Venezuela also wants gold back from Morgan, Barclays, Standard Chartered, and Scotia 

Could this be the start of the run on Bullion Banks???

We will soon see...

 

 

 

Think the Crisis Is Over? Think Again!

Posted by: Phoenix Capital...

Post date: 08/17/2011 - 16:24

If you thought the first Round of the Financial Crisis was bad, wait until you see the next one. Indeed, I fully expect that what’s coming is going to be 2008 on STEROIDS. I’m talking about market...

 

 

S&P 500 Technical Analysis

Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 4 minutes ago

Stocks have embarked on a relief rally ever since it appeared that the Fed was going to keep interest rates at an ultra low level and the ECB was going to step in and buy up Spanish and Italian Debt. While such actions tend to keep investor fears subdued it does nothing to actually genarate true economic growth. That requires structural reform which includes looking at the tax code, cutting excessive and burdensome regulation, andgetting the central governments to actually exercise some spending restraint. Traders are of the opinion that the Central Banks will intervene to prevent ... more » 

Globalization and Global Chaos

August 17, 2011, at 7:17 pm
by Ron Hera in the category General Editorial |  Print This Post |  Email This Post

Dear Friends,

Please take time to review this excerpt from the Hera Research Newsletter, details for which are available at the following link: http://www.heraresearch.com/newsletter.html

David Duval

Globalization and Global Chaos
By Ron Hera
August 16, 2011
©2011 Hera Research, LLC
As social and political upheaval and civil unrest have spread across the globe, it has become clear that the problems facing Western countries are neither transient nor temporary. Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States share a common set of problems over and above economic decline and sovereign debt issues linked to problems of the global financial system. The issues surrounding civil unrest comprise a lack of economic opportunity, political disenfranchisement,erosion of individual rights, a systematic lack of accountability from local authorities to national leaders, deteriorating credibility of political and financial leaders and disintegrating national government legitimacy. The reason that the above problems are common to Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States is that they are all linked to globalization.
 National governments have become increasingly subordinated to international bodies, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Group of 20 (G-20) or the European Central Bank (ECB), as well as to large multinational corporations. Large multinational corporations, which are a central feature of globalization, enjoy privileged status granted to them by governments. The bailout of large multinational banks by Western governments in the face of the financial crisis that began in 2008 illustrates that the well being of sufficiently large multinational corporations preempts national interests. The rationale that large multinational banks cannot fail stems from the fact that they make up the infrastructure—the valves, pipes and pumps, so to speak—of the international financial system. What is important is that the same rationale can be applied to virtually any international industry. The precedent of bank bailouts ushered in a new paradigm wherein the agendas of international industrial cartels take precedence over the laws, regulations, economic and trade policies of national governments.Although the world financial system is at a more advanced stage of globalization relative to most other industries, the bank bailouts revealed, with startling clarity, a new world order. 
The financial crisis of 2008 and the global recession that followed suggest that globalization may fail for basic economic reasons. Globalization, as opposed to promoting sustainable, economic communities, advances an agenda of central economic planning designed to optimize global output, mainly for the benefit of multinational corporations. Policies or regulations that benefit multinational corporations do not necessarily promote economic stability or sustainability and may run counter to the interests of local or regional commercial concerns.
The law of unintended consequences states that when a simple system attempts to control a complex system, unintended consequences are the result. Globalization places the relatively simple, rigid bureaucracies of international bodies and large multinational corporations in a position of oversight and policy making over the affairs of roughly 196 countries and 6 billion human beings around the world. Unintended consequences are, therefore, endemic to globalization. What is more important than the economic failure of globalization, however, is its imminent political failure.
International trade and capital flows are emergent phenomena that exist as a consequence of the individual human actions that form the basis of every local and regional economy in the world. Economies, like biological ecosystems, are spontaneously self-organizing systems that develop naturally in a local or regional context. Breaking down naturally occurring local or regional economies in order to reassemble their components, e.g., capital, labor or natural resources, in a wholly artificial, centrally planned system, is a profoundly flawed and politically dangerous concept. Specifically, the political structures required for globalization breed unrest. Political systems that require human beings to behave in ways contrary to human nature are, by definition, oppressive. Since political structures arise in a social context, replacing local and regional economic relationships, characterized by ethnic and cultural social structures, with an abstract concept, such as the global economy, requires oppressive political structures.
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The Benz Burners Arrive: Protests Come To Germany As Arsonists Burn Down "Fat Cat" Cars

Following the recent riots in the UK, it seemed there was only one safe bastion from the marauding bands of indignants, labor unions, and  general hooligans: Germany. That is, alas, no more. During the past two days, German protests against globalization, read Germany's undertaking to trade export strength for a joint European currency and a bailed out Club Ded periphery, have begun manifesting themselves albeit with a twist. As Bloomberg reports, in the past two days, arsonists have set fire to 26 cars in Berlin, mainly Mercedes, BMW, and Audis, which brings the total number of torched cars to 138, more than double all of 2010. "The arsonists want to hit what they say are ‘Fat Cats,’” Berlin police spokesman Michael Gassen said. A special unit is investigating the fires as political crimes after the police received letters claiming responsibility that derided globalization, gentrification and rising rents, he said." It appears that while the Arab Spring was started by the self-immolation of a fruit seller protesting more or less the same things, that level of self-sacrifice is strangely missing in Europe's (and maybe the world's) most prosperous, and entitled, nation. As such we doubt much if anything will come out of this, suffice to way that Joe LaVorgna will promptly raise his German GDP due to replacement costs associated with rebuilding the burnt down "fat cat" cars. Also, if this is the apex of protesting, we doubt that Italy and the rest of the insolvent PIIGS has much to worry about Germany pulling away the subsidized methadone IV drip.

Monorail.... Monorail...Monorail...Is Coming To A Broke State Near You

Unfortunately, we are not kidding: not even a day after Obama came pleading for more fiscal stimulus, and already California governor Jerry Brown is saying that the most insolvent state in America should proceed... with a high-speed rail project. Forget that China is in the process of shutting down 54 of its own: you see, this is precisely what California needs to give the optics it is the next Chinese miracle. Next up: 8% GDP growth, the expansion of BRIC to BRICC, a second, very much empty, Los Angeles built deep in the Mojave desert, toys covered in led paint, and a California wave of reverse fraudcap mergers. And as long as everyone pretends to go along with it, and sticks their head in the sand (following an AAAA ratings upgrade by Moodys and Fitch of course for solidarity's sake), this plan just may work....At a price of $43 billion, or just the notional amount of two average Treasury auctions.

The Out-of-Control Explosion Of Equity Quote Rates Or Why Any And All HFT "Research" Is Already Obsolete

Lately, readers have sent us links to a few research papers extolling the virtues of HFT, namely, that they provide liquidity, reduce spreads, and probably cure cancer. At first, it appeared that some of these papers were written based on data from another planet, but, upon closer inspection, we realized that they were simply based on very old data. You see, as HFT races towards zero, the data it generates decays just as fast. In other words, any research paper written just 6 months ago, or one that does not take into account recent data, might as well have been written for people on another planet, because it won't accurately describe what is going on in the market today. Take a look at the images below, which show just how much, and how quickly trading has change since 2007. We plot U.S. equity quote and trade data for each minute of the trading day, from the beginning of 2007 through August 16, 2011 (about 1165 trading days). Note the significant changes from late 2009 (light green to aqua-marine). That was a year that many Pro-HFT research papers are based on. If the research paper predates 2011, or worse, ignores recent data, it's probably not worth the paper it's printed on.

Fund manager David Tice interviewed by James Turk

 

 

David Morgan: $75 Silver Price Looming 

 

 

New York City bridge tolls will be bumped up to as much as $7 per crossing.

 

 

The Beginning of the Endgame




U.S. Economy's Wild Ride is Far From Over




World Bank Chief:  Global Economy in "New Danger Zone"




A Reason for the August Stock Market Crash, October Pending