QE3 Levitation Day 2

Yesterday we said that the "2010 Post-Jackson Hole No Volume Levitation Has Begun." Sure enough Day 2 is in the books. And anyone who recalls those fun days of deranged volatility from a week ago, when the DJIA moved +/- 400 points in a day, you can kiss those goodbye. The new no volume levitation regime is the same as the old no volume levitation regime, experienced so well between August 2010 and March 2011. The market will proceed to price in central planning in its most recent iteration of QE3 day, after day, after day, until September 21, and if nothing is announced then, until November 2, and then December 13, and so on, because the levered beta pursuit, aka "career risk" trade is now back on. It also means that the Fed will soon have to resume monetizing the $2.4 trillion in debt, well above the total excess reserves held by banks currently, that will be issued over the next year (did our good readers forget about all that debt that needs to find a buyer?). And while stocks are picking up the now standard 10 ES points per day, gold will one day very soon declare its independence from this centrally planned bullshit and just take off on its way to a self-imposed gold standard, which also means first 4, then 5, then increasingly more zeroes when expressing its price in reserve bank toiler paper terms. Incidentally, just like last year "nobody" could see QE2 happening, it may be time to put some money in Paulson & Co. which has been all but left for dead - somehow he always pulls out the centrally assisted hail mary in the last minute.

According To JPM There Is Now A "Better-Than-Even Chance" Of Fed Action On September 21

For now it was just Jan Hatzius calling for QE3 now if not sooner. With the addition of JPM to the list of banks now implicitly expecting (read demanding) QE3, it is now quite clear how Wall Street feels - after all someone has to pay those Wall Street bonuses - it sure won't come from M&A activity, underwriting of Chinese IPO frauds, or trading volume. Here is the key sentence from a just released note by JPM's Michael Feroli: "We believe the minutes lend themselves to our view that there is a somewhat better-than-even chance the Fed takes action at the next meeting to increase the average maturity of assets on their balance sheet." Keep an eye on the market tomorrow for confirmation: a third day of the same low volume meltup we have seen this week should make the open QE3 question into case closed.







Harvey Organ, Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Gold advances to $1826.70/silver to $41.40/Silver Heads into First Day Notice Tomorrow morning

Harvey Organ's - The Daily Gold and Silver Report - 1 hour ago

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen: I hope you all saw my amended commentary early this morning as the CME are providing details on silver and gold inventory movements later and later.  Normally we get the data at around 2 pm. At exactly 6: 14 pm the CME sent down the inventory data for today.   The data will be critical as we enter first day notice on silver tomorrow.  Late tonight I will get

Guest Post: Russia and China's Energy Dispute and the Struggle for Eurasian Dominance

China’s voracious appetite for energy from anywhere has led most oil-producing nations to attempt to feed the dragon, including Russia. But a curious situation has developed as regards Russian oil exports to the Celestial Kingdom, underlining that the two nations, which fought for global supremacy over the Communist movement for four decades, remain at best, “frenemies.” According to Chinese customs reports, last month oil imports from Russia fell by nearly half. Not so, Rosneft says, stating that deliveries are proceeding through the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline at their normal levels. Russia is now China’s ninth largest source of oil imports, with Saudi Arabia first, Iran second and Angola third. In trying to read the tea leaves in the contradictory statements emanating from Beijing and Rosneft, Russian analysts believe that China is sending Moscow a not so subtle signal that it can do without Russian imports.

Fannie, Freddie Parent Files Strawman Objection Against BAC Settlement - Sole Purpose Is To Strengthen The Settlement

The FHFA filing an objection to the Bank of America settlement? Forget about it. After all should BAC implode upon having to fund another $50 billion in mortgage putback claims, and Countrywide have to be spun off and nationalized, it would simply mean that more capital would flow away from the already insolvent GSEs and to a totally new branch of taxpayer funded RMBS. Which is why are confident that the latest objection filed against the BAC settelement is merely there to weaken the case, or as Manal Mehta puts it: a Cover Your Ass filing because "they’ve pre-determined the conclusion and then will do the bare minimum discovery until they can jump ship and undermine the efforts of the rest of the objectors." Why else would anyone file a "conditional objection" whose sole purposes is " to reserve its capability to voice a substantive objection in the unlikely event that necessity should arise." Unlikely? Obviously this is Bank of America's higher power interest already doing all they can to prevent an out of control situtation getting even worse. Which after all is the whole point of why the Fed, Pimco, BlackRock et all filed the lawsuit in the first place: to ring-fence the total amount of cash outflow claims, instead of allowing Bank of America to experience death by a thousand lawsuits. In this regard, tonight's FHFA filing is nothing more than a wolf in plaintiff's clothing doing what they can to weaken the case against undoing the settlement.

Walter Williams On The 2012 Election And Sound Money

We can blame politicians a little bit, but the bulk of the blame lies with the American people. That was kind of an epiphany for me. During the 1980s, I would occasionally have lunch with Senator Jesse Helms from North Carolina. He knew that I was highly critical of agricultural subsidies, handouts to farmers. Something Jesse Helms told me at one of our luncheons made me realize some things I had not realized until then. He said, “Walter, I agree with you 100% that these farm subsidies ought to be eliminated.” But then he asked, “Can you tell me how I can remain the senator from North Carolina and vote against them? If I do what you say, I would be voted out of office.” Applying his observation today, we can note that the biggest expenditures by the federal government are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and prescription drugs. Along with other entitlements, these expenditures amount to almost 60% of the federal budget. The beneficiaries of these programs vote in large numbers. Politicians who talk about cutting these programs are going to run into trouble. We have to get the American people, as much as politicians, to respect the Constitution.

Guest Post: Mr. Cheney’s Victory Lap

A lot of people—children of the ’70’s, I suppose—claim that judgment is a bad thing: “Don’t judge! You have no right to judge!” is their mantra. They insist that we as a society have no right to judge how they live, or more importantly what they do.  A lot of other people have taken up the same slogan, and adopted it as their own: People like Dick Cheney—like Monsanto and DuPont and BP, who poison us with impunity—like the oil and gas companies carrying out “fracking”, which is causing earthquakes and flammable water on the East Coast—like the TBTF banks and the prop desks front-running their clients, or illegally foreclosing on homeowners—in short, people near the top of our social pyramid.  They have adopted the non-judgmental slogans: “Don’t judge! You have no right to judge! It’s not illegal! We’re not breaking the law! So don’t judge! Don’t judge!” they yell and scream as loud as they can. They seem so convincing, these slogans: It’s tempting to do what they ask—to not judge. Because judgment is hard. It’s far easier to passively accept a situation—to not pass judgment—to simply let it be—than to stand up, make a judgment, and then say it out loud.

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