As Chavez Pulls Venezuela's Gold From JP Morgan, Is The Great Scramble For Physical Starting?

In addition to the nationalization of his gold insutry, Chavez earlier also announced that he would recover virtually all gold that Venezuela hold abroad, starting with 99 tons of gold at the Bank of England. As the WSJ reported earlier, "The Bank of England recently received a request from the Venezuelan government about transferring the 99 tons of gold Venezuela holds in the bank back to Venezuela, said a person familiar with the matter. A spokesman from the Bank of England declined to comment whether Venezuela had any gold on deposit at the bank." That's great, but not really a gamechanger. After all the BOE should have said gold. What could well be a gamechanger is that according to an update from Bloomberg, Venezuela has gold with, you guessed it, JP Morgan, Barclays, and Bank Of Nova Scotia. As most know, JPM is one of the 5 vault banks. The fun begins if Chavez demands physical delivery of more than 10.6 tons of physical because as today's CME update of metal depository statistics, JPM only has 338,303 ounces of registered gold in storage. Or roughly 10.6 tons. A modest deposit of this size would cause some serious white hair at JPM as the bank scrambles to find the replacement gold, which has already been pledged about 100 times across the various paper markets. Keep an eye on gold in the illiquid after hour market. The overdue scramble for delivery may be about to begin.

 

 

 

And Back To Munis, As Fitch Downgrades New Jersey GO From AA To AA-

In all the excitement over the recently uber-broken market, some may have forgotten America has a muni problem. Here is Fitch with a reminder, as it downgrades New Jersey general obligations from AA to AA-, and continues: "The downgrade of New Jersey's GO bond rating to 'AA-' from 'AA' reflects the mounting budgetary pressure presented by significant and growing funding needs for the state's unfunded pension and employee benefit liabilities, particularly in the context of a weak economic recovery, a high debt burden, limited financial flexibility, and persistent structural imbalance."

 

 

 

Goodbye Mary Schapiro: Grassley Asks SEC To Account For Illegal Document Destruction

Flashing headlines:

• GRASSLEY ASKS SEC TO ACCOUNT FOR ALLEGED DOCUMENT DESTRUCTION
• SENATE'S GRASSLEY MAKES REQUEST IN LETTER TO SEC'S SCHAPIRO
• GRASSLEY: WHISTLEBLOWER CITED `UNLAWFUL DESTRUCTION' OF RECORDS
• GRASSLEY CITES ALLEGATIONS IN LETTER FROM SEC WHISTLEBLOWER

As a reminder, Grassley is after Stevie Cohen. If Mary Schapiro indeed willingly destroyed docs that exposed SAC as a criminal organization, she is going to prison. And if indeed this is true, in the aftermath of Madoff, that is where she belongs.

 

 

 

David Rosenberg's 12 Bullet Points Confirming The Double Dip Is Here

Funny how much can change in a month. After everyone was making fun of David Rosenberg as recently as June, not a single pundit who owns a suit and can therefore appear on CNBC dares to mention the original skeptic. Why? Because he has was proven correct (once again) beyond a reasonable doubt (and while we may disagree as to what asset class is best held into the terminal systemic collapse, Rosenberg has been one of the most steadfast and consistent predictors of the 'non-matrixed' reality in the world). Yet oddly enough there are still those who believe that a double dip (or, more accurately, a waterfall in the current great depressionary collapse accompanied by violent bear market rallies) is avoidable. Well, here, in 12 bullet points, is Rosie doing the closest we have seen him come to gloating... and proving the the double dip or whatever you want to call it, is here.

 

 

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Fed's Dick Fisher FTMFW: "The Fed Should Not Protect US Stock Traders From Loss"

The quote, again, for those who missed the headline, is:

• My long-standing belief is that the Federal Reserve should never enact such asymmetric policies to protect stock market traders and investors. I believe my FOMC colleagues share this view.

Oh, so 3 years after doing everything in their power to "protect" the dumbest momos ever conceived, spawning countless newsletters and twitter services that believe they provide value but merely fool others into chasing momentum, the Fed gets religion?
No thanks Dick, please Fed continue protecting stock traders: that way when you finally blow up you will take every idiotic, momentum chasing Tom, Dick and Harry with you.

With Fed No Longer In The Plunge Protection Business, ES, Well, Plunges

Courtesy of Fed dissident Dick Fisher, who made it clear that for the first time in history, the Fed is no longer in the plunge protection business, ES wasted no time to react appropriately and take out the 1184 technical support level, a $20+ swing in a few hours. Remember: the Treserve needs someone to boost purchases of Treasurys now that Obama is about to announce that the 2012 budget deficit will be a few hundred billion larger (funded, naturally, through bond issuance), so the old song and dance where the S&P has to be under 1000 for QE3 begins anew...

Death Cross For The Dow Trannies

Remember how a whopping month ago the Dow Trannies were supposed to be the Dow Theory signal that was sure to send the S&P above the 1500 resistance? It is time to revisit the chart, which after a furious collapse has just followed the S&P into entering the Death Cross. It is truly odd how we never hear about the Dow Transports any more on Comcast's finance-stand up comedy fusion station any longer.

Guest Post: Why Modern Democracy Is For Idiots

Did you know that the word ‘idiot’ is actually derived from the origins of democracy in ancient Greece? Thousands of years ago, a Greek citizen who demonstrated disinterest in politics was labeled ‘idiotes’; it literally meant ‘private person,’ which curiously enough was a term of derision at the time. Fast forward to the pitiful excuse we have for a democratic process in the world today, and the opposite is now true: you have to be a complete idiot to invest yourself in these politics.






Is the ECB starting to massively print money again?

Posted by: EB

Post date: 08/17/2011 - 09:40

The ECB's new bond purchases are not being sterilized like last year.  In fact, just the opposite.

A Trader's View On US Equities & Why The Inevitable Pan-European CRE Collapse Has A Cousin In the US!

Posted by: Reggie Middleton

Post date: 08/17/2011 - 09:54

What are the chances rate volatility, excess supply from a burst bubble and insolvent banks causes a CRE crash on both sides of the Atlantic? Yeah, if only all test questios were that easy...

Venezuela's Chavez: will nationalize gold industry

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 5 minutes ago

Good luck with that. Gold mining is a highly specialized industry that requires not only highly specialized skills and knowledge but also massive foreign investment to find, develop, and extract potential deposits. What convinces centralized governments often unable to execute even the most basic of social services (such as timely and profitable mail delivery) that natural resource... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]





"The Global Plutocracy Is Terrified of Dissent"

Posted by : George Washington

Post date: 08/17/2011 - 02:37

The most liberal place in the U.S. - the San Francisco Bay Area - takes a page from Egyptian dictator Hose Me Mubarak ...

Epic $23 Billion In Domestic Stock Fund Redemptions Dwarf Post-Flash Crash Outflows

While we are not sure if this is the biggest weekly outflow from mutual funds (the weeks after the Lehman bankruptcy potentially being larger), we do know that the week ending August 10 saw a near-record amount of redemptions from domestic equity mutual funds, amounting to an unprecedented $23.5 billion. This brings the total for August along to $34 billion: just $13 billion in outflows more and this will be the single biggest outflow month in ICI history. This is obviously a problem because as of the end of June mutual funds once again held a record low just 3.4% in cash. And the outflow was not limited to just US stocks: investors pulled cash from every single asset class for the third week in a row, including foreign stocks, bonds and munis. In fact, in the last three weeks a total of $67 billion has been withdrawan across all asset classes. Going back just to US stocks, this is the 16th consecutive week of outflows since April 2011, amounting to $87 billion in total outflows, and also about $172 billion in domestic equity fund outflows since the beginning of 2010. One thing is certain: there is no way that mutual funds have survived this veritable stock market run unscathed. We expect to find just which funds have blown up as a result in the next few weeks as the news of wholesale terminations can no longer be contained.