trend Score (STS) indicates that we remain in the middle stage of its development :

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-130540693393499-Erik-McCurdy_origin.png

…

..Butler|Philbrick & Associates conducted a study that combined the Shiller CAPE ratio, the Q-Ratio, long-term price deviations and total return trends. The following graph from DShort.com displays 15-year actual stock market returns and projected returns since 1900 ..

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-13054033822883-Erik-McCurdy.png

With a couple of notable exceptions, actual returns have tracked projected returns almost exactly during the past 110 years. .. this model projects that stocks will return -0.5% during the next 10 years and 0.6% during the next 15 years.. stocks are likely to produce no gains for the next 15 years. .. However, the fact remains that stocks are priced to deliver historically poor returns as investment vehicles for the foreseeable future.

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-130540340946043-Erik-McCurdy.png

The rally is now 26 months old and cyclical bulls that occur during secular bears..

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-130540342919514-Erik-McCurdy_origin.png

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-130540344803643-Erik-McCurdy_origin.png

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-13054034630148-Erik-McCurdy_origin.png

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-13054034630148-Erik-McCurdy.png

Finally, our sentiment score recently declined to the lowest level since late 2007, reflecting an excessive amount of bullish sentiment that leaves the stock market vulnerable to an abrupt, violent decline.

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-130540347838945-Erik-McCurdy_origin.png

Lawmakers rebuff restitution (Washington Post) Investors in an alleged Ponzi scheme say their pleas for reimbursement fall on deaf ears. ‘While Allen Stanford was flying high, he and his colleagues spent more than $10 million on campaign contributions and lobbying payments to curry favor in Washington. But all that money was diverted from investors in what authorities have called an elaborate Ponzi scheme, second only to Bernard Madoff’s in U.S. history, according to court documents…’ [ No surprise here from the accomplices / facilitators of frauds such as he which are plentiful in pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america.

A storm gathers over equities markets (Reuters) Stock Market: 4 Current Warning Signs Navin ‘…

1) The 5-year high in the level of insider corporate stock sales is telling. At 565 sells for every 1 buy, it’s never been higher. Yes, it’s normal for insiders to be selling some of their stocks so they can buy new yachts and some of this is pre-planned. But that ratio — which has spiked recently — is extraordinarily high, one might even say off-the-chart.

2) Professor Shiller at Yale figures that the present price-to-earnings ratio for the Standard & Poor’s 500 is in the area of 26. The historical average is about 16.

3) The failure of the financial sector to keep up is a significant negative divergence for the entire market.

4) Key market leaders are rolling over in price... ‘

Market's Risk/Reward Ratio Remains Poor McCurdy ‘The S&P 500 index has been in a secular bear market since 2000 and our Secular Trend Score (STS) indicates that we remain in the middle stage of its development (click to enlarge images):

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-130540693393499-Erik-McCurdy_origin.png

This is an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! Remember: ‘Sell in May and go away! …

Selling In May Is Very Good Advice This Year Harding 24 Signs Of Economic Decline In America ‘The US is in the middle of a devastating long-term economic decline’ ] States face shortfall for retirees (WP) (The frauds on wall street et als should be criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed. Dave's Daily 'If you can keep interest rates this low this long, its inevitable cheap financing can allow companies to start cobbling each other up. Further Ben's policies allow companies like IBM to sell bonds at 1% and buy back shares with the proceeds (total paper bubble-scam). POMO is occurring almost daily and Primary Dealers can buy back their shares and pay dividends with what essentially is taxpayer money-- … an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! America Is a Failed State Because It Won’t Prosecute Financial Crime Washington’s Blog / the grim economic reality [ http://albertpeia.com/grimreality.htm ]. Equity Valuations Are Forming the Second Biggest Bubble in U.S. History Kaspar ... According to Yale University’s Dr. Robert Shiller, the market is now 41% overvalued …only time the markets have been more overvalued .. 1929 & tech bubble. http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/4/12/saupload_cape_thumb1.png PRECHTER: We're Still In A Massive Bear Market And Stocks Will Crash To New Lows

Study: $2 trillion for infrastructure U.S. is falling dramatically behind in rebuilding and expanding its transportation network, study says. (Washington Post) [ As if that was all pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america was falling behind in. Moreover, even the simplistic answer, ‘you can’t spend what you don’t have’, is regrettably inapposite. The problem is, defacto bankrupt america is spending what it doesn’t really have. More importantly, pervasively corrupt america is spending what it doesn’t really have on war, and such other manipulations as fraudulent wall street, most of which is immediately or ultimately a net negative in real economic terms. Davis ‘This is how we pay off our current debts and I think bondholders are simply happy to get anything out of a country that admits it owes $15Tn (1/4 of global GDP) but probably owes closer to $60Tn (entire global GDP) in the form of unfunded liabilities. The funniest thing about this (and you have to laugh) is to see Conservative pundits get on TV and talk about how we need to cut $100Bn worth of discretionary spending to "fix" this (while continuing to spend $1Tn on the military and $1Tn on tax cuts for the top 1% each year). There is no fixing this and even a Republican said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. THIS HOUSE OF CARDS IS TEETERING FOLKS – PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! ‘ . … Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ... 5-1-11 / U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every 3 days ... http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

ON MAY 1, 2011, JUST MOMENTS BEFORE PRESIDENT OBAMA ANNOUNCED THAT THE US HAD KILLED OSAMA BIN LADEN, THE WHATREALLYHAPPENED WEBSITE CAME UNDER MASSIVE DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACK. THIS PAGE, WHICH DOCUMENTS THAT OSAMA BIN LADEN ACTUALLY DIED IN DECEMBER OF 2001, APPEARS TO BE WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DIDN'T WANT AVAILABLE WHILE THE NEW PROPAGANDA WAS "CATAPULTED FORWARD". IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THIS IS THE OPENING GAMBIT IN A PLAN TO STAGE A "REVENGE" ATTACK FROM "AL QAEDA" ON THE UNITED STATES, WITH WHICH TO JUSTIFY TOTAL WAR ON THE MIDDLE EAST.

Bin Laden's voice was detected regularly until [12-14-01] by intelligence operatives monitoring radio transmissions in Tora Bora, according to the Pentagon [details]. Since then, nothing has been heard from the al-Qa'eda leader ..[Telegraph, 12/28/2001]

Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government

Osama bin Laden is dead. The news first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost 6 mos ago: the fugitive died in December [2001] and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan. Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, echoed the information. ..

..Osama bin Laden would not have.. remained silent for so long if he were still alive. He always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with …[NYT 7-11-02]

FOX News Report: Bin Laden Already Dead

Dionne: Why did the media fall for Trump? (Washington Post) [ In addition to being a mobster, trump was / is always a joke and a certifiable mental case. The real question is why the media continues to fall for wobama. SEC urged to ease fundraising rules (Washington Post) [ REDUNDANT! I mean come on! Any more ‘easing’ and we’d be in negative territory where they actually reward you for breaking the rules which is currently the reality in pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt, meaningfully lawless america. Roche 'The worst part of it ...Obama, who vowed change, has done almost nothing to fix any of it and in fact continues most of the policies that helped get us here in the first place’ ‘INSIDE JOB’ Ferguson wins Oscar for Documentary on the unprosecuted massive extant fraud in the (many) TRILLIONS by the frauds on wall street ( and declares with oscar in hand that not one high level wall street exec has been prosecuted … despite ‘earning’ billiions from the fraud ). UPDATE: MORE CLAIMS OF RACE BIAS AT JUSTICE... `‘`In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who 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 ' Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud WP | Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountable for the meltdown.

‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ http://albertpeia.com/obamadeceptionhighqualityversion.flv

Defacto bankrupt, fraudulent america also spends more on military spending than all the nations of the world combined... federal employees / contractors, cia, all 3 branches of the u.s. government, etc., are included in this evolved american trait of inherent criminality ( http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdf http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htm ). That perverse field of dreams I’ve previously alluded to, the american nightmare, if you build / contrive war, they will come. And, they do; seals of them (among others); and when their ‘tours’ are done, it’s murder inc./contract killing for hire that they’ve won (cia, mob, etc.). The 20th century, the ‘bloodiest century’, not coincidentally referred to as the american century, brings longings of nostalgia to american criminals who, like Pavlov’s dogs salivate at the prospect of killing, raping, pillaging, and plundering which primitive mindset they have mistakenly been conditioned to connect to their now irretrievably lost success as a nation state; and to the contrary, has become globally and domestically self-destructive / self-defeating. The entire 911 / Bin Laden scenario just doesn’t pass the smell test and reeks of political desperation and Orwellian opportunism.

U.S. speeds up direct talks with Taliban Officials say they hope the negotiations, initiated several months ago, will enable President Obama to report progress in ending the Afghan war when he announces troop withdrawals in July. (Washington Post) [ Well, no biggy … after all, they’ve been reporting and will continue reporting ‘progress’ regardless of the reality and prospectively why should we expect the truth, particularly in this so called election cycle. Even MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Admits the CIA is Engaging in “Psy-Ops” With The Bin Laden Raid Youtube

Bin Laden’s “One Million Page Cache” Will Be Used To Legitimize Official 9/11 Fable Paul Watson | The White House claims it has recovered one million pages of data from the Bin Laden compound.

That’s exactly what they want … for the benefit of the military industrial complex that has steadily drained the dwindling resourses of this country to defacto bankruptcy.

Editorial: Bin Laden raid no vindication of torture (Washington Post) [ While I don’t disagree with this Editorial, I do disagree with the premise; viz., that they truly sought to prevent that ultimate ‘pearl harbor event’, to ratchet up the war spending / military industrial complex welfare plan with broad based enthusiasm / support. Even war-monger mccain supports this which also finds support in international law, treaties, conventions.I can only wonder what the presence of substantially underrated President General Eisenhower would have meant, and truly believe this entire debacle and the nation’s decline would have been avoided. “All In All It Appears That Eisenhower’s Worst Fears Have Been Realized And His Remarkable And Unique Warnings Given For Naught” [ I personally believe, and the factual, historical realities support that President General Eisenhower is without question the most under-rated president in america’s short-lived history. Is there anyone who foolishly would believe this man (Ike) of honor, the quintessential General / Commander in Chief would be sacrificing lives (american among many others) and treasury for the sake of war profiteers, greed, fraud, etc., as now? ] President Eisenhower’s warned us about the growing threat from the military-industrial complex – and it’s threat to our prosperity – 50 years ago. Eisenhower’s Worst Fears Have Been Realized Washington’s Blog | All in all it appears that Eisenhower’s worst fears have been realized and his remarkable and unique warnings given for naught. ….. Indeed, 911 itself; that ‘pearl harbor event’ so sought by the neo-cons / war mongers still defies explanation (ie., the ‘stand-down order’, symmetrical implosions, foreknowledge by some {who conveniently ‘missed the party’ that day}, etc.. Some links, echoing the disbelief akin to the ‘Jessica Lynch’, Tillman, etc., affairs follow. People must realize that though having but 5% of the world’s population, america can boast 76% of the world’s serial killers and the highest crime rates in the world by far. That perverse field of dreams I’ve previously alluded to, the american nightmare, if you build / contrive war, they will come. And, they do; seals of them (among others); and when their ‘tours’ are done, it’s murder inc./contract killing for hire that they’ve won (cia, mob, etc.). The 20th century, the ‘bloodiest century’, not coincidentally referred to as the american century, brings longings of nostalgia to american criminals who, like Pavlov’s dogs salivate at the prospect of killing, raping, pillaging, and plundering which primitive mindset they have mistakenly been conditioned to connect to their now irretrievably lost success as a nation state; and, to the contrary, has become globally and domestically self-destructive / self-defeating. The entire 911 / Bin Laden scenario just doesn’t pass the smell test and reeks of political desperation and Orwellian opportunism.

Ludicrous Bin Laden “Porno” Claim Harks Back To CIA Fakery Paul Joseph Watson | Spooks admitted creating hoax videotapes of Osama talking about having sex with boys. [ Yeah! This is becoming preposterous and it’s quite amazing that anyone’s believing anything they say. Next thing you know, they’ll be saying beyond the porn stash, Bin Laden was a closet Christian. Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ... May 1, 2011 ... U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every 3 days ... http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

FLASHBACK: Editorial: US in quagmire Seeing the warm welcome extended to the Afghan president on his US trip, it is hard to believe that only weeks ago Washington was seething with anger and frustration at Hamid Karzai’s behavior and there were even dark mutterings by US officials that he might be mad.

War in Afghanistan and Iraq costs America $1trillion From the Old | On May 30th at 10:06 the United States reached the point where they have spent $1trillion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A storm gathers over equities markets (Reuters) Wall Street's second weekly fall raises fear of retreat (Reuters) Reuters - Stocks ended a second week of losses on a down note Friday, reflecting growing worries that stocks are on the precipice of a pullback. [ Fear? Worries? How ‘bout realities … the ones the insiders already know … Navin (see infra) ‘…1) The 5-year high in the level of insider corporate stock sales is telling. At 565 sells for every 1 buy, it’s never been higher. Yes, it’s normal for insiders to be selling some of their stocks so they can buy new yachts and some of this is pre-planned. But that ratio — which has spiked recently — is extraordinarily high, one might even say off-the-chart…’ ]

Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ... May 1, 2011 ... U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every 3 days ... http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

ON MAY 1, 2011, JUST MOMENTS BEFORE PRESIDENT OBAMA ANNOUNCED THAT THE US HAD KILLED OSAMA BIN LADEN, THE WHATREALLYHAPPENED WEBSITE CAME UNDER MASSIVE DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACK. THIS PAGE, WHICH DOCUMENTS THAT OSAMA BIN LADEN ACTUALLY DIED IN DECEMBER OF 2001, APPEARS TO BE WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DIDN'T WANT AVAILABLE WHILE THE NEW PROPAGANDA WAS "CATAPULTED FORWARD". IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THIS IS THE OPENING GAMBIT IN A PLAN TO STAGE A "REVENGE" ATTACK FROM "AL QAEDA" ON THE UNITED STATES, WITH WHICH TO JUSTIFY TOTAL WAR ON THE MIDDLE EAST… [ See the National / World section, infra, for article text ]

Stock Market: 4 Current Warning Signs Navin ‘No one indicator by itself can be trusted. Many indicators taken as whole, however, can offer valuable guidance when a clear pattern develops. Right now, that guidance appears to warn about current conditions.

2) Professor Shiller at Yale figures that the present price-to-earnings ratio for the Standard & Poor’s 500 is in the area of 26. The historical average is about 16. Although p/e’s can remain elevated for longer than you would imagine, reversion to the mean eventually takes place. Such a reversion would knock off almost 40% of current price. From today’s level, that would put the S&P 500 at about 800. Some shake their heads when I mention this, but it wasn’t too many months ago that we just broke above that.

3) The failure of the financial sector to keep up is a significant negative divergence for the entire market. Tom Aspray’s charts demonstrate the unfortunate price patterns of some big banks. I’ve mentioned this as well, previously. It’s hard to imagine how much further a rally can go without support from financials.

4) Key market leaders are rolling over in price. Take a look at Google (GOOG), one of the hottest stocks going in the recent rally. It appears to have peaked in January and is unable to set new highs even as the S&P continued upward. GOOG’s 50-day moving average has turned downward and has crossed below the 200-day moving average. This is a significant change of trend. ‘

AIG to sell Treasury shares The government soon will begin unloading its 92.1 percent ownership stake in the bailout company. (Washington Post) [ Who’s the unlucky sucker? Ultimately, a pension fund or two or three, etc., or maybe you or an equally unlucky member of your family. Stock market on a roll despite slowing economic growth, lingering unemployment[Also known as reality! Roll … yes, indeed … everyone’s to get rolled! ] (WP) Dow is up more than 10 percent for 2011, to its highest point in nearly three years. [ Same bubble scenario preceeding last crash (including currency manipulation); yet, far worse this time owing to insurmountable debt and defacto bankruptcy of the nation. Fed Chairman Bernanke does reality TV (WP) [ Except the ‘NO-RECESSION HELICOPTER BEN B.S. BERNANKE’ show is scripted unreality … even with his reduction in estimate for ‘economic growth’, the frauds on wall street still rallied. Bernanke prepares to make history (WP) [ He already has! $6 gas acomin’, $1,508+ gold, $46+ silver, other commodities at record levels, hyperinflation as predicted well on the way from over-printing of fiat paper currency by fed as predicted, etc., Equity Valuations Are Forming the Second Biggest Bubble in U.S. History Kaspar 'Despite the terrible economic performance of the past ten years, equity valuations are the 2nd largest bubble in U.S. history... According to Yale University’s Dr. Robert Shiller, the market is now 41% overvalued according to this valuation metric. The only time the markets have been more overvalued was a few brief months in 1929 and the tech bubble

... growth in earnings have been artificially manufactured...

· The change in accounting rules for the financial sector by FASB has generated massive “false” account profits beginning in 2009.

· The extended (and then further extended) unemployment benefits have kept an artificially higher demand for consumer consumption. As a result, the US government has artificially subsidized corporate profits.

· The billions saved through “free loading” by homeowners who have defaulted on their mortgages yet maintained their residence, thus living without a mortgage payment.

· The artificially suppressed interest rates...

Dave's Daily 'If you can keep interest rates this low this long, its inevitable cheap financing can allow companies to start cobbling each other up. Further Ben's policies allow companies like IBM to sell bonds at 1% and buy back shares with the proceeds (total paper bubble-scam). POMO is occurring almost daily and Primary Dealers can buy back their shares and pay dividends with what essentially is taxpayer money-- … an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! 24 Signs Of Economic Decline In America ‘The United States is in the middle of a devastating long-term economic decline’ ] States face shortfall for retirees ]

Getting Defensive in Equities, Aggressive in Fixed Income The Simple Accountant ‘In last week’s outlook we recommended staying with defensive sectors and fixed income, avoiding commodity related stocks, and waiting for a bounce before selling commodities short. Let’s have a look at how those tactics worked, and then try to anticipate what the next week’s trading might look like.

Week in Review

Stocks: The major US indexes were little changed on contracting volume. On Friday the SPX (SPY) closed below the key short term level of 1340, with which it had been flirting for over a week. S&P sector action showed a third consecutive week of defensive rotation as investors moved out of commodity linked stocks and into perceived safety. Healthcare, consumer staples and utilities led the way again, while the shares of companies leveraged to economic expansion fell. Financials were the real laggard, dropping more than 2% on weakness in bank stocks. Although non-bank blue chip stocks like American Express (AXP) and Travelers (TRV) have been solid, the financial sector SPDR (XLF) is now down year to date, and with a meager yield, its total return is none too impressive.

In foreign stock markets, the MSCI EAFE index dropped more than 2% for a second consecutive week on broad weakness in the UK, Europe and Japan, but emerging markets fared a little better thanks to support in Shanghai and strength in smaller Asian markets such as Singapore and Thailand.

Bonds: The run of falling Treasury yields across the curve was finally broken, as bond trading was a mixed bag last week. Rates at the short and long end rose, but fell slightly in the middle. TIPs were marked down a little and corporate issues did nothing much, in either investment grade or junk ratings. All in all, nothing to make us excited except munis, which have been on a nice little run since early April. Some of the European bond markets were a bit more active on the downside, for the obvious reasons, but emerging market bonds posted modest gains.

Commodities: After heavy losses in the previous week, commodities found some bids as bargain hunters came in to buy, but trading was volatile. Gold, silver and oil saw the most action and buying interest, but copper and the grains continued to extended previous losses, with the former breaking the 200 day MA and the latter sitting just above. If you subscribe to the theory that copper prices are a leading indicator for the economy, this is worth noting.

Currencies: The US Dollar index recorded another week of gains, breaking the 50 day MA to finish at 75.78 at Friday’s close. The euro index sold off again but remains above the 140 level for now. The Aussie and Canadian dollars both fell but remain above parity to the greenback at 105.76 and 103.26 respectively. Yen was off slightly.

The Week Ahead

Stocks: With earnings season largely behind us, the market is looking at the macro picture and getting defensive. Even the normally bullish Ken Fisher is quoted by Reuters as saying “expectations for the stock market are a bit on the high side” (contrary to popular belief, Fisher is not a perma-bull and actually makes some good calls on the market). Certainly there are signals that have to give us cause for concern:

Economic headwinds from high oil prices
Falling bond yields
Ongoing weakness of banks
Few signs of a recovery in residential real estate
Continued high unemployment
Political pressure for fiscal consolidation

This is potentially a stagflationary brew, but it has been with us for some time, and stocks have overcome it to this point. Why should it be different now? Ken Fisher hit on the concern: we’ve come a long way since the March 2009 bottom,and many stocks are priced, not for perfection, but for much less forgiving forward growth expectations. Perhaps it should not surprise us that defensive sectors are leading the market, as the broader indexes struggle to make headway.

Last week we said investors need to start adapting to a new market environment which is likely to be more volatile, and would place a premium on stock selection, sector rotation and timing. We detailed some of that movement above in our review of last week: while XLF is down 1% year to date, TRV is up over 12% and AXP more than 16%. To give another example, if you are in stocks through an index vehicle like SPY, you’re up only 6.5%, but XLV is up 14.5% and XLP 9.5%.

It may seem like we are cherry picking results like these in hindsight, but the simple point is this: Whatever method you use, have a plan and hold leading stocks and sectors that are acting well, and sell those that aren't. This is particularly important in tax advantaged accounts. Even if you pick up only 2-3 extra points a year net of expenses this will help to build your portfolio in the long run.

click on all charts to enlarge:
http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/220228-130541053554117-The-Simple-Accountant.png

Bonds: So far so good for bond holders. Our analysis for some time has been that we like what we have bought at attractive yield-on-cost, but it’s getting quite difficult to find reasonable yield for new money at current prices. Among popular bond ETFs, a buyer at last week’s closing price would only get around 2.5% in AGG, 3.2% in TLT and 3.5% in LQD. Not very impressive and difficult to produce an attractive income stream at those rates so, as with equities, we have been forced to adapt to the market environment. My strategy going forward in the fixed income portfolio is going to shift to more active management. We will be adding high yield and preferred securities but with a very strict sell discipline to preserve capital. Sometimes the market just makes you work harder for your money.

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/220228-130541104590747-The-Simple-Accountant_origin.png

Commodities: We’ve seen a big selloff followed by some developing support in the hottest commodity sectors. My take on this action is that it’s still a short term trader’s market, and since that’s not my style, they can go at it while I stay on the sidelines. For me the real signals are in the industrial metals: aluminum, copper and steel, and in the grains. Those are signaling weakness. On a fundamental level commodities are still expensive, and with signs that near term growth may be slowing, there is room for prices to fall farther. On a longer term macro level, I have little doubt the price trend will be up, which is why my strategy as stated last week is not to short commodities but to look for more attractive prices to go long. We’re not there yet, not even close.

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/220228-130541126175833-The-Simple-Accountant_origin.png

Currencies: We have a developing rally in the US Dollar index with the close above the 50 day and the recent down trend broken. There is plenty of skepticism but on both a fundamental and a technical basis it seems to me this move could have legs. Fundamentally, I have long been a euro skeptic and see nothing to change my view there - the news only gets worse over time. With China actively draining excess liquidity and the impending end of QE in the US, the commodity currencies are early in an overdue correction. Japan is under pressure to cap the rise in the Yen. With this landscape, we have a reasonable possibility of a 78 - 82 range for the Dollar index this summer.

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Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours

Market's Risk/Reward Ratio Remains Poor McCurdy ‘The S&P 500 index has been in a secular bear market since 2000 and our Secular Trend Score (STS) indicates that we remain in the middle stage of its development (click to enlarge images):

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-130540693393499-Erik-McCurdy_origin.png

The STS has yet to even approach positive territory since the last secular sell signal was issued in late 1999, suggesting that the start of the next secular bull market is still several years away. Highly reliable valuation-based models that forecast future market returns using data such as the Shiller cyclically-adjusted price-to-earnings (CAPE) ratio confirm the long-term outlook provided by our STS.

For example, Adam Butler and Mike Philbrick of Butler|Philbrick & Associates conducted a study that combined the Shiller CAPE ratio, the Q-Ratio, long-term price deviations and total return trends. The following graph from DShort.com displays 15-year actual stock market returns and projected returns since 1900 using the Butler/Philbrick model.

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-13054033822883-Erik-McCurdy.png

With a couple of notable exceptions, actual returns have tracked projected returns almost exactly during the past 110 years. Currently, this model projects that stocks will return -0.5% during the next 10 years and 0.6% during the next 15 years. In other words, stocks are likely to produce no gains for the next 15 years. Of course, the stock market is likely to go nowhere in an interesting way, experiencing violent advances and declines as the secular bear market moves into the final phase of its development. However, the fact remains that stocks are priced to deliver historically poor returns as investment vehicles for the foreseeable future.

While valuation-based forecasting models project a poor long-term outlook, chart analysis and internal data also suggest that the stock market has entered a period of heightened risk from an intermediate-term perspective. The current cyclical bull market from March 2009 has been an extreme move, resulting in a doubling of the S&P 500 index during the course of 24 months.

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-130540340946043-Erik-McCurdy.png

The rally is now 26 months old and cyclical bulls that occur during secular bears have an average duration of 33 months. The last cyclical uptrend that followed a market crash occurred in 1974 and had a duration of 23 months, so it would not be unusual for the current advance to terminate during the next few months.

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-130540342919514-Erik-McCurdy_origin.png

Additionally, market internals continue to negatively diverge from price behavior, indicating that the rally is gradually losing buying support. For example, volume summation continues to hold near recent lows following the sharp decline in February and breadth summation has been moving sideways for the past year.

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-130540344803643-Erik-McCurdy_origin.png

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-13054034630148-Erik-McCurdy_origin.png

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-13054034630148-Erik-McCurdy.png

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/14/668911-130540347838945-Erik-McCurdy_origin.png

Valuation-based forecasting models leave little doubt that stocks are priced to deliver very poor long-term returns and the cyclical bull market from 2009 is an extreme move that will almost certainly be followed by a violent correction. At a current duration of 26 months, the cyclical uptrend has reached the age range within which rallies typically end when they occur during secular bear markets and market internals and sentiment are not supportive of additional gains, so stocks currently offer a poor risk/reward ratio as both investing and trading vehicles.’

Market Outlook: Are We Dealing With Ursa Major or Ursa Minor?

Red Flags Everywhere Nyaradi ‘Red flags are flying everywhere as we travel farther into the “sell in May and go away” period of the year.” We remain in a defensive posture and continue to enjoy unrealized gains in our inverse ETF positions and put options.

On My Radar

Volatility was the name of the game last week and we can expect more ahead as we enter the seasonally difficult “worst six months of the year” according to the “sell in May and go away” slogan.

The View From 35,000 Feet

Lots of exciting things are going on around us as we head into late spring.

Here’s just a quick executive summary with my thoughts in parenthesis:

1. United States will reach its debt ceiling limit on Monday. (This one is making markets really nervous as witnessed by Friday’s action.) Everyone expects Congress to raise the ceiling but the Republican and Tea Party insistence on meaningful budget cuts first puts an unusual level of stress on this round of talks and turns it into a very high stakes game of chicken.

2. On Friday it was announced that Medicare and Social Security are in worse shape than previously thought and will be unable to cover their current obligations earlier than expected. Medicare is expected to be out of money by 2024, five years earlier than expected, Social Security will exhaust its trust by 2036 and the disability insurance program will be underwater by 2018. (No surprises here and this ties back to item #1 as it’s going to get ugly no matter what Congress does or doesn’t do.)

3. The commodity selloff continues as the dollar gains. (Much of the recent rally in commodities and equities was fueled by the Fed easy money policy and weaker dollar. With QE2 coming to an end and a possibly stronger dollar ahead, this could be a game changer for “buy the dip” strategies in both asset classes.)

4. There has been a significant rotation into “defensive” sectors like utilities and consumer stocks. (This typically indicates money leaving “risk” assets and often portends market declines)

As I mentioned at the outset, “sell in May” is a proven, valid slogan because statistically the months from the end of October through the end of April, are in fact the best months of the year for investing while the six months from May through October are the “worst.”

One of the best sources of information on this subject comes from my friend, Jeffrey Hirsch, at “Stock Trader’s Almanac” where he has developed a trading indicator based on this seasonality and the historical returns it has generated.

Let’s take a look at some of “Stock Traders Almanac’s” findings:

On a historical basis, the research indicates that the market generates better rates of return from November through April than from May through October. And the difference is significant.
Over a 60 year period, if you had invested on May 1st and closed your position at the end of October, you would have lost money. On the other hand, if you had invested only in the “six good months” you would have made money over the same time.
A $10,000 investment in 1950 invested during the “best six months” of the year would have grown to approximately $500,000 today while a $10,000 investment in the worst six months (May through October) would have lost money and so the best six months yielded a 7.4% annual gain compared to a loss in the worst six months.
If you invested in just the six good months of the year, you would have beaten the overall return of the major indexes while having been invested for only half the time, thereby reducing your market risk and freeing up your assets to earn interest in low risk money market or Treasury investments.

Finally for the week, one of the most sobering reports that received wide coverage in the blogosphere and mainstream media was the announcement by well known and widely respected analyst Jeremy Grantham who said that the market is currently 40% overvalued which would relate to 920 on the S&P 500 and that the current environment was too high risk for a prudent investor.

Weekly Developments:

Positive: Initial unemployment claims declined, continuing claims were mostly flat, and Michigan Consumer Sentiment rose to 72.4 from 69.8

Negative: Consumer prices and producer prices both rose substantially, indicating that inflation might be coming back more into the picture (we have been expecting this for sometime) and retail sales, although posting a gain, came in lower than the previous month’s report and below expectations, indicating ongoing weakness in the all important consumer sector.

What This All Means To You

What this means to us is that risk is running high in the markets and the chance of a significant correction is relatively high for the period between here and Halloween. Fundamentals continue to weaken and technical indicators are flashing red. The reduction of support by Dr. Bernanke and his colleagues at the Fed is a major factor going forward from here and could yield significant volatility and downward pressure in equities and commodities.

The Week Ahead

Major Issues/Themes: Lots of important economic reports will come our way this week and be potential market movers, but the big thing to pay attention to is what happens in Congress with the budget negotiations and how markets respond to those talks and Treasury Secretary Geithner’s “extraordinary” measures to keep the U.S. from default between now and the early August drop dead date.

Monday: May Housing Market Index,

Tuesday: April Housing Starts, April Building Permits, April Industrial Production

Thursday: Initial Unemployment Claims, Continuing Claims, April Existing Home Sales, May Philadelphia Fed, April Leading Indicators

Sector Spotlight

Leaders: (NYSEArca: EPU) Peru, (NYSEArca: IBB) Biotech

Laggards: (NYSEArca: TUR) Turkey, (NYSEArca: EWP) Spain’

IMF warns EU debt crisis may still spread to core Reuters | spite bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal, Europe’s debt crisis may yet spread to core euro zone countries.

Medicare, Social Security Funds Expiring Sooner, U.S. Says Bloomberg | Medicare and Social Security are running out of money sooner than expected.

50 Things Every American Should Know About The Collapse Of The Economy Right now, we are witnessing a truly historic collapse of the economy, and yet most Americans do not understand what is going on. One of the biggest reasons why the American people do not understand what is happening to the economy is because our politicians and the mainstream media are not telling the truth.

Geithner Predicts Double-Dip if Congress Fails to Lift Debt Ceiling [ How ‘bout the reality of double dip even if they don’t. Keep in mind, they’ve spent money they don’t have, the manipulations of themselves for appearances / talking points, etc., have been detrimental to the economy of themselves. Why should anyone believe them now, certainly not wobama; after all, we’ve heard this all before, and certainly in his false campaign promises, breach of which has indeed made the continuing financial crisis worse. Obama warns of worse crisis if no debt ceiling rise Reuters | President Barack Obama warned Congress that failing to raise the U.S. debt limit could lead to a worse financial crisis. IMF warns EU debt crisis may still spread to core Reuters | spite bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal, Europe’s debt crisis may yet spread to core euro zone countries.]

MF chief jailed without bail in NY hotel-sex case (AP) AP - Haggard and unshaven after a weekend in jail, the chief of the International Monetary Fund was denied release on bail Monday on charges of trying to rape a hotel maid as allegations of other, similar attacks by Dominique Strauss-Kahn began to spill out. US hits credit limit, setting up 11-week fight (AP)

[$$] Troubling Action Collins ‘It may only be one day during a week or during a month, but today didn't have a good feel to it. Dollar weakness brought no money into the usual names. Equities, oil, silver -- they all sold off hard, even as the dollar failed to gain any traction today. This wasn't a rotation. It was an evacuation. If today wasn't bad enough, after the bell, internal notes from Hewlett Packard seem to indicate that another tough quarter is on the way. The closing number on the SPDR S&P 500 held the very level of support keeping me from being much more bearish. The HPQ drop after the bell has dragged the SPY below the $133 level. Still, I believe we have to watch the action tomorrow along with the closing value. It is quite possible the U.S. reaching its debt limit today prompted some selling...’

Social Security deficits now ‘permanent’ Social Security will run a permanent yearly deficit when looking at the program’s tax revenues compared to what it must pay out in benefits, the program’s trustees said Friday in a report that found both the outlook for Social Security and Medicare, the two major federal social safety-net programs, have worsened over the last year.

Gold demand strong; predicted prices around $2000 Dubai Chronicle | Physical demand for gold has raised in the Far East and Asia.

Massive Debt Means Weaker Dollar for Years to Come The elitists who run America from behind the scenes have serious problems in trying to keep a badly damaged financial and economic system afloat. Ironically, these same characters are the ones responsible for the system and the condition that it is in today.

IMF warns EU debt crisis may still spread to core Reuters | spite bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal, Europe’s debt crisis may yet spread to core euro zone countries.

The College Debt Scam Kurt Nimmo | So-called higher education is about government loans at high interest rates.

Global Demand for U.S. Assets Fell in March Bloomberg | Global demand for U.S. stocks, bonds and other financial assets weakened in March.

US builders see little to like in housing market Houston Chronicle | U.S. homebuilders are concerned.

Top 3 Reasons Markets were Down as US Debt Ceiling Reached Wall St.Cheat Sheet ‘Markets closed down on Wall Street: DJI -0.38% SP500 -0.62% Nasdaq -1.63% Gold -0.25% Oil -2.62% .

Markets started the day down, climbed back, and as soon as the Nasdaq (NASDAQ:QQQ) got to par traders sold the remainder of the day. On the commodities front, Oil (NYSE:USO) had the same pattern as it kissed $99 a barrel then sold off to $97. Gold (NYSE:GLD) ended the day below $1,500 an ounce, and Silver (NYSE:SLV) got slammed over 4% after rising over 3% last Friday. Is Silver a Bubble Bursting Now?

Fresh Off the Press: Wall St. Cheat Sheet’s newest Feature Trades of the Month>>

Today’s markets were down because:

1) IMF Chief Abuses Position. Dominique Strauss-Kahn is facing 7 counts of sexual assault related crimes. Since the man is completely replaceable, we’re not sure why this should matter to markets. Regardless, the juicy tabloid-style news sparked lots of hot air about what will happen to the EU’s handling of the debt crisis. We’re sure they’ll get on fine without ole’ Strauss-Kahn.

2) Tech picked up where it left off on Friday. Clearly, the bubblicious activity in Silicon Valley is cooling a bit. Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) got taken to the shed again — down 4.4% — and fell below the technical $16 mark. Investors are still shocked about the lack of control and awareness regarding major Yahoo assets such as Alibaba. This means people are scared there’s more roaches in the hotel. But Indian internet company Rediff.com (NASDAQ:REDF) has it worse. The company was down over 20% today. Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), AOL (NYSE:AOL), Sohu (NASDAQ:SOHU), and IACI (NASDAQ:IACI) all got slammed as well as it seems traders are working a “short internet” strategy. At least Wall St. Cheat Sheet expert contributor (and Board member) Larry Kramer has some great ideas how Yahoo can preserve their audience and increase cash flow.

3) The US has hit the debt limit. US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner rang the death knell this morning as the US officially crashed into the legal debt ceiling. Maybe that’s China (NYSE:FXI) has been dumping US Treasuries 5 straight months. Should we be scared? Forbes editor John Tamny gave Wall St. Cheat Sheet an exclusive first look at why irony is dripping from Geithner’s “Economic Catastrophe” rationale for raising the debt ceiling.

Larry Kramer has some great ideas how Yahoo can preserve their audience and increase cash flow. ‘Larry Kramer is the Founder and Former CEO of CBS Marketwatch.com. He was the first president of CBS Digital (NYSE:CBS) and sits on the Boards of Discovery Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA), American Media Inc., Freedom Communications, Inc., Answers Corp., Black Arrow Inc., and Harvard Business School Publishing. He is the author of the book C-Scape: Conquer the Forces Changing Business Today and runs a blog by the same name.

Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) is 17 years old, and like any teenage it’s having an identity crisis. It used to be a tech company, dominated by engineers who won the Portal Wars, ultimately defeating AOL (NYSE:AOL), Excite and wounding MSN (NASDAQ:MSFT). Because it was a cool company and one that gave new-to-the-internet users (that was all of us, at the time) the best overall experience, it triumphed.

Its success happened because it was the best experience on the web, and for many years kept surprising its users with new and interesting things to do online.

But along the way, like many kids its age, it got diverted from its mission of pleasing its users. This happened for a number of reasons. Competition grew and while Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) got comfortable in its business model as an aggregator of content, deriving revenue streams from partners, it left behind that commitment to give users exactly what they want. Instead, it gave them what the highest paying partners were willing to give them. So when consumers got more sophisticated about what content they wanted, and how they used digital platforms, competitors popped up and started picking them off.

In search and email, along came Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). In social media, along came Facebook. In music, first came My Space then came ITunes (NASDAQ:AAPL). In news and information categories, hundreds of existing and new businesses got better on the web.

There is an interesting post about Google by Matt Rossoff on Business Insider this morning that is a perfect backdrop for this post. It’s thesis is that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) needs to hire some Liberal Arts Majors before it hires any more engineers.

“Engineers are great at solving problems,” the post reads. “But they’re not always so great at figuring out which problems to solve.”

Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) has figured out that Content has become king on the Internet and across digital platforms, but it still hasn’t figured out what it has to do to become a great content company. It is still a company run by engineers. In fact, after an ultimately less-than-successful CEO reign by Hollywood Mogul Terry Semple, Yahoo saw the engineers come back and take an even stronger hold on the company. Actually, the engineers never really let go. Even when content people were hired with large promise, control of the key pages on Yahoo was kept in the hands of engineers.

To be sure, even though the next CEO, Carol Bartz, came from the technology industry, she fairly quickly decided the company had fallen too far behind in technology in several areas to compete and wisely announced that Yahoo was now a “content company.” It then did begin to spend some serious money to build its own content. It has built some strong franchises in Yahoo Finance and Sports, for example.

But the company hasn’t really taken the plunge. For it to be a content business, content people have to run the company. The business has to be obsessed with what it’s consumers want and be able to give them that and much more. In fact then need to give them things that they didn’t know they wanted. Content consumers ultimately need to be surprised and fully expect their sources of information to be smarter than they are about the topics they are reading or viewing.

Content businesses need an editorial intelligence, and personality, built and maintained by a strong team of creative people, whether they are called editors or producers, they need to be obsessed by giving their readers everything they want and much, much more. They need to live for delighting their customers. And they need to include the CEO or someone reporting directly to the CEO.

No one reads a magazine, or goes to a play or movie, expecting to see exactly what they want to see. They expect to be surprised, entertained or even educated. The brilliance of a great content company, whether it’s The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) or Warner Bros. or Harper Collins or The Harvard Business Review or Conde Nast, is that it cultivates and rewards people who can figure out what is about to become interesting before its audience knows. It does that by giving creative people the time and rope, and even the ability to fail, en route to creating great content, whether it’s explanatory journalism or a moving and entertaining movie, TV show or Magazine article.

Those creative types, as difficult to understand and to manage as they are, are the secret sauce. They need to permeate to process. Great engineers will be needed to create great tools, sites, apps and many other aspects of what makes a media company great in the future. But they must work arm in arm with the creative content people who are defining the brand and who understand the needs of their consumers.

A great example is the recent launch of News Corp’s (NASDAQ:NWSA) IPad news product, “The Daily.” Despite the fact that the company has done exactly the right thing by creating a content company to specifically exploit a new medium (the tablet), the initial product was designed largely by engineers before the first journalists were brought on board — because people didn’t want to hire reporters and editors before they had any place to put their content. Then, when the journalists got there, the technological underpinning of the product was about done and guess what, it was over-engineered and wasn’t the least bit user friendly. The engineers built a product from specs so it would take advantage the new platform, but no one spent enough time thinking about how the audience would actually want or use the information.

As the product matures and as the technology of tablets improves, The Daily could grow an awesome audience. But it has to go through some difficult transitions. It might even find that there is a large audience for its content on other digital platforms and broaden its distribution. But that’s OK, it’s one of the first native digital news products in existence and it has a real chance to learn to be great before it’s caught.

Back to Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO), it’s hard to say from the outside if it’s too late to save. But they still something that is very hard to build from scratch: a huge audience and some real cash flow. They could finance a real run at becoming the next generation media company. It’s still an easier path for them to go that way than for an existing media player to go heavily digital, because those companies don’t want to risk the huge revenue streams they already have from existing distribution, whether that’s print, video or audio. But the future is in the combination of the three on to the digital platform and there appears to still be room for some new winners. Are We Entering the Golden Era of Media?>>

Larry Kramer is the Founder and Former CEO of CBS Marketwatch.com. He was the first president of CBS Digital (NYSE:CBS) and sits on the Boards of Discovery Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA), American Media Inc., Freedom Communications, Inc., Answers Corp., Black Arrow Inc., and Harvard Business School Publishing. He is the author of the book C-Scape: Conquer the Forces Changing Business Today and runs a blog by the same name’

This is an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! Remember: ‘Sell in May and go away! …

America Is a Failed State Because It Won’t Prosecute Financial Crime Washington’s Blog | It’s now mainstream news that none of the big financial criminals have been prosecuted. This is the grim economic reality [ http://albertpeia.com/grimreality.htm ]. Selling In May Is Very Good Advice This Year Harding / April Is a Good Time to Sell Adler ( I quite agree … overvalued to the hilt in this new manipulated bubble … at the least a 'sell in May and go away', but 'don't be mentally ill, sell in April!' ) Equity Valuations Are Forming the Second Biggest Bubble in U.S. History Kaspar 'Despite the terrible economic performance of the past ten years, equity valuations are the 2nd largest bubble in U.S. history... the cause and the potential ramifications of this are astounding. . According to Yale University’s Dr. Robert Shiller, the market is now 41% overvalued according to this valuation metric. The only time the markets have been more overvalued was a few brief months in 1929 and the tech bubble. [chart http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/4/12/saupload_cape_thumb1.png ]

Exhibit 2: The Q ratio, which measures total market value compared to its replacement cost.

The Q-ratio data in the chart below dates back to 1900. According to the data, the markets have now surpassed the 1929 peak valuation by over 8%.

[chart http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/4/12/saupload_q_ratio_thumb1.png ]

… bubbles turn a believable story/trend into an overvaluation. In the 1700s during the South Sea Bubble...Railroading prospects induced a bubble in the late 1800s ... In the 1920s, a bubble … A similar life-changing invention – the Internet – swept the attention of investors in the 1990s ...

What is the story today? The prospect of inflation? High unemployment?

Exhibit 3: The gap between projected 12-month earnings against the 10-year average

... the market is stretching this reversion greater than 2000 and 2007!

[chart http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/4/12/saupload_gap_between_12_month_average_thumb1.png ]

... growth in earnings have been artificially manufactured...

· The change in accounting rules for the financial sector by FASB has generated massive “false” account profits beginning in 2009.

· The billions saved through “free loading” by homeowners who have defaulted on their mortgages yet maintained their residence, thus living without a mortgage payment.

· The artificially suppressed interest rates.

So, not only do we have a valuation bubble, but the earnings on which the projections are based are non-sustaining... same overvaluation situation as a few years ago … nothing fixed ...'

Davis ‘… This is how we pay off our current debts and I think bondholders are simply happy to get anything out of a country that admits it owes $15Tn (1/4 of global GDP) but probably owes closer to $60Tn (entire global GDP) in the form of unfunded liabilities. The funniest thing about this (and you have to laugh) is to see Conservative pundits get on TV and talk about how we need to cut $100Bn worth of discretionary spending to "fix" this (while continuing to spend $1Tn on the military and $1Tn on tax cuts for the top 1% each year). There is no fixing this and even a Republican said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. THIS HOUSE OF CARDS IS TEETERING FOLKS – PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! ‘ .

End of the “Service Economy”? European McDonald’s Partially Replacing Employees with Touchscreen Terminals McDonald’s is to change the way customers order its meals in Europe, partly replacing cashiers and the use of banknotes at its 7,000 fast-food restaurants in the region with touchscreen terminals and swipe cards.

Chinese Treasury Holdings Decline For Fifth Month In A Row, Biggest Drop Since November 2010 At 9 am, Treasury released its March TIC (international funds flow) data. While the headline number of $116 billion in total net TIC flows was slightly higher than February at $116.0 billion compared to $97.7 previously, the net number (offset by US transactions in foreign securities) missed expectations of $33 billion, printing at $24 billion.

Savers May Flee U.S. Banks: The Dominoes Are Starting To Fall Sprott said the “ultimate event” is that savers will take their money out of banks and invest in precious metals such as gold, which he says is now the world’s reserve currency.

Zimbabwe Says Days Of The US Dollar Are Numbered, Pushes For Gold-Backed Local Currency [ When you reach the point when classic Weimar-zimbabwe-land though kindred ‘wobama the b’ (for bs) spirit jive-talkers can legitimately and correctly say the dollar’s done, you know you’ve reached the bottom, marking the end of the once great, now pervasively corrupt, fallen, and defacto bankrupt america. ] Topping off a weekend of surreal news is the announcement from the Central Bank of Zimbabwe that the country is now evaluating introducing a gold-backed Zimbabwean dollar, and, in keeping with the Salvador Dali feel to the past 48 hours, that the “days of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency are numbered.”

D.C. area foreclosures decline The number of homes that entered foreclosure is down by 56 percent. (Washington Post) [ I’d say that’s a direct consequence of the flawed paperwork debacle and being in close geographic proximity to ‘those in d.c.’ who are supposed to be watching these things (the same federal circuit – lots of political pressure). Don’t worry however, there are plenty more to come!

Wall Street's second weekly fall raises fear of retreat (Reuters) Stocks ended a second week of losses on a down note Friday, reflecting growing worries that stocks are on the precipice of a pullback. [ Fear? Worries? How ‘bout realities … the ones the insiders already know … Stock Market: 4 Current Warning Signs Navin ‘No one indicator by itself can be trusted. Many indicators taken as whole, however, can offer valuable guidance when a clear pattern develops. Right now, that guidance appears to warn about current conditions.

4) Key market leaders are rolling over in price. This is a significant change of trend. ‘ Selling In May Is Very Good Advice This Year Harding Stocks slip after three-day rally (Washington Post) [ Top 3 Reasons Markets Tanked with Oil WSCS‘DJI -1.02% SP500 -1.11% Nasdaq -0.93% Gold -0.82% Oil -4.63% at $98.88. Gold sold off ..Silver lost over 8%.

1) Commodities and Oil got slaughtered. .. widening trade gap.

2) Insiders finally getting busted... 24 Signs Of Economic Decline In America ‘The US is in the middle of a devastating long-term economic decline’ ] States face shortfall for retirees (WP) (The frauds on wall street et als should be criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed), and have used the mideast turmoil to obfuscate their failure. ]

Pay credit cards or mortgage? (Washington Post) [ How ‘bout none of the above! That’s certainly a coming reality if not already there. Things are far worse than reported and the worst yet to come.] As Americans unload more than $100 billion in debt leftover from the heady days of the economic boom, many households face a daunting question. Wall Street's second weekly fall raises fear of retreat (Reuters) Stocks ended a second week of losses on a down note Friday, reflecting growing worries that stocks are on the precipice of a pullback. [ Fear? Worries? How ‘bout realities … the ones the insiders already know … Navin (see infra) ‘…1) The 5-year high in the level of insider corporate stock sales is telling. At 565 sells for every 1 buy, it’s never been higher. Yes, it’s normal for insiders to be selling some of their stocks so they can buy new yachts and some of this is pre-planned. But that ratio — which has spiked recently — is extraordinarily high, one might even say off-the-chart…’ 28 Statistics About The Gutting Of The U.S. Economy That Will Blow Your Mind ‘Red alert! Over 40 billion dollars of America’s national wealth is being shipped out of the country every single month. Our economy is being gutted and we are bleeding wealth and we are bleeding jobs. The American Dream 5-11-11 Red alert! Over 40 billion dollars of America’s national wealth is being shipped out of the country every single month. Our economy is being gutted and we are bleeding wealth and we are bleeding jobs. This is a distress call. Is anyone listening? Thousands of our factories and millions of our jobs are being shipped overseas. Over the past decade over 6 trillion dollars have been transferred into the hands of foreigners. Our national government is so broke that they constantly have to go and beg those foreigners to lend us back some of that money in order to finance our exploding debt. The number of good jobs continues to decline and there are millions upon millions of my countrymen that are unemployed. Can anybody help us? Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!Sadly, the vast majority of Americans really are dead asleep on this issue... ‘ Selling In May Is Very Good Advice This Year Harding Stocks slip after three-day rally (Washington Post) [ Top 3 Reasons Markets Tanked with Oil

1) Commodities and Oil got slaughtered. .. widening trade gap.

2) Insiders finally getting busted.. but what about what large banks, investment banks, and mortgage companies did to the US economy…these insider trading cases are basically sideshows…

24 Signs Of Economic Decline In America ‘The US is in the middle of a devastating long-term economic decline’ ] States face shortfall for retirees (WP) (The frauds on wall street et als should be criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed), and have used the mideast turmoil to obfuscate their failure. ]

Diana film causes stir at Cannes “Unlawful Killing” has a combination of celebrity, controversy and canny hype-mongering. (Washington Post) [ Let’s not kid ourselves … and, Dodi Fayed’s father was no dope and knew the score. Indeed, it’s not coincidental that William’s the over-riding favorite of granny Liz II; after all, Harry’s the bastard son of Hewitt (don’t buy into their DNA proffer which they did buy – you know, that ‘bloodline thing’). Moreover, it was reported that Diana had another ‘potential challenger in the oven’ at the time of her death and we all know how dicey such english affairs of state can be (ie., Henry VIII, Richard III, etc.). Then there’s the contempt of Diana for having brought the son of her bosom, Chas, down. Do I think she said flat out ‘kill Diana’. No … more of a ‘do what’s necessary’ to mi6 et als. Ultimately, William will require some substantial therapy to sort out this looming conflict. After all, Diana was his mother. Drudgereport: `British woman decapitated in grocery store; killer flees with head... Cannes: Diana doc slams UK royals as 'gangsters'...` Though having but 5% of the world’s population, u.s. has 76% of the world’s serial killers, http://www.albertpeia.com/realifeamericaserialkillers.mpg . Defacto bankrupt, fraudulent america also spends more on military than all the nations of the world combined... fed employees / contractors, cia, all 3 branches of u.s. gov’t, etc., are included in this evolved american trait of inherent criminality http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdf http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htm ]:

CRIME STATISTICS >(america is No. 1).

Rank	Countries	Amount
# 1	United States:	11,877,218
# 2	United Kingdom:	6,523,706
# 3	Germany:	6,507,394

Financialization and Our Increasingly Unstable Economy Roche 'The worst part of it ...Obama, who vowed change, has done almost nothing to fix any of it and in fact continues most of the policies that helped get us here in the first place’ ‘INSIDE JOB’ Ferguson wins Oscar for Documentary on the unprosecuted massive extant fraud in the (many) TRILLIONS by the frauds on wall street ( and declares with oscar in hand that not one high level wall street exec has been prosecuted … despite ‘earning’ billiions from the fraud ). UPDATE: MORE CLAIMS OF RACE BIAS AT JUSTICE... ‘In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who 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 ' Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud WP | Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountable for the meltdown.

In Greece, austerity and discontent Anarchist movement is resurgent as the nation’s financial woes kindle deep frustration and threaten a breakdown in the rule of law. (Washington Post) [ Coming to a state near you … Greece launches massive fire sale to service growing debt as riot police clash with violent protesters A general strike held today has seen most public services grind to a halt across the country, while thousands marched through Athens to protest against harsh austerity measures. Stock Market: 4 Current Warning Signs Navin ‘No one indicator by itself can be trusted. Many indicators taken as whole, however, can offer valuable guidance when a clear pattern develops. Right now, that guidance appears to warn about current conditions.

Pakistan after Bin Laden? NYTimes.com You’re talking about the last decade … Wake up! ( see infra)

Pakistani spy chief apologetic, but defiant (Washington Post) Amid public outrage over the U.S. operation that killed Osama bin Laden, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha apologizes before Parliament and offers to resign...’ [

Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ... May 1, 2011 ... U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every 3 days ... http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

Bin Laden's voice was detected regularly until [14 December 2001] by intelligence operatives monitoring radio transmissions in Tora Bora, according to the Pentagon [details]. Since then, nothing has been heard from the al-Qa'eda leader and President Bush has hinted in private that bin Laden's silence could mean he has been killed. [Telegraph, 12/28/2001]

Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government

With an ego the size of Mount Everest, Osama bin Laden would not have, could not have, remained silent for so long if he were still alive. He always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with. Would he remain silent for nine months and not trumpet his own survival? [New York Times. July 11, 2002]

FOX News Report: Bin Laden Already Dead

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.

[Fox News. December 26, 2001]

Bin Laden has often been reported to be in poor health. Some accounts claim that he is suffering from Hepatitis C, and can expect to live for only two more years. According to Le Figaro, last year [2000] he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be delivered to his base at Kandahar in Afghanistan. [Guardian]

Peter Bergen: Bin Laden has aged 'enormously'

This is a man who was clearly not well. I mean, as you see from these pictures here, he's really, by December [2001] he's looking pretty terrible…’ ]

ECONOMIC CRISIS ARCHIVE

(5-16-11) Dow 12,548 -47 Nasdaq 2,782 -46 S&P 500 1,329 -8 [CLOSE- OIL $97.53 (-54% for year 2008) (RECORD TRADING HIGH $147.27) GAS $3.95 (reg. gas in LAND OF FRUITS AND NUTS $4.26 REG./ $4.36 MID-GRADE/$4.46 PREM./ $4.55 DIESELL) / GOLD $1,492 (+24% for year 2009) / SILVER $33.86 (+47% for year 2009) PLATINUM $1,766 (+56% for year 2009) Metal News for the Day / DOLLAR= .69 EURO, 80 YEN, .61 POUND STERLING, ETC. (How low can you go - LOWER)/ Interest Rates: http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/Pages/TextView.aspx?data=yield 10 YR NOTE YIELD 3.15% …..… 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 The bull market that never was/were beyond wall street b.s. when measured in gold ‘WORST ECONOMIC COLLAPSE EVER’ Must Read Economic / Financial Data This Depression is just beginning The coming depression… thecomingdepression.net 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

Pakistan: US Has Overstayed Welcome Tony Cartalucci | Amidst drone attacks & bombings, Pakistan threatens to strand US forces in Afghanistan.

Deaths at Syria-Lebanon-Israel borders Aljazeera | Three people have been shot dead and at least five others, including a Lebanese soldier, have been injured.

Tex Rep. David Simpson: Bill Would Criminalize TSA for Molesting Travelers Alex Jones Channel | The bill will make it a criminal offense for the TSA to inappropriately touch travelers during airport intrusive pat-downs.

In the Theater of the Absurd: US-NATO Support “Al Qaeda in Libya” Gerald A. Perreira | In the Theatre of the Absurd, anything is possible. However, this latest scenario in Libya has taken absurdity to a whole new dimension.

Creating the Bin Laden “Reality” Paul Craig Roberts | If you believe this, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I can let you have for a cheap price.

Ahmadinejad: US Was Holding Bin Laden For a Long Time Before His Death Press TV | The Iranian chief executive added that he has “precise information” that bin Laden was being held by US military for a long time before his death.

Japan’s Latest Proposal To Contain Fukushima’s Radioactive Fallout – A (Circus) Tent Tyler Durden | Dow Jones reports that the latest scheme to come out of TEPCO is to cover Fukushima with a giant tent.

Even MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Admits the CIA is Engaging in “Psy-Ops” With The Bin Laden Raid Youtube | Matthews says that the CIA is using “psy-ops” to put out “little colonels of information” .

Bin Laden’s “One Million Page Cache” Will Be Used To Legitimize Official 9/11 Fable Paul Watson | The White House claims it has recovered one million pages of data from the Bin Laden compound.

Ludicrous Bin Laden “Porno” Claim Harks Back To CIA Fakery Paul Joseph Watson | Spooks admitted creating hoax videotapes of Osama talking about having sex with boys. [ Yeah! This is becoming preposterous and it’s quite amazing that anyone’s believing anything they say. Next thing you know, they’ll be saying beyond the porn stash, Bin Laden was a closet Christian. Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ... May 1, 2011 ... U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every 3 days ... http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

ON MAY 1, 2011, JUST MOMENTS BEFORE PRESIDENT OBAMA ANNOUNCED THAT THE US HAD KILLED OSAMA BIN LADEN, THE WHATREALLYHAPPENED WEBSITE CAME UNDER MASSIVE DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACK. THIS PAGE, WHICH DOCUMENTS THAT OSAMA BIN LADEN ACTUALLY DIED IN DECEMBER OF 2001, APPEARS TO BE WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DIDN'T WANT AVAILABLE WHILE THE NEW PROPAGANDA WAS "CATAPULTED FORWARD". IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THIS IS THE OPENING GAMBIT IN A PLAN TO STAGE A "REVENGE" ATTACK FROM "AL QAEDA" ON THE UNITED STATES, WITH WHICH TO JUSTIFY TOTAL WAR ON THE MIDDLE EAST… [ infra, for article text ]]

Trump Exits After Allowing Obama To Neutralize Birther Controversy Birth certificate scam done and dusted, and Trump high-tails it. He allowed the corporate media to characterize the birther issue as a joke and prompted Obama to release a document that was quickly proven to be a fraud before the Bin Laden fable obliterated it from the news cycle.

Trailer: Webster Tarpley & Elite’s Plan for Global Extermination In this interview, Dr. Tarpley reviews the writings of John P. Holdren, the current White House science advisor. This interview conclusively exposes scientific elite’s true agenda, world-wide genocide and the formation of a global government to rule.

Secret Weather Weapons Can Kill Millions, Warns Top Russian Politician A top Duma political leader caused shock waves in a recent television interview when he warned that Russia could deploy an arsenal of new technology to “destroy any part of the planet” and kill over a hundred million people using secret weather weapons if the United States, the UN or Georgia tried to stop Russia’s entry into the WTO.

Will Gaddafi End up in Hague? Corbett on Arrest Warrant Request Commenting about the war crimes court dission to issue a warrant on Gaddafi’s arrest, an independent journalist James Corbett said that justice is turning into a political and military tool in coalition’s hands in Libya.

Gerald Celente: Raping – Part of IMF Business RT talks to Gerald Celente, the director of the Trends Research Institute in New York.

CBS Demonizes Constitutionalists In a 60 Minutes hit piece, constitutionalists who believe the federal government has grabbed too much power and has become tyrannical are lumped in with Jerry Kane and his 16-year-old son Joseph. Kane and his son, who claimed to be aligned with the sovereign citizen movement, gunned down two Arkansas cops during a traffic stop and were killed by police 90 minutes later.

TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) admitted for the first time on May 15 that most of the fuel in one of its nuclear reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant had melted only about 16 hours after the March 11 earthquake struck a wide swath of northeastern Japan and triggered a devastating tsunami.

Full Complaint Against DSK Released, Detailing Allegation Of Forced Oral And Anal Sex, And Much More International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn allegedly forced a New York City hotel housekeeper to perform oral sex and submit to anal sex, in addition to allegedly attempting to rape her, according to a complaint filed today by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.

Media Silent About Plutonium Contamination of Japanese Rice The Japanese Business Press reported on May 14 that a rice field more than 50 kilometers away from the Fukushima nuclear plant has tested for high levels of deadly plutonium.

Globalists Like To Rape Women, As Well As Nations Given the fact that the likes of IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn and other top globalists are intent on raping the national and monetary sovereignty of countries in pursuit of their new world order, it’s no surprise that they also seem pre-occupied with raping women, amongst a host of other sordid and predatory perversions.

Globalists’ Secret Weapon Exposed: Tech Kill Chips Infowars | In addition to Obama’s stranglehold on the Internet, all smart devices have federally-mandated control and kill switches added.

Trailer: Webster Tarpley & Elite’s plan for global extermination PrisonPlanet.tv | In an exclusive PrisonPlanet.tv interview, Dr. Tarpley reviews the writings of White House advisor John P. Holdren.

CBS Demonizes Constitutionalists Kurt Nimmo | Segment portrays constitutionalists as a violent threat to police and the state.

Secret Weather Weapons Can Kill Millions, Warns Top Russian Politician Paul Joseph Watson | Influential political leader says Russia has capability to “destroy any part of the planet” with new technology

Media Silent About Plutonium Contamination of Japanese Rice Kurt Nimmo | Corporate media has consistently parroted statements from TEPCO and the Japanese government.

Double Digit Inflation has Arrived Nonetheless, in the latest report from economist John Williams of Shadowstats.com, even the government’s own “official” numbers will likely show double digit inflation in the next three months or so.

‘Depleted uranium in Libya will kill, not protect’ NATO is now deeply entrenched in Libya in what looks like a civil war and there is no visible end to the illegal intervention, insists British anti-nuclear activist Kate Hudson from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Oils of War: Pentagon Cementing Iraq Footprint? RT | Publicly, the US says nations must be self-determinate; Behind the scenes there’s more interference.

Congress To Vote On Declaration of Worldwide Perpetual War; No Borders, No Clear Enemies Intel Hub | The legislation authorizes the President to take unilateral military action against all hostile nations, organizations, and persons.

Disney Trademarks “Seal Team 6″ Fishbowl Ny | It is a perfect example of a big media company capitalizing on curent events.

Geithner Predicts Double-Dip if Congress Fails to Lift Debt Ceiling Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said if Congress fails to lift the debt ceiling and the U.S. defaults on its obligations “this abrupt contraction would likely push us into a double dip recession,” painting the most explicitly dire prediction to date of the consequences of inaction.

Bin Laden’s “One Million Page Cache” Will Be Used To Legitimize Official 9/11 Fable The White House claims it has recovered one million pages of data from the Bin Laden compound. This is already being used to legitimize the phony narrative of the war on terror and will most likely be cited as a casus belli with which to fortify the official story behind 9/11, while neutralizing a plethora of other inconvenient questions and cover-ups.

Mystery of the helicopter that landed at scene of Dr Kelly’s death after his body was found A helicopter mysteriously landed at the scene of Dr David Kelly’s death shortly after the body was found. The aircraft only remained on the ground for five minutes before leaving, suggesting it either deposited or collected somebody or something.

Administration Approves 200 More New Obamacare Waivers The Obama administration approved 204 new waivers to Democrats’ healthcare reform law over the past month, bringing the total to 1,372.

Even MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Admits the CIA is Engaging in “Psy-Ops” With The Bin Laden Raid Matthews says that the CIA is using “psy-ops” to put out “little colonels of information” to humiliate Bin Laden, with particular reference to the ludicrous story of the porno stash allegedly found in his compound.

Pakistan Demands End To US Drone Attacks Pakistan’s parliament has demanded an end to American drone strikes and called for an independent inquiry into the US special forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Gaddafi: ‘Nato Airstrikes Are Cowardly’ Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has called Nato airstrikes “cowardly” – and stated that he had retreated to a place “you cannot reach”.

Eight Killed as Israeli Troops Open Fire on Nakba Day Border Protests; Israel Blames Iran Israeli troops opened fire on pro-Palestinian demonstrators attempting to breach its borders on three fronts, killing at least eight people. Scores more were wounded at Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza.

Video and Photos of Nakba Day Riots and ‘Terror Truck’ Attack Hundreds of Arabs rioted throughout Israel the past three days in “Nakba Day” protests against the re-establishment of Israel.

IMF Head Charged Over Alleged Sex Attack The head of the IMF has been charged with a criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment, following allegations made by a hotel maid in New York.

DSK Rape Arrest To Derail Global Currency Plan? Next up: we expect a letter from the IMF disclosing how the world will end if charges are pursued and if, heaven forbid, the IMF head is thrown in jail.

Ahmadinejad: US Was Holding Bin Laden For a Long Time Before His Death The Iranian chief executive added that he has “precise information” that bin Laden was being held by US military for a long time before his death, IRNA reported.

Creating the Bin Laden “Reality” The government has created another reality for us proles. We won again. Us white hats got the black hat, just like in the western movie. Fantasy is better than fact, and us good guys are on a roll. It makes everybody happy, even those who have lost their jobs, their houses, their pensions.

CIA has created own Taliban to wreak terror havoc on Pakistan, claims Pak paper Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives have infiltrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda networks, and have created their own Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) force in order to destabilise Pakistan, a Pakistani newspaper has claimed.

Judicial Watch Sues for Release of Bin Laden Death Photos On May 12, the DOD responded saying that they would not produce the documents within the time required by FOIA. Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit to force the DOD to comply with the law.

In the Theater of the Absurd: US-NATO Support “Al Qaeda in Libya” “We are fighting nothing other than al-Qaeda in what they call the Islamic Maghreb. It’s an armed group that is fighting from Libya to Mauritania and through Algeria and Mali.… If you had found them taking over American cities by the force of arms, tell me what you would do?” – From a letter sent by the Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi to the US president Barack Obama.

UK Set For “Planned-Opolis” With Devastating 80% Cuts in Carbon Emissions Cabinet ministers have agreed a far-reaching, legally binding “green deal” that will commit the UK to two decades of drastic cuts in carbon emissions. The package will require sweeping changes to domestic life, transport and business.

Ron Paul suggests basic freedoms depend on property rights The establishment tried to use this nuanced issue to claim that Ron’s son, Rand Paul, was a racist hatemonger, and they failed miserably. Rand swept to victory – crushing his opponent in the Senate race.

THREE Nuclear Containment Vessels Leaking in Japan … But U.S. Law Is Based on Assumption that It Is Impossible for Containment Vessels to Leak It is newsworthy that the operator of Japan’s stricken nuclear plants is finally admitting that Fukushima reactor number 1 has melted down. But nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen says that the containment vessels for reactors 1, 2 and 3 are all leaking.

Fukushima Daiichi plant worker dies NHK | A worker at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant fell unconscious at work on Saturday.

`Drudgereport: USA HITS DEBT CEILING...`
`TREASURY RAIDS PENSIONS...`
`China cuts holdings of Treasurys for 5th month...`
`U.S. borrows $58,000 a second...`
`BUCHANAN: 'Bad day for New World Order'...NO BAIL FOR WORLD'S BANKERDOWN AND OUT IN MANHATTAN... ...sex charges likely to isolate IMF in debt crisis talks`
`'BLOOD ON THE BED'...`
`Authorities investigating 'at least one other' case... CHANGE: Obama Assets Total as Much as $12 Million... GALLUP: OBAMA DROPS ANOTHER 2 POINTS, DOWN TO 46%...`
`...Post-Bin Laden Bump Has Vanished Hamas PM: Pray for an end to Israel...`
`Protesters try to breach Israeli border on 3 fronts...`
`Israel opens fire across border with Lebanon...`
`Egypt police fire tear gas at Nakba rally...`
`Demonstrators pour into Israel from Syria...`
`'Iran fingerprints'...`
`'Terror truck' attack... GALLUP: Obama slips back to 48/45... Administration approves 200 more new Obamacare waivers... IMF HEAD IN RAPE RAP...`
`New Details...`
`May Step Aside?`
`French presidential race hopes in jeopardy...`
`'THUNDERBOLT'...`
`Ron Paul: 'These are the kind of people running the IMF'... 9 civilians killed in U.S. drone strike in Pakistan... ALARM OVER APPROACHING INSOLVENCY OF SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE...`
`Social Security to run 'permanent' deficits... Texas official accuses ATF of starting wildfire... 'That bunch has a real corner on stupid'... British woman decapitated in grocery store; killer flees with head... Cannes: Diana doc slams UK royals as 'gangsters'... Senate Bill Gives Feds Power to Order Blacklisting of Websites... Treasury Auctions to Push US Over Debt Ceiling...`
`McCARTHY: 'Not one Republican vote' to borrow more without cuts... REPORT: 48 Women Raped Every Hour in Congo... 'DOLLAR IN GRAVER DANGER THAN EURO'...`
`FORBES: RETURN TO GOLD STANDARD WITHIN 5 YEARS...`
`In S.C., legislature takes first step... POLL: 1 in 5 say bin Laden alive...`
`MICHELLE: KEEPS ON DANCING!`
`First Lady to host rapper who talks of killing cops...USA FREAK OUT: TERROR FEARS; FALSE ALARMS... Sen. Schumer Calls For Amtrak 'Do Not Ride' List...`
`Two tunnel 'breaches' cause scare in NYC...`
`Threats Divert Planes in Three Separate Incidents...`
`Passengers, flight crew subdue man banging on cockpit door...`
`Dallas Train Station Evacuated: Man Asked For Help Carrying Packages...`
`4 Arrested For Videotaping TSA Line At Denver...`
`SHOCK PHOTO: TSA LOOKING FOR 'POOP BOMBS?' U.S.-Pak. Rift Widens...`
`Pak. warns of 'full force' response to future US raids... S&P cuts Greece's rating... BOEHNER TO DEMAND NOT BILLIONS, BUT TRILLIONS IN CUTS... OIL REBOUNDS; 2ND LARGEST GAIN ON RECORD... REPORT: Housing crash getting worse...`
`...values fall fastest rate since '08 Michelle Obama to host rapper at WH who talks of killing cops... 'COMMAND CENTER'...`
`Pakistan skeptical of U.S. claim bin Laden directed network...`
`Two loud explosions heard in town where bin Laden killed...`
`Videos show 9-11 mastermind watching himself on TV...`
`U.S. government censors tapes, cuts audio...`
`Inside bin Laden's squalid home...`
`NYT: Final days of domesticity... Drone Strike Kills 15 in Pakistan...`
`First since bin Laden raid... BIN LADEN SUPPORTERS RAGE ON THE STREETS OF LONDON, VOW REVENGE...`
`Stage mock funeral in front of US embassy... Gas nat'l average: $3.99...`
`Eats 9% of household budgets...`
`Average price sets record in Indiana -- $4.25 a gallon...`
`$6.03 in Hawaii... JAPAN URGES HALT AT THREE REACTORS... UNEMPLOYMENT BACK UP TO 9.0%... Fannie Mae Reports $8.7B Loss for First Quarter...`
`Seeks $8.5B more from taxpayers... APRIL JOBS: +244,000...`
`FUZZY MATH: How can US add jobs but the unemployment rate go up? Gas nat'l average: $3.99...`
`Eats 9% of household budgets...`
`Average price sets record in Indiana -- $4.25 a gallon...`
`$6.03 in Hawaii... PAPER: GREECE EU EXIT? Silver Plunge Spreads...`
`OIL GUTTED...`
`Price Slide Temporary, New Highs Likely: Goldman...`
`Fears linger of a new 'flash crash'...`
`Euro Tumbles...` `CNN SHOCK POLL: RON PAUL HAS BEST CHANCE VS OBAMANational Home Prices Double Dip...`
`JOBLESS CLAIMS RISE TO 8 MONTH HIGH...`
`Fears linger of a new 'flash crash'... 9-11 FAMILY: 'SHOW US PROOF BIN LADEN KILLED'...`
`Victim's father: Obama 'putting too much spotlight on himself'...`
`Channels Bush at Ground Zero: 'We will never forget'...`
`Tells teen survivor he knows Justin Bieber...`
`Turns Back on 9/11 Family Member...`
`AUDIO... Muslim Brotherhood urges review of Israel ties... Pakistanis burn U.S. flags; backlash over death grows... Pakistan officials: No resistance in 'cold-blooded' U.S. raid...`
`Warns America not to stage any more...`
`Threatens 'disastrous consequences'...`
`Muslims already name dump location 'Martyr's Sea'...`
`OBAMA, NO PHOTOS OF OSAMA: 'We don't need to spike the football'... 'Conspiracy theorists will just claim doctored'...`
`Sen. Scott Brown: 'I've seen picture, he's definitely dead'... UPDATE: Photo proving bin Laden's death to Sen. Brown was faked...`
`three senators fell for fakes...`
`UPDATE: 'The photo I saw and that a lot of other people saw is not authentic'...`
`Top Dem: No photo needed, 'there's absolute proof'...`REUTERS RELEASES 'DEATH SCENE' PHOTOS
WARNING GRAPHIC
`UPDATE: Photo proving bin Laden's death to Sen. Brown was faked...`
`Possibly three senators fell for fakes... Pakistan: 'Not a single bullet fired from compound'...`
`WIRE: Photos from 1 hour after raid show 3 dead, no weapons...`
`The Slippery Story of the bin Laden Kill... Official says 'killed apparently by the U.S. raid team'... DOLLAR HITS 3 YEAR LOW...`
`1 IN 7 ON FOOD STAMPS!`
`Job numbers disappoint...`
`Treasury suggests $2 trillion debt cap raise... REUTERS, AP journalists describe staging of Obama photo taken after TV announcement of bin Laden's death...`US Postal Service reports $2.2B loss for quarter... [ And, let me add that they deserved that loss. The USPS is totally unreliable and basically a jobs program for the otherwise unemployable; and, they are also corrupt. I’ve previously set forth the scenario where the postal service waylaid dvd disks sent priority/confirmation and a second time, certified mail, to the FBI (violations of federal law, tampering, obstruction, etc.), and ultimately additional copies of said disks were delivered by the reliable, efficient, competitive, performance-driven UPS (their parcel rates are roughly the same and yet half the delivery time – Fedex is as unreliable as the USPS-and for some time had a deal with the USPS). Amazon, Ebay, though a boon to the USPS, have consistently failed to deliver in the realm of computers / peripherals. The following includes a prior testimonial to the service, reliability of PRO Computer Center ( http://www.procomputercenter.com Pro Computer Center, 10837 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025 ) . Pro Computer Center is among the few remaining stores of their kind. They are performance / service / customer oriented like no other surviving computer retailer / repairer / service providers I’ve experienced. They’ve also moved into the realm of computer forensics / data recovery in the context of court proceedings where they’ve successfully performed where others failed and at substantially more reasonable rates than ‘the competition’. My most recent computer problems accounting for some website / posting delays has been once again been resolved by them and another Dell computer (the circumstances of the most recent debacle was a barrage of Trojans caught by my antivirus, one after another, then shutting down my antivirus, ultimately freezing (no boot) my computer (I previously alluded to my reasonable suspicions as to who perpetrated same). My experiences with such as Amazon, Ebay have been atrocious and borderline if not outright fraudulent (the shoddy sellers), time consuming, and aggravating in the ‘claims process’. Moreover, the other brick and mortar stores, even if reputable, have a fine print which lays most of the warrantee/ guarantee on the manufacturer. In sum, Pro Computer Center does not have any ‘real’ competition. They are currently building me a backup computer that comports with my budget and their survival as a company, though somewhat rare among computer retailers of their type, is totally understandable and a testament to high quality performance and service. (Prior testimonial:Pro Computer Center
10837 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025

Gentlemen:

I just wanted to extend to you and your company my sincere thanks for a job well done. The Dell computer I recently purchased from you has lived up to all your representations and as well, my own expectations. I bought my first computer from you (Ben) in or around 1999. It was a Sony Vaio laptop which owing to Windows Millenium and a very proprietary approach to computing on the part of Sony, truth be told, was not the greatest system in terms of stability (typical Millenium problems), but no fault of yours. Ultimately, though functional, I traded the Vaio for a Mac, an accommodation by your company seldom seen with other companies if at all (3+ years later). You’ve always stood by your products / service, are available / accessible to field / handle all questions / problems which is rare indeed. In Armand you have a top-notch A+ Certified Tech who is patient, knowledgeable, and talented. Ruben, in truth has been particularly instrumental in seeing to a smooth transition in my recent dealings with your company as a knowledgeable IT Specialist and especially as a savvy, capable manager. Since 1999 I’ve purchased five computers from you and based upon performance, the sixth is assured.

Sincerely,

Albert L. Peia ) ]

Wall Street's second weekly fall raises fear of retreat (Reuters) Reuters - Stocks ended a second week of losses on a down note Friday, reflecting growing worries that stocks are on the precipice of a pullback. [ Fear? Worries? How ‘bout realities … the ones the insiders already know … Navin (see infra) ‘…1) The 5-year high in the level of insider corporate stock sales is telling. At 565 sells for every 1 buy, it’s never been higher. Yes, it’s normal for insiders to be selling some of their stocks so they can buy new yachts and some of this is pre-planned. But that ratio — which has spiked recently — is extraordinarily high, one might even say off-the-chart…’ ]

Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ...May 1, 2011 ... U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every 3 days ... http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

ON MAY 1, 2011, JUST MOMENTS BEFORE PRESIDENT OBAMA ANNOUNCED THAT THE US HAD KILLED OSAMA BIN LADEN, THE WHATREALLYHAPPENED WEBSITE CAME UNDER MASSIVE DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACK. THIS PAGE, WHICH DOCUMENTS THAT OSAMA BIN LADEN ACTUALLY DIED IN DECEMBER OF 2001, APPEARS TO BE WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DIDN'T WANT AVAILABLE WHILE THE NEW PROPAGANDA WAS "CATAPULTED FORWARD". IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THIS IS THE OPENING GAMBIT IN A PLAN TO STAGE A "REVENGE" ATTACK FROM "AL QAEDA" ON THE UNITED STATES, WITH WHICH TO JUSTIFY TOTAL WAR ON THE MIDDLE EAST… [ See the National / World section, infra, for article text ]

... growth in earnings have been artificially manufactured...

· The change in accounting rules for the financial sector by FASB has generated massive “false” account profits beginning in 2009.

· The billions saved through “free loading” by homeowners who have defaulted on their mortgages yet maintained their residence, thus living without a mortgage payment.

· The artificially suppressed interest rates...

Top 3 Reasons Markets were Down on Greece Worries and Terrorism

Hedge Funds Chasing Bubbles vs. Fundamentals Goldman ‘Start with basics: the central banks can huff and puff all they want, but if credit doesn’t get out to private borrowers, the result is more deflationary than inflationary. Devaluing the dollar, to be sure, reprices tradeables on a one-shot basis, but that can only go on so long. When it looks like the dollar is getting about as cheap as it’s likely to, you get a pullback in the price of dollar hedges.

We are seeing a decline in government borrowing (due to the collapse of the muni market) and a decline in government spending in the US, and probably will get more as the Republicans force the issue on Obama. Housing prices remain in free fall.

One difference between this recovery and the last few recoveries is that the banks, rather than using their deep pockets to lead the way back into risk, have retreated from risk, under the regulatory whip. Bank prop trading desks used to be the bellwether of risk-taking. They don’t exist any more. Banks don’t care if their ROE is miserable as long as it’s stable. All of bank asset-liability management these days is directed to reducing volatility of earnings. In effect, the banks have been socialized and are acting like (still overpaid) public monopolies.

The orphaned prop traders have all gone to hedge funds, or to the beach. What are the hedge funds supposed to buy? There’s little issuance of private securities for them to play with. Gone are the days when mortgage-backed securities made fortunes for traders. That leaves the hedge funds to chase whatever trend appears underway–which is why commodity prices are nuttily volatile. You’re supposed to own commodity stocks that feed into Asian demand, which will continue to grow. China is doing just fine, as I argued on Larry Kudlow’s CNBC show Tuesday night. Don’t try to out-trade the hedge funds. They can’t out-trade each other.

Stocks will be choppy as the dollar effect wears off. If the dollar goes up a bit, stocks may give some ground. Below is a chart (click to enlarge) of the S&P vs. the trade-weighted dollar index during the past two years, which I’ve run before. Here it is again as a reminder.

S&P 500 vs Trade-Weighted Dollar, Past 2 Years of Daily Data

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/13/saupload_spdollar1.jpg ‘

No Coup, No Grace

The Week Ahead: Volatility Is Not Your Friend Aspray ‘The odds are against stocks making a sustained comeback in the short term. Unless you’re an intra-day trader, the best advice is to hold on for the ride and make sure protective stops are in place.

The rollercoaster ride continued last week in both the stock and commodity markets—if you’re keeping track, the S&P 500 was up three days and down two.

The commodity markets were also very choppy, and there are some worrisome signs in the energy patch. The Energy Select Spyder (XLE) and many of the biggest oil companies, including ExxonMobil (XOM), Chevron (CVZ) and Schlumberger (SLB) have completed top formations. (For full technical appraisal, please see Big Oil’s Big Top.)

It looks as though my view is at odds with the big hedge funds, as The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that several of the largest hedge-fund managers were bullish on the energy sector.

With Friday’s sharply lower close, the stock market is in a precarious position for the short term, and the odds now favor further selling this week. This high volatility is not an investor or a swing trader’s friend, but those who trade intra-day may be having a good time.

The number of bulls according to the AAII sentiment numbers continues to decline, and is now at 30%, not far above last summer’s lows. For specific price levels to watch, see below.

The economic numbers met analysts’ expectations, but next week the economic calendar is much more crowded. On Tuesday, we’ll have the latest reading on housing starts, along with industrial production numbers for April. FOMC minutes will be released on Wednesday, while Thursday brings existing home sales and jobless claims.

The storm clouds seem to be again darkening in Europe, a year after the $158-billion bailout plan for Greece was announced. Now France and Germany are apparently lobbying for a debt extension, though the ECB is not convinced this is a good idea. The downgrade of Greece’s debt did not help the situation.

China’s consumer prices were a bit lower in April, after setting a record in March, while the trade surplus was much greater than expected. There were signs that the tightening was having some impact, as monthly iron ore imports dropped 11%. Even more dramatic was copper, as it dropped 14% from March, and is now down 40% from last year.

As I warned last week, many of the emerging markets had fallen back to support, and the violation of the recent lows makes a further decline likely. The stronger dollar is a negative for these markets.

WHAT TO WATCH
The sharp decline last Wednesday set the stage for heavier selling on Thursday and I suggested to “Fasten Your Seatbelts.” Thursday’s rebound was encouraging, but the bears again took over Friday, as early gains were met with heavy selling and the major averages closed lower.

The new highs by both the NYSE Composite and the S&P 500 A/D line in early May are positive for the intermediate-term trend. A break of the May 5 lows in the major averages, which now looks likely, will signal a decline to stronger support.

S&P 500
The Spyder Trust (SPY) hit Thursday’s high at $135.36 early Friday before turning lower. On a short-term basis, the key support is at $133.02. A break of this level will indicate a decline to the $131.70 to $132.40 range, if not the support from the April lows at $130.40 to $129.50 (line a).

The SPY has initial resistance at $135.36, but needs a daily close above $136.11 to signal a move to the $138.50 to $140 area.

The S&P 500’s A/D line made a new high on May 10 (line b), consistent with a positive intermediate trend. The weak A/D numbers Friday have taken the A/D line back to its uptrend (line c). Even slightly negative A/D numbers Monday will cause a break of this uptrend, with longer-term support at line d.

http://www.moneyshow.com/image.asp?imgSrc=Investing/Guru/guru051311_1_large.gif&aid=GURU-23095&scode=021551
Click to Enlarge

Dow Industrials
The chart of the Diamonds Trust (DIA) is very similar to that of the S&P 500. Key short-term support for DIA now sits at $125, not far above Friday’s close. A break of this level will signal a decline to between $122.60 and $123. The major supports are at $120.65 and the April low.

Initial resistance stands at $127.16, with further levels at last week’s high of $127.67.

Dow Transportations
The Dow Transportation Index led the charge into early May, but after a strong close last Tuesday reversed course to close near the lows. The previous lows at 5,368, from May 5, were exceeded by a few points Friday.

The 38.2% retracement support is at 5,313, with the 50% support at 5,235.

Nasdaq-100
The PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ) has stayed in a tight range since the early May highs at $59.34 (line e). QQQ was actually up last week, barely, so the tech sector could lead the market once the current correction is over.

There is initial support at $58.24 to $58.09. There is additional support at $57.70, with stronger at $56.50 to $57 and the uptrend (line f).

The Nasdaq-100 A/D line made convincing new highs in early May (line g), and is still well above its uptrend (line h). The March and April highs in the A/D line need to hold if the uptrend is broken.

Russell 2000
The iShares Russell 2000 Trust (IWM) continues to act weak as its A/D line failed to make new highs in early May. This divergence is a short-term negative.

There is first support at the commodity-crash lows of $82.40, with more important levels at $81.40 and the longer-term uptrend. A close above the recent highs at $85.54 would improve the short-term outlook.

Sector Focus

The bright spots continue to be the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP) and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (XLV) which made new rally highs last Friday, though they closed off the best levels. These are the two sectors I have been recommending for new purchases if you are underinvested in stocks. If you are tempted to buy, wait at least until mid-week.
The Financial Select Spyder (XLF) broke below the March and April lows on Friday, and continues to be the weakest sector. Many of the largest financial stocks look very weak technically.
The Material Select Spyder (XLB) has gotten hit hard over the past two weeks as it is down over 7% from the early May highs. It has already reached more important support in the $38.40 area and could be closer to bottoming.

Oil
The July crude-oil contract is trying to hold above the low of $95.18, which if broken could set the stage for a drop to the $90 to $92 area. The wide trading range I expected last week is still the most likely scenario, as last week’s rally failed just above $105.

http://www.moneyshow.com/investing/article/1/guru-23095/The-Week-Ahead:-Volatility-Is-Not-Your-Friend/?aid=guru-23095&iid=GURU&page=2&scode=021551#
Click to Enlarge

US Dollar
The US dollar was the big story last week as the dollar index and the PowerShares DB US Dollar UP ETF (UUP) rallied sharply on heavy volume.

The daily downtrend for UUP (line a) is at $22.38, with additional resistance in the $22.80 to $23.20 area. This level could limit the upside over the next few weeks.

There is initial support now at $21.40 to $21.20 and the rising 20-period EMA. The OBV has not yet broken its downtrend (line b), but the volume has been strong over the past two weeks.

Interest Rates
There were quite a few developments in the bond market, as the rush into bonds has been overwhelming. Here are a few highlights:

an explosion in dollar-denominated perpetual bond offerings in Asia
MIT floats a 100-year bond that is well oversubscribed
and emerging-market bond funds see net flows for the sixth straight week

In terms of the ten-year Treasury yield, those who were expecting higher rates and sold the ten-year short have been hurt over the past month, as yields have dropped from 3.62% to 3.13% this week.

This decline broke the uptrend (line c) and has taken yields close to its flat 200-day MA. The 50-day MA is still above the 200-day, which is positive, and the intermediate trend for yields still appears to be up.

Gold
The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) hit a low Friday of $144.29, which was well above the prior week’s low of $142.55. GLD could be forming a short-term bottom.

There is initial resistance at $147.35 and a close above $148.50 should signal a test of the $150.50 level.

Silver
The iShares Silver Trust (SLV) broke convincingly through the previous lows at $33.58, and hit $31.97 before bouncing. It held above the 50% support level of $31.30.

Continued volatility is to be expected in silver, with the first resistance now at $36.50, and those who are short are likely using stops above $38.50.

The Week Ahead
Last week’s rally failure in the stock market likely means a deeper correction is underway. The S&P 500 needs two consecutively strong closes to turn the market’s momentum positive.

The breakdowns in the financial sector and toppy action in many of the big oil companies are likely to weigh down the major averages. The decline should set that stage for higher prices down the road.

As I have been recommending for several weeks, this is a good time to raise some cash—and be sure to have stops in place on your long positions.

Those not in the stock market could consider a dollar-cost averaging strategy, so that by later in the summer your desired allocation to the stock market is established. Any new buying of individual stocks or ETFs should wait until the market stabilizes and there is lower volatility.’

Stocks Drop, Finish Mixed for Week Midnight Trader Wrap-up

Selling In May Is Very Good Advice This Year Harding Stocks slip after three-day rally (Washington Post) [ Top 3 Reasons Markets Tanked with Oil WSCS‘DJI -1.02% SP500 -1.11% Nasdaq -0.93% Gold -0.82% Oil -4.63% at $98.88. Gold sold off ..Silver lost over 8%.

1) Commodities and Oil got slaughtered. .. widening trade gap.

2) Insiders finally getting busted.. but what about what large banks, investment banks, and mortgage companies did to the US economy…these insider trading cases are basically sideshows…

... growth in earnings have been artificially manufactured...

· The change in accounting rules for the financial sector by FASB has generated massive “false” account profits beginning in 2009…’

Crowded, Confused Market Calls for Picking Stop Levels Seeking Alpha

Euro, Stock Selloff Gathers Steam at The Wall Street Journal

New Yorkers under 30 flee city because of high taxes and few jobs NY Daily News | Escape from New York is not just a movie — it’s also a state of mind.

IMF warns EU debt crisis may still spread to core Reuters | Europe’s debt crisis may yet spread to core euro zone countries and emerging Eastern Europe.

Treasury Auctions To Take US Over Debt Ceiling On Monday Dow Jones News | The Treasury Department auctioned $56 billion in new debt this week.

John Taylor: “The Nice Risk Rally Since The First Half Of 2009 Is Ending” And Will Be Replaced By A “Scary Descent” “This warning is worthy of a brass band and bright lights as the other side of this low volatility rally will most likely be a scary descent that will have a very negative impact on markets.”

Shanghai Silver Trading Volume Surges By 65% Last Month In the aftermath of the Shanghai exchange’s margin hike and trading band increase reported previously, a pair of articles from Bloomberg and the FT looks at the trading of silver in China, where the mostly retail-traded metal continues to be seen as an inflation hedge.

Central Banks Purchase 127 Tons Of Gold In Q1 Most have heard by now that Mexico disclosed that back in Q1 it bought 93.1 tonnes of gold, increasing its total gold holdings from 7.1 tons to a whopping 100.2 total tons, a stunning move which was disclosed to have been done “in line with prudent diversification principles of reserves management.”

U.S. middle class disappearing into abyss? As America’s joblessness and poverty remain at a peak, RT’s Anastasia Churkina delves deep into the sorrows of the country’s middle class to find out if its future is doomed.

National / World

Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ...May 1, 2011 ... U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every 3 days ... http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government

FOX News Report: Bin Laden Already Dead

[Fox News. December 26, 2001]

Peter Bergen: Bin Laden has aged 'enormously'

This is a man who was clearly not well. I mean, as you see from these pictures here, he's really, by December [2001] he's looking pretty terrible.

But by December, of course, that tape that was aired then, he's barely moving the left side of his body. So he's clearly got diabetes. He has low blood pressure. He's got a wound in his foot. He's apparently got dialysis ... for kidney problems. [CNN]

The [December 27, 2001 video] was dismissed by the Bush administration ... as sick propaganda possibly designed to mask the fact the al-Qa'eda leader was already dead. "He could have made the video and then ordered that it be released in the event of his death," said one White House aide. [Telegraph]

Pakistan's Musharraf: Bin Laden probably dead

Pakistan's president says he thinks Osama bin Laden is most likely dead because the suspected terrorist has been unable to get treatment for his kidney disease.

[A Bush administration official] said U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every three days and "it is fairly obvious that that could be an issue when you are running from place to place, and facing the idea of needing to generate electricity in a mountain hideout." [CNN]

Renal dialysis -- talking about hemodialysis -- is something that really is reserved for patients in end-stage renal failure. That means their kidneys have just completely shut down. The most common cause of something like that would be something like diabetes and hypertension. Once that's happened, if you're separated from your dialysis machine -- and incidentally, dialysis machines require electricity, they're going to require clean water, they're going to require a sterile setting -- infection is a huge risk with that. If you don't have all those things and a functioning dialysis machine, it's unlikely that you'd survive beyond several days or a week at the most. [CNN]

Karzai: bin Laden 'probably' dead

Osama bin Laden is "probably" dead, but former Taliban leader Mullah Omar is alive, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said. [CNN]

FBI: Bin Laden 'probably' dead

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation's counter-terrorism chief, Dale Watson, says he thinks Osama bin Laden is "probably" dead. [BBC]

Magazine runs what it calls bin Laden's will

The editor-in-chief of a London-based Arab news magazine said a purported will it published Saturday was written late last year [2001] by Osama bin Laden, and shows "he's dying or he's going to die soon." [CNN]

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader. "The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said. [FOX News]

Translation of Funeral Article in Egyptian Paper:
al-Wafd, Wednesday, December 26, 2001 Vol 15 No 4633

News of Bin Laden's Death and Funeral 10 days ago

A prominent official in the Afghan Taleban movement announced yesterday the death of Osama bin Laden, the chief of al-Qa'da organization, stating that binLaden suffered serious complications in the lungs and died a natural and quiet death. [Welfare State]

Osama bin who?

Israel does not view bin Laden as a threat. [Janes]

Israeli intelligence: Bin Laden is dead, heir has been chosen

Israeli sources said Israel and the United States assess that Bin Laden probably died in the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan in December. They said the emergence of new messages by Bin Laden are probably fabrications, Middle East Newsline reported. [World Tribune]

[See also The Fake bin Laden Audio Tape]

[See also Benazir Bhutto says Osama is dead.]’

Taliban Attacks Dim U.S. Hopes Bin Laden’s Killing May Hasten Afghan Exit Bloomberg | Bin Laden’s “martyrdom” will give a “new impetus” to the Taliban’s fight. Top Doctor Confirms Bin Laden Had Marfan Syndrome An MSNBC hit piece that attempts to debunk Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik’s assertion that Osama Bin Laden died from Marfan syndrome in 2001 unwittingly provides corroboration from a top Cornell doctor who first made similar statements in an interview with Salon magazine two months after 9/11. Evidence: Bin Laden worked like a crime boss (Washington Post) [ Come on! This is all such total bs at this point at least if not sooner. How totally preposterous! Now we can add that word picture … Vito Corleone of ‘Godfather’ fame’s opening words, ‘I love america’ … What in pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america isn’t operated as a crime syndicate led by a crime boss? Who shot bin Laden? Former SEALs fill in the blanks (WP) `[` Well, here I am on the same page as a former navy seal: Jesse Ventura Questions Obama’s Narrative Of Bin Laden Raid Former Navy SEAL and Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura has questioned Barack Obama’s official narrative regarding the raid on Osama Bin Laden, telling the Alex Jones Show of his suspicions that Osama died years ago, and expressing disbelief that the man seen flicking between TV channels in the video released by the White House Saturday was actually Bin Laden. [Who is foolish enough to believe anything they say; particularly their scripted, ever-changing, evolving, self-serving accounts belied only by truth / reality as told by those with true courage and integrity; as, for example Jessica Lynch, etc. White House Press Secretary “Floundering Under Pressure” Of Flip-Flopping Bin Laden Fable Staged: White House “Situation Room” Photos Part Of Bin Laden Fable .. No resistance in “cold-blooded” U.S. raid: Pakistan officials The Cost of Bin Laden: $3 Trillion Over 15 Years Bin Had The Growing Coverup: Osama and “The Big Lie” The Obama administration and the corporate media are concocting an ever-more elaborate and spectacular theater around the “heroic” murder of the CIA intelligence myth/CIA asset Osama bin Laden. Red Alert: Government Had Osama bin Laden Frozen for Years Nimmo / Jones | Videos [ I personally believe Osama’s been dead for quite some time. Indeed, for one on dialysis, he otherwise would have been nothing less than a modern day miracle in terms of longevity / mortality rates for those so afflicted, particularly under the ‘stressful’ circumstances involving evading capture, betrayal for money, etc.. His ‘surfacing’ for a ‘talk’ wouldn’t even pass muster in the most rudimentary requirements for ‘proof of life’. The release at this time of the ‘announcement’ is, rather than a victory lap so to speak, but rather a sign of weakness and desperation on the part of america whose global and domestic economic, financial, and geopolitical position is substantially diminished and declining rapidly and whose military industrial complex welfare plan along with the Orwellian diversion of the masses could at best yield but a pyrrhic victory. Moreover, the same comes at a time of systemic failure for pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america. While the ‘announcement’ plays well for the nonce, to the dumb, uninformed back home, the same will galvanize resistance in the name of their now martyr, Osama Bin Laden.] [ Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ...May 1, 2011 ... He's apparently got dialysis ... for kidney problems. ... official] said U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every three days ...
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

Osama bin Laden is dead. The news first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost six months ago: the fugitive died in December [2001] and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan. Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, echoed the information. The remnants of Osama's gang, however, have mostly stayed silent, either to keep Osama's ghost alive or because they have no means of communication. Bin Laden's voice was detected regularly until [14 December 2001] by intelligence operatives monitoring radio transmissions in Tora Bora, according to the Pentagon [details]. Since then, nothing has been heard from the al-Qa'eda leader and President Bush has hinted in private that bin Laden's silence could mean he has been killed. [Telegraph, 12/28/2001]

Pakistan's Musharraf: Bin Laden probably dead

Pakistan's president says he thinks Osama bin Laden is most likely dead because the suspected terrorist has been unable to get treatment for his kidney disease. [A Bush administration official] said U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every three days and "it is fairly obvious that that could be an issue when you are running from place to place, and facing the idea of needing to generate electricity in a mountain hideout." [CNN]

Karzai: bin Laden 'probably' dead

Osama bin Laden is "probably" dead, but former Taliban leader Mullah Omar is alive, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said. [CNN]

FBI: Bin Laden 'probably' dead

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation's counter-terrorism chief, Dale Watson, says he thinks Osama bin Laden is "probably" dead. [BBC]

Magazine runs what it calls bin Laden's will

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader. "The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said. [FOX News] Renal dialysis -- talking about hemodialysis -- is something that really is reserved for patients in end-stage renal failure. That means their kidneys have just completely shut down. The most common cause of something like that would be something like diabetes and hypertension. Once that's happened, if you're separated from your dialysis machine -- and incidentally, dialysis machines require electricity, they're going to require clean water, they're going to require a sterile setting -- infection is a huge risk with that. If you don't have all those things and a functioning dialysis machine, it's unlikely that you'd survive beyond several days or a week at the most. [CNN] NATO and Afghan raid mistakenly kills young girl, policeman in east Afghanistan http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nato-and-afghan-raid-mistakenly-kills-young-girl-policeman-in-east-afghanistan/2011/05/12/AF3nKYwG_story.html (Washington Post) [ Yeah! There you go … that new strategy / plan already paying dividends and winning hearts and minds … A push for new Afghan strategy (WP) `[ Riiiiight! That umpteenth new strategy / progress thing … pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america can really afford it …` Clinton predicts violent spring in Afghanistan (WP) Secretary Clinton on Thursday warned NATO allies not to abandon Afghanistan and predicted a violent spring. [ Well, there you go … something to look forward to … sounds like a plan … you know, that progress thing so touted by gates / petraeus … remind us that these people, particularly innocent civilians, died for no good reason at all. .. america's defacto bankruptcy. 'Alas, poor america … a nation of infinite jest, and unexcellent fancy … and pervasive criminality' …IED casualties in Afghanistan spike (WP) [ Yeah! That progress thing’s a bch! What do you expect them to say? That the money spent / diverted to these lucrative for the few war profiteers (360 tons of $100 bills flown into Iraq disappear, etc.) has been worth the defacto bankruptcy of the nation. Drudgereport: `Congresswoman calls Afghanistan 'national embarrassment'... 'Epic failure'...` Woolsey (D-CA) says Afghanistan war a disaster. "This war represents an epic failure, a national embarrassment and a moral blight," Rep. Woolsey said. [Though broke, they’re still voting for more war across the board.. this war is a blowback-creating, self-perpetuating, self-destructive, self-defeating, colossally expensive debacle benefiting war profiteers / lobbies and frauds while diverting attention from the more ’mundane’ tasks of governance. War on Terror is a Reichstag Fire False Flag Operation Sartre** | If you really want justice for the 911 murders, you must face reality and look within your own government for the true terrorists.

Why Does the Terrorist Kingpin Look Better Than He Did in 2001? Washington’s Blog

Bin Laden Hoax….The Rest Of The Story Cartalucci .. examination of mainstream media’s headlines and interviews with the CIA director himself calls into question the official narrative.

Hoax: White House Claims 4-Year-Old Bin Laden Video Is New Footage

Then, of course, there’s also: that ‘pearl harbor event’ so sought by the neo-cons / war mongers still defies explanation (ie., the ‘stand-down order’, symmetrical implosions, foreknowledge by some {who conveniently ‘missed the party’ that day}, etc.. Some links, echoing the unbelief akin to the ‘Jessica Lynch’, Tillman, etc., affairs follow. People must realize that though having but 5% of the world’s population, america can boast 76% of the world’s serial killers, and the highest crime rates in the world by far. ]

Ludicrous Bin Laden “Porno” Claim Harks Back To CIA Fakery Paul Joseph Watson | Spooks admitted creating hoax videotapes of Osama talking about having sex with boys.

We Are Change Confront Bankster Ben Bernanke Infowars.com | Federal Reserve boss Bernanke was not amused.

Globalists begin breakup of The United States TheAlexJonesChannel | Alex exposes how the Baja Arizona movement to split into a 51st state would balkanize the region for easy control.

Ron Paul Announces Presidential Run Jay Root | Paul made his announcement in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” from New Hampshire.

Government Claims Osama Wanted to Kill Obama Kurt Nimmo | More propaganda designed to distract from the fact the government’s story is falling apart.

Ludicrous Bin Laden “Porno” Claim Harks Back To CIA Fakery The US government must be quite disappointed with the fact that Islamic extremists have yet to attack the United States in “retaliation” for allegedly killing Bin Laden, because they seem to be doing everything in their power to rile up terrorists – this time with the claim that a significant stash of pornography was found in Bin Laden’s compound.

Teacher Told 11-Year-Old Drawing Of American Flag Would “Offend” Other Students The family of Frankie Girard is claiming that their son’s civil rights were violated after a teacher allegedly told him that hanging his picture of the American flag would offend another student.

Gaddafi most likely wounded, left Tripoli: Italy Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has very likely left the capital Tripoli and has most likely been wounded, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Friday.

New Film Shows Diana “Very Much Alive” After Car Crash “It is included as evidence, because it shows clearly that, although Diana had been injured in the crash, she was alert and very much alive. I repeat: it is not a picture of a dying woman.”

‘Libyans die as Obama mocks laws, makes pals with rebels’ NATO maintains it’s not trying to kill Gaddafi – something the Libyan rebels are calling for. A top rebel official is in Washington for talks with the U.S. administration on more support, and possible recognition. British anti-war activist Kate Hudson thinks the coalition’s policy is making a mockery of international law.

Texas House Bans TSA Grope Downs The Texas House passed a bill late Thursday night that would make it a criminal offense for public servants to inappropriately touch travelers during airport security pat-downs.

Government Claims Osama Wanted to Kill Obama According to ABC News, the U.S. discovered a plot to kill Obama in the million or so pages supposedly taken from Osama’s mansion in Pakistan.

Libyan Group Associated with al-Qaeda Meets Obama Officials The head of the National Transitional Council’s executive bureau, Mahmoud Jebril, met with Tom Donilon, Obama’s national security adviser, and other senior officials, the White House said in a statement, Reuters reports today.

Japan to Cover Damaged Nuclear Reactors with Giant Tents Giant polyester covers will soon be placed around the damaged reactor buildings at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear complex to help contain the release of radioactive substances into the atmosphere, the plant operator said Friday.

Narrative Behind Bin Laden Fable Flip-Flops AGAIN You have to wonder what on earth the Obama administration hopes to achieve by continually insulting the intelligence of the American people, after the official narrative behind the alleged Bin Laden raid was changed yet again, presumably in a desperate effort to counter the revelation that the White House “situation room” photos were staged.

Yes, They Lied; Yes, a Million Died; and Yes, They Want It To Go On That’s why the Peace Laureate/Holy Hit Man in the White House has his Pentagon warlord pushing and pushing to keep American troops in Iraq — forever, if possible.

The Death Of Bin Laden; The Death Of America The thing that benefits the most from this raid is America’s emerging police state, which is now strategically positioned to take another giant leap forward.

Jury convicts Ohio mom in baby's microwave death (AP) - AP - Jurors in an Ohio woman's third trial found her guilty Friday of killing her baby daughter by cooking her in a microwave oven. [ True americana! People must realize that though having but 5% of the world’s population, america can boast 76% of the world’s serial killers and the highest crime rates in the world by far. [ america’s #1, england’s #2 `Cannes: Diana doc slams UK royals as 'gangsters'...` ] http://www.albertpeia.com/realifeamericaserialkillers.mpg SEC urged to ease fundraising rules (Washington Post) [ REDUNDANT! I mean come on! Any more ‘easing’ and we’d be in negative territory where they actually reward you for breaking the rules which is currently the reality in pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt, meaningfully lawless america. Roche 'The worst part of it ...Obama, who vowed change, has done almost nothing to fix any of it and in fact continues most of the policies that helped get us here in the first place’ ‘INSIDE JOB’ Ferguson wins Oscar for Documentary on the unprosecuted massive extant fraud in the (many) TRILLIONS by the frauds on wall street ( and declares with oscar in hand that not one high level wall street exec has been prosecuted … despite ‘earning’ billiions from the fraud ). UPDATE: MORE CLAIMS OF RACE BIAS AT JUSTICE... `‘`In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who 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 ' Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud WP | Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountable for the meltdown.

‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ http://albertpeia.com/obamadeceptionhighqualityversion.flv

Preet Bharara, ‘sheriff of Wall Street’ The U.S. attorney in Manhattan has ramped up white collar enforcement in his 21-month-old tenure. (Washington Post) [ I still say: ‘Where’s the beef … you know, the big boys, ie., goldman et als … Raj Rajaratnam Found Guilty On All Counts [ I share the following sentiments from Wall St Cheat Sheet: ‘…2) Insiders are finally getting busted. Although the media loves the Raj Rajaratnam trial and his guilty on all 14 counts, who really gives a s*** compared with what large banks, investment banks, and mortgage companies did to the US economy. So long as the Dick Fulds of the world are sipping champagne in Capri, Italy, these insider trading cases are basically sideshows…’ ] SEC urged to ease fundraising rules (Washington Post) [ REDUNDANT! I mean come on! Any more ‘easing’ and we’d be in negative territory where they actually reward you for breaking the rules which is currently the reality in pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt, meaningfully lawless america. Roche 'The worst part of it ...Obama, who vowed change, has done almost nothing to fix any of it and in fact continues most of the policies that helped get us here in the first place’ ‘INSIDE JOB’ Ferguson wins Oscar for Documentary on the unprosecuted massive extant fraud in the (many) TRILLIONS by the frauds on wall street ( and declares with oscar in hand that not one high level wall street exec has been prosecuted … despite ‘earning’ billiions from the fraud ). UPDATE: MORE CLAIMS OF RACE BIAS AT JUSTICE... `‘`In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who 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 ' Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud WP | Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountable for the meltdown.

‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ http://albertpeia.com/obamadeceptionhighqualityversion.flv

U.S. to raise fuel efficiency standards Over the next few months, regulators are scheduled to set the next round of fuel standards for automakers. Among the proposals under consideration is one that would lift average fuel economy under the law to as much as 62 mpg by 2025. (Washington Post) [ Well, there you go … problem solved … and the auto cos can really afford the retooling costs … I can’t remember how many times I heard reference to such legislative mandates … have they been in effect … have they changed … have they worked? Look at How Producer Prices Continue Getting More Expensive Wall St. Cheat Sheet [This spells big trouble affecting corporate earnings (some costs can’t be passed on without decreasing sales) and disposable income / consumer spending. ] Weekly Unemployment Claims Still Above This Scary Level WSCS Short ‘The Department of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report was released this morning for last week. Claims fell 44,000 from a 4,000 upward revision of the previous week, which takes the number back to approximately the level prior to last week’s blip. Here is the official statement from the Department of Labor:In the week ending May 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 434,000, a decrease of 44,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 478,000. The 4-week moving average was 436,750, an increase of 4,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 432,250. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.0 percent for the week ending April 30, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.0 percent. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 30 was 3,756,000, an increase of 5,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,751,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,718,500, an increase of 13,250 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,705,250.Today’s number was 11,000 above the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 423,000 claims.As we can see, there’s a good bit of volatility in this indicator, which is why the 4-week moving average (shown in the callouts) is a more useful number than the weekly data.

http://dshort.com/charts/weekly-unemployment-claims-charts.html?weekly-unemployment-claims

Occasionally I see articles critical of seasonal adjustment, especially when the non-adjusted number better suits the author’s bias. But a comparison of these two charts clearly shows extreme volatility of the non-adjusted data, and the 4-week MA gives an indication of the recurring pattern of seasonal change in the second chart (note, for example, those regular January spikes).

http://dshort.com/charts/weekly-unemployment-claims-charts.html?weekly-unemployment-claims-NSA

a 52-week moving average gives a better sense of the long-term trends.

http://dshort.com/charts/weekly-unemployment-claims-charts.html?weekly-unemployment-claims-NSA-52-ma

Krauthammer: Obama's demagoguery in El Paso (Washington Post) [ What else can you expect from a demagogue … suddenly he’s talkin’ immigration with the election ‘round the corner, as he courts the Hispanic vote. Aren’t people on to this unctuous jive-talker yet, failed president that he is. Davis ‘… This is how we pay off our current debts and I think bondholders are simply happy to get anything out of a country that admits it owes $15Tn (1/4 of global GDP) but probably owes closer to $60Tn (entire global GDP) in the form of unfunded liabilities. The funniest thing about this (and you have to laugh) is to see Conservative pundits get on TV and talk about how we need to cut $100Bn worth of discretionary spending to "fix" this (while continuing to spend $1Tn on the military and $1Tn on tax cuts for the top 1% each year). There is no fixing this and even a Republican said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. THIS HOUSE OF CARDS IS TEETERING FOLKS – PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! ‘ … Suckers’ rally to keep suckers suckered: Philadelphia Fed Depresses Economists Durden ‘..the Philadelphia Fed collapsed from a revised 43.4 (a 27 year high) to 18.5, the lowest since November 2010… This is an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! U.S. Economy Remains on Life Support Hansen ‘

The Fed press conference contained almost no new economic insights;
An FOMC meeting with no policy changes or insights..

`CIVIL RIGHTS PANEL TO PURSUE FED PROBE IN BLACK PANTHER CASE... ‘`In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who 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’ Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountable for the meltdown. ):

‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ http://albertpeia.com/obamadeceptionhighqualityversion.flv ]

Meanwhile, things are not looking up for the economy, global / domestic, and the solvency issues of nations, particularly defacto bankrupt america. Mohamed A. El-Erian [ In an interview with Frank Motek, El-Erian states that the nations are facing not debt issues per se, but solvency issues (ie., america’s defacto bankrupt, etc.) and (PIMCO dumped their u.s. treasury holdings) that it will take higher interest rates to sell those debt securities. Moreover, he stated that the subject nations have only exacerbated their fiscal problems by piling more debt on debt … the following is an excerpt from El-Erian in part, from the PIMCO website: …http://www.pimco.com ]

Milbank: The medical mystery of Mitt Romney (Washington Post) [ Does anyone else think Mr. Milbank’s reference to the Chinese twin girls born with a single body and two heads was at the least in poor taste. Moreover, I would further say his reference is probably better suited as applicable to ‘wobama the b’ (for b***s***) whose actions in office have belied most every campaign pledge and rhetoric. This is not to say that Romney gets a pass; though I did previously say and still on my website is (what I write thereon is ‘forever’ as if engraved on stone) that I recommended that war criminal, coward, incompetent cheney be replaced by Romney, and then the same, whether by impeachment or ‘encouragement’ (kind of like that Nixon / Ford dynamic), for war criminal, coward, incompetent moron dumbya bush. I doubt there’s anyone other than mental cases (ie., limbaugh, hannity, o’reilly, etc.) who could seriously argue that the country wouldn’t have been better off to this day. That said, 2012 is a whole new year, and a whole new ‘ballgame’, and wide open, so to speak. Ultimately, for me, the next president will have met criterion that for me is measurable in terms of justice, in accordance with long lost (for pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america) constitutional principles. For me, it’s what I can see, touch, and measure as being right. As such, for me, the clear resolution of long standing, justice delayed, justice denied RICO litigation is that measure and criterion. . Defacto bankrupt, fraudulent america also spends more on military spending than all the nations of the world combined... federal employees / contractors, cia, all 3 branches of the u.s. government, etc., are included in this evolved american trait of inherent criminality ( http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdf http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htm ). That perverse field of dreams I’ve previously alluded to, the american nightmare, if you build / contrive war, they will come. And, they do; seals of them (among others); and when their ‘tours’ are done, it’s murder inc./contract killing for hire that they’ve won (cia, mob, etc.). The 20th century, the ‘bloodiest century’, not coincidentally referred to as the american century, brings longings of nostalgia to american criminals who, like Pavlov’s dogs salivate at the prospect of killing, raping, pillaging, and plundering which primitive mindset they have mistakenly been conditioned to connect to their now irretrievably lost success as a nation state; and to the contrary, has become globally and domestically self-destructive / self-defeating. The entire 911 / Bin Laden scenario just doesn’t pass the smell test and reeks of political desperation and Orwellian opportunism.

Reversals challenge hope of Arab Spring (Washington Post) [The power of the autocrats … as in Saudi Arabia? Oh they’re okay … they’re good bad guys … war criminal american buds. Riiiiight! Just remember … the Arabs won’t forget. And, who will they blame, as if culpability of u.s., nato, israel, england, etc.. . [Who is foolish enough to believe anything they say; particularly their scripted, ever-changing, evolving, self-serving accounts belied only by truth / reality as told by those with true courage and integrity; as, for example Jessica Lynch, etc Red Alert: Government Had Osama bin Laden Frozen for Years Nimmo / Jones [ I personally believe Osama’s been dead for quite some time. Indeed, for one on dialysis, he otherwise would have been nothing less than a modern day miracle in terms of longevity / mortality rates for those so afflicted, particularly under the ‘stressful’ circumstances involving evading capture, betrayal for money, etc.. His ‘surfacing’ for a ‘talk’ wouldn’t even pass muster in the most rudimentary requirements for ‘proof of life’. The release at this time of the ‘announcement’ is, rather than a victory lap so to speak, but rather a sign of weakness and desperation on the part of america whose global and domestic economic, financial, and geopolitical position is substantially diminished and declining rapidly and whose military industrial complex welfare plan along with the Orwellian diversion of the masses could at best yield but a pyrrhic victory. Moreover, the same comes at a time of systemic failure for pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america. While the ‘announcement’ plays well to the dumb back home, the same will galvanize resistance in the name of their now martyr, Osama Bin Laden.] [ Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ...May 1, 2011 ... U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every 3 days ...
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

Osama bin Laden is dead..: died in December [2001] ..buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan [Telegraph, 12/28/2001]

Musharraf: Bin Laden probably dead

[A Bush administration official] said U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every three days ..." [CNN]

Karzai: bin Laden 'probably' dead .. but former Taliban leader Mullah Omar is alive [CNN]

FBI: Bin Laden 'probably' dead

The FBI’s counter-terrorism chief, Dale Watson, says he thinks Osama bin Laden is "probably" dead. [BBC]

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication .. [FOX News] Renal dialysis is reserved for patients in end-stage renal failure. .. it's unlikely that you'd survive beyond several days or a week at the most. [CNN] ]

Weekly Unemployment Claims Still Above This Scary Level WSCS Short ‘The Department of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report was released this morning for last week. Claims fell 44,000 from a 4,000 upward revision of the previous week, which takes the number back to approximately the level prior to last week’s blip. Here is the official statement from the Department of Labor:In the week ending May 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 434,000, a decrease of 44,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 478,000. The 4-week moving average was 436,750, an increase of 4,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 432,250. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.0 percent for the week ending April 30, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.0 percent. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 30 was 3,756,000, an increase of 5,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,751,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,718,500, an increase of 13,250 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,705,250.Today’s number was 11,000 above the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 423,000 claims.As we can see, there’s a good bit of volatility in this indicator, which is why the 4-week moving average (shown in the callouts) is a more useful number than the weekly data.

http://dshort.com/charts/weekly-unemployment-claims-charts.html?weekly-unemployment-claims

http://dshort.com/charts/weekly-unemployment-claims-charts.html?weekly-unemployment-claims-NSA

Because of the extreme volatility of the non-adjusted weekly data, a 52-week moving average gives a better sense of the long-term trends.

http://dshort.com/charts/weekly-unemployment-claims-charts.html?weekly-unemployment-claims-NSA-52-ma

The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides an overview on seasonal adjustment here (scroll down about half way down).

Doug Short Ph.d is the author of dshort.com.’

Look at How Producer Prices Continue Getting More Expensive Wall St. Cheat Sheet [This spells big trouble affecting corporate earnings (some costs can’t be passed on without decreasing sales) and disposable income / consumer spending. ] ‘The Producer Price Index for finished goods rose 0.8 percent in April, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This advance followed increases of 0.7 percent in March and 1.6 percent in February.

At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods climbed 1.3 percent in April, and the crude goods index rose 4.0 percent. On an unadjusted basis, prices for finished goods moved up 6.8 percent for the 12 months ended April 2011, the largest year-over-year gain since an 8.8-percent increase in September 2008.

Stage-of-Processing Analysis

About three quarters of the April advance in the finished goods index can be traced to a 2.5 percent jump in prices for finished energy goods. Also contributing to the rise in the finished goods index, prices for both finished goods other than foods (NYSE:RJA) and energy (NYSE:XLE) and for finished consumer foods moved up 0.3 percent in April.

Finished energy: Prices for finished energy goods increased 2.5 percent in April, the seventh consecutive monthly advance. Over half of the April rise can be attributed to the gasoline index, which climbed 3.6 percent (NYSE:USO). Higher prices for liquefied petroleum gas and residential natural gas (NYSE:UNG) also were factors in the increase in the finished energy goods index. (See table 2.)

Finished core: The index for finished goods less foods and energy moved up 0.3 percent in April, the fifth straight monthly rise. Nearly one-fourth of the April monthly advance can be traced to a 1.2-percent jump in civilian aircraft prices. An increase in the index for light motor trucks also contributed significantly to the rise in finished core prices.

Finished foods: Prices for finished consumer foods rose 0.3 percent in April after falling 0.2 percent in the prior month. Leading this advance, the index for eggs for fresh use surged 56.7 percent.

Intermediate goods

The Producer Price Index for intermediate materials (NYSE:XLB), supplies, and components rose 1.3 percent in April, the ninth consecutive monthly advance. The broad-based April increase was led by prices for intermediate goods less foods and energy, which moved up 1.1 percent. The indexes for intermediate energy goods and for intermediate foods and feeds also contributed to the intermediate goods advance, rising 1.9 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively. For the 12 months ended April 2011, prices for intermediate goods climbed 9.4 percent, the largest increase since a 9.8-percent jump in October 2008. (See table B.)

Intermediate core: Prices for intermediate goods less foods and energy moved up 1.1 percent in April, the ninth consecutive monthly rise. About fifteen percent of the April gain can be attributed to the index for primary basic organic chemicals, which increased 3.2 percent. Higher prices for ethanol and steel mill products (NYSE:DBB) also contributed to the advance in intermediate core prices. (See table 2.)

Intermediate energy: The index for intermediate energy goods climbed 1.9 percent in April, the smallest advance since a 1.5-percent increase in November 2010. Prices for diesel fuel, which moved up 3.5 percent, were a significant contributor to the April rise. Higher prices for gasoline also were a factor in the increase in the intermediate energy goods index.

Intermediate foods: The intermediate foods and feeds index advanced 1.8 percent in April, the
ninth straight monthly increase. A 5.6-percent jump in prices for beef and veal accounted for a quarter of the April advance in the intermediate foods and feeds index.

Crude goods

The Producer Price Index for crude materials for further processing increased 4.0 percent in April. For the 3 months ending in April, prices for crude materials moved up 7.0 percent following an 11.4-percent jump for the 3 months ending in January. Leading the broad-based monthly advance in April, the index for crude energy materials rose 4.8 percent. Prices for crude foodstuffs and feedstuffs and for crude nonfood materials less energy increased 4.0 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.

Crude energy: The index for crude energy (NYSE:XLE) materials moved up 4.8 percent in April. From January to April, crude energy prices advanced 5.3 percent compared with a 17.9-percent jump in the previous 3-month period. For the month of April, the index for natural gas rose 9.4 percent, accounting for over half of the increase in prices for crude energy materials. Advances in the indexes for crude petroleum and coal also contributed to higher crude energy prices.

Crude foods: Prices for crude foodstuffs and feedstuffs (NYSE:RJA) advanced 4.0 percent in April. For the
3 months ending in April, the index for crude foods jumped 11.4 percent subsequent to moving up 5.5 percent from October to January. Accounting for about half of the monthly rise in April, the grains index increased 15.5 percent. Higher prices for slaughter steers and heifers also were a factor in the advance in the crude foods index.

Crude core: The index for crude nonfood materials less energy rose 2.6 percent in April. From January to April, crude core prices moved up 2.5 percent after a 10.1-percent advance in the previous 3-month period. For the month of April, a 4.5-percent increase in the index for copper base scrap was a factor in higher crude core prices.

Services Analysis Trade Industries

TTrade industries: The Producer Price Index for the net output of total trade industries moved up 0.1 percent in April, the third consecutive increase. Trade indexes measure changes in margins received by wholesalers and retailers (NYSE:RTH). Leading the April advance was a 5.3-percent increase in margins received by department stores (NYSE:IYR). Higher margins received by women’s clothing stores and by electronic shopping and mail order houses also contributed significantly to the rise in the total trade industries index.

Transportation and warehousing industries: The Producer Price Index for the net output of transportation and warehousing industries rose 0.3 percent in April, the seventh consecutive increase. Accounting for forty-five percent of the April advance, prices received by couriers climbed 1.4 percent. Increases in the indexes for long distance general freight trucking (truckload) and line-haul railroads also were factors in the April rise in the transportation and warehousing industries index.

Traditional service industries: The Producer Price Index for the net output of total traditional service industries moved up 0.7 percent in April after no change in the previous month. Leading this advance, prices received by the depository credit intermediation industry group rose 7.3 percent. Higher prices received by insurance carriers and by general medical and surgical hospitals (NYSE:XLV) also contributed to the increase in the total traditional service industries index.’

“Made in America”: The Comeback [ Come on! Let’s get real! Not in a million years … though citing the increased exports, what’s absent from this article is that we saw an INCREASE in the trade deficit (hence, I haven’t included this ‘feel good’ fluff piece). Some ‘pay to play’ and other manipulations, but this structural shift is forever and a done deal; however foolish and misguided by pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america, they can’t unring the bell on yet another policy / strategic blunder at all levels of the u.s. government, and that short –sighted corporate american hierarchy. [video]GDP Fears Going Up - Trader NEW YORK (TheStreet) - - Trade deficit data is causing concerns over a lowered GDP says Alan Valdes of DME Securities. ]

Mohamed A. El-Erian [ In an interview with Motek, El-Erian states that the nations are facing not debt issues per se, but solvency issues (ie., america’s defacto bankrupt, etc.) and (PIMCO dumped their u.s. treasury holdings) that it will take higher interest rates to sell those debt securities. Moreover, he stated that the subject nations have only exacerbated their fiscal problems by piling more debt on debt … the following is an excerpt from El-Erian in part, from the PIMCO website: http://www.pimco.com] ‘ … BALANCE OF RISKS Most baselines are subject to two-sided risks. Our Secular Outlook is no different in this regard and, in this case, the risks are well balanced.

On the one hand, the baseline could prove to be too pessimistic on three major counts: First, emerging economies (and China in particular) could show greater willingness and ability to unleash domestic consumption; second, the balance sheets of central banks in industrial countries could indeed be used very aggressively without undermining inflationary expectations and fueling a political reaction; and third, some of the remarkable scientific advances could translate quickly into massive productivity gains.

These three factors would facilitate economic growth in industrial countries. And growth is critical for enhancing the capacity of the world economy to deal with its balance sheet problems, reverse the involvement of governments in markets and, thereby, reduce the likelihood of government failures following the recent string of market failures.

On the other hand, the baseline could be too optimistic on (also) three major counts: First, households and companies could embark upon a renewed cycle of self-insurance in reaction to the medium-term uncertainties facing the global economy. This paradox of thrift would further weaken the growth and debt dynamics; it would also increase the risk of trade protectionism. Second, some of the super-secular issues (such as climate change, demographics and the atomization of societies) could play out in secular time, significantly increasing the structural headwinds facing the global economy. Third, the world could face a geopolitical shock, either because of frictions and tensions between certain nation-states or due to vulnerability to acts of terrorism perpetrated by small groups or individuals.

In Conclusion
We are living through a remarkable time of change for the global economy, where several anchoring parameters have become variables. It is a time of friction, collisions and renewal as we journey to a de-levered and re-regulated world with weaker growth dynamics in industrial countries and less political enthusiasm for unfettered globalization and markets.

This brings us back to the image of a car that, having used its spare tire(s), is still embarked on a bumpy road through unfamiliar territory and to a less-than-stable destination. Parts of the car are up for this journey; others will likely hold up but in a tentative and fragile manner; and yet others will fail.

For investors, this translates into a secular period of changing risks and opportunities:

The distribution of global outcomes is going through a transformation, both in terms of overall shape (flatter) and tails (fatter);
It is a world where several of the old simplifying adages that once brought comfort to investors – such as industrial country governments constitute interest rate risk while emerging economies involve credit risk – require considerable refinement;
It is a world that calls for a broader investment universe and guidelines and, for those who use them, revamped benchmarks that better capture the world of today and tomorrow rather than that of yesterday;
It is a world of significant country, regional and instrument differentiation when it comes to harvesting equity and credit premiums in high-quality corporates, financials and emerging markets;
It is a world where the currencies of the emerging (as opposed to submerging) economies will continue to warrant a greater allocation over time; and
It is a world where the safest of carry will come from duration and curve in sovereigns that, due to their economic and financial fundamentals, are truly core countries in the midst of this global paradigm shift…’

Look How the Federal Budget Deficit Will Exceed $1 Trillion Again Wall St. Cheat Sheet ‘Yesterday the Federal Budget Deficit reminded us that even during the season when Uncle Sam collects your taxes — 45% more than last year — we still can’t create a surplus! Superficially, we can blame the recent economic crisis for the issue. However, if we dig deeper into the historical data, below we can see politicians have been out of control for decades. More specifically, the fall of 2001 kicked off a drunken binge on Federal deficit spending (Click for Larger Image) We haven’t seen a single budget surplus since the economic crisis, and future budget projections from the Congressional Budget Office indicate we shouldn’t sit on the shore waiting for one to dock anytime soon. Check Out “CHART OF THE DAY: Watch the US Debt Set a 60 Year Record“. In fact, the CBO increased their annual deficit projection for 2011 from $1.1 trillion to $1.5 trillion — the third straight year of $1 trillion-plus deficits. The record monthly deficit of $222.5 billion in February beat last February’s record by almost $2 billion. At least we didn’t set a new record so soon.’ Debt ceiling battles have negotiation experts shaking their heads Professional negotiators weigh in on lawmakers’ inept attempts to negotiate the national debt ceiling. (Washington Post) [ Boehner seeks more than $2 trillion in cuts (Washington Post) [ I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking ‘Riiiiight! … that’ll happen … and all without cuts to endless war spending … while the situation’s more than that dire, the advice is … don’t hold your breath! Milbank: The GOP’s juvenile debate (Washington Post) [ Mr. Milbank has lamentably become the rush limbaugh / sean hannity of the newspaper world, though he barks and apologizes for dems (and wobama the b for b*** s***) only (as they for the gop / bushies only). A political minefield in Treasury plan (Washington Post) [ What plan! . Let the budget battle begin Congress returns to fight over the nation’s solvency. (WP) [ Stated another way, the nation’s solvency is over. .. america’s defacto bankrupt with no end in sight.. interest alone is eating progressively into GDP beyond the subterfuge.. Gerson: How serious are we about the deficit? (WP) [ Not much! I mean come on! Davis ‘… This is how we pay off our current debts and I think bondholders are simply happy to get anything out of a country that admits it owes $15Tn (1/4 of global GDP) but probably owes closer to $60Tn (entire global GDP) in the form of unfunded liabilities. The funniest thing about this (and you have to laugh) is to see Conservative pundits get on TV and talk about how we need to cut $100Bn worth of discretionary spending to "fix" this (while continuing to spend $1Tn on the military and $1Tn on tax cuts for the top 1% each year). There is no fixing this and even a Republican said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. THIS HOUSE OF CARDS IS TEETERING FOLKS – PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! ‘ … Suckers’ rally to keep suckers suckered: Philadelphia Fed Depresses Economists Durden ‘..the Philadelphia Fed collapsed from a revised 43.4 (a 27 year high) to 18.5, the lowest since November 2010… This is an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! U.S. Economy Remains on Life Support Hansen ‘

The Fed press conference contained almost no new economic insights;
An FOMC meeting with no policy changes or insights..

`CIVIL RIGHTS PANEL TO PURSUE FED PROBE IN BLACK PANTHER CASE... ‘`In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who 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’ Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountable for the meltdown. ):

‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ http://albertpeia.com/obamadeceptionhighqualityversion.flv ]

Hedge fund billionaire convicted of fraud Raj Rajaratnam was convicted on all 14 counts of fraud and conspiracy in the biggest insider-trading case in a generation, handing the government a victory after it was pummeled for bringing so few high-profile prosecutions out of the financial crisis. (Washington Post) [

Raj Rajaratnam Found Guilty On All Counts [ I share the following sentiments from Wall St Cheat Sheet: ‘…2) Insiders are finally getting busted. Although the media loves the Raj Rajaratnam trial and his guilty on all 14 counts, who really gives a s*** compared with what large banks, investment banks, and mortgage companies did to the US economy. So long as the Dick Fulds of the world are sipping champagne in Capri, Italy, these insider trading cases are basically sideshows…’ ] SEC urged to ease fundraising rules (Washington Post) [ REDUNDANT! I mean come on! Any more ‘easing’ and we’d be in negative territory where they actually reward you for breaking the rules which is currently the reality in pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt, meaningfully lawless america. Roche 'The worst part of it ...Obama, who vowed change, has done almost nothing to fix any of it and in fact continues most of the policies that helped get us here in the first place’ ‘INSIDE JOB’ Ferguson wins Oscar for Documentary on the unprosecuted massive extant fraud in the (many) TRILLIONS by the frauds on wall street ( and declares with oscar in hand that not one high level wall street exec has been prosecuted … despite ‘earning’ billiions from the fraud ). UPDATE: MORE CLAIMS OF RACE BIAS AT JUSTICE... `‘`In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who 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 ' Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud WP | Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountable for the meltdown.

‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ http://albertpeia.com/obamadeceptionhighqualityversion.flv

People must realize that though having but 5% of the world’s population, america can boast 76% of the world’s serial killers and the highest crime rates in the world by far. http://www.albertpeia.com/realifeamericaserialkillers.mpg . Defacto bankrupt, fraudulent america also spends more on military spending than all the nations of the world combined... federal employees / contractors, cia, all 3 branches of the u.s. government, etc., are included in this evolved american trait of inherent criminality ( http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdf http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htm ). That perverse field of dreams I’ve previously alluded to, the american nightmare, if you build / contrive war, they will come. And, they do; seals of them (among others); and when their ‘tours’ are done, it’s murder inc./contract killing for hire that they’ve won (cia, mob, etc.). The 20th century, the ‘bloodiest century’, not coincidentally referred to as the american century, brings longings of nostalgia to american criminals who, like Pavlov’s dogs salivate at the prospect of killing, raping, pillaging, and plundering which primitive mindset they have mistakenly been conditioned to connect to their now irretrievably lost success as a nation state; and to the contrary, has become globally and domestically self-destructive / self-defeating. The entire 911 / Bin Laden scenario just doesn’t pass the smell test and reeks of political desperation and Orwellian opportunism.

Fed Chairman Bernanke does reality TV (WP) [ Except the ‘NO-RECESSION HELICOPTER BEN B.S. BERNANKE’ show is scripted unreality … even with his reduction in estimate for ‘economic growth’, the frauds on wall street still rallied. Bernanke prepares to make history (WP) [ He already has! $6 gas acomin’, $1,508+ gold, $46+ silver, other commodities at record levels, hyperinflation as predicted well on the way from over-printing of fiat paper currency by fed as predicted, etc., Equity Valuations Are Forming the Second Biggest Bubble in U.S. History Kaspar 'Despite the terrible economic performance of the past ten years, equity valuations are the 2nd largest bubble in U.S. history... According to Yale University’s Dr. Robert Shiller, the market is now 41% overvalued according to this valuation metric. The only time the markets have been more overvalued was a few brief months in 1929 and the tech bubble

... growth in earnings have been artificially manufactured...

· The change in accounting rules for the financial sector by FASB has generated massive “false” account profits beginning in 2009.

· The billions saved through “free loading” by homeowners who have defaulted on their mortgages yet maintained their residence, thus living without a mortgage payment.

· The artificially suppressed interest rates...

24 Signs Of Economic Decline In America ‘The United States is in the middle of a devastating long-term economic decline’ ] States face shortfall for retirees]

1) Commodities and Oil got slaughtered. .. widening trade gap.

2) Insiders finally getting busted.. but what about what large banks, investment banks, and mortgage companies did to the US economy…these insider trading cases are basically sideshows…

... growth in earnings have been artificially manufactured...

· The change in accounting rules for the financial sector by FASB has generated massive “false” account profits beginning in 2009…’

Treasury Auctions To Take US Over Debt Ceiling On Monday Dow Jones News | The Treasury Department auctioned $56 billion in new debt this week.

Fed warns politicians to raise US debt ceiling AFP | Bernanke warned politicians to raise the debt limit soon or risk destabilizing the financial system.

Republicans unveil cuts as Democrats eye tax hike Reuters | Republicans planned sharp cuts to foreign aid and education on Wednesday, while Democrats weighed a tax hike on millionaires.

25 Cent Gas Price Spike In D.C. Prompts Criminal Investigation Some local gas stations raised prices overnight, in some cases by as much as 20 cents. Maryland’s AG is looking into the issue.

28 Statistics About The Gutting Of The U.S. Economy That Will Blow Your Mind ‘Red alert! Over 40 billion dollars of America’s national wealth is being shipped out of the country every single month. Our economy is being gutted and we are bleeding wealth and we are bleeding jobs. The American Dream May 12, 2011 Red alert! Over 40 billion dollars of America’s national wealth is being shipped out of the country every single month. Our economy is being gutted and we are bleeding wealth and we are bleeding jobs. This is a distress call. Is anyone listening? Thousands of our factories and millions of our jobs are being shipped overseas. Over the past decade over 6 trillion dollars have been transferred into the hands of foreigners. Our national government is so broke that they constantly have to go and beg those foreigners to lend us back some of that money in order to finance our exploding debt. The number of good jobs continues to decline and there are millions upon millions of my countrymen that are unemployed. Can anybody help us? Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!Sadly, the vast majority of Americans really are dead asleep on this issue. They just continue to run out to the big retail stores and fill their carts with products made in China and yet they seem completely bewildered by the fact that the number of good jobs continues to decline.Over the past decade, the number of middle class jobs has fallen by about ten percent. There is a reason for this. America is becoming poorer. The economic pie is shrinking. When we ship 40 to 50 billion dollars into the hands of foreigners every single month, that means that there is a lot less wealth for all of us to divide up.Every single month, the U.S. ships in massive amounts of foreign oil and massive amounts of cheap plastic trinkets from places such as China which we greedily consume. In return, we send them a giant pile of money.This happens month after month after month. You see, we always need more of their oil and more of their plastic trinkets. They are more than happy to keep getting richer and richer.Meanwhile, thousands of our factories and millions of our jobs continue to be sent overseas where labor is far cheaper. Thanks to globalization, American workers much now directly compete for jobs with workers that are willing to work for less than a dollar an hour on the other side of the globe.

The dismantling of our economy is happening right in front of our eyes and most of our politicians are not doing a thing to stop it.

The following are 28 statistics about the gutting of the U.S. economy that will blow your mind….

#1 According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. trade deficit for the month of March was $48.2 billion. That was up from $45.4 billion in February.

#2 The United States has had a negative trade balance every single yearsince 1976.

#3 Between December 2000 and December 2010, the U.S. ran a total trade deficit of 6.1 trillion dollars.

#4 The U.S. trade deficit with China in March was $18.1 billion. This is money that is not going to support U.S. businesses and U.S. workers. If that money was actually going to our businesses and to our workers it would increase tax revenues.

#5 Since China entered the WTO in 2001, the U.S. trade deficit with China has grown by an average of 18% per year.

#6 During 2010, we spent $365 billion on goods and services from China while they only spent $92 billion on goods and services from us.

#7 Since 2005, Americans have gobbled up Chinese products and services totaling $1.1 trillion, but the Chinese have only spent $272 billion on American goods and services.

#8 The U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010 was 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#9 According to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, between 2001 and 2008 the United States lost 2.4 million jobs due to the growing trade deficit with China. Every single state in America experienced a net job loss due to our trade deficit with China during that time period.

#10 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

#11 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#12 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 38 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio were lost, 42 percent of the manufacturing jobs in North Carolina were lost and 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Michigan were lost.

#13 Back in 1970, 25 percent of all jobs in the United States were manufacturing jobs. Today, only 9 percent of the jobs in the United States are manufacturing jobs.

#14 China produced 19.8 percent of all the goods consumed in the world last year. The United States only produced 19.4 percent.

#15 According to the IMF, China is going to have the largest economy in the world by 2016.

#16 Nobel economist Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040 if current trends continue.

#17 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Ten years later, the United States had less than 15 percent and China’s share had soared to 20 percent.

#18 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry was actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#19 In 2002, the United States had a trade deficit in “advanced technology products” of $16 billion with the rest of the world. In 2010, that number skyrocketed to $82 billion.

#20 Last year, China produced 11 times as much steel as the United States did.

#21 Do you remember when the United States was the dominant manufacturer of automobiles and trucks on the globe? Well, in 2010 the U.S. ran a trade deficit in automobiles, trucks and parts of $110 billion.

#22 In 2010, South Korea exported 12 times as many automobiles, trucks and parts to us as we exported to them.

#23 According to one recent study, China could become the global leader in patent filings by next year.

#24 China is now the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems.

#25 In 2010, the number one U.S. export to China was “scrap and trash”.

#26 Thanks to our exploding trade deficit with China, the Chinese have accumulated nearly 3 trillion dollars in foreign currency reserves. That is the largest stockpile of foreign currency reserves on the entire globe.

#27 The amount of the trade deficit that can be attributed to foreign oil is at the highest level that we have seen since 2008.

#28 It is being projected that for the first time ever, the OPEC nations are going to bring in over a trillion dollars from exporting oil this year. Their biggest customer is the United States.

Our dependence on foreign oil is literally bleeding us dry. Once we have burned up all of that foreign oil in our cars we are left with nothing. But the people we bought all that oil from are still sitting on all that cash.As we ship our wealth, our factories and our jobs out of the country, America is getting poorer.That means that individual Americans are getting poorer.According to one estimate, between 1999 and 2009 real median household income in the United States declined by 5.0%.Today, over 44 million Americans are on food stamps and over 47 million Americans are living in poverty. This is not an accident and it didn’t happen overnight. Our economic policies are absolutely killing us.This economic downturn has hit men particularly hard. As thousands of manufacturing facilities have shut down, millions of blue collar workers have been dumped out on the street. Most blue collar workers are men.Since January 2008, male employment has declined by 4,932,000 jobs.Ouch.During 2010, only 66.8% of American men had jobs, which was a new all-time record low.There are a lot of blue collar workers that are sitting at home on their couches today that are still trying to figure out what in the world happened to their good jobs.There are now more than 6 million Americans that the government says have given up looking for work completely. Most of them are men.Sadly, in our society today most of the people that pursue higher education are women. Today, 61% of all college degrees are earned by women.Not that a college education is a ticket to success in today’s world. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the unemployment rate for college graduates younger than 25 years old was 9.3 percent in 2010.In fact, the majority of all of our college graduates end up running home to Mom and Dad after they graduate.According to a poll conducted by Twentysomething Inc., 85 percent of U.S. college graduates will move back home with their parents (at least initially) after graduation. That is up from 67 percent back in 2006.The truth is that there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone and that is a huge problem.We have become a nation that consumes far more wealth than it produces. That is a recipe for disaster any way that you cut it.Until we have some fundamental changes to our trade policy, these long-term trends are just going to continue. We are going to continue to bleed wealth, bleed factories and bleed jobs.Tax revenues go down when factories shut down and when American workers are sitting at home on their couches. This is a huge factor in why our federal, state and local governments are drowning in debt. We have got to have more wealth creation inside this country or else we are going to continue to see our government debt problems get even worse.If you walk into just about any major retail store today, what do you find?You find loads and loads of products that have been made somewhere else.I hope that you are enjoying “the low, low prices” because they come at a very high cost.We once had the greatest economic machine in the history of the world but now it is being gutted like a fish.If we continue on the road that we are on, the entire country is eventually going to become just like Detroit.Is that what you want?’

How the US government will seize your retirement account Following in the footsteps of a rather ignominious list of nations like Argentina and Hungary, the government of lreland is set to take its ‘fair share’ of private retirement funds.

Missionaries of Debt: ‘We help them to help themselves’ Watch full episode 146 of Keiser Report on Thursday. This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, report on collectivist top down tyranny running our monetary system. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Eric Sprott about precious metals, the ever increasing margin requirements and the ever decreasing dollar.

Treasury Auctions To Take US Over Debt Ceiling On Monday Dow Jones News | The Treasury Department auctioned $56 billion in new debt this week.

Fed warns politicians to raise US debt ceiling AFP | Bernanke warned politicians to raise the debt limit soon or risk destabilizing the financial system.

Republicans unveil cuts as Democrats eye tax hike Reuters | Republicans planned sharp cuts to foreign aid and education on Wednesday, while Democrats weighed a tax hike on millionaires.

25 Cent Gas Price Spike In D.C. Prompts Criminal Investigation Some local gas stations raised prices overnight, in some cases by as much as 20 cents. Maryland’s AG is looking into the issue.

ECONOMIC CRISIS ARCHIVE

National / World

BREAKING: Ron Paul to Announce Presidential Candidacy Friday Morning on ABC Good Morning America 7am Daily Paul | Ron Paul is set to officially launch his presidential campaign Friday morning, according to sources.

Control Freak Society: Government To Monitor School Lunches With Cameras Steve Watson, Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | Control freak society: Government to monitor school lunches with cameras.

Media Shrugs at Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown and Exposed Fuel Rods Paul Joseph Watson | TEPCO has been lying all along about the severity of the crisis.

DHS Claims al-Qaeda May Replicate Fukushima Disaster Kurt Nimmo | DHS says bad guys want to create reactor meltdown and cause hundreds of thousands of deaths from cancer.

NEW VIDEO: Proof Bin Laden Death Another Gov’t Lie TheAlexJonesChannel | Alex Jones debunks the legacy of lies that fill the pages of the phony War on Terror narrative– killing bin Laden, 9/11, Iraq– all of it.

2012 defense bill authorizes ‘permanent war’ against terror The Hill | Democrats argue that affirming continued war against terrorist forces goes too far.

Syrian tanks shell towns, at least 19 killed Reuters | Syrian tanks shelled residential areas in two towns.

World Government To Issue Arrest Warrant For Gaddafi Because he refuses to roll over and allow NATO to plunder Libya using its Al-Qaeda-backed rebel army.

Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown, Exposed Fuel Rods; Media Shrugs Despite the bombshell revelation that fuel rods at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant have been fully exposed since the early days of the disaster, that reactor number 1 is officially in meltdown, along with news that reactor 4 is on the verge of collapse, the corporate media is largely disinterested in the story amidst continued fearmongering about terror attacks and endless coverage of the Bin Laden carnival act.

DHS Claims al-Qaeda May Replicate Fukushima Disaster Instead of lessening terrorism, the supposed assassination of Osama bin Laden may result in a deliberate Fukushima-style nuclear disaster, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Japanese Officials Admit That Fukushima Suffered Nuclear Meltdown One of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant did suffer a nuclear meltdown, Japanese officials admitted for the first time today, describing a pool of molten fuel at the bottom of the reactor’s containment vessel.

Control Freak Society: Government To Monitor School Lunches With Cameras Several schools in San Antonio are being provided with government grants to install surveillance equipment in cafeterias as part of a government funded project to monitor every morsel of food that the children eat.

Taliban Attacks Dim U.S. Hopes Bin Laden’s Killing May Hasten Afghan Exit Bloomberg | Bin Laden’s “martyrdom” will give a “new impetus” to the Taliban’s fight. Top Doctor Confirms Bin Laden Had Marfan Syndrome An MSNBC hit piece that attempts to debunk Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik’s assertion that Osama Bin Laden died from Marfan syndrome in 2001 unwittingly provides corroboration from a top Cornell doctor who first made similar statements in an interview with Salon magazine two months after 9/11. Evidence: Bin Laden worked like a crime boss (Washington Post) [ Come on! This is all such total bs at this point at least if not sooner. How totally preposterous! Now we can add that word picture … Vito Corleone of ‘Godfather’ fame’s opening words, ‘I love america’ … What in pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america isn’t operated as a crime syndicate led by a crime boss? Who shot bin Laden? Former SEALs fill in the blanks (WP) `[` Well, here I am on the same page as a former navy seal: Jesse Ventura Questions Obama’s Narrative Of Bin Laden Raid Former Navy SEAL and Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura has questioned Barack Obama’s official narrative regarding the raid on Osama Bin Laden, telling the Alex Jones Show of his suspicions that Osama died years ago, and expressing disbelief that the man seen flicking between TV channels in the video released by the White House Saturday was actually Bin Laden. [Who is foolish enough to believe anything they say; particularly their scripted, ever-changing, evolving, self-serving accounts belied only by truth / reality as told by those with true courage and integrity; as, for example Jessica Lynch, etc. White House Press Secretary “Floundering Under Pressure” Of Flip-Flopping Bin Laden Fable Staged: White House “Situation Room” Photos Part Of Bin Laden Fable .. No resistance in “cold-blooded” U.S. raid: Pakistan officials The Cost of Bin Laden: $3 Trillion Over 15 Years Bin Had The Growing Coverup: Osama and “The Big Lie” The Obama administration and the corporate media are concocting an ever-more elaborate and spectacular theater around the “heroic” murder of the CIA intelligence myth/CIA asset Osama bin Laden. Red Alert: Government Had Osama bin Laden Frozen for Years Nimmo / Jones | Videos [ I personally believe Osama’s been dead for quite some time. Indeed, for one on dialysis, he otherwise would have been nothing less than a modern day miracle in terms of longevity / mortality rates for those so afflicted, particularly under the ‘stressful’ circumstances involving evading capture, betrayal for money, etc.. His ‘surfacing’ for a ‘talk’ wouldn’t even pass muster in the most rudimentary requirements for ‘proof of life’. The release at this time of the ‘announcement’ is, rather than a victory lap so to speak, but rather a sign of weakness and desperation on the part of america whose global and domestic economic, financial, and geopolitical position is substantially diminished and declining rapidly and whose military industrial complex welfare plan along with the Orwellian diversion of the masses could at best yield but a pyrrhic victory. Moreover, the same comes at a time of systemic failure for pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america. While the ‘announcement’ plays well for the nonce, to the dumb, uninformed back home, the same will galvanize resistance in the name of their now martyr, Osama Bin Laden.] [ Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ...May 1, 2011 ... He's apparently got dialysis ... for kidney problems. ... official] said U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every three days ...
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

Pakistan's Musharraf: Bin Laden probably dead

Karzai: bin Laden 'probably' dead

Osama bin Laden is "probably" dead, but former Taliban leader Mullah Omar is alive, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said. [CNN]

FBI: Bin Laden 'probably' dead

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation's counter-terrorism chief, Dale Watson, says he thinks Osama bin Laden is "probably" dead. [BBC]

Magazine runs what it calls bin Laden's will

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader. "The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said. [FOX News] Renal dialysis -- talking about hemodialysis -- is something that really is reserved for patients in end-stage renal failure. That means their kidneys have just completely shut down. The most common cause of something like that would be something like diabetes and hypertension. Once that's happened, if you're separated from your dialysis machine -- and incidentally, dialysis machines require electricity, they're going to require clean water, they're going to require a sterile setting -- infection is a huge risk with that. If you don't have all those things and a functioning dialysis machine, it's unlikely that you'd survive beyond several days or a week at the most. [CNN] NATO and Afghan raid mistakenly kills young girl, policeman in east Afghanistan http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nato-and-afghan-raid-mistakenly-kills-young-girl-policeman-in-east-afghanistan/2011/05/12/AF3nKYwG_story.html (Washington Post) [ Yeah! There you go … that new strategy / plan already paying dividends and winning hearts and minds … A push for new Afghan strategy (WP) `[ Riiiiight! That umpteenth new strategy / progress thing … pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america can really afford it …` Clinton predicts violent spring in Afghanistan (WP) Secretary Clinton on Thursday warned NATO allies not to abandon Afghanistan and predicted a violent spring. [ Well, there you go … something to look forward to … sounds like a plan … you know, that progress thing so touted by gates / petraeus … remind us that these people, particularly innocent civilians, died for no good reason at all. .. america's defacto bankruptcy. 'Alas, poor america … a nation of infinite jest, and unexcellent fancy … and pervasive criminality' …IED casualties in Afghanistan spike (WP) [ Yeah! That progress thing’s a bch! What do you expect them to say? That the money spent / diverted to these lucrative for the few war profiteers (360 tons of $100 bills flown into Iraq disappear, etc.) has been worth the defacto bankruptcy of the nation. Drudgereport: `Congresswoman calls Afghanistan 'national embarrassment'... 'Epic failure'...` Woolsey (D-CA) says Afghanistan war a disaster. "This war represents an epic failure, a national embarrassment and a moral blight," Rep. Woolsey said. [Though broke, they’re still voting for more war across the board.. this war is a blowback-creating, self-perpetuating, self-destructive, self-defeating, colossally expensive debacle benefiting war profiteers / lobbies and frauds while diverting attention from the more ’mundane’ tasks of governance. War on Terror is a Reichstag Fire False Flag Operation Sartre** | If you really want justice for the 911 murders, you must face reality and look within your own government for the true terrorists.

Why Does the Terrorist Kingpin Look Better Than He Did in 2001? Washington’s Blog

Bin Laden Hoax….The Rest Of The Story Cartalucci .. examination of mainstream media’s headlines and interviews with the CIA director himself calls into question the official narrative.

Hoax: White House Claims 4-Year-Old Bin Laden Video Is New Footage

NATO Air Strikes hit Gaddafi Compound in Tripoli NATO air strikes hit Muammar Gaddafi’s compound Thursday, hours after the Libyan leader was shown on television for the first time since another aerial attack killed his son nearly two weeks ago.

Big Brother, is the Red Squad Back to Chicago? RT’s Anastasia Churkina travels to Chicago to discover what this means for privacy in America, considering the city’s darkest chapters of history when the Red Squad — special police squads — unlawfully spied on citizens who were politically unfavorable.

Globalists’ Pakistan War Plan In a 2007 article from the London Guardian titled, “Bush handed blueprint to seize Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal,” it is stated that fears of destabilization inside Pakistan might prompt the United States to occupy Islamabad and the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, and Baluchistan in an attempt to secure Pakistan’s nuclear warheads.

The West Is Trapped In Its Own Propaganda One of the wishes that readers often express to me came true today (May 11). I was on the mainstream media. It was a program with a worldwide reach – the BBC World Service. There were others on the program as well, and the topic was Hillary Clinton’s remarks (May 10) about the lack of democracy and human rights in China.

The Financial Powers That Be Are In A Trap of Their Own Making In legislation just proposed, and I don’t know by whom, nor do I have a number yet, the Dept of Labor has proposed a re-definition of who is a fiduciary, not under the Securities laws, but under ERISA, the law that governs tax advantaged retirement accounts.

WORLD AT WAR ARCHIVE

Drudgereport: Treasury Auctions to Push US Over Debt Ceiling...
McCARTHY: 'Not one Republican vote' to borrow more without cuts...

'Greater than expected' damage seen at Japan reactor...

Obama Tells Companies to 'Step Up' and Hire Workers...
'Nothing More Important' Than A Government Job… [ and if you believe the jive-talker, he has some swampland in jersey he wants to sell you! ] ... REPORT: 48 Women Raped Every Hour in Congo... 'DOLLAR IN GRAVER DANGER THAN EURO'...
FORBES: RETURN TO GOLD STANDARD WITHIN 5 YEARS...
In S.C., legislature takes first step... POLL: 1 in 5 say bin Laden alive...
MICHELLE: KEEPS ON DANCING!
First Lady to host rapper who talks of killing cops...

USA FREAK OUT: TERROR FEARS; FALSE ALARMS...

Sen. Schumer Calls For Amtrak 'Do Not Ride' List...
Two tunnel 'breaches' cause scare in NYC...
Threats Divert Planes in Three Separate Incidents...
Passengers, flight crew subdue man banging on cockpit door...
Dallas Train Station Evacuated: Man Asked For Help Carrying Packages...
4 Arrested For Videotaping TSA Line At Denver...
SHOCK PHOTO: TSA LOOKING FOR 'POOP BOMBS?' U.S.-Pak. Rift Widens...
Pak. warns of 'full force' response to future US raids... S&P cuts Greece's rating... BOEHNER TO DEMAND NOT BILLIONS, BUT TRILLIONS IN CUTS...

OIL REBOUNDS; 2ND LARGEST GAIN ON RECORD...

REPORT: Housing crash getting worse...
...values fall fastest rate since '08

Michelle Obama to host rapper at WH who talks of killing cops...

'COMMAND CENTER'...
Pakistan skeptical of U.S. claim bin Laden directed network...
Two loud explosions heard in town where bin Laden killed...
Videos show 9-11 mastermind watching himself on TV...
U.S. government censors tapes, cuts audio...
Inside bin Laden's squalid home...
NYT: Final days of domesticity...

Drone Strike Kills 15 in Pakistan...
First since bin Laden raid...

BIN LADEN SUPPORTERS RAGE ON THE STREETS OF LONDON, VOW REVENGE...
Stage mock funeral in front of US embassy...

Gas nat'l average: $3.99...
Eats 9% of household budgets...
Average price sets record in Indiana -- $4.25 a gallon...
$6.03 in Hawaii... JAPAN URGES HALT AT THREE REACTORS...

UNEMPLOYMENT BACK UP TO 9.0%...

Fannie Mae Reports $8.7B Loss for First Quarter...
Seeks $8.5B more from taxpayers...

APRIL JOBS: +244,000...
FUZZY MATH: How can US add jobs but the unemployment rate go up?

Gas nat'l average: $3.99...
Eats 9% of household budgets...
Average price sets record in Indiana -- $4.25 a gallon...
$6.03 in Hawaii...

PAPER: GREECE EU EXIT?

Silver Plunge Spreads...
OIL GUTTED...
Price Slide Temporary, New Highs Likely: Goldman...
Fears linger of a new 'flash crash'...
Euro Tumbles...

CNN SHOCK POLL: RON PAUL HAS BEST CHANCE VS OBAMANational Home Prices Double Dip...
JOBLESS CLAIMS RISE TO 8 MONTH HIGH...
Fears linger of a new 'flash crash'...

9-11 FAMILY: 'SHOW US PROOF BIN LADEN KILLED'...
Victim's father: Obama 'putting too much spotlight on himself'...
Channels Bush at Ground Zero: 'We will never forget'...
Tells teen survivor he knows Justin Bieber...
Turns Back on 9/11 Family Member...
AUDIO... Muslim Brotherhood urges review of Israel ties...

Pakistanis burn U.S. flags; backlash over death grows...

Pakistan officials: No resistance in 'cold-blooded' U.S. raid...
Warns America not to stage any more...
Threatens 'disastrous consequences'...
Muslims already name dump location 'Martyr's Sea'...
OBAMA, NO PHOTOS OF OSAMA: 'We don't need to spike the football'... 'Conspiracy theorists will just claim doctored'...
Sen. Scott Brown: 'I've seen picture, he's definitely dead'... UPDATE: Photo proving bin Laden's death to Sen. Brown was faked...
three senators fell for fakes...
UPDATE: 'The photo I saw and that a lot of other people saw is not authentic'...
Top Dem: No photo needed, 'there's absolute proof'...

REUTERS RELEASES 'DEATH SCENE' PHOTOS
**WARNING GRAPHIC**

UPDATE: Photo proving bin Laden's death to Sen. Brown was faked...
Possibly three senators fell for fakes...

Pakistan: 'Not a single bullet fired from compound'...
WIRE: Photos from 1 hour after raid show 3 dead, no weapons...
The Slippery Story of the bin Laden Kill... Official says 'killed apparently by the U.S. raid team'...

DOLLAR HITS 3 YEAR LOW...
1 IN 7 ON FOOD STAMPS!
Job numbers disappoint...
Treasury suggests $2 trillion debt cap raise...

REUTERS, AP journalists describe staging of Obama photo taken after TV announcement of bin Laden's death...

Postal Service loses $2.2B in second quarter (Washington Post)[ And, let me add that they deserved that loss. The USPS is totally unreliable and basically a jobs program for the otherwise unemployable; and, they are also corrupt. I’ve previously set forth the scenario where the postal service waylaid dvd disks sent priority/confirmation and a second time, certified mail, to the FBI (violations of federal law, tampering, obstruction, etc.), and ultimately additional copies of said disks were delivered by the reliable, efficient, competitive, performance-driven UPS (their parcel rates are roughly the same and yet half the delivery time – Fedex is as unreliable as the USPS-and for some time had a deal with the USPS). Amazon, Ebay, though a boon to the USPS, have consistently failed to deliver in the realm of computers. http://www.procomputercenter.com . Pro Computer Center is among the few remaining stores of their kind. They are performance / service / customer oriented like no other surviving computer retailer / repairer / service providers I’ve experienced. They’ve also moved into the realm of computer forensics / data recovery in the context of court proceedings where they’ve successfully performed where others failed and at substantially more reasonable rates than ‘the competition’. My most recent computer problems accounting for some website / posting delays has been once again been resolved by them and another Dell computer (the circumstances of the most recent debacle was a barrage of Trojans caught by my antivirus, one after another, then shutting down my antivirus, ultimately freezing (no boot) my computer (I previously alluded to my reasonable suspicions as to who perpetrated same). My experiences with such as Amazon, Ebay have been atrocious and borderline if not outright fraudulent (the shoddy sellers), time consuming, and aggravating in the ‘claims process’. Moreover, other retailers lay most of the warrantee on the manufacturer. (Prior testimonial:

I just wanted to extend to you and your company my sincere thanks for a job well done.. I bought my first computer from you (Ben) in or around 1999. It was a Sony Vaio laptop which owing to Windows Millenium and a very proprietary approach to computing on the part of Sony, truth be told, was not the greatest system in terms of stability, but no fault of yours. Ultimately, though functional, I traded to you the Vaio for a Mac. You’ve always stood by your products / service, are available / accessible to field / handle all questions / problems which is rare indeed. In Armand you have a top-notch A+ Certified Tech who is patient, knowledgeable, and talented. Ruben, in truth has been particularly instrumental in seeing to a smooth transition in my recent dealings with your company as a knowledgeable IT Specialist and especially as a savvy, capable manager. Since 1999 I’ve purchased five computers from you and based upon performance, the sixth is assured.

Evidence: Bin Laden worked like a crime boss (Washington Post) [ Come on! This is all such total bs at this point at least if not sooner. How totally preposterous! Now we can add that word picture … Vito Corleone of ‘Godfather’ fame’s opening words, ‘I love america’ … What in pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america isn’t operated as a crime syndicate led by a crime boss? Who shot bin Laden? Former SEALs fill in the blanks (WP) `[` Well, here I am on the same page as a former navy seal: Jesse Ventura Questions Obama’s Narrative Of Bin Laden Raid Former Navy SEAL and Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura has questioned Barack Obama’s official narrative regarding the raid on Osama Bin Laden, telling the Alex Jones Show of his suspicions that Osama died years ago, and expressing disbelief that the man seen flicking between TV channels in the video released by the White House Saturday was actually Bin Laden. [Who is foolish enough to believe anything they say; particularly their scripted, ever-changing, evolving, self-serving accounts belied only by truth / reality as told by those with true courage and integrity; as, for example Jessica Lynch, etc. White House Press Secretary “Floundering Under Pressure” Of Flip-Flopping Bin Laden Fable Staged: White House “Situation Room” Photos Part Of Bin Laden Fable .. No resistance in “cold-blooded” U.S. raid: Pakistan officials The Cost of Bin Laden: $3 Trillion Over 15 Years Bin Had The Growing Coverup: Osama and “The Big Lie” The Obama administration and the corporate media are concocting an ever-more elaborate and spectacular theater around the “heroic” murder of the CIA intelligence myth/CIA asset Osama bin Laden. Red Alert: Government Had Osama bin Laden Frozen for Years Nimmo / Jones | Videos [ I personally believe Osama’s been dead for quite some time. Indeed, for one on dialysis, he otherwise would have been nothing less than a modern day miracle in terms of longevity / mortality rates for those so afflicted, particularly under the ‘stressful’ circumstances involving evading capture, betrayal for money, etc.. His ‘surfacing’ for a ‘talk’ wouldn’t even pass muster in the most rudimentary requirements for ‘proof of life’. The release at this time of the ‘announcement’ is, rather than a victory lap so to speak, but rather a sign of weakness and desperation on the part of america whose global and domestic economic, financial, and geopolitical position is substantially diminished and declining rapidly and whose military industrial complex welfare plan along with the Orwellian diversion of the masses could at best yield but a pyrrhic victory. Moreover, the same comes at a time of systemic failure for pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america. While the ‘announcement’ plays well for the nonce, to the dumb, uninformed back home, the same will galvanize resistance in the name of their now martyr, Osama Bin Laden.]

Debt ceiling battles have negotiation experts shaking their heads Professional negotiators weigh in on lawmakers’ inept attempts to negotiate the national debt ceiling. (Washington Post) [ Boehner seeks more than $2 trillion in cuts (Washington Post) [ I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking ‘Riiiiight! … that’ll happen … and all without cuts to endless war spending … while the situation’s more than that dire, the advice is … don’t hold your breath! Milbank: The GOP’s juvenile debate (Washington Post) [ Mr. Milbank has lamentably become the rush limbaugh / sean hannity of the newspaper world, though he barks and apologizes for dems (and wobama the b for b*** s***) only (as they for the gop / bushies only). A political minefield in Treasury plan (Washington Post) [ What plan! . Let the budget battle begin Congress returns to fight over the nation’s solvency. (WP) [ Stated another way, the nation’s solvency is over. .. america’s defacto bankrupt with no end in sight.. interest alone is eating progressively into GDP beyond the subterfuge.. Gerson: How serious are we about the deficit? (WP) [ Not much! I mean come on! Davis ‘… This is how we pay off our current debts and I think bondholders are simply happy to get anything out of a country that admits it owes $15Tn (1/4 of global GDP) but probably owes closer to $60Tn (entire global GDP) in the form of unfunded liabilities. The funniest thing about this (and you have to laugh) is to see Conservative pundits get on TV and talk about how we need to cut $100Bn worth of discretionary spending to "fix" this (while continuing to spend $1Tn on the military and $1Tn on tax cuts for the top 1% each year). There is no fixing this and even a Republican said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. THIS HOUSE OF CARDS IS TEETERING FOLKS – PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! ‘ … Suckers’ rally to keep suckers suckered: Philadelphia Fed Depresses Economists Durden ‘..the Philadelphia Fed collapsed from a revised 43.4 (a 27 year high) to 18.5, the lowest since November 2010… This is an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! U.S. Economy Remains on Life Support Hansen ‘

The Fed press conference contained almost no new economic insights;
An FOMC meeting with no policy changes or insights..

`CIVIL RIGHTS PANEL TO PURSUE FED PROBE IN BLACK PANTHER CASE... ‘`In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who 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’ Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountable for the meltdown. ):

‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ http://albertpeia.com/obamadeceptionhighqualityversion.flv ]

Hedge fund billionaire convicted of fraud Raj Rajaratnam was convicted on all 14 counts of fraud and conspiracy in the biggest insider-trading case in a generation, handing the government a victory after it was pummeled for bringing so few high-profile prosecutions out of the financial crisis. (Washington Post) [

Raj Rajaratnam Found Guilty On All Counts [ I share the following sentiments from Wall St Cheat Sheet: ‘…2) Insiders are finally getting busted. Although the media loves the Raj Rajaratnam trial and his guilty on all 14 counts, who really gives a s*** compared with what large banks, investment banks, and mortgage companies did to the US economy. So long as the Dick Fulds of the world are sipping champagne in Capri, Italy, these insider trading cases are basically sideshows…’ ] SEC urged to ease fundraising rules (Washington Post) [ REDUNDANT! I mean come on! Any more ‘easing’ and we’d be in negative territory where they actually reward you for breaking the rules which is currently the reality in pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt, meaningfully lawless america. Roche 'The worst part of it ...Obama, who vowed change, has done almost nothing to fix any of it and in fact continues most of the policies that helped get us here in the first place’ ‘INSIDE JOB’ Ferguson wins Oscar for Documentary on the unprosecuted massive extant fraud in the (many) TRILLIONS by the frauds on wall street ( and declares with oscar in hand that not one high level wall street exec has been prosecuted … despite ‘earning’ billiions from the fraud ). UPDATE: MORE CLAIMS OF RACE BIAS AT JUSTICE... `‘`In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who 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 ' Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud WP | Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountable for the meltdown.

‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ http://albertpeia.com/obamadeceptionhighqualityversion.flv

... growth in earnings have been artificially manufactured...

· The change in accounting rules for the financial sector by FASB has generated massive “false” account profits beginning in 2009.

· The billions saved through “free loading” by homeowners who have defaulted on their mortgages yet maintained their residence, thus living without a mortgage payment.

· The artificially suppressed interest rates...

24 Signs Of Economic Decline In America ‘The United States is in the middle of a devastating long-term economic decline’ ] States face shortfall for retirees]

Stocks slip after three-day rally (Washington Post) [ Top 3 Reasons Markets Tanked with Oil WSCS‘DJI -1.02% SP500 -1.11% Nasdaq -0.93% Gold -0.82% Oil -4.63% at $98.88. Gold sold off ..Silver lost over 8%.

1) Commodities and Oil got slaughtered. .. widening trade gap.

2) Insiders finally getting busted.. but what about what large banks, investment banks, and mortgage companies did to the US economy…these insider trading cases are basically sideshows…

... growth in earnings have been artificially manufactured...

· The change in accounting rules for the financial sector by FASB has generated massive “false” account profits beginning in 2009.

NATO and Afghan raid mistakenly kills young girl, policeman in east Afghanistan http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nato-and-afghan-raid-mistakenly-kills-young-girl-policeman-in-east-afghanistan/2011/05/12/AF3nKYwG_story.html (Washington Post) [ Yeah! There you go … that new strategy / plan already paying dividends and winning hearts and minds … A push for new Afghan strategy (WP) `[ Riiiiight! That umpteenth new strategy / progress thing … pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america can really afford it …` Clinton predicts violent spring in Afghanistan (WP) Secretary Clinton on Thursday warned NATO allies not to abandon Afghanistan and predicted a violent spring. [ Well, there you go … something to look forward to … sounds like a plan … you know, that progress thing so touted by gates / petraeus … remind us that these people, particularly innocent civilians, died for no good reason at all. .. america's defacto bankruptcy. 'Alas, poor america … a nation of infinite jest, and unexcellent fancy … and pervasive criminality' …IED casualties in Afghanistan spike (WP) [ Yeah! That progress thing’s a bch! What do you expect them to say? That the money spent / diverted to these lucrative for the few war profiteers (360 tons of $100 bills flown into Iraq disappear, etc.) has been worth the defacto bankruptcy of the nation. Drudgereport: `Congresswoman calls Afghanistan 'national embarrassment'... 'Epic failure'...` Woolsey (D-CA) says Afghanistan war a disaster. "This war represents an epic failure, a national embarrassment and a moral blight," Rep. Woolsey said. [Though broke, they’re still voting for more war across the board.. this war is a blowback-creating, self-perpetuating, self-destructive, self-defeating, colossally expensive debacle benefiting war profiteers / lobbies and frauds while diverting attention from the more ’mundane’ tasks of governance. War on Terror is a Reichstag Fire False Flag Operation Sartre** | If you really want justice for the 911 murders, you must face reality and look within your own government for the true terrorists.

Why Does the Terrorist Kingpin Look Better Than He Did in 2001? Washington’s Blog

Bin Laden Hoax….The Rest Of The Story Cartalucci .. examination of mainstream media’s headlines and interviews with the CIA director himself calls into question the official narrative.

Hoax: White House Claims 4-Year-Old Bin Laden Video Is New Footage

Raj Rajaratnam Found Guilty On All Counts [ I share the following sentiments from Wall St Cheat Sheet: ‘…2) Insiders are finally getting busted. Although the media loves the Raj Rajaratnam trial and his guilty on all 14 counts, who really gives a s*** compared with what large banks, investment banks, and mortgage companies did to the US economy. So long as the Dick Fulds of the world are sipping champagne in Capri, Italy, these insider trading cases are basically sideshows…’ ] SEC urged to ease fundraising rules (Washington Post) [ REDUNDANT! I mean come on! Any more ‘easing’ and we’d be in negative territory where they actually reward you for breaking the rules which is currently the reality in pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt, meaningfully lawless america. Roche 'The worst part of it ...Obama, who vowed change, has done almost nothing to fix any of it and in fact continues most of the policies that helped get us here in the first place’ ‘INSIDE JOB’ Ferguson wins Oscar for Documentary on the unprosecuted massive extant fraud in the (many) TRILLIONS by the frauds on wall street ( and declares with oscar in hand that not one high level wall street exec has been prosecuted … despite ‘earning’ billiions from the fraud ). UPDATE: MORE CLAIMS OF RACE BIAS AT JUSTICE... `‘`In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who 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 ' Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud WP | Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountable for the meltdown.

‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ http://albertpeia.com/obamadeceptionhighqualityversion.flv

Minyanville's T3 Daily Recap: Market Drops, Commodities Plummet After Unconvincing Bounce ‘The market erased gains from the two-day bounce to start the week, before bouncing slightly into the close. Despite indices tracking higher Monday and Tuesday, there were signs that the market was still not healthy after extremely bearish action last week. Today's sell-off confirms those suspicions, and tomorrow's open will be very interesting. The next big levels to watch to the downside in the S&P are the 21-day moving average (which held today), last week's pivot low at 1329.17, and then the 50-day currently at 1322.26. Commodities got hit hard once again after a brief oversold bounce as the dollar regained strength and broke last week's pivot high. Silver dropped like a rock, finishing the day down 8.3%. Crude prices also fell precipitously, with the United States Oil Fund LP (USO) falling 4.2%. The dollar has been strong by default as the Euro has plummeted on downgrades of and fears about Greece, while surprisingly dovish comments from ECB Chairmain Jean-Claude Trichet also weighed.’

Stocks Fall, In Step With Commodities Midnight Trader ‘4:24 PM, May 11, 2011 --

NYSE down 122.40 (-1.4%) to 8,428.09
DJIA down 130.33 (-1%) to 12,630.03
S&P 500 down 15.08 (-1.1%) to 1,342.08
Nasdaq down 26.83 (-0.9%) to 2,845.06

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

Nikkei up 0.5%.
Hang Seng down 0.2%.
Shanghai Composite down 0.2%.
FTSE-100 up 0.1%.

UPSIDE MOVERS
(+) M beats with earnings, hikes dividend, raises guidance.
(+) TISA reports improved earnings.
(+) JNJ upgraded.
(+) LVS initiated with Buy rating.
(+) ALTI inks contract.
(+) TYPE added to S&P 600 SmallCap.
(+) ASTC inks contract.
(+) HALO inks licensing pact.
(+) CHOP guides for beat.
(+) AIG sets share offering through Treasury Dept.

DOWNSIDE MOVERS
(-) NTAP upgraded.
(-) CS upgraded.
(-) IRM initiated with Overweight rating.
(-) GIVN reports positive results from European study.
(-) NTAP upgraded.
(-) DIS misses with results.
(-) YGE cuts margin, shipment guidance.
(-) HBC details cost-cutting.
(-) STWD selling shares.
(-) MYRX reports narrower loss vs year earlier.

MARKET DIRECTION

Stock averages end sharply lower, in the bottom end of the session's range, and snapping a three-day rally. Weaker commodities sapped early strength in the stock market as did concerns for Chinese inflation and Greek debt. Blue chip Disney (DIS) fell after disappointing results.

Commodities ended trading lower as crude oil futures faltered on concerns over rising inventories and a Chinese interest rate hike, and gold slumped on a stronger greenback.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery finished down 5.5% to $98.21 a barrel. In other energy futures, heating oil was down 2.8% to $2.91 a gallon while natural gas was down 0.64% to at $4.21 per million British thermal units.

Meanwhile, gold futures ended lower as the dollar strengthened against foreign currencies.

Gold for June delivery finished down 1% to $1,501.40 an ounce. In other metal futures, silver settled down 7.7% to $35.52 a troy ounce while copper traded up 0.62% to $4.04.

The U.S. dollar index (DXY) is up 1.01% to $75.37.

Walt Disney Co. fell after reporting Q2 EPS of $0.49, up from $0.48 per share in the prior year quarter. Revenue was $9.07 billion, up from $8.58 billion. The Street view was $0.57 per share in earnings on revenue of $9.11 billion.

The U.S. trade deficit widened by 6% in March to $48.2 billion, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The trade deficit was above the consensus forecast of Wall Street economists for $47.0 billion. Exports rose to the highest level on record while imports were the strongest since August 2008.

Also, crude oil futures moved lower following talk about interest rate hikes in China and a larger-than-expected rise in U.S. oil supplies last week. The Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories for the week ended May 6 increased by 3.8 million barrels, above the 1.1 million barrels expected by analysts.

The major refiners - including Chevron (CVX), BP (BP), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) and Exxon (XOM) - were all trending lower.

In company news:

Intel (INTC) is higher after it raises its quarterly cash dividend 16% to $0.21 per share, beginning with the dividend that will be declared in Q3. The move is the second time in six months the world's largest chipmaker has boosted its dividend as corporate technology spending increases.

Shares of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) are higher following an AP report that the drug and healthcare products company is recalling a prescription drug due to a musty odor - most likely from a chemical on shipping pallets. J&J said it is recalling five lots of HIV medicine Prezista. The recall comes at the wholesale and pharmacy level in five countries.

U.S.-traded shares of HSBC (HBC) are down after the bank released cost cutting measures as part of a strategy day. HSBC plans to slash as much as $3.5 billion from mounting costs and announced a review of its U.S. credit-card business and branch network, MarketWatch and other news outlets reported. The bank said it aims to achieve sustainable annual cost savings of between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion by 2013, bringing its cost efficiency ratio, the ratio of expenses to revenue, down to between 48% and 52%.

Level 3 (LVLT) firms after it says HBO selected the company to provide content delivery network (CDN) services supporting the new HBO GO mobile app delivery initiative.

American International Group (AIG) shares gained after the insurer said it and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as the selling shareholder, have commenced a registered public offering of AIG common stock, par value $2.50 per share. One hundred million shares will be issued and sold by AIG and 200 million shares will be sold by the selling shareholder. The Wall Street Journal was out with a report earlier Wednesday saying the $9 billion offering was smaller than analysts expected.

In earnings news:

- Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) reports Q1 non-GAAP EPS rose 11.8% to $1.04 a share, beating the Thomson Reuters mean analyst estimate for $1.03 by a penny. Net sales rose 11.7% to $4.08 billion.

- Arcelor Mittal (MT) says Q1 sales were $22.2 billion, up 7.2% from a year ago. Net income was $0.69 per share, up from $0.42 a year earlier.

- Macy's (M) says Q1 sales were $5.889 billion, more than the Thomson Reuters mean for $5.85849 billion. It earned $0.30 per share, better than forecasts for $0.18.

In energy ETFs, the United States Oil Fund (USO) is down 2.56% to $40.03 and the United States Natural Gas fund (UNG) is down 2.18%, to $10.77.

In precious metal ETFs, the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) is down 0.94% at $146.51. Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX) is down 1.9% to $55.68. iShares Silver Trust (SLV) is down 6.18% to $35.18.’

India, Indonesia, China and Wider Asia Buy Physical Gold and Silver on Dip as Stagflation Threatens Gold and silver have extended their recovery and may be headed for the fourth day of gains due to the continuing European sovereign debt crisis, Chinese inflation (+5.3%) and the real risk that rising oil and commodity prices are leading to an international inflation spiral and stagflation.

But… But… It Was Supposed To Go To Zero What kind of goddamned bubble pops and then goes right back up?

Peter Schiff: “Refuse to allow the debt ceiling to be raised” According to Euro Pacific Capital President Peter Schiff, it’s going to take a crisis for US lawmakers to get the economy back on track.

Irish Bombshell: Government Raids PRIVATE Pensions To Pay For Spending The Irish government plans to institute a tax on private pensions to drive jobs growth, according to its jobs program strategy, delivered today.

Dollar mixed on deeper trade deficit, Greece woes Associated Press | Dollar mixed against major currencies Wednesday after a report showed a growing U.S. trade deficit.

US Trade Gap Widens More Than Expected in March CNBC | The U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected in March.

U.S. ‘Underwater’ Homeowners Increase to 28 Percent Bloomberg | Homeowners with negative equity increased from 22 percent a year earlier.

Fed official calls for vigilance Action may be taken against even the possibility of a surge of higher prices, Jeffrey M. Lacker says. (Washington Post) [ Who’s still buying their b***s***! Much higher prices / inflation’s already here. They conveniently have said they’re using an ‘inflating strategy’ for asset prices, also known as inflation. Why? Because high inflation is here! 24 Signs Of Economic Decline In America ‘The US is in the middle of a devastating long-term economic decline’ ] States face shortfall for retirees Study: Affordable rentals scarce (WP) Poll: For Obama, low marks on Afghan war Fuel prices cut into Obama popularity (WP) (The frauds on wall street et als should be criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed), and have used the mideast turmoil to obfuscate their failure. Dave's Daily 'If you can keep interest rates this low this long, its inevitable cheap financing can allow companies to start cobbling each other up. Further Ben's policies allow companies like IBM to sell bonds at 1% and buy back shares with the proceeds (total paper bubble-scam). POMO is occurring almost daily and Primary Dealers can buy back their shares and pay dividends with what essentially is taxpayer money-- … an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! America Is a Failed State Because It Won’t Prosecute Financial Crime Washington’s Blog / the grim economic reality [ http://albertpeia.com/grimreality.htm ]. Selling In May Is Very Good Advice This Year Harding / April Is a Good Time to Sell Adler Equity Valuations Are Forming the Second Biggest Bubble in U.S. History Kaspar ... According to Yale University’s Dr. Robert Shiller, the market is now 41% overvalued …only time the markets have been more overvalued .. 1929 & tech bubble. http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/4/12/saupload_cape_thumb1.png PRECHTER: We're Still In A Massive Bear Market And Stocks Will Crash To New Lows Bernanke prepares to make history (WP) [ He already has! $6 gas acomin’, $1,508+ gold, $46+ silver, other commodities at record levels, hyperinflation as predicted well on the way from over-printing of fiat paper currency by fed as predicted, etc., Equity Valuations Are Forming the Second Biggest Bubble in U.S. History Kaspar 'Despite the terrible economic performance of the past ten years, equity valuations are the 2nd largest bubble in U.S. history... According to Yale University’s Dr. Robert Shiller, the market is now 41% overvalued according to this valuation metric. The only time the markets have been more overvalued was a few brief months in 1929 and the tech bubble

... growth in earnings have been artificially manufactured...

· The change in accounting rules for the financial sector by FASB has generated massive “false” account profits beginning in 2009, corporate subsidies, etc.

ECONOMIC CRISIS ARCHIVE

National / World

Obama Gets Massive 13 Point Bounce From Contrived Bin Laden Raid Paul Joseph Watson | Americans are the most gullible people on the planet. [ Oh come on! Gullible? Is that all? How ‘bout dumb, gullible, inherently criminal, among many other negative traits. But, I don’t even believe the poll which conflicts with another which shows only a 3 point spike which is bad enough and quite pathetic. But such craved, depraved gladiatorial blood-letting is quite common during decline and fall of nation-states as america. ]

‘US killed bin Laden for a second time’ Press TV interviewed Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, to discuss the issue furthermore.

Who shot bin Laden? Former SEALs fill in the blanks (Washington Post) `[` Well, here I am on the same page as a former navy seal: Jesse Ventura Questions Obama’s Narrative Of Bin Laden Raid Former Navy SEAL and Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura has questioned Barack Obama’s official narrative regarding the raid on Osama Bin Laden, telling the Alex Jones Show of his suspicions that Osama died years ago, and expressing disbelief that the man seen flicking between TV channels in the video released by the White House Saturday was actually Bin Laden. [Who is foolish enough to believe anything they say; particularly their scripted, ever-changing, evolving, self-serving accounts belied only by truth / reality as told by those with true courage and integrity; as, for example Jessica Lynch, etc. White House Press Secretary “Floundering Under Pressure” Of Flip-Flopping Bin Laden Fable Staged: White House “Situation Room” Photos Part Of Bin Laden Fable .. No resistance in “cold-blooded” U.S. raid: Pakistan officials US Government Contractor Claims “Al-Qaeda” Has Confirmed Bin Laden Fairytale Watson The Cost of Bin Laden: $3 Trillion Over 15 Years What do we have to show for that tab? Two wars that continue to occupy 150,000 troops and tie up a quarter of our defense budget; a bloated homeland-security apparatus that has at times pushed the bounds of civil liberty. Bin Had The Growing Coverup: Osama and “The Big Lie” The Obama administration and the corporate media are concocting an ever-more elaborate and spectacular theater around the “heroic” murder of the CIA intelligence myth/CIA asset Osama bin Laden. Red Alert: Government Had Osama bin Laden Frozen for Years Nimmo / Jones | Videos [ I personally believe Osama’s been dead for quite some time. Indeed, for one on dialysis, he otherwise would have been nothing less than a modern day miracle in terms of longevity / mortality rates for those so afflicted, particularly under the ‘stressful’ circumstances involving evading capture, betrayal for money, etc.. His ‘surfacing’ for a ‘talk’ wouldn’t even pass muster in the most rudimentary requirements for ‘proof of life’. The release at this time of the ‘announcement’ is, rather than a victory lap so to speak, but rather a sign of weakness and desperation on the part of america whose global and domestic economic, financial, and geopolitical position is substantially diminished and declining rapidly and whose military industrial complex welfare plan along with the Orwellian diversion of the masses could at best yield but a pyrrhic victory. Moreover, the same comes at a time of systemic failure for pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america While the ‘announcement’ plays well for the nonce, to the dumb, uninformed back home, the same will galvanize resistance in the name of their now martyr, Osama Bin Laden.]

A push for new Afghan strategy The administration needs to clarify its Afghan mission and exit plan, some leading lawmakers say. (Washington Post) `[ Riiiiight! That umpteenth new strategy / progress thing … pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america can really afford it …` Clinton predicts violent spring in Afghanistan (Washington Post) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday warned NATO allies not to abandon Afghanistan and predicted a violent spring in the war there. [ Well, there you go … something to look forward to … sounds like a plan … you know, that progress thing so touted by gates / petraeus … remind us that these people, particularly innocent civilians, died for no good reason at all. .. america's defacto bankruptcy. 'Alas, poor america … a nation of infinite jest, and unexcellent fancy … and pervasive criminality' …IED casualties in Afghanistan spike (Washington Post) [ Yeah! That progress thing’s a bch! What do you expect them ( Petraeus optimistic on war ) to say? That the money spent / diverted to these lucrative for the few war profiteers (360 tons of $100 bills flown into Iraq disappear, etc.) has been worth the defacto bankruptcy of the nation. Drudgereport: `Congresswoman calls Afghanistan 'national embarrassment'... 'Epic failure'...` Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) talks about the "disastrous" war that is Afghanistan. "This war represents an epic failure, a national embarrassment and a moral blight," Rep. Woolsey said. [Though broke, they’re still voting for more war across the board.. this war is a blowback-creating, self-perpetuating, self-destructive, self-defeating, colossally expensive debacle benefiting war profiteers / lobbies and frauds while diverting attention from the more ’mundane’ tasks of governance. War on Terror is a Reichstag Fire False Flag Operation Sartre** | If you really want justice for the 911 murders, you must face reality and look within your own government for the true terrorists.

Why Does the Terrorist Kingpin Look Better Than He Did in 2001? Washington’s Blog

Bin Laden Hoax….The Rest Of The Story Cartalucci .. examination of mainstream media’s headlines and interviews with the CIA director himself calls into question the official narrative.

Hoax: White House Claims 4-Year-Old Bin Laden Video Is New Footage

The States Strike Back Paul Joseph Watson | Rise of the Republic: Rhodes, Boldin and Smith.

Special Operations Elite and the Osama Death Op Kurt Nimmo | New Pentagon fusion center runs Delta hunter-killer teams.

Federal Spychips To Hijack Your Phone Paul Joseph Watson | The Obama administration is engaged in a totalitarian takeover of all communications.

18 Facts Prove Illegal Immigration Is Absolute Nightmare For U.S. Economy The Economic Collapse | The government has absolutely refused to secure the U.S. border with Mexico for decades.

China: The New Bin Laden Hillary Clinton, the low-grade moron who is US Secretary of State, is busy at work making China the new enemy of Oceania.

An Empire of Evil Fantasies: The Hollywoodification of Washington The American people are prisoners of state terror and victims of totalitarian propaganda. The American mind has been under a government and media siege ever since September 11, 2001 when the Bush administration committed the deadliest terrorist attack against America in U.S. history.

The Assasination of Osama bin Laden: Glaring Anomalies in the Official Narrative For those who believe in omens, the triumphal announcement of the murder of Osama bin Laden, his son and various of his household (if it were he) by US., special forces, did not bode well.

Americans Are The Most Gullible People On The Planet Here’s a reminder that the vast majority of Americans are amongst the most gullible people on the planet. President Obama’s ability to pose as a “tough guy” over the contrived fable of the Bin Laden raid, allied with a return to simple-minded Bush-style terror fearmongering and helpful media spin on the economy, has enabled him to secure a massive 13 point bounce in approval ratings.

Ron Paul To Decide On 2012 Run “Within The Week” Texas Congressman Ron Paul says he will make a decision on whether to launch a 2012 presidential bid within the next seven days.

Special Operations Elite and the Osama Death Op Obama’s raid inside Pakistan that reportedly killed Osama bin Laden and members of his family was conducted by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) who dispatched special operations elite hunter-killer commandos. It was likely run out of a new JSOC fusion center staffed by elite military and selected members of the government.

Barack Obama Is Wrong: 18 Facts Which Prove That Illegal Immigration Is An Absolute Nightmare For The U.S. Economy Barack Obama has declared that “immigration reform is an economic imperative”, and is promising to do his best to get an immigration bill pushed through Congress this year. But will “legalizing” all of the illegal immigration that has taken place over the last several decades improve the struggling U.S. economy or will it actually make our economic problems worse?

New Defense Bill Authorizes US Government To Launch “Defensive” Cyber Attacks Within the chairman’s mark of the 2012 Defense Authorization bill is language that would allow DoD to carry out clandestine operations in cyberspace against targets located outside the United States and to defend against all attacks on DoD assets.

March Trade Deficit Jumps To $48.2 Billion As Imports Surge And just as Citigroup predicted, US imports surge even as US exports jump to a record $172.7 billion. But the story is once again in the GDP reducing imports which jump by a whopping $220.8 billion, a $10.4 billion jump M/M.

The States Strike Back In this special video presentation for Prison Planet.tv members filmed from the new Infowars television studio, Alex Jones hosts a round table discussion featuring Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, founder and executive director of the Tenth Amendment Center Michael Boldin, as well as activist and economic writer Brandon Smith of Alt-Market, to discuss the states’ rights movement and how Americans need to organize now to take back power usurped in a myriad of different ways by the federal government.

What Else Will The Government’s “Special Chip” In Your Cellphone Do? The announcement that Americans are set to be bombarded with mandatory government propaganda via their cellphones represents a shocking lurch forward in the Obama administration’s bid to launch a total takeover of all communications as part of a wider move towards controlling the Internet, developing an omnipresent wiretap system, and creating a constant environment of suspicion and distrust by enlisting citizens to spy on each other.

Forbes Predicts U.S. Gold Standard Within 5 Years A return to the gold standard by the United States within the next five years now seems likely, because that move would help the nation solve a variety of economic, fiscal, and monetary ills, Steve Forbes predicted during an exclusive interview this week with HUMAN EVENTS.

Bin Laden death now part of Obama’s re-elect message Osama bin Laden, mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, is now an applause line in a presidential campaign speech.

Greece launches massive fire sale to service growing debt as riot police clash with violent protesters A general strike held today has seen most public services grind to a halt across the country, while thousands marched through Athens to protest against harsh austerity measures.

Interrogation Experts From Every Branch of the Military and Intelligence Agree: Torture DOESN’T Produce Useful Information Virtually all of the top interrogation experts – both conservatives and liberals (except for those trying to escape war crimes prosecution) – say that torture doesn’t work.

Libya: Nato doesn’t know if Col Gaddafi is dead or alive Nato has admitted that it doesn’t know if Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is dead or alive.

Sell in May? The Signals to De-Risk Cam Hui ‘In the wake of the commodity rout last week, the Inflation-Deflation Timer Model has moved into "neutral" from an "inflation" reading*. This told my inner trader that he should take some risk off the table. Given the high level of macro risk, I would be inclined to take more more defensive position than usual.

This signal to de-risk isn't a surprise. In early April, I wrote about negative divergences (see Getting ready to sell in May). How the market reacts to news is also a good short-term indicator of direction. The fizzled Osama bin Laden rally should have been as clear as ringing the bell in the town square to traders that this market was looking tired.

What happens now?
Now that the Timer Model has gone neutral, what happens now? Mr. Market could take one of two paths.

First, this could be the start of a run-of-the-mill 5-10% correction in the equity market, with an extreme downside limit of about 15%. VIX and More has tabulated the market pullbacks in the 2009-11 period and the average depth of these correction was 6.5%.

Macro risks everywhere
I am concerned that the market is acting vulnerably during a period of heightened macro risk. There are three major sources of macro risk:

Europe: As I write this, Greek 2-year debt is sporting an eye-popping yield north of 25%. These stratospheric levels reflect market fears that bond holders will have to take a significant haircut on Greek debt, which would be a devastating blow to the already fragile European banking system. If Greece re-structures, then it could very well take down Spain - which may be too large for the EU to rescue.
China: The PBoC has signaled that it will take further steps to cool its superheated economy and there are "no limit to how far it can raise the reserve requirement". Already, there are signs that its property bubble is being deflated. Recent reports indicate that Chinese property developer profits are falling and their debt is approaching $1T in a climate of rising inventory.
US default: The political horse-trading over the debt ceiling continues to be worrisome. A default by the US Treasury would send shock waves all around the globe and it would be the financial equivalent of the comet that hit the Earth and created the Gulf of Mexico in prehistoric times.

The current market environment is likely to resolve itself with a plain vanilla 5-10% correction. However, if any of these macro risks were to manifest themselves during that pullback, the downside has the potential to extend itself to 40-50%.

My inner investor has already heeded these warnings and de-risked his portfolio. My inner trader is inclined to be more defensive than normally called for.’

Should Long-Term Investors Buy or Sell This Market? Jones ‘…Stocks: Overbought & Overvalued The data show that stocks right now are overbought and overvalued. That's not dogma or my opinion or the narrative I'm trying to promulgate; it's just what the data show.With the exception of the bubble 90’s, the stock market has never had a positive 10-year return that began from valuation levels like the present …’ ‘ It's a good question. The kind of question than long-term investors like you and I really want to know the answer to. Is the market a long term buy? To help us answer it we're going to look at some charts, including one that might be the most important chart of all. The King of the Charts! It's the one that every long-term investor should be interested in.

Overbought & Overvalued? Underowned & Fundamentally Cheap?

We're already on record as believing that stocks are a tricky value proposition over the short run. The market has gone up for eight straight months since the QE2 program was announced and anything that moves that far in a straight line faces an increasingly large risk of reverting back to mean. Moving to a slightly longer time horizon -- the medium term -- one of our Predictions for 2011 was that the market would end basically flat for the year. So far, I've been dead wrong on that one though the rest have panned out nicely, nailing it on gold, oil, Paul Ryan, and real estate. I expect to finish the year about 50/50 on my predictions. That's the best that any of us who lack crystal balls can really hope for.But what about over the long-term? Is it OK to ignore the short and medium term risks and buy?Long-term investors nowadays sort themselves into two basic camps. I'll bet dollars or donuts that you already have a view on the matter and what we discuss today won't change your mind one way or the other. But that's how it goes with investment research -- we look for stuff that confirms our preconceived notions and discard information that refutes it. Trying to change minds in this business is just asking for trouble.Most likely you're already either in the camp that thinks that stocks are cheap and a fantastic buy or you think that they're expensive and you're waiting for them to fall back to lower valuations. But maybe you're in the middle. Who knows. Maybe you just own gold or GLD and are hiding out in your bunker cranking out angry manifestos about how stocks are a fraud and Treasuries are a fraud and so, incidentally, is the Dollar and it's nebbish champion, Timothy Franz Geithner.That's cool too. Hopefully you like charts:

click to enlarge [ chart http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/6/524360-130470267773646-Jeffrey-Dow-Jones_origin.png ]

I love this chart. It's my time machine chart.What this chart does is start at the very beginning of the year 1900. It takes a look at the Price/Earnings ratio for the market at that exact moment. Then it fast forwards through time to exactly ten years later and it measures how much the market went up in down over that ten year span. The chart plots those two bits of information against each other as one data point. Then it goes back to February of 1900 and repeats the process for every single month and every single 10-year window in the 20th century.The chart measures present valuation against future return. Pretty snazzy, huh?For this kind of study, it's important to use some kind of normalized earnings to smooth out the volatility of corporate earnings. Personally, I like Bob Shiller's simple "average 10 year earnings". But there are bunch of different ways you can normalize earnings. It all tells basically the same story.If you look back at that chart again, you'll probably say, "whoah, that's cool." You can see that there is a definite relationship between present valuation and future return. High valuations correlate with low future returns and low valuations correlate with higher future returns. Always be skeptical if you hear people denying this relationship or that you should always buy (or sell) the market regardless of its valuation. The data doesn't lie. As a long-term investor, it really pays to get a sense of whether the market is cheap or expensive before investing because it can make a HUGE different over the long run.In other words: if you buy when stocks are fundamentally cheap and hold them for a while, there is a very good chance you'll make decent money. If you buy stocks when they are expensive and hold them for a while, there is a very good chance you'll get a whole lot of heartburn and your wife will wonder why you're always using so much profanity.Looking back at that chart, you'll also notice that there are two different curves. That probably makes you say, "whoah, that's weird." What's going on here?The entire upper curve is pretty much the 1990's through now. Valuations were really high in the early 90's and the market did great for the next decade. In the late 90's valuations were really, REALLY high and the market pretty much broke even for the next decade. That brings us to right around today.What was the reason for that? How was it that the stock market did so well, doubling or better from a 20+ P/E ratio when every other instance like that in history stocks had gone down?Some of it had to do with the tech bubble. Investors bought the market at a time when it was kind of pricy but the 10-year window happened to close during the peak of the bubble days. Then there is also the collection of points that started in the mid-90's when the market was starting to get really expensive and ran through the peak of the credit bubble in 2007.Do you want to blame Alan Greenspan for those points, distorted by the bubble windows? You can if you want. I won't get in your way.We all kind of freaked out when we had 9/11 and the little 2001 recession and when the stock market went down for a few years in a row we got desperate and cut interest rates to basically zero percent. When you do that, real interest rates usually go negative and that gives people a serious incentive to invest in anything that's not cash, regardless of the price. I wrote a much more in-depth piece about the effect of negative real interest rates right here. It boils down to "Risk or Die."Because interest rates have been so low for so long, and real interest rates have been negative or close enough to it, the market is behaving in a manner totally discordant with the bulk of recorded history.

It's a policy-driven world

You can make a pretty good case that a lot of those points have been driven entirely by modern policy -- both Fed policy and political policy. We can argue about whether or not this goal to inflate asset prices is the prudent or appropriate policy. But it's kind of silly to debate whether or not it actually works. It does.Will this super-aggressive, asset-stimulative policy continue? That's the big discussion right now and it's why so many people pay so much attention to those two little words -- "extended period" -- in the Fed minutes. If the policy doesn't continue then the market might start behaving like it did for the century prior to the credit bubble.

UH OH.

What might that look like? Let's revise our chart. Let's take out all of these modern data points, the ones from this era of unprecedented and aggressive monetary & fiscal policy. It'll be what an investor should expect if they think they next few decades will resemble the first 90% of the 20th century and not this recent era since Greenspan and Bernanke took over.

[chart http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/6/524360-130470615079765-Jeffrey-Dow-Jones_origin.png ]

In this chart, our time machine basically stops before we get too far into the buy-at-any-price psychology of tech boom and subsequent credit bubble.I also marked the today's Price/Earnings ratio. As of last week, the Shiller PE stands at around 24. Again, you can use other flavors of normalized earnings, but they all tell pretty much the same story. The numbers are different but the relationship is the same.

Stocks: Overbought & Overvalued

The data show that stocks right now are overbought and overvalued. That's not dogma or my opinion or the narrative I'm trying to promulgate; it's just what the data show.With the exception of the bubble 90’s, the stock market has never had a positive 10-year return that began from valuation levels like the present. Now, I want to emphasize that that’s not to say that stocks will go down over the next decade. They could go up. These are crazy times!There are plenty of convincing arguments to buy stocks for the long run, but relative to historical valuation data, stocks are expensive. In a sense, buying them is a bet that policy will continue to be asset-stimulative and that we won't have any technical or economic hiccups along the way.This condition won’t last forever. I'm one of those guys that doesn't like to buy things that are expensive and if they are things that fluctuate in value (like stocks) I am happy just being patient until they get cheap again. Don’t worry, they will get cheap again. The history of the stock market is one where it moves in big cycles from “expensive” to “cheap” and back again. When stocks do get cheap I’ll go shopping. Until then, I’m avoiding the risk and saving myself the heartburn.

How to play it

If you think that the arguments against using historical valuation as a compass are outweighed by other arguments then go ahead and load up on something like the SPDRs (SPY) or Diamonds (DIA) and just hold them for as long as you'd like. Or buy an actively managed growth fund. Over the long-run, most of them are pretty much the same and they'll all do well if the market does well.Go on ahead and bet on systemtically-important U.S. stocks like Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Exxon (XOM), Wal-Mart (WMT), or Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). Odds are, over the long run those stocks will grow by at least GDP. I probably wouldn't use a bank stock like Citgroup (C) or Bank of America (BAC) to make a bet like this on the broader market. There are a lot of factors idiosyncratic to that industry that may produce extra volatility and more-difficult-to-predict returns.If you don't like to buy the market when it's expensive... then don't buy it! I probably wouldn't recommend shorting it just because that's a tough thing to successfully manage over the long run. Try and be patient and hold your cash as you wait for that opportunity. Hang out in bonds or something. Heck, go play golf and check back in a year or so.You can also narrow your focus. Just because the market is expensive doesn't mean that every stock is expensive. There are plenty of cheap stocks out there and this is the kind of stuff that people talk about on Seeking Alpha every day.In fact, if you're going to draw one conclusion from this article, I hope it's not that you should buy the market or sell the market. It's that this is an environment where you'll probably be better off with active strategies and picking specific stocks than with passive strategies and positioning yourself like an index.

When to go all in

If that red line ever gets below 10, I am going to load the freakin’ boat with domestic equities. It will be a long-term trade, and the bad news is that it’s the kind trade that most investors get only one shot to make in their entire careers. It’s like buying stocks in 1908 or 1933 or 1947 or 1982. I wasn’t in the business in 1982, so I’m still waiting for my chance. It will come. But I can tell you right now that it won’t be an easy trade to make. The world will feel like it’s ending and people will hate stocks with a violent passion. (Sort of like real estate today.) Stocks will sell for 8 or 9 times the previous decade’s earnings and everybody in the world will think they should be selling at 4 or 5x. That sounds like it will be an easy thing to do. But trust me, it will take some serious cojones. Everyone in the world will have a reason for why investors shouldn't buy the market despite the historically cheap valuation.Psychology is a funny thing.’

After an Oversold Bounce, Will Commodity Blues Spread to Stocks?

New Poll Has Bad News For Obama And The Economy On the more important issue of the economy, things aren’t looking good.

So About That Speculative, And Undisputed, Silver Bubble… Lately, everyone and their grandmother speaks with 100% conviction that over the past week what happened in the silver market was nothing but a speculative bubble popping.

Head Of Eurogroup Admits To Lying About “Secret Greek Meeting” Out Of Fears For Market Collapse – “When It Becomes Serious, You Have To Lie” On Friday the misinformation floated about the Greek expulsion event hit a fever pitch: while we correctly speculated that nobody would be expelled from the Eurozone, the amount of conflicting info was at an all time record, with glaring inconsistencies between various quoted authoritarians.

Dollar to Yo-Yo Back Up on Faux Euro Troubles Here we go again. With the debt ceiling approaching, the dollar hitting a record lowagainst the Swiss Franc, dollar-based commodities soaring to new highs; everyone has been predicting the death of the dollar, again. Yet, as if by miracle, Euro-zone troubles emerge just in time to save the dollar from complete collapse.

Boehner seeks more than $2 trillion in cuts (Washington Post) [ I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking ‘Riiiiight! … that’ll happen … and all without cuts to endless war spending … while the situation’s more than that dire, the advice is … don’t hold your breath! Milbank: The GOP’s juvenile debate (Washington Post) [ Mr. Milbank has lamentably become the rush limbaugh / sean hannity of the newspaper world, though he barks and apologizes for dems (and wobama the b for b*** s***) only (as they for the gop / bushies only). A political minefield in Treasury plan (Washington Post) [ What plan! . Let the budget battle begin Congress returns to a lengthy fight over the nation’s solvency. (WP) [ Stated another way, the nation’s solvency is over. .. america’s defacto bankrupt with no end in sight.. interest alone is eating progressively into GDP beyond the subterfuge.. Gerson: How serious are we about the deficit? (WP) [ Not much! I mean come on! Davis ‘… This is how we pay off our current debts and I think bondholders are simply happy to get anything out of a country that admits it owes $15Tn (1/4 of global GDP) but probably owes closer to $60Tn (entire global GDP) in the form of unfunded liabilities. The funniest thing about this (and you have to laugh) is to see Conservative pundits get on TV and talk about how we need to cut $100Bn worth of discretionary spending to "fix" this (while continuing to spend $1Tn on the military and $1Tn on tax cuts for the top 1% each year). There is no fixing this and even a Republican said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. THIS HOUSE OF CARDS IS TEETERING FOLKS – PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! ‘ … Suckers’ rally to keep suckers suckered: Philadelphia Fed Depresses Economists Durden ‘..And here comes the first indicator that Q2 GDP is about to be mass revised by everyone, courtesy of Japan, and ongoing inflation pressures: the Philadelphia Fed collapsed from a revised 43.4 (a 27 year high) to 18.5, the lowest since November 2010… This is an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! U.S. Economy Remains on Life Support Hansen ‘

The Federal Reserve press conference contained almost no new economic insights; and,
An FOMC meeting with no policy changes or insights..

`CIVIL RIGHTS PANEL TO PURSUE FED PROBE IN BLACK PANTHER CASE... ‘`In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who 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’ Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountable for the meltdown. ):

‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ http://albertpeia.com/obamadeceptionhighqualityversion.flv ]

Editorial: Bin Laden raid no vindication of torture (Washington Post) [ While I don’t disagree with this Editorial, I do disagree with the premise; viz., that they truly sought to prevent that ultimate ‘pearl harbor event’, to ratchet up the war spending / military industrial complex welfare plan with broad based enthusiasm / support. Even war-monger mccain supports this which also finds support in international law, treaties, conventions.I can only wonder what the presence of substantially underrated President General Eisenhower would have meant, and truly believe this entire debacle and the nation’s decline would have been avoided. “All In All It Appears That Eisenhower’s Worst Fears Have Been Realized And His Remarkable And Unique Warnings Given For Naught” [ I personally believe, and the factual, historical realities support that President General Eisenhower is without question the most under-rated president in america’s short-lived history. Is there anyone who foolishly would believe this man (Ike) of honor, the quintessential General / Commander in Chief would be sacrificing lives (american among many others) and treasury for the sake of war profiteers, greed, fraud, etc., as now? ] President Eisenhower’s warned us about the growing threat from the military-industrial complex – and it’s threat to our prosperity – 50 years ago. Eisenhower’s Worst Fears Have Been Realized Washington’s Blog | All in all it appears that Eisenhower’s worst fears have been realized and his remarkable and unique warnings given for naught. ….. Indeed, 911 itself; that ‘pearl harbor event’ so sought by the neo-cons / war mongers still defies explanation (ie., the ‘stand-down order’, symmetrical implosions, foreknowledge by some {who conveniently ‘missed the party’ that day}, etc.. Some links, echoing the disbelief akin to the ‘Jessica Lynch’, Tillman, etc., affairs follow. People must realize that though having but 5% of the world’s population, america can boast 76% of the world’s serial killers and the highest crime rates in the world by far. That perverse field of dreams I’ve previously alluded to, the american nightmare, if you build / contrive war, they will come. And, they do; seals of them (among others); and when their ‘tours’ are done, it’s murder inc./contract killing for hire that they’ve won (cia, mob, etc.). The 20th century, the ‘bloodiest century’, not coincidentally referred to as the american century, brings longings of nostalgia to american criminals who, like Pavlov’s dogs salivate at the prospect of killing, raping, pillaging, and plundering which primitive mindset they have mistakenly been conditioned to connect to their now irretrievably lost success as a nation state; and, to the contrary, has become globally and domestically self-destructive / self-defeating. The entire 911 / Bin Laden scenario just doesn’t pass the smell test and reeks of political desperation and Orwellian opportunism.

More talk on troubled borrowers fund State attorneys general descend on Washington to negotiate aid for troubled homeowners … More bad economic news for Greece A year into its rescue program, the country is behind schedule and may require more help to stay solvent.

(Washington Post) [ And don’t forget the troubled states. Ask Meredith Whitney! She was right last time, and this time, like last last time, she’s takin’ it on the chin from the permabull wall street frauds: Meredith Whitney Sticks to Her Guns Today Roche ‘Talk about holding onto a losing trade. At the Milken Conference yesterday, Meredith Whitney said there was nothing controversial about her muni call, maintaining that she has more conviction about the muni crisis call than anything in her entire career. Via Bloomberg:

Whitney said on the panel, “It’s not that big of a call..There’s nothing controversial about that call, if you look at the numbers.”

“You can criticize me for everything you want, I’m just numb to it because I have more conviction on this than I’d had on any single thing in my career.”

On the same panel, David Solomon, Goldman Sachs’ co-head of investment banking said, “I don’t think we’re doomed. I think the resources available to us, and the changes that will evolve as we come out of a very, very difficult economic period that we’ve been stuck in over the past couple of years, will provide more flexibility than I think Meredith believes.”

Whitney is certainly right that the states are suffering fiscal woes; however, as we’ve seen in Europe, there are mechanisms that can be utilized to combat these issues. While I still maintain that there is a chance of local defaults, I think the United States will be proactive in fending off a euro-style crisis.

And that means the US federal government will do what it has always done. It will credit the bank accounts of the states in order to ensure that any single municipality cannot cause widespread economic hardship throughout the United States. This would be nothing new. The US has always credited the bank accounts of the states that are part of this union.

If Europe was truly united, we would see the same thing occurring in Europe; however, because it's not united, it instead chooses austerity due to fears of inflation. The reality is that the ECB is not creating inflation; it's merely stopping the potentially deflationary debacle that would ensue with sovereign defaults.

I would hope that a truly United States of America would be a bit more caring of its own member states.’

Strange Week: Wall Street Takes a Dive Hansen ‘Strange week on Wall Street.

Weekly unadjusted initial unemployment claims popped above the 2010 year-ago number.

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/5/8/saupload_z_unemployment2.png

China chided over fiscal policies China has bigger-than-forecast surplus (Washington Post) [ Arguing with success … that new axiom for pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america, supplanting that old cliché that ‘you can’t argue with success’. Chided over fiscal policies as China has bigger-than-forecast surplus … Is this some parallel universe that pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america operates in? If only China had the benefit of my own experience in meaningfully lawless america, I’d say they’d easily defend the onslaught of disingenuous rhetoric (and a bit late) from pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america. Indeed, 911 itself; that ‘pearl harbor event’ so sought by the neo-cons / war mongers still defies explanation (ie., the ‘stand-down order’, symmetrical implosions, foreknowledge by some {who conveniently ‘missed the party’ that day}, etc.. Some links, echoing the unbelief akin to the ‘Jessica Lynch’, Tillman, etc., affairs follow. People must realize that though having but 5% of the world’s population, america can boast 76% of the world’s serial killers and the highest crime rates in the world by far. http://www.albertpeia.com/realifeamericaserialkillers.mpg . Defacto bankrupt, fraudulent america also spends more on military spending than all the nations of the world combined... federal employees / contractors, cia, all 3 branches of the u.s. government, etc., are included in this evolved american trait of inherent criminality ( http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdf http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htm ). That perverse field of dreams I’ve previously alluded to, the american nightmare, if you build / contrive war, they will come. And, they do; seals of them (among others); and when their ‘tours’ are done, it’s murder inc./contract killing for hire that they’ve won (cia, mob, etc.). The 20th century, the ‘bloodiest century’, not coincidentally referred to as the american century, brings longings of nostalgia to american criminals who, like Pavlov’s dogs salivate at the prospect of killing, raping, pillaging, and plundering which primitive mindset they have mistakenly been conditioned to connect to their now irretrievably lost success as a nation state; and to the contrary, has become globally and domestically self-destructive / self-defeating. The entire 911 / Bin Laden scenario just doesn’t pass the smell test and reeks of political desperation and Orwellian opportunism. ]

US Postal Service reports $2.2B loss for quarter... [ And, let me add that they deserved that loss. The USPS is totally unreliable and basically a jobs program for the otherwise unemployable; and, they are also corrupt. I’ve previously set forth the scenario where the postal service waylaid dvd disks sent priority/confirmation and a second time, certified mail, to the FBI (violations of federal law, tampering, obstruction, etc.), and ultimately additional copies of said disks were delivered by the reliable, efficient, competitive, performance-driven UPS (their parcel rates are roughly the same and yet half the delivery time – Fedex is as unreliable as the USPS-and for some time had a deal with the USPS). Amazon, Ebay, though a boon to the USPS, have consistently failed to deliver in the realm of computers / peripherals. The following includes a prior testimonial to the service, reliability of PRO Computer Center ( http://www.procomputercenter.com Pro Computer Center, 10837 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025) . Pro Computer Center is among the few remaining stores of their kind. They are performance / service / customer oriented like no other surviving computer retailer / repairer / service providers I’ve experienced. They’ve also moved into the realm of computer forensics / data recovery in the context of court proceedings where they’ve successfully performed where others failed and at substantially more reasonable rates than ‘the competition’. My most recent computer problems accounting for some website / posting delays has been once again been resolved by them and another Dell computer (the circumstances of the most recent debacle was a barrage of Trojans caught by my antivirus, one after another, then shutting down my antivirus, ultimately freezing (no boot) my computer (I previously alluded to my reasonable suspicions as to who perpetrated same). My experiences with such as Amazon, Ebay have been atrocious and borderline if not outright fraudulent (the shoddy sellers), time consuming, and aggravating in the ‘claims process’. Moreover, the other brick and mortar stores, even if reputable, have a fine print which lays most of the warrantee/ guarantee on the manufacturer. In sum, Pro Computer Center does not have any ‘real’ competition. They are currently building me a backup computer that comports with my budget and their survival as a company, though somewhat rare among computer retailers of their type, is totally understandable and a testament to high quality performance and service. (Prior testimonial:Pro Computer Center

10837 Santa Monica Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90025

Gentlemen:

Sincerely,

Albert L. Peia ) ]

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

May 16, 2011

Business / Economic / Financial

FOX News Report: Bin Laden Already Dead

Bin Laden’s “One Million Page Cache” Will Be Used To Legitimize Official 9/11 Fable Paul Watson | The White House claims it has recovered one million pages of data from the Bin Laden compound.

That’s exactly what they want … for the benefit of the military industrial complex that has steadily drained the dwindling resourses of this country to defacto bankruptcy.

War in Afghanistan and Iraq costs America $1trillion From the Old | On May 30th at 10:06 the United States reached the point where they have spent $1trillion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ... May 1, 2011 ... U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every 3 days ... http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

Savers May Flee U.S. Banks: The Dominoes Are Starting To Fall Sprott said the “ultimate event” is that savers will take their money out of banks and invest in precious metals such as gold, which he says is now the world’s reserve currency.

CRIME STATISTICS >(america is No. 1).

Pakistan after Bin Laden? NYTimes.com You’re talking about the last decade … Wake up! ( see infra)

Pakistani spy chief apologetic, but defiant (Washington Post) Amid public outrage over the U.S. operation that killed Osama bin Laden, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha apologizes before Parliament and offers to resign...’ [

Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ... May 1, 2011 ... U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every 3 days ... http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

FOX News Report: Bin Laden Already Dead

National / World

Pakistan: US Has Overstayed Welcome Tony Cartalucci | Amidst drone attacks & bombings, Pakistan threatens to strand US forces in Afghanistan.

Deaths at Syria-Lebanon-Israel borders Aljazeera | Three people have been shot dead and at least five others, including a Lebanese soldier, have been injured.

Tex Rep. David Simpson: Bill Would Criminalize TSA for Molesting Travelers Alex Jones Channel | The bill will make it a criminal offense for the TSA to inappropriately touch travelers during airport intrusive pat-downs.

In the Theater of the Absurd: US-NATO Support “Al Qaeda in Libya” Gerald A. Perreira | In the Theatre of the Absurd, anything is possible. However, this latest scenario in Libya has taken absurdity to a whole new dimension.

Creating the Bin Laden “Reality” Paul Craig Roberts | If you believe this, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I can let you have for a cheap price.

Ahmadinejad: US Was Holding Bin Laden For a Long Time Before His Death Press TV | The Iranian chief executive added that he has “precise information” that bin Laden was being held by US military for a long time before his death.

Japan’s Latest Proposal To Contain Fukushima’s Radioactive Fallout – A (Circus) Tent Tyler Durden | Dow Jones reports that the latest scheme to come out of TEPCO is to cover Fukushima with a giant tent.

Even MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Admits the CIA is Engaging in “Psy-Ops” With The Bin Laden Raid Youtube | Matthews says that the CIA is using “psy-ops” to put out “little colonels of information” .

Bin Laden’s “One Million Page Cache” Will Be Used To Legitimize Official 9/11 Fable Paul Watson | The White House claims it has recovered one million pages of data from the Bin Laden compound.

Will Gaddafi End up in Hague? Corbett on Arrest Warrant Request Commenting about the war crimes court dission to issue a warrant on Gaddafi’s arrest, an independent journalist James Corbett said that justice is turning into a political and military tool in coalition’s hands in Libya.

Gerald Celente: Raping – Part of IMF Business RT talks to Gerald Celente, the director of the Trends Research Institute in New York.

Media Silent About Plutonium Contamination of Japanese Rice The Japanese Business Press reported on May 14 that a rice field more than 50 kilometers away from the Fukushima nuclear plant has tested for high levels of deadly plutonium.

Globalists’ Secret Weapon Exposed: Tech Kill Chips Infowars | In addition to Obama’s stranglehold on the Internet, all smart devices have federally-mandated control and kill switches added.

Trailer: Webster Tarpley & Elite’s plan for global extermination PrisonPlanet.tv | In an exclusive PrisonPlanet.tv interview, Dr. Tarpley reviews the writings of White House advisor John P. Holdren.

CBS Demonizes Constitutionalists Kurt Nimmo | Segment portrays constitutionalists as a violent threat to police and the state.

Secret Weather Weapons Can Kill Millions, Warns Top Russian Politician Paul Joseph Watson | Influential political leader says Russia has capability to “destroy any part of the planet” with new technology

Media Silent About Plutonium Contamination of Japanese Rice Kurt Nimmo | Corporate media has consistently parroted statements from TEPCO and the Japanese government.

Double Digit Inflation has Arrived Nonetheless, in the latest report from economist John Williams of Shadowstats.com, even the government’s own “official” numbers will likely show double digit inflation in the next three months or so.

‘Depleted uranium in Libya will kill, not protect’ NATO is now deeply entrenched in Libya in what looks like a civil war and there is no visible end to the illegal intervention, insists British anti-nuclear activist Kate Hudson from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Administration Approves 200 More New Obamacare Waivers The Obama administration approved 204 new waivers to Democrats’ healthcare reform law over the past month, bringing the total to 1,372.

Pakistan Demands End To US Drone Attacks Pakistan’s parliament has demanded an end to American drone strikes and called for an independent inquiry into the US special forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Gaddafi: ‘Nato Airstrikes Are Cowardly’ Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has called Nato airstrikes “cowardly” – and stated that he had retreated to a place “you cannot reach”.

Video and Photos of Nakba Day Riots and ‘Terror Truck’ Attack Hundreds of Arabs rioted throughout Israel the past three days in “Nakba Day” protests against the re-establishment of Israel.

IMF Head Charged Over Alleged Sex Attack The head of the IMF has been charged with a criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment, following allegations made by a hotel maid in New York.

DSK Rape Arrest To Derail Global Currency Plan? Next up: we expect a letter from the IMF disclosing how the world will end if charges are pursued and if, heaven forbid, the IMF head is thrown in jail.

Ahmadinejad: US Was Holding Bin Laden For a Long Time Before His Death The Iranian chief executive added that he has “precise information” that bin Laden was being held by US military for a long time before his death, IRNA reported.

Judicial Watch Sues for Release of Bin Laden Death Photos On May 12, the DOD responded saying that they would not produce the documents within the time required by FOIA. Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit to force the DOD to comply with the law.

Ron Paul suggests basic freedoms depend on property rights The establishment tried to use this nuanced issue to claim that Ron’s son, Rand Paul, was a racist hatemonger, and they failed miserably. Rand swept to victory – crushing his opponent in the Senate race.

Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government ...May 1, 2011 ... U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every 3 days ... http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

Top 3 Reasons Markets were Down on Greece Worries and Terrorism

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No Coup, No Grace

Stocks Drop, Finish Mixed for Week Midnight Trader Wrap-up

Crowded, Confused Market Calls for Picking Stop Levels Seeking Alpha

Euro, Stock Selloff Gathers Steam at The Wall Street Journal