Thursday, January 5, 2012

Mike Krieger On Why He Supports Ron Paul

"I hold a deeply held view of Ron Paul as an honorable, genuine and trustworthy American statesman. In fact, I cannot really think of anyone else in the tepid cesspool of American politics today whom I could even remotely categorize as a statesman as opposed to a run of the mill politician (or ideologue as Mr. Lucas puts it). Mr. Lucas moves on to explain that to an ideologue it is current ideas that matter, while to a statesman it is certain principles that matter. He states that an ideologue’s view of the world and its inhabitants is political, while to a statesman it is historical. These simple sentences are what I believe inherently separate Ron Paul at his very core from everyone else currently running for president. This is merely what separates the man’s character from the others. This is reason enough to consider him, but not reason enough to vote for him. His ideas about liberty, war and economics also separate him from the pack and it is his strongly held principles on these subjects that in my view make him the only one capable and with enough conviction to help heal this country’s wounds, get us back on the right and moral path and foster real change as opposed to a campaign slogan."




Here We Go Again: US $25 Million Away From Debt Ceiling Breach

It's simply amazing how quickly the US managed to hit its debt target, pardon, debt ceiling all over again...And now the Social Security Fund pillaging begins anew until Congress signs off on the latest interim debt ceiling increase.




Complete Cheatsheet For What To Buy Ahead Of QE3


Fed and/or ECB intervention is coming: whether it is called LSAP, QE x, Nominal GDP targetting, selling Treasury puts, or what have you. A regime that now exists only by central planning intervention, by definition requires ever more central planning intervention to sustain itself, let alone grow further. Furthermore, the banks not only want QE, they need QE. And since central banks serve other banks, not the people it is only a matter of time. Don't believe us? Read anything written by Bill Gross in the past year. So what to do ahead of QE3? Luckily, SocGen has released a complete cheat sheet of not only the dates of the next steps, but what to buy and what to sell ahead of the announcement. In short - one should buy Mortgage Backed Securities, in order to "simply buy MBS before the Fed" - something Bill Gross knows too well and has been hoarding MBS relentlessly as a result, as reported here. More importantly - one should buy gold. Lots of it as "USD debasement restarts." You didn't think the Fed will allow US corporate earnings - the only thing keeping the market alive - to be crushed with a EURUSD that will soon go under 1.20, now did you? And as for crude going to $250 - yes, it may cause huge headaches for regular folks but for banks it means record bonuses, and as a reminder, the Fed works for the banks, not the people, pardon neo-feudal debt slaves...



The Can Is Reaching the End of the Alley/10 yr European bond yields rise/Italian over 7% again/

Harvey Organ at Harvey Organ's - The Daily Gold and Silver Report - 40 minutes ago
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen: Gold closed today up $6.60 to finish the comex session at $1619.00.  Silver also finished higher by 20 cents at $27.27.  During the early hours within the Euro trading period, gold rose to its zenith at $1626 exactly at the first morning gold London fix and then the bankers went to work knocking gold all the way down to below 1600.00 dollars.  However that was
 
 
 

Gold proving to be very resilient

Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 4 hours ago
Considering the very strong rally in the US Dollar today, a generally weak or lackluster showing in the equities, a sinking Euro and a rather comatose bond market, one would expect the selling malaise that has gripped many of the commodity markets in today's session to be making an impact on the gold market. Instead, the yellow metal is showing signs that investors/traders are looking at it as a safe haven that got undervalued and is now a good place into which to store some wealth while trying to get a handle on the mess called the Global economic situation. The incompetent bungler... more » 
 
 
 
 

Americans’ Incomes Have Dropped 6.7 Percent During the ‘Recovery’

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 4 hours ago
Analysis and charts provided here often describe a recovery that hasn't felt much like a recovery. As the French say, C'est la vie Headline: Americans’ Incomes Have Dropped 6.7 Percent During the ‘Recovery’ New evidence suggests there’s a reason why this economic “recovery” hasn’t felt much like a recovery. Figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] 
 
 
 

When There Is International Turmoil People Put Their Money In U.S. Dollars

Admin at Jim Rogers Blog - 5 hours ago
People, rightly or wrongly, when there is international turmoil, put their money in U.S. dollars. It is the wrong thing to do but that's what they do, so I still own my dollars. - *in Reuters* *Jim Rogers is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. He has been frequently featured in Time, The New York Times, Barron’s, Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and is a regular guest on Bloomberg and CNBC.* 
 
 
 

A Couple Ominous Signs

Dave in Denver at The Golden Truth - 6 hours ago
Of course, there are many. But first I had to get this off my chest, after reading the report that Jon Corzine and his wife were at some party in Paris shortly before MF Global collapsed and they announced that they were looking for a country French chateau to purchase. Perhaps the bankruptcy trustee, who's law firm counts JP Morgan - the primary non-customer creditor to the bankruptcy - should take a look at all cash flows that flowed from MF Global to Jon Corzine. It's a given that will never happen. But it occurred to me that one of the primary co-conspirators in this whole s... more » 
 
 
 
 

Mailbox 'Cash for Gold'

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 6 hours ago

Hi Eric, Back in August I wrote a comment on your story about the 'cash for gold' folks around the world, sharing an observation from Sydney Australia: Commentary: lead-follow-or-get-run-over I'd like to follow up, that since the week before Christmas, the same shopping centre in Sydney, has the 'cash for gold' folks back in their regular spot in the centre. This would indicate that another... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] 




Jeff Gundlach Complete Slideshow Presentation


DoubleLine's Jeff Gundlach, who has managed to double the AUM of his new firm in a few short months following an admirable return in 2011, and at last check had over $22 billion, as usual has put together a rather impressive slidedeck of raw data for his just completed investor call, which the chart porn addicts will salivate over for hours courtesy of the plethora of items covered: from Europe, to the US economy, to all financial products. Of particular note is slide 26 which shows the complete breakdown of the US bond market - it is curious that recently Treasurys became the biggest asset class on a relative basis, greater than both MBS and Corporate. The implication here is that the Fed, courtesy of being the largest single holder of Treasurys, now in effect is the marginal price setter of the largest US security.




Mass Home Refinancing Rumor Rejected, And Why Even If It Was True It Would Not Help BAC

Looking for a reason why the surge of BAC has been abruptly halted after hours? Look no further - as predicted earlier, when we commented on the periodic reincarnation of the always false global refi rumor which served among other things to push BAC higher by almost 10%, the rumor was found to be false... all over again. In other words no refi, no benefit to TBTF, and all of today's gains are based on what Bloomberg noted was a report issued yesterday by a Jaret Seiberg, who until recently was an employee of MF Global, and has since been acquired with his entire Washington Research Group by none other than Guggenheim partners, which just happens to be run by former Bear Stearns exec Alan Scwhartz. From Bloomberg, here is the official denial (which came literally seconds after market close):
  • White House Has No Plan for Mass Home Refinancing, Person Says
Incidentally, even if the rumor was true, here is JMP explaining why it would have no real impact on Bank of America




Gold Outpacing Oil YTD As Stocks Disconnect Again


UPDATE: Denials of the rumor (confirming our earlier note) of a mass refi program has BAC dropping (-3% AH) and ES down around 5pts so far (red on the day).
Late in the day as news broke of Iran nuclear talks, Oil lost some of it sheen and Gold overtook it year-to-date. Gold is now up 3.6% YTD against stocks up 1.9% (and the USD up 0.75%) as we saw stocks on their own today compared to credit markets and broad risk assets. Instead of following yesterday's stability post-Europe, FX (from a USD perspective) continued its uptrend as equities (led by financials - led by BofA on refi rumors) surged into the green as high yield credit, investment grade credit, and high-yield bond ETFs all lost ground on the day. Treasuries did sell-off (directionally correct at least) with stocks rallying but did not move as much as expected on a beta-adjusted basis (even though 30Y is now 16bps wider this year). EURUSD closed at its lows of the day (under 1.28) and Oil under $101.5 at its lows.




Unicredit Lost 30% Of Its Market Cap In Two Days

When we presented the news about yesterday's UniCredit rights offering we said that "a UniCredit €7.5 billion new stock issue pricing at a whopping 43% discount to market price shows that fair value of actual demand for European banks is about half of where the artificially propped up price is." Sure enough the market appears to have taken testing this assumption to task, and in the past two days 30% of the entire market cap of UniCredit has been destroyed. And what makes this otherwise sad development for many people, who had previously been fooled by various governments in believing that asset values are fair and could thus rise when in reality everything has been distorted and manipulated beyond comprehension, simply hilarious is that not even a month ago UniCredit did a one for ten reverse stock split. At this rate another reverse stock split is imminent before next week is over. Which is to be expected: after all prices are determined on the margin and are a function of systemic liquidity, which in Europe no longer exists in free form. US readers be advised: discoveries such as this one are coming to the US very soon.




UBS Presents Technical Doom and Nominal Boom In Two Charts

In their 2012 Technical Analysis outlook, UBS, the Swiss bank that seems the most desirous of a helping hand from any and every printing-press manufacturer in the world, sees both a major cyclical bottom forming in 2012 based on a confluence of cycles as well as a very timely long-term sell-signal based on one of its proprietary models. We assume that the downside (based on their composite sell signal which triggered last May and has a 10-13 month lag to cycle lows) they see in equity market, as the Juglar and Kitchin cycles trough together, drives Central Banks to finally flip the switch and save the world (in nominal terms) around mid-year. In the meantime, we will see QE3-based disconnects ebb and flow day after day as volumes wax and wane from panic (buying or selling) to vacuous - where rallies should be faded and not chased. Combine these two charts with their views on cycle lows in election years, years ending with a '2', and decennial cycles and it appears technically we are all set for a tumultuous year.




Persistent Panic Proves Predictable


Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
See the following chart which shows previous periods of total panic among the gold guys.
The next one comes at $2,100.


 

Jim’s Mail Box


Dear Jim,
I thought you’d be interested in the following refutation of Armstrong’s recent negative comments about gold. See prior “QE Boom Coming” email I sent you containing Jaitly’s article.
Carl

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Why refute? He is right when he says there is no economic boom coming. That is for sure  – but QE is coming. It’s already here in Euroland via Fed Swaps. Everyone is welcome to his opinion on gold, but early this year the same source was predicting $1,100 as gold moved above $1900.





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