Broad Dollar Index continues sinking

 

posted by Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 7 minutes ago

IMF Austerity Is Headed to America – Watch Out!

Saturday, April 23, 2011 – by Anthony Wile

Anthony Wile
The current arguments – much in the news – about cutting spending in the US are not exactly what they seem. They are likely aimed at imposing an IMF-style austerity on the US of the sort that developing nations throughout the world have found both onerous and ineffective. If you want to understand what the IMF and Western powers-that-be have in mind for America, take a look at this interview we ran a while ago with John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
This is America's future, one of government-induced privation and societal misery. Study the dominant social themes of the elite, its recent fear-based promotions, and one begins to get a sense more fully of what is being prepared. The signs are increasingly visible. Throughout last week Western markets and media focused on a warning from Standard and Poor's (S&P), which downgraded the US debt outlook from stable to negative for the first time in 70 years. Will maintream financial media still continue to use the ludicrous term "risk-free Treasury paper?"
Late last week, London's prestigious Financial Times carried an editorial on the subject entitled Easter Parade of Worries. According to the FT, "S&P's aim plainly was political. US politicians must agree on a policy to reduce the deficit. This must involve cutting spending, reducing entitlements and raising taxes. Who exactly bears the brunt of these remedies is a political question, not an economic one. No politician wants to be responsible for such things, so it is no surprise that they avoid the problem."
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You Know He's Desperate Now

Saturday, April 23, 2011 – by Dr. Tibor Machan

Dr. Tibor Machan So President Obama will create a task force to investigate if there might be crimes committed that lead to high gas prices. The operative term is "might."  That is what one says when one has zero evidence but intends to implicate unknown parties and please one's base which is committed to the class warfare idea of economic relations.
Of course gasoline costs a lot. Just look around the world –people are using more of it and the prognosis is they will be using even more in the near future; the places where oil is drilled are in shambles; the American government will not allow any digging where there's plenty of oil in the USA, and on and on. Speculators, a perfectly decent bunch of people who try to take care of their and their clients' economic welfare – part of the group of wealth care professionals in the land – will obviously try to buy oil futures now so as to escape the coming even higher prices. This is elementary economics and to be expected of people who choose to be prudent in their lives and economic affairs.
But Mr. Obama seems to want to cash in on it all by revving up the rhetoric of class warfare. Who must be behind rising gas prices? Someone, surely (even while he preaches about shared responsibility when it comes to the enormous debt the government has assumed). So who shall it be this time – Wall Street? The banks? Tea Party Republicans? No, this time it will be speculators, unnamed people who can be conjured up in the minds of people who already do not like business (wealth care) professionals. Mr. Obama needs those who harbor such hatred since they are the ones who hopes will go out and campaign for him. Who else would?
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The Great Con of the Recovery: The Stock Wealth Effect

Posted by: Phoenix Capital Research

Post date: 04/22/2011 - 18:30

Stepping back from this, you really can’t help but notice how stupid the whole “stock wealth effect” ideology is. Setting aside the fact that MOST of the gains stocks have produced since 2009 are due to US Dollar devaluation, it strikes me as odd that someone would think they were richer because their stock portfolio was up… while the cost of just about everything has ALSO gone up tremendously. For instance, since March 2009, stocks have doubled. However, oil has nearly TRIPLED in price.

Citi Expects A 76% Haircut On Greek Debt (And 95% If Country Waits 4 Years) For Debt/GDP Ratio Back Down To 60%

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/23/2011 06:40 -0400

Yesterday we learned that in borrowing a page right out of 2010, when the Greek government was mounting a full frontal assault against CDS traders everywhere (only for Eurostat to tell us that CDS traders had absolutely no impact on Greek solvency), Greece is once again scapegoating unrelated third parties for its problems. In this particular case Citi London trader Paul Moss, who is being interrogated by Interpol because of a recap email indicating Greece may, gasp, restructure (or, as it isknown in enlightened circles, conduct a "liability management exercise"). Yet when Greece reads the following note by Citi's Stefan Nedialkov, it will most likely issue a cease and desist order in perpetuity against Vikram Pandit's bank. Nedialkov's summary (released one day after Moss' April 20 note): "If a 42% haircut is taken in addition to these measures, we estimate Debt/GDP falls to below 90% in 2013 and below 60% in 2020." The problem is that the market will likely give Greece at most a few months of breathing room in exchange for just a 90% debt/GDP reduction. If truly engaging in a liability exercise of some nature, Greece will likely pursue a permanently viable option. And as Nedialkov indicates, in order to achieve a far more credible 60% debt/GDP ratio, the country would need to take a 76% haircut now, or do nothing for five years, and eliminate a whopping 94% of its debt in 2015. Since the market is already expecting roughly a 50% haircut it remains to be seen just how much further bond prices will plummet, and how much bigger the ultimate impairment on Citi debt, and European banks, Greek pension funds and local bond investors, will ultimately be. One thing is certain: with Greek 2012 debt/GDP expected to peak at 159.4%, the country will restructure, and a a vast swath of insolvent European banks are about to see the tide go out.

Is The Play For Iran's Nukes The Endgame Of Ongoing MENA Violence?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/23/2011 03:49 -0400

While the majority of the world was in a sleepy mood courtesy of closed core capital markets, events in Syria were anything but. From Reuters: "Syrian security forces killed almost 90 protesters on Friday, rights activists said, the bloodiest day in a month of escalating pro-democracy demonstrations against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad." Yet while many are quick to dismiss "yet another MENA revolution", Emad Mostaque, MENA strategist at UK's Religare Capital Markets begs to differ. "The market implications of a breakdown in Syria would be profound, but likely not be felt immediately as it doesn’t tick the boxes for proximity (such as Bahrain) or oil production (such as Libya). Iran’s influence would be curtailed, as would support for Hezbollah and Hamas." But the mittelspiel does not end there, and will likely have even greater consequences on Israel: "A third intifada between Israel and Palestine is already likely following a series of rather unpleasant attacks from both sides and a Syrian breakdown would heighten the chances of an Israeli attack on Lebanon, particularly given the success thus far of their new Iron Dome anti-ballistic system (even stops mortars)... A conflict like this would raise the chances of a follow up attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, particularly if Hezbollah’s retaliatory rocket capabilities were neutered." So it appears that the old bogeyman from the summer of 2010, Iran's nuclear power - the source of so much Stuxnet (of unknown origin( consternation, is about to come back front and center all over again. And when one factors in the ubiquitous presence of CIA operatives (flipflops on the ground) in the region (always disclosed well after the fact) one wonders just how staged this latest "revolution" truly is.



Killer Combo of High Gas, Food Prices at Tipping Point

Don't Like a Weak Dollar? Might as Well Get Used to It