Problems in Greece and Ireland/gold and silver rise

Harvey Organ, Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Problems in Greece and Ireland/gold and silver rise

 

J.S. Kim: Metals investors know how to trade around the manipulation

Jim Rogers Says He Plans To Short Treasurys As Soon As This Afternoon 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/10/2011 17:52 -0400
And so the Bill Gross juggernaut begins rolling.  Reuters reports that "Influential investment veteran Jim Rogers said on Tuesday he plans to short U.S. Treasuries as soon as this afternoon as he expects the end of quantitative easing to pressure government bonds." Odd. Where have we written/heard that before. But of course, who listens to Bill Gross (the largest bond manager in the world) and Jim Rogers (the co-founder of Quantum) - surely they are no-nothing fools (who just happen to agree with our initial assessment that in the absence of QE2 all bets will be off). Reuters adds: "Rogers said he expects the U.S. dollar to rally when the Federal Reserve's unconventional monetary measure ends in June. "I'm not short bonds yet but I plan to short bonds - maybe this afternoon if I get around to it," Rogers told Reuters Insider television." Recently Jim Rogers correctly pointed out that silver is not in a bubble (a finding confirmed yesterday by Zero Hedge when we demonstrated that non-commercial spec longs in silver are at 2 year low) and continues to be long precious metals until such time as silver really hits the parabolic phase, well north of $100 (by which point the dollar will likely be confetti anyway). So as ever more influential asset managers turn outright hostile on rates, just how much longer will the Fed's vol selling yield suppression scheme work for?

Aaaand.... It's Gone: Tiny Tim Plans Shelving Of AIG Stock Offering After Stock Plunge Continues 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/10/2011 18:49 -0400

Remember the other most hyped up re-IPO ever, AIG (after that other Marxist-inspired, union-lubricating, channel-stuffing debacle GM)? The same company that nearly brought down the system, that insured more disaster prone garbage than even Berkshire Hathaway, which is  92% owned by the government because it wouldn't look cool if the government fully nationalized everyone after Lehman was left to die, and was subsequently eagerly attempting to buy back its toxic filth at half off prices from Goldman's Bill Dudley who just so happens works at 33 Liberty now? Well, you can kiss that goodbye: the FT reports that "AIG and the US Treasury are discussing whether to shelve or scale back plans for a large public offering this month because of the lacklustre performance of the insurer’s shares in recent weeks, people close to the situation said." You can also kiss the Treasury's boasts of a break even on its AIG "investment" - this despite 2 years of endless market levitation, forced short squeeze, margin hikes, several wars, $4 trillion in monetary and fiscal stimuli, and most certainly, the kitchen sink. "People involved said the most likely outcome of the deliberations would be for the offering to proceed at a smaller size and closer to the Treasury’s break-even point. This would allow the restructured company to provide a longer record to the market before a larger sale later this year. Shares in AIG have fallen more than 30 per cent since January 20, hitting $29.62 on Tuesday and jeopardising taxpayers’ profits on the share sale. Treasury’s break-even level is $28.73 a share and officials have been reluctant to approve an offering below that price." This likely also means that any follow on equity capital raises by AIG will be relegated to CDO issuance and other "silly paper" that will be bought only with other people's money.

Treasury Math: #Winning 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/10/2011 16:32 -0400

We have a quick question for the Treasury Secretary: according to today's DTS, as of close yesterday, the Treasury had $14.274 trillion in debt subject to the ceiling of $14.294 trillion, or a $20 billion "buffer." To the best of our knowledge there were no redemptions today, and certainly none in the non-Bill pipeline this week. So, uh, how exactly did Tim Geithner auction off $32 billion today? (and plans to auction off another $40 billion tomorrow and Thursday) 

 

 

 

 

Blatant WSJ Revisionism Redlined 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/10/2011 15:37

Yesterday, when we posted the full original letter submitted by True Finns leader Timo Soini titled "Why I Won't Support More Bailouts" as presented by the Wall Street Journal in verbatim, we were surprised that the WSJ, traditionally the bastion of various Fed interests (a topic previously dissected in "On The New York Fed's Editorial Influence Over The WSJ"), would allow such a truthy letter to appear on its pages. Today, courtesy of Karl Denninger who pointed out something glaringly disgusting, we were forced to look again at the letter as it now  appears on the website of the WSJ. Shockingly, as the redline below indicates, the entire letter was scrubbed with blatant deletions from the original text which can still be found on the pages of Zero Hedge. It is high time that the WSJ readers demand to know whether this unprecedented scrubbing was due to an editorial intervention, or if Soini himself was responsible for this blatant revisionism. If the latter is indeed the case, perhaps supporters of the True Finn party in Finland should inquire who it was that forced their leader to adjusted his letter in such a way. And here we are making fun of Jean Claude Junker for openly lying to the media...