Harvey Organ, Thursday, May 26, 2011
20 Questions To Ask Anyone Foolish Enough To Believe The Economic Crisis Is Over
Every day there is at least one headline about how catastrophic a Greek default would be. These headlines aren’t coming from the doom and gloom crowd, they are coming from senior government officials throughout Europe. There is great concern that a Greek default would hurt European banks. The potential domino effect to other countries scares these senior officials. If these fears are valid, then some senior bankers should be fired immediately because they have wasted the opportunity to reduce their exposures with reasonable losses. Banks have had ample opportunity to cut their exposure to Greece. The original bailout and the announcement of EFSF gave these banks an incredible chance to get out of their Greek debt with manageable losses...If banks didn’t massively reduce exposure when they had these windows of opportunity, and the EU is busy negotiating to save these same banks, someone needs to be fired. It is mind boggling that banks were either so afraid of taking a reasonable loss or so greedy that they thought they could do better that they kept these exposures. It had to have been clear to everyone at the banks how bad it could get, the only prudent, not even smart, just prudent, action was to cut exposures. Even if you missed the May rally which was the best opportunity to get out, how could you sit through the summer fear and not sell heavily into the October rally? Any explanation involves either stupidity, negligence, or complete faith in the government to bail you out.
Ron Paul to address gold swaps and an audit of Fort Knox/ another raid on gold and silver
20 Questions To Ask Anyone Foolish Enough To Believe The Economic Crisis Is Over
ilene
05/26/2011 - 12:26
Guest Post: If Greece Default Would Wreak Havoc On European Banks Then CEO’s Should Be Fired
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/26/2011 18:13 -0400Every day there is at least one headline about how catastrophic a Greek default would be. These headlines aren’t coming from the doom and gloom crowd, they are coming from senior government officials throughout Europe. There is great concern that a Greek default would hurt European banks. The potential domino effect to other countries scares these senior officials. If these fears are valid, then some senior bankers should be fired immediately because they have wasted the opportunity to reduce their exposures with reasonable losses. Banks have had ample opportunity to cut their exposure to Greece. The original bailout and the announcement of EFSF gave these banks an incredible chance to get out of their Greek debt with manageable losses...If banks didn’t massively reduce exposure when they had these windows of opportunity, and the EU is busy negotiating to save these same banks, someone needs to be fired. It is mind boggling that banks were either so afraid of taking a reasonable loss or so greedy that they thought they could do better that they kept these exposures. It had to have been clear to everyone at the banks how bad it could get, the only prudent, not even smart, just prudent, action was to cut exposures. Even if you missed the May rally which was the best opportunity to get out, how could you sit through the summer fear and not sell heavily into the October rally? Any explanation involves either stupidity, negligence, or complete faith in the government to bail you out.
CME Changes Numerous Margin Requirements, Lowers Platinum, Palladium Outrights
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/26/2011 17:21 -0400Thursday market close brings another release out of the CME which has changed a plethora of outright margins, intra-commodity spreads and tiering modifications. Probably the most interesting changes to those burned by the exchange's scorched earth campaign against silver speculators, is the margin decrease in Platinum, Palladium and Hot Rolled Steel futures. Additionally, a variety of nat gas and petrochemical outright margins were increased, even as crude intra spreads were decreased across the board (no outright crude margins were affected). Neither gold nor silver margins were touched in the presentation of this latest margin adjustment.
So far the only good news to accompany the Fukushima catastrophe has been that for all the fallout, the radiation has been mostly contained due to Northwesterly winds which have been blowing any radioactivity mostly out and into the Pacific (coupled with relatively little rainfall), as well as the dispersion of irradiated cooling water which promptly enters the Pacific after which it is never heard of or seen again (there is at least a several year period before 3 eyed tuna fish feature prominently in restaurants across the country). This may be changing soon now that Super Typhoon Songda, which according to Weather Underground will form shortly as a Category 5 storm with 156+ mph winds, will take a northeasterly direction and 2 days later will pass right above Fukushima. The good news: by the time it passes over Fukushima it will be merely a Tropical storm. The bad news: by the time it passes over Fukushima it will be a Tropical storm. As the latest dispersion projection from ZAMG shows, over the next two days the I-131 plume will be covering all of the mainland. Although judging by how prominent this whole topic is in the MSM lately, it seems that conventional wisdom now agrees with Ann Coulter that radioactivity is actually quite good for you.
The past few days have not been good for Greek GDP, since every single day we have seen thousands of protesters occupy the Athens parliament square, the location of so much more of the same back in 2010, in what has so far been a series of peaceful protests. Today's, however, appears to be the biggest. Luckily, the market is about to close which means no restraining order on Waddell and Reed is necessary. Then again, ES does trades all the night... when liquidity is negligible to begin with. Hmm. Anyway, watch live developments from Athens at the link below.
Super Typhoon Songda Projected To Pass Over Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/26/2011 16:50 -0400So far the only good news to accompany the Fukushima catastrophe has been that for all the fallout, the radiation has been mostly contained due to Northwesterly winds which have been blowing any radioactivity mostly out and into the Pacific (coupled with relatively little rainfall), as well as the dispersion of irradiated cooling water which promptly enters the Pacific after which it is never heard of or seen again (there is at least a several year period before 3 eyed tuna fish feature prominently in restaurants across the country). This may be changing soon now that Super Typhoon Songda, which according to Weather Underground will form shortly as a Category 5 storm with 156+ mph winds, will take a northeasterly direction and 2 days later will pass right above Fukushima. The good news: by the time it passes over Fukushima it will be merely a Tropical storm. The bad news: by the time it passes over Fukushima it will be a Tropical storm. As the latest dispersion projection from ZAMG shows, over the next two days the I-131 plume will be covering all of the mainland. Although judging by how prominent this whole topic is in the MSM lately, it seems that conventional wisdom now agrees with Ann Coulter that radioactivity is actually quite good for you.
It's Greek Protest Time All Over Again - Follow The Latest From Athens Live
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/26/2011 15:55 -0400The past few days have not been good for Greek GDP, since every single day we have seen thousands of protesters occupy the Athens parliament square, the location of so much more of the same back in 2010, in what has so far been a series of peaceful protests. Today's, however, appears to be the biggest. Luckily, the market is about to close which means no restraining order on Waddell and Reed is necessary. Then again, ES does trades all the night... when liquidity is negligible to begin with. Hmm. Anyway, watch live developments from Athens at the link below.
SocGen's Dylan Grice On The (F)utility Of Trading The News
The 'other' of SocGen's strategist dynamic duo, Dylan Grice, chimes in with some off the beaten path observations on the (f)utility of following and trading the news. In experimenting with the impact of newsflow absence on one's trading record, reaches the Nassim Taleb conclusion that news "makes idiots of us because it gives us confidence, not insight." What Grice does find, however, is that living without news nonetheless is difficult as it removes the entertainment aspect of sub-stories spawned by any given news thread. His words: "Without the news, I was missing the joy of a good story." And for those who have not read "Fooled by Randomness", and find the topic interesting, we suggest going through Nassim Taleb's seminal book which does a far more in depth analysis on the topic. On the other hand, since the average Zero Hedge reader has the attention span of an HFT algorithm, here is Grice's abbreviated perspective. (Of course, since Grice is right, and news are fundamentally irrelevant, we sometimes wonder why we have any readers at all).
What Will Rally Bonds After QE2? Nothing Short Of A Double Dip, According To Jeff Gundlach
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/26/2011 14:51 -0400And continuing with the rates discussion from the prior post, next up we have that "other" bond manager, DoubleLine's Jeff Gundlach, chiming in on what would cause a treasury rally following QE2. His assessment: nothing short of a confirmed double dip, or "zero GDP growth." Dow Jones reports: "Over the past two months, government bond market participants have fiercely debated whether the end of the Fed's $600 billion in Treasury bond purchases in June will trigger a market sell-off or rally...the U.S. government bonds' rally in recent weeks shows investors have already bet the Fed's exit from the market will boost safe-harbor Treasurys because the economy will slow. So any gains will be limited. "The 10-year Treasury yield has hit the moment of truth," Gundlach said in an interview with Dow Jones." Needless to say, 0% growth, which is already in the cards according to a simple correlation analysis between Y/Y GDP growth and initial jobless claims, will force the Fed, in the absence of another fiscal stimulus (which everyone knows is not coming from DC this year and possibly next year either), to step up double time and to launch far more easing to offset the economic weakness which we have been predicting for 6 months, and which the recent Japanese earthquake, and Chinese slowdown, merely accentuated. The only wildcard continues to be Japan, which many have expected would take up the monetary slack and issue tens of trillions in yen in QE, yet which has so far been slow to come, leaving the ball in either the US or European court. However, with the ECB in transition as JCT wishes to cement his hawkish legacy, the only real alternative continues to be the Fed. Oddly enough, stocks today appear to have started to already price in the start of QE3. When this sentiments shifts to precious metals and crude, our advice would be to hide you kids, and hide your wife...
Recently Bill Gross appeared on CNBC stating that contrary to what some "blog" had said, the firm was not short bonds. This provoked said "blog" to pen a response (actually two) to this somewhat misleading statement, which we equated to someone claiming they are long x million in cash exposure offset by y billion in synthetic. Today, when interviewed by Bloomberg TVs' Tom Keene, Gross declined to refuse he was short treasuries (in fact, ignored the topic entirely), merely saying the following: “We're not overweight Treasuries. We're certainly underweight Treasuries, but that does not mean we don't own lots of other bonds...It does not mean as well that we're not a little bit shy in terms of duration." And once again the bottom line, and what it is really all about: "We’re having a good year...so don't cry for Pimco." Simply said, Gross is concerned by what traditionally skittish fund investors will think about the fund manager being correct (yes, Gross is correct to be short bonds, especially in the long-run) but being late. That is understandable. But making statement such as Pimco is not short market, and especially duration equivalent exposure, that is both misleading and condescending. Far more from the Pimco boss in the full interview.
Bill Gross: "Don't Cry For Pimco" And Yes, "We Are Certainly Underweight Treasurys"
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/26/2011 14:10 -0400Recently Bill Gross appeared on CNBC stating that contrary to what some "blog" had said, the firm was not short bonds. This provoked said "blog" to pen a response (actually two) to this somewhat misleading statement, which we equated to someone claiming they are long x million in cash exposure offset by y billion in synthetic. Today, when interviewed by Bloomberg TVs' Tom Keene, Gross declined to refuse he was short treasuries (in fact, ignored the topic entirely), merely saying the following: “We're not overweight Treasuries. We're certainly underweight Treasuries, but that does not mean we don't own lots of other bonds...It does not mean as well that we're not a little bit shy in terms of duration." And once again the bottom line, and what it is really all about: "We’re having a good year...so don't cry for Pimco." Simply said, Gross is concerned by what traditionally skittish fund investors will think about the fund manager being correct (yes, Gross is correct to be short bonds, especially in the long-run) but being late. That is understandable. But making statement such as Pimco is not short market, and especially duration equivalent exposure, that is both misleading and condescending. Far more from the Pimco boss in the full interview.
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