The Federal Debt As Criminal Scam, The Federal Reserve As Criminal Syndicate

The Fed/Treasury is an evil axis defunding you and me: the debt is $14.5 trillion; this is our debt, not the government’s debt. The government does not generally earn money; we do. Therefore every criminal debt certificate (Treasury bond) the Treasury exchanges for cash is a debt on you and me--a promise to pay for which citizens are responsible to pay, IOUs in simple terms. If the government printed the money instead of the criminal Fed, there would be no debt. Uncle Sam borrows bucks and you become automatically indentured to pay back the bond and pay the vig! How is this not a criminal enterprise? If you go to a loan shark, at least you get to have the money in your hand and can spend it before you have to repay the loan and pay the vig!

Much Ado About No Greek Headlines

In an emailed statement from the Greek finance ministry, we are told not to expect to hear anything from anyone about anything. Sounds like they have it all under control then...*GREECE SAYS NO OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT EXPECTED AFTER TROIKA CALL. The market's initial reaction is to sell-off on this no news as ES moves towards the day's lows and EUR inches lower.
UPDATE: *GREEK CALL WITH TROIKA MAY CONTINUE TOMORROW OR LATER: MINISTRY Are they all on hold for Bernanke?




I Will Fly In The Face Of Common Wisdom & Walk Through A Run On BNP On International Television

Posted by : Reggie Middleton

Post date: 09/19/2011 - 10:49

I'm going to appear on the Max Kesier Show Tuesday and will do something that very few rarely do. I will walk through a hypothetical (actually, not so) run on the bank and show in detail what the...





CNBC Portfolio Challenge Bonus question answers 9/19/2011

Today's answers:
1. Warren Buffett says Berkshire Hathaway's newly-hired money manager Ted Weschler will:
D. Pay a higher tax rate, but it doesn't bother him "one bit"
2. What is the second fastest car listed in the "10 Fastest Cars of 2011" slideshow?
B. Audi R8 (2011)
3.  China's premier offered to invest more money in Europe last week in return for what?
D. Recognition of China as a full market economy

Silvercorp Responds (Again) To Latest Alfred Little Accusations Of Fraud

Looks like the Silvercorp story is not going away any time soon. Just released by Rui Feng, SVM's CEO and Chairman, is the latest hastily written (with some glaring typos) refutation of today's allegations by Alfred Little (and the "short industry" in general apparently) that the Chinese company is merely another fraud. This is hardly the last word in this ongoing fiasco, and we fully expect Muddy Waters to get involved as well.

No Surprise In Boehner's Response To Obama's Latest Proposal

“Pitting one group of Americans against another is not leadership. The Joint Select Committee is engaged in serious work to tackle a serious problem: the debt crisis that is making it harder to get our economy growing and create more American jobs.  Unfortunately, the President has not made a serious contribution to its work today.  This administration’s insistence on raising taxes on job creators and its reluctance to take the steps necessary to strengthen our entitlement programs are the reasons the president and I were not able to reach an agreement previously, and it is evident today that these barriers remain.” 

Italy Expected To Cut Growth Forecasts Further

Even though Europe is closed, and the requisite ES ramp appeared on cue just as expected, Reuters has released some news which will put the Risk Off trade solidly back on the books, after it announced that "Italy will shortly cut its growth forecasts for this year and 2012 to bring them more into line with those of independent bodies, but the prospects for public finances have improved due to an increase in value added tax, government sources told Reuters on Monday." It continues: "A government forecasting document to be published in the next few days following the austerity plan approved by parliament last week will cut the 2011 growth forecast to 0.7 percent from 1.1 percent and lower the 2012 forecast to "1 percent or below" from 1.3 percent, the sources said." Someone who will certainly be very unhappy with this news is Moody's which is already delaying cutting Italy (and said last week it will have to do something within the month), but this will make any additional delays impossible, as well as push the rating agency to trim the country's credit rating by more than just one notch.

Market Snapshot: Europe Closes Weak

S&P futures drifted gently back up to VWAP as we approached the European close for the now ubiquitous post-Europe-close rally. European sovereign spreads to Bunds are all wider in both 2Y and 10Y with the biggest movers on a risk-adjusted basis shifting from the periphery to the core. Financials are not lifting with the other sectors as ES ramps here and while EUR strengthens very modestly relative to the USD, it seems hand-cuffed to US equities as opposed to leading for now. Volume and average trade size is picking up as we rally here - looking suspiciously like professionals selling into strength given deltas - but it is certainly a decent ramp in the context of the last few days. European financial stocks and spreads sold off into the close - closing near the lows.

Early Take On Obama's Speech

The only surprise in the speech so far is that he hasn't told Transatlantic Holding Inc., that they should accept Buffett's offer. Now we can get back to trying to figure out what new plan Greece and the Troika come up with to justify repeating the process again a few weeks from now.  And just how much QE is going to be announced Wednesday.

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RANsquawk US Afternoon Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 19/09/11

Submitted by RANSquawk Video on 09/19/2011 - 12:40 ETC RANSquawk

Kabuki Theater Economy

Posted by: ilene

Post date: 09/18/2011 - 17:15

The result, for now, is that Greece’s dreaded appointment with the Ghost of Default Future has been postponed. The cycle of austerity, protests, bondholder angst, and threats of default, followed by...

Credit Suisse: Don't buy now... Huge volatility ahead
"The current environment is potentially more volatile than the 2008 crisis..."