Breaking News...More "Change You Can Believe In"

From The Hill: "Asian Markets? They Are On Their Own - Deal Today Looking Unlikely"

With 10 minutes remaining until 4 pm, and no newsflow to the contrary, it was pretty obvious that there would be no deal, at least in the immediate future. This has now been confirmed by ABC News's Jonathan Carl: "Asian markets?  They are on their own. A Republican source tells ABC News negotiators do not expect to have a deal or even the framework of a deal on the debt ceiling by 4 p.m. today, as House Speaker John Boehner had said he wanted to steady jittery Asian markets when they open." And here is why the dip buyers will be having a field day today: "In fact, the source says a deal today is now looking unlikely." Remember: under Bernanke, nothing can possibly ever go wrong. So buy everything, buy with both hands, buy on margin. In fact, take out a 4th lien on your unborn child and margin that up while buying every dip. Remember: there is no risk. The central planners have spoken.




NBC News Reports: No Deal. Rep. John Boehner Will Tell House Members There is No Framework and No Debt Deal as of 4:30pm/et.

The First FX Prints Are In...

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/24/2011 - 16:07 And it is not looking pretty for the dollar. Both the USDJPY and the USDCHF are tumbling following weaker pretrade indications, confirming that the market is indeed starting to listen. Ironically, in a world in which USD weakness is SPX strength, will correlation desks send the ES to infinity even as the key driving force is the ever larger fear of US bankruptcy? Or will we finally get decoupling.






Boehner: GOP Ready to Act Alone on Debt Deal

Scrambling to head off disaster, House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday readied a plan to prevent the first government default in US history and said Republicans would act alone if Democrats didn't go along.

Investors Prepare for the Unthinkable





Debt-Talk Drama Puts Market on the Defensive

 

 

China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System, And A Deeper Dive Into The Iranian Oil Bourse

One of the more notable events in the past week was the previously discussed reopening of the Iranian Oil Bourse, an attempt by Iran to launch a venue that bypasses US sanctions against Iran which has prevented payment in the world's reserve currency for Iranian goods. "Big deal", some will say, this is not the first time Iran has attempt to upstage the Great Satan. Well, true, although as OilPrice said last week, "what it would take for Iran’s new exchange to survive and flourish are some heavy-duty customers that Washington would be wary of picking a fight with, and Tehran already has one – China... China, the world's largest buyer of Iranian crude oil, has renewed its annual import pacts for 2011. In 2010 Iran supplied about 12 percent of China's total crude imports. According to the latest report of the China Customs Organization, Iran's total oil exports to China stood at 8.549 million tons between January and April 2011, up 32 percent compared with the same period last year. Iran is currently China's third largest supplier of crude oil, providing China with nearly one million barrels per day." Still, the perceived provocation to Uncle Sam should China go ahead and slap America in the face by accepting the existence of the Kish exchange, would echo around the world. Which is why many don't think much if anything will happen. Until today, that is: according to the FT, China has decided to commence an barter system in which Iranian oil is exchanged directly for Chinese exports. The net result: not only a slap for the US Dollar, but implicitly for all fiat intermediaries, as Iran and China are about to prove that when it comes to exchanging hard resources for critical Chinese goods and services, the world's so called reserve currency is completely irrelevant. The implications of this are momentous, especially for US debt, whose indomitability is only predicated upon the continued acceptance of the currency it backs as a global reserve. If China is now openly admitting to the world that it does not need US monetary intermediation, and by implication, the "debt" backing said intermediation, what then? And who will follow China next?

Merkel Facing German Revolt Over Greek Bailout

A few days ago, when summarizing the key weakness of the second European bailout, we suggested that the fatal flaw in the entire package (which is predicated upon the expansion of the EFSF to about €1.5 trillion for full efficacy) are the "82 Million Soon To Be Very Angry Germans, Or How Euro Bailout #2 Could Cost Up To 56% Of German GDP." Specifically, we explained, "by not monetizing European debt on its books, the ECB has effectively left Germany holding the bag to the entire European bailout via the blank check SPV. The cost if things go wrong: a third of the country economic output, and the worst case scenario: a depression the likes of which Germany has not seen since the 1920-30s. Oh, and if France gets downgraded, Germany's pro rata share of funding the EFSF jumps to a mindboggling €1.385 trillion, or 56% of German GDP!" Sure enough, as the Telegraph's Ambrose Evans Pritchard confirms, the backlash has now officially begun.

Boulder Weekly Cover Story: "Adults Take Teen Jobs, Leaving Kids Unemployed"

While the full story can be found here, the cover of this week's Boulder Weekly probably explains most if not all there is to know about the US "recovery"

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