We The Sheeplez- The Coming Economic Collapse.."A Nation Of Sheep Ruled By Wolves" Thomas Jefferson

Precious Metal Margin Warfare Jumps The Pacific, As Shanghai Hikes Gold Margins For Second Time In A Month, Prepares To Crush Silver

Wondering why gold dropped by almost $100 today? Wonder no more: today the Shanghai Gold Exchange lifted gold margins for forward contracts the second time this month to 12% beginning on Friday, in a move that is starting to resemble the CME's vendetta with silver back from May. Should we expect 3 more SGE margin hikes in the next 2 weeks? Or will the CME rightfully accept the baton and do everything in its power to dent the parabolic rise in the alternative reserve currency? We are cautiously looking at what the CME will do today and will advise readers. In the meantime, here is what else happened in Shanghai: "China’s main precious metals exchange will also widen daily trading limits for those gold contracts to 9 percent, up from 7 percent, the SGE said on its website on Tuesday. The contracts to be affected include Au(T+D), Au(T+N1) and Au(T+N2). This is the second time the exchange has raised collateral requirements on gold forward contracts this year — both times in August — as international gold prices hit a series of record highs over the past few weeks, boosted by a flight to safety on worries over a stalling U.S. recovery and crippling sovereign debt in the euro zone. Shanghai Gold T+D contract lost half a percent to 387.8 yuan per gram, or $1,884.47 an ounce, down from an intraday high of 391.9 yuan when the market opened."

Obama Approval Rating Drops To New All Time Low

Following Obama's departure for a much needed vacation the day the market had its most recent 400+ point drop, it was somewhat expected that that the general public will not be too happy with the president. Sure enough, according to Gallup which traditionally has the most representative polls (in this case 1500 random strangers, +/- 3% margin of error) the president's approval rating has just taken out last week's record low of 39% and was at 38% in the past few days. Obviously those disapproving hit an all time high of 54%. We are confident that Obama is well aware of this disturbing trend in popular opinion. What we have no clue about is what he will do to reverse it.

Long Term Bullish, Short-Term Bearish My Arse

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 55 minutes ago

"Long-term bullish but short-term bearish on gold" headlines has been repeated many times since 2001. Short-term trading an accelerating trend is difficult for even the best of the best. Besides, most couldn't recognize parabolic or statistically extended even if it bite them in hind end. Strange and unexpected things will happen, as long as money continues to behave strangely in... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Fed Economists – “We see a 15 year Bear Market for Stocks”

Posted by: Bruce Krasting

Post date: 08/23/2011 - 10:03

According to the Fed, the BUY AND HOLD is dead.

Guest Post: Keynesian Solutions - After Total Failure -Try, Try Again

The Keynesians had their chance. They controlled the Presidency and both houses of Congress. A Keynesian runs the Federal Reserve. They implemented everything they proposed. The $862 billion porkulus program, the $700 billion TARP program, home buyer tax credits, energy efficiency credits, loan modification programs, zero interest rates, QE1 and QE2. They increased social welfare transfers for Social Security, Unemployment Compensation, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans by $600 billion since 2007, a 35% increase in four years. No one has foiled their plans. The Tea Party didn’t really exist until 2010. They didn’t lose the House until November 2010. They cannot blame the Tea Party extremists, but they do. The Keynesians have successfully increased Federal spending by $1.1 trillion, or 41% since 2007, and are running deficits exceeding 10% of GDP, but they call the Tea Party extremists. Domestic investment is still 9% below 2008 levels as the Federal government has crowded out the small businesses that create the jobs in this country. And now the Keynesians declare we need more stimulus, more programs, more debt, more quantitative easing and lower interest rates. It just wasn’t enough the first time. None of the Keynesian solutions worked during this crisis, just as they didn’t work during the Great Depression. The solution was simple, yet painful. The banking system needed to be saved, not the banks. The bad debt needed to be purged from the system. Wall Street criminals needed to be prosecuted. Bondholders and stockholders needed bear the losses from their foolish investments. Saving and investment in the country needed to be encouraged, while borrowing and consuming needed to be discouraged. Our leaders have failed to lead.

Market Volume Snapshot During The Quake

Who knew: all it takes to get some semblance of volume in the market is for a quake shaking the entire Eastern seaboard and pervasive evacuations of New York skyscrapers (incidentally, the NYMEX was evacuated).

Equity Bulls Banking on Fed's Bernanke playing the role of the Easter Bunny

Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 29 minutes ago

Stocks are rallying in today's session on anticipation of another round of QE to be announced by Chairman Bernanke this Friday at the annual Jackson Hole, Wyoming meeting of various monetary officials. As a matter of fact, the commodity complex is rallying as well with the CCI (Continuous Commodity Index) moving back towards the top of its recent trading range. It certainly appears that the hedge funds are trying to send a signal to Bernanke to bring his bag of market jelly beans to the meeting. What everyone of these reckless money changers are remembering is last year's meeting w... more »

Some Follow Up Questions (And Recommendations) For Brian Moynihan

In the aftermath of Bank of America's direct answer to Henry Blodget, and indirect response to Zero Hedge, we would like to counter with some additional attempts to bring clarity, and hopefully closure, to the extremely (and regrettably) opaque situation that the bank and its investors (not to mention employees) find themselves in, and which has so far cost Bank of America about $80 billion in market capitalization. Indeed, as Bank Of America has noted, "The mortgage analysis was provided by a hedge fund that has acknowledged it will benefit if our stock price declines" - we fail to see how this is a credible defense: one simple case study reminds us that David Einhorn was publicly short Allied Capital and Lehman Brothers, yet his thesis was absolutely spot on, and the financial institutions in question ended up in bankruptcy. We offer Bank of America the chance to respond to two simple questions, which should eliminate the specter of a litigation induced liquidity crunch. As for the prospect of bank insolvency, we are confident that the reinstatement of Mark to Market any minute now will provide sufficient color on that particular issue.

Proof Of Another Big US Bank Collapse? Investment Banks Rated "Buy" By Other Banks? What Does It Take For Investors To Learn?

Posted by : Reggie Middleton

Post date: 08/23/2011 - 12:24

Here I present hardcore grassroots analysis compared to Wall Street's best and brightest. It's disappointing to say the least and leads us through a traipse through very recent history that brings us...

Pot Meet Kettle | American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. Files Lawsuit - Seeks Recovery from Lender Processing Services, DOCX

Posted by: 4closureFraud

Post date: 08/23/2011 - 11:03

Now the real fun begins...

2 Year Auction Prices At New Record Low Yield Of 0.222%, Well Inside Of 3 Month LIBOR

Today's auction of $35 billion in 2 Year bonds was supremely forgettable aside from the yield, which once again was at an all time low, well inside of Libor, at 0.222% (to be expected since all bills for the next 3 months are yield negative rates), 1 bp inside of the When Issued of 0.23%. Even the internals were very boring, Directs, Indirects and Dealers all came on top of averages, with takedown ratios of 15.88%, 31.64% and 52.51%, and the Bid To Cover at 3.44, just wide of the LTM average of 3.38. All in all, a completely unremrkable way for Investors to park cash in what is the new equivalent of 4 Week Bills.

Magnitude 5.8 Quake Hits Virginia, Shakes Manhattan

And so even the ground in Manhattan is shaking. Now... who is the lucky one to pull the short straw and check up on Indian Point? In other news, we are now long continental plates and short granite bedrock.

Guest Post: When The Mob Becomes Violent

By expecting the government to provide for them, people who have been rioting across Europe (and even stealing and looting) are really no different from the unfortunate youth who accosted me here in Manila today. All of them expect a free ride by demanding handouts from others. This is no way to prosperity. Indeed, it’s the way to bankruptcy. When the pie-takers begin to significantly outnumber the pie-makers, there simply isn’t enough to go around anymore, and the mob becomes violent. This is where we are right now, and it’s going to take many, many years to get out of the hole the world has dug for itself. People need to be taught from an early age that no one owes them anything in life… and that character traits such as curiosity, hard-work, honesty, thrift, innovation, ingenuity and, above all, self-reliance are to be commended. Unfortunately, with the leadership and role models we have in the world today, this is likely to prove an uphill struggle.