S&P Downgrades Italy; Euro, Futures Tumble

As usual, a corrupt and pathetic Moody's continues to boldly not go where everyone else has gone before. Luckily, S&P, which had the balls to cut the US, has just done so to Europe's next domino, by downgrading Italy from A+ to A, outlook negative. Then again, this was pretty much telegraphed 100% earlier today as noted in "Italy Expected To Cut Growth Forecasts Further." Anyway, those incompetents from Moody's are next. Some of the choicest words: "In our view, weaker economic growth performance will likely limit the effectiveness of Italy's revenue-led fiscal consolidation program", "We have revised our base-case medium-term projections of real GDP growth to an annual average of 0.7% between 2011 to 2014, compared with our previous projection of 1.3%", "The negative outlook reflects our view of additional downside risks to public finances related to the trajectory of Italy's real and nominal GDP growth, and implementation risks of the government's fiscal consolidation program" and so forth.

Massive Raid in Gold and Silver ahead of FOMC meeting

Harvey Organ at Harvey Organ's - The Daily Gold and Silver Report - 50 minutes ago

Good afternoon from Calistoga, California Today the bankers orchestrated their huge raid as the 2 day FOMC meeting will no doubt create QEIII. The boys must go into attack mode keeping the thermometer frin exposing the real shape in the economy. The price of gold lowered to $1776.40 down by a full $35.70,  Silver fell by $1.67 to $39.11.  The whole world is catching onto the manipulation by

 

 

Latest Rumor: Greece To Hold Referendum On EUR Membership, i.e. Much Hated Austerity

While we have heard rumors of a possible Greek referendum vis-a-vis IMF bailouts (i.e., Euro membership) in the past (as long ago as April 2010, or before the first Greek bailout, when life was actually acceptable and the retirement age was in the 50s) we have promptly dismissed such rumors: after all the EU/IMF/Troica/Status Quo^TM what have you would never leave the fate of its existence in such a democratic construct as a majority vote, especially with what would be a near unanimous vote to secede. Well, it may be time to start taking these rumors seriously. Actually no, never mind.

 

 

Market Snapshot: Market Anxiety Palpable

While there was no news from the Greek-Troika discussions, 'deal' chatter was enough to juice S&P futures to day/night session highs (above 1200) on a significant rise in volume and average trade-size. All day we had 5-10pts swings in ES hinging on every headline from Europe and it was very clear that underlying equities themselves were being dragged in a very macro-manner (no surprise at the intraday correlation) with financials lagging most of the moves and ending down 2.7%. TSYs, 2s10s30s, and credit were far less impressed as ES spiked.

Ron Paul Can Win

Posted by: Econophile

Post date: 09/19/2011 - 17:02

It's hard to tell if the idea that Ron Paul cannot win in 2012 is more ignorant, in its complete lack of historical sophistication, or more arrogant, in its claim to certainty amid all the complexity...

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The Warren Buffet Tax

Posted by: Econophile

Post date: 09/19/2011 - 17:08

Warren Buffet is at the top of my bloviator list since he and Bill Gates (Sr. and Jr.) have talked about how they are under-taxed, how estate taxes are too low, and how rich people should give all...

 

 

Gold chart and comments

Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 59 minutes ago

Gold continues moving in a broad sideways pattern, unable to breach overhead resistance centered just below the $1840 but remaining above longer term support just above the $1760 level. The current short-term bias is negative until it can at least climb back above $1820. Thus far forays down below the $1800 level have been met with quality buying in the physical market so this will need to continue to hold it from moving lower through $1760. Should these buyers step back a bit in the hopes of picking up the metal a bit cheaper, we could see it lag down towards the $1730 - $1720 reg... more » 

Guest Post: The Folly of Misspent Optimism: Generation Neutral

The real issues of my generation have unfortunately been glossed over. There have been the occasional articles chronicling how lifetime earnings are adversely affected for those who come out of school into a recession, but this downturn has already had a duration above and beyond the norm, and at present doesn’t appear to be ending any time in the near term. Meanwhile, the bills are stacking up, and even those of us who are working from Generation Neutral are starting to be concerned that the debts we signed on for at 18 will live to haunt us well longer than our worst projections. There is beginning to be a certain resigned malaise hanging over us, and as capitalism is a system predicated on growth and a healthy amount of optimism in the future, this is yet another headwind to our economic and even psychological well being...I’ve yet to figure out what will break our apathy, as our misspent optimism still keeps us believing, however fleetingly, that this too shall pass. The day that we collectively realize that better days aren’t coming could well be too late, but the debts amassed during our optimistic youth will still continue to knock on our door. If our generation doesn’t have it better than our parents’, I wonder what the narrative we tell our children will sound like.





How a Greek Default Could Tip The US Back Into a Recession

Despite being more than 5,000 miles from Washington D.C., a default in Athens could trip up the global banking system just enough to tip the U.S. into a recession, investors and economists said.

The Corporate Bank Run Has Started: Siemens Pulls €500 Million From A French Bank, Redeposits Direct With ECB

In a shocking representation of just how bad things are in Europe, the FT reports that major European industrial concern Siemens, pulled €500 million form a large French bank, which is not BNP and leaves just [SocGen|Credit Agricole] and deposited the money straight to the ECB. The implications of this are quite stunning, as it means that even European companies now refuse to work directly with their own banks, and somehow the ECB has become a direct lender/cash holder of only resort to private non-financial institutions! As Bloomberg reports further on the FT story, in total, Siemens has deposited between 4 billion euros and 6 billion euros, mostly through one-week deposits, with the ECB, FT says, cites the person. It isn’t clear from which bank Siemens withdrew its deposits, per the FT... but it is hardly difficult to figure out. BNP Paribas isn’t the bank involved, FT reports, cites unidentified person familiar with the bank. This story should be having far more impact on the EURUSD than any rumors about Greece lying it will fire all of its public workers only to make sure Eurobanks can survive one more day.